Michael Phelps is not just an Olympic athlete, he is an American icon. At the 2008 summer Olympics in Beijing, China, Michael Phelps won a world-record eight gold medals. It was something that was unheard of and have never been done before. The way in which he completed this amazing task was quite a journey. He was a part of several relay teams that won three golds and the rest of the gold medals he won were individual events. He set world records in seven of the eight gold medals that we won, and the one that he did not set a world record in, he still set an olympic record in that event. In the 100 meter butterfly race, Michael Phelps won by the smallest possible margin. He was able to claim a victory by an incredible .01 seconds. Phelps was outstanding in the 2008 summer olympics, for he finished above 14countries by himself in the medal counts. He currently possesses 16 gold medals, the most ever by any athlete. Michael Phelps has not only changed the sport of swimming just through his performances in the olympics, but he has represented the United States of America in a great deal of positive ways. He is now an American icon and a role model to numerous people. Even if you do not enjoy watching sports or don't have any interest in them, his success at the olympics will go down in history forever. The olympics is a tradition that is highly celebrated worldwide. Countries have a lot of pride in their countries and take the olympics seriously. America was fortunate to have an individual like Michael Phelps represent our country in a very positive way.
This music video, "Savin Me" by Nickelback, has a lot of hidden meanings in its content. In order to fully understand this video, it is imporant that details are focused on. The video begins with masses and masses of people walking around a city. It seems to be very cluddered and busy. Every person seems to be worried about only themselves and is on their own path to go where only they desire. They seem to have no concerns about anyone else and not friendly at all. In the beginning,a man in a trench coat rushes over and pushes a man out of the street and makes him avoid an oncoming car. The man who was saved in the video seems very confused and not comfortable, almost as if he feels out of place. He is very, very interested in everyone walking and he observes everyone and looks above their head. He's very intrigued at this, but the viewer is now aware of what he is looking at. The man is so interested that he even grabs some of the people and touches them. Whatever he is looking at above the people's head seems to stress him out as he sits on benches and shows very worried facial expressions. He seems very urgent and in a rush, for he is pacing and moving around constantly. At 1:51 in the video, the man notices orange numeric numbers above every person's head. These numbers are a dial that appears to be counting down. Then, at 2:40, the man notices an elderly woman on a stretcher being carried into an ambulance. At 2:50, the man then noticed that the numbers from the elderly woman being carried into the ambulance had expired and reached zero. After this incident, the man continues to walk around observing everyone's numbers. At 3:45 in the video, the man notices a woman getting into a car and he rushes over to her. He then violently grabbed the girl and pulled her away from the taxi cab that she was intending on getting into. After he pulled her away, a momument that was in a large crated that was likely attatched to a crane, fell out of the sky and landed right on top of the taxi cab that the woman was about to get in.
After viewing the content of the video, it is very evident that there is a great amount of symbolism in this video. As you reflect upon this video, you have to make a lot of inferences and assumptions. First, you have to assume that the man at the beginning of the video saved the other man in the street for some reason. You have to make an inference that there was some reason or some way that he could sense the danger and knew there was an oncoming car. Also, you have to assume that whatever is above the people's head must be very important. Toward the first half of the video, you don't know what those numbers stand for. Then as the woman dies in the ambulance, the viewer is finally able to figure out the meaning and symbolism of the numbers. The most important and strongest part of the film is when he saves the woman at the end. This is definetelty the most important element of the video because the man was able to apply what he had experienced and learn to something else. He was able to recognize what those numbers symbolized and saved the woman. I felt the producers did a very well job of using symbolism in this video and relating it to the lyrics for they state, "Say it if it’s worth savin me, Hurry I’m fallin". In this video, the other people are the helpless ones who are falling and are relying on other people to save them.
