blastedgoat

“Open sesame,” the famous phrase from the Arabian Nights, reflects the distinguishing feature of the sesame seed pod, which bursts open when it reaches maturity. WHFoods: Sesame seeds http://www.whfoods.com/genpage.php?tname=foodspice&dbid=84

The term “open sesame” first appeared in the Arabian book “The Thousand and One Nights.” “Open Sesame” was the magical password that opened the entrance to the cave in Ali Baba and the Forty Thieves. The phrase refers to the seeds’ ability to pop, at the slightest touch, when ripe. http://www.kingtutshop.com/Egyptian-Herb/sesame.htm

This play was performed in an intimate setting that caused the line between audience and action to blur. The action of the play was situated so that everyone had a unique perspective. The seating mirrored the v-shaped stage that was set with a piano, table and numerous rocking chairs. Everything was strikingly monochromatic. The whiteness of the character’s dress and surroundings did not always suggest a pristine world with pure figures gave off the air of dinginess.  The set had a certain amount of fluidity to it; this made the play artificial but it was balanced by the “reality” of servants working behind the scene like little mice, cleaning up after everyone. It was necessary to move the set around by people who seem connected in some way to the action. The space is “magically” transformed several times throughout the play which adds to the feeling that time has passed. I found the contemplations of the characters and their conversations with each other to be interesting. I noticed similarities between this play and Chekhov’s last play The Cherry Orchard which are both preoccupied by the deteriorating wealthy class in Russia as well as the passing of time. Russian literature to a large degree is about suffering but also learning from suffering if you want to survive. Overwhelming emotion and lack of continuous action on stage might have annoyed some people but I don’t mind listening to people talk, as long as they are talking about something interesting. I found the to be very much so and could tell the actors were submerged in their roles. I loved the leaves in the last scene which were symbolic of the approaching coldness of winter. The falling leaves also foreshadowed the death of the Baron and gave it finality. What was supposed to be happy ended on a sad note but the characters are strong and go on. Music is essential to Russian culture and its presence throughout the play emphasized that cultural difference. They sing, they experience loss and they live on to see more winters, more suffering, more death. I was impressed that the production was able to pull off a play as grim as this one with a cast of such young actors. Their ages certainly clue the audience into the sense that the scene is entirely constructed; as did the strange hanging lamp in the bedroom. What was so impressive to me was how they captured their characters quite well and presented the heavy themes of Russian literature in a fairly believable way.

Introduction to the Form and the Power of Music
While most of the music video world is concerned with the promotion of a song some directors consider their creations artistic endeavors. Music videos are short enough to have an impact yet long enough to allow for the construction of a coherent story. There are components every music video must contain but there are countless paths a director might take to achieve balance between promotion of the artist and expression of the music. The meaning of a music video or “promotional film” resides in the combination of music, lyrics and images. There are roughly two categories they tend to fall into: performance and conceptual. I will focus on conceptual videos that implement techniques found in “legitimate” films or make a statement beyond that of shameless self-promotion. I will present videos that cross the threshold of “trash” and enter into something much deeper.

Great music videos have the capability of provoking responses much like a great films might and are becoming increasingly accessible in the technological age. The history of the form is interesting as it pulls from many traditions and techniques of filmmaking. Modern music has gone beyond the world of “music television” and onto the internet. Some music fans want to do more than simply view the video; they embark on an artistic endeavor of their own by creating “fan-vids.” Homemade lip-synching videos have also become popular recently and are part of a growing trend of viewers that choose to manipulate images and music to create alternate videos for their favorite songs. Many fan-vids feature popular songs and clips from t.v. shows or anime and have caused various copyright issues on video sharing cites like Youtube. Much of this insight can only be gained from a long love affair with the form and a few copyright issues dealing with videos uploaded on my own Youtube account. Through studying the roots of video making I have gained a greater appreciation for those music videos that inspired me as a teenager and got me through a difficult time in my personal life. I will provide links between my experience and what I have learned this semester to show the merit of several so called “promotional films.” Read the rest of this entry »

I wasn’t upset by the ending of the play, it was more fun watching the reactions of people who clearly were expecting something else. The murder was subtle at first, the music added to the creepiness, the lighting especially added to the mood. A few individuals snickered and someone who was really confused blurted “Is she dead?” I enjoyed the “slow motion” sequence which combined exaggerated actions with pulsating rectangles of colored light. The fact that the lighting became to unrealistic at that moment emphasized the artificiality of the play and elaborated the ridiculousness of the plot itself. I try to imagine what went into making the set and am always looking for mistakes. I listen and watch for missed lines or cues, and any set or prop malfunctions. I don’t do this because I like to complain about every little thing but because those things are part of the experience of live theatre. The directors I have worked with stress that if “you can see the audience, they can see you” which isn’t always literal but it serves as a reminder that you must be alert at all times and fully submerse yourself into your character or role. I watch for actors that merely “deliver their lines” as opposed to those who genuinely interact with others.

I liked the quirky story of a song-writer zookeeper with a crazy a wife named Bananas and a girlfriend named Bunny who nibbles on a large carrot she pulls out of the refrigerator. The song Artie wrote in the tune of “White Christmas” reminded me of the songs from a play I was in during my junior year in high school. It was a comedy about a musical called Sing On! In the play a group of actors and technicians put on a musical written by an untalented, overbearing playwright named Phyllis Montague. All the songs in the “fake” musical were reworked tunes of Stephen Foster with lyrics by her equally untalented nephew, Monte Montague. The musical was about Queen Elizabeth, the supposed virgin Queen of England and her rumored “affair” with Lord Essex. At the end of the musical within a play one of the two actresses who play the role of Queen Elizabeth in the play has a baby just offstage prompting Phyllis to do a quick rewrite of the finale song. The whole cast and crew celebrates the birth of Violet’s new baby boy with a song to the tune of “Camptown Races“. From memory I can still recite the last few lines:

Though Queen Bess insisted on less sex, Essex,
told her single life’s no fun, let’s be a pair,
‘Cuz if they didn’t share, the royal line stops there.
So they decided they should have a son…

Well, you get the idea, I still remember quite a bit of it six years after I was in it, probably because it was such a strange play. I think those are the kind I like the best and The House of Blue Leaves definitely fits into that category.

Abbot, Rick. Sing On!: A Comedy about a Musical, Samuel French, Inc., 1991

In Siddhartha dreams enlighten the dreamer to some greater truth, “when a man is asleep, he penetrates his innermost and dwells in Atman” (Hesse 1951 7). Siddhartha becomes restless when he realizes what he has become; his entire life sickens him. After a sleepless night Siddhartha falls asleep at daybreak and has a strange dream. Kamala’s songbird was quiet so Siddhartha approached the cage and found it had died. Siddhartha took the bird out of the cage and threw it on the road and “was horrified…as if he had thrown away with this dead bird all that was good and of value in himself… It seemed to him that he had spent his life in a worthless and senseless manner; he retained nothing vital, nothing in any way precious or worth while” (Hesse 1951 82). I identified with Siddhartha because as a child I had a similar dream. My bird was an egg and it told me to throw it on the ground. I was hesitant but the egg assured me it wouldn’t hurt. It would just help him wake up. I said goodbye and smashed the egg on concrete. I was devastated and felt as though I had lost a friend. The dream wasn’t over. I “woke up” to find my room slightly off, everything seemed hazy. I looked out the window and saw was a large area of grass surrounding a concrete slab where children played four-square with a white ball. When I tried to examine my surroundings further I was able to wake up. Siddhartha’s dream shook him from his temporary stupor and allowed him to move on. He replayed his life in his mind and discovered the world of the flesh had gotten him no further in finding himself. His dream served as a metaphorical death and rebirth into a new way of living. Siddhartha no longer belonged in the city so he walked away from the life he had created. The only person who understood him was his lover Kamala who had begun to show signs of her own mortality. Kamala understood his decision and did not try to find him. Things might have turned out very differently for Siddhartha if this dream had not occurred or if he had ignored it.

I was sent to Earth to cover the 2008 American Presidential Election by the great one of my home planet. I was to depart with a male version of my species and infiltrate the political processes of a Midwestern state. On Earth, mates live with each other beyond the necessity for child rearing. This was a strange concept to us but my partner and I vigorously studied the disposition of lower-middle class American couples. I thought them a bit frumpy and crude at first glance but they really are an interesting subject. Humanoids attend Universities where they exchange imaginary creatures called “Loans” for valuable recreational activities. Humanoids that attend University are known as “Students” and they are a nasty bunch. Data collected over the span of several months by my partner and I conclude that Students are low on the hierarchical chain of human command. They eat indigestible worms with seasoned foil packet, they consume large amounts of Miller Lite, a most horrid beverage which causes them to behave in most peculiar ways. The young females dress in a way to provoke the young males. To any reasonable being vomit and loss of motor skills seems at best unattractive. Young Students perform these rituals in order to mate with another unattractive being of their kind. Alcohol is used so males may later deny attempting to impregnate the females, especially if the female is unattractive or bloated. Alcohol is a magical elixir that raises the Student’s exceptionally low level of self-esteem by making them think that others actually accept them. A Student can live in denial for several years before they finally come to terms with their occupation. They are sold into slavery by Banking and Loan Industries that require them to work a job in the food-service industry despite having earned their four year degrees in meaningless trades. They buy things they don’t need to fill the emptiness and finally have children, which finally destroys them forever. As I have said these young subjects were very fascinating and I am pleased to file this report. I hope it will serve as a historical account for future generations after the Humanoid Students take over planet Earth, which ultimately destroys it…

“Oh My Darling, Clementine” is an American western folk ballad usually credited to Percy Montrose (1884) though sometimes to Barker Bradford. The song is believed to have been based on another called “Down by the River Liv’d a Maiden” by H. S. Thompson (1863).

The words are those of a bereaved lover singing about his darling, the daughter of a “49er” (a miner in the 1849 California Gold Rush). He loses her in a drowning accident – though he consoles himself towards the end of the song with Clementine’s “little sister”. Read the rest of this entry »