Intro: Screws fall out all the time, The World's an imperfect place.
To some extent we all care about being cool. It doesn't matter who you are or where you live or how much 'papah you get'. We have our definitions and our idols, we have our rap songs, our instrumental songs, our repetitive songs and of course our love songs. What's odd is that this idea of cool has got our backs against the wall. As Cage The Elephant says "The alters callin’/But my legs won’t seem to stand /Guess I'm a coward /Scared to face the man I am". We alter, we make up and tailor our idea's of cool to our pleasure.
Paragraph 1: What Are We Doing?
What the hell is cool?
There are so many possible cool answers to that question that its ridiculous. Why aren't we all cool? Are we? John Smith was cool. Its weird that if you fit in and look like everyone else you're cool, but if you stand out and rebel you're also cool... Which path do you choose? I love how the stereotypes play in here. When you're black its somehow cool to cut class and go to gym. When you're white its somehow cool to act black. But if you're black its uncool to act white... Results may vary.
Why do we even have to act? Good question.
You can't really tell if you is you or you is someone else. Given we can't really build ourselves without taking a peek at someone elses blueprints. How do we even know what we want? I think it has alot to do with desire. Its obvious that we all are not the same. We all possess different labels, and we 'roll with' different people, but why? Are some blueprints better than others? No one is original, but yet we call people 'biters'. Its weird that most of the time we don't even remember where our style came from. We build ourselves but we can't keep track. But 'God fahbid' we see someone wearing something that we have or saying something that we said. 'That's a fight on my block'.
Its weird how we think we have the freedom to jump around. When we really don't.
We think we do, but the minute someone steps out of their perforated edge box, there's going to be a problem. This is fact. That's somehow makes Person A a fake. Its like Person A didn't get his 'cool promotion'. In order to move up that ladder you have to be brought up by someone who's 'rep' is up there. Its tricky. But also a rags to riches story is often appreciated.
How can anyone be cool if all of our definitions vary? Everyone loves the star basketball player...I could care less.
Paragraph 2: Screw The Dictionary
How do we see ourselves? I think we like to see ourselves in our own definitions of cool so that we are infinitely cool. Take a topic like love. Something that most teens encounter, (some of us more than others). Everyone sees love in a different light. Its not cool if a guy doesn't 'wanna hang wid da fellahs' to be with his girl. But its soooooooo sweet when a girl remembers the first word she ever said to her crush.
What's with the double standards?
Lyrics like "this is the first day of my life /I’m glad I didn’t die before I met you /But now I don’t care I could go anywhere with you /And I’d probably be happy" from Bright Eyes are sweet, this guy is cool. But Romeo who says: "See, how she leans her cheek upon her hand! O that I were a glove upon that hand, that I might touch that cheek!" is somehow 'whipped'. Is it how we play our roles that make us cool? or are some roles just eternally doomed? Its odd that we don't see this. Its like being cool requires us to step outside of ourselves, but no one really does that. Maybe none of us are cool. With the ever changing definitions of cool, soon it'll be pretty cool to not be cool.
Its like we don't fit cool. Cool fits us. Its almost like there is no universal cool.
Paragraph 3: Gah. Its Not Working!
Take this: "Armed with an eye for contradictions /She sees completely through me.... /Armed with a plethora of insecurities /we keep each other amused.." We try so hard to say 'this is who I am' but then why is it so easy to tear down someones entire image with a few words? We don't want to look fake or be called on our bluff. We don't want to go over 21. Is it even possible to be completely 'true'?
That would mean that we have to know ourselves.
But we all know that change is constant, we adapt and transform who we are in order to fit the quota of someone elses definition. I don't think that it happens on purpose. Like when you sit at a table with people, and one person takes a certain form, its as if by magic everyone else begins to take that form. Its true. (I can't remember who told me that, it was either Gavin, Esther, or Amanda.)
How odd is it to realise that you are acting like someone else? If that's true who is the person you're following acting like? When we figure this out what does that say about us? Maybe its because we don't want to admit that we are not original and that we in fact are just like someone else. We create the image of who we want to be and we go with that. We pretend that this figure, this figment of our imagination is us. Like Jack from fight club. "Hey, you created me. I didn't create some loser alter-ego to make myself feel better. Take some responsibility!"
"All the ways you wish you could be, that's me. I look like you wanna look, I f*** like you wanna f***, I am smart, capable, and most importantly, I am free in all the ways that you are not."
As messed up as that sounds we are all a little like that. We create some better version of ourselves and we challenge ourselves to become what we wish we were. But if it shows that we are putting on a show then we are pursuers of cool have failed, and must start again.
This is where it comes in handy to be able to recreate what cool is. What happens when the person that we create becomes cool, but its not the 'you' that 'you' wanted to project?
Conclusion: What Mirror, Where?
So we've explored cool, what now? Nothing. We will continue to run to the stage when the audience screams encore. We love the roses that are thrown at our feet. We like to be on the stage while people look up to marvel our performances. But its not only up to the 'players' the audience too is stuck in their roles. The players have their understudies and there will always be a new audience.
We still want what we want. Even if we have to list it. "I want a girl with a short skirt and a lonnnng jacket /I want a girl who gets up early /I want a girl who stays up late /I want a girl with uninterrupted prosperity /Who used a machete to cut through red tape /With fingernails that shine like justice /And a voice that is dark like tinted glass"
People can change. But we wont. We will still look up to this idea of cool no matter what angle we see it. Tomato, Toemahto. The thing about the theater is that there will always be new roles, hot new directors and someone looking to prove themselves.
Roll Call. Who do you want to be today?
Works Cited (Just the links, not MLA style)
http://classiclit.about.com/od/romeoandjuliet/a/aa_romeojulietq.htm
http://www.plyrics.com/lyrics/brighteyes/firstdayofmylife.html
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Love
http://www.lyricsmania.com/back_against_the_wall_lyrics_cage_the_elephant.html
http://www.plyrics.com/lyrics/motioncitysoundtrack/makeoutkids.html
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0137523/quotes
http://www.azlyrics.com/lyrics/cake/shortskirtlongjacket.html
http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=biter
Sunday, January 24, 2010
Thursday, January 21, 2010
Hw 36- Comments
To Ian:
Thesis: A hero's journey is a blue print in which corporations and governments use to control the masses.
Revised: Often, the path that a hero takes is pioneered, processed and given to the preformers of cool.
First Paragraph: hoildays are days in which poeple do actions and try there best to mmake there lives for that day match a pictuer they seen in a coloring book or some thing. there is never that much of a surprise in the sense that your day should be like xyz what ever that might mean if it is gifts , candy , giving money , fire works or what ever there is a preconviced notion on how the day should play out any thing less sucks.
Revised: Holidays are times when people dress up and imitate something that seems much cooler than they actually are. Its almost as if life has been dumbed down to something so simple that it seems like our days have little to no meaning at all. It really is something to think about. Why has pretending become a hobby?
Thoughts: I think that Ian's paper is interesting and it has great tone and an awesome topic. I just think that his ideas should be a little bit clearer for the reader. Otherwise, it's am awesome start and an interesting paper.
To Francesca: Okay so what I'm getting is that you're focusing on how teens are often targeted to project this image of cool. I agree. I think that you opened up your paper well. I like the questions but maybe you should save them for when the reader has had more time to adjust to what you're getting at. Your intro should just state your thesis, something like: teens are used to project the image of "cool". You have some great ideas maybe you should tie in moew images of cool and how we can possibly escape the trap? Good start.
Thesis: A hero's journey is a blue print in which corporations and governments use to control the masses.
Revised: Often, the path that a hero takes is pioneered, processed and given to the preformers of cool.
First Paragraph: hoildays are days in which poeple do actions and try there best to mmake there lives for that day match a pictuer they seen in a coloring book or some thing. there is never that much of a surprise in the sense that your day should be like xyz what ever that might mean if it is gifts , candy , giving money , fire works or what ever there is a preconviced notion on how the day should play out any thing less sucks.
Revised: Holidays are times when people dress up and imitate something that seems much cooler than they actually are. Its almost as if life has been dumbed down to something so simple that it seems like our days have little to no meaning at all. It really is something to think about. Why has pretending become a hobby?
Thoughts: I think that Ian's paper is interesting and it has great tone and an awesome topic. I just think that his ideas should be a little bit clearer for the reader. Otherwise, it's am awesome start and an interesting paper.
To Francesca: Okay so what I'm getting is that you're focusing on how teens are often targeted to project this image of cool. I agree. I think that you opened up your paper well. I like the questions but maybe you should save them for when the reader has had more time to adjust to what you're getting at. Your intro should just state your thesis, something like: teens are used to project the image of "cool". You have some great ideas maybe you should tie in moew images of cool and how we can possibly escape the trap? Good start.
Monday, January 18, 2010
Hw - 35 My Hot Draft of My Cool Paper
Intro:
The movies, the books, the shows, the songs and mostly people have shown us that "cool" is a chase. We are all running, jogging, skipping (you know who you are), walking and rolling towards this glowing mixture of a silver and gold platter of coolness. What we don't accept is that WE WILL NEVER (yeah I mean NEVER) REACH IT. Dress it up how you like, change the angle of the picture as you see fit but its never how we want it to be. Cool is a state of mind, we dress it up & design our own definitions as we see fit.
Leading You On:
There is the image of the "cool" guy that we all have in our heads. You know the universal 'All American Bad Ass' He's got the big Harley and wears that leather jacket year round. We have been tricked to think that this guy is cool. Who made him cool? Why do all the girls mindlessly flutter in his direction? Its because he fits the image of what cool is.
If its sooooooo easy why aren't we all cool?
Dunno. The image of what "cool" is seems to change faster than people can spontaneously change to fit the next image. Its a matter of anticipating the next move of the opponent. Which might be harder. If you know what "cool" is you can make yourself into what its defined as. We depend on cool...no we depend on the image of cool. If you fit the definition of the word you become the word. Ta-da! We used to be forced to think that there was only one way to be cool. Now.. not so much. Cool is mostly what you make it out to be. Go be a Rebel With A Cause.
Sugar, Spice & Everything Nice:
Creating a new definition to cool is not an easy task. Most of us see cool as how much we get noticed by our followe...I mean friends. When you're making your new mixture you've got to think about what people already concieve as cool and put your own twist to it. This usually never works, because when people "add their own twists" it just ends up being a bulls*** ripoff of the original. Like
Girl that doesn't give a s*** ---> Girl that doesn't give a s*** but goes to SGI
I mean we can't all be original. But we get so caught up in the scene of "look at me" we don't realize that we are just making carbon copies of ourselves. Once people realize that cool is all in your head we might actually get somewhere. What's really cool is how many cool definitions there are and how many people fit the guidelines of that.
What's weird is how every kind of cool is judged. Who the hell gave anyone the right to judge cool? What gives us our basis of cool? Babies are cool. They don't give a s***. We should all just not give a s***. It sounds all glorious, but even that makes us all the same.
Autograph:
As teens its in the contract to be...teens. To buy up everything we see and to say that "I Is The Way I Are". Teenagers are often blamed as the pioneers of cool. Are we? Sure you might see the uh 'occasional' guy with his pants low enough to see his boxers. But its not his fault that other guys catch on to it and call it their own. How can you be sure that you aren't forging someones signature when you button up your plaid shirt in the morning? or when you decide to tip your baseball cap to the right?
Is it too much to ask who are we really? Does changing my color ink make me fake?
Conclusion:
- Solution
- Quotes
Additions:
- Quotes!!
The movies, the books, the shows, the songs and mostly people have shown us that "cool" is a chase. We are all running, jogging, skipping (you know who you are), walking and rolling towards this glowing mixture of a silver and gold platter of coolness. What we don't accept is that WE WILL NEVER (yeah I mean NEVER) REACH IT. Dress it up how you like, change the angle of the picture as you see fit but its never how we want it to be. Cool is a state of mind, we dress it up & design our own definitions as we see fit.
Leading You On:
There is the image of the "cool" guy that we all have in our heads. You know the universal 'All American Bad Ass' He's got the big Harley and wears that leather jacket year round. We have been tricked to think that this guy is cool. Who made him cool? Why do all the girls mindlessly flutter in his direction? Its because he fits the image of what cool is.
If its sooooooo easy why aren't we all cool?
Dunno. The image of what "cool" is seems to change faster than people can spontaneously change to fit the next image. Its a matter of anticipating the next move of the opponent. Which might be harder. If you know what "cool" is you can make yourself into what its defined as. We depend on cool...no we depend on the image of cool. If you fit the definition of the word you become the word. Ta-da! We used to be forced to think that there was only one way to be cool. Now.. not so much. Cool is mostly what you make it out to be. Go be a Rebel With A Cause.
Sugar, Spice & Everything Nice:
Creating a new definition to cool is not an easy task. Most of us see cool as how much we get noticed by our followe...I mean friends. When you're making your new mixture you've got to think about what people already concieve as cool and put your own twist to it. This usually never works, because when people "add their own twists" it just ends up being a bulls*** ripoff of the original. Like
Girl that doesn't give a s*** ---> Girl that doesn't give a s*** but goes to SGI
I mean we can't all be original. But we get so caught up in the scene of "look at me" we don't realize that we are just making carbon copies of ourselves. Once people realize that cool is all in your head we might actually get somewhere. What's really cool is how many cool definitions there are and how many people fit the guidelines of that.
What's weird is how every kind of cool is judged. Who the hell gave anyone the right to judge cool? What gives us our basis of cool? Babies are cool. They don't give a s***. We should all just not give a s***. It sounds all glorious, but even that makes us all the same.
Autograph:
As teens its in the contract to be...teens. To buy up everything we see and to say that "I Is The Way I Are". Teenagers are often blamed as the pioneers of cool. Are we? Sure you might see the uh 'occasional' guy with his pants low enough to see his boxers. But its not his fault that other guys catch on to it and call it their own. How can you be sure that you aren't forging someones signature when you button up your plaid shirt in the morning? or when you decide to tip your baseball cap to the right?
Is it too much to ask who are we really? Does changing my color ink make me fake?
Conclusion:
- Solution
- Quotes
Additions:
- Quotes!!
Wednesday, January 13, 2010
Hw 34- X Marks The Spot
I think its funny how there are both many ways to define cool as well as one universal definition. What gets me confused, is how there are "bad cools" and "good cools" only depending on your culture map of course.
Now to the rich preppies, its cool to wear sweater vests and tousle your hair in the wind. I'm sure that in Brooklyn its much more cooler to drink 40's at the chicken joint.
What I don't get is who decides what kind of cool is good and which is bad. I think that the deciders of this comes from the society that you live in. Here in this capitalist society, the whit--er.. I mean the right thing to do is go to college (if you don't get daddy's company) and get a job, then eventually have people working for you.
Now, to me it seems that's more often than not, Black people get rich by:
a) playing basketball
b) rapping and/or singing
c) Playing basketball and/or singing then making a reality TV show about the drama surrounding their life.
I mean don't get me wrong, whatever floats your boats. But it seems like there is ONE culture map and and that ONE culture map is passed down. But once in a while (literally only once in a while) some rebel or some outcast breaks the chain.
The break in the chain results in that one person breaking the norm and proving a point by making an example out of themselves. I believe that alot of making a new culture map is at least 70% of self motivation. It also seems that we like to trade off our culture maps.
Like the White kid who thinks that "Fiddy Cent" is "fresh. Or the Black kid that likes sushi. Now for some reason, breaking norms is so ABSURD. It's ILLOGICAL! WE CAN'T HAVE IT. Is it cause we get bored at looking at our own maps. We revert back to kindergarden and the whole "I want his toy" routine.
What if thinking about cool makes us uncool? Obsessing over how you look or sound or how you want to appear might make it look like we all try too hard...what the hell?
Does cool mean you have to be like the people that surround you? Imagine a group of teens all the same interests and tastes. And one of them, just one of them starts to like something different and starts to get in to different kinds of works and blah.. all of a sudden an so and so is an outcast.
It makes me think that it is forbidden to even think about changing your social map. Its almost as if we are locked in to the roles or the class structures that we are born in to, its like a gang... Once you're in you're in for life. And if you manage to make it out alive you have to go through some kind of crazy initiation to join another gang.
Why is it that "lurking late" is bad and "inheriting" is good? I mean its like we live in a society but we don't understand it. This place is like a mind boggling, crazy, f***** up never ending game of Life.
Your roll.
Now to the rich preppies, its cool to wear sweater vests and tousle your hair in the wind. I'm sure that in Brooklyn its much more cooler to drink 40's at the chicken joint.
What I don't get is who decides what kind of cool is good and which is bad. I think that the deciders of this comes from the society that you live in. Here in this capitalist society, the whit--er.. I mean the right thing to do is go to college (if you don't get daddy's company) and get a job, then eventually have people working for you.
Now, to me it seems that's more often than not, Black people get rich by:
a) playing basketball
b) rapping and/or singing
c) Playing basketball and/or singing then making a reality TV show about the drama surrounding their life.
I mean don't get me wrong, whatever floats your boats. But it seems like there is ONE culture map and and that ONE culture map is passed down. But once in a while (literally only once in a while) some rebel or some outcast breaks the chain.
The break in the chain results in that one person breaking the norm and proving a point by making an example out of themselves. I believe that alot of making a new culture map is at least 70% of self motivation. It also seems that we like to trade off our culture maps.
Like the White kid who thinks that "Fiddy Cent" is "fresh. Or the Black kid that likes sushi. Now for some reason, breaking norms is so ABSURD. It's ILLOGICAL! WE CAN'T HAVE IT. Is it cause we get bored at looking at our own maps. We revert back to kindergarden and the whole "I want his toy" routine.
What if thinking about cool makes us uncool? Obsessing over how you look or sound or how you want to appear might make it look like we all try too hard...what the hell?
Does cool mean you have to be like the people that surround you? Imagine a group of teens all the same interests and tastes. And one of them, just one of them starts to like something different and starts to get in to different kinds of works and blah.. all of a sudden an so and so is an outcast.
It makes me think that it is forbidden to even think about changing your social map. Its almost as if we are locked in to the roles or the class structures that we are born in to, its like a gang... Once you're in you're in for life. And if you manage to make it out alive you have to go through some kind of crazy initiation to join another gang.
Why is it that "lurking late" is bad and "inheriting" is good? I mean its like we live in a society but we don't understand it. This place is like a mind boggling, crazy, f***** up never ending game of Life.
Your roll.
Sunday, January 10, 2010
Hw - 33 Only The Cool Kids Can Outline
Outlining my cool ass paper.
Thesis? ... Maybe: being cool keeps us from being ourselves.
Thesis? ... Maybe: cool is a state of mind, we make design definitions to our benefit.
Thesis?... Maybe: coolness is a tragic social trap that pushes us into constant circles.
Thought: If we all have different definitions of cool then how come we all aren't cool?
Is it possible to think of or know of all of the definitions of cool? Why is being cool so important. We want to feel important and be important. Focus: on how teens play up/down the idea of "cool". Connect cool to music, TV shows, people, catch phrases, tattoos.... Why is cool important? Who makes cool important?
Um... that's all I can come up with now.
Thesis? ... Maybe: being cool keeps us from being ourselves.
Thesis? ... Maybe: cool is a state of mind, we make design definitions to our benefit.
Thesis?... Maybe: coolness is a tragic social trap that pushes us into constant circles.
Thought: If we all have different definitions of cool then how come we all aren't cool?
Is it possible to think of or know of all of the definitions of cool? Why is being cool so important. We want to feel important and be important. Focus: on how teens play up/down the idea of "cool". Connect cool to music, TV shows, people, catch phrases, tattoos.... Why is cool important? Who makes cool important?
Um... that's all I can come up with now.
Wednesday, January 6, 2010
Hw 32- Psst... Once Upon A Time
I believe that there is such a thing as reading too much in to something. People who get tattoo's have their reasons. But I think that it is believable for someone to get a tattoo and not be in pursuit of the attention of others.
On the other hand tattoo's can be a total "attention grabber". First impressions are golden. I believe that society has made many people believe that tattoo's come with EPIC STORIES! so naturally you want...no you need to know them. You think to yourself how awesome and cool it would be to know someone that has an EPIC STORY! to tell.
Knowing someone that others see as cool automatically makes us cool. Being cool is being SOCIAL. It makes you much more interesting when you can share your EPIC STORIES! about meeting EPIC PEOPLE! This act of speaking makes you popular and wanted.
But no one likes to be a sidekick, you want to be Batman. You want to run the show. This causes the chain reaction. You now want a tattoo of your own so that you can be Batman and some poor schmuck will be your Robin.
This leads you to have an EPIC STORY! of your own. We like this outcome.
There is also the theory of how cool means being close to the people around you. Take celebs for instance. Like 1/2 of the band Tegan and Sara. Tegan (In the picture) has several tattoo's. I think she's cool for other reasons but lets focus on her "tatt's". It makes fans feel like they know "celebs" when we know their EPIC STORY! behind their tattoo's.
Having EPIC STORIES! makes us feel important. We only feel important when other people make us feel important. This is key. We have to get noticed without seeming desperate for people to look at us. We are always silently screaming LOOK AT ME LOOK AT ME trying to get people to pick up on our signals.
Now, what would make people look at you and automatically want to talk to you?
A TATTOO!
All we ever want is to work our way up to the top. We want our very own Batcave and we want to drive our own Batmobiles. We like to feel in charge because we figure that not alot of people have the chance...better yet the right to be in charge. So being in charge makes us feel different. Like outcasts. "Wow I'm actually in charge. No one else knows what this feels like. I'm different from everyone else not in charge"
But in the end we are all outcasts with the same dream.
On the other hand tattoo's can be a total "attention grabber". First impressions are golden. I believe that society has made many people believe that tattoo's come with EPIC STORIES! so naturally you want...no you need to know them. You think to yourself how awesome and cool it would be to know someone that has an EPIC STORY! to tell.
Knowing someone that others see as cool automatically makes us cool. Being cool is being SOCIAL. It makes you much more interesting when you can share your EPIC STORIES! about meeting EPIC PEOPLE! This act of speaking makes you popular and wanted.
But no one likes to be a sidekick, you want to be Batman. You want to run the show. This causes the chain reaction. You now want a tattoo of your own so that you can be Batman and some poor schmuck will be your Robin.
This leads you to have an EPIC STORY! of your own. We like this outcome.
There is also the theory of how cool means being close to the people around you. Take celebs for instance. Like 1/2 of the band Tegan and Sara. Tegan (In the picture) has several tattoo's. I think she's cool for other reasons but lets focus on her "tatt's". It makes fans feel like they know "celebs" when we know their EPIC STORY! behind their tattoo's.
Having EPIC STORIES! makes us feel important. We only feel important when other people make us feel important. This is key. We have to get noticed without seeming desperate for people to look at us. We are always silently screaming LOOK AT ME LOOK AT ME trying to get people to pick up on our signals.
Now, what would make people look at you and automatically want to talk to you?
A TATTOO!
All we ever want is to work our way up to the top. We want our very own Batcave and we want to drive our own Batmobiles. We like to feel in charge because we figure that not alot of people have the chance...better yet the right to be in charge. So being in charge makes us feel different. Like outcasts. "Wow I'm actually in charge. No one else knows what this feels like. I'm different from everyone else not in charge"
But in the end we are all outcasts with the same dream.
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