Category: entertainment

Unforgettable Summer.

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Summer vacation would never be better than spending time in a big city like New York.

I personally always consider the Big Apple an artist. She paints herself into a large, colorful picture that embraces different views and various culture.

However, instead of hanging out and having fun in the crowded city, my summer was mostly spent at a more academic spot –NYU.

Before my summer started, I applied to NYU’s precollege program and  waited a long time to start the exciting experience.

When I arrived at the campus, which consisted of lots of different buildings located around the Washington Square, my heart started to beat strongly and eagerly. God, I do love this place.

Then my six-week school prgram started. Just like colleges, each student had their own schedules and for me, as I applied to the journalism program, I chose “Report in NY” and “Multimedia Journalism” in order to get a more professional experience as a journalist.

The classes went well. For the Multimedia class, we stepped outside the classroom and shot pictures and videos, and interviewed people -basically everything about the topic of the story we were dealing with. As for me, I did a profile story on a subway musician at Times Square Station; a story about the heat in the city and how the weather affected people’s lives; and a review story on the CNN Tour we went on as a class. My favorite -or my most successful- project was the final which was about, “Dining at NYU.”

It was a brand new experience for me to present news via multimedia ways. I learned a lot about shooting skills, and the editing process of videos and what should be shown or not shown. Six weeks were absolutely not enough to become super good at it, but at least I got a unique opportunity to start something valuable.

Walking around in NY with my camera shooting the life of the city, has been my dream for a long time, and it came true. I did enjoy it.

“Report in NY” class was more traditional compared to the other one. We found stories by ourselves and did all the interviews and edited them until it reached the perfect level.

The most part I liked about NY was that it was not hard at all to find stories. Things were happening all the time around us. The city was busy and so as the people.

Talking to different people and listening to their stories only made me more obsessed with journalism. Because I do want to share them with others and let more people know about the world around us. And I guess that’s what I’ve learned this summer.

Besides studying, I also went to other places in the city to relax. It’s New York, as long as you are in the city, it would never be boring.

My summer was busy with classes but at the same time, I felt fortunate to learn something new, to meet new friends, and to get more knowledge about New York.

It was a life-long unforgettable experience for me and I will miss that purple place very much.

Duane Allman

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There are those who spend their whole lives trying to be great.

There are those who die young and are remembered for their contributions to this planet.

Then there’s Duane Allman.

By all accounts, Duane Allman’s measly 24 years on this planet should not have built up to much. But he managed to become one of the most influential guitar players in history…a couple of years out of high school.

Duane Allman has, obviously, played for the Allman Brother Band. He also backed greats such as Aretha Franklin, Eric Clapton (who was quoted as calling Allman his soulmate in terms of guitar playing), Wilson Pickett, King Curtis and Derek and the Dominoes.

He became the sound of American Soul before anyone knew who he was. Sadly, he died in a motorcycle crash before he became the next Jimi Hendrix.

Duane Allman isn’t the best guitarist of all time, or my favorite. But if I could sound like any guitar player ever, it would definitely be him. He has more soul than some sort of soul machine. Just listen to this song he played with Clapton.

Mr. Noodles.

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People do love food. After I came to OVS, i discovered that students do love noodles, I mean instant noodles, which can be cooked in short period of time, usually with good flavors.

Instant noodles are for “lazy” people mostly but to be honest, I personally regard them invention as a smart stuff and they indeed change our lives a lot. Then I did some research on the instant noodles and discovered more about them.

Instant noodle was invented by a Janpanese. In 1958, Momofuku Ando invented “CHICKEN RAMEN ™”, the world’s first instant noodle product. His achievement brought a revolution in culinary culture. In 1971, he developed “CUP NOODLE ®”, the world’s first cup-type noodle product. In the editorial in its January 9, 2007 edition, the New York Times expressed appreciation for the achievements of “Mr. Noodles,” who it said deserved an eternal place in the pantheon of human achievement.

“The technology of “CHICKEN RAMEN ™” developed by Momofuku in a humble shed behind his home involved rapidly drying noodles through flash-frying in oil.” This method became the basis for all instant noodle production.

Later, his revolutionary “CUP NOODLE ®” concept in which a single container serves as packaging, cooking vessel and serving dish was the basis for cup-type instant noodles.

Nowadays, the instant noodles have numerous types from different countries. Even though hey are not really healthy, they can be fairly helpful and save your life when you are lazy to cook and when you want to try something different.

Kanye West’s New Music

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Kanye west performed on saturday night live this week, and the only way I can describe it is… Interesting. He has changed his sound to a darker more industrial style which channels the Death Grips, and It works within that style.

My only problem is that I feel like the music is much too serious. He looks like he’s having no fun. I miss the soul-sampling Kanye from his early years. My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy was a Masterpiece and a fantastic summation of Kanye’s style, this new album seems as though he is changing his style too much and too fast. His songs “New Slaves” and “Black Skinhead” both have titles that will stir up controversy, and I think he wants them too.

His debut of the “New Slaves” video, which he projected on 66 walls across the world was incredibly cool, and is a testament to his marketing creativity.

Pokemon

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There’s a lot of different sides to me. There’s the Eagle-fanatic side that just loves the NFL and his Eagles. There’s the Honey Badger, my deranged, athlete side who simply has no regard for his own or anyone else’s well being. That side is also known as my “power trip”. And then, there’s my nerd side.

I am a bit of a nerd. I am an absolute Star Wars addict. I could look at a picture of a character, and probably give you a solid name and specific event that occurred in that character’s theatrical life.

But, as into Star Wars as I am, I’m a huge video game freak. My favorite franchise is the Super Smash Brothers series made famous by those awesome people at Nintendo. But there’s always been a very close second.

That would be the Nintendo-produced Pokemon franchise. Everyone knows about Pikachu, but I know about the other 600. It’s a whole world that I just love to immerse myself in from time to time. In fact, over the weekend, I went out and purchased one of the newest installments in the franchise, Pokemon Mystery Dungeon.

I just realized how lame that actually sounds, but the game is once again very entertaining and thoroughly enjoyable.

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One-Piece.

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One Piece (ワンピース) is a Japanese shōnen manga series written and illustrated by Eiichiro Oda. The first volume was released on December 24, 1997, and the 69th volume released in March 2013.

One Piece follows the adventures of Monkey D. Luffy, a young man whose body gains the properties of rubber after unintentionally eating a Devil Fruit, and his diverse crew of pirates, named the Straw Hat Pirates. Luffy explores the ocean in search of the world’s ultimate treasure known as One Piece in order to become the next Pirate King.

Additionally, Toei has developed eleven animated feature films, an OVA, and five television specials. Several companies have developed various types of merchandising such as a trading card game, and a large number of video games.

In 2008, One Piece became the highest-circulating manga series. And until now, it is still one of the most popular animes throughout the whole world.

I started watching One-Piece three years ago. First i was only captured by the colorful style of the drawing of the characters and the scenes of the ocean. However, as more i watched, I found out a more profound meaning of this anime, which is friendship and ambition.

For several times I was touched deeply by the friendship between Luffy’s team. They laugh and fight together for their goal and they would do everything for each other, even losing their lives. The passion and love among them gives them courage and helps them to achieve their dreams.

The story is still going on but I think I already know the ending that they will stand by each other forever.

Grey’s Anatomy

Daphne PsaledakisLeave a comment

Grey’s Anatomy – my favorite tv show. Honestly I can’t believe that I haven’t written a blog about it yet. But anyways, when I was little I remember my parents watching it, and at the beginning of this year my friend kept pushing for me to give it a try. I did so, reluctantly. Now I’m addicted.

The show just finished it’s 10th season, which is to me is pretty impressive. I started at the beginning of the show and spent weeks trying to catch up. I finally did, and yesterday I watched the season 10 finale with my friend.

It was amazing.

The characters on Grey’s Anatomy are really easy to identify with. Yes, they’re doctors. But in the show they’re also real people. They don’t have superpowers or anything like that. That’s part of the reason I like the show so much.

The other reason is that it’s really intense. You never know what’s going to happen next, or what the outcome is going to be. It keeps you guessing, which personally, is something that I love.

At first, the blood and procedures on the show kinda grossed me out. Now, I’m absolutely used to them. They make the medicine easier to understand, even though the relationships aren’t.

I love this show. It’s definitely at the top of my list. So for anyone who’s looking for something to do, or a new show to watch, I recommend Grey’s Anatomy. It’ll take you a little while to catch-up, but it’s worth it. Trust me.

Charley Patton

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Last Wednesday, or Ocho De Mayo, I got three albums of the partial anthologies of Blind Willie McTell, The Mississippi Sheiks and Charley Patton. All three of these artists are absolute blues legends that were instrumental in creating modern music.

One of these legends, Charley Patton, was perhaps the most influential of them all.


While I was listening to his album recorded entirely in 1929, I started to read his biography on the back of the album.

First of all, he recorded his biggest hit, Pony Blues, when he was only 19.

Secondly, no one knows when he was born or what race he was. Some people say he was fully African-American and others say he was part Cherokee.

Thirdly, and most importantly of all, he taught some of the other biggest blues players of his time.

Son House, Robert Johnson and Chester Burnett (AKA Howlin Wolf) were just some of the names who he taught how to play guitar.

I for one, am very, very grateful to Document records and Third Man for bringing some of these guys back into the mainstream to be appreciated by more and more people than ever. This is music that should be appreciated by everyone that appreciates music.

Dream.

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Everyone dreams.
Dreams are successions of images, ideas, emotions, and sensations that occur involuntarily in the mind during certain stages of sleep.

Dreams can last for a few seconds, or as long as twenty minutes. We dream about people, memories or something that are totally unrealistic. However, that’s the reason why I love to dream, because in the dreams, there is nothing to worry about and you can do everything you want without paying any consequences.

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Ready for Summer?

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It was such a busy week filled with finals and AP tests.

Nothing seemed exciting and most of the students all looked so tired and bored. Well, as for me, I was personally excited for an upcoming big event – my NYU Summer precollege!

I found this program accidentally while I was planing my summer. A page of NYU‘s summer school advertisement jumped out. I did some more research on it and then I found this journalism program summer precollege. And of course, I was totally attracted.

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