A Poem

I'm not much of a poet, but when the occasion rises, writing a poem is good therapy for me, as it enables me to get out my feelings in a way that novel-writing can't. I dedicate this poem to my closely-knit Cunningham clan back in Georgia and to my beloved brothers and sisters in Christ at Covenant Presbyterian.


There is a bond between us,
A bond that has been grown over time,
A bond that remains over long distances,
A bond stronger than any other in this world.
When you laugh, I laugh.
When you are sad, I am sad.
When you celebrate, I celebrate with you.
When we gather in fellowship,
There is great joy in our midst,
A joy that can only come from above.
We laugh together over events that only we know about.
We rejoice when we learn of expansion.
There is a bond between us,
And none can break it.
We meet together on the Sabbath,
And together we worship our Lord and our God,
The One who brought us into His family.
We meet together on the weekends and holidays,
To talk and eat, to debate current events,
To laugh over our pasts, to talk of more sober issues.
There is a bond between us,
And none can break it.
We come together for special days,
And we enjoy each other’s company for hours,
With no sense of boredom or longing to go home.
We catch each other doing stupid things,
And then we laugh afterwards.
We run up and down the beach,
Enjoying the happy chaos while we can.
We jump in the water and tease each other,
Of beaver sharks and giant catfish.
We gather for a movie,
And we end up pulling pranks instead.
We watch new members join our merry group,
And we rejoice exceedingly.
We gather in reading, singing, and hearing,
All learning and worshipping together.
There is a bond between us,
And none can break it
It is one of God’s greatest gifts;
It is called family.

Whoo!

As of this morning, I have completed the second draft of Book 2. Granted, it is a piece of disorganized crap and is far from ready to be seen by others except for critiquing purposes. There is still a lot of work to be done, but I've never gotten this far in writing anything! The last chapter was a joy to write, with a battle and then a happy ending with the birth of a child.

I've also decided Book 2's official name (for now): "Waning Silver Moon."

Book Review: "How to Save the World Trilogy"

This is my first book review that I'll post on the blog. In one sense, it was special to read a published novel by a peer whom I met on-line. I met Nikk Fensterman in 2006 on the Binding of the Blade forum, and though we were not close, we often worked on the same role-playing stories. Because of his aspirations to write a novel, Nikk ceased posting on the forum as frequently and thus I only heard from him when he updated everyone else on his novel. It was exciting to hear that his manuscript was accepted by Tate Publishing and then published earlier this year, even though I have heard that Tate was very dishonest in handling the publishing and charged a fortune for it to happen. That aside, I decided to check out Nikk's book and see how it was. I wish I could be kinder in my review, but I'm afraid it's not possible. Frankly, I was surprised that the story was even accepted for publication. I guess it just goes to show how watered down the quality of books has become, with authors out there like Christopher Paolini and Stephanie Meyer whose books are poorly written yet devoured by thousands of raving fans. But I digress. On to the book review of Nikk's "How to Save the World Trilogy: Twins."

The book is a cross-world fantasy novel, much like CS Lewis' "Chronicles of Narnia." Twin brother and sister Timothy and Taryn Davis are living in a broken home situation and mysteriously have discovered swords and bows/ arrows, which they practice with frequently. One day, they run through the door of their house and then find themselves in the ocean. After climbing out and discovering they are wearing different clothes, they meet the wise old mentor Wyrl (much like Tolkien's Gandalf, Paolini's Brom, or LB Graham's Valzaan) who informs the twins that they are powerful individuals who will bring peace to Kumeria and defeat Argor (Tolkien's Sauron or Graham's Malek, basically Satan) forever. Over time, the twins learn to use the powers El Olam (God) has given them, defeat several enemies, travel long distances, and even find romance.

While the book sounds like the usual epic quest so commonly seen in fantasy, that is exactly what it was. I saw little of Nikk as an individual writer in the story, but I saw more of other fantasy novels than himself. The plagarism was glaring in my mind and angered me greatly. Reading it, I could not help but notice several blatant instances of plagarizing from Tolkien's "Lord of the Rings" trilogy, CS Lewis' "Chronicles of Narnia" series, and LB Graham's "Binding the Blade" series. Lewis was not as blatant, as Nikk shared some of his concepts, though similarities to Tolkien and Graham were strongly there, such as the trip through the mines that is very similar to the Fellowship's journey through the Mines of Moria and several of the names such as Minas Korinth were similar to Tolkien. Nikk merely stuck with the Lord of the Rings formula for his novel and thus showed a severe lack of imagination in this regard, much like Paolini in his "Inheritance Cycle."

Besides the plagarism, another thing that bothered me was the lack of good characterization. I could not tell the characters apart, as they were all the same. They were very inconsistent, with a character supposedly with a stern personality laughing his head off at something, and even with characters switching personalities. Timothy switched from immature to mature, with Taryn in reverse on various occasions. The wise old mentor Gandalf- er, Wyrl was supposed to be wise, yet he led a bunch of inexperienced fighters to kill a terrifying creature in the mines and often gave in to the whims of the teenagers. A similar problem with the characters was their sheer immaturity. Timothy and Taryn are supposed to be seventeen years old, but they acted and were treated like they were thirteen years old. The twins' peers are no different, acting like young teenagers and not like they have an important task to complete to save the world. Lewis' children in "Chronicles of Narnia" were much more mature than Nikk's older teenagers when Lewis wrote them as being much younger than Nikk's.

The prose of the story was no better. It sounded more like someone trying to imitate Tolkien and ending up with a watered-down version of his excellent, well-written prose. Nikk would often say one word than put a dash then a synonym afterwards, which was unnecessary and very distracting. Oftentimes he would say a word like cogg or palm and then not explain it for several pages or not at all, which made the story confusing. The accents of some of the minor characters were hard to understand, and the teens of the fantasy world often used modern words like "wow" or "ok." There were several points in the story where there was an anti-technology (or against killing animals) few sentence sermon that was not subtle and came off as very annoying and not consistent with the characters. There were several inconsistencies in the story like an all-powerful god who doesn't have power against a dragon's talons or Timothy switching from gracefully to ungracefully leaping on and off his horse when he's never ridden before. There was one romance and then a love triangle in the story, but they were the typical cliche and sappy romances and actually quite realistic for the teens' immaturities.

I wish I could have enjoyed the book more, but I fear I could not. I was severely disapppointed that Nikk has fallen into the trap that so many other young fantasy novelists have fallen into: plagarizing Tolkien, showing a lack of imagination, and not taking the time to let their story grow and develop into something that says "this is mine and not a mishmash of other people's ideas." The story, I think has potential, but it needs several more rewrites to get rid of the plagarism and to let Nikk develop his own writing style. The book may be entertaining for some people, but for those who adore Tolkien and hate Paolini, I would not recommend it at all.

I give the book 1/2 star out of 5.

Sparkles Galore

Once more, this is another Celtic Woman rant of sorts. A few weeks ago, I read the following review of Celtic Womans “Isle of Hope” show in Salt Lake City, Utah.

http://www.sltrib.com/entertainment/ci_12360534

Unlike a die-hard fan, I actually agreed with the review and its criticism of the glam of the show. Compare this review, which was done by an American, to this one done by an Irishman back in 2006:

http://www.greenmanreview.com/live/live_celticwoman_2_18_06.html

Quite a difference. Keep in mind that Celtic Woman is very popular in America but not so in Ireland.

After comparing the two reviews, I wondered if there was a difference in the way the shows had been promoted and if people considered the shows sappy and overdone back in 2005 when they first started touring. Sadly, I was not able to find much information in that arena because all the newspaper articles required me to sign up or pay to view them. It does appear, though, that even in Celtic Woman’s early days when it was hailed as a new Irish phenomena like Riverdance, it did have its own share of fans who did not like them being called “Celtic.” However, especially lately, Celtic Woman has not received very favorable reviews for its renditions of pop music and its lights, dry ice, and choreographed movements, being called sappy or other adjectives that would make fans want to crucify the reviewer. In fact, I’m certain that if any fans stumble upon this blog post that they’re sure to sharpen their knives and accuse me of not knowing what good music is.

Good music. What is good music nowadays? Getting up on stage and singing with backup dancers who provide some backup voices, wearing outrageous costumes, having a bunch of dry ice, and prancing around the stage? It seems this has become the norm if you look at artists like Brittany Spears, Katy Perry, and several hip-hop artists. For American Idol viewers, it would be like Adam Lambert and his performance with Kiss during the finale this week: costumes, lots of lights, and other fancy gadgets. Even though Lambert may be able to sing, must he cover up his talent with layers of fluff? That is what I will call this: fluff, extreme fluff. It is this category that I fear Celtic Woman has fallen heavily into.

Fluff in of itself is not bad always. Sometimes a little bit of fluff can be useful or nice if used in small amounts. I consider Celtic Woman’s original concert to have a little fluff, but it was not distracting and still enabled the audience to focus on the raw (albiet lip-synched) talent of the singers and Mairead’s fiddle playing. Here is a sample of their early talent:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KCpajl7UH3w

The singer Meav is in costume (in what fans have called “the mermaid dress”), is walking across the stage throughout the entire song, there are lights that cast a dark, mysterious air over the stage, and whatnot, but the song nonetheless is beautiful and Meav’s passion for it shines through so the audience knows that she is enjoying the singing. There is mild fluff here, but I find it almost negligable because it adds more to the song’s dark atmosphere and fits in perfectly. Now sample the next video, filmed two years later:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a6b9xzS_rDo

All six girls are in various costumes, you have fire in the background, and then several choreographed movements done by all six soloists and the choir members. They walk all over the stage, twirling their skirts and smiling the entire time. Granted, this performance is different because it was filmed outside so you cannot use the lights, but I found their Christmas performance (filmed once more at the Helix, where the original show had been filmed) was even more filled with fluff and this time was sickly sweet (hence, why the Christmas DVD is my least favorite). Here is a sample of the Christmas show:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FKrx-4Awe70

All the girls are in bright-colored costumes (not very Christmas-themed) and are certainly lip-synching to a pre-recorded track because the voices sound identical to those of what comes out of the recording studio. Not only that, but they are constantly moving all over the stage. The rest of the DVD is similar, filled with choreographed movements and fake innocent smiles.

My biggest complaint with the “A New Journey” and “A Christmas Celebration” DVDs is the lack of passion on them. Watch the original TV performance then the other two. On the first one, the singers all seem nervous and stiff, but at least they were singing their hearts out. There may be some more recent performances not that way, but Meav’s fire is gone by “A New Journey” and the entire show she looks stiff and uncomfortable and Lisa shows similar symptoms as well. By “Christmas Celebration,” Lisa is beaming (though it might have been because she was pregnant at the time) while Meav looks exhausted and distracted with no passion to her voice or her movements. I believe the passion on the first show was gone by the second and third shows because of all the extra fluff, all the movements, forced smiles, and everything else. Instead of letting the girls do as they pleased, to add their own take to the songs they chose, they told them “ok, now move here when you sing this line, then skip across the stage as the song ends.” So instead of being individual singers who are free to perform as individuals and to sing as they please, to add passion in their own ways, they become puppets, stiff puppets with no individuality.

I fear I may have gone down a bit of a rabbit trail by critiquing Celtic Woman’s three shows, but it is related to the original topic of too much fluff ruining a show. In the Salt Lake City review about the show, it does not treat Celtic Woman well, however, it does not say that the girls are untalented. I cannot remember if it was this article or another one, but someone said Celtic Woman was sappy but had a lot of talent that was being covered up by lights and fluff. This is exactly the problem: the singers’ raw talent is being covered up by lights, costumes, movements, and fake smiles. The show, while it started off with a good idea back in 2004, has turned into something fake and commerical, lights and gadgets masking the girls’ talents and making them look more like paid puppets instead of individual singers with individual talents and vocal ranges.

While I have only critiqued their DVD performances, their “live” shows on tour are much worse, in my opinion. Even though I have only watched one live show and I was in the way back, I could still tell that it was worse. The lights and choreographed movements were distracting, and just it was one mess. If the fluff had been removed from the show, I would have enjoyed it a lot more, even though I still did not like the song choices, but that is a different issue. If Celtic Woman had stuck to its original recipe of limited fluff and focused more on the singers’ excellent raw talents, then the show would be very different. Different but better, in my opinion.

Needless to say, despite this review that would be considered harsh by fans, I still enjoy Celtic Woman… as a band, not as a show. I enjoy their music, particularly from the performers’ solo CDs and from their first CD and DVD. It is on these CDs that their raw talent and their passion shine through without all the glam, and it is beautiful and enjoyable that way.

Welcome

Welcome to my new blog. The purpose of this blog is to keep up with my family and friends while I'm away in Houston, Texas over the summer and also for my European trip in September and October later this year. This blog will consist of my musical rants (usually they will be about Irish musicians; you have been forewarned... haha), possibly my novel updates, or just interesting events in my life as they happen. I guess it'll all depend upon whatever mood I'm in and what I feel like writing about.