Thursday, February 26, 2009

correspondence with a legend.

so a couple weeks ago i mailed a letter to ray bradbury as part of a project i have been working on forever now. i didn't anticipate receiving any response, let alone one containing the answer that i so desperately need to finish the project, but i opened the mailbox monday only to find an envelope staring me in the face.

it was no ordinary envelope. it was self-addressed and stamped--just like the ones i had enclosed with the letter i sent; it was post-marked "los angeles, ca," and i delighted in the possibilities that small envelope held within it.

i opened it only to find thrill and let down. mr. bradbury is eighty-nine years old. he's not in the best health, and is still a busy man, so it was not surprising that all he could manage was an inscribed picture. that was it. no answer to my questions. nothing more than a token of appreciation. that's the let down.

the thrill is a little harder to describe, but i'll try:



RAY FREAKING BRADBURY WROTE MY NAME!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!





did you see that? that first word on the page? yeah, that's my name as written by ray bradbury!
a legend took the time out of his busy day to personally inscribe and sign a picture for me! after a couple years of researching this man and his career, my adoration is pretty strong, and it seems that with every day that passes my respect for him as an artist and a man is growing. so thank you, mr. bradbury. you made my day. and while i still have questions, just the very fact that we corresponded thrills me to no end.

Tuesday, February 24, 2009

i believe...

my students are working on essays of personal belief right now, so i thought i would join them in the exercise. here's my attempt at an essay of personal belief:

i believe in the power of music to change things.

when i was a little girl i had a walkman. it was my second skin, my defense mechanism against a cruel outside world. i listened to it constantly, escaping into the sounds it filled my head with. it played mostly pop those days, but as i and my music tastes have grown, so has my belief in the efficacy of music.

in college, in addition to my major i began studying ethnomusicology, the study of music as it relates to the culture it emanates from. it was during this time of musical exploration that music became less of a defense and more of a means to change. i studied counter-cultures and the music that sprang from them: bob marley, thomas mapfumo, jimi hendrix, janis joplin, bob dylan, and even more recent artists like the flobots.

as i listened and studied it occurred to me that artists composed their songs around the changes they wished to see in the world. in the words of the flobots:


“put your hands up high if you haven't abandoned
hope that the pen stroke is stronger than the cannon
balls to the wall, nose to the grindstone
my interrogation techniques leave your mind blown
place your bets lets speak to the enemy
don't let em pretend that we seek blood
and who's we anyways kemo sabe?
mighty warlord wanna-be street thug
a threat for a threat leaves the whole world terrified
blow for blow never settles the score
word for word is time need clarify
we the people did not want war”


they used their music as a gateway, a mouthpiece for change, and i respected them for it. bob marley:
“until the philosophy which hold one race
superior and another inferior
is finally and permanently discredited and abandoned
everywhere is war, me say war”

i’ve played a few instruments but i am no musician. instead, i am a connoisseur of music—revolutionary or otherwise. music helped me escape from the demons of my youth, helped light my path in adolescence, and guides me still today. it can change my mood in an instant, inspire, and focus me.

music is power. it is force. it is change. use it wisely.

Saturday, February 14, 2009

music. a random tag.

RULES:
1. put your itunes, windows media player, etc. on shuffle.
2. for each question, press the next button to get your answer.
3. YOU MUST WRITE THAT SONG NAME DOWN NO MATTER HOW SILLY IT SOUNDS.
4. have fun!


IF SOMEONE SAYS 'ARE YOU OKAY' YOU SAY?
gone. (jack johnson)

HOW WOULD YOU DESCRIBE YOURSELF?
where are you tonight (tom johnston)

WHAT DO YOU LIKE IN A GUY/GIRL?
my wish (rascal flatts)

HOW DO YOU FEEL TODAY?
come on get higher (matt nathanson)

WHAT IS YOUR LIFE'S PURPOSE?
lolly lolly lolly get your adverbs here (buffalo tom)

WHAT'S YOUR MOTTO?
revival (john corbett)

WHAT DO YOUR FRIENDS THINK OF YOU?
stickshifts and safetybelts (cake)

WHAT DO YOUR PARENTS THINK OF YOU?
bitch went nuts (ben folds)

WHAT DO YOU THINK ABOUT VERY OFTEN?
coldfront (amie miriello)

WHAT IS 2 + 2?
mediocre (ximena sarinana)

WHAT DO YOU THINK OF YOUR BEST FRIEND?
i just called to say i love you (stevie wonder)

WHAT IS YOUR LIFE STORY?
i'm gonna sit right down (madeleine peyroux)

WHAT DO YOU WANT TO BE WHEN YOU GROW UP?
headturner (joss stone)

WHAT DO YOU THINK WHEN YOU SEE THE PERSON YOU LIKE?
no me quitte pas (regina spektor)

WHAT WILL YOU DANCE TO AT YOUR WEDDING?
if i could (jack johnson)

WHAT WILL THEY PLAY AT YOUR FUNERAL?
things people say (lady antebellum)

WHAT IS YOUR HOBBY/INTEREST?
455 rocket (kathy mattea)

WHAT IS YOUR BIGGEST FEAR?
inside out (eve 6)

WHAT IS YOUR BIGGEST SECRET?
ain't no reason (brett dennen)

WHAT DO YOU WANT RIGHT NOW?
lollipop (mika)

WHAT DO YOU THINK OF YOUR FRIENDS?
you were meant for me (gene kelly)

Thursday, February 12, 2009

and another thing...

i just stumbled across this poem by bradbury. with each thing i read i respect this man more and more...

A poem written on learning that Shakespeare
and Cervantes both died on the same day

by Ray Bradbury

Great Shakespeare lost, Cervantes gone
The sun at noon goes down. The dawn
Refuses light. Time holds its breath
At this coincidence of death
Then can it be? and is it so
That these twin gods to darkness go
All in a day! and none to stop
The harvesting of this fell crop
Each in its field, and each so bright
They, burning, hurled away the night.
Yet night returns to seize its due,
One Spirit Spout? No! Death takes two.
First one. The world goes wry from lack
Then two! tips world to balance back.
Two Comet strikes within a week,
First Spain, then dumbstruck England's cheek.
The world grinds mute in dreads and fears
Antarctica melts down to tears,
And Caesars ghosts erupted, rise
All bleeding Amazons from eyes,
An age has ended, yet must stay
As witness to a brutal day
When witless God left us alone
By deathing Will, then Spanish clone.
Who dares to try and gauge each pen
We shall not see such twins again.
Shakespeare is lost, Cervantes dead?
The conduits of God are bled
And gone the Light, and shut the clay
Two Titans gone within a day,
Two felled by one sure stroke of death,
Christ gapes his wounds. God stops his breath.
And we are staggered by twin falls
The vastness of the day appalls
As if a tribunal of Kings
From Caesars down to our Royal Things,
A pageant of rich royalty
Were drowned in Time's obscenity.
Who ordered thus: "Two giants - die."
First one and then our other eye
God shut the great, then greatest dream
One not enough? No, it would seem
A void half full if Shakespeare, done
Went down to doom at sunset's gun.
So then lamenting, then with laugh,
God seized and filled the other half.
Cervantes pulled across the sill
To heart of Comet brim and fill.
God sent both forth, twin stars whose fire
Birthed whales and beauteous beasts for hire
And long years since we beg for rides
Where Cervantes plus Shakespeare hides
Their fall? knocked echoes round the Stage
And still we reckon our outrage
Because where is the sense in this
Our left hand and our right we miss
Which clapped together made applause
For God and Primal Cosmic Cause.
But Cervantes and Bard strewn cold
Two wild Dreams in one dumb soil mold?
Let all the echoes flow in tides
Where comets are their flowering brides
And Cervantes and bawdy Will
Do windmill fight our hopes uphill
And rouse us up in nightmare bed
To cry: Quixote, Hamlet, dead?
In one fell day? Get off! Get. Go!
Such funerals I will not know.
Their graves, their stones, these I refuse.
Lend me their books, show me their Muse.
By end of day or, latest, week,
I bid Cervantes/Shakespeare speak
To brim my heart, to fill my head
With what? Good Don. Fine Lear. Not dead. Not dead!

this just in...

...i just wrote a letter to ray bradbury.

ray freaking bradbury. i know the chances of getting a response are slim to none, but i had to do it.

Saturday, February 7, 2009

statement #1

edward norton and colin farrell beating the hell out of each other is pretty hot.


if you doubt me, see pride and glory.

Tuesday, February 3, 2009

tag. you're it.

so i got tagged a few days ago. i've been avoiding it. but given the fact that i've been housebound today due to the consumption i'm apparently suffering, i'll go ahead and give it a go.

1:: i hate the baby corn things found in asian food. they're weird. i mean, are they baby big corns or an odd variety of corn? which is it. we don't eat normal corn cobs, so we shouldn't eat the little ones either.

2:: i am completely and totally obsessed with ray bradbury, fahrenheit 451, and asbestos.

3:: rootbeer is the only thing that tastes good to me when i'm sick.

4:: i long to be latin or english.

5:: i read middle english fluently.

6:: i frequently drive around for no reason at all. i just love to drive. ever since i got my license my friends and i have driven around aimlessly. i still do it.

7:: rather than buy expensive souvenirs on vacations, i collect flattened pennies. you know those machines that flatten a penny and imprint a stamp on them--those. i collect those. they're fun, cheap, and make me remember all the really fun times i've had while having them made.

8:: i have a huge crush on gene kelley.

9:: i'm allergic to PPD. that's paraphenylenediamine. otherwise known as hair dye. and tattoo ink. and every other type of dark goo or ink that you could possibly think of.

10:: i can make a mean mug of hot chocolate. i insist that it's all in the technique.

11:: it drives me nuts when people confuse "their," "there," and "they're."

12:: i love the smell of lavender and have, on occasion, sprayed it all over my house. it's so refreshing and relaxing.

13:: i have a longstanding wish to be able to plug a flashdrive into the heads of others to download their brains like a file. of couse this power would only be used in cases where i am incredibly jealous of another person's knowledge. it would do no harm to them or their brains, and it would only serve to make me smarter.

14:: i cross my sevens and z's.

15:: i LOVE playing in the kitchen. i'm a pretty good baker and thoroughly enjoy getting in the kitchen and whipping up something delightful.

16:: i have only cried (full-blown blubbering) at three movies: life is beautiful (but only in the original italian), crash, and milk.

17:: i love the word fuck. it's just a great word. i use it way more than i should.

18:: i think that "the merchant of venice" is not necessarily anti-semitic. it definitely can be read that way, but it can also not.

19:: i am an intense bibliophile and have begun hoarding antique books. especially ones that have sentimental meaning for me.

20:: i loathe catfish.

21:: when i was little, i had a crush on one of our local weathermen. my parents still give me hell about it today. but hey, i know a ton about meteorology now.

22:: i am obsessed with texas. weird and unique texas, that is. i have spent many a day driving around this crazy state taking pictures of giant spaceships, brass armadillos and more.

23:: i hate little paperclips. they serve no purpose whatsoever. anything worth paperclipping deserves a full-sized one.

24:: i think harold bloom is my arch-enemy.

25:: despite my love of driving, if i could pick a superpower i would choose teleportation. just the option of being able to zap myself anywhere on earth is rather appealing.