The Cheese Monkeys and The Heresy of Zone

After I read through the excerpt from "The Cheese Monkeys," I scrolled back up just to read the first page again.  The first time I read it, having not seen the rest, I wasn't sure what to think or how to analyze it.  After reading the rest though, I think that the passage is some kind of lecture on aesthetics of advertisements or promotion.  Visual communication or graphic design, perhaps.  THEN, I thought the first page was fantastic.  Referring to the audience as "the enemy," "engine" and "a virus."  I thought it was brilliant.  "...their serum is Indifference."  Awesome.  I love the way this text was written.  The analogies and metaphors are great.  It's quick, robust, and almost funny in a way.

I read through this excerpt a couple of times and I really can't say there's anything I dislike or don't understand about it.  Except maybe I wish it was longer.  The assignment part at the end was a little confusing for me.  I'd be interested to get a little more information on what the lecturer meant and what the product was.  It seemed like a really cool idea.  "...design a moment in time."

I was surprised to realize how much more respect I had for basketball after reading "The Heresy of Zone Defense."  I'm not really interested in sports so I was pretty turned off at the first paragraph but after reading the entire passage I've gained a lot of appreciation for the game.  One part in particular that I really enjoyed was number four under the "Guiding Principles" at the end.  "The model for football is the drama of adjacent nations at war. The model for basketball is the polyglot choreography of urban sidewalks."  Not only do I think that's an excellent quote, I think it really tied the entire excerpt together for me.  Basketball really is much more positive than most sports and I feel very enlightened after reading this passage.

Something I really wasn't sure about in this text was the paragraph about Pollock.  The author was talking about "rules" and "control" in the arts.  I'm not sure if I agree with his statement.  The magazine article he references seems to be more of an interpretation than actual content so it's difficult to tell if he is restating the article's true message or just interpreting and exaggerating it as he wishes.  In my opinion, art is too subjective to make such accusations.  I also don't like the sentence, "Discovering this, I was a little bit more free than I was before, and I know that it was a 'boy thing,' about privileging prowess at the edge of control and having the confidence to let things go all strange..." mostly just because it's sexist and annoying--but that's just a little pet peeve of mine.  I also didn't understand a lot of the basketball references just because I'm really unfamiliar with the game but I was able to get the gist.

Overall, I think both passages had a lot to offer and I'm glad I took the time to really read and analyze them.  I look forward to future readings in this class.