The soloist final

To acknowledge a sickness, especially as severe as Nathaniel's, takes a lot of courage. What differentiates a person with courage from a who acts on that courage determines a leader. Nathaniel has acknowledge his sickness and instead of dwelling on it, he decides, after obtaining help, to become a music therapist. One can argue that a person who needs help can't help anyone else. How this may be true in most cases, I dare to say that this a special one. For someone who has made the advancements in life as Nathaniel and benefits from the "therapy" of music, his music, that would not apply. Nathaniel is one of thousands of people that have realized that there are therapeutic remedies in music.

As a result to reading this story, it has occurred to me that Lopez is not the only hero and leader in this story. Nathaniel can be acknowledged as a hero in his own right as well in the rights of others. Nathaniel did not have the means by which he could provide opportunities for himself. That was Lopez's job. This among other things is what made Lopez a leader and hero. Nathaniel's claim to heroism and leadership is due to his decisions. As the old saying repeats, "You can lead a horse to water, but you can't make you can't make it drink it". Lopez opened the doors for Nathaniel but he had to choose whether to take advantage of it. Like most people, Nathaniel needed persuasion and substantiated reasoning to ultimately decide to take advantage of the opportunities set before him. At the end of the day, when you look back at how far Nathaniel has progressed and acknowledge his ultimate goal for his redefined life, a leader and a hero vaguely describe the person Nathaniel Ayers has become.

This book has opened my vision to the power of music. As a student that has made music a part of life, I have become more appreciative of my ability and opportunities. The story of Nathaniel Ayers has added an extra passion for playing and has provided new inspiration to use music as a form of public diplomacy.

Comment as you desire

Lopez vs. Ayers/ part 3

Steve Lopez appeared slightly weird to me in the beginning because of the way he approached Nathaniel. However, Lopez is now showing how smart and positively manipulating he is. Steve Lopez has shown to have a way with words and to provide compelling arguments. Lopez has so far convinced Nathaniel to do all that he wanted to do. One can take that and say that Lopez is trying to force Nathaniel in to doing things or just doing things his way. I used the term positively manipulating because despite Lopez doing so, he is doing it for the good of the Nathaniel. Even though final decisions are up to Nathaniel, Lopez has an instrumental position in the making of his decisions; in a way it can be said that Lopez is making the final decisions.

The way in which Lopez is capturing the "weak" side of Nathaniel can be described as the basic rule of friendship. Most people side with their friends on most positions and decisions. In such cases, the most persuasive friend can always capture their friends vote. In Nathaniel's case, his friends are limited but more so inactive. This leaves Nathaniel with Lopez who is of sound mind and good intentions. Therefore, Nathaniel ends up subjected to the reasoning of Lopez and ultimately listening to him as well. It can also be attributed to Lopez's superior writing ability. Because of this ability, he can eloquently persuade Nathaniel into going with his reasoning, thus Nathaniel gaining things to benefit him. As is the case of the room and lessons, Lopez was able to convince Nathaniel into taking the room. As a result of this, Nathaniel could no longer be deemed homeless and acquired lesson to advance his gift.

The Soloist 2

We live in such an un predictable world. We do not have control over some of the things that happen in life and for Nathaniel Ayers, this holds true on a higher level. Nathaniel seemed to be a promising musician. But that career wasput on hold by a diagnosis of schizopherenia. Thats it!!!, is what went off in my head when this was revealed in Lopez's story. Now I realized what made him stick out to the point of writing a story about him. This disease is what ultimately landed Ayers in the position that he is in. In a way, I could almost feel his pain. As a musician, anything that threatens your career, brings great pain and distress. This left me with the question, " What could have been"? What could have been the outcome of Ayers' life had this sickness have remained dormant.

At first I was skeptical of Lopez. Lopez's job by nature is to find out information. It seemed as though Lopez was using Ayer. It slightly came across as Lopez taking of advantage of a sickness by trying to write a good story. As the book unfolds Lopez's kindness and genorsity begans to break through. I also noticed that Lopez gravitates to the stories which provide an inspiation for others. Lopez appears to be one who seeks to help others.

You can pick one or both, consider that they are 2 seperate thoughts

The Soloist

By far, the soloist has to be one of the easiet books to read and comprhend. This is made possible because LOopez is a modern writer, therefore the word choices and writing style are of today. So far the story of Nathaniel Ayers, reads as it was intended; a feature story. The book obviously explains things in greater detail, however, it still reads a story that is being written for the purpose of "reporting".

The actual story grasps my attention from musical aspect. So far we realize that Nathaniel Ayers is a street musician. My initail thought was, "Okay big deal". We live in a world with alot of those so I didn't really catch why he was so important. As I began to read further, Lopez's observation of classical training, began to make me want to know. This was mostly because I could relate to Lopez's observation. There has been plenty of times when I have heard musicians and could tell wether they were trained to play music. At this point my mind begins to wonder, "What is going on"? This question came to mind due my knowledge of music and the buisness. One of the biggest challenges for musicians is their ability to read music. Especially in the classical world, you have to know how to read music or it will be hard to land a job, even more so when you are called to fill in for someone at the last minute. Because of this, I wonder why Nathaniel Ayers was a street musician. If he studied at Julliard, I'm sure he read music so what happened.





Please respond a you see fit.

Catcher and the rye

This one, That one, and everyone else. Holden is quite a picky person and seems to think that the only one perfect is him. He constantly take notice of those who appear to be fake and un-real. He basically leaves school because he doesn't like the people. I would like to pose the idea that He is the problem. IT is quite true that there will always be someone around that you can't co inside. However, I do not think this holds true to everywhere you go. If this is the case, one can argue that the discoverer of all these "false" acts is the problem. In my opinion, these don't seem like things big enough to act on, let alone switch schools however, Holden sees fit to do so.

One can ask the question, " Is there an underline current to Holden's behavior"? It can be concluded that Holden seems to be a un-happy, more or less non content. The way he behaves could be an testament to his dis -gratification with himself instead of people. The characteristics he finds wrong with people may be the ones he wishes he had.


I would like you to respond with perspectives that agree and disagree with this view of holden

Fitzgerald to Willy

Willy, in my opinion, portrays the mindset of F. Scott Fitzgerald. In the Great Gatsby, I believe that the plot of the story was based upon the life struggles of the author. Fitzgerald may having been dealing with trying to decide the type of life he wanted to live. It didn't seem at first that Fitzgerald had expertise in a particular trade. Through further investigation of Fitzgerald's life, we find that he wanted to be a famous writer. I believe the problem came when it was time for him to decide how to do it and what to do with the earnings. One can venture to say that he had a discipline issue when it came to money.

As Fitzgerald parallels to Willy, this may have been a shared quality. Its seems that Willy had a successful career as a salesman. I believe during his prime, he could sell anything. Due to this, i believe he always had money, however, this became a problem. Throughout the play it seems that Willy could be easily persuaded into anything and as a result, it ended with senseless spending on his part. This ultimately would put him in a financial bond therefore preventing him from making insurance payments and so forth. Eventually he gets to a play where he is trying to kill himself. Willy just as Fitzgerald couldn't handle the pressure. Fitzgerald from what I know didn't intentionally try to kill himself but did have a severe drinking problem. In both cases, I believe that these cases stem from the incapability of handling the pressure of the time, especially with money.

Both men elude to some greater struggle during their time. What was so hard about keeping and controlling money? It seems that when this problem arose, people with the problem cracked under pressure and tried to do themselves in.

Reflections

Blogging has been a great help for me. It has me in the aspect of thinking as it pertains to proof reading. Because we as the commenters must provide good and serious comments. This forces us to pay close attention to different thigns including grammar. This has provided practice on proofreading. This also has forced me to pay close attention to what I write; so that I don't make the same, senseless, or any mistakes. This method of communication has strengthened my ability and tolerance for reading long pieces of writing. I always stray away from reading long pieces of writing, however I now count an honor and priviledge to read the work of my peers, despite it's length. As a thinker, it has opened up another point of view in my way of thinking. I now understand and relate to my peers alot more in more aspects besides music. I now find myself connecting with different ones in a higher intellectual, academic, political, and societal level.

A concern with the blogging is the gap that seems to still exist. In our attempt to restore and even establish a bond with 11-1, I don't feel that it has been accomplished as of yet. Not excluding myself, it seems as if we are not commenting as much on the work of our extended peers. When given the direction to comment, I see that will still manage to comment within he class. There is no problem with that, however, when trying to break the communication barrier between the two classes, I don't think we are moving closer to that goal. Perhaps instating the stipulation that it is mandatory to comment on works of the other class will get this accomplished.

Overall, blogging contributes to the overall success of communication we now have within class. I find it as an enjoyable experience and quite helpful to me. The ability to read, comment , and reflect on the work of my peers has helped me substantially.