THE KORAN

I read a piece of the Koran to see how it was written, what was it about, and to make a comparison with the Bible.

From the moment I started reading it I realized that it was written in a way similar to the Bible. Also, the Koran has some similar events to the Bible. For example: it talks about a flood caused by god because some people didn't believe in god and about Noah's ark. Another example is that it talks about Mary and his son. Finally, it talks about Moses and his books; in the bible those books refer to the 10 commandments. 

Some things that I found a little different are that men are consider superior than women because it talks about restrained carnal desires except with the wives and slave-girls. Also, is that they mention seven heavens whereas in the Bible there are not seven heavens.   

In conclusion the Koran and the Bible are very similar, they both tell you that you should believe in god in order to go to heaven; otherwise you would go to hell. Also, they both agree that God is the creator of everything, and that the man was created from an essence of clay. 

LATIN LITERATURE- TERENCE

 "Andria", scene I. 

The first scene is about Simo, Pamphilus' father, talking to his freedman, Sosia, about Pamphilus and his wedding. Simo wanted Pamphilus to marry Philumena, but then he discovers that he's in love with Glycerium, a woman from Andria that Pamphilus got pregnant. Not only Simo wanted his son to marry Philumena, but also Chremes, Philumena's father. He complained to Simo that Pamphilus wasn't going to marry his daughter, instead he was going to marry Glycerium. Although, all that was part of Simo's plan, to pretend Pamphilus was going to marry Glycerium but at the end he wanted him to marry Philumena. 

Then Simo and Sosia kind of discuss the bad things about marrying Glycerium, and explain why they shouldn't get married. After that, the scene ends with Simo telling Sosia that was the plan and that he had to pretend the wedding was real, terrify Davus, Pamhilus' slave in case he was making a scheme helping Pamphilus to marry Glycerium. Also, he said that there was no doubt that his son didn't wish for a wife.

This play is on of the six comedies of Terrence, it was actually the first one he wrote. This genre, comedy, is very different than what I thought it was. I thought it would all fun and laughs, but it's actually about a love story about a man trying to marry a woman that his dad doesn't approve. In class we saw comedy kind of a subgenre of drama. I think that's why a comedy doesn't have to be all funny. Probably as the play goes on it gets a little funny because from what I read it sounds like a love story to me. Also, I found this play very interesting from the beginning. It has a great background, but a little confusing at the beginning because of all the characters' strange names. Most of the time I don't like romantic stories, but I find this comedy very amusing.

Link of the play: http://www.gutenberg.org/files/22188/22188-h/files/terence1_2.html#andria

CONSTRUCTED LANGUAGES

The Na'vi languague is a constructed languague created for the Na'vi in the movie Avatar with fictional purposes. It was created by Paul Frommer, a professor at the USC Marshall School of Business with a doctorate in linguistics. Naʼvi was designed to fit James Cameron's conception of what the language should sound like in the film, to be realistically learnable by the fictional human characters of the film, to sound alien but pleasant and appealing to audiences, to be a language that humans could plausibly learn to speak, and to be pronounceable by the actors, but to not closely resemble any single human language.

The Naʼvi language has its origins in James Cameron's early work on Avatar. In 2005, while the film was still in scriptment form, Cameron felt it needed a complete, consistent language for the alien characters to speak. Based on Cameron's initial list of words, which had a "Polynesian flavor" according to Frommer, the linguist developed three different sets of meaningless words and phrases that conveyed a sense of what an alien language might sound like: of the three, Cameron liked the sound of the ejectives most. When the film was released in 2009, Naʼvi had a growing vocabulary of about a thousand words. However, this has changed subsequently as Frommer has expanded the lexicon to more than 1,500 words and has published the grammar, thus making Naʼvi a relatively complete and learnable language.

SPOT THE CLASSICS

Ángel de la Independencia, México D.F.

Los Arcos, Guadalajara 

Acueducto, Culiacán

Rotonda de los Jaliscenses Ilustres, Guadalajara 

Mercado Garmendia, Culiacán

THE TROJAN WOMEN

 “The Trojan women” is a tragedy by the Greek playwright Euripides, which was made into a film. This takes place during the Trojan War which starts when Paris of Troy took Helen from his husband, the king of Sparta. The part that I watched starts when a soldier brings water to a part of Troy were a lot of women are and Helen of Troy, but she was in a prison. The soldiers drank almost all of the water, and didn’t give anything to the women of Troy, but they gave a little of water to Helen which she used to wash her body. That made the women of Troy really angry and started a kind of rebellion. The soldiers thought that gave the women of Troy a reason to start fighting against them and kill Helena, but it wasn’t very smart since the soldiers had horses and started hitting them. They also brought Melanaus, the king of Sparta. The Trojan women wanted Melanaus to kill Helena, and then Hecuba, the queen of the Trojans, arrived and told Melanaus to kill Helena just like all the Trojan women. Then Helena tried to defend herself giving all the reasons why she shouldn’t be killed and said it was Hecuba’s fault because she gave birth to Paris, also she said that she went away in secret from Melanaus’ house with Paris because when she saw him Aphrodite came with him and it was her fault she ran away. And she finished saying that when Paris died she tried to go back to Greece, but she couldn’t. Although, the queen of the Trojans wasn’t going to stay in silence. She said that she was lying, that she desired Paris without the need of a goddess, and that she wanted more luxuries, luxuries that Paris could give her. Also, that Helena was looking for the winning side and that was Paris’ side. After saying all that, Hecuba insisted telling Melanaus to kill Helena. After hearing all that, the king of Sparta said he will take Helena back to Greece and give her away to all the relatives of the people that died because of her.

I found this movie really interesting because of the story. I think it’s a really good story with a very good film production. It looks a lot like an ancient place in Troy and the dialogues are great even if there’s some kind of poetry in it. I really liked the parts I watched. 

POETIC METER

Avicii- Wake me up

FEEL/ing/ my /WAY/ through /the/ DARK/ness (Dactylic trimeter)
GUID/ed/ by/ A/ beat/ing /HEART (Dactylic trimeter)
I/ can't/ TELL /where/ the /JOUR/ney will /END (Anapestic trimeter)
But /I/ KNOW/ where/ to/ START (Anapestic dimeter)

They/ TELL/ me/ I´M/ too /YOUNG/ to/ UN/der/STAND (Iambic pentameter) 
They/ SAY/ I'm /CAUGHT /up/ IN/ a /DREAM (Iambic tetrameter)
Well/ LIFE/ will /PASS/ me /BY/ if /I/ don´t/ O/pen /UP/ my /EYES (Iambic heptameter)
So /that's/ FINE /by/ ME (Iambic dimeter)

EGYPTIAN LITERATURE

THE TRICKY MICE

Once upon a time there was a cat pharaoh that was loved by all the people in Egypt. Dogs, cats, mice, and horses, they all loved him. Sometimes they used to bring him offerings like food, jewelry, and flowers. Every year, there was a day named the Pharaoh’s Day, it was the day every animal in Egypt came to huge pharaoh’s pyramid to spend all the day with him, and bring him any kind of presents, from small jewelry to huge sculptures.

      That year, the Pharaoh’s Day was coming and everything was getting ready for that day. Although the Pharaoh couldn’t everything by himself and he chose the mice to help him with the celebration. He chose the mice because there were a lot in Egypt, but the pharaoh didn’t know if he could trust on them but he had no other option. They started decorating big pyramid with different colors like blue, purple, and red. Then they continued by making a huge box for all the presents. The pharaoh was amazed by how fast the mice could work and get everything ready; they got everything twice as fast than last year. The only thing left was the food; the thing that the pharaoh was most scared of because mice loved to eat and he thought that they could eat all the food before the big day.

     The mice started cooking all the food, meat, and chicken prepared in so many different ways, also different kind of salads and for dessert they made a huge cake for the pharaoh. Once again, he was impressed by how fast they cooked everything and how delicious it looked, he couldn’t believe it. Therefore, he thought the food wasn’t going to be good, but he tried the salad. He said that it was the most delicious salad he had ever tried. Then, he tried the kitchen, and the meat, and he said again it was the most delicious meat and chicken he had ever tried. Finally, he tried the cake. He was surprised by how sweet and delicious it was, it was the most beautiful and delicious cake he had ever tried. So, he said everything is ready for the big day, my day.

     The celebration was about to start; the pharaoh was ready wearing lot of precious rocks and metals like gold, silver, rubies, and emeralds. He looked perfect for the situation and finally the guests started to arrive. The first to get to the celebration were the dogs. They came with lots of huge presents for the pharaoh because they were grateful things he had done like helping them to get water on the hot days. The pharaoh was happy as ever because of he presents and that all the dogs could have made it to the celebration. They all started saying hi to each other and hugging. Then, the horses arrived to the pyramid with big presents just like the dogs, they were so grateful because the pharaoh helped them getting food on the cold days. They started saying hi and hugging the dogs and the pharaoh. The pharaoh couldn’t be happier, and still the mice were missing. Finally, the mice arrived with huge presents just like the other animals, they said they were grateful for letting them prepare everything for the Pharaoh’s Day, they said it was an honor.

     As the celebration went on, it got better and better. They all started with the dinner and the horses and dogs were impressed by how good it was, they couldn’t believe how something could taste so delicious. After they finished with the dinner, they started dancing and talking, they were having so much fun until something unexpected happened.

     The mice locked down the pharaoh in a room because they were trying to get the power of Egypt. The pharaoh didn’t know what to do so he started to yell the mice are evil they locked me down, help me! As soon as he yelled the other animals heard and tried to helped the pharaoh. The horses started fighting with the mice, because before mice didn’t used to be very small, and the dogs tried to find the pharaoh with their good sense of smell. The horses and mice had a tough encounter, but it was about to end because the dogs had just found the pharaoh. He got out of the room and screamed so loud that his voice could have been heard in all Egypt. He was really mad at the mice because he thought they were nice animals trying to help, but he realized they did all that to try to get the power of Egypt. After he realized that, he thought the mice should be punished. Therefore, he made all the mice in Egypt very small as punishment so they couldn’t do anything evil again. That’s why mice are very small now and cats are always chasing them. 

FLOOD STORIES

What are important similarities between the stories? They all talk about a god, a flood, and a man that was like the chosen one and got saved from the flood.

What are important differences between the stories? They are about different religions; therefore they talk about different gods, the causes of the flood are the same on two, but on the other two are different.

What are the gods like in the different stories? In two stories they were evil because the try to destroy humanity by just saying humans were evil, in the others they seemed nice because they helped the chosen one.

What is the importance of animals in the stories? Very important because they were supposed to survive with the chosen man so after the flood they could make the world just like it was before.

What was difficult to understand about the stories? The most difficult thing was the reading comprehension because of the English is written on, also the reason why the gods caused the floods.

Why do Utnapishtim, Noah, Deucalion, and Manu deserve to survive when other people will die in the floods? I think because they were man that had a good, honest and healthy life, and they believed in god.

Stonehenge

Stonehenge is the remains of a ring of big standing stones set within earthworks. It was made between 2950 and 1600 B.C. in Sothern England. This was made so perfectly and with a high level of complexity that people started questioning how it was made and why. First of all, the stones that were used to make the Stonehenge weren’t from that place, they were brought from Wales, which is 130 miles away, and bringing the heavy stones must have been a really hard work. I think the most acceptable theory is that they came with the ocean stream all the way to England, then with the rivers stream they got closer and finally men took them to the place they wanted to. I think that they moved the heavy stones by lots of men pulling them, and probably they used tree trunks on flat surfaces to put the stones on top of them and move them faster. There other theories about this but I think they are too sophisticated for that time. Also, another problem was raising the stones. I think that this was solver by using the crib method because the ramp method would have taken a lot of space making it impossible to build. As well, shaping the stones was tough to do because they were big and they almost had exactly the same shape. Although I think this was done by using smaller stones until they almost the same shape. I know this would have taken long periods of time, but I think it’s the most acceptable theory. Finally, I think the reason they built it, was for the summer and winter solstice. Lots of bodies’ remains were found close to the Stonehenge, but I think that was the purpose, I think that those bodies that were buried there, were men that helped making the Stonehenge.

Music Styles

I'm coming Virginia - Frank Trumbauer And His Orchestra
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MJgfGK7jTho
The style of music is slow, and soft.
There are no voices in it, but the instruments playing in it are saxophone, cornet, trombone, clarinet, guitar, piano, and drums.
I think this song sounds a little bit hard to play, especially for the saxophone
I think this kind of music is for quiet listening, to relax.
This song was recorded in New York, in May 1927.
The intentions of the music-makers are to entertain people showing off his skills especially with the solo and expressing his feelings.

The Beatles - I Should Have Known Better
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lhPvtDDxEV0
The style of music is slow, and soft but happy.
There are incredible voices in it, and The instruments playing in it are guitar, bass, harmonica, and drums.
I think this song sounds kind of easy to play since it has very common instruments.
I think this type of music could be for dancing since it’s a happy song.
Thissong was recorded in London, in 1964.
The intentions of the music-maker are that if you regret something you did and feel if you had given it more thought, you would not have done it, and it explains it with a situation with a girl.

Los Saicos – Demolicion
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fML-0M3e6Tk
The style of music is fast and loud.
There are voices in it, and the instruments playing in it are guitar and drums.
I think this song sounds kind of hard to play because it’s rock and it’s very loud and fast.
I think this kind of music could be for a big rock concert.
This song was recorded in 1965.
The intentions of the music-makers were to show his feelings, which sound like an anarchy and I read it’s based on surf, probably because when you are surfing you are free to do what you want.

Carlos Montoya – Farruca
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cv2Fyjk0GGM
The style of music I find very interesting because most of the time is fast and loud, but in some parts it gets slow and soft.
There are no voices in it, and the only instrument playing in it is the guitar.
I think this song sounds hard to play because the man makes all these fast movements with his hands that it looks that you need to have a lot of skill.
I think this type of music is for dancing, especially flamenco.
This song was recorded in 1950, probably in Spain.
The intentions of the music-maker are to show his skills through a good flamenco song, and that’s probably how he felt when he did it.

Varèse - Ionisation - Boulez, Ensemble InterContemporain
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TStutMsLX2s
The style of music starts really slow and soft, but as the song goes on it gets faster and louder.
There are no voices in it, but the instruments playing in it are piano, toms, some kind of xylophone, bongos, claves, and drums.
I think this music sounds easy to play since they the instruments look kind of simple.
I think this type of music is for a big orchestra concert.
This music was recorded in 1977.
The intentions of the music-maker are probably to show his feelings through something relating to nature because to me it sounded like the woods or the jungle.