The Cadillac ELR and Fairclough's Model

The most recent Cadillac ELR commercial was not just a comparison of American success and this particular Cadillac car. It was a careful construction and tailoring of a convincing man, a mansion setting, and powerful writing in conjunction with a track in the background that highlighted certain parts of the powerful speech. Using the first part of Fairclough's model to analyze this commercial, there were several instances where micro-texts were used. For example, the man in the commercial named several American stars like the Wright Brothers and Bill Gates which have immense underlying meaning, such as that the word Cadillac is synonymous with fame, American pride, and success. Also, the parts of the commercial in which the man would repeat words or pause to put empahsis on them - these words including "off" when comparing European and American work ethic and "bored" when discussing American successes such as landing on the moon - also have deeper meaning in that they imply that Americans work the hardest and this hard work can be rewarded with the Cadillac ELR. Additionally, the French phrase "N'cest-ce pas" the man said at the end of the commercial with a wink and a smirk also is also much larger than it appears to be in that it brings irony to the table since earlier in the commerical, the man was criticizing Eurpoeans and now he is using a European phrase to ask viewers, "Isn't that right?" that American hard work overrides extra European vacation time. The second part of Fairclough's model regarding discourse practices can be used as well to analyze this ad. The idea that this commercial tries to express is that hard work can be rewarded with things like the Cadillac ELR. This idea is expressed through the use of scenery (ex. the man works hard and rewards himself with a large house, fancy suit, large swimming pool, and, in the climax of the commercial, the Cadillac ELR), the background music (ex. the track stops at certain points to highlight and put emphasis on the most important things the man says), and the man's speech (ex. he discusses all the successes of Americans and the things that Americans have attained that Europeans have not to draw parallels between patriotism and the Cadillac ELR). Lastly, the third part of Fairclough's model that involves the analysis of social practies can be used to analyze this commercial. The practice common in all societies throughout the world is having an obligation or job that allows a person to obtain money and thus goods. This social practice is analyzed in this commercial in that it discusses the differences between the level of work that varies between European countries and America and the way that the amount of work a person does corresponds directly with the level of success and amount of money. This social practice is used to express the idea that the work that Americans excel at (as opposed to other countries who are lazier) can be rewarded by the Cadillac ELR, and this Cadillac ELR can also act as a symbol that represents one's hard work.

When Politics and Punk Rock Collide

Recently, the Russian punk rock band Pussy Riot was attacked and whipped by Cossack thugs sent personally by Vladimir Putin. So what is it about this band that set off Putin? Well, one of their songs is anti-Putin. In this case, political protest and performance arts are colliding and yielding various results. These musicians took their political views and shared them with the world, not caring that one of their viewers is Vladimir Putin. Not caring that they were imprisoned as a result of one song. Not caring that they were attacked by thugs. Not caring about anything but their beliefs and Russia's freedom. This is just one of many instances where musicians took advantage of their musical ability and fame to express their political beliefs. What makes this story different from, say, American singer Patti Smith's songs of political protest is location. These protesting bandmates are not just from any country. They are from Russia. These emphatic singers are not just protesting about anyone. They are protesting about the president of their country who is not someone to be messed around with. These punk rockers are using their medium - music - to fight the power and to fight for freedom. This power that they are fighting is prepared to fight back...in this case, with his Cossack thugs.

More Than a Piano Man

"Well we're all in the mood for a melody...and you've got us feeling alright." This is found in the second half of the chorus in "Piano Man", the legendary hit by the a legendary artist: Billy Joel. This song is not just any song. It is an accumulation of deep and well-thought-out lyrics alongside incredible pianistic talent. It tells the story of a pianist and the variety of people with a variety of backgrounds and current issues he observes through playing the piano at a bar. But it is much more than that. The lyrics look at several different people and their predominanty depressing life stories. For example, he opens the song with an old man asking Billy (himself) to play him a sad yet sweet song to remind him of his younger days as he drinks. He goes on to discuss the bartender John who may appear jolly while really he wants to do more with his life. Other characters show up in his lyrics, including the real estate novelist who never found time for love, the man who has been in the Navy and "probably will be for life", and the lonely businessman and waitress that drink together in their loneliness. But, once again, this song is much more than that. According to Fairclough's model, Billy Joel uses many lyrical techniques in his song. One of these is micro texts, or words or phrases with much more underlying meaning. One example of this is when he discusses the bartender's extinguished hopes and dreams, saying, "Well, I'm sure that I could be a movie star...if I could get out of this place". Specifically, the use of the phrase "this place" means much more than so appears. It addresses all the unfortunate places around the world where talent is overlooked, where people who could be much more live a life unrecognized, where people's hopes and dreams never takes flight. Another aspect of Fairclough's model this song pertains to is discourse practices, which is when words and overall themes are used to express more than what they literally say. The idea that this song seems to express is one regarding the misfortunes of people and the misjudgment of said people. The song discusses characters that can be found in real life who people would usually think little of, and then the lyrics also point out the struggles and sadness in their lives that would ordinarily be concealed by stereotypes. This song also applies to the third part of Fairclough's model in that it analyzes social practices. The song analyzes the typical practice of many members of society: going out to drink at bars in order to wash away sorrows. The song also sheds light on the dark assumptions of people who would judge the people that appear in the bar in "Piano Man". Many would look down on the "Davy who's still in the Navy", the reminiscent old man, and the whole gamut of lonely people at this bar before hearing this song. After hearing this song, however, one could become more open-minded, as the song gives each person's back story and evokes feelings of sympathy for the poor bar-goers. The use of these many lyrical techniques is also used to establish, in accordance with Bakhtin's studies, a certain genre. This genre could definitely fall under the category of dialogical. There are many direct and indirect references in the songs, and these are definitely open to interpretation (to some degree) rather than being absolute or authoritative. Billy Joel never comes out and directly states his recognition of the world's shortcomings as a harshly judgmental society. Rather, he uses stories to imply these criticisms. This song is certainly lyrically and musically impressive...How did Billy Joel do it, then? The answer to that question is a matter of whether the talent Billy Joel clearly possesses is natural or developed. Billy Joel started studying the piano at age four. So how did he get from that to the piano riffs multiple of his songs, including "Piano Man"? It seems as though in this case, raw talent gave him the advantage to reach greater heights in pianistic ability than others. Yes, this raw talent was developed over many years, but it probably would not have become as great as it did if not for the early foundations of natural ability. (To find out more about Billy Joel's life, read his biography through this link: http://www.billyjoel.com/biography) On top of all that, what does this song really say? About Billy Joel himself? It could perhaps say that he has found himself in these characters' situations and wants others to feel sympathy for them as he has. Or perhaps he wants to draw attention to not the flaws of those who are criticized in society but rather the story behind their shortcomings that can lead to more sympathy and less unfair misjudgments as well. About the individual listeners of this song? Perhaps that they are looking for a melofy that will tell a "sad and...sweet" story that illicts a response of not only sadness but desire for change. About the collective audience of the song? This song seems to say that all the listeners really need to do is...listen. To not just hear but listen to the sad stories of these people and to learn a thing or two about life and its simply inevitable hardships. About the spirit of the age? This song seems to say that the world not only at the time this song was written but also the world before, the current world, and the future world is filled with people who see in others what they want to see. That all people need to do is dig only a foot or so deeper to really see the whole picture, not just a small and insignificant part of it. (For the full lyrics to "Piano Man", use this link: http://www.billyjoel.com/music/piano-man/piano-man) "Sing us a song you're the piano man...Sing us a song tonight. Well we're all in the mood for a melody...and you've got us feeling alright." Thank you, Billy Joel. Your song has certainly been sung.

Shoni Schimmel: A Story of Sports or Something More?

The story of Shoni Schimmel is not just a story of basketball. Sure, basketball plays a key role, but it is certainly not the whole story. It is a story of racial inequality and the setbacks of being a Native American. It is a story of overcoming obstacles and doing what others would consider impossible. It is a story of redemption for a family whose hopes and dreams rest in one young girl. In this story, human interest is definitely used as a hook for this sports story. But should it? Should journalists be allowed to toy with human emotion and curiosity in order to lure people in to a story they claim is about sports? Or is it just manipulative? I would have to say...somewhat. Maybe it is a bit manipulative, but isn't almost all journalism? Don't all journalists try to make something more of a plain matter of sports, politics, etc.? If they didn't, how could any story have meaning? In this story of Shoni Schimmel, it is implied that her style off court parallels her style on the court. The article discusses her trademark style - Ray Ban sunglasses - off court is similar to her persona on court. In the segment of the interview when she tries to reenact "the ridiculous playground shot she made against Baylor center Brittney Griner" in a recent game, she did not seem genuine at all to me. I definitely think she was playing the journalists, giving them what they want, rather than being genuine. She knows exactly what happened in the game; she's not fooling anyone. Going off of this story, I would have to say that college basketball may be about the team to some degree while it is predominantly about the individual player. Think about it: do people buy and exchange trading cards that have entire teams on them or does each card zero in on a certain player? Do sports jersey usually cover base for an entire team or have only one player's name on the back? And in Shoni's case, was the story about her performance on the team or did the camera focus in on just her, her life, her background? Does that mean, then, that the intersection of sports, gender, and race what makes this story noteworthy? Certainly. Would someone rather read the story of the average Joe playing for Louisville or the story of a girl plagued by not only her gender but also her Native American heritage who overcame her obstacles and ended up on the Louisville college basketball team? I definitely know which one I would choose.

Billion Dollar Project in Ruins: U.S.’s Roads in Afghanistan are Crumbling

Many Americans look on those suffering in Afghanistan with great pity. What they don’t know is that their country has just added to the Afghans’ suffering – by building them roads. Right now, for a span of 10,000 miles, roads built by the U.S. have begun to deteriorate dramatically, leaving the Afghans to cope with a multitude of casualties brought about by the hazardous structures. These roads had been built in the first place to aid the Afghans that had been seriously lacking paved roads. For a short time, these roads were considered a blessing. Now, however, as they crumble and cause numerous fatal injuries, they have become more of a curse. This may seem like a frivolous matter to Americans, millions miles away from Afghanistan with their roads only plagued by the occasional pothole and little more. This is far from true. The U.S. spent approximately $4 billion dollars on these roads, only to have this large sum of money come to waste. Moreover, Afghans are now left with greater suffering and are waiting for the next round of roads. The U.S.’s economy is not in the state where they can hand out billions in vain. Perhaps, with more fatal errors like that of the roads in Afghanistan, who’s to say that the roads will be the only thing left in ruins?

Sports: A Matter of Intuition and Practice

Many of us would agree in saying that sports have some part in our lives, whether we partake in them or merely watch them on the television. On the other hand, what we all may not agree on is how athletes become so great, or fall short of it. I would consider sports and the skills of athletes to be best described as intuitive in that it all depends on perception. Perception is what separates the boys from the men, the girls from the women, the amateurs from the pros. This is clearly seen in David Esptein’s book The Sports Gene, where studies of perceptive capacity appear. The studies revealed that there was a huge difference in the perception of things like ball location and opponents’ boy movements between amateurs and professionals, and these perceptions are key to success in sports. Yes, practice does make perfect, but without intuitive skills to be the foundation of practice, an athlete will not be as successful. Evidence of my point I’ve seen on my own hockey team. The girls who intuitively have a general understanding of hockey and key concepts in hockey are the ones with the most success while those who didn’t go into the sport with natural intuitions about the sport did not go as far. Of course, with practice, the intuitive girls learned to use their skills and excelled even more, as did the less intuitive girls. However, the girls with intuition attained more with the combination of intuition and practice. I have to say I agree with the graph and text indicating that practice – as opposed to one’s genes – make perfect. Practice is another key factor that divides the amateurs from the pros. For example, pianists who spent more and more time practicing as they aged are now considered experts, while pianists who spent the same amount of time on piano as they aged did not exceed the title of “amateur”. This is also why the athletes whose parents started them at a very young age seem to be the ones we watch in the Olympics or in the major leagues. Their years of training more and more over their lifetime are a key part of what got them where they want to be. To further illustrate the idea that intuition plays a key part in athletic ability, we can look at the story of Holm and Thomas in which innate talent seemed to override honed skill in the high jump sport. Regardless of the fact that Holm had spent years training for high jump while Thomas had spent months, Thomas ended up as world champion because of intuition and natural ability which plays a slightly larger part in athletic ability than practice. It is evident here in that the amount of practice time made no difference while the huge gap between the men was the level of natural ability that Thomas possessed and Holm apparently lacked. Thus, I do believe there could be such a thing as the Matthew effect, for natural ability is the foundation upon which athletic ability builds up over time. Those with natural ability start at a higher level and can excel quicker than those lacking natural ability and intuition. I also agree with David Epstein’s claim that visual activity augments success in sports. One sport where visual activity is essential if not most important is hockey. As we all know, the objective in hockey is to score more than your opponents, and the key to scoring is visual activity. Take Tomas Holmstrom, a retired Red Wing famous for his tipping skills – he can use his stick quite well to redirect pucks coming at him at speeds of up to 100 mph. Without a high visual capacity, he certainly would not be capable of this. (To watch a video of Holmstrom’s tipping skills, click here: http://video.nhl.com/videocenter/console?id=149717.)

The Dozier School for Boys...in Poetry

"After such knowledge, what forgiveness?"

This quote, a line from the poem "Gerontion" by T.S. Eliot applies to my crime news story regarding the Dozier School for Boys incidents in that after hearing stories such as these, they are left to wonder, what next? How shall I move on with my life after these disturbing findings? How can I ever forgive these people? How can I forgive myself? Yes, that is the question. Are people crimes of this magnitude forgiveable? The answer lies in the hearts of each individual person, as does the strength to try and search for the answer.

To Be or Not to Be a Crime

When one pictures an excavation, that may call to mind pictures of an archaeological dig of sorts, perhaps for some ancient organisms. However, recently in Florida, an excavation uncovered something quite different: remains of human bodies. Recently, investigators discovered in the land surrounding the notorious Florida Dozier School for Boys approximately 49 unmarked gravesites, some containing more than just one deceased child, for a total of 55 bodies so far. These were located outside of the school cemetery. There may be more to come, however; the school recorded 85 total deaths at the school. The cruel school opened in 1900, and it remained open until June of 2011. Over the course of the school’s run that lasted over a century, crimes of violence and assault – as well as murders – accumulated at the hands of the staff members. These crimes were not committed to just anyone. Boys as young as 5 years old were sent to this school if they were either criminals (sometimes falsely accused) or orphans. Instead of being reformed, they were tortured, raped, and some even killed. However, stories of the corruption of this reform school were not in the picture until more recent times, when the White House Boys – a name given to the boys that suffered through this school and its torture house called the White House – finally started to speak up. This can lead one to seriously question the educational system in the United States. This school was open for approximately 111 years – quite a long time for such evil and unwarranted abuse to persist. There is no telling whether this is the only school where evil is the motto; it is merely the only one that has been in the spotlight. One may also question parental relations with children. One may wonder, “Are we giving up too easily?” It seems doubtful that any parent looking out for the wellbeing of their child would choose to send their son to this school rather than try their hand at parenting for just a bit longer. On that note, in a study conducted in the last few years by the Federal Bureau of Investigation, though there has been a decrease in homicides in school crimes since the 1990’s, crimes such as assaults have increased within the last decade. Parents have reason to worry even without the Dozier School for Boys to worry about. (For more on this study, visit http://www.fbi.gov/stats-services/publications/law-enforcement-bulletin/may_2011/school_violence.) On a more psychological, scientific, and philosophical level, one may also question what put this story into the spotlight in the first place. Using Katz’s approach to what makes certain crimes noteworthy, this crime portrays the idea as an issue of primarily collective integrity. This crime represented the corruption of a place that should a center of reformation, where misbehaving boys learn the hard way – the hard way certainly not being as hard as torture, rape, or murder – to become disciplined men while it instead was a center of evil and suffering. Young boys, left in the hands of tough yet nurturing adults, were left to die. Another approach to this is with the Bio-Psycho-Social model of violence, which applies to this crime most certainly. This crime was committed by an all-male staff, thus concurring with the biological aspect of this model. Though not much is known about the staff of the school who committed the crimes, one can infer that these men may have been exposed to violence in their early lives, and that this violence they became accustomed to carried over to their profession. This also could have lead to the men becoming antisocial, lacking in morality, and more. These examples would thus support the sociological and psychological aspects of the model as well. One additional approach to what makes crimes such as this large scale abuse and murder is on a different level of reality – was it the way these criminals were raised or can they blame it on their genes? While there has been evidence that between 37 and 57 percent of aggressive behaviors – which factor into one’s likeliness to commit a crime – are genetically influenced, this still does not excuse the committers of crimes like the many committed at the Dozier School for Boys. Everyone has choices, including the parents of future criminals. The parents of the facilitators at the Dozier School for Boys are no exception. They could have raised their children correctly or directed them in the path for crime. One can infer that they made the wrong choice. One more approach to the analysis of the concept of crime is using Durkheim’s thesis on civic morals and homicide. Durkheim proposed that humans have interest in crimes that are committed by the average Joe or the normal man that could have been their neighbor, this as opposed to most wanted criminals. This is present in the Florida reform school crime in that these men were just the facilitators of a reform school; not world class schemers or criminal masterminds. It makes people wonder who they are entrusting their child’s safety to at schools. For more information on the Dozier School for Boys incidents, try these sources: (http://www.theguardian.com/world/2013/aug/07/florida-exhume-remains-dozier-school and/or http://www.npr.org/2012/10/15/162941770/floridas-dozier-school-for-boys-a-true-horror-story).