April Showers.
Bring...
(courtesy of weather.com)
Lookit that forecast! A whole week of 60+ weather. Now that's what I call motivation.
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Fellow-ette has so much to report from the nearly-week since she's been postin' to AGW. To start with, I showed my students "Slam," the risque but positive docu-drama kinda film about the power of spoken word poetry to fight violence, self-destruction, and the "prison of the mind."
It's one of those symbolism-heavy "deep" movies that teenagers love, with enough hood-talk and cursing to appeal to them. The scene that really got to my kids was in the prison courtytard when the protagonist (played by Saul Williams) is about to get jumped by some toughs, and he starts rhyming so beautifully and expressively (------ plottin shit, lovely/ but the feds is plottin me/tryin to lock up my astrology") about how violence between imprisoned blacks is worthless; playing in to the master plan, and stops them from fighting.
One of my kids actually said he was going to try that the next time he is under the threat of being jumped. Okay, so realistically, will this film deter my kids from f*cking up, fighting, landing themselves in prison? Who knows. But it touched them, as it touched me when I saw it at the tender age of fourteen -- snuck into the theater by my older "alternative" friends, and I had my mind blown in a way that still reverbrates.
This weekend was a lovely one for fellow-ette, excepting the absence of her fellow. On Friday she went over to the Riverdale Diner with co-teachers for brews and nachos... we talked for once about subjects deviating from school, and wasn't that delightful?
Saturday night, fellow-ette's family dined on Saag Paneer and Chicken Jalfreezi at Sapphire (YUM) and then went to the Metropolitan Opera to see Beethoven's Fidelio-- less entertaining than any opera by Fellowe-ette's faves, Puccini and Verdi, but still, going to the Met is a TRIP. Women in ballgowns, opera glasses in tow. Chandeliers hoisted to the ceiling as the lights dim... it's like a version of Edith Wharton's New York.
Thanks, dad!
After the opera, fellow-ette and her best friend from her high school days headed downtown to hear a band play--but ended up on the 2 instead of the 1, got off at fulton street to find a bathroom, ended up sneaking into a random Holiday Inn and taking the up to the stock trading floor to find a potty, and realized their friend's set was long over, so found Ryan's, a dive bar of the diviest quality, where they shot she sh*t till the wee sma's and subwayed back up, parting in front of Gray's Papaya on W. 72d.
I am feeling so thankful this morning for all these people, family and friends (many of whom were bonding up in beantown ce weekend) and reminding myself just how lucky I am, and how easy it would be to see the glass half-empty if it weren't for them. So thanks to them-- and I hope I can bring their positivity to my students as spring progresses into summer.
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Lookit that forecast! A whole week of 60+ weather. Now that's what I call motivation.
*****************************************
Fellow-ette has so much to report from the nearly-week since she's been postin' to AGW. To start with, I showed my students "Slam," the risque but positive docu-drama kinda film about the power of spoken word poetry to fight violence, self-destruction, and the "prison of the mind."
It's one of those symbolism-heavy "deep" movies that teenagers love, with enough hood-talk and cursing to appeal to them. The scene that really got to my kids was in the prison courtytard when the protagonist (played by Saul Williams) is about to get jumped by some toughs, and he starts rhyming so beautifully and expressively (------ plottin shit, lovely/ but the feds is plottin me/tryin to lock up my astrology") about how violence between imprisoned blacks is worthless; playing in to the master plan, and stops them from fighting.
One of my kids actually said he was going to try that the next time he is under the threat of being jumped. Okay, so realistically, will this film deter my kids from f*cking up, fighting, landing themselves in prison? Who knows. But it touched them, as it touched me when I saw it at the tender age of fourteen -- snuck into the theater by my older "alternative" friends, and I had my mind blown in a way that still reverbrates.
**************************************************
This weekend was a lovely one for fellow-ette, excepting the absence of her fellow. On Friday she went over to the Riverdale Diner with co-teachers for brews and nachos... we talked for once about subjects deviating from school, and wasn't that delightful?
Saturday night, fellow-ette's family dined on Saag Paneer and Chicken Jalfreezi at Sapphire (YUM) and then went to the Metropolitan Opera to see Beethoven's Fidelio-- less entertaining than any opera by Fellowe-ette's faves, Puccini and Verdi, but still, going to the Met is a TRIP. Women in ballgowns, opera glasses in tow. Chandeliers hoisted to the ceiling as the lights dim... it's like a version of Edith Wharton's New York.
Thanks, dad!
After the opera, fellow-ette and her best friend from her high school days headed downtown to hear a band play--but ended up on the 2 instead of the 1, got off at fulton street to find a bathroom, ended up sneaking into a random Holiday Inn and taking the up to the stock trading floor to find a potty, and realized their friend's set was long over, so found Ryan's, a dive bar of the diviest quality, where they shot she sh*t till the wee sma's and subwayed back up, parting in front of Gray's Papaya on W. 72d.
I am feeling so thankful this morning for all these people, family and friends (many of whom were bonding up in beantown ce weekend) and reminding myself just how lucky I am, and how easy it would be to see the glass half-empty if it weren't for them. So thanks to them-- and I hope I can bring their positivity to my students as spring progresses into summer.
Labels: My bumbling life
posted by SarahMarian at 10:24 AM
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