Friday, December 4, 2009
Movig Forward
Thursday, November 12, 2009
Proposal
Friday, October 16, 2009
Student Designed project
The topic I have selected is Beatlemania. I have selected this topic for several reasons. My reasons may sound repetitive since I talk about it a lot but my father was a huge Beatles fan. Growing up I had access to every song, I was taught to play the songs on the piano and then the guitar. I was quizzed on trivia. I was even exposed to many of the books that described the Beatle’s history. I love them now and I can attribute it to everything in my life that referred to the Beatles. Now I thought it would be a good project because I can come at it from a different perspective, focusing on my father and the things he did because he lived during Beatlemania.
I already know quite a bit about the subject. I know about the stories behind the songs and when the songs were released. I know much about the four Beatles themselves. I wanted to learn more about their early history. That is, when they first came to the US and their climb to such heights. I know that one of their first performances that aided their fame was the performance on the Ed Sullivan show, but I do not know any details about that.
My intended audience is quite broad. Obviously there are a lot of people that love the Beatles and so it makes it quite a broad spectrum. I would say my primary audience is the younger Beatles fans. And my secondary audience is the older Beatles fans who actually lived through it.
My purpose is to explore the early career of the Beatles and the impact on the society as well as their live performances such as Ed Sullivan show and the concert on the apple corp. building. I think possible genres are a documentary or a story that included true accounts. This particular subject good be any media. Because it is so versatile it would be an appropriate article for a magazine, a broadcast on the radio, including certain songs, or even a television show.
My progress is slowly ongoing. As I do more research I am able to organize my thoughts a little better. I like doing research for this project so it has been very fun.
Friday, October 9, 2009
Three Questions
I was surprised most with the building the artifact meetings were held. When I was young and heard these stories I always expected it to be in a fancier place, or at least not in an veterans of foreign wars building. That surprised me. I think part of why it surprised me is because I already had this picture in my mind of the stories of these artifact meetings, but my picture in my mind was not accurate.
What intrigued me?
The thing that intrigued me the most is the effort involved in making a meeting successful. The people that I interview described the meetings as being very formal, and the guest speakers planned very effectively. I figured that the meetings were a place to gather together and discuss the things they found. I did not think that they needed someone to come and lecture to the class. More specifically, I did not think a archeologist professor would called upon to lecture, so this intrigued me.
What disturbed me?
It is hard to pinpoint something in metal detecting that disturbed while researching. To be completely honest though, I found that metal detecting or coin collecting was just a smaller portion of "artifact collecting" and that slightly disturbed me. Not that it is disturbing in and of itself, but I grew up thinking that the bulk of metal detecting and these clubs was the coin collecting aspect and apparently I was wrong.
Friday, October 2, 2009
My Research
I think the biggest problem I have is my place is not home to anything major so it has been difficult finding books, internet sites on the information I need. I have been able to view maps, population size, and historic photos but it has taken several hours of searching. Also, other than viewing the maps myself I have not found anything that I found to be useful to put into my article. I have not found quotes or anything to that nature so that is the other difficult part.
I think the biggest help I could have would be tips on how to keep this a historical context on a place. I more than often want to write about the event, and as I avoid it and as I receive feedback on how to avoid it it would help.
Thursday, September 24, 2009
Place In Time
My other possible topic is a culture that my father always spoke about that I want to learn more about. He was an avid metal detecter. (Yes, it is a popular hobby.) He took me out metal detecting with him on several occasions so I began to care about the hobby. (Of course, I used to think I was only used to dig up the coins while he would locat. That soon changed.) Now the event that would occur prior to my birth is the club meetings that he would attend. He told me about a particular place in Utah (I will have to look up the location), that would host a coin collecting club. After seeing all the coins that he got at that club and metal detecting it became something I wanted to learn about and discover more. He told me about his yearly membership and how he would go to these meetings where there presentations, raffles and games. I think he won a Standing Liberty Silver Dollar there before. His favorite part was the giant yard they had in the back. I think he said that once a month they would hide coins(pennies, dimes, and quarters mostly) in the back. They would let everyone in attendence go search for them. They did put about 3-5 rare coins to the lucky finders. I think someone would want to learn about this subject because it is a neat and growing hobbie, that pays... literally (although the last time I went it was only 5 pennies). I think they would need to know what entailed in the group meetings and the atmosphere involved.
My next idea was to write about my fathers college graduation. I think this would be interesting to write about because there could be so many ways that I could relate to (hoping i graduate in may!). I want to be able to understand the impact of his family at the time. I know he was married and I know that they had one or possibly 2 children when he graduated. I think that people would want to learn about this story because it is very applicable to anyones situation that is currently in school. It would be interesting to see someone elses perspective on that evening. I think that someone would need to the class size, the major, and the impact that it had on his family.
My final possible topic I had while brainstorming was writing about a particular timeframe when my mom was painting in school. She had about six months when she was producing several paintings. They were very quality paintings and she had real talent. I am mad that she used the excuse of having a family to stop religously painting. As a side note I have made her a bargain/bet and she must begin painting again give me one as a Christmas present. I think that her story would be a great way to write about painting and art culture. I have always had a fascination for it and if I had even a sliver of her talent I might have pursed that. I think that anyone that has that same love for art would also want to learn about an aspiring artist. I think that someone would need to know about the work entailed, the competition, the hours put into her art, and possibly the financing. I might possibly show some paintings on here if I can dig up some old photos.
Tuesday, September 22, 2009
My other ideas
My other idea resolves around diabetes. My father had diabetes almost all of his life and i can remember the difference it made in our life and impact. I believe it has a lot of culture and it is clearly seen in the book that he started writing about living with diabetes. My first thoughts are of course initially how this impacted me. I only had sugar free koolaide growing up along with sugar free jello. What I want to write about is how this affected a young child life. He was only eight I believe and I would like to know what that must have been like for him, my grandfather and grandmother, and aunts and uncles. I am sure there are others that are in his situation and writing something about this might be able to apply to quite a few different individuals. Okay, well there will be more on this later if I choose it, but this is what I am currently thinking.