The Beginning of the End

So, I don't usually do this with my blog.  I like to keep things on the internet at a distance from my personal life.  Yeah, I'll be sarcastic and witty, I'll give you my opinion on the latest album or film, and I'll even post pictures of myself.  But I don't really ever discuss what's going on in my day-to-day.  So here is a little glimpse of what's happening behind all these posts.

The Olympics are over, all the blockbuster summer movies have come (and most of them are gone), and here we are at the footstep of another school year.  But this time it's a little different, you see, this is my last year of school.  This is my last first day of the fall semester.  I am one more day closer to finishing my degree and moving to the next phase of my life.  And I'm excited, anxious, scared, happy, sad, and determined.  I can't wait to get to that next phase, but I also know how crucial it is to savor these last few moments.  I've thoroughly enjoyed the experiences I've had thus far: the people I've met, adventures I've been on, and the opportunities I've had.  I have a couple of big events in my education coming up this last year that I feel could be really life changing and I plan on making the most of it.

The first is that I'm attending the PRSSA National Conference in San Francisco this October.  The PRSSA is the Public Relations Student Society of America and there are several chapters of this society all around the nation.  It's like the official club for PR students.  I'm going to the conference to schmooze with PR professionals, learn more about PR, and all for the end goal of finding a good job when I graduate.  I think this will be a great opportunity to gain some experience and get my foot in the door.

The second is that I'm going to be a part of the Bateman Case Study competition that goes on from October to March.  This competition is also a part of the PRSSA and the top three teams win a cash prize.  UVU (where I attend) has received honorable mention the past three years (which is how long they've been a part of the PRSSA, so that's pretty neat).  I know this all sounds pretty impressive, but you're probably wondering what the heck a case study is.  Well, I'll tell you.  The whole purpose of Public Relations is to increase credibility, visibility, and valuation.  To do that, a case study is often needed.  Case studies take a company and look at what is going wrong in their company and try to fix it, or recognize an opportunity the company may have to increase their visibility, credibility, or valuation and propose that they implement the plan.  The end result of a case study is a PR campaign.  You see PR campaigns on a daily basis: commercials, company events, social gatherings hosted by a company, "liking" a company on Facebook, etc.  So, PR case studies require a lot of research, creative thinking, a good handling of a budget (these campaigns typically don't get much to spend), and a bit of luck to really be profitable for a company.  The Bateman Case Study competition is a for-real case study.  It's not a mock or pretend thing.  We're given real money and a real opportunity to run not only the case study but also the campaign.  We'll have from October to January to research and plan a campaign, and February to execute and measure how successful the campaign was.  It will be stressful and time consuming, but it's a real hands-on opportunity. This means when I go to a job interview, I'll have some very real experiences and can be an automatic asset to the company in which I'm interviewing.

I'm not saying all this to brag, but more like a "hey guys, this is really cool and I'm so so glad I've been given this chance."  I'm excited about the possibilities.  Mostly, I'm looking forward to being done.  Most of my friends have moved on, are getting their masters degrees or PHD's and I'll just be finishing my BS at the age of 26.  At the same time, I have friends that aren't really happy with their career choices or are still wondering what they're going to do when they grow up.  I'm a late bloomer in regards to my education, but I am so happy that I'm not only graduating, but I'm graduating in something I have a passion for and I can't wait to get in the game and show the world what I've got.  I feel like I've gained a lot of life lessons and I recognize that life doesn't always turn out as planned.  I feel like I'm a more mature graduate and though my hopes for career success are optimistic, I'm also realistic.  I know its going to be a long road before I'll be working in my ideal position.  But I have also made steps to make my odds for a job right after graduation in my favor.  Overall, I'm confident and content of the path before me. And while I've got all these emotions running through my veins at once, there is an overriding sense of peace. So here's to the beginning of the end! For all of you who are also going to school, good luck.  And for those of you who are also finishing up this year, I hope you're just as excited and content as I.  Cheers!     

Go World

Not that I'm doing some free advertising for Visa or anything, but these little commercials make me tear up.  I love the Olympics, the stories, the heartbreaks and triumphs.  I love that it's the one time we can all get together, and try to love one another right now.  It's a feeling similar to Christmas, only its all over the world.  And I'm not much of a sports fan, but man oh man, do I get into The Games.  It's something of a family tradition.  And someday I'll go.  Till then, these clips and the TV will have to suffice.  Enjoy.

 

A Man Walks Down the Street

Let's get things started.

I've been interested in Paul Simon's Graceland for a while.  This last week I watched a documentary on the Grammy winning album and immediately I had to get it and just absorb all of it.  To my surprise I had quite a few of the songs on the album, but I went onto iTunes and bought what I didn't have.  Graceland is amazing.  And I will tell you why.  But don't just take my word for it, take a good listen to the album in its entirety.

Next song:

Paul Simon was needing a rejuvenation so he decided to make an album in Africa.  Why Africa, I don't know, but he went there with no idea of what would become of it.  He quickly gained a love of the people of South Africa and all their rhythms and melodies.  He found local musicians and a recording studio and just started jamming.  From those jam sessions he pieced together an album.  

Paul Simon thought it presumptuous to write anything in the perspective of the native people, so instead her wrote songs like this, Homeless, and had the local artists perform them.  It's just beautiful.

What I love most about this album is that though it sounds very African, you can still feel at home with it.  It doesn't carry my away to jungles and deserts far away.  It allows me to look at the world around me with a new light.  I can appreciate different aspects of where I live through this album that I've never noticed before.  It's great for the summer as well.  It just doesn't seem so hot outside when I'm listening to it.  Which may be a weird description, but it's truth.  Try it out sometime.

  

The Greatest American Composer

I know that is a bold statement, "the greatest American composer," but it's true.  This man was able to craft the feelings and attitudes of America into music like no other.  And he accomplished it in the most American way: by encompassing sounds from all over the world.  Aaron Copland's music is accessible to even the most ardent classical music listeners, yet complex enough for the most avant garde.  In fact, in his day, Copland was always pushing himself with his music and politics.  He studied music composition in Paris and was heavily influenced by Mexican folk, American folk, jazz, and the master composers of Europe.  He was one of the most influential avant garde's of his time, and yet he strived to make music that could be enjoyed by the masses.  Let's take a listen to some of his work.

This first one, entitled Orchestral Variations is an adaptation of one of his earlier pieces Piano Variations.  Notice all the stops and starts and all the dissonant chords?  That's the avant garde for you right there.  Also, its a bit hard to swallow, so don't feel bad if you can't listen to the whole thing.  But it is really good.

Now this one, El Salon Mexico is a bit easier to handle.  Notice that there is still a lot of stops and starts?  Also, I think that much of the melody if recognizable if you're a Looney Tunes fan.  Looney Tunes, or Merry Melodies often took great classical pieces and adapted it to cartoon slapstick.  But there is still a lot of dissonance going on, which is Copland's avant garde side still making an impression on his work.

Now, this is his Appalachian Spring which is awesome.  It has a slow start, as most of his works do, but get to about a minute-thirty and you've got the feel of America: vast, wild, open, space.  He gives his notes a lot of freedom, and Copland has been known to say that he always tried to only put important notes in his work, no excess.  Which ties in nicely to the Simple Gifts theme he puts in later into this piece.  Copland's politics enveloped the ideals of the Shakers, hence the homage to theme in using this hymn.

 'Tis the gift to be simple, 'tis the gift to be free

'Tis the gift to come down where we ought to be,

And when we find ourselves in the place just right,

'Twill be in the valley of love and delight.

When true simplicity is gain'd,

To bow and to bend we shan't be asham'd,

To turn, turn will be our delight,

Till by turning, turning we come 'round right.

Fanfare For the Common Man makes me cry, almost every time I hear it.  The tight harmonies played by the brass section, gives me chills (I'm a sucker for great brass harmonies).  This song makes you feel okay with being an American.  Notice there are stops and starts throughout this one too? 

Now, if this isn't America, then I don't know what is.  Hoedown from his ballet, Rodeo is part of the ballet called Four Dances.  It's the last number of that section, and the most raucousy and fun.  It's triumphant, bold, and it gets me going every time I listen.  At this point in his career, Copland has, in a way, put down the dissonance he was so fond of early in his career for more pleasing fourths and fifths.  But he was still pushing the envelope in that his contemporaries thought he was selling out by creating something so easily accessible.  Copland was never a snooty artist, but instead embraced America in a way that no other composer has been able to do.  Not to ignore the Irving Berlin's or George and Ira Gershwin's of America, but Copland was there first.  In fact, he inspired them and they learned a lot from him.  Before Copland, American composers just mimicked European composers with little variation.  Aaron Copland took a deep look inside America and his thought and feelings towards his native land and vocalized it in a way no one has ever been able.  He is America's Greatest Composer.  

  

Prometheus

So there's a whole Alien franchise that I didn't really know about or have interest in until last October when I watched Aliens.  At the time I didn't realize that Aliens was the second film in the series but is considered by some to be better than the first, Alien.  My take on it goes with my usual feeling that the first is always the best and that the following films get worse and worse.  While the first two films were directed by the legendary Ridley Scott and visionary James Cameron, the following Alien 3, Alien Resurrection, Alien vs. Predator, and Alien vs. Predator:Requiem, were all filmed by upcoming/unknown directors where constant struggle of creative control took place. Oftentimes filming wold start before the script was finished and then the studio would take over and twist editing around to make it a completely different movie than what was initially envisioned.  Basically its the unfortunate case of studios wanting to make more money by using a plot that will bring sure-fire success and fans being too crazed to prove the studios wrong.  Ridley Scott created a monster, or alien in this case.  So, about thirty years later, Scott came back and created Prometheus which came out June 8.  One can always feel at ease when the original creator comes back.  This film has the look and feel of the original.  It's slow, deliberate, and not all about the scary blood and guts that the franchised had turned into.  It even feels consistent with Aliens and I think that's more of a tip of the hat to James Cameron for being able to pick up on Scott's intentions.

Here's the trailer of the original:

And here's a trailer of Prometheus:

Notice that just in the trailers of the two, it has a shared fluidity?  From the music to the sound effects to the ship and even to a strong female lead freaking out about what she is experiencing, there is a sense that these two films belong together.  

On another note, I want to point out the cleverness of those who promoted Prometheus.  I feel that people are getting bored by the same old traditional trailer and movie poster that has been able to sell movies for decades.  They want something new.  And some marketers are getting that.  Recently The Hunger Games put on a brilliant campaign that charged head-on to social media and was incredibly successful, especially given the fact that they used half of their usual man power and spent a fraction of their usual budget to promote that film.  And while the marketers here didn't necessarily play towards social media, they did do a bit of a revamp on the old teaser trailer by making promos that were released virally.  The same could be said for the many spoof trailers made for The Muppets.  It all depends on the audience the film is trying to target and if you notice, each of these films knew who they were going for.  Teens and young adults are all about social media (Hunger Games), young adults, and more importantly young adult males, are more apt to look on different sites and nerdy blogs to find stuff that interests them (Prometheus), and families are still obsessed with YouTube to find all their entertainment (The Muppets).  It is also important to note that while each film in this case had a highly active online presence, they also went the traditional route with commercials, posters, ticket giveaways, promotion tours, news releases, etc.  But with the way technology is ruling the world these days, I often wonder how long will the traditional route last?  I guess time will only tell.  Enjoy some Prometheus promos (Promotheus'?).

   

Take Shelter

So, I haven't been to good at this lately, but I'll be better now that it summer.  I still watch a ton of movies, its just that none of them have inspired me to write till now.  Sure I've watched The Avengers, Pirates! Band of Misfits, Dark Shadows, and a myriad of other films; but none of them blew me away like Take Shelter.  It is thoughtful and thought provoking.  I'm still thinking about it and its been about a week.  The film has many themes that we all can relate to: family values, faith, duty, honor, emergency preparedness, responsibility to our community and friends, and the constant questioning of our existence and sanity.  I highly recommend it to anyone. 

My first reaction to the film was amazement.  First, amazement at how good it was, and second, amazement that it was rated R.  I didn't understand at all why it received such a rating.  I looked it up and it has six "F" words.  That's it.  I know many of you think of this as only justification for watching an R rated film, but hear me out.  The themes of the film which I mentioned in the previous paragraph are major elements of those with high morals.  If you're going to let yourself miss out on such a good movie because of a few cuss words (which, by the way, your kids hear way worse at the schools they attend), then maybe you don't deserve to watch it.  I get tired of those who let a rating decide whether or not they'll watch a movie.  I would rather look at content than the rating.  And there are plenty of websites that will tell you exactly what and why certain content is in the film.  People, mostly my own family, accuse me of not properly filtering what I watch.  I beg to differ.  I am very careful at what I consume, its just that I don't let an R rating hold me back.  The way the rating system is set up is very political and corrupt, and unfortunately, some of the better films to watch are given a harsher rating.  You can watch a stupid, slutty, poorly filmed and acted movie that is rated PG-13 or you can watch a quality filmed and acted movie that is artistic and contains many relateable and thought provoking themes that is rated R.  Overall, its a decision that the individual has to make, but know that the world many times is not black and white.  You can easily test your morals with a PG Airplane! (full frontal nudity, anyone?), as you can with an R There Will Be Blood (no cuss words harder than 'damn' or 'hell', but it does get a little violent in one spot, count em, one).  The choice is yours.

Also This is Cool

So there's this New York Times Screen Test channel thing on You Tube that is pretty cool. Here are some of my favorites.



JGL, how I love thee...



Carey Mulligan. You are pretty cool.

Awesome

So I watched Cabin in the Woods yesterday with some friends last night and man oh man. It was pretty freakin awesome. I'm not one for horror. My mind goes to weird places when its all dark and quiet and creepy. Like when I get up to go to work before the sun is up. And the thoughts of the scary movie can last for days. But every once and a while I watch one anyway, because many horror flicks are a lot of fun. This movie was no exception. It was funny, suspenseful, bloody, and very aware that it was a horror movie. Which made it just fun to watch. The story line is quite enthralling and I was thoroughly entertained throughout. So maybe check it out.

Let The Games Begin!

So I've been annoyingly excited about this movie/series. Just ask my sisters and roommate. About every other thing I have to say somehow involves the movie or book. But as you might have picked up on, I am a sucker for any story with a strong female lead. I don't know why, maybe I consider myself to be a strong female or that I am surrounded by a bunch of strong females, or maybe that I feel that strong females are underrepresented in the media. Whatever the reason, I really connected with the main character Katniss. Mostly because she tends to do and say things without giving a crap, which oftentimes gets here into hot water. (Sound like someone you know? It's me. I'm the someone you know.) She lives in the moment and doesn't waste much time thinking about the unforeseeable future. (Also me.) Here is a clip to help prove my point. In this scene she is trying to impress the judges with her skills but the judges couldn't care less about her, so she, well, you'll see.

Her main goal is to live--and most of the time she expects to die. (Not me so much, although one of my top goals is to live...)

And then of course its got blood and guts and stuff, which is always cool. Speaking of which, many people are perturbed by the kids killing kids thing, but for some reason it didn't disturb me. One reason I am not bothered is that I feel death and killing is disturbing no matter what your age is, it's something that shouldn't be done if you're 9 or 90, so it wasn't a bothersome issue that it was kids any more than if it was adults. My other reason is that...wait for it...its only a book. An enthralling, engaging, entertaining book, but a book nonetheless. I am able to walk away from it and go back to reality. I can separate it as fiction and move on with real things. Like homework (which I am putting off at the moment so I can geek out on this.) Anyway, the midnight showing is tomorrow and I am going with my Sarah sister and my Hunter nephew. Then I am going to watch it on Saturday with ma peeps. And I may already have plans to watch it again on Tuesday with Tanner Banners. Happy hunting everyone!