She's the Man

Ten parallels between the play "The Twelfth Night", by William Shakespeare, and the movie "She's the Man" are:

1. The play is held "in the kingdom of Illyria," while the movie is held on the campus of Illyria.
2. In the play, a guy is "pining away for the love of Lady Olivia," while in the movie he is pining away for the love of Olivia, a girl attending his high school.
3. In both the play and the movie, there are two twins, Viola and Sebastian
4. In both the play and the movie, Viola disguises herself as a man
5. Viola, disguised as a man, becomes good friends with Orsino (Duke)
6. Viola falls in love with Orsino (Duke)
7. Orsino (Duke) sends Cesario (Viola) to give messages of love to Olivia for him
8. Olivia instead falls in love with Viola, who is disguised as a man
9. Orsino (Duke) realizes that he is in love with Viola, once she is revealed to be a woman\
10. Sir Toby (the black soccer player for Illyria) and Maria (the weird girl with the braces) hook up
    

"Of Mice and Men" Movie Trailer

Project Checkpoint

My group, composed of me, Steven, and T.J., will be filming tomorrow night at T.J.'s house. We plan to be done with the filming that night, and during the same night, edit the the film we've taken.
In our movie trailer, we plan to have the characters George, Lennie, and Curley's wife. I will be playing the part of George, Steven the part of Lennie, and T.J. the part of Curley's wife. We also plan to include three scenes; the scene where George and Lennie are standing 400 meters away from the worksite and George is telling Lennie to run back to that spot if he ever gets in trouble and to not speak when they get down there, the scene where Lennie accidently kills Curley's wife, and the scene where George has to shoot Lennie in the back of the head.
Probably the biggest set back we will encounter will be trying to edit the film. None of us have any background using video cameras or editing film, so it will probably take us quite some time to figure things out.

Romeo and Juliet Final Scene

The ending of Romeo and Juliet enraged me at the same time that it made me sad. Romeo going to the tomb to kill himself, not knowing that Juliet was still alive, and too emotional to think things through, was what enraged me. It was annoying to watch a character make such a huge mistake, when I knew it was a mistake, but he was clueless. At the same time though, it was really sad to watch Romeo take his life in grief, and then Juliet wake up to Romeo being dead, and taking her own life as well. The thought of such a young couple taking their lives for each other is a really sad one, and it truely saddened me.

I believe the story of Romeo and Juliet has had a huge impact on pop culture throughout the ages, influencing people to make movies and stories about lovers who couldn't be together. Even today, you often see movies with story lines very similar to that of Romeo and Juliet.

Romeo and Juliet: Video Post

This video relates, because it is Damien Rice singing about a girl he loves, but can't be with. This is a lot like what is going on between Romeo and Juliet at the moment, with both of them being in love with each other, but not being able to be together.

Romeo and Juliet Photo Post

This photograph relates to Romeo and Juliet, because this is a photograph of Verona, Italy, the place where this play takes place. The wall is completely covered with grafiti and love notes, all placed on top of each other to the point that none of it is even readable anymore.

http://www.freefoto.com/images/14/14/14_14_87---Graffitti-and-Love-messages--Verona--Italy_web.jpg

Romeo and Juliet: Act 2

Something that happened, in Romeo and Juliet: Act 2, that I found it to be interesting was when Romeo decided to sneak back to Juliet's balcony, climbing over the tall garden wall. After climbing the wall Romeo and Juliet talked to each other for quite a long time, struggling to say bye to each other. By the end of their conversation, they had decided to get married.

I believe this event will change the way Romeo and Juliet treat each other for the rest of the book. Now, they both know that they love each other and will do whatever they can to be together.

I chose to write about this event because it reminds me of a personal experience that I had once as a young boy, when I snuck back to the house of a girl I really liked, named Laurel. When I got there, we struggled to say good-bye to each other for the longest time, but we finally decided to leave each other for the night. I can completely understand why Romeo did what he did, and I, too, would have done the exact same thing.

Characters in Romeo and Juliet

I believe the character Romeo, in Romeo and Juliet, is a man, from Verona, of very good behavior. In my opinion Romeo is a boy who has no care at all about his parents problems with the Capulets and doesn't really worry too much about going to the Capulets' party. Romeo, to me, seems like a boy who is being held back by his parents, having to follow strict rules he doesn't believe in, finally breaking free and becoming a hoodlome.
I think my friend, Brendan, is most like Romeo because he, too, wants to break free from his parents rules, but is stuck following them right now. This is just like Romeo being held back by his parents. Therefore, my friend, Brendan, is most like Romeo.

Aaron's Blog

Aaron, your blog was very interesting and I am amazed by the fact that you had a premonition of an event like that so long before it happened. I have never experienced a feeling like that, but I understand why you wouldn't take yourself out of the game just because of a feeling like that. Although you wouldn't have gotten hurt if you took yourself out of the game, your coaches and teammates would have thought you were crazy. Hopefully, next time you'll listen to your gut though, because that injury sounds like it hurt pretty bad. Anyway, excellent job on your blog Aaron. I really enjoyed reading it.

Romeo and Juliet: Premonitions

Once, when I was a small, young child, My friends and I decided it would be fun to jump off the roof tops of neighboring houses and buildings. The thought off flying through the air and collapsing on the ground, performing a roll to try and keep from breaking any bones, excited us in ways we had never experienced before. We had to try it out, and as we were young, we did so, without giving it any further thought on what the consequences may be, or the injury that may occur.

It wasn't too long into it that a chill came over my body. As I was watching the third person prepare himself for a jump off the side of a two story house onto a yard of dead grass, the thought surfaced in my head saying, "Maybe this isn't a very good idea... Maybe we should stop before someone gets hurt..." I wanted to express my feelings and tell my friends my thoughts on what we were doing, but I couldn't find it in me to do so. I didn't want to be embarrassed; I didn't want to be the kid who was too "chicken" to do it. The one who got made fun of because he was too afraid to do anything or take any risks.

Sure enough though, the third boy to jump broke his ankle immediately upon contact with the ground. He screamed in pain, and I knew it was eventually going to happen, but I'm not so sure the others realized that. They had gone on blindly, without thought or reasoning backing up their actions, and they payed the consequences. I don't believe I could have changed the events of that day in any way, for those kids weren't very bright, and no matter what I said I don't think I ever would have prevented them from doing what they did.

Shakespearean Stories

I believe the movie, She's the Man, is the most like a Shakespearean play. In the movie, the character, Viola, has the school she is attending cancel their soccer program. She decides to go to her twin brother's school to play soccer for them, but they don't allow girls to play on their soccer team. So she decides to dress up as her brother and try out for the soccer team. While there, she falls in love with her roommate, Duke. But Duke is in love with another girl, Olivia, who is in love with Sebastian. Sebastian is actually Viola disguised as him though, creating a love triangle just like you see in William shakespeare's plays.

The William Shakespeare play that I would compare this movie to would have to be A Midsummer Night's Dream. They both share a similar love triangle so I would therefore say they are most alike. In the play, by William Shakespeare, you have many people who are in love with one another, but their love is all disorganized and tangled, creating a love triangle as messed up as the one in She's the Man. That is why I would say the play, A Midsummer Night's Dream, by William Shakespeare, and the movie She's the Man, are two, very similar stories, in which She's the Man was greatly influenced, by the play, to have a love triangle much like the other.

Anticipating Shakespeare

As I watched Shakespeare on film I could understand what was going on, but found the language to be a little difficult at times. Throughout the film though, it got easier to understand what the words meant and my vocabulary began to grow to the point that I could understand what each character was saying without really thinking about it. So far Shakespeare seems to be a very interesting person who writes great stories that I would enjoy reading or watching forever.
I am very excited to begin reading Romeo and Juliet in class next week. I have heard many good things about it and I am immensely grateful that I finally get to read it instead of just hearing about it from other people. I don't really know anything about Romeo and Juliet, although I've heard about it a lot, so getting to learn more about it will be a great experience. I don't know how much you're going to enjoy the next two months, but I'm sure I will enjoy them greatly. Learning about Romeo and Juliet is something I have wanted to do for a long time now, and I happy to finally have the chance to read it and learn about it.

Animal Farm Freewrite

As I've read Animal Farm there have been many things I've liked about it, and there have been an equal amount of things in which I've disliked about it. Although over all I feel Animal Farm is an excellent book, one that every person should read, I do have to say that sometimes I really didn't like the book. The story telling was good, but often times I felt the author was trying too hard to make the book work. For instance, when the author makes the pigs able to talk to humans; I see that as a sorry attempt at making a childish and boring book work.

I believe the meaning behind the characters is to teach the story of the Russian Revolution through a story that is easy for everyone to read and understand.

Winter Break

My father and I were on our way to pick up my sister in Seattle. She had just gotten there after driving through the Cascade Mountain Range through a blizzard on her trip back from college. Now it was our turn. My dad was originally planning to go alone, but after sitting in the house through three snow days and never going outside once I decided I needed to get out. So I said bye to my mom and got in the car with my dad. The snow was coming down so hard that all you could see infront of you was whiteness. My dad's car is a sports car, riding low to the ground, and as soon as he pulled out of the garage and onto the driveway you could hear the sound of all the ice scraping across the bottom of his car. I remember the pain on his face as he remarked, "This is gonna be a long day..." Driving out of our neighborhood the car slid in every direction, bouncing around without control. My wanting to get out of the house was quickly withering away as my stomach leaped around inside my ribcage with every bump. We finally made it to the freeway where the road was now a vast carpet of snow among which cars drove wherever they wanted. No longer were there lanes, or shoulders, there was just a carpet. A carpet with a herd of cars moving along it. My dad's winshield wipers repeatedly froze over to the point that they couldn't wipe the snow off anymore and our windshield was coated in a layer of ice. Everything looked all bent out of shape, all weird. You couldn't make anything out because the ice was morphing it all. At one point my dad had to ask me to look out my window and tell him when to turn. For more than an hour and a half we drove down the middle of the freeway at a top speed of 40 miles per hour until we finally made it to the Westfield Mall, where we were to pick my sister up. We had made it. We had gotten there without crashing. In celebration we walked into the Cheesecake Factory by the mall, asked for a seat, and each bought a ten dollar piece of cheesecake as my dad said, "Enjoy it, we might not make it home." We all had a good laugh as smiles spread across our faces, but they quickly left, for we knew that there was a good amount of truth in his statement.