Soundtrack to My Life

I have never really thought about what a soundtrack to my life would be before, so I am just going to pick songs that make me think of some memorable experience in my life....

(1) My Brown Eyed Girl by Van Morrison

This has always been my Dad's song for me. I will always remember dancing to it at a relatives wedding with him.  He isn't the kind of person to show his emotions much and be all lovey-dovey, but he always used to sing this song to me anytime it came on, so it's a great memory!

(2) Whip It by Devo

I laugh out loud when I think of this song.  My mom, my brother, and I always used to blast this song anytime we were in the car together and I knew every word to it since I can remember. It is such a lame, horrible song, but I love it! I just watched the video for the first time today, and I'm a little creeped out though...

(3) Bohemian Rhapsody by Queen

This is my mom's go to karaoke song unfortunately.  She fell in love with the song from the movie Wayne's World and her and I used to dance to it in my living room when I was little all the time.  Also, we have embarrassed my dad at many New Years parties singing and dancing to this song. It's a family joke now, and we all know every word.

(4) On the topic of karaoke, Is She Really Going Out With Him? by Joe Jackson

My mom and aunt got crazy at another New Years Eve party and acted out every word to this song.  My uncle got the whole thing on video and we watch it every year now, to their great embarrassment, but our great enjoyment.

(5) Still on karaoke topic, And I'm Telling You I'm Not Going by Jennifer Hudson from Dream Girls

I had a few too many to drink one night at my house with my parents, boyfriend, his parents, and a few friends. I sang this song on karaoke. If you don't know the song, it's sung by a larger black woman with an absolutely amazing voice, one I can't come close to replicating. I get made fun of to this day for this, but I love singing this song and pretending I'm as good as her when I'm in the shower, or anytime I'm alone, but it unfortunate it happened over a microphone that once.

(6) Come On Eileen by Dexy's Midnight Runners

It started at a family New Years party again, but now at just about any family gathering, we end up playing this song and all skip around in a circle until my mom, again, does a hilarious dance at a certain part.

(7) Whatever It Is by Zac Brown Band

I used to absolutely hated country music, but this is the song that got me hooked on some of it.  My, at the time, new boyfriend had sent it to me and it always makes me think of the beginning of our relationship, and how it was the start of something wonderful! Cheesy...

This assignment was easier, and more fun than I thought it was going to be.  It was really fun to actually watch the videos on youtube to these songs because I had never seen most of them before.

Library Continued...

Forgot to post the call number and the bibliographic citation so here it is:
Call number: HB 1054.55 A3 K576 1987
Knodel, J. Chamratrithirong, A. Debavalya, N. Thailand's Reproductive Revolution: Rapid Fertility Decline in a Third-World Setting. Madison, Wisconsin:  University of Wisconsin Press, 1987.

Library Adventure!

So, this adventure was somewhat intimidating for me.  This is the first time that I have checked out a book in a library at school, and I had no idea how to do it.  I searched "Birth control AND Thailand" and the first hit that came up was a book called Thailand's Reproductive Revolution. It was written in 1987, and the topic that I am writing about started in the early 80's and is about Thailand's policies on birth control/population inflation, so I knew that this book would help, and I didn't look much further.

The book was in Memorial Library, which I had only been in once before, but only to study just up the stairs on second floor.  I asked the woman at the front what floor my book would be located on, or some sort of strategy to find it because the code number made absolutely no sense to me.  She told me that it would be on floor 4M and I should take the elevators.  So I got in the elevator with another man who asked me what floor  I was going to so he could press the button for me.  I did not know that floor 4M and floor 4 were different buttons so I just said floor 4.  I go to the north stacks and start trying to read the signs to find HB. I am walking through the isles and passing people in cages studying.  The lights would turn on after I walked past each isle and I was the only person making noise and all I could think is that a group of rabid dogs would jump out of the next empty cage I pass. Thanks. So I finally find the isle and realize that every book is in some Asian-looking language! Finally I realized I was on the wrong floor and it was easier and less scary after that point. I went up a floor and found my book easily.  The books around it were titled Fertility Decline and Children's Education in Thailand, Fertility Among Rural Thai Women, and Fertility Planning in Thailand.  None of them seemed to pertain to my topic, so I only took the book that I searched.  I did check out my book, and I am excited to read it and use it as a source.  Although I was originally upset about this assignment, and even though I was very scared, I did enjoy it and get a good source out of it.

Advertisement, Old Spice

The advertisement that I chose to write about is one of the Old Spice body wash commercials.  Old Spice is a body wash for men that, according the the commercial, smells very manly.  The commercial opens with the same suave man that is in all the Old Spice commercials.  He seems to have just gotten out of the shower, and is only wearing a towel.  He is very handsome and muscular.  He is talking to the camera, and we are supposed to assume he is talking to a woman who has a "man."  He talks very fast, and then the bathroom changes into him "us" being on a boat and he has two tickets in an oyster to "that thing you love."  Then the tickets change into a waterfall of diamonds flowing from his hand.  An Old Spice body wash bottle raises out of his hand, and at the end, he is riding on a white horse, still shirtless.  He says, "anything is possible when you man smells like Old Spice, and not a lady." There are many of these commercials with the same style, where this man talks really fast and things morph into other things, and a lot of them end with this same phrase.  They are on TV, but this man has become an internet sensation too.

This commercial is geared towards women who should buy Old Spice for their man, or men who should buy Old Spice to make their woman happy, as he does in the commercial.  It is convincing women to buy the product because the man in the commercial is so "perfect."  He is good-looking, muscular, can take you on romantic places, has tickets for you to whatever you want, and has a flowing waterfall of diamonds.  They try to target "what any girl would want."  The humor in this commercial helps it so that it doesn't come off as cheesy, and make women roll their eyes after watching it, because it is inferring that this is what all women want in their man.  It is funny because of how fast he talks they try to cram as much romantic stuff that a woman could love into a short time in this commercial.  I believe that this commercial would fit best in Fowles' appeals under the need for attention, although it could fit under the need for sex, and need for prominence too.  It is very clear in this commercial that the man loves to be looked at, and is very proud of his muscles, and how attractive and perfect he is.  It gives the impression that "your man" will be one step closer to being like the man in the commercial if he smells like him too. For me, this commercial kind of works.  I love it and it makes me laugh really hard, but I have never thought to buy Old Spice for my man, although if I ever did need to buy him body wash, I guess it would be one of my first options.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=owGykVbfgUE&NR=1