Blogging Around

iMedia: Orchestral Skrillex by Stephanie

I chose to review Stephanie's post on orchestral Skrillex. This caught my attention because before listening to the song she posted on her blog, I thought that the words "orchestra" and "Skrillex" were on opposite sides of the spectrum. She really does a great job explaining how despite Skrillex's jarring form of dubstep can seem harsh to the ear and more like sounds and mechanical noises than actual music, his tracks (as well as all other dubstep tracks) are definitely music. The song was an orchestral version of a Skrillex song, and it was FANTASTIC! I enjoyed it almost as much as I enjoy the original tracks. This goes to show the amount of work these DJs put into their tracks. Stephanie really did a great job on it!

1. 
   Emily HorvathOctober 29, 2012 8:32 PM

   I completely agree with Stephanie on this one. I myself am a fan of some dubstep, and I thought it was really cool that she explained exactly how dubstep is real music. It definitely is one of the most misunderstood genres. Stephanie explains how complex the making of dubstep is; how you have to add layer after layer after layer of music or sound effect, and then loop it correctly, adjust every single pitch and note, add in vocals or piano, and do a billion other things. The amount of work that these DJs put into each track is simply astounding. She explains that if you replace the harsh, almost mechanical sounds of dubstep with the cello and the bass in an orchestra, the song is still a song. It is still music. YES. I've been waiting for this for months! Never have I heard anything more true. Though of course you'll get the desired effect of dubstep by using huge bass drops and electronic melodies, but musical notes are still musical notes. Pitch is still pitch. Dubstep is just using these devices in a different way. I really enjoyed reading this post, Stephanie!!

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iMedia: Flight of the Frenchies by Nonie

I reviewed Nonie's post on Flight of the Frenchies because I was seriously impressed with the video she posted, and even more impressed with her message. The video is essentially about a bunch of French guys who high-line and practically free fall from enormous cliffs. Most think they're crazy, but they love it so they continue to do it. Nonie says that this is how people should think; that people should do what they love to do, no exceptions. It was a great blog post with an awesome message!

1. Emily HorvathOctober 29, 2012 8:41 PM

   What an awesome post. First of all the video is fantastic; it's one of the coolest I've ever seen, actually. But Nonie's comments and observations really made it great. I wholeheartedly agree with her idea that we should just do it, even if it's scary. To me, that's an amazing way to live. To live every day doing what you love, and taking risks for that thing that you love, is a life that is really worthwhile and meaningful, as well as one full of action and fun. These guys in the video risk their lives doing what they love to do--and that's jumping off a cliff. It may seem crazy, but as Nonie said, "People should be doing the things they love because they love it, and for no other reason at all." Great post, Nonie!

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Also read: Sebas's Blog (One of the funniest blogs I have ever read!)
                 Ruhi's Blog (I enjoy everything about these blog posts. They're all so well thought out and in-depth!)
                 Ruxi's Blog (I can hear Ruxi speaking whenever I read her posts. Great voice, and supremely interesting blog posts!)

Emily von Horvath

An Inconvenient Truth: The Meaning of the Term "Depression"

I'll relate to you a conversation I heard in the hallway last week on my way to Health class:

(I'm just going to call these two Shaniqua and Giselle for the hell of it.)

Shaniqua: "Oh my God, I've been feeling really crappy lately!

Giselle: "That sucks. Why have you been feeling bad?"

Shaniqua: "I dunno. I think I'm clinically depressed or something."

Giselle: "Why do you think you're depressed?"

Shaniqua: "Well, my hermit crab (Yes, hermit crab) died a couple days ago, and my dad has really been cracking down on my grades. It's awful!"

Giselle: "That sucks, dude." 

Shaniqua: "Ugh, I'm so depressed right now! I'm going to go to lunch and eat away my feelings or something."

This conversation pissed me off more that you know. I know that Shaniqua meant her conversation with Giselle to be taken as a joke, but in all honesty, depression is not funny at all. 

People often use the term "depression" lightly. The consider it depression when you are sad about the cafeteria not having burritos in the morning, or not being able to go to your favorite after school club one day. While depressed is technically defined as a state of general unhappiness or despondency, the medical term depression is much more serious than that. People who are depressed can be unhappy for extraordinary long periods of time for no reason. They can become withdrawn, negative, irritable, constantly tired, and agitated. In the worst bouts of depression, people can have feelings and thoughts of worthlessness, hopelessness, self-hate, and even death or suicide. This medical condition is generally caused by a lack of the chemical serotonin in the brain. Serotonin is a neurotransmitter that directly controls moods, especially moods of happiness, joy, or elation. Some people take pills to boost their serotonin levels, while others take other forms of medicine. Some even opt to try and deal with depression without medicine at all. Depression can be caused by many factors: death of a close friend or family member, low self-confidence, divorce, abuse, job loss, or even failing a class. Depression can even come about without any warning.

Activity of a depressed brain VS activity of a not depressed brain

So here's where we get to the part that rubs me completely the wrong way. It's not just people using the word "depression" lightly who irk me, it's also people who try to blame all their problems on depression when they really have no depression at all. How many times have you heard someone claim that they are depressed purely because they've had one bad day? How many times have they come to school the next day their normal happy selves? I'm guessing a lot. This has happened to me numerous times. In the case of one friend, I had to deal with her mood swings between "depressed" and elated every single day. She was in no way depressed; she would just complain about stupid things all day and then claim that they were making her sad and lonely. She was a social butterfly, had numerous friends, was totally happy and healthy at home, and had no problems at all.

Zero. 

Zip. 

Nada.

I'm utterly serious. There was no hidden story in the background. She was just bored with her life and decided to claim to be depressed to get attention and sympathy. I'm not just making this up, assuming, or making hasty judgements about her. She actually told me this.

My friend is not the only person I know who has faked depression in order to get sympathy. I've had countless friends try to get their parents and teachers to believe that they were depressed so that they could get a break from them. Some of these people would say that they were so "depressed" that they could just stop trying, and told everyone that they believe that everything was meaningless. They took a medical condition, faked being diagnosed with it, and then acted out being severely affected by it to get attention. Depression is one of those disorders that is especially hard to diagnose. If someone has shingles or meningitis, they need only go to the doctor's office and the doctor can prescribe them medicine because they can see the physical traces, and can gauge pain. Depression is a mental disease, and no one but you can feel what is going on in your brain. People can easily fake being depressed, same as any person can fake being happy. 

This cannot be tolerated. Not only are they messing with their friends', family's, and teachers' heads, but they are also contributing to more confusion about depression. It's absolutely unacceptable

Other things that annoy me about people's perception of depression are the stereotypes associated with depression. People think that men and women who have been diagnosed with depression are always sad, and they they always are negative and down in the dumps about everything. Another common stereotype is that they can't have fun or be funny. All of these are completely false. Just because someone is depressed doesn't mean that they can't be happy or laugh or be fun. They just have trouble with becoming sad and getting out of that sadness.

People have tried to diagnose me as depressed for a while. My seventh grade teacher asked me to my face if I was depressed, then proceeded to ask my mom about it. My brother constantly tells me that I look and act depressed all the time. My mom even wanted to have me tested for depression because she thought that my low-self confidence and desire to stay in the background was due to depression about my appearance. I know for a fact that I am not depressed. I have my bad days like anyone else, but I can get out of that sadness easily. I need time to recover, but I know how to get out. I know people who can't get out. My best friend Brian has been diagnosed as depressed for about three years. He comes to school every day, he jokes around, he smiles, and he laughs like the rest of us, but underneath that facade he has trouble staying happy. He's not always sad, but he becomes despondent for no reason, or over little bad things that had happened that day, and then he can't become happy again. His depression has a lot of side-effects: He has extremely low self-confidence, he can't sleep, he has difficulty concentrating in class, and he can become withdrawn easily. Some days it's not easy being around him because he's so far into his hole of pity that he can't see out of it. He's an extraordinary, wonderful, amazing person, but his depression keeps him from seeing that.

My best friend

I don't mean for this post to be an ode to my best friend, but he is one of the reasons that depression became such an important issue to me. We as a society see depression as a taboo. We tell those suffering from it to keep it in the dark and to hide it away so that "normal" people don't have to see it. If we don't see it as a taboo, we distort the meaning of depression and use it too lightly or in the wrong connotation. We need to show that just because someone has depression doesn't mean that they are always unhappy, and we also need to show that pretending to be depressed is not okay. Clinical depression needs to be brought out of the dark, just as our definition of depression needs to be.

-Emily of the Horvath

iMedia: Where the Hell Is Matt?

  "Where the Hell Is Matt?"

  "I don't know. Where is he?"

   Apparently, he's traveling around the world to do a jig with random people on the street. "Where the Hell Is Matt?" is a video created by Matt Harding and sponsored by Stride Gum that followed Matt's journey across the globe. Stride had seen a video that Matt's friend had taken of him dancing in the street during their time backpacking throughout southern Asia, and asked Matt to consider making a video for them. This turned out to be the best decision Matt had ever made. Stride sponsored a large trip that allowed Matt to visit 42 countries and videotape his dancing experiences in each of them. The result is absolutely mesmerizing.

  First off, the scenery is gorgeous. It's probably the first thing that anyone notices about the video. He travels to beautiful places like the Giant's Causeway in Northern Ireland, the Cape of Good Hope in South Africa, Lancelin, Australia, and other stunning destinations. Each of these places are beautiful, but I give special props to Matt and the cameraman for choosing locations that really showed what the country was proud of, or things that the country was known for. In Bhutan, it was the Buddhist monastery. In Sydney, Australia, it was the Opera House. In Chicago, it was The Bean. These images allowed for the audience to make a level of connection that would have been impossible if Matt had danced in front of "Joe's Hot Dogs" even if the sign on the door clearly read, "Joe's Hot Dogs. Chicago, IL". Even when he danced in places with no landmarks, the terrain and the background still gave people an idea that they were looking into Zambia or any other country.

The dancing is the most recognizable feature of the video. Matt's signature dance moves add the comedy and give it a flair that sets his video apart from others. The dance is remarkably simple--in fact, it reminds me of my little cousin's impersonation of how leprechauns dance. Yet the simplicity is what made the dance so great. He didn't spend all his time choreographing insane dance numbers because that would take away from the rest of the video. The video wasn't about the dance; it was about how the dance brought people together. Matt kept the dance simple and silly so that everyone could join in, regardless of age, skill, coordination, or anything else.

To me, Matt's video is saying that everyone is connected somehow. Maybe our interests are different, our cultures are different, our looks are different, and our languages are different, but all it takes is a guy with a weird dance move and a video camera to bring us all together for a good time. That's how people should be, in my opinion. Perhaps we stay out of each other's lives for the most part, but when it really matters, we can rally together and get it done. In this video, the people rallied. You can see people of all ages, sizes, races, and cultures coming together in this video and having fun. No one cared about anything but having an awesome time and having fun dancing with everyone. It was the same in every group. The Polish, the French, the Spanish, the Zambians, and every other group of people had a great time, and it was astounding.

"Where the Hell Is Matt?" is of the most beautiful videos I've ever seen on YouTube. It's one of those videos that really restores your faith in humanity, and even after watching it just one time, you realize that the real beauty is not the scenery, or the music, or even Matt's dancing--it's the people who dance with him.

- Emily G. Horvath I