Breakfast at Tiffany’s: A Look at Narrative Adaptation and Unique Features
Joshua Wakefield
Maham Khwaja
FLM 1023
22 April 2017
Blake Edward’s classic 1961 film Breakfast at Tiffany’s follows the young Holly Golightly, a quirky New York socialite who maintains her high society lifestyle by her low key career as a lady of the evening. She meets her new handsome neighbor Paul Varjak, a young, struggling writer who finds himself at an impasse in his career and forced into the same line of work as Miss Golightly. They instantly become friends, bonded by their same morally questionable lifestyles and their need to have a true friend to help ease the loneliness of the wild, glamourous jungle of New York high society. Paul, or “Fred” as Holly nicknames him due his resemblance to her brother, is thrown into the unpredictable, drama filled life that is Holly’s. From jealous male clientele showing up at her apartment to visits to the Mob boss Sally Tomato at Sing-Sing Prison to a surprise visit from Holly’s ex-husband Doc who reveals that Miss Golightly is actually Lulamae Barnes, he quickly realizes that there is more than meets the eye with this girl. They share fun adventures together like stealing paper masks from a 5 and 10 shop, autographing Fred’s book in the New York Public Library, and engraving a plastic, Cracker Jack box ring for Holly at Tiffany’s & Co. Fred ends up falling in love with Holly and puts an end to his career of being a kept man. He ends up revealing his love to her but Holly is bound and determined to marry for wealth, not love. She falls for a tall, handsome wealthy Brazilian diplomat named Jose and plans to marry him. However word gets out about her carrying coded messages to the mob boss at Sing-Sing and her diplomat calls off the marriage to avoid a scandal. The film ends with Fred calling Holly out on her issue of being afraid of love and revealing the Tiffany engraved plastic ring he’d been carrying around and was planning to propose with. He leaves the ring with her in the Cab and storms off in the rain. Holly chases him down and they share a famous, Hollywood size kiss in the rain.
The film is actually based on Truman Capote’s novel Breakfast at Tiffany’s, and the screenplay deviates considerably from the book.4 The book is in fact told as a memoir from the perspective of “Fred”, true name never really revealed, who is a writer that is reminiscing about his past adventures with his friend Holly.5 The romantic love story between Holly and Fred depicted in the film is nowhere to be found in the book. That was actually an invention of Hollywood’s in an attempt to make the story more charming and the characters more relatable to a 1960’s audience.4 In fact the book’s central theme is one of friendship and loss.6 Holly helps Fred by getting him out of his shell to experience new things, like horseback riding, and Fred returns the favor with his loyalty and devotion to helping her.5 He writes how they learn and grow together in friendship but in the end the two part ways, after Holly flees to Brazil to avoid being charged as a coconspirator in a Mob drug cartel. Fred is left with the hope to one day be reunited with his friend but the story leaves it at just that.5 Hardly a happy ending!
Unlike the drastic change to the story’s ending and creative liberties taken with the central theme, the character development in the film is remarkably true to the book8, with a few exceptions. The unnamed narrator, nicknamed Fred, is an young unpublished writer who becomes friends with his neighbor Holly, a young New York socialite/call girl, and is instantly thrown into her life of glam high society. He becomes infatuated with her ability to always be on the go, never stopping to catch her breath13, and her unrepentant wild, adventurous streak.13 The Narrator’s personality is quiet and introverted13 but not as masculine as he was portrayed by actor George Peppard in the film.1 In fact the narrator is said to be Truman Capote himself, who was in fact gay. This assumption is mainly based off the narrator's ambiguous sexual preferences, the platonic friendship he shared with the protagonist (Holly), and Holly’s pet names for him like “Maude” and “Cookie”, popular 1950’s slang words associated most with gay male prostitutes.1 In an interview with film’s Screenwriter George Axelrod, he explains that had to retrofit Fred’s character to fit 1961 Manhattan sensibilities. He made his character the hero of the story and “a red-blooded heterosexual”.2The final notable difference is in his character's role and purpose in the story. In the book he is more of an ambiguous figure who acts most accurately as a lens through which we are able view the captivating world of Miss Golightly’s.1 One can tell by his writing that he thinks of himself as an observer and not as one to be observed.1
Truman Capote’s Holly Golightly is the more accurately captured one out of the two in the film.8 Other than her hairstyle and her depth as a character, his Holly is the same young, quirky New York City call girl we see on the silver screen. She is constantly running around the City, getting lost in romance of it all. She also seems to relish in her attained status of being socialite in high society, and never seems to have a care in the world. Other than that we do not know much about what goes on in her mind or how she views her relationship with the Narrator. This is mainly due to the fact that most of what we know of her character is given to us anecdotally from the narrator. From some of her quoted speech we do learn that she thinks of herself as a “wild thing”1 that can not be tamed and that she values her ability to shock people, claiming that “it's useful”.1 We see this same free-spirited personality depicted in the film but what isn't depicted this accurately is her views on love and some of her more unsavory attributes. Her relationship with love seems to be more cynical and indifferent in the book, stating “you can make yourself love anybody”1 and boasting that she “trained {herself} to love older men”1 for financial gain. You also see a more calculating, manipulative Holly in the book. For instance, her boyfriend Jose was actually dating another high society It-Girl, Mag Wildwood, until Holly spread a rumor about her having an STD.1 “You'd think it would show more. But heaven knows, she looks healthy. So, well, clean. …,”1 she states to her friends. We also learn that she is somewhat of a seasoned liar when she reveals another lie she told to the narrator himself about her childhood being wonderful, when in fact it was bad. She justifies this by telling him, “you made such a tragedy out of your childhood I didn’t feel like I should compete.”1 The Holly Golightly in the book also has a mouth like a sailor12, whereas in the movie, her language is always proper and refined. All of these noted changes are said to be attempts of the producers, and Audrey Hepburn, to make a New York call girl softer and more palatable to a 1960’s audience.7
The film has won a dozen awards such as Best Written American Comedy and Best Music for it’s original song Moon River written by Henri Mancini.3 It was also nominated for a dozen awards including Best Screenplay Based on Material from Another Medium and Best Art Direction for its set decoration and color.3 The film uses the classic three-point lighting in most of the scenes, as seen in the faintly visible shadows in the background, which help add depth to the frame.9 One notable exception is in the iconic opening scene of the film, where Audrey Hepburn is walking down 5th Avenue in her black gown at 5 am and peering into the window at Tiffany’s. In this scene they make use of the natural, soft lighting of the rising sun, which paired with the emptiness of the streets and the non-diegetic sound of Moon River playing, creates a peaceful, romantic depiction of New York City.11 The director of the film Blake Edwards, who was best known at that time for his work on the Pink Panther movies, makes use of revolutionary filming techniques that were popular in the 1960s, like jump cuts and handheld cameras.10 One of the unique features of the film is that the two main characters never openly talk about their professions of essentially being prostitutes. The dialogue is riddled with innuendos and code words that nod to it but it's never frankly said.6 For instance phrases like “50 dollars for the Powder Room”, “Rats and Super-Rats”, and Fred’s “Decorator Friend”, are all ways to speak about their prostitution without having to say it. In an interview about his book 5th Ave, 5 AM: Audrey Hepburn, Breakfast at Tiffany’s, and the Dawn of the Modern Woman, the author Sam Wasson says there is a definite transaction6 happening in the film of “Messages passed underground; a revolution in a language only revolutionaries can understand.”6 He goes on to say that he see’s the famous black dress worn by Holly as being a definite signifier that she is a working girl.6 “[And the dress is] black—let's not forget black. What does that mean in a culture of froufrou and florals and frills? This girl has edge! Which is another word for sex, is it not?” 6 Finally, the film’s greatest triumph was that it was able to make the world fall in love with a call girl, and according to Wasson, it completely changed the course of women in movies.6
1 Aberra, Lulee. "The Politics of Representation in Breakfast at Tiffany's." University of Helsinki, Jan. 2015. Web. 21 Apr. 2017. <https://helda.helsinki.fi/bitstream/handle/10138/154533/thepolit.pdf?sequence=1>.
2 Abrams, Brian. "11 Gay Book Characters Turned Straight for the Movie Version." Mental Floss. N.p., 12 Dec. 2012. Web. 22 Apr. 2017=
3 "Breakfast at Tiffany's Awards." IMDb. IMDb.com, n.d. Web. 22 Apr. 2017. <http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0054698/awards>
4 Campos, Sarah. "Breakfast at Tiffany's: A Controversial, But Marketable Screenplay." The Script Lab. N.p., 23 Feb. 2015. Web. 22 Apr. 2017.
5 Editorial Team. "Truman Capote's Breakfast at Tiffany's: Summary & Analysis."SchoolWorkHelper. St. Rosemary Institution, 2016. Web. 22 Apr. 2017.
6 Hanks, E.A. "Holly Golightly Is a Call Girl and Other Revelations About Breakfast at Tiffany's." Vanity Fair. Vanity Fair, 30 Jan. 2015. Web. 22 Apr. 2017.
7 Honan, Corinna. "Tantrums at Tiffany's: How a Viper's Nest of Clashing Egos Nearly Killed off One of the Best-loved Films Ever Made." Daily Mail Online. Associated Newspapers, 14 Nov. 2010. Web. 22 Apr. 2017.
8 Mainville, Devin. "'Breakfast at Tiffany's': Page vs. Screen." PopMatters. N.p., 9 Mar. 2012. Web. 22 Apr. 2017.
9 "MISE-EN-SCENE." College Film & Media Studies. Ed. Inga Pierson. Wordpress.com, 22 Feb. 2016. Web. 22 Apr. 2017.
10 Pana, Beatrice. "History of Cinema." History of Cinema RSS. N.p., 9 Dec. 2010. Web. 22 Apr. 2017.
11 Rudman, Hannah. "Breakfast at Tiffany's: Opening Sequence Analysis." AS MEDIA STUDIES. Weebly.com, 5 Nov. 2014. Web. 22 Apr. 2017.
12 Shteir, Rachel. The Steal: A Cultural History of Shoplifting. N.p.: Penguin ., n.d. Print.
13 Spencer, Brooke. "Introduction and Character Analysis of Breakfast at Tiffany's." prezi.com N.p., 04 Oct. 2012. Web. 22 Apr. 2017.
Maham Khwaja
FLM 1023
22 April 2017
Blake Edward’s classic 1961 film Breakfast at Tiffany’s follows the young Holly Golightly, a quirky New York socialite who maintains her high society lifestyle by her low key career as a lady of the evening. She meets her new handsome neighbor Paul Varjak, a young, struggling writer who finds himself at an impasse in his career and forced into the same line of work as Miss Golightly. They instantly become friends, bonded by their same morally questionable lifestyles and their need to have a true friend to help ease the loneliness of the wild, glamourous jungle of New York high society. Paul, or “Fred” as Holly nicknames him due his resemblance to her brother, is thrown into the unpredictable, drama filled life that is Holly’s. From jealous male clientele showing up at her apartment to visits to the Mob boss Sally Tomato at Sing-Sing Prison to a surprise visit from Holly’s ex-husband Doc who reveals that Miss Golightly is actually Lulamae Barnes, he quickly realizes that there is more than meets the eye with this girl. They share fun adventures together like stealing paper masks from a 5 and 10 shop, autographing Fred’s book in the New York Public Library, and engraving a plastic, Cracker Jack box ring for Holly at Tiffany’s & Co. Fred ends up falling in love with Holly and puts an end to his career of being a kept man. He ends up revealing his love to her but Holly is bound and determined to marry for wealth, not love. She falls for a tall, handsome wealthy Brazilian diplomat named Jose and plans to marry him. However word gets out about her carrying coded messages to the mob boss at Sing-Sing and her diplomat calls off the marriage to avoid a scandal. The film ends with Fred calling Holly out on her issue of being afraid of love and revealing the Tiffany engraved plastic ring he’d been carrying around and was planning to propose with. He leaves the ring with her in the Cab and storms off in the rain. Holly chases him down and they share a famous, Hollywood size kiss in the rain.
The film is actually based on Truman Capote’s novel Breakfast at Tiffany’s, and the screenplay deviates considerably from the book.4 The book is in fact told as a memoir from the perspective of “Fred”, true name never really revealed, who is a writer that is reminiscing about his past adventures with his friend Holly.5 The romantic love story between Holly and Fred depicted in the film is nowhere to be found in the book. That was actually an invention of Hollywood’s in an attempt to make the story more charming and the characters more relatable to a 1960’s audience.4 In fact the book’s central theme is one of friendship and loss.6 Holly helps Fred by getting him out of his shell to experience new things, like horseback riding, and Fred returns the favor with his loyalty and devotion to helping her.5 He writes how they learn and grow together in friendship but in the end the two part ways, after Holly flees to Brazil to avoid being charged as a coconspirator in a Mob drug cartel. Fred is left with the hope to one day be reunited with his friend but the story leaves it at just that.5 Hardly a happy ending!
Unlike the drastic change to the story’s ending and creative liberties taken with the central theme, the character development in the film is remarkably true to the book8, with a few exceptions. The unnamed narrator, nicknamed Fred, is an young unpublished writer who becomes friends with his neighbor Holly, a young New York socialite/call girl, and is instantly thrown into her life of glam high society. He becomes infatuated with her ability to always be on the go, never stopping to catch her breath13, and her unrepentant wild, adventurous streak.13 The Narrator’s personality is quiet and introverted13 but not as masculine as he was portrayed by actor George Peppard in the film.1 In fact the narrator is said to be Truman Capote himself, who was in fact gay. This assumption is mainly based off the narrator's ambiguous sexual preferences, the platonic friendship he shared with the protagonist (Holly), and Holly’s pet names for him like “Maude” and “Cookie”, popular 1950’s slang words associated most with gay male prostitutes.1 In an interview with film’s Screenwriter George Axelrod, he explains that had to retrofit Fred’s character to fit 1961 Manhattan sensibilities. He made his character the hero of the story and “a red-blooded heterosexual”.2The final notable difference is in his character's role and purpose in the story. In the book he is more of an ambiguous figure who acts most accurately as a lens through which we are able view the captivating world of Miss Golightly’s.1 One can tell by his writing that he thinks of himself as an observer and not as one to be observed.1
Truman Capote’s Holly Golightly is the more accurately captured one out of the two in the film.8 Other than her hairstyle and her depth as a character, his Holly is the same young, quirky New York City call girl we see on the silver screen. She is constantly running around the City, getting lost in romance of it all. She also seems to relish in her attained status of being socialite in high society, and never seems to have a care in the world. Other than that we do not know much about what goes on in her mind or how she views her relationship with the Narrator. This is mainly due to the fact that most of what we know of her character is given to us anecdotally from the narrator. From some of her quoted speech we do learn that she thinks of herself as a “wild thing”1 that can not be tamed and that she values her ability to shock people, claiming that “it's useful”.1 We see this same free-spirited personality depicted in the film but what isn't depicted this accurately is her views on love and some of her more unsavory attributes. Her relationship with love seems to be more cynical and indifferent in the book, stating “you can make yourself love anybody”1 and boasting that she “trained {herself} to love older men”1 for financial gain. You also see a more calculating, manipulative Holly in the book. For instance, her boyfriend Jose was actually dating another high society It-Girl, Mag Wildwood, until Holly spread a rumor about her having an STD.1 “You'd think it would show more. But heaven knows, she looks healthy. So, well, clean. …,”1 she states to her friends. We also learn that she is somewhat of a seasoned liar when she reveals another lie she told to the narrator himself about her childhood being wonderful, when in fact it was bad. She justifies this by telling him, “you made such a tragedy out of your childhood I didn’t feel like I should compete.”1 The Holly Golightly in the book also has a mouth like a sailor12, whereas in the movie, her language is always proper and refined. All of these noted changes are said to be attempts of the producers, and Audrey Hepburn, to make a New York call girl softer and more palatable to a 1960’s audience.7
The film has won a dozen awards such as Best Written American Comedy and Best Music for it’s original song Moon River written by Henri Mancini.3 It was also nominated for a dozen awards including Best Screenplay Based on Material from Another Medium and Best Art Direction for its set decoration and color.3 The film uses the classic three-point lighting in most of the scenes, as seen in the faintly visible shadows in the background, which help add depth to the frame.9 One notable exception is in the iconic opening scene of the film, where Audrey Hepburn is walking down 5th Avenue in her black gown at 5 am and peering into the window at Tiffany’s. In this scene they make use of the natural, soft lighting of the rising sun, which paired with the emptiness of the streets and the non-diegetic sound of Moon River playing, creates a peaceful, romantic depiction of New York City.11 The director of the film Blake Edwards, who was best known at that time for his work on the Pink Panther movies, makes use of revolutionary filming techniques that were popular in the 1960s, like jump cuts and handheld cameras.10 One of the unique features of the film is that the two main characters never openly talk about their professions of essentially being prostitutes. The dialogue is riddled with innuendos and code words that nod to it but it's never frankly said.6 For instance phrases like “50 dollars for the Powder Room”, “Rats and Super-Rats”, and Fred’s “Decorator Friend”, are all ways to speak about their prostitution without having to say it. In an interview about his book 5th Ave, 5 AM: Audrey Hepburn, Breakfast at Tiffany’s, and the Dawn of the Modern Woman, the author Sam Wasson says there is a definite transaction6 happening in the film of “Messages passed underground; a revolution in a language only revolutionaries can understand.”6 He goes on to say that he see’s the famous black dress worn by Holly as being a definite signifier that she is a working girl.6 “[And the dress is] black—let's not forget black. What does that mean in a culture of froufrou and florals and frills? This girl has edge! Which is another word for sex, is it not?” 6 Finally, the film’s greatest triumph was that it was able to make the world fall in love with a call girl, and according to Wasson, it completely changed the course of women in movies.6
1 Aberra, Lulee. "The Politics of Representation in Breakfast at Tiffany's." University of Helsinki, Jan. 2015. Web. 21 Apr. 2017. <https://helda.helsinki.fi/bitstream/handle/10138/154533/thepolit.pdf?sequence=1>.
2 Abrams, Brian. "11 Gay Book Characters Turned Straight for the Movie Version." Mental Floss. N.p., 12 Dec. 2012. Web. 22 Apr. 2017=
3 "Breakfast at Tiffany's Awards." IMDb. IMDb.com, n.d. Web. 22 Apr. 2017. <http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0054698/awards>
4 Campos, Sarah. "Breakfast at Tiffany's: A Controversial, But Marketable Screenplay." The Script Lab. N.p., 23 Feb. 2015. Web. 22 Apr. 2017.
5 Editorial Team. "Truman Capote's Breakfast at Tiffany's: Summary & Analysis."SchoolWorkHelper. St. Rosemary Institution, 2016. Web. 22 Apr. 2017.
6 Hanks, E.A. "Holly Golightly Is a Call Girl and Other Revelations About Breakfast at Tiffany's." Vanity Fair. Vanity Fair, 30 Jan. 2015. Web. 22 Apr. 2017.
7 Honan, Corinna. "Tantrums at Tiffany's: How a Viper's Nest of Clashing Egos Nearly Killed off One of the Best-loved Films Ever Made." Daily Mail Online. Associated Newspapers, 14 Nov. 2010. Web. 22 Apr. 2017.
8 Mainville, Devin. "'Breakfast at Tiffany's': Page vs. Screen." PopMatters. N.p., 9 Mar. 2012. Web. 22 Apr. 2017.
9 "MISE-EN-SCENE." College Film & Media Studies. Ed. Inga Pierson. Wordpress.com, 22 Feb. 2016. Web. 22 Apr. 2017.
10 Pana, Beatrice. "History of Cinema." History of Cinema RSS. N.p., 9 Dec. 2010. Web. 22 Apr. 2017.
11 Rudman, Hannah. "Breakfast at Tiffany's: Opening Sequence Analysis." AS MEDIA STUDIES. Weebly.com, 5 Nov. 2014. Web. 22 Apr. 2017.
12 Shteir, Rachel. The Steal: A Cultural History of Shoplifting. N.p.: Penguin ., n.d. Print.
13 Spencer, Brooke. "Introduction and Character Analysis of Breakfast at Tiffany's." prezi.com N.p., 04 Oct. 2012. Web. 22 Apr. 2017.
Listening Guide
Chapter 9 Folk, Folk-Rock, and Singer/Songwriter
Change is Hard by She & Him
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k6Akkvh04xU
Tempo: 88 beats per minute, 4 beats per bar
Style: Country, Indie Folk
Form: ABAB
Four bar instrumental introduction,
A sections are 10 bars; verse
B sections are 13 bars; chorus
Features: Backbeat maintained by light playing the cymbals on drums; snare drum on every 4th beat
Acoustic and Bass guitar are maintained throughout the entirety of the song
Steel Guitar is played in the background in every section and gives the song a surfy, hawaiian type sound
Sliding Guitar riffs in the 8 bar instrumental section after the first B section
Most vocals are sung by Zooey in a soft tone, with back up vocals of “Oohs” and “Ahhs” are first introduced in the last 9 bars of the second B section
00:00 Intro Instrumental section (4 measures)--Steel Guitar predominantly heard
00:13 Verse 1 Vocals and Instrumental accompaniment (10 measures)-Steel Guitar fades out
00:38 Chorus Vocals and Instrumental accompaniment (13 measures)
00:49 Steel Guitar resumes and plays till the end of chorus (9 measures)
00:59 Acoustic Guitar becomes louder and speeds up for 3 measures
1:10 Instrumental verse 2 (8 measures)- Sliding Guitar riffs played about every other measure
1: 30 Verse 2 Vocals and Instrumental accompaniment (10 measures)
1:55 Chorus Vocals and Instrumental accompaniment (13 measures)- Harmonizing backup vocals sung by M. Ward for 2 measures
1:56 Backup vocals join in with melody; harmonizing “Ooh” sounds (9 measures)
1:56 Chimes subtly joins in with instrumental accompaniment for the remainder of song
2:19 Backup vocals fade out, Vocals and Slide Guitar solo for
2:36 Backup vocals resume with lead vocals for reminder of song; vocal “Ahhs and Oohs” this time (4 measures)
3:01 End
She & Him is a collaboration between actress Zooey Deschanel and M. Ward. Their music takes elements for multiple genres such as indie folk, pop, and surf rock. The two met on the set of a film that Zooey was starring in and instantly connected over their love for the recordings produced by Phil Spector, and bands like the Beatles. Zooey’s pure-voiced sound, comparatively to a modern day Karen Carpenter, and M. Wards rockabilly guitar style, gives their music a very vintage sound. Their fifth album Classics features 13 cover songs of artists such as Dusty Springfield, Frank Sinatra, The Righteous Brothers, Johnny Mathis, and Bing Crosby. “Change is Hard” was recorded for their first album Volume One which was released by Merge Records in 2008, just two years after the duo got paired up. The album is very green compared to their later albums and this is mostly because Zooey had not found her confidence as a singer yet. She had only ever done acting before and so you can her the innocence, almost self-doubt, in her vocal sound. However, I believe this is what makes the album so charming! The most charming song on this album is by far “Change is Hard”. The song is about her breakup and the pain of seeing him with a new love so soon after. The feel of the song is all devastation, feeling defeated and starting over from ground zero. Zooey sings about how she never felt good enough but what she could do is try to toughen up and learn from this.
Reflection
I really enjoyed doing this listening guide because Change is Hard is a song that is close to my heart and i love being able to share it with others. I learned that it takes a lot of diligent listening, and critical thinking to produce an accurate and well written listening guide. Listening to the song repeatedly was an interesting experience because I noticed something new in the song every time I played it. It definitely was not easy, and there are probably things I left out, but I think what you see in my listening guide is a good analysis on the style, form, and unique features of the song. This is a really charming song and I hope people will take the time to listen to it and use my listening guide as a reference.
Tempo: 88 beats per minute, 4 beats per bar
Style: Country, Indie Folk
Form: ABAB
Four bar instrumental introduction,
A sections are 10 bars; verse
B sections are 13 bars; chorus
Features: Backbeat maintained by light playing the cymbals on drums; snare drum on every 4th beat
Acoustic and Bass guitar are maintained throughout the entirety of the song
Steel Guitar is played in the background in every section and gives the song a surfy, hawaiian type sound
Sliding Guitar riffs in the 8 bar instrumental section after the first B section
Most vocals are sung by Zooey in a soft tone, with back up vocals of “Oohs” and “Ahhs” are first introduced in the last 9 bars of the second B section
00:00 Intro Instrumental section (4 measures)--Steel Guitar predominantly heard
00:13 Verse 1 Vocals and Instrumental accompaniment (10 measures)-Steel Guitar fades out
00:38 Chorus Vocals and Instrumental accompaniment (13 measures)
00:49 Steel Guitar resumes and plays till the end of chorus (9 measures)
00:59 Acoustic Guitar becomes louder and speeds up for 3 measures
1:10 Instrumental verse 2 (8 measures)- Sliding Guitar riffs played about every other measure
1: 30 Verse 2 Vocals and Instrumental accompaniment (10 measures)
1:55 Chorus Vocals and Instrumental accompaniment (13 measures)- Harmonizing backup vocals sung by M. Ward for 2 measures
1:56 Backup vocals join in with melody; harmonizing “Ooh” sounds (9 measures)
1:56 Chimes subtly joins in with instrumental accompaniment for the remainder of song
2:19 Backup vocals fade out, Vocals and Slide Guitar solo for
2:36 Backup vocals resume with lead vocals for reminder of song; vocal “Ahhs and Oohs” this time (4 measures)
3:01 End
She & Him is a collaboration between actress Zooey Deschanel and M. Ward. Their music takes elements for multiple genres such as indie folk, pop, and surf rock. The two met on the set of a film that Zooey was starring in and instantly connected over their love for the recordings produced by Phil Spector, and bands like the Beatles. Zooey’s pure-voiced sound, comparatively to a modern day Karen Carpenter, and M. Wards rockabilly guitar style, gives their music a very vintage sound. Their fifth album Classics features 13 cover songs of artists such as Dusty Springfield, Frank Sinatra, The Righteous Brothers, Johnny Mathis, and Bing Crosby. “Change is Hard” was recorded for their first album Volume One which was released by Merge Records in 2008, just two years after the duo got paired up. The album is very green compared to their later albums and this is mostly because Zooey had not found her confidence as a singer yet. She had only ever done acting before and so you can her the innocence, almost self-doubt, in her vocal sound. However, I believe this is what makes the album so charming! The most charming song on this album is by far “Change is Hard”. The song is about her breakup and the pain of seeing him with a new love so soon after. The feel of the song is all devastation, feeling defeated and starting over from ground zero. Zooey sings about how she never felt good enough but what she could do is try to toughen up and learn from this.
Reflection
I really enjoyed doing this listening guide because Change is Hard is a song that is close to my heart and i love being able to share it with others. I learned that it takes a lot of diligent listening, and critical thinking to produce an accurate and well written listening guide. Listening to the song repeatedly was an interesting experience because I noticed something new in the song every time I played it. It definitely was not easy, and there are probably things I left out, but I think what you see in my listening guide is a good analysis on the style, form, and unique features of the song. This is a really charming song and I hope people will take the time to listen to it and use my listening guide as a reference.
Reflective Writing for Finance 1050
Math 1010 Project 2: Height of a Zero Gravity Parabolic Flight
HLA-Lifelong Wellness Paper
This class was very great for me because I recently started running again after a couple years of struggling with many hardships. I love to run! Running is my solace from all my struggles because I get to do something physical where I can control how fast I go and where I go to. I never felt like I knew how to stretch well for running though so I decided that this class would be a great opportunity for me. I have learned a lot this semester about flexibility and how it can be dangerous if not properly executed. I found out that there were so many different ways I could have injured myself in the way I was stretching before this class. My motto was stretch fast and loose, then run like the wind! I’ve learned that I need to slow it down, feel each stretch, and use a comprehensive stretching routine that includes all areas of the body not just calves stretches and lunges. Those two will not cut it for me anymore because now I feel differently about stretching and its importance to me.
At the beginning of this class I found out through the first flexibility assessment that my body was already adequately flexible. I was at least normal on all the areas the assessment tested. I took the second flexibility assessment and the results show that I am more flexible in several areas including my back, knee, hip, and shoulders. I feel very proud that I am better in more areas than I am not. In fact the areas that I did not improve were in my ankles and neck but I am pretty sure that I can change that over time even though I am already at a normal level for both. I also added 3 inches to my sit and reach test and maintained my 60 percent body hydration.
I really enjoyed the calm environment of the class, especially at that early in the morning. It was a great way to start my school day because it was very relaxing! Everyone in the class was respectful of this relaxing environment and contributed to helping others achieve their goals. During my presentation I felt like people were listening well and none of them complained that it was not up to par. I noticed this during everyone’s presentations, especially when everyone clapped after everyone one of them. I would definitely recommend this class to anyone who is looking to learn more about your own body and how your muscles stretch. It feels great to stretch and you start feeling muscles that you never knew you had. The teacher Julie Morgan defiantly knows her stuff and is always there after class to answer questions and encourage you! I think that the best advice I could give to improve this class would be to start on time and add in a relaxation portion at the end of every class. Ten minutes of relaxation time with the lights dimmed and with music playing would be a great way to end it! Also, I would have liked to use more of the Steppers and Bosu balls this semester. I appreciated that we got to use them because I have never used them before and I am excited to use them again. I feel like they are great devices for getting better stretches and stretching areas that you can not normally stretch. Other than that the class is already great and runs smoothly. I will definitely miss having a place to stretch every Tuesday and Thursday but I will take what I learned and make my own stretching routine!
At the beginning of this class I found out through the first flexibility assessment that my body was already adequately flexible. I was at least normal on all the areas the assessment tested. I took the second flexibility assessment and the results show that I am more flexible in several areas including my back, knee, hip, and shoulders. I feel very proud that I am better in more areas than I am not. In fact the areas that I did not improve were in my ankles and neck but I am pretty sure that I can change that over time even though I am already at a normal level for both. I also added 3 inches to my sit and reach test and maintained my 60 percent body hydration.
I really enjoyed the calm environment of the class, especially at that early in the morning. It was a great way to start my school day because it was very relaxing! Everyone in the class was respectful of this relaxing environment and contributed to helping others achieve their goals. During my presentation I felt like people were listening well and none of them complained that it was not up to par. I noticed this during everyone’s presentations, especially when everyone clapped after everyone one of them. I would definitely recommend this class to anyone who is looking to learn more about your own body and how your muscles stretch. It feels great to stretch and you start feeling muscles that you never knew you had. The teacher Julie Morgan defiantly knows her stuff and is always there after class to answer questions and encourage you! I think that the best advice I could give to improve this class would be to start on time and add in a relaxation portion at the end of every class. Ten minutes of relaxation time with the lights dimmed and with music playing would be a great way to end it! Also, I would have liked to use more of the Steppers and Bosu balls this semester. I appreciated that we got to use them because I have never used them before and I am excited to use them again. I feel like they are great devices for getting better stretches and stretching areas that you can not normally stretch. Other than that the class is already great and runs smoothly. I will definitely miss having a place to stretch every Tuesday and Thursday but I will take what I learned and make my own stretching routine!
PHYS 1010 Project: Reflective Paper
My project was a paper on the big bang theory. I conducted a survey and interviewed six co-workers asking them several questions that tested their knowledge on the big bang. I also did some research to see how their knowledge on the subject compared to the average american's. I then used several credible sources from the internet to find out exactly what the theory of the big bang states.
Even before I started this project I was always intrigued by the universe and the big bang but after this project I am really enthralled. I thought it was really cool to find out that our universe came from a singularity which is the zone at the center of a black hole where finite matter is squished into infinite density by intense pressure. The big bang wasn't actually a bang, or explosion, it is an infinite expansion. It is like a balloon that is inflating forever or a ripple of water that goes on forever. The expansion of space in our universe is accelerating and is not projected to quit. It is mind boggling ideas like this that intrigued me to do a project on the big bang. When I read about it I just wanted to learn more and more. The big bang theory is a practical, comprehensive explanation of the origins of the universe and is utterly fascinating.
This project was not too challenging for me because there is so much information out there on the big bang theory. The hardest thing to me was choosing the most credible websites and understanding the principles of physics behind the big bang. For example, It was hard to comprehend how our universe came from finite matter being squished into intense density. It takes a creative mind to visualize how that works. I could picture matter being squished but I had no idea what finite matter and infinite density meant so I handled this by researching all the terms and then read up on singularities. In the end my research efforts helped me get a better picture of this enigma.
One of the slcc’s college-wide learning outcomes is to use a critical and creative mind in all assignments and in this assignment I feel I demonstrated this. I thought critically when planning out the process of how I would complete this project. This included coming up with the questions to ask, organizing thoughts onto paper, researching facts, and trying to understand them. Being the perfectionist I am it often takes me awhile to come up with a clear vision of what I am trying to accomplish so planning out a process is very important. What is equally important to me is making sure I have a creative and unique voice so that my readers feel like what I have to say is different. One of the things I learned in my writing classes here at slcc is to always have a clear tone and to know your audience. I'm glad I had a chance to use what I learned in my writing classes in my project. Another class I took here at slcc really helped me in this project and that was Foundations of Business. In the class we learned a lot about critical thinking and how it is the highest form of thought. It is also the hardest to do because it requires you to look at the truth objectively without emotion. I used a lot of critical thinking in my project and throughout this semester so I am very grateful to have had that knowledge to recall on.
I believe that my knowledge of physics has grown tremendously during this semester because before I had never even taken a high school physics class. I literally did not know what physics was, apart from knowing the phrase, “what goes up must go down!” Now I feel like I have a strong understanding of the concepts of physics and if I ever decide to take another physics class I will be ready. I had a great teacher this semester so that was also helpful! David Schaffer is the type of teacher who has a deep understanding of the laws and concepts surrounding physics and more importantly he has a real passion for it. I really respect him and the way he conducts his classes. Overall, it was a great semester in my physics 1010 class and my final project on the big bang was a fun way to learn about our universe!
Even before I started this project I was always intrigued by the universe and the big bang but after this project I am really enthralled. I thought it was really cool to find out that our universe came from a singularity which is the zone at the center of a black hole where finite matter is squished into infinite density by intense pressure. The big bang wasn't actually a bang, or explosion, it is an infinite expansion. It is like a balloon that is inflating forever or a ripple of water that goes on forever. The expansion of space in our universe is accelerating and is not projected to quit. It is mind boggling ideas like this that intrigued me to do a project on the big bang. When I read about it I just wanted to learn more and more. The big bang theory is a practical, comprehensive explanation of the origins of the universe and is utterly fascinating.
This project was not too challenging for me because there is so much information out there on the big bang theory. The hardest thing to me was choosing the most credible websites and understanding the principles of physics behind the big bang. For example, It was hard to comprehend how our universe came from finite matter being squished into intense density. It takes a creative mind to visualize how that works. I could picture matter being squished but I had no idea what finite matter and infinite density meant so I handled this by researching all the terms and then read up on singularities. In the end my research efforts helped me get a better picture of this enigma.
One of the slcc’s college-wide learning outcomes is to use a critical and creative mind in all assignments and in this assignment I feel I demonstrated this. I thought critically when planning out the process of how I would complete this project. This included coming up with the questions to ask, organizing thoughts onto paper, researching facts, and trying to understand them. Being the perfectionist I am it often takes me awhile to come up with a clear vision of what I am trying to accomplish so planning out a process is very important. What is equally important to me is making sure I have a creative and unique voice so that my readers feel like what I have to say is different. One of the things I learned in my writing classes here at slcc is to always have a clear tone and to know your audience. I'm glad I had a chance to use what I learned in my writing classes in my project. Another class I took here at slcc really helped me in this project and that was Foundations of Business. In the class we learned a lot about critical thinking and how it is the highest form of thought. It is also the hardest to do because it requires you to look at the truth objectively without emotion. I used a lot of critical thinking in my project and throughout this semester so I am very grateful to have had that knowledge to recall on.
I believe that my knowledge of physics has grown tremendously during this semester because before I had never even taken a high school physics class. I literally did not know what physics was, apart from knowing the phrase, “what goes up must go down!” Now I feel like I have a strong understanding of the concepts of physics and if I ever decide to take another physics class I will be ready. I had a great teacher this semester so that was also helpful! David Schaffer is the type of teacher who has a deep understanding of the laws and concepts surrounding physics and more importantly he has a real passion for it. I really respect him and the way he conducts his classes. Overall, it was a great semester in my physics 1010 class and my final project on the big bang was a fun way to learn about our universe!
PHYS 1010 Project: The Big Bang Theory
What is the big bang theory? It is a way of explaining what happen at the beginning of our universe and there after. It is the most popular and comprehensive scientific theory on the subject to date. This is because most of the predictions stated in the theory have been verified by observation and experiment over time. There are many other ideas in physics that deal with explaining the origins of the universe and thereafter, such as String Theory, Super String Theory,or Twister Theory, but none of them can be verified or tested so they can not technically be called theories. Through research, I also found that the big bang theory is misinterpreted a great deal. This led me to conduct a survey to verify these findings. I personally interviewed six of my co-workers all at the same time and asked several questions to test their knowledge on the big bang. I asked the following questions: (1) What is the theory of the big bang? (2) How did the big bang occur? (3) What state was the universe after it occurred and how did it form into what it is today? and (4) What side does the big bang theory take in the argument of evolution vs. religion? All of these questions will be answered in sequence.
One of the common misinterpretations of the big bang stems from its name. Many people hear the word bang and automatically assume that at the moment of our universes conception, there was a titanic sized supernova explosion that spread throughout space. The big bang is better explained though as an expansion rather than an explosion. The theory goes that our universe was created and immediately started expanding its time and space. The universe is like a balloon that is inflating with space and that continues to inflate forever without exploding. Even though the universe is constantly increasing its space, it does not affect the location of its galaxies. or the orbital paths the planets in them. They remain still. Now, this seems to contradict popular belief because most of the people I interviewed believe that part of the big bang theory is that eventually the universe with start to contract and it will experience some sort of “reverse” big bang where eventually everything will compress into a microscopic fireball, and then disappear out of existence. However, according to the evidence, not only does does the space continue to expand, but it is expanding at an accelerated rate! This leads me to the next popular misconception.
Out of the six people that I interviewed, four of them had a similar belief that the big bang started with a fireball of energy that exploded at the “center of the universe”. I found out that they were not alone in this idea, in fact, it is a common misinterpretation of the standard theory. But according to the theory, energy or matter did not exist before the big bang. There was nothing. The universe came out of something called a singularity, which is the zone at the center of a “black hole” where finite matter becomes infinite density by intense pressure. Where singularities come from is not known. However, the standard theory does not hypothesize what happened before the universe was created but what happened during and after the cosmic event. The theory also states that the big bang happened everywhere at the same time, and that there really is no center of the universe that's of any significance. There’s is a geometrical center of the universe, but all that's there is empty space.
I asked my interviewees the question, “What does the big bang theory say about how the universe formed into what it is today?”. One of them stated that he remembered from his high school physics class that the universe started out really hot and began cooling and that allowed for living matter to exist. The others desperately tried to recall the lyrics to the theme song from the hit show “The Big Bang Theory” for help on this question. All of them did not seem have a full idea of what the conditions were like in the beginning and how everything in the universe formed. I confess that I didn't either. Well according to an article by NASA, at the time of the big bang, “The cosmos contained a vast array of fundamental particles such as neutrons, electrons and protons. These decayed or combined as the universe got cooler.” The temperature of the universe back then was in the millions(Kelvins) and the heat kept protons and electrons from forming hydrogen atoms. So what you essentially have is a large cloud of particles that block any light, or photons, from coming through. It wasn't till approximately 380,000 years after the big bang, that a cooling period occurred, commonly known as the “afterglow”. The beginning of this period is marked by a very important event, the birth of light. The universe was finally at a temperature when hydrogen atoms could form and photons emitted a red infrared light through the haze for the first time.
This moment was first predicted by two Radio-astronomers Arno Penzias and Robert Wilson, in 1948 and then later proved in 1968. Their idea was that if this afterglow did actually occur, then the light that was emitted could easily be traced back to its origin by measuring the redshift of the lights microwaves. Astronomers use redshift to determine how far away an object is. It is a similar to the idea of the Doppler Effect. If they can tell how far way an object is then they can tell when its origin was. Galaxies emit light in every direction, and because the universe is constantly filling with space, the wavelengths of light stretches out and the light gets redder; hence the name redshift. Penzias and Wilson won the Nobel Peace prize for this discovery in 1971. To date, their findings are the strongest piece of evidence for the big bang theory.
Not everything that's in the universe today was a direct bi-product of the big bang. Light elements, such as hydrogen and helium, were the main material that came from the big bang occurring. This was mainly due to the fact that only elements that were light in weight could have been produced and sustained after the cooling period era of the universe. Elements like iron, or ones with similar or less weight, are made from fusion of elements occurring at the center of a star. Heavier elements such as copper, gold, and silver are made in supernovas, which happens when a star uses up all of its light elements and explodes.
My research came out with the idea that many people in society are frustrated with the theory of the big bang because it does not state whether it falls in line with the mainstream views of religion or evolutionary views. Of those I interviewed, half of them had a religious background and believed that the big bang theory told a bigger story. That there is a “grand master architect”, and he is God and that all the big bang theory is just a way to explain the so called science behind Gods miracles. The others either did not know or guessed that it is meant to support evolutionary beliefs that the universe just is and that's all there is to it. Well, as I have previously mentioned in this report, and have continued to do so in order to emphasize the point, the big bang theory does not take any sides in the evolution vs. religion argument. The scope of the theory is limited to the big bang itself and the state of the universe there after. The mystery of what happened before the big bang is still left wide open for anyone brave enough to try and solve it.
One of the common misinterpretations of the big bang stems from its name. Many people hear the word bang and automatically assume that at the moment of our universes conception, there was a titanic sized supernova explosion that spread throughout space. The big bang is better explained though as an expansion rather than an explosion. The theory goes that our universe was created and immediately started expanding its time and space. The universe is like a balloon that is inflating with space and that continues to inflate forever without exploding. Even though the universe is constantly increasing its space, it does not affect the location of its galaxies. or the orbital paths the planets in them. They remain still. Now, this seems to contradict popular belief because most of the people I interviewed believe that part of the big bang theory is that eventually the universe with start to contract and it will experience some sort of “reverse” big bang where eventually everything will compress into a microscopic fireball, and then disappear out of existence. However, according to the evidence, not only does does the space continue to expand, but it is expanding at an accelerated rate! This leads me to the next popular misconception.
Out of the six people that I interviewed, four of them had a similar belief that the big bang started with a fireball of energy that exploded at the “center of the universe”. I found out that they were not alone in this idea, in fact, it is a common misinterpretation of the standard theory. But according to the theory, energy or matter did not exist before the big bang. There was nothing. The universe came out of something called a singularity, which is the zone at the center of a “black hole” where finite matter becomes infinite density by intense pressure. Where singularities come from is not known. However, the standard theory does not hypothesize what happened before the universe was created but what happened during and after the cosmic event. The theory also states that the big bang happened everywhere at the same time, and that there really is no center of the universe that's of any significance. There’s is a geometrical center of the universe, but all that's there is empty space.
I asked my interviewees the question, “What does the big bang theory say about how the universe formed into what it is today?”. One of them stated that he remembered from his high school physics class that the universe started out really hot and began cooling and that allowed for living matter to exist. The others desperately tried to recall the lyrics to the theme song from the hit show “The Big Bang Theory” for help on this question. All of them did not seem have a full idea of what the conditions were like in the beginning and how everything in the universe formed. I confess that I didn't either. Well according to an article by NASA, at the time of the big bang, “The cosmos contained a vast array of fundamental particles such as neutrons, electrons and protons. These decayed or combined as the universe got cooler.” The temperature of the universe back then was in the millions(Kelvins) and the heat kept protons and electrons from forming hydrogen atoms. So what you essentially have is a large cloud of particles that block any light, or photons, from coming through. It wasn't till approximately 380,000 years after the big bang, that a cooling period occurred, commonly known as the “afterglow”. The beginning of this period is marked by a very important event, the birth of light. The universe was finally at a temperature when hydrogen atoms could form and photons emitted a red infrared light through the haze for the first time.
This moment was first predicted by two Radio-astronomers Arno Penzias and Robert Wilson, in 1948 and then later proved in 1968. Their idea was that if this afterglow did actually occur, then the light that was emitted could easily be traced back to its origin by measuring the redshift of the lights microwaves. Astronomers use redshift to determine how far away an object is. It is a similar to the idea of the Doppler Effect. If they can tell how far way an object is then they can tell when its origin was. Galaxies emit light in every direction, and because the universe is constantly filling with space, the wavelengths of light stretches out and the light gets redder; hence the name redshift. Penzias and Wilson won the Nobel Peace prize for this discovery in 1971. To date, their findings are the strongest piece of evidence for the big bang theory.
Not everything that's in the universe today was a direct bi-product of the big bang. Light elements, such as hydrogen and helium, were the main material that came from the big bang occurring. This was mainly due to the fact that only elements that were light in weight could have been produced and sustained after the cooling period era of the universe. Elements like iron, or ones with similar or less weight, are made from fusion of elements occurring at the center of a star. Heavier elements such as copper, gold, and silver are made in supernovas, which happens when a star uses up all of its light elements and explodes.
My research came out with the idea that many people in society are frustrated with the theory of the big bang because it does not state whether it falls in line with the mainstream views of religion or evolutionary views. Of those I interviewed, half of them had a religious background and believed that the big bang theory told a bigger story. That there is a “grand master architect”, and he is God and that all the big bang theory is just a way to explain the so called science behind Gods miracles. The others either did not know or guessed that it is meant to support evolutionary beliefs that the universe just is and that's all there is to it. Well, as I have previously mentioned in this report, and have continued to do so in order to emphasize the point, the big bang theory does not take any sides in the evolution vs. religion argument. The scope of the theory is limited to the big bang itself and the state of the universe there after. The mystery of what happened before the big bang is still left wide open for anyone brave enough to try and solve it.
Bus 1050 Mike LeFevre Essay
Mike Lefevre, Steel Worker is written by Studs Terkel, an American award-winning author. The text is written in a form of an interview. In the text, Mr. Terkel conducts an interview with a man named Mike Lefevre, long time steel mill worker, asking him questions about what his life is like in the steel mill and his thoughts on the business itself. Mike comes off to readers as being the ultimate “blue collar joe”. He is very down to earth, a little pessimistic, but has the leveled headedness of an aged man. This makes him very relatable.
Mike has a hard time being proud of what he accomplishes at work because he feels very alienated from the work itself. This point made by Mike goes hand-in-hand with the text Alienated Labor. A worker that sees the fruit of his labor, like a contractor seeing his house he built, feels more connected to his work and is proud of it. A worker that does not see the fruit of his labor and how it ties into society can feel disconnected from his work like Mike does. Mike thinks that a man needs to have something tangible to point at in order to feel proud about it. Without this, it is hard for Mike to care about his work. Steel Mill workers, like Mike, arent the only ones who cannot see the end product of their labor, in fact, the majority of the labor industry feels alienated from their work. This is because everything is mass produced these days on conveyor belts and assembly lines. Products get made and then shipped off by some other company entirely and the labors that helped in the making of the process don't get to see the products until they wind up on a shelf in a store. Even then, seeing the product they helped make on a shelf does nothing for them because they are that disconnected from it. In the text, Mike states that it isn't just the products that are mass produced but the laborers too. Every laborer is just a number or a body to the people that employ them. Individuality is not encouraged. It is all about uniformity. Management does not interact with staff enough to know them too personally. The management at the Steel Mill where Mr. Lefevre is employed, are hardly ever seen. Mike mentions an upper level managers often say hello to him and offer generic words of encouragement but that is it. Mike does not feel like they are sincere and therefore, he laughs it off and in the end, Mike feels no sort of loyalty or connection to his employers.
Mike does not consider himself to be an intellectual. To Mike, intellectuals are people like his employers, who work in cushy jobs, make most of the money, read books, and quote authors like Walt Whitman at the drop of a hat. Mike does not aspire to be one of these people and is certainly not jealous of them. However, Mike does want his children to be apart of this class of intellectuals or simply the upper class. This seems crazy because these people are the same people that treat Mike like just another body in a factory and just boss him and his co-workers around like cattle. However, it is not the callous attitude that Mike wants his children to adopt but the protection from degradation that being an intellectual brings. If his children are the ones with the power and money, then they are shielded from all of the bad parts of the labor force that are Mike’s reality. Mike even jokes that he would rather have his children be stuck up intellectuals then to have them be just another frustrated, blue collar laborer like him. Mike wishes that he would contribute more to making this happen for his children. In Mike’s mind, if he could have more time with them at home then he would get them to read more and improve upon their skills. However, he doesn't seem to have time for much except stopping for a beer after work, and then he goes home and argues with his wife, and watches the news or Jackie Gleason. Quality time and conversation of substance with his family is not in his reality. Mike believes he could do all these things if he had a shorter work week, like 20 hours instead of 40 hours a week. However, Mike figures that the reason that work weeks are so long is because the intellectuals, aka his employers, want to keep people like him constantly working so that they do not have time to daydream, and god forbid improve themselves. It is a tale as old as time; keeping the rich, rich and the poor, poor. There are so many people in the workforce that are incredibly talented and skilled but they are not able to cultivate their talent because they are poor and need to support themselves and their families. What would happen if these people quit their jobs to pursue their dreams? First, the work at these mills and factories would not get done, and the owners would lose money. Then then would be a huge influx of the labor class joining the upper class (intellectuals) and the whole class system would be rocked!
To Mike, the easy life is that of a college student. Mike thinks that a lot of college students are doing it wrong these days with their deep philosophical thinking and enjoyment in politics. He daydreams that if he were in their position, he would smoke weed all day and drive around in a sports car looking for girls. It’s dreams like this, and the one where he is in Miami with a gorgeous blonde, that get him through the work week and helps him find an escape from the pressures, Having an escape is important especially if one is not fulfilled at work. Alot of dangerous habits can form in a person when they are resent their job and their employers. When people are unable to express their feelings they have towards their bosses and direct them to the proper people, then they can take it out on family, friends, and even strangers. Mike mentions that at the tavern where he drinks after work, he sees a lot of guys throwing punches at each other and its because they are frustrated and stressed from work. Another common bad habit is alcohol and drug addiction because they alter the mind to the point where they do not have to feel and can escape to another so called “plane”. All of these bad habits can lead to mental disorders like depression, and anxiety. Mike is not an addict and he is not ill tempered but he sees this happen a lot to guys who have not found a way to cope. The truth is that there are millions of unfulfilled workers out there that fall into bad habits. This type of behavior can be dangerous enough in the micro sense but it can also be dangerous in the macro sense too. What would happen if a future Hitler or Stalin started recruiting people? The unfulfilled workforce would be the easiest target because they are already hostile and frustrated so they will be easier to sway
The people who are frustrated and stuck in a dead in job, are the ones who can be easily swayed by a charismatic leader gunning for change. History has seen this proven with Hitler and Stalin. These men had hateful agendas, but without followers, they could not have possibly enacted them. Unfortunately for society, their strong will and determination inspired vulnerable people to see them as powerful leaders who could bring about a better, more satisfying world. History has proven that this was not the case. These unsatisfied and frustrated people of the modern workforce can be just as vulnerable as those of the past because they feel like they do not have a voice or say in what happens to their life. In some ways, they feel powerless. These types of feelings are what make them vulnerable and that is potentially dangerous if a future Hitler or Stalin were to come about.
Mike has a dream of owning a tavern that also doubles as a bookstore where all kinds of people can come and mingle with people they might not have else where. A place where steel workers, college students and professors, and even intellectuals, can all have a drink and read and not feel ashamed to hangout together. Mike ultimate goal is to create a place where every man is equal and noble. However, Mike does not want to be viewed as being a communists with his books and his wanting everyone to be equal because he is not a fan of Communism and ironically believe that Communists read too much. Mike is just laid-back kind of guy who thinks every man, whether laborer or intellectual, should be treated with dignity and integrity.
Biol-1090 News Analysis # 2 with Reflection
1. Scientific American, CRISPR Gene-Editing Tested in a Person for the First Time, 15 Nov. 2016, David Cyranoski https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/crispr-gene-editing-tested-in-a-person-for-the-first-time/
2. A Chinese team of scientists, led by oncologist Lu You at Sichuan University in Chengdu, have begun clinical trials on a new, possibly more effective cancer treatment. What they are doing is using a DNA Enzyme called CRISPR-cas9, which is programmed to find and cut a specific gene that codes for the protein PD-1. The protein PD-1 is carried on human cells as well as cancer cells, and it is what allows the cancer to spread by preventing cell’s immune response. With this PD-1 producing gene out of the way, Lu and his team are able to inject their patients with genetically modified cells that are programmed to attack cancer cells. On October 28th they successfully did this with their first patient and reports say that the treatment went smoothly; however, it will take at least a couple more rounds of injections before any effects are seen.
3. Obviously these clinical trials could have a lasting positive effect on those patients participating but if it works, and the treatment is feasible, then it’ll open up the door for this treatment to expand globally. Carl June, who specializes in immunotherapy at the University of Pennsylvania, has made plans to begin the first US trials of this treatment in the early months of 2017. June states that, “I think this is going to trigger ‘Sputnik 2.0’, a biomedical dual on progress between China and the United States, which is important since competition usually improves the end product.” However, Dr. Lu You clearly state that this treatment is still very much in the trial stage so they will be closely monitoring their patients for any serious adverse effects.
4. The use of antibodies to neutralize the PD-1 protein has been an effective strategy in the past and some argue that the use of the CRISPR technology won’t be as successful, or as feasible. Dr. Naiyer Rizvi of the Columbia University Medical Center in New York City is one of these critics. While he is excited by this new strategy, he argues that this new technology is a huge undertaking and isn’t as scalable as the use of antibodies, which can be easily quantified in large amounts. “Unless it shows a large gain in efficacy, it will be hard to justify moving forward”, he says. Dr. Lou You admits that these points are valid and that he and his team will be evaluating these types of questions in their trials. I agree with both of them that these are valid points, especially when Dr. Lu You states that the culturing of the modified cells took longer than they anticipated.
5. Dr. Naiyer Rizvi is a medical oncologist in New York City, New York and is affiliated with the Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center and the Columbia University Medical Center. Dr. Lou You is a medical oncologist in Chengdu, China and is affiliated with the Sichuan University and West China Hospital. I researched both of them and neither of them seems to be affiliated with any for-profit corporations that would alter their conclusions.
6. When I think of cancer treatments, I automatically think of chemotherapy and radiation. It’s cool to learn about this cutting edge technology and I am excited to hear how the trials will go! We learned in class about genetic modification and how it could lead to a lot of positive things so it’s nice to see that in action. I also had no idea that cancer cells carry the PD-1 protein and that it allows them to multiply and spread without the immune system interfering.
7. I think the reporter did a great job at organizing the article and putting in enough background information so that readers like me, with no prior knowledge on the subject, didn’t feel lost or confused. He defined the foreign terms like CRISPR-cas9 and PD-1 protein and explained what role they played in this new treatment. He also didn’t give any false illusions that this treatment was anything but a trial and showed no personal bias towards it.
Reflection
When I was searching for an article to do my news analysis on, I was really caught off guard by all of the different options there were to choose from and that there were new ones everyday. I've always heard people say that new scientific discoveries are made everyday but that really does seem to be the case. Its reassuring to know that there are those out there who are constantly searching for new ways to improve the lives of others. I know several people in my life that have benefited for their efforts, including myself. I was born with a Cholesteatoma in my left ear and had my first surgery when I was six months old and continued to have surgeries periodically up until I was 14. It's been ten years since my last surgery and while I have experienced some hearing loss, I know it could have been a lot worse if it wasn't for the advanced technology that I got to experience.
It's clear to see from the article that the search for new cancer treatments is not just about finding the most advanced and cutting edge treatment, but also about finding one that makes fiscal sense to produce. Money is required at every stage of development for these treatments, whether it be the initial research stage or the final production stage. The research and experimentation stages might be funded by government or non-profit organizations but the production stage will inevitably be funded by private businesses that will expect to get back high returns on their investment. If a treatment or drug does not show promise of high returns then businesses really have no incentive for providing funding. This is the way the world works and I wasn't shocked to read this in the article, however, it is still unfortunate because in a lot of circumstances the most effective treatment isn't the most feasible to produce. I think this becomes a humanities issue as well and raises some questions of morality and ethics. Is it unethical to withhold treatments just because they aren't profitable? Is it immoral for society to demand the best treatments just because they feel entitled to them? Whose responsibility is it to save the human race?
I learned a lot this semester about human biology and how we as a species have evolved into what we are today. I now feel like I understand enough on the subject that I can hold my own in a conversation on biology. I especially enjoyed the lectures on genetics and inheritance as well the current event where we discussed genetically modified organisms. The subject of GMOs ties into a bigger idea of how our progress can affect the world around us, both positively and negatively. If we continue to progress and make advances in science, we need to do it in a way that does not detrimentally affect other living and nonliving organisms. One key thing I have learned from this class is that everything in nature is connected and the loss of one species can cause a ripple effect.