Essays, Death, and "Footloose", the real thing...

Well it's been an incredibly stressful 3 days, and it's all my fault. The week started with me in school, but during the day getting cold, heating up, getting overheated, cold again, etc...The result is a second head cold in as many weeks. On top of that my whole system was out of balance concerning homework, AA, homelife, commitments, everything. Put it this way, I couldn't refill the birdfeeder...I was crazy crazy crazy. So I became ill, my body forced itself to stop, and I slept a lot. I have decided to schedule the remainder of my essay writing thusly:

1.Monday, Feb 13th, Meso-American paper due.

2.Wednesday Feb 22, Descartes/Locke paper due.

3.Monday, February 27, Cultural Diversity paper due.

I have almost finished my first essay. I couldn't sleep last night so I hit the keyboard and now have 8 full pages written. All I need is a conclusion, some cleaning up, tightening, etc...All that I will do tomorrow, not today.

When I hand in that paper, I will begin work on the next, etc...That way my poor addled head doesn't fall out of my skull and land, SPLAT, on my desk.

I feel better all ready.


Sad news, though. An AA friend has died. Joe B. was a power of example and long-term sobriety. I new him only a little, having only met him when I returned to the area last year, but he was a stalwart fellow. He will be missed. His death came as a blessing in his last moments, though. He had been suffering from several types of cancer, all terminal, for quite a while. His pain is gone and he died a sober, happy, and serene man. Salut! Death will come for all of us somewhere along the line. In Joes case I picture death sitting in the hospital waiting room, his grungy Chuck Taylors on the coffee table, smoking a Lucky Strike, and reading The New York Times. I don't know why the Times, but if he were reading the Times, this is what he'd see on today's front page:

"Republican Speaks Up, leading Others to Challenge Wiretaps"

and

"Ex-FEMA Leader Faults Response By White House"

and

"U.S. Trade Deficit Sets Record, With China and Oil the Causes"

and

"Data on Iraq Was Distorted, Ex-CIA Official Says"

and, most important,

"In Small Town, 'Grease' Ignites A Culture War"---Now that's news. The rest is what we all knew all along anyway isn't it? That the current administration is a pack of greedy hyenas with ulterior motives and a horrible business ethic is nothing new. That Bush and his cronies lied to the public about almost everything you could think of, including Bush's relationship with Jack Abramoff.

If anyone doesn't know, please Google "Reichstag fire" and see what you get. When Hitler wanted to turn the German people against the unnamed foe (Unions, socialists, communists, Jews, homosexuals, foreigners, intellectuals, etc...) he had the Brown Shirts torch the German Parliament and then placed the blame on the above parenthetical groups. This is true. No lie. Why do people think it couldn't happen here?

So, back to "Footloose"...

It seems that the play "Grease" was going to be performed at the Fulton, Missouri, high school. The "drama teacher" decided to soften the language, change the pot smoking to cigarettes, substituted slang for profanity and rated the play PG-13, so parents wouldn't bring little kids to the show. Shortly after the performance. Members of the Callaway Christian Church wrote letters, the usual crap. Nothing new in that department. The boat rocked enough, though, for the school super to cancel the production of Arthur Miller's "The Crucible". For those who do not know this is a play about the Salem Witch Trials and was written during the 1950's as a response to the McCarthy/HUAC hearings. The drama teacher, a Ms. DeVore believes it was cancelled because it portrays "a time in history that makes Christians look bad." She continued, "In a Bible Belt community it makes people nervous."

Yep. You're fuckin' right chickee-babe. Nothing more scary than having to look at yourself and make restitution for harms done. Nothing more scary than seeing how defective your so-called morality really is. Nothing more scary and humiliating than to admit that you see yourself in those plays. Maybe you were Rizzo in "Grease" and had a baby too early; maybe you wanted to sneak out and be a teenager, but something held you back, and now you regret it; maybe you are afraid that others will judge you, so you beat them to the punch and condemn them first; maybe...

So, tonight's homework is to look up some stuff on-line:

1. Reichstag fire
2. Arthur Miller, 'The Crucible'
3. Sen. Joseph McCarthy, HUAC
4. Salem witch trials


I was supposed to talk about Ken and Barbie today, but I forgot. Plus, it's been in all the news. Apparently after a ten-year hiatus of soul-searching, yoga, Buddhism, and hanging out with Johnny Depp's stylist, Ken is back, to take over from Blaine, the blonde surfer guy. I think it's all a ruse. The dish years ago was that Ken was gay. Now he's back and straight and butch as ever. In my opinion Blaine is currently questioning things, and Ken is sensitive to this emotion. Plus, wouldn't you get tired of a woman who constantly stands on her tippy-toes and whose legs don't bend, nevermind the lobotomized look on her face...

Move over Ang lee, it's time for "BROKEBACK BARBIE"...

Go to npr.org and click on the movie trailer spoof link...


Johnnyboy