Melissa Gilbert of Little House on the Prairie

This search has turned out to be much more difficult than I thought it would. I grew up watching Little House on the Prairie and I knew that it was somewhat popular. I did not think finding information about this show would be such a task. Most of the sources I was able to find were actually books that were part of the series of Little House on the Prairie. There was little or nothing about the television program itself. What I could find were short descriptions and reviews of the actual novel.

"The article (Off the Prairie) discusses historical fiction for young girls. The author begins the piece discussing her own dislike of Laura Ingalls Wilder's "Little House on the Prairie" books, comparing those experiences with the current popularity of the "American Girls Collection" books. The article discusses several historical fiction books for girls, including the Rosie Lepidus books by Carol Matas, Deborah Hopkinson's Klondike Kid trilogy, and Kate McMullan's Dragon Slayers' Academy books (Beram, 61-67)."

After looking more in depth I was able to retrieve some information that is about the original Little House in an article titled The Real Little House on the Prairie.

"When Laura's Pa saw the tall grass prairie near Indian Territory, he knew that this was the place he had been looking for. "Here we are, Caroline!" he said. "Right here we'll build our house."
Pa took the wagon and began to cut and haul logs for the house. Today, the little house still sits on the crest of the tall grass prairie north of Caney and south of Independence, Kansas. It has been preserved by people who are devoted to Laura and her stories.
Inside, Pa furnished the house first with the wagon seat and blankets. Later, he built a bed and a table. The family all sat on the floor, which he made out of smoothed-out logs. Perhaps the most comforting thing he built was the fireplace.
Today, wild game is still plentiful on the prairie. Many people who live there hunt prairie chickens, quail, wild turkeys, deer, rabbits, and squirrels and catch fish in the rivers and ponds. On the prairie, the wind always blows, day and night.
Little House on the Prairie is a place that many people drive for miles to see. It is still much as it was in Laura's day (Alexander 10)."

After researching Galileo for a while I was able to find an article discussing the actors of the television show.

"Whoa - no Nellie Oleson? That's right, this epic mini-series based on Laura Ingalls Wilder's beloved autobiographical adventures of an American frontier family in the early 1900s ignores the sappy '70s TV hit with Melissa Gilbert. This more loyal, robust version - starring standouts Cameron Bancroft as Charles and KyIe Chavarria as spunky ' daughter Laura - has a few maudlin family-show moments (horse lovers will cry). But the bulk of this masterfully made series is nailbiting (coyotes attack Pa in the two-hour opener!), truly breathtaking (deer run wild on that prairie) and gratitude-building (mealtime is a struggle). Oh, and Pa is darned good-lookin'!
FINAL SAY **** A pretty incredible journey (Griffiths 84)."

It seems that I found enough information regarding the show, novel, and actual site of the Little House. I moved on to looking more in depth and researching Melissa Gilbert who played the main character, Laura Ingalls in the television show. The article I found was quoting a personal interview of Gilbert once she won the SAG Award.

"The Hollywood Reporter: What do the SAG Awards mean to the guild?
Melissa Gilbert: I think that anything that draws attention to the Screen Actors Guild as an entity is a good thing. The awards certainly bring attention to the fact that we support each other, and that we are bonded together as performers in a special way. I think what will be reflected this year will be more of our connection to labor as a whole. (U.S. Rep.) John Sweeney is going to come to this year's awards, and there are a lot of labor leaders who are getting involved in this. Anything that raises the profile for labor in entertainment raises the profile for labor in the country. That is a really good thing, especially in the current climate, where we are existing in the purview of a government that isn't particularly labor-friendly (Kiefer S6)."

Looking a little more in depth of Gilbert's life, I was able to find
"Seated at the large desk in her Los Angeles SAG office-"President Mom" spelled out in building blocks behind her-[Melissa Gilbert], 38, certainly looks the part. Married to actor Bruce Boxleitner, 52, since 1995, she's the mother of two boys, [Michael Fleeman], 7, her son with Boxleitner, and Dakota, 13, whose dad is her former husband, actor Bo Brinkman (Tauber 113)."

Overall, this assignment has been much more intense that I thought it would be. I learned more about the actual characters and about the true history of the Little House.

The REAL Slim Shady...

When I first began this search I actually just typed in to the Google search engine, "interesting facts about Eminem". I immediately was offered many different fan sites and biography pages. Nothing was appealing at all. Every page had simply summarized his life into several paragraphs. His struggle growing up was addressed, the relationship with his mother was discussed, his strenous marriage to Kim was touched on, and his love for his daughter, Hailie Jade, was shared. Although his life story was interesting and moving, nothing came as a surprise. Most of what I read I had already known about. The songs Eminem writes reflect him as a person. He talks abouts ALL aspects of his life in his music. The only other facts I found that were merely interesting were:

1) Prior to his multi-platinum major debut album, The Slim Shady LP, Eminem already had an underground album titled Infinite, and reportedly sold 500 copies out of the trunk. (http://rap.about.com/od/artists/p/Eminem.htm)
and
2) Eminem is the second highest selling rapper of all time, right behind the late Tupac Shakur. (http://rap.about.com/od/artists/p/Eminem.htm).

I wasn't too thrilled with what was found. I wanted something directly from him, his own words. I wanted to know what his opinion was about the influence of hip-hop and rap music on children. I wanted to know what he thought of society and how this world constantly critiques music artists for their exploit lyrics and overexcessive pride in having money, cars, and women. After searching I found a few quotes that can help me with ethos, credibility to the author.

"Don’t do drugs, don’t have unprotected sex, don’t be violent. Leave that to me.”

"To the people I forgot, you weren't on my mind for some reason and you probably don't deserve any thanks anyway.”

"They say music can alter moves and talk to you. Well can it load a gun up for you and cock it too? WIll if it can and the next time you assault a dude, just tell the judge it was my fault...and I'll get sued!”

"Don’t do drugs, don’t have unprotected sex, don’t be violent. Leave that to me.”

All said by Eminem and from the link http://thinkexist.com/quotation/to_the_people_i_forgot-you_weren-t_on_my_mind_for/342586.html.

These quotes gave me true insight to who "The Real Slim Shady" really is. These quotes reflect his personality and his attitude. I kind of feel like I can write about Marshall Mathers on a more personal level.

"Black Noise" by Tricia Rose

Tricia Rose is currently a Professor of African Studies at Brown University in Providence, Rhode Island. Her studies consist of teaching in 20th century African-American culture and politics, social thought, popular culture and gender issues. Rose is originally from New York, and received her bachelor's in Sociology from Yale University and completed her Ph.D. in American Civilization from Brown University in 1993. She frequently lectures at schools all over the United States and has been to Wesleyan, Harvard, Morehouse, The Whitney Museum of Art, UCLA, Spelman, Middlebury, Yale, Michigan, University of Texas at Austin, The Brooklyn Museum, University of California at San Diego, at Irvine, at Santa Barbara and Princeton University.

Rap recordings and tracks (music in general) are discussed almost everywhere today, from schoolyards and MARTA stations to the U.S. Senate and Supreme Court. In this novel, Tricia Rose thoroughly analyzes several aspects of the musical genre and provides an effective "remedy" or cure to the severely flawed hip-hop coverage in popular, mainstream media. She accurately traces rap's history and discusses information about the innovative rhythmic manipulations made possible by the techniques of sampling. She also makes clear the connections between rap's beginnings and the political turmoils that afflicted black and Latino urban neighborhoods throughout the 1970s and 1980s. Examples of this can be seen in Los Angeles. (We actually made a point to discuss this in class once). In discussing what is probably rap's most controversial aspect, lyrics entertaining the idea of "cop killing" Tricia Rose vividly defines the social conditions that bring about such aggressive responses to real life police hostility. Finally, she examines the often neglected role of women in rap in rewarding depth. He accredits them with their accomplishments and acheivements and shows what difference women have made in the rap industry.

Punjabi MC

It was quite strange hearing this song in class. At many Indian social events this song, "mundian ton bach ke", is often played whether it is at weddings, garba, or parties. Anyway, Punjabi MC aka Rajinder Singh Rai was born in 1971 in England. At first, he gained the name Indian MC' after performing at parties. He incorporated his own language with his songs. Out of ignorance, his fans assumed that the language he was speaking or rapping in was Indian. Indian is not a language, it is a term used to describe the region in which a person is from. After clarifying that in India there are many different languages he dubbed himself the "Punjabi MC". The hit that began his career was the song we listened to in class, "Mundian Ton Bache Ke", meaning "beware of the boys". He incorporated bhangra, a type of Punjabi dance with the Knight Rider theme song. By doing this, Punjabi MC was able to musically connect the American hip hop culture and Indian hip hop culture. After all he has done, his songs (Mundian Ton Bache Ke, especially) have been incorporated by artists, such as Jay-Z and Twista into their own music. Punjabi MC has also sampled some of the American hip hop music. There are clear similarities between American hip hop videos and Punjabi MC’s videos. His videos include beautiful women that someone is after, dancing in his "hood", and showing off his money. Although similar in shallow aspects, distinct differences can be seen. In his videos Indian culture is embraced, photographs of Mataji are shown. Classical Punjabi dance is also performed throughout the video (bhangra).

Peer Review

Peer Review was a little mediocre today. I have had better experiences. Last semester, since the students in our class were part of the same freshman learning community we were able to be a little more critical. I want people to be honest. I want to be told that there are holes in my paper and that I am not convincing. I want to be shown my weak points, I PROMISE I WON'T CRY! My topic was sharing an experience about me at a frat house. I was being hustled by an Indian guy who offered to have sex with me. I do not engage in sexual activity and when this happened, I was completely taken back. I want other people to share their experiences with me. I want to know if I am being too over the edge or oblivious to the world of college. Even though I feel like was not critiqued enough, I did receive some positive feedback. I was told that I had a good, attention-catching introduction and that the flow of my paper worked well. I would like to know how people that are not virgins feel about my paper. I know that is kind of awkward but I want to know if I was persuasive. If they felt like what I was saying was true.