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Frigid, chlorinated water dripped from my hair onto my shoulders. Despite the cold, I felt warm, aggressive, and powerful. When I look back at this picture, I can feel what I felt at that triumphant moment. My team mates and I had just swam a relay at leagues, and were being awarded medals. Maybe to someone else, this is just a picture. But for me, it brings back so many associated memories. The miles of laps and the grueling work outs; the pasta parties and the banquets. Everything comes rushing back and I am overcome with a bittersweet feeling. I feel the triumph of the moment, and then I understand that the moment has passed. For those who can relate to this picture, they understand what it feels like to win. For others, it is little more than a picture.
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The Breakfast Club
“The Breakfast Club” is a more recent movie compared to “Rebel Without a Cause”, and again, everything is quite unrealistic. Although our generation of teens do smoke weed, no one does it so publicly. The cliques presented and exemplified by each one of the teens in detention are also unrealistic. In real life, there are few people that can be characterized as only part of one clique. Despite these fantasy exaggerations, “The Breakfast Club” does do a better job of identifying certain types of teens. For example, the insecure jock that can’t think for himself, and the rebellious, house-broken pothead. This more modern movie does a better job of representing teenagers, but there are still several instances of extravagance, perhaps for entertainment.
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Rebel Without A Cause
Although the game of chicken and the knife fights are an exaggeration of the things teens glorify today, the underlying goal of this dangerous behavior is still the same. Every teen still wants to be “cool”. In “Rebel Without a Cause”, the teens glorified acts of bravery. Willing participation in these dangerous stunts allowed a teen to become some kind of aristocrat among his friends; by participating in the game of chicken Jim receives the hand of his opponents girlfriend. Now, in our time, it seems that teens glorify something else. A teen myself, I find it difficult to describe exactly what we think is “cool”, but I can see that it has something to do with rule-breaking and subverting authority. Although “Rebel Without a Cause” is an extreme example of the lengths teens will go to impress their friends, it isn’t completely inaccurate at describing what we strive for.
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Sullivan Repost
For about 6 years of my life, I’ve loathed playing the piano. Every day after school, I would have to practice the abhorrent instrument for hours and hours. From scales to musical theory, the instrument required perfection, and I am no perfectionist. Eventually, frequent arguments broke out between me and my parents over the quality and quantity of my practice.
While finding music on Youtube one day, I stumbled upon a composer named Ludovico Einaudi. Unlike baroque music, Einaudi was a minimalist composer; he created very simple songs that were refreshing compared to the old and rustic music of Mozart and Bach. Eagerly, I found the score for the piece and printed it out. Unsurprisingly, the music was quite easy when I began to play it. Even so, I was drawn to this minimalist style; it was so open to interpretation and relied more on the performer then on the composer. This single piece, titled Oltremare, helped me realize that there was music out there that I was willing to play. Through experimentation with a variety of music, I’ve found that even ancient composers such as Debussy appeal to my musical taste.
Gone are the days where I throw away the opportunity to learn music. Bach and Mozart are still required for technique, but I am sure to supplement my musical education with music by Einaudi and Debussy. My piano instructor disagrees with some of the pieces I choose to play, but he understands that the key to being good at something is enjoying what you do. Once I realized that I could actually enjoy playing the piano, I practiced.
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Response to: Tennis Shadows
Tennis was probably the first real sport or extra-curricular event that I did, that made me feel like I was a part of something. It was where I was finally accepted, something that let me be myself, that let me thrive on its elegance and freedom. When I was little, I use to watch professionals…
I really can relate to the feelings Craig describes in his post: being able to “let loose while playing”. For me, tennis is a great stress reliever. But unlike other ways of relieving stress, tennis is constructive. Crushing the ball out of anger, sadness, or frustration and watching it fly where aimed is somehow satisfying. Perhaps, if I’m not able to control my life I could at least control the direction of a measly yellow ball. Watching the ball land where I want over and over again gives me confidence and removes frustration. It’s also fun!
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Voice
The voice inside my head is arrogant and selfish. It wants me to succeed at everything, otherwise it tells me that I’m a failure. Everything I do, I do to feed this little voice in my head. It is never satisfied; I must continuously sate its appetite. This inner voice is not something I was born with. It is something that was bred into me. My parents, my culture, and the environment I was raised in all contributed to the creation of this voice. This craving for success may seem like a good thing, but it isn’t. The small victories satisfy the voice for a short time, but hide what I really want. This addiction to short term happiness makes it difficult to find who I am and what I want to be. This is the problem in the popular stereotype that all Asians are intelligent. Although I was raised to value success and intelligence I was never given a reason to besides of a higher chance to become wealthy. Hopefully I will be able to quiet this inner voice and find something meaningful to apply it to.
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No Unmarked Woman
I really like this lady Tannen. She is in fact not “male bashing”, as many feminists do, but is actually seeking equality between the two sexes. So really, Tannen is less of a feminist and more of an activist for equality. Tannen references a man that did not understand this; a man that automatically assumed she was “male bashing” because she was a woman talking about men. I think she uses this example to name her audience: people who are ignorant of differences between the sexes and believe that there is perfect equality. Her anecdote also serves as a rebuttal to any ignorant responses to her essay. Ultimately, Tannen wants to prove to men that this inequality exists, and I believe her attempt to be successful.
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Fashion
In my room, I have a stack of shirts and a stack of pants. One item off the top of each stack, and that concludes my involvement with fashion. I’ve never understood this obsession over the clothes people wear, but I do think I understand the importance of fashion in human interaction. There are two types of interactions: cursory ones, known as “first impressions”, and longer relationships, such as marriage. Cursory interactions are short, and therefore shallow. This is where fashion matters the most. For example, a job interview where the interviewer only gets to meet a prospective employee for a short period of time. The interviewer only has so little interaction, so it is obviously required for the employee to dress nicely in order to impress. With longer interactions, fashion becomes less important and gives way to the actual personality of a person. Then, an actual relationship is created. This difference in types of interaction is what differs us from animals. The existence of personality creates deeper interactions between us, and allows us to judge on more than just appearance. These are all observances made without considering attraction between opposite sexes, because that is much more complicated.
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Altering Public Space
I believe that there are two ways to alter public space. One way is to actually commit a physical act; for example, ImprovEverywhere’s stunt where they rode the subway without wearing pants. This is less common, as people tend to conform to social norms. More commonly, a person can alter public space by invoking memories associated with that person’s race, gender, etc. This is known as stereotyping. Stereotyping is very similar to experience. When a child learns not to touch a hot stove, he “stereotypes” all other stoves and assumes that they are hot. Of course, there are inconsistencies between stereotyping people and “stereotyping” objects because all people are different, but learning from experience is a desirable trait. In response to Staples anecdote describing his experiences walking at night, I would say that he should not be offended or uncomfortable. As a 6 foot 2 African American man, he has little to fear in the alleys at night so he may not understand why people run from him. The girl’s flight is justified, as she learned from experience to run from intimidating people following her at night. In that neighbourhood, and in those circumstances, it easy to understand the girl’s fright.
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Rick Santorum
His response to a question about the priest sex abuse scandal: “When the culture is sick, every element in it becomes infected. While it is no excuse for this scandal, it is no surprise that Boston, a seat of academic, political and cultural liberalism in America, lies at the center of the storm.”
(http://articles.chicagotribune.com/2012-01-08/news/ct-oped-0108-chapman-20120108_1_murder-rate-rick-santorum-moral-relativism)
His explanation for the war in Iraq: “As the hobbits are going up Mount Doom, the Eye of Mordor is being drawn somewhere else,” Santorum said. “It’s being drawn to Iraq and it’s not being drawn to the U.S. You know what? I want to keep it on Iraq. I don’t want the Eye to come back here to the United States.”
(http://www.salon.com/2006/10/17/santorum_24/)
His response to abortion of babies conceived from rape: “women should make the best of a bad situation.”
(http://www.traviscountydemocrats.org/daily-head-scratcher/)
And more:
“I don’t care what the unemployment rate’s going to be. Doesn’t matter to me.”
“The issue in this race is not the economy,”
(http://www.traviscountydemocrats.org/daily-head-scratcher/)
http://2012.republican-candidates.org/
211 delegates? What?
