Week 5: Spatial Poem


Cloud

          
                                                 Cloud                  
                                     CloudcloudcloudclouD
                             CloudcloudcloudcloudcloudcloudD
                        CloudcloudcloudcloudcloudcloudcloudclouD
                         CloudcloudcloudcloudcloudcloudcloudcloudclouD
                      CloudcloudcloudcloudcloudcloudcloudcloudclouD
                   CloudcloudcloudcloudcloudcloudcloudcloudclouD
                CloudcloudcloudcloudcloudcloudcloucdcloudcloudclouD
                      CloucloudcloudcloudcloudcloudcloudcloudclouD
                    ClouccloudcloucloucloudcloudcloudcloudclouD
                  CloudcloudcloudcloudcloudcloudcloudcloudclouD
                     CloudcloudcloudcloudcloudcloudcloudcloudclouD
                       CloudcloudcloudcloudcloudcloudcloudclouD
                          CloudcloudcloudcloudcloudcloudclouD
                                            CloudcloudclouD


                                                        R
                                                      AIN
                                                        
                                        R                             R
                                      AIN                         AIN 
                                    
                            R              R                     R                R      R
                          AIN          AIN                 AIN             AIN  AIN



                   R                   R               R                     R          R
                 AIN               AIN           AIN                 AIN      AIN






                              

Week 4: Review


     In my introductory post, I stated that I divide myself into a man of two major themes: music and nature. Seeing as how last weeks post was nature oriented, I may as well review something musical. So why not my trusty Gibson Les Paul electric guitar? Or better yet, the Les Paul guitar in general!

     Not up to date with guitar terminology or other terms being used in this review? Not to worry, click the link in the link list to the right labeled "Guitar Terminology" to open a separate page with explanations of some of the terms you may not know! If you still have trouble with some of the terms or ideas being discussed leave me a comment and I will gladly explain further.

     My fine steed is a 2010 Gibson Les Paul, made in the U.S.A. out of mahogany and maple wood. The guitar is made out of a single piece of solid mahogany as a body, with a hand carved maple top, which all connects into a maple fretboard. My guitar is wine-red with gold hardware. To put all this into perspective, it looks like this:

 

     To begin my review, I'll start with the overall performance of the guitar. In general, Gibson's Les Paul model is known for its amazing tone, reliability, high quality, and general ease-of-use. The mahogany found in these guitars is known to be a highly resonant wood, hence giving the guitar its superior tone and resonance. The uniqueness of the guitars sound comes from the maple top. The double humbucker pickups generate a full, well rounded sound that has become iconic of the Les Paul. Internally, the guitar is sound, using only the best-of-the-best electronic components. While saving you the bore of listing all of a Les Paul's specifications, you may find them here. Many high level guitarists use the Les Paul as their instrument of choice, including Slash from Guns N Roses, Jimmy Page of Led Zeppelin, and Eric Clapton. 

     My baby, as pictured above is pretty much the guitar as it was found in the store. However there are a few small alterations. First and foremost the strings have been changed...multiple times. While the original Gibson strings found on the guitar were not overly bad, any prominent guitarist will know that the LP has much more to offer in tone than the original strings can provide. Anyone buying this guitar should definitely buy new strings right away. I have experimented with both D'Addario and Elixir light, and extra light gauge strings (which both produce a solid sound) however, my current preference is the Elixir medium gauge. The heavier string gives a warmer tone, while the coating Elixir puts on their strings to ensure strength provides just the right amount of edge to the sound. Other than the strings, I have had the action of the guitar adjusted to a more comfortable setting for my hands and play style. With this set up I find the guitar divine. Its tone is perfect and my guitar plays extremely well. It will keep its tuning fairly well and sounds good in all ranges. Overall a good guitar.

    On to the negatives which are few and far between with Gibson's time-tested craftsmanship. First off-and most notable-to anyone picking up a LP for the first time is its weight and balance. Having never used a LP before, when I got this one the weight and balance of the guitar threw me off. The Les Paul is a very bottom heavy guitar. This is due to the solid woods used, shape of the body, and slightly smaller neck. This was mainly a hinderance to my playing for the first few months, as now that I am used to the weight I find the guitar very comfortable. However my guitar is still lighter than some of the higher-end LP's. I find their weight to be almost a little too much. I enjoy a guitar that is light and easy to maneuver as I am never stagnant while playing. Whether sitting or standing, I am constantly moving and making subtle adjustments to my body position to be able to play smoothly. This is hard to understand for anyone who doesn't play guitar, but the same way that one must move their hand, arm, and body while writing, the same applies while playing guitar. With the heavy weight of the guitar being focused at the bottom it is easy to lose the balance of the guitar while you make these natural adjustments. With the guitar losing balance in my hands so often, I found it harder to play without making major mistakes as my mind was more focused on keeping the guitar comfortable than my playing. The other major downfall I have found with the Les Paul is the G string (to clarify, I am referring to the third string from the bottom, not a slang term for women's underwear). Due to the shorter 629mm neck length of the LP compared to most other guitars, they are notorious for losing the tuning of the G string. I have had to adjust the tuning of this string on my guitar more so than any other string. This is a problem experienced by all Les Paul guitars, again more of a hindrance to deal with than a major flaw in the design. The shorter neck does provide for the warmer tone of the guitar.

   Other than this, the LP is a sting and overall well designed guitar. Gibson makes different models of their most famous guitar, which range in price typically from $1000-$4000. The price of each guitar depends on specific components used in the making of that guitar. It is hard to give a specific price range because of this, as Les Pauls can be found cheaper, and much much more expensive. Older models tend to increase in price with their age. Being asked to provide a recommendation on this guitar I would without a doubt recommend this guitar to any guitarist, regardless of skill or age. If you are just starting at guitar and don't want to pay such a heavy price, Epiphone makes good quality Les Pauls at a much cheaper price range (generally under $1000).

     My rating of the Les Paul is 8.5/10.

     

Week 3: Images

     For this blog post, I am tasked with providing two images that mean something to me, and explaining them. I have decided to stick with a nature/outdoors oriented theme. I hope you enjoy...

Motorbike Madness

      What we have in this first image is me flying a ramp on a dirt bike at a sandpit near Terra Nova village in central Newfoundland. As I mentioned in my introductory post, most of the sports I enjoy take place outdoors and dirt biking is definitely high up on my list of favourite things to do. After having sold my own bike for a lean-over street bike last summer, I was super excited when my cousin gave me the opportunity to try out his new dirt bike this summer past. We were at his cabin for the weekend. One blistering 25+ degree Saturday morning, he and I geared up for the ride to the pit. We spent the day taking turns trying our hands at various sized ramps and jumps before heading back to the pond to cool off. The reason I chose this picture is because it was one of the most enjoyable days I had all summer long. 

Serenity in Nature

     Secondly, this is a picture I took while on a canoe trip with my uncle. We were canoeing down a section of the Terra Nova River which is prime for fishing. During the expedition we took a side stream up the river about 500 meters. This was one of the most peaceful days I have had in a long time, hence a suiting image to todays theme. We saw many trails used by animals to access the river, as well as a few retired beaver dams. I wanted to share this picture because of the beauty of the water contrasting with the green vegetation on a still summers day. I do not think Shakespeare himself had witnessed a day as marvellous as this when writing "Shall I Compare thee to A Summer's Day". 

(If you like the pictures in this post more like it are just a click away!)

Week 2: Song

Lyrics:  

"The only girl I've ever loved
Was born with roses in her eyes
But then they buried her alive
One evening 1945
With just her sister at her side
And only weeks before the guns
All came and rained on everyone
Now she's a little boy in Spain
Playing pianos filled with flames
On empty rings around the sun
All sing to say my dream has come

But now we must pick up every piece
Of the life we used to love
Just to keep ourselves
At least enough to carry on

And now we ride the circus wheel
With your dark brother wrapped in white
Says it was good to be alive
But now he rides a comet's flame
And won't be coming back again
The Earth looks better from a star
That's right above from where you are
He didn't mean to make you cry
With sparks that ring and bullets fly
On empty rings around your heart
The world just screams and falls apart

But now we must pick up every piece
Of the life we used to love
Just to keep ourselves
At least enough to carry on

And here's where your mother sleeps
And here is the room where your brothers were born
Indentions in the sheets
Where their bodies once moved but don't move anymore
And it's so sad to see the world agree
That they'd rather see their faces fill with flies
All when I'd want to keep white roses in their eyes"
(Lyrics from http://www.azlyrics.com/lyrics/neutralmilkhotel/holland1945.html)

     What we have above is the song "Holland, 1945" by the band Neutral Milk Hotel. I find this song interesting for many reasons. First of all, it has a unique poetic form. When viewing the lyrics as they are above, the song is structured into a 12 line stanza, a 4 line refrain, a second 12 line stanza, a second refrain, and finally a 7 line concluding stanza. What is neat about this song is that it bends what we might consider a rhyme. This is a technique used by artists where one can match two words as rhyming by somewhat mispronouncing the word. The first example of this in the lyrics are the words "eyes" "alive" "nineteen forty five" found in lines 2, 3, and 4 respectively. When normally speaking these words, it may be argued that they do not rhyme. However in the context of the song with instruments and background noise the similar sounds of these words create rhyme. While the song does not appear to follow a set rhyme scheme (as each stanza follows a different pattern) successive lines often follow the same rhyme. However, the song does follow a certain meter. Each line of stanza 1 and 3 have 8 syllables, while both refrains follows the meter 9-7-5-8. Other than this, structurally the song is similar to most others, in the fact that it has verses followed by a chorus or refrain, and bridge at the end.

     One of the main reasons I chose this song is because of its meaning. The song is written from the perspective of Neutral Milk Hotel's Jeff Mangum. The song is debatably written to Anne Frank (as Mangum wrote many songs on the subject), however without debate the song is written about Anne Frank, and various second world war/ holocaust subject matter. This creates a more melancholy or depressed tone in the song, despite its upbeat tempo and melodies (can we argue that this is some form of weird oxymoron?) The song is filled with metaphors, allusions, and other poetic devices. An example of allusion is apparent in the title of the song "Holland, 1945" which alludes the Second World War (having taken place in Holland in 1945). The lyrics "but then they buried her alive/ one evening 1945" alludes to the death of Anne Frank and her sister who died of disease during the holocaust. The lyrics "now we must pick up every piece of the life we used to love" is a metaphor comparing life to a broken object, hence we must pick up the (broken) pieces of the "life we used to love". There are several metaphors and hyperboles in the song. A final example of poetic devises at work in the song is the personification "the world just screams and falls apart". In this personification the planet earth is given the human characteristic of being able to scream.

     To conclude, I will discuss my personal thoughts and opinions on the song and its content. Personally, I am a fan on Neutral Milk Hotel because of their lyrics, and daring bravery to do different in an ever-conforming musical world. On one plain the song is a commentary on issues surrounding the Second World War. However to me, the song is a vast and intricate tale not only of hardship and heartbreak, but of the speakers deep feeling and love towards the story of Anne Frank, or similar tales. In the first words of the tune "The only girl I've ever loved" emphasizing the word loved he goes on to allude this girl to the death of Anne Frank. However the song becomes more than a love story. Reading the lyrics, we are taken on a journey of sadness, despair, and related emotions, suiting to the subject matter. This combined with the more positive/ upbeat music of the song have caused me to somewhat fall in-love with it. On a musical note, being an adept guitarist I adore the simplistic chord structure and how good Neutral Milk Hotel have made it sound. As well, being a developing trumpet player, the brass part in the chorus is very catchy and a nice touch to give the song an added dimension. If you have bothered to read this far into the post, I encourage you to comment your thoughts on the song. As with poetry, it is open to many different interpretations.

     

Introduction

Hello all, and welcome to my English 1080 weekly blog. My name is Andrew and I will be blogging under the alias "Archer". To begin, I would like to introduce you all to myself. I am more than just the words that appear in this blog. First and foremost I am an adult male student attending Memorial University. My intended program of study at this time is Biochemistry. I feel this subject is something I will come to love and thoroughly enjoy my classes of this field. After I am finished my degree I would like to (hopefully) go to Med School and become a doctor of some sort. In a sense this post-being the first academic work I have completed in university-is my first small step towards this goal in my future.

Moving on from my somewhat boring life and ambitions as a student, outside of school I like to think of myself as a diverse, vibrant, and interesting individual. However, looking abstractly I can be broken down into two main subjects: music and nature. All of my interests, hobbies, recreational activities, etc. revolve around these two topics. I have played guitar for 14 years, and trumpet for 8. When it comes to music I love it all. There is no genre or topic that I do not find completely uninteresting. My all-time favourite band would have to be either the Red Hot Chili Peppers, Pearl Jam, or The Cat Empire. Beyond this basic information, the musically inclined side of me is too varied and deep to even scratch the surface-for further inquiries try contacting me in person!

Finally, my passion for nature is something I have carried with me for a long time. Arguably since my first years on this planet. My family have countless stories of me as a young child fishing, or helping in the annual hunt with my latest toy rifle. Looking back it is clear where my passion for the outdoors originates. Pretty much every sport I play is outdoors, ranging from snowboarding in the winter, to salmon angling in the summer.  As with music, I love pretty much all things nature, I will save you the boredom of my rambling.

Other than previously mentioned, I try my best to be an easy-going person who takes a light-hearted stance on things. Why be too serious or concerned about something that I need not be? I find it easy to see multiple political views, and find myself ever-attempting to come up with my own conclusive opinion. I am a knowledgable person, and very fun. I hope you enjoy what is to come in my blog!