In class a while ago we spoke about how some of us can be prone to crying at certain times, and how we all know certain relatives who are perhaps quite quick to get teary eyed. I could really relate. I have certain relatives whom I have never seen cry, but on the other hand, my sister crys at just about everything. We've laughed with her about this for years.

I find it interesting that there is still an expectation placed on men in terms of crying. That old adage of "real men don't cry" is still very much alive and well in my opinion. Many folks may tout that we have come a long way, and that modern man is much more sensitive that his 1950s counterpart, but to be blunt I think that is crap. Not much has changed at all. Little boys are still chastised all the time for being "girly" if they're caught crying....I see it all the time. For those of you who do have children and who permit your children to show their feelings and not be afraid to cry, I applaud you. I think that is very healthy. But I do firmly believe that there are still many folks in the world who still reinforce that old sick adage. It will probably always be that way.

I consider myself a very sensitive person, but I still feel a great need to hide my tears if they arise. I think I've just been conditioned that way. Certain things always get to me. If I see that animated show "The Snowman", the ending just kills me. The film "The Elephant Man" always gets to me too.

So, what makes you cry? :)

I've come to the conclusion that I really do not like CGI special effects in movies. You know what I mean...pretty much every big blockbuster coming out of Hollywood these days is loaded with a mind-numbing array of computer generated everything. I just think it looks awful.

I hated the recent Spider Man movies. Not only because the scripts take flagrant liberties with the original story as it was presented in the comics (I was quite an obsessive fan back in the day), but I just thought the special effects looked so bad. As I watched Spidey swinging through Manhattan, I felt like I was watching somebody's XBox. I'm also quite a Star Wars fan, but even I must admit that the recent "Revenge of the Sith" was a case of CGI overkill.

And now I see ads on TV for the new King Kong movie. At first I was quite interested in seeing this, but now I don't think I'll bother. It looks like a case of more of the same old cheesy, fake looking CGI effects. I've grown quite an aversion.

There is a certain band that I am simply mad about. I have been listening to their music for over 15 years and I have become quite an obsessive fan. The name of the band is Sparks, and they have been around since 1971.

I love this band because they are amazingly quirky, and they give new meaning to the word "eccentric". This is exactly the type of music that I appreciate. When they started out, they were doing heavy metal bombast/glam type material. They are actually American, but they achieved a much greater level of success in the UK and Europe than they did in North America. Over the years they've released something like 30 albums, and they have changed their sound numerous times.

They sing songs with titles like "I Thought I Told You To Wait In The Car", "Angst in My Pants", "Barbecutie", "A Fun Bunch of Guys From Outer Space", "That's Not Nastassia", "The Ghost of Liberace", "Ugly Guys With Beautiful Girls" and numerous other crazy titles. The thing I love about these guys is that despite their eccentricities, the music is still very controlled and stylish. Everything they do has a high level of intelligence.

I am crazy about their song "Popularity". If you listen to the lyrics, it sounds like something that could have been written by an 8 year old. But I think therein lays the genius of this great band. I think it takes true talent to write something that simple and unpretentious. Here are the lyrics:

I like you and you like me a lot
And we do those things that can make us feel hot
Then we join some friends, all of them are all right
And we talk a while, then we climb in our cars

What a night, we all drive into town
Where we'll park our cars, and meet the rest of our friends
At a place that's called, I forget what it's called
But it's really great, and all our friends will be there

Popularity
Popularity

I like you and you like me a lot
And it's nice to be all alone with you too
But it's also nice being out with our friends
Cause they're all all right, maybe that's why we're friends

Popularity
Popularity
Popularity

I feel great, but it's getting real late
So I'll drive you home and you'll slide up real close
I'm so glad we met, and I like you so much
And I'm also glad that I got all those friends

Popularity
Popularity
Popularity


To hear some of their tracks, go to:

http://profile.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=user.viewprofile&friendID=3254211

Hello everyone. I hope you are not all too burnt out from the crush of exams.

I have been vacant from the internet for a while because I was admitted to the hospital last week. I just got out yesterday and I feel like a free man! I still must take it easy over the next while, but it certainly feels much better to be home as opposed to a vapid hospital room! I swear, it felt like the hospital was a complete vacuum, totally detached from the outside world. I had an enormous feeling that so much was going on outside but I could only watch it from the window in my room! :) I feel terribly for people who have to stay there long-term.

When I first went in, it actually felt kind of nice to be somewhere that was so sedate and so uneventful. It gave me a chance to clear the cobwebs out of my skull. But after about three days, I started to get very antsy, and I just craved stimulation so badly. At one point, I even felt a desire to go to a crowded mall, just so I could feel the sensation of being around other people, that's how desparate it was. Mind you, I typically HATE shopping and malls, especially when they are packed, so this tells you just how detached I felt! :)

Anyway, I wish you all best of luck on your exams and I hope you all have a great holiday season!

I am sure that I have read "An Elegy Wrote in a Country Church Yard" before. The reason I say this is because even though I think I read it quite some time ago, it left quite an impression on me. There is just a mood in this poem that is very resonant. I find that the imagery used in the poem is very potent. I especially love the night time images....it conjures up the feel of a lonely, still evening perfectly. I especially like that line "The moping Owl does to the moon complain". Very haunting.

I also enjoyed Collins' "Ode to Fear". But this is probably due to the fact that I have always had a liking for anything dark or slightly gothic. This poem actually reminded me very much of Edgar Allen Poe's work. In fact, I could easily imagine Vincent Price reading this poem. :) On the subject of fear, I think we are all controlled by fear to one degree or another. I think the poem does a great job of capturing the intense paralysis that fear can induce: "Ah Fear! Ah frantic Fear! I see, I see Thee near". Brilliant.

I also thought that the excerpt from More's "Sensibility" was interesting. I especially found this part intriguing: "He, scorning life's low duties to attend, Writes odes on friendship, while he cheats his friend". I find it fascinating that quite often (in literature and in real life, it seems) that people are frequently contradicting themselves. I have always found that this sort of duality makes for great drama in a story.

I must apologize for my laxity in blogging lately. I've just been feeling very tired and disconnected these days. And preoccupied.

Anyway, I thought I would share a few comments with regards to last week's readings. Again, I'm a bit behind. But better late than never, I guess.

I thought Mandeville's A Modest Defence of Public Stews was quite interesting. Of course, it reminded me a fair amount of Swift's A Modest Proposal. There were numerous comments spread throughout the text that caught my interest, some of which really had nothing to do with the subject addressed. For example, I found his comment about "Three Penny Jobs" which were "published to no ends, or purpose, but the Author's" very intriguing. I'm not sure if this is the author disapproving of cheaply made books, or books that are of poor literary quality. Either way, I found this reminded me of someone in the modern age putting down any sort of entertainment which they may deem as "trash" or "bubble gum". I must admit that I have the typical attitude of "it's all good". I even find myself drawn to garbage once in a while, if only to have a guilty respite from all the complexity.

Mandeville also mentions something about treating "the most grave subjects with Burlesque and Ridicule". Interesting indeed. Again, I can't help but see the modern parallel. Don't we still do this? I'm reminded of a lyric from a Crowded House song: "In the paper today, tales of war and of waste, but you turn right over to the TV page". I know I'm certainly guilty of this.

I was also rather captivated by Mandeville's mention of "The King's Evil", wherein someone could be cured of scrofula simply by the touch of a monarch. Wow, now that would be something to see! I also thought it was interesting how Mandeville presented his proposal in such an efficient, business-like manner. Again, this reminded me a lot of Swift's work.

I also enjoyed the selection from the Rambler written by Johnson. His comments about mankind losing itself "in schemes of future felicity" rang very true to me. I know that I spend way too much time looking to the future and not enough occupying myself with the ever-important present.

I must also say that Goldsmith's The Revolution in Low Life made me make my own inner comparisons to the present as well. The idea of farms being taken over by large corporations is certainly truer today than it has ever been. His comments about a country that has inhabitants who are "very rich and very poor" could very well be describing the state of affairs in today's society.

I was very intrigued with Johnson's "The History of Rasselas". I also found our conversation in class last Tuesday regarding this text very interesting as well. So, is this really a story where nothing happens? Are the characters in exactly the same frame of mind at the end of the text as they were at the beginning? Possibly. But I have the feeling that there's much going on underneath the surface of this rich text.

I think Johnson is dealing with very visceral, primal human qualities. I think he realized that humans have a basic tendency to always be longing for something more. We achieve so much and yet we still want so much. I can definitely apply this logic to myself. And I could certainly say that it applies to many people I know, if not most.

We could get into a very lenghty, heated debate about whether or not all there is to life is a relentless pursuit of dreams that will never be achieved. Personally, I choose not to believe that. I don't view dreams as silly or whimsical, in fact I would say that we all have a basic desire to pursue a dream, or to at least reach some other plateau. But that is strictly my own personal belief.

I have a friend who tends to be rather morose and doomy. I've gotten to a point where I am quite used to it. Our personalities are so wildly different in that respect that sometimes I honestly wonder how we are still friends. But I don't try to understand such things. Sometimes there really is no explanation. All I know is, despite our wildly varying personalities, we still "click", for want of a better term. I see dreaming as critical, whereas I feel that my friend tends to view it as futile and a waste of time. So be it. That's his belief. I have my own.

I have always been of the belief that having the dream is ultimately more important than achieving the dream. I think goals, or anything that teases us and won't let go can be very frightening things, yet to ignore them is even more frightening. One of my favorite lines I've ever heard in a song is in the track "Lemon" by U2. The line goes "Man dreams of leaving so he always stays behind". I think there is a profound truth to that.

When I was 17, I saw a 15 minute film that changed my life. It was an interview with Maritime poet Alden Nowlen, which I think was shot not too long before his death. He said things in this film that completely effected my views of life. He spoke of death (I think we touched upon this a little bit in class last Tuesday). It is easy to misconstrue such ramblings as depressing or morose, but I don't think that's the case. I am paraphrasing, but he said something along the lines of "I think it is very important that everyone thinks about death for at least 10 minutes every day. I don't mean to sound morbid, but I think if we all really sat down and thought about the fragility of life, how short our time on this Earth is, I think that would have a profoundly positive impact on us all and make us really appreciate out lives so much more". No truer words have I ever heard.

Anyway, to make a long story short, and getting back to "Rasselas", one thing I took from this text is something that I always believed in anyway: I strongly think happiness is entirely a choice. Life really is what you make it. To my friend, he feels that life is full of dead ends and desparation, but I choose not to see it that way. I have too much I want to do. :)