Saturday, May 18, 2013

A Hymn For Anthropologists

I am a giant fan of Regina Spektor.  I want to learn how to play all of her songs on the piano, but her piano books are quite hard to obtain.

If you have ever listened to any of her music, you should be familiar with the complexity and the cleverness of her lyrics.

On her most recent album (that one -->)
she has one song that instantly made me think of my profession: archaeology.  As you may know, archaeologists find things and put dates on them, then they end up in museums where people can oogle them.

The song is called, "All the Rowboats."  I believe that she is in a museum and she is describing her experience there, starting with one painting that has rowboats.  She says at one time, "they keep hanging in their gold frames for forever and a day," meaning that even after humanity is gone the painting will probably still be around.  Of course I think the ending of humanity probably would depend on a cataclysmic event.

When she says she "hears them whispering" French, German, Dutch Italian and Latin, I believe she is referring to the cross cultural phenomena of locking things that are old and of value away to keep them safe.

She then goes on to sing about how the violins are stuck in these glass cases (coffins) and it's so sad and pitiful that they've forgotten how to sing.  The original intent and purpose of items in a museum, like a violin, is forgotten, and the music that instrument makes won't be heard again, so what is the point of keeping them locked up other than to look?  Probably one of my favorite lines from the song is "masterpieces serving maximum sentences."  It's just so clever and rings true.

This song is very well written and lyrically reminds me of Anais Mitchell's style.  As far as the album goes, it is well done like all of her work, but you can see that she is really trying to expand herself as an artist.  When I saw her in concert she said that she had been practicing her beatbox, and whenever you hear a beatbox on this album, it's her.  I love her so much and hope you enjoy her too.

Star Trek: Into Darkness

BUM BUM BUM!! Khan.
Scotty Running -
He does this a lot in this movie!

Need I say more?

As many of you Star Trek fans remember (or even if you don't), the first new Star Trek movie informs us that we are in a different dimension than that presented by the 1960s Star Trek.  As you may know, a different dimension doesn't mean necessarily that all the events are different, it just means that the outcomes of similar events will be different.  To explain this a little better:

Dimension 1:

Event A occurs,  Person 1 and Person 2 do stuff, person 1 dies

Dimension 2:

Event A occurs, Person 1 and Person 2 do stuff, person 2 dies

That is super simplified version of how the events affect the outcomes, but if you really want to see what I mean, watch the original movie (hold on to your pants; it's exciting), then watch the new movie.  But don't just watch the new one, see it in theaters.  But don't just see it in theaters.  See it in the IMAX.  In 3D.  3D HAS GOTTEN SO MUCH MORE AWESOME!!

I usually hate seeing 3D movies because I end up with a headache, and let's face it when they first started coming out they sucked.  This movie didn't suck and it was totally worth the 3D ness.

If you are a nit-picky movie goer, you will notice a lot of things wrong with this movie; like how in the end it's just wrapped in a nice little package with a pretty little bow.  But you have to keep in mind, it's a movie, not a TV show, and there is no lengthy time for super explanatory endings.

However, if you like to be entertained by movies (like me), you will really enjoy this movie.  There is a lot of action packed fights, Spock-humor, and stunningly handsome leads.  Scotty and Chekov (no idea how to spell his name) play a larger part in this than the TV show, and they are so funny and do their parts justice.

If you are a Pine nut, a Quinto fan, Saldana, Karl Urban (Damnit Spock I'm a Doctor, not a physician), or whoever you follow, they all did a wonderful acting job and you will like this!  Not to mention the hard work of all the animators, directors, etc., make the movie so entertaining.  And Benedict Cumberbatch (what a lengthy name!) did such a good job at playing Khan.

My recommendation is to watch this movie and judge it for yourself; if your disappointed it's your own fault.  You have to remember that Gene Roddenburry isn't alive anymore, so it doesn't have his touch, but it's a good taken on it's own and separate from all the TV series.  Enjoy!


Book #7: A Storm of Swords: George R.R. Martin

Hello fellow avid readers.  There is a lot that I have to say about this book; it may contain spoilers if you haven't read it.  It may contain spoilers if you are watching the TV show.  I don't know because I haven't watched it yet - I was waiting until I finished the book, and now the moment has finally arrived.  I'm not usually one of those "I have to read the book before I see the movie types."  In fact, I started reading the books after I started watching the TV series, but OH MY GOD THE BOOKS ARE SOOOOO GOOD!!!  The writing is clear, concise and easy to get through - it's just lengthy as hell.  For example, this book is over 1100 pages, and that doesn't take into account all the good extra stuff about the houses found at the end.

You would think that by the time you get to the third book in a series the plot gets boring, but no. There are about a thousand twists that occur in this book that I was completely blind sided by.  From the second book, we still get to see the story from Davos, Caitlin, Tyrion, Sansa, Arya, Samwell, Jon, and JAMIE.  We get to see the story from another Lannister - the broken hero with reasons, who nobody listens to.  He does one major bad deed in his life and it follows him around his life; but he is broken, and we get to explore his transformation into the new Jamie Lannister. It's definitely interesting and unexpected.  There may be other characters' points of view, but I can't remember off the top of my head and my book isn't near me.

First, I am going to give a few character summaries and what they went through during the course of this book, and then I will give you what I thought a main theme of the book was.  So again, SPOILERS MAY BE CONTAINED WITHIN THE FOLLOWING SENTENCES.

Sansa:  Oh, Sansa.  Where to begin?  A lot happens with her, remember she is only 12/13 years old, so she is still very young.  However, we do see some character growth and we see her becoming more of an independent thinker.  Thinker, would be the key word.  She doesn't really act on any of her thoughts.  She plans to act but she always hesitates, which puts her in a sticky situation.  Although, maybe if she would act impulsively she would have died at the end of the story.  But she doesn't.  She does get married though, and you will never guess to whom, but it's definitely a shock - she's kind of a bitch to him to, and he tolerates it.  Absolutely nuts.

Arya: Arya is as scraggly as a girl as ever.  She is 8/9 in the story (I always forget with her) and she kills like it's nobody's business.  I don't even think she questions herself as to whether or not she is doing right, she just knows what needs to be done.  She doesn't yet realize that she is a Warg, but she is shifting into her wolf's skin when she sleeps.  Following catastrophic events, she falls into a deep depression and the most unlikely of heroes helps her out.

Tyrion:  Craziness.  Plots, twists, turns, scheming.  He does it all, and it ends up biting him in the ass.  Oh, but don't worry, he gets revenge in the end.  Like seriously, the last 2 or 3 pages of the story, but it is definitely a game changer.

Cersei:  Well, she really isn't in the story.  Except for like little background decisions, and we see how she just really, really wants to be a boy, and should have been a boy because she has more scheming things than anyone.

Samwell: I love Sam.  Everyone loves Sam.  Sam almost dies, but ends up saving some people.  Does he find his courage?  He claims no, he claims Gilly gives him courage, but by the end of the story you can't help but notice how ballsy he really is.

Jon:  Jon also almost dies, A LOT.  He is a cloak-changer, a warg, a lover, a killer but you definitely see him develop his leader skills.  I just hope he can save everyone from the Others.  (I also can't wait to see some of the scenes in the TV show 'cause I know they're gonna be steamy!)

Jeoffry:  He gets married!  There are a lot of marriages in this story.  Possibly one for every death?  But he marries someone not really in the story (well the first two), and she seems like a super badass and she comes with a lot of weaponry.  But ya know during this story Jeoff is his usual ass self.  And he's only 13.  Could you imagine what type of king he's going to be like?  I feel like another Mad King is in the making.  Oh and guess what, JEOFF is the one who sent the dagger to kill Brandon. To impress his "father," King Robert.

Petyr:  He is a sneaky son-of-a-bitch, and I kind of wonder how much control he really has over everything in "the game."  At the end he reveals some of what he's had his hand in...and I can think of someone he will put his hand in.  (ewwwww, gross, sexual!)

I don't know, there are so many characters in this book.  Some that die, some that seemingly die, one that came back from the dead.  It seems like there are weddings and feasts and betrayals left and right.  It's insanity.

Oh yeah!  That reminds me - so the Lord of the Light plays a huge role in this book, and it's really complicated and I don't want to go into it, but Stannis and Melissandre are definitely the ones in the background that are (I predict) gonna kick some major ass.  Also, Stannis is the rightful heir to the throne, so super big motivator...

One thing that occurs over and over in this book is that author is not afraid to kill main characters.  I believe that eight of the main characters die in this story, which is what usually doesn't happen in books.  The first couple were a real shock, and you would think by not the shock value fades.  I think this is a real unique approach to writing because we are taught from childhood that if you are "good" and you fight "evil" you will live a healthy and prosperous life; real life isn't like that at all.  What I also love about this book is how much philosophy of good and evil you can take from this book.  If you have ever taken a philosophy class that is one of the great questions to ponder, what makes "good" and what makes "evil?"  Is it the agreement of the majority of society creating the rules to govern what is good and evil?  Is it something that just is?  Is something more inherent that we just "know" to be right?  Whatever you think it is, you have to acknowledge the possibility that a person can be seemingly evil, but do good deeds; a person can also seem good in the eyes of others, but do evil things to create the overall good for the majority of people. It all depends on what side of the coin you are on as to how you view people/things as good and evil.  And that brings me around to my original point.  This book brings into light the reasons and intentions behind a lot of the "bad" characters actions and you see how they were things gone awry.


Ciao for now!