Writer's Choice

grantland.com 

I found an article titled, "We Went There:  Stevie Wonder is Perfect Performing 'Songs in the Key of Life' at MSG." As I was reading through the article, I found out a lot that I had not known about Stevie Wonder, such as how important his album, Songs in the Key Life, was. A reviewer called his album epic and a must-see if one is going to his concert. This showed me that Stevie Wonder was and is a great musician and singer. I never knew much about Stevie Wonder before I read this article, so it was nice to finally read something informative about him.

Although, I was not particularly keen to the way the author of the article, Rembert Browne, started his article. The first thing Browne basically said was that Stevie Wonder was a screw-up. Just because Wonder made a mistake, doesn't mean he is a screw-up. He is a human, just like everyone else in the world. It is almost like Browne was expecting the whole concert to be flawless. At least Wonder admitted that he had made a mistake. Other musicians and singers don't even want to think that they made a mistake in front of thousands of people at a concert. It was almost like Browne wrote the rest of the article to make up for what he wrote in the introduction. Browne demoted Stevie Wonder in the first few paragraphs that he wrote. I noticed that Browne said something negative and then tried to say something positive, almost like he tried to make up for what he had said. But, once I saw what negative comments Browne made, I only focused on the negative comments. To me, once I read the negative comments, it was hard to undo it.

Too often in today's society, negative aspects of a person are replaced instead of positive aspects of a person. Once a person does something wrong, they are labeled as the person that did something wrong. The positive parts of them are forgotten and replaced with far too much negativity.

I think that the author should have considered what and whom he was writing about. It was unclear as to where the author stood because of his negative and positive comments about Stevie Wonder's concert performance.

Zero Dark Thirty (Journal 4)

imbd.com

The scene that I thought was the most important was when Jessica traveled to Camp Chapman to meet Balawi. The scene started around fifty minutes into the film. This scene shows how important it was to the American undercover agents to capture Osama Bin Laden. Jessica was ready to get as much as information as she could from Balawi so that the United States military could capture and kill Bin Laden. I think that this scene was one of the most intense scenes of the movie. Jessica and her team weren’t even sure if Balawi was going to show up as they had been waiting for a while. When the car finally came rolling in with dust surrounding it, Jessica was ecstatic. But then, the officials wouldn’t let the car in because of safety reasons. At that moment, I was sure something bad was bound to happen at Camp Chapman. I soon saw a close-up of Jessica’s face and saw that she was happy to see the car at the base. That was reassuring to see that she wasn’t worried even when the car was allowed to pass through. Jessica would finally be able to get the information in order to capture and kill Osama Bin Laden. She and Maya had been working up to that moment during the content of the film. A twist of events happened soon after the car approached Jessica and her team and killed them all. If this had not happened, the film and the real-life events would have been different. This scene showed the turn of events that happened and how it affected the rest of the film. Maya was then left to find out the rest of the information about Bin Laden and where he was.

Journal 3 Fruitvale Station

www.fruitvalefilm.com 

The scene that I thought was the most important was the very last one, which also happened to be the last spoken sentence of the movie, when “T”, Tatiana, and her mom were in the shower the day that Oscar died. While T and her mom were in the shower, T asked her mom, “Where is daddy?” I think this scene was the most important because of what is going on in today’s society such as the current battle in Ferguson, Missouri and the previous racial battle in Florida. We hear too much of people getting shot and getting taken away from their families. Whenever a person shoots someone, they are potentially taking the victim away from their loving family forever. On January 1, 2009, T lost her dad, Wanda lost her son, and Sophina lost her boyfriend and her daughter’s father. This scene showed all the viewers that Oscar was a person, a father, son, and soon-to-be husband and that he wasn’t a criminal or a bad person. When someone gets senselessly murdered the rest of the population thinks of them as the victim, not as a family member. When the shooter is tried in court for murder they don’t realize that they not only murdered someone, but they murdered pieces of the victim’s family members’ hearts. The scene where T looked up at her mother and asked, “Where is daddy?” symbolized that a piece of her heart got taken away. The film was able to show the viewers how T felt and why it was such an important part of the film. By the look on T’s face, she knew exactly what was going on when her mom gave no reply when she asked where her daddy was. This makes the scene about when her parents were ready to leave for ‘Frisco even more important. T said to her dad, “Daddy the guns outside scare me. I can hear them.” So, when T and her mom were in the shower there was a close-up of T’s face and her emotions showed.

Captain America

www.imbd.com

My favorite movie is Captain America: The Winter Soldier. Because it has Captain America in it, it is my favorite movie. Captain America is a symbol for freedom and peace. I can't help but love that throughout the movie he is so old-fashioned. He shows all of the viewers during the movie how to be a leader and to work together as a team to protect America and its citizens. Captain America is even loyal to people that have betrayed him in the past such as his friend Bucky. He tries to save Bucky many times even though no one else agrees with him. Throughout the movie, Bucky tries to severely harm Captain America, but Cap' still perseveres through it all and remains faithful to his old friend in the hopes of getting him back. My favorite scene of the movie just happens to be the introduction when he continues to lap his friend and says, "On your left!" Captain America is a true hero to all.

Harry Potter (2)

My dorm neighbor's sign in their dorm room. 

        I first encountered the Harry Potter book series when I was a young child. I remember my mom spotting the books is the scholastic magazine and then writing out a check for the books. A couple weeks later, I received that package of books at school and brought them home to show my mom. The Harry Potter books would soon be the first big books series that I would read. At first, I wasn't interested in the books, only my mom was. Years later, I suddenly found an interest in them and read all the books in what felt like one sitting. 
        I prefer the books because they have more details and scenes than the movies do. Although, I do like the last and final Harry Potter movie. I thought that it matched the book quite well. In the books, I was able to add life to the characters by creating their own voices and identities in my head. The books helped me develop better literacy skills and soon I was helping others read better. 
       There are a lot of favorite scenes that I have in the books series. My favorite scene is when one of Ron's brothers gets married and the wedding gets ambushed by all these bad people. Harry, Ron, and Hermione have to get Harry away so nothing happens to him. They are then left to fight the battle of the dementors. This scene shows the bravery that Harry, Ron, and Hermione show. It also shows how close they are. Ron and Hermione are like Harry's second family and are everything to him. 

My Playlist, My Self

My family's piano at home

Music is everything to me and means the world to me. It has a certain rhythm that follows the beat of my heart almost like the songs already know me. I grew up playing the piano and come from a family of pianists. I have many favorite songs and artists, but here are my top five favorite songs and artists:

1. Pachelbel's Canon in D
2. Defying Gravity sung by Idina Menzel
3. Josh Groban
4. Straight No Chaser



Josh Groban 

5. River Flows in You by Yiruma 

Each song has a specific meaning to me and I can relate many of them to my life or other events happening in the world. I encountered many of the songs by hearing them on the radio and others, like Canon in D and River Flows in You, I taught myself how to play and later on memorized. 

River Flows in You by Yiruma

My playlist definitely says that I have a lot of different preferences about the different genres of music I like to listen to. My choices in music say that I am an open-minded person and that I am open to trying new things. If others people had the opportunity to listen to my playlist they would most likely come up with the conclusion that I don't have a preference of what music I like to listen to. They might also say that I am an easygoing person. They wouldn't be able to learn that I am someone who exercise with such calm and relaxed music. An incorrect assumption that one might make from listening or looking at my playlist is that I'm a person who is musically talented. Yes, I can play the piano, but I really am not that great at it.

My playlist indicates that the world is made up of many different genres of music and what is on my playlist is only a fraction of what the world has to offer in music. Music relates to the world because music is diverse along with the world. Just as each one of us makes up the world with our own backgrounds, so does music.

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