A.S. Fireside Chat

It’s In Our Hands

The story I told about the two girls and the blue butterfly was my adaptation of an old proverb that I once heard my mission president tell.  The story came a t a rough time for my mission when a lot of people were feeling discouraged.  The proverb was a parable of faith in oneself and an encouragement to use our free agency to let our hope live on.  I re-told the tale and it principles again and again on my mission and through it, was led by the Spirit to some of the most spiritual moments I would ever have in my life.  When told right, (hopefully I did it some sort of justice during the fireside night), the story has uplifted many people near and dear to me.

It was odd at first, telling something so spiritual and somber when most of my peers have generally seen the more active and comedic side of me.  I had something else planned out that would have fell a bit more into those lines, but I’m glad that I chose the butterfly story;  I wasn’t expecting to have such empowering speeches to follow up to that night.

The Fireside Chat as a whole?  Well, I managed to fill about four pages worth of my journal with the notes—more than even my General Conference section. The Sprit was just so strong in the room that night that answers to many of my questions just seemed to flow, and even a few moments of inspiration came about.   The more I watched, the more I wanted to watch.  I was continually impressed by my classmates and the spirits, (comedic, gospel, and creative), that they managed to exert.

It’s a bittersweet deal though: that was our last big night together.  After this semester, we’re all going to branch off into our specified departments.  It’s been a long time since I’ve actually cared enough abut my classmates to worry about missing them, and our experiences this semester—culminating in the Fireside Chat—brought us closer together than I had thought possible for a cold, closed heart like mine.  It’s been a rough year for me, but this group has brought a beacon of light into my life.  The kids are definitely all right, Offspring.  Now I guess it’s up to us to decide if we stick together through thick and thin or split up.  Either way: it’s all in our hands.

A.S: Concerned Citizen

The National Parks:

Concerned Citizens

            One of the main things that stuck out to me during our readings and viewings was that the people referenced could be anyone: despite money or background.  Brad Barber’s documentary of a humble sheepherder from Iron County Utah is a great example of this.  This under-the-radar citizen may not have been out to save the world, but he was firm in his beliefs and practices of saving a little bit of his world from the rest of it by respecting and appreciating the culture of the land.

            Bilin’s reenactment of popular characters from Avatar during a riot over land was a clever way of sending a powerful message to their oppressors—in a permanently marking way.  Countless protests have been fought in that area over land rights, but this time some concerned citizen had the idea to use popular media to their advantage—whether their reasoning was justified or not.  The protestors needed something more than just a few picket signs, megaphones, and the occasional smoke bomb.  They needed a creative channel to convey their message, and they found a way to do so that many people would be able to sympathize and also empathize with.

            Liz and I were blessed with a connection to Brady Parks; lead singer of the local band The National Parks.  I’d never heard of the band before, but my friend said that they donated a portion of their proceeds to the National Parks Association. 

A few phone calls later and Liz and I were on our way for a Q&A session with Brady.            It was apparent right off the bat that Brady was a humble, down-to-earth guy who didn’t give himself any more creds than just a normal guy trying to make it and make a difference doing the thing he loves.  Turns out, the band and even band name existed before the idea to donate to national parks (National Parks being a play off of Brady’s surname).  A documentary was being filmed to raise public awareness about conservation and Brady and the gang were contacted to write the theme song for the documentary. 

            One thing led to another and the idea was passed out that the proceeds of the single should go to benefiting the parks.  People loved the idea and the song was professional and fun.  The song soon went viral over the internet and within twelve hours, it had reached the top forty list on iTunes.  The National Parks (the band, I know, it gets confusing writing about it) are not sponsored by, or directly affiliated with the National Wildlife and Conservation group: it was just a one time trick that did a great job acting as a channel for Brady and the band to gain some positive recognition—which played well with their band name.

            Brady says that the band does not dedicate all of their proceeds to the parks conservation fund, yet the group is currently working on some new material and outlets that follow in the same vein as their first big fundraiser. Visiting national parks has always been a part of the National Parks’ lives, and they couldn’t imagine a world without them. Their small contribution—made in their own creative way— is something that they are rightfully proud of and aim to continue pursuing.

The National Parks: Concerned Citizens

Here's our video and a link below in case it doesn't work.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C3DjebDqGdg

A.S: A Game for Change

In our Genes

            Discrimination, racism, and chauvinism: it’s all in our genes. No, seriously though.  You are the victim of bullying because your ADHD or hereditary diabetes, or dyslexia—take your pick—because you were born that way.  Nothin’ you can do about it sonny-jim.    

            Chimamanda Adichie, creator of the Facebook charity game Half the Game.  When she was a little girl, Adichie was introduced to a friend who had very little to eat due to his family’s poverty. One day, her friend’s made a beautiful basket.  It shocked Adichie, because she had never thought that something so beautiful could come from someone so poor—in her child’s eye, poor was just who they were, as if character’s in a book.

            We are all born with a “single story”: the way we have been nurtured in the nature that we grew up in.  Naturally, we are either intrigued or frustrated with any changes in our views of normalcy.  In my personal book of ethics, there’s nothing “wrong” with having a disability at any level—even though that may be considered something wrong with you by the public.  It is important to recognize our difficulties and treat them as needed, but never has it proven beneficial to run from or hide our faults instead of seeking help for the things that seem chemically, emotionally, intellectually and politically, out of our control.

            The 1997 film Gattaca addresses the idea of genome manipulation, and poses the question: what if we could pay to have our negative genetic traits removed before birth?  Essentially, the film creates a dystopian society where those who have not been enhanced genetically are discriminated and cast out from prestigious lines of work and athleticism.

            Such selective processes date back as far as sixth century B.C. when Spartan leaders [1]would slay their newborn babes who seemed to have been birthed with any type of deformities so as to preserve their superior gene pool.  Adolf Hitler conducted similar practices during his Arian race campaign. This movement brought about the establishment of breeding facilities where his selected elite could mate with various women in attempts to produce a superior generation of über-men. 

            In 2002, (incorrectly quoted as 2008 in my game Engene), President George W. Bush released various press statements[2] regarding the moral ethics of human stem cell cloning, body cloning, and severe genome alterations.  Engene addresses the issue of potential implications of the science, and also the general obliviousness that people seem to have of the subject, having cast the talk of genome manipulation to the wayside of science fiction folly[3].  The game Engene is set in the world of Gattaca, and allows you to play as an agent for a fictitious job referral agency.

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[1] ) http://www.history.com/news/history-lists/8-reasons-it-wasnt-easy-being-spartan   AND  http://internetbiblecollege.net/Lessons/Killing%20new-borns%20in%20ancient%20greece%20and%20rome.pdf

[2] http://www.pbs.org/newshour/bb/white_house-jan-june02-bush-cloning_04-10/

[3] http://www.genome.gov/10001772

Engene: A game for change

This is my text-based short adventure.  It draws influence from the film Gattaca in setting, though the principles date as far back as 6th century B.C. Engene addresses the modern day ignorance of human genome alteration and attempted specified eradication. Misspelt words are highly likely to be found.

And yes, I did that on propuse.

http://www.philome.la/SirNeekolas/engene

A.S.: Web-spinna' Battle

We’ll Be Back

            Webspinnas: us?  Whodathunk?  This was by far one of the most enjoyable experiences I’ve had in this class so far.  This one really pushed us to be as creative as possible, while still working within specific limitations.  Costumes are always a plus, and the social interactions that took place during the making of the battles were things many of us will fondly reflect on for years to come.

            Jacob and I decided to mix our nerdyness and push our spinna’ skills to the limits.  Neither if us had ever had much experience in sound mixing, but we immediately drew from a wealth of memories of our genres: science fiction and fantasy.  Our greatest challenge lay within our own authorial cores: he and I are both passionate writers, and we struggled to get our story out just like we wanted it to.

            After a few run-throughs of the rough draft story, we realized that less was more, and that the more we simplified our sound clips, the easier it was to gain some free space to wiggle around in.  After cutting the fat, we ended up with a fairly solid short story in sync with classic hero’s journey tales of warriors rising from humble beginnings to thwart a monumentally evil force.   Technical difficulties ensued during our performance, but we managed to save the moments as best as we could, and the laughs from the crowd seemed to dictate an appreciated approval of our work.

            Dubstep remixes and fan made YouTube videos greatly influenced our work.  Popularized dubstep sounds are very characteristic of a techno-sci-fi world, and we soon found a plethora of “dubbed” sound bytes from films.  This inspired me to try and make our entire battle flow as if it were one mashed up dub song.  I opened with a classical version of the Imperil March from Star Wars, paused it at the musical beat, and played Kahn’s “Shall we begin?” line from Star Trek: Into Darkness; this was immediately followed by a dub drop in a remixed version of the imperial march.

            Jacob, not wanting his fantasy theme to be squashed by my heavy drops, did some questing of his own and found heavy metal renditions of songs from The Hobbit: an unexpected journey and Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone.  We were so engrossed in our story and the potential behind the music that we both determined to re-group after the battle and mash up our own YouTube mix of the event, in similar style of artists such as Pogo from our discussion/readings.

"What if we had dragons for hands...?"

Artist Statement: World Building

Hand of the Dragon

            The project seems to be based around a “what if?” premise, which led to some very funny, and downright outlandish, suggestions in class.   I was glad that mine wasn’t picked since the issue I chose was of a more serious nature, and this project seems to be a breath of fresh air in comedy.  World building was a fun exercise in creativity and open mindedness, though I’m not quite sure how helpful it was.

            All sorts of realistic things could come of any a world: no matter how bizarre it may seem.  As an example, a restricted access sign from Peter Jackson’s District 9 was shown which displayed an icon of an alien with a red cross circle through it, saying in captions “HUMANS ONLY.”  This is a fantastical idea: interplanetary aliens being discriminated by humans, but the sign looks as if it could exist in such a world, as is reflexive of similar signs that were posted during the time of color segregation in the United States. 

            An add campaign for the fictitious politician Harvey Dent was also displayed.  That campaign poster was not different than the posters in our reality, so if we treat the world of The Dark Knight as it’s own reality, it would be only sensible that a thing like that would exist…even though we do not see it in the film: it just makes sense.

            Star Wars has been the berth for countless “world artifacts” made by fans.  I’ve seen everything from Storm Trooper Aim Training School prints, to vacation pamphlets and videos for places like Tatooine, Naboo, and Coruscant (all of these artifacts are actually part of the interactive line environment on Disney’s Star Tours attraction).  In fact, the Star Tours attraction is a world artifact in and of itself, since the whole ride is supposed to be the docking bay for a fan-concocted travel agency.

            Brittany’s dragon idea was as comical as it was a brainteaser.  Just how would you eat food on a date if you had two mouths?  What if you liked a person but your dragon hand didn’t like each other?  How would puberty be different? Would they make pamphlets for that? Certainly the news would also be filled with reports of accidental burnings, and IHC would need an extended burn-care unit.  I was in charge of creating the newspaper article, complete with adds for dragonhand-based business pitches.

            I was a bit critical at the beginning of this statement, concerning this project. Looking back, perhaps this was also an exercise in belief.  As directors, writers, sound designers, etc. we are literally world builders.  We need to be so completely engulfed in our work that we start treat it as if it were actually real.  After that jumping-off point, creativity just comes naturally with the logic of the rules of the world we’re playing in. The best actors and authors have been using this skill for ages, so why not us?