We have only been in school for about a month now, but so far the school year doesn't seem much different from previous years at HTHMA. The only thing that "stands out" is the actual mix of people in class, which is interestingly different from last year.
What stands out to me about my humanities is the amount of freedom we have. Right from the start, with the American Icons project, we had the opportunity to chose a topic that we thought was important for our writing. The next project seems like something that we will be able to put a lot of our own ideas in as well.
I've been reading Trainspotting, which has "made me think" (I guess). If you don't already know, a good portion of Trainspotting centers around a group of friends dealing with heroin addiction. Since I am not addicted to heroin or any psychoactive substances, I obviously would not have that type of understanding and perspective. But the gross, dark, weird stories inside Trainspotting make me think about the view on life that someone addicted to heroin has.
One thing that stood out was how much of a sarcastic smartass Hamlet can be. In Act 1 scene 2 he totally just ignored what Claudius said, when he replied to a small thing Gertrude said, after a million paragraphs of Claudius talking
Another thing I noticed was how in Act 1 scene 3, Laetres talks to Ophelia very differently than he does to Polonius, almost talking down to Ophelia.
What stood out to me was how much it seemed like people put a lot of effort in to their pieces to tell you about something/someone they connect to. You got to see a side of someone that you might not see normally.
This was a cool project because we had the chance to write about something we cared about and a little bit of history behind what we were talking about. I think that this project taught me a lot about writing and I gained a lot of knowledge that will help improve future writing.
Now that we're getting closer to publishing the book... I actually haven't had many thoughts about the book really.
Elements that I enjoyed in other students' projects were short stories or anecdotes that set up the rest of the story, but were not necessarily a focus or discussed the whole time.
In Adrian Gonzalez's Anonymouspiece, part of his intro was "... as a child I thought I could actually be the 10,000th visitor on that website and win $1,000,000", which is something everyone can understand, since everybody has seen those ads online.
In Danielle Weiss' piece I Am Jewish, she discusses her continuum and how she is proud of her family's history and heritage very well, from her Grandparents' lives during the Holocaust, to her trip to Israel. This detail for the continuum is something I would have liked to do better in my own piece.
I can still remember a time in my life when discovering music on the Internet wasn’t as simple as finding a music blog and downloading a .zip file or .mp3. Many artists who recorded by themselves in their homes as a “hobby” were never heard outside of a circle of friends, and other do-it-yourself musicians who did manage to be heard, like Daniel Johnston or R Stevie Moore were considered a novelty to many. Artists often had to have a commercially accessible appeal, be signed to a “major record label”, and deal with people like managers and producers to become popular with the masses. Musicians would work hard to get their sound tight and send their demos to labels in an attempt to get a “record deal”, a phrase that seems to lose relevance year after year. Now it is 2011, and music can be accessed with the click of a button.
A few years ago, a friend of mine suggested I listen to a band called Ariel Pink’s Haunted Graffiti. As I listened I was amazed and confused. What I heard sounded like something I might find on a cassette in a thrift store. But a cassette that someone had re-recorded on his or her Walkman and stretched the tape, and it was absolutely perfect; it felt incredibly human and real. After reading how much music he had available on the Internet, I was overwhelmed, his catalog seemed to outnumber any artist I had heard before, and it was all recorded in the comfort of his own home. I started to wonder what would drive someone to record everything themselves, instead of going to a fancy studio and recording with a producer. The first thing that came to mind was lack of money. But after listening more and more I realized that if Ariel Pink had recorded with a producer telling him what to do, all the bits and pieces of his songs wouldn’t be the same, and it wouldn’t be Ariel’s music anymore, he would have somebody else telling him what they thought sounded good and putting their own ideas in.
This realization sparked my interest in low fidelity recordings, and I dug up my old Tascam four-track cassette recorder and some blank cassettes and went to work. Often times when I was sitting in my room with nothing to do, I would sit down with the Tascam and record whatever came to mind. It was freeing to be able to just sit down and record without limits. With the instruments I had at my disposal; guitars, keyboard, drum machine, etc., I could sit down and make anything I wanted, whether it was a 30 second burst of energy, or a long drone consisting of few notes.
While discovering Ariel Pink was a catalyst to an obsession with recording, it also sparked an interest with finding other lo-fi/home recording artists, discovering many in this very city. Finding great local bands like Heavy Hawaii, Crocodiles, and Wavves gave me quite a bit of inspiration, and a sense of pride for living here that I didn’t have before. The best example would be local solo act Wavves who went from high school dropout, recording songs about being bored, or having no friends in his parents’ garage on GarageBand, to playing festivals in Europe within a matter of months. This is why I find it strange when I hear kids say things like “I want to start a band and become a rockstar”, because in the times we live in, if you have ideas for music, all you really have to do is record them using the vast amounts of technology available, and the internet will take notice if you make something meaningful.
Out of all the writing tips I think the one that I found most useful was "make meaning early". It is something that seems like a really simple idea but makes a significant difference when writing. When using it, it keeps everything interesting by telling you what happened right away, instead of a long sentence that is just taking up space. Also, It seems to take away that idea of "I have to do X amount of writing for this essay so I'll fill up space by rewording my sentences to be longer".
I'm not sure what I would want anyone to "focus on" while editing. I guess I would want an editor to be able to see anything that would need improvement, or suggest something I could add to make my writing better.
I would like to improve my writing by concentrating on one thing more. I feel like sometimes I have a lot of different, smaller ideas that I try to put in my writing, but it would be good to try and take less ideas and expand on them.
Because I love music and play music, I wanted to cover the topic of DIY musicians and why I find them inspirational in my artist statement. These are some artists that are covered in my icon piece.
Ariel Pink:
The main icon I am focusing on and discuss throughout my artist statement is musician Ariel Pink. The ideas related to this icon that I plan on "pushing" focus on his growing popularity due to the internet, the way I feel inspired by how he records everything by himself, and why I think people like Ariel Pink are important to music today.
I think he is important to music today because I feel he paved the way for a lot of other home-recording artists to grow in popularity, and has influenced other people (like myself) to record music on their own and be creative.
1.Ariel Pink when asked how many songs he has recorded:
"Too many to count. And what exactly is a song anyway? I've got hundreds of recordings, varying in quality and content, not all songs, and not all accounted (there just isn't enough time to sift through every instant recording session I've made on the fly), and I also have many songs that I haven't yet recorded, but could call to mind if needed."
This interview is a great piece of evidence, not only because Ariel Pink is interviewed, but home-recording artist R Stevie Moore is also interviewed. R Stevie Moore is another home recording artist who is further up in the "continuum" of home recording artists. If Ariel Pink were to write an artist statement like this, he probably would choose R Stevie Moore
Wavves:
Although not a major focus, I mention San Diego musician Nathan Williams and his recordings as Wavves. He is brought up when I mention local San Diego musicians who record by themselves that have gained notoriety, however there are many other artists from San Diego I could discuss in my artist statement.
The ideas related to this icon that I would want to "push" would be about him and other artists being from San Diego, giving me a sense of pride and hope for San Diego. Another idea would be him recording by himself without any producer or other musicians, making the music sound the way he wants it to. Also possibly discussing how somebody recording songs about "human" subjects (like being bored, hating where you live, and feeling negatively about yourself) is inspiring and easier to relate to than a lot of other popular music.
1. Excerpts from Prefix Magazine interview:
Prefix: You and a whole slew of up-and-coming artists utilize a no-fi sound that the Smell and Baltimore’s Wham City champion. Do you think this movement is just a continuation of earlier iterations, or does it stem from a particular reaction against modern over-production?
Nathan: Probably both. Personally, I had no money to go to a studio, so I did it myself with the stuff I had.
Prefix: How old is your equipment? What do you use besides Garage Band?
Nathan: I use Garage Band. The Tascam I used as well was from the ‘80s.
Fader has written many pieces on Ariel Pink and Wavves, but they have also covered many other DIY artists that could be included in my artist statement.
If I cover local music more in my artist statement, I could mention Crocodiles, who I am very inspired by. Their blog also has links to many other musicians blogs.
