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Tuesday, March 1, 2011

Thinking Aloud


The Idea: So if any of you have seen Scott Pilgrim vs. The World, there is a pretty sweet scene in which Scott's band goes up against a rival group in a battle of the bands competition. This scene inspired me to apply the same idea to two Shakespearean speeches. Seeing as how we just read Act 3 Scene 2 of Julius Caesar as a class, everyone should be familiar with Mark Anthony and Brutus' speech regarding Caesar's murder. As I briefly mentioned in class yesterday, I would like to solicit two bands to write two different songs, one using parts of Mark Anthony's speech and the other using parts of Brutus' speech. With these songs I would like to do one of two things: 1. Hold a battle of the bands in which both bands would play five songs each, including their Shakespeare inspired song. The bands would alternate between songs and would play facing each other with the crowd in-between them. At the end of each bands five song set, the crowd would decide which band did a better job of adapting their song to the context of the speeches. 2. Have the two bands record their Shakespeare inspired songs and post them on Facebook or Blogger. On either site, people would be able to listen to both songs and would be able to decide which song works best with the their assigned speech.

I know both ideas seem complicated, but I think it would be really cool if it all worked out. As of right now, I am leaning towards the second option due to the amount of work the first would entail. However, if someone would be up for helping me plan and schedule the first idea, I would not be opposed to working on it.

To make this work, I need some help finding at least two groups who would be willing to write Shakespeare inspired songs. This is an open invitation so, if anyone from the class would like to try their hand at writing a song based on Mark Anthony or Brutus' speech, they are more than welcome! It might actually be better if we had two people from class participating instead of just some random groups or songwriters.

Give me some feedback!

Here is a link to the Scott Pilgrim vs. The World movie trailer for all of those who may be interested. It is a pretty unique/interesting/strange movie. Enjoy!



Comments (2)

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Brandon! I think that that sounds like a really great idea! I like how different it is. You are right, it is somewhat complicated, but I think it's possible. I have a band of guys from my old ward that I could talk to about it and see if they're interested. I don't know if they would be due to the fact that I'm not sure that they've writen any songs yet, but I can feel it out and let you know!
I have no experience writing songs, but I have written some poems. I would love to help out, unless you just want the speeches put to music without any alteration, which might be more in harmony with Professor Burton's requirement. I did get to see Scott Pilgrim, and that battle of the bands scene was incredible. I think there might be some cross over characters in the movie from some of Shakespeare's plays. For instance, the hot headed first evil ex reminded me of Tybalt, mainly because of his eagerness to be the first evil ex to engage Scott and his blind hatred for Scott that is drawn out more than the other ex's. Anyways, let me know if you want me to try to put a speech to verse or not.

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