I'd like my classmates to read and review my post entitled 'The Morning Star Foundation'. I'd like to know what they think of the concept, and I'm specially interested in reading what my religious classmates think of it. I was baptized and studied in catholic school during highschool, but that's pretty much it. I've never been religious, and I'm curious to know what believers think about that concept. How when and where we're born has a heavy influence on what religion we practice. Here's a few videos of some of the most brilliant minds of our times to give you a much clearer and eloquent idea than I could ever achieve of the concept I'm getting at with the article and the Foundation. Enjoy!
 
"Better by far to embrace the hard truth than a reassuring fable." - Carl Sagan

I guess this assignment is a bit uncomfortable, since I've gone through many different phases with music, and I don't necessarily identify with them all anymore. For example, starting from my pre-pubescence and up until after puberty I was pretty obsessed with metal music and it's subgenres. I wanted to listen to all and I experimented with lots of genres that I couldn't recall if I tried. I feel like I've gone through a process of taste refining over the years, and have come to listen to much more diverse and fulfilling music. The music I'd choose as an anthem them no longer identifies me. It's also hard for me to classify them in chronological order since I've been downloading, I mean, legally purchasing loads of music for the past few years and listening to it all bunches at a time. That said, I'm going to try and choose the songs that best identify who I am.  These are as follow, in no particular order:

1.) Boards of Canada - Roygbiv: 
This song is just reminds me of the first days of when I started my website, which is still going strong. [It's a sort of internet video station were users join and watch a queue of videos and can add content and chat, it's entirely user-based] This was one of the very first songs we played and a few of the very first people to join the room are still around today, 4 website addresses later. I refer to our little community as 'internet nomads', because we've traveled from site to site, seeking refuge from horrible plagues of bugs and terrible site developers. Our current outpost is set up at Reuben's Room for the curious, and the bold. 

2.) Gorillaz - Clint Eastwood: 
This should've been my #1 song. I'm pretty sure it's the first song I ever learned from start to finish. It got me hooked on hip hop, though reggaeton gave a hard battle for a while. We all went through it, don't act like you won't sing that shit when you're in another country and drunk and it's playing in a club. Don't even try to act like you've never "perriao" before.. But I digress. Gorillaz is amazing, Del The Funkee Homosapien is amazing and reggaeton is almost over. 

3.) Survivor - Eye of the Tiger:
I'll spare you the video this time, because this song is involuntarily a trademark soundtrack of a big part of my life; martial arts. This goddamn song was played at EVERY. SINGLE. TOURNAMENT. EVER. In like, the entire history of Puerto Rican martial arts. Now, I practiced TaeKwon-Do for 9 years, and went to about one tournament per month or so during that time. You do the math. That song is forever ingrained in my psyche. I think this song transcends space and time. The entire Universe probably can't get this song out of it's head. The band's name is Survivor because they've not all killed themselves yet. 

4.) Grupo Mania - Un Beso: 
Disco parties. Dancing classes. Quinceañeros. Learning dancing when I was young was great. Ladies love that kind of stuff. Me and my sister were the sensation at family parties. 

5.)Fiel a la vega - Boricua en la Luna: 
I saw Fiel a la Vega play live so many times, I couldn't count them. This song played a huge roll in the development of my national pride and political ambition. Being interested in politics led me to want to learn to debate, which is why I'm studying pre-law now. It's a beautiful song that's had a lasting effect on my life.

6.) Bob Dylan - The Times they are' a changin':
This man's words are timeless. We are living in strange times indeed. Lets be the change we want to see in the world. 

7.) Gary Jules - Mad World:
I get depressed sometimes. Depression feels a lot like this song. 

8.) Nujabes - Luv Sic pt. 2: 
I can't stress how beautiful Nujabes' music is. He died 2 years ago, which makes what he made and put out that much more special. His music has had a deep impact on me since I shared it with my cousin, who's a DJ, and he's now moved to the states, but I know he still has Nujabes and thinks of me when he hears it, just like I think of him. This is an amazing song, but THEY ALL ARE. I'm serious. This man was incapable of making a bad song.

9.) Modest Mouse - Float On:
This was when MTV still played music, and I still watched lots of television and drank lots of Coca-Cola. Modest Mouse is a great band and I remember being really into this video when it came out. This is one of those songs that'll come up at a bar every once in a while and it's always at the right volume. Never get tired of this song.

10.) Cold War Kids - Hang Me Up to Dry:
This song just gets to me. Someone very special showed it to me a long time ago. Many years later, I'm laying down on a table in a tattoo shop in Condado, the artist starts up the gun and dips it in the ink and just before he starts this song starts playing on the speakers. I couldn't help but smirk. Life will flirt with you like that sometimes. 

11.) Ska P - Legalización: 
This song is just classic, it's been around forever and is will be relevant until the end of time. It's ska greatness combined with cheerful lyrics about marijuana consumption with funny mexican accents. How could it possibly get better than that?

12.) Geto Boys - Damn It Feels Good to be a Gangster:
Office Space is one of the best movies ever. Pic related.

13.) Nach - El cuentacuentos:
14.) Kase.O - Cantando:
These two songs are what I consider to be the best spanish hip hop songs ever. I wish I could write like that, not to mention rap. They're both master MC's. 

15.) The Pharcyde - Runnin':
I've never been a relationship kind of guy, and I frequently find myself victim of the illusions flings can bring. When they end, this song always rings true for me. Classic golden era hip hop, the type of stuff that should be brought back. 

16.) Rebelution - Suffering: 
 I've listened to this song religiously over the years. And I do mean religiously, though I use the term loosely. I'm no rastafari, but I love to blaze. This is a great song to sit back and meditate to. 

[Gorillaz]: 
http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0016332/
[This group] is the first on my list simply because I grew up on their stuff and I had to hide their album from my mom because of it's parental advisory label. Maybe that little black and white sticker had a big influence in me wanting to buy it in the first place, to break the rules. Or maybe it was the fact that I'd never seen something like a band where all of it's members are fictional characters. Probably a bit of both. All I remember is wondering what could possibly be so bad about these animated characters that would make my mother tell me I wasn't allowed to buy it. Naturally, I just had to find out. 
I didn't realize how great and talented they were as a music collective until I was somewhat older and wiser and found myself still listening to the same songs, but now understanding the meaning behind the words, and keeping up with their new releases, most of which have been amazing. I look back and remember a 12 year old me singing along to 'Clint Eastwood' with no possible way of knowing that Del the Funkee Homosapien, the featured MC that, in my humble opinion, makes the track as great as it is, would be one of my favorite rappers in the future. Or that 'Feel Good Inc' had more than a catchy, heavy, bassline but also features the classic, golden era, rap legends De la Soul. Damon Albarn's subtle ways of infusing amazing musicians into great compositions of raw talent escaped me as a kid, but the beats sure didn't. The rythms in those tunes had branded me for life. After Gorillaz there was no turning back, I had acquired a taste for talent. I was a gonner. After all, how do you go back to drinking water when you've discovered a river of wine?  Good music had won me over. The search had begun. 
The Gorillaz home site is useful to check out what the artist is doing, find tour schedules, dates for new releases, etc. The list of top 10 songs is a good shortcut to the best of the best, if you haven't heard much. Damon Albarn's [IMDB] reveals his long career of music production, including work for television series and films. 

[Portishead]: 
I've not heard Portishead for quite as long as I have Gorillaz, but this group has become very important to me in recent years. This UK-based trip-hop band from the 90's singlehandedly opened my doors to a whole new type of music I really hadn't given a fair chance in the past. I've never really been a huge fan of music that heavily emohasizes vocals, but [Beth Gibbons] fixed me up in no time. [The album they made with the New York Philharmonic Orchestra] is absolutely sublime. I've listened to it countless times and it's helped set the perfect mood every time.  Portishead is something you can listen at all times, in the mornings, while studying, in the shower and especially in bed. It's eternally relevant. It's undeniable, raw talent and her voice is one of the greatest that's ever been. Plus, it's the absolute best mood music. Hands down; bar none. You know what I'm talking about..

[Tool]: 
I include [Tool] because, even though I've been neglecting them for the past few years, they are an incredibly relevant progressive metal band from the 90's. Their sound is loud, their lyrics are profound and their artwork may be disturbing or confusing to some, but that's exactly why I love them. Last year, when I got my first tattoo (on the ribs.. ouch) I put my headphones on and blasted Tool. The first song to come up was ['Parabola'], which I thought fit perfectly because of how the chorus goes "this body, this body holding me, feeling eternal all this pain is an illusion." Which helped a lot because, as you can imagine, RIB TATTOOS F%#$ING HURT. But with strength of will and Tool I got through, and I don't doubt when I get my next tattoo, I'll probably throw on 'Aenima' or 'Lateralus' and drone out the pain with some great intense music. I know this band is not for everybody, and that's fine, but if you ask me it's a damn good one, and well worth checking out, if you're into that sort of thing.