Although there are a plethora of songs and lyrics that can inspire a person, the excitement and thrill one gets from Cirque du Soleil is like nothing else. Here is just one example of what a part of a Cirque du Soleil show looks like, and I'm sure you will be amazed.

Fix You

I would just like to comment on the lyrics of a song we are singing for our show choir this year. The song is called "Fix You" and it was written by Cold Play. The lyrics are like this (although they may be altered slightly because of our choir version).

When you try your best but you don't succeed,
When you get what you want but it's not what you need,
When you feel so tired but you just can't sleep
Stuck in reverse
Lights will guide you home
And ignite your bones
And I will try,
To fix you

And high up above or down below
When you're too in love to let it go
If you never try you will never know
Just what you're worth
Lights will guide you home
And ignite your bones
And I will try to fix you

Tears stream down you face
When you lose something you cannot replace
Tears stream down your face
I promise you I will learn from my mistakes
Tears stream down you face
Lights will guide you home
And ignite your bones
And I will try to fix you


These words are so simply if you look at them from a nice cold eye, but when you look deeper, there is a meaning that is waiting to be unfolded. There is a meaning that everyone can relate to, but everyone relates to it differently. Originally, the song was written to a friend whose spouse just passed away. For me however, I think about my grandfather. There was a moment at his funeral that I couldn't control myself from tearing up. It was one of the most strong feelings I've ever felt in my whole entire life. At that moment, I was "stuck in reverse." My life couldn't go on until I had emoted and expressed my feelings. My grandfather also inspired me to learn from my mistakes, a key concept in Judaism as well.

"Papa" fixed me in many ways. He made me become a better person, and he had changed me for good. Only at that moment at his funeral I needed someone to be there for me and fix me. Although you may not understand, my grandfather was the one who helped me get through that moment, "high up above."

Finals!

I cannot believe that our final exams are nearly here. This term has gone by so quickly, when I look back at it, it hasn't seemed that long of a time. I guess all of the homework and projects haven't taken all that long to accomplish, and the projects weren't all that boring as well. I only hope that my unfocused attitude (about how much time is left in the term that is) does not come back and bite me in the butt when my final grades come out. There is only one class that I am not quite sure of gradwise at the present moment, and that is AP Language and Composition. I just don't know what is graded and what isn't, making me a little bit nervous. Hopefully it will all come together in the end as it usually does. I just have to make sure that the next term I start off strong and stay strong.

Obama!

"Yes we can! Yes we can! Yes we can!" Perhaps the most inspiring words of the twenty-first century. If you are for Obama or McCain, you cannot say that this is not a historical moment in the world's history. The most powerful nation in the world has elected a black president. It is proven that our nation has finally reached the point where no black person can be told he or she cannot do something. Only forty years ago, this thought was uncomprehendable as many African Americans wre still harshly discriminated against. Only fifty years ago were blacks separated from others in their education and public places. During Obama's concession speech, he talked about a 106 year old black woman who voted on Tuesday. When she was born, there weren't even cars and then she voted on an electronic voting machine. Also, not only did black people not have the right to vote when she was born, but women as a whole didn't have the right to vote. Suffrage was a thing that only white men held, and today a black man is voted president.

However, it is important to understand that Obama was not elected because he was black alone. Most people didn't just go to the polls and say, "Hey, I think it would be great to have a black president." Although they may have thought this, most voted for Obama because he was great. For example, the state of Iowa has a 2% black population, and still, Obama won the state. People were able to look past the racial barrier, which is why this election was so great. A black person is just as equal as a white person. This is a wondrous statement, especially if it cannot be contested.

I think that our nation needed most at this moment was change, no matter what kind, as long as it was good change. I think that the McCain supporters will support Obama in the end, and I think that the Obama supporters would've supported McCain just as much in the end if McCain had won. We needed a new leader, someone who could make our lives better, and that was what that election was about. As it comes to Inauguration Day, we will come together as a nation and accept Obama as our President together. He is the President of all of us.

The Russian Festival in Kalamazoo

This past weekend, my mother and I traveled to Kalamazoo, Michigan for the annual Russian Festival held at the university there. My grandma is the director of the festival so we have been to the festival many times before. I am very lucky to have such a grandma who still has so much energy at an older age and who is willing to give me so many opportunities to experience other cultures. At this festival, the theme was Russia looking towards the east and to the west, demoted by the double-headed eagle. The double-headed eagle was first used during the imperial times of Russia and then used once again after the fall of the Soviet Union.

To acknowledge the double-headed eagle, my grandma invited groups from other cultures to perform at the Russian festival. Thus, during the Friday night gala, a Chinese girls' dance group performed various ethnic dances and during the Saturday portion of the festival two Chinese men played ethnic instruments in a duet. Out of these I enjoyed most the musicians. One man played a flute-like instrument and the other man played a stringed instrument, perhaps it was a mandolin. Nonetheless, they made beautiful music and it was very different from the other types that were heard during the festival.

The most entertaining group that performed, however, was a Russian balalaika group from Komi Russia. There were three musicians in the group, two whom played a smaller balalaika and one who played a larger balalaika. A fourth had plans to come and play the bass balalaika, but he had trouble getting a visa to come to America. The group played all types of music, Rock n' Roll to classical Russian. They were very into their music and it seemed that they were enjoying themselves very much as they played. One of my favorites was their piece called, "Cuban Dance." Their playing was stylistically Cuban and during the song one man stopped for a bit to play the maracas and the claves.

I also enjoyed a Russian classical song in which one man stopped to play the saw and bow. Although it may sound quite ugly in words, the actual event was ambrosia to the ears. The sound was like a woman "ooing" and it was very smooth. I didn't even know that it was possible to play the saw, but after hearing it, it was something that I was yearning to hear more of.

Overall, the festival was very good. Each moment was entertaining and there were lots of people there to talk to. Also, the Russian lunch was quite tasty, and I had been waiting for such a meal since my trip to Russia this summer. I am always pleased to go to the Russian festival every year, and this year I did some volunteer work there. I hope that the festival will go on for long years to come.

The festival's website is http://russianfestival.org/

Writing Music

Writing music is a blessing. Creating beautiful is like nothing else in this world. One can compose something simple, complex, soft, striking, or etc. The limit does not exist. I enjoy writing music that has a musical feel to it. At the present moment, I am writing my own musical and it has to do with Hell. The gist of the plot is that a girl goes to Hell and she meets all these weird people there. It's a comedy and she encounters gangsters, whores, hard-core gamblers, fraud criminals among others. She doesn't feel comfortable at all in Hell, and the people that live in her apartment complex are barely friendly to her. She has to get food somehow, so she decides to work for the KGB officers there. Eventually, she discovers through her work at the office that someone in her area is not supposed to be in Hell. In the end, God summons the girl to her gates and the girl becomes the next God. God had sent her there as a test to see if she could survive "Hell-month."

So right now, I am trying to write music for this musical. It must be dark and innovative while some songs must be enlightening. I just hope that I can finish it in time so that the school can perform the musical. Also, I hope that by writing this musical I can produce something that changes people. I hope that the show can be like the show "Wicked" in some ways. "Wicked" takes simple ideas and turns them into great morals. This play has music that is innovative and is unlike most other genres. I hope I cannot recreate Wicked, but create something just as different as "Wicked."

Right now, my electric piano is broken, so it is very hard to write music. Thus, I am just using the computer program I have called "Sibelius." It is quite interesting to write music on as well because of its playback feature. All of the instruments play back as if someone was really playing that instrument. However, I must type in the notes if I want to hear them, instead of playing on the piano. Also, on the piano, I can experiment with chords to a greater degree, and I can do it much more efficiently. No matter what, writing music is something I wish I had more time to do and perfect, despite the mechanism by which I do it.

Bulgarian Voices

Perhaps one of the most intriguing types of music in the world is Bulgarian music. It is unlike any on earth. The voices of the Bulgarians are surreal and the choral music they make is quite untraditional, thereby establishing itself as a distinctly unique vocal anomaly. Perhaps it is their voices or perhaps it is the clashes their voices make with each other that make their music so enticing, so beautiful. Here is a performance of the Bulgarian State Women's Choir on the Johnny Carson show, obviously a while ago.



I'm sure you have heard nothing like that before, and I hope you understand how different their singing is. I particularly enjoy their first song, Ergen Dede. I believe it's about an old man who fools a young woman into loving him. I first heard the song done by the women's choir in my own school. It was a high school choir, and obviously all the girls who sang the song were Americans. After hearing this song for the first time sung by native Bulgarians, I was simply agog. My ears were shaken. Words cannot express their tone and their style, except that it is truly Bulgarian.

For me, after hearing this music, I feel rejuvenated. Actually, to this day watching that video makes me smile. The women singing the songs are so happy to be showing what Bulgarians are and how they are so unique. The women singing it have a certain pride that I am envious of. One time I even proclaimed, "If I were born as someone else, I would want to the large Bulgarian lady in the center who smiles while she sings." A silly remark it was, but it is also quite serious. If I could be in a choir that could make people happy every time they heard the music I would feel great.

I think it is important to study the music of different cultures, because it can spark in interest in yourself. Although Bulgarian music has done this for me, I believe that there are many other musical niches out there. Perhaps a native style of singing, or maybe a modern type is the kind that you can most relate to. Whatever it is, I would like to encourage my readers to learn about foreign types of music as well as domestic, because there may be something inside of you yearning to hear this.

The Power of Music

Music is one of the most powerful ways of conversion in all of the world. Everyone can listen and everyone can affected by it. Whether the music is religious or hateful, it can influence us greatly and it can make us feel things that we didn't know we could feel. There is something in all of our hearts that triggers at the sound of music. However, all of us are triggered by different types of music. Some teenagers may want to feel rebellious, so they shut others out of their world and subject themselves to music which they can relate to. At an opera, one would find lots of adult whose hearts beat faster at every note sung, yet would find no younger people who would cringe at such sounds. Nonetheless, the "emo" kids are just as influenced by listening to their hard rock as the old geezers are to the arias.

For me, I am changed by the perfect and realistic conjunction of lyrics, tune, and voice. The lyrics have to be changing themselves, either poetically or more straight forward. The tune has to be beautiful for me, because I am not changed by something that sounds ugly in the first place. Also, the singers who perform the music must also be inspiring themselves. They must be the music and they must feel the music. Besides that, the singers must be talented with their voices as well as their vocal presence. For some artists, you can tell how the singer is feeling at that moment just by the way that singer sounds.

Although there are many examples of this perfect conjunction, perhaps the most powerful is the song "The Prayer," sung by Andrea Boccelli and Celine Dion. While singing, each has a strong, confident presence. Also, the way they sing the words makes them sink into the hearts of the listeners. It's like falling into a cloud when listening to this song.



I'm sorry that the video is not of the best quality, but I hope that you can still understand how each of the singers but their souls into what they were singing. Andrea Boccelli himself is a blind man, yet he could see the words he was singing. This is a true masterpiece in my opinion, and the video doesn't give it justice. Although you may believe that this song is not a true masterpiece, I hope you do understand that music plays a powerful role in everyone's lives, despite the genre.