So Tiger finally came out from the woodwork last week (no pun intended) and publicly apologized for the multiple affairs that sparked a huge scandal last November. He not only apologized to his mother, wife and family, fellow players, sponsors, and fans, but also included a special and specific apology to kids that he inspired as a role model and those whom he actually helped through his foundation, The Tiger Woods Foundation.
Before I had seen the actual apology, I had run across this Bloggingheads video (part of the Opinion section in the NYTimes Online) which discusses Tiger's apology and it's affect on kids. One question that came up was whether or not kids should have role models who are famous sports stars, actors/actresses, musicians, etc.
What do you think? Personally or as a librarian or both! If we encourage kids to interact with various media then we must also expect that they will be influenced by or have opinions about the people they encounter in those various types of media.
Growing up, Dennis Rodman was my role model. My room was covered in Chicago Bulls posters, pictures cut out from Sports Illustrated and other sports magazines, and even a life size stand up of Rodman in action (I'm sure you guys are getting an 'interesting' perspective into who I am from the nature of my recent posts ha-ha!). I went down to our local and very small bookstore when his book Bad as I wanna be came out and was turned away because the book peddler didn't think it was an appropriate book for a 13 year old girl to be reading (little did she know I just turned around and bought it somewhere else!).
So what was it about Dennis Rodman that made him a 'role model' in my eyes? Well #1: he was a hell of a basketball player and I had been playing basketball since I was 6 so I respected that. #2 and most importantly: he wasn't afraid to be who he was--he stepped out covered in tattoos with a different color of hair each week and killed it on the court (you must remember that heavily tattooed basketball players were rare in the 90s, unlike today when you have dudes like Allen Iverson and Chris Anderson among countless others). Off the court he partied hardcore and did drugs, but I tended to ignore that side of him because I was only interested in who he was on the court. Whether what I saw as positive role model traits actually existed in who he was and how he represented himself, it didn't cause me to be a bad person or kid--I didn't drop out of school or start drinking and partying heavily, or anything like that (though I am heavily tattooed but I wouldn't attribute the motivation for that to Dennis). Basically, I think it came down to me being realistic about who he was both on and off the court and simply choosing to admire what I saw were the good traits that he had to offer.
Friday, February 26, 2010
Wednesday, February 24, 2010
Adam Haslet interview
This morning, on my way to work, I was listening to NPR, http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=123542128, and Morning Edition. They were running an interview with a first time novelist, Adam Haslet. His book, Union Atlantic, has just arrived on the bookstore shelves.
Most of the interview was only mildly interesting, mostly because his novel, written and sent off to the publisher, before the collapse of the large banks in 2008, is about just that – the collapse and possible bailout of a major bank in the US and the implication to America’s economic system if it is allowed to fail.
However, what really caught my ear was when the interview turned to human nature, culture and fiction.
"The world is so insanely complex and fast and distracting, and one of the things I think a good book can do is slow the reader's attention down a little bit and give them a chance to think through some of the consequences of these changes which otherwise are so quick that all you can do is react," Haslett says.
So is literature the answer?
"It's an ameliorative," Haslett says with a laugh. "I don't think it's an answer, I don't think it will solve our problems but I think how we pay attention to the world matters and if you can spend time inside an imaginative world then there's a calmness and an ability to think.”
That is what caught my attention. That is exactly why I love realistic fiction. It allows me to slow down, escape for a short while from my too busy life – school, work, son’s wedding, and think about someone else’s life. But it isn’t total escapism. I am drawn into someone else’s life but then invited to stop and think of how this would play out in real life. What would I do in such a situation? There is a certain freedom in the fact that it is make believe and yet, realistic enough to draw me in and make me think.
That would not be the case with fantasy fiction, for me. I have not been able to identify with the characters in fantasy – at least not yet – and that is an important ingredient of the enjoyment for me.
This can also be said of film or, video. A good fiction played out on the screen allows me to get lost in it, leave my world behind for a time and live in someone else’s but at the same time allows me to slow down enough to think and feel, just like a book.
Film and video, however, bring another element to fiction, as we learned this week. The scene, characters, and sounds are not left up to our imagination as much as I thought. We still need imagination to suspend our lives for awhile and become one of the characters, but we are provided many of the details by the director who puts all of this together. As the short video in our study guide suggests, Mise-en-Scene, if well planned, can bring another element to our viewing.
So, I learned tonight that I think I react viscerally to good realistic fiction because of my interpersonal nature. And, I still think that is true to a certain extent; I agree with Haslet, in that. Additionally, I think, as does Haslet, that good realistic fiction can slow us down and make us think about our world, how and where we fit in it. However, I now know that many of my visceral reactions are there because of the staging of the director, cinematographer, sound man and costume designer. Somehow, that is not quite as romantic!
Most of the interview was only mildly interesting, mostly because his novel, written and sent off to the publisher, before the collapse of the large banks in 2008, is about just that – the collapse and possible bailout of a major bank in the US and the implication to America’s economic system if it is allowed to fail.
However, what really caught my ear was when the interview turned to human nature, culture and fiction.
"The world is so insanely complex and fast and distracting, and one of the things I think a good book can do is slow the reader's attention down a little bit and give them a chance to think through some of the consequences of these changes which otherwise are so quick that all you can do is react," Haslett says.
So is literature the answer?
"It's an ameliorative," Haslett says with a laugh. "I don't think it's an answer, I don't think it will solve our problems but I think how we pay attention to the world matters and if you can spend time inside an imaginative world then there's a calmness and an ability to think.”
That is what caught my attention. That is exactly why I love realistic fiction. It allows me to slow down, escape for a short while from my too busy life – school, work, son’s wedding, and think about someone else’s life. But it isn’t total escapism. I am drawn into someone else’s life but then invited to stop and think of how this would play out in real life. What would I do in such a situation? There is a certain freedom in the fact that it is make believe and yet, realistic enough to draw me in and make me think.
That would not be the case with fantasy fiction, for me. I have not been able to identify with the characters in fantasy – at least not yet – and that is an important ingredient of the enjoyment for me.
This can also be said of film or, video. A good fiction played out on the screen allows me to get lost in it, leave my world behind for a time and live in someone else’s but at the same time allows me to slow down enough to think and feel, just like a book.
Film and video, however, bring another element to fiction, as we learned this week. The scene, characters, and sounds are not left up to our imagination as much as I thought. We still need imagination to suspend our lives for awhile and become one of the characters, but we are provided many of the details by the director who puts all of this together. As the short video in our study guide suggests, Mise-en-Scene, if well planned, can bring another element to our viewing.
So, I learned tonight that I think I react viscerally to good realistic fiction because of my interpersonal nature. And, I still think that is true to a certain extent; I agree with Haslet, in that. Additionally, I think, as does Haslet, that good realistic fiction can slow us down and make us think about our world, how and where we fit in it. However, I now know that many of my visceral reactions are there because of the staging of the director, cinematographer, sound man and costume designer. Somehow, that is not quite as romantic!
More Information
A frightening development from ideas like the one we discussed on this post: a school in PA is accused of using the webcams installed in students' school-issued laptops to spy on them at home. (that link will take you to a list of articles that includes statements from teachers/principals and some of the trial details)
Teen Tech Week
I got a link to this article in my latest ALA Direct e-mail, and thought it was especially fitting for our topics! From In the Library With the Lead Pipe (a blog I've just discovered but am looking forward to browsing through a bit more!):
Teen Tech Week is held from March 7-13 this year. For those of you who haven't held or participated in this event (myself included), and are planning on working with youth, it might be worth a gander at the ALA/YALSA site for the week (that's the link under TTW up there). There are program ideas and resources, publicity tools, and a wiki, among other things.
And as Robyn Vittek, the author of the article, says, there is little to criticize about Teen Tech Week. It's an initiative to get teens into the library in an interactive way, as well as a push for librarians to find new and exciting ways to integrate technology into their youth programs. Ideally, a YA librarian would be doing this anyway, but especially in libraries with smaller staffs and budgets, it can be difficult. This initiative is
From her conclusion:
"One of the newest national initiatives, Teen Tech Week has been celebrated by ALA’s Young Adult Library Services Association (YALSA) since 2007. This year, Teen Tech Week is March 7–13. According to the YALSA website, “The purpose of the initiative is to ensure that teens are competent and ethical users of technologies, especially those that are offered through libraries such as DVDs, databases, audiobooks, and videogames. Teen Tech Week encourages teens to use libraries’ nonprint resources for education and recreation, and to recognize that librarians are qualified, trusted professionals in the field of information technology.”1"
Teen Tech Week is held from March 7-13 this year. For those of you who haven't held or participated in this event (myself included), and are planning on working with youth, it might be worth a gander at the ALA/YALSA site for the week (that's the link under TTW up there). There are program ideas and resources, publicity tools, and a wiki, among other things.
And as Robyn Vittek, the author of the article, says, there is little to criticize about Teen Tech Week. It's an initiative to get teens into the library in an interactive way, as well as a push for librarians to find new and exciting ways to integrate technology into their youth programs. Ideally, a YA librarian would be doing this anyway, but especially in libraries with smaller staffs and budgets, it can be difficult. This initiative is
From her conclusion:
"The exciting thing about Teen Tech Week is that it gives us an opportunity to explore and learn to use all of the websites, gadgets, and formats that our library is purchasing, our teens are bringing into the building, and we are reading about in professional journals and magazines. It is a chance to let the teens know that libraries and librarians are not all about books. We are interested in learning about and sharing all types of information resources, and prove entertaining and cutting edge programming and services that occasionally dip into the philanthropic or even (gasp!) educational arenas. When you choose to participate in Teen Tech Week, it’s not only the teens who “Create, Share and Learn @ your Library.” The staff will as well."
On a life spent illegally downloading music
I remember the first time I used Napster. I was in ninth grade, spending the night at my friend Lindsey's house. "Listen to this," she said. She had downloaded a dozen or so songs by a band I'd never heard of, called Dashboard Confessional. (I thought the singer was a woman.) My family, devoted Macintosh users all, didn't have access to Napster (much less a CD burner or a sufficiently fast internet connection, even in the dialup days) - Lindsey's new toy was a revelation. We spent the entire night downloading music, one song at a time. By the next morning, we had downloaded four songs. Awesome.
By the time I got to college, things were in even better shape for the young and broke. My college unwittingly played host to "the network" - thousands and thousands of movies, games, television episodes, and songs shared among every student on campus. Some particularly industrious hosts held close to a terabyte of stuff all by themselves. Others prided themselves on having new TV episodes up and available within hours of their airing. Nobody had cable or Netflix, and only a handful of us patronized the super-cool record store downtown.
So I'm one of those people - a child of the digital generation who downloads music illegally without a second thought. Kind of. Like a lot of people my age - mid-twenties-ish - I still spend plenty of money on my music consumption. The difference is that I spend most of it on concerts and T-shirts. I still buy music. I paid $5 for that Radiohead album a couple of years ago, because that's how much a Radiohead album that isn't Kid A is worth to me. Last week I downloaded James Mercer's side project, but I'll probably pay money for it when it comes out in March.
"But those aren’t baby bands who had to do it themselves from the start. Newer acts may well be cottage industries — in wired cottages — for life." (NYT)
Sure, when I see a good local band at a bar or club, I buy their CD - but that doesn't happen too often. For one thing, I am not hip enough to go out three times a week. For another, most local bands are pretty terrible. Most of the music I listen to I heard on TV or the radio - same as ever. The difference is that if I hear a song I like - on a TV show, on the radio, whatever - I go online and download it for free. But what's changed, really? As a kid, I taped songs off of the radio all the time. The difference is that now, there is way more out there to download, right? Thanks to the internet, every whosit with a guitar has a chance at fame! If anyone ever hears it. I totally thought that the whole MySpace music thing was going to change the world, but it hasn't. The tastemakers are the same people, but now they're in worse financial shape than ever, so they're promoting even fewer artists.
So, unless you're really good at marketing yourself - or unless your label (if you have one!) thinks you're The Next Big Thing - you're basically screwed. Sure, you can buy my friend's band's CD on iTunes, but does anyone? (I did, Noah!) Sure, Radiohead's stunt worked, but that's because they're Radiohead. And I notice, with the kids I work with, that everything they listen to is manufactured. The younger kids and the 'tween set listen to Disney popsters and Taylor Swift, the teens are into whatever rap guy is big at the moment. There's way too much garbage out there for us to become our own tastemakers. And so the world is basically unchanged. There was no MySpace revolution. The pool of what we actually listen to has only gotten smaller. Other than the occasional tidbit on NPR or tiny college radio stations, when is the last time you heard independent music on the radio?
"But the flip side of disintermediation — not having to rely on any middleman for approval or distribution — is a near-infinite slush pile. All the filtering that used to take place out of earshot, in A&R and club bookers’ offices, can be bypassed." (NYT)
ON THE OTHER HAND! There are artists that succeed - that have gotten their "break" on YouTube or MySpace. Not many of them, but it does happen. I do know a handful of teens - again, not many, but a few - who are into making mash-ups, filming their own music videos for their favorite songs and putting them on YouTube, and tweeting to (with?) their favorite artists. None of this could have happened before the internet. The music industry has changed, but it's not the artist who suddenly has power. It's the consumer. Much like we see in television - with fan movements bringing back cancelled shows (Chuck, Jericho), fanfiction writers re-writing plot points for their fellow fans, and consumers making choices about how they want to watch their favorite shows (TiVo, Hulu, BitTorrent) - listeners are now better equipped than ever to listen to music the way they want to. Pay for it, steal it, interact with it. For the first time, we can dig through that slush pile ourselves if we want to. There are countless websites that can direct you to the good stuff, most of them run by random people out in the world - not the record execs. Not Simon Cowell.
It's not a revolution. Our music tastes, as a culture, haven't suddenly diversified. Most of us still listen to whatever the record companies put on the table. But we don't have to. And that's pretty cool.
P.S. PBS: It's Sarah McLachlan. With an H.
Interesting: http://www.guardian.co.uk/music/musicblog/2009/jan/08/long-tail-myth-download
On another, TOTALLY NSFW note, this blog.
If you didn't get enough inane and/or deeply offensive rap lyrics from that PBS site, I recommend you check this out. Commentary ranges from seriously hilarious to roughly as offensive as the lyrics, but whatever. Also, does anyone else look back fondly on the days when "Drake" was Jimmy Brooks on Degrassi? And can we just take a minute to note how totally not gangster Degrassi is?
By the time I got to college, things were in even better shape for the young and broke. My college unwittingly played host to "the network" - thousands and thousands of movies, games, television episodes, and songs shared among every student on campus. Some particularly industrious hosts held close to a terabyte of stuff all by themselves. Others prided themselves on having new TV episodes up and available within hours of their airing. Nobody had cable or Netflix, and only a handful of us patronized the super-cool record store downtown.
So I'm one of those people - a child of the digital generation who downloads music illegally without a second thought. Kind of. Like a lot of people my age - mid-twenties-ish - I still spend plenty of money on my music consumption. The difference is that I spend most of it on concerts and T-shirts. I still buy music. I paid $5 for that Radiohead album a couple of years ago, because that's how much a Radiohead album that isn't Kid A is worth to me. Last week I downloaded James Mercer's side project, but I'll probably pay money for it when it comes out in March.
"But those aren’t baby bands who had to do it themselves from the start. Newer acts may well be cottage industries — in wired cottages — for life." (NYT)
Sure, when I see a good local band at a bar or club, I buy their CD - but that doesn't happen too often. For one thing, I am not hip enough to go out three times a week. For another, most local bands are pretty terrible. Most of the music I listen to I heard on TV or the radio - same as ever. The difference is that if I hear a song I like - on a TV show, on the radio, whatever - I go online and download it for free. But what's changed, really? As a kid, I taped songs off of the radio all the time. The difference is that now, there is way more out there to download, right? Thanks to the internet, every whosit with a guitar has a chance at fame! If anyone ever hears it. I totally thought that the whole MySpace music thing was going to change the world, but it hasn't. The tastemakers are the same people, but now they're in worse financial shape than ever, so they're promoting even fewer artists.
So, unless you're really good at marketing yourself - or unless your label (if you have one!) thinks you're The Next Big Thing - you're basically screwed. Sure, you can buy my friend's band's CD on iTunes, but does anyone? (I did, Noah!) Sure, Radiohead's stunt worked, but that's because they're Radiohead. And I notice, with the kids I work with, that everything they listen to is manufactured. The younger kids and the 'tween set listen to Disney popsters and Taylor Swift, the teens are into whatever rap guy is big at the moment. There's way too much garbage out there for us to become our own tastemakers. And so the world is basically unchanged. There was no MySpace revolution. The pool of what we actually listen to has only gotten smaller. Other than the occasional tidbit on NPR or tiny college radio stations, when is the last time you heard independent music on the radio?
"But the flip side of disintermediation — not having to rely on any middleman for approval or distribution — is a near-infinite slush pile. All the filtering that used to take place out of earshot, in A&R and club bookers’ offices, can be bypassed." (NYT)
ON THE OTHER HAND! There are artists that succeed - that have gotten their "break" on YouTube or MySpace. Not many of them, but it does happen. I do know a handful of teens - again, not many, but a few - who are into making mash-ups, filming their own music videos for their favorite songs and putting them on YouTube, and tweeting to (with?) their favorite artists. None of this could have happened before the internet. The music industry has changed, but it's not the artist who suddenly has power. It's the consumer. Much like we see in television - with fan movements bringing back cancelled shows (Chuck, Jericho), fanfiction writers re-writing plot points for their fellow fans, and consumers making choices about how they want to watch their favorite shows (TiVo, Hulu, BitTorrent) - listeners are now better equipped than ever to listen to music the way they want to. Pay for it, steal it, interact with it. For the first time, we can dig through that slush pile ourselves if we want to. There are countless websites that can direct you to the good stuff, most of them run by random people out in the world - not the record execs. Not Simon Cowell.
It's not a revolution. Our music tastes, as a culture, haven't suddenly diversified. Most of us still listen to whatever the record companies put on the table. But we don't have to. And that's pretty cool.
P.S. PBS: It's Sarah McLachlan. With an H.
Interesting: http://www.guardian.co.uk/music/musicblog/2009/jan/08/long-tail-myth-download
On another, TOTALLY NSFW note, this blog.
If you didn't get enough inane and/or deeply offensive rap lyrics from that PBS site, I recommend you check this out. Commentary ranges from seriously hilarious to roughly as offensive as the lyrics, but whatever. Also, does anyone else look back fondly on the days when "Drake" was Jimmy Brooks on Degrassi? And can we just take a minute to note how totally not gangster Degrassi is?
Monday, February 22, 2010
The personal importance of lyrics . . .
This comment was too long to fit in the comment box as a response to Sue's "Same Old Same Old? or a Whole New World?" post, so I was forced to post it separately.
Sue wrote: "And yet, some things are very different than they were. I used to have to listen to a song over and over and over again to try and figure out what the lyrics were. There were endless debates: did he say “Rolled up like a deuce” or “Rolled up like a douche”? (How sophisticated we thought we were to be able to say that work without giggling…) Nowadays, the lyrics are there for you with a click if you want them. I’m not entirely sure why that seems important to me, but it does. I’d welcome others’ thoughts on whether this instant availability of the lyrics matters."
Personally, knowing that lyrics are instantly available (whether you actually use them or not) has been and is somewhat important to me: I'm a fan and frequenter of Lyrics on Demand. Because I came to exist when I did (1983) and started getting into music at a time (early 90's) when lyrics were made readily available in the booklets included in the cases of tapes and CDs (and now as .pdf files when you download an entire album through iTunes), I've never known a time when lyrics weren't at my finger tips and thus have always been able to access and use them in different ways. Before I explain how I use lyrics and why they were and continue to be important to me, I should mention that lyrics were usually available for music that was current and popular (on tapes and CDs) while I was going up, but not necessarily for music prior to the advent of the tape and CD, though not all tapes and CDs guaranteed the inclusion of lyrics. That didn't matter to me when I was a teenager because I didn't really care about music that wasn't popular during that time, but it became increasingly important as I grew older, gained more interest in older music, and wanted to engage with the lyrics more intimately.
I grew up in rural southern Colorado, a half Mexican, half Swedish only child listening to a slue of random music that sometimes seemed to have a place in my life and sometimes didn't. My dad listened to the following: Tejano/Ranchero music out of New Mexico and Texas, traditional Mexican folk music, disco, 80's hits, country (early George Strait, Randy Travis, Reba McEntire, Hank Williams Jr.) and what was then starting to become 'older country' (Merle Haggard, Hank Williams, Johnny Cash, Waylon Jennings). My mom, on the other hand, listened to Oldies (40's through 60's), what is now considered Classic Rock (Beatles, Bachman-Turner Overdrive, Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers, CCR, etc) and 70's & 80's hits.
While I was and still am heavily influenced by and enjoy all of these different genres of music, when I was a teenager, the last thing I was going to be associated with was anything that my parents listened to: their music was lame, the lyrics didn't speak to me, and I couldn't relate to words or the music. Instead I was deeply interested in and loved Hip Hop and Rap music. In middle school I was breakin' and jammim' to Hip Hop from MC Hammer, Slick Rick, 2 Live Crew, Outkast, Warren G, and Salt -N- Pepa. As I got 'older' and moved into high school, I got over Hip Hop and became obsessed with Gangsta Rap from rappers including The Wu Tang Clan, Snoop Dogg, Dr. Dre, The Notorious B.I.G, Tupac, and The Big Tymers.
I was drawn to Hip Hop and Rap because not only was it 'cool' but the sound was one of a kind: the beat rattled my soul, the words penetrated my brain, and the bass stopped my heart. I prided myself on being able to know the words by heart and rap along to the song with my friends. It was fun and rebellious to give my birthday and Christmas money to my friend's older brother so that he could buy me the explicit lyric Rap CDs that my parents forbid me to buy and listen to (they lived in a shoe box in the back of my closet). But given my background and upbringing, which was pretty 'white picket fence' in my opinion, I couldn't and didn't personally relate to the content of the music, but for some reason it moved and inspired me and I was addicted.
Whether the music was bumpin in my car, on my stereo in my room, or through my Discman's headphones into my ears and directly into my cerebral cortex, I could usually always hear the lyrics clearly and understand them, but this wasn't always the case: sometimes the beat was so sick that I was too distracted to hear what the rapper was saying or I only payed attention to certain verses in the song because they were catchy or were my favorite part of the song. Of course situations like this made having the lyrics convenient to consult to clear up ambiguity or to focus on parts of the song that didn't jump out.
But they also went above and beyond that purpose for me: they were poetry when read alone, they were a guide that allowed you to read along and listen closely to the music and experience it in a way different from just listening without them. I could hear the song and enjoy it and I could read the lyrics of the song and understand the message or get the meaning, but listening to the music and reading the lyrics simultaneously brought it all together and could elicit deeper feelings, understanding, and emotions, especially when done through headphones. The beat and melody transported me to another world and the words became more than words, they became truth.
Like other Hip Hop and Rap fans from my generation, I have lost interest and respect in the current direction that Hip Hop and Rap has taken in the modern industry. I yearn for raps and beats from 'back in the day' when there was something to be said, real messages to be delivered, and lyrics worth listening to. Although in my opinion the content/message of songs and the lyrics found in most mainstream music today isn't as poetic or deep as it used to be, having access to lyrics in any form is convenient and can be both enjoyable and meaningful for teenagers or anyone.
Sue wrote: "And yet, some things are very different than they were. I used to have to listen to a song over and over and over again to try and figure out what the lyrics were. There were endless debates: did he say “Rolled up like a deuce” or “Rolled up like a douche”? (How sophisticated we thought we were to be able to say that work without giggling…) Nowadays, the lyrics are there for you with a click if you want them. I’m not entirely sure why that seems important to me, but it does. I’d welcome others’ thoughts on whether this instant availability of the lyrics matters."
Personally, knowing that lyrics are instantly available (whether you actually use them or not) has been and is somewhat important to me: I'm a fan and frequenter of Lyrics on Demand. Because I came to exist when I did (1983) and started getting into music at a time (early 90's) when lyrics were made readily available in the booklets included in the cases of tapes and CDs (and now as .pdf files when you download an entire album through iTunes), I've never known a time when lyrics weren't at my finger tips and thus have always been able to access and use them in different ways. Before I explain how I use lyrics and why they were and continue to be important to me, I should mention that lyrics were usually available for music that was current and popular (on tapes and CDs) while I was going up, but not necessarily for music prior to the advent of the tape and CD, though not all tapes and CDs guaranteed the inclusion of lyrics. That didn't matter to me when I was a teenager because I didn't really care about music that wasn't popular during that time, but it became increasingly important as I grew older, gained more interest in older music, and wanted to engage with the lyrics more intimately.
I grew up in rural southern Colorado, a half Mexican, half Swedish only child listening to a slue of random music that sometimes seemed to have a place in my life and sometimes didn't. My dad listened to the following: Tejano/Ranchero music out of New Mexico and Texas, traditional Mexican folk music, disco, 80's hits, country (early George Strait, Randy Travis, Reba McEntire, Hank Williams Jr.) and what was then starting to become 'older country' (Merle Haggard, Hank Williams, Johnny Cash, Waylon Jennings). My mom, on the other hand, listened to Oldies (40's through 60's), what is now considered Classic Rock (Beatles, Bachman-Turner Overdrive, Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers, CCR, etc) and 70's & 80's hits.
While I was and still am heavily influenced by and enjoy all of these different genres of music, when I was a teenager, the last thing I was going to be associated with was anything that my parents listened to: their music was lame, the lyrics didn't speak to me, and I couldn't relate to words or the music. Instead I was deeply interested in and loved Hip Hop and Rap music. In middle school I was breakin' and jammim' to Hip Hop from MC Hammer, Slick Rick, 2 Live Crew, Outkast, Warren G, and Salt -N- Pepa. As I got 'older' and moved into high school, I got over Hip Hop and became obsessed with Gangsta Rap from rappers including The Wu Tang Clan, Snoop Dogg, Dr. Dre, The Notorious B.I.G, Tupac, and The Big Tymers.
I was drawn to Hip Hop and Rap because not only was it 'cool' but the sound was one of a kind: the beat rattled my soul, the words penetrated my brain, and the bass stopped my heart. I prided myself on being able to know the words by heart and rap along to the song with my friends. It was fun and rebellious to give my birthday and Christmas money to my friend's older brother so that he could buy me the explicit lyric Rap CDs that my parents forbid me to buy and listen to (they lived in a shoe box in the back of my closet). But given my background and upbringing, which was pretty 'white picket fence' in my opinion, I couldn't and didn't personally relate to the content of the music, but for some reason it moved and inspired me and I was addicted.
Whether the music was bumpin in my car, on my stereo in my room, or through my Discman's headphones into my ears and directly into my cerebral cortex, I could usually always hear the lyrics clearly and understand them, but this wasn't always the case: sometimes the beat was so sick that I was too distracted to hear what the rapper was saying or I only payed attention to certain verses in the song because they were catchy or were my favorite part of the song. Of course situations like this made having the lyrics convenient to consult to clear up ambiguity or to focus on parts of the song that didn't jump out.
But they also went above and beyond that purpose for me: they were poetry when read alone, they were a guide that allowed you to read along and listen closely to the music and experience it in a way different from just listening without them. I could hear the song and enjoy it and I could read the lyrics of the song and understand the message or get the meaning, but listening to the music and reading the lyrics simultaneously brought it all together and could elicit deeper feelings, understanding, and emotions, especially when done through headphones. The beat and melody transported me to another world and the words became more than words, they became truth.
Like other Hip Hop and Rap fans from my generation, I have lost interest and respect in the current direction that Hip Hop and Rap has taken in the modern industry. I yearn for raps and beats from 'back in the day' when there was something to be said, real messages to be delivered, and lyrics worth listening to. Although in my opinion the content/message of songs and the lyrics found in most mainstream music today isn't as poetic or deep as it used to be, having access to lyrics in any form is convenient and can be both enjoyable and meaningful for teenagers or anyone.
Thursday, February 18, 2010
the times are a changin'
The changes to sound recordings over recent years is truly amazing. The Way the Music Died piece was helpful in understanding some of the changes from insiders’ views and even though this production for PBS’ Frontline program was made in 2004, many of the trends the artists discussed continue today. Since this program was made mp3 players and iPods have exploded into such a pervasive part of our society and I believe this was mentioned in our session last night for class. This program in particular made me think about my time working at the Bloomington Public Library (IL) and how music cds were such a huge collection seemingly when I began working there in 2001 and how they began to decline in numbers overall and in new titles as I was about to leave there in 2007. Since that time the collections only gotten sparser it seems. The number of audio books on cd has diminished likewise in a similar pattern which stinks for me as I had only just figured out how to use My Media Mall last summer when Bloomington and others in the library system got rid of it. Now I have to find new reads from this limited format there. I was ready to make the technology leap and the rug got pulled out from under me! I think many patrons like myself in public libraries will have to adapt likewise as it’s more feasible to have services like My Media Mall than cds and other physical formats. I wonder whether music collections at public libraries will dwindle to nothing with so many using services like iTunes, Rhapsody, and the like. In schools, especially in this cash strapped state, I imagine audio books on tape or cd will have longer lives but even in this library setting mp3 audio books like Playaways are making in-roads.
Media Literacy and Criminals
I know that this course is about youth and media literacy, but I've been quite amused recently about the articles that I have been coming across concerning criminals and their use of new media and games.
Gaming, for instance, seems to be greatly misunderstood. The article about Dungeons and Dragons that I have posted above is a bit problematic for me. I suppose if one is in prison, then they are being punished for some reason and shouldn't be able to do everything. On the other hand, I don't know that I agree that Dungeons and Dragons "promotes fantasy role playing, competitive hostility, violence, addictive escape behaviors, and possible gambling." Statements like that lead me to believe that there is an air of ignorance towards gaming that needs to be addressed in our criminal justice system.
With all of this being said, I have found these articles quite interesting. Our focus on youth in this course is not wholly separate for these topics. Informing young people about new media and gaming is important, but it's also important to teach them about being responsible with new media and making them aware that the choices that they make about what to share and post online are choices that need to be taken seriously. A new site has been created called Please Rob Me that simply searches for public Twitter posts in which people freely mention that they have left home. This information can be combined with other location-based social networking tools to determine the location of homes that have been left unoccupied. I'm sure most of us don't think about that when we post status messages about our locations, but it's perhaps something that we should be thinking about and it's a great example of a seemingly simple action that has rather unintended consequences.
- Gangs use of Twitter, Facebook on the rise
- Criminal Colin Gunn Used Facebook To Threaten Enemies From Jail
- Dungeons and Dragons Prison Ban Upheld
- Fugitive Christopher Crego Posts Facebook Info That Helps Police Arrest Him
- Prisoners Lose Facebook Pages After Victim Taunts
Gaming, for instance, seems to be greatly misunderstood. The article about Dungeons and Dragons that I have posted above is a bit problematic for me. I suppose if one is in prison, then they are being punished for some reason and shouldn't be able to do everything. On the other hand, I don't know that I agree that Dungeons and Dragons "promotes fantasy role playing, competitive hostility, violence, addictive escape behaviors, and possible gambling." Statements like that lead me to believe that there is an air of ignorance towards gaming that needs to be addressed in our criminal justice system.
With all of this being said, I have found these articles quite interesting. Our focus on youth in this course is not wholly separate for these topics. Informing young people about new media and gaming is important, but it's also important to teach them about being responsible with new media and making them aware that the choices that they make about what to share and post online are choices that need to be taken seriously. A new site has been created called Please Rob Me that simply searches for public Twitter posts in which people freely mention that they have left home. This information can be combined with other location-based social networking tools to determine the location of homes that have been left unoccupied. I'm sure most of us don't think about that when we post status messages about our locations, but it's perhaps something that we should be thinking about and it's a great example of a seemingly simple action that has rather unintended consequences.
10 Technology Ideas Your Library Can Implement Next Week
From American Libraries, this article on easy technology tweaks offers up some good ideas for libraries of any size and flavor.
Wednesday, February 17, 2010
I Feel the Earth Move...
In the words of the great songwriter, Carole King, "I feel the earth move under my feet.." Although she was referring to someONE, those lyrics can apply to feeling the music, too...quite literally! As I read the excerpt from Jourdan's Music, the Brain, and Ecstasy I found myself nodding and saying, yes, yes, he got that right...I love to listen to music. I listen in the car while I commute, and I listen while I'm working around the house. I like to listen while I'm cooking, or reading (although I can't have words while I read - too much input!!) but I really like to just sit and listen. I'm a concert goer - and I can be mesmerized just listening to the notes float and entwine. The music appreciation class I took in my undergrad days has actually paid off through my life time - the instructor was very focused on training us to actually listen to what we were hearing. I was very interested in Jourdan's explanation of how the mind works, and the relationship between right brain and left brain tasks in listening. The opening of the section we read brought such clear images of early musicians to my mind - I appreciated the evolution of performing, and the dual goals of expressing oneself through music, as well as moving others to emotion through hearing that performance.
In my library each December I host an open house musical Christmas extravaganza - we clear out the desks, move in round cafe tables, bring out the decorations, set up the piano and keyboard and the drums and really let loose. The whole school is invited to drop in any time they can - musicians are "booked" throughout the day - teachers and students alike. Some performances are spontaneous, some evolve, sometimes it's like a jam session. I bake cookies (actually my husband baked 85 dozen for me this year!!) and serve hot chocolate all day. Each student gets a coupon good for a "couple of cookies and a cup of cocoa." We have had student/teacher bands, combos, duets... you name it. One year a faculty/student band performed a heavy metal rendition of White Christmas! The audience went wild! The place is packed from 8 am to 3 pm. Feedback from administrators, faculty and students is that it is such a common denominator - the atmosphere is naturally more relaxed, and they all get to see each other in a whole new way that they don't get to see in the classroom. I've thought about skipping a year, but they've already started making suggestions for things to include next year. I've also been frustrated at times because there is so much conversation during the performances, so I was very interested in the article's discussion of the evolution of concerts, and the listening habits of the audience. I will share some of that information with my teachers.
On a different note... from the New York Times article of Jan. 3, 2010, "A World of Megabeats and Megabytes," I was interested in the history of the portability of music with the advent of the digital file format. This sounded like a recounting of my own personal journey through music in the last 35 years! I can't seem to carry enough music with me - I always have a couple of flash drive full of music, my iPod, and even a portable 120 GB hard drive that I keep just for music - and keep it plugged in to my car's sound system. I related to the "need for instant gratification" in being able to pull up whatever song I'm in the mood for at the time.
In all of the readings I was struck by how we have come to take music for granted in our lives, to the point that it is often just in the background without us consciously listening. I thought about how people without hearing miss what we take for granted, and that led me to do some searching for more information about how the deaf "hear" music. I found a good article in Science Daily online: http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2001/11/011128035455.htm When we owned a Ford dealership, we had a customer who is deaf. Whatever vehicle he bought needed to have a great sound system in it - and he would set the bass so that he could feel the vibrations. The article, "Brains of Deaf People Rewire to "Hear Music," dovetailed with the readings on the way the brain functions in hearing people when listening to music. At home he would place mega-speakers on the floor so that it would reverberate through the floor - which drove his wife nuts because the sound was definitely different for her!
In my library each December I host an open house musical Christmas extravaganza - we clear out the desks, move in round cafe tables, bring out the decorations, set up the piano and keyboard and the drums and really let loose. The whole school is invited to drop in any time they can - musicians are "booked" throughout the day - teachers and students alike. Some performances are spontaneous, some evolve, sometimes it's like a jam session. I bake cookies (actually my husband baked 85 dozen for me this year!!) and serve hot chocolate all day. Each student gets a coupon good for a "couple of cookies and a cup of cocoa." We have had student/teacher bands, combos, duets... you name it. One year a faculty/student band performed a heavy metal rendition of White Christmas! The audience went wild! The place is packed from 8 am to 3 pm. Feedback from administrators, faculty and students is that it is such a common denominator - the atmosphere is naturally more relaxed, and they all get to see each other in a whole new way that they don't get to see in the classroom. I've thought about skipping a year, but they've already started making suggestions for things to include next year. I've also been frustrated at times because there is so much conversation during the performances, so I was very interested in the article's discussion of the evolution of concerts, and the listening habits of the audience. I will share some of that information with my teachers.
On a different note... from the New York Times article of Jan. 3, 2010, "A World of Megabeats and Megabytes," I was interested in the history of the portability of music with the advent of the digital file format. This sounded like a recounting of my own personal journey through music in the last 35 years! I can't seem to carry enough music with me - I always have a couple of flash drive full of music, my iPod, and even a portable 120 GB hard drive that I keep just for music - and keep it plugged in to my car's sound system. I related to the "need for instant gratification" in being able to pull up whatever song I'm in the mood for at the time.
In all of the readings I was struck by how we have come to take music for granted in our lives, to the point that it is often just in the background without us consciously listening. I thought about how people without hearing miss what we take for granted, and that led me to do some searching for more information about how the deaf "hear" music. I found a good article in Science Daily online: http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2001/11/011128035455.htm When we owned a Ford dealership, we had a customer who is deaf. Whatever vehicle he bought needed to have a great sound system in it - and he would set the bass so that he could feel the vibrations. The article, "Brains of Deaf People Rewire to "Hear Music," dovetailed with the readings on the way the brain functions in hearing people when listening to music. At home he would place mega-speakers on the floor so that it would reverberate through the floor - which drove his wife nuts because the sound was definitely different for her!
A History of Media Technology Scares, From the Printing Press to Facebook
Via LIS News and Slate:
"...Worries about information overload are as old as information itself, with each generation reimagining the dangerous impacts of technology on mind and brain. From a historical perspective, what strikes home is not the evolution of these social concerns, but their similarity from one century to the next, to the point where they arrive anew with little having changed except the label..."
Same Old Same Old? or A Whole New World?
While listening to Radio Disney this weekend, I was struck by how little things had changed since I was a tween and young teen, lo these many years ago. “I will love only you forever and ever.” “Love me for who I really am.” “I can’t live without your love.” “I’m really special inside where no-one can see.” “I’m for real, and I hate phonies” “You done me wrong.” “Baby, it feels so right when I’m with you.” And so it goes. Idealism, extreme emotions, high drama, focus on the self, and a deep desire to both fit in and be unique fill the songs that fill Radio Disney. These are the same themes that have been the hallmark of teen music for decades.
In addition to the music, much of the programming and promotion on Radio Disney had a very familiar feel to it. There were interviews with stars, contests—“Be the third caller and you could win…”—request lines, relentlessly upbeat disc jockeys, and young people on the phone trying very hard to sound very cool. Although I was trying to call the radio station from a Princess phone and today’s teens are calling from cell phones, the desire to be on the radio has not changed. Although my personal heartthrobs were Mark Lindsey and David Cassidy (much though I cringe to admit it) rather than the Jonas Brothers, the passionate adoration and desire to know every single possible detail about that person’s likes and dislikes are not very different today than they were when I was young.
And yet, some things are very different than they were. I used to have to listen to a song over and over and over again to try and figure out what the lyrics were. There were endless debates: did he say “Rolled up like a deuce” or “Rolled up like a douche”? (How sophisticated we thought we were to be able to say that work without giggling…) Nowadays, the lyrics are there for you with a click if you want them. I’m not entirely sure why that seems important to me, but it does. I’d welcome others’ thoughts on whether this instant availability of the lyrics matters.
When a radio station had a limited broadcast range it could only reach the people within its area of service. There was at least the possibility that popular songs or singers could vary from region to region. The capacity of Radio Disney to reach the whole nation instantly probably increases the homogeneity of popular music. The same songs and stars will be hits in New York, Chicago, Dallas and Los Angeles all at the same time.
Although there was some crossover between TV and music stars, i.e., David Cassidy, for the most part, music, movie and TV stars were different people. A musician followed one route to success and needed one particular set of people to back him or her, while a TV actor followed another route and needed a different set of people. The people who owned radio stations and music labels were not the same people who owned TV stations. But now, Miley Cyrus is a music/movie/TV juggernaut. Her TV show feeds demand for her music and her music and TV show promote her movies. Several of the songs I listened to this weekend were from the soundtrack of a soon to be released movie. There isn’t as much separation between entertainment venues as I remember.
I have heard it argued that the Internet would have a democratizing influence on music; anyone could get their music out there and find a following. Radio Disney seems to be an example of the opposite effect. By playing to young people’s desire to be on top of whatever is cool at the moment and being able to blitz the whole country with the few songs and singers that its owners deem to be marketable, Radio Disney has an enormously powerful effect on what tweens and teens listen to.
The idea of big corporations dictating what kind of music is available was also brought forth in the “Hip-Hop: Beyond Beats and Rhymes” and “The Way the Music Died” websites. This possibility bothers me a little less in those cases though, because they deal with music aimed more at adults. The argument that recording companies won’t buy hip-hop music with honorable or inspirational lyrics, that hip-hop musicians perform violent or homophobic songs because that is what sells has, in my opinion, some validity to it. If hundreds of thousands of people pay good money to buy songs with lyrics that I happen to think are hateful, it seems a little pointless to wring my hands and complain about the record companies or recording artists. As a society, we get the music we pay for, and if don’t like what is being paid for, we should probably think about why our culture values such songs.
Marketing to children though, may be a little different, simply because kids are developmentally more inclined to follow the herd. The need to fit in is so great at this age that it makes me a little uncomfortable to think of such a small group of people whose only motive is profit having such great influence. Having said that, though, I wonder what the solution would be. I would be very interested in knowing what others think about kids and music and marketing. Is anyone else troubled? Or am I over-reacting? Perhaps just another older person worrying needlessly about “young people these days?” In any event, spending time with Radio Disney was a very interesting and thought provoking experience.
In addition to the music, much of the programming and promotion on Radio Disney had a very familiar feel to it. There were interviews with stars, contests—“Be the third caller and you could win…”—request lines, relentlessly upbeat disc jockeys, and young people on the phone trying very hard to sound very cool. Although I was trying to call the radio station from a Princess phone and today’s teens are calling from cell phones, the desire to be on the radio has not changed. Although my personal heartthrobs were Mark Lindsey and David Cassidy (much though I cringe to admit it) rather than the Jonas Brothers, the passionate adoration and desire to know every single possible detail about that person’s likes and dislikes are not very different today than they were when I was young.
And yet, some things are very different than they were. I used to have to listen to a song over and over and over again to try and figure out what the lyrics were. There were endless debates: did he say “Rolled up like a deuce” or “Rolled up like a douche”? (How sophisticated we thought we were to be able to say that work without giggling…) Nowadays, the lyrics are there for you with a click if you want them. I’m not entirely sure why that seems important to me, but it does. I’d welcome others’ thoughts on whether this instant availability of the lyrics matters.
When a radio station had a limited broadcast range it could only reach the people within its area of service. There was at least the possibility that popular songs or singers could vary from region to region. The capacity of Radio Disney to reach the whole nation instantly probably increases the homogeneity of popular music. The same songs and stars will be hits in New York, Chicago, Dallas and Los Angeles all at the same time.
Although there was some crossover between TV and music stars, i.e., David Cassidy, for the most part, music, movie and TV stars were different people. A musician followed one route to success and needed one particular set of people to back him or her, while a TV actor followed another route and needed a different set of people. The people who owned radio stations and music labels were not the same people who owned TV stations. But now, Miley Cyrus is a music/movie/TV juggernaut. Her TV show feeds demand for her music and her music and TV show promote her movies. Several of the songs I listened to this weekend were from the soundtrack of a soon to be released movie. There isn’t as much separation between entertainment venues as I remember.
I have heard it argued that the Internet would have a democratizing influence on music; anyone could get their music out there and find a following. Radio Disney seems to be an example of the opposite effect. By playing to young people’s desire to be on top of whatever is cool at the moment and being able to blitz the whole country with the few songs and singers that its owners deem to be marketable, Radio Disney has an enormously powerful effect on what tweens and teens listen to.
The idea of big corporations dictating what kind of music is available was also brought forth in the “Hip-Hop: Beyond Beats and Rhymes” and “The Way the Music Died” websites. This possibility bothers me a little less in those cases though, because they deal with music aimed more at adults. The argument that recording companies won’t buy hip-hop music with honorable or inspirational lyrics, that hip-hop musicians perform violent or homophobic songs because that is what sells has, in my opinion, some validity to it. If hundreds of thousands of people pay good money to buy songs with lyrics that I happen to think are hateful, it seems a little pointless to wring my hands and complain about the record companies or recording artists. As a society, we get the music we pay for, and if don’t like what is being paid for, we should probably think about why our culture values such songs.
Marketing to children though, may be a little different, simply because kids are developmentally more inclined to follow the herd. The need to fit in is so great at this age that it makes me a little uncomfortable to think of such a small group of people whose only motive is profit having such great influence. Having said that, though, I wonder what the solution would be. I would be very interested in knowing what others think about kids and music and marketing. Is anyone else troubled? Or am I over-reacting? Perhaps just another older person worrying needlessly about “young people these days?” In any event, spending time with Radio Disney was a very interesting and thought provoking experience.
Tuesday, February 16, 2010
Free Information Visualization Tools
In class this past week, someone asked about building one's own visualizations. Here's a link to a post from FlowingData about a couple of free web-based tools to try out: http://bit.ly/9zOJLN
There are some tutorials on the FlowingData site (do a site search) that walk you through the process of creating some various visualizations, but most of them require knowledge of Python and basic scripting skills.
Cheers.
There are some tutorials on the FlowingData site (do a site search) that walk you through the process of creating some various visualizations, but most of them require knowledge of Python and basic scripting skills.
Cheers.
Monday, February 15, 2010
Google Wave
We talked in class about using the new Google Wave. This is a link to the site, which offers a video to explain the whole thing... http://wave.google.com/about.html#video
Waving is part chatting, part document editing - all in real time... All I have done so far is the chatting part, no document writing or editing. This month I have a couple of collaborative projects to work on and will try Waving to see how well it works.. I'll keep you posted!
Waving is part chatting, part document editing - all in real time... All I have done so far is the chatting part, no document writing or editing. This month I have a couple of collaborative projects to work on and will try Waving to see how well it works.. I'll keep you posted!
Friday, February 12, 2010
Images in the Classroom
A few years ago I was reflecting on how best to teach the African Slave Trade to my 9th grade world history students. While there are many different pedagogical approaches to teaching such disturbing and inhumane events and ideas to students, many of these methods require educators to use grade level or above readings and writing assignments. Certainly, these readings can be quite provocative and stimulate great discussion; however, I found that many of my students were so challenged by slave narratives and other primary and secondary documents that the full effect of the atrocities could not be felt. While that year many of my students had more life experience than me in terms of issues they dealt with on a daily basis they lacked the reading skills to match their maturity. For many educators this is certainly a problem—struggling readers with the ability to process complex and mature concepts and topics. As I brainstormed how best to take on this pedagogical challenge it led to reflection on how to best engage students in topics that are sometimes controversial, emotional, and unimaginable. The answer was clear—images.
As this week’s readings suggest, images are able to stimulate ideas and express meaning and stories. Further, they can encourage analysis and synthesis. For this particular lesson my goal was for students to understand:
1) the effects of European enslavement on the indigenous peoples of the Americas,
2) the role of African tribes in selling/trading slaves to Europeans,
3) the European conquest of African villages,
4) the experience of the Middle Passage including slave revolts and conditions aboard the slave ships, and
5) the arrival of the slave, the slave auction, and life on the plantation
To accomplish these goals I collected images of each part of the slave experience. Before presenting these images to the students we discussed the process of analyzing images and the power that an image can convey. After modeling an image analysis, students were organized into groups of three and given an envelope of images. The first task required students to place the images in order. During this phase, students were able to see the chronology of the experience and see the “big picture” of what had occurred. While this could have been done through a reading as well, being able to hold on to the pictures and creating a visual timeline for students made the ideas and events more tangible. Once students believed that the pictures were arranged in the appropriate order they articulated to me why the order that they had was correct. The next step required students to do an analysis of each image. This demanded students to look at particular details just as they would read for in a printed text. Students were encouraged to look for expression, types of weapons, clothing, etc. for each image in a step-by-step process. The end result was that students were able to breakdown each event/phase of the atrocity and talk about each with a strong sense of understanding. During the image analysis process students were also asked to develop discussion questions and write a list of questions to further inquiry to stimulate further exploration. The last phase of the lesson required students to take what they learned from the images and discussion and write a letter to slave.
Since I developed this lesson I have done it every year and found it incredibly successful. Students engage with the images and are able to create more connections than had I simply used slave narratives or other primary and secondary sources. The images encourage students to think critically and “see” history in front of them versus that of “reading” history. Since this activity I’ve had an increased appreciation for incorporating images in the classroom, especially when the topics lend themselves to challenging themes.
As this week’s readings suggest, images are able to stimulate ideas and express meaning and stories. Further, they can encourage analysis and synthesis. For this particular lesson my goal was for students to understand:
1) the effects of European enslavement on the indigenous peoples of the Americas,
2) the role of African tribes in selling/trading slaves to Europeans,
3) the European conquest of African villages,
4) the experience of the Middle Passage including slave revolts and conditions aboard the slave ships, and
5) the arrival of the slave, the slave auction, and life on the plantation
To accomplish these goals I collected images of each part of the slave experience. Before presenting these images to the students we discussed the process of analyzing images and the power that an image can convey. After modeling an image analysis, students were organized into groups of three and given an envelope of images. The first task required students to place the images in order. During this phase, students were able to see the chronology of the experience and see the “big picture” of what had occurred. While this could have been done through a reading as well, being able to hold on to the pictures and creating a visual timeline for students made the ideas and events more tangible. Once students believed that the pictures were arranged in the appropriate order they articulated to me why the order that they had was correct. The next step required students to do an analysis of each image. This demanded students to look at particular details just as they would read for in a printed text. Students were encouraged to look for expression, types of weapons, clothing, etc. for each image in a step-by-step process. The end result was that students were able to breakdown each event/phase of the atrocity and talk about each with a strong sense of understanding. During the image analysis process students were also asked to develop discussion questions and write a list of questions to further inquiry to stimulate further exploration. The last phase of the lesson required students to take what they learned from the images and discussion and write a letter to slave.
Since I developed this lesson I have done it every year and found it incredibly successful. Students engage with the images and are able to create more connections than had I simply used slave narratives or other primary and secondary sources. The images encourage students to think critically and “see” history in front of them versus that of “reading” history. Since this activity I’ve had an increased appreciation for incorporating images in the classroom, especially when the topics lend themselves to challenging themes.
Thursday, February 11, 2010
Do School Libraries Need Books?
As some of you may know, I'm not a GSLIS student. My current home department is the Computer Science department. I found this debate over at the New York Times on libraries interesting, and I would like to hear some of your comments on the topic. The debate concerns whether or not we still need physical books in libraries with, among other things, the increasing use of e-readers and the ever decreasing amount of books actually being checked out or browsed. I personally hate reading anything longer than a blog post on a screen and kill lots of trees printing things (I promise I print double-sided and with multiple sheets on each side of the page!), but I'm curious. What do some of you think?
Social Media Revolution
Here's a fun and interesting video highlighting the impact that social media is having on the global economy and society.
Wednesday, February 10, 2010
Walter Benjamin article
I think it’s fairly accurate to say that Walter Benjamin and I have little in common. He truly understood art and I don’t. Even though I don’t consider myself to be an aficionado of the arts, I have felt a sense of appreciation for certain works. I can remember when I saw ‘The Thinker’ on a traveling exhibit or when I was viewing various paintings and the like at the British Museum in London during my one trip overseas. However, the reproduction of art in the modern world is of little concern to me and I think the claims here of negative fallout because of photography or moving pictures isn’t warranted. I understand that things do lose their ‘aura’ when you’re not seeing the original but in the grand scheme of things, this is inconsequential. If anything, seeing art through a picture online or in a print magazine only makes me want to see the original a little more if possible. That is probably why I did go with my mom when I was in junior high to see the Rhodan exhibit because I’d seen its representation elsewhere and here was a chance to see it in person. It’s like the difference between hearing your favorite musical artist’s music through some media and still wanting to see them in concert because you’d seen the representation of them already.
I could only agree with the author in the idea that seeing in person is better for appreciating the artwork’s intrinsic value, but not completly . I think of the difference of seeing a movie in the theater and seeing it at home on dvd-there’s just something about being there that even the best Blue-ray, 1080 pixeled flat screen, home theatre system home environment can’t beat. At least, I think so as I don’t own any of these home entertainment devices. Benjamin may be right that the live performance is better than the movie production since the live actors can feed off of or adjust to the audience present with them as opposed to those actors who can only hope they’ve truly conveyed the screenplay’s intent with the help of the producer and/or director. However, I prefer the movie theater and its product for the opposite reason that Benjamin seems to think makes the live stage preferable-the artificiality. To see the set in-person just emphasizes that this isn’t real, just like witnessing an actor’s live gaff. These things only make me realize just how fake this production is and that to me takes away some of that ‘aura’ that a film’s editing and special effects can do away with without the audience even knowing, thus maintaining that believability. I do however agree that more often than not, you can better reflect on a painting or physical work of art better than you can most films. At least in a movie theater you can’t go back and rewind though since the emergence of dvr players, I’ve wanted to a time or two. Many people though can think of movies which have moved them and which have stuck with them even though they’d only seen them once. In this day and age, if you didn’t get the full meaning of a film it’s not difficult to go and pick up a copy of it on dvd to rent or own.
I could only agree with the author in the idea that seeing in person is better for appreciating the artwork’s intrinsic value, but not completly . I think of the difference of seeing a movie in the theater and seeing it at home on dvd-there’s just something about being there that even the best Blue-ray, 1080 pixeled flat screen, home theatre system home environment can’t beat. At least, I think so as I don’t own any of these home entertainment devices. Benjamin may be right that the live performance is better than the movie production since the live actors can feed off of or adjust to the audience present with them as opposed to those actors who can only hope they’ve truly conveyed the screenplay’s intent with the help of the producer and/or director. However, I prefer the movie theater and its product for the opposite reason that Benjamin seems to think makes the live stage preferable-the artificiality. To see the set in-person just emphasizes that this isn’t real, just like witnessing an actor’s live gaff. These things only make me realize just how fake this production is and that to me takes away some of that ‘aura’ that a film’s editing and special effects can do away with without the audience even knowing, thus maintaining that believability. I do however agree that more often than not, you can better reflect on a painting or physical work of art better than you can most films. At least in a movie theater you can’t go back and rewind though since the emergence of dvr players, I’ve wanted to a time or two. Many people though can think of movies which have moved them and which have stuck with them even though they’d only seen them once. In this day and age, if you didn’t get the full meaning of a film it’s not difficult to go and pick up a copy of it on dvd to rent or own.
Monday, February 8, 2010
Sunday, February 7, 2010
Wired Kids, Negligent Parents?
In the wake of the Kaiser Family Foundation's newest report on media in the lives of young people, a four-part opinion series at the New York Times: http://bit.ly/dB7ijR
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
Posts
