Inspiration Information by Shuggie Otis

The overall feel of this piece is happy, calm, and relaxed.
The tempo, rhythm, key, and tones support this feel.
The artist chose to have a moderate tempo, and this sends off a happy and calm feel. The rhythm was light and calm The key and tones that were used also give off a nice, happy vibe.

"Semeadores" by Diego Rivera

Subject: Hispanic laborers
Occasion: Times of hardship for Hispanic laborers
Audience: Upper-class hispanics
Purpose: To emphasize the lifestyle and hardships of Hispanic laborers.
Speaker: The working class (the Hispanic laborers)
Tone: Sympathetic

The theme of this painting is that the laborers had a hard life and were defined by their work. The characters in this painting have no faces and are blended in with the background of the field. They also appear to be weak. We can assume from this painting that Diego Rivera may have once suffered through these hardships, and/or that he wanted to help these people by bringing their hardships to the attention of others.

Creative Process

Wilco's approach to creating a song: They start with a basic idea of how the song should sound. Then they go back and deconstruct it to try to make it sound more creative and exciting. There's no reason to it, and it's theirs to change or destroy.

My writing process: First I brainstorm some general ideas I could use in my writing, and write them down. Then I will take those basic ideas and work the most suitable ones into some form of prewriting or outline. This prewriting should be very detailed, and should include any ideas or examples I could use to back up my original ideas. Then, using the prewriting, I will write the actual paper. Having this detailed prewriting makes writing the paper a lot easier than it would to just write from scratch. After I'm done with my draft, I go back and revise any spelling or grammatical errors. Then I will edit it. I may take some content out, or I may add something. The revising and editing may happen several times until I have a satisfactory piece.

Nostalgia

Nostalgia is when you miss and long for something in the past.

When listening to Songs from American Graffiti, I pictured people dancing in the 1950s. The girls had high ponytails and long skirts, and the guys were dressed up with their hair slicked back. In the first song they were swing dancing, and in the second they were slow dancing. 

Whenever I think of my childhood, one thought that pops into my head is chocolate milk. Every morning when I got up, the first thing I would do was drink a cup of chocolate milk. Also, remembering my childhood, I think of times that I was playing with my friends or my brother. I remember feeling happy and having lots of fun. The sounds that I hear are old songs by Hillary Duff because when I was little my best friend and I were her biggest fans. 

A Pinch of Poverty

Some major contributing factors to poverty include less opportunities to work, low income, low living standards, lack of education, big families, addictions, mental issues, and the economy.

The painting "The Pinch of Poverty" displays an impoverished family of a mother and three children on the street corner. This painting portrays a negative view of poverty with a hint of a positive view and hope.
The message of this painting is that children are victims of poverty, but have hope and abilities to eventually get themselves out of poverty.
The contrast in this painting supports this message. The children are holding (and selling) bright yellow flowers. The mother is not. The bright yellow flowers contrast with the dark, gloomy background. The flowers symbolize hope for the children's futures. Also, the placement in this painting supports the message. Behind the family, there are bars, which may symbolize that they are caged in by poverty. Also, the little girl is standing, holding her basket of flowers, stepping forward, and looking ahead, as if she is looking into the future. This shows that the children have hope to work and make their way out of poverty.

Reading Response - Poverty. "Live Free and Starve" vs. "The Singer Solution to World Poverty"

In "Live Free and Starve", the author, Chitra Divakaruni, questions the effectiveness of a bill passed in the U.S. that no longer permits the import of goods from factories where forced or indentured child labor is used. She brings to the reader's attention that by taking working children out of factories, we are taking them away from food, clothing, and shelter. She said that "It is easy for us in America to make the error of evaluating situations in the rest of the world as though they were happening in this country and propose solutions that make excellent sense - in the context of our society." This is an opinion that I agree with. However, when she says,"A bill like the one we've just passed is of no use unless it goes hand in hand with programs that will offer a new life to these newly released children," the author seems to suggest that America needs to either not get involved, or also provide programs to help the children. She makes it sound like America was doing something wrong passing that bill, while we were just trying to help those children. There may be a bias due to the fact that I live in America and feel that America should help those in need. I agree that the bill that was passed may do harm, but I think we need to try to help them. Also, American readers may have bias because we all have freedom and are assuming that everyone else wants it too, while some people in other countries want to be able to eat and to have a home, no matter what the cost.

In "The Singer Solution to World Poverty", the author, Peter Singer, goes to great efforts to make the reader feel very, very guilty. His opinion is very different from that of the other article. The article is basically about how instead of buying or doing things we don't need, we should donate all of our extra money to overseas aid agencies to help those in need. I agree that we should donate money, and help those in need, but this article is a bit extreme. Everyone donating all of their extra money is just not realistic. The author writes, "I can see no escape from the conclusion that each one of us with wealth surplus to his or her essential needs should be giving most of it to help people suffering from poverty so dire as to be life-threatening." He also writes, "If we don't do it, then we should at least know that we are failing to live a morally decent life." It is human nature to buy and want things that we don't need. We never stop wanting things, and Singer is saying we should, which is not realistic. Again, I agree that we should donate money, but donating everything we have other than what we need for necessity is not going to happen. Even the smallest amount of money we donate will help; we don't have to donate everything we have, like Singer suggests. There is a reader bias because most likely the reader has nice things and does not want to give up having nice things, therefore will disagree with Singer's strong opinion that we should donate everything, though they may agree on moral standards that we should donate some amount of money.

"Round and Round" by Ariel Pink's Haunted Graffiti

The musical facts that I noticed in this song somewhat influenced my opinion. One musical fact that I pointed out was that "the vocals mumbled", and in my opinion I included that "I didn't like it because the vocals weren't understandable." I also pointed out that "the music is repetitive", and in my opinion I stated that "It wasn't very entertaining." There is a correlation between the facts I picked out and my opinion. Also, the facts that I picked out seem to mostly be things that I did not like about the song. I do have a listener's bias. The main one is that I think vocals of songs should be clear, and if they're not, there is a 99% chance that I won't like the song, even if it is really a good song.