Khat's Blog

Three Horses-Joan Baez

khatidjaJanmohamed — Sun, 06 Dec 2009 05:09:24 +0000

Three Horses

Joan Baez

In the early dawn a stallion white
prances the hills in the morning light.
His bridle is painted with thunder and gold,
orchids and dragons, pale knights of old.
He is the horse of the ages past.
And now the children run to see
the stallion on the hill,
bringing bags of apples
and of clover they have filled.
And the white horse tells his stories
of the days now past and gone
and the children stand a-wondering
believing every song.
How brightly glows the past.

When the sun is high comes a mare so red,
trampling the graves of the living and dead.
Her mantle is heavy with mirrors and glass ,
all is reflected when the red mare does pass.
She is the horse of the here and now.
And now there is confusion
amongst the children on the hill.
They cling to one another
and no longer can be still.
While the red mare’s voice is trembling
with a rare and mighty call,
the children start remembering
the bearers and the pall.
And though their many-colored sweaters
are reflected in the glass,
and though the sun shines down upon them,
they are frightened in the grass.
How stark is the here and now.

When night does fall comes a stallion black,
so proud and tall he never looks back.
He wears him no emeralds, silver and gold,
not even a covering to keep him from cold.
He is the horse of the years to come.
And I will get me down
before this steed upon my knees
and sing to him the sorrows
of a thousand centuries.
And the children now will scatter
as their mothers call them home
for the sadness of the evening horse
no child has ever known.
And I will hang about him
a bell that’s never rung
and thank him for the many words
which from his throat have never sprung.
And I’ll thank God and all the angels
that the stallion of the evening,
the black horse of the future,
comes to earth but has no tongue

This song is very interesting. It’s filled with imagery. The line which stood out to me the most, the line that i loved the most was from the last stanza.

the black horse of the future,
comes to earth but has no tongue

I found this to be the most interesting because usually, when one refers to the future, we refer to it being white, and bright, not black. Also, I found it interesting how something is coming to earth but has no tongue. It made me think about communicating. One cannot communicate without a tongue, you need one to talk. This of course is a barrier. The whole thought of the horse is so easy to visualize and just makes me think about 2012. It makes me think about it because when I read that last line it was like everything lead up to something coming, but that something cannot help. Since it has no tongue, it cannot communicate.

2012 on Metafilter

khatidjaJanmohamed — Sun, 06 Dec 2009 04:45:35 +0000

After searching 2012 on metafilter, I got more information on this topic and my curiosity and knowledge on this topic has grown.

To begin with, the first thing I found was a video. This video is on the Mayans and their understanding of 2012. Their prediction on the end is backed up by astronomy. The day that was given is December 21st,2012. This video is also talking about how even though it may not be the END of the world, it is still important to take into consideration what the Mayans are saying and not be ignorant towards this. Also, in this video, they talk about how this should be taken seriously because of the way things are going. This made me want to learn more about the Mayans since the obviosuly knew so much .

Something else that I found was a piece also on the Mayans. This to me was very interesting because of the way in which things were explained in. The introduction is very strong and it is definitely a great grabber since it talks about the history of this group of people then moves on onto saying how clues were left for us. Clues that could help us survive. I found it interesting how their words were passed on and held after so many years. Does this not mean that what they are saying is important? It gets you to actually consider the predictions that are put out. On this site, a found a video about the Mayan calendar. This video is rather fascinating, and not that long . Personally, after taking a look at this video, it makes me feel strong about the Mayans being accurate because of the things they were able to create and be right about.

To sum up all these thoughts, searching up 2012 on Metafilter took me into a deeper level which allowed me to look at the Mayans and their history on the creating the Mayan Calender, and how it’s been accurate.

Interesting to me :)

khatidjaJanmohamed — Tue, 17 Nov 2009 03:59:05 +0000

Something that really interests me is the whole theory on 2012. Nostradamus was a prophet who learned by studying the sky, the stars to be particular and believed that the year 2012, on the 21st of December, a big change will happen due to the Galactic Alignment that will take place on that day. I find this issue to be so interesting because I think it is interesting to see how such a big prediction can affect how others think. Also, because the year 2012 is so close,the level of intensity definitely increases. The following attached link is a video that will help better your understanding on Nostradamus and his prediction on 2012. Also, Nostradamus had written a book which included many of is predictions both written and visual components. Something that makes me lean towards the side that supports this prediction is the fact that many other groups of people believe in this theory too. For example, the Mayans. They believe that the end of the Mayan calendar is on the 21st of December in the year 2012. I do agree that it is scary to even believe such a thing, but it is very interesting to learn about the possible events that may occur. Last, I would like to say that whether or not this theory may be true, there is no harm in knowing. By knowing, you lose nothing and gain knoweldge. By not knowing, well, I leave the result of not knowing to you.

Writing Style: Conversational Writing

khatidjaJanmohamed — Wed, 04 Nov 2009 02:02:35 +0000

After going through a few different writing styles, the one that appealed to me the most was conversational writing. It is when you write in a way that makes it seem as though you are having a conversation with someone. The link bellow has some great tips on how to write in a conversation.

http://www.etrobbins.com/newsletters/etr_may04.htm

What I like the most about this writing style is that a lot can be done with this kind of style. For example, this kind of writing can be take and turned into a skit. There are many ways to take this kind of writing and better understand the context of it . Also, conversational writing is a writing style that allows the reader to participate, and this will obviously get them to feel more involved and not bored. Something else that I found interesting about this writing style is that though it may be a style that is easy to understand and easy to reach out to readers, it is not necessarily easy to write in this style if it is especially not one’s strength. I would actually try this style of writing to see what I can do with the final results of my writing piece and whether or not this writing piece is effective for me . Last, using this style of writing lets one get creative with their words since it is conversational because words that people use in an everyday scenario can be thrown in. This includes sounds. After learning all that about conversational writing, it has made me even more determiend to try this out and just see what happens!

An Interesting Idea

khatidjaJanmohamed — Tue, 03 Nov 2009 01:02:15 +0000

Something that I have been thinking about is actually writing a piece without any vowels and really just working with the consonants that are only present in the piece. Also, pieces like this need to be read out loud so that the expressions and consonants can be heard. I think that this would be something interesting to try out since we have been working a lot with sounds and it would be interesting to see the choices of letters that people would use to give the effect from what they are trying to say in their piece. Also, this would be a creative idea to understand and see how we everyone interprets things since we all have our own way of taking in things. This is something that interests me because vowels do carry out the emotions of pieces and it would be quite an experiment to see how things would turn out to look like and sound with just the use of consonants.

Investigation of a Writer

khatidjaJanmohamed — Sun, 01 Nov 2009 19:12:54 +0000

Chosen Writer: Lisa Foad

Lisa Foad was born on April 02, 1976 in Ontario, Canada. Her book, The night is a mouth is a book about bringing words to life and exploring how they would sound out loud. Her short story, The night is a mouth, recieved an award.

After taking look at this article, I found something that just grabbed my attention. It was when I came across the following sentences. “But Foad isn’t interested in provocation for provocation’s sake. “I’m really drawn to those spaces that culturally we’re told we’re supposed to experience as shameful, and I don’t think that they should be. And I wanted to look at what happens when there’s these parts of ourselves that we don’t know how to live with, or we don’t know how to even love.” This stood out to me because I found it interesting how she wanted to in a way, go against these unwritten laws to find out different things out of curiosity. I can relate to those sentences because as a human being, I don’t always know how to live with everything around me, or everything that I feel. There are even times where I don’t understand why I feel what I feel. This then drove me to question why she would want to look at these things as not shameful and if anything has happened in her life to make her write about such things. I have not read the book The night is a mouth, but after learning about this writer and reading some reviews on the book, I feel as though I can very much relate to this writer and that i may like this book very much. My final thoughts about Lisa Foad is that she is a very interesting person and that many people can relate to her because there aremany out there who also think like her.

Investigating Verbs

khatidjaJanmohamed — Tue, 27 Oct 2009 01:26:56 +0000

Speak

Utter

Shout

Chat

*

Move

Stroke

Shift

Drift

Flow

Cry

Weep

Wail

Sob

*

Laugh

chuckle

Giggle

Burst

*

Smile

Amused

Delighted

Pleased

Sound Artist: Maja Solveig Kjelstrup Ratkje

khatidjaJanmohamed — Sun, 11 Oct 2009 03:40:43 +0000

Maja Solveig Kjelstrup Ratkje, a composer and producer, was born in 1973. She has won many awards and her music has been heard in various parts of the world. For example, Europe, the United States, China and Canada. She was the first composer to receive the Arne Nordheim prize. She plays instruments such as the violin but uses her voice the most. She is both similar and different as compared to John Cage. Similar in the sense that they both were composers and made music and different in the sense that John saw music in everything and made music from anything and Maja on the other hand, did all her sounds for performances and played instruments as well. Something that I found interesting was how all the instruments she played (violin, harmonica, whistling )all are instruments that need the mouth. I find this interesting because it’s almost like her talent all lies in her mouth. Also, Maja seems to be very interactive with the music community as she has is a part of different associations, as she is a co-founder of one. After reading about Maja, I drew the conclusion that depending on how you expose yourself, results in how prosperous one can become. I say this because her music is heard in many countries and she has also won many awards. obviously, from this, it is evident that she is different. Something that I also thought about is how each sound artist is different. Different in the sense that each artist has a different voice and therefore, brings something new to the table.

Sound Artist:John Cage

khatidjaJanmohamed — Sun, 11 Oct 2009 01:30:35 +0000

John Cage is an individual who is a classical composer and was born in the year of 1912. He published his first book in 1961. His book was called “silence”. He collaborated with Merce Cunningham and Robert Pauschemberg. Merce was a dancer and Robert, a painter. Together, the worked on creating sounds for performances. Cages ideas for what music can be were inspired by Marcel Duchamp. There were two other individuals who had inspired John Cage to believe that everything had sound and he began to turn everything into music. Thoreau and Joyce, were his inspirations. These people must have really had a big effect since he was able to visualize music and sound in almost everything. This in a way, is true to me because everything does have sound. For example, typing. Typing is sound. This sound can be taken and a beat or tune can be added. This, then can be considered as music and music is sound. Something that I found very interesting was how he saw sound in everything, even in silence. This made me think of whether silence itself has a sound, and what that could possibly sound like. To me, John Cage is an out of the box kind of person since he was able to see sound in everything. To me, its like an individual who is able to see potential in everyone. Also, after learning about this sound artist, my knowledge on sound has been broadened. It has also changed my views on sound because the main message that I took from this sound artist was that sound is ultimately, everywhere. We are surrounded by it. Thus, one doesn’t need an instrument to make sound, one can use whatever they have in fornt of them. For example, the keyboard, which I mentioned above.

Last, the quote that I found on the site about John cage was a quote that really got me to think about every answer that is given for every questions. Many times, we come across multiple answers to questions and it becomes hard to figure out what answer is right, if there even is one.

“In the nature of the use of chance operations is the belief that all answers answer all questions.”

Ideas about Sound:John Cage about Silence

khatidjaJanmohamed — Sun, 11 Oct 2009 00:39:19 +0000

After watching the YouTube video that I found on the writer’s craft blog of John Cage talking about sound, I started to look at that topic from a different angle. An angle that got me to question sound and silence. To begin with, John talks about how sound acts by referring to traffic. I found that to be interesting because if you think about it, traffic is acting, acting is sound. It is almost like he is using personification to explain how sound is traffic.Traffic, in a way, can be looked at to be a show, where there are different pitches of sound, different tones and different lengths. I would take that new piece of information and just maybe sit near my window and hear the traffic that is outside and just observe with my ears the characteristics of sound. Something that really got me to think was when John Cage mentioned that he wants sound to just be sound. He, in a way, implied that he didn’t want it to represent anything. Nothing but sound. I found that to be interesting because sound helps us define, understand and accept the world around us. Near the end of the video, he said that silence is traffic everywhere around the world. This got me to really wonder. It was the most interesting part of the whole video,to me, because it got me to ponder the question, if silence is traffic, and traffic is sound then does that mean that silence is nothing but sound? This, in a way, proves that there is no such thing as silence.