Submission 4 Evaluations

The submision from Vivir, Sonar, Leer is well-written and has a very good analytical arguement.  "The radical range of color schemes, discombobulating object scale, unusual item combination, and drastic angling of geometric shapes combine to form a divine harmony in the middle of a flustering discord."

 Book about a book is also very analytical, " Ryan's artwork, distinct in style and whimsical in ideas, instills a childlike gayness and a twirling bliss in the eyes of all who see it."

These claims were more evalutations than analytical posts

"Tom Friedman is an artist who created a piece entitled "1000 Hours of Staring."  This piece is simply a blank piece of paper upon which Friedman gazed for, as the title suggests, 1000 hours." and  The sonic animation clip created by Versis and Dibiase, which was directed by Ruffmercy check out his other videos!!)." 

Spartan Reader: Linsanity

In the past few weeks Jeremy Lin has transformed himself from a mediocre bench player in the NBA to a starting point guard and a top news story all around the world.  Linsanity has taken the world by storm, and his story has become popular on all news and sports websites.  Grantland an online sports website has six articles just covering this popular story.  Underdogs stories such as Lin's have been very prominent throughout sports history, they create fans and make for unbelievable stories.  The most recent hysteria was Tim Tebow's amazing fourth quarter-comebacks.  Grantland usually has many unorthodox writers that are not alway worried about being politicaly correct make for some very intersting articles with insight as to what drives these hysterias. 

One article discusses his importance in sports and in China.  His popularity has grown everywhere, because of him, people in China have tuned in to watch him play.  His humbling story and attitude make him likable to fans everywhere.  His hobbies are eating junk food and playing video games.  People have begun to really like him because he seems like an ordinary guy instead of a superstar basketball player.  While his story is being covered 24/7 grantland is one very interesting place to learn more about him. 

One of grantlands articles took a different and more pessimistic approach to the Jeremy Lin story.  While most writers are addding fuel to the Lin hysteria and giving his story a Hollywood feel, Amos Barshad wrote an interesting article predicting how the Jeremy Lin show would end.  Some guesses were simple such as a broken leg while others were more complex.  One of his ideas was all the other teams got sick of his populartity and would kind of ally together to shut Jeremy Lin down everytime he played, untill the Knicks had to stop playing him.  Another was that he would go crazy from the sudden populartiy and he would quit playing basketball and move up in the mountains secretly and live the rest of his life in solitude.  The thinking outside of the box creativity in these scenarios was very amusing and interesting to read.

Reading Post

This week of reading was a mizture of several different books.  After finishing my last book I had the problem of being stuck on a waiting list for the next book in the series and not knowing what else to read.  After starting a couple books and stopping after reading a few chapters I went on to the class blog to see what books other people were reading.  I decided to read the Dart League King by Keith Lee Morris because I saw some people reading it and rembered Mr. Hill talking about the book.
The majority of my reading came from the Dart League King where I read about 50 pages.  So far this book has been very interesting and I think Mr. Hill's commercial project he showed in class has made me even more interested in the story.  The details and descriptions the author uses adds to the characterization which makes the characters realistic and relatable to the reader.  The plot is very complex which keeps the story moving and keeps me wanting to read more.  I also like to play darts and enjoy competitions so this book may be the right book for me.

Short List

1.) Linsanity has grabbed the attention of the entire nation and the improbable rise of Jeremy Lin and the success of the Knicks has become a very popular topic right now.  Charles P. Pierce, a writer grantland, did his own interesting take on how Jeremy Lin has become so famous.  I think it would be interesting to write about what powers sports hysterias such as this one.

2.) On It's Nice That, a website mostly about the arts, there is a very interesting story of a women who collected as much stuff as she could in her lifetime.  Her son Song Dong recieved all of her collections when she died and has turned it into somewhat of an art show.  He describes the objects and tells stories about his family during the show and dives deeper into the meanings of some of the objects.  The art show consists of over 10,000 items and is quite extraordinary.

3.) Play the Part is a podcast for This American Life.  It talks about the important roles people play in our society.  There are is one story I found very interesting in this podcast and it was about Louis Ortiz who is a Barack Obama impersonator.  Ortiz had lost his job and was very poor, but one day while Obama was still a presidential candidate his friend noticed how closely Ortiz looked like him.  Now there is a documentary being done about Ortiz and his life has completely changed.

Podcast Resonse: Music Lessons

In the Amercan Life Podcast, "Music Lessons" there were two stories that really contrasted each other.  The story of Durell who was a former professional musician and now a frustrated music teacher and the story of David Sedaris who is forced to play music because of his parents, were polar opposites in their views of music.  Durell was a professional musician and toured all over the world, and he really appreciates music and takes it very seriously.  He becomes frustrated because his students do not take it as seriously as he does, and he finds they don't have an appreciation for music.  Oppositely David is forced to play but doesn't like music.

Durrell takes music very seriously.  He is a professional, making his own CD's and touring around the world, his appreciation for music and instruments are much higher than his students at the ages of 13 or 14.  He talks about the frustration he goes through when he tries to teach kids to play music.  Durrell's schedule was very hectic and he was very discouraged by his classes’ effort and singing, so he threatened to quit teaching or at least cancel their last concert.   But he was encouraged during one of his choir’s last practices and decided to keep teaching.

David Sedaris was a kid whose father was very enthusiastic about listening to music but he never was able to play.  After going to a concert his dad became inspired to make his children into a jazz band group.  He got instruments and signed his kids up for lessons.  David really wanted to be a singer of commercials but his dad wanted him to play the guitar.  After getting a guitar and taking a few lessons David told his father he was done playing and his siblings followed, breaking up the Sedaris Trio.

Although the two stories were very contrasting of one another, they did shares some similarities.  They both felt very frustrated about the situations with music they were in, but both wanted to continue with music just in a different way.  Durrell wanted to make CD’s and make music for a living while David wanted to stop playing guitar and pursue a career in singing commercial slogans.  This podcast was very fascinating and the stories were interesting to anybody who has played an instrument.

 

Podcast Response: Music Lessons

In the Amercan Life Podcast, "Music Lessons" there were two stories that really contrasted each other.  The story of Durell who was a former professional muscician and now a frustrated music teacher and the story of David Sedaris who is forced to play music because of his parents, were polar opposites in their views of music.  Durell was a professional musician and toured all over the world, and he really appreciates music and takes it very seriously.  He becomes frustrated because his students do not take it as seriosly as he does, and he finds they don't have an appreciation for music.  Oppositely David is forced to play but doesn't like music.  These characters are very contrasting and they are very interesting to write about.  

The Lost Hero

This week I finished the Lost Hero by Rick Riordan.  I really enjoyed reading this book, and I am hoping to keep reading the series.  the book ended with quit a big cliffhanger and I am looking forward to reading more.  The author, Rick Riordan, is a very good author and his writing style is full of action.  His books would be classified as popular fiction because his books are action packed but he still does develop his characters very well.
I prefer to read popular fiction books that are adventure or thriller novels because I like to read books that are faster paced.  So while I get used to free reading, I am going to continue to read these types of books that interest me from beginning to end.  This book was based on mythology which I find a very interesting subject.  The author style was very interesting in this book.  the book was divided into three characters and they all had different problems going on.  Throughout the book the author wold drop a couple of hints as to how their problems would work out and finally at the end the stories came together and made for a very good ending.

The Spartan Reader

Precipitados is a series of "theatrical clashes between culture and nature" done by Pablo Genoves.  The artwork done on these is exceptional but the creativity and originality is even better.  All of the pictures in his series are of buildings being overwhelmed by great floods.
First of all the artwork done by Genoves in his collection is done exceptionally well.  The small details in the water and the setting add to the amazing quality of these pieces. The buildings appear to be abandoned but fancy, as if some wealthy man left and forgot about the house and mother nature unleashed a great torrent of water to collect it.
The waves are very intense and furiously flowing around the room, overpowering everything thing in its way. The waves appear to be violent yet they are not destructive or devastating to the objects in the room.  The gate and the statues stand their ground while the water aggressively crashes into and flows around them.  The artist's use of shadows give the waves flow and make the water look 3D.  The black and white pictures and the light coming in through the windows give the art an epic event feel.
Throughout the series of artwork, which include around ten different works, there are similarities and recurring themes the author keeps bringing back.  Each of the rooms are very fancy and the elegant chandeliers and the intricate ceiling designs adds to the beauty of the setting.  The artist made the rooms sophisticated to reinforce the idea that these floods are truly devastating. The use of lighting and the detail used in the waves give his art an apocalyptic feel.

My Short List

1.) Searching for Silver Linings in Indianapolis is an articlce written by Phil Simmons on the always interesting Grantland.com.   "How could THAT happen again? This was like watching one of those lazy movie sequels — like Another 48 Hours, or The Hangover Part II — when they don't have any inventive ideas, so they overpay everyone involved and shoot a script with the same beats. They brought Eli and Brady back. And Coughlin and Belichick. And Welker. And the scary Giants' defensive line... Everyone dressed the same —blue jerseys for the Pats, white and red jerseys for the Giants. Same movie"  This take on the Superbowl is very amusing and the author's witty remarks makes this article appealing to read.

2.) Precipitados is a series of "theatrical clashes between culture and nature" done by Pablo Genoves.  The artwork done on these is exceptional but the creativity and originality is even better.  All of the pictures in his series are of buildings being overwhelmed by great floods.

3.) Fat Cat Art is a type of art where cats are doctored into famous classic pictures.  There is a whole series of paintings like this called Famous Painting Improved by Cats.  I find these pictures to be very humorous and the artists created a very innovative way to improve these already classic masterpieces.

The Spartan Reader

The Gatorade Kids was an advertising campaign done about two years ago promoting Gatorade by taking famous pictures in sports history and reproducing a similar picture using kids.  This is a very interesting and brilliant marketing tactic because is not scoped in on just athletes but the campaign is focused on an audience of a variety of people.  These pictures can bring back good memories to those who remember watching these grand sporting moments as well as promote Gatorade for the youth and inspire young kids to aspire to be great athletes.

These pictures retell the stories of the epic moments in sports history.  Emulating their heroes these kids posed as Muhammad Ali celebrating in an intimidating fashion after knocking out Sonny Liston, dunked while their tongue out with Michael Jordan’s style in or leaped in the air as Pele did during the World Cup Finals.  The re-make photographs still have a vintage feel although being made recently and the replication of the famous Muhammad Ali picture is done exceptionally well.  The lighting gives it a musty classical feel and the setting and props make the reproduction seem real.  This is a very appealing campaign because of the realistic replicas they were able to produce.