The song “Zero to Hero” was featured on the Disney Motion Picture "Hercules". Lillias White, Vaneese Y. Thomas, Cheryl Freeman, LaChanze, and Roz Ryan are the voices of the muses who tell the story of Hercules and the ones who sing this song. The song was written by David Zippel and the lyrics were provided by Alan Menken. The video for this song displays Hercules dealing with his new responsibility as a Hero and the fame it brought him, though the lyrics to the song, as well as demonstrates the fact that he has not always been well known, a “somebody”. This song reminds me of three of my favorite movies Star Wars (Episodes IV, V, VI), because in these movies the main character, Luke Skywalker, starts out as a regular person and by the end he is a Jedi who has saved the universe. My father gave me a Digitally Mastered VHS Star Wars Trilogy when I was three. The box the movies come in has Darth Vader’s face on the front along with the Death Star. The title “Star Wars” is in blue and the word “Trilogy” is in white overlaid on the title. On the back of the box there is a message from Star Wars creator George Lucas and the logos for Fox and Lucas Film Ltd. There are three movies in this box, which you can see from the side. The first movie has the same color scheme as the box, but the title of the movie “A New Hope” is in white, while the title of the trilogy remains in blue unlike on the other two movie cases where it is in white. Below the title is a picture of Darth Vader’s face. The middle box has a picture of an Imperial Stormtrooper on it and the words “The Empire Strikes Back” in purple. The last case displays the words “Return of the Jedi” in maroon and has a picture of Master Yoda on it. The cases and the box that contains them are worn from years of existence and use.
The music and lyrics for the song “Everybody Wants To Be A Cat” were created by Floyd Huddleston and Al Rinker. The song first appears in the Disney's Animated Picture "The Aristocats", and was sung by the cast Phil Harris, Scatman Crothers, Thurl Ravenscroft, VitoScottie, Eva Gabor, Liz English, and Paul Winchell. The video takes place in O’Malley’s pad which is an old loft. The two main singers are O’Malley (Harris) and his best friend Scat Cat (Crothers). The cats from Scat Cats’ jazz band, the Aristocats, and O’Malley are depicted playing instruments and dancing around while the lights flare like a disco ball is present. As a child I liked this movie because it was all about cats, and one of the main characters (Duchess) reminded me of a stuffed animal my grandma gave me for my birthday. I used to tie my cat stuffed animal to a string and then pull her along like she was actually walking. The stuffed animal was supposed to be white, but appeared off-white due to all those years of “walking” around. The cat had blue eyes and a pink nose, which was made from light pink thread. There was a tag on her back right leg in the thigh area that said “Russ” in big letters, which stood for Russ Berrie & Co., Inc. This was the name of the company that created my white cat. On the back of the tag the cat’s name, Prissy, was sewn in large letters.
Ned Washington provided the lyrics for “When You Wish Upon a Star” and Leigh Harline composed the music. This song was originally sung by Cliff Edwards, who is the voice of Jiminy Cricket, in "Disney’s Pinocchio". Jiminy Cricket was singing the song to Pinocchio to give him hope about becoming a real boy. The video displayed features the original song with the original vocals but the images are not all from Pinocchio. The video shows a variety of Disney moments when a character is making a wish or their dreams are coming true. This song reminds me of a cross necklace that I received from my grandma, which has become a sort of charm for me. The cross looks like a four pronged star and there is another star cut out of the center. The four prong star is similar to how artists tend to draw Polaris. The inside star is a series of four lines crossed over each other. The two lines that form a cross are slightly longer than the two lines which form an “x”. The inside star appears to be shimmering or twinkling. The cross and the chain are made out of sterling silver. The chain is a decorative chain that alternates between silver ovals and circles to form a pattern. The metal loop that connects the necklace to the chain has “made in Italy” engraved inside it so that it is hard to see. The loop is slightly misshapen because it has been stepped on. The clasp on the necklace is a standard spring ring clasp that tends to get stuck at times.
“Get Off My Back” was written by Byran Adams and Eliot Kennedy for the Dream Works Animation Motion Picture "Spirit: Stallion of the Cimarron". Singer/Composer Bryan Adams also provided the vocals for this and several other songs on the movie. The video shows several U.S. Army soldiers trying to break Spirit, a wild mustang stallion. Spirit is clearly winning the confrontations and the other army horses are cheering for him in their stables. I chose this video because it shows the horses in the stable. My grandma gave me a horse stable with twelve miniature horses when I was little, and I used to pretend that some were tame while others were wild like Spirit. The stable is made out of pine wood and has twelve stalls. The back of the stable is open so the horses can be pulled out, while the front of the stable has a small slab in front of it. The slab of wood makes the front into windows instead of doors. The dividers between the stalls are not pine but partition board. The top of the stable has many hoof marks from when the horse “walked” across the top the top of the stable which was a “hill”. All of the horses are about two inches tall from hoof to ear, and two and a half inches long from nose to the tip of their tail. The horses come in a variety of colors as well as breeds. A black Percheron, Pinto with brown patches, Morgan, Appaloosa, Dapple Grey Workhorse, Mustang, and a roanQuarterHorse are among the horses represented.
Bryan Adams contributed the vocals for “Here I Am” a song from Dream Works Animations Motion Picture "Spirit: Stallion of the Cimarron". The song was written by Bryan Adams, Gretchen Peters, and Hans Zimmer and is featured twice in the movie. The video begins with an eagle flying over plains and then transitions to wildlife in the woods. Before it shows the eagle flying again it displays bears fishing for salmon on a waterfall and a bison herd traveling by a geyser. After the eagle flies by for the last time mustangs run across the screen. The video then focuses on Spirit’s mother giving birth to him, followed by Spirit exploring the new world he is in. The graphics to this video are beautiful, but it is the lyrics that caused me to choose this video. The lyrics discuss a person exploring a new world on a new day, which reminded me of the story of my American Girl Doll Addy Walker. Addy was a slave who ran away with her mother to freedom, after her brother and father were sold, and has to learn the how to live life not as a slave but a free girl. My American girl doll that represents Addy from the American Girl books is a black doll with hair down to her back. Her brown eyes open and close depending on whether or not she is lying down or sitting up. She came in a pink and white cotton dress, her slave dress, and a straw bonnet with a blue and white ribbon to tie it on with. Addy appears to be about nine years old. A tan and black kerchief to carry a drinking gourd, a half dime, and a cowrie shell necklace from her grandma came with my Addy doll.
The song “Be Our Guest” was written by Alan Menken and Howard Ashman for the Disney Motion Picture "Beauty and the Beast". The song is a duet by Angela Lansbury, who is the voice of Mrs. Potts, and Jerry Orbach, the voice of Lumiere, with a chorus as backup. As the song is playing the video displays a variety of kitchen and other household objects singing and dancing as part of a performance for Belle. The kitchen entities present Belle with food as well as a performance to welcome her to the castle. While this is all charming it is the lyrics about inviting someone to be a guest that remind me of my wax sealing set, which I use to fasten envelopes of my personal letters and envelopes. The wax letter seal set was given to me by my mother for Christmas when I was little. The set came with three candles that provided the wax to seal the letters. Each candle was a different color. The cornflower blue candle was the tallest candle at about four inches and had no engravings on it. The red and black candles were the same size, about three and a half inches) and had engravings of a vine with flowers blooming on it running their length. The three of these candles are know about an inch tall. The set came with a small brass seal. The seal had a tiny knob on the top of it. The letter “T” was engraved on the bottom so that it would show up in the wax. The other seal which did not come as part of the set but was given with the set was slightly more expensive. The handle is made out of mahogany wood. The part of the seal that stamps the wax has the letter “N” engraved in the brass. The brass part of the seal can be unscrewed and replaced with other brass seals.
Alan Menken and Stephen Schwartz wrote the song “The Court of Miracles” for "Disney’s The Hunchback of Notre Dame". The vocals for the song were provided by Paul Kandel – the voice of Clopin, the leader of the gypsies. The video shows Phoebus and Quasimodo being captured by the gypsies in an underground crypt that also happens to be the entrance to the gypsies’ home – The Court of Miracles. After the gypsies capture Phoebus and Quasimodo they are dragged to the Court of Miracles, where they are placed on stage with a noose around their neck. While Clopin sings about their trial the court is shown. There are brightly colored drapes and other sheets of cloth all over the court. These cloths remind me of a cloth that my mother bought in order to sew my sister and me beanie baby sleeping bags. The cloth I chose ended up as a makeshift blankie for me instead of a sleeping bag for my beanie babies. The cloth is roughly four feet by two feet. The ends curl in because there is no hem, but it is not unraveling without the hem. The cloth is magenta and has darker magenta stripes running length wise on the cloth. The stripes are about an inch wide with an inch in between them. At first glance cloth looks one color because the magentas are both real close in hue. The cloth is made of a rayon and polyester mix, which means it is silky soft and conducts static electricity well.
I honestly don't really think of myself as a writer. I guess I would say as an intermediate writer. My writing mechanics leaves something to be desired and there is still a lot I need to learn to ever become advanced at writing. I can form sentences so I would say I am not a beginner.
I never considered the different types of writing there were. I knew the basic categories of essays like informative, persuasive etc... I never thought about the fact that these were not the only types. I didn't care as long as I wrote the essay right and got a good grade. I never really thought about what an essay is. In this class I had to think about what an essay is, how to meld form and content, and what an autobiography consists of. So I guess I am more aware of what I am writing.
I realized that I don't really plan out what I am going to write. I just sit down and write. After I am done writing then I edit and alter my writing. I think I learned to plan out what I am writing to a certain extent in order to organize my paper better.I don’t plan what I am writing paragraph for paragraph, but I make a skeleton of the paper.
Before this class I usually did not have my peer’s edit my paper. I just assumed have the teacher edit it. In this class, however, with every writing project we had to peer review our papers for points. This helped because it gave me more input than just the teacher’s thoughts on what I needed to fix.I like having my teacher look over any paper I am turning in to them because then they can give me their input on my paper and I know what they are expecting me to fix in order to do better.
I don’t know if I can give an exact definition of good writing, because the rules change from essay to essay. There isn’t a concrete set of guidelines. I would say that for me good writing adheres to writing mechanics rules, (depending upon the type of writing) it gives the authors opinion and insights along with the data of the subject. A good writer’s paper is organized and the thesis ties the whole paper together. The paper is not scattered or rambling there is a purpose to what is written.
I am still trying to figure out how to meld form and content in writing. In "Blog 6" we were supposed to meld form and content and I don’t think I did a good job of it. I think this is something that I definitely need to work on. I also need to work on my Rhetoric Appeals essays. I don’t always see the connections between a piece and all its rhetoric appeals. The main problem I have with rhetoric appeals is that I usually only saw one or two appeals instead of all three like I was supposed to. This is part of the reason that I only discussed on rhetoric appeal mainly in my "Rhetoric Appeals Paper". I am good at observing things. I kind of enjoyed the "Observation and Reflection essay", because I like just writing about what I think and how that deals with what I observed.
When I was little all of my friends could braid hair, but I could not, but I wanted to learn. My mom showed me how to braid once, but I needed to practice before I could claim that I could also braid hair. So I practiced on my wooden rocking horse’s tail.
The rocking horse was made out of oak with a wood finish by the Amish in Arthur, Illinois. It was not very detailed, meaning there were no eyes and mouth or hooves attached to the oak rocker. It was just horse shaped with a flat back for a seat. There were three rungs between the two rockers that the whole structure was attached to. At each end of the rungs there were oak screw hole buttons covering the screws. In the neck of the rocking horse there were two handles. One handle on each side of the neck, so that the rider could hold on while rocking. The horse’s mane and tail was made out of undyed wool yarn. The longer I had the horse the more the yarn started to take on a slight yellow hue from dirt and age. When the rocking horse was given to me both the mane and the tail were firmly attached to the horse. However after a while the mane remained firmly attached to the rocking horse’s neck, but the tail would come out of the rocking horse’s tailbone. I came to enjoy the fact that the horses tail would come off of it. I would attach the tail to clipboards and practice braiding while watching television or talking to my family. I also liked that it came off because then when I would dust the horse. The pledge and orange oil would not get in the yarn of the tail like it did in the yarn of the mane.
At my second birthday I was given an African American baby doll by my grandma, which I named Emily. It turns out that Emily is an American Girl Doll. The Doll’s actual name is Bitty Baby. I did not know this until my seventh birthday when my grandma gave my sister Alex a Bitty Baby Doll. She did not realize that it was the same doll she had given me.
Emily has brown eyes with eyelids that actually closed when the baby doll was laid down to sleep. She came in a white outfit. Emily has no actual hair, but the plastic in the area that was her hair was pitted and a darker color than the rest of the doll. The plastic on top of her head made it appear that she has curly black hair. Her hands were folded into little fists like a baby’s does so often. The dolls body was made out of brown cloth and cotton even though her limbs were plastic. Under her right arm there was a long tear that occurred after my childhood best friend, Carmen, and I played tug of war with the doll. Carmen wanted to take the doll to play with, but I was not that good at sharing Emily. The cloth under Emily’s right arm tore so that her arm was almost torn off. I did not play with her for a couple of years because I did not want to break her anymore than she already was.
On Easter morning when I was six I woke up early and went downstairs. Emily was placed in a chair by the kitchen table. My mom had taken the time to sew her arm up by hand. There was a neat brown cross under her arm where the rip had once been. All of these years an Emily still posses that “scar”, even though I have had the opportunity to take her to the American Girl Doll hospital. If I did this then they would replace her body and make it like new, but I find myself attached to the unique “scar” which my mom took the time to create out of a wound.
There is a cook book that my grandma gave my mom. The book was made of recipes compiled by my grandma. The paper is cream colored and held together by plastic comb binding. Some of the pages are coming out of the binding, and the cover is no longer attached to the cookbook. The table of content s is only halfway attached to the binding. The pages of this cook book are now stained with age and ingredients from past dishes that the book aided in. There are little drawings of apples, old stove ovens, and rolling pins on some of the pages. The writing is the neat cursive of my grandma. The ink almost looks blue because it is so old. Each page states the name of the recipe, the section of the book it is under, the person the recipe came from, the ingredients needed, and the process used to make the dish.
This book has seen a lot of holiday moments. Every Christmas my mom pulls out this book and flips to the section on Christmas cookies. We would make Pfeffernussen, Russian Tea Cakes, White Roll Out Cookies, Springerle, Lebkuchen, and Gingerbread panels for the Gingerbread house. Then she’ll send my sisters and me around to gather the ingredients from the cabinets while she pulls out bowls, measuring cups, rolling pins, and any other kitchen item needed to make the cookies. I can remember watching my moms hands work as she kneads and rolls out the dough for Pfeffernussen cookies. Then she would cut them into strips and then cut those strips into little sections. While she would do this I would look the strange name of this delicious cookie in the cookbook. The cookbook reads: Pfeffernussen , A German Tea Cookie Recipe Curtesy of Grandma Grotelueschen.
My mom would always drag out the cookbook even though it seemed like she knew the recipes by heart. This cookbook which I can remember so well will some day pass to my sister Alex, mainly because I suck at cooking, which is why I only helped.
The rocking horse was made out of oak with a wood finish by the 
I came to enjoy the fact that the horses tail would come off of it. I would attach the tail to clipboards and practice braiding while watching television or talking to my family. I also liked that it came off because then when I would dust the horse. The pledge and orange oil would not get in the yarn of the tail like it did in the yarn of the mane. 
