Andrushka

Today I watched Unconditional Love, a movie which I somehow missed three years ago. It's great, and has inspired me to campaign for Julie Andrews for Prime Minister of Great Britain. In the movie Drop Dead Gorgeous, one of the contestants says that her serial-killer mother ought to be president because, among other things, she could bring world peace with a song. Well, Julie Andrews has the chops to do just that. And while we're putting people into office, I say Kathy Bates would make quite a president. I mean, Dolores Claiborne is less scary than the current office holder. Speaking of politics, the other day I watched a documentary on Gay Republicans. Several times in the movie "gay on the street"-style interviews compared them to "Jews voting for Hitler" and "Blacks joining the KKK." Now, as a person who cannot understand why anyone, regardless of race, religion, sexuality, etc, would vote Republican, it was a particularly interesting look into the psyche of everyday sociopaths. Most of them seemed fairly lucid. They are fiscal conservatives and generally outraged by the direction towards cultural conservatism their party has taken. I can, to a degree, understand fiscal conservatives. I just can't understand why they would vote Republican. Republicans talk about reducing debt and spending cuts, but they are responsible for the current levels of the national debt. Just look at this chart. Clinton managed to get things undercontrol, then Bush II came along and has spent more than ever. It would seem to me that fiscal conservatives are in the wrong party! (Gasp! I used an exclamation point, make that two! Er . . . three. I should get off this topic before I get more worked up.) The point is, there is little excuse to vote Republican, even the richest of the rich have to be incredibly shortsighted to do it and for people shunned by the Party for being gay to vote for them takes a very special sort of masochism. In other news, one of my Bosniak students was once on his country's junior national football (read "soccer") team.

Posted by Scott at 1/26/2006 03:28:00 PM | Permalink | Comments

So, at UNL today I heard two people whose taste and intelligence is unquestionable discussing "Lazy Sunday," the SNL music video many people know as the "Chronic-what-cles of Narnia." Wendi already provided a link to the video, but it reminded me that I've been meaning to direct everyone to Andy, Jorma, and Akiva's website. They are the geniuses behind this and other really funny videos. They've been putting their work online for people to enjoy for much longer than they've been employed by SNL. My introduction to them was "Just 2 Guyz" and I still think it's my favorite. Enjoy. Tonight, while reading the BBC website, I was reminded why I don't often read news. It depresses me. For example, In France, about 200 members of parliament blame rap music for the riots last year. They are particularly targetting Monsieur R's song, "FranSSe." (That link, by the way, was the only place where I could actually find the full text on the internet.) Among other things, it refers to France as a prostitute (finally a rap song the Republicans can enjoy). In my opinion, if a writer can generate art that actually sparks riots, it's an amazing piece of work and should be canonized. For a take that's bound to spark some conversation on the subject of rap and volatile political action in France, I'll direct you to this charmingly named blog. Another story told of plastic surgery in Moscow using stem cells. They harvest them from the stomach of one person and then, for around $10,000, another person has them injected into their face. The trophy wives of the Nouveaux Russes can even buy facial creams containing human skin cells at fashionable pharmacies. On the one hand, I'm quite in favor of stem cell research, on the other, this seems like a pretty silly and reckless procedure, especially since it hasn't gone through anything approaching rigorous testing (some doctors originally tried it on themselves and thought they saw a difference). Oh well, where would any new technology be without silly applications (like the Univac without "Mary Has a Little Lamb"). Anyway, one final thing to note is that Angela Merkel is in Washington for a visit. Let's hope she doesn't go too soft on the Cokehead-in-Chief. Goodnight and good riddance.

Posted by Scott at 1/13/2006 01:05:00 AM | Permalink | Comments

Before I even say what I have to say, let me clarify. I realize I don't have enough time or experience yet to make an accurate judgement. So, to make a rash and hasty overgeneralization, teaching ESL is more fun. Of course, that does depend on the course, I've had some ESL classes that just never worked as a group and never built a rapport. But just comparing the three classes I have now, the ESL by far has the most fun. College freshmen are still too much like high school students I think. Which isn't to say I don't enjoy the class, teaching a rough class is still way more fun than, say, washing dishes for a living. And the morning class can almost carry on a conversation. I just wish they would ask half as inciteful questions as my ESL students. For instance, tonight we were saying things we "would like" and Amir (Bosnian) asked if "I'd" is also "I had" and how to tell the difference. I really liked that question and it took us in interesting directions. Most of what I've been asked in my ENGL 112 class has been, "So what do you expect us to do for this assignment." Well, since we couldn't actually generate a working definition of plagiarism in class, not much. Anyway, Ben asked something about what if my students read my blog. Well, they are seperate worlds and it would be nice to keep them seperate, just like I'd rather not be Serhiy's teacher (ever). But when it comes down to it, it really doesn't matter. There's nothing here I wouldn't say to their faces, with perhaps a bit more qualification. It's not as if the universe will explode and be replaced with something more complicated. Ado and 42. P.S. I wrote this while watching Elizabethtown which surprisingly doesn't suck. Perhaps I'm just tired but the overearnest bits play well tonight.

Posted by Scott at 1/11/2006 09:28:00 PM | Permalink | Comments

The last two days I feel as though I accomplished more than in the previous two weeks. I probably did. Monday night was the beginning of the new term at SeCC. I think it's going to be a good group. They are quite good at asking questions and that's always a good sign. My blind student, Hector, is really great. He has partial vision in one eye, so he can see light and dark and which way I point, just not details like writing or faces. I have two Bosnians who sit with a Russian between them which I think is a fun microcosm of politics. I also have two Iraqis, and for the first time, they are Arabic speakers (previously I've had an Iraqi who spoke Farsi and Sudanese who spoke Arabic but never an Arabic speaking-Iraqi). Also, I have one Congolese Francophone. Then there's the normal contingent of Spanish speakers and a higher number of them are there in the hopes of getting a degree eventually than in my previous classes. For the first time at SeCC, I won't have any East Asian students. Then today I started with my first classes at Union. Basically it was just getting to know each other and going over the syllabus today, trying to put the fear of the Lord and of Scott into their freshmen hearts. It's much easier to start off as a meany in an iron mask than as a softie in a clown suit then expect them to take you seriously. That's a bit of pedagogy I learned from Ms. Perry. Speaking of being derivitive, a lot of how I approach the class is definately Blakish (which I hope doesn't include how I approach returning papers). However, when I went outside myself and listened to myself today, I couldn't quite figure out whose voice I was hearing. Then I visitted with wacky Jacque Smith a bit after lunch. I think my in-class, Comp teacher voice owes a lot to PR-mode Jacque. It might also have something to do with Dr. Minter, one of the Composition professors at UNL who talks just like Jacque (but more like relaxed-mode Jacque). This isn't to say that anyone else would notice the similarities, but I definately felt it again in the second class. It's strange how we construct ourselves in new settings. I'd like to say there was intentionality to the identity I compose, but I think I just fall into patterns without conscious decisions being made. Having said that, I can think of few people better to be derivitive of than Jacque or Dr. Minter, but of course any construction of myself will be quite different from the original. I should ask Jacque whence PR-mode Jacque is derived. Anyway, the first class will be great, I think they will be very participative. The second class, and it may just be because it's right after lunch, is much more interested in talking to their neighbors than as a group, which might be a problem. We'll see how it is as the semester progresses. Ashley, who is an eternal goddess of Light and Goodness, is looking into relocating my classes someplace with a bit more technology. It was my understanding back in the day that Union was moving towards having multimedia projectors in every classroom. You can imagine my mild coronary when I got to class and there was an overhead projector but no computer system. I felt as though I'd walked into the 1950s. Of course, until more teachers at Union realize how wonderful teaching in the 21st century can be, I doubt things will change much. If I can't play my clip from Man to Man to illustrate conflicting epistemes, I can't be responsible for my language. In other news, Serhiy has an insane schedule. He has two evening classes and, combined with his work schedule, that means he'll only be home on Saturday evenings. That's fine, but when you factor in that he also has a 7:30 AM swimming class and that he can never go to sleep right away when he gets home, I don't know when he's going to sleep. More importantly, with alarms going off that early in the morning, I don't know when I'll sleep.

Posted by Scott at 1/10/2006 09:48:00 PM | Permalink | Comments