Halloween

Personally, I love Halloween. It is not my favorite holiday, but you are never too old for free candy. I will take it with pleasure and no remorse. This Halloween, I am not being anyone specific. I am simply wearing a purple toga. I guess I can consider myself to be a royal Roman because only the wealthier people in Rome were able to afford purple clothing. I also figured that everyone usually wears a white toga, and I wanted to be different. I wore my toga to a pre-Halloween party and everyone loved it. Some guy even offered to pay me to make him one, but there is not much to make. Buy some fabric and wrap it around your body and pin it to hold it up. What exactly was I suppose to make? Did he want me to wrap it around him because he could not do it himself? Who knows. He eventually caught my drift and walked away. I do not have much reason for picking a toga. I guess I chose it because it was cheap and easy. I did not have to put much thought into it, but it was not so thoughtless that I made the toga out of a bed sheet. No, I did the real thing and bout actual fabric. The fabric and all my accessories only came up to around $30, which is cheaper than most costumes without accessories. I plan to have a fun but safe Halloween. Hopefully my pins will hold and nothing will slide off. I would not want the treat in trick or treat to be me revealing myself.

Awkward but Fun

Thursday started off as a normal day, except for the whole getting a shot thing (I hate needles). After that, I went to the post office and returned to my room. I was minding my own business when someone knocked on the door. When I answer it, there are two guys that I have never met standing there. They asked me if I wanted to be an extra in a movie. I asked questions and got names and details. If I decided to go, I wanted to know what I would be getting into. It turns out that they just needed some people to make it look like they were having a party. I thought it might be fun so I decided to join them. They gave me a few minutes to get ready. When they knocked on the door again, I was a little surprised at who was standing there. One of the two guys was wearing this long blond wig and this thick blond mustache. It was quite disturbing but hilarious. I could not help but to stare at him. We walked to where this so called movie was supposed to be filmed. There were other people there anxiously waiting to be informed. We basically had to walk in and act like we new each other. I could do that. We walked in and started to mingle, acting like we were at an actual party. People were introducing themselves and acting drunk. These two girls were dancing on the couch and the table. We started having random conversations, anything to make the situation seem real. I met some new people. I kind of wish it was a real party.

Sidney Bechet, Myths, and Legends

Sydney Bechet was a great musician, but he was also crazy. In his case, and the case of other famous artists, his insanity was the reasoning for him being such a great musician. Bechet felt like he could do no wrong. All of his actions had meaning whether or not people agreed with that logic or not. Bechet also felt that he had to be the best at everything. If anyone came to him with a challenge, he had to prove he could do ten times better than the challenger. Sometimes a myth or legend is created about an artist in order to glorify there greatness. Myths and legends make the artist seem more interesting. Sometimes people seemed to be more intrigued by lies than actual proven facts. Some cannot even tell the difference. Myths and legends are used to make that particular artist stick out in one's mind. One may tell a story about a "normal" artist that does not have any tales to complement their name. The next story might be about one who has many tales, and the listener may pay more attention to the artist who has the tales attached to their name. Sometimes myths or legends are created to keep the artist living. Their fans may not want to believe the truth about their death or that they just were not interested in what they were doing anymore. Tupac fans do not want to believe he is dead because he was considered to be a great rapper. They just do not want to let him go. If an artists just stops what their doing, people may create their own versions of why. The made up story may even be ludicrous compared to the truth, and people will still believe it. Myths and legends are a way to remember people even if they have nothing to do with what really happened.

Coming Up With Sesame Street

At first, I was not really sure what the third essay was really about. The librarian had thrown me off when we had the library presentation because she kept talking about pop culture. I had been pretty sure that that was the topic of the second essay. I played along and acted like I new what was going on even though my brain was really making a strand of question marks throughout most of the presentation. Once we got back to class and actually spoke about the topic of this last essay, my brain became focused again. The strand of question marks from the class before was finally broken up. I went home trying to focus on a topic that I would be interested in. When I first heard the essay was suppose to be about art, I thought of famous artists and writers. I even played with the idea of writing about Shakespeare or Oliver Twist, but I knew I was not really interested in those topics. Those were just ideas that seemed relatively possible given the subject at hand. I thought a little harder and came up with "Rapper's Delight" by the Sugar Hill Gang. It was the first rap song. That has significance, but then I remembered I wrote an 18 page term paper on hip hop my senior year. Wouldn't that be just a little repetitive? There was no challenge there. I threw that idea out the window and thought some more. My brain popped when it thought of Sesame Street. If light bulbs really did hang over people's heads, I'm pretty sure mine would have lit up. I knew Sesame Street was perfect. It was a subject that most would never come up with and one that many could probably never link to art. This paper might be the most original analytical essay that I have ever written.

Stax Records

I have heard of Stax Records, but if someone wanted a detailed description of the record company, I would not be able to give it to them without doing some research first. After reading up on it, I learned that Stax did play a major role in American music. First of all, it was a leader when it came to the creation of soul music that started in the south and later spread across the world. Another important fact is that even though the record company was founded by a white family, they still recorded and released numerous African American artists. This was during a time where America was seen as black and white. Stax was one of the most integrated companies during the 1960s. Some of the company's earnings even went to magazines like Jet and Black Enterprise in order to keep them operating. The company eventually became largest African American owned company in America until financial problems would drive it into bankruptcy. Despite hard times, Stax Records opened the door for minorities in Hollywood. Stax Records also made a communal effort by feeding the needy and promoting school programs. Stax Records was one of the first record labels to become a multimedia company. One of their first movies was Wattstax. Big names in music today have created their own versions of Stax singles. Stax Records made many genres of music possible by bringing people together from all different backgrounds. Though Stax Records did not keep its original name throughout history, the record label still remains a legacy.

Italian American or American Italian

Yesterday, we be began learning the names of food in my Italian class. Turns out a lot of food that most people think is Italian is not. Instead, a few of our so called Italian meals are actually American Italian. First of all, my professor stated that Italians never mix their pasta with some type of meat. So chicken alfredo is out as an actual Italian cuisine and so is spaghetti and meatballs and chicken parmigiana, which is just supposed to be made with eggplant. Italians might put a white cream sauce on their pasta but they would never put chicken on top of it. Meatballs would be served as a side to the spaghetti rather than on top of it. I guess it was the American concept of Italian foods to add meat to everything. My professor also stated that an Italian writer who lived in the states for a while thought it was basically a sin to put meat and pasta in the same dish. We Americans are simply thinking it's Italian when actual Italians have nothing to do with it. Garlic bread is not even Italian. In Italy, they have bread and they have garlic but never garlic bread, another American Italian food. Our professor also told us that Italians rarely eat bread with their pasta because both bread and pasta have a lot of carbohydrates. I understand that, but don't most "Italian" restaurants serve you bread with your meal? Americans have basically taken food from other cultures and made it their own.

John Stewart Versus Real News

I watched the clip where John Stewart makes fun of CNN. Personally, I do not understand how the Daily Show with John Stewart is considered news. John Stewart is not reporting on anything. He is simply taking coverage from other actual news sources and making fun of them. Not once does he cover his own story. He makes the news seem less important than it really is. Stewart finds a way to bring down events that most people consider to be extremely important. In this clip, all Stewart did was find numerous ways to bash CNN. His point of view was not even relevant. Sometimes he does not even comment on the news itself, just on the people reporting it. He speaks about how news sources like CNN need to check their facts when he is the one being nonfactual about everything else. His jokes are not even funny. News is suppose to be serious with opinions that help define a situation rather than bring a situation down. When I watch the real news, I see a purpose behind most stories. When I watch John Stewart, I see no reason for watching the show in the first place. Stewart can only have the right to bash other news networks if he decides to create and report on his own stories instead of making "news" by making fun of people reporting for CNN. I would never consider John Stewart a real journalist or a real reporter. He is just a bad comedian looking for laughs made from other people's work. I just cannot see why people would replace actual news for the non-humorous statements of John Stewart.

Hit Song Science?

I completely disagree with the Hit Song Science software. While it is an interesting concept, I do not think that a computer should be the one deciding whether a song is good or bad. Those decisions should be left to the fans. If a song is a no go according to actual people, then don't release it. The whole point of being a musician is seeing whether or not one has what it takes to please a large group of people, not what it takes to please a machine. The software is not the one who will be buying the artists' albums, so why should its opinion be so important? Why should it be the one making the decisions when it comes to releasing a new song? Plus, people have all types of tastes in music, and the software is just making a generalization based on previous songs. Most people like hearing a different song. I do not think a lot of people would be happy if every song they heard was a bit too similar to the last one. What if the software is wrong? The software might give a low rating to what could have been the next biggest hit across all genres of music and give a high rating for a song that people might end up hating. When it comes to likes and dislikes about music, opinions should be left to people and fans with emotions, not wires and microchips.

Art: 21 Identity

When I first chose this video, I thought it would be about how art formed a personal identity. Once I started watching the video, I found out that I was wrong. The video followed four artists (Bruce Nauman, Kerry James Marshall, Maya Lin, and Louise Bourgeois). Each of them spoke about their experiences as an artist. Nauman spoke about how he became an artist because he had little passion for any other subjects and hated being repetitive. He also spoke about how accidents affected his art and made it better. His art was different from other forms because it was in a video format that others might think was a little peculiar. His favorite artworks were the pieces that made one question its function. The next artist was Marshall. Marshall was my favorite artist from the video because he explained why he did a certain thing and not just that he did it. All of his art was based on art from previous centuries. He liked to make old things seem fresh. He is known for his dark figures in his art. Some people questioned those dark figures, but he clearly stated that the blackness of the figures represented the beauty and power of the color black. He said that he was trying to reclaim the image of blackness as power. One of his influences was the artist Charles White. He remembered only reading about European artists in his art history books and White changed everything. His current project is reanimating unrepresented African heroes. The next artist was Maya Lin. She spoke about her project but never focused on why she was doing it. Besides her thoughts on her project in the park, Lin only spoke on how her works blended art and architecture. Many of her works were based on astronomy, naturally occurring phenomena, geology, and landscape. Bourgeois was the last artist. My favorite part of her segment was when she stated, "I am what I do with my hands." I felt that really expressed who she was and what she wanted to accomplish when creating something. In her segment, she talked about her memorial she had done for Jane Addams. She stated that the fragility of the hands represented the sensibility of the art as well as the personality of Jane Addams. Bourgeois felt a work of art didn't need to be explained. One should just be able to embody the emotion. Though parts of the video were dull, it was interesting. It might not have been on the topic of identity that I thought it would be, but it covered a lot. I learned a little bit about why art is the way it is sometimes. I would consider watching another episode of the Art:21 series.

Interesting Weekend

This weekend started early Thursday morning. One of my long time friends, Sadie, came to visit during her fall break. It was like 1 in the morning when she called and told me she was outside. I was super excited because I had not seen in her in about a year. We reminisced in the lobby until her ride said they were ready to go, but that was not the end of this glorious weekend. The next day, I hopped on the train and headed East where I would hang out with Sadie and some other friends. Sadie, Bri, and I decided to surprise some of our friends who did not know they were in town. We went to our friend Chanel's house while Bri was on the phone with her trying to convince her that she was in California. When we arrived, Chanel was in shock. After Chanel, we surprised our friend Nataljia, who worked at McDonald's. She ran from behind her cash register when she saw us, completely forgetting she had customers. All of us hung out for the rest of the day, eventually returning back to State to relax in my room. Thursday was the day that through us off. We were thinking it was Friday. When Friday came, it felt like Saturday and so on. We had no idea what day it was half the time. After class on Friday, I headed back to Stone Mountain for Shiloh High School's homecoming game. We won even though it was close for a while. Our band shocked us because they had finally got some rhythm. Friday night ended with Sadie and I rummaging through her cabinets for something to eat. We found a can of soup from Cub Foods that expired in 2003. We just threw that in the trash and kept searching. We finally landed on some chili beans. We heated those up, threw some cheese on it, and grabbed a bag of chips. That was dinner. Saturday we visited some more people and went to the club. The people in the club obviously didn't understand the concept second hand smoke also kills because I walked back out with a tight throat and a serious migraine. I might not go back there again. Sunday morning came, and I was headed back downtown. Pretty much, my weekend was spent being extremely random with some good friends, but now it's back to the real world.

Favorite Movie

My favorite work of art probably has a very little role, if any, in changing society, but I still love it. One of my favorite movies is Bad Boys II with Will Smith and Martin Lawrence. I can watch this movie over and over again. I actually know a few lines. Bad Boys II was definitely a sequel that lived up to the first movie. Some people, including myself, think it was actually better than the the first Bad Boys. I am a big fan of action and comedy movies, and Bad Boys II mixes both genres. With people like Will Smith, who plays Mike, and Martin Lawrence, who plays Marcus, one can assume that the outcome will be hilarious. Even though I have seen this movie numerous times, it still makes me laugh every time. The plot line seems like it should be serious, but something always happens to change it. Even in the beginning where Mike and Marcus are surrounded by a group of Ku Klux Klan members, the writers still bring in a touch of humor. There are a lot of explosions and chase scenes and a lot of parts that are just there for a good laugh. One of my favorite scenes is when a guy named Reggie comes to take Marcus' daughter out. Marcus and Mike do their very best to scare him into not trying anything with Marcus' daughter Megan. Marcus plays the crazy father while Mike is the crazy, questionably gay godfather that just got out of jail. By the time Megan gets to the door, Reggie looks like he just wants to go home. I think Marcus and Mike did their job. The critics did not give this movie a great rating, but then again, I never agree with the critics. I have seen ratings from normal viewers as high as 9.4 out of 10. I agree with that rating. If I want to be entertained and have a good laugh, I can always count on Bad Boys II.

Cheap Laughs

Al Franken-Sworn in as junior Democratic senator; gives Democrats Senate majority; focuses on health care and energy legislation; important because of what he is trying to do. Health care and energy are two heavily debated topics.

Death of Walter Cronkite-Considered most trusted man in the news; country doesn't know who to trust now; not all that relevant to my life; I watch the news, not a specific person.

Oxford Union-Debating society at Oxford University.

National Committee for an Effective Congress-Political committee created by Eleanor Roosevelt to support progressive candidates; important because this country needs to keep moving forward.

Gore Vidal-American author and political activist.

Emile Zola-Influential French writer; heavy belief in naturalism; not that important to my life.

Jonathan Swift-Irish cleric and writer; not that relevant to my life.

Heritage Foundation-Nation’s most broadly supported public policy research institute; important because they determine how laws will affect the country.

Hannity and Colmes-Show on Fox network; represented conservative and liberal perspectives; important because it talked about both sides of a political argument.

Red Handed (Sandy Berger)-Plead guilty to illegally removing classified documents from National Archives; it is important to know what he planned to do with those documents.

Citizens for Tax Justice-Working for a fair tax system; relevant because I'll have to pay taxes soon.