Nate Reuss

Nate Reuss is the lead singer of the award-winning band Fun .

At first I disliked him for his voice.
It was characteristic to the extent where I could not listen to the music without drawing his face in the air.
Since it distracted me from both appreciating the music and doing whatever task I chose to do at the time, I stopped listening to him after a couple of tries.
But, a few weeks later, I came upon the song Just Give Me a Reason by Pink.
Listening to the song, I found that there was a man's voice floating in and out and I got really curious because the voice colour matched the song so well.
It was Nate Reuss.
That was why I, on August 31st, made up my mind to write something about Nate Reuss.

He was born in Iowa city, Iowa on February, 26th, 1982.
For most of his childhood, he lived in Arizona because of repeated experiences of pneumonia.

In high school he joined the band Nevergonnascore and released an EP, The Byron Sessions.
After graduating from his high-school in 2000 he decided to pursue a career in music.
Meanwhile, he took a job at a law firm to support him.

From 2001 to 2008, he was part of the band Format.
The members were Ruess, Sam Means, Mike Schey, Don Raymond, Marko Buzard, and Sean McCall.
The band released a demo and two EPs.
The demo titled EP was self-released on August, 9th, 2002 and was re-released with national distribution on June, 3rd, 2003.


The first EP titled Interventions+Lullabies was released on October, 21st, 2003 from the Elektra Records.



The second EP titled Dog Problems was released on July, 11th, 2006 from the Vanity Label. 



After the breakup of Format in 2008, he contacted Jack Antonoff of Steel Train and Andrew Dost of Anathallo to create the band Fun.
He has been and still is a part of the band.
On August, 25th, 2009, they released their debut album, Aim and Ignite, from Nettwerk.



On February, 21st, 2012, they released their second album, Some nights, from Fueled by Ramen.


(ps- he looks really drunk and worn in this clip.. maybe his stylist should be changed?)

Paragraph length analysis of the Neck by Roald Dahl- 1st draft

     At first glance, the journalist from the Neck might appear as a mere window for the readers to take a peek inside the story. After all, when he rests on the white bench, chatting with Basil Turton, he makes no attempt to notify Mr. Turton that Mrs. Turton is flirting with Major Haddock. His tendency to not interfere with the issue of the unfaithful couple is also apparent in the scene where Mr. Turton has to free Mrs. Turton from the sculpture. To take a daring step, it might even be suggested that the journalist, like many other narrators in Roald Dahl short stories, has no influence at all in the story and only serves as an observer. Nonetheless, the presence of the journalist plays an essential role in the story. His attempt at not notifying Mr. Turton can be understood as a deliberate action. To be more specific, if Mr. Turton was on a walk with someone with a different personality than the journalist, the guest could have tried to notify Mr. Turton and Mr. Turton might have gone back to the house instead of going to the couple. Moreover, the journalist’s impassiveness plays an even more important role when they meet the unfaithful couple. Had the journalist aided Jelks in tempting Mr. Turton to choose the axe, the result might have been different. Therefore, it is perhaps more accurate to assume that the journalist is a character with the important task of not attempting to influence Mr. Turton. In this sense, the journalist is more than a simple window. 

"Tales of the Unexpected" and human nature

     Roald Dahl conveys to the readers that human nature is more close to a murky pond after a flood than a clear crystal. His twists of plot often serve to make the readers realize that humans have many sides and that it is erroneous to cage them in a single image. Therefore, Dahl pays special attention to his writing so that he can convey multiple sides of human nature in the limited form of a "short story". To illustrate, Dahl tends to develop his characters not through direct description in the narrator's voice, but rather through dialogues and the relationship between different characters. One of the episodes that clearly demonstrate Roald Dahl’s methods is [Lamb to the Slaughter]. Mary Maloney's description of the way she loves Patrick Maloney is a great example of how Roald Dahl indirectly builds his characters. Roald Dahl narrates that Mary

“luxuriate in the presence of this man, and to feel……that warm male glow.” 

 

Such a description presents the readers with an image of a love relationship which is, for Mary’s part, beautiful but also frighteningly perverted. As a result, the readers come to suspect that despite the calm demeanor that she shows prior to Patrick's return home, she could possess an eerie twist in her personality. 

     Roald Dahl probably preferred such an indirect way of portraying his characters because he knew that direct portrayal is more useful for conveying one aspect of a character than conveying multiple aspects of a character. In other words, Roald Dahl would have acknowledged that in the few pages that are allowed for a "short story", direct portrayal of a character could result in readers making hasty judgments of characters and eventually hinder readers from grasping an understanding of all sides of the characters. To be specific, in [My Lady Love, My Dove], Dahl does a wonderful job of showing two sides of human beings with Mr. and Mrs. Snape. At first, the Snapes are portrayed as a decent young couple. However, as the plot unfolds, the Snapes are shown to possess a different side as well. In the later half of the story, they are portrayed as money-seeking people with no respect for rules, rather than civilized man and woman with manners. Some might say that actually, the Snapes have only one personality since the decent side of them was only a ruse and therefore does not count. Yet, it must be noted that humans adjust themselves to different situations. By showing how the Snapes express different aspects of themselves in different circumstances, Dahl can convey to the readers that people should not be confined to one aspect that they show in one circumstance.

     

     Taking into account that many of the "short stories" by Dahl are read by young children, Dahl’s intent behind conveying such a message on human nature is understandable. Often, the books young children read not only have unrealistic happy endings but also have characters that do not change during the course of the story’s plot. This often contributes to children’s tendency to believe that a person with one characteristic cannot possess a different characteristic. With the plot twists and the changing characters, Dahl can show the young children that humans are not such simple beings. Perhaps Dahl wished to prepare young children for the real world by showing them that human nature is closer a many-sided fractal than a flat glass cup.   

A paragraph-length analysis on "The Picture of Dorian Gray"

      At first glance, Oscar Wilde's "The Picture of Dorian Gray" might appear as a book influenced by many stereotypes. Among them, a certain stereotype on artists seem to tempt Oscar Wilde into making fun of the lives that artists living in the Victorian age were assumed to lead. After all, when Dorian Grey discusses Sybil Vane’s death with Basil Hallward, he makes a statement that depends on a stereotype regarding actors. Dorian Gray states that “They are good husbands, or faithful wives, or something tedious”. This statement shows that he has certain expectations of how an actor/actress would lead his/her life. Moreover, he brands the expected life style as “tedious” and goes on to refer to such a lifestyle as “middle-class virtue, and all that kind of thing”. These statements imply that he looks down upon the lifestyle of actors and that he expects other gentlemen—men who are distinguished by birth and upbringing—to share such an attitude. However, Dorian Grey’s opinion on the supposed lifestyle of actors/actresses is not exclusively expressed with regards to Sybil Vane, but is rather applied in general to people other than the aristocrats—the gentlemen and the ladies. In various occasions—especially at dinner meetings—Dorian Grey, Lord Henry, or others invited to the meeting would make negative comments on the middle-class and the working class. To present a different example, Mr. Ashton, one of the few characters who are not from a noble background and yet commands a certain level of respect from aristocrats, is also branded in a similar way as Sybil Vane is. Nonetheless, Lord Henry applies the ‘middle-class stereotype’ on Basil Hallward—a gentleman with an Oxford education—when he states to Dorian Grey, “Don’t squander the gold of your days, listening to the tedious”. Therefore, it is perhaps more accurate to assume that Oscar Wilde wished to ridicule people with a certain lifestyle, rather than people with a certain occupation or people from a certain social class. In this sense, the constantly reappearing stereotype of artists does not imply more significance of artists but implies that artists typically fall into the category of people with the lifestyle branded with tediousness.

The Picture of Dorian Gray - Compare a Character with a Person from Wilde's life

Choose a character from the book and develop an essay comparing that character with any real person from Oscar's life.

  Most of the characters in the novel are aristocrats. As aristocrats, these characters are used to consuming art. Lord Henry’s hedonistic lifestyle of ‘enjoying’ everything available in life best illustrates this feature. Oscar Wilde, for most of his life, lived with similar people. During his childhood, he met with the Dublin upper class that enjoyed his mother’s salons. After he moved to England, he became friends with Oxford alumnus representing the high-bred youngsters from all around Britain. Still later in his life, he mingled with the noblemen and rich bourgeoisie of London that read his articles and became patrons of his plays. However, Wilde himself was an artist before he was an aristocrat. Surrounded by normal people who did not share his fervor for and hardships at writing, he would have developed a unique sense of identity as a creator of art. As such, to compare and contrast Wilde with one of his characters that he arranged to live in a similar environment would be an interesting approach to digesting [The Picture of Dorian Gray].   

Basil is certainly not a replica of Wilde. Basil is described as an honest man who values people’s genuineness of heart. These features are portrayed in Basil’s reaction to Dorian Gray’s affair with Sybil Vane and the tragedy that follows. On the other hand, Wilde seems to be a person who valued artistic values over simple happiness in people’s everyday life. Wilde’s near-abandonment of his faithful wife is characteristic of Lord Henry rather than Basil.

Another conflicting characteristic is shown in their approach to their work. Basil is very hesitant at publicizing the portrait of Dorian Gray—his supposed best work. Not displaying the portrait can be interpreted as a precaution from his work becoming a subject of gossip by people. He seems to be afraid that the portrait—such a sacred thing—will be interpreted in a lowly, philistine manner by the critiques. This is reminiscent of a famous anecdote on Newton, in which he confessed that his groundbreaking book, Principia, was intentionally loaded with jargon. Newton explained that he did not want his ideas to be understood by un-intellectual people since such people would only misinterpret—even adulterate—his ideas. Such an attitude is in stark contrast to Oscar Wilde, who rather enjoyed playing with socially-scandalous ideas and daunting the public by expressing such ideas in his works.       

Yet, the deeper the reader delves into the relationship between the two, the reader comes to appreciate the similarities. Basil Hallward and Oscar Wilde are both creators of art that rely on the recognition and support of the wealthy upper class to make a living. At the same time, they themselves come from an aristocratic background and enjoy the work of other artists. Basil is described as attending operas with Lord Henry and Dorian Gray. In a movie attributed to him, Wilde is seen visiting an art gallery. This duality of identity separates Basil from other artists in the novel. Other artists are actors that perform for and rely on the generosity of aristocrats like Lord Henry and his friends. Also, actors are limited by the boundaries that playwrights set for each role whereas a painter is free to orchestrate his/her work. Such apparent contrast between Basil and other characters arouse speculation that Wilde intentionally reflected himself in Basil.

Basil’s affinity with Dorian Gray is representative of Wilde’s relation with Robbie. Basil’s almost obsessive proclivity towards Dorian Gray borders on the homosexual relationship Wilde was condemned for. What is interesting here is that Wilde published the novel before he endorsed himself in homosexual love. Therefore, it can be hypothesized that Wilde’s conception of himself included the seeds of homosexuality. Considering that Wilde was attracted to Robbie and his other lovers due to their fresh beauty and the inspirations such beauty stirred up in Wilde, Basil’s affection for Dorian Gray might be interpreted as a reflection of Wilde’s conception on the relation between an artist and his/her muse. To illustrate, Basil would preserve Dorian Gray’s original state of mind at the risk of his own work of art. In the same line, Wilde risked his career for his love for Robbie. 

Argentinian Beef

Because cows are so abundant in Argentina...
Stakes of great thickness costs only about 2~4000 won..!
Maybe I should do a comparative research on the history of beef products in the country...

Serius XM

It seems that there is a TV or Radio channel called

Sirius XM, which provides free video clips of

live music performances

I've seen two videos from it 

and luckily came upon  acoustic versions of songs that I love

which were sung primarily for this channel