Bergdorf-music of 1975

My dad actually graduated high school around this time an he said that he absolutely hates going to high school reunions because all of the music played is disco. While the late 70s and early 80s was when disco was born, he says that nobody really seemed to actually like disco.

Including me. I did enjoy the funk song we listened to by the Average White band, however funk/disco isn't really my taste. Plus I hate the bee gees. I DO like Queen though. A lot. I felt as if he was able to make the perfect blend of rock and glamour. The Eagles too. If I were living back in 75 I would definitely have been a rock and roll guy, not a funk guy.

Bergdorf- Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers

I distinctly remember what somebody said at the beginning of the documentary, and that was "every Tom Petty song sounds like a classic." And it's true, Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers didn't get to be so famous by making mediocre music. Still, it's staggering that every song the perform is special, unique, and sounds like a classic.
I thought the documentary was really entertaining. I had a vague image of what Tom Petty looked like but really had no idea what his personality was like and it seems to me like he was a cool guy. He was obviously driven, and incredibly talented, but I guess the hippo side of him irradiated a more relaxed presence. The story about how the band got together was probably my favorite part from the movie. How they went to interview for a drummer and the drummer says he has a buddy who can play the guitar. And then how the guitar guy comes out with this cruddy guitar and looks like he has no idea what he's doing, then proceeds to make Tom's jaw drop. I think it's amazing that a group as famous as they are came together originally as a garage band from Gainesville.
I personally enjoy Tom Petty's music. Perhaps I wouldn't go out of my way to listen to it, but if it's on then I would definitely enjoy listening. I would call him music blues-southern rock, if there is such a thing. It's obviously got some southern country elements to it, but the construction of the lyrics and the tempo in certain songs lean more towards blues, in my opinion.

Bergdorf Blog Post 1

So prior to leaving Mr. A's class we had kind of been all over the place. We had been learning about the first British invasion but somehow transitioned into REM. Since we vaguely covered REM before I left, I'll just talk about the British Invasion.

We listened to both Zeppelin 1 and 2 and some sporadically selected songs by the Rolling Stones. I was not a fan at all of Zep 1, there was just something about the songs and their fluidity, o lack thereof, in the album that really gave me a bad taste in my mouth. I like Led Zeppelin, but apparently I've only acquainted myself with their hits. Zep 2 didn't do anything for me either. The songs were just so long and felt so drug-out that I couldn't ever get into the rhythm. Not to mention that, in my opinion, a lot of the songs sounded the exact some. I have a huge amount of respect for the band , but their early stuff was just not my type. Same goes with the Rolling Stones, I love the Stones' later stuff but their early albums and single sounded atrocious to me. And what made the early Stones' stuff so much more unbearable was McJagger's shrill vocals. Granted he turned into a much better vocalist later in his career, his early stuff wasn't my favorite either.

Now, moving onto the last two days I've been in your class.

Funny story actually, Don Henley's daughter, Annabelle, was my best friend in pre-school. I used to live in highland park in Dallas, however, she never let me come over and meet Don. Plus I was like 6 anyway. But yeah I've always had an appreciation for the Eagles as musicians. Like you said, their vocals are very well-thoughtout and add a huge dimension to their music apart from the instrumentals. Their vocals are enough to consider them country rock in my books, however I do think they use some blues elements in some of their songs, especially "Hotel California." Perhaps it's not blues, but it doesn't sound like country to me. Marshall Tucker Band: One hit wonders, "Can't you  see" is a pretty awesome song, definitely has some Southern Elements. The Band: I felt like I had heard of them before, turns out they have made a lot of my favorite songs, "The Weight" and "Up on Cripple Creek" especially.

MY favorite songs

Now I'm going to apologize in advance, I don't know the guy's name. He's the guy with long hair, beard, seems to really like rocking out, we saw his video of his performance. Anyway, yeah that guy. I thought his songs were the best. They were a nice blend between Heavy rock and Indie. SO pretty much like a perfect blend of rock. I couldn't tell you who they were buy, or even remotely what they sounded like, but it sounded good.

My Two Songs

So I don't exactly know how grading works now that I'm switched out of your class, but just to make sure I'll write this week's blogs.

The two songs that I played were very very different fro each other. But, incase you don't know me, my taste in music ranges from two poles that are also very very different from each other. The first song that I played was "Unbelievers" by Vampire weekend, which is probably my favorite song right now. It's catchy, upbeat, and has some nice vocals. The other song I play was "Lodi Dodi" by Snoop Dogg, which was on my favorite album, "Doggystyle." Both songs seemed to be enjoyable by everyone else and I got some pretty nice feedback from a few people. What I hoped what most people took from my two song selections was that my taste in music is very broad and that I'm pretty much open to anything.

Grimes

I hope you read my last blog. That's the important one. This will be the last blog I write in your class, I'm sad to say that as of Wednesday I will not be in your class anymore. Hopefully Bergdorf is at least kind of chill. My last blog is dedicated to the worst musician of all time, Grimes. Seriously go check out some of her stuff, it's terrible. I guarantee you'll be so entranced with how crappy it is that you can't stop listening. Like how does she make money off this crap, apparently she has a big following too. So dissapointing. See ya Mr A

Please Read This One

If you don't read any of the rest of my blogs for the entire year, please read this one. What you said today, in fact, the entire discussion we had today really hit home to me. I realize that a lot of my time is pretty booked, and unfortunately because of that I usually wait until the last minute to write all of my blogs; notice that they're all submitted close to midnight on Friday. Now this blog, for a change, I will be writing in leu of an influx of free time brought about by my Senior year starting to wrap up. Anyway, back to the discussion. The discussion was about cheating, but the particular area I chimed in on was allocative resources being used in certain places. As a top 2% student (yes my class rank is in the teens believe it or not), a two-sport varsity captain, and an officer in 3 different clubs, my most valuable resource is my time. In fact I have such little time and such poor organizational skills that I managed to completely forget about a Stanford interview I was supposed to have an hour ago, thus inspiring me to try try to stay on top of things like my blogging. I attested that since my future career does not lie in the field of English or liberal arts I do not need to allocate more time than necessary to English. I've always been a sufficient writer when I put my effort into it, you even mentioned that you can tell from my blogs that if i decided to "turn it on" with my blogging I could be a really good writer. Well I'm turning it on for this blog. My writing style has always been criticized by past English teachers as being immature. I, however, say that my failure to be formulaic and boring is not a weakness in my writing, but a strength that makes it more entertaining. Possibly too much Vonnegut influence has turned my writing voice into one that utilizes sarcasm and dry humor, on top of some drawn out syntax, to make my writing more bearable to read. I'm perfectly happy with the way I write and the type of vocabulary that I employe while writing. Actually my seemingly elegant vocabulary mixed with unusual syntactical structure might be the reason that English teachers don't really like the way that I write. It has created a means for me to write essays upon essays that are so shallow in analytical enlightenment yet receive solid grades thanks to a disguise in my writing style. So in that respect it has built up a little bit of academic complacency in the way I take on English. I love writing these blogs; when I sit down and really think about what I'm going to say in these blogs, rather than pumping out 2 blogs to beat my midnight deadline, I thoroughly enjoy them. It allows for me to display to you what I can do. Why would I care about impressing you? Because you're awesome. Not just as a teacher. You're genuinely an individual that I really admire for your intellectual ability. I envy your wit, especially, and the way that you formulate debates. Ideologically we have polar opposite views on things, and I think that's why I really like you as a person. You're somebody that I can actually have a debate with that never becomes hostile, and at the end of the debate you always manage to provide new insight for me that I didn't have prior knowledge of, which I can't say about a lot of people. I love other's insight for I am a very opinionated person who's opinion is also very malleable. Often times in arguments the person I am arguing with is so hard headed that rather than offering new insight that could disprove my opinion, they just drill what they already know, and what I already know that they know. Rather than drilling in old news, you, on the other hand, typically respond with a "well what about..." And often times I say am caught deeply searching for a just as insightful rebuttal. I can tell that you are a very, very, intelligent person, and that we have both been influenced by very different things that rightly have altered our opinions. Music has had a huge impact on your life, something that I haven't had the slightest exposure to, but I want to know what you have to say because of that discrepancy between us. I think the reason that people like Gavin, and the other guys that sit around me, enjoy your philosophical discussions so much are because they are intellectually stimulating. We're all athletes and enjoy competition, your discussions and debates are like small competitions, battling back and forth with arguments and counterarguements. This is something that very few students are ever exposed to in the academic system, and that's why I love this class so much. Calculus, Physics, Government, etc. all just drill facts into our brains. Facts, facts, facts, but no opinions. Nowhere to argue or display what WE know. But English -yes I just made a full circle- gives us a little glimpse of that, writing in particular. See writing is where we can express who we are through the particular writing voice that we've all adapted into. When I mentioned earlier that sometimes my analytical essays lack a sense of maturity in writing style, I attest that's me trying to break free of the conformity that is our academic system. This conformity is why I might not put full effort into English as a class. With my voice I can express my opinion, primarily through sarcasm which hints that I don't particularly care about what Poet A meant when he said blah blah blah. I'm so used to allocating my resources to achieve a particular grade, usually a 100. My brain is trained into simply getting something done, black and white, which is what a lot of my classes are designed to do, especially English. And since English isn't what I deem as necessary to achieve the highest grade possible, I allocate more of my resources, time especially, into Calculus, Physics, and sports. I hope that after you read this you are more aware of the kind of opinion I have. Like I said, I really enjoy having discussions with you and hope that you have some comments on the viewpoints I have provided. Your opinion is something that I value because of the philosophical weight that it carries, and maybe years from now I can come back and visit, and we can have a drink and talk about trivial things that only matter in how they shape our opinions. Thanks Mr. A.