User:Atcovi/Evaluation Booklet April 2022

Film


The Miracle Season is an emotional movie based upon a real-life story. The movie features the non-fictional story of Caroline Found, an Iowa City 17-year-old who tragically died in a moped accident in 2011. She was the star-player for the West High volleyball team, who had to deal with the immense pressure of continuing on the legacy of winning the state championship in the wake of the death of their star player. Despite the major setback, the movie depicts the team, coaches & fans/friends of Caroline Found using her death as motivation to win states again for the second time. Due to its athletic background, the movie is a great lesson for athletes in learning how to deal with setbacks and play their game.

Not only is the whole storyplot of the movie inspiring, but the small moments that take place can serve as a "how-to" guide for athletes on how they can manage their attention during pivotal moments. For example, the coach of the West High volleyball team urged her players to "focus on the game" and not think about anything else. This is to ensure that the players are providing their undivided attention to the game in order to make the best out of that present moment. This is a great piece of advice for athletes as it shows that in order to give it one's all in a specific match, they must give all their attention to it. One may say that although it may have inspirational elements, the movie is overall "corny" and can "manipulate your tear ducts and tug at your heart". Although the film may be overly-emotional, it still doesn't take away from the courageous responses of the affected parties of Found's death. Besides, the loss of a very close friend deserves to be dramaticized and merits such expressions. Overall, it is a movie that not only is bound to teach athletes important mental skills to overcome issues, but can give viewers a heavy heart --- as expected from such a story.

Conclusively, The Miracle Season does not fail to deliever. A reasonably dramatic movie that entails a plethora of life-changing approaches to heavy losses is surely bound to be a permanent sear in anyone who watches the movie and partakes in sports. Instead of focusing so much on the emotions of the movie, one should pay attention to the small details: the way the team approaches the loss of a dear friend, the way the team focuses on their matches, and finally, the life & legacy of the real star behind this story: Caroline Found. The folks in Iowa City should continue to honour and legacize Caroline Found as she spawned an inspirational comeback after her death.

Album
Although the album I've picked is certainly abnormal, I feel like this is an underrated set of songs released by Tata Docomo. Tata Docomo was an Indian mobile network that operated from 2008 to mid-2019. Under the SoundCloud account "rj-neha", a series of Tata Docomo ringtones have been released for the public. This album, although simplistic in nature, not intended for mainstream music, and currently receiving little to no publicity (therefore no official critics), uses various basic elements to create musical masterpieces.

In the ringtone "Tata Docomo Soft 20s", the ringtone starts off with a man mumbling incoherently. This is eventually meshed in with a man yelling "Taquila! Taquila! Rock-a-bhai [brother in Hindi]". Eventually, the ringtone is sealed off with various other musical elements, such as a xylophone playing in the background and a man making a "To-too-doo To-too-doo" noise. If one were to take each of these elements separately and listen to them, it wouldn't sound like music. It would sound like gibberish & not be compared to music - but due to the genuis combination of such simple elements, a man mumbling is turned into music in less than 15 seconds. One may refute these arguments by saying that this is a ringtone and therefore cannot be a good analysis. Although this is a reasonable argument to make, ringtones are still considered a part of music. In a YouTube video titled How Ringtones Dominated the Music Industry, Mic the Snare defines ringtones as "a 30 second clip of a full length song". Songs are defined as "musical compositions". Therefore, ringtones are songs and are no different to the mainstream music we hear today. Although they aren't taken as mainstream music, by their definitions, a ringtone can be taken and judged on by its musical rythm just like any other song because it is still a musical composition. Therefore, the ringtones produced by Tata Docomo are an underrated musical masterpiece.

Tata Docomo's ringtones have the potential to be revolutionary. Simple pieces of sound are mixed in fluidly together to create songs that anyone can enjoy. Despite little to no recognition, people should give ringtones a try. Despite their low-profile, ringtones are songs just like any other. I urge people to listen to ringtones more often and it may surprise anybody as to how catchy and fluid a ringtone can be.

Person
Mahinda Rajapaksa is the current prime minister & former president of the democratic socialist republic of Sri Lanka. Rajapaksa is currently the target of heavy, peaceful protests in the country. Locals are currently demanding for his resignation along with the current president of Sri Lanka and younger brother to Mahinda, Gotabaya Rajapaksa. Due to his history of racism & corruption, I side with the protestors and heavily advocate for his resignation.

Rajapaksa comes from a heavily political family. His father, D. A. Rajapaksa, was a parliament member for the Hambantota district. Despite being gifted with a heavily political background, the actions he has taken throughout his political career are way off from an honorary politician. Mahinda Rajapaksa was the 6th president of Sri Lanka during the country's extensive & bloody civil war. The Sri Lankan government dealt with a 30 year civil war (1983-2009), where the Sri Lankan government was fighting the LTTE, a homegrown terrorist organization seeking for a sovereign state for the country's minority Tamil ethnic group. Although he is credited with ending the civil war and handing the win towards the Sri Lankans with the killing of the LTTE leader Velupillai Prabhakaran, he's been accused of several war crimes against the Tamil people, including committing massacres against innocent Tamil civilians. He's denied the allegations and refuses external investigations into these war crime allegations. Along with a history of racism towards Tamils, he also has been accused of corruption. Protesters are blaming Mahinda Rajapaksa for the current horrific economic crisis, which has been the worse its ever been since independence (1948). He's been accused of stealing money that was given to the Lankan government to keep the economy flowing fluidly. The only solution, at this point, is for Mahinda Rajapaksa to retire from his governmental position as he has lost the trust of the people completely.

Overall Rajapaksha has proven that he is too incompetent to lead a country. Although he was gifted with political influence at a young age, he's put his needs in front of the country. Rajapaksa believed that he could get away with the massacres of innocent Tamils, but his bad deeds have caught up to him and the civilian population of Sri Lanka are no longer puppets to his manipulative tactics. Rajapaksa has no other action that he needs to take other than to resign!

Questions
1. What was the biggest challenge about trying to argue in an evaluative way about art, like films and albums?

2. When selecting criteria for your argument, do you find yourself drawn more towards Qualitative or Quantitative claims? Why?

3. Of the three subjects that you had to evaluate, which one was the most difficult for you and why?

4. If you had to pick one of your subjects to write a full length paper about, which one would you select, and why do you think that subject would work best? Final thoughts,