Project 3: The Soundtrack of My Life

Tim McGraw, “My Little Girl”: The line in this song, “You’ve had me wrapped around your finger since the day you were born”, is a reflection of the way my dad feels toward me. I have always been his little girl, being the youngest and the only daughter in my family. With my dad I could get away with anything and he spoiled me any chance he got. Once when I was younger, we were at the store and it was just my dad and I. Well I wanted a new Barbie doll and all I had to do was bat my “baby blues” as he called my eyes and I got my way. When we got home and my mom saw the doll, she asked where that came from and I said, “Daddy bought it for me.” She would just roll her eyes at my dad and laugh. Still to this day, I usually can talk my dad into “spoiling” me. I could also get out of trouble with him more easily than my mom, like how the song says, “When you were in trouble that crooked little smile could melt my heart of stone.” I know he’s finally realizing that I’m growing up, like in the song it says, “Now look at you, I’ve turned around and you’ve almost grown.” I know I’m his baby girl, but even though it’s hard for him to do he encourages me, like in the song to, “chase your dreams but always know the road that’ll lead you home again.” And sometime on late nights when my mom and I have an ice cream craving, I can still talk him into going to get us ice cream from TCBY.



Keith Urban, “Tonight I Wanna Cry”: Between the scenes of the singer playing the piano, this video cuts to shots of artwork on the walls with snow falling down around. When I was about six years old, my parents bought me a grand piano and I started lessons right away. Its mahogany colored wood with its ornate Victorian-style carvings on the legs and front graced our front living room. I practiced all the time. Even in the mornings before I left for school I would sit down on the wooden bench with its burgundy seat cushion and play a little tune. Slowly I got better and better. When I wasn’t playing I loved listening to my mom and grandma play on the piano and I loved the way you could hear their fingernails could be heard clicking the notes as they played. I would always sit next to them with my feet dangling off the bench and listen to the beautiful noised emerging from the piano. I couldn’t wait till I could play like that. After taking enough lessons to get into the advanced level book, I finally quit taking lessons. Now that I am older, my fingers glide up and down the black and ivory keys with ease. Now when I play, my fingernails make that same clicking sound that I used to hear when my mom and grandma played. Sitting in front of the keys and the music with my back to everything else in the world, I feel at peace and relaxed. Even now, when I’m stressed, mad, or sad all I have to do is play the piano and I feel relieved with all my worries escaping through my fingers into the music.



Dierks Bentley, “What Was I Thinkin’”: The action scenes from this video of the car chase and the fight scene in the bar make it very exciting; however, the scene from when he takes the girl back home and her daddy is waiting on the front porch with a shot gun in hand is one that I can relate to. First of all, my dad is a police officer, and is very protective of me, his only daughter. On one of my first dates, the guy, who was from a small town close to McCook, came to the door to pick me up. Thinking there could be no harm in this and that my dad wouldn’t dare embarrass me, he wanted to meet the guy. While not resorting to the open threat of violence through a gun, he did, to my shock, verbally threaten him with, “Now you two have fun…” and staring right at the guy he said, “but not too much, or I’ll have to kill ya.” My mother and I had a look of complete horror on our faces as we realized what he had just said. We were so embarrassed. Of course, we knew he was just kidding, but my date didn’t. I was surprised that he ever took me out again, but apparently I must have made a fairly good impression on him, despite my dad’s over-protective nature. From that point on, I gained the reputation of being the cop’s daughter in the towns surrounding McCook. While I didn’t thoroughly enjoy this title, my dad sure did, thinking it was more intimidating for guys; however, to his dismay it didn’t scare them off, but I'm sure he still has a gun hidden just in case he needs to really scare any off.



Jason Aldean, “Hicktown”: Between the shots of the pick-ups going mudding and doing other “hickish” things, this video cuts to scenes of teenagers dancing and the band playing the music for the song. These moments of going mudding and the lyrics’ mention of girls getting rowdy tonight down at the football game are events that kids growing up in a small town undoubtedly are familiar with. Throughout high school during the fall season, all my Friday nights were spent at Weiland Field, the football stadium in McCook, for home games. My friends and I would get all glitzed up to cheer at the game or sometimes we decorated t-shirts with paint and glitter to cheer on our boys. Each year every class would come up with a unique design to embellish t-shirts. For my senior year, our red and black tie-dyed shirts read, “Senior Chicks” on the front with our last name and 007 on the back. Being the procrastinators that we were, we were up late the night before the Homecoming game decorating our shirts in one of my friend’s garage. While I had my shirt all sprawled out in front of me, paint in hand, a huge bug started crawling toward me. I jumped up and grabbed the blow drier that we were using to dry the paint and tried to roast the bug. Tripping over the cord, trying to chase the bug all my friends got a kick out of my girly actions and clumsiness. These nights of making shirts added to my high school experience and memories with my friends.



Kenny Chesney, “She Thinks My Tractor’s Sexy”: Starting off with a John Deere tractor chugging through the fields, this video cuts to shots of the singer in the barn surrounded by hay bales. These scenes are shots that anyone from a small, rural town could recognize. My senior year of high school, I was all dressed up in my glamorous, long, flowing black dress and glitzy rhinestone earrings for my final prom. My hair was all done up with big spiral curls framing my face. I felt like a princess. After dinner, my date drove to a parking lot where I was ecstatic to find our chariot to prom, a brand new shiny John Deere tractor. With the tractor towering above us, my date helped pull me up the three far spread out stairs into the cab as I struggled to hold the handle with one hand and the end of my dress with the other so as not to get it snagged. A little pillow cushion awaited me right next to the driver’s seat. We got the engine going and we were off. Traveling at a mighty five miles per hour, we finally made it the four blocks to Promenade where we made our grand entrance in the mighty green and yellow beast. The next day we were the talk of the town, as we had made front-page news in our local newspaper, the McCook Daily Gazette. It just goes to show how even the small things that happen in a small town are deemed important.



Taylor Swift, “Tim McGraw”: Between the scenes of the singer lying on the dirt and grass strewn shore next to the pond and the couple sitting in the bed of the pickup gazing at the stars and dancing underneath the night sky are memories that most couples from small towns are familiar with. Especially considering that there isn’t much else to do for dates. Gazing at stars is definitely one of my favorite things to do, whether it be on a date, out in the country, or just on the bench on my front porch at home. One night during the summer, a friend and I decided to drive out to Red Willow Lake and go stargazing. Finally reaching the lake after a fifteen-minute drive, we trudged our way through the sand so we got close to the water line. My cute heels continuously sinking further and further in, making it ever so difficult to walk, resulting in their removal. The lyrics, "The moon like a spotlight on the lake" reminds me of the way the moonlight and starlight reflected brightly off the surface of the calm water. Being the geniuses that we were, we decided to start a fire. After walking through the sand in my bare feet and collecting numerous small and large sticks to get the fire going, thanks to my friend’s expertise, we succeeded. With the little campfire blazing and the stars glowing magnificently overhead, it was a perfectly calming night. We spotted many constellations and named some stars of our own. Now at college, living in Lincoln, the stars aren’t as brilliant to gaze upon and sometimes are totally impossible to see, which is one of the things I miss about my small town.



Carrie Underwood, “Don’t Forget to Remember Me”: The scenes in this video of the singer driving off to start her life on her own is an event that everyone has to go through and that college students can definitely relate to. The line, “We were loading up that Chevy both trying not to cry, Momma kept on talking putting off good-bye,” reminds me off packing my stuff up to go to college. The whole summer my parents were dreading the day. It finally came and we loaded my white Chrysler Sebring to the max with totes of clothes, bedding, school supplies, and various other necessities. Not only was my car full, but my dad’s jeep was packed with the multitude of items that I would need to survive in my college dorm. My mom and I drove the three and a half hours in my car to Lincoln, while my dad followed behind us. I’m sure the whole trip my mom was trying to forget the fact that she was riding with me to take me to college. She was just pretending like it was just another one of our many shopping excursions. Finally when we got to Nebraska Wesleyan University’s campus, the totes and other things that were neatly packed in the car were unloaded and lugged up three flights of stairs through Johnson Hall to my new room. That trip was a difficult one for my parents and I alike, but as the song says, “I still feel like I’m where I’m supposed to be.”



Rascal Flatts, “Stand”: In this video, it shows a wide variety of people who seem like they’re at their very last straw, hanging on to their will by only a short thread. The lines “Alone and helpless like you’ve lost you’re fight, but you’ll be alright” remind me of the times of life that are really hard but somehow you still make it through. My strong Christian faith has given me the courage to get through any challenge. Whether it be finals week or a family/friend problem, I am confident that I can handle anything thrown at me. Trying to make it through the first college final’s week of my life, I have to remind myself that I can make it through and get everything accomplished even if I feel like there is just way to much to do in so little time. “When push comes to shove, you taste what you’re made of,” is another line that reminds me that I need to keep pushing myself. It all comes back to my faith in the Lord. I know that He can pull me through anything, just as he has done the past eighteen years of my life. As I sit her typing this, I read the verse Deuteronomy 31:6, which is on a plaque that my Grandma mailed me, “For the Lord your God goes with you; He will never leave you nor forsake you.” Being able to read this verse everyday reminds me that I’m not alone and that I can get through anything that I set my mind to. This plaque with its picture of a snow covered path with trees surrounding it and a little brook running along side it, with the verse written below, brings me peace and comfort on my stressful days, just by looking at it. It reminds me of home and of my faith.

Post 13: This is the Song that Never Ends

I’m not sure if this is exactly a music video, but it is the first video with music that I could remember seeing from my childhood. It is from the television show, Lamb Chops. Back then; I remember thinking that Lamb Chops was probably one of the coolest things ever. I loved watching it and I always sang along with the puppets to, “This is the song that never ends”, which was always played at the end of the show, and is shown in the video clip.

Seeing it again, I realize just how ridiculous the puppets actually look. When I was little I probably thought they looked more realistic and cooler. However, watching it now I thought the puppets looked a little creepy and I’m surprised it didn’t scare me when I was little. The song and basically everything else in the video is kind of cheesy and poorly made, as well. Before watching the video, I thought that the song was faster paced and more up beat, but I found the video to be kind of boring and annoying after awhile.

I just find it crazy how much your perspectives and feelings about things can change so drastically over time. It makes me laugh to think that something from my childhood that I probably used to think was the best thing ever could change into something that I find rather ridiculous and silly. You never really realize just how much you’ve grown up mentally and intellectually until you look back on things that you used to like when you were little. I also think it shows a lot about the changes that have been made in children television in our culture. Now most shows that kids watch are made on computers with digital effects. It shows that just over a span of about 15 years, the world has completely turned to technology and will undoubtedly continue this trend.

Post 12: Not Ready to Make Nice

I don’t really like this music video of the song, “Not Ready to Make Nice”, by the Dixie Chicks. First of all, I think it is kind of creepy and demented; like at the beginning how they flash in and out with the girls smearing black ink on each other’s white dresses. Then later they are dressed in all black with black ink floating on a screen behind them. During the whole video, the girls act angry and almost psychotic. Especially when the on girl is trying to tear free from the grasp of the other two girls.

Another reason I don’t really like the video is because of the meaning of the song. It deals with the controversy that was started after the main singer’s critical comment about President George Bush while performing a concert in London. I just think that was a very unnecessary act and that even if you don’t agree with the president’s decisions, you shouldn’t criticize him in front of other countries, because then that gives them a bad view of our country as a whole and makes them question our leadership. The video shows the group’s outrage after being “attacked” by angry Americans for the comments they made. I understand their hurt but those comments never should have been made in the first place and I think they made the issue even more controversial by the video than if they would have just dropped it.

I understand that they have freedom of expression but they also should show respect for their country and to their president, even if they don’t agree with him. He still deserves respect. I just see this video as a pity party for them, giving the message that we should feel sorry for them because they’re being “attacked”, yet they were the ones who were at fault in the first place.

Post 11: Best I Ever Had

This country music video is of the song “Best I Ever Had” by Gary Allen. I really like this song, and I think the video is kind of sad because it shows the loss of love. In the video, I think his loss is exemplified by his standing on the dock that is completely surrounded by water. It shows that he is lonely without her and is now confused as to what to do. As he says in the song, “Remembering the girl leaves me down and lonely”.

In the video, since the girl is all dressed in white and almost angelic looking, it makes the viewer get the impression that maybe she had to leave because she passed away. This idea is later illustrated when the boat returns to the dock where he is singing and she has disappeared and all that remains is a bunch of flowers. It really sparks emotions in the viewer of a sense of sadness and loss, which most people can relate to.

When he puts the letter in the bottle and throws it out to sea and it finally reaches her, it demonstrates the part of the song when he says, “send it in a letter, make yourself feel better”. At this point when she reads the letter, she starts putting flowers in the water, almost as if she were leaving a trail for others to follow, but the sadness in her eyes reveals that its one that she can’t return to.

I think people can read this video in many different ways, depending on their situations in life. It’s kind of an ambiguous video, so it can be interpreted in ways that relate to the events you’ve experienced in life. I just really like this song because I think the guitar in it makes it very relaxing and easy to listen to.

Project 2: Human Right #19: Freedom of Expression

Life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness; these are all very general rights that we, as humans, have when we are born. But there is more to it than that, right? Human rights are the basis of a just world; these rights need to be known and exercised for the good of the world.

Beginning centuries ago, the Magna Carta, which was signed by King John of England, enumerated a number of what later became known as human rights. This was the first concept of human rights that existed in European thought. During the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, European philosophers thought that humans had “natural rights” which belonged to a person by nature. This concept was drawn heavily upon during the American Revolutionary War, and a document, The Declaration of Independence, that was produced as a result, still stirs feelings about certain human rights. One part of the this document declares, “We hold these truths to be self-evident; that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their creator with certain unalienable rights, that among these are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness” (A Short History of the Human Rights Movement). So what exactly constitutes for a person’s happiness? The freedom to express yourself in any way you find appealing or necessary would be considered a person’s pursuit of happiness, as well as their liberty to do so in life.



As a public service announcement project to educate and possibly inspire the world, the Youth for Human Rights International teamed up with the Church of Scientology International and created thirty powerful videos focusing on human rights. Their hope is to make people advocates for tolerance and peace. These thirty videos all deal with one article of the United Nations’ Universal Declaration of Human Rights. In one of the videos that this group made, they establish the argument that freedom of expression is an inalienable human right, no matter what a person’s race, ethnicity, gender, or age; and this expression can be portrayed in a multitude of ways. I think it is rather ironic that this video, in particular, has no dialogue, even though it’s about freedom of expression, because speaking is a component of expressing yourself. It just exemplifies the fact that there are so many other ways to express oneself than just with verbal communication. Because of its unique approach to the concept of freedom of expression, this video makes a great argument for this human right.

In this video, the creators used many strategies to develop the rhetorical argument. First of all, illustration is heavily employed throughout the video. A young man plays soothingly on the piano, a little girl concentrates on practicing the violin, and a black boy performs a tune on the trumpet. A young lady dances elegantly while the sun rises, two girls make elaborate drawings on the sidewalks with chalks, and a guy passionately strikes his drum set to the beat. A teenager jumps around and rocks out on his electric guitar, a young woman listens and ends up dancing to her music in an elevator full of businessmen, and a group of teenagers jam out while driving around. A group of guys break dance in a circle, a black girl lip-syncs while brushing her teeth, and a girl paints effortlessly using vivid colors. These clips relate to everybody’s life, since they show such a wide variety of ways that people express their feelings. They give people the desire to express their feelings, emotions, and thoughts through their own unique way. It’s very inspiring to see all of these youths using their talents to their maximum potentials. All of the people in this ad illustrate ways in which people exercise their right of expression.

The ad also employs the use of an analogy. For example, at the beginning, the piano player plays very softly and timidly, almost as if wary about whether to play or not. As the video progresses and continuously returns to shots of the player, the audience can see how his expression through music gets louder and stronger. The audience notices throughout that as all of the people’s modes of expression join together the video becomes faster-paced, stronger, and more unified. This exemplifies the idea that if people work together in this world, utilizing their liberty to express themselves in a constructive manner with their God-given talents, then the world would likewise become stronger and more unified. It shows the benefits of utilizing that particular right.

This ad relies on both logos, pathos, and ethos. In this ad, logos is the tool of persuasion responsible for making the ad such an argumentative force. Watching this commercial might give others the confidence and energy to express themselves in new ways. This commercial presents the argument that by expressing yourself you will be like the people in the ad.

The majority of this argument; however, is made with pathos. This is done by appealing to the emotions of the audience. The clips of all the young people in the video strike different feelings in different people. For example, for an older person, it may spark the emotion of joy because they may have once expressed themselves in a similar manner and it brings back good memories. On the other hand, it may spark some sadness or morose because perhaps they didn’t have the same opportunities to express themselves so openly and freely. However, for a younger person watching this video, it may inspire them to do or become like the people in the video, because they have the desire to be more open and expressive. Each child has many talents and abilities; they just need to find a way to express themselves. The expressions on the peoples’ faces in the video also prompt emotions in the audience. In the piano player, the viewer sees a look of determination from his constant gaze at the piano keys, the audience can tell he is in the zone and striking the correct keys is his only focus; in the dancers, the viewer sees strength from their elegant and agile movements; in the kid’s driving around, the viewer sees faces of laughter and enjoying friendship; and in the girl lip-syncing, the viewer sees a look of joy and excitement from her side-to-side movement and the smirk on her face.

The set-up of the video, for example, the illusion of sunlight coming through some of the shots and the sepia-tone of the video, reinforces the pathos of it because it makes it seem time-less so any age group can relate to it. Also since the video show different races, the sepia-tone makes everything appear similarly colored, so it gives the effect that everyone is equal.

Ethos is also employed in the video. As a whole, the video argues for Human Right #19, which is the Freedom of Expression. As was prior mentioned, these human rights are articles of the United Nations’ Universal Declaration of Human Rights. Therefore the argument made is given a large amount of authority and credibility from this source.

The only text in the video is at the very end. It reads, “Human Right #19: Freedom of Expression” in a text that appears glowing and sunlight. The near lack of text lets the audience put more of their own experiences into the video so they relate more to it than if it had a lot of dialogue. This helps with the argument of freedom of expression because expression can go so many different directions that it can’t be tied down to only one. The mind needs to have the freedom to wander and this aspect of the ad allows for this.

The ability to express oneself never ends. Even after death, the things one leaves behind continue to express their thoughts and feelings, like the Declaration of Independence was a monumental form of free expression. This just shows how far expressions can take a person and even a country. This is why this right is so important and the reason this video showed so many young people freely expressing themselves. This right cannot be forgotten amongst any generation. So there is more to it than just life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness, and this right of expression, especially can help in the greater good of the world if used to its maximum potential.


Works Cited

“A Short History of the Human Rights Movement.” Hrweb.org 25 Jan. 1997. Human Rights Web. 28 Oct. 2007 http://www.hrweb.org/history.html