Scholarly Identity

If anything you'll find me sitting
 like this guy half the time.

To be or not to be, that is the question? Do I consider myself a scholar? Well are we not all scholars in some way? We learn at least something new of different everyday. And for me to just quote Shakespeare I guess does kind of imply a sense of being a scholar or a nerd. Well for me I do enjoy learning, and not just anything but things that seem to get my attention. I could say that I am more of a thinker and I guess that is kind of the same thing in a way. This being my first year at school has made me see myself more differently and I can say I still have more room to grow and improve myself. As well as to thank all my professors this year for having to deal with this kid, hopefully I wasn't that much of a nuisance. Well as Ornette  Coleman described his music, this is the territory and what follows is the adventure.

Discourse Community II

Los Angeles is one the most diverse cities. Take it from me, a Mexican living within the Koreatown area. And Koreatown is one of the few small communities that exist around Los Angeles. I actually took a little adventure of my own a while back where I visited the areas close to me. It was actually fun, beside the occasionally cholo asking me where I was from, but I saw a lot of communities that I didn't think were really named that way. This whole thing of labeling a community just on a race has got to change but I wonder why they keep the names the same since there are starting to be a mixture of ethnicities moving everywhere. What's even wonderful you get to meet knew people, like a close friend who is Korean but speaks Spanish likes to say he's Mexican, so I tend to identify with being Korean with him. When people ask me where do I live, I think and say happily Koreatown.  

Discourse Community I

I always saw a kind of segregation within schools. Not as me being a racist but from the observations I made in my time during high school. Everybody had a group to which they belonged to and the was even divided before I started school, basically this was going on for a while. And to top it off there were 6 different SLCs which kind of divided students more, but that was based on what they were studying. Here are some examples that was seen and I kid you not the people in these groups knew where they were and who they were. Well lets start with a large area of the quad known as "Disneyland". As it may sound this was a place where a majority of the white kids happened to hang out. Then where the black people would mostly reside was by the cafeteria so some genius decided to call it Six Flags or the Ghettos...I have no idea why. The same went for kids in music, theater, dance and although it sounds as they go hand in hand, again they stuck with their own groups. Sure it does sound bad at first, but things change. And I noticed, more people who "didn't belong" were hanging out in different spots. Times are changing and people are starting to push the boundaries which is a good thing, being different...is good.

This is it now.

The old days.

Counter Stories V

Many people think of books when you hear the word story. I think that's false. Nowadays anything around us can be a counter story. The music we hear, is the musician's way of trying to convey his emotions and message out to the people. As well as the way we interpret a song, for each person is different with their own view points and meanings. As well as art, for the arts are the way into recapture the things that make us human, the things that make us unique from other species. Surrounding us, are counter stories that haven't been told yet. The whole counter story experience has inspired me to start digging more about my family's past and to begin my own stories to tell. I think the best way to get to know the differences out there is to try to understand why things are like this. The point being you will be surprised to what you can find out.
On a lighter note I recommend to listen to this song by Chick Corea called "Spain".

Counter Stories IV

We pass by many faces everyday in our lives. Yet we sometimes forget about those less fortunate. We see homeless people in the street and we ignore them without every thinking "What have they gone through" or "Who are you". In this video we see that a man  named Marcus Malone who once was part Santana's group is now currently homeless, however with the work from the reporter somehow managed to contact Carlos Santana and have them meet  up. Their reaction's were priceless. Who would have known that a random man who was going through garbage was once part of this popular group. You can see quite how emotional both men were to meet each other once again. This just goes to show you can't judge a book by its cover. And to my knowledge Santana offered Marcus "The Magnificent" Malone a new chance by helping him out and offering him to go back with him into the studios.

Counter Stories III

There are many points in time where such sad tragic events unfolded. Sadly Africa was one of those places which repeatedly got screwed over. Then there came a man who took a trip and wrote down his experience into a book. That man was Joseph Conrad and his book, Heart of Darkness was a gateway for me to further understand what really was happening in Africa. Not many people know the dirty secrets that have been hidden away. If one were to find out what really happened it would be horrifying. What's pretty amazing is that Heart of Darkness was the inspiration for Francis Ford Coppola's Apocalypse Now which tried to follow the main story line of the book,  as well as trying to give the viewer examples of the lives of US soldiers in Vietnam during the war ( Vietnam War). Featuring quite the cast ensemble I would recommend to watch the movie or read the book, for I hate spoilers.

Twilight II

Thinking about the riots, I wonder if things are the same or different? It is hard for me to believe that it has been a little bit more than 20 years since the LA Riots began. Now I see this city differently. I can't explain it, but Los Angeles is my home and riot and all, I'll love LA. I think after Twilight I need to connect more with the people in the city. For Twilight was the voices of the people, I would want a way for the people to be heard. To prevent the problems which was the reason why many people decided to burn down their own home. However I wonder if one day all the tensions that are existing today and the many problems that many people suffer,  will too one day explode to something...bad.....hopefully not.