Friday, May 9, 2008

Lyrics to "Your Senses"


"Your Senses"

Have you ever heard the sweet sound of harmony
When two are together forever
No longer apart
And no longer in pain

Have you ever heard the cries for love
Shouting for hugs and kisses
Today is the day
Your ears will open and hear the pleads

Chorus:
Because you are the one
The one in my heart
No matter what
We will be together
Together forever

Have you ever seen the beauty of compassion
With its warmth and feeling
Sunbursts of kindness
Bathing everyone in light

Have you ever seen the beauty of a flower
A rose painting the color of your lips
Ruby and garnet both brilliant
Just like you and I

"Your Senses" Analysis

"Your Senses" Analysis

For my song, I decided to create something that I would enjoy writing and something that I would also enjoy listening too. The genre of my song is rock, and the main theme is love. In my song, I wanted to capture a moment in where a girl sincerely loves this boy. However, he, in turn, doesn't have a clue about this unseen love, and this song is a way of this woman describing their "perfect harmony" with each other.
The first line, "Have you ever heard the sweet sound of harmony," was intended to have a little touch of a dreamy sensation. In this line, I can truly picture a scene in where the girl is dazzlingly looking at the boy and fluttering her eyelashes rapidly. In the line, " When two are together forever," it ties into the first lines in which she is saying that they were meant to be with each other; something similar to fate. The lines, "No longer apart, and no longer in pain," stand out to me, in a sense that when this girl isn't this boy's girlfriend or lover, she senses pain for both of them, because, of course, she thinks that they were meant to be the only ones for each other.
In the second verse, again it starts with, "Have you ever heard…" In the first line, "Have you ever heard the cries for love," suggests that she has been trying to get his attention, and has been trying to desperately tell him that she loves him. However, it doesn't seem that he realizes her hints at all. "Shouting for hugs and kisses," expresses how she wants for him to hug and kiss her like she is his, and only his. In the last two lines of this verse, "Today is the day, your ears will open and hear the pleads," states how today is when she will make him realize that she loves him and he loves her too and they should be together always.
In the chorus, the first line, "Because you are the one," means that she will only love him and no one else. "The one in my heart," restates her love for him and how he is the only ONE in her eyes. The line, "No matter what," suggests that she loves him so much that she would do anything for him; go through deadly obstacles just to get to him. In the last two lines, "We will be together, together forever," mentions about how no matter what will happen between them, they will always be together forever, and nothing can separate them.
In the fourth verse, "Have you ever seen the beauty of compassion," suggests that he has been cruel to her, like all teenage boys are to girls, suggesting that compassion is what they needed. In the next line, "With its warmth and feeling," I had a visual of the sun shining and spreading its warmth on the world. In the last two lines, "Sunbursts of kindness, bathing everyone in light," gives me another visual of sunrays bursting and engulfing the world in light. Similar to sunlight, kindness can spread rapidly and touches everyone.
In the last verse, the first line, "Have you ever seen the beauty of a flower," was intended to talk about beauty and divine colors in a woman. "A rose painting the color of your lips," talks about the color of a rose, succulent red, being the color of his lips making the picture of him more attracting. In the line, "Ruby and garnet both brilliant," was intended to show his handsomeness through the beauty of precious stones. Finally the last line, "Just like you and I," suggests that together they are just plain un-shined stones, but however, when they are together, they make the most beautiful stones that glitter in beauty.
In my song, I wanted to make it sound like questions being asked by this girl to this boy. That is the reason why all the main verses start with, "Have you ever…" Although love is true and divine, teenage love is immature in a way that we love to daydream and our hearts just want to express our love without letting the other person know about it.

Friday, May 2, 2008

Song Reflection


During the production of my song, it was very difficult to choose which beat to sing too and which instruments would sound best with it. However, I managed to somehow pull through that and found a nice guitar melody and a nice drum beat. I also had a fun time creating this song because I love rock music, and it was easier for me to create this song because I had a lot of experience with garageband. Since I figure skate and I need to create music or cut music for my programs, I already looked through garageband and got to know most of the tools I could use to create a nice beat.

Friday, April 18, 2008

Wednesday, April 16, 2008

Sonnet


An Ode to Spring Beauty

The world is kind to you and I, my dear
The newly sprung green sapling looks like we
Their moving leaves make music sweet to hear
The melody leads all to dance with glee
As bees are drawn to apple blossoms fast
You mesmerize me with your sweet, sweet smile
And love for you sees me o'er seas vast
To me you are the sun and flower isle
Your fresh petals to bloom during this spring
My soul longs for the warm and verdant growth
Relief from thee eternal winter bring
Without you, dear, I will not plight my troth
but human's penchant for much pain will lead
me to extend this frost until I'm dead

Thursday, April 10, 2008

Sonnet Analysis

Analysis

Calla and I decided to write a sonnet on something that we both could agree on and had some relation to Shakespeare's Midsummer Night's Dream, so we used the theme first love. We made the setting in spring and used the perspective of a man talking about his love to express the feelings of first love. In our sonnet, we were trying to capture the moment in where love's immaturity and passion is revealed to this man.
In the opening lines of our sonnet, "The world is kind to you and I, my dear," it is saying how the world is giving them its approval to love each other. Instead of something such as in Shakespeare's Midsummer Night's Dream where a conflict between Hermia and her father Egeus forbade her to be with her true love, Lysander because he didn't agree with her and Lysander marrying and wanted her to marry the man of his choice, Demetrius. The lines "The newly sprung green sapling looks like we," suggests that their love is very fragile and young in a sense that when you look at a newly sprung sapling, it is very delicate. Anything can destroy it; storms, droughts, manmade objects. Similar to a newly sprung sapling, a relationship is very fragile in a way that you can also destroy it with anything; harming it yourself, conflicts between each other, and dirty rumors. In the lines, "Their moving leaves make music sweet to hear," and, "The melody leads all to dance with glee," it has a romantic feeling to it. It gives me visions of spring, where everything is so beautiful, especially when winds blow through the leaves of the trees, making the leaves rustle, creating soothing sounds. These lines were intended to express how beautiful his love for her is depicting in the springtime.
In the lines, "As bees are drawn to apple blossoms fast," he indicates his attraction to her beauty through an analogy. As bees are drawn to apple blossoms, he is drawn to her. The apple blossom also represents her beauty in a way that apple blossoms are exquisite and stunning as she is. The lines, "You mesmerize me with your sweet, sweet smile," also describe how beautiful and attractive his girl is. It also gives you a feeling that he will do anything for her because her beauty blinds him, and again, it shows how his attraction towards her. "And love for you sees me o'er seas vast," indicates his devotion towards her. Also, "seas" could be a metaphoric term for any obstacles stopping him from seeing her, so he is trying to express that he will do anything, go through anything to get to her. The lines, "To me you are the sun and flower isle," refers back to the analogy of the bees and the flowers, but has the sun added to it adding warmth and light to the sonnet.
Tying with the previous lines of, "To me you are the sun and flower isle," the lines, "Your fresh petals to bloom during this spring," suggests that she will have become even more beautiful during the spring, for spring is the peak of the growth of plants and flowers, and that is when she, the flower, has been fully replenished and ready to bloom her beauty to the world. Also, adding to the previous suggestion of light and warmth, the line, "My soul longs for the warm and verdant growth," states that he wants to be part of the isle that she is described as and wants to be in her "light", in her presence. "Relief from thee eternal winter bring," basically says that he will save her from the endless winter and keep her company. Also, if you looked at "thee," as, "the," instead, then the line would also say that she alleviates him from the endless winter. Finally expressing his total feelings for her he, says, "Without you, dear, I will not plight my troth," meaning that he will not marry anyone else but her.
And lastly, the heart-rending ending, adds a twist to this love sonnet. "But human's penchant for much pain will lead me to extend this frost until I'm dead," indicates that even though he may love her, he will not be with her, and will extend the endless winter to an eternity. It is sad, by any case, because in the way he describes her so elegantly and brings out his devotion for her, and then abruptly says these horrible lines tells you of some irony in this sonnet.
Although, love is beautiful, breath taking, and blinding, there are still some obstacles, in which this case was "the human's penchant for pain." However, how we described his love, passion, and devotion to her, was incredibly clever, because we tied it into spring and Shakespeare's Midsummer Night's Dream, which also had its fair share of love problems.

Wednesday, March 5, 2008

Paper #2 (Holden in ten years) and Analysis

Audrey Higa
11:30
Mrs.Shigemitsu
In The Park
I was exhausted from running so I walked over to one of those worn down benches. I could feel the cool breeze blowing in my face and the smell of muggy grass was overwhelming. I was sweating and panting when I heard someone say, "Phoebe, is that you?"
I looked up at once and saw that it was Holden. He was standing there with Jane and their little boy Allie. Allie was only 5 years old. He looked exactly like our brother Allie. He had the most radiant red hair you had ever seen and was very smart. He was such a sweet little boy. When I was over at their house for Christmas, he would always hold my hand and show me his drawing of the entire family. He even asked me to model for his drawings. He was left-handed just like old Allie. Anyway, I wiped the sweat off my face and said, "Holden is that you? Hi! How have you been and how did you know I was here?"
He replied, "Ah, I've been good. You told me that you were on summer vacation and I was in town, so I called up mom to see where you were. She told me she didn't know your whereabouts, but I kind of got a hint that you would be in the park. It was your usual hang out spot when you were younger."
"Yeah. I remember the old times. I just came here to jog a little bit and see if anything changed around here."
Over the years, the city wasn't just the only thing that had changed. Holden had also changed so much. I remember talking to him about everything: girls, school, and books. When we would talk, he would say "goddam" and I would always ask him to stop swearing. But now, he never swears. Probably having little Allie around whipped him into a more father-like manner. He would always think everyone was so phony and stupid. He thought everything was pointless after Allie died. So he always got expelled from all of the schools he attended, but this all changed.
Not only did little Allie help Holden change, but also Holden changed himself. In some ways, I think he realized what was going on. A long time ago, he used to talk to me about his problems. He used to tell me, "I just don't know what I think about everything."
Over the years though, through his encounters with people, and with the help of Jane, he put himself together.
For some reason, from his experiences the week after he was expelled from Pencey Prep, everything began to make sense to him. When I talked to him about that week, he told me a lot of things had happened to him. He met strange people and realized that only some of the people he had met in his life were "true phonies". Like for instance, he told me about this one girl, Sunny I think. He wasn't specific of how he met her, but he said she was the phoniest person he had ever met. She was a really spooky kid. He said she was a prostitute, but she seemed his age. She didn't even sound like a prostitute at all though. When she would talk to him, she would say, "like fun you are," instead of saying something like, "cut the crap". He also told me about these nuns that he had met. They were so modest to him. They discussed books such as Romeo and Juliet, and when one of them smiled, it killed him. They weren't "phony" in his eyes.
I don't think that's the only thing that made him change his mind. The biggest influence was probably Jane. I remember how he used to describe her. He used to say she was "muckle-mouthed" and how she loved to read books and poetry. She was the only one he had ever shown Allie's baseball mitt to; she was the only one who would appreciate it. Jane and Holden were inseparable. When they were at home, they would always be holding hands or talking in some way. They weren't like those couples that act like they "love" each other, and then when they reach home, start ignoring each other. Jane was always concerned about Holden, especially about how he acted. While they were dating, Jane would always tell Holden about what was phony in her mind, and how it was different from Holden's "phony". She told him he just couldn't think people were phony. He had to know them, and truly know them, to believe that they were "phony". That started to bug him, but after a while, he understood what she was talking about. After that, he wasn't the same Holden I used to know. He was even better.
Not only did Jane help Holden change, but Holden changed himself. In some ways, I think he realized what was going on. A long time ago, he used to talk to me about his problems. He used to tell me, "I just don't know what I think about everything."
Over the years though, through his encounters with people, and with the help of Jane, put himself together.
"Phoebe, would you like to come to eat lunch with us?"
I quickly stood up and answered, "Yeah! I would love that! But can I meet you guys after I take a quick shower? I really don't feel like have lunch with sweat all over myself."
Jane picks up Allie and says, "That's fine. How about we wait for you at the house."
We started towards the house when I felt something warm on my hand. I looked down to see a hand grasping mine. I looked up and saw Holden. He smiled and then said, "It's nice to see you again little sis. It's been a long time."
I thought exactly the same.
"It's nice to see you again Holden."
Analysis
During this paper, I decided to put Phoebe as the narrator because she knew Holden the most. I needed someone who knew Holden from the inside out so that I could discuss situations such as what happened between Holden and Sunny. I also needed to describe the people he liked such as Jane and Allie in his mind.
I decided to make him married to Jane because of the connections he had with her. It seemed that she was the only person to have truly understanded him other than Phoebe. In the book, chapter 11, she was also the only person that Holden thought was not "phony" at all and the only person that he could relate to the most compared to others. Since I wanted Holden to become mature, and not so childish, I thought it would be perfect if Holden were married to Jane. Holden would most likely change for Jane and over the years, when they would be dating, I could talk about situations in where Jane starts gradually attempting to change Holden. This is exactly what happened in my story.
Allie, Holden and Jane's child, was meant to be named and look similar to Allie, Holden's younger brother, to represent how Holden could love. In the book, chapter 5, you can tell that Holden had a lot of love for his little brother, and when he died, all of Holden's thoughts were messed up. He couldn’t think right. However, when Jane gave birth to a baby boy, and named him Allie, it was a situation in where Holden could change. Allie, his child, looked similar to his brother Allie, so it was like a second chance to love his little brother. That is why I decided to make his child similar to his brother Allie.
In this story, I wanted Holden to change. When he was a teen, he was immature and stupid. However, when he had grown up, it meant that he had time to grow up. He realizes and looks back on all the times that he has been "phony" himself. This is what snaps him into the character in my story.