Hunga Games 2

I saw the Hunger Games in theaters Thursday night at midnight and it was awesome! It was very true to the book, which most books that are transpired into movies are not so that was very nice. There were a few events that were altered and a character that was missing but other than that it was pretty good. The Harry Potter movies are tweaked way more than this movie was which surprised me. The casting for the Hunger Games was spot on which was very relieving because in a lot of book to movie movies the characters are totally different than you had imagined in your head while reading the book. A number of movies based off of books are either totally different than the book or are way worse than the book. For example, I read the Twilight series and really liked the books so I was pumped when I heard a movie was being made based off of the books. The movies definitely did not exceed the quality of the books, which was very disappointing. So the producers of the Hunger Games did a fantastic job. According to an article in Today, “…The Hunger Games opened with a staggering US$155 million (S$196 million) at United States and Canadian box offices, the highest domestic opening for a movie that isn't a sequel, and established what may become one of Hollywood's biggest blockbuster franchises.” (Today) The success was unexpected by many people. The Boxoffice.com editor stated, “"Harry Potter had seven movies before it got to that point, and Dark Knight had years and years of building the Batman brand. This movie comes and hangs with them in the same league.” (Today) So the fact that the Hunger Games had such great success is amazing. In conclusion the Hunger Games movie did exceptionally well and I would definitely suggest seeing it!

http://www.todayonline.com/Entertainment/Movies/EDC120326-0000083/Hunger-Games-gorges-on-S$270-million-global-debut

Music

Music is a wonderful thing. It can be a remedy for many situations by affecting your mood due to the mood of the music. Many people make fun of kids who are in band in middle and high school and I’m not going to lie, some of them were a tad weird, but I really enjoyed playing an instrument and it is not a weird thing to create music. I played the trombone from 6^th grade to 12^th grade and it is really odd not being in band anymore. I actually enjoyed it making music because it is a very good stress reliever. You will walk into class and the first thing you do is unpack the instrument and then warm up by playing long tones, so multiple whole notes until your lips and mouth piece are warm, which makes it easier to create pitches and notes. If I was having a bad day then I would just blow as hard as I could into the instrument and it was an equivalent feeling to screaming into a pillow. I also liked band because my best friend was in there with me and sat next to me for all 7 years so we would goof around and just enjoy playing instead of following all of the rules. I was also the only girl in the low brass section in my class so that always wasn’t such a bad thing.  Girls typically play woodwind instruments such as the flute, clarinet, oboe, or the saxophone. The brass instruments are predominately male instruments. The trombone was originally called a “sackbutt” and was invented in Belgium circa 1450 (Monks). It was then renamed later and there were a few modifications of the trombone until we have the current model of it today. The trombone has come a long way and is a popular instrument today.

http://www.blackdiamondbrass.com/trbhist/tbonehist.htm

HUNGER GAMES

I used to read a lot of novels when I was in Elementary school and Middle school. I have a few books that I absolutely love and would love to reread but I do not have that kind of time anymore. Over the past month I picked up my past hobby and starting read the Hunger Games series. They are by far my favorite books that I have read in a very long time. I finished the first book of the series, The Hunger Games, in about three days which is a record because I’m normally a very slow reader. If you are not familiar with the plot, I will give you a little synopsis of the order of events.

The story takes place in North America in the future where the United States and Canada does not exist anymore and instead North America is split up into districts. There are thirteen districts and they are governed by The Capitol, who are tyrants and do not treat the districts with respect. Most of the people are starving and if any one goes out against authority then they are disciplined harshly. To remind the people in the districts to not up rise against The Capitol, each year there are a boy and a girl picked from each district that go into the Hunger Games and fight with each other to the death in an area created by the Gamemakers in The Capitol. The story unfolds from there and I cannot say much more because if you are planning on reading the book I could possibly give valuable information away.  As you might know, the movie for this book comes out in theaters March 23 in a little under two weeks. They have an official website that contains all of the information one might need to know about the film. The catchy line of the movie is, “The World Will be Watching,” which is a line stated in the book that has significance and what is on the official website to catch the viewer’s attention (HungerGames.) In conclusion, these books are very good and I would definitely recommend reading it!

http://www.thehungergamesmovie.com/index.html