Academics

Over the summer, I was lucky enough, (thanks Mom), to go to New York to see several shows including 3 musicals and 1 play, the play being my favorite of all I had seen. The play is called Stereophonic and details the inner workings of the life of a band that blew up overnight. It took place in the late 1970s and mirrored the story of the band Fleetwood Mac, where the lead singer left the band to pursue a solo career (Stevie Nicks). It featured its own songs and instrumentals; the set never changed. The set was a recording studio, see the picture below (I don't know why the quality is so bad).

The play details the band’s problems not only from a band perspective but also from a social aspect. When they blow up and become extremely popular, they must get along and continue making music, because of their record label, their finances, and reputation. This makes it so that the tension between them attempts to replace any outbursts or show of anger. This tension is MASTERFULLY shown, with long and almost awkward pauses, where the actors simply stare at each other for a few seconds. However, it doesn’t always succeed. The times when an argument does break out, the actors incorporate these pauses at just the right moments to convey the situation. This is going to be a model for my project in a way. I will come back to this play and remember how difficult it can be to be in a band, and I know that as I continue to study the lives of my favorite bands, I will see this exact scenario play out in real life.

During October, I focused on analyzing the lyrics of singer-songwriter Taylor Swift. Even though I am not as much of a fan now as I was a few years ago, I still appreciate some of her songwriting in her two folk albums Folklore and Evermore. I was able to analyze the different metaphors and references within her song Happiness, as well as the use of a repeated first and last line seen in Tolerate it and The Archer, which conveys the message that after everything the song talks about, nothing was accomplished. This communicates a cycle that won't be broken until the narrator finds a way.

As well as analysis, I also went to a concert by one of my favorite bands, Korn. It was super captivating, especially with the number of people at the concert and the fact that it was sold out. They played some of their hits, such as Blind and Freak on a Leash, but I found some of my favorite songs through this concert that were not as popular.

During the month of October, something miraculous happened to me, something truly astonishing beyond articulation. I LOST MY FREAKING JOURNAL. Words cannot explain the ubiquitous pit of destruction that this has caused within me. Not only was this journal important to me personally, but also it holds the beginnings of my project, sources I wanted to find, and the entire first month of lyrics, lyric annotations, and notes. Moving forward, I still feel strongly that I would like to write out lyrics, annotate, and analyze them tangibly. However, to keep this from happening again, I will digitize my journal writing weekly. That way, I will have a digital copy (scanned from my journal) of all annotations I did or did not do over that week.

In another, more positive light, I was very productive with my annotations this month. I added to my Annotated Bibliography and brought the total number of source annotations to about 6, and I was also able to complete my Community Observation, a King Gizzard and the Lizard Wizard concert. This concert was amazing to me not only musically, but also culturally, with some songs having a full mosh pit and others moving the crowd to awar back and forth with one another. These pits were dangerous, however the concert pit edicate was amazing, with people looking out for each other when needed, surrounding people who needed to tie their shoes, drink water, ect. Although concerts and the cultural aspect around them is not a focus of my project, I find it important to include on the sidelines because of how it represents the power of music to bring people together, no matter their origin.

The Odyssey Scholars class is an opportunity that I have been wanting to get my grubby little hands on since the 8th grade. Since then, not only have I been able to see the academic and profound growth of my best friends through their 2 years of Odyssey, I was able to be accepted into the program myself. The process of getting my application in took quite a while, and thanks to Ms. Jaramillo and the seniors from last year, I had more than enough time to write a proposal for my project. Finding a topic that I truly felt passionate enough about was hard enough, but I also had to take into consideration the timing of everything; it has to be doable in two years, and something that I would genuinely like to spend a majority of my time studying and researching. I am passionate about several things, such as global warming, equal rights, politics, physics, and ocean life. But I felt that my odyssey project should not only be something that I was passionate about, but also something that I felt represented me at my core. That is how I landed on the topic of music.

Music has always been a part of my life. Both my parents are musicians and I have been playing instruments since I was around 5 years old. Whenever my favorite song came on the radio (100.3 The Peak) I would become ecstatic. I would listen to music to go to bed, to calm down, to get me up in the morning. Music has always been a staple of my life. Now, coming to this topic for Odyssey specifically was actually quite a last minute thing. I had already written the beginnings of a proposal about coral bleaching and global warming’s effect on our oceans by the time I had started to think about focusing on music. This meant that it took a considerable amount of very quick planning and thinking about how I could mold the topic of music into a project that was doable in 2 years, something that I would have the motivation to rigorously study for those years, and be confident enough in myself to trust that I truly was educated on the topic. In a way, after the proposal I was determined to get into the program. I had felt that my proposal was strong, especially for my age, and luckily I was right. I started working on day one.

As soon as I had realized I had gotten into the program, Odyssey was all I had on my mind. Summer had just started, and I already had plans to jump in head first. I was lucky enough to go to New York City to see several shows including 3 musicals and 1 play, the play being my favorite piece of theater work of all I had ever seen. The play is called Stereophonic and details the inner workings of the life of a band that blew up overnight. It took place in the late 1970s and mirrored the story of the band Fleetwood Mac, where at the end of this play the lead singer left the band to pursue a solo career, like Stevie Nicks. It featured its own songs and instrumentals, and the set was a recording studio which never changed throughout the entire 3 hour long play.Stereophonic details the band’s problems not only from a musical perspective but also from a social one. When they become extremely popular, they must get along and continue making music because of their record label, their finances, and reputation. This makes it so that the tension between them attempts to replace any outbursts or show of anger. This tension is MASTERFULLY shown, with long and almost awkward pauses, where the actors simply stare at each other for a few seconds. However, this prolonged tension doesn’t always succeed. The times when an argument does break out, the actors incorporate these pauses at just the right moments to convey the true feelings of the characters.

During October, I focused on analyzing the lyrics of singer-songwriter Taylor Swift. Even though I am not as much of a fan now as I was a few years ago, I still appreciate some of her songwriting in her two folk/pop albums Folklore and Evermore. I was able to analyze the different metaphors and references within her song Happiness, as well as the use of a repeated first and last line seen in Tolerate it and The Archer, which conveys that after everything the song talks about, nothing was accomplished. This communicates a cycle that won't be broken until the narrator finds a way to overcome their own will to stay within the cycle. As well as analysis, I also went to a concert by one of my favorite bands, Korn. It was super captivating, especially with the number of people at the concert and the fact that it was sold out. They played some of their hits, such as Blind and Freak on a Leash, but I found some of my favorite songs through this concert that were not as popular.

Sometime during the month of November I lost my journal. This was a monumental setback, because not only was this journal important to me personally, but also it holds the beginnings of my project, sources I wanted to find, and the entire first month of lyrics, lyric annotations, and notes. Moving forward, I still feel strongly that I would like to write out lyrics, annotate, and analyze them tangibly. However, to keep this from happening again, I will digitize my journal writing weekly. That way, I will have a digital copy (scanned from my journal) of all annotations I did over that week. In another, more positive light, I was very productive with my annotations. I added to my annotated bibliography and brought the total number of source annotations to about 6, and I was also able to attend a King Gizzard and the Lizard Wizard concert. This concert was amazing to me not only musically, but also culturally, with some songs having a full mosh pit and others moving the crowd to sway back and forth with one another. These pits were dangerous, however the concert etiquette was amazing, with people looking out for each other when needed, surrounding people who needed to tie their shoes, drink water, ect. Although concerts and the cultural aspect around them is not a main focus of my project, I find it important to include on the sidelines because of how it represents the power of music to bring people together, no matter their origin.

And lastly, December came very quickly. As of now, I am going to squish most of my lyric analysis and annotations into the 2nd semester just because of the workload that I've had this semester. However, I was able to stay on top of that workload somewhat well, with December in particular being a pretty good month when it comes to getting back on track academically. When it comes to Odyssey, most of December I was doing several Odyssey related assignments. My annotated bibliography is complete, and I was able to start and finish my literature review. However, interviews ended up slipping my mind this semester, so next semester I will make sure to stay on top of them and plan them out in the beginning months to get them done in a timely and efficient manner. We also had an in class presentation that was just an evaluation of our semester, what we did over the months, and some of the strengths and weaknesses of getting to those accomplishments. Over the break, I plan to do some lyric analysis of Adrianne Lenker for the rest of December, and I also am going to continue doing that through January with her band Big Thief.

This semester as a whole was so unbelievably overwhelming, and tiring. But I have learned so much from Odyssey alone, from professionalism to analysis, research and proper communication between peers. This semester was jam packed with so much learning that I feel like I am a better all-rounded student as a whole already, and with four semesters to go, I can’t even begin to imagine how much Odyssey is going to benefit me in the long run.

December came very quickly, and with it came chaos. As of now, I am going to squish most of my lyric analysis and annotations into the 2nd semester just because of the workload that I've had this semester. However, I was able to stay on top of that workload somewhat well, with December in particular being a pretty good month when it comes to getting back on track academically.

When it comes to Odyssey, most of December I was doing several Odyssey-related assignments. My annotated bibliography is complete, and I was able to start and finish my literature review. However, interviews ended up slipping my mind this semester, so next semester I will make sure to stay on top of them and plan them out in the beginning months to get them done in a timely and efficient manner. We also had an in class presentation that was just an evaluation of our semester, what we did over the months, and some of the strengths and weaknesses of getting to those accomplishments. Over the break, I plan to do some lyric analysis of Adrianne Lenker for the rest of December, and I also am going to continue doing that through January with her band Big Thief.