My belief

It is my belief that an artist will ALWAYS have at least one good song to their name.

Just because I feel like it.....

I am going to post an essay I wrote on Chris Angel some time a month or two ago. (With some slight fixings)

"Every great magic trick consists of three parts or acts. The first part is called "The Pledge". The magician shows you something ordinary: a deck of cards, a bird or a man. He shows you this object. Perhaps he asks you to inspect it to see if it is indeed real, unaltered, normal. But of course... it probably isn't. The second act is called "The Turn". The magician takes the ordinary something and makes it do something extraordinary. Now you're looking for the secret... but you won't find it, because of course, you're not really looking. You don't really want to know. You want to be fooled. But you wouldn't clap yet. Because making something disappear isn't enough; you have to bring it back. That's why every magic trick has a third act, the hardest part, the part we call "The Prestige."

-Cutter

The Prestige

This is the opening line for the book and movie The Prestige. For all those who watched it, you know how this follows with the story. For those who have not, don’t skim through that part.

One of the main characters, Angrier, is performing a trick that involves using what seems to be a hollow, dome shaped tesla coil (Tesla actually made it.) He first performs “The Pledge”, giving an introduction to his trick. He then turns it on, which creates a storm of electricity inside the dome. He walks in, which appears to be suicidal, but miraculously, he isn’t even phased by the volts zapping all over him. This is the time where he performs “The Turn” which involves him miraculously disappearing in a flash of light. But, the crowd wants more, “because making something disappear isn't enough; you have to bring it back.” From atop a balcony, a voice shouts. Everyone looks up, and there stands Angrier. This is the final part. The part any good trick can’t go without. He preformed what is called, “The Prestige”. 

Why is the prestige so important? It’s the part of the trick that wins your audience over. It’s very cheap to make a card or a dove disappear and not bring it back. The prestige is what will make your trick both mysterious and magical. This brings me to the point of this essay. Chris Angel, the Mindfreak, does not understand the concept of a prestige too well. He makes a car disappear but he doesn't bring it back. He saws a lady in half but doesn’t put her back together again. He does something amazing but he doesn't perform too many prestiges. Yes he occasionally makes a necklace disappear and then brings it back in through the workings of a gumball machine. But that to seems cheesy and it’s with something small. I want to see something BIG reappear. I want him to bring that car back. If he can’t do that, I’d at least like to see him put the lady back together. Let me give you an example.

            In season six of the show Mindfreak, he made 100 people, at random, disappear. He shackled them up in an alternating order of sitting and standing. The platform that they were on was completely exposed, cameras were everywhere, people were shackled around the platform, there was an SPOV camera, and even a POV camera for Chris Angel. So there was no possible way Chris Angel could do something sneaky. He pulled a cover over the 100 people, put them under hypnosis, and pulled the camera up to his face- wait, to his face? That’s cheap! But anyway he drops the cover and everyone is gone! It’s an amazing feat of magic, a world record even! That’s in fact what the setup was for, the Guinness Book of World Records! Wow! Not only does Chris Angel perform the trick of the year, he wins the award for most vanished people in an illusion! Amazing! But wait, where did the 100 people go? Is he going to bring them back, or are they just going to emerge from the back door? Where is the prestige? This trick was very cool, but without that prestige, it’s almost nothing. Besides, if he were to bring them back, it would be like winning two world records. Chris Angel is always saying that he pushes himself all the time, but when he doesn't perform the prestige, that creates a lie of what he said. I hope he will come to realize this and do better in the future.

FINALLY!!!!!

I now know which song I want to write about. In order to write about a song, I have to "feel" it. Now that I have, I will post it tomorrow after school. It will be a surprise until then.

Songs that stand out as different (To me at least.)

This is a list of songs that stand out to me for an infinite amount of reasons.

"I Got the Magic" by B.o.B. featuring Rivers Cuomo.

This is a fun song because of it's beat, lyrics, and positive feel. Simply put, this song is about being extraordinary. It has Weezer's front-man Rivers Cuomo singing the chorus. The amazing thing about the song is is that it's a rap song. Yes, a Rap song. It has slight hip-hop feel, but it's rap. It doesn't swear, talk about sex, drinking, drugs, or anything else immoral.

"Ladies and Gentlemen" by Saliva.

This hard rock song is very original in my opinion. The singer is an announcer introducing everyone to the show they're about to see. I first heard this song in illusionist show, so I imagine the show being just that. But the music video shows two woman in there undergarments boxing. Not only is that inappropriate, it's a TERRIBLE interpretation of the song. So, except for the music video, this song is clean and very creative. Seriously, it doesn't talk about immorality. Amazing!

"Chicken Fried" by Zac Brown Band.

This is a country song about loving life and freedom. It's very enjoyable.

"Where the Boat Leaves From" by Zac Brown Band.

Another song that I love by this band. It talks about relaxing and not worrying about life. It's like a vacation song.

"Pyromania" by Cascada.

Excerpt from Wikipedia-
A type of impulse control disorder, pyromania is an impulse to deliberately start fires to relieve tension and typically includes feelings of gratification or relief afterward. The term pyromania comes from the Greek word pyr (fire). Pyromania is distinct from arson, and pyromaniacs are also distinct from those who start fires because of psychosis, for personal, monetary or political gain, or for acts of revenge. Pyromaniacs start fires to induce euphoria, and often fixate on institutions of fire control like fire stations and firefighters.

The singer is talking about being a pyromaniac and all about her impulse.

I'll post more on later. Listen to these, before I do, THEY ARE AWESOME!!

Begin the purging!

I am going to be deleting songs off my ipod so that my selection of music will be cleaner.So far, I only know of one song that needs to go. It's called "Rite of Spring" by Angels and Airwaves. It's not a crappy song in meaning, but it swears, so off it goes.

Improvements

As you can see, I have made improvements to my blog by adding a search bar, poll, and Q&A. That's all I have to say about that.

YAAAA!

Yesterday was my birthday! To celebrate, we got pizza and watched the movie Salt. The different details in the story were kinda confusing at first, but it soon made sense. We also feasted on homemade chocolate-filled caramels and chocolate & caramel rice krispies. Which were like eating heaven!
I got two presents. One was a cannon that my cousin made for me. First, you stuff a projectile down one of the three interchangeable tubes. Then, you twist the cap on the other side open and spray some Glade Air Freshener in. And last, after the cap is back on, you twist the sparker until it ignites and explodes. This sends the projectile flying through the air. It's quite cool!
 I also got a yellow parakeet. Yaaaay! It's a yellow male. I named him Brandon. We were talking about what I should name him and my mom suggested a singer. The first one that came to my head was Brandon Flowers and the name just stuck. He's quite territorial. He tries to bite you when you touch his cage. He's so cute!