A Step In Time: A Review of the "Saving Mr. Banks" Soundtrack

The Oscar Nominations are out and Thomas Newman's work in "Saving Mr. Banks" is up for an Academy award for Best Original Score. As soon as I walked out of the theater I told my friends that the score was amazing so while I'm not entirely surprised, I am definitely thrilled to hear about the nomination. I'm not a huge film buff so I don't usually follow awards season but I've always taken an interest in this category as a musician. The role of the orchestral score, like any other element of the film like the script, actors and cinematography, is to tell a story. It helps to define a mood and tone for the film. Music has the ability to completely transform scenes and it's my favorite part of analyzing a film.

And I can absolutely guarantee you that you've heard Newman's work before. He has had a long and illustrious career providing the soundtracks to such films as Finding Nemo, WALL-E, A Series of Unfortunate Events, The Help (starring Emma Stone) and of course the latest Bond film-Skyfall. Newman is actually one of my favorite film composers (alongside Alan Menken, Alan Silvestri and Michael Giacchino). If I wanted a composer to write the soundtrack to my life, it would definitely be Thomas Newman because his work is often very subtle but still strikes a perfect balance between being fanciful and warm. His tracks do a wonderful job of supporting the storyline and actors because they fit into the scene so wonderfully that you could hardly imagine the scenes without them.

In this film, Newman has to negotiate two different settings. The film takes place both in 1960's California and turn of the century Allora, Queensland. These two locations are completely different and the accompanying music needed to demonstrate that as well.

The Walt Disney Studios were moving forward, modern and to a certain extent....superficial. There are a few original tracks from the period incorporated into the soundtrack. Heigh Ho was the swing version of the song from Snow White recorded in 1957. This was a few years before the film takes place but I think it's nice to characterize the more casual and liberally creative ambience. Taking a classic and improvising it into a new style is exactly what a lot of jazz musicians do. However, deviating from the original is exactly what P. L. Travers is afraid that the creative team at Disney is going to do to her story and she is terrified of that.  One Mint Julep by Ray Charles was also featured in the soundtrack to underscore the bold, bombastic nature of California or at least as it appears to P. L. Travers. I think that it was definitely a good choice to include these because it lends a certain authenticity to those scenes.

Furthermore, it's also worth mentioning that Jason Schwartzman and BJ Novak recorded snippets from some of the original tracks from Mary Poppins. These are  played as the Sherman brothers wrote some of the songs that would become iconic. I really liked seeing the creative process and I think hearing unfinished versions of the songs helped to hammer home how awful it would have been had the film never been made.

The orchestral tracks by Newman used in the California and the Disney Studio scenes are as follows: Jollification, The Mouse, Mr. Disney, Beverly Hills Hotel, Penguins, Maypole, The Magic Kingdom. Not to give too much away but I think these sets of tracks are an interesting mix of the whimsical but also use a driving rhythm to build a sense of anticipation and excitement. Mr. Disney and The Magic Kingdom are both prime examples of the latter. Let it not be said that Newman can't do bolder tracks because both of these two pieces use the full drum section as well as the entire range of the orchestra to drive the music along and give it energy. It gives the listener the feeling that exciting things are happening and that there will be wonderful creative things to look forward to. And in the case of Mr. Disney, I think that the purpose of his pieces was the define Walt Disney as a character and to draw a further contrast to P. L. Travers. Where Travers is traditional, Walt Disney is innovative. Where she is disagreeable and mysterious, he is charming and has a larger than life personality. Where Travers is holding on to her past, Walt Disney is looking to the stories of the future. Even with these, the most vigorous tracks on the soundtrack, I never felt overwhelmed by the volume or breadth of the music.

By contrast, Newman takes a rather different tone with the music that backs the childhood memories of P. L. Travers. Certainly the Australia setting is more of a fairy tale setting than California so it makes sense there is a whimsy to these tracks and the use of the celesta helps to emphasize that nicely. However, this story didn't have a happy ending. The adults in her life disappointed Travers time and time again so there is also a sadness and gravitas to some of the pieces. The first track that we are introduced to in the beginning is an arrangement of Chim Chim Cher-ee with a voiceover track of the first lines from Mary Poppins spoken by Travers' father. The other tracks that comprise the Australia scenes are as follows: Travers Goff, Walking Bus, Uncle Albert, Celtic Soul, A Foul Fowl, Laying Eggs, Whiskey, To My Mother, Westerly Weather and Pears. These are definitely more subdued than the California tracks and I can definitely see the parallels between Newman's previous work with Finding Nemo and A Series of Unfortunate Events. He tends to use alternate between the use of a piano to establish the melody and then brings in the entire orchestra to answer it. One of my favorite things about Newman's compositions is that he uses instruments that don't normally get a lot of use in other scores. He make extensive use of the wind sections in these tracks as well as the glockenspiel and harp to emphasize the fairytale-esque aspect of the Allora scenes. They are heartachingly beautiful and truly transport you into a different make-believe realm. Rest assured though, strings are used to create drama and substance in those scenes where the fairytale begins to crumble.

Overall I think that Newman did a fantastic job of capturing the two aspects of the story, both the theatricality of California studios and the sentimentality surrounding Travers' childhood in Allora. Of course, it's always hard to tell whether or not a film will win Best Score since these things are highly political. However if it does, it will be incredibly well deserved.

The Game is Afoot Again.

I could think of no better way to kick off 2014's posts than to talk a little bit about the series 3 premiere of Sherlock. After a 2 year hiatus the episode "The Empty Hearse" was aired on BBC1 yesterday and it basically broke the Tumblr fandom. It was as if the writer's of the show went through all the conspiracy theories and fan fictions and mashed it all together into one episode. Personally, I happened to find the gratuitous fandom service a bit too flashy though I will admit it was very entertaining. However, I think the main objective was to placate viewers who were driven to madness from having to wait so long to see the aftermath of series 2, in which Sherlock Holmes threw himself off the top of a tall building and somehow managed to survive. 

The episode seemed to lack the neatly packaged plot that we saw with "The Hounds of Baskerville" and instead presumably set the stage and tone of this upcoming season. The first half of the episode concentrated on showing how the various characters two years after the fateful fall. We begin with Anderson's high adrenaline theory of how he did it, which includes smashing hospital windows and some rather gratuitous Sherlolly action. While I was certainly among the many who was excited to believe that that was the true story, we cut to Lestrade and Anderson's conversation on the streets of London showing that it was indeed a farce. From the mini-episode released on Christmas Eve, we know that Anderson has been obsessively trying to piece together how Sherlock faked his death but Lestrade insists that he does this only out of profound guilt that Anderson must conceivably feel after pushing Sherlock to such drastic measures by calling him a fraud. 

John has tried to move on(literaly and figuratively) from his time at 221B Baker Street and is now sports a moustache and almost-fiancee. From what we've seen in previous episodes, I think it makes sense that John has had the most trouble moving on as he is prone to repress his emotions and as Sherlock was such a significant part of his life. He hasn't been in contact with Mrs. Hudson, his and Sherlock's former landlady and Mycroft has also kept a distant eye on him. He has obviously struggled in the past two years and it seems like he has tried for an entirely fresh start. 

And what of the mysterious Mr. Holmes? Sherlock has evidently spent the last two years dismantling Jim Moriarty's extensive criminal network. We first see him being tortured, with some rather bizarre Christ imagery but I'm not sure that's too relevant. Mycroft intervenes, brings his baby brother back to London and they attempt to figure out the newest threat: a looming terrorist attack on London. 

Sherlock first decides to surprise John, as he is trying to propose to his girlfriend Mary. While in the books John faints upon being reunited with Sherlock, Sherlock!John is rather more feisty and wallops him soundly and they get kicked out of three establishments as a result. Sherlock is a bit confused to his response but goes on to reveal himself to Molly and Lestrade. 

I won't say too much more about the plot line because you should watch the episode for yourself but there were a couple of things that I wanted to address:

1) I really like the character development with both Sherlock and Mycroft in this episode. When discussing the terrorist situation, it was revealed that the Holmes boys were playing the game of "Operation". In their game of deductions however, they finally show Mycroft as the equally talented older brother who may have pushed Sherlock around a bit when they were growing up. I feel like their dynamic up until this point hasn't really showcased Mycroft as a mastermind but evidently growing up he was "The Smart One" which I think was interesting. Also, we were introduced to Sherlock's parents, who were played by Benedict Cumberbatch's real parents. Not sure what the significance to the overall plot of series 3 but John does make the comment that they are so "ordinary" which seems to irk Sherlock. As such, it is hardly a surprise then that he had such an adverse reaction to Moriarty calling him "ordinary" in the series 2 finale. 

2) There's something about Mary: I'm not entirely sure how to feel about her. When I first watched the episode, I immediately liked her. She was sweet and caring, basically the antithesis of Sherlock. She was exactly what John needed to get himself through the last few years. But upon closer inspection, I noticed that Sherlock's deductions of her included that she was a "liar", "disillusioned", "short-sighted". As of right now, I have two theories about her. The first is that she is in fact evil and using John to get at Sherlock. She found John at his most vulnerable and would thus be in a perfect position to exploit him. Or, she will end up dead because writers never let us have nice things. Either way, something is going to happen with her this season, something big. 

3) Molly's boyfriend is seriously shady. After Sherlock's disappearance, Molly 'moved on' to date someone and evidently they are serious. And evidently he seriously looks like Sherlock, a fact which EVERYONE notices but Molly. Not sure if it's because I'm shipping Sherlock and Molly a little bit but I am not a fan of this Sherlock wannabe and would prefer that he not be in the picture, whether he turns out to be sinister or not. 

The Sherlock premiere definitely paid tribute to what the fans wanted and it was flashy and exciting and basically everything Tumblr expected it would be. However, I have to say that it felt almost like an action movie wannabe (almost Bond-like). It felt rather heavy-handed in some moments with the Moriarty-Sherlock kiss and the kind of campy scene where Sherlock attempts to reason out the train situation. And while I appreciate that the show wanted to cater to its viewers and found this episode very entertaining, I hope that the next episodes will focus more on telling the story, whatever that may be. 

"Why did you start blogging?"

Once upon a time, this Wellesley student was a first year. And when she was, she used to write for the Wellesley News, the student-run college newspaper. This is her story and this is her blog.

I started this blog in March 2012 as a first year in college. Ever since my sophomore year of high school I had been told by many a well-intended adult, "Writing! Writing is the essential to your future successes in whatever field you pursue!" So, like a good Wendy I started writing for the newspaper and I liked to think of myself as an artistic person so I wrote for the arts section.

And it was rough.

I remember spending lots of time writing my articles only to be told by the upperclasswomen who were the editors that it wasn't quite good enough. They deleted whole sentences that I thought were some of my cleverest and most witty and they thought the pieces I spent the least amount of time on were, in fact, my best. But when I called my dad nearly in tears because I thought these older writers were being mean to me, all he told me to do was to practice. Writing is an art so it can be mastered but not unless you put sufficient time into it.

And so I created this blog as a place for me to practice my craft. I was not unfamiliar with the idea of having practicing my writing. I had a blog in middle school, another one in high school and have maintained journals on and off since about 5th grade. Actually now that I think about it, one of my friends rolled her eyes when I debuted my blog in high school because I used to love writing really long and self-absorbed notes on Facebook about my 'experiences'. But this time was a little different. I think I was hoping that it would help me in all aspects of my life that needed writing of some sort. Little did I know that writing a scientific research paper is much different than writing one for an architecture course but I digress.

I didn't really have any one particular topic in mind that I wanted to write about. Even though I was an Arts Writer for the paper, I just wanted to write about things that interested me: new books, movies, news stories or even just ideas. It wasn't a travel blog, it wasn't a DIY blog and it wasn't subject specific. I didn't really want the blog to be about me per se, but it was just about anything and everything that came through my mind. I wanted to keep stimulating my brain to become a better seer of the world.

It's a little embarrassing to go back and read some of the things I wrote a couple of years back. Mainly just because I thought I had answers to all of life's problems when I know that I didn't know anything about anything (and still don't). But I have to envy my past self because she was always full of ideas of things to write whereas now I find myself stopping myself a lot more before hitting that "Publish" button. There are so many things to consider before I actually send any writing out into the Interwebz. Is it too provocative? Am I over-sharing? Is this too personal? Is this even interesting or relevant? Do I even know enough to write about what I'm writing about?

Writing here is a lot harder than I initially thought it would be. It's different from the writing I do for class and equally different to what I write in my journals. More recently I've been looking to other sites for inspiration be it XoJane or Thought Catalog or even other peer institutions' newspapers. But one of my goals for this New Year is to keep writing and to write more often. And really, I don't have a specific goal in mind other than to maybe try to have more experiences and learn about things worth blogging about.

It's a journey without a destination but I'm excited nonetheless.
Thanks for coming along for the ride,
-T

2013: A Year at the Movies

Anyone who knows me knows that when it comes to movies, I would much rather watch everything from the comfort of my own bed. However, looking back on this year made me realize that I actually saw quite a few movies on the big screen this year, probably more than in any year in the recent past. And I guess having a friend who is studying to be a screenwriter certainly doesn't hurt. Nonetheless, here are the films that I saw this year in chronological order:

1) Iron Man 3
 I actually went into Boston on Derby Day to see this one but that is an entirely separate story. IM3 isn't really the type of film that I would choose to go see on my own but with the abundance of Marvel revivals in the last decade or so it's not surprising that I would eventually end up seeing one in the theaters. I hadn't seen the other films in the trilogy before but that didn't make too much of a difference-they explained everything anyways. It's definitely helpful if you've seen the Avenger's movie as they make a couple references but again, hardly necessary for enjoying the film as a whole. I think one thing that has always been really refreshing about Tony Stark is that his superpower is essentially his brain. Yes, he can fly and shoot things from his awesome suit but he made that suit and lots of other prototypes through his sheer ingenuity. And as the Tumblr-famous quote goes "Take that [suit] off and what are you [left with]?" Genius, billionaire, playboy, philanthropist. He isn't really the distant hero that we have come to expect. He's sassy and brash and hot headed. And it is endlessly entertaining.


2) The Spectacular Now

I saw this movie at the end of the summer a couple days after it was released. The Spectacular Now was billed as an Indie film that showcased an authentic teenage experience, written by the writers of '500 Days of Summer'. It was advertised as a love story of sorts but frankly I find that kind of problematic. I think it would have been more accurate to bill it as a coming of age story. What it's really about is this one guy, Sutter Keely, a boy with a very bad case of Peter Pan syndrome. And he happens to meet this girl. But the story isn't really about her. And while I quite like Shailene Woodley as Aimee Finnicky, I can't help but feel like her character verges a bit on Manic-Pixie territory and this film barely passes the Bechdel test. Yes, she has her own journey of breaking free from her own demons but her plot definitely feels subordinate to Sutter's. The film deals cursorily with some things that people deal with in high school like drinking and sex but the argument that Sutter is a guy that lives for the now isn't one that's particularly compelling for me personally. I didn't find his character to be all that sympathetic, in fact he seemed a little too slick and very much satisfied with mediocrity. Which I guess being comfortable with what he has was kind of the point of the film but there were a lot of times during the film that I just cringed because his character is exactly the kind of guy that I would walk away from in a heartbeat. The Spectacular Now was an interesting movie that could hold my attention while I was in the theatre but it's certainly not one that I crave to see again and again.

3) Don Jon['s Addiction]
Don Jon was a movie that I had been waiting to see ever since it was released at the Cannes Film Festival. It is Joseph Gordon Levitt's debut as a director and he also stars as Jon, a bartender from Jersey. Jon meets a couple of girls who change his perspective on the world dramatically. While the media has endlessly ragged on rom-coms and fairytales for giving women unrealistic expectations of relationships, this movie argues that pornography does  exactly the same thing for guys. While women are waiting for their Prince Charming, men are waiting for that "dime" who will do exactly what they want. But even when he finds the most beautiful and willing women, Jon is still searching for that je ne sais quois.  There is something profoundly disappointing to him about real social interactions with women. Without giving too much away, JGL also doesn't really let his female characters down easy either and makes it pretty obvious that they also have an agenda. But more than that, they are real people. They have emotions and desires and are more than just his objects of fantasy (though there is gratuitous use of showing women as the object of fantasy). While the film barely passes the Bechdel test, I like the way that JGL portrays his female characters as decidedly different. Jon's sister doesn't say much but when she does have her line, it's absolutely a game changer. Barbara, played by Scarlett Johansson, is revealed to not be the complete dime that Jon initially saw her as nor is Julianne Moore's character of Esther. I like that the characters have a lot more depth than when they are introduced to us as kind of campy stereotypes. My only request of this film is that I wish it were longer.

4) Hunger Games: Catching Fire
After I crammed reading the entire trilogy on the Wednesday before the first film was released, I couldn't possibly go without seeing the second film and it did not disappoint. We meet Peeta and Katniss again after their win of the 74th Hunger Games only to be thrown back into the arena again for the Quarter Quell-special versions of the Hunger Games that occur every 25 years. I think this book gets a fair amount of slack for being the fluffy middle installment of the trilogy but frankly, I liked the fact that there was more character development than we saw in the previous film. I think the directors did a good job of showing that Katniss did what she did because she wanted to make it out of the arena alive and that it wasn't even her intention to start a revolution. It wasn't her intention to see people hurt. All she wants is to live with her family in peace but that can't ever happen. I think that showing her vulnerabilities helps to make her a more relatable character and it becomes very obvious that she is a very young person who has been given a task much larger than herself. And per usual, I always feel like the cast of the Hunger Games brings their characters alive in a way that I couldn't necessarily see in the book. Peeta has more grit to him and I absolutely adore Effie and Johanna. I'll admit that Finnick is a little derpy, considering I thought that the books portrayed him as really suave but it wasn't so bad that I couldn't enjoy the book. And as usual, I am not overly fond of Gale. But, there is still much more to the story and I want to see how it plays out on the big screen.

5) Hobbit: Desolation of Smaug
I saw this film with a group of friends as a celebration of sorts for making it through my exams. The Hobbit was another film series that I just wasn't into enough to keep track of the films. I had read the book a long time ago but I don't think I even finished it. Nonetheless, I'm a fan of Martin Freeman in Sherlock so there wasn't much arm twisting involved to make me go see the movie. As seems to be the trend with Tolkien's work, the characters are on an epic journey. In this case, the Dwarves are on a quest north to reclaim Erebor, their ancestral seat of power in the Lonely Mountain. They were driven out years ago by a dragon Smaug, who appears to have just been napping on their mountains of gold in the interceding years. There were a lot of different skirmishes throughout the film and it culminated with a pretty epic battle with the dragon. There was even a romantic triangle subplot, though I have been informed that that wasn't actually present in the books though I enjoyed it nonetheless. The locations were beautiful, though I am sure that about 90% aren't real (such is life). Another fairly entertaining movie, I just wish I had seen the first movie or read the book again before going to see it.

6) Frozen
I remember seeing the trailer for this film and immediately dismissing it because it was basically just a 3 minute clip of a snowman and reindeer having it out with eachother on a frozen lake and I thought it was going to be really lame. However, this film is actually a retelling of the Hans Christian Anderson fairy tale of the Snow Queen, which I read a loooong time ago. In the weeks leading up to the premier however, some of my friends from Wellesley were disgusted that it wasn't as strongly female movie because many of the supporting characters are male....to which I say that is bull. This movie is ultimately about the power of sisterly love rather than romantic love and it passes the Bechdel test with flying colors. Anna is the younger of the two princesses and while her character is pretty charming I think I must be getting desensitized to the "adorkable" females because she is sweet but nothing really out of the ordinary. Elsa, her older sister, is the second Disney female to become queen on screen after Kida in Atlantis. Moreover, I think that the portrayal of Elsa makes her one of the most compelling "princesses" to date. Elsa holds the great power of being able to form snow and ice but has been told from a very young age that it's a dangerous power. She has constantly been afraid to be herself because she fears how people will react to her and more importantly, she fears that she has the potential to hurt the people she loves. She has closed herself off emotionally and physically to avoid this but eventually opens up in the end. There are some really stereotypical plot lines for the Disney movie, like the fact that it is a story about rich, beautiful princesses who live in a beautiful castle(the beautiful elite), the fact that their parents die, there's a huge party, a charming prince-all of the things you would expect from a Disney movie. But there's also a lot more that we can appreciate from the adult standpoint even though this is a children's movie. Frankly, I loved it.

7) Saving Mr. Banks
This is the type of film that is right up my alley! Saving Mr. Banks is the behind-the-scenes story of adapting P. L. Travers stories about Mary Poppins into the movie musical we all know and love. However, the road to creating art (as with most things) was not a smooth one. This movie juxtaposes scenes from Travers' childhood in Australia with creative meetings with the great artistic minds of Walt Disney and the Sherman Brothers in 1960s Los Angeles. The cinematography is absolutely exquisite and the score, brought to you by Thomas Newman (the musician behind the scores of Finding Nemo, Skyfall and WALL-E) made the film feel very much like a fairytale. And naturally, I'm always drawn to the clothes of the 1960s because they always seem very sleek, stylish and streamlined. Everyone looks modern but feminine at the same time and it has the same kind of quality that I like a lot about Mad Men-showing characters looking of the time but not necessarily dated. It makes you feel like you could have been there, without the fuzziness of film that we usually see the decade through. Because this film was produced by Disney Studios, I have to wonder a little bit about whether or not it was an accurate portrayal of how things went down. Cursory research has lead me to believe that P. L. Travers never really liked the film adaptation of her book and was very upset with the studio until her death not to mention I can't imagine Disney studios showing Walt Disney as anything other than a well loved creative genius. Nonetheless, I really loved the film and the story.

While seeing a lot of these films wasn't necessarily pre-meditated on my part, I generally liked all of the storylines for each of the films. Can't wait to see what's on the queue for next year.

Pizza is love

I was making my usual rounds around YouTube when I noticed this TedTalk on the left. It's pretty self explanatory but to sum it up, the speaker calls out the fact that using baseball as an analogy for sex/sexual things is really exclusive and problematic in more ways than one. It's something that I hadn't really thought about too much but the language that we use to describe something oftentimes shapes the way we think about the thing itself. Using a sports metaphor primes our brains to think about sex as a means to an end rather than a journey. Not to mention that it's no wonder lots of people have "performance anxiety" about it considering we have the mindset of "the game must go on!" regardless of what our brains and bodies might be telling us. I think that our approach to sex and sex education is the type of thing that I've noticed a lot more since coming to Wellesley because of its implications for women but this video makes a good point that the current system hetero-exclusive as well. And while not everyone likes pizza, I think that it definitely seems like a more useful way to start the conversation.

This Semester I Learned...

This semester I learned that sea otters hold hands when they sleep so that one doesn't float away...or at least so that one doesn't float away without the other. I learned that whales have a culture and that seawater, sand and sunshine have a way of washing away the sadness, if only for a day.

This semester I learned to appreciate the built environment and to see spaces as more than just capsules that separate the inside from the outside. They are places to dance in, to learn in and to live in.

This semester I learned that it is really easy to be cavalier about scheduling 8:30AM classes when it is warm and the sun rises before you need to be out of bed. And it is much less so when you need to trudge across campus in the snow when it is dark out and you would much rather be in bed.

This semester I learned that zig zags on paper can have exponentially more meaning than you would initially expect. And I learned that while they can't solve everything, Persistence and Patience can at least get you started on the path to success.

This semester I learned that it's okay to not always gun for the top in everything and that it actually is possible to be pushing yourself too hard. I learned that cutting yourself some slack can help you fall back in love with what you're doing and help you remember why you wanted to do it in the first place.

This semester I learned that it is good to leave the bubble sometimes because it will always be there when you return. The experiences outside the bubble, however, don't last forever and there are moments that demand to be seized sometimes. This semester I re-learned that contrary to popular belief, the occasional bout of fun will not in fact kill you. My head is still spinning from it too.

This semester I learned that loss comes at unexpected times. And that no matter how much you know it's coming, you can never really prepare yourself. This semester I learned that there's no way to know how to deal with it until it's here and staring you in the face and impossible to ignore anymore.  This semester I learned that sometimes all you can do is just carry on.

This semester I learned that things get better the same way that they get bad-so slowly you don't even realize it's happening until you turn around and look back.

This semester I learned that it's okay to not be okay and that asking for help is not a sign of weakness, it's a sign that you are not a robot. It just means that you are human being with feelings and emotions and needs. And that is more than okay.

This semester I learned the value of reaching out to other people. Of teamwork in-class and just friendship outside of class. I re-learned that it is a choice to be around people the same way it is a choice to isolate yourself and that the key is in finding the right balance of the two.

This semester I learned that not every friendship is meant to last forever. And that the moment that it stops being a mutual thing is the moment you should be a little bit on your guard. This semester I learned that, as painful as it is, sometimes it's better just to let it go because trying to hold on too tight will ruin everything anyways. This semester I learned that no amount of sentimental attachment should be an excuse for not being a good friend. Your friends are the people you choose to have in your life so choose wisely.

This semester I learned that the people around you will try to bait you all the time. Sometimes on purpose, sometimes not. You don't know their situation and more importantly, you don't need to rise to the occasion even if you do. It will just end with frustration all around and that distracts from getting the real work done.

This semester I learned that there is a distinct difference between setting standards for yourself and holding yourself back with arbitrary rules. This semester I learned that trying to hold yourself to the way you think you should act or the way that things ought to be often just does more harm than it does good.

This semester I learned that there are times that you just need to forgive yourself, it will be okay. Because life will go on.

Resolved: the 2014 booklist

I don't really believe in New Year's resolutions (why is this time of year more special than any other time of year to be the better person?). However, this is a very convenient time to try out a new project as I finally have some time to.....read books!

Yes, it is true that I read blog posts all the time and read scholarly articles all the time but that usually means that I don't have time to sit down with a book and just unplug for a bit. I feel like about 75% of what I read nowadays comes through digitally and I'm not sure why but I have a harder time really processing it. And though e-books are very convenient, I miss being able to curl up with a physical book and reading it. (So yes, I am going to try and find physical copies of these books which might take some time)

So. While this is going to be another one of those promises I make into the abyss because there is literally no one who is keeping me to this promise other than myself-this is my formal promise to read the following books during this year. Furthermore, consider this my formal promise to also write about these books:

1. [January]: History of the World in 6 Glasses
I wanted to start with this one because I think it will be an interesting and breezy start to the list; also because it is currently sitting on my coffee table.

2. [February]:  Great Expectations
I was supposed to read this for my 9th grade English class but ended up stopping after about three chapters. I have been assured that it actually is quite a good book and figure it's high time I find out the truth for myself so I can praise is or continue disliking it intensely.

3. [March]: Catcher in the Rye
This one I actually have a genuine interest in reading I just never actually got assigned to read it for class.

4. [April]: Wuthering Heights
Another one I was supposed to have read in class and didn't get past the first 10 pages or so. I have seen both versions of the music video(red dress is far superior to the white dress version) as well as the Gay Best Friend video. Time to give it another chance I guess?

5. [May]: The Beautiful and the Damned
Also another one I've wanted to read for a while but just never did.

6. [June]: Count of Monte Cristo
My mother was actually shocked that I never read this one because it's one of her favorites and it seems like an adventure story so let's give it a go.

7. [July]: Moby Dick
Ever since I visited the Whaling Museum in New Bedford, MA, reading this has seemed like a more and more appealing idea now that I have a better historical and biological context for it.

8. [August]: Crime and Punishment
Another one I should have read in high school. It's not that I didn't want to per se-from what I remember the prose was straightforward and interesting but I think it just came down to the fact that I didn't feel like I had time so now I'm going to make some time.

9. [September]: Emma
This one might actually get moved up because I'm currently following the webseries 'Emma Approved' which is an updated version of the book. I think it would be nice to have an idea of where things are going more than what I've pieced together from watching 'Clueless' and it's a little embarrassing that I have only read one work by Jane Austen.

10. [October]: Uncle Tom's Cabin
I think I've wanted to read this ever since Nancy Clark told me I should in AP US History oh so many years ago and again-just never got around to it.

11. [November]: The Importance of Being Earnest
A name that I hear thrown around a lot but figure I should read it for myself.

12. [December]: Common Sense
Because 'Murica. But actually I think it's a pretty important historical book especially for a Bostonian like yours truly.

Well, that's a little embarrassing to have up now because I feel like I was expected to have read all of those in high school.  But may this serve only to motivate me to work through the list faster! I have also included a rough correlation between books and months just as a flexible-ish schedule because naturally some months will be much more relaxed than others but I want to keep moving through these.  In fact, I might even switch the order up or substitute books as my mood sees fit but I've wanted to read these for a while so I'm going to try pretty hard to stick with them.  Typically, I usually read kind of sappy or sad romantic things so I figure that this could be a good opportunity to branch out. So let's see how this goes.