Django: Broken backs and broken spirits

Tarantino recreates a South that has been built upon the broken backs and spirits of African American salves in Django Unchained. This film captures all the anger and hostility that makes all white cringe in fear of the depths of depravity humans can bend to, in their own pursuits of prosperity and fortune. There is an amazing love story that parallels a German fairy tale, based on a princess that shares the name of Django's wife. This love story is the centerpiece of second act of the film. This love story is saturated in blood and keeps the audience screaming for more blood and more vengeance. This film is everything you would expect from Tarantino. It is gritty, well written and extremely violent. As you would demand, as a film lover and Tarantino fan, the film comes with detail driven characters that come with a large amount of wit and charisma showcased by artfully crafted dialogue. To this movie goer, the darkness of this period in history, two years prior to the civil war, is paralleled by Tarantino's own dark themes used throughout the film. Samuel L. Jackson plays an African American that has become so sensitized by the violence perpetrated upon other slaves that he has actually begun to take part in the cruelty for his own sense of sick amusement. This idea gives rise to a concept that illustrates the "if you can't beat them, join them" mentality. It reminded me of the discussion of assimilation found in the play "Raisin in the Sun". Tarantino's message about race inequity and inner race racism is heard and validated through out the final scenes of the film.

Skyfall: The rebuilding of Bond

Just because a film does not feel like its predecessors, does not make it bad necessarily. "Skyfall", on the outside does not look or feel like the Bond of different era. Yet after a day and a half, several things became apparent after methodical deliberation, Bond, played by Daniel Craig is damaged goods. He has a great deal of pain and suffering in his past and pathos and vigilant angst to go with it. Mendes, directs this film intentionally to break the Bond formula but does not stray too far from Bond mythos established in previous films. After 21 films without answers, Mendes begins to fill in some of the blanks and establishes a new type of protagonist in the world of Bond. What propels a man to do what is necessary and just when he has lost everything? "Skyfall" attempts to answer this question. This new Bond is pitted against his contrast. The villain could be Bond if he had no sense of duty, no code to live for or with. The villain, played masterfully by Javier Bardem, of "No Country for Old Men" shows us what James could become without queen and country. He too is damaged goods. Betrayed and left for dead he seeks revenge upon the institution that used him as a tool and discarded him: MI:6. Braden's character uses his pain to develop into a evil genius that wields technology as a weapon. Here lies another theme. The wits and human nature scarred and spurned is pitted against the tech driven, pain riddled villainy that is created out of the suffering of betrayal. It is man and mind versus the faceless machine. In the end, this movie moves the mythos of Bond forward with some nice cast additions and some pathos driven character development that allows the viewer to truly understand where the cold, unfeeling and unyielding behavior of Bond comes from.

Nirvana and the 90s

Plaid flannel swarmed the streets and teenagers were either donning the Birkenstock or the Doc Martin. It was an age defined by commerce as well as anti commerce sentiment. It was the ultimate push and pull of the "Generation X."

Looking back upon it, when we all felt like we were the original 'Lost' generation, we felt like what Will Smith coined in his song "Parents just don't understand" was the mantra to follow. Yes, Smith was a singer and song writer before reaching super stardom as an actor. Little did we know that every generation that came before us believed the same thing. Even Elvis was censored on national television.

Those days were the hay days of the jam band and the birth of the "Grunge" scene. We had one genre that was singing of transcendence into the music, while other screamed about not being understood and finding solace deep within ourselves. The grunge movement made people appreciate the turmoil of the time. The country was in war in the Gulf and the beginning of national division was commencing.

The teenagers of the time were going the way of political parties and were becoming divided also. On one side you had Eddie Vedder and Kurt Cobain and their realist teachings that was reaching into the depths of our souls and forcing us to rage against the comfort of our lives, because in the end it was a false sense of security that propped us up, while on the other side we had the jam band culture, that preached a romantic ideal which was seething with wonder of the world around us.

Today a blog came up on my radar about the origin of Nirvana's "Smells Like Teen Spirit" and it reminded me of the turbulent times and what it meant to me.

This article, combined with a nostalgic feelings of an age that seemed to represent my lost of innocence and faith in all that seemed safe, allowed me to realize that the teenage wasteland still exists. Divisions of culture still exist as teenagers polarize around either hip hop, country or rock and roll. There is no unity of this generation and it seems to me be echoing the emptiness that is perpetrated by the media and the political arena. The country stands as liberal or conservative because someone else tells them to think that way, thank you "silo effect".

As I end my editorial for the week I look back as I look forward and I ponder over the lyrics of the Pearl Jam song "Release" and realize that we are all riding "the rocking horse of time" waiting for eternity.

Nirvana and the 90s

Plaid flannel swarmed the streets and teenagers were either donning the Birkenstock or the Doc Martin. It was an age defined by commerce as well as anti commerce sentiment. It was the ultimate push and pull of the "Generation X."

Looking back upon it, when we all felt like we were the original 'Lost' generation, we felt like what Will Smith coined in his song "Parents just don't understand" was the mantra to follow. Yes, Smith was a singer and song writer before reaching super stardom as an actor. Little did we know that every generation that came before us believed the same thing. Even Elvis was censored on national television.

Those days were the hay days of the jam band and the birth of Grunge scene. We had one genre that was singing of transcendence into the music, while other screamed about not being understood and finding solace deep within ourselves. The grunge movement made people appreciate the turmoil of the time. The country was in war in the Gulf and the beginning of national division was commencing.

The teenagers of the time were going the way of political parties and were becoming divided also. On one side you had Eddie Vedder and Kurt Cobain and their realist teachings that was reaching into the depths of our souls and forcing us to rage against the comfort of our lives, because in the end it was a false sense of security that propped us up, while on the other side we had the jam band culture, that preached a romantic ideal which was seething with wonder of the world around us.

Today a blog came up on my radar about the origin of Nirvana's "Smells Like Teen Spirit" and it reminded me of the turbulent times and what it meant to me.

This article, combined with a nostalgic feelings of an age that seemed to represent my lost of innocence and faith in all that seemed safe, allowed me to realize that the teenage wasteland still exists. Divisions of culture still exist as teenagers polarize around either hip hop, country or rock and roll. There is no unity of this generation and it seems to me be echoing the emptiness that is perpetrated by the media and the political arena. The country stands as liberal or conservative because someone else tells them to think that way, thank you "silo effect".

As I end my editorial for the week I look back as I look forward and I ponder over the lyrics of the Pearl Jam song "Release" and realize that we are all riding "the rocking horse of time" waiting for eternity.

Nirvana and the 90s

Plaid flannel swarmed the streets and teenagers were either donning the Birkenstock or the Doc Martin. It was an age defined by commerce as well as anti commerce sentiment. It was the ultimate push and pull of the "Generation X."

Looking back upon it, when we all felt like we were the original 'Lost' generation, we felt like what will Smith coined "Parents just don't understand" was the mantra to follow. Yes, Smith was a singer and song writer before reaching super stardom. Little did we know that every generation that came before us believed the same thing. Even Elvis was censored on national television.

Those days were the hay days of the jam band and the birth of Grunge scene. We had one genre that was singing of transcendence into the music, while other screamed about not being understood and finding solace deep within ourselves. The grunge movement made people appreciate the turmoil of the time. The country was in war in the Gulf and the beginning of national division was commencing.

The teenagers of the time were going the way of political parties and were becoming divided also. On one side you had Eddie Vedder and Kurt Cobain and their realist teachings that was reaching into the depths of our souls and forcing us to rage against the comfort of our lives, because in the end it was a false sense of security that propped us up, while on the other side we had the jam band culture, that preached a romantic ideal which was seething with wonder of the world around us.

Today a blog came up on my radar about the origin of Nirvana's "Smells Like Teen Spirit" and it reminded me of the turbulent times and what it meant to me.

This article, combined with a nostalgic feelings of an age that seemed to represent my lost of innocence and faith in all that seemed safe, allowed me to realize that the teenage wasteland still exists. Divisions of culture still exist as teenagers polarize around either hip hop, country or rock and roll. There is no unity of this generation and it seems to me be echoing the emptiness that is perpetrated by the media and the political arena. The country stands as liberal or conservative because someone else tells them to think that way, thank you "silo effect".

As I end my editorial for the week I look back as I look forward and I ponder over the lyrics of the Pearl Jam song "Release" and realize that we are all riding "the rocking horse of time" waiting for eternity.

A new year and a new new blog post

This marks the first Saturday following the first week of school for the 2010-2011 school year. The fun and passion of teaching has surged back into me after a long summer of fun in the sun. With the linoleum floors gleaming and the bulletin boards bare the blank canvas that is the academic year prepares itself. I took a few brush strokes and I began an abstract mosaic of learning. With ideas and expectations planted, I hope the spring examinations will prove to be a bountiful harvest.

With the school year a foot, new tests present themselves. One of the largest and most interested "mountains" that needs my attention was rose to the attention of the people of Connecticut like a flare burning bright in the darkness of night. The questions that I have, they have no answers? They only develop a desire, deep within me, to find how I, one teacher can try to lessen this gap. How can I make difference? Can I make a difference when i am so different from those I teach? i am not from the city and I am not poor? I don't 'know' what they are doing in their neighborhoods and their friends and i feel I am better off that way. Or am I?

Well... I guess we will see.

Books and the Do-Do what do they have in common?

I am a part of the the iPod and iPhone generation. I indeed have both, and I use them quite often. I have found them both useful and a distraction, however many critics of technology have often combined these two together to as away to examine the downfall of mankind. Technology and its dependancy of those that use it have become a developing, and all enveloping, discussion between those that use and those that don't.

I have found that trends today are imbraced and then exploited to the point that there are whole social shifts geared to the use of certain technological advances. Look at the internaet and how it changed the way people researched and learned. With the creation of the internet there needed to be a way to filter out the best sites that best suited your needs and the invention of the search engine was created. Then came the all dominating world according to google. (Read Previous Blog on Google.)

information was being pased on a far more rapid pace and people were learning to decode that information at the same rate that it was given to them. When one is submersed into a digital world where they are subjected to visual (video) stimulation, auditory, stimulation along with the written word, it is hard not to be awstruck by this powerful medium. Learning is now being connected to "experience" in a whole different way. Learning is moving at a quicker pace.

Carr's claim to fame occured when he wrote the "Is Google Making Us Stupid". Here he examines the ease of use of technology as a way to distract us as readers and learners. He, himself feels that he has been a victim of this sway of thinking and feels that with the esae of use the need to remember and be able recall is being lost and therefore people are becoming to reliant on the technology. The reliance then creates a dependant user, rather than and independant thinker.

As a reader of literature it has always been important to me to experience a text through the physical. I need to hold a book in my hands and turn each page independantly. I feel I have a closer attachment to the source material if I am able to incorporate the reading with the writing of notes, a.k.a. the highlighting process, or what educators call the active reading process. I understand that this is because, this is how I learned to read. I also believe that today's students are learning and processing in a differnt way and that way needs to be embraced. In a world that spends a great deal of time viewing itself through the ambient glow of a computer screen, pictures and video are the items that help allow the reader/user to better comprehend news, literature, self- help and educational materials. The digital world is here and it is seeping into every fiber of our being. When "Tweets" now consist of short videos and photographs to help enhance the experience it is no wonder that reading seems to be going the way of the Do-Do.

The world of electronic texts and literature is here. It is overtaking what once used to be a world created by the imaginations of the reader. The reader could carefully construct the setting via the language of the author or imgine the sound of the voice of a certain character, suitable for the emotion that is being experienced at that moment. Today, literature comes in differnt forms and they all seem to be in opposition with eachother.