to those who made the grade

Not everyone is born with a silver spoon. Not everyone has a "luck of an Irish" (pardon the term). But a lot of us have been put down, spat on, humiliated, and missed a lot of golden opportunities. A lot of us fought the good fight, but just didn't make the grade.

Success, sadly, is made both with hardship and a lot of times, fabricated opportunities.

Fabricated in the sense, that some may lie their way to the top (or lay depending on your situation), push off competition (with extreme prejudice, sorry for the cliché), or simply make their way at that right moment, be it by luck, or by deceit.

What does irk me most times, is when these individuals (or groups of people) reach the apex, achieve what few people could, they begin to look down on the others that didn't.

We, the bottom feeders, the needy, the failures in life are either seen as leeches, dregs of society.

Some of us, if not most, have experienced adversities, and unfortunately had a hard time from climbing back up to the challenges in life. But that doesn't mean we are wallowing in our disgrace. That doesn't mean we are forever in this state.

But to label us as failures shows how much these "upper crusts" have been blinded by their "sparkly" higher status in society. The best description would be how a winner in a race would gloat at the last placer, or a person who used to live in a backwater country, now enjoying the fruits of his/her labor in a first-rate society.

Somehow, those who made the grade have forgotten life is a wheel, and it cycles from one point to another. And the higher you are in your mountain, the harder it is when you fall from your own fragile pedestal. Somehow, in their arrogance and self-righteous perception, they have failed to see the what ifs and if they were in the other person's figurative shoes.

Perhaps, their success is cast in stone, but at what cost, and whose stepping-stone have they used and abused to get  all the way up to their successful careers/businesses?

 

Solo performance?

Today I was supposed to play at a club for audition night. And I am so terrified that I asked my contact if I could have the audition on another week instead. I only realized just now how weak my voice is as a solo performer. I was doing last minute preparations for the auditions. My plan was to do two different instruments at a time. One keyboard piece and an electric guitar piece.

I was playing and singing at the same time wearing my headphones and I can hear how my voice trembled on some of the lines. And there were parts where I jumbled my chords on some pieces too.

I knew if I go on tonight it would be a disaster. I want to perform but knowing I'm doing everything solo, I will feel naked on the stage. Even though I am using a song accompaniment thru mp3 files on the computer. It's not the same as playing with a band.

And again, with my voice, I know I don't sound as outstanding as I imagine myself to be. My heart was racing since last night, I was so restless and nervous. I can play music, but playing and singing has been a challenge for me.

I can sing my own songs with glee since I know my notes by heart, and I can safely say no matter how my voice sounds I can sing it with confidence, since it is my own song.

But doing covers is much more different. Either you try and emulate how it sounds originally, or give it your own flavor but not deviating from its essence.

Perhaps it harks back to my aborted piano recital. I have never played alone in public. Ever. I play in tandem with a guitar, I accompany a singer, but I never sang and accompany myself in public before. Never.

So, I need to polish everything in a span of seven days before I can safely say I can play solo. Good luck to myself.

Why we hate Rob Liefeld

I'm not sure why so many of the online community are enraged as to why Mr. Rob Liefeld has a career in the comic book industry. I keep looking at some of his great creations like Cable and Deadpool. If he isn't a good artist/creator, why are these two characters so popular up till now? Cable represents the big-muscled, cybernetic,shoulder pad wearing, big gun guy that was so the rage in the 90s.

Deadpool meanwhile is a mixture of Spider-man's comical quips, and Deathstroke's multi-weaponed assassin. Add to that a healing factor that was added after he was disfigured horribly. (I may be wrong on that detail). Why the hate? For those early years, so much of those fans (who were young kids then), bought copies (variants with chrome designed covers, or alternate drawings, or sketches)of a single issue out of love of his work. (Or a misplaced idea of a money making investment). Unfortunately, the nineties (90's),was the time when bad girls, overly designed, manga-ish, unnecessary cross- hatched work and gimmick loaded covers was the in thing in those days. The only comics I tried out then that seem still cool for me was the Generation X cover by Chris Bachalo.

You can easily tell early on that one would sustain his works, and the other will be derided simply he was a bad choice that became popular. Why do most comic book fans hate Rob Liefeld? Because as an afterthought, they realized the mistake of liking his works in the first place. Their adolescent minds, filled with new ideas, but untrained eyes of what is really good, what is artfully done, over what was hot, and happening back in those days. It's a sad reminder to most fanboys that they were fooled by big biceps, high- concept, obvious character rip-offs, and women drawn as sluts in the heyday that was the 90s. Still, atleast Mr. Liefeld created Deadpool and Cable ... one of them is going to even have a solo movie... ( and media has fooled us again... ah fanboys, when will we ever learn).