yep, that's Calvin & Hobbes up there

(John Calvin & Thomas Hobbes, that is. Pretty cool, huh?)






















Erykah Badu, Baduizm.

Her first album & durn good.

Today I said she's "soul-ish, jazz-ish, funk-ish," but that just begins to cover it. Her music truly is "Baduizm."

In other words, "hers."

I cannot recommend her music enough.

Also, I hear this is pretty cool:

http://thebravetimes.com/

& meanwhile . . .

Juniors: 2 nouns about Victor or The Creature. What they stand for. This section, all fragments.

Aqua & teal: check out this site:

 http://www.die-hardgraphics.com/colorsamples.html

(& yes, "aqua green" & "aqua blue" can be found elsewhere.)

Fact & opinion.

Faust.

Aristotle, tragic hero.

Poetic justice.

Catharsis.

Sophomores: The end of "Contents . . . " & the beginning of "A Very Old Man With Enormous Wings."

Magic realism.

Finish it for tomorrow, reading quiz.

Literary Analysis. Literary Focus. Reading Focus.

Vocabulary, definitions, unit 1.

Synonyms Thursday.

Outside reading update due Friday.

Enjoy.

Be cool.

in between the moon and you, angels get a better view of the crumbling difference between wrong and right

Counting Crows, Across a Wire: Live in New York City

(I hope Chloe likes this one more than she has the others. . .I'm sooooo nervous.)

Adam Duritz became known more for his dating of various Hollywood ladies--especially from the cast of Friends--than for his folk-rock-lyrically-poignant songs.

This 2-disc set provides the band's performance from  VH1 Storytellers & MTV Live from the 10 Spot.

One thing I really like: they mix it up--these are not the "album versions," but rather new takes on older tracks.

Check out also August and Everything After, their debut album & to me their best.

Juniors: Really cool "Do Now" taken from the "Summary of Modern Criticism," which I have linked through the teacherweb site.  Gilbert & Gubar compared The Creature to Adam, Satan, & God; Percy Shelley went the nature-v-nurture route & wound up on the side of the latter; & Paul Youngquist compared Mary Shelley's take on "body as fate" as well as Mary Wollstonecraft's views of body & reason.

Great idea: "Reason is natural and beauty mere ornament."

We also heard about some really cool books.

Seminar set-up tomorrow.

Get your thinking shoes ready.

Sophomores: You got the template for the vocabulary exercises, & unit 1 definitions are due tomorrow. Also, we went to the library to get folks some outside-reading books; Remember, your OR 1.2 update will be submitted on this, the 1st of the "Forward Fridays."

Just wait until you see the shirts.

be cool

RIP SRV

He died 20 years ago today--yes, before you were born--but he played w/ soul, passion, dedication, & you should check him out.

& those are 3 words we all should consider daily.

I will argue that life is all about soul, passion, & dedication.

Check him out:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h5tS5V9DIG0

(warning: out-of-this-world blues/soul content)


ANOTHER WEEKEND BONUS:

About 10 lines ago (including spaces), I said, "I will argue that life is all about soul, passion, & dedication."

In the comments below, state your 3 entities about which life is "all about."

Also, explain.

Let's say, 100 words (or, 33 & 1/3 apiece).


EXAMPLE:
soul: the spark of life within. The force that drives us to do "good" or just to do. That for which we live, on the internal plane, as well as that which we look for in others, in the hope of a kind of connection on the emotional & intellectual levels.  That which makes "me," "me" & "you," "you."


1st 10 will earn 10 bonus points . . . after that, some kind of bonus & my respect.

offer expires SUNDAY 9.29  at 11:59 PM

Continue to enjoy your weekend, &

 be cool

soulshine: better than sunshine

Warren Haynes, Live at Bonnaroo

Never made it to Bonnaroo, but hope to some day.

Warren plays with The Allman Brothers Band & The Grateful Dead as well as his own band, Gov't Mule. You like the blues, you like Warren Haynes. Such a soulful player and singer.

This album showcases Warren & an acoustic guitar doing his songs, like "Soulshine," as well as covers, such as U2's "One."

Excellent stuff here.

Speaking of excellent stuff . . .

Juniors: we watched some clips of the "horror" film from 1931 . . . I mean, come on . . .

Anyway, by popular demand:




















Frankenstein, 1931: this is the one we've been checking out. The iconic imagery of The Creature comes from here. As you can tell, it doesn't hold up over time, but it's still 100% on RottenTomatoes.com. Great film for what it is.



Mary Shelley's Frankenstein, 1996: NOTE: RATED "R"!!Kenneth Branagh (aka Gilderoy Lockhart) directs himself as Jon-Bon-Jovi-meets-Victor-Frankenstein. Robert DeNiro as The Creature; he actually speak here, & the film is the closest we get to a true take on the novel . . . but it all breaks down in the end. Walton is here, too. NOTE: RATED "R"!!!











Young Frankenstein, 1974: Mel Brooks at his best. Just go rent it, stream it, buy it, whatever, & thank me later.







Sophomores: "Contents . . . " pages collected for points.

OR 1.1 collected for points.

Now it gets serious.

Bring your Vocabulary Workshop books with you Monday.

You'll have a good long weekend, & look "Forward" to "Friday."

(See what I did there? Huh? Clever . . . )

be cool

seen fire, seen rain

Badlands is one of those bands who almost made it.  Durn good "big rock" band (That is David Lee Roth's term for Van Halen, & it fits here).

Voodoo Highway, the band's 2nd & pretty much last album, is deep in the blues,as you can tell by the title & the cover.

Speaking of covers, they include a really, really cool version of James Taylor's "Fire and Rain."

Oh, & for you Ozzy fans, the guitar player here is Jake E. Lee, one of the most underrated rock guitarists of my lifetime.

Juniors: discussed the differences between the 1818 original & the 1831 "edit." Same book, different details. Also, that whole "fate" thing might make you think differently about the themes. This is among the things I love about literature--there are no (or, at least "very few") correct answers--there are "better" & "worse" arguments.

Thinking rules.

Let's do a whole lot of it this year.

Also, you got a ton of info about the Socratic seminar that you will conduct next Wednesday & Thursday.


Sophomores: "Contents . . . " quiz. "Contents . . ." Do Now. "Contents . . ." OR 1.1.

You answered a question each from the  "exposition," "rising action," "climax," "falling action," "resolution," "& "theme."

& yes, I know my way around some quotation marks.

A lot of "Contents . . . "

(& don't forget the ellipsis.)

Finish those 4 sentences (part III of the update) for tomorrow, as you will turn it in at the beginning of the period.

be cool

The only true currency in this bankrupt world is what we share with someone else when we're uncool

Stillwater, a fictional band created by Cameron Crowe for the movie Almost Famous.


The movie made Kate Hudson's career, & also starred . . .

Patrick Fugit (The Vampire's Assistant; he plays the semoi-autobiographical "William Miller," who, like Crowe, works for Rolling Stone as a teen.),

Jason Lee (My Name is Earl; great in this film),

& Billy Crudup (Dr Manhattan from Watchmen; he almost single-handedly ruined the film w/ his inability to even look like he had any idea how to hold a guitar).

Anyway, it's rated R, so be warned.

Also, the out-of-print "bootleg edition" (not a real, stolen "bootleg," but a director's cut w/a cool title) comes w/ an extended version & the EP shown above. Some pretty good classic-rock-style songs.

& yes, that great title-quotation comes from the film.

Juniors: Is Victor a "compassionate utopian"? Does he bring about his own demise through hubris? Is he egocentric, egotistical, both or neither? Is Dean Koontz a hack? What's with the nightmares into his 30s? Did his comparisons to 20th-century dictators & despots make sensse?

Sophomores: finish up the story tonight if you have not done so. That said, you had almost 70 minutes of classtime to do the work, & you should be done. You will take a short "did-you-read-it?" quiz, & if you did, you'll have no trouble. You should know why Tom ended up on that ledge, whose "pocket" is in the title, what he learns in the end, & what it all means to the reader.

be cool

'cause it's here, & it's what they can't see

Blind Melon, Blind Melon

One of their weaker songs, "No Rain," was their one hit. & yes, they dressed up a little girl in that outfit for the video, & their career was probably ruined by that, &, sadly, their singer's overdose 2 years later.

I'll take  "Soak the Sin," "Time," &"Tones of Home," (the last of which gives us the title quote above) any day.

Juniors: a lot of great book ideas, everything from How to Read Literature Like a Professor to The Inferno to The Clique. Non-fiction, romance, horror, supernatural, AP-worthy, all kinds of good stuff.

Thanks for that. You'll be choosing books for Lit Os in 2 weeks, so keep some of these in mind.

Also, we reviewed & you wrote level-2 (implicit in text) & level-3 (beyond the text) questions.

Remember to bring in your Frankenstein seminar prep questions tomorrow--minimum of 30 words for 7 of the 17, your choice.


Sophomores: "Contents of the Dead Man's Pocket," reading literature handout, & plot terms defined.

terms to remember . . .
plot
setting
exposition  (basic situation)
rising action
conflict
complications
climax
falling action
resolution (denouement)
protagonist
antagonist

We'll apply these to the story tomorrow, & you will have time to finish the questions.

Be cool.