"Inspiration Information" by Shuggie Otis

-What the overall feel of this song?
It has a happy feel because the tempo is up beat.

-What musical element put off that vibe?
The tempo because is not slow like other songs, it is upbeat.

-Identify the choices the musician had to make to get this feel and why they worked.
They chose to keep the beat up tempo and not slow it down, this way it gives off a happy and joyful vibe.

"Semadores" Diego Rivera

-SOAPSTone the painting
Subject-the workeres
Occasion-uprising, Rivera is on side of workers
Audience- the viewers of the painting
Purpose- River painted this to portray the hard work of the workers
Speaker- the artist
Tone- Negative


-What is the meaning/theme/big idea that the artist wanted you to think about? Support your answer with artistic choices he made. (ie. color, style, subject, position, ect.)
Rivera was trying to make the artist think about how hard laborers worked and how it was not an easy life. He shows this by the position of the right man because he is hunched over and you can't see either of the workers faces.

Creative Writing Process

-Summarize Wilco's approach to creating a song.
They  take an idea, simplify or deconstruct it to see if anything can become more exciting or interesting, and they go from there.

-What is your creative process to writing?
I don't really have a process that i go through when I am writing.

-If you have no process then why not? Be specific.
I don't have a process because I usually just sit down and write what comes to mind. Eventually I go back over it to revise it, but other than that I don't do anything.

Nostalgia

What is nostalgia?
Its longing for good feelings of the past

What images come to mind when you hear this music?
It reminds me of a 60's dance with girls dressed in poodle skirts, kind of like Grease.

What images pop into your head when you think of your childhood? What smells, sounds, and feelings are associated with these images?
I think of the beach because I used to go there every summer with the same people in the same area. We would always eat a lot of seafood with Old Bay Seasoning, so when I smell Old Bay Seasoning I want to go back to the beach.

Poverty Painting

The major contributing factor to poverty is that one was born into and it is hard to get out. He or she also might be lacking in education so this means a lack of jobs.

The artist of this painting portrays poverty as a negative thing because of the bland colors she uses and the solemn expressions on the people.

The message the artist is trying to say about poverty is that even though it is hard, their is always hope and a way out.

Two elements of art that enhance the message are the bright colors of the flowers which is signifying a better life, and the bars behind the people signify that they may be trapped into poverty but because they are standing outside of them, it shows there is a way out.

Live Free and Starve vs. The Singer Solution to World Poverty

The issue of  forced child labor has been heavily debated in politics throughout many countries. There are many different opinions and views one could take about the subject. The authors Chitra Divakaruni and Peter Singer have extreme contrasting opinions. Divakaruni believes that banning child labor will do nothing to help the problem. She points out the even though the treatment of the children is cruel, giving them freedom would take away any source of income which mean loss of food, shelter, and clothes. Many  of these kids would probably choose the harsh labor with a fully belly over starvation any day. On the other hand, Singer doesn't point out whether child labor is right or wrong, but he talks about how none of this would be happening if other people weren't as selfish as they are. He says that we (meaning Americans) are just a mean and cruel as the people who sell their children for person gain because we have the money to help these kids but we don't take the time to put it to good use by donating it. Before even reading the article, I already started to form a bias against Divakaruni because I personally believe that forced child labor is morally wrong. I stand corrected. After reading Divakaruni's article, I didn't realize how much worse it could be for the children if they weren't allowed jobs. It was interesting to hear the story of the little boy who worked for her family and what his life could have been if he had been denied the job opportunity. He could have been one of, "the many children we saw by mud roads, their ribs sticking out through the rags they wore." Paragraph 6, line 4. Although Singer makes a valid point about the great affects of donations, I now believe that unless proper schooling and necessities are presented in a bill, child labor is probably a better life for kids then a life of starvation.

Ariel Pink's Haunted Grafitti "Round & Round"

-How do your musical facts influence your opinion? What is the correlation between what you picked out and your opinion? Do you have bias? If so, explain.

The facts influenced my opinion because with out them, I would have nothing to base my opinions on. Usually the facts I pointed out related to my personal opinions. For example, I stated in class that the music had multiple voices then I said I didn't like the song because I couldn't clearly make out what the vocalist was saying. I have a little bit of bias because I didn't like the artist's voice from the start so that automatically made my opinion differ.