Final Thoughts On The Class

I have to say I actually had a lot of fun in this class this semester. I didn't know what to expect from this class when I first came in, however, a lot has changed since then. We went through a lot of awesome works of literature. The professor was very fair and cool. It started off as a class about theater analysis and slowly grew into a class about life. Mr. Baldwin made me think differently when he mentioned that half of the degrees we work for won't have jobs for us in the future. I also think the grant writing ideas are genius. A lot of people think of really cool things but are to afraid to actually materialize those ideas and put them into tangible effect, and this grant writing process would definitely make things easier. I plan to take what I learned here and apply to life.

Final Project

My verse for our final project at the Tank:

Damn I’m mad you killed my pops that way,
Pouring POISON in his ear, you couldn’t even say
Sorry brother, this throne, I want this
Far from loving but damn at least you’re honest

More hate then love and now he’s with the man above
Telling people fables, should told the one bout Cain and Abel
How you’re a dirty scheming no good piece of it
How you’re parked on the throne where he deserves to sit

Now you’re here trynna play the innocent role
You crossed me, but this bridge right here has a toll
I know you can’t believe I know this and imam stop ya
Don't be mad about my steelo, I got it from my poppa

You shoulda known while you were screwing my mom
I had you right in my palm, on the brink of dropping this crazy bomb
You’re probably curious as to how shit got so hectic
But don’t worry uncle Imma get you when you least expect it

Inception-Hamlet Mix

The other day I was Inception again. The movie, if you haven't seen it, is brilliant. It is about a guy who is paid to plant an idea in a multi-millionaire's head in order for an asian businessman to flourish in his market. The main character agrees to do this because he has done inception before. Throughout the movie it isn't clear who he has performed the mast inception on. Finally he admits he performed it on his wife, who was in limbo with him forever and he couldn't bare to live in an eternal void for all eternity. He confesses he planted the idea of killing herself in his wife's brain and she did. However she couldn't distinguish reality from limbo and killed herself in reality.
This movie sort of reminded me of Hamlet. He, like the guy in Inception did to his wife, decieved Ophelia. I'm sure if Hamlet had access to a dream machine he would plant the idea of casual sex into Ophelia mind only to have a physical relationship with her, without the emotional attachment.

The Hamlet Breakdown

I was browsing around on Google and came across an interesting Hamlet website. This guy breaks down Hamlet in easier pieces to digest and puts a fun twist to things. Not only does he break down the entire play but he was quirky anecdotes along the margins of the websites and other cool links to different other helpful websites. Take a look and enjoy:


http://www.pathguy.com/hamlet.htm

Funny Hamlet Article

I came across and interestingly funny article about different version of the Hamlet play by William Shakespeare. I thought this might spark people's interests. Take a look:


http://cinemaroll.com/cinemarolling/something-is-funny-in-the-state-of-denmark-five-hilarious-hamlet-parodies/

After the Tank

After the Tank my girlfriend and I went to a hookah lounge. We talked about the presentation as I was curious about her opinion on the play because she is an actress. She told me the play was pretty good considering no one had any formal training, which is what I thought. She thought that play was much more interesting than the stage reading, which I also agree with. She told she didn't have any idea what I was saying in the beginning while that man was playing the flute and Michael and I were just talking. I guess that makes two of us because I had no idea what I was saying. I was told to just feel and be deep so I just acted like one of those smooth jazz club poetic type of people and said whatever came to mind. I had a good time and the experience was definitely one I won't forget.

RUR Reading

The whole presentation at the Tank was pretty cool in general. However, maybe I'm too shallow but I thought a simple stage reading of the play RUR was kind of boring. I mean we've been working towards this presentation throughout the whole semester and the other class is just doing a stage reading. Now don't get me wrong, I'm not referring to the amount of work put into it, because I'm sure they worked on their stage readings for a while, however, it lacked creativity. Something as simple as a stage reading wasn't very fun. I think it accomplished the opposite of our goal. These are the types of things that get the audience disengaged to begin with. Thank god we went before them. I think the audience would've been sleeping by the time Nase and Chris hit the stage.

Hamlet Parody

If any of you guys would like to see a really funny Hamlet Parody, definitely check this out. I guess it's what Ophelia would've done had she had a gay friend to help her make better decisions.


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jnvgq8STMGM

Hamlet production on youtube

I don't know who this person is but apparently he put the Hamlet presentation on youtube. I'm not taking credit for this I'm just posting it because I randomly saw it on youtube and I guess anyone who wants to see it can take a look.


http://www.youtube.com/user/jk840228

Hamlet play

I thought Saturday's Hamlet play was very good. Chris acted pretty well and so did Nase. It's good that they captured the personality of their characters so well. I didn't think they were used to serious stuff like that. The whole idea behind the entire presentation was to capture the audience's attention because to much of their attention is divided between technology (cell phones, ipods, etc) and not enough is given to the presentation. That being said the idea with the phones connecting using touchosc was brilliant. It did accomplish the goal of the presentation which was to get the audience's attention and have they actively engage in the production. Everyone was on their seat trying to figure out when their number was being called, or at least I was, and it was a great success. I had a lot of fun both participating and watching the presentations.

Tank Project

Me and Michael have finally come up with the instrumental we plan on using for our presentation at the Tank. It is "Flavor in ya Ear" by Craig Mack. I posted the link to it on this post so please enjoy.


http://www.facebook.com/l.php?u=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.youtube.com%2Fwatch%3Fv%3DDGkak5LJcWQ&h=819d6XJjAyIKCGr8P-tb-DaS1ng

Oedipus and Hamlet

Hamlet and Oedipus are very similar in many senses. Just like Oedipus, Hamlet is highly looked at in his town. In Oedipus's case he is the king that saved the town of Thebes from the Sphix's tyranny and in Hamlet's case, he is considered very intelligent and seems to know a great deal about many things. Both Hamlet and Oedipus also have similar screwed up stories. Oedipus kills his own father and sleeps with his mother and Hamlet's father is killed by his uncle, who then marries his mother. Not only are these plot characteristics similar but they also have many traits that mirror each other. Hamlet is looked at as very strong but seems to be plagued by his father's death and it is almost contradicting how such an intelligent scholar like Hamlet can go completely insane and do some of the things he did with such weak evidence. In Oedipus's case, its very strange how a man as revered as Oedipus could commit such a primitive disgusting act like patricide and sleep with his own mother. It seems as though these similarities in plot and character have been somewhat overlooked.

Psychology and Hamlet

The other day in my psychology class we were talking about moral development. My professor told us that a well known psychologist named Gilligan, did some studies and believes that men and women morally reason quite differently. She believes that women like to take relationships and caring more into account when they reason, and men take a justice perspective and tend to reason on what's best for them specifically. This point closely reflected Hamlet because Ophelia, like many women, wanted what was best for the relationship. She tried to save their relationship at all costs even though her love for Hamlet was unrequited.
This theory also portrayed Hamlet very well because he, like most men, tried to do what was best for him. In the case of the pay, Hamlet wanted to sleep with Ophelia so he did whatever it took to do so, even though it meant having to lie to Ophelia by telling her that he loved her. He never really cared about her, he just wanted to get in her pants. It seems as though this theory holds some weight, at least in the case of Hamlet.

Ophelia and women in a psychological perspective

I thought it was very sexist of Shakespeare to portray Ophelia and Gertrude as weak, dirty women. The play makes it seem as though he believes all women are just as weak as Ophelia, who cannot exist without Hamlet and falls hopelessly in love with him. Not all women are this weak, at least not today in society. The modern view of successful women involves the "independant woman" perspective. Today women, are go getters and just as competitive as men. Back in Shakespearean times it seems as though the women were just an accessory to the men.
Also Gertrude affects Hamlet a lot more than the play shows. He believes his mother is a whore for sleeping with his uncle and begins to view all women like that. This is obvious when he tells Ophelia "get thee to a nunnery" when Ophelia wasn't even a permiscuous girl to begin with. This view of his mother as a whore, plays into Hamlet's psyche, and it seems as though he loses all respect for women after his mother's actions.

Me and Hamlet

The other day I was at a club and found myself closely tied to Hamlet. I had just stepped into the club with my friend, who is single. The whole plan was to have a good time. He found a girl he really liked but wasn't able to think of a good icebreaker and she was talking to her friend a lot as well. Since I have a girlfriend I went up to the girl first and introduced myself. I started small conversation and then introduced my friend. I can tell her friend liked me so I pulled her aside so my friend can get to know her firend. This whole time were dancing, things got a little hot on the dance floor as she was giving me obvious signs to advance, however, I have a girlfriend and was just talking to her to help my friend get her friend's number.
The whole time I was thinking about how I was similar to Hamlet in this sense. I, like Hamlet did to Ophelia, gave this girl the impression that I was into her only to get something else. In Hamlet's case that something else was sex and in mine I just wanted to be a good wingman and get my friend the number he wanted. Was I an asshole or was I just a good friend trying to help another friend out?

Hamlet and Anagnorisis

Hamlet's anagnorisis is very important in this play, though it's evidence is completely fallible. Hamlet realizes that he must avenge his father's death after a ghost of his father showed up to him in his room and informed him of this. This seems too farfetched and almost stupid to act on this sole reason, however Hamlet does. Throughout the whole play he goes crazy trying to figure out how to frame Caludius and then exact his revenge. To many of us, this plan would be kind of crazy, which leads us to believe that if Hamlet decided to follow this plan before he went "mad" he must have been mad before when he came up with it.
However this isn't the only anagnorisis in this play. Claudius realizes Hamlet is on to him when he sees the mousetrap play that Hamlet puts on for him. After this moment, Claudius is constantly on to Hamlet and tries to block off his attempts at proving that he had in fact killed his own brother. These realizations help build the drama in the play and make for an interesting confounding plot.

Ophelia's Hamartia

When we read Hamlet we begin to realize that Ophelia also has a certain hamartia. Her hamartia might be her love for Hamlet. In the scene when Hamlet tells Ophelia to get herself to a nunnery, she is obviously distraught. She can't imagine life without Hamlet and almost immediately goes mad. She was so in love with Hamlet she began to think of him as her crutch. She relied too much on Hamlet and was devastated when he left her. This hamartia is so detrimental to her character because it makes her seem weak. It is almost as she cannot live without him. Opposite to the independant woman mentality of our generation she is unable to continue her life without Hamlet and chooses to kill herself.
I think Shakespeare might have put her in this play to portray female's weaknesses in the love game. Ophelia makes women in general seem pretty fragile and she seems like she has lost not only Hamlet but her own identity in the relationship that her and Hamlet had. Females such as Ophelia depend on men and this portrays women in general very poorly.

Hamlet's Hamartia

After reading Hamlet I've realized that he has a strong hamartia that thwarts his existence. His hamartia is that he is ambiguous about his decisions. Had he killed Claudius when he had the chance he would've spared the lives of many characters in the play and his own as well. However, Hamlet cannot bring himself to kill his uncle even though his plans for revenge are so prevalent throughout the story. If he wasn't so wishy washy with his feelings he could've ended the problem by killing Claudius to begin with. His ambiguity continues to plague him throughout the play because he doesn't know what he wants to do with Ophelia. One moent he loves her and another he wants to get rid of her. Maybe its his madness that makes his so unsure about his decisions, but had he treated Ophelia well and respected her he might've had help with his plans. He doesn't even know how to feel about his own mother. He loves her but constantly thinks she is a whore and this possibly causes a ripple effect in all his female relationships. In retrospect this certain hamartia proves to be his biggest adversary, not Claudius.

Our Project

Michael and I are planning on rapping a song for our project on the 11th. The song represents the play that Hamlet put on that accused Claudius of fratricide. The song is what the play would've been had it been a song instead of a play. In the song I'll be rapping from the point of view of Hamlet and Michael will portray Claudius's point of view. We're using the song "Flavor in Ya Ear" by Craig Mack because it closely resembles King Hamlet's death in which he was poisoned in the ear by Claudius. Michael will be doing the first and last verse as Claudiius and I'll be doing the second verse as Hamlet. In the song we want to portray the tension between Hamlet and Claudius and how Hamlet knows of his father's death and how manages to keep calm until he sees Claudius's reaction to the play (even though it obviously eats at him that his father was killed by his uncle).
The production at the Tank should be interesting considering everyone has put a lot of thought into their presentations and I hope everyone does well.

RUR

In RUR, the play deals with the issue of how humans can one day be ruled by the very robots they created. In a sense this cannot be true. Of course it is hard to say this in an age where everyone is a slave to their XBoxes and their phones, but this doesn't mean there isn't enough facetime. As human race we have to stay true to our nature and incorporate that facetime in our daily lives...after all that's whats gotten us thus far. It is in our innate biology to communicate and use machines as a step stool not a cushion. Machines are essentially the fruit of our creativity, how could we be ruled by something that can only get better depending on us. Maybe a certain robot starts to go rogue. If so, as humans we have the ability to counter it with an even better robot and we all know there is always room for improvement. Of course I do see the underlying meaning I'm just simply playing devil's advocate.