Penguin Café Orchestra: Text in Composition

            In today’s societies, people all over the world want to stand out from all the rest, and create individuality. Only the rarest of the few ever achieve such a feat. To do something like this, one must go to great lengths to create something outside of the realm of the norm. One of these “greats” is the Penguin Café Orchestra. Their style, tone, sounds, and classification is unlike any other. They have truly created something that is outside of normal, and beautifully artistic in every way. How is anyone able to create such a vision? By stretching their definition of text and composition.

            The piece I am analyzing is called Perpetuum Mobile by the Penguin Café Orchestra. They take the definition of Perpetuum Mobile (or translated in English to Perpetual Motion) and then attempt to create a song around this definition. They incorporate a unique sound and rhythm to recreate the definition of perpetual motion. Every instrument “looped” into one another so that the song never truly has a stopping point (except in the beginning where there is a small introduction in the song, but really has no other stopping point until the end).

The argument I am creating is that within the musical composition that the Penguin Café Orchestra has created is the musical text. In other words, the text of the song is that of the unification of the violins, cellos, bongos, and the piano (or all of the instruments) to reflect the title of the song. The title of the song is, loosely, the composition. More specifically, the composition is the musical piece that encompasses the text of the song.

·      Perpetual Motion- a brief overview

o   In order to understand the song, one must understand the principle on which the song was founded.

o   Perpetual Motion is the following:

§  “A perpetual motion machine (PMM) is a device based on mechanical, chemical, electrical or other physical processes which, when started, will remain in operation forever and provide additional work as well. Only the natural wear of the components will eventually stop its operation” (Hans-Peters’, hp-gramatke.net).

o   A perpetual motion machine, theoretically, cannot exist.

§  Violates the first and second law of thermodynamics.

·      The Penguin Café Orchestra takes this idea of perpetual motion and transforms it to a musical composition, though establishing its text.

o   That is, the text is written for and written by someone.

§  Definition of text:

·      A style, tone, sound, voice, word, visual, etc. that pertains to a certain artistic or non-artistic medium.

o   The Penguin Café Orchestra incorporates their instruments and unique sound to establish their text.

§  Composition:

·      The embodiment of the text.

o   This can be a musical piece, an artistic statue; even this paper can be a composition.

o   Perpetuum Mobile is the text’s composition.

·      Purposes of the text- Rhetor, Audience, and Context

o   Rhetor

§  Even though the music was created by a number of musicians, the only consistent artist was Penguin Café Orchestra’s founder Simon Jeffes.

·      Technically, Jeffes created his music for everyone

o   Jeffes wanted to create a sound that was played in a café. He wanted to play the music that lifted your spirits and communicate with you in a soft and gentle way, warming your heart (Jeffes, penguincafe.com).

o   Audience

§  The audience that the music was originally created for is still the same today. The audience Jeffes was trying to reach was and still is everyone.

·      His music is unclassifiable, though the most popular term associated with him and his café is New Age.

·      “New Age music is peaceful music of various styles, which is intended to create inspiration, relaxation, and positive feelings” (Wikipedia.com).

o   While this classification is close, further analysis conveys that Penguin Café Orchestra is outside of the realm of anything, and is pleasurable to every ear.

·      Jeffes classifies his own music as “imaginary folklore” and “modern semi-acoustic chamber music” (Sandall, 1 penguincafe.com)

o   Context

§  Jeffes’ music could, potentially, be absolutely anywhere. They do have fans worldwide, as they toured in the U.S., Europe, and Japan.

§  Technically speaking, however, the music was originally in Simon Jeffes.

·      After getting severe food poisoning (with an ensuing vision) and then sunbathing on the shores of France, a poem popped into his head and he knew what the Penguin Café Orchestra was.

o   “I [Jeffes] am the proprietor of the Penguin Cafe, I will tell you things at random' and it went on about how the quality of randomness, spontaneity, surprise, unexpectedness and irrationality in our lives is a very precious thing. And if you suppress that to have a nice orderly life, you kill off what's most important. Whereas in the Penguin Cafe your unconscious can just be. It's acceptable there, and that's how everybody is. There is an acceptance there that has to do with living the present with no fear in ourselves” (Sandall, 1, penguincafe.com).

Text can literally be anything, given the right context that it is put it. A skyscraper to a musical composition by Aaron Copeland himself can all be considered a type of text. Perpetuum Mobile by the Penguin Café Orchestra is a text in its most artistic form. Not only do they make the musical composition, they transform the piece to a theoretically unrealistic concept! Perpetual motion is only an idea and can never truly be accomplished, according to the laws of physics. However, by bending the rules of text and composition and understanding the two, perpetual motion is a very real, and heard, concept.

Annotated Bibliography

HP-Perpetuum Mobile. Hans-Peters. 4 July 2003. Hans-Peter's Mathematick
Technick             Algorithmick
Linguistick Omnium
Gatherum. 11 November 2008.            

This website is very useful in helping to understand exactly what perpetual motion is. Gives multiple and very detailed examples and definitions. Lots of other information about physics relating to perpetual motion.

The Penguin Café Orchestra. Robert Sandall.  Penguin Café Orchestra Origins.             15 November 2008.

The Penguin Café Orchestra official website. Gives a fully detailed story and tribute to the now deceased founder Simon Jeffes written by Robert Sandall. Also includes: Biography on other members in the band, a discography, and origins of the band (overlaps Jeffes’ biography)

New Age Music. 3 December 2008. Wikipedia The Free Encyclopedia. 2 December             2008.

Gives an in-depth definition of the musical genre “New Age”.  Goes into further detail about the origins of New Age and the qualifications of what it means to be a “New Age” band.

Case Study: Introduction and Definition. Colorado State University. Writing Guides:             Case Studies. 11 November 2008.            

Gives a great definition and example of a case study. I used this site to help myself better understand what exactly a caser study is.  

As a side note, I would love to submit my peer review of my partners, but I never got his and he never got mine. I know, lame excuse, but this is true. Whether I ever really asked him for it or whether we both had ours ready in time is a different story. ONe which I won't go into details, because I'm sure the picture is clear. Don't Judge :)

The Information Highway

Life in the new world (the years leading up to and including the year 2000 that we now call the digital age) is something that is changing and being constantly manipulated. Everything that we knew 30 years before has all been changed. We can clone animals (to the extent of the public's knowledge), we can shoot a vaccination through the skin of a human without the use of a needle, and cell phones have never been smaller or smarter. However, what is the biggest worldwide explosion in the known world (which is everywhere) today? No, I don't mean G.W.'s infamous weapons of mass destructions. I'm talking about the Internet, with all of its inclusivity. Technology today has far surpassed what it was several years ago, and today we as people have a lot to show for it. Technological advances means advances in medicinal research, leading to the cure for diseases. Advances in technology can lead to better driving, easier banking, and safer (yet more automated) lives.

There is one realm that is changing how we as scholars go about our daily lives. I'm talking about the educational system. The advances in technology (computers, the Internet, the iPod) have all drastically changed how we learn. Teachers now frequently use the all-powerful PowerPoint, especially in collegiate settings. Since there are a large sum of students, PowerPoints mean a rise in learning. Or so it seems. According to Hall and Hass, they seem to agree that even though the way we interact and communicate is changing our culture, our culture is not the one changing. Instead, the tools with which we communicate is changing. Instead of papryus paper and a stylus of some kind in ancient egypt, we know have a keyboard and mouse. According to Hall, the Internet (more specifically Second Life) is "an extension of their own real world identity to further their communication networks" (Hall, 408) Is this any different than writing it down by hand? I don't seem to see it that way at all. 

Even though I fully agree with Hall and Hass about how technology changes and writing doesn't, one man (and I'm sure many more who just don't document it) disagrees with. In short, Rashke believes that the information highway is dumbing down the americans of today; in a way I don't disagree with that statement. I'm sure that he can argue that sites like youtube and facebook are unnecessary extensions of ourselves that we portray in such a way that we ridicule our own present and past societies and to an extent I agree. The garbage that is posted on youtube daily is a waste of everyone's time. and so-called "facebook fights" are absolute trash; there is just no need. However, to everyone pro there is also a con. Nothing is perfect, and the Internet is one of the greatest example of that (its right behind Windows Vista ;). One like Rashke can poke holes through the information gateway, but I am more than confident to say that it is not some kind of fad. 

Despite this, the Internet is becoming one of the leading tools that professors today use to fully utilize the teaching and educational system. I have already had a class speaker come all the way from Japan on a school year. How is he able to do this and still be on time for his class you ask? Our one and only. I never thought that one of the first "milestones" for my orientation into college would be setting up an email address, but what better way to conserve paper and get important information to students? What better way for students to communicate to their teachers after class? No, seriously, what better way? The answer is simple that there isn't.

The Internet today is one of humanities greatest achievements, not only in the education world but the everyday world as well. How we communicate with each other is something completely knew and surprising, but it is changing and becoming more friendly everyday. The technological Revolution is happening, and the only thing to do now is let the good times roll.

Journal 7-Untitled

The world is finally coming to a close. Everything is settling down. The children no longer play in the park next to 13^th street where Nik crosses to go home. The birds stop chirping, the nice white people of the nice neighborhood no longer pass these streets, and the dogs have long stopped barking. Nik wishes that he could go home to that neighborhood, wishes that he could be a part of that system just as much as all the white people that come through. But alas, it was not to be for old Nik. He was just going to walk past all these beautiful homes, beautiful streets, beautiful people, and walk to where he felt more accepted.  Its name is Harlem. Harlem may not be as nice as the white folks places, but its still home.

Nik’s lived here his whole life. He went to elementary school here and went to high school here. He had his first kiss here and broke his first heart here (incidentally it was the same person here). He laughed and he cried here. He lived here, but everyone once in a while, he wished that he didn’t live here. He wished he lived there. He wished that he first kiss were there. That his family was there. That his first car purchase was there.  That he didn’t have to cross 13^th street and come here. He wished that he could turn left and live there. This was never going to be anytime soon though, and he realized that a long time ago.

So Nik went to school and studied hard all the way through high school. He kept his nose to the grindstone and alas it all paid off.  He got into the college on the hill.  That college was there, and not here, and that was what he liked most of all. His mother and father were proud, and his older sister cried when he told her the news. It was big news since he was the first one to get into college in his family’s history. So now he was, for the first time in his life, going there and he wasn’t going to be held back by anything.

Or so he thought. There was one problem with the college on the hill. No one liked him there. People threw things at him. People called him names. They were all white. He didn’t understand why they hated him so much. He never even so much as made a friend when he went to the college on the hill. But that didn’t bother him.

Or so he thought. One fellow student of Nik’s always gave him trouble. Always picked on him. Always called him names. Everyday the student wouldn’t even let him sit down anywhere at the lunch tables and Nik is forced to sit in a bathroom stall. Nobody tried to stop the student. Everyone was laughing, even the teachers.

One day Nik was tired of all the trouble this student was giving him. So Nik decided to stand up to the student. He turned around to the student in the lunch area and yelled at him,

“Why are you doing this?!  I just don’t understand! Why am I constantly ridiculed because of the way I am?! You are who you are, and I am who am! We can’t change that fact! I am not trying to change that fact! In the end though we are all the same.! I eat and I drink and I sleep, just like you! I cry and I love! Just like you! Don’t you love? Don’t you cry? Why do you come here, to this college? I come here so that I can have a better life, so that one day I will wake up and be happy with myself, that one day I can become a better person, that I can provide for my children, for my wife, for my father and mother, for my sister, for my community, for my society, for my country! So that I do not become a parasite feeding off the individuals that work for a better tomorrow! That is why I am here! That is why I worked hard! That is why I live and I breathe! Now, isn’t that why you are here too?!”

The fellow student fell into a sullen silence, turned around and sat down. The entire lunch area heard what he said and they were all silent. Nik realized this, turned around and walked to a chair and for the first time sat down in it without being hounded to get out of it. He took a bite, chewed, and the lunch area volume climbed again and everyone began talking to each other again. Nik smiled to himself, and enjoyed his meal.

Nik walked past 13^th street. He hadn’t walked past this street since going to the college on the hill. But that was in the past. “Expulsion for extreme outbursts and negativity in the classroom” read his last letter from the college on the hill. He smiled. He knew that the faculty was just waiting for him to slip up. Waiting for an excuse. But it didn’t matter to him. He wouldn’t let it stop him. He remembered another college where he was accepted, Harvard, and decided to try there. They had already expressed interest but he picked the college on the hill for proximity. But now the world was open. My time will come, he thought. Maybe not today, Nik, and maybe not tomorrow, but one day the world will be yours.

Nik passed 13^th street and smiled. He was glad to be here.

I chose this picture because I think it relates to how Langston Hughes and Nik in my story. They both are alone in this world, but in that darkness and loneliness comes a light of hope.  A ray or beacon of light that promises of better times. That time will come and go (like a person only being under that light for a few seconds, walking), but that day will come. I liked the street as well because it symbolizes the streets that both Hughes and Nik have to cross in their stories (though the streets have different names, they are meant to symbolize the same thing). 

E-Portfolios

If I had to critique myself and give myself a grade, I would give myself a rather good grade. I don't really know how I have done compared to the other people in the class, but I know that I have worked hard and spent multiple hours on designing my webpages, much less the hours spent on writing the papers. I have sat down and thought up of a general guideline that I wanted my entire website to follow and (thanks to BPOD) I believe that I was able to execute that guideline fairly well. Considering that this is really only about the second time I've created a website (first time using this software) I think that my website looks well done. I would want the person looking at my site to say that it looks like I spent a lot of time on it and it paid off. 

Now, I'm definitely not saying that what I have created looks professionally done, and I'm not about to send it into a competition about web designs. Obviously it has its flaws. For one thing, I managed to overlook the BPOD of alignment. It says that having your article flush to one side is stronger than all over the place or in the middle. Not that I didn't know about this (I did), I purposely did not implement this rule into my website. I felt that having my writing to the left side is boring, and that having it on the right side would have been confusing, so I compromised. By having the borders on both sides equal to each other, I think that it more than balances out the issue of  the middle text as a bad thing. 

When I think about my homepage, I know that it needs a little work. At first I thought it was fine, but after some encouragement from a certain someone I think that I could whip up something a little more creative. Like what is stated in the blog outline, the homepage is what sets up the entire webpage. I can put more thought into what I am writing, maybe a bio about myself with a picture of me, then I can explain what my website is all about. That should give my potential readers a little more information about what they are planning to get into, so to speak.

The online portfolio, at least in my opinion, is an extension of my writing. By implementing visuals and different types of text, I am able to fully describe what I am writing about. This is definitely better than having just a collection of papers loosely bundled together to represent a semester's worth of work. Plus, by having this online portfolio, I am able to better reach a larger audience (that is, anyone that happens to stumble across my webpage and is able to understand english). As noted earlier, I believe that the combination of text and visuals helps the readers better understand what they are reading by actually seeing a visual description of what they are reading about. It can even give them an idea about what they are about to read even before they read it!

Basic Principles Of Design

There are four main ideas that the BPOD (basic principles of design) authors want you, the reader, to know and that is: alignment, proximity, repetition, and contrast. Alignment suggests when designing a webpage, it is smart to have all things flush to one side, rather than in the middle (unless you are highly paid to design webpages, in which case you know what you are doing). More often than not, it is more appealing to the eye to see something that is flush to the left side, since we read from left to right. Proximity is the thing that most young web designers mess up on the most. This is the basic yet overlooked principle of filling in the spaces. More technically speaking, it is giving a physical relationship between two items.  When two items, or words are too fart apart, then it the reader doesn't know to distinguish a relationship for the words. Therefore, it is smarter to put words that do have an understanding together to put them more closely together. 'Nuff Said. Repetition refers more towards the background rather than anything in the background. This suggests than when making a website, make all the webpages similar to the first one, or to have a similar layout for each webpage with varying pictures and words. Having different webpages completely different from the original webpage makes it seem like you have created a link that goes to a completely different website. Its all just to avoid confusion with your potential reader (or worse) or customer. Lastly, contrast. This is exactly what it suggests. Have enough contrast on your webpage so that it draws you reader in. BPOD suggests that you make the contrast very strong in order to get the full effects of what you are trying to do. However, BPOD warns that when you are writing something like continuos text, then it is very irritating to have any type of contrast at all, especially links with the color blue that can deter away from the text.

When talking about color, the main thing that one has to be careful is contrast. If you do not have contrast the isn't defining at all, then  it is pointless to have those two colors. Having strong contrast between colors is crucial. Typically, the strongest (and most boring) is a white background with black text.

When initially designing my webpage for the portfolio, I had already taken into consideration what BPOD had tried to tell me. I feel that when it comes to proximity, contrast, and repetition I have not let them down. I did realize that they suggested to not have your alignment along the middle, but I feel that with the use of my borders on the sides and the repetition on all the webpages, it is both easily accessible and easy to read.

Relationship with an Audience

In the two essays that we were instructed to read, both of them were writing about very different topics and therefore they both have very different audiences. The first essay by Knier is about himself going to best buy and marveling in all the technological goodness. For his essay, his audience is easily distinguished. It is most obviously everyone that either intends or happens to stumble across his page. His word choice is simple and his tone is humorous. For example, his last line of his paper is "Anyone want to buy a tv?" (Knier, 198). He wants a good grade from his teacher, but at the same time he wants to be able to get his message across to students who he thinks will read his page on his online portfolio. Overall, I'm not really entirely sure what he actually is trying to say, since for the most part it is just him rambling on about TVs. Apart from trying to explain a personal interpretation of the capitalist market that is Best Buy, there really is no other substance or deep meaning behind what he writes. Therefore, it is perfect for anyone to pick up a copy of his paper and read about his story and have a full understanding while enjoying it at the same time. His story is unique, however, which makes it an interesting read and also why it was put into the textbook. 

Now when I say that Trask writes a completely different article, I mean it in the most dramatic way. Her tone in the paper is neither lighthearted or enjoyable. At the most extreme, it is a demeaning and blaming piece of literature on the American government. As if we didn't already have enough problems, now the Hawaiians are mad. It almost seems like an oxymoron (mad Hawaiians), but that is the specific stereotype that Trask speaks out against. "This latest affliction has meant a particularly insidious form of cultural prostitution...Mostly a state of mind, Hawai'i is the image of escape from the rawness and violence of daily America Life" (Trask 189). Though only an excerpt, her tone is angered by the hardships mass tourism and colonial America has put onto to them. As a native Hawaiian, her audience is more specific. I believe her essay is meant to cater more towards the other native Hawaiians as an informative piece, or to politicians that could potentially help to end the hardships the Hawaiians are currently experiencing. This is vastly different from the aspect of Knier's essay, which is so much more simple and (dare I say it) exciting.

Now onto the movies. These movie trailers are different for the most obvious reasons. One is a comedy and one is a drama verging on a political statement of the Victorian Era (which it is considering that it is a book written in those times). The fact that the two movies are separate genres is enough to say that they have different audiences. Bride and prejudice is for everyone (or at least everyone remotely interested in seeing the movie) while Pride and prejudice is more of a chick flick. I know this to be true about the latter, seeing as I am a guy and I have absolutely no interest in seeing that movie, and the only way that I will see it is through a woman dragging me to the theaters or couch and making me sit and watch what I think is a awfully boring movie. I am not saying that the movie itself is bad, I am just more or less makeing a point. The intended audience is NOT me. The intended audience is (I am assuming) a female ranging from age 16 and above. 

Bride and prejudice, however, strikes me at a completely different angle. Apart from it being a spoof of the more formal movie (they even use the name Mr. Darcy), they put it in the present, use an Indian family where the idea of finding a husband for a daughter is still acceptable, and finally add lots of dancing (Indian style). This is movie that I would want to see, considering the flamboyant indian dress and the crazy dances that are performed. The trailer itself had me laughing, and the title affirmed my notion that the movie was in actuality, a spoof of the drama noted earlier in the paragraph. It would be safe to assume that this movie is for everyone who wants to see a goofy movie about falling in love.

MAUS-fancy name for mouse

MAUS, the tale of the holocaust, with a certain twist. It seems Speigelman is trying to reach readers through the use of illustrations rather than just words. He uses certain artistic techniques such as shading to highlight the main points in the illustrations so that we as the reader will be able to focus on what is important. For example, Speigelman shades everyone in the audience except for the police officers and the the three talking in the back, thus pointing out who is talking (that with word cloud) and also so that the three characters are easier to find in the story. Who wants to play where's waldo while reading a graphic novel of this kind?

         Speaking of the graphic novel, since there have been numerous attempts at writing novels about personal experiences during the holocaust, Speigelman takes an interesting spin on the whole "genre", if you will. By creating a graphic novel of this multitude, Speigelman is reaching out to everyone, not just the ones interested in words. With his novel Speigelman captures his audience with images, not only words. Anyone flipping through the novel could immediately have their attention grabbed by just happening to look at one of the images and just being interested enough by that to keep reading on. Basically, Speigelman's novel is simply more powerful because of his visual texts. 

         Now, the thought of this book without all of its images and visual texts would simply turn this novel into any other book. It would take away from its simplistic yet powerful nature to let readers “see" what he is talking about. Our imaginations can let us see also, but this way what the author sees is also what we see. The author almost lets us step out of our own imagination and enter his, though colorless and more mouse-like. 

        

Speigelman addresses the idea of audience in a very universal view. Though I feel I am restating this, I believe it true that letting us see what the author does is almost more powerful than words alone, at least for what he is writing about. By using these images he sets the tone for the whole novel by describing and illustrating what he means to say with words. Even though there are words, it is done more in the fashion of a storyboard for a 3-d animation, showing scene for scene what is actually going on. The actual tone of the novel tends is more drastic and serious for a novel with pictures and mice. It almost seems like he is trying to downplay the whole situation by using mice as the symbols for actual people, but by putting them in such a serious situation it takes away from their innocence and "cuteness". It is the perfect blend of innocence (in my opinion characterized by the mice) and actual seriousness of the situation. Even though I have only seen a small excerpt from this graphic novel, if I would have to describe this holocaust novel in a few words or phrase, I think that I would choose "gentle giant".

[ScrubS]

I chose to write about the TV show [Scrubs] for my second journal entry. I picked this show because it is easily my favorite show on TV. I don't necessarily watch TV too often but when I do I would rather watch Scrubs than any other show. I picked this show mostly because it's funny (why else would someone pick a comedy?), but I also chose this show because I feel like I have a special connection with it. Not that I have a weird obsession with any of the characters or the real people, it is just that the humor fits me so well. Every joke that the characters make I find extremely funny. I feel that if I were to sit down and be as brilliant as the writers are for this show, I think I would write this kind of sitcom. It starts off perfectly, but then always ends with a message. Also, the show isn't your typical sitcom, even making fun of its own uniqueness, like JD making fun of someone else for an "inner monologue", while that is basically how the show progresses. While not trying to go off topic, this show is influential in the way of my humor. Since this sitcom profiles me exactly, I feel that some of my humor is almost copied (sometimes) from scrubs. Now, its not like I'm a copycat, just that it is human nature. It is almost comparable to how a young child looks up to his or her idol. What does the child do when he or she admires the idol. The child acts like the idol does, sometimes too much. Now I'm not saying I'm like that, but I do find myself comparing reality to the show, because in my head, anything can be compared to an episode of scrubs. Chances are, they've done it. If you haven't seen this show, then I highly recommend it. The only way that someone wouldn't like this show is if they only saw it once; I was the same way. However, its just like watching someone play a game you've never seen before. If you don't know whats going on, chances are you aren't going to be too fond of it. Give the show a chance, though. You'll be glad you did.

;) 

Journal One

The image that I choose directly had to do with music. I'm really into music, and I have an open mind to most types of music. the only real music that I dont like is rap, but i do respect some other types of it. Hip Hop and R&B isn't exactly my favorite thing to listen to, but some friends of mine have shown me that sometimes the messages in the songs can be very powerful. But this picture that I put up mostly has to do with rock music.

I found this image a while back, and even though I was technically someone had shown it to me and I necessarily hadn't found it, the image is still an amazing picture because this image must have taken so long to create. I like it because of the creativity and ingenuity in it.

The image itself is just a huge reference/tribute to about 160 bands. Simply look at the one of the images literaloly and usually you can make out what band it is. Like in the front, guns and roses. There is also the rolling stones and white zombie, smashing pumpkins and the beach boys. Even though I am not particularly crazy about any of these bands, I do appreciate what Virgin (the company) is trying to do. They are trying to get across the point that music is influential, and here they are giving tribute to all the bands that they felt were worthy.

 ;)