wow, this ended up '80s-centric

Music from a few weeks ago, when I missed a few bloggin'days . . . 

Q*Ball, Fortune Favors the Bald.

Heard of this guy because Bumblefoot is not only an awesome singer/songwriter/guitar-player/producer, but also part of the  Bald Freak family, as run by Ron Scalzo, who sometimes goes by the name Q*Ball.

Yep, he's bald, & he has created 1 of the great album  titles of all time by simply changing 1 letter from the old adage "fortune favors the bold."

Dancy, funky, sometimes hilariously funny & breathtakingly poignant, this album rocks.

Key tracks: the title track, "Showcase," & probably my favorite, "John Hughes."

If you never saw any of the '80s John Hughes movies, well, you should check 'em out. 

Soon.

(& if you're not sure, think Sixteen Candles, The Breakfast Club, Pretty in Pink, Ferris Bueller's Day Off, Weird Science . . .& many, many more.)

Also, here's a link to the super-cool video (PG-rated for a bikini scene)--w/ the feel of all those high-school-set films & featuring Bumblefoot (the janitor w/ the cool red hat & totally sweet fretless Vigier):

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BcdyHM7ylrI

Wow, what a great song.

Ok, since you saw that & understand my love for Q*Ball & B-foot, let's move on to . . . 

 . . . a chance for THE LAST POSSIBLE SEMESTER 1 BONUS POINTS.

I liked Chuck Klosterman much, much more before I read David Foster Wallace, because having read DFW I realized that CK was just a poor man's imitation, a dude trying to be al little smarter than he truly is, mimicking a style (the voice, the seeming obsession on excruciating minutiae, the endnotes).

But I still like him a little, in no small part due to the fact that he thinks about things that I, too, think about.

He began as a rock critic, has published several books, & has emerged as a "young" (not young like you all, but young in terms of writerly dudes) voice of the culture.

So, I have chosen an article for you to read . . . if you want to earn some of THE LAST POSSIBLE SEMESTER 1 BONUS POINTS.

Here, in a piece from Esquire, he talks about criticism of video games (not "criticism" in terms of "quit wasting your time in front of your computer/TV/dslite XL/psp/whatever," but "criticism" in terms of "this game is good/not good because."

 By the way, Lester Bangs was a hugely important writer for Rolling Stone at the nascence of rock music's mass appeal, & Pauline Kael was one of the most important film critics ever.

This one is from June 30, 2006, so some may seem outdated to you, but . . . 

Read it:

The Lester Bangs of Video Games

Sorry, that was misleading. There is no Lester Bangs of video games. Why?

By Chuck Klosterman

There are still people in America who do not take video games seriously. These are the same people who question the relevance of hip-hop and assume newspapers will still exist in twenty-five years. It's hard to find an irrefutably accurate statistic for the economic value of the video-game industry, but the best estimates seem to be around $28 billion. As such, I'm not going to waste any space trying to convince people that gaming is important. If you're reading this column, I'm just going to assume that you believe video games in 2006 are the cultural equivalent of rock music in 1967, because that's (more or less) reality.

Okay!

So we all agree that video games are this consequential force, right? And we all assume that these games have meaning, and that they reflect the worldviews and sensibilities of their audience, right? And anyone who has played modern video games (or has even just been in the same room with someone who was playing) has undoubtedly noticed that games like Grand Theft Auto andBad Day LA are visually transfixing, because the images are often beautiful and the movements of the characters are weird and hyperreal. Everyone seems to agree that all of these notions are true. Which prompts me to ask the following question: Why are there no video-game critics?

I realize that many people write video-game reviews and that there are entire magazines and myriad Web sites devoted to this subject. But what these people are writing is not really criticism. Almost without exception, it's consumer advice; it tells you what old game a new game resembles, and what the playing experience entails, and whether the game will be commercially successful. It's expository information. As far as I can tell, there is no major critic who specializes in explaining what playing a given game feels like, nor is anyone analyzing what specific games mean in any context outside the game itself. There is no Pauline Kael of video-game writing. There is no Lester Bangs of video-game writing. And I'm starting to suspect there will never be that kind of authoritative critical voice within the world of video games, which is interesting for a lot of reasons.

This is not a simple mystery to solve. It's hard enough to figure out why something does exist, but it's even harder to figure out why something doesn't exist. As an entry point, I contacted Steven Johnson, the author of Everything Bad Is Good for You, one of the only mainstream books that comes remotely close to the kind of gaming criticism I just described. Johnson mostly attributes the void to mechanics. "Games can't be analyzed using the aesthetic tools we've developed to evaluate narrative art forms like books or films," he explained via e-mail. "Video games generally have narratives and some kind of character development, but--almost without exception--these are the least interesting things about them. Gamers don't play because they're drawn into the story line; they play because there's something intoxicating about the mix of exploring an environment and solving problems. The stories are an afterthought."

This is all completely true. However, I don't think it explains why video-game criticism doesn't exist. When someone reviews Moby Dick or Kramer vs. Kramer, they don't spend most of their time explaining the details of the plot (or at least they don't if they're interesting). The meaning of most art is usually found within abstractions. So the problem is not that video games don't have interesting narratives; the problem is that it's hard to decide what it is about video games that is interesting. "[We] need to talk about games in a way that is appropriate to the medium," says Johnson. "In some cases, they're closer to architecture."

Here again, Johnson is right. But there's one (rather obvious) difference between architecture and video games: Architecture is static. I live in a building that has fourteen floors, and that's always true. I can't manipulate the floor plan of my apartment or the number of bricks in the wall. What makes video-game criticism complex is that the action is almost never static. Unlike a film director or a recording artist, the game designer forfeits all autonomy over his creation--he can't dictate the emotions or motives of the characters. Every player invents the future.

Look at it this way: Near the end of Gone with the Wind, Scarlett O'Hara asks Rhett Butler what she's supposed to do with the rest of her life, and he says that (frankly) he doesn't give a damn. Now, the meaning of those lines can be interpreted in many ways. However, what if that dialogue happened only sometimes? What if this scene played out differently for every person who watched Gone with the Wind? What if Rhett occasionally changed his mind, walked back into the house, and said, "Just kidding, baby"? What if Scarlett suddenly murdered Rhett for acting too cavalier? What if the conversation were sometimes interrupted by a bear attack? And what if all these alternative realities were dictated by the audience itself? If Gone with the Wind ended differently every time it was experienced, it would change the way critics viewed its message. The question would not be "What does this mean?" The question would be "What could this mean?"

That, I think, is where video-game criticism should be going: toward the significance of potentiality. Video games provide an opportunity to write about the cultural consequence of free will, a concept that has as much to do with the audience as it does with the art form. However, I can't see how such an evolution could happen, mostly because there's no one to develop into these "potentiality critics." Video-game criticism can't evolve because video-game criticism can't get started.

"It's weird that Entertainment Weekly doesn't have a video-game column, and that TheNew York Times only writes about gaming sporadically," says Henry Jenkins, a professor of comparative media at MIT and the author of From Barbie to Mortal Kombat: Gender and Computer Games. "Aesthetic criticism exists in this industry, but only as arguments among gaming scholars and game creators. And the gaming industry suffers because of that. There is a very conservative element to gaming because absolutely everything is built around consumerism. Game designers are asking themselves questions about how a game should look and what it should do, but not about what the game is supposed to mean."

And that, ultimately, is why the absence of video-game criticism is a problem. If nobody ever thinks about these games in a manner that's human and metaphorical and contextual, they'll all become strictly commodities, and then they'll all become boring. They'll only be games. And since we've already agreed that video games are the new rock music, we'd be facing a rather depressing scenario: This generation's single most meaningful artistic idiom will be--ultimately--meaningless.

There is a void, but there is still time to fill it. Somebody needs to become the first significant Xbox critic, stat. If nothing else, I'm sure he'll get rich.

END KLOSTERMAN; McB NOW:

This pop-culture philosophy-type writing rules. 


As many of you know, I love the whole . . . & Philosophy series (I own the versions dedicated to Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Seinfeld, House, The Simpsons, & Watchmen.)

Another writer, Malcolm Gladwell, covers topics like the Dog Whisperer, ketchup, Ron Popeil & the informercial subgenre of TV, the importance of birthdates to young Canadian hockey players, & our "gut reaction."

Bill Simmons writes for ESPN, & in covering sports always references the '80s movies your parents & I watched back then (like those John Hughes films) & some you may have seen recently remade, like The Karate Kid, Halloween, & others.

You are now going to be the pop-philosopher.

Sooo . . . your LAST POSSIBLE SEMESTER 1 BONUS-POINT OPPORTUNITY is this:


1st, write a quick (50-plus-word) summation of Klosterman, to prove you read it . . . & 


2nd, Write a critical "article" of at least 200 words (much shorter than the one above) in which you examine a pop-culture or otherwise "non-school-based" entity. 


Ask a question about why something is popular, what it represents, how it says something about the people  who care about it. 


Think about muscle-cars, Brazilian grind-death-core metal music, Silly Bandz, ear-stretching, or anything else about which you care.


Last year, students wrote about basketball, the Yankees, Lady Gaga, Snuggies, & other fun stuff. 


Ask yourself a question (such as, "why are there no great video-game critics?") & then . . .


Make an argument (such as "there needs to be a 1st great video-game critic--the way there was a Lester Bangs for rock music--to make the games meaningful") & enjoy your time.


Publish 'em in the comments below so we can all read 'em here.


DEADLINE: 11:59 PM,  MONDAY 13 DECEMBER 2010.


[as of 17:45 Monday] ADDENDUM: NOTE TO BONUS-SEEKERS . . . 
your comment will not appear until I moderate it, so don't freak if you do not see it tonight--it will be time-stamped & you will get your credit (up to 25 pts)


ADDENDUM: DONE w/ 1st SEMESTER BONUS

signifying nothing

Jag Panzer, Thane to the Throne.

Yep, 1 that actually goes w/ the material, junior-style.

This one is a power-metal concept album of Macbeth.

Really good,especially  if you like '80s-era Maiden.

(Oh, & the story of Macbeth.)

Juniors:
Time to work.

You have 11 questions due tomorrow, > 50 words apiece, including CD & CM.

No quotes necessary, but they (almost) never hurt.

For Monday, you will do the "character analysis" chart, & for that you will need quotations.

Sophomores:
We went over the format for the vocab review that is due tomorrow as well as part II, which will be due Monday.

We went back over the "Once Upon a Time" PowerPoint, & we added in the quotations & responses.

Finally,we read 2 short articles about the poem, & we will read another tomorrow.

be cool

maybe a great band in heaven, or something

I guess 12.8 is not a good day to be a musician.

As you all know, 30 years ago that dude who liked Catcher in the Rye shot John Lennon.

I like this look:


George was my favorite Beatle, but John was probably the most talented, thoughtful, & creative.

All he was saying was give peace a chance.

In other 12.8 news . . .

Many of you may not know that it was on 12.8.84 that "Razzle" Dingley, drummer of Hanoi Rocks, was killed at age 24 in a car crash. Vince Neil from Motley Crue decided that driving drunk was OK, & he was the only one who walked away from the accident.

Sometime soon you will read my little write-up about Hanoi Rocks, but just know they could have been huge. Just consider them Guns N Roses before Guns N Roses: singer Michael Monroe was hands-down the biggest influence on Axl Rose back in the '80s.

Razzle:



& on 12.9.2004, Devin Ablard came into my 1st period class w/ tears in his eyes, said he couldn't believe it about Dime.

In one of the stranger & sadder & scarier things I have heard in my musically-informed years, guitarist Darrell Abbott had been shot the previous night--12.8--while on stage in a club in Columbus.

I had gone to bed early the night before & had not heard anything about this, so I turned on the TV & shed a few tears of my own.

OK, many.

For those who prefer color:


A handful of musicians have really struck a chord (I know, "boooo!") w/ me, & Darrell was one. Dude could flat-out play, & he, while in Pantera, made some of my favorite music ever. At the time of his death he was in Damageplan, but there was always, somewhere in the background, the chance for that reunion.

I guess kind of like Beatles fans had hoped for until 12.8.80.

Anyway, a paranoid schizophrenic who thought the guys from Pantera had stolen "his" songs got up onstage during the 1st song, shot Darrell, a few fans, & a few crew members before a local police officer responded to the call & shot the gunman.

& Vinnie, Darrell's brother, was playing drums in the band, saw his brother murdered.

On stage.

A few days later, a fairly unknown columnist decried the "semi-human barbarians" who mourned Darrell at his service. I kind of think we're all fully human--except maybe people like that guy, filled w/ such hatred & vitriol--even if we like metal music or dye our beards a shade of magenta.

No lesson here, I guess, just memoriam.

RIP John, Razzle, & Dime.

You are missed

Juniors:
Had to leave early, as it was the eldest's time for illness.

So, 1st period got the rundown from me, & the awesome Mrs. Keepers took over for 3rd & 5th.

But . . . you copied 11 questions for "Macbeth Final Prep," due Friday.

Some good ones there, about character, style, theme, even staging.

Have your books w/ you tomorrow, as you will be finding quotations & analyzing them.

Enjoy.


Sophomores:
Unit 6 vocabulary quiz.

"Once Upon a Time," PowerPoint-style.

Gabriel Okara--does a little knowledge of his life change your take on the poem?

How about those specific quotations?

Good stuff all around.

Back at it tomorrow.

Units 4-6 Review part I due Friday!!!

Units 4-6 Review part II due Monday!!!

Let's do this!!!

be cool

California's all right (somebody check my brain)

Alice In Chains, Black Gives Way to Blue.

What a "comeback" album. After one of the great vocalists of the '90s, Layne Staley, died, I figured these guys were done.

& they were, for quite some time.

But they got William Duvall  from Comes With the Fall--another really cool band--& released the exact album they should have.

Depending on the day, Alice is my favorite '90s Seattle band (I usually say "grunge" only when very tired, because to me the bands really sound nothing alike).

So, today's list:

7. Mudhoney
6. Screaming Trees
5. Nirvana
4. Mother Love Bone
3. Soundgarden
2. Pearl Jam
1. Alice In Chains.

FOOTNOTE: #s 1, 2, & 3 create a fluid situ-. . .  scenario.

On this album, the show-stopper is the last song, the title track.

Sadly, outside of a fantastic collection of albums--some metal (Facelift), well, I guess you'd call it "grunge" (Dirt), acoustic (Sap & Jar of Flies) & an all-of-the-above record (Alice In Chains)--this band will also be known as one of those "coulda-beens."

So many great tracks throughout the career, so I feel the need to list a few: "Man in the Box," "Got Me Wrong," "Rooster," "Down in a Hole,"  "No Excuses," " I Stay Away," "Heaven Beside You,"

. . . & about 30 others.

But, like too many bands before them & a few since, they lost an integral member to drugs.

You want a sad, sad story, read about Layne Staley, a truly gifted guy who could never get it together.

Juniors:

Speaking of which, Macbeth could never get it together, & then he lost his head completely.

(BOOOOOOO!!!!!!).

Wow, nothing else to say after that except: bring your copy of Macbeth tomorrow for group-type work.

REMEMBER: the class final is Macbeth-centric & ALHS English Dep't final is CST-style.


Sophomores:

Review of "Ode to My Socks" (I love that one), "Obedience."

The "core" poem, "Once Upon a Time," a meditation on past & present, young & old, pre-cynicism, cynicism, & post-cynicism.

We'll talk more about Okara tomorrow, after you take your unit 6 quiz.

REMEMBER: the class final is vocabulary-centric & ALHS English Dep't final is CST-style.

be cool

Dostoyevsky, Banquo, the ellipsis, & the "But"

Protest the Hero, Fortress.

January 2008: I'm hanging round on a Saturday flipping channels, & I check out Headbanger's Ball, the only metal that ever got played on the music channels.

Several (many) Cookie-monster-vocal-down-tuned chugga-chugga-riffed boring soundalike metal songs pass, & this band comes on.  I see the title "Bloodmeat" & assume it's more of the same.

Uh, no.

I mean, NO!!.

A tad screeamish, w/ some guttural growling, & some serious shred later, I had a new band to check out.

This album came out a few weeks later, so I grabbed Kezia, the debut, & picked up Fortress the day it came out.

Great stuff.

More great stuff: dudes were in high school when they started (as "Happy Go Lucky"--great band name there), began a tour the day they finished their senior finals, were still teenagers when they started releasing albums.

Best yet: in 2004 the bass player, Arif Mirabdolbaghi attended a symposium of the International Dostoyevsky Society in Geneva.

All this, & brains, too.

I like my music loud, obnoxious, angry, & all kinda of punk-metal-progressive-ish (all of these terms have been used to describe Protest), but if it's smart, too? Oh yeah, I am so there.

New album early 2011, also.

Juniors:
We re-did Act III, & i tried to answer questions & point out some very important lines & stuff.

Banquo begins the act, & then [Dies}.

Macbeth's growing paranoia & realization that he is in too deep to get out.

Lady Macbeth's line "Nought's had, all's spent" sums up the situ--- I mean, scenario

Lennox & the Lord scene implies that Malcolm & Macduff seem to be up to something

Act IV complete by MONDAY!!!

Sophomores:
We reviewed the notes & concepts from yesterday, & we went pretty deep into the poem "Moons."

Celestial & poetical.

How many of you had put that much emphasis on the ellipsis?

Do you see now how the "But" is majorly important?

As for vocab: you submitted your synonyms . . . CTS due Monday, quiz next Wednesday.

be cool

strange days, indeed

The Doors, Strange Days

The bands 2nd album & an example, some say, of the sophomore slump. But the problem arose perhaps from the brilliance of the 1st one--how to follow up the self-titled debut?

How about changing the rules?

"Psychedelic" is a word that gets thrown around in discussion of this one, &, yeah, I guess so, but as a dude who listened to the band long after they were done & wasn't alive or cognizant of music while they were around, I enjoy each album for what it is.

& this is good.

Seriously, "When the Music's Over" is a much, much better album-closer than "The End."

& "Moonlight Drive" is the song that got Ray Manzarek to pay attention to Jim Morrison's words.

Yep, Rubel hates these guys, & he has good reasons. & part of the beauty of art in general is the possibility of opinion.

I have always thought of Morrison as the ultimate high school rock-n-roll icon . . . you know, the whole idea of guys want to be like him, girls want to be his lady friend.

Anyway, those of you who pay attention know that I referenced Mr. Mojo Risin' several times as a disciple of T. S. Eliot, & some of the lyrics on this album fit that comparison.

The only "hit" here is probably "People Are Strange," which Echo & the Bunnymen covered for the soundtrack to The Lost Boys, which should have made my top-10 from a few weeks ago

Check 'em all out.

He was The Lizard King; he could do anything.

Well, write some good songs & some  really pretentious ones . . .

Juniors:
You all read through Act III, & I'm sure all was good, & I thank you for that.

It's nice to know that when one of my children or I myself am sick that some of you have the respect to be cool in my absence.

This play gets really interesting now, as the centerpiece of Act II gives us some ramifications of the murder.

Also, it has the one "spurious" scene, #5, in which Hecate shows up to deliver a soliloquy.

Interesting . . .

Sophomores:
You should have:

-- read from the lit book

-- taken notes on "Reading a Poem"

--created a paraphrase chart for "Moons"

--answered the 10 questions for "The Stayer"

I have already heard the reality, &, well, it's kind of sad.

See "respect," above.

Let's do better tomorrow.

Unit 6 synonyms due.

be cool

this, too, shall pass

Because, as George Harrison said, All Things Must Pass:



My favorite Beatle, mostly because John & Paul are a tad over-revered (no pun w/ "Paul" & "revere" initially intended), & Ringo, well, he's kind of Ringo-ish.

Yeah, he stole the melody for "My Sweet Lord," but musical plagiarism is much different from literary, in my (humble) opinion.

(Malcolm Gladwell has a really interesting piece on plagiarism--from the perspective of the plagiarized, actually--in his What the Dog Saw, which I highly recommend).

Anyway, when it comes to The Beatles, some of my favorites were George songs, especially "Something," "It's All Too Much," "Within You Without You" & his best, "While My Guitar Gently Weeps."

(Yeah, Clapton's Leslie-rotating-speaker-aided solo is probably the best part of it, but the song is phenomenal.)

This solo album has a great title, excellent cover art, & a few classics.

Along with "My Sweet Lord," check out "Wah-Wah," "What Is Life," & "Behind That Locked Door."

& if you really get into the George stuff, his collaboration w/ Roy Orbison, Bob Dylan, Tom Petty, & Jeff Lynne as The Traveling Wilburys rocks the folk, too.

Juniors:
Turn-in-your-notebook day.

Wow, I need a new name for these, because "notebook" just ain't enough.

I thank all of you for the time & effort you put into your creations, & among many, many creatively tremendous submissions, the toilet paper roll (you read that right), facebook page, collection of individual envelopes, & just some durn fine writing make it all worth the proverbial while.

Several "veteran" seniors who stopped by good ol' 57 today spent several moments reading through your work & admiring the creativity.

Quite simply, you rock.

Thanks also to those who read & performed today.

Yep, there was a ukulele & a tambourine involved.

Back to Macbeth tomorrow, for the pivotal 3rd act.

Sophomores:
All that "vocabumalriamaniarama" English-jargon stuff has been completed, & now we can focus on reading & writing some poetry using the academic vocabulary we have built.

Today you were asked to write a minimum-5-line, minimum-27 word "metaphor" poem as well as a rhyming poem of at least 8 lines & at least 50 words.

REMEMBER: you control all that which is not mandated, which is most of it.

You get full credit for following the directions as they are.

& you saw some super-fantastic examples form the junior classes.

Your notebooks will be due NO EARLIER THAN WEDNESDAY 8 DECEMBER.

Probably Thursday.

be cool

where I been [sic]

Dinosaur Jr, Where You Been

Another of the more underrated bands in my lifetime, these guys did everything right.

This is what people mean when they call Neil Young "The Godfather of Grunge," because J Mascis sounds so much like Mr Young, & his fuzzed-out guitar solos rock like old-school Crazy Horse.

[He may not sound as much like Young as Jimmy Fallon does, though. & if you have not yet seen  Fallon  as a young Young & Springsteen as a young Springsteen doing "Whip My Hair," please check it out now.

Here's the link: http://www.latenightwithjimmyfallon.com/video/neil-young-and-bruce-springsteen-whip-my-hair-111610/1260532/

I'll wait.]

Anyway, besides having a tremendous band name, they made some great music. Check out Bug, Green Mind, & their latest "reunion" album, Farm.

They also had a minor hit w/ the song "Feel the Pain," which also boasted the best MTV-era golf video

But to me, Where You Been is the masterpiece, Highlights: "Out There," "What Else Is New," "Get Me," & "Goin Home."

Also, J has a solo album, Martin & Me--"Martin" meaning the acoustic guitar he plays--& one w/ his band The Fog.

It is all good.

You have my word.

OLD GUY "INTERWEBS-SCARE-ME" ALERT
Where I been (see what I did there?  kinda a reference to the album title?):

Took a little time off, like Lady Gaga & Alicia Keys are planning to do this Wednesday. If you haven't heard about that one, check out the details.  It's interesting.

I'm old enough to remember pre-myspace/facebook/twitter days, when privacy was something we craved, not something we'd give up if someone--anyone!!!--would pay attention.

Speaking of twitter, one of my favorite facepalm moments of the break was Stevie Johnson's tweet asking God why God let him down on that dropped ball at the end of the Bills-Steelers game (he pleaded:"I PRAISE YOU 24/7!!!!!! AND THIS HOW YOU DO ME!!!!!").

Narcissistic, self-involved, & just plain nuts (not to mention religious-like offensive) much?

Also, the fact that folks feel the need to go online to express their hatred for the Boise St. kicker, a guy who is better at his "job" than most of them are at anything, & who made 2 mistakes on TV.

So every once in a while I take a few weeks away from the online stuff, & I try not to do so at a time that would provide negative consequences for you all. You all knew what needed to be done just before & during break, so the posts went away for a while.

I think every once in a while we need to step back from the speed of the day & indulge in down time. I got mine through playing Mr Mom, reading a few books, & finally watching The Walking Dead, which I think I really like.

Oh, & going through a bunch of projects, soundtracks & such.

There are some fantastically creative folks out there, & I'm glad I get the chance to teach you.

I'll "ketchup" w/ the music soon, though.

I need to post about Springsteen's The Promise, Q*Ball's Fortune Favors the Bald, & TV on the Radio's Return to Cookie Mountain.

& I must reference Rubel's burning, passionate hatred for The Doors, but that will come.

Juniors:
Macbeth, quiz(zes) on acts 1 & 2.

You read 'em, you did well . . you didn't, you didn't . . .

Q & A on the poetry notebook, & a few of you turned 'em in.

I repeat: "There are some fantastically creative folks out there, & I'm glad I get the chance to teach you."

(yes, it's in poor taste to quote oneself, but you get the idea.)

Sophomores:
"Poetry," by Marianne Moore.

I think she lied, & she really does like it.

Just a thought, though.

Unit 6 definitions tomorrow.

Unit 6 synonyms Thursday.

Vocabumalaria!

Vocabumania!!

Vocaburama!!!

be cool

hey Noah . . .

I don't have your e-mail, but I have your paper in pdf format to send to you.

Please send me an e-mail to which I can respond, or post your information here.

Also, what would have been yesterday's music:


One of my 5 favorite movie soundtracks.

The list:

1. Purple Rain
2. Singles
3. The Crow
4. Judgment Night
5. The Devil's Rejects
6. Naked in New York
7. Super Mario Bros
8. Bill & Ted's Bogus Journey
9. Last Action Hero
10. Reality Bites

Not many of those films are good (possible exceptions being #s 1, 2, 5. &--especially--6), but the music is.

Funny thing is, I have never seen nor do I have any desire to see the film Judgment Night, but I loved the idea of this one so much I bought it as soon as it came out.

If you can't tell from the cover, the producers put together rock bands w/ rap artists before that horrible phase of "rap-rock" came around.

I'm looking at you, Limp Bizkit . . .

Highlights from this one: Slayer & Ice-T, Helmet & House of Pain, Biohazard & Onyx, & my absolute favorite, Del the Funky Homosapien & Dinosaur Jr.

Juniors:
Project Q & A instead of the planned group activity.

Why?

Because, as Donald Murray says in A Writer Teaches Writing, "All teaching plans, discussion notes, activities and exercises should be abandoned in the face of a good question or comment from a student" (107).


& there were some good questions.


Looking forward (haha) to some great projects.

Sophomores:
FORWARD!!!

We read through a draft of an essay about American football.

We answered the questions together in class.

We went over the bonus again, & you wrote down the instructions.

be cool

that thing (doo wop)

Lauryn Hill, The Miseducation of Lauryn Hill

Loved her in the Fugees, even loved her in Sister Act 2, but this is her best stuff.

It's a a shame she kinda disappeared after winning like a million awards (hyperbole).

Her "unplugged" album has some good stuff, but lots of, well, rambling.

She's an artist, & you should listen to this album.

Now.

Juniors:
Emily Dickinson.

Abstract nouns.

Roman numerals.

Subtle gluttony.

Project reprieve.

Sophomores:
Civil disobedience.

Bonus opportunity.

Deleted scene.

Alternate ending.

New prologue.

Eighty lines.

New cast.

Brian Griffin.

Be cool.

the pleasure of ulteriority

Gov't Mule, Mulennium


I love when bands create new words, like "Politicalamity" (see: Extreme, a few weeks ago) or Mulennium.


& I guess this band's name continues our political slant.


When Warren Haynes left the Allmans to focus on the Mule, I was not happy.


Until I payed more attention to the Mule.


This album has all 3 sets of the New Year's Eve performance (Dec 31 1999-Jan 1 2000).


Hence the title . . . which may annoy those of you who believe the new millennium actually began on Jan 1 2001.


But we won't get into that.


I am huge jam fan, so I love these live performances, & was pumped when they finally officially released this one this year. My favorite Mule, though, is  Live . . . With a Little Help From Our Friends, which is a 4-disc set of the previous New Year's Eve show. Their covers of "Cortez the Killer" & "Third Stone From the Sun" just bring it.


& as for Mulennium, highlights for me are covers of "21st Century Schizoid Man," "Dazed and Confused," "Helter Skelter," "Sometimes Salvation," & "I Shall Be Released."


Don't get me wrong: their originals rock, too, but I love to see a band's influences demonstrated by its choice of covers.


You like blues-rock, you like Gov't Mule.


Juniors:
We went back over the poem "A Poison Tree."


I say, dude's dead.


Some of you agreed, some did not.


Again, "poetry, cool."


You responded to Frost, who said "poetry is metaphor."


& how about this one, also from Frost: '[T]he teacher must teach the pupil to think . . . We still ask boys in college to think, . . . but we seldom tell them it is just putting this and that together, it is saying one thing in terms of another. To tell them is to set their feet on the first rung of a ladder the top of which reaches to the sky . . . The metaphor whose manage we are best taught in poetry - that is all there is of thinking. It may not seem far for the mind to go, but it is the mind's furthest. The richest accumulation of the ages is the noble metaphors we have rolled up."


Poetry is ice cream


Or church.


Sophomores:
You finished yesterday's assignment, the group work on a 1/2-sheet of paper.


Then, you thought & wrote about civil disobedience & non-violent resistance.


The vocab quiz was postponed, so you have at least 1 more day to prepare. Remember: only the terms from the book are available.


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any fool knows a dog needs a home, a shelter from pigs on the wing

My election-day music:


Pink Floyd, Animals

If you don't know the idea of this album, what "Pigs," "Dogs," & "Sheep" are all about, well, check it out.

[Hint: it's very loosely based around the ideas in Animal Farm, but has nothing to do w/ communism; in its time it was a statement about the (then) contemporary politics in Britain]

It's an amazing album.

It's fitting for a day like today.

STATEMENT ABOUT VOTING & POLITICS IN THE CLASS & BEYOND ALERT
I do not get "political" in class because that is not my job. I know some teachers disagree w/ this idea & try to foist their opinions on you, but I feel they do you a great disservice. I let you know what I think & I listen to your opinions when things "political" or "religious" come up, as they often do in discussions of literature.

(& I have had enough students who think I'm a rabid right-winger, balanced by the many who think I'm a bleeding-heart liberal, to know I must be doing at least that part of my job pretty well.)

I belong to the party of my own thought, free from any inherent bias towards others. I don't read the flyers folks send me to tell me how to vote, I don't watch those horrific ads on the telly (I've seen enough in the past & read enough about the present to know I would not lower myself), & I don't listen to the voice mails the candidates leave me.

I study the issues & the candidates, I make my informed decision, & I abstain if I do not know enough.

Remember, the key to democracy is an informed populace, not a bumper-sticker contingent.

Yep, I voted, & I wore my sticker to Pick Up Stix & Best Buy.

Oh, & I was out because of the rise of the sinus infection: it's taking over our whole house . . .

Juniors:
You wrote your 1st "creative" assignment, for which you were given a word count, line count & title. Meet those simple requirements, & get your points.

You re-read the "How to Read a Poem" section from Barron's, focusing on the "answers to "When I Heard the Learn'd Astronomer."

Then you read "A Poison Tree," & you made your own attempt at those "answers."

& yes, I put the word "answers" in "quotation marks," because, come on, now . . . it's poetry.

It's open to interpretation.

In 3rd person, he reminds you: that's one of the reasons English is cool.

Sophomores:
Big ol' Antigone & drama notes quiz.

You matched the person or place or thing or idea to its description, & then you wrote a short response about hte "tragic hero," as brought to us by our old friend Aristotle.

You will continue & conclude the "wrap-up" group work tomorrow, & we will discuss some issues raised in the text.

& I can kind of tie all this together in finishing w/ the fact that Aristotle compared the politician (like Creon) to a craftsman . . . kind of like a poet, mayhaps?

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hevy devy

The Devin Townsend Project, Ki

Yeah, yeah, yeah another "genius," he says.

But this guy rocks.

& he used to rock a fantastic skullet:

. . . & for contrast, a more up-to-date pic:



Check out his youtube videos (NOTE: some language is quite certainly inappropriate) for some absolutely killer guitar playing.

This album is the 1st in an expected 4-disc arc. Addicted came out last year, then comes Deconstruction & finally Ghost, both of which are tentatively scheduled for next April.

Townsend calls Ki "tense, quiet."

Yeah, kinda.

Completely unlike his other stuff, in other words.

For some variety, see the Vai album Sex & Religion--on which he handled the vocals--or Strapping Young Lad, his extreme metal project.

Oh, & the solo album Ziltoid the Omniscient, a--yes, I am serious--rock opera about an alien who comes to Earth looking for a good cup of coffee.

Link for "1st Transmission" from Ziltoid:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=viaRKlgQo3E

Enjoy.


Juniors:
Soundtracks & poems & essays, oh my . . .

You brought in your "1/2-drafts," & I stamped them.

You began your notebooks of poetry w/ 10 questions to answer for any poem, brought to you by the good folks at Barron's [AP Lit & Comp Prep Guide].

We read "When I Heard the Learn'd Astronomer."

We'll talk more about that one tomorrow.

Sophomores:
You submitted your "Antigone Quotations," the collection we began when we began the poem, the ones we gave you in class (for the Prologue & Scene 1), the ones you completed over the weekend.

You got a head start on tomorrow's "big quiz" w/ some bonus points in an open-note preparation "quest."

It was good.

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[disembodied]

Death Cube K, Disembodied

My friend swears that listening to Death Cube K before bed guarantees nightmares; I'm too afraid to try.

So I play it really loud Hallowe'en night, to give the trick-or-treaters a trick w/ their treat.

This is Buckethead's alter ego.

[Note the anagram?]

(So yeah, a guy who wears a bucket on his head needs another personality somewhere.)

Anyway, it makes for great Hallowe'en music.

[See? Even used the apostrophe there for accuracy.]

Basically, we're talking horror-movie soundtrack, ambient background noise w/ occasional brilliant guitar.

Buckethead is one of my favorite artists, a guy whose whole creative energy just blows me away.

You may know him from the Chinese Democracy album, which is much more a "Buckethead/Axl Rose" collaboration than a "Guns N Roses" album.

[But as a dude who bought Appetite back in '87, saw them live a few times, & has been a relative freak ever since, I will say the album is quite good, musically impressive, & not worth 14 years of waiting.]

You will see & hear much more Buckethead throughout the school year.

Juniors:
To begin November, you need 1/2.

Whichever choice you made--soundtrack, poem, or "article'--you bring in 1/2 of the minimum Monday.

We wrap tThe Waste Land & begin to look at more "understandable" poems.

Well, some of them, maybe.

Wait 'til you see E. E. Cummings . . .

Sophomores:
FORWARD!!!

We did some subject-verb agreement exercises,  a few together in class & 2 on your own for assessment.

It was fun.

Antigone quotations due Monday 1 November.

Antigone big quiz (see: "Drama Notes") Tuesday 2 November.

be cool . . .

everything is fine, fine, fine

Soul Coughing, Irresistible Bliss

1st heard of these guys when I saw them open for the Dave Matthews Band about 100 years ago. I thought it was a great band name, & they tore it up live.

Bought this record the next day, & I highly recommend it. Super-fantastic grooves mixed w/ some seemingly Dada-style lyrics.

For the "song-not-album" people, check out "Super Bon Bon" & "The Idiot Kings," 2 of my top-500 songs like ever.

(& today's title comes from the lyrics of the latter.)

Also, for the eclectic tastes: "Soft Serve," "4 out of 5," "Disseminated," & "Soundtrack to Mary."

Oh, & how about paint, w/ the following lyric: "I know you're dumb as paint."

Got to love it.

& for the genre folks . . .uhh . . . . rock/funk, bass-driven-groove w/ a touch of soul, maybe?

Juniors:
Have you ever read The Waste Land?

Well, I have, & it rocks.

(But there is no water.)

Sophomores:
Highlights from  the intro to the film:

Antigone: somber, mayhaps tragic

Creon: collector of rare manuscripts, fooler of self

Eurydice: she sits there sewing until she leaves to die.

Chorus: good-looking fellow, greta mustache.

Ismene: "Chorus" says she's far more beautiful than Antigone

Haimon: he liked sports, competition

Oh, & this was filmed in the '70s when a lot of folks smoked, but please don't.

'Til then . . .

FORWARD!!!

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D Bowie plays him in "The Prestige," too

Tesla, Psychotic Supper

If you have not come across the story of Nikola Tesla, stop whatever you are doing, google it, & read it.

Fascinating.

Many years ago when I 1st heard of these guys I had to do "research" to figure out what was up w/ the name.

I actually spent a few minutes debating the relative merits of several of their CDs:

Five-Man Acoustical Jam started that whole rock-bands-w/-acoustic-guitars craze before you were born.

The Great Radio Controversy has "Love Song," 1 of the 1st songs I learned all the way through--solo & all, as I had been primarily a rhythm player--back in that proverbial day.

Mechanical Resonance, the debut album that has the absolutely rockin' "Modern Day Cowboy" & the semi-hit "Little Suzi."

& I chose Psychotic Supper because it's a great title, it may make you look up some Tesla (the man) details--also, listen to "Edison's Medicine" for a brief summation--& it has "What You Give," the best of their power ballads.

Wow . . ."power ballads" . . . will do a few posts on them later.

Props to Ashlyn for the band idea: she saw them live the other night & has photos & a guitar pick to prove it.

Juniors:
Peace.

Self-surrender.

Restraint.

Durn fine poem.

Durn fine.

Details about the "culmination" of The Waste Land--your choice of essay, poem, or soundtrack--to come.

More, 'easier" poems to come, also.

Then, in about 3 weeks . . . Macbeth.

Sophomores:
We finished the 1st reading of Antigone.

(Wait . . ."1st" . . huh??)

You will submit the quotations that we have been going over in class since we began the play NEXT MONDAY 1 NOVEMBER.

You wrote down the directions, & we showed you the Prologue in terms of quotes & also the response.

We also finished the "Drama Notes,: & you will take the quiz on those next TUESDAY 2 NOVEMBER.

Oh, & the last bonus-point opportunity passed w/ no answers, so here's another: 5 points to the 1st to identify the "guy" up top of the page--the one w/ the purple shirt & green tie, flies buzzing around his head.

ID the name of the character & his source material in the comments below.

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Romeo Blue

Lenny Kravitz, Mama Said

I 1st heard of him when he married Lisa Bonet.

His mother played the neighbor on The Jeffersons.

He was a hipster before hipsters were hip, & this is his best album.

Standout track: "Always on the Run," featuring Slash.

Juniors:
You finished up the group work.

We talked about "honesty" in poetry, inspired by Cleanth Brooks's take on The Waste Land.

You got the list of recurring words, & you will have 1/2 hour (30 minutes) to work on that tomorrow.

Sophomores:
We went over the open-book quizzes based on the material we had read aloud in class the previous day.

You submitted unit 4 synonyms.

We read scene 4.

We may just finish this thing tomorrow.

In coming days, you will have the chance to improve your grade w/ 2 big assignments:

(1) the quiz on those "Drama Notes" we have been covering daily &
(2) the "Antigone Quotations" pages: you copied down all the instructions & were given quotations from the Prologue & scene 1, as well as the explanations for each scene.

I am off to watch The Girl Who Played With Fire (part 2 of The Millennium Trilogy, aka "the series that started w/ The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo")

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that voice . . . just, wow

Corinne Bailey Rae, Corinne Bailey Rae

Yes! Another positive response to the music.

Many of you know "Put Your Records On," & I also dig "Like a Star," "Call Me When You Get This," & the album-closing "Seasons Change."

As you can tell by the post title, I absolutely love her voice, which fits the jazz-soul vibe of the music perfectly.

Juniors:
The Waste Land.

Finishing up group work.

Images of water & fire.

Remember: if it's in water, there's probably some kind of baptism or rebirth, a change, at least.

& if it's one fire, that's probably not a good thing.

& if there's water but no rock, could that be a metaphor for a spirit & no body?

hmm . . . .


Sophomores:
Antigone, scene 4.

She talks to the chorus here, & she asks for pity.

Cracks in the proverbial armor?

Antigone talks a little less "game" here, noting the injustice she sees in the punishment for the crime she willfully committed, knowing full well said punishment was to come.

Only a few scenes left, & I am getting excited about the thrilling conclusion.

Unit 4 synonyms due tomorrow!!!

oh, & R.I.P the Dallas Cowboys 2010 season

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a small green area in a desert or wasteland

Yep, very positive response for this one.

Oasis, (What's the Story) Morning Glory?

My favorite Oasis story is the one in which singer Liam is a no-show (sore throat, he says) for the band's performance on MTV's Unplugged, leaving big bro Noel to sing the songs.

Noel does a pretty good job, but  shortly into the performance the band is heckled by an obnoxious gent in the balcony.

That gent?

Yeah, Liam.

The brothers Gallagher had some great times.

My favorite bandmate brothers:

1. Vinnie & Darrell from Pantera
2. Eddie & Alex from Van Halen
3. Chris & Rich from The Black Crowes.
4. Liam & Noel from Oasis
5. like the whole band Kings of Leon, except the cousin
HONORABLE MENTION: Hanson . . . I especially like the one who looked like a girl back in the "Mmm-Bop" days & now sings for Tinted Windows

(NO MENTION of the Jonas Brothers, though I hear one of them actually has talent. Nick, maybe?)

Juniors:
The Waste Land, we explore.

Looking at recurring images, Mary Karr's "Central poetic experience," & other such things.

Greta, great poem

A heap of broken images.


Sophomores:
FORWARD!!!

We did some Mark Twain reading--the story of the watch was pretty durn funny, to be quite honest.

Literary response & analysis for the proverbial win.

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I hope I didn't just give away the ending

New Radicals, Maybe you've been brainwashed too.

Yep, that's how the dude capitalized & punctuated.

Also, after his one hit Gregg Alexander decided to quit the business so he would not be a one-hit wonder.

(!?!?!?!).
This dance-funk-groove record sold a few back in '98-'99, thanks to that one hit, "You get what you give." (Again, album-cover capitals.)

I will warn you here, too: the dude wrote some pretty good lyrics.

& the album features a back-up singer named Danielle Brisebois, who had been a child "star" as Edith's niece Stephanie.

How about that for some trivia?

You 're welcome.

(oh, & the post title is another song title.)

NON-POLITICALLY-CHARGED REFERENCE TO A (SADLY) POLITICALLY-CHARGED TOPIC ALERT:

I just today finished reading Where Men Win Glory: The Odyssey of Pat Tillman.

Wow.
The book was written by Jon Krakauer, whose Into the Wild you were supposed to read last year

I had a grandfather, an uncle, several neighbors, & various other folks in my life fight in wars, & I have never done enough to thank them.

At the base level I probably think of Veterans Day & Memorial Day as barbeque days.

Let's all be honest: how often to we stop for a moment to think of those who, as we say, "gave all"?

Here's a guy who gave up millions to do the right thing, to stand up for what he felt was right, to defend the freedoms we like to discuss. Anyway it can be parsed, that comes out as "hero."

There's a book about him because of his fame as well as the horrific lies that were told in a cover-up of the facts of his death.

There are thousands of others who get no books, just mourning relatives & friends.

LIFE-LESSON TO BE LEARNED FROM ALL THIS ALERT

I honestly do not care what one thinks of the wars--& sadly, I think too many of us do not think of them at all--but I do care that all of us realize the sacrifice that goes on daily by those who wear the uniform.

This is in no way a "left" or "right," "liberal" or "conservative" issue.

It's a human issue.


Juniors:
As we read The Waste Land, let us ponder,as Eliot did, the horrors of war.

Great things can come from war, but no sane person can say that war is great.

Great things arose in class today, as I asked you for a key line you had noted or a line you happened upon when opening the book this morning.

Some examples:

Memory and desire

Winter kept us warm

A heap of broken images

Your shadow at morning striding behind you

Fear death by water

Are you alive or not? Is there nothing in your head?

Consider Phlebas, who was once handsome and tall as you

Here there is no water but only rock

Shantih shantih shantih

Sophomores:
You took an open-book quiz on the material we read aloud in class yesterday.

Many of you did very well, mixing the CDs & the CMs.

You analyzed the chorus's response to Antingone & Creon.

You discussed Haimon & Creon, how the son is just like the daddy in many ways, especially rhetorically.

We have finished a big chunk of the play, & we will do more Monday.

Also, next week TUESDAY will be unit 4 synonyms, THURSDAY will be unit 4 completing sentences.

Soon, you will be submitting those quotations you were assigned, 4 from each scene, including the ones we did in class, from the Prologue as well as Scene 1.

Until then we march FORWARD!!!

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he was what he is

Frank Zappa, Joe's Garage

I could write about this one for hours.

Days, maybe.

But I won't.

It's brilliant in its insanity, insane in its brilliance.

My wife & I saw it performed on stage at The Open Fist Theatre (now, seriously, is that not a great name?!) 2 years ago, & it absolutely rocked.

The Zappa Family Trust gave the OK, it was performed straight through as a musical w/ a live band . . . & the lights went down for the album's version of "Watermelon in Easter Hay."

It was amazing.

That was the song that had sold her on Zappa, & that was the moment we just sat there in the dark ruminating on life & taking it all in.

"Beautiful" is the word here, I believe.

As for the play as a whole, I wrote up a review if you would for some strange reason be interested.

As for the song--which FZ stated he originally titled "Playing a Guitar Solo With This Band Is Like Trying to Grow a Watermelon in Easter Hay," it is 1 of my 5 favorite guitar instrumentals (that makes 2 I have mentioned thus far--anyone paying attention? 5 bonus points to the 1st to identify the other in the comments below).

PMRC WARNING ALERT:
Dude was an absolute musical genius, but had a bizarre, some would say "obscene" sense of humor, & it manifested in his lyrics. So, listener beware.

Also, come & see me for advice if you are interested, because FZ has something for (almost) everyone.

Juniors:
I played Zappa today because he, like T. S. Eliot, is a difficult artist, one who demands from his audience more than many want to offer up.

I love these guys, many cannot stand them, & I can pretty much understand why.

I believe art should challenge our beliefs, make us examine all that we hold dear, help us to re-establish ourselves or re-imagine ourselves.

Zappa & Eliot do just that.

They will take you places you may not want to go, definitely out of your comfort zone. They will make that journey worth every gut-wrenching or side-splitting moment.

They will frustrate & amaze w/in about, oh, 3-5 seconds.

Man, I LOVE this stuff.

We went over the concepts of poetry & art, using Marianne Moore's "Poetry," the 1st line of which I do not believe. As usual, many of you had great ideas, today about the "meaning" of poetry & communication in general.

Sophomores:
You were asked to re-think the characters of Ismene & Antigone.

1 has changed, the other not so much.

We read scene 3 of Antigone.

Haimon learned from his daddy, I tell you: same rhetoric, same process of argumentation.

Oh, & Creon went from "kill her" to "kill her no, in front of him" to "take her somewhere where she'll die."

Sets up the coming scenes.

I LOVE this stuff, too.

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yours, mine, truth

Extreme, III Sides to Every Story

The "subtitle" to this one is "Yours, Mine, & the Truth."

I love that.

I love this album.

Also, the idea is fitting, given the conversation we have had about Houyhnhnms & the DFW piece & the idea of "truth" in general.

I may prefer Pornograffiti on certain days, but this one hits me in the head as well as the heart.

[SIDENOTE: any Guitar Hero players still around? The band's "Play With Me" was 1 of those "hardest-songs-ever," up there w/ Buckethead's  "Jordan"  & Dragonforce's "Through the Fire & Flames."]

"Yours" is the rockin' side, w/ "Politicalamity" continuing the band's creation-of-words motif; "Peacemaker Die" includes an excerpt of King's "I Have a Dream" speech, & "Cupid's Dead" just flat-out rocks.

"Mine," the mellower, ballad-y side, has 1 of the the funniest love songs ever written, "Tragic Comic."

& "The Truth" is a progressive tour-de-force, a 3-part, 20+ minute epic. It's called "Everything Under the Sun," & the parts are "Rise n Shine," " Am I Ever Gonna Change"  & "Who Cares?"

A fantastic, highly underrated near-masterpiece by a great band that never got a real foothold because of

(a) the length of their hair,
(b) the advent of "grunge," &
(c) their one big, huge monster hit, "More Than Words," which made people think they were Simon & Garfunkel & not a funky metal band.

Also, Nuno Bettencourt is a genius.

Yeah, I said it.

Later you'll hear more of his stuff, but if you're interested now, check out Mourning Widows (my favorite of his bands), Dramagods (bog melodic rock), Satellite Party (w/ Perry Farrell), & Population 1.

& how may I  connect this w/ you young'uns?

How about this: he toured as Rihanna's guitarist this year.

A lot of metalheads were quite angry.

I thought it was way, way cool.

Juniors:
You struggled to listen as my speakers struggled to give the amazingly quiet rendition of Eliot reading his own work.

I got a few words for you:

"O O O O that Shakespeherian Rag"

(& yes, that's how he spells it.)

If you didn't know it, you heard stuff from Hamlet, Greek mythology, the Upanishads, the Fisher King, selected plays, poems, stories, & myths.

It's all a heap of broken images.

& that's why it rules.

Sophomores:
An in-class open-book quiz on the stuff we had previously read aloud in class.

Many of you did quite well . . . & a few of you continue not to try.

We then looked at scene 2, in which things get downright conflict-heavy.

Creon's gonna kill Antigone.

Now Ismene wants to die fro the crime she did not commit.

(Wait--what!?!?!)

Antigone says, bring it on, big boy.

Will he kill his son's fiancee?

Will Antigone find a loophole in the law?

Will the sentry return?

Tune in tomorrow, same Greek time, same Greek channel.

(Also, bring your unit 4 definitions.)

&

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