Isaiah's Finds of the Week

Goals? My life goal is to be financially stable - and live a modest life. One that allows me to tend to my other half, and one that lets me keep doing what I love the most - music. I’d love to support my wife and have a nice home, and have enough money to do fun stuff. I’d also like enough money to continue buying rare records. All in all - I don’t want riches; I want life’s simple pleasures. I’d also love to get my record label Xicano Record Co. up and running.

S.M.A.R.T Goal S: I want to maintain steady grades throughout the year M: I’ll know when i’ve accomplished my goals when I receive A’s & B’s on my report card. A: This goal can be accomplished by me doing homework, putting honest effort in class, and scoring well on tests. R: Yes, it will look good on my transcript and open up doors of opportunity. T: This goal will be accomplished at the end of each semester

Poor Rock ‘N Roll It was the night of May 3, 1958 at the Boston Arena. A concert like any average Rock ‘N Roll concert hosted by DJ Alan Freed full of teens. This concert however took a turn for the worst, it broke out into a riot. This whole event led to the inspiration of “Poor Rock ‘N Roll”, a song released on the small “KLIK” label from New Haven, Connecticut; performed by the talented vocal group: The Nobles. The entire song explains the events of the night, and upon it’s release, it upset Alan Freed VERY much. Parents and even some senators had hated Alan Freed, this incident was such a big deal that they went after him. Alan was charged with inciting a riot, and quit his job as a DJ. Not only did he get into trouble with the riot, he got caught up in the “Payola Scandal” and was arrested and imprisoned. Payola is the illegal practice of payment by record companies for the broadcast of recordings on music radio, where the song is presented as being part of the norma...

On The Path Young Goodman Brown is a story that revolves around evil. Young Goodman Brown is faced with many challenges, and has an odd experience where he sees every good person he knows doing evil by worshipping Satan. This raises the question, is Goodman Brown a static or dynamic character? Based upon the order of the stories events and how Goodman Brown reacts, it is evident that he in fact is a dynamic character. There are a few key points in the story to prove it. In the beginning of the story, Young Goodman Brown views everyone as pure who can do no wrong. One person who he absolutely trusts is his wife, Faith. A quote from the story to prove this is:  "My love and my Faith," replied young Goodman Brown, "of all nights in the year, this one night must I tarry away from thee. My journey, as thou callest it, forth and back again, must needs be done 'twixt now and sunrise. What, my sweet, pretty wife, dost thou doubt me already, and we but three mont...

How Blogging Has Benefited Me (Taken May 28, 2017 @ Santa Maria Inn)       A record collector, a DJ, someone who still wears Pendleton button down shirts and suspenders. That is who I am, that is who Isaiah Estrada is. Those of you who know me know that records are my passion, and some of you probably think... why even bother with that junk when you can go on iTunes and download the song?! For me, it does not work that way. In fact, most of the music I play cannot be identified by "Shazam" or Siri, and most definitely cannot be found on iTunes, you're more than likely to hear a very low quality sound file on YouTube. My own mom, always has told me, "Why do you waste your money on those dang records?! Save it!" To me, it's always like, I work hard for what I earn, and I'm happy to spend it on something I love. When I started blogging, I showed her and she seemed very impressed. For the first time, I felt that my mom was really impressed wit...

Vocabulary        Coherent: To be  able to speak clearly and logically.        Belabor: To  attack or assault someone physically or verbally.        Eschew: To avoid or abstain from something .        Acquisitive: E xcessively interested in acquiring money or material things.      Emulate: To  match or surpass a person or achievement by imitation.      Banal: S o lacking in originality as to be obvious and boring.        Excoriation: To harshly criticize.        Congeal: To take shape and come together to form a whole.       Carping: Difficult to please.        Substantiate: To  provide evidence to support or prove the truth of.         Temporize: To  avoid making a decision or com...

Young Goodman Brown  What do you think Hawthorne's purpose was for writing this story?             I believe that Hawthorne's purpose for writing this story is to give em a good old fashioned plot twist. More into that detail, almost everybody hides a dark secret in this story and sadly in real life         2.  Hawthorne states that Brown's wife is "aptly named" Faith.  After reading the story, do you agree?  Does Faith's name fit her personality?  Does Brown have true faith in her?                    I agree, because his wife really holds fast to her morals and beliefs. I think her name is Faith, because brown has so much of it in his wife and as I said before, she obviously has a lot of it. I see Brown having true faith in his wife, because through all the stuff he goes through - she's on his mind.    ...

  (Original 1965 pressing from my collection)     Chicano groups from East L.A like "The Ambertones" have left their mark on the raza's musical history. The Ambertones were special however, because they could pull off almost ANY sound! Be it: Surf, Garage, Doo Wop, R&B, Blues,  and Soul - The Ambertones could play them all. They started out as "The Scepters" in the early 60's, while the group's members attended Roosevelt & Garfield Highschool in East LA. Their main style at first was surf, and later on in about '63, they started doing R&B covers and getting more and more into their own sound. The Ambertones eventually played for school and teen dances, and even won first place prize at Battle of The Bands at the Hollywood Palladium. In October of 1965, while on their second record label (and by now about to record their third release) - The Ambertones did a GORGEOUS cover of the Lenny Welch tune, "I Need Som...

    So I thought that this was a funny topic to "declare independence" from. No kid likes homework, and it's very evident that it's forced upon us! Take a read at my own version of the Declaration of Independence. You can thank my History teacher for giving us this assignment... Declaring Independence From Homework Preamble When in the course of human events, it becomes necessary to relinquish the bonds that have connected and plagued many students with the burden of homework. It is evident that through many years, students have stressed over the supererogatory amount of homework that does nothing but inflict unnecessary stress on these poor souls. Declaration of Student Rights We hold these truths to be self evident, that all students endure the same tiring and excruciating lectures DAY after DAY. Should these students not be given rest after a 7 hour day of school? Students should have the right of recreation a...

Vocabulary        Faith: Confidence or trust in a person or thing.     Threshold: Any place of entering or beginning.     Tarry: To wait     Resolve: To deal with a matter conclusively      Discern: To recognize something as different, to distinguish mentally.      Martyr:  a   person   who   willingly   suffers   death   rather   than   renounce   his   or   her  religion.     Mirth: Amusement or laughter - to be happy     Catechism:  an   elementary   book   containing   a   summary   of   the   principles   of   the Christian   religion,   especially   as   maintained   by   a   particular   church, in   the   form   of   questions   and   ans...

Theme & Tone      The theme of this story overall, is sacrifice and basically; out with the old and in with the new. The general tone is about getting people to realize that sometimes you have to move on and try something different. In this case, it was finding Earth for the Queen to live on - and how the muskrat although a small animal, tried the hardest of all the animals. It gave the gist that, its not the size of the dog in the fight, its the size of the fight in the dog. As for the mood, its a generally happy mood, especially since the muskrat was so brave.

The Power of Music     In the world, there are many barriers that divide people. It may be oppression, war, and many more things - we humans have separated ourselves from one another. Although that this is true, there is a power that has the ability to bring everyone together, that power is called Music. Music breaks many barriers, race and language are one of them.       Personally, I love group harmony. I collect the genre, and I find joy in sharing this music to all and everybody. Not only do lots of people enjoy this music, people have made lifestyles after it. Car Shows / Car Cruises are one type of event that bring us together; there is a feeling of happiness in the air and I get to talk to people from many backgrounds - and we all share the love for music. As a young teen, I spend most of my free time digging out sounds almost no one has heard of, and finding music that will unite more and more people together as friends.     ...

(Label scan of this rare single from my collection)     Recorded in 1964, we see a very rare piece of group harmony history from Texas. Chase & Gene are Chase Canfil, and Gene Paul who met at a bar in Port Arthur, TX. Gene Paul, having recently been discharged from the United States Air Force, bought a $8 bus ticket that landed him in that area of Texas. Although Gene had been in the Air Force, he was also a jazz pianist, and Chase was a barber. Chase and Gene began to hang out, and eventually formed a band. Although Chase & Gene were white musicians, their 4 piece band consisted of only black musicians; EVEN despite the strong  racism present at the time. This combo only worked for about a year, but they recorded 2 singles for "Dart" records before dropping them. The combo was dropped due to the fact of race issues, police always gave the group a hard time, and were even banned from some Honky Tonks. In 1964, "You're Everything To Me" & ...

Vocabulary     Theme: Main idea in a piece of literature          Tone: Author's Attitude          Mood: How the audience feels.          Diction: Style of speaking or writing.           Syntax: T he   study   of   the   rules   for   the   formation   of   grammatical   sentences in   a   language.         Stupid: Annoying or irritating.          Adumbrate: To foreshadow.          Apotheosis: An ideal example.          Ascetic: Someone who dedicates their life to something.          Bauble: Something cheap.           Beguile: To influence by trickery/flattery.          Burgeon: To put forth.     ...