Dangers

There's a spectral beast outside your window. Waiting in the heckling, the coughing, the slow tread of huge cloaked crowds spreading their sick and their gossip around your apartment. The masses create a secret spiral. It locks you in, makes you afraid to open the door outside. You eat what's left of your wares and read the same books over and over. You are spectral, waiting for a slow hope to creep back in your body. The spirals in your hair curl over and over, afraid to relax from the apartment. You eat masses of creepy threads. You hold on tight to each one, unwinding in practicality, thriving in your mind palaces, the castles full of mead and beasts, skies of gossip and huge heckling crowds.

Veronica

                                                              

     Talk to me baby. Tell me what you’re feeling. You said you wanted me to come. Don’t you pretend you know how all of this would end up. I saw it in your eyes, and expectations were not in site. You knew that talking dirty to me on the phone would get me here and we both wanted to do this, but I could tell that you were scared. 

     Why you rushing me baby. It’s only us alone. I don’t want to die tonight baby, so let me sip this slow. I’ll give you what you called for. Just let me get in zone. I’ll be making love to her through you. So let me keep my eyes closed.I can’t see a damn thing. I can’t feel a damn thing, but I’m going to touch you right.

     With your louis V bag, tats on your arms, everybody wants you. You can have them all, but I got what you need. Girl I got your back. i got it all. I’ll give you something to live for. Yes I will.

                                          (These are phrases from various The Weend songs)

The Invasion

                                                              

                                                    

     The quagga mussels inhabiting Arizona’s Lake Mead are causing a dramatic change in the lake’s ecosystem, making it the very definition of a disturbance.  The quagga mussels established themselves in Lake Mead in 1988, after somehow being brought over from Eurasia. This invasive species has the ability to rapidly reproduce. They push out the native species that inhabited the area before them, thereby breaking the natural balance of the lake’s trophic level, or food chain. The native species simply cannot compete with the quagga mussels for resources so they are forced to move. The mussels create this “Clear Water Effect” where they filter out particles that are food for many other species in the lake.  The removal of these particles also allow for sunlight to penetrate deeper into the ocean allowing for toxic algae to grow in the lake. Lastly, these mussels create a slime build up that clog pipes as well as fishnets. Since the arrival of the quagga mussel species in America there has been a reported economic loss of five billion dollars. 

     An invasive species seems to be a human caused ecosystem disturbance. There are many examples of the idea to prove this theory. The first example is Asian carp brought over to America and placed in a body of water in an attempt to try and control plant life there. It then turns out that the Asian carp reproduces rapidly, and eats 20-40% of their weight in food every day. Native fish are then pushed out of their usual areas and smaller fish are even being eaten. That changes the balance of the trophic level, thereby creating a completely new problem than the initial one. Humans are then forced to try and find a way to thin the numbers of this invasive species through fish catching festivals or by monitoring food shops for Asian carp “trafficking”. 

     For the second example we will now turn our attention to Yellowstone Park.  A little while after Yellowstone Park is established humans determine that there are too many wolves in the area. They then decide to kill of the wolf species in that area. This allowed for the elk population to rapidly grow. Their consumption of the plants in the area went up until other native species were consequently pushed out. Luckily, by the reintegration of wolves back into that ecosystem the natural balance of the food chain was able to be restored. Actually, new species such as coyotes and foxes began to populate the area. It seems that every time that humans tried to control a particular ecosystem by the integration of a new species, or the removal of a native one, a new, more detrimental problem arisen.

     When it comes to the quagga mussels and Asian carp situation it looks as if we may have to eventually act on a national scale. It seems that in both cases these species have the ability to rapidly expand their territory and strongly disrupt the natural ecosystem. By doing so they create an environment that is harmful to nature and in many ways harmful to us humans. If these species continue to find their ways to more and more valuable water sources in America these affects may spill over into the ecosystems on land as well. 

     Many species use rivers, ponds, and lakes as sources for food, including humans. Since these invasive species begin to create health issues for land animals, there is only a matter of time before they would start creating health problems for us.  If some or all of these invasive species need to be removed from the water, then we should be doing whatever we can as a nation to restore a the balance back to a healthy  ecosystem, and also contribute time and resources to stopping these type of happenings in the future.

"Chosen" and "Chamakay" meditations on writing and whatever forever means for you

I work in obsessions, pretty much knead that shit too death,

but quietly. 

A cursory knowledge of everything 

one being has ever done,

and then barely speaking about it

to the chorus of my fellow 

routine-doomed-human-family

around me. 

But time and this chorus, this justly

formed bass and the clicks, 

the sweet and sad "I want to choose"

with the horns in the background,

while a sun lights up

his grandfather's house.

Family history style cavorting 

friends dancing against 

brick walls in your mind in your life

make something.

Make something like this that 

lasts, I tell myself. 

Some independent piece of work that will give some too-sad adult

an eternal feeling.

Just keep trying.

Keep writing.

The Art of Two Faces

                                                      The Art of Two Faces

     I’d like to place our focus on the film King Kong(1933). The composition of this film has two main elements that play a big part in what the spectators get out of this film. These two parts are the narrative and the illusion of the film’s reality.  In the reading The Role of Spectacle and Excess, by Leger Grindon, Grindon calls this ability to immerse the audience fully into the ideas and physical settings of the film the Spectacle. He then goes on to describe the effects brought about by the technology used to create the film’s visual and acoustic settings as a producer of Excess. Grindon defines the two ideas of Spectacle and Excess in his essay. 

     He defined spectacle as this ability to immerse the audience  into a film. What is  meant by this is that the narrative, visuals, and sound effects are all performing well enough to make the viewer believe that they themselves are actually in the film being viewed. For example, a film may give you a first person view of an intense scene in which the actor is facing some sort of danger. The audience might flinch or duck as a plane dives down at them, or scream when a man pops out from behind the door to attack a character in a film. Even though these spectators are not in real danger they react as if they are because of the affect that the atmosphere, created by the director, has on the viewer. Grindon believed that this made the audience susceptible to subconsciously absorbing the ideas being conveyed by the creators of the film.  If you control the film you control the audience. 

     Grindon’s essay then goes on to explain the idea of excess and its potential affects  on the audience and the film, excess being this reach for reality within a film through the use of special effects, causing the audience to reawaken from the trance that is the spectacle.  Through the over usage of the special effects in the film you then draw the attention of the viewers to just that, the special effects. This can then cause your audience to either miss the point you were trying to make through this whole new idea you created with your compensations, or the audience may shift their focus from your narrative to your creative process , because of it’s product’s bright presence throughout the film.

     King Kong is a great film to call attention to, because in this particular project the special effects play a big role in the way a viewer interprets this film. The film covers the story of a famous film maker going on a journey to create the best film ever seen by man. He builds a crew and sets out on an adventure to a fantastical island, where he plans to shoot his masterpiece.  He meets these African natives who worship this gigantic gorilla named Kong. He decides to bring Kong back to the city as an attraction, but Kong breaks free from his captors and causes problems in wanting of his love interest, the blonde lady. Eventually they kill Kong bringing an end to the film. 

     This film uses multiple special effects to bring to life Kong and his many adversaries, as well as the environment in which him, the natives, and the adventurers interact. Through the use of these effects on the film most of the attention is turned onto the Gorilla and the female actress. This completely changes the way one would view this film. Instead of focusing in on the predominantly caucasian male cast and their adventure, as would often be the focus in this time, we find ourselves looking at the creature and his interaction with the environments that he’s moving through throughout the movie. Kong and the main actress become the focus of the film and the main actors  become but props for Kong as he interacts with his new found love interest. The majority of the movie becomes focused on Kong and the lead actress due to all the special effects used to make him, the main focus, exist. Instead of the idea of the white male taming the big, black, highly sexualized gorilla, who intentions are conveyed to obtain the fair skinned blonde woman as his own, you get this story of a highly worshipped and feared gorilla god who will fight to keep close the woman he has chosen to love. In fact he loves her so much that the film shows us he is willing to die for her.

     Due to the use of these special effects to create a deeply convincing spectacle the director enhances the experience of the film to excess. This excess draws the attention to a completely different storyline that has the potential to change the idea of the roles that the individual character groups play in the film. In this way, trying to create the film’s captivating atmosphere through the use of special effects ironically creates a break in the illusionistic reality of the film allowing for reinterpretation from the viewers. It seems that the director uses this narrative as a way to create a film in a way that had never been done before. This idea turned his focus onto the creating of the film’s environment and off of the actual storyline of the film. So in this film’s case the special effects play a huge part in the way this film can be interpreted from beginning to end.

Ghengis Khan

                         

                                                          

     I was very interested to see how Ghenghis Khan was portrayed in the 2007 movie Mongols, as opposed to uncensored historical records. So I focused my research on finding out the culture of Ghenghis Khan’s time. I then used that information to historically critique the film. My findings were plentiful. The movie Mongols shows the story of Tedmujin as a young boy and his growth to a man, on the path to his universally known, conquering of mass parts of the eastern world. It focuses mainly on Tedmujin’s relationship with his wife Borte, his family, and his extended family. In the film he picks his bride at 9 and must come back to her in five years for the marriage ceremony. 

     Within those five years his father is poisoned and he is betrayed by his Uncle Targutai. Targutai decides to kill him, but his mother intervenes, reminding Targutai that Mongol’s customs state that it is shameful to kill a child or woman. Targutai agrees and vows to kill Tedmuji when he becomes a man. This gives Tedmujin enough time to escape as a child and meet his new brother Jamukha. Jamukha is his greatest ally and becomes his worst enemy. When Tedmujin grows up he goes and finds his wife, but as quickly as he can find her she is taken away from him by the Merkits. Temudjins father Esugei stole the wife of a Merkit, and so they repaid the favor. They were said to have the most beautiful women in all the clans. 

     He asks his new brother Jamukha to then help him get her back by going to war with this clan. Jamukha hesitantly agrees and asks Tedmujin for secrecy of the fact that he was taking his people to war over a woman. Tedmujin and Jamukha, as brothers, fights the Merkit clan and retrieves his wife back. This is where the main conflict comes to fruition. After the war Tedmujin then splits the bounty equally amongst Jamukha’s people as his second in command. They then comes to see Tedmujin as a generous leader. Meanwhile, Horte convinces Tedmujin that  he could never be leader as long as him and Jamukha resided in the same camp. 

     Tedmujin then decides to leave and many of Jamukha’s clan decides to go with him, including two of Jamukha’s brothers. This creates the main conflict of the movie as these two battle up until the climax in which shortly after the movie ends. The film is pretty authentic and pays great attention to detail in cultural occurrences. The film is shot using the Mongolian language. The director shows the mare milk often drank by Mongols in this time as the chosen drink in this film, as see it drank a lot through out the film. It was thought to give great strength to the rider. These are only a few of the authenticities present in this film. We will talk about some more later.

     Temudjin was known for many things. For example, his strategical movements in war. He was known to be very adept in battle maneuvers and often attacked with less military forces than the enemy, but often managed to prevail. The director shows this in the movie within two battles. Both of these battles are up against his brother Jamukha. The first is immediately after Tedmujin runs off with a large chunk of Jamukha’s army, therefore leaving Jamukha with no choice but to come after him. Greatly outnumbered  Tedmujin decides to find a high hill to be used as a bunker in which his archers can engage the massive forces approaching giving the women and children a chance to get away. Jamukha praises Tedmujin’s strategy in battle, but eventually defeats him and takes him captive. The second is in the final major battle of the film, which is the massive forces of Jamukha against Tedmujin’s highly out numbered warriors. Once again it is his strategy that wins out. He decides to send in his best swordsmen against Jamukha’s first wave. 

     Temudjin sends out his deadliest men on horse back with two swords out to meet them, with intentions to thin the numbers of the warriors in the wave. They do a great job at doing as much, but are over powered and forced to retreat, in which they lead the rest of the first wave into a trap filled with archers and sharp arrow tips. Sadly the story then takes a mystical turn in which as the the two armies are engaging it begins to thunder and all of the Monguls are afraid and thrown from their horses. This storm does not affect Tedmujin and so he is then praised by the soldiers on both side, thereby winning the war. I sadly because it was an ideal ending. It seemed like a disney movie, where evil is always beat out by some freak accident of nature. The moment just seemed to suck some of the life out of the film, but not enough to deem it a bad film.

     Snapshots of Tedmujin and Borte’s relationship can be found all throughout the film. The director then romanticizes certain aspects of their life and omits others. For example, there is a scene where Tedmujin and Borte are running from Merkit warriors. Temudjin is then hit in the back with an arrow. Borte then makes the decision for him to flee, by slapping his horse on the rear and staying behind to be collected by the Merkit clan. This is all in order to save his life. This segment is highly romanticized, due to the fact that legend has it, Temudjin’s camp was attacked by Merkits that out numbered his group greatly. 

     He then chooses to leave behind his wife and take his horse because of two reasons. The first was that a horse was regarded as a great spiritual significance in Mongol beliefs. The second was that it was believed that you could win wars with out a wife, but you could not win a war without a horse. he then decides to run away and then return, when he is strong enough to defeat his enemies. In knowing this part of the story it could be understood why the director decides to go with the more romantic approach instead. A hollywood audience would find the actual decision of Tedmujin a lot less great.

     While on the topic  of Tedmujin’s and Borte’s relationship, another thing that stuck out to me was the fact that the director didn’t really talk much about the children during Horte and Tedmujin’s relationship. Legend has it that When the Merkits took Borte away from Tedmujin the night he fled, That his father’s enemy took to bed with Borte. It was said that she was pregnant by the time Tedmujin got her back, and that the baby was in fact his father’s enemies. Tedmujin still claims the child as his own. The director kind of hints at this fact by showing Tedmujin and Borte in a tent after he has found her again. She is pregnant and the Merkits throat is slit. Jamukha stands at the door and looks in on the scene, looking first at Tedmujin, then at Borte, then at the man with the slit throat. He smiles as an underlying understanding that they had fought and risked their lives to save the girl, and she is now pregnant with the enemies baby. 

      Legend has it that everyone knew about the fact that Borte’s first born child was not Tedmujin’s. In fact, this idea was used, later, to strip away any chance of the first son’s claim to the Khan position succeeding Tedmujin. The director gives us hope by showing the two together for just a little while before she is captured. This hints at the fact that they did in fact have time to   consummate. Immediately upon arrival of Tedmujin into Borte’s tent he claims the baby as his own to Jamukha. He seems to try and fight off obvious reasonable doubt for romantic sake, substituting the  truth for a romantic storyline.

     

     The film stays true to the architecture, clothing, weapons, and religions of the Mongolians in the 13th century time period that is being portrayed. Many yurts can be seen throughout the film as the home of the chief, or his honoraries. For example, we often see Jamukha and Temudjin conversing in a traditional yurt throughout the first half of the film. A yurt is a nomadic mongolian dwelling. It’s circular and is erected by using collapsible wooden frames, and often uses wool felt to be placed on the wooden frames. The Mongolian weapons, often associated with the mongols of Temudjin’s times, are the curved sword, the spear, the battle axe, and the bow. All of these can be seen throughout the film in the many, amazing, gory battle scenes. 

     These would actually be carried on their horses as they rode. Mongolians were said to have usually had about four horses, for one man,  in which they could ride on their journeys to make sure no horse was overworked. This is not shown in the film, but an interesting fact none-the-less. The director chooses to show weapons, if present, always in hand when his characters are on horse back.  Three major items of clothing worn by the Mongols in the 13th century are their hats, Dels, and Boots. All of these are seen throughout the film to create this epic period, but in 2007. 

     If you take a look at younger or older Tedmujin, or Jamukha you will see a  traditional display of these items. Young Tedmujin and Jamukha wear a circular fur headdress that were made for children to wear, while the older two wear hats made for chiefs and Mongolian men in a position of power. They can also be seen wearing a Del, at their boy stages in the film. A Del is a loose, one piece, calf-lengthed tunic.  It has buttons on the right shoulder, long sleeves, and a high collar. As men they wear a Del as well, but with more colors and decoration inlayed. Lastly, although boots were said as having the toe turned up, the boots used in the film were made flat. 

     Some say that the boots were curled at the toe in order to keep a man from falling from his horse, but that was just a theory. I imagine the director didn’t really have to worry about that much, as he gives us these nearly close up third person, and first person, views.  If you look closely you will see he uses flat boots for his characters.  I guess you win some and you lose some. These elements; the architecture, the clothing, and the weapon portrayal, are a big part of what brings us into the scene of Ghengis Khans time. Through these elements we get a glimpse of what the director wants us to believe Mongol life was like in the 13th century. I believe the film team really did their research on the artistries present in that time, whether it was the yurts for the chiefs, or the hats for the children, the detail was excellently executed there.

     I think the director beautifully foretold many of the events to come through Temudjin’s subtle interaction with characters who would have a big impact on him becoming the legend that we know today. When Temudjin is captured by his Uncle Targutai the first time the decision is made for Tedmujin to be killed at an older age; or when he becomes “a man”. Targutai then asks for a Shaman witch doctor to watch over Tedmujin, to feed him and make sure he grows up quickly so that Targutai may kill him. Although the Shaman believes that Tedmujin will never forgive him. Tedmujin, in the end, actually does. Tedmujin then has a yurt for the priest built right next to his. Legend has it that a Shaman priest actually gave Tedmujin the name Ghengis Khan. Ghengis Khan means The ruler of all. The film ties the priest to Ghengis Khan through out.  Through the last gesture of Ghengis Khan to the priest, the director hints at the fact that this could in fact be the priest who gives Tedmujin the name he’s most famous for. 

     Another example is when Tedmujin is taken captive by Jamukha and is made a slave and is sent to Xi Xia to be sold. Here he meets the emperor who he in fact plagued and vexed for many battles. Ghengis Khan faced the army of Xi Xia many times outnumbered and came out victorious. The emperor comes across Tedmujin in the market and is told by his priest that Tedmujin will kill many of his men with a vast army. The emperor laughs it off, buys Tedmujin, and throws him in a cage. This leaves us with that sensational feeling that you get when you know someone great’s future. After researching Ghengis Khan for some time now I find this film very clever indeed , when it comes to depicting the story of Temudjin. I would recommend it to all who wants to know anything about the early life of Ghengis Khan. 

     In conclusion, through my research and watching the film numerous times I was able to historically break down this film and actually see why it is so genius. Through the use of Tedmujin and some of the key characters in his life the director was able to establish a brilliant plot based strongly on Tedmujin’s relationship with his uncle, mother, wife, and best friend/brother.  There is this struggle between two great men who are capable of ruling, but there can only be one to rule as Khan. The plot has no choice but to thicken, because not only are they men fighting for their right to lead, they are also close “brothers” as well. 

     The director shows us then, the inevitability of their closeness by showing us their will to rule and light attempt at trying to coexist. It is said that when it came to making all the biggest decisions in life Mongols listened to the women of the tribe. History tells us that Tedmujin had a strong relationship with his mom and heeded her words. She’s placed in the movie almost as a home base, she keeps him grounded with a mother’s love. Then we have the Uncle, who almost forces Tedmujin to fight to be Khan by threatening his life. This pushes Tedmujin into the relationship with Jamukha, the brother he becomes so fond of, but cannot keep peace with. In addition to this, the film seeks out authenticity in the showing of where these events would have taken place, the type of architecture that would have been lived in, what kind of clothes they would be wearing, and even the kind of animals they would come to interact with. Masterly mixed together, these components make up this brilliant movie that is Mongol.   

Bibliography

“All the Khan’s Horses” by Morris Rossabi, Natural History,, October 11th

“Land of Ghengis Khan. The rise and fall of nations.” by Hong-Key, Yoon, New Zealand Geographer, 1997,Vol 53(1), pp.57-58

“Mongolian Traditional Clothes”  Last updated Apr. 2013, 

http://www.discovermongolia.mn/country/Traditional_Clothes.html

“Ghengis Khan” Last updated Dec. 2013, http://www.history.com/topics/genghis-khan

Mongol, Directed by Sergei Brodrov, Live Action,