Evaluation

Least favorite- Music Playlist. It was hard to compile and explain well.
Favorite- Having My Say. It fit in really well with the book itself and was kind of fun to explain and hear about other people.

My favorite stories were "Letters from the Birmingham Jail" "On Plymouth Plantation" and once it was explained really well, The Scarlet Letter.
I tried to put good effort in on these blogs. They were all in on time and were pretty well thought out and reflected actually caring. Some weeks were easier than other than others to do a good job, though.

I think doing this was a good experience and should be continued. It was a really right brained thing to do but it was good for me to try. I liked all the freedom we had on how we dealt with the blog (all those right-brained instructions). Blogging, when I will be giving it up immediatley, it was a good thing to do. It was different than the ordinary worksheets and papers and stuff for class and kind of fun at the same time. You wouldn't expect things like building a Voki from an average English class, so it was good to go above and beyond. I think we earned the Honors title.

Jazz in the 1920's

I'm going to go with a jazz playlist because a lot of the websites I checked out talked a lot about how jazz spread from way down South to other areas of the country and became really popular and impacted a lot of the other music that was being written and performed at the time.


Canal Street Blues (King Oliver's Creole Jazz Band) 1923
Yes Sir that's my baby (Carlton Coon and Joe Sanders) 1925
When my sugar walks down the street (Cliff "Ukulele Ike" Edwards)1925

Original Jelly Roll Blues (Jelly Roll Morton) 1926

Hotter than that (Louis Armstrong and the Hot Five) 1927

Beale Street Blues (Jelly Roll Morton) 1927

Speakeasy Blues (King Oliver) 1928

After you've gone (Louis Armstrong and his Orchestra) 1929

Stephen Crane - In heaven

In heaven,
Some little blades of grass
Stood before God.
"What did you do?"
Then all save one of the little blades
Began eagerly to relate
The merits of their lives.
This one stayed a small way behind,
Ashamed.
Presently, God said,
"And what did you do?"
The little blade answered, "Oh my Lord,
Memory is bitter to me,
For, if I did good deeds,
I know not of them."
Then God, in all His splendor,
Arose from His throne.
"Oh, best little blade of grass!" He said.

I thought this was interesting on the view of God and religion by this Stephen Crane, who, despite religious family, rejected conventional religion for his own "ally/co-worker" vision of God, but still comes through in this poem as following closely a Biblical teaching- that we should not speak of our own deeds but know God sees them all. I think he is implying that we should be humble with our works and "forget" them and let them be between us and God, who knows them without being told by us, instead of flaunting them around in front of everyone for the whole world to see.

http://www.americanpoems.com/poets/stephencrane/11822

Mark Twain on happiness

"A man cannot be comfortable without his own approval." You are only as happy as you make up your mind to be. The big difference between the happy and comfortable is that in some way or another, the happy person has accepted their circumstances, no matter how great or unfortunate and looks for the good in them. I think that's why the people who have the most aren't the happiest or most satisfied, but the people who know where they are at and aren't chasing more for themselves but live with and on what they have. They are a lot of rich people who have every material right to be happy but always feel they have to exceed everyone around them and waste their lives chasing that dream, while other people are comfortable on a lesser way of life because they like what they do and don't demand any more out of life. Second thought: "Suppose you were an idiot, and suppose you were a member of Congress; but I repeat myself." 'Nough said. http://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/authors/m/mark_twain_8.html#ixzz1HvCYk64b

Octavius Catto

http://philadelphia.cbslocal.com/2011/02/16/a-little-known-advocate-for-civil-rights/

Octavius Catto is another one of those people who fought a good fight for racial equality but never got the name recognition. Apparently Octavius Catto actually shared a stage with famed abolitionist Frederick Douglas and apparently "electrified" the crowd. He worked for integration in everything from baseball to street cars and actually even wrote a book on it. He was actually even killed for his work trying to encourage black voter participation in the 1971 election because the Irish Democratic machine didn't like blacks, especially blacks voting GOP to get a chance.
 Picture from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Octavius_Catto.jpg

7th Avenue and the Delaney's

I think it is really fitting how the Delaney's went from their small town roots to one of the most active and famous streets in one of New York's most well-known neighborhoods. 7th Avenue, home of both the Delaney family apartment and Bessie's dental practice overlooked the center of black culture and developments of the day. Just from looking out the windows they would have seen a wide variety of the churches, clubs and distinguished citizens of Harlem. They were in the center of it all. I can see why Bessie had her office where she did (besides being near family) it was a bustling place and she was right in the middle of the action.

Burden of slavery

In the same way the color of their sin chained blacks to slavery before the Civil war, the color of their skin also chained blacks after the war and their "freeing." Even though Sadie and Bessie are free from the physical chains of slavery and its horrors, they are both still black and to other people they are inferior and second class and fair game. They are, in a sense, chained to their skin color and the discrimination that comes with it- they still have the weight, per se, of color/race warfare on themselves, like in this illustration where this slave is both figuratively and literally forced to bear the weight of the slave ship and slavery. This slave, like Sadie and Bessie, had no choice in the matter and were forced to go through with life chained to the idea that they were second class citizens.
http://www.tfaoi.com/am/10am/10am96.jpg

Hard work beats talent when talent doesn't work hard--Having my say

I think it's interesting the value our culture puts on talented people over hardworking people. The stereotype is that people who are naturally talented (or smart or gifted or whatever) are prized more highly than people who actually built themselves via working hard for it. But, in comparison, I read an interesting piece somewhere about how highly ranked Presidents like Reagan and Lincoln are, who were working class people for much of their lives and don't have an Ivy League education, and are generally ranked higher than many Presidents who were born with a silver spoon in their mouthes. I know there are a whole bunch of exceptions but it still really seems that way, especially for such an elite group. You can see that in a lot of people too, a big difference in the mannerisms of people who recieved what they have versus the people who have had to earn what they have. You can really respect people for the work they have done. Just wanted to have my say.

Whitman poem reflection

The thing I really got from the poem was about how each little (or big) thing the boy encountered became part of him, he learned from it. He was built by the things he saw and felt and experienced, which is something we all should always be doing, like in the Scarlet Letter, gainig wisdom and knowledge through or lives and experiences and even sufferings.

She hasn't told her garden yet

I haven't told my garden yet --
Lest that should conquer me.
I haven't quite the strength now
To break it to the Bee --

I will not name it in the street
For shops would stare at me --
That one so shy -- so ignorant
Should have the face to die.

The hillsides must not know it --
Where I have rambled so --
Nor tell the loving forests
The day that I shall go --

Nor lisp it at the table --
Nor heedless by the way
Hint that within the Riddle
One will walk today --

When Emily writes here she is hinting toward her upcoming death,

 one of her favorite topics. It would only be natural for her to inform her garden,

 seeing as she was said to be a "gardener first and a poet second." 

She apparently spent a lot of time either working in or enjoying her garden,

 and amongst her fascination over death, she does not want her garden

 to know what will one day happen to her, as it has happened to those around her.

 Here she underlines both her fascination over death and its mystery 

and her love for all things nature, which would have brought welcome variety to her otherwise simple life. 

Transcendentalism over anti-Transcendentalism

I got a lot more out of the Transcendentalist writings. They seem to have a lot more hope and depth to them. As interesting as the anti-transcendentalist ideas are, the connections to nature and hope and life itself are much stronger and we can see a point to it all. Walden, especially, is not a wallow in doubt and self pity, it is about the honesty and beauty and strength shone to us by the world, and allow us to see deeper into nature and into life itself, and more importantly, learn from it. The transcendentalists teach us to look at our lives in perspective and hope and enjoy life, not fear it or waste it. They seem to have faith, whether in God or human nature or nature itself. The anti transcendentalists are in denial.