Flash Mob Performance and Music as a Detriment

So, I am taking a break from my previous analysis of musical compositions in movie adaptations of Hamlet. I am planning on doing at least three more posts before concluding my examinations. You can find the first two posts here and here.

This past Saturday, I participated in a Flash Mob rendition of a soliloquy found in Romeo and Juliet. I thought the presentation went very well as far as planning and memorization went. However, there was one thing that deterred from our magnificent presentation....the mall background MUSIC!!! As you can tell by the majority of my blog posts, I tend to believe that music enhances the worth of performances. Music usually draws viewers into a performance and helps them become more engaged with the work. During our Flash Mob presentation, the music drowned out the vocals of all the participants making it a little detrimental to the success of our rendition. Now, I understand that music can work in a positive and a negative way.

All in all the Flash Mob performance went great! It was the first time that I had ever participated in any type of performance piece and, I must admit, I was a little bit nervous and embarrassed at the start. However, when it was all said and done, I ended up enjoying myself! Major thanks to Whitney for putting the whole thing together. If anyone ever wants to do a second go-around, I'm up for it!

Here is a link to the actual video of our Flash Mob performance posted on Whitney's blog.

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!