Blogging Reflection

I have really enjoyed keeping my blog throughout the semester, especially since I have had a blog for five years now. I started blogging back in 2008 about political campaigns and I continue to blog about them to this day. I even started another blog in 2010 called "Marin Hikes" which talked about good hikes in Marin County in the Bay Area where I live. While I stopped blogging about hiking in Marin, I still continue to blog about political races.

I found blogging in Writ 140 to be a slightly different experience however. For Writ 140, I had to do assignments instead of free work so I was more focused in my responses to the blog prompts. It also taught me about how I can work on my audience. For example, my blogposts used to be too long so it would be difficult for people to read them. I also realized how I need to keep my blogposts simple so people are not confused.

Overall, what I learned is that my blogging is good but definitely can be improved. This work may inspire me to do other blogging, including a blog about life at USC, an online diary basically that I would update once a week. Maybe I should even think about a Vlog on Youtube.

Logical Fallacy #2: Appeal to Fear

While known under many names including ad baculum and fear mongering, the appeal to fear is a well known scare tactic used in arguments. There is a difference between fear mongering and actual fear. For example, actual fear would be person A telling person B , "Do not lie down in the middle of Highway 405 at 1am, someone could drive over you," because the fear is not a threat but more of a likely result of lying down in the middle of Highway 405 at 1am.

An example of the appeal to fear is the Willie Horton ad used in the 1988 Presidential campaign by George H.W. Bush (R) against Democratic opponent Massachusetts Governor Michael Dukakis (D). Before this ad, Dukakis was leading in the polls. This ad talked about Willie Horton who committed violent crimes in Massachusetts under a furlough program Massachusetts had even though Dukakis himself had not created the program. This ad was meant to scare people by associating Horton with Dukakis. The ad worked by erasing Dukakis's lead in the polls.

Another example of fear mongering is the "Daisy" ad. This ad was used in the 1964 Presidential campaign between President Lyndon Johnson (D) and Arizona Senator Barry Goldwater (R). Johnson released this ad called "Daisy" which had a little girl picking flowers and then a nuclear bomb exploded and the ad suggested that Johnson would be the best one to protect the United States from a nuclear bomb explosion. This ad's main job was to scare people into voting for Johnson instead of focusing on the issues themselves. The ad helped Johnson too, he won with about 60% of the vote.

Logical Fallacy Ad Hominem

One of the most widely used and famous logical fallacies is the ad hominem argument. What is the ad hominem argument? It is when person A tries to win the argument by attacking person B's personal life instead of attacking the points that person B made.

For example, 

Person A: "Person B's argument that the Yankees are better than the Red Sox is invalid because Person B lives in New York and would obviously be biased toward the Yankees." 

This argument style is extremely common in the political sphere with elections. An example of this argument is the swift boat ads of 2004 where Bush attacked Senator John Kerry (D) for Kerry's service to the country during the Vietnam War.  Bush said that since Kerry's service in the Vietnam War was not as strong as made out to be, then Kerry should not be President. These swift boat ads stayed away from the issues and attacked Kerry on defense making him seem unqualified to lead the country with foreign policy issues. 

Definition of Critical Thinking

My simple definition of critical thinking is carefully examining all sides of an issue and solutions before picking a side to support. 

This diagram of critical thinking helps summarize my viewpoint on it. Critical thinking is basically a circle with no end where one must be informed and look at all sides of the issue. The idea of testing the theory and thinking of potential alternatives yourself is important instead of simply relying on other people's ideas to help you with your theory with critical thinking. 

My essay was about Proposition 187 which would deny social services to California residents without legal documentation to live there. I discussed how the creators did not use critical thinking because they failed to examine both sides of the issue and did not see how Proposition 187 would cause tensions between white Californians and the immigrant community and even within the immigrant community itself. 

Source from Le Noir Et Blanc

The source I chose from "Le Noir Et Blanc" is a movie review of "L.A. Confidential" by Peter Travers. I chose this source to examine to see how the movie reviewers in 1997 viewed "L.A. Confidential" and compared it to the other movies at the time.

The review immediately started attacking other noir style movies such as "Mulholland Falls" for example and portrayed the noir genre as a difficult genre to write in a successful movie in, mainly because most of the ideas and styles had already been filmed. Then the movie reviewer focuses on how "L.A. Confidential" and how it successfully captures the spirit of Los Angeles during the 1940s and how it shows the underlying problems with the police force of Los Angeles. 

What did I learn about Race and Class? 

I learned from this review how difficult it can be for filmmakers to authentically portray the themes of race and class of Los Angeles in the 1940s. I saw how the filmmakers portrayed the distinct angles and sides of the crime in Los Angeles with the example of one police officer who chased after wife beaters and the other police officers who went out of their way to beat up Mexicans. 

Overall though, the article itself mainly focused on reviewing the movie itself instead of discussing the inherent race and class issues in the movie. While the audience itself was aimed for the Rolling Stone magazine readers who would more likely be interested in reading about movies instead of about race and class issues, I was glad to get a perspective how it compared to other movies in terms of its accuracy in portraying race and class issues. 

How have readings influenced my understanding of the film?

The Fulton book Reluctant Metropolis helped me understand Devil in a Blue Dress by pointing out the themes of segregation in Los Angeles. It described how certain parts of LA were sectioned off for African Americans, Hispanics, Asians and White people. Devil in a Blue Dress describes how Los Angeles is sectioned off with Crenshaw being heavily African American but areas such as Malibu being heavily white and a place African Americans are unwelcomed. For example, Eazy goes to Malibu and is threatened by white boys who may see him as someone who does not belong in Malibu.

The 1992 LA Riots

The event I will be examining is the 1992 LA riot. This was when South Central erupted after hearing the not guilty verdict of Rodney King, an African American motorist who was beaten by four police officers for no apparent reason and the beating was caught on video tape. The trial was held with no African American jurors in Simi Valley, a conservative and mainly white enclave in the Los Angeles area. The riots caused nearly $1 billion in property damage, lasted for six days and resulted in extreme devastation of many businesses in Los Angeles. The fires from the riots even blocked out the sun for a few days.

While the riots certainly were damaging, I will be examining the root cause. Was it more than just the Rodney King verdict that caused LA to erupt and create extensive damage? In my research, I will be examining other causes of the riots, how the rebuilding after the riots was handled and how to prevent future riots.

LA Riots

My definition of public space

Many public spaces in the center of a city have served to bring together all people of the city. Benjamin Barber, a writer for the well known magazine The Nation perfectly states the purpose of a public space by saying, “Entertainment and commerce are necessary and important, but they "work" because people are drawn into public spaces for other reasons: to play in the company of others, to watch one another and see others with fresh vision (here the fabulous red stairs atop the TKTS booth at Forty-seventh Street make a splendid start), to interact with strangers, to get out of private space and into common space.” (Barber) Also, the purpose of a public space should be to bring together a community. This idea stems from the article “If you build it, they will come” by Jay Walljasper. The article defines public space as a place to “meet, talk, sit, look, relax, play, stroll, flirt, eat, drink, smoke, people watch, read, soak in sunshine and feel part of a broader whole. They (public spaces) are the starting point for all community, commerce and democracy.” (Walljasper.) 

LA Live Observations

On Sunday February 10th from 1-2:15 pm, I went to observe LA Live as my chosen public place. Here is the website link to LA Live which describes itself as the most entertaining place on the planet on its website.

                                         LA Live at 1:30 pm Sunday, February 10th.

LA Live is located in Downtown LA which in the early 20th Century was filled with the elites. As WWII ended and the elite settled in Beverly Hills, Downtown began to deteriorate. In the 1980s though, the Downtown began to revitalize with businesses returning to LA and the US Bank building opened in 1989 which is the tallest building in Los Angeles. LA Live followed with Staples Center opening in 1999, the Espn Zone and Grammy Museum areas with the restaurants opening in the mid to late 2000s and the Ritz Carlton opening in 2010. LA Live is spread out with the Staples Center at the south end, the ice skating rink and upscale restaurants in the middle with the movie theater on the left and the planned football stadium on the northern end of LA Live. The funding  for LA Live was not from the city or even a local big business, the funding came from Wachovia, Anschutz Corp and Azteca which are big corporations from out of state and Anshcutz and Azteca are from Germany and Mexico respectively. Anschutz however owns many of other sports arenas around Los Angeles. Since these firms are not Los Angeles based, my assumption was that their focus was more on making money than improving the quality of life for Los Angeles, even though they seem to have improved the quality of Downtown LA at a first glance by transforming old warehouse and office space into LA Live.

When I visited LA Live last Sunday, it was not my first visit there. I have been to LA Live 4-5 times and they were all during the evening and the night instead of during the daytime. In the evening, I remember seeing an upscale crowd of people in their late 20s-early 30s which is not surprising because LA Live seemed to cater to that crowd. LA Live had many upscale restaurants and clubs which would appeal to younger people with money but since LA Live was loud and busy, it would not be appealing to elderly upscale people who may prefer to stay in Beverly Hills where it is a bit quieter.

When I was at LA Live though, I noticed that not everyone was welcome in LA Live. I saw an African American man in old clothing sitting down next to a wall and a police officer walked by and said, "We have to keep everyone moving, you can't just stand around." I noticed how everyone in LA Live was moving and not standing around although a few people were sitting down outside of Starbucks and having lunch (but the plaza where the ice skating rink used to be which had benches was fenced off.) Even the advertisements were redundant above the plaza which repeated itself every ten seconds, as if it expected people to hurry by and not stay around for a cycle of advertisements.

Anyway though, I found it interesting how LA Live did not seem very accommodating for some people seeing how the officers wanted people to move quickly and the only seating area seemed to be near Starbucks. Should LA Live be more open to people? Also, should it have a real central location?

Insights into Californication

When I first chose "Californication," I mostly chose it based on the metaphors in the song and how I felt they would accurately describe the truth behind the California dream. While looking at the song though, I also noticed how sarcastic and ironic the song was which I liked because it made me laugh too while I was reading the lyrics. I also did not realize how the music video had metaphors similar to the song. For example, the music video had one of the band members swimming through an ocean with sharks and then magically landing in a convertible which seems to represent how quickly one can rise in California. Also, another aspect I did not realize when first writing the paper was how the lead singer Anthony Kiedis's personal history influenced the song. His Father moved to California to pursue an acting career but the California dream was unfufilled for him and even for Kiedis, it took him eight years to finally rise in the charts with his 1991 hit "Under the Bridge." Overall, I liked all the insights of "Californication" and how it shined new light on the California dream.

Why I chose Californication

I had narrowed down my choice of songs to a few including "Californication," "It Never Rains in Southern California" and "Valley Girl." I chose "Californication" because it represented all the aspects I wanted in a song. I wanted my song to have metaphors relating to the California dream and I wanted those metaphors to mock the California dream. "Californication" had those aspects while showing how the California dream is an exaggerated and addicting idea.

The reason I did not choose "It Never Rains in Southern California" was that although it demonstrated the California dream's shortfalls, it did not go further in depth and contained a blander description of the California Dream. Besides the line "it never rains in California but girl they don't warn ya it pours, it pours," I did not find the uniqueness "Californication" has. 

I did not choose "Valley Girl" because although it went in depth and was unique, it was too specific. "Californication" covered a more broader category but not as broad as "It Never Rains..." "Valley Girl" focused only on one aspect of the California Dream which is living in the San Fernando Valley and how superficial and not "traditional American" the culture is there. Also, the song was slightly dated (it was released in 1982) and I wanted a more modern song that could capture how the California Dream is viewed today. Therefore, I chose "Californication." 

What is the California Dream?

The California Dream is the dream of improvement, perfection and an escape from the difficulties of life. It is an extension of the American Dream. In the 1800s and early 1900s, immigrants from Europe flocked to America in search of a better life and improvement. In Europe, life was extremely structured, social classes were firm which  prevented people from rising into the upper class. Europeans saw America as a place for improvement but as Europeans flocked to America, new social structures began as the East Coast had a traditional way of life.

California however was the Final Frontier because it was unexplored, undiscovered and lacked social classes. This caused California to become the next migration point after the East Coast and Midwest became stagnant in their social classes and land. For people in Oklahoma during the 1930s lamenting over the dust bowl crop failures and the harsh weather of the prairies, California shined as a state with no dust bowl weather and plentiful farming jobs. Even after California became further settled in the early 20th Century, the concept of a land without snow, without structure and without problems symbolized a frontier because it was  a new concept for people.

This California Dream concept skyrocketed during the 1950s and 1960s, drawing African Americans fleeing the South with its abusive social constructs and white people fleeing the constriction and grit of the East Coast cities. Also, Hollywood played a large role too in attracting people. Hollywood suggested that people can become famous, even if they had no background or experience, further indicating that California is a place without social constructs and a frontier of unexplored possibilities. Hollywood is located in California due to the California Dream in fact because the filmmakers in the early 20th Century escaped Astoria, NY due to harsh weather which prevented filming in the winter. They wanted a new opportunity in a land with nearly no rain. This was a dominant theme in the song "It never rains in Southern California," by Albert Hammond who sang about how "I've often heard that [it never rains in Southern California] talk before. They don't warn that it never rains, it pours."

The California Dream could not be fulfilled by all of California's migrants. Not everyone became famous and people soon discovered that urban problems followed them to California even though the weather was fine. Also, these dreams conflicted with each other which caused more tension. Overall, the California Dream is the dream of improvement and a life of perfection but as California's history shows, perfection in California is  a myth.

Dummy Post

This is my 1st post on the blog! I am excited to further explore the California Dream in subsequent posts!

This blog is for my class at USC