Thursday, December 16, 2010
Final Project!
Here is the fabulous Weebly page Eve Thomas and I have created for our Intersession Unit. It was a blast teaching the course and working with Patrick and Eve, and I actually really enjoy working with Weebly. I have begun to construct a teacher portfolio, which can be seen here (it is not done yet, though), and a performer portfolio, which I am still working on. All in all, the things I have learned in this class have been incredibly beneficial, and I am super happy to have had the experience with Dr. Beach and my colleagues! Have a wonderful winter break, everyone!
Thursday, December 9, 2010
The Politics of Adaptation
Okay, I LOVE talking about adaptation. I actually wrote my senior thesis on “Me, Myself, and Isherwood”:
an Exploration of the Creation and Adaptation of “Christopher Isherwood.” In the paper I examined how Isherwood positioned himself as a fictional character in his Berlin Stories, to keep the implications from his life in Berlin as a gay man at a distance from the "real" Christopher Isherwood. From there, John van Druten took "Isherwood" from the book and adapted him to a more focused, refined, and stage friendly asexual character in I am a Camera, to Masteroff, Kander, and Ebb's Cabaret where "Isherwood" is now "Cliff" (all sorts of liminal sexual implications in the name...)and, although an admitted bisexual, engages in a sexual relationship with Sally.
I could go on for 50 pages. But, I will not.
Obviously, I think adaptations are incredibly important in literature for both literary and political reasons. I think teaching context along with tracking changes from adaptation to adaptation is essential to correctly framing the art of adapting work.
For lesson planning, I would love to bring in a director, like Jason Ballweber, and asking them how they get from the page to the stage, and how they manipulate a text to flesh out their vision:
an Exploration of the Creation and Adaptation of “Christopher Isherwood.” In the paper I examined how Isherwood positioned himself as a fictional character in his Berlin Stories, to keep the implications from his life in Berlin as a gay man at a distance from the "real" Christopher Isherwood. From there, John van Druten took "Isherwood" from the book and adapted him to a more focused, refined, and stage friendly asexual character in I am a Camera, to Masteroff, Kander, and Ebb's Cabaret where "Isherwood" is now "Cliff" (all sorts of liminal sexual implications in the name...)and, although an admitted bisexual, engages in a sexual relationship with Sally.
I could go on for 50 pages. But, I will not.
Obviously, I think adaptations are incredibly important in literature for both literary and political reasons. I think teaching context along with tracking changes from adaptation to adaptation is essential to correctly framing the art of adapting work.
For lesson planning, I would love to bring in a director, like Jason Ballweber, and asking them how they get from the page to the stage, and how they manipulate a text to flesh out their vision:
Thursday, December 2, 2010
Me and my multitude of music choices
So, I actually legitimately like a LOT of music. I really like classical and alternative, and classic rock, and would argue that I listen to these the most. I have not been to too many concerts in my life only Lady Gaga (which was incredible), Kings of Leon, Scissor Sisters, and Peaches/Bauhaus/Nine Inch Nails (I went for Peaches). I am obviously a big fan of campy music and one of my favorite bands of all time that reflects this sentiment are the Scissor Sisters. Other bands/artists I love and listen to frequently are Rufus Wainwright, CCRC, the Beatles, Mozart, Edith Piaf, Tegan and Sara, Lou Reed, The Ditty Bops, and Pink Floyd.
Here is one of my favorite Rufus Wainwright songs (of which there are many):
Hometown Waltz
I love this song because it encompasses all the lyricism, beautiful vocals, story, and whimsy that make Rufus Wainwright one of my favorite artists. He is so good at exploring, exploiting, and exploding genres and I just find him so dynamic. He also has a dreamy voice and is a vocal member and advocate of the GLBT community on top of everything else. I like this song specifically, because it has a plucky folk quality to it as well as a little Cajun quality with the accordion. I really like the juxtaposition of these genre markers commonly associated with "homey" American travel songs with the markers which describe Rufus's experience with home- Canada, gay communities, and destroying/leaving all remnants of his home.
Here are the lyrics for the song:
The drummers and jugglers of Montreal
Don't even exist at all
So I'm tearing up these tarot cards and Venetian clowns
Antique shops and alcoholic homosexuals
You may ask why I want to torch my home town
Partly it's bitterness and hopping 'round and 'round again
On Ontario Street looking up
Maybe I'll catch him on his way to the show
You travel the world and find all the answers
Everything operates on the unattainables
And then you hear your mother laugh attached to the phone
Could have walked around the block 'cause all roads lead to home
Say, will you ever ever ever know,
Ever ever ever fly away?
Will you ever ever ever go,
Ever ever ever find a way?
I think this song brings up really interesting questions about home and the American concept of "home" as being one singular place "rooted" to you. So, I would like to expose my students to a few traditional "home" songs and then show them Wainwright's response to that traditional concept. Then, I would have them compose their own "hometown waltz" and define how they view "home." Where is it? Who is there? Have they found it yet? Was a place they only occupied for a moment, or their entire lives? Is it a feeling? And, we could talk about waltz and ballad forms as a way to also teach the students about poetic/music forms.
This video I find extremely interesting because it is all about turning conventions on their head. It empowers the people generally oppressed or beaten down in traditional social structures such as the overweight high school girl, gay men in a formal setting, and people who have an "alternative" look- tattoos, piercings, etc. The video also flips traditionally masculine roles- the matador is hunted down, P!nk as a gangster, wrestler, terrorist organizer, and is put in a position of sexual power when she is shown in bed with loads of religious figures. That scene in itself turns all kinds of conventions on its head. And, what is really wonderful about P!nk is that she is this beautiful, talented, boisterous woman who is not afraid to laugh at herself and does not buy into the conventions of what is beautiful and what a woman should be. I really dig that. Yes, I would buy P!nk's album after seeing this video, and I think that because she makes herself so assessable to so many people, the music video does a really great job of promoting both P!nk and her values.
Here is one of my favorite Rufus Wainwright songs (of which there are many):
Hometown Waltz
I love this song because it encompasses all the lyricism, beautiful vocals, story, and whimsy that make Rufus Wainwright one of my favorite artists. He is so good at exploring, exploiting, and exploding genres and I just find him so dynamic. He also has a dreamy voice and is a vocal member and advocate of the GLBT community on top of everything else. I like this song specifically, because it has a plucky folk quality to it as well as a little Cajun quality with the accordion. I really like the juxtaposition of these genre markers commonly associated with "homey" American travel songs with the markers which describe Rufus's experience with home- Canada, gay communities, and destroying/leaving all remnants of his home.
Here are the lyrics for the song:
The drummers and jugglers of Montreal
Don't even exist at all
So I'm tearing up these tarot cards and Venetian clowns
Antique shops and alcoholic homosexuals
You may ask why I want to torch my home town
Partly it's bitterness and hopping 'round and 'round again
On Ontario Street looking up
Maybe I'll catch him on his way to the show
You travel the world and find all the answers
Everything operates on the unattainables
And then you hear your mother laugh attached to the phone
Could have walked around the block 'cause all roads lead to home
Say, will you ever ever ever know,
Ever ever ever fly away?
Will you ever ever ever go,
Ever ever ever find a way?
I think this song brings up really interesting questions about home and the American concept of "home" as being one singular place "rooted" to you. So, I would like to expose my students to a few traditional "home" songs and then show them Wainwright's response to that traditional concept. Then, I would have them compose their own "hometown waltz" and define how they view "home." Where is it? Who is there? Have they found it yet? Was a place they only occupied for a moment, or their entire lives? Is it a feeling? And, we could talk about waltz and ballad forms as a way to also teach the students about poetic/music forms.
This video I find extremely interesting because it is all about turning conventions on their head. It empowers the people generally oppressed or beaten down in traditional social structures such as the overweight high school girl, gay men in a formal setting, and people who have an "alternative" look- tattoos, piercings, etc. The video also flips traditionally masculine roles- the matador is hunted down, P!nk as a gangster, wrestler, terrorist organizer, and is put in a position of sexual power when she is shown in bed with loads of religious figures. That scene in itself turns all kinds of conventions on its head. And, what is really wonderful about P!nk is that she is this beautiful, talented, boisterous woman who is not afraid to laugh at herself and does not buy into the conventions of what is beautiful and what a woman should be. I really dig that. Yes, I would buy P!nk's album after seeing this video, and I think that because she makes herself so assessable to so many people, the music video does a really great job of promoting both P!nk and her values.
Documentary!
The documentary I watched was "Sick" Now, let me first say, that this is not a documentary I would recommend for most people. I am really interested in performance art and I think that work like Bob Flanagan's is both challenging and beautiful, but I fully understand that it is not for everyone.
The doc follows Robert Flanagan for, what turns out to be, the last year of his life. Bob was diagnosed with cystic fibrosis at a young age and was told for his entire life that he would not be around for a very much longer. Because the condition left Bob in constant pain, he found that masochism was his only outlet for controlling the amount of pain his body underwent. In his own way, inflicting pain on his body was the only time Bob felt he had any control over his body. Bob wrote poetry about his condition and masochism and became well known for his tongue and cheek songs about CF in CF camps and youth organizations he worked with. Eventually, he also became quite well known in the S&M community for doing S&M performance art and eventually broke mainstream. He met his partner, Sheree Rose, also worked with him on his pieces. Always provocative, Bob presented his pieces at various venues and art museums across the nation. The end of the film is the end of Bob's life. The cameras are with him in his hospitol room when he passes away, and the camera also pans over his body in the morgue. What is both upsetting and fascinating about Bob's "work" is that-once he had left his body- he left behind a canvas. All his tattoos, piercings, and scars denote his process and experiences. It is an interesting film, to say the least, and I think it does do a good job of revealing the reality that Bob faced- what could be more real than death. The documentary also delves into the politics of the body by pushing the audience into questioning what makes us uncomfortable and why. Bob was uncomfortable for his entire life, but only by making his audience uncomfortable by manipulating his body in harmful ways was he able to make the audience understand the pain of cystic fibrosis.
Of course, I would never show this film to high school students in a classroom setting because it is so graphic and upsetting, however, I am very interested in showing students clips of docs or whole docs that present a slice of life to see if I can get them to think outside of their comfort zone and self understanding. For example, I would never put nails through my flesh, but in watching Bob's story, I am able to understand why he does. I understand that we are fundamentally different people, and am able to respect and empathize with how he expresses himself. Some docs I'd be interested in showing my students to try and get them to think outside themselves include- This American Life with Ira Glass, Small Town Gay Bar, True Life, the farmers interviews from Food Inc., Maxed Out, etc. I think a well designed graphic organizer and class discussions would be the best way to help students think of themselves in the world, rather than the world revolving around them.
The doc follows Robert Flanagan for, what turns out to be, the last year of his life. Bob was diagnosed with cystic fibrosis at a young age and was told for his entire life that he would not be around for a very much longer. Because the condition left Bob in constant pain, he found that masochism was his only outlet for controlling the amount of pain his body underwent. In his own way, inflicting pain on his body was the only time Bob felt he had any control over his body. Bob wrote poetry about his condition and masochism and became well known for his tongue and cheek songs about CF in CF camps and youth organizations he worked with. Eventually, he also became quite well known in the S&M community for doing S&M performance art and eventually broke mainstream. He met his partner, Sheree Rose, also worked with him on his pieces. Always provocative, Bob presented his pieces at various venues and art museums across the nation. The end of the film is the end of Bob's life. The cameras are with him in his hospitol room when he passes away, and the camera also pans over his body in the morgue. What is both upsetting and fascinating about Bob's "work" is that-once he had left his body- he left behind a canvas. All his tattoos, piercings, and scars denote his process and experiences. It is an interesting film, to say the least, and I think it does do a good job of revealing the reality that Bob faced- what could be more real than death. The documentary also delves into the politics of the body by pushing the audience into questioning what makes us uncomfortable and why. Bob was uncomfortable for his entire life, but only by making his audience uncomfortable by manipulating his body in harmful ways was he able to make the audience understand the pain of cystic fibrosis.
Of course, I would never show this film to high school students in a classroom setting because it is so graphic and upsetting, however, I am very interested in showing students clips of docs or whole docs that present a slice of life to see if I can get them to think outside of their comfort zone and self understanding. For example, I would never put nails through my flesh, but in watching Bob's story, I am able to understand why he does. I understand that we are fundamentally different people, and am able to respect and empathize with how he expresses himself. Some docs I'd be interested in showing my students to try and get them to think outside themselves include- This American Life with Ira Glass, Small Town Gay Bar, True Life, the farmers interviews from Food Inc., Maxed Out, etc. I think a well designed graphic organizer and class discussions would be the best way to help students think of themselves in the world, rather than the world revolving around them.
Thursday, November 11, 2010
News Evaluation and Breakdown
For this post, I watched the NBC Nightly News with Brian Williams online.
Here is the breakdown of the report:
1. Mozy pro commercial-30 seconds
2. Pacific Coast Drama- 2:54- the rumor that a missile lit up the sky around LA is examined and an interview with a missile expert reveals that it was probably just an airplane creating an optical illusion in the sky. The FAA reveals that it had no radar indication of a fast moving object on the day of the missile sighting. A traffic helicopter filmed the initial sighting.
3. Allstate commercial 16 seconds
4. Stranded at Sea- 2:25- a Carnival cruise liner is stuck out at sea after a fire disabled one of the main engines on the ship. The crew and customers were left without electricity, running water, and toilet use (although the crew has got these running again)relying on airlifted supplies to be brought to them. The enormous ship must be towed by tugboat to Mexico.
5. Obama visits Indonesia-3:02- this has been the President's third attempt to visit Jakarta, but the area's volcano has been spewing ash and delaying his visit. Obama lived in Jakarta for four years, so the trip was spent politically trying to build bridges between the U.S. and Indonesia and visiting old friends and teachers.
6. Merrill Lynch commercial- 15 seconds
7. Interview with one of Obama's Indonesian teachers- 2:43- Obama's teacher reveals that he was a very bright, good humored, and chubby kid, and that he did not recognize him when he ran for the Illinois senate seat until he smiled. The man also remarked that the president doesn't just take care of the U.S., but the whole world, and that is something people don't understand. His last remark was that he hoped the president would be more relaxed and happy the next time they met.
8. Trend Micro Commercial- 13 seconds
9. Cholera outbreak in Haiti- 23 seconds- all this said was that cholera has spread to Port au Prince, and that is very bad news.
10. Bush's Book release- 2:41- George Bush is at a Borders signing his book and segments of a longer interview are shown. Clips include Bush saying that water boarding is not torture because a lawyer told him it was not, Kanye West thinks he's a racist and that is not appropriate, he quit drinking at 40, and he was with his mother, Barbra Bush, when she miscarried and showed him the fetus. He thinks that may be where some of his Pro-Life sentiments stem from.
11. Merrill Lynch commercial- 15 seconds
12. Steven Hayes receives the death penalty-1:02-6 members of the Steven Hayes trial discuss what it was like handing down the death penalty as a sentence. One juror said, on the Today Show, that it was a "tool the founding fathers gave us to use when we saw fit, and this man is not capable of producing anything positive for society."
13. NYC Chancellor of Schools leaves-18 seconds- He is stepping down to change his career to the corporate world.
14. Achievement Gap Report-2:24- the report discusses how Black male students significantly under perform on standardized tests, how family and socio-economic features add to the stats, and how charter schools aimed at Black male students are trying to close the gap. 50% of Black males graduate from public high schools and 5% of college students are black males.
15. Merrill Lynch- 15 seconds
16. Mr. Goodwrench Gone- 27 seconds- The longstanding GM "mascot" will discontinue this year.
17. Mr. Peanut Speaks- 25 seconds- Mr. Peanut, the Planter's Peanut mascot, has not spoken for decades, but is now voiced by Robert Downey Jr.
18. The Great American Clothes Swap- 2:11- This is an "Apparel Diet" that several women in CA are now a part of. They clean out their closets and examine what clothes they already have, make outfits from them, and vow to stop shopping for a month. The women also meet to swap clothes to give themselves a variety by recycling instead of consuming. A shopping expert says that, in order to be a smart shopper, you need to have a budget, a buddy, and a stopwatch.
19. Mozy commercial- 30 seconds
20. Perils of Apparel Diet (my title)-1:50- loads of retailers and other women were made about the clothes club's mission. The leader reminds women that you already are fabulous.
21. 6 Items or Less- 1:50- a woman who started a similar club speaks about how she only wore 6 items for a month and learned how to accessorize with those things instead of continually buying new things. She gained followers and media attention by using Facebook and Twitter as connection services.
22. Cadillac commercial-16 seconds
23. Consumer's love debt- 1:46- A woman who works with women who spend too much on clothes talks about the American trend for overspending and accruing debt.
First off, I would like to comment on how hard it is to find a news broadcast to watch online that isn't the Colbert Report or Daily Show. I do not have TV in my house, and watch most of my media on my computer and just use our television to watch movies and what not on Netflix. It took me a long time to find a news source that wasn't just snippets of previous programs. There also seems to exist a "privileged" news media. In the show I watched, there were extra segments you could watch after the program labeled "web only." For instance, one of these clips was a longer segment of the Bush interview which revealed why part of the clip was filmed in a church- because that's where Bush and Laura got married, and his faith helped him quit drinking. The majority of the other "web only" clips were from the program's British constituents featuring British reporters.
In terms of content, I was not very unimpressed. After watching, I do not feel that I know anything that is pressing in the world. There was no update about what is going on in Afghanistan, how the gulf clean-up is going, ANY mention of the economy etc. I thought that most of the program was fluff. Perhaps that is what the Nightly News program is, but I just assumed it would be more informative! Also, several of the news stories that I thought were most important were only seconds long! The cholera outbreak in Haiti only received 23 seconds of airtime, but this is an issue that will have devastating effects on the country. Meanwhile, the program spent the greatest amount of time on upper-middle class white women who have decided to cut back on spending money on clothes. That story got 5:01! Not to sound like a curmudgeon, I am happy for those ladies, but I don't really care. Something that I do care about- the achievement gap report- only got 2:24 of airtime. I think that is unacceptable, and is one of the major reasons I stopped watching the news in the first place.
Activity:
To really highlight this issue of misinformation, I would like to introduce my students to different news sources. Providing my students with a frame of reference for what other countries, people, and cultures deem "news worthy." After stumbling around the internet, I found this neat site which I would like to use in the classroom. I would break students to groups in which they would be assigned to one of the news sources. Each group would watch and take notes on 10 minutes of news and then return to the larger group and share their findings.
Here is the breakdown of the report:
1. Mozy pro commercial-30 seconds
2. Pacific Coast Drama- 2:54- the rumor that a missile lit up the sky around LA is examined and an interview with a missile expert reveals that it was probably just an airplane creating an optical illusion in the sky. The FAA reveals that it had no radar indication of a fast moving object on the day of the missile sighting. A traffic helicopter filmed the initial sighting.
3. Allstate commercial 16 seconds
4. Stranded at Sea- 2:25- a Carnival cruise liner is stuck out at sea after a fire disabled one of the main engines on the ship. The crew and customers were left without electricity, running water, and toilet use (although the crew has got these running again)relying on airlifted supplies to be brought to them. The enormous ship must be towed by tugboat to Mexico.
5. Obama visits Indonesia-3:02- this has been the President's third attempt to visit Jakarta, but the area's volcano has been spewing ash and delaying his visit. Obama lived in Jakarta for four years, so the trip was spent politically trying to build bridges between the U.S. and Indonesia and visiting old friends and teachers.
6. Merrill Lynch commercial- 15 seconds
7. Interview with one of Obama's Indonesian teachers- 2:43- Obama's teacher reveals that he was a very bright, good humored, and chubby kid, and that he did not recognize him when he ran for the Illinois senate seat until he smiled. The man also remarked that the president doesn't just take care of the U.S., but the whole world, and that is something people don't understand. His last remark was that he hoped the president would be more relaxed and happy the next time they met.
8. Trend Micro Commercial- 13 seconds
9. Cholera outbreak in Haiti- 23 seconds- all this said was that cholera has spread to Port au Prince, and that is very bad news.
10. Bush's Book release- 2:41- George Bush is at a Borders signing his book and segments of a longer interview are shown. Clips include Bush saying that water boarding is not torture because a lawyer told him it was not, Kanye West thinks he's a racist and that is not appropriate, he quit drinking at 40, and he was with his mother, Barbra Bush, when she miscarried and showed him the fetus. He thinks that may be where some of his Pro-Life sentiments stem from.
11. Merrill Lynch commercial- 15 seconds
12. Steven Hayes receives the death penalty-1:02-6 members of the Steven Hayes trial discuss what it was like handing down the death penalty as a sentence. One juror said, on the Today Show, that it was a "tool the founding fathers gave us to use when we saw fit, and this man is not capable of producing anything positive for society."
13. NYC Chancellor of Schools leaves-18 seconds- He is stepping down to change his career to the corporate world.
14. Achievement Gap Report-2:24- the report discusses how Black male students significantly under perform on standardized tests, how family and socio-economic features add to the stats, and how charter schools aimed at Black male students are trying to close the gap. 50% of Black males graduate from public high schools and 5% of college students are black males.
15. Merrill Lynch- 15 seconds
16. Mr. Goodwrench Gone- 27 seconds- The longstanding GM "mascot" will discontinue this year.
17. Mr. Peanut Speaks- 25 seconds- Mr. Peanut, the Planter's Peanut mascot, has not spoken for decades, but is now voiced by Robert Downey Jr.
18. The Great American Clothes Swap- 2:11- This is an "Apparel Diet" that several women in CA are now a part of. They clean out their closets and examine what clothes they already have, make outfits from them, and vow to stop shopping for a month. The women also meet to swap clothes to give themselves a variety by recycling instead of consuming. A shopping expert says that, in order to be a smart shopper, you need to have a budget, a buddy, and a stopwatch.
19. Mozy commercial- 30 seconds
20. Perils of Apparel Diet (my title)-1:50- loads of retailers and other women were made about the clothes club's mission. The leader reminds women that you already are fabulous.
21. 6 Items or Less- 1:50- a woman who started a similar club speaks about how she only wore 6 items for a month and learned how to accessorize with those things instead of continually buying new things. She gained followers and media attention by using Facebook and Twitter as connection services.
22. Cadillac commercial-16 seconds
23. Consumer's love debt- 1:46- A woman who works with women who spend too much on clothes talks about the American trend for overspending and accruing debt.
First off, I would like to comment on how hard it is to find a news broadcast to watch online that isn't the Colbert Report or Daily Show. I do not have TV in my house, and watch most of my media on my computer and just use our television to watch movies and what not on Netflix. It took me a long time to find a news source that wasn't just snippets of previous programs. There also seems to exist a "privileged" news media. In the show I watched, there were extra segments you could watch after the program labeled "web only." For instance, one of these clips was a longer segment of the Bush interview which revealed why part of the clip was filmed in a church- because that's where Bush and Laura got married, and his faith helped him quit drinking. The majority of the other "web only" clips were from the program's British constituents featuring British reporters.
In terms of content, I was not very unimpressed. After watching, I do not feel that I know anything that is pressing in the world. There was no update about what is going on in Afghanistan, how the gulf clean-up is going, ANY mention of the economy etc. I thought that most of the program was fluff. Perhaps that is what the Nightly News program is, but I just assumed it would be more informative! Also, several of the news stories that I thought were most important were only seconds long! The cholera outbreak in Haiti only received 23 seconds of airtime, but this is an issue that will have devastating effects on the country. Meanwhile, the program spent the greatest amount of time on upper-middle class white women who have decided to cut back on spending money on clothes. That story got 5:01! Not to sound like a curmudgeon, I am happy for those ladies, but I don't really care. Something that I do care about- the achievement gap report- only got 2:24 of airtime. I think that is unacceptable, and is one of the major reasons I stopped watching the news in the first place.
Activity:
To really highlight this issue of misinformation, I would like to introduce my students to different news sources. Providing my students with a frame of reference for what other countries, people, and cultures deem "news worthy." After stumbling around the internet, I found this neat site which I would like to use in the classroom. I would break students to groups in which they would be assigned to one of the news sources. Each group would watch and take notes on 10 minutes of news and then return to the larger group and share their findings.
Friday, November 5, 2010
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