Posted in Music

What’s your password?

Posted on by Bri

If I told you, I’d have to kill you.

So I had this great music blog idea the other day, but because I’m dumb and lazy, I didn’t write it down. So now I don’t know what to talk about…

Ok, you know what? I’m going to type up some of my newest lyrics, and you guys critique their musicality. I don’t think that’s a word…

*NO TITLE*

There’s five years of my life
That I’m not getting back
And it’s weighing on my mind
Strength was what I lacked

I met you on a sunny day
But now you’re done, the skies are grey
I guess some things were never meant to last

I’ve wasted so much time
Hoping I could call you mine
Even when the crush was through
I was always waiting ’round for you

I trusted too many times
Until you said goodbye to me
Why wasn’t I the one
Who had the guts to set you free?

I met you on a sunny day
But now you’re done, the skies are grey
I guess some things were never meant to last

I’ve wasted so much time
Hoping I could call you mine
Even when the crush was through
I still waited ’round for you

You left me broken on the floor
You didn’t want me anymore
Was I expected to lie and wait?
To be picked up at a later date?

I met you on a sunny day
But now you’re done, the skies are grey
I guess some things were never meant to last

I’ve wasted so much time
Hoping I could call you mine
Even when the crush was through
I still waited ’round for you

(People who know me should know what that one is about…)

*SONG I WROTE IN ASTRONOMY*

There’s faith and then there’s logic
There’s heart and then there’s mind
Why can’t they be put together?
Together, we could shine

It doesn’t matter what you worship
But that you practice what you love
You don’t have to have a God
Just turn your gun in for a dove

There’s wrong and then there’s right
You’ve got your heaven and your hell
Who are we to hurt each other?
In hatred, we control the swell

It doesn’t matter what you worship
But that you practice what you love
You don’t have to have a God
Just turn your gun in for a dove

Love your neighbor and your brother
Your friends, and all the others
Do to me what I’d do to you
To everyone, not just a few
Love the beauties and the flaws
And we’ll stay out of hatred’s claws
Show a smile before a frown
And not a one can bring us down

It doesn’t matter what you worship
But that you practice what you love
You don’t have to have a God
Just turn your gun in for a dove

(Yay!)

Posted in Sports

Girls…

Posted on by Scarface

I’d just like to say somethin real quick, I don’t think it needs much of an explanation.

First impressions are sooooooo important.

And today at baseball practice I tore the cover off the ball, coach was impressed.

I guarantee he’ll remember it too.

First impressions can make all the difference.

This is Scarface signing off.

Posted in Movies

How We Watch Movies

Posted on by Godfather

I’ve noticed a loose correlation between the average movie goer and a film lover. We watch movies in different ways, and that’s why there are few movies that transcend both groups of people totally. You see, I think that film lovers would rather see a well put together movie in all aspects, and not just be a good story. This is why I was the only one in my family who wanted to watch all of Children of Men, because the story was weird, but cinematography and editing was amazing, and that along with an interesting (to me) story helped me watch and enjoy the movie. On the other hand, my parents loved The Game Plan, even though it was one of the worst put together movies I’ve ever seen. The subject matter and story is what most people look for in movies, not how well it was made. Sure, I look for both these things in movies, but a bad story wouldn’t completely take me out of a movie unless it was overwhelming, other aspects would have to be bad too. I’m also sure that normal movie watchers also can kind of tell when a movie is well made, unless the subject matter was overwhelming to them, then they wouldn’t notice. But some movies that I do think both types of people will like are The Dark Knight, Lord of the Rings, and Titanic. Why do you think these movies made so much money? They were well made, and had appealing stories.

Does this make sense? Or am I just going crazy after a long day trying to promote a charity?

Posted in Teenage Life

They’re trying to trick us…

Posted on by Adventure Captain Pants

Know what I think? I think we still have recess in high school, only we don’t call it that anymore. Now we act all serious and tell the kids that that bell means we’ll all go outside for about 15 minutes for a “firedrill”.

Or sometimes they tell us that we’re entering a “soft lockdown” and I fail to grasp how these lockdowns are different at all from nap-time. Sure, we make pretend theres some psycho out there with a gun, but in the end we’re still turning off the lights and getting on the ground while the teacher tells us to shut up.

I’m starting to realize that the almighty bri should just make my catagory “weird” because that pretty much covers it. Unfortunately for you, I think I’ll start blogging more often.

Posted in Music

It’s all good

Posted on by Bri

So I was searching Google News for some music headlines that I can write about, and then got sidetracked by searching for Jason Mraz.

It just went downhill from here.

So it’s well known that Jason Mraz is my crack. But why, you ask? Well, fiddly doo da, I’ll tell you!

First off, as is always important, Mr. A-Z is attractive. I’m just getting that out of the way.

Secondly, his music not only has interesting and meaningful lyrics, but it also has a diverse sound. I’m Yours is more of an island beat, while Geek In The Pink is more parody rap. But his voice is consistently beautiful.

Third, he knows what matters. He took a year off of touring and recording and “rediscovered” himself. He’s read books on a variety of different religions, and voted no on Prop 8. He’s controversial, but he’s intelligent.

The bell is about to ring, but listen to his music. He is amazing

Posted in Sports

Blah Blah Blah!!! Blah Blah Blah!!! BLAH BLAH BLAH!!!

Posted on by Scarface

Seeing as I’m in the middle of writing a paper on my own made up philosophy (determinationism), I’ll make this brief and pretty straight forward. Coaches.

Every one’s different, and you never know if you’ll get along with them until you’re actually on the field playing. Some you see as older versions of you, still hooked on the game. Others you see as an evil cousin, someone you never look forward to being around. I’ve had dozens of each kind, as well as some right in the middle, one’s I just can’t decide whether to love or hate.

But the thing that scares me the most is the impact they can have on each and every one of their players. One bad coach could strip a kid of his passion for a sport, and I hope that never happens to me.

Posted in Issues

The Importance of being Ernest

Posted on by The Maker

Here’s a little question that you can use in everyday life: Should Honesty and forthrightness still be used if they may be somewhat detrimental?

True, one can tell the truth without being honest, and one can be honest without having to point things out, but I wonder about earnestness, being sincere and forthcoming (Which is why I used the Oscar Wilde play for the title)

One, it’s nice and, well, earnest to be honest all the time.

But people mostly don’t want to know and don’t really care anyways.

And additionally, people don’t NEED to know every insolent item in existence

But being forthcoming shows one’s willingness to be honest and such.

But ignorance is bliss and people don’t need to know all the inconvenient truths laying around.

Furthermore, many times the truth hurts and sometimes one might want to tell a soothing lie.

But I would like to know what the internet population believes. This little topic applies to everyday life as well as things like politics. Should people be honest and sometimes mean all the time? Should politicians always tell the truth? Hmmmnm,

Posted in Politics

We could leave this town

Posted on by Bri

About time I posted a politics blog, eh?

“When the political columnists say ‘Every thinking man’ they mean themselves, and when candidates appeal to ‘Every intelligent voter’ they mean everybody who is going to vote for them.” -Franklin P. Adams.

We need to revise campaign funding laws, because money has become too important in elections and special interest groups have an advantage to skew results over the American people.


Under the current campaign finance laws, there is an unfair advantage given to Republicans and Democrats. Current election spending doesn’t give third parties a chance. Only 10% of industry donations went to third party or nonpartisan candidates. Without money, you can’t advertise. Without advertising, no one knows who you are. When no one knows who you are, you can’t get your voice heard. In January 2007, Federal Election Commission Chairman Michael E. Toner estimated the 2008 race will be a $1 billion election, and that to be taken seriously, a candidate needed to raise at least $100 million by the end of 2007. According to OpenSecrets.org, Bob Barr, Libertarian, raised $1 million dollars, getting .4% of the votes. Barak Obama, Democrat, raised $640 million, and won 52.7% of votes.


Second, corporate influence is bad, because they don’t reflect the interests of the people. A month before the 2004 election, according to the Center for Responsive Politics, if you combine all finance sector donors, the combined total contributions to Democratic and Republican parties and federal candidates so far in this election season is $218 million. Finance sector donors include real estate, accounting corporations, insurance and stock brokers. Again using Bob Barr, 98% of his funds came from individual citizens donating, 1% from Political Action Committees (PAC), and 0% from federal funds, but he only accounted for .4% of votes. John McCain, Republican, had only 54% of his funding coming from individual citizens and 23% coming from federal funds. He raised $320 million total and got 47% of the votes.


Finally, there are better things to spend the money on that directly effect teens. $1,456,396,985 was donated overall, by industries, to political campaigns in 2008 (FollowTheMoney.org) If they instead invested in students, just based on this number:

*Every student who took the SAT in 2007 could receive $974 dollars towards college tuition

*We could build 27 new high schools, or 113 8/9 schools.

This, ladies and gentlemen, is getting ridiculous. I apologize for the infodump, but it was necessary. Doesn’t it make you sick? I think we should impose a law that constrains the amount of money allowed to be donated by industries and special interest groups to political campaigns. Maybe, just maybe, that could cause people to start actually paying attention to issues, not flashy TV ads. But this is only the tip of the iceburg of potential campaign reforms. Next week, please remind me, I will be writing about voter turnout. Stay tooned!

Posted in Movies

Directing Styles

Posted on by Godfather

After watching both Barton Fink and Changeling yesterday, I realized that if you know what kind of movies the director likes to make, its easy to spot them without knowing. So here are a few famous directors and how to tell its their movie.

Quentin Tarantino

Probably the easiest to notice, Quentin’s movies have so far always been violent with lots of swearing. But what differs him from most other directors is the way he presents these acts. Kill Bill for example is one of the most violent movies I’ve ever seen, but he shows these acts in a way that doesn’t freak you out like a horror movie would. Instead, these scenes are filled with classic rock and they’re stylized in a way that makes you wonder what the heck is wrong with the guy who made this. If you watch Reservoir Dogs, you’ll never hear the song “Stuck in the Middle With You” the same. Trust me, if you hate violence portrayed in a manner that almost seems to congratulate it, then don’t see his movies, since they aren’t for everybody.

Joel and Ethan Coen

These two normally stay in the boundary of thrillers or comedies, most of the time their movies are a combination of both. In some cases, they do have movies that have no comedy whatsoever, but so far its only happened two times with No Country For Old Men and Blood Simple. Almost all of these movies though have killers, but not ones that you’ll see in other movies. In Barton Fink, the guy lights a building on fire, kills two policemen, and then talks to his neighbor friend who saw the whole thing and keeps complaining about how hot it is. If someone is being killed, and you were laughing just a second before, then the movie is probably by the Coen Brothers.

Stanley Kubrick

Of these directors, he is definitely the least main stream. To watch Kubrick’s movies, you really do have to love films a lot, because they are kind of like abstract art. People who do understand films and why certain things are chosen can respect his films, while about 90% of people would hate them because of the way they’re told. A Clockwork Orange for example, its extremely violent with lots of nudity, and really the only people who can bear it are those who can respect it for how it portrays these scenes, or those who are really messed up in the head. Really none of his movies go like normal ones, with plots that you’ve never seen before, or just a movie that leaves you wondering why people liked it. Well, they like them because Kubrick is an artist with a camera, and if you do have a knowledge of film you can see that.

Clint Eastwood

While he is a great actor too, I still think that he works just as well behind the camera. I’ve noticed that while most of his movies are for a more broad audience, most have the thriller feeling that makes you care for the characters while wondering how things will turn out. He also normally portrays strong characters as the sort of role models we hope we are. Heck, even some of his political views get bounced around a little. When I watched his newest movie Changeling, a mother told her son “Never start a fight but always finish it”. This is just his tendency to lean towards the right shining through without being showy like others. He has changed what movies he’s done though since in the 60s-90s he was mainly making westerns or action movies like Dirty Harry. Now, he’s settled for thrillers with great stories. Since he is so consistent with his quality of movies, I can firmly believe Clint is one of the greatest directors of all time.

So that’s it for now, if I do come up with any more, I might do some more of these in the future. Tell me what you think of these directors and what their best movies are in your opinion.

Posted in Books

I could have gone home

Posted on by Bri

I finished a book yesterday called Escape by Carolyn Jessop. It’s a true story about a woman who escapes from a polygamy cult with her eight children. When she was eighteen, she was married off to a man of 50, and became his fourth wife.

This book is incredible and disturbing at the same time. It’s an interesting look into the lives of the FLDS (Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of the Latter Day Saits), who are a more radical version of the more common Mormon church. For the record, everyone at my school can stop being so bigoted; Mormons do NOT believe in polygamy, that’s just the FLDS. Even I find it offensive when people automatically assume that.

The story starts out with Jessop’s escape, but then goes back and outlines her early childhood living in Salt Lake City before moving on into her being brought up further in the FLDS. She struggles to get an education, all the time silently dreading that she might possibly have to marry an old man. The most amazing part of this book is Jessop’s determination to succeed and to make a better life for her and her children; she managed to go to college and get her degree, she managed a hotel, she started a web design business from home, she taught second grade for seven years, and she stood up for herself to her very powerful husband. All of this while she was raising and protecting eight children.

I would reccomend this book to anyone. The writing is somewhat simple in it’s style, but the story is captivating and keeps you interested.