Movies to Watch - Part 2 -Hero

Let me put in a special plug for this movie. 1. Because it is not a western movie. 2. Because it is visually beautiful and uses different color schemes for each version of the story 3. Because it is fantastical. 4. Because it has frame story with characters that tell tales.

I have this one if anyone wants to borrow it.

Movies to watch - part 1

 

Stuff about Djinn or Jinns or Genies

Since we will be dealing with Genies in at least one of our stories here is a little primer on them.

Genies are the fairy people of the middle-eastern world. We have fairies, sprites, goblins, elves, etc. They have Genies.  One big difference is that their mythical creatures are dealt with in scripture, so doctrinally, for many people, they exist. 

Genies are created of smokeless fire, and fall somewhere between angels and humans. Like humans they have free will and their own societies, courts and kingdoms. There are also separate classes of genies with different appearances and powers. 

Although we generally think of genies granting wishes, for a genie to be imprisoned in a lamp or a ring and granting wishes to humans is not the norm. This raises, for me, some questions about the genies in the Aladdin story. Why are they imprisoned? Who put them there? What class of genie are they? I think we can give our genies an good back story and make them interesting characters with that in mind.

Read up on genies here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jinn.

http://paranormal.about.com/od/demonsandexorcism/a/aa060506.htm

http://www.thejinn.net/jinn_classification.htm

Dreamy theater

I know this type of lighting will be beyond our facility, but seriously, can I dream?  This is beautiful and dramatic and dreamy.   And I guess it helps having Brandon flowers looking smashing in a tailored suit ;)

http://m.youtube.com/watch?v=uBENjCPS8LI

But honestly, how lovely are those lights?

Sword Fight Dances

 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J3Cx88hQDL4 - best one

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HanYvJMSo_s - still cool

Jungle Book

Huntington Theater Company in Boston is doing a live action version of the Jungle Book, based on the Disney movie.  I really like the look of this show. I like the minimalist animal costumes. The site has some great photos of the production and video montage.

http://www.huntingtontheatre.org/season/2013-2014/Jungle-Book/

Islamic Empire History

In 750 AD there was a massive revolution in the middle eastern world. An Arabic Empire fell and the Abbasid Empire took its place. There was a change from an Arab-centric group to a more inclusive Islamic based identity. This is one of the periods that we have talked about as a possible historical anchoring point for our frame story.

I don't think we need to actually use the real historical figures or events, but can find inspiration from them to create our own ruler with his political troubles.

Here is a pdf of some pages from a history book that highlights that key juncture in history:

There are some very interesting characters among the first Caliphs of the new empire.

as-Saffah was the first Caliph for 4 years. - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/As-Saffah

His half brother Al-Mansur reigned for 20 years after. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Al-Mansur

Al-Mahdi came third. Of particular interest is the account of his daughter Banuqa.  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Al-Mahdi