"Sons of Scotland," Translated

The Speech

"Sons of Scotland, I am William Wallace, and I see a whole army of my countrymen here in defiance of tyranny. You've come to fight as free men, and free men you are. What will you do with that freedom? Will you fight? Fight and you may die, run, and you'll live, at least a while. And dying in your bed many years from now. Would you be willing to trade all the days from this day to that, for one chance, just one chance, to come back here, and tell our enemies, that they may take our lives, but they'll never take our FREEDOM!"

The Speech in Plain Scottish

"Fellow male descendants of people from Scotland, I am William Wallace, and I see all of you, in case you thought I wasn't looking, here because you hate laws made by other people. You've come to fight because you can, and in case you've forgotten, you're not slaves. What will you do with that freedom? Will you attack the guy next to you? If you fight, you might die. If you run like cowards you'll live a few more years and die in your bed, not famous. Would you be willing to trade all the days, from this day to that, for ONE chance to be here to tell our enemies that they may take our lives, but they'll never take our FREEDOM!"

A Parody Version by Me

Fellow males who may or may not have been born in Scotland, behold, I am Mel Gibson, and I see a whole army of extras impatiently waiting for me to finish, in defiance of common sense. You've come to fight for free, and you are free, that is if you haven't joined a union already. What will you do with that freedom? Will you fight? Run, and you'll live to watch the highland games at your local scottish club, at least for a while, and die in your beds many years from now. Let me ask you, would you be willing to trade the rest of your life for one chance, and no more, to come back to this set and tell our enemies that they may take our lives but they'll never take our BLUE CHASE FREEDOM CREDIT CARDS!

Most speeches are harder to mock than the black Gate speech. I tried...

Don't Let the Music Stop...

I have mentioned before that I am an enthusiastic collector of film and folk music. Well, as it happens, due to the fact that I do not get an allowance and CDs are awfully expensive in the first place, I only own twelve. But those twelve are some of the best I have ever heard.

 

 Sorry, I forgot to use my flash, but these four are LOTR: Two Towers, LOTR: Return of the King, Master & Commander, Far Side of the World, and Braveheart. The lotrs and Braveheart I actually snapped up from an online swapping site, so they didn't come with complete boxes. Master & Commander I bought for myself with Christmas money, and subsequently lost the box it came in, so I keep them all in a folder now.

You may remember that I said I love Celtic music. Well here's my very own personal collection. Classic rowdy party songs by the Clancys (fyi, greatest folk act ever...:D), The Clancys in concert in New York, and the first two releases by the High Kings, a contemporary group who sing classic songs.

And back to films... The Dark Knight Rises, Serlock Holmes, Game of Shadows, Cristiada: For Greater Glory, and Thor. These four and the Celtic acts above were gifted to me for Christmas b/c I asked for them.

I expand my collection at every oppurtunity. The next albums I have in mind are The Piano Guys 2 (we own their first one, but it's not mine personally.) and Man of Steel, which hears to be one of Hans Zimmer's best from the trailers alone. (due to personal circumstances, I only request albums that are distinctive to me. The 8 film scores I own are similar in a couple of inconspicuous ways that make them fit my style. What do you think they are?)

There are reasons only four guys have composed all my favorites besides what may seem obvious.

Hans Zimmer is the go-to guy for action movies that sometimes pretend to be epics. His work is usually loud, repetitive, and fairly easy to pick up by ear.

James Horner is the king of the dead-guy-movie score. I have listened to at least five different notable-to-famous scores by him and found several others, and nearly every notable film he has done ends with the death of the main character. (i.e. Braveheart, Cristiada, Titanic) If the MC survives, their buddy dies (i.e. Windtalkers, Avatar) So, just as Sean Bean's casting is a spoiler that a significant character will die, James Horner writing the score is a tip to accept a bet that the main character and/or their sidekick will be dead by the time the credits roll.

Patrick Doyle writes scores for films trying to be dramas which include flashes of action. He has done Thor, Rise of the Planet of the Apes, HP and the Goblet of Fire,  Pixar's Brave, and the widely ignored book-to-film bomb Eragon, which, nevertheless, has cool music.

I include Howard Shore only because he did some of the best music ever, LOTR (and The Hobbit). I do not know what else he normally does, and in the recent past his name has only come up in connection to Twilight movies. I am definitely not buying that music...

In case you were wondering, I have never wanted and never intend to want anything by John Williams. It was only this year I realized he uses a synthesizer when others use a national orchestra, so that's a downside. Also, his themes are so monotonous they are impossible to forget. Not to mention that his Superman theme and his Indiana Jones theme are merely the same music at different tempos, or that his HP theme sounds eerily similar to those others if you think about it too much. So, to the wrath of all Jedis, I say that I don't think John Williams is the man. (note: I actually requested the Episode 4 score from the library once and tried to listen to it, but I did not get through the 3rd track. On a similar note, I do not own the score for Sherlock Holmes one because I can discern no difference between tracks. It sounds like a loop.) I do enjoy the Imperial March, Duel of the Fates, and Battle of the Heroes. Oh and the Jurrasic Park theme is fun too, but like most of his work, it's a loop...:(

Thanks for reading,

The 11 Tag

The 11 question tag is back, but that doesn't mean I'm going to tag anyone, since my followers are a combination of dormant blogs, people I don't follow, and others who have already done this tag. (if it's not in your archive, well then go ahead.) I'll just try to do it and see how it goes, because, in case any of you were unsure whether to tag me before, I like doing tags, but it doesn't take me long to run out of stuff to add, so there you go.

First off, Arda from In Western Lands was the last person to post this.

Second, I post random trivia about myself. (Does anybody understand why this is part of every tag?)

1. I love peanut butter and chocolate. I would hike across town (3 miles) for a bowl of the stuff all to myself.

2. With the exception of one of my best friends, my favorite recording artists are long since dead.

3. I am a Ringer and a Ringer alone. I do not consider myself a member of any other fandom.

4. I love Celtic music, both vocal and instrumental. No one will match the Clancy Brothers, The High Kings are good, and Celtic Thunder is a rip-off. If you know of any other contemporary Celtic performers who actually sing classic songs, and not just romance ballads by an in-house writer, please tip me off.

5.Howard Shore and Patrick Doyle are tied as my favorite composers, because of Doyle's work on Thor.

6. Every chance I get, I go out in a hoodie that has "I simply walked into Mordor" printed on the back. Most of you will understand perfectly. Geek thing.

7. I started a blog cause my friends moved away. No other reason.

8. Said blog (the original one) is just a place for serializing the small amount of writing I actually do. I don't have big plans like some of those I follow.

9. My house has a circular window. Which looks toward the south. Hence blog name. I have yet to see another circular window in a private house.

10. I enjoy the Piano Guys. If you haven't heard of them, you need to check them out on youtube.

11. I think video game music is cool, especially epic adventure games. But since I don't play video games, I rarely get a chance to hear any.

And now Arda's questions

 1. Do you like birds or fish best?
Birds for the win.

2. Do you prefer movies or tv shows?
 Movies in general, but some tv shows are more fun than movies.

3. What is a favorite summer memory?
When my best friend accidentally tipped me out of a canoe. It ended well, so it's funny now.

4. What can you hear right now?
Whiskey in the Jar by the High Kings playing on itunes

5. What is you preferred method of long-distance communication (phone, texting, skype, chat, etc)?
Skype! Unfortunately most of my friends are on Facebook, not skype.

6. What is your favorite outfit?
I have four sets of red t-shirts and black pants. Take a guess...

7. Favorite mythical creature?
Centaurs will have to do. They are cool in battle, anyway.

8. What is the last book you read?
The Wizard of OZ. Believe it or not I had never read it before.

9. What is your favorite way to exercise?
Playing sports with my friends.

10. What is your favorite type of weather?
 Normally hot and dry w/ temps between 70-85, with occasional rain for the smell of it. Fortunately, that precisely the climate where I live.

11. Would you rather life in a forest, in the mountains, or by the ocean?
I already live in mountains, and although the views and everything are cool, mobility is an issue. I would rather among trees on the coast.

Just as I think it pointless to tag anyone, I prefer not to ask more questions. There you go.

Iron Man 3 Reaction

And here's my off-the-cuff reaction to the new Iron Man movie before I forget too much of it. I didn't think a whole lot of the film on the way out and those I saw it with agreed, that this was not the best of them. The origin story was better, they say.

Story: Although it started out rather abruptly, the story was not confusing. I never got lost.

Main Character: Tony Stark was ok, and I liked him better in this movie for some things, but his trademark scathing wit is really nowhere to be found.

Supporting Cast: Happy Hogan was fun to watch.  Pepper was kind of in and out, but mostly in. I think Rhodes was best, though.

Music: More of the rock style that fits the Iron Man character, but there was no melody I could latch on to that I could be like "This is the IM theme, this is cool. I want this." Unlike typical movie music, it kind of faded into the background.

Humor: There was surprisingly little humor in this one. The most memorable humor played like ridiculously blatant product placement. There was a silly action sequence or two, but to describe them properly would be a spoiler, so I can't.

Plot Twists: I am not aware of any parts that were real surprises, except the one at the very end. That was cool. Otherwise, everything that happened got untwisted and processed as "Well duh that was going to happen."

Final Thoughts: Downey and Cheadle played great together. Their interactions were the highlight of the show. If you didn't really like IM before, this one will not make you say "I take it back, He's cool." It was a fun movie, but unlike the Avengers, not one I would be enthusiastic to sit through again. Lumping the whole movie together, I would score it as pushing 7.