End or New Beginning??

This will be my final blog for the semester!  I have enjoyed this class tremendously and will miss all the new friends I have made in class and at IvyTech.  I took all my prerequisites here and I am finishing my PTA concentration in Fort Wayne.  I’m looking forward to completion next fall as long as everything stays on schedule!!  With that being said, regardless of where I go, my love of books and a good story will surely follow.  I will leave you with a poem that I love.  I just reminds me of some of my favorite things like music, dancing, love, life and saying goodbye!   À bientôt……

The Gypsy Violin by Munda

The compelling violin lures With an irresistible yearn Dance, dance, please dance for me I can no longer adjourn! Ethereal notes float from its strings Caressing like a lover's hand Sensual music, Angel's touch Leading the way to wonderland Embracing with utter delight Craving, beckoning me Tempting my lonely heart Dance, dance on my melody! Faster, faster the music escapes Without compassion to body or soul Seducer of lonely hearts Until dancing is my only goal Faces gyrate while I dance on passion Flashes of fire in the corner of my eyes The violin plays like never before Until I become one and loneliness dies With a final cry and a final touch The violin stops, the music ends Leaving behind an emptiness We'll meet again, my violin friend

Summer Reading????

Well, I think it has finally happened.  During all my adventures of reading from the best seller list, some Janet Evanovich (which I learn nothing from but her books are laugh out loud funny) and my guilty pleasure of autobiographies (who knew that Ozzy Osbourne and Motley Crue could write, not for the faint at heart but highly entertaining), I am finally graduating to something with more substance.  LOL!  I am going to read some stories out of our Lit book that didn’t make the assignment list over the summer.  I enjoyed most of our readings during the semester, so I hate to let the other stories get away unread. (I do have a book on Marilyn Monroe and The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo that I don’t want to go to waste also)  If anyone has any suggestions, I am open! 

I watched the 8 part series on the TV about the Kennedy’s and it raised my curiosity a bit and my craving for history.  We are headed to Boston and the Cape in two weeks so I think we will do some research on JFK and family, definitely go to the museum and see what else we can get into while we are in Hyannis.  I’m so excited about our trip, even the evening I am spending with the Red Sox!!

Meeting the Man

I truly believe that racists are not born, but rather racists' attitudes and behaviors are learned during childhood. I think that Going to Meet the Man is a perfect example of the capability to analyze the growth of an innocent child into a racist. Every child is born with innocence. During the flashback to Jesse's childhood, where he witnesses the mutilation and torture of a black man, Jesse's innocence is apparent and he has a black friend named Otis.  I don’t think one ever forgets the things they are taught, but as they grow academically as well as morally they have the opportunity to make their own choices as to in what direction they are going to steer their own life.  Clearly Jesse has made his choice, which could be based on a lack of education and an inability to see beyond the views of the south during that time period.  Either way, it is a shame.  Jesse doesn’t even recognize that these memories of the lynching and the violence are connected to his sexually arousal. As a result, he has become a violent man with a disturbed idea of love, sex and blacks.     

Desire…that of a Streetcar origin!

STELLLLLAAAAA!  STELLLLLAAAAA!  I thought this play was a fabulous read!

It really has me motivated to watch the movie.  Sometimes when you see what you have read put into a movie, you alter your opinions a little of the characters.  I suppose it is a result of the actor/actress impressing their personal trademark into their character which may alter how the character is now perceived.  Each one of these characters has some type of glitch in them, a flaw of some sort.  It makes them seem real, as we all have flaws ourselves.  It is an intricate web of complex themes and conflicted characters.  Now that I have had time to reflect on it, I think the sexual tension/desire that was going on and their ultimate coming together in this way was more a function of power relations than that of sexual attraction.  And poor Blanche,  she was so hung up on her looks and trying to maintain her youth!        

Blog...Blog...Blog....

     Well, I just finished assignments for Pod #8!  WOO HOO!! I am pretty excited because I am ready for a little break (and a trip to Boston J), but I will admit that I will miss this class.  I’m pretty sure it was my favorite class.  I need to get a move on the blogging though to make the deadline next week but I seem to be suffering from some type of brain overload :)  I just can’t force myself to blog every day.  I thought that if I did, it would make me a better blogger, but it didn’t.  I struggle with it and don’t update it for weeks.  I looked at it as another chore, like laundry, that accumulates in a pile of homework and housework that need to be done.  I think that the times I sat down to blog I just felt lacking in the creative area.  Everything over the last few days has been feeling strained and not really representative of who I am.  So, with that being said, I am going to post a few of my favorite quotes today and try again tomorrow…..hopefully with a little better luck!

Just living is not enough.  One must have sunshine, freedom, and a little flower.  ~Hans Christian Anderson

When I stand before God at the end of my life, I would hope that I would not have a single bit of talent left, and could say, "I used everything you gave me."  ~Erma Bombeck

Maybe all one can do is hope to end up with the right regrets.  ~Arthur Miller

Life is like a coin.  You can spend it any way you wish, but you only spend it once.  ~Lillian Dickson

Can Women Be Immortal?

I ran across this poem and it reminded me of the woman that Fitzgerald portrays in his work, “Winter Dreams”.  When I read it, it made me visualize Judy and her encounters with Dexter.  How she mesmerizes him and holds him captive.  I thought I would share it.  I think it is beautiful!

Immortal

by Daniel James Burt

She is forever standing at our secret pond beneath our loving tree. Welcome late-spring breeze lifting summer dress and hat ever so slightly. She is dropping a rose frozen forever in time it cascades from her hand. Around her, the pond, the cat-tails, the bird song, all captured deliciously. She is smiling playfully as rose follows petals to rest amidst lily-pads. A buzz of bumblebee, breeze dancing leaves above, mid-morning sun seems to kiss her. She laughs hearing her name turns with anticipation burned forever is the sight. Even as life continues - for that split second her beauty is immortalized.

Gatsby Jazz Era!

The Roaring 20’s! The Jazz Era! Prohibition! This is the grand setting for The Great Gatsby and an era where social and moral values begin to decay.  It was a time of decadent parties and wild jazz music.  Gatsby and his lavish parties reek of cynicism, greed, and empty pursuit of pleasure.  This type of lifestyle resulted ultimately in the corruption of the American dream, as the unrestrained desire for money and pleasure surpassed more noble goals.

Jazz was originally a mixture of Blues and marching band music and was played by African-Americans on old U.S Army instruments.  It was mostly improvisation, because most of the jazz musicians weren’t able to read music. Soon the white man started to play and blended together with the African music culture and a new style of jazz was born. Jazz bands started the musical revolution.  The music provoked close and intimate dancing which many believed led to rebellion and other socially questionable activities.  Parties like Gatsby’s which featured this music were typical for this time period. The extravagant festivities required charm, notoriety and good manners as a social asset.