What is Music

Theres this great story about a piano player once that goes like this. So its his big opening night and the theatre is filled with patrons. The pianist comes on stage, sits down at the piano, cracks his fingers and proceeds to do nothing for the next 49 minutes. Nothing in the fact that he doesnt touch a single key or produce a single note. The whole theatre is just filled with noise of the somewhat bewildered audience. But nobody gets up the entire 49 minutes and when the pianist leaves the stage, the whole theatre fills up with the noise of clapping of the audience. The pianist may have note played his piano but what he created was music.

Some people may not call that music but in reality this pianist was pushing the boundries of music and was trying to define music as much as possible in his work. Music is really a relationship between sound and silence that gives us an emotional response. Sometimes it will have a defined rhythym like most music you will hear on the radio, other times it will have no rhythym like avant grade music. Sometimes it will be very structure, other times it will be freeforming. Any sound or lack of sound can be music.

Everyone's a Critic (or a DJ)

Right off the bat let me say I found the peer reviews to be helpful. Anytime you get feedback it tends to be helpful, this coming from one of the most stubbornest people you will meet. But my problem is with how we conducted the peer reviews. I wanted to ask my reviewer questions face to face instead of just seeing what he wrote. I would rather have a conversation with a reviewer to get a better understanding from what he or she thought and maybe to clariy some things up. Also I feel when its anonymous the reviewer tends to be harsher and more critical, I know I get that way.

Subcultures

Jamband Culture: I would investigate the culture that revolves around the Jam Band music scenes. This subuculture's main focus is dedicated to bands like Phish, .Moe, String Cheese Incident and Umphreys Mcgee's and follow these bands around the country. They are a tight knit community that all share the same fashing style, a style like an exaggerated commune wear. They are very liberal politicality but are in many regards hypocrites to their own political beliefs. I would examine what makes these people go to such lengths to see bands in the Jam band scene, why do they connect to the music so much, why do the where the clothes they wear, and why do drugs run so rampant in the community.

Hipsters: Vintage clothing, vinyl records, counter-cultural views, Pabst Blue Ribbon, what do all of these have in common? Theyre all signs of hipsters but what is a hipster exactly. In the beginning it referred to the Jazz music scene and in the 50's the likes of Jack Kerouac would be known as a hipster. But what is a hipster in todays world? In order to find out I will scour the coffee shops, Urban Outfitter boutiques, and the vintage record stores until I get this answer.

Stephen L. Carter "Just Be Nice" Thoughts

After reading through Stephen L. Carters Essay about three times I still have no idea what his main point is. I think neither does Stephen L. Carter. He seemed just to be writing stuff that bothers him about todays generation and just goes on ranting and ranting. He starts off talking about etiquette with todays youth then goes on some spiel about how kids arent punished enough and then starts talking about offensive language. He's all over the place and none of the paragraphs really relate to each other. He seems like he maybe an intelligent man but this whole essay is just lazy writing.

Research Propasal

My research paper will be on the Patroitic Act and will cover how its was formed, how it was passed using 9/11 paranoia, how it invades on the rights of all Americans and how it pretty much makes the Bill of Rights useless. I will also discuss how the media does not report on it fully and that causes less understanding of it in the US>

Test...

One, Two, Three

My Paper

Idea #1:
Stem Cell Research: Could be very useful to medicine if those damn religious freaks werent so uptight about it.

Idea #2:
Why most major media outlest are racist?
Detroit has a murder rate of over 300 deaths a year but this is not talked about on any major news sources but one a white cheerleader disappears in Aruba, its the biggest news story of the year.

Idea #3:
Prescription drugs
Are all the drugs were prescribing todays kids helping them or making them worse off?

Thesis:
There are many reasons why kids today have less academic integrity but instead of pointing fingers its more important to see how we can fix this.

Topic 1:
Cheating has been around for ever but in recent years there has been a more widespread cheating epidemic plaguing todays schools.

Topic 2:
However, technology cannot be held completely to blame, as todays parent install a fear of failling in their kids that makes them want to succed at any cost.

Topic 3:
The penalties of being caught cheating, though very severe, do not persuade kids to stop cheating as they feel everybody does it and its very hard to be caught.

Topic 4:
In order to learn from cheating, schools must have strict penalties for cheating making sure that if a students get caught once, he wont cheat again.

Conclusion:
Cheating may have always been around but as time has gone on are integrity has seem to drop. Maybe its just todays societies moral values but this epidemic can be stopped.

Test...

One...Two....

Gripping at his desk and hollering loudly like some Frankenstenian creation with the average man appeal of Walter Cronkite and the sardonic wit of George Carlin, "The Daily Show" host Jon Stewart is unlike any other newsman and/or newswoman. Fresh off his break due to the writers strike, you see a rested but still pissed off Stewart ready to supply college campuses across the nation with there steady supply of news that speaks to them and he does not dissapoint. In the first 5 minutes of his broadcast he has already described a book on liberal fascism as "fucking awesome" and has managed to make a wisecrack about every presidential canidate running in the primaries before tearing apart the coverage of the primaries handled by the major news outlets. The so-callled "Most Trusted Name in Fake News", Stewart himself has became what you can call the spokesperson for the genre of fake news. The most easily distingushable figure in this burgeoning genre, Stewart speaks to a whole generation who grow up with the ironic humor that the 90's was so famous for (that ironic humor is pretty much due to The Simpsons but thats a different essay for a different day). What Stewart does may be described as fake news but dont let that fool you. Stewart and other fake news sources are some of the only people telling it like it is and not afraid to point out the bullshit so abundant in todays politicians and reporters.

If you ask most people when did the genre of "fake news" first come about, they would probaly tell you after 9/11 when "The Daily Show" reached its widest audience it has seen. The news was so dark at the time it was refreshing to see Stewart tellt he news in his caring, crude but still classy way. But thats not necessarily when it came about and the fake news genre has been aroud for a while. "The Daily Show"s main influence goes back 30 years ago when Chevy Chase said those famous words "Im Chevy Chase and Your Not" on Weekend Update, a news segment on the foundation of todays comedy, "Saturday Night Live". Weekend Update could be seen as reaction to the coverage of the news during the Vietnam conflict. So "The Daily Show" may not be the originator of fake news but it was the refiner of that style. It turned a weekly five minute sketch into a half hour long nightly show. But dont let the word fake throw you off with programs like "The Daily Show" and "Weekend Update" they do only report on real news story, they just do it humorous and screwball ways. Sometimes they may take a quote out of context or stage scenes in interviews or news segments. But for the most part they tell the truth which is rare in todays world, they happen to tell you the truth in humorous ways.

Stewart is now on a rant, he just played an advertisement for CNN's debate between Hillary and Obama. The ad is made out to make the debate look like some heaveyweight boxing match with a narrator straight out of an action movie trailer. "This Sunday only, watch the greatest matchup since Foreman vs. Ali or Kennedy vs. Nixon, as Barrack the Rock takes on Hillary "The Impeacher" Clinton. All bets are off in what will only be a bloodbath." Thats not what the narrator said but you wouldnt be surprised if he did. But anyways, Stewart is having a field day shredding this add apart, posing the question how is his style of news any less real than Broadcasts that use special effects, sound effects and exagerations. Thats the fundamental flaw in todays news that make this fake news so refreshing. The voice of today news is so distant from the average man, it has pretty much become a voice for big business and politicians. So many anchors rely on graphics and special effects and how many stories tha can fit in instead of hard hittng facts and giving you the stories that affect you. You can watch whole days of news and barely have an understanding of what you just saw because instead of taking their time telling you the details of the story, their just throwing ten stories per minute at you trying to gloss it all over with glitzy special effects. They aim for entertainment value just as much as Stewart but try to act like there the real source for news. These so called real news anchors are completley uncritical or completly biased against one party. Stewart is biased and critical against everyone which is what we need in this age.

Fake news is such a negative name for programs like "The Daily Show', its more like satirical news or postmodern news. Stewart with The Daily Show is able to dissect what it is to means to be a news show, be original and creative, still remain funny while at the time still gives you something to think about and tells what is happening in our world. Stewart is speaking to all of us that have become disenfranchised with both republicans and democrats as they move farther apart. He speaks to all of us outsiders who need someone to speak the truth and call out the bullshit spewed from every politician. He does all of this while still making you laugh until it hurts.

My Thesis Is...

1. Road Rage is the most heinous danger facing todays drivers and has cost the lives of hundreds
2. The violence found in the films of Walt Disney are harming todays children.
3. Ants are one of the most diverse species of insect and can adapt to living anywhere in the world.
4. The rescuing of an abused animal is one of the most gratifying thing you can do as seen in the eyes of the rescued animal.
5. There are many reason why droughts occur and depend on variety of conditions.
6. The Shing, written by author Stephen King, is one of the pinnacles in modern horror novels.
7. The Titanic's sinking in the Atlantic is one of the worst disaster that stretch water has ever seen.
8. Drug addiction in America is a unstoppable problem.
9. Saving Private Ryan is one of the most realistic portrayals of WWII ever made.
10. Rabbits make horrible pets due to various reasons.
11. Thesis Statement
12. Beauty pageants are one of the most vain creations by man.
13. School uniforms are necessary in turning our nations kids into mindless drones.
14. William Shakespeare is still remembered due to his uncomparable witing and endless complexity.
15. Thesis Statement