rajafacesbothways

Learning Experience

Before and after meeting a cousin for lunch, I got involved with my new Canon printer/scanner that does everything but press my clothes. It is very user friendly, but I get confused  with which end of a peppermill grinder to direct toward my food so this is not easy for me. Catman is being patient but also appeared shell shocked when he saw my illogical and incorrect approach to anything mechanical.

Got a roll of b/w Ilford 200 Film Noir et Blanc which is supposedly the closest film available to infrared. Will give it a try--was told it is not as good as infrared but closer than any other b/w film. We'll see.

Boggled by Books

I've been spending the weekend with "Bob, the Book Man" as we continue to sort through boxes, piles and shelves of books. The semblance of an office has emerged--reference books for his writing project fill some shelves and desk space now exist. His project goal is to increase Community leadership in education, working for change from the bottom up. A major challenge since teaching for testing has become the norm. However there are some positive instances where such changes exist.

He  casually mentioned a couple of his friends who he will be working with in this; Wendell Berry, a well-known Kentucky writer and Grace Lee Boggs, a 94-year-old, Chinese-American activist, feminist and winner of many awards. I recall her interview on the Bill Moyers show.

I've never met anyone who loves books so much--and I know a lot of book lovers. Enormous variety of subjects--including  Chaucer, Shakespeare, technical and historical books, philosophy, novels, biographies, autobiographies, government--even Dilbert.

We went out for some lunch, he stopped at his mailbox and pulled out--you guessed it--another book.

Trade Routes-Family Style

My sister is flying in from Corpus Christi, TX tomorrow for a weeks visit which will include a trip to northern Ohio for a family clam bake. My brother, Catman, will be there from CA and Karen is driving in from Chicago.

The focus of our family is food. As Karen suggested, we are like the Native Americans with our own trade routes;  exchanging almonds from TX, grains from KY, coffee from Chicago, Amish cheeses from Ohio. We'll meet, eat, and exchange; this is our version of a pot-latch. And of course, the feast will be a clambake prepared by a nephew.

As a family, we get along remarkably well, with few arguments. Possibly because we were taught to not talk with our mouths full. And our mouths are always full.

Zapped Time Travel

Cut anthropology class today because I just didn't feel like going; a sign of being a typical student. Information on the Mayans, Mound Builders and Cliff Dwellers keep changing every decade as different techniques develop and new information is unearthed. (bad pun) It's a lot of who knows and guess whats.

Maybe I'll just wait and learn it when they get it right.

Crashing the Learning Curve

Registered for fall semester at UKY--auditing North American Anthropology. I attempted to get into a class ln Japanese culture prior to 1860, but it was filled. Actually had considered dropping out of college but the free exposure to new ideas is just too good to pass up. Am still trying to find a clue for what to do when I grow up.

Although I unfortunately retain almost nothing, this at least gives me something interesting to forget, unlike not remembering where I put my keys.

Enlightening the Young--about sex?!

The Intimacy in Film class is analyzimg Bob and Carol and Ted and Alice (1969, dir. Paul Mazursky.) I found it to be a hysterically funny satire of that period of the culture of Eselen, feelings, openness in sex. It's illuminating to get the students reactions. They felt that the two couples did not switch partners at the end of the film because they knew each other--not the brief unfaithful sanctioned fling with the tennis pro or on a business trip.

I pointed out that this was also the period of "key parties,"  where couples did know each other. The kids had never heard of neighborhood parties where women would throw their keys in the center of the floor, mix them up and guys would pick one and they'd "get it on" with the keeper of the key. I was surprised I had to explain this to the class, emphasizing that I never lived in one of those neighborhoods. I was going to mention Sam Shepard, the famous murder case in Bay Village, Ohio, who was part of such a group, then I realized I'd have to explain that too.

One girl complained these movies showed men thinking of sex all the time! A couple of the guys looked at me and grinned--they seem to recognize I get it; as a male friend confirms--"guys are just bears with furniture." I actually give them more credit than that--but what do I know?

Class Report Card

In my UnivKY "Intimacy in American Film" class an anonymous poll was taken on paper, to answer the question, "Do you want to get married?" and "Do you approve of open marriage?" There were about 20 twenty-something in class yesterday. The instructor was surprised that 4 voted "no" to marriage--usually only one or two do not want to marry. And all voted against open marriage.

One student pointed out one or more of their parents have had affairs. One young woman lives with her boyfriend and has a child but is in no hurry to marry him.  Her mother gave her the book, "The Rules",
 ( sexual  behavior straight out of the fifties) although her mom has been married 4 times. Five in the class are conservative Christians and would not choose living together before marriage.

Young women complained that there are many books/articles on how to attract and please guys, but no books for guys on how to please women. For them it's all about sex and how to score.
HE-L-L-O women! Some things never change.
 I love the class, discussing the films and the readings and hearing about the thoughts of the students. Because I'm the grandmother in the class I've seen the cultural range of the films, sexual behavior and marriages over the decades. That probably makes me the most liberal thinker in the class, since what they are discovering is just the same-o same-o story.

Movie Marriage Circle

Schools still closed here but I plan to go to Lexington to see an exhibit of Jasper Johns and Robert Motherwell and on to film class, finally.

Along with readings, we are viewing and comparing relationships of couples in marriage--Powell/ Loy in The Thin Man (1934), Fred/Ginger in Swing Time (1936), and  Pitt/Jolie in Mr. and Mrs. Smith (2005), (you have to live in a cell with no conduits to the outside world to avoid the media attention to that couple). Along with class discussion, students are required to write their analysis in a question about each film and post it for all to read on the web.

Bottom line in all the films? It's all about getting laid.

Ready For My Close Up, Mr. DeMille

Back to University of KY for another semester and another class--"Representations of Intimacy in U.S. Cinema."
Mostly we will be viewing films but will also read a range of theories on intimacy. The areas address interpretations in film of "The Couple", "Marriage Circle", "Liberated Love", and "The Wedding". We'll be  considering the extent cinema shapes and reflects the ideology of love in society. And how financial investments (homes, rings, getaways, weddings) are tied to the subject. Love is definitely an expensive habit!

We've started out with The Thin Man (1934) and Swing Time (1936) movies where couples share a happy synergy and marriage is shown as fun. Yesterday we compared It Happened One Night with The Graduate.

Any class that requires viewing old movies and discussing them gets A+ in my book.

Waiter, There is an Aztec in my Soup

A group of students had the final of four panel debates in Mesoamerica anthropology class today. The "emics" defended the insiders (Aztecs) point of view; the "etics" gave the outsiders' perception. Aztec warriors used captives to carry heavy confiscated pots of maize to Tenochtitian, priests then sacrificed the captives from the top of pyramids in rituals to the sun god. Fortunate citizens were served an arm or thigh simmered with spicy herbs and peppers.

(Typically, to be on this panel was the first choice of most of the students.}

Basically the discussion's focus was on why do a people do certain things. Cannibalism was deeply tied to the Aztec's idea of bloody sacrifice to keep the Sun God reappearance for life and sustenance. The Spaniards wiped out this practice by eventually wiping out about 90 per cent of the Aztecs.

The Catholic belief of the transfiguration of the blood and body of Jesus in communion was also brought into the debate.
 Hmm. It did offer me a different twist on the 10th Commandment which forbids coveting thy neighbor's oxen---or ass.