free write #7

This paper did a really good job of completing the assignment. After reading all of the questions, the writer has shown that racism does exist through many different communities through out the world. He tells the audience the specific kind of racism that is going on. The author does a terrific job making sure that the audience knows exactly what is going on and that they have a good understanding of the topic on hand. The author also has an evolving thesis statement. I thought that it was a little unorganized but how he had explanations towards the end, and the way he works all of the quotes around his argument was really good. I thought it was impressive that he fused forms of media into his essay, including the street signs. It showed the backing evidence of what he was discussing in his argument. His primary research is the interviews he conducts and is essential in making his argument. The interviews really are the backbone of his argument and without them he would not have the proof he needed to prove his argument. The interviews with the police chief and the teachers, we very helpful to his argument. I think that the author does incorporate outside sources in a very smooth manner. He uses the sources to further develop his argument. He does this by inferring questions around these sources. He doesn’t just use the sources to back up his argument; he builds up his argument from these sources. The sources allow him to develop his argument even further.

I would give this paper an A-. The fact that his paper is on his hometown, it gives him a better knowledge of what is going on. He uses his primary data in a very positive way that really develops his essay. Also he makes his points very clear, and answers his points very clearly. The one thing I would mark off would be that the author needs a little smoother transition between selected topics of discussions other wise this essay is a very good depiction of what a good research paper would look like.

The music industry is going through a very difficult time right now.   There has been such a dramatic drop in CD sales in the past decade that many in the industry wonder just what the future holds in terms of being a financially viable industry.  Can the concept of one entire album, having a sense of cohesiveness and integrity, continue to stand on its own?  Steven Wilson, who writes for Billboard Magazine has an interesting perspective.  He believes that CD’s are not going to disappear forever.  In fact, he thinks that “the album” continues to carry a significant importance to the music industry.   He says that it is something you can hold in your hands and that you cannot get that with a digital download.  He infers that you get something special with a physical copy of a CD such as liner notes, album artwork, lyrics, pictures and more. “The true album – with the capital “A” is alive and well.” says Wilson.  An album is a collection of songs in a specific order that is supposed to work together in unity.

On the other hand, Antony Bruno, another writer for billboard magazine, puts for the argument that digitally downloading songs on the internet is much more manageable than buying albums.  An iPod can play songs in the order it was intended or just as easily mix up the order of the songs.  His stand is that this is the way to go because it makes the music more personal to each individual.

The truth is, in this day and age, computers and electronic devices completely surpass the old forms of media, including CD’s, minidiscs, 8-tracks, and cassettes.  Digital media is completely taking over and it is for the best.  People complain that you don’t get the “real deal” when you buy a digital download.  While this is true to a great extent, Apple and Amazon have been working on fixing that.  They are working towards putting full album covers, lyrics, liner notes and more with each digital download you buy.  Bruno thinks that CD’s are a thing of the past and people need to step into the future.  iTunes is taking over the digital download industry according to Bruno.  Apple is in a great position. They sell the music and they sell the devices you listen to music on. They have essentially created a win win situation for themselves, because they make money on both sides. They have revolutionized the music industry not just from the music point of view, but also even in terms of how you listen to it.  You no longer need to buy big fancy stereo equipment.  You can plug in your iPod with two speakers and have an instant music system.

To try to argue that the digital age will not take over the old fashioned forms of media is like a salmon swimming upstream.  There is not much to stand on.  Digital downloads are becoming better and better as the years go on.  There is new technology constantly upgrading what is out there.  It is constantly evolving.  People are beginning to realize that you can get everything you get with a physical copy as you can with a digital copy.  I would have to agree that CD’s are an endangered species.  The question, however, still remains of whether the artwork and presentation in this new digital form is as relevant and important in affecting the sales and marketing, as well as the enjoyment, of music in the album form.

Thesis: with the new age of digital music flowing through the music industry, and CD sales dropping to its lowest point ever. People are not buying full albums any more and the record companies are losing a ton of money because CD’s aren’t selling. Will albums start to loose there sense of togetherness because everything is turning digital and there is no physical object?

A) Steven Wilson – he is a British musician who has written for billboard magazine, so his background greatly deals with a lot of music. I think that billboard magazine is one of the biggest names and most credible sources in the music industry for industry information. I think the bias created with this is that they are very involved with music so the article is going to be leaning towards creating and using album covers because the author is a musician. Antony Bruno – he is also a writer for billboard magazine, but he is not a musician so the bias will be different than Steven Wilson’s.

B) I think the target audiences for these articles are executives who work in the industry, and researchers who are trying to think of new and creative ways to enhance album production. Both of the articles support keeping album covers alive. Antony Bruno’s article actually favors hard albums over digital copies, because you’re not getting the whole package when you buy a digital download. Your only getting an electronic copy, not the real thing.

C) The primary purpose of billboard magazine is to inform people of what is going on in the music industry. It tells you the top songs of the week, the top albums of the month, what companies are doing what. It really is a great magazine for people interested in knowing about the music industry.

The music industry is in a very difficult time right with the supposed drop of CD sales in the past decade and albums loosing their sense of integrity. Steven Wilson, who writes for billboard magazine has this to say. He believes that CD’s are not going away forever; in fact he thinks that the album is a huge importance to the industry. It is some thing that you can’t get with a digital download. His ideas are that you get something special with a physical copy of the CD. You get liner notes, album artwork, lyrics, pictures and more. “ The True album—with the capital “A” is alive and well.” An album is a collecting of songs in a specific order that is supposed to work together in unity.  There is the argument that digitally downloading songs on the Internet is much more manageable. An iPod can play songs in order just as easy as it can mix up eight songs. That’s exactly what antony bruno thinks.

In this day and age, computers and electronic devices completely surpass old forms on media, including CD’s minidisks, 8 tracks, and cassettes. Digital media is completely taking over and it’s for the better. People complain that you don’t get the real deal when you buy a digital download, which is somewhat true, but apple and amazon have been fixing that. They have working on putting full album covers, lyrics, liner notes and more with each digital download you buy. Bruno thinks that CD’s are in the past and that people need to look to the future. iTunes is taking over the digital download industry says Bruno. Apple is in a position to roll out new features across its online store and its devices at the same time. They have great thing going on. They sell the music, and they sell the product that you put the music on. Digital downloads are becoming better and better as the years go on. People are starting to realize that you can get everything you get with a physical copy as you can with a digital copy. Soon Cd’s will be no more.

1) i want to discover whether or not there is a correlation between album covers and the music that is actually on the album

2) I plan on giving out surveys with specific non bias questions that will give me an idea of what the public thinks about the topic.

3) I will talk to executives of major record companies to see if they have an idea on the topic

4) I have contacts at some of these record companies that I can contact

5) I believe that there should be a correlation between the music on the album and the album cover.

6) I need to make questions that completely take out the bias. the questions need to be very neutral

7) I can not really say what I am going to discover until I conduct my research, but I think that most people are going to say that there is not a correlation.

There have been many exciting things that we have done about and experienced in WRT 205 this semester. We have talked about things ranging from the way street signs can be interoperated to the way that people respond to certain obstacles in life’s path. My favorite part of this semester was creating your own kind of secured space and seeing the public’s reactions to it. So I guess that would be considered primary research.

Primary research was my favorite thing to learn this semester because it really gave you a hands on experience. It wasn’t just read these 15 pages and interpret what it means. It actually gives you something “physical to work with.” This type of research could also be considered observing and analyzing people’s body language in public space. For example we had to create and execute a type of secure space. My and group and I thought of the idea to tape off a section of the path in the quad and see what peoples reaction to it was. We had two different trials. One where we just had a sign up saying that the path was closed, and the other where we had actually taped off the section. The results that we got were kind of surprising. Some people completely ignored the and walked right down the path, while other people read the signs and walked away frustrated because they couldn’t use the path. All the results were very interesting to witness. It gave me a new prospective on how smart the public actually is.

In the past few years there has been a lot of controversy with the recent development of security cameras being put up in public spaces. How are we supposed to live in a free country while we are being watched 24 hours of the day 7 days a week. After reading a lot into the publics opinion of freedom and what they can and cannot do in public space. It raised a lot of questions for me like if the government is going to continually survey the public, how are we (the public) supposed to live our day to day lives without feeling like we have big brother watching us at all hours of the day. There are some situations that I agree with putting up street cameras, like if there is a hit and run, the persecutor will be caught because they would be on film, but I don’t feel like being watched 24/7 is the right approach to survey the public.

There are many different “sights” in the world that catch my attention. Like how there is a certain expectation you have to hold up when living in certain towns. I know in my town particularly you have to hold a very high cultural attitude towards life. I come from a very WASPy, pretentious town, and I know that you will be treated differently if you don’t hold that standard. It really baffles me that there are standards to be help regarding what geographic location you are in. There shouldn’t be that kind of discrimination in the world and it’s such a shame.

Earlier in the year I had been thinking of a project that consisted of the interpretation of album artwork. It has always been a thought in my mind of why certain album artwork is chosen. Is it to try and tell a story of what the music on the album is about? Or is it completely random? After thinking a lot about it I realized that I need a more in depth question that really makes me think. That project was not triggering enough thought behind it. I also thought of looking at a few public service announcements about anti drug campaigns and seeing what the driving force behind them is? Is the campaign effective? Who is behind making these commercials? What are the motives behind this campaign? This project got me thinking a lot more about what goes into a sustained research project. This project seems to make me dig a lot deeper to find the answers, which is good because these questions should not be answered in a few sentences.

tactile space

Olfactory space

auditory space

thermal or visual space

snickers- taste

This photograph is a picture of one of the graffiti artists known as Banksy. The photograph is of a rat holding an anarchist sign. The rat looks like it could have been in a protest by the way it is holding the sign. There is a symbol around the rats neck that I can’t quit make out, but it looks like it could be another anarchist symbol. The rat’s facial expression is also something of interest. It looks like the rat is in some kind of struggle. It looks like this picture was painted on the side of a building.

The rat is a metaphor for the on going struggle between man and society. Governments try and take control over everything that they are responsible for, even If that means going beyond what is socially acceptable to keep the public safe. In this article I found on the web http://commandax.blogspot.com/2008/02/banksys-rat-appreciation.html. It talks about how the government is literally trying to get rid of rats in major cities by using poison. What the poison really does is just kill off a few rats leaving the ones who survive to adapt and become stronger against the poisons. This is an analogy to what law enforcement is trying to do with graffiti. Law enforcement is just slowing down the rate at which graffiti is put up, but in doing so more and more graffiti is put up. “Banksy never intended the rat to symbolize graffiti artists in particular.” There are multiple different forms of this rat painting all over building in the UK. All of these images are transgressive art because they are all put up illegally and show some kind of message that goes against what the government is trying to accomplish. Banksy uses public space to show these messages because that is where they would be seen the most. Your going to have a lot more people see the side of a building than you would going to a museum.

There weren’t that many question that popped into my head when I was looking at transgressive art, but more things that I noticed. Most of this kind of art is dealing with getting a message across to the public. These artists obviously feel very strong about what they stand for or they would not being causing this vandalism.  Banksy is just another one of these artists that stand very strongly in what he believes in and focuses his believe through expressive trangressive graffiti.

I chose this ad because, personally I do not see many drunk-driving signs/billboards around my town, and I know that many teenagers and adults have been arrested for drunk driving in my town. I think that they need to put some advertisements up about drunk driving to inform the kids in my town what the dangers are of drunk driving. Driver’s education and hearing stories about people being arrested for drunk driving isn’t enough to convince a teen that had newly acquired their license to not drink and drive. There needs to be a better way of informing the dangers of drunk driving.

This ad in particular shows that if you want to be publicly humiliated, drive drunk and get your picture on a billboard. This ad pokes fun at societies need for public attention/exposure. I think that it is trying to control social behavior by telling the public that it is humiliating to be caught for drunk driving.

This ad uses interactive participants to get the message across to the public. It uses someone’s mug shot after being arrested for DUI to illustrate what would happen to you if you were potentially caught driving drunk. I don’t think that this strategy is problematic. It shows the truth of what could happen to you if you were caught, but on the other hand if the advertisement was constantly changing the picture of who was arrested drunk driving that month, than that would be a problem because it is invading a persons private life.

Many questions arose for me when I was looking at different advertisements and choosing which one to use, like why did that company use those specific words and pictures to get the message across? Why did use those colors? And why put that advertisement in that location? Everything must have had a reason for being used or it would not have been put into the advertisement, but who has the final say in what stays and what goes. Does that person really know what is the best way to get the message across?

This is a picture of a train station. It is definitely an icon because it is representing something that is real. It clearly shows a train, train tracks, a person, and a train station. It would not be an index because it isn’t pointing to where a train station is. It could also be a symbol because it is representing what a train station is. I don’t think this sign is specifically located any where, but if it were, I think it would be a road sign telling you that is a train station coming up.

This is a directional sign and by the looks of it, it is placed somewhere in the Middle East. This sign is an index because it is pointing in the direction of where those towns are.

The statue of this guitar is a symbol. It resembles all the musicians and guitar players in the world. The fact that Robert plant is standing next to it makes it even more important because he is a rock god and that was the kind of guitar that he used to play in his band Led Zeppelin. This statue looks like it is in London, in what looks like a park of some sort. The location is significant because it is where the band originated.

Free Write #1

Spencer LeBoff

Free Write #1

1/19/10

It was in 1989 when my parents decided to move up from New York City to the suburbs.  My parents finally decided on a place about 45 minutes from the city, a town called Bedford.  Bedford is an upscale predominately white town, with more of a variety of private schools than choices at Burger King. It probably took my parents 6 months to find the right school to send their two kids.  A year later I was born and that was when life got complicated for the family.  I have two older siblings, a brother who is ten years older than I, and a sister who is 7 years older.  For them it must have been weird growing up with a brother that is so much younger than them, but for me it was a great learning experience.  I really got to experience many things at a much younger age than many kids because I had such older siblings.  I got to drive around with teenagers, which for a little kid is probably the coolest thing anybody could ever do.

Both my brother, and sister went to a school called Rippowam Cisqua, a private school right in the center of Bedford. Bedford was not the typical town where mostly everyone goes to the local public school.  About one half of the kids go to private school and the other half goes to public school. I unfortunately, had been forced to go to private school, the same school that both my siblings attended.

I was never the kid who was good at sports, so I never really fit in with the kids who attended Rippowam Cisqua. The school itself and the kids who attended all took sports very seriously and simply put, if you weren’t good at them, you didn’t fit in. Seems ridiculous, right? Well the kids in my grade, were extremely judgmental and excluded almost anyone who wasn’t into sports on some level. That was me. I’ve never really liked sports.  It just never interested me.  I tried to play sports to fit in, but I was never any good at them.  So the other kids in my grade used that as a weapon against me. After years of torture I couldn’t take the abuse anymore and decided to switch schools.

What I thought was the best decision of my life, ended up being yet another bad choice, leaving me in the same situation I was in at the last school. After another year and a half at the new place, I decided to switch schools yet again. This time I picked a school that had kids that weren’t all about sports. It was a very small school, which helped me get a handle on my life and understand why I had gone through all of that torture. For 3 years I attended Sound view Prep School. The philosophy of this school was to stand for individuality and the right of all students to be themselves and be respected for who they were.  Going to this school was one of the smarter decisions of my life, but after 3 years, I found myself slowly losing a connection to this school and the reasons I had gone there in the first place.  This school had given me back my confidence and I was ready for a bigger arena.  I decided to give change one last try and switched schools yet again.

This time I said I was done doing the private school thing and with the blessing of my parents we went over to the local public school to check it out.  I immediately fell in love and knew I had to start there as soon as possible. This was where my life started to take off. There were so many different kinds of kids that went there so it wasn’t hard to find my niche. I didn’t have to worry about the prep school kids of the town torturing me anymore.  Public school was like another galaxy compared to private school because there were was a huge diverse crowd of people who went there, which was great for me.  I had finally found a place that I connected to, that I was comfortable in, and that I thrived and grew as a person in.