“ Sometimes when we think we are keeping a secret, the secret is actually keeping us” – Frank Warren. (for more Frank Warren quotes)This quote by the creator of the popular blog spot, postsecret.com has dedicated his life to allowing people a way to let their secrets out. postsecret was originally a blog site where 10 post cards of people’s secrets done in a creative way where posted every Sunday. The purpose of this project was so people could hopefully release themselves from the weight of their secrets. The site evolved and in October 2007 www. postsecretcommunity.com was created and since than more than 80,000 people are registered for their online forum. There has been a community created around postsecret through the four books, the comments section, events, and all of the people like me who don’t send postcards but check first thing every Sunday for the week’s secrets. I am clearly not the only one who is a post-secret addict as shown by post secret being ranked the 10th most popular site for female students in Youth Trends’ February 2008 “ Top Ten List Report”. Maybe the reason I am so hooked is because I have to admit that I, and probably the rest of America are nosy. I like to read about other people’s lives, and I like knowing that they are being released from the hold their secret has on them. Maybe in some way by reading their post I am helping them feel better. When it comes down to it that’s what postsecret is all about. Creating a community, a safe, non-judgmental place where people can share their secrets anonymously and still know someone else is reading them. The postsecret community is also formed around the idea the joy of reading someone else’s secret and thinking, me too. It’s nice to know you’re not the only one who feels a certain way. Does it matter that you don’t and never will know the people reading your secret? Or does it matter that your best friend may have been one of the readers? A common question posed by people who blog about postsecret is why are people able to share their deepest darkest secrets to the entire world through something so artificial like the internet, but not with their family and friends. Yes, it is good people are getting a sense of community through this web page, but what does this say about what the real world has come to. This total artificial community may be taking place of a simple one on one talk with a friend. I guess the idea of community has changed and now can be online but some people are upsets or confused by this evolution of community. I don’t really think it’s harmful to have a strong connective online community if it is helping to heal people. I guess? I just hope that people do not loose sight of real human connection as the years go on and the Internet continues expanding. Maybe the reason people can share on postsecret but not to their love one’s is because on postsecret they are anonymous and can get anonymous feedback. Just like any sort of feedback, these comments have shown to be both helpful and hurtful even though harmful is not the comment page’s purpose. At times they read congratulations, you can do it, or keep fighting. But others are insulting and make the person feel worse. An example of this is multiple comments judging a person for feeding bleach to her cat(see history section). The whole purpose of the site is for everyone to be able to share their deepest secret, so people should not take offence when they do. Another bump in the comment section of postsecret was when a person posted a secret reading, “ I am a racist and I am in a long-term relationship with someone of a different race. It’s hard because you know you’re wrong for feeling that way, but you just cant help it.” Neil posted on WWW. Racialicious.com/2007/07/20confession-of-racism-on-postsecret that even though this is upsetting to whoever reads it, this secret is something good for the writer to admit. The person is not saying they are happy they are racist, so people should try to understand that for the postsecret community to fully function at the same level as its potential, all judgments need to be dropped. He has a right to post what he needs for his own renual. This event shows that even though there is a great deal of positively within the postsecret site such as the 1800-suicide promotions which has saved many lives, its still a community like another. People are going to be offended and people are going to criticize the artificialness of the postsecret society. But at the end of the day, just like any community, people are coming together and helping eachother grow. Even though postsecret is a strange web of faceless connections; I see nothing wrong with a community that heals.
-Rachel
Sunday, October 3, 2010
Current Favorite: A Closer Look Corrine Bailey Rae's The Sea
By Quela
The first time I heard her was at a family gathering at my Great Aunt’s house on Thanksgiving. The sound that met my ears was so unlike the usual jazz that I had come to expect at these family functions that I had to listen. I soon found myself obsessed with the CD case, skipping to number 7, and then to 12, then back to track 4. I read all the lyrics in the case, which were followed by a small print that told me that each song was written and co produced by a Corrine Bailey Rae. Her self-titled album ended up under our Christmas tree that year. A gift from me to my mother with my handwriting reading to: Mom from:Santa, but as it sometimes and often happens this gift was really for the both of us.
Corrine Bailey Rae’s voice is still part of a grand routine in my life back home. I get dressed to “Put Your Records On”, style my hair to “’Till It Happens To You” and fall asleep with head phones planted in my ears as she sings “Seasons Change”. Her recollections of her childhood and past loves made my 13 year old mind wander, drawing images to match the sounds, constructing my own music videos to the things I was hearing. Her guitar strums never failed to put me in a good mood.
Corrine Bailey Rae’s second album, titled The Sea was released January of this year and it was in our CD player in no time. When I heard It I knew there was something different. It sounded... patient. It was an album that took time. I came to find that she started writing it in 2007 and went on to record it towards the end of that year. She continued to do more work on it up until March of 2008, took a break and finally came back to it in 2009. Quite a process.
The shadow of her husband’s passing in 2008 was somehow apparent in every song. It was slower, and much, much more personal, painful. I am careful not to call this grieving as I write. It would be more appropriate to categorize this album with understanding and closure. She speaks of the emotion love in a more mature way then I have heard other artists speak of it. The way I hear it, love in an emotional understanding is something that happens to you and something that you lose. But love as your partner is as lost as an angel, in that he is never too far away as I understood in her song “I Would Like To Call It Beauty”.
“So young for death,
We walk in shoes too big
But you play it like a poet,
Like you always did.
And I lay face upturned on the palm of God,
Pushed on by the fingertips of dreams,
They haunted me,
Consoling me.”
I came to see truly how much pain can inspire such beauty in the song “I’d do it all again”. I saw a new take on the common comparison between love and drugs, the substance of the song being that she lost the love of her life, her husband to a drug overdose.
“Ooh, you're searching for something I know, wont make you happy
Ooh, you're thirsting for something I know, wont make you happy
Ooh, you did it all again, you broke another skin
Its hard to believe this time, hard to believe
That my heart, my hearts an open door... You got all you came for, baby.”
Corinne Bailey Rae is counted among my favorite artists because she has done exactly what I expect from great artists. She has made it known that she is able to take the ugliest feelings and transform them into a universal beauty that everyone can appreciate.
Friends: The Sitcom Phenomenon (Hunter)
Everyone who watches television tends to have a favorite show. Friends, though, is a seemingly timeless sitcom that is enjoyed by nearly everyone. I have never heard anyone say that they dislike Friends. Although this is my own experience, I have brought up the show with enough people to realize that the general consensus is that it is a really interesting, witty, and charming show. Why do people like this show so much? Is it the characters? The quick and successful jokes? Or is it the happy-go-lucky feeling it gives you when seeing such drama-free friends hanging out? (Occasionally, drama is employed to interest viewers but the problem is always solved and there is a happy ending.) The show is so lovable because it is extremely intimate; the viewers imagine themselves as if they are one of the Friends. The viewer experiences the laughs, the tears, the conversations. The viewer hears Ross whine incessantly, sees Monica become ridiculously competitive, and is charmed by Joey's "How you doin'?" The timelessness contributes to the show's lovableness as well. The show ran for ten seasons and people still record the reruns on their TiVo. Also, each episode is something that one can watch more than once because the jokes don't seem to get old. It's also conveniently short (twenty minutes without commercials) so there's no effort involved in sitting down to watch it. The show had an extremely strong affect on society. Phoebe's rendition of her song "Smelly Cat" was turned into a dance mix and the name of a Portuguese comedic troupe called "Gato Fedorento." Rachel's signature hairstyle became known as "The Rachel" and was copied constantly. Joey's "How you doin'? became a common phrase, and "Central Perk" imitations popped up across the nation. Friends, the sitcom phenomenon, is, to this day, one of the most watched television shows on the planet, and plays a vital role in the universe of pop culture.
The Automobile: A Fad
by Paul
In this day and age, cars are thought of as a necessity more than anything else. Some cars are an extravagance (BMW, Audi), some are a personal statement (Prius, Hummer), and others are a tool (Pick-up trucks, minivans). But automobiles are rarely thought of as a choice. Every soon-to-be sixteen year old dreams of owning a car, and every child has played with hot wheels as a child. There are 7.7 cars for every ten people in the United States, and these cars are used every day, all day. Every trip to the grocery, every commute, every family outing is taken on a gas-powered, four-wheeled vehicle.
Such a dependence on the automobile creates a certain mindset. But I want to look at the car in a different light, as simply another fad; one that has lasted an extremely long amount of time, to be sure, but a fad all the same. After all, an object or idea cannot become this ingrained in a culture without having its own introduction into pop culture.
The first gas-powered automobile was made in 1896 by Henry Ford. With the invention of the assembly line, Ford was soon able to churn out an enormous number of cars for very little money, making cars affordable for an everyday American. Over the next hundred years, cars expanded into every single facet of our lives.
But how did the car become such a pervasive part of our lives? Few Americans know that before the automobile, almost all of our cities had extensive trolley systems that served as the major form of transportation. People either lived very close together, or extremely far apart, and therefore had little need for a car. What made the car so immensely popular so fast?
One of the best reasons is simply independence. The United States is a staunchly independent country, on both a national and individual scale. All throughout our short history we have snubbed out noses at the established superpowers (until we became one ourselves, that is). So it stands to reason that an average American would leap at the chance to partake in one of the most fundamentally independent actions someone can take: driving. This is especially true when the car was first introduced, when walking was the most common form of movement, and trains the fastest (train companies were at the time considered corrupt, powerful, and malicious). The idea of owning your own vehicular transportation must have been an amazingly appealing idea.
Another reason the car became so popular was that the rich had already owned cars before Henry Ford made them affordable. This made automobiles a luxury item, much like private jets are now. Imagine if owning a private jet was suddenly cheap enough for every sixteen year old to get for their birthday. The change that would take place would be immediate and extreme, for the same reason and with the same effect as the introduction of the car.
Of course, the car’s dominance was helped along by the Model T, Robert Moses, the New Deal, the Federal Aid Highway Act, and the rise of the middle class, but those events were more of a symptom of the automobile’s rise to dominance rather than a cause. Independence and social aspirations were truly the reason the car became the overindulgence it is today.
But as the automobile has become a necessity rather than a luxury, it has also become a restriction rather than a form of independence. Once, driving meant speeding down a road without inhibitions, but now it means sitting on a slab of concrete in the hot sun, waiting for the car in front of you to move an inch or two. It means paying almost $9,000 a year to move from isolated point A to isolated point B. Ugly concrete parking garages have infested our cities. Suburbanization has crawled farther and farther from urban centers, with social, political, and environmental consequences that we have yet to fully understand; and highways have become a blight on our cities and countryside. The car’s popularity, coupled with our dependence upon it, has made cars the biggest impediment to the freedom that they are supposed to represent.
In this day and age, cars are thought of as a necessity more than anything else. Some cars are an extravagance (BMW, Audi), some are a personal statement (Prius, Hummer), and others are a tool (Pick-up trucks, minivans). But automobiles are rarely thought of as a choice. Every soon-to-be sixteen year old dreams of owning a car, and every child has played with hot wheels as a child. There are 7.7 cars for every ten people in the United States, and these cars are used every day, all day. Every trip to the grocery, every commute, every family outing is taken on a gas-powered, four-wheeled vehicle.
Such a dependence on the automobile creates a certain mindset. But I want to look at the car in a different light, as simply another fad; one that has lasted an extremely long amount of time, to be sure, but a fad all the same. After all, an object or idea cannot become this ingrained in a culture without having its own introduction into pop culture.
The first gas-powered automobile was made in 1896 by Henry Ford. With the invention of the assembly line, Ford was soon able to churn out an enormous number of cars for very little money, making cars affordable for an everyday American. Over the next hundred years, cars expanded into every single facet of our lives.
But how did the car become such a pervasive part of our lives? Few Americans know that before the automobile, almost all of our cities had extensive trolley systems that served as the major form of transportation. People either lived very close together, or extremely far apart, and therefore had little need for a car. What made the car so immensely popular so fast?
One of the best reasons is simply independence. The United States is a staunchly independent country, on both a national and individual scale. All throughout our short history we have snubbed out noses at the established superpowers (until we became one ourselves, that is). So it stands to reason that an average American would leap at the chance to partake in one of the most fundamentally independent actions someone can take: driving. This is especially true when the car was first introduced, when walking was the most common form of movement, and trains the fastest (train companies were at the time considered corrupt, powerful, and malicious). The idea of owning your own vehicular transportation must have been an amazingly appealing idea.
Another reason the car became so popular was that the rich had already owned cars before Henry Ford made them affordable. This made automobiles a luxury item, much like private jets are now. Imagine if owning a private jet was suddenly cheap enough for every sixteen year old to get for their birthday. The change that would take place would be immediate and extreme, for the same reason and with the same effect as the introduction of the car.
Of course, the car’s dominance was helped along by the Model T, Robert Moses, the New Deal, the Federal Aid Highway Act, and the rise of the middle class, but those events were more of a symptom of the automobile’s rise to dominance rather than a cause. Independence and social aspirations were truly the reason the car became the overindulgence it is today.
But as the automobile has become a necessity rather than a luxury, it has also become a restriction rather than a form of independence. Once, driving meant speeding down a road without inhibitions, but now it means sitting on a slab of concrete in the hot sun, waiting for the car in front of you to move an inch or two. It means paying almost $9,000 a year to move from isolated point A to isolated point B. Ugly concrete parking garages have infested our cities. Suburbanization has crawled farther and farther from urban centers, with social, political, and environmental consequences that we have yet to fully understand; and highways have become a blight on our cities and countryside. The car’s popularity, coupled with our dependence upon it, has made cars the biggest impediment to the freedom that they are supposed to represent.
The Meaning of YouTube
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The Meaning of YouTube by Adela
For me, Youtube used to be a place where I would watch cute videos of kittens or hilarious shorts of babies. A friend would come to me with a video that I “just had to see”, for example, Charlie the Unicorn, and we would watch it, laugh, and then continue on with the rest of our lives, maybe quoting it once in a while to get a few laughs.
For many people, this is what Youtube still is; a place to watch stupid videos. I mean how much substance can a Youtube video have if it is only limited to 15 minutes?
The answer is, a lot.
Over the past couple of years, the way that I use Youtube has changed. I have discovered videos that not only have meaning, but that also can create change.
When I subscribe to a youtube channel, I become part of a community. I not only get to watch all of the videos that that youtuber has put up, but I am also joined together with millions of other people.
When a youtuber has a lot of subscribes to their channel, they will often gather all of those people, and take action. Most of the time it is something small, like answering a question of the day or taking a poll, but in some instances, the action goes further. For example, Hank and John Green of the vlogbrothers raised enough money through their subscribers to send five cargo planes full of healthcare supplies to Haiti. They have also created the “Project for Awesome” in which Youtubers create videos promoting their favorite charity. Charlie McDonnel, of charlieissocoollike, created an idea called Chart Jackers. With chart jackers, youtubers came together and created a song that they got to be #1 on the UK charts. All the procedes from that song went the charity Children in Need. Youtube has also been used to launch many people careers, such as Justin Bieber.
YouTube connects so many different kinds of people, and with that connection, it becomes so much more than just a website where you can watch squirrels ride on water skis. With the youtubers I choose to watch now, my experience no longer stops once the video is over. The videos can make me ponder my life and my surroundings; push me to think about my implications and views. Sometimes I will watch a video and my whole world will be tuned upside down. An idea will be explored or a question will be posed that I have never thought of before. I just recently watched a video by John Green that talks about how pennies are totally useless and how it costs 1.7 cents to make a penny. I never knew how much money pennies were actually draining and this video made me think further about our economy.
I am not saying that it is bad to watch those funny videos on youtube, I just want everyone to know that there is more out there.
So, I challenge you. Go onto youtube and find a video that makes you think. About yourself, your community, it doesn’t matter, just as long as it has some sort of impact. If you don’t know where to start, you can try a couple of my favorite channels:
Sxephil, charlieissocoollike, vlogbrothers, MysteryGuitarMan, wheezywaiter
Modern Warfare Series-what up with dat? by Jack
Let’s go back, all the way back to October 29, 2003, when the first ever Call of Duty came out for the computer. It was rated one of the best games of the year. It was created by Infinity Ward, a gaming franchise, and then published by Activision. They went on to make another Call of Duty in fall of 2005, which released for the Xbox 360 only a month after the original game came out. However in 2006 when the third installment came out for the 360 called Call of Duty 3 it did not involve Infinity Ward, but instead, Treyarch. Treyarch, another gaming franchise, went on to make Call of Duty 5: World at War and are also about to release Call of Duty: Black Ops. At the end of Call of Duty 2 though Infinity Ward gave the rights to Treyarch, but took it back when they created Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare, which went on to be possibly, in my view, one of the greatest games of all kind. It was a first person shooter, also known as fps, (if your not a geek fps basically means seeing out of your human character that you control) that was set in a more modern time period. All the other games up until that point that involved Call of Duty was set during World War II. The idea of this more modern type of weaponry interested so many people because it was something that was going on in our own time period so to speak. The story line of Call of Duty 4, cod4, was basically that the Russian Ultranationalist party joined up with an unknown Middle Eastern Rebel group called the Separatists and started an uprising in this Middle Eastern country. This interested the players because of its futuristic like weapons. However short it may be you will still want to play through it at least twice to fully understand the story line of it. What appealed to many players is not only the intense campaign, but also the multiplayer experience. “Call of Duty 4 has awesome multiplayer,” said a member of Ign (Video Here). One got to choose which gun he could use along with what attachments he/she could use with it. This was the start of a revelation to the multiplayer experience in almost every single game. Plus a new idea was added to the multiplayer, which was kill streaks. In cod4 they had radar that showed where the enemy’s where, an airstrike, and a helicopter. Then in 2009 Infinity Ward created Modern Warfare 2, mw2, which once again changed not only the multiplayer, but also themselves. Infinity Ward decided to add more attachments and more customizations, like instead a scope they allowed for an upgraded scope and allowed you to carry something with a little more firepower than a pistol. The also added 12 more killstreaks to the multiplayer, like a nuclear bomb going off and your team winning even if it seems as though you’re about to lose. The campaign however was short again, but was awesome. Ign stated, “It feels like a highlight real of Front Line Warfare,” and “It feels like Infinity Ward came up with a laundry list of cool stuff they wanted to add and then worried about the story to connect it.” (Video Here) However many people did think it was short, but awesome because of the graphics and story line. Infinity Ward also added something called Spec Ops, which were little missions that had nothing to deal with the campaign that either one loved or one hated. You would need to do these with a friend though because it makes them more fun and so much easier. I can not count the number of times I tried to bet them by myself with one player, but once a friend hoped in it was smooth sailing from there.
What many players liked about this series though is its multiplayer. One could add a sight to a gun instead having just to use the built in sights for example. However in mw2 one could upgrade that sight and add another attachment to a gun. This allowed one to wreak havoc if he/she could use it right. Also what people liked was the perks, upgrades to your own physical attributes, which allowed for a more powerful shot or quicker reloading for example.
Many questions though are out about a possible Modern Warfare 3. It is said to release sometime in 2011, but that is all we know so far. However it will probably not be made by Infinity Ward because two the guys that helped a lot on the Modern Warfare series left and now Infinity Ward does not know what to do (Info Here). Either than that if you have any type of gaming system and do not have cod4 or mw2 then you are missing out on one of the greatest games ever invented. If you are not into this whole killing things with guns and all I understand, but if you are then what are you doing sitting there and reading this, go out and buy it.
What many players liked about this series though is its multiplayer. One could add a sight to a gun instead having just to use the built in sights for example. However in mw2 one could upgrade that sight and add another attachment to a gun. This allowed one to wreak havoc if he/she could use it right. Also what people liked was the perks, upgrades to your own physical attributes, which allowed for a more powerful shot or quicker reloading for example.
Many questions though are out about a possible Modern Warfare 3. It is said to release sometime in 2011, but that is all we know so far. However it will probably not be made by Infinity Ward because two the guys that helped a lot on the Modern Warfare series left and now Infinity Ward does not know what to do (Info Here). Either than that if you have any type of gaming system and do not have cod4 or mw2 then you are missing out on one of the greatest games ever invented. If you are not into this whole killing things with guns and all I understand, but if you are then what are you doing sitting there and reading this, go out and buy it.
The Jersey Shore: A Reality train wreck
The Jersey Shore: A Reality train wreck
By Marin, CITYterm Fall 2010
We are all exposed to the world of reality television. Shows such as Survivor and The Amazing Race started television on a roller coaster ride of shows that, “presents purportedly unscripted dramatic or humorous situations, documents actual events, and usually features ordinary people instead of professional actors,” as defined by Wikipedia. But when does reality go to far? To the point where the concept for a show is to have poofed, spiked, muscle head, tanned, saline filled Italians, affectionately called Guidos and Guidettes, spend a summer together in a house. The show chronicles them as they spend their time fighting over who slept with who, girls having cat fights, clubbing, and occasionally doing this thing called working to earn their stay in the house. Welcome to the Jersey Shore.
Many ask, why have a show that focuses around the lives of trashy 20 year olds getting wasted and clubbing? What makes a show do good that is draws 5.5 million viewers to watch each episode? I believe it’s like the phenomenon of driving by a car accident. It’s morbid, sad, and disturbing, yes, but you just can’t look away. The show itself has drawn negative feedback from different media sources, including Time Magazine, over the terms Guidos and Guidettes, as they are “awful anti-Italian stereotype peddied on jersey shore,” written in the New York Daily News. As well as there being anger over the portrayal of Italians, many residence from both New Jersey, mainly the Jersey Shore area, and Miami are desperate for the show to leave their area. In a recent Quinnipiac University poll, 51% of Garden state residence has an unfavorable view of the show, while only 11% had a favorable view. The rest were undecided. At SILive,the main issue was over the fact that many local residence of the Jersey shore saw the cast and show in general as giving the area a bad reputation. Local resident John La Stalla, say, ""You're trying to create a family town, and you got a bunch of kids acting very rude, and it doesn't create a good image." Many residence have also been upset due to the publicity they are getting, since they feel it is over-rated. Cast members of the show have appeared on such major television programs as Jay Leno, Jimmy Kimmell, and multiple award ceremonies. As well as being looked down upon, maybe people just see the show as a joke. YouTube videos making fun of the characters are common, as well as cartoons portraying the characters in a malicious way. However to many, their over the top exhibits of violence, drama, and partying have earned them the right to be laughed at as the trash of American society. CITYterm student Wyatt Scruggs believes that, "the Jersey Shore is purely on television for entertainment purposes, and really has no purpose. It shows that people will watch something just to make themselves feel better since the cast is dehumanized and derogatory towards women and others. It has no educational purpose and clearly is just for laughs."
However, some people see the “juiceheads,” as something to benefit from, including the Jersey shore store owners and law enforcement written in a recent MTV article. Since the beginning of the show last year, Seaside Heights has boomed economically. Shops on the boardwalk are booming, and the area is busy year round as tourists flock to the shore in search of the cast. As many store owners say, you can’t pay for exposure. With characters with names such as “Snookie,” and “Jenni J-WOW”, Jersey shore has become a revolutionary new reality show that draws in all types of viewers. Who doesn’t love cat fights, drama, and people that are so embarrassing that its funny? Jersey shore is definitely a train wreck, and while many media sources agree, it’s one I wont be looking away from any time soon.
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