January 2015 archive

Take Me To Church

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Hello Penn Staters! I hope you enjoyed my last post regarding the analysis of the hit song “Chandelier” by Sia. This week, I will be taking another very popular song and exposing the deeper meaning behind it. I’m praying that you enjoy this post!

I’m sure many people are familiar with the hit song “Take me to Church” by Hozier; it’s basically playing on every radio station, commercial, and advertisement you listen to! Andrew Hozier-Byrne, also known as Hozier, is an Irish solo artist who originally released this track in September of 2013. This song reached number 1 on the Irish iTunes chart, and number 2 in the official Irish singles chart. So why did this great track take so long to become popular in the United States? The song became popular here when it was featured in a Beats commercial featuring LeBron James, and gained recognition from there. This track was also the most globally streamed song on Spotify, streaming 87 million times in 2014.

Hozier originally wrote this song after going through rough breakup with his first girlfriend, but it’s not your ordinary love song. According to The Irish Times, Hozier explains his breakup as: “I found the experience of falling in love or being in love was a death, a death of everything. You kind of watch yourself die in a wonderful way, and you experience for the briefest moment – if you see yourself for a moment through their eyes – everything you believed about yourself gone. In a death-and-rebirth sense.”
The track also focuses on the contemplation of sin, but is not a direct stab at the church or faith. Hozier describes the meaning of the song as:

“Sexuality, and sexual orientation – regardless of orientation – is just natural,” he said. “An act of sex is one of the most human things. But an organization like the church, say, through its doctrine, would undermine humanity by successfully teaching shame about sexual orientation – that it is sinful, or that it offends God. The song is about asserting yourself and reclaiming your humanity through an act of love.”

I bet you were not expecting such a deep meaning! When I first heard the song, I was pretty confused as to why they were playing a religious song on the rap and hip-hop radio station that I was listening to. Even my Mom heard the song and asked, “Why are they still playing Christmas music on the radio, it’s already January!” Good try Mom, but I know now that this song is basically the opposite of a spiritual meaning.

The music video is even more intense then the lyrics of this song. The video shows two men in a same-sex relationship, and how homophobia is viewed in Russia. Violent homophobic treatment is showed when the community learns of the men’s sexuality. Regarding the video, Hozier says, “Growing up in Ireland, the church is always there – the hypocrisy, the political cowardice, the video has the same theme – an organization that undermines humanity.”

I highly recommend checking out the video if you haven’t already seen it! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MYSVMgRr6pw

Sources:
http://www.songfacts.com/detail.php?id=32921

Final Draft of This I Believe

I believe in working a retail job at least once in your life, especially as a teenager. One month after I turned 16, I knew I was ready to step into the real world by getting a job. I never knew how rude and cruel people could be to a retail worker until I actually experienced it. People are just so generous when it comes to dropping F-bombs when we don’t have an item in stock, or so kind as to call me new insults such as ‘illiterate and stupid’ when they can’t use two coupons. Oh, you used to work here and they allowed you to use two coupons? Well maybe that was back in the 80’s grandma. I really don’t think you need to use two coupons on your $1 knitting needles. And yes, I would love to call my busy manager up here so she can tell you the exact same thing I just told you about our coupon policy.
One of my favorite things about customers is how clean and tidy they can be when they come to Michaels. I just love when they grab one hundred different sheets of scrapbook paper, then decide they don’t want any of it, and leave it in the aisle with the picture frames (because that makes sense, right?). Even when a worker is standing in the same aisle, customers will still be quick to throw what they don’t want in a random spot and walk away like they didn’t do anything. It makes me worry about what their house looks like. One of my favorite experiences was when a customer dropped a glass Christmas ornament, while I was standing in the same aisle, and proceeded to kick the broken glass under the baseboard of the shelf. She just looked at me and walked away.
You wouldn’t believe how incredibly oblivious some people are. I’m sorry you can’t return this here because this is a Joann’s receipt. Yes, you actually are in Michaels. No, this is not Marshall’s and we do not sell lingerie. I like when I answer the phone and say our little greeting, “Thank you for calling your Cranberry Michaels, how may I direct your call?”, and the customer on the phone says “Is this Michaels? The one in Cranberry? (Yes, I just said that) Okay good, I was wondering if you could give me the phone number for the Butler Michaels, and maybe the North Hills Michaels, too.” My apologies, but have you ever heard of a phone book, or Google? How did you get our phone number then? But since I love offering customers the best service, I will definitely hold up the ten people in the checkout line so I can get you those phone numbers.
Sometimes customers truly think they are the only customers that actually need anything. I’m sorry, did you say you needed 25 bows made for a wedding that’s tomorrow? You only came in an hour before we close, I’m sure that we could do that for you. Your daughter’s birthday is today, of course we can have this signed Penguin jersey framed for you in an hour, it’s not like the framer’s had anything else to do!
Even though I sarcastically talk about my work experiences, brush off the rude comments and stresses of demanding customers, I would do it all over again. I believe that working a retail job gives you the necessary experiences that help you grow as a person and learn how to treat others properly, and I think that every person should work a job in retail at least once in their life.

PODCAST:

This I Believe: Retail Edition

One month after I turned 16, I knew I was ready to step into the real world by getting a job at a local retail store. I never knew how rude and cruel people could be to a retail worker until I actually experienced it. People are just so generous when it comes to dropping F-bombs when we don’t have an item in stock, or so kind as to call me new insults such as ‘illiterate and stupid’ when they can’t use two coupons. Oh, you used to work here and they allowed you to use two coupons? Well maybe that was back in the 80’s grandma. I really don’t think you need to use two coupons on your $1 knitting needles. And yes, I would love to call my busy manager up here so she can tell you the exact same thing I just told you about our coupon policy.

One of my favorite things about customers is how clean and tidy they can be when they come to Michaels. I just love when they grab one hundred different sheets of scrapbook paper, then decide they don’t want any of it, and leave it in the aisle with the picture frames (because that makes sense, right?). Even when a worker is standing in the same aisle, customers will still be quick to throw what they don’t want in a random spot and walk away like they didn’t do anything. It makes me worry about what their house looks like. Do they just throw everything around and don’t clean up after themselves? One of my favorite experiences was when a customer dropped a glass Christmas ornament, while I was standing in the same aisle, and proceeded to kick the broken glass under the baseboard of the shelf. She just looked at me and walked away.

You wouldn’t believe how incredibly oblivious some people are. I’m sorry you can’t return this here because this is a Joann’s receipt. Yes, you actually are in Michaels. No, this is not Marshall’s and we do not sell lingerie. I like when I answer the phone and say our little greeting, “Thank you for calling your Cranberry Michaels, how may I direct your call?”, and the customer on the phone says “Is this Michaels? The one in Cranberry? (Yes, I just said that) Okay good, I was wondering if you could give me the phone number for the Butler Michaels, and maybe the North Hills Michaels, too.” My apologies, but have you ever heard of a phone book, or Google? How did you get our phone number then? But since I love offering customers the best service, I will definitely hold up the ten people in the checkout line so I can get you those phone numbers.

Sometimes customers truly think they are the only customers that actually need anything. I’m sorry, did you say you needed 25 bows made for a wedding that’s tomorrow? You only came in an hour before we close, I’m sure that we could do that for you. Your daughter’s birthday is today, of course we can have this signed Penguin jersey framed for you in an hour, it’s not like the framer’s had anything else to do that day!

Even though I sarcastically talk about my work experiences, brush off the rude comments and stresses of demanding customers, I would do it all over again. I believe that working a retail job gives you the necessary experiences that help you grow as a person and learn how to treat others properly, and I think that every person should work a job in retail at least once in their life.

Affirmative Action

When I first thought about our new assignment of writing a Civic Issues blog, I thought it would be a piece of cake. I see and hear daily news stories, tweets, radio shows, and other posts on social media sites about the race, gender, and sexuality issues we face here in the United States. But, I never realized how little legitimate knowledge I had about specific issues in this topic. I turned to Google and honestly typed in “racial civic issues to write a blog about.” Unfortunately, this did not turn up many credible topics. I continued searching and finally found a topic that is relevant to me as a college student, and a topic that proves to be interesting and a bit controversial.

My civic issues will focus on Affirmative Action, and the role it plays in higher education at colleges and universities across the United States. Before finding this topic, I can honestly say I did not know a single thing about Affirmative Action in higher education. Maybe I live under a rock, or am just ignorant to the fact that this is becoming a widely talked about topic. To start off, I had to find out what exactly Affirmative Action even pertained to. I visited the website of the National Conference of State Legislatures to gather more information of Affirmative Action. They gave the formal definition of:
“Affirmative action policies are those in which an institution or organization actively engages in efforts to improve opportunities for historically excluded groups in American society. In institutions of higher education, affirmative action refers to admission policies that provide equal access to education for those groups that have been historically excluded or underrepresented, such as women and minorities.”

I learned that the constitutionality of these policies is being questioned, along with the use of race in college admissions being debated. For this post, I am going to focus on the basic pros and cons of Affirmative Action to set the basis for a good understanding of the topic.

One of the pros of Affirmative Action for higher education, that could also be considered controversial, is the economic aspect. Many colleges and universities are reaching out to minority groups to urge them to apply by offering financial incentives like scholarships. This is helping the colleges gain attention and make profits from their application fees, and if that student decides to attend that college or university, they get their tuition money, too. The institutions do have to shell out some money because of the promised minority scholarship, but they ultimately make that money back if the student attends their school.

But how is this fair to non-minority groups? Isn’t the Affirmative Action policy actually discriminating against the groups that are not the “historically excluded or underrepresented?” Why aren’t there associations for only white students seeking a higher education? Because in our society, this could be viewed as racist. We, the ‘rich and pompous white folk of America’ aren’t perceived to need to be urged to apply to college, or need financial aid or scholarships. How is that not racist and discriminatory?

A study conducted by the Hoover Institute showed that the financial aid and scholarships put forth by the Affirmative Action may not even be benefitting many of the targeted groups. Thomas Sowell from the Hoover Institute states that these programs are primarily benefitting middle and upper class minority groups. He also says that these racial preferences are hurting Asians and low-income whites. Thomas Sowell makes the point: “If preferences were truly meant to remedy disadvantage, they would be given on the basis of disadvantage, not on the basis of race.”

While the Affirmative Action seemed very positive for minority students at first glance, many economic problems arise. While the basis for the original action plan was to create equal opportunities for every person seeking higher education, I think Affirmative Action has actually contradicted itself. If the Hoover Institute’s claim is correct, then why would a policy only want to help a very small group of minority students?

Sources:
http://www.ncsl.org/research/education/affirmative-action-overview.aspx
http://www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&cd=5&cad=rja&uact=8&ved=0CDkQFjAE&url=http%3A%2F%2Fcchs.ccusd.org%2Fourpages%2Fauto%2F2012%2F3%2F15%2F38263090%2FAffirmative%2520Action%2520Articles%2520updated%25202012.doc&ei=IYzAVIWLCYq6ggT_3oPAAw&usg=AFQjCNH03QcgZ2uA2ev2j3kSKRVy_TdWyQ&sig2=oPe_57q72kfVJ0XJ4SBR4A

Seeking the True Meaning

Chandelier_by_Sia_coverwork

Hello Penn State! It has been a few weeks since my last post, but I am back and ready to blog! Last semester, my passion blog focused on different genres of music, their historical backgrounds, and a particular artist from that genre of music. This semester, I am going to be writing about something slightly different, but still keeping it music related.

I got the idea a few weeks ago while listening to one of my favorite popular songs right now, “Chandelier” by Sia. Her amazing vocals are what originally caught my attention and made me fall in love with the song. But, I soon realized that this song had a deeper meaning than someone just swinging from a chandelier. So, for my passion blog this semester, I will be taking a different song each week from Billboard’s Top 100 songs and exploring the true meaning behind the lyrics and what the artist wanted to convey with their piece of music. Music is such an important part of my everyday life so I definitely wanted to keep my blog related to music. Hopefully this topic will be of interest to others and inspire someone’s new favorite song!

To start my first post of the semester, I will be analyzing the song “Chandelier” by Sia as I stated before. While listening to the song, you would think that this is just another party anthem about drinking and doing stupid things, like swinging from a chandelier, while intoxicated and/or high. Sia’s hit song is actually about herself and her struggles with alcoholism and prescription drug addiction. We can see that as we take a closer look at the lyrics.

The opening lines of the song are “Party girls don’t get hurt/ Can’t feel anything, when will I learn?/ I push it down, push it down.” Sia knows that she has a problem but isn’t trying to do anything to stop her drinking. Sia explains these lines as the “Supression of fear through self-medication,” according to Pop Genius. But why doesn’t she stop drinking and get help?

The next lines of the song are “I’m the one “for a good time call”/ Phone’s blowin’ up, ringin’ my doorbell/ I feel the love, feel the love.” She is explaining that her habits are giving her friends and popularity, but is it positive attention and love? The line “I’m the one ‘for a good time call’” is referring to men only looking at her as a sex object, not a person. This line can also refer to writing a woman’s phone number in a bathroom stall for sex, as it appears in the hit song “867-5309 / Jenny” by Tommy Tutone.

The saddest lines of the song are “Help me, I’m holding on for dear life, won’t look down, won’t open my eyes/ Keep my glass full until morning light, ’cause I’m just holding on for tonight.” Even though her partying is essentially killing her, she chooses to ignore it for another night of drinking and drug use. She isn’t planning for the future; she only knows that she needs to feed her addiction right now.

Hopefully the next time you hear this song on the radio, you listen a little closer to the lyrics and try to feel what Sia was going through at the time. Sia has parted ways with her days of addiction and alcoholism and has now been sober for 3 years.

Sources:
http://genius.com/Sia-chandelier-lyrics
http://musiceon.com/2014/09/meaning-sias-chandelier-lyrical-analysis/