The Samples - No Room
The cold January air sent chills down my spine as my sister Susan and I hustled down the streets of New Haven, Connecticut. Our destination was a small club called Toads' Place. When we finally arrived at the club I was relieved to feel the warm air inside begin to restore the numbness that had taken over my body. We made our way in to find that the club was virtually empty. This was to be expected, considering we arrived forty-five minutes before the opening band was scheduled to play. I immediately clung to the heaters trying to warm my frozen body, but Susan ripped me away and dragged me to the front of the stage where Andy Sheldon, the bass guitarist of The Samples, would soon stand. My sister had dreams of one day marrying him, overlooking the fact that he was married and had kids. As we waited I stood and took in the surroundings, which included walls covered with pictures, albums and autographs. Jackson Browne, Bob Marley and Bruce Springsteen are only a few of the famous names; history was seeping out of the walls. At first the club seemed large, but as the people piled in it became smaller and smaller. A thick haze of smoke began to collect above us and hover under the dim lights.
The atmosphere was perfect for an incredible show. The opening band began to play and herds of people rushed in charging their way to the front. Susan and I stood our ground bonding together to keep our ideal spot. As the opening band played, Sean Kelly, the lead singer of The Samples, video taped the crowd from behind the stage as Jeep, the drummer, ran around trying to get our attention. Eventually The Samples took the stage opening with "Did You Ever Look So Nice;" the song that would set the tone for the rest of the show.
The song opens with the quiet tap of Jeep's drumsticks and then Al joins in on the keyboard with a beat that you can't help jumping to. It becomes your pulse; the crowd begins to jump up and down in unison; if you stop you don't know what will happen. The rest of the band slowly works its way in and then Jeep jumps in on the drums completing the sound. Sean begins to sing.
In Justin Pearson's memoir, From the Graveyard of the arousal Industry, he recounts the events that occured from his early years of adolesence to the latter years of his adulthood telling the story of his unforgiving and candid life. Set in the late 1970s "Punk" rock era, From the Graveyard of the Arousal Industry offers a valuable perspective about the role culture takes in our lives, how we interact with it and how it differs from ideology.
However much we insist it is not true, our choices, actions, and thoughts are rarely uninfluenced by the conditions we are born into. Our culture and society play a huge role in the person we become, shaping our opinions and worldviews from birth. This truth is illustrated no better than in Jane Austen’s Emma. In Emma, Austen uses narrative style, characterization, and the plot device of word games to illustrate the ever-present power of hierarchical control. Emma's plot seemingly hovers around the superficial theme of strategic matchmaking. But while this is an important aspect of Emma, it serves primarily as a catalyst to illustrate the much bigger idea of societal authority present in the novel.
Emma is a character who really sees herself as being better than not only everyone else, but believes she is better than she really is. It could be argued that she sees herself as better than Mr. Elton due to the fact that she rejects him, although claims that it is for Harriet’s sake. Mr. Elton throws all of the signs of having feelings for Emma, but she is too oblivious to notice them because he is below her, but above Harriet so he is sufficient for her purposes. She has no concern as to how he feels about her, but only that Harriet has feelings for him. This can be seen as Mr. Elton confronts Emma with his feelings, and she is utterly confused, and almost offended. “I have seen you only as the admirer of my friend. In no other light could you have been more to me than a common acquaintance.” (Page 119) This quote expresses the surprise that Emma feels as Mr. Elton comes onto her in an attempt to win her over. Clearly she has mistreated him as a person, and as a potential lover since being the third son is not “good enough” for someone of her ranking and importance.
A review of the contemporary research on the negative effects of pornography is replete of scholarly and anecdotal evidence and opinion about the damages associated with viewing it. But the evidence is limited when it comes to criticism of mainstream media’s damages to certain groups, particularly young women with their romantic comedies.
Pornography can be defined as printed or visual material displaying erotic descriptions or visuals of sexual body parts or sexual activity, and is largely aimed to appeal to a male audience through sexual scenarios which often dehumanize and exploit women and their bodies. Though largely, pornography is is designed to please a masculinized audience, there are some feminists, from multiple genders, who aim to “reclaim their right to enjoy sexual images without violence and negativity” (Klinger). Ideally, pornography would be a context in which there would be a conscious movement towards eliciting a healthy reclamation of sexually charged images from all genders- especially women. Those against pornography usually emphasize the specifics of porn as it occurs in modern culture. Oftentimes anti-pornography feminists point out the extremely male-oriented vision of sexuality, the sexism, and with descriptions such as: “women presented as dehumanized sexual objects, things, or commodities; shown as enjoying humiliation, pain, or sexual assault; tied up, mutilated, or physically hurt; depicted in postures or positions of sexual submission or servility; shown with body parts- including though not limited to vagina, breast, or buttocks- exhibited such that women are reduced to those parts; women penetrated by animals or objects; and women presented in scenarios of degradation, humiliation, or torture, shown as filthy or inferior, bleeding, bruised, or hurt in a context that makes these conditions sexual” (MacKinnon). As the pornography industry is now, it contributes to the ideals of rape culture by fetishizing femininity and female “fragility” and/or “innocence”. This obviously misogynistic practice also creates a reliance on understanding...
Emma's personality is largely shaped by the nature of her upbringing. Emma had no motherly figure guiding her as she grew up, due to the fact that her mother passed away at a young age, and her governess, Miss Taylor, became her best friend instead of an authority over her. At the start of the novel Miss Taylor gets married to Mr. Weston, leaving Emma with her despondent and hypochondriac father, Mr. Woodhouse. Although Mr. Woodhouse often confines Emma to the house because of his paranoia of her being harmed, he gives her little guidance. Emma becomes accustomed to being the "princess" of her house, and she applies this role to all of her social interactions, as she develops the ability to manipulate people and control them to advance her own goals. Emma views herself with the highest regard, and feels competition and annoyance with those who threaten her position. Emma has much resentment toward Mrs. Elton, as Mrs. Elton becomes a parody for Emma's mistakes and interactions. Mrs. Elton's attachment to Jane Fairfax is much like Emma's attachment to Harriet Smith; both Mrs. Elton and Emma attach themselves to young women and try to raise their...
As defined by MacKinnon, pornography does indeed cause harm to the women. In her argument, MacKinnon successfully demonstrates how pornography displays male supremacy over women, and how women are mere sex-objects. For the purpose of this paper I will further elaborate on MacKinnon’s argument of pornography depicting women as simply sexual objects and also displaying women as being sub-human to men, almost slave-like. Lastly, I will discuss how pornography lacks literary, artistic, political, and scientific value.
Watching sexual activities through mass media is prevalent around the world. Due to the recent progress of science and technology, pornography has become a more commercialized activity and a source of prostitution. It is nonetheless certain that everybody does not consume pornography for the same purpose. Some practitioners and producers may consider it as a means of subsistence or a re-enforcement of sexual desire and arousal. Pornography is rejected by many religious organizations on a divine and societal moral basis. It may not be the same for business industries whose main objective is to making money. Humans can watch pornographic videos and become addicted to it.
...g, Lionel. "Emma and the Legend of Jane Austen." In Beyond Culture: Essays on Literature and Learning. New York: Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, 1965.
As the dark stadium filled with fire, with the sounds of guns and bombs exploding everywhere, the crazed fans yelled at the top of their lungs. The enormous stage was rumbling with the sound of a single guitar as the band slowly started their next encore performance. Soon after I realized that I was actually at the Sanitarium concert listening to Metallica play "One", I thought to my self, "Is this real, am I actually here right now?" I had a weird feeling the entire time because I had worked all summer to simply listen to music with a bunch of strangers.
By the twelfth song which was the last I could still feel the atmosphere, the pride and the gratitude of the people. We were just happy to be in their presence. For the last song the whole crowd moved together in a bizarre, alternative. dance. I am a sassy girl.
Perhaps the most formative years for rock and roll were from 1945 to 1964. It is evident that the social climate of the time period shaped music. However, the music also shaped the social climate. The musical meaning of the songs of the era is vital to an understanding of the social implications of the music. On a primitive level, the lyrics of a song give some insight into its musical meaning. Often, however, the lyrics paint an incomplete picture of a song’s true social significance. By studying other factors, such as the instruments, the melody, and the artists themselves, one can gain much more insight into a song’s musical meaning. Through this analysis, common themes of sex, drugs, and race relations are usually found.
If we describe something as pornographic, there should be at least two possible implications, one will be sexual sense, and the other being socio-cultural sense. This can be shown in the discourse of others. In recent years, visual representation analyses, particularly in Western societies, have demonstrated the fundamental subject of representation is the man (Owens, 2012). This phenomenon shows that, on one hand, men seem to be the only focal point of the representational system. De Beauvoir’s groundbreaking work The Second Sex expressed the opinion that women, on the other hand, are deemed to be the object or the other from a feminist perspective, such idea triggered second-wave feminism. Following her work, for the postmodernists to alter this representational system, they are literally staged to expose that system of power that enables certain representations while repressing others like women whose legitimacy is not represented. With regarding to pornography, it does not only portray the distribution of male power over female bodies but also violates women through representation of the sexual desire of men (Kipnis, 1993). There are many reasons for such uneven distribution of power, and cultural reason is one of the most prominent. Mainstream pornography as one of numerous types of cultural expression that function in an intrinsic social environment of gender and vulnerability
Without warning, the lights went dark. This was the moment I had been waiting for. My adrenaline went through the roof. The time had finally come that I would get to see and hear my first live concert.
Then audience members who were perfect strangers who were screaming loudest would turn to each other with knowing glances and smile because they were sharing the same excitement and connecting with one another over their love of this man’s music. There was no pushing or shoving to get closer to the stage – it wasn’t that kind of crowd. Instead, there was mutual respect for one another’s space within the confines of the too-small venue. Nobody wanted to be the person who ruined it for someone else. It was this respect that made the audience members’ connections with one another that much stronger – we were all here to listen to this wonderful man’s music and see his performance – and, of course, we were here to enjoy it.