Sam Smith's Lay Me Down

Chris Stapleton has never been one to be in the spotlight. He has hidden behind famous country artists by writing others number one hits, however, he became a sensation overnight when he released his 2015 album, Traveler. When his label asked him to do his first music video, he chose to do a powerful song titled, “Fire Away.” It is no surprise that he did not want to be featured in the music video. Instead, he decided to bring awareness to mental illness. The music video follows a couple that is torn apart by the wife’s depression. The husband, who happens to be a police officer, tries to rescue her. However, he is not successful. While the music video

In a life of poverty, illnesses surround its inhabitant. From poor nutrition to unfit living conditions come afflictions that range from a cough to polio. And as a society we preoccupy ourselves with the short comings of poverty. Creating a revolving door at hospitals treating the poor for their present illnesses, but paying no mind in preventing them for the future. In SAT," Ofri describes her experience as a doctor treating an impoverished unambitious young man, Nemesio Rios. Instead of just following up on Rios' routine check up, Ofri decides to prepare Rios for the SAT so that he could have a chance to go to college. For educational preparation is the preventative medicine for ones future well being because improving ones economical

Today many people feel compelled to buy anything or everything with an expensive price tag. This includes Expensive designer clothes, latest gadgets, expensive vehicles and many other similar things. This form of consumerism has embedded itself in today’s society; where it's encouraged to invest in such materialistic possessions. Kanye West is an African-American rapper, producer, and entrepreneur, who articulates his struggle with consumerism and the struggle for those around him in his song “All Falls Down.” West, utilizes puns, rhyme, and juxtaposition to highlight the issues surrounding materialism that can be interpreted differently by different listeners such as African Americans and White Americans.

Lastly, the Logos Pastor used in this film were tremendously credible. Pastor gathered all the information he collected by interviewing actual workers form the food industry.

Jamie Fader’s book Falling Back which was published in 2013, is based on ethnographic research over three years, from 2004 to 2007, of black and latino males on the edge of adulthood and that were incarcerated at the Mountain Ridge Academy reform school located in a rural area: “within a dense forest in western Pennsylvania, is Mountian Ridge Academy … ninety-acre campus contains eight dormitories, each of which houses thirty-two young men between ages 14 to 18” (p.1). The criminal thinking approach was intended to help young people identify the patterns that had led them to delinquency and replace it with corrective and prosocial thoughts. These young boys had been involved in drug offenses and violence within their suburban communities and were now in the process of behavioral change in order to help them reflect and be able to make better decisions which would lead them to a better life.

In her undertaking of a novel with an unusual topic, Mary Roach balances her book, Stiff, with the perfect amount of sarcasm and sincerity. Due to the overall themes of the book being death and cadavers, it would be hard to consider completely digesting the book without a little bit of satirical dialogue. After all, the entire book would seem kind of morbid without it. Her tongue-in-cheek writing style kept me constantly engaged in the reading and wanting more. She was blunt at times and also knew when it was necessary to be subtle. It is a fairly informal and easy-going style of writing.

eloquent, forceful, realistic, honest, and inspirational. Only those people who watched through their masks of hate can say otherwise. There were many highpoints for me and below are

In chapter eight, Kill the Messenger, from Racial Formation in the Twenty-First Century, the author Gary Delgado discusses how certain states do not follow a colorblind system that they claim to. Delgado first brings up the concept of colorblindness and how many conservatives claim that they live in a colorblind society. Many individuals who believe in colorblindness claim that people of color are now equal and that the racism, discrimination, murder, and exploitation they underwent in the past five centuries no longer matter (Martinez, LaBennett, & Pulido, 2012). They argue, however, that the only kind of racism there is, is reverse racism against whites. Delgado refutes this by claiming that just because more diversity is being put into governmental offices does not necessarily mean America as a whole is past its racist and discriminatory actions.

In the book My Brother Sam is Dead by the Collier Brothers, the main character Tim Meeker is divided within himself by war. Tim has seen war divide him with everything. His Father is a Loyalist, and his brother is a Patriot. He hasn’t chose his side so he is very confused. He admires his brother, and is scared of his Father.

Let the Water Hold Me Down by Michel Spurgeon is written in a very unique and skillful way of the realities of being of human, and dealing with loss and grief, guilt and longing, loyalty and love. These psychopathologies affect the readers and present a different way of seeing the text. By applying critical theory to this novel, not only the reader but the main character, Hank Singer, gets a different perspective, a new lens after making several changes in his life. Critical theory helps individuals observe from an unusual angle and learn things in new ways, different from his or her typical way of viewing things. It opens up new lenses, and through this new lens, it can lead to new understanding or unfortunately, make things harder to understand. "Knowledge is what constitutes our relationship to our world, for it is the lens through which we view our world"Tyson states if the lens is changed, the view and the viewer may be changed as well.

Over the past few years, racial tensions in America have heightened. During this period, Black America undergo the daily struggle of witnessing the killing of unarmed black men and women. Victims of these endless killings and police brutality, turned into one of many hashtags, which led to the formations of the Black Lives Matter movement. Solange Knowles, younger sister of Beyoncé, soul singer and songwriter was viewed as the angry black woman. Solange used her platform to speak up. She became the most outspoken black artist for black activism in recent years. She embodies the image of a carefree black girl who is willing to let the world know that she is proud of her blackness.

The novel Never Let Me Go, written by Kazuo Ishiguro, is set in a capitalistic, dystopian society in which scientific advancements have greatly relieved society of their medical concerns, all the while, severely damaged their integrity. The exploitation of human clones for the sole purpose of implementing a sufficient number of organs for society has resulted in a change in their ethics, as well as their ego. In Kazuo Ishiguro’s novel Never Let Me Go, Ishiguro uses characters to illuminate corruption in society, illustrating that greed in the pursuit of progress can negatively alter the mindset of society. By living in a capitalistic environment, one will develop a fatalist mentality in an attempt to come to terms with society and their

The song is typical of its’ genre because it is a love song like so many others in the R&B genre. There are many rhetorical appeals in the song, such as ethos and pathos. The music video tells us that John Legend was singing that song for his future wife Chrissy Teigen, so that would make John Legend credible. In a lot of videos it is a random person with the artist, but in this particular video John uses his real fiancée and shows that it is not a perfect relationship. This allows him to be credible because he is using his own real life situation and not an unrealistic one. When you think of the emotional appeals in the song(pathos), you’ll see that the entire lyrics are emotional. This is a love song with a lot of emotions throughout the lyrics. “Give your all to me. I'll give my all to you. You're my end and my beginning. Even when I lose I'm winning”, these song lyrics are showing how John feels about Chrissy and their love for each other. You can understand the emotional connection that the two share. The music video helps cement their relationship because the video only includes John and Chrissy. John is showing his love towards Chrissy by singing to her and the audience sees the emotions between

The director of the movie(Frances Ford Copolla) has a very good use of montage, and long shots. Capolla starts off the movie with an extrodonary shot of an undertaker saying "this is America." Which gives a glimpse of how haunting the film is going to be? A good use of long shots is perfect when the camera pans around the long shot as Mikey takes on the responsibility of getting revenge for his fathers shooting. Also a good example of Copolla’s long shots is when the film is about to end and there is a shot of Diane Keaton looking so innocent and really knowing nothing of the family business. In the film, montage is used in the baptism scene. The shots cut when all the highly religious questions are asked of Mike, and then the shots start cutting back in forth from the killings of the head’s of the other top five family’s and the baptism, portraying mike as a changing person(a god man to an evil one.)

Writing is the most important form of communication. When deciding on a future job, communicating with people who have the occupation you desire is a great help. Communicating with members of such an elusive group such as the Air Force Pararescuemen (PJs) is no easy task. To communicate and learn more about my desired career, I found a great book written by a former Air Force Pararescuemen. Books written by former PJs are very inspirational to me. The book is tittled Never Quit by Jimmy Settle. Never Quit is an inspiring book that drives me to accomplish my goals and take on being an Air Force Pararescueman.