Song reviews

My three songs were:

Bob Dylan - The Times They Are A Changin' (1963)
The Marvelettes - Please Mr. Postman (1961)

Stevie Wonder - Superstition (1972)

The Times They Are A Changin':

This song takes me back to my childhood, and is very sentimental to me. My father has always been a huge fan of Bob Dylan, so I've really grown up with a lot of Dylan's music and music influenced by his. Bob Dylan is an interesting musician because he really has an awful singing voice, but it just sounds so good when he sings. He's really portraying the message that the music isn't always about sounding beautiful, sometimes it's just about what the singer is saying.

Please Mr. Postman:

I really love the upbeat sound to this song, it really puts me in a great mood. I just generally like

the sound of this song. I think it really characterizes the music and feel of the time, then makes it ten times better. The Marvelettes just have that feel of absolute happiness and bliss, I can't even explain it.



Superstition:

I've heard this song before many times, or at least that key guitar riff, but I never knew it was Stevie Wonder. This song has always seemed to be a classic funk song, with its clear funk sound and feel. Stevie Wonder has a clear understanding of how to put together a timeless song and his beautiful singing voice only reinforces that. Superstition will forever be on my top list.

Song of Solomon meeting #3

A. Do you like the book? Why or why not?
So far I like the book. I think it's really interesting and at times it's hard to put down. Then again, it's also really confusing at times, so that's one thing I'm not too keen on. Some parts are also kind of long and drawn out, like it'll stay on one thing forever. Other sections can be really quick though, and even too quick.



Three main themes of the story

1. Racism

2. Growing up

3. Family relationships



B. Write an interpretative question.

What is Milkman's relationship with his family?



Milkman has a very complicated relationship with his father, along with his mother. In the past, he's liked his mother, but after his father Macon reveled some interesting secrets about his mother to him, Milkman completely changed his perception of her. Macon has always had a weird relationship with Milkman, he's always been fairly harsh on him, but then took him to work with him as he became a teenager. Their relationships will continue to unfold as the story goes on, and I'll be eagerly awaiting to find out how it turns out.



C. What quote seems particularly relevant to one of the themes you identified above? What does it add to the theme overall? How does that theme enhance the meaning of the book overall?

(page 155 & 156) In this section, Guitar talks extencively about how whites are unnatural and how they would kill a black man at a moment's notice. He said that any white man would kill a black man for fun, and no black man would do that to a white man or anyone. This section really illustrates how egocentric some of the characters were, and this section make me a bit angry just reading it. There are many other sections where the same points are stated, most of which are grossly racist and frustrating.

Song of solomon meeting #2

Song of Solomon is starting to pick up. But mostly because of morbid curiosity, Milkman's mother, Ruth, was apparently having some weird love triangle including her father. I don't know, it's really weird, but it's also really interesting, it makes me feel almost weird. Anyway, this section was very exciting, and I'm sure it'll only continue to be interesting.

Song of Solomon meeting #1

So far this book has been kind of confusing. The main character's name is Milkman, his best friend is Guitar, his father is Macon and his mother's name is Ruth. Not a whole lot has really happened so far so I'm not sure what to really say other than that it's hard to make connections, which was my job. I was the connector, so I had to make connections between the book and my life, current events and other things like that. The book takes place in the 1930's and the main character is black, so right off the bat there are few similarities between the characters and myself. I don't know, it's not very enticing so far, hopefully it'll get better.

Graphic Design sources

http://www.childrenshospitals.net/AM/Template.cfm?Section=Homepage&TEMPLATE=/CM/ContentDisplay.cfm&CONTENTID=24553

http://www.americascores.org/index.php?id=390

http://www.annecollins.com/obesity/child-obesity-stats.htm

http://www.healthiergeneration.org/default.aspx

http://www.mayoclinic.com/health/childhood-obesity/DS00698

http://obesity.org/

Image sources

Here are the sources for the images I've used so far in the video.





http://www.outbacknsw.com.au/dead_mulga_tree.jpg

http://www.mannaharvest.net/images/SH002.jpg

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/c/c2/Hestem%C3%B8j.jpg

http://www.geography.wisc.edu/research/images/Galt_Pesticide%20spraying%20stationary%20boom.jpg

http://www.equinoxhydroponics.com/nutes/images/PestOff.jpg

http://www.uvm.edu/~entlab/grnhouse.jpg

http://www.geographyalltheway.com/ib_geography/ib_ecosystems/imagesetc/basic_photosynthesis.gif
http://web.umr.edu/~djwesten/Research_images/soybeanplants.jpg

http://www.gardenstategardener.com/GSG%20Graphics/strawb17.jpg

http://new-www.iserv.net/v4files/treecare/large/nu-1078.05a.jpg

http://www.helicoptersotago.co.nz/lg_images/ao_bucketwork.jpg

http://www.ambhanoi.um.dk/NR/rdonlyres/95820A50-348B-4121-BD41-169F0A8010AC/0/SprayingmanIV.JPG

http://www.ag.iastate.edu/centers/wrg/Laverne/daily/1960s/4-18-67.JPG

http://www.ag.iastate.edu/centers/wrg/Laverne/daily/1960s/4-13-67.JPG

http://www.change2e85.com/images/store_version1/EPA.jpg

http://www.goycodesign.com/images/wallpapers/cockroach1024x768.jpg

http://raul05.galeogglobale.no/blogg/wp-content/uploads/2006/09/child_starving_bw.jpg

http://oregonstate.edu/dept/ncs/photos/frog1.jpg

http://www.helicoptersotago.co.nz/lg_images/ao_bucketwork.jpg

http://www.wegmans.com/images/about/pressRoom/Produce.jpg

http://www.truthmove.org/workspace/photos-content/earth.jpg

http://weblogs.baltimoresun.com/news/local/bay_environment/blog/corn.jpg

http://www.mo.nrcs.usda.gov/news/MOphotogallery/Scenic/dFarm%20scene%201.jpg

http://www.tangentwines.com/trade/The_Paragon_Vineyard_at_Sunset.jpg

http://www.insectcontrolsystems.com/images/IMG_0345.jpg

http://www.woodstreamcorp.com/images/imagelibrary/JPEG/5172_300dpi.jpg

Border Angels Reflection

Well, I kind of had mixed feelings about our Border Angel, Enruqie Morones. All in all I liked him, but he did have some faults. I thought it was unprofessional of him to go about blatantly insulting such organizations as the Minute Men, even though I agreed with what he was saying. My point is hard to explain, but I’ll do my best to express myself, I feel that he should have tried to stay with the facts and things like that, not go into his personal feelings. He can talk all he wants about how the Minute Men have public displays of racism and from his experience are not very nice people, but not call they crazy, insane, or nuts. That’s just what I think.
Other than that one small criticism, I really liked having him in our class. He seemed like he was really dedicated to this cause, and even though he is faced with threats and hate mail, he still comes in with a smile on his face and with a warm attitude. That’s really what I like to see.
Part of the way through his presentation, I came to the conclusion that this was essentially his dream job. This wasn’t just something he likes, it’s not just a task on a checklist, everything he does for this organization is from the bottom of his heart and he has poured his soul into this club. I’m really happy to see that Enrique Morones is having a great time in the Border Angels, and the fact that he’s to dedicated to it is a quality that I greatly admire. I hope to be seeing him again soon for another class discussion.