Cage-inspired plagarism

So I was finishing up my Candide paper for history and was to the point where I was deciding on a title. After thinking about my main points and the nature of Voltaire's satire, I really wanted to plagiarize Cage's work and call it How to Improve the World: you will only make matters worse. I didn't think my professor would be willing to understand my perfectly legitimate plagiarism, though, so I came up with something else... it wasn't as good.

Hey just wanted to pass along a fun fact that all the people in honors class (myself, JJ, Jenna, Angelle, Daniel, and Penny) have created a fun Cage style game. Before every class we pull a book off a library shelve at random, open it to a random page, and then point to a random word on the page without looking and thats the word of the day. The first person to use that word when answering a question in the class wins the point for the day. Its pretty entertaining and Cagian.

I guess some of us really are doomed to continue the game forever and always think about Cage, but hey it keeps life interesting.

Ummm... So what now?

Now that the semester's ended, what going to happen to our blog? I mean, technically, I'm still stuck in the soundworlds game and am doomed to think about John Cage forever -and I know I'm not the only one. And besides, if we can't blog anymore, who am I supposed to talk to about moosak and sound pollution and techno and plagiarism and mushrooms? I mean, these are important things that anyone would benefit discussing, and I don't think that just because the class has ended, we should be deprived as students of our right to ponder such essential questions and receive valuable peer feedback. And let's face it, no one else is going to know what I'm talking about when I describe a soundscape as "low fi."


P.S. Sorry I never made my mushroom cupcakes. I'll be sure to bring them to the reunion party (and then make music with the cupcake tins afterward -Tim Daisy would be proud).

I'm Glad We Agreed That Plagiarism Was Okay

Okay guys, apparently, we only have to write ten blog posts. I wrote eleven. If anyone wants that extra post, they can have it. This is my least favorite post this year, so if anyone wants to claim it and help themselves get to that magic ten number, feel free. Remember, if you don't get ten posts, you get an automatic F in the class [citation needed]. And we don't want that to happen, do we?

Bidding starts at $6.99. Buy-it-now price is 14.99.

A Parting Word or Two From John Milton Cage

The following stories are random draws from Cage's work Indeterminacy:

My grandmother was sometimes very deaf and at other times, particularly when someone was talking about her, not deaf at all. One Sunday she was sitting in the living room directly in front of the radio. She had a sermon turned on so loud that it could be heard for blocks around. And yet she was sound asleep and snoring. I tiptoed into the living room, hoping to get a manuscript that was on the piano and to get out again without waking her up. I almost did it. But just as I got to the door, the radio went off and Grandmother spoke sharply: “John, are you ready for the second coming of the Lord?”

I was arguing with Mother. I turned to Dad. He spoke. “Son John, your mother is always right, even when she’s wrong.”

introspective retrospective

Note: DANIEL—NICE TITLE “INTROSPECTIVE RETROSPECTIVE”, AND SINCE YOU SAID PLAGIARISM WAS COOL, IM GOING TO STEAL IT

While I’m on the subject… if all plagiarism is cool… then I’m going to shamelessly steal from all of you…

So I guess I might just reflect on the FYS coarse like Daniel.
So I came into the class kinda feeling robbed, but after the first few classes I realized it was all for the best. One reason was the John Cage intrigued me, techno became involved in our class, and all in the class are pretty funny

How many licks does it take to get to the center of a tootsie-roll pop?

I'll admit, I hadn't really noticed it until this week, but we are truly a stimulus-addicted society. Thinking about it now, it just seems weird to play music while you're grocery shopping (maybe it's just me). You're stuck in an elevator for, what, two seconds, and they play you music. You're put on hold and they play you music over the telephone. It seems that they try to catch you in a situation you can't escape and pump out noise at you. we "plug ourselves in".

It is true that saying “like” all the time may make you sound like a “valley girl” or immature, but have you ever stopped to think about why and how that word has infiltrated our language and conversation. The word “like” is a filler – it’s used to fill those uncomfortable pauses of silence that inevitably happen in everyday conversing. We as a society have become so dependent on having a constant noise

While I recognize that music, for the most part, is about evoking emotion, I don't think we should limit music to only emotions. For these reasons, I think all forms of art, including music, are not defined by whether they evoke emotions or not. Art makes us wonder, makes us think how or why something is the way it is. Cage's music, though occasionally composed with purposelessness, is still music. As long as it generates some sort of reaction, a form of thought, from its listeners, it can be considered art in my opinion.

However, I do agree that, without having had the chance to develop personal preferences, this exposure to different types of music is rather irrelevant. If you don't have preferences to begin with, putting the i pod on shuffle doesn't mean anything.
"I believe the matter of music to be central to that of the meanings of man, of man's access to or abstention from metaphysical experience. Our capacities to compose and to respond to musical form and sense directly implicate the mystery of the human condition. To ask 'what is music?' may well be one way of asking 'what is man?'"

And so, I hate to burst your bubble, but it's not the end of the world. Noise has always been there and always will be. Silence isn't always golden (Sometimes it might be green or blue or red), though it often is. My point is, even though using sound as a weapon scares me, and even though I may not like all the "noise" created by new technology, I think we have bigger problems to deal with.

That isn't to say that you should totally give up your independent thought or opinion, but just merely accept that not every sound you hear you will like, and that the sounds/music that you like is not, nor will it ever be, totally the same as someone else's. So please.....relax.

"My deepest desire regarding contemporary music is to hear it all. Not successively, but all at once, at the same time. Everything together! But perhaps that's a perverse wish... Who knows if we'll do it even when we have the necessary technology? That technology doesn't exist yet? Well, long live the technology to come!

And it kinda seems like I wrote an awful lot, but this didn't really take me that long--like five minutes. I wouldn't like you all to think that I don't have anything better to do than write this, even though I don't.

--B.J.J.J. (Blog Jockey JJ)

meaning in shuffle?

Note: THE TV SHOW JENNA AND I COPIED IN THE ROBOT PART OF THE VIDEO IS CALLED FLIGHT OF THE CONCHORDS AND Y’ALL SHOULD WATCH IT RIGHT NOW
Note 2: WHILE DANIEL IS, I WILL ADMIT, VERY HILARIOUS, JENNA AND I ARE (JIMMY!) THE FUNNIEST PEOPLE IN CLASS. (SEE AFOREMENTIONED VIDEO FOR PROOF)

I don’t usually think of myself as a superstitious person. In fact, I’m one of those people who make fun of stupid superstitions. You know, the people who just have to forward every single chain letter/text/ myspace/facebook message because they really believe something bad will happen to them if they do it. You think the mad axe murderer has so little to do that he is actually going to be under your bed because you didn’t forward it to enough people, really really? Or the people who will NEVER drink pop and pop rocks together because they truly believe it will make their stomach explode, really REALLY? (And I totally agree with Daniel, everyone should be able to plagiarize anything Jimmy does and/or says J).
But, when we talked in class about the iPod shuffle thing and whether or not it really was random, or whether people think it’s not random because they want to find meaning, I forced myself to think of all the places I look for meaning. I definitely do it when I put my iPod on shuffle. I will even go so far as to make decisions based on what my iPod shuffle tells me. And yes, I do even feel like it tells me things that I need to hear. OK, now you’re thinking that I am not only as superstitious and/or stupid as the chain letter person, but also possibly that I have serious mental problems. Fair enough. But maybe it is just part of human nature—to look for meaning in things. I want to believe that things have meaning. I mean, I am an English major so I should have known that I do believe that things having meanings. Otherwise how could I possibly be majoring in a subject known for doing just that? Finding meaning through symbols and themes. Even though, again, I don’t see myself as superstitious, (Well, actually, I’m starting to think that I’m super-superstitious but…) I do like to find meanings in everyday life: Well, that text didn’t send right away.. it’s a sign that I wasn’t supposed to send it. And, now that I think about it, isn’t religion just trying to find meaning in life? I have come to the conclusion that it’s only naturally human to find meaning in everyday life. And I think that this is different from being superstitious. Superstitions just don’t make sense. …. But my iPod does talk to me.