Justice

However little justice there is in this world, there is one thing you can rely on, and that's Justice. Doesn't make any sense I know, unless you are familiar with the band, then you know exactly what I'm talking about. Justice is, in my opinion, the best electronic duo ever conceived. There is no possible way you can't like them. If you are from the age of the disco... you will like them. If you are of my generation you will like them. If you are a hermit who has lived there entire life isolated from music and people, you will most definitely like them. They don't have a single bad original, remix, or mix. They can appeal to almost any person and apply all elements of music to their and still come out with a totally unique, yet electronica-ish song. And it just makes you want to move.
Get their album Cross (ignore the stupid adds). I don't care if you have to slaughter a thousand puppies, you wont regret it when you here this album. The employ everything from timpani's to a horn section. Every song features all different kinds of bases, including a punchy, probably slapped, string bass that gives it its somewhat disco-y sound. They even have a song, Valentine, that's sounds like Ratatat based their music off of, kinda. I found their complete discography and it's just an absolute delight. It has a version of D.A.N.C.E. on there called the Benny Blanco mix and it features Mos Def and Spank Rock, the song is amazing! And I made a mix with it with a few other songs
D.A.N.C.E. is probably their most current sounding song and it came out years ago, and still pretty much everyone I've showed it too has fallen in love with the band , plus the music video kicks ass. My only complaint about them is they don't really have any of the t-shirts readily available, watch the video and you'll know. And, unlike most really good bands, they're still together, and the new stuff on their MySpace doesn't disappoint. Their creativity flows like the Mississippi, except their music is waaay cooler than that river.
One of he cooler thing about them is how mixable they are. Anyone can take a Justice song and remix and make it their own, easily. I don't know what it is about them but for a long while they have been my favorite band. And they really need to start touring again because I need to see them live before I die. Their live mixes can be even better than the originals, which is pretty impressive.

Lit Circle Letters 1-2

The Forever War is probably now one of my favorite books that I've read. It's really good and the parallels to war, Vietnam in specific, are unprecedented. This book also sounds like it could've been written yesterday. It's so timeless, its hard to remember that it was written in the 70s. I've never found a book that's been so old yet could be so current. With Brave New World I could tell it was older, but this one, it definitely stays current. The only thing that confuses me about this is the "physics". I've been told that they are made up, which frankly, makes a lot of sense, because they don't make any. And I think it detracts from the glory of this novel. No ones going to understand it anyways why include it, to take up space?
Other than that this book is brilliant. Basically what happens in the first section is an introduction into the world of war in the 1990s and it isn't pretty. Only half the people survive through the training. I don't know if that's what it was in 'Nam, but I hope it wasn't. And then They land on one of the enemies planets and have the first encounter with the Taurans in which there are many similarities to Vietnam. It was a very gory and disturbing battle. Its this way with most of the book for that matter. There's lots of sex, lots of gory descriptions in the way people were killed or injured. But that's part of what makes this an awesome book. I can also see why almost no one, during the time period he wrote it, would publish it. It has very controversial and, as I said, disturbing content.
In this second section, the soldiers are traveling to the next world and are attacked by the enemy, one third of the soldiers are instantly killed and lots more die and get injured, so they return to Earth. The rest of the section is basically about the different world they returned to. One third of the population is gay, there is a universal currency, lots of people are unemployed, and very violent. The deaths of most the main characters families bring them to reenlist as trainers on the moon, but they get swindled and shipped back out into space.
It must have seemed like a different world to the vets returning from the Vietnam war, it probably didn't help the characters out that they had only aged two years when the world had aged 25. Which was something I didn't get, more of the made-up physics. And the fact that the army put them back into space seemed like just the kind of swindling that the army would've done back in the day (the nonfictional 70s). That's all I really have to report so far. This is a great book so far. It's got love, sex, violence, drugs, the works. I would for sure recommend this to anyone 14 and up, because there are some pretty mature subjects. So far I'd give it an A, it's not nearly as weird as the last book I read.

3rd Statement of Purpose

What are my current goals as a writer? Mostly to get better. What that necessarily constitutes is the important part. I really would like to be able to flow with my writing and stay formal, but I can't seem to be able to flow that well in essays in other subjects. I think that would be cool. Another thing I would like to do is not wine as much. Most of my posts are blah, blah, blah, this is stupid. blah, blah, blah this sucks. I would like to break that habit a little more often.
I would also like to blog more often, because there are seldom other grades in the English class and my grade always suffers when I miss one. I think the key to this is doing it early in the week instead of Friday because I'm usually out Friday and can't find time to do it. So I will try hard to finish them on block days and if I don't I will finish them after school on that day. But that shouldn't be too hard of a problem to fix permanently.
Another thing that I would like to do is to focus less on music. And I know I've said this before but I can never seem to come up with anything decent when it is time to write except for stuff in regards to music. I guess I need to get more experience in other area's in order to know more stuff about them that I fell like I should express in my blog. Of course, it may be much simpler than that. Maybe I am just meant to write, play, and talk about music.
As much as I would like to write about other stuff, I think I will just stick with whatever pops (I almost wrote poops) into my head first, because that seems to work for me when I actually get around to doing my blog posts. Unfortunately (or maybe not) that always seems to be music because I love it so much. Naturally, I would like my writing ability to better as I progress. And I've been told that it has been getting better and I believe that is because of the amount we are usually writing for your class, as I stated would help in my first statement of purpose.
I know this one's a bit short but I'm really tires and as usual for the weekends, I am somewhat pressed for time.

Monthly Book Review #1

Brave New World is a novel by Aldous Huxley. It was written in 1931 and published in 1932 (during the Great Depression). It is fictitious and the general premise is that humans are all born in labs and conditioned to be leaders or workers in their sleep.
In Brave New World the basic synopsis is that there is this guy named Bernard who is like almost all other people, born in a lab and conditioned to be what the Director's want them to be in their sleep. Bernard doesn't really fit in, because he is odd, he is at the risk of being shipped off to an island. In order so save his career he brings back a savage that is a Director's son. This particular Director is Bernard's "prosecutor", he quits and Bernard is free to stay where he is. The savage, who is a naturally born person, doesn't adjust well to this strange place. He and Bernard are eventually sent off to different places and the savage elects to be isolated. I think this is a thrilling and oddly captivating book tat I would recommend to really anyone who has somewhat matured.

2. For what audience(s) is this book intended, and how can you tell? (In other words, for whom would you recommend this book?)

I believe that really anyone from high school on till death should find this book to be a damn good and interesting read. There are many, many, strange and adventurous themes carried within th depths of its pages. But I believe the people that will truly enjoy this book are people that find something wrong in society today and society throughout time. People who have felt like they don't belong, more specifically, people who think they're the only people that don't belong. But there are people that feel like they don't belong in the world we live in, and therefore they are not alone, they do belong (just with people who feel like they don't belong).
People who feel like there can never be a perfect place, a perfect way to run things might get a kick out of this book, people who enjoy freaky things and equally scary ideas, will definitely love this book. People who like sex, lots of sex, will probably be very happy with this (large) aspect of the book.I liked this book, it was, as I've said, a scary yet truly enchanting novel. So ,if you happen to be like me, however rare this is, you'll probably like, and at the same time, not know what to think of this book.
All in all, I think as long as you aren't opposed to listening to controversial ideals and are old enough to tolerate a lot of talk of "erotic play". If you're old enough to handle the concepts of death and sexual themes, as well as the theme of what I think is "dehumanization", you will probably enjoy this book.

3. What are the weaknesses of this book, in your opinion?

The major weakness of this book is for suuure the ending. I didn't like the ending at all. It wasn't the plot, I understood what happened, it just seemed like it wrote it really, really fast, because he had to make a deadline and forgot to make a better one. Another thing that confused me is that if the Controller is this all powerful/wise person, why wouldn't he send John somewhere completely isolated? I mean, if he's close to a city someone's bound to see him as they fly over or something. I get the authors point that he doesn't fit in anywhere, but it just doesn't fit right. Even if he hadn't moved John farther away, I thought people were conditioned not to like being out in the countryside, why were those people that first spotted him out there?
I really wish I could ask the author if he rushed the ending. It just ended so abruptly and the last chapters setting changed so quickly, without even a decent heads up. It was just like, I'm flying, okay now I'm in the countryside at a lighthouse. Seriously? And why a lighthouse? Aren't tall objects easy to spot? Did John pick the spot? Did Mustapha pick the spot? If John picked the spot and truly wanted to be alone, why the hell did he pick that lighthouse instead of some private island or something like that?
Anyways, that was definitively the weakest part of the novel. Nothing else really stuck out out me. So all in all, compared to most movies this was a relatively sensible read.

8. Pick a character that interested you and write about them in depth.

Bernard Marx was the character that interested me the most. Sadly, I identify with him more than I do with any of the other characters except I'm not that conceited or that much of a tool in general. What I find interesting about him is that he seems to be one of three people in the book that find something funny with their Brave New World. But what I like about him is that he is a very modern (as in right now) person. I could see a person like Bernard living in our world, I do see people like Bernard living in our world. People that will curse the world they live in when they are unhappy and when they gain their popularity they will fight to the bone to keep it, and along the way usually loose what little dignity they had.
Bernard is definitely one of those people. Forgive more of my slang but he is a complete tool. He's easily manipulated and when he becomes popular he loses interest in the little things about society that tickle him the wrong way. He stopped his conversations with John and Helmholtz and then he of course went back to them when he lost his popularity (which was only based on the savage, John). I find him interesting because he is a well developed and relevant to people living in our modern age.

Book Letter 3

The ending confused me a little. It wasn't the plot, I understood what happened, it just seemed like it wrote it really, really fast, because he had to make a deadline and forgot to make a better one. Another thing that confused me is that if the Controller is this all powerful/wise person, why wouldn't he send John somewhere completely isolated? I mean, if he's close to a city someone's bound to find him. I get the authors point that he doesn't fit in anywhere, but it just doesn't seem right. Even if he hadn't moved John farther away, I thought people were conditioned not to like being out in the countryside. Whatever, I'll save it for the monthly review.
I don't know of much else to say that I already haven't or I'm saving for the monthly review. It was a good book, it was freaky and scarily close to a possible reality, especially for the time period it was written during. Their were well developed characters, who by some odd means out grew some of their conditioning one way or another. It was a very scary alternate reality. I was thinking about doing this for the monthly review of the book (as well as a very brief summary of the answers):

2. For what audience(s) is this book intended, and how can you tell? (In other words, for whom would you recommend this book?):
Anyone really, but in particular people who find something wrong with society
3. What are the weaknesses of this book, in your opinion:
The ending
8. Pick a character that interested you and write about them in depth:
Bernard

Book Letter 2

In this section the "Savage" is fully enveloped in the "civilized" culture, and it's too much for him to take and him along with Bernard and Helmholtz are sent to islands, at least Bernard and Helmholtz are going to be. I don't know about John. They still haven't said how Bernard and Helmholtz came to be oddballs, and I don't think they will, but they should be much happier on their islands among other people that don't fit in with the rest of society. The character Mustapha Mond is fully introduced and him and Bernard start a very intriguing conversation about religion and other aspects of society and happiness and history, this definitely clears up why the civilization is the way it is.
I can't really see where this civilization is similar to ours, but I could see this actually happening, I mean, the premise is totally believable. The things I do notice that are similar is the materialism, when somethings old, you don't fix it, you throw it away. Fairly true today. The people these days aren't as promiscuous as they are in the book, but I know a lot of people wish it was that way. A major difference would be the lack of solidarity in this society. Everything is done in public, I guess they're conditioned to have no shame as well.
There are really too many differences with this culture to mention, but I think I covered most of the similarities. Here's one more. There are loners, people who don't fit in, who believe that there is something greater than themselves and their society. Which I believe is one of the most important similarities, it provides a sliver of hope that this very strange way of life could be altered so as not to be so controlling. Which is what Bernard, John, and Helmholtz are after, and maybe by the end of the book things will change.

Book Letter

I find this book to be very strange, yet still incredibly interesting. The erotic play between little children is just a tiny bit creepy. And it isn’t only among the adolescents and children. It’s among everyone, there’s a constant stream of sex and talk of sex coming out of this book. And it’s all seemingly second nature to these “people”. Another thing I find odd is the Bernard Marx character. He’s the only person in the story to have old-fashioned human emotions. He seems to be one of the only people to be unhappy with their “utopia”. The reason behind this will probably be revealed later in the story, but until then, it remains a mystery to me.

There also seems to be an underlying thought or emotion bubbling up inside these people that they themselves cannot explain. I think it may be the same reason that Bernard and Helmholtz have their little conversations, and why Bernard is so unhappy with and appalled at the society he lives in. When he talks to Lenina about these thoughts she feels them to but covers it by telling him not to talk about it and has some soma to get her mind off of it. So everyone feels it, but they’ve been taught to fear it or cover the emotions. In fact, they’re supposed to take one whenever they feel bad or unhappy, only burying the issues present and creating another strange thing about Brave New World.