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.
Tonight in Minnesota
John McCain’s running mate Alaska Governor Sarah Palin will officially present herself to the American people shortly according to CNN’s countdown clock. Although, she’s not the first woman to run on a presidential ticket (Geraldine Ferraro ran as Democratic candidate Walter Mondale’s vice-presidential pick in 1984; they were demolished in an uprecedented 49 state win by Ronald Reagan and his vice-president Geroge HW Bush), Palin is part of a historic race that will either result in the first black American winning the White House or the election of America’s oldest president and the first female vice-executive under the oldest. I hope you’re watching.
Some interesting news has followed Palin’s candidacy, notably the Governor’s admission that her seventeen year old daughter is five months pregnant. The media storm that surrounded this admission’s been intense and has engendered much discussion particularly about the boundaries between the public and private lives of elected officials. Yesterday I heard this piece on NPR: “Social Conservatives’ Support For Palin Unwavering”. (Pay attention to Summer Vanderbilt’s comments about the “exciting party” full of “different turns” at the end of the piece.)
Is it possible to separate the public and private lives of our leaders? Of ourselves? If our private morals and belief govern our behavior and decisions, how can we leave these at home, so to speak, when we walk out our doors? What think you? Click “Leave a Comment” to share your thoughts.
Wondering about the history of the modern Republican-conservativism? Have a listen to this NPR piece which details the national rise of one of my heroes, Arizona Senator Barry Goldwater (whose autographed photo sits on the northwest bookshelf in T-12): “1964 Convention Established GOP As Conservative”.
AP Language Class Notes
Seniors and juniors, second period saw Marie tell us about Zoroastrianism; Sam, Baha’i; Andre, Mormonism; and Elise, Hinduism; fifth period processed the anti-Pride Time rhetoric plastered all over campus today and began watching The Persuaders .
Fifth period meted out the speaker, context, audience, argument, presentation (logos), common grounds and values (ethos), emotional anticipations and manipulations (pathos), call-to-action, and effectiveness of the shellacked handbills, though I reminded everyone that while the non-violent pamphleteering-style resistance was admirable, the flyposting aspect was troubling―the custodians, not the posters, will be responsible for scraping the handbills off the concrete.
But note that while you, students, are taught in school to admire and emulate the spirit of the status-quo-resistant activist-reformer (Paine, Wilberforce, Wollstonecraft, Douglass, Anthony, Gandhi, King), the guerilla act was little admired by the-powers-that-be, one going so far as to call the posters “poison”.
I snapped a couple of photos of part of the scene. I’ll post those and a recreation of the mocking pamphlet itself (along with its original positive counterpart) later, and I’ll further address the frustration at the lack of voice Chloe mentioned and possible solutions for interested students to explore.
Bring food to our last class. (I like the bacon, egg, and cheese burrito from Nico’s.)
MOZART’S BALLS: Yes, the confection bearing the name is real. Popularly known as Mozart’s Balls by travelers and tourists, the Mozartkugeln (Mozart balls) (pistachio, marzipan, nougat, and chocolate) were introduced by an Austrian confectioner in the closing years of the 19th century. They don’t taste very good.
AP Language Class Notes
Objectives: APELCers 1) completed a practice timed-writing, and 2) evaluated their own and their peers’ timed-writing performance.
Period 2, today you wrote a practice timed-writing, a synthesis essay, which many of you found easier or at least better than timed-writings 6 and 7. You worked in groups and assessed your and your peers’ performance.
A couple of quick items on the importance of worldview. I hope you’re paying attention to the media coverage of our current presidential campaign, because worldview has taken center stage for two of the hopefuls.
Barack Obama has had to distance himself from Jeremiah Wright , his former pastor, for comments the latter’s made on a recent series of speaking engagements .
Meanwhile, John McCain has had to deal with the heat generated by the endorsement of Christian Zionist and Texas megaminster John Hagee , who himself has made controversial comments about Catholics and God’s supposed retribution on New Orleans .
Developing the skills to sort through these ideas and rheotric is essential for critical particiaption in the agora, students.
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”.
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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.