Writing Log 1-21-12

This entry is a bit of a distortion, as I didn't actually write today. See, I wrote throughout parts of the plane ride that I took with a handful of students to Orlando, Florida, where we attended The Wizarding World of Harry Potter. I hand wrote a new short story that takes place in Jajiin, with a Corathan girl who isn't a Poetess and her slave (which I called a Shadow, a term that I think I'll go ahead and put into the main book).

What was worth remembering--and, because of that, worth writing the blog about--is that I hand wrote almost 3,000 words for the story on a plane. This is a major departure for me, as I almost never write anywhere but at my own home computer. After coming home, I transcribed and added a little to what I had originally written. I'm not sure where the story will go, but I know it's excellent background for what's going on concurrently with the events of my main book.

That's all.

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Rage Against the Video Game Machine?

NOTE: If you haven't read the ' Foregrounding ' blog post or the one entitled ' Rough Draft ', please do that first. They're both short, but they matter a lot for what you're about to read. Okay. Done. Enjoy. Zach de la Rocha: "On truth devoured/Silent play in the shadow of power/A spectacle monopolized/The cameras eyes on choice disguised." Rage Against the Machine's single "Guerilla Radio" from their Battle of Los Angeles album is a reaction against the political circus and faux-choice presentations during the 2000 elections. The quote is not in full context (it is much more political than theoretical) here, but it provides a powerful starting block. A little bit of re-punctuation will help to clarify the thrust: "On truth devoured, silent play in the shadow of power [is] a spectacle [that] monopolized the cameras' eyes-on choice disguised." Line by line, we see parallels between how video games are perceived outside o...

Dark Necessities

The second of my "music video essays", I'm exploring the single from Red Hot Chili Peppers' newest album, The Getaway , "Dark Necessities". As I did before, I'm posting the video and the lyrics here on the essay, and encourage you to watch and read along. In the case of the Peppers, it's always a good idea to have the lyrics handy, as the lead singer, Anthony Kiedis, has a tendency of mumbling and/or pronouncing words uniquely to create a particular effect--or he's super high, either possibility is there. The Set Up Here's the video: And here are the lyrics : Coming out to the light of day We got many moons than a deeper place So I keep an eye on the shadow's smile To see what it has to say You and I both know Everything must go away Ah, what do you say? Spinning off, head is on my heart It's like a bit of light and a touch of dark You got sneak attacked from the zodiac But I see your eyes spark Keep the breeze and go Blow...

Shatter Me

This is the fourth music video analysis (the others are all found here ). These essays try to use the visual medium to help encode an interpretation that the text both supports and obscures, allowing the director of the music video to provide an additional analytical lens. I'm looking at an artist whose music I stumbled into because of the instrumental work that she's best known for. The album, Shatter Me , features the eponymous track with singer Lzzy Hale, even though most of the tracks on Lindsey Stirling's records don't have a lot of vocals. There's a soft spot in my heart for Stirling's stuff because it is the music that most galvanizes me when I'm trying to write. I'm almost afraid of listening to it for fear that its power will be broken, but whenever a track from Shatter Me comes into my playlist, I find my ability to focus is heightened. (I have a hypothesis for why this happens, but it's immaterial here.) The Set Up This is the musi...

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