Journal Prompt 6

Part Two

Here is some clips from SNL where there is a lot of intertextuality.

http://www.hulu.com/watch/73362/saturday-night-live-jeopardy

http://www.hulu.com/watch/12768/saturday-night-live-celebrity-jeopardy---cruise-sandler-and-connery

http://www.hulu.com/watch/60457/saturday-night-live-celebrity-jeopardy-cosby-osbourne-connery

http://www.hulu.com/watch/12203/saturday-night-live-celebrity-jeopardy---stewart-reynolds-and-connery

The reason that it has intertextuality is because Jeopardy is a show itself and SNL remade the show with their actors playing the part of the game show people. Then instead of the random people playing the game they instead play the parts of celebrities that are playing Jeopardy. Makes reference to people like Bill Cosby, Tom Cruise, Sean Connery, and Adam Sandler, which it relies on to make it funny since it makes fun of them and what they have said in the past. With most importantly Alex Trebek being recreated as the the host of the show by Will Farrell. So by recreating a whole new setting of the Jeopardy it creates this new discourse community that people can laugh about together while still poking fun at the celebrities it is making fun of.

Journal Prompt 6

Part One

Some discourse communities that I belong to are:

• Facebook
• UCF Student
• Alum from Cypress Bay High
• UCF Student section for football and basketball
• Accounting major
• iPhone user
• Playstation 3 user
• MacBook Pro user
• Lightning Lunatic
• Fantasy Football
• Dorm
• Kelapire-Barksdale Family
• 49ers fan
• Male

Core II Reflection

I actually liked this essay a lot even though I had some problems with it. I kind of got stuck with a few things like about what to write about and to stay on topic. It seemed so easy to get off topic and write about something that has nothing to do with the topic or what I was trying to prove, but I thought I did a good job. But, I liked having to analyze something and be able to say my opinion on it, without being wrong or write. Again, I felt like I could put myself in the essay very easily and tell my reader's how I felt about the magazine through my eyes. So, it was successful.

Journal Prompt 5

Part Three (Article)

The article that I chose was the main one about Ryan Reynolds, which is written from the writer's perspective and include some quotes from Ryan himself. The sentence structure is very simple, not of high level. The word choice is interesting because it is simple in some instances and intense in others. One of the best examples of this is in the writing I found was in the introduction to the article, "Trepidation." What in the world does this word mean? According to Dictionary.com, the word means tremulous fear, alarm, or agitation; perturbation. If I didn't look it up, I would have no clue what it means and I'm guessing a lot of other people don't know what it means either since I have never heard it before. Then the arrangement is in chronological order of his life from when he grew up to where he is now, since it first talks about his parents and where he was born. To when he first began to act and when his first gigs were.

Compared to the letter from the editor is a little out of nowhere. The whole letter is about quotes from other people and what not. But, it is different because there is a different style of writing. The letter uses curse words and other strong words that would never be found in the article that I read because it wouldn't be inappropriate. The advertisements I consider to be more edgy like the letter from the editor so they match more than the article, which is more informational and proper.

My initial observation is that the article is very simple and easy to read. No big deal. The letter from the editor was different and didn't understand where they were coming from because I didn't read any other articles before then. Maybe if they would have explained the reason to where they were writing it would have been better, but they didn't. The writers keep it easy on the audience since they don't use big words and don't have much writing, it's mostly pictures and advertisements. Then they try to connect to the audience of men by including pictures of women or well dressed men that some guys aspire to look like when they have the money to spend on clothes. But keeps it easy, so people don't give up on reading after one sentence. The purpose of the article is to give a background about Ryan Reynolds and what he wants to do in the future with his acting career. The author wants the audience to feel like they can accomplish their dreams like how Ryan Reynolds did, since he did it and everything is possible.

Based on the article it tells us that the author wants to encourage its reader that they can accomplish whatever they put their mind to and to not give up their dreams if it hasn't come easy. Because you have to work for what you want. GQ wants guys to get their dreams so they can buy all of the stuff that they advertise, so that it makes us feel better about ourselves and to gain confidence.

Journal Prompt 5

Part Three

The table of contents of GQ is broken down into four different segments. Black is for the different departments, red for intelligence, blue for fashion, and green for features. What is weird about the table of contents is that the features part is on a different page with a picture of Ryan Reynolds on it. Then, the others are on the other page together with some advertisements that have been shrunk to fit on the page, which also include the page that you can find the whole page that it is on. The one part of the table of contents that I think is funny is the little picture of the cover in the lower right hand part of the page that tells the prices of each article of clothing that Ryan Reynolds is wearing.

There isn't much text involved, mostly just the title of the article in bold then a very brief description of what the article is about and where you can find it. To me, the fonts are very small and if someone were to have a problem with their eyes, they would find it difficult to read and probably need glasses. So, when someone wants to read about new ways to dress, 25 sexiest women in rock, or the punch list, they might need to get their reading glasses before opening the magazine. Based on the table of contents the magazine wants me to look at the different articles that they wrote, but mostly they want me to just look at the advertisements and buy the products. This is because the table of contents is 65 pages into the magazine, with all advertisements before. Money, money, money! The advertisements make up a big portion of the magazine because that's how the magazine stays in business even if people don't buy the magazine, and that's why the table of contents is that far from the cover. It's far from a regular book or magazine that has their table of contents on the first page because of the money factor.

Journal Prompt 5

Ryan Reynolds brings the swagger. GQ magazine usually features a women that all the guys want or a very sophisticated, attractive male that all the women want. This months edition has Ryan Reynolds on the cover wearing a light blue button down shirt with a wool tie, hair slick back, and a very expensive gold watch. All the captions are black since the background is white and the captions on the side are trying to portray the manliest of men that dress well and have an edgy side to them too. With captions like "Sex & Thugs & Rock & Roll, Your complete fall guide to men's style, coolest gangster movies of all time, and the best new show since The Sopranos." It just illustrates that they are trying to be sophisticated and edgy at the same time, to get all the girls. Finally, the caption that sticks out the most is, "Where can a guy get a decent cocktail? The 25 best bars in America," which again shows a classy, sophisticated male.

The slogan alone speaks for the magazine being look sharp, live smart. This magazine is trying to get the attention of men to try and make them manly, but at the same time sophisticated and intelligent. The purpose is to get men's attention so that they will read this magazine so they can get all the girls they want. Anyone who would pick this magazine up would want high aspirations to be very wealthy to be able to buy all the clothing, cologne, jewelry, and accessories that they advertise in this magazine.

Overall, advertisements eat up the pages in magazine by taking up over 155 pages out of the 245 total pages. This is because advertisements are the way of up-keeping the magazine and making the company money. Predominating the magazine was clothing and cologne advertisements of high end companies like that of Gucci, Prada, Ralph Lauren, Marc Jacobs, and Dolce & Gabbana. Because they are high end companies this means that they want to their readers to be very high scaled people who care about the products they buy and buy quality products.

The advertisement that popped out the most was the one by Guess, which took up two pages. The picture is of a male and a female in black and white. The male on the right is sitting in a chair reading a newspaper and getting his hair cut. His hair doesn't even look like he needs it to be cut since it looks perfect all around, with perfectly cut side burns and even length. The man looks very edgy because of his denim jacket, slicked hair, and multiple bracelets. Then, the girl on the left looks like a singer. She is in front of a microphone with a tambourine in her left hand. So, she definitely has a musical talent. She has a striped shirt with a poke a dot bow in her hair. Both are in black and white because I believe the advertisement is trying to be old school, so that it looks classy. This advertisement is trying to say that their clothes, Guess Brand, is classy and elegant, and trying to please a young crowd since the two models are young adults.

Journal Prompt 4

Part Two

After walking around the magazine isle, I found that one magazine that fit my future was GQ. I felt that this magazine fit me most because I want to be fancy and in future be a business man who wears suits around, so I always look nice. Also all the guys in it looked very sophisticated, which is another look I want to fulfill. Most of the advertisements are for high end clothes or other very expensive products that cost way more money than I have ever had. Those are my future aspirations. All of the pictures in the magazine are very elegant and the models who are posing in this magazine look like they are worth a million bucks.

Another magazine I found to be intriguing was Men's Health. Not going to lie but what got my attention was when Drew Brees was on the cover. I wouldn't have looked at it with anyone else since I probably wouldn't have noticed it. But after flipping through the pages I noticed the ways to be health and which ones they recommended to people. All the advertisements were of healthy food or other healthy things for the body. Then the pictures were of fit guys or girls, which is what I want to look like when I get older. I don't wanna be that father that's overweight with a beer gut.

Then the Automobile magazine was appealing to me because I love cars. I have always been into cars since I was little and even to this day I love looking at cars. Plus I want to drive one of those cars when I get older because I am going to have a lot of money and drive an expensive car. All the advertisements were about car parts that they think that would improve your car or to make it nicer, and all the pictures were of really nice cars that I would love to have.

Finally the last magazine that caught my attention was Esquire. The dude on the front cover looked like a badass. He had a lit cigarette in his hand with a very sophisticated look. Then the advertisements were basically the same as GQ, I swear that I saw the same clothing advertisements and cologne advertisements. If I didn't see the cover I couldn't tell which one is which, so I don't know if that's a good thing or a bad thing. But, when I saw this magazine it reminded me of the same aspirations as GQ.

Journal Prompt 4

Part One

In 10-15 years from now I see myself living in California on the beach. I would say San Diego where there can be a nice breeze coming from the west, right through my house during the day, so I won't have to use my air conditioning. I hope to wear more of a business attire since I want to be an accountant, and I am going to be driving either a Dodge Ram 1500 or some type of sporty looking car. Overall I want to be able to own my house to where I don't have to pay for a mortgage and own some other valuable things without going over the top and being too flashy. By then I will probably have kids and be married so my values will be a lot different since I will be a parent, and with my free time I would be spending a lot more time with my family and trying to spend as much time with my kids as possible. The family life will be really important to me if I have kids by then and be married.

On my coffee table I will want to have magazines like Highlight, ESPN, and Sports Illustrated for Kids. The Highlight magazine and Sports Illustrated for my kids hoping they are boys and the ESPN will be for me when football season comes around for my fantasy football insight. Then, my wife can have any magazine she reads since I know I won't be reading the garbage. Okay maybe I'll have one cooking magazine since I want to cook for my kids instead of going out to restaurants every night. The advertisements that I will see will be ones for Bud Light and all the other beer companies, razor blades, and any other types of useful stuff for men. I, also, think there will be advertisements about cars but by then they will be so futuristic we might even have hover cars. The advice I expect to get from the magazines is who I should pick for my fantasy football draft, how to make certain plates of food, how I can spend time with my kids, showing my kids how to play hide and seek, and how to color. The magazine should speak to me like I am the only one who is reading it and that I have something that other people don't, making me feel special. The magazines will cover important new events in sports as well as new recipes that I can use to cook for my family.