First things first: TYLER, THE CREATOR. This is a man I can't get enough of.
He's out to fuck shit up. I think he thinks everyone takes life too seriously... that everyone needs to chill the fuck out and do what they want.
I think he's trying to get people to loosen up by setting an example... by getting in people's faces... to scare them, make them break their monotonous pace and look UP! Well actually, the stuff Tyler, the Creator does and the music he makes really shouldn't scare anyone (actually, if you're afraid of Tyler, we probably won't have much in common, as it means you might have a stick up your butt)... but most people get scared when they see someone actually doing or saying whatever they want because they've never seen it before and don't know how to react...
and because it stirs something up inside of them... something they've been trying to keep buried away deep beneath their ribcages... That something is thereal them, existing always, never gone, always ready to be shown, yearning to be shown, but rarely let out.
Tyler, the Creator is committed to getting people to let the real them out. He has so much fun doing him, I think he just wants everyone else to have fun too.
He says fuck too much to keep things light.
He makes jokes about meth to make things super light... and challenge people's perceptions of him and his own ability to continue not giving a fuck.
He wears whatever he wants to whatever event he goes to... and he probably doesn't use the word "event."
Tyler, the Creator with his girlfriend, Rachel
He will let you, and the rest of the world know if he thinks you suck, and he will not care if you get upset. It's how he feels. Now you go deal with it.
He jumps around a lot. In fact, he might jump more than he walks.
Ladies and gentlemen, Tyler, the Creator has come to fuck shit up. Here's some videos. I hope you like them... because otherwise we know what that might mean...
YONKERS- Tyler, the Creator
Tyler, the Creator interview about the making of Yonkers as well as his alter-ego, Wolf Haley
Here's a paper I wrote for my Human Rights and the Journalist class. For the paper I received an A, but what is even more interesting is the fact that I wrote this paper weeks before I published my last blog post, "Words I Never Said." I guess I have been thinking about frames and their negative consequence for a while. Interesting how a bunch of small ideas add up in a way that allows you to form a set of beliefs. That's one of the many values of metacognition: if you take time to think about what it is that you think about, specifically how frequently you think about certain things, you can actually figure out what it is that you truly believe. And it might surprise you!
In my opinion, listening to your heart and letting your mind go free is the only way eliminate external influences and concentrate on your true beliefs. In order to do this, I meditate. I meditate always. I don't set aside an hour of my day, and make a big to do about it. When I need it, no matter where I am, or who I'm with, I close my eyes and regroup. I remember what is important and I put things into perspective.
I'm rambling.
Here's the paper:
Jess Johnson
CCJN
Professor Kraeplin
6 May 2011
Response Paper Four (Optional): The Importance of Multiple Perspectives
Never before has the world been more globalized than it is now. While globalization affords us the opportunity to connect with distant cultures, it also provides us with more opportunities for conflict. Human nature expects man to react with fear and anxiety when confronted with the unknown. If the initial fear is not replaced with increased and truthful knowledge, it is likely that the fear will manifest itself into resentment, and eventually hatred. It is the understanding of the unknown that I believe prevents conflict. Therefore, I believe the most significant reading of the past semester is Amy E. Potter’s “Voodoo, Zombies, and Mermaids: U.S. Newspaper Coverage of Haiti.”
In “Voodoo,” Potter discusses the importance of frames, or perspectives, in the international news arena. While Potter admits that frames can be useful for simplifying complex ideas, she warns journalists of their simultaneous ability to limit the emergence of differing view points. Potter illustrates the evils of frames by discussing their impact on Haiti.
On March 14, 2004, Potter encountered a New York Times article entitled “Life Is Hard and Short in Haiti’s Bleak Villages” (Weiner 2004). The article’s copy described Haiti as a “failed state” “unable to properly govern itself” because of its own actions and those of “nature.” The article failed to address the United States’ own involvement in Haiti’s demise.
Disgusted by the Times’ portrayal of Haiti, Potter made it her mission to uncover the truth from behind all the frames. In order to do so, Potter empirically examined all the articles published on Haiti by a specific group of five newspapers throughout the year 2004. What she uncovered was the pain and confusion felt by the actual Haitians themselves in response to US media coverage of their country.
Until I read Potter’s article, I can honestly say that I had never considered the news as intrusive, or offensive to the foreign subjects. I am able to turn on my television whenever I want, expose myself to whichever messages I choose, and then proceed to turn off my television or change channels when I have had enough of a certain message. I never considered the possibility that the people I watch suffering on the news every day actually may hate being on camera. It may embarrass them, or make them feel like a spectacle. I can’t imagine fighting for my life while watching a cameraman stand by and snap impressive angles for National Geographic. It seems so dehumanizing to me, the idea of Western journalists swarming to the site of the latest human catastrophe pointing their cameras at whatever they please. Until I read Potter’s article, I never considered how unfair the coverage of human suffering could be.
When journalists report on any happening, it is inevitable that they will do so through the vantage point of their own frames. Then they send the news story back home, wrapped in the packaging of their own perspective. If enough journalists, each with a different frame, cover the same story, it becomes easy for the intended message to become muddled and eventually misconstrued. If enough journalists cover the same story with a similar frame, then that perspective becomes dominant, and other perspectives are ignored.
I understand the motive of many photographers is to raise awareness about human suffering through the distribution of images. In fact, that is why, until I read Potter’s article, I had no moral issues with the news. I truly believed that every international journalist was a champion of human rights, working long hours and dangerous locations to try to make a change.
But, then, thanks to Potter, I looked at the news from a different angle, the angle of the people across the lens from the cameraman. I finally looked at the news from a victim’s angle.
As a young woman in the advertising industry, Potter’s article allowed me to look at the necessity for multiple perspectives in a way I have never done before. The advertising industry looks for new talent with a diverse background and an open mind, because those are the characteristics that suggest a person’s ability to come up with good ideas. The more perspectives through which a given problem is analyzed, the better the advertisement.
I learned through reading Potter’s article that this same strategy, that of multiple perspectives, can be applied when analyzing issues of human rights. I look forward to applying multiple perspectives to all areas of my life, not just advertising. In the end, Potter’s article gave me a new perspective on multiple perspectives!
Thank you, Stephen Colbert, for featuring Lupe Fiasco and his new album, "Lasers," on your show today.
After a great interview, Lupe performed his new single, "The Words I Never Said," featuring Skylar Gray. During the interview, Lupe mentioned that he lives what he preaches and preaches what he lives. He said all his opinions are in his lyrics, and in this particular single, criticizes President Obama himself. I watched Skylar and Lupe perform, and felt a connection with the strength and passion of their sound. Immediately after their performance, I Googled the lyrics. They are incredible. And all this while, I've been trying to figure out what it is that I don't like about Obama. Lupe gave me my words: "Obama didn't say shit." EXACTLY. That is why I am disappointed in Obama. When he promised us change, I regarded him as the potential hero of our generation, the man who would come in, cut through the bullshit politics, and tell us the truth. I thought he would actually change things. Make the American society better. I thought he was a real dude who had the American people's best interest in mind.
But, I guess it's sort of hard to "cut through the bullshit politics" when you're trying to do so in the White House. It's obviously very difficult to try to peal away all the bureaucracy and formality from making change. I guess I didn't think Obama would be such a pussy. I thought he was a quiet badass who had good ideas and would make them happen diplomatically, by using the power of his voice. I didn't think he'd have such respect for American tradition and its power structure. I thought he would be the one to go into the White House and actually make something happen.
Unfortunately, Obama's own constituents act in ways that work against progress all the time. But, the definition of progress is relative to each person looking at it. What I think of as progress is certainly not what everyone thinks of it. I see progress as gay rights, finishing up in the Middle East, leaving each country better than it was when we entered it, an end to segregation and racism, guaranteed healthcare for the elderly and the mentally or physically incapable, a more balanced tax plan, and a reform of the education system.
Some would call me a liberal. Ok. I don't care what you call me, this is what I believe, and I came to those conclusions without the consideration for any specific political leanings.
I don't vote for a party, I vote for the people.
I wish people would wake up and realize that if they don't give up some of their luxuries during their own country's time of need, none of us will make it out alive with a clear conscious. I guess, maybe I should just start wishing people had consciouses. I wish everyone put the well-being of the world's inhabitants above the height of their money stacks. I wish people would take off all their blinders and filters and opinions, and just look at the TRUTH, and find the best, most reasonable, answer to our problems.
I WISH SOMEONE WOULD JUST CUT THE CRAP! Political leanings only bring more filters and frames into the equation that obscure the truth and mutilate the efficacy of the answer.
POLITICAL LEANINGS ARE NOT EFFICIENT.
When will a politician come in and actually do what they think is best without considering the next election? I thought Obama was our answer. Turned out he's not.
Who will be our answer?
One of my friends has already expressed interest in working for Obama's campaign. At the moment, given the potential presidential candidates, I think Obama is our best option. However, at this moment, I am not ready to declare for whom I'm supporting. My friend's admiration for Obama has become one without virtue. He's keeping score for Obama, trying to get Obama as many points as he can. When Osama Bin Laden was murdered on Obama's watch, he shouted out, "HELL YEAH," as loud as he could, as though it was a sports victory. His commitment to proving Obama's integrity and capability has marred his ability to look at all the candidates and judge them upon the same platforms. When you're always rooting for one guy, it's hard to see the positives of the other guys.
Whatever happens, it's not good to take politics personally. It's good to take politics objectively, and draw conclusions from the evidence like 1 + 1 + 1 = 3.
I wish there was no such thing as a frame.
I guess I thought Obama was as close to approaching problems without a frame as it got. Once again, I was wrong.
Here are the lyrics to the song that inspired all of this:
It’s so loud Inside my head
With words that I should have said!
As I drown in my regrets
I can’t take back the words I never said
I can’t take back the words I never said
I really think the war on terror is a bunch of bullshit
Just a poor excuse for you to use up all your bullets
How much money does it take to really make a full clip
9/11 building 7 did they really pull it
Uhh, And a bunch of other cover ups
Your childs future was the first to go with budget cuts
If you think that hurts then, wait here comes the uppercut
The school was garbage in the first place, that's on the up and up
Keep you at the bottom but tease you with the uppercrust
You get it then they move you so you never keeping up enough
If you turn on TV all you see’s a bunch of “what the fucks”
Dude is dating so and so blabbering bout such and such
And that ain't Jersey Shore, homie that's the news
And these the same people that supposed to be telling us the truth
Limbaugh is a racist, Glenn Beck is a racist
Gaza strip was getting bombed, Obama didn’t say shit
That's why I ain't vote for him, next one either
I’ma part of the problem, my problem is I’m peaceful
And I believe in the people.
It’s so loud inside my head
With words that I should have said!
As I drown in my regrets
I can’t take back the words I never said
I can’t take back the words I never said
Now you can say it ain't our fault if we never heard it
But if we know better than we probably deserve it
Jihad is not a holy war, wheres that in the worship?
Murdering is not Islam!
And you are not observant
And you are not a muslim
Israel don’t take my side cause look how far you’ve pushed them
Walk with me into the ghetto, this where all the Kush went
Complain about the liquor store but what you drinking liquor for?
Complain about the gloom but when’d you pick a broom up?
Just listening to Pac ain't gone make it stop
A rebel in your thoughts, ain't gon make it halt
If you don’t become an actor you’ll never be a factor
Pills with million side effects
Take em when the pains felt
Wash them down with Diet soda!
Killin off your brain cells
Crooked banks around the World
Would gladly give a loan today
So if you ever miss payment
They can take your home away!
It’s so loud inside my head
With words that I should have said!
As I drown in my regrets
I can’t take back the words I never said, never said
I can’t take back the words I never said
I think that all the silence is worse than all the violence
Fear is such a weak emotion that's why I despise it
We scared of almost everything, afraid to even tell the truth
So scared of what you think of me, I’m scared of even telling you
Sometimes I’m like the only person I feel safe to tell it to
I’m locked inside a cell in me, I know that there’s a jail in you
Consider this your bailing out, so take a breath, inhale a few
My screams is finally getting free, my thoughts is finally yelling through
It’s so loud Inside my head
With words that I should have said!
As I drown in my regrets
I can’t take back the words I never said
finding my true style is like shedding shackles
breaking FREE
flying OUT
as ME
like coming out
announcing myself to the world
going through with it
with being ME
being BRAVE
accepting me
DARING them
to still love me
as I AM
me
DISCOVERY
I learned of the news of Osama bin Laden's death during a rainy ride home from Austin to Dallas with my boyfriend. We had been listening to a new CD (Mumford and Sons), but decided to change over to the AM radio when the weather got bad to check for storm warnings. Conversation on the AM stations was stern, but it was not about the weather. Rather, it was about rumors of US troops killing Osama bin Laden. I didn't believe the news at first; I thought it had to be wrong. It was too good to be true. We switched to NPR. Sure enough, they were discussing bin Laden's death as well. Then came the official declaration of his death from PRESIDENT BARACK OBAMA.
I grabbed my boyfriend's arm and screamed. Tears started rolling down my face. I was so happy. I was not happy that bin Laden is dead; rather, I was happy that the USA had finally succeeded. The US has been involved in the Middle East for over 10 years; finally, we have something to show for it.
I turned on my cell phone to start browsing Facebook statuses and Tweets. I was appalled by the number of statuses congratulating George W. Bush on his victory in the SMU network. Only one of my friends thought to congratulate President Obama. I changed my status to "USA : )" I thought that should keep every body happy. No need to take sides; at least, not on a Facebook status. I have never found the Facebook wall to be an open-minded arena for the sharing of ideas.
Done with Facebook, I logged on to Twitter. I quickly learned that Osama bin Laden's neighbor, Sohaib Athar, had unknowingly Tweeted the entire US raid of the bin Laden compound! Athar moved to bin Laden's town of Abbottabad "for some peace and quiet," so he was perturbed enough by the raid's noise to Tweet about it:
After checking in with the world's reaction to bin Laden's death, I checked in with that of myself. I am happy that another threat to peace has been eliminated, and that the US has seen some success in its war in the Middle East. Now, in the aftermath of bin Laden's death, I am more worried than ever about a terrorist attack against the United States. With bin Laden's death comes comes a new era of fear. God bless President Barack Obama, and the United States of America.
So, I used to be a really bad driver. I've actually gotten better since then, but I am still forced to live with the scars of the sharp turns I took last year (note: I have never been involved in an accident with a moving vehicle). One of the worst accidents I had last year required duct tape. Silver is super boring, so I decided to go with tie dye. Even though it apparently looks funny to passerby, I'm always having the last laugh! Who says your canvas can't be your car?
