The Creative Process: PART I

#truestorybro

PART II COMING SOMEDAY

Because I'm Angry

“Canta ¡oh Musa! de Aquiles, hijo de Peleo, la COLERA FUNESTA que

causó infinitos males a los griegos; que precipitó a los infiernos las

almas valerosas de muchos héroes, y los hizo servir de pasto a los

perros y a todas las aves de rapiña –así se cumplió la voluntad de Zeus– desde

que, por primera vez, separó una disputa al hijo de Atreo, jefe de los griegos y

al divino Aquiles.”

                        -opening lines of Homer’s Illiad (I really like how it sounds in Spanish)

            This was what first came to my mind when I heard this theme. I love it so much! Soooo epic, man. THE WRATH OF ACHILLES! Oh, no, Agamemnon, you’re screwed, you going down.

            I was also thinking of the curious fact that it’s actually healthy to be angry. It’s part of being human. It would be stupid if you don’t get angry or indignant in the face of wrong, unfair actions. You need anger to fight for your rights, to survive in this world. You need anger to whip up your boyfriend in shape, set things straight with him. You need anger to raise children, be a sibling, become closer to your friends, have stronger relationships. It’s also very important not to keep all the heat inside when you’re furious, or you’ll explode, just like when you’re sad. You must let it out, talk about it with someone, take it out on your journal or diary, hit a mattress with a baseball bat, go to your room and eat a bowl of ice cream, etc.

            BUT it’s all healthy as long as there is control, and especially as long as you avoid harming others, eventually softening to say sorry, forgive and forget, fix the situation. If you get carried away by your anger, becoming stubborn and refusing to cool down, you really won’t have a good time. If you step back and take a look at yourself during such situations, you’ll see that you’re being very close-minded, and that it’s all really not worth it. It’s a very immature attitude, in the end, especially if you go real far. Take a look at Achilles in the Illiad. It’s incredible how far he goes, gradually becoming deaf to reason. There’s this part where Odysseus, Ajax, and somebody else who I don’t remember right now visit him on behalf of Agamemnon, who sent them to say that he surrenders and returns everything he’d taken away from him, adding to them a whole bunch of expensive prizes. But this wasn’t enough for Achilles! He practically wanted Agamemnon to kneel before him, absolutely humbled!! Thus, he refused all of the offerings and remained out of the war. Geez, man, he didn’t even listen to his own friends’ arguments. So have in mind that when you let anger loose, you might end up like him, or do even more drastic things…human imagination has no limits.

            I guess that the best way to deal with this emotion is to first let it out, preferably far from people, and not making any serious decisions until it fades out, so you can see things more clearly.

            …remember what Jedi Master Yoda said!

"...♪Because I’m angry
Clap along if you feel like anger is the truth
Because I’m angry
Clap along if you know what anger is to you...♪"

Land of the Dead

Grey mist everywhere. Grey, grim, gloomy. Everywhere he looked, the view seemed the same. The distant horizon only helped reveal how the “sky” was a little lighter than the ground. The shadow figure moved across the scene, that of a boy, resembling an illusion, kind of like a hologram, maybe like a ghost. He took long strides, the light mist swirling around him as he went by. Eventually, he could make out silhouettes in the distance. He quickened his space, for he recognized it as his destination.

            It was a junkyard, surrounding an abandoned, shabby concrete house. Such sites were scattered around in this strangeland. But he had heard, from the wisest of the dead, that one of them contained a special object…one that had a mysterious link to the world of the living. He searched around the debris…broken instruments, shattered and dusty mirrors, worn-out dolls, lifeless trees, cracked pieces of china, moldy electric gadgets…among the descriptions he was given of the object was the square shape. As he continued, he reached an old TV set. To his surprise, it was the only item that seemed to have any sign of life. Its screen was lightened, but blank, a dirty white color, all the while emitting a continuous small sound. He got closer. Sometimes, the screen would flicker, revealing wavy lines…suddenly, human figures materialized for two seconds, disappearing quickly. The boy shot out his hand to turn the knobs about, trying to adjust the image. The TV crackled, sputtering robotic sounds. The picture returned, first weakly, gradually looking sharper. There was a group of friends laughing as they walked about a suburban town on a beautiful day, their schoolbags slung on their shoulders. Many carried skateboards. Palm trees swayed in the breeze as a train passed over their heads on an elevated rail.

            He had waited so long to find this, to have a glimpse of life. It was more beautiful than he’d imagined. Yet he had been deprived from it, even before he could have a small taste.

*if you're going to listen to this song, please ignore the lyric video so you can appreciate the music, which is what really has to do with this post. I suggest you use headphones :).

Things that make me angry

Mornings :)

When a family member tells me that I should domesticate my curly hair.

When a guy just... annoys me! I seriously wanna break up with everyone I'm with. But then again I have problems.

When I try to understand math and science… and professors try to put things HARDER on purpose just by the pleasure of feeling intimidating. Look, I know that some prof are exigent, but I also recognize when a professor is just being an asshole.

When someone thinks I don’t understand what he/she is saying when in reality I'm just staring in shock at what that human just said (yes, happens) 

                               

When a family member insists you should not eat the dessert 'cause your gaining weight.

When you have a hard day in college, and go home to finish some major work and your mom starts yelling because I got home too late and I didn't clean my room that day. Mom… 

When a distant relative asks you the same old questions “When are u getting married?” “When are you graduating". All I can think of is

                              

I don’t care what society and psychologists say. I don’t enjoy it when my boyfriend dances, is tickled, texts pretty words, and other things with another girl. You both are in danger, darlings.

                  When I feel I cant do anything right; I get both sad and angry.

                           And lastly, when my weirdness is not sufficiently appreciated.

"Mysterious thing, time..."

"Mysterious thing, time. Powerful, and when meddled with, dangerous."

                                                             - Dumbledore

Wise fictional man, that Dumbledore. Nonetheless we often wish to change time to amend certain decisions we made that resulted on suffering and regret. But what if we turned time? Let's foresee some situations that could have happened if some characters from certain movies would have made different choices that they made. Personally, I'd like to discuss my three of them that really got in my nerves from my favorite movies:

We all hate Rose for jumping out of that boat. Maybe Jack would have lived, yes. But also she would have returned with Hockley, and keep being imprisoned and depressed as she was at that beginning of the movie.

Snape, oh Snape. We all love you and know how much you suffered. But I can't help thinking when I read the chapter, If you had not been with the Dark Lord, working for him providing him information you wouldn't have given away the prophecy that Lily's boy was going to be the chosen one. On the other hand, you gained his trust and again you did when you killed Dumbledore. Another one would have done the job if you had not, anyways. So you helped destroy the Dark Lord big time.

And finally, Star Wars: It kind of annoys me that  Anakin Skywalker turned to the dark side out of fear of losing his beloved Padme, and ended up killing her. But If it had not happened, well... SHE WOULD NOT HAVE DIED. 
       In a more serious manner; there was a desire to restore the balance of the force; Anakin turned to evil, jedis hit rock bottom, and Luke finds the balance at the end. I mean, there must be a reason for everything. 

Nonsense

Hog wash!

This despondent humanity

Grips the anniversary

Of the earthly

Reverie

The smog muffled

In the moon

And the

Starry night

Is not starry

No more

Poaching

Antelopes

For sinews in

Pollution

The empty earthly

Vase suffers for

Peremptory love

Happiness polluted,

Muddled into

Smithereens

Yet the Earth

Always finds

A way

To make our

Intrepidness 

Affront reality

Revenge

Is earthly

The Roommate

            I had just arrived in my dorm on a rainy August morning, ready a new beginning, otherwise known as a new semester.  I was so happy to be away from home, fleeing from my responsibilities, from my overwhelming family.  I was going to miss my cat the most, I knew.  She was orange and white, and sort of snobbish-looking.  She was the laziest thing I had ever set my eyes on.  I would miss her, but it eased my mind to know that I would see her every other weekend.

            As I walked by the hallway towards my assigned room, a malodor seemed to follow me, as if derailing my thoughts into it.  I could think only of it and how odd it was that this odor remained following me, as I trotted forward towards my new destiny.  It stunk of death and sweat.  I got closer and closer, and suddenly I could hear screams of terror coming from inside my new room!  I swung the door open furiously and to my surprise, instead of a torture chamber, I found a stately-pleasure dome!  I could only see body parts and limbs entangled within each other in a reverie of gusto!  Screaming while throwing their heads back with pleasure, only the man—presumably my new roommate—seemed at all to notice my presence.  He glared up at me as he devoured one of the women’s necks and stuck himself into her with the greatest dominion I had ever seen.  I was shocked and immediately hurried out of the room, slamming the door as I gripped my resounding chest.  What had I just witnessed? 

            I returned a little after nine o’clock to my dorm, fearful that I would again find my roommate grasped within a myriad of women and that so it would be for the rest of the semester.  But as I twisted the doorknob and made my way in, I found the room completely empty.  The suitcases I had left behind in my hurry had been neatly placed on the very top of my cot.  The room had been organized and one could barely tell it was the same room I had beheld in a frenzy of skin and squeals.  My eyes wandered around towards my roommate’s half of the room and what I saw was an organized yet peculiar set of belongings.  I beheld glass cases, in which were preserved butterflies, about twenty, all of different colors—splendid hues that ranged from the deepest blue to the brightest yellow.  Maybe he’s into Biology, I thought, as I scrutinized the rest of his belongings. 

            As I loomed over his leather-bound book collection, the doorknob shook, and my roommate swung the door ajar, revealing his large, imposing stature.  He looked over to where I was standing, realizing that I had been snooping his stuff.  Yet he simply shrugged his shoulders and walked over to his bed, saying not a word. 

            That first night, I had an uneasy feeling in my sleep—I swayed back and forth between the sheets, finding no comfort, no consolation.  I did not know anything about my roommate, the person residing so near me—the thought drove me mad with fear.  Who was he?

  The next few weeks following the beginning of term were similar—we spoke not and I would come into the room in the most inopportune moments.  Once I walked in and he was staring at a trembling dog, just glaring at him.   Confused, I walked out and, upon returning, the dog was gone.  I had the intrepidness of inquiring about it as he lay studying in his desk.  He simply responded with a slouch of his shoulders as he sought out a pen and paper.  He wrote vigorously for about an hour until, presumably getting bored, he rose with a start, lay down on the bed and shut his eyes.  When I woke up that morning, he was in the exact same position I had last seen him—he had not stirred, not even an inch.  I tried not to think of him, but even his ghastly stench followed me.  It was all over me when I woke, as if he had been near me in my sleep.

            One dreadful evening, while I lay in a most harrowing reverie, I felt something trickle down my unwary face.  I sensed the warmth of a being suspended over me, scrutinizing me with a touch.  As I felt the move of a finger reach over my throat, the hairs in the back of my neck stood on end and I wheezed from fear.  The fingers twitched, wrapping themselves over my neck, gripping and squeezing malignantly my every fiber.  I tried to breathe but my breath was lost in a frenzy of exasperation, turning into an animalistic panting that overpowered the room with echoes of dread and horror.  My eyes shot open—there was no one, nothing, staring back at me.  I, in fact, was alone in that cursed room!  My heart was pounding as I examined my surroundings.  In the very darkest corner, next to the unlit floor lamp, it gawked at me.  The whites of its eyes fixed upon my quivering body.  Oh God, you would not believe, my friend, the dread I felt interred within my very bones!   

            The fiend crawled towards me in all four limbs as I staggered back into my bed, hiding under the covers like a child masking itself from el Cuco.  For a moment, as I muttered obscenities in the general direction of the situation, I felt the room grow quite, still.  I’m dreaming, thought I.  Slowly, I lowered the covers inch by inch.  I screeched in terror as my vision revealed the brute over me, salivating, hankering for my blood.  

            He leaped on top of me, driving its fangs into my skin, splintering it from my horrified figure.  I felt the sting as my skin was torn off from me.  I felt him chewing me, savoring me like a delectable dish hardly ever served; I was his delicacy.  My heart raced as I struggled under his grip, under the biting, mastication, relishing of my meat.  But whatever my exertion of force, his was double!  Whenever I writhed under his dominion, he need only smash his fist against my head and I was still.  He devoured me. 

            It lifted itself from my ruined façade that gushed and spewed black torrents of blood; the floors, the mattress—everything was covered in my blood. The fiend admired its achievement—a wreckage of bone, muscle and torn skin.  One of my eyeballs hung low beside my cheek, held on only by a small strand of muscle and tissue. He passed his rouged tongue by the corner of his mouth in order to lick off a string of carnage hanging from it, savoring the last bit of the feast.

            Qui suis-je? A motionless, still, lifeless, cadaver.  He carried me off into the night, burying my few remains in the neighboring wasteland of Río Piedras.  No one ever found out what became of me, my friend.  Except you. 

           

            

Time Travel

Okay, it’s not that I’m absolutely obsessed, but I just wanted to mention this for fun. I’ve always said to myself that if I could go back in time, I’d visit Studio Ghibli during the production period of Spirited Away around the year 1999 and help out in some way. It’s just that when I first saw the film, I automatically thought: I wanna do something as glorious and beautiful as that. And if the chance to be part of the glory of that movie ever comes to me, I’d take it! I’d be satisfied with contributing in drawing on one of the animation frames, or being among the lowest ranks of the staff…and seeing my name somewhere in the end credits XD.

          Now, what I really want to do is talk about a few films/animations where I think the use of time travel is truly admirable, at least for me. Let’s start with:

The Girl Who Leapt Through Time : I first found out about this anime movie when I stumbled across it on the internet. I immediately read its summary in Wikipedia, and was SUPER impressed from the start, as the story begins with the death of the main character. WHAT? You never see that happen in your average films directed to high school audiences, especially if it’s animated. THAT hooked me into the story. Then, I liked the idea of applying time travel to a suburban high school setting. What if a high school student could leap through time? What would she do? It’s a simple yet very fun idea, especially if one has enough imagination to come up with clever, interesting and creative answers. When I finally watched the film, I saw that, at least in my eyes, the time-leaping element was nicely fitted into its setting: she uses her power for trivial, ordinary stuff, like coming early to class, getting perfect grades, repeating her favorite activities, and even avoiding awkward situations. The result is a very good “slice of life” teen comedy/drama, light-hearted, really delightful and enjoyable. However, it doesn’t limit itself to comedy, for she later finds out that her leaps are affecting the outcomes of other people’s lives. I liked this detail very much. For example, there’s a scene where she time-leaps to avoid being hit by an object that was hurled towards her, and the object hits the student behind her instead, injuring her badly. This sequence gives much food for thought. Everything happens for a reason, even if it’s a harsh event or situation. That’s why it’s best not to mess with time (if the opportunity is given), or things might get worse. What has passed took place for us to mature and improve the future, by focusing on the present.

          *Note: One might say that the film has some flaws, regarding coherence in the way the whole time-leaping thing works, but it’s actually one of many typical flaws in anime and Japanese films that can be excused for cultural reasons. I would have tweaked that if I had done the film, but it’s not that it’s BAD or a defect. In a nutshell: you must be open minded when watching Eastern stuff, or you’ll never get them.

Samurai Jack : I barely watched this show, but enjoyed the little that I saw. It was not until a few months ago  that I realized what it was actually about. In a mythological-like ancient Japan setting, an evil supernatural being called Aku opens a portal in time and thrusts his enemy, the brave Samurai Jack, into  a very distant future, where Aku’s power is law. Jack must now try to return to the past to annihilate Aku when he first rose, but meanwhile tries to survive the hostile future. I was blown away by this remote synopsis. Wow. Awesome. It explained the visual strangeness of the world displayed in the show, with alien-like futuristic places and a few ancient Asian elements scattered about, including a Samurai that’s not supposed to be there. Really creative in terms of the plot and the visuals, the art style. The whole concept opens lots of doors to good, interesting options and possibilities; you can go crazy with your imagination and have fun.

And finally,

Back To The Future saga : I saw only the first movie a long time ago, and know vaguely what happens in the sequels. Recently, though, I’ve been told how awesome and clever each of them is plotwise. First film: boy visits his parents’ teen years and gets tangled in their love story; second: he travels to the future, meets his son, must confront his enemy (hehe the year is 2015, wasn’t it? XD); third: boy and scientist friend go farther back to the “cowboy” era. Very humorous AND interesting. Wow! I REALLY have to see them. And they’re from the 80’s. Take that, present-day films who’re obsessed with exaggerated 3D special FX.