Thursday, May 9, 2013

Public Speech

I’m here to talk about the Italian national football team also known as the Azzurris.  Azzurri Means Blue in Italian and the color represents the royal dynasty which unified Italy in 1861.  So fans rooting for the Italian National Team say Forza Azzurri which means Force to Italy or Power to Italy.  The Italian National Soccer Team is one of the best national teams in international football.  They have won four World Cup championships in 1934, 1938, 1982 and 2006, second only to Brazil who won the most World championships, they have also appeared in two other World championships in 1970 and 1994.  The Italian national soccer team also won the European championship in 1968 and they appeared in two other European championships in 2000 and 2012.  The team did not appear in the first World Cup in 1930.  However in 1934 they won the first World Cup championship they appeared in in a 2-1 win against Czechoslovakia.  In the next cup in 1938 the Italians managed to win the championship again beating the Hungarians and becoming the first team to ever win two consecutive championships.  However the 1942 and 1946 World Cups were cancelled because of World War II, and the Italians did not win another championship until 1982 defeating West Germany 3-1.  However they won the European Cup championship in 1968 beating Yugoslavia 2-0.  They also won in 2006 tying France 1-1 and then beating them 5-3 in penalty kicks when Fabio Grosso scored the winning penalty after France's David Trezeguet missed.  There were also some words exchanged by Italy’s Marco Materazzi and France’s Zinedine Zidane, resulting in Zidane’s expulsion from the game.  Although there was some turbulence and trashtalking in the game against France, the Italians came away with a well-deserved World Cup championship final trophy and secured their place once again in the world of soccer.  Although coaches and players on the Italian soccer league were accused of match-fixing they made it to the final game of the European Championship against Spain.  Although they suffered a punishing defeat at the hands of Spain losing 4-0, and they did not do so hot in the 2010 World Cup, the Italian team is looking promising today with players like Mario Balotelli and Riccardo Montolivo and they are getting ready to compete and once again be a powerful force in the 2012 World Cup. Forza Azzurri!


http://www.i-azzurri.com/specials/historical-games/item/71-italy-germany-world-cup-2006-semi-finals

http://www.helium.com/items/2258400-a-history-of-the-italian-national-soccer-team?page=2

http://www.soccer-fans-info.com/italian-soccer-team.html

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WRsEVNpU6ik

* I believe that I definitely gave a very informative speech about the Italian national soccer team, and I feel like it was argumentative in trying to explain why they are such a good soccer team.  Although it was hard to do since they haven't done so hot in the past couple of years, I think I got the point across.  I think the videos definitely helped to enhance my speech, and it might have given people who don't know much about soccer or the World Cup a little more to work with.
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Thursday, April 11, 2013

Debate


Hi my name is Cary Socci, and I am arguing against the notion that Spotify is unethical in its treatment of artists, and that Spotify, as my partner stated actually helps artists build up some revenue from songs played, helps them get their name out there on the music scene, and actually combats music piracy or the illegal download of music, which artists do not make a dollar from.  Some have estimated that the music industry has lost about 10- 12.5 billion dollars due to piracy in the past decade.  With the illegal downloading of music people can easily download an artist’s music and play their songs over and over again, and the artist will never see a penny from this.  According to the International Federation of the Phonographic Industry (IFPI) it is estimated that 95% of all downloaded songs are downloaded illegally.[1]  This is a major problem.  Obviously legal attempts to solve this issue have failed.  However there is one thing that is showing results in combating this.  These are music download sites such as Spotify.  As my partner stated Spotify has 20 million users including over 5 million paying customers, (a million of these paying customers in the U.S. I might add) and Spotify has paid over 500 million dollars in royalties.[2]  Now judging from the amount of people who still download music illegally and the money that the music industry still loses from music piracy, this is a small step, but it is a step nonetheless.  And being that Spotify has only been around for 4 years, and they have managed to attract so many users and put so much money in the pockets of artists and those in the music industry, I think it’s safe to say that the future is promising.  Think about what Spotify can do in 10 years or 20.  Think about what will happen when other sites like this pop up.  We may see a turnaround in music downloading. Also, Spotify depends heavily on social networking, so people are encouraged to tell their friends about artists or bands they like, and this in turn gets the name of artists out there and lets people know about their music.  You can also share playlists with people, and go to websites where you can type in the name of an artist and a playlist with similar music will come up.  There are endless ways to discover music and for the music of starving artists to be discovered.  And best of all when these artists are discovered and their music is played, they will receive some revenue.[3]
Side notes:
In a press conference in New York on Thursday, December 6, Lars Ulrich, Metallica drummer, came onstage to announce that the band's entire catalog would now be available on Spotify.  Ulrich publicly ended his feud with his old enemy and Spotify board member Sean Parker who a dozen years ago ran Napster, which Ulrich and the band Metallica blasted and legally combated for running a free music download site which artists did not make a penny for.[4]

According to founder Daniel Ek, ‘Spotify’ which has been criticized by some artists for paying tiny royalties, “has paid out half of its money to artists in the last nine months, as Spotify picks up momentum.”[5]   
This is the new generation of music.  Whether we like it or not, things are changing.  According to the research firm Strategy Analytics, “Although music streaming makes up a tiny part of industry revenue, it will grow by 40 per cent this year as physical sales drop 12 percent.”[6]
In 2006 college students were estimated to be downloading at least 1.3 billion illegal songs a year.  ‘College students’ are notable both for their large absolute numbers and for their high frequency of downloading.”[7]  As a college student it would be impossible for  me to pay lots of money for music or go out and purchase CD’s.  Sites like Spotify allow me to find music extremely easily and legally, and I am no longer forced to download music illegally.  I know longer have to worry about being in trouble with the law or getting viruses on my PC, or just the moral issue of downloading music illegally. 
Questions for the opposing team:
Wouldn’t you say that sites like Spotify with its rapid growth over the past four years will help in the fight against music piracy, and possibly eventually lead to a huge decrease in the illegal downloading of music which artists do not make a penny for, and which are stealing from artists and causing the music industry to lose millions of dollars each year? 
Closing statement:
I believe that our world is changing, and music is a big part of that world.  The days of going out to the store and buying a CD are over.  This is the age of downloading music from our laptops, quickly and easily wherever we may be.  But what is to stop us from downloading music illegally?  Sites like Spotify where we can download music quickly and easily.. and legally.  We can be sure that the artists we are listening to will receive some revenue for our listening, we do not have to worry about getting viruses on our laptops from downloading music illegally, and we do not have to worry about getting sued or getting in trouble with the law.  As we have seen over the past few years more people are joining Spotify, and in turn more songs are being downloaded and artists are being paid for their music.  Also, artists are getting their name out there with sites like Spotify which is always the most important thing for starving artists.  The future is very promising.
As a music lover I am very happy about this new change.  Now I can download the music that I love, and listen to my favorite artists guilt-free and of little cost to me.  This is the best thing for music in a long time.


[7] http://ehis.ebscohost.com/eds/pdfviewer/pdfviewer?sid=7e8b2ce0-27ff-4875-b48f-5e05578a746e%40sessionmgr115&vid=4&hid=6

* I definitely felt that me and Rob gave a solid argument about Spotify.  I think that basically everyone downloads music and would like to have a quick and easy way to download music at little or no cost. However I feel like the reason why we won was because most of the people were already on our side to begin with, as we have seen happen with many of these debates.
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Friday, February 8, 2013

My Biography


     My name is Cary Socci. I was born in the Bronx at Albert Einstein Hospital.  I lived in Westchester in the towns of Eastchester and Yonkers until I was 6 years old.  Then I moved to Suffolk County, Long Island when I was 9, to the towns of Kings Park and Ronkonkoma.  I still live in Ronkonkoma. I’ve lived there the longest so I’d say that’s where I grew up

     When I was little I was really into ninja turtles, I had a loot of ninja turtles.  Then I was really into wrestling like WWE, well it used to be WWF, I had a lot of those too, you could probably fill a closet with all the action figures I had.  I used to be really into comic books and video games. The first game I ever played was Super Mario Brothers for Nintendo.  I’m talking about the first Nintendo. Some of you have probably never even seen that system.  Then I used to play Super Nintendo at my cousins house. We also played Super Mario 2 and 3, Mortal Combat, The Ninja Turtles and the Simpsons game.  Then I had Sega Genesis , Nintendo 64 and Playstation.  Sega was Sonic the Hedgehog. I used to play Golden Eye for Nintendo 64 and Playstation was Crash Bandicoot.  As far as comic books I was really into Marvel. I read everything from the Hulk, X-Men, Punisher, Spider-Man was my favorite. I have a ton of Spider-Man comics.  I used to be really into horror movies. I watched everything from Universal Monster movies from the 30’s to Friday the 13th and Texas Chainsaw Massacre

     I have cousins who live upstate on the outskirts of Kingston and I would always take trips up there, and we would play baseball or basketball in the park, or play in the creek and catch crayfish. It was very rural. My cousins had a lot of land so I got to experience that which was nice.  I always played outside and I always played sports but I was never really into one sport enough to play year after year in a league. I never really had the attention span for it. I usually would just play something for like a year or two and then get tired of it. I played basketball and football but those were only for like a year or two and then I gave it up

     I was always really into music but I never played any instruments. You can call me a loser but I played the saxophone for like a week. I just remember it hurt my lips so I gave it up. When I was probably like 10 my cousin got me into hip hop so I used to listen to a lot of hip hop like DMX, Jay-Z, Eminem of course. I was also into alternative rock like the Offspring and Blink 182, Limp Bizkit, but I felt like I hadn’t heard music until my dad introduced me to classic rock, He introduced me to artists like Jimi Hendrix and Eric Clapton, and bands like Pink Floyd and Led Zeppelin

     As a kid I used to draw a lot. I was always drawing monsters, wolves, guys with guns, lots of bloody, gorey stuff like typical stuff a boy would draw. I actually took a drawing class once, and I was told by my cousin’s boyfriend who drew comic that I could be really good some day but like anything else I gave it up
-My dad has a fence company in Westchester so I got to work with my hands at a young age and it’s really hard work so I definitely learned the value of a dollar at a young age. His partner is from Mexico and all of his brothers work there and have been working there for years.  This definitely gave me a view of a different culture other than mine, and I was forced to learn some Spanish, because sometimes they would only speak in Spanish

     As far as growing up my parents had two different styles for raising me.  My mom was extremely strict and she would yell at me for just about anything, but my dad was much more laid back, and not that he would let me get away with a lot more but he would just would handle it differently.  He wouldn’t just blow up over anything.  But the thing about that is when he got mad like you did not wanna be around. I was probly more scared of him, because when he got mad like watch out.

     I was always a good student in school until I got to high school. I made some bad decisions in high school. I started smoking weed, stopped caring about much of anything. Fought a lot with my mom.  It wasn’t good. People didn’t take me seriously, because I didn’t take myself seriously. I wasn’t thinking about my career or my future. All I cared about was when the next blunt was going to be rolled. It was the wrong way to think about things and I realize that now. I lost a lot of friends, but I realize now that I made a mistake and I’ve learned from it.

     I’m extremely Italian, I’m an FBI, not an FBI agent. I love being Italian American. I feel like it’s the best thing in the world. I grew up on pasta and tomato sauce.  My mom is famous for her sauce and her meatballs.  My grandma is also an excellent cook.  We go there for Christmas Eve for whole fish thing.  Every time I go to her house she tries to literally kill me with food.  And the funny thing is she’ll make like 10 things and then she’ll be like “Sorry I would have made more. I didn’t know you were coming.” “Like you just tried to kill me with food and you’re really apologizing to me that it’s not enough.”

     I love to travel, I’ve been to Italy, I’ve been to the Caribbean, I’ve been to a few states- Rhode Island, Connecticut, Pennsylvania, New Jersey and Florida. I’m going to Virginia Beach for Spring Break. I haven’t been nearly as many places as I want to go but there’s always next year and hopefully when I have a career I can travel a lot on vacation.  I also love exercising and staying active. I try to go the gym at least every other day, but up here at school I drink about 3 times a week so it kind of cancels it out. I try to watch the news as much as I can so I can figure out what’s going on in the world. I watch educational shows on Discovery and History because I love to learn.  I also really like to laugh so I like comedy shows. I love Seinfeld and South Park. I love Family Guy.  I love movies. My two favorite movies are Godfather and Old School

     I’ve always been really into history. I used to love social studies class. It was always my favorite subject so I thought I could teach social studies. But during my time here at SUNY Oneonta I’ve realized that teaching may not be for me. All of the lesson plans, dealing with parents, grading papers, dealing with troubled students, the difficulty to find a job in New York and the fact that I don’t feel like teachers make enough for what they do. Just the fact that I’m not sure if I’m organized or dedicated enough to be a teacher. I’m just not sure it’s for me.

     But I still love history and I’m now studying history here at SUNY Oneonta.  I feel like I love history so much, because I like knowing why things are the way they are.  They say history repeats itself, so I feel like if we don’t know much about history we’re doomed to repeat it.

 * Topics that I would like to debate today's hot topics in politics such as guns and immigration, and I would like to debate safety issues in football

*I thought that it definitely helped to be humorous at certain times, because people respond to humor and like to laugh.  I thought I definitely earned some points for going off the paper and speaking from memory and giving good eye contact.  However it is true with speaking from memory that you often forget what you wanted to say, and have to improvise and it may not be the exact thing that you wanted to say.
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