"Inspiration Information" by Shuggie Otis (1974)

- What is the overall feel of this song? This song puts the words groovy and disco into my mind
- What musical elements put off that vibe? I think that the instruments used mainly put off the vibe that I felt. The instruments used in the song included a synthesizer, and a guitar which was accompanied by many sound effects.
- Identify the choices that the musician had to make to get this feel and why they worked: The musician chose to use these instruments that give the song a retro song, but also chose to slur his words along with the music to give it more of this feel.

"Semadores" by Diego Rivera

Subject: hard labor/ Toil
Occasion: Mexico in the early 1900s
Audience: People affected by or know about communism in Mexico
Purpose: to show how many workers were considered property and part of the land
Tone:Accepting of the hard work and labor in the past

What is the meaning/ theme/ big idea the artist wanted you to think about? At one point in Mexico, the poorer Mexicans were looked down upon and did much work in the fields.

Wilco and Creative Processes

-Summarize Wilco's approach to creating a song: They start with a general idea, then break it down and take other approaches to the idea.
-What is your creative process for writing? I usually write out a graphic organizer or layout for the essay or writing piece that I am about to write.
-Explain in detail the steps you go through: I first mentally check off what I need to include in the piece. I then create a layout to organize where I will put each part of the information.I add the thesis and other details to my layout and go on to write the final draft.

American Graffiti

- What is Nastalgia? The longing for something in the past
- What images come to mind when you here this music? I think of a school dance, or concert in the fifties or sixties. I can see an amatuer band playing this in a similar atmosphere to the dance at the end of the movie, " Back to the Future."
- What images pop into your head when you think of your childhood? What smells, sounds, and feelings are associated? I think of Thanksgiving when I was younger, all of my family coming in to town, it was the same every year until about five years ago. When I think of these early thanksgivings I can smell the turkey cooking in the oven and hear my grandma's cheerful yet soft greetings as a knew family member walkes through the door.

The Pinch of Poverty

- What are the major contributing factors to poverty? Job layoffs, lack of education, inflation, and multiple family members to provide for.
- How does the artist portray poverty (positive/negative light)? I think that the artist portrays poverty in a negative sense, as all of the figures have sad expressions on their faces, along with the fact that the background is very gloomy.
- What is the artist's message about poverty? Poverty is imprisoning and difficult to escape, yet those who keep hope and work hard may indeed escape.
-Identify and explain two elements of art that enhance the message: One element of art that enhances the message is the positioning of the flower in the little boy's hand. The flower in the boy's hand is pointed downward, in contrast to the little girl, as if he has lost all hope and has no chance of escaping poverty. Another element of art that enhances the message is the colors that are used in the painting. The colors are the reason that the audience gets the gloomy and sad feeling while looking at the painting, this affects the audiences view of poverty as being hopeless.

Poverty Articles Response

The authors of both of these articles have very different views about the same subject concerning poverty. I began reading Live Free and Starve, and within the first few sentences I developed an unentintional bias against the point of views of the author. When the author stated that "[her] liberal friends applauded the bill," it suggested that she herself had conservative views with which I would disagree. I try not to have this view towards people but though I tried to understand her point of view, I remained in disagreement of her article. Though the author's point of view does somewhat make sense, I believe that her example of occurrences in India have no value in this discussion as The United States of America is much wealthier, and contains less poverty than India. In conclusion, the author of Live Free and Starve, does not have a valid argument that the discussed bill has errors. After reading The Singer Solution to World Poverty, I realized that I do very much agree with the author's opinion and point supporting it. I have never really thought about the fact that blowing off a charity to save kids live can be just as inhumane as making the decision to kill the child yourself. If everyone would consider Singer's views, the world would be a much better place with wealthy people around the world constantly donating to charities such as the aforementioned.

Ariel Pink's Haunted Graffiti: "Round and Round"

- What is your opinion of this song? I would definately listen to this song on my free time, mainly because it reminds me of a pop song from the 80's, similar to many one hit wonders that came out during that time.
- State 2 facts about this song: This song uses reverb. This song uses a synthesizer.
-How do your musical facts influence your opinion? What is the correlation between what you picked out and your opinion? Do you have bias? If so, explain: The fact that I used that this song uses a lot of reverb which does lead to a positive opinion for me as I do enjoy bands such as My Morning Jacket. One negative thing about the reverb is that it does slur a lot of the lyrics together making them hard to understand, I believe this is negative because lyrics are a big part of a song. The fact that this song has a synthesizer automatically gives my a negative opinion of the song as it reminds me of songs from the seventies and eighties. I do have bias, one point to back this statement up is that imediatly when I heard the synthesizer, I disliked the song.