A Return to Normalcy
Second Term Grades
English III H - B+
US History AP - B+
AP Chemistry - A
French IV H - B
BC Calculus - A
Economics - A-
Midyear (Math) - A+
The Once and Future King
Welcome to a world of mythical kings and knights, told from the viewpoint of a witty, educated, twentieth century writer. Its retelling is 60 years old, but it has surprisingly modern-feeling humor. The amount of stuff that was taken from it in the Disney movie The Sword and the Stone is shocking - from the talking owl Archimedes to Merlin's "BLOW ME TO BERMUDA!" T. H. White also makes the conscious effort to incorporate later works into the book to assure us that it is not, indeed, told from the point of view of a man in the Middle Ages. Merlin, living backwards in time, is accustomed to bowler hats. When it appears on his head, he calls it "[a]n anachronism... a beastly anachronism..." Jane shows good taste...
Piano Recitals
On January 21st, I had the annual class recital for my teacher's piano studio. I played the third Chopin Ballade in A-flat. It's a kickass piece, and obviously I'm not competent enough to play it... but it deserves a mention. I'm going to play it tomorrow as well as in a week in a "big" recital. Hopefully I won't disgrace myself as I did a few months back playing the first movement of Beethoven's Tempest sonata.
The Girl At Emerson
So there's this white girl ... at Emerson, and I think that she goes to AB. She's probably a sophomore or freshman, but hell if I know. Anyway, we'll call her Liz, because that's her name. We were out on a "run" two weeks ago, probably delivering patients, since that's the only thing that requires more than one person. I'm not sure if it was an affected manner, but she continued to act far superior and impatient to me. Initially, I was actually confused and somewhat offended by her attitude. She groaned, sighed, rolled her eyeballs... like the classic white girl, but with freckles. But the most incredible thing was my epiphany, while we stood for a full twenty minutes together in silence. I realized exactly why the hell the hospital contained so much goddamn stuff on the walls. All over it, people have plastered paintings, announcements, random bulletins. But they do provide a good excuse not to make eye contact. As I stood stolidly and watched the "mean girl", she paced back and forth, eyes desperately searching the ground, the walls, anything, to avoid looking me in the eye. Not once did her eyes even drift in my direction, as she exhausted all things of interest. But even then, she shamelessly found interest in the ground for perhaps a quarter of an hour. People are amazing, and anecdotes like this one raise my faith in community.
It has been a while since I last updated my site. I apologize, for those of you who care. My weekends... well, I can't say that they've been busy, but I just haven't been motivated enough to write on the Internet. I promise to write more from now on... But the real reason that I haven't been writing much is probably a guilty pleasure. Nay, not a "guilty" pleasure. A highly American pleasure.
24.
I cannot do justice to this television series in words without necessary concentration. I need to be seriously in the frame of mind to describe it, because God Damn It, it is really good. I'll try to give you all just a faded echo of why I like it so much.
Events occur in real time.
24 is a TV show. Each episode lasts one hour, and there are twenty-four episodes in a season. The most important thing is that each episode lasts one hour in the episode. This is an awesome way to cut out filler; waste ten minutes of screen time on a boring part... and the entire season suffers. Therefore, 24 maintains a high quality throughout its entirety.
I think that the main thing about 24 which is so God-like is its star, Jack Bauer. A counter-terrorist agent, he can do anything. When I say "God-like", I mean literally God-like. Jack, in season 1, defies all sorts of rules and guidelines.
Just to give you an idea of why I like it... I'll show you my thoughts on the first episode of 24.
Well, you know that watching normal TV on your computer just ain't the same as watching anime on your comp. And it definitely doesn't compare with watching it on the big screen. So bear in mind that I watch 24 on a computer monitor and not on a kickass TV, as it should be watched, and that some of the effect may be lost that way.
That said...
Episode One
It's hard to describe the style of 24. You know how a lot of places - websites, public buildings, animation - try to make you feel modern/state of the art? If you've played Metal Gear Solid, then you know what I mean. I mean like those main menu options. It makes you feel very high tech. That is how 24 feels. It begins with a dramatic blackening and the words "Events occur in real time." The premise of the show was that time passes in the show exactly as it does in real time: Each episode lasts one hour in the show's time and in real time.
And yet... And yet, when those words appeared, they gripped me, followed by the 12:00 (midnight).
The show has a continuous "ticking" that occurs in your head as it goes, and it has multiple simultaneous camera angles at points. Needless to say, this could easily look cheesy. But it looks perfectly co-ordinated in 24, and each camera feels necessary.
... Now to discuss the actual show. 24 begins, as do so many things, with Asian people. Fortunately this changes quickly, and we see a villainous looking man on a laptop. He types and says some sort of expected line about the operation going smoothly and asking for permission to launch, or something along those lines. To tell you the truth, I can't remember them all that clearly. Sue me.
Once that little tidbit is cleared, Jack Bauer appears, playing chess against a 2001 Elisha Cuthbert, his daughter. At midnight. They touch upon the rather unstable subject of his daughter's mother, and then Kim leaves in a huff. Jack then talks to his wife, and we instantly see why Elisha Cuthbert dislikes her: She has short, hideous hair. The mother has an unhappy face. I know the feeling. I got a haircut not three days ago.
Jack and his wife have a small argument, sounding as if they're married, and as soon as they come to an agreement, they discover that their daughter is missing. Hell breaks loose when Jack is summoned to the Counter Terrorism Agency, leaving his wife to look for her daughter alone.
There is a splitature in focus now. I'll try to detail things separately and not in the fascinating real time in which they occur.
The daughter Kim has departed with her friend Janet to meet with "cute boys" they don't know. Kim doesn't have a driver's license. They flirt with the sexy guys and begin to make out. Kim tells the hotter guy that her father is dead. After serious PG-13-rated action, Kim realizes that her mother has called her seventy-four times in the past half hour. She demands a ride home, but Janet insists on having more fun! As do the horny boys. Kim reluctantly gets into the van, and it becomes abundantly clear that she is not getting a ride home in the next hour. And Janet can do nothing about it.
Meanwhile, Jack Bauer discovers at the agency that a sexy black senator running for president will be assassinated - or that someone will make an attempt on said senator, David Palmer's life. David Palmer, we see, is not all fine and dandy; he knows that some serious shit is going down. Jack finds that the "inside connection" is coming from within the agency, something which he discusses at length with co-worker Nina, who bears an alarming resemblance to Jack's wife and to Joanna Dark. There is an implied relationship between Nina and Jack, probably in the dark past. Jack accepts help from George Mason, who claims that the tipoff is probably German, definitely European. Pulling some fast moves, Jack sees corruption and whips out the dartgun. The tension is palpable.
And finally, throughout it all, a man is on a plane, thinking about his target, being somewhat distracted by an attractive and desperately horny woman next to him. The horny woman is very persistent to get into the man's pants, and finally he succumbs. In the next half hour, she steals his wallet, murders the flight attendant, bombs the plane, and parachutes out.
So ends the first episode. I liked it. Jack Bauer is certainly a likeable protagonist, and the fastpaced sceneswitching and badassery of it all is remarkable. Bauer's non-hesitation use of the pistol was a kickass moment, certainly, and despite her teenage bitchiness (her fucking password was "lifesucks"), Jack Bauer's daughter also wins my sympathy. Oh, and there was the really hot slutty woman who winds up blowing up the plane.
A lot of stuff in 60 minutes.
Yes, you should watch it.
SD
Feb. 4, '06
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