acting – scene: goat song

The scene for my Semester 1 final. I don’t really like it. I don’t quite get it … but well … now it’s too late to change it.

FROM Goat song

by Franz Werfel

Franz Werfel, best known perhaps for his novel The Forty Days of Musa Dagh, contributed at least one major play to the body of world dramatic literature: Goat song, a symbolic, pageant-like depiction of the spread of man’s brutality. Set in the eighteenth century in a Slavic countryside beyond the Danube, the play has an earthy folk quality that brings its language close to poetry.

Mirko and Stanja have been betrothed. In this scene from Act 1, Scene 5, the couple enters the farmhouse of Mirko’s father, after the lad has taken his bride-to-be, Stanja, on a tour of his family’s property.

Mirko: Your parents are gone now. Are you sad?

Stanja: No, I’m not sad.

Mirko:Then you don’t love your parents?

Stanja: I love them.

Mirko: Then you must be sad. Doesn’t it hurt you when something is over? The axle creaks, the horses draw up, the whip…And then, something is ended.

Stanja: I never ache for what is past.

Mirko: Oh, I often do. I can lie in the meadow hour after hour longing for games I played there on the grass.

Stanja: That is because you are a man. (Short pause)

Mirko: Do the house and the farm please you?

Stanja: Why shouldn’t they?  House, rooms, chimneys, pigsties, and hencoops and dovecotes, same as everywhere.

Mirko: And do I please you?

Stanja: Why shouldn’t you please me?

Mirko: Do you know, Stanja, I would have liked it better if you had cried before, when they left you…(suddenly turns on her) You! What if you’ve loved someone before! Tell me! Have you loved someone else?

Stanja: (Hesitantly) No.

Mirko: (slowly, his eyes closed) I think, when we’re married, I will beat you.

Stanja: That’s what all husbands do.

Mirko: Did you tell me the truth?

Stanja: No.

Mirko: Ah! You did love another before me, before me …

Stanja: Did I love him? Just once, I dreamed of him in the night. He’d been our guest for an hour. He wore a scholar’s cap on his head and a laced coat. He was a student.

Mirko: (Presses her hand) Did he speak to you? Did you see him again? Or dream of him?

Stanja: Never again.

Mirko: (Let’s her hand fall, brusquely) A student? Ho! You want to show me you’re a smart one.

Stanja: (Flashing) That takes no showing.

Mirko: Damn!

Stanja: You led me through the rooms and closets up to the attic. We looked at all the stalls, the cattle, the dairies, the storehouse, the threshing floors, wine presses, everything. But I have eyes …

Mirko: (Excited, tries to embrace her) Blue eyes, sharp, bad, sweet …

Stanja: (Thrusts him from her) But mighty quick you slipped by that little house of stone, and by that rusty iron door. You wouldn’t look, and pushed me away. (Triumphant) What does the smoking chimney of that big kennel mean? You light no fire for animals. That rising smoke is human… I have eyes!

Mirko: (Stroking his forehead in helpless bewilderment) I do not know, Stanja. Believe me, I do not know. Ever since I was a little child that was the forbidden place that we hurried by in fear, with downcast eyes. I dared not ask my mother or my father. I love my father-not like you love yours. So I kept still and let my father bear the secret. I got used to it as a child and never gace a thought. But now! For twenty years, day after day, I have passed it – and always with my foreboding heart, yet never thinking of it. And now, all of a sudden, after so many years, I’m forced to think… Yes, true enough! A fire’s there each spring and winter. (Seized by an obscure horror) Stanja! I will not ask my father. I’ll never ask.

Stanja: Now do you see who’s the smart one? For twenty years you never thought or asked. But a woman comes to the house and asks you in the first hour.

acting – scene: unlock the doors

I like this scene SO much! Played it with a girl who could do the southern accent of Ellie really good. The scene was absolutely cool.

Unlock The Doors

by Douglas Taylor

small town – present – Maddy (30) – Ellie (40s)

Maddy: a woman who has discovered her husband has been unfaithul

Ellie: Maddy’s older sister

Maddie has just met her husband’s illegitimate son and here tells her sister, Ellie about the experience

Ellie: Well that’s that – I’m set for the trip…? Maddy? Whatcha doin’? (Goes outside.) Maddy? Who was that woman and what’d she want? Maddy, ya look like you’d seen a ghost. Will you look at me – say somethin’.

Maddy: That boy…

Ellie: Yeah? That boy what? Gowon, that boy what?

Maddy: (Not looking at her. From within herself) That little boy is… He’s Ted’s son.  (Crosses into kitchen)

Ellie: He’s what… Good god awmighty, what are ya sayin’? (No response. Goes inside) Maddy?! What in the hell do ya mean – he’s Ted’s son!?

Maddy: I mean – Ted’s his father.

Ellie: How do you know that?!

Maddy: The woman said he was. She’s the boys grandmother… (Words dwindle off)

Ellie: That don’t make it true. She could be lyin’. Did she ask for money!?

Maddy: No, she didn’t ask for anything. She just wanted me to know, so I’d do something about it. He’s Ted’s alright. The resemblance is so clear – in his eyes and the mouth. He’s Ted’s boy. Ted visits him every Tuesday night, and sometimes on Sunday afternoons.

Ellie: Oh, my God – that’s where he’s goin’ tonight. Whatcha gonna do!?

Maddy: I don’t know. It was strange. I…I had this impulse to hug him.

Ellie: Hug him!?

Maddy: When I realized it was true, I wasn’t angry. I just thought… This is Ted’s boy, Ted’s little boy and I wanted to hug him.

Ellie: Maddy, you’re batty. Always have been. Hug him!? I’d’ve…I’d’ve… (Stops)

Maddy: (Looking at her) What? What would you have done?

Ellie: I’d’ve called the police!

Maddy: The police?

Ellie: You’re darn right. I’d have him arrested. Comin’ around here, pretending to be your husbands son.

Maddy: He didn’t have anything to do with it. Besides, he is Ted’s son.

Ellie: You’re right, I guess the police are out. Well, watcha gonna do? I’ll tell you watcha gonna do, you’re gonna get a lawyer. When ya don’t know what else to do – get a lawyer. And I know just th one – Harold Larsen. He’s one of the best in Wawona. (Ellie crosses into house and straight to the telephone) Horold’ll give ya a good counsel and not charge ya a penny. You remember Harold – he’s the one who married Alice Cook? (Picks up the phone, dials number) Harold’s smart as a whip. He’ll fix ya right up.

Maddy: Ellie, what are you doing?

Ellie: I’m callin’ your lawyer.

Maddy: I don’t have a lawyer, I don’t want a lawyer.

Ellie: You gotta have a lawyer.

Maddy: What for?

Ellie: The divorce.

Maddy: Divorce…? Ellie, hang up – hang that phone up!

Ellie: I won’t either.

Maddy: Will you hang up!

Ellie: Huh? What are you all upset about? (Maddy just stares at her. Ellie hangs up) There’s no answer anyways – probably at the courthouse. He spends more time at court than he does in bed. Maddy, ya look awful. You’re goin’ through hell. I kin tell. I’m very intuitive. (Maddy’s hand goes to her face, her inner tension showing)

Maddy: I’m just trying to get my bearings. I need time to get my…bearings.

Ellie: Why, of course you do, honey. You’re in shock. The full impact hasn’t hit ya yet. But it will. It’ll hit like a ton o’ hay fallin’ on ya. I’m surprised you’re still on your own two feet. I’d’ve gone straight to bed and pulled down the shades.

Maddy: A little time’s all I need – I’ll be…fine…

Ellie: Sure ya will – if ya do what I tell ya. Now I want you to sit right down here. (She ushers Maddy to chair by table) That’s the stuff And I’m gonna pour ya one of those straight bourbons. You did it for me a while back and it fixed me right up. (Maddy, sitting, clasps her hands together and presses them against her chin and mouth, trying to hold onto herself, emotionally) Unhuh. It’s hittin’ home now, ain’t it? Got a case of the shakes comin’ on, aint’cha? Well, let ’em come, don’t fight it. Like Momma useta say when one of us had an upset stomach, ‘Ya wanna throw up, throw up. Get it off your stomach, make ya feel better.’ (Ellie pours bourbon into glass on table) You don’t mind usin’ my glass, do ya? Ain’t it funny how life is? A while back I was all messed up and you were helpin’ to straighten me out. And now it’s your turn and I’m pourin’ for you. Life’s full of surprises. You buy a ticket and take a chance. Like in the carneval. (Stops, thinks) Who useta say that one?

Maddy: I don’t know and…I don’t really care… (sips bourbon, a lost feeling about her)

Ellie: I know just how you’re fellin’, honey, ’cause I’ve been through it.

Maddy: I’m going to be alright in a minute…

Ellie: Don’t count on it.

Maddy: That was the weirdest moment in my life.

Ellie: What was?

Maddy: When  looked at the boy and saw in his face that he was Ted’s. It was like a big wave washing over me, and then being under water, all sound goone – caught there under water in time ans space – me and the boy. And then…I heard someone saing they were going some place, and I realized it was the woman, the boy’s grandmother, sayin’ she was going, standing and leaving, taking the boy with her, he looking back at me now, not afraif or shy like he had been, but looking right into my eyes, and then they were gone and I was alone with the knowledge that my husband had fathered a child I didn’t even know existed.

Ellie: And livin’ where?

Maddy: What…? Oh – Culver Flats.

Ellie: Right on the outskirts of your own town!? Well, I’ll be a horse’s rear end, if that don’t take all. Your own town for how long? How old’s that kid?

Maddy: He looked to be about four? Five? No, I’d say four.

Ellie: For four years! Men. They all ought to be flogged. And you thinkin’ you had a special one. Sure he didn’t want to adopt. He’s got one of his own.

Maddy: No. Ted told me years ago he didn’t want to adopt.

Ellie: What ice does that cut? Special? A double-dealer’s what you got.

Maddy: Ellie, please!

Ellie: What? Did I say somethin’ to upset you?

Maddy: (Sipping drink) I think I know when it happened.

Ellie: When what happened?

Maddy: I went to that head librarian’s convention in Chicago. That was about five years ago.

Ellie: And the minute you were out of town, he went on it.

Maddy: He called me every night, sometimes twice.

Ellie: Had a guilty conscience, betcha.

Maddy: When the convention ended, I decided to go to my class reunion. Ted was definitely against it. I remember his trying to persuade me not to. But I hought it would be good for us to be apart finally, afor a while, after twelve years.

Ellie: Well, time sure proved you right. He went right out and got himself a secret child and a secret wife. (Maddy looks up at her)

a cool Monolog for acting class: Somebody to love

I did this Monolog in my acting class and I really liked it. It is a song from the musical “we will rock you” by queen. My teacher liked it, too. 🙂

SOMEBODY TO LOVE (We will rock you) Scaramouche:
Can anybody find me somebody to love?
Each morning I get up I die a little
Can barely stand on my feet
Take a look in the mirror and cry
Lord, what you doing to me
I spent all my years to believe in you
But I just can’t get no relief, Lord
Somebody ooh somebody
Can anybody find me somebody to love
I work hard
Every day of my life
I work till I ache in my bones
At the end
I take home my broken heart all on my own
I get down on my knees
And I start to pray
Till the tears run down from my eyes
Oh somebody ooh somebody
Can anybody find me somebody to love
Everyday
I try and I try and I try
But everybody wants to put me down
They say I’m going crazy
They say I got a lot of water on my brain
I got no common sense
I got nobody left to believe
Yeah!
Got no feel, I got no rhythm
I just keep losing my beat
I’m OK, I’m all right
And I ain’t gonna face no defeat
I just gotta get out of this prison cell
One day I’m gonna be free, Lord!
Find me, find me oh…
Can anybody find me somebody to love
Somebody to love!

a wish list

“In life it is important to know what you want. Because only when you know what goals you want to reach, you can work on achieving them.” So told me the field director of my exchange program. In our group of five girls we made lists what goals we want to reach 1. today, 2. this week, 3. this year, 4. in my life. Here are some things I noticed on our lists:

Writing a perfect essay, Converse shoes, keeping track of my blog, writing a letter to my sister, Ihome, a new Camera, getting an A in my math class, Vans, Vest, going to the movies and see Avatar, getting a manicure, purple nailpolish, getting a haircut, bandaner, Coffe to go cup for my hot chocolate, getting a good Abitur, studying something interesting at university, having lots of fun at university, moving into my own home when I go to university, having a cool and good-paid job, getting to know an awesome guy, having first a boy and then a girl – three years apart, being a cool mom, travel to interesting countries all over the world, Bear paw boots, Nike’s, doing more useful stuff in my free time than being on the internet

We didn’t really take it seriously. We joked around and laughed a lot about ourselves. Between something that we really wanted to do, we suddenly put something that we would get on our next shopping trip. After the meeting we fast forgot about the list. But later when I found the list again between my papers, I thought about it some more. Although we were making so much fun of this list and we didn’t really seriously think about what we wanted to do – well, at least not everyone of us, I think this list shows pretty much exactly, what everyone of us wants.

There are two types of things we want: Type one are things we want for ourselves. These are things that would make us proud just because we did them. And the second type is things that we want pretty much for others. To make others like us more and so to make ourselves happy.

So I put our wish list into two columns to see where more points are.

Type 1

Type 2

1. Writing a perfect essay 2. Keeping track of my blog 3. Writing a letter to my sister 4. Getting an A in my math class 5. Getting a good Abitur 6. Studying something interesting at university 7. Having lots of fun at university 8. Moving into my own home when I go to university 9. Having a cool and good-paid job 10. Getting to know an awesome guy 11. Having first a boy and then a girl – three years apart 12. Being a cool mom 13. Travel to interesting countries all over the world 14. Doing more useful stuff in my free time than being on the internet

1. Converse shoes 2. Ihome 3. New camera 4. Vans 5. Vest 6. Going to the movies and see avatar (this is in this column because I just want to see it because everybody talks about it – I’m not really interested in the movie) 7. Getting a manicure 8. Getting a haircut 9. purple nail polish 10. Bandaner 11. Coffee to go cup for my hot chocolate 12. Bear paw boots 13. Nike’s

As you can see none of the sides has much more points. What we want for ourselves is almost the same number than what we want us to have to impress others. I think this is pretty sad. Our outside is so terrible important to us! I don’t lie – it is super important to me, too. Our mind is a super confusing thing.

Homosexuality

I am sitting in the den, doing my math homework. My 5-year-old sister is sitting on the floor, playing with her Barbies. She has at least sixty of them. All that makes her happy on her birthday and on Christmas is a new one. She has all kinds of things for her. A huge Barbie house, a pink Barbie car, and tons of clothes, shoes and purses. She plays with them all the time. But most of the time I don’t see her playing with them because they have their play room in the lower level.

So on this day we are both in the den, I with my Algebra book, and she with a few Barbies. And what I hear shocks me! Her playing story is about a girl who wants to marry a girl. And she says: “You can’t marry a girl! You have to marry a boy! Marrying a girl is not right!” I couldn’t believe it. Did she really just say that? Well – but how does she know that there can be love the other way around, too? That a girl can fall in love with another girl. And that they can be just as happy as a straight couple. Nowhere is any evidence of this shown. But if she never saw it – how can she get the idea of Barbie marrying another girl, then?

At the moment I read a book. It is called “Dare truth or promise” and it is about two girls who fall in love with each other. For Willa Louie is already her second girlfriend. But for Louie this whole field is new. She is happy with Willa but they have to hide and can’t tell their parents about it. They spend a lot of time together so that Louie’s parents, who don’t like Willa, try to tear the two apart. After Louie’s Mom catches the two girls while they were making out on her bed, Louie is not allowed to see her friend again. She becomes sick: she gets a fever and can’t eat any more. Louie looks “lesbian” up in a dictionary and it says “unnatural sexual relationship between two girls”. She is totally down and asks herself what is wrong with her. She loves Willa but everybody tells her that this is wrong. Her Mom even brings her to the doctor, who tells her that all this has to do with her hormones that are crazy in this time of her life. She says it is going to go back to normal.

How can you tell a girl that her love to a person is wrong? How can you say it is unnatural? As you can see it happens – and it happens without force. So it is natural. The two girls in the book are upset with themselves, ashamed of their love and ashamed of what makes them happy. Because nobody talks about this forbidden topic a girl doesn’t know what is happening to her if she likes another girl really much. And exactly the same can happen to two boys, too! People should not stamp it as unnatural. And parents should show more understanding if their daughter or son doesn’t fit in their view of a normal life.

I am straight and I am happy that I feel so. Because I think it is hard for homosexuals to life their life without going through tough situations where they feel embarrassed.

Zoboomafoo

Zoboomafoo is a child’s animal show presented by PBS kids. My 5-year-old sister watches is almost every day. The Kratt brothers are creators and hosts of Kratt’s creatures and Zoboomafoo. They’ve been creature adventuring ever since they were as big as a wombat, first in their backyard and now all over the world. The brothers started making wildlife films while in college when they went on camping trips around the world and filmed wildlife. They edited the films in their basement and brought them into schools to show kids. No they’ve made 50 episodes of Kratts’ Creatures in Africa, Central America, Australia and all around the world.

The Kratt brothers are 41 and 44 years old, grew up in New Jearsey and all of their collage education has something to do with animals. Their goals in life are „To find out all he can about creatures and the creature world. And to finally beat a raccoon in a tree-climbing contest! To meet all his creature neighbors and convince people to be kind to creatures. To find out why there aren’t any bears in Africa.“ This information their webpage http://pbskids.org/zoboo/ provides.

In their shows they ususally introduce animals, show hot to treat them and they have a lot of fun jumping into pools for animals or stray through the wild life. In the center of attention is Zoboomafoo, a monkey-like creature.They use a real looking puppet in the show that can talk and even tells stories.

In „What could it be“ they make the children in front of the TV guess, what animal they are drawing. Out of a wobbely ball there comes a tail, some ears, whiskers, and the cat slowly recieves it’s features. The song for this is stuck in my head the whole night after I watch one of the shows with my sister. And not only me: I cought my Mom once humming the song while she was doing the dishes in the kitchen! Everyone’s attention is caught by this show. Although they might not even be aware of watching it.

My sister certainly loves it. She guesses with the brothers if they’re pretending to have to find out, where all the ten little kittens went, she jumps with them if they are imitating how a kangaroo walks, and she watches them with big eyes while they are explaining how a cat can climb up trees.

The brothers talk in a voice that sounds laughable to me – and I can’t imagine how absurd it must be for the middle aged brothers. They are over forty and they are doing this for at least ten years now! I can’t believe they can always be in such a good mood, with so much energy and always talk like the children were sitting right in front of them. I think it is an amazing acting part. These brothers really have to love animals and children.

I personally didn’t find any kind of violence in even one of the shows. I think this is a good example for children entertainment. And there should be so much more of it. The Kratt brothers show that it is possible to get a child’s attention, teach them something they are interested in, and don’t use any kind of unappropriate material.

Even though I see some of the shows for the fifth time – I watch it with my sister. Before she goes and sees something else that influences her mind, I rather learn the show by heart – with her. 🙂

9 – the movie

I watched the movie „9“ with my family last night and this Media Log is about my impressions of the film.

What I first noticed was: „Another movie with the end of the world as a theme!“ And this time it is because of a roboter a scientist made. They wanted to fight in the war with this huge machine. But it turned out to be a bad idea. The roboter turned against his own people and started to hunt and kill them. At the time the movie starts, all the humans are already dead for years. But the roboter still rules. The scientist, who made the machine also made nine little „dolls“ that look like people. They have some kind of humanity (well – not everyone of them) and they can see, talk, hear and feel like normal people. Made out of cloth and a lot of complicated looking things the figures are only a few inches tall.

9 is the name of the ninth little robot the scientist made. The number is written with marker on it’s fabric back. The figure „awakes“ straped up in the scientist lab. It cannot speak yet but it hears a noise down at the street. The house the scientists lab is in, is almost totally destroyed. Like the whole city. This is because of the war and the machines turning against it’s own troop. 9 goes down to the street and soon finds someone just like him. They become friends in just a minute, but at the next moment, one of the machines attacks and 9 and his friend are in huge danger. 9 is able to hide and survives the attack this way.

Soon he finds the group of over figures made by the scientist that are named by numbers also. Each of them looks a little different and has its own personality. The group hids from the robotic monsters outside and is led by 1. He wears a red cape and sits on a throne. Because of his commands it made him look like a dictator to me. 9 thinks that it is not the right thing to hide from the beast. They have to do something. Together with his friend he explores the city and looks for the beast. This way they find another one of them who didn’t want to stay in the group also – the only girl of the figures. She is a worrier – wears a mask over her face and is very brave. I thought it was good to demonstrate the girl like that. But I couldn’t find an answer, why she is the only girl in all of the figures (you can recognize that it is a girl because of her voice).

So the story is about 9 who/that is the key to beat the monster and create freedom for his/its friends who have to die in this battle. Of course, some love story between the only girl in the group and 9 , is also there. That did not surprise me – I was actually waiting for that to show.

All in all, I didn’t like the movie at all. It was too much science fiction and „the world ends-horror“ for me. It didn’t really make sense to me and it was pretty boring. I still aks myself why there was only one girl in the whole story (and – guess what – she had to be rescued by 9 at some point). There was a lot of brutality in the movie so that my eleven year old sister – who actuallly likes those kind of films – escaped to her dad’s lap after 15 played minutes.

film class essay – myths of the image culture

Myth #1: The world is a dangerous place and we need guns, police and military to protect us.

This myth circles around itself and works like a strudel you can not get out of easily. Newspaper, newsshows, computer games, TV shows, movies, etc. – they all contain violence and show the violence in this world. The believe that we need police ad army to protect us from evil people and their will is just a need because arms and other military supplies exist. If there were no guns, no bombs and no munition we wouldn’t need anyone to protect us from it – which we do with the same killing things.

Myth #2: Leave it to experts (who are usually white men).

This myth is actually „killing“ the future of thousands of black people and women in the world. The fact that we learn from the TV that experts on topics are always male and white and that only this type of human could know in detail about the topic, makes us believe that all the other types are just unable to do so. I remember the example with the brunette and blond woman we discussed in class. The brunette woman is expected to be smarter than the blond – which we actually can not note just by looking at a portrait of them. I think this experiment would work exactly the same with a picture of a white man and one of a black woman and the question „Who is the better expert on topic A?“. We all are trained to think the way that a white man looks more like someone who knows a lot than a dark skinned man or woman or even a light skinned woman.

Myth #3: The „good life“ consists of things that require lots of money.

As I read the description to this myth I thought about almost every little girl’s dream to be a princess some day. To be married by some good looking and extraordinary nice prince who fell in love with her on first sight. The girls dream of living in a castle with a huge closet of dresses and shoes and a woman who makes her haier and someone who prepares their bath and someone who cooks for them. They dream of riding to some place in a coach and people on the streets admiring her. Where do these thoughts come from? What is so fantastic about having so much money that every single wish for a material can be granted? In fact – I think money alone can’t make you happy at all. Well – partly. It is a better feeling if you do not have any bills that are waiting to be paid and that you can send your children to college and – simpler – that you know that you can buy food if your fridge is empty. But to have more money than that just brings more responsibilities with it. You care about stuff you would not even have thought about before. „What should I do with my money?“. That is the main question. Because only to have money on your bank account doesn’t make you happy at all. You think the things you can buy with it could make you happier than you already are. And as soon as you have them you wish for more. This cycle never ends. The „real“ things to be happy you can’t get for money. You can’t buy love or to be loved. You can’t buy a nice family and you normally can’t buy children.

Myth #4: Happiness, satisfaction and sex appeal, just to name a few, are imminent – and available with the next consumer purchase.

I talked about this before in Myth #3. You always long for something you don’t have. And the things you thought would make you happy three weeks ago turned out to make you worry even more. An example: You wished for a new drier for a year now and finally your partner got one for you for Christmas. The new one promises to make less noise than any other one, to be super easy to use and to have a lot of features to choose from how dry you want your laundry to be (Do you want it this dry, or that dry? – Does that really make a difference?). Now you have it and you were excited to try out how it works. Unfortinately your daughter left some gum in her jeans and you just put it in your brand new dryer. Now the gum left traces all over the inside of your dryer. You are mad at her for forgetting her gum in her jeans and your new dryer is pretty much nothing worth for you any more because it turned out that you have to give it away to let it get fixed, which costs a lot of money. And that creates worries again. If you wouldn’t have gotten a new dryer you pretty much would not have cared if your daughter left gum in her jeans. Because your old dryer could easily be cleaned inside. So the new dryer had made you „happy“ for a few hours until the jeans got into it. This is a story I experienced myself. The dryer didn’t really make my Mom happy. And it even turned out to make a terrible sound as soon as it finished his work which maked the dogs go crazy … I wish we would have sticked on to our old dryer. Even though it took 15 more minutes to get the laundry dry.

Myth #5: Your body is not good enough.

I actually did some modelling back in Germany for about one year before I came here. And I saw how the pictures photographers took from me changed on the computer. They have such smart programs for it! One man once showed me some of the steps how he edited my pictures. On a portrait he just had to draw some lines where my nose, my eyes, my hair and my chin was, he clicked on a button and in not even twenty seconds the computer had made the skin of my face look super smooth and perfect. Nothing like the red spotted teenager face it was before. I got to know a lot of editors who make real art with pictures. You can’t even match the before and after any more because they look so different. I had an account in a internet community where I got to know photographers and other models. There are not only super thin models in there. But only the super thin models have the opportunity to be photographes by the really good photographers and only thy have the chance to get cool pay jobs and stuff. In the forum where you can talk to other people in the community about things I read a lot … and I often saw that models who didn’t have a perfect shaped body were told that they shouldn’t take the modelling too seriously. It should be a hobby for them but they should not even put a lot of energy in getting a pay job or something. Because it wuld never happen. It pretty often sounded really rude and I was told some of that stuff, too. Well – I do not have the impossible body of a model – but I still liked to have nice photographs of myself. I was kind of upset when they told me I was not the kind of girl they worked with. But now I can look at the situations from a different perspective. I can’t believe I really wanted to be the girl in advertisements and stuff – it would not have been me at all but some imaging of a girl that looks a lot like me. But is perfected.

Myth #6: Businesses and corporations are concerned for the welfare of everyone.

Every business needs a good image to sell the product. The people’s minds are pretty blunted and so to catch some attention the businesses need fancy ideas. That these sometimes are the opposite of what they sell (caring for the environment – having a one-page colorprint in a newspaper), is just a matter of fact. But it seems to work.

If I hadn’t been exposed to all these myths for my whole life, I don’t know what I would be like. I truly can not imagine it, because everything depends on at least one of the myths. That makes me think of that story of a fish who never saw anything different than his pond and the fish in it. Some day someone told him about humans and he said they were huge and had would have hair on their heads. So the fish imagined a huge fish with shed all over it’s body and hair on it’s fishy head. He never had seen anything different than fish. So he simply can not imagine how it would look like.

Sorry for that change of the topic. It may be a little too off, but I think it is an important thing to remember that the world that exalted us we will never really get off our minds.

my favourite music

I noticed that I often listen to the same song for two weeks non stop. On youtube, on my mp3-player, on the radio, … and then I had way too much of it and don’t want not hear it any more for the next month. Later when I find the song again and I listen to it after I didn’t hear it for a long time, I like it again.

On youtube I put together a list of my favorite songs over half a year. I’ll list it in this Media Log.

Mika: Relax, take it easy Mika: Grace Kelly Mika: Happy Ending Mika: Any other world Mika: Lollipop Mika: Love today Alexander Rybak: Farytale Sara Bareilles: I’m not gonna write you a love song Counting Crows: Colorblind The Lion King: circle of life Peter Fox: Haus am See Twilight Soundtrack: River flows in you Avril Lavigne: Nobody’s home Avril Lavigne: Ska8terboy Black Eyed Peace: Boom Boom Pow Michael Jackson: Beat it Michael Jackson: Smooth Criminal Michael Jackson: We are the world Michael Jackson: Black or white Wicked Germany: Frei und Schwerelos Wicked: Popular Wicked: Defying Gravity Emiliana Torrini: Jungle Drum

Queensberry: I can’t stop feeling Queensberry: No smoke Jordin Sparks: Battlefield Madsen: Liebeslied Lady Gaga: Poker Face Pocahontas: Colors of the wind Beyonce: Beautiful Nightmare Pixie Lott: Use somebody Kings of Leon: Use somebody Pixie Lott: Apologize Pixie Lott: Pokerface Owl City: Fireflies Echt: Weinst du Lady Gaga: Paparazzi Blue October: Jump Rope Avril Lavinge: My happy Ending Justin Bieber: One time Dancing in the Moonlight Texas Lighting: No No Never Vanessa Carlton: a thousand miles You belong with me Lady Gaga: Bad romance Lady Gaga: Love Game

The list is not in order from my favorite to other songs. The first song is the first song I added to the list and the last song the latest one. You can see that if I listenedto a song of an interpret I clicked on other songs of him or her and listed them, too. That’s how I get to know a lot of songs that not so many people listen to.

The songs I listed are not only always the latest songs on the radio. Older songs like „Colorblind“ (I added this one because I played the song on the piano), „Weinst du“ or „Liebeslied“ are also there. I also tagged a lot of songs from musicals, when I just had seen them: Wicked, The Lion King. And also soundtracks of movies: River flows in you, colors of the wind.

imagine that

This Media Log is about the movie „imagine THAT“.

The movie is „a hilarious go-to comedy the whole family will love“. (Pat Collins, WWOR-TV) Competitive businessman Evan (Eddie Murphy) finds out that his daugher Olivia (Yara Shahidi) is the key to his success. Actually: her imagination is the key. She talks with princesses under her cute blue blanket – even at school on the playground. She sits on a bench while the other kids in her class are already in the building and has a conversation with her friends in her imagination. If someone takes her blanket away from her, she doesn’t stop to scream. This week 7-year-old Olivia has to stay with her father. (Olivia’s parents are divorced and she lives with her mom most of the time.) Olivia reminds him that he promised her to play a king for her. Evan just wants her to go to bed so that he can work. Finally she goes to sleep on the coach in his office and starts to talk with her playmates. That’s where Evan finds out that Olivia talks with them about companies in his work.

The next days they go in her imagination-world together and Evan asks Olivia’s friends about every single company he has to do with. Olivia likes how her dad spends time with her, dances in the middle of the street and goes trough the „jungle“ in the kitchen with her to find the princesses. But when Evan begins to talk about his boring companies she has no fun.

Olivia always tells Evan the right things about the companies. Now he has a good status at work and his competitor tries to find out the secret of his success.

At the end of the week, Olivia has to leave again. But Evan has the chance to get advanced – he needs Olivias blanket to „solve“ some of the problems his boss gave him. Olivia is at a birthday party and will be at a friend’s house for a sleepover. There is no chance to talk to Olivia. He tries to pay 25 Dollars to a boy so that he would go into the kids-only zone in a big play-castle and tells his daughter that her daddy is out there and that he wants to talk to her. But 25 Dollars are not enough for him and so Evan has to try something different. Finnaly he brakes into the house where Olivia is for her sleepover and trys to steel his daugher’s blanket. He gets caught and everyone wakes up. Everybody is mad with Evan and they don’t understand why he needs this blanket.

After he visites his daughter at home in the same night he finally gets his blanket. Olivia gave it to him and her mom begs him to leave it and pay more attention to his daughter than to his job this way. But Evan takes it and works the whole night with the blanket on his shoulders.

The next day he has to give his presentation. After an embarassing performance of his competitor it is his turn. But he thinks about it again when he saw his daughter’s blanket in his bag. She has a concert with her school choir in this moment. He goes out of the meeting and straight to the concert. Exactly in the right moment, when Olivia almost gave up to sing her solo he comes into the auditorium with a big red blanket on his shoulders and a king-had. He plays the king for her. Olivia has new bravery and starts to sing her solo. This is my favorite scene. I shivered, when Olivia started to sing. It was so cute!

After the concert Evan apologizes for what he’s done to the princesses. Olivia tells him that she doesn’t need the blanket any more. Evan’s boss is there now and offers him the job. He wants to discuss it with him right now. But Evan tells him that he wants to discuss it on monday – it is saturday right now. Hereupon his boss is okay with that and tells him that he has a daughter, too and didn’t see her for years now. This is my second-favorite scene. I loved it that he decided to stay with his family. And it was sweet that his boss told Evan about his daughter.

I liked the movie very much because it was really funny. Eddie Murphy did a great job – I think it is the best movie from him in years. Yara Shahidi played her role really good. She is a cute little girl and you really can’t be mad with her when she makes her daddy ketchup, mustard and chocolate sauce with pancakes in the movie.