Module 5-1

Weekly Written Analysis 5:


The pop culture topic that I decided to discuss this week is the History Channel. This is a channel that I can sit and watch for hours on the weekend while accomplishing some of my school work and employment work. The channel offers a lot of knowledge about different topics that normally I would not be that interested in. An example would be, today there was a show on that described how beer and different types of liquors are made and the history of them. I found this interesting, because I do not drink a lot but it is nice to know what you are ordering when you do drink.

I can watch the History Channel continuously, but there is one show that I find particular interesting and enjoy watching is Modern Marvels. This show looks at different products or aspects about our society and tells you the history about them. Examples of past shows I have seen are Engineering Disasters, Paint, and Magnets. A first look at the title of these shows is not that interesting, but when you watch them it is a different story. Engineering Disasters shows how several buildings or bridges were constructed and ultimately how they failed and the lessons learned from these events. Paint focuses on the history of paint and how it has evolved to the modern substance that it is now. The show titled Magnets was an interesting show, because it focused on how many products that we use in our society uses magnets in them. These shows are not only educational in interesting, but it shows how our society is evolving, that these topics are a form of entertainment. History is an interesting topic and was one of my favorites when I was in high school. I think that with me and others, the History Channel has found a market to attend to.

References:
History.com. History Channel and Modern Marvels (2007 December 8). Retrieved on December 8, 2007 from http://www.history.com/

Module 4-1

Weekly Written Analysis 4:

The topic that I decided to choose for this week was the musician Johnny Cash. He is a popular culture icon, because of his success reaching all listeners of music, not just country music fans. He sang songs about life that people could relate to. Johnny Cash had a realism about him that people could identify with even if they did not like his music. In his deep, distinctive voice he sang about family, about working, about prison, about being lonely, and about death. People from all ages and all walks of life know his name and his legacy.

Johnny Cash’s life was as interesting as the music he wrote. The movie Walk The Line released in 2005 was a great movie that I enjoyed thoroughly. The actor Joaquin Phoenix played Cash and the actress Reese Witherspoon played his second wife June Carter Cash which she won an academy award for her performance in the film. This film depicted Cash’s life from his frost marriage, to his drug addiction, his rising success, and eventually him living a peaceful life with his second wife June.

Even before I saw the movie I liked Johnny Cash’s music and listened to it often. I own several of his albums and have even performed his hit song Folsom Prison Blues with a local band. I was bartending at a club and they singer asked me to come up and said what do you want to sing? I said Johnny Cash baby! That is my small claim to fame. The best thing about Johnny Cash is that everyone knows one of songs when you play it. Everyone in the room starts singing right along. All of his music is not just the run of the mill boring country music, some of it is, but some is widely recognizable because much of his music crossed over to the pop charts. That is why if I get the chance again, I am singing Johnny Cash.

References:
Walk The Line (2005). (2007 December 2). Retrieved on December 2, 2007 from IMDb: The Internet Movie database http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0068646/

Module 1-3

Journal Article Analysis:
Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner? : A Clash of Interpretation Regarding Stanley Kramer’s Film on the Subject of Interracial Marriage

The movie “Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner?” was released in 1967 during the height of the civil rights movement in the United States. This film was about a white woman, played by Katharine Houghton, bringing home to her parents a black male, played by Sidney Poitier, with whom she intended to marry. The article focuses on two different author’s opinions about the film and its director’s intentions, Stanley Kramer. “Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner?” was a revolutionary film for its time and how people saw the movie in our culture was as diverse as the opinions of the time.

This article was intended for students or professionals on popular culture. The civil rights movement was an important event in American culture and modern day popular culture is derived from lessons learned of this historic event as with others. The authors’ intentions are to educate on the social implications of the film at the time of its release and its impact now on modern day popular culture.

The article features two different authors, with two different opinions about the film. Harris says, “Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner? promised, then, a rich opportunity for racial understanding that was sadly lost.” (Harris & Toplin, 2007, p. 706) Harris did not believe that Kramer’s film accurately displayed the situation as it should have been in 1967. The main theme that Harris discussed in his opinion about the film was how he thought Sidney Poitier’s character was unrealistic and “set-up” to be the perfect black male by Kramer. “The contrived plot conspires in every way to set up Poitier’s character as an ideal figure.” (Harris & Toplin, 2007, p. 703) He was a doctor that studied tropical diseases. Harris argues that this achievement would have almost been nearly impossible or at least very rare for a black male in 1967 to be a successful doctor in the United States. Also, Harris states that a black male of the era would not have been as cordial about the welcome he received when arriving to the home as Poitier’s character did. The culture had changed and a black male would have a more militant attitude and would have voiced his opinion more. This is main theme and opinion stated by Harris,
“Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner? could have addressed, rather than ignored, many profoundly important issues associated with racial tensions in America in the late 1960s. The movie’s messages might have stirred the thinking of millions of viewers who were trying at the time to come to terms with the nation’s long history of racial injustice.” (Harris & Toplin, 2007, p. 705)
The other author of this article had a different opinion about the film. Toplin states, “… “Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner? gives us a valuable window for looking into that moment in American history when important social changes were in the making.” (Harris & Toplin, 2007, p. 711) The author indicates this, because he gives examples of how the United States tolerances for interracial relationships at the time were viewed. He states that there were laws in place in certain states that prevented couples from marrying interracially and indicates that the court found that they must not live together. Toplin also says that a change was happening in United States and the film was instrumental in helping with that change. Two different authors with two different interesting opinions about the film Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner? (1967).

The style of this article was easy to read. It had an introduction, the first author’s opinions, the second author’s opinions, and a conclusion. Organizing my thoughts for this analysis was not as difficult as I thought it would be, because of the style of the article.

In my opinion the main idea of the article was to educate on the opinions and the perceptions of the film Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner? in 1967. This was an important time in our country’s history and to know that a film played a role in that is amazing to me. We think of films as vehicles of entertainment only, but in reality as with everything else, popular culture can change society for better or worse. To know that this film may have changed the tolerance level for race relationships in the United States is not just interesting, but important for the fabric of our society as well.

References:
Harris, G.A. & Toplin R.B. (2007). Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner? : A Clash of Interpretation Regarding Stanley Kramer’s Film on the Subject of Interracial Marriage. The Journal of Popular Culture, V.40 I.2, 700-713.

Module 3-1

Weekly Written Analysis 3:

This week I was interested in talking about one of my favorite television shoes right now. I really like “reality TV”. Some people really do not care for it, but my wife and I like to watch it and talk about the people on the show. My wife likes to watch her soap operas on TV and talk about those with her sister, but I am more interested in real people and real situations. The show I like right now is The Real Housewives of Orange County. This show airs on the Bravo channel and it is about five women and their families that live in a “gated community” in California. I believe that this is the reality version of the successful show Desperate Housewives. I never really watched it, but like I said I enjoy reality TV more when I have time to watch TV.

Now besides the fact that the women are beautiful, it is a really interesting show to watch, at least for my wife and me. This show illustrates how people “with money” live and their lifestyle. I think that people are infatuated with watching other people that are rich or give the perception that they are rich. Watching people buy brand new BMWs and Mercedes Benzes for their children that just got their license is not only interesting but amazing to me as well. Watching people spend money on frivolous items that are not needed. Giving your children your credit card and telling them to do their own back-to-school shopping and the bill coming to $1800 is amazing to me. I think what it really comes down to is, if you had that much money would you do the same things or not? My wife and I start telling each other what we would buy with that kind of money. I think that is why we like watching this show together is because we have some fun conversations because of it. So, if you get a chance watch the show The Real Housewives of Orange County on Bravo you might find it interesting.

References:
BravoTV.com: The Real Housewives of Orange County. (2007 November 25). Retrieved on November 25, 2007 from http://www.bravotv.com/Real_Housewives_3/index.php

Module 2-1

Weekly Written Analysis 2:

This week I chose an icon that everybody knows. Star Wars is a film that came out in 1978 and took the nation by storm. It is now an American icon that no one can dispute. I started watching the films when I was a kid I now own all of the old movies (Episodes VI through VI) A New Hope, The Empire Strikes Back, and Return of the Jedi. There are also three newer movies (Episodes I through III) The Phantom Menace, Attack of the Clones, and Revenge of the Sith that I have not purchased yet, but I made sure that I was at theatre when they came out. My wife calls me a dork because of this, but it was important part of my childhood and it is nice to see George Lucas, the director and creator of the films, is still working.


The most important thing that George Lucas did with the Star Wars trilogy was to understand the importance of merchandising. There were toys, lunchboxes, shirts, etc. that made Star Wars a name to remember. I had a lot of the toys that I played with and had two t-shirts that I wore constantly. With the new movies it is like seeing my childhood all over again. The merchandising for these newer movies and the old are bringing in big money. Now as an adult I am trying to think of ways to make money with the Star Wars name attached to it instead of spending money. Look at eBay and notice all of the Star Wars collectable items being sold for big money.

Star Wars is an American icon that two generations are enjoying. My thoughts are that it is here to stay, because I still enjoy watching the films. I can only assume that I will be sharing these films with my grandchildren and hoping that they can enjoy them I much as I did at their age and now.

References:
eBay: Star Wars Search. (2007 November 18). Retrieved on November 18, 2007 from http://www.cosi.org/home/

Module 2-2

Icon Analysis

The three contemporary icons that I chose are very noticeable and prevalent right now. I chose McDonald’s restaurants, the child icon Hannah Montana, and the new home gaming system the Nintendo Wii. All three of these play an important part in my family’s life right now. I think that our personal icons change over time, but right now this is what came to mind.

McDonald’s restaurants have been around since I was born and I have been eating off their menu all my life. They play an important role in our society and especially in my family. The best marketing scheme they ever came up with was including toys in the “Happy Meals” for kids. My daughter absolutely has to have a new toy every time we go there and usually is the deciding factor on the “what’s for dinner” question in my house. We do not there every night, but I would have to venture to say that we eat there once a week right now.

Hannah Montana is a new icon for children. She is the daughter of country singer Billy Ray Cyrus and has her own show on the Disney channel; she also performs concerts of her own music she has released. The only reason that I know all of this is because my daughter absolutely loves her and has to watch her show. As a matter of fact, we rented her new movie tonight so she could watch it. I will probably have to buy it. I do not think I can get away with just renting it; but we will see. So, between watching the show and the movie with my daughter, I will venture to say that I will have to but concert tickets someday. This icon will change with time, but right now Hannah Montana plays an important role in our family.

The Nintendo Wii home gaming system is really neat. This is the first of its kind, because you have to actually get up and “play.” If you want to play baseball, you have to swing a “gaming bat” and if you want to play golf, you have to swing a “gaming golf club.” There was a news special in that I watched that featured retirement homes using this gaming system to help their residents get exercise. They were bowling and with the Wii, you have to get up and bowl as if you were in a bowling ally. I thought this was neat, because they had their own bowling teams, with their own shirts and they would bowl once a week. Anyway, I do not have one of these home gaming systems, but I would like to have one. I asked my wife if I could buy myself a Christmas present and I got a maybe. When you buy it, you have to buy the system, games, and the sports accessory package. I am looking forward to getting this from my wife so we can play each other after our daughter goes to bed. This would give us some time together.

Module 1-4

I rented a movie tonight from Blockbuster called Transformers. I watched the movie in awe on how far technology has come in movie making. This is why I have chosen this as this week’s pop culture topic. The director of this film is Michael Bay and he is known for and has made some big blockbuster action films such as: The Rock, Armageddon, Pearl Harbor, and Bad Boys II.

I enjoyed this movie so I decided to see what others though about Transformers. I found a website called metacritic.com which features several areas that people can criticize and share their thoughts about different types of media such as: a film, a game, a book, or a television show. I searched on this site for Transformers and I found good and bad comments about the film. There is a scoring system on the website as well that shows you how the particular piece of media that you are looking at has been rated by other people. The closer the rating is to 100, the better the piece of media has been rated by other critics. Transformers scored a 61, so I started reading some of the comments. On the good side, one critic said that, “Big, loud and full of testosterone-fueled car fantasies…” and on the bad side, one critic said, “Not a movie, just one gigantic commercial for Hasbro.” As with Michael Bay’s other films that I have seen this was not a disappointment for me. I enjoyed this movie and its action packed fight sequences and all of the CGI technology incorporated into the film. My wife did not like it however; she said it was too loud and hard to follow and a little “cheesy.” I on the other hand, might go watch it again.

References:
Metacritic.com We deal with criticism. (2007 November 10). Retrieved on November 10, 2007 from http://www.metacritic.com/film/titles/transformers?q=transformers.