(*Fin)

Done with my blog. Glorious times! (:

Creative Manifesto

Inspired by Karim Rashid's Creative Manifesto, I came up with 10 points of my own:

1. Be versatile in your life. You draw from what you know, so the more you've experienced, the more you have to draw from.

2. Don't dismiss anyone. You can learn a lot from others, and if you're too pretentious to listen, you'll miss out.

3. Always be alert for inspiration and ideas around you.

4. Don't force creativity, chances are it won't really be creative if you do.

5. Different is good, but don't do things differently just for the sake of being different. That's almost as bad as conforming for conformity's sake.

6. Keep a record of any ideas you come up with. If you don't have the resources or time available to do it then, it'll be there for you when you do.

7. Also be versatile in the media you consume. If you regularly watch/listen to/read/play/view film, video games, novels, music, graphic novels, websites, artwork etc. you can draw from all of them to be more creative.

8. Pay attention to advice from people you admire.

9. Never be content. This will hurt your incentive to continue getting better.

10. Consider what it is about a particular film, game, song, etc. that makes you like it. This will help you know what works, and what doesn't (granted this is very much subject to opinion).

Freak Factor

You can read the article I talk about here

I want to be witty and just put: "I agree with this guy's tip 9. One part of this step says 'Instead of procrastinating from activities that you don't like, just stop doing them altogether' And I agree full-heartedly. I feel like sleep is more relavent to my interests. Good night (: "

But, I'm ironically going to go against this article and continue this blog post because I want to conform and get a good grade! But seriously, I agree with this point to a certain extent, but he should probably specify the kind of activities that are acceptable to completely give up. For example, I would not be a happy camper if my roommate didn't like to take showers, and decided to "engage in permanent procrastination" from taking a shower. This obviously wouldn't be beneficial to her life either because people obviously wouldn't treat her very kindly. There are certainly obligatory things you need to do in our society (such as this homework), in order to succeed, but other than that, I suppose this point makes sense.

I would be wrong to not talk about the other points of tip 9. The other points basically map out ways to use your weakness/strength characteristics to your advantage. For the most part, I do agree with this. It basically is a pitch for the fact that you're simply going to do your best if you find your niche, and find others to occupy their correct niches in the positions around you.

This essentially sums up the whole article. Everyone's a freak. Deal with it.

Animated gifs don't work on Blogger? That's thoroughly disappointing. 

No, but really, the article asserts that a freak is someone who is unique because of a natural positive obsession. It says that we should embrace our flaws because our flaws come with a strength. You can't have one without the other. This is another point that I'm inclined to agree with. He cites creative as being a strength to the weakness of unorganized, and dedicated as a strength that goes with stubbornness. There are others on the chart there, that I've found to be pretty reflective of the traits of people I know (or even myself). So logically, in attempting to fix one of these flaws, you would also be nullifying one of the corresponding strengths. This makes sense, because if you take a "boring" person, chances are they are "boring" because they aren't very spontaneous, instead they're responsible. So, if you try to make this "boring" person more "fun" by making them forego a homework assignment to go to a party or something, this makes them less responsible.  This article urges you to play to your strengths in order to succeed. As with most things of this nature, although these traits in the chart match up fairly well with each other, there will always be people who are exceptions.

I like point number 8, where it talks about "The Power of Uniqueness". I feel like he could have used a better example than the leaning tower of Pisa, like talk about an actual person, but it still drives home the point. If everyone was the same, there would never be any progress. We would all think the same thoughts, and basically be the same person. Without any differences, the evolutionary process can't even take place, and this is arguably the starting point of progress. The people who have really made a difference in our world (for better or worse...) and who appear in our history text books are those people who are unique enough to do something impactful.

So, even if I don't agree with little parts here or there of this article, I agree with the overall message. (even if I don't want to in a sense, because like most other people, I wish I could get rid of my weaknesses) So, you should check it out, it's pretty sweet.

Audio Response to Collapsus and Trans-Media

I made a youtube video for this that you can find here

Reflections on Gaming Presentation

The two things that we didn’t do a good job of explaining was the storyline that we had fleshed out for our particular video game, Gestalt Principle. (If we were making an actual game, we obviously wouldn’t go with this title, we were contemplating Tabula Rasa and something else)

Here’s a quick refresher on what our game proposal was. It would be a survival horror game that appears to take place in a jungle that has all these monsters. Your only defense against the monsters would be this lantern that you would constantly have to find oil to refill. The more your character is in the dark, the more damage is done to his sanity meter. The player would try and figure out what is going on while trying to remain alive.

We actually spent a good deal of time discussing what we wanted the story of the game to be. The other major thing that we didn’t cover well in our presentation, which goes along with the story, is the character design and development. Did we ever say anything about how we wanted the player to discover clues along the way that would narrate about the history of the place he woke up in? I don’t believe we did. We also wanted to include a part where we trick the player into drinking contaminated water. (You can raise sanity meter by performing actions such as eating and sleeping) This water would have made the character hallucinate, and perpetuate the idea that there’s a larger force at work against the player here, not just nature. The reason we never really included a part to explain the story was because I guess we never really decided what we were going to do with the story exactly since the presentation didn’t call for any plot summation. So I guess I can’t even decisively say “This is the story we planned.” But I can tell you some of the great ideas we came up with.

Christina had a really good idea that went somewhat along the lines of once the character reached the edge of the jungle, he just found a wall, with a door. When he opens the door he finds himself in a completely different setting with different obstacles. (And he goes through a series of “rooms” which could be constituted as levels) And then Eric had a really good idea as well where, after all the hard work of fighting off death and insanity, when you find yourself at the end of the jungle, there’s this huge sheet of glass that blocks his escape. He starts running alongside the glass to try and find a door or hole or anything, but he just finds that he goes in a complete circle. He’s trapped indefinitely. Since these ideas conflict with each other, it was kind of easier not to decide on one since we didn’t have to. (although it would have been very beneficial to our pitch if we did)

We also discussed what kind of character we would want to have in our game. Since our character is completely disoriented and doesn’t know what’s going on at the beginning, doesn’t even know who he is, we wouldn’t give the player any information either. We contemplated whether we should just leave him as an ambiguous character to allow the player to better insert themselves into the game.

These two points were obviously very weak in our presentation because they were virtually non-existent. Even though it wasn’t a requirement, we should have included them because they could have been the strong point of our game.

Now I apologize if anything I said above conflicts with something one of my groupmates say. Although old school games didn’t have much more of a story other than “Save the princess”, it’s important for most next gen games to at least attempt a story line. (Unfortunately a lot of games seem to have stories that seem like afterthoughts after creating half the game already)

I would say that video game mechanics would be the hardest to describe orally. This  is simply because the easiest way to understand game mechanics would be to experience them.  And considering the ambiguous “others” of this question, they might very likely be people who haven’t played a wide array of games, so you wouldn’t be able to effectively give examples. If you were the person who designed Katamari Damarcy, I imagine it would be hard for a person to understand how fun the game is from a description of the game mechanics: “you roll a ball around and pick up stuff. As the ball gets bigger, you can pick up larger stuff.”  It’s simply easier to hand the controller to the person and say “go for it”. The video game medium is an interactive one, and since game mechanics dictate the interaction that the player experiences, it’s more difficult to describe.

Reflection on Hero/Villain Assignment

You can view Emily and Adam's super hero/villian here

I believe that they contrasted the lighting for their characters pretty well. The villain is placed in a very dark city which gives it an ominous mood. There are lights, but they don't seem to emanate all that much light on the scene. It's nighttime which is a fitting for a villain, and the moon being placed behind the character makes her stand out from the background more, since if she was set against the night sky she wouldn't have. I think the moon being placed behind her almost makes her look more powerful in a sense.

This is contrasted with Hipsterman who has no apparent backdrop. However, I get the impression that it's more lit up than the dark city the villain is in, considering there's a shadow behind him.  The glow that emanates from him symbolizes his heroism and that he is the good guy of this narrative. There isn't much affinity between these characters, which shows how they don't get along.

Here is Christina and her partner's hero/villain

I thought that they used good colors to contrast their hero and villain. While the hero has a very powerful hue, red, that calls for your attention, the villain actually lacks a hue, as gray is not a color.  The saturation of the hero is very high, as it is a very bold kind of red and orange. The value chosen for the red is a fairly bright one, while the villain has a fairly dark one. I like that the hero is comprised of warm colors, which is contrasted with the villain. Although the villain does not have "cool colors", we have come to see grays and blacks as an opposite of sorts to bright, warm colors. I like that they have great affinity in their shape and how their drawn, so the major difference between the characters is their color. This emphasizes the color of the characters. Also the inclusion of the cape for the hero sets him apart from the villain as well. Considering the background for the hero is just black darkness, and his powers involve the making of fire, this infers that he'll lighten up the darkness. This simple inclusion depicts him as the hero pretty well, while the villain appears to control lighting, in a very dismal setting. Lightning is a very destructive force and so it is fitting for this villain to have it as a power. So I think they did a great job in designing both the hero and villain overall.

Here is Chad and his partner's hero/villain project

What immediately comes to mind when looking at the hero here is the contrast of colors because they are complimentary, the yellow of his body with the purple of his cape. So, this is an aesthetically pleasing combination of colors. These are heavily saturated colors, and he brightens them up in some parts in order to show depth. There are also complimentary colors present in the villain, with the red and green, however it's more subtle since the green is just in a small strip and in the eyes. The dark value of the red with the black in the cape and arms and legs makes it obvious that he is the villain. The jagged, and sharp edges of the villain is contrasted with the smooth curves of the hero, which further sets them apart. The choices on colors and design lead for a very evident hero and villain, seeing as there really isn't much affinity at all between them aside from the fact that they're both fruit. This affinity is good, because it shows that they are part of the same show or comic book. But this is a weak similarity in terms of showing similarity in terms of personality. I mean, there is that phrase that you can't compare apples and oranges in order to describe two completely different things.

Joke Video Reflection

Here are our joke videos:

Numero Uno

Numero Dos

The major difference that we approached our joke videos with was that the 1st one was going to be a fairly straight forward representation of the joke while the 2nd video was going to be a parody of the video game Mortal Kombat. This contrast lent themselves to the visual differences of the two videos, while the major affinity between the two videos was the joke itself.

Although space was explored in both videos, it is emphasized a whole lot more in the 1st video. The 2nd video is largely comprised of a static shot of flat space aside from when Adam walks towards the camera. When he sits down this creates a limited shot. The 1st video prominently features its limited shot (when Chelsea is cleaning the cup and Adam is playing with the train in the background) and also has the dynamic shots of Adam walking to and from the camera. I believe the 1st video exhibits an exploration of space better because these shots feel emphasized from the cuts that surround them.

We tried to emphasize the movement in the 2nd video. Since there could be no camera movement, we figured the best way to do this would be to have very little cuts which would force the viewers to focus on the characters movements.

We contrasted the line shape and rhythm of the visuals by having two completely different settings for the videos.

In order to illicit tension and release in viewers we used build-ups in both music tracks. In the 1st video, the bagpipes come in while Adam is plotting in his room, and in the 2nd video the music builds up while Adam is walking back to the “arena”. This is typical practice of a lot of movies and tv shows because it is effective.

As I said previously, the main difference of these two videos is the style we took when approaching them. This lead to the other differences.

Super Powers

This American Life recording that I refer to in the video.

Here are my thoughts on what superpower I would want, and the superhero who has those powers:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xRnCPbk_BJM

Super Heroes

Here is a link to the super hero project Mike and I worked on!

Joke Videos

Here are our joke videos:

Numero Uno

Numero Dos

How to be Creative article response

You can read the article I refer to here



if the video above doesn't work:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bf3t4cUJ8TI

Indigo Prophecy

link in case the above video doesn't work:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CFHUah-Dr_M

Fargo scenes

I already did my absolute favorite scene in my first blog entry, so I decided to do the opening scene of Fargo. Since this scene wasn't long enough I also did another one of my favorite scenes from the movie as well. (I apologize that the screenshots stick out like a sore thumb, I couldn't figure out how to take a screenshot in iMovie)




In case the above video doesn't work here's the link:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V69YINvjP-8

Reframing an Image and subsequent loss of meaning

I chose this work from Ben Goossens because not only is it aesthetically pleasing to me, I like the message that it is conveying. The message that I believe it is trying to convey is that this world that we live in is bleak sometimes, no doubt about it, yet we must not let that overwhelm us, because there are definitely brilliantly beautiful things about this life as well. I interpret the picture this way because the background of the picture, which constitutes the majority of the picture, is a very grey and dark stormy sky, which is contrasted with a photograph of bright blue skies on a clothesline. This suggests that since it is a photograph, these happy times symbolized through the picture are very much real, and this photograph had to be pinned up on the clothesline by someone, so it seems as if someone is remaining hopeful through harsh times. There's also contrast in that the photograph is tilted in a way that the lines that it is comprised of is juxtaposed with that of the clothesline, which is fairly parallel to the border. Also worth noting is that the clothespin and photograph have affinity in that they are both brighter colors, while the clothesline and sky are both grey.


Stark contrast aside, what also drew my eyes to this picture was that it follows the rule of thirds where the clothespin lines up with a vertical line and the clothesline lines up with a horizontal line. And due to the way lines are perceived, my eyes are drawn to the clothespin first when looking at this picture and follow them downward into the photograph. This is because in Western culture we read things from left to right and downwards. So our eyes are essentially trained to look at things this way, even if it isn't text.

The reason I reframed the picture the way I did was to attempt to retain the meaning to a certain extent, but showing how it still changes the impact of the picture greatly. The reason for this is because you lose the vast amount of grey that almost overwhelms the small amount of bright blue in the photograph. In my reframed image, theres just about as much blue as there is grey. This is not nearly as drab a scene, which would explain why Goossens framed it the way he did. Virtually any message portrayed through a picture is active rather than didactic information that the viewer has to interpret for themselves. So, you want to make sure your message is as clear as possible. I think Goossens already did well in depicting the bleakness of reality, while still showing that there was still a decent amount of good in this world. My reframing simply does not do this as well.

Audio Reflection on Music Assignment

Chris's song

Chelsea's song

Carolyn's song

My audio critique

"Brainwashing" article

This post pertains to the "Brainwashed: Seven Ways to Reinvent Yourself" article by Seth Godin.

One of the ways he describes is "Acknowledge the Lizard" and what he means by this is you need to acknowledge that there is a part of your brain that will tell you "Hey, don't do that! There's a possibility of a negative social consequence in that action! You should take the safe route..." so you can better overcome it in order to go on and make creative, original works. Another point that really hit home was the 1st one: "Connect". I love the internet. I probably spend way too much of my free time on it, but it's just amazing all of the information and creative inspirations you have access to on it. What this point emphasizes is the importance of making connections via the internet in order to foster your own personal development and life.

I believe that both of these points are legitimate and apply to my own life, and therefore this blog. The "Acknowledge the Lizard" one I actually inadvertently touched upon in my first blog assignment when I talked about how I would be majoring in engineering right now if I listened to my "lizard brain" and went with my obvious strength which happens to be in a field that historically has great job security and salaries. Note that my "lizard brain" has not been silent since I made this decision, so I continuously have to acknowledge it in order to overcome it. 

The "Connect" point is an inherent characteristic of a blog, or any social website. Through the internet I've met people from all over the world- even way back in 3rd grade on Neopets.com where I was friends with a girl named Claire from England. I've been a part of multiple online communities, some of them being small enough where we actually got to know one another. Even if these online interactions don't explicitly spur a creative collaboration or project, they are invaluable in being introduced to new ideas from people from different areas of the world and different walks of life from yourself. Since you draw from what you know when you create something, the greater your pool of knowledge and understanding, the more you have to draw from. The importance of the internet can be seen in the Egyptian government shutting down the internet as a means of suppressing their people.

Audio Reflection on the Soundscape Assignment

Mike's soundscape. 

Colin's soundscape. 

Kelly's soundscape. 

My audio critique of all three that goes in the above order

COVERS

Debating between Alanis Morissette's hilarious cover of "My Humps" and Gary Jule's cover of "Mad World" among other songs, I decided to do Cake's cover of "I Will Survive".

The original: Gloria Gaynor's "I Will Survive":

The cover: Cake's "I Will Survive":

Released in 1978, Gloria Gaynor's song "I Will Survive" was an incredibly huge hit,  and is still widely known even in our generation. This makes is a perfect song to cover, especially from the perspective of a different genre (considering disco died a long time ago....). With my experience with all the Punk Goes Pop, Punk Goes Crunk, etc. albums, what makes a good cover song is the level of Contrast and Affinity the two songs have between each other. If they're too similar, the cover is rendered irrelevant- you might as well just go listen to the original, but if they're too different then it can't be considered a cover song really. What makes Cake's rendition of "I Will Survive" so great is that it is clearly founded in Gloria Gaynor's song, however it takes on a life of its own through the differences.

The glaring difference between the two songs is the different instrumentations and speed. While Gaynor's song is a fast-paced upbeat disco song, Cake uses the vocals and bass to slow it down, which encourages the listener to lean back and bob their head to the tune rather than get up and dance like Gaynor's. With the different instruments and vocals used, the timbre of each aspect of Cake's song is different than the original, even the guitar and trumpets would have different timbre due to being probably being different models, and possibly with different settings or tunings used (You can hear the difference, although it's obviously more subtle than the timbres of two completely different instruments.)

The affinity between the songs is what is probably the most conspicuous aspects of a song: the lyrics, melody, and rhythm. The only difference in lyrics is where Cake switches out "stupid lock" for "f***ing lock", which is a very noticeable difference that gives Cake's song more personality. The melody is the same, it would be hard to identify it as a cover if it weren't. It's a little hard to tell that the rhythm is retained, however when you ignore the fact that Cake's vocalist characteristically sings with not much inflection in his pitch, and focus on the rhythm of the lyrics itself, you can tell that they're the same. The pitch is also essentially the same, he just takes it an octave down.

One could argue that the contrast and affinity between a cover song and it's original version causes tension and release in the listener. I say this because when you hear a cover song for the first time you're constantly thinking "oh, I wonder how they're going to do the trumpet solo" or "hmmm that's weird. They're screaming the lyrics to a Britney Spears song. I wonder if they're actually going to sing at all?". While listening to a cover song, you're adventuring into the unknown, yet it still remains somewhat within the realm of the familiar, so you're constantly developing expectations and discovering if they're met while listening to a cover.

Although I feel bad for liking a cover song more than the timeless original, I'm going to have to go with Cake's rendition as my favorite of the two. The reason I just have to go with Cake is the brilliant bass line in it. Despite the grammar, I have to agree with one youtuber's comment (that 68 other people liked): "The bass drove me crazy, omg is so great! i just had an eargasm!" It's simply my favorite bass part from anything I've ever heard (and this includes a good deal of Red Hot Chili Peppers stuff, just so you know I'm not ignorant of good bass lines).

My song

Here is a link to my song, "10". The picture isn't relevant, I just chose something from iPhoto, and figured this particular LOST photo worked since it has a "10" in "108.00"

oh and here's a link to Chad's song. If tumblr happens to be down, you should be able to find it on his blog here. 

Soundscape

You can access my soundscape here. The emotion we had was "Sadness upon finding out the Easter Bunny isn't real"

Finding Your "Howl"

In his article entitled "Finding Your Howl" Jonathon Flaum tells how one is able to find their own voice, or howl, through two stories. In the one story, Flaum recalls a 5th grade peer who wrote a 10-page short story that served as a commentary on life. In this story, there is a tiger who attempts to escape his cage by jumping out the top. He succeeds, only to find himself in another cage at another zoo. The point Flaum wants us to draw from this is that this situation of imprisonment dwells inside of us and will follow us wherever we go unless we get rid of our old, comfortable life to make room for the new.

Here is an audio clip where I read this Ralph Waldo Emerson quote: "To laugh often and much; to win the respect of intelligent people and the affection of children; to earn the appreciation of honest critics and to endure the betrayal of false friends. To appreciate beauty; to find the bes tin others; to leave the world a bit better whether by a healthy child, a garden patch, or a redeemed social condition; to know that even one life has breathed easier because you have lived. This is to have succeeded." and explain why I like it so much. This audio clip hosted on my tumblr which can be found here.

14 Ways to Get Breakthrough Ideas

I haven't begun to read the article yet, I just wanted to note that I like the quote from Albert Einstein at the top which says "Why is it I always get my best ideas while shaving?" because it is very relevant to my life. Okay, now I'm going to actually read the "14 Ways to Get Breakthrough Ideas" article by Mitch Ditkoff now.


Ditkoff opens the article by describing how business people want to see innovation because they recognize that it'll bring in the money. It then goes on to compare how there are two main thoughts as to where ideas come from: the Western frame of mind emphasizes thought while the Eastern emphasizes feeling. Ditkoff then asserts that both of these claims are legitimate. What comes next, justifies the article's title: a list of 14 methods to aide you in becoming the next Leonardo da Vinci! Since the remainder of the article is in an internet-friendly list format, which is very convenient for those of us who like to switch between browser tabs in an ADHD fashion, despite being midway through an article. So, there's really no need for me to summarize the rest, however I suppose I'll just transcribe a compact list here so my "summary" doesn't just cover the introduction.

1. Follow Your Fascination 
2. Immerse
3. Tolerate Ambiguity
4. Make New Connections
5. Fantasize
6. Define the Right Challenge
7. Listen to your Subconscience 
8. Take a Break
9. Notice and Challenge Existing Patterns and Trends
10. Hang Out with Diverse Groups of People
11. Brainstorm
12. Look for Happy Accidents
13. Use Creative Thinking Techniques
14. Suspend Logic

Now, I'm going to take a closer look at three of these methods. The very first item on the list, "Follow Your Fascination" makes complete sense to me. If you allow yourself to pursue what you're interested in you're much more likely to stumble upon something brilliant than if you half-heartedly go along with something that you're apathetic about. This is simply because when you feel compelled to complete a task, you're going to work a lot harder at it than if you could really care less.


Number four: "Make New Connections" I find to be the most important on the list. In order to make new connections, Ditkoff advises us to go past the confines of what we already know. This is imperative when trying to come up with new ideas, because how could you possibly come up with something new by only exploring paths of thought you've already explored? To quote Einstein again, "Insanity is doing the same thing, over and over again, but expecting different results." You have to leave your pre-established comfort zone in order to discover new ideas. This brings me to the next method I would like to point out: Number ten: "Hang Out with Diverse Groups of People". 


In order to make the new connections of number four, it's essential to practice number ten as well. If you only interact with a specific group of people, new ideas won't be introduced to you all that often. The more diverse your social interactions are the more ideas you'll expose yourself to and the more perspectives you'll familiarize yourself with. Even in the realm of creativity, we draw from what we know, so you should try and experience a wide array of things in order to bolster your creativity. This is why I find the internet to be such a brilliant place, since it makes it possible to interact with people from different walks of life, from all over the world. 


This exchange of information and ideas across the internet brings me to an observation that correlates with the questions of method number nine: "What trends in the marketplace most intrigues you? In what ways might these trends shift in the coming years-and how might your most inspired idea be in sync with this imagined shift?". What I find interesting is the ongoing development of advertising and promotion of products on the internet. It's been more-or-less a recent phenomena for corporations to try and tap into the viral-nature of internet culture. From the Old-Spice guy responding to comments on the internet to Honda's rube Goldberg machine to Friskies using the population of the internet's obsession with cats to their advantage to an endearing online game for Shaun the Sheep to the intriguing website for Donnie Darko, companies are competing to capture the attention of internet users. What I like about these online campaigns is that advertisers are forced to make a video, game, etc. that is good enough that people are willing to go out of their way to watch or play it, and then tell their friends about it, otherwise it'll be a complete flop. Never before had I wanted to see a movie so bad courtesy of the marketing, than after I visited the website for Donnie Darko.


This leads me to believe that the online marketing trends are going to lean more towards the interactive multimedia in the future due to its effectiveness and the increase in casual gaming. There's certainly many interactive advertisements on the web, but the emphasis is currently on videos and banners, and I believe that's going to change. I acknowledge that this might be wishful thinking on my part, since I love both video games and the internet, and if the merging of the two became more prevalent, there would be more career opportunities in the field, giving me a better chance of landing my dream job in the industry. My most inspired idea would be in sync with this shift because it would be founded in it. Sorry to keep raving about the Donnie Darko website, but I just love how it adds on to the movie-verse, and to help with the development of an awesome supplement such as this would be amazing. To go back to the first method of the article, I'm fascinated by this, so it wouldn't be too surprising if my most inspired idea derived from this. 

Why "The Melting Point of Wax"?

“The Melting Point of Wax”(below) is a song by Thrice concerning the famous Greek myth about Icarus, the son of Daedalus, who flies too close to the sun despite his father’s warnings. Dustin Kensrue, the frontman of Thrice, looks at this myth from Icarus’s standpoint, and delivers a completely different theme from the myth. In this song, Icarus is following irrational aspirations, "But how will I know limits from lies if I never try?" He's following his dreams despite others telling him he can't do it.

Okay, I'm going to stop there before I go into full-blown song-analysis mode, and instead explain its relevance. If I were playing to my strengths, as one is usually advised to do, I would be majoring in computer science, math, or engineering. The majority of my creativity lies within these kinds of disciplines. You wouldn't usually associate creativity with math, however the ability to look at a problem from new angles could be necessary to solve it, which is essentially creative thinking. Despite how dauntingly far behind my peers I feel, and everyone encouraging me to do something in the hard sciences, I feel compelled to work in a media field. This is why I find that song's title to be ideal for this blog. I would also like to note that, fittingly enough, Icarus is traveling to Athens.

As is emphasized from the fact I turned to music to aid me in finding a title for this blog, I love music, so it therefore makes a huge impact on my creativity. What great music encompasses is Tension and Release. As Daniel J. Levitin said in his book This is Your Brain on Music, "Composers imbue music with emotion by knowing what our expectations are and then very deliberately controlling when those expectations will be met, and when they won't." Every time a song builds up through rhythm, dynamics, tempo and note progressions there is a rise in tension, and then when the build-up is done, and the song continues on and fulfills our expectations, there is release in the listener. Here I give you two examples that exhibit this fairly well. The first being "One Summer's Day" (from Spirited Away) performed by Joe Hisaishi. The second is a live performance of "Here's to Life" by Streetlight Manifesto.

Both songs have completely different styles and moods, but they both employ the delayed release to give the song more energy and momentum. This shows the importance of tension and release regardless of what emotion you're conveying.

Now it's certainly not just music that affects my creativity. Films also play a major role. My favorite scene of all time appears in Peter Jackson's amazing film adaptation of The Lord of the Rings: Return of the King. In this scene Jackson employs Contrast and Affinity brilliantly. Beauty arises from the stark contrast of Pippin's fragile melodious voice and the image of Faramir bravely leading his men to certain death upon his father's will. The unnerving affinity between the two simultaneous scenes lies metaphorically in how Denethor, Faramir's father, is eating in a very gruesome manner all the while keeping an apathetic facial expression. The chomping on the food, breaking of the chicken leg, and a cut to a dribble of tomato juice, that looks uncannily like blood, preceded by the orcs firing their arrows, gives the viewer a haunting visual of how Denethor uncaringly sent Faramir off to his death. This scene is so powerful that even when I first saw it at the young and oblivious age of 12, I was chilled to the core. I believe that this scene (along with the rest of the trilogy since it had an amazing musical score) jump started my fascination and appreciation of music in film, and video games as well. I full-heartedly agree with Quentin Tarantino when he said, "If you put the right piece of music with the right scene and the right sequence, then I actually truly think it's maybe the most cinematic thing you can do. It's the most magical cinema can be."

Although I could continue going on about music in film for forever and a year, no list of my influences is complete without JK Rowling. As with all good authors, the genius of Rowling's novels lie in the subtext of her writing. The actual text of the Harry Potter is simple and straight-forward enough for a child to understand, but the themes, symbols, motifs, and other literary devices that exist in the subtext allow people of all ages to appreciate and enjoy the series. Although some of the themes in Harry Potter are delivered didactically in the text: "If you want to know what a man's like, take a good look at how he treats his inferiors, not his equals." as said by Sirius in The Goblet of Fire, other themes require the readers to be more active in reception of them. Throughout the series, "mudbloods" and house elves are persecuted, and the wrongful nature of this is always emphasized. In the real world, there's obviously no "mudbloods" or house elves, but the reader surmisses that this is related to the persecution of people based on their race, sexual orientation, religious beliefs, gender etc.

Media 203... first day

I have to do this blog for my Media 203 class, and we're supposed to do a sample post. So here it is....