I was flipping through my Ipod the other day and I came across another song which I think is a wonderful situation of telling a creative nonfiction story through music. The song so much doesn’t reflect this but the video really does. One thing that I’ve really noticed and enjoyed the most about this class this semester is the different ways I look at storytelling and the different ways people tell these stories. Whether it is through writing, music, or video people present and get across the same ideas and situations and I think that is pretty cool to look at. But to get back to the video and the song, the song is called Good Enough by Prozak. It has to deal with Prozak talking about he isn’t good enough whether it has to do with his love life, being a mainstream rapper, or just trying to support himself throughout life. It is very dark but it is one of the things that makes it feel more real, at least to me. In the video Prozak wrote, directed, and shot on his own it shows a ugly looking man who wants to become an actor on broadway. He auditions but doesn’t have what it takes and isn’t Good Enough. It also goes through showing how he has to deal with a lot because of the fact that he is different than other people. Through the rest of the video though he is faced with tough decisions on whether to chase a dream he has or keep something of his that means a lot. It really brings in a real situation that I’m sure many people have been faced with at some point of their life. In an interview Prozak says that the video reflects how his career has gone to that point. He said he could have been like everyone else and gotten a regular job and not chased a dream of his. But instead he decided to chase the dream and he is now signed to Strange Music, creating his own movies and music, and has a good following with the Techn9tions and Juggalos. The end of the video is wonderful and twisted at the same time but I won’t ruin it because I’m going to post it so everyone can see what I mean.
Wednesday, November 30, 2011
Post 8
The first op. editorial that I did, I ended up writing about underage drinking and how I felt it was BS we have to wait until we are 21 to be able to drink legally. I wasn’t too happy having to write about it, but it was something to write about. Of course, about 2 days after the editorial was due the whole sex abuse scandal at PSU came out. This is a horrible situation but it would have been perfect to write about because it seemed like all anyone cared about was Joe Paterno. Well fortunately I was able to do the re-write and was able to express how I felt. Now about a week or so ago things have come out from Syracuse that an assistant basketball coach named Bernie Fine sexually abused 3 of the ball boys in a Pittsburg hotel room. You would think this has become an everyday situation with the way ESPN has been reporting this. When things came out against Penn State and Jerry Sandusky with the name of Joe Paterno littered throughout the situation, every anchor on ESPN called for the head of Paterno. They wanted answer and they wanted them right away. Paterno’s only fault in the situation was not doing more to help those students when the pervert that is Sandusky was let off the hook in 2002. I don’t support JoePa in his situation or the decisions that he made, but I do feel Paterno got a very raw and unfair deal. Paterno was fired 3 days after the situation came forth. Bernie Fine has been fired by Syracuse but the coverage they are providing for this situation is no different than a regular sports story. It just adds to my point that Paterno was a scape goat for ESPN, Penn State, and the general public to point the finger at because he was a big name. People who live across the country know who Joe Paterno is. Who knows who Bernie Fine, or let alone the head coach Jim Boeheim, unless you are a hardcore College basketball follower or you live in the Syracuse area. I don’t hear anyone asking for the firing of Boeheim like they did for JoePa. The even more staggering thing is a tape of a recorded phone conversation between one of the victims and Fine’s wife was handed over to ESPN in 2005 and ESPN refused to bring the tape out to the public saying there still wasn’t “sufficient information.” This has never stopped ESPN before from leaking things that weren’t supposed to be leaked or getting testimonies from certain players pointing other players out for things like steroids or drug use. Why didn’t ESPN report what they had but yet when nothing more than JoePa not doing enough in the exact same situation gets him ridiculed in the media and people ask for his head? It will be very interesting to see what else comes out now for both the PSU situation and the Syracuse situation.
Sunday, November 6, 2011
Post 7
It seems like in every class we always bring up James Frey and the infamous A Million Little Pieces book. I read the book in high school and loved every part of it. When I was reading it though I knew that it was basically a fake book. My sister owned it and I needed something to read for an english class and asked her for some ideas. I actually wanted to read one of her Stephen King books but she told me that she thought I would really enjoy A Million Little Pieces. And to be completely honest I didnt even want to read it just because of the cover. How would I look walking around the halls of a High School with a book in my hand that was a light blue color with a hand that was covered in rainbow sprinkles? But I trusted her so I gave it a shot. I was so glad I did too because it is a fantastic book. It just always baffles me how upset people got when they found out the book was a fake. Aren't most books fake? Yeah I guess it got under people's skin that Oprah endorsed it and he never came clean and when Oprah endorses something, even God reads it. So that boosted his sales by a good amount. But even if we knew it was a lie why can't people look at it as a fiction book. A good story. One about friendship, love, drug abuse, and the difficutlies of getting over that drug abuse. I read it now also and it amazes me the amount of detail he can go into in describing the different situations he "went" through. I wonder if he would have made the main character someone else if people would have flipped as much, but since he is the main character people find it to be a load of BS. The other thing that amazes me is he came out with a second book then also called My Friend Leonard. If you search for the book on Amazon and read some of the comments, the top comments are all from disapointed readers that found out the first one was fake so they won't read the second one. To me that just sounds like people don't simpathize with him anymore, like there isn't someone who's life is worse then theirs. I always think people are looking for that next rundown, Danny Bonaduce type of character that they can read about or watch about because it makes people feel better about their own lives. I love A Million Little Peices and I am hoping to find enough money and time to buy My Friend Leonard and read it.
Post 6
Dear my one and only love,
When I am blue, you cheer me up. When I am mad, you cool me off. What I would do without you I do not know nor do I want to think about that. I am with you every day and most nights sleep with you by my side. The way I look at you when I am lying in bed taking in everything you are telling me always makes me fall asleep fast. “The only type of lying I would do to you is in a bed” Those words came from you. “I’m mostly Angel, But sometimes me Fall, Living under God and I hope it’s listening when I say I love you All!” I live by those words that you told me that one day. “Awe Shit, Mother Fucker, Ima Kick your Fucking Ass!” You scream those words at me every time I get to out of control and need something to take my mind off of things. You know me to well. You know how to stop whatever I am doing and can take me to a different place. And that is what I love about you. I remember that one time when I lost you once. I thought my life was over. I was so depressed and angry at myself for being so selfish, so stupid, so uncaring to not know what had happened to you. I’ve put you through so much and I don’t know how I could repay you for that. The scratch that I put on you will always haunt me every time I look at you. The fact that I was so careless and didn’t care about you to do that always eats at me. I do though always make sure you have had a good rest, fully charged, and ready to take on the day with me every single day. I take care of you to the best of my ability and even though it might not seem like much, it is all that I have. I also make sure I am so careful when I stick my headphone cord into your tight jack. I don’t mean to hurt you like I do and I hope that this letter can make up for any harm I may have caused to you in the past 3 years. I love you Ipod.
With Love,
Aaron Price
When I am blue, you cheer me up. When I am mad, you cool me off. What I would do without you I do not know nor do I want to think about that. I am with you every day and most nights sleep with you by my side. The way I look at you when I am lying in bed taking in everything you are telling me always makes me fall asleep fast. “The only type of lying I would do to you is in a bed” Those words came from you. “I’m mostly Angel, But sometimes me Fall, Living under God and I hope it’s listening when I say I love you All!” I live by those words that you told me that one day. “Awe Shit, Mother Fucker, Ima Kick your Fucking Ass!” You scream those words at me every time I get to out of control and need something to take my mind off of things. You know me to well. You know how to stop whatever I am doing and can take me to a different place. And that is what I love about you. I remember that one time when I lost you once. I thought my life was over. I was so depressed and angry at myself for being so selfish, so stupid, so uncaring to not know what had happened to you. I’ve put you through so much and I don’t know how I could repay you for that. The scratch that I put on you will always haunt me every time I look at you. The fact that I was so careless and didn’t care about you to do that always eats at me. I do though always make sure you have had a good rest, fully charged, and ready to take on the day with me every single day. I take care of you to the best of my ability and even though it might not seem like much, it is all that I have. I also make sure I am so careful when I stick my headphone cord into your tight jack. I don’t mean to hurt you like I do and I hope that this letter can make up for any harm I may have caused to you in the past 3 years. I love you Ipod.
With Love,
Aaron Price
Post 5
We were talking about Lyrical Essays and things like that in class the other day and I brought up Aesop Rock. When I was reading about a Lyrical Essay it reminded me a lot of Aes's writing style. Aesop Rock is really hard to get into and even sometimes I can't listen to him because his stuff is so complex and doesn’t flow like anything anyone else has heard. Sometimes all you really want to do is just sit back and relax and listen to something easy. Something that you don’t need to look at every little word to understand what he is trying to rap about. I feel that is how Lyrical Essays are too. Sometimes it is just nicer to sit back with something that is easy to read and just enjoy yourself so if you are looking for something like that you wouldn’t want to read a piece that is written like a Lyrical Essay. I can completely understand why people don’t like this style. I know it took me forever to get into Aesop Rock but after you get used to it and you understand what is going on it becomes fun. I’ve never tried to write in this style and I’m not sure I would want to. It seems like such a difficult style to write that I just don’t think it would be any fun. The Brown Study was one of those pieces though that you would have to read 2 or 3 times I feel to really understand what he is trying to get through too. I know if anyone else was like me they would have read it once and gave up. But if we would have read it 2 or 3 times maybe then it would have gotten through a little better and more people would have enjoyed it. I have to do the same exact thing when I listen to Aesop Rock. Another technique that Aes uses that a writer can’t use is Aes creates big beats with a big sound to catch a listener’s attention. If he can catch the attention of a listener with the sound, then they will keep listening to it and go through and figure out what he is saying though his words. And like I said before Aesop Rock is one of those artists that is fun to listen to every once in a while and I think if most people got more used to the idea of a Lyrical Essay, they too would enjoy reading them more every once in a while.
Here is an example of an Aesop Rock song. The song is called Daylight. It is one of Aes's bigger songs that he has come out with. And when I say bigger I mean it is a song that is more popluar then a lot of his others. An example of some good lines that Aesop spits comes around the middleish of the song when he says " Life's not a bitch! Life is a beautiful woman, You only call her a bitch because she won't let you get that pussy, Maybe she didn't feel y'all shared any similar interests, Or maybe you're just an asshole who couldn't sweet talk the princess." To me, that is a cool way of putting it becuase I know the new thing with mainstream artists right now, well at least it seems like every rapper comes up with their own version, is calling life a bitch and then coming up with some sort of funny or cocky statement to say about it. I think Aesop Rock put's this in a very cool, interesting, different way.
Here is an example of an Aesop Rock song. The song is called Daylight. It is one of Aes's bigger songs that he has come out with. And when I say bigger I mean it is a song that is more popluar then a lot of his others. An example of some good lines that Aesop spits comes around the middleish of the song when he says " Life's not a bitch! Life is a beautiful woman, You only call her a bitch because she won't let you get that pussy, Maybe she didn't feel y'all shared any similar interests, Or maybe you're just an asshole who couldn't sweet talk the princess." To me, that is a cool way of putting it becuase I know the new thing with mainstream artists right now, well at least it seems like every rapper comes up with their own version, is calling life a bitch and then coming up with some sort of funny or cocky statement to say about it. I think Aesop Rock put's this in a very cool, interesting, different way.
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