Original Poem: Untitled

     Hi guys! I've got another abstract poem today. I really don't know what to call this one. I wrote it at the end of September last year so I've had plenty of time to think about it, but nothing really seems to fit. Some might interpret it as dreaming, but I wasn't thinking about what dreaming feels like when I wrote it. The best I can come up with is maybe this is about what it's like to be inside someone's else's head. I don't know, it's weird whatever it is :)

Untitled
Lost in the make-believe
or trapped inside a dream?
Splashes of imaginary,
ghosts of reality.
Wandering through a forest of
thoughts you never can think of.
Running from fears that you can't see,
the things in your dreams that never sleep.
Distorted, flashing beams,
faded electricity.
Fantasies of memory,
metallic colors shimmering.
Infinite tunnel with light at the end
seems so straight but suddenly bends.
Searching, searching for escape,
running, running,
too late.
Glowing streamers,
flickering light,
gray and white fireworks ignite.
Sky so dull, yet so bright,
explosions lighting up the night.
Every Joy every Fear,
crystal ball, perfect sphere.
Visions of memories that were never made.
Everything comes crashing down.
Tidal wave in which we drown.
Eternal sleep in nothingness,
only ever knowing this,
Reality does not exist.
Untitled all rights reserved. T. Cwanek 9/26/17

     Welp, I hoped ya'll enjoyed this, even if you have no idea what it's supposed to be about. Keep being awesome my peeps!
                                                                                                 
                                                                                                  Torilinn

Original Poem: Sleep without Dreams

     Hey hey hey wassup everybody? Today's poem is pretty self explanatory if you read the title (Which I assume you did). Basically the inspiration for this poem came from me reading a book, and a chapter ended with the character saying they fell asleep and slept without dreams. So of course I thought " I should write a poem about that" :) It's mostly just about that feeling of dozing off, then suddenly waking up and it being hours later even though it feels like you just fell asleep. Enjoy!

Sleep without Dreams 
A flashout
A blackout
A wrinkle in time
That does not exist in your memory

Blink
Snap
Blurred out
Clap
Muffled
energy
White noise

Night
Blinkout
Day
Wake up

Evening
Asleep
Morning
Awake
No in between
No other state
of mind
but that of dreams.
Sleep without Dreams All rights reserved. T. Cwanek 12/22/17 

A bit shorter today, but hey, I need a break from the super long stuff too :) That's all for now guys!

                                                                                                            Torilinn

Original Poem: Colored Shadows

     What is up my peeps? Today's poem actually makes sense, or at least sort of. The inspiration came from when I was learning how to do lights for a local theater group. My mentor spent a lot of time teaching me about how to design lighting in terms of colors and placement. For example, if you're designing the lighting for a scene with a fireplace, what part of the stage has a fireplace? What colors would you use to convey a warmth coming from that spot? How big is the fire? How bright should the glow be? It was all really interesting, but the last thing we talked about really got me thinking.
     My mentor explained that shadows are very important when it comes to lighting. For example, you could have an actress in a stunning deep green dress, but as soon as you put a red light on her that dress turns black. After that, I tried staring at walls that had a shadow cast on them, and forcing my brain to see what color that patch of wall looked like.
     See, when our brains look at anything with shadow on it, if we know the object is supposed to be green, our brains compensate for the red light and tell us the object is still green. But if you concentrate hard enough you can make your brain see that one shadowed patch as the color the shadow is creating. It's usually only a darker shade of the original object, like the shadow of a dresser on a bedroom wall, but there are more obvious examples too, like the red light on the green dress.
     Anyway, that's the inspiration for this poem. I hope ya'll like it!

Colored Shadows 
What color is a shadow?
Black.
No, not really.
Maybe a sort of gray, I suppose.
No,that's not right either.
Perhaps a shadow's not really any color at all.
Perhaps it's just an emptiness, a void.
Yes, that makes sense.
An emptiness that could be filled with any color you thought of.
A blank canvas, waiting to be splashed with Life and color.
What? What do you mean "no splashes"?
Clearness? Perfection?
Lines!?
No of course there would not be straight lines!
Have you ever seen Life go in a straight line?
But you see that's exactly the point!
You cannot hold it or grasp it.
You can pick and choose which colors will be poured in,
and how much of each color.
But you cannot control how they will blend and swirls together.
That is the fun of it don't you think?
But I get ahead of myself.
Perhaps you are right.
Maybe there are no colors.
Maybe...it's not an emptiness or a void.
Perhaps it truly is just a shadow.
Nothing more.
Just a fraction of one's self,
projected on the floor.
Colored Shadows All rights reserved. T. Cwanek 10/7/17 

                                                                                        Keep being awesome guys!
                                                                                                           
                                                                                                             Torilinn 
                                                                                         

Original Poem: Dancing in the Dark

     What is up my peeps? Today I'm gonna be sharing a poem (or whatever you want to call it) that I wrote way back in September. It's a little strange but a lot of my poem ideas are abstract and kind of weird so just bear with me :)

Dancing in the Dark
I twirl
I leap
through the infinite blackness
My streamer
fluttering
curling
over the floor of smooth black glass.
I skip
I spin
but no one sees.
I trip
I stumble
but no one is watching.
For it is just me and the great oblivion.
I whirl
I jump
I fly, I soar
for eternity or seconds more.
I land
I stand
I take a bow
for an imaginary audience.
I bend
I curve
my steamer is sure
that it knows better than I do.
It spirals
It darts
But I have a hold, and send it flying once more.
So graceful
So elegant
So sure
So true
yet no one sees my dance debut.
Except for me
I know my part
and I am glowing in the dark.
I see my reflection sparkle in the murky glass.
My streamer shimmers
with my light
reflecting specks of rainbow.
I am the Prima ballerina tonight.
I am the Prima ballerina always.
And endless waltz through infinity.
Just me and my streamer
a glinting spark
Only a shadow
Dancing in the dark.
Dancing in the Dark all rights reserved. T. Cwanek 9/2/17

     I hope you enjoyed that! It's one of my lighter poems. I write some dark stuff sometimes. Anyways, that's all for today. Let me know what you think of the poem! I will probably post more stuff like this as I'm starting out. Bye friends!

                                                                                                                   Torilinn

How To Train Your Dragon Movie Review

     What is up my dudes and dudettes? Today I'm doing a review of the movie "How To Train Your Dragon". It's one of my favorite animated movies. I went as Toothless for Halloween last year and my profile pic is me in the hoodie my Mom made for my costume! :) 

Book vs. Movie

     This movie is actually based on a book series of the same name by the author Cressida Cowell. And although the movie pulls many details from the books it's not the same story at all. When I first saw the movie I thought it was fantastic, and didn't find out about the book series until some time later. I personally think that the movie is better than the books, but I wonder what my opinion would have been if I had read the books first. 

     I think when DreamWorks chose to make the movie they were not planning on making a movie of the book, but rather a movie inspired by the book, only pulling certain elements from it instead. And also, the series is twelve books long, which would have been very hard to fit into one movie. 

Plot and Character Development

     If you've never seen the movie then CAUTION: SPOILERS AHEAD! With that out of the way, let's talk about the story. One thing I really appreciate about this movie is that actions have consequences. The main character (Hiccup) goes directly against his father's wishes, by first not killing Toothless when he finds him in the woods, and befriending the dragon instead. Even though what his father and the rest of the tribe believed about dragons was wrong, Hiccup was still disobeying Chief Stoick, and he hid a pretty huge secret from him. 

     Hiccup pays for this by Stoick ultimately finding out about his secret friendship with Toothless, and forcing Toothless to show him where the dragon's nest was, so he could destroy their home once and for all. Stoick also completely disregards Hiccup as his own flesh and blood, saying:              "You throw your lot in with them...You're not a viking...You're not my son"

Stoick then leaves Hiccup on Berk as he and the rest of the tribe sail off to supposedly do battle at the dragon's island. 

     Another way Hiccup pays for his actions is he loses the entire lower half of his left leg, when he and Toothless work together to destroy the Red Death at the end of the movie. Toothless manages to force the Red Death to swallow it's own fire, disintegrating the boss dragon from the inside out, as it crashes to the ground in a fiery inferno. 

     During this battle, Toothless's prosthetic tail catches fire and begins to flake apart, making it harder for Hiccup to steer and keep them aloft. As they navigate up the spines of the dying dragon's back, the Red Death's tail, which resembles a large club, catches Toothless right in his gut, knocking Hiccup off Toothless's back as they both fall into the fire below. The last shot we see before fire covers the camera is an unconscious Hiccup being enveloped by the flames, as Toothless flaps wildly after him in a desperate attempt to save him. 

     When Stoick later finds Toothless, who was shielding Hiccup with his fire proof wings, we are not shown lower than Hiccup's waist, but it is remarked upon that while Hiccup is still alive, only "most of him" was saved.
     Later it is revealed that the entire lower half of Hiccup's left leg is gone, having been unintentionally bit off by Toothless trying to catch him, or was burned badly enough that it had to be amputated. In most animated movies where the hero must save the day, they might risk their lives doing so, but there are no consequences. The hero walks away unscathed and life immediately goes back to normal. But Hiccup must now live with the loss of a limb for the rest of his life, and learn to walk again with a peg leg. These are some of the things that make this movie so good.

Cinematography 
     I really think that visually this is one of DreamWorks's best animated movies. The landscapes for Berk are amazing, from the deep forests to the wide shoreline shots, it's all stunning. Especially the flying scenes, which, coupled with a fantastic soundtrack (more on that in a minute), give the viewer a sense of truly flying right alongside Toothless and Hiccup. Scenes like the romantic cloud flight, are breath taking as we see the world from Hiccup and Astrid's point of view when Toothless flips upside down, or when the Northern Lights come out from the clouds.
     And then there's the dragons. All the different species are so unique! My favorite is Toothless the Night Fury. Most of his movements seem almost cat-like, which is not a trait I would have thought dragons possessed. All the dragons have their own kind of style. As agile and graceful as the Night Fury is, the Gronckle is clumsy and slow, though still ferocious when it needs to be. I love the diversity of the different dragons and appreciate the thought that went into designing and animating them that way.

Soundtrack 
     The music for this movie is just.....perfect. It's ridiculous how much I love this soundtrack. The main theme really captures the Norse/Viking feel, and the flying theme is epic, making you believe you really are soaring through a cloudless sky on sleek dragon. I really don't think there's anything the composer could have done to make this soundtrack any better. If you're into epic music like myself, this is the kind of thing you want to blast on full volume. It's that good.

Soooo....this ended up way longer than I though it would be. Whoops. But now you know what type of things I'll talk about in these reviews, and how detailed too. Anyways, that's all I've got today, comment what other animated movies you want to see reviewed! :)

                                                                                                             Torilinn