Anyone know the lyrics to Wales Forever?

The version from the album "Land of My Fathers," I mean. The artist is Michael Ball, and the song's title is "Wales Forever/Cwm Rhondda." I don't know Welsh, but I'm guessing it's the Welsh version of the chorus "Wales forever... hear us now and evermore." Anyways, here's the English part:

Can you hear the voices calling?

Singing proud and singing clear

All around the sound is rising

One by one they join the cheer

[welsh… ]

Cymru, Cymru ambyth
Cymru, Cymru ambyth

Can you hear the valleys ringing?

Can you hear the dragon’s roar?

Heart and soul with pride are singing

Land of Wales forever more

Wales forever! Wales forever!

Hear us now and evermore!

Hear us now and ever more!

[cheering]

Oh can you hear the roar of voices?

Joined together side by side

Well now’s the hour, the hour of glory

Raise the roof and sing with pride

[welsh...]
Cymru, Cymru ambyth
Cymru, Cymru ambyth

another thought 

just a thought 

I got into Princeton

HAH!

Rent 

Several week's worth of FRiK Updates

Sorry it's been aeons since I last posted... First, I was busy with the Chem final paper (which counts for a friggin 20% of my chem grade), then came the APs (which sucked) and the SAT I (which sucked even more) and a week or so of absolute collapse.

Anyhow... we showed them Me, Myself, and Irene, for over 2 weeks. They really enjoyed it... crude humor amuses them a great deal. Then, Stacey and I had them write short screenplays based on a simple premise: there are several people arguing over money. That worked out better than planned. After all, who can resist the urge to be creative? We let them go as soon as they were done. Most finished in about 15 minutes. One stayed for about the whole period. Stacey and I decided we should try to shoot them in reverse order that they were turned in, and we let the writer direct. So far, 2 weeks have been spent in pre-production. We shot a few scenes last wednesday. Naturally, "Quiet on the Set!" meant nothing to those who were not in front or behind the camera, but oh well, what can you expect from a bunch of little sophomore boys?

To make up for missed sessions and the fact that there simply weren't 50 wednesdays, we've been assigning film write-ups all year (they were to watch a film and do a page-long writeup. The hours given were based on the length of the film). For those panicking because they've done next to none of those assignments and who didn't show up several times, we gave them two essay options: do a writeup comparing and contrasting either the two Star Wars trilogies or two Ridley Scott films: Kindom of Heavena and Gladiator.

I hope they listen so they can pass.

Week 19- Shooting and Whining and Some Cooperation

Week 18, the Wednesday before spring break, I was unable to attend FRiK, but Stacey tells me the guys were not cooperating with the whole film study thing. She'd tell them to observe something, say, camera angles, and they would whine that they'd never heard of such things, and she'd explain but they'd whine so loudly no one could hear, and then they'd whine some more about actually having to do work.

That was a key complaint this time as well. Weeks ago, we drafted a quick ad, and this week we planned to shoot it, which we did... sort of. There were several who either were cooperative or simply not uncooperative who willingly made props and volunteered to man the camera and act, but others who spent the whole time going, "why do you have to be the hard-ass group?" They pointed out that many clubs were do-nothing clubs that simply put down hours for nothing at all, so why should we actually do filmmaking? Because we're honest, we replied, which only engendered more complaining. In the end, what should have been a quick, 20 minute shoot took the whole period because they simply wouldn't leave us along long enough to get anything done with the others who were actually cooperative or at least were not uncooperative. And when we shot, they'd be talking in the background, so we may have to scrap audio and make it a silent film...

The Scarlet Letter... 

Week 17- Distractions

I had a rehearsal for the school musical, Hello, Dolly!, so I couldn't make it to FRiK this week. Stacey told me that she showed them Life of Brian, but they were whiny and disruptive. They wanted to do their chemistry homework. They had already seen it. They couldn't answer questions about camera angles because they had never learned about them. I suppose they forgot all about the lessons Stacey and I taught them prior to the film-watching part. Next time, we should pick an obscure film, either foreign or very old, that none of them would have seen before. And we should tell them about whatever element of filmmaking we want them to pay attention to before starting it, just to make sure they know something.

Week 16- Finishing one Movie

Today, we wrapped up our study of Pirates of the Caribbean. The guys certainly enjoyed the movie, but I don't know how much they learned about films. The quizzes Stacey and I gave them were designed to test their knowledge not only of the story, but also of the set, lighting, and other behind-the-scenes elements. We asked them to vote on a movie to watch next week, and they chose the Monty Python movie Life of Brian. I have no objections to it other than that many have already seen it and may be inclined not to pay attention.

Week 15- An Unsteady Peace Continues

It bothered me when a lot of people said they did not know about the assignment- to watch a movie and write a reaction- but I was surprised when several people actually did it. Stacey and I gave those who had forgotten another week for their hours to count. Otherwise, the time spent screening the film would only count for half. We decided to assign them an obscure film next time so they couldn't just recall a movie they'd watched ages ago and copy some review from IMDb. We were thinking of a foreign or classic film, but availability may be an issue. I actually found a website that posts free, next-to-amateur films that might be good. Though the two films I screened were pretty crappy, I thought it would be an ideal opportunity to show the guys what they, amateurs, were capable of as well as what not to do.

We continued screening "Pirates of the Caribbean," though those who had seen it before protested (very noisily... some of the guys, whose very molecules reek of arrogance and laziness, expect career awareness credit for sitting around and watching movies). We showed them a behind-the-scenes featurette that showed the Town Attack scene being filmed, then watched that segment of the film (and then some), which was followed by a quiz. The guys did pretty well- most got all the questions right, and those who didn't made it up with the two obscure bonus questions (Why does Will have a rag around his wrist, and name one Oscar "Pirates" was nominated for).

Next week will likely be more of the same, although I'm hoping by the end, the guys will have learned a thing or two about filmmaking.

The New SAT

If it's anything like the practice test offered by Kaplan, then it's essentially the old PSAT minus the analogies and quant comps plus an essay. They say the math is tougher, and that it incorporates Algebra 2. In other words, they added f(x) and g(x), a few simple graphs, and a couple of simple quadratic problems. They also added "short reading passages." These are paragraph-long excerpts from the same type of stuff they got the old SAT passages from. The grammar is just like that of the PSAT, and the essay is a test of how much trash you can put down before the time's up.

In fact, the whole SAT is, will always be, and has always been a nationwide demonstration of how good people are at absorbing crap and regurgitating it onto an answer sheet via little penciled bubbles. If it ever was a "reasoning test," then by now all the reason has been edited out of it by those ETS elitists who think they can determine how smart kids are by forcing a tricky exam down their throats. Anyone with enough cash for a review book or course can easily earn a decent score, even if once upon a time they had a snowball's chance in hell of getting into any college at all.

With schools demanding that students learn more than they could ever care to, it's not surprising that the SAT has caught on to the suck-up-and-spit-back-out routine. In fact, life itself is becoming one big stage for the fine art of BS-ing.

Scientists v. Writers

Concerning Black Holes

You see them all the time in science fiction, usually portrayed as great vortexes in space, both beautiful and terrible. The writers in the entertainment industry use their imaginations as well as science to say how they act and appear. But what is a black hole?

By definition, in simple terms, a black hole is basically an object in space into which things can fall but from which nothing can get out. It is the corpse of a star so massive that when it implodes, it warps the four-dimensional spacetime fabric so far that not even light can escape. As one nears the horizon and the center of gravity, time slows until it comes to a near stop.

To visualize a black hole, imagine that the spacetime fabric is a very flexible rubber sheet suspended in the air so that it is flat. A black hole would be represented by placing on this sheet a stone heavy enough to warp part of it into a funnel-like shape with the stone at the very bottom. All three-dimensional objects would be two-dimensional; Earth would be represented by a circle drawn on the sheet.

Since Earth is really a sphere, then the circular “rim” of the funnel shape would also be a sphere. If there were a black hole in reality, then it would look like an extremely black sphere with a sharp outline. This outline would be the horizon—the point of no return. Once something crosses this line, it can never come back.

According to the current theory, black holes are almost always misrepresented physically in movies and TV shows. For example, Dreamworks’ Galaxy Quest uses a black hole to transfer a group of people from one galaxy to another. In the movie, it is illustrated as a giant whirlpool-like object with dots and swirls decorating the rim.

Herein they are mistaken. A black hole does not have another end, and therefore the people could not use it as a gateway between galaxies. Also, since a black hole allows not even light to escape, it cannot be colorful, and because of the way it warps the spacetime fabric, it should be a sphere-like object, not a whirlpool.

Similarly, the Tribune’s TV show "Gene Roddenberry's Andromeda" portrays its black hole as a white sphere with a red disk around it. Although it does point out that time slows as one nears the horizon and that once something goes in, it cannot escape, the show is erroneous in the way it depicts its black hole for the same reason the one in Galaxy Quest is mistaken.

The black hole portrayed in Disney’s Treasure Planet is slightly more accurate in that it is completely black and is created from the death of a star. However, like the one in Galaxy Quest, this one is shaped somewhat like a whirlpool and allows things to escape. In the movie, the hero’s ship encounters a dying star that goes supernova before collapsing into a black hole, which emits wave after wave until the last, greatest surge that carries the ship away from the danger zone.

The problem here is that by definition, a black hole allows nothing to get out. How, then, can it emit waves? It cannot, although the idea works well in the story, as does the inaccurate appearance.

Though they use black holes to serve their purposes, science fiction writers are often incorrect—if one compares them to the current black hole theory.

However, there are too many unknowns to be able to say that they are completely wrong. Scientists in the astrophysics department use their imaginations as well as science to define how a black hole should function and look. In this they are similar to science fiction writers.

So what is a black hole? It is as its definition states. It is also a creation from the human mind, buttressed by math, science, other theories, and fact. The scientist’s black hole and the writer’s black hole are essentially the same things: objects based on what’s known and someone’s imaginings.

Hotel Sudan

...may or may not exist, but the situation tolls the familiar bells of Rwanda.

"A Sudanese family waits for humanitarian aid in Morni camp in Darfur. The U.N. Security Council passed a resolution on July 31 threatening sanctions against Sudan if the government doesn’t disarm the Janjaweed militia within 30 days."

With one race, the Arabs, determined to wipe out another, the Black Sudanese, the fact remains that people are making too big a deal out of the word "genocide." Whether or not it falls under the definition doesn't change the fact that people are being displaced, terrorized, and killed. Thousands have died, and the millions who weren't murdered live, but live in Hell. What difference does it make to them whether certain protocols are followed, certain procedures stuck to? All they want is for the atrocities to stop.

"Displaced Sudanese women line up to receive food at Kasab Internally Displaced People's camp near Kutum in this July 2004 photo. The United Nations World Food Program plans to air drop 1,400 tons of food to several sites during August."

Though there is no way short of arresting and detaining every militant and potential militant out there to guarantee an end, the UN could be doing more than sitting around with their reports and speaking of peace talks between the government and the rebels. Sending in UN Peacekeeping troops may be an obvious answer, but that may do no more than anger the rebels even more. Sanctions could work, and the UN would probably impose them if it weren't for the greed of certain countries, including, sorry to say, China. Whether the Sudanese government had any hand in this wouldn't matter, because either way, they would be compelled to stop it. If the bureaucrats and diplomats could consider the human rights violations over the economics of Sudan, then perhaps an end could come sooner.

"A boy waits to see a doctor Wednesday, August 4, in a camp 50 miles from Aljinena, the capital of the western Darfur region of Sudan. Government-equipped Arab militias, known as Janjaweed, sent to fight rebel groups have killed 30,000 black Sudanese, the United Nations says, and displaced about 1.2 million people. The U.N. calls this the worst humanitarian crisis in the world."

Here's a new and original thought: why not say the Sudanese have weapons of mass destructions, shelter Al Qaeda, use that as a pretense to invade, overthrow the government and dismantle the army, keep their oil in the back of our minds, cause people who had nothing against us to hate us, cause people to suffer even more, and make things worse? Oh wait... we already did that. With Iraq.

Hotel Rwanda

Hotel Rwanda, written by Keir Pearson and Terry George, is a tragic film, based on a true story, about one man's efforts to stem the slaughter wreaked upon his country by ethnic cleansing. Paul Rusesabagina (Don Cheadle of Ocean's Twelve) runs a four-star oasis for the rich. Though he is a Hutu and occasionally tunes into ITLM Hutu Radio, a station that broadcasts propaganda against the Tutsis, he is married to a Tutsi and personally couldn't care less about his country's civil problems.

The "races" in question are the Hutus, the rebels, and the Tutsis, the victims. According to the film, it all started when the Belgians came to Rwanda and picked out the most European-looking (thinnest nose, palest skin, etc) Rwandans to work for them. Even after the Belgians left, the Hutus and Tutsis remained divided, even though, at first glance, telling them apart is like trying to differentiate between Mary Kate and Ashley Olsen (before they dyed their hair).

Until he finds refugees fleeing towards his hotel and the bodies of his neighbors in the yard, Paul disregards the tough talk and muttered warnings. But when faced with reality, he immediately uses every foreign contact and monetary asset available to keep the more than 1,200 refugees safe. His heroic actions are uplifting, but the true heartbreak of the film is not only did the events occur little over a decade ago, but the rest of the world turned its back. “"You'’re not even a nigger,"” Colonel Oliver (Nick Nolte) grumbles when explaining why the European interventionists cannot stay, “"you’'re African.”"

Don Cheadle, nominated for a Best Actor Oscar and a scene stealer in any film, carries the film with his stunningly realistic performance as a reluctant and desperate hero-reluctant to get into trouble and desperate for aid that will not come. He begins and ends the film as a tower of strength, but while he begins the film with an air of arrogant elitism, he ends it with an aura of power and wisdom. And while presenting leader, cool, collected, and intense, before others in his bribes, orders, and threats, Cheadle reveals Paul’s soft heart, sickened by the sight of so many dead, in close-up after close-up, finally collapsing after a traumatizing supply run in which he thought his driver had gone off the road but found that the road was, in fact, covered with bodies. But the breakdown is brief, and minutes later, Cheadle’s composed figure goes on to run his hotel-turned-refugee-camp.

The film itself, in its moving and damning presentation the plight of the Rwandans and the absurdity of the world community, could surpass any Holocaust movie in shear poignancy. It has often been likened to Schindler’s List, but adds to the overall sadness a sense of outrage and perhaps guilt that the world knew and didn’t care. “If people see this, they’ll say, ‘oh my God, that’s horrible,’ and go right on eating their dinners,” explains Jack wearily after showing Paul footage of a massacre.

In the end, Paul succeeds in saving the refugees at his hotel, but not before spending hundreds of thousands to bribe the rebels to spare the lives of strangers, contacting and shaming every influential person he had ever kissed up to, and threatening the general of the Rwandan army with the very thing he is deprived of: world attention. "They say you lead the massacres!”" he cries, explaining that the general would be charged with war crimes and that he could exonerate him. “"I will tell them NOTHING unless you help me!”"

But beyond the tale of heroism is a stark and painful truth that every superpower citizen, cozy at home in front of the television, knows about various atrocities in the world, both then and now in Sudan, and that so many choose to ignore them. What makes Hotel Rwanda the saddest film of the year is not only the fact that nearly a million people died for next to nothing, but that so many refused to help and still do so. It does more than simply break your heart. It shatters it.

FRiK Productions Film Club's Campaign Posters

To attract attention to FRiK Productions, Stacey and I designed several campaign posters involving popular movies and cameras. The images were taken off of websites and edited using Adobe Photoshop Elements 2.0.

Week 14 - Peace for Once

The guys were amazingly and stunningly well-behaved today. There were some scuffles in the beginning involving glove-throwing and yelling, but they actually paid attention to the Moonlight Serenade Behind-the-Scenes featurette for Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl. That they watched and listened with few loud noises and answered the questions about it mostly correctly was a complete and utter surprise. Of course, there were those who walked in and out to go to the bathroom or get a drink or a tissue, but that cannot be helped for any class (except those in which the teacher is a total pain).

After entertaining them with a blooper reel, we showed the first half hour of the film, then gave them a mini quiz: What aspects were considered in designing the skeletal monkey? How many different ways was the Moonlight Serenade shot? What was established by Will throwing the sword? etc.

We also gave them a brief and easy assignment: watch a movie, write a synopsis, and write a response. We chose movies for them to pick from to make sure they didn't make something up, although we're pretty sure they'll like them: Lord of the Rings, Star Wars, Matrix, Rush Hour, Fast and Furious, Fight Club, Napoleon Dynamite, and any Adam Sandler movie (they're all about the same, in my opinion). The duration of the film (rounded up) will count toward their hours.

Stacey and I also discussed community service possibilities. Her idea is to raise money for Film Aid International, a film-based charity that helps civilian victims of war. I believe a raffle would be our best shot. I was thinking we could either order a film prop from eBay or get a very desirable DVD set (i.e. Lord of the Rings extended editions).

If everything goes to plan, then the next time we meet, everyone will have their assignments completed, we'll continue dissecting Pirates, and we'll begin brainstorming fundraising strategies...

NC 2002 Ice Storm

These photos were taken after the NC Icestorm of 2002...

Natalie Portman wins a Golden Globe

Natalie Portman wins a Golden Globe... then goes on to nab an Oscar nomination. Not bad someone who managed to edge into the film industry at 12, ace all her classes while becoming an international star, graduate from Harvard, campaign for John Kerry, and retain her dignity while being absolutely stunning on screen. Though up against many talented, more seasoned actresses, her surprise win was well-deserved and, for many fans, long-awaited since her last nomination for Anywhere but Here. The role she played in Closer as a stripper was not only a break from the good-girl roles she's clung to since receiving perverted fan mail for her role in Leon, but was also a complex character that, given the wrong actress, could easily come off as slutty. Natalie Portman, however, carries her character's position with a strange power and dignity that fully illustrates her talent.

Week 13- Shots and Complaints

I was hoping that with Eric's departure would come a little more sanity. It came, but in the form of demands. Stacey had put together a nice video explaining camera angles and various shots (such as dutch angle, over-the-shoulder, and western) and had planned to practice these shots after the lesson. However, one student had rented a copy of Scorsese's Goodfellows or something like that. Whatever the case, he insisted that we watch it, and, of course, the rest of the guys egged him on. So we had no choice but to scrap our plans. I have nothing against the film, which I have never seen but am sure must be good because it's Scorsese's, but have they the right to simply demand that we watch it because one student happened to have it that day? The arrogance, the waste! If watching movies is all they want to do, then why bother with FRiK? After we agreed to the film, many others began naming movies they wished to bring in to watch. The only merit to allowing them to sit around and watch movies is that they're actually QUIET. Unfortunately, that means that we're not getting much career awareness done. Next week's plan is to go over CGI and visual effects. Whether anyone listens or not is... questionable.

On a more positive note, there were three exceptional students who wanted to make a silly but creative feature of their own based on a few random props Stacey had provided them the week before. Happily, it was filmed and awaits post-production.