Compare/Contrast Chris Brown and Michael Jackson

Chris Brown has always been compared to Michael Jackson, especially when the two have more in common besides being great on their feet. Michael Jackson started in the music business when he was just a young boy. He was the lead singer in his band of brothers and the youngest. People gravitated toward Michael Jackson’s personality because he was the most entertaining. Michael parlayed that interest into a very lucrative and talented solo career filled with classic songs and signature style. Chris Brown also got his start in music young. He was 16 when he made his debut with “Run It.” Interest grew and so did Chris’ popularity. Soon he was being hailed for his dance moves. He was creative and had an attractive personality, fans were hooked. His romantic link to singer Rihanna was an even bigger boost to his career (for both of them essentially) simply because the two were being dubbed R&B’s sweethearts. Everything seemed to be perfect all up until the night before the 2009 Grammy Awards. Michael’s reputation eventually took an undesirable dip after allegations of child molestation messed up his image. Years of trials paired with celebrity spoofs in sketch comedy shows, movies, and even television sitcoms made for an even more intense situation. Though in the states Michael Jackson was being portrayed as something similar to a circus freak, fans in Europe kept his celebrity status alive, which is why Michael would perform in concert mostly if not always overseas. With the constant attack on his character Michael retreated to isolation, not frequently in attendance at events or participating in interviews. Both artists gained their reputation back and gaining much more fame that they had. In 2009, Chris Brown he performs at the BET awards show for the tribute of Michael Jackson. He started to cry because of the death of Michael Jackson and this was his idol. Fans became more emotional towards his feelings, gaining so many more fans. Michael Jackson gained his reputation back by having a major tour called, “This is it”. Right after the tour he passed away, shocking America.

The difference between Michael Jackson and Chris Brown is that Michael Jackson is the number one pop artist. Michael Jackson’s Thriller album sold 140 million copies and no one has ever touched his record sells. He also was a humanitarian and many people respected Michael all around the world.

Sundiata: An Epic of Old Mali

An epic is usually a long poem about a hero who overcomes a huge problem and at the end that hero becomes a great hero. There are many popular epics that are included in the western historical or literary canon such as; the Iliad, the Odyssey and even The Epic of Gilgamesh. All of these epics had one particular comparison, and that is all of these epics were written down. Sundiata: An Epic of Old Mali not included in the westerly historical or literary canon because this story was an oral story with no support. A lot of the western history comes from a written source, but because this was in oral story, most western history overlooks it. The epic starts off by saying, “I am a griot.” A griot means, a storyteller, so because this epic was verbal, there was little recognition. “Unfortunately the West has taught us to scorn oral sources in matters of history, all that is not written in black and white being considered without foundation.” Stories that are usually passed down might sometimes get misinterpreted or even changed.
In addition, western historical or literary canon of epics was predominately white, and this was much popular than African epics. ” These men simply prove that they do not know their country except through the eyes of Whites.” The fact that the hero was an African man makes the epic even harder to be recognized. I have not heard of this epic until I am into a Historically Black Colleges Universities, in grade school, teachers only teach the western history and no other history. If it is about Africa, it is normally about slaves and other harsh events. I also never knew that the movie, The Lion King, was based off of this epic. White America could never let epics such as this one get popular because of the context. I would encourage American Americans to read this epic. ” May this book open -the eyes of more than one African and induce him to come and sit humbly beside the ancients and hear the words of the griots who teach wisdom and history.”

Midterm Self-Assignment: Improvement

Asia Sims

English WISE

October 09, 2012

Professor Peterson

Midterm Self-Assignment

Improvement

Composing papers was never my strong point, even during my grade school years. From the beginning of the year, writing papers were overwhelming and very stressful because of the fact I was afraid to fail at writing. Throughout the beginning, my college experience writing has been an enormous problem because it became a lot to handle. Especially, when writing about four papers a week for each class it started to feel overwhelming. I felt writing my thoughts, doing annotated biographies, and even coming up with thesis statements was very burdensome for me. Until I realized the problem with my writing, I rush each paper to get the job done, and I had to expand my vocabulary. Sometimes I could have a really great thought in my head, but once I write my thoughts on paper it becomes bad ideas split infinitive about putting in my paper. Comparing my older papers to my recent work, I have improved, but I still need more improvement with organization and focusing more on the topic. And since I’ve been in the English WISE program, my writing has improved because I have more of an understanding of how to compose a proficient paper. Now I feel more confident in my writing, and it is not as stressful as it once was.

The first writing assignment that I composed was the “Myth” blog, I was very confident with the assignment because we were talking about the same thing in my history class. So I knew some information, and I had my good friend to edit the blog to make sure that it was on the college level of writing. There were a few grammar problems with the blog. For example, “His brother caused increase despair to those of the society but despite the horrors, Isis had took his remains and proceeded with traditional ceremony for the deceased.” I should put the comma between society and but, and instead of using the word took, I should have used the word taken to make the sentence like, ”His brother caused increase despair to those of the society, but despite the horrors, Isis had taken his remains and proceeded with traditional ceremony for the deceased.” Commas should most likely go before any conjunctions to merge two sentences together. Alternatively, I could have made two different sentences, so it would not be a run-on sentence. I understood the topic and overall I was satisfied with my blog, and it was a great way to start off a first writing assignment. My second assignment was the extra credit assignment which was about the Democrats and Republicans views that I valued. The point of view I chose was education and tuition because I am a college student who has to take out loans to pay my tuition. I enjoyed writing that paper because I could get the opportunity to see both parties’ views. I understood the topic, but I was not really sure about what I was supposed to write because there was no guideline. I am use to having some type of guideline when I writing to stay on task. There were a lot of grammar issues and I did not have a strong conclusion because I was rushing. For example, “Mitt Romney, a Republican, and his Democrat opposing running mate, Barrack Obama have different points of view when it comes to undergraduate students paying for college.” This sentence is wrong because, instead of me using the word “have”, I should have used “has.” The sentence would look like, “Mitt Romney, a Republican, and his Democrat opposing running mate, Barrack Obama has different points of view when it comes to undergraduate students paying for college.” Overall the paper was not bad, but I know that I can do better. My last two assignments, which was the annotated bibliography drafts one and two. The first draft was good, but I had grammatical errors and a lot of redundancies. It took me a while to realize that I was not doing the formation. And after reading the comments that were made on my first draft, I decided to change my topic question. So I believed that my second draft was much better and neat. I also had a better introduction in my second draft.

In conclusion, my writing has improved over the few weeks. The English WISE program helps out a lot because I am learning how to organize my papers, writing a better thesis and enhancing my vocabulary. Now I do not even feel as stressed writing papers anymore, I feel very confident in my writing. Professor Peterson is a great teacher because she puts a real-life scenario into lessons to make the students understand the theme of that day’s lesson. I would recommend her to students that need help with improving their writing skills because they would have fun and still learn. I really enjoy being in the WISE program.

“Artifact”ual Interview Assignment

Gina and I met up and interview via e-mail to compose our paper. She and I has many things in common, one of them is that we both are from Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. She was raised in the Germantown part of Philadelphia and I was raised in North Philadelphia. We both have the same influential people in our live life, and they were her mother and God because they guided us into the right direction and always lifted her up to be the best person. She wrote, “My role model is my Mother and God.” Sitting on the steps of the library, Gina told me that she went to Washington High, in the Northeast and her favorite subject was History. She always wanted to go to Clark Atlanta University because she heard that Clark was an extraordinary business program. I asked her in an e-mail,” Why did you choose to come to Clark Atlanta University?” she replied, “I chose because they have a good background behind it, and they have one of the best business programs.” And I agreed because I am also an aspire Business Major. She is aspiring Business Major with a concentration in Marketing and minoring in Public Relations. And she is doing the five years program to receive her master’s in Business Marketing. I wrote, “Why did you choose this major?” she replied, “I chose to market because I like to come up with ideas and share them with others.” This means that she has a extremely artistic person and is a truly helpful person. Gina explained that she really enjoyed this school because she is good class, she is meeting new people, and she has a lot of fun with her social life. Many people have goals to make it far in their lives and make a lot of money. I asked Gina, “What was her goal after college?” and she said, “My goal after college is to be working at a fortune five companies, doing what I went to school for and traveling promoting my ideas as an International Marketer.” I could not believe that we had so much in common, and that we would even become friends after talking and realizing that we even have some of the same classes.

English Play

Myth

Having myths about how a society began is not at all uncommon in the modern world. Many American’s favor stories about hypothetical characters who supposedly paved the very ground at your feet. To unveil the truth about why societies do so is difficult however, I believe they all were trying to include their personal spiritual beliefs to be the foundation of their empire. In the events of myths of society’s creations, it is important to remember that motivation is a motive used to persuade its citizens that its founders fought for the greater good of their land. To me these stories illuminate just how we as citizens should take care of our communities and fight to overrule any law or government that has ill intentions to corrupt our founding morals.

Being that the story of Isis and Osiris is related to Egyptian history, I have interpreted the various styles of symbolism used in its context. The Pharaoh Osiris and the wife, Isis reigned over a peaceful land and all was well. Under their rule marked “The Beginning of Time” for the Egyptian people. The land was fruitful and peace was with all until an untimely event occurred: Pharaoh’s murder.  By his own brother, the Pharaoh was slain and his kingship was now lost. His brother caused increase despair to those of the society but despite the horrors, Isis had took his remains and proceeded with traditional ceremony for the deceased. The story also denotes that she herself had converted into a bird; birds were signs of royalty and power, and also a a very loyal animal to those of a higher authority. After she transformed into a bird she carried her husband onto the stars and there they began to rule over the night skies.

The reason why different cultures have many myths of the world’s creation, so people can have some clear understanding as to how and why the world was created. And also, this gives people this satisfaction knowing that they know where the world is coming from. Ancient Egyptian Creation Myth was about two people that created the earth named, Osiris and Isis. Many people from the Egyptian culture called this the “Beginning of Time”. Osiris’ brothers kills him and this caused the world to be corrupted. So in the end Iris changes into a bird and flies Osiris and herself up into the stars, and the Egyptian people called them “The Gods of Resurrection”. This story reminds me of Adam and Eve because god created the heavens, earth and man/woman. Adam told Eve not to eat the fruit and she disobeyed him and ate it anyway, causing the world to have conflict and a corrupted world. Both stories includes ends up with corruption in our world today.