I'm a literature major and language minor, so my mandatory geography course has little interest to me. However, I am fortunate enough to have a professor who often goes off on (sometimes related) tangents and tells stories. Yesterday I heard one that I would like to share. It's about moonshine and driving - two subjects that should never be combined at the same time.
Moonshine is generally made of fermented corn where the alcohol is distilled from the water to produce a highly potent and illegal beverage. Because it is so strong, people have gone blind from drinking a lot of it. But that doesn't stop a lot of people. It's illegal and people want what they can't have, even if it doesn't taste good (not that I would know).
In order to distill the water and fermented corn, moonshiners heat it up using a still and light a fire underneath to boil it. The fire is made using wood, which of course causes smoke. That's why the majority of moonshine is made in around the Appalachian mountain range, where weather conditions are frequently foggy, thus easily hiding signs of smoke.
When moonshine is delivered and sold, it is often packaged in jars instead of barrels because they are less noticeable. Yet the weight of a lot of moonshine will make a car/truck sit lower. One solution to this is to put extra springs in the vehicle to level out the weight difference. On the other hand, the vehicles will be noticeably higher when there is not heavy cargo inside the vehicle. Either way, someone's is bound to get caught, and there are often people who try to flee in their vehicles, causing many a chase.
Strangely enough, people got a huge thrill from racing the police, driving crazy fast around winding mountain roads. Car racing became very popular as a sport in those areas as well. This lead to the creation of NASCAR racing. In fact, a large portion of the top NASCAR drivers are from the Appalachian regions known prominently for moonshine.
The end!
Wednesday, September 29, 2010
Tuesday, September 28, 2010
Storytelling
Storytelling fascinates me, both written and verbal. I don't clearly remember preschool, but my mom has told me that I used to love going because my preschool teacher was an excellent storyteller. Besides that being part of her job as a teacher of little ones, storytelling was a side-job of hers. She got paid to tell stories because she did so in a way that caught peoples attention and catered to their emotions. That takes talent and lots of practice, just like the perfected timing, emphasis and expression used by comedians or actors/actresses.
As a kid, I used to make up stories (not lies--make-believe stories) to keep myself and my sister entertained. I loved to make up stories, and it came easily as a child living in a world of imagination and exploration. In middle school, I wrote short, fan-fiction stories with my friends. It was fun and I didn't take any of that writing seriously at age 14. Strangely enough, I did not realize that wanted to continue and pursue that skill in my adult life as an author. In fact, it did not dawn on me that I could until my mom suggested the idea. Then it clicked and felt right. From my senior year of high school, I have never doubted my desire to be a published writer.
Not so coincidentally, I love to read. I love books. However, I could not really read until the end of the 4th grade. I was one of those kids that was taken out of class a hour a day to sit with a specialist who was supposed to help me learn to read better. When I finally did learn to read, it was done with little to no influence from the reading specialists. I discovered that liked to read stories that are interesting, not the inanely boring history or social studies books we'd been forced to read in class. The first real chapter book I read was an American Girl Doll book called Patsy: Diary of a Slave Girl. Ironically, the theme of this book was about a young slave girl (Patsy) who taught herself to read because she knew that if she were educated she would have a better life. This was so much different from my own reality where teachers were always trying to force me to read. Instead, it was illegal for someone to teach Patsy and so she learned in secret. I'm not quite sure how much of an impact that had on me at the time, but it was an entertaining story that catapulted me into being a voracious bookworm.
Now, I spend thousands of dollars a year to learn how to become a great storyteller, to captivate an audience and perhaps even someday write a book that catches a young, reluctant reader's attention enough to open the door of their imagination to the infinite possibilities of books. But for the time being, I'll keep studying.
As a kid, I used to make up stories (not lies--make-believe stories) to keep myself and my sister entertained. I loved to make up stories, and it came easily as a child living in a world of imagination and exploration. In middle school, I wrote short, fan-fiction stories with my friends. It was fun and I didn't take any of that writing seriously at age 14. Strangely enough, I did not realize that wanted to continue and pursue that skill in my adult life as an author. In fact, it did not dawn on me that I could until my mom suggested the idea. Then it clicked and felt right. From my senior year of high school, I have never doubted my desire to be a published writer.
Not so coincidentally, I love to read. I love books. However, I could not really read until the end of the 4th grade. I was one of those kids that was taken out of class a hour a day to sit with a specialist who was supposed to help me learn to read better. When I finally did learn to read, it was done with little to no influence from the reading specialists. I discovered that liked to read stories that are interesting, not the inanely boring history or social studies books we'd been forced to read in class. The first real chapter book I read was an American Girl Doll book called Patsy: Diary of a Slave Girl. Ironically, the theme of this book was about a young slave girl (Patsy) who taught herself to read because she knew that if she were educated she would have a better life. This was so much different from my own reality where teachers were always trying to force me to read. Instead, it was illegal for someone to teach Patsy and so she learned in secret. I'm not quite sure how much of an impact that had on me at the time, but it was an entertaining story that catapulted me into being a voracious bookworm.
Now, I spend thousands of dollars a year to learn how to become a great storyteller, to captivate an audience and perhaps even someday write a book that catches a young, reluctant reader's attention enough to open the door of their imagination to the infinite possibilities of books. But for the time being, I'll keep studying.
Monday, September 27, 2010
Exercise: Character/Person Sketch - roommate
Tan skin with natural golden-yellow undertones. Dark brown eyes surrounded by slightly darkened circles under each eye. Her hari is dark brown, almost black, short to the nap of her neck and shaggybecause she's trying to grow it out. Right now it's held back by a crayola green, paislye bandana, leaving her face open and her ears sticking out. A few red acne bloches cover her forehead above two slightly arched eyebrows. She absently picks at a scab near her left ear but suddenly stops, concious of her action.
She's wearing a grey shirt with blue and red text that says "Wake Up AQ!" A thick metal, gold and black, torque circles her neck, separating an inch from the middle. At the ends of the necklace are 2 dragon heads, staring at each other. Her ensemble is finished by a pair of grey-green cargo pants with lots of pockets on the thighs, held up by a black leather belt. No socks or shoes. She's not wearing a watch but there's a wide, brown leather wrist cuff on the left wrist. An engagement ring sits on her left hand. It's an emerald surrounded by celtic knots and two small diamonds.
She's wearing a grey shirt with blue and red text that says "Wake Up AQ!" A thick metal, gold and black, torque circles her neck, separating an inch from the middle. At the ends of the necklace are 2 dragon heads, staring at each other. Her ensemble is finished by a pair of grey-green cargo pants with lots of pockets on the thighs, held up by a black leather belt. No socks or shoes. She's not wearing a watch but there's a wide, brown leather wrist cuff on the left wrist. An engagement ring sits on her left hand. It's an emerald surrounded by celtic knots and two small diamonds.
Saturday, September 25, 2010
Exercise: Character/Person Sketch - Laura
This is a writing exercise I was introduced to in my high school creative writing class. The point is to practice writing descriptions and work on becoming more astute about surroundings and all details. The goal is to be able to get a clear mental picture of the person after reading the description.
This one in particular I jot down about my friend Laura. It's just a quick sketch. Nothing fancy or well-written. Just descriptions.
slouched over, eating a frost, meticulously scraping the bottom of the cup for the last chocolatey drop.
comfy black cotton pants and a plain black cotton t-shirt with a hint of the purple lace undershirt covering her cleavage. Sitting in a position of repose. rectangular black metal glasses sit on the slight ridge of her nose, small & straight. Pale peach skin blooms rosy on her cheeks. clear complexion. small mole on the lower left side of her jaw. full pink lips prone to a pouty moue.
when she smiles, dimples show on either side of her face. sparkly, red crescent hoop earrings. soft, square jawline tapering to a pointed chin. slightly curved dark orange eyebrows. vibrant orange-red hair that shines with health, hangs thick and straight to the shoulders with just a slight wave at the tips. Long bangs part at the crown over the right eyebrow. Hair tucked behind the ears.
brown socks with a hole where the right big toe sticks out. Black hair tie around the right wrist. No watch. Fairly large, capable hands without nail polish. Short nails with a little bit of dirt or paint underneath. A claddagh ring on her right hand with the heart pointing outward.
This one in particular I jot down about my friend Laura. It's just a quick sketch. Nothing fancy or well-written. Just descriptions.
slouched over, eating a frost, meticulously scraping the bottom of the cup for the last chocolatey drop.
comfy black cotton pants and a plain black cotton t-shirt with a hint of the purple lace undershirt covering her cleavage. Sitting in a position of repose. rectangular black metal glasses sit on the slight ridge of her nose, small & straight. Pale peach skin blooms rosy on her cheeks. clear complexion. small mole on the lower left side of her jaw. full pink lips prone to a pouty moue.
when she smiles, dimples show on either side of her face. sparkly, red crescent hoop earrings. soft, square jawline tapering to a pointed chin. slightly curved dark orange eyebrows. vibrant orange-red hair that shines with health, hangs thick and straight to the shoulders with just a slight wave at the tips. Long bangs part at the crown over the right eyebrow. Hair tucked behind the ears.
brown socks with a hole where the right big toe sticks out. Black hair tie around the right wrist. No watch. Fairly large, capable hands without nail polish. Short nails with a little bit of dirt or paint underneath. A claddagh ring on her right hand with the heart pointing outward.
Thursday, September 23, 2010
Exercise: Perder el Aliento
Por algun razon, yo quiero escribir en español hoy. Si usted no supo, soy latina y puedo hablar en español más o menos bien. No he practicado en pocos meces. Además, yo nunca he escribido nada en español, pues, nada de escritura creativa. Entonces, esto es mi intento.
El cielo me robó el aliento.
¿Has visto un cielo más expresivo?
Los días tienen el matiz azul
tan radiante que los nubes
no se atreve bloquearlo.
Las mañanas iluminan poco a poco
de anaranjado a azul brillante.
Al atardecer desteñe. Amarillo.
Verde claro. Cielo azul.
Cálido anaranjado. Rosado Atrevido.
Roja caliente. Morado. Azul oscuro. Negro.
A veces en el mismo tiempo, los colores apilan
uno arriba al otro, como telas raras y preciosas.
Demasiado rápido, la visión dispersada
como vientos de fantasmas por las palmas
y todo es calma.
El cielo me robó el aliento.
¿Has visto un cielo más expresivo?
Los días tienen el matiz azul
tan radiante que los nubes
no se atreve bloquearlo.
Las mañanas iluminan poco a poco
de anaranjado a azul brillante.
Al atardecer desteñe. Amarillo.
Verde claro. Cielo azul.
Cálido anaranjado. Rosado Atrevido.
Roja caliente. Morado. Azul oscuro. Negro.
A veces en el mismo tiempo, los colores apilan
uno arriba al otro, como telas raras y preciosas.
Demasiado rápido, la visión dispersada
como vientos de fantasmas por las palmas
y todo es calma.
Wednesday, September 22, 2010
A Twilight Rant
Ladies and Gentlemen,
I give you the much anticipated rant about Stephanie Meyer's Twilight Series.
For better or worse, I admit that I liked reading the Twilight books. I still would read them, even though the crazy fans have killed off some of my enjoyment of the series. People take the series way too seriously.
Good parts about the series:
I like the concept of there being good and bad vampires (though it’s not original at all!) because it shows that there’s always more than one point of view. I liked the fight scenes and politics of the vampire world. Overall, I do like love stories so that was appealing to me. I liked the books better than the films because my view of the characters is not well reflected by the actors, and it’s easier to ignore the angst in the books than onscreen.
As for the rest of the series…
I’m not going to lie; it worries me how obsessed people can be about these books, especially adolescents since it is technically a young adult series. I worry because of the message the books send: If you’re lucky enough to find “true love” (with a perfect person), don’t let anything stand in your way—not death, not life, not friends or family.
I may be a hopeless romantic, I may even believe in the concept of soul mates, but I don’t think any one love is truer than the next. I think people can find different soul mates throughout their lives, people that really connect, be it for weeks, months or years. People continuously change and what someone needs in a perfect partner will change over time as well.
Going back to the message from the series, it’s obvious to see why I worry. The relationship between the 2 protagonists, Bella Swan and Edward Cullen, is an unhealthy relationship. Though it’s not necessarily Edward’s fault, Bella basically cut off all ties to friends and family when she became infatuated with him. She didn’t care about anything but him. That’s not love. That’s obsession. Clearly this was dangerous to her emotions because when Edward left, she went into (6?) months of serious depression! (Even scarier, her friends and father didn’t bother to take her to a shrink to get happy pills, therapy, anything.) That’s not normal or healthy.
Also, some romantic concepts are being mixed up here. For example: Napping with boyfriend and waking up to find him watching you – this can be either romantic or awkward and slightly creepy. Napping/sleeping and finding out that some guy (no matter how cute or sexy) has been watching you sleep from the window (or even inside the bedroom). That’s called trespassing (if not breaking and entering) and stalking. It’s creepy as all get out. Not romantic. Bella should have gotten a restraining order when she found out about that, not a melting feeling in her heart! (Not that a restraining order could do much against a vampire, but if Edward were a normal human, yes, a restraining order would be good. Hell, Bella’s father is police chief and would have happily reinforced it.)
I mean, sure it has some memorable quotes, but they’re not golden. And yet, why are there so many tattoos?
People obviously don't love this series for Meyer's extraordinary writing style. It's because young adults (and many others of all ages) find the premise of the high school love interests relate-able and appealing. It's because of the vampire-werewolf part. Anyone can tell that all paranormal creatures are hot right now (or would youngsters call it "hawt" now? stupid future of America can't learn to spell harumph harumph harumph). It's just another way to make the characters cooler, more dangerous, and more sexy--an instant recipe for popularity.
I find it incredible that people, i.e. crazy fans (Twihards?), came down on Stephen King’s head when he pointed out that the books is not a literary work of art… well, King being who he is (definitely not a lovable teddy bear), he worded it a bit differently: "[J.K.] Rowling is a terrific writer and Stephenie Meyer can’t write worth a darn. She’s not very good." ~quote from U.S. Weekly Interview
Ouch. That’s a bona fide dis. I can understand King’s sentiment on this point, mainly because of the poor characterizations in this series. I’m all for having high expectations for a boyfriend, but Edward is an unrealistically perfect character. And Bella, though not perfect, is too much of a 1 dimensional character; she doesn’t have a lot of substance, mostly because she lacks character flaws. And being clumsy is NOT a legit character flaw. That’s a rookie mistake that Meyer should have been well aware of, having graduated with a B.A. in English from Brigham Young University.
I can only imagine the flaming comments hurled at his head by the Twihards. Fortunately, Stephen King had a wonderful rebuttal, which I highly recommend watching. Stephen King's rant on Twilight
Overall, I believe that the biggest reason this series is popular is because of the love story. Many, possibly most, of the people who read this series had never read a romance novel before so this being their first connection with a strong romance story, they flipped the lid! They think it's the coolest thing since sliced bread! *facepalm* Ugh. That’s almost as bad as people who snub the romance genre as stupid yet love to read Nicholas Sparks. Well, at least the huge popularity of the Twilight series has gotten more people to read. I’m all for a boost the literacy rate.
Fun fact: Did you know that the current literacy rate is lower than it was in the late 19th Century and early 20th Century?
If you’re wondering why, that’s mostly because of the popularity of dime novels. Since TV shows, movies (let alone video games) weren’t around back then, people read for entertainment. Dime novels were tales of adventure with moderately simple structure and vocabulary that people of all ages read and shared.
Love at first bite?
Vampires are huge! ... Not like that, you pervert. Yeesh. They're dead, so technically they should be able get it "up" anyway. Rigor mortis doesn't work like that.
*crickets chirp*
Alright, let me back track here.
Vampires are hugely popular right now—a bit too popular for my liking. I almost feel like vampires have been overdone, which makes me sad. I hate when people (crazy fans) take over a fandom that I really like and overdo it to the point that it's intolerable.
On the other hand, a person could argue that vampires have not been overdone because they have been reinvented in so many ways. I can sort of see this and agree to some extent. I mean, three of my favorite books series have are centered on vampires, but they each have 3 very different concepts of vampires or vampire-like beings. So, I'll give the opposition some credit to that. I also see that it's necessary to reinvent the vampire to keep them fresh (as fresh as the undead can get) and for the sake of originality.
The clearest reinvention of vampires has been the romanticized versions, which has been all the rage as of lately (well, not exclusively recently: Anne Rice’s Vampire Chronicles). I have only seen a few recent films or books that portray vampires as real monsters. These romanticized, or over-romanticized vampires, have become the protagonists in stories and movies instead of the external danger. They are made into intelligent beings with likeable traits. They have redefined badass in terms of enormously strength/powers, and they can kick ass better and faster than a zombie kung-fu master on steroids. Vampires have become sexy (which is a bit ironic since culture in North America defines beauty as having a golden tan or ethnically light brown skin tone – not the translucent white of a corpse). I also see vampires as advertising for paranormal-themed entertainment: “Become a vampire! Be forever young, gorgeous, and super smart!”
(Why are the scholars get bitten? Don’t you think the book-smart people would have read up on this or and known the signs of a vampire sighting? Or are vampires now super intelligent because is there nothing better to do than study with those extra years of longevity?)
I’d be lying if I said I did not see the appeal of this portrayal. In fact, I like reading paranormal stories that include vampires, especially romantic paranormal novels (likely the most romanticized of all). But I can't stand paranormal romance novels that treat vampirism like a fad, something that is completely idealized with barely any negative side-effects. Oh, there are many I could mention (Twilight series included), but I’m trying to keep this post as short as I can.
What the hell is that?! Honestly? Most chick lit paranormals probably don’t go that far, but I would not want to read any book that’s anything like that. People have taken the monster out of the vampire! Not cool. Much as vampires have been overdone in general, they have been overly romanticized almost beyond the recognition of nosferatu or Dracula. Where's the gore?! The angst (but not too much)? The berserker craze of blood lust that can never be satisfied? The disregard for human life?
I’m not too big into these new-age vampires. The real old school vampires were killing machines, monsters, capital E-vil capital M-onsters. Think Dracula, Stephen King's 'Salem's Lot or Ann Rice's Vampire Chronicles series. Although Buffy the Vampire Slayer TV show became romanticized to an extent (ex: Angel, Spike), the premise of the show is still to kill off vampires with the generalization that all vampire are monsters, i.e. Evil.
Nowadays, there are even people who wish they were vampires. There’s a whole vampire underground subculture (freaky) that began long before Stephanie Meyer began to dream up Twilight. Of course, these people wanted the bad and good of vampires, the monsters with power and intelligence. They do not intend to become a vampire and be a perfect being. They see vampires as scary.
One of the reasons I think much of our cultural fear of vampires has abated is because of how prevalent violence and blood is in present American culture. Back in the day, vampires were terrifying because of the huge AIDS scare. Think about the associations: vampires > blood > disease > death. In a way, HIV AIDS was/is a vampiric disease; it eats away at the immune system, the body, sucking up the victims' energy, life force. The point is, blood and disease was scary business which generated much more fear and panic than worry about today's advanced viruses and diseases.
Bringing this full circle, I will leave you all on my ever pondering question of cultural impact. What has this done to American culture? And what has shaped American culture to accept the monsters/villainous characters as more likable than the heroes & heroines?
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)