April 28, 2014

1. Teen Movie Packet Annotations (in class)

2. Complete your blog post on "teen movies"

3. Watch (again) a "teen movie"

1. Write down a list of all the teen comedies you have seen.
2. Write your won definition of "teen comedy." Do the stereotypes mentioned above still hold true in the films you have seen? Has there been a shift in the portrayal of teens? What expectation do you have about the characters, setting, and plot of the teen movies you see?
3. Pick a "teen movie" that you enjoyed. Write a review of it on your blog. Consider the following when writing your review:

• What did you think of the humor used in the film?
• What did you think of the performances of the main characters?
• What other information can you find out about the film? Has it achieved any awards?
• What did you think of the music?
• What were the most memorable or funny scenes?
• What type of person might enjoy this film?

April 15, 2014

Movie Poster Analysis

Cliche Posters

Rad Posters

How to Analyze?

Analysis 1

Analysis 2

Today we're working on analyzing the above posters on our own. You will review possible answers at the end and compare/contrast.

Homework for Tuesday:

Choose two or three posters that you think you can analyze. You will select a final one to analyze, so make sure your choices are strong.

Purpose
Color
Key Image
Background
Realism
Text (font and color)
Tag Line
Layout
Audience
Reaction

April 9, 2014

NPR Trailer Article

Please complete a blog post where you analyze TWO movie trailers of your choice. Choose trailers that are really different from one another.

1. Post the trailers to your blog.

2. Analyze/Identify/Discuss the following for EACH of the trailers:

Genre:

Narrative:

Location:

Characters:

Voice Over:

Theme(s):

Pacing/Mood:

On-screen Graphics:

Music and other sound effects:

How does the trailer begin?

How does the trailer end?

Was it effectively edited?
The rise
Turn line
Montage
Main title reveal
Hits (drums at the end?)

April 7, 2014

Today we looked at a list of the AFI top 100 films.
Here is the list we worked with.
If you'd like to check it out, then here is the official ballot with 400 nominated films.
Check off the films you have seen.
Put a 1/2 next to the films you've seen a portion of.
Put a star next to the films you've heard of.

The films that many of you have seen from this list are as follows:

The Wizard of Oz
Star Wars
ET
To Kill a Mockingbird
Forrest Gump
Titanic
Toy Story
Snow White
The Sound of Music
Lord of the Rings
Jaws
Rocky
Raiders of the Lost Ark

Your assignment is to write a blog post where you select a movie (or more than one movie) to add to this list. What else should be on here? Why? Make sure you embed a trailer for or a clip of the movie in your post.  Good Luck!

March 24

Why do I remember this film from my childhood? I have no idea. I don't love baseball. I especially didn't like it when I was a kid. Normally lines from films (at least from my childhood) that pop into my head come from films like The Goonies or Ferris Bueller's Day Off, but not this one. And this one pops up often.


  

Anyway, these presentations we're going to do are going to take, well, forever. We've got to do something else. Something fun that is kind of silly but not a waste of time. You need another project type grade this quarter. This will be it. Here are a couple of ideas for you. We're going to start shifting from music to television/film pretty soon.

APPROPRIATE REFERENCES ONLY PLEASE!

Think about things from your childhood or shows/musicians/something related to pop culture that you are/were obsessed with and create a Ben and Jerry's flavor (make sure you create the image/packaging) AND look at the first image and come up with one "pop art" (or as someone from Maine might say "soda art") inspired piece.

 

Fake Ben and Jerry's Flavors (Pop Culture References Galore)

WARNING: Some of these are inappropriate. Make sure yours are appropriate.

Blank Template

Right now my son loves Spiderman. A few months ago he was into My Little Pony, but only because of "Rainbow Dash" (he insists RD is a boy). The Big Bang Theory is pretty awesome to him as is Olivia Wilde. He keeps talking about the "gorgeous" lady on the magazine. Anyway, some of these are pretty easy to work with, but others would be a bit confusing or more difficult. Spiderman is easy because he's more ubiquitous than Rainbow Dash. The Big Bang Theory characters might be fun to work with, but Olivia Wilde? She would be much more difficult to portray on a pop can OR as a flavor of ice cream.

The pop can is due on April 1st.
The Ben and Jerry's flavor is due on April 3rd.

March 19th

http://www.dayofhappiness.net/#vote

I love the idea of this project as happiness is a wonderful thing to celebrate. I hope you have a great day tomorrow.

Do this project for fun (appropriate images please).

For extra credit (I rarely give extra credit, but this is a chance for you to be an actual part of something that is going on in popular culture right now). Email your image to me with a quick explanation.

See if it makes the wall!

Due on Monday: Music Projects...We've been working on these in class for two weeks now. They should be great.

Grunge

• What do you notice about the people in all three pictures, especially the teenagers?
• If you had been a teenager then, how well do you think you would have been able to relate to these characters?
• Remember that there were no Internet, no Facebook, and no cell phones in the 1980s. If you did not feel you were being represented in mass media, where might you turn? Where might you find art or culture that you felt represented your world and your outlook?

Popular music in the 90s before acts like Nirvana and Pearl Jam included the following:
MC Hammer
Paula Abdul
Madonna
C&C Music Factory
Brian Adams
Celine Dion

Interview

• What is their general attitude toward life?
• How would you describe their appearance, especially compared to the characters in the television shows from the 1980s?
• Why might their general attitude have resonated with teenagers in this time period?

Paranoid (Black Sabbath)

Rise Above (Black Flag)

Smells Like Teen Spirit (Nirvana)

Alive (Pearl Jam)

• Do you notice any similarities in instrumentation and/or vocals? What are they?
• What do you hear in terms of dynamics? Are there contrasts between loud and soft? If so, what does this contribute to the song?
• What do you notice about the performers’ clothing and appearance? Do you see any similarities in aesthetic?
• What is similar about the attitude of the performers the different videos?
• What specifically do the Grunge songs (Mudhoney, Nirvana and Pearl Jam) appear to draw from the earlier Punk and Heavy Metal performances?

Write a three paragraph response to what we've looked at/discussed today.
Paragraph 1: Describe the music and performance

• What does the music sound like?
• What earlier musical influences does it draw upon?
• What do you notice about dynamics (how loud and soft the music is)?
• How would you describe the vocals?

Paragraph 2: What does the music mean?

• What are the songs about?
• What are the main themes?
• Why do you thing the songs were written?
• What general ideas and outlook are they trying to express?
• How does the way the performers look and behave help convey these messages?

Paragraph 3: Describe your reaction to the music.

• How effective do you find the songs and performances?
• Do they succeed in conveying their ideas to the audience?
• Who do you think would find this music most meaningful?
• Do you think "grunge" is a fair description of what you have seen and heard?

March 3, 2014

Concerts:

Outside/inside
When?
With whom?
How old?
Chairs?
best/worst parts?
opening act?
planned?
funny story?
favorite song/moment?
crowd?
time of year?
where were you?
what did you wear?
did you buy anything?


Who would you like to see?
Why haven't you gone?
Who would you go with?
Why?
Where would you want to sit?
What do you think it would be like?

Homework:
Ask the above questions to an adult who has been to a concert.. Please record the answers and be ready to share them with the class.

February 27, 2014

NPR 6 Songs
You need to do the above assignment. What is your life story in six songs?

If you are stuck, then you can answer the following questions to help guide you. I need the reasons for these as well. The reasons need to be posted to the blog by the beginning of class on Thursday.

You can either make another grooveshark playlist OR embed the songs in your post. I'm posting an example below. I've only answered the first question. You need to answer ALL of them.

1. What was the first song you ever bought (downloaded, whatever)?
2. What song gets you dancing (or maybe pumped up/thinking about dancing)?
3.  What song takes you back to your childhood?
4. What is the perfect love song?
5. What song would you want at your funeral? (I know that it's morbid.)
6. What song makes you "you"?

When I was a kid you didn't buy songs. Well, I guess you did, but they were called singles and were like five bucks. You could get cassette singles of top ten music, but that's not the kind of music I listened to. I loved classic rock, and though my taste eventually became more eclectic,  it was the only kind of music worth listening to. It makes complete sense that the first album I purchased was Led Zeppelin's runes album (Led Zeppelin IV). I hated "Stairway to Heaven" but the rest of the album was and still is amazing. My favorite song on the album (at the time) was Black Dog. While this doesn't hold true for me anymore, it's at least a little bizarre that this was my favorite song at the age of 11. This is a time when boy band music was just building toward it's eventual pinnacle (thank god) at the end of the late nineties.

February 12, 2014

You've got your songs organized and ready to go (see assignment from last class).
Today you will do the following:

1. create a grooveshark account
2. create a playlist of your songs on grooveshark.
3. make sure the songs are in the right order
4. click on share (upper right corner?)
5. change the colors of the player and such
6. click on embed
7. copy the ENTIRE html
8. go to blogger
9. create a new post
10. click on html (upper left corner--next to the word compose)
11. paste the html from grooveshark into the box
12. click save
13. click publish
14. view blog (to make sure it works)

15.  I want you to also post the reasons you have for selecting the songs. You can start this in class, but we'll be working on it on Friday as well. Don't just "save as a draft." I want you to publish so I can see your progress. If you're having trouble posting, then make sure you write it on your blog entry.

February 10, 2014

Mixtapes, Break-ups, and Make-ups

Today we're going to listen to a portion of a radio show titled This American Life. The piece is about the perfect break-up song. While the voices are annoying to some, there is lots of good "stuff" in here. Listen to the first 20minutes or so (if you aren't in class while we listen).

This American Life

What is the perfect break up song?

Classwork today (due at the end of class): Find the perfect break up song (or one of them) and tell me what makes it so perfect.


HOMEWORK FOR WEDNESDAY: Complete the first three things on the following list.
#1. The Perfect Recipient
#2. The Perfect Message
#3. The Perfect Songs
#4. The Perfect Order
#5. The Perfect Title

Mixtape Assignment

You need to create your own "mixtape" but you are going to use grooveshark to make a playlist. 

February 5, 2014

Your post is going to be about a significant (or insignificant) memory where music plays a role. There are lots of directions you could go with this. I'll list a few topics that I could write about. My brother was six years younger than me and couldn't pronounce the "sh" sound. He always replaced it with a "t." Thus shoes became tues and our chevy was a tevy. He went through a phase (it lasted years actually) where he would do anything we asked him to. Spit at the birds, dance, whatever. At this point in his life singing was what we asked him to do the most. His sweet little baby voice singing "you can't be twenty on tugar mountain" is a really vivid memory for me. While my mother was the Neil Young fan in our house, he had been introduced to the song by my father. We all had.

Dad didn't love music with the same exuberance as my mother. She was a singer in a local band and sang constantly. In the grocery store she hummed, unless there was a song playing that she knew, then she belted it out. People would tell her she had a lovely voice. I would always watch these conversations from a distance. As soon as I was old enough to wander on my own I did. My mom would sing Elton John, Billy Joel, and Annie Lennox all with the same gusto and I wanted none of it, at least outwardly. On the inside I think I was a bit jealous of the fact that she could more than carry a tune and she and the rest of my siblings could have formed an even more youthful Partridge Family band. Mom would sing, Uriah would play the trumpet, Annah would play guitar, and Isaiah would just hang out on the drums or whatever.

Beginning of the Course "Stuff" (February 4th)

Some Basics

Before we go any further, I'd like to make you aware of a few expectations I have for this class (and all of my classes really).

1. Be present

I'm not just talking about being in the classroom, because we all know that we can be in a room and our minds can be elsewhere. To be present you need to turn off your phones and screens (unless you are truly only typing) and be here. Be in these moments. I plan on making them as engaging as possible and I need you to be present in order for this to work.

2. Late work

Any work handed in late (not emailed to me...actually handed in) will not exceed the standard.

I will not accept late work after two weeks.

I will have Academic Initiative AI grades.

• on time and amazing (super polished)  = 100
• on time and good (maybe a few errors) = 85. 
• one class period late = 65
• more than one class period late =50
• more than two weeks late (no credit for AI)

3. Respect

Be safe.

Be kind.

Be gentle. 

This is my mantra with my children and also in my classroom. Be kind to each other. Be gentle with your words and your actions. I sure hope I don't need to review safety :)

4. Work hard

If you work hard, then you will do fine.

Today we looked at the superbowl halftime show AND commercials. We looked for patterns in advertisements (effective or not) and came up with the following (there are more):

• funny
• kids
• animals
• emotional appeal
• music
• nostalgia
• celebrities

Your homework is to write a blog post about commercials or the halftime show. You need to include at least one link in your post. We also generated some ideas for this on the board. 

• look at the history of advertisements with a specific product
• discuss why an ad was/was not successful
• discuss the "hype" or "backlash" from an ad

January 31

Today we looked at the Grammy Awards a bit more in depth. You'll be presenting on Tuesday.

Look for the following (over the last 25 years)

• patterns
• interesting things to notes
• post three videos to your blog
• note the best/worst pieces you found

New Artist

Album

Song

HMWK:

Watch the Superbowl (for the commercials) OR watch the commercials the day after (online).

January 29, 2014

The last time we met, your assignment was to create your blog and write your first post. In your first post you were supposed to write about why you were taking pop culture class and what interests you.

Today we're talking about the Grammy awards.

Grammys

We watched three performances as a class (Lorde; Kendrick Lamar; and Daft Punk, Pharell, et cetera.) You wrote twitter updates (complete with hashtags #overused) for the performances.
You need to do the following:

1. Write a total of ten twitter status updates (tweets) while you watch five performances (including the three we watched today).
2. Post the twitter updates to your blog.