Credible Source

 As my credible source I chose this article from the Guardian:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/music/2011/may/07/tyler-the-creator-odd-future

I know this article is appropriate to use because it's from the Guardian, one of Britain's top newspapers. It was written by Paul Lester, a real journalist, not some kid who made up an interview.

This article contains such gems as-

Does he not consider the effect his music might have? "I never think of that. I just make shit I want to listen to. Not everyone's got to like it.",

And yet, for all Tyler's debased language and casual use of the word "faggot" in conversation, he and OF are not feral skatekids rampaging across the States on a diet of pills and "purple drank" cough syrup. He might announce, "I'm bad milk – drink it" on Bastard, and he might lurch around on stage in a ski mask, but actually he's a teetotal non-smoker who doesn't touch coffee.
"I'm a pretty nice dude," he says. "I have fun and people take it the wrong way. Like when I start making fun of people and fucking with them, it's just funny to me."

She argues that "offensive words don't deserve their value, their power", and that they're just words. "He [Tyler] isn't necessarily saying, 'I want to rape so-and-so.' They're just sick, twisted fantasies that he's had, based on girls that have hurt him in the past. A lot of people have sick, twisted fantasies, so why not give them something to relate to?"

I definitely intend to use a few of these in my paper, as these quotes will help me not only prove that Tyler is not a misogynist, but that he is in fact a creative force that is just making the music that comes to him- true art that is unfiltered, unprocessed.

Celebrity interaction

One of the only celebrities I actually pay attention to is Tyler, The Creator. He is one of my favorite musicians, and he is a part of the larger rap collective Odd Future. He mainly interacts with fans through the use of Twitter (@fucktyler), however Odd Future occasionally posts Polaroids pertaining to their tour to their tumblr account (golfwang.tumblr.com/). Tyler is a 20-year-old kid from California, who honestly doesn't care about an image, fame, or anything. He frequently tweets at celebrities to call them dumb, or playfully poke fun (he did this with Bieber enough to actually meet him). The popularity of Tyler has only increased with how he presents himself. He tweets what he feels and whatever he wants with no regards to the consequences to himself. This realness and accessibility to him has helped fans identify with him, and given him a more widespread fan-base than he would have had otherwise.

Sensory story from the first essay

The president of my school’s GSA was my best friend, and under her leadership they combated the “don’t say gay bill” and raised a ton of money for a local support group that helped GLBT teens. We had one of the most active and effective GSA’s in the country, and the Westboro Baptist Church had been targeting us for a while for a visit. we first got word of their plan through a flier that they sent out in a press release.  I have a screenshot of the flier here:

The whole thing was a fiasco. The primary goal the school had was to make sure no one did anything stupid. The WBC are all smart, and several have gone to law school, so anything that a student did would be held against them. In fact, how the WBC gets a ton of it’s funding is through lawsuits. My school repeatedly put out notices that this would be a peaceful counter-protest and that any students who acted out would be suspended.  Our GSA contacted the Human Rights Campaign, the main group fighting homophobic legislation, and the HRC gave us over five thousand dollars of free merchandise to sell to raise funds in the coming week before the protest. Our GSA set up a table in the lunchroom and sold shirts and bracelets every period, every day. Practically every single student in the entire school had some form of acceptance printed on their persons.

The WBC had contacted the local police department prior to their arrival, and the Clayton PD had agreed to set up a barricade on the school side, and a two hundred foot “neutral zone” in between us, and the ten by ten space that was allotted for the WBC. It was a bitterly cold day, and there was so much of a traffic backup that I walked to school that day, two hours early so I could catch the protest that was scheduled to be before school, so that students could still focus on academia afterwards (as if that would ever happen anyway). When I arrived, the amount of news vans on the street was ridiculous. Every conceivable radio and TV station from the state (and in some cases, bi-state area) had shown up to cover the protest and counter-protest. My friend and president of the GSA had set up a very large donation collection area, where people would donate to fund local pro-LGBT organizations. To paraphrase on the press release she gave the news stations, the WBC’s hate would bite them in their own asses.

When the WBC finally arrived, there were over 700 people massed into our zone (almost 80% of the student body!). Most people came to show their support, and some people made signs. The beautiful thing was, that none of these signs were negative, all were messages of love, and of tolerance. We had hundreds of people from other schools and from around the metropolitan area come and show their support for our school, our GSA, and our message of tolerance and acceptance. By the end of the day when the WBC finally left, we had raised a great sum of money to support those being oppressed by people like the WBC. I personally think that it was a wonderful day that really brought our school together in a way that I’d never seen in my four years there.

First blog post

So I just read the assignment, and it turns out this was due Sunday night instead of tomorrow, as I originally thought. Crap. Well I'm going to do this anyway and pray for mercy:

I'm supposed to talk about any blogging experience (none), but seeing as that won't make for an interesting post whatsoever, I'll just focus on the second half and talk about what blogs I follow. Since I'm a vain little child I currently only follow a few fashion blogs. Here's some links for you to get the idea:
http://blog.justinchungphotography.com/
http://tredicielupo.tumblr.com/
http://tuckedstyle.tumblr.com/
http://dieworkwear.com/
http://thesilentist.com/
http://putthison.com/
Right now they're all stuck on Fashion Week, but normally about half of those are menswear enthusiasts, and the other half are fashion photographers that are damn good.
So basically I'm very unfamiliar with the traditional blog, in which 20-something art students whine about their life. In this case I don't think that'll really hamper me, because I'm supposed to (at least pretend to) be making well-written posts. So here's my first attempt, Scrutinize at will!