Carnegie Library Of Pittsburgh (Oakland)

Today my class took a trip to the Carnegie Library Of Pittsburgh located in Oakland. The trip to designed to help us gain resources for our projects as well as the 10 page papers we have to write. In my personal opinion I believe this visit to the library was very helpful in the sense that now I have three new books to reference from for not only my documentary but my paper. The books I picked out yet they were rented by Mrs. Fossum are as follows...

Censors In Classrooms: The Mind Benders - Edward B. Jenkinson
Students' Rights - Kate Burns
The Bill Of Rights - Akhil Reed Amar

I plan on blogging on some of the information I find in these books in the next few days...

Out Of Date...

It's been awhile since I blogged in this thing... as you can see I updated my blog layout with a new header...now my blog looks like it's ready for the 21st century.

Here is some filming updates...

I have almost all the film I need... my last day of filming is tomorrow and I should be completely prepared to set up my documentary in premier.

I have picked my interviewees!!

Vince Chandler, a musician
Dominique Dutriel, a African American female
Tim Bell, a musician and a very vocal person
Theodore Zatezalo, 11th English Teacher
Mario Zinga, very cultured wise man

My Filming Adventures...

On monday and tuesday, me and Tim Bell went out to South Side & Oakland to film scenic shots as well as mediums in Pittsburgh such as churchs, video games, books, and clothing. The film we took I think will be very helpful and I think I just need one more day to do my filming for other mediums such as music and what not. I got in touch with the office of Mayor Luke Ravenstahl and they said they could grant me a interview in early august if I need it. The respone I could is listed below...

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If you would like to wait until August that would most likely free up some time. E-mail me the first week of August to see what the calendar is like.

Thanks,

Missy

Melissa M. Stettner

Senior Administrator

to Mayor Luke Ravenstahl
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I have started my selection process for who i'm going to interview. As far as peers go I have decided to interview Tim Bell, Vince Chandler, & Dominique Dutriel. I have an idea for what teachers I want to interview but i'm not sure at the moment if that want to be interviewed.

Freedom Of Speech Questions

1) Do you feel that your freedom of speech right has been neglected in a way? Please explain

2) Currently freedom of speech is not recognized in the school system, Should freedom of speech
be used in schools today or should it continue to be censored? Why or why not?

3) Do you feel that in today’s world the people’s point of views are heard or not heard depending
on their monetary status (how much money or power they have)?

4) If you could use your freedom of speech to change one negative in the world today, what would it be? And why?

Work Sheet - As Of 5/13/07 @ 10:50 PM

I've decided that I will keep a work sheet (list of things I need to do) every week and post it on my blog so I can stay organized because I sense that my organization techniques has grown wary since the Grad Project class started...

- Talk to Wertheimer about the newly revised questions and getting my City High survey up
- Revise my letter of intent alittle more
- Revise my MLA citations
- Work on contacting the office of Mayor Luke Ravenstal for interview
- Decide what teachers and students I want to interview; 3 of each
- Film entrance to documentary with Tim Bell

well that's it for now...

Taking A Serious Turn..

Now i'm in the process of thinking what videos and such I will have in my documentary...

I'm know i'm going to have video of politicans and interviews from my peers and teachers but I don't know what else... filming for the opening starts tomorrow...

I wonder if Tim has any ideas.... hopefully haha

I gotta figure out how to get in touch with Luke R because it would be great to have a one on one interview with the mayor of my town.

New Questions For Survey

I've been talking with Werteimer about using the City High Survey Engine for my grad project and he asked me to make some more thought provoking questions so... here ya are!

Questions for ‘Freedom of Speech’ Grad Project Survey
By Daniel Egan

1) Do you feel that your freedom of speech right has been neglected in a way? Please Explain

2) Currently freedom of speech in not recognized in the school system, Should freedom of speech be used in schools today or should it continue to be censored? Why or why not?

3) Do you feel that in today’s world the people’s point of views are heard or not heard depending on their monetary status (how much money or power they have)?

4) If you could use your freedom of speech to change one negative in the world today, what would it be? and why?

Today was Productive!

I got alot of work done and partly done including

- The reasoning for my songs on the soundtrack
- The webliography (some what)

now I plan on editing my letter to turn in for my graduation portfolio.

Fossum!! I DID IT!!

After getting off my lazy butt and doing it; I finally blogged my reasoning for picking the songs I did for the soundtrack of Project X and here it is...

Reasoning For Picking the Songs I Did

1) "Set It Off" - P.O.D
This song was chosen for the soundtrack for two reasons. The first reason is the simple fact that it is Deezie Productions official theme song and the fact that if you listen deep into the song you begin to understand that the song is standing up for yourself as well as what you believe in.

2) "Mosh" – Eminem
This song was chosen for the soundtrack due to the simple fact the it’s a political song that focuses on people ‘moshing’ in support of their beliefs on how crooked the current state of the U.S. government is.

3) "I Can" – Nas
This song was simply chosen due to the fact that it’s Nas using his fame to support a cause he is a big supporter of which is the ‘Save the Music’ foundation.

4) "Scapegoat" – Atmosphere
A very well known indie rapper that in this raps about everything that people use to cover up lies or troubles they have in their lives.

5) "Fight The Power" - Public Enemy
A rather old song back when hip hop/rap was mostly good. Public Enemy uses this anthem to show support for African Americans for the fight for equality back in the late 80s and early 90s.

6) "Capital G" - Nine Inch Nails
Another political song speaking that everyone should blame themselves for the current state of America due to the fact they made the choices they did.

7) "Cowboy in Me" - Tim McGraw
This song was chosen on a whim due to the fact I was sitting on the bus listening to it and thought that it matched perfectly with my personality and the view I have for the beginning of the video.

8) "If Everyone Cared" – Nickelback
As you can see by the video for this song that I put on my blog; I chose this song simply because it portrays people using their right of freedom of speech and/or their voice to make changes in the world

9) "Why We Thugs" - Ice Cube
This song was chosen to cause in this Ice Cube gives the reasoning of violence and gang issues from a street prospective by using his Freedom of speech

10) "Gods Gonna Cut You Down" - Johnny Cash
The reasoning for this song is Johnny Cash is simply one of the most creative minds in music history and his words can shape so many people opinion on different life perspectives.

11) "Changes" - Tupac Shakur
Just like Johnny Cash, Tupac Shakur has the power to create opinions in people’s minds. In this song he asks why there is no changes in the environment that we inhabit today due the fact everything has stayed the same for so long.

12) "Starin through My Rear View" - Tupac Shakur
Another Tupac Shakur song was chosen because in this song he expresses his perspective of what’s going on around him and why it continues

13) "Public Enemy #1" – Eminem
In this song Eminem expresses the things that happened to him as well as other people in the history of Freedom Of Speech due to the words they say.

14) "Boom" - System of Down
This song was simply chose because SOAD uses it to express their freedom of speech on war and how it effects so many.

Hmmm...Flag, Holy Book, & Bill Of Rights Burning?

Flag burning is against the law in the United States but some think of it as Freedom Of Speech... here is a video of a random guy speaking of the world's freedom of speech as well as his own. Oh and by the way he sets alot of things a blaze... take this video as you want; I just found it really interesting and wanted to incorporate it into my blog someway..

Today was quite unproductive...

I really didn't do anything today due to the simple fact that I'm exhausted because I got three hours of sleep last night. Tomorrow will be nothing but a work day though... I plan on getting my webliography done because all I need is 2 more sites and to anecdote all 10 of them. Once that is out of the way me & Fossum will begin to discuss about proper planned filming...

Basically if I put everything in a bulleted list I need to do is...

- Webliography
- Talk/Work With Wertheimer About My Survey (10-20 mins)
- Edit My Proposal Letter (Somewhat)
- Blog Why I Picked The Songs I Did For The Soundtrack
- Set Up A Filming Scheldue With Fossum
- Film W/ Tim Bell
- Start Piecing Together My Project In Adobe Premier
- Write A Ten Page (Double Spaced) Paper On My Topic (Freedom Of Speech)
- Present My Documentary (Senior Year)

it looks like alot but once I get the ball rolling I can post def know all this out!

Marilyn Manson Caused For Columbine?

Tonight I remembered one of favorite movies 'Bowling For Columbine' which expresses how Columbine effected today's world and the town of Littleton, Colorodo. When I was on YouTube.com I came across a video of one of my favorite musicians Marilyn Manson using his freedom of speech to defend himself against claims that his music and music of that nature assisted the shooters at Columbine to kill.

NAMBLA?

I thought I would make a short post tonight with a youtube video showing clips on the daily show's rant on a organization called NAMBLA. This is really a thinking joke because of the fact that they mention many organizations that make no sense and they call them NAMBLA simply because that is a huge organization that makes no sense at all do to the fact there is a law against NAMBLA doing what they want to do. I put this on my blog due to the fact that it is a show that is built on freedom of speech talking about an organization that wants their use of Freedom Of Speech heard. I don't care to elaborate on NAMBLA... but if you would like to find out more about it you can look it up on wikipedia or go to the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU.com) and search NAMBLA. My reasoning for not detailing NAMBLA is simply the fact that I DON'T SUPPORT that organization and I really don't feel there is a point for it. Please if you decide to research NAMBLA, DON'T LEAVE ANY WISE CRACKS OR NASTY REMARKS ON THEIR SITE OR MINE BECAUSE THAT IS SIMPLY IMMATURE AND I DONT WANT ANY PROBLEMS WITH NAMBLA!

Boom ~ System Of A Down!

I just purchased a new 30GB IPod Video a few days ago and while I was downloading music to put on it I came across a band that I haven't listen to in a good while named System Of A Down. I ended up downloading one of my favorite songs by them called 'Boom' off their record 'Steal This Album'. 'Boom' is a track that speaks of System of a Down's opinion on such contempary issues in America such as Bombings In Iraq & Consumerism. This is a very powerful song but the video is much more powerful as it depicts a rally that was held around the world to support the Anti-Iraq War cause. Without further a due....

Changing Freedom Of Speech?

Tonight, I was looking on youtube.com for videos on Freedom Of Speech (That was my actual search term) to use in my video and I found this. This video is a newscaster on MSNBC and his guest a professor from George Washington University elaborating on a speech and the beliefs of Reblician politican Mr. Newt Gingrich. I'm not too familar with Mr. Gingrich but I shall be looking into information on him soon. If you care to familarize yourself with Mr. Gingrich you can read a very informative piece on him by clicking here presented by Wikipedia.org. The speech he was given is to not only alter the first amendment but block/censor websites that are ruled negitive. No one has any idea who will censor these websites or judge these websites to be sensored if this actually happens. Otherwise the video is below.

NEW PROMOTION PICTURE

My pervious one didn't have color and it was made very quickly without much structure so I decided to make a new one featuring one of my favorite freedom of speech activists and news hosts Jon Stewart! I'm thinking about having others made with different people but that will be a work in progress type thing.

Best Of Luck!

I just wanted to wish all of my peers the best of luck on their grad projects! I have heard some of their ideas such as doing things on bass, bowling and foresics and they sound really interesting. These projects sound really interesting and i'm hoping that they are done with the great intelligence that I know my peers have.

Anyways... just thought I make that clear! Deezie supports you! I bet that makes your want to do you grad projects alot more haha.

DEEZIE

Starting Up

Since i'm like 1,000,000 assignments ahead of everyone else in my class Mrs. Fossum has decided to let me start my filming for my graduation project on MONDAY! I'm so siked about starting this up! I will most likely just be taking scenic shots... around Pittsburgh... I will be thinking of great places that repersent Freedom Of Speech in Pittsburgh this weekend. The one thing i'm not looking forward to doing though is writing the 1o page paper... it's not that I don't like writing, it's the fact that I don't know if I can fit all the information I have into 10 pages. It will all work itself out... it always does! well it's OoOber late and I still have to listen to my myspace song a thousand more times! I will have the reasoning for the song selection for the soundtrack up on sunday night... I have to get off my lazy ass and do it!

PeAce out!

Deezie

Photoshop Graphic

One of the newest assignments for my grad project was to design a photoshop collage of my graduation project topic. Since mine is Freedom Of Speech I made a poster with Freedom Of Speech figures Eminem, Tupac Shakur, John Stewart & George W. Bush.

Meeting With Fossum!

Today as promised I had my meeting with Mrs. Fossum to discuss when I can start filming for my project. We came to a semi-agreement that if I get my proposal letter done and finish my photoshop collage for my topic I can start filming as soon as next week! I'm so siked! I really don't have to do this but I have decided to post a copy of my proposal to Fossum below for everyone's reading pleasure. I talked to Dr. Wertheimer today as well about him sending out a All Users email around my school for people to come to my blog site and do my survey for data to include on my documentary.

Here is a copy of my proposal...

227 Hay Street
Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania 15221
May 4th, 2007



Mrs. Michelle Fossum
City Charter High School
717 Liberty Ave
Pittsburgh, PA 15222

Dear Mrs. Fossum:

As you are quite aware I’ve decided to do my graduation project on Freedom of Speech in documentary form. I want to look at Freedom of Speech in all around today’s society in areas that are popular in our world including Entertainment (Music, Movie, & Literature), Sports, Clothing and Politics. In this documentary I will look at how Freedom of Speech is the topics listed above as well as how Freedom of Speech relates to all cultures including Caucasian, African American, as well as many others. After speaking with you on Thursday, May 3, 2007 and talking about picking out an essential question I have come up with one and that question for my documentary will be ‘How Does Freedom Of Speech Affect Society Today In And Outside Of The United States Of America?’. In my person opinion I believe that will make it possible for answer all the things I need for my documentary.


In the documentary titled ‘Project X’ (due to the fact that Freedom of Speech is X-factor in today’s society with almost everything we do and say) I plan to incorporate different types of Freedom of Speech as listed above and how they effect people in today’s world. My documentary will feature interviews asking people questions like “Has freedom of speech helped you in today’s world?” and “Do you think Freedom of Speech is a huge part of today’s society?”; these type of questions will be asked to faculty members such as possibly Mr. Theodore Zatezalo, Mr. Mario Zinga, Mr. Gordon Nelson, my peers but I’m undecided on exactly which peers and people of other standpoints and I will inside looks at examples of Freedom of Speech though out his old and current. The history of Freedom of speech including how it was started and why it was started will also be included and I will also take examples of freedom of speech including parts of music videos, movies, actual literature and clothing that has statements made from its design. My documentary will be most likely somewhere in the ballpark time limit of 30-90 minutes. If needed and requested I can prepare a condense version for the sake of time since I’m under aware if there is a time limit for my presentation. Finally my own independent production company Deezie Productions will be doing the promotion, soundtrack and producing for the film

I hope this proposal is manageable because this is a perfect idea on how I want to run my project.


_____________________________
Daniel ‘Deezie’ Egan
CEO/Founder of Deezie Productions

If Everyone Cared By Nickelback

As of right now due to a busy scheldue i'm unable to post why I picked ever song for the soundtrack for my documentary but I should have the reasoning up by the weekend. I wanted to start though today by explaining why I picked "If Everyone Cared" By Nickelback. The reasoning is why is because I saw the video for this song and I thought it was very inspirational in it's showing of many people including Nelson Mandela fighting for Equality and his right to give African Americans a decent life in Africa. The video also details about two kids fight for freedom. The video can be viewed below this post because I love youtube.com!

Nothing New..

Today, I took a trip to Indiana University Of Pennsylvania with a few kids from my school so I didn't work on my grad project today. I worked out a meeting with Mrs. Fossum for talks to start my freedom of speech grad project filming tomorrow after school though. I will post all the details from that meeting on my blog tomorrow night!

Peace Out!

Deezie

Where Do You Think Freedom Of Speech Is Used The Most?

Please viewers of my blog answer this poll because I want to use this information in my documentary.

Opinion Polls & Market Research

Your Opinion...'Is George Bush An Idiot?'

I found this video on youtube and it does something that i'm not used to seeing by the media. It's giving to an examples of George Bush saying idiotic things and it asks you to decide if 'He is an idiot?' Could it be that the media wants to give society the chance to speak out and make decisions on air for once. This video doesn't directly connect to freedom of speech (my topic for my documentary) but I put it up on my blog to show that the news is somewhat asking you for your opinion and it makes me think did they air this statement to express that they feel George W. Bush is an idiot? is this their way of using their freedom of speech. Freedom of Speech greatly ties into Freedom Of Press and whoever designed this segement is using that right to freedom of press!