Asian Drama
I grew up with every single female member of my family watching “novelas”. I think many Latinamerican people can identify with this. After a while I just got fed-up with the repeated plot-lines and the unlimited luck of the protagonist, it just wasn’t fun anymore. Since I was in middle school I’ve been a fan of Japanese Manga (Comics), Animation and Music. I give all foreign films and music a shot, I’ve been surprised at how many I actually end up liking. This brings me to the point of this post… Asian Drama!!!!!!!!! I’ve known about it for quite a while but only through this last year can I say that I have become addicted to these shows and I am very grateful for this. No more repeated plots and extremely lucky protagonist for me, I found real substance in these shows.
Beach Fun
Spring Break was definitely a much needed opportunity to relax, have fun, reflect on your life and most importantly spend time with friends and family. It also presented me with the opportunity of spending more time with one of my pals, Amarilys. It was her birthday on April 9 and we celebrated it at Boquerón beach the day before. It was a pleasant experience, it had been exactly a year since the last time I went to the beach. It was so much fun!!!!!!!
Girl Time
I personally don’t mind studying and going to the University, I really like it… but one major downside is that quite often I don’t have much time to spare for my friends that are in different departments. So I make it a point to try and spend as much time as possible with them. On the weekend, from the 3-6 of April I stayed in Moca with my best friends Sheilca and Joan, it was a blast. We started it off in grand fashion by going to the midnight showing of Fast & Furious, we got there a bit late for the line so we had to seat in the first row. Not terribly good for your neck, let me tell you. But despite this little setback I enjoyed every single minute of it. The movie rocks!!!!!!!!!!!
L3 Power Writing Workshop
Following the awesome workshop that The Rebel Poets presented on Power Writing during the English Conference that took place in the UPR Mayagüez Campus on February 21 the Linguistics-Literature-Language Society (L3 for short) decided to host their own workshop on this very fun technique. (If you wanna learn more about The Rebel Poets Workshop check out my posting of this event at http://ode0to0stars.wordpress.com/2009/02/26/power-writing-workshop-the-rebel-poets/) L3 gave this workshop, that was open to the whole campus on March 31, it was a total success. It was an open topic activity, as long as you discussed something personal to you. I opted to do my work with my name as the topic. I will post the poem I wrote for you enjoyment… here it is.
“The Unknown Citizen”
Ok guys, here is another analysis I did for my Modern Poetry class. You are probably thinking “Not another one”, but I really want to share this with everybody since I enjoyed writing it so much. It confirmed to me, yet again, how much can be said between the lines in good poetry. This time I will be sharing with you a poem by W. H. Auden titled “The Unknown Citizen. So here it is, enjoy.
In a nutshell, this poem is a satirized account of the way the relationship between man and society is evolving. We went from being people with names, personalities and hopes; to being nothing more than a stream of identification numbers with no face, as far as the government is concerned. People have become faceless beings, unknown citizens. The poem starts with a very chilling reminder of the distancing between the people and the government. It is dedicated to JS/07/M/378, the identification of the faceless citizen, followed by a statement that evokes the monuments erected in name of the unknown soldiers fallen in war.
“The Voice” by Thomas Hardy
This semester I have been lucky enough to be taking a very interesting class on Modern and Contemporary poetry in which I have been able to read really good works by a variety of authors from the English Language. One of the authors that we studied was Thomas Hardy who wrote in the Modern Period. I will be sharing with you guys an analysis I did on the poem “The Voice” by Hardy and hopefully it will interest some of you and get you reading the poetry of Hardy and maybe even other modernist poets.
Here it goes…
Many different aspects go into the writing of poems. Everything from the number of syllables in a verse, to the specific word choices, affects the overall meaning of a poetic work. Meaning is not just created through the literal message in the words, but also through the feelings and sounds they evoke when read. In his poem “The Voice”, Thomas Hardy evokes feelings of sadness, mystery and a certain sense of longing through creative, but simple usage of poetic devices and selective word choices.
Editorial
What can we do when counting sheep isn’t enough?
Did you know that according to the National Sleep Foundation Americans are sleeping an average of 6.7 hours a night this year? Sounds preposterous, but it is true according to this research. I believe I do not only speak for myself when I say: “What a bummer!” Many different things can be blamed for this, but it is no secret that the economical crisis carries the brunt of the responsibility for the increase in sleepless nights. Back in 2001 the average was a well rounded 7 hours, now that sounds more like it.
Power Writing Workshop / The Rebel Poets
In my previous posting titled English Conference I mentioned that we had the pleasure of participating in a workshop provided by The Rebel Poets that was titled: Power Writing. As presented in the pamphlet provided in the conference, “The Rebel Poets attest to the power of the spoken and written word to transform the lives of urban youth.” They are a New York based group that help young people better themselves and their community through literature, especially poetry. This group was founded by Joseph Ubiles,a public school teacher, that after seeing his students struggling with their day to day troubles decided to help them through this approach. Four members of the group attended the English Conference, Ronald Jay, Ramón DeJesús, Arline Hernández and Amanda Maisonet. If you wish to learn more about them visit this link: The Rebel Poets.
English Conference
On February 21st, the Colegio played host to an important and historical event; the first English Conference, which was titled: “English as a Field of Change and Flow”. As soon as I was made aware of this after seeing a promotional flier calling for papers, I became instantly curious. After digging for some extra information I became interested in submitting a paper, since both graduate and under-graduate students could present. But after thinking on it more carefully I decided to not submit and go and see the conference to familiarize myself with the workings of it. I did this because I have never done a paper for such a presentation. I can now honestly say that I am very interested in possible presenting for the next English Conference (if there is one).
Political Cartoon Analysis
political cartoon by Mike Lester
Ever since the events of September 11, America has been plagued by an extremely heightened sense of paranoia and an increase in prejudice and racism. This is mostly due to ignorance and fear; we fear what we do not understand. A popular way of either aiding or rejecting these social/political stances is through political cartoons. Since 9-11 there has been no shortage of this mean of criticism. In a particular untitled work by Mike Lester published in Rome News Tribune online, some of the repercussions of this way of thinking are presented.
