Self Reflective Final

For me this class has been part of the greater transformation and learning experience and growth that I have undergone throughout this semester. Being fresh out of high school posed several difficulties and challenges for me. Learning to be responsible, punctual, and adult are a few of the many road blocks that I ran into. Throughout high school I traveled and moved a lot, so I was always cut a little more slack than the rest of the students in my classes because I was perpetually new and adjusting.

This class in particular, with its weekly assignments, relatively faster pace than high school, and significantly stricter deadlines, was one of my first challenges. I've never been one of the people that does their homework regularly and on time. It has helped me learn quite a bit about my own writing abilities, pace, and processes. My greatest difficulty was with the weekly blog assignments and comments, I never remembered to do them, I was too busy doing other things on my weekends, and during the week I was barely managing showing up to class, but eventually I caught on to the fact that they were necessary to my passing the class and got a lot better at doing them.

Throughout the course of the class I learned a significant amount about myself, my strengths and weaknesses, as well as just how I go about writing. Before this semester I have never had to write so much so often and in such a tight time frame. Another difficulty I faced was writing without guidelines as detailed as those that had previously been provided in high school writing classes. I did however adjust, although it may have taken me a little longer than I would have liked.

I learned a lot more about what "good" is. In my opinion, good writing is writing that captures the reader, interests them, educates them, challenges their ideas, and makes them think. Throughout this course I think I have portrayed some good writing and some not so good.

My best writings by far where the observational essay and the rhetorical analysis essay. In those I really made an effort and put my heart into the writing. The observational essay was good writing and also followed the guidelines and expectations of the assignment. But my rhetorical analysis essay was good writing that did not necessarily follow the guidelines of the assignment as much as it could have.

I've found that I put a lot of effort into writing good endings that leave the reader wondering, and make them think about the piece they just read. That is evident in the ending of my rhetorical analysis:

" These videos, these small acts of courage, courage to stand up and demand freedom, freedom of speech, and of expression, provide a world in which Arabs can freely mold, shape, and assert their identities in whatever way they choose, regardless of whether or not they are an accurate indicator of social, cultural, and political change that allows them to do so in the real world. What matters is that they are all small but sure steps in the right direction. Thomas Jefferson said, "Every generation needs a new revolution," if that's the case, this one is about a millennium and a half past due."

One of my weaker points however was writing a strong thesis statement. For the most part the majority of my writings were lacking a distinctive thesis statement all together like in my extra credit write up of the Daniel Alarcon reading and in my observational essay.

I realized that one my greatest strengths by far is writings where I was arguing a point and supporting my opinion like in the sex appeal writing about the Calvin Klein advertisement, Sex Sells No Matter What You're Selling.

In the beginning of the semester when weekly posts had to be 500 words I had a lot more difficulty completing them because I felt it was hard to find 500 words to say about the topics given. The reduction in length really helped with that, I was writing a lot less nonsense and babble.

I had also never written in a blog before, much less blogged for a class, it took quite a bit of getting used to especially with the use of multimedia and hyperlinks. Initially I didn't know what to hyperlink in my text or what pictures or video to use, but eventually I started to enjoy incorporating them in my text. Having our assignments be due online was really a lot of fun because there's so much more you can do when it's online. All in all, this class was a great learning experience, I learned a lot about myself, my learning and that I should really be more open to doing things differently because it could turn out to be better than other ways.

Today's Arab Revolution

One of the most interesting and first of its kind music videos, released in 2002, is that of an extremely popular Lebanese singer by the name of Elissa. Since the launch of her musical career, Elissa has been the first, and one of the few Middle Eastern artists to test the boundaries and push the limits of traditional Arab culture. Through her music and videos, Elissa, among many others, has greatly helped in driving people to pursue and push for the westernization and open-mindedness needed to move forward in today’s world, that is seen and being acquired in several Middle Eastern countries today.

Ellissar Khoury, the Lebanese singer famously known as Elissa, first started her singing career in the early 90’s on a Lebanese talent show called Studio el Fan on Lebanon’s leading television station, LBC. Throughout her career she has sold close to 18 million albums, making close to $31 million in her career, thereby making her one of the most popular Lebanese and Arabic singers in history.


In the music video above of her song “Ayshalak” Elissa, an attractive brunette is involved in a risqué rendezvous in a Parisian hotel. Throughout the video, which follows the story of this forbidden meeting, an illicit relationship is portrayed between her and the male figure featured in it. Most of the filming takes place in the hotel room, at times she’s in the room alone, as if waiting for her man, while the man is also with her there at times. The video is dripping with promiscuity and eroticism, and her outfits are relatively revealing and skimpy. In one scene she’s wearing tiny silky lingerie, and in another she’s lying down moving suggestively as if fantasizing about the man in the video. The camera picks up different perspectives throughout filming jumping from the perspective of an audience member, to that of the man with Elissa staring up and moving erotically, to scenes where she is being filmed performing.

The promiscuity is not only portrayed through the visual aspects of the video, thereby appealing to the audience's pathos, but that sex appeal is also apparent in the lyrics of the song. I realize not too many of you understand Arabic, so I’ve provided a translation of some of those lyrics. They read:

And the gleam of my eye shows
Desire in my heart for you, my dear
And passion that’s been there from the day we met
My dream was to be with you
Even if only one day of my life to spend with you
And dreams upon dreams have I had about you my love
...
My heart is waiting for you
Come closer to me my dear
My longing for you has grown
Fill me with the world’s desire
...
I adore you and no matter what I say
My soul will be with you always
...
My heart is waiting for you
I’m living for you
Come closer to me…

Elissa’s videos establish a new level that needed to be reached in order to legitimately be “extreme” and testing the limits of what is publicly acceptable in Arab culture. Promiscuity, attraction, and seduction are all very much private things that is Arab culture, are only supposed to occur between a man and his wife and behind closed doors; this is greatly due to the instructions in the Koran:

"And say to the believing women that they cast down their looks and guard their private parts, and display not their ornaments, except those which are outside; and let them pull their kerchiefs over their bosoms and not display their ornaments save to their husbands and fathers, or the fathers of their husbands, or their sons, or the sons of their husbands, or their brothers, or their brothers’ sons, or their sisters’ sons, or their women, or what their right hands possess, or their male attendants who are incapable, or to children who do not note women’s nakedness; and that they beat not with their feet that their hidden ornaments may be known. But all turn repentant to God, O believers! May you prosper." (Koran, Light 24:31 p216)

Now, although the Koran offers guidelines by which Muslims are expected to live their lives, Islam’s prevalence in the Middle East for the past 1400 years has lead to a point where Islamic laws have govern not only Muslims, but people of all other religions residing in the area. This thereby poses the same expectations of conduct from Christians and Muslims alike. So although most of these female artists that display themselves so iconically are indeed Christian Arabs, the social and cultural expectations of modesty are there.

A significantly large portion of female singers are Christian, largely due to the fact that Christian-Arab families tend to be much more liberal and easy going than their Muslim counterparts, thereby allowing more Christian women the chance at the spotlight than Muslim women that are usually governed by more traditional and conservative families that would be much less inclined to allow their daughters the freedom needed to be a pop star.

Although at the time that Elissa’s video was released, her suggestiveness seemed especially daring, even for a Christian singer; this is a trend, increasing exponentially in popularity, becoming almost typical of the now contemporary Middle Eastern music scene. Every year, more female Arab singers emerge presenting themselves as provocative, erotic sex symbols; asserting themselves through their movements, voice, dress, and all over image; some of the most famous and popular of them being Nancy Ajram, Haifa Wahbeh, Dana, Nawal Zoghbi, and numerous others.

The eroticism like that coming from Elissa in her music videos may be all too common and familiar to the westerner’s eye, but in the Middle East, this is a completely different story. What would seem in western culture to be outdated and cliché is exactly what makes these music videos, so gripping to a Middle Eastern audience, it is the notion of something being “forbidden”. Unlike western culture, Middle Eastern culture approaches the forbidden in a much more artistic form. It is part of human nature to long for what one cannot have, and the vastness of things that are forbidden in Arab and Muslim culture only contribute to making them seem all the more appealing.

Ultimately it comes down to that people in the Middle East have been suppressing their attractions, urges and sexuality for so long that Muslim law can no longer rein it. There is a revolution happening, and it’s happening through popular Arabic music. The social and cultural boundaries and norms are being tested, pushed around and trodden on on a daily basis. Remarkable social and cultural changes are just around the corner, and although sex may seem to be the most prominent and striking facet of these little rebellions, it is in fact the least important one of all. Sex is simply the window of opportunity through which people are being presented with the vast possibilities and opportunities that will become available upon people’s demand for and acquisition of the freedom they all deserve. These videos, these small acts of courage, courage to stand up and demand freedom, freedom of speech, and of expression, provide a world in which Arabs can freely mold, shape, and assert their identities in whatever way they choose, regardless of whether or not they are an accurate indicator of social, cultural, and political change that allows them to do so in the real world. What matters is that they are all small but sure steps in the right direction. Thomas Jefferson said, “Every generation needs a new revolution,” if that’s the case, this one is about a millennium and a half past due.





Women of the Revolution. (clockwise, Nancy Ajram, Nawal Zoghbi, and Haifa Wahbeh)








-------------------------------
Works Cited:
1. The Koran, translated by Dawood, N. J. Penguin Books Limited, 1985.

Jordan... is that in Utah?

I first moved to the US about 4+ years ago. I went straight from Amman, Jordan; a city of about 3 million people, to Cadillac, Michigan, a town in the middle of nowhere in northern Michigan with a population of about 10,000 people. People, for the most part, had no idea there was a country by the name of Jordan, let alone where in earth it is. It was a bit of a culture shock moving from a huge city where things are always happening and there’s almost always something to do, to a tiny little town who’s main attraction is a Super Wal-Mart on the other side of town, a movie theater with 4 theaters, and the lake (but only during the brief summers). People asked me some of the craziest questions like:
“What do they speak in Jordan? Jordanese?”
“Where’s Jordan? You mean East Jordan, MI?”
“Jordan… Is that in Utah?”
“Do you have TVs in Jordan?”
“Do you live in tents like in Laurence of Arabia?”
“Do you ride camels to get around?”
I was in 8th grade at the time and, despite growing up in a foreign country, knew a fair amount about American history as well as the names, locations, and capitals of all 50 states. I was pretty surprised that no one knew where Jordan was, or at least that it was a part of the Middle East, the area of greatest turmoil for the past what? At least 50 years of recent history, but realistically, the turmoil dates back thousands and thousands of years. They were almost all Christian, except for the Schappas, the single non-Christian family in town; they were Jewish. I thought “Don’t they know that Jesus was baptized in the JORDAN river, and that it was near Jerusalem which is in Palestine (Israel, Palestine, whatever you choose to call it, it’s all one big mess in reality), which is on the west side of the JORDAN river bank, opposite (oh my gosh!) Jordan the COUNTRY.
So my point being, junior high, in a town like that, for a person like me, was two long years of hell. Point two being, US public schools REALLY need better geography classes.

BitterSweetLoveAffair

Missing my sweet sweet lover
But he's right there
Sitting in my pocket
Nestled
Warmly snuggled with his spark

He's right there
Right within my reach
I want him
But I don't
I love him
And I hate him
I crave
Yet despise him

Within me he ignites a small temporary light
At the expense of the eternal flame in my soul
He weighs heavily on my chest
Grounded deep in my heart

He constricts me
Holding me back
Chaining me down
I am his prisoner

Comfortably
He resides in my core for all eternity.

He's always there for me
My shoulder to cry on
My angry release
He loves me for me
No strings attached
No matter what

My longing
My craving
My yearning
My desire

Its all for him
Only him
I am loyal to him
I am exclusive
I obey him religiously
I answer his every call
And I meet his every need

I could never betray him for another
But no other could ever live up to him anyway

He goes perfectly with anything
Every time is his time

Every place is his place

He lifts me up
He brings me down
He masks my soul
And distorts my being

He tortures me
He comforts me

I am a victim of his manipulation

I squirm
I struggle
I itch to evade him
Beneath my skin
I can feel it

I need him

I need him

From the first touch
I am relieved
I fall
All over again
Every time
Descending,
Deeper
And deeper
Into a state of dependence

That last touch comes along
It is dreaded.
That wretched last touch
Damn it
Its so inevitable

A dark feeling sets over me
Submerging me in a tenebrous sea
I am full of regret
Disappointment
Disgust
At myself
And my submission.

I hate myself for loving him
I hate myself for needing him
I hate myself for falling so
Madly
Deeply
Truly

Head
-
over
-
Heels

From the first taste
The moment I first brought my lips to his
That instant they interlocked
He had me
But I feel he always has

He is my life partner
My loyal lover
…
My silent slayer

Damn him.

Poetry Reading at the Dikeou Collection

On Thursday, April 12th 2007, Copper Nickel hosted Jake Adam York, a professor of English at University of Colorado at Denver, reading poetry at the Dikeou Collection downtown along with two of his former students Mary McHugh and Roxanne Banks. Roxanne Banks is currently an English teacher at Littleton High School in Littleton, CO, a suburb south of Denver, and Mary McHugh is currently a student at University of Colorado at Denver.
Mary McHugh was the first to read, she walked up to the podium timidly after Jake Adam York introduced her. She giggled nervously saying, “Wow, I have a lot to live up to with that introduction. She read several poems including a poem about the poet Andy Goldsworthy, a poem called Octopus; inspired by Marianne Moore, a poem called Pompeii and a poem called Radioactive Water. Jake Adam York compared her poetry to that of Marianne Moore, scientific and logical in manner. She was wearing a black cardigan, knee length skirt and knee high socks with clunky Mary Jane shoes. She seemed a bit nervous; slightly rushed, voice unstable and wavering.
Roxanne Banks on the other hand, a teacher at my high school, was far more eloquent and confident speaking in front of people. She stepped up to the podium and almost immediately cracked a joke. She mentioned an electronic sign outside of a Walgreen’s pharmacy, it read, “Vienna Sausage Armor… $6.75” and talked about how wonderful it would be to have armor made out of Vienna sausage. Her most recent works have been eulogies, mostly to fictional characters. The first poem she read, An Eulogy for a Prairie Dog, she said was a poem she probably should have written about years ago when she first witnessed the events in it. She had very steady rhythm, as well as great structure and imagery. Her second poem, called And Now, was about a beetle, the main character of Kafka’s Metamorphosis. Her third, I Tried to Kill Her But… a “fractured fairytale”. Her fourth, Your Educational Rights, about a high school student with an unhealthy obsession with his teacher. And finally a poem about Meursault, the estranged character of Albert Camus’s book, The Stranger (L’Étranger).

I was able to stay long enough to hear two of Jake Adam York’s poems, they were both about unfairly solved murders that happens several decades ago. I noticed he had a great stance and confidence. He used his voice very well, he had great projection and made great use of accents in reading his poetry. It was definitely interesting to hear each of the three poets read their own work because it makes a big difference as to the way they read them and the understanding extracted from them. Had I been reading the poetry they wrote it probably would have been very different, having breaks and stops at different points, making a huge difference in the meaning behind the words.

Watch Before You Eat

So I visited the Downtown Denver Aquarium with one of my friends last week. I felt like such a kid, it was great! I loved it, I had so much fun that I felt a bit ridiculous. I got all excited when I saw just about every single fish in there. I’m really pretty surprised my friend didn’t punch me in the face at all; I was like an extremely over-grown three year-old. “OH MY GOD LOOK AT THE JELLY FISH!” and once we saw the clown fish, “Look! They found Nemo!” and “OH MY GOD! What if the shark eats the little fishies? They need protection!!”
So it was pretty much awesome, an escape much needed from my insane week.
What I found most interesting about my Downtown Denver Aquarium experience was the restaurant located at the end of the tour of the Downtown Denver Aquarium. It seemed a bit odd to me to spend an hour admiring hundreds of beautiful kinds of fish then walking into a restaurant to eat some fish. Not to mention the fact that the restaurant was lined with a huge aquarium covering the entire left wall. I think I made a wise decision, I ordered a salad. I did not want any angry little fishies breaking through that aquarium going for my throat.
I mean I’m still struggling with being ok with eating meat, let alone eating a fish, in front of a fish. Sure sure, fish have puny little brains and don’t know the difference anyway, but it seems a bit odd, and made me extremely uncomfortable. I’m really wondering if I’m the first person to notice anything odd about watching them before you eat them. I sure hope not.

Daniel Alarcon

I walked into the recital hall of the King Center not knowing quite what to expect. I had never been to a book reading, or any other type of reading at that. There were a couple of people from the English department that spoke, introducing Daniel Alarcon before he actually came on stage to read from his newest book; Lost City Radio. They pointed out how great of a writer he was, how his book was a finalist for the 2006 PEN/Hemingway Foundation Award, that he received the award for being one of the British journal Granta’s Best Young American Novelists, and the fact that he received the Whiting award in 2004. In Addition he is the Associate Editor for an award-winning monthly magazine, Etiqueta Negra, based in Lima, Peru.
Once they were done with their thanks and introductions, the audience applauded and he got up and walked up to the stage. I was relatively surprised, his hair was pretty big, almost a fro actually, looking as if he had been electrocuted, or maybe had just rolled out of bed, I couldn’t do anything but stare at it for a few minutes. He looked very casual, but not really the laid-back kind of casual, more like a half-assed casual attempt at looking more formal. He was wearing slightly worn-out black Chuck Taylors, and his jeans were tearing a little where they rub against the ground. He was wearing a bright red T-shirt with a hint of obnoxiously bright yellow text peeking out from underneath the orange shirt he was wearing on top. He pulled it all together with a navy blue blazer and a silver band on his pinky. Although it was hard, I did snap myself out of my hypnosis in time to hear him introduce his novel, giving a short background summary and explaining the first portion he was planning to read.
He started reading, a bit awkward and monotonous, but the words he was reading were great. The story of a female radio host and her husband, trying to make it through a city going to shambles, sleep in a bar because it’s unsafe to go home captured me. It was interesting and grasping, and his words were sewn together so gracefully it was amazing.
The second portion that he read was further on in the book as well as in the future. At that point, the radio host, Norma, has lost her husband in the jungle. He studied plants and had gone there to study the natural medicines that people used in the jungle’s villages and had never returned. There were rumors that he had joined the Illegitimate Legion, the rebel group that had by then been defeated. On her radio show, Norma often read off lists of names of people gone missing, lost to the nameless south American city, in an attempt to reunite them with their families. A boy came to the station with a list of names of missing people from his village, and her husband’s name was on the list. Here begins Norma’s search for her husband where the war is over and people are trying to pick up the pieces. It is the first clue to solving the mystery.
The story sounded so great that I bought the book and am actually almost finished with it. Daniel Alarcon is indeed one of the great young American novelists, he combines his Peruvian background with his American one in an attempt to bridge the gaps and open people’s eyes to the differences and wonderful things that Peruvian culture has to offer the world. I think he is an amazing asset to both this country and the world as a whole.

WHAT?!

CK's Beautiful Fantasy

This advertisement, which is a relatively obvious parody of Calvin Klein’s perfume and cologne lines, poses a hysterically great mockery of what scent sales are all about. Technically, it seems like there’s nothing much that a picture can do to promote a perfume or cologne besides give it a persona that will appeal to the largest number of potential buyers. Calvin Klein tends to take the approach of portraying beautiful, thin, sculpted, and pretty much perfectly elegant and classy models as the face of their cologne-promotion campaigns. In the Adbusters version of it, there is a relatively overweight man, hairy chest, no visible muscles, your average joe so to speak. It portrays the complete opposite of everything that Calvin Klein ever advertises, everything that is- as mentioned in the heading- REALITY. The reality of the matter is, men are not all sculpted to perfection, hairless, silky smooth with an all year round gorgeously sun-kissed looking tan. The people that are that way are either extremely blessed, or work their tails off to get there (meaning no life, and never eating). People are real, people have flaws, normal people are not perfect. This is something that I believe advertisers try to hide from people, like it’s one big secret, while still oddly enough managing to shove it in everyone’s face at the same time. I personally hate the advertising business because I think it’s one of the most manipulative, evil, conniving professions out there, it’s all one big trick to manipulate people into thinking they want a certain product, whilst trying to jedi mind trick them into believing this all new standard for beauty and normalcy. This advertisement does a great job of hitting that right at the core and shattering the perfect picture that has been upheld for so long, only to unveil what we all need to see, and that is, the REALITY.

Sex sells, no matter what it is you're selling

So above you can see the Calvin Klein advertisement that I found the most surprising; it's supposed to be a jeans advertisement despite the fact that it portrays little to no jeans. For the past ten years or so, more and more clothiers have started to adopt the same advertising and marketing techniques as Calvin Klein (for example Abercrombie & Fitch, Express Jeans, Victoria’s Secret and numerous others.) The bottom line is, sex really does sell, no matter what we’d like to think, and sellers will take advantage of that whenever they possibly can.
In this ad, an ad for Calvin Klein Jeans, you can see a headless, sculpted male body, standing under a shower head, wearing nothing and shielding his “junk” so to speak with a pair of jeans that he holds in his hand. To me this is the epitome of using sex appeal; this isn’t even a person, his face is cut out of the picture, it’s only his body. He’s wearing absolutely nothing; instead he’s holding a pair of jeans covering his area up. The funny thing about this to me is that the photo in no way promotes the jeans, but rather the idea of taking them off perhaps? What is it about these jeans that makes them sexy? Are they trying to advertise that the jeans are in some way or another easy-access, easy-off?
An even more odd concept is that of Abercrombie & Fitch’s advertising techniques, most of the models on their huge billboards don’t have any clothes on at all. The first time I went into an Abercrombie & Fitch Store and saw their billboards I was pretty curious as to how exactly you can advertise clothes with models that aren’t wearing any. The thing is, they’re not advertising clothes, they’re advertising sex appeal, they’re trying to tell their customers that if they buy their clothes at Calvin Klein or at Abercrombie & Fitch, that they too will be sexy. It’s not about the product per se, it’s about attracting customers to the risqué and adventurous side that they are always looking for.

A few years behind

Music in the Arab world has come a very long way in the past 4 years or so. How? Well, not only have shirts gotten tighter, skirts gotten shorter, and women acted progressively more and more seductive, but it has also become more and more ok. This shift in the focus of the music industry happened in the western hemisphere a while ago, the shift being a trade off between the importance of talent versus skill. Everyone knows that in the US, it’s easier to get a record deal with a pretty face and so-so voice than it is with a so-so face and amazing pipes. Why is that? Because it’s all about the image. People want pretty things (people) to look at, people want something to live up to and someone they can wish they looked like. Not to mention sound technology and such have opened doors to fix all the little bloops in people’s voices so they sound good. In the Arab world, I think it’s more that men want pretty women to look at, since in the conservative culture there’s a significant void of that, and women want to live vicariously through these beautiful, seductive, beauty queen, rock princesses. And they definitely did for a while, things were fine and dandy, that is until at one point your average 18 year old girl started looking and acting a lot less acceptably and a lot more like Carole Samaha (1st video) and Nancy Ajram (2nd video). Girls in the Middle East are trying to act like the women they see everywhere from magazines to newspapers, cell phones to televisions to even the movie screens, and this is a problem because the Arab culture is not one that allows these behaviors by any means. I’m all for the Arab world becoming more lenient, but I worry these young women’s efforts will backfire and lead to an extremist movement to counteract it. There are many people that are very adamant about maintaining their way of life. I just worry that these daring ladies’ efforts for change will lead to a worse and more dangerous change than they intended to obtain.

Two couples sitting on benches talking at what appears to be a city park in Amman, Jordan. The couples are both dressed very traditionally for the Middle East; the women are both dressed very conservatively with head scarves. The woman on the right is dressed in the more old-fashioned long dress, while the woman on the left is more modern wearing pants and a shirt, both of them however are wearing open-toed shoes which is not very common with women who wear head dresses.

The New York Times' Screens blog features several different videos from YouTube, the popular free online video blogging web site. In last Wednesday's blog for example, Virginia Heffernan (the author of Screens), discusses Hillary Rodham Clinton's online video blogging.
The site is relatively simple, it's a part of the New York Times web site under the Arts section. It has a white background with visible and clear black font. The author occasionally plays around with font shape and style but she doesn't stray too far from the norm. the simplicity and clarity of the web site is understandable due to the fact that there is a need for it to appeal to a wide range of readers, I can't begin to imagine how many people read the New York Times and visit the web site each day. If it was a more specific blog site with a smaller audience with a certain focal point, the author would have more room to experiment and play around with it. In addition, the subject matter is not all that colorful or out there. The most recent blog was not interesting to me in the least bit. That is mostly because I did not know who Rick Rubin and Ray Stevens are, and she fails to provide any background information or explanation as to the subject matter at hand. She seems to be running on the assumption that her readers will know what she's talking about, and maybe her audience will, I don't know what kind of people read her blogs. She does have some interesting YouTube videos on the blog site from time to time. I found the blog about Hillary Clinton very interesting.
She does, however, incorporate a lot of Videos and pictures in her writings, thereby taking full advantage of the things that the new age of internet has allowed writers to do, and she has an appealing wit and edge to her writing.

Observational Essay: Gangster Rap Ballet

Luc, one of my friends, and I crossed the street, and started walking up the stairs towards the Skate City’s double doors. “Dang, there’s a lot of people here tonight, I’ve never seen the parking lot this full, they must be packed.” he says as he holds the door open for me. I step out of the cold and into the warm sweaty air of Aurora’s Skate City. I look around me and feel as if I’ve stepped back a few decades, the rink looks like it came straight out of the disco era, neon lights, disco ball, the works; the only difference is people are skating to the rhythm of Young Joc spilling out of the speakers rather than ABBA.














We walk in and towards the Deejay booth, Luc introduces me to Bobby, a stout 30-something year old in a red shirt and a shiny gangster-like medallion around his neck, and Kevin, a tall broad-shouldered guy in an orange flannel shirt. Bobby nods at me and continues to go about his business while Kevin shakes my hand inviting me to come sit in the Deejay booth so I can ask him questions. He has a very welcoming and charming air about him.

This winter has been especially frigid, seven storms in seven weeks means excellent business for the owner’s of the skating rink. I talk to Bobby, one of the two Deejays working, just as Luc predicted, tonight’s been one of their busiest nights ever, and he’s right, its very busy. The rink is packed, a full house of 230 people, just one person short of their all-time record high. I learn they have adult skating sessions, for people 21 years old and up, every Sunday night from 6:30 to 9:30, which usually average about 180 people.

Sitting in the Deejay booth I feel awfully important, I do have the best seat in the house after all. The people flying by create a cool breeze, a nice refresher from Skate City’s thick musky air. From my throne I can see everyone skating by ever so gracefully, as if floating on air. Couples skate by, holding each other close, dancing to the slow romantic songs. Packs of people skate by, bobbing, bouncing and kicking, all on the same beats, all together, perfectly synchronized. In the middle of the rink there are a few skaters standing in a circle, they are the “best of the best”, they show off their moves, and learn new ones. They move with such fluidity; twirling, hopping, and kicking their skates out like it’s what they were born to do. As I watch them, a smaller guy steps into the circle, he starts off slow and eventually gets more into it, all of a sudden he stops dancing and throws his body into the air, tucks in while doing a 360 degree flip, and lands, perfectly. He just did a standing back tuck, on skates. The rink breaks out in applause. I am shocked. I can do a back tuck; I used to be a gymnast, but not a standing back tuck, and definitely not a standing back tuck on wheels.

The people at skate city are much unlike the image I was expecting, that is, one of bunches of children awkwardly trekking by, falling over every few strides. Not here though, everyone knows what they’re doing, according to Bobby, “You don’t show up if you don’t know what you’re doing.” I can definitely see why, this would be extremely intimidating to a new skater such as myself.

“ I could never skate here.” I said to Kevin, the other Deejay. “Nah, you’d be fine. We’re like a big family here, most of the people have been coming for so long that we all know each other, I look around and I don’t think there’s a single person in this rink I don’t know. We have people of all ages, all professions, and from all sorts of different backgrounds,” he said pointing to Mike. Mike, a frail bald old man, is their oldest regular. At a whopping 61 years old, Mike has been Skating for over 30 years and is still very much capable of keeping up with the skaters half his age.

As Kevin and Mike started reminiscing about the good old days with Skate City, a girl fell skating on the rink, instantly sending people jumping out of her way. Many stopped to help her up, and even more skated by her, checking to see if she was ok. Kevin looked at me and said, “ I started organized adult and hip hop skating in Denver about 20 years ago when I moved from Kansas City, we started out in Littleton, but the community didn’t want us there, so we got shut down. It attracted a lot of black people and we were in a predominantly white neighborhood. I can understand why they were worried, but we take a lot of security measures, we have police officers patrolling the area and two or three officers on weekend inside the rink.”

The sense of community is obvious; it’s all around. Everyone seems to know everyone. Numerous people also pick up on the fact that I’m an outsider, they skate up to me and ask why I’m not skating. I try to explain that not only am I incapable of skating in the first place, but am also sore and aching from the car accident I was just in. Kevin shoos the people trying to flirt with me away, “They all use the same lines, I don’t know why they can’t be a little more creative.” He explains apologetically.

Kevin spins the tunes for adult skating every Sunday night; he is occasionally relieved by Bobby to hit the rink. When he does it’s amazing, he stands tall at 6-foot-4 with his skates on, the grace with which he moves seems surprisingly out of place in relation to the hard-core gangster rap he’s skating to. Luc leans over and says, “It’s like a gangster rap ballet isn’t it?” I pause for a moment and realize that’s exactly what it is, it’s something that’s happening all over the country, it’s beautiful, graceful, creative and in everyway unique.

Randomly Selected Words

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Randomly Selected Words.

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Jam Skating

Jam Skating is… dancing on skates? Exactly. According to the Urban Dictionary Jam Skating is an art form derived from artistic skating in which a person or group of people perform various tricks, stylish moves, and other visual displays to entertain an audience or compete in a jam skating event.




In my research, I found many websites on the matter, only strengthening that this is not as uncommon as one would think. According to Roller Skating Association International, the sport developed thirty years ago along with the roller disco fad.
For most people, roller skating is something you did at birthday parties growing up, and maybe on occasion with your own kids. What most people don’t realize is that this is something people do, and on a regular basis too.
I plan on learning the rules of the game, and this secret roller skating society.

Some other websites i found helpful:
www.jamskating.com
www.jamskate.com
www.learntojamskate.net

PostSecret

At first glimpse the PostSecret page comes off as plain, that's because it is, that's how they meant for it to be. The makers intended for the focus of the website to be the pictures of the postcards and nothing else. The blank black background and the simple fonts chosen draw the attention of the reader away from the surrounding and to the true intention and purpose of the website; the secrets. The site also has a bit of darkness to it, a sense of secrecy and security, as if it was hidden and unknown. While the simplicity of the colors of the fonts allow for the site to stray away from any sort of wildness, thereby drawing in and appealing to a larger audience. Not to mention the fact that the writing is all perfectly legible.
The focus of the website is the people, and their secrets. The postcards are all displayed plainly with no text surrounding them explaining or pertaining to them. This is probably because, for the most part, the post cards are very much self explanatory. When they are not, they are left ambiguous because the people sending them meant for them to be that way.
There are no subcategories to the site, just a string of pictures, one after another in one long column. To the side of the column there are a couple of links but they all lead to different points on the same page, so there’s no type of progression between different pages. Towards the end of the page there are a couple of uplifting reader stories and successes in conquering their depression. There are also a few links to information about different book signings and some background information on Frank Warren, the author’s, PostSecret Books.
The site can definitely be very eye-catching at times, depending on the secrets of the week. The most vivid and dramatic secrets are usually posted at the top, being the first thing you see when you go to the site, they serve the obvious purpose of the attention-grabber, drawing the reader in and keeping them there until the very end. Many a time I’ve found myself getting to the end and thinking “That’s it?”; the site just has a way of becoming very addictive, once you’ve had a taste you just want more. In more ways than one the site is definitely a very successful one; it has established a solid reader base. The website has also lead to more successes for Frank Warren; he has published several books, the profit of which all goes to Hope, the suicide helpline, as well as raising awareness about depression and allowing for the aid of people in need of it.

Spill Your Soul Today!

Spending hours upon hours in front of a computer screen, or any kind of screen to that matter, is not often an activity I choose to engage in. This is largely due to the fact that I lack the time, energy and attention span to do so on a somewhat regular basis. However the single website I have found myself frequenting quite often is the PostSecret homepage. The idea behind this website is ideal for the modern American culture in which there are limited personal connections and honest interactions between people. The concept is simple, people create 4-by-6-inch postcards out of any mailable material containing their deepest darkest secrets and mail them to the people at PostSecret. The people at PostSecret look through them and post a new batch of chosen secrets every Sunday.
Its an interesting phenmenon behind the appeal of this site, everyone wants to know secrets, everyone wants to know the latest dish, everyone wants to laugh at people pathetic, creepy, and depressing secrets and also let a couple of things off their own chests. PostSecret offers all that in addition to the factor of anonymity, a safe medium for people to say whatever they want to, to whoever they want to, without being exposed. It has created an intriguing web-based porthole into the secret lives of the people we work and live with that seems to have grasped onto the public eye without any intent of letting go any time soon.
In addition to the site's success on the web, Frank Warren, the establishor of the site, has also had numerous successes in his book publishings of the secrets sent. There are 3 PostSecret books so far, in addition to an expected several more to come. His books are available just about everywhere books are sold.