"Inspirational Information" by Shuggie Otis (1974)

1. The song feels mellow and free flowing. Occasioanally there is a meleanocholy feeling that appears but then quickly decipates and a feeling of utter happiness is left in its place.
2. The background bass was steady and slow which blended well with the vocal. This helped to create the free flowing feeling. There was not any harsh contrast between the instruments, they all worked together in harmony. I feel like this helped to create the happy feeling of the song.
3. Because none of the sounds clashed they were effective in creating a happy feeling. The melancholy feeling slipped in occasionally as the sounds were soft and slow while the vocals complimented them.

"Semeadores" by Diego Rivera

Subject- Two workers plowing an empty field.
Occasion- A revolution in Latin America where communism was becoming popular.
Audiance- The people of Latin America.
Purpose- To persuad people toward the cause of the communist movement.
Speaker- Diego Rivera was a Mexican supporter of the Communist movement.
Tone- Rivera seems sympathetic toward the workers.

I feel that Rivera was trying to get the viewers of his painting to feel sympathy for the workers. They were faceless, could be anyody, which would not distract the viewer from connecting with them.

8/22 Song Process

*sorry for the title, I forgot to write down the correct one in class.

They begin to make the music in the way they think it should sound and then go back to dissect the music and make alterations.

I look at the instructions I have been given and decide exactly what I need to do. Then I build off the initial idea to formulate a thesis. Once I have a thesis I start to brainstorm the topics for my following paragraphs. I attempt to create a bare bones draft of my piece of which I revise as I type it. The majority of my first drafts are handwritten with numerous alterations and then I type it.

Nostalgia

Nostalgia is the feeling of longing for the past in a way that tends to be romantisized. The emotions are often brought upon by an encounter with something that is in some way linked to the person's past.

I envision a group of "young people" dancing in a diner Grease style. The guys have slicked hair and are wearing blue jeans and white t-shirt. The girls have on pink poocle skirts, white shirts with a collar, and black patten leather shoes.
The second song: The first thought that popped into my head was Marilyn Monroe seranading JFK at his birthday dinner.

I get a very nostalgic when I watch tv shows that I once watched as a yound kid. Immediately I think of the house I lived in and the Saturdays when I would be glued to the television for a good 2 hours watching cartoons. The holiday's tend to make me very nostalgic. I have always attibuted my love for the holidays, Thanksgiving and Christmas, to the magic and love in the air. Sometimes I will smell a strong cinnamon candle because my grandmother's house smelled like that one year and the memory stuck.

The Pinch of Poverty

The poor do not have the ability to make enough money to afford necessities. Sometimes that is because the market is controlled the "haves" who's least common interest are the "have-nots". Other possibilities are that there are not enough jobs or ways to make a living for every family. Poverty tends to be a cyclical cycle that one is born into and can be very hard to get out of.

The portrayal of poverty is definitely negative. The faces of all the subjects are sullen. The color of these sullen faces is pale; a sickly pale. The surrounding scene is grey and appears to be raining. Nothing seems to be alive. All hope has gone from the world. Except, the little girl's face appears to have a glimmer of hope. I saw this in her eyes and lips that seemed to almost be in a slight smile.

Hope is the defining part of any bad situation. The girl is holding a basket of bright yellow flowers. Her face, while not happy, seems to hold more hope than the others. She is set aside from the rest of her family. Because of her placement she is not against the backdrop of iron bars like her mother and siblings. Her hope has set her free. The flowers she is selling are a bright yellow which I feel symbolizes the hope that they hold. Through the selling of these flowers the girl will have money that could lessen the poverty pains.

The first aspect is her placement in the painting. The second is the bright yellow color of the flowers.

Poverty

"Live Free and Starve" by Chitra Divakaruni suggested that disallowing factories to hire children would be a worse fate for the kids than the current state of their lives. The author brought up points that pulled at the heart strings but failed to provide substantial evidence for her argument. After reading the article I was still not convinced that instituting a law of sorts that protected child rights would have a great negative impact. I was left pondering the possibility of such a law and if it were real would monopoly that factories have take a blow? Would they not be forced to hire adults or raise the individual wages? The work must be done, someone has to do it, and I have a feeling there would not be a shortage of able workers who are not children but rather the care takers of kids. I do agree with a point that she brings up, even if it is to be used as a straw man. "A Bill like the one we've just passed is of no use unless it goes hand in hand with programs that will offer a new life to these newly released children." I sincerely agree with the author, things of that nature need to be addressed by the UN. Peter Singer wrote an article on the topic on poverty titled "The Solution to World Poverty" that addresses the issue of poverty from a slightly different angle. He makes the argument that every working adult in the modern world has the potential to help bring an end to world poverty. "For a household bringing in $50,000 a year, donations to help the world's poor should be as close as possible to $20,000." The large figure comes after subtracting approximately $30,000 for necessities; the rest goes to charity. With the argument given by Singer, anybody who does not give this extremely is consciously committing murder. In the way he described the situation of giving and morality I found myself agreeing with his argument. On the other hand, I do not think every human with the opportunity has the obligation to attempt saving the world. Towards the end of his article he states that we must not try denying we do not have the ability to end poverty for many but rather to realize it and accept it as truth. I agree with this, the capability to donate $20,000 is available but we don’t do it and often have no problem with that. We should not try and make excuses.

With the second article I realized mid-way through that I was becoming very agitated with the author and his article. I agreed with the majority of what he was saying but was still irritated. Quickly, I understood why. The style of writing Singer used reminded me of a classmate who has the tendency to irritate me. After realizing this I tried to not let it completely color the way I was interpreting the article or Singer's points that he laid out.

Ariel Pink's Haunted Grafitti "Round & Round"

The musical facts that I picked out were focused on things such as tempo and the bass line in the background. I noticed these specific details of the song before paying  attention to the barely audible lyrics and vocalistic aspects. As a result of this, my opinion was formed around the elements like tempo and background beat rather than things like the lyrics; which I could care less about. When approaching music I try to limit my bias and the effect it has on my opinion. Typically the only type of music I hate is country, so the bias did not influence the way I felt about the song.