February 11, 2006
Before the Movies
The last time I went to the movies, I sat down, and took into account all the different advertisements around me. The popcorn on the screen, those gross nachos that were being displayed on the screen in front of me, and then all of the different doctors office they show before the movie starts. All of these advertisements were basically clear, and direct, and were aimed towards the audience the audience. With the Coca Cola ad, it didn’t really make me want to drink a coke or other product as much as I did before, but it did look appetizing. The nachos were just gross looking, so I took no interest in eating any of those. There were the doctors and dentists offices that had advertisements for each one, saying that they were excellent in the city of Tampa and rated high, but that didn’t make me want to change my doctor. I think the advertisements do work, but only to a certain extent, and as the other advertisements, like movie watcher cards, those are probably geared to people who like going to movies a lot.
Thomas Edison’s Shaggy Dog
In, Thomas Edison’s Shaggy Dog, by Kurt Vonnegut, the main character tells Bullard a story about how a dog was smarter than Thomas Edison, and spoke to him. I believe that the ethical standing in this piece is how dogs aren’t supposed to be considered smarter, and how they are supposed to just pets, and do things that pets do. This leads to the ethics of not telling a secret you are given. When Edison’s dog shares the information with him of what to use for a filament, the other dogs kill him because he violated the secrets of how dogs should not speak. The ethics apply to humans also, of not telling secrets. The moral values work together when they talk about how the man got to where he was today by having a stock tip told to him in return for him not to tell the secret of the talking dog. Also, Edison was told the filament because he wasn’t going to tell, though he told Ford. I enjoyed this story very much, and I think that Vonnegut is an excellent author.
February 5, 2006
Discovering Rhetoric
Walking to my car, I see that I have a parking ticket on the windshield. By closer inspection, I see that it isn’t a parking ticket, but a “partying” ticket that is made to look like a real parking ticket. It was for the club, Code, and on the back said “Keep the Hottest Party Strong through ‘06.” Obviously this little bit of advertisement is meant to be read by college students who go out often to Ybor city and go clubbing. On the back, it also offers different prices for drinks. I believe that some juniors and mostly seniors in college will take note of this, seeing as how freshman and sophomores in college can’t drink cause of the age limit. Me being a target of this college age group, I thought that this bit of advertisement was unappealing to me, and I would rather do anything else than go to Ybor on a Thursday night. Others, however, would probably take into account that this is just another advertisement, and those go to Ybor on Thursdays anyway, so it wouldn’t really matter. So in a way, this does work for older college students because of the drink prices, but not for younger ones because we can’t drink yet.
Weekly Planet
On the cover of this weeks’ Weekly Planet, there is a photo of what looks like a black child who is dressed in a dress shirt and tie, wearing a hat. Over this photo is a set of 3 different colored sections, one white, yellow, and red. In big bold letters reads “STILL DIVIDED,” with a subscript that says, “The racial nightmares that haunt the South.” I think the cover shows that the colored sections represent different sections in the south, and how it is split. We see this boy, and he looks happy. We wonder why he is happy if there are supposed to be the racial nightmares that he is experiencing. It is intriguing, and also confusing. I believe that the way the colors are separated really adds to the effect that the South is still divided, and shows that it is done so racially. This cover art says to the reader that there is something deeply involved with the child on the cover, and it will be about how prejudice still exists.
January 27, 2006
Humanities Full Text
Humanities Full Text is an online database that can be accessed from the blackboard website. Go to the USF Libraries tab, go to Tampa Library, then Databases, then search for Humanities Full Text. After clicking the link, you will be taken to a page that has a search on it. Here is where you can click the “+” sign at the top and bring down a whole list of databases you can search for. There is also many search boxes to narrow down your results. I wanted to search for panda’s diet in China. I typed in “China” in one box, and “Panda” and “Diet” in the others. 3 search results came up with what I was looking for. Sometimes, you can get the full text of the article by clicking the box with the lines in it. I chose the 1st result, and using SFX, I could find out if the article I wanted was in the USF Library. As it turned out, it was, so it would be easy to find the journal because I know exactly where it is. SFX is a really neat feature, and it will be really helpful for me in the future. I also think the full text is useful because I won’t have to go look for it in the library.
Hotcha Girls
Ugly Casanova is a very original band, and this song, “Hotcha Girls,” really shows it. Isaac Brock, from another more well known band, Modest Mouse, starts off this song with a really soft guitar part, going into a sort of sad acoustic singing part. He sings about old folks homes, rust, and peeling paint, which makes me think of getting old. He is sad that he is getting old, and how things used to be. There are some violins in the background, which add to the nostalgic feeling that the song is trying to convey. There are two singers, but Isaac has always had that voice that makes you feel so involved with the music. This song is acoustic till about 3/4 into it, where it has a slow moving drum beat, backing up with melancholy feel to it. The lyrics, aside from talking about getting old, also may be discussing reincarnation. The last lines of the song, “the engine rustled in deep deep sleep/it waits, and it waits, to awake,” is comparing an engine becoming restarted to a person being “reborn.” Waking to awake could also mean something about Christianity, but I don’t think that is the case here.
P.S.
Mr Nieves, you should assign a blog topic like this each week, i like talking about music
Primer Grey 