The Death of a Young Innocent Girl

    The Lovely Bones

Directed By: Peter Jackson

                     The Lovely Bones is the story of a family devastated by a gruesome murder -- a murder recounted by the teenage victim. Upsetting, you say? Remarkably, first-time novelist Alice Sebold takes this difficult material and delivers a compelling and accomplished exploration of a fractured family's need for peace and closure.

                   This movie was originally a book whose author is  Alice Sebold who also wrote  Lucky and The Almost Moon. Alice Sebold was born on September 6, 1963, in Madison, Wisconsin. Sebold was brutally raped while a college undergraduate. (http://www.biography.com/people/alice-sebold-20702765#commercial-success) Then this movie was turned into a movie and was directed by Peter Jackson.  Born on October 31, 1961, in New Zeland, Peter Jackson started his prolific career as a child, creating short films with a 8-mm movie camera. Without any formal training, Jackson has directed a number of successful films ranging across all genres. He is most well-known for his film adaptation of J.R.R. Tolkien's Lord of the Rings trilogy, which has won numerous awards. He stayed with the Tolkien fantasy brand when The Hobbit film series was released. (http://www.biography.com/people/peter-jackson-37009#synopsis)

                  This movie used many creative techniques as such that the perception of a human person would be amazed because of it, the creative techniques would be the amazing story line and the spectacular CGI that they made when Susie was in the middle world, they also used perfect soundtracks that would  cooperate with ambiance or the theme of the scenery, and lastly they also used a technique that made some watchers weirdly uncomfortable with a scene in the movie like the dead bodies of the victims that Harley has murdered and molested. 

                   Different people might interpret the message of this movie as a depiction of what would happen of the life of the family who has lost one of it's members, though the true message of this movie were actually the loss and grief (the novel depicts the different stages of both), life and death (both the life and death of Susie (both literal and figurative) and her family (figurative)), and coming of age/rites of passage. (http://www.enotes.com/homework-help/what-overall-theme-message-lovely-bones-343055)

                  The values that were presented was that you have a lot to look forward to. You can get together in heaven with the other teenage victims of the same killer, and gaze down in benevolence upon your family members as they mourn you and realize what a wonderful person you were. (http://www.rogerebert.com/reviews/the-lovely-bones-2010)  And what was ommited is that actually that your the difficulty of life after the loss of someone who si very close to you especially your family. 

                  The author wrote the book to take a look at an alternative plane of existence.  Christians hold the idea of heaven but no one comes back from there to tell us what it is really like.  There are books with people who had seen the light but returned from it. The author is trying to make a point that when one dies they may go to a different plane of existence.  She was toying with the "what ifs" and wanted to be wrapped around a family who valued each other but ended up with tragic issues following their daughter's death. (mkcapen1 | Middle School Teacher | (Level 3) Valedictorian)

reference: 

http://www.biography.com/people/alice-sebold-20702765#commercial-success

http://www.biography.com/people/peter-jackson-37009#synopsis

http://www.rogerebert.com/reviews/the-lovely-bones-2010

http://www.enotes.com/homework-help/what-point-novel-lovely-bones-by-alice-seabold-may-162849

http://www.enotes.com/homework-help/what-overall-theme-message-lovely-bones-343055

The Light during BLACKOUT 

Dominique Portia T. Maglangit

 

                        

                                                                      https://www.google.com/search?q=blackout&source

         Blackout is a poem by Jeffrey Javier. He is a graduate of the Creative Writing program of the University of the Philippines Mindanao. He lives in Davao City and works from home for an online company according to Cha: An Asian Literary Journal. A poem is known to be a creative literary piece in which it delivers particular message. In this case, Javier used a very timely and relatable social issue which is the power crisis so that he can call the attention of prospect readers. In addition, Javier made this poem especially for Mindanaoans because at that time, Mindanao greatly suffered from everyday rotational brownout. It even went to the point that the brownout lasted for 24 hours. With this, Mindanaoans will really read and agree with Jeffrey Javier’s blackout. Appreciating the twinkling light from the stars is one of the good points in the poem. It is because one must appreciate nature and not neglect it because of valuing technology way more than nature. However, the poem lack of explanation in why such power crisis happened. This message was created to open the minds of the people to see nature in a different way, to go out of the four-cornered abode and explore the wonders of the world often. Moreover, as most media materials, this poem was created and produced for profit and fame.

 Blackout

by Jeffrey Javier

In the city of lights
they turned the power off
and the citizens went out

of their dim hiding
looking for the visions
they lost in the dark.

They gathered confused
in street corners
unwilling to accept

that the intense humidity
was now part of the order
of the new evenings.

They knew from then on
meals would be shared
groping for cutleries,

matchsticks, flashlights,
and for the patience
they did not know exists.

They hoped that this veiling
was only as temporary
as an eclipse

that brightness would return soon
the minute they stopped talking
and started listening.

The void stretched out
like cold rumors
broke slowly like glaciers

and spread like oil spill
seeking the warmth
of the hollows of the heart.

The city stores glowed eerily
as strangers stood outside
like plastic mannequins

contemplating
their displacement
and loss.

This was now a city
of electric generators
where hot gas fumes

gusted from the exhaust vents
and the turbines hummed
within their metal casings.

Anthemic, the people sang
a prayer for illumination
as they looked up

seeing for the first time
the primeval glows of gods
breeding in the night sky.

They had to admit
that this greasy blackness
was the one sweeping gesture

of retribution
for their blindness
for their excess of light.

We Can, But We Should Not Be

"...sa bawat pagtago,

di mapipigilan ang bigkas ng damdamin..."

        In this blog post, I shall introduce the music video of one of my favorite songs, ‘Sila’ by SUD.

       SUD, a band composed of seven men, was found on August 31, 2011. According to their Facebook page, their genre of music is mostly Alternative Soul. They compose both English and Filipino indie songs, that are mostly sensual. They produced ‘Sila’ in 2015.

       The music video of Sila has a really nice story line that goes well with the lyrics of the song. To summarize the video, it was about a man falling in love with a lady who was no longer single. He met her within their group of friends, and got to be close with her after days and days of exchanging messages through their phones. The girl tried to stop what was going on between them because of conflict within her feelings, but the guy asked for one more week to see her. In the end of the video, we can assume that the girl decided to stay with him instead of her boyfriend, because it was assumed that her hand was the one that stopped the alarm clock of the man. I think it's really worth watching because of the good cinematography; they found angles that could enhance the beauty of the video. They also presented it with good editing and lighting (which, in my opinion, is very suitable to the theme) that helped enhance and emphasize the beauty of the actors and actresses, and that set the right mood for the scenes. The song itself is also real good, with the jazz and mellow beat accompanied with a soothing voice(s). In my opinion, the song is very ideal to be performed in cafés or resto-bars. 

        This particular music video, although not all popular, will most likely appeal to the adult community, since the video displayed people of the legal age who were smoking, clubbing, and flirting. The target audience may relate to this topic regarding love; they may also like or love someone who is already taken by other people, or they may relate to not being to tell the other person freely about his or her feelings. They may also be reminded of forbidden love and love affairs, which are popular topics nowadays. They may think that it is okay to like someone taken, and flirt with him or her. The audience may also think that clubbing can help you find someone you can have ‘sparks’ with. 

        Nightlife with friends, beer, and clubs was shown in the video -- something most adults nowadays can relate to. The concept of forbidden love was also obvious. What was omitted was the consequence of their love for each other. What will the girl’s boyfriend feel? How will he act when he discovers about it? It didn’t say directly in the video, but we can see that the girl entertained another man while being committed, which just shows how unfaithful she is. If we think further, the story of the video may also imply that it is not love, but lust that they’re feeling because of the scene at the end. I also think that the producers made the last day on February 28, because like the month, February, which will never reach the dates 30 and 31, what was going on between the two of them had to end even when they have not gotten enough of their love. Even when they got 'bitin', like the month of February. 

Ang love natin, parang February. Bitin.

        It could be assumed that the producers wanted to reach out to people who are engaged in forbidden relationships or love affairs. They want to present how a simple attraction can turn into love, even when you have the knowledge that it is wrong. It is also to promote indie Filipino music. They tried an approach that is unusual compared to other music videos. I believe that this music video is a great help in restoring the our faith in (good) OPM.

       Do you want to check the video out for yourself? Then, here's a link to it!