Picturing The Other

Bama Fan Wearing a Florida Hoody
Buffalo, NY

            This is a picture of my friend Tyler wearing a Florida Gators sweatshirt. While this photo was not taken while I was on a vacation, it was taken on the 4th of July this past summer break. I had to capture this moment because Tyler is an avid Alabama football fan who you would think would not be caught dead wearing any Florida Gators apparel. My background knowledge of Tyler’s hatred for the Florida Gators is what inspired me to take this photo. Had Tyler not been an Alabama football fan, this picture would not hold much significance; it was taken from a weird angle and doesn’t really tell a story if you don’t know anything about Tyler. I figured Tyler would not voluntarily pose for a picture of himself wearing a Florida Gators sweatshirt, so I snapped the picture quickly on my phone while he wasn’t paying attention.

            In retaliation to this photograph, Tyler would probably try to take an embarrassing picture of me. If Tyler ever saw me wearing a shirt with any SEC school’s name other than the University of Florida he would be the first to try to capture that shameful moment of my life and upload it to his Facebook. His caption for the photo would probably read, “L 31-6” or “Payback." Since Tyler already knows who I am he wouldn’t have to make any assumptions about me while taking a picture of me. He already has the background information that I am a student at the University of Florida and I detest the Alabama Crimson Tide. However, he could still assume how I would react to a photo of me wearing Alabama attire. He knows I would not be happy about it but I would probably still find it funny since I did the same thing to him a few months ago.

            I don’t try to take embarrassing pictures of strangers when I am traveling. I only took an embarrassing picture of Tyler because he is one of my good friends and he understands the photo posted above is just a joke. If Tyler was a complete stranger, the caption of the photo could be, “The Gator Nation is Everywhere!” implying that I was excited to find another Gator fan in my hometown of Buffalo, NY. However, if I wanted to take a friendly photograph of a Gator fan I had never met before I would probably ask if I could take a picture of them. Better yet, I would ask somebody around me if they could take a picture of me with that Gator fan. I don’t like to take candid shots of strangers while they are not looking, especially if it's on a vacation. I think it can be a bit intrusive on someone's privacy.

"25 to Life" from Eminem's Recovery (2010)

Play "25 to Life" by Eminem on the playlist at the right side of the screen. You may want to click Play then Pause, then let the song load before clicking Play again.

Click http://www.azlyrics.com/lyrics/eminem/25tolife.html for the lyrics. Please excuse Eminem's profanity, swearing 11 times in a song is probably a record minimum for him. I truly believe he creates an amazing metaphor in this song.

            In the song “25 to Life” from Eminem’s most recent album Recovery (2010), Eminem raps about his dedication to his career as a hip-hop artist and how the hip-hop industry has taken control of his life. He creates a simple yet brilliant metaphor between a woman he had a relationship with (most likely his ex-wife Kim) and the hip-hop industry. Eminem refers to this hip-hop industry as a “selfish bitch” who has “imprisoned” him for a “life sentence” (hence the title of this song).

Upon listening to this song for the very first time, I thought Eminem was rapping about his ex-wife Kim. He plays along with this metaphor of some woman with whom he “wasted over half his life” for the entire first verse. It appears Kim has done something to hurt Eminem when he says “You know what you've done, no need to go in depth. // I told you, you'd be sorry if I fucking left. // I’d laugh while you wept.” The personalization he creates with human-like actions such as feeling sorry and weeping further convince listeners that the thing he is leaving is a person, not a career.

Eminem creates an enigma at the beginning of the second verse when he says “Don't think I'm loyal, // All I do is rap. // How can I moonlight on the side? // I have no life outside of that.” Here is where we finally start to question whether this song is about Kim or his career as a hip-hop artist. In the first verse, it seems like Kim does not want Eminem to be married to his work. Eminem says he is “always in a rush to get back” to her, possibly meaning he works long hours and she wishes he would come home sooner.

However, the introduction of his loyalty to rap and his inability to “moonlight on the side” (do anything other than rap) starts to change the listener’s opinion about whether Eminem’s conflict is between him and his ex-wife or between him and his rap career. We question this once more when he switches back to lines about his relationship with Kim when he says, “Jealous when I spend time with the girls. // Why I'm married to you still man I don't know, // But tonight I'm serving you with papers, // I'm divorcing you.” At this point we are still unsure whether he is literally divorcing Kim or if he is announcing the end of his rap career. However, Eminem finally discloses the enigma with harsh words: “Fuck you hip-hop, // I'm leaving you! // My life sentence is served, bitch!” These lines make it perfectly clear that he wants to quit rapping, not that he is divorcing Kim (in fact, he is already divorced and does not plan to reunite with her).

I believe Eminem made this last CD, Recovery (2010) as a closure to his career. He blames the poor quality of his previous CD’s, Encore (2004) and Relapse (2009) on his addiction to narcotic drugs. Now that he has cleaned his body of the drugs and proved to his fans that he is still one of the best rappers to ever live, he will successfully end his rap career on a high note if he so chooses. The song “25 to Life” instantly became one of my favorites because the metaphor he used worked tremendously to confuse me but later clarify how he feels about his career.

Iconic Image: Wall Street and WWII

            During the Stock Market Crash of 1929, people flooded Wall Street trying to withdraw as much money as possible from their bank accounts. The banks had become insolvent, meaning they could not pay the account holders their cash because the banks had loaned out or invested most of the money in the failing stock market. When the value of stocks plummeted the country went into a panic, eventually leading up to the Great Depression. While there is no single iconic image of the stock market crash, there were many images from different camera angles taken during this panic in which people flooded Wall Street, trying to withdraw their cash from the banks.

In class, we discussed how Wall Street is a metonym for the Stock Market Crash and the Great Depression in the United States. However, I think Wall Street can be a metonym for a much broader issue experienced around the world: the rise of Nazi Germany and the Second World War. We must remember the Great Depression did not only affect the United States economy, but the world economy was crushed as well. Adolf Hitler and other Nazis in Germany blamed its economic problems (which were really caused by hyperinflation – printing so much paper money that it holds little value – and extensive war reparations paid by the Germans after the First World War) on the work of Jewish bankers in Germany. As a Jewish accounting major, I obviously find it offensive that one religious group was blamed for the faults of many bankers and investors. Bankers were lending money to people who did not have the income to pay off their loans, and the debtors of these loans decreased their assets by investing most of their cash in stocks which rapidly declined in value.

While these images of people flooding the banks on Wall Street in 1929 have not been altered in any way, they have taken on a wider horizon of meanings depending on the interpretation of the viewer. At first, I simply made the association of Wall Street with the Stock Market Crash and the Great Depression. I realized later that these images of Wall Street can be representative of World War II.

Representing "The Other"

            Throughout history we have witnessed countless inhumane acts of warfare. While most of us cannot personally attest to experiencing the wrath of this brutality, it is crucial that we recognize real humans have committed some horrifying war crimes. We seem to forget that humans have the capability of doing evil. In the novel, Regarding the Pain of Others, Susan Sontag proclaims, “Let the atrocious images haunt us. Even if they are only tokens, and cannot possibly encompass most of the reality to which they refer, they still perform a vital function. The images say: This is what human beings are capable of doing – may volunteer to do, enthusiastically, self-righteously. Don’t forget” (p. 115). Sontag understands that still images as well as video footage cannot always capture the sheer terror experienced by those who suffered from cruel war crimes. However, she emphasizes how important it is that we witness these startling images so we never forget the malice that human beings may promote. I’m sure everyone has seen photographs of emaciated victims of the Holocaust who were starved and murdered in concentration camps. These images have so much power because they make viewers question, “How could anyone ever do that to another human being?” Images such as those from the Holocaust are instilled in our minds from the moment we first see them because they are so shocking. In Clint Eastwood’s film, “Letters from Iwo Jima,” we see two Japanese POWs shot to death by American marines after the Japanese men had surrendered. Under the third treaty concluded in 1929 by the Geneva Convention Relative to the Treatment of Prisoners of War, it is illegal to torture a soldier who has surrendered. I would assume blasting a hole through a prisoner’s chest from point-blank range is considered torture, even if the victim died instantly. This scene shows that the Nazis weren’t the only military force to commit cruel and unusual war crimes. The common misconception that American soldiers have decent morals is easily defeated by this scene. Just because someone is an American does not mean he or she couldn’t do something evil. After reading Susan Sontag’s novel and watching Clint Eastwood’s film, we must always remember any human being, no matter their race or nationality can create evil. It is our job as witnesses to make sure no one has too much faith in the ethics of their nation’s armed forces.

Facebook Personas

                My facebook profile creates multiple personas that are observed by various subcultures, including my friends and family members, who interpret the things that I post in many different ways.

                There are a few tagged pictures on my facebook that create a persona of a stereotypical hockey player who does nothing but drink when he is off the ice. I’m not quite sure why, but some people assume hockey players are a completely different breed of athletes because they drink alcohol and chew tobacco. I personally have never tried chewing tobacco, nor do I plan to, but I have to admit I have given people who look at my facebook a reason to support that stereotype: hockey players are alcoholics who somehow perform well on the ice, while getting away with mistreating their bodies. The picture below shows me drinking beer out of the Savannah Tire Hockey Classic trophy, the same trophy you saw on my first blog post. While my friends may think this picture is funny and even congratulate me and my team for winning that tournament, my dad would probably not be very proud of the way I am disrespectfully tarnishing a piece of hardware that required a huge amount of effort to attain. My mom, on the other hand, would probably take the side of my friends. After my first year at UF, she told me, “You earned a 3.9 GPA while playing college hockey; your father can’t ask for much more. You should have fun and live a balanced lifestyle, just be responsible.”

                While there are a few pictures on my facebook that some of my relatives and future employers wouldn’t quite admire, there are many pictures that create the persona of a hardworking college student presenting himself in a professional manner. The middle picture is from Junior Achievement’s Day of Difference, during which a group of UF business and accounting students go to elementary schools in Alachua County to teach children about the basic fundamentals of businesses and how they function within communities. Participation in this event is one of the best things I have to put on my resume. The first thing you’ll notice about this picture is that I’m dressed somewhat professionally. Any picture of a young man wearing a button-down shirt, tie, and slacks makes them look more respectable when you’re used to seeing them in street clothes. Also, the fact that I am standing with young smiling children shows that I’m good at working with little kids, even if the person looking at this picture doesn’t know how nervous I was to be responsible for about 20 third graders. The last picture was taken prior to my hockey game against UNF last Friday. I’m standing with my roommates/teammates, Scott and Mike. We are required to dress up for all home games in order to proudly represent the University of Florida. This should create a positive persona for Scott, Mike, and I, no matter who is looking at this picture. We all appear to be clean-cut and happy. I think future employers who see this picture would think of me as a friendly, well-rounded person.

Project #1: Multimedia Blog

Play "Misguided Ghosts" by Paramore as you read this post. Click Play, then Pause after a few seconds to let the song load before you restart it.



Narrative: “Misguided Ghost”

                “Snitch!! You little snitch! We have to go to a hearing with the department of housing because of you!” a student shouted to Danny on campus as Danny was walking on his way to the Jefferson 2^nd Avenue apartments.

Danny kept walking briskly; he wanted to avoid confrontation with this person whose name he didn’t even know. Danny knew exactly what this kid was upset about, but it was not Danny’s fault. Danny didn’t live with that kid’s two friends anymore and he refused to throw them under the bus. He wanted to make his departure swift, not hostile, so he told the department of housing that his dorm was simply too small and crowded for him to live comfortably.

Mike, Jerome, and I were eating lunch and relaxing after class in our apartment when Danny suddenly came in and slammed the door. Scott paused NHL ’11 on the Xbox. Danny was fuming.

“I didn’t even do anything and that kid’s calling me a snitch! I could’ve told the lady at the department of housing what they did and they’d all be screwed. He should be thankful. Dammit, I just wanted to curb stomp him!” Danny hollered.

“What’s wrong, Danny?” I asked.

“That stupid pothead kid who was always hanging around the dorm with my old roommates accused me of turning them in. When that lady asked me why I wanted to cancel my housing contract I made up a reason because I didn’t think they would keep it confidential, and I knew something like this would happen if I ran into any of those guys on campus.”

“Don’t worry about it, Big Dan. Those kids are scrubs. It’s probably their fault they got caught by the RA; their room is right next to his.” Mike reassured him.

“It still pisses me off that they think I’d tell on them. I really don’t care that they do that stuff, I just didn’t feel right living with them,” Danny explained. “I gotta find my own place soon though; I can’t sleep on your floor forever.”

My friend Danny is a freshman here at the University of Florida. Danny began his college experience living in a dorm, just like any other freshman. Danny’s close hometown friend and my roommate, Mike, helped Danny move into his dorm in Riker Hall this past August.

Unfortunately for Danny, he was stuck in a permanent triple dorm with two other freshmen he did not know. He thought it would be alright at first, but one night his two roommates came home inebriated from a party and proceeded to drink whiskey and smoke weed in the dorm until they were throwing up all over the carpet on their floor. While Danny likes to have a good time and is not opposed to going out to parties, he was put in a problematic situation because he did not want to get in trouble with the department of housing at UF.

Danny decided to stay in our apartment at Jefferson 2^nd Avenue for a short while until his parents found him another place to live. He didn’t want to try moving into another double or triple dorm with strangers, especially after I told him about my roommates I lived with freshman year. My first roommate dipped chewing tobacco and didn't shower regularly. After a semester, he moved into a fraternity house. My second roommate used to roll blunts on his desk when I wasn't around. He would freak out every time I came back from class and opened the door because he didn't want to get caught.

Mike and I came up with a financial plan for Danny to live with us for the rest of the year, just in case he couldn’t find his own single dorm or apartment. It would’ve been a good deal for all of us, with the exception of a little less space living with five people instead of four. Each of us would save $110 per month on rent if we split the rent evenly five ways. Space wasn’t a big deal though; the apartment is plenty big enough for all of us. The only problem was that Danny didn’t have his own bed. He slept on a memory foam pad with a pillow and blankets between the bed, desk, mini-fridge and bathroom door of Mike’s bedroom. He refused to sleep on the couch because the bright sunlight came through our sliding door balcony window in the morning.

Aside from settling his living situation, Danny wanted to expand his horizons in college. He played ice hockey in high school, and he also played on a travel team with Mike in Tampa two years ago. Mike and I are currently on the Florida Ice Hockey team, but for some reason Danny didn’t want to try out.

Instead, Danny thought about rushing a fraternity in order to make new friends and improve his networking for job opportunities in the future. He rushed a few houses with my roommates, Mike and Scott, until they all received bids for the same fraternity.

When hockey tryouts were about to start, Mike and I almost convinced Danny to play. However, Danny thought pledging while being a student-athlete would put far too much on his plate for his first semester. To this day, Mike and I tell Danny it’s not too late to join the team, but we haven’t been able to get him to come to the ice rink yet. It’s tough traveling to Jacksonville two or three times a week for hockey practices and games.

So far Danny has enjoyed pledging. He’s learning how to balance his time between the fraternity and schoolwork. He found a single room in a Lakeside suite on campus, but he still visits our apartment quite frequently. While he still retains his obnoxious sense of humor, he has matured tremendously. We continue to watch over him, helping him with homework when he, Scott, and Mike aren’t racing around to fraternity events. The lost boy is still trying to find the straightest path to manhood, and we are confident that he will learn to take care of himself at the University of Florida.

Analysis:

                The begging of the story contains a Hermeneutic code. The enigma is presented in the first line, when Danny is called a snitch. It makes us wonder why Danny is being yelled at and how the consequences of this confrontation will affect Danny’s college experience. The answer is disclosed bit by bit as we learn why he moved out of his original dorm, and later when he moves into his own single dorm at Lakeside. Finally, Danny found his niche by choosing to pledge the fraternity rather than play ice hockey.

                The series of photographs (without the text embedded) creates a false, yet believable story about Danny’s life at UF. The pictures show two friends, Mike and Danny, who live together at UF. Their closet is quite crowded with all of their belongings. Next, we see an altercation between Danny and Jerome, which leads us to believe Danny was kicked out of our Jefferson apartment. Danny’s fight with Jerome angers Mike, and Mike stands on the balcony looking away as Danny walks in the opposite direction down the sidewalk in search of a new home. Danny ends up having to find a random place to stay, sleeping on the floor in an uncomfortable position.

            I played around with the order of the series of photographs after I embedded the text. The new sequence of pictures utilizes photographic composition to tell Danny’s true story.

The first picture has symmetric balance with one person on each side, showing a third person perspective of Danny on the left arguing with somebody on the right (who really is my roommate Jerome, but for the sake of this project we’ll say he’s the guy calling Danny a “snitch” at the beginning of the story).

The second picture is a first person perspective (point of view) from the stands of The Swamp, representing the location of the story.

The third picture has asymmetric balance because Mike is standing on the left and Danny is sitting down on the right. It also displays unity because Mike helps Danny throughout the story, especially with his participation in the fraternity. The fraternity is represented by their business casual clothing.

The fourth picture contains depth, showing the size of the closet Danny and Mike shared. The closet is very crowded, as it is meant for one person’s belongings.

The fifth picture is a narrative display of Danny’s “bed” on the floor in Mike’s room. The makeshift bed represents Danny’s struggle with the transition to college life, with the Gators blanket being a metaphor since living at the University of Florida has motivated Danny to mature as a young man.

The sixth photograph contains proportion, with Danny appearing very small compared to the large apartment buildings in the Jefferson area, the setting of the story. This photo also contains leading lines: the road, sidewalk, trees, and tops of the buildings all lead your eye to Danny. Danny appears to be walking away, representing his independence. It makes us wonder if Danny will be successful after moving into his own new dorm on campus.

Finally, the seventh picture shows Mike looking down the street from the balcony. The photo was taken from street level. Mike may be wondering how Danny is doing on his own, possibly hoping Danny will return soon.

The song “Misguided Ghosts” is about a person who learns from their mistakes, which eventually point them in the right direction. Haley Williams sings about trying to find someone to rely on. In the story, Danny relies on Mike for help. The lyrics say “I am going away for a while, but I’ll be back. Don’t try and follow me, because I’ll return as soon as possible.” Even though Danny no longer lives with us, he still returns frequently to spend time with his friends.

Roland Barthes's Codes Within "The Sixth Sense"

“Jeez, I hope nobody got hurt. You’re very quiet. You’re mad I missed the play, aren’t you? I have two jobs, baby. You know how important they are to us. I’d give anything to have been there.” Cole keeps his head down and does not look at his mother while she is talking to him. After Cole’s mother finishes talking, Cole finally looks up at her. *ACT: Cole is keeping his head down because he has something else on his mind. He is not mad at his mother for missing the play. He seems to have been thinking about something for a while, and when he picks his head and looks at his mother, we are not sure what to expect him to say. **SEM: Cole’s mother’s accusation, “You’re mad I missed the play, aren’t you?” foreshadows his mother’s fight with his grandmother, which is why his grandmother hid in the back of his mother’s childhood dance recital.

“I’m ready to communicate with you now...tell you my secrets.” ***HER: An enigma is introduced as Cole changes the subject, disregarding what his mother said about the play. The shot-reverse-shot dialogue between Cole and his mother promises that we will eventually find out what Cole’s secret is.

“You know the accident up there? Someone got hurt. A lady, she died,” says Cole. “Oh my God, you can see her?” says his mother. “Yes,” says Cole. “Where is she?” says his mother as she is looking out the window and up the street. “Standing next to my window.” A lady wearing a bike helmet is standing outside of the car next to Cole’s window, with a gash on her forehead and blood dripping down her face. ***HER: When Cole’s mother is looking around to catch a glimpse of the accident, the viewers believe the dead lady is near the scene of the accident, a few car-lengths ahead of Cole’s mother’s car. The mother’s attempt to find the lady somewhere ahead of her car is fraudulent because the lady that Cole sees is right next to the car. The equivocation occurs when Cole’s mother looks at Cole, shifts her eyes over to Cole’s window, then back to Cole without any reaction. She does not see the wounded lady, but we as viewers do because we see what Cole sees.

“Grandma comes to visit me sometimes,” says Cole. “Cole, that’s very wrong. Grandma’s gone, you know that,” his mother replies. ****REF: Some cultures think it is wrong to communicate with the dead, let alone speak about the dead. I don’t quite understand why Cole’s mother thinks this is wrong. I was raised in a Jewish family, where we honor dead relatives and reminisce about fond memories with those dead relatives all the time. It’s not depressing for families like mine to talk about how we miss Bubby’s (Yiddish for grandma) matzo ball soup, or how much Bubby cared for me and my sister. We can bring up her name in a mundane conversation without offending any of our living relatives. Many different religions, such as those of the Native Americans, rely on communication with the dead to seek advice and foresee the future. However, it seems that Cole’s mother does not want to hear about her own dead mother. Cole is forced to raise his voice in order to get his mother to listen to him.

Cole reveals the conversation between him and his grandmother. “She said you came to the place where they buried her, asked her a question. She said the answer is, ‘Every day.’ What did you ask?” “Do…do I make her proud?” she tells Cole. Cole hugs his mother. ***HER: Cole’s secret, his ability to see and speak with dead people, is disclosed and proven. There is no way for Cole to know his dead grandmother’s answer to his mother’s question if Cole does not have a supernatural gift that allows him to communicate with the dead.