808's and Heartbreaks music review

Alex Orchard
April 22, 2009
English II

808's and Heartbreaks


808's and Heartbreaks is the fourth studio album produced by American Hip-Hop artist Kanye West. This album was released on November 24, 2008 on Roc-A-Fella Records in the United States. The main producer was Kanye West along with T-Pain coaching him how to use the auto-tuner, Kid Cudi contributing to two songs, Young Jeezy with a rap verse, Lil Wayne in "See You In My Nightmares", Mr. Hudson in "Paranoid", and Esthero with some female vocals. There were some songs on this album that brought specific moods. In the song called "Paranoid" Kanye West sings about how paranoid and uptight women are. He sings about the way women don't need to worry so much and get some things off their mind. Also, he states that she needs to relax and take some time off. The beat of the song brings an upbeat dancing rhythm that anyone can move to. Another song, called "Welcome to Heartbreak" featuring Kid Cudi talks about how depressing it is not to have companionship and being alone. One specific lyric, "My friend showed me pictures of his kids/And all I could show him was pictures of my cribs/He said his daughter got a brand new report card/And all I got was a brand new sports car, oh" explains how much emptiness there is in his life. Not necessarily having kids but just not being able to compare something to it. Another song called "Heartless" is a song about how a girl can be so heartless and "cold." One lyric, "How could you be so cold? As the winter wind when it breeze yo/Just remember that you talkin' to me though/You need to watch the way you talkin' to me though," questions why his girl would blow him off and how she is disrespectful to him. The most popular song on this album is "Love Lockdown" which holds many lyrics that grasp the true meaning of "heartbreaks." A lyric from that song, "I'm not lovin' you the way I wanted to, What I had to do, had to run from you, I'm in love with you but the vibe is wrong, And that haunted me all the way home." This lyric was put together by three artists, Kanye West, Yusef, and Malik. After Kanye West's mother died, West left his fiance Alexis Phifer. This lyric explains why he had to leave her and how it made him regret the decision he made. Besides just these songs, all the songs on the album bring forth a heartbreaking theme through the lyrics and sometimes through the beats. The whole album was produced by Kanye West by using an auto-tune voice processor. West was coached by R&B artist T-Pain on how to properly use the device. West than manipulated the beats made by the 808 to create a distorted, electronic sound, an effect that he referred to as a "heartbreak." West intended to go against the usual sound of hip-hip and use tribal drums. Along with this, he primarily sung than rap and focused on lyrical themes that had much meaning. The mood of the album presents a sometimes upbeat tone but mainly focuses on the heartbreak sound. The way he uses the auto-tune voice processor and the tribal drums creates a whole new hip-hop album. Overall, 808's and Heartbreaks may not be the type of hip-hop that this world knows today, but it certainly passes as one of the best albums ever produced.

State Art article

Alex Orchard
April 21, 2009
English II

Wyoming State Art

On April 16, 2009-- Wyoming State Art began at the Event Center in Casper, Wyoming. This is an event that calls all artists across Wyoming from every school to join and submit pieces of artwork. Students may apply for scholarship money, full scholarships, and qualify for competitions. Students may walk away with scholarships, award prizes, and simple competition prizes in the two days they are there. The amount of artwork and competitions was very overwhelming, which would provide much competition for the artists.

The artwork was set up on the center floor of the Casper Event Center. Wooden poster boards standing about eight feet high and four feet thick, held every piece of artwork. Tables to the side held ceramic projects and pieces that could not be hung on the boards. Overall, there were over 4,000 pieces of artwork submitted. There was a wide variety of photos, drawings, collages, paintings, glass work, ceramics, sculptures, and much more. The floor was always filled with students and teachers meandering through the different sections of artwork, writing down notes, taking pictures, and commenting. The amount of people there made finding your way through the sections somewhat difficult. Most places were congested to the point where no one could actually see a piece of artwork. The first competition that went underway was the top 2D and 3D pieces of artwork. After that, there was quick draw competitions, etch-a-sketch competitions, portrait competitions, mural competitions, and sculpture competitions. Along with those, they had colleges from around Wyoming come to set up workshops for anyone who was interested. For example, they had photography, painting, ceramic, and drawing workshops set up outside the main floor. Basically, the people spent almost all day in the Casper Event Center observing art and interacting with new people. On the last night of Wyoming State Art was the banquet which lasted two hours. The head judges announced winners of competitions and the best of all, which art piece would represent Wyoming in Washington, DC. One of our very students won the award and that was Irwin Falls Down; his drawing was of Michael Thomas. They had dinner prepared which was amazing in taste and how they set up everything. Different students mingles with each other and conversed about random topics. After the banquet, the dance started right next to the banquet room. The dance went from eight p.m. to 11 p.m. With everyone dancing, it seemed like no one wanted State Art to end. Almost every student danced the night away. With every song that had a specific dance, all the students joined in and gave a show for everyone else to see. After the dance, students made their ways to their rooms, tired and ready to sleep. Students were hugging other students saying "goodbye" and "see you next year." The next morning would bring Wyoming State Art to a close, which was somewhat a disappointment. No one will forget the amazing and memorable time they had at Wyoming State Art.

Editorial

Pro-Life vs. Pro-Abortion-Also Known as Murder

Would you ever murder a human? Well, I hope your answer is no; that’s what most people would say. If you the reader are pro-abortion then you agree that killing a human is no problem at all. Going Through with this un-humane process is just like murdering a person on the street. Whether you think it is not a human because it hasn’t developed limbs and such, the facts are it is a human. What is conceived in the womb is a “child,” a baby human being, however small. Everyone needs to understand that killing the human that has begun to form in the womb is taking the life of a child. This issue all boils down to what it says in the Bible. God states in the Bible, “A child is conceived in the womb.” The reason why abortion is so common is because people believe that early abortion is not killing a child, but preventing one from coming into a being. The thought of abortion makes me pity the woman who made the decision and grieve for the baby. Many people today question about the unborn, which is the human inside the womb. People who are pro-abortion believe that in the early stages of human life, a separate human life does not exist in the womb. They believe that it is a collection of cells that may be regarded as part of the mother’s body. At this point, people think that it is ok to “dispose” of the tissue. Hello, the “collection of cells” inside the womb is not just tissue! They are human whether or not they have the features that we have. It just makes me mad whenever I hear about an abortion taking place. Like I said, I pity the woman who goes through with this process, known as murder. I leave you with the question, would you ever murder a human?

Website Review

www.nba.com

For my website review, I reviewed www.nba.com. This site is the primary homepage for the National Basketball Association. This site is about all the NBA teams and where they stand in the league. www.nba.com holds standings, statistics, news stories, pictures, videos, and much more of every team and player. This site is used to help people find there favourite team and players. Also, for people to post blogs, comments, and letters to NBA teams. Basically, it is a sight that allows you surf information on the NBA. The website gives you links to go to individual team's websites. I went to www.nba.com to find information about the Denver Nuggets. I wanted to look at all the statistics of the players, game highlights, coach and player interviews, and the team's standings. I found everything I needed and more. Every page I came upon had a link to other information about the same thing, whether it was statistics or standings. I even had an option to receive the information by email. The site was easy to navigate for me. For first time navigators it would present some difficulty but after a few times visit, they would soon catch on to the process. I could find my way very easily. However, there was a problem that I encountered that made it more difficult to find voting for the all star game. This option only appears once every NBA season on the website. It advertises the NBA All-Star voting but you have to go through several pages and links to get there. NBA players always use this site which has made www.nba.com a hit website. Also, the people who keep up with the NBA which is a vast amount, also accounts for the number of hits the website gets. There is no exact number to the times visited but it would be quite a large number. Also, with foreign countries keying in on their foreign NBA players, the site receives more hits. There was a stat out there that stated the number of hits the site got and that was, 15 million. This number is increasing as the years go on. This is why www.nba.com is the ultimate source for your NBA insight.

LEDES

Clinton backs talks with moderate Taliban
March 31, 2009- On Tuesday, Secretary of State, Hillary Clinton endorsed plans for Afghan to schedule reconciliation talks with the moderate Taliban. Hillary Clinton stated at a conference that they were aiming to stabilize the economy and jumpstart the political support for the war torn country. To support this act, Obama sent 4,000 troops to Afghanistan to help and improve the Afghanistan police tactics. Clinton said that the U.S. will spend $40 million to help with country elections later this year.

Five Suicide Bombers Attack Afghan Provincial Council
April 1. 2009- During a seminar hosted by an American democracy promotion orgainization, five heavily armed suicide bobmbers stormed into the meeting killing 13 people and wounding 14 others. One militant detonated a car bomb outside the entrance while the others stormed the compound with assault rifles and grenades, shooting at officials and guards inside. Seven civilians and six police were killed in the 20 minute gun battle. This ended when to militants blew themselves up inside the main hall. Mr. Karzai commended the police officers who gave their lives to save others; plust he stated that because they showed up is why the death toll stayed low.

NFL reciever Stallworth charged wit DUI manslaughter
March 30, 2009- Cleveland Browns reciever, Dante Stallworth was charged in Florida on Wednesday with killing a pedestrian while under the influence. They charged Stallworth with a DUI manslaughter charge in the death of Mario Reyes. Stallworth is expected to surrender in court on Thursday and bail is set at $200,000. Stallworth's blood alcohol level was 0.126 which is higher than the state level at 0.8. If convicted he could face up to 15 years in prison.

Man lights match near gas pump lighting himself on fire
April 1, 2009- After purchasing matches inside a gas staion, the man walked out and messed around with it at a gas pump. The match lit producing a big explosion of fire near the car and setting himself on fire. One man flew but rushed back to the car to help a woman get out retrieve the baby from the back seat. The man who was on fire kept on running and shouting for water while the first week employee reached him in time to wet him down with water. Right then the ambulance arrived. No one was killed but one badly injured suffering burns and infections on his skin.

Interview

Eel Attacks Young Woman in Hanauma Bay in Oahu, Hawaii

March 16, 2009-- Imagine you are snorkeling in the Hawaiian waters and you swim upon a reef. Without notice, you spot an eel out the corner of your eye going straight for your hand. Well, one person had this imagination come true when she went snorkeling in Hanauma Bay in Oahu, Hawaii. Her name is Linda Orchard and this is her story.

While Linda Orchard was snorkeling in Hanauma Bay located in Oahu, Hawaii, she was surprisingly attacked by an eel. Linda Orchard said she did not expect this to happen. Mrs. Orchard was relaxed, as she was snorkeling through the Hawaiian waters making her way to a nearby reef. She put her hand out to touch the reef and looked away for brief second. The split second she looked back, she saw and eel out of the corner of her eye that was ready to strike her right hand. It struck, but Mrs. Orchard pulled her arm back in time to avoid the eel's attack. The last she was of it was when it went darting back into its hole in the reef. After what just happened, she swam away from the reef as fast as she could to alert her friend on what just happened. Linda Orchard continued snorkeling the rest of the day. She never encountered another eel, fortunately for her. She described the eel of having a black smoke like skin color and had razor sharp teeth. She explained why the eel would have attacked her, "I was simply invading its space and it felt like it was being attacked, so it defended itself." She also stated that the eel might have attacked just to attack her; she hoped not. "I was so scared," Orchard said, "I thought that it was going to get me after I swam away." Orchard said that this had never happened to her before. She also said that she was lucky to avoid the eel's attack otherwise she might have been badly injured. Her friend came to see if she needed help when she alerted her of the incident. " I knew she was ok. Her adrenaline was pumping and she was sort of excited and scared at the same time. I came to her help though." Linda Orchard said if she got bitten by the eel, she would still continue snorkeling after it was treated. After the incident with the eel, it has encouraged her to keep snorkeling and move on through the waters for the rest of her trip. She said her adrenaline was pumping almost uncontrollably. She also said that it was a scary encounter with an animal she had never been up close to. She notified her family and friends about what happened to her on the trip. They seemed to be thrilled but also scared for her at the same time. She was asked by one reporter, "being older now, if you had the chance, would you go snorkeling again?" Linda Orchard stated with a smile on her face, "I definitely would. Its not that the eel scared me, it was just at that moment I was scared for a little bit. I would not waste the chance to go snorkeling again and I would recommend it to anyone who is interested."

Car Raid

Investigation of Car Leads to Interesting Story

Dayton, WY-- Several inspectors on March 3, 2009 inspected a 1982 Land Cruiser in Dayton, WY to conclude a story about it.

The one interviewed, Don White, High School principle of Tongue River High School answered all questions the Tongue River High School inspectors asked him. Tyler Day asked the first question which asked Don White where he bought the car. He said he bought it in Rock Springs where it was previously owned by a counselor. He explained that he bought the car because he said, "It is virtually indestructible." A question was about why he had pine needles and hair almost covering the back seat. He stated that every Christmas he would get a Christmas tree and put it in the back which would be why there are so much pine needles. "The dog hair?", he said, "I bring my dogs with me sometimes." He was also asked why there where dents in his left side light and why there were holes above it. He said he was in an accident 3 to 4 years ago and that's what cause the dents. Then, he explained how the holes got there and those were from the car shop drilling into it to try and pry the broken metal out. Another question from main reporter Alex Orchard asked why he had a fire extinguisher under his driver seat. He said, "I don't know, I guess its on of those things that you buy and never use it. Maybe if I get a fire in my car." The last question that was asked was why he parked in a no parking zone. He simply stated, "I'm the principle, I can park wherever I want to. There was some valuable information taken from what he provided and some unusual information. Tongue River High School reporters have decide to close the case and end with the information they received the day of the interview.