We have a date and a place! It will be on July 29, 2006 at the Bar Harbor Inn. We are very excited. It’s nice to finally at least know a place and date.
So I’m having my senior class read Ironweed by William Kennedy, and it is a really good book. I wish I could say I felt the same about all of the books in the curriculum, but alas, I cannot. I’m trying to introduce literary criticism to the students, and I have been giving them definitions. once in awhile, I give them critical essays. I remembered Patricia Williams’ book The Alchemy of Race and Rights. This book left quite an impression on me when I read it in grad school, and one of the specific characteristic I love about Williams is her tenacity in seeing the world in shades of grey. I thought about the book in conjunction with Ironweed, because I remembered some of her anecdotes about people’s reactions to the homeless. I decided I’d have my students read that section, because discussion broke out into, “I won’t give money to the homeless because they’ll just drink it.” While I can understand why the students who espoused those views believed them, I’d like for them to see the perspective of a larger view of homelessness as a systemic problem. Hopefully an interesting discussion will ensue. The school where I teach tends to be pretty liberal, yet I think I have a generally right of center class.
Okay, so I only seem to post once in a blue moon, but faithful readers, if there are any of you, please keep checking back.
I was intrigued after seeing an interview with Viggo Mortensen on the Daily Show, so I went to see A History of Violence. As you might have guessed from the title, it is very violent. I’m generally not a big violence fan in flics, but I started to think about it afterward why I wanted to see this film, which i knew would be violent. I think what it is is that I have that same perverted intrigue, as most of my fellow humans do, with violence. When a film is about violence, a comment on violence even, I am drawn to it. But when it is not really about the violence and the violence is merely gratuitous and for pure entertainment, I’m generally tuned off. For example, I liked “The Bourne Identity”, but I thought it did not need to be that violent. Then again, I like a good Jackie Chan flic. Okay — I’m really tired, and cannot make a good argument about violence right now. What are your thoughts?
For those of you needing reminding, the pronunciation of Connecticutian rhymes with execution.
In an effort to learn more about my new hometown, I have subscribed to the local newspaper, the West Hartford News. I am also trying to learn more about the candidates running for local election. If anyone has any good info, let me know. I see all these signs for Beth Bye, so I did a little search. She is running for School Board re-election as vice-chair. I was searching for the dirt, the skinny on how she might be corrupt or otherwise evil, and frankly, she looks highly qualified and squeaky clean. I know so little about local elections. i toyed with running for School Board in the future, but after seeing that truly qualified people are on the board, it makes me feel better that they are. when I say truly qualified — well, I probably am, too, but my only area of expertise is in high school education, so that doesn’t say a whole lot for the rest of the system. But I suppose with a whole board, we can cover the spectrum. Then again, the political life is probably not for me. I’d probably cry if I lost. I’ll just be a chronic voter instead. Maybe even a letter to the editor writer. Maybe.
I’ve looked at the West Hartford News before, and what freaks me out about it the most is the POlice Blotter. The ware River News had it, too, and it just seems so voyeuristic. I spoke to a colleague about it, and she said it is a great crime deterrent, but I have to say, that seems so puritanical. I’m sure I will eagerly read it, because it is filled with gems like the guy to threatened to castrate the ice cream truck driver with garden shears because the music was so annoying. Did I really need to know that? No, but I got a chuckle. Unfortunately, there’s some ice cream truck guy who has been humiliated for life. i guess the press has an ugly job, but somebody’s got to do it.
While we are still not 100% sure, it looks like the wedding will be in Bar Harbor. We will be going up for a visit in a few weeks to scope everything out with the discriminating eye.
I was saddened by an email a student sent me Monday AM about August Wilson’s death. Frankly, I did not know he’d been ill (not that we were close or anything). Sujal and I saw his last play at Yale Rep, Radio Golf. We liked it — or at the very least, it sparked quite a conversation between us about the play. I have really liked his work for a while now. One of the great things about American culture is that we do have some damn good playwrights. Kirsten and I saw “Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom” a few years ago in NYC. It starred Whoopie Goldberg and Charles S. Dutton, and it was a great performance. I teach 2 of his plays — one to freshmen and one to juniors. America will miss him.
So I’m not quite sure what my deal is… i have this blog, and I never seem to write on it. I’ll try to be better. In the wedding realm, Amy Sun got married last week, and she had her wedding at The Pond House Cafe in Elizabeth Park. It was a great ceremony and reception. They had a really fun DJ, too! Sujal and I have made no headway on our own plans, though many people have made some good suggestions after they looked at my last post.
School has begun in full swing, and already I am consumed with work. I am ecstatic that school has started, yet it never ceases to amaze me how quickly the whole cycle of being constantly behind kicks in. I have wonderful kids this year, as I did last year. One of my co-workers is teaching four preps this year, which is crazy, and me with my three preps this semester — I’m going nuts as is. Of course I’ve chosen to teach a book I’ve never taught before in one of the classes that is NOT new. It’s The Sun Also Rises which I read in high school and college, my favorite Hemingway novel. It is such a first novel, and I think that’s partly why it is my favorite. There’s a whole pool of people out there who believe that first novels are usually the best by an author. i think I may fit into that group. So many authors seem to retell their story. Beckett actually purposefully did this in his trilogy: Malloy, Malone Dies, and The Unnamable. Being well aware of the fact that so many authors just seem to retell the same story, he says outright that that is what he is doing. Aside from that, there are supposedly only so many plot-lines and they are merely recycled. It’s funny — sometimes I will watch a movie and think how mundane stories can be, even the somewhat more interesting stories. Sometimes I am almost bored by them, and yet at the same time, stories are what give me purpose. Literature is what I have. Perhaps this is a reflection on my state of mind rather than stories themselves. Reading stories is somehow different. I think the speeding up of a story in a film cheapens the story. Perhaps Beckett was getting bored by stories in some ways, too, which was maybe why he sought out to emphasize their repetitiveness. Perhaps I just want to be able to compare myself to Beckett. Anyway, The Sun Also Rises is a novel I really like, though I have never taught it. So I am dreaming up wonderful, and I mean wonderful, curriculum by the boatloads.
Finally, I had a social event on Friday. I went out for the first time in forever. I went to a Karoake bar here in West Hartford. I continue with my belief that CT is just a bizarre place. In some ways it reminded me of my grad school days hanging out with the poet MFAs at the WWII Club, their Friday night karoake. I suppose that was the case simply because it was karoake. In other ways it was this whole Connecticutified experience. And hmmmmmm, what does that even mean? I think that will be musings for another time. My old roommate, Roger, used to call me a contrarian. I think that may be so. I think I love to hate the place I’m in. Granted I never hated Noho, but maybe that’s because others there did. I do recall hating Minneapolis, where I lived with Roger. And now I feel nostalgia for the Twin Cities, though I know I do not miss the -25 degree winters. Brrrrrrrrr.
We need it!
We are still trying to figure out WHERE to get married. I’ll give y’all a few links to some places and please vote on favorites and/or make suggestions. Just to give you a bit of background, this is optimally what we’d like:
1) a place where 125 of our closest family and friends can realistically gather and celebrate
2) a destination wedding “feel” — so a weekend event with lots of opportunity for hanging out, mingling, etc. We want our families and friends to have an opportunity to get to know each other. We might even want to have organized carriage rides, kayak tours, softball games, hikes, etc.
3) we strongly prefer a Saturday night wedding
4) we want to get married outside, preferably at the location of the reception, but this is not a necessity
5) we love the idea of a national park
6) a place that is special to us (this makes it VERY difficult)
7) preferably a place that can accommodate us with indian food, but we NEED vegetarian food at the very least
8) a place we love
So here are some links. Please give advice.
Bar Harbor Inn — This place is right on the water. We have only seen the grounds, but it is very nice from the outside. the big drawback is that the reception would have to take place mid-day. We like the idea of Acadia National Park, though it is a far drive — 11 hrs from Philadelphia and 13 hrs from Buffalo.
Jordan Pond House — This is actually IN Acadia National Park. We’re just not sure how likely it is that they can accommodate with with indian food. If we did it here, we’d probably have our ceremony in the park, perhaps even by Jordan Pond.
Asticou Inn — We’re not sure if this place is really ON the waterfront. It’s another place on Mount Desert Island near Acadia national Park.
The Belhurst Castle — This place is in the Finger Lakes in NY. It’s very beautiful, though it is no national park. The big drawback here is their Saturdays are booked, so we’d have to do a Sunday wedding.
White Hart Inn — a somewhat generic place we have not yet really checked out in CT
Red Lion Inn — This is a place Amy suggested in the Berkshires. We have not checked it out.
The White House Inn — This is a lovely Inn in southern VT along route 9.
Wake Robin Inn — This place looks nice — but I just found it on the web. It’s along the Housatonic River. Sujal and I camped by the Housatonic last year.
The Interlaken — I’d looked at this place online before and just never followed up. Seems like a possibility.
Okay, so that’s what i have for now. Vote away and/or make other suggestions.
So one of my other recent travels was to Amy and Brian’s wedding. Here are some of the photos Sujal took. Amy’s the chick in white. I’m the chick in pink. They had a great ceremony which was very short and ended with a sing-a-long on Presley’s “Can’t Help Falling in Love”. The ceremony and reception took place at The Orchards in Williamstown, MA, which is a very elegant inn. They give you cookies with their turn down service. I still don’t understand the need for a turn down service, because you can’t pull their own sheets back, but I definitely understand the need for cookies. Congrats to Amy and Brian!!!
The Connecticutian 