Listening Journal 8/26 ~ "Inspiration Information" by Shuggie Otis (1974)

The word might be ridden with clichés, but I can think of no better way to characterize this song other than "funky". The song is as relaxed and mellow as the era it originated in. The combined effect of Otis' laid-back vocals and the lightly thumping bass creates a sound highly reminiscent of a Prince production.

"Inspiration Information" is composed of a groovy guitar beat and accompanied by light, airy vocals that work together to create the carefree feeling of the song. The snapping sound further helps the song create a joyful and funky atmosphere. A prevalent bass and intermittent keyboard ties it together as somewhat standard, nonetheless enjoyable, '70's soul fare.

"Semeadores" ~ Diego Rivera

Subject: Mexican laborers

Occasion: early 20th century Mexico, during the Mexican Revolution

Audience: the Mexican people and working class

Purpose: demonstrate a kinship with the Mexican working class, advocate Communist ideals

Speaker: member of the Mexican Communist movement, identifies with the plight of common Mexican laborers

Tone: dark, lifeless, mourning - the artist wants to portray the lack of appreciation at the individual level society pays the laborers

What's most notable about this painting is how the workers almost entirely blend in with their background and possess completely indistinguishable faces. Rivera painted the men this way to demonstrate how society treats commoners as less than human, faceless, with no individuality to tell one apart from the other. In addition, the workers' feet are not visible; they appear to be almost "planted" into the dirt. This represents how the laborers are locked into their life of poverty, unable to "walk" away from their hardships.

Wilco and Creative Writing

Wilco's approach to songwriting involves first shaping the bare bones of the song and then adding on more elements, piece by piece. They reconstruct parts they don't like again and again until they reach the final "draft" they can agree on.

My creative writing process involves first mapping out what I must accomplish in the piece I'm formulating. I repeatedly reread the assignment or prompt I've received and determine what I want to say and in what order or structure I want to say it in. I create a brief outline of what topics I am going to cover in each of my paragraphs, create a thesis that conveys the main points I will prove, and then start writing my essay. The first draft is usually sloppy, so I go back and reread to identify errors in my grammar or wording and correct them. I try to read what I've written from an objective point of view, asking if this essay will convey my message in a way the reader will understand. If the answer to the question is yes and I have already finished correcting grammatical errors, then my writing is finished.

Nostalgia

Nostalgia is the wistful, fond remembrance of a time or memory of the past. It's the longing for what once was but no longer is - your childhood, a past relationship, the great time you had at a sleepover just last weekend. Nostalgia can be invoked through almost anything that somehow reminds you of a better time in your life.

The first song, "Rock Around the Clock", makes me recall a '60's diner with pretty blonde girls, donned in cherry red lipstick and polka-dotted dresses, cheerily dancing with slick, black-haired boys. The next song, "Sixteen Candles", reminds of a slow dance in a '50's high school, much like the dance scene in Grease.

Driving down the neighborhood where my babysitter used to live invokes very strong nostalgia for me. So many memories of my childhood were born there, after getting off the third grade bus everyday and rushing into the backyard to play cops and robbers or imagine that we were all characters in a TV show. I'd spend long hours with all of my elementary school friends at her house playing video games, role-playing, eating ice cream, or swinging on the swingset from the afternoon hours until the sunset disappeared. In the winter I remember her setting up a green Christmas tree with the same gaudy red and gold lights every season; even today, whenever I drive past her house in December, I briefly see those same red and gold flashes of color and I think of simpler times I wish I could return to.

The Pinch of Poverty

In 1891, artist Thomas Kennington published a striking painting entitled "The Pinch of Poverty". The painting suggests, however, that Kennington sees the devastation of poverty as more than just a small "pinch". Indeed, his gloomy rendition of an impoverished England family is nothing short of honest and realistic: the faces of the mother and her two children appear very sullen and worn. Kennington makes no attempt to hide the true bleakness of the situation; the girl, clearly very young, appears to be selling flowers in order to provide what few meager wages she can for her family. I think what the painter is trying to get across to his audience about poverty is that it can affect anyone, both the very young (the two children and the infant) and the older (their mother). Nevertheless, through the use of his color scheme, I think the artist is also trying to say that there exists hope even among the very poor. While the painting, as a whole, is rather bleak and dreary, utilizing primarily colors like black, grey, and brown, splashes of color are seen in the flowers and the baby's blanket. This suggests that the artist believes there is a glimmer of hope in escaping poverty, perhaps through the next generation (the baby) or through making enough money to sustain a living (selling flowers). This belief in the existence of hope is also apparent in where the characters are placed; the mother and boy sit in front of an enclosed gate with their heads turned to the side, but the flower-girl steps forward, away from the gate and looking straight ahead. This suggests there is always a dissenter to the cruel cycle of poverty, one who will try and break free from its chains and create a better future for themselves.

My own opinion on poverty is that it is cyclical. Once born into it, it's incredibly difficult to escape. Born into a family with no money, an impoverished child's access to the education that could broaden their future is extremely limited. Subsequently, many poor children in third-world countries will never learn to read, write, or acquire the necessary job skills to find work; the jobs that do exist are handed off to those who have already obtained these skills. Thus, it becomes a tragically repeating cycle over the course of many generations: poverty breeds poverty, and wealth breeds more wealth.

Poverty ~ Reading Response Blog

Poverty. Forced labor. Child labor. What do you think when you hear these words? Do you cringe? Do you become enraged? Do you immediately condemn the way these issues are treated in Western culture and demand a proper change? Like many others, including myself, you probably have some very strong feelings when it comes to these issues and what should be done to combat them. Two writers, Divakaruni and Singer, elaborate on their own opinions regarding world poverty in their respective articles, "Live Free and Starve" and "The Singer Solution to World Poverty". Their thoughts on poverty and the struggles accompanied by it are very unique and differ widely.

Divakaruni addresses primarily the issue of child labor in her article. She criticizes the U.S. House bill that prevented the import of resources and goods from countries that permitted the use of child labor, saying that although this decision might seem logical to the average rich, free, white American, most child laborers have no choice but to sacrifice their liberty if they want to eat. She argues that the bill, which could potentially "lead to the unemployment of almost a million children", does not take into account the laborers' willful trade-off of their basic freedoms in exchange for the even more basic needs, such as food, water, and shelter. Divakaruni tells the story of a boy named Nimai who used to work in her family's household when she was still a child. Nimai made his wage doing menial chores like dusting, sweeping, running to the market, or pumping water from the well; hardly an "ideal" existence for a ten-year-old boy, but Divakaruni says that nonetheless he would "walk a little taller" past "the many children...by the mud roads, their ribs sticking out through the rags they wore". Nimai might have not experienced childhood the way a free individual would have, but still, Divakurani says, it's better than starving.

Personally, however, I have to wonder if Divakurani's solution of maintaining child labor is not but simple-minded and poorly thought through. I may, indeed, have a bias as an already free American, but I believe it is possible for a child to both be free and have the necessities to live at the same time. Tackling the level of poverty on a national basis in these third-world countries would prevent a child from ever having to struggle just to live in the first place. I agree with the author's statement that "a bill like the one we've passed has no use unless it goes hand in hand with programs that will offer a new life to these newly released children". If America were to help expand the educational opportunities for these children and work to increase their literacy level, as well as providing some of the basic necessities they lack in the mean time, I believe we would have a more well-rounded approach to combating child labor.

Singer's thoughts about poverty would likely appear as the more conventional of the two when presented to an American audience. His approach takes the more mainstream route - "donate more" - but to a more drastic degree. "Whatever money you're spending on luxuries, not necessities," he states, rather matter-of-factly, "should be given away". Not too much of a radical idea there. What may appear radical to some, however, is the level of giving he asks for demands from the American people: "an American household with an income of $50,000 spends around $30,000 annually on necessities...therefore, donations to help the world's poor should be as close as possible to $20,000". $20,000 is an undeniably hefty sum no matter which way you approach it, but is asking for this level or generosity truly unfounded? In my opinion, it is possible to give up more of our salaries than we may immediately realize, and the lives saved are indeed a worthy cause. Even for those who cannot afford to simply hand away of sum of $20,000 can cut back on extra expenses slowly and donate the accumulated amount after saving it up. I would never accuse, however, those that are unemployed with families or those on welfare of murder for outright refusing to donate their money. I may, perhaps, carry bias in that regard, as for much of my life my own mother has been unemployed and I sympathize with the financial struggles of the families that have been hurt by our economy. I think, though, that even those approaching this article without any bias could agree that sometimes saving lives entails real sacrifice, and there is no harm in encouraging more selflessness in today's American culture.

"Round and Round" - Ariel Pink's Haunted Graffiti

Ariel Pink does a very good job of making the listener feel like they've taken a blast to music's past. Their song Round and Round utilizes multiple layers of vocals in a way that is somewhat reminiscent of Earth, Wind, and Fire - the layered vocals make the song smooth-sounding, fluid, and catchy. My own listener's bias may have kicked in as a result, as this style of vocals is familiar to me in the type of music I was exposed to when I was young. I've grown up with this kind of sound, therefore making me biased in my opinion of it, because it is both familiar and personal to me in a way that makes it more likable.

In addition to the vocals, another musical fact notable about this song is the band's use of synthesized instruments. A vast amount of my generation's popular music also makes use of electronic instruments - you'd be hard-pressed to turn on the radio and make it through a Lady Gaga or Nicki Minaj song without being bombarded with the sound of synths. I am very much accustomed to both their use and overuse in modern music; thus, in this regard I am quite biased when it comes to approaching this song. The use of synthesizers makes it feel, once again, more familiar to me - I am more inclined to like it because I easily recognize its sound. These are the correlations between the facts and my opinion about Round and Round and how my own personal bias is incorporated.