Exploration 3 from Desiree

In Marsh's "Fortunate Son", the writer does not use a lot of dialogue to characterize the people in the story. The character's thoughts was pretty much the only characterization in this story. His thoughts tell us basically the whole story. He describes everything from the town in which they live, to his perspective of music. I feel that Marsh uses this kind of characterization to emphasize people who really made an impact on the main character's life. For example, the character's father was mentioned throughout the text. In the character's thoughts, he said "My father worked without illusions, as a railroad brakeman on freight trains that shunted boxcars through the innards of the plans, hauled grain from up north, transported the finished Pontiacs on the first leg of the route to almost anywhere Bonnevilles, Catalinas, and GTO's were sold."(136) This tells us that the character's father was very hard working and sacrificing. I believe that Marsh's writing was at its best when he was giving vivid descriptions of Pontiac, Michigan. When he was describing the small town of "a hundred or so" people, the steel warehouses, rust-red dust collecting on their windowsills, I could picture it perfectly in my head.
One song that changes my perspective or mood is "Closer" by the Chainsmokers. Whenever that song plays my mood instantly changes. It reminds me of when I'm with my friends having fun because whenever the song comes on, we're always having a good time.

Chainsmokers at Tomorrowland

Music as a Literacy Event: Exploration Three - Matthew George

Words are words: black markings indicating a message encoded into language. So how is it then that a person is able to implant into one's mind the experience of sight, sound, and feeling of a place they have never visited? This is the triumph Dave Marsh achieves in his essay "Fortunate Son" through the expansive descriptive details of his setting and the entities that inhabit it. Although words may only be words, how he uses them conveys the world(s) he saw with his eyes at a young age. I use the term "world(s)" based on his experience with the Smokey Robinson song "You Really Got a Hold on Me", specifically the lines "These singers spoke  for me as well as to me, and that what they felt and were able to cope with, the deep sorrow, remorse, anger, lust and compassion that bubbled beneath the music, I would also be able to feel and contain. This intimate revelation was what I gleaned from those three minutes of music, and when they were finished and I climbed out of that bunk and walked out the door, the world looked different." The ability to describe how life changing as something as simple as a single song could be is the point where his writing truly excels. Because this is life changing this is admittedly one of-if not-the most significant event to occur in the entire span of his life even beyond when he first heard this song to today, it is at this point that Dave Marsh is writing about what many other figures would call their divine intervention, the moment that defines their lives even beyond their deaths and into the records of history. The significance of the event is the reasoning behind why his writing transcends the rest of the essay at this point: He is trying to explain this part because this is not only the most important part of his essay but also his life.

If you were to name the genres of music that exist, there would be a genre most people would gloss over-that is if they haven't forgotten it. This is a genre that has little purpose in our world beyond a certain point in our lives, but is far more powerful than many songs we may ever listen to after that turning point. This genre is the Lullaby, and no other artist excels in this field that the melancholic yet tranquil magic of Itoki Hana. Itoki is a Japanese college student achieving a degree in music, born in 1993, she could be easily compared to any college student attending OSU or any other college. If she can be so easily compared than how is it that she is able to construct, as an architect of sound, music that surpasses an infinite number of other artists simply because their songs are trite, existing in some format already identical to one another with their lyrics, beats, and messages? Years ago during a Public Speaking class assignment to talk about a song that struck a cord with you, I used Itoki Hana's "Shadow" (The first original song she ever uploaded to the internet, as her previous works were lullaby remixes of already existing songs), claiming that it was the lullaby that could tame even the most wild and violent of beasts, To this day I still believe that original idea. Like the three minutes that forever changed Dave Marsh's world, the 3 minutes and 33 seconds of this song forever changed my view of the world. It proved to me that even in our hectic, hate and anger favoring, speed and convenience riddled Makai, there is still a place for slow and tranquil to exist.

Here's a link to the song for those interested in listening to it.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bRc462NyCT8

The cover art for "Shadow" created by her friend Pekosola. The image is a perfect representation of how her songs are: The candle representing tranquility against the cold empty vastness of  infinite space.

Footnote: Makai is the Buddhist depiction of Hell, however unlike our typical depiction where suffering is infinite, Makai acts more like a prison where one is allowed to transcend after they have served their sentence. I often refer to our world as Makai with our eventual deaths being the end of our imprisonment.

Exploration 3- Pauleina May

Marsh describes characterization of people and the place by how he describes them, he describes everything with a lot of details. Marsh uses details because it helps the reader get a mental understanding of what is going on. More detail in a story is easier for a reader to get a picture and a better understanding of what is happening in the story. The most engaging part in the short reading for me was at the beginning of the story. He describes the setting and describes what everything is around him, and how he feels about it. An example, he says "When people talk about hell, he imagined a foundry at night". He then says that the foundry spat angry cinders into the sky all night long and red-hot flames shaping glowing metal. He is describing that hell is not a pleasant place to be and that a foundry is what he thinks hell is.




Mathew West is a christian singer who has impacted my life in many ways. I have seen Mathew West in concert twice this year already and he gets better every time I see him. The one song that is my favorite, that hits close for me is the song "Do Something". My major is social work and for that profession you have to be willing and have a heart for helping people and I have a passion for helping people. I have been on 6 different mission trips and all have been different in a way but the one thing that never changes is helping people out. This song is about going out an doing something in the world or making a difference for someone. In the lyrics it is about all of this hurt and and trouble in the world and they ask God why doesn't he do something about it, and the response was that he created us so we could go out and do something. This is just very inspirational and it hits home because its a passion of mine and the songs says everything on how I feel.

Mathew West at one of his concerts! 

Exploration 3 By Regan Ross

I enjoyed the essay by Dave Marsh very much. I thought his use of words and lack of dialogue really lets the reader into his young mind. I think Marsh uses the characterization of people and places because it is an essay about his childhood. His town was very important to him, so explaining many details of the town helps develop his relationship with it and why it was so hard to move to a different setting. The characterization that was explained to us about certain people was very important because he uses almost no dialogue. This also makes the story more personal to him in a way because we only read about his internal thinking not anybody else's words. I think that the writing was at its best and most engaging when he was explaining the town where he grew up in  the beginning. For some reason this explanation of the town interested me and it drew a very clear picture of what it must have been like to live there. "Our baseball and football field ground lay in the shadow of another General Motors building... What I can recall of it now is a seemingly reckless height- five or six stories is a lot in the flatlands around the Great Lakes." This quote shows how everything in the town basically revolved around the large company which was there. In earlier paragraphs Marsh explained how most of the people in the town worked for General Motors. The quote demonstrates one way General Motors impacted his life as a child.
One song that always changes my mood is "She talks to Angels" by the Black Crowes. I had listened to this song growing up and really liked it. Then one day I saw a guy on the street playing it and it gave the song a whole new meaning. His voice was amazing and you could see his passion for music in the song. It is an old song that I would not normally listen to and thats probably why it stands out to me so much. It is just a really great song and always lifts my mood.

I chose this photo because the guy on the street was playing guitar

Exploration #3- Hunter Bayer

In Dave Marsh's essay "Fortunate Son", Marsh uses characterization to give the people in his story to make them life like and show a perspective that is from Marsh himself. He uses his characters and locations to help build and continue the story so he himself isn't carrying the story with just his actions. Some of the best writing comes from the chapters or section's beginning part. In the 30th paragraph, Marsh sets up the scene using his parents and their radio. It starts "That last year in Pontiac we listen to the radio a lot. My parents always had. One of my most shattering early memories is of the radio blasting when they got up".

The logo for the Legendary band, Queen

One song that has changed how I see things is Queen's Bohemian Rhapsody. It's an amazing classic and it's the first song that really made me appreciate music. It's also the first time I listen to the lyrics  to a song. This song is also the song that me and my friends all sing along while driving. The last time I listened to this song was on the way back from the movies Saturday night. It was great way to end a night out.

exploration two from nick sansone

hello! my name is Nick Sansone and i am from Lewis Center Ohio. I went to Olentangy high school, and played hockey there all 4 years and i am continuing to play this year for the club hockey team. After this year i plan on transferring to main campus. i am going to double major in accounting and finance, and hopefully will be able to go back and get my CPA once all is said and done.

 

in The Call To Write, i learned that simple notes, or a store list is considered writing. Most people consider writing to be siting down and typing a long essay. although, almost everyone writes every single day. either for their job, or for small things around the house

Dub FX Documentary active listening Writing Exercise 1

This is a YouTube profile done by supporters of Dub FX.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e7Fv0hB-R8A

We'll watch this actively together.

As you see in your Homework handout, the exercise is to respond to the short documentary by sharing an insight and something specific you noticed in your active viewing.  Read the other Comments as they come here on the blog so we are not repeating the exact same things but rather are adding to the conversation and using many different ideas in the response to the film.

Have fun and we'll notice a lot more as a group than we ever could as any one person!

Mike

Dub FX, stylised also Dub Fx and DubFx, (real name Benjamin Stanford) is a worldwide street performer and studio recording artist from St Kilda, Melbourne, Australia (Wikipedia).

With his girlfriend and performer Flower Fairy.

P.S. Here are links to two other Dub FX videos and note the production values of these YouTube videos.  Plus they are just good songs, IMHO.

https://youtu.be/WhBoR_tgXCI  The song "Flow" with Mr. Woodnote

https://youtu.be/9mKwjpTXh8E  "Made" with skateboarders in cameos