How to sabotage a franchise - the story of prequels

After 16 years of waiting, the hype was real. The anticipation for Episode I was the biggest in the history of cinema. And then this mess of a movie was shown. After the premiere, every die hard fan was trying to persuade himself that the movie was pretty good. To this day, if a hugely hyped movie turns out to be terrible and fans blindly defend it, it is called "The Episode One Syndrome". Of course, in time everyone realised how bad of a movie it really was. Its a shame, really, because many talented people were involved in this project, especially well done were the special effects. It was a tough battle with The Matrix for the special effects Academy Award. The marketing was also perfectly guided, promising something entirely different from the final product.

"We are going to sell so many toys!"

The main problem with the prequels was that George Lucas had a status of a god among filmmakers and could not have been said "no" to. He was surrounded by people, who didn't dare to confront him and call him out on any bad ideas. The results could have been anticipated. George decided to write the entire script by himself, dialogues and all - for all three movies. As I mentioned in my previous post, he's not a good writer and it shows here so much. Bad dialogues, contradictions and bad pacing were all problems that marked every prequel Star Wars movie. Does anyone ever forget Anakin's obsession with sand in episode II? Exemplary bad writing is what it is.

Everyone's most hated movie character in full glory.

Do you remember this guy up here? Yes, he really happened. Why make a movie that interests kids through enchanting and adventurous storytelling if we can simply create an offendingly stupid character that would feed off slapstick comedy of the worst sort? You see, George knew that the real money lies in merchandise, not the ticket sales. What he didn't anticipate however, was that such characters are annoying to everyone above the age of 5. Where is Jar Jar now? No one wants to buy him. But don't feel too bad about George, Star Wars made tons upon tons of money on everything Star Wars related, it was practically shoved up everyone's throat - actually very much like it is now, but at least we don't need to see his stupid face on every coffee mug in the store.

 

QUESTIONS:

1. Can you find any Jar-Jar Binks related merchandise in stores?

2. What actor was met with the most praise when it comes to the prequels?

The greatest art museums

For some people museums equals boredom. Walking around quietly and looking at pictures. And yet, the best art museums in the US are highly visited by people all around the world. So what is the fuss about? Do you have to be passionate about art to truly enjoy the visit? Let's focus on two most famous places.
First one is Art Institute of Chicago. It hosts approximately 1.5 million guests annually and its collection size is 300,000 works! Including iconic pictures by Pablo Picasso or Edward Hopper. You can notice how the style of painting has changed through the centuries and how it differ in American, Asian and European art. But it's not only about paintings, the place also has one of the largest art history and architecture libraries in the country. The museum is open every day till 5pm and the recommended length of a visit is 2-3 hours. One ticket for a student costs around 20$. You can get an audiobook or download an app before going, that will allow you to easily get the information about works.

the inside view of the museum

Pablo Picasso The Old Guitarist, 1903

Edward Hopper Nighthawks, 1942

Now, moving to New York City, second museum I'd like to talk about is the Metropolitan Museum of Art. In 2010 it was visited by 5.24 million people (ranked 4th globally)! Pretty impressive, isn't it? It holds over two million works, divided in seventeen departments: from classical antiquity and ancient Egypt to extensive collection of American and modern art. Works from every corner of the world collected in this one place; armours, sculptures, paintings, photographs. I guess that everybody can find something to admire. Students can enter the museum for only 12$.

The Great Hall

Mummy

Which of the two would you like to visit and why? :)

In the nerdy web of Peter P.

Let's make it clear right away - if you have not heard about Spider-Man, you either are very busy trying not to be a nerd or you've been living in some kind of a hole in the forest for the bigger part of your life. So for now let's just focus on one of the most famous and recognizable American superheroes ever or to be more specific, on an amazing comic book series about him.

The Amazing Spider-Man is an American comic book series published by Marvel Comics, featuring the adventures of the fictional superhero Spider-Man. Being the mainstream continuity of the franchise, it began publication in 1963 as a monthly periodical and was published continuously, with a brief interruption in 1995, until its relaunch with a new numbering order in 1999. In 2003 the series reverted to the numbering order of the first volume. The title has occasionally been published biweekly, and was published three times a month from 2008 to 2010. A film named after the comic was released July 3, 2012.

The overall story about Spider-Man concerns the life of Peter Parker, A shy, nerdy and very intelligent student from New York living with his aunt May and his uncle Ben. Peter has never been very popular and didn't look to be really. One day on a trip to a local laboratory, in order to observe some of the genetically modified insects, Peter takes a couple of photos. Unfortunately (or fortunately as some would love to gain powers like Mr. Parker), one of the spiders from the lab bites him in the hand. From now on Peter notices that his body is changing, his hands are very sticky, he feels stronger, more fit and his senses are sharpened. I wouldn't like to spoil anything so if you want to learn more about Spider-Man's adventures, or how Peter became one at all, grab a comic book and start reading. There's a lot of good stuff coming out from Marvel, Spider-Man is a huge part of this universe, no doubt about that.

Task for you: How many Spider-Man's identities has Marvel invented so far?

See you next time *flies away using spider's web*

How about some coffee..?

No problem, you can get it easily in a DINER

Diner is a small fast food restaurant that often looks like a train's wagon. Very popular in the USA, but also in Canada and some parts of Western Europe. 

The first diner was created in 1872 by Walter Scott, and it was nothing else but a horse-pulled wagon. Some time later a man called Thomas Buckley began a commercial production of lunch wagons. The idea was a great success, and today this kind of restaurant is well-known.

 Diners serve typical American food

American breakfast: eggs, omelettes, bacon, pancakes, waffles 

Lunch: hamburgers, french fries, hot-dogs, deep fried or grilled chicken  

and much more...

And of course a real diner does not exist without 2 main things:

Coffee

&

Milkshakes

These days diners have considerable cultural significance and they surely became cult. For me, these are unique places with good food and wonderful atmosphere.

Have you ever been to a diner..?

Good Spell

The word "Gospel" originates from the words "good spell" not "god spell" as many people tend to believe. It is the genre of Christian music developed in 19th century. Gospel music usually has dominant vocals. Moreover, it is composed for various purposes e.g. aesthetic pleasure, ceremonial or even as an entertainment product for marketplace. The Gospel music has its roots in the black oral tradition and originates from African American religious experience. In fact the traces of this genre can be found even in 17th century. It utilizes a lot of repetitions, which at first was used to enable ones who couldn't read to participate in worship.

Probably the name "Gospel Song" was first officially introduced in 19th century in 1874 by Philip Bliss who realeased a songbook entitled "Gospel Songs. A Choice Collection of Hymns and Tunes." He introduced a new type of church music which was easier to grasp and easier to sing than the traditional church hymns and it served the needs of mass revivals in the great cities. 

The music itself in general is characterized by dominant vocals with strong use of harmony and referencing lyrics of Christian nature. There are several subgenres which include "contemporary gospel", "urban contemporary gospel(black gospel)", "southern gospel" and "modern gospel music". Some of them utilize choirs, use piano or Hammond organ, tambourines, drums, bass guitar and electric guitar.

Music in 18th century

The music of wealthy americans of 18th century was the Classical Music. People in U.S. were interested in this genre because of remembrance of their origin. The European Classical musicians were highly valued, they mostly listened to Bach, Beethoven and Haydn. The first classical concert in America took place in Boston in 1731 and was called "Live music on various instruments".

After about 30 years since the first Classical concert was held in Charlestown The Association of St. Cecilia was found which allowed to form the first full-time orchestra in U.S.A. The musicians were paid by rich patrons of the arts or by subscriptions which were enabling buyers to attend all concerts within one series.

What is interesting is the fact that one of The Founding Fathers i.e. Benjamin Franklin not only played on such instruments like guitar or harp but also he invented one called glass harmonica,which is shown above. Furthermore, it was such interesting instrument that even Mozart composed an adagio for glass harmonica.

William Billings is considered to be the foremost representative of early American choral music. He was born in Boston in 1746. His "New England Psalm-Singer" which was released in 1770 was the first collection of music entirely composed by an American. As a matter of fact Billings wasn't educated in musics and he was mostly self-trained. Unfortunately he died in poverty on September 26, 1800. Before he died he was married and had six children.

Empire State Building

Welcome back to the series related to US architecture!

From the previous post you already know some basic facts about the architecture of the Pre-Columbian era, so let's now move on to the  'real' American architecture. When it comes to the typical architecture of the States, instead of overburdening you with historical overviews and some boring data, I will just be choosing one particular building for each post separately. Let's then start with one of the most famous and recognizable buildings of the U.S.A - the Empire State Building.

The Empire State Building

The Empire State Building (ESB) is a 102-story skyscraper. It is located in New York City, on Fifth Avenue. It can be either 381 m high (when we look at the end of its roof) or 443 m high (when we include its antenna). It was designed in Art Deco style and is now considered to be one of the Seven Wonders of the Modern World. It is also considered to be an American cultural icon. It is a constitute of the National Historic Landmark list and in 2007 was ranked number one on the AIA's List of America's Favorite Architecture.

The Empire State Building was designed in just two weeks by William F. Lamb. The construction works on the site of the building started on March 17, 1930 and finished on April 11, 1931. The construction works were moving on incredibly quickly and involved approximately 3,500 workers, which were mostly immigrants from Europe or Indians. 

Workers on the construction of ESB

Construction site

A worker on the construction site (The Chrysler Building is visible in the background)

The main reason for such an immense pace of construction was the competition between developers, each of whom wanted to built the tallest skyscraper in the States. Two other buildings which were also trying to gain this title were The Chrysler Building and 40 Wall Street (which is also known as The Trump Building). The construction having been finished, the Empire State Building became the tallest building in the NYC. It was only surpassed by the World Trade Center (417 m), which opened in 1973, however the Empire State Building regained the title after the September 11, 2001 attacks in which WTC towers were destroyed. In April 2013 the new One World Trade Center again surpassed it and the Empire State Building is no longer the highest building of the States.

Today, the Empire State Building functions mostly as an office building for thousands of workers. Also, some TV and radio stations have installed transmitters on its roof and transmit their programs via these devices. 

The ESB is also one of the most popular tourist attractions in NYC, because the panoramic view on NYC from its top is just incredible and breathtaking. 

Panoramic view from the Empire State Building

Some interesting facts:

- ESB is very ecological, its lighting meets eco-friendly standards

- many people choose the ESB to commit suicide by throwing themselves off its roof

- it is now the 3rd tallest building in New York, the 5th in the US, and the 25th in the world

Thank you for reading and have a nice week!

Star Wars was supposed to be a flop - why did it not become one?

 

We have come to believe that Star Wars was some kind of prodigious project, a focused effort of numerous talented people who firmly believed in its success. The reality was somewhat different and we can trace the humble beginnings of this massive franchise to the early years of George Lucas's career. This is not going to be a post about the whole history of how Star Wars came to be, but more of a reminder that great things often happen through connection of multiple coincidences that don't seem to be working out until they really do.

George Lucas, the man responsible for the success of Star Wars?

After making American Graffiti, George Lucas was a very seeked-out director and his plans involved creating a remake of the old school 1930s film "Flash Gordon", but he got scooped by the 20th Century Fox in order to create the next movie. Since the license for Flash Gordon wasn't available, he moved towards other ideas, which finally led him to Star Wars.You can definitely see Flash Gordon influences in the story, for example in the fight against an evil empire.

Evil Emperor on a throne was also derived from Flash Gordon

Although Lucas is often considered a brilliant ideaman, someone with powerful imagination and creativity, he lacks sober judgement and is prone to making bad decisions. We can see that now clearly through his numerous idiotic additions in re-releases of the original trilogy, but back in the day he was just considered a mediocre screenwriter. His first draft was very rudimental and had to be reworked by people passionate about the project to the point of usability. So was the case with many elements of the movie, including the art direction, which undergone a serious change for the better from campy to epic thanks to Ralph Mcquarrie, whose concept images still make for an amazing viewing.

One of Ralph Mcquarrie's concept arts for Star Wars

Even the main cast was making fun of the movie, not believing in its success. Since most of them were young, time spent on set consisted mostly of laughing, joking and pranking each other. Sir Alec Guinness, a prominent british actor portraying Obi-Wan Kenobi, could not believe what he got himself into.

The set often looked like a college campus

All in all, it worked out fine. Star Wars became what it is today, because of conjuction of multiple coincidences that happened to form into something of great value. Hard work of everyone passionate about and involved in this project should not be forgotten!

QUESTIONS:

1. How did the main three actors ended up playing their roles?

2. What was the movie that was coming out around the same time and was expected to rule the movie theaters?

"South Park" and the elections

If you are a "South Park" fan, you probably know that all of the episodes are really current. However, you may be curious about the "Oh Jeez" episode as it had its premiere only one night after the elections. How is it possible that they've predicted Trump's win (which was quite unexpected)? The fact is – they didn't!

Descriptions and a teaser of the episode were clearly suggesting that "South Park" creators had anticipated Hillary Clinton's victory. The episode was initially called "The Very First Gentleman" and a promo "showed PC Principal getting South Park Elementary ready for a visit from Bill Clinton to fight male locker room mentality." At the last minute, Matt Stone and Trey Parker – creators of the show, had to change the name of the episode and rewrite some of the scenes they’d made before, so that they would capture the shock of Trump's win.

Click to watch "Oh Jeez" episode

The 2008 "About Last Night..." episode had also been written before the voting night when Obama won. However, that time Trey Parker said that in case of  McCain's win "they would have aired the episode anyway and later dealt with their own Dewey defeats Truman moment." Nevertheless, the episode wasn't finished until the morning of the day of its premiere. The reason of this was that they wanted to include excerpts of Obama's acceptance speech into the episode.

Click to watch "About Last Night..." episode

Are you "South Park" fans? 
Do you know what other political events were included in the series? Search for one more South Park episode connected to politicians or political events. Then, link the episode in a comment and write briefly what it is about! ;)

Hint!
All of the episodes are available for free on http://southpark.cc.com/ and dercribed on Wikipedia ;)


Sources:
Esquire
The Hollywood Reporter
Los Angeles Times

Turkey day - Thanksgiving traditions

Each year on the fourth Thursday in November, Americans gather for a day of feasting, football and family. Thankhsgiving is the most popoular holiday in the USA. In fact, more people in the USA celebrate Thanksgiving than they do Christmas -  it can be related to the fact that Thanksgiving is a secular holiday that officially separates church and state.

The story of Thanksgivings begins in 1621, when  the Plymouth colonists and Wampanoag Indians shared an autumn harvest feast. 

THANKSGIVING TRADITIONS 

The Feast

Thanksgiving is the time when people share a sumptuous meal with family and friends. Many families gather together to prepare a bountiful feast. Of course, the most traditional meal is turkey, whether roasted, baked or deep-fried. Other traditional foods include stuffing, mashed potatoes, cranberry sauce and a pumpkin pie. 

 Many people in Thanksgiving Day volunteer at a soup kitchen -  a place where food is offered to the hungry for free.

Parades

Parades are an integral part of Thanksgiving in cities across the US. More than 3 million spectators gather on streets of New York for the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade and another 44 million gather around their television sets across the country to admire the magic of the parade's oversized balloons. 

Macy's Thanksgiving Parade (New York)

McDonald's Thanksgiving Parade (Chicago)

America's Thanksgiving Parade (Detroit)

American football

The National Football League (NFL) on Thanksgiving Day is a traditional series of games played during the Thanksgiving in the United States.The traditional American Thanksgiving football game was usually between the Detroit Lions and the Green Bay Packers, but as football has became more popular, there are now more games on Thanksgiving day.

TASKS:

1. Who and in which year made Thanksgiving a national holiday?

2. Which state was the first to make Thanksgiving a yearly occasion before it became a national holiday?

3. What food do more than 90 percent of Americans eat on Thanksgiving?

After Creepy Serialkiller(s), time for a fairytale...

Of course, no fairytales with me.,,
Ok there  was 1927, there was also 1991. Now, Let's move to our century. Please welcome 2013 and New point of view. Snow White? Yeah, classic story with a pretty girl with seven dwarfs. What if it isn't so obvious?
Here is Snow White and the Huntsman. Ok. I need to be honest from the beginnig. This movie is good because of the stunning Charlize Therone. Look a the poster and think who steals the show?

My answer: Defenetely not Kristen Stewart (aka forever open mouth Bella Swan) Chris is just handsome, but Charlize she plays. No she is the Evil Queen.

Other proves: Posters:

Ok this story itself is not about our lovely Snow White, but about evil Queen, how and why she did what she did. However, my idea is to look at this more deeply, we should not watch is as fairytale for adults. In my opinion this film had a great potential, but was destroyed by really bad acting of our infamous Bella, sorry her name was Kristen. Who cares?

Charlize is a class herself, Chris has great potential, but... You know...

Few scenes:

"Mirror, mirror on the wall. Who is fairest of them all?"

Stunning even if she's screaming

Her always open mouth

He is here to fight.

not so gloomy

Defenetely the best scene of Kristen Stewart

Dwarfs! 

Look like she is trying to walk like a girl :)

Ok this is the only scene from classic Snow White

Kristen is better whitout the dress

Characterization and cotumes are  pretty-awesome. Just to take a look at the diferences

Okey I still got the feeling that I forgot about something...

Now Music. In this movie there is one and only song: "Breath of Life" by Florence and the Machine. My dear God- this is the music, this is the voice. Choir plus strong voice of Florence Welch equals MAGIC!!!

This is how it should be good movie music be done!

Shivers...

I know I didn't write anything about the plot. But really I don't have to. Watch the trailer:

Oh I know. I forgot about the prince, which is completely irrelevant and boring.:)

Few questions as always.

1. Was it a nice idea to make Snow White such a strong woman?

2. What about the title of this movie? Is it acceptable?

3. What would you have changed (except Kristen Stewart of course)?

4. Is it really such a difference between the classic Story and this Film?

Poof. And I'm gone. :)