The Current Online

by CLAIRE BOYD

Brian Brosch, a student at MCC’s Business and Technology Center (BTC), began his academic career by taking one course simply because it interested him, but the interest soon grew into a passion and one class turned into his major: Applied Science for Drafting and Computer Aided Design.
As returning student and single father, Brosch assures his number one priority is his nine-year-old son, Christian. “He’s my life,” he says adoringly as he tilts his head towards the boy. “We have fun–things are pretty laid-back and mellow,” he adds about their home life together.
Aside from his son and his enthusiasm for CAD, Brosch carries a supreme love for music. He plays his guitar and drums incessantly. He may have gone on to do this professionally had it not been for a life-altering accident he was involved in on his 21 birthday. As a result of a drunk driving accident, he now is paralyzed from the waist down. However, with much persuasion and more drive, he periodically takes an experimental pill that has miraculously allowed him to be able to stand up and take steps around his home. As he has learned, “It doesn’t do any good to worry about tomorrow.”
His accident did change his lifestyle, yes; “My whole perspective has changed–now I take my time.” Still, this hasn’t stopped him from quickly becoming an important man in his current area of expertise. His ability to learn quickly and produce impressive renderings allowed him to work as an artist on Longview’s drawing of renovations made to the Liberal Arts building at Longview Community College. “I don’t do anything halfway–if I can’t do it right, I don’t do it at all.” Brosch feels fortunate to be the only person thus far to have done drawings of what the LA building is projected to look like in its final stages.
Brosch “can’t wait to finish school,” as he wants to go on in his career and spend time with Christian. But for now, as the holiday season approaches, Christian wishes for a Play Station 2 and video games to go with it, and Brosch wishes only one thing, “For my son to have a good Christmas–that’s all I really want.”

by CLAIRE BOYD

When Jewel’s sweet voice began to seep through the radio, “Standing Still” caught listeners’ attention and quickly made its way to the request lines. The artist’s bouncy, unique love song is the first to be released from her masterpiece This Way and her video for this song has already reached VH1′s nationwide Top 10 list. In fact, the composition of her fourth album in its entirety is beautiful and unusual, flattering Jewel as a recording artist, amongst her other career endeavors. She is also recognized as an acclaimed poet, author and actress, and has partnerships with several for profit and humanitarian projects.
Most like Pieces Of You than any other previous album this everyday angel has released, each song is noticed for the diversity in vocal strategy, displaying Jewel’s internal talent while she bends notes and dances with the lyrics for maximum audio and emotional impact. Songs like “Everybody Needs Someone Sometime” and “Love Me, Just Leave Me Alone,” written at age 21, carry her ever-present energy to a new level and embrace a fervid sound quite similar to her long-time influence, Janis Joplin’s oomph.
Though some songs from this compilation were written at a younger age and resemble her earliest collection, this means nothing when observing sound quality: Jewel has undoubtedly matured vocally, impressing listeners while still throwing out catchy and playful riffs interspersed with countrified twangs. Jewel’s sumptuous opera training is apparent in many songs, including “I Won’t Walk Away,” in which her vocals parallel the sound of her life-long mentor and mother, Lenedra Carroll. Other opera-dipped melodies are “Serve The Ego” and “Break Me,” a passion-driven devotional love song that realizes the common pains of a dear one’s absence.
Highlights of the CD are hard to identify, since the whole album is pleasurable. Still, elegant background arias and her almost-yodels in track fourteen cannot be overlooked. Tunes that deserve special attention are “Till We Run Out Of Road” and “The New Wild West.” “Till We Run Out Of Road” is a piece that may be insinuating her detachment from her travels as a singer and her special romance with that place she fancies calling Home. This comforting singular composition has an easy sound similar to those tracks from Joy: A Holiday Collection, which came out last holiday season. In the gratifying piece “The New Wild West,” Jewel takes a stand through serious, slow-moving music saturated with bold political views. She also uses literary history to bring romantic characters as well as her songs to life – Aphrodite and Neptune are mentioned from Roman mythology, and a play on words converts Shakespeare’s most famous tragic couple to Romeo and “Jewel” (amiably taking the place of Juliet).
Jewel accomplishes communicating several different messages and sensations through individual songs, using classy innuendoes to talk about subjects that have been defiled by society. In “Break Me” she sings to her lover that she will let him “make” her, offering her innocence to both the object of the song and her audience.
This resonant anthology took poignant musical planning, and is most likely my favorite CD of hers to date. Jewel held onto her individuality in this assemblage while also appealing to the masses with a slightly more pop-friendly sound. Bonus: Jewel put two songs recorded live at the end of the album, “Grey Matter” and “Sometimes It Be That Way.”

by CLAIRE BOYD

Inspired by her life experiences, Lenedra Carroll, known not only as a businesswoman, singer and artist, but also as the mother of the multi-talented artist Jewel, has written a cross between an ethereal guidebook and a memoir, The Architecture of All Abundance. This publication includes stories from her life, original poetry and exercises designed to help readers find their own spiritual path.
“I have lived elements of a ‘rags to riches’ life. I have experienced times of severe lack but now I live a gracious and abundant life filled with the financial resources and possessions that most people long for. However, I did not achieve them by yearning after those things. This book contains the understandings, values and principles that have allowed me to develop global business that reflects those values,” she states in her preface.
Some of the aforementioned global business includes her work on humanitarian committees as a joint effort with Jewel. Together the two created the foundation Higher Ground for Humanity (HGH), which joins with others in the world in aiding and creating success for all people. HGH pursues this goal through research, program development, education and “innovative partnering.” The areas HGH concentrates on are youth, the arts, alternative health care, spiritual development, global community building and the environment.
One program that has sprung HGH is called the Clearwater Project, which “evolved out of the reality that clean water had become a commodity that we can no longer take for granted,” and that in most poverty-stricken areas, this problem of unclean drinking water has flourished. In aspiring to enrich lives, the Clearwater Project has provided clean drinking water solutions in various areas of the world. Thus, the program has inspired long-term changes on several levels, including but not restricted to improving health and education, reducing violence and poverty, family planning and environmental protection.
Besides originating charitable programs, Lenedra is also the manager of Jewel’s career. She was given this position partly for her experience: Lenedra has performed most of her life. Her recent conquests include Christmas in Rockefeller Center, the Nobel Peace Prize Concert, and the Vatican. On television she rules the early day, appearing in several different talk shows ranging from Good Morning America to The Oprah Show. Lenedra has also made her way into several reputable compositions, including People Magazine, Reader’s Digest, and Us magazine.

For additional information on Lenedra Carroll, visit lenedrajcarroll.com

by CLAIRE BOYD

I don’t hate. I stand firmly in that position. My extreme is that I do severely dislike, and I severely dislike Tori Amos’ music.
When I heard the infamous piano bench-humping singer had put out another album, I was disinterested. When I found out the release was a cover album, I became disgusted. And when I realized all the covers were songs that men had sung about women, I thought, that dumb-ass feminist sell-out.
I stand corrected.
Partly.
Strange Little Girls is an album completely comprised of songs originally sung by men about women. In Tori’s reworking, she takes on the hidden female voice in each song. Perhaps the most talked about and chilling track is her version of Eminem’s “’97 Bonnie and Clyde,” where she makes no alteration to the words of the song to take on the persona of his dead wife in the trunk of the car.
Tori explains of how she was compelled to release this woman. “When I first heard the song, the scariest thing to me was the realization that people are getting into the music and grooving along to a song about a man who is butchering his wife. So half the world is dancing to this, oblivious, with blood on their sneakers. But when you talk about killing your wife, you don’t get to control whom she becomes friends with after she’s dead. She had to have a voice.” The woman’s perspective as Tori enacts it is eerie and impactive in its entirety.
In fact, most every song adopts a sad and regretful aura, reminding the listener that this is the self-proclaimed societal victim who squeals and moans about herself in your ear.
The theme of this recording is interesting, yes. Tori even recruited a make-up artist and a photographer to help provide depictions of the female Tori portrays in each song. Also, fantasy author Neil Gaimen has composed a series of unreleased short stories for each of these characters’ backgrounds.
Though these additions and visuals help fully develop the concept that Tori is trying to convey, I still have not been fully convinced that this album was not just the artist’s side project. The ideas encompassing this work entirely request media attention, which goes to show that even the rich want to be richer, so they can continue to bitch and moan about how bad their lives are. The tracks range from gripping to boring, and her unhealthy obsession with guns for a woman supposedly so opposed to violence make half the renditions meaningless and floppy.
A majority of the songs present her renowned piano front and center, which easily reforms these rock songs into pretty, frilly, girly sounds. However, her old tricks prove solid in songs like “Enjoy the Silence” and “I’m Not In Love,” which ultimately stand out as works of art. In “I’m Not In Love” she uses vocal riffs and a simple, simple musical line to emphasize her voice and emotion over the ambivalence of the words.
As for the rest of the tracks, though entertaining, these are my thoughts: I don’t believe a trendy icon should ever sing a Beatles song. I wanted to hurl when the climax of “Heart of Gold” began and Tori sounds as if she is going into a drug-induced epileptic fit. The only song she really stays true to is “Strange Little Girl,” keeping the simple and catchy pop beat only to remain radio-friendly.
Okay, so this is the point where I am supposed to recommend this compilation. Sure, go ahead, buy it – you will if you are a Tori fan and you will if you like cover albums. But, if you truly appreciate the inventiveness of music, you won’t be caught dead with 13 different Tori pictures and a weak promotional cd.