Final Blog

The Un-Hip Feb 21

In this post I briefly explored the idea that everyone has a little hip in them.  I could not think of anyone that I knew that was not hip. 

Hip pitch Feb 14

This blog post I start to understand the fundamentals of hip, as Leland lays them out in his book.  I relate this to a kid I know named Jon.

One of the Greatest Tricksters of all time March 8

In this blog I dive into the trickster.  I said that one of the biggest tricksters of all time was Hitler.

I have selected these three post because I feel they represent my best work of the semester.  I selected the  “Un Hip” blog because I felt like it showed that I was thinking outside the box on the subject.  I believed it showed that I put extra thought into it.  The subject of people who are not hip; got me thinking, of people that I know that are not hip, and according to Leland’s definition,  I think that almost everyone has a little hip in them.

I chose the “Hip Pitch” post because I think that is when I started to grasp the fundamentals of the basis of hip.  I then applied the fundamentals as the first essay directed to a person named Jon.  I think that this is where I first started getting the concept and definition of Hip in my mind, and being able to put it down on paper

I chose One of the Greatest Tricksters of all time, because I think that really represents myself using the definition of a trickster, then thinking and applying it to a person.  I think that it shows that I was critically thinking then applying what I learned.

My ideas of American popular culture have changed by my understanding more fully of the history of the popular culture.  I think after reading and experiencing the class and focusing on the history of hip, I know understand better the present stance of hip.  I think what I have learned from this course other than the history of hip, I have learned to think more critically.  Before this class hip was just a term that I related to popular or the “in” idea.  Now I understand that it encompasses a broader scheme of things.  I also think that my writing skills have improved; it felt good to accomplish that eight page paper.

I think my performance in this class this semester was a good performance.  I attended, did most of the readings, and put time into the class.  My strengths as a writer I believe is simply being motivated to write.  In a weird way I kind of like to write essays.  My weakness as a writer though, is I’m not that efficient at it.  I struggle coming up with original ideas, meeting the required length,  and vocabulary.

I believe that if I were to give myself a grade in this class it would be an A-.  I feel this way because I have put in the time, did what was required, and attended class.  I was engaged in the work, and received decent grades.  Overall I think I did close to A work in the class.

annotated bibliography

Clynton Smith

Professor Weaver

Eng 201

21 April 2011

Annotated Bibliography

            Prato, Greg. “Flea.” AllMusic. Web. 15 Apr. 2011.

This text summarizes and gives a short biography of Michael Balzary’s life.  From the text, I plan to use the idea that Flea is regarded as one of the most talented bassists.  Also that Flea created his own style of bass playing.  I will use this in my research by having this idea of Flea creating his own style, as a part of hip, that he is not bound by the past.

Foege, Alec. “Once death-defying clowns, the Red Hot Chili Peppers grow up to be sensitive white males.”  Rolling Stone Oct. 1995:52. Print.

This article goes into detail of the timeline of the band Red Hot Chili Peppers.  The text brings out what the band went through, how it got started, and the multiple people playing in the band.  The text also goes into the lives of the founding members, including Flea’s.  In my essay I plan to use the early life of Flea, which was a difficult one for him, and say that it was hip, by him not being bound to the past.

Sayers, Blaine. “Icons of Rock: Hillel Slovak Consequence of Sound.” Consequence of Sound. Web. 13 Apr. 2011.

This text goes throughout the Red Hot Chili Peppers career, focusing on Hillel Slovak, a founding member of the Peppers.  It goes through the life of Slovak starting from his birth to his death in 1988.  I am planning on using this text to explain how the Peppers started out popular from the start of their careers. The text goes into detail and explains how they landed their first record deal.

Zant Van Gus.  Red Hot Chili Peppers: Biography. ROling Stone Music. Rolling Stone. Web. 13 apr. 2011.

This text goes into depth of the timeline of the Red Hot Chili Peppers.  It starts out in their beginnings, and dives into the present.  It goes through their albums that they have made.  For my text I plan on using the idea that this biography brings to light, which is, that Flea has remained with the band ever since the founding of it.  Others have come and gone, but Flea has remained strong with the band.

Female Hip

            Hip as Leland analyzes, is from the 19^th century to the present day.  In this time period much has taken place, and much has changed.  With this changing of times, I believe that hip has changed as well and has become something similar to what it started out as, but different in certain ways as well.  I think that hip evolves as time goes on, and hip is almost fluid and not concrete.

            In the past Hip was a male-dominated playground.  Taking a look through the book you have your heavy hitters such as Whitman, Emerson, and Thoreau.  Females are mentioned but do not really play a major role in the sphere of hip.  They do not play the same dominant role in the 19^th century as the men did.

            I think because hip is ever changing with the times, it has evolved in today’s time to accommodate females more.  If we look in today’s time and go ask high school kids who they think are hip, I’m sure it would be an interesting project, in that we would find a lot of females dubbed hip.  I could even see the outcome tending to lead towards females being named more than men.

            Because Hip is so fluid and changes over time, it allows for change.  I think one of the biggest changes that hip has seen in the past 100 years or so, are females becoming a dominant player of hip, and now share the spot with men, to be a hip icon.

            I think that hip indeed was a misogynistic, male dominated playground, but now has changed and is becoming an equal playing ground of both male and female.

           

Essay #3

I think my figure I will be using will be the Red Hot Chili Peppers.  I think the idea behind where Hip is going in the future, will be remotely the same, that is why I chose the RHCP, because they're hip now, and probably will be ten years from now as well.

All this and rabbit stew

If it were not for the chapter and the discussions in class about the comics and the history behind the comic strips, I would have been kind of shocked to see the cartoons, and the way different races were depicted.

I reviewed the “All this and rabbit stew” which was full of stereotypes, and racist depictions.  The first obvious one is the depiction of the black hunter at the beginning, who Bugs Bunny refers to as “Doc”.  The head was not shaped correctly and other facial features not even.  Even when the hunter laughed they made him sound like an ape, and when he spoke, he sounded very uneducated.

Not only was the physical depiction full of racial statements, but the intellect and how smart the hunter was portrayed was very racist as well.  It appeared that Bugs was the superior being when it came to intellect, even though the hunter had a gun.

Throughout the cartoon, bugs was in the most part in control, leading the hunter to fall off a cliff, chase a bear, or even chase Bugs in the wrong direction.  The cartoonists even had a sucker pop up on the screen when the hunter did something unintelligent, or fell for Bugs’ tricks.  It really played a roll of depicting the intellectual capacity of the black hunter.

In the end when Bugs is cornered he presents dice, in which the two start to gamble, the hunter ends up losing everything, his gun and the cloths he is wearing to bugs.  I think it is a way of the cartoon racially stating the intellectual capacity of the hunter.