Idea For a Story! The Start of Something Big?

I have come up with an idea for a story that I think I can get to work! I feel like I need more schooling in how to properly write a story but I'm going to give it a shot anyway. Granted, this is just the groundwork, and I'm going to need to develop so much more to get this to work. The story follows a man in his late 40s that's well educated in the arts, philosophy, and psychology. He's mostly self educated, for he looks down on the impressions people get from the biased lectures of others. He has a loathing attitude on people, believing they're inferior to him and disgusting, and those that aren't inferior he's afraid of. His loathing attitude is hidden for he also expresses appreciation for beauty and has many redeemable qualities. He's active physically, sexually, and somewhat socially even though he suffers from social anxiety. The story might be written in first-person. This smart, opinionated, insecure man is an atheist and his meaning in life is his collection of knowledge on the arts and how he's able to interpret and analyze them.

This is where my idea unfolds into a story; the man begins to loose his collected knowledge slowly and now must come to grips with the horror of living in a completely absurd world. How he begins to loose his knowledge I haven't thought up yet; maybe medically, mystically, or unexplained. The story is supposed to be existential. There's a lot more I need to think of such as other characters and tone and stuff, but this is the base for what I want my story to be about. I'm also thinking up of a back story for him as to why he feels the need to collect knowledge on art. I'm going to update when I come up with ideas that I think will work.

Two Great Documentaries

Since both of these films are documentaries, I decided to put them in the same post. The first film is Man on Wire. It explores the man Philippe Petit, who crossed the World Trade Center towers in 1974, on a wire (hence the title!). The second film is Street Fight. This film documents the race for mayor in Newark, New Jersey between then current mayor Sharpe James and political newbie Cory Booker. Both films are excellent, but probably as different as documentaries can be. Still, they both are achievements in what they seek to do.

My sister asked me a question about Man on Wire that the average person probably wonders as well: what's so significant about this man that he deserves his own documentary? Stumbling onto the film, the subject may seem trivial and Phillipe may come across as a seeker for 15 minutes of fame. As one begins to watch the film however, the story unfolds into different depths. The film is more of a character study of the man that pulled off the stunt than it is a documentation of how the stunt came to be.

Phillipe is an interesting human. As the film explores, he is a rebellious "bad boy" trapped inside an artists mind. As a kid, he loved to hang upside down and climb trees and do anything else peculiar or dangerous. When he got older he used his passion for danger to entertain. Phillipe is a magician, acrobat, wire walker, and overall a passionate man. He enjoys life and sees it from a different perspective than anybody else, literally; he has walked between bridges as well as Notre Dame on a wire and the view, as he explains, is something that no man besides himself will ever see. He treasures this and lives life through a different mental perspective than the average person, which is influenced by his visual perspectives. The film beautifully shoots Phillipe as he does tricks on wires, focusing on his concentration and creating the illusion that at times he's meditating on thin air.

The film uses photos, videos, and dramatizations to tell his story of crossing the World Trade Center. Besides exploring the beauty of taking risks is to life, there is also a subtle political message. Phillipe crossed the World Trade Center just as it was first opened, and not even fully completed. Through careful observations and trespassing, he was able to create a plan to sneak up on the towers at night and bypass guards. At the end, when he's finally caught, the police arrest him and send him to be psychologically examined. Even though he could have been given jail time, they drop charges if he agrees to perform a show to children. Today, Phillipe, a man that just wanted to make people happy and wonder, would have probably been labeled as a terrorist, especially considering he's a foreigner, if he attempted to do such a thing. This is not said or even really hinted in the film, but the impression comes across of how tight national security is now a days compared to the 70's and how authority was generally able to distinguish between violent acts and art.



The second film, Street Fight, has an overt political message. While Man on Wire is an artistic approach to a documentary, Street Fight uses the documentary as a tool for information (but don't be turned off, it remains just as entertaining as Man on Wire, maybe more so). It follows Cory Booker, a Yale graduate that grew up in a predominately white neighborhood in Bergen County, New Jersey. Booker has the aspiration of using his fortunate upbringing to make the world better to live in, a rarity in politicians. Pre-election, Cory decided to move into one of Newark's most dangerous projects and walk the streets to personally introduce himself to the citizens and persuade them to vote for him. His political approach is hands on and he's more about action than words to win over the people.

Cory's opponent is political powerhouse Sharpe James. His upbringing was very different from Cory's. He was born in Newark and raised by lower-class parents, living in a time where Newark might have been at an all time low. As mayor for over 30 years, he's created an illusion of beginning a Renaissance in Newark, building malls and updating housing in the downtown area so that the middle class could benefit. For 30 years, the lower class has not seen the benefits of the middle class and have been ignored. Nevertheless, through his dirty politics and lies, Sharpe has remained popular through out Newark, even to the poor black communities.

The film does a great job of truly revealing the man Sharpe is. He goes on to say racist remarks about Booker, how he's educated and light skinned and not a true black, even, out of nowhere, calling him a Jew! There was a very moving part in the film where somebody from Booker's campaign commented on this and the racism blacks have for other blacks, saying that blacks complain about being treated unfairly, but when a privileged black comes along, instead of embracing them they label them white. This is directed specifically at racist blacks and not generalized to all. There's also a part where Sharpe falsely criticizes Booker for buying the election by sending paid workers to polls instead of volunteers. One of the cameramen then sneaks on a Sharpe campaign bus and finds a group of people from Philadelphia that were paid to come to Newark and wear clothing and parade to support Sharpe James. Most of them didn't even know who Sharpe James was, let alone who they exactly were supposed to be supporting. There's so many disgusting political tricks in the movie pulled by Sharpe James that it has to be watched to believe. Booker lost the election, but became mayor in 2006, keeping his promise of reducing crime in Newark. He even gave the city their first murder free month in 44 years. Sharpe James did not seek reelection in 2006 and is currently spending time in jail for 25 counts including conspiracy and mail fraud. Talk about a happy ending.



Also, talking about how bad Newark is, I remember going there one time for an outdoor concert and was almost completely certain that something bad was going to happen to me. The security was tight and everybody looked bummy and dangerous. And this concert was in the downtown area of Newark, when Cory Booker had been in office for a year. It also didn't help that I stuck out like some kind of space alien amongst the all black, not quite as impressively dressed crowd.

Turtles Can Fly

From the point of view of a Kurdish director, Turtles Can Fly tells the story of a group of Kurdish refugee children living on their own on the Iraq-Turkey border during the eve of the US Invasion of Iraq. What's striking is that these children live in tents and make money by collecting landmines and are just as responsible as little adults. They buy weapons, fix satellites, and deliver information to adults as if they were one of them. The children are lead by a loud, but hard working boy called Satellite. Satellite is a passionate character yet his ego comes in as his small drawback. By the end of the movie though, the viewer will have a deep connection with Satellite, wondering what's in store for his future after political matters changed his life forever in a period of a few days.

Despite how emotional and well directed the movie is, there are a few quarrels I have with it. For one, the acting is not consistent and can range from moving to annoying. The son of the girl Agrin (yes, the reality of the refugee camp is that there are many tragedies such as the easily seen missing limbs from half the children to the invisible emotional scars and products of rape), who is a very little boy, is who I found most annoying. While his looks are cute, his crying and acting are not good and got on my nerves. Satellite too sometimes feels awkward, although this is made up for in certain scenes where he shows an abundance of charisma. Another problem I have is with Henkov, Satellite's rival at the beginning of the movie. I did not like that the director had him be able to predict the future, a cheap and unexplainable plot device. I was wishfully thinking through out, "maybe he was able to understand English, heard news from the television, and that's really why he could predict so much", but that didn't turn out to be the case. Then there's the ending, which I won't spoil, but I found to be too extreme. I did like the part though where Satellite turns his back on the US soldiers, loosing faith after working so hard on an empty expectation.

It seems that I wrote a lot negative on this movie, but that is only because I found it really enjoyable and couldn't ignore the few problems that held it down. It's an interesting insight into a Kurdish depiction of the American occupation of Iraq. It's not one-sided or heated and does a great job of describing the Iraqi expectation of American involvement. Whether you're interested in Turtles Can Fly from a political or dramatic context, it excels at both and is certainly worth watching.

I Am Probably Going to Finish in Last

I am opening myself up again romantically and making some big strides doing so. I'm probably going to wind up getting less than I put in again...the downside of being a nice guy.

The Culture of Hip Hop

This is an essay I wrote for my music history class. I believe hip-hop is severely misunderstood and some of the opinions I hear toward it are disturbing. I'll admit, hip-hop can be degrading and it does glorify materialism and crime, but like I say in the essay, it also has much more redeeming values. I'd like to hear some comments on my essay and opinions on hip-hop. I believe there is so much I didn't cover. Enjoy reading!




Although hip-hop and rap are often used interchangeably to describe a genre of music, they actually have different technical meanings. Hip-hop is a musical culture consisting of four elements; break dancing, graffiti art, DJing, and rapping. As seen, rap is simply one of four elements in hip-hop culture, the rapid, rhythmic vocals of an emcee. It is the most promoted element of hip-hop; so much so that many people who call themselves rap fans don’t know the difference between the two words.

Hip-hop is a pool of misconceptions. Over a period of 30 years, hip-hop has evolved drastically. In the early days, the music simply consisted of a DJ repeating a break while the emcee acted much more like today’s hype men than today’s emcees. Hip-hop has also become more commercialized, and unfortunately even exploited. As a result, certain groups formed, dedicated to preserving hip-hop’s roots. Popular amongst extreme preservationists, as well as those simply ignorant of the hip-hop culture, is the idea that “rap” is a bad word, an acronym for “record artists pretending”, while “hip-hop” is the proper term.

Rap in no historical way is a derogatory term, so why do these preservationists get so upset over the word? It’s shorter to say than hip-hop, and is actually more specific because it’s the musical component of the culture. This is one of many common mislabels in hip-hop that doesn’t exist. What these people do not acknowledge is that hip-hop is vast and rich, and the attempt at creating a hierarchy of labels in hip-hop as to what is and isn’t real is futile. Hip-hop, at its core, is a source of entertainment and escape, and is correctly explored through many different approaches.

In 1975, Kingston DJ Kool Herc immigrated to The Bronx, bringing with him a new style of DJing, reciting improvised rhymes over dubbed versions of Jamaican records. However, New Yorkers weren’t into Reggae at the time, so he switched from Reggae to popular tunes. As this style of DJing became popular, competing DJs elaborated more with their rhymes. Eventually, Kool Herc gave up his emceeing role and let two friends take his position, Coke La Rock and Clark Kent, forming hip-hops first ever crew, Kool Herc and the Herculoids.

Rap started in The Bronx and then eventually the rest of New York City. This new style of music attracted many of New York’s young people because it gave them praise, inspired creativity, and the opportunity to express their personalities. As it is often praised for today, rapping was truely an escape from the realities of urban life for the young, and as long as one had a mouth they could join in.

The first commercialization of hip-hop was the hit song “Rapper’s Delight”. Although many critics consider it one of the most important songs in hip-hop, it is a slightly modified stolen work of Grandmaster Caz’s “Emcees Delight”. While The Sugar Hill Gang lives on in hip hop history, despite being non-rappers from New Jersey, Grandmaster Caz is a name usually only known by the dedicated aficionados.

Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five were the first truly recognizable rap group. Consisting of dedicated rappers who were previously innovators and famous in their neighborhoods, and a DJ who pioneered many turntable techniques, they are considered more true artists and have been given the honor of the first rap group inducted to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. They are known for socio-political commentary in songs such as “The Message” and “White Lines”, and interestingly enough their lyrics and sampling still sound fresh to this day.

Although DJs and rappers such as Afrika Bambaataa and T. La Rock were making great music in the early 80’s, it wasn’t until Run DMC’s self-titled debut that hip-hop artists would truly be challenged to out do each other. This form of rap was much harder and aggressive than previously seen. Then, with their third album Raising Hell, Hip-Hop had entered what many consider a “Golden Age”, which lasted until the mid 90s. With this second era of hip-hop, many new styles were created, mostly reflecting the atmosphere of the region they were created.

From this point, rap becomes very dynamic and divided by regions. Although East Coast and West Coast are the most popular scenes, other regions were bringing up great rappers as well, such as Outkast in the south, UGK in Texas, Common in the Midwest, and Too $hort in the Bay Area. As it can be seen, regions in hip-hop vary in how specific they are, depending on how different sounding the regions are. Texas is a southern state and is technically considered in the southern hip-hop realm, but because of its more aggressive sound compared to other southern hip-hop, it is usually specified.

As each region began birthing artists achieving gold records, hip-hop became commercialized. Thus, an “Us and Them” mentality developed in many “hip-hop heads” minds, separating those that were rappers because they were artists from those that were rappers because they were con artists. By “jacking beats” and including cheap sexuality in their rhymes, many rappers made money by exploiting the hip-hop culture. Vanilla Ice may be the quintessential example. In 1990 he released “Ice Ice Baby”, a #1 hit that relates instances of drive-by shooting in the lyrics and an uncleared sample of “Under Pressure” by Queen and David Bowie. Vanilla Ice was never involved in any drive-bys or any other gangster experiences he claims. His phoniness was eventually revealed by mainstream music media and a once #1 artist turned into a joke.

My interest in hip-hop began in middle school. Before this, I thought of hip-hop as superficial, and was not interested in it until I decided to explore it deeper after hearing the song TROY by Pete Rock and CL Smooth. From there, I looked into many artists from the golden age of hip hop: A Tribe Called Quest, De La Soul, Gang Starr, and Public Enemy were my favorites. Slowly, I started creeping into more recent artists, such as Mos Def, Talib Kweli, and MF DOOM. Then from there I expanded my horizons to different sounds and became open to nearly anything new to my ears.

After attending numerous hip-hop shows, educating myself on its culture, and living the culture, what got me to love hip-hop were the mutual dedication and respect fans had for the art, just as myself had. At shows, it doesn’t matter what skin color or age a person is. Respect comes from knowledge of the philosophy and works of hip-hop artists. There’s a shared emotional appreciation at shows for the lines that the emcees recite, the meaning they have to the fans, the way that these lines changed their perspectives on life. Everybody relates to the music and will bob their head or wave their hands in unison as a single mind set appreciating the music.

So, what I don’t understand is how certain “fans” spend so much energy on differentiating terms in hip-hop. What I find much more common than the knowledgeable elitists who claim Hip-Hop is dead and that the only real Hip-Hop is in the underground, the ones that are truly fed up with con artists taking over the industry they loved, are ignorant listeners who claim the same thing. As much as I love hip-hop, it’s a culture of hypocrisy. There are many redeeming elements I find in the music, but I also understand that many artists sell-out or will contradict a message in one song with another song. Hip-hop is not meant to be an idealistic philosophy, it’s real life, all the bad and good qualities. The rapper Common has been known to say borderline racism in his songs, yet he’s still loved for his spiritual approaches and for being an alternative to the gangster style. So why don’t more outside listeners see Scarface as an alternative as well, a rapper that deeply explores the psychological frustration of being raised in one of the poorest neighborhoods in America? Yes, Scarface does use a lot of profanity and glorifies drug use, but he’s also lyrically articulate and a social critic. Not to mention he’s energizing to listen to.

Because it’s a culture of contradictions, hip-hop takes a long time to apprehend. It’s easy for one to say they understand hip-hop after listening to it on the radio and then delving into a few underground artists. Until one lives the vast culture themselves and discovers it on their own, the false media publicity are the opinions they will have on it. That’s also not to say that everyone will come out with the same perspective. The only common idea one should come out with other explorers is that hip-hop is clearly a culture.

Moon

Along with You, The Living, Moon is another film from the latter part of the past decade that I recently discovered and has instantly become one of my favorites. It was actually released just last year, and had completely avoided my film radar. The movie was directed by David Bowie's son, Duncan Jones...as if anybody was aware that David Bowie had a son...let alone one that was recognizable...let alone directing great movies! Moon is a return to the mature Sci Fi film that's standard was set by 2001: A Space Odyssey. Although it's no 2001, it's a great film that uses that imaginative backdrop of space to explore human conditions. There's no state of the art special effects or famous movie stars saving Earth. This is the space of imagination and mystery, an infinite land waiting to be explored by creative minds brave enough to do so.

Kevin Spacey provides the voice of GERTY, a robot assistant on a space bunker that's very reminiscent of the robot assistant from 2001. However, GERTY is full of personality and stands as a character on his own, being a homage rather than a rip off. His expressions are shown as a smiley face on a computer screen and brings life into the white walled, dull atmosphere of the moon bunker. GERTY is assisting Sam Bell, a man that has been operating the bunker for 3 years for Lunar, a company that harvests Helium-3 from the moon to provide resources for Earth. His loneliness and isolation has brought him to the brink of hallucination. He has a wife on Earth who just gave birth to his son, but because of a communication satellite failure, he's unable to speak to them.

The film soon takes a twist, and the viewers hostility toward Lunar's secrecy turns out to be justified. Sam discovers his life is not all that he thought it was and later makes a hard choice in coming to accept that. What surprised me so much about Moon was how charming it was. It's both funny and introspective. Duncan Jones is set to create a trilogy set in Moon's story line. I can't wait to see how the rest turn out considering how good Moon was!

Favorite Movies

I was thinking, and creating little lists of my favorite things is a good way to help me understand what I truly value. My first couple of lists are going to be general, but then they'll get more specific. Enjoy!

1.Raging Bull
2.Dr. Strangelove or How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb
3.The Seventh Seal
4.Wild Strawberries
5.Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind
6.Onibaba
7.Pickpocket
8.Neil Young: Heart of Gold
9.The Battle of Algiers
10.Eraserhead
11.Amelie
12.High and Low
13.The Bicycle Thief
14.Singin in the Rain
15.The Godfather Pt. II
16.The Godfather
17.Miller's Crossing
18.The King of Kong
19.Once Upon a Time in the West
20.Sideways
21.The Passion of Joan of Arc
22.Adaptation
23.You, The Living
24.The Life Aquatic With Steve Zissou
25.Jurassic Park
26.A Face in the Crowd
27.Taste of Cherry
28.2001: A Space Odyssey
29.Letters From Iwo Jima
30.Forrest Gump