My Music

Music to me is more than just lyrics and beat, its culture. Music makes the culture we live in today. Music is basically my life. Everywhere I go I'm listening to music, whether I'm in the car or my phone is ringing. I am a HUGE fan of Lil Wayne. /1.bp. I know your first thought is "Oh my God she's so ghettho," I'm really not. I love his rhymes. If you sit and listen closely he has some of the sickest rhymes. I also love the beat of his songs. I think that majority of people can say that this summer they were jammin to his hit single "Lollipop".http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JIG1Vr0h_aE

I'm also a big fan of Kanye West. I like Kanye because he is different than all the others. He's always has a fresh style. His glasses became a huge hit. Two of my favorite songs by Kanye are, "Love Lockdown" and "Heartless". The lyrics are nothing like you heard before and the beats can have you humming all day.
As I previously stated, music is a culture, another one of my musical preferences comes from my culture. I love Arabic music. My overall favorite Arabic singer is Amr Diab. I like his songs because he sings all the love songs. I first fell in love with his music when I went to Lebanon two years ago. Some of the words I didn't understand at first, but I sang along anyway and no matter what CD is in my car now, you'll always find at least one track with him.

Speaking the Unspeakable

I think the reason that he had to sign the paper was ridiculous. I think that he should have every right to speak about what happened because he lived it first hand. I can agree when they wanted him to sign to protect what happened but 50 years later I think that he should be able to talk about it. Now teachers are teaching about things that happened during this time and he would be a perfect first hand help.

Genocide: Chechnya

September 30, 1999 was the beginning of a Genocide for Chechnya. Chechnya was invaded by Russian Military through air and artillery. Russians invaded Chechnya to denominize it as a Russian society. The invasion caused massive amounts of violence towards the Chechen people. Chechen people were hit hardest when their capital, Grozny, was completely destroyed. Then in the Spring of 2000, Russian President Vladimir Putin pacified Chechnya. The pacification didn't change much. Russian officials were still taking advantage of Chechen citizens and abusing with extortion, torture, murder and more. Chechens aren't succeeding because they have no efforts to rebuild their home, and along with the abuse from Russian officials the abuse was now being brought on by their own Chechen citizens.

Genocide is not something that should be taken lightly. I believe that Genocide is one of the most ignored crimes. Honestly, I had never heard of half the places on the list. I think people ignore because they feel like there is nothing that they can do, and that thought, in my opinion, is ignorant. Whether crimes like Genocide happen around us or half way around the world, we should all help each other because one day we might need a helping hand.

MAUS

After reading the story "MAUS", my opinion of the purpose of art has not changed. I still believe that art is to show self expression and show someone's feelings. In "MAUS" the narrator's feelings of his mother and father and even of the Holocaust are brought up. I believe that art has no obligations. Although art has no obligations, I do believe that some pieces have the power to lift people up and bring them down, depending on the way that the pieces are perceived.

Art Response

After watching sculptor Theo Jansen's presentation, I was astonished. I knew things like "Animari" would soon be invented by someone but not this soon. I think that the fact that he believes they will survive on their own one day is fascinating. The animals move themselves along gracefully just with the use of wind. They move like completely real animals. "Animali" is quite the break through in science.
The purpose of art is self expression yet a way to show others about you. My grandmother has been an artist for 60 years and everytime I look at any piece, I can see a piece of her. I also believe that the purpose of art can mean many things as well as self expression. Art could be to express feeling or as Theo Jansen used it to show his research. The way Theo used art was to show new technology to society. I don't think art has one meaning. I think the meaning of the art comes from the artist and their piece.

The Presidential Election

I feel that the results of the presidential election were in a way predictable. Although we thought that it could be between either, there were so many strong followers of Obama. I think that a large issue that has to be taken care by the new president elect is the war in Iraq. I'm sure everyone can agree when I say that the war needs to be resolved and ended. The election relates to the identity we've been exploring in our class because it shows that no matter the race or the religion of the candidate its about their beliefs and what they are going to do to help our country. We learned in multiple stories about individuals that stand up for what they believe in.