The New Pop

Not only have i noticed that "vocal synthesizers" are becoming very popular among hip-hop, r&b, and pop artists but also the similarity in most radio played songs. I guess the "electric" sound is more appealing than the sound of original unaltered voices. Not gonna lie i do find alot of it catchy, but at the same time we are allowing artists who really don't have talent to steal all fame and glory from the musicians who work their asses (and voices) off to secure a spot on the top 40. If you are hearing a pop, r&b, or hip hop tune, chances are you are hearing the original version or remix with one of the following: Lil Wayne, T-Pain, Kanye West, Akon, and/or R.Kelly. Now i am not saying that none of these musicians have talent because i do frequently listen to most of them BUT i am merely suggesting that other artists should get the spot light without having to try so hard to fit in with what's "popular". I am a music fanatic so usually when i am listening to music, i'm listening to brand new stuff and recently it's all starting to sound the same. You would think that our new generation should be concentrated on pure driven talent rather than electronic (technology made) talent. Without these vocal synthesizers, i dare to say, half or more of our popular artists today would be done. Finished. Shut completely out of business. We need us some musicians who sound the same on their records as they do in concert!

The Lady With The Pomeranian

The short story that fate assigned me was The Lady with the Pet Dog. After reading the first two lines, seeing the words fortnight and yalta, i panicked. I had no idea what either word meant and assumed the rest of the story would be the same. From what i gathered the overall meaning of the story was... there was no overall meaning to the story. The best i could come up with was Pomeranians are cute and cheating is bad. To summarize the well dragged-out story (it could have been much shorter and kept the same meaning), the main character is a bit of a sexist/pig/manwh*re who views women as the inferior race. He has never been in love before and from what it sounded like, had an arranged marriage. The girl (who happens to be half his age) seemed to be naaive, emotional, and a bit of a suicidal case waiting to happen. The highlight of this poor character is the fact that she owns a Pomeranian (very cute Asian fluffball lookin dog). The manwh*rish main character is entranced and intrigued by this "lady" and decides she will be his one night stand. He is taken off guard when he realizes he has developed feelings for the girl and is in fact in love for the first time in his life. But he doesn't this yet so shhhhhhh..... Now of course like most love stories, there is a serious conflict. THEY'RE BOTH MARRIED! So when the husband of the girl calls for her, she leaves and plans to forget Mr. Manwh*re. Mr. Manwh*re does not like this so he decides to surprise her and show up at a theater thingy. They sneak off together......... blah blah blah and story ends. Open denoument. Do they get caught? Do they divorce their significant others so they can be together? I guess we will never know because the author passed away over a hundred years ago.

Unauthored Quote

Two days before starting this literature class, i had just arrived back home from a traveling minimester. I took this field geology/biology course to be my last science credit. One of the places our class traveled to was Zion National Park, Utah. While shopping at a bookstore right outside of the national park, i found several coffee mugs with quotes on them. Being the poet/dork that i am, i got out my notebook and wrote a few of them down. My favorite one that caught my eye was a quote without an author that read "all your dreams come true IF you have the courage to pursue them". I think i liked this quote so much because it is so accurate. The way i interpreted it is : If a person really wants something in life, but does not strive to achieve it, chances are they will not get it. One has to fight to get what they want and in most cases, if one does fight for something, he/she is bound to get it. If one is too scared to stand up for themself, how is he/she ever going to accomplish anything? In life, there are bound to be risks that may or may not be necessary to take and it is only one person's choice whether to take it or not. This reminds me of a line of lyrics by 3 Doors Down from the song "It's the only one you've got". It goes "If you're afraid to fly, then i guess you never will...you've gotta live this life you're given like its the only one you've got". I think this also highlights the point that we only get one life and we will waste it by not taking chances and striving to achieve our dreams/goals. I used to be afraid to try new things and to put my heart out for other people to see. That was the loneliest point in my life and now that i have grown mentally, i am not afraid to try even if i fail. This quote "all your dreams come true if you have the courage to pursue them" has now shaped my life... I still don't know who wrote it though :)

Perfect Chemistry

Perfect Chemistry is the novel that i am reading right now. Simone Elkeles did a fantastic job writing this. This story is about two different high school characters' lives coming together. Poor and popularly feared Mexican gang member (Alex Fuentes) and rich, conceited Caucasian head cheerleader (Brittany Ellis) live on opposite sides of town. North-siders and South-siders do not get along with each other, to say the least. That's why when Alex and Brittany are assigned to be partners in chemistry class, bad things are bound to happen. Both young characters genuinely and openly hate each other to begin with. The only thing that the two have in common is a mutual attraction. Gradually, feelings between the two characters start to complicate. Brittany cares a great deal about appearance, as she was raised to by her parents. So even when her boyfriend, captain of the football team, is pushing her to have sex, she is scared to break up with him. She thinks that if "The Golden Couple" breaks up, her reputation will go down the drain, especially if people find out about her feelings for Alex. Meanwhile Alex's feelings are rapidly increasing for Brittany and does not care so much about what people would think if he and Brittany were together. This modern day Romeo and Juliet is humorous, dramatic, romantic, and exciting at the same time. A movie, for sure, needs to be made of this Perfect Chemistry. I am not a reader that is usually excited to sit down and read, but this book has sure changed that. When i start reading, i am usually pulled in until chapters and chapters later. So.... Read this book fo sho!

Collected Poems of Edgar Allan Poe

I have been a big fan of Edgar Allan Poe ever since i was introduced to "The Tell-Tale Heart" in eight grade i believe. After being assigned other readings such as "The Cask of Amontillado" i actually began to enjoy reading. The Collected Poems of Edgar Allen Poe is actually the first book i have ever bought on my own, which i bought yesterday. I just really enjoy the power and passion that Poe puts into his writing. I prefer to read his poetry for the most part because in alot of cases one poem can make clear a message that would usually take a story. I also enjoy the poetic language more than narrative language because its more fun to read and its song-like. Alot of poems can be really fun to read if you just find the right pace/melody to read it at. Of course not all poetry is supposed to rhyme, but even when it doesn't, there are appropriate pauses that, if found, make it more enjoyable to read. The Raven, one of Poe's most famous poems is a good example of this. If you read it closely and follow the rhyme, you can almost snap your fingers and dance to it. Annabel Lee is another perfect example. I enjoy Poe's writing also because he is brilliant with word usage and his descriptiveness. So much of Poe's writing is though of as scary, but beneath the "scary" element, there is nothing but genious.

Literature- A Pocket Anthology

I thought the reading from page 7 to page 25 was very straight forward and unlike most classroom texts, actually somewhat interesting. There was alot of information to pick up on while reading the text; however, there were many examples such as famous authors and books that were given, which made the reading more interesting. I normally would have kicked and screamed my way through an assigned reading but instead i learned a few things about literature that i did not know before. For example, i was not aware that Edgar Allen Poe was a magazine editor nor that denouement was the same thing as resolution. I also read carefully enough that i actually was able to remember a few of the down and dirty quiz questions without taking notes, which i still should have done. I think the author did an exceptional job writing this introduction, in not being a typical textbook author by just throwing boring, useless information at the reader which would inevitably stay unabsorbed on the page, never making any connection in the brain. I'm quite positive that i just created a run-on sentence but i am just trying to hit my 250 word mark so i can post my next blog and go out to dinner :) If i had bought the literature book before 7:15 this morning and had been able to sit down at home to read it, i probably would have gotten a little bit more out of this reading. But why do today what you can put off until tomorrow? I am going to pretend this is 250 words and hurry on to my other blog now.