TOW #10 - Is Rock 'n' Roll Dead, or Just Old?

In Is Rock ‘n’ Roll Dead, or Just Old? Bill Flanagan explains the evolution of  rock ‘n’ roll. This article is a reflection in response to the deaths of legendary rock stars like David Bowie, Prince, and Leonard Cohen.  Bill Flanagan is an American author who graduated from Brown University in 1977.  Geared toward an audience of rock ‘n’ roll lovers, he shows that rock ‘n’ roll could die like other genres, but instead we can keep that from happening.  Although the genre is “in a stage of reflection on past glories” we can still treat it like any other alive genre in current time.  To show this, Flanagan illustrates the use of allusion, and anecdotes.  Flanagan says, “In the late 1980s, when Frank Sinatra was in his 70s — the age the Desert Trip stars are now — white-haired women who had once been bobby-soxers stood at his concerts and shouted, “Frankie, you’ve still got it!” Sinatra, a teen idol, had grown up and grown old with his audience” (Flanagan 19).  By alluding to another genre of music, he shows how music usually travels through time.  But he later shows that it can travel with different audiences of different time periods.  Referring to his son, he says, “They did not pay attention to boundaries of genre or chronology. Tom Petty led them to the Byrds, which led them to the Everly Brothers. The “Rock Band” game was a steppingstone to Santana, which opened the door to Django Reinhardt” (Flanagan 23).  Through his own anecdote he shows that keeping a genre like rock ‘n’ roll  alive is just as similar as listening to a current pop genre like hip-hop.  Rather than having the audience of the genre’s time die off which makes the genre itself die too, we can keep that from happening and just keep on listening no matter what age.  As Flanagan said, “Like any music that lasts, it’s for anyone who cares to listen.” In my opinion, I full heartedly agree with Flanagan, and believe that he achieved his purpose effectively.

http://www.nytimes.com/2016/11/20/opinion/sunday/is-rock-n-roll-dead-or-just-old.html?ref=opinion&_r=0

TOW #9 - A Time to Keep Fighting

In A Time to Keep Fighting which appeared in The New York Times Andrew Rosenthal explains what we have to do in order to save our nation.  A day after the election, the news erupted with varying opinions from so many different people.  Andrew Rosenthal as one of them, believes that Donald Trump is not suitable for our president, but he believes we need to fight rather than to sulk about the results.  Andrew Rosenthal is an American journalist who worked at The New York Times as an editorial page editor for about nine years. He became an Op-Ed columnist in June of 2016 for The New York Times.  In the text, Rosenthal writes towards an audience that consists solely of anti-Trump US citizens while illustrating allusion and expert testimony to achieve his purpose. Rosenthal says, “It made me wonder what Alexander Hamilton would think of the state of the nation he helped create and the man who just took the White House. But even more, it reminded me that the battle that has consumed, tormented and once almost destroyed our country is still raging” (Rosenthal Par. 2).  By alluding to the past, he is suggesting that the things we fought for many years ago is still quite relevant to today’s world.  This allusion can be used to spark emotion in a reader of wanting to fix that issue by standing up and fighting. Although people believe we have changed so much, we as a nation have possibly stayed the same.  Rosenthal later acknowledges words of President Obama which say, “‘We all go forward with a presumption of good faith in our fellow citizens’.” (Par. 10).  By quoting such an important figure of the United States, it shows how valid Rosenthal’s point is that, “This is a moment to stay engaged, and to fight back.” (Par. 13).  I full heartedly believe with all of what Andrew Rosenthal had to say in this text.  I am very mad with the election results, but to follow his words, it is a “time to keep fighting”!

IRB Intro #2: Dispatches from the Edge: A Memoir of War, Disaster, and Survival by Anderson Cooper

For my second IRB, I chose Dispatches from the Edge: A Memoir of War, Disasters, and Survival by Anderson Cooper.  This book is about Anderson Cooper’s coverage of different types of crises and conflicts that have happened across the world.  I chose this book because my cousin actually recommended it for me because she is a big fan of Anderson Cooper. I find myself interested in news coverage of big events and how people react, so I think I will enjoy this book because it will give me a new perspective.  I am very eager to start reading this book!

TOW #8 - The Gilded Razor

In the memoir, The Gilded Razor, Sam Lansky tells heart wrenching stories of his life full of addiction.  Sam Lansky is a very experienced writer, working for Time, New York magazine, The Atlantic, Esquire, and Out.  Written towards an audience who have not experienced addiction, Lansky captures the reader's attention in a way that is so unbelievably fascinating yet so jaw dropping and at times scary to even imagine.  Through the use of exaggerated diction, and vivid imagery Sam Lansky is able to show the reality of addiction and how it is not something anyone should ever encounter.  After being taken to a rehabilitation center in Utah, Same becomes furious and says to one of the workers, “Now, you probably don’t know this because you’re, like, an inbred f***k, but there are only two types of withdrawal that can kill you: alcohol withdrawal and benzodiazepine withdrawal.  If you don’t get me my f***ing Xanax, I will have a f***ing seizure and die right here and my dad will f***ing sue everything you are worth” (Lansky 155).  Through his diction, Lansky displays how insane his addiction made him.  This shows how dangerous addiction really is, and how hard it is to stop. Lansky also illustrates vivid imagery throughout his book.  Right when two men showed up at Lansky’s house to take him to rehab, he imagined the night before, “It seemed like only minutes before that I’d stumbled out of a packed nightclub in a coruscating blur of neon lights, cigarette smoke unfurling in the air, the taxicab sprawl, my doorman leering, the slickened walnut panels of the elevator spinning around me, a clumsy face-first collapse into bed” (Lansky 149).  Through his imagery, I was able to build intricate and detailed images in my head which added even more depth and meaning to the story.  In my opinion, I believe Sam Lansky was able to show a theme of staying away from addiction.  His book gave me another perspective on the life of someone who has been addicted to drugs, and I really enjoyed reading it!

TOW #7 - Teaching Teenagers to Cope With Social Stress

In Teaching Teenagers to Cope With Social Stress, Jan Hoffman shows what teenagers should really be learning to stop all of their ongoing stress.  Jan Hoffman attended Cornell University and Yale Law School and has been writing for The New York Times for roughly twenty years now.  Geared toward an audience of teenagers, educators, and parents, he utilizes hypophora and facts from experts to help show the simplicity of lowering stress in teenagers.  In the beginning of the article he asks an empowering question that states, “Almost four million American teenagers have just started their freshman year of high school. Can they learn better ways to deal with all that stress and insecurity?” (Hoffman Par. 1).  Hoffman is able to set up his entire argument to show what he is going to be talking about and how he is going to answer his question.  This draws in the reader's attention and helps organize the article. He uses research from an expert named David S. Yeager to answer his own question.  Hoffman says, “His latest study, published in the journal Psychological Science, found a surprisingly effective technique. At the beginning of the school year, students participated in a reading and writing exercise intended to instill a basic, almost banal message to help them manage tension: People can change” (Hoffman Par. 4).  This fact shows the simplicity of the solution to teenagers problems with stress, and makes it seem easily attainable.  He later provides statistics stating, “Afterward, students who received the intervention showed half the cardiovascular reactivity of the control group. Their levels of cortisol dropped by 10 percent; they were coping. By contrast, the cortisol levels in the control group increased by 45 percent” (Hoffman Par. 23).  This statistic drives his point home and helps achieve his purpose in showing what teenagers can really do to decrease stress. In my opinion Hoffman fully achieved his purpose and left me thinking about things that I can do to decrease my own cortisol levels.