At first glance you can see that Yo-Yo Ma is extremely highly awarded singer song writer as well as a world renown scholar. in January 2014 Ma published an essay called “Necessary edges: Arts, empathy, and education” where ma considers the role of arts in the world, discussing that empathy is a main concept needed to balance thinking today. he advocates for STEAM which is a concept similar to STEM in schools. STEAM stands for science, technology, engineering, art, and math. the surrounding context for this work is about ma’s experiences, he’s views on STEM and STEAM, culture, necessary edges, equilibrium among life styles, and measurable society.

My purpose for reading this text is to better understand Yo-Yo- Ma and the thought process he has about art. I agree with most of what Ma believes but I can’t agree with everything. I find his thought process to be someone confusing which causes me to dive deeper into reading this text, I realized the insight he has into art and music and the natural world and begin to agree more with him. the situation is that Ma believes art is main aspect of life and is necessary to live a happy life style.  so what that art is a necessary aspect of life some people don’t think it is but. we see art every day as we look down streets, into shop corners, the food we eats and without it we have nothing.

Unfamiliar words:

Globalization: organizations develop international influence or start operating on an international scale. Ma discusses globalization leading to the creation of culture, which is very important to understand others views in other countries.

Berbers: a member of an indigenous people of North Africa. The majority of Berbers are settled farmers or migrant workers. the berbers  are members of tribes that create song and dance In Africa.

Sarabande: a slow dance with  music by the North  African berber tribes. Ma discusses this specific word when he talks about a specific instance of culture.

Original:  As a final stance for the argument I found an even more outstanding  argument about the emotions that music brings out and the fact that Art is Not a Waste of Time. Benjamin Zander A world renowned orchestra conductor  who has a passion for classical music, He stated that “ It’s the music that generates the emotions that releases the human experience. And it does it, of course, through the way that music works, which is it doesn’t go through the brain. It goes through the molecules. Shifts the molecules. It gives you whatever feeling. And, of course, the great composers of film music know how to do that – to turn it on as if they’re turning a tap or dials on a machine.”(Zander 9),  You feel emotions from music and Zander basis his work out of the fact that he cares about art and the emotions that art provides us. He cares and he believes that art is not a waste of time.

Revised: As a final stance for the argument I found an even more outstanding  piece  about the emotions that music brings out and the fact that Art is Not a Waste of Time. Benjamin Zander A world renowned orchestra conductor  who has a passion for classical music, explained  that music  generates the emotions that releases the human experience, it does it  through the way that music works It goes through the molecules our body, Shifting them.  It gives you whatever feeling the composer wants you to feel of course, the great composers of film music know how to do that . its like they are working with machines and controlling the audience (Zander 9),  You feel emotions from music and Zander basis his work out of the fact that he cares about art and the emotions that art provides us.  the main goal of his work is to provide happiness in his listeners and his audiences. He cares and he believes that art is not a waste of time, and that It is necessary for people to use art as a way to become happier.

Original:

As we move back to Zander’s TED talk we being to understand his main goal of the talk is to prove how art in general shows emotions. A great example of this is when zander explains his experience with a group of catholic and protestant kids about conflict resolution. He explains “I’ll tell you what happened to me. I was in Ireland during The Troubles 10 years ago. And I was working with some Catholic and Protestant kids on conflict resolution. And I did this with them – risky thing to do because they were street kids. And one of them came to me the next morning. And he said, you know, I never listened to classical music in my life. But when you played that Chopin piece. He said my brother was shot last year, and I didn’t cry for him. But last night when you played that piece, he was the one I was thinking about. And I felt the tears streaming down my face. And, you know, it felt really good to cry for my brother. So I made up my mind at that moment that classical music is for everybody, everybody.”(Zander 11) , emotions come from art and art helps people, their emotions and their well being. Through art we form connections and it can help as Zander did to the young boy in Ireland.

Revised: As we move back to Zander’s TED talk we being to understand his main goal of the talk is to prove how art in general shows emotions. A great example of this is when Zander explains his experience with a group of catholic and protestant kids about conflict resolution in Ireland. He talked to the group of kids and had one boy show him that art effects everyone.  He explains

“I’ll tell you what happened to me. I was in Ireland during The Troubles 10 years ago. And I was working with some Catholic and Protestant kids on conflict resolution. And I did this with them – risky thing to do because they were street kids. And one of them came to me the next morning. And he said, you know, I never listened to classical music in my life. But when you played that Chopin piece. He said my brother was shot last year, and I didn’t cry for him. But last night when you played that piece, he was the one I was thinking about. And I felt the tears streaming down my face. And, you know, it felt really good to cry for my brother. So I made up my mind at that moment that classical music is for everybody, everybody.”(Zander 11)(block quote)

emotions come from art and art helps people, their emotions and their well being. through this specific instance Zander realizes the true impact that art can have on people. Through art we form connections and it can help as Zander did to the young boy in Ireland.

Revisions to intro and first body paragraph

Original copies

as I read through the “little seagull” I realized that some points of my introduction and my first body paragraph that I needed to change. my understanding of my main ideas was broadened throughout my reading.  when I scanned my peers edits for my essay I had to change my paragraph structure and make my main ideas more clear. The  quotes in some of my paragraphs were way to long and I needed to change that.  with that being said in some circumstances you can block quotes to help readers understand the message you are trying to get across. I some ways I had to expand on my knowledge of the EA and the aspects that they describe as there goal for the world.

my second paragraph I repeated many of my ideas which needed to be said however I hadn’t to shorten them to not make the paper boring. for many reasons I choose to revise these two paragraphs to make the paper stronger.

While reading “Shitty First Drafts” and my own essay over and over again I realized things that make me frustrated and make me realize my mistakes. I realized that throughout my reading I need to expand my thoughts and shorten my quotes. it makes me frustrated that I didn’t do the right things during my essay. I realized that after my readings and revisions that I need to control my thoughts and shorten them on paper. I  need to first write my ideas down,  realize that I need to create a plan and then understand what happens next. My biggest challenge is that I need to shorten my quotes because they are too long and make my essay drown  out my ideas. I plan to use grammerly to make sure I have the proper spelling and punctuation in my essay. The readings of the “Shitty First Drafts” have helped me to control my writing and make sure that it most importantly makes sense.

Throughout my peer review and considering others ideas as I read there papers. I realized that for myself  I need to shorten my quotes, add more complex sentences and further my ideas n why art is necessary and helpful in every day life. while diving deeper into others essays I realized that I needed to also add parts of the Singer section of Rhys Southans essay.

while listening, reading, and forming new imaginative ideas about both the TED Talk “Benjamin Zander: How Does Music Transform Us?” and Rhys Southan’s “Is it okay to Make art”  I realized that both works have different ideas but they come together in the end and show how Art is not a waste of time. I believe personally that Art itself can transform society and help make everyone closer as a whole. music and art release emotions, awaken possibility, and relive our selves of stress.  in an explanation by Benjamin Zander he hints at  how music itself can help society as whole. he continues on to provide the listener with an question, could you imagine movies, TV, and Videos without music? No you can’t because no emotions would be shown by the audience if they weren’t moved by sounds and background music. 

The brainstorm activity helped to further my ideas and explanations that I am going to use in the Essay to prove how art isn’t a waste of time. I hadn’t realized how helpful annotations and listening to works were until I began to brainstorm for this essay and realized how much easier it is to understand things when you dive deeper into them. the Activity help me in synthesizing  information and forming new ideas, along with that it helped my understand of how the sources connect, as well as how powerful art really was.

For my my Ted talk I chose Benjamin Zander’s How Does Music Transform Us, throughout time and throughout the world we used music to have fun, cope with sadness, and anything in between. after listening to this Ted Talk and reading the script. theres no limits to how much a conductor can effect the audience my controlling an orchestra. Arts in general can provide new ideas and strikes imagination in listeners, however as a conductor of an orchestra they help to create and  construct music.  as Zander said “Music speaks directly to the heart. It speaks through the molecules. and is irresistible.” as a conductor he has control of the audience and helps to provide emotional feelings to the listeners.

We are assigned to reread and look at the information on the website Effective Aultruism,   this site provided readings about the ideas of Effective Altruists. Reading   both the article and the essay again gives a new perspective of the Effective Altruists and there values. after rereading I have new ideas and comments about both Southan and effective altruists. As searched for different ways of using are and effectively getting your message across I came to an understanding about how Southan , the EA, and other people view art and writing.

In 2012 Niel Gaimen gave a speech at the university of arts and stated that “when things get tough, this is what you should do. Make good art. I’m serious. Husband runs off with a politician? Make good art. Leg crushed and then eaten by mutated boa constrictor? Make good art. IRS on your trail? Make good art. Cat exploded? Make good art. Somebody on the Internet thinks what you do is stupid or evil or it’s all been done before? Make good art.” this is an example of how art can heal and it can help to contribute to long lives happiness for a long time.

As we reread Southan’s paper we realize that he not only spoke about the Ea’s points of view in the world but he began to explain his views on art and his feelings of the controversial argument about art and writing. He infers that artists don’t pay attention about the world around them as they write, he also comments on how artists only care about there uniqueness and don’t care if others think it is unique. these artists  make art for others sometimes but Southan believes that they make it for themselves and only care about there feelings on there work. rereading this short essay provides new context to the ideas Southan has stated before.

after scanning through the Effective altruists You begin to understand there real voice and opinions on controversial topics such as “Improvements to the scientific establishment, such as greater transparency and replication of results. Researching mental health and neurological disorders, particularly depression and anxiety. Improving access to treatment in low-income countries, Tobacco control, Prevention of road traffic injuries, US criminal justice reform, and International migration and trade policy reform.”, these very important aspects of life are seen as things needed to be changed by the EA which I totally agree with. after further review of both Southan, the EA, and outside sources I have come to realize that there is more to the story than Southan says there is his essay could have been longer, more in depth and far more interesting than it was.

(https://blog.ed.ted.com/2015/05/18/10-inspiring-commencement-speeches-about-creativity-and-courage/)

(https://www.effectivealtruism.org/articles/introduction-to-effective-altruism/)

Born in Seekonk Massachusetts, a small town on the boarder on mass and Rhode Island. As we began this class I felt excited, nervous, and scared that the work load would be to much for someone who doesn’t write frequently. blogging is a first for me and I believe it will help me expand my knowledge of writing and technology. My major is Medical Biology and I would like to go to the UNE graduate school in Portland,ME. I enjoy the hospital setting, caring for people, and I am interested in surgery. one of my many interests is the outdoors the ocean and wildlife, these interests helped me decide on coming to UNE this fall. other than that I love to travel, play any sport, and cook. 

small towns may seem boring, in my town you know everyone and everyone knows you. there is always a place to go. we hang out in shopping areas, school parking lots, and at movie theaters. however the best place in the town to go is the “Rope Swing” its a old quarry that filled in after a deep spring was hit in the late 60s. we swim, go off the rope swing there and find little areas to jump an do flips. this town in live in is my town and I love it.

throughout my experiences with writing I found that I wasn’t the best at formulating paragraphs and getting to the point. late in my sophomore year my English teacher finally got what was wrong with my writing style and helped me to change the way I thought about writing. I no longer wrote five paragraph essays I began to find more complex ways to write essays. from these experiences I began to realize that writing wasn’t so bad and that I could do it.