TOW 13 - V is for Virgin (George Watsky)

Virginity can be an awkward topic, but George Watsky uses it to emphasize the importance of loving yourself. At the Youth Speaks Teen Poetry Slam of 2006, Watsky opens his prose with a rhetorical question that everyone must relate to: “How many people in here have ever been a virgin?” Building on the connection to his audience, Watsky plays off of the cultural memory of his audience, high school students of the 90s, and the highlights from their youth. He not only alludes to nostalgic shows like Star Trek and Fresh Prince, but also asks the audience to remember them in a different way, like empathizing with Carlton. Watsky presents those aspects of high school that made you geeky and asks you to “toss this perky misconception to the dogs.” Watsky redefines the word sexy with the repetition of that word: “I’m talking That’s some sexy peach fuzz sexy; picked last for kickball sexy, check out the curves on that parabola sexy; regular kid sexy.” Making fun of topics that were at some point uncomfortable makes them all the more comfortable; Watsky makes it clear to every member of his audience that we’ve all experienced similar feelings and there’s no need to be embarrassed of who you were or are. On the contrary we should be proud of we are. Even now, Watsky feels at times the need to say, “Girl you’re flying solo tonight because I’m gonna go hang out with four of my friends and drive around the city bumping biggie;” Watsky’s crude diction is humorous enough to resonate with the audience, insightful enough to be thought-provoking. Proud to be who he is, a high school virgin, Watsky pronounces he has no regrets and wouldn’t have had it any other way.

http://media.tumblr.com/tumblr_m1uwlaOBlV1r9hjrl.jpg

TOW 12 - Frida Kahlo (Gannit Ankori) pt. 1

Photo of Frida Kahlo
By Guillermo Davila

In his biography of Frida Kahlo, an underrated artist whose personal obstacles go unappreciated, Gannit Ankori compiles all the rumors, struggles and milestones of her life into an accurate depiction of her as a person, enlightening and inspiring his readers in the process. Ankori’s most appealing rhetorical device, as his text is informative, would be his didactic tone. Sticking simply to the facts, multiple annotations and citations on the page, Ankori explains the life of Frida Kahlo with nothing but the truth. He’s able to seam together a paragraph of eloquent words and simple without his sentences becoming inconsistent and unsophisticated. The structure of Ankori’s book elevates it to a new level entirely. Each chapter delves into a different segment of Kahlo’s life, not necessarily a specific time period but a period defined by how she defined herself. Quotes from family, friends and lovers, each applicable to the chapter’s era, add to the text’s credibility as these primary sources support Ankori’s interpretation of how Frida defined herself at the time. Ankori goes a step further by analyzing Kahlo’s paintings from various time periods and using those to prove his interpretations. After Frida’s tragic encounter with a tram crash, Ankori interprets that the crash and the traumas and injuries it created “became a defining aspect of her identity” and from that point on she lived “with a great passion for life beyond her sickness” (p. 55). This so far was one of the only points in which Ankori created an emotional appeal that so clearly demonstrated not only his passion towards Frida Kahlo’s life story, but also illustrated Kahlo’s desire to thrive. Much of Kahlo’s life is known to be full of sickness and depression, but Ankori portrays her accident, a defining moment for the future of Kahlo, that sets her up for, and almost in a way foreshadows, her success as an artist.

TOW 11 - Frontline Advertisement

(http://www.pleated-jeans.com/2012/03/07/22-funny-and-clever-advertisements/smashingtips/)

If I were in this mall, walking across the golden sea of a retriever, I'd be in love. This advertisement, creatively interactive, speaks to me as a dog enthusiast, lover, and owner, therefore successfully appealing to its audience. The multitude of people, the throng of symbolic fleas, sets a fear in dog owners that their pet is infested with fleas. The overwhelming amount of fleas across this dog creates an analogy exemplifying what a dog experiences. By exaggerating what its like to have fleas, by putting it in such a bold and public setting, Frontline grabs its audiences attention. It’s as if they were yelling at you and saying, “Hey! This is an issue you need to pay more attention to! Go to our store and buy some so you can be a good dog owner!” The ad evokes a sense of urgency within dog owners, playing on the need to care for their pet like a family member. The creativity and simplicity of the ad, and even just the phrase “Get them off your dog,” make it striking. However I question the effectiveness of this ad to those actually walking in the mall; unless you were to walk straight across the entirety of the floor, I highly doubt that you could piece together the meaning of the ad. This ad is good for others to reflect on after its been photographed and put in a magazine, but I don’t think it would cause an immediate response in its audience. In that sense I think the ad fails since it is directly trying to prompt its audience to buy medicine from the store in the mall, but overall it’s an effective ad for the company. This ad appeals not only to dog owners, but anyone who appreciates a clever ad that clearly has had a lot of thought has been put into it.

TOW 10 - Drunk Text Message to God (George Watsky)

I could spend this whole post discussing George Watsky’s creativity, his humor, his tone; there’s so much in his poem upon which I could comment. I’ve listened to a lot of Watsky’s spoken word poems, but I’d never thought of analyzing his work. I’d never drawn a profound meaning from the poem, “Drunk Text Message to God.” I listened to it three times; I read the written poem; and I feel so stupid for not recognizing its depth before now. Watsky didn’t win competitions like Brave New Voices or Def Poetry for being funny; he wasn’t invited to speak at over 150 universities for being entertaining. Reading his poem a final time made me realize that Watsky is trying to convey that your morals should be focused on you and making your world better, not necessarily the values set by an institution. “Drunk Text Message to God” is filled with religious and cultural allusions that force his audience to draw connections between modern ideas and people to religious ideology. Watsky points out the offensive nature of some holy ideas and contrasts them with the idea that in his church you’d get “seventeen virgins in a room to yourself where you go and play star fox together.” Instead of “bloody crusades to the march of drum cores,” referencing the Holy Crusades of the thirteenth century, Watsky is “starting a church that gets pissed off and starts thumb wars.” The juxtaposition presented by these allusions depicts previous decisions made by religious institutions as ludicrous. Instead of idolizing these men, men who have made decisions Watsky portrays as irrational, as the new church “you eat John Stewart & Steven Colbert shaped potato chips and watch Chappelle show.” Playing on the cultural memory of these comedians, famous for their starkly shared opinions, Watsky urges his audience to portray these men as role models: Stewart & Colbert are unafraid to stand up for what they believe is right, even if they are criticized for it. Watsky acknowledges that this criticism is normal; the idea that you will be disliked is scary, this “church makes you scared.” Watsky refers back to the original metaphor of “the weight of the world is the weight of my sheets.” Ending with a full circle, also my favorite section of the poem: “You’re lying in bed at night… and the covers are like a tsunami of fear. Thinking about how you’re getting older faster than your dreams are getting accomplished… Don’t fall asleep yet. Contrary to popular belief that’s not where dreams get accomplished.”

(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/George_Watsky)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4uOhD67028I

http://www.scribd.com/doc/49215226/Drunk-Text-Message-to-God-Lyrics

TOW 9 - A Cure for the Allergy Epidemic? (Moises Velasquez-Manoff)

My father has always said “If you’re allergic to dogs, then we’ll get you a dog,” so when I saw an opinion page about a cure for allergies I was immediately curious. Moises Velasquez-Manoff’s article coincidentally supports the theory of my father with numerous studies and extensive research. Velasquez-Manoff adds to his own credibility by citing his research with professional allergists and then explaining they found after recently venturing into the Amish country in Indiana. Their interviews and reports found that those exposed to microbes from the farms at a younger age were less sensitive to allergies compared to those in urban areas. These facts not only add to Velasquez-Manoff’s reliability as a source, but also his finding’s credibility. I was not quick to believe my father when he said the same thing, but after hearing that there were scientific studies conducted, and that it’s not just a theory, I do not doubt it. Velasquez-Manoff applies this research to explain the dangers of urbanization and evolution. As the human race has become more evolved, we have moved from the local farm into “an apartment high above Manhattan.”  Velasquez-Manoff appeals to his audience’s emotional side by detaching the human race from their humble roots. An apartment in Manhattan, one of the most expensive cities to live in throughout America, creates the idea that people have become superficial and stuck-up; alone this would be just as depressing, but Velasquez-Manoff then says that this is one of the reasons why we are more sensitive to sickness. Anyone can feel deflated by this statement, not only the educated in Velasquez-Manoff’s audience who understand the science of it. Though Velasquez-Manoff specifies this idea to just “immunologically speaking,” the audience can infer deeper. Anyone who has ever felt detached from their roots can understand the depth of this statement. Their connection to the past is what makes “the farming Amish and farmers generally may more closely resemble an evolutionary norm for our species” immunologically speaking or not.

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/11/10/opinion/sunday/a-cure-for-the-allergy-epidemic.html?pagewanted=1&_r=0&adxnnl=1&ref=opinion&adxnnlx=1384092835-LrsQGBGRR/1q3C6npJSJoA