MAUS

When I was in high school I used to hate reading. In my English class we would always have reading assignments and those were the ones I dreaded the most. But after graduating I began reading books on my free time. So when we were asked to read Maus I was really excited. It has been one of the best books I’ve ever read. In the book Art Spiegelman tries to connect and relate to his dad by listening to his story and the struggles he went through in the Holocaust. His father Vladek tries to make Art understand all the sacrifices he made at the time and how it wasn't easy.

To me Vladek was a great man. He had his flaws like being greedy and not being able to understand other people. But he was also one of the strongest persons in the book. Not only with the fact that he survived, but also that almost everyone in his family died. I admire him for his bravery in trying to keep himself and his wife Anja alive. He did everything he could in order to stay alive and help his wife stay alive. Even though he was scared in certain situations he pulled through. Like when he risked going to the black market to get himself and his wife food they needed. He saw so many people die and suffer but he never gave up.

Anja on the other hand was not like Vladek. She had a whole different mind set. She was very scared of everything and she didn't hide it. Whenever they were put in difficult situations she wanted to give up. She was strong to a certain extent. She knew she had to be strong in order to survive but there were times when she would breakdown and want to die. Many people thought it was crazy of her to kill herself 10 years after being able to survive a tragedy like the Holocaust. In a weird way I understand her. As we learned in the book Anja was not mentally healthy she had to be on medications. She was indeed traumatized. She had seen her whole family die she had seen other people die and she couldn't bare it. Unlike Vladek, Anja couldn't live knowing that all her family including her eight year old son had died.

Many people now-a-days known as the “Holocaust Deniers” say that historians made the whole thing up and nothing like that ever happened. Many believe that it was a tactic to frame the Germans and leave them at fault for something that they did not do. They strongly believe that no such thing happened and that people are lying about the whole thing, even though there are people who survived and are able to provide with proof of the events. They believe that everything is staged. Some can be blinded and that's why they believe that nothing like that happened. They are so set on that others are just trying to make them look bad.

This book is very interesting because it shows all the struggles Art's dad went through and how Art is trying to cope with the fact that his parents were always comparing to his deceased brother. He never really understood why his father was the way he was and he he treated him that way. So he decides to listen to his story to connect with him better. Art gives us full detail of the conversations he had with his dad. My favorite part about this book was how Art portrayed his dad by showing how his dad actually spoke and his grammar.

The "Rich Kids"

The Strokes first began to gain popularity in 2000. After their release of their first record Is This It their popularity skyrocketed and everyone knew about them. The Face published a statement that basically stated what The Strokes had accomplished, “The Strokes. Boys want to be them. Girls want to be with them.” For many people the band had become one of the most prominent and influential rock bands to emerge in the 21st century. Many believe that The Strokes achieved all their success because of who their parents where and the money they had. This is all wrong, they earned they popularity by working hard to get what they wanted.

Coming from New York and Los Angeles they started off with nothing and slowly rose to the top. They all came from very distinct backgrounds front man, Julian Casablancas son of John Casablancas founder of Elite Model Management and Jeanette Christiansen, a former model and Miss Denmark. Albert Hammond Jr. son of former model and beauty pageant winner Claudia Fernánde and singer/songwriter Albert Hammond. While the others Nick Valensi, Nikolai Fraiture and Fabrizio Moretti came from average families. Many argue that the band has bought their way to fame. They believe that because they were privileged they were able to make records and buy their way through critics and record labels.

In a recent blog Rich Russo stated that The Strokes are a waste of time. He said that “rich prep school kids, some with very influential daddies etc...They release it overseas and daddy’s friends in the fashion world start to manufacture some hype. That hype and maybe even some cash along the line gets the album released here. The album is mediocre but the “chip” cash in hype pulls out all of the stops and makes it a hit.” Russo strongly believes that they have bought their way through everything. He says that because of who their parents are they have hit records. Rich kids as most call them they are far from that. Even though Julian Casablancas' father is a very rich man he had nothing to do with the success of the band. His parents divorced when he was young so he never really knew his father and hardly talked to him. He live with his mother and his stepfather. Albert Hammond only helped his son and the band pay apartment rent and nothing else. Nick V. and Nikolai F. lived in poverty for the most part. As did Fabrizio Moretti. “It isn’t too true that whole thing about us being privileged kids” says Moretti in an interview “Nick, Nikolai and I, we all had to work for our spending cash.” So they were at no means privileged and rich.

They played their first gig in front of 15 girls at a party thrown by Nick’s older sister in 1996. They would play at venues where only 10 people would show up. They would make fliers to get people to come to their shows but not many would show up. Then their hype started spreading. Word of Mouth came into play people would tell their friends about this really cool band they had seen and soon more and more people would show up at the gigs. In 2000 they met their manager Ryan Gentles, who helped them book gigs and began sending out their demo to record companies. Rough Trade in England got a hold of it and decided to sign them. During this time the members still had regular jobs, Casablancas was bar-tending The Lemon on Park Avenue, Hammond was a shop assistant at Kim's Underground record store. Nikolai worked in a video rental store, Nick was a waiter and Fab worked at the State University Of New York. Nick Valensi stated in an interview “To be honest, none of us had money. No one helped us financially. Maybe in the beginning, Albert’s parents helped us to pay the rent. But that’s all.” The band has been trying so hard to show that all they have now is something they've worked hard for and not something that was bought by their parents.

Many refuse to believe that The Strokes are a band who has worked hard and want to make them seem like this band that is all magazine and money. When asked about the rumors that were being said about them Moretti said “rich boys trying to steal the spotlight from someone else. When you try a hard as you can to just be yourself and make music, people like to start making things up.” They have all worked hard for what they have accomplished being labeled as ‘rock’n’roll savors’, this does not come from money and having famous fathers. This comes from being a hard working band who love music. Their parents had nothing to do with their success. It's something they earned on their own.