Mr. Hudson’s Neighborhood

We talked yesterday in class about how “Lamb to the Slaughter” can be seen as a revenge fantasy and how the purpose of such a story is to offer the reader a feeling of catharsis. For your second topic this week, I thought it would be fun to hear some of your revenge stories. So, write about a time when you did something to get back at someone. If you have never done such a thing, write about a time when you WANTED to get revenge on someone for something they had done to you. Be sure to not use real names.

tchrman

I’m always looking for new types of posts on the blog. Last year, when we read “Lamb to the Slaughter” we had a blog post where we wrote parodies of “Mary Had a Little Lamb” using the plot of “Lamb to the Slaughter”. I’ve decided to take that one step further this year. We are going to have a creative writing contest using this same concept. Write a parody of a song or poem in which to tell the story of “Lamb to the Slaughter”. You could use Mary Had a Little Lamb or something else (Perhaps “The Lamb Not Bakin’” instead of “The Road Not Taken”). I know you guys are creative enough to do this. If I get at least 10 submissions, I will pick the best three (I may even get another teacher to help me judge so it will be fair.) If I get less than 10 I’ll only pick the top two. The winners will get a GREAT reward–on the upcoming Short Story Essay Test there are three questions. You will only have to do two! That’s only the winning three parodies. Contest ends Thursday night so that I can announce the winners in class on Friday so you know if you have to do two or three essay questions. Have fun and be creative!

BTW, this will NOT count as a regular post for the week. This is for extra credit.

I was really hoping some of you would step up and send me something for this week’s song of the week, but, alas, no one did. It would be especially nice if some of you who complain about not liking any of the songs would actually do something about it and try it yourself. I’m just sayin’. It would be great to have a student submission for next week if anyone has any ideas. Some of you have given me ideas, but I need you to actually follow through and write an introduction for it before I can use it. But for this week it looks like you are stuck with me and my pick again.

These last few weeks, I’ve been trying to pick songs that had a little more depth to them to make the discussion a little better. You did a great job with last week’s song. A few of you are still missing the point of the assignment. This is not meant to be purely entertainment. While I hope you do get enjoyment out of it, my main goal is to get you writing about music as poetry. By the time we actually get to the poetry unit in our book, you should be pros (PUN!). I am glad that some of you are being exposed to some different styles of music and are enjoying it. You are moving our of your comfort zone and being open minded. A handful of you remain stuck in your ways and unwilling to open your mind to anything new or different. To each his own. Prepare for a hard time when you get to college though if you are unwilling to be exposed to new styles and ideas. OK, end of this week’s soapbox. Anyway, I’ve picked another song this week that I think will generate some good discussion. This one is fairly new and many of you should know it.

This week’s song is “Funny the Way It Is” by Dave Matthews Band. It is from their newest album (I believe it came out in August). I’ve always enjoyed DMB. I’ve never been a hardcore, see them every time they come in concert, worship everything they do fan, but I’ve always liked them. I really enjoy the new album, however. This song was the first one released on the radio from that album. It’s a good song, and it should be pretty easy to discuss. Enjoy.

Listen here:
03 Funny The Way It Is 1

“Funny the Way It Is”
Dave Matthews Band

Lying in the park on a beautiful day
Sunshine in the grass, and the children play
Siren’s passing, fire engine red
Someone’s house is burning down on a day like this

The evening comes and we’re hanging out
On the front step and a car rolls by with the windows rolled down
And that war song is playing, “why can’t we be friends?”
Someone is screaming and crying in the apartment upstairs

Funny the way it is, if you think about it
Somebody’s going hungry and someone else is eating out
Funny the way it is, not right or wrong
Somebody’s heart is broken and it becomes your favorite song

The way your mouth feels in your lovers kiss
Like a pretty bird on a breeze or water to a fish
A bomb blast brings a building crashing to the floor
You hear the laughter while the children play war

Funny the way it is, if you think about it
One kid walks 10 miles to school, another’s dropping out
Funny the way it is, not right or wrong
On a soldier’s last breath his baby’s being born

Standing on a bridge, watch the water passing under me
It must’ve been much harder when there was no bridge just water
Now the world is small, remember how it used to be
With mountains and oceans and winters and rivers and stars

Watch the sky, the jet planes, so far out of my reach
Is there someone up there looking down on me?
Boy chase a bird, so close but every time
He’ll never catch her, but he can’t stop trying

Funny the way it is, if you think about it
One kid walks 10 miles to school, another’s dropping out
Funny the way it is, not right or wrong
On a soldier’s last breath his baby’s being born
Funny the way it is, not right or wrong
Somebody’s broken heart becomes your favorite song
Funny the way it is, if you think about it
A kid walks 10 miles to school, another’s dropping out

Standing on a bridge, watch the water passing under me
It must’ve been much harder when there was no bridge just water
Now the world is small, remember how it used to be
With mountains and oceans and winters and rivers and stars

During our discussion of “The Pedestrian”, I told you a little about a book called Amusing Ourselves to Death by Neil Postman. It is a fascinating look at how television has come to shape the way we live our lives and the damage that it is doing. The scary thing about it is how relevant it remains today even though it was written in the 80s. We discussed this concept quite a bit yesterday, but as an extension of that discussion, I’ve included a few quotes from the book (and from a couple of his other books) that relate to television and technology in general. Read over these quotes. Pick at least one of them and discuss it. (Possible topics: What do you think he means? Do you agree or disagree with his idea? Give an example of how this can be found to be true in society? Relate the idea to something you have seen or read (ex: “The Pedestrian). I look forward to seeing what you come up with.

tchrman

“Everything in our background has prepared us to know and resist a prison when the gates begin to close around us . . . But what if there are no cries of anguish to be heard? Who is prepared to take arms against a sea of amusements? To whom do we complain, and when, and in what tone of voice, when serious discourse dissolves into giggles? What is the antidote to a culture’s being drained by laughter?”
— Neil Postman (Amusing Ourselves to Death: Public Discourse in the Age of Show Business)

“Our culture’s adjustment to the epistemology of television is by now all but complete; we have so thoroughly accepted its definitions of truth, knowledge and reality that irrelevance seems to us to be filled with import, and incoherence seems eminently sane. And if some of our institutions seem not to fit the template of the times, why it is they and not the template, that seem to us disordered and strange.”
— Neil Postman (Amusing Ourselves to Death: Public Discourse in the Age of Show Business)

“”Our politics, religion, news, athletics, education and commerce have been transformed into congenial adjuncts of show business, largely without protest or even much popular notice. The result is that we are a people on the verge of amusing ourselves to death.”"
— Neil Postman

“[M]ost of our daily news is inert, consisting of information that gives us something to talk about but cannot lead to any meaningful action. (68).”
— Neil Postman (Amusing Ourselves to Death: Public Discourse in the Age of Show Business)

“Television is our culture’s principal mode of knowing about itself. Therefore — and this is the critical point — how television stages the world becomes the model for how the world is properly to be staged. It is not merely that on the television screen entertainment is the metaphor for all discourse. It is that off the screen the same metaphor prevails. (92)”
— Neil Postman (Amusing Ourselves to Death: Public Discourse in the Age of Show Business)

“Technology always has unforeseen consequences, and it is not always clear, at the beginning, who or what will win, and who or what will lose…”
— Neil Postman

“[It] is not that television is entertaining but that it has made entertainment itself the natural format for the representation of all experience. […] The problem is not that television presents us with entertaining subject matter but that all subject matter is presented as entertaining. (87)”
— Neil Postman (Amusing Ourselves to Death: Public Discourse in the Age of Show Business)

NOTE: THIS POST IS JUST FOR FUN…IT WILL NOT COUNT AS ONE OF YOUR POSTS FOR THE WEEK. I REPEAT, IT IS JUST FOR FUN. YOU ARE WELCOME TO COMMENT, BUT THE ONLY CREDIT YOU WILL GET IS THE PERSONAL SATISFACTION OF GOING ABOVE AND BEYOND THE CALL OF DUTY.

Several of you have made comparisons between our song of the week and the Flobots. I had never heard the Flobots before these comparisons, so I looked them up and really liked what I heard. I can see some similarities to Cake in the song “Handlebars”, but after listening to some other songs I decided the comparison is very minimal. Also, most Cake songs do not sound like “The Distance”. John McCrea (the lead singer) actually sings on most of the songs instead of rap (if that’s what you call it). If you like the particular sound of “The Distance” some similar Cake songs are “Short Skirt Long Jacket”, “Rock and Roll Lifestyle”, and “Comfort Eagle”.

Anyway, I really liked “Handlebars” when I heard it, so I decided to post it here just for fun. You are welcome to comment. I think the song could generate some good discussion. However, since it is not our official song of the week it will not count as one of your posts.

Enjoy.

Listen here:
06 Handlebars 1

Handlebars
Flobots

I can ride my bike with no handlebars
No handlebars
No handlebars
I can ride my bike with no handlebars
No handlebars
No handlebars

Look at me Look at me
Hands in the air like its good to be
Alive and I’m a famous rapper
Even when the paths are all crookedy
I can show you how to dosey doe
I can show you how to scratch a record
I can take apart the remote control
And i can almost put it back together
I can tie a knot in a cherry stem
I can tell you about Leif Ericson
I know all the words to De Colores
And I’m proud to be an American
Me and my friends saw a platypus
Me and my friends made a comic book
And guess how long it took
I can do anything that I want ‘Cause

Look

I can keep rhythm with no metronome
No metronome
No metronome
I can see you face on the telephone
On the telephone
On the telephone

Look at me look at me
Just called to say that its good to be
Alive in such a small world
I’m all curled up with a book to read
I can make money open up a thrift store
I can make a living off a magazine
I can design an engine
64 miles to the gallon on gasoline
I can make new antibiotics
I can make computer survive aquatic
Conditions I know how to run the business
And i can make you wanna buy a product
Movers shakers and producers
Me and my friends understand the future
I see the strings that control the systems
I can do anything with no assistance ‘Cause

I can lead a nation with a microphone
With a microphone
With a microphone
And I can split the atoms of a molecule
Of a molecule
Of a molecule

Look at me Look at me
Driving and I won’t stop
And it feels so good to be alive and on top
My reach is global
My tower secure
My cause is noble
My power is pure
I can handout a million vaccinations
Or let em all die from exasperations
Have ‘em all healed from their lacerations
Or have em all killed by assassinations
I can make anybody go to prison
Just because I don’t like ‘em
I can do anything with no permission
I have it all under my command because

I can guide a missile by satellite
By satellite
By satellite
And I can hit a target through a telescope
Through a telescope
Through a telescope

And I can end the planet in a holocaust
In a holocaust
In a holocaust
In a holocaust
In a holocaust
In a holocaust

I can ride my bike with no handlebars
No handlebars
No handlebars
I can ride my bike with no handlebars
No handlebars
No handlebars

Well, I was hoping to get a student-volunteered post for this week since those have been so popular, but, alas, none of you stepped up. If you would like to do the song of the week post for next week, shoot me an e-mail with the name of the song, the lyrics, and the reason you would like to do this song. If I choose it, be prepared to write the introduction to it and get it to me by Sunday night. Since no one volunteered, you’re stuck with my pick this week.

I decided to dig deep into the Hudson library of music for this week’s pick. I chose a band and song that was one of my favorites when I was around your age–Cake’s “The Distance”. The band is still around and working on a new CD, but it still makes me feel old that this song was popular so long ago.

I’ve always been a big fan of Cake (the band and the food!), and I’ve seen them in concert a couple of times. This was the very first song I heard by them, and it comes from their second album Fashion Nugget. When I was in college, a friend got me hooked on their first album (which remains my overall favorite), and I have remained a fan ever since. What I like so much about them is their unique sound. Much of this uniqueness comes from their use of distorted guitar sounds. In addition, they frequently use several instruments not commonly used in alternative music–the Moog, the trumpet (which is an instrument I hold near to my heart because I am a trumpeter–although not a very good one anymore), and–my personal favorite–the VIBRASLAP! (If you don’t know what a Vibraslap is, click here)

Another thing I admire about them is that they are very conservation-conscious. One thing they’ve done is made their studio where they record their albums completely solar-energy operated. Some of you expressed last week that knowing a little about the band helped you with understanding the song, so if you would like to read more about Cake, here’s a link you can use.
Cake Bio

So, hope you enjoy the song. It should be easy to discuss. It’s a great example of metaphor. If you would like to hear more, I can point you in the right direction.

tchrman

Listen:
02 The Distance

“The Distance”
Cake
Reluctantly crouched at the starting line,
Engines pumping and thumping in time.
The green light flashes, the flags go up.
Churning and burning, they yearn for the cup.
They deftly maneuver and muscle for rank,
Fuel burning fast on an empty tank.
Reckless and wild, they pour through the turns.
Their prowess is potent and secretly stearn.
As they speed through the finish, the flags go down.
The fans get up and they get out of town.
The arena is empty except for one man,
Still driving and striving as fast as he can.
The sun has gone down and the moon has come up,
And long ago somebody left with the cup.
But hes driving and striving and hugging the turns.
And thinking of someone for whom he still burns.

Hes going the distance.
Hes going for speed.
Shes all alone
In her time of need.
Because hes racing and pacing and plotting the course,
Hes fighting and biting and riding on his horse,
Hes going the distance.

No trophy, no flowers, no flashbulbs, no wine,
Hes haunted by something he cannot define.
Bowel-shaking earthquakes of doubt and remorse,
Assail him, impale him with monster-truck force.
In his mind, hes still driving,still making the grade.
Shes hoping in time that her memories will fade.
Cause hes racing and pacing and plotting the course,
Hes fighting and biting and riding on his horse.
The sun has gone down and the moon has come up,
And long ago somebody left with the cup.
But hes striving and driving and hugging the turns.
And thinking of someone for whom he still burns.

Cause hes going the distance.
Hes going for speed.
Shes all alone
In her time of need.
Because hes racing and pacing and plotting the course,
Hes fighting and biting and riding on his horse.
Hes racing and pacing and plotting the course,
Hes fighting and biting and riding on his horse.
Hes going the distance.
Hes going for speed.
Hes going the distance.

In the TZ episode we were watching on Wednesday, the author was able to bring any character of his to life just by describing them. There are a handful of wonderful literary characters that I would love to be able to bring to life. It would be fascinating to have conversations with them. So, for your second topic this week, choose one character from fiction (could be a novel, short story, movie, etc) that you would bring to life. Tell why you chose that character and also what kind of things you would talk to them about/ask them.

Paramore, an alternative band from Franklin, Tennessee, experienced their rise to fame after the release of their second album, “Riot!” Their instant success led them to began touring across the world. With sold out shows and chart topping singles, Paramore began to feel the pressure,
and get recognized. After “The Final Riot!” Tour, the band began to implode. They weren’t speaking to each other, and fought all of the time. Almost to a point of breaking up, they got together to produce the infamous song “Decode”. Although they made another famous song, they still hated each other. They met one last time, and began to talk it out. They said how they felt, and the next day, “Ignorance” was born. With lines such as “Don’t wanna hear your sad songs, I don’t wanna feel your pain” and “You treat me just like another stranger”, the world caught a glimpse of what they were feeling. The writing process brought them together, and they are now friends again. They made a new album, “Brand New Eyes”, which was just released recently, on September 29. “Brand New Eyes” is Paramore’s best work yet, and is very different from their past works. This week’s song is off the new album, and is called “All I Wanted”. It is an amazing song, and has already impressed fans and music critics. It shows how talented Paramore really is.

bne5

Listen here:
11 All I Wanted 1

Lyrics:
Think of me when you’re out, when you’re out there
I’ll beg you nice from my knees
When the world treats you way too fairly
It’s a shame, I’m a dream

All I wanted was you
All I wanted was you

I think I’ll pace my apartment a few times
And fall asleep on the couch
And wake up early to black and white reruns
That escape from my mouth

All I wanted was you
All I wanted was you
All I wanted was you
All I wanted was you

I could follow you to the beginning
Just to relive the start
Maybe then we’d remember to slow down
At all of our favorite parts

All I wanted was you
All I wanted was you
All I wanted was you
All I wanted was you
All I wanted was you

So, I told you yesterday about my angry “Of Mice and Men” parent last year. I have been teaching the novel for years, and this was the first complaint I had ever received about it. However, the fact is, that is not an uncommon occurrence with this particular book. OMAM is one of the most frequently challenged books in the country. Mainly because of the use of one particular word. I chose not to make a big deal about the use of the word in the book. In fact, I didn’t even mention it to you before you read it. In all honesty, I meant to warn you about it and it just slipped my mind that day. However, I feel like you guys are mature enough to understand how to look at things in context and understand that some things are not intended to be offensive in certain usages. That word is not the only complaint people have with the book (of course some people will complain about ANYTHING). Some say there is too much violence, too much sex, etc. Some even complain that the ending justifies euthanasia.

The truth remains that OMAM is a classic piece of American literature. It’s not meant to be offensive. Instead, it is meant to paint a realistic portrait of life in that time period while presenting themes and ideas that we can still relate to today. You can see that it generated some good discussion in class yesterday. I wish we had been able to discuss it for more than one day. Luckily, we have the blog so we can. I’m including a couple of links to a couple of real instances where the book has been challenged. Read them over, then weigh in with your opinion. Is it a book that should continue to be taught or should it be banned because of offensive content?

Here are the two articles:

http://www.erinoconnor.org/archives/2003/01/banning_steinbe.html

http://www.kmbc.com/education/17530918/detail.html

OK. I know I told you we were supposed to have a student post this week, but that has been postponed until next week. I had a hard time finding a song for this week. I wanted to post this before I left school today, so I had to use something that I already had on my computer. This is one you’ve probably never heard of, but that’s kind of my goal in this is introducing you to new stuff. I don’t think it would be interesting for you to write about a song you’ve heard 100s of times already.

This is by a band called Okkervil River. It’s the first song I ever heard by them and it made me want to look into them more. It’s called “Our Life is not a Movie or Maybe”.

It’s no secret that I LOVE movies. I mean, my DVD collection is even more out of control now than when I told you about it at the beginning of the year. (I’m about to hit 2100). I LOVE movies. But sometimes I think we get so wrapped up in our own little fantasy worlds that movies provide us with that we forget that real life is seldom like the movies. Things don’t always work out the way we plan them. We are not always the “star” we like to make ourselves out to be. Sometimes we need a reminder of that. That’s what this song does for me. Enjoy. Say something intelligent.

Listen. Hear:
01 Our Life Is Not a Movie or Maybe

Our Life is not a Movie or Maybe
Okkervil River

It’s just a bad movie, where there’s no crying
handing the key to me in this Red Lion,
where the lock that you locked in the suite says there’s no prying.
When the breath that you breathed in the street screams there’s no science.
When you look how you looked then to me, then I cease lying and fall into silence.

It’s just a life story, so there’s no climax.
No more new territory, so pull away the imax.
In the slot that you sliced through the scene there was no shyness.
In the plot that you passed through your teeth there was no pity.
No fade in: film begins on a kid in the big city.
And no cut to a costly parade (that’s for him only!).
No dissolve to a sliver of grey (that’s his new lady!)
where she glows just like grain on the flickering pane of some great movie.

It’s just a house burning, but it’s not haunted.
It was your heart hurting, but not for long, kid.
In the socket you spin from with ease there is no sticking.
From the speakers your fake masterpiece is serenely dribbling.
When the air around your chair fills with heat, that’s the flames licking
beneath the clock on the clean mantelpiece. It’s got a calm clicking,
like a pro at his editing suite takes two weeks stitching up some bad movie.