Where do I Start?

The topic for my paper is a topic I’m very interested and involved in. Various times throughout the day I listen to independent music, think about independent music, practice with a band, go to independent record label’s websites, and think about my own independent record label. It isn’t surprising that doing research for my topic, many questions have come up. The most frequent in my mind is “where do you draw the line for being independent?” I really can’t tell anymore. Labels like Sub-Pop are indie labels, but why are they indie labels? Because they’re not owned by one of the “big six?” Because they’re more concerned with music rather than money? I really don’t know. Sub-Pop  is no doubt a great label and I enjoy many Sub-Pop bands, (Nirvana, anyone?) but I just can’t see them fitting the independent label. Their artists are selling hundreds of thousands of records. They’re featured on huge distribution sites such as amazon.com. Ads in all sorts of places. Sub Pop is also releasing the soundtrack for a popular HBO show, but the name of the show escapes me now. To me, this sounds like a multi-million dollar business. Independent music to me is going to a show in a dimly lit, musty basement in Cohoes, New York to see a not-so-popular band on tour from Bellingham, Washington. Buying their records(yeah, vinyl’s still cool), maybe a t-shirt, talking one on one with a member of this band who’s quit his job just to tour the United States making probably less than $100 a night(divided up between every band member). Some bands don’t even have it that lucky. I went on a tour this summer for a week and we rarely made over $25 on any of those nights. Independent music to me is making amazing music, putting on an amazing live show, and promoting your ass off, all on a budget. These artists on Sub-Pop can make a living making music. More power to them, I sure wish that was the case for me. But playing music DIY while still going to school, working a full time job, and whatever other responsibilities you have to complete is what it’s all about. I’d like to explore the fact of independent music being more underground. I could go so many different ways with this. I need to narrow it down, but at least I’ll enjoy doing it.

Thank You, Feedback

I feel like the grade given to me on my civic letter was justified. There may have not been enough organizing effort put into it. Facts were here and there, and I feel like as though maybe information was just passed along rather than my knowledge being expanded. My letter was said to be passionate, but not good enough with the amount of content of the arrangement of the content. If my goal was on a more reachable level, than it would have been easier to put my content and knowledge into a neater package.

The feedback given was more than helpful. The feedback pointed out organizational problems, and problems with my proposed solution. I really just think I didn’t put enough time into the whole process that went along with writing the letter. It does not reflect some of my best work. That was pointed out on the feedback, as well as other things that I wouldn’t have picked up on if there was no feedback. The feedback given provides insight as to what I can do for my next writing. The topic I have picked is independent record labels and independent music. I have firsthand experience as I have been playing in local bands for over five years, I am currently starting my own record label, and I have been booking shows in the area for a year. I’ve also toured the east coast and into the Midwest. I would still need to get perspectives from different parts of the country (maybe even the world), different labels and how distribution of records is done, and people who have been involved in independent music for a very long time. As many perspectives as possible to get would be of the most help. The feedback for my letter will help me organize the information better than I have been doing and also to have more formulated, neatly packaged points. As this grade is weighted heavier, it’s very important that I spend more time researching and writing more drafts. I thoroughly have to commit to spending more time writing this and organizing this project.

A New Entry With a Cool Title

“Writing as Communication” is a self explanatory title for our class. The title displays the ritualistic model of communication. All throughout our other classes that taught us about writing, we have been shown how to write to audiences through the form of writing, whether it be typing on a computer or writing in a notebook. To have writing as communication done properly we clarify everything we say and make sure our message is able to be understood.

“Communication as Culture” is also displaying the ritual model of communication. When there is a group centered around communication, such as telling stories that are passed down, and talking about different customs, then communication becomes cultural. We are social people and by communicating every day, sometimes with new people, sometimes with old friends, we are still able to learn many new things without even knowing or caring that we learned them. A “new reality” is produced almost every single day.

This course uses a combination of both the ritualistic and transmission models of communication. Homework in itself can be reflected in that. The homework is sent to us by a sender, but we are to interpret it and do it the way we see it, especially when we put it on our blogs. The “sender and receiver” mode is most commonly used in the lecture portion, but using the wiki, and group quizzes, along with other things we are left to interpret brings us to the ritual model of communication.

OH, You Know, Summary, Analysis, Political Stance, 3:45 AM

This blog entry by Steph dealt with her progress in her two classes, ENG112 and COM375. Steph summarizes what each class is doing and eventually shows how they overlap. An important part of both the ENG112 class and the COM375 class is feedback, which the classes give to each other. This also leads to the use of the UMassWiki. Both classes use the wiki and have homework and class activities posted on it. When two classes are using the same sort of system and the same interactive tools, it is very convenient when it comes to analyzing and providing feedback, as there is always material to be looked over. Even some of the assignments overlap, as the COM375 students watched Babel on their first day of class and the ENG112 students watched The Wall on their first day of class. Both classes also have to do a civic letter, and seeing that both will be on the wiki and available to read, there is definitely room for feedback to be given. An assignment that was given to the COM375 class and because of some confusion, a different version was given to the ENG112 class to do. When classes are run quite similarly, it becomes a good way to rework assignments to use them in the future.

The way that these classes are similarly run can only help the classes and the teachers. There is so much that can be overlapped and so many different ways to receive feedback that it can only be a benefit. Computer interaction in the wiki opens everything up as it is public and students can check and see what other classes are doing, even if it is not required, so they can be inspired or see what other students in other classes are doing. This is something that should be done in many classes. Students should be relying more on other students for help, and this is a major networking tool that is not being widely used at Umass. Teachers could be working with other teachers in other sections to utilize more feedback from other students doing the same work, and also to see other students work as compared to their own. It would be a good idea to get more teachers and students involved in the wiki so more could be known about it, thus making it easier to use and more open for peer review and interest.

Learning About Learning

Our class was given five different definitions of the word “learning” to analyze and form questions about. We also had to come up with questions we had about the definitions.

In what context were the definitions written?

How are the definitions different depending on the different sources?

What function do the definitions play?

Are there similarities between the definitions?

Here is where the class posted our thoughts: http://aplaceinspace.wordpress.com/2007/09/24/comm-juniors-awake/

Babel in Relation to COM375

Communications 375 is in full swing now, as the class has entered day eleven. The purpose of the course has come more into focus and relating it to other matters has become somewhat easier. So when asked again how the film Babel relates to this course, it is an easier question to inspect, especially with the help of my classmates.

Writing has a lot to do with tying all sorts of ideas together, even if it seems quite disjointed at first. As Kmb04 put it, “Now that Babel is coming to an end, the movie is tying in all these stories that we once thought to be completely irrelevant to each other. Just like when you’re writing an essay, at the end of the paper the writer wraps up all the points together and the reader is able to see how everything is connected.” Babel seems quite disjointed at first, but as time goes on, all the stories begin to tie together.

When tying these stories together, the writer has to keep in mind many barriers have to be crossed to have a wide understanding of the writing. Babel is full of cultural barriers that create a lot of difficulty. A very good explanation was given by W26s1 when they said “This corresponds to the subject matter of this course in the sense that one’s intention in communication is not always what is conveyed to the audience. It is important to be able to make meaning clear, even across cultural barriers.” Clear meaning is an important attribute in writing and communication, and the connections in Babel are a perfect example of this.

In conclusion, Babel was a good film to show to for this class. It shows how ideas in communication in writing and other sorts of media can seem distant from each other at first, but are ultimately tied together at the end. The film also shows how difficult cultural barriers in communication can be, and although quite difficult, they need to be broken with a universal meaning to get the important point across.

Communication in “Babel”

Communication in “Babel” is a very important theme in the movie. As far as the plot went, there were three separate stories being played out, but since we were unable to finish the film, I do not know if they all eventually tie together. All three of these stories, however, shared a central theme of communication.

One story involved a Mexican nanny who watched two young Caucasian children. Right away, the nanny spoke almost exclusively in Spanish, and the children understood, yet did not speak Spanish once throughout the movie. The children’s parents were unable to return home to be with their children, so their nanny was forced to bring them to her son’s wedding in Mexico. Everyone who spoke to the children in Mexico spoke in Spanish, and the children understood every word. This did not seem natural, for the children were very young and did not seem Spanish in any way and did not have any sort of accent. However, the children understand the most fluent of speakers, as those who talk to them speak very quickly and fluently. What made it even more puzzling is that they did not once speak Spanish back to anyone who spoke it to them. I still have yet to figure out what this symbolizes, and I hope to see the rest of the movie to see how it all ties together.

Another story involves a group of friends, all who are deaf girls living in an Asian country. A few of them, especially one girl, seem very sexually frustrated and try their best to get boys their age to notice them. At one point, the central character of the story tells her friend that boys see them as “monsters.” One boy tries to communicate with her, but after learning she is deaf, wants nothing to do with her. This extremely frustrates the girl who seems to go to even more desperate measures by seducing her dentist and flashing her genitals to unfamiliar boys. She does this because sexual communication involves no words at all, and she feels she can fit in this way. Communication is also a factor with her father. Her father asks where she wants to go eat, but she replies that she was eating with her friends and that he never listens to her. The way she says it makes it seem that it happens very often.

The final story has two different points of view. The first comes from the people living in a small Middle Eastern Village. They obtain a rifle to shoot “jackals,” which seem to be a coyote. The children argue excessively about who is a better shot, and who will get to handle the rifle. The rivalry gets to the point where the hostile communication leads one of the boys to shoot at a bus coming up the road. The other point of view for this story ties in after the shooting. A man and his wife are in the Middle East for a reason I could not figure out. They seem to have some unsettled aggression between them, and the woman seems to be holding something against her husband because he mentions that she will never forgive him. Things do not seem to get resolved between them between then and when the woman is shot. The hardship then is communicating with people within the village to get them to help, to relay to the other people aboard the bus that they cannot just leave the man and his wife alone in this village, and to call their home and alert the embassy for assistance. Everything is frantic, so it is hard to cross the language barrier and just do everything that is needed to do to help a dying woman. There is a lot of important communication going on in this story.

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