Wikipedia Trail: From B1A4 to Ecstasy

For this final edition of Wikipedia Trails, I've decided to start out with the South Korean pop group B1A4 because my friend Sarah is a huge fan of theirs.

B1A4

B1A4 as a band is pretty okay from what I've heard of their songs, but the process by which Korean pop groups like them are created is pretty fascinating. Each group member can come from a variety of different backgrounds, and if they aren't perfect for the group immediately, the company will be willing to invest in them to train them to be the pop idol that they want. Pretty neato!

B1A4 performing on stage

photo credit to 와사비콘텐츠

From B1A4, I decided to read about South Korea's famous capital city, Seoul. 

Seoul

Wow, I had no idea that Seoul was such a population-dense city. I knew they had a lot of people, but they're only second in terms of pop. density to Paris. Crazy!

They also have the world's fastest average internet connection AND free Wifi in public places. C'mon USA, let's get our act together...

From Seoul, I jumped to the article on Muism, also known as Korean Shamanism.

Korean Shamanism

Korean Shamanism, known as Muism, is actually much more of a spiritual ideology. It is native to Korea but has a lot of similarities to other belief systems in East Asian, particularly Wuism in China.

It centers around a spiritual intermediary named the Mu, which can be a man or woman leader.

What's interesting is that there is so much life in this religion, from actual rituals involving dancing and chanting to a set of stories that have been passed down about the divine beings that the believers worship. Pretty neat, and it's still pretty active (several millions still practice in South Korea).

To finish this final trail, I am going to read about Ecstasy (the philosophy).

Ecstasy

Okay, so this article was very, very confusing to me and I'm not really sure what is the agreed upon meaning of this philosophy, but there is general agreement that it deals with experiences that involving feeling outside of yourself. I want to say that this is how you can describe "out of body" experiences, but in terms of the philosophy, I'm not sure at all if that's correct.

Wikipedia Trail: From San Jose Sharks to George W. Bush

To start this Wikipedia Trail off, I decided to read about the NHL (National Hockey League) team the San Jose Sharks.

San Jose Sharks

The Sharks are a relatively new team to the league, starting in 1991.

They struggled a bunch early on in their franchise career, and they still hold the record for most losses in a season with 71.

However, they outsold every other NHL team in merchandise sales in 1992.

They actually made the playoffs and put up a pretty good fight in their next year, which is pretty good for such a new team.

From the Sharks article, I found a link to Seek & Destroy, a song by Metallica.

San Jose Sharks logo

ti's fvia Flickr user PMell2293

Seek & Destroy

Wow! I've listened to Metallica a bit in my day, but I had no idea that this song was such a historic one for them. It was the first song that they EVER recorded in studio, and to date it's their third most played song of all time. That's pretty cool!

From here, I decided to read about Clear Channel, which later turned into iHeartMedia.

iHeartMedia

I haven't heard of this before, but Clear Channel actually was a public company for a long time (35 years!), but in 2006 it actually sold its investors shares (with their permission, of course) and became private. I guess $26.7 billion really talks.

This article actually wasn't as interesting as I was hoping it would be. It just goes into detail about the different types of programming that the station has done over the years and some of the typical controversies that every major company seems to face at one time or another.

To end this Wikipedia Trail, I will read about the former US President George W. Bush.

George W. Bush

It's funny how opinions change about someone, particularly public figures. Bush was beloved when he first took first office, but it seems that it was only because of the 9/11 attacks. I've heard the same thing said about Rudy Giuliani, specifically because of his fervent support of Donald Trump in the 2016 election.

Wikipedia Trail: From Suspiria to Louisiana Creole French

I decided to start this Wikipedia Trail with a random article because I wasn't sure what I wanted to know more about. This took me to an interesting article, one about the Italian horror movie Suspiria.

Suspiria

Huh! Apparently this movie is the first of a trilogy called "The Three Mothers". The other two debuted in 1980 and 2007, which is a LOT of time between films.

The star of the film was also American, which I thought was interesting but also not too shocking once I thought about it. The American film industry was really ramping up during the 60s and 70s, so it makes sense that even international directors would want our stars.

Also, it got an 8.4/10 on Rotten Tomatoes! Maybe I'll have to see it.

From here, I decided to learn more about black magic.

Black magic

Huh, I had no idea about the black magic vs. white magic thing. Black magic nowadays is a little removed from its original meaning, which is defined in this article as magic that is used selfishly.

This is interesting, because a lot of magic would then be considered black magic, even something like altering one's appearance using magic, or bringing one's pet back to life (another selfish, but "good" endeavor).

To contrast, the article says white magic is much more spiritual.

From here, I read about Louisiana Voodoo.

Louisiana Voodoo

Voodoo comes from African spiritual practices and beliefs and was brought over in the African slave trade and mixed with French, Spanish, and Creole cultures that passed through Louisiana.

 It actually is its own religion in Louisiana and has a liturgical language called Louisiana Creole French.

What was interesting to me is that this type of Voodoo is actually pretty different from the other strains of Voodoo that you find in Haiti (Vodou) and South America (Hoodoo)

Voodoo dolls also aren't really a main feature in any form of Voodoo culture as they are represented in popular culture. They just happened to be associated with the dolls when their culture was commercialized in the 20th century.

From here, I wanted to learn more about the Louisiana Creole French because I've studied a lot of French over the years!

Not-so-threatening Voodoo doll

via Flickr user Scott Joseph

Louisiana Creole French

Apparently the language came to be when French-speaking slaver owners needed to communicate with the African slaves that they had brought over to Louisiana.

After slavery ended, the language lost a lot of popularity publicly because people were ashamed that it was associated with slavery. Additionally, since English became the dominant language in the United States, many people were forced to learn it and started speaking LCF less.

The tables showing the differences between LCF and standard French were fascinating! I had to hear someone so I watched a view Youtube videos. I could understand some of it, but it was tough!

Wikipedia Trail: From Charles Perrault to Compadre

For this Wikipedia Trails, I decided to start with one of the authors that I'm studying for my Storybook project - Charles Perrault.

Charles Perrault

For one, I didn't know that he wrote Puss in Boots or that it was even a real story! I thought that the Shrek series made that one up. Like many great French writers, Perrault also served in politics as an assistant to the famous finance minister Jean Baptiste Colbert. From there, I decided to read the article that contains one of his works, Sleeping Beauty.

Sleeping Beauty

It was interesting to read the differing versions of the Sleeping Beauty story. Both Perrault and Basile's narratives are much darker than the Disney version of the tale, but to me that just makes them more interesting!

From here, I followed a link to Godparent.

Sleeping Beauty by Henry Meynell Rheam

Godparent

In this article, I read a lot about the different forms or roles that a godparent can take in the various Christian denominations, but there are also a few non-Christian godparents that surprised me, like in Judaism or in China.

After reading about godparents, I ended my trail with Compadre.

Compadre

It turns out the term "compadre" comes from Spanish and Portuguese and means "co-parents." It is used to link the parents and godparents of a child in a shared role. I didn't actually know this, but probably should have (I took four years of Spanish).