Born Free

When we come out of our mother's womb we are not chained to anything. At that moment we can say we are free. Someone can be chained physically and emotionally. When someone is chained with real steel chains because of the complexion of his pigment for example; we call this physical slavery. On the other hand when someone is chained to money, religion or politics we call this emotional slavery. This is because the person isn’t really chained with steel chains but with his mind. Freedom has been always and issue in the world. In fact, freedom is the ultimate race.  Talking about freedom these days is a cliché so instead I want to talk about censorship.

 Censorship is a kind of slavery related to freedom of speech. We as artists are the main target of censorship. We are seen as rebels that only create controversy for money. Freedom of expression is a human right that cannot be revoked.  Artists these days are afraid to express how they feel and stand up for what they believe because they might get censored.
When we create something it has to be with a purpose. Whether it is a painting or a movie it has to have a message. If the message is controversial or maybe too risky I say go for it! Artists are often censored because what we create is often seen as a threat to the ordinary world. The world today is in a bubble where everything seems to be perfect when it is really far from perfect. Artists are censored because we tell the truth about worldly problems. We have to stand up and fight for what we believe in or die protecting it. I know it is easier to just go with the flow of the river; however, if you do that you’ll end up falling down the waterfall like everybody else.  We come to this world free and free we shall live and die. Artists should not be an exception. We tell the truth raw and uncensored.

▲The Great Hay War of 2013▲

▲The Great Hay War of 2013▲

An Intensive Historical Account of the Great Hay War

Documented by Josiah Clements

The Great Hay War was a bloody conflict that changed history itself. We refer to events that happened before this great battle as Before Hay War (B.H.W) and events after as After Hay War (A.H.W). In 55 B.H.W, tensions were taunt between the two major factions of the time; the Upper Wagon and the Lower Wagon. The Uppers held a lot of political power and wealth during this time, which they spent lavishly on whatever they pleased. The Lowers greatly resented the Uppers for this, because although they were a hard working class, they were mainly poor and suffered under the Upper's reign in poverty. Their relationship was strained for many years, but the conflict didn't truly start until 3 B.H.W, when some Uppers broke the Wagon Treaty and fired un-provoked into a Lower Wagon settlement. Many small skirmishes broke out for the next couple of years because of this, but they were small and mostly insignificant. It wasn't until the mighty Steve Leeper of the Lower Wagon rose up and gathered an army of rag-tag warriors behind him.

Although Leeper's army was undisciplined, they were a passionate bunch with unbreakable resolve. Leeper marched them straight to the Upper Wagon's front lines, which were led by the renowned Lance Clark. Clark 's soldiers were well equipped for war and had the wind on their side as a great tactical advantage, but they lacked resolve and were used to a life of comfort and ease. Both armies stared each other down, each waiting for the other to make the first move. The air was still, and even the crickets held their breathe in anticipation. 

Finally, unable to take it anymore, an antsy soldier fired a round off. The sound echoed all around, which was followed by an audible silence. Suddenly, all hell break lose. The two armies collided together in a horrendous clash. Soldiers dropped left and right, scattering the ground with their still warm corpses. Hay flew everywhere, blotting out the sun itself. The battle was intense, but it soon became evident that the Upper Wagon lead by Clark had the "upper" hand. The Lowers fought valiantly, but no matter how hard they fought, the wind kept on blowing their ammunition back in to their faces, causing more damage to their own forces then the enemy's. With the wind on their side, the Uppers pushed back Leeper and the Lower Wagon, forcing them to retreat. Brave Lower soldiers used their own bodies to shield their comrades allowing them to retreat safely. The most notably of these soldiers was Lance Terpstra the Valiant, Taylor Philips the Resilient, Sean Fitzpatrick the Noble, and Josiah Clements the Gay, who all gave their lives in the front lines of the battle.

General Leeper was extremely disheartened by this lose, and started to lose all hope of victory. Seeing that their efforts were practically futile, the Lower army decided to hunker down and wait for a more opportune moment to strike. They began storing up ammo and supplies in anticipation for a surprise attack. During this time, Lepper withdrew further and further into his mind, slowly losing grip of his sanity. One day, he finally snapped, and began firing upon his own troops in a blind state of hysteria. His soldiers tried to restrain him, but he escaped and ran of into the wilderness. With Leeper crazed and gone, his right-hand man stepped in to take his place; Jay Canul. Although he didn't have as much battle experience as Leeper, Canul had a sharp mind for military tactics. He roused the Lower Wagon troops one last time with an inspirational speech, and when the wind that had been the Upper Wagon's constant advantage died down, he led the army in a glorious final battle. They struck with everything they had, and delivered fatal blows to the Upper Wagon's army. Both sides suffered crippling casualties, and finally the two opposing generals called for a cease-fire, and eventually signed a peace treaty that both sides have kept even to this day. After the war was finally over, the Lower troops found the insane ex-general Leeper rummaging through the trash in their settlement. They captured him, and had him executed by a firing squad for his treason. 


Every year we have a festival to celebrate and remember peace treaty between the Upper Wagon and the Lower Wagon, where we carve pumpkins and drink hot chocolate.


~Josiah▲

Story Telling

   Be warned guys and gals, this one isn’t about any particular story, but on some thoughts and opinions on games and books in general. Thought I would change mine up a bit today. I happen to be a gamer, of any sort, but video games have a special place in my heart. I also love to read, If I didn’t I might not have a place to go home to in this summer (my mom is a librarian…kinda. A masters degree in Library Science is required to have that title...onward from this useless bit of information!) 

  I was just thinking why some people hate games so much, and don’t want others to have the option of playing them (My grandparents have this idea). They say it’s a waste of time, and are just used to escape reality, why not read a book instead?

   Seriously?

   I mean, fiction is a story…like most role playing video games. There are some games that are pretty much time wasters, or party games for playing with friends, but not all are.

   There are some differences in the way the story is told in these mediums though.

   With books you have to use more imagination. There is a tree, but what kind of tree? A majestic tree, or maybe it’s ominous, or an oak tree. You still have to picture the tree, unless the book is a picture book, (but I think most of us are past that) but movement is not pictured.

   With games you actually have to solve the puzzles and mazes yourself. There is no just looking ahead to see how the hero does it (actually there is but its cheating) or how it ends (I am assuming you just have the game, no internet and no guidebook). It’s all play by play…literally

Gloomy Sunday

Sunday's movie night, I watched 'Gloomy Sunday'. The story in the movie is fictional but it was based on a real song (Gloomy Sunday) and the reported suicides that would occur after the song was played. It's no secret that music has the power to bring on a powerful emotional response. There are lots of examples out there to speak of but I'm going to mention only one that came to mind. I remember after the movie 'Titanic' was made and on the news there was a story where a reporter was trying to figure out why women all over America would breakout crying whenever the song from Titanic plays on the radio. I remember thinking back then, that's a pretty powerful emotional response and all it took was around 3 min. of music. But this movie 'Gloomy Sunday' is not just about a song, but also a love triangle that was formed between a lady, a hostess named Ilona and two other men, the restaurant owner, and its pianist. The three was in a tight spot. All three needed each other so they eventually decided to share Ilona. It sounded like everyone in the theater agreed that this love triangle was gross and so wrong (I'm going by all the grounding that our group was making during this particular event in the movie). But I found it interesting that after the pianist committed suicide, a new love triangle formed introducing a photographer turned Nazi Col. He was jealous over the restaurant owners relationship with Ilona and wound up sending him to the concentration camps. Perhaps it would not be wise of me to judge the original relationship, after seeing the alternative. I found this to be a really good movie. 

Moon

I have always wanted to watch Moon and I got a chance to last night. The premise of the movie was very interesting. Sometime in the future, we rely on the Moon's energy to power the Earth. To harvest this energy, Lunar Industries sends up one man for a three year contract to make sure everything goes smoothly. Things start to turn for the worst in the last few weeks leading up to his return.

Most times when there is an intelligent computer in a film, it usually develops a mind of its own and tries to go against the main character. In 2001, Hal ends up locking David out of the spaceship because he overhears that he wants to shut him down. In this film however, Gerty (Kevin Spacey) is a nice robot computer who has genuine feelings for Sam and his wellbeing. I enjoyed Gerty's many faces that made him have more human qualities.

Moon reminded me of another film I've watched, Adaptation where the main character has conversations with himself. I always wondered how they're able to pull that off.

(You'd think that having two of Nic Cage would be a bad thing

and in most cases it is. This is not one of those cases.)

A girl with the two that has see no evil, and hear no evil

   Last Saturday I went to Maconaquah High School. Which is my old school that I graduate. They

had a play called The Miracle Worker. They did a good job of the Miracle worker. I never read the

book and seen the movie. I was speech less and of how the tired Helen Keller. I felt treble and sad

because how can a family deal with that kind of problem.

  Kate Keller which I think is the mother of Helen Keller. Discover

that her daughter could not hear voice or see her mother. As she grow up Helen couldn't learn how to

talk to other people. Helen use her hands to guide her inside of her house and outside of her house.

The first doctor told the mother and father what she had. So the doctor sent some help to  the

parents of Helen Keller. So  a teacher of the age of 20 years old she could see but she can

hear.

So she help  Helen Keller and her parents to talk through  touch by hands of sign language. Of what it

words mean with objects. watch this youtube video of it. It change my ways of think of deaf and not

able to hear. Can not imagine of how people goes through this. God heal the people that has these

kind of problem like Helen Keller.



http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_detailpage&v=dKs1SKd-Mt4

Entirely Relevant To Media

    This post is the biggest fail ever. I misread the syllabus

    I just found out we have to write an essay on a subject that's viewed through one of the lenses of "The Gospel As.." which means through the lens of tragedy, comedy, or fairy tale. Figured I should give everyone a heads up (don't even want the blog credit for this one)

I wish I saved some hay from the hayride yesterday, and the F-------- is probably what I'm going to get on the assignment

     There I was, on the syllabus, trying to get ahead on the reading for Thursday, when I see that, so I decided to make an emotional picture about how I feel about Thursday instead of actually getting ahead on the reading.

     So yeah. That's all I have to say. 

     

The Secret of Kells

     Even after watching this movie twice this weekend, I'm not really sure if anything I can say about this movie will be deep or relevant, but does it need to be? The story is an artistic interpretation of the creation of The Book of Kells, which is a famous "illuminated manuscript" of the Gospels renown for the stunning artwork that adorns its pages. That being said, it draws a great amount from pagan Celtic mythology as well, two very important characters to the story are mythological creatures. The first is a forest spirit named Aisling, who helps the main character during the story, and the other is one of two primary antagonists, Crom Cruach. Crom is probably the most interesting of the two to me because he is an ancient Irish dark god. One of the pervading themes in this movie is the idea of turning darkness to light, and this theme is most definitely displayed in Crom's roll in the story. His eye is a crystal which is needed to complete the intricate art in the book, meaning a dark god was used to write a book of light.

Mythological and historical allusions aside though, the characters and plot are nothing unique. The main character, Brendan, is your typical naive, day-dreamy, youthful hero type, his uncle is the evil stepmother, and Aidan of Iona is Ben Kenobi...oh and Pangur Bán is the creature companion. That being said, I feel the characters don't need to be anything else in this film as I think the most important aspect was the theme of turning darkness to light, which they nailed right on the head. Despite all the obstacles placed before Brendan, all of them are worked into the greater good, even when the Vikings arrive and drive Brendan out of Kells, it only serves to set him on a journey to spread the teachings of the book to the outside world. 
     Now, no discussion of this movie can be made without mentioning the visuals, they were fantastic. The style of the film is very flat, evoking the same feeling as the art which adorns the pages of the Book of Kells itself. One of the pieces of advice Aidan gives to Brendan is that you can learn a lot from nature, I feel this is represented in the art as the shapes in Brendan's art are reflected in the shapes of the forest. The tree branches twist around one another like intricate calligraphy and the tree line evokes the feeling of a stained glass window pane or page liner. The music is also excellent, who doesn't like a good Celtic song? This movie's got plenty of those. Overall I'd say this was a great film, even if the plot doesn't grab you, the theme and images will. BUT IF THEY DIN'T! Feel free to comment about it. If you haven't seen it and want to, it's free on Hulu. Go watch it.

I recently came across a documentary called I Am by Tom Shadyac, whom you may recognize as the director of Ace Ventura, Liar Liar, and Patch Adams.
Shadyac experienced a bad bike accident a few years ago. From this, he developed post concussion syndrome, which causes mood swings and depression for a longer period of time than normal concussions. Some people live with post concussion syndrome for the rest of their lives. Fortunately, Shadyac is no longer concussed. During his depression, Shadyac frequently contemplated the meaning of life and his purpose in the world. At one point, as he stood alone in his new Beverly Hills mansion, he realized that it did not make him any happier than he was before.
And so this documentary was born. Shadyac asked people the following questions: What is wrong with the world, and what can we do about it? There were many thoughts as to what causes the world to be as it is, and, oddly enough, most of those interviewed agreed with one another.  I won't give too much away (because y'all need to watch it for yourselves), but in the end it was decided that there are a lot of things wrong with the world; and most of all, we are.
The documentary challenges us to look at ourselves and the lives we live. What are we working towards in life? Does achieving the "American dream" really make us happy? What really matters, in the grand scheme of things? Money plays a role, obviously, in our happiness (am I correct in assuming we all like to eat and have a roof over our heads?). But there are many times when we choose the extravagant when something simpler would have sufficed.

I Don't Love You

My Chemical Romance, a punk rock band that was started in 2001, and broke up March of 2013 (right after I started to really like them). I particularly like their album The Black Parade, and a song on that album, called I Don’t Love You, has definitely kept my attention. I decided that for once, I would watch the music video to the song, which is something I’m not known for doing. I was pleasantly surprised by this one

The entire video is in black and white, so it has some interesting effects with the lighting and tones. And when the video is not showing MCR tripping on something, the story actually fits the song. There are some interesting scenes in the story, like how he ‘rubs off on her’, people effect each other, for better or worse. The guys falling, falling in love. I also saw part of the mythic cycle displayed, the lovers met for the last time in autumn, under a tree in that had lost close to all of its leaves, after that they part ways, love is gone. The flashbacks were to a summer hill top, which can be taken as they were high from infatuation.

I didn’t understand what the exploding instruments had to do with the song… It seems like those were just put in for interesting effects. I also question some of the other scenes with the band, but since most music videos are made up of those, that is probably why I don’t watch many ( or because Nightwish doesn’t have many…)