interview

My first interview for my paper was from my friend Rob. I asked him a variety of questions about Elizabeth Park. He gave me some good information which I will use in my paper. I made sure I asked questions which went along well with the points I plan on making in my paper. I'm sure that I will be able to add the quotations in from the interview and make them flow well with the paper.

progress on research and paper

From the research I have been doing on my paper, I have learned more information about Elizabeth Park than I had known before. I learned about how the park was made and how the city of Trenton was first established. I found a great amount of information on the park. This information will help me with the length of my paper. I sometimes have problems with length in my papers. I will most likely not have this problem on this paper. Along with the history information, I found information on many events which take place in the park. The research part of my paper is going well.

Jiving with Java

This article talks about coffeehouses. The first thing the article starts with is about a coffeehouse located in our nation's capital. The article talks about how coffeehouses are places for people to do different things. Some people go to coffeehouses to socialize and meet new people. Others go to coffeehouses to relax and read. Others go there to use the internet and work on homework.
The only coffeehouse I have ever been to was one that my highschool set up to keep kids out of trouble. People would gather there to drink coffee and hang out and listen to music. I did not really enjoy the coffeehouse. It was pretty boring and I only went because a bunch of my friends were going there. Other than that, I have never gone to a coffeehouse. I have little interest in going to coffeehouses. Maybe that will change with time, but as for now I don't plan on going to a coffeehouse anytime soon.

painting on walls in Detroit

Here are some pictures of paintings on the walls of buildings in Detroit. The paintings are very interesting to look at. One painting shows Muhammed Ali, once heavyweight champion, with his arms spread out in victory. Paintings on walls are a good thing. I would rather see a painting on a wall instead of seeing a normal brick wall when walking by. I'm sure most people would agree with me on that.

response to homeplace

I read Matt's blog on the homeplace article. I agree with him in that Bell Hooks had much intensity in her writing which made it so interesting. He mentions that she used life experiences in her article. I like how the Hooks used her life experiences to help prove her point. The stories she told helped keep me interested in reading the article.

Homeplace

In the Homeplace article, Bell Hooks talks about when she moved into a white neighborhood at a young age. She remembers the whites lookind at her in hate as she would walk down the street. She loved reaching her home where she did not have to deal with racism and oppression. She referred to homeplace as a site represented as a woman's domain. The homeplace is somewhere where you can spend time with the family and not deal with any issues outside the home. She goes on to say that her mother worked as a caretaker in a white home. Her mother would come home after the day was over and just take care of her children. She did her work and left it there. She did not complain about working for a white family all day.

First paper

For our first paper we are supposed to write about a certain part of our city or neighborhood. I'm thinking about writing my paper on Elizabeth Park in Trenton. The park is a large part of our city and we have special events hosted there in the summer. The park is well known around my area and has much that I could be able to write about. I'm not sure who I would interview as of right now on this topic. Hopefully I will be able to find a good person to interview and find good websites to use for my idea.

Niki's Window Part 2

In the last class we had, we had a discussion on Niki's Window. We talked about how Detroit covered up old buildings and shipped out the homeless people when we hosted the Superbowl. A student in class mentioned that people clean up their homes when they are having visitors over. My thoughts on that are that Detroit should have cleaned up the city for the long term and not just covered it up for a week. When people clean up their homes for visitors, they don't just shove everything in the closet or cover up dirt on the floor with a rug. They actually clean up their homes.

Niki's Window

In this essay Herron is arguing that Detroit's past is forgotten or seen through by the people living in it. Detroit is known as one of the most humiliating cities. Herron is trying to give a reason why. The reason is that people are looking past what happened in the history of the city. Niki's restaurant restores some of the history of the past. The author explains how the restaurant does this through the sign and through parts of the restaurant that haven't been changed through history. Herron also makes the point that the history of Detroit is hard to know because it has basically been covered up.

When he uses the word "pastness" in the reading, it means that the histroy is basically not remembered but just that it is represented as older times.
When he uses the word "nostalgia", he means reflection of history.
When he uses the word "humiliation", he means that Detroit is not known as the best city or even a decent city.