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Saturday, July 30, 2005
  Anyone can make it if they learn how to shake it.
Gotta tell ya, if the movie Mad Hot Ballroom is playing in any theater near YOU, you really MUST go see it.

What a wonderfully uplifting documentary.

In case you haven't heard about this little film, the filmmakers chronicle a 10-week period in the lives of 5th graders in NYC who are participating in a program to learn ballroom dancing. The hope of these kids is to be selected to their school's team in order to represent their school in the city-wide ballroom dancing competition at the end of the 10-weeks. Each school sends a team of 6 couples to compete--5 couples who will each dance a different dance, and 1 couple that is the alternate, in case someone is unable to compete. The dances that the kids learn are the Merengue, the Rumba, the Foxtrot, the Tango, and the Swing.

I absolutely loved the film.

Those kids are amazing. Not because they are wonderful dancers--some are, some aren't. But because they have amazing spirit. I love little Wilson (who happens to be the beautiful little boy on the poster above), who steals your heart; he barely speaks any English, but can rumba like NO ONE'S business. And wee Cyrus, who is so adorable that I want to put him in my pocket and take him home, who says, "I felt like even though I did my best, I still could have done better." And all of the little Latinas who, even at 11 years old, ooze that Latin sensuality on the dance floor, and know how to use those hips.

Just so wonderful.

Maybe it was because these little 11-year-olds remind me so much of the kids I teach. Maybe it was because I absolutely knew how those teachers felt about those kids because I feel that way about my kids, too.

I think it was because I didn't stop smiling at the screen from the moment the movie began until the credits rolled at the end.

Literally. I had a silly grin on my face from beginning to end. I felt ridiculous. But I couldn't help it.

And, really, when's the last time you saw a movie that made you grin like an idiot the whole way through?

Can't remember, can you? That's what I thought.

If you have the opportunity, I strongly suggest...

Go. See. This. Film.
 

Ξ PDawg Composed at 10:10:00 PM
Wednesday, July 13, 2005
  Addendum:
Here is the "updated" reading list for the summer. Basically, all the books that are currently on my shelves that I have not yet read (or that I haven't read in YEARS). The ones that are crossed off are either from last summer, or the beginning of this summer. You can see I have a LONG way to go to reaching completion of this list. I guess winning $1000 worth of free books has a way of making this list MUCH longer...

THE SUMMER OF 2005 OVERLY OPTIMISTIC AND COMPLETELY UNREALISTIC READING LIST
  1. Eats, Shoots & Leaves> by Lynne Truss
  2. The Secret Life of Bees by Sue Monk Kidd
  3. The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time by Mark Haddon
  4. Dress Your Family in Corduroy and Denim by David Sedaris
  5. White Noise by Don DeLillo
  6. A Prayer For Owen Meany by John Irving
  7. Angels and Demons by Dan Brown
  8. A Clockwork Orange by Anthony Burgess
  9. The Snow Garden by Christopher Rice
  10. Eragon by Christopher Paolini
  11. When I Was Puerto Rican by Esmeralda Santiago
  12. Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man by James Joyce
  13. Crime and Punishment by Fyodor Dostoyevsky
  14. Bless Me, Ultima by Rudolfo Anaya
  15. The Good Earth by Pearl S. Buck
  16. Light In August by William Faulkner
  17. As I Lay Dying by William Faulkner
  18. The Sound and the Fury by William Faulkner
  19. Of Human Bondage by Somerset Maugham
  20. Brave New World by Aldous Huxley
  21. Slaughterhouse Five by Kurt Vonnegut
  22. Stiff: The Curious Lives of Human Cadavers by Mary Roach
  23. The Devil in the White City: Murder, Magic, and Madness at the Fair That Changed America by Erik Larson
  24. Running With Scissors: A Memoir by Augusten Burroughs
  25. My Life by Bill Clinton
  26. Living History by Hillary Rodham Clinton
  27. Red Dragon by Thomas Harris
  28. The Stand by Stephen King
  29. Cry, The Beloved Country by Alan Paton
  30. Ten Big Ones by Janet Evanovich
  31. Eleven On Top by Janet Evanovich
  32. Wicked by Gregory Maguire
  33. The Bluest Eye by Toni Morrison
  34. Life of Pi by Yann Martel
  35. Mystic River by Dennis Lehane
  36. Icy Sparks by Gwen Hyman Rubio
  37. Crow Lake by Mary Lawson
  38. One Hundred Years of Solitude by Gabriel García Márquez
  39. The Heart Is a Lonely Hunter by Carson McCullers
  40. Love by Toni Morrison
  41. The Light of Falling Stars by J. Robert Lennon
  42. I Know This Much Is True by Wally Lamb
  43. Snow Falling on Cedars by David Guterson
  44. A Widow for One Year by John Irving
  45. Ethan Fromme by Edith Wharton
  46. The Fellowship of the Ring by J.R.R. Tolkein
  47. The Two Towers by J.R.R. Tolkein
  48. The Return of the King by J.R.R. Tolkein
  49. Mrs. Dalloway by Virginia Woolfe
  50. The Hours by Michael Cunningham
  51. A Room of One’s Own by Virginia Woolfe
  52. The Four Agreements: A Practical Guide to Personal Freedom by Don Miguel Ruiz
  53. Moo by Jane Smiley
  54. Bastard Out of Carolina by Dorothy Allison
  55. The Summons by John Grisham
  56. The Testament by John Grisham
  57. Middlesex by Jeffrey Eugenides
  58. Take the Cannoli: Stories From the New World by Sarah Vowell
  59. Hornet’s Nest by Patricia Cornwell
  60. I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings by Maya Angelou
  61. The Heart of a Woman by Maya Angelou
  62. Stones From the River by Ursula Hegi
  63. In God We Trust, All Others Pay Cash by Jean Shepherd
  64. The Piano Lesson by August Wilson
  65. Benjamin Franklin: An American Life by Walter Isaacson
  66. The Rule of Four by Ian Caldwell and Dustin Thomason
  67. The Intimate World of Abraham Lincoln by C.A. Tripp
  68. Naked Prey by John Sandford
  69. The Corrections: A Novel by Jonathan Franzen
  70. Divine Secrets of the Ya-Ya Sisterhood by Rebecca Wells
  71. Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince by J.K. Rowling
  72. The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy by Douglas Adams
  73. The Restaurant at the End of the Universe by Douglas Adams
  74. Life, the Universe, and Everything by Douglas Adams
  75. So Long and Thanks For All the Fun by Douglas Adams
  76. Young Zaphoid Plays It Safe by Douglas Adams
  77. Mostly Harmless by Douglas Adams
  78. Mirror Mirror by Gregory Maguire
  79. Lost by Gregory Maguire
  80. Confessions of an Ugly Stepsister by Gregory Maguire
  81. The Casebook of Forensic Detection: How Science Solved 100 of the World's Most Baffling Crimes by Colin Evans
  82. Cracking Cases: The Science of Solving Crimes by Dr. Henry C. Lee
  83. Cracking More Cases: The Forensic Science of Solving Crimes by Dr. Henry C. Lee
  84. The Thorn Birds by Colleen McCullough
  85. Into Thin Air by John Krakauer
  86. The Namesake by Jhumpa Lahiri
  87. The Cases That Haunt Us by John Douglas
  88. Anyone You Want Me to Be: A True Story of Sex and Death on the Internet by John Douglas
  89. The Color Purple by Alice Walker
  90. The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain
  91. Death of a Salesman by Arthur Miller
  92. The Glass Menagerie by Tennessee Williams
 

Ξ PDawg Composed at 12:15:00 AM
Tuesday, July 12, 2005
  Back in the saddle...
Ok.

It's been a while.

I realize this.

A great deal has transpired in my life since school ended. Some good, some ok, some bad, and some devastatingly painful.

Things I learned on my summer vacation so far, in no particular order:
  1. The demise of an 8-year relationship is not easy.
  2. You don't need much fingerprint dusting powder in order to lift a good print; in fact, the less powder you use, the better.
  3. Shakespeare was probably gay.
  4. I need to invest in a raincoat for next year's car parking job at the Festival--just in case.
  5. Apparently, there is an enclave of American expatriates living in Costa Rica and teaching in the schools--and it just grew in number by one.
  6. A Prayer For Owen Meany is quite possibly THE BEST BOOK I HAVE READ IN YEARS.
And, that pretty much brings us up to date. :)

I shall be attempting to "get back into the swing of things" around here now that I am officially on vacation. This week is the first week that I have had COMPLETE FREEDOM--no obligations whatsoever. Therefore, I shall post an updated version of my summer reading list from last year, with a few additions, as well as some more cross offs from the list.

As far as books that I have already read so far this summer, here's the list for you...

  • The Stranger by Albert Camus--I wanted to read it because...well, just because. Robert Smith wrote a song about it, and the kids going to 12th grade AP English have to read it, so, I thought I should, too.
  • Go Tell It On the Mountain by James Baldwin--what an amazingly great book
  • A Complicated Kindness by Miriam Toews--a story of a young, rebellious Canadian Mennonite girl and the ways she deals with life after her mother and sister leave her and her father; funny, yet poigniant--an excellent book
  • Crow Lake by Mary Lawson--this was recommended to me by our department head last year, and I finally got around to reading it; the story of a family as recollected by the young daughter (now an adult) who was raised by her older brothers after their parents were killed in an auto accident--not a bad little novel
  • Eleven On Top by Janet Evanovich--the latest in the Stephanie Plum series; cute and entertaining as usual
  • A Prayer For Owen Meany by John Irving--I don't know what else to say about this book other than I ABSOLUTELY LOVED IT
I am also currently reading...
  • Anyone You Want Me to Be: A True Story of Sex and Death on the Internet by John Douglas and Stephen Singular--I just love reading about the science of Behavioral Psychology, more commonly known as "profiling"; so far, so good with this book, but then again, I love all of Douglas's books.
And, of course, in just a few short days...




...this is what half the globe will be reading (myself included).
 

Ξ PDawg Composed at 12:06:00 AM
There's a dream where the contents are visible
Where the poetic champions compose...

~Van Morrison, "Queen of the Slipstream"
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    • What I am READING Now...

    Check out the list in my posts for current summer reads...

    Links

     Google
    FX's Buffy Site
    Yzerman Cup Fantasy Hockey
    Garrison Starr Official Site
    explodingdog
    Dubya Speak
    Official Ellen DeGeneres site
    Homestarrunner
    The Onion
    Eddie Bauer Online

    BUFFY Quotes of the Day
    Anya: It's possible that he's in the land of perpetual Wednesday, or the crazy melty land, or you know, th-the world without shrimp.
    Tara: There's a world without shrimp? I'm allergic.

    ~from "Triangle"


    Anya: I don't see you winning too many beauty contests... unless the Miss "My Face Fell Off" Pageant gets going.

    ~from "Bargaining: Part Two"

    Anya: Here's a little something you should know about Vengeance Demons. We don't groove with the "sorry." We prefer the "Oh God, please stop hitting me with my own rib-bones!"

    ~from "Same Time, Same Place"


    Buffy: It's just like, nothing's simple. I'm always trying to work it out. Who to hate, or love...who to trust...It's like the more I know, the more confused I get.
    Giles: I believe thats called growing up.
    Buffy: I'd like to stop then, ok?

    ~from "Lie to Me"


    Riley: Got big stories to tell you, too. We get half a sec, we can compare and contrast.
    Buffy: Did you die?
    Riley: No.
    Buffy: I'm gonna win.

    ~from "As You Were"


    Xander: Giles lived for school. He's still bitter there were only 12 grades.
    Buffy: He probably sat in math class thinking, "There should be more math! This could be mathier!"

    ~from "The Dark Age"


    Giles: In the end, we are all who we are, no matter how much we may have appeared to change.

    ~from "Lessons"


    Dawn: How are you?
    Willow: A little confused. I mean, I'm sweaty, I'm trapped, no memory, hiding in a pipe from a vampire...and I think I'm kinda gay.

    ~from "Tabula Rasa"
    Buffy



    101 Reasons Why I Love Buffy the Vampire Slayer




    I'm a Woman, so, my mood is always subject to change, but at the moment it's... The current mood of PDawg at www.imood.com

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    I'm beginning to understand this now. It's all about the journey, isn't it?

    ~Giles, "Restless"

    The End of an Era


    Once More, From the Top...