Palaces Out Of Paragraphs

English 1102: Hamilton and Writing

Adaptation Reflection

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By: Max Jarck

I produced a video of  iMessage conversations between Thomas Jefferson and George Washington and then between Jefferson and Alexander Hamilton. The original intent was to recreate ‘Cabinet Battle #1’ but as a sort of introduction I adapted the end of ‘What’d I Miss’ into an iMessage conversation as well. For some messages, I used the lyrics as they were with no changes but in most instances for the conversation to make no sense I had to make small edits. The conversations were between two people so in both songs I was eliminating characters and therefore tweaks had to be made. These tweaks remind me of changes made in Ashanti and Ja Rule’s cover of ‘Helpless’. In that too, they eliminate characters. In addition to these small changes I added lines based on historical facts discovered in readings for our previous project and from genius lyric facts. I got to throw a few extra “burns” into the conversation. I recorded the conversations by using the screen recording function on my iPhone and then using that and an older iPad to send messages from a script I had written.

The bulk of the work was editing this rough conversation down to a watchable length. I edited 18 minutes down to 8 mins. At 18 minutes it was hard to sit through but at 8 it’s the right length to tell the story. I cut long gaps in between messages, typos, and other unnecessary content. I purchased several instrumental versions of Hamilton songs. I matched the backing of ‘What’d I Miss’ with the Washington and Jefferson segment which is a segment from that song. The ‘Cabinet Battle #1’ backing plays behind Hamilton and Jefferson arguing and then ‘Room Where it Happens’ finishes the video. I ended the video with ‘Room Where it Happens’ because it tells how the deal that put Hamilton’s financial plan(what they just debated) into place happened behind closed doors. The songs represent a progression and ‘Room Where it Happens’ seemed more like a logical next step.

Technical difficulties hurt any chance for peer review but I already knew some of the big things that had to be done. This is when I cut the video down from 18 minutes to just 8 minutes. This adaptation shows how two cabinet members may debate something today. I opted to keep it serious because at the times these debate were very serious. It illustrates how communication has changed and offers a unique way to digest these two songs.

A look at the editing process.

 

Helpless

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By: Max Jarck

I am most familiar with the adaptation of ‘Helpless’ found on The Hamilton Mixtape. I was introduced to this song several months before this class when it was added to a collaborative Spotify playlist I follow. At this point I had no idea what Hamilton even was. I decided to take a closer look at this adaption.

Ashanti and Ja Rule’s version of ‘Helpless’ is a pretty faithful cover of the original. There is little variation to the lyrics and overall sound of the song. Ashanti is a Grammy award-winning artist who topped the charts in the early 2000s. She was featured on Ja Rules’s ‘Always on Time’ which was one of the biggest hits of 2002. The two released several songs together during this time. This remix of ‘Helpless’ is a reunion for the two artists.

Ashanti assumes the role Eliza and rarely alters the lyrics. In the first verse of the line “Everybody’s dancin’ and the bands top volume” from the original cast recording is changed to “everybody’s dancin’ and the bass top volume.” This is just a small change that I caught and I think it may signify how important bass has become in today’s music. For many, the bass line can make or break a song.

The most significant difference is the elimination of Angelica. In the original Angelica introduces Hamilton to Eliza. These spoken scenes are cut from the adaptation. These cut scenes add to the play because they give important backstory but are unnecessary in the adaptation which is meant to be a standalone piece. In addition, this makes the adaptation more radio friendly.

Ja rule has a very unique baritone voice which is a stark contrast to Lin Manuel Miranda’s. This gives Alexander Hamilton’s verses a slightly different feel and instead of moving to Harlem with Eliza Ja Rule decided to let them move to his native Queens.

This adaption of Hamilton doesn’t change medium or reinvent anything. It is a well done cover of a beautiful song that leads to a more R&B and radio friendly feel.

iMessage Cabinet

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By: Max Jarck

For my remix and adaption project I will turn Cabinet Battle #1 in to a iMessage conversation. I may also include bits of other songs that fit into the story I’m trying to tell. For this adaptation I will use the screen recording tool and record the battle. I will reproduce the battle using lyrics, pictures, gifs, etc. I the may set the video to music from my library that fits the aesthetic I’m trying to achieve or play something on piano myself. The only tools I will need are two iPhones and my laptop(possibly piano). I think that writing, recording, and editing will take all the time allotted in the assignment guidelines. Through this adaptation I will be able to demonstrate how our communication methods have changed. I also think I will be able to add humor in because our founding fathers obviously didn’t have access to today’s memes. The idea of these men using phones is funny in its own right to me. The finished product should be an entertaining and polished video that plays on the original work.

All About Writing

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By: Max Jarck

Writing is something that I wish I did more of and understood better. I love to read books, articles, plays, and more and this love of reading sometimes makes me want to write. I hardly ever satisfy this desire because I’ve never really been taught how to write. I definitely want to take creative writing here at Georgia Tech so for once in my life someone will help me become a better writer. So, most of the times I write is when I’m required to for class.

Like the picture at the top of this post I never really get truly stuck writing. I can normally brainstorm something up and if I need a boost I put the earbuds in. If that doesn’t work well…lets just hope it does. Many papers or other writing assignments I typically don’t prewrite for which I know

is not good. Some of the best writing I’ve done is the product of good prewriting. Inn these cases I draw some weird flowcharts which to others may look like some weird conspiracy theory ravings but to me tell me thegeneral outline of my paper. If my prewriting isn’t great then my revision is horrid. I can never bring myself to significantly change what I’ve written. There is definitely a lot of room for improvement in my writing process.

Everyone has there own writing habits such as setting, food, music, etc. To get a sense of how I write I think how I’m writing this very post typifies my habits. Currently I’m sitting on my bed after getting home for work. I have a large glass of water to stay hydrated or maybe in this case rehydrate from mowing grass in the Georgia heat. There’s a Paul McCartney record on the turntable. (Check out his new singles) I typically don’t eat or reward myself for reaching certain points during writing.

I am a timely and organized person so deadlines are never really a problem for me. In this very class I asked for an extension because I really didn’t think id have much time due to work and vacation and I ended up turning the assignment by the original due date anyway. I’m horrible at procrastinating because I get too anxious if I haven’t done everything.

Writing is something I wish I did more of and I see a lot of room for improvement. I doubt I’ll ever reach Hamilton’s level but my goal is to improve.

Why is There a Beatles Song in Hamilton?!

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By: Max Jarck

If you have spent anytime around me you probably know that I love The Beatles. They are easily my favorite musical act ever and I have read an almost embarrassing amount about them. So to see the song ‘You’ll Be Back’ compared to The Beatles excited me. But before I even saw/heard this comparison I liked the song enough to save it on my phone. For me that’s more than a coincidence; it seems like evidence that it actually does contain elements of The Beatles in it.

The one Beatles song that seems most like ‘You’ll Be Back’ is probably ‘Penny Lane’. The basslines seem very similar as is the tempo and beat of both songs. To me the overall aesthetic of the songs is similar.

‘You’ll Be Back’  would be considered baroque pop and The Beatles had many songs in this style. The Harpsichord in ‘You’ll Be Back’ is very baroque and while the harpsichord never appears in a Beatles song the sped-up piano in “In My Life” has a similar sound. There is an electric guitar part in the third chorus which sounds just like the prominent guitar in ‘Getting Better’ from the masterpiece album ‘Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band’.

A song that sounds like combination 60s hits seems out of place in a soundtrack dominated by hip hop. This is where I was blown away by the thought put into this play. ‘You’ll Be Back’ sounds like an older song because the King is stuck in the past while the revolutionary colonists are singing in the much cooler and newer hip hop style. The difference in styles adds more depth and meaning to the play by showing the contrast between the two groups. I can’t remember if we talked about this in lecture but this idea has stuck with me as a really neat feature of the play.

Annotation Project Status Update

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By: Max Jarck

The due date for the first project is still over two weeks away but June 19th is approaching faster than I’d like to admit.  I’m still in the early stages of research but I’ve done enough where I feel comfortable giving an update.

I chose to annotate the beginning of the Pacificus-Helvidius Debate. The debate consists of argumentative essays written by founding fathers hidden by pen names. Alexander Hamilton is Pacificus while James Madison is Helvidius. The essays center around President Washington’s Proclamation of Neutrality (1793) and the constitutionality of the proclamation. Hamilton defends the proclamation with strong arguments, remember from the play how much emphasis is placed on Hamilton’s writing ability. Madison attacks the proclamation but with less skill than Hamilton’s defense. The debate was published as essays in a series of newspapers over the course of 1793.

When choosing a document, I read over most of the options and tried to see what had enough information in it that could be annotated and explained. I didn’t want to pick a document and then a few weeks later realize there was very little to annotate. I find the debate fascinating because it’s a constitutional debate by two of the founding fathers; two people who have intimate knowledge of the document because they helped write it.

Research has been well honestly its been a bit rough. There isn’t a surplus of material specifically about the debate but I am digging. I’m searching databases and looking up books. I requested a book from the GT library but it turned out to be unavailable. This was a minor inconvenience but not the end of the world. The research task is tedious and pulling together all this information into annotations is a challenge. I think that it will just take time and patience and a lot of reading to complete what seems like a hard task.

 

Pacificus (Hamilton)
Helvidius (Madison)

Rap References in Hamilton

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Lin-Manuel Miranda is a huge hip-hop and rap fan. He has said before that he was inspired by Eminem and Common. Also, speaking at a White House event Miranda said that he thinks Alexander Hamilton “embodies hip hop”. Through a combination of Miranda’s love of theater and classic rap Hamilton contains several references to some older rap hits.

   “My Shot” which gives a more in depth of Hamilton and his motivations contains two classic rap references.  The first reference is to is to a song called “Shook Ones Pt II” by Mobb Deep.  In “My Shot” Hamilton sings “Only nineteen but my mind is older” while in “Shook Ones Pt II” Prodigy sings “I’m only nineteen but my mind is old”.  Speaking about this reference Miranda says, “It was a no brainer to put that line in because that is something Hamilton would absolutely say. There’s a lot of ‘90s references in that opening tune; it’s the stuff I grew up falling in love with. Hamilton is just like a ‘95 Prodigy. “Shook Ones Pt. II” by Mobb Deep is one of my favorite hip-hop tunes period.”

The second reference is to The Notorious B.I.G.’s “Going Back to Cali”. Hamilton spells out his name in “My Shot” just like The Notorious B.I.G. does in “Going Back to Cali”.  The lyrics to both are reproduced here:

 

“My Shot”-   A-L-E-X-A-N-D                                                           

E-R—we are – meant to be

“Going Back to Cali”-    N-O-T-O-R-I-O

U-S—you just—lay down slow

 

The easiest rap reference to spot in Hamilton is probably the whole song “The Ten Duel Commandments”. This song is so similar to Biggie Smalls’ “The Ten Crack Commandments” that it could almost be a parody. Listing the similarities here would be kinda silly so I encourage you to listen to the songs.

 

An important question to ask at this point is why do these references matter? These references can add additional meaning to the work. An example is above where Miranda says Hamilton is just like Prodigy. If all of the references were analyzed so much meaning could be added to these lines.

Also references give Miranda a chance to give some of his favorite artists sort of a respectful nod and pay tribute to them. In this way references allow important expression for the writer.

Finally, references are opportunities to connect with the audience. Some fans of classic rap may be drawn to the play through these references. If nothing else someone watching could sit back and say “Hey that was pretty cool.”

By: Max Jarck

 

Document Transcription: Max Jarck

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Document Title: The Pacificus-Helvidius Debate

Authors: Alexander Hamilton and James Madison

Date of Origin: Published in a series of articles between June 29, 1793 and September 18, 1793

Source: TeachingAmericanHistory.org  at  http://teachingamericanhistory.org/library/document/the-pacificus-helvidius-debate/

Full Text:

Pacificus:

As attempts are making very dangerous to the peace, and it is to be feared not very friendly to the constitution of the UStates[1]–it becomes the duty of those who wish well to both to endeavour to prevent their success.[2]

The objections which have been raised against[3] the Proclamation of Neutrality[4] lately issued by the President[5] have been urged in a spirit of acrimony and invective, which demonstrates, that more was in view than merely a free discussion of an important public measure; that the discussion covers a design of weakening the confidence of the People in the author of the measure[6]; in order to remove or lessen a powerful obstacle to the success of an opposition to the Government[7], which however it may change its form, according to circumstances, seems still to be adhered to and pursued with persevering Industry.[8]

This Reflection adds to the motives connected with the measure itself to recommend endeavours by proper explanations to place it in a just light.[9] Such explanations at least cannot but be satisfactory to those who may not have leisure or opportunity for pursuing themselves an investigation of the subject, and who may wish to perceive that the policy of the Government[10] is not inconsistent with its obligations or its honor.

The objections in question fall under three heads-

1 That the Proclamation was without authority no .[11]

2 That it was contrary to our treaties with France no .[12]

  1. That it was contrary to the gratitude which is due from this to that country; for the succours rendered us in our own Revolution.[13]
  2. That it was out of time and unnecessary.[14]

In order to judge of the solidity of the first of these objection[s], it is necessary to examine what is the nature and design of a proclamation of neutrality.[15]

The true nature & design of such an act[16] is-to make known to the powers at War [17]and to the Citizens of the Country[18], whose Government does the Act that such country is in the condition of a Nation at Peace with the belligerent parties, and under no obligations of Treaty, to become an associate in the war with either of them; that this being its situation its intention is to observe a conduct comfortable with it and to perform towards each the duties of neutrality[19]; and as a consequence of this state of things, to give warning to all within its jurisdiction to abstain from acts that shall contravene those duties, under the penalties which the laws of the land (of which the law of Nations is a part) annexes to acts of contravention.[20]

This, and no more, is conceived to be the true import[21] of a Proclamation of Neutrality.

It does not imply, that the Nation which makes the declaration will forbear[22] to perform to any of the warring Powers any stipulations in Treaties which can be performed without rendering it an associate or party in the War.[23] It therefore does not imply in our case, that the UStates will not make those distinctions, between the present belligerent powers, which are stipulated in the 17th and 22d articles[24] of our Treaty with France[25]; because these distinctions are not incompatible with a state of neutrality; they will in no shape render the UStates an associate or party in the War[26]. This must be evident, when it is considered, that even to furnish determinatesuccours[27], of a certain number of Ships or troops, to a Power at War, in consequence of antecedent treaties[28] having no particular reference to the existing war, is not inconsistent with neutrality; a position well established by the doctrines of Writers and the practice of Nations.[29]

But no special aids, succours or favors having relation to war, not positively and precisely stipulated by some Treaty of the above description, can be afforded to either party, without a breach of neutrality.[30]

In stating that the Proclamation of Neutrality does not imply the non performance of any stipulations of Treaties which are not of a nature to make the Nation an associate or party in the war, it is conceded that an execution of the clause of Guaruntee contained in the 11th article of our Treaty of Alliance with France[31] would be contrary to the sense and spirit of the Proclamation; because it would engage us with our whole force as an associate or auxiliary[32] in the War; it would be much more than the case of a definite limited succour[33], previously ascertained.

It follows that the Proclamation is virtually a manifestation of the sense of the Government that the UStates are, under the circumstances of the case, not bound to execute the clause of Guarantee.

If this be a just view of the true force and import of the Proclamation, it will remain to see whether the President in issuing it acted within his proper sphere, or stepped beyond the bounds of his constitutional authority and duty.[34] [Read more…]

Introduction: Max Jarck

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Hello everyone! My name is Max Jarck and I am a second year Business Administration student. I have not chosen a concentration yet but I am leaning towards finance. My plan is to graduate in the spring of 2021 but with internships and everything it is not a set date.

 

On the last day of finals I sped out of Georgia Tech blasting Alice Cooper’s “School’s Out”. I was still riding that high when I realized this class started and I had to get back to work. Home for me is a very small town called Gay, Georgia. It is about an hour and a half south of Atlanta in rural Meriwether County. This is where I will be listening to Hamilton from this summer. In addition to this class I work for a lawn care company.

 

I took English 1101 at Georgia Tech last fall with Dr. Courtney Hoffman. During that class I worked to improve my communication skills through a series of projects including a fifteen minute podcast episode. I enjoy reading a lot. I’m always reading something, anything from Jane Austen to Pat Conroy and I am currently reading the Southern Reach Trilogy by Jeff Vandermeer. I am fairly confident writing but I always want to improve. Nonverbal communication always challenges me. Last semester after watching some videos I made for 1101 I was shocked at how my facial expressions came across. Hopefully I can continue to improve on all of my communication techniques during this summer class.

 

Before this class I had only heard bits and pieces about Hamilton and was skeptical that I would enjoy this class. Fast forward a week and I have two songs from the play on a Spotify playlist that I listen to all the time. I’m excited to learn not only about Hamilton but also about all of you this summer.