"Bartender! Another round of O'Douls for me and my friends!"

The first time I ever saw beer I was probably less than five years old, hanging out with my parents and there friends at the bar after skiing during "happy hour".   Social drinking of alcohol was always something my parents and my family were involved in.  To me it just looked like adults having a great time.   Through my years of adolescence, I have noticed that my dad gives up alcohol annually during lent.  This is obviously not his idea, but my mother's way of attempting to lower his cholesterol, while following our Catholic faith.  My dad said it was embarrassing to go to the bar with his "boys" after a hard day of skiing and to watch all his friends order the best ale while he stuck to seltzer.  That is why he began to start drinking non-alcoholic beer during this time of year, so he could still feel like he fit in with his friends.

Now, I could understand where my dad is coming from, because social drinking was something I was always around while growing up, and I never really saw the negative side of alcohol until I got a little older. Were O'Douls created for people like my dad? Or was it for the recovering alcoholic who still craved his beer?

I would have to go with the first example because people who are looking to just get drunk would probably go for something harder than just beer.  Maybe it was created as a transitional drink, so that the man who wasn't six foot five and three hundred pounds like the rest of his friends, could still enjoy their company instead of falling off his barstool.

The reason non alcoholic beer is more appealing to men than women is because when women go out together, they are not normally sipping on malted barley and hops.  In most cases a woman's drink has to be sickeningly sweet, an eye popping shade and topped off with an umbrella. However, for the women out there who do drink beer, it is not even in the same category as men and how they drink beer.  If a woman gave up alcohol for lent, she probably would not be shouting "Bartender! Another round of O'Douls for me and my friends!".

Non-alcoholic beer was certainly not meant for people of my generation either.  This weekend's slew of Frat parties will not be waisting their money on kegs or anything in that matter with the label "non-alcoholic".  The term "social drinking" is not really prevalent in a college student's vocabulary.  Instead, the words "black-out" "belligerent" and "sh*t faced" are more commonly used in describing one's Saturday night.  I think this says something of my generation, and that drinking is no longer viewed as a social event, but a sport.

This can be said about all people in my age group though.  My dad even had told me when he was younger, he wouldn't be caught dead drinking an O'Douls.  So non-alcoholic beer is really about maturity.  Who knows, maybe when I'm forty-eight I'll be drinking one too...

My First Project wsc2

Claudio in love

Firstly, I still find this so funny because Claudio is my father's name, and I also find it coincidental because that is how he claims he "fell in love" with my mom, through his eyes.

So Claudio sees Hero, and falls in love with her on a first glance basis.  I find this to be so superficial and surfaced, but this seems to be the trend of all old plays and even Disney movies.  Think about it, do you think Prince Charming actually cared about what Snow White thought or had to say? No, he just loved her because she was the "fairest of them", all I guess.

Claudio's Hero really had nothing much to say, and basically kept her mouth closed throughout him courting her,  so Claudio must have found a quiet girl desirable.  Well so did Prince Charming (not the same Prince, Walt was just getting lazy with the names).  In sleeping beauty the princess and the prince barely even spoke, I mean the princess was knocked unconscious, for what... was it a hundred years or one thousand?  Either way she was a mute, and he loved her based on looks.

This just goes to show that first impressions are a huge deal to men, so ladies just be easy on the eyes and hold your tongues and you will have your own Claudio very soon.

Phantom Of The Opera- Masquerade

Masquerades...

         I for one have never been a fan of masks.  Halloween has never been one of my favorite holidays, especially since every little boy dressed up as "Scream" from about 1998 until the mid 2000's, scaring little girls like me.  It was not until one year when my mother dressed me up as cat for Halloween, that I really understood the feeling of wearing a mask.  I felt like I could do or say anything, because I wasn't being myself, and no one could see my face.  I'm not saying I did terrible things, I probably just meowed at fellow trick-or-treaters, but for me that was a mile stone from hanging on my mother's pant leg.

      Masks, and Masquerades allow people to dress up as something that they are not,  and it even gives people confidence to do things they probably would not do if their face was exposed.  In Shakespeare's "Much Ado About Nothing" , that is exactly what happens.  Also, while reading that entire act, I couldn't stop thinking about the scene from Andrew Webber's famous play "Phantom of the Opera", where they sing for what feels like twenty minutes about a Masquerade.  In my opinion, it is the best scene of the entire play, and with Halloween being tomorrow, i figured that it is appropriate.

Much Ado About Nothing. Huh?

Since this play was written during Shakespearean times,  I am almost positive that William would not waste his precious time really writing about nothing.  Although, this play really does seem quite simple minded so far, but that is because I am not yet on the downward spiral of the Shakespearean comic curve. Most of the conversations are pretty superficial and surfaced.    At this time there was no "TH" sound, so the word nothing, sounds a lot like noting.  So is it Much Ado About Noting? However, Shakespeare is not a poet of love, there is always something more cynical involved.  So what is he "noting"?

Cold-hearted Beatrice

I.i.121
"I would rather hear my dog bark at a crow than hear a man tell me he loves me."
This quote carries out one of the many reoccurring themes Shakespeare uses throughout this play.  In this case it is animalistic qualities.  Beatrice finds it so irritating for a man, especially Benedick, to tell her that they love her.  Most women long for those three words, where as Beatrice loathes these very words and finds more comfort in the loud, earsplitting sounds coming from her dog.

Litany vs My mistress's eyes

Collins uses the same rhetorical techniques as Shakespeare, by not comparing his beloved to wonderful things or by creating beautiful imagery.  No.  Instead, they both compare their beloved to negative things.  Shakespeare basically says that his mistress does not have glistening eyes, golden hair or a goddess like posture and Collins says that Litany is not the moon or the stars, nor the pine scented air.  This draws the reader in, because when one thinks of a poem written about a woman, he would think that it would be a love poem, filled with sappy metaphors and comparisons.  These two poems totally defy that previous notion and makes it cynical rather than light hearted.

How Billy Collins plays with word choice in the poem "Litany"

If I were to have read Collins' "remix" of the poem Litany, it would not have had the same affect on me.  However, seeing him perform it really emphasized his diction, and made it comical.  Collins' has a very monotone voice delivering no waver of excitement at all while he reads his version of Litany, which was a love poem.  The poem was just a list of comparisons about Litany, and how she is like objects like the dew on the morning grass.  However, Collins' version was saying everything she is not, therefore his lack luster voice really made his poem funny.

How Dickenson's poem is "fresh"

Dickenson does not use flashy words to get her point across in her poem.  Instead she focuses on tone and diction.  For instance, the phrase "truth it circuit lies", or telling it "slant", most words or phrases in her poem have a prominent "s" sound.  This "s" sound reminds me of a snake, or something sneaky, basically two phased.  That is what Dickenson's poem is.  She is telling her reader to tell the truth, but to tell it slant. When reading it out loud it sounds like a riddle one would hear in a storybook, sweet and straight forward in some lines, and in others more devious. It is fresh because her phrasing is simple, but the content is what makes it so.

Flash and poetry

The poet Shihan employed a lot of flashy language in his poem.  He recited his poem in a rap-like style, using catchy phrases like "kids don't play and god doesn't pray".  The point of his poem was to show the audience the importance of words, and how life is all about them.  At one point he goes on a rant about the world spinning, and if it stops words will still be forming.  However, the reason he is "flashy" with his language is because he is trying to show the audience that people are more interested in sophisticated phrases and words, rather than the true meaning behind something "fascinated with more what is fabricated".

Reading the text

When seeing the previous performance written, I could actually see the words, and the diction the poet had.  I felt that reading it helped make all of the points more clear, however it was not the same effect of actually seeing the poet performing.

Hearing the Poet Speak...

The poet captured my attention right away through his tone, diction and overall use of rhetoric.  He mocked today's society and the speaking patterns we use when trying to not sound smart and thus, sound cool.  He delivered this by actually speaking in this type of pattern.  He thew a question mark at the end of every sentence, and would attach phrases like "you know?" or "like totally".  At the end of his performance he started speaking how we should speak, using definitive statements free of the question mark.  I was paying close attention to his entire performance, because not only was his tone of voice enticing, but his movements and facial expressions were as well.

Man vs. Machine...Who is using who?

   The web is an always changing medium, that in a way makes us think not differently, but more efficiently because there is always room for revision.  We now write shorter, more elusively and informally because the internet is really just a giant blog.  Many believe that the computer's capabilities will soon trump those of the human brain.  However, we must ask ourselves, who is behind the computer?  A human.  This reminds me of the Wizard of Oz, where Dorothy discovers that there is not really an all knowing wizard, but just the man behind a curtain.  Isn't that really all the internet is?  We feed it so much information about ourselves such as the music we listen to, movies we want to see, fonts we use and social networking accounts.  So in reality, we are the "man behind the curtain", we are the machine.  Welsh argues that the machine can be using us, however we are the machine.

Ink Shedding: A rapid fire production of first thoughts on a topic.

        Gopnik presents his argument into three categories, : The Never-Betters, the Better-Nevers and the Never-Wasers.  This allows Gopnik to hide his own opinion behind three separate doors of thought.  The Never-Betters love this constant output of technology, the Better-Nevers hate it and have a feeling of nostalgia for holding a paperback book and lastly the Never-Wasers believe that it is not the machine or the human's fault but just a cyclic pattern of evolution.
        Gopnik addresses all different types of people and their reaction to the technological era, and in this we get a view of how these types of people perceive it.  We can pin ages and personality types to these groups just by assuming.  For example, the Never-Betters are most likely people from the younger or digital generations who feel somewhat enthusiastic about this new era.  In addition to this, Gopnik speaks about how it is changing how we go about life.
        On the Ever-Waser's side of the argument these inovations in technology have always been around.  Socrates, the famous Greek philosopher, believed that writing anything down would be detrimental to human development.  He believed that once we put the info down on paper our minds wouldn't need to remember it.  This argument is very similar to the internet debate that is so popular today.

Questions on Peer Reviews: The reader in the text

• Readers can participate in the making of meaning of a text by taking it apart.  In order for a reader to actually hear the writer's "voice", she must analyze the text using scrutiny and criticism. 
•  I find that I am a very active reader.  If I don't read a text with my multi-colored highlighters and a stack of post-its, I won't entirely understand its meaning.  
• I -- as a reader, completely belongs in the text.  Without the scrutiny of the reader, the writer's work becomes lost.  The reader is the one who can base an opinion off the text, while the reader just presents his thoughts on a subject.  The reader is the one who can argue the writer's points, both negatively and positively. 

Materialities of Writing

1.      While I was writing my response in crayon, it was definitely different that writing in either in pen or typing.  I found the poem to be deep and intriguing, and normally I would feel overwhelmed about writing my analysis.  However, the writing utensil of a crayon calmed me down as a feeling of nostalgia came over me; for it has been a very long time since I have used crayon. 
2. Out of the 21 drafts hanging on the wall, I noticed a few similarities and many differences.  For example: in number 12 I found simplistic due to the yellow construction paper and the different colored crayons therefore I felt at ease while reading it.  On the other hand, number 11's draft was not really a draft at all.  This person's paper was not attractive by face value due to the page filled with text that bombarded me as the reader.  However this person must have really connected to the poem and understood its true meaning. 
3. If there was a culture with crayons as the only writing implements, that given culture would be much more simplistic and relaxed than ours.  People would take pride in artistic abilities such as color, expression and texture.  Writing would be much more selective and controlled because there would be no eraser, therefore writing would not be repetitive but direct.  
4. After taking part in the crayon exercise, I observed that some people seem to be more at ease when writing with crayon because of the elementary feel it has, while it has no effect on others.  Throughout high school and higher education professors have drilled into my mind what a "good" essay is compiled of.  Not even a crayon could break the habit of having numerous drafts for an essay, so I feel that I was not effected by using crayon.  However, I observed that some people's reaction papers were much shorter than mine, and even included some picture or word art.  These were the people that were effected by using the crayon.  Using different writing implements can change a person's form and even style of writing. 

Analysis of the Pantene commercial

            The Pantene commercial showcased a deaf asian girl who played the violin.  The girl was constantly bullied and put down by others because she was disabled, therefore she felt discouraged to play. At one point in the commercial another girl smashed the deaf girl's violin, thus silencing the deaf girl even more.  The violin literally smashed to pieces, so the audience would infer that the deaf girl will not ever be capable of making music on her instrument again.  However, at the classical music competition the deaf girl plays "Pachabell's Cannon in D major" once more, yet the audience can observe that her broken violin is taped.  As a violin player, I know that it is impossible to make a pleasant sound out of a taped up instrument, so I ask myself, "Why is the audience clapping after her performance?"
       
             After watching the commercial, the four minutes of what I thought was a touching story of passion ended up being a commercial for Pantene hair products.  So perhaps the deaf girl was not really playing at all during the classical music competition, because how could she on a taped up violin.  Maybe the audience was so taken-aback by her luscious locks of hair, and not her actual violin performance.  This commercial is definitely abstract, but if it weren't for these minute observations one would totally misconceive Pantene's message.