Status Update

Transmissions from Camp Trans
-Claim: Camp Trans is a place where you are accepted regardless of your gender identity.

-Style: Classical Style
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Dark Webs Goth Subcultures in Cyberspace

-Claim: The internet serves a large purpose in the gothic culture, making a large contribution from the way goths communicate to the music that they listen to. Cyberspace plays a large role in the movement of gothic culture.

-Style: Toulmin Style
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The Truck Stop as Community and Culture

-Claim: Even though trucking is their job, truckers live a separate live within their communities.

-Style: Toulmin Style
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House for the Homeless

-Claim: The homeless should not be disregarded because of the situation that they are in.

Style: Rogerian Style
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As of now, I am trying to look at all of the information that I have and formulate a strong argument about the culture of teen mothers. So far, I am finished with forming 3 main thesis that are going to be discussed in my rough draft. I am also finished with one and a half pages of my rough draft. I still have the last few pages to finish. The question that I hope to pose to my peer review group has to do with the content of my paper because I am not so sure about that.

Observation: Manigault Park

*What is going on in the fieldsite
The fieldsite is very busy. There are alot of older and younger children playing on the playground while their parents are sitting on the nearby park benches. There are both young and older parents there, and I see a subtle separation between them. A few of the older parents sit on one side of the playground while the younger parents sit on the other side. There are exactly 5 teen mothers and 3 older mothers at the park.

*How do the members of the subculture interact with each other?
There is very limited interaction between the teen mothers in the park. They interact more with their kids moreso than with each other. When they do talk, it is no longer than ten minutes about playdates, work/school, and personal things. When they are not talking, majority of them are reading books by adult authors such as Zane.

Make a list of terminology used at the fieldsite with which you might me unfamiliar.
Certain hand gestures that the parents make to their children


What details, behaviors, surroundings, did you have questions about?
The separation between the older and younger parents
The limited interaction within the group of teen parents


*Find at least one person at your fieldsite you can speak to and ask them a question about something you observed that you didn't understand.
I asked one girl named Jessica about the separation of the older mothers and themselves and she said something about the older mothers looking down on them because they were teen mothers.

Act V Questions

What makes this fieldsite a good fieldsite in studying this particular subculture?
The prison is a good fieldsite for this subculture because since it is dealing with prisoners and it would be ideal to be in a place where prisoners are conveniently located. You could also gain a greater understanding of the subculture by actually being there.

What observations did the author make that is particularly useful in this subculture?
The author observes them as actors working in the play instead of criminals. However, he observes the prison just as it is.

What are the norms and values of the subculture?
The prisoners seem to value what they do as important, and are seen as actors rather than criminals. However, they are aware of the crimes they committed that got them there in the first place.

What interview techniques did the author use to understand the subculture?
The author used vivid descriptions when interviewing the prisoners, creating a mental image of the prisoners without actually seeing them. The interview is also done without a bias in mind, which gives the listeners an untarnished look into the prisoners feelings, actions, and personality.

Topic: Teen Mothers

Sources:

Crawford, Trish. "Most Teens Parent Well." The Toronto Star 11 Mar. 2008. LexisNexis Academic. Toronto. 14 Mar. 2008 .

Melhado, Lisa. "Teenage Parents' Educational Attainment is Affected More by Available Resources Than by Parenthood." Perspectives on Sexual and Reproductive Health 39 (2007). ProQuest. New York. 14 Mar. 2008 .

Stobbe, Mike. "U.S. Teen Births Rise for First Time in 15 Years, Surprising Health Officials." The Associated Press State & Local Wire 05 Dec. 2007. LexisNexis Academic. Atlanta. 14 Mar. 2008 .

Thompson, Elaine. "Motherhood Not the End of the Line; Comprehensive Support Helps Teen Parents Keep Their Lives on Track." Telegram & Gazette 15 Feb. 2008, sec. B.1. ProQuest. Worcester. 14 Mar. 2008 .

Windom, Ebony. "TEEN MOMS HANG OUT, GET HELP." PASCO TIMES 05 July 2007, North ed. LexisNexis Academic. St. Petersburg. 14 Mar. 2008 .

Reflection:

I believe that the article by Elaine Thompson will help me the most in the project because it defies the common stereotypes about single mothers. After I read this specific article, I had a sense of what direction I wanted to go in terms for field work locations that I could go to observe teen mothers. This article mentions a program called PROMISE that is in Worchester that helps teenage mothers pursue an education and if there is a program similar to PROMISE that is in Atlanta, then I would start there, along with daycare centers and teen pregnancy centers at the hospital.

Warren Beatty

Even though I was not aware of his accomplishments, Warren Beatty is not a stranger to the world of Hollywood. Warren Beatty, born on March 30, 1937, is an actor whose portrayal of the character Clyde in the groundbreaking crime-inspired, film Bonnie and Clyde changed the film industry, being the first film to add on to post European cinema. (Finstad par. 1) However, Bonnie and Clyde is not the only film that he has had success with. Beatty had been nominated for more than thirteen Academy Awards in his acting career, along with winning the prestigious Thalberg Award.


Beatty is the younger brother of Shirley Maclaine, another famous actor. He was born as Henry Warren Beatty before changing his last name. Beatty’s acting skills caused him to play three major roles in a row. In the beginning of his career, he landed his first telivision debut on a sitcom titled The Many Loves of Dobie Gillis in 1959. A year later, he starred in William Inge’s A Loss Of Roses a year before his appearance in the movie Splendor in the Grass, Beatty’s first appearance on the big screen. Many film roles followed this appearance, including Roman Spring Of Mrs. Stone (1961), All Fall Down (1962), Lilith (1963) and Mickey One (1965). After these movies, he went on to star in possibly the biggest movie in his career, Bonnie and Clyde.


Beatty is not just known for his movies, he is also known for his political views and opinions. In 2005, he expressed his dislike in the way California governor Arnold Schwarzenegger was running the state of California. He went on to say that although he did not express any interest in entering the race for governor, he would do “one hell of a lot better job than he's done." (Mangaliman par. 13). Schwarzenegger’s publicist responded by criticizing Beatty’s acting skills and calling him as a “crackpot”. Arnold’s publicist dismissed the statements made by Warren, stating that Beatty, a democrat, is furious at Republicans because of his fear of them cutting of his Social Security. (Abramowitz par. 9-11).

Finding Out About Michael Schultz

The movie that I chose to do for my paper was Krush Groove, which was directed by Michael Schultz. Finding info on Michael was not as easy as I thought it would be; I had to travel to at least 6 web pages to find bits and pieces of information on him. The first step that I took in finding information on the director was to search Krush Groove in Google to find out who directed it. Wikipedia was the first link that came up so I clicked on it to try and figure out who directed the movie.

I read the first few sentences of it to see where they mention Shultz’s name, which had a link to another Wikipedia page about him. This page had a mini biography about Schultz and a link at the very bottom of the page. This link brought me to a site called IMDb, an internet movie database in which you can search for anything movie or television related. This includes information on characters, actors, writers, and producers of almost any movie that you can think of, so it made sense to look here for information. It was pretty reliable in content and the movies he directed were in chronological order. After seeing a list of his works, I had very little sense of who the director was so I tried searching for him in yahoo instead. Four web pages later, I was at allmovie.com reading an equally small biography on Schultz.

Finding information on Michael Schultz was very frustrating due to the lack of information that is out on him and the fact that there are other Michael Schultz’s out there. On the other hand, the last movie he made was in 1987 so that could be understandable to a certain extent.

Cheryl L. Keyes: Rap Music and Street Consciousness

The book that I decided to choose was Rap Music and Street Consciousness by Cheryl Keyes. In this book, Keyes gives a retrospective look to rap music by tracing its roots and thoroughly examining hip-hop culture. This book struck me as interesting because as soon as I read the first page, I was instantly in the middle of reading an argument on the origin of hip-hop. While some hip-hop artists were claiming that hip-hop came from West Africa, others did not believe it and questioning where it came from. Rather than just saying that it came from Africa, Keyes strengthens the connection between hip-hop and its African roots by bringing up the impact of the book, Roots. While that connection may seem far-fetched, she brings it all together and says that since the popularity of Roots, West African griots or musicians have been expanding their performances and rap artists could have easily seen them and recognized the connection. It is arguments like these that make the book interesting to read and help you identify more with what the author is saying. She supports her claims and point of view with testimonials from the actual hip-hop artists themselves, which makes her a lot more believable in what she is stating.

Keyes, an associate professor at the University of California, specializes in areas that deal with African American music and gender studies. In addition to researching hip-hop culture all across U.S and Africa, she also serves as the U.S president of the International Association for the Study of Popular Music. Along with this, she also plays the piano and flute and is close to finishing an album. All of this proves that she is more than capable of writing this book based on her experience in studying and researching hip-hop music.

Dizzee Rascal and Hip-Hop Culture

Hip hop is not just African-American music, it is an art form that has managed to spread all over the world and its representation varies from region to region. What is hip-hop in one place could potentially sound totally different from what hip-hop is in another. This is evident in hearing the English form of hip-hop coming from an artist called Dizzee Rascal. Dizzee Rascal, born Dylan Mills, is an 18-year-old rapper and producer from London, England’s “East End”. Dizzee’s mother raised Dizzee by herself in a in a council estate, a fancy name for what is called the projects in America. He was expelled from school four times and was known for robbing pizza deliveries and stealing cars. Now, doesn’t this sound like the background of an American rapper? I sure do think so.


In listening to Dizzee’s music, I noticed that Dizzee shares alot in common with American hip-hop artists in his music in the topics, beats, and visual representation in his videos. I immediately noticed this while watching Flex, one of Dizzee’s videos. The women dancing, the club scene, the lyrics, and the beat he used are somewhat similar to what would be found in American culture. However, the women being fully clothed and the style that the lyrics were delivered in all serve as how much American hip-hop and English hip-hop cultures differ from each other. In English hip-hop, the lyrics tend to be very poetic and sound very effortlessly when English hip-hop artists say them. It basically sounds like a poem with a beat behind it. This is the case in Dizzee’s song, Dream. Even though he used a sample like American hip-hop, the lyrics were said in a way that was quick and poetic. Overall, I believe that although hip-hop share a couple of differences, the similarities are strong enough to form one genre.

My Peer Review Experience

Overall, I believe that my peer review experience went really well. I went into the peer review being skeptical, and came out with more help than I came in with. I was clueless in writing this paper, but the peer review helped me formulate new ideas to the topic. Instead of trying any of the new methods, my group just did things the old-fashioned way; we read each others papers and told each other how we felt about it. One thing that I liked the most was that my paper was seen from two different points of view. This made it much easier for me to identify my audience for the next draft of the paper. I also liked the fact that I received an explanation when something did not work in my paper; I was not forced to assume why I made the mistakes I made in my paper. However, I felt that there were some things that could have made the peer review experience better than it was. For example, I felt that we spent more time reading than giving out feedback. I think that if we spent an even amount of time doing both, then we would have taken full advantage of the peer review. In short, I felt that the peer review helped me figure out which direction I want to go in this paper.

PCU (Hasty Generalization)

“…It must have been hellish living with that guy for a year.”

I believe that this scene is an example of hasty generalization because Mullaney formed a conclusion based on his own personal biases of Rand McPherson. To say that living with Rand “must have been hellish” without actually experiencing it is both unfair and unreasonable. He made a statement without having all of the relevant facts and did not consider that his friend could have been the one who was a bad roommate.

PCU Clip
Uploaded by GreenButcher

Response to "Death of an Innocent"

In reading ‘Death of an Innocent”, I figured that it would be fitting to say that Chris McCandleless was far from being the average college grad in terms of how he lived his life. Chris was a nonconformist, living his life the way many would perceive as “different”. Instead of going with the trends of sororities and fraternities while at Emory, he preferred to be a loner and focused on himself. Instead of heeding his parent’s warnings and being more careful, he died doing what he wanted to do in the end. Instead of going out drinking with friends, he spoke to people who lived their lives on the streets and tried to help them.

In today’s society, to see a man like Chris is like seeing five dollars on the street; it is almost impossible if not extremely rare. Chris found value in things that people today would define as worthless simply because people’s priorities have changed since 15 years ago. It seems as if people care about money and their financial situations nowadays more than anything else. People are more prone do some questionable things in our society as long as money is involved. When he burned his money and buried his possessions, Chris proved that money was not the source of his internal happiness. The source of his happiness came when he was seeking to experience the affliction, adversity, and peril that Tolstoy had encountered and to do it all without major help from anyone.

If many were to hear the story of Chris and his living choices all while possessing a degree, they would call him insane since majority of all college students attend college for the potential to make a better living for themselves. Chris, however, did the polar opposite. He was different because instead of trying to get a high paying job with his educational status and degree, he chose to free himself from civilization as a whole and explore the west with just a backpack and a gun or two. He felt that instead of going on to further his educational endeavors, he graduated from Emory and moved on to do what he wanted to do all along, traveling and exploring.

I believe that if he had to make a decision with the choice of hitchhiking or going to college, he probably would have chosen hitchhiking because it seemed as if he were happier spending time living in the harsh conditions of Alaska than being at Emory. This is somewhat proof that college is a waste of time and money because he spent four years obtaining a degree that he really did not need for what he was doing. In modern society, a lot of someone’s happiness depends on their personal wealth and Chris was living according to his happiness rather than his worth, which is commendable. It takes a very strong individual to live the kind of life Chris lived given all of the situations he had to face. To see a college graduate defy every stereotype of what a college graduate should be is shocking and remarkable; so remarkable that it could not have happened 15 years later.

My Thoughts On "AIDS and Advertising"

A wise person once said that a picture is worth a thousand words, but what words would come up when you see a picture of a man dying of AIDS surrounded by three grieving individuals appears in, of all things, a clothing ad. Better yet, what does this picture represent and why is it in a clothing advertisement when it has nothing to do with their clothing and the profits are not going towards AIDS research? Are they intentionally fooling consumers into buying their clothing, thinking that it is for a good cause? Alternatively, maybe the intended meaning goes beyond what meets the eye and Benetton (the clothing company responsible for the ad) wants its audience to decipher its meaning. These are a few thoughts I came with in looking at the following picture that appeared in a popular Benetton ad. Although I do not know the answers to these questions entirely, here are my thoughts on it.

In examining the picture, I immediately notice something; Benetton is using controversy to make their ads eye catching. Who wants to look at a boring ad, whether it is for clothing or anything else? They know exactly what they are doing when it comes to how they market the ads that they put out. They picked the perfect picture in the aspect of grabbing one’s attention. However, the purpose or the reason why they chose the picture is not so easy to find out. On one hand, I saw the ad as a plea for sympathy and a way to trick consumers into thinking that the profits were going towards something dealing with AIDS. It makes me wonder weather or not if the AIDS patient bearing a striking resemblance to Jesus Christ is a as an example of how they are banking upon the audience’s emotion or if it is just a coincidence. I see this picture as a scheme to make people think that the people in the picture are wearing their clothes and to show that Benetton is worn by any and everybody. On the other hand, I see the ad as an idea to try to prove how relevant they are regardless of what is going on in the picture. They could be implying that they are as important as the AIDS epidemic itself, which is inconsiderate if that is the case. It also could be an effort to try to be ‘hip" to certain world issues in a creative way; differentiating themselves from their competition.

In short, I believe that it does appeal to consumers, but I think that it appeals more to a specific consumer instead of consumers as a whole. With an ad like this one, the consumer point-of-view is the key in weather the ad is appealing or not. For example, it would appeal more to the family member of someone who has AIDS since they make think that Benetton cares about the cause. All and all, the picture and ad as a whole is a tad obscure and by using a picture of someone with AIDS enclosed around visibly upset people is misleading. Nevertheless, its effectiveness relies on the the mystery of its purpose.