Visual Literacy Blog

When Mr. Tallman told us that we had to do a visual literacy blog for homework, I knew immediately what I was going to do, and it's kind of cheating.
The show I'm currently working on is entitled "Red" by John Logan and it's about Mark Rothko. More specifically, it's about Rothko and his assistant Ken, but I digress. Mark Rothko is a rather controversial painter from the mid to late 20th century. While usually described as an abstract expressionist, he resisted any sort of classification of his work with vehemence. The painting you see below is one that exemplifies the style he came to be known for: large rectangular blocks of color. What's important to note is that these blocks are not solid, singular colors. The red shifts hue, with the black sometimes creating a darker shade than the area around it. Rothko's methodology involved painting massive amounts of layers, constantly creating slight adjustments in the shade until he thought it was right.

I chose this painting because of a theme in Rothko's words in the play. He finds life, emotion, and hurt (he was a bit masochistic) in the color red and the exact opposite in the color black. His big concern in the play, literally and metaphorically, was that the red would swallow the black. In this painting, you can pretty clearly see this happening. Not only does the black surround the red, as I mentioned above the black is also working its way into the red. It is stealing its vibrancy and its life and sucking it out.
The key to feeling the emotion in these paintings is to stare. To sit and to look at it for hours on end, with no other distractions, watching the red and the black combat each other. These colors are, in a strange way, not static. They move, they morph, and they fight each other.
Ultimately, the black wins though as Rothko killed himself in 1970 by slitting his wrists. In a final act of defiance, he tried to fight the black with his own blood, but it was too late.

An Interesting Trend

I've always been an avid reader. From when I learned to read all the way through to today, reading has always been a leisure activity that I put plenty of time into. Recently though, I have noticed something peculiar about my reading trends.
Through most of my childhood, I was a strong advocate of fiction. The ability to lose myself in another world fascinated me, and I consumed stories as fast as I could. The only significant non-fiction book I remember reading as a kid was a book about Shackleton, and that is such a fantastic story as to practically be fiction. On top of that, I always had a bit of a competitive attitude in that I would try to read the longest book I could. Not that I would go out of my way to complete a story I didn't like for the sake of bragging rights, but it always felt extra special if the book I had just finished was particularly long.
Neither of those statements hold true anymore. Recently, I haven't read a fiction book in years, and most of the reading I do day-to-day is very brief. For the most part, I've been reading blogs and journalism. My main source for this is actually my Twitter feed, where I follow organizations like Forbes Magazine, and people like Erik Kain or John Walker. Most of what I read on these sites involves happenings in the world, whether that's a political event, a new piece of tech, or a new video game and people's personal reactions to these happenings. I am fascinated now less by immersing myself in another world than I am by understanding this world and how people react to it. My interest in Psychology has replaced my interest in fantasy.
In fact, I recently picked up a fiction book I just bought from More Than Words bookstore in Boston during a sale they had where every book was a dollar, and I found that I simply could not read it. The book is "The Blind Assassin" by Margaret Atwood. Within several pages, there was intrigue, personal conflict, and mystery and I thought to myself "I don't need this". As a 17 year old trying to figure out how my own world and my own personal relationships work, the idea of immersing myself in someone else's problems is just not at all appealing.

Perhaps That Was A Controversial Claim

In a previous post, about Senioritis, I mentioned that I would rather be listening to music than doing homework. Not a particularly outspoken claim. What I think is perhaps a bit outspoken is what I said next: that I find listening to music to be an intellectual activity.
I'd like to come from three angles at prove this claim. First is a basic straightforward argument that music makes you smarter. The second argument is a very Stephen Johnson-esque argument, about how it helps me from a cognitive standpoint. The third focuses much more on the idea of emotional intelligence.
This first argument might be the hardest to sell. To help it go down easier, I'd like to emphasize the idea that different types of intelligence result from different types of music. For this argument, I'd like to focus specifically on the genre of rap. And not Kanye West or even Eminem style rap, but mostly underground, indie rap. Rap like Billy Words' "History Will Absolve Me" or Aesop Rock's "Skelethon",  both albums I've been very into recently. The intellectualism of both of these albums fall mostly in the interpretation of their lyrics, which are very often littered with literary references. Take for example, "The Man Who Would Be King" by Billy Woods. The chorus of the song is the third stanza from White Man's Burden by Rudyard Kipling, the title is a reference to a short story by Rudyard Kipling, and the whole song is filled to the brim with references to the Bible, Edgar Allen Poe, and Rudyard's life and other works. As someone who is very interests in that album,  I find it worthwhile to look into these references, which included reading White Man's Burden. Undoubtedly, this exploration of his references has made me a smarter person, both sociologically and in terms of my knowledge of literature. Another great example of this is "Zero Dark Thirty" by Aesop Rock. While not quite as full of literary references, the Rap Genius of the song reads like a research paper. One lyrics generated an explanation that took up more than the screen. He also makes lots of references to culture around the world. Not only do I find myself becoming more aware of the world around me, I am forced to try to understand and interpret the meaning they're trying to put in the lyrics.
Which brings me to my second argument. While we tend to think of listening to music as a time for relaxation, our minds are never really relaxing. As I think Stephen Johnson proved pretty well,  our minds are working hard even when we have no conscious idea that it is. While listening to music, you are not only analyzing and attempting to understand lyrics, you are identifying and predicting patterns,  as well as noticing breaks to patterns that had been previously established. While these mental workouts manifest themselves as an experience of pleasure, they are nonetheless mental workouts, and they're even more pronounced for someone like me who listens to music avidly and is always trying to expose myself to new genres, artists, and songs.
Finally, we get to what is perhaps the most obvious intellectual benefit of music: the strengthening of emotional intelligence. Music, at least for me, has a power emotionally that very few mediums have. While I've watched my fair share of emotional movies or shows and played my share of emotional video games, there really isn't anything that can touch me like a song can. And when music does touch me significantly, it's not an effect that lasts only as long as the song or album. The music forces me to be more reflective of myself, and often helps me to become more aware of myself emotionally. This self-awareness is an intelligence that I think our culture heavily de-emphasizes. The idea that emotions are weak and that the biggest demons in one's life are always going to be real-life obstacles. I have never subscribed to either of those ideas, and music has helped me explore the strengths of my emotions as well as overcome the obstacles my own mind puts up.

Anthony Fantano, Everyone

I mentioned him briefly in my last blog, but I'd like to introduce everyone (especially Matt Luongo and Keving Counterman, fellow music aficionados) to one of my favorite people on the Internet, Anthony Fantano (alternatively, go here). He is my personal top authority on music, not to mention he's just incredibly adorable. Now, that's not to say I view his word as Gospel and change my opinion to fit his, but I generally find his opinions to be incredibly well-informed and his explanations of those opinions to be very eloquent.
I linked this one before, but I just want to embed my personal favorite video of his right here:

Hopefully after watching this, you'll understand why I enjoy this man's opinions so much. He's eloquent, incredibly intelligent, and amazingly open-minded. If you scroll through his reviews, he reviews and enjoys every genre of music from death metal to rap to soft rock. He's also adorable and incredibly funny. You don't see it here, but in many of his other videos his alter-ego Cal Chuchesta makes an appearance in what is always a good time.
If you're at all interested in music, I would highly recommend looking into him in greater depth. Some of my favorite albums of all time from "History Will Absolve Me" by Billy Woods, a hard-core, underground rapper to "BBNG2" by BADBADNOTGOOD, an intense jazz-rock band. I'm currently making my way through his top 50 albums of 2012, and I have yet to find one I don't enjoy.

Working On Something Different

Hello, followers (if you still exist), I have a request. As hopefully most of you know by now, I've been writing poetry for my senior project. However, most of it has been short, very in-the-moment stuff that I'm not really willing to edit because I feel like editing it would destroy any attempt to capture the frame of mind I was in when i wrote it. However, recently I wrote a much longer piece that's much more spoken word than anything else I've written, and I'd like you to take a look at it. Let me know what you think!

it's as if

my mind as an emotional and psychological entity is a giant puzzle sitting on a table in the middle of a room

and when I'm ecstatic, I throw pieces in the puzzle without much regard for whether they're correct, just knowing that it feels good to put pieces down

and when i'm upset, one of two things happens

rarely, someone has already come along and knocked some of the pieces off

more often I stop putting pieces on

and I stop and I look at the pieces I've placed and a little bit of doubt wiggles its way into my mind

perhaps that last piece I placed was not quite right, I think, and before I know what i'm doing, I have pulled that piece out

but the doubt doesn't stop there and I start pulling out pieces left and right, starting from the peripherals and moving my way inwards in a vicious cycle that ends with me flipping the table, retreating to the corner and pretending to be dead

pretending not to feel

pretending that I didn't need that goddamn puzzle to survive, to exist

the longer I sit, the more I realize the absurdity of that idea

as I resign myself to the necessity of finishing the puzzle, I pick myself up and walk over to the table

as I pick it back up I notice something

although I tore through the outside edges of my puzzle, the center never got touched

the center has a picture of me, surrounded by my family, surrounded by my friends

in the background is my beautiful house situated right next to my wonderful school

and while there might be a hole where my heart is, underneath that is a picture of me, standing on the shoulders of my closest friends reaching for something that I know I will find eventually

and while there might be a hole where my future is, in this case the emptiness doesn't indicate the lack of something, instead it indicates the lack of nothing

as I feel the power of that center filling me, I begin placing pieces of the puzzle

not with the frenetic randomness of before but with a calm, cool confidence

not confidence that I will never pull pieces off again; that would be naive

I put pieces down with a confidence that the next time this cycle repeats itself, there will be more pieces at the end than there are now

If you're interested in what I'm working on, I've been throwing my favorites up on this blog.

I'm Running Into Some Trouble

I've been having issues with my senior project recently. As I mentioned in a previous post, I've been writing poetry for my senior project.
The issue is, I can't seem to find the inspiration to keep writing. Part of it is just falling out of the habit, especially after a period of sickness that lasted WAY too long very recently. But part of it is a lot deeper, and it's concerning me. Just like my recent dearth of blogs, I'm finding that I'm very rarely putting stuff down for poetry, especially compared to the rate that I've put them down in the past.
Ultimately, it's coming down to a problem that I think a lot of us seniors face: the so-called disease of Senioritis.
What I think is interesting about how Senioritis has manifested itself in me is that I haven't stopped doing my work. Actually, my latest report card was pretty damn great. It's less about doing the work than the attitude in which it is done for me. Rather than attacking work with the curiosity and intellectual passion that I usually do, I'm finding myself unwilling and unmotivated to complete the work. I do it, eventually but I find that I'd much rather be watching Anthony Fantano, listening to new music or talking to friends. The big problem is that I can't convince myself anymore that those activities are a waste of time. Music is something I really enjoy, and it's going to be a big part of my life for the rest of my life. On top of that, I genuinely consider listening to music to be an intellectual activity. I'm a big believer in the Triangle of Health, so I can't convince myself that bonding with them and creating memories and experiences is a waste of time.
What I am having an easier and easier time convincing myself of is that my classes are a waste of time. Now, don't think that this is just a kid complaining about doing work. I have, for most of my life, been very much aware of the incredible value of education. I've always been curious, and I've always enjoyed class and felt that it was well worth my time. I'm serious, I promise. But recently I feel like most of my classes are just not worth it. Certain classes, like Lang and Java, still interest me and are definitely teaching skills and ways of thinking that I will use for years, but others classes don't feel like they're teaching me anything worthwhile, directly or indirectly. Usually, I'm able to justify a class that I know I'm not going to use later in life with the idea of collateral learning, but recently I don't really seem to be picking up any skills that would be useful from many of my classes.
I'm pretty much just really ready for college, I guess.

Thinking About Swearing

Recently, I've been thinking a lot about swears and how they are used effectively. What got me thinking about the topic was this song by local band Vundabar.  At one point in the song, lead singer Brandon Hagen drops the F-bomb, and I think he does it very effectively. Not only have I never heard him swear on any of his songs before, I don't even think I've ever heard him swear before.

That's the first lesson here: scarcity is the key to swears maintaining their power. It sounds obvious, but I think it's a lesson worth repeating. Too often, I think, you hear a song (as much as I hate to single out certain genres, this really happens more with rap) or hear someone on the street trying to sound tough and they use more swears in their sentence than they do regular words. That doesn't make you sound tough or edgy, it just makes you hard to understand (as is probably rather obvious, this sort of behavior sort of aggravates me). On top of that, it sounds really immature, like you've just discovered the word and are overusing it out of novelty.

The other important part of making your swearing effective is for it to sound authentic. A bit less scientific than just counting how often you swear, this is more about context. The swear should fall at the height of your speech/song/writing, not at the bottom. If you keep the number of swears down, the amount that each swear sticks out increases. It marks the section that it falls in as important or somehow different from every other section, and if the section isn't somehow different or important, the swear would sound way out of place. Another way to indicate this is a change in the surroundings of the swear. This is demonstrated really well in the song I linked above, where the swear is accompanied by a snare hit and a moment of silence from the guitar. This helps the swear stick out and land that much harder.

Really, using a swear is just the same as using anything else of any power: moderation is best, and pay attention to the context.  

"Graduation" Rhetorical Essay

Hey followers (if there are any left...), I just finished up my Rhetorical Analysis essay for "Graduation" by Maya Angelou, but I'm really not feeling what I've written. Any suggestions for improvement would be greatly appreciated.

There is no doubt that Maya Angelou is a fantastic writer. But even by her standards, “Graduation” is a fantastic piece of writing. Part of what makes it great is her command of rhetorical strategies. From her beautiful imagery to the building in the final paragraphs, this essay’s appeals and language really get you caught up in it.

                The essay starts off very informative and impersonal. Introducing you to the broad situation without revealing her part in it, Maya builds one’s interest and emotional involvement in the whole situation by introducing very accessible emotions. Anticipation, excitement, excessive pride are all emotions she references. On top of that, the situation (graduation) is one that almost every single person is familiar with, even further building the connection of the reader. The shift in paragraph six is significant as it introduces her specific role, as well as her specific emotions. As a primary source, her ethos goes through the roof. She also focuses much more on her internal feelings than the events going on around her. By referencing the future often, (“I was going to be lovely”), she builds the anticipation for the even that is coming, drawing the reader in even more. She draws out this section of preparation in order to build that anticipation even more.

                Ultimately though, her best use of rhetoric comes in the last several pages, from the beginning of Mr. Edward Donleavy’s speech through to the end. Her word choice during Mr. Donleavy’s speech becomes especially vitriolic: “I willed the offender to immediate death” or “The man’s dead words fell like bricks around the auditorium and too many settled in my belly.” In this section, she absolutely rips this man apart, describing with vivid detail how all of the energy, anticipation and excitement that had been building up throughout the beginning just got sucked out of the auditorium. After that is the build that is Henry Reed’s valedictorian speech. Relying on a song packed with pathos, the “Negro national anthem”, Reed manages to push all of the lost energy back into the ceremony, effectively rescuing the graduation. What is particularly effective is the extreme dichotomy between Maya’s language before and after his speech. Before his speech, she borders on the nihilistic. “It was all for nothing”, she says. After though, her language swings all the way back around the pendulum to extreme positivity: “We were on top again.”

                By leading you by the hand through her emotional journey during her graduation, Maya ultimately manages to get across the point that she has tried her best to convince the reader of: no matter what is done to try and keep them down, the people of Stamps will not be held down by a condescending, pretentious white man. They are made of stronger stuff, and the emotion poured out by Maya in this essay drive that point home. 

A Reaction to Senior Project

Part of my senior project involves writing this very in-the moment, peek-into-my-mind "poetry". The reason I put quotation marks around the word poetry is that I'm not writing poems with rhyming patterns, or alliteration or any other sort of classical poetic form you might expect. What I'm writing is very free-form and very modern. For example, one that I wrote at the very beginning of this process goes like this:

the problem 

isn’t that people don’t want to do what is right

it’s that they can’t understand

when someone disagrees with them about

what is right

I think you get the idea.

Anyways, what I want to write about here is my experience with writing these short little bursts of lucidity.

When I started this, the idea I had in my head was that I was going to write a single one every day. Unfortunately, it hasn't quite worked out that well. Often, what will happen is that I won't write one for several days, then I'll find some time and write 3 or 4 in a row. While not quite what I had intended, I sort of like this arrangement. What I think it shows is that I tend to reflect on longer periods of time than just a day. I would like to try at some point to do it every day at a set time, just to see if I'm able to force myself to reflect that consistently.

As you can probably tell, reflection does seem to be the big thing here. Ultimately, that's what this experiment is forcing me to do. What's good about that is that reflection is something that's come somewhat naturally to me. As far as I'm concerned, it's really the best way to learn, not just about yourself, but about how to interact with the world around you. What has been harder about this is taking that internal reflection and creating an external manifestation of it. I've never considered myself the most creative person, so creating something that could be loosely considered art is very new to me. 

That struggle has definitely been beneficial though. I've sort of gotten back into the creative writing process and am taking another stab at writing lyrics, something I tried (with generally pretty bad results) about two years ago. What's awesome about that is that the band I'm in is really interested in writing original songs, and one thing we've always struggled with is writing lyrics. If I'm able to write something that I'm proud enough of to put out in a song, that would be amazing. 

Ultimately, I am really glad I made this choice for my senior project. It's an incredibly enjoyable activity and I cannot wait to write about it further.