August

You look on Wikipedia and August is the month of independence days for a couple of countries. August is a busy month since fall is looming ahead with the anticipation of harvest, first days of school and the preparation for those long winter months. On Bainbridge, August is the month of the blackberries. yummy!

Economics of Education

I took this first year seminar last fall and now I'm trying to sell back some of my books to incoming first year students. One girl responded and sent me the book list for the class.  Not For Profit: Why Democracy Needs the Humanities by Martha C. Nussbaum and A Woman's Education by Jill Ker Conway were new additions to the class.  Not For Profit seems like an excellent choice for a Humanities major to read because as Nussbaum states "we increasingly treat education as though its primary goal were to teach students to be economically productive rather than to think critically and become knowledgeable and empathetic citizens." I'm struggling with deciding what major to choose, whether or not to continue with language or subjects that seem less heavily "intellectual" in the sense that they don't directly translate into a career path. Fortunately, I go to Mount Holyoke which is all about studying your passions and then finding employment that is tailored to your interests. 

To Be and Belong, by Mark Nepo

 Let go your want for greatness

and feel the tool that’s in your hand.

Let go your fear of emptiness
and receive the wave still reaching
from the beginning.

It only wants to enliven you
the way a candle fills an entire room.

Let the web of living things
entangle you.

Only stars are free
and they are so lonely.

Curse what you will
but give thanks

that everything alive
wants something from you.

Roberta

It's been a long time since I've watched Roberta, a musical film starring Irene Dunne, Ginger Rogers, Fred Astaire and Randolph Scott. I loved noticing that in the last model scene, a young Lucille Ball makes an appearance illuminating the screen. The music by Jerome Kern includes a big variety allowing Fred to dance solo or with Ginger, Irene to sing and Ginger to do a bit of everything. Roberta is the couturier's house in Paris, which is where everybody meets. This was Ginger and Fred's third film together, made in 1935 and they were put back to being second leads. The charm of Roberta is Ginger and Fred's interaction on the dance floor. This is one picture where they truly seem to enjoy themselves. If you haven't checked out the website Reel Classics, it covers very well Classic American cinema.

Skinny Legs and All

A philosophical Can o' Beans and pork, shoes, Southern preachers, sexuality, art and Jerusalem are all entwined together in Tom Robbins' novel Skinny Legs and All. I love Robbins word choice and wacky poetry.

"John is a label. Nebuchadnezzar is a poem. A monument. A swarm of killer bees let loose in the halls of the alphabet (105)."

The images that evokes is so cool! "Killer bees in the halls of the alphabet"...I imagine big letters in a maze of halls of a huge house. The same halls that my imagination comes up for the house of Lord Craven in The Secret Garden. Another great line is this one: "He grew up in Alexandria, whose vowels rise like yeast on the tongue (133)." When one thinks about it, yeast on your tongue would probably taste disgusting.

The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo

Is a story about an investigative journalist and what the cover calls a "punk prodigy". It's a mystery thriller about a pretty depressing and horrific subject: serial rapist/murderer. The first two hundred pages are background information-- a bit dull actually and then you get hooked into the thriller bit as we uncover slowly the culprit right under our noses. I can understand the phenomenon of the Millennium series, but the subject matter is rather distressing.

Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid

Butch Cassidy and The Sundance Kid--I love this movie. Witty, exciting, action packed, heart-wrenching and full of fun. How many movies are there where the heroes die at the end? Not many to my knowledge (which is very limited). Released in 1969, directed by George Roy Hill and screenplay by William Goldman it's a film to spend an evening with.