TOW #16 - The Gilded Razor (Sam Lansky) 2

In Sam Lansky’s memoir, The Gilded Razor, Lansky recounts his almost lifelong struggle of dealing with severe addiction to multiple drugs. A rather talented writer for multiple outlets like Time and the New York Magazine, Lansky tells the reader of his story in vivid and explicit detail in order to show the true horrors of addiction and the devastating effects that it can have on a person. To do this, Lansky utilizes intense personal anecdotes.

In the final pages of the book’s eighth chapter, Lansky tells of a time that he had gone to meet up with an old acquaintance of his at his New York apartment. As he entered he wrote, “a pile of cocaine sat on a silver mirror. ‘Have some candy,’ he said. I did a line. ‘More,’ he said. I did another.” (Lansky 232). At this point in Lansky’s story, he has been struggling for many many years and he is quite aware of his struggles. However, despite this, he is unable to break from the peer pressure that he experiences when entering the apartment. This is only one way that Lansky’s intense addiction is displayed. It becomes more obvious just how affected Lansky truly is when he states that he chose to do another line of cocaine, showing that he could not tell himself no after doing one. He needed more. The struggles of his addiction are highlighted in more detailed images of his past.

Towards the conclusion of the memoir, disaster strikes Sam’s family when his father suddenly has a heart attack. Sam tells the reader how he felt at this time stating “I woke up every morning with a tunnel vision that I found perplexing but didn’t think to question. The only goal was to get high and change the way I felt, which was lonely and afraid.” (Lansky 253). Through this horribly depressing statement, it is clear how desperate Lansky found himself at this point. Because of all that he had experienced, all that he had to endure, he was broken. He did not care for his well being or anything else. All that concerned him was getting high. This truly highlights just how drastically the drugs had affected him.

Thankfully, Sam Lansky did eventually come clean and no longer suffers from the severe drug addiction that he experienced. His memoir not only shows readers how horrible addiction is, but it also shows that it is possible to get help and to improve if one is already struggling with addiction. Overall, I really did enjoy reading this book and would absolutely recommend it to anyone.

TOW #15 - JB Poster

On November 11th and 12th of 2016, Wissahickon High School held its performances of the annual fall drama. The show this year was titled JB and followed a successful, but god-fearing man who has everything taken from him in order for him to appreciate the things that he has in his life. In order to advertise the performances, the drama department hung posters for the show around the high school and the surrounding areas nearby. The posters use dull colors in order to show the dark tone of the show and also provide information about the performances to convince a viewer to come to see the show.

The most obvious features of the poster that can be easily seen from a distance, are the dull colors that it utilizes. The poster includes a black rectangular border that goes around the expanse of its edges. In the center, there is a grey/black radial gradient with the center being the brightest gray, and the edges being the darkest. The use of this dark to light transition is used in order to symbolize the dark and emotional tone of the play’s story. On the outside layer of the plot, it seems as though everything that exists in JB’s life is a horrible and depressing reality. However, as the story progresses, things begin to change for the better, primarily as his family returns to him. This is the metaphorical “light at the end of the tunnel” for JB. On top of this, the poster also features a large red calligraphic lettering of “JB” to symbolize the sophisticated nature of JB and how he was able to retain this nature despite how bad things got for him. This sort of symbolism could create an emotional response within a viewer that they may feel able to relate to, so they will feel more interested in coming to see the show.

In addition to these colors, the poster also features red lettering at the bottom of the poster with all sorts of information about the performance. This information includes the location, showtimes, and ticket prices. These are included obviously as it provides the essential information that an audience member would need in order to see the show. This ultimately convinces a viewer of whether or not they can go because they will be able to plan accordingly.

Ultimately, I do believe that this poster effectively convinced people to come see the show as there was a good turn-out of over 150 audience members each night.

TOW #14 - What the Muck of Walden Pond Tells Us About Our Planet

In What the Muck of Walden Pond Tells Us About Our Planet, frequent editorial author for the New York Times, Curt Stager, speaks of how the various layers of soil of Walden Pond in Massachusetts can reveal information about the way that human interaction affects the environment. Through his use of detailed facts as well as personal anecdotes, Stager is able to convince the reader that humans must be conscious of the ways that they impact the world around them to secure a healthier future. Stager begins his editorial piece by speaking briefly about the history of the pond and how it was made famous primarily by the famed philosopher, Henry David Thoreau. He then proceeds to talk about his own time spent at the pond writing that, “in 2015, two students and I lowered weighed plastic tubes through 45 feet of water near the center of the pond and hauled up several sediment cores [...] Tiny shells of diatom algae glittered like frost under the lens.” (Stager 5). By telling the reader of this specific type of algae cell that he and his students had uncovered below the pond’s bottom, Stager reveals that this type of algae has since been covered up by many layers of different types of sediment. This is hugely significant as diatom algae is most typically found in cool clean lakes, taking in sunlight. With this algae no longer actively appearing, it can be inferred that Walden Pond is no longer a cool or clear pond. And unfortunately, this is exactly the case, as Walden Pond has been subject to human development of boat houses as well as contamination from humans swimming in the waters. Not only did humans affect the pond through contamination by building but also, if you “thrust your hand wrist-deep into the mud, your fingertips would brush a layer that emits radiation. It is laced with cesium-137.” (Stager 9). This fact is not only somewhat terrifying, but a blatant display of how humans have been ignorant of the global impact throughout history. The reason this soil contains cesium-137 is because it is a byproduct of nuclear fallout that is created by the detonation of nuclear weapons during the massive number of tests that occurred through the 1960’s and later. The people of this time were more concerned with creating more and more powerful weapons without stopping to consider the adverse effects that they would have on the environment, which seems to be a general theme that is shared by all of mankind. Ultimately, I do believe that Stager was able to effectively display some of the ways that humans are able to impact the environment, and I personally hope that more and more people become conscious about their footprint on this planet.

TOW #13 - The Whatchamacallit Economy

Despite its innumerable shortcomings, 2016 has opened the door to many new innovations. One of these innovations has been the usage and creation of a new economic platform known as the “sharing economy”. In a New York Times article titled The Whatchamacallit Economy, author Steven Greenhouse describes this new economy and how the adoption of its name is rather incorrect.

This “sharing economy” is based on the creation of services such as Lyft, Uber, and AirBNB. Soon after defining this economic force in the beginning of the article, Greenhouse employs the words of Rochelle LaPlante, a worker for an online platform known as Mechanical Turk that displays job info. In regards to these sharing services, LaPlante stated that “There’s an exchange of money. It’s not really sharing if a person’s paying for it.” (Greenhouse 4). Through the providing of expert testimony, Greenhouse is able to logically and effectively expose the flaws that exist in the naming scheme of these services. His logic is based around the idea that sharing means that neither side would be financially gaining in the situation, however this is just not the case with the use of these services as one party is being directly paid for their services.

Greenhouse continues with this idea of the sharing economy not really being based on sharing when he writes “If you’re living in San Francisco and you want to drive to Palo Alto and take a friend with you, that’s ride sharing. But if you take an Uber to get to Palo Alto, that seems more like a taxi ride.” (Greenhouse 5). This sort of logical processing of the naming behind these services is significant as it is why these services seem to face so much scrutiny. This becomes much more clear through the use of comparisons like those used by Greenhouse.

Overall, I do believe that Greenhouse was able to effectively show the flaws in the naming of this “sharing economy” and he even proposes a new name such as “crowd-based capitalism”. This is not to say that I do not value the existence of these services, because I do. I only believe that their naming seems to be too misleading and unfortunately this is a point that Greenhouse did not seem to touch on effectively.

TOW #12 - The Gilded Razor (Sam Lansky)

In his memoir, The Gilded Razor, Sam Lansky speaks truthfully about his life experience with drug addiction and the great impacts that it had on both himself and those around him. A writer for The Atlantic, Out, Esquire and also the New York magazine, and an editor for Time, Lansky has been writing for much of his life. In the opening pages of the book, Lansky vividly recalls the way he often feels when looking back at his life and what he would do differently. He writes, “I would flash back momentarily to a long-forgotten winter night years earlier and see myself, seventeen years old and spectral in the lamplight, stumbling out of a brownstone with a runny nose and my fly unzipped. My hair would have been too long, probably, from always taking the money my father gave me for a haircut and using it to buy drugs.” (Lansky 1). By so descriptively speaking of himself, the author is able to offer the reader the chance to see how he was directly affected by his various addictions. It is quite clear that his repeated use lead to various physical differences like his disheveled appearance. He also reveals how he had hurt those close to him. His addiction drove him to obtain drugs in anyway possible, in this case by lying about the way he spent money given to him. This would destroy his connections.

Later, towards the middle of the memoir, Lansky speaks of writing and makes an analogy to explain how it connected to his life experiences stating, “The was one difference between writing and drugs: with cocaine, after the first line, other lines followed whether I wanted them or not. When I wrote, I could control exactly how many lines there were, and when it all stopped.” (Lansky 62). By comparing his writing to his drug use, Lansky was able to display how little control he felt during this point in his life. By stating these differences, he reveals that he essentially had no way of bouncing back from his addiction because he had virtually no sense of control over his usage. This, as is unfortunately expected, would lead Lansky down a dark path of addiction, unbreakable for many years to come, affecting him both physically and mentally.

Overall, I do believe that in the first half of his memoir, Sam Lansky was effectively able to display the devastating effects that drug addiction has in hopes of dissuading others from using as well. I would absolutely recommend this book to anyone looking for something truly gripping to read. I cannot wait to continue with Lansky’s story!

TOW #11 - Rhetorical Presentation (Thomas Paine, The American Crisis)

In the late months of 1776, a new nation was struggling and fighting to survive. Having dealt with oppressive rule from the British mother country since the colonization of these new lands, the people of America had enough. In July of the same year, they peacefully, yet boldly, asserted their independence from British reign, however it was revealed that it would not be that simple. The country faced great opposition from both Britain and those at home that supported Britain. In response, editor for the Pennsylvania Magazine, Thomas Paine, wrote a series of articles in which he attempted to show that independence was a move of Common Sense. On December 23rd, the first installment was written and it aimed to unite the American people under the cause for independence through Paine’s emotional connection to the reader.

Throughout Paine’s writing, the most obvious detail to consider is not necessarily what he says, but how he says it. Compared to other pieces of colonial era-writing, Paine’s writings refrained from the use of overly complex diction as a great number of the population remained uneducated at this point. With the uneducated class having the ability to read and understand Paine’s information, they would likely have a sense of belonging that they were not able to find elsewhere. Humans naturally desire companionship and this sense of a belonging would aid in the push needed to drive the neutral and still-loyal American people to follow the American cause.

Paine also was able to connect to his readers on an emotional level through his recognition of the religiousness and appeals to these beliefs by making references to it. In regard to British rule in the opening of the text, Paine states “Tyranny, like hell, is not easily conquered; yet we have this consolation with us, that the harder the conflict, the more glorious the triumph.” (Paine Par. 1). The religious population of America, no matter what side they fell on at this time, knew that the idea of hell was one of torment, and by comparing the British rule to this idea, Paine is able to show the intensity of the struggle that it creates. He continues by telling the people that they have the ability to overcome it, just as those that believe in a hell have the ability to avoid it. This would instill a sense of strength in the religious population of America and they would likely desire to help in the conquering of the British hell.

Overall, I do believe that Thomas Paine was able to effectively achieve his purpose in writing these documents as after-all, America did succeed in their battle for independence. On top of that, despite not necessarily believing in the ideas that Paine was able to play off of at that time, reading the text did create a sense of patriotism within me.

TOW #10 - Bulbs

On November 17th, 2016, Apple, the global technological giant, released a short promotional video for their new 2016 MacBook Pro. The video titled “Bulbs” displays various major technological advancements that have occurred throughout history set to a piece of classical music. Throughout the video, Apple exemplifies symbolism and organizes events in chronological order as a means to display just how advanced they believe their newest MacBook to be. Throughout the entirety of the video, lines of hundreds of a light-bulbs throughout an empty city are seen bursting. These light bulbs are displayed in between various technological advancements in history which aids in conveying their purpose. (Apple). The bulbs symbolize that as ideas come together and collide with one another, there is a chance for an explosion of a world of new ideas. Since these bulbs explode one after another, it is clear that Apple is attempting to show the audience that these new ideas work off of one another and are never stopping. These new ideas are then shown in the various chronologically arranged video clips. As soon as the video begins, a figure is seen creating a spark by hitting flint and metal together. This is then followed by an image of a man pushing a stone wheel, which is then followed by images of the first bicycle and steam trains and so on. (Apple). These images show how ideas are based off of one another. With the invention of the wheel shown early on, the bicycle and the steam train were able to be created. On top of that, with the invention of typewriters, keyboards would eventually be made for computers. The video concludes by showing off the new 2016 MacBook Pro, ultimately showing that this new computer is the product of centuries of innovations and new ideas. After watching this video, I do believe that Apple effectively showed off their latest computer. As a person that finds themselves interested in film-making, I believe that this was an outrageously effective presentation.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ROEIKn8OsGU