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
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.
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.
Linkjam!
Mostly for APELC students, here’re some links I mentioned to you which are germane to our recent activities.
After reading “On Compassion” by Barbara Ascher, I referenced “A Dollar a Day”, a recent, four-part BBC documentary. Worth listening to and wondering about when you plunk down $4.00 or more for a Starbuck’s macchiato.
Eric Wilson, author of Against Happiness: In Praise of Melancholy, was interviewed on NPR this week about engaging melancholy. Interesting listen in consideration of our late encounter with John Stuart Mill’s and his thoughts on happiness.
Finally, here’s an article from Newsweek, particularly noteworthy for Blaise and Eliza who’ve recently referenced the “safety” of one of Amsterdam’s most famous attractions for their argumentative papers in favor of legalized, regulated prostitution: “Turn Out the Red Light?” Seems like the fun’s over in that very special and unusually aromatic section of the city.
Linkjam!
Last week I came across a series of photographs by Chris Jordan, Running the Numbers, in which he makes manifest the vast consumption habits of the American people. (His other series include another on American consumption, Intolerable Beauty, and one on the the devastation suffered in the Gulf Coast in 2005, In Katrina’s Wake.) Several APELCers asked me to post the link to the very remarkable images, and, certainly, they’re rhetorically rich and worth looking at in class.
I’ve collected a few links in the past couple of months about consumption, waste, and recycling. The first is a piece about Ari Derfel, who kept his trash for an entire year to see just what one person was capable of generating.
Another is an opinion from The Economist entitled “The truth about recycling”. This is particularly important when one considers the North Pacific Subtropical Gyre, continent-sized patches of trash floating in the Pacific Ocean.
Perhaps you’re not aware of just what can be recycled, so you might check here: “21 Things You Didn’t Know You Can Recycle”. And get active and get more information from the National Recycling Coalition.
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
Linkjam!
“LinkJam!” is a new feature I’ve decided to implement on the site. It’s my own delightful take on “logjam”. A linkjam happens when I get backed up posting links to text or a sties that I think may be relevant to class. Logjam/linkjam. Get it?
Instead of writing a post for every neat link I think may complement something we’ve discussed in class, which can be time-consuming, I’ll post a few links at a time with a little description about each.
Mike A. asked about Stephen Colbert’s recent effort to get on the South Carolina presidential primary ballot. The satirist was unsuccessful in his home state, but found support in Virginia: “Colbert in Three-Way Tie for Water Board Seat”.
On the topic of elections, it seems some of the post-secondary members of your Generation Y cohort are more materially- than politically-minded: “Most at NYU say their vote has a price”. God bless America!
Finally, for APELC students, as we prepare to read The Autobiography of Malcolm X, take a minute to read over this article about a recent investigation by the Pew Research Center: “Study: Black pessimism worst since 1980s”. Consider this reality as we begin to see the world through the lens of Malcolm X’s worldview.
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.
Something for the Freshmens
I’ve been posting a lot of stuff for the AP juniors and seniors lately, so I thought I’d try to even things up a bit by posting something that might help the freshmens visualize where we’re at in our current story by Amy Tan, “Rules of the Game”.
So, here’s a slideshow of San Francisco Chinatown’s alley ways, places most probably won’t see on a visit the Bay City, and another slideshow from educational publisher Harcourt that has some internal links in addition to the images in the show itself. If you’ve got the patience to listen and imagination, check out National Public Radio’s 2003 piece on Chinatown’s Funeral Band. And of course, there’s always Wikipedia’s entry on the concept of “Chinatown” in various locations around the globe.
It’s impossible to get a good feel for Chinatown without ever having been there―I’m writing here only about San Francisco’s Chinatown; personally I’ve not been to any other. If, when you are older and have an opportunity to travel to San Franciso, take some time to walk up and down the streets of Chinatown. It’s something your eyes, ears, and nose will never forget.
By the by, I have, remarkably, been the head of a dragon chasing the pearl in a Chinese New Year parade, of sorts. Maybe I’ll post a photo here on the site. Maybe. If everyone brings 8 ½ × 11, college ruled, loose-leaf paper to class. Maybe.