I'm Gonna Be a History Geek for a Second

Anyone who took a high school history class knows the Soviet Union sustained the worst death toll in World War II (about 23 million total). But can you tell me who sustained the second most?
I bet more than half of the U.S. population didn't even know that China was an Ally. 20 million Chinese died in World War II. Why the heck don't we learn this stuff in high school? The bottom line is that, though we believe we are the land of the free, one of the most accepting and cultured countries in the world, our high school history cirriculums are western-focused. Where are the primary sources from Chinese civilians talking about the death all around them? It just confuses me. Is non-Western history not important? We trace Soviet progression into Communism but not Chinese. It just blows my mind.

Let's face it. White history is still the history of public schools. Sure, we throw in some black history. But so-called "Global Studies" are usually a look at Europe, or the events that effected the United States. We may talk about Japan, but only because they were a major player against us in World War II. We may talk about the Soviet Union, but that's only because they we our opponents in the Cold War. Our education system still looks at the world as it affects us. We disregard Africa because we look at it as a tribal continent that doesn't have a lot of interaction with the United States. We look at the east and see cultures that are far different than ours, and that alarms us. For these reasons, we choose not to explore and discuss them, and that's just sad. 20 million lives is an insane number, whether they are Europeans or not. The value of a life should not change based on the culture from which it came from.

Did the Foo Fighters Kill Grunge?

This is something that's been bothering me for a long time.

Basically, I've been home since Tuesday because I had early exams. The majority of my friends are still in school so I've been playing a lot of video games and listening to music. Well, I am currently what is known as "broke", or something like it, so I haven't gotten new music for a month or so. Well, except for the new Foo Fighters album that I bummed off someone else because I didn't think it was worth buying, but that doesn't really count because I don't see myself listening to it. The last two albums have had no character whatsoever, with the exception of the song "The Pretender". I can actually tolerate that song, but songs like "Best of You" and "Long Road to Ruin" are death. I will not even honor them with links. The Foo Fighters have been reduced to watered-down "hard rock" that really has no traceable structure and is boring as heck. It kills me because the Foo Fighters were the second band that I was ever obsessed with (after Creed, so really I should say that the Foo Fighters were my first favorite good band). But obtaining the album was enough to thrust me into nostalgic stage of listening to the first four Foo Fighters albums. Even then, though, you can trace a downward spiral of quality.

This spiral has led me to ask myself the same question for years; Did the Foo Fighters, namely Dave Grohl, kill grunge music? I feel terrible thinking that because I like the guy. However, after Kurt Cobain died, and Dave Grohl formed the Foo Fighters, the movement was really placed on Dave's back. As the Foo moved out of their grungy ways from their first album and into the ballads and "hard rock" songs, did the crowd move along with it, or did they become disgusted with the way it was going and move on to other things? OR did Cobain's death signify that the style was dead with him, or leave grunge fans thinking that no one could ever do it better? I was six when the guy died, so I really can't use myself as an example to answer these questions. I knew Wierd Al's "Smells Like Nirvana" before I knew "Smells Like Teen Spirit".

But grunge's legacy lives on in the crappy post-grunge bands like Nickelback, Puddle of Mudd and Seether (again, screw you, no links), who do their best to sound like Kurt Cobain. This is why I fret over the Foo Fighters. They could have taken it in a respectable direction. Instead, one of the most influential bands ever, the "Beatles of the 90's" now lives on in "How You Remind Me" (please do watch that link, because it helps my argument).

I'll make the song of the day a Foo Fighters song, which seems to be inconsistant with my rant, but my qualm is with their new music, not the early stuff. "Everlong" is one of my favorite songs of all-time. So "Everlong" it is.

"Everlong" by the Foo Fighters at YouTube.

What I REALLY Learned from Exams

Let's be honest. Exams are a time where we do hardcore studying for 48 hours or so, throw it down on paper, and then forget what we learned. At least that's the way it is for a lot of history classes. I'm sure engineers have to remember things as they go along, and blah blah blah, but ask me how much I remember from Chinese History last year. It's hard to remember names with 3 X's and 5 U's in them.

Here is what I really learned over exams:

-I'm going to warn you ahead of time that this is going to be a run-on sentence: When a TA gives you a review with 10 essay questions on it and says five will be on the exam, two of which you have to answer, and then he gives you the five essays that he can "almost guarantee" will be on the test, it is not safe, in fact, to only study three of those essays. This is what I did and only one of my essays made it onto the exam. With it being a cumulative exam, I had absolutely no idea what the answers to the four remaining essays were. I wrote one Bluebook page on the one I finally picked would do the most damage, and then I had nothing left. So this is what I wrote: "I'll be honest, I studied three of the essays you said would probably be on the exam, and that backfired. So I will conclude my essay by saying 'Have a Great Summer', and here's a picture of a missile blowing up my grade." The grade was depicted by a cartoon A with a face screaming "Noooo! But the first essay was so good! How could this happen?!"

-Listen to music you are very familiar with while you study. If you listen to music you've just purchased, you get distracted far too easily, especially if you're like me. I pick apart music and analyze the crap out of every aspect, so my first 20 listens or so I pay attention. Additionally, I do a lot of studying at my computer, and when I start listening to a new band I do more research than the FBI. I need to know how many albums they have, how old are their members, what are their grandma's names, etc. It's even bad if you listen to music that you haven't listen to for a long time, like I did with Funeral for a Friend this weekend. I wanted to know if they were putting out an album soon, and sure enough they are. This led me to studio videos, articles, etc. Don't throw that stuff in front of me or I won't be able to stop. So usually when I study, I go with one of my favorite bands, like Radiohead or the Velvet Teen, or whatever I've been listening to over and over again for the last four weeks.

-E-mail your TA's. A lot. It makes it look like you care a lot. Bonus points if you actually do. It wasn't my intention to, but I also impressed them by handing in take-home exams the day after I got them. This was more convenience than initiative, as I had exams on Sunday and Tuesday, and the take-homes were due Monday and Tuesday.

- Don't moon your roommate as you walk out the door on the way to the library. You might break your fly button and have to use a safety pin to keep your pants together.

I guess I'll leave you with a song by Funeral for a Friend since I mentioned them earlier. FFAF are a bunch of Welsh guys, who have the greatest accents ever in real life. But if you heard them, you'd think they were an American band because they don't have a UK feel. They're one of the few bands from my emo/screamo phase that I still enjoy listening to because Matt Davies has a pure, beautiful voice, which contrasts with the moving, intimidating guitars beautifully. It's not whiny at all like other emo bands, and by their third album they had matured a lot over the years, although they've stated that with the new album they are going to bring it back to more complicated riffs and some harsh vocals, like their earlier albums. Their last album was made entirely without any screaming, which is done by their drummer, Ryan Richards. Apparently, this is not going to be the case for the new album. I had a scare two days ago, though, because Wikipedia suddenly said that Matt Davies had left the band. When I got to their Myspace people were already freaking out all over their wall, as they are a huge band in the UK, somehow with relatively unknown status in the U.S. Well, as Wikipedia is fan-edited, my suspicions that it was contrived were confirmed when Gareth posted that it was something someone made up. It hadn't made sense to me since they had just announced that they were filming the video for the new single on May 17th. Anyway, I'll leave you with two songs, because I want to show you the something from all three of their albums. I feel like Matt's voice really matures between the second and third albums. They're in chronological order.

"Juneau" by FFAF at YouTube
"Streetcar" by FFAF at YouTube
"Great Wide Open" by FFAF

Poor commercial directors

The most unappreciated job in show business. Do they get a credit at the end of each commercial? I think not. Can you name a single commercial director? No. Who are the genius' behind the Berries 'n Cream Starburst commercial, or the Robert Goulet Emerald Nuts commercial? We may never know. Oh, the lack of fulfillment they must feel. In this coming election, I will pledge my support to whatever candidate takes up this issue and finally frees the commercial director from the chains of despair that they have endured for over 75 years (don't forget about radio commercials).