DJ Shadow definitely took the right path by doing something different on his albums in comparison to all the other popular mainstream albums out there. I think that what he did was very creative and unique. All of the music that is sampled on his album came from some other type of music and beat, which was considered music before he cut and chopped them and put it on his album. This is one of the reasons why I still consider this music. To me, music is anything I can dance to. It is any form of sound, beat, rhythm, or tune that expresses or triggers an emotion. More so, what I really find to be interesting is that each song on the album is different from the other. One of the songs has a jazzy- funk feel to it while the next song is more of a classic beat flow. It’s definitely a different sound and feeling compared to the type of music I listen to, but it has something so catchy about it that it makes you wonder who did the instrumentals! I have to say I was quite surprised after listening to a couple of his songs that he had sampled from random pieces and put them together. The music sounds very coherent and fun.
Over all, I believe that DJ Shadows album is considered music. Even though there aren’t “original” instrumentals on it, it doesn’t mean that it lacks the ability to be music. Music is universal and encompasses so many different forms of sounds that are either created in a studio or from nature. I don’t think anyone has the right to say what is and isn’t considered music. It depends on the individual and how that individual perceives music.
Tuesday, September 21, 2010
Thursday, September 9, 2010
My Cave and Phil's Journey
After watching Groundhog Day I was able to witness how Phil’s process of self discovery and enlightenment resembled my journey in the cave. I was able to distinguish some similarities that I had gone through as well as differences that I had overlooked in my own experience.
First, and what I believe to be most important, is that Phil had to learn that he was the one who had to change to make him happier. The way that Phil acted was that everyone around him was in the wrong. They never met his standards as a friend, co worker or even a partner. Because never seemed satisfied with people he turned bitter and took his frustration out on everyone he surrounded himself with. What Phil really had to learn was that those people weren’t going to change. They weren’t necessarily the ones who needed to change. It was he who needed to change his attitude about life and relationships. Over coming denial is one of the hardest things human’s have to face and often times it takes years and years for someone to finally realize that they have been in the wrong. I think that Phil desperately wanted his friends and coworkers to change so that he would be happy but in reality, he needed to change himself to accept others for who they truly were.
It was important for Phil to understand that the people in his life weren’t going to change. He needed to stop trying to change them and to live his own life. I believe that in my similar situation I wanted so bad to change my boyfriend. I kept lying to myself and telling myself that one day he would change. I never took the responsibility upon myself to say “why don’t I change? Why don’t I face the reality of this problem and walk away?” For some reason I kept expecting everyone else to change around me who had the problem. It took Phil and I to finally be hit hard by a crisis to realize that we had to change our way of living in order to survive and to make ourselves happy again. More so, it took many trial and error episodes for me to see the light and see the problem clearly. It wasn’t until I had seen the light and had a wake up call that made me consciously aware of my own actions and responsibilities. I knew what I had to do and I was determined to make that change and take that large leap in my life because I knew it would better me and my future.
First, and what I believe to be most important, is that Phil had to learn that he was the one who had to change to make him happier. The way that Phil acted was that everyone around him was in the wrong. They never met his standards as a friend, co worker or even a partner. Because never seemed satisfied with people he turned bitter and took his frustration out on everyone he surrounded himself with. What Phil really had to learn was that those people weren’t going to change. They weren’t necessarily the ones who needed to change. It was he who needed to change his attitude about life and relationships. Over coming denial is one of the hardest things human’s have to face and often times it takes years and years for someone to finally realize that they have been in the wrong. I think that Phil desperately wanted his friends and coworkers to change so that he would be happy but in reality, he needed to change himself to accept others for who they truly were.
It was important for Phil to understand that the people in his life weren’t going to change. He needed to stop trying to change them and to live his own life. I believe that in my similar situation I wanted so bad to change my boyfriend. I kept lying to myself and telling myself that one day he would change. I never took the responsibility upon myself to say “why don’t I change? Why don’t I face the reality of this problem and walk away?” For some reason I kept expecting everyone else to change around me who had the problem. It took Phil and I to finally be hit hard by a crisis to realize that we had to change our way of living in order to survive and to make ourselves happy again. More so, it took many trial and error episodes for me to see the light and see the problem clearly. It wasn’t until I had seen the light and had a wake up call that made me consciously aware of my own actions and responsibilities. I knew what I had to do and I was determined to make that change and take that large leap in my life because I knew it would better me and my future.
Wednesday, September 1, 2010
My Truth in Plato's Cave
I had been working on the Embarcadero in Morro Bay for about six years and I had worked my way up from cashier, assistant manager, manager and bookkeeper. To say the least there were many un expected events that made me doubt my ability to be successful and question whether or not my decisions in the work place were true to myself and ethical.
My boss had gone on a month long vacation to Mexico for her husband’s retirement and had left me in charge with full responsibility over the store. Since my boss was leaving for such a long time she had asked her best friend, Annie from college to come and help run the store. I was relived to know that I would have reliable help and gladly accepted her offer.
It was about a week into the month and I began receiving comments from a couple of my coworkers that Annie wanted to be in charge of all the sales on the register during her shift and also that they noticed that she had been seen with large amounts of cash in her wallet. This to me did not sound in the least bit of the way weird or even anything to be concerned about. I shrugged their comments off because after all, I was the manager and the person in charge of everyone in the store and I had everything in control. Or so I thought. One night I was working on the books and noticed that everyday we were either short or over in the last week or so. I took brief note of this and didn’t think anything of it until a week later we were missing over two hundred dollars. This is where my fear came in. My mind was so jumbled that I couldn’t think straight. I was completely responsible for everything that happened in the store and of all the money we made. I clenched my teeth thinking about the reaction my boss would have if I had told her we were short that much money.
SHADOWS-FEAR:
It didn’t even dawn on me that Annie could possibly be stealing money. She was a sixty five year old lady who was so gentle and sweet. All the customers loved her and my boss had obviously trusted her. I felt afraid to question my boss’s judgment. My mind was torn and my ability to decipher what was really going on and what people were telling me seemed hazy. More so, I wasn’t looking forward to telling my boss that her best friend was taking money from our store. What if I was wrong? What if this whole thing was a mistake and I had made a mistake while doing the books? I full heartedly wanted to impress my boss by showing her that I was capable of running the store by myself and now I had failed miserably.
ADJUSTMENT OF SELF:
I made a plan to try to catch Annie in her act, this was the only way I could prove that the money missing wasn’t my fault. After catching her with the exact amount of money in her wallet I decided to make a phone call to my boss and tell her exactly what was going on. I swallowed my pride and did the thing I had been dreading. I realized after this experience that people aren’t whom they always seem to be. When you really look closely you begin to see their true properties, personality and truth. After I had done some serious thinking it dawned on me that by looking deep into the situation I had gone through a learning process. I was a prisoner of my own mind because I had convinced myself that what I was afraid of being true actually wasn’t. I had made the best decision by telling my boss everything that I knew about the situation and with all honesty I also explained how I hadn’t actually seen her literally take the money and put it in her pocket.
RETURN TO THE CAVE:
My boss and Annie never spoke after that day and I felt partially responsible for this outcome. In the end my boss commended me for taking the initiative in doing what I thought was right even though it wasn’t a sure thing. In addition, she told me that that was one of the reason’s she had hired me and kept me part of the team so long because I had a strong mind and I wasn’t afraid to use it. She said that no one else she had hired seemed capable of doing as efficient job as I did. I was the chosen one. I was the one who was qualified and most prepared for whatever task I was given.
My boss had gone on a month long vacation to Mexico for her husband’s retirement and had left me in charge with full responsibility over the store. Since my boss was leaving for such a long time she had asked her best friend, Annie from college to come and help run the store. I was relived to know that I would have reliable help and gladly accepted her offer.
It was about a week into the month and I began receiving comments from a couple of my coworkers that Annie wanted to be in charge of all the sales on the register during her shift and also that they noticed that she had been seen with large amounts of cash in her wallet. This to me did not sound in the least bit of the way weird or even anything to be concerned about. I shrugged their comments off because after all, I was the manager and the person in charge of everyone in the store and I had everything in control. Or so I thought. One night I was working on the books and noticed that everyday we were either short or over in the last week or so. I took brief note of this and didn’t think anything of it until a week later we were missing over two hundred dollars. This is where my fear came in. My mind was so jumbled that I couldn’t think straight. I was completely responsible for everything that happened in the store and of all the money we made. I clenched my teeth thinking about the reaction my boss would have if I had told her we were short that much money.
SHADOWS-FEAR:
It didn’t even dawn on me that Annie could possibly be stealing money. She was a sixty five year old lady who was so gentle and sweet. All the customers loved her and my boss had obviously trusted her. I felt afraid to question my boss’s judgment. My mind was torn and my ability to decipher what was really going on and what people were telling me seemed hazy. More so, I wasn’t looking forward to telling my boss that her best friend was taking money from our store. What if I was wrong? What if this whole thing was a mistake and I had made a mistake while doing the books? I full heartedly wanted to impress my boss by showing her that I was capable of running the store by myself and now I had failed miserably.
ADJUSTMENT OF SELF:
I made a plan to try to catch Annie in her act, this was the only way I could prove that the money missing wasn’t my fault. After catching her with the exact amount of money in her wallet I decided to make a phone call to my boss and tell her exactly what was going on. I swallowed my pride and did the thing I had been dreading. I realized after this experience that people aren’t whom they always seem to be. When you really look closely you begin to see their true properties, personality and truth. After I had done some serious thinking it dawned on me that by looking deep into the situation I had gone through a learning process. I was a prisoner of my own mind because I had convinced myself that what I was afraid of being true actually wasn’t. I had made the best decision by telling my boss everything that I knew about the situation and with all honesty I also explained how I hadn’t actually seen her literally take the money and put it in her pocket.
RETURN TO THE CAVE:
My boss and Annie never spoke after that day and I felt partially responsible for this outcome. In the end my boss commended me for taking the initiative in doing what I thought was right even though it wasn’t a sure thing. In addition, she told me that that was one of the reason’s she had hired me and kept me part of the team so long because I had a strong mind and I wasn’t afraid to use it. She said that no one else she had hired seemed capable of doing as efficient job as I did. I was the chosen one. I was the one who was qualified and most prepared for whatever task I was given.
Sunday, August 29, 2010
Ambiguous Truth
I believe that the word “truth” is a very ambiguous word. Some believe that there is only one true truth which results in a right or wrong answer while others believe that truth varies within morals, ethics religion. I personally believe that there is no truth, only perceptions of truth. I have learned this through past experiences and conversations with people in my life who shared opposing or indifferent views. More than often I found it almost unbearable to tolerate what they were discussing and I have played the Devil’s advocate. I quickly learned that a lot of people feel very strongly about certain things and do not have any inclination to change their mind or to hear the opinion of others. It became very apparent that in order to understand “truth” I needed to learn how to listen, not just hear other people’s words. More so, I needed to free my mind from bias, judgment and any pre conceived ideas. Putting myself in another person’s shoes allowed me to see the world through a whole new set of lenses. A quote that reminds me of my experiences is this. “The open minded see the truth in different things: the narrow minded see only the differences.”- Unknown source. I have come to appreciate the diversity in people’s backgrounds which plays a large role in their way of thinking and beliefs. It took patience and determination to accept that people will disagree with me and it does not make them anymore right or wrong. “Truth” is something that does not necessarily have to be proven, but something that is believed based on the individual and their life’s experiences. I am more open minded now and have taught myself to pursue other people’s beliefs and morals by asking deeper questions and often times even questioning my own. Overall, truth to me is about being tolerant, not ignorant.
Further more, an experience that has influenced my life regarding truth is a relationship that has brought me to different realizations of truth and the many aspects of it. “People say they love truth, but it reality they want to believe that which they love is true.”- unknown source. To me this quote represents my feelings towards my relationship. I have been unhappy and dissatisfied for many years now and have convinced myself by lying and manipulating my mind into believing otherwise. I have diluted the line between reality and my truth. It has become hard for me to see what is real and what I have convinced myself of. I often find myself wondering if I am satisfied with the decisions I make or am I settling for what I have so that I do not have to deal with the truth and all the pain that may follow. The desire to live true to myself and do what I feel is right has been overridden by my fears of what the truth is. In addition, I have repeatedly told myself that what I have is real and that is why I love it. My lies have become my reality and my reality is now a version of a lesser truth.
Lastly, I picked the quote “If you tell the truth you don’t have to remember anything” –Mark Twain because although it seems very simple and obvious, rarely is this ever practiced. I have had many experiences within relationships that reflect this quote. I believe that when people lie they are unintentionally creating the snow ball effect because they now have to lie to cover up their lies. Trying to remember what you said to begin with in order to stick to a particular story can and will create a recipe for disaster. Truth is something that isn’t always easy to say but speaking it once will save you a million lies.
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