Journal #43: Blue Train anlysis

Ahhh John Coltrane. What a man. A champion among the Jazz greats even though I do prefer Miles Davis to him, but all the same you gotta respect the greats. The point of this blog is to analyze the Coltrane song Blue Train. Running in at 10 minutes it is just a brilliant piece of jazz. It starts out relatively clam and it just bursts into this hectic but somehow orderly and brilliant piece of chaos with order. You can just feel like you are in a dark but somehow just perfectly lit club with the circular tables and a main stage with Mr. Coltrane just going at it during this piece. You can see each individual piece of sweat dripping down his face and hitting the stage. His backup band is getting into as well the drummer jamming out, and the cello player standing up and just getting down with that beat. The smell of the place is not the most pleasant because it's such a small and somewhat cramped space but still it's just brilliant and the sound of that music is just overwhelming to any of the cons or negatives that are going down. You can just feel the passion of the musicians while they are playing this epic and you can feel ever ounce of their beings that they put into the music. You can just feel the heat of the place rising up as the musicians keep playing and you yourself can just feel as if you are up on the stage playing your heart out right there with these jazz legends and greats. These are just a few of the senses that I get when I'm listening to Blue Train. I really do love Jazz because there are so many different types of it that you can either just relax and chill out to our just listen to to feel the passion of the musicians as they just jam their hearts out on this stage full of strangers. So all in all Jazz is a really passionate and emotional type of music.

Realism and Modernism Simliarities

There are numerous instances in which realism and modernism are similar. Some of the more pressing similarities are the instances in which they use redemption, the realistic portrayals of their characters and the time period as well as their use of symbolism to get across their points. Through their use of thematic elements in the form of symbolism and their portrayal of characters the similarities between modernism and realism are revealed. In books like Grapes of Wrath we see the light at the end of the tunnel and are shown the underlying theme of redemption in the novel which is similar to the theme of several Realism novels, but it is presented in several Modernism writings such as the works of John Steinbeck where the theme is even more present than in most novels. This theme of redemption is prominent in most modernism writings save for some such as All Quiet on the Western Front where the theme was much more depressing and does not end with any sort of fantasy of a happy ending or a fairy tale ending. These themes were so prominent in most modernism writings that the common thematic elements of the two are easy to decipher and tell apart. The two writing styles shared much in common especially in the form of their characters. With the characters we are given people like Rose of Sharon who show us the qualities of redemption and what not in humanity while giving us hope in play with the common thematic elements that are played in to effecct with both of the types of novels. These common thematic elements are easy to reveal when put page to page with both styles of writing. Along with characters and thematic elements symbolism is rampant in both styles of writing which is made evident in the thematic elements of the Hemingway novel The Old Man and the Sea. The Sea and the fish and just about everything in that novel have a symbolic relationship with something or another like with the sea being so representative of God and the whole being of human existentialism and all of that jazz and what not. Yeah symbolism is really rich is boh types of novels but more so in the writings of men like Hemingway and Steinbeck in their powerful writings of the American front and everything. These kinds of symbolic relationships in the novels reveal to us the nature of the two writings which goes hand in hand with the many common thematic elements that are used in both types of writings such as in Steinbecks primarily. It is evident through all the others use of characters that they attempt to portray them in a manner that will get the reader to be able to sympathize with them while they are attempting to get across their message of redemption to the reader and that is the primary message and theme in the writings of both Realism and Modernism. These are the themes of the two writings.

Job Shadowing

All in all my job shadowing experience was pretty awesome. I had to go to the Illinois State Police Central HQ and followed a trooper around for the day and she explained to us some of the interworkings of police work and how you became a police officer and what sort of opportunities you had once you graduated from the police academy. All of that was pretty interesting but sadly we didn't get to go much into forensics which was what I assumed we would be talking about, but it turned out for the best really and I had a fantastic time while there. It did clear up what was required to became a state police forensics investigator and I know that I won't be going into that field, I will just be a civilian forensic analyst. Getting through the police academy sounds like a brutal 6 months and I don't think I would enjoy having to go through that, so I don't think I'll be joining the state police anytime soon, however I am still interested in going into forensics. Overall I was very impressed by what I saw on my experience especially when we got to go into the Illinois State police evidence vault and saw about half a billion dollars worth of drugs. It was insane in there. But, I digress despite not seeing any forensics work I still really enjoyed my time shadowing the state trooper and learned a lot of policework.