The Modern Recreation of Jazz

As an avid jazz lover who grew up with Miles Davis and John Coltrane, the state of jazz music today makes me a bit disheartened.  With New York’s only smooth jazz station going under last year, the controversy surrounding Herbie Hancock’s win for Best Album at the 2008 Grammys, the Weather Channel reformatting their Local on the 8s soundtrack from smooth jazz to rock, and jazz artists discussing the siege of their genre, less and less people are getting turned onto it as time goes on. While jazz used to have the reputation of pulling directly at heartstrings with heavy use of the brass section (saxophone, trumpet) and instrumentals, now younger people are connecting more with crass hip-hop and empty rock and roll lyrics. All of this bad news makes me think that one of my favorite musical categories is going to end up with a grim future. Is this really going to be the case? If there’s a way, how can the music industry draw people back into the world of jazz?

I think the reason why our generation isn’t connecting to jazz as much as our parents or grandparents is because, aside from the amount of diverse music we have nowadays, is that we don’t really have many jazz artists we can relate to. The youth of today often compare jazz to elevator music, music our parents like to listen to on car rides or the weak pieces we had to play or listen to in high school music classes. For the most part, our exposure to this sort of music has been mediocre at best, so no wonder only a small percentage of people aged 18 to 34 like jazz. In order to draw a more youthful audience to jazz, there needs to be a good representative for the genre. That representative needs to have charisma and talent, and should have the gift to correlate different styles of music with jazz.

The man who best exemplifies all of the above is Brit Jamie Cullum. Releasing his first studio album, Pointless Nostalgia in 2001 and his latest, The Pursuit, this month, Cullum has become the United Kingdom’s biggest selling jazz artist of all time. While he often sings updated takes on standard classics, he also likes to sing covers of more modern songs, such as Pharrell Williams’ “Frontin'” and Radiohead’s “High and Dry”. His energetic showmanship, cool demeanor and fashionable style make him relatable to the younger generation, despite the fact that he plays an older style of music.

If it takes a physical change to get ears to listen to jazz, then so. If the artist’s music is just as decent as his style of dress, that makes things a lot better. The kids will take anybody who looks good seriously nowadays, though. Luckily an artist such as Cullum, who has both the look and the talent, draws in listeners from both the jazz world and the VH1 crowd. Should more jazz artists cross over as well as he, the jazz industry as a whole would be in a lot less danger from extinction.

Source: Musician Says Jazz Genre is Dying

Lady Gaga Is LETHAL

Some people are bad for your health. To dwindle that down, some celebrities are lethal, in terms of fierceness and actual physical effects. While some feared getting stabbed by Madonna’s cone bras or crushed to death at a Pearl Jam concert, everyone is overlooking one of music’s most dynamic artist on the scene today; Lady Gaga. After many sources reporting that photographer A.J. Sokalner died from a heart attack after photographing Gaga at an event in New York City, one has to wonder how else this ferocious diva can affect a seemingly normal, healthy person. Let’s investigate.

Firstly, one can become obsessed with Lady Gaga in a very short period of time. From the first or second listen, Lady Gaga’s debut album ‘The Fame’ sticks to listeners. Whether they like to admit it or not, everybody has a soft spot from her. Young girls want to dress up in her high-cut leotards, the gay community religiously follow her after she declared her love for them, and even celebrities such as Miley Cyrus and X Factor judge Cheryl Cole admit their infatuation for her. Celebrity obsession is a dangerous thing, however. What can start out as an innocent admiration (a mild affliction) can turn into intensive, compulsive feelings where one feels he is truly connected to the soul of Lady Gaga. When this goes too far, one can no longer control his thoughts on Lady Gaga, which can drive him to depression or anxiety.

Secondly, Lady Gaga can influence one to do not-so-innocent things. The Gaga is not one to be modest, in terms of dress or conversation. She has openly declared her disdain for pants, calling them ‘uncomfortable’ and ‘not sexy’. Before hitting it big, the singer danced in burlesque clubs to earn a living and ordered tons of cocaine while perfecting her look all day in her apartment. She sings openly about her sexuality in many of her songs, and candidly discusses it during interviews. Since the performer is everywhere nowadays and is a very popular force in pop culture, many young people look up to her. They see the Gaga as socially desirable, so a lot of growing girls want to follow her lifestyle, even though it is not the purest. While the pop singer’s goal is not to be a role model, and although she may or may not have as much influence on girls as imagined, girls will follow anything that’s cool. That may not be a good sign for parents. The parental figures better take a close look at whether their babies are wearing pants when leaving the house.

Finally, Lady Gaga can cause wildfires with her chest. There is even proof of this, so best beware:

The Evolution of ‘Glee’ – Who ARE These Young’ns?

The breakthrough dramedy of the 2009 television season, Glee, has taken America by store. Ever since the pilot premiere after the American Idol finale in May, young and old alike have been addicted. Ratings for the series steadily go up each week due to positive word-of-mouth, and merchandise have been selling like wildfire. Each episode’s songs jump straight to the top of the charts when they go on sale on iTunes. The release of the Glee soundtracks and season DVDs are sure to sell out in an instant. Gleek t-shirts and buttons are religiously worn by the devoted followers, and posters are plastered on many walls. The Glee actors have just started a mall tour, and those are bound to be filled to capacity with screaming, sobbing fangirls (and some fanboys, as well).

It’s almost as if the Boy Band Invasion of the late 1990s has struck again. Instead of N*Sync and the Backstreet Boys capturing the hearts of teens, tweens and middle aged mothers, its a bunch of near-unknowns that resemble the United Nations more than heartthrobs. Regardless of looks, this group of new talent are having their time to shine right now. So, the question is, who are these kids and where in the world did they come from?

Lea Michele (Rachel Berry) – This Broadway baby has been on stage since she was eight years old. She has been featured in Les Miserables (Young Cosette), Ragtime (the Little Girl), Fiddler on the Roof (Chava/Shprintze), The Diary of Anne Frank (Anne Frank) and was the female lead in Spring Awakening (Wendla). Stepping away from her roots, Michele plans on releasing a rock album within the next year.

Cory Monteith (Finn Hudson) – The Native Canadian has an array of talents, judging by his job resume before he started acting. Before acting, he was a taxi driver, construction worker, people greeter at a Walmart, and a telemarketer. In terms of acting roles, he acted a lot of a few low-budget horror movies (Hybrid) and a few episodes of various sci-fi shows (Kyle XY, Supernatural) before hitting the big leagues with Glee.

Amber Riley (Mercedes Jones) – This powerhouse is a relative unknown. Aside from Glee, the only other major brush with fame she had was when she got rejected by American Idol judges. The rejects tend to do better than the actual winners, though, so Riley should have a bright future ahead of her.

Chris Colfer (Kurt Hummel) – Another unknown, the Indianapolis native is having a breakthrough. Starting out from small-town musicals and show choir, Colfer has paved the way for gay youth with his portrayal of Kurt. His style and one-liners alone have already made him a fan favorite, and he is sure to win over more fans when he sings a rousing rendition of ‘Defying Gravity’ with Michele in the November 11th episode, Wheels.

Kevin McHale (Artie Abrams) – People may have recognized this young actor prior to Glee. He was in a popular episode of The Office when his pizza boy character got ‘kidnapped’ by Michael Scott (Steve Carrell), and was in a three-fer of True Blood when he played a coroner’s assistant. However, I know him from a moderately successful boy band named NLT. They weren’t very original, but his vocals stood out amongst the others, and they were mildly entertaining to watch, as well.

Jenna Ushkowitz (Tina Cohen-Chang) – Born in Korea and raised in Long Island, Ushkowitz led a similar path as Michele (they’ve even been friends since they were eight years old). Acting in many high school plays (Les Miserables, Into The Woods, The Laramie Project), she has also been featured in Sesame Street and Reading Rainbow, and sang the National Anthem at Madison Square Garden for a New York Knicks game. (Start watching @ 4:45)

Why Are There A Lack of Female Writers on Late-Night Comedy Programs?

The latest controversial chronicles of David Letterman keeps evolving. After the revelation that he had an affair with a handful of female employees from Late Show with David Letterman, more confessions from those female employees are coming out. Along with this, it has been discovered that there are hardly any women writers on most late-night talk shows. So, what gives? Why is there such an uneven ratio of men-to-women on late night?

The amount of complaints by female workers at Letterman’s talk show have been growing, which have been bringing to light how the job is backstage. In the article ‘David Letterman and Me’ by Nell Scovell on vanityfair.com, she gets in-depth with what goes on behind-the-scenes at the CBS show. Without going too much in detail, Scovell says,

…let’s address the pertinent questions. Did Dave hit on me? No. Did he pay me enough extra attention that it was noted by another writer? Yes. Was I aware of rumors that Dave was having sexual relationships with female staffers? Yes. Was I aware that other high-level male employees were having sexual relationships with female staffers? Yes. Did the female staffers have access to information and wield power disproportionate to their job titles? Yes. Did that create a hostile work environment? Yes. Did I believe these female staffers were benefiting professionally from their personal relationships? Yes. Did that make me feel demeaned? Completely. Did I say anything at the time? Sadly, no.

Scovell also takes note that when hiring female writers in the future, him, Jay Leno and Conan O’Brien should respect them as they do their male writers. Similarly, New Yorker reviewer Nancy Franklin said something along those lines when reviewing The Jay Leno Show in the magazine’s October 5 issue:

In other diversity news, Leno’s and the rest of the nighttime comedy shows are bizarrely lacking in women writers. Did a bomb go off and kill all the women comedy writers and leave the men standing? The other night on the Emmy Awards broadcast, the names of the nominees for best writing on a comedy or variety series were read, and, out of eighty-one people, only seven were women. Leno has no women writers on his show. Neither does David Letterman, and neither does Conan O’Brien. Come on.

If so many female writers are noticing this lack of female talent on these sorts of shows, one has to wonder why this is the case. Essentially, late night is a boys’ club. It is the place where talk show hosts and comedians can unleash their dirtiest jokes, scandalous viewpoints on the day’s events, and crudest material. Men assume that females don’t have the same sense of humor as men. While their sense of humor may or may not be the same as men’s, they know how to be funny in their own way.

On occasion, some talk show hosts throws some female writers in to diversify their monologues. Jimmy Fallon hired the very funny New Yorker writer Amy Ozols, and Chelsea Handler has five female writers on her staff, three are near-permanent writers. Both shows are extremely funny, even with female writers on staff. Late-night hosts shouldn’t fear the female; they should embrace. And if they do embrace, they shouldn’t do it sexually. Otherwise, more editorials and confessionals will leak and more talk show hosts will look bad and lose respect and credibility. I’m looking at you, Jimmy Kimmel.

 

Fox News v. Barack Obama: The War Continues

The verbal brawling between President Barack Obama and the Fox News Channel has gone on longer than Obama’s entire Presidential career. With a truce recently coming about, some may think that their feud is over. However, the media will try to continue to egg this war on until one party cracks. Judging by how the media is slowly backing away from Obama, many predict that the President will crack first.

The conservative Fox News and liberal Barack Obama have clashed since he was campaigning for President. Fox News usually criticized Obama’s viewpoints on health care and resolving the economic crisis, which made the White House believe that Fox News’ goal was to promote anti-Obama advocacy. In return, Obama and his administration gave interviews to other news channels, excluding Fox from any exclusives. To burn Fox News even more so, Senior Obama Advisor David Axelrod publicly declared Fox News, “not a real news network” and tried to smear Fox News’ reputation.

Unfortunately, the Axelrod interview backfired for the Obama administration. Other media outlets started to show their support for Fox News, despite their own liberal views. Anderson Cooper even referred to Barack Obama to Richard Nixon, since Nixon also tried to block certain media outlets from trash-talking him during his reign as President. However, before the media declared a universal backlash against the President, Obama wanted to declare a truce. On October 28, Obama and Fox News officials sat down to talk through their issues with one another.

While this is a good move on both parts, it was a bit unnecessary for Obama to declare a ban on Fox News in the first place. Fox News Channel is only one out of many media news outlets in America, so an opinion of one television channel should not affect the emotions of the leader of the free world. If he imagines his voters looking down upon him solely based on Fox News’ coverage, then they’re in the wrong for not checking in with multiple outlets. His fight with Fox News is making him look bad and giving others the privilege and permission to call him “a socialist, foreign, effete, America-hating Other”, amongst other things. He opened himself up to more criticism, and that is not what he needs after all the scrutiny he faced off with this year.

I’m not entirely sure when (and if) the Fox News/Barack Obama feud will end, but it seems likely that things are bound to get more ugly. Despite the attempt at peace, that will probably not come until either Fox News becomes quiet (which they won’t) or Obama cracks (which seems more likely). Regardless, the media will continue to be all over this war, since it will affect how they perceive Obama. For example, The Daily Show With Jon Stewart already has entertaining coverage of this saga.

My First Brush of Internet ‘Stardom’ – Geocities

The closure of Yahoo Inc.’s GeoCities marks the end of an era. Launching in mid-1995, GeoCities was known as the base for the first ‘personal’ website. Users were able to create their own websites to display anything he or she wanted, ranging from pictures to videos to rants and raves. The topic of said created website could be about anything. One could either devote a little part of the World Wide Web to him or herself, or create virtual shrines for his/her guinea pigs, golf ball collection or the Spice Girls. Other similar sites launched at around the same time (Angelfire, Expage, Tripod), but none could fully offer the ease and convenience that GeoCities offered.

Even after the glory days of GeoCities were long gone, the site’s traffic was insanely high. In 2008 alone the site received about 177 million unique visitors. That statistic landed them on the list of the Top 200 most visited websites that year. Still, this could not prevent the imminent; GeoCities has become past its prime. Other websites of its kind have either already closed or been virtually forgotten about. GeoCities was truly the best of its kind.

Personally, I thought GeoCities went down a long time ago. After the beginning of high school, when social networking sites (Friendster, MySpace and Facebook) and blogging sites (LiveJournal, Xanga, Tumblr) started to spread to the youth culture, sites such as GeoCities and Expage seem to become endangered and left in the back of peoples’ minds. However, I remember GeoCities as being my first real portal to having an identity on the Internet.

I created my first webpage when I was about ten years old. It wasn’t anything fancy, since I didn’t know HTML at the time. I was proud of my creation though. With a partly cloudy backdrop and loud forest green Georgia font, I wrote a lot about my life as a 5th grader and posted up a lot of pictures of Lance Bass (I wanted to marry him at that time, but that childhood dream will never come true).  It wasn’t all that impressive, but it gave me an outpost for my creativity. I later gave up my website in lieu of LiveJournal, but I encountered GeoCities once more in my life when an ex-boyfriend created a website about how much he loved me in the ninth grade. Once flattering, the fact that many little-known facts of me and personal photos were up on a site without my permission is a bit creepy. He didn’t last very long.

The majority of people who grew up with the Internet has, at one point, toyed with GeoCities or one of its counterparts. The fact that our first encounter with the online world is now on the verge of extinction is bittersweet. What used to play a mega part in our subculture is now on the back of the backburner, and will probably never be visited again by most of us. However, we will never forget our first time highlighting our personalities, thoughts, opinions and selves to a wide fanbase of friends, families and strangers.

RELATED LINKS: Share your memories of GeoCities

Are Zoos Killing Endangered Species?

With over 6,150 animals and creatures on the endangered species list, they are all entitled to protection from extinction. Zoos take some of the various mammals, birds, insects, amphibians, and other assortments of species under their wing to keep them taken care of with the hopes of bringing them out of danger from becoming an afterthought. There has been scandal surrounding zoos taking care of the endangered, however. Animal welfare groups have called many out for displaying animals as voyeuristic beings rather than real creatures and make the animals’ situations worse. Is there any truth behind these accusations?

To an extent, yes there is. Many North American zoos participate in a Species Survival Plan (SSP), which is initially supposed to help species reacquaint themselves with their natural habitat  and repopulate so they can continue on without being on the dreaded List. However, for some species, this Plan is not doing them any good. The most defined example of the Plan’s failure is the elephant. While the majority of elephants can live in the wild for over 30 years, their life expectancy is cut in half when they are taken care of in captivity. The elephants in zoos often become diseased (one in particular, Mac of the Houston Zoo, died of herpes when he was just two), confined, or grotesquely fat. The fact is, elephants don’t belong behind bars. They need their space to roam about and enjoy their freedom. Being stuck in a smallish space is not doing them any good, aside from giving people the notion that they are being protected by being stuck in a place that isn’t their home.

Another major problem when it comes to SSP is that they only have enough room to save a limited amount of animals. Zoos often do not have the budget to take care of a certain amount of specific species. Because of this, they would not be taken care of properly and overcrowding would ensue. To take care of the issue, zoos have the option of three choices, as noted in the book In Defense of Animals:

1. Selling the animals to other facilities which may or may not be as equipped, clean or suitable for the animal
2. Putting the sick and/or weak animals to sleep
3. Killing the animal and feeding its corpse to other zoo animals

Option 1 would clearly be the best choice if they went to a suitable facility. It’s absurd to think of zoos heartlessly killing animals to feed their other, more cared for collections of breeds. It sort of contradicts the goals of the SSP since they want to keep the species alive and well, not dead and feast-worthy.

I’m sure that the Species Survival Program is good for saving a certain number of species. For a lot, though, there’s no need to bother trying to protect them, based on how ‘well’ they treat them under captivity. The majority of animals would probably be better off fending for themselves in the wild as opposed to dying under the hands of zoologists and caretakers.

Cancer Clusters in Long Island – Fact or Fiction?

Long Island has been known to have slightly higher cancer rates than any other area in the New York-Metropolitan area. Scientific studies still cannot prove the link to these cancer clusters, but many cancer sufferers and survivors have their own notions. Some blame pesticides sprayed through a wide portion of the Island every year, others blame the tap water possibly laced with carcinogens, and a few blame the high exposure to electromagnetic fields in towns. Could any of these put Long Islanders at risk for specific cancers?

While pesticides have good intentions, some elements in the chemical have been classified as possible human carcinogens. Pesticides have been used to kill off unwanted feasters (i.e. animals, fungi, insects, microorganisms) on crops, and over the past decade has been used to lower the possibility for spreading the West Nile virus. Chlordane and dichlorodiphenyltrichloroethane (DDT) have been noted as possible carcinogens to humans. Those most at risk for obtaining this are the normal candidates; farmers, crop dusters, pesticide applicators, and similar occupations. However, some pesticidal remains might stay on fruits and vegetables when shipped to markets. Those who do not wash their produce prior to eating might also be at risk for digesting some carcinogens. Eating chemicals is not that delicious, especially on products that are supposedly clean. Please, wash your fruit and veggies prior to eating.

Studies have found that many carcinogens have been discovered in traces in tap water in many studies, which makes a lot of people slightly frightened. What’s even more frightening is the amount of violations found in many of New York’s water facilities. Evidence has shown that elements such as chlorine and fluoride have been found in tap water, which can do major damage to a person’s physical being. While there has been no real evidence to prove the link between higher cancers rates on the Island to tap water, tap water itself is still a bit unsafe. While there is not much one can do in terms of filtering the water used in showers, drinking water can be easily cleaned by investing in a filtration system such as Brita. Aside from not worrying about carcinogens in your drinking water as much, filtered water has a much cleaner, crisper taste to it. That can’t hurt anybody, right?

Exposure to electromagnetic fields is seen as a big deal to Long Islanders, especially in certain towns. For example, in my hometown of Levittown, NY, power lines that are surrounded by EMFs are scattered in large amounts in our medium-sized town. Not only are houses placed right near these lines, but kids also like to play around these lines like it’s no big deal. The latter is a major concern because studies have proven that heightened exposure to EMFs bring about childhood leukemia. For others, there hasn’t been a study proving any links between sickness and living near power lines yet.

While it has been reported over a decade ago that none of these factors have been proven to increase cancer rates on Long Island, this may not hold true today. Regardless, it seems like everyone should be aware of the carcinogens in his or her everyday life. Seeing as there are many MANY different types of carcinogens existing in our world, it seems more and more likely that everything in our lives causes cancer. Morbid to think about, isn’t it?

Going Green On A Budget

The trend of saving the environment by “going green” has been slowly building into a stronger movement over the past few years. After Al Gore frightened America with his observations on the disintegration of our environment in An Inconvenient Truth, more people have wanted to get involved with trying to improve life for future generations. A good amount of tips to change the Earth often involve spending a lot of money, money that people don’t really have. College students, in particular, can’t afford that kind of advocacy, despite the fact that the majority are really passionate about changing the world in some way. There are easy ways to help the environment without shelling out cash to Greenpeace on the streets or converting every single household appliance to Energy Star brand. For those students who want to make a difference in a simpler way, I have tips to help them get started.

1. Buy cloth shopping bags. The effect using plastic bags once and tossing them is tremendously high. Not only do they hurt various animals, but they also add excessive amounts of carbon emissions to the air. Not only would cloth bags cut down pollution of plastic drastically, but they also could be bought in different styles, so one could mix or match however he or she pleased. Cloth bags are very cheap, depending on the store (I happen to buy my bags at thrift stores at a dollar apiece). Of course, people can still remain with plastic if they wanted. However, it is always good to remember to recycle the bags until they can no longer be used.
2. Convert your bills to paperless. A lot of corporations, including phone and cable companies, have many options for paying monthly fees, including paying bills online. This practice is good for the environment, since less paper has to be used overall. It also takes a lot quicker to pay and process a bill payment if done online, so this gives customers no excuse to pay their bills on time (except if they don’t have the money, of course).
3. Don’t wash semi-clean clothes. I don’t advocate this rule because I’m uncleanly. I love the scent of fresh clothes from the dryer and wear them until the feeling goes away and/or smell becomes unwearable. However, I’m not a fan of throwing clothes into the washer if they can still be worn. Jeans can be worn plenty of times, as can skirts, sweatshirts and most other throw-on tops. An exception gets made if any of these items get soiled, of course. Otherwise, save these items for future use until a full load has been reached. It’ll keep laundry times spaced out, which will save thousands of gallons of water from being used every year.
4. Unplug appliances when not in use. Surprisingly, household items that are plugged in but are not being used waste electricity. Unplugging everything before you get home saves extra energy for those who need it, and it also keeps your electricity bills down if practiced. This leads me to my next point…
5. Bundle up! Turning up the heat to above 72 degrees in the winter adds up on your utility bills. Keep payments down by taking out any open currents (air conditioners), along with stripping any doors and windows with cracks.
6. Take public transportation any time that you can. It’s already an obvious fact that an excessive amount of cars on the road brings about more carbon dioxide into the air, which in return can mess up some people’s health. Save the ozone layer (and yourself) hassle by taking the bus or subway to wherever you need to go. If this isn’t available in these areas, ask to carpool with somebody else. Or, if you’re more of an active commuter…
7. Invest in a bike. Biking is reemerging as the hot way to commute. If artists such as Talking Heads frontman David Byrne can promote this concept, how could it not be cool to do?

With doing some (or all) of these small little tasks, one is doing a huge favor to the environment in which he or she lives. Essentially, it doesn’t take much to be a crusader. It just takes the right sort of action to get that crusader to that position.

Gaza Kids Missing Out on Education

Education is a vital tool needed to become successful in life. It’s a necessary step to take in order to become the person one wants to be. However, what happens when your home is in constant threat to being destroyed and it becomes nearly impossible to get to school because your town is a war zone? This is exactly what students in Gaza have to deal with nearly every single school day, and it is severely affecting their present and future.

The majority of students grew up in poor households. Parents of school children often have to drop out of school to support their families. However, they can only afford so much and often don’t have enough money to build a sturdy home.

Even the conditions of the schools are below average. Schools and nurseries have been damaged due to warfare. While school officials have done their best to fix damages and repaint the schools, this doesn’t change the traumatizing memories the children have of the horrors they have to face inside and out of school. Schools are used as shelters in serious times, and sometimes the war enters the classroom.

All of this violence is affecting academic performance across the board. Some kids can’t concentrate, while others can’t stay awake in class because of horrific nightmares.

It would be a logical idea to send these kids to different schools outside of the warfare. Unfortunately, strict border patrol pretty much prevents anybody from crossing the borders to better nations such as Israel or Egypt. So, schoolchildren have no choice but to deal with their surroundings and try to focus on a better future outside of the warpath.

Frankly, I don’t understand why children aren’t allowed to cross borders to obtain a better life. I could understand putting a blockade up to prevent war activity from leaking into other states. However, can’t they make an exception for those too young to cause any harm? If these kids had the opportunity to go to a good school, whether it be a public, private, or boarding school, they could change their conflicting nation when they grow up. Shouldn’t everybody have the opportunity to make their home area a better place when they have a chance to change things? I can’t logically comprehend it. It’s a pity to let possibly great talent go to waste.

SOURCE: BBC News