Category Archives: Posts

Blog # 2

Commuting in the subway can be a stressing experience, delays, creepy people doing crazy things, or annoy people who want to sell anything. All these things can be ignored with headphones, play your favorite music, and disconnect from everything around. This is my experience using headphones in the subway as a personal oasis from all the noises around. Some places are not designed to share music, I don’t want to hear your music and you don’t want to hear mine, so the solution to this problem is headphones. Matt Alt describe the Walkman as a “Do Not Disturb” sign telling others that I don’t want to engage with them at that moment. It seems like antisocial, but we all need a personal space in this busy city.

 In contrast to headphones, we have speakers, radios and other devices that are portable and are made to share music with others. It is common in the summer to hear music in the streets coming from everywhere. The old folks listening to salsa in their apartment’s doorsteps, the car blasting the speakers with a sound that is so loud that is indistinguishable to enjoy or bike riders playing music from their portable speaking hanging from their shoulders. All these scenarios are pleasant to the ears, because it is expected to find a street corner in NYC filled with music. It is not self-centrist as the use of headphones, it is the socialization of music. Krukowski essay is very interesting, the analysis between music and space is important to define or judge human behavior. Making music made us humans and we have the control to manipulate sounds and noises and use it for our personal and collective interests.

Lyza Cotrich: Blog#2

In the article “The Walkman, Forty Years off” by Matt Alt he discusses the walkman and then begins to talk about what modern technology came after the walkman. The walkman back in the 80’s and 90’s was used every single day and was just part of people’s daily lives as Alt said “the walkman instantly entrenched itself in daily life as a convenient personal music-delivery device” (Alt 3). That was the music player for people at that time. In “Headspace” by Damon Kruowski he talks about how we get lost within ourselves because of music we tend to not focus on what is going on around in the outside world. This is why he talks about people creating their own space. We get distracted from the devices and headsets we use when we are listening to music. Relating this to my own experience my very first music player was a sort of Mp3 player but it was a very old one my mother had that she had given to me as a kid and had a lot of old school songs downloaded on it but as time went on I started to get newer and more modern devices that play music, like an iPod, an iPod mini, then as I got older of course technology became even more advanced and I got my phone and bluetooth speakers. I also had discs and tapes that I would put in a radio to listen to music when I was younger. No matter what device it was I used it in my everyday life just like how the walkman was used in people’s daily lives. When using my devices that require headphones I do use them and when listening to the music I kind of get lost in the music at that moment so all I am really focusing on is what is going on inside my headphones. So I do get stuck in my own “space”

Blog#1

The value of music in a human being’s life is described in Ralph Ellison’s essay “Living with Music.” He goes through the features it provides, such as providing individuals with knowledge, discipline, and purpose, as well as assisting us in developing our cultural and social characters. After reading it, I realized that everyone has a visual image of themselves that they convey in a variety of ways, such as through music, which may be a piece of our character, or through the collection of habits and beliefs that describe us. It also can generate tremendous physical impacts as well as deep and powerful emotions in us. Millions of people including me can’t live without music because it helps us to relax and strengthen our health. So, the majority of us always listening to music.
The writer Oliver Sacks explores the strange connection between music and the mind in his essay explaining why music may inspire and motivate individuals to extremes of feeling. Cicoria, a person who had experienced after being struck by a powerful thunderstorm unintentionally. He had a strange experience as a result of this. He had fully healed after several months, he immediately felt compelled to perform piano music, something he had never considered before. According to numerous scientific studies, as a result of their inability to focus on other things, individuals who have been in a tragic accident tend to become more attentive in the musical area. I noticed a fascinating connection between his music and his rapidly changing personal character. As a result, I realized that Cicoria was on the lookout for something. As a result, he chose to pursue learning piano in the heat of passion. I am certain that music mostly has positive impacts on a person’s mind. Most of the paragraphs were encouraging, which made me happy to see individuals enjoying music

Blog Post #1(repost)

After reading these two papers, I find myself connecting more with Sack’s paper of how brain-science interacts with one’s artistic preferences. According to Sacks’s examples and prior knowledge, brain science is very closely related with one’s musical identity. Medical cases have shown that physical changes to the brain can alter an individual’s way of thinking. I think of it as a back-and-forth mutual relationship where our thoughts are influenced by the physical structure and stimulants from our brain, and what we think about, the neuron connections we build will change the physical structures of our brain, affecting our future thinking.

Our understanding of the brain and how it relates to our mind is actually somewhat limited. Modern science is based on the principle that in order to understand the whole, we will take it apart and see what the individual pieces do to understand how it works. It’s difficult to do that with the mind as you cannot really take it apart. We can see the sophisticated neuron networks firing signals but we can only guess what each area does. Most of our understanding is based on observations of behavior, which as we can see in Sack’s examples, probably plays a critical role. It will take more time and investigation to further our understanding of the brain and its relationship with art.

Blog post #1 – Mariah

After reading Living with Music by Ralph Ellison and A Bolt from the Blue by Oliver Sack, I determined that music can actually have a life-changing effect on you. Starting with Living in Music started with music being spoken about negatively and referred to as simply being nothing more than just noise that distracted him from his work. In the essay, later, he discusses his own experience with music about learning to play the horn and the embarrassment associated with it and swearing off using the horn. Showing Ellison’s experience with music was associated with fear/trauma, causing him to stay away from music. The real turning point is when he begins to have this battle with his upstairs neighbor to cancel out her bad singing by bringing out an old radio of his. Eventually, it becomes frequent, and he starts developing a love for music again after hearing Kathleen Ferrier causing him to buy a whole new stereo just for music. He praises the singer for her courage, that she still kept up with her music even though her singing was terrible. He even states that he begins to use music less as a weapon to cancel her out and show more appreciation as a form of art. Looking at A Bolt from the Blue, music could be used as a symbol of being reborn where Tony found himself in a near-death experience and pretty started devoting his whole life to music. You can say he discusses how he would play before work and then play right after work, and even then, with the divorce from his wife continued to play and eventually attempting to make a career out of it. In a way, I feel like Tony’s obsession with music was also a way to show appreciation for having a second chance at life, causing him to spend so much time on it.

Assignment: Blog Post #2

Matt Alt and Damon Krukowski discuss the ways technology has shaped our experiences with music, particularly in our engagements with the public and public spaces. Think about your own experiences with musical devices–the walkman, the boombox, the iPod, or some other gadget you use to make, manipulate, and listen to music–and compare these experiences to ideas discussed by Alt and Krukowski.

Introduction Post

Hello,

My name is Muhaymin Choudhury. I decided to go back to college because I realized the benefits of receiving a college degree and constantly learning by disciplining myself. At Laguardia college, the most fascinating thing I’ve done is enrolling in other writing courses. It was an enjoyable experience for me as I learned more about writing and it allowed me to be creative. My hobbies and interests are pretty simple and they include watching movies and spending time with my loved ones. I enjoy spending quality time with people and having meaningful conversations about a variety of things. I do not have a specific genre of music that I like. I like all types of music. Music calms me down and brings me clarity, so I have a good relationship with music. It is therapeutic to me. 

Blog Post 1

For many people, listening to music can be a very spiritual experience. In Ellison’s case, it took him some time for him to develop and appreciation towards music. Some people do not feel an initial connection or interest in music, but with time and more exposure to different types of music, they are able to adapt to the new changes and develop some sort of connection to it. It is almost as though their brains can become convinced to like new music.

Troy’s case goes to show that music can be extremely soothing and can be almost therapeutic for some people. After experiencing the extremely traumatic event of getting struck by lightning and nearly dying, Troy has gone through a lot of trauma and pain. It was through this experience that troy was later on able to discover his obsession with piano music. The piano music moves him in ways other things cannot. The music brings him ease and makes him feel good. These feelings that piano music brings about in Troy are feelings that many people feel when they listen to good music or their favorite type of music. It releases the feel-good hormones, and it makes people feel alive.

Blog Post #1

In Ellison’s “Living with Music”, he freely defined all the noises he was surrounded by as music, even the disruptive or meaningless sounds. For example, although he dismisses the sounds of “howling cats and barking dogs”, he still included them as a musical occurrence in his life. From this, music has a tremendous influence on his life. The shouts of the drunkard commanded his writer’s block and he discordantly felt the songs of the singer rattle his psyche. His later passion for music was life changing and consuming. Music was a formative part of his identity and affected the way he experienced the world.

In Sack’s “A Bolt from the Blue”, the discussion was about sudden musicophilia, which generally occurred following involuntary changes to the brain. I found it fascinating that all of the case studies were people who had little to no interest in music prior to the event, but eagerly engaged and created music after. The shifts in their identity makes me wonder what the past them would have thought of the change: would they be appreciative, or dislike who they have become? Although they may not have considered all sound to be music like Ellison, music was also a part of their identity. In the case presented by Rohrer, Smith, and Warren, the woman’s relationship with music before the sudden musicophilia was of avoidance, such as not listening to music or closing the door to block out music. In conclusion, music can effect one’s self-identity regardless of personal appreciation or aversion.

Blog Post 1 – Diana Ramlal

After reading “Living with music” by “Ralph Ellison” and “A Bolt from the Blue,” by “Dr. Tony Cicoria”, it shows how powerful and inspirational music can be towards one’s life. In “living with Music” Ellison’s experience as a child and his living conditions an having to deal with so many distractions when it comes to music left a bad taste throughout his young childhood. For him music was a distraction and not a good distraction, instead of music bringing joy and love to his life it brought on misery. Music was just noise to him, noise that him as a writer got distracted and wish for silence. Over time his disgust for music change when a neighbor from a floor above sang and sang with her notes off, in his way to get back at her he decided to get a speaker and play his music to tune her off. It is only when he moved then he realized how much he missed her off note singing and wished to hear it again. He realized how music could relax him and help distract him when he was frustrated when he couldn’t write. At first it was just noise to him, noise, and a big distraction, but overtime he came to realize how much music meant to him and the joy it brought to his life and writing.

In “A Bolt from the Blue,” by “Dr. Tony Cicoria” shows how people with no great love for music suddenly became music lovers. After Dr Tony got stuck by lighting and had a near death experience his love for music was extraordinary. He went from not remembering certain things right after his lightening encounter to becoming if not obsessed with plaining the piano and any music relating to the piano. His first encounter with music he said was in a dream, when he dreamt, he was onstage dressed in a tux and was playing to something he has written, even though he never wrote music in his life until then. Tony decided to go to a Cardiologist and a neurologist but after both doctors tested him all his test came back normal. The only diagnosis they could give was that Dr, Cicoria had a near death experience and an out of body experience, “there is some evidence that both the visuospatial and vestibular aspects of out-of-body experiences are related to disturbed function in the cerebral cortex, especially at the junctional region between the temporal and parietal lobes”.