A Steampunk Tempest for Christmas

So I just finished my fifth semester a few days back. Before leaving for home, I had one last final, a presentation for my Scene Design class. We each had to present our full color model or two color renderings for our production of The Tempest. I of course did a full color model, enjoying crafting much more drawing. In the presentations we also had to go over our concept for each design. Me, being slightly out there compared to the rest of the class, chose to create a Steampunk version of The Tempest. Please understand thatthe pictures of myproject in this post are of a model. Nothing to fancy here, so please don't judge too harshly.

Now for those who may not know what Steampunk is.... well... its something you can't describe too easily. It's better to glean the aesthetic from pictures and such. Below is an... okay video describing Steampunk.

So... Yeah. I want to reiterate that this is not exactly the best source. Honestly, I would just do a search of Steampunk and see what pictures come up. Or this is another pretty good source, surprisingly: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Steampunk

Basically the idea of Steampunk is to take the Victorian age, turn

of the century, and put a

twist on it. Take what appeals to your eye and incorporate it in with today's technology and such. What if steam power brought about th

e information age? How could you make a steam powered motorcycle? Airship? You get the point.

Usually there is a bit of the occult or what have you thrown in for good measure. But the core of Steampunk is the gears and steam and pulleys within the machines, not the shiny exterior.

Anyhoo... I love love love the aesthetic. So while reading The Tempest for research on my set,

I started thinking of abstract ways of doing the island or magic and what not. For those not familiar with The Tempest, this is a passable excuse for a substitute. Please read it. It's truly not that difficult to understand what's going on. And it's short. But if you really don't want to read a piece of good literature...

Anyhoo.... Take two.... I found myself imagining, as I read the play, this great machine floating in the middle of the Mediterranean. This machine was state of the art at one point, but, for some undisclosed reason, it was utterly and suddenly abandoned. It lay in a dormant state for years, until the usurped duke of Milan, Prospero, was marooned there. Prospero's wizardry in my interpretation of the show becomes his ability to control the machine of the island. During the many years of solitude, the island-machine was overtaken by nature. Nature and the machine have become twisted and entwined within each other. Thatwas akey idea I wanted to focus on, this underlying tension, war waging between machine and nature. What is truly natural on the island? Machines were built without the presence of nature, yet nature was always their before the machines were ever build. Who actually has claim to the island? This is epitomized in the structure that Prospero lives in, shown to the left. I wanted to try to portray the pipes and tubes of the machine fighting against nature, growing out of the ground haphazardly. This structure would emit bursts and puffs of steam every so often. Moss is growing on most surfaces on the island, flat areas of the machine are being buried underneath a fine layer of dirt. Both nature and machine are not dormant on the island.

Around the heart of the stage I thought it would be cool to have wires and cables emanating radially like veins into the island. These would glow blue as Prospero casts his entrapping circle. I also wanted to have cutouts in the stage for the audience to see the gears beneath

everything. Plexiglass would lay over the holes as to not cause any accidents. The gears would twist every time magic occurred. I would also love for there to be lights beneath the gears that would shine during the magic as well.

At the very beginning of the show, I envision Prospero coming out to center stage, silent with a single spot light on the heart of the stage. As Prospero nears the heart he looks out into the audience and then back at the heart, inserting his staff into the stage's heart as if a key to wind a clock. And he does such an action. Winding the Stage-gear, the gears underneath are slowly illuminated and creak to life. The veins glows a eerie blue. He takes his key-staff out and while

the lights dim, the audience continues to hear the gears turning and the "clock" ticking. The scene swiftly flows into the shipwreck scene. At the very very end there is an epilogue in which Prospero puts down his staff and renounces his magical ways. I envision Prospero undoing his original magic by unwinding the Stage-gear and putting down his key-staff, retiring his mechanical ways. This coupled with the beginning scene set up the convention that: 1 Prospero while somewhat omnipotent, is limited by the machine (being created by man is inherently flawed and has limits), 2 Prospero purposefully set this entire set of events into

motion by winding the Stage-gear.

Of course the costumes would be out of this world! I haven't thought too much about them, since this was for a scene design class more than a costume design class. None the less, there would be plenty of goggles believe you me.

So that's basically the entirety of the project. Below are more photos that I couldn't find a place for in our conversation. Hope you enjoy them. I'm always open to questions, so drop me a line if you have a query.

This piece, which I called Main-gear, took almost three hours to make.

Main-gear turned out quite nice after a bit of antiquing paint.

The beginning of the stage.

Construction of Stage-gear. Lots and lots of floral foam.

Things glued down with a bit of moss for texture.

Proscenium up with Curtain-gears attached.

Everything painted.

One of the best angles I was able to get of it.

The man, as in the earlier picture, does not represent costuming or what-have-you, but merely gives a sense of scale and size. As you can see Main-gear is quite a sizable object.

Poems Conceived in the Library About the Library (One More For the Road)

a matrix of words

collected in the rows and columns

of pages

paragraphs

sentences

a three dimensional array

of ideas

turned physical

ideas given weight and thickness and font

arrays strung into clusters

clusters into programs

programs into systems

systems into collections

collections into a single unifying building of storage

a matrix of matrices of matrices of matrices

of words

Poems Conceived in the Library About the Library

knowledge stacked in neat tidy rows

balconies of studies, poems, dreams

written down for posterity's sake

written down to be read

analyzed

understood

argued

confirmed

bound volumes of research

placed on metal beds

to be lost and forgot

for a time

students searching

scouring

studying

surveying the stacks

for the source of inspiration

that strains their theories

stretches their ideas

strengthening and solidifying

the soul of the thesis

written four centuries before

anyone in this building was born

waits the long lost volume

of an unknown author

for over half of eighty years

the book lies waiting for a purpose

to be used in a dissertation

to be needed

acquisitions brought him into his world

cataloging gave him a name

an i.d.

at first circulation put him in browsing

and after his two months were up

he was placed on a shelf

three floors up

in the back

in the corner

in the dark

lost

daylight

an abandoned cathedral of understanding

ghosts of students walk the silent halls

whispering

passing notes

getting that last sentence printed before class

there is barely a buzz of life here

save for the ever busy organs of the building

blood cells staffing each system of operation

ants working for the good of the colony

and for the overall necessity of their queen

knowledge

duskfall

a quiet metropolis of bodies

each working independently

not listening, understanding, or caring about the others

they abide by the code of conduct

two levels of dull roar

three of silence

night is when the flying buttresses come to life

with spirits praying for grace from their masters

worshiping the holy grounds of

physics

literature

history

government

the congregation worships in ignorance

to the others around them

they all pray to the same deity

although they think differently

they all pray to the god of

partial credit

A Thankful Thanksgiving.

Two years... well almost. Darling, this Thanksgiving I'm thankful for especially one thing. You have become an integral part of my life. I honestly don't know how to live without you anymore. You are loving, compassionate, caring, smart, funny, passionate, beautiful, amazing, gorgeous and overall just wonderful. You have changed me forever and only for the better. You bring out the best in me and show me the most this world has to offer. I love you more than life itself and only want to make you happy. This Thanksgiving I am thankful for you and your love. Darling, I don't know why you love me, but I know why I love you. I love you simply because you're you. I love you Jennifer. Forever and always.

Lady Autumn

Hot beverages grow cold

waiting to be drunk

by the lips of a woman

whose scent lingers in the air

She is the one who comes in the night

breathing softly on the windows

as you sleep

leaving frosty panes for when you wake

She is soft breeze you feel rustle through

the boughs as she sighs and bats her lashes

Her hair is the autumn leaves found in each splash

of color on the mountainside

She is your lover

and

your past lover

and

every one who has ever

loved you

cuddling up to you in the chill of the season

She is in your heart and in the earth

in the sky and in the water

She is the feeling that all beauty will leave you

yet inner poetry remains as the world dies

slowly

She is your autumn mistress

whom you will love for a season

Cast her aside to die

Fall for her again in a year.

Lord Winter welcomes Lady Autumn

with open arms and a cold hard smile

Lady Autumn lingers in the air

The Endless Sandman

This semester, the first of my junior year at Franklin & Marshall College, I am fulfilling my humanities requirement by taking ENG273: Graphic Novels. Most people, when I tell them that I am taking this class, are become quite excited and interested that it's a class at F&M. They dive into how they wish they could have taken a class like that and eagerly ask what books we're reading. It's interesting to me how enthused they are when the topic is breached, as if they are taking the class vicariously through me.

Graphic novels are a very interesting medium. They fuse together words and pictures uniquely as I have never seen before. My first graphic novel was Alan Moore's Watchmen during my freshmen year of college. It was several months before the movie came out, and I am so glad that I read it before I watched it. Following that, I dove into Moore's Batman: The Killing Joke, The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen: Vol.1, V for Vendetta, Spiegelman's Maus I and Maus II, Bechdel's Fun Home, Miller's Batman: The Dark Knight Returns, and Seagle's It's a bird... . Each of these are absolutely amazing pieces of art and literature.

One of the best graphic novels I have read to date though is The Sandman series. Currently I have read volumes one through... seven or eight, I forget, but plan on finishing the series very soon. The best part of the series is how imaginative it is. Neil Gaiman has created concepts and realms beyond the wildest of some of our imaginations!

"There are seven beings that are not Gods,
that existed before humanity dreamed of Gods,
that will exist after the last God is dead.
There are seven beings that exist because,
deep in our hearts, we know that they exist."

I have long exhausted my supply of physical copies of Sandman unfortunately and have thus gone to reading the later volumes

online. This wonderful quote came from a site that was recommended to me to continue my reading (http://www.comicoo.com /sandman/index.htm). The series focuses on one of the seven Endless, as they are called, named Dream. Each endless has complete control over their realm, their plane of existence which intersects the planes on which all living things exist. Pretty wild, right? But they are not Gods. No, they are something very different.

The series starts with the capture and imprisonment of Dream in the twenties by a cult of magicians. Eventually Dream is able to escape but it is almost sixty years after his initial imprisonment, which have left dreamers in a constant flux of visions due to the chaos in the realm. The rest of the first volume follows dream searching the globe for three objects that were stolen from him in his absence.

Each volume after follows Dream or dreamers who interact with Dream, leading up to some grand series climax in the second to last volume. Unfortunately I haven't gotten there yet, but once I do I'll update and share my full review of the series with my avid two followers, who probably don't actually follow. To anyone reading, let me know you're out there.

The reason I love graphic novels is in their form. Combining literature and art into a medium that is greater than the sum of its parts is simply amazing to me. Sandman really stretches the limits of the medium just like Watchmen and Maus have done. The imagination within the panels are enthralling and just brilliant to read and look at.

Well I'm not exactly sure what this post was meant to really be about, other than me rambling about my love for comic books and graphic novels. I hope it was interesting and made someone read a good book.

Haikus of Assorted Thoughts

The word juxtaposed

such a funny little word

to compare two things

Hecate, your will

You, three as one, cast your spell

Fate lies in your hands

She's often absent,

yet she is with me today;

the muse in my soul.

Hung around Death's neck

the collective ankh of our lives.

Smiling, she greets us.

Glass bottle rockets

fly through the incandescent

scrim of the night sky

Haikus of Love

lips parted slightly

your breathing grows heavier

drifting off to sleep

My soul bursts with love.

Never did I know the word

until I met you.

Lilies and orchids

we slowly walk, hand in hand

in love's garden grove

Falling through the air

Soft rain hitting the roof-tops

Lovers stay in bed

Softly whispering,

lying in each other's arms.

Vows and promises.

Scott Pilgrim vs. A Killer Metaphor

So if you've been reading this invisible blog, you may have read my review of Inception. In it I said something to the effect that Inception was one of the best movies, if not the best movie, I have ever seen. Well... Scott Pilgrim vs. The World fits exactly into that same description.

I actually needed to see this movie twice before writing anything about it. There is so much in the film that it honestly feels like genuine comic book (or graphic novel for those who feel that comic book is degrading to the genre); every time you read it (or watch it), aspects of it feel new and undiscovered. It warrants a second viewing.

Scott Pilgrim is a seemingly average kid living in Toronto, Canada with his gay roommate Wallace and plays with his band, The Sex Bob-Omb (a play on words, bob-omb being a reference to items in The Super Mario Brothers games which resembles little black bombs with eyes and feet). The movie begins with Scott, age: 22, rating: awesome, dating a high school girl, Knives Chau. But not too long after the wonderful 8-bit Universal opening (which you can hear, but unfortunately not see, at the bottom of this post), Scott notices another girl, Ramona Flowers. After a quick break up with Knives, Scott attempts to woo Ramona. But Scott's in for a bit of a surprise. He must, in order to date Ramona, defeat her seven deadly exs. Comedy, action, and video game references ensue.

This film feels like the perfect trans-genetic mutation between an 8 or 16 bit video game and

a wicked awesome comic book. From the cartoons added in to animate Ramona's past boyfriends, to the retro (I loath using that word) video game tracks, to the "batman-style" sound text (you know, Bam!, Kapow!, Shazam!), this movie is dripping with pure fan-boy amazement. The visual is really the closest you could get to a comic without separating each shot into individual frames of a comic strip.

The visual, though, is only half of the picture. The dialog is so fresh and witty I was absolutely engaged the entire movie. And it all felt very natural. Nothing was too contrived or forced. If there was an awkward line the movie did a wonderful job at explaining the thought process behind it. Example: After Scott dumps Knives, she dyes her hair similar to Ramona's hair and

starts seeing Scott's friend, Young Neil, in an attempt to make Scott notice her. After they play at the club, Ramona sees knives across the bar and and asks who she is. Scott, panicking, tries to decided whether to say "I have to go pee" or "Who, her?" In Scott's mind we see a roulette wheel spinning landing right on the line between the two options. So what comes out is "I need to pee on her." The best thing is that he doesn't even realize what he said was out of the normal, but the audience can understand what's going on in his head. There are actually quite a few of these moments which make the movie very relatable since we've all had moments where we tried to say something but something else comes out.

The characters are another strong point of the film. Each person is fully committed to their character and they are all so fully developed. While I

have not yet read the books (though I plan on doing so very soon!), I have a clue that we can thank them for such wonderful and developed characters. Two particularly standout characters in the movie were Knives Chau and Ramona Flowers. Both of these were wonderfully portrayed by their respective actresses, Ellen Wong and Mary Elizabeth Winstead. But the character that stole quite a few scenes, I feel was Alison Pill, who portrayed Kim, the drummer of Sex B0b-Omb and an old girlfriend of Scott. I really have no idea how to describe her role. You really just have to see the movie.

Michael Cera is also pretty freaking good in this movie. One of the best roles I think I've ever seen him in. Why do I think that? I think it's because of the role. I feel that he's been stuck in the same role for five years now. This one allows him to be a bit more free with his character.... a bit more animated and emotional. I know a lot of people are getting tired of him, but this movie really is a nice change of pace for him.

The music compliments the visual so perfectly that I was actually compelled to buy some of the songs after seeing it a second time. So catchy are the tracks, I find myself humming them all the time. The final aspect of this film that brings everything together are the battle scenes. Yes, they are over the top. Yes, they are more than slightly unrealistic. But, it brings together everything this movie has.

The whole movie is one big metaphor.... well kinda. The whole fighting the seven evil exs are something every guy, and girl (though I enjoy that the movie focuses on the guy point of view) has to metaphorically deal with when dating someone new and special. You always feel the need to be the best person they've dated to date (pun). This movie really does a superb job at jumping into the mind of a twenty something guy entering a new relationship. Bravo. I cannot wait to read the books.

This is the 8-bit Universal opening at the beginning of the film. Unfortunately there is no version just yet that features the visual component to the clip. Sorry folks.

Beyond My Dreams

You're beyond me.

You're more than I could dream of...

You are so much more.

I'm Not The Best

I don't always call

I'm sorry texts go unchecked

I'm just dumb sometimes

A Summer of Science

This is my last day in the lab. Well, at least for this summer. We've (James and I) have made quite a bit of progress on Dr. Krebs' current project. Honestly, leaving today is a bit bittersweet. Part of me really, really wants to go home and have some actual vacation time, because I know that all disappears when grad school happens, but part of mewantsto just stay put and live in my new apartment. The latter is probably explained by Jennifer's closer abode to myself out here.

So this is our lab. It's actually a pretty small room but it's definitely has a homey feeling to it. The table to the right is our laser set up area, along with a cryostat chamber (hard to see) and monochrometer hooked up to a PMT (photomultiplyer tube; the blue box). James' fume hood in the back is very easy to see, as well as part of his chemistry table in the bottom left-hand corner.The furnace, which isn't visible in the picture to the right

but is visible to the left, is used to heat all of our samples. It can safely go up to about 1,200 degrees Celsius, but we usually keep it below 900 so we don't completely melt our samples.

Basically the point of this summer.... rather, the point of this whole project is to use PLZT, a known ferroelectric, and dope it with nanoparticles to observe a stimulated photocurrent

using a visible spectrum. To anyone who understands that.... Bravo. To the majority of those who don't, myself partially included, don't be afraid. This explanation won't hurt a bit.

A ferroelectric material is something that has an inherent molecular dipole. This means that the crystal structure is not completely symmetric. Because of this dissymmetry, if a large amount of these crystal structures are aligned the same way the material as a whole obtains different attributes. The most important is an electric field that is created in the material. This electric field is a direct consequence of the dipoles aligning in the material. When the majority of the dipoles are aligned in the same orientation, the material is said to be poled. So with the material poled and this internal electric field in it, one is able to stimulate a weak

photocurrent from it. The way this happens is as such. When a particle (yes, I said a particle) of light hits the material,

an electron gains energy. If this energy is enough to bump it into a different energy state (technically it's bridging the band gap between the conduction and valence bands, but this is an easier, albeit flawed, way of looking it), the electron creates a hole in the previous energy state. Due to the electric field in the material, the electron has a good chance of being pulled away from the nucleus it is "attached" to, with the hole it created before going in the opposite direction. When a lot of light hits the material, this effect is brought on to a measurable scale with many electrons going one way, while the absences of electrons are going the opposite way, thus creating a current. This is called a photocurrent.

Nanoparticles... well, to be honest, I don't completely understand. What I do know is that they are groups of molecules that are bunched together and then doped into things. Alone in a solution of hexane or whathaveyou, they are able to make wonderful luminescing liquids. Our goal is to dope, or put a very small percentage into the material, PLZT with various nanoparticles, from Prof. Plass' chemistry lab upstairs, and hopefully find that the conductance in the films have increased.

PLZT, or Lead (Pb) Lanthanum (La) Zirconium (Zr) Titanium (Ti) oxide, is a well known ferroelectric. James made a fresh batch this summer so we know who to blame if we can't get anything to work. In the PLZT, James refluxed in some copper sulfide nanoparticles for the first trails, and then cadmium selenide for the later trials. We hope that the nanoparticles will

increase the electron-hole pairs created by the photoelectric effect (the long explanation about photocurrents is basically called the photoelectric effect.... kinda).

To test if the nanoparticles are in there we set up the laser table for spectroscopy measurements. The final table we built is pictured to the right. We set a laser up to hit the sample after traveling 15 meters due to the mirrors, and we measure the spectrum that the sample gives off after being excited by the laser. James also can look for the particles in the data given by an XRD, or an x-ray diffraction. This will let us see what the sample is made up of. If we see a signature that looks like cadmium selenide or copper sulfide then we know they're in the film.

Another series of tests we do on the samples are electrical tests. We deposit the PLZT onto a special type of substrate, ITO coated glass. The ITO, indium tin oxide, film is a wonderful conductor and allows us to make capacitors out of our films. Well, that's what we wanted. These films are actually somewhat conductive and thus don't make good capacitors. None the less we can run our hysteresis loop tests (not even going to try to explain that in depth here) which basically shows how poled the sample is, and our IV curve tests. The IV curve simply plots voltage vs. current. This means that as you put a voltage across the sample you can plot how the current will rise or fall. Because the film acts like a basic linear resistor, we can use the relationship V= IR. Thus, the IV curve can tell us what the resistance is of the film.

That basically sums up what we've been doing in the lab for the last ten weeks. It's been fun yet frustrating at the same time. It has been a wonderful experience and I hope to continue next summer again. Up ahead are a few more pictures I took of the lab. Thanks for listening.

This is the three stage student-made vacuum pump system for the cryostat.

Evidence that we did a bit of math over the summer!

The ever-present dartboard. I got a bulls-eye!

James eating cheez-its.

Lasers are cool!

The Dream is Real

Inception.

Need I give more of an introduction? If you have not seen this movie yet, you should. I would advise against seeing it, though, if you hate good thrillers, mind puzzles, incredible acting, original plots, brilliant dialog and/or leaving the movie theater feeling completely immersed in the world the director and writer made for you.

Honestly Inception is one of the best, if not the best, movies I've ever had the pleasure of watching. The world they create is so... immense. Each level they go into in the dream is a completely new world full of different imaginative twists and turns. Each level is so wonderfully flushed out and retains incredible depth. Never before has a movie made me so nervous throughout the entire film. Nervous not because I was scared but rather I was so jacked up on adrenaline that I could not physically keep myself calm. As soon as I stepped out of the movie theater I couldn't stop smiling. I also did not feel connected with reality for quite some time after. It probably sank in that I was out of the movie while I was eating dinner with Jennifer in between shows (we also saw The Sorcerer's Apprentice, but that's my last post. If you didn't read it all, conclusion: great fantasy movie offering something for all ages).

The movie revolves around Leo DiCaprio's character, Dom Cobb, and his unconventional profession; dream extraction. In short, he became an reconnaissance agent that goes into people's dreams and steals ideas, secrets or other personal information from his victims. His unorthodox career has stripped him of everything he loves in his life. His home, his wife, his children. But suddenly an employer offers to set everything in his life back to normal for one last job. Inception. It's never been done (supposedly). Instead of extracting an idea from a victim's mind, the employer wants Cobb to plant an idea. He needs to assemble the best team in the business to do the impossible. But there is a complication even more dangerous than the task itself. Something is hiding in Cobb's subconscious that could sabotage the entire mission. Something that has been hidden for a while. Something he must confront to get out of this alive.

Wow... just rereading this makes me think I should get a job writing the synopsis paragraphs on the back of DVD cases. Maybe I just have a huge ego. Whatevs....

The cast is absolutely superb. This movie oozes with terrific acting and amazing subtleties that will make the movie new each time you watch it. The plot is nothing short of elaborate. This means that my dad will probably turn it off half way through because he has no idea what is going on. But that's just him. I honestly think that if you can follow the Star Wars movies, you'll be able to keep along with this one. While elaborate, the plot is perfectly twisted. Nothing is out of place in this movie. Every rule Christopher Nolan (writer, director and one of the producers) creates for his movie is followed to a tee. The cinematography is also fantastic, creating intense shots of action, touching shots of emotion between Cobb and his wife, Mal, and, quite frankly, dreamlike shots of Joseph Gordon-Levitt floating weightlessly in hotel elevator shafts and such.

It's logical, brilliant, and every so tasty. I tried to think of adjectives to describe this movie, after seeing it. My instant thought was that it was juicy. I wanted to say that the movie was like candy, something you could just eat up. The thing is, candy has the connotation that it is simply surface, one-level satisfaction. And Inception is anything but that. Thinking for a while, I realized that this movie was like a thick juicy steak. Everyone can enjoy it but connoisseurs will savor the taste a little more. And just like a steak has many dimensions of flavor, taste, and succulence, so does this movie. Thus the movie is a wonderfully prepared juicy steak for audiences.

This is just a little interview with Joseph Gordon-Levitt and Ellen Page. No particular purpose other than I love these two in the movie and I think they're pretty great behind the scenes as well.

That's about it for now. I said it once, I'll say it again. This movie is amazing. Literally one of the best movies I have ever seen. Please go see it.

Magic is Science in Disguise

This past weekend was chock full of movies for Jennifer and myself. We decided to use the wonderful birthday gift my parents gave me (some movie gift cards) on a double feature. Sorcerer's Apprentice and Inception (next post, don't worry). Long afternoon/night, but so incredibly worth it.

Disney could have done so much worse on Sorcerer's Apprentice. In fact, I'll even say that it was quite good. Honestly, I love fantasy films that are kinda set in the modern world. The story revolves around the life of Dave Stutler, an average guy who attends NYU for physics (you can see why I liked this movie. It gets better). As a kid, he accidentally stumbles into a mysterious shop and receives a dragon ring from Balthazar Blake, one Nicolas Cage. Now a college student, Dave bumps into Balthazar again and he finds himself in the middle of a centuries old battle of sorcerers. He must become Balthazar's apprentice if the powers of good stand a chance of survival.

Not my best synopsis yet, but I think I'm getting better at it.

The plot does just enough for the movie to keep it fresh and new, while obviously using many tried and true magical archetypes. Terms such as the "Prime Merlinian" kinda sounded cheesy but I can forgive that. The special effects were very nice to see. Although they weren't the cutting edge stuff you see in movies like Avatar (Dances With Wolves but with blue cat people), it was real enough to add the necessary fantasy element to it. Also the effects worked well with the actors and seemed to really be in-tune with their movements.

The thing that I enjoyed the most with this movie is it's connection with science. It attempts to ground this mystical art in physics and chemistry. A few posts ago, I posted a video of Balthazar talking to Dave about how a basic fire spell works. It all has to do with science and I truly enjoy that. The writers evidently knew a bit about physics when they wrote a pretty cool scene where Dave programs his tesla coils to vibrate at distinct frequencies, replicating a song that his love interest played on her radio show the night before. Obviously the girl was impressed and so was I. The directors knew a little about physics too. They made sure that Dave always went into a faraday cage before turning his coils on.

The only major slip up they made was at the conclusion of the movie. There is a large battle scene in which Dave "magically" makes a ring of park lights turn into a giant series of tesla coils. 1. This isn't possible. 2. It felt somewhat contrived. It seemed that the writers had no idea how the battle was going to work out so they pulled out some movie magic excuse and employed it here. How should Dave beat the villain? Oh, by employing something that we've been shoving at the audience since the very beginning! Eh.... not what I had hoped for.

Nicolas Cage actually doesn't suck in this movie. I apologize to all who read this who enjoy his acting. Personally, he just rubs me the wrong way and the only movie I've seen that I thought he was amazing in was Moonstruck. Fabulous. But he does a wonderful job in Sorcerer's Apprentice. He's edgy and gritty enough to kick ass but isn't a jerk. And the actor who plays Dave, Jay Baruchel, is truly perfect for his part. He's a master of awkward situations yet is secretly awesome inside. As I write this, I'm realizing that he actually never did that much magic throughout the movie. The most he does is at the very, very end. If there will be a sequel, I would hope that his magical skills are developed more.

Overall, I enjoyed this movie quite a bit. There is something for every type of audience member. Adults will get things that kids won't even see, and vise versa. Disney could have done much worse with this one.

Oh and if you do see this movie, look for the Star Wars reference. Truly my favorite part of the movie.

The Salem Witch Trials Are New All Over Again

I just finished an incredible book last night. It took me a bit to get through but was well worth it in the end. The book is call "The Physick Book of Deliverance Dane." Quite a title if you ask me. Jennifer and I were in Barnes & Noble a few months ago and we wandered over to the new authors section. She saw this book and after reading the inside cover decided to buy it. Normally I would caution against such a rash decision, especially since the book was hardcover and that's quite an investment. If she were to read this though she would comment "Hardcovers really help new authors out. Paperbacks are great but the author really doesn't see a lot of that money. And if you're a rising author you need every penny you can get to continue writing." So she got the hardcover andI just smiled. Less than a month later she had announced to me that she had finished her book after starting it a week or two after buying it. She told me it was really enjoyable and that she thought I would enjoy it. At first I wasn't sure if I would. I was still skeptical of the book just because she didn't really know anything about it before she bought it besides what was in the front flap of the jacket. Those jackets can be quite deceiving sometimes.

About a month ago when I was visiting home, I stopped by her house to watch a movie with her. After the movie we decided that it was late enough that I should be heading out, but not before I raided her bookshelf for a few pieces of literature. This was only fair since she had raided mine a while ago. Amongst my finds were "V for Vendetta" (Amazing!) and the aforementioned "The Physick Book of Deliverance Dane." V took me literally two days to read and was absolutely fabulous. I then read the first volume of The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen. Brilliant. Alan Moore is a genius and a freaking loony at the same time.

Anyways... I then started reading "Deliverance Dane" and fell in love with it within three chapters. The first few chapters are indeed slow but necessary. I didn't understand why details were being so flushed out at first until I was half way through the story. The story follows two women, Connie Goodwin and Deliverance Dane (and her daughter and her daughter's daughter and so on) through their lives. Connie is a Harvard grad student working towards her PhD. in history. Her story takes place in 1991. Deliverance's tale follows her in the late seventeenth century. She is a puritan living in Salem. During the witch trials. You can probably see where this is going....

The book uses the different view points as a sort of device to break up the action within the main plot line. In the first half of the book, the reader longs for the "interlude" chapters, or those chapters which take them back to Deliverance and her descendants' time. In the second half of the book, the author, Katherine Howe, uses the "time travel" technique to break up the action of Connie's story as things start to piece together for her. It's wonderfully maddening as the story starts to roll faster and faster down its slippery slope towards its climax and eventual conclusion.

The best part about this book is simply the writing. The characters are real. Their interactions are real. Besides the fantastical elements of this book, the situations are real. I loved reading this book not because it had a wonderfully compelling plot and used interesting and gripping techniques. No, I thoroughly enjoyed this book because I could relate to the characters and situations and truly feel what they felt. Miss Howe is an incredible writer and I am quite anxious to see what she writes next.

http://www.physickbook.com/

This is her website, by the way. Very intriguing. Hope you get the chance to read it.

Birbiglbug, Birbigliogrophy.....

I really don't know what to say on this post. It's really not about what I have to say this time but rather the video that is attached at the bottom. This is a clip from This American Life, a wonderful radio show on NPR, where Mike Birbiglia talks about his adventures with sleep. It's about 13 minutes but its hysterical so I definitely urge you to listen to it.

Apple Pie a la Mode

So as I sit here waiting for the championship of the world cup to commence, I feel relaxed after a wonderful weekend so far. Jennifer invited me to Gettysburg to look for apartments with her father, and we were able to set aside some time to watch a few movies. I'll tell you what, there is nothing better than apple pie a la mode with a cup of coffee in a dinner in the middle of Gettysburg. Well nothing more American that is. The only thing that ruined it a bit was that there was a huge biker rally that day. Nothing against bikers honestly. It's just very noisy. Some very cool bikes though.

Anyways. We got to rent a few movies. The Book of Eli, The Wolfman, and Unleashed.

The Book of Eli was surprisingly good. Going into it i had only seen a few trailers and they didn't really explain anything about the movie besides the fact that Denzel Washington has a book and Gary Oldman wants it. Most of the first 20-30 minutes of the movie is very sparse with dialog, yet you got to know Washington's character, Eli, very well. The movie did a wonderful job taking very little and turning it into so much. Shrouded in semi-mystery, most of the movie I had no idea what was going on. Everything comes together in the last 10-20 minutes turning all the building confusion into pure awe. I won't say to much more in fear of spoiling the movie for anyone who reads this (which probably may only be myself) who hasn't seen it.

The Wolfman was .... really bad as far as a dramatic movies go. But that was the thing. It attempted to be both a dramatic movie but also an action/slasher movie. The two, with very few exceptions, are mutually exclusive genres in my mind. So, even as an action/slasher movie it really didn't do it for me. The story was so basic, the acting was barely passable and in conjunction with the unmotivated violence, the movie was nothing more but a good conversation piece. Hugo Weaving and Anthony Hopkins really made the movie watchable. Oh and why silver. I've never understood that. I just would love to hear why silver bullets kill warewolves in, in albeit fake, scientific terms. But that's just a personal concern.

Unleashed was actually very good. It was able to turn a martial arts action movie into a semi-dramatic movie. This is one of those exceptions I mentioned in my last paragraph. Jet Li mad the movie come to life with decent acting and terrific martial arts. Jet Li is just an amazing person.

Sigh.

This world cup game is not really going anywhere. I suppose I'm rooting for Spain but neither team is much of a draw for me.

All in all... it was a good weekend.

Together in the Darkness

lying in my arms

i gently kiss your forehead

drifting off to sleep

Apprenticeship Never Sounded So Good

Please take a look at this amazing clip!

After seeing this clip last night (courtesy of Jennifer), I am so pumped for this movie. Not only are the action scenes wonderfully imaginative (so far) but the special effects look wonderful! Last year I saw "Push," a wonderful movie about those among us who have the ability to manipulate objects and minds around them. The effects for that movie were subtle enough that they looked quasi-real, yet still fantastic enough that it retained its fantasy/sci-fi core. These effects emulate that same philosophy; make it look like it could happen but still make it badass.

Normally I'm not one for Nicolas Cage (save for "Moonstruck") but this looks absolutely amazing. I'm also fascinated by the use of "science" in the second clip (below). I myself love when sci-fi/fantasy authors use science to explain why things happen in their world. Of course most times the science is more of a pseudoscience at best, but it means so much to me that they try.

All in all this looks like it's going to be a fantastic film, and I cannot wait to see it. Hopefully it won't be as much as a flop as "Airbender" was. I shudder as I think about the epicness of that fail....

I Screw Things Up Sometimes

tangled up kisses

awkward embraces we share

you put up with me

A Firebender's Paradise

It was 100 degrees yesterday.... 38 Celsius. So far its 94 today, and rising. It's simply too hot. There is rarely a breeze and coming out of the lab it literally feels like I'm walking into the oven where we heat our samples. I know I'm complaining about things that are out of my control and honestly aren't that bad.... but it's just too hot.

I recently saw the movie "The Last Airbender." I love the show but the movie was an atrocity. I know everyone is blaming Shyamalan for the disaster since he was a "triple fail" (writer, director, & producer). But I really only could blame him for the writing. His script was the worst piece of writing I have seen in a very long time. As far as directing.... sure there were a few minor things here and there, but I would argue that if the script had been written by ... say the original writers (which seems like the first obvious choice to write the script) then his direction would have been better, hopefully. Personally I think he's a fine producer and maybe should just stick to that from now on.

Anyways.... what pissed me off probably the most about this movie is that the firebenders are unable to "create" fire themselves. In the movie they must have an external source of fire around to bend. Ummm... what? The whole reason they are so powerful in the series is that they are not limited to the environment around them. Waterbenders must have water. Earthbenders must have stone or earth. Airbenders are kinda similar to firebenders in that they can basically bend no matter their surroundings, but that's just because there's air just about everywhere. But yeah this "twist" Shyamalan evidently thought of is just a slap in the face to the show. Fire is simply energy being released from chemical bonds in wood, gasoline or any other flammable substance. In a more philosophical approach, which I feel this show is centered on, fire can be thought of an extension of your own energy. Being able to generate internal energy from your breath an then expelling it as fire. To me, it just seems very logical why the creators of Avatar (not the freaking blue cat-people movie) made firebenders able to create their own fire. Uncle Iroh even says to Zuko,

"No! Power in firebending comes from the breath. Not the muscles. The breath becomes energy in the body.The energy extends past your limbs and becomes fire."

It just frustrates me when things are changed in movie adaptations when there is no reason whatsoever to change them. Sigh....

Now that that rant is over, I probably should get back to the happenings of my lab. Trying to pole some commercial ferroelectric polymers deposited on FTO coated glass. Not working so far. I really hope it does cool down outside soon, though.

Capacitor of the Heart

a capacitor

that never sheds its stored charge

my love only grows

Rulers of the World

I am saving the world. I am its savior and soon all shall bow to me in appreciation. I, in co-rulership with my lab partner, James, shall reign over the hunk of rock we call Earth, our home. I wish this is how my summer research job would turn out. In fact, I would even be satisfied by getting my damn equipment to function properly. But alas, this is not the life of a researcher. Nay, the life of the a scientist.