Layout poll!

As you can probably see, I changed the colour scheme. Like it? Hate it? Vote on the Poll! (It's to the right of this post!)

Canada Day!

Today is Canada Day! For somebody who has always lived in Canada, I think it's hard to appreciate the unique country we live in. Although you hear about a lot of violence on the news even in our city, we really do live in a country when you aren't judged by your gender, religion, colour or sexual preference. I went to some Canada Day celebrations this morning. It was a beautiful thing, hundreds of people of every age, size, colour, all happily celebrating this country of ours.

Canadians are fortunate people. I hope that I'll be able to really appreciate how fortunate I am to be Canadian.

BOOK REVIEW: Outliers, by Malcolm Gladwell

Okay, so I recently read Malcolm Gladwell's most recent book, Outliers. I'm a big fan of Malcolm Gladwell, and although I often disagree with what he says, I find his books very interesting and thought-provoking. I've read all of his books (The Tipping Point, Blink, and Outliers), I've definitely agreed the most with Outliers. It's worth reading. It's all about success and what makes some people successful. "Oh no!" you probably are saying. "Not another book about being successful!" Actually, this one is really good. I'm not going to go into much that he says, so you should just read it.

Anyway, a couple things that he says is that to be successful in your field, you need 10,000 hours of experience, and you need opportunity. So basically, you really just need a lot of hard work to make you an expert, and you need opportunity.

Thats all I'm going to say for now, because I'm tired, just had a full day of auditions (from the other side of the table! Ahh!) and I want to go to bed now. Good night!

Dan needs book suggestions!

Okay, blog buddies,

Daniel needs a summer reading list! Suggest a few books that you think I
should read over the summer. I need your suggestions!

Thanks!
-Dan

I think that one of the most important things that I've ever learned is to be proactive. If you are familiar with Steven Covey's book The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People (Or his son Sean Covey's book The 7 Habits of highly effective teens, which is more interesting, haha), then you should be familiar with this already. Being proactive is all about the idea that you are in control of your reactions. In the entire universe, you are the only thing that you can completely control. The weather, traffic, your dog and other people are completely out of your control, yet we spend so much time and waste so much energy thinking about them! Bad things happen to everyone and the only difference between people lies in how they deal with them. Think of it this way (this is my favourite analogy): A reactive person is like a can of soda. Shake them up a bit and open them and they'll explode. A proactive person, however is like a bottle of water. You can shake them up as much as you like, but you aren't going to get a reaction out of them. Being reactive is like handing you remote control to somebody else and say "Here, change my mood anytime." You aren't in control anymore. Somebody can say something rude to you and you'll react, just like that. Reactive people are easy to manipulate and control.
Being proactive though, is a lot safer and gives you the power. People can insult you, but you get to decide if you are going to be affected by it or not.
Being proactive is harder at first. What something bad happens, it’s so easy to retort, fight back, explode, give the finger or insult them. What I do, is take a deep breath, and ask myself "Do I want to let this affect me? Am I going to let this wreck my day?" Then I respond diplomatically and let the issue float on by. It’s not a weak thing to do, it’s the opposite. You’re choosing to be in control of your emotions. And it shows strength, big time.

I'm not sure whether that post made sense or not, so comment if it was unclear and I'd be happy to clear anything up!

No, wait, comment whether it made sense or not!

What does it mean to be an artist? This is something that I’ve been thinking about for quite a long time. It's important to me because I've always been attracted to the arts and I'm not sure why. Is it actually important to have artists in society? If so. what is their purpose? And by the "artist", I mean the very broad term describing actors, painters, dancers, writers, musicians, sculptors, directors, composers, etc.

I think that an artist is anyone who creates. In my opinion, artists should constantly be challenging our perceptions and ways of seeing things. If we aren't constantly challenged, we'll fall into one way of thinking, but forget why we actually think that. I think it's good to be offended every now and then. If we aren't offended every now and then, how will we know what we like of not? I think that artists are so important to society. Wars destruct, artists create. As long as there is war and people destroying ideas, we need artists to recreate. I think that art is a way of expressing ideas and challenging perceptions.

What do you think? Do you think society needs artists? Why? Comment!

A few days ago, Nicole started a blog-every-day-for-a-week challenge and encouraged others to join her. I did, figuring that at the very least, it would make my blog a bit more active even just for a week.
I have decided that I am going to continue blogging every day. It's tough, but worth it for many reasons. Firstly, it gets me writing regularly, which is a good thing. Secondly, and more importantly, it gets me writing my thoughts in a legible fashion and posting what actually could be of some use to somebody else. It can be tough to think stuff up everyday, but it's important. Ideas don't just come to you. You have to actively seek them out. There are so many wonderful, interesting things around me and so many strange, exciting, cool and bizarre things floating around my head, that it helps me to pinpoint them and express them. And the more ideas you express, the more will come to you. Blogging everyday will push me to find at least one noteworthy thing in my day!

I also want to increase the quality, raise the bar and raise my standards of this blog. Not that there is anything wrong with with sites that are about "ZOMG MY DOG POOPED!1!!11", but this isn't one of them.

Cheers!
-Dan

Michael Jackson 1958-2009

Michael Jackson passed away today in Los Angelos. Although I was never a fan of his music, and personally found him pretty creepy, I can respect and appreciate the affect and influence he had in the music world and in our culture. Apparently he is the world's best selling pop artist. He is refered to as the King of Pop.

You can read all about him here.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Michael_Jackson

Or here:

http://www.cbc.ca/arts/music/story/2009/06/25/obit-michael-jackson.html

My domain

So, in case you didn't know, I absolutely love climbing trees. I am fortunate to have 4 big spruce trees right in our front yard and so I climb them a lot. We don't have a particularly big property, nor a big house, so to compensate, we have expanded our living area to outside.

Haha, okay, not really, but we did build a platform in one of the main trees. I'm the only one that really climbs it, but it's my favorite place to go to just be alone. You can climb the tree about twice the height of the treehouse and you can see over the whole neighbourhood. It's incredible.

There is another tree that you can climb that I just made climbable last year. Its fun too, but it doesn't have the view. I built a little ladder to get up.

Also using this tree is our swing.

The only other climbable tree is this one. And it is only climbable as of today. I cleared a bunch of dead branches out and now you can climb it. It still needs a bit of work.

All the branches I broke off!

So thats my domain. I love my trees. My parents are under very strict orders that they must not ever take down any branches without my permission. They might remove a branch that is essential for climbing!

Comment! Discuss! Share the love!

Daniel, what are you going to do with your life?

Daniel, what are you going to do for a career?

Daniel, what are you going to be when you grow up?

Daniel, what are you going to do with your life???

I get that question quite a lot. It seems to be an extremely common question for people to ask youth. I don't complain though, I'm more than happy to tell them.

For me at least, I've never had a problem with coming up with stuff I want do with my life. The tough part is narrowing it down! I love music (piano, flute, voice, composition), theatre (acting, directing, design) and the outdoors especially. Besides the outdoors part, the rest of them really fit together well. Being in theatre and being a musician is very useful. I've done some composing for theatre, and I've really enjoyed it. And I have some more coming up for me in the future!

Currently, I'm leaning towards doing something that combines a lot of the above. My ideal job would be to be an actor, director and sound designer/composer and set/costume designer in a theatre community (not necassarily all at the same time!) and then have a side job as a concert pianist or concert flautist, and do some touring that way.

Thats the plan.

I expect it will change, and I'm prepared for that, but whatever I end up doing, it will be something that I love.

Sorry for the hasty post. I expect do another post about this topic soon when I have a bit more time.

Comment! Discuss! Share the love!

Dan on Dating

Yep, you read that right. I really am going to post about dating.

Why? Well, because:

a) Its something I've been thinking about lately,

b) I'm sixteen and *gasp* still single, which is something that in our culture seems to be socially unacceptable, and

c) I want to.

Currently, my relationship status would be "Single" and "Not Looking". Period. I'm really not interested in any kind of relationship at this time. Call me old-fashioned, but I really see dating as preparation for marriage, and seeing as I'm sixteen, I doubt I'll be getting married any time soon. It really weirds me out when I see boys my age (or younger) with girlfriends. I just want to ask them, do you actually love your girlfriends, or do you just pick a random attractive girl and ask her out so you can just be like the rest? Is your girlfriend really someone you're attracted to emotionally, or do you just go out with her so you can be more "socially acceptable" and be able to say that you have a girlfriend?

Now, I don't want to come across as preachy (and I expect that I probably am), but I just have a problem with dating for the point of dating. I think that dating should ultimately lead to marriage and I highly doubt that most 14 year olds are planning to get married at that age. So whats the point of dating?

Comment! Please! ;)

This is great...

The best cold/flu remedy

This is what I always drink when I have a cold. I think it's the best remedy.

Honey/Ginger/Lemon Tea
About 1 heaping generous teaspoon chopped ginger
1 teaspoon lemon juice (or to taste)
1 teaspoon honey (or to taste)
1 cup boiling water

Makes one cup of tea.

Put the chopped ginger in your mug, and add the water. Stir in the lemon juice and honey. Thats all there is to it.

It's the best. It's great for sore throats and everything else.


I'm posting this now because I have a cold and have been drinking massive amounts of this lately.

Sweeney Todd

Okay, so I promised a post about Sweeney Todd, so here it is. I thought that I should address exactly why I love such a morbid, macabre musical.

Sweeney Todd started out as a character in a story called The String of Pearls, was made into a Tony Award-winning Broadway musical, and was recently made into a major motion picture directed by Tim Burton. You can read the Wikipedia article about it HERE.

The story is about Sweeney Todd, a barber who returns from prison to find his wife dead, and his daughter taken by the nasty Judge Turpin. He swears revenge, opens a barber shop above the meat pie shop of Mrs. Lovett and proceeds to slit the throats of his innocent customers. It gets nastier. Mrs. Lovett, being short of meat for her pies, makes a plan with him. Sweeney cuts the throats, sends the bodies downstairs, where she uses the meat for pies. Her customers, unknowingly gobble up the meat pies. Her shop is a success.
Not pleasant. It is so far from my normal taste (no pun intended), that you are probably wondering why I love this musical/movie so much.

For me, the main reason is the music. All the music is by Stephen Sondheim and it's absolutely breathtaking. The harmonies are so cool, often dissonant (depending on the mood of the piece) and are so much more interesting than the normal pop harmonies often found in musicals. His use of language is brilliant also. For example, in the song, "My Friends", the way he uses consonants in his music is incredible.

The following video is fascinating to watch. It's Stephen Sondheim himself teaching a masterclass on "My Friends". Its about 9:00 long, but worth watching if you are at all interested. What Sondheim says at 0:30 shows his genius. He doesn't just write songs to sound good, he really thinks them through, and every rhythm in the music and consonant in the lyric is important to the mood of the song.
Here is the video.

At 2:25, Sondheim offers another fascinating insight. He says "The reason that there are so many Ss in the beginning of this lyric is because it has a whispered quality When you get to "my friend" which has no Ss, I want to feel a swelling, so thats where you start to come out in a way, it starts to get passionate..."

Interesting eh? And brilliant. (By the way, I don't think the actor singing Sweeney is a particularly good actor in this video, but he has a good voice. The young woman singing Mrs. Lovett is brilliant though.)

Here is a clip from the movie with Johnny Depp (Sweeney) and Helena Bonham Carter (Mrs. Lovett) singing "My Friends". There is nothing scary or violent in this clip (I would rate it G). The song starts at 1:30.


Thats all that I'm going to write concerning the music, but I think think it's absolutely brilliant. One of the best musicals out there. Another thing about it is that you almost don't even notice when the characters break into song because the music is so beautifully woven into the characters and the plot that it just seems so natural.

Now I'd like to write a bit concerning the movie, which came out in December of 2007.
Tim Burton directed it and the cast is headed by Johnny Depp as Sweeney Todd, Helena Bonham Carter as Mrs. Lovett, and Alan Rickman as Judge Turpin.
A lot of people really don't like the movie at all. Of course, it's incredibly difficult taking a Broadway musical and turning into a blockbuster film, but I think Tim Burton did a wonderful job of it.
None of the lead actors are professional singers, and that was one of the things that the film was criticized for. Personally, I think Johnny Depp has a great voice in the movie, and the bit of roughness in his voice only adds to the character. Same with Bonham Carter's voice. Sure, the singing isn't perfect, but I think that it would only take away from the characters if they had perfect, pure voices.
Artistically, the film is amazing. In typical Tim Burton style, he creates something that is very visually appealing. The costumes and set is very dark and dreary, almost making it seem like a black and white movie, of course until the blood comes. But even the blood is theatrical and heightened, a bright, fake red that contrasts against the dreary setting. Visually, it's really quite stunning. In fact, it won the Acheivement in Art Direction award at the Oscars. It was also nominated for Best Costume Design.
And of course, the acting is amazing (Depp was nominated for Best Actor at the Oscars).

Just a note: no matter how artistic it is, it is still very graphically violent, so if you are at all sensitive about that sort of thing, you should be warned. There is a lot of blood and violence. It is rated R after all. Just...be warned, and it would probably be a good idea to read the Screenit review before deciding if it is something you want to watch.

The character of Sweeney is very interesting to think about also. Most consider him a villain (he slits the throats of innocent people!), but a lot consider him a tragic, victim character. We see a man who, hurt and treated unjustly, swears revenge on the world (he says "They all deserve to die", a line from one of the songs, "Epiphany").

All in all though, it's an incredible masterpiece of musical theatre, and brings up some good questions about revenge, and some interesting insights on humanity. Oh yeah, and the music is incredible. Have I said that already? If you ever get a chance to see it on stage, or on film, I highly recommend it. But again, I have to stress that it is very violent, and isn't really for the faint of heart. If you feel you don't want to see the movie or the play though (and I can understand that!), definitely check out the music and read a synopsis. The music is really good stuff.

So that's why I like Sweeney Todd. For me, it's not about the violence and the murder, it's about the fascinating plot and and how it is told through some clever writing, and stunning music.

Thanks for reading!

a Sunday morning walk

We went for a walk today in a favourite recreational area out of town. Its a gorgeous place to walk, and you can often see wildlife. Its also especially great for seeing frogs, which makes it pretty great by me!


Most people don't think a pond like this is nice, but to me it is paradise. I sat there, all alone for about ten minutes. The Boreal Chorus Frogs and the Wood Frogs were calling, but when I got close, they all stopped. I sat down, and soon, hesitantly, they started chirping again.

Check out the colour of green. It looked better in real life, but it was beautiful, so bright and alive. I love ponds.
This is my favourite place to look for frogs. You can hear the Boreal Chorus Frogs chirping away loudly (they sound similar to when you run your fingers along the teeth of a comb.

I saw this cute little caterpiller.


When I poked it by accident, it curled up into a little ball. Adorable.
A Compton's Tortoiseshell butterfly that I saw.

We took a break in the little shelter. Thats my dog, Mozart, who is taking a break. We wore him out. You should have seen him on the drive home! He was pooped.

The leaves are coming out!

Some pretty little wood violets.


Check this out! Its a little pollen fluff suspended across the path by a practically invisible spider web.

My dad, being a bryologist, insisted that I take a picture of a moss. So here it is. And for your info, the species is Orthotrichum Speciosum


So that is my report of our Sunday morning adventure. It was pretty superb.