O Brother Where Art Thou

So far, O Brother Where Art Thou is an okay movie. Some parts remind me of The Odyssey, while others don't. The part where the women are singing in the forest was just like The Sirens, except in the movie, the men got lured in, but in the book, all the men except Odysseus weren't able to actually hear the singing. I thought it was funny in the beginning of the movie where the 3 men (Everett, Pete, and Delmer) were chained together and trying to get on the train, but then fell off. The movie kind of confuses me at points, but it is funny, especially the three main characters.

Epic Simile

His warm presence filled the room like the rising sun at break of dawn. And in that moment, everyone held their breath. He spoke, his words gently echoed through the room like a soft leaf drifting downward from a tall maple. Eyes opened, ears listening, and everyone was on the edge of their seat, waiting anxiously to hear him go on. 

Of mice and Men movie

This is the movie Whitney, Alessa, Jamie and I made. Additional characters are: Carlee Campell, Larry Jansen

Movie/Powerpoint Project!

For our project, Alessa, Whitney, Jamie and I are doing a movie trailer to Of Mice and Men.

We haven't talked about it much, but we will this week. We still have planning to do, such as where/when to film, editing the movie script, and a lot more other things. Since I don't think my group is very busy, we should get the movie done hopefully by the weekend. Whitney has a camera, and we will be filming some time this week.

Romeo and Juliet Video:

Alright, so I found this video by typing "Romeo and Juliet love" into Youtube and clicking on a couple pages... Anyways, this is a Romeo and Juliet type of video, only "The Notebook Style." I chose this because in movie The Notebook, Allie's parents don't want her to marry Noah because they think he's not rich and good enough for her, even though they are in love. Instead, they only allow her to marry this other guy who she ends up marrying. I thought this was similar to Romeo and Juliet because the parents of each child are enemies, and wouldn't stand for them marrying each other. Also, it's similar because whenever Romeo and Juliet are together, they always seem to be happy, as do the characters in the video. 

Romeo & Juliet Picture-

I found this image that reminded me of the balcony scene. It is supposed to portray Romeo and Juliet kissing, like they were on this night Romeo snuck over after the party. If we hadn't saw the scene in the movie, which this picture mostly represents, I probably would've imagined the scene to be like this anyhow. Except for the part where Juliet has pink hair. Everything else fits though.

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Picture source: Photobucket.com

Characters in R&J!

From what we've read, I think Juliet is based on a young, tender hearted little girl. She is sweet and obedient, and follows the rules of the household. Her physical descriptions that I pictured were that she would have long, curly redish hair, big brown eyes, full lips, and be very tall. If I met her, I think that she would be very quiet and polite. She would strike me as mature and well taught.

If Juliet was an actual person, I would compare her to Mrs. Gilman. (It's a compliment.) If I picture Mrs. Gilman when she was around our age, I could see her being the smart, pretty, innocent girl who was very polite, although a bit shy. She was the one that everyone copied answers from. Now I could be totally wrong, and Mrs. Gilman could've been some wild and crazy party animal, but I don't know the straight facts for sure. I basing this guess all on my observation knowledge. Sorry if I blew your secret, Mrs. Gilman.

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Premonitions.

There has only been one time that I can ever recall having a "premonition." In the 6th grade, I remember having our very first choir concert of the year. Before going in front of an audience, I always get nervous, no matter what I'm doing. Since it was my first middle school concert, I was especially nervous. Just as I was getting ready and walking out the door to the car, I had a bad feeling... I felt like something bad, or embarrassing, was going to happen to me either before or while I was on stage. Since I couldn't put my finger on what specifically it was, it was impossible for me to prevent it.

Twenty-five minutes before the concert, I walk into Olympia High School, thinking I was all cool in my white blouse and black pants. Thing is, I wasn't. I saw some of the other people in choir that I knew going to the warm up room. Just as I was about to go warm up, I get a nose bleed! There was a red dot on the sleeve of what used to be my gleaming white shirt. I started to panic, and rushed to the bathroom. Thankfully, it was 15 minutes before the concert that my nose bleed stopped. I made sure I was alright, and then went to warm up. Come to think of it, I am the luckiest girl in to world... Why? Because that nose bleed didn't wait until I was on stage.

Shakespeare Stories!

When I think about it, I never really noticed how many movie plots today are based on some of Shakespeare's famous stories. There are tons of movies that use love triangles, mistaken identities, and much more. I thought of the movie 10 things I hate about you, which is actually one of my favorite movies. I was really surprised to find out that it is actually a retelling of Shakespeare's The Taming of the Shrew.

10 Things I Hate About You is kind of confusing to explain.. It is a movie about two sisters, one named Biana and the other Kat. Bianca is the younger, more popular, prettier sister. Her older sister Kat on the other hand is an outcast. Bianca's problem is she wants to date, but her over protective father has a rule against it. However one day, he made it so the only way Bianca can date is if her older sister Kat dates, knowing that Kat most likely will not date. Bianca then tries her hardest to get her older sister a date. I don't know a lot about The Taming of the Shrew, but 10 Things I Hate About You is a modern remake of this Shakespearean comedy.

Shakespeare, Romeo And Juliet

I could never pretend to understand Shakespeare-- no one could. The language is so hard to understand, and I think that is part of what makes it so interesting. No one speaks that way any more, so it's a novelty, and that is the attraction. When you listen to the way that the actors speak, it's lovely. In "A Midsummer Night's Dream," the character of Helena stood out to me-- her willingness to please Demetrius, and her friendship with Hermia were two key points that never failed to interest me. Only because of Puck, she develops a sense of passion for Demetrius. In the end, though, all is right because of Oberon, and his over-zealous attitude toward the magical flower potion. He plots to resolve the "love square," and in turn, ruins many emotional connections. I think that while we were watching the movie, it got easier and easier for me to understand what the actors were saying, since we were watching their actions coincide with their words.

I have mixed feelings about starting on  "Romeo And Juliet." It has an interesting plot from what I know. At the same time, I am nervous about the language, and actually reading it. If we are reading it in class as a play, I think it'll be much easier to understand rather than if we had to read a bunch of it on our own. I do think I will enjoy our Shakespeare unit very much, and I'm glad to start it when we come back to school.

Worst Part of Animal Farm.

Personally to me, the book doesn't really spark my interests. But there are a couple parts that left me wondering, disturbed me, or made me laugh. One of the parts so far that I thought was sad/disturbing is all the confessing that took place. After Old Major died, Snowball and the other pigs sort of ran the farm. But then Snowball was ran out of the farm by dogs since he apparently was always on Jones's side. After Snowball was gone, Napoleon was the leader. To me, Napoleon is an awful farm leader.

The worst part had to be when different animals were coming up and confessing random things. If the confessed that they had stolen food or similar things, then they would be killed on the spot by the dogs. I thought it was disturbing because most people don't especially like hearing about animals being viciously torn from limb to limb. I think the farm was actually a lot better in the beginning of the book when they had Jones's, rather than the animals all alone.

Animal Farm

So far, I like Animal Farm. It's pretty rare that high schoolers really get to read fables, but since this one is advanced then I guess it's "all good." I like how clever the book is. George Orwell creatively took the Russian Revolution and covered it, using animals. Since it's from animals perspectives, I think it is a lot easier to learn about the Russian Revolution as opposed to sitting there and reading out of a history book.

The figures that each character represents is really creative to me... How the author thought all of this out to write this story is really cool. So far from reading, we haven't really come across anything too intense. While reading To Kill a Mockingbird, most of the intense parts were at the end of the book, which made the book really good. Hopefully, Animal Farm will have a surprise sooner or later, because honestly some of the time it bores me. Other than that, I enjoy reading it.