Monday, February 28, 2011

The Chicken Or The Egg?

      The eternal yet unanswerable question...which came first...the chicken? The egg? A chicken is hatched out of an egg...but wouldn't a chicken have to have laid the egg that the chicken was hatched out of? The other day my Speech teacher said that he believes that a chicken-like dinosaur (which apparently does exist) laid their egg, and it had a slight mutation and thus the chicken was born, meaning the egg came first. I am currently reading the book Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, and at the Ravenclaw door, Harry and Luna are asked which came first, the chicken or the egg? (actually it asks if the phoenix or the flame came first...but same principle) And Luna responds: "I think the answer is that a circle has no beginning" There are millions of different reasonings one can go through to answer this unanswerable question, but the definitive answer will always be the same...there just is no answer.
       I've been wondering the same thing about songs, books, and movies. It's not exactly the same principle, but go with me. Throughout my lifetime, I've heard songs that sound like they were written after a certain book or movie...then again, the book or movie could have been written because of the song. Yes, of course one can look at the dates of publication and definitively figure out which one came first...but I just think it's more fun to leave that to the imagination.
       My biggest example of this is something my sister originally pointed out to me. This was during my obsessive Twilight phase (yes...I went through a Twilight phase...don't judge) that she pointed out the striking similarities between the book Twilight and the song Umbrella, originally by Rihanna. At first I didn't believe her, but then I listened closely to the lyrics, and it was uncanny all of the specific similarities. There were just too many for it to be a coincidence. "Because when the sun shines, we'll shine together", "baby 'cause in the dark, you can't see shiny cars, and that's when you'll need me there". Anyone who's read Twilight should know exactly what I'm talking about. And those are just a couple of the dozens of examples throughout the song.
       Then yesterday and today I started listening to one of my favorite songs of all time that I kind of forgot about like crazy. Travelin' Soldier by the Dixie Chicks (fantastic, amazing song if you haven't heard it...I am not a country fan and I love it), has striking similarities to the book Dear John by Nicolas Sparks. While I believe that these similarities are purely coincidental unlike my thoughts on my previous example, there are several instances of likeness. A shy guy about to go to war falls in love with a really outgoing girl. They write back and forth constantly. They met/fell in love on a pier. There's nothing in the song about a little brother with asperger's disease...but we can overlook that.
      Pay attention next time you're mindlessly listening to music. You'll be amazed at the uncanny similarities you can find between your favorite song and your favorite book and/or movie. And once you find these similarities, you will never stop seeing them the more you think about it. I prefer not to look up which came first, the song or the book. I prefer to let my mind battle that one out. I imagine Nicolas Sparks hearing the magic of how the Dixie Chicks crammed a beautiful love story into a five minute song, he was inspired, and sat down at his laptop and began what was to become Dear John. Jay-Z was sitting at home crying his eyes out when Bella was captured by the evil vampires and was inspired by her and Edward's forbidden love and wrote Umbrella. But hey, put your imagination to work...which came first...the chicken or the egg?

Sunday, February 27, 2011

Fame! I Wanna Live It Forever

       Fame: the biggest and most unattainable dream for millions of people around the world. As I sit here watching Anne Hathaway and James Franco ring in the 83rd Annual Academy Awards, I can't help but be jealous. While there's the obvious fact that fame isn't all it's built up to be, it's more work than it looks like, it tears apart families (as made obvious by the lovely Cyrus family), yes, I know. But on the outside, the beauty, the excitement, the glamor...it's all just so tantalizing, it could make anyone want to become famous.
        I was one of those little girls who wanted nothing more than to be a famous singer/actress when I grew up. From ages five to nine, I was absolutely positive that my future was surely full of flashing cameras, people fawning over me hand and food, and people lining up to give me a shiny award for my hard work.l It looked like such a wonderful life...then of course reality hit--not only the fact that the entertainment industry is pretty much the most difficult one to get into--but I saw the corruption behind the glamor. Drugs, arrests, and scandals. Your entire life laid out for everyone to see. It's quite the trade off. That's where one must choose if it's really worth it.
      While it's sad that the most celebrated celebrities are the ones who entertain us through movies and music rather than those changing the world through academia, to be able to change the world through a two hour film as much as movies like Titanic, Star Wars, Harry Potter, The King's Speech, Black Swan, and all of those other movies that are being awarded tonight...it's such an incredible thing. When I watch a movie, I try to imagine what it would be like to be the one acting in it. How would it feel to be portraying Rose Dewitt Bukater in one of the most epic disasters in history. To be Hermione, fighting magical evils. How it must feel to be in a profession where you can become a completely different person with each new job that comes your way.
       To be able to move someone to tears whether form grief for a dying beloved character or from laughing so hard that you begin to cry. To affect someone so greatly. It will continue to baffle me. When we watch movies, we know they're fiction. We know that it's just an actor reciting memorized lines that were written for them. We know that when they're done filming for the day they're just regular people. Yet we identify with them so much that we feel sadness if they're not able to be with the one they love. Or we feel happiness if they are able to fulfill their lifelong dream. It will never cease to baffle me how much the magic of movies can really affect a person. Including me.

Saturday, February 26, 2011

They're Classic For A Reason

      X-Box 360, Playstation 3, the Nintentdo Wii, we all need to have the up to date technology when it comes to video games. Anything but the newest thing is considered obsolete in today's world. But today, I had the choice between playing the up to date Mario Kart on our Wii, or the supremely older Cruisin' the World on the Nintendo 64. Originally, I was all for trying Mario Kart because I had never played it before...but then we started with Cruisin' the World...and I forgot how fun it was.
     I asked my sister why it was that the old Nintendo 64 games seem to be just so much more entertaining than current high tech ones are. Her response was "because they're blocky and bring us back to our childhood" and in a sense, I think she's right. Pokemon Puzzle League, Mario Party 1-3, Super Smash Brothers, these are the games I played with my sister when I was a child, thus letting the graphically superior new games be beaten out by the blocky old games of my past. Then again, I think there's another reason. In today's video games, while they can make it look like digitally created characters could be real, are just too much. By "too much", I mean that they think that in order to have fun everything needs to be this huge ordeal.
    I think this is the same principle that applies to why sequels to Disney classics are never good (with few exceptions). They did something so incredibly well the first time, that they try to recreate the magic of the original but make it bigger and flashier. Sometimes, the classics are classic for a reason. When you start adding a bunch of stuff, at some point it just becomes distracting. This is not to say that there aren't good current video games (Alan Wake and Assassin's Creed were the ones mentioned by my sister to be the clearly superior ones), but I just think that when a family has every current video gaming system, but all they want to play is their old Nintendo 64 games, that's something to be said about the current video gaming industry. It's time to go back to basics.
     There's a big difference between Disney and Disney Classics. The Disney Classics started out with instant masterpieces: Beauty and the Beast, Aladdin, Cinderella, etc. up until Mulan. Then Disney decided to branch out, swaying away from their whole princess era to make Cars, Brother Bear, Home On The Range, ultimately good movies, yet somewhat forgettable and bound not to become the legendary classics that they were originally cranking out. When these were not as successful as Disney had hoped, they have now been learning that sometimes going back to basics is best, so they went back to what they were doing before, thus Princess and the Frog and Tangled were created. Both movies that I came out of the theatre with my face hurting from smiling so much.
     Moral of the story: technology is fantastic...but sometimes...classics are just classics for a reason.

Friday, February 25, 2011

Turning Around the Turnabout

      High school dances. A time to find the perfect dress, figure out what to do with your hair, and try to get that special someone to put a corsage around your wrist. Elegant pictures are taken, you drive off to the dance, and then everything becomes as far from elegant as possible. In a dark and loud gym is full of hormone ridden teenagers packed as tight as can be against the speakers, jumping up and down and screaming the lyrics to the popular song the DJ is playing to your heart's content. When you think about it, there's no reason this could be seen as a productive time to spend a Saturday night. Other than the fact that they're ridiculously fun.
      The four major dances: Homecoming (October), Turnabout (March), Disco (April), and Prom (May...I think). Homecoming is probably my favorite dance. Every year there's a theme to the dance (this year's being Harry Potter). Girls in short yet formal dresses, guys in suits of every color. Disco is what's labeled as the supremely "skanky" dance. Everyone wearing anything tight and/or shiny. As the title suggests, all of the music is Disco Era-themed. Plenty of Abba and Michael Jackson to go around. In my opinion, the second best dance. Prom is only allowed to be attended by juniors, seniors, and their dates, so I've never been to this more formal which is preceded by a dinner, and you can dance somewhere that doesn't have a scoreboard int he background. I've heard it's not as fun as the other two dances, but it's classier.
      Then there's what I really wanted to talk about: Turnabout. This is the least popular of the dances. What really pushes me to not even bother with this dance is that it's held not in the gym, but the cafeteria. I feel that during the dance I'd just be like "I was eating lunch her six hours ago..." Then there's the point of the dance: girls ask the guys. Call me old-fashioned, but I think that's the guy's job. Girls have to look pretty and bear the children, all the guy really has to do is hold the door open and ask the girl out.
     I'm clearly not the only one who feels this way, considering that since Turnabout became so unpopular, that they're changing it to the "Spring Bling Bash", supposedly to be the "hip hop version of Disco". They're even hiring a professional coordinator for the entertainment. The problem: it's still being held in the cafeteria. But complaining about this "Spring Bling Bash" is not my point for this blog entry. My point is: guys, don't let chivalry die. Hold those doors open. Get up the courage to ask the girl you like out. And, I'm sorry, but you're probably also going to have to pay for that date. Yes, women can vote and be in the army now, but in some cultures they're also beaten to death if they want to divorce their husband or they have to throw themselves on their husband's cremation fire if/when he dies, so you can at least show a little chivalry every once and a while. The female population of the world thanks you.

Thursday, February 24, 2011

Mark Time, March! One, Two, Three, Go.

      I would just like to take a moment and bask in the amazingness that is encompassed by the all powerful...wait for it...MARCHING BAND. First things that come to mind: funny hats...a humongous tuba, students with no lives other than their instruments. Well I may be the first to tell you that your preconceived notions of marching band are completely...RIGHT! We wear the funny hats with plumes (feathers on top), we have a humongous tuba, and we do absolutely love our instruments. But I'm not sure if anyone not a part of marching band actually understands what's so great about it.
     We are in the depths of February, meaning that football season is pretty much over, so it's not exactly high season for the marching band. But we actually do much more than just march at football games and play concerts full of music that nobody likes.
     Today at school I just took part in a Sidewinder. For those of you who don't know what a Sidewinder is, it's a glorious event that occurs whenever a school team places first or second in State. This event was in honor of the swim team in which the band treks all the way through the school playing our instruments louder than the human ear desires. Most band kids aren't exactly fans of this event whenever it comes up, seeing that all of their classmates come out of their classrooms to watch us take part in an activity which is tagged as being "nerdy".
    I happen to love Sidewinders. I get out of most of French class, and it's a time when we can dig out our old marching music and play really easy and fun music such as "Jai Ho", "Poker Face", "Bad Romance", "Don't Stop Believing", etc. I don't care if I'm labeled as a band geek, I adore the band and everything we do. Whether it's six hours a day of learning marching drill at band camp in the grueling heat over the summer, playing and marching in front of hundreds of football fans in the freezing rain and cold, or venturing through the halls of the school to commend our school's sports teams, I love it all.
    Most people are either on a sports team, or really into choir, or art, whatever your thing may be, I'll bet that within your team or group, you feel a bond with all of those people around you who share your same passion. That's how band it. When amongst your fellow band mates, you are amongst family. Call me a band geek, I will consider it the most flattering of compliments. To be a band geek is to belong to something amazing.

Wednesday, February 23, 2011

Which Era Are You?

     Today in my U.S. History class, we watched a movie on the turn of the 20th century. Yes, the 1900's were here, and industry was thriving. Women could vote, African Americans were beginning to slowly gain their civil rights, Edison invented the light bulb, and the Wright Brothers put man in the air for a suspended period of time. It was a great time in many ways. The video was full of smiling faces, seduced by the adrenaline that came along with a thriving economy and nation with exponential power.
    This was when my friend Katie turned to me and said that she wished she could go back to this time, it looked like everyone was just having so much fun. I couldn't help but agree with her. At this time New York was full of so much rich culture, 1 in 3 people were European immigrants, all friendly with one another. Yes, there was still murder, and unemployment, etc. But all considering, it looked like a really great time in our nation's history.
    And now this blog entry officially sounds like a history report. On to the point, if I could go back to any era in history--no, let's make that U.S. History (any era in world history is a completely different story)--I would have to go with the Roarin' 20's. Call me cliche or albeit crazy, but I want to live in the time of flappers, when music was everywhere you went, and America was high on life. Disney was soon to begin his rise to fame, Charlie Chaplin was the Morgan Freeman of the time, cabires protesting the prohibition were all the rage, and Americans didn't have a care in the world other than appreciating the new technology and how fortunate they were to be living in such a prosperous country. It was a never ending party...I see it as a much classier and glamorous version of Jersey Shore.
    Maybe I'm wrong, after all, I wasn't there, nor have I studied extensively on the age, but after watching movies like Chicago and countless documentaries in school, it seems that living in the 20's would be like living in a constant fantasy filled with bright excitement, never-ending dancing, new experiences, and of course...All....That....Jazz.
 

Tuesday, February 22, 2011

All About The Drama

    Today at school while I was daydreaming in U.S. History class, I was thinking about what my next blog entry should be about. But I just kept coming up blank. I kept hoping inspiration would strike or something exciting would happen that may spark some interest. Well my prayers were answered during my last class of the day.
    I was in the middle of a gas related lab in chemistry class when all of a sudden the loud speakers clicks on and a voice tells us "all staff and students are to evacuate the building immediately". My chemistry teacher told us to leave all of the lab equipment, and just get out. Go to lockers at your own risk. I then sprinted to my locker and got out of that school as fast as I could. I had it in my mind that maybe it was due to the gases that were being used in all chemistry classes that day. Then the crazy thought that there may be some sort of bomb threat entered my mind. But I quickly dismissed the thought, thinking it was crazy.
    As I got on the bus there was a gaggle of rumors going around: a gas leak, a sewage line burst, etc. No one wanted to believe there may be a bomb threat when we were sitting in a bus just a few yards from the school. Later we were informed that there was a "mysterious package" left at the doorstep of the school. As if our school wasn't weird enough, let's add this to the pile of suspicious things that have happened in our very much upper-class community. As of now, I haven't heard any more about what is going on, other than that the entire population of the school is hoping for the dismissal of school tomorrow due to the so-called bomb threat.
   The one thing I will never understand is why someone would want to do this. Yes, there are a lot of angsty teenagers at my school who can't wait to get out of there the minute they throw their graduation caps in the air, but to want to blow up all of your classmates? Honestly, what do they plan to solve by doing so? It won't change anything, if they get caught it will only ruin their lives.
    A few years ago several high schoolers slashed all of the tires of the school buses, the next day school was cancelled. While that was quite the pain and expense for the district to deal with, it didn't actually hurt somebody. If in fact there was a bomb on the front step of my school today, and it hadn't been caught, who knows what may have happened. This little stunt gave us something interesting to talk about, but next time instead of laughing about all of this, we may be weeping over how the bomb wasn't caught in time.

Monday, February 21, 2011

Disney Vs. Universal

     For my first topic-based entry, I thought I would discuss something very near and dear to me: Disney World. My childhood was made up of watching Aladdin become a prince and Belle fall for a beast, dressing up like the characters, and belting the songs as loud as my voice would permit. But what always excited me most was visiting the enchanting Disney World parks annually with my family. Disney World is a place where at any age, I feel like an innocent child with all possibilities and magic ahead of me.
    Of course, right down the road from Disney World in Orlando, Florida is the rival amusement park, Universal Studios. My family and I would often visit Universal for a day while we were in Florida, but that died down when we wanted to spend that extra day in Disney instead of Universal. A couple of weeks ago, I went to Universal with my family for the first time in five years (our reasoning being that the Harry Potter part of Islands of Adventure had recently been opened, and my mom, my sisters, and I are all big fans of the books and movies).
    On our trip to Orlando, we started the fun with two days jam packed with Mickey Mouse, princesses, and rides that took me back to my childhood. We saved Universal for last because that was the park everyone was anticipating most due to the new rides we were sure to encounter. I couldn't help but find myself constantly comparing the two parks. Don't get me wrong, the Hogwarts and Hogsmeade replicas were stunning, and the rides were far superior to my expectations...but Universal just doesn't hold the same magic for me. I have been going to the park since I was born, but I don't feel giddy excitement that anything can happen like I do in Disney World. 
    The big difference is not in the rides themselves, but in the atmosphere of the entire park. Disney starts your day with a show at the entrance of the park, music to enhance the mood, and there are cast members blowing bubbles at you throughout the park and telling you to have a magical day. At Universal I was greeted by a grumpy worker that wouln't let my younger sister into the park because we originally bought her a child's ticket for ages 0-10, and we didn't realize that by the time we went to Universal next, she would be 11.
    For some reason it just makes me mad. You can just tell that Disney is in the business because the company started with a man who didn't care about money as much as he wanted to make people feel the magic of being a child at any age. Universal is a park that wants to squeeze as much money out of you as you can. 
    As much fun as I had at Universal (don't get me wrong, I love the E.T. Ride, Harry Potter, and the Mummy, they're all fantastic), I just couldn't help being disappointed at the end of the day that we ended the trip with that. I went to bed longing for one more day of the magic that is encompassed so incredibly by Disney World.


New To The World of Blogging

      Hello Blogging World! My name is Hanna, and my goal is to share with whoever ends up reading this the things I claim to know, and those things that I claim not to know. For those of you wondering if reading this blog will really end up being worth your time, know that this will primarily consist of my random ramblings/photography. One thing I claim to know is how to take something that is seemingly ordinary, and turn it into something visually beautiful or interesting with the click of a camera's shutter release.
     So before I dive right into some random ramblings, I will tell you a little about myself. As I mentioned earlier, I'm Hanna, and I am a recently sixteen year old high school student. I'm also about as opinionated as it gets, which kind of explains the creation of this blog. I was also inspired to start this blog by my good friend Sarah. She started a blog recently (www.everythingwasfine.blogspot.com), and after reading it, I started getting a bunch of my own ideas starting to formulate in my mind...dozens of blog topics. Today, I finally overcame the procrastination to write my first entry. As I said, I'm a lover of the art of photography. My other interests include: reading, writing, music (yes, I know I'm quite original), and my school's marching band (which I proudly play clarinet in).
     I'm just a normal teenager who has thoughts that want to be heard. If I make an impression on just one person with this blog, it will all be worth it. Not everyone will like my ideas, but I guess that's a beauty of a blog...no one has to like it to be published.