Sunday, May 15, 2011
We Have Moved
Kirb Your Enthusiasm is moving to Kirbstompers, over at Wordpress. Click here to keep following the blog. Thanks!
Sunday, May 8, 2011
Mother's Day
Happy Mother's Day.
Grandma was up from NC for the weekend. She was leaving early Sunday morning, so I went to church in order to spend some time with her before she left. Her phone went off during some very solemn prayer. Full volume. She couldn't find it, and I couldn't stop laughing. An elderly woman came up to me after the service and asked me why I didn't turn my phone off.
I'm trying to take a 20 minute power nap everyday. They're supposed to energize you, but when I lay down and fall asleep I can't wake back up. 20 minutes turns into an hour and now I'm full of fettuccine carbonara and cianti and feel pretty sluggish.
Today was the first time I wore a button-down since I shaved my head: I think I look like a serial killer.
Watching The Real Housewives of...New York I think. Someone once called it an interesting dissection of the postmodern American human condition. Bull. Such a difference between these housewives and the REAL housewives of Victorian times. Those women couldn't manage to feed their kids, meanwhile in this clip, two six-year-olds got a grand piano for their birthday and were serenaded by a Juilliard graduate. These kids are named Francois and Johann. I think the mom's name is Karen or something. Ridiculous.
Spell checker changed "serenaded" to "marinated." Should've left it that way.
Sorry for the inane post, but I've got nothing really to talk about. Trying to wake up from a power nap.
Grandma was up from NC for the weekend. She was leaving early Sunday morning, so I went to church in order to spend some time with her before she left. Her phone went off during some very solemn prayer. Full volume. She couldn't find it, and I couldn't stop laughing. An elderly woman came up to me after the service and asked me why I didn't turn my phone off.
I'm trying to take a 20 minute power nap everyday. They're supposed to energize you, but when I lay down and fall asleep I can't wake back up. 20 minutes turns into an hour and now I'm full of fettuccine carbonara and cianti and feel pretty sluggish.
Today was the first time I wore a button-down since I shaved my head: I think I look like a serial killer.
Watching The Real Housewives of...New York I think. Someone once called it an interesting dissection of the postmodern American human condition. Bull. Such a difference between these housewives and the REAL housewives of Victorian times. Those women couldn't manage to feed their kids, meanwhile in this clip, two six-year-olds got a grand piano for their birthday and were serenaded by a Juilliard graduate. These kids are named Francois and Johann. I think the mom's name is Karen or something. Ridiculous.
Spell checker changed "serenaded" to "marinated." Should've left it that way.
Sorry for the inane post, but I've got nothing really to talk about. Trying to wake up from a power nap.
Friday, May 6, 2011
Hiatus Briefing and "Invisible Cities"
Hey all, been a while. Took a bit of a break as the spring semester started to get hectic really quickly. Shakespeare, Advanced Composition, just needed to focus. Sat my final exam today: Shakespeare. Think I'm coming out with a 3.9 this time around, oh well. Heading to London in two weeks for a summer study abroad, hopefully I'll be able to keep up with this blog and the London vlog at the same time. Check in for updates. Anyway, here's what I'm reading now.
Thursday, February 10, 2011
It's On...Again
For those of you who have kept up with my other blogs in the past, you will be familiar with my failed attempts at the ML Challenge. For you newcomers out there, I will explain to you what this is: The ML Challenge is an attempt to read all the works listed on one of Modern Library's sponsored "100 Best" Lists. One can choose from the "Board's 100," the "Readers' 100," "100 Non-fiction," or even the "Radcliffe Rival 100." Last summer I tried the "Board's 100" -- the 100 Best Novels of the 20th century as selected by the Modern Library Board -- and failed. That list began with The Magnificent Ambersons, followed by The Ginger Man, which I simply put down one day and never picked back up. This semester, however, my reading load is light as seems by general work load, so I am attempting to plow through the "Readers' 100," the 100 best of the 20th century as chosen by the general populace who voted on ML.com. Democracy at work. Check below the cut for my progress so far, the problems inherent with the list, and a link to the list itself. Sunday, January 23, 2011
The H-Word
In perusing the nigh-on-400 comments made on The New York Times’ website concerning Lorrie Moore’s article “Send Huck Finn to College,” one gets a taste of the immense can of worms that was opened when NewSouth Books announced their new, “n-word”-free edition of Mark Twain’s The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn. The commentators – and the author – bring up good points: Does the American canon need revision? Yes. Is the literature on the average high school curriculum racially biased? Sometimes. Is the infamous “n-word” a sensitive term connoting centuries of racism and atrocities? Of course. Should Huck Finn be censored? Absolutely not. Censorship is the worst enemy of literature. But Moore’s point in writing her article is not questioning whether or not the book should be censored – she stands unequivocally against it – but whether or not Huckleberry Finn should be taught in high schools in the first place.
"Jane Eyre" Chapters 1 - 4
For a class on Victorian Literature, I am again reading through Charlotte Brontë’s masterpiece Jane Eyre. For this post, I am focusing on the first four chapters of the novel, representing Jane’s time at Gateshead with the Reed family and her mistreatment there. In particular, I want to briefly discuss the liminality of the novel and the action of thresholds in these first four chapters.
Saturday, January 22, 2011
R.I.P. Heath
HEATH LEDGER (4 APRIL 1979 - 22 JANUARY 2008)
Friday, January 21, 2011
The New Catwoman
Warner Bros. announced on Jan. 19 that Anne Hathaway would officially be the latest starlet to portray Catwoman in Chris Nolan's upcoming film The Dark Knight Rises. The character has had a grand tradition within Batman media, Anne Hathaway being the sixth woman to play the femme fatale in a live-action role. Before her came Julie Newmar, Eartha Kitt, Lee Meriwether, Michelle Pfeiffer, and Halle Berry -- not counting the character's various animated incarnations. But the two big questions here: Can Hathaway pull it off? and is it a good idea to have Catwoman in the third film at all? To both, my answer is yes.Thursday, January 20, 2011
Buffy Turns 30
Not to detract from our discussions of RRNR, but today is a very special day. Buffy Anne Summers turns 30 today! This is not the anniversary of the airing of the show (which is March 10) but the actual birthday of the actual character within the Buffyverse. Happy B-day Buff!
Tuesday, January 18, 2011
Rudolph Discussion #3: Alchemy
In order to understand the alchemical imagery inherent in the television special Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer, one must first understand alchemy itself and the way that it expresses itself in works of art, specifically in literature and film. The goal of alchemy is to achieve the production of the Philosopher’s Stone: an artifact that produced the Elixir of Life and also could transmute base metals (such as lead) into pure gold. In alchemy, the path to the production of the Stone was a sequence of metallurgical/symbolic/spiritual stages known as the Magnum Opus (English: the Great Work). The Work is separated into three convenient stages – nigredo (the blackening), albedo (the whitening), and rubedo (the reddening). In the rubedo, the Stone is produced.
Monday, January 17, 2011
Rudolph Discussion #2: King Moonracer
In my annual watching of RRNR, one of the parts that always confused me – that never actually seemed to belong – was the Island of Misfit Toys adventure shared by Rudolph, Hermey, and Yukon. They reach the island on an ice float, where they are met by Charlie in the Box and a whole cadre of other “misfit toys.” So why is there an entire island of discarded toys? And why are they lorded over by a flying lion named King Moonracer?
Sunday, January 16, 2011
Rudolph Discussion #1: The Rudolph Triptych
No, its not Robert Ludlum’s new Christmas-themed novel. It is a Christmas tradition in my family to sit down at some point during the Christmas season and watch all of the Christmas specials from my childhood. Classics such as How the Grinch Stole Christmas, It’s a Wonderful Life, and A Christmas Story all have their special places in my heart, but no movie stays with me like Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer. From Hermey the Misfit Elf to the Island of Misfit Toys, the movie is perfect. However, it wasn’t until I had read John Granger’s The Deathly Hallows Lectures that I realized the esoteric, alchemical imagery hidden within the story of the reindeer-savior of Christmas.Saturday, January 15, 2011
Friday, January 14, 2011
Quidditch for the Sages
Since this blog is just sort of a ranting post, I thought I would share with you a teensy observation I have made about the Harry Potter series, which I adore. Because most of you may not realize this, one of the "scaffoldings" upon which the narrative of the Potter series is designed is called "Literary Alchemy." Rowling employs symbols and allegory relating to the ancient alchemical Magnum Opus in order to underscore her protagonist's quasi-apotheosis in Deathly Hallows. We are probably not all acquainted with the finer points of alchemy, but this is of little importance. What I wanted to point out was how Quidditch, the main sport of the wizarding world and an event important to 6 out of 7 of Rowling's books, reinforces the alchemical references. In particular, I wanted to talk about the Golden Snitch.
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