Monthly Archives: September 2013

Oy vey!

http://www.photosnack.com/B955B86BDC9/ptmfbjim

 

Okay, so hopefully that works, I’ve never been great with technology. You know that feeling you get when you’re all done with your homework, you did the last of your math problems, and then you double check just to see and you realize that you have another 50 or so to do in 15 minutes? That just happened to me. Frankly, I think that scenario best describes my life.  It’s filled with good intentions, unintended consequences, silly mistakes, and a loathing of math.

I’ve rambled on long enough, so to explain the pictures and why I picked them. The photos I picked generally contain my friends and I. I choose this because in the course of my life my friends have had a incredible impact on me. I’ve never been one to have a lot of friends, but rather a small group of very close friends. I was bullied a lot through out elementary school and I didn’t have a lot of friends until sometime in Middle School. Because of this I truly value my friends, they make me who I am, they have my best interests at heart, and they know me better then I know myself.

The first picture is of my friend Emily and I. Emily and I have known each other since I was 2 years old, and she moved across the street from me from her home in upstate New York. Emily was a year older then I, and my Mom suggested that we go over and introduce ourselves to the new neighbors. Emily was too shy to talk then, but then next day she spoke to me, and she hasn’t stopped for the last 16 years!

The second photo is of my friends Becca, Ashley and I. I met Becca and Ashley in 8th grade, they were the first people who had many of the same interests that I had. They  both love theatre, Ashley loves to read and write, and Becca loves Music and is a fantastic Flute player. (Best on Long Island, not to brag or anything.)

The third, forth and fifth pictures are of various activities that I participated in through my schools music wing.  The music wing in my High School was a separate entity of it’s own, a small little close knit, drama filled, musical family. I’ve been involved in theater since I was in Middle School, and the first photo is of the cast of Les Mis in my Freshman year, I participated in every musical since. The second photo was taken on my schools music trip, when we went to Washington D.C. to compete in a music competition. The next is of my schools Women’s Choir, I could write a book on how much I adore these girls and how this group has impacted my life. Honestly nothing can compare to the thrill of singing with such a talented bunch of girls.

Then there is a picture of this kid Josh and I, we’ve been dating for about a year in a half. I guess he’s pretty cool and stuff.  He gives me ice cream, therefore I like him. Of course there is an obligatory prom photo, no prom was not the most magical night of my life, but the people I spent it with made it one of the funniest nights of my life. Last but not least, because I’m going over my word count, is a picture of my parents and I on the day of my graduation. I know that not everyone has a great relationship with their parents, but I can say through out my Senior year I came to appreciate them a lot more, and I continue to each day.

Now back to the depths of hel- I mean Math.

Sunshine, Sunshine

http://grooveshark.com/playlist/Baruch/90695255

Almost all of these songs have a theme in common— positivity. I’m all about it. I try to portray it and bring happiness to others even if I’m not feeling too. I like to be the sun on a cloudy day because making people happy makes me happy.

The first song is ‘Born To Be Wild.’ I chose this song for obvious reasons (hahaha). I’ve always been very ‘out there’ and in reality, I do whatever I please, whenever I please. This facet of my character has gotten me in a lot of trouble in the past, but it has also allowed me to have some of the best experiences I have ever had in my life.

The next song is ‘Here Comes The Sun.’ This song is basically the theme song of the theme of this blog. It is one of my all time favorite songs  because of its tune and the way it makes me feel; and like I said before, I like to bring the sun to peoples’ lives.

‘Somewhere Over The Rainbow’ is all about positivity and having faith in knowing there is light at the end of the tunnel. I’m not a very religious person, but I have faith in other things— like what the future has in store for me. I try to look past the darkness that I find myself living in sometimes and remind myself that everything passes, no matter how difficult a specific stage in my life may be.

‘Let Her Go’ is written about a guy that didn’t know how good the girl he had was until she was gone. For me, it’s more of a cherish-what-you-have-while-you-have-it thing. This has always been very important to me because it’s true how the “you don’t know what you have until it’s gone” saying goes. I’ve lost a lot of people close to my heart in my life so for me it’s pivotal to show people that I cherish them while I can.

‘Within You Without You’ is also one of my all time favorite songs. It’s about reminding ourselves that life and the universe is so much bigger than we think it is and that we have to avoid getting caught up in drama that will be irrelevant in a month from now. Life goes on and the earth will keep turning with or without your existence in it.

‘I Will Be Found’ is about not knowing who you are, but having faith and hope in what you’re doing because you’ll find yourself no matter how small in the world you may feel at times.

‘Life Is A Highway’ is one of those songs that perfectly describes my life because I love traveling. I take lots of road trips on all sorts of vehicles and besides describing me perfectly, the song just makes me feel good— especially when on the road.

‘Sunshine’ is my play-when-I’m-having-a-perfect-day song. It’s the cherry on top of my perfect Sunday(dae). It’s a feel good song by one of my favorite artists/rappers of all time― Atmosphere.

‘Under The Bridge’ is a song by my favorite band, The Red Hot Chili Peppers. The song itself is about a dark time in the lead singer, Anthony Kiedis’s, life when he was going through drug addiction. To me it serves as a reminder of thinking about how I can get through rough times and then look back at them when I’m in a better time in my life and being like, “wow, I really learned and grew from that. Thank you, life.”

‘I’m Like A Bird’ is also one of those songs that describes me perfectly because sometimes I feel that I’m just like a bird and I float around aimlessly. The song ties in my passion for traveling and my inability to find my true niche in the world in one.

Blog Post #1

All of the songs either make me smile, laugh or make me think of good memories. Over this past summer, three of my best friends and I went to Jones Beach and saw Imagine Dragons. The first song that I heard by them was, “On Top of the World.” Destiny’s Child has always been one of my favorite girl groups- especially Beyoncé- and “Independent Women” was what my friends and I would belt out where ever we were. “Daylight” is a song that always puts me in a good mood no matter how my day goes, I always try to listen to it at least one time per day. “Home” is pretty true to it’s lyrics and I do feel like I am home whenever I am with either my family or my friends which has come into play now that I am in college. While working at a bakery back in my home town, we would always play “Wonderwall” whenever there weren’t any customers in the store and when our boss left. After watching “Friends With Benefits,” I have been obsessed with “Closing Time” and my friends and I always fantasize about a giant flash mob in Grand Central Station. Queen was always played in my house and as a family we would all sing “Bohemian Rhapsody.” I first started listening to Florence and the Machine a few years ago because I just happened to stumble upon “Dog Days” but I instantly fell in love with “Shake it Out.” “Mr. Blue Sky” is always a great song to listen to when it’s a cloudy day or even when it is sunny, I love listening to it to make me smile. “Fantasy” is a feel good song and I love the ODB verse.

http://open.spotify.com/track/6KuHjfXHkfnIjdmcIvt9r0  Imagine Dragons

http://open.spotify.com/track/69XUpOpjzDKcfdxqZebGiI  Destinys Child

http://open.spotify.com/track/2I43coEbzFSTMGO3kCjLMB  Matt & Kim

http://open.spotify.com/local/Edward+Sharpe+%26+The+Magnetic+Zeros//Edward+Sharpe+%26+The+Magnetic+Zeros+-+Home/306  Edward Sharpe & The Magnetic Zeros

http://open.spotify.com/track/7JrUo70YjhU4S7flcJtK0k Oasis

http://open.spotify.com/track/1A5V1sxyCLpKJezp75tUXn  Seismic

http://open.spotify.com/track/2GAIycsMaDVtMtdvxzR2xI  Queen

http://open.spotify.com/track/4lY95OMGb9WxP6IYut64ir Florence + The Machine

http://open.spotify.com/track/74z2lfZ7fj3IqoK71lHkZw Electric Light Orchestra

http://open.spotify.com/track/2itAOPLerxnnc8KXHMqPWu Mariah Carey

Yo soy

http://www.flickr.com/photos/102886047@N06/?details=1

I have always found it extremely hard to “briefly” describe anyone because humans consist of so much to put in words or pictures. When it comes to myself, it gets a lot harder  because I have not fully figured myself out yet. In addition, I am constantly changing just like everyone else. Which is why I think the first picture really represents me best. “Change Ahead.” The second is of the flag of my country merged with the LGBTQ flag. It is a dream I have that someday homosexuals will be decriminalized in Bangladesh which they currently are not and it is also my ambition in life to work for that goal. The next picture is of my sister and me and the one below that is of my mother. These two people are the ones I take for granted even though I know I should not so I felt that I should include them here. I realize that I should have probably included my father too but I ran out of space. Some of the pictures are purely humourous and they describe me because I barely ever take anything seriously.  I know sometimes that is not very smart but hey, we are all just stardust after all. Also, Rob Halford ( the bald man in the picture under Gerard Butler) is one of the greatest singers alive and Judas Priest(the band he is from) is one of my favourites. The picture with the giant blue pillow represents a tiny part of the culture I come from. I think body pillows are one of the most unique things that Bengalis are very habituated to. Babies and kit kats are my obsession almost. They sound absolutely absurd when put next to each other in a sentence like that. I guess I could not leave out my creepy nature of this post after all. A Thousand Splendid Suns is a book that really changed my life in so many ways. I finally decided to stop ignoring the way women were treated in certain areas of the world and realized how my idea of romanticizing oppression would someday drive me insane. I used to romanticize the idea of a husband telling the wife what to do and being protective of her but this book made me realize how bad things can turn and how I was simply ignoring that possibility. I suppose I did not want to believe that the future I was headed for, and probably still am, was as bad as they made it sound. The picture of my face in shock usually describes how I feel inside almost every minute because I always describe something new. I know everyone can if only they pay attention to their surroundings just a little more.

In Before the Lock

Alright, I’ll be honest. The following songs are picked from my own playlists; I didn’t search for songs that could accurately portray me or whatever, like what some of you guys did. I may have taken the lazy way out, but if they’re from my playlists they still represent me in some fashion. So while they don’t give off some significant or deep meaning, they’re songs I like enough to take up space on my smartphone and my computer. I’d like to think this actually means something, because my entire library of songs is only just under 4GB of space.

The first song in the playlist is “Gimme Shelter” by The Rolling Stones. The lyrics of this song don’t really need explaining. Although the song is sung in an anti-war context, I also take it sometimes, you need a time-out from life to take a breather.

The “End Credits” from the movie Star Trek: First Contact is the second song on my playlist. While it has no lyrics, it has a very powerful, grand feel to its tune that says “The sky’s the limit.” In this case, space is.

“Kono Ai Tsugu” by Niira Etsuko is a song that I like purely for its tune and mood. While I can’t understand the lyrics, you can still understand what the artist is trying to put across. As a creative writer, this song was an awesome piece for thinking up random stuff to write about.

The next song is a classic: “Hotel California” by the Eagles. The lyrics hold little significance to me, but you can almost imagine the hotel that you can never leave when listening to it.

“Go the Distance” by Michael Bolton is a great song. It’s catchy, fun to listen to, and best of all, the lyrics really resonate with me. It’s a fantastic inspiration piece –you can Go the distance!

“United We Stand – Divided We Fall” by Two Steps From Hell is another song without lyrics. I’m really partial towards good orchestral songs without music, and this epic song is no exception.

“Skyclad no Kansokusha” by Itou Kanako is from one of my favorite shows, Steins;gate. It has a very “tech” feel to it without being one of those ridiculous synth or techno songs that sounds like robots having aneurisms. I’m fairly good with computers and make a good portion of my money fixing them, so this song does represent me in some way.

“Candle in the Wind” by Elton John is a piece written in honor of Marilyn Monroe. It serves as a bit of a reminder that life is short and can end arbitrarily. It’s sobering.

“Battle Mirai” is like “United We Stand – Divided We Fall” – Another song without lyrics.  Not much more to say other than it is epic, and pretty inspirational for when I’m writing.

http://grooveshark.com/#!/playlist/Creative+Title+Here/90718738

These Seems Kind of Silly

I don’t really think it’s possible to explain who you are through a few slides, or a list of songs, or a a video. Learning who someone is takes time and effort. But I guess I’ll give the playlist a shot.

spotify:user:1272223602:playlist:2GY9gmV5xCEipgbW5680ln

For a very long time I battled with depression and anxiety, Although I still do, I’ve learned better coping skills and now its manageable. “You’re Not Alone” was a song that helped me get through this really dark stage in my life. The reason why is pretty self explanatory. It made me realize that I wasn’t alone, and ending a story before it was finished was not something I truly wanted to do. The songs “Living In The Moment”, “Waiting For The End”  and “Who I Am Hates Who I’ve Been” are all songs that help me when I think of turning down that dark road that I fought years to get out of. They remind to me to always stay positive, not let things get to me, take everything day by day. I can’t let my past eat me alive, and I can’t let it dictate my future.

The song “Who You Are” helped me through self worth issues I’ve had for as long as I can remember. I don’t remember a point in my life where I wasn’t self concious and hated who I was and how i looked. Once i got to high school and got involved with dating, it got even worse. I let guys alter my way of thinking of myself worse than it already was, and tried changing myself to be what THEY wanted. But this song taught me that it’s okay to be who I am, and it’s okay not to be okay sometimes. It’s hard, but everyone goes through it.

The songs “Maps” and “Flashlight” represent moving onto a new stage in my life. Maps is about moving onto bigger and better things, and going to new places. Flashlight is a song about growing up, and about how people change. That’s a large lesson you learn in high school; that people change. And you continue learning it throughout your whole life.

The song “The Chain” stands for my love of dance. The last dance I ever competed on stage (and won 1st place out of the entire competition for) was my solo to this song. This piece was so meaningful to me; it really was much more than just a dance. My senior year of high school was terrible, and this piece explained it perfectly. I’ve never connected to a dance so much.

The song “Swing, Swing” represents my relationship with my brother. The song itself, its lyrics and what its about, has no significant meaning for us. This was the first song my brother learned on guitar, and we used to perform this song for our family. We even recorded a “demo” of only this song. It’s one of my fondest childhood memories and will always remindme of him.

Who I Am

It is rather impossible for someone to know who i am through a series of ten songs, but through this playlist i hope for a general idea to be formed about me. My playlist begins with the song “Hey Mama” by Kanye West, which i believe to be one of his best songs ever. This song commences my playlist because it is a symbol for the most important person in my life; my mother. It is only right to put the most important person as number one. The second song comes from a fellow country-mate in “Aint Worried About Nothin” by French Montana. This is essentially my anthem as it symbolizes what i consider my care free attitude. “F**ckin Problems” follows as another one of my anthems. Although i have far more respect for women than the song would suggest, the song expresses my affinity for beautiful women. Similarly, “Beware” by Big Sean symbolizes the troubles that come with the opposite sex and various relationships and interactions with them.  As the proverb says, “Too much of anything can kill you”, various relations can kill you emotionally. The next song comes as one of my favorite songs from one of my favorite artists in “Dumb It Down” by Lupe Fiasco. The song shows how music can be so influential to the learning and intelligence of its listeners. By “dumbing things down”, one can keep their listeners in a perpetual state of ignorance or misinformation. Lupe stresses the power of intelligence in this song by mocking those who do not value intelligence. Intelligence is what i pride myself on the most so this song is a very powerful reminder of how important it is. The next song is “Tom Ford” by Jay-Z which has a similar message to that of “Dumb It Down” in that Hova stresses his affluence and wealth while also poking fun at those who are caught up in the drug culture. He sees making money and having the finest clothing (Tom Ford) as being more important than popping a molly and doing nothing. “Started From The Bottom” by Drake is fairly self-explanatory. The song expresses Drake’s rise to fame and success and i hope to follow the same path. “What We Talkin’ About” by Jay-Z sends a powerful message of speaking the truth and speaking words of relevance as opposed to nonsense. He is focused on success and would rather talk about that and conversations related to success. “Fallin For You” essentially shows my soft side and how i have always had a thing for “softer” music. Im a big Taylor Swift fan as well. Finally, “No Interruption” is just a solid song that expresses the desire to succeed and have fun at the same time. Hopefully this playlist has given you a glimpse into who i am.

 

Playlist: https://play.spotify.com/user/121722051/playlist/39NOPROJpopTEx0RtFTDIb

Darf

http://grooveshark.com/#!/playlist/Swiss+Cheese/90714984

This playlist does not define me, for as complex of a creature a human being is, cannot be defined by 10 songs, nor by any means. There would be too many nuances and details to explain or comprehend. On the other hand, this playlist does succeed in simply characterizing my musical pallet and what I enjoy listening too, even though I do have a more varied and wider array of songs in my full playlist. These 10 songs were selected for no real profound meaning, just to showcase some songs I enjoy listening to on some occasions, whether it be on the train, walking, exercising, or lounging around. I listen to songs depending on what mood I am in, right now, for instance, I am very relaxed and mellow, thus I preferred the songs of the same nature when I was compiling this playlist. I don’t always listen to these songs or this type of music in all occasions, I do have very different sounding music that I may listen to if I’m feeling a certain way. What I enjoy about these songs is their unconventional music styling and more creative construct. I rather do not enjoy the so called “popular” music of this generation for it all sounds the same to me and is not appealing to my ear. I prefer more obscure and older songs or varying genres, I feel those put more feeling and creativity into their music, rather than just rehashing the same sounding songs over and over again without taking too many risks. I don’t bash anybody’s musical taste, or judge anybody on anything they enjoy, whether or not I clashes with mine. If you enjoy popular music, be my guest, nothing wrong with that.

On the topic of these songs specifically, two of them “Real Hero” and “Nightcall” I actually first heard from this movie called “Drive” which is also an excellent movie with an excellent soundtrack. Most of my songs, on the other hand, I find by making various “Pandora” playlists and saving all the songs I enjoy. Then I download the selected songs to my Iphone. I grew up listening to KROCK 92.3 before it became whatever it is now; we would always listen to that on the radio in the car whenever my family and I would drive somewhere. That is why I enjoy old school rock and rock of the 90’s such as alternative, and grunge. As I got older, still kept the taste for rock but then discovered other  musical genres on my own, most notably whatever genre those other songs are, I’m assuming electro.

All in all it has been interesting to, in a way, to  “re-discover” my music catalog for this assignment and evaluate it for myself. I’m more in tuned with what I am listening to and why.

i’m going back to sleep..

so i was asleep literally like twenty minutes ago…then suddenly, i remembered that i had more shit to do. so i turned on the alarm, brushed my teeth, and now im doing this blog. but yeah, i’m not going to make a playlist like most of the people doing this assignment…ten songs and describe how each one relates to our lives? thats hella work!

since i was in second grade, my parents would be all asian like, “yo eric, you chinese baby. learn how to play the violin!” so…then i went on to be the orchestras concert master at school for a few years..all that jazz. i realized that i really like music. cool. but violin got so boring. one day i decided to pick up a random guitar my mom bought(seriously she never even played it) and i taught myself how to play. so ive been practicing for four years..i feel like i wanna try something new though.

anyway heres my two minute video(its more than two minutes.) you can probably tell that im falling asleep…LOL

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FvCa7AF2GmU&feature=youtu.be

yay im done..good night ya’ll

Some honest truths, oh and there some songs as well…

A Playlist, And All That Entails

This list of ten songs were actually chosen pretty carefully, no matter how random or generic the choices may seem. It’s just that it’s a pretty impossible task to try to describe your life within ten songs that could have any matter of content within them – but the ten that ended up making the cut create together a rather unflattering, awkward, and misguided portrait. So it seems that I succeeded, at least in part. The songs themselves have several binding ties, the greatest being their very tone and sound – which convey stories about nerves, anxiety, and general social illiteracy, so the playlist did it’s job in capturing a bit of me. 

The first even, “Blister In The Sun” by the Violent Femmes, with its title and main recurring chorus lyric (When I go walking I strut my stuff and I’m so strung out), and it just exudes restrictions and unease. That and I refuse to wear caps in the summer, so this actually rings more realistic bells. This goes further within “Forget Myself” by Elbow in a more explicit and clear sequence – ie. (Do you move through the room with a glass in your hand?/Thinking too hard about the way you stand?). Which is in fact something I do a lot of both literally and metaphorically. Trying to be aware of how one appears to the rest of the world, it’s not a proud trait, but it’s an exhausting one.

Of course not to the extent that the next song, “Flagole Sitta” by Harvey Danger, takes it – which is why I placed it here – to show the extreme and the thing that I try to avoid. Also it’s the theme song to a show called “Peep Show”, which features a character who reminds me of a hyper-exaggerated version of myself – and who would take this song’s lyrics to heart. Besides who hasn’t felt like (Paranoia, paranoia, everyone’s coming to get me/Pretend you never met me) once in a while? Pulp’s “Like A Friend” and Blue Swede’s “Hooked On A Feeling” are both tied to my simple tendency to get lost in whatever fixation I have at the moment, – a movie, a song, maybe some random assortment of words (hyperbole). Sometimes it’s detrimental, sometimes it’s not, and sometimes it’s detrimental.  (You are the car I never should have bought…the train I never should have caught).

Of course one cannot ignore the rather overt and blatant theme that has been running through all of the songs so far, it’s pretty in your face. But I’m going to so let’s move on. In comparison to the rest of the playlist “Out Of Time Man” by Mano Negra is actually a very simple one, as it simply represents my rather retentive need for order and more specifically just not being late. Losing track of time is a very worrying thing especially with the trains and crowds, so this reflects a sort of commuter’s plight. (Time don’t do it again/Now I’m stressed and strained/With my anger and pain on this subway train).The next three songs, “The Two Sides of Monsieur Valentine” (Spoon), “Wolf Like Me” (TV On The Radio), and “Can’t Hardly Wait” (The Replacements), are grouped together into being basic escapist fantasies.

The first song stating things pretty much outright (Every morning I get a new chance/I want to land the part of Eddie in The Stranger Dance), while the other two simply in their beat and the energy they exude. Meaning the sort of familiar irregularity, the fun, which I want to see more of in life. The tenth song, “Lighten Up Morrissey”, is really only there for an out of context reason. It was written as a joke by the band about one of their friends, the Morrissey of the title, and that just goes to say that even if you’re being self-deprecatory you can still have a laugh about it. Learn to take a joke. (I’ve got comparisons coming out my ears/And she can never hit the pause).