Perils of assimilation

If only life came with subtitles.

Thursday, July 20, 2006

American Masters

Last Night, I eagerly awaited the 'American Masters' special on Marilyn Monroe. I had seen the one on Judy Garland last week after painfully long rehearsals. let me tell you, after that, I went from liking Judy to Loving Judy. she is so fuckin' awesome, and the shit she went through in her life... it just blew me away.
So, you would figure that the one on Marilyn would be just as good, right?

uh... No.

It wasn't about her, It was about her pictures. The introduction made me lose faith in 'American Masters.' It LITERALLY said that she was not a person, but just a pretty face. What the fuck, people? Her life isn't important? What about her acting? It gave the sketchiest of outlines about her life. I was disappointed. I was later fulfilled with get this... a filler piece about her and Dimaggio. It, in a half an hour, told me more about her than the awful previous program.

But, 'American Masters' redeemed itself with a special about James Dean.

I
Love
James
Dean.
His acting is so amazing, he was so damn vulnerable.
And 'East of Eden'... oh my god. I Will say one thing: I HATE HATE HATE Steinbeck, but I adore this movie.

Wednesday, July 19, 2006

Yay!

I Figured out that my iPod has an alarm Setting! oh happy happy day.

Family History

So Last Night I asked my Father about our family History. He went and Dredged Up a family tree. It's amazing how far back it Goes. The Earliest person listed was Born in roughly 1580. Also, We are Direct descendants of Stephen Burr, the First President of Princeton, who was also the (brother or Uncle) of Aaron Burr, you know, the Guy that shot Alexander Hamilton. Also, the Hahns were one of the founding Families of Woodstock, Ill. This is all on My Dad's Father's side of the Family (I've never met him, so It feels weird calling him Grandpa). His Mom's Side came form Edinburgh. But She claimed that she was adopted and that she was Native American/Polish. Unfortunatly, the orphanage burned down and also the Courthouse. So the Only way to find out the truth is to have Genetic Testing Done. I can believe that she was adopted, but I'm paler than ghost, so i doubt the Native American thing.
I know nothing about Grandpa's Family, only that He's English and German. Nana's completely Irish, Her Father Jumped on the First Boat he saw to avoid Joining the Irish Army. Which is a damn cool story if you ask me.
I'd Like to thank my Wisconsin History Teacher, Piper, For getting me interested in my heritage. I Really want to Travel out east To collect some Grave Rubbings, and also to Ireland and Scotland to see what I can Dig up there.

Tuesday, July 11, 2006

Reading Ulysses: Telemachus

Oy. I Have apparently started with the wrong book, seeing how the Introduction told me that Stephen Dedalus was the Protagonist of Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man. But It's too late now, I'm too far in to stop now.

I Don't like Buck Mulligan. He keeps trying to make Stephen feel inferior by mocking him and lording his opinions over him.
He isn't concerned with the creation of art, Which is essential to Stephen's being, but rather the marketing of ideas. He treats Stephen like a servant, and then he has the audacity to ask for the keys to the tower, where Stephen pays the rent. "Usurper" is an apt title for Buck.

Mother Grogan is an interesting symbol. She represents kind of a typical Irish Peasant. As such, she also stands for Ireland itself. She is withered and barren, and she kowtows to Buck and Haines showing the unwillingness of Ireland to seperate itself from English Oppression. She has been so oppressed for so long, she can't even recognize her own language. Stephen comments that he serves three masters: An Italian, The Pope; an Englishman, the King; and he also adds Ireland as a master. That also adds to the "Irish servant" motif he sets down earlier.

It suprised me the first time that we could hear Stephen's thoughts. Initially, I thought it was a narrator speaking.

Has anyone else noticed Joyce's use of Gold and White in this chapter?

Saturday, July 08, 2006

My reading list

1. Ulysses- James Joyce
2. Midnight's Children- Salman Rushdie
3. Dr. Faustus- Thomas Mann
4. The Magnificent Ambersons- Booth Tarkington
5. The Brothers Karamozov- Fyodor Dostoyevsky
6. A Passage to India- E.M. Forester
7. Great Expectations- Charles Dickens
8. Tom Jones- Henry Fielding
9. Lolita- Vladimir Nabokov
10. Crime and Punishment- Fyodor Dostoyevsky
11. A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man- James Joyce
12. 100 years of Solitude- Gabriel Garcia Marquez
13. Ghostwritten- David Mitchell
14. A Room with a View- E.M. Forester
15. The beautiful and the Damned- F. Scott Fitzgerald
16. Sentimental Education- Gustav Flaubert
17. Madame Bovary- Gustav Flaubert
18. Dubliners- James Joyce
19. Naked Lunch-William S. Burroughs
20. A Movable Feast- Earnest Hemingway (Might as well give the guy a second Chance)
21. Fahrenheit 451- Ray Bradbury
22. A Widow for One Year- John Irving
23. In Cold Blood- Truman Capote
24. As I Lay Dying- William Faulkner
25. Things fall Apart- Chinua Achebe
26. The Unbearable Lightness of Being-Milan Kundera
27. Notes from Underground- Fyodor Dostoyevsky
28. Infinite Jest- David Foster Wallace
29. Of Human Bondage- W. Somerset Maugham
30. Ethan Frome- Edith Whorton
31. Siddartha- Hermann Hesse
32.House of Leaves - Mark Z. Danielewski

That's it for now. If anyone has more to suggest, leave a comment