Let's take a trip to Arizona.

Did you know that these drinks don't even come from Arizona, they're from frickin' Queens, New York. Talk about gangstaah! These delightful, tall, 99 cent heaven-in-my-mouth drinks brighten up my day, every day. From iced teas to green teas, or just plain fruit-flavored, they blow my mind.

Why am I blogging about iced tea drinks? I am just THAT bored on a random tuesday night. But hey! atleast I'm blogging. High school is over, therefore this blog is not mandatory anymore & most likely, no one is reading this. Still, let me vent. My summer is very relaxing. I have no care in the worrrrld right about now. School starts in 12 weeks. That is a mighty mighty long time. AND, you know how everybody always says, "you're going to miss high school, so enjoy it." Welllll that is not particularly true for me. Atleast, not right now. Yeah, my life has changed and will be changing drastically soon enough, but I can't see myself missing High School. I am proud and relieved to be an alumni of THS. I no longer have to endure those hard and awkward high school days. Now, I will be having stressed out, no-sleep, awkward college days. YAY! Can't wait.

Oh & BTW, check out my favorite arizona drink, Black&White Iced Tea w/ Gingseng & Honey. Tha bombbbbb!

Ok, enough. Goodnight.

Movie reviewer for a day

Mad Hot Ballroom

May 5, 2009

We've all been there before, as a shy little fifth or sixth grader just anticipating our teen years. "Mad Hot Ballroom" is definitely a blast from the past taking us all back to our "tween" years.

Taking place in New York City elementary schools, the film documents several students taking dance lessons. It's very important to keep art and vocational curriculum alive in schools. Therefore, this film is very important and shows how much these classes can save, and even change, a child's life.

Many of the children in the film come from low income, hispanic families. Most of these children are surrounded by bad influences and don't have many opportunities to succeed in life. The impact that the dance class had on these kids was immense; helping out their self-esteem, dance skills, and even life problems.

The film starts out documenting several classes from several different schools in NYC. There are different rounds of the competition, all leading up to the final dance off. As the competition goes on, it gets harder. Many schools get eliminated from the competition, and the screen. Never to be featured again. The final competition consisted of different couples competing in several dance offs. The ending was very inspirational and also a tearjerker to many people. Definitely a good ending, well only to the winners of the competition.

The movie leaves many of us wanting more, as to what happened in these children's lives after the competition. Some kids were profiled in the film, and a connection was made with the audience. Although it sounds impossible, the film makes the viewer start to care for the children. After the movie was over, I wanted an insight as to where are these kids now and what has happened in their lives. Especially because the movie is a couple years old, the children in the movie are now in high school. We all know that a lot happens during these years and an update would be really nice.

Overall, the film was great! Very educational and touching hearts everywhere. If you are looking for a good, clean, fun film to watch with the whole family, this is the perfect one!

Two thumbs up!

try me try meeeeee

So as of right now, I have no idea what my documentary is going to be on.
It can go two ways....

Option #1
Race confusion- Interviewing people who constantly get mixed up with another race.

Option #2
THS academies- Interviewing students and teachers of Tennyson High School to get an insight on what academies really are like.

Hmmm, any comments on what should it be on?

I'm still really unmotivated to do anything. So close to giving up, but I'm at the last stretch now, why would I quit?
I CAN'T. I WON'T. I SHALL NOT.
haha, that was corny.

but anyways.
My countdown keeps going down and down.
I'm excited, for so many reasons.

Can you smell the motivation reeking from this post?
I sure can.

________________________________
Happy Birthday Gregory Harris III

To Mr. Hurts

Dear Mr. Hurts,

First of all, let me introduce myself. My name is Carlos Joachin and I'm a senior at Tennyson High School in Hayward, CA. Your film Beyond Beats & Rhymes is truly a piece of art. In my journalism class, we are working on a documentary for our final project. Your film was watched in our class for inspiration and to get a sense of what makes a good documentary. The film was well put together, organized, and also very informative in an interesting way. Catching the audience's attention is not an easy thing to do, and your film was quite inspirational in that. In most cases, including yourself as a character in your own story doesn't go through very well, but I believe that including yourself as a character in this documentary was the right thing to do. If the story was told by a different person, it wouldn't have been the same; if the story had been told by a white man, a lot of people wouldn't have connected with it. Also, the topics that you touched on in the film were very important. They all had to do with how people are treated. Especially in a society where everyone is so caught up on being treated with respect, it was very important to talk about the lyrics of hip-hop. Personally, I am not one who pays close attention to lyrics. As long as the beat of a song is good, I will like it, without paying any attention to what the song is talking about. I feel that the public needs to be more aware of what the lyrics are saying. Everybody portrays rap and hip-hop artists as some type of Gods, without even knowing what they are saying. Your film definitely opened up my eyes to be able to have my own opinion about hip-hop music. Also, I feel that this film was very relatable. The reason for that is because the topics you touched on are of every day life and what a lot of people go through. We all have our own opinion on these different topics such as how to treat a woman, masculinity, and the hip-hop lifestyle. I believe that your documentary captured all of these topics from a perfect point of view. You, as a hip-hop fan know everything that goes on in the industry. It was a great idea to finally open up that door and let the world know what is beyond those beats and rhymes.

Thank You,

Carlos Joachin

Hip-Hop Movie

Beyond Beats and Rhymes: A documentary

Write a response to the documentary Beyond Beats and Rhymes, in which you speak to the following questions:

1) Do you think BB&R is an important film for your youth to see? Why/why not?

I think it is a very important and educational film to see. This film doesn't just cover hip-hop, it also covers many different issues that people deal with on a day-to-day basis. These are the things we should be learning in our schools. The media portrays all of these hip-hop artists as some sort of Gods, but yet they don't know the real meaning behind them and their lyrics. Our youth needs to be informed on how hip hop mistreats different groups of people.

2) What ideas in the film did you relate to? Explain.

I related to every topic in one way or another. There were a lot of different ideas from feministic points of views, to battles of African American "manhood", to gay issues. Each one of those ideas I could relate to because I have my own opinion about it. I agree with the documentary that a lot of people are not aware of what is blasting through their radio stations and ipods. Me, being one of them as well; I never really pay attention to the lyrics of a song, as long as it has a good beat I'll enjoy it. I understand that a good beat does not make the song lyrics right, but I feel like that is the purpose of this film, to open up people's minds and to have their own opinion.

3) What was a line in the film that stuck out for you? Why was it an important line?

"I sold water last summer."

That quote stuck in my mind because it showed how much of a struggle many people go through just to survive.
Hustlin' in the streets isn't just selling drugs and other narcotics, a lot of people sell legal things also. Our economic situation is really bad and a lot of people don't have jobs right now. This film is relating to our situation right now. I feel like this is a really strong point of the movie because no matter how old this movie gets, and no matter what is going on, someone will still be able to relate to it.

4) What is something in the film that would challenge with your own understanding of hip-hop culture?

One of the things that was brought up in our class discussion was about the other side to this "story." One of my classmates brought up the fact that the women in these hip-hop songs also have very degrading lyrics and are on the same level as men. Perfect example, in the song Tip Drill by the rapper Nelly, not only the men are seen degrading women, but the women are seen degrading men as well. It is not fair to sit here and just say that male hip-hop artists treat women like a piece of meat, because that is not the whole story. A lot of women also use men for their money. In the end, everybody ends up using each other for something.
Is that what hip-hip is all about?


5) What choices did Hurt make as a filmmaker that you thought were SUCCESSFUL? What choices were less SUCCESSFUL?

I like the fact that Mr. Hurt let us viewers in on what really is going on behind the scenes. He has been a hip-hop fan for years and he knows the most about it. I think the film itself is very successful because it was meant to be informative but it was not boring at all. He knows how to keep the audience's attention which is crucial when the documentary is 60 minutes long. I do not think that any of his choices were unsuccessful. He included a lot of interviews and visual examples that kept the viewer interested at all times. It was a great documentary.