Amen

I have to say that this class was unlike any I’ve ever taken. At first I immediately knew that the class wasn’t exactly my specialty, given I was pretty much pop-culture ignorant. Throughout my life I listened to one kind of music—country—and watched one kind of movie—action—and one kind of television show—ESPN. I know. I’m pathetic. But my ignorance created a perfect setting to learn. I knew nothing about what I was doing so I had plenty of room to improve.

Our first reading assignment was Understanding Comics. Wow, right from the beginning something that I had no knowledge in. But after reading Understanding Comics I began to see the complexity and the art behind it. Suddenly I was interested in comics. Sure, they are midcult art (something else I learned in the class), but I don’t need any of that classy, elegant stuff.

I think what excited me the most was all the possibilities within the art. Often when I see that there is room for improvement or diversity or change or something new I get excited. When I saw that there were different kinds of comics and there are several strategies and techniques in making comics I realized that I too could create a comic and something new and different. Granted I haven’t even picked up a pencil with intentions of starting that endeavor, but the possibility is there. And now I have an interest in a genre of art that I have never even wanted to give a second look.

Along with comic books, my taste for different forms of art has no doubt been expanded as well. Part of this was largely because of my classmates. I am thankful there was a good diversity of taste within the class. I now have an affinity for comics, underground music, big band/jazz, some distinctive television series, and most importantly I finally was introduced to Simon & Garfunkel! It has been a crazy and enlightening ride. What I am truly thankful for is that I have learned that in no matter what kind of genre a piece of art is in, it is still art. Whether good or bad it expresses something that no one else in the world could have expressed except for its creator. Art is simply exciting just because of the tears, sweat, pain, and joy that goes into it. It is so human and this is why we are attracted to it. Because a fellow human tugged something out of their inner self and was able to manifest it into something that can be seen and we are drawn to that. Only a human could create it and only a human could enjoy it. But with this human creation there also comes a desire to find the art that pulls on us most. This is where critics come in.

The class brought me my first encounter with critics and in the beginning I really didn’t know what the point was. I thought critics were all cynical and just liked to hate on everything with no reason, I thought, “I know what I like and don’t like. I don’t need a critic to tell me that.” But then I read Chuck Klosterman’s Sex, Drugs, and Cocoa Puffs. He changed my outlook on what a critic’s goal really is. At first I thought this guy was nuts, totally ignorant, and probably had a little too much confidence in himself, but by the time you reach the end of his articles, you see that there actually is some evidence to back up what he has to say. Most of the time he draws his criticism’s of every day pop-culture items from the culture around us, and through this you can understand what culture was, what it is now, and predict where it is going. I saw then that being a critic was more than just saying “thumbs up” or “thumbs down.” It is about understanding who we are, who we want to be, how culture changes, how it molds us, and so much more.

I tried to learn from Klosterman and other critics we read. Several times we had the opportunity to write critiques ourselves—a few times in our blogs. I have to say I became very frustrated. I had no idea how to critique pop-culture, specifically music. I remember trying to critique Boston—my favorite band. All I knew was that I really liked their vocals and the type of music they sang, and the words. Besides that I had no idea how to talk about what the music sounds like. I felt that I needed to know the different musical strategies and have the ability to pick key changes and the way it all works together. And I still don’t know how to do these things, but I did find that critiquing something is sometimes more than knowing how to do those things, but not always, sometimes it is different than knowing all of the inner workings of a piece.

After that blog I became more relatable as an author. I opened up my chest of “Aaron’s Memories” and tried to critique the art as an object that affects my life. Suddenly I felt that I could express myself and really explain why I felt the way I did about a certain song or movie or another form of art.

How we feel about something is affected by how it affects us right? Then in one of my last blogs I finally branched out into how it affects others. I wrote about Rocky and how it is loved and hated at the same time. The key is whether the viewer prefers a dramatic and glorious story or accuracy. Through this blog I saw my first glimpse at being an intuitive critic. It was an exciting moment. Finally, I saw some potential in my writing as a critic. There was substance. There was a point. I want this to carry over into all of my writing. I want to be done with blabbering and never getting anywhere. There reason I want to write is to inspire people and to change lives. That is a little hard to do if my writing never has meaning or expresses anything.

Of course I still have room for improvement. I don’t have the tools to get into the picky technical things in art, but if I were to enter into a more critical mindset towards my future, I’m sure I could attain this skill. More importantly I still want to grow in my ability to write with substance and meaning in all of my works, whether in creative writing or persuasion or a research paper or a more critical approach. I am still developing my voice and learning how to put it on paper. There is no doubt that I will always be learning this, but I feel that I grew a lot throughout this semester. And I am really excited about continuing.

Becoming a better writer is sometimes a hard path, and often improvement is hard to detect, but if only the writer can be challenged, improvement is inevitable. With a challenge weaknesses are exposed and if a writer is diligent enough to push through he will be forced to learn and thus to improve. I can say that this class definitely brought a challenge throughout the semester. I approached a new kind of writing. And although I don’t plan on doing a lot of criticism writing through my career I still saw weaknesses in my own writing and improved upon it. I hope to continue to be challenged throughout my life, because the moment I stop growing is the moment my life and my writing has become worthless.

Movin’ On Up

For our last blog I would like to go all the way back to our first reading–Understanding Comics. Good decision Donna as a first reading. This book hit us right off the bat with an unusual type of style for a book. A text book that is also a comic book –genius! The first thing I encountered with this book was that it brought me into enlightenment. My first epiphany was that I knew absolutely nothing about the subject. There was so much science, history, philosophy to comic books. Believe or not it is a very rich culture.

I have always believed that the best way to learn something was to actually interact with it as it is being taught. This is what Understanding Comics does well. It is a unique experience when the writer provides an image of himself as a drawing. As you read you begin to understand the difference in normal prose and comics. The description that would normally be within the words is placed in picture form. As I read through it I surprisingly came to a better understanding of how I would create a picture with my words. The importance of good imagery became evident when I realized the story would be transformed with different settings and with different descriptions of characters. Then there is the choice of visual resemblance or a cartoonier look. The potential of my own writing, although not in the genre of comics, increased to a new level.

The world of comics can really use this book. It really elevates the world of comic books into a higher level of midcult. After reading this book you will see that comics aren’t just for your childhood but it is actually an art to be looked up to. It is a medium for new comic book fans to get into the art and it is an encouragement to those already in it.

“If you’ve ever felt bad about wasting your life reading comics, then check out Scott McCloud’s classic book immediately. You might still feel you’ve wasted your life, but you’ll know why, and you’ll be proud.”
– Matt Groening, creator of The Simpsons.

After reading his book you will be excited to pick up a comic book and actually see art behind art. You will see the thought processes and the strategies behind text and picture combinations, the comic reel, and more. This is the start to a beautiful relationship.

Faith, Hope, and Love

Those who know me may think Tyler Perry is a little out of style for me, but I assure you I have sincerely enjoyed his work. I first heard of Tyler Perry while talking to my girlfriend. She mentioned he was a writer, which first caught my attention, and then she said he was a Christian. At this point I was all ears. I don’t know if there are a lot of Christian writers in Hollywood but I do know there aren’t a lot that take their faith and place it so directly into their work. When she mentioned that he wrote Diary of a Mad Black Woman I was pleased to remember that I had already seen this movie and really liked it. It hadn’t occurred to me until that point that that movie has a very strong Christian idea within it. It wasn’t until a few years later that I saw another Tyler Perry production: Why Did I Get Married. Once again I wasn’t aware that it was written by Tyler Perry. At least this time I found out while sitting in the movie theatre.

Anytime you go to see a Tyler Perry movie you can be sure it will be multi-dimensional. You will laugh, you will be angry, you will cry (or at least be sad), and you will be inspired. He is a master at bringing these elements together to create something that is more than just entertainment. Your emotions will be jerked around, but I believe sometimes our emotions have to go through a beating before we can finally learn something. Tyler Perry movies will do just that to your emotions and try to teach a message.

In Diary of a Mad Black Woman we have a story of a neglected wife who is in love with her very rich, but abusive, selfish, and adulterous husband. Her husband finally leaves her with no money and her only choice is to go back to her family. While there she meets a man that is charismatic and persistent. She is very hesitant at first because her past tells her to be careful, but she eventually lets her guard down and falls in love. At this point you think that everything is going to be fine with her and her new love—not unlike other movie. But this movie takes an unexpected and quite frustrating turn. The husband ends up having an accident, becoming paralyzed from the neck down, and his mistress leaves him. This once neglected wife amazingly returns to her abusive and now helpless husband and cares for him when no one else would. This movie shows a powerful message of unconditional love and forgiveness that this world does not know.

This is characteristic of Tyler Perry movies. I believe his goal is to project on the movie screen love that people do no understand, the humbling acts of love that make people, and especially Americans, scratch there head in disbelief and sometimes anger. Sometimes it is hard to believe that that kind of love exists but maybe seeing it on screen will open up a window for opportunity.

Diary of a Mad Black Woman stars Kimberly Elise, Steve Harris, Shemar Moore, Tamara Taylor, Lisa Marcos, Tiffany Evans, Cicely Tyson, and Tyler Perry. While this isn’t exactly an all-star cast the acting is good enough to draw the viewer in and inspire attachment to the characters.

He creates this perplexing kind of love once again in Why Did I Get Married. This movie is about a group of married couples that take a vacation together into the mountains. The movie starts by first introducing each couple in an attempt to show the quality of the relationship. Out of the four couples only one is partially stable and it even breaks down because of a child’s death that took place in the past. One couple is plagued by a workaholic wife. One couple a adulterous husband and an alcoholic wife, and once again another couple with an adulterous husband but with the most redeeming character in the movie as his wife. This wife shows the capability to push through a marriage and always have hope through faith and prayer to God. Eventually her jerk husband gets what he deserves after a disastrous dinner, which is the cause of everyone leaving the next morning. The faithful wife stays behind and is swept away by a local park ranger who is caring and the Godly leader she has been looking for. Tyler Perry once again creates a multidimensional film that will make you laugh, cry, be inspired.

This move shows the importance of remaining persistent and strong even in the toughest times because God will bless those who are faithful. It also gives hope to marriages that feel as if they are about to crumble. All but one of the couples works through their problems and start a happy and loving marriage. The movie doesn’t imply that the solutions will be automatic or they will come with ease, but it does inspire that through love any problem can be solved. With the divorce rate as it is these days this is a great movie for any struggling couple.

The movie has a few familiar faces but several new ones including Tyler Perry, Janet Jackson, Sharon Leal, Malik Yoba, Jill Scott, Richard T. Jones, Tasha Smith, Micheal Jai White, Denise Boutte Lamman Rucker, Keesha Sharp, and Kaira Whitehead. Once again not an all-star cast but I believe Perry does this for a reason. With famous actors we often have a hard time seeing them as someone different than their past characters. For example, I have the hardest time seeing Bruce Willis as a tough but yet quite and prideful cop/mafia member. Perry’s movies rely on the viewer’s ability to relate to the characters. The stories are heart-wrenching but if a character doesn’t seem real to the viewer then the story has no effect. With unfamiliar actors it is easier for a viewer to relate and find that connection because there are no prior attachments to alternate facades. It is like meeting the characters for the first time and learning about their strengths and weakness and struggles.

I think it is a shame that so many people look at an ad for his movies and immediately believe that the movie isn’t for them. There isn’t a lot of advertisement for his movies, but if people would only give them a chance they would see there is more redeeming qualities in them than most movies you will ever see. Yes, they are very different than most movies but more times than not you will come to enjoy something different if you only give it a try.

I encourage people to go and rent this movie. It will open your eyes to a new kind of theme, comedy, and acting. The movie will span a human’s best and worst intentions and abilities and somehow still leave you without any maliciousness toward any character. You will go through a number of emotional states and end inspired. You will see a rarely seen side of Christianity and most importantly see faith and love in action. If you are looking for something new, funny, and life changing check out any Tyler Perry movie or play.

The Italian Stallion

While looking for a movie that was made before my time I came to find out that I am quite deprived of a movie library of the 70’s and back. I did come across one of my favorites though-Rocky. Rocky is one of those movies that almost everyone at least has heard about. It isn’t just a fantastic and amazing story but it is inspiring. Rocky brought home many Oscars for best director, best film editing, best picture and was nominated for Oscars for best actor in a leading role, best actor in a supporting role (Burgess Meredith), best actor in a supporting role (Burt Young), best actress in a leading role, best music, best sound, best writing. The awards can speak for themselves.

With the champion Apollo Creed on top of the boxing world he gives an amateur the chance for the title and this is where Rocky comes in. Apollo sees him in a boxing club and rights him off saying he would knock him out by the third round. Apollo then begins to advertise the fight rather than train for it dressing as George Washington and Uncle Sam. Rocky Balboa is an inner city man who is slightly stubborn but innocent. He begins training under Mickey who tells him to “eat lightning and poop thunder”–just like a boxing coach right. While Rocky’s is training he meets a shy and reserved girl, Adrian, who he falls in love with. Rocky later goes 15 rounds with Apollo Creed and loses by a controversial split decision.

Rocky has an interesting history of love and hate. Rocky like many boxing movies does a horrible job of filming an authentic fight. For boxing fans this is important. Some have said about the fight between Rocky and Apollo that Apollo made mistakes a real boxing champion would never make and a referee would never allow such a bloodbath.

For those who are less familiar with boxing the movie is a masterpiece. The scenes of Rocky going through boxing drills, punching raw meat, and running up a buildings steps while “Eye of the Tiger” plays in the background is inspiring and compels me to become a gym rat that could also fight Apollo Creed. The subplot of Rocky and Adrian’s blooming relationship draws that connection between the viewer and the actors. With love on the line now the fight suddenly becomes more than just victory but survival. Rocky has something to live for. The producers take advantage of this in the Rocky IV when we finally get a connection with Apollo and then he is killed by the Russian heavyweight. Without this subplot between Rocky and Adrian I hardly think that the movie would have carried any weight. In a movie we need something more than sheer pride and a need to feel like the best in a character to really root him on.

We also root for Balboa because the odds are so much against him. Rocky comes from the slums and Apollo Creed is an established champion boxer. All logic tells us Apollo will crush him. Americans like the underdog story, probably because we too were underdogs at one time at the dawn of our birth. There is something more than just a good boxing story with a love story accompanying it. This movie tells us that hope is always there. This is an idea we as Americans have been taught but sometimes forget. Rocky digs deep into our inner being and pulls that hope back to the surface. The movie tells us we can be triumphant and get the girl too.

So obviously there is something that can be said for a good plot but is authenticity also important. Many said that Ali starring Will Smith was a wonderful movie because the boxing scenes were so real and right to a tee. The same has been said about Disney’s Miracle. I do wish Rocky was more believable in the fight scenes but if the script would have held strictly to what should and should not happen it might have become more of a movie for the boxing community and less for the mass public. The mass public wants drama and big hits and lots of blood after all. While I don’t believe that the movie actually is carried by the boxing scene it is important that it ends in a bang. Obviously the big fight is what everyone is waiting for and keeps people watching but everything before the movie is needed before we can get to the fight scene. In the same way the fight scene needs to be fantastic to validate the whole story before it. So whether authenticity is important or not is up to the individual and depends on the goal of the movie. If the movie is striving to reach a mass public and more emphasis is on the characters then authenticity isn’t as important, but if the movie focuses on displaying the sport of boxing such as in Ali, which is trying to show boxing as a part of history¸ then the authenticity is definitely important.

They’ll never take our freedom!

I was just looking through a library the last weeks and I noticed many books on American History.  As I was going through all of the biographies of famous Americans–Benjamin Franklin, Thomas Jefferson, George Washington, Thomas Paine–I was reminded of how they had to band together, trust one another to begin to fight.  It is a movie very similar to our countries history that does the same thing to me–Braveheart.  I know.  This is every man’s favorite movie, but I can’t deny it.

Braveheart exemplifies what I believe every man wishes he could do.  Not necessarily be William Wallace (played by Mel Gibson) but fight for family, home, and freedom.  It is a stereotype the men to not like romance stories but this movie is just that.  There is romance all through it.  Who do you think those men were fighting for?  Not to mention that William Wallace falls in love with two different women in the movie.  So how does this movie, with two different love affairs, draw the attention of so many men.

Well first of all it is a movie about overcome odds.  In the movie the Scottish have been oppressed by the English for decades and finally when Scotland gets a leader that can unify the country they try to remove the English rule.  The English at this time were one of the strongest nations in the world.  there is something exciting about when they finish the scene on the plains, when only Scottish men are standing, blood running down their face, dripping from their hair, still grasping a stern, fierce face, dead Englishmen at their feet.  It is almost synonymous to a game winning homerun in the world series by an underdog.  It’s just not suppose to happen.

The relationships of the characters, between husband and wife, father and son or daughter, grandfather and family, have the potential to draw the viewer in.  There aren’t even that many scenes showing a father leaving a family, but yet we know why they are there.  The money takes advantage of this potential by its great acting.  We see several sides of some of the main characters–bravery, sorrow, weakness.  I always love it when the characters are believable.  In many movies it’s almost hard to connect with a character because they seem so fake or not human at all in their actions or speech.  This is why I love authenticity in movies.  For example, many people do not like when a movie is in another language.  For me, I want the language to be accurate with the character.  In Apocalypto I was very pleased that the whole movie was in the Mayan language.  It seemed more real to me.  Because Braveheart did a good job in depicting the Scottish culture it captured my emotions for the characters and in effect made me care about their cause.

The Man In Black

When searching for music that exemplifies country at its roots (drinkin’, shootin’, southern hospitality, workin’ for your family) I know where I can turn–Johnny Cash.
I’m not greatly knowledgeable of Johnny Cash and the first time I heard him, I have to admit, I didn’t know exactly why he was so popular.  After time, though, he grew on me a little.  Johnny Cash has one of those voices that you hear and you can tell that he was born to sing.  It isn’t flashy or energetic but impressive all the same.  His deep rough baritone voice adds to his tough appearance and compliments the subject matter of his songs of having a hard life but getting through it by being tough and stubborn.
I remember hearing Hurt for the first time.  While his voice in this song isn’t what it used to be, it is still powerful and full of emotion, partly because the topic of the song is looking back on your life and proclaiming that you would have done it differently if you started over again.  He is accompanied by an acoustic guitar like many of his songs and then a piano joins in towards the end of the song.  For me, the acoustic guitar symbolizes simplicity and encourages reminiscing, many times bad memories.  But even if they are bad it is still somehow beautiful.  This instrumentals are very simple in Hurt but powerful.  The piano notes are sharp and strong and the acoustic guitar creates a melancholy tune.  This meshes very well with his voice.
Johnny Cash’s music is typical of country music.  So what makes his music so memorable?  I believe it is because of his authenticity.  Many times listeners know if a singer is a poser.  When a singer from a big city starts singing about hard times on the farm no one really wants to listen to him.  And I don’t blame them.  Listeners want singers to have experienced the music they sing.  If this is the case then there is more emotion and less show in the music.  Johnny Cash actually grew up in rural Arkansas and had a tough childhood.  This carries over to his music and the listener can tell.
The way he sings is also unique to country.  He doesn’t have the hard twang characteristic of country.  He rather creates a smooth sound with many slides.  This adds a unique element that could be considered more gospel or soul but he puts it in a country element.  By doing this he spans different genres and brings in a diverse audience.  He almost has a rock and roll feel to some of his music with a wild boy appearance in his concerts (I think we’ve all seen the clip of him busting light bulbs with his feet in the middle of a song).
His music, although very different from much of the country today, is still popular among country fans.  His style somehow has lasted and this can be testified by his popular song Hurt released a few years ago.  Unfortunately he has passed away, but his music will always be with us.

Heart’s Cry

As I was looking through my music to try to choose an artist/band to critique I went through many of my favorites but then I came across an artist that I rarely listen to but I’m not sure why.  Maybe because I am not terribly familiar with him, but as soon as I play a song from him my body loosens and my mind clears.  It isn’t that his music doesn’t have a message; far from it.  He actually has a very powerful message, but the way he presents it is calm, soothing, attractive, and peaceful.  His songs are bold to claim the truth but gentle in its presentation.  I believe this largely has to do with the message that he is presenting:  the message of Christ and his death and resurrection.  But as many of us know this message can be butchered by the messenger, which we’ve seen far too many times.  Webb’s music, however, is graceful.

Webb accomplishes this by only having an acoustic guitar backing up his voice.  It is simple yet raw.  Raw not because it is tough or harsh but because it is unprocessed.  This is partly because the CD I have is a live CD.  It is only him and his guitar playing music that hasn’t taken hours of several people practicing to get everyone on the same page.  Not that he hasn’t practiced.  I’m sure he has, but being a lone singer creates a spontaneity to the concert; almost like a group of friends that have been relaxing and enjoying one another’s company and someone just happens to pull out a guitar to play a little music.  It’s genuine.

Then there is his voice. His voice lacks a lot of projection but this would create more of a forceful attitude in his music.  His voice is soft and smooth but not lacking a hint of urgency signaling his passion in his message.

It is this message that I love so much.  This is possibly the most impressive part of his music.  His lyrics are symbolic, colorful, and fervent.    “I’m a prodigal with no way home/I put you on just like a ring of gold/and I run down the isle/I run down the isle to you.”  These lyrics from “Wedding Dress” are full of imagery.  The language is largely picturesque.  His message is a Christian message but it isn’t presented in a common way.  His lyrics seem to portray Christ’s heart which in my life is always beautiful.  It is the same message of the reality of sin in our lives followed by a message of grace and love that we have all heard but because the lyrics do not spare any politically incorrect words it is honest which may seem harsh but it is realistic to this artist.
With all these elements of the solo guitar, a smooth voice, and a strong message a raw, gentle, and passionate song is created.  Because I am a Christian this artist is just for me.  It’s is often hard to find music that expresses your heart’s cry but I can find it in Derek Webb.

Bring The Rain

The last CD I bought was actually two CD’s by the same band at Winter Jam.  They were both by Mercy Me which is a band I haven’t exactly followed much.  Both are Gospel/Religious.  I havn’t had time to listen to all the songs on both of the CD’s so I will talk about the CD I have listened to most.  That would be Coming Up To Breathe.  I always find they title of albums interesting and I find myself thinking about why they called it that.  I guess often it is from one of the more popular songs on the album but I like to think that the title portrays a common theme throughout the album.  I hate to say that I couldn’t really find that theme I was looking for in this album.  The songs approach a broad range of topics and so it would be hard to group them all in one category.

One thing I do like about this album is the worship songs.  Some Christian bands don’t have many worship songs, which I enjoy more than any othere kind of Christian music.  The difference I am pointing out primarily has to do with the audience.  In worship music the audience is God.  The song is directed towards him and could almost be considered a prayer.  Other Christian songs may simply be about God rather than to Him.  While I like these also, they could never be as enjoyable as a worship song.

Bring the Rain is possibly my favorite song on this album.  It is a worship song that talks about many of the topics in my Christian walk that I have been thinking on, specifically the struggles that come in our life and how by the grace of God the struggles actually are to be used for His glory.  I love this because often I don’t know how to put my thoughts into words and these songs do it in a brilliant way.  My favorite line, “And I know they’ll be days when this life brings me pain, but if that is what it takes to praise you, Jesus bring the rain,” gives me chills every time I sing it.  It speaks so much and is such a bold proclamation to Christ, and it is one I long to make.

One thing I look for when I am searching for Christian artists to listen to is that anointing that only comes from Christ.  I just recently heard Mercy Me in concert and I can say that that anointing is there with this band.  The Spirit of God can be felt with many of the songs and this very important to me when I choose songs to praise my God.

Road Trip! Destination–Boston

With so many bands, genres, eras, and songs out there it is hard to choose The one favorite band or artist.  To narrow it down for me it would be best to first say that my favorite types of music are Country and Classic Rock.  After this being said my choices have largely decreased.  Now I could choose from Journey, Guns n Roses, ACDC, Foreigner, Elvis Presley, Garth Brooks, Alan Jackson, Keith Urban, George Straight and many more.  But it doesn’t take much thought to choose that one band that stands out more than any of them in my mind and that is Boston.  After just typing that word I immediately imagine an electric guitar breaking out in the solo from More Than A Feeling.  What can I say?  There is just something magical about a solo hitting every note perfectly, feeling the room with sounds bouncing off the walls into my ears while my ear drums scream.  Immediately I want to close my eyes and rock out on my own air guitar. 

 

The first time heard Boston I was in the middle of my all Classic Rock phase and my father and I cruised up to our house when Peace Of Mind started playing on The Eagle.  I had learned that my father listened to Classic Rock when he was growing up and when immediately I wanted to learn as many songs as I could to impress him.  Soon after I downloaded a surplus of Classic Rock songs my motivation suddenly changed to just an enjoyment for the music.  While we were listening to Peace Of Mind my father said that it was Boston who played this song and it was is favorite band growing up.  I thought, “Well, so far he has great taste in music so I will check them out.”  I did and to my surprise every song that I listened to was enjoyable.  This is usually not the case with me.  Sometimes I will like a song when I first listen to it but usually I really start to like a song when I’ve heard it several times and have learned some lyrics.  This wasn’t the case with Boston.  With every song I could immediately sit back and just enjoy every bit of it:  the vocals, the instruments, the solos, the lyrics–all of it. 

 

The first thing that stood out to me the first time I heard Boston was the vocals.  I never knew that someone could actually sing with a pitch that high before.  It was beyond anything that I had ever heard and yet it was still fun to listen to.  Boston is one of those band that anyone can have a blast rocking out to but make sure that track doesn’t stop because as soon as it does everones incapacity to sing anything like these vocals will show.  This isn’t a bash on the singer but simply props to the vocalists of Boston.  Then comes the background singers.  This is nothing short of a grand choir harmonizing and amazingly keeping up with the lead singers.

 

After the initial shock of the vocals, the way these songs were put together amazed me.  First you would hear an awesome electric, followed my an explosion of drums and then…an organ?  Yep, an organ.  And it works too.  And then the syncopation that keeps it all interesting.  Each song has extreme vamping that gives the vocalist an opportunity to really show off.  After all of this bombardment with awesome music comes my favorite part of every Boston song–the solo.  At this point I grit my teeth, sneer my nose, wrap my arms around my air guitar, get ready at this time of silence, and perfectly synchronized with the first rumble of Barry Goudreau’s guitar my whole body comes crashing down on my chords playing along with him.  What a rush. 

 

Along with all the great instruments and vocalists the lyrics are something to mention.  Good lyrics often are hard to find.  In my generation most pop lyrics consist of sex, drugs, busty women, money—mostly material self seeking things.  Boston took a very different approach. The song that sticks out in my head is Peace of Mind.  This song talks about how people of today are obsessed with climbing to the top and being the best.  The song promotes forgetting about those things in our life that don’t matter and seeking peace of mind.  This kind of song has substance.  It’s inspiring, enlightening.  I like to listen to songs that are going to be beneficial to my character and listening to songs that solely exist so the singer can brag that they have 6 BMW’s, a 15 room mansion, diamond rings on each finder, and a necklace that spins.  Yeah, they may have a catchy beat and are fun to sing but why not have the best of both worlds.  With Boston you can rock out and be edified all at the same time.

 

Boston has had an odd history compared to other great bands.  The band was brought together by Tom Scholz, an engineering graduate that worked at Polaroid.  They put their first album, Boston, out in 1976 and didn’t put another album out until 1978, Don’t Look Back.  The next album would take even longer–Third Stage in 1986.  Then there was another eight years until their next album–Walk On.  This whole time the relationships between the band members were disintegrating with lawsuits with back royalties plaguing the situation.  Through all of this they were still able to create wonderful music.

 Discovering Boston was one of the greatest music moments of my lifetime.  It transformed what Classic Rock is to me and what good music is all together.  Unfortunately for all other musicians, I now have a higher standard of what good music is.  Like all bands, they unfortunately had to hang up their guitars and put their drum sticks in the drawer but not without leaving us great albums to enjoy for a lifetime.

What a catch!–ESPN

The day that ESPN began to air sports all day every day brought in a new era for citizens of the United States.  ESPN brought stats, instant notification of trades, injuries, big wins, and big losses.  It brought the who was hired the new head coach of our favorite college team and who made the trade of the season.  The fan of the upper deck with binoculars trying to figure out who is at bat was instantly escorted directly behind home plate and Chris Berman became a household name along with the cliché “back, back, back!”

There is no doubt the ESPN made some kind of influence, negative and positive I’m sure, on me.  Sports became something glorious to me as I watched the 7th game of the World Series that according to Peter Gammons would change the sport forever and as I watched the Superbowls that billions of other people watched along side me.  ESPN does a wonderful job of bringing out what sports can create in its most inspiring form–teamwork, perseverance, hard work, struggle, victory, courage, and a childish love for the game.  According to ESPN it isn’t about just a bunch of grown men hitting a ball with a stick but it is the expression of something higher than that.

For me, watching sports through ESPN, the abilities of these athletes became something beautiful to me.  To be able to catch a ground ball while in mid air and then slam into the ground, keeping composure, and flipping the ball to the second baseman, who barely has the ball for a split second, slings it 90 feet to another player that catches it before the runner touches the bag simply takes my breath away.  These are the instances that ESPN excels at.  They point out the things that a passerby would just deem as ordinary and they call it outstanding, amazing, beautiful.  This is the appeal of ESPN.

And the best part is, if you miss something it will be playing again one hour later!