Tales Of Ordinary Madness

I had to think pretty hard about the answer to this. To avoid a religious argument, I decided to pick something that really reflects how I see the rest of the world. If I had to choose a book to preserve for future generations, I would have to choose Tales of Ordinary Madness by Charles Bukowski.

"The difference between life and art is
art is more bearable."

The so-called drunken “poet laurite” of the 20^th century, Bukowski writes about what it takes to make it and get by in the real world. But if you read his work, he often portrays himself as a downtrodden, cold and unfeeling misanthrope author who writes only to purchase more red wine. And yet, It is at the heart of his writing that we see man’s true nature, and a considerable bit of my viewpoint on life.

I believe his writing, and Tales Of Ordinary Madness being the best example of his work I’ve come across so far, displays that reality is not some grand, glorious thing, it is simply a very quiet game wherein we all play our parts. Where the hero’s are not gleaming testaments to the very best America has to offer, but instead the real hero’s are those who are reliable, who are truthful and who call it like it is.

Bukowski seems to think that most of us are simply duped into this big grand scheme of “The American Dream” and just don’t see a way out of it. We are not to blame; we just do what we are told and move on with our lives. It is those who chose to blaze their own personal path to their own personal “American Dream” who truly are the hero’s.

I guess I wouldn’t want to leave a legacy of who we were in our time, but of what we wanted to become. Bukowski is crass, dirty and gets caught up in his own ego often, but these are fallacies we all deal with. Sometimes I just wish we could all be a little bit better to each other, and to ourselves, and I would hope that the short stories and poetry of Bukowski could teach that.

"I am still here, leaning against this machine."

Must Be The Season Of The Witch

Overall, I’m pretty okay with Halloween. There are a lot of inventive costumes out there, and I really enjoy creepy stories, the thought that ghosts are real and all that freaky supernatural junk. I love carving pumpkins and am still kind of sad that I didn’t do one this year.

I guess I just don’t have a lot of respect for people who don’t try to have special costumes for the occasion. I mean, if you’re going to do it, do it to the max. The cliché costumes that are dragged out every year do nothing for me too. I want to see effort put into costumes, not just some lame rag you’ve been wearing for years,

As to trick or treating as I kid, I went out until I was around 13 or so. I enjoyed dressing up and going around, but I guess I just grew out of it.  After awhile it just seemed silly and I honestly didn’t have the effort to really do anything over the top.

Costume for Senior Dress-Up Day last year
Can't you just feel the manliness?

Wouldn’t say I have any fond memories, because I usually just went out alone, in homemade costumes, in my neighborhood, which is pretty removed from where my friends live. So I just went around, got a pillowcase full of candy, and went home to sort through my haul.

I will say that my favorite candy was probably Dots, Reese’s Cups and any sort of Dark Chocolate that anyone was fancy enough to give out. I hate gum more than anything and had no drive whatsoever to eat any of those cheap knockoff jawbreakers that some people gave out.

To Each His Own...

To be honest, there is not a lot I would change here at Wright State. The amount of student events is bountiful enough to keep most anyone entertained, the layout of buildings on campus is about what you can expect of most universities nowadays and the variety of courses provides limitless education.

And yet, I still overhear a lot of people criticize a lot of the red tape and organizational hurdles that exist here at WSU. On one hand, I can agree with them, all the types of holds and blocks the administration can place on a student can be very detrimental to the learning process.  But still, these hurdles exist for some reason or another, and furthermore, the same types of snags are sure to exist at any other college around.

But, I do feel bad for people who get stuck with later class registration dates. For instance, for this next term, I was allowed to register on Tuesday, but I am aware of a handful of people whom still have yet to even be allowed to register. I had some trouble putting together a decent schedule, and I would hate to see what these less fortunate students have to go through to get any classes that they really want.

Overall, I would have to say that a lot of the supposed “beefs” students have against WSU are mainly their own fault. If you can’t work your way through the system yourself, then perhaps you don’t belong in the system. Every obstacle is there for a reason, even if that reason is very trivial.

No, No, No! That's Not Right At All!

Overall, I think the revision process is the most important, and subsequently, the most intricate of process of writing a paper. Reading over something you have already thought out and believe is tight and ready to go can be nerve-wracking once you start finding spelling mistakes and syntax errors left and right.  My original drafts work well overall, but it’s still those few trouble spots that always keep me busy.

          I am usually very nit-picky over my word choice and word order. My spelling is atrocious (note: just spelled that wrong), so I correct my slip-ups more than anything else. After about two revisions, I feel that everything is about as neat as it can be. I feel my revisions do a lot to slim my writing down and keep it where I want it to be. We haven’t had much input from Ms. Barker on this one, so sometimes I feel like I’m flying solely on my own ideas of what sounds better.

            I would have to say my biggest problem I’ve been having with this revision is deciding to keep a few rhetorical questions in my body paragraphs. In the past I’ve been told that they don’t read well and can kind of screw up the flow of your writing, but sometimes, like in this assignment, I can’t find any other way to get my point across. Hopefully I can get some useful pointers on how to mix up my writing here soon.

Au Moulin Rogue

I chose to analyze Lautrec’s painting “Au Moulin Rouge”

To address the rhetorical situations of this piece is a pretty simple task. The purpose of the painting was to most likely show Lautrec in one of the many scenes he had painted. His works display the emerging culture at that time in France. There were grand parties and art was in high demand. Lautrec painted many scenes from this bustling part of town, Montmartre, mainly the Moulin Rogue cabaret club.

The audience of this painting was probably fellow patrons of the Moulin Rouge and others who partook in the lifestyle of Montmartre. Perhaps these same people would own a copy of one of Lautrec’s works and have it in their home.

The genre of this work is, in it’s original form, an oil painting. The media of “Au Moulin Rouge” is of course visual.

The stance is probably one of support for the Moulin Rouge and for the lifestyle of the time. France was busting with talent and the scene in Montmartre at the time was probably very similar to the culture in 1920’s Chicago and New York, without the mobsters.

I find Lautrec’s story a pretty sad and I feel that for him to die at such a young age is a tragedy. I can only imagine the inner-demons he had to wrestle with. Plus what little fame he did garner was probably pretty equal with strangers still remarking on his appearance. And yet, Lautrec was involved in one of the most in-flux times in French culture and probably enjoyed the things many “fun” things he got to partake in. Perhaps Lautrec faced the same depression that Jay Gatsby did in The Great Gatsby; despite being offered the best the time had to offer, still found loneliness and despondency in his life.

But still, Lautrec’s work features bright colors and very jovial scenes. Maybe he really did enjoy his life. One can only judge so much when all that is left are a man’s paintings and assumed notions of his life.

It'll Rot Your Brain!

            I find it hard to make a definite statement of whether I agree or disagree with this statement. I feel that television is really the greatest thing in the world, but I also know that it is very necessary to our society. I would estimate I watch about 3-4 hours of TV every day, but I usually turn it on just to have something in the background; I very rarely sit down to watch a show.

Dexter has to be one of my favorite TV shows, hands down.

           

            The way I see it, television does serve a very important purpose to society. TV provides us information at a speed that was unheard of before radio was invented. And what was radio used fro in the beginning? A way to transmit news to America at a very fast speed. Imagine September 11^th  happening again, but this time, all of America is huddled around radios listening to hurried descriptions of the scene or even reading about it days later in the newspaper. 

            But then again, television does a lot of harm. The correlation of violence on television and crime rates in real life is a usual and true example of the effect of television on our youth.  Commercials and political ads pollute the airwaves and entire hours of airtime to gossiping bout celebrities and running the rumor mills 24/7.

            To sum everything up, I feel that television does a lot of good, but at the same time does a lot of bad. Maybe we as consumers should know what to believe and what not to. We should raise our kids to be able to be entertained with more fulfilling activities than watching TV. More times than not parents plop their kids down with the remote and let the people on the magic box do all of their parenting. This sort of garbage learning needs to change and then, television will be wholesome for once.

Advertising and Me.

For the most part, I believe advertising does affect all of us in some way. Whether these ads convince us to buy their product or not, the name or at least the function of what is being advertised to us is in our memory. Granted, many of us would like to feel that ads do not change how we feel about a product, but that’s not always the case. Even if an ad doesn’t inspire us to go out and buy a product, we have formed some opinion of the product. Whether we like it or not, these companies know the right ways to get in our head and when the right time to strike is.

The process of analyzing ads that we have gone through in class has only re-ignited my critical eye for all the ads I encounter on a daily basis. For instance I was listening to NPR recently and have noticed just how much of their airtime is used to urge listeners for donations. I also noted that the pleas for money her not set up as the usual radio commercial, the DJ’s simply would continue right into a donation spiel at the end of his sentences. These pitches really convey the need for money; I actually felt bad for not contributing money. At that time, I felt that the effects of advertising had come full circle. So yes, I did actually learn something in English class!

Why I Chose Wright State.



            Ever since the beginning of my college search, something about Wright State has stood out. Whether it was the programs or the location, I will never really know what drew me here. Being only 35 or so miles away from home, I figured I could make the daily commute if I really wanted to save money. Plus, unlike many other colleges in the area, Wright allowed freshmen to drive their own cars to and on campus. This was the real deciding factor for me when I had to choose a school. WSU had the major I intended to shot for, Computer Engineering. With the university’s policy of open admissions, I was able to know I was accepted by October of my senior year.

It wasn’t until I spent some time on campus that I really began to enjoy Wright State. The building were organized very well, the tunnels proved themselves very convenient from time to time, and the quality of food on campus was exactly what I would expect. The wonderful weather we have been having lately has only made me enjoy my time here on campus even more. There is so much room on campus to sit and relax; the opportunities to read and catch up with homework are endless. As these past three weeks have unfolded, I have been more than happy with my classes and my instructors, and can only hope my time here will lead to great opportunities in my future. Now if I can just keep up with all my exams...

"Just ’cause you’re hungry doesn’t mean that you’re lean"

Audio Track via YouTube I would reccomend watching this first

----

Official Music Video via YouTube Same song, but just with crazy stuff hapening in the video.

---



For my "Music Blog" this week, I have chosen “Drunk Girls” by LCD Soundsystem. Contrary to what you may deduce from the title, this song is pretty clean and is just a fun, quick jam. It seems like bands like LCD Soundsystem are popping up everywhere these days; between the popularity of MGMT and the slowly raising fame of Passion Pit, electronic pop/rock music is finding its place on the BillBoard 100.

The main reason I enjoy this song so much is it is just plain fun. The tempo is fast, and at a pace to dance to. The lyrics are entertaining and have a great cynical ring to them; the chorus is catchy and simple, and even shouting “Drunk Girls!” every few seconds is entertaining. I’ve listened to LCD Soundsystem a lot lately, mostly driving to and from school these past weeks, so I guess I associate the song with the kind of free and headstrong attitude tied to college and becoming an adult. Not that I party often, I just like to have a good time, no matter how boring life is at the given moment.

Now, in regards to the “rhetorical situations” we’ve learned about lately in class, I will break down the song into the five elements we have been studying. First is the songs’ purpose. I feel that the main purpose of the song is to entertain and just fun. The audience of “Drunk Girls” is probably anyone who has ever been drunk themselves, or been around someone who is drunk and how hilarious the situation can be.  On the same not as the target audience, it seems the stance of the song is just to show how absurd each gender is when they are inebriated. The song has a sense of despair when the vocalist states that drunk girls “need a lover that is smarter than me,” and shows some laments about love when he compares love to astronauts, stating love “comes back, but its never the same.

The song is written as a quick electric romp with very simple lyrical structure, probably placing its genre somewhere close to the “3-minute single” used in modern pop music. Finally, the medium of “Drunk Girls” is obviously a song. But as mentioned, this track stands out from other songs by the artist; it is fast paced has a striking chorus. Most of the other tracks by LCD Soundsystem still retain the snarky lyrics like in “Drunk Girls” but are languid and take a very long time to reach any sort of crescendo.

Overall, “Drunk Girls” is a quick loud rank about what traits unite us and the personality quirks that make us different. I know that every time it is spit out by shuffle on my Zune, I instinctively crank the volume up. I can only hope you enjoy the track as much as I do.

My Thoughts On The Florida "Koran Burning"

Having watched the news and paid some attention to the many number of internet headlines dedicated to the topic, I know a little bit about the fiasco concerning a small Florida church’s plan for September 11 and how it has garnered worldwide attention. The Dove World Outreach Center originally made the news when it planned to hold a “Koran Burning” this Saturday.

But once the media picked up that such an extreme event was taking place, it seemed that all the worldwide news organizations picked up the story and spread it like wildfire. Soon after all this attention, Pastor Terry Jones held a press conference stating that he would cancel his churches’ event if the “Ground Zero Mosque” that has been proposed recently was moved to a different location.

Currently, it is not known if the Islamic leaders in New York have heeded Pastor Jones’s message, but he has since cancelled his Koran Burning event and is eagerly awaiting word from New York about a proposed meeting with the Islamic leaders there about moving the mosque.

A majority of the media has focused on the sort of damage the churches’ actions could have caused to America’s reputation in the Islamic world, but what I’m more concerned about is why there is such a big deal made about the suggestion of such an event taking place in America.

Don’t get me wrong, I believe Pastor Jones’s plan is immoral and I don’t support it in any way, but isn’t this action protected under the First Amendment of the United States Constitution? What Pastor Jones wanted to do is not illegal, just morally wrong in the eyes of the public. The same goes for burning the flag, which has been the main issue in many Supreme Court cases, and in that situation this act of symbolic speech has been found protected under the First Amendment.

Maybe all this attention is what the Pastor Jones wanted. But I still just don’t understand where the big issue is on this story. The action is protected by the constitution, so why do we have to treat it like such a scandalous occurrence?