- This picture is a shirt of mine that lists old Orlando Magic players from the 2009-10 season. The players are Dwight Howard, Rashard Lewis, Jameer Nelson and Vince Carter. This shirt is part of my life in Orlando, which makes it a perfect representation of my old life while I am at school in Tallahassee.
Narrative: Crowds are the plague of life. They bring forth disgusting smells, a lack of personal space and various other problems caused when one brings flocks of people together. None of that matters today though; today the Orlando Magic will don their home whites and attempt to advance in the playoffs.
The view outside the new arena is spectacular. Walking up to it was humbling, just another triumph of human ingenuity. Sporting events bring people together like few other events. Case and point 9/11. My brother won't let me forget it, nor should he. Orlando is my home now but New York remains his. His life changed on that day; the Tool Nazi they called him.
Moving can be difficult. Creating a new home can be harder. Luckily Orlando made the transition easy. The upcoming transition for the Magic will be a difficult one; of course no one knows that yet. Dwight Howard will demand a trade, hysterics will occur and his name will cause a spike in blood pressure for all Magic fans.
We don't know that yet; ignorance is bliss.
In this moment, the Magic are at a highpoint in their short yet memorable history. Coming off an NBA Finals appearance the previous season, Orlando was on the short list to contend for a championship. As it turned out that was nothing more than wishful thinking.
My shirt is from a happier time in Magic history.
I chose to use my shirt for the first assignment because it both reminds me of Orlando and refers to the Magic. Although it does not physically represent the city, the text on the shirt is the first names of players rather than the team name, it does signify a period of time when those players represented the city. I thought the simplicity of the shirt would allow me a fair amount of creative freedom as well. That assumption turned out to be correct when I wrote the piece as evidenced by the various topics that I hit on throughout my narrative. I chose the layout because I felt it will be appropriate no matter what I choose to write about throughout the semester. Although it is not flashy, the beige colors are more welcoming than too many other visuals.
ReplyDeleteI find it interesting that the blog page itself is called Platos Cave, in reference to his famous depiction ‘Allegory of the Cave’ from his The Republic. It makes me wonder whether the first post is meant to exemplify this theme, and perhaps I am simply missing it. Orlando, what a beautiful city! I live in Orlando so I found this particular post to be very memorable. In fact, I am a big Orlando Magic fan on top of that. I remember exactly what the post describes, from the drunken crowds of fans to the moment where Dwight Howard and his fellow compatriots made a reputation of themselves. It is interesting in hindsight with this blog’s theme; the narrow perspective of one person expands to a community of fans, who all collectively share a similar memory of their beloved team. Yet still this is seen as a narrow perspective in comparison to the broad spectrum of NBA teams across the country, all filled with fans collective narrow views of their teams. Perhaps it is the expansion into Tallahassee that makes this post relevant as well. One escapes the cave (Orlando) and enters the real world (Tallahassee), where the senses and grasp of perspective are expanded, or at the very least added to. I wonder if this post specifically is of a particular memory and moment, or if it is a broad generalization of that time period. The crowds, although relevant to any sports fan, or me don’t add much to the post itself, unless if the theme is in fact a looking upon the past, in hindsight. The view outside the arena doesn’t add much to this post, for whom outside of local fans and the rare few fans from other teams will actually get to see this view? View of what? Perhaps, again, this all compounds upon the allegory of the cave, as presented by Plato. The 9/11 reference, although a memory and relevant to the brother of the blogger, still doesn’t match the tone of the piece. Perhaps instead if the focus were on a memory in New York of a sporting event that the brother attended, then it may add to the tone as well as the allegory of the cave. Overall I really enjoyed this post, and believe that it flows naturally and works well with the theme of the blog page itself. The photo placement is perfect because it centers on this particular moment in the history of the Orlando Magic, and ties directly to you and your memory of that moment, thus leading into the post and discussion that it entails.
ReplyDeleteThe shirt the author mentions and portrays clearly represents a time much more favorable to him, a time before his relocation. The shirt represents Orlando, his home, and the memories that came along with is, such as his apparent love for the Orlando Magic basketball teams. The author uses this correlation between his home and the Magic in order to correlate his loss of what he felt to be his primary residence, as well as relating it to Dwight Howard’s move to a different team. I remember when I moved to Florida from New York, and would watch the Giants play every sunday in order to fill in the piece of me I lost when I left the north. It felt good to support where I was from so I can deffinitely understand how the authors love for the Magic was almost a safety blanket for him when he left Orlando. The one problem I found with this reading, is I can’t figure out the central point the author is trying to make. Is it a piece that is meant to pay homage to his home town, or to his favorite basketball team who were much better then they are now? The 9/11 mention is a bit out of place for me as well, and I can’t quite figure out how it related to the piece. It is not relative to a sporting event as you would expect it to given the overall premise of the piece, and although it ties his brother into the story, it is unsure what role he plays in the stories theme. I think the author needs to expand on what it is about the Magic that really brings those vivid memories of home back to his conscious, and what about his move made him think back and reflect on these times. The overall design of the page is rather bland, and does not really relate to the story in any way that I can directly pick up on. There appear to be birds flying in the background, which could very well be meant to centralize on this theme of a relocation of sort, but this is just a wide assumption on my part. The text is set up in a manner that provides an easy read, with short segments and a classic helvetica font. If the author were to maybe just clear up what kind of message he is attempting to send, I think this could provide an enjoyable and comforting read for anybody in the process of leaving a place they have grown up knowing as their home.
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