Bonus Blog

For this bonus blog I wanted to reflect on the reading "States" by Edward Said. Personally, I am not known as a reader as much as I am a drawer. Possibly because my attention gets lost easily among pages and pages of words. What struck out to me from his piece were his images that did not include contexts or captions. He really lets the images speak a thousand words by showing the devastation and he also does not hold anything back. The pictures do not look fake or staged with the subjects smiling or posing for a camera perhaps. What was cool was that the images drew me in and before I knew I had read through the piece without hesitation. Normally assigned readings seem to drag on for me because it might not be my first choice of literature. The way that Said uses the images to enhance his writing is incredible, it provides a startling statement to grab attention and then holds it with his captivating words. Overall it just showed how images can add to writing immensely I thought.

Course Reading

Though "Notes on a Balinese Cockfight" was one of the longer and more in depth essays that we read, I think I learned the most from it. What I learned had nothing to do with what the author was writing about but how he set up his paper. The structure of his essay was different from the other essays, but I liked it better. I learned that not all essays or papers have to be set up in the same format and that I should structure my paper to however it flows best. Sometimes I can write paragraph after paragraph and it will sound fine. Other times I may need to add pictures to illustrate what I am saying. It's even alright to have bold headings to break up the different parts of your paper.

Groups roles

I am in a group with Julie and Goran. I think that Julie is best at analyzing information and making it understandable. She is also an excellent writer. We assigned her the task of reviewing our annotated bibliography and writing about the information we found. Goran is very creative and is always exploding with ideas. Thats why he is in charge of the digital presentation part of our assignment. I am organized and can get things done so I am in charge of putting our paper together and editing it. I am also collecting information for Goran to put in our video.

My role in my group

I think that my role is the organizational person. I'm not necessarily the best at writing and piecing together an essay or document. A lot of the time I will ramble off onto another topic and and lose sight of the overall piece. I prefer to manage people and send out texts or make calls to make sure things get done and divvy out responsibilities. More so a project manager fits my role the best. I like to decide on the topic and sort of point the group in the direction that it needs to go.

reading classmate's ethnographies

I really enjoyed reading my classmate's ethnographies. Not only did I learn a lot about two subcultures that I didn't know about before, but I also got to see ways that I can improve my paper. Both of the papers I read helped me see ways that I can strengthen my paper and make it better.

Some things that were interesting to me were facts about the subcultures. For example, I didn't think that the basketball team was such a tight-knit group off the court. They have weekly team dinners, and that was really fascinating to me. Another thing I learned is that Russian refugees eat pig fat. To me, that sounds pretty disgusting, but it made me realize how different we all are as people and that we need to accept each other no matter what.

Reading about other cultures

I found it very helpful to read other people's papers, especially looking at how they organized their research and field work. I found that I had huge amounts of information and no idea where to start. Reading two different papers gave me some ideas on how to structure my paper. Besides that, I really loved reading about the cultures. The presentations that we did in class were enough to spark an interest and I enjoyed really learning more about them. Both of the papers went beyond the surface information about the cultures. We have all heard little bits of information about groups of people. With the research and field work, I found the papers credible and they gave great in-depth information.

Audiences for Volunteering

I think that a lot of people would benefit from reading about volunteers. While I was doing my scholarly research, I found a lot of articles that talked about the effects of volunteering on people's lives. Whether it related to health, well-being, or cultural effects, there were a lot of people who were interested in volunteers and their lives. Also, I know that there are a lot of individuals out there who want to be involved in their communities through volunteer work, but they just don't know how to get started. This ethnography would be helpful to them by showing that it doesn't take anyone special to make a difference. It will show that the subculture of volunteers is made up of normal, everyday people like you and I, and that they can and should start finding ways to involve themselves with it.

audiences for my research

Although I am researching this subculture out of my own personal interest, I think that there might be some people interested in this work. I have found multiple people who have already studied this group and find them as facinating as I do. There seems to be a need to understand these fans of Twilight. Scholars don't just want to read about these people. They want to study them and understand them. Twilight is a big thing right now and this ethnography could just be a quick read to better know these kids. I would hope that parents would take an interest in this. Not that I want parents to restrict their kids from reading this. Kids shouldn't be restricted from reading anything they find interesting. I think that parents should just understand what kids are reading. Being aware is an important thing for more than just parents. Anyone who has sat back and watched an alarming rate of children obsessing over the same thing, no matter what it is, should look into it. So this work could be educational for people who are worried. This could also just be informative to those who are curious. This could possibly be the spark for someone becoming a new Twilight fan. It can go many ways. I chose to research this group because I saw an interesting subculture and wanted to know more.

Field Research week 3

This week, I observed another board meeting of the Volunteer Service Board. It was basically the same as the first one I observed, which was nice. I saw the same kinds of behavior and organization this time as the first time, which shows that this group has a pretty solid foundation of rituals. They again discussed the events of the week, and delegated tasks to be completed throughout the course of the week. They were very open with each other, and were also really positive; which reinforced my observations from the first week. Each person had something to say, showing that each position is important. Another thing I noticed this week was how respectful the group members were of each other. They all paid attention when someone was talking, and they never degraded or made fun of each other. They all seem to be very kind-spirited people.

Week 3 Observations

Monday I did my third observation at the Moyle Farm out in Star. They actually have quite a few plots of land around Star and halfway to Eagle where they plant corn in the late Summer and also potatoes mainly. Potatoes are planted in the spring so the entire farm is gearing up currently for the Moyle's farm's largest crop. I saw a couple of their fields within eye shot of their house. All the plots have been cultivated and ready for planting. It has rained the last couple days and it has been great for the soil is what he explained to me. Juan is the Moyle's main worker and he has worked for the family for a decade at least I'm sure. He showed me what they were doing that day (Monday). They were making sure all of the irrigation or watering equipment was ready for planting of the potatoes.

Field Research for Week 3

This week I observed a small fundraiser where several local musicians, including the main subject of my ethnography, Steven Palin performed. Joining him was local musician Jeremy Snook, and local band The Arctic Turtles. They were all set up to play in the basement of a pretty small house out toward Meridian for just a small audience of people. They had pretty good audio equipment but all the musicians were sharing so they didn't have to change the setup between acts. Steven performed first and did a set of about 10 - 12 songs that lasted for around 45 minutes. He talked about the show being pretty fun but it was small and not very professional and he really hopes to be able to perform for bigger audiences with more advanced equipment in the future.

Feild research, week 3

This past Saturday at 12:00 am was the release of the New Moon DVD. I went to Walmart to observe their release party and I even got to participate. I got there an hour early and only counted about 7 people in line. Walmart had created Twilight Land in the middle of thier store with all the Twilight merchandise displayed. They had cake with the characters faces on it and red and black balloons everywhere. They had twilight games ready and you could win prizes. As midnight came closer, more people came. I lost count after I reached 150 people because they brought the movies out and people scattered. It was pure chaos and really fun to watch.

Blog 3/16/10

I would say that the experts in my culture would be the farmers themselves, companies like Simplot and McDonalds and members of the Idaho Department of Agriculture. Those members have the voice of authority along with leaders in the food industry. Some outsider's that might be experts would be citizens against the use of pesticides and chemicals alike because of their environmental views. What pest control devices are currently use on farms? Why do you disagree with the use of these chemicals? What are alternative methods to farming? And how are prices determined when purchasing goods from farmers?

Progress - Field Research

The only issue that I have had with my research and observation so far is that there is so much going on on the farm. It's sort of difficult to get a good grasp on everyone and everything that goes on here. It is fairly simple to find information online about rural Idaho because our state seems based around agriculture. There is also a lot of stuff about how our valley's population is growing and destroying rural areas. Greg is a book of knowledge because he grew up on their farm. A few of my questions are how exactly do the products get to the market etc.? How have farms been affected by the poor economy currently? And what do they like to do on the farm when they are not working?

Experts in Volunteering

The experts in my field seem to be the board members. They plan all the events, organize them, manage them, and discuss them afterward in order to improve the next event. They know how to contact other volunteer agencies, and they handle basically everything that goes on in the Volunteer Service Board. They get ahold of all the members of the team, and let everyone know what the upcoming schedule is. They know all about volunteering and the attitude that it takes. They truly are experts in their field.

Experts of Twilight

Every fan would consider themselves an expert of the books and the movie. They have read, watched, and studied every aspect of Twilight. I think the true expert would be the author, Stephanie Meyer. She has her own 'official website' and gives updates for everyone to read. There is information about upcoming movies and the soundtracks. She has her own biography posted and details about each of the books. I think she is the voice of authority, but she enables all her fans to be experts as well. There are also some outsiders who have already studied twilight fans and vampires and written books on it. There are experts inside and outside of this culture.

Experts in the field of Piercing and Tattoo

I would consider the experts in this field to be the actual artists themselves, along with the people who have tattoos and piercings and have taken the time to fully understand the care and procedure that goes along with them. It is hard to say who the authority would be, but in the case of my observations at the tattoo parlor, the head tattoo artist is clearly the most experienced and the one in charge. I would say it is possible for an outsider to be an expert if they have learned all they can about tattoo and piercings but don't personally have any. I however have not encountered anyone like this so far in my research. As far as questions go, I think it would be appropriate to ask after the care of tattoos and piercings, and so on.

Field Research

Today I did my first field research. I went to a meeting that the Volunteer Service Board was holding. I learned a lot from it! They started on time, showing that they are punctual. It was really informal-nobody was dressed up except for the advising staff (1 guy). Everyone else was just wearing normal clothes. One girl was even wearing exercise clothing, so it was pretty basic. They were all really open with each other, and they all had a lot of input. There was a lot of laughter, but they stayed on subject and never really got too far off-track. Also, I noticed that they were all really positive. Nobody said anything degrading or negative for the entire meeting. All of their attitudes were really positive and helpful. They all encouraged one another, and were all willing to bend a little in order to make someone else's life a little easier. They were all open to suggestions of how to make the service projects better and more successful, and they were all down-to-earth, with really realistic goals. This meeting showed me a lot about their subculture.

Field Research

This week I had a lot of success and a lot of surprises. My observation was easy since I just had to go see a movie. It was a lot like the first time I saw this film which was good. This means that what I was hypothesizing about this group is somewhat correct. Both times I saw this film were almost parallel to eachother in how the fans react the same at the same parts of the movie. There were some things that I was not expecting though and it may change how my next observation goes. I assumed that the fans of twilight were around late middle school/early high school age. I was definatley proven wrong when the majority of the people in the theatre were late elementary/early middle school aged. I was planning on studying high school aged kids, but this may change now. So my new question now is how young are the youngest fans? And at what age do people start viewing the movie as the fantasy movie it was made to be and not a nonfiction film?

Subcultures

I can only think of a few subcultures to which I belong:

Idahoan-lived in Idaho my whole life, love of potatoes,

College Student-attending Boise State, everyday is filled with note taking and online quizes, closet is filled with blue and orange shirts.

Part time worker- cleaning houses, can only work a few hours due to school and lack of an opening for a second job, work for lots of different elderly people that each want their house cleaned a certain way, not what I want to do with the rest of my life. Rituals: having to clean their bathrooms every time I see them even if they aren't dirty. Insider Phrases: "Rake the carpets" means to take this rake made of tiny metals spikes and literally rake the carpet before I vacuum. We do share the same value of having a clean house.

Subcultures

Subcultures...

Locations:
Idaho(North America, cold, mountainous, rural and mainly Republican)
English(Caucasian, American and accent)

Actions:
Athlete(Soccer, ball, football, turf and practice)
Church(Chapel, Star, songs and scriptures)
Student(Boise State, high school, books, campus and online)

My locations group includes where I live geographically and how it generally CAN correlate to your race and the language you speak. In my case its Caucasian and English being from Idaho. Our climate is fairly colder but reaches extremes in the summer because technically we are in a desert. So higher highs and lower low temperatures along with mild precipitation yearly. I searched Idaho accents on Google and did not really come up with much as far as our dialect. One fact that I found was that a lot of call centers are located here because we do not have strong accents like in the south or in the eastern U.S. Also, statistically we are a more conservative Republican dominated state as well so that can influence our local government, culture and population.

Marketing of "Green Street Hooligans"

To start my research on the marketing of my film i went to youtube to look up the trailer. I found two different trailers but they both basically created the same image of the film. With upbeat music setting a background to little sneak peaks of the fight scenes I imagine they were looking to target any adrenaline or thrill seeking movie goers. This preview would have automatically eliminated young children or any people that disagree with violence in the cinema. With just over a minute of playtime each they paint a picture of a dirty underworld of gang violence not completely accurate to the entire film but enough so that the right people would come out to watch it. Unfortunately other than the two trailers there was not much more information to be found about the marketing of Green Street Hooligans. I tried googling it but all I came up with were several different versions of the movie poster and DVD covers from the different releases around the world.

Marketing "Superbad"

I dont really remember much advertisements other then the few commercials for Superbad and the trailer. I looked up the trailer and watched it again, I remember that this is the reason I fell in love with the movie. They had me at "The same guy that brought you 40 Year Old Virgin and Talladega Nights." It consists of some extremely stupid and funny stuff from the movie. A lot of comical movie commercials will show only the funniest parts and the movie can be a dud. Not the case here. Other than media advertisements, the theme marketed itself in it's own environment. I was a junior in high school and everyone around school always talks about the funniest movies out and this one was making quite the impression in my classes. It was one of the most talked about movies that I could remember from all of high school. I found myself instantly hooked after I realized the relevance to many students' lives that I personally knew. To me, that is the absolute best marketing and advertising scheme you could use as a movie director. Create a reputation with the trailer and your previous box office hits.

Scholarly Sources

It was sort of difficult to find a scholarly journal entry or source for my film as well (Superbad). I actually searched Judd Apatow and Film and Comedy and finally I recieved a couple of hits. One of which I really enjoyed. The title was "Bromance" Flix and the State of Dudedom. If you are unfamilliar with these topics, it is referring to films like 40 Year Old Virgin, Funny People, I Love You, Man and The Hangover. The topic of dudes and other dudes relationships basically and where their actions and words towards eachother cross that very fine line of being straight to becoming "super gay." (Quoted from Evan in Superbad) I ventured away from the actual film to more of how it relates to our society and comedy to real life, thus how something scholarly and beneficial could be written about my topic. This journal is really interesting to me with how it pertains to my film. It was written by Colin Carman of the Gay and Lesbian Review Worldwide.
Hmm, possibly a liberal biased company?

Marketing 'Up'

I remember the first ad I saw for 'Up.' There was a clear blue sky with one balloon floating past, then another, then hundreds. Tied to all the balloons was a house with an old man sitting on the front porch. As his house passed by he simply said "Afternoon." And that was the entire ad! I thought it was the weirdest commercial for a movie. Usually ads have all of the best scenes combined with intesnse music so that the images are in your head. You remember the ad and you want to go to the theatre and see it. After I saw this ad I was so confused but that's why I wanted to see it! It left me hanging and I wanted to know what this mysterious movie was all about.
This worked for Disney/Pixar. They are a trusted name and the movie just looked so uniqe. I don't remember a lot of advertising before this movie was released. It had people talking and waiting for it to come to theaters, even though ads and toys and products weren't shoved in our faces. Now that the movie is out they have a whole line of stuffed toys, t-shirts for kids and adults, and books.

Sources for my film

In the lab at the library, I only found one scholarly journal that even remotely related to my topic. I searched the genre and the director and only came up with one article that would work. But after reading the article I realized how relevant it is to my topic. It was full of insights that had never crossed my mind. Now I am thinking in a whole different direction about my film, the directors, and Disney/Pixar in general.
Besides this article, I have only been able to find reviews that are packed with people's opionions. This isn't a bad thing but I really enjoyed how my scholarly article wasn't so much opinionated as factual. Of course there was bias but it did a very good job of reviewing themes in films.
I thought with having such a new movie that there would be tons of new information just waiting for me to find it on google. Finding well-written and valid articles has been a tougher job than I thought.

John Berger Research

I started my research on John Berger at wikipedia.org. I usually start my research here because it is easy to get a complete and concise biography of whoever you are researching. I learned that John Berger is a novelist, art critic and painter from England. He won the Booker Prize for one of his novels and his essays "Ways of Seeing" are commonly used as college texts which makes sense because we are using them for this course. His wikipedia page includes a complete biography of his works. From there, I looked at the section of his page titled "references". It includes articles on Berger published in the Guardian, and his encyclopedia.com page. From all of these resources I was able to learn quite a bit about his life and prepare myself for our class discussion.

John Berger

Previously I had never heard of John Berger or his piece "Ways of Seeing." I did some pretty basic research and got tons of hits in just a few minutes. One research technique that I used was one my high school computer applications instructor showed me. The use of quotation marks and plus/minus signs in search engines can narrow and refine all of the hits and only display exactly what you want. I googled "Ways of Seeing" +"John Berger" so it only included those exact phrases as you see them. John's fame seems to come from this art criticism piece that he wrote in 1972 that's often used as a college text. John was born in London in 1926 and attended 2 art schools in England around the 1940's. His first career was as a painter and had many pieces exhibited at a few galleries throughout London. The book is compiled from 7 essays consisting of pictures and words. It discusses western art and was made into a 4 part television series in 1972. John Berger seems to be a pretty prolific and influential writer and artist in his day. Just from this elementary research technique I was able to find out a good bit of information in just ten minutes or so for this blog.

Welcome!

Hello, 18! Here is where you will be posting your research blog entries throughout the semester. Your first post should describe your research efforts to prepare for class discussion on "Ways of Seeing" by John Berger on Feb. 2.

Further details about the Research Blog can be found on Blackboard here.