Playlist:
hey

Making up the Breakup
-paragraph reflecting on its composition

My playlist tells the story of a couple and their thoughts and feelings as they progress through the stages of a relationship and a breakup. To me there are certain transitions and phases we go through as a relationship comes to an end. I tried to represent these stages in chronological order beginning with the relationship. The first few songs on the playlist have an upbeat tone and an exciting rhythm. They demonstrate the fresh, exciting parts of dating and your other half. As time passes the progression moves on to the comfortable stage. Here is where we find girls feel free to let their hair down and show some habits they had been hiding. The relationship tends to get monotonous and become boring. These songs are slower and have sour moods. As one partner decides its time for a change, they enter the paradoxical stage. Where they couldn’t be happier with their decision but then again they are miserable without him/her. This is the time of friends and growing. You realize there is life after a breakup and you begin to move on but not with a drawback. This drawback tends to come after the misery and joy. You think you want them back but when you realize they are missing you just as much as you miss them you know that this not what you need. From here on out it is a learning experience and you look back on the situation as a life lesson and a growing period. At first, my playlist was meant to just describe the technicalities of a breakup. But when you introduced the idea of complication, I went back and revised a few things. In every description of my songs I tried to show the complexity of the feelings. It is not just as easy as one feeling or another. During the entire time of the relationship and even after you are constantly torn between one thought and another. Hopefully you can see the juxtaposition of these contrasting feelings and it helps you better understand why breakups teach us so much about ourselves. This leads me to what I learned.

-what did I learn from this assignment?
Throughout this assignment I learned that even awful things can bring good. Although at the time a breakup seems like such a bad thing, it really forces you to dig deep and learn more about yourself. Some people learn to be more independent so that if such a situation ever occurs again they will be better prepared. Dealing more with the assignment itself, and not just my playlist I saw that people really can convey feelings and emotions through a playlist and a compilation of songs. I learned that you can virtually do anything with music; tell a story, explain why something works the way it does, describe a person or situation or even express an idea. I liked this assignment because it helped me realize that music is not just for listening but for expressing and teaching.

Podcast:

Shall we dance?
-paragraph reflecting on composition
Beth and I did a podcast on dancing and how dancing defines the students at Chapel Hill. Let me tell you the reason we chose this topic. I love to dance. I dance when I am happy, when I am sad, even when I am mad. I’ve heard from many people that many people dance to express themselves but I never really understood, or could relate, to that. So, throughout or podcast we interviewed people on types of dancing and how it made them feel. We found many different types of dancing among students including salsa, hip-hop and contra-dancing. The audio part itself was kind of fuzzy, and the transitions from us to the interviewees are confusing and abrupt which could be worked on. Overall I feel this was the hardest most demanding assignment. I feel like we did an adequate job.

-how will I revise/refine podcast
From the beginning I think we did a good job on finding a diverse group of people to interview. I think the information we gained was useful but not exactly what we neededI feel Beth and I didn’t really ask the right questions. I feel like we were looking for certain things for people to say that didn’t really pertain to our topic. I love our intro and the idea we were going for I just don’t think we executed it well. I feel like we need to get more interviews and ask people how the styles of dancing they do relates to there personalities. I feel we could either find a correlation between the personality types of people and their dancing or we could find they have nothing to do with each other. Instead of asking people how dancing makes them feel we should find out why they do the dance they do. Is it because that’s what everyone else is doing? Is it because it makes them feel unique or just because they know how? We could also ask the people that don’t dance why. Are they afraid to embarrass themselves, do they not know how or do they just hate the attention it brings? By uncovering these answers I feel we could predict the kind of people they are.

-what have I learned about the subject and
about assignment?
Going into this assignment I made the assumption that everyone and their brother either danced to hip-hop or shag. So, when we found people that did contra-dancing and salsa I was shocked. I didn’t realize we had such diverse types of dancing in this area. Not only did the types of dancing throw me off but all of the people we interviewed were so willing to talk about their dancing. Everyone was excited and had huge smiles on their faces when discussing the topic. This makes me think that dancing inspires a positive feeling in people no matter what type or kind. The assignment made me realize that you can’t go out expecting to hear certain answers. Sometimes you have to take what you’re given and work with even if its not what you are looking for. Also, Beth and I had a tendency to try and lead people in the direction of what we wanted to hear. This taught me to be more open to different types of dancing and even inspired me to want to take salsa lessons.

Collage:

Playlist
Song
-paragraph on composition
I think the collages were by far my favorite assignment. It is the most artistic thing we have done yet which is awesome because everything was left to our own interpretation of the song. Also, the idea of putting words into a picture is perfect for me. I am much more of a visual person. My song collage was of “The lime tree” by Trevor Hall. In my understanding of the song, I felt he was telling his listeners that love is not always easily found but when you find it its worth it. The song talks about walking across diamonds and fallen angels which can show the ups and downs of love but the eventual unity in the lime tree which is an actual symbol for the bonds of a relationship. My playlist collage I feel accurately represents the picture in my mind. I used only black and white besides for the orange flower to show the contrasting feelings before/during/after a breakup. The only colorful object, the flower, which shows growth and life gives hope for moving on after the dissension.

Blogs:

Bring it Back
Boo
Breakup Remix
The Lime Tree
Collage Crazy
Land Before Time Shall we dance
Sydney... good work
Leprechaun in Alabama
Sleep
Studying with music
Good Choices
Tupac Voicemail
Playlist
Holding On
Ticketing Dilemma

I must admit… Blogging was very foreign to me before I began this class. I always looked at blogs with an upturned nose. I thought blogs were weird and an awkward way to display your personal life to the world. As the class went on, I found that I really enjoyed the idea of blogs. It is a great way to see how other people feel about certain issues and find out their passions. This class has given me a lot of insight into the personalities of our class and is a great way to get to know people. It is also extremely helpful when you have an unanswered question, and amusing when people post entertaining stuff. I love getting to see how other people feel and it is a great way to spark debates and let your opinion be known in a controlled manner.

Overall:

Finally, I am finished with my portfolio. I feel that it is a good representation of who I am and my effort. I worked hard on making these projects exactly how I saw them in my head.I will admit I have some improvements that need to be made, especially to my podcast. I feel pretty confident with my collages also. They turned out exactly how I pictured them in my head.
My blogging could also use some work. I feel like I get the right amount and on time but I don’t think they are of great quality. As I said I am an awful writer, so I think this is really good for me. Also, I feel by reading these blogs more I am becoming a better writer. Earlier I stated how much I enjoy these blogs and you mentioned to about maybe writing a paper for our final project. I think that would be helpful for me and if it was a topic we would enjoy I think that would be even better.
So far, I have thoroughly enjoyed all of the topics we have experimented with. My favorite were the two collages. My least favorite was probably the podcast because it was the one we had the least control over. We had to use what the interviewees said rather than put in exactly what we were looking for. The mashup seems difficult but I cant wait to get started.