Classics part 2, country seyet reading

This may be tough to watch… just sight reading the melody here

Throwing it back to the classics part 1

Wiener Marsch… haven't played this in months… sorry!

Greenday

When we watched a documentary on Greenday's album being transformed into a play, I was shocked initially. It sounded horrifying. You want to take a punk-rock band and make a musical out of their work... It sounded destined for failure and I'm still going to say that I probably wouldn't have enjoyed the performance. That doesn't mean it was bad though, it just means it wasn't my style!

The more important part of that whole occurrence was that people went out on a limb and tried something completely new. I respect Billy for trying out something that seemed to be absolutely out if his nature... And he enjoyed it. It reminded me that I should approach college with an open mind so that I can explore the world and thereby myself. Maybe something like choir would interest me, who knows?

State Run Radio

I remember that at one point in class we mentioned that there is a startling correlation between the lineups of major festivals in the US this year. This is probably due to the music industry being largely dominated by three major labels. Essentially this means that three labels control what music is being performed and fed to the public. This reminded me of the following song…

It may be a little excessive in that it claims government involvement in all of this but… put record labels in its place and…?

This Week's Feel

I think it's an understatement to say that this week has been turbulent for Anderson High School. While students were already thrown in the frying pan with EOC's for the 9th, 10th and 11th graders, AP and IB testing took its toll on the upperclassmen. To stir up the pot some more, the whole yik-yak (I don't know how it's spelled…) deal escalated to epic proportions… So this brings me to two key points.

1. By banning the use of cell phones within class and not allowing students to have certain apps (which they can't really control), what are they accomplishing. Yes, bullying is bad. Basically everybody experiences bullying at some point in their twelve years at school. Yes, yik-yak makes it easy for kids to cowardly demean each other, sometimes purposefully, sometimes thinking that it's a funny joke. The app is/was being heavily abused at Anderson… Yet, instating these cell phone rules isn't going to solve the problem of bullying… It may stop bullying in one technologically advanced form but people are creative and it will manifest itself in another way, shape or form. I believe that the issue is being approached from the wrong side. Bullying will occur regardless of the rules in place, unless you create a super harsh authoritative regime. Rather than trying to squash bullying, it would be much more effective to teach kids how to handle bullying and provide them with emotional/social support. This means that the problem is approached front the positive side and helps kids mature, to learn how to respond to adversity as once they become adults, the world isn't going to coddle them. If a coworker or stranger calls a kid-now-adult a bunch of names, unless it's a threat or a disturbance in the work place, the world won't shed a protective tear around the abused, that's the sad truth. It's key to learn to stand up for yourself and to become comfortable with who you are, to not listen to the caustic remarks of others and know your worth. All alternate perspectives are welcome and appreciated, especially considering how little student input the administration seems to be seeking on a matter that mostly pertains to the student body.

2. The good news. By the above paragraph, one might get the impression that the AHS student body is morally filthy but this is far from the truth… Considering 911, we should remember that the actions of a few should NOT determine the judgement of the character of the many. While some students abused technology to post cruel and crude comments about others, the Anderson student body on average is awesome. I say this as I attended Trojan Live this Friday and the audience's support of the performers  was overwhelming. One particular girl clearly got stage fright, she was trying to sing "Little Talks" by Of Monsters and Men and she couldn't get started. The audience took notice and rather than booing or just sitting in scary silence, the entire theater began to clap and yell words of encouragement. It took about 3 rounds but once the girl got started, she did REALLY well AND overcame her stage fright! Also, I want to acknowledge that all of the other performers were fantastic as well and I admire the guts it took for them to get up on stage!

All Black Everything

In the light of the upcoming IB History test, I'm choosing to breakdown Lupe Fiasco's song "All Black Everything". The song is basically his rearrangement of history, mostly defined by switching the roles of African-Americans and Anglos. It's pretty playful and powerful stuff if you listen to it.

I concede ahead of time that I used rap genius here a decent amount.

[Hook]
You would never know if you could ever be You don't know what you can do unless you try,
If you never try, you would never see How would the role of blacks in the United States have been different if slavery had never occurred? 
Stayed in Africa, we ain't never leave
So there were no slaves in our history
Were no slave ships, were no misery
Call me crazy, or isn't he?
See I fell asleep and I had a dream shout out to MLK
It was all black everything A world in which people's complexion is irrelevant, all black = blind to color

[Verse 1]fairly creative rhyming occurs here
Uh, and we ain't get exploited
White man ain't feared it so he did not destroy it Alludes to: MLK and Bertrand Russell within one line regarding race relations- pack mentality stimulates picking on minority
We ain't work for free, see they had to employ it 
Built it up together so we equally appointed since = job opportunities and salaries were provided in the past instead of slavery, slave codes etc., the distribution of power is equal and the nation is content overall
First 400 years, see we actually enjoyed it
Constitution written by W.E.B. Du Bois <- civil rights leader being part of Founding Fathers, once again "equally appointed" makes table even or even better, irrelevant regarding race
Were no reconstructions, civil war got avoided if there hadn't been slavery, no civil war… basid
Little black sambo grows up to be a lawyer
Extra extra on the news stands
Black woman voted head of Ku Klux Klan flips race relations, patriarchy and the path to the 15th amendment upside down
Malcolm Little dies as an old man
Martin Luther King read the eulogy for him bringing two assassinated civil rights activists with differing ideas together naturally
Followed by Bill O'Reilly who read from the Quran
President Bush sends condolences from Iran
Where Fox News reports live
That Ahmadinejad wins the Mandela Peace Prize now flips current politics upside down, to be honest, the fact that he can get the name Ahmandinejad to fit smoothly into his song is astounding

[Hook]

[Verse 2] I'll stop annotating/explaining lyrics, they can be found at http://rapgenius.com/Lupe-fiasco-all-black-everything-lyrics
Uh, and it ain't no projects
Keepin it real is not an understood concept
Yea, complexion's not a contest there are no "desirable" colors as colors don't matter
Cause racism has no context no reason for racism to exist if colors are ignored
Hip-hop ain't got a section called conscious
Everybody rappin like crack never happened
Crips never occurred nor bloods to attack them
Matter of fact no hood to attack in
Somalia is a great place to relax in
Fred Astaire was the first to do a backspin
The Rat Pack was cool group of black men
That inspired the five white guys called the Jacksons
Eminem fitted in but then again
He inspired a black rapper tryin to mimic him
And thats what really rose up out of Michigan
The "sounding white" rapper by the name of 50 Cent 
so many civil rights related messages in one song
[Hook]

[Verse 3]
Uh, and I know it's just a fantasy
I cordially invite you to ask why can't it be
Now we can do nothing bout the past
But we can do something about the future that we have
We can make it fast or we can make it last
Every woman queen and every man a king and
When those color lines come we can't see between
We just close our eyes till its all black everything

[Hook]

Not all that much internal rhyme but the density of the lyrics of this song is ridiculous. There are an ungodly amount of allusions in the verses and a lot of shots from Lupe at Bill O'Reilly. Ends on a very hopeful note!

ACL (Another round)

At some point this second semester, we were checking out a couple of new bands and we happened to listen to Ozomatli's think-hop (not going to lie, that's a really lame label for a genre) songs. Now that I've looked at the ACL lineup, it happens that Ozomatli is attending ACL. To me, this is terrific, as this will be the first time that I'm sure to know a band's music that: 1) Sofie and Kendall don't really know, 2) Since the band is fairly unknown, it'll be easy to check them out without dealing with the hassle of a big crowd and 3) Their music is actually very interesting, the one that stood out to me the most was probably the one with cat meows in it (my goal is to find out why, why, why???).

What's not to like about the weird compilation of sounds thrown together here?

Iscariot Take 2?

It Ends Tonight

The Big Fishes

Looking at this year's ACL lineup, the big fishes are not that exciting to me. I think Eminem's new stuff is pretty bad, it lost the good inspirational undertone that was present in his earlier stuff. Pearl Jam isn't my style of music. Listening to Beck yesterday, I didn't find it particularly stimulating either. I'm willing to give Outkast a shot. Listening to Calvin Harris and Lana del Rey was disappointing. To me, both of their styles are boring pop. Izzy Agalea has good dance music but her lyrics are absolutely sub-par. The Replacements are before my time and will be super crowded so I'm tempted not to go. I can see myself having fun at Skrillex because they'll probably have a good light show and fun music to dance to, yes it's that simple. Foster the People needs to leave Austin... I'm willing to give The Avett Brothers, Zedd and Major Lazer a chance, they each have a unique and very different sound. That was my assessment of "The Big Fishes". I personally think they could have gotten better headliners. ACL went for some fairly boring pop artists this year with Lana del Rey etc...

Guitar Round 2

Apologies ahead of time!

Nirvana

What connects Nirvana and The Beatles on a spiritual level? Nirvana's title is derived from a Buddhist/Hindu philosophy, the absolute clearing of the mind that achieves "egolessness" or a release from the suffering of the world. The Beatles dabbled in meditative yoga, a Hindu practice. I'm not sure what draws these great bands to the Hindu religion but I find their fascination very interesting. There seems to be a huge amount of respect from Western artists for the tranquility of the Hindu practices. I guess one valid question to ask here is if the bands' have success because they reflect interests that are already present in their fans or because they bring a "new" way of thinking, a new culture to their audience.

However, I think that Nirvana, as they weren't as big as The Beatles, had a much smaller target audience and sung songs of protest that were more domestically aimed than The Beatles. The Beatles, since they traversed the globe, naturally composed more worldly tracks. Regardless, both bands had a respectively revolutionary impact on the music of their time and should be appreciated for their cultural contributions.

I apologize, this may be the worst blog I've written all year...

First Attempt at Collaborative Music

This is the first time I've tried to seriously put something together with other people. It's the very beginning and essentially what we accomplished after 30 minutes but considering those facts, it's not bad at all. I apologize for the delay but this is the earliest I could get my hold on this.

30 MINUTES- NO JUDGING

Tupac's Murder… Authoritative Corruption?

When watching Tupac's murder documentary, it became fairly clear very quickly that the circumstances of his death were too suspicious for it to be carried out by accident. The car that pulled up alongside him would have had to have known in which seat Tupac was sitting and the fact that insufficient evidence was produced for a murder that occurred within city limits suggests that something is off. While I don't think that the US government would secretly assassinate Tupac themselves, I think it could have easily turned a blind eye to the knowledge that it was happening. I find it likely that one of the police officers under Suge Knight's control could have done it. The scary part of the assassination is that it is extremely likely that someone in a position of power abused it and got somebody killed.

While not the same, the escalating scandal of what the NSA has been capable of doing and what hasn't been disclosed to the public is frankly terrifying. It makes me want to not use the internet for anything financially or privately important, although in this day and age, that is essentially impossible. Here's a link to recent developments regarding the NSA. I understand the need to keep these operations secret but a little bit more public disclosure would make an astounding difference.

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2014-04-11/nsa-said-to-have-used-heartbleed-bug-exposing-consumers.html

Journey- Hair Metal?

So from watching the performance of Don't Stop Believing by Journey. I feel like they may be on the edge of Rock and Roll and Hair Metal. Keep in mind that I have a very limited perspective on the history of all of this music. Dress wise, some of them seem like they could definitely be hair metal. Although this is a video of their performance in 2005, take note of the shirt of the singer… if you call that a shirt…

Now to the songwriting part: (honestly there's not much...)

Just a small town girl

Livin' in a lonely world<- this girl is looking for a partner, notice the repetition of L's here though, so far this looks like it may be the biggest lyrical accomplishment of the song

She took the midnight train

Goin' anywhere<- and she's VERY DESPERATE

Just a city boy

Born and raised in South Detroit<- hopeless, in search of hope

He took the midnight train

Goin' anywhere

A singer in a smokey room

A smell of wine and cheap perfume

For a smile they can share the night

It goes on and on and on and on<- the two find "dirty" (smokey, cheap, smell of wine) love

Strangers waiting

Up and down the boulevard

Their shadows searching

In the night

Streetlights, people

Livin' just to find emotion

Hidin' somewhere in the night<- this joint is desolate

Workin' hard to get my fill drinking?

Everybody wants a thrill addiction to: drugs, alcohol, gambling, sex?

Payin' anything to roll the dice GAMBLING

Just one more time

Some will win

Some will lose

Some were born to sing the blues the gambling doesn't really matter but they're stuck in a cyclical game that's draining their life

Oh, the movie never ends

It goes on and on and on and on

Strangers waiting

Up and down the boulevard

Their shadows searching

In the night

Streetlights, people

Livin' just to find emotion

Hidin' somewhere in the night

[Instrumental interlude]<- the entire song if you think about it

Don't stop believin'

Hold on to that feelin'

Streetlights, people

Don't stop believin'

Hold on

Streetlights, people

Don't stop believin'

Hold on to that feelin'

Streetlights, people

Honestly, not much to gain from this song except some good guitar playing at points… This was pretty disappointing once I revisited

Revisiting My Own Song

Lisa Fry (backup singer)->Musicians Who Are Getting Inadequate Recognition

When we started watching "20 Feet From Stardom", I started thinking about the people that I know personally that should receive more musical attention than they get right now. The first person I thought of was Daniel Ethridge, a graduate of Anderson High School last year, currently attending Belmont University to study music. I've been trying to keep up with him and he's putting up some great stuff. I feel like he would benefit from recording some of his tracks at a higher quality but considering how good his band sounds with the equipment that they're using, I think the only way they an go is up. The kid's talented and I wish the best for him. The fact that I know him and that I personally know that he's a good kid is really making me root for him. I've been trying to find out whether he's released an album because I would definitely buy it to support him. He probably doesn't know I'm a fan but that's alright. Here are most of the useful links to his music that I have found!

https://www.facebook.com/pages/Daniel-Ethridge-and-the-Wild-Things/334189343384222

https://danielethridge.bandpage.com

https://soundcloud.com/daniel-ethridge/whenever-youre-around

Also… completely unrelated. Here's a German satirist from the 70's-80's that few people in the US know? See if you can understand what's going on?

Étude Practice

Currently, I've been trying to get a little more away from playing the same pop music that I play ALL THE TIME. It gets repetitive after a while and as a result, like pretty much anything else, starts losing its appeal; so I've started trying to learn Étude, op. 10-3 by Chopin. I think the reason that this is so much more difficult for me is because pop music tends to play boring chords on the bottom, or something else that's similarly easy to pick up! With classical music, my left hand is usually challenged more, having to contribute to the melody. This is where I'm currently at...

Radioactive on "Guitar"

Life Theory

Here's a short life theory that I came up with regarding why more intelligent people are more unhappy. Generally speaking, more intelligent people tend to be people who are adept at critical thinking. Critical thinking usually involves breaking things down and analyzing what is wrong. This is useful if one elects to fix those things that one perceives as wrong as this usually brings about a sense of fulfillment, a sense of action! However, I believe critical thinking usually culminates in identifying that which is wrong and not doing anything about it because one can't for some reason or another. Therefore, a critical thinker is left identifying a whole bunch of things that are wrong, "negatives". A critical thinker often has difficulty turning off his "critical thinking" and therefore dwells on "negatives". There are, however, "positives" and I would define these as instances where the critical thinker is surprised by excellence through creativity.  Making an analogy to music, a critical thinker would be bored with the stereotypical, average pop music because... Well it is average. However, when somebody does something new, "redefines the game" (credit goes to Gavin here I believe), a critical thinker is impressed by this excellence. However, since this is not the average, it occurs by definition less frequently. Therefore, a "critical thinker" is stuck with a majority of things that bore him/her, "negatives", and a minority of "positives". The math speaks for itself. My conclusion is that to be happier, one has to involve oneself in activities that cause one to focus so much on the activity that one doesn't have time to critically think (#flow).

This saved as a draft originally, sorry!