It's good to write again!

Hey guys! I told you I'd be writing again :) How was your week so far? Mine was just great, I did A LOT of stuff. I started listening to Tinie Tempah (A British rapper, which I'll be talking about),  and I'll add something else in the end. This starting paragraph is very small, and I apologize. Oh by the way, my 1 year anniversary is going to happen very soon :) I'll have an extra special post for you guys when that time rolls around. I'm also going to be posting a StumbleUpon blurb for today, I think I'm going to make it so that I'll have a new one every day. So I guess I should get started.

For the past couple of weeks a lot of stuff has happened at NT. Assemblies, tests/exam, practices and a bunch of other stuff. I recently joined the "Student Orchestra" which is run by and for students. Right now we are playing a piece I believe is called "Santa Claus is Coming to Town" and hopefully we will move onto a piece called "All of The Lights" by Kanye West. The thing about this band is that it's so chill yet serious. I'm not under ANY pressure which gives me a bit more confidence about playing. Unfortunately it's a VERY small band with only 2 brass (me as Trumpet and another girl as French Horn) and 5 string instruments. I'm trying to get some of my other friends to join, we need more brass and at least 2-3 winds. If you guys are interested then just find me in the hallways sometime or ask me in class and I'll fill you in on all the details. It's a really fun band, we have practices 1 time per week (Monday afterschool) but we still practice on our own time. The pieces aren't that hard either, they're really fun to play. Plus we can crack jokes every once in a while which makes it a more relaxed environment. The conductor is great too, he's funny and keeps things under control. Things at NT are going good for now. Stage Crew has had some assemblies in the past weeks. There was the College Assembly, December 6th Assembly (which was today), and Fall Fare. My position on Stage Crew is being Runner, you work your way up through the ranks. A "runner" does whatever the BSM (Back-Stage Manager/Bullshit Manager) tells them to do. Adjust a mic, move a chair, turn on the electric piano, bring schedules. And I was the spotlight for the Rememberance Day Assembly at one point. Spotlight just basically does whatever he's told. Shine someone here, move the spotlight there. It's not difficult work, but it's fun. Fashion Show is going to be one hell of a show though, being a Runner will be a hectic job. So far we are on the good-side of the staff that run the assmeblies, so far so good. But I've recieved mixed reviews from students. After leaving the auditorium today after school one Fashion Show Model said to one of his friends "Stage Crew is just a bunch of f*cks". Well point taken, we may seem like the boring and rule enforcing type, and maybe like a joke. In fact that's what I thought Stage Crew was before I joined it, but now my opinion has changed drastically. And maybe it's also because today Fashion Show had a practice today in the auditorium and Stage Crew took a break and we hovered over to the basketball game that was going on in the gym. When we came back the Models were blasting club tunes through the speakers and just chilling. So we told them to stop screwing around with the speakers, and I could tell that they didn't like that too much. Add that to the fact that the male models looked like they were going to kill themselves if they didn't get out of that practice. So here's my question, why did you join Fashion Show then? For the After Party? I wish you the best with your goals then. I don't know, it's just something about people not caring about dance that gets my blood going. Maybe they don't really care about dance, but I ask again "Why join Fashion Show?" Dance to me means something more than what people do at the clubs every Friday night, it's more than a casual dance at your school's Semi-Formal. To me, dance is a way of showing people that you have talent, showing people that you can move in a certain way that shows how you feel. It's a way of getting respect from fellow preformers, and making new strides in the dance world. To some people dance is something else, but it means a lot to me. But that's just my opinion, whether anyone wants it or not :P


Recently, many of you may have noticed a small change to my.......social-ness. I recently re-activated Facebook, for many reasons. I felt it was time to reconnect with friends and add another method of communication. I will be posting my StumbleUpon and Blog Post links on there as well. You can friends me: Mark Froh. Froh is my nickname for Stage Crew, because when I became a member I had a Fro. And then me and my desk-partner for German one day found a German word which was spelt: Froh. It means: glad. Sadly the word doesn't relate to me in any way, other than the fact that I'm glad that I joined Stage Crew this year. Anyways, I'm back in the system. It feels good to be back, I'm connected with my friends again. I'll be posting my film photography pictures up on the Facebooks and Tumblr once I get a chance to scan them. There's around 9 rolls of developed film lying around in my album, scanning each individual image isn't an easy task. But it sure was a hell of a fun time taking all those pictures. Anyways, that's my short blurb on why I re-activated my Facebook account.


Recently, I've been listening to a British rapper. I've heard of American, Canadian, French, and even Russian rap. But British rap is something else. His name is Tinie Tempah and his #1 Hit was: Written In The Stars ft. Eric Turner. Generally, I like his music better than his raps. Some of his raps in his songs are good lyric wise. But since he originates from Britain the Drum&Bass/DubStep music style has affected his music which appeals to me. I'm not a HARDCORE Dubstep fan, but I listen to my fair share of it. The reason I'm a big fan of it is because it's such great music to dance to. You can dance to virtually ANY music track out there, but Dubstep appeals to me because of the style that I dance in. Anyways, I'm getting off track. He's not the greatest of artists, some of his raps represent the stereotypical rappers that rap about girls, money, and partying. My favorite song at the moment is "Wonderman". The music track is just awesome! Tinie's lyrics are okay, my main focus is the lyrics of the person that sings the chorus. Something just seems so magical about the way she sings it. Gives me the Goosebumps whenever I hear it. I apologize that this is such a short analysis. But there isn't really much to say about this artist. If you have an artist that you'd like for me to review then by ALL MEANS please hit me up on the Facebooks/Tumblr or just put a comment below!

Here's my StumbleUpon blurb for the day!


Well it looks like this is the end of my post. I apologize if you guys waited longer than you wanted for it, but I bet it was worth the wait :) Well I'll be announcing a bunch of stuff in my next post like always so stay tuned!!!! You know what to do: Read it, Learn it, Live it, Love it, and Post it!


Cheers, MarkL

I'm back!

Hey everyone! (Marzia, Anna, and Liz (I hope I spelt that right, teehee bracket inside a bracket :D because nobody else bothers to read my blog :D It's been a really long, in fact this is the biggest gap I've ever had between my posts. I guess lazyness added to a busy schedule isn't exactly a stellar working habit for a blog author (I use author because it makes me sound bigger than what I really am :) But I'm here now aren't I? So enjoy it while you can. Many things have happened this month. The new school year started, I joined many clubs and the volleyball team, I've been listening to A LOT of Maroon5 the past weeks, I've been letting the photographer inside of me loose (I have 12 film cartridges to be developed, it costs 7$ to develop one of them, FML) oh and by the way my brother recently got married in Russia. The time I started writing this post was Sunday the 23rd, this is due to the fact that at that time I didn't have internet access for the simple fact that I was living in a village. SO how am I writing this post? Well there's this thing called paper, many use it, I decided to hop on the train. I may have to extend this post into 2 connected posts because I have SO many topics and ideas and events to talk about. And if you haven't guessed the musicians I'm going to mention for this post will be Maroon5. I grew up with their music when I was 8, and continue to do so. So, here we go!

As this school year began, I made a promise to myself: join as many clubs and get invovled as I humanely can. Surprisingly, I managed to keep my promise. I joined 2 bands, stage crew (shout out to the crew of the stage!) boys volleyball team, Grafitti (School newspaper) writer & photographer. It may seem like I'm super active in everything around me, but I have to often miss one event for another. I sometimes have to miss band for volleyball and band for stage crew and vice versa. Writing and being a photographer for Grafitti gets lost in the midst of it all. So all of you NT students reading this, you won't have the pleasure of reading my awsum articles and seeing my eye-candy filled photos. Although, I shall write for the next issue which I think will be published in the winter-time. But being a part of it all, even if it's not full time is still a great feeling. If you're on Stage Crew, before, during, and after the show you have a feeling of "Wow, without us the show would have been utterly awful!". Because along with the performers, Stage Crew is also a part of the act. Although we may lurk in the shadows backstage and over your heads and down your aisles, it doesn't mean we're less human!!! Right? Anyways, being involved in ANY N.T. club or team is a great experience which I think everyone should have. If you're in 1 club or team, why does it have to stop there? The more the merrier right? Well at Stage Crew I've learned many things. Ranging from setting up a light, to why certain light shades/focuses make an audience feel ominous/happy/sad/concentrated etc. Being a part of Stage Crew is a great experience, tons of laughs, and you learn a bunch of stuff and it's NEVER a boring day at Crew. Now the bands I've joined (Marching and Junior) I've had to miss most of the practices because of Volleyball. SO far it's been okay. We've practiced Christmas songs and that's about it. But that's self explanatory, seeing as it is the only parade Marching Band participates in is the Santa Claus parade. But I was hoping we could have some Pop or "Drum Line" stuff. Maybe play some Michael Jackson or some other music genre. Playing Christmas songs over and over again gets you bored easily. Sure, there's a lot of practicing that has to go into just one song to be played perfectly and our only parade is the Santa Claus parade. But why can't we just have Marching Band play something good whenever we have a home game on our new field? So far, all we've done on the field was practice marching on the track of the field and attempted pinwheels. But why can't we just play or at least try something different for once? I understand that this stuff is tradition, but it's been 100 years of the same traditions. Can't we have some new ones? Some new traditions that the next generations will fulfill? If my generation doesn't like Marching Band, then I can only imagine how the next few generations will react to it. Anyways, that's my opinion whether anybody wants it or not like it always is. Oh and on a side note, Graffitti Photography seems messed up to me. I mean, they don't assign people to do certain things. And there wasn't even an elimination process. SO it's a "whoever comes to the 1 meeting, is a part of the club" thing. Which I'm really starting to hate now, there's no point to it. Because I honestly try to make my photography as appealing as I can, whatever I think looks good I capture. Oh by the way, you guys can take a look at my photography by going to my Tumblr link: http://underestimatedgentl3man.tumblr.com/
And the other thing about photography, I hate it when people take pictures with their Blackberry or iPhone or even Digital Camera, add some effects and count themselves as a pro. A few years back, in middleschool a classmate of mine said to another friend "Photography is harder than it seems" and his friend just laughed. Well after a summer full of photography, I agree with him. And having people think they're pro's with their effects is just spitting in the face of what many proffesionals strive for. It's just wrong, imagine if people found something you were good at, tried it and used a cheap method to achieve what you can achieve without it, and call themselves professionals. People may think about this differently, but I'm not a big fan of that behaviour. I'm not saying I'm a pro photographer, I'm far from it. But at least I actually make an attempt to maker my photos look great by finding the best of places and best of things to photograph. That's my new school year in a nutshell, I'll be posting more stuff soon of course :) But for now, let's move onto another topic.

So, Maroon5. I do remember what I said about Pop music, but my opinon has been changing since then. I've realized that not ALL music in that genre is awful and deserves to be burned, some of it is actually good. Some people say that Maroon5 has no original songs, and that they do a lot of repition. But that's not exactly true, I've listened to ALL of their albums. Have those people listened to ALL of their albums? I'm 95% sure they haven't. I prefer their music to ANY up and coming Pop artist out there, other than OneRepublic if you count them as Pop. What is it about their music that is so awesome? Well, nothing really. It's just that I've listened to their music on the radio when I was younger and it just brings back memories. Some of my favourite songs include "Misery", "Stutter", "Figure it Out", "Harder to Breathe", "This Love", "She Will Be Loved" and a BUNCH of others I don't even remember. Anyways, I really love their music because it has good lyrics, great instrumentals, and they bring back memories. And there's another thing I REALLY like about this band. The vocals of the lead singer are a bit weird, he sings well but he just has an awesome voice. It's weird to describe, like Eminem's voice when he's rapping. But why question something if it's already great enough? Of course I added their videos to my blog already and you can listen to them on the right ------->
I wish I could say more about their music, but I want you to decide for yourself by listening to their music. I'd like to see what you think of Maroon5, so please leave it in the comments, oh and please take the time to reccomend your own artist for the next time I post.

So my trip to Яussia, how was it exactly? It was entertaining and cold to say the least, but it was an overall great experience. I got to see my grandma on my mother's side which I haven't seen for about 7 years now, it felt really good to see her again. Nothing really changed since I was there last, it was good to see everything again. I did some great photography while I was there, for both the wedding and visits to family. I might possibly post the pictures I got while I was in Яussia soon, depending if my brother allows me to post them on the internet, you gotta be careful about the stuff you post these days. SO anyways, my trip consisted of 3 weeks. The first week was mainly composed of visiting family and relatives, and then by the end of the week the wedding had begun. It was a nice wedding, nothing big, small and casual, really nice. A LOT of photography had been done that day, not only mine but also by a photographer at the wedding. After all the registration and paperwork had been done, we head over to the restaurant to celebrate and toast the lucky couple. Now I have an even bigger family, and it's nice to know all these people. It was a really fun trip, and I enjoyed going there. On a related note, I hate air travelling now. In total I took 6 planes (3 there and back) countless busses, many cars, and tons of subway and trains. Everything in Russia is far from one another, it's just the way it has always been. On another note, I lost my iPod during one of the flights. Of course I got really sad, but then my brother made me realize something: that iPod was just a piece of metal, and the most important thing was that I made it safely. It may sound stupid, but considering how many forms of transportation I took to get where I was it's a miracle nothing happened. Especially since bus accidents had risen over the past years. So I eventually got over my loss, but then I realized that now I have even MORE time on my hands. Instead of buying a new iPod I've decided to actually work for it this time, over the summer I'll be looking for jobs to earn some good cash for whatever it is I'll need it for. That's my trip to Яussia in a nuthshell, I'll be posting photos later on so don't you worry!

I guess that's the end of my post then, I'll try to say more but don't expect stellar results. It's good to be back in Canada, I'll never take hot water and indoor plumbing for granted now, NEVER. I've got a lot ahead of me, tons of work, extra curricular stuff, dancing, everything in general. I'll be posting once a week now, :) you don't know how good it felt to say that :) I'll be active on Tumblr of course, which is where you can catch my photography before I post it on here. Here's the link again: http://underestimatedgentl3man.tumblr.com/
I'll also be posting some of the stuff that I see on StumbleUpon which is a GREAT website by the way. What it is, is a website that asks you what your likes are and it shows you webpages and videos and pictures and GIFS that relate to your likes. Then once you view the page you can "Like" or "Dislike" it and StumbleUpon makes changes to the pages it shows you according to what you "Like" or "Dislike". In general, it's a GREAT way to be the BIGGEST hipster you know, and you can find some INCREDIBLE stuff like this--->
It's a pastel painting which is just BEAUTIFUL! Trust me, StumbleUpon NEVER fails to make your day! Anyways, I had A LOT of fun writing this post. I deeply apologize for making it SO late, but I'll be writing once a week now :)
Until next time, you know what to do: Read it, Learn it, Live it, Love it, and Post it!

Here's to more of these posts :)

Cheers, MarkL

P.S. Here's a little something that should help you guys.

    Don't Quit

    When things go wrong as they sometimes will.
    When the road you're trudging seems all up hill.
    When the funds are low & the debts are high.
    & you want to smile, but you have to sigh.
    When care is pressing you down a bit.
    Rest if you must, but don't you quit.
    Life is queer with its twists & turns.
    As every one of us sometimes learns.
    & many a failure turns about.
    When he might have won had he stuck it out.
    Don't give up though the pace seems slow.
    You may succeed with another blow.
    Success is failure turned inside out.
    The silver tint of the clouds of doubt.
    & you never can tell how close you are.
    It may be near when it seems so far.
    So stick to the fight when you're hardest high.
    It's when things seem worst that you must not quit.

    You've got to follow your passion.
    You've got to figure out what it is you love.
    -Who you really are.
    & have the courage to do that.
    I believe that the only courage.
    Anybody ever needs is the courage to follow your own dreams.

    Lessons On Life

    01. Life isn't fair, but it's still good.
    02. When in doubt, just take the next small step.
    03. Life is too short to waste time hating anyone.
    04. Don't take yourself so seriously. No one else does.
    05. Pay your bills, no one else will.
    06. You don't have to win every argument. Agree to disagree.
    07. Cry with someone. It's more healing than crying alone.
    08. It's okay to get angry with God. He can take it.
    09. Save for retirement starting with your first paycheck.
    10. When it comes to chocolate, resistance is futile.
    11. Make peace with your past so it won't screw up the present.
    12. It's okay to let your children see you cry.
    13. Don't compare your life to others'. You have no idea what their journey is all about.
    14. If a relationship has to be a secret, you shouldn't be in it.
    15. Everything can change in the blink of an eye. But don't worry; God never blinks.
    16. Life is too short for long pity parties. Get busy living, or get busy dying.
    17. You can get through anything if you stay put in today.
    18. A writer writes. If you want to be a writer, write.
    19. It's never too late to have a happy childhood. But the second one is up to you & no one else.
    20. When it comes to going after what you love in life, don't take no for an answer. 21. Burn the candles, use the nice sheets, wear the fancy lingerie. Don't save it for a special occasion. Today is special.
    22. Over-prepare, then go with the flow.
    23. Be eccentric now. Don't wait for old age to wear purple.
    24. The most important sex organ is the brain.
    25. No one is in charge of your happiness except you.
    26. Frame every so-called disaster with these words: "In five years, will this matter?"
    27. Always choose life.
    28. Forgive everyone everything.
    29. What other people think of you is none of your business.
    30. Time heals almost everything. Give time time.
    31. However good or bad a situation is, it will change.
    32. Your job won't take care of you when you are sick. Your friends will. Stay in touch.
    33. Believe in miracles.
    34. God loves you because of who God is, not because of anything you did or didn't do.
    35. Whatever doesn't kill you really does make you stronger.
    36. Growing old beats the alternative -- dying young.
    37. Your children get only one childhood. Make it memorable.
    38. Read the Psalms. They cover every human emotion.
    39. Get outside every day. Miracles are waiting everywhere.
    40. If we all threw our problems in a pile & saw everyone else's, we'd grab ours back.
    41. Don't audit life. Show up & make the most of it now.
    42. Get rid of anything that isn't useful, beautiful or joyful.
    43. All that truly matters in the end is that you loved.
    44. Envy is a waste of time. You already have all you need.
    45. The best is yet to come.
    46. No matter how you feel, get up, dress up & show up.
    47. Take a deep breath. It calms the mind.
    48. If you don't ask, you don't get.
    49. Yield.
    50. Life isn't tied with a bow, but it's still a gift.

My summer

Hey guys, once again. I said I was going to write a second post, right? I may not have notified you, but here it is anyways. Look, you're getting a free post, so don't complain. What is this post going to talk about? Just summer in general. What I did, who I saw, where I went, what happened, all of that crazy stuff. I'll let you guys in on some little insider details of my summer that I didn't post in my last 2 posts. I even managed to pick up some new hobbies and advance in my music. This introduction isn't the longest, but it's just such a chill day today I don't think I'll write a lot. Oh and I'm going to talk about an artist I've been listening to for a while now. His name? I can't exactly say, he's Classified. So here we go?

As you may know I did a little travelling this summer, took a trip to Russia. But I also did a lot of travelling in Toronto when I came back. What was my method of transportation? I decided to start biking. It opened up a completely new Toronto to me, the cooler side of Toronto. I went to places I never knew existed. On one particular day I decided to bike straight down to harbourfront, it's about a 10km ride from where I live. It was one of my best days that I've ever had in this summer. Why? Well when I got to the Lake Shore (Harbourfront and Lake Shore are basically the same, if they're not well then they sound the same to me) I saw this man on a bicycle, more tan than anyone on Jersey Shore. But in his defense he was twice as old as them, so he has the right to tan that way. And he decided to come up to me and ask about Toronto Island, which was the island right across from Lake Shore. Then he started asking me all sorts of question about Toronto and its locations and a bit of history and pop culture. Then we just continued talking about all sorts of things. My generation, his generation, music scene today (that one lasted longer, I love my good music talk :) and all sorts of things. It was like "taking a breath of fresh air" when I was talking to him. Why the quotes? Well it's what he said before he left for a bike ride. I felt the same way, talking to someone that understands was a tremendous thing to experience, and biking 25 kilometres that day was worth it. Turns out he's a dentist that works in New York but travels to big cities all over the world just for personal pleasure. He was astonished at my behaviour. He told me to "never change, keep the way you are and you will go places". To have someone with life experience like him tell me that, is just like walking on cloud 9. I will remember that day for the rest of my life, it was just wonderful to meet someone like that and spend an hour or two and talk to them. Now I'm just hoping he comes back next year. Oh and a little fun fact, he's a little bit like me. Not into arts or music or dance or anything, he just prefers to do things he likes and not caring what anyone else says. Even his adult friends ask him why he biked instead of driving one of his cars, he told me "Because it's fun, the air, the sounds of the city, and especially the exercise is just something you can't experience from a car ride." Talking to him was just incredible, I just hope more of you get to experience that one day, it is really something else. Oh and I did "meet" someone else this summer over an App. Her comments can be seen in my past 2 months worth of posts, I think. She's a new subscriber to the blog and I welcome her to the community? Is there a community here? I don't even know anymore. Anyways, Anna will be joining the other person that's reading this blog and refreshing every second or so to make it look like I actually have views :D SO that's 2 viewers now: Anna and Marzia. Just please keep refreshing, it's what keeps me going. Anyways, onto my next topic.

I recently became the owner of a 35mm camera, how Hipster am I? Next thing you know I'll be making an account on MySpace, it's vintage social networking!!!! Anyways, the camera is about 30 years old, so I didn't expect anything special from it. Thank god for low expectations!!!!!! Once I started looking through the eye piece and focusing on anything I could set my eyes on everything started to look better!!! I am NOT kidding you. Everything started to look 20X better!!! Why? I have NO idea, but as long as it keeps me happy I don't care! So of course I went trigger crazy once I found out how to use it and got my hands on a 5 pack of film. I've only developed 1 film strip but I have around 6 more sitting around somewhere. *sigh* The sad part is almost nobody develops film anymore, for cheap at least. It costs around 7 dollars to develop 1 film canister, the wait time is 5 days -__- I am dissapoint with the future of 2011. And don't get me started on the film. Cheapest pack? 5 pack for 15$!!!! To develop AND buy a 5 pack you would need 50$, plus tax. I seriously need to get a job or something, or else this whole "camera" phase will end faster than my blog's popularity (which FYI ended January 1st 2011). But I do love taking pictures of what I think is fantastic. In fact, if I hadn't found that camera I would've never went outside to bike anywhere. Taking pictures of Toronto was my personal "motive" to get outside once in a while. SO now added to cycling, making music, writing blog posts, dancing, and writing lyrics, photography is one of my hobbies. One day I hope it'll be a career on the side, travelling to amazing places isn't as bad as it sounds. To me it doesn't sound bad at all, but that's just me. I'll be developing more and more pictures after I find a way to get money. I might even have to resort to my ugliest method, adding an Ad Sense panel to my page. I hate ads just as much as you guys so even if I'm going broke I won't use it. I'll be posting up my pictures very soon, most likely in the side panel over there ------------------------>
Let's move onto my next paragraph.

I also recently went to Buskerfest, where I also had a night I'll never forget. Why? Well let's just say a certain street performer made my night. His name is Scott Jackson, and he is a professional beatboxer. How professional? He represented Canada in the National Beatbox Championships. He also came out with an album called "Spare Change". I posted the song on my Tumblr, so if you'll just be friendly enough to scroll down and check it out, I will greatly appreciate it. Anyways, when he was doing his show he asked for 5 volunteers to help him make the song. I swear to God my hand went up at the speed of light when he finished the sentence. As he made the first beat and others added to it I instanlty thought of the best beatbox rhythm for the stuation. As I got the mic passed to me I did my thing, and Scott said "Damn! I may have some competition over here!" The song itself sounded cool, amazing what you can do with a Loopstation. After the show I bought his CD and came up to ask him to sign it. I asked if he knew a guy called Dub FX, he said that the two met up and that he was a really nice guy. I then told him that for a year now I've been practicing beatboxing in my sparetime and now that I've got my own Loopstation I can advance in it. The next thing he did, I will never forget. He said "You've got talent, keep doing what you do and you'll go far" and he shook my hand. TO have someone THAT high up in the beatboxing "industry" tell me that I've got talent just felt like Euphoria was flowing through my veins. That boost was just what I needed to keep me making music and it'll keep me going for a REALLY long time. In fact, I'm hoping to perform at NT Idol (my school's talent show) even though I crashed AND burned last year. But now that I've been practicing for several months I'm sure I'll do better. Oh and by the way, I'll be posting up recordings of my own version of Dub FX's "Love Someone" and "Made" up on my blog AND Tumblr when I get the chance to do so. Most likely today I'll record and somehow post them. Method of recording? iPod Voice Memos :P I've listened to Scott's entire album hundreds of times now, and ALL of it is with his voice, The bass line, the harmonies, and especially the beats! In fact, one of his tracks was advertised on the Olympic promotions of Vancouver!!! Let's move onto my artist of today's post shall we?

So some of you, and by some I mean 1 of you, should've guessed by now that my featured artist will be none other than Canadian rapper "Classified". I recently started listening to his album "Handshakes and Middle Fingers" when I recalled his #1 selling song "That Ain't Classy" in which he was nominated for an award. After I downloaded that 1 track I realized that he wasn't just a 1 hit wonder, in fact he has had an underground album before he became who he is today. Although you don't hear him on the radio, but that's only because they play the most popular songs, he is still one of my favourite artists. Not only is does he make great beats, his lyrics and verses are very tight. I suggest you go ahead and download his album, whether it's from iTunes or The PirateBay (I prefer the second method :) as long as you get the album it's all that matters. He has also developed a song which was called Canada's 2nd national anthem. Which you should also listen to, it's pretty funny how he talks about Canadian pride with such intensity. I won't dissect his lyrics at the moment because right now its 9:53 and I have a full day ahead of me tomorrow. What I will say is that his lyrics are just amazing compared to many of the rappers out there right now. He doesn't have a golden voice, but that doesn't matter as long as you've got good music and a talent. SO far my favourite songs are "That Ain't Classy", "Hangover", "This Day Doesn't Die"......aw screw it, I love all of the songs!!!! I suggest you click play on those YouTube players I put up and rock slow to the music while reading this post. I'll post up my absolute favourites on. But I still say you guys should go ahead and listen to the entire album. I'm sorry I didn't explain his lyrics or anything like I usually do but like I said. It's getting late, and this post has been taking me a long time to write.

 So this is my goodbye to Summer, I've had a great time. I thank you for every opportunity that you've brought before me, although I didn't accept them all I did my best. I learned many things, and reminisced on past events. I couldn't have asked for a better summer, I had a great time and I hope you guys did the same. Oh and I won't be posting up my songs because I didn't have time to record them. But expect them to be uploaded before next weekend. Don't forget to follow me on Tumblr where I post random blurbs of whatever is going on in my life. Here's the link: http://www.tumblr.com/tumblelog/underestimatedgentl3man
On one last note, I'd like to thank you guys for helping me reach the 4 thousand view breaking point. Here's to 4K more views!
I'll see you guys in the next week or so, so stay tuned. 'Til next time: Read it, Learn it, Live it, Love it, Post it!

Cheers, MarkL

P.S. I hope you guys had a great summer as I did, and good luck in your upcoming school year!

My Trip to Яussia and other stuff

Hey guys! How you been? It's been a REALLY long time since my last post, so I'll make this one extra special! Maybe some of you have waited to know what I've done in Яussia and maybe you haven't, but I'm going to post it up anyways! I'm also going to talk about recent topics that have been gnawing away at my spare time amongst other things. Oh and I changed my Tumblr to http://underestimatedgentl3man.tumblr.com/ Why Underestimated Gentl3man? Throughout most of my life I have underestimated myself with many things. My ability to be able to dance, write lyrics, or any talent for that matter. Why Gentl3man? If you know me well enough you'll understand. Oh and who's going to be my artist that I'll analyze for this post? You'll just have to wait and see :D So here we go!

My trip to Яussia? How was it? Overall I think it was worth it going this summer. Going back there for the second time at my age made me realize and understand more and more about my heritage. I went to plenty museums, theatres, and historical sites of good old Moscow. Let's start with the flight. 10 hours, sititng beside crying babies, and an older but friendly woman keeping me happy throughout it all. It's not one of the best expereinces, by the 6th hour you just want it all to be over. You can only probably get 1-3 hours of sleep at best. Once the flight was over it was another hour and a half before I could see family, the process at the airport isn't the best. Яussia has 3 times more people than Toronto in the same area, it's not the best of times to be in an airport especially during the summer. Once I saw my family we talked for a little and started driving for 2 hours. In Moscow or anywhere in Russia for that matter, EVERYTHING is far away. Or at least it was that way where I lived. To get to the nearest movie theatre I had to be driven an hour, but that's because I lived in the outskirts of Moscow, in a village type setting. When I got back I put all my stuff in its proper places, had a change of clothes, and rested for the day. I won't remember things as they happened day by day because it's been a month since I've been back so I'll just let you guys in on what places I went to. I had the pleasure of going to see Яussian theatre with some VERY famous Яussian actors. How famous? Well they were the George Clooney's and Angelina Jolie's of Яussian Cinema and theatre. The play was called "The Cherry Orchard". It was set somewhere in the beginning of the Industrial age where a rich family is struggling with their finances and a businessman buys their Cherry Orchard which is their main source of money. The story is more complex than that, but even I don't understand all the details. My suggestion? Try to look for a translated version online. Keep Googling until you find results, it's what I always do. I also had the divine pleasure of going to many museums. Like the museum of the great Яevolution, the Tretyakovski Painting Gallery, and a photo gallery with some pictures of the U.S.S.R. Here are some of the pictures I managed to snap

Unfortunately photography was not allowed in the Art gallery and the museum so I was only able to take pictures in the photo gallery. Don't worry though, I have more pictures of Яussia waiting for you guys. Where I lived for that month was one of the best plaves in the world. And I'm not just saying that because they're my family, I'm honestly saying that because it's truly beautiful. WHen you wake up early in the morning you get that fresh dewey grass smell flowing through your nostrills right? Well that is if you live anywhere near the first floor, sadly up on the 23rd floor I don't get to share that expereince with everyone else. But when I was in Russia it was one of the most memorable expereinces I'll ever have in my life. Waking up early in the morning, that smell, those sounds, just mesmerizin. To conclude this post, I'd just like to say that my trip to Russia was one of the best things I've ever experienced in my life. It was a fantastic way to spend the beginning of my summer. I may not have written as much in this post but another one is coming out in the next 3 days (it takes a lot of time to write these posts). Don't forget to follow me on Tumblr if you have one: http://underestimatedgentl3man.tumblr.com/ And em@il me your stuff to: baciacalupo@hotmail.com Oh and I've chosen that Underestimated G3ntleman will be my artist name for now because I myself have underestimated myself many times in my life and so have countless people. Why G3ntleman? Well many people say that I'm nice and the name just sticks. So until next time: Read it, Learn it, Live it, Love it, and Post it!

Cheers, MarkL

Courtesy gets your Oranges, amongst other things....

Hey guys, how you doing? I know I haven't written one in a long time but I've been REALLY busy since I got back from Russia. But I'm here, and that's the most important thing right? Today's post will be an interesting mix of things, let's just say it'll be written in the P.O.V. (point of view) of a gentleman or someone that tries very hard to be one. It'll be.........dare I say................. a megalomaniac styled post ;) I won't be reviewing any artists, instead a song that I'm listening to at the moment. The song's name? You won't know unless you read more :D Oh and I forgot to mention, I am also now on Tumblr. It's my version of Facebook with a hint of blogging. I won't be posting my lengthy posts on there because nobody is going to really care to read that. Instead, it'll be a place where I post a new picture I just captured, or a quote, or a conversation from today. Just anything that makes my day significant, and if you haven't realized already my first realization was that "Courtesy gets you Oranges, amongst other things..." which is what I'll talk about later on. SO my Tumblr link is: http://underestimatedgentl3man.tumblr.com/. Why underestimatedgentl3man? It's my temporary artist name until I'll think of any other ones. People often say artists get their names from a moment in time that defines them or just a random moment that they needed to decide their name. Like Deadmau5, where do you think he got his name? Well I did some research on him before, and it turns out when he was cleaning out his computer he found a Dead mou5e inside of it. From that point on, he was known as the Dead mou5e guy and the name just caught on. I haven't had anything like that happen to me yet but I'm sure I'll come up with a name later on. I'll talk about my trip to Russia in my following post, just be patient a little. So I guess I'm going to start writing this post, and there might be a surprise topic that I haven't even thought of yet. So here we go?

Chivalry is dead, and women killed it. How? Well most women say that it's dead because men aren't what they used to be. Sure, they're right, but women aren't what they used to be either. What did men used to be? Well in the old times men were strong, smart, and most important: courteous. What was courtesy back then? Don't sit down before the women, stand up and take your hate off when they come into the room, address them when you see them, offer drinks or smokes to them before anyone else, hold the door for them, amongst other things including never cursing in the presence of a woman. What did women used to be? They dressed nicely for one, many of today's young women dress very.................revealingly, if that's a word. They never back talked (that goes for men too) to anybody, especially the men. Never cursed in public, and were just plain lady-like. So before you women go criticizing us men, look at yourself and fix up what you have to do. And that also goes for us men, fix your business before sticking your nose into someone else’s. I'm not saying that I do this ALL the time, but I try to keep it in mind in my daily life. So really, men AND women killed chivalry together in a sense. The men stopped being courteous and the women started nagging the men to be more courteous. Which is the WORST thing anyone can do, and I mean both the men and women. The women criticized, which is by far the worst thing you can do to someone. Because when you do that, you make the person want to retaliate, not want to help you or be courteous to you. But the men didn’t help either by becoming lazy over time. So basically, chivalry is dying a very slow and painful death. Why? Well not ALL men are so lazy as to not be a gentleman, and not ALL women criticize nor have they stopped being ladies. Only a large percentage of them, and I hope that percentage becomes smaller. But if one day, the entire population of the world somehow becomes courteous (this is just a fantasy of course, just read on for now) then there will be no more gentlemen. Why? Well gentlemen are the kind of men that are courteous unlike the other average man that doesn’t care enough to be one. SO if the entire population turns into gentlemen then it would be a normal thing all around and the idea of gentlemen will die because EVERY man will be one. What’s the point of this whole topic? It’s to make you realize that chivalry is dead, and ALL of us have killed it. What can we do to save it? Nothing. What should we do to save it? Nothing. If you were brought up in a gentleman’s way or if you want to learn how to become one then go ahead. The rest of you? Step aside and let them do their work. If it’s not in you to become a gentleman then don’t be one. All I’m saying is chivalry is slowly dying, but it will never be dead. We can change the amount, more or less, but it will never die as long as humanity stands. My recommendation if you want to become a lady or a gentleman? Well for starters I would read up on Dale Carnegie’s “How to Win Friends and Influence People”. It’s not a specific guide to being a gentleman, but it’ll teach you how to influence people so that they will like you. After you read that (twice, or else you won’t get it) the rest should follow. Talk in the elevator to avoid awkward silences, open doors for everyone, and the rest will happen on its own like instinct. If you’re still not too sure, then just Google it, it has ALL the answers to the questions I’ve asked, so far...........Hurry to buy Carnegie’s book, seeing as it is classified as an antique, in my world it is. Why? The author is dead, and people from all over the United States came to a crowded and small convention room to New York to hear him speak. If hundreds of men and women came to his classes, then buying his book for 5 dollars won’t hurt you in ANY way. SO let’s move onto the Oranges story.

P.S. Here's some food for thought:




 
A little while ago I made a trip to my local grocery store which is owned by an Asian family that imports LOCALLY grown food to their small store. I love them for doing so because fresh food is just a hop, skip, and jump away from my living space. It’s convenient AND it’s good for you, I can’t ask for anything more than that. So as I went to buy some delicious Vitamin C in a sphere, or as some of you weirdoes call them “Oranges” there was a sale for 5 “spheres” for 2$. Who can pass up a sale like that? I can’t, maybe you can, weirdo. SO as I was getting a bag for my spheres a lady was reaching the same time that I was, being the kind of person I am I let her get the bag first and I went back to my “Orange” picking. As I found my 4 good Vitamin C containers I didn’t manage to find a 5^th one, so the lady that got the bag first let me have one of hers without realizing she actually had the same amount as me. So then she quickly realized it and found some worse “Oranges” and let me have one of her good ones. The moral of the story? Being courteous gets your Oranges........amongst other things. Oranges aren’t the first stop with courtesy, it can never stop and hopefully will never. Hopefully if you use it right it’ll come to your advantage in many stages of your life. Maybe you think that “Pfft Mark, what are you poor? That’s just a goddamn Orange!” Well like I said, it doesn’t stop there. Courtesy can take you places and make people like you and can give you information you would’ve never gotten by being mean and provocative. This also ties into my previous topic about chivalry. The only factor left keeping you away from this other side of the world is yourself. It all depends on how far you're willing to go with kindness. If it's not in you, then stand aside and let other people handle it.

Now I'm going to talk about a song I've been listening to a lot recently. It is sung by "Sting" and the song is called "Englishman In New York". I won't exactly analyze it like I usually do because it's just one song and there's realy not much to it, but I'll do what I can. The instruments themselves play a jazzy tune to the song which suits the lyrics very well. In my opinion, the song lyrics are just composed of many life lessons all jumbled into one fantastic piece. Here's an example:

Takes more than combat gear to make a man
Takes more than a license for a gun
Confront your enemies, avoid them when you can
A gentleman will walk but never run

The first part is entirely true, because looking like a soldier doesn't make you one. In the old times "The army made men very quickly" which is an exact quote from my father who was in the army back then. I'm not saying now the army life is any different because I personally wouldn't knows, time change and so do people. But from what I hear, it's not the same. Anyways, if you're just going to look like a soldier it's just what you look like. It's not the clothes that make the man it's the man that makes the clothes. Now the gun part, it doesn't take a man to know which gun to buy or how to use the gun. It takes a man to know when to shoot that gun. Which means that it takes more than a license for a gun. Now the enemies part, I'm a little hazy about it still. I'm sure it means that when your enemies are confronting you, don't run away, be with them when you can. Now the last part, I don't entirely agree with. Why? Well sometimes a man has to know when to run and when to walk.  Sometimes there's an emergency just too dire not to take charge and run for it, and sometimes you've got to be courteous and take the walking path. But that's just my opinion.

So we've had a fun time here today right? SO sorry it took so long but Rome wasn't built in a day, and neither was this blog post. Now that you've read all this, I'd like you to post a comment on what you thought of this post and what you'd like to see in the next one. Don't forget that you can also em@il me your own stuff if you'd like to see it in my next post. Oh and I made my first recording of my first song, forgot to mention that. I'm going to post it up in my next post because until then I have to refine it and tweak it until it's all perfect for you guys. Until next time: Read it, learn it, live it, love it, and post it!

Cheers, MarkL

Join me on a train, please?

Hey guys, so how you been? I've been doing great, getting better as my visit to Russ¡a progresses. Oh and forget what I said about the day to day journal of my trip to Russ¡a. I realized I bit off more than I can chew with that one, like always. So instead of that, on August the 4th (the day I return to T-Dot :D) I'll write up a list of things I did and just basically a recount of my trip to Russ¡a. But for now, my first part of this post will just give you a little sneak peak to it all. Oh and I read in my comments section that "Chandni" wants me to review "Write Sins Not Tragedies" by "Panic! At The Disco" which I shall do in this post, but later on. Because currently, I am on a train to Moscow and there's no WiFi (duh, it's a train). Which basically plans out this entire post, I might include something special in the end if I think of anything. But in the mean time. Wanna join me on a train? Please?

Russ¡a, it's the biggest country in the world. If anyone thinks otherwise, I like to correct them with pride! We've got one of the greatest hockey teams (7-3 was the score for World Juniors when Russia defeated Canada :) And even though we didn't win the Olympics we came pretty darn close. Yeah you heard me Canada, it's our sport too! It's a great country, but life is hard here. The winters get close to -40°C and 1.5 meters of snow, whole the summers get up to 40°C sometimes. Stray dogs/cats and teens along with the occasional drunk run the streets amidst all the busyness in Moscow. The wages are small, and so is everything else (price wise, compared to Canada of course). And all of the Soviet Russ¡a jokes you've heard? Well some of them are true, in a sense. If you ever lived or visited Russ¡a, you'd know what I'm talking about. The police are corrupted, water gets shut off every 3 weeks or so. People many money in ANY way possible and put advertisements EVERYWHERE. They even managed to spray paint advertisements on the ground. But with all it's been through, I'm proud of it. It has a longer history than either Canada or America will EVER have. Canada NEVER went through a revolution as big as the U.S.S.R. and hopefully never will. The people live off of the land like it's their own, my dad grows strawberries, raspberries, blue berries, cucumbers, tomatoes, and even cherries. All in his garden beside his house, is that not amazing?! I know many of you might have your own gardens or something like them and may not think anything of it, but to me it's one of the greatest wonders of the world. How people can simply live off of their own food while working in a big city like Moscow and maintaining their house when needed is astonishing to me. But there's 1 thing I don't particularly like about Russia. Everything is SOOOO far away. To get to a movie theatre I have to be driven by car for 30-50 minutes because where I live is VERY far from Moscow. While in Toronto, my closest movie theater is a 10 minute walk along with the store and my school. It's a BIG drawback if you're ALWAYS commuting in Russia. People often try to live in Moscow because it's close to their job but it's VERY hard to find a GOOD apartment in that area, along with all the repairs and decoration you have to do to change it all. But that's Russia for you, oh and there are 3 things you NEED in order to survive Russia in the summer. Or at least, these are the 3 things I find are needed to survive a day in Russia. #1: Bottled Water. It's a BIG thing here, or at least I find myself drinking it more than I ever did in my life when I'm in Russ¡a. Why? Well let's just say the water smells like it's still from the revolution. I REALLY hope that fact isn't correct. But anyways, in some areas you get lucky with clean tap water like some areas of Moscow. Of course there are filtration plants in Russia, but not as many as there are in Canada. #2: Ice Cream. Russ¡a is VERY famous for it's chocolate. In fact it's #3 on the world standing along with Belgium in the #1 spot (I think) and some other country in between them. and don't even try to say Canadian chocolate is #1, our chocolate is NOWHERE near any of those other countries. So why not enjoy a local delicacy along with a cooling sensation which will keep you cool for the next hour or so. #3: Wet/disinfecting Napkins. Russ¡a is a VERY dirty place, take it from a local. In fact, you often come home to stains you never even noticed or know where you got them from. Maybe that's everywhere, but after riding the TTC I don't get dust on my hands unless I enjoy touching the windows that day (What?! Doesn't everyone do that?!). Anyways, those things are a KEY to your survival along with some common sense of course. I wouldn't recommend using this list in the winter time or spring or even fall because I'm not sure of the affects it may have on your well being.

Oh and by the way, I began writing this post about 4 days ago. But in my defence,  wasn't in the mood for the past 3 days and I had little time, and I was sick yesterday. Still blame me? Well that's your burden, and yours alone :D And another thing, I'm sorry to dissapoint whoever looked forward to my review of the "Panic! At The Disco" song but as you (my 1 reader) already know, I have a reason for everything! My reason for not writing up the review? The song is too damn confusing, like most songs in its genre. Ok sure, the music is great, but so is Fallout Boy's song "Thanks for the Memories" which is similar to the song I was supposed to review. The lyrics are different, but the music is almost the same in some parts. Anyways, the music is great? Sure. The lyrics? That's a different story. So for my music review I'm going to scroll through my iPod Artist list and choose one. So what artist shall I be revewing for my post today? The stars say: Kanye West. SO get your shades on, your "I hate Taylor Swift" shirt on, and with our harder, better, faster, and stronger minds we shall analyze the man that is: Kanye West.

Ok, sure Kanye seems like a self centered, selfish, and a very big douche. But like I have said before, EVERY artist has his/her ups and downs. And don't assume ALL his music is bad just because he made most of his album about money, girls, and partying. That's the mistake that I made with the Black Eyed Peas, and I STRONGLY regretted doing so, and you have no right to do so either because unless you listened to ALL his songs like I have you wouldn't even think of saying that in a million years.

My first song shall be "Diamonds from Sierra Leone" from Kanye West's album: Late Registration.

The song came from research that Kanye did on Sierra Leone diamonds, meaning the kind of diamonds that come from children carrying dynamite into a mine and attempting to make it out alive before it explodes and earning a few dollars a day. Or in other words "Blood Diamonds" and this conflict has been going on for MANY years. And when these diamonds are bought, the money goes back to the people that found these diamonds, and often that money is used to fund wars in Africa. Then the song talks about if Kanye will give back his diamond chains to stop funding the conflict, unfortunately he replies "That'll be te same day I give the game back". Which really frustrates me, he could've made this song into something bigger than what it is now. But that's the music industry for ya.

The next song I got on my mind is "Hey Mama" from the same album. It's a wonderful song about his mom, it talks about how she gave so much for him and how he just wanted to make her happy. It also talks about the conflict she went through with little West beside her, which makes for a touching story. Or at least that's how I see it, but I'm just sensetive liek dat :D The first thing that really gets my heart is the chorus:

I wanna scream so loud for you cause I'm so proud of you

Let me tell you what I'm about to do

I know I act a fool, but I promise you I'm goin' back to school

I appreciate what you allowed for me

I just want you to be proud of me

I know I'm proud of my mom, for sticking with me through the tough times when I needed her and for doing all she has done for me. She had to move to a new place just for me and the future of our family, on 2 separate occasions. And if that hadn't happened, I have no idea where I would be at this point in my life, most likely living a live much worse than the one I'm living now. And yes, I have been very stupid with my actions around my mother most of the time, but I'm still learning through my mistakes. SO far, I've made a lot of them, but that's what my mom is here for. To teach me through those mistakes and allow me to learn through them. But the last part, really gets me. Because honestly, I do want to make my mom be proud of me through anything I do. I'm not saying I'm going to pursue being a doctor just to make her proud and still hate working as one. What I'm saying is I'd like to pursue whatever it is I will pursue, but in that career I'd like to achieve some big goals to make my mom proud and myself along with her. So basically, the chorus is then divided into parts throughout the entire song but is replaced by different although similar text. Take these two lines as a comparison:

I wanna tell the whole world about a friend of mine.

This little light of mine and I'm gonna let it shine.

Is almost like the first line of the chorus where Kanye says:

I wanna scream so loud for you cause I'm so proud of you.

One part of the first verse also REALLY pulls on my heart strings where Kanye says (or rather sings):

I said mommy Imma love you til you don't hurt no more

And when I'm older, you ain't gotta work no more.

My mom has gone through a lot, and your mom probably has too. A divorce here, a war there, and maybe even the death of her mom or dad. Either way you look at it, our mothers have gone through a lot, and we need to love them so that they don't hurt from remembering the past anymore. And how many times have you ever wanted your parents to never work when you were a kid? Well I think I remember myself saying that one day when I have a career I'll make it so that my mom never has to work anymore. Wouldn't that be the greatest of things? After all of their work on us to make sure we were raised properly they get the rest of their lives off? And hopefully we raise our children so that they would do the same for us, and this cycle will continue for God knows how long.

I can write about this song for another 2 hours if I wanted to, but nobody would read anything THAT long, not even me! So I'm just going to move to my possibly last song that I will review which is called "Homecoming from Mr. West's album: Gradutation.

The song has a very upbeat tune, and I'm sure it's a piano track. In fact, the singer from Cold Play "Chris Martin" is in the song singing the chorus track and also playing the piano. The song is basically based on Kanye's home city: Chicago. Also known as the "Windy City" which closely resembles the girl's name "Wendy" which he sings about in the beginning of the song. The song makes me think of how I moved downtown this past October. Which is almost like Kanye repping his home city, sort of :/ Everyone has a place where they come from, and this song just talks about the lights ad experience of Chicago. I remember when I first moved to my new appartment on the 23rd floor, the view was just incredible. It was so astonishing I didn't sleep for a whole hour, I was just mesmerized by all of the lights, sounds, and even smells of the city. They say Vegas never sleeps, well Vegas got NOTHING on Toronto!!!! It was just such a touching moment for me, and thanks to this song I will remember it always. I'm sure you've got your own moments when you saw downtown for the first time. Maybe it was when you were a kid, or even a year ago. I don't know for certain, but when you did, didn't it feel magical? I remember it, I felt like I was actually older than I really was, like I had bragging rights that I went downtown, I walked a different way. The same way i walk whenever I hear "Staying Alive" by the Beegees (I know we ALL walk differently when we listen to that song :) I just remember it as oneof those "once in a lifetime" moments.. Mabe you don't or maybe you do, ut that's what makes us all special: we are ALL different. I don't want to go too deep into the lyrics because I've written enough as it is. I've posted the songs for you on the right (you're welcome :D I'll review 3 different songs next time which were requested by Anna, it's good to se someone taking initiative/advantage of their chances.

So that's about it for today. My trip to Russia is coming to a close. The sun is setting right now, the crickets are chirping. What a beatiful sight/smell/whatever you wanna call it/sound. Oh yes, it is a good life after all :D SO until next time: Read it, learn it, live it, love it, and post it!

Cheers, MarkL

I have come to yet ANOTHER realization :D

Hey guys, how y'all doing? It's that time of the week again (insert inappropriate joke here). Yes, that glorius 20 minutes or so when you're glued to the screen reading my blog and just waiting for your eyes to fall out because of my multiple paragraphs and tn font :D Oh and yet again I'm doing an artist spotlight where I take an album or a song from 1 artist that you may or may not know and analyze it to the greatest of my ability. And this time around I'm shining my light of awesome blog writing on the group "One Republic" and their album "Waking Up" which shall be an interesting time for us all. And I'll just write up about something that's been on my mind for a long time but I havent had the decency to write it down anywhere. So here we go..............

One Republic, Two Republic, Three Republic, Four, Five Republic, Six Republic, One Republic more!!! To me, this group is ALL aboutpoitivity, or it's at least what I feel when I listen to their album "Waking Up". In fact, I'd give thi ENTIRE album a ★★★★★ rating because of how great it is. Sure this group may not be as legendary as some others but to me they are in a league of their own. I don't often listen to their kind of music where they use instruments but this album is DEFINITELY worth a listen to anyone that wants to hear some good music. The 3 songs that I'll be analyzing from their album "Waking Up" will be "Good Life", "Everybody Loves Me", and "Secrets". The song "Good Life" talk, or rather sings about a good life. Everyon has an opinion on how good  life can be. For some a good life is with plenty of women and mony and stuff, for others it's living on a farm far away from everything and being one with nature. In this song a good life is considered being happy with what you've got, and sometimes looking at what you've accomplished and saying "Damn, this is gotta be the good life, and this could really be a good life". And sometimes, it's just enough to crack a smile on your face :) Here's a segment of the lyrics that really grabs my attention:

Sometimes theres airplanes I can't jump out

Sometimes there's bullshit that don't work now

We are God of stories, but please tell me

What is there to complain about?

When you're happy like a fool, let it take you over

When everything is out you gotta take it in

When he talks about the airplane, he means that sometimes there are ituations that we can't just leave and we have to deal with them. No matter how awkward they get, because in the end when everything is resolved it's all worth it. Then he talks about how sometimes there's bullshit that don't work out, when I hear that it makes me think of situations that don't exactly work out in your favor or don't even work out at all, in other words called :bullshit according to One Republic. And they're right, sometimes thereare problems that no even we can wok into our favor or even work out because they're so damn complicated. Then when he talks about being a "God of stories" I think he means that in our head or where we live we consider ourselves to be a God amongst peasants. And it's true, if you ask anyone on the street if they are more important than you, they wil undoubtedly say "Yes" because it is human nature to do so. The part where he asks what there is to complain about, he's definitely right. Nobody should be complaining about anything and be thankful for what you have, but it's not exactly easy to do so. I mean, when you see a nice car you want it right? Or when you see anything that you don't have but want you aren't being thankful for what you've got. But that is ALSO a part of our human nature, and I'm not being a Saint or anything telling all ofyou are wrong for thinking so. I've had my fair share of moments where I've wanted something I couldn't have, and so have you. but that's only natural. What you DON'T want to do is CONSTANTLY complain, because if you're reading this I'm sre you've got a home, clean water, food, and some form of family. All the basic necesities anyone needs to live, the rest are just "bonuses" to life. Like Books, iPods, Cell Phones, and anything else in that genre. Now the last part I want to talk about is the "Happy like a fool" part of the song. Obviously when you're happy you can't help but let it take over you and keep the vibe going, which is self explanatory. And when he says "When everything is out, you gotta take it in" I think he means that when you're in such a good mood you gotta look at the detils that make moments like these. Maybe the smell in the air, the fact you're with friends, your clothes, the sunset, how nice the day was, just any tiny little thing that makes your mood better.

Now I'll analyze the second song and depending onhow much I've written I may analyza the third song. My favourite par of this song is the chorus, which I shall discuss later on but I'd like to talk about the music in this song for a little. It gives me a reminder of the Wild Wild West for some reason when I hear this song, it's probably because of their choice of guitar chords and percussion that gives it that Clint Eastwood feeling. Ok now that that's done here's the chorus :D

Oh my, feels just like I don't try 
Look so good I might die 
All I know is everybody loves me 
Head down, swaying to my own sound 
Flashes in my face now 
All I know is everybody loves me

It may sound VERY self righteous at first, but I honestly don't understand almost all of it. I mean, I can relate to some part like when he talks about how he doesn't really try or "Swaying to my own sound". But the rest of the stuff, I just don't understand but I'll do my best to analyze. When he talks about "swaying to" his "own sound" I'm sure he's talking about being original and having your own "sound" or in other words: style. If you got your own style it means that you're original and that yo make a fad, not follow it. Which is often a good thing, I can't think of why I'd be a ad thing at the moment so when yu get the chamce just write it in the comments section because maybe you know :) So that's the only part of the song that I can really explain, if you can analyze the ENTIRE thing I'd love to hear it, in fact if you've got your own analysis of a song then don't be shy and em@il me it to: baciacalupo@hotmail.com and it'll go up on my "General Opinion" or "Review Page" depnding on which one yours is. I think that for now I'm done analysing their music. If you haven't noticed already I've changed the background an added up 3 of my favourie songs from One Republic's album "Waking Up". I'll be doing the same for every artist from now on, because I'm sureyou're tired of looking at the same background every time yo go up on my blog. If you're not, then that's too bad. My blog=my rules with sprinkles of your opinions if you've got any :P Next time I'll most likely either analyze Emin3m, Kanye West, Dub FX, Playing For Change, or someone else. If you have a reccomendation for an artist I'd love to hear their music even if it's bad it doesn't matter as long as you think it's good. Just make sure to put the Artist's name(s) and song(s) or album(s) in the comments section below. Doesn't matter what genre or style they are or what they sing about or what they look like, as long as they make music then they're worth writing about.

So recently, my mom recieved the report card in the mail. but I'm thousans of miles away and I can't really be grounded or anything unil I return. But the thing I've yet again realized isthat my marks went nowhere. And this has been happening ever since grade 6. My mom keeps telling me about my bad marks and how well I should be doing, but don't confuse what she says. Because what she means to tell me is that I could be doing much better than what I am doing now, and she's right in EVERY way. This year I mostly got 70's like always and 2 or 3 80's or 90's. When I should really be getting 90's in everything. But not because I say so, but because I can do that well. In fact, ANYONE can do that well. You just need self discipline, time, and plenty of work. Change does NOT happen over night, that you can count on. I was ofcourse dissapointed as well when my mom told me my marks because I CAN do better. And what she said to me was "If you keep telling yourself that you'll do better and don't do anything about it then you're not going to get anywhere". And once again, she's right. So what do I plan and hope to do the following year to improve? Well here's a short list of things that you yourself may want to read because you never know, you might be in the same boat I am.

#1 Details, details, and details. When starting ANY assignment read the rubrick CAREFULLY and compose a checklist of what's to be done and how it's supposed to be done. If you do this it will be like getting bonus marks becaue if you don't do as well on some parts of the assignment, the details will boost your total mark up by 5 or even 10% sometimes.

#2 Take notes when the teacher tells you to ALWAYS, and when he doesn't tell you but it seems like an important subject or you don't understand someting. Because in the end if you study those notes they will increase your knowledge on the topic at hand but maybe some of the detailed notes like the amount of a population or whethere there are more females than males in a certain country may pop up in question form on a test sooner than you may think.

#3 If you don't understand something, ASK!!!! No matter how dumb the question may be, if it is something you don't understand it will cost you marks in the end if you don't understand it. And I'm sure the teacher is more than happy to help, if not then ask someon you trust beside you or after class or even consult Google.

#5 Do EVERY piece of homework your teacher gives you along with assignments, and ALWAYS hand stuff in on time. Because doing this not only benefits you now, but down the road as you learn these habits they will affect your future life and how hard you work on your career. If you have a habit of not handing things in, this habit will not suddenly fade away when you're older, better now than later.

#6 Work your hardest. I know it's A LOT to ask from anyone to do their best on something. But if you complete an assignment in a haf-assed method then think of it this way. The way you did your assignment represents you. So if you wrote fast and did an awful job, then that is who you are. Someone that works very little and does it very quickly. If that is not who you are then why should you be working in that way?

That's all the little things that I can think of right now, I'm sure you yourself can come up with more. But don't be misguied, I'm not saying that I haven't made these mistakes, because I have multiple times. And so have you, I'm just writing it out for myself to see what I have left to imporve on. You can follow my guidelines or make your own, you choose. But this is what I have to work for in grade 10 and the rest of my life. And once I'm done that I'll work on some of my other mistakes, but not to be perfect, to be better than what I already am. Because I believe, that an artist or anybody for that matter should NEVER be satisfied with their work. They should always be pursuing higher goals no matter how hard they are to achieve. But that's just my opinion on it, I'm sure you've got your own fair share of things to say about what I've written, so just em@il me them if you can to: baciacalupo@hotmail.com or put them in the comments below. So for now, I'm goin to go to another museum in Moscow and I shall take plenty of pictures which I might post sometime on here. Until next time: Read it, learn it, live it, love it, and post it!

Cheers, MarkL

Whatever is on my mind

Hey guys, long time since my last post. But this one is going to make up for it all. The thing is, I've been busy living in Russia for the past 5 days so I couldn't really manage to have a post come out every day let alone every 2 days or so. I'm also working on an extra-long post describing my experience in Russia from day 1 to my last day. I'll most likely upload it as a Word Document on MegaUpload or if you guys want to give me your em@ils I'll just send it to you then. But that's not going to happen for another month, so stay frosty 'til then. But today's post will just be about whatever is on my mind at the moment. Most likely I'll analyze some lyrics, talk about a video, and probably something else at the end if I can fit it in. So......here.....we.....go!

So, you want to hear some good music analyzing? Well you've come to the right place! We got everything here, Dub FX, One Republic, Emin3m. But today's special shall be Bob Marley, so sit tight and relax mon. Bob Marley's song "One Love" is known by almost EVERYONE, along with his other songs like No Woman No Cry, Three Little Birds, and Buffalo Soldier. But the one that stand out at me is ALWAYS One Love. Why? Well because it speaks the truth "Let's get together and feel all right, Give thanks and praise to the Lord and feel all right" This clearly states that when you're out with friends, with no worries, and you're having a good time, you're feeling all right, right? Because sometimes we just need to be with people who understand, and without them we are alone in our journey. Oh and I forgot to mention earlier I'm going to post up my lyrics onto here in this post, I managed to finish them on m plane ride over to Russia. Ok now "Give thanks and praise to the Lord and feel all right translates to "Be thankful for what you have and for what the Lord has given you and you will live a happy life" That right there is some common sense for you all to use whenever it is needed, you’re welcome :D Those are the basic lyrics, so I'll just talk about the smaller parts of the song. Like when he's talking about the hopeless sinners that have hurt all mankind for their own purposes and gains, and if there is a place for them all. Yes, there are sinners in this world, I'm a sinner, you're a sinner, and we are ALL sinners. But the kind he’s talking about are the ones that are ALWAYS sinning. Say for example, people like pessimists, homophobic people, and of course the all-time classic "haters". But the point isn't to focus life on them. but to follow your own path and do what you do best. And that's what music is also about, doing what you want as long as it makes you happy, and if it makes other happy then you're in the right department. Here's another favorite Bob Marley song of mine "Three Little Birds" which was played in "I am legend" which was an EXCELLENT choice, I'll explain the song and you'll see. "Don't worry about a thing, because every little thing is going to be all right, Rising this morning and smiled with the rising sun" is just all about positivity. In the end of EVERY situation/problem EVERYTHING is all right because the conflict is resolved and everyone (or at least you should be) is feeling a sense of accomplishment. Maybe you'll smile with the rising sun? See what i did there? I placed song lyr-oh forget it. Look, the main theme of the song is to just be or at least try to remain positive throughout life no matter what. Although it isn't always easy you have to bear through it because that's what life is about, a series of challenges and conflicts that build our character depending on how we handle those conflicts. And if you didn't understand any of that then I'm sorry. Now that I look back at it, it does seem to be TOO deep for younger teens to realize, but HOPEFULLY you guys are smarter than I think, it's always a good thing to see my generation or even previous ones to rise out of our past problems and stupidity with pride :D Ok I've gotten WAAAY off topic so I'll just lead you back to our little green, red, and yellow brick road. Not only does he make GREAT music (beats) but his lyrics are LEGENDARY and will forever be so! And if one day people forget all about Bob Marley, then god help them. Because without positive music or any positivity in the world then we are domed to an early death as humanity. So to sum up, Bob Marley is one of the greatest artists that has ever walked the face of earth and molded future generations or people into living positively like me and with that I'd like to thank Bob Marley for ALL he's done. Now to keep up the positivity I'll move onto my yearly talk about the Golden Compass Trilogy.

Oh the Golden Compass, how awesome to read a book that is so..........golden, or subtle, or even amber. Ok if you didn't get THAT reference then I feel sorry for you. Because you'd only know that reference if you read the Golden Compass trilogy which is composed of The Golden Compass (of course), The Subtle Knife, and of course The Amber Spyglass. They are ALL great books, and EACH of them contains a new twist to the story. Book 1 introduces us to the world of Lyra Belacqua (Silver Tongue). Book 2 introduces us to the world of Will, and the two worlds meet but not literally and not yet. And I'm not telling you what happens in the 3rd book because that stuff ties EVERYTHING together, and is a BIG shocker and heart breaker at the end. I would know, I almost cried at the end of the book (YEAH I said it, I almost cried after reading a book, it has to be a pretty good to make me draw a tear to my eye :) It's a FANTASTIC read, in fact. Ever since my summer of 2009 I vowed to read the series every year in the summer because when I first read it a series of events occurred that changed my life forever. I shall not disclose said events unless you come up to me publicly and ask. So anyways, the author is acclaimed to be the best of his generation. Mr.Pullman has received some of the highest awards there are in the literature world. I can't name them all because it's 6 minutes in the morning in Russia (in other words it's dark) and I have no light sources.  Anyways, this guy is a MAGNIFICENT writer, and it is VERY sad if you don't go ahead and read it. Oh and PLEASE ignore the Golden Compass movie. Why? Well maybe because, oh I don't know..............IT SUCKED. It's absolutely NOTHING compared to the novels. The movie managed to bring in LESS money than it used to create it all. But maybe that's because in the story the author portrays the Church as an evil power that does VERY twisted things to people. So if you're not SUPER religious like Mr.Flanders over here, then go for it!! But PLEASE don't judge the book by how bad the movie was. Because when I personally watched the movie (because when I saw it first I didn't read the books so I couldn't do a comparison, and when I did watch the movie I did my comparison) and it was TERRIBLE. So many parts were cut out, the characters were messed up, and it was weak over all. So in conclusion, I'd suggest you read this book ASAP and DO NOT under ANY circumstance watch the movie. Once you're done reading if you'd be so kind enough as to give me your review and post it as a comment on this post that'd be wonderful!

So guys, maybe you remember or you don't. But I'll remind you, earlier in this post I said that I'll post my latest lyrics which I managed to finish on the plane over to Russia. But now that I think about it, I don't think they're finished yet so I might change them up from what they are right now. So in the light of my iPod I'll try to re-type them onto here. They're mostly about the diversity in the world and how we all got different talents. So here they are:

Chorus X2:I can't do anything you can do better

I can't do everything better than you

We all have talents that bring us together

But no-one else can do better than you

Equality is something this world is missing

Society's losing its color by dissing

The weird ones that are adding the spice

To life, spreading color and nice

On this mosaic, I like to call Earth

Filled with all kinds of people ever since birth

Artists, musicians and mathematicians

Add change to life just like magicians

We are all different, in our special way

No matter who you be: bi, straight or gay

Chinese, European, African, Indian

Black, white, or yellow we're all the same in the end

Human, Homosapien, no matter the name

We are all people divided by fame

You may do better than me in school

But I dance better and make it look cool

You make more money than I ever will

But I write these rhymes that send me uphill

Far away from society

To a place where I could just be me

In my sanctuary I am the king

Everyone listens and only I sing

We all got a place, a place of our own

There are no limitations, because the place we own

Is our mind, our imagination

We can burn the sands of time and mold our own creation

Bind the heavens and earth right now and forever

Put a mic in each hand and sing it together

Chorus X2

Ok well I hope you guys enjoyed that post. I'll leave a picture of my trip to Russia in the bottom of this post for you guys to see what it's like there. And I guess I'll be doing that for every post from now on. Maybe even when I get back to T-Dot I'll be doing the same. I hope you guys liked my lyrics, I'll try to record them like I promised before in around August. I've just been so busy here helping around the house and going to places I haven't even had the chance to make a dent in my reading, math, and even physics books. Yeah I felt like studying in my free time and making music and writing blogs in the summer. Anything wrong with that? You may think so. But I'm thousands of miles away from my friends, and they'd rather be on the computer anyways. So I'll see you guys later. In my next post I'll probably talk about another song or artist, maybe I'll even change up my lyrics. Well for now I got to go read and help out around the house some more and I'm going to go see a Russian movie soon so I got no time to waste. Until next time: Read it, learn it, live it, love it, and post it!

P.S. I definitely need to change up the lyrics, because now that I look back at them they seem too short to me. So stay tuned for that.

P.S.S. This is a pic of a bridge to a famous Church and I'm standing on it so you can't really see it. But what you can see is the Kreml which is composed of the red towers in the back, this was taken in Moscow, Russia. Photo creds go to me :D

P.S.S.S. I'll change up the videos every post or so depending what artist I'm listening to at the time.


P.S.S.S.S. You're awesome :D