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.