WOW!
We are living history tonight, boys and girls. As I said on Monday, no matter the outcome today, Wednesday will be very interesting.
It’s worth taking another look at John McCain’s concession speech and Barack Obama’s victory speech which I’ll embed here once the respective campaigns post them on their YouTube channels.
Making it Official
APELCers, although we’d know the “presumptive” candidates would be their respective parties’ nominees for many months, Barack Obama’s and John McCain’s nomination acceptance speeches at the conventions in Denver and St. Paul made their candidacies official.
I’ve posted an extra-credit opportunity for you on your class page in which I’ve asked you to analyze, and compare and contrast each candidate’s presentation. Here’s video of both for you to consider as you work out the optional assignment:
Barack Obama, Democratic National Convention Nomination Acceptance Speech, Denver, Colorado, August 28, 2008.
John McCain, Republican National Convention Nomination Acceptance Speech, St. Paul, Minnesota, September 5, 2008.
William F. Buckley
Guardian of American Conservatism and founder of the National Review, William F. Buckley, Jr. died last week at the age of 82. (He’s the author of the most recent piece you just read.) Buckely was an unusually keen observer, agile debater, prolific writer, and imaginative intellectual, but it’d be useless for me to write much else since others who knew the man and his work far more intimately than I have been offering their thoughts since the news of his passing.
National Review has begun an archive of appreciations on its founder, and other media have produced their own, NPR’s “Remembering William F. Buckley”, New York Times’ “The Mighty Political Legacy of William F. Buckley Jr.”, and Charlie Rose’s retrospective (below), among them.
Here’s a portion (check out all the segments) of the 1968 debate between Buckley and famed MIT linguist Noam Chomsky (whom he notoriously threatened, as he had once Gore Vidal, to sock in the face) over American intervention in Vietnam:
The videos are interesting, but it may lead you to wonder more about what I mentioned to you in class: “Why Did William F. Buckley Jr. Talk Like That?”
I’d encourage any student to sample his work from the National Review archive of his opinion and analysis. Observe closely his broad, deep, and lucid understanding and command of social, political, and cultural issues.
AP Language Class Notes
Objectives: APELC students argued and defended a position on a current issue.
Juniors and seniors, today you tackled the following article from The Daily Mail: “Britain kow tows to China as athletes are forced to sign no criticism contracts”. In a delicious twist, I asked you to defend China’s request of participating nations’ athletes, which I thought might be good practice, that is, you fighting for a controversial, perhaps unpopular position.
The discussions were interesting, but Shawn made an incisive point when he suggested that those athletes who felt strongly about the problem of China’s human rights violations should boycott the games altogether, forsaking their training for the sake of their oppressed fellows. How might Tommie Smith and John Carlos have acted differently?
I said I’d post some links to resources that might help background the issue for those interested, and a good place to start, I think, is with the visceral event from recent memory, the Tiananmen Square massacre of Chinese dissidents in 1989. Frontline highlighted the dissidents’ oppression, first with a focus on The Gate of Heavenly Piece, a vivid documentary film ten years hence, and then in an episode simply entitled “Tankman”, which uses one figure’s “lonely act of defiance” as a critical historical lens.
Be sure to examine Human Rights Watch page on the history of China’s human right abuses. It’s difficult, maybe, to wrap our minds around the fact that other people in other parts of the world don’t enjoy the same rights we are secured here, but because it’s difficult doesn’t mean we shouldn’t try or that we shouldn’t act.
Linkjam!
The primaries are in full swing. The race for the Democratic nomination is 243 delegate-strong Hillary Clinton or 158 delegate-holder Barack Obama’s for the taking. And it appears as if John McCain has edged out over his Republican competitors for the GOP nomination (with 97 delegates, currently), but Mike Huckabee and Mitt Romney (29 and 74 delegates each, respectively) are still fighting. Super Tuesday is just a few days away though, and it’ll mean the end of the road for some, although the imperturbable Ron Paul (6 delegates) and the unflappable Mike Gravel are refusing to concede.
It’s unbelievably important that you’re paying attention to the rhetoric of the day, kids, and how the press is covering it all. For example, consider the analysis of New York mayor Michael Bloomberg’s curious evasions about a possibly running as a third-party candidate: “Nature Abhors a Vacuum, and Politics Abhors Clear Statements”. (For more on third-party possibilities, check out The Economist’s latest “Democracy in America” podcast.)
Evasion, chicanery, and scandal, though, isn’t new in American politics. If you interpreted Bob Roberts as an attack on Republican conservatism, understand that evasion, chicanery, and scandal are not the domain of any one single group or party as Shawn pointed out when he cited the Chappaquiddick incident involving Senator Ted Kennedy. Serendipitously, US News & World Report recently surveyed “Great Moments in Campaign History” that included many other noteworthy political and campaign missteps.
How do media manage, frame, and spin all the information streaming in, not only from all of the United States, but from around the world? Dig the recent BBC Documentary series “Making News”. (Discover more the implications of alternative media such as blogging and the role of the press in democracies in the documentary “Press for Freedom”, and go even deeper with FRONTLINE’s extended series, News War.)
For a break in the midst of all the press and politicking, have a look over at the PBS program NOW’s episode on the tradition of American political satire, and then head over to the The Borowitz Report for a laugh.
All this stumping, reporting, informing, judging, deciding, and fighting may seem a lot to keep track of, boys and girls, but some day soon it’ll all be yours to deal with. Be prepared. You can get a start at DeclareYourself.com or RocktheVote.org.
Top of the World
Sir Edmund Hillary, who, along with his Sherpa guide Tenzing Norgay, conquered Mt. Everest in 1953, has died at 88. Here’s a groovy 360 of Mt. Everest, which, at a staggering height of 29, 029 feet, is the highest point on our little planet earth.
Sir Edmund and Norgay were on top of the world when they reached the summit of the killer mountain. It was only a matter of time before the story of their pioneering experience was put to song.
Hey, Hey, My, My (Updated)
As I mentioned to many of you, there’s sad news from the world of music: Kevin DuBrow, lead singer of the pioneering 1980s metal band Quiet Riot, died Sunday at the young age of 52. “So what’s it got to do with class, Mr. Girard?” you’re probably thinking. Well, this is mostly for APELC, but the freshmen can enjoy it, too.
Quiet Riot scored the first real heavy metal hit with mainstream appeal in 1982 with their cover of the 1973 Slade single “Cum on Feel the Noize”. It was a significant piece of popular rhetoric (ah, there’s the connection), that, along with its sister hit “Metal Health”, argued in the careers of other heavy metal glam and hair bands like Motely Crue, RATT, Twisted Sister, and their (mostly) Los Angeleno contemporaries. The scene was dubious though, in that while it heralded the coming of totally sweet groups like Guns N’ Roses, it also gave unfortunate rise to some real weiner bands like Bon Jovi, and tympana-torturing power-ballad specialists like Poison, Cinderella, and (shudder) The Scorpions (who’d actually been around for years, but whose German rock sound somehow, bafflingly became irresistible to a large segment of the American listening public in the 1980s).
When I was eleven, a classmate, Nate Garza, introduced me to Metal Health, the Quiet Riot album on which “Cum on Feel the Noize” appeared. Obviously I wasn’t the intended audience; the cover freaked me out. But even I couldn’t escape the 80s metal juggernaut, which was very cool and informed the decade’s music culture which was divided among the hair rockers, synthpoppers (who thankfully died relatively early deaths), the burgeoning alt rock/pop and hip-hop scenes, soulpoppers (think New Edition), and the top 40 horrors that were Richard Marx, Phil Collins, Mike + The Mechanics, Tiffany, John Waite, and―the very tired―Starship (to name a very scant few). The death knells of heavy metal officially sounded in 1990 with the simultaneous debut releases of “supergroup” Damn Yankees’ self-titled album with its hit “High Enough” and Nelson’s After the Rain and the hit of the same name it spanwed. (And that is two paragraphs of solid, value-laden context, kids.)
Here’re three different presentations of the venerable “Cum on Feel the Noize”. The first, the Slade original (link is now working), is followed Quiet Riot’s take, and then a version by Oasis sung by perennial cry-baby and all-round jackball Liam Gallagher. Pay attention to the different (musical and visual) schemes in each; the Slade and Oasis bookends are live performances, but the tasty Quiet Riot center is the band’s original video with obvious tropes. Ask yourself as you observe: What personas are the bands attempting to effect? What audiences are they trying to reach? What are their arguments? Which is the most effective or are they all effective in their respective contexts?
Raise your lighters to Kevin DuBrow and enjoy the sounds. Hey, hey, my, my…
Slade, 1973
Quiet Riot, 1982
Oasis, 1996
The Myth of Che
Human beings love icons, indexes, and symbols. Wedding rings, sunglasses, dwellings, statues, flags, banners, cars, posters, money―all of these are in some way iconic, indexical, or symbolic in nature. Don’t think you have your own appreciations? Look at the way you style yourself for public consumption, think of the words that come out of your mouth, think of the fetishes you enjoy. Maybe it’s collecting troll dolls, or maybe it’s the new rims you just got for your ride, or maybe it’s the books you read in public spaces with the covers showing ever so slightly so that others can wonder at the genius who’d read such great works―each of these, and almost everything we do is somehow metaphorical or tropic (see number 2).
What happens when symbols are turned on their heads? (Witness the irreversible change in conventional meaning of the swastika from its roots.) What happens when a symbol of Marxist social and economic revolution becomes a meaningless icon for commercial consumption? Read about it at The Economist, “A modern saint and sinner”.
Leave a comment by clicking the link above.
A Little Scheme
Here’s an interesting piece of cultural history about and insight into the rhetorical possibilities of a very simple piece of text, a little percussion scheme (presentation, figure, logos) from the Winstons’ 1969 song “Amen, Brother”. It’s called the Amen break or just the Amen.
You’ve probably heard this riff before because it’s been manipulated over forty years by a variety of “speakers” to appeal to a variety of audiences in a variety of contexts, that is, it’s been used to establish a common ground (ethos) and anticipate and manipulate audiences’ emotions (pathos) according to the context in which those audiences exist. Be aware that a snippet of an NWA rap is used in the following video and contains language that you or Mom and Dad may find objectionable. (Why not listen to it with them and show them how to process the text?).
The particular information I thought interesting and relevant to class was the versatility of the six-second scheme, the Amen break itself. But the creator of the video, itself a piece a rhetoric built around an argument, has a different purpose than just to expose auditors to a piece of groovy music. How do read his message?
Leave a comment by clicking the above link.
Jena, LA and Little Rock, AR
On Thursday some APELC students were considering the context of Gloria Naylor’s “The Meanings of a Word” and wondering about issues of racism and violence. It’d be nice to think that particularly in the West, we’ve begun to overcome differences of race and ethnicity, but make no mistake: Racism and racially motivated violence (and the eruptions that ensue) are alive and well in the 21st century and in no way are threatening to abate. Witness the winter 2000 riots in Spain, spring 2001 riots in Cincinnati, Ohio, the summer 2001 riots in Britain, fall 2005 riots in France, and the current unrest in Switzerland over apparently racist propaganda.
Hopefully (sentence adverb―score it!), you’ve been following the recent controversy in Jena, Louisiana over some black kids, some white kids, a tree, and some nooses (litotes). These are the events of the day, kids, the events that will define and motivate us to justice and best action.
Take some time to listen to the NewsHour piece, and examine the full coverage of the Case of Louisiana’s Jena Six at NPR. And it might be worthwhile to reflect on the history of race and rights by listening to the story of “Daisy Bates and the Little Rock Nine”.
Don’t be afraid to post your thoughts on these most important issues. Click the link above to leave a comment.
England’s Rose? C’mon!
During a recent conversation with a student, the topic of the anniversary of Princess Diana’s death came up. Diana Windsor’s (certainly untimely) death became a media feeding-frenzy ten years ago, and the commercial rush to cover the story was of course crass and opportunistic, too easy for rhetorical analysis. The media found itself shamed and scrambling when, less than a week after the “Queen of Heart’s” passing, Mother Teresa of Calcutta’s shuffled off her mortal coil at the end of a long life of service. (Then, I ran across an interview with a ridiculous vblogger who compared the event that is Britney Spears to the events of September 11. Vile.)
So, all of this made me remember an opinion piece I heard a couple of weeks ago on an Economist podcast about Diana’s death’s anniversary: “Carnival Queen”.
Anyone care to frame the opinion? Anyone care to comment? Do either by clicking the above link.
Loose-Leaf Paper
“Why 8 ½ × 11 inch, college ruled, loose-leaf paper, Mr. Girard? I can’t sleep at night. You’re awful, awful, awful!”
That’s all right. I can take it. I know my dogs and cat and turtle love me. But what about that paper? Well dig this, although 8 ½ × 11 inch paper had a storied history (polyptoton) and place in the West, in 1921 then Secretary of Commerce Herbert Hoover turned heads by approving 8 × 10 ½ inch paper as the official standard for government letterheads. Now, remember, that it was the villain Hoover, later as President, who led us into the Great Depression; you’ll recall, those of you that were around, the rallying opposition cry against him as the Depression set in: “In Hoover we trusted, now we’re busted.” It all started with the paper.
The dizzying, maddening confusion over paper sizes in America lasted for sixty years until President Reagan heroically set things aright during his administration in the 1980s by declaring 8 ½ × 11 inch paper the true standard of this shining city on the hill.
And so there you have it, the story of 8 ½ × 11 inch paper. My preference and request for it I’ve explained before―spacious and roomy for your writing, practical for my organizing―but now you can also see that 8 × 10 ½ inch paper is simply aberrant.
Read more about paper and other school supplies at the Christian Science Monitor’s piece “Hey kid―what’s in your locker?”.
Score it!
The Creative Best?
The American Society of Magazine Editors has released its list of the forty greatest magazine covers from the past forty years, and Smashing Magazine, which promises to “smash you with the information that will make your life easier offers creativty sparks from masters of graphic design.
The covers serve a different purpose than the images, but they’re all visual text and speak to particular audiences. They all argue something, too; that is, their creators all intended some message to come across to their audiences. Some of the messages are obvious, others aren’t.
Care to comment on specific covers or images? The covers offer some valuable cultural insight (context). Perhaps you’d like to offer some quick observations on their rhetoricity? Maybe even analyze and evaluate the editors’ choices? Click the link above to let us know your thoughts.
Women’s Issues
Two media texts last week highlighted women’s issues in the United States, Great Britain, and Burkina Faso. The first from the Online NewsHour, examines the changing role of women of the in the ranks of the American military and emphasizes progress female service members are making in responsibility and job equity: “Women’s Combat Roles Evolving in Iraq, Afghanistan” (RealAudio, video available on the site).
The second from the BBC World Service covers two stories of teen pregnancy and motherhood, and highlights the differences in personal and cultural, modern and traditional attitudes between two expecting girls and their families. One girl lives in England, the other in Burkina Faso. Their stories are interesting and at the same time unbelievably frustrating: “World Stories: Teenage Mums”.
Listen and then leave a comment if you have something to say by clicking the link above.
Note: The last latter story is part of an ongoing series from the BBC World Service called World Stories. Some recent pieces have been particularly timely and engaging. I recommend listening to “Muslim Army”, “A House in Jerusalem”, and “In Prison without Hope”.