Status Update

Transmissions from Camp Trans
-Claim: Camp Trans is a place where you are accepted regardless of your gender identity.

-Style: Classical Style
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Dark Webs Goth Subcultures in Cyberspace

-Claim: The internet serves a large purpose in the gothic culture, making a large contribution from the way goths communicate to the music that they listen to. Cyberspace plays a large role in the movement of gothic culture.

-Style: Toulmin Style
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The Truck Stop as Community and Culture

-Claim: Even though trucking is their job, truckers live a separate live within their communities.

-Style: Toulmin Style
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House for the Homeless

-Claim: The homeless should not be disregarded because of the situation that they are in.

Style: Rogerian Style
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As of now, I am trying to look at all of the information that I have and formulate a strong argument about the culture of teen mothers. So far, I am finished with forming 3 main thesis that are going to be discussed in my rough draft. I am also finished with one and a half pages of my rough draft. I still have the last few pages to finish. The question that I hope to pose to my peer review group has to do with the content of my paper because I am not so sure about that.

Observation: Manigault Park

*What is going on in the fieldsite
The fieldsite is very busy. There are alot of older and younger children playing on the playground while their parents are sitting on the nearby park benches. There are both young and older parents there, and I see a subtle separation between them. A few of the older parents sit on one side of the playground while the younger parents sit on the other side. There are exactly 5 teen mothers and 3 older mothers at the park.

*How do the members of the subculture interact with each other?
There is very limited interaction between the teen mothers in the park. They interact more with their kids moreso than with each other. When they do talk, it is no longer than ten minutes about playdates, work/school, and personal things. When they are not talking, majority of them are reading books by adult authors such as Zane.

Make a list of terminology used at the fieldsite with which you might me unfamiliar.
Certain hand gestures that the parents make to their children


What details, behaviors, surroundings, did you have questions about?
The separation between the older and younger parents
The limited interaction within the group of teen parents


*Find at least one person at your fieldsite you can speak to and ask them a question about something you observed that you didn't understand.
I asked one girl named Jessica about the separation of the older mothers and themselves and she said something about the older mothers looking down on them because they were teen mothers.

Act V Questions

What makes this fieldsite a good fieldsite in studying this particular subculture?
The prison is a good fieldsite for this subculture because since it is dealing with prisoners and it would be ideal to be in a place where prisoners are conveniently located. You could also gain a greater understanding of the subculture by actually being there.

What observations did the author make that is particularly useful in this subculture?
The author observes them as actors working in the play instead of criminals. However, he observes the prison just as it is.

What are the norms and values of the subculture?
The prisoners seem to value what they do as important, and are seen as actors rather than criminals. However, they are aware of the crimes they committed that got them there in the first place.

What interview techniques did the author use to understand the subculture?
The author used vivid descriptions when interviewing the prisoners, creating a mental image of the prisoners without actually seeing them. The interview is also done without a bias in mind, which gives the listeners an untarnished look into the prisoners feelings, actions, and personality.

Topic: Teen Mothers

Sources:

Crawford, Trish. "Most Teens Parent Well." The Toronto Star 11 Mar. 2008. LexisNexis Academic. Toronto. 14 Mar. 2008 .

Melhado, Lisa. "Teenage Parents' Educational Attainment is Affected More by Available Resources Than by Parenthood." Perspectives on Sexual and Reproductive Health 39 (2007). ProQuest. New York. 14 Mar. 2008 .

Stobbe, Mike. "U.S. Teen Births Rise for First Time in 15 Years, Surprising Health Officials." The Associated Press State & Local Wire 05 Dec. 2007. LexisNexis Academic. Atlanta. 14 Mar. 2008 .

Thompson, Elaine. "Motherhood Not the End of the Line; Comprehensive Support Helps Teen Parents Keep Their Lives on Track." Telegram & Gazette 15 Feb. 2008, sec. B.1. ProQuest. Worcester. 14 Mar. 2008 .

Windom, Ebony. "TEEN MOMS HANG OUT, GET HELP." PASCO TIMES 05 July 2007, North ed. LexisNexis Academic. St. Petersburg. 14 Mar. 2008 .

Reflection:

I believe that the article by Elaine Thompson will help me the most in the project because it defies the common stereotypes about single mothers. After I read this specific article, I had a sense of what direction I wanted to go in terms for field work locations that I could go to observe teen mothers. This article mentions a program called PROMISE that is in Worchester that helps teenage mothers pursue an education and if there is a program similar to PROMISE that is in Atlanta, then I would start there, along with daycare centers and teen pregnancy centers at the hospital.

Warren Beatty

Even though I was not aware of his accomplishments, Warren Beatty is not a stranger to the world of Hollywood. Warren Beatty, born on March 30, 1937, is an actor whose portrayal of the character Clyde in the groundbreaking crime-inspired, film Bonnie and Clyde changed the film industry, being the first film to add on to post European cinema. (Finstad par. 1) However, Bonnie and Clyde is not the only film that he has had success with. Beatty had been nominated for more than thirteen Academy Awards in his acting career, along with winning the prestigious Thalberg Award.


Beatty is the younger brother of Shirley Maclaine, another famous actor. He was born as Henry Warren Beatty before changing his last name. Beatty’s acting skills caused him to play three major roles in a row. In the beginning of his career, he landed his first telivision debut on a sitcom titled The Many Loves of Dobie Gillis in 1959. A year later, he starred in William Inge’s A Loss Of Roses a year before his appearance in the movie Splendor in the Grass, Beatty’s first appearance on the big screen. Many film roles followed this appearance, including Roman Spring Of Mrs. Stone (1961), All Fall Down (1962), Lilith (1963) and Mickey One (1965). After these movies, he went on to star in possibly the biggest movie in his career, Bonnie and Clyde.


Beatty is not just known for his movies, he is also known for his political views and opinions. In 2005, he expressed his dislike in the way California governor Arnold Schwarzenegger was running the state of California. He went on to say that although he did not express any interest in entering the race for governor, he would do “one hell of a lot better job than he's done." (Mangaliman par. 13). Schwarzenegger’s publicist responded by criticizing Beatty’s acting skills and calling him as a “crackpot”. Arnold’s publicist dismissed the statements made by Warren, stating that Beatty, a democrat, is furious at Republicans because of his fear of them cutting of his Social Security. (Abramowitz par. 9-11).

Finding Out About Michael Schultz

The movie that I chose to do for my paper was Krush Groove, which was directed by Michael Schultz. Finding info on Michael was not as easy as I thought it would be; I had to travel to at least 6 web pages to find bits and pieces of information on him. The first step that I took in finding information on the director was to search Krush Groove in Google to find out who directed it. Wikipedia was the first link that came up so I clicked on it to try and figure out who directed the movie.

I read the first few sentences of it to see where they mention Shultz’s name, which had a link to another Wikipedia page about him. This page had a mini biography about Schultz and a link at the very bottom of the page. This link brought me to a site called IMDb, an internet movie database in which you can search for anything movie or television related. This includes information on characters, actors, writers, and producers of almost any movie that you can think of, so it made sense to look here for information. It was pretty reliable in content and the movies he directed were in chronological order. After seeing a list of his works, I had very little sense of who the director was so I tried searching for him in yahoo instead. Four web pages later, I was at allmovie.com reading an equally small biography on Schultz.

Finding information on Michael Schultz was very frustrating due to the lack of information that is out on him and the fact that there are other Michael Schultz’s out there. On the other hand, the last movie he made was in 1987 so that could be understandable to a certain extent.

Cheryl L. Keyes: Rap Music and Street Consciousness

The book that I decided to choose was Rap Music and Street Consciousness by Cheryl Keyes. In this book, Keyes gives a retrospective look to rap music by tracing its roots and thoroughly examining hip-hop culture. This book struck me as interesting because as soon as I read the first page, I was instantly in the middle of reading an argument on the origin of hip-hop. While some hip-hop artists were claiming that hip-hop came from West Africa, others did not believe it and questioning where it came from. Rather than just saying that it came from Africa, Keyes strengthens the connection between hip-hop and its African roots by bringing up the impact of the book, Roots. While that connection may seem far-fetched, she brings it all together and says that since the popularity of Roots, West African griots or musicians have been expanding their performances and rap artists could have easily seen them and recognized the connection. It is arguments like these that make the book interesting to read and help you identify more with what the author is saying. She supports her claims and point of view with testimonials from the actual hip-hop artists themselves, which makes her a lot more believable in what she is stating.

Keyes, an associate professor at the University of California, specializes in areas that deal with African American music and gender studies. In addition to researching hip-hop culture all across U.S and Africa, she also serves as the U.S president of the International Association for the Study of Popular Music. Along with this, she also plays the piano and flute and is close to finishing an album. All of this proves that she is more than capable of writing this book based on her experience in studying and researching hip-hop music.