someone quoted this poem to me today, so i looked up the whole thing and i thought it was interesting enough to share. it's by ee cummings!

  
in a middle of a room
stands a suicide
sniffing a Paper rose
smiling to a self

"somewhere it is Spring and sometimes
people are in real:imagine
somewhere real flowers,but
I can't imagine real flowers for if I

could,they would somehow
not Be real"
(so he smiles
smiling)"but I will not

everywhere be real to
you in a moment"
The is blond
with small hands

"& everything is easier
than I had guessed everything would
be;even remembering the way who
looked at whom first,anyhow dancing"

(a moon swims out of a cloud
a clock strikes midnight
a finger pulls a trigger
a bird flies into a mirror)

Boo Birds

I've got to stop quoting Bill Simmons, but baseball is on my mind as the season ends and I rather liked this paragraph from a recent column about booing players on your favorite team, in particular the way Red Sox fans treat JD Drew. It's gotten so bad that team captain Jason Varitek has made statements asking fans to stop booing.

Here's Simmons' quote:

But just for the hell of it, let's say Boston fans took Varitek's advice. Let's say they cheered Drew every time he came up, and every time he killed an inning, they reacted like Little League parents and shouted things like "Keep your head up, buddy!" and "Don't worry, we didn't need those runs!" How long could that show of faith last before they turned on him again? A week? Two? Can you ask 35,000 loyal fans who are paying as much as $312 a ticket to sympathize with a $14 million-a-year guy who has killed more rallies than the National Guard? Probably not.

"Killed more rallies than the National Guard" ... that's just so wrong, but so damn clever.

My 24 Hour Theater Challenge Script

I know this is blog is supposed to be about interesting things we read... but over the weekend I participated in the 24 Hour Theater Challenge at Oxy. The title is very true because 24 hours of my life did disappear, but it was definitely worth it. I wrote the first draft of the script in 2 hours and we only changed some situations and added more jokes...

http://xxxkairu.deviantart.com/art/Fiesta-Ball-Fiasco-65530315

It's definitely not the best piece of literature ever written... just remember that I was under a time constraint.

If we could just get rid of these actors and directors ...

If anyone here has ever wanted to try their hand at writing sitcom dialog, you might want to visit the blog of Ken Levine. Ken is a sitcom writer who worked on MASH, Cheers, The Simpsons and many others. He's holding his annual "You write the punchline exercise."

http://kenlevine.blogspot.com/2007/09/you-fill-in-punch-line.html

Quality writing-the office

I just realized that Noah's favorite show is the Office, and I promise I am not sucking up, but I love the Office and I do think its really good writing. I really like how after just one episode the writers have established these amazing unique characters that are all hilarious. I wonder how the writers can keep producing such entertaining material with all these characters who are very one demensional, but they always do. It is so painful to watch sometimes, especially in the case of Micheal Sott. My favorite episode is Diversity Day. Sorry if I offend anyone its very politically incorrect.
link: http://youtube.com/watch?v=QPFrfbpyHcA

i wanna hear a poem

So I don't know if anyone else likes slam poetry here, but I really love it. This is a clip from the first episode of Def Poetry Jam on HBO, which is amazing and everyone should watch. Mos Def hosts it, and the people they have on are usually incredibly talented, plus some celeb cameos (Dave Chapelle, Talib Kweli, DMX). I recommend hitting up youtube for some more clips or renting one of the dvds. Uh yeah so...watch and enjoy, I guess.

Dramatic Intersection of Age with Disability Error?

Um... this might be a little late to ask, but has anyone gotten access to the article online we have to read for tomorrow's class? It's requiring a password and stuff, but I don't know what to give it and I'm all confused!!

Article in Entertainment Weekly about new fall show Reaper

Nothing terribly special about the writing here, though the creators have some interesting things to say.

But my reason for posting it is to show you all that Kevin Smith (Clerks, Chasing Amy, Jay and Silent Bob, etc.) actually talks like a character in one of his movies. I kinda like his movies, but how does anyone talk to Kevin Smith for more than five minutes without wanting to punch him in the face?

just stuff i found interesting....
so i know oxy is politically active so i thought some of you made find this article interesting...its about how a new study shows conservatives and liberals brains are actually different...

://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-sci-politics10sep10,1,7735909.story?coll=la-headlines-nation

there was also another article ( which is awkardly written) that says that have made a new discovery and have learned how to burn salt water and are hoping that in the future we can use it for fuel etc.... as i said...poorly written but i think youll get the idea...

http://green.yahoo.com/index.php?q=node/1570

pleasant surprise

I have way too much music on my computer/iPod, and I hardly listen to 3/4 of it. However, I found a really interesting song today because I was somehow too lazy deal with my music ADD. It's called "A Plea From a Cat Named Virtute" by the Weakerthans. Though often song titles are just obscurely connected to the actual piece, the lyrics are, indeed, written from the point of view of a cat. I really enjoy the lyrics and I just find it to be an interesting and unique course of action.

here you go: link

Here is something I came across when I was researching for that paper that's due Wed. Its a snippet of a song by Rocky Votolato called The Wrong Side of Reno.. I found it interesting because a lot of my friends are going to the University of Nevada at Reno. Nothing deep just coincidence - I like Rocky Votolato and I know Reno kids.

I hear a train whistle blowing
and it's in key with my song
all the way on the wrong side of Reno
where my toughest friends are from

-- Nick --

some good writing!

So I was reading in Upper Herrick which made me think of a poem I read junior year called "Christ Climbed Down" and then while I was looking for my copy of that I found this really cool piece by George Orwell called "Politics and the English Language" which I read in the same class!

the latter is located at

http://www.mtholyoke.edu/acad/intrel/orwell46.htm

Orwell dissects passages that he finds to have a poor use of the English language. When I read it in that class it was funny, so...it might be still?

the former at

http://www.whizzo.ca/paul/ccd.html

and it's by Lawrence Ferlinghetti...

My new favorite pet

I thought this was really cute. It's not fabulous writing, but it's pretty good and the accents are wonderful! Go to this page and be inspired to ask for a different pet for christmas...enjoy!

Love,
Sienna

http://www.flixxy.com/pet-hippo.htm

Singin' in the Rain at the ArcLight

Everyone!! We have to watch Singin' in the Rain this week for our CSP this week and it is coincidentally playing at the ArcLight Theater in Hollywood tomorrow night (Wednesday 9/5) at 8pm! I had made the plan with my friend from MSI who lives in Stewie with me to go and totally forgot about it until she called me a few days ago to remind me. I got really confused because I was like: "How did you know I have to watch it for my CSP?" and then she got confused because she DIDN'T know... Anyway, I am going tonight - I should be able to get tickets. I'm excited because I've lived around the LA area for most of my life and this is the first time I'm actually going to the ArcLight, a historical theater. I would offer to take others with me, but my car is already full... If anyone else has a car they can definitely follow me after the Ice Cream Social.

It should be fun! :D

Welcome to Occidental

Presumably the first people to read this blog will be the students of CSP23 at Occidental College. So let me welcome you here and encourage you to start posting. Post any piece of writing you encounter that you like ... a few sentence, link to an article, or summarize or reference anything you want to share with the class. Just try to give it some form of attribution, so we know where it came from.

To get the ball rolling, here's a link to an article about Entourage. Since we're watching that as our first screening, it seemed appropriate. Bill Simmons is primarily a sports writer, but he frequently covers popular culture, too. This is not a formal review or critical essay, just one guy's opinion about a new show that interests him. His take on the early episodes of the show are interesting and say some key things about Hollywood. Like the characters on the show, Simmons is an Easterner who moved to Los Angeles for show business purposes (he was a writer for Jimmy Kimmel's talk show), so the show strikes home for him.