True Passion: Music

A scapegoat, a passion, or sometimes a obsession can be the way to describe music for everyone. I find myself doing all three pending the music type. My preferences of music is quite exquisite and grand. Since the ripe age of 3 I have been exposed to a plethora of music from my uncle has his ridiculous tapes that he sent to my mom for our trips up north. The words of many songs still are stamped into my head and will be located their until eternity. "I got a brand new pair of roller skates you got a brand new key," is the one song that i immediately think of due to the fact my aunt traveled across the whole state of Michigan singing this song with a Burger King crown on her head. Any who, to the music I find myself listening to of the modern age. I will say what I find myself listening to most often would be alternative music that have soft easy listening with simple lyrics. Much like that of Rivers Cuomo, lead singer of Weezer, and his song "I Was Made For You" (1st video). To accompany this alternative style I do have a side of music that comes off a little angry. Some call it screamo but to me it stilll has a sound to it and to those that think the people are just screaming if you were to read lyrics of some song you would think otherwise. I decided to put a song on here that some may find semi-pleasant rather then what it this random screaming I'm hearing in my ears. This is the second video and it is by From First to Last and the song is titled "Failure By Designer Jeans." Two more categories to go and for this one it is country. I find myself listening to country music throughout the summer because it is just good summer music to listen to. Whether it be Kenny Chesney "Summertime" or Brad Paisley "Alcohol" you can find a good sound to a summer beat. Here I present Toby Keith "She's A Hottie" and it just has fun little twang to it. Finally, I will admit I do like some songs that most guys aren't proud to be listening to. I do not and will not listen to the Jonas Brothers, but I do find myself listening to the occasional Metro Station, Celine Dion, or even some songs from the Grease Soundtrack. To show I'm a sucker for songs with good beats I present to you Katie Perry "Hot and Cold" in the fourth video.



sorry some of the songs video werent on youtube so I had to use weird compilations for the songs
I Was Made For You-Rivers Cuomo

Failure By Designer Jeans-From First To Last (with lyrics)


She's A Hottie-Toby Keith
Katy Perry-"Hot and Cold"

Veteran's Day

In case you didn't notice there is an apostrophe before the "s" therefore showing possession to any veteran in this country. To many this holiday just goes on then to others it is glorious. Anywho, back to the main point of what this post should be about. Cpl. Antonio Acevedo fought in WWII for the Americans as a medic. In the duration of his time served he was captured by Nazi militia and sent to 3 concentration camps. To survive those three camps and survive a death march of over 200 miles in 3 weeks in the blistering cold is a feat amongst others. The problem after surviving all this terror and horror was that he wasn't allowed to speak out about it and had to keep his emotions boxed in. He lived many years under scrutiny of his father that called him a coward and wasn't able to tell the stories he had lived and survived. The affidavit was not fair to Cpl. Acevedo and made him live a life of boxed in emotions. On yesterdays holiday the fighting efforts of Cpl. Acevedo and all that have fought for this glorious country should be recognized and celebrated.

Genocide

If you were asked where Darfur was located before the year 2003 you would look like a deer in headlights and just stare in amazement of never hearing of a place. To everyone now it is just as easy to point out this area on a map with the ease of finding Michigan if you live in the USA. Rebel groups located in southern Sudan have been fighting the Janjaweed, Sudanese Militia, based on the fact that they don't support the President of Sudan. The Janjaweed have taken many rights from the people, like persecuting by a person race or ethnicity, and have raped and taken lives of innocent people. This area has been on massive alert from 2003 with many causes including online games to save a person from Darfur to an MTV rally to raise awareness as to what is happening in this area. The President, Omar Hassan al-Bashir, has arrest warrant currently out for him from Internation Criminal Court prosecturer Luis Moreno-Ocampo for war crimes. This area needs to be safe once again and for future generations I think the people in this area would rather have people not knowing where they live then everyone knowing where they live because of this mass genocide.

MAUS

Their is a reason behind Spiegelman's depiction of his Jewish characters as mice. Mice are viewed as animals that are intruders and need to be killed and also are easy to be killed. Although mice are easy to kill they sometimes are a nuisance to kill so they will not go down with out a fight. In the past I would take comic as a less serious form of literature but after reading Franz Kafka Metamorphisis in a comic book form I've developed this taste. This comic strip not only makes it easy to read and interpret but, it also makes it easier to re-read just incase you didn't catch the drift of what was trying to be presumed.

To add to this comparing to my definition of art. Art needs to be something that inspires you with that art is different to all. It is what drives you not what drives other. Art is recreation that needs to be enjoyed by the creator and even though he would like his peers the only person that matters in the whole ordeal is the creator himself.

Theo Jansen

This animali art is straight up ridiculous but it is also amazing. The idea that Theo Jansen came up with is just brilliant yet it is completely not useful, well at least at this time. He made art into a living animal. Well maybe not living but it is able to survive on its own without assistance of others. This artist combines his physics education he got in college to produce something that some may call absurd while others would think of it as works of art. I don't consider this much of art but it is unique and interesting. When I think of art I usually think of painting and sculptures (that don't move) or musical pieces. With that though you could call his animals as art because art is just suppose to be something that someone finds interest in.

Election Reaction

For starters, let me just tell you I HATE talking about politics to people outside my family. You may think that I think this way because I may be a bigot but, the reality of it all I just really don't like to describe my feelings about a subject that is so taboo to talk about. Well I'll show you a slight glimmer of what I believe is going to happen these next 4 years for the elected president. To start, for anything that may slightly make me annoyed I will use the phrase "redistribute" followed by something I will be "redistributing" for that time being. If you look at that principal right there alone you are immediately shown socialism is present and to be consider an actual democracy based on guidelines set forth by many Political-Science Majors you must be capitalist to be consider democratic. Sorry Canada no soup for you. Although as you can see my ideals seem to be very conservative, which indeed they are, I also have quite liberal ideals in the facades of gay marriage and also stem cell research. Furthermore, I did vote no on proposal two because I think government funding should be put to better things rather then trying to cure certain diseases. No offense to the decease or thus forth coming but, it's social Darwinism and the weak must be taken off this world.

To tie this election into what we have learned the past few weeks about borders is that borders will be cracked, and sometimes they need to be cracked. I think it's great that a minority finally has asserted himself to what can be regarded as the highest power in the world. I wish the greatest of luck to our future President Barrack Obama and hopefully he'll really bring change for the better.

Poem Draft 1

DH

Just a day
An ordinary day.
Driving around.

Nothing to do,
Nothing to say,
Not knowing where I’m bound.


Driving through these empty streets
Looking around,
Not knowing where people may meet.


Target one day
Park the next,
This land I do love is not the best.


Just normal life consists around here.
Most kids are just look’n
For their next place, to have a beer.


We wander near and far,
Theirs nothing to do.
Hence, we go to others peoples clubs and bars.


Simple life.

We go.


We do.


We try and get through.


But where we lay our head to sleep.
May be bad,
But in my heart I’ll always keep.

Restaurant Review

Al Sultan

“Hello, hello, welcome, welcome,” friendly words that come with a handshake from the owner as you enter. Dave, him and I are on first names basis, comes up and will always give a kind smile and a puny handshake. Al Sultan in Garden City on Inkster Road just north of Cherry Hill Rd. and on the east side of the street offers excellent Middle Eastern cuisine with affordable price tagging along with it. As soon as you are greeted and take a look around this small restaurant you noticed the several murals. These murals consists of vast deserts with aboriginal women dressed proper seen sometimes with buckets or walking next a camel. Middle Eastern culture is even more accentuated by the music playing while eating. The constant beat with the occasional syncopated noted that keeps you on your heels of the darabukas, Middle Eastern drums, in the music combined with a calming chant in a native tongue will enhance your mood and immediately you will feel welcomed.

Now let’s get to the good stuff, the meal! Once seated your waitress, there are no waiters, will present a basket of pita bread along with a plate of pepperonicini and sliced beets. Thus following, a question about your drink leaves you puzzled once you realize the fresh juice that is offered there along with Middle Eastern coffee and Pepsi products. The freshly ground orange, apple, carrot, peach, and Al Sultan special are just a few of their delicacies that are in their fresh juice array. When returned with your drinks, you are asked courteously, “You ready to order?” Whenever attending the first thing that you must order is the hummus. The ground chick peas with tahini sauce and other ingredients giving the taste of garlic and a little hint of lemon and many other tastes impossible to describe combined with its smooth, creamy peanut butter like consistency makes it a favorite by almost all. This will be brought to your table in about two to five minutes once your waitress leaves your table. The dish brought back has the hummus along with four slices of beats, each spaced equally apart, and a touch of parsley in the center. A big scoop is a necessity and should be followed with pita bread taking a massive dip into the hummus. If there is any left over take it home! I’m one for breaking food borders and believe me tortilla chips and hummus is delicious. If you weren’t ready to order earlier the waitress will ask if you are ready after about five minutes you have dug into the dish of hummus. For those that have never eaten Arabic on the menu they go into vast description of their meals. They divide the menu into appetizers, salads, main entrees, and sandwiches. Many things their consist of many meats such as chicken, lamb, and beef but, for those vegetarians you can make everything into just veggies of have even seafood put in there. At this time I ordered the Shish Tawook dinner. It arrived much faster than it should be and made myself felt bombarded with the food set forth in front of me. Even though my mental clock was discombobulated the food set forth on the table straightened it out. Then perfect sized cubes of chicken, grilled to the point of perfection with it being completely cooked and was almost as juicy as a fruit. The chicken, accompanied by vegetable such as onions and tomatoes, can be meshed perfectly together in the pita bread given earlier and if requested and should be requested garlic sauce. Along with the dish comes a large heaping of white rice that also can be put into your sandwich but is still delicious eaten alone. The heaping given forth was given in the right amount of filling a person up but not overstuffing yourself at the table.

The total cost of this meal, with tip, was a measly $20! This restaurant is a perfect family style restaurant just based on the price alone but, it also gives delicious food and if you are on the go it doesn’t occupy all of your day. The swiftness was highlighted by no reservation was needed and it isn’t recommended because you are always seated immediately and is easily handicap accessible. All in all, I have referred this restaurant to many friends that were ignorant to Middle Eastern cuisine and have left the restaurant wanting another Chicken Shawarma the following week. Now excuse me, I’m off to eat my hummus and tortilla chips while watching college football.

Picture 1-4 Taken by or Scan by MKay