KINA GRANNIS: A Sincere California Girl

Kina Kasuya Grannis is an American guitarist and singer songwriter born August 4, 1985 in Mission Viejo California. Her background in acoustic and pop music began in elementary school where she composed piano compositions. She started to play the violin in elementary school and continued all the way through high school. By the age of 15 she started to teach herself guitar.

After attending Capistrano Valley High School, Grannis attended University of Southern California of LA in 2003. By her second year in college, Grannis was asked to produce her first album titled Sincerely Me. Grannis graduated summa cum laude in social science with an emphasis in psychology. Kina Grannis was a part of Phi Beta Kappa and Phi Kappa Phi societies as well.

Now that you have a general background on Kina Grannis please enjoy the following:

Top 10 Reasons Kina Grannis is genuine:

1. Whenever she opens or closes a video on Youtube she says “I hope you are all doing well”, which may seem like a small act but it makes a big difference– it shows that she cares.
2. Kina Grannis is half Japanese and half European American now that sounds like a fabulous mix to me. Yay diversity!
3. She won Best Web-Born Artist at the 2011 MTV O Music Awards.
4. When she was in elementary school she composed and submitted piano compositions. Yes, shes smart.
5. Grannis’ first Youtube video Message from Your Heart was entered into Doritos Crash the Super Bowl contest—she won. The prize included contract with Interscope Records.
6. Grannis wrote a song about one of the most important organs—your heart. In this song, Grannis sings about taking care of your heart, especially since we take it for granted from time to time.
7. In March 2013, Kina Grannis gave a TED Talk on “Finding Community Through the Internet”.
8. According to PetaPixel “The music video for the song “In Your Arms” by Kina Grannis is a stop-motion animation done with a background composed of jelly beans. It’s a crazy project that required 22 months, 1,357 hours, 30 people, and 288,000 jelly beans.”
9. “In October 2008, she participated in the Nike Women’s Marathon in San Francisco to support the Leukemia Lymphoma Society in honor of her mother, raising $6,000 for the organization.” According to Wikipedia.
10. In 2012, Grannis launched a charity project called Run Team Kina which emphasizes the promotion of health and well-being. The proceeds go to Leukemia Lymphoma Society. In this same year, Kina raised $71,886 for the Leukemia Lymphoma Society.

It is clear to see that Kina Grannis is a selfless person. She want to be successful but she doesn’t not mind helping others along the way. Good job Kina, keep up the good work!

Below you will find two videos of Kina Grannis “Message from your Heart” and “In Your Arms”.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kina_Grannis

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/11/05/kina-grannis-in-your-arms-jelly-beans_n_1077702.html

http://www.runteamkina.com/

http://themusic.com.au/news/all/2014/06/12/kina-grannis-announces-australian-tour/

The Brilliance of Grey’s Anatomy

CAUTION: If you have not watched the second half of season 11 you should NOT read this blog because there are spoilers!!!

I don’t know about you all, but honest to God I whole heartedly adore the show Grey’s Anatomy by Shonda Rhimes. I have friends who agree, but after watching exciting seasons like eight and nine, have falling off the bandwagon due to new characters. This is understandable to some degree–because Rhimes has a way of emotionally attaching the viewer to certain characters. If those characters are suddenly taken off the show I can understand how a viewer would want to stop watching.

I have stayed loyal to Grey’s because Rhimes’ character development is spot on. Characters you thought you would always hate end up being the ones you love the most. Grey’s Anatomy has so many exciting aspects that I am interested in as well–love, drama, and life lessons. Not to mention, the medical aspect of the show is very interesting and entertaining. Granted, some medical features are not completely factual, but the diseases are– and these diseases happen to real people. This has definitely caused me to shed a few tears. Another feeling that is a very frequent theme in Grey’s Anatomy is love.

Love

While watching this show, you soon discover that it is not just about doctors and their patients. It’s also about their personal lives–whether that is a natural disaster or their love life. There have been many relationships that have filtered through this show. Some successful, others not as successful.

Throughout all of this time, the main character Doctor Meredith Grey and her neuro-surgeon husband, Derek Shepard have managed to stay together through thick and thin. They have been through more than the average couple, especially this season (season 11) I wasn’t sure if they were going to make it. The way the creator, Shonda Rhimes, sets everything up, it seemed as if Derek and Meredith were about to end their marriage for good.

Derek was offered a job by the president in Washington D.C. He decided to decline the offer because his wife Meredith wanted to stay in her home town Seattle, WA and continue her work there. Derek’s decision quickly took a toll on him and he began to resent Meredith. Tensions ran high and the couple got into an argument resulting in Derek accepting the job in Washington D.C. Once he arrived, he gets settled and starts to work with a woman who was on her way of making a medical breakthrough. Once this woman and Derek finally get the results they desired in the lab– this woman made a move on Derek.

How did Derek respond? He took the next plan back to Seattle to tell Meredith what happened. To finally say to her and I quote “I thought D.C. was everything and I was wrong–you–you–you’re everything–I love you–and I’m not gonna stop loving you–Meredith I can’t live without you–I don’t wanna live without you–and I’m gonna do everything in my power to prove it” (abcfamily.com). After this, Meredith paused and thought with a concerned face. Meredith went on to say “I can live without you…but I don’t want to…I don’t ever want to”(abcfamily.com). The narrator who is also Dr. Grey voices “Just because we can live without something, it doesn’t mean we have to. This brings me to the next subject I’m going to talk about; life lessons.

Life Lessons

For some who dislike this show, Grey’s Anatomy is a corny drama about doctors and their love lives. It is much more than that for me and many others; it is an amazing piece of art that affects our lives with the life lessons it teaches us. Enjoy these life lessons quotes I’ve picked out:

• No one remembers easy–Why do we even try when the barriers are so high and the odds are so low? Why don’t we just pack it in and go home? It’d be so, so much easier. It’s because in the end, there’s no glory in easy. No one remembers easy. They remember the blood and the bones and the long agonizing fight to the top. And that is how you become legendary.

– Amelia Shepherd (Season11, Ep.14-The Distance)

• Do you like what you see?–Picture the life you dreamed of living, the person you pictured being with. Picture the job you dreamed you’d have. Are you living the life you envisioned for yourself? Are you who you wanted to be when you grew up?
  …
  How’s the view? Do you like what you see? Think back again to when you were little. Are you living the life you pictured for yourself? Or are you still dreaming of something bigger?

– Meredith Grey (Season11, Ep.18-When I Grow Up)

• Transition is movement–There’s a stage you go through in child birth and it’s the toughest part. It’s called the transition stage. You’ve been pushing so hard and so long. You’re exhausted, spent and there’s nothing to show for all of your effort. During this transition stage, it feels like you can’t go on but it’s because you’re very nearly there.
  …
  Transition is movement. From one part of life to a whole new one. And it can feel like one long, scary, dark tunnel but you have to come out the other side. Because what’s been waiting there, might be glorious.

– Meredith Grey (Season10, Ep.16-We Gotta Get Out of This Place)

I would like to thank Shonda Rhimes for creating such a powerful show that has been on the air for over ten years. I will continue watching Grey’s Anatomy until it’s over and I’ll take with me the life lessons I’ve learned along the way.

http://greysanatomylifelesson.tumblr.com/tagged/season10

http://greysanatomylifelesson.tumblr.com/tagged/season11

http://abc.go.com/shows/greys-anatomy/video/most-recent/VDKA0_skne1l6y

google.com

Happy Birthday SELENA!!

Picture this: A small child, around age 4, is ready to go to school. Pre-Kindergarten to be exact; the father picks up the child and places her in the back of his black trail blazer. The car is so big she can stand inside of it without hitting her head on the ceiling. The child hears the engine start to rumble as the father pulls out of the driveway. The next thing that is heard is a warm, velvety, voice of a Mexican American singing Bidi Bidi Bom Bom out of the speakers of the car. This singer is Selena Quintanilla Perez; not only a singer but a songwriter, actress, spokesperson, and a fashion designer. This small child was me.

Selena Quintanilla Perez was born on April 16, 1971 in Lake Jackson Texas. Her parents’ names are Abraham Quintanilla, Jr and Marcella Ofelia Samora. Perez had two siblings, a sister, Suzette Quintanilla, and a brother, A.B. Quintanilla III.

Selena y Los Dinos is the band that Abraham Quintanilla, started when Selena and her siblings were young. This is the same band Selena was a part of when she passed away on March 31, 1995. The murder was done by her registered agent named Yolanda Saldívar. Initially, she seemed like a good influence that wanted nothing but good things for Selena, her career, and her fashion boutiques. Turns out, she embezzled more than $60,000 in forged checks from both the Selena’s fan club and the boutiques. Saldívar border lined on obsession with Selena–which is clearly not healthy.

Selena Perez died at the young age of 23. She not only left her family, but her husband Chris Perez, an American guitarist, songwriter. The man she married a few years back in 1992. Like most couples–this one planned on having little family and a farm together. Sadly, this never happened.

Growing up, my father played Perez’ music all the time. Although I didn’t know what she was saying some of the time, I loved the music. My father constantly tried to teach me Spanish when I was younger and this was one of his ways he taught me. My dad is Puerto Rican as well so I’m sure that helped influence this music as well. I can honestly say that Selena was a great role model for me because she was such a successful woman. She was able to handle her singing career with everything she was doing.

Selena was so influential, a movie was made about her. It is titled “Selena” starring Jennifer Lopez. I love Selena so much that I own this movie on DVD.  It is biographical drama covering the important events in Perez’ life. It’s such a great movie because you can gain more insight on her life, especially if you were old enough to recognize her work when she was alive. I want to close by saying Happy Birthday Selena you are truly loved and missed.

http://www.caller.com/entertainment/chris-perez-selenas-husband-authors-book-about

https://beta.prx.org/stories/82581

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Selena

Below is a clip of the ending of the movie “Selena”–enjoy!