Semiotic Analysis: John Moe’s “Children of the World” Monolouge

If you follow me on Twitter, or talk to me in almost any capacity on a semi-regular basis, you’ve probably heard me talk about my Semiotics class. I’m nowhere near complete with the class, but yesterday I finished my last Semiotics Analysis, which has been a paper I’ve had to write every week for the last ten weeks. I’ve definitely complained endlessly about them, but I also have really enjoyed writing them and deconstructing various forms of audio work. One of my favorites was digging into a monologue from one of my favorite shows, Wits. Anyway, I wanted to share it, if not only to give my friends an idea of what I’ve been doing the past ten weeks, but also to put some net content on my blog. Content that I’m proud of and spent a lot of time on – and provide a sort of explanation as to why I haven’t been putting as much out there lately.

But anyway, here it is! Enjoy:

Journey Map: Leadership

A concept that I’ve found myself thinking a lot about as I’m undergoing the final weeks in my Junior Year at Columbia are what’s shaped me as a person up to this point. How have these things affected my values? My goals? How much have I really changed since starting high school? How about college? In the past year? How about this semester? Am I progressing towards my personal and career goals? What am I doing to make myself a better person than the day before?

It’s a lot to grapple with — and those are questions I need to answer within the next five days, since that’s when our Leadership Profiles are due for the semester. One aspect of this assignment is a project we had to do earlier in the semester; and that’s a Journey Map. I had a love/hate relationship with this project, because although I’ve done a handful of different things that has shaped who I am today, it was hard to decide the few things that have had the biggest impact. (But honestly, probably my favorite part of this assignment has been hearing my classmate’s journeys. Man, I go to school with some awesome people).

Well, I narrowed it down to 12 things. Not too bad, considering I filled up a page originally. So in order to fill my blog with more content, and to prove that I’ve actually been doing quite a bit of writing this semester and I’m not just neglecting y’all, I figured I’d double-dip.

Anyway, stay with us —

Interdi-wha?

I’ve always been a fan of combining things I love. Radio and drum corps? Let’s do an audio documentary on the summer. Audio and performance? Of course my dream job is working behind-the-scenes for a variety show that’s distributed over the airwaves. Travel and music? The class I took in the Fall of 2014 that covered an International music festival in Iceland was one of the highlights of my college career. Bananas and peanut butter? Sometimes I like to feel like a “Hound Dog” and have one of The King’s sandwiches.

Naturally, I decided to do a double-major in Radio and Media Management at Columbia. Now that I’ve spent a considerable amount of time in each of these departments and degrees, I’ve found so many overlapping correlations. To me, it only makes sense to combine the two into this Interdisciplinary Major.

Dublin Running

The act of running is pretty mundane. All it takes is putting one foot in front of the other. Sometimes that happens at a quick pace, sometimes it’s at a steadier pace, but no matter how “fast or slow” someone might be, it’s all technically the same. Maybe a variation in the distance an individual goes, but overall… similar.

In major cities, such as Chicago, we have a number of running organizations, clubs, and stores to support people who enjoy that fast-paced “one foot in front of the other” sport. The same goes in Dublin, Ireland. After wandering around the Temple Bar area of Dublin, you’ll probably stumble on Runlogic, a cross-roads running store owned by Ash Seynik. At the shop you’ll not only find your running necessities, but also a gait analysis area, and a cafe. I found another similarity between Dublin runners and Chicago runners, and that’s how we define ourselves. Here’s Seynik:

On Being Alone

I spend a lot of time on my own. I’m not saying that to get pity, or as a statement of “I don’t have friends,” because I do. I sure do. I have some of the best friends in the world. The only thing is, they’re scattered around the United States, or in even worse cases, across the globe. When I registered for this trip, the last thought on my mind was how close I’d get with this group of strangers; but at the same time, I didn’t think about how valuable I’d find walking around in a foreign country by myself. I’ve always treasured the times I’m around people I love — that’s why I make a point to go to Georgia every year for New Years. I never realized how much I treasure some of the times where I’m alone, too.

Maybe this is crazy, but we live in a world where romance is overly-romanticized. There’s an entire film franchise for it, there’s a holiday for it, and one of the online communities I frequent (Tumblr), has an entire section of blogs dedicated to wishful quotes and pictures of couples doing random things together. If you’re not careful, it’s pretty easy to slip into a mindset that the only thing that matters is companionship. Likes on your Instagram pictures; followers on Twitter; photos of you and your life companion splashed across Facebook.

Liberty & Locality [Ireland/London: Day 9]

Another day in the UK brought something totally different from the first. After lazily waking up around 10am, we made our way to the Victoria Coach station to catch the bus out to Northampton, the small town where Simi and Orin grew up, and where Liberty Drum Corps rehearses out of.

On the ride out there, even our conversation was a little different from some highlights from yesterday; we compared schooling systems, political systems, sports, and of course we discussed more things that were positively British. Some of those topics ranged from what “pants” means to them vs. what it means to Americans (note: “pants” in British English is actually “underpants.” Don’t mistake the two… because I sure did a few times). Another thing I found incredibly interesting is how present everyone is, especially on public transportation. More times than not, people would be reading the paper or just chilling out; whereas in Chicago, people constantly have their headphones in and are glued to whatever’s on their cell phone screen. That’s been a pretty nice part of this trip for me, since I don’t have an International plan, I haven’t felt the need to constantly be glued to my phone. It’s kind of nice to be a little detached.

Solo Time [Ireland: Day 3]

For the past week, I’ve been battling (what I think is) a sprained ankle. It’s been getting better, but since walking around Dublin a lot on the first day, it’s been a little bit off. But, after class on Monday, I put in about 35 minutes on the elliptical. I figured this would be a good way to test it out before trying to full-out run, and so far, it’s been okay.

I put it even more to the test with my plans for the day — which included wandering on my own around the city. I finally started to sink my teeth into my final project (more on that in a minute), hit some of the spots I’ve been dying to go to since registering for the class, and got a new perspective on the city and what it means to be a tourist.

ORD -> DUB

If you’ve been to school, and you’ve taken an English class, you probably learned that the beginning of something you’re writing is the most important part. Attention-grabbing. Enticing. Compelling. Relatable. Make the reader want to keep going.

Too bad for me, because the best thing I can think of to start off another year of blogging, (and an international adventure and project), is kind of lame:

Rev. Arts HN: Drum Corps Influence

Maybe the band kids were mocked in high school. After all, they’re a bunch of nerds running around the football field, or maybe pounding the pavement on a concrete “field,” squeaking through the clarinets with some drummers diddling just behind the drum major’s tempo. There was probably also some girls trying to throw and catch flags, doing their best to look graceful. Take that concept, age the kids about three years… and put them in the sun for 16 hours a day, every day, for four weeks. Whatever their show was is now close to flawless. The horn line is crisp, loud, and nailing their dynamics. The drummers’ tips and taps are so together they sound like one very loud drummer, or taking the whole section together could make their own band. The color guard is together, turning under their tosses, and the rifles are making one loud smack as each member catches it at the same exact time. This situation goes by two words: drum corps.

Rev. Arts HN: Native Foods Café – “Worth It” Vegan Experience

Native Foods Café, 218 S Clark.

“Think vegan, think vegetables… so basically, think deprivation.” That’s what I grew up hearing in the venison-loving area of northern Minnesota. Even though I was never a fan of venison, I also wasn’t really a fan of going vegan… but Native could almost make me think twice about that decision. Emphasis on the almost. Native takes the basic human to-do of food consumption, and turns it into an experience. And a surprising one, since you might find yourself craving that “crispy chicken” in the Twister Wrap, or one of their delectable parfaits.