Image via WikipediaMy reading for this week is a profile of Johnny Depp by Sean Smith (originally in Newsweek, in 2006), and I think it's helping me crystalize what I want to do with my profile of Janine. The picture that Smith has with the essay is of Depp as Captain Jack Sparrow, but the image I have in my head of him is from a Disney Channel interview last year. He was being interviewed by a kid about playing the Mad Hatter, but he seemed kind of uncomfortable talking about it. It made me think of a guy I know (who shall remain nameless) who is terminally shy. Johnny Depp looked like he was trying to blend into the background. His voice was very quiet, and it was almost like he was hiding behind his glasses. Rather than being an "unlikely superstar," which is part of Smith's title, it was more like he is an unknowable superstar. The weird thing is that Smith makes him seem knowable, even though seeing him being himself, you don't recognize the guy Smith is talking about. Does that make sense?
Image via WikipediaI interviewed Janine Brady (not her real name!) yesterday, and I discovered once again that other people's hobbies always seem weird to me. Janine is 23, works as a receptionist in a vet's office, and on the weekends, she volunteers with a bunch of different organizations that promote native plants. She does other things, too, but what struck me about her was that she was very excited that our school is having a campus tree inventory in a couple of weeks. You have to go to a 3-hour class the Friday afternoon beforehand, because this apparently is a lot more than just counting the trees. They're going to do something with GPS (since the trees don't move, what's the point of this?) and some other odd (to me, at least) things.
Janine is not sure what career she wants to pursue, but she thought she'd get her gen eds out of the way while she's trying to figure it out. I have no idea what angle I'm going to take on this for the profile assignment.
Image via WikipediaI know the semester doesn't begin until tomorrow, but I checked my Eng 101 website, and our first project is already posted. It's a reading journal, and we're supposed to do 2 entries each week, one on our choice of the essays in our textbook and another on a prompt supplied by the instructor. So, here goes with my first entry, a reaction to an essay in chapter 61 (Profiles) in The Norton Field Guide to Writing.
I read an essay by Samuel G. Freedman, titled "Camp Leads a Drumbeat for a Marching Band's Style," which is a profile of Florida A & M's Marching 100 summer camp for high school kids. But you wouldn't know that from the opening. Freedman focuses on a student named Ben Brock in the introduction before moving on to talk about the camp. However, the thing that really had an impact on me was when he referred to a former camper, Ralph Jean-Paul, as "Mr. Jean-Paul" (Freedman did the same thing with Ben Brock when he quoted him later in the profile, but the textbook typoed it as "Mr. Rock"). I liked that he didn't automatically use their first names, because I think that's treating them as though they are less worthy of respect than the adults in the essay. It also made me think of them reading the profile and seeing themselves called Mr. in the New York Times. That must have been a rush.
Oh, and yes, I do know that the picture above is NOT the Marching 100. I live in Illinois, so I used a picture of the Marching Illini. Ha!
Image via WikipediaMy reading for this week is a profile of Johnny Depp by Sean Smith (originally in Newsweek, in 2006), and I think it's helping me crystalize what I want to do with my profile of Janine. The picture that Smith has with the essay is of Depp as Captain Jack Sparrow, but the image I have in my head of him is from a Disney Channel interview last year. He was being interviewed by a kid about playing the Mad Hatter, but he seemed kind of uncomfortable talking about it. It made me think of a guy I know (who shall remain nameless) who is terminally shy. Johnny Depp looked like he was trying to blend into the background. His voice was very quiet, and it was almost like he was hiding behind his glasses. Rather than being an "unlikely superstar," which is part of Smith's title, it was more like he is an unknowable superstar. The weird thing is that Smith makes him seem knowable, even though seeing him being himself, you don't recognize the guy Smith is talking about. Does that make sense? 
