Beyonce

Birth Date and Place

                Beyoncé Giselle Knowles was born September 4^th, 1981 in Houston, Texas to her parents Mathew Knowles and Celestine Ann Tina Beyincé. Her name clearly came from her mother’s maiden name “Beyincé.” She grew up in the suburbs of Houston, a big center for U.S. oil. She said that even though it was a big city, it felt like a bunch of small towns.

Family Members

                Beyoncé grew up in middle class in her house with her younger sister Solange and their two parents. Mathew Knowles graduated with a business degree from Fisk University in Nashville in 1974. Using his business degree, he also worked as an executive at Xerox. He grew up in Alabama during the Civil Rights era and went to Litchfield Jr. High where the state troopers were called in to control rioting for segregation and to escort the children to class. Beyoncé’s mom, Tina, grew up poor working as a seamstress. She later worked at a bank, and then in Houston she opened her own hair salon. “Headlines” became one of Houston’s most popular hair salons. Tina has always been very religious, carrying her bible with her everywhere. She also was always singing as Beyoncé grew up; two things that have influenced Beyoncé greatly.

Childhood and School Life

                Beyoncé’s first concert was at the age of 5 years old when she saw Michael Jackson. He later became one of her biggest musical influences. She started out very shy and only sang around people she trusted like her teacher, Darlette Johnson. This teacher got her to do her very first talent show around age 6 or 7. Since then, she’s won over 30 competitions, getting her first press in the Houston Chronicle in 1988 and a Sammy Award which was a local talent award. She finished elementary school at Cynthia Ann Parker Elementary where they taught her things to help her in path to pursuing music. Her biggest musical influences growing up were gospel, contemporary jazz, church, soul, Anita Baker, Luther Vandross, and Jazz singer Rachelle Kawell. Local influences were her mother’s salon, the Houston hip-hop scene, and her friend LaTavia Roberson. The salon was influential because whether her mother’s clients wanted to listen or not, Beyoncé got out there and performed for them. The Houston hip-hop scene was very accessible to her because she lived in the Third Ward or “the Trey” as it was called in rap battles. The Trey was the home to “chopped and screwed“ music which was a style created by DJ Screw in the 1990’s where you slow down beat and chop up the original in the remix. Her school friend LaTavia was a big part of her life and musical career because LaTavia performed with Beyoncé; LaTavia rapped while Beyoncé sang.

Hobbies, Interests and Activities

                Growing up, Beyoncé’s hobbies included singing…lots of singing. Her group “Girls Tyme” went and competed on Star Search while they were in middle school. Obviously, she continued doing music, but later was intrigued by film. Her first movie was Carmen: A Hip Hopera by MTV. She played an overtly sexy singer named Carmen Brown. The movie broadcasted May 8^th, 2001. Her next project was her role in the third Austin Powers movie, Goldmember. She loved it and especially loved making her first solo track for the credits of the movie called “Work It Out.” Eventually, this got her into representing products starting from Houston based Pro-Line hair products, to Candie’s shoes of New York, to replacing Brittney Spears in 2002 as the new face of Pepsi. She did more movies after Goldmember. She got to do a lot of soulful music during her role in The Fighting Temptations in 2003. After doing so many characters that involved singing, she wanted to play something other than a singer. Her next opportunity was The Pink Panther where she played Xania, an international superstar and singer. The only reason she played this part was because Steve Martin and Kevin Kline were in it also. She did a couple more singing movies before she got to play something different. However, my favorite of all her movies, and one of my all time favorite movies, was Dreamgirls where she co-starred with Jenifer Hudson in 2006. Being set in the 60’s made this movie a little different when it came to music, style and terminology. The movie was a huge success winning Oscars and Grammys. Her next movie, set around the same time, she got to play Etta James in Cadillac Records in 2008. Beyoncé FINALLY got her chance to play something other than a singer in the thriller Obsessed (2009) where she played a wife and a new mother who has to stand her ground against a home wrecker and stalker played by Ali Larter. Her next film projects include A Star Is Born and possibly a role in a comedy film. Other interests Beyoncé has is designing clothes with her mother, the seamstress, for her line House of Deréon and also, giving back to the world. She uses her fame and success to help the less fortunate, the ones she’s never forgotten about. Furthermore, Beyoncé’s current interests include being with her daughter, Blue Ivy Carter who was born January 7^th, 2012.

Anecdotes

                Around 1997, Destiny’s Child was in the midst of working with major producer Wyclef Jean on the remake of their first hit “No No No,” “No No No” (Part 2). On the day of their video shoot for “No No No” (Part 2) the girls realized that their costumes were nowhere to be found. They had gotten lost with the luggage somewhere between the United States and Cancun, Mexico where they were shooting the video. Luckily, they brought Beyoncé’s mom, Tina, along and she once again, made the girls their costumes for the video. She bedizened some military outfits from a local army surplus store, got them approved by Jean, and the girls were back on track to shoot the video.

                Although Destiny’s Child was quickly becoming successful, Beyoncé did not enjoy the media attention on the shifts of members in the groups. One radio DJ said being in Destiny’s Child was like being a contestant on the show Survivor. So Beyoncé did what she does best and made this negative comment into a positive thing by writing a hit song about it. As you may have guessed, this song was called “Survivor.” As big of a hit as this was, Beyoncé took a big hit herself. Ex-members of Destiny’s Child, LaTavia Roberson and LeToya Luckett took this as a personal attack saying the lyrics “You thought I wouldn’t sell without you? Sold 9 million!” were in reference to them. This was such a big deal because in a previous court settlement, they agreed that neither party would make “any public comment of a disparaging nature concerning one another.” However, Beyoncé went on to tell MTV that “Survivor” was “written for anybody that thought we weren’t gonna make it.” The “Survivor” album showed the world Beyoncé’s writing talents and proved that Destiny’s Child wasn’t going anywhere soon.

                Throughout his campaign to be elected president in 2004, it was noted that Barack Obama had a pretty popular fan. Beyoncé had been supporting him since day one saying “It’s an exciting time for my generation, regardless of whether you’re African American or not.” Obama admitted to being a fan of Jay-Z and Beyoncé, having a few of their tracks on his iPod. When it was time for Election Day, she took a break from her promo trip for her new album I Am… Sasha Fierce to join in the festivities. At the Neighborhood Ball celebration after the president’s inauguration ceremony, Beyoncé got to sing Etta James’ “At Last” as the president and first lady danced. She told Good Morning America, “I can’t even describe to you how it felt. I’m actually right now fighting back tears because it’s just so emotional. I’m just so proud of my country. This man was born for this. And he was born to lead us, and I just feel so inspired and so proud. I’m sorry, I’m so embarrassed. I’m just so lucky to be a part of this history. It’s probably the most important day of my life, and I’m so grateful.”

Career

                At only 32, Beyoncé has already seen over 15 years of success. Starting at such a young age, she was able to grow and mature quickly into the woman she is today. She is now a mother of 16 month old Blue Ivy, has been married to Jay-Z for almost 5 years, and is one of the most successful, well-known women in the world. Starting from local talent shows, rapping and singing with LaTavia Roberson at her mom’s salon, Star Search and Girls Tyme to Destiny’s Child, a Christmas CD, going solo, meeting Jay-Z, emerging as an actress, winning Grammy after Grammy, getting married, being able to give back, creating her own fragrance, taking a break, creating her clothing line with her mother, performing at the Glastonbury Festival in Somerset, England, and having baby Blue. There is no doubt that Beyoncé is a remarkable human being, she is also a workaholic and says that she doesn’t ever say “no.”

 

Champions

Ever since my freshman year at West Hills, the Girls Varsity Basketball team has dominated and has been one of the most successful sports teams at our school.

            The girls’ basketball team has been CIF champions or semi-finalists every one of the last four seasons. This year, they are currently competing for 3^rd place in CIF. They planned to get second last week, but lost to Serra High School. It was a very intense and important game at Serra. They are a very competitive school and a big rival to Patrick Henry High School in boys’ basketball and football. Although we didn’t have the home court advantage, the Wolf Pack showed up and supported the Lady Wolf Pack. Losing to Serra was a tough blow for the girls, but they were still in good spirits after the game. On a Facebook event page, 4 year varsity player, Emily Cole, says, “Thank you for everyone who came! It’s not over yet; we play Thursday against West View at Mira Mesa.” The girls are staying positive and looking forward to their game later on this week.

            Emily goes on to tell us that if they win against West View, they will go to the state play offs! This is still a very big accomplishment and will be a big game for the team. State play offs are a huge deal and we wish them the best of luck. I caught up with senior star, Haley Forseburg and asked her what this game against West View means to her and her team. She said, “We’re playing for the third place in CIF and the winner goes to the state championship which is fun, but it is also a very big challenge.” Haley has been to the state championships before and said that there are a ton of great teams that go from all different types of schools.She said that the Lady Wolf Pack always tries their hardest, but usually gets beat. “The score is usually like 90 to 30,” Forseburg added. Winning is kind of bitter sweet for the team; they’re happy they won, but they know that state championships are a lot of hard work.

            Win or lose the spot for third place, this is another year in a long run that the WHHS Girls Varsity Basketball team has been in CIF. The girls’ teams at West Hills are continuously successful and continuously show that boys are not always athletically superior. Good luck to our Lady Wolf Pack basketball players in their future games.

Catalog Final

Coraline Review

Coraline, an animated children's movie based on a book written by Neil Gaiman, was directed by screenwriter, HenrySelick. The main character, Coraline, who is played by Dakota Fanning, was a 13 year old only child who felt neglected by her parents, played by Teri Hatcher and John Hodgman, after moving into their new home in The Pink Palace. The Pink Palace sounded grand but was not very colorful or fun at all. At least not until Coraline passed through the door to another dimension.

 

After moving into her new home, Coraline explores the house and comes accross a door sealed behind the wall paper. She has her mother find the key and finds out that it has been bricked up, or so she thinks. That night, she gets led back to the door and now finds it to be a magic portal to another world; one that looked almost identical to her hown except brighter and better. She meets her "other" parents who are exciting and loving at first, but later on seem a little off. It became apparent that the "other mother" was running the show and had control over everyone in this mysterious world. She was able to control them by sewing buttons on their eyes. Everyone had button eyes, except Coraline, but the "other mother" was determined to change that. After traveling back and forth between the two worlds a few times, she becomes confused and doesn’t know which world is better. The "other mother" traps Coraline's real parents in order to lure Coraline back over. Anticipating a tough fight, Coraline puts her game face on and enters into the other dimension for what she hopes to be her last visit.

 

Coraline was made in stop-animation, taking over 18 months to complete. Each set, character, item of clothing, and facial expression was handmade on a miniature scale and captured frame by frame. It took about 24 frames to make just one second of film. That means 24 little changes to the picture, done by hand. The character dolls were made out of a mechanical skeleton and covered in modeling silicon, both making the characters easy to move. Hundreds of faces were made for each character to snap onto their skeleton heads. Clothing and hair had to be made with wire in order to move them in every frame. This movie was certainly made by dedicated artists who probably had no lives for a year and a half.

 

On top of the handmade models and sets, there were more special effects that had to be added. Things like rolling fog and growing plants had to be done partially on the computer as well. The fog was actually dry ice being poured over the set and captured on film so that later, the "fog crew" could piece the fog together on the computer to make it move around the characters. The growing, vibrant flowers were also a challenge. They used fiber optics and paper flowers to put together a shot in the garden scene of the growing flowers popping out of the ground. In conclusion, more than just modeling artists were needed; light and computer nerds were needed too.

 

Overall, this movie was definitely one to watch and appreciate after seeing the finished project. Between the imagination of the writers and the talent of the filmmakers, Coraline was interesting and awe inspiring. I may not recommend it for young kids, but it will be one to watch later on.

 

Everybody's New Favorite

X Factor made its’ return to the United States on Fox with a huge two night season premier. After a few major changes to the judging panel and no host to open the show, producer, Simon Cowell, and director, Brian Friedman, managed to pull off two nights of entertainment. The previous host, Steve Jones was fired along with judges, Paula Abdual and Nicole Scherzinger. The host has yet to be replaced, but the new judges, singer and Disney Channel star, Demi Lovato, and infamous pop star, Britney Spears, now sit alongside returning judges, music producer, L.A. Reid, and producer Simon Cowell. Cowell brought this singing competition over from the United Kingdom where it started. It had a great first season here in the U.S., critiqued on almost every review and entertainment network, such as E! News, USA Today, and even YouTube. Many people enjoy this show; it may have even become my own favorite over American Idol.

The first show started out with a big focus on welcoming the new judges, especially Britney Spears. The first city was Austin, Texas where they found working mom, Paige Thomas and her 3 year old daughter. Paige showed good promise but won the judges over with her look and her adorable daughter. Being the first of the day to get four yes’s, she set the bar high for the rest of the contestants. The next city, San Francisco, California, started out with the boys of Emblem3 who wanted to make sure everyone knew they were not a boy band! They blew the judges (and me) away with their original song, “Sunset Blvd,” and maturity on stage. Who knew a few skater kids from Hunington Beach could pack so much talent? However, my favorite audition may have been at the end of the show in Providence, Rohde Island. Jillian Jensen, a 19 year old (the same age as Demi Lovato) who had been bullied in school (also similar to Demi), broke everyone’s heart when she sang on the X Factor stage, shoving her talent in all of her bullies’ faces; she also won everyone’s vote.

The second night of the premier took place in San Francisco with a 16 year old rapper/singer, Johnny Maxwell, who impressed the judges with his original song, “All These People.” Simon pointed out that he was a much better rapper than singer, but agreed with L.A. Reid that the song was already a hit. The show was filled with drama including crazy Britney fans like one who brought her flowers. However, the show ended with one of the best performances so far. 13 year old, Carly Rose Sonenclar stole the show with her amazing voice, old soul, and stage presence that was beyond her age. She brought tears to my eyes by the end of the performance and was one that everyone will remember. A great way to close the show, and season premier.

This season promises to be full of good talent, which makes the judges’ job very hard. It’s amazing that the X Factor can still find so many good singers in a country with as many talent competitions as we have. Great entertainment means a lot of viewers; viewers like me who traded their previous favorite show for this show: X Factor.

First Post!

This is my blog for Writing for the World.