I don't want to live on a cloud

As I watched one of the countless re-runs of Fresh Prince of Bel-Air, I saw a commercial that stuck out to me. "Now, Walmart will transfer your DVD collect to digital for not $10 but only $2, it's fast and easy!" After a bit of research of a rather vaguely described commercial I came across an article that does confirm Walmart's new service transferring DVD movies into digital movies. This to me was actually really interested, especially for the fact that you're allowed to keep the discs after you transfer them to the UltraViolet DRM system. This made me realize, we're becoming a cloud-based entertainment society. As people are making the switch to Spotify, Netflix, and Steam for their entertainment, it saddens me. I've always loved technology but I'm not ready to live on a cloud.

Now for those who don't know what the cloud is, the cloud is pretty much online storage space that can be anywhere from several megabytes to hundreds of gigabytes, that can store anything from photos, music, documents, videos, and any other computer file you'd hope to store. That cloud is becoming increasingly popular. Amazon has recently given 5GB free to people who used their "locker" which is music, videos, and media files purchased through Amazon. Google Documents recently uploaded their site to Google Drive, which still does all the capabilities of Google Documents but with 5GB of storage, to store any files (previously 1gb of storage for documents). We're seeing a big shift to cloud storage. Which cloud storage is a great thing, we're getting a lot of online space for free, and if you'd like to upload to more storage (such as Apple's iCloud) for a fee of about $29.99 a year, you'll get 30GB of space on the iCloud. We're seeing this theme a lot, and it is truly helpful. We're in a world where documents are needed at all times, and cloud services such as Dropbox are convientely allowing us to transfer files from computer to computer without a problem. It's great. It almost sounds like something we would've seen on the sci-fi channel years ago. But I'm not ready to live on a cloud.

One of the biggest new innovations of the cloud, is Google's Chromebook. What Google Chromebook is, is a book focused around Google Chrome (the internet browser) what Chrome does, is allows you to compute normally but with limited storage on the actual model. You're also run on the Chrome browser constantly, without internet it's pointless. Most storage of everything is focused and centered on the cloud. Now, to me that isn't a problem, it sounds like a stress free concept with a clutter free computer lifestyle, but when does it become a problem?

The reason I'd never want to live on a cloud, without having my 500gb of storage on my computer, and completely transferring to digital would be for one main reason, what happens if cloud services are hacked, internet service goes bad (who knows, maybe there is some bandwidth that we can reach before each of our   modems just blow up), or plain and simple you lose internet (or don't have the capability) at home or elsewhere. Not only does having a limited service not help, but for some reason the collection of DVDs, CDs, and books look far more awesome on a shelf than on a cloud service. There is a certain feel that comes with a new purchase at the store of a DVD or book, that is not like any other. The world has an attachment to stuff, anything that is a material object, but when you take that material object and make it digital, it's less appealing. People are also far too social for the cloud. Of course services that are completely cloud-based shouldn't change, but people want to borrow movies, books, music,and games. It's how we are.

In a recent TED Talk, Graham Hill says that with less stuff, we are happier. But I truly don't believe this. We live in a material world, yes it does get cluttered, and unorganized, but the feeling of having all these material things, especially countless movies and music is just far better than having a cloud of all your things. Hill also argues that, we should be transferring our music, movies, games, books, etc to digital, but I believe there is no rush as material objects have far more prominence in a persons home than a cloud. Hill is right when he says there is less clutter, and ultimately an easier lifestyle if everything is digital, but I believe that is only half the fight.

Overall, I do believe the cloud is a great thing. It's convince truly at the touch of a button. But we shouldn't completely shift our society to a digital-based cloud quite yet. Some true classic possessions of mine in the media world such as my turntable with my several records whether it'd be my Jimi Hendrix or my Black Keys which can both be found online, doesn't mean I'm quite ready to part with them. Integration between the two will be the only way in my opinion that should be used, people have built collections that are beyond imaginable, and transferring that to the cloud, just seems pointless to a lot of people. When it does come to documents, music I can't exactly buy, movie streaming, and any type of streaming, the cloud is a blessing in disguise, but transferring our lives to a cloud, isn't the right step just yet. I truly don't want to live on a cloud.

The Nostalgia of Mystery Train (Part 2)

As rock & roll developed farther from the original blues and country roots that Harmonica Frank had added elements of so early in the history and was becoming a fresh genre, many artists were sprouting up that were popularizing the newly formed genre. Among one of the artists popularized was Elvis Presley. In 1954, only three years after Harmonica Frank made noise with Philips, Presley made his first records. Elvis not only emerged as a popular recording artist, but an acclaimed, everything. “Elvis has emerged as a great artist, a great rocker, a great purveyor of shlock, a great heart throb, a great bore, a great potency, a great bam, a great person, and yes a great American.” (Marcus, 121) 

On December 21, 1970, Elvis Presley who had made his way into the heart of many met with the president of the United States, Richard Nixon. “You dress kind of strange, don't you?” Nixon asked Presley who was wearing purple velvet tunic, high-collared white shirt and a Captain Marvel cape. “You have your show and I have mine,” Presley responded. After the first comments were exchanged Nixon addressed to Presley’s agenda (Jeansonne). Presley who had addressed much of the problems the country was facing such as black nationalists, student activists, and the drug and hippie culture that motivated much of the counterculture movement, was proposing to turn back influence of the problems being faced. Being among one of the many artists that fueled early rock & roll, Presley’s political divide shaped opinions of many of his fans who were also on a divide of the times.  

As highly as musicians such as Presley are looked up in today’s society for their contributions to music, the counterculture movement and rock & roll were looked down upon of their time by most. Journalists of the time were one group who looked down upon rock & roll and thought of it as only a small trend. In 1955, Variety Magazine stated on the topic of rock & roll that, "It will be gone by June."  What most did not know was that the music being made would prompt the countless riots, a generation glued to the music, and a rich history.

The music may have been associated with the counterculture movement and was often looked down upon. The rebellious spirits portrayed by Sly Stone, Elvis Presley, and The Beatles often gave an image to be looked down upon. What most of the younger fans of the generation heard in the music was much more than rebellion. “The parts combine to pull listeners into a labyrinth, with no idea what might be lurking around next,” (Marcus).  The music was an escape to a younger generation who were the cause of the awareness of many of the nation’s biggest problems; it gave hope to a crowd.

A good part of the impact of rock ‘n’ roll had to do with its anachronistic essence, the way it seemed to come out of nowhere, the big surprise that trivialized the events that governed daily life. Rock ‘n’ roll gave the kids who had seen no alternative but to submit to those events a little room to move. (Marcus, 17)

           

Rock & Roll music gave a voice to the voiceless, who were the younger generation trying to establish themselves. What  most of the generation didn’t know was that the music they had loved whether it’d be the Beatles or Jimi Hendrix have had a significant contribution to the music industry since the very peaks of rock & roll. Whether it would be the development of early hip-hop that was developed from 70’s funk rock, or whether it would be the inspiration artists of music now derive their music from early rock & roll influence.

One of the most effective ways that music of the early rock & roll era has contributed to later years of music is through the use of sampling. Sampling which is a form of reusing musical elements in a more contemporary form has been used in countless ways since the music of early rock. Often times sampling is considered demeaning to music and a forfeit to the originality of the craft of music but are also times often reveals a sense of nostalgia and an intensity that could only be matched with early rock & roll. Much like The Band’s classic record, The Weight, which Marcus justifies as “The song captured the yearning for home and the fact of displacement that ruled our lives; we thought that the Band’s music was the most natural parallel to our hopes, ambitions, and doubts and we were right to think so.” The Weight has had elements of the song used in over 40 different songs and was most recently sampled into Girl Talk’s All Day album. Elements of countless songs have been reused in songs and have resulted high critical response such as Sly Stone’s record Everyday People which has been reused multiple times but none more highly than Arrested Development’s People Everyday.

Rock & roll, looking back now, has had some of the largest contributions of music of all time. The Beatles compilation album, One, is the highest sold album between the years of 2000 and 2009, which only shows how much of an impact The Beatles still over today’s music (Lamb). Even the earliest forms of rock & roll are still praised today, without the contribution to artists like Harmonica Frank (who could’ve easily been forgotten by now) rock & roll could have never made its way to the surface to having such an impact on society.

Rock & roll has developed from the very peaks of the early blues and country influences. With artists such as Elvis Presley, the Beatles, Sly Stone and many others becoming cultural icons of the time, society reflected the changing times with the music. The development of rock & roll, not only contributed to a developing mid 1900’s society, but it has shaped a great amount of our music today. As rebellious and underappreciated as the music seemed to most the music had developed a culture and that is still prevalent in today’s society. What Marcus demonstrates in Mystery Train is the sense of nostalgia that the music brings back and shows how the music has been such an impact. “It was the intensity of the music that changed fascination into commitment and a bundle of ideas into what must serve as a point of view,” (Marcus, 28). 

The nostalgia of Mystery Train

Recently I wrote an essay on a book by Greil Marcus called Mystery Train. Mystery Train is book that includes the history of rock & roll whether it'd be the early years of Harmonica Frank in the 1950's onto the bad ass stylings of Little Richard, Sly Stone, and the King himself, Elvis Presley. As I finished my essay, I realized that there is a delicate nostaliga that lies deep within my heart that makes me miss the 1960's. Now, you're probably rather confused that a sixteen year old has a sense of nostaliga from the sixties, but the culture of the sixites was phonomenal. No, I'm not reffering to the stoner counterculture of the sixties, as much as I love my Jimi Hendrix album doesn't mean that I'm going to go and do acid and then rebel against the Vietnam war. The 1960's brought about a pleasant time, on the brink of changing in the United States, what I love about the 1960's is the simplicity and how such a changing time brought about a whole movement and country focused around the a lot of the same things.

Here is an excerpt from my essay:

"In 1951 Sam Philips set out to become the founder of what would later become known as Sun Records. Philips was dedicated to finding somebody who had the talent of the later 40’s African American blues artists but who was white. “If I could find a white man who had the Negro sound and the Negro feel, I could make a billion dollar,” Philips said. One of Philips’s first attempts was a man who went by Harmonica Frank Floyd. Harmonica Frank was considered a joke. His music lacked elements that were heard of the time and hardly had elements that people of the time would appreciate. Although Frank did record several songs, he was considered a weird man who was unlike much of the smooth soulful blues singers of the time. What Philips and the others who criticized Harmonica Frank didn’t know was that this sound, the abnormal and uncanny sound that came with Harmonica Frank was one of the earliest forms of what America and a generation focused around counterculture would soon call rock & roll. Harmonica Frank Floyd never became famous, he was never considered among the greats such as Elvis Presley, and was barely allowed to make music without ridicule. But what Harmonica Frank did do was inspire a sound which allowed for artists of the generation and the artists of today to become what they are.

            What Harmonica Frank had started and what artists like Sly Stone, The Band, Elvis Presley, The Beatles, Bob Dylan, and Simon & Garfunkel all picked up with their styles of music became a huge focus centralized around the counterculture movement of the United States. Most importantly, what the new distinct, and to some considered peculiar sound brought about was decades of what Americans and folks around the world would be listening too. Whether it would be the development of early hip-hop emcees and DJs of the 1970’s or the mainstream chart toppers that have showcased classic records played upon the radio ever since they have derived some inspiration from the early development of rock & roll.

            In Greil Marcus’s fifth edition of Mystery Train: Images of America in Rock ‘n’ Roll Music, Marcus exemplifies how rock & roll music has not only influenced the generations of the 1950’s and 60’s, but also continues onto making a substantial contribution to music today. The informative past of such an influential generation is shown throughout Mystery Train and shows why rock & roll, a genre of music that is often looked down upon is in fact an important development in American culture today. Through Mystery Train, Marcus demonstrates truly why rock & roll matters:

Rock ‘n’ roll may matter because it is fun, unpredictable, and anarchic, a neatly         packaged and amazingly intense plurality of good times and good ideas, but none save the very youngest musicians and fans can still take their innocence for granted. (Marcus)" 

Why I chose the iPhone.

Now the Mohammad from 2007 would probably attempt to kick my current day ass. In 2006, I plummeted deep into the world of the most underrated music MP3 devices of the time, the Microsoft Zune. In my opinion at this time, the Zune reigned superior to the iPod. The screen was beautiful, they came in awesome colors, and the wi-fi sharing was a pretty sweet perk to me. This was until the iPhone came out. By the time 2007 came around the iPhone and the iPod touch (first generations) were released. 2007 Mohammad, hated Apple. Everything about Apple pissed me off, I hated the overratedness, it just was that annoying thing that everybody loved, but at the time I never noticed how much of a delight it truly was. Every one of my friends had an iPod and I had a Zune. The next 2-3 years, I took shit for loving my Zune, it was lovely, the only thing I really cared about was the music anyway and the Zune played it as great as anything. Once I entered high school and my Zune was becoming more and more beat up, I came to deciding that maybe Apple wasn't horrible. At this time, the iPhone wasn't hugely popular, only a few kids really had an iPhone and most still didn't even have Smart Phones. It wasn't until the iPhone 3G was released, that most teenagers really started to love the iPhone. Of course you have your Apple extraordinaire and people rich enough to buy every edition of the iPhone who seemed to beat everybody to the punch, but now the iPhone, iPod, and Apple reign supreme in my opinion.

Now it wasn't until last summer that I fell in love with the iPod Touch. After deciding that I was fed up with my Zune it was time to finally go against my old self and become a fan of Apple. I had been warming up to Apple products a lot more, being apart of the Torch, I was exposed to iMacs and they weren't too bad. Now at the start of the summer, I had asked for an iPod for my birthday, and was given to it a few days ahead of time.

I was in love. The sleek and simple packaging was as compact as you could get. The device was incredibly sleek, simple, and had a could touch (no pun intended) that only felt right being the first time I ever opened it. As I grew more accustomed to it, it became greater and greater to me. By the beginning of August, my iPod touch had become just as a necessity to me as my piece of S&^t phone.

Earlier this month in April, that very phone, broke. I was in a way ecstatic. I was also worried, that I couldn't update my phone for a while and with a very simple call to AT&T, I was aware that I was due for an upgrade without having to pay a ridiculous price for a new phone.

That early April afternoon, I walked in to AT&T very unknowing that I was going to be getting an iPhone or at that, even another Smart Phone, which has been more of a necessity on my mind as of lately. With a very open mind, I walked in there, and was offered an iPhone by my parents, and my mouth dropped. But at this very moment inside me, the small remains of that Zune lover was filling my thoughts with the idea of getting a different phone such as an Android...With a little more contemplation, I decided that the me, has been replaced, by a more open me. The iPhone was the best decision I made that whole day.

Why Assassin's Creed 3 will be one fanastic game

History class, we all hate it. It's boring stuff that people hundreds of years ago did and have no signficant impact on our lives once so ever (not really true though, counterargument: society), you do countless hours of homework to do one thing, forget it all. But something awesome, something beyond belief, has made history fun. Now you're probably thinking, what the hell is he talking about, the beautiful thing I am talking about is Assassin's Creed. The Assassin's Creed franchise been around since 2007, and has become an incredibly popular gaming franchise. What Assassin's Creed does in a nutshell, is takes multiple fictional assassin's and puts them in non-fictional scenarios ranging from the early 1600's (I'm pretty sure that's where we first began) and converges it into a historical story lines that make it fun.

Below, I will list 10 reasons of why I think it'll be a fantastic game (no particular order):

10. For the gamers who've been fortunate enough to have played any of the Assassin's Creed know that we've gotten pretty accustomed to many of the characters present. Assassin's Creed III, will feature a new main character that well looks pretty epic. (Picture below)

9. This is the first time an Assassin's Creed game will be featured on the Wii. With the new WiiU being released near November and the October release of ACIII, the game will be a launch game for the WiiU and will be able to utilized the new features of the WiiU (The tablet will probably be used for some cool features, well maybe).

8. This will be the first AC game to be set completely in the United States and takes place during the Revolutionary War. Will we be seeing a lot of Red/Blue, Saratoga, and a bit of the colonies...I think so actually I know so!

7. Benjamin Franklin, George Washington, and Thomas Jefferson in a video game...Enough said.

6. The game has been in development for three years. Being one of the games most important to the series (not being a side type game like Revelations and Brotherhood) III has been in development for a long time now, or what seems like a long time. Even though we've gotten Brotherhood and Revelations in that time, which have both been good, this game has (from what we know) twice as much content than before and will be very well put together for three years of development.

5. Multi-player. I'm not sure what type of multi-player the game will have, but to sell copies of games, you need a way to play with your friends. After being in development for three years, the game will probably soldify a nice multi-player system similar to that of Brotherhood or even better? Right now, who knows?

4. It'll be released in October, even closer to November which means I'll be able to play it without feeling bad that I'm missing good weather. November will become more chilly, which means more time will be spent inside playing video games, which aside football will be a great amount of time spent with my Playstation 3 (and if I decide to get a WiiU, maybe that as well).

3. When I get excited about a game, I definitely get excited and go all out. Chances are I'll go all out and buy one of the special edition packages, the Freedom Edition is looking like it'll have some sweet perks...Why not? 

2. We already know a lot of the controls and the way the game is set up. Even though this is set up on an even more awesome system that'll allow for different angles, different scenery, and far greater technology than we've seen in a game before, we still are familiar with the content, so it's one we can rip out of the case put in and know at least somewhat of what we're doing.

1. The trailer shows us how great it'll truly be.

I'm writing for absolutely nobody, well not anymore!

I have realized that this blog is pointless. If I weren't doing it for my AP Language class, I probably would never blog, never feel the need to blog, and spend more hours online refreshing my Facebook page in hopes that somebody posted something of any worthiness, which is quite frankly never the case. Of course I've realized that my blog as of now only has 285 page views, which is possibly every time I've viewed my blog (with a few exceptions). The way I blog is by, first writing, second posting, third viewing and catching any errors, and forth never looking at it again. I've written about 50 blogs, and probably have viewed each page 2-3 times. We'll say that puts me at about 150, I'll say that the first 10 blogs were actually viewed by my teacher for another 10 page views, I've linked one post that was an album review to Facebook which did get about 15 page views, and my brother recently looked at my blog, putting me at about 200, the other 85 I'd assume are computers that have somehow stumbled upon my blog and left me some type of spam...Yes, this blog is pointless.

Now if you're reading this, then I'd like to say, well thank you, it's not often that people read my blog. But this is rather a proposal, to myself of course, because nobody actually reads my blog, to actually get more page views. Instead of writing about 700 words on something the night before these are due, I will be putting effort into putting a sense of beauty into each blog. Not only will I putting some effort into my blog now, I hope to use it beyond academic use, which means that I will post whenever relevant, not just three blogs a week (which I never even get to anyway) but I will also hope to use this on throughout summer and onto next year when it's not required, because in some strange way, I love writing, and blogging is sometimes fun.

Now I really don't have much more to say other then, please read my f&^king blog. Now enjoy this amazing video of a cat named Ankor snoring over a glass of what looks to be really delicious looking orange juice.

April Preview

It's April. Weird to think we're already in the forth month of the year already. I'm trying to remember how to do this, because well my March preview really sucked. Anyway, I guess we might just dive right into the preview! 

As the tide turns and the March Madness tournament comes to a halt, I will be writing about that halt and about the national championship game that will be fiercely approaching, putting the two famous KU teams, Kentucky and Kansas university to the final test! I'll probably write about the end of March Madness, but since I already wrote about March Madness in March, who really knows if I'll ever get around to that. With April comes the start of the MLB season of the mildly exciting sport we call baseball. Being America's favorite past time, and one of my favorite... Present time? I will be blogging about the MLB season and possibly my Detroit Tigers, who have added Prince Fielder this season. 

 Lets move onto the musical side of my blog. This month I will be attending the Childish Gambino concert in Iowa City. Originally the concert was suppose to be held on the the 2nd of April, but due to a broken leg Glover will be performing on April 16th. I will possibly be getting a press pass, and may get to meet Glover as well as interview him. Most content for that will be on our Kennedy Torch website, but any other content will be put on the blog as well as my Facebook page! 

I have dove into the world of the iPhone. Even though I've had an iTouch, I'm now apart of the Smart Phone club as well as "Team iPhone" I'll be writing about my newest best friend, and about my experiences with Apple, as I have developed over time to learn how to love the company of Apple.

Last but not least, I plan on writing about spring fashion. I wrote about some wintery fashions before, but nothing really too in-depth and I'd like to do that again, but with my perception on things.

Overall, we have a jam-packed month in April, fasten your figurative seat belts and get ready for 16 blog posts over the month of April (hopefully). 

Last person on earth

Now, I'm not the one to blog about strange hypothetical ideas up until this moment, at this point and time on this day. I recently just watched an episode of Family Guy where Peter, Joe, Brian, and Quagmire were the last four remaining people on earth, not only were they the only people on earth but their memories were completely erased. I also downloaded a new windows theme called "Ghost Town" of a bunch of abandoned towns that really was kind of an interesting theme. And this reminded me of an old Jimmy Neutron episode where Jimmy's dad, is the only person left on earth. They're truly a million examples. That got me wondering, what if that happened to me? and yes, that is what the remainder of this blog post will be about, why you may ask? Because my ideas of things that really matter are dwindling and well, I like getting creative with my writing every once and a while.

Now first of all, I'm going to revise the situation a little from what the actually happened in Family Guy. The idea behind the episode was that they ended up waking up in a hospital, with no recollection of what happened of anything/anyone that happened at all, including each other! For this hypothetical, I'm going to say I'm with three hypothetical friends as well, although one isn't a dog and that we all have recollections of who we are.

First off, I think the most acceptable thing to do would be ask everyone if they're alright, even though we don't know why we're in a hospital. I think the second best thing would be to do, is check our pockets. Pockets always in movies, shows, and books are always one thing ignored until halfway through it which ends up being a really revealing part (example: The Hangover). Now since this is only but a giant hypothetical anyway, I'd assume that the three things that would be in my pockets are the three things I carry around all the times, my cell phone, my iPod Touch, and my wallet. The first thing I'd do, is definitely check my phone, see if any of us had any messages and calls, and check when the last message/call we had received was, as that would probably crucial in figuring out the last time, everything made sense and hopefully triggering memories I'd also make several calls, and really hope that everyone is alright. After I'd check my phone, the next smartest thing to do would be check my iPod (yes, I'd still be able to function these things normally, I only lost the memories of the course of events that happened to the ending of the rest of humanity but not general knowledge). I'd find the closest Wi-Fi zone and hope that it worked. If it did work, I'd definitely see when the last time the news was updated (probably local, NY Times, and well anything else I could find). That would probably lead up to a lot of details. The next thing I'd do, is definitely check Twitter and Facebook as well, those probably have the most information too and see when the last time anything was posted. Then if that didn't resolve anything, the next best thing to do would be check the TV/Radio and see if anything is broadcasting or what was happening, but in this hypothetical all you saw/heard with those two would be fuzz and white noise...

The next smartest thing to do would be to go check the newspaper. Finding one would probably be easy, because well...Nevermind! But anyway, the last and most current newspaper would have to have some clues. If it didn't, then well I guess the last thing to do would be to drive around miles at a time, surviving on stealing necessities for life, and attempting to find some life.

Then this whole hypothetical thing got me thinking. What would any of this be without technology? The radio and the television were huge media outlets of the 1920's and 1960's, and well the cell phone and the iPod are definitely the best media sources of the 2000's, and print media has been around since well we'll say the early 1700's (at least in American history). So let's say technology wasn't an option in this strange hypothetical, how lost would you truly be?

Technology can definitely be a nuisance every once in a while, but it has truly shaped the way we live. Technology is truly for the betterment of life and well that strange hypothetical can show how much of an impact it is. Of course, this would be just what I would do if this were ever to happen to me, because let's face it, that'd probably be the most realistic of options to see what the hell really happened.

Anyway, what can we learn from this? I guess, their is a few lessons today...We need more hypothetical situations in our lives, at least they're kind of fun (also kind of scary to think about) as well as that technology is a huge part of our lives. Now I bet you think this blog post is a whole lot less pointless!

Why I love March: Brackets

Disclaimer: This blog is apart of my "Why I love March series" where I will blog about reasons I love March. Even though March isn't my favorite month, they're some great aspects of the arising spring time and I will blog about them collectively over the month of March. Enjoy.

It seems like they're everywhere and sometimes they truly are. In schools, offices, homes, whatever location you're thinking about, they're there. Whether you're a dedicated fan from the very peaks of the season in late October and early November or you're a new fan wanting to jump into the sports world, chances are you'll probably do one. Brackets. March Madness NCAA brackets. They're fun, people love them, and they can SOMETIMES win you some money. Regardless the chances of getting a perfect bracket are 1 in 2.90x10^96,  the madness strikes everybody. Brackets are a lovely piece of American sports.
This year I have filled out six online brackets, one pool bracket (with the kiddos of the the Torch room) and just one paper bracket that I have hung on my bulletin board and the tournament only begins tomorrow. As one of my most collective picks, I currently have Kentucky, Florida St, Duke, Kansas, and Cincinnati winning at least one of my brackets. Even though I'm not a die hard college basketball fan, brackets are a lovable part of the sports world, no matter what. As March diminishes and April brings in not only showers, but the National Championship game, people will always have college basketball in a near place to their hearts because of brackets.

Now let's get to the point...

Why do I love brackets?


They're a lovely piece American sports. They collectively bring us together, to celebrate the great American sport of basketball. Brackets also scream spring. The fact that brackets being released brings a spring-like aura into all of our lives and gives us a push of spring fever as well as March Madness. They are among one of the best things that the month of March  holds dear to all of us. Brackets are one of the best parts of sports that not only allow athletes to be competitive but also our friends, family, co-workers, and acquaintances to be interactively competitive as well. March Madness NCAA brackets, are one reason I definitely love the month of March.

Why I love March: Spring Weather

Disclaimer: This blog is apart of my "Why I love March series" where I will blog about reasons I love March. Even though March isn't my favorite month, they're some great aspects of the arising spring time and I will blog about them collectively over the month of March. Enjoy.

The cold of Iowa really gets to you sometimes but then again, living in Iowa will end up getting to you at least once. For people outside of Iowa who aren't familiar with Iowan climate, well it kind of sucks. The climate is typical Midwest climate with the most inconsistent temperature rises and drops. I remember snowfalls in April, and 70 degree weather in December before. But regularly, we just have long, snowy, and hard winters, pleasant springs, hot summers, and cold falls. Once month is always a toss-up with what you will get, that month is March. March can sometimes be cold, rainy, or snowy or it can be delightful pleasant and 60-70 degree weather. This year, spring came early as all of March has been pretty beautiful. Every year, March is the pleasant glimpse of spring each year.

Why do I love spring weather?

Spring weather is the changing of moods for most people. Winter is often seen as a depressing time, where the sun is only present probably once or twice a week, and not for very long. Spring, brings people out of that depression and really just opens up a world of new opportunities. Spring is also an exploitation of nature at its finest. As the dirty white snow fades away and the green grass arises, something so pleasant is boring. Spring only brings the best of nature and with spring comes so much. It seems like with spring comes a whole new happiness and always brings back a nostalgia of happiness. That is the reason I love spring and March.

March Preview: Good month, worst blog post of my life.

Six days into March, sorry I was a little distracted by Facebook. If you've read any of my recent posts (all throughout February) I participated in a thing called "No Facebook February" it's exactly what it sounds like and I've successfully completed the mission! But anyway, nobody cares about February anymore, because well March...Is March. It's the prelude to the wonderful month of spring (in Iowa we usually have a few nice March days but also have a few days bombarded by snow). Anyway, it's officially becoming spring, so well simply put, I'll write about it becoming spring!
As for now, I haven't really decided otherwise what to write about for the month of March. So this post honestly is pretty pointless right now. A few things I may write about is more experiences on the podcast, that's always fun to write about and always a good link to a video. Along with that I might write about Quidditch. Yes, Harry Potter Quidditch but for Muggles and with that I may write about a new hobby of mine that goes by the name of ultimate Frisbee.
 This month also is home to the release of the Hunger Games movie. I'm actually planning on reading the book before the 23th of March in preparation. Right now, I couldn't tell you a single bad thing I've heard about the Hunger Games, so maybe I'll write about that.
Anyway, I'm incredibly tired. This blog post may have some revising in the future, since this might have been my worst post of all time. So well...Yeah, It'll be a good month! Just wait.

I'm famous...On Reddit

I woke up this morning, delighted by a two hour delay due to snow. Even though I woke up two hours later than I usually would, I still felt tired and just hung out in my bed for about a half an hour before I was able to get out and get ready for the day. While I attempted to wake myself up in that half an hour, I checked my texts and was suprised to see I had nine text messages. About six of them were from Twitter, which I just kind of neglected, although I had three from some of my friends that mentioned something about Reddit. Now let me be honest, before that time I had never been on Reddit before, ever. I've heard of it, but it had never crossed my mind to get on it, because if I were going to find random links it'd be dedicated to either Stumble Upon or Pinterests. Anyway, my friend mentioned I had been featured on the front page of Reddit and I was #4 most viewed of that day. I was in awe. I jumped out of my comfy bed, typed in the link: Click here for a shortened version and was really confused.

What they had found was a link from my Yahoo! Answers account (which I had an addiction to during my 8th grade year and Freshman year of high school). It was one of the first times I had chosen to be a Yahoo! Answers troll and it turns out that it worked, incredibly well.

I wrote this with a friend of mine during Torch class out of pure boredom of that day and it somehow followed me. It turned out that this acquired 315 comments and 55% likes on Reddit in a matter of hours. It was definitely cool to see one of my most random works of art become an overnight phenomenon (even though it lasted 10 seconds, they aren't kidding about the 10 second of fame thing) and it was even more hilarious that the week before, I had re-subscribed to Netflix since the last of my free trial of Netflix.

Overall, it was hilarious and I can't believe that anybody found that. I was strangely proud of myself and thought that it was funny that so many people saw my random act of trolling. Now that I pay for Netflix, I'd love to have a lifetime supply of it. You know what, I think I might just blog about Netflix! Just wait until March.

Fashion Trends: Le Cord Du Roi

One thing I've always liked is fashion. Whether it'd be looking at the Quarterly issue of GQ or growing up seeing my dad wear suit after suit and wishing I could somehow, someday, pull off some of the styles he could pull off so well. Lately, I've been diving into the world of Pinterests, on the Men's Apparel section and one of the newest old trends I've seen is corduroy pants. This surprised me, because for the longest time corduroy pants, were definitely out of style and really apart of a dying style that once had potential in the late 80's through the 90's (I remember growing up my older brothers had corduroy's and they were a huge trend). It's always funny how trends make their way back around, and I'm definitely glad that corduroy's (otherwise known as cords) have made their way back into the lives of many.

I'll admit it, I was a little late on getting into the corduroy trend, regardless I really liked the looks of them. Earlier in January, I was a store when I was at the mall, and said I'd try on a pair for the S's and G's (Shits and giggles) but to my surprise I looked great in them, and they fit amazingly. Being as broke as I was at the time, after Christmas, I decided that one day I'd come back and get the pants that have treated me so well. A few weeks ago, I came back to that very store, to find to my surprise spring clothes. I was incredibly pissed, mostly because there was still snow on the ground and the amount of pants on display was very little. I asked one of the employees and he helped me find one of the last clearanced pairs, which was lucky because they were in my size. My mood took a complete 180, especially the fact that they were half off since the last time I was there. I now have two pair of cords and they are now my favorite pants (I put a few of my pairs of jeans aside).

Some of my favorite styles are now becoming revolved around my cords, and with the addition of my cords has allowed me to experiment with some new styles, I'll share a few of my favorite.

Old Navy Grey Cords

Urban Outfitters Western Plaid

Tom's Grey Bota's. 

This is one of the exact outfits I like to wear, the greys of the cords and botas go incredible well together (regardless you wouldn't think, the cords are a little darker than the picture). The shoes are interchangeable with any pair of non-sneakery type shoes. The plaid is really interchangeable with any long-sleeved shirt with color, anything plaid, or flannel goes really well. For more on these styles, visit their websites here: Tom's, Urban Outfitter's, and Old Navy. Beware: Cords are currently very hard to find, since spring is just around the corner.

Any dark or colorful graphic T, Old Navy Spurs.

511 Levi's Khaki Cords

Van's Slip-Ons, in various colors depending
on the graphic t.

This is one of my favorite simple styles that comes with the cords. Any graphic t-shirt (one that has something more retro-y works well, old school rap, old school sports teams, etc.) works really well with the cords. The shoes as with any style can be varied, but something simple such as Van's works well, especially with the folded up cords. To see these visit: Urban Outfitter's Levi Cords, Old Navy NBA Graphic T's, Urban Outfitter's Van Slip-Ons.

Le Cord Du Roi, are among some of the best pants I've ever owned (with that most comfortable and a lot more stylish on days where you aren't feeling the jeans) and are one of the coolest old new trends. Even though, winter is almost over, they'll be a good investment now more than anytime (especially since most are on clearance) and will be good for those cold, depressing, spring days and probably would be very wearable through spring and especially fall.

Torch February Issue

February Cover of the Kennedy Torch.

To read our February 17th issue of the Torch, click here: Torch

Some cool reads:
-Love vs Lust, page 14
-Teen Mom, page 10
-A Different Perspective, page 19
-Looking to Relclaim State, page 30

Please check out this issue of the Torch! Definitely some cool stuff. If you read my February preview you heard that I'd be setting up my new journalism portfolio, keep waiting patiently, that'll be around in March.

Jeremy Who? Jeremy Lin! Lincredibility

Photo by streamball.com

#Linsanity. Jeremy Lin is the basketball player out of Harvard who is currently playing for the New York Knicks has been making noise out of the NBA in the past seven games for the Knicks. Not only is Lin, one of the craziest stories out of the NBA in a while, he has become a cultural phenomenon that has brought not only noise and excitement to MSG, but has become a sports icon (somewhat like Tim Tebow in 2011). Not only is Jeremy Lin showing himself as a basketball player, he has an exciting story behind him and is now the NBA's newest star.

If you want to know more of the story behind of Jeremy Lin, check out this story from the New York Times: Here.  One of my favorite things about Jeremy Lin, is that before his first start with New York and before the Linsanity started, Lin was a player on the verge of getting dropped off the Knicks roster (after getting moved up from the NBA D-League) who was living on his brothers couch. Within 2 weeks after his first start, Lin has molded himself into a 14 million dollar brand, where Knick's jerseys embedded with Lin's 17, t-shirts, and other memorabilia has been created turning sales of Lin products by 3000%. Lincredible. Not only are sales increasing by the minute, his fanship is as he is currently owned in 100% of Yahoo and ESPN fantasy basketball leagues, which is rare for any player midway through the season.

One of the biggest questions in the sports world right now is will this Linsanity continute to be what it is, where he is putting up high numbers and killing it night after night. I believe so. Jeremy Lin isn't just an overnight fling (regardless on 2k11, I would've never given him a start on the Golden State Warriors but would now put him in my top 10 players in the NBA right now).

Jeremy Lin's most impressive aspects in my opinion right now, is the fact that he sets up his team with such a brilliance that is giving the Knicks an edge in almost ever game. One of Lin's biggest strengths is the fact that he sets up his two big men (Amare Stoudamire and Tyson Chandler) with such grace and is currently averaging 9.8 assists in the past five games. With that he adds in his points per game, where in the past five games has averaged 23.6. That in my opinion is incredible, while throwing in another 4.2 rebounds per game in the past five games and a 38 point game on February 10th, the man knows his baksetball.

I believe that Linsanity will continue to play with the caliber that he is. But with all good streaks you eventually slow down. I have a feeling that Linsanity has made a place for himself apart of the Knicks, and will no doubt be the starter until Iman Shumpert, Baron Davis, or Toney Douglas can prove that they can play better than him, although, all three of those options are incredibly doubtful. With the addition of Carmelo back into the line-up, I think it only adds some intensity (while taking off some stress) because he'll be able to efficently assist a guy who can put up as big of numbers as Lin has had lately and will give the Knicks the scoring and team play they have lacked.

As for now, Jeremy Lin has been an incredible addition for the New York Knicks, and out of nowhere has changed the Knicks team that has been struggling off and on this year. Even as the Lin trend wears out into the future, I believe that he'll be a big part of the Knicks (or in the NBA) for a long time as he is a true point guard, that truly makes his team better. He has also become one of my favorite players as of lately (regardless I'm a definite Spurs and Dwight Howard fan over anything) Lin will be the third thing of the NBA that will be in my attention.

Check out, the highlights from Lin's 38 point game against the Lakers here:

Check out his incredible game against Toronto, where he showed his assisting strengths putting up 11 assists and hitting a game winner with a game where he put up 27 points:

Facebook February Update

At the beginning of the month, I said about every week I'd do an update, well that really hasn't happened so I decided I'd do a halfway through the month post. Since it's my second year doing No Facebook February, it really isn't that hard, but I haven't seen any astonishing results (like last year) aside the fact that I've cut down how much time is spent mindlessly searching on my computer.

The first few days were pretty tough, since I was actually looking forward to looking at pictures from a concert that I went to as well as wanting to chat with other editors about the Torch. As the month progressed it became less and less of a want to get on, and as of now I really haven't got any huge urges to get on. Although, the other day at Torch work session, a friend of ours who isn't apart of Torch who had never used the computers got on Facebook somehow. We were in amazement, until we realized that all the journalism computers had Facebook unlocked on them, and as everybody was procrastinating diligently on Facebook, I was left working on my pages like the utmost productive child that I am!

Fifteen days in, I still haven't used it and am trying to be more productive with my school work instead of mess around on Facebook.

In other news, this post means it's halfway through February which means that I should probably give an update on blogs I'm working on. Expect 2-3 album reviews towards the end of the month (the next two Tuesdays, I'll be releasing some album reviews) so expect those. Also, I just started working on my Finals blog that I promised back in November and I'll be sure to get that out.

Thanks for checking in! Be back soon.

Grammy Recap

What a crazy night of music. Between the great performances, the werid ones too (yes Nicki Minaj I am definitely talking to you), and a hell of a lot of awards being awarded to Adele. If you watched the awards you'll see that Adele walked away with pretty much every award she was nominated for. While there was no underdog winners in this years Grammy awards, we can say that 2011 was truly dominated by Adele.

Early this month I posted some blogs about the Grammy's that gave my predictions of who'd win what awards, who in my opinion should win if you'd like to see those posts click here and here.

Let's recap what I said, and see how well my predictions actually were true of what happened Sunday night.

Record of the year:
My prediction: Rolling the Deep
Winner: Rolling in the Deep

Album of the year:
My prediction: Adele, 21.
Winner: Adele, 21.

Song of the year:
My prediction: Rolling in the Deep
Winner: Rolling in the Deep

Best new artist:
My prediction: Bon Iver
Winner: Bon Iver

Best alternative album:
My prediction: Bon Iver, Bon Iver
Winner: Bon Iver, Bon Iver

Best Hip Hop Album:
My prediction: My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy/Watch the Throne
Winner: My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy

Even though I only selected a few awards to view, as you can see the Grammy's are incredibly predictable. Not only predictable, but bias, several times onto a commercial break where they'd mention "Stay tuned for album of the year.." Adele would be playing. The Grammy awards are one of my favorite award shows, but year after year they become more biased and have nominations that could be reconsidered. If I'm still blogging next year, I'll make my own Grammy awards. So stick around!

Podcast Update

It's been a while since I've talked at all about the podcast, but it's been a great success. Before this year, our school didn't do much with video journalism but it has generated so much attention lately that is one of the coolest things to me. I was at a basketball game earlier this week, when a camera man taping for one of the local channels that the schools basketball game was broadcasted on stopped me and said "I really loved this weeks podcast." I didn't know who the guy was, but we proceeded to having a conversation about it, and it was one of the coolest feelings that somebody that was generally associated outside of the school loved our podcast so much. It's also awesome to see that so many people watch the podcast and when our videos get over 1000 views in Youtube in the first 2-3 days, it is one exciting feeling. So, I would definitely like to thank everybody whose allowed the podcast to become such a hit and would like to say that we only hope to make it better from here on!

If you haven't caught any of our latest podcasts checkout these videos below:

Also, please check out the video by Jordan & Nick, which is some what of a theatrical trailer for the podcast:

Superbowl Sunday

It's that time of year again: The commercials that make you laugh, the halftime performances that no typical football fan would enjoy, and well to watch the same damn teams that are always in the Superbowl play each other. The Superbowl is known as one of my favorite American holidays, except this year I'm looking forward to everything but the game.

This year features the AFC's best record team the New England Patriots and the NFC's New York Football Giants.  For a brief history lesson, these are the two teams that played in the 2007 Super Bowl, Giants won by 3.



As exciting as the Superbowl should be, this year sucks in my honest opinion. Nobody really wants to watch these two teams play against each other. The only way that this Superbowl will be a maintainable watch is if and only if the commercials are good.

I'll be enjoying countless buffalo wings, smoked hot dogs in bbq sauce, and various other junk food tonight while watching some good commercials.

As for my game prediction being the typical sports nerd I am (when it comes to these two teams, I'm the farthest thing from a sports nerd though) I say Patriots win it 27-17, with Tom Brady being Super Bowl MVP (I'd say Rob Gronkowski but hes had injury trouble lately).

Farewell!

Update 9:20pm: Well that game was a miserable fail, the commercials were alright, the food was delicious as always, and the team I was rooting for ended up losing. Superbowl 44 is in the books and it's one I'll never turn back to. As a friend of mine on twitter said "Championships just mean your team used to be good."

Hope everyone has a lovely week, Go Bears!

How You Feel? Awesome.

A few months ago, I got news that a rapper that I started listening to a few years back was coming to town. At the time, I was pretty set on going to the concert, just because I'm quite the hip-hop head and I really liked his music. After downloading a few mixtapes, my opinion of the rapper became really high. XV, the rapper out of Wichita, Kansas has recently became one of my favorite rappers and seeing him on Saturday night furthered my liking for him. A friend of mine and I decided we'd buy tickets and go to the concert and every minute until we got there, our excitement rose and after the concert more excited than ever.

Saturday Night (2/4/12) we arrived in Iowa City at Blue Moose Taphouse. Blue Moose Taphouse is a pretty legitimate venue for concerts (I've been to 4-5 of them before) but the bar is split into two levels and both levels allow concerts. Every concert I had been to before had been on the lower level, this one was on the second level (which is much smaller, but is also super easy to get close to the artist). 

We arrived there after searching for a parking lot for 15 minutes of getting to downtown Iowa City and arrived at Blue Moose, where we met up with two other friends of my friend. We were anxious to get inside but had to go through the process of checking in our tickets, getting wristbands, and waiting in line for a bit. Once we got inside we immediately got as close as we could to stage and stayed put until the first group came on. 

The concert started around 7 and really had no energy (after 3 groups, trust me the mention I'm giving them right now is enough) until about 8:30 where a band from Cedar Falls, IA (which I was lucky to know one of the two front men rappers, since he graduated with two of my brothers) got the place going. The group is named "Skool'd Life". They got the place going and really we're great performers and had some really good tracks. Be sure to check them out on their website or Twitter. Currently they only have about six tracks online for free, of their older material but they will be getting out some new music!

Then about 9:10 or so, XV's crew started setting up and his DJ, Awesome Sound came out and got the crowd going from the people who knew of him. Then after what seemed the longest 10 minutes, XV came out from the back door in shades, a DOPE Couture fitted hat, and the crowd went wild. The four other people who I knew from the concert, were all in  the front row and all five of us were going crazy. 

XV opened up his performance and performed some his best tracks along side some of his #Squarian crew. He performed some of his most popular tracks, such as Awesome, U.F.C, Pictures on my Wall, That's Just Me, Mirror's Edge, and even some of his new material off his upcoming album The Kid with the Green Backpack.

XV ended the night with one of his most popular songs U.F.C, where he jumped into the crowd into the front row where the group of my friends and I were standing, as we huddled up together with XV himself and just loved every minute of the show. After the show ended The Awesome Sound played a few popular tracks as XV disappeared, but Sez Batters and The Awesome Sound stayed on stage and pretty much greeted everybody first row and had a conversation with a group of us.

We then got ready to leave after having one of the best times, when I saw Sez Batters going outside and asked him for a picture and was able to snap this photo with him: 

At that point, I was in awe, I got to get a picture with a rapper that was on tour with XV and I was ready to go home and just fall asleep.

Once we got outside, we noticed a crowd in front of the Blue Moose. When we got out there we saw @XtotheV, Vizzy himself talking to a bunch of fans who had stayed long after the concert ended in hopes of meeting him. The best part of my night, was when we walked up to him and he approached us and greeted us by our Twitter names. We probably had tweeted at him 20 times the night before (and after having a previous Twitter conversation with my friend, who he already followed) knew us was one of the coolest things ever. We proceeded to take pictures with him, talk about the show and the tour, make jokes with him and just got to spend time with the guy. One of the things that surprised me most, was the fact that he was so humble and just treated us as if we friends of his, rather than some crazy fans. The night was officially over after we had spent about another 20 minutes talking to him and we were on our way home (after getting lost 2-3 times). Once I got home, I got on Twitter to see Twitpics that my friend had sent to me, and when I went to my mentions I saw that XV had retweeted me twice.

The concert definitely will go down as one of the most memorable nights in a long time. The rapper that I had only listened to a little bit before the show, easily became one of my favorite rappers that night. XV was a humble man, and really just was different than anything I ever expected. His music, different from most really now has more of a sentimental value than every before and listening to his mixtapes now, compared to before just means a lot more. I will forever be an XV fan and a #Squarian, as that concert was one of the best concerts I had went to and leaves concerts to come with VERY high expectations.

A few friends and I with @XtotheV after the concert.

No Facebook Febuary (February Preview)

It's that time of the year, the time when lovers get excited, most people are getting ready for spring, and well...No Facebook. Last year, a friend and I were talking through Facebook Messenger, something that had become an afterschool ritual in time became one of our main modes of procrastination. One day in late January, we were talking and we decided, we really need to put this whole Facebook procrastination on hold, and thus we created a trend...No Facebook February. A lot of people once they heard the news followed and we inspired quite a few people to do it. No Facebook Feburary was a rather great month, without Facebook my GPA shot up by 0.30, I was able to complete more of my homework efficiently, and I was able to spend my free time working out, playing video games, and just being able to hangout with friends. No Facebook February was one of my best ideas. This year, I've decided to do it once again, and to use my blog as my way to almost journal my use of no Facebook. I'll probably post once every week of February as kind of a journal about not using Facebook how differently things are when one of the largest distractions/addictions of mine is completely taken out.

As for February, I don't really know what I'm going to blog about...Pretty much what I said about January, but I will be revisiting my Grammies post a little after the Grammy's to see how well my predictions matched up with how the awards really did turn out. I'm going to start doing album reviews again and will also probably try and crank out a few of my lessons that started the blog (regardless I changed the name, I'm going to continue doing them. I just wanted to change the focus and talk more about the world of sports, music, journalism, and well everything.) I will also be working on another blog through Wordpress which is my journalism profile of this year. Currently I have one through Blogger, but it doesn't really have the features I want to showcase my work through, so with any free time I'll be able to acquire I'll be switching providers and I'll be sharing that!

With February and the beggining of March, only 29 days away means that they're only 29 days until FINALS. I remember back in November I promised blog posts about my thoughts on Finals, but I never really got those through, maybe I'll try that again.

As for now, February is as unexpected of a month as ever. So be on the lookout for new blogs of mine.

Thank you, have a lovely month!

Good music "shammed" out of the Grammy's (Part 2/2)

Here to view: Part 1

Now we get into the individual genres, and into the smaller awards. I'll give my reasoning behind what will win and what should change instead of saying what should win.

Best New Artist nominations:
J. Cole
Skrillex
Nicki Minaj
Bon Iver
The Band Perry

What will win: Bon Iver will be the winner in this case, it seems as the album put out this year did him no wrong and put his name out there regardless Bon Iver isn't that new of an artist.

What should change: I feel that the amount of truly new artists on this list isn't really best exemplifed. As much as I love J. Cole and Bon Iver, I don't feel that they're exactly the newest artists along with Nicki Minaj. I do believe Skrillex and The Band Perry are fair representations of this list but I feel that there are other artists that could definitely be put on this list that are just as deserving.

Best Alternative Album of the year nominations:
Bon Iver- Bon Iver
Codes and Keys- Death Cab for Cutie
Torches- Foster the People
Circuital- My Morning Jacket
The King of Limbs- Radiohead

What will win: As hard as this is to decide, I want to say that Bon Iver's Bon Iver album will win this.

What should change: This honestly be the most fair list I've seen thus far. I believe this is one of the best representations of alternative music in the year, and I cannot argue with anything on this list.


Best Rap Album of the year nominations:
Watch the Throne- Kanye West & Jay-Z
My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy- Kanye West
Lasers- Lupe Fiasco
Pink Friday- Nicki Minaj
Tha Carter IV- Lil Wayne

What will win: 2/5 of this list (40%) is Kanye West. I have a feeling it'll be handed off to one of the two Kanye dominated albums. Which one, I'm not sure yet.

What should change: I feel that there is a long list of albums that didn't make this list, but when Pink Friday and Tha Carter IV make a list like this, well I guess there isn't much argument. I believe that J. Cole's Sideline Story, The Root's undun, and and even The Game's R.E.D album could've been fair representations.

Thank you to tuning into my Grammy post! I'm not the greatest music critic and I really didn't get deep into each explanation due to time constraints. I really just feel that the Grammy's don't accurately represent who were the best of the year and that there should be some change and that's why I posted this blog. I'll probably be back after the Grammy's to see how it panned out, I'll do a review and compare to what I thought.

Good music "shammed" out of the Grammy's (Part 1/2)

As the announcement of the Grammy nominations came out for the 54th Grammy Show on Febuary 12th, 2012 a response that would usually be happy with the nominations has completely changed for me. After seeing a tweet from one of my good friends saying something along the lines as "What the f#&k, the Grammies become more watcher-friendly ever year," it hit me.  Being a music connoisseur, the Grammy awards are something I always look forward to, this year is a different story. The Grammy awards have come to the point where they use over-milked popular options to gain attention and really don't focus on the musical value of it.
Instead of ranting this whole blog, I decided I'd mix it up and add my opinions of albums, songs, artists that should have been awarded or the winners of the already nominations:

Record of the year nominatons:
Rolling in the Deep- Adele
Holocene- Bon Iver
Gernade- Bruno Mars
The Cave- Mumford & Sons
Fireworks- Katy Perry


What will win: Rolling in the Deep, Adele's amazing vocals, the amount time spent on the radio charts, and the hype that came with Adele's 21 album will easily put Adele as the winner of this years record of the deal.

What should win: Holocene, Justin Vernon's vocals paired with the relaxed meledous instrumental just makes the song one of the best of the year. Adele's song does come in a close second, but the facetime value that the mainstream adds will give Adele that extra push.

What should be added: Midnight City by M83, is one of the most phenomenal tracks of 2011 and really should replace the annoying, yes freaking annoying (call me Tyler, the Creator) song of Gernade by Bruno Mars. Pumped Up Kicks by Foster the People made more noise in the underground and mainstream this year alone and is one of the best tracks of 2011 and should replace Fireworks by Katy Perry.


Album of the year nominations:
21- Adele
Wasting Lights- Foo Fighters
Born This Way- Lady Gaga
Doo-Wops & Hooligans- Bruno Mars
Loud- Rhianna

What will win: In my opinion, I do think that Adele's 21 will take album of the year and there isn't much doubt behind that.


What Should Win: From this list, in my opinion Adele's 21 album should be the clear cut winner. As much as I respect and like both Lady Gaga and Rhianna, I don't feel that either of their albums have the musical elements that make 21 the album of the year. As for the Foo Fighters, I see it as the runner-up in this list, the album was great but pitted up aginst their previous releases this is album isn't too much different. Bruno Mars...Don't get me started.

What should be added: If I could remove this entire list and replace it with different albums in my opinion, I would no doubt about it. Before anything, I just want to include one key album in this list and that would be Foster the People's Torches, in my opinion one of the VERY best albums this year. I'd also recommend Bon Iver's self-titled Bon Iver album as well. Also Florence + The Machine's Ceremonial's album as well. Any of those last three in my last opinion are some of the very best albums of 2011 (and all came out in time to be nominated).

Song of the year nominations:
All of the Lights- Kanye West
The Cave- Mumford & Sons
Grenade- Bruno Mars
Holocene- Bon Iver
Rolling in the Deep- Adele

What will win: Who is going to even argue with Adele's Rolling in the Deep, in my opinion it may not be song of the year but the Grammy's will be Adele's night.

What should win: This is a very reasonable list aside Bruno Mars, (really, I don't see the talent in this guy compared to others). I'd also say that All of the Lights is also out of question because that song was released in 2010 but music awards were still trying to avoid Kanye at that time. In think between The Cave, Holocene, and Rolling in the Deep this could go either way but I still think that Holocene had everything to be song of the year, aside the popularity and should be song of the year.

What should be added: Much like Record of the Year, I believe that Foster the People's Pumped up Kicks and M83's Midnight City should be added into this mix. Want my reasoning? Go up to record of the year.

Lesson 6: Twitter is taking over.

“Twitter lets me hear from a lot of people in a very short period of time.”- Robert Scoble

Twitter is taking over the world of journalism. I know the quote is kind of a lame way to put it, but it is so true. I remember joining Twitter in 2009, thinking, why am I joining this? I'm not a celebrity and nobody is going to care what I have to say. In the two years since I joined I've acquired only a mere 250 followers, but Twitter has become a part of my life in such a weird way. It doesn't quite dictate my life, as some teenagers are letting Twitter, but it really has become a big part of my daily life and has really taken over.

The other day in our news-magazine production class, our teacher asked us to do some homework...Like really, homework? We've never had homework in that class before aside our duties apart of the class in terms of editing, writing, and well you get the point. We were asked to read an article and take notes about it, it was about Twitter. At first, I thought the assignment was pretty dumb (probably because it was our only homework we've ever had) but after reading it, it was actually an interesting article and I actually learned about a few things...Rare.

The homework we were assigned was perfectly timely because Twitter just made their newest update (which is actually a very nice layout page, Twitter, don't pull a Facebook, keep it the way it is) but they updated it to make it more user-friendly, and even better for journalism. Instead of it being as separated as it was before, you can now see pretty much everything you'd want to from three pages: home, connect, and discover. The new change in terms of journalism is one of the very best updates Twitter has had yet.

Innovative. Twitter's new discovery page. Some of the top trending topics are made into stories that redirect you to news websites and also refer you to the trending page that takes you into a list of all related tweets.

Twitter has taken over and has become the new thing in social networking but also journalism itself. I find a majority of my news on Twitter, and its no doubt that a lot of other people do as well (this year alone, I discovered the death of Steve Jobs, the findings of Osama Bin Laden, and the announcement of the NFL Lockout/NBA lockouts being over with, all through Twitter). The new discovery page on Twitter opens up unlimited options for journalism and as mentioned by Buttry, Twitter is the best invention for journalists since the cell phone (which can easily go hand-in-hand). There is no doubt that Twitter is taking over, but as Roger Kondrat said "Facebook is to 2007 is to 2009," makes me ponder is Twitter to 2009 while 2012 will be to something else?

As for now, Twitter is one of the most useful tools in this age of access. Everything said by a favorite celebrity, friend, peer, or anybody can be in your palm in seconds through Twitter and you can discover countless things. The Torch has made its transfer to Twitter this year and has been successful and one of the things really stressed aside the newsmagazine itself. Twitter is taking over, the world of journalism and the world of media and is one of the best innovations, in my opinion of journalism today, but will it be tomorrows best outlet? I guess we'll wait and see.

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