Sunday, September 18, 2011

Creative Comments





This is what I commented on Jacob Garwin's post titled (Insert Creative Title).
Good job Jacob. Your blog is really starting to look good. Your pictures really gave me good insight on the poems. I can really connect with Winter Moon. During winter i like looking at the moon too! Because of your post i might one day read this book of poetry. Keep up the good work! I actually have a question the poems. Why do all the poems seem sad? Is that the main theme of the book or just a couple of the poems?
This is what I commented on Stevie Daily’s post titled Picture Creation.
Sorry Stevie, I can't really connect with this book. But from your pictures it seems really interesting! I do have a question though. Why is the main character sad? I understand that her friend died, but how does that turn into a whole story? In future posts, you should explain this. But overall the book seems really interesting. Being a guy however, I probably won't read the book. Keep up the good work Stevie!

This is what I commented on Jack Bryant’s post titled Picture Post.
Your post is really interesting and the pictures you choose really draw me in. However, I have a question is Phileas Fogg the main character or Jackie Chan? Also, why does he make that bet? Had no one gone around the world in under 81 days before? I was planning on reading this book anyway, but after your picture post it makes me really want to read it!

Thursday, September 8, 2011

Music Without Words

<object type="application/x-shockwave-flash" data="http://www.classicalconnect.com/files/CCPlayer.swf" width="350" height="120"><param name="movie" value="http://www.classicalconnect.com/files/CCPlayer.swf" /><param name="allowScriptAccess" value="always" /><param name="flashvars" value="playlist=/node/5431/play/xml" /><a href="http://www.classicalconnect.com/">Classical Connect - Free classical music online</a></object>

This classical violin instrumental tells the story of Nailers life almost exactly as it happens!  The violin gets louder just as Nailer makes life and death situations.  Then the music quites in correspondence when Nailer is either safe, or when Nailer and Pima discover Nita.  And the weird thing about how similar the music and the book  is how the music follows the action of the book.  It is almost as if the artist wrote the music while reading Ship Breaker.  The music can be separated into at least two parts that follow the book exactly.  The first half of the song follows the first half of the book, and the same with the second half of the song and book.

The song starts out with a slow almost foreshadowing pace.  Then, slowly it goes from distressed panicking tones to slowly increased speed and rhythm.  This almost directly relates to Nailer as in his whole life has been the same humdrum work and life.  Always crawling around the inside of dirty ships and never knowing if he will have a job the next day.  But just like in the book when Nailer falls into a vat of oil and is scared for his life, the music sounds ominous and deadly.  Then suddenly the tempo goes from almost  haunting, to quick and life restoring.  But this happy tempo only lasts for a little, then the sad music comes back to haunt the listener.  Even after Nailer escapes from the oil in a near death experience his joy does not last very long when his dad tries to kill him.

The second half of the song follows the same pattern as the book.  For the most part the song is sad and radiates unhappy thoughts.  Then for brief seconds, happy delightful violin and cello playing can be heard.  Even though Nailer has found the key to his escape of everything he hates, the end is not as easy as it first may seem. Just when it seems that Nailer is good and about to be free with Nita another disaster is waiting for Nailer to make the wrong move.  As I said earlier; I would not be surprised if the music was wrote while the composer read the book.

Thursday, September 1, 2011

Picture Collage


Setting


Work site


The desired material from rusted ships


Nailer's father


Nailer


Post apocolypse setting


Nailer almost dies in the oil tank of a ship


Living quarters


Lucky Strike became wealthy from finding oil on a ship


Not a lot of food


Believes in fate


Rich people=Swanks


Nailer dreams about owning a boat himself


Drug addiction is a problem for the ship yards


Nailer's crew does everything together


A storm wiped out the work place


Nailer's mom died when he was young


Nailer's dad abuses him


The ship breakers are indentured servants


Rising oceans

Monday, August 29, 2011

My Preamble

Hi! I'm Alex Kippenbrock.  This is my first blog ever, and I don't know exactly how this works.  As a Junior in Mrs Hayes English, I have to read a book every quarter, and blog about it.  This is going to be a daunting assignment.  It's not that I don't like reading, it's just that I am going to have to read and study for all my other classes, and I will have to read the other books in English.  Another scary aspect about this project is the blogging part.  I have never done anything like it.  Mainly, typing on the computer I might forget about punctuation.  Hopefully it won't be as hard as I am imaging it and by the end of the year i will have millions of followers.

The reason I am blogging is for the Read for a Lifetime program.  Mrs. Hayes has assigned us to read a book per quarter.  It doesn't seem that hard except for the reasons mentioned above.  The book i choose to read and write my first blog about is Ship Breaker by Paolo Bacigalupi.  I choose this one mainly by it's cover.  It's really unfortunate that it happened that way, but it did.  The brief summary about the book says that it is a post apocalyptic book about a boy who spends his days scavenging old ships that floated ashore when everything shut down.  This book does have potential to be a very good book that I will want to read more often than SSR on Tuesdays.
    
Several interesting points that I want to talk about when blogging in the future is character analysis, how the story is progressing, and just the main overall quality of the book.  Because i have not read the book and barely skimmed the analysis i am not 100% sure what the book is about.  But when i start to read the book, ideas will come to my head thus making the blog amazing, intersting, and engaging.  But for now I'm still not entirely sure what some topics will be.  Hopefully, I will be able to make my posts appealing and maybe even humorous.