7-23-09 Class Reading

I held my lit salon today. It wasn't as painful as I thought it would be. Being the same type of procrastinator as many people, I waited until yesterday to put together my material. It took me much longer than I had anticipated. I would estimate that I sat at my kitchen table working on the flyer and power point for about 11 hours. This was my first experience using power point, so at first I wasn't sure what to do. It's not difficult, I quickly caught on. About half way through I decided that I wanted to add some background music to the slides, so I downloaded a cd of big band sound from Walmart.com. What a mistake that was. Three phone calls to them later, I had my music. When I tried to load a song to a slide it didn't work, so then I thought I would just burn the cd off onto disk and bring it in and play it in the background while I talked. That would have worked, except for some reason my burner didn't do it's job and lied to me about burning the songs. Oh well. I thought the presentation went off ok without it. In retrospect, I should have made note cards with highlights of what I wanted to say. Yesterday, I thought I would remember all of the important things about my authors. In reality, I remembered quite a bit more than I would normally give myself credit for. I'm obsessive in the way that I want to do my best. I am not afraid of failure as long as it isn't because I have slacked off on my duties.

7-23-09 Cultural Opportunity

Last night was great, seeing Shakespeare under the stars. I have wanted to go every year, but could never find anyone to go with me. I should have used the same technique Stephanie used to get her husband to join us. There were so many ages represented there, in addition to our class.
Before the play started I sat thinking about how many people have seen it performed since it was written in the 1590's, and the amount of times a director has taken "liberties" with it. For instance, last night with the Cajun accents. That to me is a big liberty, and even though I was told beforehand that they were doing it that way, I found it more difficult to understand the actors than if they would have had an British accent. Maybe if everyone would have had the same accent I could have become accustomed to the rhythm of it. The set in Bloomington reminded me of stories I had heard in High School about the famous "Theatre". I'm sure they didn't give out cushions for their seats in 1596. This is supposed to be one of Shakespeare's most popular works. I wonder if that is because it is a comedy. One would suppose that even in the 1500's that people needed a little comic relief in their week. The costumes, even though not elaborate were very creative and well done.

July 16th Outside of Class

In today's paper on the second page is an article that caught my eye. The headline says "Student aid bill faces rough road." Of course being a recipient of student aid, I was compelled to read it.
Basically it says that the president, having planned to increase college aid is having a hard time selling it to congress. Big surprise there. Maybe he should have hidden his agenda in a bill marked "congressional raises." Ok, anyway, the article goes on to say that a key lawmaker proposed a bill that partly would boost the Pell Grant scholarship. The bill would do this by eliminating a large amount of subsidies for private college loans. The rest of the bill would go toward early childhood education, increasing the number of poor children with access to pre-kindergarden.
Having recently become unemployed I have spent many hours (this is what I do instead of sleeping) thinking about how I am going to continue my education and still support my family. Of course the Pell Grant is not going to subsidise my income by any means, but it would help lessen the blow a little bit and maybe allow me to work part time instead of full time. My means of living is very modest, so a little bit goes a long way for me.
The article did not say what the timeline was for sitting on congress' proverbial desk though. I'm sure like everything else that would benefit the working class it will sit for quite a while.

July 16th

We did the poetry slam today. I have to say that I wasn't looking forward to participating. I worked for over an hour trying to figure out what I wanted to say and how to say it, even you-tubed some slam poets to refresh my memory. The first one I started was full of straight out anger. After texting with Megan I decided to scrap it and try some sarcastic humor. I had the same problem as last semester in Eng 110, what to write and how to say it. Ugh, I am an orator, not a writer. Stephanie and I struggled with my writing last semester, well she didn't struggle with it as much as I did. I'm glad the slam is over.
Going into today I couldn't wait to hear everyone's poems. It was not disappointing. Everyone did a great job. Some were thought provoking, others funny, some were just entertaining.
Even though I'm finished with my 1000 pages, I'm still reading. Nothing much else to do, well, except go back to knitting. I picked up a new book tonight at Kroger by Kathy Reichs called Devil Bones. Apparently the television series Bones was inspired by one of her books. Guess I will see how this one goes. After this, maybe some Nicholas Sparks. I like to vary my reading.

7-9-09 Non-Textual

So, if I say Don McLean I'm sure you immediately think of American Pie. Not me, I think of the song Vincent. I would venture to guess it is on my top 5 list of favorite songs. It doesn't matter where I am if I hear it come on the radio, I have to stop and close my eyes. The song wasn't very popular in the United States, being overshadowed by American Pie, which was released on the same album in 1971. In this country Don was considered a one hit wonder, even though this song made it to 12 on the Billboard Charts. The lyrics are:

Starry starry night, paint your palette blue and grey
Look out on a summer’s day with eyes that know the darkness in my soul
Shadows on the hills, sketch the trees and the daffodils
Catch the breeze and the winter chills, in colors on the snowy linen land

Now I understand what you tried to say to me
How you suffered for you sanity
How you tried to set them free
They would not listen they did not know how, perhaps they’ll listen now

Starry starry night, flaming flowers that brightly blaze
Swirling clouds in violet haze reflect in Vincent’s eyes of china blue
Colors changing hue, morning fields of amber grain
Weathered faces lined in pain are soothed beneath the artist’s loving hand

Chorus:

For they could not love you, but still your love was true
And when no hope was left in sight, on that starry starry night
You took your life as lovers often do,
But I could have told you, Vincent,
This world was never meant for one as beautiful as you

Starry, starry night, portraits hung in empty halls
Frameless heads on nameless walls with eyes that watch the world and can’t forget.
Like the stranger that you’ve met, the ragged man in ragged clothes
The silver thorn of bloody rose, lie crushed and broken on the virgin snow

Now I think I know what you tried to say to me
How you suffered for you sanity How you tried to set them free
They would not listen they’re not listening still
Perhaps they never will.

The words of this song really speak to me. Maybe because of Vincent Van Gogh's tragic life, or maybe because I am a psych major and understand the tragedy of mental illness and depression, and people that are tortured by unseen demons. I understand the power of those demons and how they propel us to act in a way that is not necessarily natural to us.

My favorite line in the song is "Swirling clouds in violet haze reflect in Vincent's eyes of china blue." As I listen to the words and close my eyes, I see his famous painting "Starry Night." The swirls of blue, like smoke, traveling uphill towards a bright yellow orb.

When I searched for the lyrics online, I found don-mclean.com. The website says that Don wrote the song after reading a book about Van Gogh's life. It also states that a copy of the sheet music as well as a set of Van Gogh's paint brushes are buried in a time capsule beneath the Van Gogh museum in Amsterdam.

If you are not familar with this particular song, the website is www.don-mclean.com. On the site is a slide show of paintings set to this song.

7-9-09 Class Reading

I just finished the coolest book. Oh yeah, I finished For My Daughters a few days ago and started The Book of Lies by Brad Meltzer. This book would make a great book club book. I picked it up at Wal-Mart a few weeks ago. When I finished For My Daughters thursday night, I decided to read something that was easy and would be considered my "norm". Oh, did I get more than I bargained for. It's only 435 pages, so it's not too long.
I knew I was in for a treat when I read in the Acknowledgments that, and I quote, "As I've always maintained, every novel is a book of lies trying to masquerade as a book of truth." After that I was so pumped to read the book, that I skimmed the rest of the acknowledgments. Good thing, I hate to really know what a book is about and where it is going before it gets there.
This book blends some truths and fiction so perfectly, I wondered until the end what was real and what wasn't. Fortunately, in the Authors Note at the end he clears up the fiction part. I won't go into detail here, let me just say that on the back of the book when the Boston Herald says "You won't be able to put it down", it's not a lie.
Like all of the books I like there is a closed denouement. It is written in third person and set partially in Florida the rest in Cleveland Ohio. Calvin Harper is clearly the protagonist, while Ellis is the antagonist. There are a couple of twists near the end that I didn't see coming at all.
I feel like because I was so into it that maybe I rushed through it. I just couldn't wait to turn the page and find out what else was going to happen next. It is not a detective novel, but does feature a Federal Agent. If anyone is interested in reading it, I will be happy to donate it to the first person who asks me about it. I enjoy passing good books along.

7-2-09 Star Wars Blog

I remember seeing Star Wars in 1977 with my family at the Beverly theater in Peoria. I was almost 8 years old. At the time it was "cutting edge" technology. I'm not sure that anyone used music to heighten a scene and create so much drama as in this movie. The musical score won awards, as well as George Lucas, the director. The special effects were different than any movie produced so far.
The movie came out at a time in history where were were just fresh out of the Vietnam War, our government was turmoil and we were in the middle of the Cold War. We needed a villain to hate and a good guy that deserved to wear white. Luke Skywalker was a pure and unblemished character; both naive and "other worldly". Then enter in Darth Vader. He was the quintessential bad guy; ruthless and self serving. He fell from grace like Adam did in the Garden of Eden, and used his powers to further the evil desires of the empire. He was easy to hate, all dressed in black, and like the North Vietnamese and the Russians, which most of America didn't see, he too didn't have a face.
I think we needed someone to hate and Darth Vader fit the bill perfectly. He represented abuse of government power and the fall from good to evil. Luke Skywalker on the other hand was the perfect hero. He was not self-centered and represented everything that was good.
The part in the movie where Obie One and Luke rode into the town on the hovercraft was reminescent of an old western movie. They might as well tied their horse up outside the saloon and swaggered in with their hands on their guns. Even though the faces and bodies were not what we are used to seeing in a western, the general idea of the scene was the same, down to the fight over the alien not liking the way Luke looked. The music even sounded faintly like ragtime.
I love Hans Solo. Oh such a bad boy personality. Even at 8, I remember being attracted to him (not like adult attraction). He was cocky and good looking. Without Hans, Luke would never have taken the risks he did. Hans supported him in bringing a little "edge" to the table. He always had Luke's back, for instance in the destruction of the Death Star. He flew in helped defer Darth from killing Luke. Oh it didn't surprise me that Leah would fall for Hans. Of course he was like forbidden fruit to her. She was was a princess after all.
The only symbol I can think of from the movie is the light sabers being like phalus'. I could be projecting there, nothing unusual about that. It just seems that the way the men weild them is so much like a pissing contest. They are even different lengths and colors. They use them throughout the film to fight each other, similar to men in a bar use the talk of their's to feel superior to each other. I'm going to stop there, because I made my point, and maybe that point is totally off base.
I truly love this film, and everything it represents. In fact I own the dvd of the parody, Space Balls. It was nice to get to watch it again and really disect it here in my blog.