English IV 2/26: Diego Rivera "Man at the Crossroads"

Click HERE to view a photo of the painting in its home, the beautiful Palacio de Bellas Artes in Mexico City. Viewing this can really give you an idea of how huge and magnificent this work is.

HERE IS A POEM I WROTE ABOUT THIS PAINTING:

there are too many voices in my head

here at the center of the universe.

and there are too many quiets lurking

behind the loud of being alive.

i am armed with terrible science

and teeth of frightful utilitarianism.

i am dying and

i am in love with my death.

like a machine

i move in measured steps

in a hall of trees,

parched and gray,

leaning in at the twin suns of my face.

the pack on my back holds millions of stars

and galaxies

and cornucopias of deaths, tears, and grins.

i no longer breathe

because i was balding the heads

of the richest planets.

i am a slow worm

wriggling to free myself from myself.

WORDS OF THE DAY

9. equanimity n. Evenness of mind or temper.

10. eschew v. To keep clear of.

11. euphonious adj. Characterized by agreeableness of sound.

12. exacerbate v. To make more sharp, severe, or virulent.

Professional COMM 2/26: Current Events

OK... today we have a free current events blog. Using an online news source (google news is awesome) find a story that interests you and tell me:

1) why does it interest you?

2) summarize the story.

3) what is your personal opinion of this story/event?

**be sure to provide me with a link to the story in your own blog! And don't copy and paste... it wastes your time and mine.

English III 2/26: "River Deep, Mountain High" by Tina Turner

This song by Tina Turner represents a very powerful work by one of last century's most intense and talented performers/singers/artists. Tina Turner sings with a fire and depth that most singers could only dream of... what does this song make you feel and in what ways can you connect to it? To what extent is this a song about how we transfer the same feelings from childhood through adolescence and to adulthood? Do you think we feel the same things our whole lives just in different ways and for different reasons? Explain your response.

------------------------------

When I was a little girl

I had a rag doll

Only doll I've ever owned

Now I love you just the way I loved that

rag doll

But only now my love has grown

And it gets stronger, in every way

And it gets deeper, let me say

And it gets higher, day by day

And do I love you my oh my

Yeh river deep mountain high

If I lost you would I cry

Oh how I love you baby, baby, baby, baby

When you were a young boy

Did you have a puppy

That always followed you around

Well I'm gonna be as faithful as that puppy

No I'll never let you down

Cause it grows stronger, like a river flows

And it gets bigger baby, and heaven knows

And it gets sweeter baby, as it grows

And do I love you my oh my

Yeh river deep, mountain high

If I lost you would I cry

Oh how I love you baby, baby, baby, baby

If I lost you would I cry

Oh how I love you baby, baby, baby, baby

I love you baby like a flower loves the

spring

And I love you baby just like Tina loves to

sing

And I love you baby like a school boy loves

his pet

And I love you baby, river deep mountain

high

Oh yeah you've gotta believe me

River Deep, Mountain High

Do I love you my oh my, oh baby

River deep, mountain high

If I lost you would I cry

Oh how I love you baby, baby, baby, baby

WORDS OF THE DAY

5. immutable – unchanging, permanent 

6. stringent – strict, harsh, severe 

7. laud – to praise 

8. respite – a rest, a pause, a break

English IV 2/25: Real Estate "Green Isles"

Under dormant trees

Under bright lit skies

Mountains of maple leaves

Standing side by side

The phone lines

The street lights

Led me to you

And if you

Just sit tight

I'll be there soon

All those wasted miles

All those aimless drives

Through green aisles

Our careless life style

It was not so unwise

No

I rode right pass

The train tracks on

Ancient as the stone

Blacked out on a bicycle

I made my way back home

The houses were humming

All through the night

And winter was coming

But that was alright

All those wasted miles

All those aimless drives

Through green aisles

Our careless life style

It was not so unwise

No

The phone lines

The street lights

Led me to you

And if you

Just sit tight

I'll be there soon

All those wasted miles

All those aimless drives

Through green aisles

Our careless life style

It was not so unwise

No

WORDS OF THE DAY

5. docile adj. Easy to manage.

6. duplicity n. Double-dealing.

7. edify v. To build up, or strengthen, especially in morals or religion.

8. efficacious adj. Effective.

Professional COMM 2/25: Steve Jobs

 "If you want to live your life in a creative way, as an artist, you have to not look back too much. You have to be willing to take whatever you've done and whoever you were and throw them away." 

- Steve Jobs

English III 2/25: "I Am Trying to Break Your Heart" by Wilco

I am an American aquarium drinker

I assassin down the avenue

I'm hiding out in the big city blinking

What was I thinking when I let go of you?

Let's forget about the tongue-tied lightning

Let's undress just like cross-eyed strangers

This is not a joke, so please stop smiling

What was I thinking when I said it didn't hurt?

I want to glide through those brown eyes dreaming

Take it from the inside, baby hold on tight

You were so right when you said that I've been drinking

What was I thinking when I said good night?

I want to hold you in the Bible-black predawn

You're quite a quiet domino, bury me now

Take off your Band-Aid because I don't believe in touchdowns

What was I thinking when I said hello?

I'd always thought that if I held you tightly

You'd always love me like you did back then

Then I fell asleep and the city kept blinking

What was I thinking when I let you back in?

I am trying to break your heart

I am trying to break your heart

But still I'd be lying if I said it wasn't easy

I am trying to break your heart

Disposable Dixie-cup drinking

I assassin down the avenue

I'm hiding out in the big city blinking

What was I thinking when I let go of you?

loves you

I'm the man who loves you

WORDS OF THE DAY

1. lethargic – tired, weak

2. stoic – indifferent to pleasure and pain, brave

3. sinuous – winding, twisting

4. implacable – relentless, unforgiving. Unappeasable

English IV 2/20: Willem de Kooning "Excavation"

Click the Painting to enlarge; click HERE to read about the artist.

WORDS OF THE DAY

1. deify v. To regard or worship as a god.

2. dexterity n. readiness, precision, efficiency, and ease in any physical activity or in any mechanical work.

3. diaphanous adj. Transparent.

4. dissipate v. To disperse or disappear.

Professional COMM 2/20: John Lennon on reality

"I believe in everything until it's disproved. So I believe in fairies, the myths, dragons. It all exists, even if it's in your mind. Who's to say that dreams and nightmares aren't as real as the here and now?" - LENNON


First of all, let me say that I think that John Lennon is (and will be recognized by future generations as) every bit as important as any philosopher or world leader or writer of our time. This quote is a good illustration of how far-reaching his thought is. I love this quote because it makes us stop to think about what we choose to lend credence to... in this life certainty is a hard thing to come by- but, lucky for us it is just as hard to prove the non-existence of something as it is to prove the existence. Why not believe? There are many ancient schools of thought that say that EVERYTHING exists as long as we can imagine it, it exists in a certain dimension... our task is to figure out how to bring the dimension we normally inhabit together with the manifold possibilities.

English IV 2/14: "Rabbit in Your Headlights" by Thom Yorke/UNKLE

I'm a rabbit in your headlights

Scared of the spotlight

You don't come to visit

I'm stuck in this bed

Thin rubber gloves

She laughs when she's crying

She cries when she's laughing

Fat bloody fingers are sucking your soul away...

(Away....away....away....)

I'm a rabbit in your headlights

Christian suburbanite

Washed down the toliet

Money to burn

Fat bloody fingers are sucking your soul away...

Sample from movie Jacob's Ladder :

If you're frightened of dyin' and you're holding on...

You'll see devils tearing your life away.

But...if you've made your peace,

Then the devila are really angels

Freeing you from the earth.....from the earth....from the earth

Rotworms on the underground

Caught between stations

Butterfingers

I'm losing my patience

I'm a rabbit in your headlights

Christian suburbanite

You got money to burn....

Fat bloody fingers are sucking your soul away.....

Away, away, away,

Away, away, away.

WORDS OF THE DAY

17. absolution n. Forgiveness, or passing over of offenses

18. acumen n. Quickness of intellectual insight, or discernment; keenness of discrimination

19. covenant n. An agreement entered into by two or more persons or parties.

20. cynosure n. That to which general interest or attention is directed.

Professional COMM 2/14: Current Events

OK... today we have a free current events blog. Using an online news source (google news is awesome) find a story that interests you and tell me:

1) why does it interest you?

2) summarize the story.

3) what is your personal opinion of this story/event?

**be sure to provide me with a link to the story in your own blog! And don't copy and paste... it wastes your time and mine.

English III 2/14: "The Fire" by The Roots ft. John Legend

[John Legend]

Ohhhh, the fire, the fire

Ohhhh, the fire, the fire

[Chorus: John Legend]

There's something in your heart

and it's in your eyes

It's the fire, inside you

Let it burn

You don't say good luck

You say don't give up

It's the fire, inside you

Let it burn

[Black Thought]

Yeah, and if I'm ever at the crossroads

and start feeling mixed signals like Morse code

My soul start to grow colder than the North Pole

I try to focus on the hole of where the torch goes

In the tradition of these legendary sports pros

As far as I can see, I've made it to the threshold

Lord knows I've waited for this a lifetime

And I'm an icon when I let my light shine

Shine bright as an example of a champion

Taking the advantage, never copping out or cancelling

Burn like a chariot, learn how to carry it

Maverick, always above and beyond average

Fuel to the flame that I train with and travel with

Something in my eyes say I'm so close to having the prize

I realise I'm supposed to reach for the skies

Never let somebody try to tell you otherwise

[Chorus]

[Black Thought]

One love, one game, one desire

One flame, one bonfire, let it burn higher

I never show signs of fatigue or turn tired

cause I'm the definition of tragedy turned triumph

It's David and Goliath, I made it to the eye of

the storm, feeling torn like they fed me to the lions

Before my time start to wind down like the Mayans

I show 'em how I got the grind down like a science

It sounds like a riot on hush, it's so quiet

The only thing I hear is my heart, I'm inspired

by the challenge that I find myself standing eye to eye with

Then move like a wise warrior and not a coward

You can't escape the history that you was meant to make

That's why the highest victory is what I'm meant to take

You came to celebrate, I came to sever great

I hate losing, I refuse to make the same mistake

[John Legend]

Ohhhh, the fire, the fire

Ohhhh, the fire, the fire

[Chorus]

[John Legend]

Ohhhh, the fire inside you

The fire inside you

The fire inside you

The fire inside you

--

WORDS OF THE DAY:

17. obscure – unclear, clouded 

18. innovate – to be creative, introduce something new 

19. clandestine – secret 

20. verbose – wordy

Professional COMM 2/13: Nelson Mandela

"I learned that courage was not the absence of fear, but the triumph over it. The brave man is not he who does not feel afraid, but he who conquers that fear." --Nelson Mandela

English IV 2/13: Creative Prompts

 

CLICK HERE AND MAKE A CHOICE OF PROMPT WITHIN 3 MINUTES. THEN... RESPOND AS THAT PROMPT INSTRUCTS YOU, IN YOUR BLOG. REMEMBER TO BE THOROUGH!

WORDS OF THE DAY

13. cajole v. To impose on or dupe by flattering speech.

14. caustic adj. Sarcastic and severe.

15. cognizant adj. Taking notice.

16. cosmogony n. A doctrine of creation or of the origin of the universe.

English III 2/13: "Idioteque" by Radiohead

Who's in a bunker? Who's in a bunker?

Women and children first

And the children first

And the children

I laugh until my head comes off

Swallow till I burst

Until I burst

Until I

Who's in a bunker?

Who's in a bunker?

I have seen too much

You haven't seen enough

You haven't seen it

I'll laugh until my head comes off

Women and children first

And children first

And children

Here I'm allowed

Everything all of the time

Here I'm allowed

Everything all of the time

Ice age coming

Ice age coming

Let me hear both sides

Let me hear both sides

Let me hear both

Ice age coming

Ice age coming

Throw 'em in the fire

Throw 'em in the fire

Throw 'em on the

We're not scaremmongering

This is really happening

Happening

We're not scaremongering

This is really happening

Happening

Mobiles skwrking

Mobiles chirping

Take the money and run

Take the money and run

Take the money

Here I'm alive

Everything all of the time

(x4)

The first of the children

WORDS OF THE DAY:

13. acquiesce – to agree finally or to go along with something after a struggle 

14. depravity – moral corruption

15. efface – to erase or wipe out 

16. esoteric – understood by only a select few

English IV 2/12: Edward Hopper "Nighthawks" 1942

#18

WORDS OF THE DAY

9. autocrat n. Any one who claims or wields unrestricted or undisputed authority or influence.

10. beseech v. To implore.

11. bungle v. To execute clumsily.

12. bustle v. To hurry.

Professional COMM 2/12: Pablo Neruda

"Is 4 always 4 for everyone?

Are all 7's equal?

When prisoners think of the light

is it the same that lights up your world?

Have you wondered what color

April is to the ailing?" -----Neruda, Book of Questions

-----------------------------------------------------------

Since this is poetry I know from the beginning that I'm not looking for 'meaning' in the normal sense. When trying to soak up the feeling of a few lines of poetry like these, it's a good idea to think about mystery instead of meaning... let the truth of the poem find you rather than struggling to find it as you would in a narrative or some other type of writing. To me this poem is about perceptions and inequality. It gives me the feeling of being confined, tied up somewhere in a dark room the way so many of Neruda's countrymen have been over the oppressive past. Neruda wants to know what the world feels like to everyone else, but I think he is essentially asking the question: is happiness tied to situation or is it an exclusively inward property? "Are all 7's equal?" seems like a ridiculous question and that is exactly the effect the poet is trying to create... he is questioning our belief in certainty with this line. How sure are we anyway about the things we are sure about? What makes us so sure? Where can we see a seven in the stars? Obviously questions like these are not going to lead us to the kind of understanding where everything in the universe is nice and neatly ordered, but where can they lead us? What is understanding and how does it function? I believe that there are more things in the universe that we may come to understand by creative intuition than by cold calculation.

English III 2/12: "2080" by Yeasayer

I can't sleep when I think about the times we're living in,

I can't sleep when I think about the future I was born into,

Outsiders dressed up like Sunday morning,

With no Berlin wall what the hell you gonna do.

(Chorus:)

It's a New Year,

I'm glad to be here

It's a fresh spring,

So let's sing.

In 2080

I'll surely be dead

So don't look ahead,

Never look ahead

It's a New Year,

I'm glad to be here

It's the first spring,

So let's sing.

And the moon shines bright

On the water tonight

So we won't drown

In the summer sound.

If you find me I'll be sitting by the water fountain,

Picket signs, letdowns, meltdown it's Monday morning

But it's alright, it's alright, it's alright, it's alright

It's alright,

Cause in no time, They'll be gone I guess I'll still be standing here.

(Chorus)

(Bridge:)

Yeah Yeah we can all grab at the chance and be handsome farmers,

Yeah you can have twenty one sons and be blood when they marry my daughters,

And the pain that we left at the station will stay in a jar behind us.

We can pickle the pain into blue ribbon winners at county contests.

(Chorus)

WORDS OF THE DAY

9. apathy – lack of emotion or interest 

10. didactic – instructive 

11. inadvertent – accidental, unintentional 

12. mitigate – to make milder or less severe

English IV 2/11: CREATIVE PROMPTS

CLICK HERE AND MAKE A CHOICE OF PROMPT WITHIN 3 MINUTES. THEN... RESPOND AS THAT PROMPT INSTRUCTS YOU, IN YOUR BLOG. REMEMBER TO BE THOROUGH!

WORDS OF THE DAY

5. amorphous adj. Without determinate shape

6. anathema n. Anything forbidden, as by social usage

7. archetype n. A prototype, a general form or type

8. austere adj. Severely simple; unadorned.

English III 2/11: Bright Eyes "Landlocked Blues"

If you walk away, I’ll walk away

First tell me which road you will take

I don’t want to risk our paths crossing some day

So you walk that way, I’ll walk this way

And the future hangs over our heads

And it moves with each current event

Until it falls all around like a cold steady rain

Just stay in when it’s looking this way

And the moon’s laying low in the sky

Forcing everything metal to shine

And the sidewalk holds diamonds like the jewelry store case

They argue walk this way, no, walk this way

And Laura’s asleep in my bed

As I’m leaving she wakes up and says

“I dreamed you were carried away on the crest of a wave

Baby don’t go away, come here”

And there’s kids playing guns in the street

And ones pointing his tree branch at me

So I put my hands up I say “enough is enough,

If you walk away, I’ll walk away”

And he shot me dead

I found a liquid cure

From my landlocked blues

It’ll pass away like a slow parade

It’s leaving but I don’t know how soon

And the world’s got me dizzy again

You think after 22 years I’d be used to the spin

And it only feels worse when I stay in one place

So I’m always pacing around or walking away

I keep drinking the ink from my pen

And I’m balancing history books up on my head

But it all boils down to one quotable phrase

If you love something, give it away

A good woman will pick you apart

A box full of suggestions for your possible heart

But you may be offended and you may be afraid

But don’t walk away, don’t walk away

We made love on the living room floor

With the noise in the background of a televised war

And in the deafening pleasure I thought I heard someone say

“If we walk away, they’ll walk away”

But greed is a bottomless pit

And our freedom’s a joke

We’re just taking a piss

And the whole world must watch the sad comic display

If you’re still free start running away

Cause we’re coming for you!

I’ve grown tired of holding this pose

I feel more like a stranger each time I come home

So I’m making a deal with the devils of fame

Saying “let me walk away, please”

You’ll be free child once you have died

From the shackles of language and measurable time

And then we can trade places, play musical graves

Till then walk away, walk away

So I’m up at dawn

Putting on my shoes

I just want to make a clean escape

I’m leaving but I don’t know where to

I know I’m leaving but I don’t know where to

WORDS OF THE DAY

5. fervent – impassioned, intense, ardent, earnest

6. corroborate – to confirm, to substantiate

7. pragmatic – practical

8. enigma – puzzle, mystery

Professional COMM 2/11: MLK Jr. and silence

"Our lives begin to end the day we become silent about things that matter" - MLK Jr.

--------------------------------------------

I think Dr. King is referring to the importance of speaking out about what you believe in and what you feel. To be human is to try and assert your will on the universe around you, thus to give up that desire for changing things -is to become less human. When we no longer have the energy or the courage to make ourselves heard... we are consenting to let others speak and think for us. If others are thinking for us then we no longer need to think. Without thinking, the mind becomes stagnate... and the mind that ceases to function, ceases to exist.

I believe this quote in a fundamental way... our lives are not 'our' lives unless we care enough to take as much control over them as we possibly can.

English IV 2/7: "Creation of the Birds" by Remedios Varo

Write what you see! What is happening in this amazing and fantastical painting by the wonderful and extremely gifted visionary artist Remedios Varo? What can you tell me about the world where this painting takes place? What significance does the title have? What might the different elements symbolize?

WORDS OF THE DAY

1. adjuration n. A vehement appeal

2. altruism n. Benevolence to others on subordination to self-interest

3. ameliorate v. To relieve, as from pain or hardship

4. amalgamate v. To mix or blend together in a homogeneous body

Professional COMM 2/7: Current Events

OK... today we have a free current events blog. Using an online news source (google news is awesome) find a story that interests you and tell me:

1) why does it interest you?

2) summarize the story.

3) what is your personal opinion of this story/event?

**be sure to provide me with a link to the story in your own blog! And don't copy and paste... it wastes your time and mine.

English III 2/7: "Independence Day" by Elliott Smith

Future butterfly, gonna spend the day higher than high

You'll be beautiful confusion

Ooh, once I was you

I saw you caught between all the people out making a scene

And a bright ideal, tomorrow

Ooh, don't go too far

Stay who you are

Everybody knows

Everybody knows

Everybody knows

You only live a day

But it's brilliant anyway

I saw you at the perfect place

It's gonna happen soon, but not today

So go to sleep, and make the change

I'll meet you here tomorrow

Independence Day

Independence Day

Independence Day

WORDS OF THE DAY

1. precarious – dangerous, unstable

2. pious – deeply religious

3. fracas – uproar, brawl

4. contentious – quarrelsome

English III 2/6: Carl Sagan ft. Stephen Hawking "A More Glorious Dawn

http://www.symphonyofscience.com/[Carl Sagan]
If you wish to make an apple pie from scratch
You must first invent the universe

Space is filled with a network of wormholes
You might emerge somewhere else in space
Some when-else in time

The sky calls to us
If we do not destroy ourselves
We will one day venture to the stars

A still more glorious dawn awaits
Not a sunrise, but a galaxy rise
A morning filled with 400 billion suns
The rising of the milky way

The Cosmos is full beyond
measure of elegant truths
Of exquisite interrelationships
Of the awesome machinery of nature

I believe our future depends powerfully
On how well we understand this cosmos
In which we float like a mote of dust
In the morning sky

But the brain does much more
than just recollect
It inter-compares, it
synthesizes, it analyzes
it generates abstractions

The simplest thought like the
concept of the number one
Has an elaborate logical underpinning
The brain has its own language
For testing the structure and
consistency of the world

[Hawking]
For thousands of years
People have wondered about the universe
Did it stretch out forever
Or was there a limit

From the big bang to black holes
From dark matter to a possible big crunch
Our image of the universe today
Is full of strange sounding ideas

[Sagan]
How lucky we are to live in this time
The first moment in human history
When we are in fact visiting other worlds

The surface of the earth is the
shore of the cosmic ocean
Recently we've waded a little way out
And the water seems inviting

Professional COMM 2/6: St. Francis on Compassion

"If you have men who will exclude any of God's creatures from the shelter of compassion and pity, you will have men who will deal likewise with their fellow men." - St Francis of Assisi

English IV 2/5: "Hyperballad" by Bjork

We live on a mountain

Right at the top

There's a beautiful view

From the top of the mountain

Every morning I walk towards the edge

And throw little things off

Like:

Car parts, bottles and cutlery

Or whatever I find lying around

It's become a habit

A way

To start the day

I go through all this

Before you wake up

So I can feel happier

To be safe up here with you

It's early morning

No one is awake

I'm back at my cliff

Still throwing things off

I listen to the sounds they make

On their way down

I follow with my eyes 'til they crash

Imagine what my body would sound like

Slamming against those rocks

When it lands

Will my eyes

Be closed or open?

I go through all this

Before you wake up

So I can feel happier

To be safe up here with you

Professional COMM 2/5: Gandhi (my favorite quote)

"My greatest weapon is mute prayer" - Ghandi

-----------------------------------------------------

My first reaction to this quote is one of confusion; but it is a confusion that is very much colored in with awe. I feel like, even initially, when we read this we can somewhat access the power of his words. Examining closer... we come to defining terms in context (just as with any statement that is such an enigma)... mute: silent, internal... prayer: word-ritual, communication with higher power, meditation... weapon: asset, strength, something that can be used against someone else... greatest: best, most powerful. Working with these definintions, it seems that Ghandi wants to say that his highest power is generated when in silent meditation. This idea fits in perfectly with Ghandi's non-violent method of protest where he called all of the violence upon himself so that he could defuse it internally. Like starving, mute prayer was a way for Ghandi to rise above the conditions of his physical body and assert the will of his mystical body: a body of pure bright light. By summoning all of his inner power through prayer, Ghandi became better able to face the challenge of being the martyr that he was... he became stronger in the face of human weakness by seeking that which is more than human inside him.

I think people should take this statement to heart because too often we focus all of our attention on the status of the physical world, on our physical well-being and we forget that a great deal of the power that we posses as human-beings comes from somewhere far away inside of us... in a place where the beginning and the end meet up to create a spark of divinity.

English III 2/5: "Changes" by 2Pac

[1]

Come on come on

I see no changes wake up in the morning and I ask myself

is life worth living should I blast myself?

I'm tired of bein' poor & even worse I'm black

my stomach hurts so I'm lookin' for a purse to snatch

Cops give a damn about a negro

pull the trigger kill a n**** he's a hero

Give the crack to the kids who the hell cares

one less hungry mouth on the welfare

First ship 'em dope & let 'em deal the brothers

give 'em guns step back watch 'em kill each other

It's time to fight back that's what Huey said

2 shots in the dark now Huey's dead

I got love for my brother but we can never go nowhere

unless we share with each other

We gotta start makin' changes

learn to see me as a brother instead of 2 distant strangers

and that's how it's supposed to be

How can the Devil take a brother if he's close to me?

I'd love to go back to when we played as kids

but things changed, and that's the way it is

[Bridge w/ changing ad libs]

Come on come on

That's just the way it is

Things'll never be the same

That's just the way it is

aww yeah

[Repeat]

[2]

I see no changes all I see is racist faces

misplaced hate makes disgrace to races

We under I wonder what it takes to make this

one better place, let's erase the wasted

Take the evil out the people they'll be acting right

'cause both black and white is smokin' crack tonight

and only time we chill is when we kill each other

it takes skill to be real, time to heal each other

And although it seems heaven sent

We ain't ready, to see a black President, uhh

It ain't a secret don't conceal the fact

the penitentiary's packed, and it's filled with blacks

But some things will never change

try to show another way but you stayin' in the dope game

Now tell me what's a mother to do

bein' real don't appeal to the brother in you

You gotta operate the easy way

"I made a G today" But you made it in a sleazy way

sellin' crack to the kid. " I gotta get paid,"

Well hey, well that's the way it is

[Bridge]

[Talking:]

We gotta make a change...

It's time for us as a people to start makin' some changes.

Let's change the way we eat, let's change the way we live

and let's change the way we treat each other.

You see the old way wasn't working so it's on us to do

what we gotta do, to survive.

[3]

And still I see no changes can't a brother get a little peace

It's war on the streets & the war in the Middle East

Instead of war on poverty they got a war on drugs

so the police can bother me

And I ain't never did a crime I ain't have to do

But now I'm back with the facts givin' it back to you

Don't let 'em jack you up, back you up,

crack you up and pimp smack you up

You gotta learn to hold ya own

they get jealous when they see ya with ya mobile phone

But tell the cops they can't touch this

I don't trust this when they try to rush I bust this

That's the sound of my tool you say it ain't cool

my mama didn't raise no fool

And as long as I stay black I gotta stay strapped

& I never get to lay back

'Cause I always got to worry 'bout the pay backs

some punk that I roughed up way back

comin' back after all these years

rat-tat-tat-tat-tat that's the way it is uhh

[Bridge 'til fade:]

Some things will never change

WORDS OF THE DAY

17. pessimism-a tendency to see the negative side of things

18. reprove-to find fault with

19. preconception-to form an idea or opinion without knowledge

20. facilitate-to guide or direct a group or discussion

English IV 2/4: William Carlos Williams and the Function of Poetry

American poet William Carlos Williams said that the goal of a poem is 

"to refine, to clarify, to intensify that eternal moment in which we alone live." 

Why do you think poetry is important? If you think it isn't important then make an argument as to why it isn't. If you wish to change what Williams states as the 'goal' of poetry; how would you change it?

WORDS OF THE DAY

17. plutocracy n. A wealthy class in a political community who control the government by means of their money. 

18. reciprocal adj. Mutually interchangeable or convertible. 

19. denouement n. That part of a play or story in which the mystery is cleared up. 

20. consummate v. To bring to completion.

Professional COMM 2/4: Bob Dylan on freedom

"No one is free, even the birds are chained to the sky.” - Bob Dylan

Do you think it is true that no one is free? This is a big question in philosophy; can we be free? Some would argue that our circumstances trap us in a kind of 'web of limited posibility' OR that the universe behaves in a predetermined way (follow knowable rules) and so we are really never acting totally freely. Do you feel free? How would you go about trying to convince me that you are?

English III 2/4: Johnny Cash "Man in Black"

"Well, you wonder why I always dress in black,

Why you never see bright colors on my back,

And why does my appearance seem to have a somber tone.

Well, there's a reason for the things that I have on.

I wear the black for the poor and the beaten down,

Livin' in the hopeless, hungry side of town,

I wear it for the prisoner who has long paid for his crime,

But is there because he's a victim of the times.

I wear the black for those who never read,

Or listened to the words that Jesus said,

About the road to happiness through love and charity,

Why, you'd think He's talking straight to you and me.

Well, we're doin' mighty fine, I do suppose,

In our streak of lightnin' cars and fancy clothes,

But just so we're reminded of the ones who are held back,

Up front there ought 'a be a Man In Black.

I wear it for the sick and lonely old,

For the reckless ones whose bad trip left them cold,

I wear the black in mournin' for the lives that could have been,

Each week we lose a hundred fine young men.

And, I wear it for the thousands who have died,

Believen' that the Lord was on their side,

I wear it for another hundred thousand who have died,

Believen' that we all were on their side.

Well, there's things that never will be right I know,

And things need changin' everywhere you go,

But 'til we start to make a move to make a few things right,

You'll never see me wear a suit of white.

Ah, I'd love to wear a rainbow every day,

And tell the world that everything's OK,

But I'll try to carry off a little darkness on my back,

'Till things are brighter, I'm the Man In Black."

WORDS OF THE DAY

17. sagacious – wise

18. scaffold – raised platform

19. ignominious – degrading, disgraceful

20. demeanor – behavior, manner