Sunshine Award

 

Well, I was going to write the second part to my Good Movie series here, but I was nominated for the Sunshine Award by Isaac Benjamin so here I am with this post instead. Thank-you Isaac! After all, A Good Movie Part 2 can wait. :) 

The questions I was given and my answers to the same are as follows.

1. If you could go anywhere, where would you travel?

Does this question limit me to one place??? That's not very nice. :) Well, lately I have really been wanting to visit Normandy, France. I would love to walk the beaches made so famous by the Allied troops during the week of June 6th, 1944 and to see the numerous cemeteries honoring the fallen Allied and German soldiers who fell there. Plus, it would be a great opportunity to do some on-site research for my WWII book. There are many other places I would like to visit too, like Scotland and Rome.

2. If you could live in 1945 would you?

A. That all depends on where I'm living. J

3. Would you mind if there was less gravity on Earth?

I don't think I would mind. I've never experienced a planet with less gravity though, so I could never be sure. I imagine that it would take some getting used to. 

4. What is your favorite movie genre, (Kind of movie)?

That is a tough question. I really like Lord of the Rings and Narnia, but I watch very little fantasy other than that. I have seen many amazing and meaningful war movies, but that’s not really my genre either. Action is a pretty wide genre to state as a favorite, but that's probably the one that fits my interest best.

5. Who is your favorite author-director-artist?

I think I'll probably go ahead and answer two of those. As my readers are probably aware, Lord of the Rings is my favorite book(s) but I can't say that J.R.R Tolkien is my favorite author. Based entirely on the author, I think that Rafael Sabatini, and G.A Henty are probably my favorite. There are good authors, but I don’t really have a particular one that I love more than any other. C.S Lewis and Chesterton are really good too though. As you can probably see, that question is a bit difficult.

My favorite director is Steven Spielberg. He has done some movies I don’t like, but he has produced many good ones. I don’t really keep up on directors that much so I don’t have wide knowledge in that area. I must say that I like Peter Jackson too, for his admirable efforts with Tolkien’s books.

6. Favorite book series?

That’s easy. Lord of the Rings. But I have also enjoyed the Anne of Green Gables Series, The Tripods, Narnia and the Black Stallion series when I was younger.

7. If you could have had any other name, what would it be? 

A. Well, not to avoid or be a stick-in-the-mud, but I really like the name I have and I wouldn’t trade it for any other.

That’s all of them I think. The people I nominate are as follows:

Rachael at idratherbeatthebeach.com

Shack at pdsplatypus.blogspot.com

Arwen at noble-maiden.blogspot.com

Josh at colinmcman.blogspot.com

Ryan at thegreatadventure12.blogspot.com

Anna at annaattaway.com

T-sword at epic-tsword.blogspot.com

Sarah at turkish-delight14.blogspot.com.tr

Daniel at behindmybigscreen.blogspot.com

My questions for my readers:

1. If you could pick anywhere to live, where would it be?

2. If you could meet any author, who would it be?

3. What type of music do you like?

4. Best line from the Princess Bride?

5. How much quoting do you do every day?

6. Do you play any instruments? If so, what?

7. What is your favorite season of the year?

8. What is one of your biggest dreams in life? (i.e. skydiving, be a pilot, win the Kentucky Derby, etc. J)

9. What is your absolute favorite thing to do?

10. If you could be anywhere right now, where would it be?

11. Have you ever wanted to just get lost somewhere for a week or two?

12. Does a cat look like potential food to you? (I have a sense of humor, ok?)

13. If you could have had any other name, what would it be? '

Okay, I know this is a common question to ask, but I'm going to ask it anyway. 

14. What is you favorite color? 

15. What would be your dream career?

A Good Movie

Series: A Good Movie

Part 1: On Box Office Hits

            Throughout the years since TV was first invented, the public has been submitted to a variety of movies and theater presentations from silent films and musicals to epics and thrillers. Over time, our special effects, computer software and HD cameras have set the bar high in the technical department of the movie industry. With the invention of airplanes and faster modes of travel, film studios are now able to fly their cast and equipment to any set they choose, giving them the benefit of both equipment and location. Peter Jackson filmed both the Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit epics in New Zealand, Spielberg filmed The Raiders of the Lost Ark in France, England and Tunisia, and more recently, Thor 2: The Dark World was filmed in England and Iceland. Unrestricted and unlimited, the modern film industry has been able to produce some of the world’s most advanced films in its history, creating movies with stunning special effects and stunts. However, is technological advancement the prerequisite of a good movie? And is it the reason that a movie is able to claim the title of a ‘classic’ as it grips the hearts and emotions of its viewers?

This, then, is the question before us: What gives a movie the necessary power to shock its viewers and send them out of the theater unable to forget what they have just seen? There are different ways that movie producers and directors attempt to make a movie memorable. Graphic movies, horror movies, suspense thrillers and dramas are a few of the ways, but is that kind of remembrance the one a good director or producer wants to leave with his audience? There are some who think that, but while I agree that you will definitely make the audience remember you, it is not just remembrance that you need to make a box office hit, and it is not just being a box office hit that makes a movie good.

In order to get on that chart of ‘top ten grossing movies’, your movie has to not only make it to the theaters, it also has to be watched by millions of people. In order to get that kind of audience, the movie doesn’t just have to be good—it has to be advertised and in order to do that you have to have connections, and not a little bit of money. There have been many good movies produced over the years that would have made more money if more people had known they existed. Not everyone in the world checks the theater every week to find out if any new movies have come in, and not all good movies even make it there. To be accepted to a theater, your movie has to be attractive and prospective to the owners of the theater. They have to believe that it will attract enough people to be worth their time, and if they don’t think it is going to do that, then they will replace it with a different movie. Once the movie makes it to the theaters, it will have to be advertised enough to get its initial audience. Once it does, the snowball starts rolling.

Once a movie makes it to the theater, it will be subjected to a variety of praise or criticism depending on the movie and popular culture at the time of its introduction. If the initial response is positive, then people will start talking about it and if enough people go to see it and share it on Facebook and other similar social media sites, the larger media will very likely pick up on it, and the snowball of fame will start growing. More people will go to see it, more people will praise or criticize it, more people will write reviews, and consequently, more people will hear about it and repeat that process. Assuming that the popular reaction to the movie is positive throughout all these stages of the process, it will become a box office hit. The purpose of the next section of this article is to define ‘positive’ in the phrase ‘positive reaction’ and to show you what that means and how it changes. The purpose of the third section of this article will be to show that being a box office hit can be an indication of a good movie, but it is not the fundamental or necessary factor in determining the quality of a movie. In the fourth section, we will discuss heroes and work on identifying the qualities that transform a protagonist into a hero. I will use the fifth section to wrap up my arguments and present them in an outlined fashion.

The Queen and the Soldier

Hello everyone! I recorded this a while back but as I had an abundance of things to post on, I saved this one for a later point, which proves to be now. Hope you like it! I am taking song requests at the moment, so leave a comment if you are interested. 

Winter in Russia, 1812

In 1812, the proud French emperor Napoleon Bonaparte attempted to take Russia in a six-month long campaign that stretched throughout at least four harsh winter months. Throughout the bitter campaign that followed, Bonaparte lost approximately 380,000 men. Some estimate the casualties as closer to 450,000. These deaths were not caused by bombs, machine guns or missiles, nor even to bayonets and inaccurate single-shot muskets, but exposure to sickness and freezing temperatures. More men were lost in the campaign on Russia than either Britain or America put into the field during the entire Revolutionary War or the War of 1812, better known as the French and Indian War, which was going on at the same time. In the entire invasion of Russia, Bonaparte only crossed blades with the Russian army a few times. The tragic loss of life was due mainly to natural causes. This is the first part of a poem I wrote in memory of their campaign.

The Russian Winter of 1812

Open your mind and close your eyes,

And follow me if you can,

To a land where the snow never melts,

Where the lonely tragedy began.

Imagine the boots on a frozen plain,

The wind a howling whirl,

Their banners flying through the storm,

And through the gale unfurled.

The wind whips through their tattered ranks

And leaves its icy grasp

Upon the hearts and souls of each,

As through the plains they pass.

Long have they traveled upon the road,

And longer still have they to go,

Through wind and rain and hail and sleet,

On paths of freezing ice and snow.

Troubles mark their slow progression

And thousands will fall before the end,

For an icy rage in the hand of Winter

Is a fearsome foe to offend.

The cheerful rays of a summer sun

Have long since fled this land

There is no hope of victory,

But the troops go marching on.

The snow stretches across the fields

But melts with the coming rain

Churning the paths to a treacherous mire

To slow the retreating campaign.

Along the road lie the bodies of men

Half-covered with ice and snow

And horses lay prostrate and rigid,

Under the silent shadow.

The march is cruel and terrible

Men fall and fail to rise,

“Winter is with the Russians!”

That is their final cry.

Indeed, what other reason can there be?

To explain this woeful tale,

For if Winter were with the Frenchman,

Then her sons would not have failed.

What a Day!

Oh what a day! Starting off with the luxury of sleeping in until 8:00 and ending with a good book and a cup of tea! Oh but there were other things in between, like driving along windy and rain covered roads through familiar towns to see people who are literally 'familyiar'. But the best was yet to come. =Standing outside under a small overhang playing everything you can think of on an electric guitar with two fun and invincible guitar players who couldn't care less that the rain is coming down in sheets around us! Less-than-melodic sounds emanate from the amplifiers but no one seems to notice or care about them or the rain. Neither did I.

 I'd be willing to bet that none of you expected that bit about the guitars. I bet you expected me to talk about cups of tea and good books and romantic smells of rain and earth. There is that too. :) But if you know me, you know that standing in the rain playing a second-hand guitar has a bit of a Jukebox Hero feel to it, and that romanticism has never been my forte.

But that was not the end of my day. I gingerly packed up my guitar with the careful attention and serious expression that one would use in handing a baby over to a friend on the other side of a cliff and then made my way home. (I actually got that expression today from someone when I picked up their guitar. :) It is a look of surprise, supressed fear, intense inward stress and more than a hint of if-you-dare-drop-that-I-am-going-to....to...do-something-terrible-to-you!' I give people that look every time they breathe on my guitar. Some people call it obsessive, I call it 'cautionary action caused by lack of replacement funds and imminent possibility of damage caused by user's potentiality for ineptitude and carelessness'.

 But I told you there was a bit of the romantic as well. Sitting with candles, tea and cookies with 'Les Miserables' on my lap and my eyes on the opposite wall going, why, why, why, am I reading this book? Yes, yes, it is a classic, and a very good one, but Mr. Hugo seems to have thought of a million ways of avoiding dialogue and things that actually have a very important bearing on the immediate plot. If you doubt me, consider that when one is one pg. 615, you are just now only halfway through the book and the fact that the font size is 9. When I have finished it and watched the movie I suppose I will not regret having read it so I will stumble forwards to its completion.

What else? Well, then there is right now. Outside the fields are saturated with water, a cold northern wind is blowing and the pond has overflowed its banks. Our basketball hoop was split in two by ferocious winds, narrowly missing our car, and rivers of water are running through the pastures. But I am inside, writing this post, with every soundtrack from Braveheart and Sherlock to The Avengers and Spiderman playing in the background. 'Les Mis' is sitting beside me, judgmentally viewing my neglect of it and I am looking at it with the expression of one who knows his fate is approaching. Ah! well, "If we are marked to die, we are enough to do our country loss..."

P.S. When I am done with Les Mis, I shall come back and write what I thought of it, and if my opinions now were made prematurely, I shall correct them and state my new opinion.

P.P.S Here is a link to the great St. Crispin's Day speech where the above quotation is from.