Thursday, June 9, 2016

More Poems

Here are four more poems I have written for my poetry anthology.

Cinquain: A Typical Morning

Waiting at the bus stop
For the bus to arrive
In the cold, icy, pouring rain
Alone


Diamante: Education

Sciences
Logical, Numerical
Experimenting, Analyzing, Researching
School, Teachers, Knowledge, Tests
Writing, Reading, Speaking
Creative, Literary
English


Haiku: The Tricky Rose

The tricky red rose
Is deceptively pretty
With its sharp pure thorns


Limerick: The Needy Girl

There was a girl who sat beside me
She was drinking some black bean coffee
She looked stressed in the eye
And gave a big sigh
And said “man I need me some whiskey”

Tuesday, June 7, 2016

Poetry Contest Submissions

These are the contests I submitted my poems to, I sent six to four different contests, with one of them requiring three poems.


  • Open Ages Poetry Contest - Young writers of Canada (http://youngwritersofcanada.ca/contests/)
  • Annual Young Writers Poetry Contest - Young writers of Canada (http://youngwritersofcanada.ca/contests/)
  • Poem of the Week - Cultured Vultures (required three poems) (http://culturedvultures.com/poem-week-free-poetry-competition/)
  • Poetry Contest K-12 - Creative Communications (poeticpower.com)







Monday, June 8, 2015

Bard on the Beach Alternative Assignment


  1. According to the test I am a visual learner.
  2. If someone were to ask me if I was a physical or sedentary person a few months ago I would have said no.  Last year I was a much more active person as I ran around 2 km every day while taking breaks on weekends.  This stopped after a few months because I got lazy and became unmotivated.  In the past few months I have started weightlifting training and I am becoming more active again which makes me very pleased as I know this healthy lifestyle will benefit me.  
  3. Thinking about how exercise and having a healthy lifestyle upgrades one’s cognitive skills is very interesting because looking at my intelligent friends, I can see that many of them are very active people.  I think it’s good that some schools are putting more emphasis on physical education because not only will an active lifestyle make your cognition go up, it will be good for your overall mental and physical wellbeing.  
  4. With finals coming up I am becoming more and more stressed, but every year everyone has to go through the same thing and it helps to know that i’m not the only one freaking out.  For next year I want to listen to lots of music and becoming more proficient with the guitar as well as maintaining a healthy grade average.  To reach these goals I will practice guitar every day and attempt to listen to lots of different artists.  For my academics I will try to procrastinate less.

Wednesday, June 3, 2015

Self Publishing Poem Project

   
Comfy Cocoons
How nice it would be
To lay in our comfy cocoons
All along
The lazy afternoons,
And perhaps when we feel
When the time is right
We can take off
Into the future with flight,
Because what real use
Is it to stay at home
In our comfy cocoons
All alone.

      The two main methods I focused on for this project revolved around self publishing through advertising and speech.  Since I was putting all my time and energy into only two methods I wanted to take each one to a whole new level.

     For advertising, the video below shows me travelling all around UBC as I attempt to place a poem in every single faculty building.  As for speech, I wanted to speak with every custodian in each 
building about my poem and see what they had to say about it.  I 
got different results from everyone I spoke with.  Some were not interested and told me they were busy with work while others happily read my poem.  There was even one custodian that became angry with me when I tried to talk to him about my poem.  I was quite intimidated at times, but I made many new friends with the nicer ones and i'm very content with that.

     My favorite building that I went to was definitely Allard Hall, the UBC faculty of law.  There was a very kind old lady who worked the evening shifts at the building and was kind enough to read my poem.  The best part was the positive feedback, she told me how she loved the simplicity and theme of it.  We quickly became acquainted and we spent some time afterwards talking about miscellaneous things.

     I have met many different characters along the way of this self publishing journey and I am sure I won't be able to remember all of their names, but this English project has allowed me to become exposed to various personalities that I otherwise would have never met.  Showing them my writing was a very scary thing to do but i'm satisfied with the feedback (and denials) I received.  All in all this was a very interesting experience and I hope I did not bother the custodians too much.

Tuesday, May 12, 2015

Poem: Empty Like My Wallet

Your scream sounds like a crisp dollar bill
like broken glass flying
like a bullet of water slicing
through a crusty rock
like a mushed soda can
like the fragments from a shattered marshmallow
like rock beating scissors
like paper losing to scissors
like an empty ATM machine
like an overused fireman pole rotting
in the empty station echoing forever
like the fan from an overheating laptop
like an untuned guitar
like a terrible movie that lasts forever
like an explosive pillow fight
like a barrage of bowling pins haunting
a lone bowling ball
like the popping oil from a frying egg
like a baseball punching a mitt
like the feedback from an overly experimental song
like a crying chili pepper
like bad Christmas decorations
like a cast that doesn't fit properly
on your swollen ankle
like a fruitless workout
like a fruit that looks like it has worked out
like the crash of a mighty cymbal
like an empty wallet
like the jingle of your tennis racket
like an awkward USB stick
like the scream I heard when riding the space needle elevator

as we ascended above the vast metropolis

Sunday, May 10, 2015

Poem: The Inflated Balloon



So much depends
upon


An inflated
balloon


Clutched by a
child


To give him a
smile

Sunday, January 11, 2015

Just a Gigolo

"I ain't got nobody"


     Many times has this line been repeated throughout musical history and many times has it always been a thrill to listen to.  These words come from "Just a Gigolo", a traditional pop swing song that was made famous by the American singer Louis Prima in 1956.  

Louis Prima - Just a Gigolo  
                                                                                                                                                                   
     Though the tune was incredibly catchy and memorable, this was not an original composition. Prima had actually combined two songs together to create the final product of "Just a Gigolo".  The two songs he mashed together were "I Ain't Got Nobody" a 1915 piece by Spencer Williams and Roger A. Graham, and the original version of "Just a Gigolo", "Schöner Gigolo, armer Gigolo" which was the very first recorded version of the song.  It was composed by Leonello Casucci, an Austrian musician.

Leonello Casucci (Performed by Dajos Béla) - Just a Gigolo

Spencer Williams / Roger A. Graham (Performed by Coon-Sanders Orch.) - I Ain't Got Nobody


  Many people are not aware that the song is not completely Prima's work, although it is undeniably the better product of the two songs. As Prima's signature tune continued to grow famous, more artists began to create their own covers of the song.  


The next most significant adaption sprung into life during the funky and hip era of disco; The 70's. In 1978 The Village People produced a disco version of the piece, and boy did it have rhythm. It is an immense shame that I could not find any high quality recordings of this song whatsoever, but nonetheless give it a listen.  

Village People - Just a Gigolo

     It is always extremely satisfying to see an old hit be covered.  What's even more thrilling to see is to then watch that very cover became just as famous (and perhaps even more) as the original song.  David Lee Roth did just this.

David Lee Roth - Just a Gigolo (Skip to 1:37 for the actual music)

     Lead vocalist of Van Halen, David Lee Roth took a small break from the band and decided to have some time for himself in 1985.  What he delivered to us during that break was one of the most  soulful-pop songs I have ever heard.  You can just hear the raw passion in his voice, and he really does seem like he's singing his heart out.  David Lee Roth's innovative music video for the single was the biggest factor that contributed to his success, and boy is it amusing.

    Now i'm sure that you might be scratching your heads with confusion right now if you watched the video.  The inappropriateness in the video may seem very unexpected, but in fact it is quite relevant to the song.  It may seem surprising but "gigolo" actually means "male escort":  A man who gets payed for his sexual attention and companionship.  The entire song is based on a gigolo singing about how he feels about his miserable life, but with a very light and bright tone.

    And now we come to the final and most fitting adaption for our generation; The pop version.  The Latin pop artist Lou Bega did quite a decent job by modernizing it with heavy bass beats and only god knows how many pop horns they used.

 Lou Bega - Just a Gigolo

     This 2001 rendition of the original gives it a completely new feel that makes you want to get up and party hard.  It is not very well known as Lou Bega is considered to be a one hit wonder with his infamous tune "Mambo No. 5" and had most of his other works overlooked.


    One song, four genres:  Swing, disco, pop rock, and pop.  Out of the four my personal favorite would have to be the original Louis Prima composition with it's smooth swing feel and powerful vocals.  I absolutely adore the call and response section, and I especially enjoy when the trumpet plays on the offbeat.  It sounds absolutely incredible and I would highly suggest to pay attention to the horns throughout the song.

     "Just a Gigolo" has traveled through different generations with varying popularity, but what's amazing is how it persevered.  By leaving a giant mark in the music world during the 50's, it has journeyed into the 21st Century with pride and is relevant to this very day.  I would not mind to see another cover, but I think the history of the song is fine as it is and can be left alone with it's rich past, and as Louis Prima brightly lamented,

"There will come a day when youth will pass away,
What would they say about me?"

All we can say Louis is youth certainly did pass away.

But you'll be timeless.