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!

Indeed I Was “Saved By The Bell”

As a child I watched many shows and most about teenagers struggling with teachers, relationships, bullies, and parents. There was Family Matters, Full House, Step By Step, but one of my absolute favorites was Save By The Bell.” Right from the start it caught my attention with its catchy fast-paced theme song: “It’s alright, cause I’m saved by the bell. It’s alright, cause I’m saved by the bell.” I remember sitting on my bed bouncing up and down singing along. Then you would more than likely see Zack Morris and Screech up to something and then Zack is left by himself where he talks to the audience about his plan to win Kelly Kapowski’s heart while at the same time keep A.C. Slater away. Then we see Lisa with new info on the latest high school gossip with Screech right behind her reciting poetry followed by a “Get lost, Screech.” Wow, what a wonderful show. Mischief, conflict, love, with jokes scattered through the episode. The next thing you know, Zack says something that either ticks Kelly off or somehow pulls off a sly move but not without innocent Principle Belding knowing he is up to something but can’t quite figure out what it is. The show is so predictable but I couldn’t help but want to tune in every afternoon and hope for an episode I hadn’t seen yet.

Maybe it was the characters that made it so attractive. While in junior high I could relate to them; beautiful girl that you would love to go on a date with, but all the while there is some other guy that feels the same way, and of course you end up becoming enemies, which eventually brings you to become friends. So complex but so true. But maybe it was Screech. Just that name immediately made you want to figure out who this kid was. He is so innocent and his heart is always in the right place but just never can quite reach that goal of being accepted or winning over his love. Then there is Kelly–the popular head cheerleader who loves her fame but sometimes gets to be too much. And then there is there friend Jessie who is the over achiever, class president, straight A student that also become overwhelmed by the pressure of it all.

All of it is so generic. It sounds just like every other teen show. Look at Happy Days. You have the innocent one-Richey-and the more rebellious one that the innocent one follows-The Fons-and then throw in a diner where they all hang out for kicks. Something about it works. And what about that diner. Something is always happening there: cheerleaders getting people pumped up for the big game, A.C. Slater doing a ballet in front of everyone, the funny owner who gets to know everyone, and of course you rarely see them actually eat. It kind of makes you wish you yourself had a diner while you were growing up in high school.

There was something different about Saved By The Bell that set some of the other similar shoes apart. While the main focus was on this one group of friends somehow they let us know that they weren’t the only ones attending Bayside High School. In many other shoes you could easily lose the idea of the surrounding world and focus in on central characters but you always knew in Saved By The Bell that they were just a small part of a larger social construct. I believe this made the show feel more real. Because you knew they were in the same position you were, you knew they could identify with you and each episode of a different conflict told you “we did it and so can you.”

When they kept the show going into the college years something happened. Something was lost. They tried to carry the high school drama into college but it was too much. As a college student now, I can say that relationships, friends, and quarrels are totally different. We needed something real. Something we could relate to. I believe it was an outlet for us. I watched the show before I went to high school but for someone in junior high it still was a portal to a world where all the elements were there–school, homework, relationships, etc–but the way these students in the show handled it was the way we all wish we could have handled it. I could always see myself being the cool kid pulling out the huge cell phone (which almost no one had at that time). We were all too scared to do anything like that. I wanted to know how they could screw it all up so bad and yet come out on top in the end. They gave us hope. We could come out on top and guess what. We did. We graduated, but not without our daily dose of Saved By The Bell.

What I liked most about “Saved By The Bell” is the bond that they all have for one another by the end of the show. The story may start off with the focus on a girl or a boy but by the end it is all about comradery. Zack, A.C., and Screech are still buds. Lisa, Jessie, and Kelly are still girlfriends. It is so much a picture of what high school, in my eyes, really is. When I look back to my high school days I think about how my buddy C.T. and I took batting practice at his house almost everyday. I think about the times when all my friends and I would stay up on the weekends playing X-Box. I think about the time my friend Hunter tried to get that waitresses phone number. We didn’t care that the waitress totally ignored him (well, maybe Hunter did a little). We were just being friends. Through all the drama at the very end we could all hug and say our sad goodbyes because they were in fact sad. We were leaving, at this point, family.

“Lost” Like No One Before

The first time I saw “Lost” I thought, “Wow, this is a new twist on every other book and movie about being stranded on an island.” And I was right, although at the time the comment was a little spiteful. That was when the show first started. After this I didn’t watch it again for probably two years. And now, starting just one month ago I have come to see why the show has become such a big hit.

I started to watch the show on DVD, which is my preferred method because I don’t have to wait a whole week if I want to see the next episode. I have watched half way through third season and I can hardly wait to see the rest.

“Lost” is good on many different levels. First of all the show does a fantastic job allowing the viewers to get to know the characters. On many shows we just see the surface of who they are. Only if we study the show and are avid watchers do we really get a feel of who they are and what they struggle with. In “Lost” the wonderful flashback sends us to a time where one specific character has some kind of adverse situations. The number of people on this plane that have such outrageous stories is ridiculous but somehow that doesn’t bother me. I believe it is because I keep telling myself that possibly more people go through these things than I think. Anyways, back to the flashbacks. Through the flashbacks we learn what is on the mind of each character, how many of their stories are interconnected, and how these struggles from the past formed who they are on the island and how that effects their decisions and actions. This is so complex but the viewer comes to know the characters so well that we begin to care for them, which causes us to want more (not to mention yell at the TV., pleading for their life in a dangerous situation.

On top of this there is also a mystery to figure out. This brings another element of suspense. We want to know what is causing the characters to have hallucinations of people from their past, and what about this island heals a man from paralysis, and who in the world are these random people doing experiments on an unknown island! These are the things that make you sigh and cry “Why does it have to stop there? I have to know what happens to Jack!” when you here the drums at the end of an episode. On top of this there are the love triangles. While this isn’t such a big factor for me I know people rooting for Jack to sweep Kate off her feet or others who would prefer Sawyer to win her love.

More than anything, the shows ability to throw another curve ball at the viewer is amazing. Every show there is at least one, “Huh? How did that happen?” or a “What? I can’t believe this.” The writers seem fearless. “How about, we through in random polar bears that live on a tropical island and a black cloud that roams his territory and can cause people to hallucinate? Perfect.”

It sounds crazy but the show is brilliant. Because of these odd events, the viewer expects anything. And that is how the show gets people in the living room every showing—because the viewer knows he or she will be entertained. Many shows cannot do this. They are limited to the common family crisis of drugs or a daughter getting pregnant or the occasional annoying nerd next door, but “Lost” has a world of opportunities, and they utilize them.

What a Good Poem!

My sophomore year I had a class on Medical Literature. In this class we read several poems and narratives that we analyzed and really got deep in trying to see what the author was trying to do in his work of art. In each one there were so many different literary devices that I had never been aware of.

I remember one poem in particular. It was by Robert Frost and it was about a boy that was sawing wood and ended up injuring himself and dying. When I read this poem I really liked it and I could tell there was something about the poem that made it good but I didn’t know how to put my finger on it at first. Once I really started to analyze it I saw the alliteration and the puns and the high and low vowel patterns and the imagery and the line breaks and the word placement. It all began to come together in a way that was beautiful and intricate. It wasn’t just a set of lines that rhymed or sounded really confusing like I had always thought before about poetry. There was substance to it, and a lot of it. This opened my eyes up to the world of literature. For once I felt like there was a world of possibility; so many things to create; so many different devices I could use to create it; and oh how beautiful it could be. Writing suddenly became exciting. I was already a writing major but not because I enjoyed doing it, but because I thought it would help me in my future career.

After this experience I was actually excited about reading the next assignment and analyzing it. I wanted to learn new devices and hone my skills. There was hope of being a good writer. Throughout the semester we continued to try to get in the heads of the authors. They were intricate and wonderful and brilliant. They used devices that I had never seen before.

Now I am in a novella class and I am excited about finishing a rather large work of literature. Before I would feel intimidated by this assignment, and that’s what it would be; an assignment. But now I see it as a project, as a work of art. I am excited about looking back at it and being proud of what I wrote and knowing it is good. What is even more exciting is that I can create my own literary devices.

Because a teacher decided to teach a class in a way where I could discover the beauty of art for myself I learned to appreciate it. This is what made the difference. The teacher saw that the art was beautiful and had a passion for us coming to the knowledge of how beautiful it is.

I now see literature in a totally new light. It isn’t simply words on a page that has characters and a setting and a conflict but it is art; art that has meaning and must be interpreted. I can develop my own style; something I can call my own. There is an infinite number of possibilities. And that is exciting.