"In the end we will conserve only what we love. We will love only what we understand. We will understand only what we are taught.|

~Baba Dioum

What I look for in a movie

Lately, I've been thinking a bit about what makes a movie really good for me. Here are some things that are important to me in a movie.

1. Character arcs. The characters need to change throughout the movie, and go through some kind of journey.
2. I especially like movies where the movie is held up purely by the acting. Movies such as Doubt or Frost/Nixon are good examples of this, where the plots are fairly slow moving, but are made interesting by the acting.
3. Special effects are not important to me.
4. A clever plot is a plus, but is wasted for me if there isn't an emotional core to it.

Those are some things that I look for in a movie. What do you look for in a movie?

Titus Andronicus

Hi everyone,

I'm writing this post because one of our local theatre companies is doing Titus Andronicus, and so I wanted to write about the play, and why I think it's an important play. This post is about the play, and not the production.

Titus Andronicus is believed to be Shakespeare's first tragedy, and is his most violent, and gory play. I'll give you a brief idea of what it's about:

When the play begins, Rome is at war with the Goths. Titus Andronicus, a renowned Roman warrior, has just come back from war with prisoners, including Tamora, the queen of the Goths, and her three sons, Demetrius, Chiron and Alarbus. Titus, angry that a bunch of his sons have been killed by the Goths, gives his permission for Alarbus' limbs to be cut off. Tamora pleads for her son's life, but to no avail. This sets off a cycle of revenge that doesn't stop until the end of the play.

I've talked to a number of people after watching it, and number of people have said "What's the point? What's the point of this violent play?" In my opinion, the play is all about revenge and its destructive power. It shows how one small action can set off a whole "domino effect" of anger and revenge that ultimately destroys. It's tough to watch, but I think it's important, because little things we do can snowball and become worse that we had imagined.

I saw a bumper sticker today that said:

HATRED IS LEARNED BEHAVIOUR.

I thought it was interesting, and it made me think, which is good. Do you think hatred is something we learn, or is it an emotion we're just born with? Not sure where I stand on this one.

Eric Whitacre's virtual choir!

Check this out:



People all over the world submitted videos of them singing parts of Eric Whitacre's magnificent piece. It was pieced together (thanks to the work of a man named Scottie Haines) and behold! Really neat.

MOVIE REVIEW: Slumdog Millionaire

I watched Slumdog Millionaire a few days ago. Check out the list of awards it was nominated for/won. (Source: Wikipedia)

2009 Academy Awards

• Won: Best Picture
• Won: Best Director – Danny Boyle
• Won: Best Original Score – A. R. Rahman
• Won: Best Original Song – "Jai Ho", by A. R. Rahman (music) & Gulzar (lyrics)
• Won: Best Adapted Screenplay – Simon Beaufoy
• Won: Best Cinematography – Anthony Dod Mantle
• Won: Best Film Editing – Chris Dickens
• Won: Best Sound Mixing – Resul Pookutty, Richard Pryke, Ian Tapp
• Nominated: Best Sound Editing – Tom Sayers (lost to The Dark Knight)
• Nominated: Best Original Song – "O... Saya", by A. R. Rahman & M.I.A. (lyrics)

To be honest, there was so much hype about the movie, that I was actually expecting something more. Don't get me wrong. I really, really liked the movie, but I was expecting (and hoping) to be blown away by it, and I wasn't. I don't think it's a masterpiece. But it's a beautiful story about a young man, who risks practically everything, and rises above his circumstances for the young woman he loves. It's worth seeing, and I'd recommend it!

Musical theatre!

Hey everyone,

So today is day 4 of a musical theatre class that I’m taking. I’m having a lot of fun with it, but I am definitely the youngest one there in every way. I decided to do the “Adult Class” (ages 16+, so I just snuck under the age limit), so it’s a little intimidating. Everybody else has had waaay more vocal training than me, so it’s tough, but I’m definitely managing and we still have lots of time. I’m very happy to finally be in a musical, and it’s really neat with harmonies and everything. And in case you’re wondering, we’re doing The Mikado, which is a little operetta in 2 acts, set in Japan, but not really Japanese. It’s pretty comical and goofy, and rather fun to do. I’m enjoying it. That’s all for now, thanks for reading!

Carpet, be gone!

I just finished ripping out the carpet in my bedroom today. I had this sickly bright blue carpet that was just horrible, and so I finally decided to take the time to take it out. It was actually a lot easier than I thought it would be. I probably took me no more than an hour between two days. But what a horrible, dusty job! The underlay stuff was disintegrating and so there was all this brown powder on the flooring beneath that would puff into the air. Horrible. But I finished and it looks great now! I have this light brown flooring underneath that doesn’t actually look too bad. My bookshelves are a light brown too, so it looks quite nice, and it really brightens up the room. And now I can just sweep it and it’s so easy to keep clean. Huzzah!

100 posts!

This is my 100th post on this blog! I think that is cause for celebration! Haha, but when you consider the fact that I've had this blog for 868 days, that's not remarkable in the least. That's only 1 post every 8.68 days or so. Hopefully, I'll be able to change that ratio. :) Anyway thanks for sticking by, and I hope I can keep making this blog worth reading. :)

RAIN!!!

It's raining out! It's been raining pretty solidly all day long, and the plants are finally getting the drink they need! I love the rain. I love it more than sunshine, (but that's certainly not to say that I don't love sunshine too!). This morning, I went for a long walk in the rain and sang at the top of my lungs. It was raining really heavily, which made me really happy! At one point, I stopped and stood underneath a large spruce tree. The rain was coming down all around me, but I was dry. And there was nobody else around (I don't know why!) so the only sound was the rain, and me. It was great. And then, after lunch, because it was raining even harder, I went for another walk. It was a great morning.

*post correction*

In my most recent post, I said that I took some wildflowers, but I should correct and say that I took some photos of some wildflowers. I corrected the post, and thought that I follow up here. :)

Sunday morning walk

Went for a walk this morning in the woods. Perfect weather and not that many mosquitoes out. Took some photos of some wildflowers. There were so many blooming!

Some anemones.


More anemones.
Saskatoon.


Wild rose.And then we heard this chirping. We looked up and established that the chirping was coming from a small hole in the tree. It was woodpecker chicks! We waited around and sure enough, an adult woodpecker came and fed the young. I didn't get a video of the feeding, but I got a video with the chicks making a racket and the adult hopping on the tree and then flying away. Sorry about the poor lighting and quality in the video...



I also saw an Oriole!

And then I found a geocache. It was an easy hide, but still satisfying. I took a travel bug, left a travel bug and continued.

So that was a little report of our little adventure. I hope you enjoyed it!

Accidental Art

Often, when I’m bored, I go for an Accidental Art Walk. Basically, all you have to do is go for a walk and look at stuff! You have to look carefully, but if you look, it’s neat what you’ll find. I always take my camera along, and it’s fun to see the photos I can get. There is only one rule: You can’t arrange what you see. It has to be completely “accidental”. So you can’t arrange some sticks to make your name or whatever. But then again, anything goes, so I suppose you could. It’s a great lesson in looking closely at the world around us. Below are some photos I took. Nothing phenomenal, but it was fun!

And yeah, I messed with some of them in Picasa. :)

What defines a wasted contribution?

Hello blog buddies,

Here is my question for the day. :)  If somebody makes a wonderful contribution to society, be it a piece of art, service to the community, political statement etc, but that said person is an adulterer, a thief, a murderer, or an otherwise twisted person, is their contribution wasted?

I mean, can you be a horrible, horrible person and still affect society for good, or is your contribution somehow marred or tainted because you aren’t actually living your contribution?

Dan, signing out.

Layout: Take 2

Okay, so I think I've finally come up with a new layout and colour scheme that I like. Thanks for your input!