Ska

Streetlight Manifesto's "99 Songs of Revolution"

      My favorite genre of music is a direct result of being a member of the crew team. At a crew event last winter, one of my best friends showed me quite a few ska songs. A combination of reggae and punk rock with a heavy horn section, ska is perhaps one of the most upbeat yet rebellious genres of music that I have ever heard. From the first song that I listened to ("The Impression That I Get" by the Mighty Mighty Bosstones) I was hooked and all I wanted was to hear more examples of the music that I found so fascinating. The mixture of the often tough subjects and upbeat rhythm left me awestruck, I had never heard anything like it.
        Since then, I have slowly filled my iPod with songs from my favorite ska bands such as Reel Big Fish, Streetlight Manifesto, and Sublime. The music can always cheer me up and I have taken the time to create a playlist of just these songs which I listen to on a daily basis. I want nothing more than to attend a ska concert. In fact, I almost went to one in Boston with one of my best friends, but I had a race that same day. The culture around ska has changed me, albeit less dramatically than other entries on this blog. I have changed the way I dress, keeping my outfits outside of the mainstream and even spiking my hair from time to time. As ska bands always do, I continue to be my own person and don't change for anyone. The punk, rebellious nature of many ska bands has taught me not to be a follower as I was in middle school but rather to be my own person and do what I enjoy, rather than what is cool.

Concord Crew Website

       After failing to make the CHS soccer team before my freshman year, I decided to join Concord Crew. I heard about it from friends and from reading the website. The new rower's handbook that I printed off the site taught me the responsibilities that I would have as a member of the team. They seemed far too numerous and daunting for me to handle at the time but now they are nothing if not routine. When I went to my first practice I was terrified of the older rowers, non of which I knew. However, by the end of my second season that fall, they were my friends.  

       

At Textile River Regatta in Lowell, I'm the one with the number

I am a firm believer that if I hadn't have read the information about the team on that website, I would certainly not be the person that I am today. Having so many close friends on the team has made me come out of my shell and has allowed me to become more confident in myself. Before I joined the team, I had very low self-esteem but my friends and my new-found skill for the sport, has made me believe in myself and be proud of who I am. Before, as evidenced by my failure to join the CHS soccer team, sports were never my strong suit. However, now I am rowing in the best boat on the varsity men's team. I have even been chosen to compete in the single boat going to the Head of the Charles, the second largest race in the world. I am in better shape that I have ever been in and I like to think I have matured and become I better person. I have even discovered the leader in myself, having been voted as one of the captains of the team. Crew has changed me more than I can say and has effected everything that I do. None of it would have happened if I had never read that handbook on Concord Crew's website.

Men's 1st Varsity at Lake Massebesic, we placed 1st

1V8, camaraderie at its best at NH Championships... also we got 6th out of 31

Doctor Who

        Another important interest of mine that was introduced to me by my father was one that I didn't even enjoy at the time. Doctor Who is a long-running British science fiction show about a 2,000 year old alien, called the Doctor, who travels through time and space with his human companion. When I was in seventh grade, my dad decided to show me an episode of the show that featured clown-like automatons that were a police force in a dystopian space station in which the entire British population (except Scotland... they wanted their own ship) resided. Being a young child, the Smilers (as the robots were called) terrified me and I had some issues falling to sleep that night. However, with some trepidation, I tried the show again and truely enjoyed it.
         Since then, I have seen every single episode of the show since its re-boot in 2005 and it is by far my favorite thing on television. I love the show so much because of its changeability. Each episode has its own genre, from horror to comedy and sometimes even romance, all with science fiction undertones. Even the shows main characters don't stay the same. In Doctor Who's 50 year lifespan, its viewers have known 13 different Doctors and countless companions. Personally, my favorite Doctor will always be the 11th, Matt Smith, lover of bow ties and other eccentricities. However, each actor to play the Doctor has brought his own unique spin to the role. For instance, the current Doctor, Peter Capaldi, is a departure from past incarnations in that he lacks the mercy and constant humor that many of his past "selves" have had. Doctor Who has changed the way I think, making me more optimistic and secure in myself. It is an amazing show and I will enjoy it forever.

My First iPod

        As stated before, I had an intense love of music from a young age. I had received a small mp3 player, 1 gb of storage space, from my parents in the fourth grade. Having my own portable music device overjoyed me! However soon, I was filling the mp3 player with the multitude of songs I was discovering and enjoying. After seeing the commercial's on television, I began asking for my very own, 5th generation, iPod nano. I could barely contain my excitement when I received one for Christmas of that year.
         My iPod was my prized possession. I carried it with me practically everywhere, this way I could keep my music collection with me and access it at any given moment. As a child who loved listening to music, this was the highlight of that Christmas and remained very important to me for years to come. That iPod opened up a world of possibilities for me. If I enjoyed a particular song or even album, all I had to do was download it and then I could listen to it all I wanted. Part of the reason why I enjoy so many different types of music is because of that gift. I wanted to fill up lots of space on it and as such I found new music and new ways of discovering it. The little silver machine worked extremely well too. In fact, it was fully functional until one day, in the summer before my sophomore year, it finally died. At this point, still loving the old, click wheel Apple technology, and wanting something that could hold even more music, I got my hands on a 80 gb, iPod classic. If it weren't for my first machine, I never would have had the extensive music library that I enjoy to this day. The video below shows not the type of iPod that I had, but one of the many songs that I had downloaded onto it.

The Inheritance Cycle

       By the time that I reached the fifth grade, I was already an adept reader for my age. I enjoyed reading and I always had a book with me, whether it was on my nightstand, in my backpack, or really anywhere else. Currently in between novels, I picked up the first book in this series, Eragon by Christopher Paolini at the request of one of my close friends. This was a much more advanced read then I was used to but I loved it all the same. I was entranced from the very first page and I will always remember not being able to tear my eyes away from the action-packed prologue.
        Eragon, as well as the rest of the novels, was a wild, sweeping fantasy akin to the Lord of the Rings trilogy (which I was too young to read/watch at the time). The piece that fascinated me the most, by far, about the story was the fact that the main character, Eragon, is the Rider of a mighty dragon named Saphira. This idea filled me with wonder and sparked a year-long obsession with dragon mythology. Also, for the longest time, it made me wish that I had a dragon of my own. While the movie version of my the Inheritance Cycle's first installment highly disappointed me (all right, they left everything awesome out, messed up the characters and made it impossible to make an adaptation of the second book), the rest of the books were just as amazing as that very first page. I will love these novels forever and they hold a very special place in my heart. To this day, I recommend them to my friends who are looking for books to read. I looked up to the author so much that when one of my friends told me that I write similar to him, I was happier then I had been in a long while and inspired me to write stories whenever possible.

"Walk This Way" Music Video

        My musical horizons were broad from a very young age, something I have noticed my whole life. I grew up with my mother being a fan of the classic rock that she remembered from her childhood and my father would introduce me to the punk and indy/alternative rock that he enjoyed. With so much musical variety, I was somewhat different from the other children of my age, even when I was still rather young. All this music excited me but soon, in third grade, I had decided that Aerosmith was my favorite band. Many things led to this, but an important factor was watching the music video for their "Walk This Way" being performed alongside rap group Run-DMC.
         Not only did I enjoy the song itself (most notably the guitar riff) but the video itself was simply fascinating. The aggression between the two bands astounded and amused me and I will always remember my shock when Steven Tyler broke through the wall dividing the two groups with only his microphone stand. The video's theatricality and stunning vocals inspired me to find more music like it. And I certainly did. A huge portion of the music on my iPod is classic rock in this vein, 54 songs out of that is Aerosmith alone. One of my first album's was Aerosmith's "Toys in the Attic" However, the fact that a rock group and a rap group collaborated on "Walk This Way", led to my love of many types of music as well. Lastly, I believe looking up to Aerosmith and Run-DMC's theatricality led to my outgoing behavior when with my friends.

Star Wars

        When I was roughly eight years old, my father decided to show me the very first Star Wars film that was released in 1977. What I saw on my television that afternoon changed my life forever. George Lucas's masterpiece, this half sci-fi, half western, entranced me and captured my imagination. Immediately following that viewing, the Star Wars franchise became my favorite films of all time and are still to this day. Perhaps the part that impacted me the most was the lightsaber duel between Darth Vader and Obi-Wan in the halls of the infamous Death Star. I can still remember my sense of awe when watching that classic scene. Perhaps it was the cross-over of space (which I was fascinated with at the time) and the Jedi knights (similar to the medieval ones that I also liked) that made the Star Wars so important to me as a young child.
         These stories changed the way I thought, and still think to this day. The highly moral main characters of Luke Skywalker and Princess Leia, contrasted with Darth Vader and the evil Emperor, helped me to develop a sense of right and wrong, good and bad, as well as a definition of justice in my young mind that still pervades my thoughts and choices now. The films captured my young imagination, leading to many games of Star Wars with my friends as well as the purchase of action figures and video game from the franchise. As I grew older, I sought out more movies similar to these films, which led to my current love and enjoyment of science fiction.