He sets his sights on the highest platform; there is something shiny there.  Without really knowing how he is making it happen, he lifts into the air, the clear wings on his back beating ferociously.  A strange box appears over his head.  It says “Fly.”  As he moves higher and higher into the sky the meter begins to turn from green to red.  Suddenly he feels like he can go no higher; but he must.  The shiny object draws him.  It is his only obsession in life.  He has to touch it.  He pushes on.  The box explodes sending shards of metal down towards him; but he keeps going.  Higher and higher, his wings screaming in protest.  He feels unbound by whatever strange physical laws govern the universe he lives in; he is invincible.

A strange popping noise interrupts his notions of indestructibility .  Blood pours from his back.  He’s falling.  It feels like forever.  With a disgusting crunch he hits the ground.  His wings land pitifully near his head.  This is the part where he dies.

Suddenly his insect like exterior evaporates and he returns to his normal human form.  The drugs have worn off.  He’s back to where he started.

I really need to finish this game

Sophocles’ tragic play, “Oedipus the King”, revolves around the events which lead to the demise of Oedipus Rex.  Oedipus, who only acts with the best intentions, is forced down a pre-determined path that turns his entire world upside down.  The predicament Sophocles places the tragic hero in is impossible for Oedipus to avoid.  By the standards of today’s society, the situation that Oedipus is forced into seems unfair.  On the other hand, in a society of the ancient Greeks where it is widely accepted that people just followed the path laid before them by the Gods, Oedipus’ situation seems understandable.  “Oedipus the King” shows Sophocles’ belief that a person can do nothing to avoid their pre-determined destiny, an idea that contrasts with what society as a whole believes today.

Oedipus was unknowningly set down the path towards his downfall by the Gods at an early young age.  He was sent away from Thebes by his true parents King Laius and Queen Jocasta and was raised by the king and queen of Corinth.  Oedipus was never made aware of this because those around him concealed the truth.  He was later told by a prophet that he was destined to “mate with [his] own mother, and shed with [his] own hands the blood of [his] own [father],” Oedipus unintentionally fulfills the later half of this prophecy while fleeing Corinth with the intention of avoiding its realization.  He meets the King of Thebes, Laius, at an intersection.  Out of his pride, Oedipus kills him over a dispute over who had the right of way.  Unaware of the fact that he has killed his own father, therefore fulfilling part of the prophecy, he continues onward to Thebes.

He assumes the throne of Thebes, absent because of the murder of King Laius, after solving the riddle of a Sphinx, a creature that was holding the city captive, and unintentionally marries his own mother.  This act of incest was unavoidable for him because it was the path that was set for Oedipus.  Oedipus had no prior knowledge of his relationship to both Queen Jocasta.  The pre-determined path set for Oedipus ensured that he would end up in this situation without any knowledge of what he was actually doing. 

This predicament seems largely unfair when viewed from a modern point of view.  There was no way that Oedipus could have known that King Laius was his father and Jacosta was his mother.  In fact, Oedipus had good intentions when he left home in order to avoid the prophecy by removing himself from the people he believed where his mother and father.  The outcome of his departure from Corinth shows how it was believed that one’s predetermined fate is unavoidable. 

A plague that is starving the population is wreaks havoc on Thebes.  Oedipus consults a prophet in order to find a solution is told that only way to end the city’s suffering is to find King Laius’ murderer.  While questioning another prophet, Oedipus is told that “[he is] living in sinful union with the one [he loves], living in ignorance of [his] own undoing.”    Oedipus finds this revelation unbelievable, as any normal person would, and accuses the prophet of treason.  The prophet tells him that the murder he seeks is in fact Oedipus.  The situation is so improbable that it cannot be denied that it was set in motion by divine intervention.  It is made clear that no matter what Oedipus does, he is destined to self-destruct.  Sophocles’ is stressing the point that a person’s destiny, no matter how terrible it may be for those around them and themselves, is unavoidable.

Oedipus finally comes across an eye-witness to the murder of King Laius.  The informant fled Thebes in order to avoid telling Oedipus who the true murderer was.  Oedipus beings to realize that based on his current knowledge, the prophecy he was initially given was impossible.  Jacosta informs Oedipus that King Laius only child died long before his murder.  After discovering that the man he believes to be his father is killed, Oedipus accepts this event as a clear indication that the prophecy was completely false.  Afterwards, a shepherd reveals that Oedipus was in fact the son of King Laius and Jacosta.  The prophecy had in fact come true.  Despite Oedipus’ best efforts and reassurances he was unable to avoid the prophecy that he was destined from birth to fulfill.

Through the tragedy of Oedipus Rex, Sophocles has presented his belief that all people are traveling on a predestined path, a path that cannot be avoided no matter what actions are taken to avoid following the destiny.  This concept was readily acceptable in a ancient Greek society where it was believed that gods constantly interfered in the lives of humans, making them do whatever they saw fit.  By today’s societal ideals, this concept is outrageous.  People in this age feel that they are the masters of their own destiny, that they have the power to alter their own course in life.  The difference between Oedipus’ situation and the lives of people today is that Oedipus had knowledge of his destiny through the musings of various prophets, a common reference point in ancient Greece.  It can be said that Oedipus did in fact choose his destiny.  The actions he took led directly to his self-destruction.  It can also be said that he was not the master of his own destiny; his path had already been predicted by a prophet shortly after his birth.  Neither idea can be conclusively proven true.  There is no way to determine whether we have the ability to alter our destinies or if we are in fact predisposed to alter our destinies in the first place.

Although The Masqueraders obviously put a lot of time into the stage design, all of their effort ended up merely as an off-putting eye-sore.  The entire stage was composed of a paper-machete sailboat, large tree branch, a rotating centerpiece, two sheets suspended by a wooden pole, and paper taped to the floor.  The small sailboat was pulled haphazardly across the stage at the beginning of the first act.  Apparently none of The Masqueraders’ had the common sense to remove the boat from the stage, despite the fact that it was neither used nor mentioned for the remainder of the play.  The rotating stage, while a good concept, was totally wasted by The Masqueraders.  There was no practical application of the stage due to the fact that both sides were exactly the same.  It was not needed to provide smooth transitions because the lights were also dimmed during scene changes.  The floor of the stage was made up of the same pattern printed on hundreds of sheets of paper, taped to the floor.  This was a botched attempt to give the impression that the play was taking place outdoors.

Unfortunately the acting suffered from as many problems as the stage design.  The actors seemed to only have the ability to interact with each other while they had lines to say.  Frequently actors who were not participating in the dialogue would stand awkwardly and stone-faced to the side, making no effort to continue their acting.  It was as if the performers were programmed to walk on stage, give their lines, and wait for the scene to end.  Surprisingly it was often a blessing for the actors to stand silently paralyzed when the alternative was listening to their terrible attempts at British and Irish accents.  The actors would start their dialogue with thick, near-incomprehensible accents and fade out of using the accent halfway through a line.  Then, as if they just remembered that they were supposed to be speaking with an accent, they would abruptly switch back to their doomed pronunciations.  These strange transitions destroyed any chance that the audience had for comprehending what was being said on stage.  The performance would have been better off if the actors had ceased their hopeless attempts at providing believable accents.

Overall The Masqueraders’ first performance of “Our Country’s Good” was on the level of a Junior High School production as opposed to a Collegiate level dramatization; the consequence of too many poorly executed ideas in one production.  Constant failures of so many aspects of this performance ruined the entire experience for the audience.

Actors from the London Stage frequents many universities in the United States throughout the year performing Shakespeare’s plays, bringing only five actors to each performance. While having only five performers does showcase their individual ability to change roles at the drop of a hat, it also proves to be downright confusing to an audience who is not well versed in drama, much less Shakespeare’s works. Actress Brigid Zengeni takes on the parts of Donalbain, Ross, Menteth, Lady Macbeth, and the Third Witch, performing each of them admirably. Unfortunately, taking on all of these characters in the same play eventually leads to an awkward exchange between Lady Macbeth and Ross during Macbeth’s banquet. Because Zengeni is playing two parts in the same scene she is forced to switch characters in mid scene, at one point having a conversation with herself, a necessity that instead of showing the scene’s intent of displaying the guilt felt by Macbeth, played by Dan Winter, made Lady Macbeth herself appear mad to the confused audience.

The same issue occurred in the same banquet scene with actor Will Ashcroft playing the Ghost of Banquo and Lennox. While Ashcroft did his best to shift between Lennox and the Ghost of Banquo, his attempt turned into what appeared to be a strange round of musical chairs. Perhaps the abrupt character switching would have been less humorous to the audience if the actors had more to work with in the way of props and costumes. The only thing separating the living Lennox from the deceased Banquo was a haphazardly-placed red handkerchief in the front of Ashcroft’s vest. The lack of props, while an intentional stylistic choice by the troupe, proved to be extremely distracting. Malcolm, played by Charlotte Allam, was shown to be a male only with a large, out-of-place, grey tie. The Weird Sisters were merely shown to be “weird” with blood-splattered aprons, green lighting, and a rope. The actors did their best to outshine the lack of materials through the use of changes in voice pitch, exaggerated facial expressions, and emotive body language.

Despite the obstacles holding back the audience’s ability to become completely immersed in the play, the skill of the actors allowed the story in “Macbeth” to shine through. Brigid Zengeni was the obvious stand out with her portrayals of an extremely creepy third weird sister and the emotional wreck that was Lady Macbeth. Her use of body language and tone of voice easily allowed the audience to distinguish between who she was playing and how the character was feeling at the time. The excellent rendition of the Old Man by actor Chris Donnelly kept an instance of 400-year-old humor from being lost on the audience; Hardly a small feat with an audience primarily consisting of 18 to 24-year-olds.

Overall the performance of “Macbeth” was a general success because it allowed the audience to understand the often complex language of Shakespeare’s play. While it was sometimes hard to look past the lack of props and constant character switching, the acting from the traveling troupe proved to be at the perfect caliber for providing an enjoyable experience for all who attended.

Personally, I thought this was one of my better papers…but my teacher insisted that it could be tightened up and that right now its a C-B paper. What do you think?

Not being able to do those things make listening to the work of others that much better.  We all know the feeling when you hear the song that by some miracle is about exactly what you are going through at that moment.  Some how artists manage to create that universal appeal with their music, I’ll never understand how.

You’ll hear the song that is perfect in every way.  The song that has the perfect beat, words (or lack thereof), feeling; The song that breaks into the chorus at exactly the right time.  In a way its like riding a roller coaster.  I like my music, and I hope everyone likes theres also.

If you can find this, then kudos to you.  An awesome instrumental by an indi-game designer:

Blahness in Musica by NIFFLAS from  Ambient Drums n’ Base Demostlye Chip Happy Hardcore

            The day started when my mother woke my four-year-old self up early one July morning.  I rolled out of bed, got dressed with some assistance and reported to the table for breakfast.  That day the meal just happened to be my favorite: strawberry pancakes with maple syrup.  After I finished the fantastic meal my grandmother knocked on the door bearing a cooler full of Frosted Pop-Tarts and Tropical Fruit Capri-Suns (her two favorite snacks).  As I got up to give my grandmother a hug, my mother swooped down upon me and began to roughly coat me in sunscreen.  When that unpleasant experience was over, my mother, father, sister, grandmother, and I piled into the old blue Chevrolet Blazer and took off for the coast of the Guantanamo Bay.

            When we reached the beach my father went into the nearest boat house and re-emerged with a set of keys.  Today we would be taking a small boat out to a tiny island in the bay.  I couldn’t have been more excited; I loved being on the water.  We set out well before noon cruising at a leisurely speed towards a small, brown dot on the horizon.
          I remember looking over the side of the boat as it cut through clear-blue Caribbean Sea water.  My mother suddenly called out from the other side of the boat.  I walked over to figure what the trouble was and stared in disbelief.  A pod of five or six bottle-nosed dolphins where streaming along our small craft.  At first I was a frightened; I was used to seeing things like this in movies; I had never been this close to animals of that size in the wild.  My grandmother reached over the side and slid her hand over the leading dolphins head.  Eventually curiosity overcame fear and I did the same.  The bottle-nosed dolphins stayed along side our boat until we reached the island.
          While on the island, I witnessed one of the funniest experiences of my life.  While exploring a hill with my mother and father, we heard a cry from the small gazebo where we were keeping the cooler.  We ran down the hill only to find my grandmother and sister on top of a picnic table throwing Pop-Tarts at an iguana.  Apparently she had given it a piece of food and the iguana became a little too greedy.  I can still hear here yelling “Get back!” over and over again to no avail.  My father easily shooed the lizard away and we all shared a good laugh.           

          On the way back from the island, we accidentally ran aground on top of a coral reef.  This accident highlighted one of my feelings from this day.  Looking back, I would have expected my young self to be scared about being caught in the middle of the bay forever.  At the time I was not worried at all.  I was absolutely sure my parents would know what to do.  Ingeniously they used a combination of paddles and shifting their weight from side to side in order to free us from the grasp of the reef.  In a way they saved the day.  At the time my young mind expected no less from them.
          I think the main draws of Guantanamo Bay at this time are the feelings I had during that summer day.  Much unlike my currently daily life when I am responsible for my own actions at all times, 14-years ago I was not responsible for a single thing.  I was not even responsible for putting my own sunscreen on.  Today I constantly have to worry about my outward appearance, what needs to get done, when things need to get down, how to get things done, and how those above me are viewing my performance.  While it may have just been the way things were at that point in my life, in retrospect it seems like an amazing state of mind; a state of mind I will never be able to return to for the rest of my life.
          I also experienced no feelings of worry during this day.  Now, quite the opposite is true.  I feel like I worry about every challenge that comes my way now.  When comparing my daily life today with my family’s trip to the small island, I see that I had no worries at my tender age.  This is largely due to the fact that I did not have any challenges or responsibility in my life.  My parents made everything comfortable for me.  They dressed me in the morning, they made my breakfast, and they made all the plans for the trip while I just followed along waiting for the next thing to happen.  No one was incessantly pushing me to excel at everything I do; no one was constantly evaluating my actions.
          These are the reasons why I have dreamed about that relaxing July day in Guantanamo Bay versus anywhere else in the world.  These are the reasons why I choose to dream of being in this place with my family.  Not because the location itself was a tropical paradise; but because in that environment which my mind was at ease.  I was an innocent child without a care or worry, having experiences that I would remember for a life-time.