Sherman Alexie (Blog Post #7)

Alexie talks about storytellers being liars and when they tell stories they blur the truth. I agree with this. Throughout the ages, all the folktales and fairytales we know were blurred to the situation they were being told. For example, sometimes little red riding hood doesn’t get eaten by the wolf and sometimes she does. I think the role of the stories in the movie are showing the world that we’re not really different. As people we believe and act on the same grounds of situations. Just because it was a story about Native Americans it wasn’t a story that no one who wasn’t Native American could relate to. I know that I could relate to the story in some way.

Also, I think stretching stories is a way of us coping with problems in the world. Such as Thomas in the movie. Alexie’s way of showing us we’re not different is clever. Even though he uses it in a stereotypical way, if we think about it, it really isn’t different from parents telling their children about little red riding hood or Cinderella. We associate storytelling with native Americans but we do it too.

The Evaluation (Blog Post #6)

This semester has been a good one and it was certainly good on the part of writing. I had spent a lot of time away from the pen and paper and trying new ways to analyze my thoughts and it’s been really good to get back to it.

The greatest thing I’ve discovered so far this semester is learning what “texts” are and how they are more than just reading a book and talking about how it made me feel. The things we’ve read in class are REAL things that apply to me. It’s interesting to have light shed on them.

I never really thought of pop culture as something that can be analyzed and discussed in class. For example, the aspects of gay marriage have always stayed pent up in me and have always stayed tucked away in my brain and it was good to write about them.

I think I’ve rediscovered my love for writing over the course of this semester. It was such a big part of what I did in high school (especially my senior year) and it was nice to relearn something’s I had forgotten. It’s a good outlet for me, as life gets crazier and crazier.

I am in full agreement with my grade and with the way the class is conducted. It is such a fun and safe environment to explore our thoughts. I have never felt that I would be judged by my opinion. Not only was it a “writing class” but it was a “thinking class” too. Also, it’s important to have my classes conducted in this way because it reminds us that we have to connect with the culture around us. We need to connect and stop the world from spinning for a second and just write about how we feel.

Explore Pop Culture (Blog Post #5)

Because I am a Musical Theatre major and my passion is theatre, I'd love to explore Broadway musicals as pop culutre. Broadway has been very much affected by the changing world around us. It isn't all tap shoes and bright lights. Broadway has made some series changes through its years and years of shows.

These days, Broadway shows are extremly expensive to produce. In order to stay open more than a month the show must earn back most of it's profit in the first 2 weeks of it's opening! Producers are taking smaller risks in new shows for the fear they may flop and they're pumping all of their money in musical stage versions of Hollywood movies. Not only that, they are reviving old shows and putting Hollywood stars in them to bring in bigger audiences!! It makes getting work as an actor on Broadway that much harder. AND ANOTHER THING, they are creating shows based on a singer's hits. I think it's really sad that not it's not about making art half the time. It's about making money. Sure that's what our world is about but does it have to be such a big part of Broadway?

In my second essay I would love to explore the relationship between Hollywood and Broadway and how they are helping each other (if at all) and how it is hurting artists today who cannot express themselves because they're being overshadowed by the huge Hollywood sign.

Gays Against Gay Marriage

My interview is with an Anonymous neighbor. The following interview covers the topic of Gay Marriage.

Q: Do you agree with gay marriage?

A: As a gay man myself I believe in the love and care of a significant others. However, I do not believe in gay marriage. Now I say this because I don’t think it’s a big deal. To be honest when I was with my late partner we were perfectly fine with not being married. In fact, it never crossed our minds.

Q: So you don’t agree with fighting for the right to marry whomever you choose?

A: First off it shouldn’t be an issue. It shouldn’t be against the law but I don’t think the big deal that it’s taken on is nesscary. If you think about it, we were fine 40 years ago without marriage. Sure there is doctor visits and insurance needs but Civil Unions cover some of that stuff.

Q: What about the stuff Civil Unions don’t cover?

A: Well that comes with each situation. I guess I don’t see with the big deal is. Maybe I’m old fashioned but we used to just pretend that we were our partners brother if we had to see them when they were in the hospital.

Q: You say you’re old fashioned, don’t think that since times have changed people must too?

A: Sure! But why make problems out of something that wasn’t a problem before?

Expanding the Paper (Blog Post #3)

The whole issue on gay rights has affected me personally. I elaborate on this in my paper, stating that as a gay male I am legally barred from marring the person I love. I have been around same sex couples ever since I was young. My uncle had a life partner named Bob. We called him uncle Bob and we never questioned it.

I remember when they would visit us from San Francisco. My uncle Tony would bring his own apron for cooking. He’d cook “exotic” things like shepard’s pie. He was very domestic in that way. Baking and teaching my cousins and I lessons we’d never forget. For me personally he would teach me about acting. Once we did a scene in the living room. We pretended that I was looking for a secret document and he caught me. That was my first acting lessons. Uncle Bob would sit with us kids and play Power Rangers with my cousins and I. Together my uncles would incite “the tickle machine” in which they would mercilessly tickle us until we begged for them to stop. It’s memories like that, that stay with me.

They were never able to get married. Maybe they never wanted to. Nither of them were alive long enough for me to discuss something of that nature with them. Even though they weren’t married officially, to me, they were. Not with the title but isn’t that what marriage is? Being someone’s life partner. Now there are titles thrown in and politics and money. I personally believe that we don’t need titles to define our love however it’s not about titles now. It’s about rights and what the American family is. That definition has changed within the last 10 years.

To me, the American Family can be any mix of people. It isn’t the standard mom, dad, son, and daughter anymore. I don’t know what my very own American Family is yet. I’d like it to be me and a spouse but maybe it won’t be. Maybe it might be just me and a kid or just me and spouse. But for me that’s not the point. The fact we as gay people are ignored by laws that “protect” us is just wrong.

My uncles lived a normal life and it was normal to us kids and still is now they we’re older. What if all the kids in the United States were taught like that. Would they be accepting then? Would we not have these problems if they were.

Learning Passion (Blog Post #2)

A text that I encountered in the past that has made an impact on my life is the stage version of the musical Hairspray and Wicked. Now I know people call Hairspray a faux-musical and Wicked is cliché and overdone. They’re not Pulitzer winners by any means but they were the first musicals I saw at an age when I understood more than just the spectacle of it. I was 13.

My parents had always taken me to see Grease whenever it came into town and to me that’s what a musical was. It wasn’t “Broadway” as I know it now. It was natural that they sang in the movie. My uncle Tony had bought tickets for Hairspray and took my mom and I. As the play went on I lost myself in the idea that these regular people like me were doing these amazing things. Singing, dancing, acting, all at the same time. It blew my mind!

Just the story itself, a girl who defied what everyone else thought and believed for what she thought was right and then she changed the world. Even though it was a play, that idea stuck with me, the idea that this one person could change things. Be somebody and do it in such a way that seemed effortless. (I’d soon find out it wasn’t effortless to just sing and dance). The final song in the show is called “You Can’t Stop the Beat”. It is this powerful dance number where everyone takes a stand for what they believe in and what they want in life and basically tells anyone who doesn’t like it can shove it. The lights were going, the stage was alive with choreography and I sat in awe as these people, just like me, performed. On that day something ignited within me. It may not have totally engulfed me as a person but it was ignited.

The next show my uncle Tony had tickets to were Wicked. The touring production was coming through Chicago for the first time after a successful Broadway run. However, my uncle passed away before telling anyone about the tickets. One day, when I was helping my mom sort through his things I came upon them. Luckily it was the week before the show date. My mom gave the tickets to my cousin and I. We went to the show and by the end of the first act the flame turned into a wildfire.

At the end of the first act the main character, Elphaba, (or the Wicked Witch of the West), sings a song called “Defying Gravity” and she sings about how no one is going to stop her from believing in what she believes in. She will prove that she isn’t wrong even if she has to do the impossible. Yet again, here was another main character, a normal person just like me, doing something so amazing, performing. Maybe it was the high notes she belts or maybe it was the fact she rises in the air but after seeing that show, that flame engulfed my entire life. I knew that I would stop at nothing to do something great. No matter how small other people may think it was. No matter how many people were going to tell me no, I had to. Till this day, I strive to do my passion justice.

Spell Check as a Friend (Blog Post #1)

I would like to leave Writing & Rhetoric I with a better understanding of grammar and punctuation. I love writing. I can write in tangents about pretty much anything. When I have a pen and paper (or laptop) at hand I can “free write”. It is a very freeing experience to me. It allows me a time when my brain can stop moving a mile a minute and focus on ONE thing. However, in this day and age you can’t just “free write” – you have to mind your “P’s & Q’s” on grammar and punctuation. You have a little guy on your shoulder criticizing you.

Now I’m not saying I want to take a stand against proper writing but it’s just annoying when it doesn’t just come easily. It’s a skill. I feel as if I have a lot of good ideas but I just don’t know how to say them properly. In the past, I’ve always struggled with my grammar and I suppose I never took the time out to really focus on just grammar. I always wanted to just write. After taking a break from an actual writing class environment, I began to wonder if my ideas would flow more freely if I had better grammar skills. Would they affect the way my ideas were approached?

I don’t consider myself a writer. However, it is a hobby of mine to convert stage musicals and plays into movie script format. I revise the book of the stage version and see how the story will translate onto the screen. Creating art is something I find myself doing and I don’t even realize I’m doing it. (Hence why I’m here at Columbia). Whether it is creating a dance piece, song, or script, I just do it. Taking this Writing & Rhetoric class will enhance the proper ways to express the writing aspects of my creativity.

Another thing I want to gain from taking this class is how to proper form thoughts and pose questions to a group that isn’t your friend. I feel like it is very easy to offend someone with the way a question is posed, especially if you’re speaking to elders or someone of a higher status in the work place. We become very comfortable with our language in our everyday lives that it isn’t second nature to change our vocabulary on the drop of a dime. This makes me think of emails and how someone can read into phrasing the wrong way.

In the long run, I’d like to continue expressing my ideas but as I get further along in the real world, I want to do it right. There are so many voices and it is very easy to get lost in this crazy world. It’s important to find your voice and be able to express it. However, knowing the fundamentals can make or break you in that real world. I want to leave this semester having a comfortable ground to work from, a stable place where my ideas can flourish from.