Jesse Bethea's Song
Jessica Witt's Blog
Tuesday, April 26, 2011
Monday, April 25, 2011
4A Brainwashed
Seth Godin's "Brainwashed"
“Acknowledging the Lizard” is explaining the fact the lizard is the part of the brain that tells a person to do what the person is told and only that. This is saying to acknowledge that a part of your brain wants you to do that, but that does not mean do it, actually instead you should not listen to it but remember it is there.
By acknowledging the lizard for these blog assignments I am more likely to become more creative with my responses because I will be able to think about what is wanted of me and what I normally would put and say no I will be more creative and write my real feelings.
The passage titled “Learn” is about the fact that everyday people must learn. It says that it is the key pillar to the other six mentioned. It says that people have school at all times in the different things people do. It explains that we took the first step by reading this and that from here we must keep learning.
This to me is important because it is true. In life people are always learning new things from the different things they try. If people didn’t try new things they would never know what works and what doesn’t. With this blog I am seeing I am learning what I really feel and think, and also what my peers are thinking. All of this is why learning is an important part of people’s lives.
3A. Exploration of Cover Songs
I chose to listen to Stairway to Heaven by Led Zeppelin and covered by Stanley Jordan. Both are done amazingly in their very own way. These songs have a lot of the same to them but still Stanley Jordan was able to add his own spice to the song.
The songs are most different in the fact that one has lyrics and the other is almost all instrumental, and pretty much all guitar at that so it is not worth discussing the lyrics other then to look at the fact that this song almost does not need lyrics to get its point across which may be what Stanley Jordan was trying to point out when he did not include lyrics and instead added his own spice to parts that would have had singing while being played. The lyrics of this song is very much about words and thoughts. The whole song is almost about wondering so maybe what Stanley Jordan was trying to say is that instead of singing about it just wonder while playing.
Another part where the song seems to differ between the cover and the one by Led Zeppelin is the musical quality. Both songs start out slow and and through the song the speed increases and so does the intensity. The only thing is that Stanley Jordan adds a little more to each of these things then the original. When Stanley Jordan increases the speed his song becomes almost a speedy song while the original only speeds up a little making it almost a normal speed where as when it began it was almost too slow to be a song. When Stanley increases the intensity the song adds drums banging and crashing, while so does Led Zeppelin but the drums are not banging and crashing they are just being added to create more depth to the song. Both focus at one point on the instrumental guitar solo but this is where some of the most contrast between the two songs begins. At this point the listener of these two songs would almost not be able to recognize the fact that they were the same song. At this point Stanley Jordan takes his own spin on the song and goes into almost a different guitar solo but with the original song as the rhythm to go off of. The songs kept the same organization the entire time. They did this by having the same beginning with the slow start, Stanley Jordan may of gone on his own wild tangent during the guitar solo but he did do the guitar solo at the same time, and then ended the song at the same time making the songs almost the exact same length and time.
Even though Stanley Jordan does an amazing job of playing the cover of this song the winner in my heart will always be Led Zeppelin. Even though Stanley Jordan tried to change some parts about the song to make it his he didn’t change the right things and I felt that by taking the lyrics out of the song he took a part of the song that actually helps make the song what it is.
Sunday, April 24, 2011
Saturday, April 16, 2011
Tuesday, April 12, 2011
I Found My Howl
The story I am summarizing is Part 2. In this part the author explains about a time in fifth grade when a teacher he highly disliked made him write a five page story that made him disdain his friend because unlike him his friend was able to not only write five pages but actually ten. Also the story his friend wrote moved him. The story was about a tiger that every time he escaped he would just be sent to a new cage in a new zoo. This story gave the author the meaning that in life the same is true you can never escape your own cage.
Breakthrough Methods
"14 Ways to get Breakthrough Ideas"
The article “14 Ways to get Breakthrough Ideas” is about innovation and the importance of it and different ways to get innovative ideas. Mitch Ditkoff uses the article to show fourteen different ways that this can happen to a person. There were three suggestions that caught my eye; Follow Your Fascination, Fantasize, and Take a Break. Out of these three I find two to be very good suggestions and one not so helpful. Altogether the article does help with how to get innovative ideas.
The idea to follow your fascination is a good idea because the more a person likes something the more likely they are to work hard on it. The article explains that fascination is the way to get a person’s attention for the first time and this is very true. When working on a homework paper about the history of the War of 1812 a person is less likely to be enthused and ready to right unlike if they are writing a paper about their favorite movie. By using this idea I would be able to pick out something such as maybe candy because it is something that excites me and when creating a new type of candy I may have some expertise because I know a lot about what flavors go well together. Fascination is also a way to keep your attention because fascination is what gets people involved in things. Without a fascination people do not get involved in the first place. So not only will fascination spark an interest and get the juices flowing but it will also keep a person satisfied and make them keep working on their innovation until it is the best it can be. Just by following your fascination a person has a beginning to the innovation process.
When Ditkoff makes the suggestion to fantasize I have to disagree with him. As much as fantasizing is fun I know that whenever I start fantasizing not only do I not stay on the same topic for more then a minute and I almost never remember what I had been fantasizing. Fantasizing has been called a bad thing and not been encouraged for a reason. Usually when fantasizing occurs nothing actually happens because of it, it is really just a person’s brain going on a break and going on autopilot. Even if there are breakthrough ideas that are thought of while fantasizing I do not find it likely that the person will remember it when it is time to put the innovation down on paper or even if they did, it is most likely not going to be as a good of an idea as they thought it was at the time.
Ditkoff did have a very good suggestion though, to take a break. I know that there have been many times that I have been working on a paper or studying for a test and just sat there staring at for what seemed like hours. Finally I would take a break and then it would happen I would be reenergized and have my creative juices flowing. Just as Ditkoff said the more obsessions and thinking the more likely you are to just keep coming up with the same ideas. Every time there is a standardized test given they don’t just give each test right after the other, they always give a break to stretch your legs, eat a snack, or just use the bathroom. All of these things help the students give their brains a break so they are fresh reenergized and ready to start a new test. The best thing to do is to take a break, stop obsessing, and return when ready to take a fresh look at the problem.
At this time I have an idea to create a new candy. In a way I can maybe go out, get supplies to start trying to make candy. I could also start thinking of types of candy I want to make. I could decide if I want it to be chocolate or fruity, sweet or sour, and so many other decisions. If instead of telling myself this was a dumb idea and I actually went out and bought the supplies I would be much more likely to actually start working on my idea instead of just wanting to work on the idea.
All of Ditkoff’s fourteen ways may be able to help someone become more innovative. They each have their own qualities that would be able to help each person has there own ways that they will come up with there own innovations. By using these tricks it will give people help when coming up with innovations, which is what the main point of the article was.
Monday, April 11, 2011
My Creative Idol
Creativity has always been a quality I am proud to have. When I create something my creativity has most like a splatter painting because all my creativity is all over the place. When it comes to who inspires me to be creative this person does not have the same type of creativity as myself but she has shown what a lot of hard work can pull off and also the different creativity that can come out of a paintbrush. Olivia De Beradinis is not only the top pin up artist of her time but also my aunt. Olivia does not only paint the women but adds a different setting for each of the girls. Each painting has a unique creative scene or aspect to it. She has painted enough paintings of Betty Page (a famous pin up girl from the 20s) that she was able to make a whole book of paintings of Betty Page and none of the same. There are paintings of geishas, sailor girls, women of the night, and so many other creative landscapes.
A lot of Olivia’s artwork tries to bring themes from familiar scenes. She uses Contrast and Release to make her paintings more real. An example of this is Olivia’s artwork of Geishas. In these photos Olivia uses some artwork that is part of Japanese culture but then she adds her own part in such as a Tiger with big eyes to show that this is not an actual Japanese culture painting. She uses a Japanese woman as a Geisha, this women is where the biggest similarities and differences are. In this painting she has the women dressed as a geisha but has added touches to how the women is dressed to make it her own painting.
Olivia’s artwork explores Tension and Affinity by showing a much more dramatic way of different real life images. One of my favorite paintings Olivia painted is of a woman as a night cat. She is sprawled out on a tree just like a cat would be, but instead of a cat it is a women. The way Olivia shows the difference between it being a cat and a woman is by enhancing the women’s features but adding cat parts such as adding cat ears and whiskers. The women in the picture are sprawled out across the tree leisurely almost sleeping just as a cat would be doing. All of these things are painted to show the women as a cat but there is also a sexual appeal added with how the women is drawn and sprawled to keep it in the pin up art.
In Olivia’s paintings she always leaves room to have your own opinion but she also pushes her own opinion through by using Objective and Subjective. In all of Olivia’s paintings she has her own opinion what the women is suppose to be or their background story. She shows her idea by painting the image and giving them their own story such as the sailor girl, or the football player. In these images Olivia may have had her own idea for what these woman in the painting storyline is but she just provides the character and the setting but the storyline can be up to the viewer of the painting.
All of this put into Olivia’s paintings showing her creativity and it all shows how she puts more into the painting than what first hits the eye. Olivia Interview Olivia Homepage Olivia's Facebook
Friday, April 1, 2011
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