Sunday, January 27, 2013
A Day in my Life?
Our newest Independent Video Assignment was to create a 90 second video representing our typical day. Luckily enough, my life hasn't been that complicated lately.
That in no way means I haven't been busy (Yesterday I left the house at 6:30 AM and didn't get back until 10:30 PM), but my time is usually taken up with a few things, namely, school, rehearsal, and the transportation in between.
The transportation was what I chose to focus on in my video that I did with Samantha.
Saturday, January 19, 2013
Imagination
I suppose that I was a lot more imaginative when I was younger.
I think part of this is because I was much more curious about, well, everything. I constantly asked questions, kept strange objects, and most importantly wrote, drew, and danced.
When I was little whenever I ran into a new word, I would always ask my dad what it meant. After a while I'm surprised I didn't stop asking him, because every simple definition I asked for turned into a 20 minute speech about roots, stories, and proper uses of the aforementioned word.
Part of this general curiosity of new words led me to creative writing. I was so interested in the power of the word, as I still am.
In middle school I attended the creative writing club we had, and always wrote original pieces for the dramatic arts competitions we had each year (I won second place in 7th grade!). I can look back at all of the poems I wrote and see more than anything the errors, but also the inspiration. Nowadays it's pretty difficult to come up with a purpose behind a poem or a story, that I might not of considered necessary before I started writing when I was younger.
Every once in a while I still do have some sudden inspiration. For some reason, this seems to happen a lot after exams. Maybe it's just my boredom, or maybe it's the universe's subtle way of laughing at me, because I am never able to keep the poems I write during exams. Although I never really do keep my favorite poems (I like to give people my favorites as presents).
This time though I remembered the poem as best I could, and then in a way sort of edited it.
It's kind of dark, and not based on any personal experience, but I still kind of like it.
I think part of this is because I was much more curious about, well, everything. I constantly asked questions, kept strange objects, and most importantly wrote, drew, and danced.
When I was little whenever I ran into a new word, I would always ask my dad what it meant. After a while I'm surprised I didn't stop asking him, because every simple definition I asked for turned into a 20 minute speech about roots, stories, and proper uses of the aforementioned word.
Part of this general curiosity of new words led me to creative writing. I was so interested in the power of the word, as I still am.
In middle school I attended the creative writing club we had, and always wrote original pieces for the dramatic arts competitions we had each year (I won second place in 7th grade!). I can look back at all of the poems I wrote and see more than anything the errors, but also the inspiration. Nowadays it's pretty difficult to come up with a purpose behind a poem or a story, that I might not of considered necessary before I started writing when I was younger.
Every once in a while I still do have some sudden inspiration. For some reason, this seems to happen a lot after exams. Maybe it's just my boredom, or maybe it's the universe's subtle way of laughing at me, because I am never able to keep the poems I write during exams. Although I never really do keep my favorite poems (I like to give people my favorites as presents).
This time though I remembered the poem as best I could, and then in a way sort of edited it.
It's kind of dark, and not based on any personal experience, but I still kind of like it.
Her silent protests,
his mindless words.
Her colorful arms
record his unprovoked rage.
She stopped fighting
to break his control.
The control that crazes him,
the control that tells him
to add blossoming purple flowers
to the garden that decorates her body.
The garden that is tended only by his unwanted love.
Saturday, January 12, 2013
The Final Countdown
As first semester is ending, my life seems to be exploding. I have a lot of exciting things going on, so I figured, why not share some of them?
Foremost, the thing that has thoroughly taken over my life is the spring play at Blair, Taming of the Shrew. It is endless fun, but also endlessly tiring. Until the show, (opening night is on January 31st!) I have rehearsal every day (with the small exception of next Sunday) but the rest includes Saturdays. I am really excited for the show, and one of the things that makes it even more exciting is that the stage is being used for a black box performance. A black box performance means that audience members are seated on the stage inches from the actors. Although this type of performance is extremely exciting, it's also extremely nerve-wrecking.
One of the reasons I am so excited for the show is because it is Shakespeare. I have always had an interest in Shakespeare, but performing Shakespeare is an entirely different beast than reading Shakespeare. There are so many little complexities, so many unwritten directions, and also cases where the language has changed so much that meanings of words and lines have changed.
I find that these changes are extremely interesting. Over time, language has a tendency to degrade in its meaning. An example of this that came recently at a rehearsal was the word "naughty". Nowadays, the line, should "naughty" be included, would get a laugh. But this is only because the meaning and power of the word naughty has degraded. Naughty used to be a description of something evil, quite terrible actually, but now it is more used to describe a disobedient child.
Some of the other things coming up are:
The Novagondy Ball (Yes I get to go to a ball!)
Exams (Not exactly exciting...)
SAT Math 2 Subject Test (Yay more tests!)
The British are coming, the British are coming!
Also, my mom just designed a website for her dad, my grandfather, who is a watercolor artist, who has apparently won many more awards than I thought he had (check out the awards section on his website!). Also, just go and check out his paintings! Some of them are from when he first started painting professionally and we are slowly uploading more recent ones. He's really excited about the site, so please go and check it out! It is at www.davidneilmack.com.
Foremost, the thing that has thoroughly taken over my life is the spring play at Blair, Taming of the Shrew. It is endless fun, but also endlessly tiring. Until the show, (opening night is on January 31st!) I have rehearsal every day (with the small exception of next Sunday) but the rest includes Saturdays. I am really excited for the show, and one of the things that makes it even more exciting is that the stage is being used for a black box performance. A black box performance means that audience members are seated on the stage inches from the actors. Although this type of performance is extremely exciting, it's also extremely nerve-wrecking.
One of the reasons I am so excited for the show is because it is Shakespeare. I have always had an interest in Shakespeare, but performing Shakespeare is an entirely different beast than reading Shakespeare. There are so many little complexities, so many unwritten directions, and also cases where the language has changed so much that meanings of words and lines have changed.
I find that these changes are extremely interesting. Over time, language has a tendency to degrade in its meaning. An example of this that came recently at a rehearsal was the word "naughty". Nowadays, the line, should "naughty" be included, would get a laugh. But this is only because the meaning and power of the word naughty has degraded. Naughty used to be a description of something evil, quite terrible actually, but now it is more used to describe a disobedient child.
Some of the other things coming up are:
The Novagondy Ball (Yes I get to go to a ball!)
Exams (Not exactly exciting...)
SAT Math 2 Subject Test (Yay more tests!)
The British are coming, the British are coming!
Also, my mom just designed a website for her dad, my grandfather, who is a watercolor artist, who has apparently won many more awards than I thought he had (check out the awards section on his website!). Also, just go and check out his paintings! Some of them are from when he first started painting professionally and we are slowly uploading more recent ones. He's really excited about the site, so please go and check it out! It is at www.davidneilmack.com.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)