What Teachers Make

Sorry for the long silence from me. Life has been crazy lately, but one of my goals for 2011 is to revive my poor neglected blog. I had to post this video from Taylor Mali. While I've never been a huge slam poetry fan, Mali really is a genius.Many of his poems are about teaching and being a teacher! Enjoy!

Howling

Right off the bat, I want to say I am a huge Ginsberg fan. I've read Howl and Other Poems several times, as well as Kaddish. I also read some of his latter, not as popular poems, as well as a biography. Like many young gay boys, reading Ginsberg was a revelation for me.

Most movies about writers and writing are never actually about the writing itself. They focus on the writer's life, including lovers, friends, and possibly what drove them to write/ be crazy/ whatever salacious details are available.

Howl is not like that. Much of the movie is the author reciting "Howl" as animation illuminates the poem. This is intercut between three different scenes: Allen Ginsburg reciting the poem at a bar, Ginsburg being interviewed about the poem, and the trial against City Light Books for publishing "pornography." The movie jumped around a lot, but was the pace wasn't too much that I could not keep up.

James Franco continues to impress me as an actor. Even though I like Franco, I was hesitant when I heard he was playing Ginsburg. However, James had obviously studied Ginsberg's mannerisms and the way he spoke intensely. His portrayal was really seamless.

My biggest issue with the film was minor to the film but major to Ginsberg's life. The movie portrays him as having a very loving relationship with Peter Orvolsky. While they were together a long time, they actually had a very tumultuous open relationship. But as one of my friends pointed out, it made an nice arc for the movie. I also feel like some of the animation moved rather quickly and I didn't get the full effect. It might be better having sat through multiple viewings.

Great movie, definitely worth the trip to the theater. 4 and half stars.

Actually Love...

I always feel a little odd telling people that Love Actually is one of my favorite Christmas movies. As Christmas movies go, it's a non-traditional one. No one tries to save Christmas. Santa Claus is not a main player in the movie. No one finds out what life would be like if they had never been born. In fact, Christmas is more of a backdrop to the movie.

However, here are the reasons I find it to be an enduring classic. Let me just say this first: for the most part, my friends are not religious. In fact, I have many friends who consider themselves atheists/ agnostics. However, all my friends celebrate Christmas in some form. While that might sound odd to many people, I really don't think of it that way. As a good friend of mine recently told me, "What other time of the year do we celebrate the best things about being human?"

The movie weaves several stories together of people's lives around Christmas. The stories are almost too numerous to mention; however, all of the storylines form around a relationship. There are many well-known actors as well: Colin Firth, Hugh Grant, Laura Linney, Emma Thompson, just to name a few.

For me, Christmas has always been about love. Love for the people in your life, love for mankind, the love of just being alive. Love Actually captures that more so than any other Christmas movie I've ever seen. The movie shows love in many forms: old love, new love, platonic love, sexual love, even unrequited love. None of it is easy or simple. I tend to enjoy movies more that show love as a complicated endeavor, instead of the overwrought fairy tale of many rom coms.

Love this movie, love this movie! Grab someone you love and watch it (again) this holiday season!

Oprah isn't the only one with favorite things...

Been on a bit of a holiday hiatus but I'm officially back! This week, Oprah brought out her favorite things. I am not really a Oprah fan, but I thought it would a good time to unveil MY favorite things in time for the holidays! This is what I am looking forward to this holiday season:

1) Me by Ricky Martin
Ricky Martin has always been a bit of a guilty pleasure for me. He's hot, Latin, and has great music. I am definitely curious to read his autobiography and found out what makes him tick.

2) Pink Martini Joy to the World
Pink Martini's music is so light and great, of course they had to make a holiday album. I'm looking forward to hearing this. As if it couldn't get any better, Ari Shapiro sings on several tracks!

3) The Complete Golden Girls 25th Anniversary Set
I won't lie, it's all about getting Sophia's purse! (The box set comes in a bamboo purse a la Sophia Petrillo).

4) Howl
I love Allen Ginsberg. I love James Franco. I was a little concerned that these two great tastes would not go great together, but the previews look good! I have to see it in the theater.

5) Beaujolais Nouveau
Technically, wine is not usually a culture I discuss on this blog. However, I always look forward to the arrival of the beaujolais nouveau wine that is usually only available between Thanksgiving and Christmas. I will be drinking a glass with my Thanksgiving turkey!

Enjoy your holiday!

Halloween Hiatus

Just wanted to leave a note and say things have been a little crazy lately! All the chaos leaves little time for culture vulturing. But I plan to return to blogging soon! Have a happy and safe Halloween!! <3

Waiting for Superman

I know I promised a couple posts on my favorite geniuses, but I wanted to pause and talk about a movie that came out this weekend. Tonight I attended a preview of Waiting for Superman, the documentary that goes in depth about the US public school system. This movie has already generated a lot of buzz because of its frank talk about schools. As someone who teaches in community colleges and wants to teach high school soon, I was very interested in seeing it.

The movie starts off by following various families (mostly living in urban areas, one in the suburbs) looking out to try to get a good education for their children. One student, Daisy, just wants to go to college and become either a doctor or a vet. The movie outlines the problems facing the various students' districts and their schools. The movie makes a very valid wide point that I think many people are not aware: not all high school diplomas are created equally. The education a student gets in School A might be very different from School B 10 miles down the road.

Some of the points the movie makes are very valid; others seemed a little unfair to me. The movie spends a significant amount of time discussing the ins and outs of the teacher unions, and definitely does not paint them in a favorable light. The idea of teacher tenure also comes under fire, basically saying all it does is protect bad teachers. I tend to feel like too much emphasis lately seems to be placed on these "bad teachers," that somehow getting rid of them would fix everything. This seems like more myth than fact to me and I think it is for most teachers. While I'm sure there are some truly bad teachers out there, I doubt it's as widespread as the movie purports.

The movie particularly talks about the Washington DC school system, considered the worst in the nation. The movie talks a lot about the efforts of Michelle Rhee, the now former Chancellor of the DC school system. Many of her efforts for big changes get blocked, despite all the issues of the DC schools. (Rhee has recently resigned, her 3 year term being the longest one served by any recent Chancellor). Her number 1 enemy portrayed in the doc? Teacher unions.

One solution the movie emphasizes is charter schools. The movie says that charters are trying to fix many of these issues; however, there's a catch. When a charter school gets more applicants than spaces (which happens every year), a lottery is held for the students to decide who gets admitted to the charters. In the most heartbreaking scene, each of the students profiled sits in a large auditorium/ gymnasium waiting for their number to be called. This is their only break of getting out of their current situation. While I am amazed this goes on at all, I have to say the slanted nature of this troubled me. I am a product of a magnet program (which the doc touched on but dismissed), a program that is based on merit alone. Portraying the fact that the ONLY way to get a good education outside of a private school is left to a crap shoot seemed unfair and one-sided.

Despite my misgivings, I would definitely recommend seeing it. I do think this movie will be creating further buzz, and I think it anyone with a stake in the education system should have some knowledge about it.

Geniuses of History

Enough standing on the soapbox, back to being the Culture Vulture! In the class that I'm teaching, we are currently discussing the Renaissance. I thought this was the opportunity to talk about my one of my favorite people of history, Leonardo da Vinci. Da Vinci is one of three people in history I truly admire; the other two being Benjamin Franklin and Abraham Lincoln. I am always hesitant to tell people I admire these three people because they are all well-known historical figures. But I think many people don't realize exactly how unique these individuals were and why they are forever remembered in history. So I thought what a good idea for a mini-series of posts. My next couple posts will be talking about WHY I think you should enjoy these men as much as I do. Coming soon!