Across the Universe

1. a.) "...shines around me like a million suns." This is an image of literally 1,000,000 suns around a person and a lot of brightness.
    b.) "Words are flying out like endless rain into a paper cup." This is an image of rain falling into a paper cup.
    c.) "Images of broken light which dance before me like a million eyes." This is an image of light moving or dancing, kind of like a reflection or fragments of light.
2. The image of a cup filling up with rain is a symbol of someone being overwhelmed with information or emotions and not being able to contain or remember everything. Things start getting lost from our brains like water overflows out of a cup as it gets too full.
3. One symbol that I know to be a symbol is a dove symbolizing peace. Doves are graceful, calm birds that do not cause much trouble to people around them. They are very peaceful creatures, which makes them a symbol for peace. Doves are more than just birds and their character and behavior symbolizes peace.

Inspiration Information

1. The overall feel of this song is very happy and upbeat. The song is pleasing to the ears and is very easy and enjoyable to listen to.
2. The guitar sounds throughout the song create a nice rhythm for the song that is upbeat and positive.
3. There were many choices that the musician had to make to create this happy, positive feel. One very important decision is what tempo the song needs. He chose a tempo that is not slow but not too fast, kind of a groovy, easy-listening tempo. He also had to decide what instruments to use to create the musical part of the song. He chose to create a clear beat with drums and symbols to keep the tempo up. He also chose a guitar to create the main melody that is relaxed and easy to listen to while being pleasing to the ears.

"Semadores" by Diego Rivera

S- Slavery and hard labor.
O- Mexican Revolution
A- Working class, People who enslaved others.
P- Tell a story of the workers.
S- Diego Rivera
T- Serious, Negative

I think the big idea the artist wants viewers to think about is hard work and labor that comes with slavery. The person on the right is shown doing some kind of yard or garden work. He looks like he is struggling but trying his best to do the task. Another theme that he is trying to portray is that slaves had to be there for each other and help each other out. The man on the right is standing and watching very close to the other worker, which shows that he is there for support and is looking to see if the other worker needs help. The theme of sadness and negativity that came with this labor is shown by the faces of the people. They are both looking down and you cannot see their faces, almost like they are hidden.

Creative Writing Process

1. To create a song, Wilco first puts the song together like a rough draft. Then, the band deconstructs the song and looks for places where they can improve the song. They pick at and revise the song until it is exactly the way that they want it.
2&3. For my creative process for writing, I first take a detailed look at what I have been asked to write or what my goal is for writing. When I know exactly what I need or want to write, I then begin to brainstorm ideas. I write these ideas down and group things together to create a base of what my writing will be about. When these ideas and topics start coming to me, I begin to write. I create a thesis to organize my writing and to create guidelines for the paper. As I write, I often keep coming up with ideas and my thoughts come together so I can put them in paragraph form. I add details and create a strong body of the piece until I am ready to conclude the piece. I then sum up what I was writing and the paper is finished.

American Grafitti Soundtrack

1. Nostalgia is the sentimental feeling you get when remembering old memories and things that have happened in the past.
2. When I heard the first song, I automatically thought of listening to "Rock Around the Clock" when I was about six or seven in the car on a family fun CD. I see people jumping around, dancing, and being very happy. For the second song, I get an image in my head of someone singing the song in front of a crowd that is swaying back and forth. I get an image of the movie 16 Candles because of the repetition of the phrase in the chorus.
3. When I think of my childhood, many images pop into my head. I see my family and I going to my Grandma's house on holidays and spending summer days painting and doing other activities with my Grandparents. I think of playing outside in my neighborhood with the other kids until very late at night. I see my sister, Zach, Garrett, Allison, Shelby, Megan, and I playing Mario Party on Game Cube and getting into arguments about who gets to play. I see Central Christian Child Care Center, my preschool, where I met and played with my first best friends. I see my family going on camping trips and roasting hot dogs and marshmallows by the fire. I see my mom baking and smell the cinnamon rolls, chocolate chip cookies, and Christmas candy. All of this images create happy and joyous feelings.

A Pinch of Poverty

1. Some of the major contributing factors to poverty are your ancestral history (being born into poverty), lack of jobs, the economy, your lifestyle, and luck (or lack thereof).
2. This artist portrays poverty in a negative light. For the most part, the mother and children are dressed in very dark clothing that looks old and worn down. He uses the lonely, rainy setting to create a sullen mood that portrays poverty in a negative way. The people look sad and gloomy, which adds to this negative light.
3. The artist's message about poverty is that it is a sad, negative thing that can happen to anyone, even children. He is trying to show the viewers how bad poverty can really be.
4. a.) Color- The artist uses dark, sullen colors to show how sad poverty is.
    b.) The placement of the subjects show how the poor and poor families have to stay close together and rely on each other to get through the hard times.

Live Free and Starve vs. The Singer Solution to World Poverty

In "Live Free and Starve" and "The Singer Solution to World Poverty", Chitra Divakaruni and Peter Singer both show a desire to try to help children living in poverty in third world countries. It may surprise you to hear that the authors' opinions on how this should be done are complete opposites. On one hand, Singer strongly believes that people living in wealthy countries need to be giving more to these children, while on the other, Divakaruni believes that we need to stop trying to free these children from the bonds that they are in.
Even though I do not fully agree with either one of these arguments, there are certain aspects of each that I can reason with and find to be true to what I believe. As I mentioned before, in Divakaruni's article, she argues her idea that bills and other efforts to free children from labor in third world countries are actually hurting these children. She says, "If the children themselves were asked whether they would rather work under such harsh conditions or enjoy a leisure that comes without the benefit of food or clothing or shelter, I wonder what their response will be." I do not completely agree with this, since I think we need to do as much as we can to help these children, but I see where she is coming from. Divakaruni attempts to get inside the minds of these children and to imagine what they feel, which I think is rational and honorable. Peter Singer uses a completely different approach. His main strategy in his article is to make the readers feel guilty about not donating to organizations that help children living in poverty. "If we don't [donate], then we should at least know that we are failing to live a morally decent life..," says Singer in his article. Although I agree with him in the fact that people who have more that what they need should be giving more than they do to these organizations, I do not think the approach that he takes is very affective. To me, Singer comes off as rude and belittling, trying to make it sound like it is our personal fault that many of these children die each day.
Being an individual who comes from a strong Christian family and has grown up with the mindset that we are responsible for helping those in need, I most definitely had a strong bias when reading these articles. Obviously, I would agree with almost anything that has intentions of giving to the poor and needy because I feel that God is calling us to do so. After reading the two contrasting articles, I was surprised to find that I was agreeing more with Divakaruni's piece that urged readers not to try to help these children than Singer's, who argued that people need to give more and try to help them. I mainly believe that the reason for this is the approach that the two authors used in persuading the readers to agree with their point. I was very strongly persuaded by the story Divakaruni tells about the boy, Nimai, who worked in her house when she was a little girl. By having the personal experience of knowing what could happen to a child who is released from labor and no longer has food, water, or clothing, she connected with me, and I am sure many other readers, on a deeper level. As for Singer, as I have mentioned the whole way through this blog post, I believe that his use of guilt and harsh criticisms to sway the readers would not work for many people. I have many similar beliefs that Singer has and I can tell that he has a heart for these children, but I was too busy reacting to how blunt he was being to be persuaded by his argument.

"Round and Round"

I found the song "Round and Round", although not a type of song that I would typically like, to be very interesting and somewhat enjoyable. As I listened to the song, I paid attention to the musical elements and the upbeat tempo more so than to the vocals, which is something that I have always done. The facts that I wrote down in my journal were that the mood of the song changed a little ways through when the tempo changed and that there was a bass guitar that had a strong presence in the background. Since I only listened to the song one time through, my opinion had to be formed on these facts that I was able to gather. Because the facts that I chose are things that make the song interesting to me, the opinion that I formed was positive. I definitely had a strong bias about music as I was listening to the song. I grew up listening to any modern music that the youth was listening to, and even though my parents are very big fans of classic rock, I was not often exposed to that kind of music. Pop music generally has a fast beat with a strong bass, so this is what I tend to find in music that I enjoy. If this song did not have the strong bass and upbeat tempo, my bias would cause for me to gather a different, probably negative opinion about the song. Before this activity, I had not thought about my musical bias. Now I can see why I pass over or do not give music that doesn't seem like something I would like and just how strong it can really be.