4B - Song project

Blog 3B - Soundscape

My Personal Soundscape

Our emotion was quiet rage

Post 2 - Finding Your Howl Audio Review

             This is my audio review of Jonathon Flaum's "Finding Your Howl", available through the provided link. 

                                  

The Transcript is available below:

Within his article, Jonathon Flaum recalls how in fifth grade, a classmate of his wrote a story about a tiger who wanted to escape from his cage in the zoo.  The tiger planned an escape, but after jumping out of his cage at night, woke up to being inside a large cage in a larger zoo.  This happened time and time again, each time the cage was larger and the zoo was larger and the tiger was more and more discouraged.  There was no ending to this story either, but rather this could go on infinitely.   The torment was infinite and inescapable.  This cyclical pattern of suffering sets a very dark tone for the story, but Flaum gives the reader a glimmer of hope.  The tiger can not escape the cage and the zoo because the cage and the zoo are a part of himself.   If the tiger is to escape the cage, then who the tiger is must die alongside with it, because the cage is a part of the tiger’s identity.  

             Well that truly is a happy moral to the story.  In order to escape torment you have you to die.  Flaum really comes across as a “glass half empty”kind of guy, but theres something to what he says, something below the surface.  Everyone has created an image for him or herself.  We hold onto things that we feel reflect who we are, or represent what we’re all about, and a lot of times, we resent that to which we cling so dearly.  We are trapped, and the only way out is to forget what we were, release who we are, and try to find what we will be.  And this process can feel like death.  It is a dive into the unknown, a risk that leaving it all behind will yield new and greater possibilities.

            The poem I would like to share is “if” by Rudyard Kipling:

If you can keep your head when all about you
Are losing theirs and blaming it on you;
If you can trust yourself when all men doubt you,
But make allowance for their doubting too;
If you can wait and not be tired by waiting,
Or being lied about, don't deal in lies,
Or being hated, don't give way to hating,
And yet don't look too good, nor talk too wise:

If you can dream - and not make dreams your master;
If you can think - and not make thoughts your aim;
If you can meet with Triumph and Disaster
And treat those two imposters just the same;
If you can bear to hear the truth you've spoken
Twisted by knaves to make a trap for fools,
Or watch the things you gave your life to, broken,
And stoop and build 'em up with worn-out tools;

If you can make one heap of all your winnings
And risk it on one turn of pitch-and-toss,
And lose, and start again at your beginnings
And never breathe a word about your loss;
If you can force your heart and nerve and sinew
To serve your turn long after they are gone,
And so hold on when there is nothing in you
Except the Will which says to them: "Hold on!"

If you can talk with crowds and keep your virtue,
Or walk with kings - nor lose the common touch,
If neither foes nor loving friends can hurt you,
If all men count with you, but none too much;
If you can fill the unforgiving minute
With sixty seconds' worth of distance run -
Yours is the Earth and everything that's in it,
And - which is more - you'll be a Man, my son!

             “If” strikes me as a creative person because the qualities that Kipling say are necessary to truly be a man are qualities that I think are necessary for people who want to work in the creative industry.  Kipling often presents two opposing sides of a quality and urges the reader to find a balance.  He says that if you want to create, you need to dream without being consumed with dreaming, and to think without being lost in thought.  And those examples really resonate in me; I have to dream to create the ideas, and think to make it a possibility, but I will only be successful if I find the appropriate balance.

Post 1B - 14 Ways to Get Breakthrough Ideas Review

http://changethis.com/manifesto/49.06.14Ways/pdf/49.06.14Ways.pdf

Mitch Ditkoff presents this article as a list of ways to get inspired and innovative ideas quicker.  To most people who work in creative fields, this seems ridiculous that this would even be proposed.  Inspiration can not be forced, it can not be harnessed. The most influential ideas are from truly influential individuals who seem to reside on a higher plane than the rest of the lowly mortals on earth.  With this skepticism already in place, Ditkoff does make very good points.  They are not, however, incredibly useful on their own, but within conjunction with one another they can generate the right attitude and environment for the production of powerful ideas.

2. Immerse

One of Ditkoff’s early suggestions is to immerse yourself in your work, or to be “completely involved or absorbed in something - engrossed, enthralled, or preoccupied.”   Many people do have a tendency to focus on many things at once, to the point where you can barely say that they are focused at all.  Spending all of your time and energy on the project at hand is almost always a surefire way to make serious progress.  However this step does create an interesting contrast with Ditkoff’s 8th step, which is “take a break”.  While both could certainly aid the idea producing process, immersion definitely appears to be the more important one to me.  It is so easy to get distracted and get off track when you are always taking breaks from projects.  Ideas are much more likely to be spawned in situations when you give yourself the opportunity to get on a roll.

3. Tolerate Ambiguity

This could be translated most simply as “accept failure”.  Essentially, Ditkoff is letting us know that we’re not alway going to get our breakthroughs right away, but we should not get discouraged.  Rather than abandoning our failed experiments, we should instead continue to try to work on our projects until we achieve our goals.  However, I do not necessarily think that this is an idea that can be applied universally.   In many creative situations, it is important to stick with it and finish what you have started, but there are also some situations where its better to cut your losses and recognize when something is not going anywhere.  Sometimes failure can be a sign telling you that you should try something else.  Tolerating ambiguity is not an awful suggestion, but I think Ditkoff should have taken into consideration that sometimes you need to consider taking an entirely different route.

10. Hang Out with Diverse Group of People

This seems to be the most obvious of Ditkoff’s suggestions, and yet it is the best tip for people who really want to be innovative.  Who comes up with the great products that appeal to the mass public? The mass public.  Seems like a no-brainer, since these people should know what they want better than any corporate head secluded on the 27th floor of his industrial skyscraper.  And yet, many businesses arrange “think-tanks” of innovators that are trying to innovate for a group they do not even know.  If you want to appeal to the business sector, then you need to know businessmen.  If you want to appeal to the agricultural sector, then you need to know farmers.  So if you want to make products that appeal to everyone, the logical response is to know everyone.  Being around different people will make you see things different, will place you in an entirely different world, and will give you ideas different than what you’d normally come up with.

Execute a Final Prompt

I chose to exercise the final prompt for number 9, which is “notice and challenge existing patterns and trends”.  One of the most common American pastime is TV watching, but recently how Americans watch TV is changing.  The current trend seems to be that standard TV watching is decreasing as more and more people have been watching TV streaming to their mobile devices or to their computers through the internet.  Experts have predicted that eventually the Television set will become like the radio or newspaper, and its usage will be mostly limited to older demographics.   As wifi becomes available all throughout the country, and as phones begin to become a standard in TV viewing, I sense that another trend will arise.  TV programs will become shorter and shorter, as many people are not going to be willing to sit around for 22 minutes of a television show to load.  More and more “mini-series” or “web-isodes” will be unveiled, since shorter video files are easier to download for phones.

Post 1A - Artists Who Inspire Me

          I have always been a fan of Japanese animation, and I remember watching movies with my older sister as a kid.  One director that stuck out to me was Hayao Miyazaki, who has worked on countless animated movies.  I wasn’t aware of the more technical and artistic aspects of his films until I watched them again recently.  Two of his films, particularly Spirited Away and Howl’s Moving Castle, use a lot of contrast and affinity to emphasize the messages he puts in them.  
         In Spirited Away, Miyazaki looks at the people’s greed and consumption.  One way he does this is through character design.  The main character Chihiro is the only human working in the bath house, and looks quite different from  the other workers.  She is only one who doesn’t succumb to greed when the character No-Face distributes gold to the other workers.  No-Face is also the only character in the scene designed in all shades of dark, subdued tones.  This is in stark contrast with the bright colors of the rest of the environment.  
        In Howl’s Moving Castle, the message is the comparison of outer and inner beauty.  The main character, Sophia, had a curse put on her where her outer beauty becomes a reflection of her inner self. She then meets the magician Howl and lives in his house.  In this clip, Howl’s hair is dyed when Sophia mixes up his potions.  He stews in depression, and the scenery changes to reflect his change in emotion, as well as his own physical appearance.  Miyazaki’s attention to the character design and to scenery allows him to create an atmosphere that reflects the inner message of the movie.

Active Vs. Didactic

             Christopher Nolan is another artist that inspires me, especially his work as a writer. Two works that interest me in particular are The Prestige and Inception, and Nolan’s use of active and didactic storytelling in each.  Both works incorporate active and didactic storytelling, and each do it in a different way. 
             One of few criticisms made against the summer blockbuster Inception was the role of Emma Page. Page’s purpose seemed at times only to explain the convoluted terms and processes that existed in the fantastical world of dream technology.  She also showed the audience the mental anguish Leonardo DiCaprio’s character was going through.  However, at the end of the movie, when it appeared that DiCaprio finally got the ending he deserved, the audience was left without any ending of their own.  Nolan left the audience with questions regarding what really happened, spawning theories about the true nature of the characters, inciting furious blog and forum discussion, and in my opinion ultimately leading to the success of the movie. 
             Let’s now look at The Prestige.  This movie relies almost entirely on active storytelling.  The movie starts in the middle, then goes back to the beginning, and finishes in a fantastic twist.  No one knows exactly what is happening until the end when Nolan delivers a final twist that no one sees coming.  Then all is revealed and Nolan shows the audience what is really happening.  Nolan’s use of active storytelling at one point then didactic revealing at another is what makes his films truly amazing.

              Beyond film, I am a music fanatic, and performing has been a large part of my life.  One band that has impressed me more than any other is The Reign of Kindo.  They are incredible musicians, and are incredible lyricists.  While I listen to many of their songs simply because I’m impressed by their harmonies and compositions, there is one song in particular that strikes me as an example of tension and release.  
              When I first heard their song, “Bullets in the Air” off their third album This is What Happens, I didn’t like it at all.  I was put off by how at several points throughout the song the guitars and piano lost the jazzy harmonies they usually create and instead slip into nonsensical noisemaking, all conflicting with the bands standard M.O.  The third time the band breaks into the conflicting tones, it gets louder and and louder until it subsides into gentle guitar plucking and soft vocal melodies.  This sudden shift in mood makes the sudden acoustic nature of the song stick out and really draws you in.

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