Soundtrack

Metallica: Unforgiven http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mYUMPKFYd6g
This is probably my favorite song of all time.  I remember back in the summer before my freshman year in highschool, my dad and I were driving in his car, and he wanted me to listen to Metallica's Black Album.  I had never really known about the band the whole album is just amazing.  Since then, I was lucky enough to see Metallica twice in concert in new york city during my Junior and Senior years in highschool.  This is my favorite song off that album.

Foo Fighters: Times like These http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rhzmNRtIp8k
I really like this song a lot.  It's about eight years old.  I think its naturally a feel good song.  Whenever i hear it, I think of summertime and all the good summers I've had over the years.  It also makes me feel like everything is going to be alright even if that sounds a little corny haha. 

Field Trip

     I went to Memorial Library early this morning to find the book I was looking for.  My research paper is about inequality in the workplace over the years.  When I got to the library, I went up to floor 3M, and went into the North Stacks to look for my book.  When I got there, I was the only one there and many of the lights were off and there were a lot of weird creeking noises.  I was honestly a little freaked out.  I knew before that Memorial library is kind of creepy, and being here for the first time, I can confirm that.  I wasn't able to find my book but I found another one that was pertaining to my research paper subject. 
     The book's title is Sex and Business.  Surrounding this book were other books about management within the workplace and personal relations books.  Its call number is HF 5549.5 S45 H58 2000.  I was actually happy to have found the book I did instead of the one I had initially found.  The section I searched had many books that were pertaining to my topic. 

Hite, Shere.  Sex & Business.  Pearson Education Limited, 2000. 

Advertising

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QRnC6rz7Z0c

1.) The video above is a commercial for Marlboro cigarettes, which features John Lennon and George Harrison from the famous band, The Beatles.  In the commercial, George Harrison is asking John Lennon for a cigarette.  Lennon pulls out a Marlboro and he and Harrison begin smoking together. 

2.) This commercial refers to the second basic appeal in the Need for Affiliation.  The Marlboro company is not just filming two random guys smoking their cigarette brand.  Their filming John Lennon and George Harrison who are both members of probably the most popular rock and roll group ever.  By having these two guys in the commercial, the viewer sees them and is thinking, "Hey John Lennon and George Harrison are awesome and I love the Beatles.  Oh They are smoking Marlboros.  I guess if they like smoking Marlboros, then I should definitely get myself a pack of Marlboros and smoke them!"  Their is a need for affiliation after seeing "cool" people smoking Marlboros. 

My research topic/Roberts

     For my research topic, I was planning to write about gender inequality.  Specifically, How are men and women portrayed in the media and advertising?  Plus, what other changes have their been in how the roles of men and women have changed?  I would discuss Divorce rates and how they have reached an all time high of 51 percent.  Also, I would write about other aspects of marriage and the social life within a family.  For example: Nowadays, some couples decide to hyphenate their last names instead of change them to the man's last name when getting married.  In terms of a male and female's portrayal in the media, my main supporting piece of evidence would be the 2008 presidential election with both Sarah Palin and Hillary Clinton involved. 

Gladwell

     In Gladwell's piece, he talks about plagiarism and how it's present in plays, books, and music.  He gives the example of the play Frozen.  The play takes many sayings and themes from Lewis' book Guilty by Reason of Insanity.  Lewis faxed Bryony Lavery a letter saying that had he asked to use material from her book, she would have said yes.  Lewis was upset that she wasn't asked.  The rest of this piece talks about how plagiarism is used in almost everything and many times when we plagiarize, we don't even know it.  Music was a big topic as many of today's musicians use samples from older songs.  This is not necessarily a bad thing as this "tweaking is part of the creative process" (pg. 70).  Gladwell also talks about how not only is plagiarising bad, but the original source of the piece of work could become upset over how it is portrayed in the new work.
     Gladwell did throw out a lot of questions that were not all answered, as you mentioned about this piece.  I really liked reading about music being plagiarized.  I agree with the idea that one shouldn't be upset over this because sometimes the new song with the sample from the old one is really good.  To me, it really does add to the creative process.  I agree the plagiarism is in everyday life and that it is impossible to avoid.  But being able to give credit to the original source should be enforced because of the hard work the original source put in to producing it. 

Ayn Rand-Racism

     Ayn Rand believes racism "is the lowest, most crudely primitive form of collectivism" (126).   She claims it is evil and negates "mind and morality".  Racists have not earned a sense of personal identity and are unintelligent.  Racists are insecure.  These are the reasons for racists to feel they are superior to other races. She states that a perfectly capitalist society will completely eliminate racism and she absolutely despises unions or any kind of collectivism. 
     Ayn Rand is kind of all over the place with this and also very, very opinionated.  Although she says a perfectly capitalist society would eliminate racism entirely, our society was more capitalist about 100 years ago and we were also more racist.  Today, we are less capitalist and also less racist.  This fact contradicts her claims.  She also talked about the idea that if there are 25 percent blacks in a society, every company should offer 25 percent of their jobs to black people.  I disagree with this completely.  Its similar to colleges wanting to diversify these days by letting people of different races with possibly lower grades into their schools instead of whites who receive higher grades.   

Solution to Saturday's Puzzle

While reading Sedaris' Solution to Saturday's Puzzle, the first thing that came to mind was George Costanza from the TV show Seinfeld and also the type of humor in Larry David's show, Curb Your Enthusiasm.  I feel like this piece is about a guy who gets irritated with little things that don't matter to other people and in that sense it's funny.  It reminds me of an episode of Curb Your Enthusiasm in which Larry David is on an airplane sitting next to a guy wearing shorts and sandles.  Larry David gets irritated with the guy for his attire saying in a really pissed off tone, "Nobody wants to see your legs and feet, so why do you have to dress like that on an airplane?!"  The awkwardness that follows is hilarious.

Rodney Dangerfield quotes:
-"My father carries around the picture of the kid who came with his wallet"
-"What a childhood I had, why, when i took my first step, my old man tripped me!"
-"I tell you, with my doctor, I get no respect.  I told him, "Ive swallowed a bottle of sleeping pills.  He told me to have a few drinks and get some rest."

The Klansman Who Won't Use the N-Word

     In The Klansman Who Won't Use the N-Word, Ronson focuses on how the KKK is viewed by society and Thom Robb's idea of how it should be viewed.  Thom Robb is the Grand Wizard of the Knights of the KKK and his leadership qualities are much different than his predecessor, so much so, that he lost many klansmen when he was elected Grand Wizard.  Thom preaches to his klansmen everything you would not expect from the KKK.  He suggests not saying the word, "nigger" in public, and not hating black people, rather, just really loving white people.  Thom is working to gain political power to show how the actuall KKK operates but the media is more focused on keeping a negative label on the group. 
    I have always thought of the KKK as a violent group of uneducated white people, but after reading this, I believe this thought has only been fueled by how the media portrays them.  At the same time, I think what Thom is trying to accomplish is impossible because the people in the KKK are only naturally going to be hostile against blacks/foreigners.  The idea sounds nice, but the KKK will never be viewed as a positive group.

-Isaac

Bitch

        In Beverly Gross' Bitch, she examines the different usages and meanings of the word "bitch".  Gross describes the differences in meaning of the word throughout the past century.  "The metamorphosis of bitch from the context of sexuality (a carnal woman, a promiscuous woman) to temperament (an angry woman, a malicious woman) to power (a domineering woman, a competitive woman) is a touchstone to the changing position of women through this century" (80).  Being called a bitch is the most humiliating comment a woman can receive.  Gross gives a few examples in history of the use of the word bitch.  Barbara Bush referred to Geraldine Ferraro during the 1984 election as rhyming with the word "rich".  Bush obviously meant it as Ferraro being a "pushy woman" (81).  After Ernest Hemingway split up with Gertrude Stein, Stein commented that his writing was poor.  Hemingway responded by calling her a bitch.  This is different in that Hemingway feels threatened by a woman (Stein).  Gross writes about Madonna  and how she "defused" the situation of being called a bitch the best by saying, "I enjoy expressing myself" (84).  She showed that it didnt bother her. 
       I believe Gross is extremely convincing in describing the different meanings of the word "bitch".  I can relate to pretty much all of the definitions she gives in the chapter and unfortunetely, I have used the word "bitch" in a few of the contexts they are given in.  It is also true that there really is not any male equivalent of the word "bitch".  I could be called an "asshole" but its doesn't ring as harshly as a woman being called a "bitch".