My Writings.

Rainbow, 1999 In 1999, Mariah Carey released her seventh studio album, Rainbow. This album served as a new chapter for Carey, one that seek to shed the skin of her past and brings her to the rainbow's end of the happier side of life. While not necessarily out of the ordinary (her 'ordinary' is extraordinary for common people), it certainly contains some of her most exciting music up to that point in time. Her ballads and bops have gotten so evolved that even her most grumpy naysayer would probably be in awe at the sheer musicality being displayed here. Songs such as "Heartbreaker" and "How Much" packed a center sweet quality like a hard candy which leaves listeners craving for more. Ballads like "Can't Take That Away" and "After Tonight" are worthy addition to her canon, while "Bliss" in all of its whistle-notes-soaked glory is probably her best use of the vocal register ever. The writing is playful at times, notably on ...

Seriously I've had numerous occasions where I'd go to a website and apply for a job as listed on it. Plenty of times applied, plenty of times rejected. Personally, I've faced plenty of problems regarding this experience. There are far too many companies out there that seek for loyalty and trust, but when I really get to think about it, it's more of a problematic facade. After all, even with further prospect of getting accepted into the position available, I'm still a jobseeker who is yet to be accepted. There's some kind of dissonance here; it seems to me that companies and their loyal and trusted people expect job seekers to place their mental condition as if they're already a part of the successful company without acknowledging that it hasn't even happened. It's quite disheartening to experience this. It does feel manipulative, in a way, though I'm not going to start accusing or blaming some parties yet. More and more these days it feels harder...

Case Study (Credit: Russell Dauterman) Greetings, wonderful people. Today, I'm writing you a new entry that will focus on a topic which I'm very interested in. You see, I'm a huge X-Men fan. I love them beyond words. Among the many mutant characters though, Psylocke is far and above everyone else for me. The story of Psylocke is complicated; beginning with a character named Elizabeth "Betsy" Braddock, a psychic, she's the twin sister of the then-Captain Britain, Brian Braddock. She joined the X-Men in the mid '80s after her own tenure as Captain Britain had ended horribly wrong (got her eyes taken out by a supervillain!). She had a purple-dyed hair and she was also an ex-spy of S.T.R.I.K.E., basically the British version of S.H.I.E.L.D. Amazing repertoire on this lady! She then got the code name "Psylocke" from Mojo, an X-Men super villain hailed from a place called the Mojoworld, plus a pair of cybernetic eyes after she got abducted by him and h...

An Imagining (Credit: Jim Lee) I know. What the hell is this, right? Well, I woke up today and decided that I want to make a brief general summary of an X-Men story that I've been cooking up for a while. It would begin with a scene where one of our protagonists, Jean Grey a.k.a. Marvel Girl, arrives at the Xavier's School for Gifted Youngsters in Westchester County, New York. This however is not a story of a teenage Grey arriving at the school for the first time. It's just a callback to that; she's an adult now. She goes back to the school to visit her old professor, Charles Francis Xavier a.k.a. Professor X, because why not reunion? Anyway, Grey would meet the other previous students of the school. In order of appearance: Henry "Hank" McCoy a.k.a. Beast who would answer the door for her, Scott Summers a.k.a. Cyclops who's currently in a heated debate with Warren Kenneth Worthington III a.k.a. Angel, and Robert "Bobby" Drake a.k.a. Iceman who jus...

Butterfly, 1997 Mariah Carey's sixth studio album titled "Butterfly" arrived 7 years after her debut. For us, it might have been yet another album from her. However, for Carey herself, it was a new beginning.  Butterfly is the first album where Carey's influences accumulated and melted together, resulting in an album that's so diverse. There's something else, though. Carey's own influence, something that could only be formed once you're on your eighth year of making music, is in full bloom here. Be it the lead single and first track, "Honey," or the jam-packed banger "Breakdown" with Bone Thugs-n-Harmony, Carey's never seemed so sure of her own musical and physical identity than on this album. The album cover represents the confidence as well; no longer was she hidden behind sepia or grayscale filter, or her photography limits itself to just above her neck. Carey's physical beauty is on display, perfectly so like a spring go...

Daydream, 1995 Daydream is the fifth album of Mariah Carey released back in 1995. It's her fourth non-holiday release and her first largely original material since 1993's Music Box. The album is filled with R&B confections not too different from her earlier music, but more varied than ever. It opens with lead single "Fantasy," a dance number that pairs a sample of Tom Tom Club's "Genius of Love" with new melodies of Carey's own. It's sugary sweet; I like how the lyrics actually go along with the title of the album. It's a fantasy, a daydream of sorts, of someone peculiar and perhaps drool-worthy coming to fulfill the prophecy of a dream lover. Quite a rapturous feeling indeed. "Underneath the Stars," the second track, follows with yet another fantasy. Or maybe it's a memory of a not so distant past this time. If the first song continues the trend of Mimi's 90's upbeat lead singles bar "Vision of Love," this...