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”.

Blog post 1

In the reading of “Living with Music”, Ralph speaks of the importance music has in someone’s life. His first experience with music recalls the deafening noises he made with the brass horn and he gave up on playing it at a young age. It was later in life where the music came into his life when an up room neighbor would continuously sing and have her notes off. To get back at her annoyance, he would have a speaker and blast music to drown out her music. It was when he moved away to another apartment where he realized that he missed the music he heard from her. He realized that music is a remembrance of one’s past and aspirations in life. He realized that music helped get him through his frustrations of not being able to write. Before he saw it as nothing more than just chaos and nosiness.

Oliver Sack’s “A Bolt from the Blue” defines music and identity in a more neurological sense, exploring a range of psychological ailments and their connection to music. He provides severe cases of accidents/diseases in which changes in the brain lead to a sudden abnormal craving for music. The reason for the musicophilia is due to the degeneration of the front part of the brain. This is also called Frontotemporal lobar degeneration which exhibits loss of grey matter in the brain. A theory that was debunked was that degeneration makes patients sometimes develop an emergence of musical talent or passions because they lose the powers of abstraction and language. Another idea was that near-death experiences have a neurological basis of their own that profoundly alters one’s consciousness itself. The consumption of their near-death might have led to a conversion that changed their orientation of life. Just like that woman with the tumor who after the surgery went from a conservative person to a more caring person, even stated by herself that she changed her outlook on life to which she cherishes every minute.

Kevin Herrera

In reading Ralph Ellison’s “Living with Music” and Oliver Sacks’s “A Bolt from the Blue,” I have encountered several extreme examples of people defining themselves through music. In Ralph Ellison’s “Living with Music,” he talks about how, “In those day it was either live with music or die with noise, and we chose rather desperately to live.” This shows how people look at music in all different ways, some just look at it as something to listen to and some people look at is as something more, more than noise. Some people can’t live without music because it helps in several different way, it helps them express their feelings, express their emotions, it helps them relieve stress, and it could also help them bring up their mood, most of the time to create happiness in their thoughts and heart. So,depending on our perception of music, it shows how we listen to it and why we listen to it.

In Oliver Sacks’s “A Bolt from the Blue,” Dr. Tony Cicoria, after being struck by lightning, having a near death experience, and an out of body experience, literally seeing his own body when his consiousness came out of his body, he suddenly had a huge desire to listen to piano music and/or classical music in general. This is what amazed him and has also amazed me but what’s also interesting is that when he was young, he only had a few piano lessons but had no real interest. He says that, “He did not have a piano in his house. What music he did listen to tended to be rock music.” After this incident, he developed a love for piano/classical music, almost like an addiction to it. He states that he, “would get up at four in the morning and play till I went to work, and when I got home from work I was at the piano all evening.” He thinks that he had been saved for a special purpose, that he was allowed to survive because of the music. This could also most likely be due to something happening in the brain.

Blog Post 1 – Joselyne Ponce

In the readings we see different perspectives of how music (stimuli) affects two people and their psyche. In Ellison’s experience we see that he doesn’t have a positive connection with music based on events that happened in his childhood and because of his living situation. As a writer, having noisy neighbors stimulated him in a way that he did not enjoy. Over time, Ellison experiences a different connection voluntarily with his neighbor that changes how he feels about the noise and his perception of music. This is a good example of how one can manipulate and change how we feel about things that are stimulating us and rewire ourselves to enjoy them. In Ellison’s case it was music.

In contrast, Tony’s experience in Sack’s essay was not voluntary, we see how Tony gets struck by lightning and has a near death experience. This causes his brain to over stimulate certain areas and even causes him temporary damage. With this temporary damage, Tony develops an obsession with piano music. So much so that it changes how he feels about music, and it becomes a big part of his life and changes his perception of life. An interesting fact is that music releases dopamine. Dopamine has been proven to calm anxiety and ease pain. There might be a reason why Tony developed an addiction to music, could it have been his own body seeking comfort to soothe something traumatic that happened to him? I think each text proves how music can affect everyone’s psyche differently and there’s so many factors that can come into play to explain why it happens.

Blog Post #1

Both Ellison and Sacks illustrated in their essays how music directly and indirectly affect the characters of a person. Sacks presented extremes cases of people without any particular interest in music developed an intense desire to play or compose music after an accident. The question being made is how those people got that music and artistic affination? It looks like their brain was rewire and they developed new talents and most important the compulsive desire to perform music. There is not scientific explanation for their personality behaviors, we only must understand that maybe some people have “hiding” talents or desires that are release under physiological changes like being struck lighting. Like musicians that are “born’ with skills to perform any instrument, the persons in Sack’s essay were born again and acquired those skills.

In the other hand the experience of Ellison is the results of his external environment in contrast to Sacks’s essay where the people experience an internal stimulus from physiological changes. Ellison had negative experience with music because of the proximity of the music to his apartment. If his living space was a detached house in the suburbs, his musical experience would had been different. The over stimulation of music caused a minor change in his brain too, not at the same level of the people who had suffered brain injuries, but a similar affiliation to music was emerged.    

Lyza Cotrich:Blog post #1

In both readings “Living with music” by Ralph Ellison’s and “A Bolt from the Blue” by Oliver Sacks both use examples in their writing on how people define themselves through music. Starting with the story “A Bolt from the blued” by Oliver Sacks one of the main characters is Cicoria. Cicoria had almost had a near death experience and suddenly had a desire to listen to more music. On page 5 Sacks says “there was this insatiable desire to listen to piano music. This was completely out of keep-ing with anything in his past (Sacks 5). He never really had any interest in music. He had dreams about music and he just had this need to wake up and start writing what he was dreaming of. That is how he wrote his songs. As he continued to focus on music he said music has made him more spiritual. Which kind of seems like he’s come to a peaceful state with himself and his environment. So music is starting to shape him and define him as a person, show who he really is. In the story “Living with Music” by Ralph Ellison he talks about all the different types of music he encounters in his life and the music he plays. All the music that he is around shapes him as a person and you can see how interesting and important music is to him. He talks about many different types of music and singers he enjoyed hearing and talks about his life personally, an example would be him talking about the instruments he plays. Even when he just talks about his neighbor and how he did not enjoy her singing. When explaining music he goes very in depth and you can see how music plays a big role in his life and always has. As an artist you can see he defines himself as a very dedicated artist or someone who puts music as his first priority. 

Kevin Herrera

Hello everyone. My name is Kevin Herrera and I am a Journalism major at LaGuardia Community College. What brought me to LaGuardia is that it was near and they were the most helpful out of all the school that I checked out, helpful as in helping you with your classes, which ones to take, which ones not to take, actually speaking with your and understanding any situation you might be in. It is also very near where I live, a 20-30 minute train ride.

My main hobby is playing basketball, bike riding and listening to music. My interests are shoes, clothes, and music.

The kinds of music that I listen to are rap, hip-hop, rock and latin music. I would characterize my relationship to music as a helpful and needed one. Sometimes, music helps me to wake up, express emotion, or just feel a rush. For example, I listen to rock music and it just gives me the chill and sort of a rush when a certain part comes on. That’s how music helps me but I also need music, to have something to listen to, to have something to think about, and to have something to help time pass by when I’m not doing anything or going somehwere, on the train, on the bus, or in the car.

Song Suggestion: Internet Money – His & Hers Feat. Don Toliver, Gunna & Lil Uzi Vert

Assignment: Blog Post #1

In reading Ralph Ellison’s “Living with Music” and Oliver Sacks’s “A Bolt from the Blue,” you have encountered several extreme examples of people defining themselves through music. Analyze one or two of these examples and try to come up with general ideas about the relationship between music and how one defines themselves. Here are some questions to consider (These are just meant to get your thoughts moving. You don’t need to answer all or any.): How do race and music help Ellison define himself as an artist in his essay? How does Ellison describe how music affects his attitudes toward spaces–such as his apartment, his building, and New York City. According to Oliver Sacks’s examples, to what degree are musical identity formations related to brain science? What do these examples illustrate about the relationship between psychology and music? (around 250 words)

Introducing Me: Giselle

Hello, my name is Giselle J Bravo Hernandez. My major is Liberal Arts: Social Science and Humanities. I got to LaGuardia because I always dreamt of traveling the world. In selecting a major I saw that they had Travel, Tourism, and Hospitality Management and that was my 1st major. The most fascinating thing I learned was marketing strategies. I honestly don’t know fully why but it was cool learning the thinking process and methods before the item/product is sold. For example, like what kind of people would you want to attract and what packaging would best attract. I have a few hobbies and interests. I can be artsy at times. I enjoy listening to music, watching movies and performances (mostly for the choreography but also vocals). Also, recently shopping especially online shopping. I probably listen to almost all genres, However, for the pat 2 years I been more interested in K-pop. The types of music I enjoy are music that make you want to dance and set the mood. A few artists I listen to are Bad Bunny, RBD, Black Veil Brides, 5 Seconds of Summer, and etc. I would say that my relationship with music is that I probably can’t live without. There are times where a word would be spoken or mention and I started singing a song in my head. For instance, when rockstar is mentioned; the first song in my head is Rockstar by Prima. Or we some says Sol (sun in spanish), I start playing Salio El Sol by Don Omar.