Graffiti Art

I have been doing research on graffiti art because although I do not consider myself a graffiti artist, I truly admire what they do and how they express their self. There’s good and bad in graffiti and the bad is truly frowned upon, but than again their good and bad in all forms of art, which leaves me amazed when some people do not consider graffiti “art”. All forms of art are beautiful and deserve to be contemplated and admired. The act of expressing oneself through writing allows one to communicate feelings to the outside world. Just like any form of art, graffiti requires talent, creativity, and patience. Some people have a poor interpretation of what graffiti really is. Graffiti art is not just writing on the wall. It’s more than that. It is the event where one person or an entire group congregate their ideas, thoughts and beliefs, and the outcome turns out to be a unique piece of art that many can admire but only a few can understand. Tagging may not be considered graffiti art because graffiti art is more than writing on the walls. A graffiti art piece takes time, creativity and effort to finish. Whereas, a tag can be finished within a matter of seconds. Not all graffiti is gang related, people should not make assumptions that an individual who carries a sketchbook, a mask, and a spray can is about to vandalize an entire block. Perhaps he is just searching for the right place, for a unique piece of art to be displayed.


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QBJSl4BqnEc

Steroids in Baseball summarized (KEVIN RILEY)

i have been doing a lot of research on steroids in baseball and the purpose behind the use of it. the reason why is because i dont understand why it is so commonly used in baseball. i am not a huge baseball fan but its always breaking news on ESPN everytime i watch the channel. so here's what i've been able to dig up:
- Barry Bonds had a personal Trainer by the name of Greg Anderson who was supplying him with the drug. Anderson is also a convicted felon, and has been to jail for tax fraud.
- Anderson also gave steroids to slugger Jason Giambi, who later confessed to using anabolic steroids.
Manny Ramirez was suspended last week for using a female fertility drug that is used to restructure the testosterone system after it has been broken down by steroids.
MLB Pitcher David Wells stated that at least 85 percent of makor league baseball players are on steroids....sad.
-sammy sosa has never commented on using steroids....can you say "guilty"
steriods can dramatically destroy your sex organs. (example:shrinking testicles.....wow)
Jose Conseco, former all star, released a tell all book on his use of steroids, along with other major, and i mean major names.

These are just a couple of facts i have developed in my research on steroids.......makes ya wanna read the whole essay doesnt it??

Imitation of life

I have been doing a lot of research on the concept on authentic life and weather it is possible to achieve this in today’s society. If it is possible to live an authentic life, how does one achieve this? I would like to know what people think about authenticity and whether or not that life is achievable.
I want to know if people think that if to truly be authentic you have to be totally original. Think thoughts that have never been thought befor or is authentic life something deeper than that is it something that only the individual can see.
I have posted Videos that take a look at both conceptsChoose one and tell me why you think that this is the meaning the way road to an authentic life, You don’t have to choose you can say that both of them equally explain the concept of authenticity or you can say that you think that both of them are way off. Please let me know what you think true authenticity is and what it means in everyday life.

Extra Credit Blog Post

Hello all you hep cats,

I want to give you this limited time opportunity to gain 20 points extra credit!!

I want you to turn your final paper into a blog post. What do all good blog posts have? Pictures and Links!!!! oh, and good information. Take all that juicy info you've found and processed then spoon feed it to us so we don't have to think too hard! Make it interesting! Make it smart! Make it engaging! Make it grammatically correct! Make it worthwhile! I'm not going to just give you 20 precious points for slapping together something in 10 minutes. Here is your time to shine! The whole world is watching!!!!!!

Your fearless leader

"patient zero"

Columbia College Chicago

Oh Columbia College, when you say you go here you either get the response;

(from someone 18 to 24 from chicago): Oh, so you're a hipster? - or - Oh, so you are stuck up and think you're the shit?

(from someone 30 +): Oh, so how are you gonna pay your bills, what kinda REAL job are you gonna have?

Those are at least what I've gotten.

Columbia has its positives and negatives. A negative is that its easy. While some people like easy classes, I don't feel like I'm getting the most from a class. If I'm paying as much as I am I want to be getting the most from it, I want the classes to be a challenge and I want to really learn something more than I already know. 

But a positives, the teachers here, they are in there field and are working in it or have recently worked. It kinda gives me strength that I can get somewhere doing photography and I don't need to do wedding photography for a career (EW! haha). And also with Columbia you don't have to take real science classes but more "artist science" courses. Or history, there is Photography history which for me its my field and getting a history class out of the way for my graduation. 

I've heard what others have said about Columbia, and now people that went here for a year or two and left and said they got nothing out of it, maybe that was there fault or maybe the school. I'm waiting to find out what my ending will be like. 

I guess I have a neutral view of Columbia, it has its negatives and positives experiences and stories. But of course it is my first year here, and I'm not going to compare it to my previous college and I know that next year not being that transfer / "freshman to columbia" student will be better. I have hopes that Columbia will get me somewhere in life. I wanna be an artist and I don't wanna have to resort to some dead end job that I hate - so come on Columbia you better be the stepping stones. Because if next year is like this year, I'm 90% sure I'm leaving. Sorry Columbia, Photography College could REALLY get me farther, but I'm giving you one more shot.

Columbia > Regular Life

Thus far, my time at Columbia has pretty much been as I imagined it. I first showed interest in attending the college when I was a Junior in high school. We had been given a presentation by a Columbia representative and everything he said pretty much summed up what I looked for in a school. I wanted to be a part of a community of artists, and go somewhere that I could express myself while making a career at the same time.

This was my first semester at Columbia and I couldn’t be any happier with the experience. Everyone from the instructors to my classmates have been a pleasure to be around, and it was definitely great to meet new people. All of the services offered and the events that have taken place have added so much to my time here. I cant imagine any other place where I would feel more at home, an entire community of artists, its almost too good to be true.

I can’t point out any downside really. The courses have been difficult, but nothing worth having comes easy right? Even with a full schedule of courses and the stress of grades, its hard to dislike anything. I have lived in Chicago my entire life and I’m absolutely obsessed with the city. Going to Columbia has fed my need to be around the city and the culture that is Chicago. While others have to dread attending their classes out in the middle of nowhere, I appreciate the fact that I can take part in the everyday happenings of this city.

i hate the fact....

i hate the fact i am leaving this school. its always been hard for me to find a place where i feel comfortable and fit in, and the students i have met so far have made me feel so welcome. i have loved all my teachers and actually enjoyed attending my classes. i dont want to go. for me this is the school i have always dreamed of going. it has everything i love doing, but sadly it was not meant to be. i had a realization a few months ago, that even though i loved art i loved creating it more because it was not a job and in todays world money is needed. and i know that if i go into graphic design, game design i will begin to hate what i love doing as a way to calm myself. thankfully it is a happy ending. i decided to go into another passion of mine that i could never see myself hating because i do not use it as a form of relaxation or relief: criminolgy. i want to go into some field of law where i can either study the mind of criminals, people, talk to people and help them (there is not one person who thinks i should be anything else but a psychiatrist or-ologist). maybe a social worker, work with mentally disabled children, etc... even though columbia has been amazing and i would do anything to make it into the school i need to go to, to become a criminologist, i have to go. the people were amazing and the teachers were great. i really am for the first time going to miss someplace, and it's a weird experience.

mY eXPEIRENCE aT cOLUMBIA

When I first came to Columbia I was somewhat excited and vowed that from the first day, I was going to work hard and aim for straight A's as well as learn as much as I could regarding my major. My major was Audio Engineering and at the moment still is. I quickly became discouraged after every single person I shared the classroom with seemed to be a professional audio engineer already, or at least it seemed liked that. I knew barley anything. I thought I would catch on, but after weeks and weeks it just wasn't clicking. It didn't interest me. I make hip hop beats and do my best at it but that's it. After showing a lot of people my beats about a year or two ago, some of them suggested that I should definitely go to school for that, and at first I thought, "Well that's stupid, why would I do that?" About a year later and $5000 in loans after one semester that need to be paid back, here I am, at Columbia.

I considered changing my major to Music Producing, but decided not to and that this whole music thing is just not for me, what I do is more of a hobby rather than a talent, not to say I don't have any skills in doing so. The only major here at Columbia that I am leaning towards is Journalism. Here at Columbia I became reminded that I'm not that bad of a writer, and if I plan to stay here at Columbia, I would change my major to Journalism and focus on writing. I used to have hopes of one day being a Sports Journalist, only one problem, I hate every other sport besides Basketball, Boxing and MMA.

I plan on applying at Northeastern Illinois University over the next couple of days but I'm still contemplating my decision. The people here at Columbia are great, the teachers are helpful, the campus is extremely cool, and the whole everyday downtown experience that I have grown accustom to is awesome, but I just don't think I belong here. This Writing & Rhetoric class is the only "normal" class I have, I withdrawed from my Audio Prod class, I stopped going to my group therapy class, also known as New Millennium Studies, and my Intro to Audio class is just supplying info that's going in one ear and right out the other, although I'm still trying to obtain a decent grade in that class. I have no hopes of being an entrepreneur and that's all this school is preparing you ready for. I guess I got some thinking to do, maybe I'm being ignorant about some things or lazy minded, but all in all-if I had to sum up my experience at Columbia in two words it would be Eye Opening.

whatever.

Columbia has had it’s ups and downs. If I could of had it my way, I would of never lived at the dorms, i suggest that anyone who has a choice, not to. Way too expensive, and I feel like living with some of the people and meeting some of the people I have has what made this first year difficult. I will say, the main reason why I probably continue to stay at this school is only because of how great the photography facilities are. I’ve had some okay photo teachers and some horrible ones that made me want to leave this school. All other teachers and classes has basically met how I’ve expected them to be. I feel like my field can become too competitive, and in return the people who go here are completely selfish. If I could find another school that had the same facilities or even better ones, I would most likely switch unless it was more expensive than Columbia. A lot of people that go here make it nearly impossible to make any friends. Sometimes I feel like it is just an elaborated version of high school. The way how some people refuse to talk to others due to what major they are is what I find very juvenile. I also feel like a lot of people I’ve encountered take a lot of things in life for granted. I’ve had two different kinds of roommates, and neither of them had a job, their parents did everything for them. I don’t know if that’s because I’m frustrated that I’m not spoiled or the fact that they’re just leeching and using everyone else around them. Blahh im indifferent about columbia.

MAN: THIS SHIT IS 2 GOOD 2 BE TRUE (Kevin Riley)

Seriously, my experience at columbia was not what i expected. the school exceeded my expectations. i knew that columbia was a good school, but i never knew that the teachers would be so generous and willing to help you succeed (at least that's my perception so far). when i attended northern illinois for a year and a half, i had a terrible experience with teachers. i was not able to make a connection with them and the course. at columbia, I have been able to conversate with some of my teachers about things that didnt even relate to the class. last week in my audio production class my teacher and i were discussing the NBA playoffs!! that was the most awkard, amazing conversation i ever had with a teacher during class. of course i was doing my work, so it wasnt like i was in class slacking off, but it made my class more relaxing because i wasnt being pressured to shutup and do my work.
i would really like to meet the people who hired my teachers for my first semester at columbia, and thank them for hiring down to earth teachers who care about seeing their students succeed, rather than hiring teachers who just want a paycheck. the columbia teachers have a passion for what they do, and it inspires us to want to do good in the class. plus, if we dont show any effort, they'll just fail us anyways. i appreciate how they encourage us first rather than watch us kill ourselves.

O I think i love it here

So far Columbia has been really good I love this school even though this semester was a little less than I expected but I got thought it. I really like the things that I have seen at this school. It is my first year and I must say that it was pretty cool. I don’t know that I am maid for the traditional college experience I believe that this school fits me like a glove and there is no other place I would rather be. I think that I mad the right choice when I decided to come here. I do not regret anything about this school. I know that I have to really have to prepare my self from the up coming things that’s happing at the school I am so glad that I get to be apart of this. I love this school and this city I think it really shows who I am and what I am capable of doing. I enjoy everyday that I get to be a student here even if sometimes I don’t always want to come. I still love to say that I go to Columbia College Chicago. I can’t wait to see what I will become of me in the coming years I think that I have every opportunity to go anywhere I want. I love this community I am in love whit the city of Chicago and the things that are happing here. This is my home I think I am detent to be here and at this school. I use to dream about being a student at this school and being in this community all the time. My dream has really came true and I do not plane on going anywhere soon I love this school so much. Yeah Columbia College Chicago

The Best is Yet to Come...

I don’t mean to brag, necessarily, but I think my experience at Columbia has been crazier than most. I know for me it’s been a wild and crazy year in and of itself, and it’s pretty much carried over into my school life. First semester, I was chainsmoking and not going to class and just hating my life. I had my reasons, but it was still a horrible place to be in first semester of college, my big chance to make something of my life. Second semester, I had quit smoking, moved apartments, talked to my teachers, went to bed, did assignments, was early for everything I had to do, and tried to be motivated. I haven’t worked this hard at anything in years, seriously. This was such a little magic switcharoo for me. I’ve changed so much. This year has been a year of me literally creating change, just like the slogan. Before I came here, I was this wild party animal who wasn’t able to concentrate on things I liked and excelled at. Due to my work and self-motivation from god knows where, I’ve come to college and settled down. It’s been unsettling to watch the hedonism around me. I wish I could do that. I know I can’t, because the people who are able to indulge in the things I like have one thing I don’t have: the ability and knowledge to stop themselves from going too far. I’ve got a personality like flypaper, things get attracted and stick. All in all, I’m not bitter. I’m just happy I’ve come as far as I have. I hope to make everything even better for the years to come, and stay dedicated to what I love.

Graduating next week!!!

I have learned a lot since coming to Columbia, but the vast majority of what I have learned has not been taught in classrooms or textbooks. I have learned more about the way the world works through discovery and trial & error. I feel that since I have been able to navigate my way through the ridiculousness that is this school, I can figure out how to navigate through anything. This school, for whatever reason, likes to make it as difficult as possible to get anything done and the bureaucracy is maddening.

For example, the Financial Aid Office is one of the most inefficient departments in the entire college. At the beginning of the semester, rules were changed as to how to deal with loans and unpaid balances. Instead of telling students about the change before they returned for the new term, students were met with half truths and vague details about why they were unable to register during the first few weeks of the semester. My experience with the Financial Aid Office has been, to put it nicely, unpleasant. But if there is one piece of advice that I can share with the rest of you who will be continuing your studies here it would be this: BE PERSISTENT and ASK QUESTIONS REPEATEDLY UNTIL YOU GET AN ACTUAL ANSWER!!! These two techniques have proven themselves to work and that is what I intend to take away from my experience here.

On a much less bitter note, I have gotten some of the most amazing opportunities here at Columbia. Opportunities like performing with Earth, Wind, & Fire, recording in high-class professional recording studios, and performing at some of the most prestigious venues in town, have all allowed me to continue to dream big. I appreciate that what this school lacks in infrastructure, is made up for with heart. Students here are encouraged to experiment and create and are allowed to chart their own paths; that's what I love about Columbia and what I expect others will too.

With all of the ups and downs that I have encountered here, I wouldn't trade it for anything. The decisions that you make, especially the wrong ones, allow you to emerge stronger and more resilient in the end. Remembering that will serve you well in life.

Your Columbia Experience

For this post I want you to write 250 words or more about your experience at Columbia so far. This can be negative, positive, neutral, whatever.

This post is due on Friday. Be sure to comment on a classmate's post.

Does Race Affect Votes?

In this Ted Talk episode was about asking ourselves if race had something to do with the fact that Obama had lost some votes around the country. Ted explained why there were people that did not support Obama because he was a black candidate and he was most likely not qualified for the job. There were white voters that didn't believe in Obama, so they voted for McCain. He also talks about how white neighbors have a hard time interacting with black neighbors. There was like a somewhat like a chart that had arrows on a white only neighborhood, while the other chart showed a mix of neighbors. Ted explained about how we all should learn how to interact with each other. I found this one interesting. And to me that is important that everybody should learn to interact with each other. No matter if you are black, white, Latino, Muslim or whatever nationality. Race is just a word that describes our background but, we should have good judgement on people. Don't judge a book by its cover.!!

Do Schools Kill Creativity?

A few weeks ago we watched this TED Talks video by Sir Ken Robinson. I went back to check it out again because I found it to be quite interesting. Robinson speaks of how all children are naturally talented at something whether it's art, music, academics, sports, etc. The thing that gets in the way of most people realizing their passion is school. Currently, the school system awards students for being able to regurgitate information accurately; at the same time, school punish students for trying something different and being wrong.

I had a teacher last semester who understood the state of the American School System and he did everything he could keep from adding to the stereotypes. On the first day of school he said, "There is a distinct difference between education and schooling." He went on to explain that when you break down the actual meaning of the words education and schooling, they have opposite meanings. Education is supposed to teach you to conquer and Schooling teaches you to be conquered. What this teacher and Mr. Robinson are saying is that we have been receiving schooling NOT education.

We all have the capacity to create and learn and use our instincts to guide us, but school (disguised as education) kills that part of us at a very, very young age. Teachers in elementary school have forgotten what it means to teach and they seem only to see the bottom line, the SAT score. One day, schools will realize the error of their ways and we will see a huge change in thinking among, not just students in America, but all over the world.