Exploartion Three from Dathan

Part One:

'The foundry spat angry cinders into the sky...' gave a sense that it was a living and breathing thing. That kind of characterization breathes more life into the essay and makes it much more engaging. While the last sentence of paragraph two seems somewhat exaggerated it also has some sense of believably. The dust was falling like snow so fast that it whatever picture you would try to draw in it would be swallow by a new layer of dust. The section of the essay that go most of my attention was when he was dreaming about what it would be like to have a parking lot for a back yard. While it may not seem that exciting, that was the scene that I could best construct in my head. That ridiculous scene where he imagined his family to have the only house in that particular section of land.

Part Two:

Track five,Deteriorate, on Demon Hunter’s third full length album has been one song that seems to always make me reflect on the mistakes that I have made, however large or small they might be. It is strange that I mentioned that it is track five on their third album, Triptych, considering that I have never owned a copy. Deteriorate is one of their slower songs, and as such it can seem quite sad. One of the themes of the songs is about how unimportant some of the things that we hold so dear actually are. Those things will bring us down a certain path if we hold on too tight, and it is more than likely a bad path. It is not all sad though, it also speaks about bettering yourself in your seemingly hopeless state.

The logo of the band is a goat/demon skull with a bullet hole in it. For each of

their albums they have a different cover. This is one of the three from the 

album stated above. One of the first band I ever heard.

Exploration Three Matthew Johnson

   

  Fortunate Son

Marsh uses characterization of people to show what environment he lived in and how, towards the end, his family effected how he perceived music. He does this by showing how his dad responds to the move, what his temperament was like. 

His writing was most engaging at the beginning when he outlines his life and atmosphere while growing up. "And nobody who earned his living locally in some less directly auto-related fashion was only fooling himself if he thought of independence." (Section 5). It shows a somber reality in an an elegant way of writing. The verbiage is pleasing even if the context is not. 

Noordpool 

Radiohead has a song called "Weird fishes". Within this song is an emphasis on a collection of seemingly unrelated words that replay. Weird Fishes is uttered over and over again. The melody in the song suggest somber chaos. As if the unknown world is somehow familiar to the singer. Noordpool, a jazz orchestra band, does a cover of this song. There is no words, instead, the instruments seem to suggest the words. Knowing what words accompany what instrument, the seemingly chaotic piece becomes familiar to me, as I understand what the notes convey. This piece always captivates me. As the randomness collects, the unknown world becomes familiar to me too.      

Exploration Three by Paige Riebel

Dave Marsh uses characterization throughout all of his work, "Fortunate Son", not just describe his characters and places, but to actually give his readers colorful visualizations and deep feelings regarding the characters and the places his story goes to. Marsh uses a large amount of unique and envisioning adjectives to describe to his readers what he believes is most important to remember in his writing. When Marsh described the boy's father he did not talk on his appearance, but he did talk about his occupation, which gave us as the readers some leeway and imaginative juice to visualize his father however we would like to believe him to look depending on his professional stance. The author does this time and time again when he describes his characters. When he describes the man that came to his door one afternoon, he doesn't describe the man's bodily structures, but instead he simply says, "He wore a coat and tie and a white shirt, which meant something serious in our part of town." By this simple description we can conclude a lot of valuable information about the man and who he was, yet what we conclude is all relative and depends on what we as individuals think when we see people in a fancy coat and tie. I think that's why I enjoyed March's writing. I enjoyed it because his vague but strong use of wording and adjectives left space for me as reader to assume and created the characters in my head and decide how I would like to perceive them from the little information he gave. My perception on the father or the man who came to the door could be completely different than another reader's take on the men, and that's what I find so neat about Marsh's work.

Honestly, I am a music lover, and I have a wide variety of music I enjoy and listen to on a daily basis. When I was in middle school I really started exploring the music world and when I did, I went through every music phase under the sun. I've been a Bieber/One Direction fangirl, a hardcore Drake lover, a melancholy Keaton Henson listener, an obscure S. Carey fanatic, and I think I even went through a Dubstep and Yellow Claw phase. Overall though, I would have to say that Sleeping At Last's Atlas album has had the biggest impact on me. I literally know every word and when I do listen to it, it makes me over the moon nostalgic and peaceful. Ryan O'Neal is the lead singer and multi-instrumentalist and I swear his voice is supernatural. It's so unique and surreal sounding and the way he incorporates the instrumental aspect of his music to his lyrics is beautiful to me. I found Sleeping At Last when I first started my music journey and then stopped listening to it for a good number of years after that. I eventually picked it back up around my junior year of high school when I was going through an uber rough patch. The music comforted me, taking me back to simpler and more pure times of my life and it made me feel like I was running away from my current mess of a life even though my life was still there and as messy as before I put my earbuds in. I still listen to this specific album on occasion or when I need a little pick-me-up, and I have no doubt that this album will continue to be a lifelong favorite of mine. 

                                        

                                      my all time favorite lyric excerpt from the album

Exploration Three: Amanda Gifford

Marsh uses characterization to describe the industrial growth of his hometown.  He also uses it to describe individual people and the atmosphere surrounding those memorable events.  In one of his descriptive correlations to music he states, "that 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 bubble beneath the music, I was able to feel and contain"  (p. 140).   Through his music he binds mood, characters, events, to project of his memories, thoughts, and feelings into a rhythmic interpretation.  His writing gives the reader a sense of transcending time depicting the culture of the Civil Rights movement.  He gives a voice to racism, having lived witnessing the effects on his family and the world as he knew it. 

One song that shaped my perspective was by JJ Heller, "Your Hands". I heard it during this time I was losing my grandparents. At the time it felt like the weight of the world was crashing down on me. It was really comforting to listen to and be reminded that I am held by my faith. Through these lyrics I was reminded me that even in our darkest moments we are held firm by our beliefs. Since the three loses of my grandparents I feel more compassion for others and enjoy being present in the moment.

"Still" by Amanda Gifford

  

Exploration 3 from Kirsten

In Dave marsh's essay, “Fortunate Son”, he uses characterization of people and places to create vivid pictures in the reader's mind of the scenery and the people he is describing. This way the reader can more easily understand what type of people and what type of place he's talking about. His writing is at its best and most engaging what he is describing his old home. It is the most engaging because he is extremely descriptive and uses examples that the reader can interpret easily. This once again, creates a vivid image of the scene he is writing about. When talking about a song by Smokey Robinson he describes “ The way it [Robinson's voice] twined around impossibly sugary lines and made rhymes with in rhymes, of ordinary conversation, within the limits of everyday vocabulary.”(Marsh, 27).

  I had one personal experience with a song by an artist named Miguel. I recently discovered his newer music and was taken back by how real the lyrics were. And one of his new songs, “Simple Things”, he sings about how his love interest does not need him to be a ‘model’ or ‘movie star’. She only wants the ‘simple things’ from him. This meant a lot to me, as I realized she was saying she only wanted to be with him for him, not because he was famous or had money. Many relationships nowadays are focused on what one person can do for the other. Personally I think that a relationship should be based more on how you feel about the other person versus the benefits of being with them. Miguel makes this point clear in this song, and that is why it had such a strong impact on me.

This is a picture of  Miguel performing. 

Exploration Three Naomi Hillman

A) In the essay "Fortunate Son" by Dave Harsh he really doesn't use any characterization. i say thing because Harsh spends most of the time describing things that are and were around him. In the first paragraph he goes on talking about where he lived, "In a two bedroom house with blue-white asphalt shingles that cracked at the edges when a ball was thrown against them and left powder like talc on fingers rubbed across their shallow grooves." Marsh is telling the whole story as if he sharing us his thoughts. I feel that the writing is at its best when he goes on talking about his father on page 139 in the first paragraph. He goes on saying,  "My father worked without illusions, as a railroad brakeman on freight trains that shunted boxcars through the innards of the plants." Be honest I thought what he said about his father was funny.

B) Okay so i have tons of artist and songs that change my perspective but theirs one artist that always makes me feel 'alive' and his is Taknaori Nishikawa aka TMRevolution. Takanori is a famous Japanese artist, he tour all over the world including the U.S. His music inspires me to become the person i am today. Him and I relate in so many ways for the simple that he's a fan Linkin Park, which I think is funny. When you listen to his music it makes you want to get up and dance and that's what I do all the time when i listen to music. I once found out about TMRevolution when I was in junior high. One of my friends let me barrow this anime, I watched the opening and heard his voice and decided to look him up. When I did i knew that i was in love with him. Now today I got just about all his music now. I'm a crazed fan I'll admit, but for the right reasons. His lyrics are worth listening to if you like Japanese music

                                          He only 45 he'll be 46 this month 09/19 and he was

                                               also in a band called Abingdon Boys School                                                           

 

 

exploration 3: nick sansone

A.) Dave Marsh uses characterization of his house and surrounding neighborhood to get us a real life picture of what it is like to live next to a major car factory that puffs out thick black smoke from large smokestacks, or the "rust-red dust collected on our windowsills". He also uses characterization of the business man who approached his house to let his family know that GM had bought all of the surrounding neighborhood. He mentions how his father grew up on a farm and like everyone else, worked in the factories to make their money, so it was strange to see a man wearing a suit and tie in Pontiac, Michigan. to me, his writing was most engaging at the beginning when he is giving us the setting and a little background of the town he lives in. "Pontiac was a company town, nothing less. General motors owned most of the land, and in one way or another held mortgages on the rest." this leads right into why I found the characterization of the business man so important. It gives us the reader a clue as to how little power the people had with the factories being so close and living on land they owned.

B.) logic, a young and famous hip-hop/ rap star actually called me on my cell phone at about 1:30am. he had just released his freshman album and tweeted that if you emailed him a copy of your receipt and your phone number, he would call you. He did just that. logic's story goes from section 8 in west deer park, Maryland to fame and multiple houses in the hills. I had watched this come up ever since i was in 7th grade, and always admired his work ethic and passion to make a better life for himself and the people closest to him. I used this story when i was at my lowest lows and my highest highs. his story made me feel like I could do anything if I put my nose to the grindstone. i told him almost every single time his story became a huge impact on my life. I still remember exactly what he told me "Nick, i know you have probably heard this 100 times, but you can truly do anything you want to. everyone is special in their own way." He left me with one short but powerful message. "I want you to remember this for me. How can the sky be the limit when there are footprints on the moon" and he wished me good luck, and said goodnight. To this day I use what he said to me as fuel for the fire that keeps me doing my absolute best at everything a attempt.