Timing is Everything

I never realized until this class that there is the perfect word for the perfect timing which is Kairos. It is an Ancient Greek term that they believed in so strongly they attributed a creature to it. Kairos relates immensely to the relevance of a subject that you are trying to discuss for or against. We've discussed kairos in a few different contexts, mostly relating in English terms in addition to a few real life scenarios.

When I think about social media, I think about how strong kairos is. Twitter is a great example for this in some aspects because millions of people are able to voice their opinion on a topic immediately when the scenario is happening. But twitter can also expose bad kairos which a lot of people are either completely ignored for because of their timing or they are just laughed at. For example, the situation between Kanye West and Taylor Swift due to Kanye's lyrics in one his songs. Many people immediately responded to it via twitter and celebrities were using their fan's tweets to back themselves up. But a few days later the topic was out of everyone's minds yet people were still posting their opinions. And even the celebrities themselves voiced that the issue was over and that people needed to let it go; while their level headed fans sat back and laughed at how concerned other fans were with these celebrities's social lives when many more pressing issues were occurring.

Once I took a moment to reflect on my decision making process and the way I do things, I realized how much I unintentionally use kairos. From simply just asking my parent's permission to do things to participating in conversations with someone else that had a differing opinion than me. My parents always used to tell me, "there is a right time and place for everything" which is exactly what kairos defines. But on the downside of 'good' timing, I've often been told I need to move on in conversations because my mind is still so caught up with the original topic. So my statements have no relevance anymore because as kairos demonstrates, relevance is everything.

My hometown has a program named Kairos, which is a church retreat designed for many juniors and seniors in high school. I never really understood the name until I learned the true definition. Their slogan for their retreat lies on the "the right timing for God", which all makes sense now!

From Saint Anne's Church

Pepsi Unites us all?

The immensely famous, Kendall Jenner, participated in a Pepsi commercial back in April of this year. The advertisement promoted American culture and touched on the current socials issues and how they are being fought against with the help of protests. This commercial did receive an enormous amount of backlash due to the 'glamour' Pepsi associated with protests. Despite Pepsi's attempt to convey American's unity, their main goal was to show anyone from any walk of life can drink Pepsi, and Pepsi can contribute to unity. 

The commercial depicted many different people from many different backgrounds coming together during a protest and being united because of Pepsi. It's obvious Pepsi tried to include many ethnicities present in the United States emphasizing the minorities including a hijab-wearing women, an Asian man, African American individuals and many others that are more difficult to identify. The commercial also includes their careers ranging from musicians to photographers, dancers and models. 

Even though this commercial is extremely questionable and offensive to many Americans due to Pepsi's defiance for recognizing the lives lost, and the non-glamour lifestyle of protests; my focus will be primarily on the civic related components in addition to the mistakes Pepsi and why Pepsi overstepped. The goal of this commercial was to unite the diversified people and civil activists of America during a protest. This advertisement is the epitome (of an attempt) of using the American culture in relation to their product to try to promote Americans to buy it, even though the opposite occurred.

I would attempt to discuss this advertisement as though it was a semi-successful due to the civically related components, in addition to adding the downfalls and mistakes Pepsi made. I would discuss Pepsi's attempt to use civic components while connected to a few superficial components which directly lead to its downfall. My hook would include something related to, "A drink that brings all Americans together?" One major point that would be included in my speech would be identifying the diversity shown in the advertisement because America is know as the 'melting pot.' Another point I would discuss would be that protests are very common currently in America whether they are LGBTQ motivated or relating to the black lives matter movement.

***I'm uneasy to use this as my artifact so I would really like people to add their opinions on whether or not I should discuss this commercial due to the fact of how controversial it it. I'm not sure if it would help or hurt while writing a speech. I recognize and agree fully with the fact that Pepsi didn't go about this commercial the right way while glamorizing protests when currently, they are no where near graceful nor glamorous. 

My Passions in a Blog

The places people will go for Music

One demanding passion of mine is music, in particular, music festivals whether it be following the festivals through social media or attending them myself. Being from Chicago, Lollapalooza is a give. I have attended Lollapalooza for the past three summers. Then in the beginning of this past May, I thankfully had the opportunity to fly to Miami, Florida to attend Rolling Loud. I have a very long list just waiting to be fulfilled but not everything can happen with a snap of my fingers.

Throughout this blog, I would like to discuss and review the many different festivals happening around the United States. The biggest festivals mostly happened around summer time due to the good weather but there are plenty dispersed throughout the year. Within these reviews I would include things like: the headliners, the 'underground' artists, the people in attendance, the fashion, the environment including the city it takes pale in, and the afterparties offered. There is a plethora of things that play into musics festivals in order to make them the magical places people say they are. 

A big thing that plays into music festivals are the groups of people that are known to attend. Festivals have reputations just like restaurants or cities. The stereotypes for each festival is one of the most interesting aspects because the people go for the music so the music carries a reputation as well. Some cities that host these festivals don't have the most optimistic responses to them. It's interesting to read in on the political side of things as well as everything else. The people in charge are, most of ht time, the people who run the city which is sometimes forgotten.

I will try to coordinate each blog with the most recent festival. As of right now that won't be hard because of festival season recently happening. But for the rest of the blogs it won't be hard to review ones that have already past. 


By Veld Music Festival