Gold Mine Gutted

In the Bright Eyes song "Gold Mine Gutted," they use a variety of very descriptive and figurative language. In "The Everyday Writer," 39d its offered that, "Figurative language, or figures of speech, paints pictures in readers minds, allowing readers to "see" a point readily and clearly. Far from being a frill, such language is crucial to understanding."Lines like "hooded sweatshirt walk," is a figure of speech that implies a condition and gives insight into what the walk was like and what was happening (as one reads the following lines.) Figurative language does help the reader or listener paint an image of whats going on and really helps create meaning.

It was Don Delillo, whiskey, me
And a blinking midnight clock
Speakers on a tv stand
Just a turntable to watch
And the smoke came out our mouths
On all those hooded sweatshirt walks
We were a stroke of luck
We were a goldmine and they gutted us

And from the sidelines
You see me run
Until I'm out of breath
Living the good life
I left for dead
The sorrowful midwest
Well, I did my best
To keep my head

It was grass stained jeans and incompletes
And a girl from class to touch
But you think about yourself too much
And you ruin who you love
Well, all these claims at consciousness
My stray dog freedom
Let's have a nice clean cut
Like a bag we buy and divvy up

And from the sidelines
I see you run
Until you're out of breath.
And all those white lines that sped us up
We hurry to our death
Well, I lagged behind
So you got ahead

Metaphor In Songs

Diana Hacker talks about metaphors in her book, A Writers Reference. She says in a metaphor the like or as is omitted and implied . . . and a mixed metaphor is when two or more images are paired that don't necessarily make sense. Songwriters use this method of phrasing lyrics all the time to create images and tell a story. In the case of the song, "Big Black Car," by Gregory Alan Isakov, he writes images which essentially juxtaposition of himself to a beautiful girl.We get phrases like, "you were a dancer, I was a rag," taking a traditionally beautiful image and comparing it with something that we consider dirty. He uses traditional metaphor as well saying things like, "hope was a letter."

you were a phonograph, i was a kid
i sat with an ear close, just listening
i was there when the rain tapped her way down you face
you were a miracle…i was just holdin your space
well time has a way of throwing it all in your face
the past, she is haunted, the future is laced
heartbreak, ya know, drives a big black car
swear i was in the back seat, just minding my own
and through the glass, the corn crows come like rain
they won’t stay, they won’t stay
for too long now
this could be all that we know..
of love and all.
well you were a dancer, i was a rag
the song in my head, well was all that i had
hope was a letter i never could send
love was a country we couldn’t defend.
and through the carnival we watch them go round and round
all we knew of home was just a sunset and some clowns
well you were a magazine, i was a plane Jane
just walking the sidewalks all covered in rain
love to just get into one of your stories
just me and all of my plane Jane glory

Reversing the Structure

Diana Hacker, in A Writers Reference, talks about the idea of simplified structure within an authors writing: The rule states, RuleW2-d if the structure of a sentence is needlessly indirect, try simplifying it, look for opportunities to structure the verb. Today in class I was thinking about the idea of comparing sentences and I thought about how musicians take what could be complex sentences and make them concise ultimately conveying a stronger meaning and/or connection with their audience. So, for this blog instead of making the structure of phrases in songs more simplified I thought I would work the other way to show what the sentences might have looked like with a more literal meaning and why the simplified meaning makes more sense. The song I choose to do is by Elliot Smith and its called Waltz #2, I am only going to do the first stanza of the song, but I am sure you'll get the idea.

The Original

first the mic then a half cigarette
singing Cathy's clown
that's the man she's married to now
that's the girl that he takes around town
she appears composed, so she is, I suppose
who can really tell
she shows no emotion at all
stares into space like a dead china doll

My Complicated Rewrite

I step up to the microphone and then I sing a song, followed by the lighting of my nicotine-induced need for an artificial stick of paper made of chemicals and tobacco.

At the microphone on the stage I sing a song originally written by The Everly Brothers.

Later on I see a past lover with the man she is wed to now. My ex-lover is on his arm appearing composed, and I guess she is, but no one can tell; she appears depressed, scatterbrained.

 There is nothing wrong with either writings, but if you listen to the song, the small and short phrases Elliot Smith uses let the listener draw their own conclusions and assumptions, ultimately making the words more powerful.

                                                                                   The Rest of the Lyrics

I'm never gonna know you now
but I'm gonna love you anyhow

now she's done and they're calling someone
such a familiar name
I'm so glad that my memories remote
'cause I'm doing just fine hour to hour, note to note
here it is the revenge to the tune
you're no good
you're no good, you're no good, you're no good
can't you tell that it's well understood

I'm never gonna know you now
but I'm gonna love you anyhow

I'm here today and expected to stay on and on and on
I'm tired, I'm tired

looking out on the substitute scene
still going strong
XO, mom, it's ok, it's alright, nothing's wrong
tell Mr. Man with impossible plansto just leave me alone
in the place where I make no mistakes
in the place where I have what it takes

I'm never gonna know you now
but I'm gonna love you anyhow
I'm never gonna know you now
but I'm gonna love you anyhow
I'm never gonna know you now
but I'm gonna love you anyhow

 

Song To Woody

In keeping with the beautiful language motif, I was listening to the song "Song to Woody" by Bob Dylan. As I was listening I was reading the lyrics, I got to thinking about how Dylan used names in his song like Woody Guthrie, Cisco, Sonny and Leadbelly. Dylan is directly speaking to these guys and using their names in the song. I think that the song and its lyrics are just beautiful, but then I thought about what a statement of respect Dylan was probably offering to these men by including, not just alluding to their names. All the names are of musicians that probably meant something to Dylan and it's just so cool to see him using them in his song. The grammar rule that applies here is of course using proper nouns and capitalizing to show use. On English-club.com the rules is stated: We always use a Capital Letter for the first letter of a proper noun (name). This includes names of people, places, companies, days of the week and months. It's a pretty simple rule, but to me, using these names in the song signifies importance I think. We grow up hearing and using this rule, but something really struck me while I was reading the lyrics. The names are important to Dylan, and the capitalization almost alludes to them being important. Its an interesting point of respect for a song writer to do so.


I'm out here a thousand miles from my home
Walking a road other men have gone down
I'm seeing a new world of people and things
Hear paupers and peasants and princes and kings.

Hey hey Woody Guthrie I wrote you a song
About a funny old world that's coming along
Seems sick and it's hungry, it's tired and it's torn
It looks like it's dying and it's hardly been born.

Hey Woody Guthrie but I know that you know
All the things that I'm saying and a many times more
I'm singing you the song but I can't you sing enough
'Cause there's not many men that've done the things that you've done.

Here's to Cisco and Sonny and Leadbelly too
And to all the good people that traveled with you
Here's to the hearts and the hands of the men
That come with the dust and are gone with the wind.

I'm leaving tomorrow but I could leave today
Somewhere down the road someday
The very last thing that I'd want to do
Is to say I've been hitting some hard travelling too.

Anonanimal

So, in actually applying grammar usage rules to the beautiful language motif through music and everyday life that I have been on, I was listening to the song called, “Anonanimal” by Andrew Bird. I knew that the lyrics really were beautiful but I also realized that there was a sentence that had alliteration to it. Alliteration defined by Grammar-monster.com is defined as - Alliteration is the repetition of the same initial letter in successive words; it is done for effect. In the case of this song it not only improves a flow and rhythm, but it makes me really think about how Andrew bird can play with language and create such meaning with such random words. The constant repetition of the ‘A’ in this line, which appears throughout the whole song is a constant rhythm of thought. I don’t know exactly what I think about the line, but I know that it’s beautiful and makes sense within the context of the song.

 “Anomalous appendages Anon-animal Anon-animal” 

 I see a sea anemone
The enemy
See a sea anemone
And that'll be the end of me.

While the vicious fish was caught unawares in the tenderest of tendrils
Underneath her tender gills

I will become this animal
Perfectly adapted to the music halls
I will become this animal
Anomalous appendages
A non-animal

Hold on just a second
Don't tell me this one you know
I know this one I know this song
I know this one I love this song
Hold on just a second
Don't tell me this one you know
i know this one I know this song
I know this one I love this song
I know this one

Underneath the stalactites
The troglobites lost their sight
Uh oh

The seemingly innocuous plecostomus
though posthumus
They talk to us
They talk too much

See a sea anemone
The enemy
See a sea anemone
That'll be the end of me
Vicious fish was caught unawares
In the tend'rest tendrils
Underneath her tender gills and

I will become this animal
Perfectly adapted to a music hall
I will become this animal

Anomalous appendages
A non-animal

Pro. Project Proposal

I am not exactly sure how I want to tackle this project, but I do want to start with the question: Why do we teachers teach grammar and is it important to continue doing so? Through my years here at Fredonia, getting ready to be a professional teacher, it has really occurred to me that they way I learned grammar through my younger schooling, and the way grammar is sometimes taught today in schools, may not be the best way of approaching teaching grammar or grammar usage. In fact, it might not be important at all to stress grammar like some educators do. I have begun to believe that grammar usage isn’t what’s important while looking at a students writing but rather that what the student has to say is. So, as I begin my professional career I would like to gather opinions for and against this teaching grammar debate, and then perhaps suggest a new and innovative way to teach grammar in my own classroom some day by creating a lesson plan. I am going to start by interviewing several professors and teachers to begin this conversation and then I plan on consulting some more academic texts sources, which would offer more insight. After I get the information I need, I plan on writing a short mini lesson, which I would be able to use in my own classroom someday.

Upward Over The Mountian

Because I have been on an absolute emotional rollercoaster lately I have been listening to some kind of depressing music ha, but with that in mind, I came across a song I used to listen to all the time called “upwards over the mountain,” by Iron and Wine. In keeping with the motif of beautiful language in this blog, the lyrics come to mind from the song, “ So may the sunrise bring hope where it once was forgotten Sons are like birds, flying upward over the mountain,” “Mother don't worry, I killed the last snake that lived in the creek bed Mother don't worry, I've got some money I saved for the weekend Mother remember being so stern with that girl who was with me? Mother remember the blink of an eye when I breathed through your body? The imagery in these lyrics is just beautiful, but then I think about what they really mean to me. As I dig through my bank of memories all I can think about is this song playing in the car as my mother drove me to college for the first time. I can see her now, crying listening to this song in the car. We were leaving Buffalo and it was a perfect sunset and I was leaving home to a place I’d never been starting basically a new life. The lyrics hit me. They are all about a boy trying to prove that he’ll be ok to his mom. Words and beautiful language speaks to us. We store sentences in our internal dictionaries and are reminded of the phrases, or lyrics in this case, as a sentiment of the moment. Forever I’ll be connected to this song and see my moms face each time I hear the song and remember the words.