As our group discusses the data we have collected, I see all of us starting to look in different directions than where we looking before. One question or idea from onw person usually generates another question or idea. Delving into questions and answers seem to help us gain a better understanding of the problem.

Boudett, K., City, E., Murnane, R., (2008). Datawise: A step- by- step Guide to Using Assessment Results to Improve Teaching and Learning. Harvard Education Press. Cambridge Massachusetts.

Original post by bruce

Of course, a lot can happen in a month, but the McCain camp seems desperate, as indicated by it’s increasingly nasty rhetoric (such as Palin recently accusing Obama of “palling around with terrorists”- a charge both scurrilous and seemingly pandering to the false rumors of Obama being some sort of closet Muslim and/or foreigner). 

Original post by Ben Roth

But, it is the most recent announcement by the McCain campaign that has really left me reeling.  In the face of the failing economy and the Obama campaign making significant gains in polling nationwide, especially in battleground states, a McCain spokesperson has now announced that the McCain campaign will be attempting to turn the discussion away from the economy.  That’s right.  Not only are they turning the discussion away from the most important issue to voters, but they are blatantly announcing their intention to distract the American people from the crucial issue of this election.

But hey, at least they’re “talking straight” about something, right?

Original post by evakatharina

Crown Heights Riots

I would like to start with the roles of race in the downtown arena. As a New Yorker…now transplanted to Woodbridge, VA one particular downtown riot comes to mind, the Crown Heights Riots in the summer of 1991.  Not that I am comparing the non violent protests of the African Americans in the 1960’s to the racial and religious hatred that sparked the Crown Heights incidents, but I would like to point out that Crown Heights during that time was not an attractive place to live, it was a high crime area with limited commerce. Currently the area had been experiencing rising property values, gentrification, decreasing crime rates. I believe that the former can be compared to the downtown areas in the 1960’s because the urban planning effected what ethnic groups (mainly African-Americans) had access to. You can see it now in places like Anacostia in Washington, DC. A while back I read an article in the Washingtonian about Anacostia and the writer mentioned the noticeable lack of super markets. This may not seem like a big issue but when you are buying a gallon of milk at the inflated price from your local bodega you really feel the strain. Areas like these are notorious for these issues.  These places are targets for fast food chains and bodegas that hike their prices to astronomical heights. I digress, I know but I believe that downtown areas in the 1960’s faced conditions similar to these ones that I have described.

Moving on to the idea of nostalgia. Isenberg states “the New Urbanism movement, creating walking neighborhoods with their own retail centers, has also been nourished by nostalgia for design-enhanced, denser, sociable communities like those that supposedly existed in the past.” I think that a great example of this is Charleston, South Carolina. The old style remains obvious but the streets are peppered with a mix of high end boutiques, mom and pop shops, art galleries, and a flea market that hearkens the days of old. I would say that one feels a great sense of nostalgia in this area.

Charleston, SC

Charleston Market

Shopping in Charleston, SC

Original post by clevine

Original post by eroberts

Who would have thought that David Zucker, the man responsible for such comedic gems as “Airplane” and “The Naked Gun,” could direct a right-wing political spoof as abysmal as “An American Carol?”

The movie’s plot is loosely based on Charles Dickens’ “A Christmas Carol.” The Scrooge of the story, Michael Malone (a parody of Michael Moore), is an anti-American filmmaker who hates Independence Day and what it stands for, and seeks to have it abolished. But when John F. Kennedy’s spirit steps out of Michael’s television, he warns Michael that three ghosts will visit him. Big surprise.

One of the many problems with Zucker’s spoof of arguably the greatest Christmas story ever written, besides being unfunny and predictable, is that it exploits the plot structure of Dickens’s masterpiece without doing it any justice.

Dickens created a well-developed character who the audience could sympathize with. This made Scrooge’s transformation from a despicable miser to a philanthropic hero all the more powerful.

But in Zucker’s story, the audience is forced to hate Michael because he is portrayed negatively as staunchly liberal, naively pacifist, pro gun-control, atheist and obese. Additionally, because of his “anti-American” documentaries, he has garnered a loyal fan-base in the hills of Afghanistan. Oh yeah, and he hates country music too.

Michael Malone does end up loving America in the end, again, big surprise, but all he really ends up loving is country music, guns, and barbecues on the fourth of July. This transformation leads to less than a cathartic emotional response. In fact, it leads to no response at all.

I sat in the theatre numb and confused. I had to question whether the movie was a left-wing spoof spoofing a right-wing spoof, or vice versa. Some of the messages in the movie were so ridiculous; it seemed to poke fun at its own intended audience. For example, one of the ghosts tells Michael, “and then there are people like you who abuse freedom of speech.” Oh really? That’s American.

The movie also pokes fun at education, having professors, dressed in clothing from the 1960s, teaching their students to hate war, America and God. Is this really the message that right-wing filmmakers want to send to right-wing audiences?

Now I understand that the movie is slapstick comedy, and to its credit, there are some points in the movie that are amusing and that generate a chuckle here and there. One scene early on has Malone filming a documentary parodying “Sicko.” Michael tells the camera that the Cuban government actually cares for their people, unlike America, right before a Cuban guard shoots someone in a wheelchair.

Scenes like that are few and far between, and are offset by mindless slapstick jokes. Are we to expect that the tenth time that Michael Malone gets slapped in the face, by Bill O Reilly no less, is supposed to be just as funny as the first? And I’m a sucker for slapstick comedy.

Zucker seems so fixated on making fun of Michael Moore that he loses sight of what’s funny and what’s not. Putting a rat inside Michael’s pizza box is not my idea of funny; it’s disgusting. Compare that to a memorable scene in “Airplane” where a young girl rejects a young boy’s offer to put cream in her coffee because, in her words, “I like my coffee black, like my men.” Laugh your-ass-off moments like that are completely nonexistent in “An American Carol.”

I decided to get to the bottom of how a man who once produced such gold can turn around and produce something as mindless and uninspired as “An American Carol.” It turns out that David Zucker, a former Democrat, has recently admitted, while promoting the movie, that he considers himself Republican. It seems that his sense of humor has disappeared along with his former political identity.

To determine whether the movie is worth your time and money, it doesn’t matter what your

Political affiliation is. Democrat or Republican, if you’re a rational human-being with even the slightest notion of what humor is, you’ll probably find watching meat decay in a jar more entertaining than watching “An American Carol.”

-Missak

Original post by sonic911

It has been more than three years since System of a Down, mesmerized and hypnotized their fans with their two multi-platinum-selling albums “Mezmerize” and “Hypnotize.”

Following their two multi-platinum selling albums, devout fans were disappointed to learn that all four members of the band would go on a temporary hiatus.

But when news broke out that each member of the band would pursue their own independent projects, fans were both skeptical and excited.

The world got a brief taste of one such project in 2006, called “Screamers,” a documentary directed by Emmy Award-Winning director, Carla Garapedian, who collaborated with System of a down to create an important and powerful account of the Armenian Genocide and its connection with the Jewish Holocaust, Darfur and other crimes against humanity.

All four members of System of a Down are of Armenian descent, and are descendants of genocide survivors.

In the same year of the documentary’s release, the band joined other Armenian-Americans in a protest outside former House Speaker Dennis Hastert’s (R-IL) office to convince him to pass a resolution that would finally recognize the Armenian Genocide in the United States.

Although the House International Relations Committee approved the resolution, Hastert did not call it for a vote.

The Armenian Genocide is an event that took place in 1915, where approximately 1.5 million Armenians were systematically deported from their homelands and forced to march in the heat of the Syrian Desert where they starved to death and perished. The event has been consistently denied by the Turkish Government and has yet to be classified as “genocide” by the United States on the national level.

The issue, although ninety-three years old, has current implications, as the House Foreign Affairs Committee adopted a non-binding resolution in October of last year, much to the Turkish Government and Bush Administration’s dismay. President Bush, hours before the resolution passed, said, “This resolution is not the right response to these historic mass killings.”

Turkey has been a key ally to the United States during the war in Iraq.

System of a Down is well-known for its politically-charged, critical lyrics addressing topics that range from the war in Iraq to genocide in general.

Serj Tankian, the frontman of System of a Down, released a solo-album in the October of last year, with his own political message to send, albeit an unorthodox message, if the title of the album, “Elect the Dead,” is any indication.

In an interview with MTV, Serj stated that, “We should channel the wisdom of not just the physical and imperial world, but the world beyond to really make the right choices, because we really F’ed up.

The two singles off the album, “The Unthinking Majority,” and “Empty Walls,” share grim themes that portray world leaders as war-mongering cannibals, and the voters who elect them into power as naïve prey. In the latter single, he sings, “When we decline from the confines of our mind, don’t waste your time on coffins today.”

Tankian has also put his lyrics into action, and now hosts a website, www.ElectTheDead.com, where users can “revolutionize our Democracy” by signing a petition that reforms the electoral process. The petition seeks to abolish the Electoral College, equalize corporate funding in elections, implement multiple choice taxation, among other reformations.

With the November elections looming, the album and website may be worth checking out.

The other band members, too, have been busy with their own projects.

In July of this year, Daron Malakian and John Dolmayan, the guitarist and drummer, respectively, of System of a Down, released their own album, titled “Scars on Broadway.”

The album is blunter with its political message. The lyrics to one of the songs, called Exploding/Reloading go, “I am, I am genocide, mixed with Turkish lies yeah.”

Shavo Odjanian, System of a Down’s bassist, is currently collaborating with the Wu-Tang Clan on a hip- hop project, called “Achozen,” which is set to release late this year.

As for any details on when System of a Down will reunite, Daron Malakian had this to say, “if anyone’s holding their breath for a System record, they’re going to turn blue and pass out. It’s a long ways away…”

-Missak Artinian

Original post by sonic911

1 CIA World Factbook - “Spain”. CIA World Factbook. 2008. CIA. 25 Sept. 2008.  https://www.cia.gov/library/publications….
2 Wikipedia - “History of Spain”. 2008. Wikipedia. 25 Sept. 2008. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_….
3 Marco - Marco, Sebastián Quesada. España: Manual de Civilización. Madrid: Edelsa Grupo Didascalia, S.A., 2006

Original post by adurkin

El concepto de la llanura es el tópico de discusión esta semana. Nos presenta en el cuento por Juan Rulfo como algo diferente de la llanura que pienso yo cuando oigo “llanura.” Pienso en el campo, el gran espacio abierto, lleno de colinas cubiertas por la hierba. Pero aquí en el cuento, es algo más como desierto. Se ha dicho que “no hay conejos ni pájaros…” que la llanura no sirve para nada. Los personajes del cuento preguntan, “¿Quien la hizo la llanura?” Usaron la palabra tepetate, como usó Simon en el artículo que hemos leído anteriormente. Tepetate fue la tierra exhausta, y me parece la llanura del cuento como ejemplo clásico de tepetate. Imagino que la razón el libro se llame “El llano en llamas” es porque, sí esta tierra es nombrado llano, pero claro en realidad, no es. Es algo en que el hombre necesita luchar contra. Que los personajes del cuento no podían abrir la boca para hablar por el calor que secaría la lengua.

Pero es la lección de Galeano que me interesó tanto. La diferencia en las ideas fundamentales que formaron los dos Americas. El concepto que en el sur America, la raison d’etre era para la explotación. El concepto de mercantilismo hizo que las colonias españolas no tuvieran sus propias economías. En el norte, los pioneros eran gente buscando para su tierra propia, su tierra era su hogar. Por eso los pioneros cuidaron por la tierra más que los pioneros sureños. Además, luego, el gobierno sureño era siempre tomando tierra por explotarla, como en Brazil con los cafetos, tomó el gobierno la tierra para producirlos. Pero en el norte, con el Homestead Act, el gobierno dio tierra a la gente para usar la por su propia gana.

Original post by cbrennan320c08

En el cuento el llano se presenta como tierra casi inservible. Y aunque el hombre sabe esto, el todavia trata de plantar y cosechar.

No entiendo porque se escribe del llano como algo figurado. En las tres lecturas me parecio que hablaban del llano como tierra que no es productiva (eso me parece concreto. Estoy un poco confundida.

Yo creo que el cuento proviene del libro titulado El Llano en Llamas porque aunque todos sabian que el llano era una tierra que no es apta para la agricultura con el uso de quimicos se forza a producir. Entonces las llamas se refieren a la explotacion de este.

Original post by lanca5ko

Original post by kharris2

Und das ist das Ende meines ersten Blogs.

Original post by snufaluph

Now, the actual point of the post, as this is not just a literary criticism, is the substance of the second chapter of our reading. I am absolutely shocked at the abuses, corruption and mismanagment being described here. “Loaning” money which has to be passed off in a bathroom is hardly above the table and and building a Veterans’ home with no kitchen is just sheer idiocy. I am totally shocked by the way this all was run… what a scandal! And as usual, it’s the people we owe so much to who are being taken advantage of, forgotten about and used for a politician’s personal gain. Except this time it’s not just an election, won on a pro-veteran speech… it’s the man who’s in charge of the Veterans Bureau selling alcohol during Prohibition to get rich, forgetting to provide for the men he is in charge of helping and wasting funds which could have gone to the veterans in order to fund a highly questionable lifestyle. Reading this, I feel like, “Now I’ve heard everything!”

Original post by rwelker

Answer: You know I think there are times when everyone feels like that, I know I do. But you know what always helps me get through the nit n’ gritty, is trying to think about the situation in a different way. Life suckin’ is the same as saying life is great; it is just a different way of seeing it. There will be ups and downs, sideways and…sidewards, but with a little love and good ol’ uncle lumpy, I think you will see better days!

Original post by Baileyland

Original post by dscott31708

Esta vez estaba yendo por bicicleta en busco de un banco, cuando vi algo extraño. En la media del campo estuvo una pirámide hecha de diez sillas apiladas. Cuatro sillas estaban en el suelo, tres sobre estas cuatro, dos más altos y una sola en el pináculo. Ahí sentaban tres chicas en niéveles diferentes del pirámide, haciendo tarea, leyendo, y escuchando música.

Me fui a sentarme entre ellas en la media de esta estructura rara; yo traje mi libro y empecé a leer. Escuché la naturaliza y miré los estudiante que pasaban por los caminos entre los edificios. Era un domingo y por eso ellos no llevaban mochilas pesadas llenos de tantos libros ni corrían a sus clases, pero solamente andaban tranquilamente, volviendo a sus dormitorios después de tener un fin de semana que espero que les divirtió. A mi izquierda vi algunos estudiantes jugando el fútbol americano. Pensé de que lastima sería si uno de ellos se vaya a pegarnos con su pelota por un accidente. Sería peligroso estar en la media de un pirámide de sillas con una chica sentándose sobre mi cabeza. Este pensamiento de miedo me inspiró a buscar problemas de la estructura de la torre. Atrás de mí, vi que uno de los pies de la silla más alta estuvo colgado y cerca de caer. Pronto, me levanté de la silla y les dije a las chicas que su pirámide no estuvo segura. No quise que ellas salgan su torre creativa porque las gustaba mucho, pero no quise tampoco que estén en un lugar peligroso. Todos nos fuimos en busco de otro lugar tranquilo.

Original post by fuegoyeago

Por este blog, yo no fue al parque o debajo un árbol porque yo tuve cirugía en mi boca pues me senté en mi porche delantero. Estos son mis observaciones.

 Vivo en un doble camino amarillo tan los coches conducen por mi casa constantemente, como sangre en una vena. Mi casa está en una curva y los coches giran para evitar chocando en mi casa. El aire es muy ligero y tibio, es la empieza de otoño y la temperatura no está febrilmente caliente. Puedo oler el pez que cocina en el restaurante al otro lado de la calle, el Sr. Dee. Huele bueno, pero es un olor que no es normal. El olor parece nadar sobre a mi lado de la calle, como el pez que vino. Yo también puedo ver a muchas personas. Las personas suben y calle abajo, yendo a sus propios destinos. Las personas en los coches me interesan, ellos no saben que yo los miro de la cima de mi porche. Ellos conducen y yo los puedo ver en cada coche que hace algo de otra manera que conduciendo. Ellos hablan por teléfono, ellos almuerzan, ellos cantan música, ellos discuten con sus pasajeros, siempre algo diferente. Cada coche tienen un destino differente y yo pienso que

¿a donde van?

La vida natural que veo alrededor de mí es natural, para humanos. No hay mucha fauna aquí y yo veo pocos signos de la naturaleza además gatos. Hay siempre muchos gatos, los tigres de la ciudad, que siempre caza y ronda. Ellos son siempre en mi yarda, persiguiendo pájaros y ratones. Cada gato lo tiene es propia personalidad, como cada coche lo tiene es propio conductor. Yo no quiero gatos tanto pero ellos son una parte de Fredericksburg tanto como los coches.

Original post by cmurray31708

• Who his teacher/teachers were?
• Who influenced him
• Travels to Europe and what he saw
• His time in Venice: who he lived with, what he did
• Where he exhibited and what he exhibited
• Who bought his works(?)

2. His american view

• American artistic movemts, ex. Hudson Valley, and how they created his style
• American society
• Americans traveling

3. Compare and Contrast to other artists

• British artists, like Turner
• French Artists, like Monet and Renoir
• Other Americans, like Sargent and Whistler

4. Summation

• Who he was
• What he did
• How that reflects society
• Why he has been forgotten

Original post by starrynight

Original post by bailstock31708

    Estoy en un banco cerca del campanario.  He pasado este banco cada día cuando voy a mis clases, y siempre he pensado que estuviera una locación agradable para simplemente leer y relajar.  Hoy es la primera vez que lo he tratado y ya me encanta.  Es un poco caliente a pleno sol, pero hace buen tiempo a la sombra, donde está mi asiento.  Otoño es mi estación favorita.  Desde aquí veo unos dormitorios, pero son escondidos en parte detrás de algunos árboles.  Huelo el aire y sonrío porque es tan fresco…ni un pizca de gases de combustión ni humo de cigarrillo, que desafortunadamente es muy común normalmente en el campus.  Yo no soy el único disfrutando del día bella.  Otros estudiantes sientan en sillas y caminan con amigos.  Una chica se está acostado en su estómago en el hierba, leyendo.  Pájaros vuelan de un árbol a otro, y ardillas buscan frutos secos y persiguen el uno a otro como juego.  Un dueño anda cerca de mi con un perrito mono.  El perro me acerca y lama mi zapato.  Más tarde, oigo ladridos y me pregunta si es el mismo perro.  Hay muchos otros sonidos también.  Oigo música de Ball Circle y algunas helicópteros y aviones pasan por arriba.  Grillos son por todas partes, y el fuente salpica en el fondo.  Estudiantes que me pasan en el camino hablan de varias cosas: clases, deportes, el tiempo.  Mi compañera de habitación me encuentra por accidente y hablamos por unos minutos.  Después de que ella sale, yo mira felizmente a los árboles, que son oscilando en la brisa fresca.  Un niño con un monopatín me pasa, y el silencio regresa.  Es un día perfecto para estar afuera: tranquilo y hermoso.  Después de unos pocos minutos más de observar la naturaleza, abro mi libro y empiezo a leer.

Original post by emeyer31708

Original post by agmj

Wednesday was more of the same. I practiced more SQL and completed online tutorials. Honestly not a very exciting day, thats literally all I did on wednesday. I had a total of 3 different online tutorials to complete, and I completed all 3. Jen didn’t have any other work for me to do, and she is the person I am assigned under at the moment.

Friday was even slower than wednesday. I did a little bit of SQL work with Jen, helping her with queries within the employee database itself, but there was a company golf tournament today. The queries I created were for employers choosing people for their job. The problem was that if someone needed an employee with a bachelors degree, it would reject employees with a masters or PHD. I had to implement a solution that would choose the candidate as long as their education level was at least a bachelors degree. Of course it was too rainy for them to actually have the golf tournament, so it was postponed. Still, it didn’t stop a vast majority of the office from taking the day off anyways. I went out to lunch with the few employees working at the time, and had lunch off site. It was better than eating in the office. People were a little more relaxed than I’m used to which was nice.

Original post by buscinski

Wednesday - Much better. Jen had me doing a lot of different SQL statements for searching through the employee database. The searching had to do with security clearances and degrees held. If you searched for someone with a bachelors degree, the search wouldn’t return people who were overqualified for the job with a masters or doctorate. I fixed that. The same goes for the type of security clearance held. If you were searching for someone with a secret clearance, it wouldn’t return people with anything above a secret clearance. The day wasn’t too bad.

Friday - Slow until my manager got her. When she got here she told me I’d be shadowing people in the secured area. I was really excited for this at first, but once their work started I almost fell asleep. The person I was shadowing was testing requirements, and the requirements were written by people who don’t work here anymore. The requirements were also poorly written. I had thought I would be able to help a little since I’ve tested requirements in the past, but there were over 900 requirements to be tested in a program I’ve never seen before. He told me that neither me nor the other intern could help, so we just sat and watched him for about 8 hours. He told us that what he was doing on friday was some of the most boring work he has done since he’s been here. I’m skeptical, but I hope hes right.

Original post by buscinski

Chapitre 15 : Qui est José Bové ? D’où vient-il ? Pourquoi est-il renommé ? Pour quel acte ? Quelles contradictions sur cet homme est-ce que Nadeau signale ? A la page 219, Nadeau s’étonne qu’il n’y a pas plus de MacDo en France. Pourquoi ? Et qu’est-ce que cette observation suggère à propos de la France et la mondialisation ?

Chapitre 22 : Quelles conclusions est-ce que Nadeau tire sur la France et la mondialisation ? Répond-il aux questions posées dans le premier chapitre (pp.12-13) ? Est-ce que son argument a été constant au cours du livre ? Etes-vous d’accord avec ses conclusions ?

Original post by spowers

Original post by akoch5fs

Original post by akoch5fs

Original post by jcirenza

Original post by empyrean00

I think the crowbar separation of male/female experiences stems from the fact that a majority of cultures, ancient and present day, are patriarchal in structure.  In an ancient patriarchal society (such as that in Greece) women were looked on as being lower status to men.  A man’s world consisted of government, sowing the fields, business propositions, and basically any other form of power available.  Women were delegated to the home-front where their duties consisted of cooking, cleaning, and raising children.  In fact a woman would hold a higher standing in her community if she bore her husband many children.  

Often woman were not educated beyond cooking techniques and stitching abilities.  This reluctance or blatant disregard to a woman’s right or need to know something is clear in the Homeric Hymn to Demeter as is the difference by which a man experiencing the same katabatic experience is treated as portrayed in The Odyssey.  

Odysseus is forewarned by Circe who in-turn forewarns his men about there journey to the Underworld.  This means that he had preparation for his katabatic experience.  He knows exactly what his mission is and how to execute it.  

Persephone on the other hand has no fair warning, she is picking flowers with her friends on what she thinks is just another regular day when she is suddenly stolen to the underworld by Hades.  She had no say in the matter, she was physically forced to the underworld.  

There are other examples throughout The Hymn to Demeter that support the claim that the female katabasis is different to that of a male’s.  Demeter experiences her own katabatic episode as well although she does not make a literal journey to the underworld.  As an immortal goddess she can never die so the physical decent to the underworld would not effect or change her.  Instead she experiences an emotional decent where she grieves for her lost child.  

The hymn mentions she avoids the gathering of the gods so that she will not have to confront Hades about his theft of her daughter.  However, had she done just that she could have gotten the sympathy of all the other gods to force Hades to return Persephone forever and she had not yet eaten of the food of the underworld.  But she chooses to hide and sulk away from the gods who could have aided her plunging her farther and farther into her depression.  

The daughters of Celeus make this lament to Demeter, “Mother, what the gods send us, we mortals bear perforce, although we suffer; for they are much stronger than we”  

This quote from mortals could be a bigger metaphor for female relating to males (including female gods relating to male gods) What ever strife a woman is called on to endure she must, because those demanding the strife are men, who are physically stronger then women.

Original post by lpage

Chapter 6 focused on desegregation in the 1950s and 60s and the uproar that was caused by it. Riots broke out all over the country. The commercial retail section was the heart of the protesting. Black protestors wanted merchants to treat them equally. They wanted opportunities to set up their own businesses and more equal hiring processes. White protestors, on the other hand, wanted to remain segregated. They used violent measures such as tear gas, bombs, dogs, and other forms of protest as a symbolic form of intimidation to shop owners and black protestors.

Both sides used boycotts to get their message across. Some groups of black protestors like SNCC (The Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee) and the Southern Christian Coalition used peaceful methods such as marches and lunch counter sit-in’s to get their voices heard.

Cities were destroyed by the violence of the riots. The term “The Riot Renaissance” refers to the rebuilding of downtown areas after the riots of the 1960s. With the expansion of urban renewal policies, opportunities for black business owners to open businesses surfaced.

By the 1970s, many whites had fled from the downtown centers to the suburbs. Chapter 7 and the epilogue deals with historic preservation and attracting customers back to downtown areas. The goal of historic preservation efforts is to create the nostalgic feel of “old downtown” to shopping areas. These kind of efforts can be seen in our own backyard! Downtown Fredericksburg is a pretty well-preserved town, that has taken many measures to retain the historical appeal of the city. Storefronts have been preserved, street-lights look like old gas lamps, and even trashcans look like wooden barrels.

Speaking of Fredericksburg… on Friday we read a few articles pertaining to battles between commercial developers and historic preservationists in the Spotsylvania/Northern Virginia area. There are debates regarding the future of our very own Fredericksburg. Many developers want to expand Fredericksburg, with projects such as a high-rise Marriot Hotel and a parking deck. Preservationists insist that we must respect the history of our town and protect it against expansion. This issue has played a big role in local politics, such as mayoral elections. Personally, I think that there are ways to continue to expand the city without taking away it’s history. A parking deck could be situated behind the main streets of downtown (like Caroline Street) closer to the river to alleviate parking issues. A parking deck could hardly be less of an eye-sore than “Wings on the Water” already is. I am interested in seeing how downtown shopping centers differ from suburban malls in terms of products sold, shopping environment, and clientele.

Original post by nicolemarie

In the Hymn to Demeter, the focus is put more forcefully on the sorrow of Demeter, and her endless woe than it ever was for Odysseus. And the journey to the underworld was much more mental than physical – Demeter herself never travelled to the actual, physical underworld; she made Earth a barren hell, though, until she got her daughter back. Persephone was, in fact, the only person that actually travelled to the actual, physical hell against their will in the story. And in Homer’s telling she does not actually experience a Katabasis in anything but the most literal sense of that she descended into hell. She does not actually learn or mature from the experience; she only sits and waits to be saved.

The focus of the entire story was much more mental than physical. Demeter does not, herself, bring Persephone back, but basically blackmails Zeus into having her brought back. And Persephone has even less power – she can only hope that others can save her. Instead of a focus on brute strength, the focus is on the woman’s ability to manipulate others.

Original post by peppermintsoap

Original post by chet

Original post by lkyser

Original post by adembrow

In the late morning sunlight I sat on the little couch dressed up for work, my little sister—I say little, but she’s almost eighteen—sat on the big couch to my left. We were watching tv, but what we were watching I couldn’t tell you. She walked the fifteen steps to the kitchen, opened the refrigerator and complained, again, that she didn’t see anything she wanted to eat. This annoyed me, seeing as how she didn’t live there anyway but was always over and eating everything in the house: “You don’t need to be eating our food anyway.”

“I’m driving you around today. I can eat whatever I want.”

I hate Laurie’s voice sometimes. She comes across as snottier than those girls from that show The Hills that annoy me. It amazes me how she has much less money then them, and yet somehow has turned out twice as spoiled. Sometimes she needs reminding of her place in life. I relish that responsibility: “Um…and who was it who was driving you around two weeks ago after you totaled your truck? ‘Cause I could have swore, yea, I do distinctly remembering… that being… me.”

My sister has picked up her bags and I can hear pissed off footsteps heading down the hall.

“Where are you going?”

“I don’t have to take this shit from you. I’m leaving.”

“Like hell you are. You have to take me to work today.”

“No. I don’t.”

Her feet continue, loudly, down the hall. I am quicker and head through the kitchen to stand, blocking the front door. She starts yelling at me to get out of her way. At this point I start ignoring her words—this is not particularly hard seeing as how I’ve been doing it since about the time she hit puberty, declared she didn’t care about politics, religion, art, or really anything that actually had substance in a conversation and then started dating all of my male friends in high school. Traitor.

Laurie’s frame is more curvaceous and stocky than mine. Out of the two of us she definitely has “the body.” She has the pretty plump build that big tall guys love. And somehow she seems to have been able to build up the curvy muscles in her arms by merely pressing buttons on the remote control because God knows she hasn’t been outside doing anything else since she was a kid.

I don’t care though, I am still able to proudly stand a whole inch and half above her, thus, I win. From my higher vantage point I look down at her and glare.

She thrusts her curvaceous arms at me and almost succeeds in pushing me out of her way, but not quiet. I swish my hips between her hand and the door knob, blocking her escape.

We are little girls again, fighting ruthlessly. She hits me with the palms of her hands as I begin kicking at her shins, trying to keep her away from the door. I am able to advance on her as she backs down the hall. Different parts of our bodies keep coming together and then apart quickly, constantly.

A difference between our younger selves and now is that neither one of us bites our nails anymore. Hers are prim, manicured, rounded at the ends, and fake. Mine are weaker, but real, filed down to sharp points. You never know when you will have to defend yourself and nails can be a woman’s best friend in times of need, so I grow mine out long and shape them into perfect little daggers with which I thrust all over her face and arms.

At some point in our battle we are back in the living room. She has me between her and the wall next to the tv. I begin to taunt her. She has always been stronger than me but my words have always been able to hurt her far worse than the bruises she forces on my body. Words begin issuing from our mouths back and forth between us, slashing gashes in our skins far deeper than our nails.

“I’m tired of you acting like a little girl. You treat everybody like shit. You treat mom like shit. You treat me like shit. If everyone doesn’t bend over for you, you act like such a spoiled brat. No one owes you anything, you’re not worth anything. You sit their and play mom and dad against each other and you know it. You’re a spoiled little girl that can’t do anything for herself. I can’t wait till you’re older and you realize you can’t even take care of yourself.”

“At least I’m not still in love with somehow who doesn’t give a shit about me.”

“Excuse me for actually loving the man I was with instead of just being with someone because I have no self-esteem and need the constant reassurance that I’m actually worth a damn. Cody’s an ass and you don’t even love him. You’re both just using each other. Everybody hates him anyway, and you hate me because everybody loved and still loves Will.”

She slaps me in the face. I stop struggling and look at her. Her make-up does nothing to hide the disgust that lines her lips, jaw pushed upwards, teeth locked. She looks almost like an animal. Her eyes dart back and forth at me trying to see what I will do next. I look at her cheek and she has something on her face, some little black fleck. I didn’t know what it was then, and I don’t know now. I do know that it struck me as funny, which knocked my concentration off for a moment. This just made me angrier: “you have something on your face,” I say, and then I slap her cheek harder than she slapped mine.

When we were younger I would just let her slap me, but I was older and could never do something like that back to her. I was an adult. I could be held accountable. Years later, I am an adult, and I don’t care. It felt good to hurt her.

Her eyes are what gave her away. She didn’t think I’d dare to do it back. I could see the fear in her eyes so I backed up against the wall away from her and she dropped her hold on me. I let her run out the back door, into her brand new truck, and out of the drive way.

I walked around the living room looking pissed off at the couches. The living room and hall looked virtually the same, the blue walls giving off calmness but I wasn’t having any of it. My sister and my bodies had been locked against one another up in opposition to these walls and they were no longer the same.

I stormed upstairs, ripped open the bathroom door, flicked on the light, and glared at myself in the mirror. My skin was whiter than usual which is saying something. Whenever my blood-pressure rises, my cheeks grow flames and this time was no exception. When I am happy my eyes turn a blank blue, almost grey, almost the color of the walls in the living room. When I cry, they turn green—I don’t know how, they just do. Now they were the color of ice, which was ironic because I swear that’s what my heart transformed itself into enabling me to hurt my little sister.

After a few minutes of heavy breathing, I straighten my hair, pulling it back into a pony tail. This always makes my chin stick out, giving my entire face a look of defiance. I grab my make-up bag and attempt to use cover-up on the scratches that sit on my face. The concealer stings as it sinks into my skin. I readjust my clothes on my body and walk downstairs. I fix the tv stand that my sister nearly knocked my body over, and head back over to my spot on the little couch. My legs instinctively curl up underneath me, and I begin flipping through the channels as if nothing had happened, as if my sister hadn’t been there the entire morning, and instead of her getting up and walking to the kitchen it had only been me, and I had just returned finding nothing in the refrigerator with which to quench my appetite.

Original post by chels

Lithuanian born Jonas Mekas, “the godfather of American avant-garde cinema” is a filmmaker, writer, and curator.  Mekas has been known for his documentaries, narratives, and most of all, his dairies.  Located at the Tate Modern is one of his most notable works entitled “Diaries, Notes and Sketches aka Walden” (1964-1969) with a running time of 180 minutes.  It contains documentary and autobiography imagery of five years of history that runs with an flowing rhythm.  Scenes from the first performance of The Velvet Underground are also featured in this film.  Mekas’ experimental films are connected to the Pop and Fluxus Movements.

….Reminds me of Warhol’s experimental films….

Original post by Butta

The Saint Sebastian on the left is from Titian’s Madonna and Child with Six Saints altarpiece. The one on the right is from his Averoldi altarpiece.

Hood and Hope, in Titian’s Vatican Altarpiece and the Pictures Underneath (1977), suggest that Francesco, Titian’s brother, painted the Sebastian on the left which would account for the very different portrayals of the saint. Rosand, in his 1994 article Titian’s Saint Sebastians, does not mention that possibility.

I do not speak or read Italian, but if you do, please leave a comment with your translation of the following:

“As the friars learned through confession, women “nel guardario avevano peccato per la leggiadra e lasciva imitazione del vivo datagli dalla virtu di Fra Bartolomeo”, (p 29).

I gather from this that women were not thinking uplifting, religious thoughts as they contemplated the classic, nude, well articulated version. Perhaps this led Titian to alter the portrayal of his later Saint Sebastians and even the woodcut? It is an interesting possibility.

San Niccolo, or Madonna and Child with Six Saints, 1533-1535

Averoldi altarpiece, 1519-1522 (I would have to find out when exactly the S Sebastian was placed in the painting)

Woodcuts, I have conflicting sources, one says the woodcut was a pre-drawing for the altarpiece, one says it came after. I will research this further.

Original post by karen4dk

I hate to toot my own horn, but in my internship at The Free Lance-Star I’ve been put on the “election beat” and I’ve written a bunch of news articles about registration for this election. Fredericksburg has the 10th highest growth in registration in the state! Here’s the article:

 http://fredericksburg.com/News/FLS/2008/…

Why do you guys think registration has increased so much in this election? I recently interviewed someone at the State Board of Elections who told me that 42% of new voters in Virginia are under the age of 25. The youth is mobilizing! I hope all of you are registered and get a chance to go out a vote in Nov, no matter who you vote for, it’s so important to exercise your civic right!

Original post by susannahclark

Valid points for both parties.

Original post by alindema

Original post by gnovak

“The Speech John McCain Should Give”

 http://www.realclearpolitics.com/article…

Original post by alindema

Race became a key issue in downtown shopping. Riots and boycotts over race especially in the 1960’s during the Civil Rights Movement implicated downtown decline and increased the white middle class to shop in the suburbs at the malls. Businesses had a difficult decision to make. Facing the demands of desegregation, retailers had to decide whether integration would ruin them, save them, or have no impact at all. The fact that African Americans were trying to share the places of urban shopping with whites equally scared not only the white shoppers but the retailers. Black consumers had always been ignored and feared by white Main Street investors. Retailers after the 1950’s began discussing the idea that black shoppers have been overlooked as a resource to downtown consumption. Black consumers could possibly preserve property values and ensure business prosperity. “Black urbanization and white suburbanization had made African Americans more and more and central city consumer.” Retailers, however, had a difficult time acknowledging and catering to black consumers. The Civil Rights Movement helped businesses recognize their dependence on black consumers. During the time of integration there was violence in the downtown area which deterred consumer’s blacks and whites from shopping downtown because of the fear of confrontations and injury. Integration brought much violence and discouraged shopping in downtown America.

Historic preservation and commercial revitalization of downtown was the goal in the 1970’s. Large cities and small cities had numerous vacated properties of familiar chains and local businesses. Store vacancy was high in this time period. Many chains in downtown closed and were relocated in the suburbs. An example of this would be JC Penny’s which used to be located downtown and is now a mall anchor. Another example would be Woolworth, which in ten years closed 74 smaller stores and opened 172 larger ones in suburb areas. The vacancy of these stores created potential use and reuse. Investors hoped that commercial vacancy would invite creativity to envision new uses and improve values. Renovating and remolding these vacant stores created possibilities of potential buyers or tenants. The empty buildings in the 1970’s however created decline in downtown business. The historic preservation downtown brought back the much needed business that downtown America needed. The historically themed commercial districts created an atmosphere like it had when downtown first became a popular place to shop in the early 20^th century.

Original post by jennyjo3

Raphael Transfiguration

*compare to Assunta

1345 Traini’s St. Dominic, among first Dominican altarpieces

1460’s Martyrdom altarpieces become common

1470’s Dominance of sacra conversazione pala/narrative disappears

1475 Introduction of single field pala format, Venice

1500 Young Titian arrive in Venice

1509-1511 Titian first altarpiece St. Mark Altarpiece

1516 Strong reform movement in Venice

1518-20 Raphael Transfiguration

1519-1526 Ca’Pesaro Altarpiece

1523 Dominican Chapter General meeting addresses Luther’s dissent

1523 antique sculpture collection arrives in Venice Grimani’s collection bequeath

1525 Silvestri urges all Dominicans to defend the word of God against heresy

1525 St Peter Martyr’s story published and circulating in Venice

1525 Vernacular editions of Luther’s books available in Venice

1525 Arrival of religious and economic exiles arrive in Venice

1527 Sack of Rome

1527 Aretino arrive in Venice

1530’s Intense rivalry between Titian and Pordeonone

1530 Titian’s St. Peter Martyr altarpiece first Venetian martyr altarpiece

1550 Vasari Vite published

1557 Dolce’s Dialogo published in Venice; set out to correct Vasari’s exclusion of Titian

from Vite and to establish Titian’s preeminence

1568 Vasari writes Lives of the Artists

Original post by karen4dk

In our next scenario, once the assignment has begun and Toni pretends not to be able to it, even though she has successfully completed it before, I would speak with Toni privately and ask her why she “couldn’t” do the assignment.  I would remind her that this is a review and she was successful on the first similar assig