PB1B

Today I will be comparing the literary genres and conventions of three make-up companies. I will also be looking for their rhetorical messages. Rhetorical images help to persuade us to purchase a certain item, it's also “essential to help us to become informed consumers” (Carroll 46). The media is very familiar with different makeup companies and their certain products. We see ads on Facebook asking us to try “L'Oreal Lipstick: Discover Sensual Color And Long Lasting Radiance
Because You're Worth It” or that commercial with Katy Perry promoting her “Katy Kat” Matte Lipstick collection from Covergirl.

Kyle’s Cosmetics, Revlon, and Covergirl are all pretty successful cosmetic companies that sells Matte Lipstick. I've chosen these companies so that I can review their Matte Lipstick makeup lines. The Matte color may be similar but maybe the textures are different, maybe one brand of lipstick makes your lips chap while the other leaves them smooth.  Each company's product will have enough conventions to determine which one is the best.

First I searched Kylie's Cosmetics. Kylie's website seems plain and simple till I noticed that she has an app for her make up plus an Instagram, Facebook and Twitter page. I scrolled through some more and saw that she has lip kits, kits that come with the lipstick and lipliners. As I inspected the website more I notice that Kylie's Lipsticks are liquid and does not contain any normal name for the lipstick color. For example her lipstick that appears to be red is titled “Mary Jo K”.  I looked into the rest of the colors and nothing stands out but the dripping looking design on her lipstick tubes, all of them have the same description “The Liquid Matte Lipstick has high intensity pigment for an instant bold matte lip. The extremely long wearing lipstick contains moisturizing ingredients for a comfortable, emollient and silky feel that does not dry your lips”.

Next I will examine Revlon’s lipstick line. Revlon's website started up with its black faded background and eye catching bold red lettering. The dark background really makes the colorful words and make up stand out. Their website also has a motto“Love Is On”.  Similar to Kylie's Cosmetics, Revlon also promote their products on social media, but they also have a YouTube channel. Revlon too sells liquid lipstick, much smaller than Kylie's. The name of their lipstick line is “Revlon Ultra HD Matte Lip Color”. Once again there is no direct color for the name of any of their lipsticks but, their description is very vivid. The description is “Lightweight, high definition velvety matte color. Moisturizing, velvety feel. 100% wax-free, gel formula. Available in 16 high definition shades.” If you investigate further you can read the features of this product which states that each lipstick has a “creamy mango and whipped vanilla fragrance” and how “velvety” the lipstick applicator will feel on your lips.

Lastly, there's Covergirl. Covergirl's homepage is pretty plain, black and white, white and black background displaying their current new and old products. Covergirl also promotes their products on social media as well. A fascinating thing I noticed on their website seems to be some sort of seal reading “Accredited Business”. The only Matte lipstick that seems to be sold by Covergirl is Katy Perry's collection, Katy Katt. This is solid lipstick unlike the first two that I have reviewed. The name of the lipsticks have ridiculous cat puns such as “Crimson Cat” or “Cosmo Kitty”. The lipstick description has a little warm welcoming to the new lipstick collection as well as a little details of the looks and feels of the lipstick “ Calling all Katy Kats! Our new Katy Kat Demi-Matte Lipstick is a purr-fect collection of velvety soft and luscious-feeling lipsticks with a demi-matte finish created by the one-and-only Katy Perry. With 11 shades in all, discover a new matte lip look you’ll love that’s not flat or dry.”

After looking at features of these literary pieces, it's obvious to say that even if the websites looked different, even if the lipsticks are liquid or solid, big or small, these all belong to the genre of Matte Lipsticks (and cosmetic websites). Their rhetoric features that they share are audience and purpose. These catchy mottos, descriptions, or wacky lipstick names appeal to the audience. Maybe the name of a certain lipstick will cause someone to feel more sexy and confident. These three companies also have similar conventions such as selling cosmetics, and in particular Matte Lipstick. Even if the prices and names are different the color of this makeup is still matte. These are the similarities, what are their differences?

Kylie's cosmetics had a boring website with no color. The website displayed the lip kits along with their names and prices. Kylie's lipstick was the most expensive costing $17 per quantity. Each and every lipstick color had the same dull description, not describing the smell or the quality of its applicator. This tube of lipstick is the only one out of the other two that has some sort of design. Next is Revlon. This website had it's black background with colorful makeup and words on display such as their motto “Love Is On”. The name of their matte makeup line is “Ultra HD Matte Lip Color”. When I think of HD Lipstick color I think of bold vibrant color. Revlon also gave us an idea of how good their lipstick smells (like mangos and vanilla). These cost $9 per quantity.  And lastly Covergirl with its boring website displaying their other products. Covergirl actually didn't have a matte lipstick collection until Katy Perry partnered up with them. Since the collection is called Katy Katt, the lipstick and description was filled with cat puns.These cost $8 per quantity. All these companies are indeed selling makeup but each company has their own way of attracting customers. Whether it's a celebrity starting up their own makeup collection, using catchy words like “Ultra” or even partnering up with a someone to sponsor their own little make up line.

Being in the spotlight often Kylie could have promoted her makeup line and company better. Katy Perry's makeup collection was downright cute but is the quality description enough? I like how Revlon described the color of the lipstick along with the smell and applicator.

• Kylie's Cosmetics
• Revlon
• Covergirl

Shelly's Quick Guides (reading Thblog #2)

There is this other article “Shelley’s Quick Guide” is more hefty than the first one. This article is more about strategies, but that's MY opinion. Some of these strategies were downright obvious others I never even thought of.

As I looked through this packet I noticed some techniques I'm familiar with and others, not so much.  I am familiar with the KWL chart.  The KWL chart is one of the easiest strategies possible. Freewrite seems like such an obvious technique to use but I never thought of it. It's about writing your ideas out, what you think the passage you're reading might be about. I am also familiar with the Two-column log. One side of the log with your thoughts of the story and the other side is what the story is actually about.

The Opinionaire  strategies was truly clever. No I never heard of it, Yes I would definitely use it. It's basically a pre-reading technique. Before reading you write questions you would want to know, read and find the answers and then put if you agree or disagree with that answer. QAR seems to be another obvious strategies I never thought of. QAR is a reading and post-reading technique, write questions then the answers once you found them, Think and search (“how is this possible?”). Definitely very helpful. Write your own discussion questions! When you are reading something new ask, what's the purpose?- why is this important?- how can I change this?

Anyway these are just how I am registering these concepts/strategies in my brain, these are my thoughts.

How to do a close reading (reading Thblog #1)

I was given a article to read called “How to do a close reading”. I actually found this article to be very interesting and helpful. I absolutely love how this article is organized, how every step is numbered. Each step is numbered with the captions underlined.

This article gives us helpful steps on how we can read closely, how we can really pull apart a piece of reading and understand it better. For example number 3, “Sound and Rhythm” how do these paragraphs sound, what literary devices are being used? Is this author using: personification, alliteration,onomatopoeia? What about Imagery? Most of the stories I've read in high school didn't have photos, the setting was painted by words. I had to Imagine with the description I was given, how the place smelt, how it looked, what the weather was like.

How about Syntax? I had no idea what that means so I had to google it. Syntax-the arrangement of words and phrases to create well-formed sentences in a language. Once I got the meaning I realized that Syntax is something simple that most people ignore. Most people don't see how simple and complex a sentence is. I for example would judge a sentence by how boring it is. I never took the time to analyze sentence structure which is one of my writing flaws.

Also, when I scanned through the captions I noticed number 11. Gender?? “My article is a male or female?” I thought to myself. Then I read the questions, “Does this article represent a certain gender’s issue”. As I said earlier this article is extremely helpful. Take the time to actually read these words and try to comprehend it certainly will help.

Halestorm PB1

 

 The genre I choose to dissect is music, the topic is one of my favorite bands- "Halestorm".

 Halestorm is a hard rock/heavy metal band.

Their album "Strange case of..." has a unique style to it. Mixing up racy edgy songs with more softer emotion felt songs. According to Ms. Lzzy Hale herself, she explained how her band's edgy technique helped break down this amazing musical barrier " We were on ‘ten,’ and we blew through the songs in a safe way – or as safe as something that goes, ‘I get off on you getting off on me’ can be. This new record demonstrates more depth and heart. It’s a lot more expressive and really lets down the barriers.” Lzzy also declared that she was going to scream her heart out, she included engineer Bay Seven’s opinion too with her statement “At that time, I decided, ‘I’m going to scream my head off and make really gritty songs, “When we finished ‘Love Bites,’ the engineer at Howard’s studio, Bay Seven, said, ‘I’m pretty sure that’s the fastest song we’ve ever done here.’”

Their album “Strange Case of” consist of two tones, whether it be “Love bites, so do I”  or “ I hate it when you see me cry”.  I'm going to compare and analyze some lyrics from both these songs.

“Love bites” is basically, in my opinion about a man who apparently deserves better in a relationship because his girlfriend is saying he's not a good enough boyfriend based off of magazine articles or dating tips. The lyrics I'm about to show you implies that Lzzy wants this guy to feel a somewhat comforting feeling

“Don’t listen what your girlfriend says
She reads those magazines
That say you failed the test
You don’t have what she needs
I slither like a viper
And get you by the neck
I know a thousand ways to help you forget about her”

“I hate it when you see me cry”  shows more of the fragile part of Lzzy being self conscious in a relationship.
“I hate that I need you now
To hold my hair, to hear me out
If I wake up on the bathroom floor
Will you still want me in the morning?
Oh babe, I need you now!”

The purpose of this album is to relate to those who; Have been in failed relationships, Love Rock and Roll and Sex. The audience for this specific album is more teen/adult bases I think. According to Alex Newton this was a highly successful album for Halestorm stating “With a feature on Glee (yes, that's a good thing) and a Grammy Awards nomination now in their pocket, the sky's the limit for Halestorm as they continue to show that mainstream hard rock has some life left after all.”

Allmusic.com gave this album the rating of 3 stars out of 5. Gregory Heaney posted his review of this album claiming that “Hale helps to give every song that special something”. Allmusic apparently posted some possible themes of this album referring to it as, aggressive, angst-ridden, nocturnal, sexy, and much more.

The best review I think the two best reviews would have to be the review from Lzzy herself and from Alex Newton. I think that Lzzy’s review was extra special because this was Halestorm’s first album, and her opinion on her first album is highly important. Most artist criticize their work, looks for new ways to make it unique. I also thought Alex's review was good because, he described how the album style was he also informed me that Halestorm was nominated for a Grammy.

1. Lzzy/Halestorm
2. Alex Newton's Review
3. Allmusic/Gregory

First Try

Just trying this blog thing out even tho I am probably doing this wrong. But, um hey it's me Amanda! I graduated from W.B Saul High School, surprising enough my major was animal science. I wanted to take pre-vet classes but I was placed in a different class. I spent half  of my senior year with Sheep and Cattle and the other half with horses. I had to look after the craziest horse named Windy, once Windy had her foal (pepper) I had to look after her too. The sad part was, once pepper was born the school year was about to be over,  we created a bond right before I had to leave. Anyway besides the fact that taking care of animals anyway possible is my passion, I have other interests too. For example, I love writing poems mainly expressing my feelings or current situations, I mainly use writing as a way to express myself. My favorite genre of music happens to be, Rock, heavy metal, A bit screamo, Hard Rock, a little bit of EDM. I won't tell you my favourite bands because we will be here all day. My favorite move is Frozen (don't judge) I relate to Elsa in certain ways. Anyway that's a little about me.