My Sumilao Night Sky

My Sumilao Night Sky
Or wherever I may be, you never fail to seduce me, Ms. Luna

Thursday, November 22, 2012

Free Once More

Today I finished the song I was writing three days ago. The content of the song came to me when I saw through an online post that a friend of mine who lost her boyfriend last August due to cancer is still grieving and still misses him big time. Also on that same night somebody texted me that a friend of ours was in the ICU because of surgical complications. The next day, he passed away.

The song is really about people who lost someone important in their lives and are imprisoned by the grief that sometimes causes happy things like singing or dancing to be stripped off their joyful quality because sadness burns people in grief from the inside. It is for people whose hearts seem to have passed too along with the deceased loved ones.

But eventually and in time, all people who are grieving will take flight and be free once more and they will be able to hope again and when all the pain goes away.

Saturday, November 17, 2012

Thank You Daren and Daniel (D&D Custom Guitars)

It's my D&D Custom Guitar. She's sleek and makes great music. Her name's Effie (Effie Trinket from The Hunger Games film) because "that is mahogany!" Haha. Actually the guitar body is made, according to my research, from mahogany and spruce while the fretboard is rosewood.

These kinds of guitars are perfect for girls and women (or men too) who like me prefer slimmer, lighter acoustic guitars (with steel strings) that have smaller frets.

I sought the help from my friend and along with his friend they were able to get Effie for me and my life has been changed already. Haha.

Thank you friend! and to your friend as well! Woohoo :))

Thank you Daren and Daniel!

Feel better by making good music or listening to them.

Harry's Games and the Potter Hunger

I have read at some site that a mother was really concerned when her son finished Suzanne Collins's The Hunger Games trilogy because after reading the three books he didn't seem to know what to do with his life and he seemed afloat. But in reality, this diversion may not yet be the end of a such dreamy state because he still has two other films to look forward to.

The seven books from J.K. Rowling book series on the other hand have been my ultimate source of distraction for the past couple of weeks. I have read some of the books before when I was younger but it was just until very recently that I have read them from Books 1 to 7, watching the corresponding film after reading each book. I know I may sound such a loser for a lot of Potterheads out there since I watched all films when they came out of theaters but have just read them all finally when I'm 21. But I think it was timely because I was more equipped than I could have been when I was 12, when vocabulary and comprehension would have been more difficult but suspension of disbelief easier. Although after finishing all books and watching the films again, I was somehow like that woman's son--distracted and drifting. I was too when I finished The Hunger Games, Catching Fire, and the Mockingjay.

It was with difficulty, similar to what I experienced while reading Collins's The Hunger Games to completely accept the differences between the book and the film. I am hopeful though that Catching Fire, when released in theaters by November 2013, to give justice to such an albeit brief, very riveting, wonderful sequel in the trilogy.

But of course all directors and producers and their teams have a lot to consider, logistically speaking.

Harry Potter had seven books, one amazing author, eight films, four film directors. I am not knowledgeable about the film industry, its ins and outs (so pardon me) but I saw how the first two films (Sorcerer's Stone and Chamber of Secrets) were so similar in various aspects I attribute it to a certain Columbus flavor. At the same manner, the last four films (Order of the Phoenix, Half-blood Prince, and Deathly Hallows 1&2) were very Yates while Cuaron's Prisoner of Azkaban had a different feel to all the rest of the other films as well as Newell's Goblet of Fire. 

But it doesn't matter when you have the seven books to explain a lot of things that were not shown in the films. Successors to the film directorship had to, I obviously assume, tweak their films based on the differences between book and film that their and their screen writer predecessors have made. 

For example, Mundungus Fletcher should have been very crucial to the fifth book of the series since he was part of the Order. However, it was only until Deathly Hallows Part 1 that he was made present, introducing himself to Harry at the Privet Drive. It was a bit worse not having been introduced (in the film) to a complete set of Weasley siblings (read: Charlie Weasley). The Weasleys are my favorite pureblood characters. Too bad Bill's encounter with Fenrir Greyback was not shown in motion picture. But at least his handsome face and ginger hair were given birth to the second to the last film or else there will be no wedding.

How I wanted to see S.P.E.W movements and the tiny hats and socks in the Harry Potter movie franchise.
Or Harry's seventeenth Golden Snitch cake.
Or Nymphadora's change of patronus and her struggle to make Remus finally give in.
Or the ghoul at the Burrow's attic.
Or Ron's remark on saving the house-elves.

I felt the same way when I had hoped to see the feast Katniss and Peeta shared in the cave when she said, "There is no competition anywhere."
Or what an Avox might look like.
I wanted to see so badly how the mockingjay pin was given to Katniss by Madge Undersee and not by Greasy Rae.
I wanted to see Peeta's father holding out cookies for Katniss. 
And the list goes on.

But despite differences of book and film, the author animates her book (perhaps along with her editors, publisher, agents, etc.) while the director animates his film (along with his producers, screenwriters, cinematographers, editors, etc.) in their own way. This however has its own setbacks and some are quite big. As they say, you either read the book and spoil the film or watch the film and risk either feeling sad for the injustice to a book (since a book must be really good to be movie-worthy) or you may risk not reading the book at all.

I know that this opinion varies from person to person. There are some books I have read before the film and there are films I have watched before reading the book. The latter situation actually helped me give more details to the faces I should picture in my head or the setting in a particular scene. I am not 100% certain at this point but I am guessing I prefer to have read a book before its film (since book before film is the usual scenario). It may spoil the film for others but I don't really think so since it also presents a story although not in motion picture. The challenge however is when you are too immersed into a book, the film may eventually not turn out the way you have pictured it or expected it.

One thing is sure for me though, as long as a film gives justice to a book's beauty, it remains beautiful to me. However, no matter how magnificent a film may be, if it did great injustice to a magnificent book, I know I will be, hmmm.. sad. Gary Ross's The Hunger Games was in a lot of ways not similar to the book, but nevertheless, it was not unjust.

I am not helpful at this moment nor am I making much sense while listening to Ed Sheeran's song "Drunk" but I just wanted to let that this one out because I know other people have the same dilemma. It's like Rowena Ravenclaw's question on the phoenix and the ashes for it is a circular kind of issue. Book or Film. Film or Book. If you ever get confused, try and make some experiments, read books and watch their films or try watching films before reading their books. At the end of the day, the choice will be up to the one watching or the one reading.

Reading or watching, both strain the eyes though.