Circle 8: Malebolge

I don't know how it happens, but poof!  Time goes by and I forget to write.

I didn't watch the Oscars.  In fact, I am fairly sure I have not heard of 99% of the films up for awards.  I did, however, check in on some fashion this morning.  And, the greatest dressed award goes to Sir Elton John's son, Zachary.  He was entirely too cute.

I have been away because I am immersed in teaching Dante's Inferno to High School Seniors.  I have taught this text a batrillion times (well, give or take), but it is so different teaching it to teenagers.

Part of the appeal of the Inferno is where we see ourselves in it; Dante wrote it for that same reason.  For adults and graduate students, my previous audience, they had a great deal of life experience to help them sort out their ideas.  High School students get stuck in Circle 2 and can't manage to get past it.

As we approach Spring Break, projects and exams are coming due, and it is even more obvious to me that  the students struggle with not just the language but the idea that any action we take is unsavory.  Was I like that as a teenager?

Probably.  It is the beauty of youth.

Anyway, I saw that my favorite actor (Gerard Butler) has done a three week camp with the Betty Ford Clinic.  That is probably the place where famous people go where they can be left alone.  If I were famous, I would totally vacation there to get away from the media.  In any case, I hope he is well and has sorted out whatever issues he went there to sort.  I hope he read tons, as that is the best medicine for almost any ailment.

Off to teach the Malebolge!

Celebrity Status: What Teens Think

Students are returning from mid-winter break, and dinner was very lively.  The students in the play (we are doing a HS rendition of the musical Grease) were sitting around chatting about the Grammys, and I told them about the recent activity on this blog concerning the actor Gerard Butler.  Some of them also have me for English, so they saw his performance of "Beowulf and Grendel."  The gaming students (who are mostly in theatre, too) saw him in 300 and in Law Abiding Citizen.

We talked about the nature of fame.  Our school has an elite basketball team, for example.  Currently, we are ranked #1 in the country for HS Boys' Basketball.  These players are awesome, and most of them are headed to big schools to play college ball and then, if history repeats itself, some of them will head off to the NBA.

So, the students said there is a difference between famous actors, famous musicians, and famous athletes.  Fame treats them differently, they report.

They felt that actors are held to a super human status because they are judged by the roles they portray.  One student reasoned that she would expect Butler, for example, to be a "just" man because he was just in all three movies she saw him act in (B&G, 300, and LAC).  So, because he picks roles that have good (but somewhat tortured) men in them, he must identify with that kind of man.  She said the proof is in his current three films.  In Machine Gun Preacher, he plays a man on the edge that is doing good; in Coriolanus, he plays a tortured man trying to do good; in Of Mavericks and Men he is a tortured man trying to be the best at his sport.  They felt that he plays extreme roles, and he has extreme relationships, because he is an extreme guy.  I asked what proof they had about his relationships, and they agreed that they had no proof of that aspect of him because the media is not reliable.  They did find it interesting that he had weights brought to him while he was working on movies.  Working with two trainers at 6 hours a day is intense, so they felt that was proof, too, of an extreme and dedicated personality.

I am not sure if he is an extreme person or not, and, sadly, I won't ever get a chance to ask him, but their ideas about him were very mature and considered.  As one kid said, "BRG, you are what you eat.  If you eat roles that are beyond human, people see you as beyond human."

For athletes, they aren't tied to portraying others; they are playing a game.  Their fame comes from how they do on the court or field.  People like to talk about their personal lives, but not as much as they do for actors and singers.  I guess that might be true.  I don't know anything personal about any of the Philadelphia Flyers.  None of the guys I have ever watched Hockey with in college knew a thing about who these guys were shacking up with at the end of the night.  No one cares what they wear to the store.

For musicians, there is a mixed bag.  They definitely felt that rappers have a higher visibility than other musical artists.  People care more about what Rihanna is doing than Taylor Swift, for example.  They see rappers as having more of a jet set life.  Some of them believed that rappers live like they are on a reality TV show and want the attention in ways that other actors, like Butler, avoid.

They sure had a lot to say about fame.  They felt that fame, and the dwindling of fame, was the true downfall of Whitney Houston.  Because she could no longer sing like she once could, and she couldn't be that glamour girl of the 80s and 90s, she felt she had nothing to live for anymore.  They believed that actors and musicians feel this pain more than athletes because athletes know their shelf life is short on the court and field.  They go into it knowing they will only have a few years to shine.

So, these are thoughts of modern teenagers sitting around a table at dinner in a small corner of the world.  I wonder if others agree?

300 Reasons

So, Mustache Man (that's my son) and I watched 300.  My other son, Sharpie Boy, didn't make it through the opening credits before running off to draw.

Eh.

The actors were brilliant, and I actually liked the effects (as a gamer, it is all about the visuals and the game play).  But, I just couldn't get into the story line.  It probably would have been awesome to have seen it in the theatre with surround sound, as watching it on my macbook pro isn't the same experience.  Also, having to answer 4000 questions every 32 seconds so Mustache Man could follow along wasn't helping (he is 10).  We liked some of the creatures, and, of course, "this is Sparta" is now a catch phrase around the house...(as in "Pick up your toys!  Off to bed!  This is Sparta!"  That will get some good use (just like that guy that shot his daughter's laptop...."This is your laptop; this is my 45" is a great phrase to get my kids to eat dinner).

After watching the movie, I went to a mate's house to play Risk in celebration of another mate's birthday.  There are at least 300 reasons why I can not and should not conquer the world.  I suck at it is probably the best reason.

Living in the middle of nowhere at a boarding school limits other Saturday night entertainment, but we had fun.

I have watched a few of the links people sent to me about Gerard, and, eh, they were OK.  I liked him on the Ferguson show and on the British talk show.  I also liked his clip on SNL.  Having played bagpipes for years all over the east coast at Scottish games, I have no problem with accents.  But, the SNL skit was funny, as it reminded me of friends I have not seen or talked to in years.

The last site I looked at was just atrocious.  It was about that desperate housewives chic.  First of all, don't even get me started on the desperate housewives.  They are all, um, desperate?  Second, the comments section of the page was just dumb.  It is amazing to me how people think they know someone based off anything our media scrapes up.  Do I really care if Gerry is a man whore???  Do little children in Africa care that Gerry's trailer door is busy? Really?  This is what we most care about as a society????

So, that is where I stopped.  I tried.  I really tried, for a day, to be a super fan.  Sorry, Gerry, it isn't in me.  I leave you to all the other women of the world that can pay that much attention to your every move.

Weekly Wrap: Gerard Butler, Unsubscribr, Naked Men, and Feral Cows

So, it is time for a weekly wrap of the precious and witty stylings of this bog.  Included are some updates and/or reflections.

We'll start with Gerald Butler because, if traffic is any indication, you've come to see what I've written about him.  If you are a techie person or a teacher, scroll down a bit to the information about Unsubscribr, Build Chatter, and Pinterest. I will leave the naked men and feral cows to the very end :-)

I am a little blown away by how many people wrote to me about Gerard Butler.  Most people were very kind (seeing as I was little snarky about fan clubs), pointing me to this movie or that interview.  These ladies know their Gerry!

Someone emailed me to tell me I had fallen prey to something called "The Butler Legacy." This is, evidently, something that happens to smart women that adore Gerry for his spirit and brain and not his looks.

Well, I am not sure that I can lay claim to the BL, but I do want to say that, while he is handsome, smart, and funny, he isn't the only actor I enjoy.  I am absolutely in love with the work of Brendan O'Carroll,  Sean Connery, Kenneth Branagh, Emma Thompson, Kate Winslet, Gary Sinise, Helen Hunt, and Tom Hanks.  I enjoy all of their work for different reasons.  I've not written blog posts about them because I didn't have a blog at the time I discovered them (although I will probably write a post about the amazing work Gary Sinise does with veterans).

Only one person emailed me in anger.  Truly, I meant no disrespect toward people in fan clubs (truly).  It isn't my thing, but I don't think less of you if it is your thing.  Yes, it seems odd to devote so much energy to an actor when there are people out there that deserve our undivided devotion because they are trying to change the world by working with the poor and discarded (the work of Vickie and Thom Hicks, for example).  Yes, it seems a little OCD to focus on every word and movement of any man or woman.  But, everyone has a hobby, and mine aren't any better or worse. If adoring Gerry is your thing, havatit.

It can't be easy to be that cute.  I would never trade places with Gerry for anything (well, except that I would have so much fun trying to save the world with his bank account; imagine all the poor children that we could get vaccinated?  Imagine the rice we could buy? Imagine the schools we could build???).

It would be fun to be his official biographer, too, because you could hang out with him, he would tell great stories and make you laugh, but then he would go away to be with his famous friends.  It would be the best job in the world.  I am certain he has people for that; it appears that he has people for everything.  I wonder if he feels all alone despite the crowd.  There is such freedom in not being famous, wealthy, or good looking.

I did find out, though, that the name of the book he spoke about on the Stern show is called Resurrection by Neville Goddard.  I ordered a copy from Amazon this morning.  It would be fun to talk to anyone about it if you have read it.  I just received the book about Jnana Yoga that I spoke about earlier this week.  I am excited to hit the hot tub to start reading.

TECHIE PEOPLE AND TEACHERS START HERE

Many, many thanks to the people at Unsubscribr for sending me an invite to their full version.  I really love love love love this tool.  I was a member of way too many mailing lists, and they were just pulling me down because I couldn't get to student or parent emails or to any of the BRG fan club (ha).  My digital life has become so much more manageable because of Unsubscribr.  If you have not clicked on their link, you ought to hang your head in shame.

Kudos go out to the folks over at Build Chatter. John has been very kind, and has been working with me to get the app to work.  It isn't working yet, but I was impressed by his responsiveness.  With any new start up app, we can expect some challenges as people with varying abilities begin to use it.  I see much potential in the app, and hope to use it to create literature quizzes for my students.  I will wait and see how it goes with them, and will keep all y'all posted.

Finally, I got my invite from Pinterest.  Again, I am not sure why everyone's panties are in a twist over this site.  It is pretty, for sure, but it is like going to a conference where there are only poster sessions.  I like posters and all, but, bah, after you have seen one too many, it is time to hit the pool!  I will see if it gets any more dazzling before I make a final assessment of it.

NAKED MEN AND FERAL COWS

There is actually a book about the naked men of India.  Sadhus: India's Mystic Holy Men describes how these men detach from all earthly necessities.  Now, I am a spiritual woman, but I am attached to being clothed.  Anyway, I ordered the book and we'll see what they have to say about it :-)

I did not know that there are, in fact, hoards of feral cows living all over the planet.  PBS has a great little ditty about the problem in India.  If you have some time, check it out.

THAT'S A WRAP

That is this week's wrap.  I must return to helping my son donate unused toys to the local shelter.  He and I have a date to watch 300 after dinner (but only if I hand pop some popcorn, AND make butter, AND make stove top hot chocolate, AND read to him from his Star Wars Dictionary...sheesh...Gerry Butler just made my workload worse, hahaha).  Once we get through all that, I will THEN have time to get into the hot tub with my stack of books.

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My New Favorite Actor: Gerard Butler

As it goes, here are some prefatory comments.

I am not a star struck kind of person.  I don't get autographs.  I don't go to some wacky location because a star might be walking by at high noon.  I am not a member of any fan clubs.  I have nothing against folks who do these things; I just don't do them.

I have had only two brushes with famous people.  One was a guy I went to college with (Steve) who went on to be Steve from Blues Clues.  He was a great guy in college, and he was a great guy when he was in the show.  He is now a great musician.  But, I knew him when he was just another college kid.

The other guy was an actor on a famous soap and was playing the lead role (in that play by the name we don't mention) when I was an intern at the PA Shakespeare Festival.  On the day he arrived, he was surrounded by a swarm of bee-people.  Everyone kissed his butt.  I was a lowly box office intern and resident bagpiper. I had been given my instructions about the guy: if he comes to you, send him to us.

On his second day there, he came to the box office all puffed up like a Greek God.  I, however, was reading a Margaret Atwood book, and had no interest in becoming one of the butt kissers.  I never heard of the guy, and while acting on a soap gives you amazing visibility, it doesn't really prepare you to wave around a sword while reciting Shakespeare.

So, he swaggered up to the window where I was perched with said book, and demanded to know if I knew who he was.  Without looking up at him, I replied, "well, I hope you aren't St. Peter because I am not finished with this book."

He stomped his foot.  No joke.

He demanded to know if I actually worked there to which I relied, "Indeed, I do."  And after he demanded to know if I would help him, I finally looked up at him, closed the book slowly with a bookmark, and said, "I believe that is why they are all here" and pointed to the swarm of bee-people.

I added, for a nice touch, that he was far too important for a lowly intern to care for, and, thus, he should go to the Big Man for all his ticketing needs.  I hoped he didn't think I meant Bill, himself, but who knows?  He declared that anyone and everyone should help him, and I replied, "My dear...I don't care if you are the reincarnation of the Bard himself.  It's not my job to help you."  I was snarky, true.  But, I was 21 and an English, not theatre, major.

Our initial exchange kicked off a strange relationship.  Every day, he stopped by the window.  He came to visit me out of a personal challenge to covert me to become a Bee-person, I think, or for some witty exchange.  Who knows why actors ever do the things they do...they are paid to act like someone else all the time.  It was fun to wait for his daily visit, though.  He would come up, all puffy like he was King Neptune, and ask for some dumb thing.  Would I get him a glass of water? No.  Would I give him a piece of paper? No.  On the day after I had a day off, he asked me for two things.  Paper and pencil?

No.  I am still an intern.  All Equity pencils are kept in the safe.

By the end of the season, we had formed this great un-friendship/friendship thing.  He loved to torment me, and I loved to ignore him.  Our witty exchange always ended when I would say, "but, alas, I am a lowly intern."  (Side note: I loved his wife; she was simply the nicest person I had ever met in show business, and she was a famous soap actress, too).

At the cast party, he signed autographs for everyone in the cast.  He brought one over to me and said, "Well, I know you don't want one. But, here is one anyway (it even had my real name on it; I didn't know he even knew it - he always called me Curly)."  I smiled at him and replied, "Don't worry, Lancelot, I won't ever forget you, but my Mother wanted an autograph and you spared me the shame of having to ask, so thank you."  We both laughed so hard about the idea that I would lower myself to ask him for an autograph.  But, I would have for Mom (who, by the way, didn't watch soaps; she watched C-Span).

So, all that said, I am not a star gazer.

And, what, pray tell, has this all to do with Gerard Butler?

Well, it is just to say that I wasn't part of his ever-growing stalking club or whatever people call themselves that travel around the world to see his image brush by on the corner of mid-town.

I heard an interview with Gerard Butler on the Howard Stern show (yeah, yeah, keep your comments to yourself).  I had never heard of Butler, but given that most movies I watch have animated animals or talking trains in them, it is no wonder.

I actually kind of felt sorry for the guy.  I didn't know that he was handsome or smart or anything, but he kept trying to talk about amazing things like books (do actors read?), and everyone kept bringing it down to the chics he sleeps with or dates.  I was interested in the movie he was pushing (Machine Gun Preacher) because it reminds me of the work Vickie and Thom Hicks do in Sierra Leone at Nazareth House.  He wanted to talk about so many interesting things, but, sadly, all he got to talk about was his A list of bedmates.  That was boring.

About a week later, I showed "Beowulf and Grendel" to my 12th graders, and, lo, he played the part of Beowulf.  We were comparing that rendition to the rendition with Angelina Jolie and the actual poem.  I hate the Jolie version (not that it is her fault; I hate the script).  The Butler version is better but still wrong, but at least it has the good sense of having a different title than the original poem.  Of course, there is always some stupid love scene, but aside from that, I thought it was an interesting take on the poem, and the costuming was gorgeous.

Then, a few days after that, I read about the movie Coriolanus - apparently Butler is in that, too.  And, since I am always looking for movies to share with my students, I was intrigued. If a good movie of the Shakespeare variety is coming out, and I have time to swap out the play we read, I will definitely go for the blockbuster hit to make it all the more appealing.  Bribery at its finest.

So, since I heard about this actor three times in a short span of time, I looked him up.  He is, indeed, handsome.  But, more impressive...he is quite bright.  He is trained as a lawayer (the best acting school on the planet, really).  He is also very caring, as he was really touched by his experiences in the Sudan.  He appears to drive his own car around, and, sad for him, the paparazzi love to stalk him.  Women throw themselves at him whenever he is in public.  There are countless sites devoted to adoring him (Really?  People have that much free time???).

What I like about him, though, is that he is trying to be a regular guy and an incredible artist.  He is in the business to act - he doesn't care about all the other stuff.  He seems slightly uncomfortable by all the press.  The guy isn't married, and no one will leave him alone about it.  But, really, if you read his resume, the guy is super busy.  He takes on these hugely difficult roles (physically and mentally draining), and he is all over the world shooting scenes.  He does his own stunts, apparently, and almost drowned while shooting a movie about Xtreme surfers.

The guy is all about his craft.  And, I hope he gets a million of those awards that they hand out (I never know the difference between Grammy, Emmy, and Golden A-Hole).  He really is a brilliant actor, and he deserves to be recognized for the craft of acting and not whether one of the desperate housewives spent a week in his bed.

I like him because he seems so real.  Like, I can see him at his Mum's house eating cereal.  I don't know who he is dating, and I don't care.  I do wish I knew the name of the book he mentioned on the Stern show because it sounds like an interesting read (something about our souls making contact with each other).  But, even if I were a gorgoeus hotty model and famous, I wouldn't ever want to go in public with the guy.  I don't know how he ever makes it to the loo, for Pete's sake.  He is constantly surrounded.

If I were ever the type to meet a guy like him, I wouldn't waste his precious time asking about stupid crap; I would want to know what he is reading and what kinds of roles he has on his bucket list. I would love to see him make more movies that can be used in English or History classes.  We are in dire need of updating the classics.

One of my bucket list dreams is to write the screen play for a movie version of Dante's Inferno.  If I could hand pick the actors, I would cast Butler to play Dante, Sean Connery to play Virgil, and Kate Winslet to play Beatrice.  I would have Kenneth Branagh direct.  it would be amazing.  Lots of smart actors running around talking about real things other than clothes and models.

But, anyway, I look forward to seeing Coriolanus.  I am not sure I will see the surfing movie, but I will wait for his next adventure.

PS.  Wonder why I didn't post a picture of Sir Butler?  I don't want to encourage the paparazzi.  Every time we gawk at their work, they think they have the right to invade his personal life.  Give the guy a break.