Thank You, Class of 2014

This is the link to my graduation speech:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rwC-tKRqVIE&feature=youtu.be

Self Made Heroes and Fulfilling Heroes

        "Superpowers" presents Zora's and The Wonder Twins's stories, two stories of made up heroes. Zora created herself by setting her goals and fulfilling them and the Wonder Twins were created by their fellow Burmans because a myth told that when twins were born in the Karen ethnicity during hard times, they could save them with superpowers. How super these heroes are is subjective to each person's criteria and certainly they stand no chance against Batman or Superman, but it is certain that they are no ordinary people. Zora reminds me of Batman because he set himself to rid the crime of Gotham City in order to avenge the murder of his parents, the Wonder Twins don't remind me any superhero. They have no real power, but Zora does. 

        Zora made up herself and tried to be that superhero because she wanted to fulfill her goals and succeed in her interests. She was not thought to have mythical, magical or super powers, but she had the will power to reinvent herself as a powerful, strong and determined woman. That was her superpower. By setting her goals and pursuing them in a disciplined matter Zora was able to become a successful woman, even though she failed at times. She became an example of persistence and prosperity, just like DC Comics's Wonder Woman. She is extraordinary because she is a strong woman who fights for herself until she succeeds. 

        The Wonder Twins, Johnny and Luther Htoo, are two guerrilla fighters in God's Army, a Burmese guerrilla that were created by a myth around them and they grew onto their roles of godlike figures. Instead of setting goals and fulfilling them like Zora, the twins came into a powerful position because their followers needed a figure to believe in. They needed faith to fight their war and they put their belief into the twins so they eventually were thought to bear magical powers. Yet, they were ordinary guerrilla fighters, with no magical powers, that tried to fit into a role they were believed to have. When the God's Army guerilla surrendered they proved that they were ordinary not because they lacked magic, but because they were just another guerilla fighter without the possibility to succeed. 

        

Malcolm X in Comics?

Malcolm X: A Graphic Biography, written by Andrew Helfer and Randy DuBurke, begins with a panel that copies Malcolm x's iconic picture holding a rifle. The original picture was published by Ebony, an African-American audience magazine, and it has been an icon of Malcolm X's defiance: he was prepared to defend himself "by any means necessary". When the graphic novel depicted this scene I immediately juxtaposed it in my mind with the original picture because I had seen it before. First, I thought that the picture was more clear than the comic and then I wondered why the author and illustrator of the comic copied the image.

I was unable to enjoy Malcolm X and I didn't know why. First I thought that it could be because I had seen movies about him, learn about him in class, and because I had rarely read biographical comics. I had read Art Spiegelman's Maus, yet this is a very unusual take on comics that is unforgettable to me. But my real problem with Malcolm X  was not that I felt like I had seen it all before in more illustrative, explanatory and soothing ways. It was that the comic took me panel to panel in a fast paced rhythm through the history of slavery on to Malcolm X's life without any panel striking to me. Not even the first, huge panel, that had Malcolm X holding a rifle, sticked in my mind. Ultimately, the panels were forgettable to me. They were facts posed in a linear order, but with no connection from one to the other.

The other comics I had read were about superheroes and I liked them much more than Malcolm X. To me, Watchmen brought Alan Moore's decayed view on the Cold War through the downfall of costumed heroes and vigilantes, while Sin City told Frank Miller's over the top neo-noir violent perversions, but to me Helfer's Malcolm X simply illustrated comics about important moments in Malcolm x's life. Thinking back on the panel where Malcolm X is holding his rifle, I see this is what strikes me from the graphic novel and the man's life: Malcolm X's conviction and defiance. And this is Helfer's intention, but for me it is easier to remember the actual Ebony picture than the panel.

Even Less Sleep?

Apparently brains have some sort of recycling system, or rather a metabolism, says Maria Konnikova in "Goognight. Sleep Clean". This function of sleep could be one its most important ones, if not the most, and there are speculations that wonder if sleep could be replaced or aided with medications that recycled for our brains. That would definitely be a great advantage: we would have more free time, we would be able to be more productive and… would we be less tired? That is my only concern with the theories that Konnikova explains.

Even if my "neural trash" was efficiently disposed with the help of pharmaceutics and I would be able to sleep less, I do not want to sleep less. To me sleep can be either a delight or a torment. When I sleep well, with no interruptions and I manage to do it for eight or more hours, my body is efficient, energetic and responsive for most of the day. I feel great. When I sleep less than seven hours, interrupted by anything strong enough to wake me up, I spend the rest of the day suffering. It is not until I do a nap, long enough to recover those hours, that I am ready to be fully functional. So I immensely value a good night's sleep. Even if technology makes sleep less important, I don't want to endure this change. It's like food. Why would someone want to replace food with pharmaceutics even if they can be fully nutritious? Food is too good to be replaced by technological advancements and sleep too. They are legendary pleasures that will be very difficult to replace. 

Bogotá Indignada

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iurN495sW60

Vernacular Sounds

          To Alex Ross all American composers are invisible men. They lacked the tradition, support and audiences that composers in Europe had in the 1920's, but that was no restrain. He describes it as a freedom from tradition that allowed the American music scene to be full of diversity and incongruence, where composers created previously unheard music that thrusted American music to great heights. The lack of tradition allows people to break and set barriers that lead them to new findings.

          Duke Ellington's success caught my attention due to his exemplary deviation from tradition. Will Marion Cook, another African-American musician, told him "You know you should go to the conservatory, but since you won't, I'll tell you. First you find the logical way, and when you find it, avoid it, and let your inner self break through and guide you" (p. 165). Listening to Ellington's "East St. Louis Toodle-oo" one hears distinctive solos that distinguish from the rest of the composition with fast velocities and distorted sounds. According to Ross these innovations gave a sense of "circling like a cool crowd of onlookers". When I listened to the song I was unable to feel that circling, but I remembered another type of music that to me came out of nowhere and made me feel like I was being circled by a mashup of onlookers. I am talking about Skrillex's "First of the year", which features a blend of dubstup and electro house. I actually know nothing about these genres, but when I heard this song I was expecting something something like a rap, but suddenly the electronic part begins to and then the "bass drops". For the first time in my life I heard the crazy stringy sound effects. I have no other words to describe this because I do not even know what it is, but it feels similar to the breaking of tradition that Ross refered to. Like Ellingon, Skrillex did not go to the conservatory. Instead he created the most illogical sounds I have ever heard. 

vernacular: using a language or dialect native to a region or country rather than a literary, cultured, or foreign language

Atonality or Plain Disorder?

Atonality, the absence of a tonal center and of the harmonies from a diatonic scale that correspond to that center, has become more common since it was first commonly used. As Ross describes it, it was "destined to raise hackles" (p. 61) because it sounds illogical and brusque. In an atonal compositions the music may have no identified order and these can have any intervals without they being "wrong". Still, atonality is almost always identified due to its its liberty and that is why critics of Schoenberg were so skeptical of what he described in a letter to Wassily Kandinsky as "liberation from all forms, from all symbols of cohesion and of logic" (p. 62). 

I first encountered atonality when I began to play guitar. At first, since I knew nothing about playing and about music theory, I would play whatever my fingers could manage. That was the first time I played atonal music. I had no guiding scale that a harmony could match. Of course, this type of atonality is one that we should be real skeptical about. There was no real composition. Schoenberg's atonality represented a degeneration that cannot be truly explained, one may only speculate about its origin. Since I feel unsure about this atonality I prefer arguing about an atonality that I have heard before and that I recognize.

In King Crimson's popular "21st Century Schizoid Man" their is a definite use of atonality once the bridge enters. At first the song follows a C key with flat A's, B's and E's, but after two minutes, when the song drifts into a much more rapid and galloped rhythm,  the harmony deviates from the initial C and does not follow any particular key. This I perceive as a "liberation" similar to the one that Schoenberg embraced because it leaves the classical rock structure that the song begins with to enter a much more jazzed face. To do this, music many times emancipates from the standard it follows and follows no regular key.

 

Atonality: