Music Critiques [Blog 4B]

To listen to my audio critique of songs by Brandon Reid, Chelsea Kardos, and Mary Swick: click on the red box!

I am Not Brainwashed [Blog 4A]

Before you read anything, check out this website.  Click 'download' to read what I read.

http://changethis.com/manifesto/show/66.01.Brainwashed

One of the seven pillars, Acknowledging the Lizard, talks about the uncomfortableness people have when they're being laughed at.  I mean, rightfully so.  Who wants to be laughed at?  I always hated those people who would laugh at someone after he or she had fallen down or done something embarrassing and then say, "Hahaha, no, I'm not laughing at you, I'm laughing with you!"  in between giggles.  Really?  That's odd, because I'm not laughing.  Anyway, the pillar says that being laughed at is the lizard's worst nightmare (if you haven't figured this out, the lizard is our brain).  When we're laughed at, we shut down.  We stop what we're doing; we stop creating.  This is called resistance.  Resistance is that voice inside your head that says, "Crap, we're being laughed at.  Quick, stop being creative and start doing everything by the books.  Be the same as everyone else.  Then they can't laugh at you."  Kinda sad, isn't it?  Godin, the author of this piece, tells us to acknowledge the lizard so that we can ignore it.

A second pillar that really spoke to me as a creative person is Make Art.  Appropriate, I suppose.  I especially like that Godin said that art isn't necessarily a poem or a painting.  It can be anything anyone has ever done.  Art doesn't follow instructions, so in turn, can be very risky.  It sort of goes back to the lizard.  People have to realize that once they make art, they could be laughed at.  Look at all the random people on YouTube.  They upload videos with content anywhere from a Jesus centered flash mob to a stop motion t-shirt war.  All of it is art.  And no one seems to care how many dislikes they get or how many people laugh at them. Insanely different and unique, these videos show the creative sides to people all around the world. 

These two pillars are definitely connected to this blog I'm writing, in some ways at least.  My blog, first of all, is a pretty good representation of me.  My favorite color is green.  I like the beach.  I've developed a writing style that is very different from, say, my speaking voice.  My dad, who reads my blog on a regular basis, always comments how sometimes when he's reading, he almost has a hard time picturing that the person who is "talking" on his computer screen is his own babygirl.  "It's so funny but so different than the Angela I know," he says.  That's all art, is it not?  I've created something that is like me, but also isn't.  Do you follow?  It's okay if you don't.  That's art too!  Someone may read my blog and think A) I'm not very witty, B) I'm too sarcastic, C) I'm not organized, etc.  These are all attacks on my lizard.  The trick is to say, "to hell with them," make my art, and keep on keepin on.

Jazzy Songs

Andrew and I each created our own version of a jazzy song.  Check em out!

Cover Songs [Blog 3A]

Blackbird is one of my favorite songs ever created.  It's been covered many times, but probably my favorite version is off the Across the Universe soundtrack, sung by Evan Rachel Wood.  It is so incredibly different than the original version by The Beatles, which gives it a whole new feel and grooooove.

The cover lyrics are identical to the original, so I'll skip over that and talk about the differences in the melody.  Although they are still extremely similar, The Beatles play out most of their song in a major key, but Evan Rachel Wood sings in mostly a minor key.  I still think it's a little hard to decipher between the two if you haven't listened to these version a ton, though.  The instruments used behind Wood also helps in giving the song a "minor" feel, which brings me to the real contrast in the two pieces: musical quality.

The one thing these songs have in common is the lyrics.  The pitch, intensity, timbre, speed, and harmony, however, are SO much different between the two.  I'll start with analyzing the original done by The Beatles.  Even though they're singing about a "blackbird singing in the dead of night," it sounds like a happy song!  The audience doesn't realize it is kind of a happy thing they're singing about (learning to fly) until a little bit later.  It's upbeat and very light.  It starts out with a soft intensity, adding to the airiness of the song.  However, starting at about :57, the volume picks up, and although it's louder, it doesn't take away from the happiness they started out with.  The timbre is very simple; one twangy guitar for the melody, playing two strings at a time; one guitar for the bass, playing one note on the beat for four beats every measure; and a simple metronome to keep their beat!  No drums, no symbol, no bongos.  Just a metronome. One Beatle starts out the song by himself, and is later joined at the chorus by another fellow Beatle.  The second voice sounds like there should be a harmony under-lapping the melody, but instead he just adds to the volume of the voices.  My favorite thing in the whole song is the part where the tempo slows down and you think it's over at 1:41, but GOTCHA, they pick it back up again for another repeat of a verse, accompanied by some bird chirps.

Evan Rachel Wood does it an entirely different way.  The song starts out MUCH more somber than the original.  Now, it actually does sound like the blackbird is a sad thing, but instead of coming to a realization that it's actually a song about hope, the gloominess of the song stays throughout the entire thing.  The tempo is much slower, and the intensity is much louder.  It's still pretty even though it's kind of "in your face."  The timbre is more complex than the original.  An accordion is played to start off the song (the intro is longer than the original), and is later accompanied by a guitar, right before she starts to sing.  Later, something that sounds very much like a piccolo is added in.  Although it's only two more instruments than the original had, it still makes the song seem much more complex, and the audience may feel like there's a lot going on.  Notice how I didn't say what was keeping the beat?  That's because there is nothing keeping the beat.  Wood takes it at her own pace, the tempo swinging in and out from slower to faster.  Each musical interlude in between her singing doesn't stick to a beat either.  Overall, the pitch is lower than the Beatles version, in everything except her voice, which is obviously taken up one octave.  No one sings with Wood; she does the whole song by herself.  I think it adds to the gloominess of the entirety of the song.

I've listened to The Beatles version of this song for years, but the first time I heard Evan Rachel Wood do it, it brought me to tears.  I used to think of this song as happy-go-lucky, but now it makes me feel something different every time I listen to it.  Between the new instruments, the slower tempo, and the irregular rhythm, it's altered in a way that, sorry, Beatles, but you guys probably couldn't have pulled it off.  It's such a beautiful rendition and I think Wood did an absolutely fantastic job with it.  If only I had vocal chords like hers.

Soundscape

A soundscape is a series of sound effects and musical loops that try to convey a certain emotion to the audience.  Listen to the music clip and try to guess the emotion we were given to convey.  The emotion is revealed at the end!

I would recommend listening to the awesome soundscapes of Joey Buccini, Becca Amato, and Morgan Messenheimer as well.  Click on their names to get routed to their blogs!

Find Your Howl [Blog 2]

Before you read anything, check out this website.  Click 'download' to read what I read.

http://changethis.com/manifesto/show/51.01.YourHowl

I liked both of these stories, but could probably relate better to the second one (Part II).  For a brief summary, Flaum's sets up his story by telling the audience about a 5th grade paper assignment he had back in the day that had to be 5 pages in length, which I think we can all agree is a little lengthy for a 10-year-old.  Nick, Flaum's 5th grade "rival," actually takes the assignment to the next level by not only achieving the required length of the paper, but actually doubling it.  However, Nick "cheated by nature of the repetitive trick."  His story was about a tiger who lived in a cage at a zoo, and one day decided to plan his escape.  He finally picks the perfect night to execute his flawless plan, but when he wakes up, he finds himself in a different cage at a different zoo.  The tiger comes up with multiple plans, only to find himself back inside a different cage at a different zoo every time.  Flaum is angry with Nick for writing this story because it is "too true," and devastating at that.  Nick's lesson was "there's nowhere to run!", again, a little intense for a 10-year-old.  Flaum's argument, then, is "for the cage to drop away it has to die, this means that we have to die with it because, for reasons beyond our control, we have become identified with the cage and are one with it."  He uses examples like marriage and a strangling job that are soul-killing to us.  To rid the feelings, we must rid them.

To listen to my audio post: Click the green box! (Ignore the advertisement at the beginning)

Ways to Get New Ideas [Blog 1B]

 Before you read anything, check out this website.  Click 'download' to read what I read.

 http://changethis.com/manifesto/show/49.06.14Ways

In this article, the author, Mitch Ditkoff, gives, what I think, 14 great ways to spark one's creativity.  Each suggestion has some sort of a theme to it, and at the end of each suggestion is a prompt for the reader, including questions to get one's brain thinking a little harder or an actual applied task to help out with organization. 

Out of Ditkoff's 14 suggestions, a few of them really stuck out to me.  The first was suggestion number 5, "Fantasize."  Yea, I know what you're thinking, I thought the same thing too.  Ditkoff even knows what you're thinking, as he mentions that this term is usually associated with "children or perverts."  Not the case here, however.  Ditkoff merely wants the creative thinker to do just that-think creatively about stuff he or she wouldn't normally think about.  Nighttime dreams can be really, really strange sometimes, right?  Daydreams are the same thing, you're just conscious enough to scribble down all your thoughts, especially if a great one pops into your head.  I need to start doing this more.  Fantasizing, daydreaming, whatever you want to call it.  Just as long as I'm not doing so in class.  Sometimes, I am quick to be pessimistic, and think that something is impossible and I'll never get it down.  However, Ditkoff argues that part of fantasizing is simply entertaining the idea that the impossible can actually be made possible.  All you have to do is let your mind wander.

A second suggestion I took to nicely was number 8, "Take a Break."  YES.  Don't you love hearing those words together?  I think, or I hope, at least, that everyone reading this has experienced the wondrous joys of walking away from a project that's stumping you and coming back to it, finding it is much easier coming back into it now than it was a half hour ago.  I've experienced this with film projects as well as a Sudoku.  Sometimes I am so stumped that I just think the puzzle is faulty and the editors made a mistake, but when I set it down and come back to it 15 minutes later, suddenly, an 8 magically appears!  Ditkoff explains that it is often obsession and too much effort that leads us to a road block.  Stepping away for a little while gives your brain a chance to relax or focus on something else not so tedious, so that when you come back to it, your brain has had a mini vacation and is ready for a real solution.  When I work on a film project, I could go for 14 hours straight and not even realize it (seriously, I've done that).  I bet I could cut that time down by a few hours or so, if, when any serious issue comes up that is stumping me, I set the program to the side for a bit and play a game of Solitaire before trying again.

Finally, Ditkoff's number 10 suggestion, entitled "Hang Out with Diverse Groups of People," really made me think about how I could benefit by doing that.  A lot, I figured.  When we hang around the same people day in and day out, they can become even too familiar.  Everything kind of starts to become the same...creativity goes by the wayside.  Entering college, I found an amazing group of friends who I can laugh with, cry with, and I know each of them truly care about my well-being.  At the beginning of the year, I was hanging out with them every single night, and I loved it.  It wasn't until my roommate invited me to come hang out with her friends one night (and I said yes, that's the kicker) that I realized there were actually other interesting people living on this campus who I didn't even know existed.  Just spending that one night with my roomy and her friends made me feel like I had accomplished something; what that was I have no idea.  As I continue on through college life, I'll make more of a point to say "yes" when asked to swim with a different crowd.  Getting to know more people on this campus shouldn't be a problem, and knowing that I can use it to my creative advantage as well as socially is a bonus too.

Prompt 4: Make New Connections

aquarium               jump                funny

sock                      swim                smooth

elephant                fly                    strong

football                  wish                 turquoise

God                       sleep                flat

pillow                     create              smelly

family                    dance               spikey

teddy bear              snuggle            fresh

calendar                 stretch             microscopic

boyfriend                laugh               boxy 

Some "intriguing new connections" I have discovered:

I know God is strong, but he could also be microscopic.  I mean, I can't really see him, but I know he's there.  He's just an itty bitty guy floatin' around in my heart.

Why is the saying "when pigs fly"?  Why can't it be "when elephants fly"?  Elephants are larger than pigs.  It would be more of a miraculous thing to see an elephant fly over a pig, I think.

If you had to choose between sleeping flat or sleeping spikey, which would you choose?  I think I would prefer to sleep flat because spikey just sounds painful, but actually, flat doesn't sound that comforting either.

I've never seen a turquoise football, but now I want one.

Who Influences You? [Blog 1A]

I think of myself as a pretty creative person.  When I'm in editing mode, my creativity can really flow.  I find myself thinking strictly about which shots of film will grab an audience's attention the fastest and keep it...how can the text overlay the video in a way that's not distracting...etc.  It sounds very technical, but there is a lot of creativity that goes into piecing something together.  The thing I think about most when designing or creating something is my audience.  Any form of entertainment is for the audience, in my opinion; not necessarily the producer of the work.  I have such a desire to make an audience laugh hysterically or sob uncontrollably (or both) when I think about making movies someday.  Someone who has produced movies and has really gotten me to laugh and cry in the same movie is Andrew Stanton.

Most people might not know him by name, but I'm sure many people know him by the movie's he's produced and written.  One of my favorites, as you may have been able to guess, is his 2003 box office boom Finding Nemo.  Although I don't want to go into animation, Stanton's work is something I admire very much, simply for the direction and cinematography.  In the next two clips, hopefully you'll be able to see what I mean about how there are two extremes to emotional appeal in this movie he's worked on.

1.  Andrew Stanton is an inspiration for me as a writer as well as a producer and director.  Writing is something I struggle with when it comes to film-making.  Where do I begin my story?  Will the audience think this is as funny as I do?  How do you end a great movie?  I love Stanton's writing because it is very didactic.  He tells the audience what to think through what the characters say or through the image sequence on the screen, and there's really never much room for guessing.  A reason for this might be because he works mainly for a children's audience, although all Pixar movies are, in my opinion, appealing to adults as well as kids.  A didactic writer does not really let the audience make their own assessments of what each character is like or what they're thinking.  Nothing is really implied throughout the writing or scene transitions; it's all very straightforward.

2.  In almost every movie or piece of music there is the tension and release factor.  Something (music or an action scene) builds and builds until the audience almost can't take it anymore, and then there is a resolution that's comforting to the audience, known as the release.  Andrew Stanton does a great job of this in all of the Pixar movies he's worked on.  Even the first two clips at the top are great examples of tension and release.  Tension in the first clip with the barracuda is very high even after Marlin blacks out and the screen turns black.  As the audience, you still don't know what has happened. It's tense!  As Marlin wakes up and realizes Coral and his unborn sons and daughters have been eaten by the barracuda, the audience may start to relax only because they think there's no hope for anything else.  But then, as Marlin sees the sole fish egg on the reef, there is that release, and the audience can really breathe again.  It's not all horrible.  In the second clip, even Dory's singing can be a tension builder, especially because Marlin is talking over her the whole time trying to get her to stop.  When Marlin finally shuts her up, there is a release, as that high pitched noise that was making the audience's ears bleed a few seconds ago has finally stopped.

3.  A basic concept that Stanton has used very well in his movies is contrast and affinity throughout characters and locations.  There are similarities and differences in every piece of media artwork, especially through Pixar movies in which Stanton has worked.  Each movie has lots of characters who are of the same "kind;" for example, in Toy Story, most characters are toys.  In A Bug's Life, every character is a bug of some sort.  In Monsters, Inc., with the exception of a few human children, all characters are "monsters."  I'll use this last example to further explain contrast and affinity and how Stanton uses it to influence his audience.  Sully, as some would argue is the main protagonist in the movie, is a big, fluffy, blue monster, while Mike, his counterpart, is a short, round, green monster.  There is much contrast in appearance between these two main characters.  Even their personalities are contrasting; Sully is a big, huggable teddy bear, who wants to cause no harm to anyone, and Mike is straightforward about his work and wants nothing but success.  And he's hilarious without even knowing it!  The fact that these two characters are monsters, but are in no way scary the the audience, makes this contrast extremely funny.  On the other side of the spectrum, whenever Sully and Mike are shown, it's usually in very good light; they're surrounded by other happy monsters, or are working in the daylight.  However, their enemy, Randall, is usually shown in darker places, like the dimmed locker room, and he is shown working excessively at night in the dark.  The fact that these characters are almost always shown in the same light reinforces for the audience what kinds of characters they are.

What Defines Your Creativity?

One of my Media classes for spring quarter is called Media and the Creative Process.  We are required to blog for this class!  Our first lab assignment this beautiful Friday morning is to edit and upload a photo that defines or inspires our creativity.  This was a picture I took of my left hand last summer at a soccer game while I was playing around with the macro setting on my brand new camera.  I chose this photo because it describes what my life is centered around, hence why the cross is the only thing in focus.  Just taking some time away with the Lord is enough inspiration for my creativity.

First edited photo!