Music List #4

1. Southside-Loyd- This is the best song to cupcake on the phone to with a girl. I usually have it playing in the background.

2. Kryptonite- Mario- This is my favorite song to get over a girl after a breakup. It convinces me that I can do better.

3. Ass Cheeks- Ying Yang Twins- This is my favorite song to dance to with a girl. I love the rhythm and beat.

4. Overboard- Gucci Mane- This is my favorite song to play in the car because of its bass.

5. Stunt on you- Drake- This song always puts me in a good mood and is a great confidence booster.

Interview a senior

I had the opportunity to interview 2 seniors this year: my cousin Ivie and one of my close friends Michael. Ivie is studying to be a registered nurse at San Jose State University. Going into college, she thought that college would be very easy for her since she was always at the top of her class. She skipped a grade in middle school, which put her a grade above where she should be which gave her a bit of a challenge. Throughout her whole life she was able to overcome these challenges as well. She also thought that she wouldn’t be very distracted and that she was very focused on her education, but her freshmen year was a rude awakening. She entered college looking to study kinesiology but changed her major her sophomore year to nursing. She claims that she has had the best experience in her past college years and wouldn’t change anything. The advice she gave me was to study hard but to always make room for some fun time and to be very social on campus.

Michael also attended SJSU and was studying to become a mechanical engineer. He explained to me how hard the engineering field was and how sometimes he even felt like giving up, but he didn’t. He stuck with his original goal coming into college and plans on being a successful mechanical engineer. The advice he gave me was to mingle with other engineers and to get familiar with most of my classmates. He also encouraged me to never give up, no matter how hard the field may seem because it’ll payoff in the future.

MUSE EVENT

For my non-muse even I attended an on campus lecture called “Powerful Planning” on Friday, October 23, 2009. This event was very crowded and contained a variety of freshmen that wanted tips and advice concerning planning and time-management. The speaker talked a lot about planning goals and how you go about setting goals. She gave helpful tips on ways to set goals as well. These tips included: making realistic goals, setting deadlines, and monitoring yourself. Although the things she was talking about were not new to me, it was nice to hear those tips again as a refresher. The lecture lasted 55 minutes and also included a short video. The video was found on YouTube and included a girl trying to figure out how to fit big rocks in a container and fit small rocks as well, while in front of an audience. The girl used strategy to overcome the task and eventually made everything fit. This video was shown to help the speaker explain how one has to incorporate the important things and things they value the most in life, at first and then include the foundation or little things into their goals. I enjoyed the event and it encouraged me to set realistic goals that I may want to achieve and to stick with these goals as well.

Scholarly Article (revised)

In the article, "Go White Girl Go! : Hip Hop Booty Dancing and the White Female Body" by Melissa Campbell, Campbell explains the controversial topic between booty shaking and white women. Booty shaking, also known as freak dancing, is commonly associated with the black community. The article covered topics such as the problem of subculture, the consumption of black sexuality, and irony related to the term “hoochie”. Freak dancing has influenced many other styles of dancing as well like lap dancing. Booty dancing or freak dancing, serve as a very sexual way of dancing. The way a female is moving and grinding on their male partner is like they are having sexual intercourse. This sometimes falsely portrays these females. This is uncommon amongst white culture, and when seen, is very shocking to the black community. An African American perspective on white females is that they don’t have a lot of rhythm and that the are unable to dance. African American males would somewhat pimp white females, which deprive these white individuals of their rights. Freak dancing is considered to be the preferable way of dancing amongst teenagers. Although race should not be an issue in today’s society, race is still a main determinant in some aspects in most communities.

http://web.ebscohost.com/ehost/pdf?vid=9&hid=113&sid=f46d871c-9b57-4313-afe6-7ca10cafc35b%40sessionmgr110

Music memories#2

Musical taste is very interchangeable and commonly changes throughout a lifetime. Your taste in music seems to be a lot more mature but modern as you gain experience in life and as you get older. You start listening to more meaningful compositions and music with more relevance to you bitch. For my music memories I interviewed two people who I knew had a variety of musical preferences throughout their lifetime. I interviewed my neighbor, who is a 55 year old white male, and my uncle who is a 62 year old Nigerian male.
My neighbor, Ray Lewis, seemed to have a very mainstream taste of music growing up. He grew up in Columbus, Ohio in a predominately white area. As a youth, he remembered listening to a lot of Elvis, Bob Dylan and Michael Jackson. His favorite artist growing up was Elvis. He remembered going to one of his concerts at the St. John arena in Columbus, Ohio in 1974. He said that this was one of the most amazing experiences h had in his life. As he got older he became a huge Bob Dylan and Beatles fan. Now, at the age of 55, he listens to a lot of country music and seems to like almost all the country artists.
I also interviewed my uncle who grew up in Lagos, Nigeria. As a child, he listened to a lot of tribal music and common village music. His favorite artist was Babatunde Osunde. He idolized this artist because Osunde came from a very poor village and transformed into a wealthy musician and usually mentions his obstacles in his music. Osunde was a very popular artist in Nigerian around the 60s and 70s and was listened to by all ages. My uncle remembers seeing him perform at his village and performed his hit single “Sweet Mother”. When my uncle came to America he started listening to different music. He became a huge fan of rap and hip hop and became more “Americanized”. He started dressing different, talking different, and acting different. The music he listened to also influenced him to start doing drugs and he started smoking marijuana. His favorite artists became R. Kelly and he listened to all of his music.
Both my neighbor and my uncle had different tastes in music. Their music preferences seemed to be influenced by where they grew up and their lifestyles. Since my neighbor grew up in a white area, he tend to listen to a lot more mainstream music. Since my uncle grew up in Nigeria, his preferences were influenced on his culture and he listened to a lot of tribal music. They both were very influenced by music and they used music as a way to get away and relax. They both made music a very important aspect of their lives.
My own music taste is a bit different from my neighbors and my uncles. Since I am still young I tend to look for a lot different aspects of a song and of an artist. I like artist who use a lot of metaphors and who express their intelligence through their verses. Since society has evolved since when my neighbor and uncle were in their youth, the things valued within that generation and very different. One thing that is similar to both of the people I interviewed is that we all attended concerts and we all let music influence our daily lifestyles and be a huge part of our life.

Love Fest

For my muse event, I attended Love Fest with my classmate Roberto Zamora. This event was located in San Francisco, Ca and is an annual event. Although I grew up in San Francisco and was raised there for about 11 years, I don’t ever recall hearing about this event until recently. I never knew what it was about and when Roberto told me about it, I thought it was going to be very stupid to attend. The Love Fest consisted of a big parade, a big rave, a lot of people roaming that designated area of the streets and a wide variety of music. This was the type of event where you could express yourself however way you wanted to. It was like art but in the form of a wide body of people. There were all types of creative people there who expressed themselves. I seen everything from nudity to masks, and was surprised that these action were acceptable. The most interesting thing I have to say I seen was a naked man whose body was airbrushed gold in which made him look very unreal. I enjoyed myself at the event and would definitely do it again. The event gave me a more open-minded and creative perspective on life and motivated me to enjoy life a lot more and become more spontaneous.

Study Tip #3

A good study tip that is very helpful is reviewing notes and material. Rather than just trying to remember things said in class, when you take notes, you are able to review them and see what actually was talked about. Therefore you wont have to rely on what you remember. While reviewing your notes, quizzing yourself is also very helpful. This can refresh your mind of important material and topics that may show up on tests.

music list #3

1. Soulja Boy- Yahhh!

I dont like this song because of the lyrics and what it talks about. The song is very immature, the beat is not appealing and I have no particular interest in the artist.

2. Mstah FAB- Shaboobalaboopy!

This song is so old and tries to portray bay area terminology but does a very poor job doing so. I also dislike the way this artist sounds.

3. Andre Nickatina- Ayo for Yayo

I dislike the way he sounds and his lyrics. I also dont like his style in music.

4. Andre Nickatina- Horns and Halos

I dislike what this song talks about and his poor use of metaphors.

5. Soulja Boy- Gucci Bandanna

I dislike this song because of the beat, the lyrics and what its about.