The Hobbit

Dale (and others) insist that Tolkien (in addition to telling a good story, which I totally concede) writes good prose.  I’m rereading, for the first time in 20 years, The Hobbit. We’ll see if it’s true. The prose is as simple as the story, but I don’t know that that’s a bad thing at all.

AP Home Stretch (4/22)

Yesterday, I had 66 students produce 2 page essays. By 2pm, I had scored & provided feedback on 66 essays.   Jesus Christ.  And it repeats today and tomorrow.

I am blogging this fast return from the apple store in NYC. The big one.

You know; this one:

(image forthcoming)

 

Now that this NYC trip is on and I”m on spring break, perhaps I can get back to writing about the bullshit education system, Les Miserables, Peter Cameron’s Someday this Pain will be Useful to You, and David Mitchell’s Ghostwritten.  And some Lost.

Lost 5.6 “Namaste”

9:06-  Love Lapidus.   Curious as to why Sun doesn’t disappear.  I may or may not have noted a couple weeks ago that I don’t think Jack ever originally crashed.

9:08- Let’s talk about the emotion here of Hurly hugging Sawyer.  Even though in show time, we’ve only seen these characters separated by about 6 hours, in the “show’s time,” they’ve been separate for three years.   And when Hugo goes to Sawyer, it’s a moment that chokes us up.  It’s like the end of the fourth season when the families get together when the Oceanic Six arive.  It was one moment where I lord help me cried.

This makes me think of Governor’s Honors.   It is only ten months when I am separated from those people every year, but after those ten months and I walk back onto VSU’s campus, it’s like the entire past ten months happened, yes, but those people are so close to me it’s like we sometimes pick right back up where we started.   These characters on Lost only spent three and a half months actually all together, but that time was enough to seal their bond permanently.  Bonds like this are interesting.  It’s what I like to think we share at GHP.  Is it because the bond is fleeting and transient?  I don’t know.  Is it because there are common trials, and a common goal?  I don’t know.  It would be interesting to go and play more with this idea of “Ka-Tet.”

9:16- At this point in the season’s run, how do I talk about anything other than plot?  At least without dissecting it first?

9:18-  Lapidus leading the group- even the term “hunker down.”  Grooves on a record.  Michael Emerson is such a bad ass.   He’s got a movie coming out where he’s the father of a gay kid.  Can’t wait to see it.

9:24-  Heh. Put that baby down.

9:37: Well, we know she can do that.

9:54-  Is this the first really extended scene we’ve had with John Terry on the island?

Live Blogging “Lost” ep. 5.8- “LaFleur”

1st of all- what the fuck? (apologies for the F-bomb)   I thought that the point of Lost was to get us an uniterrupted block of shows.   And now we have to wait until March 18?  What the hell?

9:02- Well there’s the statue.  

9:03-  Now let’s think about Sawyer for a minute.  The last time we saw him, he made a joke and John laughed.  It’s the first time that anyone laughed at anyone of Sawyer’s jokes.  And now here he is, leading the group.

9:04-  Phil:  Scared shitless man from Mulholland Drive.  Love that movie. Love that movie, but I hate it.   This just continues the way that the show continues to populate itself with actors & ideas from all those things that are excellent:  Wayne Pygram from (my favorite) Farscape, Mira Furlan (in a large role) from Babylon 5, now “Phil” (whose name I don’t know) from Mulholland Drive.   Once this is all over, it will be good to see these guys’ writing process and see what their actual influences were.

9:12- 3 years earlier/ 3 years later are we going to keep flashing back & forth like this through the whole episode?

9:15 Let’s go back to thinking about Sawyer again.   With that whole beach episode- wait hold on for just a minute.

9:16 As far as scifi series that address time travel, this one does it nicely- it doesn’t matter what you do; it’s done.

9:17 Okay, now let’s go back to Sawyer & Miles asking “who put him in charge?” just as it was in the past.  This is another Stephen King motif- the prisoner (also Kate or Sayid or hell the whole show is really a prison, more on that later), but remember in The Dark Tower Eddie Dean was the prisoner & had the monky on his back, etc. etc.   What flashed into my mind here as Sawyer goes from Prisoner (back in the states) to Head of Security, was the Tarot card:

9:21 Damnit.  I will have to do the whole mini-essay on the Tarot later.  Back to the show.

9:22 I still think that’s Annie. We’ll see.

9:25 No it’s not Annie.  It’s Amy.   Is the doctor someone we know?

9:28 I didn’t understand that conversation through Jin’s English

Ethique et Education (responses appreciated)

So here’s what I’m reading and here’s how I came to be reading it and here’s the deal:

I don’t know why I never thought of this before, but about a month ago I started bringing my ipod speaker to class every day.  I play it for my first period repeating freshmen everyday for my students to do their writing to.  If the music (classical or jazz- never vocals) is playing, they’re writing.  I started moving this into my AP classes though for some group work.  The rule is on the board:

If anybody can’t hear the music, you’re being too loud.

So it’s been a huge success.  I sometimes put on music in the computer lab, etc., but never when doing group work.

In any event, last week I put on the complete symphonic recording of  Les Misérables.  (My AP students are okay with vocals)  It’s three hours long; I have three AP classes in a row.   I heard the whole thing in a day, and even though it was just in the background, I was amazed at how completely the album tells the enitre story. And I don’t care that Hugo purists find it too condensed and that music purists think it’s too pop.  It’s a piece of art- both as musical & as novel- that’s important to me. 

A student, let’s call him Christian, knew I loved the show & was asking him about it.  I loaned him an abridged copy.  He is one of the hardest thinkers and workers I have, but struggles because he’s a Spanish speaker & struggles with English.

I decided that I’d burn him the album- and here’s where it gets ethically questionable- and also a transcription of the libretto. 

Semi-obscure reference to my high school days:

http://cu.nniling.us/

*sigh*  I miss Bryan Hesters.  One of the three or four most influential people in my life, as far as developing my sense of character & confidence.  I still love you, man.   (not in the gay way)

 Hat tip:  http://intrepidlad.wordpress.com

Primary source research, hiv/AIDS, and GHP classes

One of the tough things about the Governor’s Honors Program is trying to keep it “fresh.”  It’s always fresh for the kids, but for me, when I teach the same class over and over again for, say, seven years, I start to drag.

Now I have a new idea to pump me up:  Primary Sources.  In prepping documents for my AP Language class to analyze, I started researching primary sources on AIDS and GRID this morning, from the 1970s-forward.  All in retrospect, fascinating and frightening.  More on the GHP class after the jump.

 

Live Blogging “Lost”- ep. 5.7- “The Life & Death of Jeremy Bentham”

Recap:  Hawking saying “That’s why they call it a ‘Leap of faith,’ Christian: “That’s why they call it a sacrifice.”

9:01- That’s “colored pictures of hydrogyen test” on the cover of LIFE.  Is this Lockes/ Bentham’s apt?

9:04-  Am I crazy about adding yet another group to the island?  Not exactly.  I didn’t think the plane was going to land at all.  So much for my “Langoliers” theory.  But maybe this constant putting of new groups on the island will somehow play into the larger scheme of things.  I don’t mean plotwise, but thematic wise.  I mean, let’s look at all the elements:  The “Others,” the “military,” “Dharma,” the French exploration, the people Ben’s Dharma/others brought to the island (Juliet, et. al), Desmond, the Oceanic Front, the tailies, the freighter folk, and now whoever is on this new crash.

9:07- And each one has a new leader- here, it’s Caesar.

9:09- Is this the exact spot Ben & the Polar Bears wound up?  I don’t think so.  But in any event, why Tunisia?  There’s always a reason with this show.

9:14-  Why were the cameras not set up for Ben?   Did Ben’s exit predate or post-date John’s?  Did Widmore only “think” of putting up the cameras after they disappeared?  The timeline is confusing.  It sounds like that- the oceanic 6 show up, Ben shortly thereafter, and maybe even after Ben encounters Widmore, and Widmore realizes people are coming off the island, and then he sets up cameras.  Hrm.  To ponder.

9:27- You know, neither Sayid nor Walt seemed to want to talk to Locke for more than two minutes- time constraints of TV?   PTSD for Sayid regarding anything about the island?   What about Walt?  Just given it up- shouldn’t he be asking a lot more about his dad?  Oh well.  And why is Ben watching Walt at his school?  Does Ben know Locke is back & is using Walt as bait, etc. etc.

9:36-  He’s still just pushin that button.  What a pretty moment that was with Locke remembering Helen for Kate.

9:46-  Boy, Locke really pissed everybody off.  Nobody wants to see him.

9:46 (again)-  Look at how nicely the orange hospital light in this scene serves as a parallel to the fires of the torches when Locke & Jack were arguing about fate/decisions about whether or not to go into the hatch, way at the beginning of season 2/end of season one.

9:48-  More of King.  This set up, when I saw previews, and knew about it here, reminded me of James Whitmore killing himself in the movie adaptation, The Shawshank Redemption. 

9:49-  Here he is, hanging himself.   Which character is going to be there with him?  And is he hanging himself now?   If so, how did Jack’s beard get so full so quick?

9:54- What an odd scene this all is- the gentleness Ben is showing towards Locke, all of it.  Now we’re going to see Eloise.

9:55- And now we know that Ben is, indeed, evil.  For this week.

9:56-  Ever seen the sublime Peter O’ Toole film My Favorite Year?  “Well, we know he can do that.”

9:51-   Isn’t Locke supposed to go see Eloise Hawking?

Live Blogging “Lost” ep. 5.6- “316″ (Try 2)

Last week there, was a lot of fuck-uppery regarding my ability to connect to the blog, so I didn’t get to live blog.  Here, an hour before the next show, I’m re-doing “316.”   S0me observations will obviously be influenced by a previous viewing.

9:01-   A repeat of the show’s opening shot of the pilot.  Was this going to be the other half of the planned scene for the pilot- when Jack runs into himself?  The way that Sawyer ran into Kate last week?  As a repeat thought, when John gets onto the island in “Life/Death of Bentham,” will the exact same opening shot of him be repeated- him on the beach, looking at his feet (now missing, of course, Christian Shephard’s shoe)?