Popol Vuh

This is an Mayan theory about how the world was created: the sky, sea, and darkness was already just existing, but there was no living thing nor light. the gods wanted to create something that could praise them, so after that the creation of earth was made by the gods, with light trees, rocks, grass etc., and the base to create living beings that had a will was set. after that the gods created animals, but the animals couldn’t praise the gods so they were eliminated, then the same happened to the wooden man, the gods next creation, they couldn’t praise to them neither, after that 2 gods decided it would be right to kill the god of the sun and his 2 sons, one that created mountains and one that moved them, so they killed them. END. not the best story I’ve read really, if you want a better reading try Beowulf the post is down on this blog. thanks

Trickster Folktales

As in wikipedia says a Trickster i an: "The definition of a trickster according to several sources is: a mischievous supernatural being  found in the folklore of many primitive people; sometimes distinguished by prodigious biological drives and exaggerated bodily parts. a trickster leads you to believe is something that is not true, it’s a deceiver and cheater that plays tricks on others, more often than not, an animal ."

Trickster play big roll in american and african culture. There are a lot of histories of Trickster in most of the them they show as animals that tricks people to make things that only benefits them. but there are exeptions of stories that put Tricksters as good people that help a town or childrens or things like that.

Stories
Brer Rabbit:  Brer Rabbit causes his own misfortune more often than not; however he posseses the capability of slipping away from trouble. Brer Fox is the name of his nemesis, hes also a trickster that tries to constantly trick the rabbit despite of the rabbit always getting out of it.

Anansi the Spiderand: Anansi the Spider is a god of the West African Ashanti tribe, he ruled and created the first humans. His stories involves, of course, trickery.

Beowulf

There was town were the king all all the warriors everyday make parties were the womans were like a sex toy and all the mens were drunk. One the the Demon Grandel get pissed of because the music was too loud and they don't control them selfs. There wasn's someone tahtcan face the demon, so he go to the town and kill a lot of people and warriors. The new spare fast and warriors of all the world came to face the demon but no one could beat he. But one they a powerful warrior came to the town he's name was Beowulf and with courage and agility he beat the monter and the town was happy again.

Epic of Sundiata

An Mandinka king who one day received a divine hunter at his court, this hunter predicted that if he married an ugly woman, she would give him a son who would one day be a mighty king. The thing is that the king was already married and had a son with her. but the king tried to follow the prophecy when an ugly hunchbacked woman was presented to him by two hunters and married her. they had a son named Sundiata who was unable to walk throughout his childhood. after a while the king died and the first son who was not from the ugly woman assumed the throne despite his wishes to fulfill the prophecy. Then Dankaran (the new king) insulted the mother of Sundidiata, so him, his mother and his family started to hate them for this, this provoked that Dankaran exiled them from the kingdom. after that a wizard attacked the kingdom and caused Dankaran to flee, the people called for Sundiata and gathered a few small territories and small kingdoms, Sundiata was named king of kings (Mansa) after waging war to the wizard, in the Bali empire.

Tao Te Ching

Tao Te Ching = The Scripture of the Path and the Virtue.

 This is really fundamental to the Taois school of chinese philosophy. the book is mostly of short essays approaching the features od Tao (like the Christ of those people) and the art of following Tao.
 Tao is the supreme goal for Taoists. It include:

• we need to appreciate everything that surround us material or temporal and we must not ask for more than what nature gives us 
• we can talk and think of divinity, but we cannot achieve it. 
• in order to value the world and the things that you have you must know fear
• there is an opposite to everything but we must embrace both sides to triumph and not just focus on 1 things

I have a really bad time reading this because is a relly hard text, im no exactly sure id i get what the autor was trying to tell, because the traslations and some stuff were different from the first text

Tales of Genji

The story is about a Japanese emperor that become father because one of his concubines have a child. This concubine was the one that the he love the most. the concubine die and the child( Genji ) go to his grandma's house to live there. The grandma die and the Genji come to his father house. both the emperor and Genji was really sad. Genji got a ceremony for having the age of an adult. the emperor found a girl that was similar to Genji's mother and present it to Genhi. Genhi and this woman marry and everyone became happy. The end.
I really like this history and it was really easy to read in comparison with other lectures that Mr. Harrys send to us.

The Believers

We read an extract from the Koran for this assignment. The Islam religion is very different from the Catholic religion, but I think that there are some similarities:

1-I understood is that God controls everything and that he could punish you and have no mercy.This reminds me of the old testament in the Bible there are a lot of books that God sends a tragedy to the earth in a way to punish the world.

2-It also says that if you follow the rules of God here on earth God will rewarded you when you die.

the Mahabharata

This storyis one of the 2 biggest stories of ancient india. Im only gonna talk about a little part (Adi Parva) of the history witch is this:  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g_CDAa-Xug8&feature=fvsr

Now that you’ve seen the video you got an idea of how the story goes. but we have a correction, the goddess first begged the king of the video’s father to allow her to be the wife of his son, and after the king has his firstborn child and he grows up that’s when the goddess returns and the now grown-up kid asks her to marry him.

My Opinion: I really didn't like it because i didn't like the way that they narrate the history I prefer more the romans' stories. An it didn't catch me. but setting that aside it’s still better than a lot of other philosophies and religion I’ve seen… and the fact that they try to have a moral and teach you something it’s appreciated for example how would a mom kill 7kids, god or not that’s insane, so much for setting an example, i don’t think being human is a curse, but just because i have it my mom’s gonna drown me, that’s nuts, period. i mean, i’m going to respect the people that believe all this i’m not trying to offend anyone but it’s just not my thing, i don’t think a god who is supposed to be perfect and should be an example for us would kill their own kids and after that leave their husband/wife in pain and grief.

Trojan's Woman

Euripides’s tragedy “The Trojan Women” is a very interesting topic to play out in a movie because of the different positions the characters have on accusing Helen of being innocent or guilty. If you look on Helen side, acting as a damsel in distress, she can up to a certain point, be declared innocent because she was supposedly forced to do everything she did by the gods, or the men that had control over her. But if you really consider the facts, no woman is that innocent to do such things only for love or by force, there has to be other reasons hiding under her sleeve. She is seductive, and only looks out for herself, when she knows danger is coming she runs the other way leaving behind everything and everyone, and when she comes back she expects to be received with open arms. Queen Hecuba was right to let her explain because everybody deserves to be listened to; she is a wise woman, but also she is full of grief and anger. Helen is responsible for the death of all her loved ones and the destruction of her kingdom, she will obviously want to see her dead, but she isn’t blinded by that anger and lets her speak. And finally we have King Menelaus, Helens former husband. He listens to her but is not fooled by the reasons Helen gives to declare her innocence and does the correct thing to take her to Greece to be killed there, but there is always the possibility that Helen convinces the King hat she is innocent, considering her beauty and her intelligence she might get away with it, but we won’t know unless we see the whole movie. In this case, it is very difficult to really declare the innocence or guiltiness of Helen because the are many versions of the story, and the one you chose to believe, that will give you the answer on when ether killing Helen is the right thing to do. There is never a side that is a hundred percent right or wrong, but it’s the one we chose to believe.

Animal Storie

Duff, Fife, and Triona were playing a game of hide and seek. The woods in the glen were a great place to play. There were so many hiding places. Duff, a big, brown bear, ran and hid behind a boulder. It was brown like he was, so it was hard to see him. Fife, a raccoon, hid among a pile of sticks and twigs lying on the ground. He was nearly invisible. Triona counted to ten. "Here I come, ready or not," she called.

Duff and Fife giggled as the chipmunk looked for them. "I see you, Duff," she called. "You’re behind that boulder. Come out. You’ve been caught." Duff stood up. He was much bigger than the boulder and furrier too.

Triona ran through the woods, looking up into the trees and behind black currant bushes. "I see you, Fife. You’re hiding under those twigs and sticks. I can see your striped tail. Come out. You’ve been caught," she called. Fife stood up. He had to pull bits of twigs and dead leaves from his fur.

"It’s my turn to count," whined Duff. "I was caught first." Triona and Fife were about to run and hide when the three of them heard a loud roaring noise. "What was that?" Duff asked.

Fife looked at the bear. "I thought it was you. It sounds like a big animal, like a bear."

"It wasn’t me," Duff assured his friends.

ROAR! ROAR! ROAR!

"It’s coming closer. We’d better all hide," Triona squeaked. The three animals ran and hid behind the boulders. "Be very quiet so it doesn’t hear us," she warned.

ROAR! ROAR! ROAR!

"It’s coming into the woods," Fife gulped. "What if it’s a monster?" he whispered.

"Shhh, Fife. Don’t make any noises at all," Triona said.

Just then a highland cow came into the woods and stopped near the boulders. "Why, it’s only Lorna," Duff said.

"Lorna, why are you roaring like that? You’re not a monster and you’re not a lion. You’re supposed to moo," Fife said.

"Hee hee. I tried to scare you and see that it worked. I want to play hide and seek too," Lorna laughed.

Feeling relieved to see the cow, the others climbed out from behind the rocks. "Okay, Lorna, you can play, but you have to be the one who counts first," Duff said.

"That’s fine. You three go and hide and I’ll count," Lorna said. "MOO! One. MOO! Two……..MOO! Ten! Here I come."

They played hide and seek for hours. Lorna had a harder time hiding because she had big handlebar horns, but managed to have fun with the others.

Music Assigment

1. Beethoven - 6th Symphony - Pastoral
Fast or slow? slow
Loud or soft? Loud
What instruments are playing? 2 flutes, 2 oboes, 2 clarinets in B flat, 2 bassoons, 2 horns in F and B flat, 2 trumpets in C and E flat, 2 trombones, timpani and strings.
Are there voices? No
Does the music sound easy or difficult to play? Difficult
What is the music for – quiet listening, dancing, a big concert? Big Concert
Research: Beethoven was always a nature lover. He passed his days in the Springfield. The symphony was presented in a big concer in the Theater an der Wien de Viena, el 22 de diciembre de 1808.. The compositor say: “the 6th symphony express more feeling than pinture and sounds”. This symphony break the classic model having 5 movements instead of only 4.


2. Los Saicos - Demolicion
Fast or slow? Fast
Loud or soft? Loud
What instruments are playing? 1 Drum, 1 guitar, 1 bass and 1 microphone
Are there voices? Yes
Does the music sound easy or difficult to play? Easy
What is the music for – quiet listening, dancing, a big concert? Dancing
Research: The Saicos is a garage band rock and proto punk band formed in 1964 in Lima, considered precursor punk. Despite its short existence, was one of the most successful groups of their Tima. was the first band to record in South America and one of the first to write Their own songs in Spanish. had a visceral and aggressive style yet really fun. of his best known singles are "Demolition", which has become an anthem Peruvian rock and eventually music and appreciation for the band spreads worldwide.



3. Carlos Montoya, Farruca
Fast or slow? Fast
Loud or soft? Loud
What instruments are playing? Guitar
Are there voices? No
Does the music sound easy or difficult to play? Difficult
What is the music for – quiet listening, dancing, a big concert? Quiet listening
Research: was a prominent Flamenco guitarist and a founder of the modern-day popular Flamenco style. His unique style and successful career, despite all odds, have left a great legacy for modern day Flamenco. It is because of his pioneering work in popular Flamenco music that have allowed other great modern groups to take hold in all parts of the world. A few of his video recordings can still be found on YouTube.


4. Wesley Willis, “Rock’n’Roll McDonald’s”
Fast or slow? fast
Loud or soft? loud
What instruments are playing? Piano, Bass, Drums, syntotizer, microphone
Are there voices? Yes
Does the music sound easy or difficult to play? No
What is the music for – quiet listening, dancing, a big concert? Dancing
Research: Wesley Willis (May 31, 1963 – August 21, 2003) was an American singer-songwriter and visual artist from Chicago, known for his simple but unique music, with emphasis on his humorous, bizarre, and frequently obscene lyrics. A diagnosed chronic schizophrenic, Willis gained an enormous cult following in the 1990s. In addition to his large body of solo musical work, Willis fronted the punk rock band the Wesley Willis Fiasco. He was also a visual artist long before his forays into music, and produced hundreds of intricate, unusual, colored ink-pen drawings, most of them of Chicago streetscapes and CTA buses




5. Frank Sinatra, “I’ve Got the World on a String”
Fast or slow? Slow
Loud or soft? Soft
What instruments are playing? Microphone,
Are there voices? Yes
Does the music sound easy or difficult to play? Difficult
What is the music for – quiet listening, dancing, a big concert? quiet listening
Research: "I've Got The World on a String" is a 1932 popular song composed by Harold Arlen, with lyrics written by Ted Koehler. It was written for the 1932 Cotton Club Parade.It was introduced by Cab Calloway and Bing Crosby. It was also recorded by Frank Sinatra in 1953. It reached #14 on Billboard's most played list.

Flood Assingments

What are important similarities between the stories?

1. They mention the number 7 a lot.
2. There where a ship or an ark to save the humans, and the animals (witch were the same).
3. They principal characters were warned by their gods about the flood.

What are important differences between the stories?

1. Not all the character were an important person on the culture. Example: in the Chinese story the guy was a king and in the other the characters were normal people.
2. In the bible 3 bird were send to check if the flood passed away and in the other only 2

What are the gods like in the different stories?

They are mean because they want to kill all the humans and only warned one family because they were the chosen ones to restore the earth

What is the importance of animals in the stories?

They were really important because when the flood passed away they can obtain natural sources to survive

What was difficult to understand about the stories? 

The types of words that they were using, they are so old that some words that they mention aren't mentioned in the present 

Why do Utnapishtim, Noah, Deucalion, and Manu deserve to survive when other people will die in floods? 

 Because they are all forgiven by the gods, apparently they are decent people how deserve to survive and become the need habitants of earth.  

Stonehenge

  Stonehenge is one of the little amount of the prehistoric art left in the United Kingdom. People from around the world like archaeologist, scientific and even normal people like you and me love this buildings, But the rare thing about Stonehenge is that no one know exactly why the were built. Some theories say that the were use as a place for sacrifice people, other ones say that was a place to connect to the gods, but no one know exactly their function. 


  The construction of this buildings was divided by 3 steps:

1. The circular bank was made. it is the one that gives it the circle form from the exterior. This is so awsome because they don't have the tools that now day we have to make circles, but without our tools the still made a perfect circle!
2. When the circle was done, the architects started putting big rocks in for of "post and lintel" making wide circles in the inside.
3. Finally they put the Bigger rocks in an interior circle.

  They used a mortise and tenon technique. This really took my attention because the people that built this were so intelligent! With this tecnique they built perfect circles and all the details of this place. this guys made this magnific pice of art whit really basic things. and its so impressive that we can still see Stonehenge, that the time dont destroy this place is just amazing, and we are so lucky that we can have it because it give us clues of how our ancestors lived.