Wednesday, January 16, 2008

The Scottish Play

The first act of William Shakespeare's "Macbeth"sets a great foundation for the following scenes by instigating conflict between characters early in the play. The witches insinuate that Macbeth will become the Thane of Cawdor as well as King of Scotland. Intrigued by this news, and the justification of her husband's gain of the county of Cawdor, Lady Macbeth begins to conspire to kill the king for her husband's profit. Though his early thoughts were innocent, with the announcement of Malcom becoming the prince of cumberland Macbeth begins to doubt the witches prophesy, and think that he may have to take matters into his own hands to become the King. The act ends off being very provocative to the reader, having Lord Duncan and Malcom both Spending one night at Macbeth's Castle of Glamis, which leaves a great deal of tension between the inhabitants during their stay.



If i were to direct a remake of the play, I would make it a mockumentary following a pack of wolves living a dense forest during a harsh winter in the north. I would depict king duncan as the alpha-male of the group and the other characters as "lesser" wolves. It would not be so much of a remake, as it would be a work that parallells the same themes as Macbeth. In order to film this new version, I would use trained wolves for the majority of the most important scenes, but it would be great if I were able to encorporate some footage of wild animals displaying some of the behaviours and emotions that are displayed in the play. I'm certain that if a pack of wolves were to be followed by a camera crew for a long enough period of time, jealousy and betrayal would be seen on more than one occasion.

Friday, December 7, 2007

Ode to Our Ford..

The science fiction novel "Brave New World" has completely grabbed my attention. By the time I had finished the first chapter my whole perspective on society changed completely. What if the world was like this futuristic society? Could it possibly be more efficient? If a factory were to be staffed completely by identical twins that were specially conditioned from birth, specifically to complete their pre-destined career, I think that they could have great co-operation with each other, and in turn be extremely productive. But what cost is advancement worth? I certainly don't think that I would like to give up my individuality for the sake of manufacturing. But say our society were to condition people to enjoy what we were predestined to do, and were given every pleasure imaginable, people would generally be happier, and we would probably (once again) produce more.

Thursday, November 29, 2007

i wish i could compete for a million dollars.

I mostly agree with Kim Holden's view on reality television but I feel that she went a little bit overboard on the antagonization of it. Sure, I admit that I enjoy watching bikini-clad blondes hold their breath in a tank of ice cold water, and i definately don't mind watching beefy guys barfing because they couldn't stomach the "rocky mountain oyster" that they just gagged their way through, but minus a select few, reality shows are (in my opinion) over-scripted, over-produced, over-dramatic programs that are used to fill time between my "Bugs Bunny and Tweety Show" and my mom's hour long viewing of "House." When Kim writes that "We are more interested in finding out who's getting voted off the island than we are in our own local news," she completely missed the point. Millions of dollars go into producing reality shows to be entertaining, and I'm pretty sure that news stations' main goal isn't to attract viewers. Oh yeah, and about her comment "We seem morbidly fascinated with witnessing an individual being cornered by the group and getting told that they are not wanted,": if we only watched to see someone get voted off the island, we would stop watching after the first episode.

Friday, November 23, 2007

Gossip and how it gets that way....

Alright, so...

Gossip, I love it. Who doesn't? How else are we expected to know how many times Britney's dropped her baby on it's head, or why Brad and Angelina are vacationing in Tahiti? But as juicy and succulent as this extremely relevant information is, some one's privacy is being invaded. It seems that people today are having a hard time respecting the boundaries that others would like to think are in place, and in doing so, are starting a horrible trend. I feel that this article relates to the other piece that we read on reality television. People appear to be more interested in the negative than the positive. Gossip is acceptable in certain forms, for example; I try to tell people only about others' accomplishments or feats that I myself would be proud of. GOSSIP WILL NEVER DIE AS LONG AS THE MEDIA SURVIVES!