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I thought the one story of reframing mexico city that spoke to me the most was one called: Dark life. In this story the girl being interviewed had both audio and video to present her troubles with her fashion and how it disables her from a lot of different things. This effected me because i have the exact same problem most of the time, just because i dress a certain way doesn't mean that I'm not respectful and a good student.
In my class memoir i decided to take one of the funniest moments i've had here at Columbia and made it into a hilarious movie/comic thingy! It's going to be great.

Blue Collar Blues

When Einreich begins the piece it is more of a set up to be a sarcastic reenactment of a job she seemed pretty apathetic about, but in reality i feel like Einreich showed that this moment that at first sounds insignificant soon became extremely important in how the rest of her life is viewed. Throughout the piece she talks about all the bad things that seem to go on at Jerry's. But in the span of them there appears a lot of experiences that had made her a stronger person.
My reaction to the piece was more like a situation i couldn't believe i related too. Though i had never had a shitty cleaning lady job. I realized that for something i wanted, or in Einreich's situation 'needed' you have to expirence both the highs and the lows. Even in my own life i'm almost thankful for almost all my mistakes because in the end how would i appreciate right discussions and things that mean so much to me.

Modern Family

In the Fifties and sixties there was a concrete portrayal of the perfect family, a domestic stay at home wife, a hard working father and two obedient and polite children. As the years goes by, the media slowly begins to adjust to a more realistic view of the family. Especially with such a high divorce rate, interracial marriages and other things that have jut recently been more mainstream. I think the portrayal in modern family expresses that not only has the media changed, in what we can actually show on television, and that american standards have changed. It's not that desirable now to have a stay at home parent when the economy is so bad. And now the power and authority of the family comes more or less from the mother and father, or even the kids. We have almost eliminated the nuclear family completely. But somehow most of the values of the old fifties family feels the same. We all try to get along with each other (we try at least) and we try to support our families through one or more incomes and we all try to have some sort of bonding time, though not so much at the table anymore. I like that this sort of change is happening in the media. Because as a society we are changing so fast, i hope the media can keep up. But with shows like modern family i feel like we are definitely going in the right direction.

Bah Bah Black Sheep

Even though I look so much like my parents, I couldn't be more different for either of them. My mom works as a lunch lady part time and at a local cafeteria. She loves cooking, and (while she'd never admit it) cleaning. She thinks horror movies are the devil, and doesn't understand any sort of music besides the 'easy listening genre. My father is an insurance agent who mostly works out of our house, in the minnesotan suburbs. He, a little more open to things then my mother, enjoys a good joke and has more of my sense of humor then my mother. Even though me and my dad get along, we are very different people personality wise. My dad is one of the patient and tolerant men i've ever known and my mother one of the most temperamental, my brother follows suit of my mother in thats sense. My brother is your average teenage boy, who enjoys a good game of high school football and some of the more popular music on the radio. But for me, I really am none of the above. Though my family loves and respects me, which took all to long to achieve, I have a personality i feel is completely different from that of any of my immediate family members.   Im never afraid to tell anyone how i feel about something. I'm blunt and I provoke controversy. Unlike the rest of my family who prefers to stay under the radar in almost every situation. Im sarcastic and i have a sense of humor that is probably considered 'sick' and 'dark' because i love all obscenities and i love making people feel uncomfortable, and creating shock value; (most of my own humorist satisfaction comes from trying to creep people out). My musical taste run to the performers who venture out in extreme costumes with lyrics that challenge routine and american norms. I love constantly trying to change peoples ideas and make them really think. A lot of my personality as far as morals go, do come from my family in some aspect, I'm always very respectful to adults (unless they have previously judged my character, then of course i give them exactly who they want me to be.) But In a backwards sense i feel like i was never trying to 'spit' my family in anyway, i've juts always had a completely different view on the world that my family had a hard time being able to relate to.

Social Class and Hidden Curriculum

I loved this reading, I thought it was fascinating the way the author constructed an unbiassed investigation of social classes in the educational system. In the first school selection, The children were taught on a very 'home-made' structure based on what the teachers found significant. What i thought was interesting, was how the teachers addressed the students more or less like pests. The work didn't sound at all like something that helped kids learn and remember information. With blue collar parents and children in lower class schools they seem to think the kids will end up exactly like their parents. Therefore, teachers felt like they didn't need to take time to make sure they understood information. But in the Middle class school, it was focused on making the perfect set of steps, it was not even the outcome that was incredibly important. In middle class sorts of jobs it is more about being able to take orders and execute them exactly as they are told, with no short-cuts. There is not a whole lot of creative problem solving, therefore why would kids of middle class parenting need to learn that? It seems odd to me when I looked at it and slowly realized my own experience was so very similar. I couldn’t believe some of the comparisons Anyon was making between the middle class school and my own childhood in public school. Never had I gone in depth with what I was learning or, had an experience in a different financial setting, so I figured that every district was the same.

I think this sort of conditioning has to be happening subconsciously from our prejudices and the way people and their lifestyles effect

the growth of their kids. I believe that Anyon is trying to show us, that in our educational system we are stuck in this rut of predetermining peoples potential. Then, limiting the expectations that kids can achieve more, and expand their knowledge.

Memoir Recap

I absolutely loved the memoir mixed media project! I was totally able to bring exactly what i wanted to the class, i think in pictures and visuals so being able to tell a story with pictures and with words was exactly what i felt most comfortable doing. Im excited because i feel like i accurately portrayed the memory how i remember it. I can't wait to send a copy to my boyfriend, i really want to be able to do more projects like this one. I know that its practically impossible to have every assignment be this way. But this is the way my mind functions so its nice to be able to fluidly transition my thoughts into paper.

I Just Want to be Average

A] Rose's learned in a selective way, so his intelligence is really only coming from what interested him enough to learn about. Though learning from literature is the most educational in my opinion, after I started reading i was able to learn so much easier because i had a larger vocabulary and could better picture situations. Rose in particular came out more of a anti-hero for kids who don't conform to the American Educational system. It poses the fact that you don't always have to learn in the class room you are always able to read books and do your own research in things that interest you. This goes without saying you need to first learn the basics in school before you can go off on your own. However, Rose was able to show that its never to late to start building knowledge and understanding the world around you.

B] We have social 'cues' that help us fit in to a certain group in high school otherwise we would really never survive the hostile environment, but as far as learning goes the cues are all about learning for a grade. Only learn so much that you can pass the exam and go about your life without further investigating the subject so that full understanding is reached. As far as self-percption goes, we feel like we can only judge people's intelligence in school by the grades they receive and not by their intellectual knowledge. People are often judged as 'dumb' when they receive low grades but are really just not being challenged by the information that school is teaching. When kid's like that are told over and over again that they wont be useful in a career, or get into college it become part of their own perception of their ability to learn.

A Boy's Life

When Simms started talking about gender as a disorder, we often relate trans-genderism and homosexuals together even though they are completely different. However calling both of them disorders is a stretch of the imagination. When the gender in your head doesn't match the one you own, how can you call that a disorder? There is nothing mentally hadi-capped with this. They aren't crazy or delusional in any way, these are kids and they can't be anything but blunt about there feelings at such an age where society is less likely to shelter their true feelings and preferences.

B) I believe Simms decision literally could have gone either way. Because she is beginning to let her son live as a girl (which he could just as easily gone through life with male genitals and found love and prospered dressed as a female/and or living like a female.) In my personal opinion i believe she is doing the right thing. You know that this wasn't a phase of Brandon's life but a feeling he cant control or deny. Brandon had technically been living like a girl his entire life anyways so would changing his gender really make much of a difference. Also, the rebel part of me thinks getting a sex change is that person conforming to the normal traits of: this boy is particularly feminine therefor: they should live as a woman, in-sted of a cross-dressing man. Society will give them a job blah blah blah. Im not saying that trans-genderism is wrong in any scenes. Its helped a lot of people truly be themselves, but how much of a difference would it be to have the genitals of the opposite sex you live as? Is society really making such an impact on whole gender schemas that someone who feels like they are a woman inside needs to put that on the out? Rosin's decision however i think was fueled less by her beliefs and more by her daughters happiness. She knows very well that her son is in the wrong body and really feels that she was alone for a long time. After visiting a gathering of transgender kids, she realized that this wasn't something wrong or a disease.

Gender and Society

After reading that article about gender roles I had a really fast reaction to my childhood. I was always that kid that needed attention and would go about every way to get it. Most of my younger childhood years were spend pretending i was a boy and pulling it off the best i could. ( eventually causing my mother a lot of sexual confusion about me.) I wasn't doing it because i felt like being the opposite gender than my own but it was more about putting on a performance in everyday life. Creating a character that i could have fun playing. Knowing that the author's name was Holly too, sort of helped me get through the article. I already identified a lot of the information simply as: 'general research'. But even though i feel very confident with my gender, i felt extremely uncomfortable reading it.  Maybe it was because I was knocking down all the things i did wrong while trying to be 'feminine'. Or perhaps it was just the fact that someone who went through a tans-gender surgery, the author, was so ridged and unmoved about gender roles in society. The writing felt like a very constructed prejudice. Why do people have to confide in a gender-sorted box? Does anyone really do that? Maybe I was missing the message in the article, but I was very distracted by the creation of such a stereotype. All I could think about while reading, all the qualifications for masculinity, Was that the guy in skinny jeans really didn’t fit that word at all even though he was holding hands with a very feminine looking girl.  Something about the article simply sickened me, I think it was a dumb thing to research, who cares who has the proper gender roles in society anyway?

My Body

In relation to my personality, I have to say my physicality fits me pretty well. The first thing someone would notice about my body is that I'm fairly tall for a girl. Im a good 5'7" with a rotten posture that my mother constantly on edge about. I have a very pessimistic view on life so the hunch works out well. As for the height I think it adds to a good deal of my intimidation factor. Not to mention it makes my presence a bigger one. I have large feet and hands, which I use a lot for gestures and visual explanation. I believe my hands give me one of the few very feminine features about me. It fits mostly because I'm not a very 'girly' girl in any way (exceptions do occur.) Im gifted with my long arms and legs, because it correlates with my high expectations, I always expect people to be better then me so, a lot of the time I end up being a jerk when I exceed them somehow (yeah, I know its mean.) My teeth are one of my most prominent features, they're long, and very sharp. And all of my teeth oddly look like everyone else's front teeth. I honestly think they relate to what a smart-ass I can be. I'm pretty witty and I feel like a mouth can give off exactly my snarky criticism. I have a pretty lanky build where you can see my bones alot through my skin, though I'm not very thin. I think this extenuates my nerve to get right to the point I'm very honest and don't like sugar coated explanations. I don't need to put pretty skin over truth. For me personally I wouldn't change a thing about my body because it predicts me so well. I have to say before I did this I wasn't so sure but now, I could see more comparisons then I even imagined.

A Love Memoir

In March I knew I was in love because it happened just like everyone tells you it would. ‘It hits you and then you know’ they say. So, one day it beat me in the head harder then I ever imagined. This ‘Love’ feeling, was given to me by a certain; Nathan Towle from New Brighton Minnesota. As cheesy as this may sound I knew it the first time I saw him. That day in March, when I was enveloped by this massive feeling, that can only be described as ‘love’.
 It was Friday and I was expecting him. After a day of waiting around and reapplying mascara, I had finally succumbed to wasting away in my guitar room until further notice of the then mysterious Nate. A few hours must have gone by because I could hear my mothers voice echoing from the foyer that ‘Someone’ Is here to see me. I get up and walk slowly to the stairs. I remember trying to walk in a slow tempo so as not to appear so close to the door. I gracefully climbed one flight of stairs that reached my foyer where he stood.

 At first, we looked at each other like we were old friends. An electricity buzzed between us. I raised my hand and waved. Instantly I felt calmed, like my nervous make-up routine of placing eyeliner on every couple of minutes was a complete waste of my time. I could already tell I didn’t need to be wearing any make-up that very moment. This feeling was much to intimate to be wearing something so fake.

“I’m Holly.” I said as I approached him. He stood a loud six feet tall. But the rest of him contradicted his threatening height. Soft blues eyes peeked out from behind deep sockets. His face, a comical and good natured one loomed over me. I figured a face like that could be misunderstood. Like, if you were far enough away you might call it a brooding face of an angsty teenager. But up close you could see nothing but a sense of pure wonder in his eyes.
            “Nate” He put his hand out to shake. I remember vividly thinking this was an odd way to meet a girl you intended to take out on a date. But, I passed it off as a novice gesture (which it was). He was wearing faded blue jeans and clunky black boots. A black jacket that I found incredibly Bad-ass, and a Faded black Sabbath T-shirt. His hair was beautiful, a long honey brown shade (purely natural) that literally cascaded like a jungle of curls and loops onto the Bad-ass jacket collar.
Something about the way he moved his entire body transfixed me. But when that feeling, the love one, hit me. It had nothing to do with physicality. I can’t describe it because even I can’t tell you what did it. But something about Nate and I standing infront of each other in the foyer of my little house in Plymouth  stains my memory in the most beautiful way.

The Project: SEX AND THE TEENAGE MIND

I wish I had more time to create this project because I really fell in love with the idea, and felt like I needed more time to capture this raw college life stuff on my own time. What I found doing these photos was I really didn't have to pose people as much as I thought I would. It came pretty naturally with stuff lying around that seemed perfect for the photos. What I really wanted to see was something gross, like kids making out in the hallway or someone so drunk they start taking their clothes of. Because, i wanted to capture more than just this unquenchable sex drive we teenagers often portray. What I really wanted was some sort of scapegoat for why we were so free with sex. Was is a coming of age thing? Or was it a self-esteem deal? I couldn't tell. But the project really made me think it over and I really hadn't up until then. Why are teens OBSESSED with sex? What part of it really make's people need multiple partners for it and so on. Most of this project has made me discover more questions than answers unfortunately, but when can't say that there isn't a complete mystery. We know that sex is a stress reliever, something that feels good, and it's a social event. But we can get all these outlets from eating ice cream or watching a movie. But what is it when we meet someone attractive and someone common to us we want to Fuck 'em?  How can we even build relationships, when all we do is fuck anyway? It's a very twisted perception that we teenagers have been put under. On one side we want to act like adults and have intimate relations with people we like. But, on the other hand we also want to fill this itch to be physically satisfied. They can cross paths and often ruin the relationship or connection you originally ha d.

My Stream: http://www.flickr.com/photos/67802539@N05/

My Project: http://www.flickr.com/photos/67802539@N05/sets/72157627742491418/show/

W&R Project in Depth

Alright, my visual rhetoric project is going to be the teenage glorification of sex, and the loss of virginity becoming a sort of transition into adulthood. We as teens get a shit load of media in which sex is glorified all the time. In most movies catered to the teenage population, the entire movie plot is based around the main character trying to get laid. We view sex as an act that adults preform so it's only natural for teens to want that transition from being a child (who couldn't possibly understand sex/love) to an adult who experiences something 'amazing' when they have sex. I'm not particularly holding any sort of opinion on the matter (considering I am a teenager.) I only want to see what comes out of my exploration in the subject. My pictures are going to be very staged and ironic. Placing sex as the center of all the pictures. In my first picture idea was that, i wanted to have a few of my friends all dressed up in formal wear clapping and watching porn. Infusing the high status sex implies and lacing it with frowned upon adult media. I want all the photos i take to have this sort of feel towards sex. Showing both, irony and a strong sense of shunning for the teenage culture and its interpretation of sex. So definitely some Pathos will be involved. Some obstacles I might encounter could be people not wanting to stage some of the things i plan on taking pictures of. But, besides that i have a good plan for most of it.

This is one of the advertisements i took a picture of during our field trip around the South loop today. I found it at a bus stop in one of those rotating adds that switches every 10 seconds, or whatever. When I first looked at it I assumed the picture was portraying some Pathos because the it looks to be an ad for a dramatic TV series. I'm guessing all the characters all trigger some sort of emotional response to the people that watch this show, or for a person who might be interested in what the show entails. I also believe there is some Ethos as well, because the actors must be credible in the TV show (because if there on TV they are probably semi-famous.) and so, we have to trust these famous actors wouldn't just act in any lame show. It would have to be one with a good budget and decent write/production/creative plot blah blah blah.
 The message is very clear within this picture it is basically saying: Watch me. It is telling you the specific time you may place your ass upon the couch and watch this show. The receiver of this advertisement is most likely people who have never seen the show before. While the show is trying to recruit viewers and make sure to retain their regular watchers they must appeal to a very large group. The context of this advertisement is relevant because almost everyone has a television and the channel isn't really an exclusive/expensive one. So by putting it by a bus stop common people can have access to the information the ad is trying to show. And the picture is showing some pretty nerdy guys and an attractive chick, A.k.a you have just about the entire straight male population ready to watch that show. Now, that i look one or two of the guys are attractive so maybe the Gay male population as well. It's got culturally diverse characters therefore they appeal to a broad audience of races, and last but not least the color of the poster is eye catching.
This assignment I was pretty pumped for. In actuality though it was rather annoying. Everyone seemed to take the same pictures over and over again and none were fun to take or look at. If we could have done it on our own i believe i could have had a little more fun with it and had better results than rushed half-assed pictures of bus ads.

MoCP-Jennifer Ray's 'Fruit, Dentures,Viagra'

This piece by Jennifer Ray first made me laugh because i saw these dentures sitting on a log in the middle of the forest. What the hell are dentures doing on log in the first place? So then i decided to read the prompt on the side of the display and quickly realized that this photo and the collection of other photos in the series were based on a woods were men met to have anonymous sex. Funny how the connection of sex and nature is combined with the synthetic items like Viagra, plastic (from the water bottle) and dentures. I also liked that the photo had a high contrast in the dark, making it in the same setting the action of the photo, might have taken place. The centered piece of the photo bring the most attention would be the fruit. I made this connection immediately to biblical context. The forbidden fruit directly related to sex, and fills the gap where nature and human instinct combine. This very simple and natural act of sex is also combined with very mechanic and modern twist. The water bottle in the photo directly reminds me that this is modern day. Along with the Viagra, i immediately think a human creation to enhance the feeling of sexuality, so this picture is portraying our modern view of something we do naturally. I believe this photo is trying to question human sexuality and its connection to nature, through a dramatic placement of man made enhancements. Because technology is huge part of peoples' sexual lives these days.

The Second Post

This is a painting by the modern artist; ARYZ. I don't know very much about him besides the fact that this picture made me smile. Why I like it is really the fact that its making something that normally brings depressing thoughts (a.k.a the skeleton) and puts it into a very light and happy situation (riding the alligator like a bicycle.)  The sender of the message is making the content very oxymoron-ish, so the receiver gets sort of a '...what the fuck?' feeling, but with a giggle at the end. Aishetic principles of this picture involves the main event centered in the piece, with a muted tones of browns and greens. It catches your eye and the longer you look at it the more you see. 

I think that this painting portrays. Pathos because of the statement where the skeleton riding the alligator, its saying that even after people are long gone, we will still rule the world. (also an oxymoronic statement, which is humorous in the painting. making it Pathos). Although to a lot of people some what believe this statement: 'we are people, we create skyscrapers therefore we are better than everything else'

I also believe it could portray Logos because if we go off the tangent of the previous statement above. We can logically connect that if we believe that we are more superior then everything around us, how can our existence cease to cause effect after we are dead.

I guess I will name this, The Fist Post

Alright, here we go. My name is Holly Axelrod, and I was going to be a film major here at Columbia, but I found out I'm not pretencious enough to make a  sucsessful a career out of bullshitting. Im very passionate about music and art and I hope to make it in life while having my dignity and a hopefully all my limbs. I say the limbs part because my first day here i was chased by a dude in a wheelchair for a good block and a half down wabash street. I wish never to become that man that i so fear.
I wanted to come here because i was simply done with the high school role play of being the one 'Freaky" looking kid in public school. Now that i got to Columbia i feel my surroundings arn't as sugar coated as they were in high school.
A little snipp-it about me is that i absolutely love writing songs and lyrics. I have been doing it since i was very young and i have continued it through out my life. Now I am extending more on the musician side of things by learning guitar and hopefully drums in the future. As for now I'm in a make-shift all girl's funk/metal band call: Beat the Dead Horse, with my current roommates.
I have always loved drawing (Hence why I'm Switching my major to illistration or studio arts) It's always been my passion and i have done so much through art that i couldn't imagine a world where i couldn't pull out a piece of paper and draw whatever i wanted. Last year I wrote and drew an entire graphic novel called : 'The Kingdom of Sawdust'. I'm trying to get it published, and have been for quite some time. It's kinda my pride and joy as far as work is concerned.
I have always enjoyed writing and I really am looking forward to use it a way that i can express my thoughts creatively. I've been in a creative writing class in high school and i made some of my very good friends there. I love hearing peoples opinions and i think writing is a dandy way to see some of that person that doesn't always come off when you first meet them.


Here is a video that i wrote and acted in. Pretty sure it got me kicked out of Emerson when they asked for a piece of my work in film.http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5jO2OmsyDf0