Song

Blowing in the wind  Bob Dylan

How many roads must a man walk down
Before you call him a man?
How many seas must a white dove sail
Before she sleeps in the sand?
Yes, and how many times must the cannon balls fly
Before they're forever banned?
The answer, my friend, is blowin' in the wind
The answer is blowin' in the wind

Yes, and how many years can a mountain exist
Before it's washed to the sea?
Yes, and how many years can some people exist
Before they're allowed to be free?
Yes, and how many times can a man turn his head
And pretend that he just doesn't see?
The answer, my friend, is blowin' in the wind
The answer is blowin' in the wind

Yes, and…

Yes, and how many times must a man look up
Before he can see the sky?
Yes, and how many ears must one man have
Before he can hear people cry?
Yes, and how many deaths will it take 'till he knows
That too many people have died?
The answer, my friend, is blowin' in the wind
The answer is blowin' in the wind

 

Written by Nobel Prize winner Bob Dylan, Blowin in the wind is one of the song which has the strongest impact on the whole world. The song was written by Bob Dylan at 1962 and was widely spread to the whole country. It was the time of Vietnam war, during when young people was drafted to serve the country while they are already doubting whether they should do so. At the time of country music’s golden age, the song was popular among college students, who’s trying to use country music to express their idea. The song stand against the idea of “being a man” or being a martyr to give their to the war. It was just like a rebellion against the authority who’s asking people to involve themselves in the war, the idea expressed in the song had been used in many circumstances all over the world. Bob Dylan asked a couple of ‘wired ’ questions like how many times must the cannon balls fly before they're forever banned and asking when can people hear other’s crying. Innocent people dies as cannon balls fly. Those questions contains a very strong emotion to make people think about those brutalities of war and victims’ suffering. It seemed that all of those question have a very easy answer—and it’s quite obvious. People are just pretending that they don’t know and ignoring those sounds. The shaking voice of Bob Dylan or Peter Paul & Mary along with a slow, sad melody are just expressing those helplessness and sadness created by the war—and not just war. When people are facing injustice, unfairness and suffering, those lyrics and melody can still give us empathy. Yes, the answer is blowing in the wind, in the broad light, everybody can see it—as long as you care. The song still have a strong influence today, it was widely used by films(like Forrest Gump) and in a variety of occasions.

 

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 Advertisements in 30 year

  I’m choosing apple as an example because it’s almost the first word bumped into my head when I heard the term of advertisement. It’s also because the time: 30 years:　silicon valley’s rise had taken place in past 30 years. And apple’s exporting American culture to the whole world like no other tech company can in those past years, and even through Apple’s advertisement seemed to be in the same style all the time and it’s classic and fashionable even in 1984,there were a bunch of changes had taken place.

   First thing is the style. Comparing to the drawing icon, apple changed its icon to industrial style. Same changes happened in the advertisement they made. While emphasizing the idea, apple are now focusing on their products and what the products can do. Comparing to celebrities in the famous think different advertisement and the sportswoman in “1984”, now the characters in apple’s advertisement feels more like someone in our daily lives. It feels like the advertisements are changing from 2D to 3D and looks fancier.

    The last row showed that advertisement in Japan and Chinese speaking area( including mainland China, Hong Kong, Macau, Taiwan and Singapore) When watching the advertisements on TV, we can also noticed that apple’s advertisements are now usually coming up with people with diverse cultural background. In the age of globalization, the American culture have more connection with the world(Even the world other then the western world) then ever before, and it’s been totally different from 30yrd before.

 

Barbie

Non-traditional Barbie.

As far as I’m concerned, Barbie got so many categories ranging at a variety of costumes as well as different looking (like the outfits of different races\nationality) It was always considered that Barbie should be young and beautiful as it stands for the culture which always emphasize individual’s excellence pretty much in every material field. It’s often Fancy cloths, gorgeous looking, attractive body shape and etc. It’s understandable that the “fat Barbie” was categorized as a non-traditional Barbie because obesity was usually considered as the opposite of beauty and excellence. From my point of view, the overweight Barbie does not imply obesity is standing for beauty or encourage people to gain weight. It looks more like something ironic if we take it negatively—the Barbie doesn’t have the same nice face as the traditional. And it was made in to the unbeautiful side of “obesity”. Probably the one who designed hadn’t even tried to make it beautiful. However, if it was taken positively and since Barbie always stands for the “good” sorts of lifestyles, making obsessed Barbie could also means that the mass culture is accepting the overweight group or people as part of ‘beautiful’ and ‘fancy’ lifestyle. As something presents our value and being role model of children, obsessed Barbie showed that the mass culture has been accepting a wider range of elements like the beauty of the overweighed people. It could be really helpful if it’s taken into good use.

 

 

comic strip panel

The comic strip panel I chose was from DC’S New 52: Forever Evil. As we all know, superman and Batman are the icon of a bunch of superheroes as they were created and developed during the period of great depression and getting more and more famous after. At that time, the crime rates keep going high and the economy crisis are still there, not to mention the terror of world war II. Then there comes the golden age of superheroes, while every hero stands for justice and seems so perfect and undefeatable. Then the changes occurred and brought superheroes with charms and energy they never had before—they became complicated and started to face their own twisted fate and weakness. Superheroes no long wins forever and villains no longer stands for the “absolute evil”. The heroes became the god among us, with humanity in them. The authors started to discuss humanity and divinity—or superiority presented on heroes. And while the plots and conflicts and getting more and more complicated, the edge of heroes and villains started to disappeared. And while the anthropocentrism’s blooming, Lux Luther was created as an anti-hero. I still got a deep impression on what he said: “When I see you, I see something no man can ever be. I see the end.
The end of our potential. The end of our achievements. Then end of our dreams. You are my nightmare.” It’s no longer about justice. It’s about humanity. So when those anti-heroes keeps coming up, the discussion of justice and humanity has been further then ever. It also presents the different prospective among American. So when an anti-hero, Lex Luther saved Superman, his rival, such heroic move of an anti-hero created so many things to talk and gave us with limitless boundary of imagination on the characters. When the authority’s losing people’s trust, when the edges of heroes and villains starts to disappear, what will people be like? Such kinds of questions also occurs from time to time in our society (Like the Watergate scandal incident)  It represents the mass culture’s confusion and conflicts facing such kind of problems,

Comic Strip

This comic strip does not talk about history specifically but it does talk about new technology and how that clashes with the older generations. In this comic these two older people cannot figure out how to work this new technology. They are interacting by trying to figure out what is going on. I like this comic strip because it shows just how fast technology is changing.

Comic Strip

I chose this comic strip because it has an interesting narrative on self-expectations. The comic features a boy who just scored a B on an assignment and depicts how proud of himself he is. The character also describes how he thinks that his mother will be proud of him for scoring as he did on the assignment. Then the boy's classmate shows that she received a perfect grade on her assignment, which makes him feel bad about his grade.

Comic Strip

               




                       I chose this comic because I think it represents important issues in our society about the relationship that Americans have with technology and how that affects our relationships with the people around us. Google is obviously one of the most powerful technology companies in the world and the fact that they are now a part if this girl's life changes the relationship that she has with her boyfriend. Technology has been a beneficial part of a lot of people's lives. However technology allows us to communicate indirectly and become part of another world, this it less necessary for the direct communication skills and other social graces that were once considered very important. The comic is implying that now that she works for google, she has lost some of those capabilities. I think it is sad because our communication skills and relationships with those arounds us are some of the things that make us distinctly human. I feel that I often see a group of people who are together, but they are not interacting because everyone is on their phone, ipad, etc. Technology has obviously brought benefits to our society, but it has also brought some unintended consequences that people should be worried about.