by Megan Abernethy

At first I had a hard time figuring out what I wanted my project to look like or even be. I considered drawing but I’m not a good artist and I didn’t want it to look like I didn’t try on the project. Last minute I chose to make a spotify playlist summarizing the Pop Wuj. I had seen twitter posts of people making silly playlists with a weird title and the song names narrate whats happening. For example, the playlist would be called “POV you’re watching a scene of The Office” or something like that and the song titles would be something weird Michael Scott would say.

The playlist didn’t turn out how I wanted it to. I wish it was more coherent but I’m just gonna say it’s like that because it’s just a really good summarization of the Pop Wuj. I was hoping there would be more diverse song titles. I couldn’t find a sound just called “and”. Surprising I know. So that was my first obstacle. In general I’m just missing a lot of connecting words. Someone needs to make songs called “and” or “the” or “it”. I think it would be so awesome and not a reason for me to take advantage of them for future projects.

Although I hit a few obstacles I also had a few surprising wins. There are songs called “House of Fire”, “House of Cold”, and even Xibalba. All the songs you think I would have a hard time finding but thankfully there were plenty to choose from.

I started off having the two brothers playing ball. Saying playing ball and being too loud. Then I have a couple songs saying death summoned them. Next it cuts to Grandma crying because I don’t know, they need to know Grandma cries. After Grandma cries I indicate that everyone eats eachother and is thrown up. With no context I don’t think that makes sense but in this project I like to think there’s extra time for things to be explained. The boys receive their message, plant their corn, and go to Xibalba.

At this part in the story is where I start to have a little trouble. I didn’t know how I wanted to incorporate the mosquito but somehow I did it. I wanted to indicate that the twins sent the mosquito to listen for names but couldn’t figure out how to. Eventually I figured it out but at a later time.

House of Darkess is a little messy. Instead of telling that part of the story I listed the materials they were given like the cigar, and the red feather and the fireflies. Then I put the ball scene and put “They Lose”. The next song is “Blade House”. Again, got super lucky with specific song titles. I wish there were songs about ants but the only song that came up was “Ants go marching” and I don’t know how to incorporate that and also I thought it was a little too silly for my taste. I added a singular song to symbolize the House of Cold called “Outta the Cold” and “Then – Jaguars – They Live”. Those being three different songs. I added “Fireproof” after House of Fire because I thought it would be funny.

My favorite part of the playlist would have to be House of Bats. I think some of the song titles are clever. Also some of the song titles are all capitalized and it just makes it funnier. The playlist ends kind of quick. It says “They play ball again. Everyone lives. Sorta kinda.” I like that I added the Sorta Kinda to the end. I think it’s funny and also true. Because they do live for a while but then they die.

It only took me two days to complete this project. I like how it turned out. Some parts were difficult to do but somehow I figured it out. I hope I never have to do it ever again. I think opening the playlist and being able to read the song titles and understand whats going on is fun for me. Because even though the summarization is a little silly and all over the place it’s still coherent.

HUM124 with Leslee Johnson