Reading Quest 5

"Nomadicity" - Todd Gitlin.
Within this article Todd is pointing out that the internet, and popular culture in general, is no longer a stationary entity.  He points out that it did start out this way, much like the records.  In the old days a person purchased a record and had to go home to listen to the music, but this is no longer the case, one can simply get an app on their smart phone, download the music and then listen to the music while riding the bus, or train.  Popular Culture is no longer tied to one place, it is everywhere, and it is a mobile entity waiting to pounce.
"Wikipedia and Beyond" - Katherine Mangu-Ward.
Katherine is telling us that innovations like Wikipedia are always evolving, and that if these do not evolve with the populous then they will be left behind to fail in the future.  She does contain many solutions for these websites and projections for the future as well.

unpopular culture

Have you ever watched the show Teen Mom on MTV? It amazes and astounds me that these youg teenage girls are being celebrated for getting knocked up. This teenage pregnancy phenomenmo has gone way to far. Although the show can be informative in some aspects such as how hard it is just being a mom, and that things don’t just magically work out the way you want them too just because you want them too. MTV had the right idea in mind by taking these girls and sharing there story in hopes of other young women watching and learning from the mistakes these girls have made. But it didn’t turn out the way the producers and writers expected. Instead, the show has made these girls famous! Now everywhere you go you see magazines shouting the latest hijinks of the goirls from Teen Mom. The show also sends the message that its ok to get pregnant at 16 because you might have a shpt at fame. MTV held open auditions for the show, and there were girls intentionally getting pregnant for the chance to be on the show. But its ok, yolu don’t have to do something great for your chance at fame.  Although there lives are shown on the show to be difficult and sad, the magazines show them to be superstars thus glorifieng having children at such a young age. The teen pregnancy rate in the U.S. is the highest in the world. In one year, 750,000 teenage girls will become pregnant. Unmarried teens account for 24 percent of babies born per year and 2/3 of teen moms will not graduate from high school. Scary huh?

movie poster comparison

The two movies that I chose to compare are Rear Window, directed by Alfred Hitchcock this movie was made in 1954 and it starred James Stewart and Grace Kelly. The second movie is a more modern day remake of Rear Window called Disturbia. Disturbia was made in 2007 and was directed by D.J. Caruso. It starred Shia LeBeouf, David Morse and Carrie-Anne Moss.

The impression that these posters give is that something serious is going on and possibly nobody notices what the main character is noticing. In the 1954 film, the text of the title of the movie is somewhat creepy and gives the impression of suspense fullness. The poster says that Grace Kelly, the female person in the movie has more of a part in the film, whereas the female part in the 2007 remake, the poster only shows the lead character which says that the female doesn’t have as much of a role. But why is the main character noticing anything at all? In the 1954 version, Rear Window, Jeffries is a photographer that was injured while taking photos on location. So he becomes wheelchair bound and subsequently unable to leave his home. Jeffries begins watching his surroundings and starts to notice suspicious things occurring in his neighborhood. The plot to Disturbia is similar yet different. The main character, Kale, played by Shia LeBeouf is placed on house arrest after he hits his teacher in the face. He seems to be angry over the death of his father that happened the previous summer.  Kale just hangs around the house for a while then he get bored and starts spying on the neighborhood, especially his hot new next door neighbor Ashley,  played by Sarah Roemer, together they discover some pretty frightening things about their neighbor Mr. Turner, played by David Morse.

The things that are similar about these stories are that both the main characters are stuck in their homes, they both become bored and begin scoping out there surroundings, and they both discover grisly things happening in the neighborhood that they most likely wouldn’t have noticed if they weren’t trapped in their homes.

The difference between these posters is quite noticeable. Although both lead characters have binoculars in their hands. The text is different and there’s a different feel to them. In the poster for Disturbia, most of the poster is black, the text is sort of FBI looking, almost like kind of creepy in its own way. All you see is the main character, blackness and binoculars but it still draws you in because it makes you feel curious and intrigued. The 1954 version has a picture of the main and female character looking out the window of an apartment building at the suspicious goings on. This movie poster seems to say that this movie is suspenseful and interesting.

I believe that the original poster was designed to appeal to the audience by saying that this movie is kind of scary, probably very thought compelling and that you might leave the theatre with leftover popcorn. The remake movie poster says that this movie is full of surprises, even though you know what the basic plot is. The movie has a lot of modern things that the other one does not. For example, Jeffries calls his friends on his phone whereas Kale texts and such on his cell phone. While Jeffries takes pictures with his camera that he uses for work, Kale and his friends use the camera on their mobile phones.

Problem Booth

Unfortunately people have these assumptions because of the commonly held truths set up within our own society.  It is also a case of "My brother's girlfriend's mother's sister's neighbor said that such and such had happened to her, therefore it must be true."  Although this type of persuasion appeals to the part of us that wants to believe that it actually happened because it ties to someone that we know, or our own family.  If we take a closer look though, it does not actually happen to someone we directly know, it happens to someone that knows someone we know.  This appeals to us because we know that our family members would never lie to us, and we extend this trust to these other people that have acquaintances with our family members.  It is all about our own safety net, or zone.  Within our safety net are people who we can trust at all times, and are people who share our own views on life, therefore extending our safety net to people outside requires them knowing people within.  Even though the information may be wrong, we hold it as true because we have received said information from someone within our own comfort zone.  This is how hear say can be portrayed as true events, or happenings, when in fact they are falsified, and my have never happened at all.  Kind of like the time when my mom and I got into a fight and my cousin spread it through the family.  When it came back to me through my aunt, it had turned into a case of "well Myriah is flunking school, is a bad mother and we have reason to believe that her child is not being fed."  This was completely untrue to all degrees, but because of the "telephone effect," like the game we played as children, the information given was not accurate and was skewed way out of proportion, but the family believed this to be true because they had heard it from people within the safety net of life.  This is how information can be perceived as true even though it is not.

http://www.stephenking.com/the_author.html
http://www.jodipicoult.com/

Tweeting my tweeps

For this assignment I decided to choose my two favorite authors who are Stephen King and Jodi Picoult.

I enjoy reading Stephen King’s novels because they are suspenseful and captivating.  I once read an article by him that said he writes of the things that scare him, some of the things he’s apparently scared of are crazy things that I never even thought of as being scary.  The way he writes, like jumping back and forth from different people and places in his story, builds suspense throughout the novel.  He is a great author and it shows, he can juggle all the different parts of his story and it still makes sense as he wraps it all up in the end.

What I really enjoy about Jodi is that she writes true stories about people who have debilitating illnesses, or about victims of violent actions, taking the reader through the trials and tribulations of what they went through in the court rooms, or dealing with day to day life without their loved ones.  These books really knife through the outer shells that we have imposed, and touch our hearts in ways previously unperceived, allowing us a glimpse into the softer side of ourselves.
http://www.stephenking.com/the_author.html
http://www.jodipicoult.com/jodi-picoult-books.html

microreflection

i think that the most important insight that i learned in class is about critical thinking. i guess its important to have good critical thinking skills. in class we also learned about how there must be a legitimate argument and solution to a problem. these are good things to know about.

then and now

the subject of my study is a 41 year old female named cassie. she remembers 1994, she was 24 years old and lived in michigan.

these are her memories: OJ simpson

                                    Kurt Cobain

                                    Pulp Fiction

                                    Bill Clinton- President

                                    Jerry Springer

Cassie remembers watching OJ Simpson in his police chase after he was accused of murdering his wife Nicole Brown Simpson. OJ was an NFL player and she remembers that he was aquitted of all charges. She also remembers when Kurt Cobain committed suicide. she says that there was alot of scandal involving his wife Courtney, they said that he couldnt have shot himself! "it was a great tragedy, he was the father of grunge." Her favorite movie at the time was Pulp Fiction, she said it was the best movie ever! it was the introduction to Quentin Tarantino movie trend. "gotta love Tarantino!!!" Cassie remembers that Bill Clinton was president, and that he turned our economy around for the better. also, the scandal of Bill Clinton and Monica Lewinsky. she said it was scandalous and entertaining. Finally, her favorite tv show of the time was Jerry Springer. "Drama, fights, stupidity, inbreeding and mindless self indulgence." The OJ Simpson event was "pop culture" because everyone payed attention to it, and it became a joke to talk about the white bronco. Kurt Cobain was pop culture because he started the grunge movement, and alot of people were into nirvana, his music is still on the radio. Pulp Fiction is still a great movie, its called a cult classic so people still watch this movie. Bill Clinton was on Saturday Night Live for a long time. That was pop culture because lots of people watched the news on his scandal and also watched SNL. Jerry Springer was and is pop culture. He takes the scum of society and turned it into entertainment, and his show is still on tv so we still see it in pop culture.

as for my own pop culture interests in 2012, im 24 years old: facebook

                                                                                            the twilight books

                                                                                            first black president

                                                                                            the wonderpets 

                                                                                            sublime

I enjoyed reading the twilight books. theres something about these stories suck me in. i dont know what it is but I enjoyed them more than i expected to. So why are these books pop culture? Because they showed up at Barnes & Noble, everyone buys them, and all of a sudden, its everywhere! thats pop culture. I am totally addicted to facebook. i cant seem to go any amount of time with out checking it! Facebook is an important part of pop culture today. Social networking is in everyones life in one way or another. its always on your mind and i think thats why its so big in our pop culture. there will always be some form of social networking whether its facebook or the next big social networking sight.  Barack Obama is the first black president, boy did he screw that up! i think that America was not ready for a black president, especially not the one that we elected, sadly, i did vote for him. This is pop culture because its constantly yet subtly in your face. Barack Obama is on bumper stickers, tv shows, billboards etc. i think that pop culture is something that is in your everyday life.  The tv show that i watch the most is the wonderpets, i have a 2 year old daughter so we watch this show all the time on netflix. I guess that watching a show on netflix is its own form of pop culture some how, the Wonderpets and netflix will be on VH1's top of the 2000's sometime. my favorite band is sublime, i know that they arent current but i really dont like the way that music has gone in the past few years. Obviously sublime is and always will be pop culture because the lead singer Bradley died along time ago and there music is still popular. People still buy there music from itunes and there cds on Amazon so clearly they are still popular and in peoples life.