The Prestige

This is a movie trailer for "The Prestige"

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o4gHCmTQDVI

So this is one of my more "current" favorite movie choices. It's full of action, intrigue, mystery, and head-spinning twists. And seriously, who doesn't want to listen to Christian Bale and Hugh Jackmon talk in British accents for two hours? “The Prestige” follows the endeavors of two best-friend magicians turned competitors after a horrible accident during one of their performances ends with a death. These young stage-magicians each devote their careers to destroying the other in a deadly game of “may the best magician win”. There is an endless amount of mystery and betrayal in the tactics of these two men and it is quite entertaining to follow, especially when the power of illusion is the weapon of choice. If you do see this movie, you will most certainly want to cheer for the protagonist, if you can only figure out who it is…Because you don't know who the protagonist is (between the two magicians) the viewer is forced to judge the motives of the characters prematurely and in this case, you will have a fully-formed opinion about who the protagonist is by the time you reach the movie's climax. But let's face it, any real attempt to figure out who it is will almost assuredly be in vain. So just keep that in mind while you're watching this film: whatever you think, you're probably wrong. But the biggest mystery of this movie comes from the revelation that both magicians are faced with: does real magic actually exist? And if so, who will uncover its secrets first? VERY entertaining. Highly recommended.

The Gods Must Be Crazy

The Gods Must Be Crazy is a 1980’s comedy that has a very intriguing, and surprisingly insightful, message about the dependency on technology that man has created for himself in an attempt to make life simpler. This movie begins when an airplane pilot tosses an empty glass coke bottle out of his cockpit window where it falls unbroken into the middle of the Kalahari Desert. The bottle is then found by Xi, an adult male bushman of one of the most isolated tribes on the planet, the Sho. Xi takes the strange object back to his family-tribe, who all believe it is a gift from the gods. As they find more and more uses for the coke bottle, they all become extremely dependent on this “tool” that makes many of the tasks they do simpler. Problems soon arise for this bushman family as they begin to fight over the bottle and feelings of jealousy and violence start to take root. These are emotions that the Sho tribe people have never felt before because of the simplicity of their lives; they don’t even have a word in their language for “property”. Xi decides that the only way to keep the “evil thing” that the gods have given them from ruining their lives is to take it to the edge of the earth and throw it off. The majority of the movie follows Xi’s journey to the place he believes is the end of the earth with plenty of humor along the way. There is a huge amount of insight into mankind’s refusal to adapt to his surroundings, but instead adapt his surroundings to suit his purposes, and the complications we have created as a result. In oversight, this film begs the question: Is it better for man to live with modern-world technology that can potentially improve our lives and allow us to make the most of the time we are given, or are our lives worse because of our dependence on this technology that dictates our every waking moment and diminishes our humanity? Pretty deep for a comedy, right?

·         This link is for the entire movie on youtube. You don’t have to watch it, but 5:24 is where the narrator gives a very interesting assessment of the “civilized world” we live in. I think it’s worth the watch.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ntdJBMu52ek

Saving Me?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jPc-o-4Nsbk


"Savin' Me"

Prison gates won't open up for me
On these hands and knees I'm crawlin'
Oh, I reach for you
Well I'm terrified of these four walls
These iron bars can't hold my soul in
All I need is you
Come please I'm callin'
And oh I scream for you
Hurry I'm fallin', I'm fallin'

[Chorus:]
Show me what it's like
To be the last one standing
And teach me wrong from right
And I'll show you what I can be
Say it for me
Say it to me
And I'll leave this life behind me
Say it if it's worth saving me

Heaven's gates won't open up for me
With these broken wings I'm fallin'
And all I see is you
These city walls ain't got no love for me
I'm on the ledge of the eighteenth story
And oh I scream for you
Come please I'm callin'
And all I need from you
Hurry I'm fallin', I'm fallin'

[Chorus]

Hurry I'm fallin'

All I need is you
Come please I'm callin'
And oh, I scream for you
Hurry I'm fallin', I'm fallin', I'm fallin'

Well the first thing I can say about this video is that it’s fairly old. It was released on Nickelback’s third album in 2005, and re-released with this video as a single in 2007. And while I don’t particularly care for Nickelback’s music, I don’t think any of us can deny that their music was the one consistency throughout Junior High. So despite Chad’s reputation for cliché lyrics and seemingly repetitive sounding songs, this video does have powerful meaning to me. You wouldn’t believe that I first saw this video at a church-sponsored leadership conference a few years back, but I did. I want to put less emphasis on the lyrics, and more on the actual video.

                It’s pretty easy to figure out what is going on in the video: if you save someone’s life, they are given the same responsibility. Wouldn’t it be nice if that was how the real world worked? It’s an interesting contrast though, because in reality if someone were to save you from a falling piano, you too would probably be more aware of the fragility of life that is all around us, and more likely to do something about it if you could. But in this video, there is an involuntary appointment to this “guardian angel” status, which I think helps serve as a metaphorical kick-in-the-pants for people who are too self-consumed or ignorant to understand how ever-present this fragility is. If you read the lyrics, it’s pretty obvious that the verses are the voices of the people in need of saving and the choruses are the voice of the individual who must save them. Every second of the day we are at war with the elements, and our lives are always on the line. So do we live life differently knowing this? I think that’s a no-brainer “Yes”. But I think the real question is do we really know this truth as well as we think we do?

Paperthin Hymn

Music Video http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1Hl_NBTMELo

When your only friends are hotel rooms
Hands are distant lullabies
If I could turn around I would tonight

These roads never seemed so long
Since your paper heart stopped beating leaving me suddenly alone
Will daybreak ever come?

Who's gonna call on Sunday morning?
Who's gonna drive you home?
I just want one more chance
To put my arms in fragile hands

I thought you said forever
Over and over
A sleepless night becomes bitter oblivion

These thoughts run through my head
Over and over
Complaints of violins become my only friends

August evenings
Bring solemn warnings
To remember to kiss the ones you love goodnight

You never know what temporal days may bring
[ From: http://www.elyrics.net/read/a/anberlin-lyrics/paperthin-hymn-lyrics.html ]
Laugh, love, live free and sing
When life is in discord
Praise ye the lord

Who's gonna call on Sunday morning?
Who's gonna drive you home?
I just want one more chance
To put my arms in fragile hands

I thought you said forever
Over and over
The sleepless night becomes bitter oblivion

These thoughts run through my head
Over and over
Complaints of violins become my only friends

I thought you said forever
over and over
The sleepless night becomes bitter oblivion

These thoughts run through my head
over and over
Complaints of violins become my only friends

I thought you said forever
over and over
These thoughts run through my head

Many times when you listen to a song before you see its music video you sort-of create a music video in your head from what you personally derived from the lyrics. When I listened to this song for the first time, the image I saw in my head was extremely similar to this video, which really surprised me. The girl in this video has some type of terminal illness, and she clearly means the world to this guy. He loves her to the point of acting irrationally, as love can often make us do. I believe the verses of the song are the girl speaking, which is evident from the line “since your paper heart stopped beating leaving me suddenly alone” because at the end of the video we actually see they guy’s heart is the one that stops beating; this made me automatically think of “Romeo and Juliet” as far as killing yourself because you can’t handle the loss of the one you love goes. She seems to be at peace with at the idea of dying, or at least more-so than the guy, which you can tell from her saying “remember to kiss the ones you love goodbye” and “when life is in discord praise ye the Lord”. She clearly has a grasp on her purpose in life, but her boyfriend is not ready to let her go. I also believe the choruses are the guy speaking in desperation  where he says “I thought you said forever over and over” referring to his anguish at finding out that he has so little time with her left. There is more going on here than I have room to explain, but I really love this song for so many reasons: the message, the rifts, the vocals, the band’s unique style; to me, this song is more of a poem put to words than anything I’ve heard before.

Didgeridoos

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tWcmEVOBJC0

(*You don’t need to watch the entire video. It’s a bit lengthy. )

             I chose to write about didgeridoos.  A didgeridoo is a cylindrical wind instrument that originated in northern Australia close to 1,000 A.D. It’s quite a fascinating musical instrument and its origins are more “poetic” than you might think. The Aboriginal tribes in the Northern Territory used didgeridoos for occasions such as ceremonies, to impress women, but primarily to tell stories. The basic sound produced by the didgeridoo is called a drone, which sounds like a steady buzzing noise. The variations in sound are made by adding in vocalizations while maintaining the drone, which takes years of practice. These vocal additions are used to create imagery in the telling of a story. Most of these sounds are mimicries of indigenous Australian animals that are used to create surprisingly elaborate pictures of what the didgeridoo player wants us to see and feel. A talented “didger” can use a fast tempo and the imitation of a barking dingo to recreate a hunting experience in our minds, with fluctuations in rhythm and sound effects to signify turning points and an obvious climax. In the video I posted by Troy Page, a rather popular musician in the world of didgeridoos, you can hear at one point where he imitates the chirping of the frog. An anonymous author quoted in Inner Traditional Magazine said "traditionally, an Aborigine would go into nature and listen intensely to animal sounds, not just voices but also the flapping of wings or the thump of feet on the ground. The Aborigine would also listen to the sounds of wind, thunder, trees creaking, and water running. The essences of all these sounds were played with as much accuracy as possible within the droning sound of the didjeridoo. For the Aborigine, the observation of nature immediately requires a state of empathy, which leads to an imitative expression." Since the most favored sounds to reanimate are animals, the consistent theme in most didgeridoo music is nature related. Didgeridoo music has been called the “acoustic techno music” and more recently, “the origin of dupstep” because of its repetitive rhythm and some-what electronic sound. It’s certainly not your conventional instrument, but it is definitely a joy to play and learn about. If you want to know more, just ask me some of the weird facts about them sometime. They’re quite hilarious.