My Song

http://www.podsnack.com/playlists/47dbc98fa02b1c3c339fe7442a552923

Soundscape critiques

These are the three critiques of other classmates soundscapes


Haley Posey

Caitlin Stone

Brie Donovan

A song I like and someone who covered it.

One song I like would be May It Be by Enya

 

A person who did  a cover of this song is Hayley Westenra, someone who I only heard of recently

I’ve been listening to Enya for around 4 years now, but only started listening to Hayley Westenra around 2 or 3 weeks ago after I heard one of her songs playing on Pandora radio.  When I got the chance I decided to check out a few more of Hayley’s songs and found out that she did a cover of one of Enya’s and I had to listen to it.

            Between the two of them the main background music or the melody is basically the same.  It’s a calming, relaxing, slow tune that isn’t actually done with instruments for almost the entire song; it’s actually all done with their voices.  Hayley’s seems to add a small about of string near the last third or so of the song, but sound to me like only a single violin or so. to be quite honest the only place they differ even slightly is in the musical quality.  For example, the intensity of Enya’s version of the song is just a little lower than that of Hayley’s, and that is really one of the only ways they truly differ.  The Rhythm between the two versions is basically the same as I stated before.  The pitch of the two songs was low most of the time, but they both had different times when the pitch rose and fell.  The tempo of the songs was also basically the same, rather slow for both of the songs.  Even the Tibre is very similar between the two of them; the songs are rather simple, but can get complex from time to time because of small adjustments to the voices, maybe a bit of echo from time to time, and they also seem to layer different voice tracks throughout the song.  When two songs are as similar as this it may be difficult to choose one over the other, but for me it actually isn’t that difficult.

            Between the two of these I prefer Enya’s version.  One of the major reasons is simply because of nostalgia, I think people are more inclined to like something they’ve had for longer, and like I said, I’ve been listening to Enya for about 4 years.  The major reason I think I prefer Enya’s version would have to be the intensity, like I said in the previous paragraph, Enya’s sound is just a bit lower that Hayley’s, it’s just noticeable enough to make a difference to me.  One might think that such a small difference wouldn’t make a difference, but to me Enya’s seem so much more relaxing and softer than Hayley’s, which while relaxing ,lacks a certain charm that Enya’s has.  The strangest thing for me is that even though Hayley’s appears to add a small bit of instrumentation to the song, which includes what sounds like one of my favorite instruments, the violin, I still prefer Enya’s more simplified, almost entirely vocal version. The last reason I like Enya more is could only be called a personal preference, and that is I just like the sound of her voice more that I like Hayley’s, like the rest of the song, I just find it more relaxing.

Soundscape

Finding My Howl

I’ve recently read an interesting little manifesto by a man named Johathan Flaum called “Finding Your Howl”.  In this, Flaum references two different stories one the story of a red wolf named Mumon, and the other a story a classmate of Flaum’s wrote in 5^th grade. While I honestly loved both of the stories, the one that made a bigger impact on me would have to be the story of Mumon. 

The main premise of the story is that there are only 14 red wolves left in the world.  These 14 wolves are taken into captivity in hopes of protecting him.  Afterwards, the offspring were released into the wild as an experiment, and it seemed to go well, but for one major problem, none of them knew how to howl.  They began to live in fear, some wished to go back to captivity, but not Mumon.  He left on a journey to find his howl to save his pack. He didn’t know where it might be, or what it was like, but he knew that he would know it when he heard it.

After running for a long time, Mumon saw a deer, and gave chase, but before he pounced, the deer spoke.  The deer asked Mumon questions such as “who taught you to hunt” or “What makes you think you can take me down and not be overwhelmed yourself?” and Mumon’s response was basically instinct, he said he that he just knew what to do and that he could. The deer ran, and Mumon caught and ate it.  The deer’s last words were “Our blood becomes one and I hear your howl ringing in my ears”, but Mumon hears nothing.

As Mumon ate he felt both grateful as well as ashamed.  When he woke up later he saw a crow like that ones that picked the deer’s perched nearby.  The Crow explains how Mumon’s howl is on everything he touches, but for him to find it he must accept what he is and not feel ashamed for what he did. Soon Mumon began to run, farther and farther, for days and weeks without stopping leaving behind what he was, and becoming something new.  Soon Mumon came upon a farmer with a gun.  The farmer shot Mumon, but, instead of dying, he fell to the center of the earth to find a group of people calling upon the ancient spirit of the red wolf.  It was here that Mumon first howled.  When reality returned Mumon found himself with his pack, and with their own howl they answered his. 

The main concept of the story as Flaum puts it is “To find our howl we have to pay a price”.  To me this means that we may need to shed our current selves, do things we would never have done before, “this is the price of finding our howl, our own one-of-a-kind authentic voice”.

A quote that I think actually describes this concept rather well are some lyrics from a song “You will never find another Hero.  You will never have another chance.  You will fall because you never tried to stand for yourselves!”.  This quote comes from the song The Sons of Fate from the first album of The Protomen. While the main idea of these lyrics is that mankind is doomed to die because they don’t stand up for themselves and will only rely on others I think that if toned down a little, it leads to a great, albeit simple piece of advice; “Learn to do things for yourselves, if you don’t you’ll never have the chance to live”.  This is something I have taken to heart.  Sure, I let other people teach me things, but I don’t continue to rely on them, after I’ve learned the basics I just try things for myself. That’s how I learn, and how I think up new ideas.  While it’s possible to build ideas off other peoples, it’s also very important to have your own original ideas from time to time, if only to help exercise the imagination.

14 Ways to Get Breatkthrough Ideas

This manifesto by Mitch Ditkoff is a rather interesting bit of writing. In this writing, Mitch Ditkoff gives the reader 14 different ways to help think of creative ideas. The advice ranges from general ideas someone may have learned in school such as brainstorming, to something that normally appears to be frowned upon such as fantasizing.

            One of them that the manifesto lists that really hits home for me would be the first one “Follow Your Fascination”.  The main reason for this is simply because this is generally how I get any creative ideas; I like random or interesting things.  If something is different from the norm, I find it fascinating. I honestly think that this bit of advice is one of the most useful out of the entire manifesto, because to me following what fascinates you would be what would lead to the most creative thoughts.  I personally find it a little difficult to focus on something that I don’t find interesting.  Also, I think there is a very good chance that if something fascinates you it’s possible to stay focused on it for a longer amount of time, leading to new ideas and thoughts on the subject.

            Another of the suggestions given is something that has actually been a part of my life for a very long time, “Take a Break”.  This is simply a great piece of advice in my opinion, because it simply fits so many different possible situations.  This could be used when a person is working on a big project and can’t think of what to do next, when they’re dealing with some kind of calculation that is simply stumping them.  The biggest benefit of this is, most likely during such times, the person will become frustrated and angry and from personal experience I can say that frustration makes it very difficult to think straight, and taking a break from the thing causing the stress is actually a very good way to relax.

Like I said, I’ve actually used this suggestion many times before, mainly while playing video games, but I’ve also used this when dealing with math or science problems as well.  There have been many times when I ran into a difficult puzzle or annoying enemy that I spent hours and hours trying to get past, and no matter what I simply couldn’t, and let me tell you, that can get very annoying. After a certain amount of time, I wasn’t even thinking of something new to try I was simply rushing in trying to get past the problem as quickly as possible, not giving a single thought to a plan or strategy, and this didn’t help at all, it actually made it worse.  But, sooner or later my brain basically shuts off and I just stop playing the game for a while, I lay back on the bed and just let my mind wander, sure, inevitably it gets back to the problem, but by this time my mind has cleared and I can use my imagination to run through new ideas and plans for the issue, and this hasn’t failed me yet.

One of the best pieces of advice given in the manifesto was the 5 suggestion “Fantasize”.  The biggest thing here may be that to fantasize is, to me at least, almost exactly the same as being creative.  I’m pretty sure that many great inventions and innovations would have been thought of as a fantasy before they were completed.  One of the major benefits of fantasizing is that there literally is no limit to what can be thought up, it’s all up to the one doing that fantasizing to set the limits, and this opens up the new and truly innovative ideas. Even if an idea seems to be honestly impossible at the time, even if it really is just a fantasy, branch off from that idea; use it as a springboard for other ideas.

The final part of the manifesto are small prompt at the end of each of the suggestions that gives the reader something to think about or try to put the suggested way to the test.  For example, one that I decided to do was the one for the 3^rd suggestion “Tolerate Ambiguity”; the prompt was “What new idea of yours is bubbling on the brink of breakthrough? In what ways can you stay with it even if something in you is impatient for a breakthrough?” An idea that I’ve been working with recently is, I want to create a new set of cards for the game Magic: The Gathering that deal with one of my favorite mechanics from the game called shadow.  The thing is that a card is actually rather difficult to create, they need to be balanced in correlation to other cards when it comes playing cost, abilities and stats, and trying to find the right combination of interesting cards that are also balanced can be incredibly difficult.  One of the main cards I want to create is a Planeswalker, a special type of card in the game, that also deals with the shadow mechanic, and that is the most difficult of all of them.  The way to do this though, is to not try to get everything right on the first try, creating a good card is all about trial and error, and while I may want to make these cards as soon as possible, I want to make them good as well.

Who influences me creatively?

When it comes to being a creative person I am influenced by what could be called childish wonder.  I like things that I find “interesting” for lack of a better word, it doesn’t have to be impressive or actually important, it could simply be something trivial.  I guess the best way I could describe this would be to use a label from a card game I play called Magic: The Gathering.  I’m called a Timmy, or a Power Gamer; I like to play fun and interesting cards, I don’t play to win, I play to have fun.  This is a very bare bones description of my creative mindset, I love to learn about new things because I find them interesting; I love fun little gimmicks or gizmo’s and I like to think of random little things myself.

A group that I truly admire would have to be Team ICO, the creators of the video games ICO, and Shadow of the Colossus.  While I haven’t had a chance to play their first game (ICO), I have played Shadow of the Colossus, and it was honestly a game that changed how I looked at video games.  Rarely does such a truly impressive and amazing game appear; this was also the first game that I considered a true work of art, its setting, story, and the feel of the game were just different than any game I had played before.

The one thing I really love about Shadow of the Colossus is the fact that the theme of the game first is made to seem didactic at first, but soon become a much more active issue later in the game.  After the player runs into the various colossi they begin to notice that many of the colossi are not violent in any way, they simply wander around until attack by the player, and the few that do attack seem to be protecting something, such as their territory in the same way that an animal might.  Then there is the song that plays when a colossus is defeated, normally when an enemy is defeated a victory fanfare or something like that would play, but not during this game, here an incredibly melancholy song plays, one you would imagine would play during the death of the gentle giant character in a film.

Another interesting thing that Team ICO Plays on that music I just mentioned.  Normally when traveling around the world there is no music at all, only wind, and the sound of the character and his horse breathing.  But, when a colossus is encountered music begins to play, and it’s actually a calming melody.  The big change comes when the player finally begins to scale the colossus, the music changes a battle theme type of music, and when that happens it gets my blood pumping.  To me this is a use of Tension, not uncomfortable tension, but an actual tension, that actually makes you nervous.  The Release is that death music I mentioned earlier.

Their use of Affinity is also rather impressive.  The player is the exact opposite of this, the player is in direct Contrast with the rest of the world; the world around the player doesn’t appear to have dealt with a human being in hundreds of years, nature has taken over the few ruins that populate the land, the few forests the player encounters are dark, green and overgrown, very few clearings can be found, the water is clear and clean as well.  The Colossi have an incredible affinity to the land around them. The colossi are made of stone and flesh; they look as if they have become part of the land itself.  Plants have begun to grow on some, some appear to have partially fused with earth, and the stone ‘armor’ on them is very similar to the ruins of the world. They are in harmony with the forbidden land when the player has intruded, or at least that’s what I think. Here's a look at all of the colossi.

One of the things I find most impressive though, is the fact that even after 5 years, people are still exploring the world in Shadow of the Colossus, trying to find any secrets that may have been missed, that simply amazes me.  To create something that can captivate people this well and for this long, that it what I want to do with my life.

Why this time?

To be honest I only chose this time because it was the only Media 203 class available when I was allowed to sign up for classes.  But, getting up at 8am isn't all bad, when I get up I'm up until I go to sleep that night so I have more time to do stuff that day.