I'm now a deviant! Creativity on embarrassing display!

I've finally decided to go for it and put my recent and forthcoming art scrawls, and also possibly creative writing, out for comments and (hopefully) constructive criticism.
I've just begun but if you're on DA you are welcome to stop by and either jeer or cheer.

http://brilliantly-rusted.deviantart.com/

Nice handle, non?

My daughter Eowyn also has some art I posted yesterday...

Chris Giza O'Brien

Busy and frustrating summertime

Working hard this summer! I'm working right now on a couple of textbooks I'm doing with my wife--EFL texts for votech grads who want to go into business. It's rather slow going and it's hard to concentrate. I haven't been sleeping really well for quite a while and the days are full of distractions and interruptions. Also working on a new song, a sort of Electric Company tribute, and another major project for a government grant. Hope I get the grant! It's hard to focus, that's a fact!
This week, Coral's been in Taichung with her cousin and a student from Japan who's visiting the Chen clan there. We only saw her on Wednesday when she was swimming with the girls in Dou Liu. Very tired and bummed. Oh well!
Sorry I haven't been keeping this blog running smoothly for a long time. Will try to do better! However, this is the one blog that's been really running at all, so don't complain too much!
Chris

Recentness

Well, the drama class fell through again. Rather a bummer. However, I've discovered a new entertainment: alternate reality gaming. It's really inspiring. I am now working on a new project and have recruited two people from abroad to collaborate. It's started. . .it's exciting.
it's coming.
Wow.
Eowyn's learning to inline skate, and to use an abacus. Chris and Coral are taking a test Saturday, to try to participate in Miami's Space Camp. Amy's writing a scholarly paper. Jonnie's learning to walk. It's a stirring time, but rather exhausting, as per norm.

Marble Hornets: The Anagrams!

The "Marble Hornets" game is fascinating. Someone suggested that the name of the student movie that is purported to be a feature of the story is such a strange name, and seemingly unconnected with the action of the movie that seems to be happening, that maybe it is an anagram of some other phrase. Here is a list of the possibilities, from respected wordsmith Anu Garg's Internet Anagram Server.
I like "Hamlet's Reborn" as a good lead. On the other hand, "Herbal Monster" may be it--possibly a reference to the "House of Leaves" novel?
Or how about

• "Rem Blathers On"?
  
• "Ramble Her Snot"?
  
• "Her Lost Barmen"?
  
• "Hot, Barren Elms"?
  
• "Mel Abhors Rent"?
  
• "No Brash Remelt"?

I really wonder...

On a related topic, I don't personally feel that Tim could be the masked person who attacked Jay, as some seem to suggest; Jay recently interviewed Tim, who seemed a rather normal guy in recent life, and he did not seem to have clear memories of the whole shoot. People have said that it's fairly certain it's Tim, and that he is far gone and has little memory or similarity to the person he was during the shoot, but clearly he is not too far gone in the interview.
Further, he has a power similar to that of the Slender Man in being able to do magical type things such as making people sleep, disrupting video and audio in the camera, and such. Tim could not do that unless he is also now supernaturally powerful.
Or maybe I'm misunderstanding others' arguments. I will read more. Is this a waste of time? It is certainly inspiring!
Photo linked from http://knowyourmeme.com/photos/33260 but probably not original to that person...

Dumpty-Dumpty-Dump: Dan Brown's Writing Flow

Here is another comment on Dan Brown's writing that I found in one of my very favorite mailing lists, Daily Writing Tips.

Two things contribute to the flow of sentences within a paragraph:
1. sentence length
2. logical progression of thought

In browsing my shelves for examples, I realized that some very popular writers don’t seem to share David’s concern regarding “jumpy” narration.

Here’s a typical paragraph from Dan Brown’s The Da Vinci Code:

Langdon and Sophie stepped into another world. The small room before them looked like a lavish sitting room at a fine hotel. Gone were the metal and rivets, replaced with oriental carpets, dark oak furniture, and cushioned chairs. On the broad desk in the middle of the room, two crystal glasses sat beside an opened bottle of Perrier, its bubbles still fizzing. A pewter pot of coffee steamed beside it.

Not a complex sentence in sight. It doesn’t seem to matter if Brown is being reflective or describing action. Most of his sentences are simple or compound. Here and there the reader comes across a noun clause introduced by that, or a an adverb clause introduced by as or as if. Mostly it’s dumpty-dumpty-dump.

Yes, Dan Brown is a wildly successful writer and I’m happy for him. His gift, however, is story-telling, not writing style.

Just to share for a bit. A good insight. A great mailing list, too!
By the way: will I read the new book?
For sure, dude! And I'll enjoy it--the story as well as the bluepencil stuff.

A Deeper Shade of Brown?

Books of The Times - ‘The Lost Symbol’ by Dan Brown - Baddies and Brainiacs and the Secrets of Freemasonry - Review - NYTimes.com:

"Also, the author uses so many italics that even brilliant experts wind up sounding like teenage girls. And Mr. Brown would face an interesting creative challenge if the phrases “What the hell...?,” “Who the hell ... ?” and “Why the hell ... ?” were made unavailable to him. The surprises here are so fast and furious that those phrases get quite the workout.

Then again, Mr. Brown’s excitable, hyperbolic tone is one the guilty pleasures of his books. (“ ‘Actually, Katherine, it’s not gibberish.’ His eyes brightened again with the thrill of discovery. ‘It’s ... Latin.’ ”)"

This cracked me up--particularly the second paragraph quoted above. Brown's condescension knows the same bounds as Kanye West's or Mr. Wilson's propriety [assuming that "Katherine" is unable to recognize the language that gave us all these lovely root words, but the intellectualissimo Langdon does--and the narrator is trying to wow us with his acuity on a point that the reader is not assumed to have recognized unaided].
This sounds exactly like something I already made up in my post on Brown's Angels & Demons--as a parody. Am I just getting old, assuming that anyone with any amount of high school education (required by law in the US in most cases, as far as I know now) would recognized Latin? Of course, I have not read the book or the whole passage that the Times quotes; it may be Latin in code or in disguise or something. . .but the decontextualized quote is just delicious. Thanks, Janet Maslin!!

Hilarious "Literal Video" --- what a super concept!!

I hope you will all enjoy this. It was suggested by my high school friend, Leo Memolo. Instead of the original lyrics of "Total Eclipse of the Heart" (was that by Jim Steinman? Sounds like!), what we hear (and it has subtitles!) is a literal description of what happens in the video--sung to the original music. Brilliant.
Prego!

UPDATED:
Yes, it is by Jim Steinman. Thanks again for the video and the information, Leo.

*snif*

As far as I can tell, NOBODY has even read my comments on "Angels & Demons" or had any reflections on what I wrote! Disappointed!

The Oscurati: Dim Bulbs in Dan Brown's Angels & Demons

Part One:

Langdon was certain you had never heard of the name.

"Effluvium," Langdon said. "Vapors from decaying bone." He breathed through his sleeve as he leaned out over the hole, peering down. Blackness. "I can't see a thing." (Angels & Demons 269)

Quick question: how many of you have ever heard of an obscure Italian from the Renaissance named "Galileo"?

Ring any bells? Yeah, the proponent of the concept of heliocentrism. Essentially, the inventor of the solar system concept. Kind of important. Kind of famous.

So why does the noted Harvard symbologist Robert Langdon seem to assume that only other eminent scholars would know the name?

Langdon was certain Kohler [the head of a conclave of scientists] would recognize the name. Even nonscientists were familiar with the ill-fated astronomer who had been arrested and almost executed by the church for proclaiming that the sun, and not the earth, was the center of the solar system. ... "His name was Galileo Galilei," Langdon said. Kohler looked up. "Galileo?" (32)

Thank you, Basil Exposition.

Dan Brown, pardon me, but I ask you: "Langdon was certain Kohler would recognize the name."--Are you kidding me? Why not mention, say, Thomas Jefferson and insinuate that a character would have heard the name because of his high level of education? Who, I ask, has never heard of Galileo? Certainly, in some areas of the world the name would be less familiar, but then these people are similarly less likely to be reading a novel about European Renaissance culture.
Anyroad--Kohler is a sharpie, for sure. He even has heard of the Masons--who, Langdon assumes, are total mysteries to you and to me.

[Langdon explained to Kohler that the Illuminati] "...were taken in by another secret society...a brotherhood of wealthy Bavarian stone craftsmen called the Freemasons."
Kohler looked startled. "The Masons?"
Langdon nodded, not at all surprised that Kohler had heard of the group. (38)

For a learned scientist, Langdon seems to be quite unaware of just how well known much of his arcana really is to the general public. I kept expecting him to explain:

"The Catholic church has existed literally for centuries," Langdon remarked. Vittoria stared at him blankly, even moronically. He went on, speaking patiently as he could. "It's a group of people that believe in God. And for most of that time," he continued, licking his lips with enthusiasm, for he loved to surprise people with his penetrating discussions of virtually unknown trivia of the Western world, "the Catholic church has been led by a single office. Oh, just as with the Maytag Repair Man, the office has been held by various people--sometimes Jesse White, sometimes Gordon Jump--but always by a man with an all consuming desire to control his people! And he has been known as. . .The Pope!!" Vittoria gave a startled jump into the air, bumping her shimmering hair against the nave of the church. She choked on a bit of ham sandwich and then exclaimed in a rush of incredulity, "The Pope? You mean, The The Pope?" I thought he was dead. . ."

However, perhaps Langdon is too much of a specialist. Like school kids in America, Landon

"...knew [that the Big Bang] was the scientifically accepted model for the creation of the universe. (68)

Ironically, unlike most adults who have finished high school,

He didn't really understand it. . . "(68)

These assumptions that these common-knowledge topics need to be exposited by the narrator make me wonder who in fact is the intended audience for these novels. Are these in fact children's books? Unlikely, as the books feature lots of insinuated sex and murder and mutilation (as opposed to the Road Runner cartoons, in which we see the injuries happen).

But who would assume that adults--grown people who are assumed to be intellectually capable of following the intricacies of the Langdon novels--would be that unfamiliar with Galileo or the Big Bang--or even supercolliders? Langdon finds it hard to believe that the scientific organization would have dug a huge donut out of the earth, deep underground, only to make subatomic particles crash into one another (57); as for myself, I learned about supercolliders in, I think, middle school, and have no trouble believing this.

Though I DID enjoy the stories of both Angels & Demons and The DaVinci Code, Dan Brown's narrator and Langdon's egobabble kept breaking me out of my suspension of disbelief--something a quality novel should never do. For the former narrative, I set out at once with my highligher and red pen, ready to mark the ludicrosities at once--and I couldn't put them down for the whole book.

For me, the forehead-smackin'est bit in the whole novel was when Langdon views the remarkable, ambigrammatic brand which can imprint the Illuminati's fabulous diamond on any body, cow or human. I don't know about you, reader, but I played with stamps when I was a kid. I even had a Fisher-Price printing KIT that I could use to print whole words. It wasn't hard, even as a child, to understand that to make an imprint properly, the stamp itself needs to look like its mirror image. Even carving potatoes and carrots in kindergarten, I got that idea adequately, though it was hard to execute the letters at that early age. But check out Langdon's bafflement as he views this g(l)orified stamp:

The metal still radiated heat. Grasping the wooden handle, Langdon picked it up. He was not sure what he expected to see, but it most certainly was not this.

Langdon stared [for] a long, confused moment. Nothing was making sense. Why had the guards cried out in horror when they saw this? It was a square of meaningless squiggles. The most brilliant of all? It was symmetrical, Langdon could tell as he rotated it in his hand, but it was gibberish. (467)

I was on a train when I read this applesauce. I wanted to shout out loud, "Langdon, you utter DOPE! Craphead! Fuzzdutty!" [and so forth]; I very nearly did. A few pages later, the payoff came, and it was rich: the narrator still feels he must explain to the readers (through the filter of Langdon's self-muttering) that

...the symbol now made sense. Perfect sense. The marking's awesome power hit Langdon like a train. ... They were in reverse. Langdon had been looking at the brand's negative! (472)

Not just its negative; it has to be its negative, thank you very much.

And by the way, readers, please give me a show of hands: who knew Madonna (the pop singer)'s surname before reading this novel? I am not a big fan of her work (aside from I'm Breathless) but I have certainly known that for decades. That's why I don't put the Madonna albums I might one day purchase (quite an unlikely idea) in the M section of my CD collection, next to the Ns, where the albums of The Artist Formerly Known as Prince would be found. (If you don't know, just Google it--Geez! some people are so lazy!)

More about putting things in their rightful places next time. Thanks for reading. Please comment with tact and poise so typical of, for instance, a YouTube commentator.

Chris O'Brien

July 2, 2009

Next post on Dan Brown will feature other, perhaps less-grievous inconsistencies, errors, and infelicities of expression.

Please note that I admire Brown's story-crafting ability; I just feel he needs a bit more judgment when it comes to certain areas of the narration and style; also, the judgment of a discerning editor. I am not here to hate Brown; I just want to point out that some of the things he wrote are quite outrageous and condescending, and I wanted to be the first to point some of that out and get the credit. Perhaps I am too late. I have been too lazy to Google it.

Citations refer to:

Brown, Dan. Angels & Demons. New York, NY: Pocket Books, 2000.

Composer Competition - The Loudoun Symphony Orchestra

Composer Competition - The Loudoun Symphony Orchestra
Dad alerted me to this exciting competition. I may participate if I have time to come up with something and I feel my arranging and orchestration muscles are up to the challenge. I'd better hurry though!! My dad is on the board of the Loudoun Symphony and so it's extra enticing. Next year, Dad will be using his voice acting chops to make Peter and the Wolf an extra sensation for the LSO. Proud? Yes, much!

Recent activity on my Voicecrafting blog

I've just updated O'Brien on Voicecrafting with some great interviews with Corey Burton and Billy West, and a cluster of information and links on Paul Frees. Further, I introduce my new voice acting project: reading audiobooks for Librivox. Please take a look!
Also, as you may have gathered already, I missed the deadline for Conference #3's fulltext, but it's OK so far, as they extended me a later deadline: Monday! It will be an effort, but I'll get it, I bet!

Trying out improv in Taiwan

I'm trying out some of the Whose Line games with my students: "Number of Words," "Questions Only," and "90-second Alphabet" (augmented sometimes to Eight Minute Alphabet). Some success, but rather slow! Here is a board I'm working on for them.

If you have done any improv you should know the challenges and hopefully the fun of it too. You could see their homepage for more notes.

Parodies Group Begun; Searching for Lodgings!

Heyo! Stressful as a box full of hanging fire. We hope to be able to go to America this summer--Eowyn and I do, that is--and I'm trying to find a place to hang my head during that time: a room for renk. Not easy so far away. Also got to write a full paper for several calls for papers that are due soon. Add to that the fact that Amy could have her baby ANY time now. . . see below for lots of other tasks looming o'erhead.
Also, I've started a social network thingy at Ning.com: "Parodies and Disparities." You wanna join? Be my guessed.

I've always loved parodies and have been exposed to many. I've even done a number of parodies of my own.
I love PDQ Bach, "Weird Al" Yankovic, Young Frankenstein, Airplane!, and even these swell new Mochries of our new President Obama.
I want to get others who are interested in this type of thing and discusss, analyze, and create parodies, travesties, breakfast teas, suchatease, burlesques, and the like. Join me? Please do!
Best to all and all for none.
Chris

From Dissertation idea to Full Length Musical!

What started as a vehicle to prise the Gypsy image away from the Romanies of reality will become a full length musical on the stage of our university on December 30th. I wrote the story as a one-act in 2006 but it was cut from the anthology show I was doing with my students. On January 3rd of this year the opening number sprang to mind and I asked what it was. "I'm the opening number from your new musical!" it replied. "What musical??" I queried. "The Crystal Heirloom," it explained. I've been converting the one-act into this musical ever since. It's been hectic this semester but a thrill. And perhaps later. . .it might be published! But one thing at a time.
Now I'm working on the overture and inserting some inspirations for the instrumentation of "Gypsies Are. . .".
Exciting times!
Chris