gina said it was cruel of me to post a message like my last one and then not post for a week. i say it's a brilliant ploy to play with people's heads.
or maybe i haven't had much time to write.
take your pick.
saturday night and i'm sitting at MMS babysitting the mason community players as they perform "second time around." not an ideal way of spending a saturday night, but it's easy money.
and i worry that perhaps money has taken over my life.
feeling a bit scattered today. brain blown here and there, can't seem to latch onto a consistent state of mind. up down in out prepositions spilling about.
and now i'm rhyming. that can't be a good sign.
four more school days until spring break. not doing anything this year, just sticking around the 'nati, going to rehearsal, working on the house (supposedly). might make a quick run up to kent the 22nd to see jenna's school play. will have to see if we can gather the gang together - and if jenna will have the time/mental ability to be social. nice way to end my "break." hope it works out. been too long since we've been together.
should be grading things. don't wanna. so i won't.
wednesday during our department meeting, one of the teachers brought up a video store that sells/rents "clean" versions of movies and suggested we should look into partnering with them for when we want to use films/clips for our classrooms. and i find i'm of two minds (damn that rhyming thing again). from a teaching standpoint, it would be great. don't have to worry about warping young impressionable minds with words they hear on a daily basis. i mean, don't have to appear to be condoning such language/behavior. and really, some movies could use a litle editing on that front. but then the writer/artist part of me questions what right they have to change my art. who are they to decide what is essential to the film and what can be trimmed away? does art belong to the artist or to the one experiencing the art? so should we put a leaf over michaelangelo's david? cover boticelli's venus? take out the anti-semitic parts of shakespeare? is it ok to change an artists work to make it "safe" for consumption? my gut tells me its wrong. but my brain can see the other side. and in the case of schools, is it better for students to see a "clean" version than to not experience it at all. the history and hollywood class (i would SO love to teach this class) showed a clean version of capote.
thoughts/opinions would be appreciated.
this is simply genius. how do i love mcsweeney's? let me count the ways....
Titles of Songs I
or maybe i haven't had much time to write.
take your pick.
saturday night and i'm sitting at MMS babysitting the mason community players as they perform "second time around." not an ideal way of spending a saturday night, but it's easy money.
and i worry that perhaps money has taken over my life.
feeling a bit scattered today. brain blown here and there, can't seem to latch onto a consistent state of mind. up down in out prepositions spilling about.
and now i'm rhyming. that can't be a good sign.
four more school days until spring break. not doing anything this year, just sticking around the 'nati, going to rehearsal, working on the house (supposedly). might make a quick run up to kent the 22nd to see jenna's school play. will have to see if we can gather the gang together - and if jenna will have the time/mental ability to be social. nice way to end my "break." hope it works out. been too long since we've been together.
should be grading things. don't wanna. so i won't.
wednesday during our department meeting, one of the teachers brought up a video store that sells/rents "clean" versions of movies and suggested we should look into partnering with them for when we want to use films/clips for our classrooms. and i find i'm of two minds (damn that rhyming thing again). from a teaching standpoint, it would be great. don't have to worry about warping young impressionable minds with words they hear on a daily basis. i mean, don't have to appear to be condoning such language/behavior. and really, some movies could use a litle editing on that front. but then the writer/artist part of me questions what right they have to change my art. who are they to decide what is essential to the film and what can be trimmed away? does art belong to the artist or to the one experiencing the art? so should we put a leaf over michaelangelo's david? cover boticelli's venus? take out the anti-semitic parts of shakespeare? is it ok to change an artists work to make it "safe" for consumption? my gut tells me its wrong. but my brain can see the other side. and in the case of schools, is it better for students to see a "clean" version than to not experience it at all. the history and hollywood class (i would SO love to teach this class) showed a clean version of capote.
thoughts/opinions would be appreciated.
this is simply genius. how do i love mcsweeney's? let me count the ways....
Titles of Songs I
Could Credibly Write
If I Became a Rap Star.
BY GREG HOWARD
- - - -
Ain't Nothin' but a G Thang, Although I Usually Go by "Greg," to Be Honest
Mama Said Have Some Milk and Cookies
Bitches and Hos (I Have Neither/Nor)
I Know Someone Who Has a Friend of a Friend Who's Chillin' on Death Row
Ready 2 Take a Nap
Roll Me a Blunt (Now What Does That Mean Again?)
The Best Tastee-Freezes Are in My Hood
YO Gangsta (Do You Know How to Get to Napa Valley? I Appear to Be Lost)
I Like Medium-Sized Butts ... I Mean, It's Great If They Have Some Dimension but Let's Not Get Carried Away, but on the Other Hand It's No Good When the Legs Just Shoot Straight Up to the Hips and There's Nothing Else There, I Hate That
Smack My Fax Up
need to go pee before the show starts. more later perhaps.
Æ
2 comments:
Talk about relief... phew. 1 part of me said, "April Fool's. It HAS to be." And the other part of me thought, "Shit. He sounded kind of down on his birthday... maybe Thurman's jumping off/in." Rather than rush to conclusions and call you up probing for your temperature, I decided to trust my instincts (even though Justin will reveal I asked his thoughts about the previous post and wondered aloud about your happiness/health). GOOD TO HAVE YOU BACK. And no, I don't know how to get to Napa Valley. Sorry, G (T).
PS I'm sure you know my position on this. And this kind of paranoid, gutless facism is one of many reasons I never went into teaching. Still, if you must show the censored versions (and I say censored because the idea that the movie Capote is somehow "unclean" is ludicrous... and why does a director even make "clean" versions? Cuz they're pressured by small-minded gutless "citizen-consumers" to do so...)I would insist on having serious discussions with students about censorship--self-censorship, institutional censorship, artistic choice, message intentions, and audience. I'd also make sure I had a lifesize poster of The David hanging prominently in my classroom, right next to a nude Daphne or Aphrodite. Have I made my opinion clear? Cheers.
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