S M B = Save My Blog

Ive tried my best to keep up with my blog thus far I'm not sure if I'm doing a good job with the responses but I'm more concern at this point with making my blog as pretty as possible. I'm growing quite envious viewing other blogs and how they are decorated, vibrate with color and an assortment of personal pictures. Would like some guidance, at least put up a few songs and a nice background to hype up my blog little bit if anyone reads this blog which i hope its not only Dr. Bogad ,feel free send me some tips or a website i can go to which could help. (At least now you cant say i didn't try)

"Smile!", Your On Camera.

photography and I have a mutual hatred for each other that withstanding I do have a great admiration and affinity for our youth, and not in a MichaelJacksonNeverlandRanchMySpaceDatelineCatchAPredator sort of way. After viewing Lauren Greenfield's picture and reading all of the quotes pertaining to the pictures. It didnt sit well with me that the majority of images within the media and our own initmate pictures do not depict teens in the best light. With this project Im attempting to convey the contrary. I have taken photos from students from elementary school Pleasant View Elementary and Gilbert and Brigham Middle schools. Ive also had the opportunity to have a video documentation of some of their views and perspectives which focuses mainly clothes, music, pop culture, friends and academics. The majority of the participants are in middle school a prime age in which puberty is initiated the physical psychological and emotional changes withstanding how do youth cop with this metamorphesis how do they go about their day to day lives transitioning from a period which many had little to no responsibility to having to cope with the impending future. how does middle school differ from elementary school. what are their thoughts and fear about entering high school how will the social hiearchy be restructured will the friend they have now still remain will they segregate themselves to various social cliques. what are some of the outside pressure they deal with ? family, economic and financial situations, urban community, hope and aspirations for their own future goals and achievements they are secretly striving for. and finally the negative aspects of being the age they are and what benefits and consequences will they have once they've "arrived" able to drive drink.. reached certain benchmarks most adolescents strive for.

Bad Boys 4 Life

Racism has become an epidemic but has often been portrayed as a illusion by those in positions of power. But racism exist and permeates throughout every facet of human society. In the article "Bad Boys" its painfully evident how racism as infiltrated our academic institutions. I make no excuse for the inappropriate behavior children exhibit while they are in school but this behavior is simple by product of transitioning from being an adolescent to becoming an adult. How naive is it for "white teachers" who teach within our urban communities to attribute stigmas to children of color, specifically young men as degenerates who essentially posses no ability to give forth any positive contributions as patrons of our society. Teachers that we have entrusted to educate, inspire, and watcher over our youth have become perpetrators and perpetuator social and economical inequality. Teachers who do care after years of conditioning become withdrawn and jaded, while the majority simply show up to recieve a paycheck. Its become a never ending cycle, the psychological and emotional damage inflicted on many of these young males will ripple throughout their lives. How go you expect these young men to strive for a better future when you have stripped him of all his hopes, dreams and aspirations and labeled him a failure? Why does it frustrate you when he doesnt believe in himself ?, when clearly you have no faith him. Why do you condemn this young male for not having the ability to raise above his circumstances and believe he can achieve more only after he has circum to the wrapped ideology you have instilled in him day in and day out.

But as A Bad Boy Im here Ive made it this far and I dont plan to go anywhere .. so how you like me now?

I believe it is bigger than Hip Hop?

This is in response to last week's in class discussion and the assigned readings of Tricia Rose. I know must of you feel in accordance to Cynthia Tucker when she says, "Somewhere along the way, a cadre of young black men and women began glorifying violence, misogyny and thuggishness, accepting incarceration as inevitable, resigning themselves to lives on the margins of mainstream society. They created a thug culture that has been commodified — celebrated in music and movies, sold to poor adolescents in wretched neighborhoods as well as affluent teenagers in upscale communities."

Honestly i dont view Hip Hop through the critical eyes of my peers. Unfortunately I dont feel that I can do much just trying to convey my thoughts through words to express the full magnitude of what hip hop means to me and its negative portrayal in the media, I search the web and found an article that accurately represents my perspectives, thoughts and emotions towards hip hop writting by By Antonio Lopez, UnderstandMedia.com Contributor, and Mike Ipiotis (360) entitled the Fifth Element on Hip Hop.

"Because hip hop is badly represented in media, it is necessary to present an alternative perspective that reflects its grassroots origins.Moreover, hip hop in its activist form should be leveraged to encourage students to engage media critically. The hip hop community is composed of four major elements: writers ("graffiti" artists), DJs (turntabalists), B Boys and B Girls (break dancers) and MCs (rappers/poets). Equally vital but not always recognizable is the fifth element, the element of "building" (raising consciousness). In hip hop all these elements work together cohesively, like when someone wants to throw a "jam" or party. The graf artist makes the flier, the DJ provides the beats, the MC creates the context and narration and B Boys rock the house.Sadly, hip hop has been derided by the media as a destructive fad, a fashion and little else. Hip hop is strongest among urban Afro-American and Latino youth, and, in the case of the Southwest, Chicano/Hispanos and Native Americans who have adopted hip hop as a *surrogate* culture. Hip hop is not necessarily a subculture. The reason for distinguishing hip hop as a surrogate culture is because it substitutes many of the elements ineffectively provided by the dominant society. When displaced youth don’t have access to their tradition and culture, hip hop provides a school of life. Hip hop becomes the cultural tradition in a situation where there is a disconnection from customs. Literary and linguistic skills are taught through rapping; visual art and geometry skills are learned through graf art; mathematics and computer skills are learned through the musical forms (DJing and beat production); and break dancing is a de facto form of physical conditioning that can be likened to kung fu or the Brazilian capoeira dance, which combines martial art and dance developed be West African slaves. Break dance's "up rock" can even resemble Native American fancy dancing or salsa. To hardcore members of the hip hop community, each of the four elements is to be mastered. Emerging from their mastery is a fifth element of "building" consciousness. This raised awareness is not an end, but a means, which allows one to access a deeper level of self, to cultivate the universal truths within. Mainstream society holds up gangster rap as an example of why hip hop is considered a dangerous subculture, but this notion ignores the parallel nature of hip hop, which developed organically, on its own in New York's ghettos outside the view of the media or traditional social institutions. It’s a testament to capitalism's power that aspects of hip hop would eventually get appropriated and commercialized, but that's not the whole picture. Hip hop still has a thriving underground speaking a poetic language discernable to those who practice its unspoken ethics and artistic expression. Unfortunately, what is passed off as "sanitized" rap on commercial airwaves still covertly emulates the negativity of gangsterism with veiled references to drugs, sexism and killing people. By adapting hip hop's language, the commercial version is more dangerous because of its cryptic and irresponsible nature.Within hip hop's four core elements you can find a lineage to the past, connections to sacred geometry and science, and tools for self-sufficiency. On a synchronistic level, the form of break dance, a physically intense dance involving a variety of complex movements, has at its core the "six step down rock." If you chart out these movements they reflect the fundamental pattern of chemical compounds and geometrical forms. Realized through practice, break dance allows you to additionally comprehend laws of physics like concepts of torque and gravity. Also, you can study the roots of break dance, which is traceable to capoeira, as a way of connecting with the struggles of ancient ancestors. Moreover, break dancers have to learn not to abuse their bodies because drugs and poor diet diminish the rigorous conditioning required of the dance. To some, breakdance is ghetto kung fu. DJs, also called turntabalists, are master technicians. It has been said that jazz was the African appropriation of European instruments. It can also be said hip hop is the re-appropriation of Japanese technology for the art of awakening universal truths within us. Producers and mixers master the computers and audio technology, skills invaluable in a world that is increasingly divided by the information haves, and the information have-nots. But what if technology fails us? Hip hop is self-contained and not technology dependent. For example, in the absence of turntables or drum machines, one can beat-box (vocalized percussion) all the rhythm. Consequently, hop hip is an oral culture that passes information just as Spanish troubadours of old did lyrically in plazas, or like Griots who told old stories and current events through song and music, or the Puerto Rican plena drummers whose "periodico cantado" (sung newspaper) informed the illiterate poor of regional events and news.Because pure hip Hop is not contingent on MTV or Japanese gadgetry, it's ultimately uncategorizable. Defining it, in some respects, defeats it. Naming it inevitably leads to commodification. Hip hop is a manifestation of culture, not a scourge, as some conservative pundits would suggest. It teaches tools for survival by providing a means to voice opinion, explore linguistics and express thoughts and experiences through poetry. It is important to distinguish true hip hop and its fifth element because as much as these are tools to cultivate us, they could easily enslave us if they are misunderstood and appropriated by socio-economic forces who benefit from keeping hip hop's core audience from self-empowerment."