Harlequin Romances

Harlequin Romance is what I decided to get more information on. It is ironic how I picked this topic because my older sister used to read these novels when I was younger but I never took any time to read any of them. When looking up this topic I had difficulty because I kept getting repeated errors saying that this topic did not exist but I did not give up and finally found my five sources needed to complete my research.

I was so tempted to go onto google.com since that is my favorite website but I had to resist. I first found out that harlequin was common during the eighteenth century in Italian comedy culture ( Delpiano 1). A harlequin was a supposed to be this poor character in comedy who wore colorful costumes that were costumes that were richer in culture (Delpiano 1). Harlequin is also a noun which is derived from the Italian language (Webster). It is also from the Middle French which it meant demon in the French language (Webster). A character that was in comedy who would wear tights, with a clean shaven head and a masked face was qualified as a harlequin (Webster).

The Harlequin Romance era came around after World War II in 1949 (Osborne 1). This period was the beginning of the romance fiction era (Osborne 1). The main audience was geared towards white Americans when these novels first came out (Osborne 1). Other races did not feel this was right particularly the African Americans and decided to publish their first novel in the 1960’s (Osborne 1). It is true that the typical Harlequin Romance reader is a middle aged woman that is married and who lives in a small town in the south (Marsh 2). Now society is trying to cater more to a younger crowd who is willing to spend money on these books (Marsh 2).

During the 1980s most of the romances that were on television were like traditional harlequin romances (Wagner). Most of these films had romances that were filled with romances that centered on exotic locations, glamorous characters, happy endings, and romantic adventures (Wagner). Now this kind of novels sound like the kind of books that I enjoy reading. I would mind reading one of these novels on my leisure time.

Make up Something..It is on the Net

In doing so much research throughout my entire education I have been able to rely on Google.com to help me in whatever that I needed to find. Google.com displays websites, pictures, or anything that is related to the topic that you are looking for. In my paper the artist’s song that I was doing was Lil Wayne. Lil Wayne is a well known artist in the hip hop industry so I knew that it would not be hard to find websites that dealt with him.

I first started off by looking on Google.com and was not disappointed by all the websites that had Lil Wayne on it. With the numerous websites that were displayed in front of me I decided to start off by looking at starpulse.com. It is funny why I decided to go on this website. The real reason that I decided to look on this website was because it said Lil Wayne biography, pictures, and lyrics. This seemed like it would help me out a lot if I was doing research on him. The advantage of looking on this website was that it had an extensive list of all his albums and all his guest album appearances. There was definitely a disadvantage with this website though because it really did not give a thorough biography of Wayne.

After I finished looking at starpulse.com I went back to google.com to see what other websites that I could look on. I saw eonline.com and thought this would be a good website to go on. I know the show “E” is well known for talking about artist so I knew that there would be some present information about him. Sure enough I found a lot of information about Wayne’s current standing. The next website that I went to was rollingstone.com which had a lot about his songs just like the first website that I first looked on. All of Wayne’s albums and songs were on here which was a great advantage if I wanted to know the names of his albums.

Hip Hop Culture

The book Black Noise: Rap Music and Black Culture in Contemporary America that was written by Tricia Rose was very interesting. Tricia Rose is a writer who clearly knows her stuff. She has her PHD in African American studies and specializes in the twentieth century popular culture, politics, and social issues. I have only read the first three pages of her book and I did not want to put it down. The author introduces the book with a verse from the well known hip hop group Public Enemy’s song to familiarize the audience with the hip hop culture. Her great details on what hip hop consists of makes one not doubt her on even writing this book. I was able to tell that she knew what she was talking about because it seemed like she did some extensive research and used that to state her claim. Tricia is not really putting rap music down so far in the pages that I have read but she basically talks about how this type of music is made by rapping on the topic of social, cultural, and political issues. She talked about how most rappers are given props when they have actually experienced what they are rapping about. Some of the rappers that she mentioned I found out that the Tricia have a lot of knowledge on the rap industry and how it relates in the black culture.

Dizzee Rascal

I chose Dizzee Rascal to write about because when I first heard his song “Flex” in class today I found myself dancing in my seat. I could almost see myself in the club with a lot of flashing bright lights and me dancing. Dizzee Rascal was born as Dylan Miles and he is a nineteen year old well known British artist who grew up in East England. He received his name from a teacher who always used to call him a rascal because he was known as a trouble maker in school.

The type of music that he is known for is “garage” music. This is the type of music that is well known from artist who grew in the inner city streets of England. Garage music is more of what we Americans would call rap. Dizzee turned to music so that he would not have a life that consisted of crime after he was expelled from school at a young age. He did not want to be considered an inner city boy who lived a life of crime so he used his time wisely with his friends by making music in his bedroom with whatever equipment that he had.

Dizzee Rascal’s culture is much similar to the American hip hop culture in which most of the artist relied on a form of music to get away from the troubled lives that they lived in. The form of music that he is known for is similar to rap in the U.S. because the beats and the whole appearance of him to the artist of our hip hop industry are the same. The typical big jackets, tennis shoes, big jeans, and flashy chains that are associated with the hip hop culture were also visible in Dizzee’s video. This easily shows how the hip hop culture is international and it is one of the main components that give countries some similarity.

Jamaica Jamaica....

What is it with me and Jamaicans....Is it the accent, swagger, dont get a f@#$ attitude...hmmmmm...it might be all the above...It is funny because today whenI was watching this movie in class one of the main characters reminded me of this jamaican dude that am definatley feeling..come on you all you know what I am talking about....When you are trying to get over that certain someone and then everything around you reminds you of them....I hate it..But the update with the dude I was talking about in my last blog is still the same...He is just like me..We think alike and are tight on holding on to our feelings because of our past serious relationship...it makes me want him even more..it challenges me to put out my feelings like I did and express my emotions....gosh but I will just leave the blog with this quote " The man that deserves you the most is the one that think he doesnt".....(LET IT SIMMER IN_)..laterrrrr

Peer Review

Today peer review was not that bad. I came into class knowing what I needed to work on as far as my paper went and my partner was able to bring that to my attention.When I say that it was not that bad it is beacuse I recieved some input on what I needed to work on on my paper. Even though I only had one person reviewing my paper in the end I left class knowing what I needed to work on. Hopefully next time I will be able to have two partners instead of one to review my paper. I mean it is always better to recieve input from more then one person when it comes to a paper that will be a portion of your grade. Thanks anyways Kenya(peer review partner) you were a big help.