Month: September 2024

RCL #4: Essay Outline

P1

President Bill Clinton’s speech after the events of 9/11 was something all of America heard that day. In the aftermath of a huge tragedy, people often look towards the people in power, especially their president, to guide them on how to pick up the pieces and move forward. In Bush’s speech, he urges the ideals of being united as a country, as the intentions of the attacks were to disrupt the foundation of our nation. Eleven years later, President Barack Obama had to give a similar speech in the wake of the Sandy Hook Shooting. In this speech, Obama honors the victims and addresses the families of those who lost people, as well as families whose children were forever altered by this event. While these speeches address two different types of tragedies, both presidents are making statements on two disasters known nationwide. Both speeches also deal with the topic of unity, with Bush urging for unity as a country and Obama urging for unity supporting the community of Newton, Connecticut. Comparing these two civic artifacts will show how the ideals expressed in the speech are similar, as well as analyze how the two different presidents responded to a tragedy.

 

Outline:

P2-Discuss Bush’s speech

  • Exigence- the September 11th terrorist attacks
  • Audience- Grieving families, survivors, the attackers, American citizens
  • Constraints- tragedy and turning it into opportunity, addressing the attackers without causing more retaliation, having to address all the different groups of people at once, making it personal
  • Commonplaces- freedom, resilience, unity

 

P3-4- I will analyze Bush’s speech through a social movement lens

  • How Bush’s speech helped unite the country to rebuild after 9/11

 

P5- Discuss Obama’s speech

  • Exigence- the Sandy Hook Shooting
  • Audience- grieving families, survivors and their families, American citizens
  • Commonplaces- unity, grief, support

 

P6-7- I will analyze Obama’s speech through a social movement lens

  • How Obama’s speech helped rally people to help victims’ families

 

P8-9- Discuss how both speeches are different

  • The different approaches used and the different commonplaces

 

Passion Blog #3: mirrorball

To be completely transparent with everyone, last week was definitely my toughest week so far here at Penn State. Homesickness was starting to hit hard, I had multiple exams I was stressed for, and I felt as if everything was beginning to hit me all at once. During this time, I fell back on my comfort album, folklore by Taylor Swift, to help get me through everything, and I found one song in particular to be the most helpful. This song is the subject of my passion blog this week.

mirrorball is the sixth track off of Swift’s eighth studio album folklore, which was released on July 24, 2020. This album shocked many fans, as Swift surprisingly released it in the middle of the Covid-19 pandemic without any prior promotion. The song was written and produced by Taylor Swift and Jack Antonoff. In the Disney+ documentary Folklore: The Long Pond Studio Sessions, Swift goes into detail on the use of a mirrorball as a metaphor for people in society, saying “I was thinking, ‘We have mirrorballs in the middle of a dance floor because they reflect light. They are broken a million times and that is what makes them so shiny. We have people like that in society too. They hang there and every time they break it entertains us.” (Taylor Swift, 2020). The song tackles the internal feeling of having to constantly reinvent yourself in order to fit in, even if you end up breaking doing so. The lyrics “I want you to know I’m a mirrorball. I can change everything about me to fit in.” perfectly reflects the point Swift is trying to make. She goes into detail about how she knows that behavior like this is hurting her, but is still willing to do it in order to please a certain person, singing “I know they said the end is near, but I’m still on my tallest tiptoes. Spinning in my highest heels, love. Shining just for you.” The bridge of the song delves into Swift’s insecurities of not fitting in even more, saying she’s “never been a natural, all I do is try, try, try.”

This song has always had a very special meaning in my heart, coming out during a time where I was filled with high levels of isolation. It helped get me through the hard parts of high school, and is one of the things I always fall back on when I’m down. As mentioned earlier, I was having a very difficult week last week. I was heavily relating to the concepts discussed in the song, especially the feeling of never being a “natural”, always having to try my hardest in order to succeed. In the environment of college, I felt as if I didn’t belong anymore just because I had a bad week. However, listening to this song helped remind me of the fact that that wasn’t the case at all. Everyone has bad weeks, but those weeks don’t diminish all of your hard work prior to that that helped you get to where you are today. Even though this song is inherently sad in nature, it helped me work through the stress and anxieties last week threw at me, and allowed me to enter this week with a more positive perspective.

For information on songwriters and producers- https://genius.com/Taylor-swift-mirrorball-lyrics

Quote was pulled from this source- https://americansongwriter.com/behind-the-introspective-meaning-of-mirrorball-by-taylor-swift/

Passion Blog: Welcome to New York

It’s a fact of life that everyone is eventually going to leave home and start writing their own story. While this is most commonly described as a scary, stressful time full of unknowns, it is also filled with the exciting prospects of being on your own, meeting new people and starting fresh in a new place. The song I chose for this week’s passion blog is not one I ever thought I’d find inspiration in, but have recently been listening to and viewing in a new light as a college student.

Welcome to New York is the opening track off of Taylor Swift’s fifth studio album 1989, which was originally released on October 27, 2014. It was written by Taylor Swift and Ryan Tedder, and produced by Swift, Tedder and Noel Zancella. Due to the sale of her masters to Scooter Braun, Swift re-recorded the album and released it on the nine year anniversary of the original album’s release, October 27, 2023. The new version of the song, titled Welcome to New York (Taylor’s Version), was produced by the same original trio of Swift, Tedder and Zancella. The song is a fun, upbeat pop song that discusses Swift’s excitement of living and being in New York City. It opens up with Swift saying that everyone in the city is looking for something new, or as she puts it, “searching for a sound we hadn’t heard before”. She then talks about how she, and everyone else, are starting fresh in their new environment, saying “Took our broken hearts, put them in a drawer. Everybody here was someone else before.” In the bridge of the song, New York is described as being three different types of love; a great love, a true love and a real love. These analogies tell us that Taylor Swift has a great love for this city and truly feels like she belongs there. The chorus also incites the same feeling of belonging, with the phrase “Welcome to New York, it’s been waiting for you.” describing to the audience that it’s where they were always meant to be.

As mentioned earlier, I never thought I’d find motivation in this song. It doesn’t have a very deep meaning, and the lyrics are very surface level. The song is simply about having fun with your friends in New York City. However, now that I’m in college, I can appreciate this song differently. At this moment, my “New York” is Penn State. It’s my new environment, and it’s scary and new, but also very exciting. I’m living a life I could have only dreamed of a year ago. I’m meeting new people and getting to make amazing new memories. Just like New York has been waiting for Swift in the song, I truly feel as if Penn State has been waiting for me. In the few weeks I’ve lived here, I’ve felt so many emotions, but the overwhelming one has been excitement. Listening to this song and relating it back to what I’m going through now has helped put everything into a new perspective, and has really helped me in terms of focusing on the positives instead of dwelling on the negatives of being somewhere new.



Intriguing Elevator Pitches: Molly’s Blog

As I was reading through everyone’s recent RCL blog posts, the one that intrigued me most was Molly’s post about Taylor Swift’s recent endorsement of the Harris-Walz presidential campaign. I was most intrigued with it because it was the most contemporary civic artifact chosen out of everyone’s, being posted two days before our blogs were due, and I wanted to see how she went about analyzing it.

In terms of its organization and style, I appreciated the background information provided within the blog. As someone who is a big Taylor Swift fan, I went into reading this post knowing the context surrounding it, but for someone who may not be aware of the situation, what was provided was concise enough where readers can be caught up effectively without feeling overwhelmed with details. I also really liked the inclusion of media. The images of tweets throughout the post give the audience another source of information, as well as help back up the claims given in the blog post itself.

I appreciated the analysis given on this artifact as well. When I first saw Taylor Swift’s post for myself, I viewed it in a more surface level way, just as her waiting to post her endorsement when the conversation on candidates was still fresh, which was immediately following the conclusion of the debate. The blog post opened my eyes to the layers surrounding the intentions of the post. Swift announcing her endorsement only once she started receiving backlash for her association with Britney Mahomes, as well as wording the post in a more mild-mannered way than her previous political endorsements shows how Swift is attempting to make her thoughts known while also trying to keep the peace with her fans who are more conservative. 

In all, this blog post is definitely very intriguing, and I can’t wait to see how Molly approaches both her speech and essay on this artifact.

 

Passion Blog: You’re on Your Own, Kid

Taylor Swift is my favorite musician, and there is no song in her discography that speaks to me more than You’re On Your Own, Kid, which is off of her tenth studio album Midnights. Announced on August 28, 2022 at the 2022 MTV Video Music Awards, the album came as a shock to fans who had no suspicion that a new album was on the horizon. During her online series titled Midnights Mayhem with Me, which was posted onto Swift’s TikTok page, the song’s name was revealed to fans. It was also revealed that the song was to be the fifth track on the album. This was significant to fans as all of the track fives on Taylor Swift’s albums are described as being the most personal and heartbreaking to her.

The song was both written and produced by Taylor Swift and Jack Antonoff, her longtime friend and collaborator. The song details Swift’s over personal journey of growing up, especially once she started to become famous. She begins the song by describing an unrequited love she once had, saying that that person is the only one who could potentially keep her in a town she hates, before ultimately discovering that said person did not care about her in the same regard as she had cared about them. She then switches narratives and talks about the beginning stages of her musical career. Swift tells the audience that she began by writing songs in her bedroom and performing them in parking lots to anyone who would listen. The inspiring tone then takes a turn once she does finally succeed, as she learns that her goals and dreams aren’t as “rare” as she originally believes. The bridge of the song has Swift list everything she believes she has sacrificed, saying that she “gave my blood, sweat and tears for this”. In an attempt to fit in her industry, Swift says “I hosted parties and starved my body like I’d be saved by a perfect kiss”. She mentions the ridicule she faced and how her changing to fit in ultimately led the people who knew her most back home to not entirely recognize her. In the song’s final moments, Swift acknowledges the one thing that has gotten her through the difficult moments in her career; the support of her fans. 

This song has impacted me in so many different ways, especially now that I am in college. In the weeks leading up to my move in, I felt so scared alone. I knew that I would miss my family, and I was terrified that I wouldn’t be able to make any friends. The messages of this song helped get me through the extra tough moments, most importantly, the line “You’re on your own, kid. Yeah you can face this. You’re on your own, kid. You always have been”. Even though I’m starting this new journey of my life alone without the support of having the people from home here with me, I know that I will be able to face any of the challenges college and my new life throw at me, as I have been able to deal with hard things my whole life. I’ll carry the meaning of this song for my whole life. It has truly helped me in so many ways, and I even got the title of it tattooed on my arm for my 18th birthday. No other Taylor Swift song, or potentially any song ever, will benefit me the same ways this song has.



Civic Artifact Elevator Pitch

For many people, the events of September 11th, 2001 are memories they will never be able to forget. Without fail, a large majority of the people you know will be able to tell you exactly where they were when the events of 9/11 first occurred when prompted. On this day, four United States planes were hijacked by the Islamic terrorist group al-Qaeda, causing them to crash into both towers of the World Trade Center, the Pentagon and a field in Pennsylvania. The fourth plane is rumored to have been heading towards the United States Capitol Building. These horrific attacks resulted in the deaths of 2,977 people, as well as the 19 hijackers. 

Later that evening, President George W. Bush addressed the nation in a televised speech. Bush begins this speech by addressing and honoring the victims, describing all of the different types of people who died on that day, from the workers in government buildings, civilians on the airplanes and the people working their desk jobs in the World Trade Center. He also addresses the victims’ families, including the “children whose worlds have been shattered”. Throughout the speech, Bush attempts to rally America into a state of unity, saying that the reason why the United States was chosen for these attacks was because it was the strongest beacon of freedom in the world, and that all of the institutions and businesses impacted will reopen. Finally, Bush directs his words to the attackers themselves, saying that the search is underway for all those who were involved in orchestrating the attacks. Bush then ends the speech and wishes America a good night.

To most effectively analyze this speech, it should be viewed in the lens of social movement studies. The events of 9/11 impacted every American citizen, whether they were victims, grieving families or those afraid of more possible attacks. Bush uses his speech to try to bring America closer together. He reassures everyone that things will eventually go back to normal within the country, and that they will come out of this as a more united group of people. In another attempt to comfort citizens, Bush says “Terrorist attacks can shake the foundations of our biggest buildings, but they cannot touch the foundation of America”.



Passion Blog Ideas

I’m a person with many passions. I’m passionate about my family, my friends and my education. I’m also passionate about always doing the right thing and fighting for the things I believe in. While all of those passions are important, I want my blog to be more lighthearted; something I can enjoy writing instead of having to delve deeply into world wide problems or depressing topics. If you ask anyone who knows me, my biggest passion is Taylor Swift. I could definitely write passion blogs about different songs of hers and be able to relate them back to situations and events going on in my life. I also am a huge bookworm. I could discuss different books that I’ve read, analyze their messages and talk about how they impacted me during and after reading the book.



Use of a Commonplace

Applebee’s has a reputation of creating a hospitable environment for their patrons. It’s a place everyone can go to and enjoy a nice and relaxing meal with family, friends or even simple acquaintances. Because of the reputation they’ve built up, Applebee’s as a brand uses specific commonplaces to reinforce the idea that everyone who goes there is part of a specific community, especially with their slogan “Eatin’ Good in the Neighborhood”. The notion of a neighborhood fortifies the idea that everyone eating in the restaurant at a given time all belong to the same community. Here, everyone has a place to relax and enjoy delicious food.

This commonplace works so well for Applebee’s because they understands their community and audience. They know that many families are a high majority of their patrons, so building up the fact that everyone dining there belongs in a community works very well in their favor in terms of making everyone feel welcome, as well as getting their customers to return. “Eatin’ Good in the Neighborhood” serves as a tool to promote the restaurant’s food, the main selling point of the company, but it also aims to make everyone feel ate home. Some constraints this commonplace could face involve someone not enjoying the food they ate or not feeling the sense of belonging the word “neighborhood” creates. However, this impacts a personal experience of someone and not necessarily the brand as a whole.

The fitness of this commonplace is very effective. People long to belong every day of their lives, whether in social groups, clubs, organizations or to simply find a place in the world. If a person can go into a restaurant and feel as if while they are there they belong to something greater, then the brand creating that environment has succeeded in using their chosen commonplace.