"Leading a Double Life," by Irene Sege

This article was very weird. Rather, it was about a very weird topic. It talks of the next potential cyber phenomenon called Second Life. "Second Life is a website where users create animated cartoon avatars to represent themselves - usually as humans...and sometimes as fanciful or furry creatures. They role play, gamble, teach classes, make music, open restaurants, push politics..." Weird. I'm not into it. Some guy even has a vitual wedding business, and when a woman behind his avatar friend died, he "typed words of comfort to her son's avatar and was comforted himself by his avatar friends. He conducted her virtual funeral." I think this is bizarre! I can't even understand it. And apparently people sell things and money changes hands, but I don't understand, is that Second Life money or real money? I don't get what the appeal or the fun is here, it just is too weird for me. But to each his own I guess!

Gerhardt: "The Rules of Attribution"

This articles first talks about the plagiarism of the bright young writer, Kaavya Viswanathan, in her novel How Opal Mehta Got Kissed, Got Wild, and Got a Life. Gerhardt points out that we should not condemn Viswanathan, but that we should try to understand how she got confused about the rules of plagiarism. Gerhardt feels that students are not being taught the rules of copyright infringement and plagiarism in their writing. I guess I can see how some people would get confused, because you have to give credit to another author's ideas, even if you put them into your own words. I'm pretty sure this is what happened to Viswanathan - she didn't copy word for word, and she didn't do it on purpose. But I think this rule is pretty clearly stated, so I'm not sure how a Harvard student could have missed it.
By the way, I didn't know that Shakespeare recast the plot of Tristan and Isolde to make Romeo and Juliet, so this was and interesting new fact.
Like Gerhardt says, most of our ideas are borrowed, learned, recycled. I see how this relates to pop culture in the "music that uses riffs from other songs, ...books that are turned into movies, and then the characters from those movies" that show up on products like backpacks, toys, and video games. We just have to remember that through copyright licenses, credit is being given where it is due, and this is the main point of the article.

Popular Culture in the Twenty-First Century - Bill Ivey and Steven J. Tepper

This reading first asks us to consider what it would be like to live in the late nineteenth century. Our values and activities would have been shaped primarily by local experiences. But there has been a transformation in American culture. Technology, art and entertainment, and the rise in amateur art-making have all contributed greatly to this change. An interesting part of this reading was the mentioning of rap musicians who got their start by making homemade tape recordings. This stood out to me because my brother is into rap music and listens to a lot of mixtapes and demos of his favorite rappers. This reading also points out the fact that "through new devices like the iPod or TiVo, citizens are increasingly capable of curating their own cultural experiences - exploring new types of culture, choosing when and how they want to experience art and entertainment." I never thought of it like that, but I agree with it. I also found the mentioning of the "creative energy that is animating a new generation of young people" to be very intriguing, especially because we've been talking about what creativity means in one of my other classes (Creativity in the Classroom). In that class we've decided that creativity has to involve something new or unique. This relates to this text because in talking about this creative energy permeating through young people it tells of a survey of incoming college freshmen. The survey reported that more students today than a decade ago want to produce an original piece of art or become accomplished in a performing art or writing. It was cool to make a connection from this class to another one!