TOW #10: "At Super Bowl, New York and New Jersey Will Be Top Rivals", James Barron

On Super Bowl Sunday, not only will there be two of the top football teams competing, but there will also be a rivalry between New Jersey cities and New York City. The Super Bowl is know for directly helping the economy of the hosting city. This year the super bowl is being played at Metlife Stadium, home of the New York Giants and New York Jets. To this date, many still do not know that this stadium is located in East Rutherford, New Jersey rather than New York. James Barron a writer for the New York Times and author of “At Super Bowl, New York and New Jersey Will Be Top Rivals” juxtaposes the cities of New Jersey and New York City to show the difficulty that New Jersey will face when competing for tourists during the Super Bowl weekend.

When making the decision of where to stay as a tourist, the decision is easy to many, New York City. As Barron describes, New York has some of the top restaurants, hotels, and many of the best attractions in the world, so why would someone want to stay in a New Jersey city that is over powered by the great city across the river. By comparing the two options of where to stay side by side, the reader can understand the dilemma that New Jersey is worried about. Barron then goes onto describe New Jersey’s and New York’s efforts side by side to gain tourists. He states that companies in New Jersey are being trained on how to welcome tourists to their cities. Where as on the other side of the Hudson, “All New York City has to do every day is wake up, take the crust out of its eyes and it’s open for business.”(pg 2) By describing the situations for both cities, Barron is explaining how this rivalry is becoming a one-sided affair. James Barron effectively explains the odd rivalry between the two states by juxtaposing the cities side by side to create an awareness of the importance of the Super Bowl’s economic impact for the host city.

IRB Intro #2: Into the Wild by Jon Krakauer

For my IRB for the second marking period I am reading Into the Wild, written by Jon Krakauer. It is about a man named Christopher Johnson McCandles who came from an affluent family, graduated from Emory University and then gave away everything he had to go into the Alaskan wilderness. His body was later found by moose hunters, shortly after Jon Krakauer was asked to write an article for Outside Magazine about the events. Krakauer was so fascinated by the story that he decided to do enough research to write a book. In the book I can expect to find uses of imagery and other forms of figurative language in order for me to connect and form emotions to the events in the story.

Tow #9: Christmas Day Games

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a6wdPJEWrAc

As always, the NBA came out with its yearly commercial to reveal the special christmas day jerseys and games.The NBA always selects the best teams to play on Christmas day, so the commercial is a creative way for the fans to see for first time which teams were selected to play and what the jerseys will look like. This years commercial gets the attention and relates to the emotions of the consumers by using the stars of the NBA to market the jerseys and by getting the consumers attention by using a song that everyone knows and can relate to.

This years commercial includes: Derek Rose, Kevin Durant, Steph Curry, James Harden, Steve Nash and Lebron James. By using these players, the NBA is accomplishing two goals; they are showing the fans which teams will be playing on Christmas day as well as marketing the special jerseys. When a fan sees their favorite player wearing the jersey they will want to go out and purchase the jersey to be able to wear it on Christmas as well. So not only are the players being used to market the jerseys but they are also being used to market the Christmas day games. If fans see their favorite player on the commercial than they will know to tune in on Christmas day to watch them play. The use of the NBA stars allows the commercial to connect to the fans’ emotions.

The commercial needs to advertise the importance of the games. Much like football and Thanksgiving, basketball goes with Christmas day. They are not just any other game, they are the Christmas day games. In order to show the difference of these games, the NBA took a different approach for the commercials. Rather than just showing highlights of the teams that will be playing, they had the players do something much more creative. The players in the commercial are shooting basketballs into nets that play the well known Christmas song, Jingle Bells. By use of this song the fans are able to tell when the games will be played as well as remember to watch the games on that day because of the creativeness of the commercial that makes it memorable.

By using the best NBA stars in a creative way makes the commercial memorable to the fans and markets the Christmas day games unlike any other games of the season.

TOW #8: The Accidental Billionaires, Ben Mezrich

A risk must always be taken in order to receive a big reward. Ben Mezrich, the author of The Accidental Billionaires, told the story of the risks that Mark Zuckerberg, Eduardo Saverin and the other founders of Facebook had to take in order to become billionaires. Mezrich connects with the audience by his use of a third person omniscient to tell the true story of how Facebook was founded and the relationship between Mark Zuckerberg and Eduardo Saverin.

Mezrich effectively keeps the audience interested and connects to their emotions by telling the story using third person omniscient. By sharing the story in third person omniscient, Mezrich was able to express multiple characters‘ emotions rather than just one viewpoint. This allows the audience to see different events, such as Eduardo’s shares being cut down, from different character’s viewpoints and to begin to form their own opinions because they are not focused on the viewpoint of only one character. The use of third person omniscient was also very effective for this story because it allows the reader to understand what Mark Zuckerberg and others were debating in their heads when making business decisions. For example, the reader is able to understand why Mark did not want to work with the Winklevoss twins. This use of narration enabled Mezrich to share the thoughts that the characters felt and helps the reader to further understand what went into the creation of Facebook.

The use of third person omniscient also helps describe the relationship between Mark and Eduardo. To keep the book more interesting, Mezrich includes the drama in their relationship. The choice of narration enables drama to be created because the reader can understand how Mark and Eduardo viewed each other from an outside perspective. The story begins with both of the characters at a party for the Phoenix, an exclusive club at Harvard. Mezrich describes Mark as someone who looked very out of place at the party, whereas Eduardo caught the eye of the members and was selected to be further evaluated. The ability to share events like this from an outside perspective allows the reader to be able to see the jealousy that may have been created from Eduardo’s selection into the Phoenix. 

Mezrich’s use of third person omniscient allows him to effectively tell the story of the founding of Facebook as well as add drama to the story by sharing the relationship of Mark and Eduardo.