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Beauty Behind the Barbed Wire
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Author Archives: Dan Malo
GALLERY: My Post-Katrina
“Mom’s place & my northshore neighborhood”
From Post-Katrina, posted by Dan Malo on 4/10/2009 (46 items)
Generated by Facebook Photo Fetcher 2
(Post-Katrina; 46 photos)
REVIEW: Movie Magic Screenwriter
i absolutely love Movie Magic Screenwriter. my only knock on it is that it crashes a few times a day if i’m writing hard. #saveoften
— Dan Malo (@danmalo) October 27, 2014
I used to use Final Draft for all my screen/stage/teleplays, but after a new computer and an outdated version, I decided to check out Movie Magic Screenwriter (MMS) and I love it. The prices are roughly the same, and both offer serious discounts, so software costs are no longer the dealbreaker. MMS is a slightly older build than Final Draft 9, which has the better GUI, but MMS is simple enough to work with, at first use, and it has no trouble keeping up with me.
It’s got all the formatting squared away for you. WRITE. (Save often!)
HOMEMADE INSTRUMENT: The Spindle
The Spindle is a two piece plastic instrument that is similar in shape and sound to the bongo. It is home made from the remnants of the plastic container that blank CD’s come in. It has a high pitch, with three or more possible tones. As a membranophone, It is good for keeping beats like a bongo or other hand drum. It can be played with the hands, sharpie markers as drumsticks, or the “chip clip” drum-brush. It is called the spindle, because that what it is, and also, it sounds cool to say “I play the spindle.” The instrument might be improved by adding an air hole in the hard plastic bottom for projection and mic-ing.
Literary Analysis: “The Way” by Fastball
At first listen (or read through) it would appear that the song is about two people deciding to take a vacation. Upon analysis, however, there is more to it, veiled in metaphor and other literary/poetic devices. I will discuss these elements, as well as examples of the figures of speech, hyperbole and personification that make up the song. Also among the lyrics is the heavy (the ‘catch’ of the song) alliteration. All of these elements combined with a curious use of rhyme, diction and syntax make for a peculiar arrangement of words and word order. The use of these elements creates a strong symbolism. Ultimately, I will offer my opinion as to what this arrangement symbolizes, based upon my interpretation of the lyrics.
The hallmark of the song is the reuse of consonant sounds, and this becomes evident quite quickly. The song breaks right into its use of alliteration with the first line “They made up their minds.” The words “they/there” and “made/minds” follow one another closely in a repetition of consonants. The element is used again in the fourth line with “summer slacking.” The most repeated (and titular) line of the song has the heaviest use of alliteration. Starting with the fifth line, “Where were they going without ever knowing the way?” asks the question using a string of four words with “w” sounds. It is repeated again in the tenth, and twenty-fifth lines. Quite cleverly, the sentence also shows an example of midsentence rhyme with “going/knowing.”
Rhyme is also heavily used throughout the rest of the song. It is exhibited very quickly in the second line “packing” resolving neatly with “slacking” in line four. The prior line is matched to the fifth, pairing “day/way.” The same scheme is repeated again in the next stanza, working again with the “-ing” sound with “talking/walking” in lines seven and nine. Also repeated is the “-ay” sound in lines eight and ten with “say/way.” The first line of verse one curiously rhymes with the first line the subsequent verse, albeit awkward with “minds/wine.” Vocalized, the rhyming nature of the words becomes more clear, and a clever treat to a discerning ear.
The chorus brings a new series of rhyme in lines eleven and twelve, matching “gold/cold.” The similarly sounding endings of “somewhere/care” follow in lines fifteen and seventeen. The chorus (lines eighteen and nineteen) is wrapped up using rhyme as well. The author pairs the words “highway/today,” which also become noticed in the vocalization. A short bridge reuses “’em” which rhymes with itself in lines twenty-one and twenty-four. The “-ay” sound is borrowed again with “day/way” in lines twenty-two and twenty-five. Using similar consonant and rhyming words (the author’s diction) and how they are pieced together (syntax), makes for a relatively bouncy flow. They roll off the tongue in some instances, showing an intricate attention to meter. The repetition of beats in “star-ted pack-ing” in line two matches that of line four with “sum-mer slack-ing.”
The words chosen make for interesting figurative language. “Shadows” are personified as “wandering off somewhere” in lines fifteen and thirty. Hyperbole is used in describing a road “paved in gold” in line eleven. “Eternal summer slacking” in line four, replaces ‘taking it easy’ or other similar phrases as metaphor. Another way of describing inebriation and professions of love can be witnessed in lines six through eight with “they drank up the wine, and they got to talking, they now had more important things to say…”
It can be deduced from the opening lines, “They made up their minds, and they started packing, they left before the sun came up that day,” that the characters in the song hastily planned a journey. The imagery of “an exit to eternal summer slacking,” paints the picture that they were looking to ‘get away from it all.’ A lack of concern is shown “when the car broke down (and) they started walking” in line nine. The oft asked question is immediately is posed with “Where were they going without ever knowing the way” in the next line. Walking down a road “paved in gold,” where “it’s always summer, they’ll never get cold,” one can assume that they are walking towards a much better place (lines eleven and twelve). This is further affirmed in lines thirteen and fourteen, claiming “they’ll never get hungry; they’ll never get old and gray.”
This road and the characters journey down it, symbolizes, in my opinion, growing old and a final progression towards death. I imagine the characters being nearing the end of their lives, and losing all of their worldly concerns. That “they won’t make it home, but they really don’t care” in lines sixteen and seventeen (thirty-one and thirty two), makes me believe that they have accepted their situation and that they are ready for the next stage in the journey of the spirit. The fact that “anyone can see the road that they walk down is paved in gold” (eleven and twenty-six) leads me to think that those around them would accept their decision to walk down that road. It would appear in lines eighteen and nineteen (thirty-three and thirty-four, as well) that “they wanted the highway” and “they’re happier there today.” (05/21/2009)
“The Way” by Fastball
They made up their minds
And they started packing
They left before the sun came up that day
An exit to eternal summer slacking
5 But where were they going without ever knowing the way?
They drank up the wine
And they got to talking
They now had more important things to say
And when the car broke down They started walking
10 Where were they going without ever knowing the way?
CHORUS:
Anyone could see The road that they walk on is paved in gold
And It’s always summer, they’ll never get cold
They’ll never get hungry
They’ll never get old and gray
15 You can see their shadows wandering off somewhere
They won’t make it home
But they really don’t care
They wanted the highway
They’re happier there today , today
20 The children woke up
And they couldn’t find ’em
They left before the sun came up that day
They just drove off
And left it all behind ’em
25 But where were they going without ever knowing the way?
Anyone could see The road that they walk on is paved in gold
And It’s always summer, they’ll never get cold
They’ll Never get hungry
They’ll never get old and gray
30 You can see their shadows wandering off somewhere
They won’t make it home
But they really don’t care
They wanted the highway
They’re happy there today , today (repeat)
Sources:
DiYanni, Robert. Literature: Approaches to Fiction, Poetry, and Drama. New York, NY: McGraw-Hill, 2008.
Sing365.com. “The Way.” Fastball. http://www.sing365.com/music/lyric.nsf/The-Way-lyrics-Fastball/911972CACA8AA944482568BD0034F647
WORKSHEET: La Moda del Hombres
Connecticut: Counties, But No County Government
Originally published at Global Site Plans
Most of New England is made up of counties that predate the Declaration of Independence. However, these counties exist largely as geographical regions, with few reminders of their former county governments besides old courthouses, maps, and online administrative forms. The neighboring state of Rhode Island abandoned their county governance over 100 years earlier than Connecticut. Vermont and Massachusetts maintain a weak county government similar to what Connecticut once had, but theirs, too, is growing weaker.
At its height, Connecticut’s county government was responsible for liquor licenses, and services such as roads, jails, and courts. At the time county level government was abolished in Connecticut, it had little power, and was considered an ineffective “patronage” system of appointed commissioners. Many services that define county governance in other states were delegated to the state or towns.
In 1959, a Democrat-controlled legislature voted to end county government, and serving no other purpose but to manage county jails, the last elected position of county governance, the sheriff, was finally discarded in 2000. It’s a popular opinion that county governance is unnecessary because Connecticut is a small state.
It is often said that “Connecticut is split up into 169 little fiefdoms,” meaning that local governance is the responsibility of the separate 169 cities and towns. Each town provides its own services through taxation. If a small town is unable to operate an expensive service like a high school, it coordinates with surrounding towns for that service to be provided. To keep local tax rates as reasonable as possible, periphery services such as ambulances, animal control and tree maintenance are managed by multiple towns. This coordination is facilitated by Planning Regions, or “Regional Councils of Government,” commonly referred to in Connecticut as COGs.
In Connecticut, COGs have developed as a way to help towns and municipalities looking for ways to reduce their operating costs. Regionalism is now a focus of state government and in an effort to perform more efficiently, the number of COGS has been reduced from 15 to 9 within the past few years. Interestingly, this is nearly the same number as counties, with similar geographic boundaries. In lieu of cost pinches, decreased town-level civic participation, and other considerations, I often wonder if regionalism could further be applied to school boards. In many states, school boards are the dominion of county government.
Occasionally, proposals to re-enact county government come forward, and given the fact that the COGs perform many of the functions of county governments elsewhere–and receive more responsibility every year–it might be worthwhile to ponder their need in Connecticut and what they should look like.
What does county government look like where you live? Does your county government have a large decision making role?
Credits: Images and Data linked to sources.
Heliocentricity: A Hard Pill to Swallow
Copernican heliocentrism
Copernicus theorized that Earth and the other planets orbited the sun. He believed that God wouldn’t create such a disorderly universe, as “messy as Ptolemy’s”. He saw his work in heliocentricity as fix for much of the bad math of the Roman Calendar.
The prevailing wisdom of the time proclaimed that the planets and sun orbited the Earth. The earth was the center of things, and there was no reason to doubt that, according to the layperson—common sense showed celestial bodies moving across the sky.
The vast majority of peasants of Copernicus’s time had no understanding of heliocentricity. Most people rely on the work of scientists to form their understanding of the universe, much like today. I don’t “know” heliocentricity…it has been taught to me. It is my chore to observe.
Thomas Newcomen’s Steam Engine
Newcomen’s steam engine design.
The steam engine has been the catalyst for probably the greatest number of economic, social, and political changes in human history. It provided an opportunity for fast growth, fast travel, and circumvented much of the longstanding problem of food spoilage during transportation. It can also be said that the steam engine is where all the jobs went, as many labor consuming tasks eventually became mechanized from technology.
Successful BRT Systems: Characteristics
What do effective Bus Rapid Transit systems (BRTs) have in common?
• Physically segregated busways
• Operation of trunk+feeder buses
• High station platforms
• Fare prepayment, flat fares, free transfers
• Mostly operated by private companies
• High passenger volumes
• High commercial speeds of operation
• Much lower cost than LRT or metro
• BUT: Metro-like appearance
• Distinct identity and good image