Welcome British Kids!

Hey guys,

Uhm... Welcome to Silver Spring! This is a video of my average sunday every week. I woke up, ate, did homework, basketball, more basketball, got some advice from a wise man, more homework, and then back to bed.





As always i used my Canon Powershot Elph100hs. Super fancy i know... and my phone since the camera ran out of memory.

So yeah. Welcome to Silver Spring,

Andreas!

Pray the Devil back to Hell

Yesterday I watched the documentary Pray the Devil back to Hell directed by Gini Reticker. The movie takes place in Liberia, a country in western Africa. The country itself was formed around 1825 by the ACS, American Colonization society, in a hope to return the freed slaves to Africa.  Much like what is going on in Israel, the tribes who already lived on the land have been fighting for years to reclaim what was taken from them. The movie describes how the Women of Liberia Mass Action for Peace came together to bring a peaceful end to the Second Liberian Civil War.

The Second Liberian Civil war initially started in 1999 when LURD, Liberians United for Reconciliation and Democracy, was formed by the Guinea government. Then in 2003 a second force formed. Together they attacked Liberia using child soldiers and slowly took over all the of the country until they reached the capitol where Charles Taylor and his government where. 

The movie speaks of the horror of war. They have multiple first person accounts of rapes and murders by the conquerors who were "helping the people". The whole movie is narrated by the women who headed Women of Liberia Mass Action for Peace. They explain that everyone wanted the natural resources in Liberia and didn't care about the people. In an attempt to escape the murderous rebels ran to the government, who were equally horrible to them but as Leymah Gbowee, the head of the group, explained the people would rather have a devil they knew than one they knew nothing about. 

In a hope to solve the problem she, and other women from her church started the Women of Liberia Mass Action for Peace. They congregated in the capitol bringing together both Christian and Muslim women. Their idea: a sex strike. They were going to starve their men of sex until they stopped fighting, as well as having a food strike. In the end the government of Liberia began peace talks, which were eventually mediated by the UN and the Women of Liberia Mass Action for Peace took over reconstruction from the UN and set up a democratic government.

The mood of the film was very interesting. It was very sad because the film makers used a lot of b roll from the actual war. There were many shots of people shot, bleeding out, kids without limbs, and other horrific shots which emphasized the emotion of the film. The director, using first person accounts and b roll, took away from the informational aspect of the movie, because there was so much rampant emotion he never got to explaining other elements of the war. For example, why didn't the government just break up the hunger strike. Or after the rebels blew up part of the US embassy why didn't the US attack like we did in Libya? Questions like these were ignored because of an over use of Pathos. Over all the footage was amazing but at points the emotion got in the way of the facts.

I very much liked how the director used a narrator for the whole movie. She had a very soothing voice and charismatic personality that the viewer had to like her. Plus she had orchestrated the whole strike, so she was incredible.

I would definitely recommend this movie. It is an absolutely amazing story of what people can do without war, without guns, without death. These women, armed only white t shirts, stopped a whole war between three warring factions. It is just incredible what they have done. It shows that everyone can do something to help no matter how bad it seems. Definitely go watch it.

The Last Shadow Puppets

What do you get when you mix the talent of two famous English musicians? These guys. Miles Kane and Alex Turner met up whilst on a tour for the Arctic Monkeys, for whom Turner sings. Kane was the guitarist for the Little Flames, which went on tour with them. They became friends and then when the little Flames came on tour again in 2007 Miles Kane played guitar for the Arctic Monkeys final track, 505. They decided to collaborate their skills and write some music together. The band, the Last Shadow Puppets, was created in 2007 and released its first album, the Age of the Understatement, on February 20th, 2008.

The songs combined the best of their two bands, the amazing voice of Alex Turner, which was some what lacked in the Little Flames' songs and the beautiful melodic guitar play of Miles Kane. In the Arctic Monkeys' previous songs the guitar play had been a lot harder, with an almost metallic touch, while the Little Flames had used more bass to create a softer sound. According to the band they took this softer sound from their influence from the beetles.

After they released their album it rose to number one on the UK album charts and became a contender for the 2008 Mercury Music Award but lost to Elbow's The Seldom Seen Kid. They later released My Mistakes were made for you.














So these songs won't play on Blogger... but they're really really really good. So here are the links:

My mistakes were made for you

Calm like you

The Psychology of Music

Everyone enjoys music, whether it be a very new song or an old time song. People have long loved the beats and melody of music, but can it also have positive effects on the human body? In our media class we must create a documentary on a subject which interests us. I believe that music is one of the most important part of our society that is over looked by our schooling system. Music is part of every society, every culture, every nation and yet music programs are being cut from high schools around the nation.

Listening to calming music before you go to sleep and after you wake up has been proven to bring down high blood pressure. Music has also be proven to increase immune system health by decreasing the hormone cortisol, which is related to stress. Music can also increase productivity in a whole range of activities. It can help you sleep, wake you up, work hard, and decrease stress. Doctor Weinburger Ph.D said that listening to music can increase cognitive skills, language ability, creativity, reasoning, and social adjustment. Music has such an important effect on the mind and peoples live's yet it is basically ignored by the schooling system. My idea is to make a documentary about the importance of music in life.

The Gaza Stip

Whats going on in the Gaza Strip?

Israeli forces have killed 11 or more civilians in the past 5 days of bombing of the Gaza Strip. Of most recent, Israeli forces have bombed the Hamas prime minister's office. They have systematically began destroying Palestinian rocket launch cites and have killed the Hamas Military Chief. Over the past couple days the Palestinian's and Israeli's have repeatedly attacked each other in response to attacks from the other side...kind of ironic.Both sides have stated that the reasons for their attacks have stemmed from attacks of the opposition. So who really started it? According to Emily Hauser, and American Israeli writer, the attacks originally began with the Israeli, although the fight between the two sides has been going on for what seems to be forever Hauser has pin pointed a time during the past month where she believes the current war has started. On November 8th Israeli forces killed a young boy of either 12 or 13. Later that day, Palestinian forces destroyed an Israeli tunnel in response injuring a guard but killing no one. Two days later the conflict continued when Palestinian forces fired rockets at an Israeli patrol injuring two soldiers. That day the Israelis responded by firing into Gaza multiple times hurting and killing many civilians including a ten year old boy. They also used drones to fire missiles into Gaza. From there on it continues how we all know it. Israelis using their superior American Funded defense system to stop Palestinian Rockets while also attacking Gaza and the Hamas returning fire. So who started it? This time it was the Israelis and even if one made the argument that the death of one person in a war torn area like the middle east shouldn't induce an attack on this scale, the Israelis still up-ed the anty by firing multiple times into Gaza which led to Palestinian rocket fire. According to the New York Times Obama released his opinion on the crisis while on his trip in China. He said, "There’s no country on earth that would tolerate missiles raining down on its citizens from outside its borders. We are fully supportive of Israel’s right to defend itself.” This is not the response that should be given. For once Obama must step in and ask that Israeli and Palestine come to a truce on the matter. Although Israeli is defending themselves they also did start the fight and Obama should not commend such violence. Although, as we have all heard countless times in the past election, Israeli is our greatest ally in the Middle East we must still accept what they are doing is wrong and we can not stand behind it.



Waiting For the World to Change - John Mayer

Just thought it was a cool song

The Fall

I did my fall video as a serious of clips that represent the way I see the fall. To me, the fall is about reminiscing and looking over the last year, but also about friendship and second chances. I know it seems like spring would be a better choice for second chances but the fall shows a time of death, where the trees all fall asleep, so to speak, but even then when they are dying there is still beauty and this shows that all things can be good and go well, a second chance.

Anyway, I filmed all my clips outside trying to find interesting shots that intrigued me but also retain much of the grace in the world. The first clip I had of my fire pit with water in it was actually really beautiful when I was filming it and I really wanted to capture it but unfortunately my camera didn't agree and ruined it by making it really bright.

I edited the video with youtube video editor which has never let me down, until now. As the videos were being uploaded to youtube for me to edit I went to CCmixter and found a song to go with it. I really like the song and put a link to it at the bottom for those who would like to hear it. Anyway, turns out youtube doesn't allow you to upload songs onto their editor so I spent another hour and a half looking through their songs which aren't very good, but it paid off, I found the Alchemist by Michael Zapruders rain of frogs. Its excellent you should all listen to it.

song i originally found: Loveshadow / CC BY-NC 3.0

Refurnishing the Green

This Friday was my birthday, and as a gift, from my wonderful girlfriend Alia, I received tickets to go see the Celtics v Wizards basketball game at the Verizon center on Saturday, November 3rd. It was incredible, I had a great time, I got to watch my favorite team; the Celtics, and and got to spend time with Alia. Anyway, I also got a look at the new roster of the Boston Celtics after their major overhaul in the off season. After losing three-point king Ray Allen to the Heat. The Celtics acquired shooting Guard Jason Terry from the Mavericks, as well as Courtney Lee from the Rockets. Although neither of them are as good as Ray, they both will be excellent additions to the team.

My personal idol in the NBA is Rajon Rondo, the Celtic's point guard. He, in my opinion, is the best pure point guard in the league. Last season Rondo averaged almost 11 points per game, 10 assists, and 2 steals. What makes Rondo so incredible are his assists. If we look in the NBA, there are budding point guards such as Russel Westbrook and Derrick Rose who have taken the shooting guard position and brought it to the point. Rondo keeps it old school. He has such a strong team, and is such a strong passer that he doesn't need to score, but when it comes to crunch time Rondo can light up the court. In game to of the Semi Finals Rondo dropped 44 points on the Miami Heat while still getting 10 assists.

The Celtics also retained "the TRUTH" Paul Pierce and Center Kevin Garnett, both future hall of famers as well as Brandon Bass. With the core of the team mostly intact the Celtics have a strong platform to build off of.

One surprise I had during the game was the performance of Jared Sullinger, who the Celtics acquired through the draft this year. In the previous season they were lacking size and as a result they drafted two big men, in Sullinger and Fab Melo. Sullinger had a solid performance, contributing 5 rebounds and 4 points. I was also happily surprised to see that the Celtics had received Leandro Barbosa, a 9 year veteran, who I like because of his quickness and ability to get to the basket. He will make an excellent addition to the team in the form of a sub for Paul Pierce.

Even with the lose of Ray Allen, the Celtics have found themselves much stronger coming into the new Season and will be a contesting team.