May 27th

I watched The Doors a couple nights ago and it was a great movie. It followed Jim Morrison and The Doors through their career. It was highly relevant to my topic because it shows how Jim became addicted to drugs and seemingly couldn't live without them. There are numerous points in the movie in which someone offers him a new drug and he just accepts without even thinking. It also showed the real dark side of drug use - overdoses. The movie ended with Jim's body in a bath tub after he overdosed on heroin. I also am very close to finishing Room Full of Mirrors. It was a really detailed account of Jimi Hendrix's life and I learned a lot from it. I have three pages of my paper done and I plan on finishing this weekend. It actually turned out to be easier than I thought it would be and I have no problem thinking of what to write.

Final Project Progress #3

It is now the third week of working on our projects and I think I am on track to finish in time and I have started my paper. I finished Scar Tissue and I am still working on Room Full of Mirrors. The second book is great because it talks a lot about what Jimi Hendrix did out of the spotlight. It describes his life and upbringing and how he got into drug use and music. Both books are extremely helpful for my topic of drugs in music. I also rented The Doors, a movie about Jim Morrison, and I plan on watching it very soon. I decided what I wanted to do for my presentation handout, which was something that I couldn't decide on for a while. I am going to give out questions for the class to discuss with a partner and I will ask them how much they know about my topic. For my paper, I have my opening paragraph done and I will be finishing the second soon.

Room Full of Mirrors

I am just about finished with my first book, Scar Tissue, and am about to start Room Full of Mirrors by Charles R. Cross. It is a biography of Jimi Hendrix's life. Scar Tissue was a great book that gave a first hand account of what goes on behind the scenes in the life of a rock star. Kiedis told stories of drug and alcohol fueled parties, addiction, and intoxicated concerts. Thankfully Kiedis did not become a member of the infamous "27 Club." The 27 Club is a group of highly successful rock musicians that died at or around the age of 27, usually at the height of their careers. After doing some research, I've found that way more musicians died because of drugs than I thought. It's an unfortunate fact of life and we could all imagine what music would be like if people like Jimi Hendrix, Jim Morrison, and Kurt Cobain were still alive. I'm also going to watch the movie The Doors soon because it follows the short life of rock star Jim Morrison.

Final Project Progress

My topic is how fame can bring about the destruction of a rock star, and I'm currently reading Scar Tissue, which is about Anthony Kiedis of the Red Hot Chili Peppers. So far, it's a fantastic book that truly gives insight into his life and has countless examples of the self destruction that fame creates. For instance, Kiedis writes, "When you're doing a lot of alcohol or cocaine, your thinking becomes skewed and you're willing to do a lot of thing you normally wouldn't" (Kiedis 157). This just shows that because the Peppers became hugely famous, they were able to drink, do drugs, and party every night for free. This is very useful for my final paper and it is also a sad fact of life. I saw an extreme example of over the top drug use when I saw what was left of the band Sublime last weekend. They used to be on top of the world in the early 90s, and then their lead singer, Bradley Nowell, died of a heroin overdose. They were playing a tribute tour for him and everybody just wished he could still be there, playing his famous songs.