I read Karen Russell's wonderful, Swamplandia.
When I head we were reading Karens work, I immediately thought of this book because it had been recommended to me awhile ago and had been on my reading list for ages because I love florida, all it's wilderness and reptiles of course.

  For those who haven't read it it's basically about a swamp themed tourist trap with a family that wrestles alligators. The mother who is the main attraction of the park, dies so the park struggles. In the meantime, the oldest daughter has discovered that she can summon ghosts and runs off to marry one, so her little sister (also the narrator of the story) must take her secret albino alligator, and a gypsy birdman into the "underworld" to retrieve her sister before she kills herself.
So. Freaking. Interesting.
Russells voice, from the works of hers I have read, is a seamless merging of supernatural and natural. Just like vampires in the Lemon Grove, Swamplandia depicts a normal (but interesting on its own) situation, with some supernatural element thrown in and the characters respond to these supernatualities in the exact way I think real people would respond to such things.
Her voice is playful, yet with a darker undertone. Very dark things seem to happen very causally in both of the stories of hers that I have read. In "Vampires in the Lemon Grove" a girl is murdered when the vampire gives into temptation and drinks her blood. But this is hardly treated as a big part of the story, nor was anything leading up to that. In swamplandia, a young girl is raped and her sister tries to hang herself but these things do not take over the story. They just kind of happen.
Another thing I can tell Russell is very good at is metaphors.
She often times in swamplandia, compares things to alligators. she describes an old man as wrinkled and cold hearted, with an ugly gnarled face like an alligator, looking at you with glossy eyes. Not only does this type of description give us an immediate picture of the man in question, it also brings the theme and focus of the story back into place, even if the characters are no longer in the swamp.

It was really quite a good book. I would recommend it. Mostly because of Karen Russell's writing but also because alligators are so cool.

A POINT OF VIEW SHOT FADES IN FROM A STARRY BLACKNESS. THE LANDSCAPE IS DULL AND GRAY WITH LOTS OF FOG AND LARGE GRASSY HILLS STRETCHED OUT IN FRONT OF THE CHARACTERS HANDS WHICH ARE STUCK OUT AS IF HOLDING HORSE REINS BUT NONE ARE THERE. THE SOUND OF HORSE HOOVES CLACKING CAN BE HEARD, SO THE CAMERA POINTS AT UNFAMILIAR FEET THAT SEEM TO BE ATTACHED TO HIS BODY.

WADE

"Huh?"

He stops walking and the hoof sounds cease. As he starts walking again he hears them and the camera turns to an over the shoulder shot where we see the clearly iconic "Patsy" of "Monty python and the holy grail"

WADE

"Ohh!"

Wade begins to laugh

A RED "-100" APPEARS IN FRONT OF THE CAMERA BEFORE FADING AWAY.

A WIDE CAMERA VIEW SHOWS THEY ARE APPROACHING A CASTLE

ARTIMIS

You're in Monty Python and the Holy Grail! Do you know all the dialogue?

A CLOSEUP ON WADE/KING ARTHUR'S EYES SHOWS THAT HE'S LOOKING TO THE LEFT

IN A POV SHOT WE SEE THAT HE HAS PULLED A CHAT WINDOW INTO THE LEFT CORNER OF HIS DISPLAY

WADE

(typing)

No shit sherlock! Of course I know the dialogue, I've only seen this movie 100 times!

(in king arthurs voice)

HOLD!

VIDEOGAME SIMILATED CASTLE GAURD

Who goes there?!

WADE/KING ARTHUR

It is I, Arthur, son of User Pendragon from the castle of Camelot!

ARTIMIS

Giggling uncontrolably

A POV SHOT REVEALS THAT A GREEN "+100" HAS APPEARED ON WADE'S DISPLAY

MIT world building

What are the primary features of this world--spatial, cultural, biological, fantastic, cosmological? 

In this story, we are placed in a very realistic portrayal of cheesy tourist Florida. The palm fronds, trees, and dry looking, but plentiful shrubbery that we (as florida residents know) is very true and close to home. The only real fantastical part of this story is just the one in a million chance this girl has to sell her sculpture to a celebrity.

What is the world’s ethos (the guiding beliefs or ideals that characterize the world)? 

It is hot and humid and everybody seems slow and lazy, even during their heated moments. The police don’t seem urgent, and even the daughter just sits home and smokes while her father is missing.

What are the precise strategies that are used by its creator to convey the world to us and us to the world? 

Her writing is slow and drawn out and the details of the environment seem dull. She uses really average sounding adjectives to describe the places they go. This gives it the hot and slow moving feel that the story has. This is exactly what the environment is so it works perfectly in her favor.

How are our characters connected to the world? 

This world is new to the characters so they find it fascinating.

And how are we the viewer or reader or player connected to the world?

We specifically are connected to the world the most because we live here but others may feel connected from a visit there where they can remember what it was like or if they have visited a similar kind of place.

The first time I went to rainbow springs was last summer and I was carsick the whole way there. That’s a three-hour drive from Ring-a-ling so you can imagine I was pretty relieved when the car finally stopped and we all got out. This was the first time I had ever been to a Florida spring. They’re amazing. Please go if you haven’t been. 10/10 would recommend to a friend.

But don’t get car-sick on the way there.

0/10 would not recommend car-sickness.

The state park itself is so-so. Very crowded. The day we went was a hot and sticky florida-summery kind of day so hot and sticky humans flocked there. What the park was known for (besides the spring itself) was its “waterfalls”.

Let me tell you, I have seen waterfalls. These were “waterfalls”.  Totally man made, pumps were visible, and you hardly had to walk twenty feet to see all of them.

But the spring itself, uh! Let me tell you…

There’s a reason people used to think these springs had magical healing abilities. They literally look like a desktop background. The water is SO clear and blue and full of this lush green underwater grass, but the swimming area brought back memories of my childhood soccer team. The size of the blocked off area we could swim in was about the same as the tiny grass field, and there was an official looking fat-guy with a megaphone yelling at us all to stay on that tiny field.

That was the first I knew of rainbow springs state park. (The next time we met was a much better story, don’t worry.) and after that, I was hooked on springs.

We planned the trip the night before. We’ll go to Silver Springs state park because neither of us has been there and it looks AH-may-zing. We left the next morning bright and early. I forgot my camera batteries, and he forgot the bananas we were going to feed to the monkeys but it ended up being fine. My camera broke anyways and the monkeys could have given us rabies. Silver springs was probably the most beautiful place I have ever seen. A thin mist sat over the crystal clear water under a tunnel of bright green sunfiltered trees. Here’s a photo I took before my camera broke.

As you kayak through the tunnel of trees, you come across an abandon campsite from the 50’s with big log cabins and a sunken tugboat. Also, silver springs is one of the only places in Florida with wild monkeys. Crazy right? 10/10

The only thing we were sad to hear about silver springs, is that you’re not allowed to swim there. As you can see from the photo, we had brought our snorkel gear! (we ended up swimming anyways but shh don’t tell anyone).

When we were done there, I suggested we go to rainbow springs which was only 30 minutes away and I knew for a fact that we could swim there.

Once we got to rainbow springs we found a place to undock the kayak. We asked other kayakers. “Are we allowed to swim here?” and they just shrugged. “I don’t see why not!”

That was exactly the answer we were looking for. We kayaked excitedly at first. We asked people around where the best place to swim was and the answer was always the same. Upriver, upriver, upriver.  So upriver we went. As you can imagine, we had been up very early, kayaking all morning, and now we were a little pooped. We joked that we should just grab onto someone’s boat as they passed and let them tow us upriver.

We had to stop. We tied the kayak to a tree and hopped out into ankle deep water right in front of a tunnel leading deep into the forest. As we were about to enter the tunnel, a boat full of drunk people pulled up.

“HeeeeEEEEYyyyyy. Are you guys going in the tunnel?”

“Yeah we are!”

We started walking away, trying to avoid drunken idiocy. They yelled after us:

“Our friends had sex in that tunnel!”

“Awesome!” We yelled back.

In the middle of the tunnel was a fence. “No Tresspassing” the sign told us.

“Yes trespassing” the cut lock and swung open fence, told us.

Here’s a picture of the tunnel:

As we were walking out of the tunnel we ran back into our drunken friends from earlier.

            “Heyyyyy its you guys! How’d you like the tunnel!”

We said we liked it and began to climb into our kayak.

            “Are you guys going upstream?”

We stopped kayaking away. “Yeah why?”

“That’s where we’re going! You should let us tow your kayak!”

Now that was an offer our tired arms couldn’t refuse

Grand Budapest

This thing that is the most obvious to me about Wes Anderson and Zweig, is the absolute level of complete adoration Anderson feels towards this guy. He has based so much of his works off Zweig's work or Zweig himself. It's almost like, he read every word of his writing and then wanted more so he read every aspect of his life and personality. I'm sure when the two met there was a bit of

It also surprises me that he flat out admits: "I also read the The Post Of ice Girl, which had been only published for the first time recently. The Grand Budapest Hotel has elements that were sort of stolen from both these books"

Like, um. Thats stealing. Isn't stealing bad? I guess not if it produces beautiful works.

I think the main aspect of story that anderson has taken from Zweig, was the importance of character.

What I mean is, in Zweig's stories, all of the characters are very flushed out. They each have a personality and a back story that make them very appealing. So even if the introduction of this character holds no importance to the story, and doesn't do anything for carrying the story forward, we learn about the character anyways.  This leads us into a network of "side stories" that can distract from the main focus of the characters, but personally I find it highly appealing. For example, in the grand Budapest hotel 

a notably insignificant character is introduced and flushed out. That guy who pardons them of their offense of the train. We learn all about his backstory and how he knows M. Gustave and how kind he was to him as a boy. this is an entirely unnecessary side story. But is it enjoyable to watch? And does it make the characters more appealing? 

Heck yeah.

I said : "That there man has some True Grit"

In my reading of "True Grit" by Charles Portis (Or rather, listening, as I don't apparently have time for reading anymore but I can listen to audiobooks and animate at the same time) I learned a lot about what it means to be an american. Well, an american in that age anyways. But first I wanted to know, what is "grit" anyways? From the context clue in the book, I'd guess that it means toughness, manliness, or bravery perhaps. Lets google it shall we?Grit: "courage and resolve; strength of character." Okay so I was close.

This story represents america because, c'mon it doesnt get much more 'merica than an old western! There has always been a huge association between america's humble beginnings and westward expansion. Mattie also seems to represent "american ideals". She is a woman, and also a very young one, but she goes forth to avenge her fathers death without the help of any of her family. Just a couple of thugs she has hired herself. She sounds like a very brave and free spirited person, does she not? What is america's catchphrase again? Land of the... FREE and the home of the....BRAVE!
You go girl. 

On top of this already very free and brave character, what does she have? MORALS. and? AN EDUCATION. WOW.  She actually represents everything america wants to be. She is anti-drinking, smoking, losing, wimping out, being told what to do, and backing down. She loves Jesus and reading and family and guns. Doesn't get more america than that. 

True story: I have a penpal in New Zealand who visited me over the summer. He and I plus two of my more adventurous friends went on a camping trip. Kiwi's are known for being very quiet, polite, and peaceful. My friends and I are known for being adventurous, loud, and very free spirited. We would go off on hikes and every time we would yell to eachother, climb something dangerous, cuss, or run off on our own adventures he would just shake his head and say: You american girls are all just living up to your own stereotype." 

That's just it! the american stereotype is free spirited, adventurous, go getting types of girls. Just like Mattie.  MERICA! 

The screenplay I chose to read was The Empire Strikes Back (Original Leigh Brackett version). The thing I found the most interesting about it was that there was a lot of raw-ness about it. There were handwritten annotations that I wasn’t expecting and you could tell it was done on a typewriter because the mistakes were “X”ed out.  Also some of the bottoms of the pages were missing. I really enjoyed the experience of reading my first screenplay. I especially like how its basically like a movie playing in your head and I love how the inner thoughts and intentions of the characters are written out because we would never see those things on screen unless they were acted out in a very cheesy way or spoken aloud. I think next I am going to read the “Eternal sunshine of the spotless mind” one because that is my all time favorite movie.  I mean ugh there’s just so much emotion in that movie and the acting is so good and I love the way the story is told where it starts with the present then goes back into the past, then goes back way far into the past and we see all his memories of his two year relationship in order and then back to the beginning of the movie and continuing in the present. Its so well filmed and the soundtrack and the ending… UHGG!!!  SO GOOD. I have watched it like a bazillion times.

ANYWAYS back to the actual assignment: Starwars, right.

IF I were an actor in this movie, I would probably be Chewbacca.  I mean come on lets be real he was the best character other than R2D2. But If I were an actor with a role like Chewies, (or artoo for that matter) who has no real dialogue, I would still have an easy time acting the part because the script is well written enough that all of my dialogue, even thought its just unintelligible sounds, is written out to have a purpose and be treated as if it is real dialogue.  This, I think is the most impressive part of the script and makes it so much better than other scripts with nonhuman characters who don’t speak.