Buster Keaton

TCM's Summer under the Stars is featuring Buster Keaton tonight, and I've already watched Steamboat Bill, Jr. and am now watching one I've never seen called The General. I like silent movies in general, but these silent comedies are some of my favorites.

In Steamboat Bill, Jr., the incredible scene where the front of a house falls down around him and he just happens to be standing in the place where there's a window opening is amazing. There's no stunt double or CGI fill in for any of what he does, and his physical strength and agility are pretty amazing. The fact that Keaton wrote and staged most of these films is also impressive.

My all-time favorite is by Harold Lloyd, though. I can't remember the title of it because I always get it confused with Keaton's College, but it's the one where Lloyd goes off to college and, of course, does everything wrong. The scene in that one where he's at the school dance and his suit begins to come apart is both hilarious and suspenseful.

Sometimes I think a lot was lost whenever the actors started having to talk. In silent films, the whole body carries the message. I've said it before about Phantom of the Opera, but it's worth repeating. While some of it looks melodramatic now, there's still something to be said for emoting with the body and carrying the message and action with something from inside instead of something added by a computer later on.

Floating

I got a headache today during 6th period and had to take some Advil. You wouldn't think something as generic as Advil would have a very strong effect, but I've been floating about three feet off the floor since it kicked in. It's not a particularly pleasant feeling. Tylenol doesn't do this to me, but then again, Tylenol won't kill one of these headaches, either.

Most of the time my headaches just bring pain, but whenever I sort of "head one off at the pass" with meds, my brain feels like a cable has been unhooked. I can't string sentences, and driving home is always an adventure. This trip home, I found myself staring at the shifting clouds and thinking, "Ooohhh, pretty!" Fortunately, traffic was light and the roads were dry. I don't know exactly how long the clouds had fascinated me, but I can't really remember leaving town.... There are days when I think living somewhere near the school would be very, very nice.

Anyway, I made it home. I've had my leftovers for dinner, and I'm going to take a good shower and go to bed. It's still daylight, but I'm still floating, so I can't really see the point in trying to do anything that involves any of the higher order brain functions. Rain on the roof ought to make for a nice nap or evening's rest. Maybe when I get up, my brain will have "rebooted" and I'll be able to function like a normal (okay, as close as I ever get, anyway) person again.

Simple/Good

This afternoon, I worked grading papers and cleaning mess in my room up until 5:00. I packed all my junk into my sad, sad rolling bag, and left the building. I had to go to Wal-Mart to get food for everybody in the house, and I decided that I wanted something simple for dinner, so I bought faux Mexican, and I had a big taco salad thing when I got home.

Now, I'm taking care of the last few things I need to do tonight before I go to bed and Dillon is sitting on my shoulder and purring. Sometimes simple is the best. Tomorrow will be a very long day since we have Open House, but at least tonight I have good simple things.

Jekyll Season One Finale

I watched the two hour season finale of Jekyll tonight, and I am still enjoying the show even though it's over now. Rarely have I been entertained so thoroughly by a TV show.

I couldn't predict where it was going. That's beyond rare. Usually, TV and movies are so formulaic that they bore me stiff. Every time I thought I knew what was coming in Jekyll, though, it took a hard left turn, and I have to applaud that. Characters appeared, disappeared, reappeared, and shifted sides and roles with a frequency that kept me guessing. As for the ending, which I won't spoil here, I have to say that I NEVER saw that coming, although upon reflection, had I been paying more attention, I might have....

I hope that the BBC will do a season two. I looked on their UK website, and all they had to say was that the drama had ended. I don't know if that means for good or just a hiatus before a new season begins, but I know that I'll want to order this season on DVD if it comes out just to see it without a commercial every five seconds ruining the flow. If you haven't seen it, really, you ought to watch it. The show is just good.

Back Again

Well, Monday I finally got tired of the pain, and I went to see my doctor. His analysis was that I had torn a muscle in my back with my silly big bag. He gave me Lortab and Robaxin, had a nurse shoot me full of two different kinds of medicine for the inflammation, told me to take Alieve twice a day and sent me home.

The last two nights, I've come home, had a fairly hearty meal to hold down the pills, taken everything and been asleep by 9:00. It's the first good rest I've had since I did this to myself last week. I felt better just after one night of undisturbed rest. The muscle is still pulling some. Today, I must have done something stupid and angered it. That being said, it's much, much better.

The doctor told me that I can't carry that big honkin' L.L. Bean bag anymore. He has consigned me to a rolling backpack type of thing which I HATE, but I have to admit, it's nice not to have to swing all that weight up on my shoulder and almost fall over twice a day.

I think the bag I bought is going to wear out depressingly soon, but at least I won't have time to get tired of it that way. I wonder if L.L. Bean makes rolling bags. Their stuff is almost indestructible. One of their big purple backpacks lasted me from my sophomore year of college through Costa Rica, grad school, Thailand, and Japan. I'd be using it still, but the water resistant liner deteriorated and a rat chewed a hole in the bottom.

The steroids, in their typical fashion, have made me excessively twitchy and irritable. I've been trying very hard not to take it out on my classes, but sometimes, especially at times like today when my room had no air, it gets really hard. Hopefully, these will cycle out in a couple of days and I'll be back to whatever passes for normal for me.

Well, it's about the magic hour. I'm not going to take the Lortab tonight, but because the muscle is twitching and tight, I guess I'll take the other one. Maybe tomorrow night, I won't need either.

Pain

At some point during last week, I lifted my ridiculously heavy work bag and pulled a muscle in my neck and back. Once upon a time, back in my Biological Sciences major days, I could have told you whether it was the latisimus dorsi or the trapezius, but now all I know is that it hurts like perdition.

When I sleep, I roll over and wake up because the muscle is mad. When I try to get out of my chair or sit down again, the muscle gets mad. If I try to reach at a certain angle or put my laptop off my lap and onto the stool in front of me, the muscle gets mad.

Needless to say, life hasn't been to spiffy 'round the house lately. Several times, I've gotten sort of stuck between lying down and sitting up or between sitting up and standing. I've applied heat and taken Advil. If it doesn't resolve itself after a weekend free of the workbag of doom, I'm going to have to go see a doctor, one of my least favorite ways to spend time.

One good thing did come from it today. In an effort to give the shoulder the maximum amount of rest, I simply sat and read all day. I polished off two books that I'd bought recently, and am about to go back for more of The Count of Monte Cristo, which is fast turning into one of the best books I've ever read. Since I'm reading the unabridged version, it's going sort of slowly, but I love, love, love Edmond Dantes. He's even more wonderful than the Musketeers, and I'm only just getting to the execution of his revenge.

Well, I'm off to a hot shower followed by more painkillers and some reading. Maybe I won't wake up fourteen times tonight because the muscle disapproves of my position.

The Thirtieth Anniversary

PLEASE NOTE: NO SACRILEGE OR OFFENSE IS MEANT IN THE USE OF THIS IMAGE.

Today marks the thirtieth anniversary of Elvis' death. I am watching Jailhouse Rock on TCM and marveling at how handsome he was and at that undefinable something he had that made him so great. This film was made in '57 or '58, and unlike so many of Elvis' other film efforts, this one is actually something more than camp and sex appeal.

I put the anniversary on my classroom calendar with other dates in history at the end of June, and I thought then about the persistent love our culture has for Elvis despite the fact that he's been gone so long. Why has he lasted? Is it some sort of Marilyn Monroe thing, a pop figure who plays to the repetitive iconography of human religion? Is Elvis just another incarnation of an archetype that's repeated across cultures and time, or was he something unique?

Certainly today's pop icons fall far short of the kind of appeal and staying power he has. Most of them look like strutting and ridiculous boys instead. I can't imagine many if any of them ever becoming one tenth of what Elvis is in our culture. There are few figures more easily recognizable, whether it's the sultry gaze, the pompadour hairdo, or the spangled jumpsuit. Yet, despite the Vegas caricature, at the base of his popularity is something that none of the media mills have been able to reproduce or even imitate to any measurable degree. What is that? Can we put a finger on it, or is it something that transcends attempts to nail it down with words?

The film has just ended with Elvis singing "Young and Beautiful", which will always be one of my favorite songs from his catalog. His voice is so beautiful, the ending is a happy one with values rebalanced and love triumphant. It's a lovely confection.

The Hell of Faculty Meetings

I loathe faculty meetings. In fact, I loathe all meetings. I really wish people could just write succinct memos and communicate via email. Instead, The Powers That Be regularly corral us into an auditorium or the library and my frustration level grows and grows.

It's not that these meetings are ill-run, necessarily. It's just that I have no patience with sitting still when there are so many other things I need to be doing, grading, planning, photocopying, something, something other than taking up space and fidgeting in a chair wishing for my freedom.

I never take the announcements well. Things that aren't really big deals grow in my mind to epic proportions. I get upset. I get headaches. I wish I could be like one of my most famous colleagues and just get up and leave.

I went to my room, threw my crap in my bag, and got out. I cooked some rice and had some tuna. I'm about to watch Hamlet with Kenneth Brannagh. I'm not dealing with any of this stuff until tomorrow.

The First Saturday

We've only been in school a week, yet the first Saturday morning already feels unbelievably decadent. I woke up this morning at 5:30 with that heartstopping feeling of having slept through an alarm, and then I enjoyed the ability to roll back over and sink into the warmth of my bed again. Even though I eventually got up around 7:45, I feel as though I've slept 'til noon.

I have about a hundred things that I need and want to get done today, but right now, I'm still taking care of email in my pajamas. Luxury.....

Taking the Wind from the Sails

This afternoon, after a long day of moving books and boxes and trying to be all things to all people, I had a meeting in which a college sophomore told me I wasn't having my AP students write strenuously enough, unless of course, I was sending them to an inferior school like Ole Miss or MSU. No, I'm not kidding. Lord, don't I wish I were.

She said she felt unprepared for college comp after coming out of our school. Now, I would just like to say that this person was never any sort of student of mine, but I still felt the sting of her comments. I work very hard at what I do, checking and rechecking with collegiate standards, and to have some underage individual tell me that I'm not doing my job right really, really hacked me off. To have her slam MSU, even though I am not a rabid bulldog fan, with that sort of matter-of-fact private school arrogance hacked me off even more. I hate elitism.

Oh, be proud of me gentle reader. I didn't say a word. I dutifully typed her comments into our meeting minutes and bit my tongue. I can't say her words haven't set off a plague of doubts and reevaluations in me, though. Just what I needed to take the wind right out of my sails and leave me, like the Ancient Mariner, in the hell of becalmed seas.

And So It Goes

I am cautiously optimistic so far. I hate to even say that because it's practically begging for problems, but it's true.

Today I walked all my classes through a poetry analysis technique and the juniors just blew me away. They actually knew what to do without me telling them. They'd had it last year. Since they've got a good foundation, I can build on it faster and higher than I've been able to do in previous years. They seem like they're going to be a good bunch.

I'm still getting to know my seniors, AP and otherwise. They seem like good classes, but we have to wait until the new gets worn off a bit more to be sure. Some of them I know, some of them I don't. I feel good about them, too, though.

In a non-school-related note, I got my set of Elvis Pez today. YES!!! Mom found them in a miscellaneous grocery store in town and called me. It's sad when your whole family knows you're hunting PEZ, probably, but who cares? I have a set.

Well, yawning is becoming very frequent and Ghost Hunters is almost over, so I think it's almost beddy-bye time for me.

First Day Back

What a day.....

Today went pretty well, all things considered. There was a sense of peace and order in the halls. There were almost no kids out and about while classes were going on, and even during 6th and 7th periods, there was no noise or insanity. The kids were in uniform and the office was quiet. I was very impressed. As long as this holds, I think this year is going to be good.

It's too early to tell what my classes are going to be like. Everybody was on their first-day-of-school-the-teacher-is-an-unknown-quantity behavior. Once that melts some, we'll see what's really under the surface. AP looks promising, but they've unbalanced the classes again. One will be very large, the other very small. That's a difficult situation to deal with for making lesson plans, but by the time schedule changes bounce around some more, as they inevitably will, we'll see if it doesn't moderate somewhat.

This afternoon, three of my former students came to see me after school. It was such a great surprise. I hadn't seen two of them in over a year. They were some of my first class of AP, and hearing about their college experiences and just talking with them again was a real treat. Too often, teaching seniors is like nursing a bird with a broken wing; at a certain point, it flies away, and one is never quite sure how everything turned out. These birds came back to the nest, at least briefly, so I enjoyed it a great deal.

While my little birds were visiting, Technology came into my room to tell me that my computer was trying to upload a virus of some kind into the system. CRAP!!! They had isolated my room from the system and checked the machine. It turned out not to be an actual virus. It was some sort of spyware instead. Great. I try so hard to compute safely, but Technology said that as much as I'm online, there's really not much I can do about it except for increasing the frequency of my SpyBot checks. I guess I'll be doing that about every other day from now on. There HAS to be an easier way....

I marshaled enough energy to go out into the stifling heat and drive home. When I got here, my TV was on. It was very strange. One of two things had to have happened: my cat walked on my remote OR my new Wireless N router cranked up my TV by itself. I'm hoping for option one because option two is bizarre.

There was other weirdness, too. My phone line has gotten spliced with some miscellaneous woman somewhere. Right now, we have a party line situation. If her phone rings, or if mine does, it rings to both our houses. I hope they fix this soon. My chances of winding up with a Doris Day/Rock Hudson movie out of this are somewhat slim. (For those of you who don't know that reference, look up Pillow Talk sometime.)

Well, it's not late, but I am pooped and tomorrow will be another day of adjustment. My phone just rang again on the party line, and I'm fervently hoping that what's her name doesn't get lots of late calls.....

Jekyll

I watched the premiere of the BBC series Jekyll last night, and I have to say that I'm more impressed with it than I've been with a TV show in a long, long time.

The premise is intriguing; the main character is somehow a direct descendant of Dr. Henry Jekyll (yes, from the book), who turns out to have been a real person. There is a sketchy "super agency" after him, possibly governmental, possibly corporate. There is a long missing mother who just reappeared after a 40-something year absence. And then, there's Hyde, who somehow manages to be really scary but not totally evil. Check out the change and more information at the BBC America site here.

I am actually finding myself looking forward to next Saturday night to find out what's going to happen next. How long has it been since I've been able to say that about TV? Check it out. It's worth the time.

Two Odd Days

Yesterday I was too tired to blog when I got home. I spent the morning playing games, including the ever-popular make up an adjective to go with your name and toss a bright pink frog toy around the circle. I am always grumpy about "team building", but these were actually fun. Also, I finally know some of the people I work with. You have no idea how many of us were commenting on the fact that we could now put a name with a face we've been seeing for years now. Even if nothing else came out of it, that made it all worth doing.

Today has been full of weirdness, or at least it has since noon. I slept until around 9:30 and lounged around on the couch for awhile. Then I got up and started doing my "I have other things I should be doing" cleaning routine. I took care of several things that have needed sorting for awhile, and I feel better. I still have to finish up typing my lesson plans and assembling my new lesson plan book, but I decided that I wanted the house to be ordered so I don't have to feel bad when I come in and fall down next week.

The weirdness started when, sans storm, the power went off at 2:30. It stayed off for about an hour. When it came back on, Mom called me, and her cell phone was so garbled, I could not understand her. I decided to err on the side of caution, so I jumped in the car and drove to their house. Apparently, whatever caused my power to go off killed her land line phone and her cell battery was low.

After we got through with that crisis, I came back home and found a red Jeep Cherokee sitting at the end of my neighbor's driveway. Two women were just sitting there in it. I've never seen either of them or the vehicle before. As long as they don't wind up in my yard, I guess it's not my business.

I came in the house and I started working on some of my school work when I began to hear gunshots from the woods across the road. It's not currently any kind of hunting season, and it's way too hot to be out in the woods for funzies, so I have no idea what that was all about. It sounded like a really big weapon. I guess I'll just assume that some of the members of that hunting club got a new gun and wanted to try it out.

Hopefully, that's the end of the weirdness, but it seems to come in waves, so I think I'll just sort of keep an eye out....