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Hello all!

I recently responded to a fellow student in an English 102 about a Rosetta Stone advertisement, and actually found alot of information I thought was pretty darn cool...check it out

(Name ommitted for privacy),

I totally remember this add, in fact I saved it and it is in a school folder of mine (somewhere, though I doubt I could find it now in the mess I call my room). I first saw this ad. about three years ago when I was beginning to learning Italian, and I can definitely say I found it "reassuring". I think Rosetta definitely uses the typical looking farm boy as a type of pathos persuasion, encouraging readers to identify with this farm boy and his plight. By using such an insignificant cause to learn a language as simply wanting to impress an Italian super model, Rosetta stone increased the range of their audience. Rosetta Stone basically said, "sure, we are the best language learning company, used by all the most elite businesses everywhere, but we are also great for everyday people just like you", and apparently this form of persausion was very sucsessful. The add caught the eye of the performance artist Jeff Horwich, causing him to write a ballad of the Supermodel and the Farm boy, which he released on youtube in 2007 (see video below). The video received so much attention that he was invited to sing the song at the Rosetta Stone head quarters in VA, December 2008.

So many bloggers, facebook junkies and news paper columnists (i.e. Ian Frazier of the New York Times) then asked "what happened to the farm boy", that Rosetta Stone launched a new campaign in Janurary 2010 asking the public to upload videos finishing the story of the farm boy and the super model. The winning contestant will receive a "full 1 year subscription to Rosetta Stone TOTALe™" .

It's just amazing to see what good use of Pathos persausion can do.

Marlon Brando

On the Water Front: I first saw this film when I was fifteen, for a philosophy/English/history class. We were discussing the life and work of Elia Kazan, and how it was/was not affected by the "Red Scare". I decided I wanted to see the controversial film because it was rumored to be Kazan's grand 'Screw you' to a system of what he believed to be corruption, and I wanted to see the man who was believed to have changed the way actors acted, or rather reacted, the man who began a revolution: Marlon Brando. I immediately fell in love with the deep and true heart of this incredible person who seemed to reach out from behind the screen, four years after his death and fifty-three years after his "Terry Malloy" performance. I had always wanted to be an actor, always wanted to show people as they truly are with all they're faults, eccentricities and gloriously beautiful contradictions and for the first time in my life I was watching an actor who was capable of portraying all of these characteristics and more. It was almost too much to handle. It made me yearn to be able to be as true, as pure and as open as that brilliant man who gave his entire self to the characters he depicted. It is this same yearning that drives me today to be not only a better actor, but a better human being, and for this, I could never accurately express the utter gratitude I feel to the rebel, the lover, and the legend, Marlon Brando.

Records: On a related Note

My passion for listening to records and original recordings has of course grown into a slight obsession; Therefore, for the sake of my sanity (and fire codes I am sure), I am selling many of the records I collected in my Amazon store All of the Above. I am a bit eccentric and incredibly eclectic, so I carry everything from Public Enemy, to the King Creole Trio to Prince and Michael Jackson to Paul McCarthy and Santana.....so go paruse and have some fun!

Records

Does anyone remember the good old days of vinyl? Let’s hope so because it seems to be coming back in a big way. It seems that all the popular artists are releasing both Vinyl and CD versions of their "albums" (sorry, but tapes are dead to most). I know my all time favorite band, Green Day, is re-releasing all of their work on brand-new vinyl. But why the increasing interest in Vinyl? The most obvious reason is that it's the records turn to be in the "vintage" spotlight, because everyone knows what goes around comes around (God knows even spandex came back despite millions of 80's survivors swearing "Never Again"). However, there is a much more intriguing explanation behind the return to a timeless classic; Vinyl simply sounds better. The battle over sound quality has been raging for years, but even CD devotees have to admit that, though CDs are more convenient, LPs produce the higher quality sound. This is due to the fact that records are analogue, with each little groove directly the shape of sound waves. CDs on the other-hand are digital recordings, in which the sound wave are approximated, cut up into pieces and converted into an analogue signal. In other words, with CDs, the intricacies of Jimmie Hendricks’s famous riffs, Beethoven’s symphonies and even Tre Cool’s manic drum beats, are lost in translation, providing only an approximate idea of what the sounds really are.

Now I personally have been a longtime fan of vinyl, and can testify to its AMAZING quality. The first Album I ever bought and listened to was Frank Sinatra Sings Only for the Lonely, a record reflected quite nicely by its title. On vinyl, I heard every breath, every pause and every word as if Sinatra was standing in my room, speaking to me alone, only for the lonely. I remember closing my eyes and letting myself drift, following his voice to that lonely bar on a late night, or under that big, weeping willow tree, and I couldn't remember a time where I felt less alone. I must have listen to the record 20 times before finally being lulled to sleep, and I have probably listened to it 100 times since then, but nothing can compare to the first time I heard that familiar crackle and pop of a live microphone on the other end of my player's speakers. People don't simply like Vinyl because it makes thing's sound better, if this was the case then you wouldn’t have such die-hard Vinyl and record store supporters; No, people like me are so devoted to vinyl because it's alive. The sound that comes out of those speakers is living and breathing, with the soul of the artists, etched into the very lines of the record. Though I was only born in 1992, I have sat down with Frank Sinatra, The Carter Family, The Beach Boys, Otis Redding, the King of rock n' roll and the Prince of Pop, because they happened to be captured on a record, and for that, I will always be grateful.