Anywho, two days ago was June 6, and if you remember your world history, it's the anniversary to World War II's famous "D-Day" - when an Allied invasion force consisting of thousands of Allied soldiers, sailors, and airmen break through Nazi Germany's "Fortress Europe" and breach the Atlantic Wall. The eyes of the world were upon them. The hopes and prayers of liberty-loving people everywhere march[ed] with them. In company with their brave allies and brothers-in-arms on other fronts, [they brought] about the destruction of the German war machine, the elimination of Nazi tyranny over the oppressed peoples of Europe, and security for ourselves in a free world.
(Author's Note: Eisenhower had a pretty good speech, I'd say.)
As a bit of a World War II buff, I happen to enjoy reading about the history and the (military) technology and I think remembering the sacrifices so many made on that day 68 years ago (or any day, really) should be something everyone should do - from thanking a living veteran for their services to their country to having a moment of silence remembering those who've died for theirs. (Yeah... I totally remembered to do that last year. *headdesk*) And yes, I mean everyone. Note how I didn't specifically say "Americans" - while I believe most of my fellow countrymen are taking every bloody thing for granted, we're not the only country that seems to forget about the past (though I have to say that we're just the country with the most obnoxious citizenry).
 |
| In memory of the patriots who saved the world. |
CURRENT MUSIC:
Bear McCreary - "Kat's Sacrifice"
Battlestar Galactica: Season 3 Original Soundtrack
The season 3 score for Battlestar Galactica was one with quite a kick to it. A lot of the tracks featured in the soundtrack varied with their tone and instrumentality - and I can probably say that there's something for everyone in this soundtrack. Some bring in a fast-paced drum line to signify battle. One was a quiet piano piece meant to aurally link us to the Cylons. Some evoke feelings of bittersweet victory. One track even brings in a dirty-sounding blues riff to help link us to the common man.
Then along comes "Kat's Sacrifice," a track worthy of an honorable salute as well as a spoiler tag. A lone French horn slowly belts out the melody of the piece before it's joined and backed by softly-played strings and the pulse of Japanese taiko. Midway through, a bansuri begins to play with the theme for a bit as some of the taiko splinter off and begin to create a pulse of its own. As the French horn picks up the lead role again, the rest of the taiko come back in full force. The bansuri comes back at the end to play with the theme one last time as the taiko pound the piece to its end.
If you listen well, you'll realize that the taiko in here seem to emulate the human heart. I don't blame you if this didn't seem apparent right away - at first the drums seem to be just a basic militaristic accompaniment to the French horn. The aural metaphor doesn't reveal itself until after the bansuri begins playing around. Remember how I said that some of the taiko splinter off? Listen closely - that's an instrumental heartbeat. You'll definitely realize the connection if your chest suddenly seems to shudder in tune to the music. That's not just your heart beating along with "Kat's Sacrifice" - that's your soul realizing the gravitas of this piece.
 |
| Can you see anything out there? Neither can I! |
In the actual show, parts of "Kat's Sacrifice" play as a musical motif for Captain Louanne "Kat" Katraine during the season 3 episode "The Passage." Galactica's pilots are tasked with manually guiding civilian ships in the fleet through a large and radioactive star cluster. Each civilian ship would be escorted by a Raptor who would feed them their jump coordinates. They would jump into the blinding cluster, visually link up with their respective Raptor, and jump out. It was a lot harder than it sounds - between the high amounts of radiation, the brightness of the stars, and the sheer likelihood of the two's combined effects to disorient the ships' pilots, it was quite possible for one of Galactica's Raptors to lose the ship they were escorting. (Matter-of-fact: they did lose a few.)
Throughout "The Passage," not-so-good discoveries are made about Kat's past. Add the fact that she loses a ship in one of the earlier runs and that she's been exposed to enough radiation to stop flying, and you have someone who probably doesn't deserve anything but shame and possibly death. (At least Starbuck thinks so.) Despite this, she goes on the last run anyway, knowing full well that this flight may be her last. All the ships jump into the cluster and out - except for Kat and her charge, the Faru Sadin.
 |
| "It's them. She brought them home!" |
Heroic sacrifice, indeed - and maybe that's why I consider "Kat's Sacrifice" to be one of season 3's best pieces. Even without taking the events of this Battlestar Galactica episode into account, you can hear the themes represented in the piece and apply it to other things. The discipline of someone in some kind of (military) service thunder with the crashing taiko. The French horn blares nothing but honor and pride, and the bansuri seems to punctuate this. The "heartbeat" taiko pulses with the last heartbeats of someone who will most likely die (or has already died). The low backing strings resonate with some kind of (hollow) sadness - something to comfort your soul as the thunder of the percussion shakes your core.
While the filmographer in me could list off the many scenes and ways this track can be used, I think I found one particular moment that outshines my suggestions. Sure, I could suggest things like a "(military) funeral," a "dramatic last stand," a "final 'goodbyes' moment," or even a parody scene of any of the previously mentioned three. But what I think tops the cake right now is "Lord of the Rings" - and the above video proves it. If anything, "Kat's Sacrifice" can not only be considered as an aural salute to Captain Louanne Katraine, but also to Boromir. In that regard, this can also be considered as an aural salute to heroes everywhere - from battlefields of the past and present all the way to the heroes and heroines doing service elsewhere.
Good day, readers, and welcome to June 8! Today, the forecast says that this entry has a 100% chance of a rant induced by music. It's better than sabotage with music, because while the latter destroys your mind, the former only screws with it. (As if both could ever be good things...)
Originally, the plan was for me to type up something commemorating members of the armed forces back on June 6. As mentioned before, that didn't play out the way I wanted to. As I kept adding on to that opening, I realized that while I was commemorating heroes like crazy, it made me wonder about other things involving the term. As is usual whenever I think too much, I ended up delving a tad too far on this topic, and the resulting mess you'll read below is the result of this mental tampering. (To think that all that follows is a result of asking myself "What is a hero?")
For the sake of brevity, I'm going to use "hero" to refer to both "hero" and "heroine" from here on out today. Rather than go back and check each sentence to make sure I grammatically get most things right for both heroes and heroines, I'll just stream it down to one word so it's easier on me. (Don't take this as a sexist maneuver - I know that female heroes do exist.)
And now that all that is out of the way, let's just dive in, shall we?
A Hero to Rise
(Today's rant was brought to you in part by "Kat's Sacrifice," as featured above. Now do you see the power of music?)
A few of my work friends have this running joke that involves me, stating that I'm some kind of hero not yet accepted by his time. To understand this, we need to look at The Dark Knight and analyze the closing words uttered by Commissioner Jim Gordon:
"[He's running] because we have to chase him. Because he's the hero Gotham deserves, but not the one it needs right now. So we'll hunt him because he can take it - because he's not our hero. He's a silent guardian, a watchful protector - a dark knight."They've applied this to me by saying that I'm "the hero that Target deserves - but not the one it needs right now." One even went so far as to call me that for my World of Warcraft home server of Tichondrius, but as I haven't been doing PvP lately, it's fallen into disuse.
 |
| Modern day retail war fighting never looked so... cheesy. |
So according to this, it could be said that I am a hero - or at least aspire to be one.
Now, let me be clear here and state that I am by no means heroic. There's plenty of others out there who would laugh at the above statement and cite the reasons why I'm not one. I'm narcissistic, hot-headed, stubborn, psychotic, jaded, cynical, egotistical, deadpan, cruel, and borderline-deranged. There's a twisted sense of pride - an illogical example of "honor before reason" that seems to alter my modus operandi and cause me to be what I currently am. It can also be argued that these things aren't just mentioned by people attempting a smear campaign against me. I've been known to say these things about myself, knowingly accepting my flaws (which, I have to say, is a superpower of its own - how many others out there can admit to their crappiness?) They act as a sort of anchor, weighing me down and supposedly preventing me to become the hero my work friends say I am.
Yet despite all these negative traits, I can't help but operate on this foolhardy delusion that I actually am some kind of hero - or at least think I'm one in the works. Stubborn pride may be a bad thing, but in the right scenarios it can be a great asset in the field. Not only that, but I possess enough loyalty, determination, and a streak of honest altruism (though this is highly disputed) to rise to the challenge when necessary.
However, not all heroes need these things. Some are loud and boisterous; some are dim-witted; some want to do wrong and suck so bad that they end up doing right. Some forego honor and stick to reason, while others do stupid things because it's the right thing to do. With all these stark contrasts surrounding the many people we idolize and wish to be, it makes me want to ask some very important questions.
What constitutes a hero?
In this day and age, I'm not so sure anymore. In the past, heroes were considered to be those people who put everything on the line. There was a sense of pride and duty to them wherever they went, and they carried these things on their shoulders and with their heads held high. We cheered for their triumphs and yet they asked for no glory. We wanted to bestow honors upon them and they never really exposed to us their true identities. We wanted to immortalize them and yet they wished to die in peace. And when we saw them slain, we would mourn their loss.
Nowadays there are so many things out there... so many people who are lauded for their actions and merits... but do they really deserve it? Yes, I understand - heroism doesn't have to involve dangerous feats of fancy and the execution of amazing endeavors. However, some have taken this too far and glamorized the pomp and circumstance to the point where we almost have to do so. The "feats" of those we somehow raised to "hero" status pale in comparison to those who've done even greater. We place these phony people on a pedestal and trample those actually deserving of our praise as if they were last week's sidewalk.
And while it could be said that this particular paragraph seems to be aimed towards the mainstream media and such, just think about it - do we even publicly praise anyone whose name isn't famous? I know I haven't, so what're the odds that you did?
Digression aside, it made me ask myself one question that trumped all others earlier today.
Am I a hero? If not, could I ever be one?
Unlike the previous question, I know the answer to this one, and despite the above video, it's not Old Snake's line "I'm no hero. Never was, never will be." The answer is "No. I'm not one. Not yet." Yeah, I just contradicted myself. If you don't see how, scroll back up and look for the first sentence that was center-justified. Scroll back here and tell me I'm not typing out a juxtaposition here. *clears throat*
Every day since my high school graduation, I always strived to be one. I wanted to be
Or... so I thought. Fast forward five years into the future, and you'll arrive at... June 15, 2012 - just a mere week from today. (Wow, five years past already?) If you were to do a Google search on my name, you wouldn't get much apart from some other guy who's apparently a baseball player. I'm not famous; I'm not done with any of my projects (both in writing and in machinima); I haven't inspired anyone to pursue their own dreams and talents. I could probably say with about 90% accuracy that I've done nothing with my life. Friends have come and gone as they always do, but the total count's at a lower number than it was back then, and for potentially good reasons (although I have to say that some severed ties for completely ludicrous ones).
I looked back at various blog entries scattered across Facebook, MySpace, and here to see what has happened in these five years, and I found that I have been the following:
- overly emotional to the point of despondency
- pessimistic and doubtful
- brash and immature
- narcissistic and egotistical to the point of obnoxiousness
- a man who probably got his card revoked long before now
- horribly horrible
- selfish to the point of desiring self-gratification over everything else
- someone who truly believed love is something unattainable for him
- a horrible friend who apparently uses his friend
- a broken record prone to repeating any combination of the above
- I'm human. I'm real. I make mistakes, and so do you.
- When I say this, I can admit my flaws. When others say this without justification and blow it out of proportion, that's slander (or libel when printed). Just because I can say this about myself doesn't mean you should.
They sacrificed something so that others may gain.
I can't say that I've done the same. Five years passed and I've sacrificed nothing to better myself or the people around me. Perhaps that's what was missing this whole time, but if the formula's proven, then sacrifice need not be a heroic requirement. At least that's what it looks like at first...
 |
| Mission accomplished? Check. Crowd of people wanting to give praise? Check. Victorious pose? Check. |
I've never heard of them. You haven't either. That's because those who've risen to "hero" status either died along the way or are too self-absorbed with all the attention they're getting to care.
So, bringing us back again, allow me to ask myself one last time: am I a hero? If not, could I ever be one?
No. I'm no hero. Not yet. When the time comes, I will be the hero who emerges out of obscurity. I won't be called upon for the duty, nor will I volunteer when no one dares to rise to the challenge. When I do this, fame and attention won't be the things I'll be seeking when I perform my duties - rather, I'll have simply been in pursuit of the right thing. I won't ask for any accolades or honors in my name (though receiving them will admittedly be nice). If I die, I'll die knowing that my acts will have benefited someone in a positive way. And if something should occur that requires me to sacrifice something, I'll do it. Because I can take it.
Because I'm not a hero. Not yet.
And right now, I think that's a heroic thing to admit to you all.
Holy frak. I think I see a paper in all this. No, no - I have another one in the works. Regardless, though, I think it'd be an interesting idea to see if I could write a paper based on this. There's a few reasons I could do this:
- I can compare myself five years from now by looking at me then, then looking at me ten years ago (from that time), then by looking at this paper, and measuring my progress in-between each checkpoint.
- I have another paper under my belt.
- I can write something more... "formal" than this little rant. While some readers would appreciate the honesty and the "me-ness" on this entry, the professional world sees this kind of informal writing as anything but.
So, if you actually read through all of that, I have to say "thank you" - I'm not sure whether or not I even made sense there. I read everything I wrote when I proofread everything, and to be honest, I got lost a few times. My mind works in mysterious ways, I guess.
Until the 'morrow, everyone. Until then, try to be a little heroic today, mm'kay?
No comments:
Post a Comment