Christmas Break or Holiday Break

I am calling for a truce among nations, a bridge between fighting forces, a peace to settle among this hectic world. I would like to put forth that it does not matter in the slightest whether kids color Christmas trees in school, or sing carols, or wear Santa hats. It also does not matter whether you call it Christmas or Holiday Break.

I know this may be shocking to you but as a minority faith, I am not particularly disturbed or offended by any public display of a religion that's not mine. I am glad that I live in a country where my religious freedoms are defended, and therefore I defend the right of people to put on Christmas displays. I understand how some people can get upset about when the government institutions do religious displays or the fact that is in schools. I just think this a part of Christianity being in the heavy majority in this country. I'm sure in India, the government does displays for Hindu festivals, or Jewish festivals in Israel.

In fact, I know that last one is true. When I was in Israel the government made elaborate displays and light shows during holidays. This was in the heart of Jerusalem, the crossing roads of Christianity, Islam, and Judaism, and no one really seemed upset in the slightest that the government was displaying a certain religion. It's not oppressive or forcing. The Christmas tree at Rockefeller Center in New York does not demand that all citizens be Christian, it is just a representation of the faith that makes up a majority of this country.

Besides, Hannukah and Christmas are both very inconsequential religions when it comes to the actual religious side of it (which I will talk about in a later post). They are supposed to be times of joy and happiness, instead of discord and division.

So I am calling out to everyone to relax a little, and not start a fight over whether it is Christmas or Holiday Break. Thanks for reading.

Begging for Anonymity

I know how yesterday, I said that anonymity has created a culture of hate and aggressive ignorance based on lack of consequences. However, it turns out we don't need to worry about that at all, because the idea of internet anonymity is more and more thoroughly becoming a complete illusion. Very soon, nothing we do online will go unrecorded with our names attached to it.

This has become a recently accelerating trend. Perhaps we are just recently discovering all the behind-the-scenes tracking that is going on. There are two types of internet tracking that have recently learned about: advertising and government.

One of the most recent news stories has been over our government tracing its own citizens. This story was recently brought to light by a NSA worker named Edward Snowden. He revealed how the NSA was monitoring the US citizens in a huge number of ways, including reading and searching our personal emails for dangerous and terrorist-related words. Many people have protested this and have called for laws to be put in place to protect our privacy. In response to this public outcry the government basically kept doing the same things they were before and tried to arrest Snowden, who had to flee to Russia to avoid persecution.
There are even websites dedicated to keeping our emails private... and then let the government read them all anyway. This is because the Patriot Act, a bill signed into effect shortly after 9/11 that greatly reduced the privacy of the american citizen. I completely agree with the increase in security measures, but it gave the government the ability to wiretap, access online data, follow, and arrest without reasonable suspicion individuals who have no indicated connection to any terrorist activity. So, it might be a little bit easy to abuse that power, and I hope the people of America can eventually find the fine line between security and privacy. However, right now we are at the whim of the federal government.

The other tracking that is now going on is for advertising purposes. There is a new trend where advertisers have been paying online companies to provide data on who accesses what websites to personalize the advertising to that person. This may not seem too important until you realize this means that private business companies are tracking your online movements so that they can reap an economic benefit from it. This is become slightly more sinister when you realize exactly how in-depth it is. In a quote from the New York Times about Target's advertising strategy "Target can buy data about your ethnicity, job history, the magazines you read, if you’ve ever declared bankruptcy or got divorced, the year you bought (or lost) your house, where you went to college, what kinds of topics you talk about online, whether you prefer certain brands of coffee, paper towels, cereal or applesauce, your political leanings, reading habits, charitable giving and the number of cars you own." That's more than most people know about their best friend! This was in a story about how a father became angry when Target sent his daughter an ad for supplies that a new mother might need, implying she was pregnant. He later apologized to Target, as it turned out she was pregnant without his knowledge. Target knew a girl was pregnant before her own father did!

I'm not saying this is the start of the computer uprising or that we are all pawns underneath the greater powers, but it is a disturbing trend. Thanks for reading

Anonymity is awful

I'm not going to be recommending any specific video from Youtube on this blog post, mainly because it encompasses every Youtube video. It encompasses every single place on the internet where you can say something publicly without ever having to say who you are, and there are a lot of places. Twitter, Facebook, Youtube, Instagram, Ask.com, Urban Dictionary, and so so many others. When we take away the responsibility of people, the consequences of their words directly upon them, we invite people to spout the most awful things that come to their mind.

I have seen genocidal, racist, sexist, rude, profanity-filled, immoral, and evil comments on Youtube, and not even cared. They have become so commonplace on websites that even being able to report people for their comments has no real effect. It's everywhere! You might say that people have identities when it comes to Facebook, Twitter, or Instagram, but most often it is made up. There are fake celebrity accounts scattered all over the place. We have no idea if Jake Henslow from Nebraska is Jake Henslow from Nebraska.

This gives people the opportunity to say whatever they want to without any repercussions. Now I don't think these people actually deeply believe what they are saying. They either need a way to relieve anger and stress, or they do it for the shock value because that is amusing to them. So my first piece of advice is to never take any online comments too seriously.

This is a major issue though, because people do take these internet comments extremely seriously. When we take away the immediate consequences, people assume that they aren't having any serious impact. However, we all know exactly how serious these comments can be, and the large effect they have. We have all heard in recent years of cyberbullying, the online harassment of other people, often anonymously. This has driven people to depression, rage, and even serious actions like violence or suicide. I am all for the current attempt to crackdown on cyberbullying. Just recently, someone posted a racist filled message on the Washington High School webpage advocating for the KKK. I can absolutely guarantee that they, and most of the other hateful anonymous commentors, would never think to post such awful messages if they had to have their name on it.

I think if any comments are going to be made on the internet, a place where they will exist forever. You should think long enough about whether you want to post that message, that you feel proud to put your name on the page.

My name is Adam G. Burstain, I live in Cedar Rapids, and I go to Kennedy High School. I hope no one out there lets the hateful anonymous comments of others affect them personally, and I hope that no one would ever want to post those comments. Thanks for reading

Smartphone Addiction

When does technology go too far? That is the question we are constantly having to ask ourselves in the rapidly increasing pace of technology today. At any point in time, we are usually about two minutes, or two seconds, away from the internet. It has become such an integral part of our life. Are we becoming overly dependent on the use of the internet?

We recently had a discussion in class about the use of cell phones. I think cell phones don't even compare to the level of distraction, diversion, and detriment to society that smart phones pose. The amount of face-to-face interaction people are having is steadily diminishing. The first problem this creates is an internet mentality at all times. The internet, especially social media, encourages egocentricity, triviality, and gossip. Not to mention the anonymity of the online presence that allows people to say horrific things and bully others. We are also losing the simple ability to stand up and speak before our peers. Everyone's dialogue, including mine, is now peppered with "um" and "like".

There is a very eye-opening video on Youtube called "I Forgot My Phone" by Charlene deGuzman. She captures my feeling about smartphones exactly in one 2 minute video. She is going through her daily life enjoying the little pleasures and time with her friends, yet everyone around her is always glued to the screens of their smartphones. That bowling scene reminds me of Leonard Pitts' article on the train shooting. No one notices what is happening around them. Everyone here knows, and might be, one of the people that takes smartphone videos of moments instead of enjoying them. Like those who videotape concerts they're at, or every person in the world who feels the need to take a picture of their meals. I'm hungry! My mom has a habit of filming fireworks (which no one watches later), and then can't recount the fireworks when I talk to her. I've seen groups of friends text one another instead of talking, or sit in a circle just looking at their phones.

It is a point-and-shoot culture that encourages us to document every second of our lives so that everyone can pretend to enjoy our moments that we didn't even enjoy ourselves. It's so saddening to watch people do this. I'm not saying every smartphone is evil, no. I am saying that we should put down the smartphone for a second and just enjoy it. Also, so I don't feel like the dork who is watching everyone be hypnotized by a flashy screen. I mean, think of the next generation. We had smartphones just introduced, so it is not that ingrained in us. However, I have seen two and three year olds with being brainwashed by angry birds and pretty smartphones.

There is something to be said about a wonderful moment that was not tweeted or recorded, just enjoyed.
Thanks for reading

Snow is cold

So it is officially wintertime in Iowa again, and we will not be seeing green grass for another five months. I don't like snow. It's cold and wet and most of the time it's not crisp white snow, but the dark black snow that is formed from the exhaust of cars. It ruins your shoes, makes the roads slippery, and cancels school. Actually, the canceling school is fine. To most people snow is a mild inconvenience, a triviality, but snow is a huge deal.

Ask any northern state government if snow is a big deal. It slows down our economy in a huge way every time a fresh blanket of snow covers everything. In Canada they even have specified snow dump sites. One snow dump site was so large that even though the rest of the snow melted in April, it stayed until September. It costs billions of dollars to our nation to deal with snow. Oh yeah and it also causes car crashes all across the nation.

But snow has some positive sides right? I'm a skier and I love skiing. However, I'm starting to think slightly differently about that fluffy powder you cut down the mountain on. For one thing it is not as fluffy when you crash into it at forty mph. The other thing is avalanches. Avalanches are tremendous forces of nature. Oh, and there are people who find avalanches to ski and snowboard in front of. It's called an avalanche escape run, and it's absolutely stupid. There are videos all over Youtube of guys skiing and snowboarding away from thundering stampedes of snowy death behind them. One guy is even cocky enough to do a backflip off a cliff as he is escaping.

The thing that scares me is when people get caught. The example is Julien Lopez, and there is a video of him falling during an avalanche escape. That means the snow catches up to him and he is completely enveloped in the rampaging snow. He completely disappears from sight into the white mountain face. That's a burial tomb right there. No one is anywhere near close enough to dig him out, even if they could locate him. I absolutely hate the idea of death from cold or suffocation and there is both of them wrapped up in a neat body-sized package. Luckily enough Julien was only buried slightly so that he could dig his way out though. He described it as one of the most terrifying moments of his life.

Listen, I understand the adrenaline rush of putting yourself into extreme situations. However, there is a point where you have to think about how awfully this could go wrong and whether it's worth it to take that risk. Make sure to bundle up and thanks for reading.

The future of education

There is a new trend that has started to occur across the country. Some people absolutely adore it, while others hate it with a burning passion. I'm feeling lukewarm on the subject, but I understand both sides. The issue of course is online education and how it should figure into our daily school life.

For the first time this year I am really deeply involved with online learning. This is mainly through my AP Chemistry class and our use of tablets (another idea I'd like to talk about later). However, most people are being forced into becoming acquainted with it through the use of the Canvas website this year. We watch videos of lectures on Youtube, we can get our assignments and missing work, edit and submit homework, and even take tests. I honestly feel like I could reach all the information I needed for the school year from my own home.

This is one of the great things about Canvas. I am missing a day of school tomorrow and, hopefully, I will be able to find all of the work I need online. This is so much easier for both the student and the teacher. It also provides some platform for collaboration and communication among students. However, that aspect has a long, long way to come.

My problem with all this online learning is that it is much, much harder to learn when it is simply a video rather than a face-to-face instruction from a teacher. It is so easy to get distracted while watching a video, or become frustrated with the fact you can't ask questions. In my mind, there is no substitute for a classroom setting until we somehow learn to implant knowledge directly into our head. We desire and need that interaction with our fellow students. It is our collaboration and struggles that allow us to truly learn something. Any student will tell you that the things they remember the most are what they did in the classroom, not just watching the video at home.

It is the same reason why can't just sit at home and watch Youtube all day. Even though I like Youtube, it is no substitute for the real thing. You can watch first-person perspectives of extreme skiing or hangliding, but you can't feel the wind on your face or the joy of accomplishing that. We need to have a classroom so that we can physically achieve our goals of learning. So while I do see how Canvas can be a useful tool for organization and communication, I don't see online learning as a replacement to our current education system any time in the next century. Thanks for reading.

Thank Goodness for Youtube

Yeah, I think I've decided to change my blog subject from music and humor to the effects, positive and negative, of Youtube on society. I'm still gonna talk about some of my favorite videos though. I just felt that my blog was getting a little bit bland and repetitive and I wanted to change it up a little. 

Well today I discovered another great use for Youtube. I recently caught a pretty nasty virus from my brother, and I spent most of yesterday with my head in a trash can (I'm learning about euphemisms). I was doomed to spend an entire day of my weekend feeling awful and trapped to my bed, with rare visits from anyone bringing me soup or water. 

I get bored very easy. I just always have to have something new to occupy my mind with. So I was not happy at just staring at the ceiling and counting the number of times I flipped my pillow over to the cool side. Thank goodness for Youtube. The one magical thing about Youtube is that it can take you anywhere in the world in about four clicks. Suddenly, I'm not just lying in my bed. I'm skydiving with someone or I'm at a concert or I'm watching a magician. I could spend an entire sick day just watching "Whose Line Is It Anyway".

The one reason I don't like the new season of "Whose Line" is not for it's humor. It's pretty darn good when compared to the original because they still have Ryan and Colin. It just angers me that this put "Whose Line" under copyright again and so they took all the episodes of it off of Youtube. I will talk later about how I feel about the copyright and restrictive policies on Youtube later.

Youtube is a portal to all the coolest, smartest, and funniest stuff in the world. There is a video of a cat riding a dog that will always make you smile despite your circumstances. I'm starting to feel a little bit healthier this morning, and maybe it was due to the power of Youtube. Doctors should do a study on that. Thanks for reading.

Youtube is serious (part 2)

There is serious power in having so many people see what goes out on Youtube. Billions of people watch Youtube each year, and 6 billion hours of video are watched each month. The amount of people you can reach is truly staggering. Last post I talked about the charity aspects that can come from the power of Youtube. This post I’d like to talk about how the power of Youtube has been used monetarily and as a catalyst for social change.

With such a large amount of people visiting the website, ad companies pay huge sums of money to have their advertisements shown. Many people may not think too much of these ads, but they accumulate quite a bit of money. Every person who has a moderately successful, viewing-wise, account can obtain amounts of money. There are many accounts and channels out there that are currently pulling in six-figure salaries. This is huge to the regular people who have mass appeal and can draw in huge amounts of money. The 1.7 million Lonely Island makes probably isn’t a huge deal for Justin Timberlake, but for Pewdiepie who was just a normal Swedish guy, the 6.1 million he’s made is amazingly life-changing.

The amount of views that come through Youtube also make it ideal for advertising small businesses. These companies can get some needed publicity through Youtube and other social platforms. The huge amount of popularity is also extremely important in the music industry. I talked last post about Justin Bieber’s rise to fame. Just think of all the other stars who owe their popularity, and wealth, to Youtube. A huge example is Psy. He had the most popular video ever on Youtube “Gangnam Style”. He became extremely wealthy, famous, had many endorsements and appeared all over popular media, and kind of a household name.

 

Youtube isn’t just for monetary gain though. There are many, many, videos out on Youtube advocating certain social changes. This can go from blogs like Sxephil (who also makes 1.7 million) where he discusses his views on politics and pop culture, to religious foundations, and all the way up to the head of state himself. Yes, social media was considered a huge impact to the 2008 presidential election that put Barack Obama into the Oval Office. This included a vigorous campaign on Youtube for his presidency. Was Youtube the decider in the 2008 election, we may not know. However, it did make a substantial in favor of Obama.

So yeah, even if all the amazing charity efforts in the last post couldn’t convince you that Youtube has serious influence on the world. I hope that this showed you the vast potential that Youtube represents, and as a fascinating example of social mobility, one of the things that makes America great. Oh, and by the way, if you were amazed by their million dollar salaries, you have to realize that that figure is before merchandise, licensing, and sponsorships which are huge components to the income they derive. Thanks for reading.

Youtube is Serious

One of the misconceptions I want to confront about Youtube is that it is "trivial". People think of it as a place for mindless parodies, free music, memes, pointless vlogging, and of course the champion of Youtube triviality, cat videos. This was extremely prevalent in the early stages of Youtube. No one took it seriously as a base for media and ideas. People used the example of FRED, a previously popular Youtuber to point out how unimportant the videos on the site were.

I think that this idea no longer applies at all to the modern Youtube. There are some amazing ideas, art, and philanthropy that is coming out of Youtube moment by moment. I have already talked quite a bit about the role of Youtube in fostering the growth and inclusion of everyone into creativity and imagination. There are countless people who rely on Youtube for their success such as Pentatonix, Justin Bieber, and many other artists and forward-thinkers. The part I haven't covered as much, but I still think is an extremely important facet of Youtube, is philanthropy, or doing good deeds.

The two types of philanthropy that are most common on Youtube are awareness and charity. Many vloggers have paired up with charities and ask for donations as well as coordinating events to raise money, volunteering, and awareness for these charities. It is absolutely wonderful that these people who have become famous through Youtube, subsequently use their fame to help those around them. Some examples that come to mind are Pewdiepie's "Charity:Water Campaign" which brought attention and money to help provide clean water to developing countries, Tyler Oakley's support for "The Trevor Project" which is a suicide prevention hotline, and Jack and Finn Haries who have dedicated their whole channel to charities including "The Rainbow Center" which helps poverty-stricken children find good education and a positive outlook on life,  a charity called "Comic Relief" which helps raise money for poor areas and encourages activeness in young American children. One of the more recent was "The Rickshaw Run" in India that raised $100,000 for the Teenage Cancer Trust which supports teens battling cancer.

Charities are so important to the fabric of Youtube that there is an annual Youtube event created by John and Hank Green (I actually really enjoy watching one of John Green's Youtube channels called "Mental Floss" that looks at common misconceptions and the joy of knowledge and he also has a wonderful book called "The Fault in Our Stars"). These two brothers had a huge following of subscribers and many connections throughout Youtube. They decided to set up a huge Youtube-wide charity project that all Youtubers could participate in for their respective charities called "Project for Awesome" or P4A. This not only raised a huge awareness for a variety of different charities, but also made charities an integral and continuing part of Youtube. They continue to inspire new people every day, as they have competitions for who can make the best promotional videos for their respective charities. This has reached all the way to the schools through NaNoWriMo or the National Novel Writing Month.

John Green said himself about how glad he is to be on Youtube, "It reminds me of what online communities are capable of ". I believe that Youtube is no longer a website for sharing dumb videos. I believe it is a creative platform for people to present their ideas and creations, while also becoming a vehicle for the common people to create huge positive change in the world.

What is Vlogging?

If there is one group of people that this Ap Lang blog assignment has given me new respect for it is the group of vloggers out on Youtube. I used to think that it was an extremely easy and fun way to get famous and rich quick. Now I realize though that there is a lot of stress associated with that, in the same way that it is stressful to prepare and perform to entertain people. There is always that worry that people won;t like what you have done and that you might be ridiculed for it. I can begin to understand and respect that a lot more when I have that same feeling before I press the "publish" button on each one of these blog posts. It simultaneously makes me feel a lot better and worse when I realize that no one actually reads my blog. There is a lot of thought and effort that has to go into each video or blog you put out into the public as you want to show only your best. You have to edit your work, doubt yourself, take harsh criticism and look critically at yourself. Not to mention the computer work and touching-up details that separate a rough draft from a clear and beautiful piece of work. There will always be frustrating moments, such as how by a slip of the key I accidentally deleted this blog post when I was about done, but you have to come back, and in my case type it all over again.

One of the things I find to make putting things on Youtube stressful and scary is that no matter how wonderful you are, how good your intentions are, or how much work you put in, someone in the comments section will absolutely verbally destroy every part of what you've done. For the majority of this, you shouldn't let it impact you at all and just realize that sometimes it's people taking advantage of the anonymity of the comment section to vent there own personal issues. However, some comments can contain vital and well-put criticism that helps you in a way that you can't do for yourself. At some point in the future I want to a separate blog post that focuses entirely on the affect of the comment section on Youtube.

Some vloggers that I enjoy watching are Pewdiepie, Vsauce, and Mental Floss, but you should go out there and find someone you like on your own. For example, I know lots of people love Jenna Marbles and I do think she has really funny moments, but I just can't bring myself to follow her often. I think everyone should follow at least one vlog because it brightens your day and you actually form sort of an attachment to the vloggers themselves.

R-E-S-P-E-C-T

There is always that kid who is beat up in high school because he doesn't do what is considered cool or popular. That one poor guy who gets picked on for playing the tuba, or enjoying card games, or the hopeful magician (personally I think all of those are great). I think a hobby and talent that gets not nearly enough respect for what they does is tap-dancers. We learned a pretty simple tap step a while ago for choreography, but I absolutely loved it. So I started going online to find some tap dancing and I found some crazy awesome stuff.

First of all, I love how easy it is to find things on Youtube. All I had to do when I was interested was type in "best tapdancing" and out came a video called "the best tap dance in the world" and I don't think this is an exaggeration at all. The dancer, Anthony Morigerato, is absolutely amazing with his feet. You lose track of his feet into a blur of motion. It is so cool to me how little his foot seems to be going, but the rhythm and visual aspects of it are stunning. That sheer intensity and speed of some of his tap dancing made my jaw drop. I wish on every star in the sky that I could tap dance like that, I try to tap sometimes as I walk down the hallway.

Another thing that I love is how they give you related videos on the side. You can get lost for hours and hours in those side videos, one of my favorite paths to get lost down is the America's Got Talent Auditions. However, watching these tap videos led me to a video called "Dubstep Tapdance" featuring a group called Prodijig from "Got To Dance" a UK dance competition show. They do an absolutely vicious tap dancing, that is so uniform and intricate it is almost a little scary. I can't even begin to imagine the hours and hours of intense practice and sweat they must have put in to prepare so a stunning piece. It is hard to watch this without having a feeling of awe in their talent. I also love how they, and Anthony as well, had incorporated pop elements into their tap dancing. That mix and fusion is what makes the world of talent and music interesting to me.

So my message out there to anyone who has been picked on for not having a "cool" hobby is to stick with it, work hard, and make an absolutely awesome video of your talent so that I can talk about it. Thanks for reading

The World Is An Instrument

Imagine yourself taking a test (or trying to sleep in your AP Lang class), and from the back of the room you hear the methodically tap tap tap of some annoying guy with a pencil. That jerky guy who is humming and tapping his foot to a song that no one else can hear. You want to take his head off right? Well don't, I think that is a way to use and promote unbridled creativity. If you don't believe that tapping your foot or plucking a rubber band can actually produce some wonderful music and encourage creativity. Look no further than the non conventional and MacGyver-like musical stylings of Joe Penna, known on Youtube as MysteryGuitarMan.

He is what I would be like if I had ten times the musical talent, one hundred times more effort, and one million times more experience with cutting and editing videos. He takes very commonplace but not often used items  as musical instruments by overlapping videos of him playing that video. My favorites probably included the "Root Beer Motzart", "Pop" played by letting air out of balloons, the "Vuvuzela Symphony", and the "Bohemian Slide" which is "Bohemian Rhapsody" played on slide whistle. I have a special spot in my heart for that last video. Bohemian Rhapsody is one of my absolute favorite songs in the world. One thing Queen did amazingly is to create a song that feels inspiring and powerful. "We Will Rock You" can get every stomping like an army in about two seconds flat. I absolutely love those types of epic songs, which is what made me so happy this year that our show choir is doing a very dramatic and powerful opener written by Muse.

The thing I love about the videos I mentioned earlier is that they take commonly annoying sounds like a vuvuzela and that squeaky sound that air makes coming out of a balloon into beautiful music. He even did a song entirely with phonebooks, which is wonderful because I love to tap and drum on my textbooks to make music. This validates all of us compulsive tappers, shakers, and hummers out there. It makes me feel like less of a completely annoying person and more of a musical savant.

So the next time you see, or rather hear, someone making some beautiful music on their impromptu instruments, don't shut down their creativity. Feel free to join in and add your own music. School, especially LA class, is about learning to effectively express ourselves, and music is one of the purest and most beautiful forms of human expression out there. Thanks so much for reading and make sure to keep making music.

Childish but Amazing

First off, I'd like to say congratulations to all of those Kennedy kids who made All-State Choir. I, unfortunately, didn't make it. However, I will be trying my hardest again next year. This does mean that I started today a little bit bummed out. So I decided today's blog was gonna be over something that is ridiculously funny, childish, and makes you believe that there is good in the universe. "What could possibly do that?" I hear you cry out. Why of course it must be "The Farting Preacher".

Now before you immediately judge me and quit my blog forever, just take a second to look it up. It is the simplest, most childish thing I have ever seen, but every time I watch it I can't help but smile. It is so dumb, but the way that preacher makes all those awkward movements and whoever made the video turned them into comedic gold by simply adding a fart sound effect. I can't help but laugh every time the preacher scrunches his face, the fart sound goes off, and then he yells "Hallelujah" or "Praise Jesus". The best part of this, is that you can do it yourself. Just watch a televangelist at home, and add fart sound effects. It is hilarious every time.

Now I realize some people are offended by this for religious reasons, and I can understand that. However, I think that it isn't offensive for two reasons.

My first reason is that I think laughter and humor is one of the greatest things humanity has ever done. You can turn a person's mood, day, or even life around by just giving someone laughter. I think humor brings peace, interconnectedness, and a brotherly love that is becoming scarcer and scarcer in the modern world. I think the fact that this video has brought joy to so many people justifies itself. It isn't trying to make fun of Christianity in the slightest. The video wouldn't change at all if the religion was Hindu or Judaism or Buddhism. It is simply a funny video.

My second reason is that Robert Tilton had it coming to him. After a group called the Trinity Foundation started receiving people who had lost most of their money donating it to televangelists, they started an undercover investigation. They made a fake televangelist and talked to the agency that Robert Tilton ran his mail through. What they found is that the whole of Tilton's goal was to make extremely large amounts of money that went to his bank. Also, when they searched dumpsters outside of Tilton's lawyer's office and outside of his bank, they found tens of thousands of unread prayer letters, bank statements showing huge amounts of money going to Robert Tilton, and the computer program for how their "personal responses" were done automatically. The Trinity Foundation released these results showing how Tilton had aggressively taken advantage of religious followers and merely reaped cash while completely disregarding the religious aspects. Many lawsuits for fraud followed and were successful against Robert Tilton. Tilton tried to argue against this investigation in court but lost repeatedly. So, Robert Tilton who took advantage of untold amounts of people lost the money and is now forever known as "The Farting Preacher". Whether you believe in karma, divine intervention, or coincidence, this is some of it at it's finest.

This is a absolutely hilarious video that is guilt-free because the televangelist was a corrupt jerk.

Yo mamma so...

Yo mamma jokes have been a staple of humor for a long time now. They are funny but we've been running out of new and inventive ones. All the good Yo mamma jokes have been taken and used up. So now I think the time has come for a new type of yo mamma joke. Yo mamma compliments. There is an awesome video by two guys named Rhett and Link who do a podcast as well as some hilarious songs like "Rap Battle of Manliness" and more relevantly the "Yo Mama Battle (of Compliments)". It is just such an awesome idea that it doesn't need any intro. They just sit across one another and rap yo mamma compliments at one another.

The jokes range from either smart and funny ("Yo mamma is so musical that I mistake her for Yo-Yo Ma") to extremely dumb but still funny ("Yo mamma is enjoyable that she's like a hug, wrapped in laughter, wrapped in a magic show, wrapped in a delicious chicken burrito"). That last one is probably how I'm going to describe things that I love now. I just can't get over how simple of a twist this is on a perfectly common thing, that ends up being absolutely fun and innovative. The beat is catchy with a nice drive too it. However, one thing I think makes the video different than just something anyone can do is the intensity and expression that comes off of these two guys. They are able to be so competitive and energetic that it makes the fact that they are yelling compliments at one another's mothers seem so out of place and hilarious.

I don't know if Rhett and Link intended to send a specific message when they made this video, or if they simply thought it would just be fun to do. What I do know is that we should all follow their example. Let's get creative in the way we compliment one another. For example, a kugelblitz is when matter is hotter than the hottest possible temperature due to some cool science and Planck's smallest distance possible and spontaneously becomes a black hole. Now that is a creative compliment. Let's not spend our time and energy trying to hurt each other or tear each other down, but rather building each other up and comforting those around you. The world has had an overabundance of negativity and cynicism for far too long. I think it is time for an Age of Optimism and Hope. Do your part to make the world slightly happier and give someone a compliment today. You guys are awesome for reading this, thanks.

Nervous!

So if you guys go onto Youtube and look up "Iowa All-State Choir 2012" you get a variety of videos from last year's all-state performance. My personal recommendation is the "Skip to my Lou" or "Battle Hymn of the Republic". However, this blog as I said in my "About Me" page is about me. So if you look at the video for "Veni Sancte Spiritus" at about the 2:15 mark and look up in the top left you will see your favorite blogger rocking it out in all his glorious choir dorkiness. I hardly even recognized myself when I watched the video, but there I am.

One thing you guys might know about is how intense the auditioning process is. You might be thinking "how hard could it be, look at all the people there?" and I would understand that. It's hard to realize though that that is probably only about a fifth of all the people who auditioned. Everyone who even gets to come audition is representing some of the best singers at their respective schools. It is a lot of work, memorization, focus, and nerves. The whole process makes you as nervous as a mice who sees a big old cat sitting right in front of it. Why am I talking about this now? Well the auditions for the 2013 Iowa All-State Chorus are this Saturday and even just thinking about it right now makes my heart race and my mouth go dry. I have been working on and drilling this music into my head ever since I went to ISU for an All-State Camp in the mid-summer. Me and my two auditioning partners Quinn and Mckayla have been synchronizing and blending the best we can to create the most beautiful sound.

I'd like to talk to you guys about my way to deal with nerves. No one wants to be the girl who got nervous and forgot the lyrics to the National Anthem at the NBA or MLB game. So how do I cope with stress? I prepare and prepare and prepare and practice and practice until I know the music like I know my own name. Only when I know I can sing it exactly the way I want to can I feel even slightly comfortable or secure going into the audition. Even when you prepare and practice you still feel nervous, so you just have to try your best to let the music relax and focus on all the things you've been working on. It is the hardest thing in the world to have fun with and accentuate the music while you are auditioning, but you have to do it. I also try my very best to establish routines. Routines make you feel at ease. Whether it's the Olympic sprinter who does a certain pre-race stretch routine or me standing outside the auditioning center shaking everything out it helps make things feel normal.

Nervousness can actually be a great thing. It pushes you to perform better and do things you didn't even know you could do. It is important to learn how to not let your nervousness paralyze you. Find a routine and prepare for the big events, whether a test, audition, performance, or big game, and try and let that nervousness work for you instead of against you. Thanks for reading

Jewish Christmas

Some people think that because I'm Jewish I object to singing Christmas songs, or that I mind singing songs like the Battle Hymn that are about the glory of Jesus. I don't mind singing Christian songs. I think there is a long history of very influential Christian songs. Practically every old Latin song is about praising Jesus. This transferred to gospel singing and even to the Christian rap which thoroughly baffles me. One of the things I love about Christian music is Christmas songs. They are so good and catchy that around the wintertime, most of what I sing is Christmas music. So when I found an video of the group Straight No Chaser, an a capella group from Indiana University, called "12 days" (of Christmas) I knew I would love it.

The video completely took my expectations and exceeded them spectacularly. While they do sing beautifully, worthy of their reputation as an a capella group and as a touring show, they also are absolutely hilarious in the way that satirize the fact that no one actually knows each thing for the twelve days of Christmas and how easy it is to mix up different Christmas songs. They start out just singing pretty but it quickly becomes a trainwreck as different parts of the group lose track of the days, and they switch somehow into "Santa Clause is Coming to Town". It's awesome how they make fun of the fact that the two parts everyone knows and goes to is yelling "Five golden rings" and "And a partridge in a pear tree". Then they switch flawlessly from three french hens into "Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer". I laughed my head off when that guy came out singing "The Dreidl Song"... just perfect. The looks that everyone gives him and his confusion make it hysterically funny. You can see on everyone's faces "Really guy? Just....Really?". I loved this piece start to finish for it's beautiful sound, cheekiness, and complexity. It is no surprise to me that this song was one of the most famous and classic of "Straight No Chaser"'s songs. However, they do have a lot more wonderful songs and some albums. 

I had heard about this group before, but I only recently looked it up because Kari and Christine had actually gone to one of their concerts last Friday. Extremely jealous but curious, I looked them up and found some wonderful stuff. So i guess the lesson is, follow your curiosity. Thanks for reading.

Cheating the Rules... Kinda

I made myself a set of rules when I started this blog that I would follow strictly.
1. I could only talk about videos that I personally watched.
2. I would be truthful in my opinion, and never falsely praise a video.
3. I would only cover the topics of music and humor.
4. I would only cover a song, artist, group, or routine once.
Well recently I did a blog about Pentatonix and I hate to say it, but I'm going to break rule number 4.... kinda. The video itself was actually done by another Youtube singer named Todrick Hall, but PTX guest-starred (guest-sang?) in it. Pentatonix was the main reason I found the video and the main reason I watched it as well. Still it doesn't technically break any of my rules and it is a great video.

The video is a a capella take on the Wizard of Oz in which they sing modern pop songs alongside the story line. One of my favorite parts is just how punderful the name is: "The Wizard of Ahhhs". I absolutely love a good/bad pun. You know the ones that are so cheesy and awful that they're like sparkling gems of comedy. One of the funniest things I've heard this month was a classmate Douglas saying "Timmy the Math Master... more like Math Disaster". I just love bad puns.

Another thing I love about this video, besides the always gorgeous Pentatonix voices, is the wonderful song selection for each section. There was the classic "Somewhere Over The Rainbow" at the beginning, but after the tornado it was "Wide Awake" and the fairy sang "Shoes" as the Wicked Witch was crushed by the house as the Lollipop Guild sang "Lollipop", and then "Damaged" for the tin man, and some beautiful pieces at the end like "Home" by Phillip Phillips which is a personal favorite. It all just works so darn well together.

I guess you could say I was biased to like this from the beginning, for one because I like the Wizard of Oz, but also because I love a good parody. Whether it was Futurama parodying Moby Dick or Family Guy parodying everything I enjoy the heck out of how people can rearrange famous and classical pieces into something new and interesting. It is also usually really funny, which is mainly because every classic piece has some real oddities to it. For the Wizard of Oz, I never understood the Lollipop Guild or the flying monkeys or why a witch who's fatal weakness is water (really?) would keep a bucket of water in her castle (REALLY?). So I was intrigued by this video from the start do it's parody nature and it provided in bucket-loads with some wonderful song choices, amazing singing, bad puns, and a short but powerful parody of the Wizard of Oz. Thanks for reading

Smooth Criminal

I'm no McJagger and I don't have any moves reminiscent of him. I am an average white high school boy who would probably rather do hours of manual labor than stand in the middle of a circle of people and just dance. Some people may say "But Adam don't you dance in front of lots of people in show choir?" The first thing I say to that is don't start a sentence with a conjunction (PSAT is this Saturday and I'm a little bit on grammar edge right now) and also that is choreographed and so I don't have to come up with it on the spot. If you don't think there is a difference imagine speaking a prepared essay in front of the class or just having to stand up and present to your class for ten minutes on any topic which you don't have preparation for. It may be easy to do that if you're a natural public speaker in the same way some people are natural dancers that feel comfortable just going and dancing. I am not a natural dancer. I do really appreciate phenomenal dancing though. A wonderful dancer I just found, mainly because I was watching an a cappella version of "Smooth Criminal" covered by Voces 8, is the dancer Marquese Scott known on Youtube as WHZGUD2.

He does an awesomely executed dance to a dubstep version of Michael Jackson's "Beat It". I've been a huge fan of Michael Jackson's songs from the Jackson Five to his solo days, and a huge fan of his dancing. There are lots of dance tributes out there to the smooth yet mechanical style of dancing that Michael Jackson introduced. He always seemed to float over the ground.  Well if Michael Jackson is floating over the ground Marquese Scott is soaring because I think he does a better job at Michael Jackson style dancing than Michael Jackson did. Every move looks so effortless when he does it. Another great example of this is in his dance video to "Pumped Up Kicks". He looks surreal, almost like a robot or some sort of nonhuman entity, because I have never seen another human move that way. He is perfectly balanced and the sharp contrast between his quick mechanical moves and long smooth moves work perfectly with the music. One of the things I appreciate the most about his dancing is that he didn't try to outflair someone with special effects or a stunning costume. This is simply a guy in the middle of a parking lot wearing normal attire dancing his heart out. Marquese performs an amazing tribute to Micheal Jackson by recreating and revamping some of his most classic moves. I enjoyed the pacing of the video as it gradually got more intense as it built up to the climax which I think happened at 2:50 in the video, as he strikes a classic Michael Jackson pose.

Nothing would make me happier than finding out this is just some guy with a hobby, but he is actually a professional dancer who has been training quite a while. That just goes to show you how amazing you can become when you dedicate yourself. Thanks for reading

Youtube-ception

One thing I love about Youtube is how much they collaborate and bring together wonderful artists and creative people, and the results are awesome. In one of my blog posts I talked about when Pentatonix covered "Royals" by Lorde. Not necessarily a collaboration, but definitely a combination of some wonderful artists and talented singers brought together and displayed on Youtube. I thought I could "tell the future" and I might or might not have tried to start my own fortune-telling business that eventually failed. However, the main point is that their are some awesome collaborations.

 I would like to go in a different direction then me having clear sight when it comes to the future and talk about my cloudy vision of the past. For example, I had recently posted about how many years I loved the "Epic Rap Battles of History" and another about the new funny rapper I had just discovered called George Watsky. As I continued to explore and watch many more videos by the new artist I had just found I came across an interview from him in which he talked about some of his favorite songs he had done. He talked about a collaboration when he rapped as Shakespeare in "Dr. Seuss vs. Shakespeare". Wait what? What? WHAT? If you look back you'll know that was one of my favorite raps. How could I not have known that he was Shakespeare when I've been watching him for hours at a time. So of course I had to go back and look, and sure enough there is George Watsky rapping as Shakespeare in a fake moustache and goatee in one of my favorite rap battles. I feel like the club bouncer in the cartoons that is fooled by a kid on another kid's shoulders wearing a fake beard and a long trenchcoat. How could I not have recognized him! It turns out that I hadn't just discovered George Watsky. I had loved George Watsky rapping before I even realized that I loved George Watsky rapping.

Am I oblivious? Am I dumb? It is proven by science that we have a very small and short range of attention and memory. There is an awesome TV show called Brain Games in which they talked about memory and attention, and we are suprisingly bad at it. We have to focus on very intense details and this causes us to have a bad memory and attention. Oh well it was just cool to see this collaboration and it was a pleasant tomorrow. Thanks for reading.

Swag Swag Swaggety Swag Swag Swag

I use the word swag once or maybe twice a day, and usually in a joking way. There are people though, who use swag once or twice for every sentence, you know who I'm talking about. They need to stop. It is really annoying, repetitive, and frankly stupid to say "swag" for everything. My hat is swag, my shirt is swag, I live the swag-life, I swag daily, swag-style, swag-please-shut-your-mouth-and-never-say-swag-again. So that is what made me so happy when I found a video by George Watsky, a really funny and talented rapper, that was titled "100 Words You Could Say Instead of Swag".

The video shows exactly how bad it is in high schools with the word "swag". George is the teacher of the class as well as one of the kids who just constantly says swag. George sings about how he thought swag had died long ago, but Justin Bieber revived itl. He then shows exactly how useless and annoying swag is by showing all the words and phrases you could use instead of just swag. My oh my, does he do a good job. There is so many ways to express yourself without the use of one stupid word. I absolutely love the part in the middle when he shows how Walt Whitman described his carefreeness by saying "I cock my hat as I please" and then juxtaposing (placing it next to) Justin Bieber's lyrics "swag swag swag on you, sittin by the fire while we eatin fondue." It perfectly illustrates exactly how ridiculously simplistic and stupid we sound when compared to some actual literature. This is shown again by the 100th word when he says "You can even just use the word "swagger", which is actually a real word that's existed for hundred of years." Swag is a completely unneccesary word that has no place in old or modern English.

He also just does a awesome rapping job and I love how his attitude changes and seeing the teacher break it down in front of all the kids. By the end he's dancing around in the front of the class and imitating the swag-sayers by using swag in ridiculous ways like my favorite line "my favorite bird is a swagpie, and my favorite pie...is a swagpie" or "live swaggety ever after". It was just a really nicely put together rap by a cool kid who has a really valid point that people need to stop saying swag so much. Thanks for reading

Waiting for Christmas... Metaphorically

It is finally, finally, finally here! After five long months of waiting the third season of Epic Rap Battles of History has come out. To give you an idea, I had most of the first season memorized when I was a freshman, that's how long and how much I have loved these videos. It was all I could think about the night before. I knew that it was gonna be the third installment of their classic "Hitler vs. Vader" matchup. It's like having this big old christmas present waiting downstairs with a huge bow on it, and you know you've been asking for some crazy awesome game device or tv or something. However, I cant cheat and peek. I just have to sit and wait for five months. So when I finally got to watch it about like 2 minutes ago I was so extremely....kinda disappointed.

Don't get me wrong, I absolutely love nicepeter and all the raps he has written, but this third installment kinda seemed less like a dramatic conclusion, and more like they were running out of comic material for this matchup. I can definitely understand that. For my AP World History project after the AP test, we had to make a music video. We decided on a rap about the Russian leaders to the tune of "Ice Ice Baby" (coincidentally the season 2 ending of epic rap battles of history came out with of all five major Russian leaders and I absolutely loved it!) but we ran out of good material in about two verses, and this was a subject we prepared for all year. I just felt like I opened the christmas box and got a sweatshirt. Nice, but not the amazing image I've placed into my mind.

This is a good lesson for everyone about overhyping something to yourself. If you blow it out of proportions in your head, you will disappoint yourself. This definitely contributed to my disappointment, but I honestly just think this was one of his worst raps, and it came at an unfortunate time. I thought maybe I had grown out of it, and I didn't find them good anymore, but I went back and watched the old ones and they were just as genius as they were before (I recommend Shakespeare vs. Dr. Seuss). I just wish he had stuck to his strong suits and done a high-tempo, clever, full-of-puns rap on a fresh subjects. This is what I'm looking forward to in his next rap battle. Thanks for reading

I Can Predict The Future!!!!

So if you look back at my recent posts you will see that I just did a piece on how much I love Pentatonix, and even farther back then that was a post all about how much I loved the song "Royals" by Lorde. So when I get home and I look on the home page of Youtube what do I see?

PENTATONIX'S COVER OF ROYALS!!

I could not press that button fast enough, and I was well rewarded. Pentatonix took the sheer choral beauty that made "Royals" work so well and not only emphasized it but put their classic PTX flair onto it to make it absolutely stunning. Their video choreography is little to none, it is all just pure vocal talent and gorgeous songwriting by Lorde. This group mixes so well with this song I don't know why I hadn't put them together in my mind already! It's also such a cool song for them because it's about becoming famous but remembering your roots and not being overcome by the rich/famous mindset. That's why that closing shot of them in a line from their classy rich clothes to their normal clothes as they sing "We're bigger than we ever dreamed" is so powerful and reflective of their meteoric rise to fame.

Now I don't want to go around saying that I can predict the future, but I definitely have these odd moments every like other month where something happens that is just so coincidental that I can sorta convince myself I have superpowers. I know I obviously don't! But it's fun to think about if I actually had the power to predict the future. This used to happen to me a lot in middle school, when I would get Deja-Vu all the time. Like I would dream something like a conversation and it would happen about a week later in real life. I always wanted to keep a dream journal so I could prove I could tell the future. Now I realize that they were probably just coincidences, as is this one, but it's fun to think of myself as the future-reading superhero the All-Seeing Adam.

Thanks for reading, and I really hope you watch PTX's video.

PTX = Godliness

I don't know if everyone knows PTX, otherwise known as Pentatonix, but they are absolutely one of my favorite singing groups in recent history. Their story is inspiring, their singing is beautiful, and I can't help but love a cappella. The hair alone on the blond singer is worth a Grammy. I really want everyone to go right now to PTX's Youtube channel and spend about an hour just letting the gorgeous music run over you.

PTX started out as a completely unknown group on a show called "The Sing-Off". This was sort of like an American Idol type competition with a cappella groups. Each week would be a different style or type of music the groups had to perform, and one group was eliminated each week until three groups competed at the finals for the champion spot. Ever since I saw their first performance of "ET" by Katy Perry, I knew they were awesome. They have absolutely perfect pitch and blend with one another. It sounds like a cohesive unit unlike some other groups that can get a little too focused on one person. Another aspect of their rise that I love is how much they had to fight through. They were a group of five people, which was extremely rare for an a cappella group. It's just extremely hard to produce the level of tone and volume that larger groups can use. Imagine it in the same way that Kennedy High School is 4A because of it's size. Now imagine a small 1A school rising up and completely dominating every 4A school. I was really worried that after their appearance on "The Sing-Off" they would disappear. However, they are stronger and more popular than ever through the use of their Youtube channel. Recently, they released their "Evolution of Music" video, and even after twenty playthroughs it's still jaw-droppingly awesome. They have gone on concert tours and released an album and I couldn't be happier that they are succeeding so much.

While I do think PTX has some special quality that most a cappella groups don't have. I truly do love every a cappella group. It's just so cool the variety of sounds humans can produce using just their voice. The beatboxers are amazingly talented at what they do. One of the other a cappella groups I really enjoy is BYU's Vocal Point. They also competed on "The Sing-Off" but unfortunately didn't win. They did an amazingly cool cover of "Every Little Step" and is probably one of my favorite a cappella performances ever. This is why I was so excited when BYU Vocal Point actually came to Kennedy High School pretty recently, and even held an a cappella workshop.

A cappella singing is a showcase of the amazing variety and power of the human voice and I love it. I wish everyone would stop stereotyping it by Pitch Perfect and Glee but I guess it is as it is. Thanks for reading

Musicals are Cool

Where can you go to find hipster Disney princesses, tap dancing Mario and Luigi, Breaking Bad tutorial to music, and slender man singing about his problem? That's right, AVbyte. Yes they rhyme, all the time. Im gonna stop now, before you hit me and make me say...ow.

AVbyte are two brothers who write original musicals for their Youtube channel all about new and popular topics. There are the ones that were mentioned before and they have covered so many more. I really appreciate how they are clever and talented enough to write these well put together musical numbers in a short amount of time. It is extremely impressive, and I would love to try and make a musical like this sometime. They have some very catchy numbers and very cool musicality that they write in. The videos are hilarious and I love the performers. They are really talented and make me really happy every time a new one comes out.

One of the sections I always enjoy in these, and really in every musical performance, is the tap dancing. I mean, normally in a musical the dancing can be a little bit secondary and sometimes boring. However, I think the tap dancing sections are always extremely impressive. They would probably be less impressive if I had studied tap dancing but I have no clue about it. That's what makes it so magical and cool when they dancing the complex steps and you hear the really cool tap rhythm coming out. You just see all these crazy dance kicks and out comes a perfect rhythm. AVbyte does a really great job at constructing cool and very original tap routines. It's very funny to see these famous characters tapdancing to cheery music. I kinda wish I had learned tap dancing so I could just break out a crazy tap routine in the middle of the holiday.

I guess I really like this channel because it takes some talents that I love and show that it is entirely possible to combine these as an amateur into some really entertaining pieces of work. It makes me feel optimistic that if I really put some quality effort, creativity, and time into it I myself could create something cool. Of course, this also makes me feel extremely lazy that I haven't put the quality effort, creativity, and time into it. I guess I'm creating something here with the blog. I hope you guys enjoy it and it inspires your blog. Thanks for reading.

Best Advertisement Ever

Imagine you are walking down the street and you see a button that says "Push To Add Drama". Do you push it? I sure as heck would, I want something cool to happen everyday. I would never imagine how awesome pushing that button could be.

This was the setup for an ad to bring attention to the new TNT channel in Belgium. They placed the button in a quiet downtown square and waited for people to push the button. The video of what happened is on Youtube as "A Dramatic Suprise On a Quiet Square". Boy oh boy is it dramatic. Ambulances, a dead guy, a fight breaks out between the paramedic and a biker. Guess what, the paramedic is a ripped kung-fu master who beats the crap out of the biker. All of a sudden, black SUV's and police cars appear and a gun fight breaks out with people dying. Everyone drives off in a second, when four football players come and carry the dead guy out as a girl in a bikini rides across on a sportsbike.......Awesomeness.

The thing that makes this so awesome is the dumbfounded looks on the face of all the watchers. Realizing that would be my exact face if all this random craziness happened. Then that banner unfurls at the end and everyone is like "Wait! This was all an advertisement for drama TV?" It is absolutely my favorite, funniest advertisement I've seen ever. The music for it is also perfectly suited for this cool idea. I absolutely love clever advertising, especially when it gets people involved. I really hope TNT in Belgium became super popular because of this stunt. It's just such a cool idea, and I really wish that this would happen to me sometime.

I'm not sure whether I like this one or the sequel more. I mean the sequel does have snipers, men in body suits, a zip lining pistol-wielding Elvis in a prison riot, and naked men being shot by a water cannon. However in the sequel they throw whoever presses the button in a black van which is sooooooo weird. I just love them both for their originality and commitement and I wish all ads were as cool as this.

Also, doesn't that guy on the bike who presses the button kinda look like Maury Povich? Just saying. Thanks for reading guys.

Hipsters?

So I was it was late at night, and I was falling asleep in the back of my brother’s car as we drove home when I heard a song and I instantly really liked it. I wasn’t completely mesmerized or struck with complete love for the song, I just really liked it. It sounded beautiful and had some catchy sections. I looked up the song by asking around and googling some keywords and I eventually found it. I listened to and watched the music video for Lorde’s song “Royals” and it was just as I remembered it in the car. A nice beautiful sounding song sung by a surprisingly sixteen year-old singer (Which is the same age as me, and coincidentally makes me feel like a lazy no-talented whoever). I guess it’s the choir nerd in me, but I just love how pretty the chords in the song are, and the harmonization is spot on. That little arpeggio that appears in the chorus is perhaps my favorite part.

As is common when you hear a cool new song, you wanna talk about it to your friends. However, when I talked about it to my classmates I received a lot of criticism for only liking Lorde’s music now that it was on the radio and the fact that I hadn’t (still haven’t) listened to her other songs like “Tennis Court”. Yes, my readers, today we are going to talk about the sensitive, confusing, infuriating subject of hipsters.

I like to define hipsters as people who dislike popular media and prefer to listen to less-known things. I don’t mind hipsters; I do mind aggressive hipsters. What do I mean by aggressive hipsters? I mean the type of people who criticize you for being “so mainstream” or bragging that they “listened to that band before everyone else did”. I’m so sorry that I am not as all-knowing as you when it comes to indie bands or obscure songs and artists. I don’t have an ipod, iphone, itunes, headphones, boombox, cassette player, gramophone or any personal listening device. So I hear most of my music from what is played on the radio. Usually once a song is played on the radio every hipster despises it, and therefore despises my song choices.

I can sorta understand why there is that hipster mentality because I’ve experienced it before. I used to talk about how I had listened to “Party Rock Anthem” about half a year before it got really huge. When I look back now and wonder about why it felt so good to say “I listened to that before everyone else did” I realized that I did it because I felt like the fact I supported a song that then became popular validates my song choice, makes me feel almost responsible for them becoming popular, and actually angered me a little bit that everyone now was obsessed with what I considered sorta “my song”. We live in a time period where being new and next-generation is cool. So it feels kinda great when something you like suddenly is very popular and loved. It’s almost the same reason everybody loves an underdog story. The people you supported finally succeed and you almost feel like you were a part of it.

I honestly have no opinion on the hipster lifestyle with the fake glasses, beards, and irony. I don’t think that’s really what defines a hipster, and I don’t understand why people immediately label the guy with black rimmed glasses and a beard as a total hipster.

I listen to music for my enjoyment. While I do understand the reasons for becoming hipsterish, I don’t think you should ever make people feel bad for liking popular music. Thanks for reading

We're all a little bit racist

A few of my readers might be familiar with one of my favorite musicals... Avenue Q. It had a great run on Broadway, was an extremely new-age raunchy humor type of musical. Oh, and it was performed entirely by puppets. There is something just so awesome about how they take some topics that are very risky, and not only perform them through what is mainly considered a childish means, but also to some of the catchiest and most entertaining musical numbers I've ever heard. In one phrase I'd describe it as "Sesame Street all grown up".

My favorite song in the whole musical embodies the strange mishmash of grown-up themes and puppets singing is "Everyone's a Little Bit Racist". I mean, no doubt racism is a huge issue and it definitely was a tragic thing throughout history. However, the point of this song is that every race discriminates against every other race. No one is blameless. It becomes a question of whether it hurts people more to freak out on them for saying something slightly racist or to just relax and realize it is meant lightheartedly.

What I like about the song is how cheery it is. It is happy and fun, while still talking about racism. It's that weird mishmash of childhood and adulthood again. As the song develops, different characters from the musical join in from many different races such as Asian, Black, Polish, and Monster (Monster is the name of a race of the puppets). Until everyone just learns to relax and they join one another in a final grand chorus, joining hands, singing together, and advising people not to be so worried and just relax. As long as everyone accepts one another's differences its ok to notice those difference. Ok sorry I lied earlier when I said the play is performed by puppet characters. There are also some human-played characters like Brian the failed unemployed comic or Gary Coleman the buildings superintendent.

This song just embodies exactly why I enjoy this musical so much. It has a well meaning message, with hilariously off-color topics, performed in a great way. It is such a new age play that uses some of my favorite new elements of entertainment, such as breaking the fourth wall (The actors beg for money from the audience to raise money for the school). Nothing like this would have been accepted even twenty years ago. The entire main opening number is an argument about whose life sucks the most. The fact that we can listen to this play without making immediate judgments on things like "why are there puppets" or "this topic is unacceptable" is kinda the whole point behind "Everyone's a Little Bit Racist".

Thanks so much for listening, and I hope everyone can relax and accept one another.

Universal Joy

There are some things that will make everyone smile. One of these rare but beautiful things is the laughing of a baby. I think the best example of this is the Youtube video "Charlie Bit My Finger". It is just a simple video of one baby biting his slightly older brother and laughing about it. Can you guess how many views it has? FIVE HUNDRED MILLION. To give you some perspective, that is almost twice as much as the total US population. That is about one out of every fourteen people in the world that have seen this video. The percentage is even more impressive when you consider how much of the world doesn't have internet access. It just shows you exactly how powerful the laugh of a baby is. 

I personally think it is impossible to not laugh at this video. It is just so cute and funny. It is such a universally wonderful thing that there are about fifteen other videos of just babies doing cute stuff, and racking up over tens of millions of views. There are several studies out on why babies are so universally cute, and it usually comes down to paternal/maternal care. 

All I really care about is that it makes my day a little bit brighter and I hope it made yours too. Thanks for listening. :-)

I'm a nerd

I admit it, I finally admit it. I am a complete and total nerd. I debated whether or not to put this entry in so I could at least keep up the semblance of not being a nerd, but I just had to do a blog entry on this. It's so freakin cool and I just love the idea behind it. What is that beautiful idea? Two Words...... Zelda Dubstep.

If you need to know more than those two words then I'm not sure I can look at you anymore. When I heard this was a thing I rushed to the nearest computer to look it up. The DJ who made these remixes is called Ephixa, and he is a genius. He took classic Legend of Zelda songs and turned them into hardcore dubstep versions, and it works beautifully.  My personal favorite is probably the Lost Woods Remix, which can be found easily on Youtube.

People who didn't grow up playing the Zelda games might not be as interested and pumped by this as I am, but they need to realize two things. One, Zelda games were family events at my house in which everyone gathered around and enjoyed it together. Two, Zelda games have absolutely gorgeous music in every release. I mean these games were practically revered for their amazing soundtrack, which makes sense, since the creator of Zelda was also the creator of the legendary Mario series. One of the main focuses when creating these two games was the soundtrack. This has led to some iconic songs such as the original Mario theme or the Lost Woods theme.

What I think makes it so effective and cool of a song is that it starts with an almost unaltered Lost Woods theme that is very timid and mystical, which is what makes the heavy dubstep so shocking and cool. If there is one thing I like about dubstep, a music style I've been very cautious to embrace, is the buildup to that one moment when the bass drops.

The history, the style, the execution, the personal meaning, and simply the nerdy awesomeness of it has made this a wonderfully enjoyable song for me. Hope you enjoy it too.

Thanks for listening

United States of Whatever

This is why I love Youtube. It is one of the funniest places in the world, full of untapped humor. You can just look out there and find the craziest, stupidest, yet equally hilarious things; sublimely idiotic videos that are still awesome and rack up hundreds of thousands of views.

You can find it at this link- http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=viaTT859Yk0 or just look up “United States of Whatever” up on Youtube.

 This clip came from a show called “The Sifl and Olly Show” after the names of the two main characters. It was actually once a show on MTV-UK and eventually transferred to MTV-US for three seasons before it was cancelled. The show was started by two childhood friends named Liam Lynch and Matt Crocco. They started performing songs and humor sketches to amuse themselves. Even when they grew up and went to different colleges, they still sent songs and scenes to one another. They even recorded a comedy album together. While at the Liverpool Institute of Performing Arts Liam found some songs and scenes they had recorded for their incomplete second album. Liam decided to act the songs and scenes out with sock puppets and send the video to Mark. Lynch also sent the videos to MTV-UK, who loved it, and that was the beginning of “The Sifl and Olly Show”.

It’s just so awesome to me that these two friends who were young kids found something they loved to do. They kept doing it just for the fun of creating something and making a friend laugh. Finally they succeeded and actually created and performed in their own show for three years on national television. They usually wrote only loose scripts for the show and improvised most of it. They just had fun joking around with sock puppets and lots of people loved it. It’s amazing and kind of inspiring how far these two people succeeded just by being good friends and genuinely funny people.

 “United States of Whatever” actually was written and performed entirely by Liam Lynch. He said that the song was completely improvised and recorded in a single take. The song itself is a punk style rock that consists of exactly two chords and two basic lines of dialogue. It is so simple, but still gets stuck inside my head often. This song was actually praised and lauded by quite a few people. It was named a “Song of the Week” by a NME, a prominent British music publication. It also hit number ten on the UK Singles Chart. It was the shortest song, at the original song time of 1:26, to ever be on the UK Singles Chart. Its position for five years as the shortest song would be uprooted in 2007 by the world renowned classic “Spider Pig”. “United States of Whatever” also hit top single charts in Belgium, the Netherlands, and New Zealand. An amazing amount of success for what probably came to Liam as a joke to tell his friend Mark. 

The whole song just reminds me of a joke you would tell your friend in class. It’s just so dang funny to me every single time Olly (Liam) says YEAH WHATEVER. He just keeps interrupting them more and more until that last one where the music just cuts out and they both just nod at the camera and say “that’s nice”. It’s a classic misleading of the audience and it made me bust out laughing the first time. The reactions from Sifl are just perfect as it reflects how weird and surreal the whole song is. I have to admit though that the chorus sections can become a little weird and trippy. It’s just a really fun song and when that hard guitar chords hit, I wanna headbang alongside Olly.

Also something a little unexpected from a music video performed completely by sock puppets is that it actually contains some social and moral value. I mean the whole point of the song and the attached skit is to illustrate how apathetic and uncaring American teens have become and why they become so detached. I think Sifl said it best when he said “Olly you can say whatever the whole show and you may think you look cool, but it looks really dumb.” It’s this whole idea that not caring about stuff makes you cool. This sort of reflects how in popular media the cool characters are the ones who disrespect authority and stay detached and aloof (see the “cool guys don’t look at explosions” group). I think this is a serious problem as it has become almost the status quo now that cool people can’t overtly care about stuff or they are “tryhards”. This creates a sense that to be cool you have to not succeed at what authority wants you to and completely not care about it. I think this is what causes a lot of high schoolers to make unwise decisions. They don’t care about school and their future because that’s “cool”.

Well I fervently stand by those kids who take the extra effort to try hard and to succeed through caring about themselves, their future, and helping others. I think it is a major problem in this country, one that many leaders and teachers have been trying to solve. Kids should want to try their hardest in school; they should want to be the best they can be. I mean one of the things parents of this country are most worried about is that are uncaring attitude of “whatever” could cause the US to lose ground economically, politically, and educationally to foreign countries. My history teacher, Mr. Anderson, made an interesting point when he said that humans in America today look for much more shortcuts and easy ways then they would have even twenty years ago. Even looking at this blog project I know for a fact that at least a quarter to half of the students doing this will just barely go over the word limit. Some don’t even care enough to do the assignment. I know this is true because I am guilty of it myself. I know that last year in LA we had to do forum posts in which seven hundred words would get you an A grade. So most of my forum posts were in between seven hundred and eight hundred. I guess you could blame on how busy everyone is nowadays or the distractions from technology, but I think it is also a severe issue in the mindset of teenagers in the country. At the same time, I probably will finish my blog word count this week with about 1300 words. Another person comes up and asks me “why would you say that teens being lazy is a major problem and then take the easy route yourself” and I’m just like YEAH WHATEVER. Thanks for reading, don’t forget to subscribe, and peace out.