Status Update

"Transmissions From Camp Trans"
Claim: Camp Trans offers an accepting environment to the often misunderstood sexuality of transsexuals.
Style: Rogerian
"Dark Webs Goth Subcultures in Cyberspace"
Claim: Goths, often seen as social outcasts, use the internet like everyone else to communicate with each other about common interests.
Style: Classical
"The Truck Stop as Community and Culture"
Claim: There is more to the average trucker than meets the eye. Truckers are often seen as lone stars, but truck stops bring truckers from all backgrounds together where they are able to get haircuts, eat, and talk with each other.
Style: Toumlin
"House for the Homeless"
Claim: Homeless people are more than just raging alcoholics and drug addicts, most are hard workers with respectable degrees searching for their dreams or even a modest job.
Style: Toumlin

My research has been going fairly well. In fact there is soo much information I'm a bit overwhelmed on how I should approach my argument. I liked how "House for the Homeless" presented its argument by offering stories of homeless from all sorts of backgrounds. I am going to attempt to make this paper as persuasive as possible by using some of my interviews with the homeless as well as the ones I can find online. I will try to back this information up with some facts and statistics, but the main focus will be persuasion.

Homeless Fieldsite a Closer Look

For many of us, living in downtown Atlanta puts us in the center of homeless subculture, but seeing their culture gives a much different perspective than exploring it. From my day to day travels in Atlanta, I've noticed that certain bums are always in certain spots during the daytime and others you see occasionally all around Atlanta. The first hobo I approached walked with a limp and appeared to be suffering from dementia. I have seen him on an almost regular basis walking around the Aderhold area at GSU. The man seemed too disabled to find any work in the area and it made me realize that most of the hobos that stay in one location are generally the ones who are incapable of work and are forced to beg to survive. To support this conclusion I tried talking with the bum near underground.

The next hobo I was able to talk to, Craig, was much easier to communicate with. He told me this week alone he put in over 75 job applications just trying to take on work anywhere. Talking with Craig showed me how intelligent he was, we had a long conversation about poetry and that's what consumes much of his time. Craig has been homeless for a couple of months, but he seemed to have good spirits about finding a job and getting off the streets. He generally sleeps in the parks, unless it is too cold, then he seeks a safer place at a homeless shelter. He told me that most of the homeless interact during the day all throughout the city, but at night they usually go their separate ways.

Prison Performing Arts Program

What makes this fieldsite a good one in studying prison culture?

• The Prisoner's Performing Arts Program gives many prisoners the chance to act in the play Hamlet, which many prisoners are able to relate to.

What observations does the author make in talking about the subculture?

• Acting and being in touch with your emotions is not a typical opportunity prisoners get to experience.
  
• The prisoners have developed a social hierarchy and the play allows them all to interact without those boundaries.
• The actors relate their roles with previous life experiences.

What are the norms and values of this subculture?

• They all take the play very seriously, most of the prisoners can be seen reading their scripts all the time.
• Fellow prisoners respect the emotions displayed by the actors.

What interview techniques does the author use to help understand their subculture?

• He doesn't treat the prisoners as though they are bad people, he is very open minded and gets to know each prisoner very well, hoping that they will open up to him.
• He asks them about how they interpret their roles, asking how their characters relate to themselves.
• He looked up their case files, but only after getting to know them personally for over a month.
  

The Homeless Subculture

Sources:
Reilly, Bridget. "The Homeless "Subculture."" Online Posting. 18 May 2001. Homeless People's Network Discussion List. 13 March 2008 http://hpn.asu.edu/archives/2001-May/003838.html

Smith, Hillary. "Searching for kinship - The creation of street families among homeless youth." American Behavioral Scientist. Feb. 2008. 13 March 2008. http://ezproxy.gsu.edu:2413/full_record.do?product=WOS&search_mode=GeneralSearch&qid=5&SID=2DGkI1LFoOIh4oe1kjk&page=1&doc=1>

Giamo, Benedict. "Making Dust: The Symbolic Landscape of Homelessness." Journal of Social Distress and the Homeless. January 1992. 13 March 2008. http://ezproxy.gsu.edu:3081/content/h473173170552860/?p=70dcbbd85b0c4484a368507e9b210287&pi=2

Anderson, N. (1923). The hobo:The sociology of the homeless man. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.

Tyler, Kimberly. "Self-mutilation and homeless youth: The role of family abuse, street experiences, and mental disorders." Journal of Research on Adolescents. 2003. 13 March 2008. http://ezproxy.gsu.edu:2048/login?url=http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=psyh&AN=2003-09826-003&loginpage=Login.asp&site=ehost-live&scope=site

Reflection:
The article "Making Dust: The Symbolic Landscape of Homelessness" presented many interesting concepts about the life of the modern hobo. The author argues that the homeless man has changed from a renegade man exploring the new frontier and working odd jobs to the modern "bum" who makes his living off of bumming change. This is indicative of how our economy has changed over the years. In order to get a job you need a place of residence and a phone number which prevents the homeless from finding honest work. I could research the number of people that have risen from homeless backgrounds over the years to get a better idea of how much this affects them.

Hey Little Girl Is Your Daddy Home?

The quote "Hey Little Girl Is Your Daddy Home?" comes from the Bruce Springsteen song "I'm On Fire" off the album Born In the USA. Springsteen was born on February 23, 1949 in New Jersey. He grew up in a middle class family and much of his music reflects day to day problems that we all can associate with (Sing 365.) The album Born In the USA, like many of his albums, is based on a central concept. Springsteen wanted to focus intently on the lyrics and wrote them down before he wrote the music to accompany it (Branscomb 2-3.) The quote "Hey Little Girl Is Your Daddy Home?" could mean several things. From the context of the song it appears that Springsteen desires a girl that is already taken, the "Daddy" could be a reference of her husband. There are hints of his sexual desire for this girl when he says, "Tell me now baby is he good to you/
Can he do to you the things that I do" (I'm On Fire 4-6) and At night I wake up with the sheets / soaking wet and / a freight train running /through the middle of my head - only you can cool my desire" (I'm On Fire 13-17.) A running freight train running through his head symbolizes his urge to have sex with this girl. This is further backed up with the following line "Only you can cool my desire."
Gareth Palmer believes that this album is about masculinity. "I'm On Fire" resembles women as only being objects of sex, "Sex Pots," by talking only about his desire for this girl rather than her human traits. As the album progresses Palmer argues that Springsteen matures and begins to respect and talk about women in a deeper way (Palmer 105.)

Research

The song I analyzed was "A Better Tommorow" by Wu-Tang Clan. I begun my research by looking up the individual members RZA GZA Method Man Inspectah Deck Raekwon GhostFace Killah U-God and Masta Killa. Each member has done several solo albums so it was easy to find bibliographical information on them simply by googling. I wanted to see if I could find any input that the members had on their music so I searched for interviews on google. There were a number of interviews but none were relevant to the song I chose. To get some scholarly articles I tried out the GSU library's search engine and not a single result turned up. I returned to my trusty search engine, google, and was able to find the full lyrics for the song as well as a few sites which gave their interpretations of the song.

Street Conscious

Rap Music and Street Conscious is a book written by Cherly L. Keyes in 2004. Dr. Keyes received her doctorate in ethnomusicology at the University of Indiana. Her book shows how rap/hip hop music originated in early African culture. She uses slave narratives and other documents to show the transition of a tribal African tradition of rhythmic story telling into a modified rhyming version. As African Americans struggled with the civil rights movement, they began to incorporate political struggles into this underground style of music and original hip hop was born. This style became more and more popular and has made an impact on not just America but all of the world. Dr. Keyes describes how different cultures have taken on rap music and adapted it to reflect their own struggles. Dr. Keyes has proven herself as a reliable candidate through her extensive research of African culture. Apart from her research, she is also a noted composer/musician. Her musical talent makes her an excellent critic on the way cultures have shaped rap.
This book seems pretty interesting because of its different view of rap with it originating centuries ago in Africa and slowly transforming into a global musical movement.