December 2020 – Page 3 – English 2100 x 90: Fall 2020

All Star Blog

The Curious Grammar of Police Shootings

This post was my favorite as I believe that I was able to adequately describe the various effects of language. The article itself was very powerful, so it was only right that I used more impactful words to do the family of the victims some justice. To continue, it is important to write and self reflect on the silenced narratives as they too are unheard by the media. To take news channels and reporters at face value nowadays, is dangerous. There are many different people who are willing to shape their stories to benefit either themselves or a certain side. Hence, I think that my analysis was able to accurately pinpoint and reflect some even if a little, of the pain of the victims.

This article was very enlightening to read as it brought up a new aspect of news articles I haven’t considered before. When reading about police shootings, it seems very black and white since in theory, you were either correct in shooting them or not right? Balko introduces the idea that despite the justifications, the police always seem to be portrayed as the good guys. While it isn’t blatantly said, the wording used undermines the events and the purpose of the article making it lackluster at best. If Long Soldier maintained this type of writing style, it would have caused many sympathizers of “Everything is in the language that we use” to have a nonchalant attitude towards her article instead. To not use the needed grammar only signifies to reader that this story is not important or newsworthy to add literal effect. This heavily adds insult to injury to the victim’s family as their story is being poorly misrepresented by the media in an effort to soften the blow on affected communities. It is the responsibility of these various medias to educate the public of the ironies throughout our system of the very people sworn to protect us, committing murder. We can further extend this irony to whether the same people who are supposed to “educate” us, are actually misleading us.

All-Star Blog

Introduction to the New Jim Crow
“Alexander’s introduction allows ample support of the claim “we have not ended racial caste in America; we have merely redesigned it.” She begins with an example of Jarvious Cotton’s exemption from voting and the fact that his lineage has suffered from the same issue. This immediately gives proof of how the racial caste is still present in modern America as the fundamental right of voting was restricted across multiple generations. Similarly, African Americans have suffered through the generational disadvantage of accumulating wealth. For example, there has been a specific instance in the past where black communities have became extremely successful in gaining economic freedom, but were destroyed by white mobs (Tulsa massacre). How are African Americans expected to succeed at the same rate as their white counterparts when the patriarchal lineage of white people were never restricted from basic materials needed to thrive (accumulating wealth or voting in elections)? Alexander also writes about the uncanny similarity between mass incarceration and Jim Crow segregation. Under Jim Crow laws, African Americans were expected to take a literacy test (practically impossible to pass) in order to vote. Today, after African Americans are released from prisons, “… they are often denied the right to vote, excluded from juries, and relegated to a racially segregated and subordinated existence.” and “they are legally denied the ability to obtain employment, housing, and public benefits—much as African Americans were once forced into a segregated, second-class citizenship in the Jim Crow era.” This correlates to the literacy test as it places unnecessary barriers that prevent African Americans from integrating into and succeeding in American society.”

This blog post stood out the most to me because I vividly remember being so proud of it the moment I submitted. In a personal academic sense, I’m pleased with my response because it showed my growth in writing from the beginning of the semester through my style and analysis of the text. Through Alexander’s writing, the discussion of racism includes a new voice that compares present day society to Jim Crow society and the uncanny similarities. The writing also proves that the ones who are purposefully silenced tend to have the most accurate statements about racism.

URBN 280/BUS 320: Ethics in The American Housing Market: Space, Race, and Place

Urban Planning 280/Business 320

Ethics in The American Housing Markets: Space, Race, and Place

The aim of my course is to provide prospective business students and urban planners with a holistic understanding of the American housing market’s role in shaping social landscapes, and the many ethical hurdles/paradoxes that arise as a result. While the doctrines of social theory have reached the American Housing Market, millions of Americans are faced with homelessness or are unable to obtain housing for one reason or another. Students will be critically examining the way race, space and place, influence contemporary housing markets within the United States, and the ways in which discrimination and oppression are upheld despite regulatory measures in enacting fair housing policy.

Abbreviated Syllabus

Weeks 1-3: The Implications of ethics in Housing: To start off the course, students will be reading/discussing articles and personal narratives that highlight the American Housing Market’s ethical frailty.
Weeks 4-7: The Legal Paper Trail; A story of Hegemonic Resistance: Module 2 delves into the means by which the real estate and housing industries have indoctrinated theories of social justice but dually resisted positive social change throughout American History. Student’s will be reviewing case studies of codified laws and legal mandates that have only served the interests of a white, ruling class.
Weeks: 7-9: The Road to Hell is Paved with Good Inventions: Students will be thinking about well-intentioned policies that have fallen short in implementation. Pupils will begin to understand the ways in which enacting housing policy is never without risk, especially when failing to give unilateral consideration to numerous factors that shape social landscapes
Weeks 10-13: The Philosophy of Home: Delineating from the legality of housing policy, students will begin to put into perspective the philosophical thinking of Gloria Anzaldua, Mariana Ortega, Marianne Frye, and Bell Hooks when discussing the hearth. Students are given the opportunity to critically think about the meaning of the domicile for marginalized members of society.
Weeks 13-16: Problem solving in the contemporary landscape: As we wrap up the semester, students will be tuning into the ethical challenges of the contemporary housing market in a variety of cities, and will begin to think about big-picture solutions.

Assignments

Paper 1: How has the Housing Market Shaped my Neighborhood? 3-5 Pages
Project 1: Investigate a Lease: Student’s will read over a 60-page rent-stabilized lease looking for areas where landlords could theoretically discriminate against prospective or current tenants. Students will then write a 2-3-page report on their findings.
Paper 2: An example of Community Based Resistance. 3-5 pages.
Paper 3: Solve a Problem within the Contemporary Housing Market. 5-7 pages

Student Assessment

Students will be graded on the below stated criteria:

Attendance and Participation – 15% Its imperative that students make a diligent effort to be active participants, and to curate meaningful engagement within my course. This will also aid in the learning process, thus increasing one’s performance on other grading criterion
Papers 1 and 2 – Each 15%
Lease Challenge – 20%
Final Paper -25%
Weekly blog posts/responses to articles – 10% Writing these posts will ONLY prepare students for formal assignments such as papers. The more you engage with the readings, the more you will watch your grade will improve in other areas of the course. Trust me…

All-Star

In this article I’m only focusing on the “Consumerism” and “Environmentalism” parts, because they are the most crucial. The author of this article, Ross M. Hayduk, dives deeply into this cautionary tale about the environment and the consumers, which is called, Wall-E. The whole movie revolves around the company Buy N Large, and how they have monopolized the whole world, and even space. From the supermarkets, the gasoline, the banks, and the transit systems, they now have reign over everything. Doing so destroyed all small businesses and created mass production which now lead to mass waste. Leaving tons and tons of garbage for poor Wall-E to clean up. As Hayduk states, “Wall-E attempts to show that the human species doesn’t need aliens to destroy us and our planet.” Through our anti-environmental individual habits, such as growing dependence on machines, a largely indifferent attitude towards our societal and environmental issues as well as anti-environmental collective policies such as the corporate-dictated government policies whose sole motif is profit, without any real concern for environmental issues, we are walking straight into an environmental apocalypse. These points are the main reason I choose this movie, besides it being my favorite movie, it foreshadows our inevitable doom. Though the corporate dictated policies, and convenience of major companies are the main reason for our impending doom, regular citizens involvement (aka consumerism) is a huge issue too. It’s not fair that the government is trying to blame the consumer for these issues, but sadly that’s what is happening. In Wall-E, the technology provided by Buy N Large is so advanced that the consumers now have no need to think for themselves anymore. Honestly, I feel that is where we are heading today. Self- awareness is key, without it, like seen in Wall-E, humans will drown in the technology and convenience of large companies to the point where they don’t think for themselves ever again, like robots.

I choose this because analyzing this movie was such a fun experience, it was my favorite thing I did all semester. This movie has been my favorite for a long time and analyzing it like I did was very surprising. I was basically writing down everything I’ve been thinking while I watched this movie occasionally throughout the past year. It related to the larger themes throughout the semester because it consisted of the major issue which is climate change, that is effecting everyone. This issue is becoming more and more widespread which is great, I became really involved when the rallies began in the city. But I still feel like a lot is being unsaid, and the public might misunderstand who’s to blame for this issue.

All Star

Reflecting back on the reading, “The Racial Triangulation of Asian Americans” by Claire Jean Kim, one particular quote stood out to me. This quote is: “Before the civil rights era, racial triangulation occurred open, in cultural-racial terms; during the post-civil rights era, racial triangulation has occurred in a coded fashion, in cultural terms decoupled from overtly racial claims.” Looking at this quote, before the Civil Rights Era, Americas openly participated in racial triangulation. There was no need to hide it and deny that it was happening. This is because of all the other acceptable racial ideas that occurred at the time. Ultimately, it was acceptable for people to be racist and discriminate against other racial or ethnic groups. As time moved forward, these behaviors and thought processes were no longer acceptable. This is due to the new normal that came to be in our nation. No longer was it acceptable to deny Blacks the use of a water fountain or subject them to sitting on the back of the bus. Therefore, it prevented racial triangulation from occurring openly. Just because racial triangulation did not occur openly, it does not mean that it went away completely. Instead, during the post- Civil Rights Era the racial triangulation occurred in a “coded fashion”. You had to really look closely to see if racial triangulation was taking place because people tried to hide it since it was no longer aligning with the norms of the time. Similarly, people were no longer overtly racist due to the changes that occurred over time.

This particular post stands out to me because it is very relevant to what is going on in society today. Racism is all around us, but sometimes it can be difficult to see. In my blog post, I mentioned that in the post-Civil Rights Era people have to examine events closely to see if racial triangulation is taking place. Reflecting on this post, something I did here that I liked was incorporating a quote that had meaning to me. This allowed me to develop my own personal perspective on the article. This post related to large course themes around inclusivity of all voices in a given conversation. A voice was given to minorities who are often shut out. It shows how minorities are silenced and told that racism does not exist or that people are colorblind. In reality, there is still covert and overt racism.

All-Star Game for the All-Star Blog

Link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gAg3uMlNyHA

Notes:

0:20 – Macklemore walks into a gym (the one which the NBA shot their 2013 All Star commercial in, commercial link : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WEz5mycFcLw )

0:22 – camera zooms in and focuses on his Jordans

0:36 – stops in the middle of the court and looks down as if he is thinking about something

0:39 – starts to sing

0: 44 – transitions into scene with little boy in Jordans and a Jordan jersey in the driveway of his house

0:57 – kid jumps to touch the net of the basketball hoop and hits the infamous Jordan pose

1:07 – in his room trying on another pair of Nikes

1:18 – in class with his Jordans on as opposed to the other kids who are wearing “Four stripes, some Adidas”

1:44 – adult Macklemore in a child’s room with photographs of places where people were either robbed or killed for their shoes

1:55 – transitions back to young Macklemore as he stands in front of an MJ poster

2:07 – all sorts of people playing and practicing basketball in Jordans

2:32 – adult Macklemore sitting in front of kids with a book teaching and giving them a lesson on consumerism

2:41 – young Macklemore obsessing over his Jordans

2:52 – transitions back to adult Macklemore as he continues to talk to kids of all ages about the same topic

2:57 – young Macklemore cleaning his Jordans

4:00 – young Macklemore gets robbed of his shoes and has to walk home in socks

4:26 – shows other people and their Jordan collections

4:30 – people waiting in line for Jordans

5:00 – young Macklemore pulls out another pair of Jordans and puts them on as if to show that even such an incident won’t stop him from wearing Jordans, or maybe Jordans are part of his identity that he can’t take them off

5:23 – ends the song with “And now I see it’s just another pair of shoes”

“Wings” by Macklemore and Ryan Lewis is a song which challenges and debates the two sides to consumerism, which is the “social and economic order that encourages the acquisition of goods and services in ever-increasing amounts”(Wikipedia). Through the music video’s narrative and storytelling style, the two sides to the issue are each being represented by an individual. Both individuals are supposed to be Macklemore himself, him as an adult and a younger version of himself, who is being acted by another child. The adult Macklemore takes the negative side of consumerism as the young Macklemore depicts the positive, more naive side. The music video and lyrics take on a roller coaster of emotions as they bounce from the pros and cons of consumerism. As young Macklemore depicts the joys that may come from material possessions, Macklemore himself takes on the role as an educator to the youth, informing them on the dangers of consumerism and how these corporations successfully consume our minds. Despite his continuing obsession with Jordans and Nikes which stems from his childhood, he concludes the song with “and now I see it’s just another pair of shoes”. He has grown to accept that he fell victim to buying a dream and understands that those shoes with an air bubble are nothing more than just a pair of shoes.

Context:

In this blog post, I mentioned that the NBA used this song in the 2013 All-Star Game commercial but I didn’t mention how it was used. This song is centered around the dangers of consumerism and how large corporations consume our minds by selling us a dream. However, what makes this song so catchy is its chorus. The chorus goes as follows:

“I wanna fly

Can you take me far away

Gimmie a star to reach for

Tell me what it takes

And I’ll go so high

I’ll go so high

My feet won’t touch the ground

Stitch my wings

And pull the strings

I bought these dreams

That all fall down”

For the All -Star Game commercial, the NBA decided to use the chorus, however chose to exclude the last four lines. Essentially, they pulled snippets from the song which went along with their intentions of advertising the game and the products that they sell. Judging by the commercial, you would think the song is about how great these products make us feel, but when you give the whole song a listen, you will understand that Macklemore is actually condemning corporations such as the NBA. It is quite ironic to see that the NBA would use this song, but as long as Macklemore’s opinion was silenced, the NBA got what they wanted. This case does a great job portraying the importance of acknowledging all perspectives to their entirety. Many times voices are silenced or reduced for the sake of proving a point. If we took “Wing$” for what it was in the NBA commercial, our understanding for the song would be totally incorrect.

All-Star Blog Spotlight

Let’s not talk about it,

It’s “easier” that way

At first when I read “The President Has Never Said The Word Black”, I was quite confused about what exact message I was supposed to get from the poem so I decided to move on to the article, “The Grammar of Police Shootings”. This article discusses the importance of how language is used in order to manipulate the public and to downplay the severity of crimes and mistakes made by the police. Author Radley Balko displays the contrast between how civilians’ crimes use verbs to show intended actions such as fired, produced, and striking with the help of adjectives like numerous to show that the acts they commit were intentional. When the murder of a 10-year-old boy by a police officer occurs, phrases such as “The deputy’s gun fired one shot,” and “not clear if the gun was accidentally fired by the deputy” is used taking all responsibility away from the cop’s careless actions and instead puts the blame on unfortunate circumstances. The clear difference in how similar events are described as “circumstantial” is no coincidence. With the recent focus on police brutality, it seems that there is an importance on how to cover up the countless mistakes which lead to death made by the officers who are supposed to protect and serve, rather than teaching officers how to correctly react to situations they are placed in. It seems that now a day’s the only people police departments are meant to protect are themselves.

If Long Soldier hypothetically wrote “everything is in the language we do NOT use”, she would be discussing the downplaying of situations through elementary language in order to not draw attention to the true severity of the matters being presented. By purposely eliminating the focus on topics through vague language, we draw away attention from them, hoping whatever the author is trying to cover up will stay that way; covered up. Balko wants us to feel dissatisfaction with how information is presented so we can better analyze future readings to see the discrepancies and truth that is being hidden about specific situations. After coming to this conclusion I then got a hint at what Parker’s poem was trying to say. The president at the time was Barack Obama, and Morgan Parker feels like he did an injustice to the black community by never addressing their struggles as black struggles. It is insinuated that while he can refer to those who are black as his “brothers and sisters” he cannot identify himself as black, as if he is afraid or embarrassed by the word. This all ties back to the language we do not use, by holding back on such an important identifying word, it creates a harmful message that one shouldn’t be aware of who they are and what role that plays into the injustices they experience. Overall these two pieces showed me that there is more to writing than picking the right words and structure to my sentences. They taught me that I have to be observant of the language I choose not to use, and to analyze why that is so and how it affects the message of my writing.

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Something that I really liked here as an artistic decision with my writing was introducing one reading and tying it in with the other in order to garner an internal and external understanding of the true message behind both readings. This post definitely explored the inclusivity of language and or the lack thereof by analyzing the erasure of “colored” language and being proud and identifying who you are. There needs to be further conversation on how we use language in our spaces to be inclusive and to not make anyone feel ashamed by the lack of diversity in our speech and scurrying away from the word black or colored as if it isn’t something to be celebrated. This blogpost specifically feels like a sliver of personal growth on paper where I learned and realized how the language I choose not to use is just as important as the language I do. I just love how passionate I was about these readings, and rereading this post I feel that passion still flowing within me and it makes me want to write in similar mediums to shed light on these issues within our modern linguistic landscape. This post is something I’m proud of and is an example of how my writing has developed over the years to have meaning rather than to be fluff to get an assignment done.

recap of Stan by Eminem

I chose the blog post about analyzing your favorite song and its lyrics for the All-Star Blog Spotlight.

This post stands out to me because I really enjoyed getting the chance to analyze and get an ever better understanding of one of my favorites songs for a class. School work is much more enjoyable when you have many options and can choose to satisfy the requirements of a class by depicting a piece of work by your artist of choice.

I liked how I got an even deeper meaning of the lyrics and was able to write out what I think they mean towards the real world. You can learn a lot from music especially when it is so poetic like this piece so I had a great time learning.

The work I did here related a lot to the themes of this class. In the class we read a lot of great articles about the individual as a whole and peoples’ interactions whether it be good or bad. To summarize, this song also depicts the struggles individuals have with society and the sorts of interactions they have to deal with.

Lastly, this song really depicts how deadly the inner conflict in yourself can be. It shows how we all suffer on the outside but what is most important is how we take care of ourselves on the inside because that can either lead to happiness or doom. In conclusion, it is not discussed in the real world enough how important mental health is and the amount of people who suffer from it is severely underestimated.

^^ I think, for me at least, the uncensored version of this gives the listener a better understanding of what Eminem is not only saying, but thinking.

Just to get things straight… Stan is a fictional character who Eminem created. Stan is a portrayal of an obsessed fan who will do literally anything to meet their idol. Stan has a mix of the crazy thoughts and experiences Eminem had about his idols growing up. These thoughts and motives generated from Eminem growing up with a lot of hate from peers around him, not to mention his dad leaving him when he was only six months old and his mom being an alcoholic who never showed him any attention. Eminem is very humble here and knows what it is like to come from nothing and then have everyone want to be your friend. Eminem’s story is very deep and can teach you many things. He gets away with a lot of the things he says due to his reputation and the fact this story was told 20 years ago. Eminem is scarred and emotionally messed up in many ways but this is what makes him one of the best rappers and lyricists of all time.

0:30 – Stan is dying his hair blonde in the bathroom on a rainy night as his pregnant girlfriend walks in. She does not approve of him going to such depths just to look like his favorite rapper. Her backlash causes Stan to get angry and rush out of the bathroom.

1:50 – Stan heads down to his basement where he has posters and different records of Eminem all over his wall. He starts writing a letter to Eminem. This isn’t the first letter Stan is writing though; Stan thinks his other letters either got lost in the mail or Eminem was too lazy to read them. Stan starts talking about how he is giving his daughter the same name that Eminem’s daughter has. He continues to prove in detail how he is Eminem’s biggest fan.

2:10 – There is a consecutive chorus throughout the song of Eminem’s girlfriend, Kim, which contributes well to the melody.

2:45- Stan continues to aggressively write about how Eminem ignored Stan at the concert and made him wait outside in the cold to get an autograph for his brother, but Eminem ignored them.

3:10 – Stan even goes as far to say that he cares more about Eminem than his actual girlfriend. To justify this Stan cuts out a portrait of Eminem and puts it over a picture of Kim. Stan says she doesn’t understand how they are different from everyone else.

3:50 – Stan catches his girlfriend looking through his letters that he is going to send Eminem from his basement. Stan gets furious about this and decides that he does not need her and only wants to meet Eminem. Stan, then, takes his pregnant girlfriend and shoves her in the trunk of his car as he drives away and tries to send a message to Eminem over the radio about what he has become.

4: 10 – Stan, in deep agony, tells Eminem that everyone of Stan’s decisions up to this point in his life was due to him. Stan tries making Eminem feel bad by telling him he is going to crash his car into a bridge and end his mental pain.

4:40- Stan and his wife are dead from the crash into the water off of the bridge.

4:55- Eminem finally receives Stan’s mail and tells him how he meant to write him sooner. He is glad he is having a daughter and tells Stan he is sending his brother an autograph. Eminem says he is deeply sorry and never saw Stan at the concert. Eminem can tell Stan is going through severe mental challenges inside his head and recommends he gets some help but that he would love to meet him one day. Eminem says for Stan to calm down and appreciate what he has in life.

5:50 – Eminem hears about the car crash on the news and finally realizes it was Stan and that he is dead. It’s too late…

This song isn’t the typical song Eminem would make but rather shows his abilities as a lyricist. The song is not a rap really but is made by a rapper and more importantly just tells a very deep message. There is no specific genre.

The audience meant for this song is pretty much any person with an idol who they love. It is meant to teach them about what obsession can lead to.

This song doesn’t have any real historical context but it shows the audience the sort of social relationship they can have, or rather should not have with their idol.

Eminem is trying to teach us the importance of loving what you already have as well as understanding that deep down everyone is the same human being who needs to be able to live their life. Eminem can’t individually talk to everyone of his fans but is trying to show them how, in spirit, he is there to help them with the story telling in his songs.

All Star Blog Spotlight

The Ark- The Light (빛)

(0:03-0:13) The music video starts off with a teenage girl in school uniform coming across a store and sees a book bag that she wants, but her mom pointed out that her book bag can still be used. Based on the girl’s reaction.

0:23 shows the mom’s affection to her teenage daughter by bringing milk to her in the morning and then kissing her forehead.

(0:26) At this point of the video, it can be concluded that the main character is in a single parent household, since the mom is the only one seen preparing breakfast for her daughter and no one else in their home.

0:28 shows a chaotic morning for the mother, she’s preparing breakfast with two stoves, as well as packing lunch for her daughter (0:31).

(0:35-0:38) Even though the girl was gently smacked on her hand for trying to take one of the kimbaps, her mom still smiled gently seeing her daughter happy from the food.

(0:38-0:45) The girl is seen to be looking for her matching set of joggers. Upon finding that her mom mistakenly wore her pants, she became frustrated and mad at her mom.

(0:47)The mom is seen folding a sweater for her daughter and putting it in her orange backpack, she notices how old her bag was.

0:54-0:57 is when we first see the mom actually taking care of herself and putting on makeup, but then rushed by her daughter.

At 1:04-1:12, we can see how the mother holds her daughter’s arm and was shook off, but she still smiled gently. Her daughter was joking with her, and they both seem to enjoy starting the day off with each other. Being the mother that she is, the mom constantly looks after her daughter by tidying her daughter’s appearance.

1:22-1:25 shows the lively daughter waving her goodbye as she headed off to her bus, and she reminds her mom to smile.

(1:33-1:48) The daughter is on a coach bus with her classmates and it seems like they are heading on a trip. The daughter is playing games and having fun with her classmates, in contrast to the next scene where the mom is working as a waitress and causes a lid of a dish to fall.

(1:53-2:08) While working, the mom comes across a news report on a car accident, she discovers that her daughter was in it and is gone .

(2:09) The music video goes back to the store from the first scene, the mom looks at the bag that her daughter wanted.

(2:19-2:35) The day starts off just like any usual morning for the mom, except that her daughter is gone. She drank her milk like usual and prepared her breakfast. She had bought the bag from the store and can be seen preparing food to visit her daughter.

(2:39) She looked into the mirror and reminded herself to smile, just as her daughter told her to before she left.

(2:59) The mother walks dreadfully with a suitcase full of food for her deceased daughter while facing the sunlight.

At 3:06, it can be seen that the mother organized food for her passed daughter at what seems like a highway.

(3:11-3:31) The mother hugs the backpack and flashes back memories of the time when her daughter was still alive.

The is a narrative music story that is attended for everyone. The storyline is about a selfless mother’s love for her child. The emotions in the storyline can be applied to not just family, but also friends, lovers. The mother is like most other mothers in the world, preparing meals for her child, caring for her child, and more. The music video resonated with me in that my mom also cares for me by working hard to provide for the family and that she selflessly gives us attention and care. When getting ready in the morning, the mom is the one making breakfast, preparing her daughter’s lunch, and folding her daughter’s clothes. Throughout the whole music video, the only thing the mom did for herself was the scene where she was putting on makeup. The video gives a message for people to be thankful for the little things in our daily lives, it is so common that we tend to forget it. The video portrays a simple, yet resounding message the the public can relate to. It shows how everyday life is full of love, but this lifestyle can disappear one day, whether it is accidents or growing up. It teaches one to cherish what they have now and give back the things they receive.

THOUGHTS

I chose this blog post as my favorite. I think that this blog was interesting in that we could choose a music video and analyze it. We combined what our interests and school together which was a fun experience. Not only did it help be better understand the music video, it also helped me practice my rhetorical analysis skills. The video had a deep meaning to it even though the actresses in it didn’t have any script. This is essential in our class since we studied language and how not speaking up can lead to more discrimination to specific minority groups. I think activities such as this can help engage the students more and allow for them to dig deep into meaningful messages.

All-Star Blog Post

“Everything I Wanted” – Billie Eilish

0:03- The Music Video starts off with a message reading, “finneas is my brother and my best friend. no matter the circumstance, we always have and always will be there for each other”, on a green background.
0:12- The video cuts to a moving car which appears to be driving on an elevated highway. In the background you can see it is night time and there appears to be a city landscape with lit skyscrapers , perhaps taking place New York or another city. It is hard to tell because the background is out of focus.
0:26- The two people in the car appear to be Billie in the drivers seat and her brother Finneas passenger side. It is hard to tell because the windows appear to be tinted and this combined with the night scenery and gives it more ambiguity.
0:41- We finally see Billie’s face and she appears to be driving with her brother Finneas passenger side. Billie has this almost tired/serious look on her face as well as her brother.
0:49- Billie drives into a tunnel which gets rid of the city landscape scenery for the time being.
0:53- Billie drives out of the tunnel and there appears to be a completely new scenery in the background. Instead of a city landscape, there is a huge ocean with a couple of small mountains in the background. If you take a closer look, the golden state bridge is also in the background as well, but that is also hard to distinguish as it is still night time and the background is still out of focus.
0:56- Billie once again drives into another tunnel and this also gets rid of the landscape scenery for the time being.
0:59- We once again see Billie’s face, but she appears to look even more tired and more sad with her brother maintaining that same serious look.
1:09- We start to see the exit of the tunnel and there appears to be a new another new scenery. This time it appears to be a California dessert. You can tell because of the cactuses and dry, arid flora.
1:14- The background still takes place in the dry, California dessert but this time we see a sunset overlooking the mountain scape and highway.
1:24- We can now see the car has driven onto the sand of a beach
1:26- Finneas looks out the window and looks concerned almost
1:28- Billie just keeps looking straight ahead as she continues to drive
1:38- They both look straight ahead as the car continues to drive straightforward
1:53- We see Billies POV in the drivers seat and it is just pure ocean.
1:57- The car appears to be heading to the ocean
2:01- Billies foot is seen stomping on the accelerator pedal of the car
2:09- The car appears to be sinking slowly into the ocean
2:12- We see from the inside that the water level arises from the outside, slowly covering up the window view.
2:16- The car is now fully submerged underwater
2:24- We see the car is getting further and further away from the surface
2:28- It is completely dark in the ocean, with only the bright headlights of the car illuminating the pitch blackness.
2:34- Billie touches the window but with a calm demeanor
2:40- They are both just sitting there calmly, with surprisingly no water entering the car
2:57- Finneas extends his hand out to Billie who is sitting right next to him and they interlock fingers and hold hands
3:00- They finally look at each other in the face, but Billie’s sorrowful look turns into a smile
3:08- They both look out their windows and see that the surface of the ocean is far above them, with the car gradually sinking further down
3:22- Billie looks down at her foot and notices water is starting to pour in from underneath the car
3:26- They both look at each other calmly and look back straight ahead
3:37- The headlights of the car turn off
3:38- The water has covered her whole foot and they grasp onto each others hands even tighter
3:50- The camera slowly pans out of the drivers seat window with Billie still looking calm and the scenery all pitch black, with the only barely recognizable figure being Billie’s face
4:27- The music stops as the video comes to an end, but there is another 20 seconds left of the video where it is just a black screen.

I found out about the video and the song when I went to get a haircut in the middle of February. I remember I walked in to the barbershop and took a seat down to wait, and they had this big TV screen which usually plays music videos. This one time though they were playing this particular song and video and I’ve never heard it before prior to the haircut. As I was looking at and listening to the video I felt something inside of me. I don’t know if it was sorrow, pain, or even happiness but I felt something. I’ve never seen or heard anything that evoked that feeling that was I was feeling. Whatever it was, I enjoyed it and took another listen at home and it evoked the same feelings. It has grown to be one of my favorite songs and it introduced me to more of Billie’s work. Even now when I watched it again, I viewed in awe and developed even more appreciation for the song and video.

The video’s genre is Pop or Alternative Pop. The intended audience is meant to be teenagers and anyone who is going through something. The social context is that she is a growing pop star and she came to a realization with herself throughout one of her dreams, or as she referred to it as a nightmare. The purpose of the video is to show that as she grows more famous, she has to be more careful with the people she surrounds herself with because as she described in her dream: she got everything she wanted, she killed herself by jumping off the golden state bridge, she thought people would care but they didn’t and they didn’t even shed a tear, rather called her weak. In the chorus of the song, her brother is reassuring her that everything is ok and as long as she has him, no one can hurt her. And he reassures her of her true value. As mentioned in the beginning of the video, her brother is everything to her, and no matter what happens they’ll always stick together side by side. The video is saying fame isn’t everything and to cherish your family as they’ll always be there for you no matter what. P.S. I recommend listening with headphones or a good speaker.

Looking back at all the blog posts that we have done throughout the semester, I’d have to say that this is my favorite one because it was unconventional, in my opinion, from any type of english assignment that I have ever gotten throughout my years of schoolwork. I also like how it kind of expressed other people’s music taste and we were able to see what they were into. I like how this blog post also made me dive deeper into a song/music video and analyze it in a way that I never did before. This blog post gave everyone a voice to air out their opinions and all the songs/music videos were diverse and different. Overall, I can’t believe this semester has gone by this quick and I am going to certainly miss this English class because it became one of my favorites and the assignments/blogposts were one of the few things that I looked forward to doing in terms of school work.