David Hasselhoff: Singer, Why?

So there are a lot, and I do mean A LOT, of music videos that are horrible. There are many music videos that should never have been made. There are the hair bands from the 1980s, the modern rockers that just do weird creepy things like Slipknot or Marilyn Manson. Then there is the sappy love ballads from the ‘70s and ‘80s. But the “artists”, if that is what you want to call them, that are the worst are actors (good or bad) that try to be singers. Most people would think of William Shatner after my last statement, but I do not think of him as much as David Hasselhoff. I do not have a clue why he thought he needed to become an artist. But nevertheless he did, and an atrocious one at that-at least in my opinion. He is the painful ballads under his belt in “Wings of Tenderness” and “Looking for Freedom”. He also has the classic song from his show Knightrider, called “Our First Night Together: It is a humorous video with eighty’s outfits and permed hair. Even more odd, is the “Pingu Dance Rap” where there is just a penguin rapping with Hasselhoff’s voice. As weird or crazy all of these videos are, I chose none of them. And I almost chose "Limbo Dance", too but I did not. I chose “Hooked on a Feeling”, which is actually not that bad of a song originally, but Hasselhoff’s version is just a hideous piece of work. It has his cocky personality like he is Rico Suave, but not only that. There are horrible green screens, and special effects. There are unusual choices of wardrobe for Hasselhoff that ranges from a full fur coat to a suit. I have no clue why he thought this would be a good video, but for some reason it was made still. Oh well, just another video to watch and mock joyfully.

Writing Project 2: Omaha

“Omaha” is a music video written by the Counting Crows. This video does not have any famous people in it, or any one at all for that matter, not even any of the band members. It does not have the redundant back up dancers, or band members in black leather pants. It does, however, show various images from around Omaha. The video improves the song, makes it more powerful to the audience. The music video “Omaha” is about making people think about their hometown, and what it exactly means to them.
It shows pictures of the Missouri River down by Eppley Airfield, the airport in Omaha. It has a few pictures of trains at the Union Pacific train station downtown. There are also various shots of the Old Market, the historic part of downtown Omaha. It has brick streets, horse and carriages, nice little shops. It is an amazing place to just walk around at. It has the best homemade ice cream at Ted & Wally’s, which is also a locally owned business that promotes local and underground bands; it is really cool to just sit there and listen to music on the weekends.
The video also has a lot of landscape scenes. There are some of lakes, neighborhoods, plains, and corn, lots of corn. In addition to the landscape images, this video also has a lot of weather-related pictures. It shows Omaha all covered in beautiful snow. There are snows all over the buildings downtown, covering all the parked cars in a white blanket.
It shows drivers driving on busy Dodge street in the snow, too. It has a great picture of Memorial Park, which is located by the University of Nebraska-Omaha. It shows the sign to the University of Nebraska-Omaha, as well as the buildings, also. It shows almost all the places of Omaha that a person should think of when they are asked about Omaha.
The Counting Crows became a band in 1994. They proved that rock and rock was not dead after the late 1980s. Their influences are R.E.M., The Band, and specifically Van Morrison. They have a famous singles are “Doctor Jones” and “Accidentally in Love” which is from the soundtrack of Shrek 2.
The video “Omaha” that I chose shows a few rhetoric strategies. The first one is illustration, because it shows how it can impact a person’s life. It is a perfect example of “home”. Readers can see all the different parts of Omaha. They all can identify with at least one of the images of the city. These pictures remind them of something from back home, wherever that may be. It jogs their memory to something personal, something that hit close to home for each and every person. It is an extremely effective music video.
“Omaha” by the Counting Crows has a different meaning to every single person that sees it. Not only people that are actually from Omaha, but anyone that is no longer living where they grew up: home. The Counting Crows use the rhetoric strategy of narration in their music video. They lyrics tell a story. They talk about an old man, walking on water, walking all over me.
This music video could be even more to a person than just that. “Omaha” also shows the rhetorical strategy of division. It can totally be a part of a larger scheme. This means that while I think the video is just about your feelings towards your hometown, it could be more than that for some one else. If some one else listens to how the lyrics fit in with the images, it could indicate an enormous plethora of other different meanings. One reader could think that its meaning is something completely different than another reader.
Analogy is the fourth strategy used in the video “Omaha”. It is not used in the image part of the video, but in the lyrics of the song. “Omaha somewhere in the middle of America, …” I think the analogy for these lyrics are talking about your hometown-like it is the center of you like Omaha is in the center of the United States. It is what matters the most to you, deep down. Which again, is a range of numerous things for the readers.
Some readers may completely disagree, people from small towns or huge cities may not have any connection with the “Omaha” video. Those readers may just see the video as a bunch of random images that do not mean anything to them, that do not have any effect on them at all. All of the readers should be able to connect in someway or another to this music video, but who knows? Maybe some people do not, that would be a shame.
Out of the three well known rhetorical appeals, pathos is the significant one that stands out in the “Omaha” music video. It is about the emotions that overcome a person; it is very sentimental for people. It makes them think of extremely emotional memories. Some may be sad where others are heart-warming and joyful. It is about what appeals to the audience of the video. They become receptive to the video, and think about how the artist’s message is connected to them on a personal level
Ethos is another on of the rhetorical appeals that is in the “Omaha“ music video. It is connected to the main appeal of pathos through the nostalgia of the video-the reminiscence of home and being homesick in general. The empathy the music video has to each reader is part of this as well. It shows the compassion and understanding of the “home-y” feel that is through out the entire video.
Logos is not strongly used in this music video “Omaha”. But it is used a little bit in the lyrics of the song, if you pay attention to the words during the chorus: “Omaha, somewhere in middle America, get right to the heart of matters, it is the heart that matters more…” This shows the philosophy part of logos. It describes the values of a person’s life, their viewpoint or way of life. It is the logical reason behind the lyrics in this song through out the music video.
The video has several images of Omaha. It shows at least one image for everyone person to connect with, to find home in. One person could connect with the images of Old Market, and its several attractions. Another person could connect with the Missouri River down by the Eppley Airport, remembering their favorite trip. Another person could be connected with the image of Memorial Park, since it is a famous place go sledding at, with all of it covered in snow, as it is in the image during the music video.
“Omaha” is about making people think about their hometown, and what it really means to them. It makes people think of what they miss from home, what childhood memories they will never forget from home. Whether they go back for every holiday, or have not gone back in years, it is still their home. It will always be a part of them, no matter how far away they are from it now. It will always have meaning. It will always have a place in your heart.

Bon Jovi!!!

One of my favorite music videos from the more recent ones anyway, is Jon Bon Jovi’s new song , “You Want Make A Memory”. I have always been a fan of Bon Jovi in general; my older sister still makes fun of me, but I do not even care. I am a loyal fan. I did not get to go to his concert when he was in Omaha last year, unfortunately, but one of my employers got to go and called me during one of his many great songs, so I was happy. Some of his fans have not liked him as much since he switched to more country tunes like when he does the song “Who Says You Can’t Go Home?” But I always defended him by saying he always said he was a cowboy at heart jokingly, because of the song “Dead or Alive”. Anyway, I love his most recent single, because it is a great love song. But I did not fall in love with the song, I fell in love with the video. It is a great song to just sit with your loved one with or slow dance. This is, because it tells a story of a husband and wife. It is just a great music video, because it describes this whole relationship and its story with out any dialogue. You can see how he feels about her through every song he sings. You see how she misses him as well when she is looking through their wedding album. All you need is the song and its lyrics to understand. Plus Bon Jovi is just the classic “pretty boy rocker”, and he is still gorgeous after how many years. The ending to this music video is very powerful, too. It shows that during the whole video when he was watching her get ready, and trying to talk to her, he was not really there. She walks right through him, and you can tell by the look on her face that she is having a hard time moving on as well. There are not a lot of songs like that anymore.

Wells Fargo ATM, Drywall anyone?

On Tuesday, October 16, there was an attempted robbery. A burglar had a goal to steal money from a Wells Fargo ATM, a little after midnight. But he did not have a “regular” plan like other criminals. Most criminals have a set plan; or at least have a back up team of something of the sorts. He did not just go right through the front door. He actually did something quite odd. He broke into the business next door, the Multicultural Center, which is off twenty sixth and O Street. After breaking into the building next door, he cut threw the drywall to get to the ATM. What kind of person does that? I mean who thinks of something like that? I think it is completely ridiculous. The officer that was assigned this case, Officer Kacky Finnell (yes that is his real name) said that they pried open the multicultural center’s front doors to get it. The burglar fled after an alarm sounded at around midnight. Thankfully, the burglar never got into the ATM. But he did, however, cause over five hundred dollars worth of damage. They may even have to restore the entire wall since the burglar had cut through the drywall. I wrote about this article because I thought it was extremely random. Plus I figured that no one else would probably write about this, let alone read it so I thought I would inform everyone of this humorous attempted crime. We were supposed to write about an issue relating to Lincoln, or at least Nebraska. This article is directly connected to Lincoln, as one of the issues-or at least I think so. For one, it happened downtown, which is where a lot of people walk around daily. Plus, it is near the campus of the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, which is not comforting to me since I have friends that go there. And even though we all would like to think, or hope, that all the college students are asleep in their dorm rooms by midnight, a lot of them are still going around having fun. So this attempted crime makes me nervous. If this guy is so crazy to cut through drywall, what else is he capable of? It just makes me nervous, but let’s hope for the best.

My day trip home

I went back home today for one reason, at least I thought it was for just one reason-a doctor’s appointment. But that is not true. I got one of my best friends to come get me so we got to catch up and update each other about what has been going on in our daily lives-the good and the not so good. We took the “scenic” route back to Omaha, which consisted of going through all of Millard, a suburb of Omaha. Then we decided to surprise my dad and visit him at his work, Hy-Vee, since it is quite close to my friend’s dorm. That was when I ran into someone from high school- a blast from the past. It wasn’t the good kind; it was very awkward. Then, I had all these images flashing in my head of every time I had used to hang out with this person like how they do it in the movies; it was so weird! After that awkward encounter, we ventured on to our next plan where I had another déjà vu, you could say. It was kind of creepy, all of this just happening all at once. I am not sure how to explain it exactly. But after all that, my friend took me out to Village Inn, because she knows my love of pancakes! Then I got to go home and spend time with my puppy and my mom. I got a home cooked dinner, which my sister and her future husband came over for so I got to see them, too. It was really nice, until I realized I had to leave and come back to school. On the Brightside, however, I did get to drive my car back and crank my tunes which is one of my favorite hobbies that I have missed since going away to school, seriously-I wasn’t homesick the first few weeks, I was just “car” sick.