Norman Rockwell's "The Runaway"

The 1950s were a time of great change, both in culture and perspective. The American people were not all best friends, and America was no longer on top of the world. We were at war with Korea, and there were a lot of issues in society at that time. However, Norman Rockwell's painting "The Runaway" forgets all this. His painting sugar coated the American society in the 1950's and left the social uprisings behind. "The Runaway" overlooks the fundamental rift that was rising in America throughout the 1950s- an emerging counter culture that was not concerned with how things were, but how they are.

The Beatles: "Across the Universe"

1. - Images of broken light which dance before me like a million eyes.
    - Sounds of laughter shade my life
    - Shines around me like a million suns
2. The million suns is a symbol for all the love that is around him, and nothing can penetrate that.
3. One symbol that I always view as a symbol in the American flag, which I always took to stand for our bravery, our democracy, and every citizen within its borders. Every time I see the flag it reminds me what the stripes and stars stand for, what it took to shape America, and all the men and women fighting overseas.

Shuggie Otis- "Inspiration Information"

-The feel of this song is happy. It put me in a good mood, made me smile, and gave me the feeling that I needed to wash a car.
- The guitar and the keyboard really give this song a funky and happy feel, and without them, this song just wouldn't be the same. Also, had the lyrics been more pronounced, and the focus of the song was not on the music, the audience would have listened more to the lyrics and probably wouldn't have gotten that same feeling of mellow happiness.

Diego Rivera- "Semeadores"

S- The subject is Mexicans working, digging.
O- I think it is a time when Mexicans were enslaved, or had to work very hard.
A- Mexicans who struggled, and those who made them work.
P- To inform of Mexican's hard labor they endured.
S- Diego Rivera
T- Sorrowful

- The meaning of this piece of art is that the artist wants you to think about the hard labor Mexicans had and have to go through, as shown by the man digging, and the colors that make it look like it is very hot.

Wilco's Approach

1. Wilco's approach is to build a song, and then deconstruct it to see all the other options, and then seeing what ways you can make the song better.
2. My writing process is that I like to think of what my topic is, and then ways to support my topic. After that, I come up with a thesis, do a prewrite sometimes, and then sit down to write a draft. Next I re-read it, let others read it, and then improve upon it.

American Grafitti Soundtrack

1. Nostalgia is a feeling you get when looking back at times when you were younger, or look at something that gives you a warm, yearning feeling for what used to be. This feeling of nostalgia can be triggered by an object, song, sound, smell, or almost anything.
2. When I hear this music, I think of people in the '60s dancing together at a fast pace. I also think of the movie Grease, and the singing and dancing they do in a little diner.
3. My childhood is associated with my family and friends. I specifically remember playing with my cousin at his house when we were younger, and hanging out by the pool at my grandparent's house. We would go over there to swim and then eat together, watching the sun go down as we played in their huge yard or sat around and talked.

"The Pinch of Poverty"

1. Contributing factors of poverty include where you work (if your work), where you live, the type of government you live under, as well as others.
2. This artist portrays poverty in a negative light, as shown by the dark colors and gloomy faces.
3. I think the artist's message is that it is a hard life living in poverty, and can happen to anyone.
4. The artist uses dark colors and a certain dreariness about the painting to create a dark and bleak setting, which emphasizes the hard life of poverty. He or she also uses perspective as he puts the focal point on the baby to show that poverty can affect anyone, even a small child.

Live Free and Starve or The Singer Solution??

In Chitra Divakaruni's article "Live Free and Starve" she argues the point that we must stop abusive child labor in other third world countries. However, her approach is not to simply create a law to ban child labor. She uses her past experiences of living in another country to make the argument that if America stops the child labor, the children will have no shelter or food, and could starve to death. Divakaruni says that the children would rather work and have food than be free and die of starvation, hence the name of her article. She writes, "A bill like the one we've just passed is of no use unless it goes hand in hand with programs that will offer a new life to these newly released children." I agree with Divakaruni's opinion in this article, and I believe that we need to help these children once they've been released, not just get them out of the abusive workplaces.

In a somewhat contrasting view, Peter Singer writes in his article "The Singer Solution to World Poverty" that as wealthy as we are compared to many countries, we need to donate a large chunk of our money to help poverty in third world countries. He writes, "An American household with an income of $50,000 spends around $30,000 annually on necessities, according to the Conference Board, a nonprofit economic research organization. Therefore, for a household bringing in $50,000 a year, donations to help the world's poor should be as close as possible to $20,000." He uses this sort of, 'call-to-action' speak through much of the article, and uses a story to get our attention. He tells of Bob, a man who let a small child get killed on his watch when he could have helped, and tells us that if we don't donate money, we are the same as Bob; we let children die without doing anything. While I agree that we need to be generous and give to organizations that are trying to help, I disagree with much of his thoughts. He forgets that there are millions dying of cancer each year, and that there are thousands of other organizations that are doing great things to help other people. Singer questions America's generosity, and tells us that we should give more, even though many of us give to local charities to help the armed forces, or donate money to cancer research funds. As a Type 1 Diabetic, I know what it feels like to ask for money to help with research. When you are the one in need, and there is a fund to try and help you or others you love, you don't think about starving kids in other countries. We are selfish beings, there is no denying it, but that doesn't mean we don't try to help other people. This bias and flaw in his article is what keeps me from siding with Singer.

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

I liked this song fairly well. I am a big fan of the keyboard in music, and the synthesized sound made it enjoyable. The multiple vocalists in the song also helped me to like it. Most of the time I hate repetition when it comes to music, and that is my bias. It shows up because I liked the different sounds the vocalists created, as well as a variation of the sound all the way through. Although the lyrics were a bit difficult to understand, I didn't feel like I missed out on that much. I have been exposed to many different types of music, and because of that was able to understand that this song wasn't necessarily about the lyrics, but about enjoying the different sounds of different instruments.