My Geography Map

I chose to do my Geography project on Music! I decided to choose unexpected places where you would find music! I have quite a varied taste in music as sometimes I enjoy listening to modern songs but other time I love to listen to older music eg: Motown!
I have written about the links between the countries and about the music in my map. In my blogs I decided to write about the geography of the area and a general summary of the musical influence.
I love music and I really enjoyed doing this project as I got to combine geography /IT with the subject I love, music !!!
I have decided to post all my geography posts together so that it will be easier to read and that when I am looking over my blog I will remember how and what the project was about!
I hope you enjoy my project !

My final Stop! : Mali!

Final Stop : Mali!

So I am brought to Mali as this is one of the many countries in West Africa that the jembe originated from. The jembe is a skin covered drum that is played with the hands. According to the Banama people the drums name come directly from their saying 'Anke djé, anke bé' which translates to : 'everyone gather in peace'. This is what the purpose of the jembe is!

It is said that the jembe was created by blacksmiths that were know as Numu , but because of Numu immigration the jembe traditions and the instrument itself has spread across Western Africa. The construction of the jembe is one of fine detail but their are also many industrised and synthetic jembe drums made across the world.

Mali is a land-locked country in Western africa. It has a population of 14.5million and its capital is Bamako. Traditionally a jembe is crafted from a section of a Lenge tree. This tree was always used for centuries due to its acoustic and spiritual qualities. This is not always used though, the type of wood usually depends on the makers access to the different types of forests. The trees in Africa survive through the range in climate. The weather in the south is usually tropical and in the north it is arid (dry,lack of water and therefore development) . Most of the country suffers from spells of drought and also severe rainfall.

A large part of Mali's economic struture is based on agricultural. It is one the ten poorest nations of the world and subsistence agriculture (producing just enough food to survive on) is usually how the people survive. With this animals are farmed, this makes it easier for the drum makers to get access to materials for the base of the drum. The drumheads are typically made from goat skin and more rarely can be antelope, zebra, deer or calfskin.
The geography,culture and music link in very with each other. I hope to one day visit this country and experience this all for myself :)

My Fourth Stop : St.Wolstans Community Schools

My journey brought me back home again , but not for long! Here, at school, my own music interests were educated! Though we are all influences by the big cities and lights of America and the likes, I found inspiration right at home ! Here I discovered all about the jembe, STOMP and other types of music as explained on my map!

The population of Celbridge is 17,262 and the 3rd largest town in Kildare. We know it is a dormant town , where most people commute to and from work in Dublin! It is a town that has grown in recent years. With the development of good access roads to Dublin (for example the Celbridge interchange; Junction 2a of the M4). The opening of schools and industries such has Intel were a pull factor to many people and as a result there has been a large increase in the residential aspect to Celbridge's growth.

Here in room the music room at aprox. 1.50pm I saw the video of STOMP ! At the time we were having a music workshop with David. He was showing us how STOMP expresses and performs rhythms.
At this workshop ,it was the first time I had seen a Jembe. And when we started playing I instantly loved it! I always had an interest in the drums but I always found them way too noisey and very bulky. So for hours I was happy banging along on the jembe and I truly loved the session.

My next journey then led to me to Mali!

My Third Stop : Coco Cola Headquaters, North Avenue corner

Next, I was off to the America! And I was off to Coca Cola headquarters, not to buy the drink but the music! Advertising and music go hand in hand these days! I hear many of my favorite songs on advertisements alot more then ever before! Here Coca Cola develop many of there ideas for there advertisement and recently they have become more famous for using music in there advertisement!

One advertisement featured a unique group called 'STOMP'! STOMP is a unique combination of percussion, movement and visual comedy! The name probably rings a bell or two, as they have a world tour and have been widely advertised. But one of there first big exposers was a Coca Cola advertisement 1996! Being on an advertisement was a great boost for there careers as is a big influence in the western world and it has a population of 308,745,538 people!

America is known to be the headquarters of music. This I believe is due to the money that can be made in music and America is/was a very wealthy area!

It's located in Midtown Atlanta Georgia. This area is the second largest financial district in Atlanta. This I believe is why Coca Cola placed there headquarters there. It is a very high rise city, with the HQ being one of the most visible building. It is 29 stories high! The area also is home to institutes of higher education , like the Georgia Institutes of Technology, John Marshall School and the Savannah College of Art and Design. Knowing his, gives me more of an idea why Coca Cola chose Atlanta as a HQ and a area to design there advertisements using music, as they have good access to a educated work force.

My Second Stop : Soccer City Stadium , Johannesburg, South Africa"

'My Second Stop : Soccer City Stadium , Johannesburg, South Africa"? You may be wondering why I have chosen to go there even though my project is on music. Well here (connection from Hawaii and further explanation in map)is where the Fifa world cup was held and for that event has produced many popular songs that captures the essence of the people, the occasion and the soccer.

Johannesburg is the largest cities in Africa, in relation to population as it has 3,888,180 people living in it (estimated). The weather here is subtropical, this means it has dry sunny climate with thundershowers in the afternoons of the summer months. It reaches 26.6 C in January but can drop to 16C in June. It surprised me to find out that Johannesburg has over 10 million trees! it has the biggest man-made forests in the world. As a result lots of deforestation (destruction/cutting down of trees) occurs there!

The stadium itself is located next to the South African Football Association. It can hold a capacity of 94,700 people! But when the World Cup was held there many seats were reserved so it only held 84,490. The stadium has the nickname of 'The Clalbash' as it looks like and African pot!

The arena also holds many concerts, with bands like U2 played there as part of their U2 360 Tour. The Kings of Leon (another of my favorite bands) are set to play there fir the first time in October. And in the stadium during the kick off of the World Cup Sharkia performed the song 'Waka Waka', which was one of the official songs for the world cup :)

Click here to see the performance! I believe this song really captures the essence of afician music and also modern music!

My First Stop - Waikiki

My first Stop is Waikiki in Hawaii, this is the neighborhood that Bruno Mars was brought up in. In my map I talk about the history of this island and all about the journey, but for my posts I will talk about the general geography of the area. Bruno made from this once small neighborhood into the big , flashing lights of America and beyond!

Waikiki is a neighborhood of Honolulu in Hawaii, it. Honolulu has an estimated population of 374,658. It lives up to the typical view that people usually have of Hawaii, with its golden beaches, surfing and high rise resort buildings! This neighborhood was once (in the 1800s) a area of retreat for Hawaiian royals. In Waikiki they would spend their time surfing on their long-boards (older form and type of surf board). But the royals would never have guessed that on the 8th of October 1985 a star was born in their town, he was named Peter Gene Hernandez. Who? His stage name is a Bruno Mars! He is now one of my all-time favorite singers! began my trip in Bruno Mars neighborhood. He is one of my favorite singers today.

Bruno Mars (real name: Peter Gene Hernandez) grew up in this neighborhood. He began his musicals career very young as he did impressions of Elvis as a child at the age of 4!.

The beach of Waikiki has had many problems with erosion over the years. As a result the people constructed groynes in the sea to prevent further erosion, they also imported beach replenishment project. This means that there imported ships of sand that had been lost due to the erosion. This happened in the 1920's and 1930 where they shipped in sand from Manhattan Beach , California. But this stopped in the 1970's. The officials of Waikiki are still looking for ways to preserving the sand on the beach from tide loss. The area that Bruno Mars grew up in is now a bustling tourist attraction especially during the yearly events that are held there every year , like the surfing and hula dancing competitions. Above are a few pictures to show the beauty and the location of Waikiki :

My English book review!

I read 'Emma' by Jane Austen as part of my book review for English .

The book is about the protagonist's (Emma's) determination to arrange marriages for her friends. The author of this book is the world famous Jane Austen . Jane Austen is known to be a English novelist that writes romantic fictions. She was born into a very tight-knit family and soon she had steady flow of support from her family to succeed as a writer. She began publishing books in her early adulthood, and they were received with great regard. She wrote many other book, which I hope to read in the near future, like Pride and Prejudice. In early 1816 Jane Austen began to feel unwell, though she tried to ignore her illness at first,her family saw her declining condition. She suffered from a physical disease called that is related to drinking unpasteurized milk. She then died in 1817 at the young age of 41.

From researching Jane Austen's life I can definitely draw a connection to her early life and to the plot of Emma. Emma is the protagonist character and she is from a high class in society with strong family bonds just like Jane herself. Emma is a very headstrong, determined individual, this I found were qualities that I admired . These qualities were clearly evident as she began her mission in match making. Emma took it opon herself to match her dear friend (Harriet) with another of her companions (Mr. Elton). She planned everything she could to bring both them together ,she even convinced herself that would marry! I found this part of the novel to be very amusing as Emma even succeed in portraying Harriet to be more intelligent and socially higher then she even was. What I found to be a disappointing trait in Emma is that she judges people on there social status and intelligence. I found that to be quite mean as at one stage in the novel she disproved of Harriet marrying Mr.Martin as she said he was just 'a mere farmer'. Overall the character of Emma was one that was very intriguing and she played a big part in my enjoyment of the novel.

As I have said before, in the novel, Emma develops a liking of match making. Throughout the novel she vowed to find a husband for Harriet and to never marry herself. Little did she know that her love (Mr.Knightley) was just infront of her eyes! I found the way in which Emma finds out she loves him is very amusing. It was all quite complicated , as Harriet had said to Emma that she thinks she has found her love, but to Emmas disappointment Harriet would not tell her who. But one day as Mr.Knightley left for London, Harriet finally told Emma that she indeed liked Mr.Knightley. This shocked Emma and it finally made Emma realise her true feelings for Mr.Knightley. When Mr.Knightley arrived back and visited Highbury he came back with the news that he too was in love. Oh course, Emma thought he had fallen for Harriet and she was then terribly upset, but he then explained that it was Emma he loved! This upset Harriet for a while but soon after did she find herself engaged to Mr.Martin and man that asked for her hand in marriage again!

By the end of the book, things had worked out even better then Emma had ever imagined. Both her and Harriet were engaged and she and Mr. Knightely were staying at Highbury for her fathers well-being and happiness! I liked this book and I would rate it at 7/10.