Blog 8

13 Dos And Don’ts For Attending A Kentucky Horse Race

http://www.buzzfeed.com/hillaryreinsberg/13-dos-and-donts-for-attending-a-kentucky-horse-r

The buzz feed that I will be analyzing is actually on my ethnographic location, Keeneland.  While this is the same place, it is not the same way that I will do my meme presentation.  This particular buzz feed is on what you either should or should not do while at Keeneland.  The author for the buzz feed was pretty accurate but I am not sure how original it really was.  The main topic was on what you should or should not wear while at Keeneland.  For example, the author states that you should not wear a Harley Davidson shirt at Keeneland.  They also show a picture to give an example of what they are talking about.  Since I have gone to Keeneland several times I can definitely relate to this specific meme.  There is not necessarily a dress code at Keeneland, but there is kind of an unwritten rule that you are supposed to try and look nice while you’re there.  The meets only happen two times a year so you might as well dress the part.  The author then discusses things that would be good to wear or to bring.  They say that a do for going to Keeneland would be wearing a seersucker suit or to wear a bow tie. With these statements there are two memes showing both.  I can definitely know the truth in this because if you make it out to Keeneland you are very likely to see plenty of both.  The last meme that stuck out to me was a ticket that had a bet on it.  The statement says, “Don’t place a bet without having an idea of what you’re doing.”  This meme is extremely accurate.  There have been several times where I have been at Keeneland and seen people throw money on a horse that they know nothing about.  This is a horrible strategy if you are trying to leave with more money than you came in with.  But then again, if you win off a blind guess, it feels pretty good.    

Blog 8

My first revision for my final draft of the ethnographic paper will be on the description of the place and culture that I visited.  I will be using a lot of the information from the descriptive web text from the beginning of the semester but I will change up some of it.  For my description of Keeneland, I went on a day where there were not any races going on.  While this gave a good idea of the space I was in, it didn’t quite give the full picture.  The atmosphere when Keeneland is and is not racing is totally different.  For my final draft I will be sure to include the descriptions during each time. 

The next portion of the final ethnographic draft that I will be revising will be on the interview I had with the professional horse trainer.  When I did the interview I was very surprised at how interesting it actually was.  But during the interview, my interviewee ran off track a little bit.  In my rough draft I saw that some of the information that I had put in it was really not very relevant to my cultural space.  It was also brought to my attention that the flow of the interview portion of the rough draft was very poor.  This meaning that I had a constant occurrence of statements like, “next I asked” or “first I asked”.  For my final draft I will make sure that these statements run together and sound more professional. 

The last revision that I will need to make for my final draft will be a better analysis of the entire paper.  I realized after reading over the paper again that it didn’t have a whole lot of criticism or extra thought on certain points.  I think that instead of analyzing the cultural space I have had a tendency to just give a summary of what it looks like.  This is also similar to the interview.  Instead of actually dissecting the interview, I basically just restated what he said.  Also with this aspect, I need to make sure that my paper has good flow and that I am pulling out points from all of my sources that are actually significant to the ethnographic space. 

Blog Post 7

For my secondary source I have chosen to use a thesis paper called "A MODEL RACING PLANT": FOUNDING AND ECONOMIC HISTORY OF KEENELAND RACETRACK, by Scott A. Carmony.  One of the main reasons that I chose this source was because of its large amount of content relating to the role of sports, especially horse racing, to America.  Another reason that I picked this source was because of the vast information on horse racing in Kentucky, more specifically Lexington’s horse and racing traditions.  This paper is also full of helpful content on the history of how Keeneland was created and how it became to be what it is today.  This paper discusses some things that I would not have thought of until reading it. A historian named John Rickards Betts argued that "the roots of our sporting heritage lie in the horse racing and fox hunting of the colonial era."  While this is just one man’s opinion, it is interesting to see that horse racing was one of the first sports of our country.  This is just one of the many quotes that would be helpful for my ethnographic project. 

Carmony, Scott A. ""A MODEL RACING PLANT": FOUNDING AND ECONOMIC HISTORY OF KEENELAND RACETRACK ." Department of History University of Louisville. (2004): n. page. Print. <digital.library.louisville.edu/utils/getfile/collection/etd/id/472/.../473.pdf>.

Blog Post 6

The entire news clip, “Sucked into the Tunnels between Las Vegas” is very odd to me.  Even though it explains why O’Brian continues to go down into the drains under the Las Vegas strip, it still raising some questions in my opinion.  Why would he consider ever doing this in the first place?  How was it that he got to be so close to the people that lived down there?  If I were to be living in a sewer I do not believe that I would be very welcome to outsiders.  This brings me to my point.  I thought that O’Brian’s friend or acquaintance, Steven, was a very unusual and interesting character.  When first hearing that there is a man dressed in a button down and slacks in the sewer, one might think that he is there to help, sort of like how O’Brian is.  There is no such thing as a normal voice or way of speaking, but Steven seemed to sound as if he was a very average person.  I began to wonder why someone with his attributes would be living in a sewer, but when he mentioned his gambling problem and his drug addiction, it was easy to assume that those were factors of why he was down there.  The next item that I thought was very interesting about Steven was his “occupation” or lack of.  It’s weird for me to believe that Steven can manage to stay alive by silver mining, or taking the credits from an unoccupied slot machine.  One might think that the casinos would catch on since you have to look the part.  Steven says, “A lot depends on how I look because those are two very hard places (casinos) if you don’t look right they’ll stop you or watch you.”  But then we soon learn that in his quarters of cardboard boxes, he has a queen size bed, a dresser, and even a shower.  I would not guess that Steven would choose to live like this, but for someone living in a sewer, he sounds like he is happy and doing alright.    

Speech Recap

For my speech on Thursday over my ethnographic choice, I thought I did a fairly average job.  There were some things that I felt like I did somewhat well but also there were things that I will need to improve on in the future.  For the most part I felt like I was comfortable up in front of the class.  I didn’t feel as nervous as I thought that I was going to.  I also felt like I knew my topic pretty well which gave me a great deal of confidence when it came time to give the speech.  I think that I did a good job getting my point across to the audience and making a good amount of eye contact with each of my classmates.  However there definitely were some things that I saw that I didn’t do as well as I should have.  I felt like I had good posture standing up strait but I was kind of stiff.  I didn’t really move around very much and I felt that while giving my speech and could really tell once I watched it.  While I believe I spoke loud enough for the audience to hear me clearly, I did a very poor job of putting any emotion or passion into what I was presenting.  Another thing that I realized after the speech was that I left out what I was going to do for my future plans.  Seeing myself do my speech will definitely help me out for speeches in the future.    

Blog #4

When preparing this project, one has to make sure that they cover the ethos, pathos, and lothos during their presentation.  The ethos of my presentation should be very simple.  I am doing my project on Keeneland and I am very excited and interested to see what I will find out about this culture.  I feel that the audience will be able to see that in my presentations.  I believe that the pathos should be an easy fit for an audience of college students.  Keeneland is a very fun place to spend time and it can be especially fun for college students because they have certain days where students are the main focus.  Finally the logos of the presentation.  At the end I feel that my audience will be able to see how all of my points fit together and they will realize that my cultural spot is one that should surely be visited. 

For my secondary source of the Keeneland race track, I have chosen to use the website trip advisor.  This might sound like an odd source to use but to me it seems perfect.  What this website will do is let you type in a place that you are interested in going to and it will help you plan out the trip.  In my case I just need to see the current reviews.  It says that Keeneland is rated number 1 of 48 places in Lexington to go to.  Also it has over four hundred different reviews saying why Keeneland is either good bad or just average.  This website can help me learn what other people, who are new to Keeneland, think about their experience while there.  Another great secondary source would be the Keeneland library.  In here I will be able to find all kinds of different history and records that have gone on at the track ever since it began. 

"Keeneland." tripadvisor. N.p., 17 Sep 2013. Web. 18 Sep 2013.  <http://www.tripadvisor.com/Attraction_Review-g39588-d108503-Reviews-Keeneland-Lexington_Kentucky.html>.

Keeneland

The place that I have chosen for my ethnographic project is Keeneland.  For those of you that do not know, Kentucky is the horse capitol of the world, and Lexington is right in the center.  Keeneland is a famous horse racing track at the corner of Versailles Road and Man O’ War Boulevard.  Keeneland was put together over a series of events but the first day of live racing was October 15, 1936. 

Keeneland only races in two months of the entire year, one in the spring, and one in the fall.  But it is open throughout the year for tourists, shoppers, gamblers, and many more.  So if you were to go on a day in late September, it would be extremely different than going on a day like October 4^th, the first day of live races for the fall. 

A late September day at Keeneland would start out by entering through the pillars on one of the many entrances.  Right away you would be amazed at how pretty the scenery is.  Acres and acres of beautiful green grass as far as the eye can see.  If you look closely you will be able to see fences that guard off horse farms off in the distance.  On your way to park you will see the Keeneland library on a hill to your right.  This is a building made of stone that looks kind of dull from a distance, but if you are lucky enough to get up close to it, you will truly see how magnificent it really is.  This is a research and reference library that was established in 1939 and it holds more than 15,000 volumes of books and journals, 250,000 photographic negatives, thousands of newspaper articles and 1,500 videocassettes documenting sales and racing at Keeneland and other tracks throughout the nation.  This is all before you have even parked. 

Once you have parked you will begin walking up the hill towards the gates.  Depending on the day and what time you go, you could see different things.  While walking up to the gate to the right are several rows of stables where horses are kept.  If you are lucky you might be able to see them being walked around or shown to other people and if you are unlucky, which you will likely be, you will be followed by the stench of horse manure all the way to the top of the hill.  Before you reach the gate there is a small building on your right that isn’t very welcoming and doesn’t stand out a whole lot.  This is the building where horses and actioned off.  These horses will be sold anywhere from $50,000 up to the millions. 

Finally once you have made it to the top of the hill you can go in through the gates, which is free when Keeneland isn’t racing.  Immediately you are overwhelmed with the beauty.  The area that you would be standing next to is called the paddock.  This is a part of Keeneland that is extremely well known and talked about.  The paddock is where the horses walk around before they race.  It is surrounded by a gate that is difficult to see because of the well-trimmed bushes in front.  After you have taken in all the beauty here you are likely to be drawn towards the track.  Once you step out to the general standing area you finally see the whole reason you came, the race track.  Keeneland’s track is a one and one sixteenth mile Polytrack oval and inside of that a seven and one half furlong turf oval.  These tracks look much bigger than they do on maybe a television show or a movie.  Inside of the track are several huge jumbo screens and two bushes that spell out Keeneland.  If you turn around you will see tons of seats that have to be reserved from the past.  If you have finally seen enough and are ready to go then you would just turn around towards the way you came.  Since there aren’t any races going on the atmosphere is pretty dead, but you might hear some yells of people who are gambling and watching races on other tracks throughout the nation.  If gambling is not your thing then you could go to the Keeneland shop and pick out a souvenir to take home with you. 

The Keeneland race track is one of the biggest icons that Lexington has to offer.  I highly recommend that you try to get out there whether there are races that day or not.  You should have a good time either way.

The Paddock

 

 

                                                                           The Track

Sites

My first site that I would consider doing for this project would be Keeneland.  The main reason that I would choose this is because it is such a big icon for all of Lexington and even Kentucky.  The next site that I would consider would be the Johnson Center because I think that there is a great audience of people that care or are concerned about the Johnson Center.

Facebook/Coffee

“Is Facebook Making Us Lonely?”

“Which brings us to a more fundamental question: Does the Internet make people lonely, or are lonely people more attracted to the Internet?”

This sentence definitely stuck out to me the most from the entire article.  After reading the article I believe that this is a very good and relevant question that might have multiple answers.  If someone is already lonely, lacking friends and certain social skills they might very well be drawn towards the internet.  But also if there is a person who has never used the internet and they are introduced to it and all of its features, they might be compelled to use it more and more rather than go on with their normal previous lifestyle. 

“Economic Citizenship and the Rhetoric of Gourmet Coffee”

“Consumers are encouraged not to think of the people who plant, harvest, and transport, coffee but instead to see only the performing baristas who take the center stage, enacting the service of making coffee.”

The quote here seemed significant because it somewhat explains how us, mostly Americans, view items that we purchase.  In the example involving Starbucks, we just see an employee dancing around behind the cash register making our coffee.  What we seem to forget is that there is hard physical labor done by several others just to get that coffee to the store.  Instead of realizing what it really takes to make that one cup of coffee, we would rather just pay for it and walk right out.