Final post...for now

So, my three best posts are as follows:


Hip in the city
This blog asks "What was the role of 'the city' within the history of hip? This is answered by me with the help of Bruce "The Doctor" Springsteen. Great stuff!


Portland Hip chic
This was a free blog, I believe, and it deals with my encounter with hipsters in Portland. Thinking back to this trip makes me nauseous but as a result, a lot of good things came out of it! 


The Blues
This was the beginning of it all! The beginning of class but also the beginning of 'Hip.' This post speaks for itself.




What makes them "my best?"


Honestly, I would considered these blogs to be some of my best writing because I actually cared about the topic. Hip in the city meant a lot to me because I was listening to Bruce Springsteen and trying to do my homework when out of nowhere I had this epiphany! He was singin' about everything I was thinking and I associated that with the city. Also, if you watch the live music video, it illustrates hip beautifully. 


Portland Hip chic was fun to write, partly because I got to take out my animosity for Portland in my blog assignment. I think my sense of humor is like my favorite wine: dark and dry. So this was fun to write but also therapeutic. 


The Blues is very dear to me because without blues music, living would be impossible. I wish we would have spent more time talking about the blues because I feel that most hip ideas really do stem from early blues artists. 


Ideas on American popular culture...


I've really enjoyed this course on two levels, it has been like a pop. culture history class, as well as a writing class. We have had some interesting discussions in class and I'm walking away with great notes that will hopefully help me in the future. Some of my ideas have changed from the beginning of this course, but if anything they have been reinforced. My views of hip have been expanded upon and my ideas about what a 'hipster' is, have been reiterated. Exploring hip figures such as Walt Whitman and Ernest Hemingway, helped me see hip in a different light, a more ambiguous one too.  Whitman challenged orthodoxy through his poetry and ideas and I can't think of a 'hipper' figure. I would like to expand my knowledge of Whitman's work in the future because I think his passion for writing is incredible. When we read Hemingway's The Killers, I couldn't initially see how the story could be considered hip. After our discussion about time and identity, it really opened my eyes to the form of literary analysis. I re-read the story and loved it because of the confusion it creates, but also the way it dares to be different. I could say that I learned what 'hip' is, but I'm not sure if that was the point. If you take hip out of the equation, then I learned the love and theft of America, the compact version. 


Strengths and Weaknesses?


Overall, I feel good about my participation in class and what I got out of the class itself. I'm still dissatisfied with my performance as a writer and was hoping to have improved. I feel that I lack clarity and struggle with making well developed ideas. The writing assignments were good practice and I appreciate the flexibility. As for strengths, I'm highly passionate and have the will to write, which is why I took the class. I don't think that I've established a style of writing yet, or if you ever do?  


Grade?


Good question....


I've trained myself to not think about grades anymore. I just make sure that I show up and do my best, which is relative. I have shown up for the entire semester, minus a couple sick days, and I've tried to do my best. Personally, this has been an extremely hard semester for me because my home/work life is attempting to kill me (I've already notified authorities). So with that in mind, I feel like I did the best I could do at this moment in time, the perplexing present. In a way, this class has been my only outlet and I'm really going to miss it. If there is a grade attached to it, it probably looks like an A or B? If I was grading the class, I would give it an A, because it has been the most inventive class I've taken.


Sincerely, Waterface.
 (Witney Ryan)