books books books

Following in my class mates steps my five books would have to be:
-Me Talk Pretty One Day (no matter what that book will forever make me laugh)
-The Five People You Meet in Heaven
-A Northern Light
-some sort of biography of Ansel Adams
-Catch 22

For those of you who have not read Me Talk Pretty One Day by David Sedaris, do so.
"I had no job at the time and was living off the cruel joke I referred to as my savings." So sarcastic...perfect.

-Riz

the five people you meet in heaven

"I figure it's like in the Bible, the Adam and Eve deal. Adam's first night on earth? When he lays down to sleep? He thinks it's all over, right? He doesn't know what sleep is. His eyes are closing and he thinks he's leaving this world, right? Only he isn't He wakes up the next morning and he has a fresh new world to work with, but he has something else, too. He has his yesterdays. The way I see it, that's what we're getting here, soldier. That's what heaven is. You get to make sense of your yesterdays."

This passage is from one of my favorite books "The Five People you Meet in Heaven". I read this book years ago when my grandmother passed away and many many times since then. Every time I read it I find some new outlook that I missed the last time and I just love that about it. It's refreshing to hear different outlooks on afterlife. I'm not very religious so my mind is just full of questions and ideas about what happens after one dies. I really enjoyed reading Mitch Albom's version of Heaven and would highly suggest this quick read to someone looking for a short book.
-Riz

sooo..

So...
I did indeed write a sonnet for Monday but, it was far to sad to read in class. You see, one of my dearest friends past way in May and I wrote about it in my English class last year at Kennebunk (it was an assigned paper). While reading it to my class I started to bawl my eyes out. I made a pact with myself that if I chose to write about him again that I wouldn't read it aloud unless I thought my tears could stay put.

After writing my Sonnet I thought I could do it, until I told KMART about it and started tearing up. Then I decided that I would just lie and say I didn't have it. But, then during class I found out that I didn't rhyme it write anyways so...it wasn't really a sonnet until just last night when I switched it up a bit.

vent session done by
-Riz

What I do during dance class...

So I wrote the sonnet while I was annoyingly watching my dance class because I sprained my darn ankle and cant dance this week. I working really hard on it, then left it in my pants pocket, therefore I didn't have it for class on the day it was due. As my intellectual classmates read their sonnets in class, I was informed that in order to be a legitimate sonnet, it had to rhyme (durr da durr). I should have known. So I reworked my lovely sonnet. It's sad, and not as fantastical as some of the other poetic geniuses', but that's okay, I tried my best. It now rhymes, but I'm not sure all of the lines make sense. I'm no Shakespeare that's for sure, but honestly, who is? Yeah, so that is what I have to say about my sonnet. I had some trouble writting it, but it now meets all of the requirements. Hope you enjoy my sad, rhyming, fourteen line, iambic pentameter poem that may not make a whole lot of sense.

chemsford.

Its okay "rae"....I still think that you are purgalicious.

chemsford.

stupid fourteen liner

So... I'm Done.
I finished.
My sonnet has all the dotted i's and crossed t's and I think I made my own requirements [Or I could take the route of saying "they were more of guidelines anyways" (Oh, Captain Jack Sparrow.. MUST love Johnny Depp with eyeliner)] as opposed to the "Official" rules of Sonnet-ting as expressed by R-ski:
fourtreen lines
all having the iambic pentameter deal
with the stresses (correctly placed??)
...
I have fourteen lines.. check...
I have ten syllables per line... so maybe half check...
aaaanddd... about this little iambic pentameter deal... well i dont understand the point, concept, or generally what a stress is. I mean I read back my sonnet and every other syllable I made it sound more stressed then the previous?
Reading this in front of the class might make me look like a total idiot with my stressing of the stressing.
But... I finished. And that's important.
I guess.

-rae

Mid-Blog Crisis!

So I'm getting sick of typing purgalicious and think that rae is a nickname I use more commonly anyways... so I'm going through a mid-blog crisis and changing my pen name.
Just to clear any confusion.

-rae

Oh the things Billy gets away with...

So, going back to those retched days of reading Shakespeare... a week ago... I reflect on the fact that no matter what I read, it was understood that Shakespeare wrote it, so it must be true. Now, after being asked the question for this blog: What are the improbabilities or illogical events in "King Lear", and what impact do they have on the general effect of the tragedy?, I realized that within Shakespeare's genius writing style, he likes to add those little "gotchas" that he can get away with, being a genius and all. I think he likes using the confusing (understandment) language so he can hide a totally unlikey event (uhh.. Gloucester's fall? Puhleese) into such a confusing turn of events it seems absolutly logical at the moment. Now, I'm no expert on falling off cliffs, but the gravitational force I'm sure would be more than noticable, along with the rushing wind, the feeling of falling, and the agonizing end when reaching the bottom. No person in their right mind would fall for the fact that they fell, half a second later hit ground, only to feel a slight impact and maybe a bloody nose. This might be just the impact our genius friend was looking for. Gloucester wasn't quite in his right mind. He's following the imsainity trend, although maybe not to the same extent as Lear (he still favored clothing). Gloucester's fall was not only a physical fall of course, but also a metaphorical fall. He realizes his false anger towards Edgar and regrets the judgments he made, also being hurt by the betrayal of the son he trusted and loved. Being blind helps him see the world a lot clearer. The fall symbolizes a change in Gloucester's views, which of course changes his course in life from there on out, so although he was physically alive, a part of his spirit "died" while being replaced by a new view and optomism.
Following in his father's footsteps, literally in this case, is Edgar. Not only is he the "Master in Disguise", but he's quite the magician when it comes to teleportation. From the sounds of the distribution to the three daughters, Lear's kingdom is no South Berwick or Eliot. So, how is it that King Lear and company, Gloucester included, just happen upon Edgar's hovel in the forest. Not only that, but Edgar, disguised as a phesant, runs into his father who is later on being escorted after having his eyes gourged out. I think there is way more coincidence going on in this kingdom then necessary. Of course, without Edgar running into his father and disappearing like he was supposed to following Edmund's advice, his character wouldn't have such a lasting effect throughout the story, adding the occasional irony of his father talking to him, about him, as if he were some poor phesant, along with the fact that Edgar pretty much saves the day in the end, so I mean thank God for Edgar, but it still makes no sense. What is even more frusterated about Edgar is his ability to lower his clothing status and all of a sudden become a new person. Modern day disguises take a few plastic surgeons to work completly. It might have been the movie that ruined the idea, since his only difference was a hair cut, but even in the play it sounded as if he went from silk to rags and all of a sudden became unrecognizable.
Moving on to Edgar's brother (improbability runs in the family), how exactly is he getting away with his love affairs with both sisters? Not only are they both aware of it, but so is Goneril's husband (in the movie she went as far to "show her affections" right in front of her own husband). If you think about this in a normal, modern day life, your standing by watching as a neighborly friend is making moves on both your mom and your aunt and your dad is asking the neighborly friend and your mother to move their make out session from in front of the tv. How is everyone so nonchelant with what's going on? It does have a huge effect on the outcome of the play though, like the fact that the two sisters both end up death over jealousy issues.
So, I guess when reflected on, Billy has once again proved his genius. He gets away with putting improbable events in the play by allowing them to create the necesary ending in the end.

-purgalicious

When did we choose this question: King Lear Investigation

I have no memory of choosing this question, that aside here we go.

Question:
What are the improbabilities or illogical events in King Lear, and what impact do they have on the general effect of the tragedy?

Edgar. Edgar is improbable. He always appears in the most strange of places. For example when the storm is taking place, Edgar comes in to be the support system. Also, right after Gloucester got his eyes taken out Edgar appears again to shine some light onto the situation. He seems to have a way of showing the silver lining.

This just seems improbable to me because where is he coming from. If everyone in this time period had the speed that Edgar apparently had, no one would need to be a messenger because they could run to their desired locations even faster. If Edgar were not able to find the trouble so easily though, the play would have no narrative because when people are alone with no eyes they would have no one to talk to about their problems. Edgar helped build his fathers confidence after randomly showing up conveniently in the same place as his newly crippled father. Gloucester was feeling belittled and worthless. Edgar added to the improbability by pretending his father fell down a cliff/hill and then pretended to be someone else to let Gloucester know how strong he must be if he could handle a fall that would have killed anyone else.


HOW COULD GLOUCESTER BELIEVE THIS? This is completely illogical. Edgar is Gloucester's son how could he not recognize that the person he was talking to was the same person? It does not make sense at all. That wouldn't happen...couldn't happen. Gloucester would know if he had fallen down a hill and would know who he was talking to if it were his own son. Right??

-Riz

The Impacts of the Improbable Events in King Lear

Q: What are the improbabilities or illogical events in King Lear, and what impact do they have on the general effect of the tragedy?
A: King Lear is full of events that just couldn't happen in real life. Some of it's most important concepts are based around just plain silly events.
The first illogical event that I will pick out of Shakespeare's King Lear, is the fact that King Lear and his wife couldn't have any offspring that were boys. All she had were three girls. Then King Lear gives up his power by splitting up his kingdom between the three women. This is what causes all of the misfortunate series of events in King Lear's life.

Second, Edgar always seem to be in the right place at the right time. When he ends up in the shack King Lear takes refuge in during the storm, and when Gloucester is thrown out onto the streets after his eyes have been gauged out. He is there to save the day at the most random parts of the books. It actually seems as though most the time the characters meet up in this play on accident. After Gloucester has taken his "fall", and Edgar and Gloucester are together in Dover, King Lear randomly comes into the scene. Each of these people random meeting up brought something new to the play. When Lear runs into Gloucester and Edgar in Dover, We see further that Gloucester is letting himself lose his mind, and wants to let go just like King Lear.

Third ( the most unbelievable event of all) is Gloucester's "fall". Okay, seriously who thinks they have fallen of a huge cliff after just tripping over yourself. This is ridiculous. But it is important to the play because it slowly shows Gloucester letting go, and wanting to end his life.

KMart:)

Illogical Yet Necessary

Q. What are the improbabilities or illogical events in King Lear, and what impact do they have on the general effect of the tragedy?

Shakespeare allows the tragedy to expand and the drama to thicken by using many improbable or illogical events. Although these events could never actually occur, they impact the general effect of the tragedy. Each thing just seems to fall into place perfectly to magnify the events that makes "King Lear" the tragedy it was meant to be.
When Gloucester gets his eyes gouged out, a number of improbable things occur. As Gloucester wanders around in agony, it is very convenient that Edgar quickly stumbles upon his poor father. It seems to be a reoccurring act of luck that each character happens to be exactly in the right spot at exactly the right time. Edgar also happened to come upon Lear and the other characters in the storm by chance. Another example of this type of illogical event is when Lear shows up right after Gloucester supposedly falls from the cliffs. Each character always meets up with other characters when convenient. It is completely improbable, but if it didn't happen the important events would not have been able to take place, like Edgar saving his father from jumping of a real cliff.
Gloucester believes that Edgar is a peasant and asks him to take him to the cliffs of Dover so that he can jump of and take his own life. When they are walking, Edgar easily convinces his father that they are walking up a steep hill when the ground is really level. When Gloucester questions this, he quickly puts it out of mind when Edgar says, "Why then your other senses grow imperfect/ By your eyes anguish," (110). Also, with little argument, Edgar convinces Gloucester that he fell from the high cliffs of Dover, when in reality he just fell over on level ground. "'Have I fallen or no?' 'From the dread summit of this chalky bourn,'" (112). The fact that Gloucester fell for these lies to easily is so illogical, however, if it wasn't so then Gloucester would have tried to kill himself again. After this occurred, Gloucester believed that the Gods saved his life and that he had a reason to live.
Another thing that was very hard to believe while reading this Shakespearean play was that by putting a little disguise on or changing your voice can make you completely unrecognizable. Edgar put on an act as a peasant, and apparently a darn good one; but honestly, could he really trick is own father? Even before Gloucester had his eyes violently removed he couldn't recognize his son. Also, Lear had no clue that his servant was really Kent, a man he had known for years, which is highly unlikely. I'm quite sure that their disguises weren't even that good considering the day and age. However, if these characters were recognized for who they truly were, the plot would have been completely ruined. These characters needed to stay in the story and the lives of the other characters, and to do so, Shakespeare made it so their identities stayed hidden.
The fact that each character magically showed up in every important situation, the silly and unlikely trickery and the bad but believable disguises are all improbable and illogical, however, it is all completely necessary. Shakespeare knew what he was doing, and although we may read the play and think to ourselves, "that would never happen," we have no right to question this famous play. Illogical events are what makes the plot successful and how Shakespeare intended it to be.

chemsford.

The Great and Mind Boggling Arendt

This week it was my turn to write a paper on the essay for class. The article that I read was Hannah Arendt's "The Gap Between Past and Future." It was very interesting, but hard to understand. I kind of got a few interpretations out of it rather than just one solid one, which I guess is good because like I said in a previous blog, the more interpretaions, the more knowledge we obtain...usually. I believe that Arendt, when talking about the gap, was referring to the present in a way. There is no such thing as the present if you really think about it. This was one of the most mind boggling concept that I came across while reading this essay. Everything that we think, everything that we do or see instantly becomes our past. It also shapes our future. One point that I made in my own essay was that the present is irrelevant. Now this is arguable, and it is something I have never really pondered myself and it makes my head hurt a little. Another statement that Arendt made that really made me think was that if something has no name it doesn't exist. This gives language such a great authority, which in a way gives us authority and power. Overall I believe that Arendt's thoughts and statements were bold and very in depth and I loved it. She made me think more than any other author has before and I feel like I got so much out of this essay and I'm sure I will obtain this knowledge forever.

chemsford.

Sunsets aren't always necessary...

So...I'm watching Walk the Line right now and Johnny Cash seems like the ultimate A-Hole right about now. What I find weird is that in the movie Ray, Ray turned out to be the same druggie-womanizer that Johnny Cash finds himself becoming becuase of the influence of fame. I mean, I understand they made good music and maybe there's some interests in their history and how they reached their climax of fame, but why make a movie that, to me, makes me just look at them in a very different way, but not in any better of a light. I get disappointed in finding out that while they were being looked up to by millions for their influence through music, they were cheating on their wives, getting themselves into drugs, and losing their souls to the path to fame. Obviously no ones perfect, and seeing a movie about a person's life shows who they really were, but I really don't want to see how much of a disappointment their life was. I don't usually consider myself one of those "need a happy-ending and a ride into the sunset to be satisfied" type movie people, I can take a few deaths and dissapointments at the closing scenes, but I'd so much rather see movies, like Freedom Writers for example, that leaves you walking away with a feeling of optomism towards the good in people and the hope they carry in life, along with their ability to spread it. So, why make a million dollar Hollywood Production on something that we see in the daily People magazine? Their voice might produce a unique sound and some good tunes, and the story of their path to fame might be a good one, but leave it at that. I don't want to know the corruption and unhappiness that followed them until the end. Doesn't leave a good light on the people we have all admired for so long.

-purgalicious

The Smelly Truth

Over the course of this weekend, many strange things happened. Such as while having guests at my house I thought it would be a great time to catch up on some magazine reading. After reading "Good House Keeping", or something along those lines, I cracked open "Popular Science". I'm not sure how many active "Popular Science" readers we have in the class, so for those who didn't read this months magazine there was an interesting article about fuel.

The whole gas issue is a tired subject and I try to tune it out, though this article was an entirely different approach that I found very interesting. Instead of heating our houses with the typical fuel, use the waste products of various animals to heat homes! In the tank the bacteria will break down the animal waste and release natural gas methane. Though this is cool and really interested me, I will not go out and buy an elephant to heat my house...not happening. But, if someone else does it I think that's great.


-Riz

Open for Discussion: The Menaced Assassin

So, from reading all of ya'lls blogs... weird how that southern accent sneaks its way in....
anyhoo...
I've seen it repeated a numerous amount of times that we're all enjoying reading our peers work and commenting as opposed to creating our own. This thought once again crossed my mind when I saw the following portrait and didn't know what to think. If I had just glanced at the picture, my imagination probably could have ran miles with it, but I made the decision to look at the title first, which might have been a mistake because now I'm stumped. I've been comtemplating the message through the title and i think the assassin is menaced by the music... but honestly.. it seems so abstract to put so much detail around when really its about a music player. Then again, maybe the abstract of it is the point. Either way, I would be really interested in anyone elses interpretations of the painting.


Sorry for the nutidy. If you're offended, please move on.

Perfection

Unlike my classmates, my day was nowhere near relaxing. After an hour of recycling club, I went straight home to get ready for work, then rushed to Calvin Klein. Thinking about my six hour shift from hell that I knew awaited me, began to stress me out. So, like I always do when I'm stressed, I began to sing in the car. I put on my favorite "calm me down" tunes and got started. The CD of choice was Taylor Swift. And you know what? Awkwardly enough after the first song my initial thought was of The Poem Ruiner! You may think I have no life and dream about him like the other students, but that is not my case. My thoughts were indeed class related.

Taylor Swift, apparently, is a strong believer in the circle format of writing. She starts and ends a majority of her songs using roughly the same lines. I never noticed that until just tonight and well I found it completely genius. There is no better way of getting your point across I think. "Tim McGraw" by Taylor Swift is the first track. If you are not familiar with the first verse it goes as follows:

You said the way my blue eyes shined,
Put those Georgia stars to shame that night
I said: "That's a lie"
Just a boy in a Chevy truck,
That had a tendency of gettin' stuck,
On backroads at night
An' I was right there beside him all summer long
An' then the time we woke up to find that summer'd gone

The first three lines of that verse, I'm going to have to say, are my favorite lines in any song. I think they're really poetic and I can't even express in words how much I like them. But anyways what better way to end the song then to use those favorite lines of mine:
You said the way my blue eyes shined,
Put those Georgia stars to shame that night
I said: "That's a lie".

GENIUS! That's not even the only song, theres more. It's great.

-Riz

My escape

This is kind of going off of Kmarts post about doing nothing and just escaping the realities and responsibilities of life. I think that everyone has their own way of escaping. Kmart likes to paint her fingernails in sweatpants. I on the other hand hate sitting at home alone, watching tv or doing something of that nature, with no where to be and no one to see. My escape is dance, big surprise right? But lately I have really truely discovered how awesome and amazing dance is for me. I dance monday, tuesday, thursday, friday and sunday. On wednesday and saturday im forced to do tiring labor to earn a dollar or two for gas. On these two days, instead of enjoying a nice break for dance, I find myself wanting to be at my studio learning, creating, and performing. I love it everything about it. Even though the hours I practice are demanding and take up a good majority of my schedual, without it I wouldn't know what to do with my life. I guess it's good that I am so passionate about something in my life and have something I am fully committed to. Well, I think i'm going to go choreograph something neat.

chelsmford.

I am currently in a state of relaxation. For once I have been able to come home from school, put some sweatpants on, and just be comfortable. These days too much pressure is put on the average teenager. They have classes, sports, work, friends, relationships, ecetra. At some point it begins to be too much. So, when given the chance to just sit down and do something that I want to do (today it was painting my fingernails!), I jump on it.
Kmart:)

my sober eyed conclusion

I've come to a conclusion. I don't like blogging, I like commenting about blog posts of others. While sitting in home room this morning with EM and Vanrir, EM and I started talking about how we don't really enjoy coming up with our own interesting thoughts. We'd rather just look at what others have been talking about and writing our thoughts on their thoughts (interpreting interpretations..hmmm). So, when it may seem like I never post, you are right, but I am always on the blog cites.

I think what turns me off about blogging, is the overwhelming feeling I get about this freedom. I like some boundaries. When I don't have boundaries I get so lost in the thought of writing about anything and everything. Such as, when I am left without rules, I tend to just stay put because I can't decide what I would want to do with so much out there I could be doing. BAHH I'm stressed thinking about the possibilities.

-Riz