Questions for blog:
1. SOAPSTone the painting.
2. What is the meaning/theme/big idea the artist wanted you to think about? Support your answer with artistic choices he made (i.e. color, style, subject, position, etc.).
Answers:
1. S-The subjects of "Semeadores" are the two workers.
O-This painting depicts the times of hardship for the working class.
A-The audience is both the working class and the upper class.
P-The purpose is to show the working class's rough jobs and the hardships of their work.
S-The speaker (the voice of the painting) is the working class.
Tone-Rivera shows a demanding and rough tone.
2. The meaning of the painting is that the working class has tough, nearly back-breaking jobs that most people cannot escape. The artist shows this in the people's feet, which are sunken into the ground, showing that they can't get away from their work. Also, he does not give the people facial features, which shows that their identities are lost to their jobs.
Friday, August 26, 2011
Monday, August 22, 2011
The Writing Process
Questions for blog:
1. Summarize Wilco's approach to creating a song.
2. What is your creative process for writing?
3. Explain in detail the steps you go through.
4. If you have no process then why not? Be specific.
Answers:
1. They take a song and deconstruct it in pieces to see what they can change to make it a better piece of music. For example, they might test the song without certain instruments to see how it sounds and what they can change to make it sound better than before.
2/3. First, I start off by writing the topic sentence for the entire essay. I pick out what each paragraph is going to be about, and use those topics to create a thesis. Once I have a thesis created, I work on each paragraph individually to find what details I need to add to support it. After each paragraph has supporting details, I work on the wording of my sentences. After everything is written, I edit my grammar and wording twice, and then I am done.
4. I have a process. (^^^)
1. Summarize Wilco's approach to creating a song.
2. What is your creative process for writing?
3. Explain in detail the steps you go through.
4. If you have no process then why not? Be specific.
Answers:
1. They take a song and deconstruct it in pieces to see what they can change to make it a better piece of music. For example, they might test the song without certain instruments to see how it sounds and what they can change to make it sound better than before.
2/3. First, I start off by writing the topic sentence for the entire essay. I pick out what each paragraph is going to be about, and use those topics to create a thesis. Once I have a thesis created, I work on each paragraph individually to find what details I need to add to support it. After each paragraph has supporting details, I work on the wording of my sentences. After everything is written, I edit my grammar and wording twice, and then I am done.
4. I have a process. (^^^)
Saturday, August 20, 2011
American Graffiti Songs and Nostalgia
Questions for blog:
1. What is nostalgia?
2. What images come to mind when you hear this music (be specific and paint a clear picture)?
3. What images pop in your head when you think of your childhood? What smells, sounds, and feelings are associated with these images?
Answers:
1. Nostalgia involves a longing for times and things from one's past.
2. When I hear these songs, I think of the musicals "Grease" and "Hairspray." From the first song, I especially was reminded of the scene from "Grease" where everyone is at the high school dance, twisting and dancing.
3. When I think of my childhood, I think of my old pink and purple bedroom, stuffed animals, playing games with my younger cousin, playing on the playground with my elementary school friends, and going to my neighborhood pool. I associate the smell of chlorine with memories from my old neighborhood pool. I associate the sound of the Scooby Doo theme song with the memories of me and my cousin playing together. Finally, I associate the wall color of different rooms with my old room in Atlanta.
1. What is nostalgia?
2. What images come to mind when you hear this music (be specific and paint a clear picture)?
3. What images pop in your head when you think of your childhood? What smells, sounds, and feelings are associated with these images?
Answers:
1. Nostalgia involves a longing for times and things from one's past.
2. When I hear these songs, I think of the musicals "Grease" and "Hairspray." From the first song, I especially was reminded of the scene from "Grease" where everyone is at the high school dance, twisting and dancing.
3. When I think of my childhood, I think of my old pink and purple bedroom, stuffed animals, playing games with my younger cousin, playing on the playground with my elementary school friends, and going to my neighborhood pool. I associate the smell of chlorine with memories from my old neighborhood pool. I associate the sound of the Scooby Doo theme song with the memories of me and my cousin playing together. Finally, I associate the wall color of different rooms with my old room in Atlanta.
Wednesday, August 17, 2011
The Pinch of Poverty
Questions for blog:
1. What are the major contributing factors to poverty?
2. How does this artist portray poverty?
3. What is the artist's message about poverty?
4. Identify and explain two elements of art that enhance the message.
My responses:
1. Some of the factors that contribute to poverty are the lack of money, housing, food, and most of the things people need for survival (a job, for instance).
2. The artist portrays poverty negatively because he uses dark colors in the setting and in the people's clothing. Also, the expressions on the members of the family are sad and discouraging. All of these things combined create a rather morbid scene.
3. The artist's message about poverty is that no matter how innocent a family or person is, poverty can affect anyone.
4. (1) The artist uses mostly black, white, and gray colors. This signifies the gloominess of poverty that the artist is trying to point out.
(2) The artist makes most of the people in the picture look sickly, which makes them appear to be very helpless and vulnerable. This shows the innocence of the people who are in poverty in the picture.
1. What are the major contributing factors to poverty?
2. How does this artist portray poverty?
3. What is the artist's message about poverty?
4. Identify and explain two elements of art that enhance the message.
My responses:
1. Some of the factors that contribute to poverty are the lack of money, housing, food, and most of the things people need for survival (a job, for instance).
2. The artist portrays poverty negatively because he uses dark colors in the setting and in the people's clothing. Also, the expressions on the members of the family are sad and discouraging. All of these things combined create a rather morbid scene.
3. The artist's message about poverty is that no matter how innocent a family or person is, poverty can affect anyone.
4. (1) The artist uses mostly black, white, and gray colors. This signifies the gloominess of poverty that the artist is trying to point out.
(2) The artist makes most of the people in the picture look sickly, which makes them appear to be very helpless and vulnerable. This shows the innocence of the people who are in poverty in the picture.
Tuesday, August 16, 2011
"Live Free and Starve" and "The Singer Solution to World Poverty"
Question for blog: Read "Live Free and Starve" and "The Singer Solution to World Poverty." Write a blog contrasting the authors' opinions. Address your possible reader bias, and analyze each argument, ultimately agreeing or disagreeing with each argument or parts of each argument. Don't forget to use specific quotes to support your opinion and your analysis of each article.
Answer: In the article "Live Free and Starve," Banerjee Divakaruni writes about a bill that Congress passed that prohibits "the import of goods from factories where forced child labor was used." Her opinion on this is that if we did not buy the goods from these types of factories, we would not be helping to pay for the survival of the child workers. Basically, the only options for these children are child labor (with the benefits of clothing, food, pay, etc.) or starvation and poverty. I can agree with Divakaruni on a few levels; I think that children do need things that will help them survive. However, I don't think it is right to endorse factories with problems that good impact the health of a child. The author even says, "These children... spend their days in dark, ill-ventilated rooms doing work that damages their eyes and lungs." My suggestion, instead of keeping on with buying goods from factories with an unhealthy workspace, we should make sure that the factory workers are in a safe, healthy environment to work in. Because I normally like to help people, I am biased more towards giving people the best of both (in this case, all) worlds--clothing, food, and pay, as well as a healthy environment to work in.
In the article "The Singer Solution to World Poverty," Peter Singer has one overall theme: give money to the countries with a great amount of poverty. In fact, he drives this point home so far that he actually offended me while I was reading this. In an almost commercial fashion, Singer says flat out (several times), "I trust that many readers will reach for the phone and donate... $200. Perhaps you should do it before reading further." Although I agree that donating money to people in countries who can't have as many things as Americans is the right thing to do, I would not want to make people feel guilty about not doing so. Throughout the reading, all I could think about was how bad I felt about myself not giving money to these people. I understand it if Singer was simply saying that Americans might want to donate a certain amount of money once or twice, but he suggests that people need to keep on donating. Eventually, Singer's argument became repetitive, using the same "you-need-to-feel-guilty-about-this" argument over and over. I definitely have a bias against this article because I dislike commercialism, and this felt like a written commercial to me. Also, being Americans, we don't appreciate it when someone can make us feel guilty about certain things. This would be another one of my biases; I don't enjoy being insulted, therefore, I was completely against the author.
Answer: In the article "Live Free and Starve," Banerjee Divakaruni writes about a bill that Congress passed that prohibits "the import of goods from factories where forced child labor was used." Her opinion on this is that if we did not buy the goods from these types of factories, we would not be helping to pay for the survival of the child workers. Basically, the only options for these children are child labor (with the benefits of clothing, food, pay, etc.) or starvation and poverty. I can agree with Divakaruni on a few levels; I think that children do need things that will help them survive. However, I don't think it is right to endorse factories with problems that good impact the health of a child. The author even says, "These children... spend their days in dark, ill-ventilated rooms doing work that damages their eyes and lungs." My suggestion, instead of keeping on with buying goods from factories with an unhealthy workspace, we should make sure that the factory workers are in a safe, healthy environment to work in. Because I normally like to help people, I am biased more towards giving people the best of both (in this case, all) worlds--clothing, food, and pay, as well as a healthy environment to work in.
In the article "The Singer Solution to World Poverty," Peter Singer has one overall theme: give money to the countries with a great amount of poverty. In fact, he drives this point home so far that he actually offended me while I was reading this. In an almost commercial fashion, Singer says flat out (several times), "I trust that many readers will reach for the phone and donate... $200. Perhaps you should do it before reading further." Although I agree that donating money to people in countries who can't have as many things as Americans is the right thing to do, I would not want to make people feel guilty about not doing so. Throughout the reading, all I could think about was how bad I felt about myself not giving money to these people. I understand it if Singer was simply saying that Americans might want to donate a certain amount of money once or twice, but he suggests that people need to keep on donating. Eventually, Singer's argument became repetitive, using the same "you-need-to-feel-guilty-about-this" argument over and over. I definitely have a bias against this article because I dislike commercialism, and this felt like a written commercial to me. Also, being Americans, we don't appreciate it when someone can make us feel guilty about certain things. This would be another one of my biases; I don't enjoy being insulted, therefore, I was completely against the author.
Monday, August 15, 2011
Ariel Pink's Haunted Grafitti--"Round and Round"
Today in our English class, we listened to the song "Round and Round" by Ariel Pink's Haunted Graffiti. We were asked to pick out two musical facts from this song. My first was that there were drums used in this song. At the end of the song, the singers were singing in a cappella. After we listed our two facts, we were then asked to come up with an opinion on this song. Personally, I did not enjoy the song very much because it did not serve much of a purpose, and I could not understand what the lyrics were throughout the entire song.
Question for blog: How do your musical facts influence your opinion? What is the correlation between what you picked out and your opinion? Do you have bias? If so, explain.
Answer: Looking at the two facts that I gathered from this song, only one of them had an impact on my opinion of the song. Although there were drums in the song, they were not the reason why I didn't particularly enjoy this song; they don't cause or change my already-standing opinion of "Round and Round." However, the a cappella fact does influence my opinion of this song. Normally, I like a cappella singing, but because I couldn't understand what the lyrics were when the a cappella was being sung, I did not enjoy it. This lowered my taste for this song even further, considering that when you can hear the lyrics in a cappella, it usually sounds very beautiful.
I do have a bias against this song, because for one thing, this isn't my preferred genre of music. I'm not used to this style, which makes me not want to listen to it too much. Also, I did not dislike the singers' voices, but I did not take much pleasure in listening to them, which has the same effect as the previous bias listed.
Question for blog: How do your musical facts influence your opinion? What is the correlation between what you picked out and your opinion? Do you have bias? If so, explain.
Answer: Looking at the two facts that I gathered from this song, only one of them had an impact on my opinion of the song. Although there were drums in the song, they were not the reason why I didn't particularly enjoy this song; they don't cause or change my already-standing opinion of "Round and Round." However, the a cappella fact does influence my opinion of this song. Normally, I like a cappella singing, but because I couldn't understand what the lyrics were when the a cappella was being sung, I did not enjoy it. This lowered my taste for this song even further, considering that when you can hear the lyrics in a cappella, it usually sounds very beautiful.
I do have a bias against this song, because for one thing, this isn't my preferred genre of music. I'm not used to this style, which makes me not want to listen to it too much. Also, I did not dislike the singers' voices, but I did not take much pleasure in listening to them, which has the same effect as the previous bias listed.
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