Thursday, January 27, 2011

Extremely Live: An Album Review

It’s really sad knowing that his career reached a major downfall so fast. If you’re familiar about this guy, you’ll notice that he’s the kind of artist whose not afraid to do whatever he like to do. Let’s just say he’s making the most of the “bad publicity, still good publicity” thing.


 Aside from being a rapper, he also stars on some television sitcoms and movies. That’s a good thing cause it shows how flexible the man is in providing us entertainment. As I grow old in time, I can say that Vanilla Ice is a douchebag for his not-so good acts but this doesn’t show on his work because most of us still love his songs. If you just want to have fun and make you’re body sweat, try to listen to Vanilla Ice’s song and you surely wont regret a second of it.




Album Review: Extremely Live

Obviously, nobody is going to say Vanilla Ice was a particularly awesome rapper but this album is a fun listen. If, like me, you enjoy popping it on your player and enjoy live music. It has all of his good song and most of the rest of what he had done up to that point as well. The live version of Ice Ice Baby rocks and makes this album worth owning. There are also some pretty good new songs on the album. One of which is “Play the Funky Music” which is a good disco song. This song reminded me of how my dad dance during his time. Totally entertaining. I also love satisfaction. I never knew that this song is from Vanilla Ice until I listen to his album. It’s not like those songs that goes with time but it’s a fun listen once in a while. The melody just makes you want to stomp your feet while resting after a hard days work. That’s plus point for this album.
 On the other hand, I saw some pretty obvious cons on this album. The sound quality can be rough in some spots. I still love Rollin' in My 5.0, Satisfaction and the ultra funky numbers of I Like It and  Play that Funky Music. Ice Ice Baby sounds strong here, but I prefer the album version. I think that this album came out too quick in the helm of Vanilla Ice's To The Extreme multi platinum success.It sold well, but this album is a good example of the kinds of album that just came and went so fast.It’s alive album so I observe that the recording was not that good. Vanilla Ice would have taken another direction with his career other than this uneven live album. Overall, this album is okay . Fun to listen to but beyond that, I can see any reason for me to love it more.

Monday, January 24, 2011

New and Improved Weekend of Freedom

As usual, weekends without dad is considered weekends of freedom. Sticking on our tradition, we spend Saturday night dining our harts out at Somethin Fishy Restaurant. Me and my siblings love this restaurant so much that we made it a habit to visit this restaurant at least once a month. No need for me to elaborate much about what this restaurant can offer since I've been bragging about this place on some of my blog entries. Anyway, enough about that mouth watering restaurant. It's making me hungry just thinking about it.


After dinner, we took a cab ride from Eastwood to Makati. We arrived home at 2AM. For some unknown reason, I don't know why I couldn't sleep so I decided to watch some movies. I finished two movies by 6AM but after that, I decided to give myself a workout. Believe me, I never had an eye for exercise and I really don't know what went up to me for me to engage to an hour of workout. What happened next was also something new, but I found it a good thing. I decided to clean the whole house and after all the chores, I felt really proud because I used my free time in things that are totally worth it. 


I never know if this will happen again. Hopefully, in the coming weekends of freedom, those new things will become a habit. If that will happen, I know dad will be very happy.

Tuesday, January 11, 2011

A change of heart?

My first day with the kids was surprisingly incredible! I loved every minute with them. As I entered the room, I was really nervous to see all the students staring at me. I don't know what's going through their mind that time and I was a bit paranoid because I'm afraid to get negative feedback from these kids. As we started the class, I was assigned to assist a group of students with their activities like writing and art stuffs. It started off really awkward since the students we're hesitant to approach me, which is somewhat acceptable since it was their first encounter with me. Good thing they started to open up as the clock tick. I enjoyed talking with some of the students specially with Gian whom I considered my favorite. My three hours with them was fun and I'm looking forward to more class sessions with them. I never knew I would feel happy with this training. I hope that in the coming sessions, good surprises will come my way.

Saturday, January 8, 2011

I fear kids. Seriously.

I just found out that we're about to start our Literacy Training on NSTP next week. I'm really nervous because I know little about handling kids. I was never close to kids my entire life rather than my younger brother so I find this one really difficult to handle. The reason why I posses this kind of fear in kids is that I don't have a long patience compared to those pre-school teachers who have been spending most of their time teaching these kids. I just hope things will go well on my first day. I can't say that I'm excited to start the training because fear is getting into my system right now. All I know is that my first day with the kids will surely be filled with surprises. 

Thursday, January 6, 2011

Bon Jovi: An Album Review


As a child,. I grew up listening to the hits of Michael Learns to Rock and Bon Jovi. They can be considered as one of the pillars of the music industry. They showed the true meaning of rock. They produced not just noise, but a quality of music. This just shows an example of a good rock band. When I was in elementary, I am fond of singing along to their hits such as “Livin on a Prayer” and “It’s my life”. Elementary days are the times when I know little of the rock genre. Pop has been a popular genre during the 90’s and there’s a very small potential that you’ll get hooked to rock bands. As I listen to Bon Jovi, they made me appreciate their music as well as the songs of other rock bands like U2 and Guns N Roses. They surely captured my attention with their catchy music!
    

Album Review (Slippery When Wet)



Slippery When Wet is the third studio album that Bon Jovi released during the 80’s. Since this album contains songs that doesn’t get old with time, might as well do a review about it. The album started of with the song “Let it Rock”. In my opinion, this is not the opening for their album. The keyboard playing was all good but I don’t see anything special with the lyrics. It was an average track but I must say that the vocals are pretty good. On the other hand, “You Give Love A Bad Name” was far from the opening track. The whole song is original and fresh. The lyrics are well done and the whole arrangement of the music in sync with keyboards and drums are extremely catchy. Everyone in the group had their own time of showing their respective roles in the group. I consider this song epic.  “Livin on a Prayer” for me is the best track in this album. The guitar and the keyboard stand out in this track. I also love the story behind the lyrics which is about Tommy and Gina. This song is a perfect example of a good rock love song.


Although this album possesses a lot of good songs, I can also find some songs that didn’t match my taste. “Without Love” is one those mushy love songs that you listen to when you break up with a partner. The guitar is pretty clean and simple. I didn’t like it that much compared to those rock songs in this album. “Never Say Goodbye” is pretty much like Without Love. Both possesses lyrics that are closed to being emo. It’s a track that you can skip listening to.


I must say, this album became the breakthrough album of Bon Jovi. The album presented a balance of pop, hard rock and heavy metal that appealed to listeners. Aside from that, they made it a point that every band members have their own time to shine. The nice sense of style of Bon Jovi helped a lot in the success of the album. The album also shows the quality of the band’s song writing and performances which helped them build a long term music career. I must say, this album is worth listening to. This album made me love rock even more.