Harper Lee uses a biblical illusion in to kill a mockingbird to both foreshadow and to illude to to how Atticus is like Jesus, that he is doing nothing wrong and having to sacrifice himself for others, and the people that are killing him in this case is the jury and citizens of maycomb, the head judge is god and he has sent his favourite “son” to be sacrificed the quote is “let this cup pass from you eh”
Author: Henry Howeld
Henry Olonga: Blood Sweat and Treason
This book is an autobiography written by Henry Olonga, a Zimbabwean Cricketer. It follows the story of his life, and the one incident that would morph into his identity.
Most people know Olonga as the man that wore the black armband in a world cup cricket match to mourn the death of democracy in Zimbabwe. He did this despite the Zimbabwean player code which stated that players could not bring political views onto the field, and certainly not demonstrate the views on the field. The man he protested with was the Zimbabwean national captain, (and most valued player) named Andy Flower. Andy was white, Henry was black. Their move showed that both races were in union, and inspired all people in Zimbabwe to stand up to the oppressor, a certain Robert Mugabe.
The consequences of the two players actions were that they were both dropped and were forced to flee the country. They both moved to England after constant death threats from the Zimbabwean government directed at both the players and their families.
Maybe Henry is not the most classic of anti hero’s but I think the mixed reaction that Andy and Henry got from the rest of Zimbabwe drew great comparisons with those views that are commonly directed at the more classic anti heroes such as Donny Darko
John Martyn- The Man, The Legend, The Monster
The intro of many John Martyn tunes are melodic, chirpy, masterful, folky and honest. I cannot recreate a literary version of that for this intro as I haven’t had enough lifetime sadness, my heart hasn’t been filled with deep, dark regret, anger and most importantly, I haven’t drunk and smoked to depths that the human body physically can not repair.
It seems that these are the recurring themes of every person behind most of my favourite songs and records personal life, which is a harem of enchanting, haunting and surreal to hear as a young musician looking at their inspirational hero’s for inspirational hero-like idea’s, phrases and events. This is disconcerting as the people that drive you and inspire you do all the things that the people around you and in control of you, say are wrong. Most confusing of all, these musicians seem most proud of it and had their most personal, happiest moments whilst in this state of mind ad physical activity that is too dark in in the depths of emotion, too feverish for any responsible up bringer to encourage.
John himself is the perfect example of this, he was often described as violent , selfish and horrible to be around. People literally couldn’t stand being around him. Yet he is proud to be that kid of person. Not one thriving off sadness but certainly not driving out pain upon impact. John uses the word ‘carthartic’ a lot to describe his music and why he wrote it. He feels it right to experience mental pain and breakdown, and using drink and drugs certainly helped John get to the bottom of his sadness.An direct quote from the documentary was “If he wasn’t drunk or high he was trying to get drunk or high, constantly” This was coming from his first wife Beverly Martyn, another folk singer who was the subject of many an enchanting love song written by John up untill 1980. Then on he had to push Island records to release the dark disturbingly sad and deep records following his break up.
Yet he is proud to be that kid of person, and he has had many bad things happen to him, to name a few: The horrible breakup of his first marriage, the death of his second wife, being horribly drunk and stoned every night, his leg being amputated, death of a child, not aloud to see his many children. These paved the way for some of the greatest, musically most honest, and emotional songs ever written, that i would dream to have the capacity, skill and way with language to write…but I don’t want to ever go through any of those things John has. These songs make John an anti hero because they help others, including himself, to release pain and travel to a mental state of content, happiness, or to simply get lost in the music and feel a spiritual standstill within your whole body, which in my opinion, is why I listen to music.
But I feel music you make isn’t your music if it is not honest. You cannot put on a musical toupee and become someone else for your music. But then how can you judge what is honest? Which brings me back to these exploreable but in no way fully answerable questions:
Do you have to experience physical or mental pain to feel happy and content?
Do you have to experience sadness or pain and suffering to write honest mystical songs?
What is by define, an honest song?
You can tell more about someone from how they speak than what they say.
You can tell more about someone from how they speak than what they say. Words are universal. Anyone can repeat any word or phrase they are given, use any set of words they hear. Whereas, every humans face is different, so everyones facial expressions when talking are different. A happy expression on 1 persons face is hugely different to another’s happy face! You can tell a lot more about how they perceive the words that flow from their mouth, if they are passionate about the words they say, whether they are paticularly disheartned or upset about what their talking about.
Another form of understanding the character of a human is the tone of which they communicate. The phrase ”That’s bloody brilliant” for example can be said in several ways. For example someone could be genuinely happy or excited at an happening, that would sound entirely different from someone who said that in a dry, sarcastic tone. This in turn would sound much harsher and be said much slower than someone who was upset and yet being sarcastic.
A final form of finding out more about the speakers personality, is by their hand and body movements. Hands that are moving quickly and sharply can indicate excitement, anger or frustration. This can also signify about if the person is more dramatic. Some people could say the same things and feel the same way, but not move their bodies!
To KP or not to KP
Well… to Kevin Pietersen or to not Kevin Pietersen, that is the question?
First, let’s go on stats alone:
England wins without him: 3 (7 losses)
England wins with him in last two years: 34 in all formats (12 losses)
The stats tell a story, however biased that story maybe. Whether it was right or wrong to drop him, the whole affair was handed very poorly by the ECB, and to be fair, a lot of media outlets…as they do! However, that is really what they are there for. After a long time of vague reasons and media speculation. Whatever they said to Kev, it was not particularly democratic. The main reason the ECB gave for him being sacked was:
“To help change the dressing room atmosphere, however we thank Kevin for his services to the England Cricket Team”
So in other, less political terms; He is unmanageable. Obviously Kevin’s made some mistakes, more publicized than other England players I should say, and I’m sure the ECB aren’t the only ones who are displeased with his general attire.
To counter that, there is the simple fact that:
They worked with him for 9 years already. He is not unmanageable at all.
To be continued…
Film Review: Fire in Babylon
Director: Stevan Riley
Starring: Viv Richards, Colin Croft, Andy Roberts, Joel Garner, Deryck Murray, Michael Holding and Gordon Greenidge.
Fire In Babylon is a documentary, directed by Stevan Riley, which consists of stock footage and interviews of the legends of West Indian cricket. The legends that dominated all International cricket for the best part of 20 years. The legends that were not born legends, yes… those legends.
Waddling through the 1970’s,through the racism, the rough, but sprinting, true West Indian style, through the great success’s of the next 20-30 years. The shear number of clips from this era is immense, famous to unseen. The sporting footage in this documentary is just the half of it. The interviews contained so much insight into what it was like going through the immense rollercoaster of power the West Indians went through.
Covering the infamous Kerry Packer, Tony Grieg and the Racism Row, Fire In Babylon is completed by the interviewing of the opponents. Seeing how and hearing how Sir Ian Botham, Tony Grieg and co felt about being thrown into face the dark horse of the cricketing world. Then hearing what they had to say after being beaten 4-0 at home…
The editing of the footage of the interviews and the stock footage was smooth. Although this wasn’t the biggest blockbuster of the year, it is one of it’s kind and a great stepping stone for children and kids who want to get into cricket.
How Weakness Can Become Your Strength In Sport. Version 2
HOW WEAKNESS CAN BECOME YOUR STRENGTH.
In sport, the main objective is to succeed in what you specialize in. In Amateur sport, the way you do this is often by talent or by pure skill over the opponents .In professional sport, however, it’s more about margins of error, the little things you do wrong, but mostly, confrontation. Confrontation, whether this be by sledging an opponent, or by going out of your comfort zone. When being attacked or confronted, the player doing so will always be looking at your strengths and weaknesses as a competitor. In sports like cricket and football, teams pay money for opponents to be analysed, to try and get an upper hand when coming up against them. One example of someone being analysed, would be, a footballer, people like Messi, get analysed all the time! What foot they use, signature tricks, stuff like that. This is an anylsis.
The one problem for me in this, is that everything gets a little mechanical. Thinking and common sense goes out the window. An example would be, the England cricket team playing South Africa last Summer. At that time, there was a lot of hype going on in the media about it being the no.1 series, as whoever won would go top of the world rankings. As a consequence of this there was a lot of analytical work put in to each South African batsmen about where they we most prone to getting out to, where their comfort areas were. The 1st test was played at the Oval cricket ground in London. The bowlers knew there plans right away, but didn’t make use of the natural resources around them. Great swinging conditions that could of taken the wickets of the under prepared South African batsmen were not utilized as the bowlers bowled in areas that had troubled the batsmen in the past in different conditions and different circumstances.
On this occasion the South African batsmen prevailed and England’s hopes of winning the match were left in shatters by Hashim Amla scoring a mammoth 311* as South Africa romped to victory securing the No.1 spot in the world rankings. In my opinion there are at least 4 nautral conditions or times where circumstance comes before talent or skill and weakness.
One other thing England didn’t take notice of was that the margin of error for some of the targets were very short, and that batsmen can adapt too. A great example of this would be Graeme Smith. Through out his career he has be shown to be tentative outside his off stump. He is a human, and has a brain, so he quickly worked out that he could cut off he angle be moving outside off stump then hitting through leg side. Although these are professional sportsman, they do have some margin for error. An example would be Joe Root, his weakness is just on his legs, but the margin for error is quite high, the angle carries the ball further down the leg side, he can leave it for a wise or easily flick it for 4.
Another example would be when Andrew Strauss faced Australia in 2010/2011 .The Australians were aware of his so called ‘Weakness’ against Spinners so they put Xavier Doherty and Michale Beer on, both inexperienced left hand spinners with a notable lack of any track records. These two din’t get any purchase on the Adelaide track, which is usually very responsive, and Andrew Strauss batted for 4 hours. The problem of this was that the new ball in Australia is very important and when they bought the spinners on in the 16th over, they used up an nautral swing, which was a key bit in Australia’s downfall. England amassed 620-5.
Also, going around the county circuit is this philosophy about comfort zones. The standard philosophy is simple really. The more you come out of your comfort zone, and confront more challenging situations, the more your comfort zone will expand. Another way of putting is your stretch, and skills , your most important is your stretch as the more comftorable you are streching, the more you can add to your armoury.
By Henry Howeld
10 Words i didn’t never know before.
Treason: In law, Treason is the crime that covers more extreme acts against someone’s nation. Sometimes it is used when a leader of a nation/movement/cult is killed or attacked.
ZAPU: Is the Zimbabwean Africa People’s Union which was lead by Joshua Nkomo was Robert Mugabe’s main opposition for the first Prime Minister of Zimbabwe.
Unilateral: Means done by or affecting only one person, group, or country involved in a situation, without the agreement of anyone else outside their party/group/hub.
Comply: Is to act or agree to the rules often set in place by a person higher in the hierarchy.
Disparities: Means a significant difference, this could be opinionated or comparing items/objects.
Guerrilla: Guerrilla warfare is way in which a small group of combatants such as armed civilians use military tactics to help them beat one another. This could be against different groups or the Military, and is often found because of ethical/racist views.
Chauffeur: A chauffeur is a person employed to drive a passenger car or limousine , often underlining wealth or fame in the passenger.
Propaganda: Propaganda is a form of advertising a point of view. Aimed towards influencing the attitude of the community, that are often not there to experience it, by presenting only one side of an argument. Propaganda statements are often exaggerated.
Beguiling: Means charming or enchanting, often in a deceptive way. It links with guile which means clever or crafty.
Pediatrician: Means a doctor that treats children, babies and teenagers.
HOW WEAKNESS CAN BECOME YOUR STRENGTH IN SPORT
HOW WEAKNESS CAN BECOME YOUR STRENGTH.
In sport, the main objective is to succeed in what you specialize in. In Amateur sport, the way you do this is often by talent or by pure skill over theirs.In professional sport, however, it’s more about margins of error, the little things you do wrong, but mostly, confrontation. Confrontation, whether this be by sledging an opponent,or by going out of your comfort zone. When being attacked or confronted, the player doing so will always be looking at your strengths and weaknesses as a competitor. In sports like cricket and football, teams pay money for opponents to be analysed, to try and get an upper hand when coming up against them. One example of someone being analysed, would be, a footballer, people like Messi, get analysed all the time! What foot they use, signature tricks, stuff like that.
The one problem for me in this, is that everything gets a little mechanical. Thinking and common sense goes out the window. An example would be, the England cricket team playing South Africa last Summer. At that time, there was a lot of hype going on in the media about it being the no.1 series, as whoever won would go top of the world rankings. As a consequence of this there was a lot of analytical work put in to each South African batsmen about where they we most prone to getting out to, where their comfort areas were. The 1st test was played at the Oval cricket ground in London. The bowlers knew there plans right away, but didn’t make use of the natural resources around them. Great swinging conditions that could of taken the wickets of the under prepared South African batsmen were not utilized as the bowlers bowled in areas that troubled the batsmen in the past in different conditions and different circumstances.
On this occasion the South African batsmen prevailed and England’s hopes of winning the match were left in shatters by Hashim Amla scoring a mammoth 311* as South Africa romped to victory securing the No.1 spot in the world rankings.
One other thing England didn’t take notice of was that the margin of error for some of the targets were very short, and that batsmen can adapt too. A great example of this would be Graeme Smith. Through out his career he has be shown to be tentative outside his off stump. He is a human, and has a brain, so he quickly worked out that he could cut off he angle be moving outside off stump then hitting through leg side. Although these are professional sportsman, they do have some margin for error. An example would be Joe Root, his weakness is just on his legs, but the margin for error is quite high, the angle carries the ball further down the leg side, he can leave it for a wise or easily flick it for 4.
Also, going around the county circuit is this philosophy about comfort zones. The standard philosophy is simple really. The more you come out of your comfort zone, and confront more challenging situations, the more your comfort zone will expand. Another way of putting is your stretch, and skills , your most important is your stretch to expand.
By Henry Howeld
Edutronic Homework 4
Task: Re-read ch 5 online – how does Orwell/Squealer use language devices to convince the other animals that there are no problems on Animal Farm?
Task.
Squealer uses several rhetorical questions to help convince the other animals that there are no problems on Animal Farm. One example being ” Surely, comrades, you do not want Jones back?” By using the rhetorical question, this is convinving the animals as they are being made to feel that they should agree and that it is common to agree with Napoleon. This particular rhetorical question, you cannot directly reply no to as an animal.
Squealer uses little known vocabulary to convince the other animals that there are no problems on animal farm. “something
called tactics. He repeated a number of times, “Tactics, comrades,tactics!” This is making the animals feel that Napoleon is more superior and is of a higher status than all of them