Song Review

Time to review a song. I’m that picky with my music, but there are some that are just so annoying! That’s why I chose Lil Wayne’s song “She Will” (I could easily talk about his entire album The Carter IV, but I think one song is ENOUGH).

Ok, before I begin, I just want to say that I dislike many of Lil Wayne’s songs, but not all of them, just a lot.

So, let’s go into “She Will”. She Will what, Mr. Wayne? What is it that you are trying to say? That girls are whores?

“Maybe for the money and the power and the fame right now, she will, she will, she will.”

She’ll do anything for power and money? Why not say men will? I find this song very insulting to females. That’s the why I hate it! And especially with all the gorgeous language Lil Wayne uses, it’s just the strawberries on top of the frosting (not cherry, I prefer strawberries).

There are some good things about this song, though. I mean, the only reason I hate “She Will” is because of the insult towards female. Everything else isn’t that bad.

There some pretty good parts of it.

“What goes around, comes around like a hula hoop

Karma is a b****? Well just make sure that b**** is beautiful”

I like that part. Kinda like a life lesson, don’t you think? It’s like, try to make your life the best so what you get in return is good.

Yeah, other than that and the really cool rhythm, I still dislike this song. This dude, Mr. Lil Wayne, always uses bad language and has some really unpleasant lyrics about women, for example, like this song. But here, you can judge yourselfs:

http://www.djbooth.net/index/tracks/radio/lil-wayne-she-will/

(I honestly don’t understand how my brother likes to listens to this “song”)

It's Time for Winter

I'm going to admit that I'm not the best poetic person ever, but here's my winter poem:

It’s a time of joy,

A time of fun,

A time to watch the snowflakes fall from the sky,

A time for Christmas trees and Christmas lights,

A time of 12 wishes for the new year to come,

But the most important part,

Is that it’s the time to be with those who you care about,

And to be with those who care about you.

Yup, its time for winter.

J. D. Salinger

The Catcher in the Rye, one of the all time bestselling books is an amazing novel written by J.D. Salinger. In an interview with The New York Times in 1974, Salinger said he wrote for his own pleasure. “Publishing is a terrible invasion of my privacy. I like to write. I love to write. But I write just for myself and my own pleasure.” This shows how secluded and isolated Salinger was, having been in isolation for many years. He seemed to hate the media.

J.D. Salinger reminds me a lot of Holden. Salinger was very isolated and seemed to keep his thoughts to himself (by not publishing his stories). I guess one reason why he might have published The Catcher in the Rye and his other works is because he needed money to go into his secluded land. Much like Holden, he doesn’t like people who seem conceited, so maybe Salinger wanted to disappear to not seem someone he disliked.

When The Catcher in the Rye was released in the 1950s, there was a lot of disapproval for the book. It quickly went on the banned book list because of the bad and inappropriate language, Holden’s excessive drinking and smoking for his young age, all the sex talk, and rebellion. But, really. That was in the 50s. We’re talking about Elvis Presley’s time. Everything was being censored because parents or those conservative people disagreeing with this new change (imagine what those people say about our generation. If their kids were bad, we must be beyond horrible). These people were the ones that disliked the Rock n Roll. SERIOUSLY!

Despite the book being in the banned book list, it was a hit. This book is what, people say, defined our phase as teenagers. It describes our confusion in life as we try to move on from a childhood of innocence to the world of adults, which is full of phonies. What I really think, though, is that maybe these people seem phony because that’s not how we saw them as children. Being a teenager means growing up and opening our eyes to see the real world.

Today, many classes include The Catcher in the Rye as part of their course. It’s known today as an American classic and is still on the bestsellers chart. The reason is because this book has a deep meaning for us all, especially teenagers. People who criticize Salinger say that it just made teenagers now how they are: rebellious (maybe it’s because crazy Chapman said that his motives to kill John Lennon were found in The Catcher in the Rye).

To finish, J. D. Salinger is a phenomenon for his legendary book, The Catcher in the Rye. 

Hoden

Holden is one weird guy. In a way he’s just like Ackley. He criticizes everyone based on very few things, like their appearance or a onetime conversation. You can’t do that. To judge someone as much as Holden judges them you can’t judge of surface level things. Like Ackley, he doesn’t seem like many people but he stills hangs out with them. That is a bit phony. I mean, why would you go out with a guy that you can’t stand?

Phoniness is something Holden can’t stand, yet he’s very phony himself. To him, the definition of phony something or someone that pretends to be someone they’re not. Like the movies. He knows that they’re fiction, and can’t stand them because of it. But why can’t he just see them as what they really are, for entertainment? He seems to reject what life gives him to enjoy. And why judge the actors? All they’re doing is earning a good and decent living. I mean, they aren’t phonies because people KNOW that they’re ACTING.

Another thing is that Holden is a big, fat LIAR! He lies to everyone, especially people he doesn’t know. He seems to do it for amusement. Like with Ernest’s mom, he could have just said that he didn’t know much about him and ended the conversation. But he doesn’t do it. I totally think that’s the type of phony acting he talks about because the ones Holden lies to don’t know he’s lying.

Holden seems to just be a weird teenager going through difficult phases, especially because I think that bordering schools are horrible and that they deprive their right to live with their family and siblings, people he cares about.

My Red Hunting Hat

My Red Hunting Hat. Well, a hunting hat is usually meant for other hunters to recognize you as a hunter and not some animal and try to kill you. In a way you try to be fit in with the other hunters in the area by standing out. You know, standing out with the bright red but just not to risk being shot or killed, and that way you fit in with other hunters.

I'm not sure what my red hunting hat would be. I'm not saying that I fit in a way that people recognize right away, but I’m just not sure what makes me stand out. One obvious thing I can think about right away, though, is my height. Just as a hunting hat is used to distinguish animals from hunters, I guess my height helps others distinguish me from others. For example, my friends would often refer to me as "tiny Jessica" or "short Jessica". They also tell me that they can always seem to know where I am in a crowd by seeing a small gap between some tall people or just seeing a shirt girl. Real nice, right?

So, my height helps me stand out, a lot. But I don’t seem to know how it helps me fit it. Is it that some people say, "Hey, that girl is short. I should talk to her." Um... I really doubt that. Maybe it's just that people see me stand out because of my height, so then they’re curious? I don’t know. It really doesn't help me identify with other people my age. I'm always being asked if I'm a freshman or 13 years old. But I guess I'm just like everyone else. I like many common things other teens like, such as music, hanging out with friends. 

I'm not sure if my height is some type of my hunting hat, but that's really all I can think of right now.

Thankful for a Classmate

Someone who makes the class better? Hm… Well, I don’t really talk much in that class, but I’m thankful for having Jocelyne Chavez in there.
I met Jocelyne last year in division. We have P.E. and English together, so I’m thankful for that because I have someone to talk to.
I’m thankful for Jocelyne because whenever I have questions on homework, I can ask her for help either on facebook or in division (:
Um... I think that’s all I can think of right now. She’s an awesome friend. Period.
 I think everyone should be thankful for friends in general, though…

Cormac McCarthy Blog

One of the most obvious themes in The Road is the end of the world. There are many speculations on how the world will end, but Cormac McCarthy never seems to tell us what his idea is. What he does instead is gives us the image of a dead world due to some big catastrophe.
WSJ: For novels such  as "Blood Meridian," you did extensive historical research. What kind of research did you do for "The Road"?
CM: I don't know. Just talking to people about what things might look like under various catastrophic situations, but not a lot of research. I have these conversations on the phone with my brother Dennis, and quite often we get around to some sort of hideous end-of-the-world scenario and we always wind up just laughing. Anyone listening to this would say, "Why don't you just go home and get into a warm tub and open a vein." We talked about if there was a small percentage of the human population left, what would they do? They'd probably divide into little tribes and when everything's gone, the only thing left to eat is each other. We know that's true historically. http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704576204574529703577274572.html
This is what Cormac believes will happen in the end of the world.
"They'd built a fire there and charred billets of wood lay struck in the melted tar together with ash and bones." (70)
Here, the father is seeing the bones of the man he killed piled up, for he was eaten by the men he was traveling with, showing how Cormac applies his ideas of the world ending and people eating each other in the book.
The interesting thing is that Cormac never gives us much historical background of the disaster, what happened exactly, how it was caused. I think that the purpose of this is for one to find out (on our own) what can lead to the scenes in The Road. By not giving us a specific cause to the disaster, we can analyze the problems in our world that can lead to a faster end. With the world ending, nothing will matter. I think Cormac does a very good job in expressing this in his writing.
Another interesting thing about The Road is the grammar. There a lot of errors but I think that the purpose of this is to help the mood of the book along with the theme. Nothing of what mattered before matters one, not even grammar.
There is some criticism on this, though.
"I also feel offended -- yes, offended -- by the mean, miserable view of humanity in this book shoves in my face. But my dislike for this book seems to transcend any mental or aesthetic considerations, because as I suffered through these first few pages I felt my body physically rejecting this book like a badly transplanted organ. I would look down at my hands and discover that the book was closed. I'd open it, struggle through a few sentences more, and then look down and discover it closed again. Reading The Road felt like swimming in a pool of thick hard mud, and I tried and I tried but I could not get past page eight."
"And then there are those stubby ungrammatical half-sentences, those prose signature of junior high school students everywhere, and of Cormac McCarthy."

http://www.litkicks.com/HatingMcCarthy

I like Cormac's writing. It just shows how dull and gray things can turn out to be.
They way Cormac shows how humanity is (the few left) is just his view of an ending, which is not insane because we can and will do that if we need to do so, in extreme circumstances for survival. One has to be more open to these types of ideas to solve our issues.