Debarkation

At breakfast, we sat with our tablemates and said goodbye to them. We debarked the ship and went and got the rental car. We went shopping at the Sawgrass Mills Mall, before driving to Miami. After our nap, we went to Sonny's BBQ for dinner. Mom loves their Peach Cobbler.

Fourth Day at Sea

After breakfast, we went to the Towel Folding class, where Dad made a dog, an elephant, and a seal. For lunch, they had American food again. After our nap, we went to the Holiday show where they sing Christmas songs. I watched Clash of the Titans in our room.





For dinner, I had Fettucini with Chicken and Mushrooms, Mango soup, Panko crusted shrimp, and Orange Vanilla Souffle. We saw the comedy of Mike Lukas.

Third Day at Sea

After breakfast we walked around decks 2 and 3, because it was very sunny. I watched Gossip Girl on my ipod. For lunch, we had American food.

It was our second formal night. For dinner, I had bing cherry soup, spinach salad with berries, Chateaubriand, and Baked Alaska, We saw a comedian, named Mike P. The main show was Ticket to Ride, which is all Beatles music. They gave us a glow stick for the last part of the show to wave during the songs.

St. Kitts

After breakfast, we got off the boat in St. Kitts. We took the Scenic Railway Tour, where they gave us local fruit punch and sugar cane cookies. We saw pig farmers, a rock quarry, 4 bridges, sugar cane cars, 3 churches, breadfruit trees, a sugar mille, monkeys, donkeys, and sheep. From the train, we could see St. Barth's and St. Eustasis nearby and the train had a choir come on each car and sing carols to us. After we got off the train, we went shopping in the Port and used the internet cafe to check up on what was going on at home.







For lunch, Horatio's was serving Italian food again and my favorite dessert, Chocolate Raspberry pie. For dinner I had Penne Mariscos and a Chicken Quesadilla as starters, I had a steak as the main course, and the warm chocolate melting cake again. After dinner, we saw karaoke again. The main show was a ventriloquist, who wasn't very funny. We saw him last year on the Glory and we left his show early.

St. Lucia

After breakfast, we got off the boat and went on the The Best Views of St. Lucia tour. They took us to Stoney Hill, Caribella Batik, the community college, and a road stand for shopping. After the tour, we went shopping in the port shops. Dad bought some Banana Ketchup and bought Mom a Tanzanite ring for Christmas and I got a poster of St. Lucia. For lunch, we had Caribbean food in Horatio's.






For dinner, I had a fruit plate, chilled cream of peaches, Farfalle with turkey and peas in Alfredo sauce, and the Bitter and Blanc bread pudding. We went and saw the guy sitting at our table perform karaoke. The show in the Phantom Lounge, was Singin' with the Big Band starring Christopher Alan Graves, who sang the songs of Frank Sinatra and Sammy Davis Jr.

St. Maarten

After we ate breakfast, we got off the boat in St. Maarten and walked downtown to Phillipsburg to do some shopping. I got some pins at the Hard Rock Cafe, and Mom got a t-shirt. Mom bought a Christmas lace tablecloth and we stopped at a Belgian chocolate shop and tried some of their milk chocolate bars. Dad was supposed to go snorkeling, but it was cancelled due to the rain. For lunch, Horatio's was serving French food.





After our nap, we watched sports trivia while waiting for the dining room to open. For dinner, I had fried shrimps, a caesar salad, turkey with cranberry and stuffing, and a Chocolate, Raspberry, Vanilla Cream Cake for dessert. After dinner, we went upstairs to the lido deck to get some hot chocolate and strawberry ice cream. I read The Short Second Life of Bree Tanner by Stephenie Meyer before going to bed.

Second Day at Sea

We ate breakfast in Horatio's and walked through the shops. I watched Extraordinary Measures and read Santa Cruise by Mary Higgins Clark. We went to the Shopping Talk and then ate lunch in Horatio's. It was very windy and rainy again and they had to close off the upper decks.




After our nap, Dad and Mom went and tried Sushi at the Sushi bar and they both didn't like it. For dinner, I had crepes with spinach and ricotta cheese, a fruit plate, Lasagne Bolognese, and White Chocolate Bread Pudding. After dinner, We went and saw Jason Blanchard perform his comedy again.

First Day at Sea

We ate breakfast in the Bacchus dining room and the service was really bad. After breakfast we went to the $10 at 10 sale in the shops and then to the Fun Ashore and Fun Aboard talk hosted by the cruise director, Malcolm Burns. This is our second cruise with Malcolm, as he was the assistant cruise director when we went on the Carnival Inspiration.




After our nap, we went and ate lunch at the Grille. They have the best chicken tenders. It was a first formal night so we had our pictures taken. For dinner I had strawberry bisque, spaghetti carbonara as a starter, prime rib, and the warm chocolate melting cake (which is delicious). We went and saw the comedians, Phat Kat and Jason Blanchard perform their family shows. The show in the Phantom Theatre was Generations, featuring the music of 1940's to 1970's. I had a Raspberry Peach smoothie during the show.

Embarkation

Yesterday, we flew to Miami, via Atlanta. I read Christmas with the Prophets and played the Delta trivia. We were at the airport in Atlanta for four hours due to the weather. It was snowing and raining when we got there. When we got to the rental car terminal, Mom lost her neck pillow. After we got the car, we drove to Ft. Lauderdale.

This morning, we ate breakfast at the hotel and then went to get soda at KMart and CVS. We turned in our rental car and took the shuttle to the ship, The Carnival Miracle. We had to wait a while to get into our room, so we just explored the ship for a couple of hours. We ate lunch in Horatio's, where they were having Italian and Asian food. After a nap, we went to the Muster Drill, where we sat in Gatsby's Garden. While we sailed away from Ft. Lauderdale, I listened to Tenant of Wildfell Hall on my ipod, wearing my snuggie because it was windy and freezing.




We had early sitting in the Bacchus dining room, where we sat at a table of six with a family from Texas. I had a fruit plate, a caesar salad, sweet and sour shrimp, and creme brulee with berries. After dinner we walked through the shops and unpacked. Then we heading to the Phantom Theatre to watch a swing dance class, big screen movie trivia, and game show mania.

Extreme Communication

There is a generational gap in communication in every family and every culture. The older generations looks down on the younger and the children don't respect the parents, because we are stubborn and we think we know everything and they can't possibly have anything to say of importance. We are ignorant and don't listen to each other's advice, and there in lies the conflict of never getting along. We fight over everything from religion and politics, from who should be president to what restaurant we should go to. When we are not arguing, we are silent towards each other, not knowing how to communicate in soft voices. If we as members of a family want to live peacefully, we need to learn how to communicate successfully.

As members of a family or culture, we all have different viewpoints. In "My Son The Fanatic" by Hanif Kureishi, a father and son cannot agree on religion or cultural issues, taking their arguments to the extreme. Parvez, the father, is a taxi driver and avid drinker and gambler who is best friends with a prostitute. Ali, his teenage son, has found the religion Parvez has escaped from, trying to live the Islamic way of life to the strictest enforcement. Parvez describes their relationship when Ali was younger as them being "brothers," but since Ali has grown up, he thinks his son is "torturing" him (Kureishi 1013-1014). I believe Parvez takes Ali's formation of his own mind, apart from Parvez's, too personally. Parvez views change and uniqueness as terrifying, without embracing Ali's differences.

Since we don't know how to communicate with our relatives, we come up with other methods to find out what is going on with the other, without asking them directly. Instead of asking Ali why he is throwing out his things, Parvez chooses to spy on his son, going through his things and listening at his door, assuming the worst. Parvez chooses to talk about his son's actions to his friends, rather than talking to his son directly. It doesn't help that Ali is moody and quiet and probably feeling isolated because of his new path. They choose to only speak to each other in moments of anger, showing us they don't trust each other.

As relatives, we have high expectations for our parents and our children, whether they want to agree to them or not. All Parvez wants for his son is for him to "get a good job now, marry the right girl, and start a family" (Kureishi 1013). Parvez escaped to England so his family would have a better life and more freedom, free of strict religious enforcement and to be able to have any opportunity they want. Did he ever ask his son if he wanted the same things for himself? What he expected from his son and what his son actually wants are two separate entities. It's frustrating for Parvez, that Ali has fully embraced the strong religious faith Parvez is trying to get away from. Ali is trying to get his dad to give up his vices and join him in "paradise" when their lives are over, but Parvez would rather enjoy his life and his new freedom to the fullest (Kureishi 1016). They are both doing what they think is right in their hearts, based on their experiences with their cultures, and are angered over the one they care about, choosing a different way of living.

When we argue, we don't always think about where the other person is coming from, tending to only see things from our one side. Ali and Parvez disrespect each other's lifestyles and are very judgmental. Ali clearly hates the culture of England, telling Parvez, he is "too implicated in Western Civilization" and "Western education cultivates an anti-religious attitude," making him seem like an obnoxious opinionated teenager (Kureishi 1016). He also tells his father the problem with England is that the law will "let you do almost anything. . .," which Parvez clearly has no problem with (Kureishi 1016). Parvez clearly is upset by his son telling him he is "going to hell" and his response is to want to tell Ali "to pick up his prayer mat and get out" of his house (Kureishi 1016-1017). They both believe it is their way of life or nothing at all. As long as this hierarchy of attitude and resentment continues, it will continue to be tense in their household.

When we firmly believe in our causes and try to get our points across, we sometimes use violence to try to forcefully change the other person's mind. Parvez crosses the line when he beats Ali for disrespecting him and shows us readers that force and violence are not the answer. Ali crosses the line when he is very judgmental of his father's actions as well as saying disrespectful things to his father's friend, Bettina. They can't agree to disagree, because they are always trying to change the other person. With Ali being a teenager, there is hope he will grow out of his judgmental ways. If Parvez and Ali continue to act this way, treating each other with malice, there's no hope for peace between them.

We are humans with sensitive feelings. As readers, we can sympathize with both Parvez and Ali at times, because we all have been in their situations. Parvez is only a dad trying to get his son back, wanting to reconnect with him, and the son won't compromise. Ali is only a growing son whose dad won't accept the new him, calling his son's new behavior an "injustice" (Kureishi 1013). When we say negative comments about how the opposing side lives, we should expect them to be defensive and try to hurt the other person with insults.

We can view Max's family of pimps and prostitutes in "The Homecoming" by Harold Pinter, as an extreme case of what to expect if people in a family never learn to get along, since Max's children are all grown up and still living at home being pimps like their dad. Like Parvez and Ali, there seems to be little hope for change in the future for these characters as well.

When our feelings have been hurt, we don't let the past go and are not quick to forgive. Max tells Ruth to "live in the present... Who can afford to live in the past?," which would be good advice, coming from another source who doesn't seem to still be stuck in his past (Pinter 752). Max is the one who has led his family on the path of destruction, making his sons recruit other pimps and prostitutes for their monetary gain. Lenny wants to know "the real facts" about his "background," but Max is dismissive, so Lenny becomes very antagonistic to his father based on their past conflicts and taunts his father with questions he knows will upset Max (Pinter 747). If we live in the past and keep bringing up past issues, they will never be forgotten or free of pain.

As relatives, we choose to fight over trivial things instead of what we really want to fight about. In this story, we really never know what the characters are actually fighting about, because the author tries to distract us with line breaks and pauses, with the characters asking about random things with very little meaning. Lenny responds to Max's questions about the location of his scissors, saying, "Why don't you shut up, you daft prat?" (Pinter 735). This fight clearly isn't about scissors. It's about years of pent up anger over Max's ignorance of his son's hard to bear questions. If they can't express their feelings as clear as possible, there will always be confusion about what they are really trying to say.

These communication theories based on family dynamics can be applied to society as a whole. We need to treat everyone as if they are our dearest relatives, caring about them for who they are. We also need to respectfully communicate with them at every opportunity, by trying to get our opinions across as peacefully as possible. Like Salman Rushdie says in his speech, "Is Nothing Sacred?," we as society should respond to each other's differences, "not by an attack, but by a declaration of love" (Rushdie 983).

Works Cited
Kureishi, Hanif. "My Son the Fanatic." The Broadview Anthology of British Literature. By Joseph Black. Vol. 6. Peterborough, Ont.: Broadview, 2006. 1013-018.
Pinter, Harold. "The Homecoming." The Broadview Anthology of British Literature. By Joseph Laurence Black. Vol. 6. Peterborough, Ont.: Broadview, 2006. 735-64.

Rushdie. "Is Nothing Sacred?" The Broadview Anthology of British Literature. By Joseph Laurence Black. Vol. 6. Peterborough, Ont.: Broadview, 2006. 983.

Fall Semester Finals

For Anthro, I had a take home final and read 4 articles on Human evolution. For Brit Lit, I gave a presentation on Zadie Smith and read Lives of Saints by Jeanette Winterson. For Design 3D, I turned in my toy project and my paper on Zaha Hadid. For Song Lyrics, I wrote a Christmas song and gave a presentation on Eric Clapton. I also had a staple went through my thumb and my backpack strap broke on the last day of class. I turned in my take home final for Anthro and my essay for Brit Lit and sold my books back today.

Toy Sculpture

Zaha Hadid

Zaha Hadid was born in Baghdad, Iraq in 1950 and has degrees in mathematics and architecture from the American University of Beirut and London's Architectural Association School of Architecture. Hadid became a partner at Office for Metropolitan Architecture in 1977 and established her own practice in 1980. She has taught architecture at her former school, Architectural Association, Harvard, Yale, Ohio State, Columbia, and is currently teaching at Austria's University of Applied Arts Vienna.

Hadid won the Pritzker Architecture Prize in 2004 and a Commander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE) for "services to architecture." She also won the Stirling Prize in 2010 for her "MAXXI: National Museum of 21st Century Art in Rome". At her architecture firm, they are currently developing projects such as, "the Fiera di Milano tower, the Aquatics Centre for the London 2012 Olympic Games, High-Speed Train Stations in Naples and Durango, the CMA CGM Head Office tower in Marseille and urban master-plans in Beijing, Bilbao, Istanbul, Singapore and the Middle East."

As a pioneer for successful and award-winning female architects, Hadid said, "As a woman, I'm expected to want everything to be nice, and to be nice myself. A very English thing. I don't design nice buildings - I don't like them. I like architecture to have some raw, vital, earthy quality." Hadid describes her style as "contemporary, organic and innovative." Her practice works to develop a "rigorous interface between architecture, landscape, and geology" while integrating the "natural topography and human-made systems that lead to experimentation" with new technology. Her projects demonstrate "complex, dynamic space' and "bold, visionary forms." In addition to architecture, Hadid also paints "Russian constructivist-inspired" paintings, designs furniture, and makes interior objects such as bowls and chandeliers.

Witold Rybczynski, a writer for Slate magazine, when he describes Hadid as a "visionary artist," saying her projects contain various "images of The Future: streamlined shapes, free-flowing forms, silhouettes that suggest an intergalactic space station." Hadid's "Spittelau Viaducts Housing Project" (1994-2005) is an abstract example of defying gravity through balancing large formed modules on seven poles. She uses a repetition of small square windows in each of the modules as well as curved arched bridges through the middle of the piece. Along with this work, She also uses squared forms to make spatial spirals in her "Urban Nebula" (2007) piece. In this outdoor piece, she uses a repetition of stacked blocks with shiny metal surfaces in a curved form to reflect the lights from street and the building. In her "Monsoon Restaurant" (1989-1990) she uses warm colors in her focal points to harmonize and reflect upon the darkness of the ceilings and floor. There is a repetition of curved lines in various directions to create gestures of enlivening the crowded space, with lots of smooth texture and surfaces.

Sources

"About" Zaha Hadid Architects. 26 November 2010.

Glancey, Jonathan. "I Don't Do Nice." Guardian. 9 October 2006.

Rybczynski, Witold. "Zaha's World." Slate. 21 June 2006.

"Zaha Hadid." Wikipedia. 26 November 2010. .
"Zaha Hadid Architects : Architecture Information + Images." E- Architect. 26 November 2010.

Accidental Discoveries

Dugger, Celia W. and John Noble Wilford. " New Hominid Species Discovered in South Africa." The New York Times April 8 2010

Celia W. Dugger and John Nobel Wilford describe a nine-year-old boy named Matthew Berger in Johannesburg, South Africa, who "tripped over a log" after chasing his dog on August 15, 2008 and found the bones of "a new hominid species that lived almost two million years ago during the fateful, still mysterious period spanning the emergence of the human family." It was lucky for this boy to find these, since his dad is Paleoanthropologist Lee R. Berger. Lee R. Berger had been searching the same area for the past twenty years, finding very little, so Matthew must have known this was exactly what his dad wanted to find. Sometimes it takes an accident or not looking to discover great things.
The hominid Matthew discovered was a "4-foot-2 boy who had been just a few years older than Matthew himself," buried along with three other individuals and several animals close by. This new hominid species has been named "Australopithecus sediba. " Dugger and Wilford say, "Geologists estimated that the individuals lived 1.78 million to 1.95 million years ago," descending from "Australopithecus africanus," and they believe they are a possible "immediate" ancestor to Homo erectus.
In class we learned about several species and how they are connected to the modern humans. I bet it is very exciting to discover new clues on how we are connected to other species, as scientists who spend their entire lives trying to create a timeline and family trees. I figure finding a new species is like finding piece to a puzzle you're trying to complete, but sometimes discoveries leads to even more questions instead of answers. Hopefully one day, we will be able to put the entire puzzle together.

Zadie Smith

Timeline
• Born "Sadie Smith" in North London on October 25, 1975.
• Studied English at Cambridge and graduated in 1997.
• In 2000, she won two Ethnic and Multicultural Media Awards (EMMA's) for White Teeth
• In 2001, she won Commonwealth Writers Prize (Overall Winner, Best First Book) for White Teeth
• In 2003, she was included on Granta's list of 20 best young authors
• In 2003, she was a Radcliffe Fellow at Harvard University.
• Married Nick Laird in 2004.
• In 2009 her daughter Katherine was born.
• She taught at Columbia and is currently a professor at NYU.

Bibliography
• White Teeth 2000
• Piece of Flesh (editor) 2001
• The May Anthologies (editor) 2001
• The Autograph Man 2002
• Hanwell in Hell (The New Yorker) 2004.
• On Beauty 2005
• Hanwell Sr. (The New Yorker) 2007.

Themes & Subjects
• Ethnically diverse families
• Feminism
• Humor
• Identity
• Immigration
• Racism
• Religion
• Sexuality

Quotes
"Generally, an English Lit degree trains you to be a useless member of the modern world and that's what I'm being in the only way I know how."

"I went to University to study English Literature. I never attended a creative writing class in my life. I have a horror of them; most writers groups moonlight as support groups for the kind of people who think that writing is therapeutic. Writing is the exact opposite of therapy. The best, the only real training you can get is from reading other people's books."

“I think [list making] is a slightly depressing English habit. We’d much rather have somebody else’s taste to follow rather than having to take any time finding something new; discovering new writers or going to a bookshop without instruction. It is depressing.”

"Stop worrying about your identity and concern yourself with the people you care about, ideas that matter to you, beliefs you can stand by, tickets you can run on. Intelligent humans make those choices with their brain and hearts and they make them alone. The world does not deliver meaning to you. You have to make it meaningful...and decide what you want and need and must do. It’s a tough, unimaginably lonely and complicated way to be in the world. But that’s the deal: you have to live; you can’t live by slogans, dead ideas, clichés, or national flags. Finding an identity is easy. It’s the easy way out."- On Beauty

"If religion is the opiate of the people, tradition is an even more sinister analgesic, simply because it rarely appears sinister. If religion is a tight band, a throbbing vein, and a needle, tradition is a far homelier concoction: poppy seeds ground into tea; a sweet cocoa drink laced with cocaine; the kind of thing your grandmother might have made."- White Teeth

Links

Zadie Smith Reads from On Beauty http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NdZcnvLCVec

The TV Movie Version of White Teeth http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZqyULdCQr-o&feature=related

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zadie_Smith

Christmas in Utah

There is nothing like Christmas in Utah.
Outside we're nearly freezing,
While we're singing, fa-la-la-la-la-la,
There is nothing like Christmas in Utah.

Scenes from a Christmas card.
Colored lights shine from Temple Square to Layton Park,
Brightening up the drive in the dark.
A state perfect for a Christmas card.

Farr's peppermint ice cream,
Lil Smokies, and deviled eggs for eating,
While we wrap presents with red bows.
Sugar plums invading our dreams.
A warm state surrounded by mountains of snow.

There is nothing like Christmas in Utah,
With snow and the spirit, blessing our land,
Walking while hand in hand.
There is nothing like Christmas in Utah,
With snow and the spirit, blessing our land,
Walking while hand in hand.
There is nothing like Christmas,
There is nothing like Christmas,
There is nothing like Christmas in Utah.

A state inspiring our souls
Music dancing in our radios,
And playing the church pianos.
A state inspiring our souls.

Shopping for others,
Skiing, sledding, and snowboarding,
Lots of fun places to roam.
Holding all children, fathers, and mothers,
This is our heavenly home.

Chorus

*** Synopsis: A song about Christmas in Utah.

Real Alarms Don't Beep

San Francisco, California,
A hotel tangled in the trees.
Cookie crumbs on our pillows at eleven,
Beep, beep, beeping at three.
Groans, walks, and evacuations,
Hundreds yawning in the street,
Out in the parking lot in pajamas,
Waiting for the false alarm's defeat.

Miami, Florida,
Suite next to a moon river.
Sandwich wrappers on the coffee table.
Beep, beep, beeping on our floor,
The only room in the whole hotel.
Waiting for the false alarm's silencer,
Repairman's away, driving the shuttle bus
We sit, watching the aquarium, in lobby chairs.

No false machine's beeping
Can compare to real alarm,
Smoke monsters invading oxygen,
Glowing fire down the mountain,
Yards away from my backyard.
The most real alarms don't beep.

Math building,
Writing puzzles on a test.
Beep, beep, beeping in the middle,
A pause to build up false stress,
Unplanned field trip on the last day.
A pesky student trying to create a jest.
Guess he wasn't prepared,
Needing extra time to rest.

Art building,
Projecting paint on mask.
Beep, beep, beeping
Twice in same class.
My brush drying in water,
Sitting uphill on the grass,
Here comes the fire truck again.
How long will this false alarm last?

Chorus

*** Synopsis: A song about how fires are the scariest when there is no beeping alarms.

Monograph

In the first verse, I took out one of the "beeps" in the fourth line and I changed "And parking lot in our pajamas" to "Out in the parking lot in pajamas." Wherever the word "alarm" appears in a verse, I added the word "false" in front of it, to make the point of the song more evident. In the second verse, I changed "The repairman away on the shuttle bus" to "Repairman's away, driving the shuttle bus," to make it less confusing. I also changed "Watching aquariums in lobby chairs" to "We sit, watching the aquarium, in lobby chairs."

In the chorus, I omitted "alarms' in "No false machine alarm's beeping" to make it "No false machine's beeping." I changed "Can compare to my eyes" to "Can compare to real alarm," to add further emphasis on the difference between false and real alarms. I changed "Smoke monsters invading my patio" to "Smoke monsters invading my oxygen," because I thought smoke ruining air would be a more fitting metaphor.

In my Layton neighborhood in 2007, one of my neighbors from up the street decided to burn bush in her backyard and started a huge fire that burned most of the mountain between two neighborhoods. Luckily for her, it started raining and put out most of the fire before it burned down any houses. Seeing fire on the mountain and tons of black smoke in my backyard was way more scary experience than hearing a smoke alarm or detector go off. I changed "Glowing runners down the mountain," to "Glowing fire down the mountain," because I thought the word fire need to be added to show more evidence of the point I am trying to make. I changed the last line of the chorus and the title from "The most alarming, alarms are silent" to "The most real alarms don't beep."

I didn't add anything or subtract anything from the third verse. In the fourth verse, I changed the line from "My brush dying in water," to "My brush drying in water," to emphasize the time I had been away from the building, waiting for the alarm to go off. I also added the false to make it say, "How long will this false alarm last?"

Random Lines

I gave you everything
You gave me nothing

They started out in the same airport
She took off while he just landed
Money and power mean more than love
She's off in the clouds leaving him grounded

I'd be sitting pretty, I'd be feeling fine

If I had a dust pan and laundry matt
If I had a dust pan and laundry matt
I'm sure my love would come back

He wants love, she don't.
She wants change, he won't.

Now in this moment
Our hearts are bent
We're feeling blue

We've been down this road before
Had our hearts broken in two
Here you are walking through my door
Thoughts clearing into few
I can't take it anymore
We need a different view

You've been buying presents
And sending them away to mail
Hoping to please,
But none of them are for me

Give me another chance
Before you strike a match

So if your life is troubled
And you can't sing along
Listen to another lyric
So you can clear the static

You dumped me and I feel sad

I hold your door
I gave you a key
Please move in already
You're the lock for me

Hope leaves us and doesn't say goodbye

Cotton candy clouds

The heart of my life needs a transplant

On the road of life, there are no rest stops

The music pulled me into the room
Full of melody and a tune
Harmony starts to flow
Rhythm tells me not to go
But I have obligations at home
I don't want to leave the beauty
I like music more than reality

I fight a lot with you

To think you could be tame

Stars melt in the sky

I taste your lips
I hug your fingertips
You are a wonderful sight

Lives of the Saints by Jeannette Winterson

In "Lives of the Saints" by Jeannette Winterson, there are four intertwining stories of the narrator, the narrator with the woman, the Jews and their pasta machine, and the woman's impregnated affair with her handyman. I believe the narrator of all the stories is one person, who interacted with all these people in his or her world. It could be the story of his or her life, from one decade or life to next, and him processing it beyond death.

The title comes from a quote from Saint Teresa of Ávila, who says, "In the lives of saints I look for confirmation of excess. . .They know there is no passion without pain." I believe she is saying this, because everybody must hurt in order to know joy and every saint has sinned. I wondered if the author was saying that just because someone might sin, that doesn't make them ineligible to be a saint? I believe these stories show a degree of righteousness on all levels and how they can become saints if they repent.

I believe the title is a reference to modern day people being compared to the saints of the past. There are references from the Bible such as Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, the "desert," "black coats and black hats," and Saint Teresa of Ávila, as examples of saintly figures and locations of stories of the past. I was unfamiliar to most of these people, so I'm glad the footnotes summarized their stories. There is also two references to Leonardo Da Vinci, which I took as symbol for people who view the world and make designs based on it.

I looked at the "we" of the story, as trinity of God, death, and/or guardian angels watching these people, especially since the woman was "oblivious" to the narrator, but slowly began to see and hear more from her obsessed follower. Maybe she wasn't saintly enough to see him at first, but then slowly became righteous. I believe her telling the narrator about her affair is a confession of her sins. As I was reading these stories, they felt like they had familiar resemblances to the parable of the Good Samaritan, and the story of the Virgin Mary. I don't know if the author was trying to emulate those stories or not.

The magic realism in the story is the distance between heaven and earth. There is a dream like quality to these stories, and even the narrator says, "Time is not constant" and "we walked through the hours," making me wonder if time for the narrator moves faster than the living people he interacts with in these stories. The narrator says, "The sun also diminishes the pupils to pinpricks, letting the light in less," making it seem like we are blinded by the light. He or she also says, "When we can hardly see we are most like to fall in love," as if when we are farther from God, we follow our passions.

There are references to "moats," the sky, a "magic kingdom," candles, which makes me think of Gothicism, magic, and fairy tales. The narrator says, "The world itself with roll up like a scroll taking time and space away," making the world seem temporary like a dream. I wondered if the narrator is telling us, we can be a saint or a sinner, but it won't matter anyway once we're dead.

The Office (UK)

While watching "Pilot" episode of The Office, I thought it was very similar to the American version. I have seen every episode of the American version, but haven't watched the British one before. I think the American producers did a pretty good job adapting and casting the pilot to make the characters, setting, and premise seem similar. It would be interesting to see how much all the other versions throughout the world relate to the original as well.

There were similar jokes such as putting staplers into jell-o and David fake firing Dawn for stealing post-it notes. There is a lot of unprofessional behavior coming from the employees, but mostly it is Brent that reminds us a "real bosses." David seeks validation from his co-workers, looking to be friends instead of a boss.

I noticed that David Brent comes up with funny nicknames for himself, like "Brent Master General" and makes up puns for other people's names like Michael Scott does. I find both Ricky Gervais and Steve Carell both hysterical and they both make both their characters outrageous and goofy. Sometimes they make me cringe, but other times I find them loveable.

Like Are You Being Served? and Fawlty Towers, The Office also has humor based on awkward situations and workplace behavior. They all feature bosses with narcissistic personalities who try either to befriend or annoy their coworkers. This episode dealt with themes such as middle class, identity, and gender roles in the office with a woman as a receptionist and as a corporate boss.

There were references to downsizing, Ali G, calling people "mental," the singing fish on the wall and the "wassup?" and the show being set up like a mockumentary reality show are pop culture references to the 2000's. The only British reference I really picked up on was the characters calling jell-o, "jelly."

Set a Place for You

We could have
A giant table,
White cloth and candles,
Turkey shaped salt shakers.
Leaves lining the middle.
More chairs than we can handle,
But they couldn't replace you.

All these Thanksgiving decorations,
Food, people. and attractions,
Don't make me miss you any less.
(Don't make me miss you any less)
I wish I could set,
Set a place for you.

We could have
Pineapple lime jell-o,
Turkey and potatoes,
Grape juice mixed with soda,
Pumpkin pie with crusted bows.
Made from scratch, buttered rolls,
But they couldn't replace you.

Chorus

We could be
In Las Vegas at a buffet,
Riding rides at Disney,
Driving up to Idaho,
To a cabin by a lake.
Or cruising the bay,
But they couldn't replace you.

Don't make me miss you any less.
(Don't make me miss you any less)
(Don't make me miss you any less)

A Curse Without A Cure

My eyes are frozen open,
Shadows dance around my bed,
I suffer hallucinations,
Anxiety popping into my head.

My legs are restless pests,
Wanting to kick the covers.
I share words with the darkness,
About friends, enemies, and lovers.

I must be an insomniac,
For I can never fall asleep,
Between ten and two,
Before the dawn is back.
I, like the shadows, creep,
Not having any dreaming to do.

Perhaps it is my destiny,
Becoming a creature running,
Up and down the stairs,
Trying to exist without care.
Reckless in the middle,
Not holding on to the handle.
There's nothing to dream about,
between eleven and light.
Six knocking on my door,
A curse without a cure.

When I'm able to dream,
It's usually a nightmare.
Flashbacks of horror movies,
I shouldn't have watched, but I dared.

Feeling what the world is like,
When everyone else is asleep,
Is incredible divine,
But I'd rather not make a peep.

Bridge

Chorus

*** Synopsis: Song about not being able to sleep at night.

Ab Fab

While watching "the Birthday" episode of AbFab, I thought it was funny because the characters were so outrageous. I thought there were a lot of stereotypical and funny characters like the other two sitcoms. It was very similar to Fawlty Towers and Are You Being Served?, because they all deal with the dysfunction of relationships and funny, outspoken characters. The characters all seem to have dry wit and insult their friends with their tongues. Like Are You Being Served?, it ended with the characters singing, which is sort of a happy ending.

The main character, Edina has turned forty and made jokes about dying and menopause, asking her daughter, "Do you think we ought to get some hormone replacement packs in for emergencies?" Her house is being paid for by her two ex-husbands and she only uses to the "cooker" to light her cigarettes.

Edina is very narcissistic, talking to her daughter about her birthday, "This is something that is happening to me. This is something that I've got to deal with, alright. I'm sorry if that sounds selfish, but it's me, me, me!" I think her dreading her age is very relatable, but she became slightly annoying by going over the top with her loony antics.

Her daughter, Saffron, seems like the maid, chef, and mother figure for her. I thought it was mean when Edina told her daughter that her son is her "pride and joy." When Edina's mother arrives, she tells Saffron she'd "rather kiss a baboon's bottom" than spend actual time with her daughter. Edina doesn't seem to get along with any of her friends but Patsy. This sitcom is poking fun at families, generational gaps, and friendship circles.

There are several references to the 1990's within the show. Patsy and Edina's fashion and big beehive hair and curls reminds me of Madonna and Cher. Edina is wearing a green earth sweatshirt with a question mark and she eats "vegetarian tarts." She has a gay white ex-husband with a black boyfriend and she says to the audience, "all my friends are gay." Edina makes fun of "The Waltons."

Edina and Patsy talk about how much they dislike Morgan Fairchild, Jane Fonda, Kathleen Turner, and Marisa Berenson. They also talk about how everyone their age are getting plastic surgery to enhance their faces and breasts. At the end of the episode, Edina and Patsy sing karaoke after smoking marijuana, which is very relevant for the time period. Communication, gender roles, sexual identity, feminism, humor, and class are contemporary themes and issues appearing in this sitcom.

Perfect Record

A cool pool in the summertime.
The deep end looking' grim,
Jumping off the board like I'm a dime,
Am I going to sink or swim?

Floating in the waves,
I see Sal is on duty,
I hope that he really behaves,
Watching all the guests, not just the cuties.
How could I not feel safe,
At a life guarder's party?

Carrying cans in my swim trunks,
Too much beer and I'm drunk,
Is the pool spinning me in a blender?
As my head goes under,
As my head goes under,
As my head goes under.

So I put my arms up,
But they didn't seem to care.
I'm frantically screaming,
but the dance music keeps on playing,
Who knew I was at a deadly resort?
So I put my arms up,
But they didn't seem to care.
They're too busy celebrating,
Their summer of no drowning,
And I'm ruining their perfect record.
And I'm ruining their perfect record.

I wait for rescue, but no whistle chimes.
I'm passing people, face down,
They say, "Who's that guy, whose body is lime?,
He must have drowned."

I see my body in the deep end, while I'm standing outside the pool
Whatever dream this is, it isn't cool
That's when Sal gets off his high chair
And he tries to do CPR.
And he tries to do CPR.
And he tries to do CPR.

Chorus

Feeling detached from my body,
I know something is not right.
I try to say to Sal, "I'm okay,"
"But could someone turn off that spotlight?"

Chorus

*** Synopsis: Song about a drowning victim at a lifeguard's party.

Step on Me

They hide in the shadows,
Waiting for me.
My eyes look around,
Searching for safety.
My eyes look around,
Searching for safety.

I tell myself to run,
As voices come closer.
Slow footsteps behind me,
Taunting whispers.
Slow footsteps behind me,
Taunting whispers.

I wish I could fight back, telling them,
Leave me alone.
They trip me, push me, call me names,
Trying to step on me.
I wish I could fight back, telling them,
Leave me alone.
They trip me, push me, call me names,
Trying to step on me.

They can see the dread,
On my face.
Prowling the sidewalk,
Loving the chase.
Prowling the sidewalk,
Loving the chase.

Chorus

Looking for trouble,
Their smiles are bent.
I'm screaming inside,
But surface silent.
I'm screaming inside,
But surface silent.


They try to put me down,
But they are wrong.
I tell myself,
That I am strong.
They aren't worth getting upset over,
I am strong.
They aren't worth getting upset over,
I am strong.

Chorus

You bullies,
Just leave, leave me alone

Trip me, push me, call me names
Trying to step on me.
But on this walk of life,
Nobody will ever step,
Step on me.

*** Synopsis: Song about bullies who used to call me "Step-On-Me" instead of Stephanie.

Open Mic

On Friday, I went to the open mic night at Grounds for Coffee in Clearfield for my songs lyrics class. There was about thirty people in the building and sitting outside on the patio. I'd never been to an open mic night before, so I didn't really know what to expect. We saw about four musical acts in the hour we were there. There was a rock band playing with five people, performing "Aqualung" by Jethro Tull with lots of musical interludes. The next performer was a guy named Darren, who was probably my favorite performer of the night, performing two original songs and then "It's Probably Me" by Sting. Then came the country western band of three men who performed renditions of "I'm No Stranger to the Rain" by Keith Whitley, "You Are My Sunshine, " and "Just a Closer Walk with Thee." The last group I saw was a family of three: a dad playing guitar, a son playing, and a daughter singing "House of the Rising Sun."

Metal Sculpture

Apologize by One Republic & Timbaland

"Apologize" by OneRepublic, is a breakup song about appreciating what you have before it is gone and how hard it is to forgive and forget. I chose to analyze this song, because the message of the song is very relatable to someone who has been hurt by people and how difficult it is to be reminded of what happened every time you see them or hear about them. We as humans, want to lash out at the ones who have hurt us, telling them exactly how they have made us feel. I feel like that's what the singer is doing in this song.

The first verse is the back story of the relationship up to the moment where the singee dumped the singer. "I'm hangin' on your rope,/ Got me ten feet off the ground," is a metaphor to the singer having a natural high from his relationship with the singee, where his life is wonderful and they had no known problems. It could also be a reference to how bonded he once felt to her or how now he wants to hang himself because of all of her drama. He puts his relationship with her on a pedestal where there is only room for breaking.

"And I'm hearin' what you say,/ But I just can't make a sound," is about the silence of a shocking realization that the relationship is over and the relationship was not as happy as he thought it was. The singee wasn't feeling the same high when it came to the relationship, only feeling the lows. He makes another reference to the rope, saying, "You tell me that you need me,/Then you go and cut me down...," which made me wonder if she was abusive to him during their relationship or she ruined every happy moment by being moody and overly emotional. A lot of girls expect to have a fairy tale romance and wonder why their guys don't act like princes or treat them like a princess every moment of everyday.

"But wait. . ./ You tell me that you're sorry," makes it seem like the singee woke up and realized what she was losing while she was breaking up with him or she realized it shortly after. He builds a climb to the chorus at the end of the verse by saying, "Didn't think I'd turn around.../ And say...," alluding to the fact that sometimes there are no second chances and how he finally stood up for himself after a long period of time of neglect or abuse. People can't expect to not have consequences to their actions, especially if it involves hurting the ones who love them.
The chorus repeats "too late" four times in its five lines, trying to emphasize what's done is done. She can try to "apologize" all she wants, but her apologies aren't going to change the hurt he feels for the way she treated him, or make him forget. The way he adds "yeah!" as the end line, it makes it seem like he is trying to talk himself into sticking with his decision, tempted to go back to her, because he still loves her, but knowing deep down he is making the right decision.

The second verse is about how he made his decision to leave her behind and her reaction. "I'd take another chance,/ Take a fall, take a shot for you," seems like he is contemplating what would happen if he gave her another chance, wondering if she would hurt him again. "I need you like a heart needs a beat, But it's nothin' new," is referencing how his life is hard without her in it, but his life would be hard with her in it as well. "I loved you with a fire red,/ Now it's turnin' blue..." is emphasizing the love he had for her is dying, lessening over the time they've been apart. He makes it seem like he resents her now.

He tells us about the singee's reaction to his decision, "And you say. . .Sorry, you're not the angel/Heaven let me think was you...," I was a little confused by all of the uses of "you'" in these sentences, but I think she is saying, is she isn't as perfect as he thought she was, which would make sense in relation to the pedestal back story. Maybe he was expecting her to be perfect, and when she revealed her true colors, he ran, not being able to deal with the reality of the situation either. If that is so, then the relationship ending was both of their faults, because of their impossible expectations. He says, "But I'm afraid...," before he leads into the chorus again, emphasizing his fear of her hurting again and the fact that the relationship is over.

The last verse is a combination of lines from the first verse and the chorus. By having "I'm holdin' on your rope,/ got me ten feet off the ground," as the first and last two lines of the song overall,. The second time he says it feels like he's critiquing himself for being so hung up on a girl or taunting her directly. I think he is using these lines as his overall message, saying, "See what fun we used to have and how much I cared about you. Well too bad you blew it!"

More Than Hello

Sitting in class at my desk,
A fist knocking my shoulder.
Turning my head at the pest,
A boy with dreadlocked hair,
Green eyes like a crest,
And a student officer sweater.

Noah asked me for my name,
And If I was related to a boy,
With the same surname.
I said "not that I know of"
He said "that is okay . . .,"
People are still cool,
With your last name."

Noah said hello to me in the hall,
I said hey back.
I wish I could have said,
More than hello to him.

That whole semester Noah sat,
In chair in front of me.
He used my desk,
To open his folder.
With me, falling fast,
Tempted to speak,
Tongue ripped by a cat.

I'd see his blue truck,
Every time I went to the mall,
At the restaurant parking lot,
Where he worked.
Noah asked me, one day at lunch.
If I thought he was a dork.
I said no, trying not to blush,
He probably thought I was a jerk.

Chorus


Riding in my mom's van,
I saw Noah on Libby's lawn.
Throwing snowballs at kids,
On their way home.
When I saw Libby at church,
She gushed about him,
About how he asked her,
To go to the prom.

When I came back in the fall,
Noah had graduated in the spring,
No one said hello to me in the hall,
And the silence still stings.

Chorus

** Synopsis: A girl wishes she would have had courage enough to tell her crush she liked him in high school.

I'll Even Hide the Sharks

Won't you to come see me?
I will not let you drown in my sea.

You used to visit me every summer
On my Atlantic and Pacific sides.
I used to give you seashells,
And take you on rides with my tide.

I see you up there, on that ship (mmm)
I sparkle for you to come in for a dip (mmm),
You'd rather stay dry than spend time wet with me
When you reject my waves, I'm left feeling green
(I'd rather be bright blue with you)

I beg you to come see me.
I will not let you drown in my sea,
Let your dark fears wash away,
Keep them at the bay.
If you stay, I'll even hide the sharks

Ever since you saw Jaws,
You've been afraid of my creatures.
I have turtles, stingrays, and dolphins,
Like you visit in the water park.
Why do you judge me for my sharks?

Go ahead, ditch that sailing trip.
Just play in my crescent waves
Come on, take a dip.

Chorus

I'll meet you on the land.
Embracing your toes on the sand,
Till you want to come in.

Let your fears wash away,
Keep them at the bay.
If you stay, I'll even hide the sharks

***Synopsis: An ocean is trying to get someone, who is afraid of water, to come back.


Monograph

I changed the title from "Why Don't You Want to Swim Anymore?" to "I'll Even Hide the Sharks," based on your suggestion. In the refrain I took out the "baby" and made a reference to sea, to identify the singer, and I also changed the similar lines in the chorus and added the last verse to the chorus to put the title in a power position. I changed the boat from a cruise ship to a "ship" and a "sailing trip," because you suggested to make it a smaller boat. I added a new first verse to have more of a back story of the relationship between the singer and the singee.

In the second verse, I changed "looking green" to "feeling green," as a reference to seasickness. My initial thought was that the ocean would be jealous of the ship and turn green. I changed "(I'd rather be turquoise for you)" to "(I'd rather be bright blue for you)," to emphasize the change of colors on the surface.

In the third verse, I took out "that movie," and I took out the line, "I'm okay if you don't want to swim in the dark," cause I didn't think it made any sense. I also added "I have" to the line "turtles, stingrays, and dolphins," to emphasize that not all the creatures of the ocean are menacing like the sharks. I added, "Like you visit in the water park," to show emphasis of the friendly creatures' safety.

In the seventh verse, I took out "promising," because it clunked and changed the line to "Embracing your toes on the sand," because if the shore is going to meet her on the beach, it would reach her toes first with its water. I changed the first line to "I will meet you on the land." I changed the refrain two from "Why don't you want to swim," adding it to the seventh verse, saying "Till you want to come in." Then I changed the seventh verse to the six verse, because I thought it was out of order.

No Shoe Fits Me Like You

I saw a pair of shoes and thought of you.
They were flashy, sharp tongued, and blue.
A worn sole hiding in the back,
The littlest box in a big bargain rack.

If I were to buy them and take them home,
Would they let me control them or try to roam?
Like I tried with you in the past.
Like us, would the shoes not last?

Shopping for shoes is tough
Even if I selected a few,
They might be the right price and width,
But no shoe fits me like you.

Don't need expensive ones, just comfort,
Feel like I can be me and babble in leather.
Making our love bonded together with laces,
Around the track of life in daily races.

Chorus

If I had those shoes,
I'd make them come unglued.
I'd never wear them or share,
Keeping their souls bare.

I'd keep them in a box,
With the lid and bottom as locks.
Maybe then the shoes would stay,
Out of regret to be repaid.

Chorus

***Synopsis: A girl compares her past relationship to a pair of shoes.

Angela Carter's The Blood Chamber

"The Bloody Chamber" by Angela Carter is a retelling of the legend of Bluebeard. I had never heard this story of Bluebeard before, though I have seen Bluebeard's Castle, a hotel named after the legend in St. Thomas in the US Virgin Islands. Before reading this, I thought Bluebeard was a pirate. I guess I was confusing him with Blackbeard.

I thought it was an interesting and gothic story and a great read to read during Halloween weekend when I expect to be scared by films and music. It was very suspenseful because the husband was so creepy, being such a cat, trying to seduce, trap, and kill his bride, his mouse. Bluebeard reminded me of Charles Boyer's character, Gregory Anton, from the movie Gaslight, because they both are hauntingly trying to make their wives go insane, when the husbands are the ones who are crazy.
Angela Carter keeps all the characteristic details of Bluebeard and his bride the same as the tradition legend, but cuts out minor characters and changes a couple of the key scenes of the plot. Bluebeard is described as rich and "older" than his bride, who his bride sees as a "lily," which is a weird metaphor for the horrible man. The bride seems naive at first, not knowing what she is getting herself into, describing her experiences with him as feeling "disheveled by the loss" of her pureness. After she gets to know him, she describes him as a "white" lily, that will leave a "stain", seeming like she knows he will kill her and rotten her soul.

His castle has "turrets of blue," in Carter's version, but is not described in the legend summary, so I don't know if that is traditional or not. I would imagine if someone had a bluebeard, he would decorate his house with blue as well. I thought her version was more sexual which made Bluebeard seem more aggressive and cruel to his wife. The legend summary from Wikipedia doesn't mention the original legend as being overly sexual, so I don't know if it traditional or not. Carter's version starts out with the wedding night with a back story of the wedding, but not how she came to marry him.

There's a lot of references to the keys in Carter's version as well as the legend. I wondered if it is a metaphor for throwing back the curtain and finding out who and what the person you are married to, really is who he says he is. I think any bride would have been curious what lies in lock rooms, she is "forbidden" to enter. She wants to go through his stuff, to see what he is hiding and see why he is so secretive. In Carter's version, the bride finds the previous wives bleeding in coffins instead of hanging on hooks like the legend says. I think her finding them on hooks would be even more terrifying to the bride and would have sent her screaming from the castle, to get as far away as possible. With her finding them in coffins, it is more subtle and makes the bride only question if he killed them or not. The hooks would have been more obvious.

In Carter's version, the bride has no siblings and she hides with the piano tuner instead of a sister. In Carter's version, the bride's mother shoots Bluebeard, while in the legend, the bride's brothers kill Bluebeard with a sword. I don't think who kills Bluebeard, really matters. The story makes women seem weak, marrying evil men for money, who take advantage of them sexually. These weak women have to have their mothers or siblings fight their battles and bail them out. If the bride was the one who killed Bluebeard, it would have made more sense, because it would make us as readers believe the bridge had grown as a character and would be able to stand up for herself.

Feathers

Eve will always think of Ally,
As the girl who ruined the fifth grade.
Ally told Eve she was glad,
Eve was moving away.

Eve wondered why Ally hated her,
How someone could be so cruel.
They hadn't exchanged words before,
Because Eve was shy,
And Ally was a popular girl.
Eve asked her friend, Heather.
She said Ally told her,
Eve was a bitch.

Rumors fly like feathers
It's better not to have poisoned lips
People say. . .
Revenge is sweetly paid

When Eve returned to Cincinnati,
For her high school years.
Her eyes no longer cried tears,
With soul and a smile,
A little bit faker,
Making new friends,
But none of them had forgotten.
Ally saying,
Eve was a bitch.

Rumors fly like feathers
It's better not to have poisoned lips
People say. . .
Revenge is sweetly paid

Eve slipped a note into Ally's locker.
One from her crush, Luke,
Asking her to go to prom.
Luke told Ally, he didn't write her,
He said he didn't even know her.
Eve felt even, returning the favor.
Rumors fly like feathers
It's better not to have poisoned lips
People say. . .
Revenge is sweetly paid

Eve will always think of Ally,
As the girl who ruined the fifth grade.
Eve will always think of Ally,
As the girl she wanted to make pay.

*** Synopsis: Song about how rumors can ruin both the gossiper and the victim's life.

The Poetry of Paul Muldoon

"Our Lady of Ardboe"

Our Lady of Ardboe by Paul Muldoon is a poem about man questioning our relationship as humans with God and also wondering if God exists at all. He uses the alliteration, "knows what's knowable" and repeats "Virgin" and "Mother" through out two of the stanzas. He uses the assonance of "farmer's youngest daughter," and "amiable" and "admirable" in line twenty two. Muldoon uses different rhyme schemes in each stanza and twenty six lines.

The stanzas each consist of two, three, or four lines, almost like Muldoon kept changing his mind about writing down his spirituality, with the changes of stanzas and rhyming in the poem. The stanzas with three lines seem to ask the most questions, which could be a reference to the Holy Trinity.

Muldoon wants to know how humans could be so close to spirit, without being perfect or some of the world's most sophisticated, when he says, we are unraveling "the road to Christ's navel." He makes two references to feeding, such as "Milk from the Virgin Mother's breast" and "The winding road to Christ's navel," to reference the nourishment we receive from his faith of them.

He describes the setting of a stable as a humble yet holy place, because it is the birthplace of Jesus. In its presence, the girl had to "kneel" in prayer, because of the symbolism, which most Christians would think of when they saw one. Muldoon seems to be questioning the humble beginnings of the savior, but also seems to say it could have been any stable in the world that Jesus could have born in.

Muldoon seems to be questioning if we made up God as a "simple wish for there being more to life," as way to deal with stress that comes from "a job, a car, a house, a wife," having to earn money so we can have "running water." He names several objects such as colorful flowers and weeds found in nature, and "arms as long as the other," as his biology, to make it seem like he doesn't believe these things are just coincidences or just science, but they are made from God.

"Anonymous: Myself and Prague"

Muldoon's poem, Anonymous: Myself and Prague, is about the working relationship of a man and his cat. Muldoon uses an AABB rhyme pattern and all of the stanzas have four lines. He uses enjambment by separating full sentences into two different stanzas, dragging out his points, trying to really make us pause to see the connections between the cat and the man. He uses alliterations such as, "lose its luster" and "while away our whiles." He uses the assonance of "snagging" and "naggingly" in middle of lines fifteen and sixteen.

He tells he and his cat are the "same," even if they are not even from the same species. While Muldoon's goal is to get "lost to fame", he wonders if he would be content living a cat's life, as his cat seems "perfectly content" with hunting and sleeping all day. He compares his writing to his cat's catching of a mouse, saying they both require "skill" to hunt their preys, whether it be a mouse or a piece of paper. He believes animals and man can live in harmony together, "never cramping each other's styles," because we recognize we have similar interests and respect for each other's craft.

Stealing Headlines

Ours was the only showmance,
Where you spent money to make.
In this city of collagen and silicone,
You were the only thing truly fake.

You were in a race for stardom.
With me as your true leading lady,
Your thirst for fame licked you,
And poisoned me.

You wanted to publically fight,
About everyone and everything.
Why can't we have a quiet life,
Without wasting ink in a magazine?

Why do we have to talk in spotlights,
Using tabloid as messengers?
Can't we just move on,
Without stealing headlines?

You couldn't deal with reality,
Dumping me on page twenty three.
You stomped my name in dirt,
With the camera eye hovering.

Chorus

Grimacing every time your face is plastered,
On the bus or taxi that comes my way.
The only time I hear from you is on TV,
When you're releasing my tapes and letters.

Just stand there with your frozen smile,
Inn red carpet photographs,
Canoodling you new arm candy,
You pretend not to miss me,
But you know they're thinking of me.

Chorus

*** Synopsis: A song about a celebrity couple breakup, dragged out in the press.

Salman Rushdie's Is Nothing Sacred?

Salman Rushdie is defending literature as both sacred and necessary, which I completely agree with. I've heard of Rushdie before this class, because of his controversial writing conflict with Iran. Rushdie is an atheist, coming from a Muslim society, where there is a bounty on his head for his writing of The Satanic Verses. At first I was puzzled as to why an atheist would think literature was sacred, but the way he describes his theories, makes me believe an atheist can have a religion where they worship other things than God, such as literature. Clearly Rushdie stands up for his beliefs in a way that would make most of us quiet, for fear of our lives. I think if he is taking such risks, we should think about what he says.

I understand when he describes literature as his "first love," since I've loved to reading and writing since I was very young. Rushdie describes how he feels about non-readers, saying "it has always been a shock to meet people for whom books simply do not matter and people who are scornful of the act of reading, let alone writing." It seems like people either love literature or don't have time for it, because they would rather be outside and active, because they believe reading is boring. I've always been puzzled as to why people don't want to read, but figure it's just their loss. Rushdie seems to take the same opinion, saying, "I have been obliged to accept" that people don't value books.

Rushdie states that this essay is to "restate what is most precious about the art of literature- to answer the attack, not by an attack, but by a declaration of love." He implies he will not attack people for their lack of reading or their faith in God, saying he will not be an attacker or as extreme as "true believers." He describes forceful "true believers" as being like the extremists who have tried to force him into believing in their religion in his home country and are trying to punish him for his non-beliefs, by trying to assassinate him. He is very accepting of non-readers and faithful people, saying, "Love need not be blind. Faith must, ultimately, be a leap in the dark." He is simply letting us know what he thinks and letting us make up our minds about it, hoping we will agree with him based on the facts he lays out, like other writers do when they publish their works.

Rushdie also describes literatures as a sanctuary, saying it is "the one place in any society where, within the secrecy of our own heads, we can hear the voices taking about everything in every possible way." I believe literature is also a safe place, we can live in, without having societal backlash. To read literature, we must have an open mind and lots of questions. The writings are supposed to make us think and reflect on what we can do to change ourselves in a way we would want to.

I thought his references to Herbert Read's theories of the monkey tribes in Japan, where one tribes washes the bananas and one doesn't. For the past couple of weeks, I have been studying monkeys and chimpanzees' similarities to humans for my Biological Anthropology class, and there is only a 2% difference in our DNA and several similarities in our cultures and how we interact with each other. In our society, people are like the monkeys, with one tribe as readers and the other non-readers.

Borna Virus

Zimmer, Carl. "Hunting Fossil Viruses in Human DNA". The New York Times January 11 2010.

In this article, Carl Zimmer talks about a disease called the Borna Virus, which scientists are trying to discover what genes belonging "to a kind of virus that has never been found in the human genome before," that causes it to show up in most animal species such as horses and humans. Zimmer describes the Borna Virus as "obscure and grotesque," and can "alter human behavior, playing a role in schizophrenia and bipolar disorder."
He argues, "The virus infected our monkey-like ancestors 40 million years ago, and its genes have been passed down ever since," and scientists are studying fossils to see if there are traces of the virus in the bones of our ancestors. I wouldn't guess that the virus would live on, thinking it would die once the fossil reached the air. I didn't factor in the DNA residue. Scientists in this study, first study human genome and moved on to other fossils to study the mammal genome to see how big the virus has spread, which makes sense because we would want to figure out what species it originated in. He also tells us, "Scientists have found about 100,000 elements of human DNA that probably came from viruses."
Zimmer talks about how retroviruses pass and "mutate" through our DNA, which we learned about in class. I thought it was interesting that he talks about H.I.V. being passed down from Chimpanzees to humans. He says, "H.I.V. evolved about a century ago from a chimpanzee virus known as simian immunodeficiency virus, or S.I.V." I've never heard of S.I.V., but it doesn't surprise me that Chimpanzees would have a similar disease, since we are so close to them with our DNA.

A Name to a Face

I heard about a boy I didn't know.
I heard about a boy I didn't know.
A boy missing from the back row.
An empty chair belonged to him.
An empty chair belonged to him.
Now it's bare because of a gun.

A shallow glance down the hall,
To strangers who I will never meet.
I wonder if he ever passed me in haste,
With me never knowing who he was,
Until the day he died.
I wish I could picture, a name to a face

Was he was reckless, expecting luck to last?
Was he was reckless, expecting luck to last?
If there's no risk, hunting would be a blast.
When he died, nobody was there to see.
When he died, nobody was there to see.
They found him in a field, under a tree.

Chorus

I heard about a boy I didn't know.
I heard about a boy I didn't know.
A boy missing from the back row.
This stranger's death to insist life is not to waste.
This stranger's death to insist life is not to waste.
I wish I could picture, a name to a face

Chorus

*** Synopsis: This song is about a boy who died when I was in high school.

At Layton Park

Layton Park
Watching my brother play baseball.
Swinging on the playground,
Every spin and every fall.

Walking down the trails
To feed the ducks.
Sitting on the waterfall benches,
Skimming the rocks.

For the fifteen years, I lived in town.
From recreation to education,
To every laughter and every fight,
I spent almost everyday at Layton Park

Driving around with my family,
At night in the snowstorms.
Dinosaur, bear, and fish forms,
An array of bright Christmas lights.

Right next to my school, Layton High.
Crossing the street,
Walking over to the library,
On my lunch break.

Chorus

I had class and field trips.
Collecting leaves for science.
Making art projects,
From the roses and sticks.

Lots of picture taking.
Family reunions and graduation.
The last time I visited you,
Was before I moved.

Chorus

*** Synopsis: A song about my hometown park in Layton, Utah.

Stage

On the July night, I drove to town,
From my uncle's Island Park cabin.
I stood in line with anticipation,
To see the Joseph and his coat.

I came in during the pre-show,
As the red curtain was opening.
The crowded stage was lined with mirrors,
Around three sets of chair bleachers.

A theatre stage who first spotlighted you,
Where your comedic talent was grown,
Where you no longer perform.

You debuted on stage right,
Wearing an orange vest, sparkling bright.
Reminding me of someone I used to like,
In my past before I saw you on stage.

I came back on an August weekend,
To see you, Annie, and her gun.
You flirted with me, but I didn't catch on.
I shook your hand in line, when it was done.

Chorus

The stage was set the next summer.
Seeing three plays with you in three days,
With man-eating plants, devils, and men in plaid.
I didn't know this summer would be our swan song
I came back to find you, but you were gone,
Off this stage to find bigger laughs.

It's been nine years since our last act.
Your stage is now a back lot.
I see your face in commercials in my home state.
I haven't seen any of your films yet.

Chorus

** Synopsis: A song about a guy I saw on a stage at a community theatre who is now a famous actor.

Halloween Mask Project