The Road...

This is a movie poster from an upcoming movie titled The Road. If you think this poster looks bleak, well that will be putting it nicely. This movie comes from a novel by Cormac McCarthy. McCarthy is a great author who has written many books. He hails from Knoxville, but in my opinion, this is his best book. The Road is the most hopeless book I have ever read, and that is why I love it. Real life isn't all happy and great. It often times sucks, and life in this book is much worse than anything we've ever dealt with. The books starts out in a post nuclear holocaust with a boy and his dad. The boy and his dad are trying to make their way down from the northern U.S. to the coastline around the Gulf of Mexico. This book chronicles their journey. While the book is a dark, hopeless look at what life will be like if there was nuclear war, there still is a glimmer of hope. The love that the father and boy share is heartwarming and this is what carries both of them through the trials of their trek. I encourage this fantastic book to anyone.

This is the album cover off of Pearl Jam's latest album titled Backspacer. I picked this album cover for a few reasons. One being I like Eddie Vedder (minus his crazy political views) and Pearl Jam. The other reason is that this album cover is absolutely crazy. I don't even know what to say about it. You could write a paper on each little box. The colors in it are fantastic. They capture your attention instantly. Personally, it makes me think of space and all its mysteries. Another idea I get from the cover is Armageddon. This is a pretty broad word, but there are scenes of destruction all over the album cover. Scenes of fire, mushroom clouds, and a person drowning. This is pretty intense, and just adds to the unknown about this album cover. Perhaps the weirdest scene is the one in the center, at the bottom. It's a picture of a black man dressed up in a funk 70's suit sitting between the legs of a person with only underwear on. What does this mean? Who knows? I wonder if Vedder and co. even know what the album cover signifies. Also, the new album is pretty good.

"The Creation of Adam"

This piece of art is titled The Creation of Adam is a fresco painting done by Michelangelo in the Sistine Chapel. It is 4th in a series of paintings done by Michelangelo telling the story of Genesis. This picture represents God "breathing" life into Adam at the beginning of time. There are quite a few things that stand out about this picture to me. One is the use of the earth tone colors. Michelangelo uses really subtle colors in this painting and it's done brilliantly. Another thing that captures my attention is all the little children surrounding God. Who are these little children? Are they future humans? I don't know, but I find it an interesting thing to put in a painting. This painting is amazingly beautiful because it signifies the start of human life. Although, we are destined to fail many times, human life is still a beautiful thing to hold.

Chris Lofton...

Some might ask what exactly does this picture have to do with an English class. Well, on the surface, not much. But, I figure I can rhetorically analyze anything. So, here goes. I came to school at Tennessee for the sports teams. I’m not going to lie. I have been coming to football games in Neyland Stadium since I was a little kid. I’ve been coming to basketball games for seemingly forever. I would have done anything to be talented enough to be a Tennessee Volunteer athlete. The person in this photo felt the same way. This person is Chris Lofton. He graduated two years ago, and he graduated as the all time leading SEC 3 point shooter of all time. This is an impressive feat. After his junior year, he was diagnosed with testicular cancer. He was told he needed to take his redshirt season and come back the following year. He refused to do this. He wanted to play with his fellow seniors one more year no matter what. He would take his chemotherapy and then go practice. He talked about how he would lay in the bed with a garbage can beside the bed and he would vomit continually into it. This picture symbolizes how Chris Lofton beat cancer. He beat this deadly disease and was able to play his senior season. It shows all his hard work paying off. He gave his all for the University of Tennessee. That is something we can all appreciate. Whether we are a sports fanatic or not.

I was trying to think of a picture to write about and wasn’t having any luck. Then, I remembered seeing this picture. The title of this picture is “Grand Ol’ Gang” and it’s painted by Andy Thomas. I chose it for a few reasons. One is because I’m a staunch Republican (You could probably tell), and this picture represents the glory days of the GOP along with the not so memorable days. It’s a polarizing picture, and one I think is just, quite honestly, beautiful. It also makes me wonder. It makes me wonder what it would be like if you could actually get all these great men into the same room at one time, what would happen? Would their personalities clash? Would they be able to get along due to their similarities in political doctrine? It certainly looks like they are enjoying themselves in the picture. I mainly chose this picture for one reason. Art rarely affects me on a personal level. I’m just not that affected by it. I’m much more affected by music, but for some reason, this picture spoke volumes to me. This picture pretty much speaks for itself, and doesn’t need to be commented on much. I just thought it would be a really neat picture to write about. So, if you have any comments our thoughts on it, feel free to discuss. Also, there is a democratic version of this by the same artist. It’s a really pretty picture, but for some reason I don’t like it as much. I wonder why?

A Breath of fresh air for Tennessee football

We are at the dawn of a new era here at the University of Tennessee. For the first time in 18 years, Philip Fulmer will not lead the Volunteers through the T at the beginning of the game. This is the beginning of change in our football program. For the first time, the head coach has no ties to the University of Tennessee at all. Going all the way back to General Neyland, the head coach has had some sort of tie to our university. Yet, Lane Kiffin has zero ties. Lane Kiffin is a complete outsider. He is a new comer. Since his induction as head coach, he has embraced all the traditions of our beloved university. At the same time, he has also infuriated our rivals all across the SEC. From Alabama to Florida, they all have a chip on their shoulder when it comes to Tennessee. He has increased our recruiting greatly while bringing in an all star staff. If my very humble honest opinion, Lane Kiffin, so far, has been a home run hire. Yet, Lane will be judged for good on the field. We'll see how the Lane Kiffin era starts this weekend.