Individual Post 5 Wednesday, Dec 17 2008

For my final discussion of places in St. Louis I want to write about an ice cream place. This place is called Ted Drewes. Although I am not a huge fan of ice cream I cannot resist Ted Drewes. It is famous across the country for its frozen concretes. These concretes are simply amazing, you can blend in any type of treat you want. But my favorite thing to order is a hot fudge sundae.

Usually, I go to Ted Drewes with my friends after a Cardinals game or on nights when there is nothing going on. Sometimes, however, I will come with my family after we grab dinner. My cousins and I love to stop by whenever we are in the neighborhood. It is a fun place for friends and family. I would suggest this place to anyone visiting St. Louis!

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Individual Post 4 Tuesday, Dec 9 2008

Villa Duchesne is a Catholic girls school for girls in 7^th through 12^th grade in Frontenac, Missouri. This is where I went to school my junior and senior year of high school. When you first drive into Villa you are taken aback by the look of the school. It looks like an old castle, common to many Sacred Heart schools like Villa. Upon entering the school building you are overwhelmed by a sea of maroon plaid skirts, hair ribbons, and north face bags. Chaos is among the girls as they share stories of their nights, scramble to get their homework done, and chat with teachers.

My favorite place in the whole main building was the senior room. This little room had three couches, a microwave, a wall of shame, and was home to the 78 girls in the senior class. It is seen as a privilege and a sort of rising through the ranks. My least favorite room in the whole school was the Tech office. This is where the Tech Guys fixed our tablet computers when we had a problem with them; which was almost everyday. Villa, like many Sacred Heart schools, stands for traditions. One tradition was Conge, a day where we came to school and they surprised us with cancelling classes. Another tradition was Gouter, cookies they hand out on special occasions. However, out of the many traditions my favorites were Graduation and Maypole. All of the graduates wear long white dresses to graduation and are presented with pink flowers. They day after is Maypole. It is where the girls wear colored ribbons and perform the Maypole dance. 

The first picture is of Villa Duchesne on Graduation Day. 

The second picture is of my friends and I as we prepare for Maypole in front of the school.

The third picture is of my friends and I on Graduation Day with our flowers. 

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Our Blog Friday, Nov 21 2008

Over break I plan to continue doing research on Bagel and Deli. I will hopefully get some more pictures before I leave for break. Also, my group is planning on pulling the whole website together after break. We plan on compiling all of our final information that will be useful. We have begun to take a poll, but it is not complete yet. We will also finish taking our interviews!

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Viewing Documentaries Extra Credit Thursday, Nov 20 2008

I recently watched the video documentary “Two Days in October”. This documentary focuses on the reactions of multiple groups of people on the Vietnam War. It has interviews with American soldiers, as well as Vietnamese soldiers. It also has viewpoints from past students and faculty at the University of Wisconsin- Madison because during the war there were many riots there. It was really interesting for me to watch this documentary because it had a lot of information on the war that I had never learned. For instance, in my past history classes I had never heard of these riots, yet, they were part of the war that happened here in America during these though times. Also, one of the lines that stuck out most from the documentary was from a Viet Cong soldier who said “We never understood why the Americans came to our country”. This quote struck me because it was assumed Americans were there to fight and stop the spread of communism. But I now wonder what was fabricated in this. 

During the documentary the video would go from footage from the war to footage of interviews with the participants. The footage of the war was real footage that was shot at the time. The documentary would add voiceovers to describe what was happening. They also added clips of pictures in there as well. The interviews in there are more recent. However, the participants still feel the strength, passion, and emotion they felt many years ago. The effects of the Vietnam war will never go away to them. 

Between the real footage and interviews, this video documentary seems to be a combination of the observational mode and participatory mode. I think that for this topic these two modes are very effective. It gives you the footage of what was really happening combined with the after-effects. I really enjoyed this documentary and suggest it to anybody interested in this topic!

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Our Group’s Position Statements Monday, Nov 17 2008

After reading all of my group’s position statements it was easy to decide that our intended audience should be the Miami University community, as well as, the Oxford, Ohio community. This is because these two communities are most significantly effected by Bagel and Deli. Therefore, our purpose is to inform these communities about different aspects of Bagel and Deli, such as, the history and videos of what it is really like. Overall, I think the best form would be a website that incorporates pictures and videos. This way we can thoroughly examine different aspects and experiences incorporated with Bagel and Deli. If we decided to just make a video we would be missing vital information on our topic.

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Audio Documentaries Monday, Nov 17 2008

I think that audio documentaries can be any type of mode that you would want to create them to be. However, I think that they are mostly expository because of the main usage of audio clips. It is hard to create certain aspects of observation through just audio. When using audio documentaries it i harder to establish parts of the rhetorical appeals, such as, ethos. To create ethos the speaker would have to use logos to create credibility. Pathos, on the other hand, is easier to create. Often times hearing a voice will create a strong sense on emotion in a person. I think stories that have limited visual elements would be appropriate for audio documentaries. Something that has a lot hard statistics and facts would be hard to establish through just audio. It would be difficult to list things off and go in different directions. I think that my topic could be conductive for an audio documentary based upon what direction my group decides to take. If we wanted to focus on telling the story of Bagel and Deli from past to present it could be very plausible. However, if my group did not want to focus all of our attention on Bagel and Deli or one subject it would be wiser to use a different form of documentary.

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The Real Miami University Wednesday, Nov 12 2008

This documentary, in my opinion, is interesting because it gives a perspective on Miami University. It is kind of satirizing the stereotypes of the school. The modes it entails are performative, because of this humor. The people who made this documentary were digging deep into this particular subject of Miami. The purpose of this documentary was mostly informational, with a couple jokes. There were some facts thrown in there, while the comedic relief remained. The intended audience, therefore, would be Miami students.  I think this video was effective in reaching this audience because, as a Miami student, I found this humorous and was able to laugh along with the movie. This video matches my definition of a documentary because it is telling a story through information. 

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Documentary Website Monday, Nov 10 2008

• What are the benefits of creating a documentary website? Some of the benefits are that you can include more information on a documentary website opposed to a short video. Also, by making a website you can add multimedia. Therefore, you could potentially be making a video and a website and combining them. 
• When might it be appropriate to create a documentary website? It could be appropriate to create a documentary website when you have too much information. Also, it may be more appropriate to use this if you don;t have enough pictures, audio, or other aspects. 
• Do you think your topic would be conducive to becoming a documentary website? I think my topic would be very conducive to becoming a documentary website. We could include more information that way, such as the history of the bagel on one page and Bagel and Deli on another page. We could also post videos of different things on each of these pages. It would be really fun to create a whole website!

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Friday, Nov 7 2008

Busch Stadium is home to the St. Louis Cardinals. During baseball season it is one of my favorite places to go. Every year my dad’s company gets amazing seats, “green seats”. From these seats you can see the Arch. These seats are right behind home plate and are all you can eat. Servers come out twice an inning and ask you if you want anything to eat or drink. My favorite thing to get is a ballpark hotdog. They are the best hotdogs in the world! It is so much fun to go here with my family and watch the game. Some nights my dad will let me take the tickets and go with my friends. It is so much fun to go to the game with them. The stadium is also very nice. It is only a couple years old and was named after Anheuser-Busch. The stadium is also a staple of St. Louis. It’s a symbol of the Cardinals, who statistically happen to be the second best baseball team ever. A couple of years ago when the Cardinals won the World Series the city went crazy! It was so much fun to be in town watching those games! 

The first picture: Madalyn, Anne, Grace. This picture was taken in our green seats this spring at the beginning of the season on a Sunday. 

The second picture: Dan, Madalyn, Grace, Anne. This picture was taken at the same game by one of our friends who was sitting in her own seats that we ran into!

The third picture: Anne, Melissa, Christine, Grace. This picture was taken last summer when Melissa and Christine came to visit me from New Jersey. You can see some of the players in the background. 

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Wednesday, Nov 5 2008

How do you define documentary?  I would define a documentary as an accurate depiction of people, places, things, events, or stories.                                            

When you hear that word, what comes to mind? In other words, what are the characteristics you associate with a “documentary”?  I immediately think of pictures and audio. I think of movies that genres have been documentaries. I also think of pictures telling a story or depicting some type of attitude. 

What do you expect a documentary to do? I expect a documentary to inform, persuade, and prove a point to me. They do not have to do all three of these things, but at least one. I also expect them to be entertaining if I am the intended audience. 

How do your expectations align with or differ from the texts you read for class? My expectations are similar to what we have read in the texts in class, however, there is no visual aspect. The first thing that comes to my mind is pictures, so therefore, my thoughts do not align in that aspect. 

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