Paradise Lost Album Release

•    The songs that I titled and made (in no particular order):  

In Adamantine Chains

•        The Narrator is talking of how the rebel angels got kicked out of heaven (the ways of god to man) during lines 35-50 in the first book. He further talks about the direct punishment that the angels are facing, such as being tied to Adamantine Chains on a burning lake. I think that the genre of music for this song is classical rock since you can make it remorseful but at the same time reflecting in a positive way. The man instrument would be a bass, saxophone, and a piano. It would open with a saxophone solo with a blues tone. The piano would then pick up the tempo to more of a blues-jazz rhythm . For tempo, the song would be around 86 (Andantino). The concept of the lyrics would be along the lines of “We fought him real good, but we still got the boot, and now we are burning in this lake. We are stuck on this rock, tied by/burning in these ADAMANTINE CHAINS.” Finally, the reason I picked this song title was because the Adamantine Chains is the best “prop” that is used to show how the devil is stuck both physically, and metaphorically.  Agony of Hell

      Serve in Heav’n

•       During this passage (lines 260-265, book 1), the Devil is talking about how they can rule here and need not to worry about God. It would be better rule in this Hell then go back to Heaven and serve God. I think that this song title shows the oppressive nature of god than theirs because serving in heaven means you are under someone’s command instead of being equals. I think the song genre should be hard rock since the passage has a rebellious and hatred aspect of Heaven to it (like the Black Crowes’ Hard to Handle). The song would open with a drum and bass. The drum would have high hats and a steady 16^th notes on the snare (with maybe some rim shots). The bass would be doing “slap-bass” (which is just syncopated rhythms on the bass that are used with the thumb and palm of the hand) similar to Push comes to Shove by Van Halen. The tempo would be about 125 or Animato. The lyrics would about how to is better to be free in Hell rather than be in Heaven and being in this fiery hell, and  be along the lines of “Well I served my time in Heaven till it came to judgement day. And I took to the roof, my eyes set ablaze. Cause we fought and died and rose again. That battle was never gonna end till HE called upon his friends. It was us against Stalin, Hitler, and al-Qaddafi, um, some fine men. Well we shot out like a bullet from a gun, and now we’re here in these flames. Cause its better to be in this eternal cavern than ever to serve in “hell”.      Oppressive Nature of God

Of present pain

•        The quote is from the book 2, lines 30-39. The devil is talking how the pain that they have endured unites them and that they are all equal. He also starts to open the debates on what to do next. I think this title is better than others is because the demons are all united by the same pain so that is what they fell brings them together. This genre would be Rock anthem because the demons need a song that they can use as their “national” anthem. The tempo would be slower than your average rock anthem. It would be similar to the start of American Pie, but would speed up during the middle and end of the song. The tempo would start at 90, and work its way up to 130. The song would have trumpets, guitar, and piano. They song would encompass their rise to seeking revenge. Like a Cats and the Cradle meets Hall of Fame. The lyrics would talk of fighting God well, and how they would rise up out of Hell and ‘show him’. “We just here a day ago, and now let the madness ensue. “Dum Dum Dum We will ruin him for eternity, and never let him live peacefully. So we will burn his throne, break the clouds, tear down the gates from Heaven’s sound. Take his heart, tear it out, cause we ain’t ever gonna let him live this down.”          The Unity of the Demons in the Devil’s Democracy 

 Receive thy new Possessor

•        During this quote (book 1, lines 245-253) says goodbye to heave since he will never go back and hello to his new home which will become a place that will never change. I think that this title is the best because Satan completely discards Heaven and embraces his new life without the tyranny of God. The song would have dark and happy lyrics to signify the lost of Heaven, but the gain of Hell. The tempo would be fairly fast, around 140, and the measure would be in 6/8 so it would be against a triplet. The song would have a long guitar piano combo break during the middle of the song like Voodoo Child. The song lyrics would be more dark of him saying good riddance and getting used to his new world, “If this man ever wanted to be my friend, he would’ve set me free. Oh, but no all he did was make us do his needs. Well, I got tired of it and now I rule this place, cause I’m better than that ruler, I am much chiller and they call me the new po-sses-sor, better than him, the new po-sses-sor, I rule this land!” The Rebellious, Anti-Establishment of the Devil

 Deliverance

•        This quote takes place in book 2, lines 260-270. Here the devil tells everyone that he will go up through heel, face all the perils to get man kind on their side. Deliverance is the best title because he is doing this deliverance for his people which is quite heroic. The song genre would pop with some folk rock. The song would be played with only acoustic guitars and a piano. It would have a similar feel to Don’t mess around with Jim. The song would be fast and upbeat, about 110. The lyrics would have them describing what they came out of and going to take over the human world. “We were banished, yet we stand tall, we don’t know defeat but we will live for infamy. So we rise out the pits and sail across the sea, we will rule with an iron fist. This, this, this is our deliverance.” I feel like this title is the best for the album cover because it captures the devil putting his plans into action, and showing his ways. Also, the devils shows both his sides during the debates, so we can see how he is manipulating all of his demons when going to the human world.   The Heroic Strength and Power of the Devil

  

Lady Macbeth

Lady Macbeth's psychological breakdown is due to all of the murderous events that both she and Macbeth have done. For instance, when Lady Macbeth says "Here's the smell of blood still. All/ the perfumes of Arabia will not sweeten this little hand" (5.1.53-4), she is describing that her hands are stained with so much blood, that they will forever smell like blood, no matter how much perfume she puts on them. These murders include Duncan's, Banquo's, and Lady Macduff's. It appears that Lady Macbeth is most distraught about Lady Macduff's death and Duncan's. Lady Macbeth says "The Thane of Fife had a wife. Where/ is she now?"(5.1.45) and Yet who would have thought the old man/ ti have had so much blood in him? (5.1.42-3). Lady Macbeth is portrayed deeply upset in the movie and is truly affected. Shortly after she says these quotes, she also begs her lord to stop "that" , most likely referring to the murders. The core of Lady Macbeth's breakdown is her husbands rampage murders wearing her down. Her husband has turned into a mad men who sees ghosts and kills every "threat".

Sonnets

Sonnet : Traditional Sonnet

Toaster’s True View

Innocent they seem, with springs and dials

Plugged in waiting for the command to brown

Toasting bread to perfection with style

No effort they use to make a great frown

They humbly wait for your command each day

With only the intentions to please you

They fulfill your command without a pay

And always make crunchy toast that you chew

But the great machine is an evil beast

Turning your white bread into a burnt brick

It does not care about your morning feast

It waits each day with eager to burn your toast

Turning each morning into a dark roast

Sonnet 2: Untraditional

The Drop Fly

The fly whipped upstream of the Musconetcong

Free-falling into the ripples below

Plunging into the depths, forever gone

Streaming the line out of the reel quite slow

The fly clumsily darts through the clear stream

Catching the eye of the glimmering beast  

It spontaneously jumps at the nymph

Creating tension, the weathered line creased

Old in age they are, living life day-by-day

The trout keeps fighting, losing ground

The trout is in the net, still

The man looks through its mouth, the fly now found

The beast is released, slowly gliding away

The flys’ casted back out, it lives one more day  

Trout= Life

Fly=day

Man= death

Explication:
The meaning behind the three characters are life, time and death. The trout represents your life, swimming around freely, with no knowledge of death. The fly, with no life itself, mirrors time. Each it is reeled in shows time moving forward and at one point, a creature will hit time and no longer have life. The man behind the reel is to represent death. This death would not be your typical grim reaper, but more of a godly figure, deciding as to when it is one's time to go. The inconsistent rhymes are to create of sense of awkwardness as the fly would be creating in the water. Also, death is a misplaced phenomenon in the world, making death  awkward in life as well. During lines 10 and 11, there is a major loss in syllables, wavering from the traditional 10. The reason behind these lines is to create distress from the pattern, much like the fish is feelings now that it is caught. In near death experiences, your breathing slows down and it is shorter. Thus when the trout was about to be "killed", it would be slowly breathing, thus the reason for not using as many syllables, then when the trout escapes death, it resumes its life normally, with the iambic pentameter resuming. In short, this poem is about becoming old and living each day without the true understanding of death. When you think you are hooked by the fly and cannot escape, death might just through you back on into the stream, because there is a bigger fish to fry than you.   

The other Essay Outline

Based on The Canterbury Tales, to what extent is Chaucer progressive in his views of the social hierarchy of his time?  Does he ultimately display reverent or irreverent view of this hierarchy?  

Thesis:  Through his characters, Chaucer disguises his progressive views and his irreverent views of the hierarchy.

Paragraph 1: What Chaucer’s progressive views are.

v  Small Complaint about the: going to many places in his time.

v  Goes down the ladder, gets more insulting of people.

§          Miller= steals from people, yet good at his job

§          Merchant=is in debt

§          Doctor=Cheats people with his medicine.

Paragraph 2: How his progressive views intertwine with his reverent views.

·         Chaucer shows the flaws in those higher up, but only mock the morals of the lower classes

o   Squire is a ladies man, but is in gaudy clothes and stays up to late

o   The prioress is fat and a bad eater

o   Pardoner sells pardons by scamming people.

Paragraph 3: Why Chaucer is more outspoken with the lower classes than the upper class

·         Chaucer uses double meaning to portray the knight et. others

Paragraph 4: How Chaucer’s real view is irreverent.

v  Mocks the high class with 

Death Tale Similarities and Differences

The “Pardoner’s Tale” and J.K. Rowling’s three brothers story are similar because both stories encompass three friends/siblings that encounter death and try to overcome it. For instance, in the “Pardoner’s Tale”, the three friends go on a hunt to kill death, but in his place they find gold coin. The friends then kill each other to get the coins all to themselves.  Similarly in J.K. Rowling’s story, the three brothers encounter death when they cheat him by successfully crossing the river and get rewards for doing so. Although both tales have a similar meaning, they vary in actions taken, character personality, as well as the plot. The actions taken by the three brothers vary quite differently from the “Pardoner’s” friends. The brothers were offered gifts from death and set up their own demise by the gift they asked for.  The brothers got a powerful wand, a power to bring the dead back to life, and a cloak to hide from death, but in the pardoner’s tale, the friends saw gold, but did not get gifts. The gifts that the brothers did get both helped and harmed them.  The brother who has the wand was murdered, the zombie guy killed himself and the other brother died of old age. However, in the pardoner’s tale, the friends kill each other, but ultimately in both stories death gets their lives. The character personalities in both stories also vary. The brothers in Rowling’s tale are both greedy and conservative but getting gifts that will help them, but the youngest son also helps his son with his cloak. The friends however, are ruthless in their greed and kill each other for their own fortune. Instead of helping themselves with still keeping their friends alive. The plots, however, are what differ  the most. In both plots, the characters meet death, but in the pardoner’s tale, death is disguised as a human where with the brothers, death is in his true form. Also, death gives the brothers “gifts” which ultimately kills them, where as in the pardoner’s tale the friend kill each other from greed, not from their gifts.   

Beowulf Film Project Group Assessment

In the Beowulf film project, our group had the Grendel and Beowulf fight scene. We parted the actual scene into four major parts: Grendel entering Herot, Grendel eating the Geat and attacking Beowulf, Beowulf fight scene and Grendel running away. To make this scene more authentic, we decided to film Grendel in the first person to emphasize the fact that he is not described in the book and to show the methods of Grendel’s attacks. The main themes that we tried to emphasize were “heroism” when we switched from first person to third person when the fight began to show Beowulf’s dominance, and “art & Beauty” by showing the chapel floors and stained glass window. Some other techniques that we tried to incorporate for cinematography was reflecting Grendel’s arm in Beowulf’s eye which depicted that we all have a monster inside us trying to come out. Also, we included Mise-en scene in our writing. For example, when Grendel first encounters Beowulf, he is “sleeping” and seems like the Danes. However, as he confronts Grendel, Beowulf goes crazy screaming “How many walls will your head go through?” This emphasizes Mise-en Scene because there is a sudden change in the character which is seen through his speech. 

Our Group performed extremely well in making the scene. Sydney worked very hard and diligently to make the Beowulf costume and get fake blood (even though we didn’t use it). Tim and I made lots of efforts to write the script, as well as, Tim and Kwabena learning their lines. For the actual execution of the film, we all knew the locations to film, where to stand (both actors and cameraman), and what our lines were because we had a successful, organized dress rehearsal. All of the members of the group supported each other to the utmost extent by complementing each other and giving advice. Tim and I sent emails back and forth to make a google doc scheduled time to work on the script which made it easier for both of us to work on the script at the same time. Furthermore, all of us kept in touch with each other to make sure that the our individual responsibilities were going smoothly. 

Halloween Participation Make-Up Work

The first 19 lines of the Prologue in The Canterbury Tales seems to start of with having a peaceful mood, but draws into a darker turn. Chaucer first talks about the budding flowers, and April showers. However, as I read down the lines, I discovered that Chaucer takes a dark turn. On line 10 Chaucer says "That sleep away the night with an open eye" shows that perhaps a person is being hunted and has to make sure that someone is not coming to kill him or it is just not a safe time. The tone of the book textually also differs from the beginning to the end of the 19 lines. Just like the mood, the tone seems to start off lovely with Chaucer describing beautiful scenery, however he throws bits and pieces of words and phrases that show a darker side. For example, on line 3, Chaucer says that "The veins are bathed in  liquor of such power". Why do veins be bathed in liquor? this might show that someone is extremely drunk but I am not entirely sure. The mood and tone for the tales are quite similar but the tone brings about a darker side.