Music

Music, what is music? According to Webster’s II: New Riverside University Dictionary, “music is the art of arranging tones in an orderly sequence so as to produce a unified and continuous composition” (www.cwrl.utexas.edu) In my opinion, music does not just have on actual meaning, music exists because people create it, perform it, and listen to it. Music is a sensation; it has different meaning for each individual. Music is when it produces interest to an individual and is pleasurable for him/her. Music is a way of relaxation for some people, while other people might just simply enjoy listening to the rhythms, sound, and melodies that passes through their ears, minds, and heart.

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Music in Lebanon has a great influence on the Lebanese society. Fayrouz, Sabah, Al Rahbani family..etc had a great influence on the Lebanese society in the past they still have a great influence on people but not as much as they used to. Al Rahbani family composed a lot of music that touched the people. They composed music to Fayrouz, who was very famous for her sensation, for the way she sent her message to the people by singing. Fayrouz sang a lot of songs that were dedicated to Lebanon, which touched the Lebanese people’s heart. Her music had a great effect on people. She was given a lot of attention and respect by the Lebanese society, and even by the Arab world. Al Rahbani family and fayrouz worked together most of the time to send the audience their message. Their songs had a lot of meaning and people used to listen to them wherever they went. Fayrouz was one of the Top singers back then and made a great change in music in the old days. She was respected by the Lebanese society, and until today people who talk about her criticize her in a good manner, and never in a negative way. However, Fayrouz was introduced to the history, and up till today still hear her, and listen to her music, especially that now-a-day this generation is interested in the Lebanese politics, they still use her music through the crisis of the country, for ex. “Bhibak ya Lebnan” and “Li Beirut” because her music has a meaning and gives the Lebanese society strength and power.

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However, today everything has changed the music, and the way people react to it. It affected the Lebanese society in a negative way. Even children now are influenced by today’s music negatively. In Lebanon people stopped listening much to the old songs and have become influenced by today’s music that doesn’t really have a meaning like before. For ex. Haifa Wehbe is one of the well known famous singers in the Arab world, she has influences the public by her sex appeal music which is only for entertainment and not patriotic or has a meaning like Fayrouz’s music were. Haifa’s music is being used for entertainment in night clubs, restaurants, parties, and many other places. The music now is very low quality but still it influenced the public, and even more than before. Singers do not use their voice or their music to reach people’s mind, ears, and their heart, they use advertisement and image to get to the people. Music in Lebanon now satisfies the people’s mood, and satisfies their need for entertainment. People are influenced by Haifa’s music such as the “wawa” song or the “naughty” song because it lifts their mood, and brings them joy. Although her music was criticized in a very bad manner, but people still listened to her music. Children now are more interested in music than children before were. Music now-a –day is evolving and is grabbing more and more attention than it was before. Music influenced all different kinds of people young, old, teenagers…etc. However, no matter how much music is being criticized they still listen to it, they like it and bring entertainment to them.

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In conclusion, music has great influence on all people, music talks to the soul, an individual needs music in his/her life, and because they are in the need of music they will react to it and feel it, but each individual looks for the music that touches him/her mood, personality, and their identity, that’s why there are different types of music, and every individual chooses what music to listen to according to their character.

History of the Radio

Now a day, radio is one of the most important Medias in our lives. It is an audio media that provides information to the listener from all around the world, without having to meet. It lets people communicate through a long distance, and gives them information about what is happening in this world. The nice advantage about the radio is that you are capable of doing whatever you want while you listen to it, without staying still and staring at it to focus on what is happening.

The history of radio started with a scientist called Heinrich Hertz, who caused spark to leap across a gap, and from that he detected radio waves in the year 1887. By the year 1893 he built an oscillator and a resonator.

By the year 1984 the scientists Oliver Lodge, Alexander Popov and Edward Brauley, filled a glass tube with metal filing that joint a coherer cohered under electromagnetic waves, and when they tapped the tube, filling collapsed and broke the circuit, that’s when they built a coherer that detects radio waves.
In 1940 Radio programming

On December 1894 in Italy, Gugielmo Marconi invented the spark transmitter, then in February 1896 he took his “black box” to Britain, despite it was broken he filed for the British patent. By 1897 Marconi formed his first wireless telegraph and formed a signal company, and in December 1898 he formed the world’s first radio factory.

Marconi’s company “The American Marconi co.” was formed in 1899, he controlled patents, and his company also sold spark transmitters to the U.S Navy for point-to-point transmissions.

In the year 1905, the Canadian Reginald Fessenden invented a continuous wave voice transmitter, he used a high frequency alternator that was developed by Charles Steinmetz, and in 1906 on Christmas Eve he made a voice broadcast over North Atlantic. In 1910, Fessenden sold to the westing house the patent for heterodyne receiver that used the joint operation of two AC currents for a third frequency.

In 1906 the inventor Lee de Forest patented his audion tube, in 1903 he visited Fressenden’s lab and stole a design for a “Spade detector”, and promoted the idea of multi-point broadcasting and sold patents to AT&T.

In 1903, Harold D. Arnold at AT&T developed the amplifying vacuum tube, that made the first coast-to-coast telephony, and in 1915 he made the first translated radio transmission.

In 1913 Edwin Armstrong patented the regenerative circuit that caused stronger oscillation in the tube that generated radio waves. In 1914 he made long-distance voice transmissions, and during the World War I he developed superhetrodyne circuit that combined high and low frequency waves, he sold patents to RCA in 1920, and in 1933he discovered FM transmission which was rejected by Sarnoff at RCA who was trying to develop television.

In 1915 De Forest sued Armstrong over the basic regenerative patent but lost the case in 1921, but in 1923 when it was demonstrated in court De Forest won the final battle, and was awarded the basic radio patent, which caused him to be known as the
“Father of radio.”

Charles Herrold began regular broadcasting in San Jose in 1912, and Fred Christian was broadcasting in Hollywood in his bedroom, William Scripps in Detroit broadcast music from office of his newspaper, the Detroit News, on station 8MK that became WWJ. Hiram Maxim of American Radio Relay League testified at congressional hearings in 1918. Then later on many had returned from world war I with experience using signal corps SCR-70 vacuum- tuber-radios- most popular were simple inexpensive crystal radio receivers rather than tube sets. Frank Cornad was engineer for Westinghouse, built SCR-70 receivers during war for signal corps and began broadcasting music from his garage in Pittsburgh- 8XK. In 1921 RadioShack Corporation was formed to sell equipment to “ham” operators, taking its name from the small wooden building for radio equipment on ships.

In 1912, due to the titanic disaster in April 14, all ships were forced to have radios with 2 operators and back up power and all transmitters had to be licensed.

Passion of the christ

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The passion of the Christ is a movie directed by Mel Gibson; this movie is based on the life of Jesus but mostly focuses on the last 12 hours of Jesus’ life. The movie begins in the garden where Jesus is praying after he has gone to the last supper, it shows you how scared he is and that he’s just like any human being. “Jesus is then arrested and taken within the city walls of Jerusalem where leaders of the Pharisees confront him with accusations of blasphemy and his trial results in a condemnation to death”. “(Adam Ward, www.google.com, the passion of the Christ.) The movie is full of horrific scenes that are heart breaking, and full of violence. When the movie was being played at cinemas for months it was the conversation of every human being whether they liked the movie or not, whether they watched it or not. It is Mel Gibson’s first movie he put so much effort into it, he worked for months on the scenes and sound effects and scenario which wasn’t written in English but in Jesus’ language, he worked on the directing to come up with a very strong well put together movie. The main idea revolves around Jesus’ last few hours while he was being put on the cross; it is known that Jesus suffered for our sake and Gibson tried to show us the violence that Jesus was put through. He studied all the ways Romans used to torture people in the past and used the information to film it. Passion of the Christ is a very interesting movie some people loved it, others rebelled against it.

The movie Passion of the Christ was rated R at the theaters, due to its violence. Gibson’s idea was to show the audience the price Jesus paid for our sake and he did it willingly not once did he rebel. Many movies were filmed about Jesus’ crucifixion but no movie was able to film Jesus’ torture this accurate and in this much violence, the Passion of the Christ is the only movie to film the torture of Jesus this brutally, it’s probably so close to what really happened in reality.

In my own opinion I think “The Passion of the Christ” is the most violent movie I’ve ever seen. The movie had too many detailed violence in it. Parents shouldn’t be taking their children to watch such a movie although children should watch this movie so they can learn about Jesus’ life. The movie is 126 minutes long, 100 minutes of the movie is violence. I think Mel Gibson over did it with the violence part, it is true he showed so much violence so the people can see how much suffering Jesus passed through, but I think that people who truly believe in God, and Jesus will already know how much he suffered for us, human beings. Mel Gibson concentrated more on the violence and not on the 12 hours that had been left in Jesus’ life. I think Mel Gibson should have concentrated more on the teachings of Jesus, this way all ages would have been able to watch the movie, and in the end children have the complete right to rebel that they want to watch the movie “Passion of the Christ” because they have all the right to learn about Jesus and his last 12 hours in life.

This movie affected a lot of people, and I am one of them, it taught people a lot of things in life. Jesus had been tortured, he had been beaten up almost to death, kicked, humiliated, insulted, and on top of all this he was crucified, but after all this he still came back with love and forgiveness. Every person that watched that movie felt guilt after watching it because we humans usually make a big deal about tiny mistakes that people does to us, and we might never forgive that person again.

In conclusion the movie was a great success; it changes a lot of small details in people and gave them more faith in God. Although Mel Gibson could have sent the message in a different way, but he chose to send it through violence, and show people how much he sacrificed for us, because I am sure no one living on this earth will be able to handle all this torture and no one will accept to handle all this much torture for somebody else.

Book: White Oleander

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White Oleander tells the unforgettable story of Ingrid, A brilliant, and her daughter Astrid. Astrid was a girl with no personality; she always depended on her mother Ingrid. Astrid’s past was extra complicated. Her father left the house and never came back causing Ingrid to kill the second man she meets for threatening her to leave also. Astrid is moved from one place to another because; her mother is arrested and sentenced to serve in prison for a long time. In every place Astrid is moved to, she faces different things. In the first home that adopts her; she falls in love with the father and begins an affair. The other home she goes to, she meets Paul and spends a lot of time with him but the day of goodbye comes. Moreover, Astrid visits her mother Ingrid who still tries to have a lot of influence on her daughter. Later on, a foster mom is found for Astrid. This new mother faces many problems with her unfaithful husband. After a long discussion with Astrid’s mom, the foster mother commits suicide leading Astrid to put the blame on her mother Finally, Astrid’s life changes even her character. Astrid finds her own personality and becomes a person who is independent.
This true story effects society. It shows people in the real world that a past can change a future to the negative or the positive. This story is a good example to teenagers. It tells them that no matter how hard a past can be, they should be stronger than it, and be able to set their future to the better.
White Oleander affects children with no parents, teenagers with drug abuse, a wife that has a husband that beats her up always. Reading this story inspires these people to finally make a change. People should be stronger than a negative past they lived. They should have the will to set themselves priorities that can help their future be a better place with better dreams. White oleander helps people like Astrid take the correct steps. even though your mom is a murderer and sent to prison, or you have an abusing father, or you’ve never met your parents does not mean you should give up, commit suicide , become a murderer or addicted to drugs. People should be strong in making their decisions, they should be open about the bad things that have happened in their lives, and be able to deal with them properly. People like Astrid should think of their past as a good lesson for them to be responsible and independent. The story White Oleander affects the society in a positive manner. It communicates with girls like Astrid telling them that they are not the only people in the world facing tense issues and it should not be a nightmare to their lives. It is very important that teenagers read stories like Whit Oleander and are encourages being optimistic no matter how many problems they have passed through in their lives.

Most Teens Play Violent Video Games

I wrote this article because now a days children and teenagers spend more time on TV and videogames rather than doing any other sort of activities. Video games have a very big influence on children and teenagers especially ages 13-17. Video games come in different forms; however, the ones that grab most of the children’s and teenager’s attention are violent games. Young boys do not think clearly when playing games, they don’t differentiate it from reality, what they see they apply.

They learn violence from video games, and according to what the article had mentioned that boys who play violent games act more aggressively than boys who don’t play violent video games. In my opinion parents should play a role in explaining to their child what video games are and how to deal with them. Boys who play video games become very influence by what they see and they start acting in the same way thinking that what they see is very “cool” and if they act in a violent way people might like them more.

Violent video games should be supervised and checked before given to any boy, and they should be made for certain ages. Since boys spend more time on videogames than any other activities obviously they learn more from these videogames and not from books or other sorts of other entertainments. However the more these boys play violent videogames , the more they would become violent and act aggressively, and over the time they will get used to watching violent acts and will not react to them I a sensitive way but learn more and become more aggressive.

“Daughters of Arabia”

“Daughter of Arabia” is a biography based on the life of a suffering Arab woman growing up under stress with the oppressed role of Islamic women. This book is about a princess from the royal family of Saudi Arabia, When you read the word princess or hear of a princess especially in Saudi Arabia a country rich with its oil which made its people rich too, you imagine a beautiful castle, with a beautiful life of royalty, wealth, pamper, and beauty. You imagine a woman with everything you can think of but you’d never imagine she’s a woman with everything except freedom. Freedom the most important thing in anyone’s life weather it was a rich princess or a pauper… “Princess Sultana has described her family life to American writer Jean Sasson and if it didn’t come from within palace walls, no one would believe it. Unforgettable in content, fascinating in detail, it’s a book worth taking time to read. “Daughters of Arabia” a true story of a Saudi Arabian princess a book that will move you to tears.

“Princess” is a book written before “Daughters of Arabia” by the same author –Jean Sasson- about Princess Sultana’s childhood, education, parents and her lifestyle. She revealed everything that goes on behind the palace walls and tells horrific stories of women’s lives behind the veil within the royal family. In “Daughters of Arabia” the princess turns the spotlight on her two teenage daughters, Maha and Amany. They are rich girls that never had to suffer to get anything they wanted or desired but stifled by the unbearably restrictive lifestyle imposed on them, they have reacted and rebelled just like their mother did.

When I read “Daughters of Arabia” I was truly and sadly shocked that women in this world and today in the 21st century still live like 40-50 years ago; no rights, no freedom, practically living and breathing because they have to! Anyone with the slightest interest in human rights will find this book heart-aching and unbelievable. Princess Sultana tells us stories about her life in the palace, and describes how she as a girl has no rights to act, speak, or take her own decisions about her own life. She lived a life dominant by males, weather it was her father, brother or husband.

As a female in Saudi Arabia especially from a royal family princess Sultana was prohibited to do so many things. She was home schooled as she is not allowed to leave the house without her brother, or parents. When she hits he age of puberty the Princess had to wear a veil and get married; it was not a choice. She’s not allowed to fall in love or choose the man she wants to share her life with. Her parents-her father to be specific-decide her spouse and she is not to see him until her wedding night. Her husband is her superior and she is to do everything he says and wants. If she disobeys him she is to be sent to the Woman’s Room-a room in a man’s house where women are sent to for punishment for a period of time.- She was beaten by her husband and cheated on and was not to complain because her father and brother said it was a scandal to get a divorce.

Princess Sultana tells about her grief when she finds out that her husband, father and brother get prostitutes from abroad to the palace to satisfy their sexual desires. She tells horrifying stories about how girls in Saudi Arabia undergo dangerous and painful surgeries that cuts part of their cervix so that they wouldn’t derive sexual pleasure and have sexual desires.

When Princess Sultana becomes a mother of two girls and a boy she tries to teach her son to respect women and give them chances in life. She tries her best to give her daughters a life better than what she had. But they too as Saudi Arabian girls from a royal family are dominated by males and are forced to a live a certain lifestyle which causes them to rebel against men. Due to this strict life her daughters go through many phases that are not considered normal in any society. Her daughter Maha expresses her sexual feelings by turning into a homosexual and rebels against men especially her father and brother who she sets on fire. Amany on the other hand rebels against men by becoming religious believing it was wrong to associate with men and blocks everyone from her life avoiding to talk to anyone, wanting to be alone. She even rebels against her mother saying that her mom was wrong to rebel against the freedom of women and that a woman was born to serve men to make god pleased.
“Daughters of Arabia” is a very touching book it was well written and amazingly detailed, not to forget that the content is fascinating as well as heart-aching. Reading this book opened my eyes to how lucky I am and how much freedom I’ve got. Although I live in a society that still doesn’t open to certain female issues but I learnt how lucky I am after reading the book. The minimum right I’ve got is to speak about my opinion out loud and everyone listens to it and takes it into consideration. In Saudi Arabia the Princess didn’t even have that. She had the beauty, the wealth, the castle but it all doesn’t matter if you at least don’t have the freedom of speech, I think she would give all that up for the freedom she wants. I think the book is a great book for every female to read, to know how lucky she is and appreciate it. It is a great book to teach females all over the world to fight for their freedom and never let anyone limit it for them. The book I guess was written not to offend the Saudi Arabian culture or to deliver a bad idea about the men of Saudi Arabia to the readers. I guess Princess Sultana took the risk of telling her story and have it written to the world so that she can deliver the message to all the females in the world that money and royalty isn’t everything it means nothing if you don’t have your freedom. She wrote this book to tell them that a woman is capable to do anything she wants, and she wasn’t born to serve and please men only. It’s time to end male dominance over women.

The story that affected me most and got me to tears was when Sultana tells about her cousin Nadia. Nadia falls in love and starts seeing a man. After sometime her father finds out and gives orders to drown his daughter to death in order to save the family’s honor. In my opinion, it’s the most horrifying story of all. I couldn’t believe that a father would have the heart to kill his own flesh and blood.

I think this book is Sultana’s greatest achievement. Her whole life she rebelled against men and how women should have the right to achieve something in life and she did. She was brave and courageous enough to tell her story and place it in public; sending a message to all the women in the world to continue what she had started fight for their freedom.

Jerry Springer

The “Jerry Springer show” is a very well know American TV show, this show is hosted by Jerry Springer, who is a former politician. “The talk show is videotaped at the NBC Tower station of WMAQ-TV in Chicago and it is not currently broadcast on any NBC-owned stations. A popular show, it has been broadcast during the high morning, afternoon, and late hours of many syndicated TV stations since the early 1990’s”. (www.google.com, Jerry Springer show, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The-Jerry-Springer-Show).
The “Jerry Springer show” is a talk show where families with troubles in their lives come to talk about their problems in front of the studio audience, whereas, the audience and the host (Jerry Springer) will offer their suggestions on how these troubled families can solve the situation they’re in. This talk show has been characterized as the “Trash TV” talk show, because the topics of this show mainly focus on, adultery, homosexuality, prostitution, transvestism, hate group membership, pornography, racism, homophobia, divorce, infidelity, and many other situations. The show was voted for the “worst TV show ever”, and they were proudly bragging about it. “Currently the show boasts that’s it is an hour of your life you will never get back, and wasting technology since 1991.” (www.google.com, Jerry Springer show, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The-Jerry-Springer-Show).

The Jerry Springer show became more and more popular, because it gained a lot of success. The guests of this show are from a low-class, and have a low level of education. The people came in front of the audience with their family or partner, and were confronted about one of the topics mentioned before, prostitution, homosexuality…etc., and usually this confrontation leads to loud screaming, chair throwing, fist fights, and even removal of clothing. Women expose their breasts to the crowd and men took of their pants and underwear, which gave the show a lot of attention and increased its popularity.

“On July 12, 2002 the sons of nanny Campbell “ (www.google.com, The Jerry Springer Show , http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The-Jerry-Springer-Show, ) wanted to sue Jerry Springer, the producer and the distributor, because Nanny was killed by her ex-husband after they got on that show, the sons of Nanny went against Jerry Springer saying that he “created a mood that had lead to murder”.
A lot of major figures I television wanted the removal of the show such as religious priests, and did not like the show at all, considering it to be a “bad taste”, the show was called a pornography show, even Jerry Springer the host of the program was starting to be considered as an inappropriate choice for a speaker in major events.

In my point of view the show Jerry Springer is like a circus, the people who get on the show do not have respect for each other or for themselves. It sends a very disturbing message to the public, about the American-style, and their way of living. It gave people the wrong idea of the American’s society. I think the guests and the audience are really stupid, and even the topics spoken about are very cheap. An example of a topic that was displayed is “I married a horse”. I think Jerry Springer has gone too far with this kind of topic, which is about a man who is describing his marriage to a horse, who he has been married to for 5 years, and another woman who is sharing her romance story with her dog to the audience. I think such topics are fake and too exaggerated, but thinking of it the program might be fake, but if it wasn’t it wouldn’t have achieved this much success, what I mean is when the audience see a man throwing a chair on his ex-girlfriend’s lover people are going to find it entertaining, so I think that’s why the show exaggerates and fakes a lot of details, to become more successful.

As for violence, the show encourages a lot of violence, and after researching it turned out that the producers of that show always make sure that there will definitely be a fight on stage, and in the backstage the producers encourage the guests to scream at the other person and to fight that person back.
I, myself watch the Jerry Springer show, being on air for so long proves how successful it is. The naughty themes discussed every time on the show, the guests behavior, and even the host (Jerry Springer) made the program different than any other programs. The topics of the show may all seem to be different but they all talk about one think which is sex, but to make this topic even more interesting they add the sex part to adultery, divorce, homosexuality…etc, in addition to the fist fighting, hair pulling, kicking, and verbal abuse. It doesn’t matter if the guest is male or female they just get in front of the audience and use violence to grab people’s attention.

In conclusion, the “Jerry Springer show” may seem a very shallow talk- show, but in the end it satisfies the viewers’ need for violence, and entertains them, and in my own opinion if the show dint include violence and sex I don’t think anyone would really be interested in watching the program.