The End: An Updated Schedule

Unit 10—Examining a Legend

Tuesday, April 8

Reading: Grunge Seattle, Chaps 5-6

            Begin Kurt and Courtney

Writing Project 5 due, Thursday, April 10—Group Project

Visual Rhetoric Composition with New Bandmates

Thursday, April 10

            Finish Kurt and Courtney

            In-class debate for participation credit   

Tuesday, April 15

            What is Grunge?

            In-class writing and redux       

Media Project and Presentations Due, Thursday, April 17

Unit 11—Media Projects

Show and present music videos: April 17

Premier and present your band's music video in class—during presentation of your band's music video all members should be dressed in appropriate period clothing scavenged from the racks of a local thrift store (the group field trip portion of the course). Additionally, as part of this video premier, your band should find a cd, tape, or vinyl from this period, procure it, and then redesign the cover.

Unit 12—Portfolios

Tuesday, April 22

            Work on portfolios in class

Thursday, April 24

            Work on portfolios in class

Finals Week: April 28-May 2

Hand in final research papers, portfolios, and any missing materials

For this final paper, as a band write a well-sourced and cited social and cultural history of your band, including the biographical, environmental, industrial, and labor contexts. Make sure to paraphrase, cite, and source from each of the books on the Grunge Movement read in class. Additional information on “specs” for this final research paper will be given later.

Writing Project 4

Resume or Help Wanted Ad

Writing Project 4 due, Tuesday, April 8

This is a simple and somewhat straightforward writing project that all bands, and college students, have to do at some point in their lives. For Writing Project 3, you will be composing and designing an individual resume, if you are a band member, or a job description if you are a band manager.

After our "Mix-up," on Tuesday, we will have new bands including a "post-grunge" or sellout band. One or two of you may wind up in "rehab," though for what we do not know. This mix-up is a chance to shuffle the grungy deck, and will represent the final bands for our push toward the end of the semester, which includes the final research paper and music video.

Therefore, if you are a band member after Tuesday, you should compose and design a stellar resume. The following site gives a good indication of the elements of a resume: http://careers.erau.edu/land-offer/resumes/.

In composing and designing this resume be sure to think about use of white space on the document, alignment, and audience. Familiarizing yourself with the CRAP design principles will be essential to successfully completing this unit's writing project. What are the CRAP principles you ask? They are essential elements of designing things like documents, web pages, and presentations. Here's a link to a downloadable pdf that helps explain CRAP: http://www.presentationzen.com/chapter6_spread.pdf

Same goes for band managers who are writing job descriptions. This link provides useful tips for composing a job description: http://www.wikihow.com/Create-a-Job-Description-Template

Resumes and job descriptions should be one-page, well-designed, and evocative compositions!
As a note: these resumes and job descriptions should be hybrids documents of actual personal history, and fictional, class role-play elements. So, if you are making a resume for yourself, and you'd like to join Pearl Jam, include some of the experiences you had in high school--perhaps you worked in a local record store; include that factual information. Also, include experiences unique to our class role-play that are fictionalized. If you're leaving Soundgarden, perhaps include that you were a member of the super-group Temple of the Dog, etc.

Combine fact and fiction in these documents to produce a resume or job description that fits the course. However, the point of this writing project is to give you a document that you can use down the road. So, while the information on your resume can be changed, you have the shell or template of a document that you can use for future career fairs and job seeking endeavors.

Writing Project 3

Sign the Band, Man

This writing project is due Thursday, March 27

In General

This writing project is designed to be a companion work alongside the assigned readings for Labor Law for the Rank-and-filer.

Using aspects of the readings, our class role-play, and the whimsy and wackiness of rock n' roll, it is the task of your band to get a written contract together that "signs" the band to a formal, written contract with your manager.

We have discussed some aspects of employment in our previous class, and now the task is to get those particulars negotiated, or agreed upon, by all members of the band. In essence, your band will be writing a technical document that ensures all band members will know their rights and responsibilities in the development of your professional relationship in this role-play and in the execution of future class assignments and projects.

Therefore, there are two essential components to this writing project:

1. Have a good understanding of your rights as a band member (worker) via reading Labor Law for the Rank-and-filer. In contrast, band managers can use Labor Law as a tool to understand some expectations of an employer or administrator, and then craft contract language and negotiations based on an understanding of potential needs and wants of band members.

and

2. This contract should be sure to spell out (literally) the rights and responsibilities of all band members, including the manager. These rights and responsibilities can be for instances specific to our course role-play such as band health insurance, the band's "recreational opportunities," and/or safety issues related to concert events or life on the road, but should also include aspects of work and assignment completion for this course. As an example this might include: who in the band takes the lead in organizing work schedules (does the manager send out emails to get everyone together, or is this the task of everyone in the band) or who might take the lead in giving presentations to the class. The objective here is to write a contract that combines class role-play scenarios with "real-life" tasks from our class.

Help with the Document

An example of an employment contract can be found here: http://www.legaldocs.com/htsgif.d/xemploy.htm.

Writing Project Specifics and Timeline

In written form for Tuesday, March 25, each band member and the band's manager should work through a rough draft of what they would like to see in a labor contract during class. This is a type of pre-writing exercise that could take the form of an outline, mind-map, or simple rough narrative of what you, as a member of the band, would like to see in a contract. Nothing fancy needs to be completed, but you should come to class with some idea of your rights as a worker (member of the band) or manager, expectations of the other party, and particular ideas of what you would like to see in a contract. 

As a part of this negotiation process on Tuesday, I will be available to arbitrate any problems or sticking points that arise from these labor and contract negotiations. Meaning, I will be happy to help facilitate the working toward compromise between band members and manager that might result from an impasse regarding contract details.

Be sure to consult our class text Labor Law for the Rank-and-filer in this process!

Then, for class on Thursday, March 27, managers should have a final draft ready for band members to sign. These final drafts and your band interactions on Thursday should evidence a working knowledge of our course text, Labor Law for the Rank-and-filer, and some type of investment in the process of coming together as a group to debate/negotiate the terms of individual and group responsibilities to fellow band members and manager. These final contracts should reflect the agreed upon clauses and specifics from the Tuesday, March 25, contract negotiations. Band members should then give a final read over of these contracts, and then if all is agreeable--sign these contracts on Thursday.

Our course text, Labor Law for the Rank-and-filer, should be cited at least one time in your final contract!

Standard writing project particulars are in play: 1" margins, 12 pt Times New Roman font, double-spaced, etc. A works cited page for our book Labor Law is also a writing project necessity. 

These contracts, however, may be longer than 2-3 pages if needed to convey the complex interactions between manager and band members. 

Quick, but important note: these contracts are in no way legally binding, but rather a tool to help simulate our class role-play between band and manager, and possible labor relations scenarios. 

Updated Schedule

Unit 7—Sign Your Band: Labor, Labor Law and Contracts

Tuesday, March 18
Reading: Labor Law for the Rank-and-filer, first half of book

            Begin Hype

Thursday, March 20
Reading: Labor Law for the Rank-and-filer, second half of book

            Finish Hype
            Mini-lecture: Seattle Labor History
            Documentary: 1919 Seattle General Strike     

Unit 7 & 8—Labor Law and When Bad Things Happen to Good Bands

Tuesday, March 25

Reading: Grunge Seattle, Chaps 1-2

In-class contract negotiations with reference to Labor Law for the Rank-and-filer

            Managers write one version of a contract

            Band/”workers” write another version, collaboratively
            In-class work: negotiate/edit contract in class

            
Writing Project 3 Due, Thursday, March 27

Thursday, March 27

Reading: Grunge Seattle, Chaps 3-4

            Sign band to a contract, man             
            Begin The Gits

Unit 9—The Remix

Tuesday, April 1
Reading: "Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction"

            Finish The Gits

The "Mix Up"

Writing Project 4 due, Thursday, April 3—Individual Project

Job descriptions or resume

Thursday, April 3
            Discuss "Art in the Age"
                 Bring reading notes to class for discussion

            Mock Career Fair
            Meet your new band

            Marshmallow Challenge

Writing Project 2

An Oral History

This writing project is due Tuesday, March 18.

Writing Project 2 is designed to be a fun way to explore music with a family member, friend, or foe for that matter. In this writing project you will be conducting an oral history, and then analyzing your experience doing an oral history.

Oral history is a unique way to "do" history from the bottom-up. Most times we get history from text books made by large corporations that glorify old, rich white men, and forsake most of the population that has made this country great--the working-class, women, and minorities. This practice distracts us from hearing the voices of most Americans. Oral history provides the opportunity to get or do history from a personal, organic source.

Take a look at this link for more information about "doing" oral history: http://dohistory.org/on_your_own/toolkit/oralHistory.html

This page, which has audio and text files of oral history interviews, demonstrates what types of subjects and topics can be covered in oral history interviews. It also features locally important historical actors: http://www.finlandia.edu/finnamericanoralhistories/index.html

For this writing project there are three steps:

1) Identify and interview a family member or friend about their interests in music. Read the dohistory.org page above, follow the steps to do an oral history, and conduct a thorough oral history interview that collects data and information on what types of music your friend or relative was into, significant concerts that they attended, and if they were perhaps in a band.

If at all possible interview someone who was alive and "into" the grunge music scene, but other genres are also welcome for this oral history interview. 

2) Make sure that you capture this oral history on a digital voice recorder, a tape recorder, or take very good notes if you don't have access to some type of voice recording mechanism.

3) Write up your oral history interview in two parts. Firstly, transcribe relevant parts of your oral history interview. Meaning, take segments of your oral history interview and write them out. Perhaps there is a really funny story, a meaningful experience, or groundbreaking concert that was attended by your oral history interviewee...highlight this by writing it out word for word, and include the question or questions you asked in this transcription. This transcription should account for the first page of your writing project.

Secondly, write out an analysis of your oral history experience. Make this a thoughtful reflection on the process: what did you learn, how did you go about doing oral history, and/or was this a meaningful experience? This analysis should cover the second page of your writing project.

Be sure to include citations for sources used (hint: the person you interview is a source), and make sure to include a works cited page for your writing project.

Standard writing project specs apply to this, the final writing project!

Lastly, have fun, get to know the musical interests of your family or friends, and try to end up making this a discussion about something that most people find an essential part of what makes us human: the music of life.