“Cogito Ergo Sum”

Musical entertainment was born as a reflection of the relationship between humans and nature. The first disconnects between these two entities occurred with courtly music and religious music, that reflected not humans in their natural environment but humans in artificial environments such as the court and the monastery. This branch of music eventually evolved into what we call “classical music”. It is likely that, instead, musical entertainment for the poor masses remained roughly the same over many centuries, because their lifestyle did not change all that much.

But the second major disconnect affected precisely these classes of people. It took place after the industrial revolution, when reckless urbanization and factory life dramatically altered the soundscape of the lower classes. Musical entertainment for the masses became a completely different phenomenon, although still derived from the market fair and the itinerant circus. It also merged with the renewed vogue for the theater and with the booming capitalist attitude. In the USA it was further affected by the melting pot of immigrants (including slaves), by the vast linguistically-uniform territory and by the process of colonization of new lands. Musical entertainment for the masses in the industrial society was to be quite different from anything that had come before.

First of all, it became a commodity, just like many other things (from long-distance transportation to newspapers) were becoming commodities. An entire industry was born to profit from it and to fuel its growth. The tension between its social roots and the industry that turned it into a mass product was going to remain the fundamental theme of its history.

Secondly, it introduced a new way to experience musical entertainment by separating the stage and the audience in a way that did not exist in folk music (although it already existed in courtly music). Indirectly this led to the birth of the “auteur” also in popular music, not only in classical music.

Thirdly, it became the soundtrack of the middle class. As the middle class was being created in the big cities of Europe and the USA, musical entertainment reflected its hedonistic, social, political, economic urges.

Finally, it created a whole new spectrum of professions (the owner of the theater, the performer, the publisher, etc).

Italia

ITALIA! thou art fallen, though with sheen
Of battle-spears thy clamorous armies stride
From the north Alps to the Sicilian tide!
Ay! fallen, though the nations hail thee Queen
Because rich gold in every town is seen,
And on thy sapphire lake in tossing pride
Of wind-filled vans thy myriad galleys ride
Beneath one flag of red and white and green.
O Fair and Strong! O Strong and Fair in vain!
Look southward where Rome’s desecrated town
Lies mourning for her God-anointed King!
Look heaven-ward! shall God allow this thing?
Nay! but some flame-girt Raphael shall come down,
And smite the Spoiler with the sword of pain.

By Oscar Wilde

Easter Day

THE silver trumpets rang across the Dome:
The people knelt upon the ground with awe:
And borne upon the necks of men I saw,
Like some great God, the Holy Lord of Rome.
Priest-like, he wore a robe more white than foam,
And, king-like, swathed himself in royal red,
Three crowns of gold rose high upon his head:
In splendour and in light the Pope passed home.
My heart stole back across wide wastes of years
To One who wandered by a lonely sea,
And sought in vain for any place of rest:
“Foxes have holes, and every bird its nest,
I, only I, must wander wearily,
And bruise my feet, and drink wine salt with tears.”

By Oscar Wilde

I’ve known that he was a fabulous play writer but poems? Oscar Wilde seems to be the magician of words. Any form, kind, and type of writing. The writing fits Oscar Wilde not the author himself.

This is a photo of a strike that Superjunior’s official fanclub E.L.F. (EverLastingFriends) had last month in front of SM entertainment’s building for 8 hours. Superjunior is one of the most popular idol k-pop groups in Korea with unique characteristic that it has 13 members in the group. Superjunior is currently contracted to SM Entertainment which is indeed the #1 entertainment industry in Korea with TVXQ, Boa, and many other artists that are already famous in Korea and also in foreign countries. Superjunior started out as a project group with 12 members, planned to divide members into different groups after a certain period of testing time. However due to fans’ strong request, president of SM Entertainment Lee Su Man decided to make Superjunior an official group by adding one more member called Kyuhyun. He made a promise then that Kyuhyun was going to be the last member to be ever added to Superjunior and that superjunior was never going to change its members. After becoming an official group, Superjunior was constantly on the rise in all kinds of activities; acting, singing, variety shows, and so forth. Superjunior practiced in units sometime as well such as Superjunior-T to show off some member’s talents in groups. However, those units only consisted on superjunior members and no other people.

This January, a rumor started to flow between the fans of Superjunior that Lee Su Man was planning to scout two more members into Superjunior from China to form a unit called Superjunior-M to perform in China. Fans were outraged and so was I. However, SM Entertainment promised the fans that there would be no such thing as scouting new members into Superjunior. Fans were relieved for a while until pictures of Superjunior-M music video making with two new members started to spread. Fans felt betrayed, sad, and just devastated in the fact that SM has lied to them and also that they have trusted the entertainment company, whose goal is just to make much profit as possible. An official site to keep 13 members was made (sjonly13.com) and strikes happened once in every two weeks. The fanclub tried sending official requests to SM to talk face-to-face and even carried out plan not to buy albums or any kind of products that will profit SM

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E.L.F. even bought SM stocks to own such right to have some input in decisions that SM made. E.L.F. bought 6% of all of SM stocks with the money that was donated from fans. However, SM tricked the fans about the stock owners meeting and denied to talk with the fans at all. Fans cried out only 13 and insisted on supporting only 13 members but even the outcry of the fans couldn’t stop SM from carrying out Superjunior-M into action. 5 original members with two new members are currently in China singing, acting, and doing variety of things under the name of Superjunior-M. Fans still deny the fact that the two members are new members of Superjunior but just backdancers of superjunior-M.

Is this too much? Are these fans that just want to keep 13 members going over the limit that a fan should do? Are we wrong? I don’t think so. As a fan of superjunior, I support these actions and think it is the right of a fan to express what we want and keep what we want. A singer or an artist group might be a tool to earn money for an entertainment company but for a fan, it’s much more than just handsome faced group of guys. Fans should have the right to keep what their want and protect their rights.

I’m listening to epik high these days and I am just amazed. Epik High is a South Korean hip hop group from Seoul, South Korea. The group is composed of Tablo, Mithra Jin and DJ Tukutz. Their music is amazing itself but the fact that Tablo was a coterminal student at Stanford University, he attained Bachelor’s Degree in English Literature and Master’s Degree in Creative Writing. Tablo started studying the piano when he was six, and switched to violin, which he played for 10 years. His Chinese teacher used to lecture Tablo saying “Music is communism, but you’re playing democracy”. However, he ceased to play violin as he was dismissed from the orchestra after suddenly playing the soundtrack of Jurassic Park while the orchestra was playing Brandenburg Concerto No.3 in a concert.  This always shows some skill as a rebel.

(Tablo, Mithra Jin, and DJ Tukutz from the left)

His background is attractive not because it’s Standford but because of the fact that he gave up a more luxurious, high paying life to achieve his dreams. He was offered high paying job but slightly altered his writing career into music. He is now famous as a hip-hop artist and leader of epik high (one of the top hip-hop groups) but he did have 5 years of struggle as an underground hip-hop artist. It must have taken strong ambition and pertinacity for him to be so popular and respected right now.

I love their music and will so forever.

Wow.Wow.Wow. I just can’t stop saying wow. It’s over. It’s over!!! I just can’t believe that the PGC Concert was truly held in May 17, 2008 in Hongdae SPOT. My eyes are filled with tears; seriously. I am so about to cry whenever I think of the PGC Concert because it was hard, stressful, and most important of all, FUN.

It had been a long journey to the actual concert and I know the tiniest hardships and problems because I was in all of them. : ) I literally had to call 50 clubs to get a simple reservation. I did not know it was that hard to get a concert hall in Korea) I had to carry 120 drinks and 100 snacks to the club to earn the smallest profit we can. People looked at me as if I was crazy; seriously. I had to manage all the money flow as the “financial officer”, a position that was awarded to me after a 30 sec speech in club about my name, class, grade, and sex. It was just so hectic right after the AP exams on May 15. It was the problem that we hadn’t prepared before hand. We are such lazybuts.

But the overall concert was indeed fabulous. There were some conflicts with the technicians, we had to pay $100 more because we ran late, and there were some band time issues but you know what? I was impressed. 99% impressed to be honest. Though the concert was held without any band auditions, rehearsals, or even going to the concert place beforehand, we were able to rock the rock concert. (get it?) : ) I thank all the teachers who offered extra credit points, all the students to filled the concert floor (thought mostly for extra credit points : ] ), and to all the band members that offered to spend their time to play at our concert to promote awareness about global warming. Special thanks to Iljee that helped us so much even though she wasn’t our member. (She’s more important ; ] )And lastly, I thank all of the PGC club members for promoting such a successful concert. : ) Pat on the back. Right?

I hope next year, we can open up the concert in a larger place with more people coming. Next year, I am hoping to promote more awareness on global warming by having more achievment than just a concert. : )

Today I got a thought in my head. What do I want to be in my next life. I believe that there is a next life so this was indeed an attracting discussion. Hmm… first thought I had in mind was animal or human being. I chose human being rather than being an animal because the greatest difference of being an animal and being a human being is the ability to THINK. The next thought that came into my head was plant or human being? This was a little more difficult that choosing between animal and human being because I think plants are fantastic. They are usually breathing in the nature but without thinking. I stated above that I chose human being because humans can think but in this case, I mean something different. Animals can eat, sleep, play and can do almost everything that human beings can do except for thinking but plants can’t think while not being able to do most of what animals and humans can do. Plants can’t walk, run, shop, or even eat. Plants seem to be so peaceful even without thinking that I think is the most important factor of life that distinguishes animal and human, and being alive and dead. But I still chose human being to have more freedom in movement, speech, and thoughts
And then it hit me.  How about between human being and a non-living object. Hmm. A non living object like a stone perhaps. My instant reaction was choosing human being and then I thought about it again. If I were to be born as a non-living organism, I wouldn’t have not only thinking abilities but emotions as well. I bet everybody during their lifetime once craves for a life without emotion. Whether it is after someone’s death, break-up with a lover, or even after failing an exam, everybody feels emotion after a certain event. Emotions simply control our lives and we can not live without them. There are test results that even people in coma have emotions and some believe that the dead also has emotions after life before reincarnation, if it exists. Emotions were something that human beings couldn’t escape from.

I’ve haven’t experienced any tragic accidents or any deaths in my family but I’ve indeed had experiences where I wished so much to get rid of my emotion. I was so sad or so confused or sometimes so excited. Living without emotions as a non-living object was quite attractive. Whatever you do, whatever someone does to you, you wouldn’t feel anything. But then my head spinned once again. Emotions…emotions..feelings.. But wouldn’t life be boring and meaningless without them? Just like how I think the ability to think is important, I suddenly felt that emotions were more important. Emotions were something that certainly enriches our lives and helps us develop into a better being through experiencing all kinds of emotion. Robots’ faces can imitate emotions but nobody even in the far far future will ever be able to create emotions in objects other than living things. Emotions… Never realized how important they were. So I’ve decided. I would like to be born again as a human being that can think, that can feel, and that can learn. This might alter and change whenever I face crisis or even some point in life when I might want to die because I feel so much pain, but I will remind myself that emotions swift by and change eventually.

After a blow of sadness, happiness will eventually come. After going to a chaos, there will always be sunlight.

Though we’re high school students now, we’ve probably been in contact with all sorts of digital technology since we were toddlers. I remember the first time I used a computer. I was only 4 years old, and a couple days later I double clicked the “Internet Explorer” sign and discovered the astonishing (but also, undoubtedly, dangerous) Internet. True, it may have simply been Pokemon websites and Magic School Bus games at first, but there are cases even where children learn MS-DOS at the age of 5. There is no denying it—we have been in touch with computers for our whole lives, and the only idea we have of life before the PC is from our parents’ dated anecdotes.

But stop and think for a moment: Why? Why does technology progress and proliferate so quickly? Why are we so dependent on it? What is the reason behind its profound ubiquity? The answer is short, but sweet. You could find it in a dictionary.

[Technology is] the specific methods, materials, and devices used to solve practical problems.

There it is. We use technology because we need it. We need Facebook and MSN Messenger because they help us communicate; we need SmartBoards because whiteboards can’t display information at the speed we demand; we need online classrooms because one hour lessons just don’t cut it anymore.

A million years ago, cavemen would probably have been pondering the same question (although “technology” would have been replaced with “the wheel”), and come to the same conclusion on their cave-blogs. Two hundred years ago, the same question would have been asked of the Industrial Revolution.

I think that the death penalty should be continued. I might sound cruel and inhumane but in my opinion, I think the death penalty is not enough. Whether the reason someone killed someone was for an accident it’s still considered as murdering. If the murder was purposely done, it’s a heavier sin. But murdering is murdering. Murder is defined as one of the most important crimes that can be committed against individuals. Murder is the unlawful and intentional killing of a human being by another. The penalty for murder is often life imprisonment, or in jurisdictions with capital punishment, the death penalty. I also used to think that death penalty was cruel but only until I saw the pain of the parents and the friends of the dead. I used to think that this was something that always happened to strangers but it wasn’t. When I was in Michigan 2 years ago, my cousin’s neighbor was kidnapped and found dead. My cousin and I didn’t really know her that well so we were just praying for her to rest in peace but her parents weren’t. Everybody that knew her was crying and asking for her to come back. The girl that was dead was only ten. She was an innocent young girl. If she ever had a sin it was being cute and naïve. That was when I changed my opinion on death penalty. Death penalty was an appropriate punishment. I want to ask people who are against death penalty if they would feel the same if their parents or siblings were murdered by someone else. If death penalty is abolished, the families of the victims will live with their grief forever. Being alive might be more painful that being dead. 99 people being innocent out of all of other murders seem few to me. In my opinion, we should improve the trials in deciding who the murder is rather than abolishing the actual punishment. What do you think? I think I’ll kill the murderer myself if my family was murdered. Killing the murderer might be a way to reduce more murders that might happen from the murder later on or from the family of the murdered.But on the other hand, I can’t disagree that the murderer can get a new life. The murderer might learn a lesson but there should be at least a long imprisonment. There are some laws that protect people who murdered for their own protection. But, these laws are hard to be dealt with since there has to be an hard evidence that it was for protection.But, if I put myself in the minds of the family of the victims, they might think that it’s unfair for their beloved one to be dead and the murderer still alive. Even if the murderer is a brand new person, the dead doesn’t even get a chance to say goodbye. I think that’s why countries and states are having a hard time choosing what to do with this issue. There are two sides that have strong ideas and opinions. Governments can’t choose sides..

I was once again in AP WH and we were learning about the Korean War when it hit me that it was such a tragedy. Massive casualty and a cost of decades to restore what was lost. I think the war created many civilians casualties because there are lots of battles and retreats. By looking at Map, we can see that North Korea once was successful in invading all of South Korea until Daegu and Busan. For the North Koreans to come down that much, there would have been lots of battles of wins and loses. During every single battle on the way to Daegu and Busan, there would have been battles in cities, where lots of civilians lived. When the two armies were fighting lots of the civilians would have died because they were at the wrong place and the wrong time. Civilians trapped in a city with two armies clashing at each other from both sides would have had a hard time surviving without weapons or support. Also, lots of civilians would have died once again when the South Koreans went up to North Korea as well. Armies from each side wouldn’t have cared about civilians of their opponent’s sides, so they would have killed anyone whether they were a civilian or a soldier that they should have only fought. For the civilians, the war would have felt like a two-front war where armies came from both sides of their homes or cities to fight and destroy their city. Every fluctuations would have cause more casualties over and over again. Also, the intervention of the Chinese would have cause more casualties because the Chinese soldiers would have killed any Koreans they saw since they wouldn’t have cared. The Chinese wouldn’t have had mercy to save the civilians because it wasn’t their civilians. They would have just tried hard to win.

Almost all of the infrastructures of Korea, both north and south, would have been destroyed. Armies from both sides would have destroyed all the infrastructures of the cities they went by. North Korean soldiers would have destroyed almost all of South Korea’s infrastructures when they headed down until Daegu. On the other hand, South Korean soldiers would have destroyed most of North Korea’s infrastructures when they were successful in invading past Pyeongyang. Fluctuations would have harmed infrastructures as well because as soon as a city or people rebuilt their infrastructures, armies would come and destroy them again. For example, the damage of the infrastructures from the North Koreans would have been recovered a little as the South Koreans became to win but as soon as Chinese helped the North Koreans, the North Koreans would have destroyed the recovered infrastructures again as they come down towards South Korea.

One day in geography, we were discussing about Italy and a thought came into my mind. What do I know about Italy? So I decided to list what I know about Italy; a country that is famous for its food but anything else that I know?

I don’t know a lot about Italy but I know a lot about Italian food and some of their major tourist sites. I think Italian foods are mostly made with tomato and garlic. Their major foods that are known to the world are spaghetti and pizza. Italy is famous for its grape wine as well. Italy food includes lasagna and some kinds of bread as well. Italian people are one of the well known healthy people groups in the world because they consume lots of olive oil fried tomatoes. Italian Olive oil is also well known around the world. Italy is also famous for its bright sunny weathers, which can be a reason for such well grown ripe tomatoes. One of their famous tourist sites is the leaning tower of Pisa, which attracts lots of visitors because of its mystery of construction. Few of the most popular cities are Venice, Florence, Rome, and Milan. Sicily is an island owned Italy. Naples is also a city in Italy.  Rome is the capital of Italy. Florence of Italy was where art in the Renaissance period flourished because of the Medici family that was patron of artists. Michelangelo and Leonardo Davinci are famous artists from Italy during the Renaissance. Milan’s shopping is one of the world’s largest fashion central. Milan is well known for boutiques and brand name shops. Lots of fashion shows are located in Milan. Lots of brand name products are “made in Italy” as well. Italy’s Venice has major canals where boats go through. Italy’s geography is unique because of its shape that looks like a boot.
On Italy’s history wise, I know that Italy was in the World War I and II on the axis power alliance with Germany in the Second World War. In the First World War, they were on the axis side but after getting less land than expected, Mussolini, a socialist, changed Italy into fascism to save Italy. Italy was united not long ago in history. Their national language is Italian. Cio is goodbye in Italian. Their flag color is green, white, and red. Italy is located in the Europe and Italy’s surrounded by France and Spain. Italy’s national religion is catholic Christianity, which can be inferred from the Roman Empire. Majority of mafias are known to be Italian roots. Italy’s currency consists of euros, similar to many other European countries. Italy’s soccer team is also well known around the world with its great players like Pierro in the past. They also won the 2006 world cup, which makes them winner of the world cup for 4 times in history.

Not much. Better work hard in geography class.