Debate Map English HW

Jack Mahoney
English 123
Professor Drown
2/24/20

Essential Question: Can todays artists still sell out?

Roy Cook:

“a band has sold out if they have compromised their personal values or musical integrity in exchange for financial gain.” (Paragraph 1)

“Lamar’s connection to Reebok just might inspire fashion-conscious Reebok consumers to learn more about Lamar’s social justice work and engage in some world-improving of their own.” (Paragraph 3)

“ In short, selling out can (and often does) bring wider exposure to the culture and values that the sell-out artist is supposedly betraying.” (Paragraph 4)

“Where an artist produces music that is different from the music that they would have produced without corporate interference, it’s still not obvious that this is necessarily a bad thing.” (Paragraph 5).

“ the music that is produced reaches a much wider audience, in two senses: the music reaches more consumers, and the music is enjoyed by more of the consumers that are reached.” (Paragraph 5).

“there is at least some reason for thinking that music that is enjoyable by many people is, all else being equal, better than music that is only enjoyable by a few.” (Paragraph 6)

“the explicit rejection of capitalist or corporate interests is lacking in hip-hop – on the contrary, economically aspirational themes of “getting paid” have been a central theme of rap music since its origins.” (Paragraph 10)

Javier Gomez-Lavin:

“loaded but fuzzy concept, one that thrives off its dense links to the broader issues of consumerism.” (Paragraph 2)

“Most musicians, but especially pop musicians can’t sell out in a narrow sense anymore, but some musicians can sell out in a broader sense.” (Paragraph 2).”

“entrepreneurial rap pioneered the blending of commercial and musical aspects, ultimately leaving us with our current cultural moment where Kendrick Lamar is selling us Reeboks.” (Paragraph 3)

“ not only the very generative mechanics of music production are geared towards commercialization, but where the content of the music itself echoes this.” (Paragraph 4).

English Homework 2/21

Jack Mahoney
English 123
Professor Drown
2/21/20

Should we listen to music against a dead artist’s wishes?

Over the course of the last decade, the music industry has lost some of my favorite artists such as XXXTentacion, Mac Miller, Juice WRLD, and most recently rapper Pop Smoke. With the world and rap communities trying to still cope with the loss of all these amazing talents, one question comes to mind: Will more music from these artists still be released? The answer is yes. Unless the rapper gave family or his or her management group specific instructions not to release unreleased music post mortem, you can expect at least one album, possibly even more to be released. Through voice modification, or having someone finish the music for the artist, this is possible. Personally, I believe we should be able to continue to listen to dead artists’ music. If my favorite artist were to pass away I would want to be able to remember them by listening to their music for as long as possible.

How should we engage objectionionable lyrics?

I started listening to rap music when I was 6 years old, when my cousins introduced it to me. I fell in love with the genre, but was banned from listening to it by my parents.They felt that the explicit language along with the drugs, sex, and violence that was being portrayed in the music was not appropriate for a 6 year old at the time and they were probably right. However, as I grew older I began to understand the message that was trying to be spread in these songs. I felt the pain in the rappers voices as they talked about loved ones who had been murdered and how they rose to riches after coming from extreme poverty. Along with this, I understood why illegal things like drugs allowed them to gain power. I believe that as long artists can keep explicit language to a minimum it is acceptable to include them in the lyrics of their songs.

English Homework

Jack Mahoney
Professor Drown
English 123
2/19/20

It was a cold day back in the winter of 2006 when my love for music came alive. I was sitting on the couch at my cousins house playing my Nintendo DS when my ears heard a sound that was different from any music I had ever heard. My cousins who were both in high school at the time began to dance and I followed right away. The beat was contagious and I began to bop my head up and down as a huge smile appeared on my face. The sound I heard was “In Da Club” a rap song by hip-hop legend 50 Cent. This song caused me to fall in love with rap and music in general. I love rap music for many reasons. Being a student-athlete, rap music never fails to get me hype before games. I can turn my headphones on and dial in and really listen to the message the rapper is trying to spread. Along with this, all of my friends listen to rap music, so it allows us to connect over similar interests. Before a football game, you can see me listening to a variety of artists. My favorite artists to listen to pregame would be Meek Mill, Migos, Kodak Black, 21 Savage, Drake, and Future. I listen to these artists before games for many reasons. The beat in all of their music goes hard and the lyrics make you ready to run through a brick wall. Along with this, most of these artists have experienced extreme hardship in their lives, so their message about overcoming adversity makes sense to listen to before games. On a daily basis, I listen to Trippie Redd, Roddy Rich, Lil Tjay, Drake, Travis $cott and NBA Youngboy the most. These artists keep me up beat and allow me to really vibe with the music. When listening to music, I also love listening to country music during the summer and dance music before and during parties. When listening to rap music, I don’t necessarily not like a certain artist, it’s more about not liking a certain song. I would not like a song if I couldn’t vibe with the beat, or the lyrics didn’t connect with me. Although many of these songs have explicit words in them, the message that is being illustrated is why I love rap music and that’s what the older generations need to understand. When I was younger, my parents refused to let me listen to rap music as they thought it was “thuggish” and “trash”. They did not want me listening to this music because they felt as if my background growing up in the suburbs of Boston meant that I couldn’t listen to it. I tried to stop listening to rap, but as I grew up and the artists got better, I couldn’t stay away. In conclusion, my love and understanding for this genre of music has grown since my cousins introduced me to it when I was younger.

UNE Protest Final Essay

Jack Mahoney
English 123
Professor Drown
2/18/2020

Problem Statement:

The University of New England has been known for its commitment to excellence in the classroom, and for its ability to be recognized as a NCAA Division III regional, and national powerhouse in athletics. As a smaller university, the students here are granted the opportunity to receive a degree, while having the ability to participate in college athletics and this is what allows the University of New England to flourish. The school is beginning to grow significantly, as this year’s freshman class had close to one thousand students, the most accepted in UNE’s history. With numbers growing, the culture of students is becoming more diverse. This diversity is most seen within the student athletes on campus. As a public relations consultant, I have recognized that student athletes at UNE are seen as leaders, scholars, and individuals that normal students strive to be like. This role creates a large target on the back of student athletes, especially if athletes began to protest political events that are seen to be protested in professional sports to this day. At the University of New England, freedom of speech is encouraged and diversity is seen in all aspects of life. However, college student athletes protesting a political issue could have severe ramifications for a school like the University of New England. Although the athletes deserve the right to speak out about political issues, protesting could get them in trouble. If the protest violated NCAA rules, the player could be suspended and even kicked off the team. The protests could also lead to setbacks for the school as well. If others do not agree with the protest, the enrollment rate could drop, and the overall reputation of the school would be tarnished. Along with this, the school could lose funding for major programs such as athletics, which is an overall loss of income. Our job as administrators is to solve this problem, while respecting the student athletes constitutional rights.

Background: Over the course of history, political protests have occurred in numerous professional sporting platforms. During the 1968 Olympics, USA athletes Tommie Smith and John Carlos raised their gloved fist to show their support of the Black Power movement, which protested police brutality and inequality in the south during the Civil Rights Movement. The images of the athletes caused serious commotion in the international sports community because it challenged the image of a perfect america that was usually seen at sporting events. Along with this, the images portrayed the corruption that was felt by African Americans in the United States, as social change was demanded. A writer by the name of Erin Blakemore states, “African-Americans like Smith and Carlos were frustrated by what they saw as the passive nature of the Civil Rights movement. They sought out active forms of protests and advocated for racial pride, black nationalism and dramatic action rather than incremental change” (para.3). These athletes inspired millions of people to speak out about civil inequalities that still linger in the United States today. Over my lifetime, there have been multiple examples of professional athletes protesting political issues. More recently, the most famous is former NFL star Colin Kaepernick who began taking a knee during the National Anthem during the 2016 season. During the preseason, Kaepernick would originally sit during the anthem but began receiving backfire from Veterans who believed he was not supporting the efforts of the military. He was approached by a former vetran who was playing for the Seattle Seahawks at the time who supported Kaepernick’s efforts to bring change to american society. He recommended kneeling instead of sitting so that a false image was not portrayed to those who served in the military. With this, Kaepernick began to kneel to protest against police brutality towards the black community in various parts of the United States. This protest spread to every team in the NFL, as more players were seen to be taking a knee, or even waiting in the locker room until the National Anthem was over. It felt as if the NFL was racially and emotionally divided and a solution to this problem was needed right away. His protest caused so much commotion in the United States that he was cut from the San Francisco 49’ers at the end of the 2016 season and has yet to be signed by another team in the NFL.

Issues+Positions +Analysis+Interpretations: The main problem that I have as an administrator overlooking the protests that could potentially happen at UNE is choosing between what is right and what is wrong. Taking away the ability to protest for the student athletes would be unconstitutional, but a solution to this problem would be needed as soon as possible. This means that we need to find an environment for the athletes to protest in without getting them in trouble with the NCAA. The student athletes who would potentially be taking a knee are hoping that their actions spark a chain reaction across the country so that college athletes at all levels will protest as well. Our position is to end this protest respectfully so that UNE’s image is not tarnished.

Recommendations:

Both college and professional athletes are figures that are seen as larger than life. These athletes often use their position to speak out against certain issues such as politics.However, most athletes choose to not speak out and protest and instead just focus on their craft. In the article, “The era of the sports god who shuns politics is sadly over”, New York post writer Clay Travis emphasizes the role famous professional athletes play in politics. He begins the article by reliving his childhood, and what athletes he looked up to at the time. He illustrated how he strived to be as good of a Basketball player as Michael Jordan and equally as talented in Football and Baseball as Bo Jackson. Then, Travis stated, “No one starts a game with more points on the scoreboard based on their race, gender, religion, ethnicity or sexual orientation.In sports, the best man or woman wins. Period.” (Travis) This quote introduces the belief that the author has that politics should be left out of professional sports. The author then stated,” Throughout my childhood as a sports fan and into my early young adulthood as I became a sportswriter, radio host and television commentator, sports didn’t divide us — they united us. While the country faced substantial challenges — the first Gulf War, the tech stock implosion, 9/11, the subprime mortgage collapse — sports didn’t exacerbate those tensions or politicize any of them. Instead, Americans looked to sports as a welcome diversion from the challenges we faced as a country (Travis)”. Personally, I agree with his statement. Although professional athletes deserve great respect in their respective communities, I believe they do not have the ability to fight something that won’t be fixed necessarily with their support. Travis uses the example of Michael Jordan who during the 1990’s stated, “Republicans buy sneakers too” when asked about why he did not speak out about issues surrounding the country at the time. Jordan understood that the best way to unite the country and please people was by playing basketball, and expanding his shoe game. He could not risk losing popularity during the 1990’s as his career and brand were taking over the world. Travis also believes that the usage of social media allows politics to sneak into the world of athletics because some athletes are obsessed with their own identity, and can’t afford to not be liked by all people from different backgrounds. Personally, I believe that the world of athletics is not a place for social experiments. With a possible situation like this happening at UNE, I believe it is important to keep this same mindset, yet being flexible to the student athlete’s needs and wants. I believe the most logical response to the student athlete’s potential protest would be to give them a platform off the playing field that would allow them to continue their protest. Whether it’s a place where the athletes protesting can meet, or some sort of social media platform, all could help reduce conflict for both sides. Along with this, giving the athletes access to representatives from the local and state legislature will give them the chance to seek change much faster than protesting on the athletic stage.

Works Cited:
Travis, C. (2018, September 22). The era of the sports god who shuns politics is sadly over. Retrieved from https://nypost.com/2018/09/22/the-era-of-the-sports-god-who-shuns-politics-is-sadly-over/
Blakemore, E. (2018, February 22). How the Black Power Protest at the 1968 Olympics Killed Careers. Retrieved from https://www.history.com/news/1968-mexico-city-olympics-black-power-protest-backlash

English Homework 1/17

Jack Mahoney
English 123
Prof. Drown
1/17/2019

In the article, “The era of the sports god who shuns politics is sadly over”, New York post writer Clay Travis emphasizes the role famous professional athletes play in politics. He begins the article by reliving his childhood, and what athletes he looked up to at the time. He illustrated how he strived to be as good of a Basketball player as Michael Jordan and equally as talented in Football and Baseball as Bo Jackson. Then, Travis stated, “No one starts a game with more points on the scoreboard based on their race, gender, religion, ethnicity or sexual orientation.In sports, the best man or woman wins. Period.” (Travis) This quote introduces the belief that the author has that politics should be left out of professional sports. The author then stated,” Throughout my childhood as a sports fan and into my early young adulthood as I became a sportswriter, radio host and television commentator, sports didn’t divide us — they united us. While the country faced substantial challenges — the first Gulf War, the tech stock implosion, 9/11, the subprime mortgage collapse — sports didn’t exacerbate those tensions or politicize any of them. Instead, Americans looked to sports as a welcome diversion from the challenges we faced as a country (Travis)”. Personally, I agree with his statement. Although professional athletes deserve great respect in their respective communities, I believe they do not have the ability to fight something that wont be fixed necessarily with their support. Travis uses the example of Michael Jordan who during the 1990’s stated, “Republicans buy sneakers too” when asked about why he did not speak out about issues surrounding the country at the time. Jordan understood that the best way to unite the country and please people was by playing basketball, and expanding his shoe game. He could not risk losing popularity during the 1990’s as his career and brand were taking over the world. Travis also believe that the usage of social media allows politics to sneak into the world of athletics because some athletes are obsessed with their own identity, and can’t afford to not be liked by all people from different backgrounds. Personally, I believe that the world of athletics is not a place for social experiments.

Kahneman Essay Final Draft Repost

Jack Mahoney
English 122
Professor Drown
11/25/19

As a teenager, poor judgement is something that haunts the minds of kids our age all around the world. Historically, poor decision making leads to a negative outcome, and that is something that all teenagers can relate to. Whether it’s going to a party instead of studying for an exam or being associated with the wrong people, poor judgement is a negative action. Although poor judgement skills are usually seen to be lacking during the teenage years, I can recall many instances where poor judgement affected me as a child. Growing up, I was never a motivated student. I would do anything possible to avoid doing my school work, and hated every second of the school day. Instead of studying and learning the basics of every subject, I was focused on my athletic performance and hanging out with my friends as I believed that was much more important. During the summer, I pretended as if school did not exist and did my best to not do summer work because school was simply not in session. Due to this lack of judgement, I began to fall behind in school. As I got older, the school work became harder, and my lack of practice and experience made me look dumb in the eyes of my peers. I was forced to begin working with a tutor in order to gain progress in the classroom, especially in math. I felt as if no one could help me, and my confidence was affected significantly. My lack of judgement led to a negative outcome in the classroom. As I grew older, I became more mature but would still find myself struggling to make smart decisions. As a high school student, having the ability to have a sense of judgement is vital. This will allow students to focus on their studies, while having a social presence and being a successful athlete. When I was in high school, some would compare me to a social butterfly, as well as a kid with little to no care about the responsibilities that would affect my future, I just had no idea at the time. During football season of my senior year, I was completely focused on my performance on the field instead of my performance in the classroom. In my statistics class, I took advantage of the freedom we had to watch film and prepare for the next opponent. I then continued to wait until the last minute to complete major assignments, and found myself continuously asking my friends to send me the answers to homework assignments. I became an academic burden to both my parents and my friends and needed to change as soon as possible. This lack of judgement and motivation was my Achilles heel, and for the first time ever I almost failed a class because I was simply not invested in my work.

As mentioned, there are many reasons why teenagers make poor judgements and cognitive mistakes. In my own personal experience, poor judgements have led to negative results in the classroom. During my senior year, I became a very distracted student. The days began to wind down and the workload became less and less. I was more focused on cherishing the time left that I had with my fellow classmates, instead of being a driven student who was still looking to get into college at the time. With only my parents keeping my academic motor going, I used the freedom I had to slack off in my statistics class, which was probably one of the most important classes I was taking during senior year. Based on Kahneman’s idea of “What you see is all there is” I shifted my focus on getting out of school, instead of diving deep into the subject at hand so I could become more successful. The more I studied Kahneman, I realized why I was making a crucial error in judgement. I was going out of my way to do the things that would allow me to escape my responsibilities in the classroom. Instead of preparing for exams in the days leading up to the day of the assessment, I would find myself studying the day and night before. Being an athlete with a busy schedule, I was then forced to pull all nighters just to attempt to prepare. This lack of judgement and use of poor study skills then caused me to become tired, which led to distraction and lack of performance in the classroom. I believe people make errors in judgement because they believe that a responsibility like academics can be avoided, and that everything will work out in the end.

Being a teenager myself, we are forced to make decisions that have an effect on our future, even our lives in some cases. Along with this, confidence in these situations will allow the decision process to become easier so there is no room for second guessing an opportunity at hand. However, when making these choices it is important to not be over confident and make correct judgements that will have no negative effect on the individual. Kahneman states, “The confidence we experience as we make a judgment is not a reasoned evaluation of the probability that it is right.” The writer believes that although you may feel confident in a judgement you are making, that does not mean that it is the correct judgement to be making. I agree with this statement because I can recall many times in my life fully believing in a judgement I was making, and having it completely blow up in my face. Having over confidence in these situations also can lead to others doubting your story if your judgements have been incorrect before. Kahneman states, “Confidence is a feeling, one determined mostly by the coherence of the story and by the ease with which it comes to mind, even when the evidence for the story is sparse and unreliable. The bias toward coherence favors overconfidence. An individual who expresses high confidence probably has a good story, which may or may not be true.” The writer believes that with overconfidence comes bias and a feeling of uncertainty with judgements that may not have evidence to back up, and I couldn’t agree more.

In conclusion, teenagers all over the world are notorious for making poor judgements in situations they may not realize could be vital. With teenagers, poor judgement usually leads to a negative result, setback, or a failed opportunity to succeed. Personally, I believe that every choice you make has a direct effect on your future. If you associate yourself with the wrong people, you can get in trouble, and participate in things that may be frowned upon with your peers and parents. Along with this, if you do not make the right decisions in the classroom, procrastination will set in which only leads to failure. Towards the end of his essay, Kahneman writes, “In general, however, you should not take assertive and confident people at their own evaluation unless you have independent reason to believe that they know what they are talking about. Unfortunately, this advice is difficult to follow: overconfident professionals sincerely believe they have expertise, act as experts and look like experts. You will have to struggle to remind yourself that they may be in the grip of an illusion” (Kahneman). Kahneman is portraying that trusting yourself when making decisions and doing what is best for you is most important. This is because although you may be dealing with professionals, you are the only person who controls what you can do for yourself to develop and progress.

Works Cited:
Kahneman, Daniel. “Don’t Blink! The Hazards of Confidence.” The New York Times, The New York Times, 19 Oct. 2011, www.nytimes.com/2011/10/23/magazine/dont-blink-the-hazards-of-confidence.html.

English Final Essay

Jack Mahoney
English 122
Professor Drown
6/6/19

During my time so far this semester in Enlgish 122, I am fortunate enough to have learned so much about the way I learn. From the first class in September, we have been navigating our way through the basics of the college writing and reading process. Throughout the duration of our class, Professor Drown has stressed the importance of the writing process, and believes that once you can master it, your mindset as a student will change. The writing process we focused on as a class was prewriting, drafting, revising and editing. When I was in high school, I never used the step of prewriting. I thought that it was pointless, and only delayed me from finishing the piece of writing that I was working on. However, once Professor Drown explained the process to me, I found it very useful especially when working on college level writing. I was able to gather information on my topic, such as evidence and quotes and start to picture how I was going to structure my paragraphs. Along with this, having discussions with Professor Drown during the prewriting stage allows the ideas stuck in my head to start flowing which leads to an easier to transition to the drafting phase. When I was younger, I always thought that writing a first draft meant that you only had to write half of the assignment. However, once I got to college, I discovered that I was very wrong. During my first semester of college, I realized that in order to write a successful and complete paper the first draft needs to be the complete assignment that just needs a session of editing before turning in. Doing this allows me to have time to discuss my paper with Professor Drown, and to have a peer editing session with my classmates before turning in the final copy. Revising and editing are two skills within this writing process that I just started using this year. Although I would check my papers in high school for spelling mistakes, run on sentences, and punctuation mistakes, I never actually revised a paper until this year. Professor Drown emphasized to our class that the revision period is one of the most important stages of writing a paper, as you are given the opportunity to perfect your work for the next time you need to do a writing assignment. Once I gained an understanding of the writing process, I was able to improve the scores of my writing assignments in my english class. With Professor Drowns assistance I was able to realize that I actually enjoy writing, and this writing process was the key to my eventual success. As a young writer, I believe there is still a lot that I can improve on. With this writing process, I believe the steps that I need to keep practicing would be prewriting and drafting. Often times in the drafting process, I struggle with the ability to start the assignment because there are so many ideas floating around in my head. Instead of getting frustrated with myself, I believe if I can identify what I want to write about early in the prewriting stage, the drafting process will become easier.

English Final Assignment

Jack Mahoney
English 122
Professor Drown
12/4/19

After a long semester of English 122 with Professor Drown, I am able to say that I have learned more about the way I learn then in any class I have ever taken before. From the first week of class, Professor Drown has tasked us with challenging our own thought processes. Along with this, he wanted us to accept that the way we learned and processed information may have been wrong before, and that it could be fixed. We began the semester reading smaller articles and focusing on certain skills within the annotation process. After learning the proper way to highlight a text when not having any prior knowledge of the subject, and circling words that I did not understand or might have forgotten the meaning to, we were able to focus on the most important strategy when wanting to become a good reader. This strategy is known as active reading. Active reading is a rather simple tool that allows teenagers across the world to further understand complicated texts. Active reading breaks down the text or passage into chunks and forces the reader to dissect each sentence. When doing this, it is important to highlight important information and circle any words that are unknown to the reader. The next time I read an article with the length and complexity like in the Kahneman article, I will be sure to use the tools that I have gained since becoming an active reader. I will separate the story into chucks, recognizing a change in setting. Along with this I will highlight, underline and circle any information that is vital to the story or may be confusing to me as the reader. I believe that over time, my active reading skills have significantly improved with constant practice and support from Mr. Drown. I am now able to dissect a piece of text, annotate it, find direct quotes, and make a connection to real life events. During my time in English 122, Mr. Drown has stressed the importance of pre-writing and how a good rough draft will lead to success on the final paper. In class so far, my best piece of pre- writing was:

As a teenager, poor judgement is something that haunts the minds of kids our age all around the world. Historically, poor decision making leads to a negative outcome, and that is something that all teenagers can relate to. Whether it’s going to a party instead of studying for an exam or being associated with the wrong people, poor judgement is a negative action. Although poor judgement skills are usually seen to be lacking during the teenage years, I can recall many instances where poor judgement affected me as a child. Growing up, I was never a motivated student. I would do anything possible to avoid doing my school work, and hated every second of the school day. Instead of studying and learning the basics of every subject, I was focused on my athletic performance and hanging out with my friends as I believed that was much more important. During the summer, I pretended as if school did not exist and did my best to not do summer work because school was simply not in session. Due to this lack of judgement, I began to fall behind in school. As I got older, the school work became harder, and my lack of practice and experience made me look dumb in the eyes of my peers. I was forced to begin working with a tutor in order to gain progress in the classroom, especially in math. My lack of judgement led to a negative outcome in the classroom. As I grew older, I became more mature but would still find myself struggling to make smart decisions. As a high school student, having the ability to have a sense of judgement is vital. This will allow students to focus on their studies, while having a social presence and being a successful athlete. When I was in high school, some would compare me to a social butterfly, as well as a kid with little to no care about the responsibilities that would affect my future, I just had no idea at the time. During football season of my senior year, I was completely focused on my performance on the field instead of my performance in the classroom. In my statistics class, I took advantage of the freedom we had to watch film and prepare for the next opponent. I then continued to wait until the last minute to complete major assignments, and found myself continuously asking my friends to send me the answers to homework assignments. This lack of judgement and motivation was my Achilles heel, and for the first time ever I almost failed a class because I was simply not invested in my work.

This piece of pre-writing was completed in a 50 minute class with Mr. Drown. Although it is not the final copy of the paper, it allowed me to relate to the Kahneman article easier so that the process of writing the final draft was smooth. I was able to use real life experiences and relate them to the events in the Kahneman article. Although I have improved significantly in English 122, I am going to have to make a lot of changes for next semester. In order to succeed in English 123, I am going to have to be consistent and prioritize my English work. Although my reading skills are proficient, I believe that I could still use some practice so that the topics of active reading and other skills used in Mr. Drowns class stay fresh in my mind. Finally, with the assistance of Mr. Drown, I wish to become a better student in general, with goals in mind that will allow me to find success in the classroom.

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