she is not stupid
So I have no idea why I randomly decided that I wanted to try slam poetry- but I did, and it could be terrible but this is what I came up with and obviously it is meant to be read aloud not read on paper and it was kind of fun for me to read the way I wrote it in my head.
In school she earns A’s, but what does that A stand for? Does it stand for hi her name is girl and your name is boy and she’s gonna twirl her hair to impress you and how can she help you and how can she dress for you? And does that A mean that she should not provide but rather hide her knowledge or the fact that she does well in college? Does that make girl appeal to boy when she employs her ability to be fake and learn to fake that she can’t learn because being smart she imagines could only be the start a long line of let downs, break downs, and world turned upside downs and does that make her weird? Weird because she will study versus whatever the hell you are doing which is kind of funny buddy because while you play video games she’s making the grades and your knowledge base is beginning to fade. But she won’t let it slip that she could take you on a trip- through history and tell you his story of how America had come to be or all about the European army. No. she won’t show that she may possibly know more than girl: I miss you, boy: I miss you too, girl: I love you, boy: I love you more, and girl: I can’t live without you, boy: I can’t either. Because maybe she misses him and maybe just maybe she could be in love with him but she can definitely live without him. They don’t usually not relate, or maybe they do and she just excuses it or passes over it: either way she normally doesn’t notice it. She didn’t even realize when she stopped using her eyes to read, or when boy looked at girl funny when she said, “honey let’s talk about something real, and I want to know how you feel when this discussion ends and no I do not mean to offend you with my topic of logic” or have we reached too far out of your realm because she doesn’t mean to be overwhelm-ing; and is it possible that he is intimidated by the situation she has just created? Or maybe he is just scared that he is basically being dared to respond and that corresponds with his fear that maybe she uses her intelligence and maybe he will have nothing to say and using his common sense he wonders how could he play that off? When did society begin to expect that in order not to disrespect social order she can’t cross that border and she is not capable of conversation, according to him or her or whoever the hell the commonly referred to “they” are. Either way they expect her to be stupid because pretty girls can’t be smart and smart girls can’t be pretty or skinny so if she wants to succeed she must concede and be conceited and conform to whatever form that “they” want. But she is pretty, and she is not stupid.
Friday, December 4, 2009
Monday, November 30, 2009
i yearn for body art
Body art: self expression in the form of art permanently embedded onto the skin. It is articulation that will last forever on the surface of the human body. The buzz of tiny needles, quickly scratching the surface of flesh over and over meticulously hums in the private rooms. Each scratch adding to the creation, the creation that is adding to the meaning of the body it is becoming a part of. Samples of previous art are hung on the walls, laid out in books, and on papers that cover the entire first room. Ideas to be re-used and recycled for those who lack the creativity to create their own surround you. Ideas to be molded into new works of self expression are everywhere. Metal objects range from small to large are laid out in cases, on display for someone to choose them to make their statement, to be displayed no longer in the case, but now on the body.
Each room contains one- maybe two chairs, reclined and intimidating just as they would look at a dental office. Sterilization supplies, keep the art work pure, and from being contaminated. They lay in stacks on white counters with cabinets containing ink and equipment. Ink in all different colors and shades, picked to perfectly coincide with the decision about to be made. The ink that the artist uses will become a part of art's history, the ink that will express the desires and memories of the canvas, onto the canvas. As the canvas the body becomes the art. The art becomes a part of your life, permanent; like written expression. Words in a design form on the skin, in black or bright colors. A story being told from now on by the body art itself- no longer involving verbal words, but being told willingly by the canvas. The images sketched onto the skin tell a story of meaning and truth.
The story being told, in words or images, is permanently being spilled out onto the skin. Your ideas and design will forever be for the world to see, only covered by make up or clothing if the canvas chooses. Once the art is finished, it is a statement that has been made. You can’t re gather the idea or start over. An artist can however, rework the image, to create something new out of something old. But this only remolds the old creation- it will never be gone because under the new ink the old ink remains. Surgery may try to hide old stories, old images, but they will never be completely gone- just severely faded. Never gone, just faded.
My body yearns for the art. A body with art yearns for more, and more. It is no longer my body; now my body is a canvas for the art. The art reaches for my body. It is an addiction like no other, expression like no other, with permanence like no other. A tattoo is not on the skin: it’s in it.
Each room contains one- maybe two chairs, reclined and intimidating just as they would look at a dental office. Sterilization supplies, keep the art work pure, and from being contaminated. They lay in stacks on white counters with cabinets containing ink and equipment. Ink in all different colors and shades, picked to perfectly coincide with the decision about to be made. The ink that the artist uses will become a part of art's history, the ink that will express the desires and memories of the canvas, onto the canvas. As the canvas the body becomes the art. The art becomes a part of your life, permanent; like written expression. Words in a design form on the skin, in black or bright colors. A story being told from now on by the body art itself- no longer involving verbal words, but being told willingly by the canvas. The images sketched onto the skin tell a story of meaning and truth.
The story being told, in words or images, is permanently being spilled out onto the skin. Your ideas and design will forever be for the world to see, only covered by make up or clothing if the canvas chooses. Once the art is finished, it is a statement that has been made. You can’t re gather the idea or start over. An artist can however, rework the image, to create something new out of something old. But this only remolds the old creation- it will never be gone because under the new ink the old ink remains. Surgery may try to hide old stories, old images, but they will never be completely gone- just severely faded. Never gone, just faded.
My body yearns for the art. A body with art yearns for more, and more. It is no longer my body; now my body is a canvas for the art. The art reaches for my body. It is an addiction like no other, expression like no other, with permanence like no other. A tattoo is not on the skin: it’s in it.
Me and my best friends body art. Expression.
Thursday, November 19, 2009
Made to Stick
Something that is sticky to me is something that could apply to my life, is shocking, and comes from someone I trust. In short, I do agree with the Heath's idea of stickiness. When I hear something about science in a bunch of technical terms, I am bored to pieces, not listening, and counting the seconds until it is over. Nothing is possibly going to stick if I am that distracted. Even to someone who likes science- most people would need the idea repeated, especially if it was very techinically described the first time to understand the concept. If you are going to make a story stick with me, you are going to have to keep it short and simple. If I am shocked, even better- because I repeat shocking stories. If the topic comes up, it is something interesting to bring into the conversation, so a shocking story that stuck with me gets recycled into my new conversation. Reusing a shocking story, almost makes you feel more interesting, because when you tell someone something shocking they are paying their full attention to you. If the person telling the anecdote has even a little bit of credibility then its all the better because you wouldn't question them twice, as you believe every word that they say. Something sticks if it makes sense. Sometimes something that sticks is a memory. A memory of something that changed your life, changed someone elses life, was especially funny, or especially sad, made an impact, any of these would stick. Stories are just memories being retold. I will never forget the day my cousin died, or the what I was doing on September 11th. I will always remember in perfect detail my trip to Spain, and when my mom married my stepdad. These memories make an impact, and whether they are happy or sad, they had shocked my life, and that is what makes something stick. The story about the children eating apples with razors in them from trick-or-treat night is something that scares people, and shocks their lives because up until this point they had not worried about their children eating the sweets over Halloween. Just like those memories made a change in my life, the parents made a change in their children's lives when they heard the razor rumor.
A Personal Observation
As I observed my subject in the library, I watched his movements, actions, and interactions. I noticed he is a student at Hofstra University, and he is enrolled in Dr. Lay's digital age course. He is a young man, who is lanky yet comfortable with himself. On the outside, he is an average height for a Caucasian male around 19 or 20. He is thin, has tree bark colored brown hair, and wears a faded green hat. His right eye is bruised, and black and green as if he was in a fight recently. The clothing he wore were baggy, and careless looking.
My subject acts as a director, camera man, and script writer. At first he walks from person to person, confidently suggesting they volunteer to participate in his film. As he stops to talk to people, he smiles as if he is almost blushing while he asks yet you can still feel his confidence. His arms swing back and forth while he shifts his weight from foot to foot and snaps his hands together. Now he acts as a camera man, taking direction on the filming layout, he listens attentively, nodding with one arm folded and the other with his hand over his mouth while his eyes closely follow the guy telling him what to do. With the camera in his hand he flows from person to person, as a real camera man would do while filming a movie.
After observing my target, I left with a feeling of his personality. He felt confident, creative, and intelligent. He is the kid who doesn't care what anyone is wearing, and he doesn't care what anyone is wearing. He wants to create something, and that project is what is getting his attention. I see him using his creative efforts in film some day, and that his confidence, and comfortable disposition will only help him get there.
My subject acts as a director, camera man, and script writer. At first he walks from person to person, confidently suggesting they volunteer to participate in his film. As he stops to talk to people, he smiles as if he is almost blushing while he asks yet you can still feel his confidence. His arms swing back and forth while he shifts his weight from foot to foot and snaps his hands together. Now he acts as a camera man, taking direction on the filming layout, he listens attentively, nodding with one arm folded and the other with his hand over his mouth while his eyes closely follow the guy telling him what to do. With the camera in his hand he flows from person to person, as a real camera man would do while filming a movie.
After observing my target, I left with a feeling of his personality. He felt confident, creative, and intelligent. He is the kid who doesn't care what anyone is wearing, and he doesn't care what anyone is wearing. He wants to create something, and that project is what is getting his attention. I see him using his creative efforts in film some day, and that his confidence, and comfortable disposition will only help him get there.
Tuesday, November 17, 2009
Practice
Looking all around, I finally spot my subject. A young man, who I've seen many times before. He walks back and forth, interacting with everyone around him, shifting his weight from foot to foot. At first I would conclude a nervous-like quality about his stance, but no, that's not it. An air of flirtation, comfort, and creativity surround him. Almost like one of those "Ora's" you hear about people giving off, but you never see. From observing him, I'm learning a lot about his mannerisms. His hands swing in back of his body, then back to the front where they both snap followed by his fist meeting his open hand in a smack -repeated over and over. Walking from person to person asking for help or participation in the film they appear to be making, he walks with almost a swagger from one leg to the other with confidence. Although his clothes seem grungy and baggy, they work perfectly with his creative-i don't care- personality.
Stalking my target- is like the perfect warm up, for your writing. It forces you to use adjectives to correctly depict your subject. The reader will not understand or be able to create a picture of the the person you are describing if the words you use are not vivid or clear. Critical thinking, like in this activity, gets your mind warmed up. This "exercise" (pun intended...) will help you gain writers muscle as it encourages metaphors, and clarity to be used. You might think of this exercise as practice, before you write. Even my brief description above challenged my mind to think back to yesterday and write about my subject. It was my warm up for the rest of this blog. A creative warm up like this one helps your own creative thinking process get started. Similar to warm up journal entries in class, stalking someones actions and having to describe them in detail gets you in the mood to write. This stalking activity= stretching before you go for a run. The warm up or the stretch happen when your stretching your mind to think of the perfect descriptive words, or warming up your creative mind by challenging you to use metaphors. As much as this warms up you as a writer, it also strengthens your ability to create imagery for your reader. You have to draw them a picture using your words, and if you mess up- they might not understand.
Stalking my target- is like the perfect warm up, for your writing. It forces you to use adjectives to correctly depict your subject. The reader will not understand or be able to create a picture of the the person you are describing if the words you use are not vivid or clear. Critical thinking, like in this activity, gets your mind warmed up. This "exercise" (pun intended...) will help you gain writers muscle as it encourages metaphors, and clarity to be used. You might think of this exercise as practice, before you write. Even my brief description above challenged my mind to think back to yesterday and write about my subject. It was my warm up for the rest of this blog. A creative warm up like this one helps your own creative thinking process get started. Similar to warm up journal entries in class, stalking someones actions and having to describe them in detail gets you in the mood to write. This stalking activity= stretching before you go for a run. The warm up or the stretch happen when your stretching your mind to think of the perfect descriptive words, or warming up your creative mind by challenging you to use metaphors. As much as this warms up you as a writer, it also strengthens your ability to create imagery for your reader. You have to draw them a picture using your words, and if you mess up- they might not understand.
Friday, November 13, 2009
Dog Whisperer
The Dog Whisperer is a talented man who understands inside of a dogs mind. The explicit example in this essay is how to be fluent with your posture and your gestures towards the dog, to help it understand exactly what you mean, and to get exactly the reaction that you're looking for. It's all about your movements, and communicating with the animal. It has to feel you, see you, understand you and it uses what you give it to figure you out. You can't be general, or vague with the dog, you have to be purposeful and have meaning in every thing you do and say and how you say and do it.
Human-human interaction is similar in its forms of communication. Humans don't rely as much on body language, however we do subconsciously take notice of important movements. How your body is positioned does set the tone for how you will be reacted to. The triad of exercise, discipline, and affection comes into play because you need to be balanced. Whether with a dog, or a human, this process is key in communicating. Like raising a child, or making a marriage work- its a work in progress that needs training, time, and routine.
In this article, the Dog Whisperer lacks the talent that he has with dogs, when it translates to humans. He doesn't relate, understand, or try to make his own wife happy. She only forces him to change his ways in order to save their marriage. A councilor had to change his way of thinking towards what a marriage, and what a relationship is. Humans are not as easily persuaded as dogs, and you can't control a human with your body language. Or can you? Some people may be easily influenced by another person's body language- scared when the other is showing anger etc. but in the case of a wife, she needs him to understand her, and to participate in their relationship. The powers he has with dogs do not translate onto humans.
Human-human interaction is similar in its forms of communication. Humans don't rely as much on body language, however we do subconsciously take notice of important movements. How your body is positioned does set the tone for how you will be reacted to. The triad of exercise, discipline, and affection comes into play because you need to be balanced. Whether with a dog, or a human, this process is key in communicating. Like raising a child, or making a marriage work- its a work in progress that needs training, time, and routine.
In this article, the Dog Whisperer lacks the talent that he has with dogs, when it translates to humans. He doesn't relate, understand, or try to make his own wife happy. She only forces him to change his ways in order to save their marriage. A councilor had to change his way of thinking towards what a marriage, and what a relationship is. Humans are not as easily persuaded as dogs, and you can't control a human with your body language. Or can you? Some people may be easily influenced by another person's body language- scared when the other is showing anger etc. but in the case of a wife, she needs him to understand her, and to participate in their relationship. The powers he has with dogs do not translate onto humans.
Tuesday, November 10, 2009
Peter IS a Stitch Bitch.. ha.
Peter claims that the stitch bitch is hard to understand... maybe we just need to do a little research, so we can figure out how to unravel her. Hypertext, can easily be "dictionary.comed"
hy⋅per⋅text
–noun
a method of storing data through a computer program that allows a user to create and link fields of information at will and to retrieve the data nonsequentially.
WEIRD. Considering I just used hypertext to explain hypertext=) tricky, huh? So that answers Peter's question about what hypertext is. We use hypertext to help explain, or show examples of what we are talking about. Hypertext is only formed using electronic forms of communication. When you have access to more than just your text, a hyper amount of text.
I think you can navigate better through stitch bitch the article, by using each piece to help answer the other pieces. Kind of like, creating a whole... out of it's parts. You have to use Shelley Jackson, to make her explain herself. Each part creates a new idea, each idea contributes to her original theory. It creates a puzzle in a way, that you need to put together piece by piece that together will eventually help you figure out what the bigger picture is.
hy⋅per⋅text
–noun
a method of storing data through a computer program that allows a user to create and link fields of information at will and to retrieve the data nonsequentially.
WEIRD. Considering I just used hypertext to explain hypertext=) tricky, huh? So that answers Peter's question about what hypertext is. We use hypertext to help explain, or show examples of what we are talking about. Hypertext is only formed using electronic forms of communication. When you have access to more than just your text, a hyper amount of text.
I think you can navigate better through stitch bitch the article, by using each piece to help answer the other pieces. Kind of like, creating a whole... out of it's parts. You have to use Shelley Jackson, to make her explain herself. Each part creates a new idea, each idea contributes to her original theory. It creates a puzzle in a way, that you need to put together piece by piece that together will eventually help you figure out what the bigger picture is.
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