Play Responsibly: Guitar Makers Seek Sustainable Sound

With the environment and saving its future a great topic of controversy in recent years, everyone is trying to find the best ways to recycle, reduce waste, and reuse anything and everything they can. Everything is being cut back and changed for the better of our planet-- or at least, it's trying to be.

You wouldn't exactly think of guitars as causing forests to fall all across the globe, would you?

Having a guitar player in my family (my father), I know my fair share of info about the whole make and model and all that of certain electric guitars. My dad has what he calls his 'Holy Trinity' of guitars: a Fender Stratocaster, a Fender Telecaster, and a Gibson Les Paul with a sun burst design. The body and neck of his instruments come from the wood of a mix of mahogany, rosewood, and ebony. But the trees whose trunks and branches are sacrificed for the art of music and a beautiful guitar are becoming few and far between; even though it's been known for years now that these precious woods won't be available for use forever, 'purists' who demand the best quality wood for their instruments snub even the idea of synthetic materials being used.

The  current CEO of Gibson Guitar Company, Henry Juszkiewicz, is trying to make this a possibility. He and his colleagues know that they have the available technology to make a guitar that plays just as well-- if not better than-- the solid wood guitars. This seems blasphemous to others, but it may be a response by the company to the controversies caused by the company allegedly violating wildfire protection acts in the past two years.

In my honest opinion, albeit being the music lover I am, I agree with Juszkiewicz: We, as a species, have decimated the natural gifts the planet has given us. There isn't much left, and humans should be looking for alternative ways to continue making things. It's like that "what if" documentary I watched once on the Discovery Channel about what will happen when we run out of oil, and if electricity fails: we're humans. We may be flawed, but we built this world from the ground up-- the good, the bad, the beautiful, the ugly. We created all of it. And if we could make this, we sure as hell better be able to save it. We're survivors, even if the way the average American lives their life doesn't pay homage to that title. We'll figure it out-- some day.

http://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2011/11/play-responsibly-guitar-makers-seek-sustainable-sound/248970/

Published 29 Nov. 2011

Term Two, Week Three. (Nov. 27-Dec. 3, 2011) Post One.

Dictator Pledges to Step Down, but Yemen's Crisis Is Not Over

It's a transfer of power, one that has been in the works for months (if not years) now, and dodged three times before this day. Yemen's President and leader of 33 years, Ali Abdullah Saleh, has succumbed to the subject of protests lasting ten months: he has signed a formal agreement to step down from power and yield his title to current Vice President Abd Rabu Mansur Hadi, which will lead its way into an election process. 


There's a catch, of course, because it couldn't be perfect or seamless: Saleh is guaranteed a 'Get Out of Jail Free' card, otherwise known as immunity from prosecution following the change in power. This doesn't seem to settle well with the public, and as author J. Dana Stuster notes the Yemeni Revolution is far from its ending chapter. In fact, this is only the beginning towards a supposed better future for the country. 


Stuster, without being patronizing and pushy to her readers, is informative and catches the audience up to speed on the conflicts that have been building in the Middle Eastern country so as to give the events covered in the article a good context. This strategy was especially helpful to me while reading, as I had followed Libya and Egypt as they went through their revolts and transitions, but I haven't been following many news stories lately due to a lack of time management. 


The whole world watched as Egypt overthrew their government, and as Libya became a battleground plagued with death and riots-- and for the most part, regions of the two countries still are. While war between the countries isn't going to break out, the events remind me of the 'powder keg' idea behind what sparked World War I. The Black Hand has Arch Duke Franz Ferdinand assassinated and the next thing you know, all of Europe is in an all-out war. In this case, however, it seems as if countries in the Middle East and surrounding areas are starting to revolt one by one, inspired by the progress other nations have made in hopes to better their country for future generations. While I'm definately not an expert on the subject, I can still say that it's a bloody road these nations are choosing to follow. However, change is never easy; no one ever said it was peaceful. 


They (or rather, Jimi Hendrix) say that when the power of love overcomes the love of power, the world will know peace. Too many souls on this Earth, it seems, are hell bent on gaining power and control for this ideal to be realized. Some people may say that the rebels are barbaric in their ways following revolts. But take a step back, and realize the situation these people are being faced with. Also, remember this, America: We're a first world nation that has it far better off than these countries. Who are we to judge those who are merely fighting for what we believe in? Wind the clock back a bit. While the scenery and situations are parallel, we were wearing a similar pair of shoes two hundred years ago ourselves.




http://www.theatlantic.com/international/archive/2011/11/dictator-pledges-to-step-down-but-yemens-crisis-is-not-over/249052/

Published 24 Nov. 2011.

Term Two, Week Two. (Nov. 20-26, 2011) Post Two.

The Director of 'The Artist' on How to Make a Modern Silent Film

The idea of silence in a movie theatre is virtually unrealistic. Many people can attest to the fact that often when enjoying a film at the movies today, you can hear another action or adventure flick playing in the theatre next to yours-- and, you can hear the cacophony of crashes and explosions that are common in just about every movie these days. But for Michel Hazanavicius, this idea isn't so much a pipe dream, as he's made it a reality.

Save for the responses and reaction of laughter and the like from audiences, Hazanavicius's The Artist is a contemporary black and white film. It tells the story of a director who blossoms the career of an actress in silent films, and when sound comes into the picture, she advances in her fame and popularity-- all while the director is stuck in the past, unable to forget the ways of soundless cinema. The actress, however, still knows she owes her career to the director for giving her her big break. Oh, and the entire film in silent.

You've probably heard of it, or maybe not. Depending on how often you watch the news, you may or may not have seen a report on it. I know I have, as that's why this article appealed to me. I'm personally interested in directing, because although I wish to be a writer, I often envision what a film version of my stories would look like so I can accurately describe everything essential to a scene, without going overboard and overloading my readers.

Most of the article comprises of an interview with Hazanavicius, who admits to author Robert Levine that a foreign director making a foreign movie could never dream of being a buzz for a foreign awards show. But still, The Artist is an American movie, having its premier in both New York and Los Angeles theaters. And it's true-- the modern day silent film has been granted quite the deal of Oscar buzz for its unique characteristics, compared to the newest addition to the family of never-ending movies made from toys and games *coughcoughTransformersandBattleshipcoughcough* Sorry, frog in my throat...

But what do movies have anything to do with the study of rhetoric and language for an AP English course? In my opinion, any media of storytelling relates to English. This particular piece is void of language, whether it would have been english, french, italian, or otherwise-- making the work have a seamless transition between cultures and audiences across the globe. While I've yet to be able to see the film myself, I look forward to when I can. The silent film, in my opinion, is much like the opposite of a book. In a book, we are given the words, but not the pictures or sounds to go with it. In the silent film, the audiences has the picture-- but no color or sounds or words. If you actively watch a movie such as this, your creativity comes alive. Only you can decide how their voice is, if they say a certain word funny, what word the character is saying. It's an idea I find highly attractive; if only more directors saw the world of cinema through at least the glasses Hazanavicius wears.

http://www.theatlantic.com/entertainment/archive/2011/11/the-director-of-the-artist-on-how-to-make-a-modern-silent-film/248878/

Published 22 Nov. 2011.


Term Two, Week Two. (Nov. 20-26, 2011) Post One.

Are Today's Youth Really a Lost Generation?

A quick note before I begin: After finally sorting through all of my endless technical difficulties and finally (hopefully...) having figured out how to work this Blogger thing, my much overdue posts are here. (I’ve had them saved in a word document until now.)

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The title alone of this piece caught my attention, because at my theatre, one of my directors often says that, according to her sources, our generation has been given the name “The Crystal Children” or “The Star Children”, because we are supposed to fix and change everything that the past generations have wronged with the world. So when the idea of being named “The Lost Generation” surfaced, I was immediately interested. The article hits home for me, because really, my sister is facing a lot of the troubles and difficulties that the author writes about. She graduated from Ringling College of Art and Design in May with a major in Photography and Digital Imaging, and is having a bit of trouble finding a permanent job, which is why she’s, for now, living back at home with us. I don’t mind it nearly as much as she does, since I get to spend the time with her that I missed over the last four years. (A quick edit: good news! Job opportunity has come through, and in the first week of November, she’s moving down to Shreveport, Louisiana! Sad that she’ll be so far away, but she’s getting a great opportunity!) 

Along side the article, a few inserts were included: charts with numbers and bare facts to accompany the research. One titled ‘LOST: By the Numbers’ reveals that 20% of young men within four years of graduating college are still living with their parents due to income issues, which is twice the amount of young women. That adds up to 5.9 million individuals, Americans ages 25-34, living at home. That number used to just be 25%, back in 2007. It’s unfortunate what four years can change in a statistic like that. And among the younger people who have joined the adult and professional worlds, 37% of young families with heads of households younger than the age of 30 that are currently living in poverty. So while experts estimate that the Great Recession will end in the coming years, what the author, Cymru, calls the ‘greater recession’ doesn’t show any sign of ending. And that ‘greater recession’ is what all of those statistics say-- that the young adults are in trouble, and might not be able to fix their problems.

[http://www.theatlantic.com/business/archive/2011/09/are-todays-youth-really-a-lost-generation/245524/]