First Position

First Position is a documentary that follows six ballet dancers as they prepare for the Youth America Grand Prix, an annual international student ballet and contemporary dance competition. The competition which was begun in 1999 by dancers, Larissa and Gennadi Saveliev of the Bolshoi Ballet, is open to students aged 9 to 19. Winners go on to dance with many prestigious companies throughout the world. Likewise, dancers come from all over the world to compete.

Miko Fogarty

This amazing documentary is a must see for those who love the arts, especially dance. Viewers are taken on a year long journey around the world, meeting six dancers; Jules Jarvis Fogarty, age 10; Aran Bell, age 11; Gaya Bommer Yemini, age 11; Miko Fogarty, age 12; Michaela DePrince, age 14; Joan Sebastian Zamora, age 16; and Rebecca Houseknecht, age 17.

Their passion for dance transcends almost all obstacles including war. First Position describes the beauty, pain and triumph of the art of dance in a way few of us have ever experienced. The film makers, Bess Kargman and Nick Higgins, were given unprecedented access to the Youth America Grand Prix venues and dancers.

This outstanding documentary which premiered at the 2011 Toronto International Film Festival will be released to theatres in May 2012.

Snow White and The Huntsman

Lips red as blood. Hair black as night. Bring me your heart my dear, dear Snow White.

I'm not a big fan of Kristen Stewart but her new movie, Snow White and The Huntsmen, looks more than compelling. Directed by Rupert Sanders, Snow White is no ordinary retelling of the fairytale, although in reality many of Grimm's fairy tales have a dark side to them that we often gloss over. I could never read them before bed when I was a child, they always made my over-active imagination run wild.

Snow White (Kristen Stewart) is the fairest in the land and Queen Ravenna (Charlize Theron) is furious. She decides that she needs the heart of Snow White so she sends her trusted Huntsman (Chris Hemsworth) to bring back her beating heart. But the Huntsman is unable to kill the young woman and instead decides to train her as a warrior who will attack the Queen.

The trailer provides a peak at a movie that presents the tale in a dark manner, with frightening monsters, a queen steeped in evil, and plenty of battle scenes reminiscent of Lord of the Rings. The movie opens in theatres, June 1, 2012.

Tempest by Julie Cross

Tempest is a difficult book to read partly because of the time travel theme, and partly because it takes the author some time to set up the entire situation surrounding the lead character, Jackson Meyer. Readers will have to be patient and continue to push forward, for all the pieces to fall into place. The result is an intriguing book with many possibilities for the next installment.

The novel starts off easily enough, narrated by Jackson, a nineteen year old sophomore attending NYU along with his sweet girlfriend, Holly Flynn. Jackson's sister, Courtney, died four years ago of brain cancer and his mother died in childbirth. His father, Kevin Meyer, is the CEO of a pharmaceutical company and as such, the family is well off. Jackson and his geek friend, Adam Silverman, have been running experiments to learn more about his time travelling abilities. It is an ability Jackson has told no one else about, not even his dad.

Everything in Jackson's life is going fine until he and Holly are attacked one morning and Holly is shot. This situation causes Jackson to inadvertently jump back to the year 2007, something he has never done before. When he tries to return, he finds he cannot, and that for some reason unknown to him, he is stuck in the year 2007.

As a result of this plot development, the next part of the novel sees Jackson try again and again to jump back to 2009, in what seems to be a confusing jumble of jumps. This makes the novel somewhat complex because the author has chosen to reveal the plot through the time jumps which means the reader learns along with Jackson. Each jump sends him either to another date in 2007 or to dates further back, such as 2004 when his twin sister Courtney was still alive or to 2003 when he and his sister were followed by CIA agents. But each of these jumps fill Jackson in more on what is really happening in his life, and none of it is what he expects.

"Honestly, most of my actions over the last couple of days had been driven by anything but logic, just a lot of fumbling through time (literally), searching for something concrete to grasp on to. Something real. Facts. Answers. I closed my eyes and focused on the date four years in the past."

Stuck in 2007, Jackson decides to connect with the much younger Holly (whom he hasn't yet met in his original time line) and Adam, hoping that the 2007 version of Adam can help him find a way to return to 2009. Also in the 2007 timeline, Jacksono confronts his father about his role in all of this. Gradually Jackson pieces together what is happening, discovering the truth about his family and his identity, and learning about time travel.

Jackson learns that he is a genetically engineered human who has the "tempest" gene - a gene that gives the ability to time travel. There are plenty of others like him, some of whom are grouped together for evil purposes and who are referred to as the "Enemies of Time". Jackson is capable of making "half-jumps" to other times but these jumps are like branches on a tree - they don't change the current timeline. Only full jumps along a time line do that. To get back to his home base time of 2009, he must make a full jump back, something he hasn't learned how to do at this point.

Eventually though, Jackson does make it back to 2009, where he and his father must face down their adversaries, the Enemies of Time, who see Jackson as a threat to their plans to make the world a very different place. This sets the stage for the climax of the novel. Jackson has to decide whom to believe, and since he has been shown two versions of the future, what he will fight for. He decides that he must work with the CIA to help his father and other agents stop the Enemies of Time before they destroy Earth.

Although Tempest is mainly action driven, there is plenty of romance between Jackson and Holly - perhaps a little too much because it added another layer to the storyline. However it does help to set the stage for the conflict Jackson eventually faces at the end of the novel. Julie Cross develops Jackson from a uncommitted, fun-loving teenager at the beginning of the novel, to a serious, engaged, and intelligent young adult who makes the ultimate sacrifice to save the love of his life, Holly.

Here's the short booktrailer by St. Martin's Press:



Book Details:
Tempest by Julie Cross
St. Martin's Griffin 2011
339 pp.

This Dark Endeavour by Kenneth Oppel

Well-known Canadian author, Kenneth Oppels' newest novel presents readers with a inventive imagining of the life of young Victor Frankenstein before he created his famous monster. This Dark Endeavour is a modern return to the Gothic thriller that tells the story of Victor, his twin brother Konrad, and their cousin Elizabeth Lavenza and friend Henry Clerval as they undertake a very dark endeavour - the search for the Elixir of Life.

Victor and Konrad, are the twin sons of William Frankenstein who is one of four magistrates in the city-republic of Geneva. The Frankensteins, whose family consists of Victor and Konrad, and their younger brothers, Ernest and William, live in a chateau outside the city.

One day Victor, Konrad, Elizabeth and Henry discover an abandoned library in the basement of the chateau. The creepy library which is filled with old volumes containing information about the occult, was built by their ancestor, Wilhelm Frankenstein when the chateau was constructed. Wilhelm was an alchemist who became involved in the occult and eventually abandoned the chateau and his family, never to be heard from again. The library was known as the Dark Library because it contained many books banned by the Catholic church. Victor and Konrad are told by their father that the books do not contain knowledge but a corruption of knowledge and that they must never return. Of course, this serves only to pique their interest, as we see later on. For Victor, it remains a fascination he cannot deny.

When Konrad becomes deathly ill, Victor decides that he must try to find a cure for his brother's illness. When he overhears a maid telling his mother that there are other ways to heal, Victor becomes convinced that he must return to the Dark Library to learn more. He also learns the name of an alchemist, Julius Polidori, still living in Geneva and he and Henry and Elizabeth set out to find him.

Reluctantly, Polidori agrees to help them in their dark endeavour. He translates the recipe for the Elixir of Life and sends them on a quest for the three ingredients necessary to make this potion. It is this quest and the relationship they have with Polidori that form the storyline for the book. It is a quest that pits the two brothers against one another and involves them in the forbidden practice of alchemy.

This is the first book of Kenneth Oppel's that I have read and I thoroughly enjoyed his writing style. His characters are realistic and interesting. Although Victor and Konrad are twins, we see that Victor has the darker personality of the two. It's almost like a Jekyll and Hyde split. Konrad is a better student, and has a more pleasant nature, whereas Victor is more passionate, impulsive and has a cruel streak. This difference in their natures is effectively contrasted in the way that they relate to their cousin, Elizabeth, whom they both love. Their rivalry for the love of Elizabeth is one of the many dark themes of the novel. The characterization is effective enough that the reader is easily drawn to like Konrad and Elizabeth while feeling a bit of revulsion towards Victor, whose intensity is a stark reminder of the future he has!

There are plenty of religious themes to explore, especially relating to magic, and the proper use of knowledge.

The novel's unique storyline is enhanced by Oppel's smart, witty dialogue. This Dark Endeavour is the first in the Victor Frankenstein series, with the next installment, Such Wicked Intent due out in the summer of 2012. It's been years since I read Frankenstein and maybe it's time I reread Mary Shelley's book.

Book Details:
This Dark Endeavour by Kenneth Oppel
Toronto: Harper Collins 2011
297 pp.

In The Garden Of Beasts by Erik Larson

What a apt title for a book about a simple, middle class American family thrown into the chaos and terror of Hitler's Germany in 1933. In that year, United States president, Franklin D. Roosevelt faced what initially seemed to be a fairly straightforward task - that of appointing a new ambassador to Germany. Yet he was unable to find anyone to take the job. Roosevelt eventually was encouraged to offer the appointment to William E. Dodd, a mild-mannered university professor from Chicago. Despite reservations and a deepening sense of foreboding, Dodd accepted the post and traveled to Berlin along with his wife, his 24 year old daughter, Martha and his 28 year old son Bill Jr.

The Germany of 1933 was still adjusting/reacting to the changes  newly elected Chancellor Adolf Hitler had implemented. Despite repeated attacks on Americans in Berlin and other areas of Germany, and the continuation of other unsettling "incidents", Dodd and his family at first remained uniquely blind to the true situation in Germany. They still believed the Nazi regime overall was going through a phase that would lead eventually to calm and reasonableness. As history tells us, they, along with most of the world,  were very wrong.

Dodd was by no means to only one to have such delusional views of Nazi Germany. American correspondent H.V. Kaltenborn maintained his rosy view of the Nazi's up until the night he and his family were scheduled to return to America. On that night, his family experienced several terrifying minutes at the hands of the SA troops that forever changed his outlook.

Of particular interest was Martha, Dodd's adult daughter. Described as an "enchantress -- luscious and blonde, with luminous blue eyes and  pale translucent skin", Martha was a promiscuous woman who had numerous liaisons and many affairs with German and French men as well as a long term relationship with a Soviet operative, Boris Winogradov. Martha was initially taken with the Nazi regime but subsequently grew to understand just who and what Hitler was.

Divided into seven parts with and epilogue and a coda, In The Garden Of The Beasts is a compelling read that takes readers deep into prewar German society. Larson's considerable archival research fleshes out a story that is both horrific and tragic.


Larson is effective in setting the stage for the modern reader who is likely unfamiliar with the world as it existed in 1933. In particular,  he effectively describes the changing political and social situation in Berlin, and the American reaction to Hitler during this time. For example, having read many books about the Holocaust and also about World War II, I have often wondered why America and other western nations did not act more decisively to help the Jews or to express their displeasure over what was happening in Germany, at what appears in hindsight, to have been a crucial point in time - early in the Hitler regime.
Larson explains,

"There existed at this time a widespread perception that Hitler's government could not possibly endure. Germany's military power was limited - its army, the Reichswehr, had only one hundred thousand men, no match for the military forces of neighboring France, let alone the combined might of France, England, Poland, and the Soviet Union. And Hitler himself had begun to seem like a more temperate actor than might have been predicted given the violence that had swept Germany earlier in the year."

As for the "Jewish problem", we learn that Roosevelt refrained from expressing condemnation of the treatment of the Jewish people in Germany by the Nazis. The Jewish problem was seen in America more as an immigration problem. In a country crushed by the depression, with thousands out of work, inviting thousands of Jews to America as immigrants would have been politically volatile. American isolationists also took the view that America had no business being involved in what was essentially a German problem. It was a situation that even the Jewish people in American were divided over.

Into this complex situation, Dodd and his family arrived in Germany, determined to live in a frugal manner, quite different from that of his predecessors. Not a member of the "Pretty Good Club", Dodd managed to turn most in the American foreign affairs against him. At times Dodd focused more on problems with embassy staff than on what was going on around him in Berlin and in protecting American interests.

Yet is was also most remarkable that Secretary Hull of the U.S. State Department, along with many others, expected Dodd to protect the interests of American holders of German bonds. For the US State Department, the primary focus at this time was not Hitler, but that Germany continue to make it's payments on the bonds.

The fact is, Roosevelt placed a man eminently unsuited for the position of Ambassador, someone concerned more about financial frugality in a department known for its excesses. Like many American's, the American government and foreign service had no real understanding of what was occuring in Germany. And like many throughout the world, their view and understanding was tempered by an undercurrent of prejudice against Jews.

In the end, Dodd and others, came to realize the danger the Hitler regime posed to the world but it was too late. The events of June 30, 1934, known as The Night of the Long Knives, or the Rohm purging, would provide those who chose to pay attention, with the understanding of what Hitler really was. Yet many in the US and British Government still refused to acknowledge the threat. Larson quotes historian Ian Kershaw,

"The killings demonstrated in what should have been unignorable terms how far Hitler was willing to go to preserve power, yet outsiders chose to misinterpret the violence as merely an internal settling of scores..."

Erik Larson's In The Garden of The Beasts is a brilliant analysis and recounting of the years William Dodd acted as Ambassador to Germany. He captures all the main characters in this unfolding drama which ultimately led to the Holocaust and another World War.

Book Details:
In The Garden of the Beasts by Erik Larson
New York: Crown 2011
448 pp.

The Fantastic Flying Books of Mr. Morris Lessmore

Winner of the Best Animated Short Film, The Fantastic Flying Books of Mr. Morris Lessmore is a quirky story about the effect of books on our lives. It is a mixture of modern animation, CGI  and silent film. This short film was directed by William Joyce who created the characters of Toy Story and produced by Moonbot Studios in Louisiana. The book adaptation will be released in July, 2012.

Morris Lessmore (who is modeled after Buster Keaton) is sitting on the balcony of his hotel one fine day, writing in his book, when a terrible storm hits. In scenes reminiscent of the tornado in The Wizard of Oz, Lessmore is blown from the building onto a house which eventually lands in a colourless world. In this devastated land, the ground is littered with the pages of destroyed books. Morris has managed to save his book, his memoir, but not before the terrible maelstrom has blown all his words from the book's pages. He sets out along a gravel road (the yellow brick road of Oz) in search of the unknown. Suddenly he sees flying books and a young woman being carried aloft. She has with her a large, thick book with a Humpty Dumpty character on the front. This book flies down to Morris and encourages him to follow it.

Interestingly, the countryside behind Morris is black and white, while the landscape in front of him where the book is leading him, is coloured in rich tones of greens, browns and reds. This technique is used throughout the film as a subtle way to demonstrate the richness and colour books imbue our lives.

The Humpty Dumpty book leads Morris to a large home filled with books of all kinds - a house which is really a library. Morris lives at this library where he cares for all the books. He feeds them their cereal in the morning, puts their "dust jackets" on and also repairs damaged books. The damaged books are brought to life again when he reads them. When people come to the house looking for a book, they are shown in black and white. When Mr. Lessmore hands them a book, they become full of the richness of colours, a subtle suggestion of how books change people.

In the meantime, Morris rewrites his book. The years pass by until one day Mr. Lessmore decides it's time for him to leave. When he does, his portrait is placed on the walls of the library and another young person takes his place. His memoir, once just a lowly book, now becomes a flying one, perhaps hinting that now completed, it has the power to transform others.


This is a delightful short, only 15 minutes long, that will captivate and puzzle you.

Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins

From the back cover of the Hunger Games,

In the ruins of a place once known as North America lies the nation of Panem, a shining Capitol surrounded by twelve outlying districts. The Capitol is harsh and cruel and keeps the districts in line by forcing them all to send one boy and one girl between the ages of twelve and eighteen to participate in the annual Hunger Games, a fight to the death on live TV.
Sixteen-year old Katniss Everdeen regards it as a death sentence when she steps forward to take her sister's place in the Games. But Katniss has been close to dead before -- and survival, for her, is second nature. Without really meaning to, she becomes a contender. But if she is to win, she will have to start making choices that weigh survival against humanity and life against love.

After committing heresy in library land by not reading the Twilight series, I decided to succumb to Hunger Games fever and read the first book. It was a thoroughly enjoyable read, fast-paced, original and exciting. Collins develops her post-apocalyptic world just enough to give the reader a basis for understanding how things work and what it meant to be chosen to participate in the games. As is typical in modern young adult literature, Katniss is a strong female character, a survivor who uses her intelligence and her heart. She is someone the reader easily identifies with and cheers on at every point.

I expected Katniss to be conflicted about having to kill other competitors, especially her District 12 neighbour, Peeta, who helped her and her family survive. But for the most part, Katniss doesn't seem distressed about this, instead focusing on winning so that she can return home. Realizing that she has to kill if she is going to survive, Katniss devises a plan to let the other competitors kill one another off. It's a brilliant plan that demonstrates Katniss' ability to assess a situation and use her survival skills to the utmost.

The reality is though, that in Hunger Games, Katniss kills only two competitors and in both of those situations, the reader feels sympathy and identifies easily with her motives for doing so. One killing is done out of revenge for the brutal death of a much younger competitor and the other is essentially a mercy killing.

Strangely, Katniss is more concerned about having to fake a romantic interest in Peeta. This is where the real conflict lies for Katniss because she can't be true to what she feels and believes - that she loves Gale, her hunting companion back home in District 12. Or does she? During the Hunger Games, Katniss ends up returning Peeta's favour and saving his life. She is shocked to learn that Peeta is not faking his love for her.

When the rules of the games are changed once again at the very end, Katniss knows she cannot, will not kill the one person who was responsible for saving her and her family years ago. She defies the Capitol, resulting in repercussions that will extend into the next book.

The only part of the story I didn't like was where the wolves were sent into the arena to attack the remaining tributes. This was completely unexpected and yet it somehow felt contrived. But the twists and turns as the games come to their bloody end certainly enhances the tension the reader experiences. Although the end of the book is anti-climatic, Collins manages to devise the beginnings of another conflict - that between Katniss and the Capitol, based on her defiant act at the very end of the games.

I'm eagerly awaiting the movie which opens on March 23, 2012. I hope it's a good movie, unlike many young adult novels recently brought to the screen. The clips I've seen so far, appear promising. Although I'd been warned that the book was violent and brutal, I didn't find it overly so. Collins manages to convey the brutality of the games without being too graphic. The movie however, might be another thing.

Book Details:
The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins
New York: Scholastic Press 2008
374 pp.

Dr. Seuss

Today is the birthday of the late Dr. Theodor Seuss Geisel, more commonly known as Dr. Seuss, author of forty six children's books. I never read his books as a child and didn't even know about them until I had children of my own. That's where the fun began.

With my oldest child, we would read The Cat in the Hat and The Cat in the Hat Comes Back every day at nap time. Over the course of a year, I memorized the books, having an especially soft spot for Thing 1 and Thing 2!
 

My favourite Dr. Seuss book however, is Hunches in Bunches, about a boy who can't decide what to do for the day. So some little characters stop by to give him crunchy hunches as to what to eat and what to do!

Do you ever sit and fidget when you don't know what to do...?
Everybody gets the fidgets.
Even me and even you.

He has Happy Hunches and Very Odd Hunches to help him decide. But some of them are bullies too, like the Real Tough Hunch. It's classic Dr. Seuss. Unusual characters, drawn by Dr. Seuss, with wonderful rhymes.

Not only is today, Dr. Seuss' birthday, it is also the day the movie adaptation of another of his books, The Lorax, opens in theatres. The Lorax, as Seuss wrote it, is an environmental fable about the destruction of a forest of Truffula trees and the cascading effects this has on both the environment and the local economy. The movie is loosely based on the book and utilizes CGI special effects.  I'll probably pass seeing this in the theatre and catch this movie on DVD.

Catholicism: A Journey To The Heart of The Faith by Father Barron

In Chapter 3: "That Than Which Nothing Greater Can Be Thought": The Ineffable Mystery of God, Father Barron explores the concept and nature of God. He begins by relating Moses' encounter with God on Mount Sinai.

Father Barron explains only one of Thomas Aquinas' five arguments for the existence of God by considering the principle of contingency. Every thing in this world is "contingent" upon something else for its existence here. Every living thing and every inanimate thing begins and ends, it has a cause to start it and eventually an ending. "Such things do not contain within themselves the reason for their own existence. If they did, they would exist, simply and absolutely;they would not come and go...in regard to contingent things, we have to look outside of them, to an extrinsic cause, or set of causes, in order to explain their existence."

The Way We Fall by Megan Crewe

Sixteen year old Kaelyn lives with her mother and father and her brother Drew on an island. Her father is a microbiologist at the ocean research center on their island while her mother works at the local gas station. Kaelyn and her family moved to Toronto five years earlier and then moved back to the island. When Kaelyn returned to the island community, she figured that she could just pick up where she left off but it wasn't quite that simple.

The story opens with her childhood friend Leo having just left on the ferry to the mainland where he is traveling to go to school in New York. Because of an argument, Kaelyn never said goodbye to Leo. After losing Leo to another girl, Kaelyn resolves to try to reach out to people,and to be a new person, so that when he comes home she can tell him how she really feels about him. She decides to keep a journal and it is through this journal that we experience the events of the raging epidemic that sweeps across the island, changing her life forever.

The epidemic begins when the father of her best friend, Rachel, becomes ill and dies. Soon Rachel and then others in the community succumb to the illness. Schools close, the hospital is filled, and the island is quarantined. There aren't enough people to run the businesses or maintain basic facilities like hydro and water. With the number of infected and dying increasing daily, Kaelyn's father and other health care workers struggle to find a treatment for the deadly virus.

The story is told in the voice of Kaelyn who develops from a quiet, introspective teen who observes and writes about coyotes and other wildlife, to a maturing, responsible young woman who tries to help those around her, even those who have tried to harm her and her family. For example, when Tessa and Kaelyn discover that Quentin, one of the vigilantes on the island is desperately sick, Kaelyn tells Tessa that despite what he's done, they need to take him to the hospital. The coming of age of Kaelyn is wonderful to experience.

We see Kaelyn struggle to cope with the loss of so many people around her. She must find a reason to go on when there doesn't seem to be one. She has to discover what makes life worth living.

"...We're on a cliff, all of us, and surviving isn't about who's the best or the brightest. It's about holding on as long as we can and trying, and failing, and trying again until we've inched a little closer to getting through this."

Layered over the drama of the epidemic is Kaelyn's developing romantic interest in a new guy, Gav, and her new friendship with Tessa, a girl whose actions Kaelyn comes to realizes she has misunderstood.

The Way We Fall is the first book in the Fallen World trilogy. This book was well written and engaging; its short chapters make it fast paced with a layered storyline. However, I found the overall tone of the book to be somewhat depressing and bleak, despite the hopeful ending. Although the end of the book leads the reader to feel that things are looking up, we don't know for sure whether the mainland has experienced any of the epidemic. We don't know how many of the islanders are left and whether the epidemic is truly over. I also felt that too many of the main characters were killed off in the novel.

While reading The Way We Fall, I struggled with the fact that the outside world seems to have just abandoned the community until the very end. No medical professionals were allowed onto the island which I found profoundly puzzling. And although there was a hint at the development of a vaccine, this aspect of the storyline wasn't pursued. The military came and then abandoned the islanders. Kaelyn's father seemed to be the only medical personnel working on the disease and yet never became ill. Despite being a courageous man to risk his life and his family for the sake of the community, in the end he was portrayed as a man afraid to take risks. This disappointing development was not in fitting with most medical researchers during serious outbreak; many risk their lives especially when it is an all or nothing game.

When I read the book I wasn't aware that this was part of a trilogy, so I am eager to read the second book. I am eager to find more out about Leo and whether Kaelyn will continue to develop her relationship with Gav.



Book Details:
The Way We Fall by Megan Crewe
New York: Hyperion 2012
309 pp.

K-Pop Artists: Big Bang

One of my favourite Korean bands is Big Bang which is comprised of G-Dragon, Top, Taeyang, Daesung, and Seungri. Formed in 2006 by Korean label YG Entertainment, Big Band mixes hip hop with a little R&B and some electronic music. The group's leader is G-Dragon (Kwon Ji Yong) who is considered a trend-setter in South Korea in the areas of both music and fashion. In Korea, such cultural icons are labelled as "fashionistas"! T.O.P. (Choi Seung-hyun, who is considered the lead rapper in the group, acts in film and Korean dramas. He starred in the critically acclaimed Korean drama, Iris, in which he played Vick, an assassin for a secret organization, Iris. TOP also appeared in 71: Into the Fire, a historical drama about the Korean war, for which he received many positive reviews. Daesung recently starred in the Korean drama "What's Up".

Both G-Dragon and TOP collaborated on an album, GD & TOP, which was released in 2010. The two artists co-wrote most of the songs lyrics on the album, which extends more into the hip-hop genre of music. GD likes to write lyrics that tell a story, as evidenced by the song, Haru,Haru. Initially, their videos incorporated street dancing but they have since moved on to using more mature dance choreography.




In 2012, Big Bang is attempting a comeback with the release of a new mini-album, titled, Alive, due out February 29th. Their annual concert will be held March 2 to promote this new album. They are also planning an international tour. The first title track, Blue, was released on February 22, 2012. Here is the video for this song:



I like many of Big Bang's videos and especially love their songs that tell a story. I hope that the group continues with the unique approach to music, as this is one aspect of modern contemporary music that is increasingly rare.

Documentary: Burning The Future: Coal In America

Burning the Future: Coal in America examines the explosive forces that have set in motion a groundswell of conflict between the Coal Industry and residents of West Virginia. Confronted by an emerging coal-based US energy policy, local activists watch the nation praise coal without regard to the devastation caused by its extraction. Faced with toxic ground water, the obliteration of 1.4 million acres of mountains, and a government that appeases industry, our heroes demonstrate a strength of purpose and character in their improbable fight to arouse the nation's help in protecting their mountains, saving their families, and preserving their way of life. Written by David Novack

With the rising price of oil, industrial nations such as the United States and Canada continue to seek other sources of energy that are both cheap and plentiful. For the United States, the coal of West Virginia is seen as a secure source of domestic fuel. Promoted by the US coal industry as a "clean" source of energy, residents of West Virginia tell the rest of the world, the effect of coal mining on their communities. The large coal mining companies such as Massey Coal, have changed their mining practices and now mine coal through a method known as mountain top removal. Mountain top removal is exactly that - the removal of the top portion of a mountain to completely mine a shallow coal seam. The mountain top is then replaced with the left over fill. However, what the rest of the United States doesn't know is how damaging mountain top removal is to the beautiful West Virginia mountains. Besides destroying the delicate Appalachian ecosystem, mountain top removal has poisoned the groundwater of countless communities, destroyed ecosystems and damaged the health of those living near the mining operations and the coal slurry ponds.

This film is an eye-opening account of how individual families have been adversely affected by the coal mining. It brings the viewer into the personal nature of the devastation that families who have lived in Coal River Mountain, West Virginia for centuries, have experienced. Maria Gunnoe, whose family has lived in these mountains for generations, shows viewers how her life has been impacted by the extensive coal mining operations. It was disturbing to see the massive environmental devastation from the open coal mines and to see that even after the mountains are "restored", the Appalachian ecosystem is changed forever. Having a background in hydrogeology, I was horrified to see how the slurry ponds and the coal waste is destroying the groundwater supplies for millions of communities in the eastern US. I did not know that 50 percent of the electricity in the United States is generated using coal.


Made in 2008, I wondered what progress activists have made in the past 3 years or so. A second documentary, The Last Mountain, was shown at the 2011 Sundance Film Festival. Activists like Maria Gunnoe are determined to save the last mountain and continue to fight Massey Coal.




 
Below is the trailer for The Last Mountain.