tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-36359568618024119242024-03-13T19:59:49.496-07:00Creative DTLT/RossAnonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04400440537394029013noreply@blogger.comBlogger12125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3635956861802411924.post-55498137365033673062016-06-02T02:39:00.001-07:002016-06-02T02:39:18.830-07:00Creative Writing Final Assignment/Interactive Art and Narrative Part 2: Rationale<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 20pt;">Rationale<o:p></o:p></span></i></b></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12pt;"><o:p></o:p></span> </div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 14pt;">“The development of the narrative capacities of the mind, of its ready use of metaphor, of its integration of cognitive and affective, of its sense-making and meaning-making, and of its overarching imagination, is of educational importance because these capacities are so central to our general capacity to make meaning of our experience." <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 14pt;"></span><br />
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 14pt;"> Kieran
Egan<o:p></o:p></span><br />
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 14pt;"><o:p> </o:p></span></b></div>
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 14pt;">In
this final blog entry I will attempt to explain why this lesson plan is
appropriate for my students, how creative writing techniques will be used, how
it will support second language acquisition, my teaching methodology, and how
technology will be incorporated in the lesson. <o:p></o:p></span><br />
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 14pt;"><em>The Students<o:p></o:p></em></span></b></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 14pt;">I
have been teaching the same course for five years now and am quite familiar
with the diagnostics and need analysis of my students. I have also gathered a
lot of information from my students in consultations and evaluations. Korean
students are used to being in a traditional language class, which uses cliché
generic theme chapters in textbooks, involves a lot of rote learning and is
centered on grades and memory work.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The
lesson I have designed is based on the idea that student should be constructing
knowledge and language in a unique and imaginative fashion. Moreover many
students are familiar with modern technological tools but not in the sense of
content creation, yet many have spoken to me about how digital tools can be
used to further their language acquisition. Finally, the class is composed of
students from various majors but always which always include Art History,
Craft, Media and Culture majors, which will help act as a bridge for using art
and technology in a lesson. This approach is experiential and will go to engaging
them in meaningful language learning, enriching their academic years, and helping
them in developing long lasting digital skills.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 14pt;">Tasks<o:p></o:p></span></i></b></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">Because
the lesson is about art, I’m going to use works of art to elicit and teach
techniques of descriptive writing and narrative structure, as well. This will
help to engage students in the content of the lesson and allow me to scaffold
learning experiences.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Moreover, the starter
task with the Van Gogh painting serves several functions here: first, it will
introduce the theme of art into class and second give them the language to
describe a painting. Third, it also will serve to provoke their imaginations
into seeing in a different way. I created this activity specifically because
the “The Starry Night” painting is so <span style="font-weight: normal; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;">ubiquitous</span><strong><em> </em></strong></span></span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 14pt;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">in
their minds from a contemporary commercial and various ads.</span> However, by having
them sketch it themselves and then rediscover it as it comes into view on the
page in front of them is a unique participatory experience for them. This
impression is heightened further when they realize the vantage point from where
“Starry Night” was actually painted from (an asylum)and tie in the connection
with the infamous and equally ubiquitous anecdote about Van Gogh’s severed ear
(It was one of the first paintings completed after the ear supposed incident). <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I’ve experimented with this activity recently
and it had a very strong impression on the students. So, there is an added
fourth purpose which is to get them thinking about point of view and different
contexts from which to view a painting. Finally, it will have the effect of
turning something familiar into something strange. This to me is one of the
most fundamental aspects of creativity and artistic expression. Art through
various ways (metaphor in writing, editing in film) can make the familiar into
something strange and conversely it can make something strange into something familiar.
But in both situations the mind is forced to see the world in a new way. (It is
interesting to note that research by Bonny Norton shows, technology can have
this same effect on language learners but I will discuss the affordances of the
technology later in this blog).</span> <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 14pt;">Similarly,
the Julio Cortazar story “Axolotl” was chosen to compliment and play into this
idea of strangeness and seeing altering one’s perspective from a different
point of view. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>(It’s worth mentioning
that student will also be familiar with</span><span lang="EN" style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 14pt;"> Márquez's 1968 short story <strong><span style="font-weight: normal; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;">"A Very Old Man with
Enormous Wings"</span></strong></span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 14pt;"> from our other classes, which is
a story dealing with similar thematic content as well) In regards to the video
assignment Golden Earring, it will suggest a possible metacogitive postmodern
point of view on a painting which they might consider to view their own painting
from. The Tedtalks videos make this approach very explicit and we will also incorporate
it into class discussions as well. All the tasks have been designed with a
secondary embedded purpose which the students have to discover by themselves in
pairs and to get them asking more questions because I want them to do something
similar in their interpretation of a painting. They will need to look for more
and dig a little deeper with their imaginations to become more creative. I think
the tasks as they have been designed will help them to do so. The creation of
the final project will be a strong reflection of this process.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 14pt;">The
Final Digital Artifact will being using thinglink which allows students to embed
their chosen painting with hot spots which the other students will have to find
by cursing over the picture. This allows them many options for telling their
final story either in disjointed fashion or in a standard narrative it also
gives them the opportunity to add sound and other video so student my chose to
create a link to video or other created content to embellish their story. The
genre of the stories are open for students to choose from as well. This means
they can negotiate to make a murder mystery which the other students have to
solve.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 14pt;"><em>Teaching Methodology</em>
<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 14pt;">The
teacher role will be largely based a initiating ideas and engaging students
with starters and designing tasks, ensuring collaboration is effective,
providing feedback, and finally and perhaps most importantly scaffolding and
encouraging peer feedback.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Collaboration
in the creative process is at the heart of this language lesson and it needs to
be structured in an efficacious and productive fashion. I have tried to incorporate
group work into the class in several places so that it can be transferred
online with various tasks. This will begin with the Reading Circles where
students will nominate their own groups and their subsequent roles to perform.
Specific roles will give them more autonomy and allow them to be able to control
the material as research by Palinscar and Herrenkohl has demonstrated. In
particular, this can be seen in the role of confusion collector. Their 2002
study shows how students were able to find their own answers to most problems
without a teacher, provided an explicit role was designated for immediate visceral
reactions and questions beforehand (2002, p.27). This group structure should
break the task down into smaller chunks for students to identify and then work
with. The main collaborative component will come with the online tasks and it
is online that I want students to learn how to engage in constructive peer feedback.
<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 14pt;">I
have based this cyclical design on the ideas suggested by Laurillard so that
there are approximately 6 groups of 6 students (2013). Within each group
students will be divided into three pairs A,B,C. This will allow me to get them
providing feedback to each other within their groups but this will extend
outward in concentric circles of feedback to eventually include the whole class.
For the weekly online tasks, in each group Pair A will begin the story and Pair
B will provide feedback and continue the story based on their feedback then
pass it on to Pair C, who will continue the story then receive feedback from
Pair A. This is similar to the <em><span style="font-weight: normal; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;">Exquisite Corpse</span></em> activity or “the drawing game” played by
Surrealist painters in the 1920s but in this dynamic the point here is to be
constructing something together, and using language to do so rather than acting
in mutually exclusive groups and surprising each other with the final resulting
product. They are “in a sense trapped” and will find it “difficult to escape” using
the language. (Biggs, 2003) Similarly, in the third week this pattern of
feedback will extend out to the next group where Group 1 will provide feedback
to Group 2 and so on. This feedback will be mainly questions for clarification
and to help each group identify and iron on problem areas in their narratives.
The final assessment will be done by rearranging the groups so that the final
artifact will be seen for the first time by a different group in the following
pattern: G1-G6, G4-G2, G5-G3.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 14pt;"><em>Technology and
Second Language Acquisition<o:p></o:p></em></span></b></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 14pt;">As
mentioned earlier, students have requested to use more digital tools in class
which is a major reason in terms of engagement and practical life skills. Students
will become familiar will quite a few digital tools for solo or collaborative
work including google docs, edublogs, padlet, popplet, and thinglink. It is
hoped students will use these tools within their major and other courses as
well. However, in regards to second language acquisition, using technology will
ensure students are using English to communicate with one another. Further to
this interface on each tool is written in English as are the How to video that
will be used to help them. As quoted above, they will be “trapped” into
learning because they will undoubtedly try and negotiate their narrative in
Korean at some point but because they are writing online, it can be tracked, monitored
and assessed. They will be given a quota for how much they should be participating
but hopefully this will initiate more communication online with each other. Keeping
in mind that this is a writing skills class and not a speaking class, the
chosen technology will enhance their writing ability along with the regular course
work. That being said, I designed it so that a lot of the online written
language can be reused and consolidated in the spoken in class feedback sessions
in weeks two and three.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Student will
also be designing their own blogs which means creating their own visual space
to represent themselves which will be empowering and give them a sense of
accomplishment. It also works with the visual aesthetic dimension of the
overall lesson plan. Technology will be used to facilitate second language
acquisition in terms of a negotiation of meaning and content creation but
ultimately the most learning will occur in the feedback process. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 14pt;"><em>Conclusion<o:p></o:p></em></span></b></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 14pt;"><o:p> </o:p></span></b><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 14pt;">As
Smith suggests, the human “mind is a narrative concern revolving around interpretation
and consensus”</span><span lang="EN-US" style="color: #222222; font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: 굴림; mso-font-kerning: 0pt;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"> </span></span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 14pt;">(Beynon and Mackay, 1992) This consensus is not only in the mind of the
learner but in the community the learner is a part of and this is best
manifested in the act of collaboration.</span><span lang="EN-US" style="color: #222222; font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: 굴림; mso-font-kerning: 0pt;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"> </span></span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 14pt;">The above class
was designed in an attempt to bring more creativity and collaboration into the
classroom and allow students to create a narrative experience rather than remember
information. Although I have always tried to create imaginative lessons in the
past, my experience in this creative writing course has engendered a deeper
respect for the creative process and also given me the empathetic perspective
to envision what my students are going through in the classroom. However, I
think the most impressive discovery, even a “threshold concept” for me was in
the area of feedback (Cousins, 2006)<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">.</b>
It is in the act of providing feedback where the most powerful and practical effects
will be discovered by my students as well. It is a difficult process but one
that forces students to clarify and define their use of language within a
social dynamic which is supported by Vygotskian theories of social interaction
in the learning process (Tomasello, 2014). But it also invokes the connection
between what Bakhtin referred to as a “surplus of seeing” and cognition (Clark
and Holquist, 1984). Having to perceive oneself through the eyes of another and
then negotiate meaning ultimately forces one to respect and redefine identity
as a collective entity in a creative community of learners. This, in turn,
makes the acquisition of a second language a more meaningful and holistic
experience. I have tried to design a lesson that will get students creatively
involved in meaningful communication with one another and at the same time use
practical second language skills and digital skills that will be used throughout
their lifetime. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 14pt;"><o:p> </o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 14pt;">References<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12pt;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="background-color: #cccccc;">Egan, K. (1992). <i>Imagination
in Teaching and Learning: The Middle School Years</i>. University of Chicago
Press, p 64<o:p></o:p></span></span></span></div>
<span style="background-color: #cccccc; color: black;">
</span><br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span style="color: black;"><span style="background-color: #cccccc;"><span class="watch-title"><span lang="EN" style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12pt;">Norton,Bonny.(2013)"Identity, Investment, and Multilingual Literacy
(in a digital world)"</span></span><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12pt;">Retrieved
from</span></i><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12pt;">
<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fapiB6zgZUQ"><span style="color: windowtext;">https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fapiB6zgZUQ</span></a><o:p></o:p></span></span></span></div>
<span style="background-color: #cccccc; color: black;">
</span><br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12pt;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="background-color: #cccccc;">Palincsar, A. S., &
Herrenkohl, L. R. (2002). Designing collaborative learning contexts. <i>Theory
into practice</i>, <i>41</i>(1), 26-32.<o:p></o:p></span></span></span></div>
<span style="background-color: #cccccc; color: black;">
</span><br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12pt;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="background-color: #cccccc;">Laurillard, D. (2013). <span style="mso-bidi-font-style: italic;">Teaching as a design science: <i>Building
pedagogical patterns for learning and technology</i></span>. Routledge. P 207<o:p></o:p></span></span></span></div>
<span style="background-color: #cccccc; color: black;">
</span><br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12pt;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="background-color: #cccccc;">Biggs, J. (2003). Aligning
teaching for constructing learning. <i>The Higher Education Academy</i>, p1-4.<o:p></o:p></span></span></span></div>
<span style="background-color: #cccccc; color: black;">
</span><br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="color: #222222; font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12pt;"><span style="background-color: #cccccc; color: black;">Beynon, J.,
& Mackay, H. (1992). <i>Technological literacy and the curriculum</i>.
Psychology Press.</span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="color: #222222; font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12pt;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="background-color: #cccccc;">p 193<o:p></o:p></span></span></span></div>
<span style="background-color: #cccccc; color: black;">
</span><br />
<div align="left" class="MsoNormal" style="-ms-word-break: keep-all; line-height: 150%; margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; mso-pagination: widow-orphan; text-align: left;">
<span style="color: black;"><span style="background-color: #cccccc;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 150%;">Cousin, G. (2006). An introduction to threshold concepts.
</span><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 150%;">Retrieved from</span></i><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 150%;"> </span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 150%;">neillthew.typepad.com. p.4<o:p></o:p></span></span></span></div>
<span style="background-color: #cccccc; color: black;">
</span><br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12pt;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="background-color: #cccccc;">Tomasello,
S. (2014). Effects of Visual Arts on Second Language Acquisition. <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Retrieved from</i> https://www.academia.edu/9539043/The_Effects_of_Visual_Arts_on_Second_Language_Acquisition,
pg 9<o:p></o:p></span></span></span></div>
<span style="background-color: #cccccc; color: black;">
</span><br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="color: #222222; font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12pt;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="background-color: #cccccc;">Clark, K., &
Holquist, M. (1984). <i>Mikhail Bakhtin</i>. Harvard University Press., p. 71<o:p></o:p></span></span></span></div>
Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04400440537394029013noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3635956861802411924.post-29885008365218910042016-06-02T02:38:00.002-07:002016-06-02T02:38:35.365-07:00Creative Writing Final Assignment/Interactive Art and Narrative Part 1<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi_KyDOoTzFMjQazpqcFQdgMe2QrlKETbht4NiPMemPKzxdIA5nOQxoeANN4NO77jYpaAmBJSm9nuE7JUC_rjfLjNv5hanHb4lnwSZtn0GLsUnkpGxx2ktxqv_Jy60K7HK-8ppSTGKOAaM/s1600/narrativeart.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="130" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi_KyDOoTzFMjQazpqcFQdgMe2QrlKETbht4NiPMemPKzxdIA5nOQxoeANN4NO77jYpaAmBJSm9nuE7JUC_rjfLjNv5hanHb4lnwSZtn0GLsUnkpGxx2ktxqv_Jy60K7HK-8ppSTGKOAaM/s200/narrativeart.png" width="200" /></a></div>
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 14pt;">For
my final creative writing project, I have designed a four class lesson plan and
assignment for my intermediate students enrolled in a Freshman English Reading/Writing
course at Sungshin Women’s University in Seoul, Korea. There are app. 36
students each semester. This assignment combines the use of descriptive writing
techniques, visual and literary analysis with various digital tools. The
pedagogical approach underlying this lesson is a combination of the experiential,
cognitive and constructivist schools of thought. The teaching methodology will
be primarily based on student pair and group collaborative tasks.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>However, in this initial blog I am going to
detail some of the ways I want to engage my students in the use of imagination,
the art of creative writing, provide brief examples of activities and an
outline of the final digital artifact. (In the following blog I’m going to
present a rationale for this lesson plan that will explain more details about
teaching methods and design issues.) <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 14pt;">To
begin with, Sungshin Women’s university has spent a lot of time (and money)
embellishing the hallways and campus with a great deal of art, both paintings
and sculptures.</span><br />
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEirX138dU2dKa4FIp9jGBITBVt6B630TokPPhYS3BJOP01oKAUHvvRi6hTVxvLuKVIdfVvFH2HP49snM2MEOUFzIH9Ry8F6r8i-jMe4c4XitXwVr1fEntxWmPNHQTyNBlGZkwDDsMCc1G8/s1600/woojungstairs2.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEirX138dU2dKa4FIp9jGBITBVt6B630TokPPhYS3BJOP01oKAUHvvRi6hTVxvLuKVIdfVvFH2HP49snM2MEOUFzIH9Ry8F6r8i-jMe4c4XitXwVr1fEntxWmPNHQTyNBlGZkwDDsMCc1G8/s200/woojungstairs2.JPG" width="150" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: xx-small;">image 1</span></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">In particular, we have a spiral walkway that extends eight
floors with app.50 paintings placed throughout and ending up at an actual gallery
containing several more art works on the bottom floor. All the art has been
created by local Korean artists and/or past students. Here are a few examples.</span><br />
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 14pt;"></span><br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgNU6vzT9bb4GKTFa8iQjUMMy8hhRZO3N-zHU1hTD3SrDGs7sULkfscQPJjM3YZ-1EKsauneD3ap47z369LiBfETVH1IqluUd8C31zjR-_zoVMKpulwmRf1BChM-7fsQOdGhAEW-0BTfdI/s1600/Woojung3.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgNU6vzT9bb4GKTFa8iQjUMMy8hhRZO3N-zHU1hTD3SrDGs7sULkfscQPJjM3YZ-1EKsauneD3ap47z369LiBfETVH1IqluUd8C31zjR-_zoVMKpulwmRf1BChM-7fsQOdGhAEW-0BTfdI/s320/Woojung3.jpg" width="240" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: xx-small;">image 2</span></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgXXU411nJsEepDuZCMq_hEV7QJVlsblbN4kcxee88v1uNvzoR6GgZrm_KgRITWykUdn2Qc9QIUUxyiC1o2uAY78_rf1YRNQaa78bttcJKWqBItE15ISRUjGfP1D1lTu08eIeEdHdSK0ZM/s1600/woojungpic1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgXXU411nJsEepDuZCMq_hEV7QJVlsblbN4kcxee88v1uNvzoR6GgZrm_KgRITWykUdn2Qc9QIUUxyiC1o2uAY78_rf1YRNQaa78bttcJKWqBItE15ISRUjGfP1D1lTu08eIeEdHdSK0ZM/s320/woojungpic1.jpg" width="240" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: xx-small;">image 3</span></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 14pt;"></span><br />
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 14pt;"><o:p></o:p></span><br />
<br />
<br />
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhQMul-fMGTVxiluDVLTUBIiACirTDhgGqr4BSF_pS4VSYI1KIJ_GVhyphenhyphenStizXueTCG7QRUyOW_BqBaJLWexjzw1gEaF9gvXhgaeyiofcV7kp2s6Zf4eZChkby2nJzZSWCA9oT-sXa5cxpA/s1600/Woojung4.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhQMul-fMGTVxiluDVLTUBIiACirTDhgGqr4BSF_pS4VSYI1KIJ_GVhyphenhyphenStizXueTCG7QRUyOW_BqBaJLWexjzw1gEaF9gvXhgaeyiofcV7kp2s6Zf4eZChkby2nJzZSWCA9oT-sXa5cxpA/s320/Woojung4.jpg" width="240" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: xx-small;">image 4</span></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 14pt;">This
art is generally seen as superfluous and ornamental and yet hundreds of
students walking past it daily on their way to class throughout the term. In
brief, my lesson is about having students, in groups of five or six, bring
these works of art to life by combining creative writing skills with technology
to transform them into collaborative digital artifacts.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: justify;">
</div>
<br />
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 14pt;">As
a mentioned above the class I teach is a Reading/writing class which is centered
on the composition of various types of paragraphs (Opinion, Process,
Descriptive, Narrative) and includes an intensive reading/literary analysis
component in which students study various short stories in class throughout the
term, so this lesson is not outside of institutional requirements. So the
content and materials are can be decided by the teacher and students. <o:p></o:p></span><br />
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: justify;">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 14pt;">Material
and Resources:<o:p></o:p></span></i></b></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 14pt;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">Girl
with a Golden Earing (film)<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">
</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 14pt;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">The
Fall of Icarus, William Carlos Williams <b> <o:p></o:p></b></span></span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">
</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><strong><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 14pt; font-weight: normal;">Musée des Beaux Arts</span></strong><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 14pt;">, W. H. Auden <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">
</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 14pt;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">“Axolotl”
(short story) Julio Cortazar<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">
</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 14pt;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">Tedtalks<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">
</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 14pt; font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><em><strong>Options:<o:p></o:p></strong></em></span></span></span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">
</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><strong><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 14pt; font-weight: normal;">Mourning Picture,</span></strong><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 14pt;"> <strong><span style="font-weight: normal;">Adrienne Rich <o:p></o:p></span></strong></span></span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">
</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><strong><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 14pt; font-weight: normal;">The Simpsons Episode: A Brush with Greatness</span></strong><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 14pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">
</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 14pt;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">The
Portrait of Dorian Grey (excerpt),</span> <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 14pt;"><o:p> </o:p></span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 14pt;">Technology
used:<o:p></o:p></span></i></b></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 14pt;">Edublogs<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 14pt;">Popplet
(mindmapping tools)<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 14pt;">Google
Docs<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 14pt;">Padlet<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 14pt;">Thinglink<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 14pt;"><o:p> </o:p></span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: justify;">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 14pt;">The
Lesson Plan:</span></i></b><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 14pt;"><o:p> </o:p></span><br />
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 14pt;"><o:p></o:p></span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 14pt;">O<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">utcomes</b> for this assignment are as follows:</span></div>
<ul>
<li><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 14pt;">Students identify and describe basic painting layout.</span></div>
</li>
<li><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 14pt;">Students discover ways of engaging with art works from exemplars.</span></div>
</li>
<li><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 14pt;">Students will compare different ways a painting can be interpreted.</span></div>
</li>
<li><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 14pt;">Students do a literary analysis of short story in groups.</span></div>
</li>
<li><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 14pt;">Students learn to use digital tools to write a collaborative story.</span></div>
</li>
<li><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 14pt;"><strong>Aims:</strong> </span></div>
</li>
<li><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 14pt;">To develop their critical thinking skills<o:p></o:p></span></div>
</li>
<li><div style="text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 14pt;">To enhance their awareness of digital tools <o:p></o:p></span></div>
</li>
<li><div style="text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 14pt;">To enhance their collaborative ability</span></div>
</li>
<li><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 14pt;">To improve their English writing skills<o:p></o:p></span></div>
</li>
</ul>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: justify;">
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 14pt;">1<sup>st</sup>
Class<o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 14pt;">Starter: Ss will
be given the following 2 pictures and then take turns describing and sketching
the pictures to one another without revealing the picture.</span></i></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
</div>
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg0UwbQFIh2GAqm108jkK4bP7uu7l3CUJdi-bERU-NBOL78NjwK_cjRPxoQehnMH1rDhfO_ZTLf5vIRhxuSGpF1_JRwH9xgT2CA6pk9QxdupgOIlqpwtNb25lTKPXGgGUJntmy4VJ57mDM/s1600/starrynight.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="117" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg0UwbQFIh2GAqm108jkK4bP7uu7l3CUJdi-bERU-NBOL78NjwK_cjRPxoQehnMH1rDhfO_ZTLf5vIRhxuSGpF1_JRwH9xgT2CA6pk9QxdupgOIlqpwtNb25lTKPXGgGUJntmy4VJ57mDM/s320/starrynight.png" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><em><span style="font-size: xx-small;">image 5</span></em></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: justify;">
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 14pt;"><o:p> </o:p></span></i></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 14pt;">Teacher elicits
context. Van Gogh's view from the asylum in. </span></i></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
</div>
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 14pt;"><o:p></o:p></span><br />
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 14pt;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 14pt;">1. Ss watch Tedtalks
to help them critically analyze the contents of a painting.<o:p></o:p></span></i></span></div>
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 14pt;"></span><br />
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 14pt;"><a href="http://ed.ted.com/lessons/how-art-can-help-you-analyze-amy-e-herman">How Art can Help you Analyze</a>
</span><br />
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 14pt;"> </span></div>
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 14pt;">
</span><div style="text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 14pt;"><span style="font-size: small;">
</span><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 14pt;">2. Ss will do a Listening
activity with Nat King Coles song “Mona Lisa”.</span></i></span></div>
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 14pt;">
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 14pt;">Ss analyze lyrics</span></i></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: small;">
</span></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgIWUehQwpjRxryx9vn8HFcPrHvM8CBiW1E8m9tMFxF1zYzG1bXy6Cn57RrpHwhhKhCRQJazINHRO8zfLk0lMJUicyKX6I099b4WUJ7UElyaU_jR9YKj-o9VaayDkE2GYte7REvjFh-oOg/s1600/icarus.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgIWUehQwpjRxryx9vn8HFcPrHvM8CBiW1E8m9tMFxF1zYzG1bXy6Cn57RrpHwhhKhCRQJazINHRO8zfLk0lMJUicyKX6I099b4WUJ7UElyaU_jR9YKj-o9VaayDkE2GYte7REvjFh-oOg/s1600/icarus.jpg" /></a></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: justify;">
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 14pt;">3. Ss view </span></i><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span lang="EN" style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 14pt;">Bruegel</span></i><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span lang="EN" style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 14pt;"> </span></i><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span lang="EN" style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 14pt;">"Landscape with the Fall of Icarus"</span></i><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span lang="EN" style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 14pt;"> </span></i><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 14pt;">and
suggest interpretations then Ss will read separate poems to one another “The
Fall of Icarus” by William Carlos Williams and “<strong><span style="font-weight: normal;">Musée des Beaux Arts</span></strong>” by W. H. Auden. Ss compare
and contrast poems. <o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: small;">
</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: justify;">
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 14pt;">4. Ss describe the
following two still life paintings to one another and find the connection (the 5 senses) Students
will then review how the five senses are used in Descriptive Writing. Ss<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>find example in last 2 poems. (They will
already be familiar with techniques from previous writing task in our textbook.)
<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></i></div>
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjMAp_e1zgBeu2Pw1YsBByISkyGAvQkHP2fPSfL6UaAHyoz9NjIyOj8XrDDIX9kjaot7z83kauMLbcUs0PxbxfIfIHsWKOIgWyNjpA8Tb_SAdlQvw5LFq20ur1Z7DOcGbGcsP9QXHWoSzA/s1600/5+sensesmodern.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjMAp_e1zgBeu2Pw1YsBByISkyGAvQkHP2fPSfL6UaAHyoz9NjIyOj8XrDDIX9kjaot7z83kauMLbcUs0PxbxfIfIHsWKOIgWyNjpA8Tb_SAdlQvw5LFq20ur1Z7DOcGbGcsP9QXHWoSzA/s200/5+sensesmodern.jpg" width="146" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: xx-small;">image 6</span></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: justify;">
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 14pt;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"></span><o:p></o:p></span></i> </div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: small;">
</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: justify;">
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 14pt;"><o:p> </o:p></span></i><br />
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhzsEQ_GE2zApL2QnCHXqqS_WL9M5Sq8l1Au1WCS__85RqrsgPkAsm6RQmja5cU45gqeLw6wiSVo2aMkEDSjTCp4Xv8PqLGlsRsePrDdzVEWTL62XKZo26ZTTQzSp8uLVghyphenhyphenO8rCPwjTCg/s1600/%2528The_Five_Senses%2529_-_WGA01515.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="150" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhzsEQ_GE2zApL2QnCHXqqS_WL9M5Sq8l1Au1WCS__85RqrsgPkAsm6RQmja5cU45gqeLw6wiSVo2aMkEDSjTCp4Xv8PqLGlsRsePrDdzVEWTL62XKZo26ZTTQzSp8uLVghyphenhyphenO8rCPwjTCg/s200/%2528The_Five_Senses%2529_-_WGA01515.jpg" width="200" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: xx-small;">image 7</span></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"></i><br /></div>
</div>
</span><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 14pt;">5. Reading Activity: Ss predict plot
of “Axototl” with the following painting.</span></i><br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhkU8bnuq7BuI4Dw5spWZQrNUmbwkaQyG3u79wCFYHykfi97MmG3EygT_g_vlavYlj5XRWWhXBT-0wk852MS-J73y1hdWVHnGjRBmb8p5D9SybXTB7wcXy8m8jvPYWGFS2mVyO_WYxc1Rs/s1600/Axolotlpainting.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhkU8bnuq7BuI4Dw5spWZQrNUmbwkaQyG3u79wCFYHykfi97MmG3EygT_g_vlavYlj5XRWWhXBT-0wk852MS-J73y1hdWVHnGjRBmb8p5D9SybXTB7wcXy8m8jvPYWGFS2mVyO_WYxc1Rs/s1600/Axolotlpainting.png" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: xx-small;">image 8</span></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: justify;">
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 14pt;">Ss do literary
analysis of story in reading circles with each member performing a different
role. (Confusion Collector: collects all the immediate visceral responses,
impressions, queries, Verb Finder: collects new and interesting verbs,
Discussion director, Adjective finder: collects new adjectives, similes,
metaphors, Connector: finds connections with world outside the classroom TV,
contemporary events, etc) Class discussion.<o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: small;">
</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: justify;">
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 14pt;">6. Ss nominate
groups. Ss move to Art Gallery area. Ss collectively choose a painting to use
for their assignment.<o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: small;">
</span><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 14pt;"></span></i></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 14pt;">Ss brainstorm,
jot down impressions, capture a digital image, and consider ways of
interpreting the painting using techniques from earlier in lesson. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: small;">
</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: justify;">
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 14pt;">7. The class will
then move into blended format and students will continue the task online.
Students will create a morphology grind on Google doc before next class for
Formative online assessment. The groups will be divided into pairs A, B, C (in
the case of uneven numbers, a stronger student will work alone). </span></i><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 14pt;">Pair A will begin the story on Edublog from the
morphology grid and complete it within 2 days and then it will be passed on to
Pair B, who will provide feedback on blogs and then on to Pair C.</span></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: justify;">
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 14pt;">(Ss will be provided with a
handout with useful expression for giving feedback and watch the following
video and answer a set comprehension to compliment it.)</span></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: justify;">
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 14pt;"><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zndxy_4c8c4">Constructive Peer Feedback</a></span></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: justify;">
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 14pt;"></span></i> </div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 14pt;">2<sup>nd</sup>
class<o:p></o:p></span><br />
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 14pt;">1. Ss come to next
class with a completed first draft of a story that will be assessed by another
group and the instructor in terms of point of view, character, <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>openings and conclusions, grammar.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>In class we will continue with our analysis
of "Axototl" and focus on openings and beginnings and Ss will do various
activities comparing how stories open and descriptive techniques from school
textbook.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 14pt;">2. Ss view following Tedtalks
and answer comprehension questions on handout.<o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 14pt;"><a href="https://www.ted.com/talks/tracy_chevalier_finding_the_story_inside_the_painting?language=en"><span style="color: blue;">Finding the Story Inside the Painting</span></a><o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 14pt;">3. Ss will also be
given an assignment to watch the film “Girl with a Golden Earing” and complete
a Comprehension questions and do analysis of the film in a View Circle similar
to the reading Circle we used with the text. And post comments and on Padlet. <o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
<br />
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiBhiSILUyrf6i3zjaWvTksRUmUK4Ym2I4OmW8PpjK6DFifkEqrAz6959-l1CdxRA0riZSdKEjZZ7S5JoOJ4sc4LaXZ23wLAH5NqgJ5CUT7mKELA_qs1gee2FJQ2LSYIsrj2aAk1R8E2BY/s1600/earring.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiBhiSILUyrf6i3zjaWvTksRUmUK4Ym2I4OmW8PpjK6DFifkEqrAz6959-l1CdxRA0riZSdKEjZZ7S5JoOJ4sc4LaXZ23wLAH5NqgJ5CUT7mKELA_qs1gee2FJQ2LSYIsrj2aAk1R8E2BY/s200/earring.jpg" width="134" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: xx-small;">image 9</span></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 14pt;"><o:p> </o:p></span></i></div>
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 14pt;"></span></i><br />
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 14pt;"></span></i><br />
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 14pt;"></span></i><br />
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 14pt;"></span></i><br />
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 14pt;"></span></i><br />
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 14pt;"></span></i><br />
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 14pt;"></span></i><br />
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 14pt;"></span></i><br />
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 14pt;"></span></i><br />
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 14pt;"></span></i><br />
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 14pt;"><em>4. Online: Ss
return to open story composition on edublogs 2 days for each pair, online
feedback from the teacher and return to class. This will all culminate, after 3
rounds of feedback sessions, when students embed their narrative into </em><a href="https://www.thinglink.com/featured"><em>Thinglink</em></a><o:p></o:p><em>
and present their final story. The groups and instructor will then assess the stories with a
rubric. </em></span><br />
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 14pt;"></span></i><br />
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 14pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></i> </div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
References for Images<br />
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: x-small;">
</span><br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif";"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="background-color: white;">Image
#1: By author<o:p></o:p></span></span></span></span></span></div>
<span style="background-color: white; color: black; font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: x-small;">
</span><br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif";"><span style="background-color: white; color: black; font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: x-small;">Image
#5: retrieved from </span><a href="http://www.moma.org/explore/inside_out/2015/07/29/a-van-gogh-pilgrimage-on-the-125th-anniversary-of-his-death"><span style="color: windowtext;"><span style="background-color: white; color: black; font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: x-small;">http://www.moma.org/explore/inside_out/2015/07/29/a-van-gogh-pilgrimage-on-the-125th-anniversary-of-his-death</span></span></a><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<span style="background-color: white; color: black; font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: x-small;">
</span><br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif";"><span style="background-color: white; color: black; font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: x-small;">Image#6:Nunn, R Retrieved from </span><a href="http://www.robnunnphoto.com/posts/2008/8/2/what-to-shoot-different-genres-styles-and-ideas.html"><span style="color: windowtext;"><span style="background-color: white; color: black; font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: x-small;">http://www.robnunnphoto.com/posts/2008/8/2/what-to-shoot-different-genres-styles-and-ideas.html</span></span></a><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="background-color: white;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif";"></span></span></span></span></span><br />
<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="background-color: white;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif";"></span></span></span></span></span><br />
<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="background-color: white;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif";"></span></span></span></span></span><br />
<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="background-color: white;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif";"></span></span></span></span></span><br />
<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="background-color: white;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif";">Image#7:</span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; mso-ansi-language: EN;"> </span><span lang="EN" style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; mso-ansi-language: EN;">Baugin,L Still-life with
Chessboard (The Five Senses) retrieved from <u><a href="https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Lubin_Baugin_-_Still-life_with_Chessboard_(The_Five_Senses)_-_WGA01515.jpg"><span style="color: windowtext;">https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Lubin_Baugin_-_Still-life_with_Chessboard_(The_Five_Senses)_-_WGA01515.jpg</span></a><o:p></o:p></u></span></span></span></span></span><br />
<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="background-color: white;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif";"></span></span></span></span></span><br />
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif";"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="background-color: white;">Image#8:
Jones, Z (2006) retrieved from http://zachary-jones.com/zambombazo/historietas-chiclosas-axolotl-cortazar-los-beatles/<o:p></o:p></span></span></span></span></span><br />
<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="background-color: white;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif";"></span></span></span></span></span><br />
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 8pt;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="background-color: white;">Image#9:
(2015) Retrieved from http://hakobapeb.kora-line.net/the-girl-with-the-pearl-earring-movie-online.html<o:p></o:p></span></span></span></span></span></div>
Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04400440537394029013noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3635956861802411924.post-32227053522886459252016-04-05T03:01:00.000-07:002016-04-05T03:51:26.134-07:00Self-reflection on the Creative Process<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhV72Noa-pKPWkVEYMwdAxXo1kVwyCTI1MwEZDXXlWkY7WLwAcHk5d8dZMjrzTSsFLp8R-o8u7mtLZKGBaHN4c_LAZXkCVrwyDEjdmZrRsN6X5no6xU6yq0xH3CEl65pkpIqPQCuzzLs84/s1600/writing+self.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="216" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhV72Noa-pKPWkVEYMwdAxXo1kVwyCTI1MwEZDXXlWkY7WLwAcHk5d8dZMjrzTSsFLp8R-o8u7mtLZKGBaHN4c_LAZXkCVrwyDEjdmZrRsN6X5no6xU6yq0xH3CEl65pkpIqPQCuzzLs84/s320/writing+self.png" width="320" /></a></div>
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12pt;">Reflections
on the Creative Process <o:p></o:p></span></i></b></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">Before discussing some of the technical
aspects of my experience with creative writing, I just wanted to mention the
three things that stand out the most to me about the process. I know now that successful
writing requires an incredible amount of discipline. All the writers I’ve ever heard
discuss the act of writing never fail to talk about a setting a regular
schedule and sticking to it. But I didn’t realize how important this was until
I tried to write myself. And secondly and related to this is the realization
that writing occurs in the writing not in the thinking process that proceeds it.
You can’t wait for inspiration, you have to find it in the act of writing which
you can’t do, ironically, unless you are disciplined enough to write on a
regular schedule. Finally, the feedback I received from my classmates and
teacher was invaluable and essential to the whole process. I want to return to
idea of feedback later in the final section but in the following sections I’d
like to discuss the editing and redrafting of my story “Two Legs” in terms of Plot,
Point of View, Character, the use of technology and some implications for using
creative writing in the second language classroom.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">Plot<o:p></o:p></span></span></i></b></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">“Two Legs” is about a character called
Mark who has cut a semester of university to work for an extended summer job travelling
with the circus. He is the low man on the corporate totem pole, so to speak. He
has romantic notions about the circus experience which are slowly eroded over
the season, largely because he is hounded by an abusive nitpicking producer,
whose sole concern is money. In the end, Mark stands up for himself and has a
confrontation which I leave for the reader to ponder. I came up with the
present ending, in part, after reading Jauss article “Returning Characters to
Life”. I liked the idea of leaving the final confrontation to be in the mind of
the reader, “in the blank space that follows the story” (Jauss, 2010). In terms
of the opening, I changed it several times but decided after the feedback I
received that my original opening was effective in capturing the reader’s
attention and establishing the setting. I think short stories should hit the
ground running and throw the reader into a specific moment of life and conclude
with several questions in the reader’s mind. In terms of Friedman’s plot categories
it falls under both a Maturing story and a sort of revenge plot. During the
redrafting process, it occurred to me that “Two Legs” is a sort of retelling of
Hamlet, with the producer being Claudius and Mark as Hamlet. One of the themes that
emerged in the writing is the conflict between imagination and compassion vs
the pursuit of money and the practicality that implies.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjbTyII_9xAFI_nwu4a1UcsDT0mTKxbGkinCrvjkIDwlPKXU6cK7XG6aUwvpPPbfiorSZzoIEdq2NfQDTq8ol3SSZzwsC6PUyPzuJsUut4Ww1cAc__IZVsSOp7E5mnsJ0tAfrJSazjFU1I/s1600/w5.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjbTyII_9xAFI_nwu4a1UcsDT0mTKxbGkinCrvjkIDwlPKXU6cK7XG6aUwvpPPbfiorSZzoIEdq2NfQDTq8ol3SSZzwsC6PUyPzuJsUut4Ww1cAc__IZVsSOp7E5mnsJ0tAfrJSazjFU1I/s200/w5.jpg" width="174" /></a></div>
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">Point
of View and Distance<o:p></o:p></span></span></i></b></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">I told the story in 3<sup>rd</sup>
person limited POV with the narrator able to relate Marks thoughts only. I
tried different POVs but felt this to be the most suitable in the end because
it allowed me to try and create more distance around the main character. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I have always liked very elaborate syntax that
has a strong impact but there are several problems with this style of writing.
It can sound very pompous and it also can distract the reader from the basic
action of the story, which is one of the comments I heard in the feedback
session. To overcome this, I had to keep asking myself who is saying this and
whose eyes are the readers going to be seeing the story through. As Jauss
stated in his essay on Distance “a film in which the camera stays the same
distance from the characters, never moving back or in” would be a boring
experience”. As a result, I tried to see the entire story as if I were the
director of a film, manipulating the distance between the narrator and the
characters but also the reader and the main character. As a result, I attempted
to embed some of the ideas originally spoken by the narrator into the mind of
the character in the form of a letter to describe the producer and then by
zooming into the imagination of the character. I hope that the reader will see
it from his point of view and establish a deeper understanding of what is
motivating the character. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">The
Character<o:p></o:p></span></span></i></b></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">During the feedback sessions there were
several questions about what my character really wanted and what motivated him.
What did he look like? Why would a college kid work at circus? What is his
actual job? What journey is he on? I tried to address these questions in my
second draft and provide a background for Mark by using a flashback to a dialogue
to both show the kind of world he came from and what his parents were like and
create more conflict about his choice to run away with the circus. I feel my
character has more depth than in the initial draft but I’m still not fully
satisfied with by depiction of his character. In a nutshell, he has just
reached a breaking point with his abusive employer who represents everything he
dislikes about people who see the world just as a place to make money and this
leads to the final conflict. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">On
the Use of Technology<o:p></o:p></span></span></i></b></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">I realized after the first feedback
session that I couldn’t let the technology sabotage good story telling
techniques by putting my clip of the circus site and revealing the setting
before the words so I moved it to after the 2 paragraph. I really wanted to use
the technology to work in opposition to the setting of the story rather than as
a way to just embellish it which in turn is supposed to enhance the coming of
age plot. The clip of the circus tent being constructed has a very melancholy
soundtrack and suggests a sense of loss in a place most readers would expect to
be festive. I attempted to use the Powtoon clip in a similar way by juxtaposing
childlike images with the serious adult crimes and situations described in each
slide. I don’t know how successful this was but it was rewarding to try and
combine digital content with the text.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">The
Classroom<o:p></o:p></span></span></i></b></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">I don’t know how much short story
writing my students would be able to engage in but I think there is a wonderful
potential for imaginative creative use of language that would greatly impact
students success as second language learners. The act of creative something
from yourself is difficult but very rewarding and leads to more confidence,
agency, and ownership. Moreover, I think Paul Freire’s statement, “to speak a
true word is to transform the world” (1993, p 68) is equally so for writing. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Secondly being aware of point of view was the
most difficult concept for me and I think my students would find it difficult
as well but it has the potential to develop strong critical thinking skills in
learners by forcing them to ask a lot of important questions. Thirdly,
understanding the mechanics and use of imagination is a very valuable from of
knowledge that is often overlooked not only in language learning but in
education in general. I’ve always felt imagination is like the invisible silent
glue that holds most conceptions we live by together. However, we tend to
operate in the realm of facts and assumptions too frequently. By doing close
readings and attempting to engage in creative writing students ultimately
become exposed to the tools of imagination which in turn could enhance their
ability to interpret the world around them (and their place in it) in a more
rounded and compassionate fashion. Fourthly, this leads to the idea of feedback
and the creative process. The story I tried to write and the way it was
interpreted in the feedback sessions was fascinating to me. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Negotiating meaning and sharing ideas in this
way holds a great opportunity for language learning and I think students need
to learn how to engage in this process more than ever in the new paradigm of
connectivism. We were provided with a great set of questions and guidelines but
we still often found ourselves in awkward silence. My students would too
undoubtedly. But it’s definitely a place that should be cultivated. Finally, I
think the use of imagination and narrative techniques could be used in basic teaching
methodology as well, such as when giving instructions or explicating grammar. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">Overall, it was a very valuable
experience, both surprising and frustrating, and I have a new found respect for
writing and writers in general. I would like to be better at writing and be
able to transfer what I have learned into the classroom with my students
however I don’t know how successful I can be at it. But I have a good toolbox
now and new set of questions to ask about the writing process. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt;"><o:p><span style="font-size: x-small;"></span></o:p></span> </div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 9pt;">Freire, P. (1993). Pedagogy of the Oppressed. <i>London,
Penguin</i>.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 9pt;"><o:p> </o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 9pt;">Friedman,
N. (1955). Forms of the Plot. Journal of General Education. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 9pt;"><o:p> </o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 9pt;">Jauss,
D. (March/April 2010), <em>The Writer’s Chronicle</em>, Vol. 42, No. 5 24-35<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt;"><o:p><span style="font-size: x-small;"> </span></o:p></span></div>
Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04400440537394029013noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3635956861802411924.post-26040176507168678632016-04-05T00:34:00.003-07:002016-04-05T03:16:21.024-07:00Two Legs 3rd draft<br />
<div align="left" class="MsoNormal" style="-ms-word-break: keep-all; margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; mso-pagination: widow-orphan; text-align: left;">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12pt;">Two Legs<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
<br />
<div align="left" class="MsoNormal" style="-ms-word-break: keep-all; margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; mso-pagination: widow-orphan; text-align: left;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12pt;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">“Listen, just keep your eyes
on the freaks, kid! That’s why we hired your educated ass! You’re supposed to
know the difference!” The middle aged producer Mr. Fetterling, liked reminding
Mark, who had just turned 21, that “we”, that is, the financial team of the Great
Canadian Shriner Circus, were the people in the front part of the caravan and
everybody else was in the back. He referred to anyone who didn’t count money on
a regular basis as a “freak”. Mr. Fetterling leaned forward, grasped the
turnstile, spun it round, and watched it jerk to a stop. He seemed to ponder
it, as if it was a wheel of fortune and he couldn’t figure out what he had just
landed on. “Well, at least these damn things are working! Ching, ching, ching!
Showtime soon, the high school kids should be here soon to take the tickets!
Just watch out for the freaks, will ya! He jerked his head and rolled his eyes
towards the empty parking lot and said, “like that freak, he’s been here all
morning.” And let’s make sure everything is in the right place this time!” The
last two words stung Mark, knowing himself to be blameless, but he remained
silent, again, as usual. Mr. Fetterling turned toward the back door of the box
office trailer and walked up the creaky tiny steel steps. Mark cringed when he
remembered the letter he had forgotten to put away on the desk in the box
office a few weeks before. In it he had written to a friend, “The guy is a
funny pear shaped man, forked with two stubby little legs, in plaid pastel pants
that are far too tight for a guy his age and he’s got a pair of white shoes to
match his big white Elvis belt. He wears the same gaudy orange silk shirt from
hell everyday”. But to this day, he still wasn’t sure if Mr. Fetterling had
actually read it. <o:p></o:p></span></span></span></div>
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: x-small;"></span><br />
<div align="left" class="MsoNormal" style="-ms-word-break: keep-all; margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; mso-pagination: widow-orphan; text-align: left;">
<a href="https://www.blogger.com/" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"></a><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12pt;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">Mark unfolded the layout of
the circus grounds and flattened it on the rickety turnstile, one of six in a
row that resembled a hastily built barricade between humanity and the
travelling world of the circus. He looked up slowly and followed his lanky shadow
up to where his head was. Having short hair made him feel uncomfortable. He
then surveyed the scene before him, his eyes darting around for anything that
might be out of place. The giant circus tent was taking shape, amongst
roadies scurrying between clanking steel and wood planks knocking into place,
with all the cables and wires stretching like arteries and nerves around the
steel frame. The yellow and red canvas was hoisted, puffed suddenly then
bloomed into shape, while the electrical crew zapped the final connections and
the lights began to hum. Soon there would be the usual long silence before the
first matinee show, with only the slow roar of tigers and the grunting of
elephants providing a muffled sleepy afternoon soundtrack just as it must have
sounded on the plains of Africa 10,000 years ago. Only this was the landlocked
prairies of North America and the soft golden breezes that came across the
SuperStore Mall parking lot, always promised relief but only left another clump
of wheat dust sticking to the top of your mouth. Some days it was almost
unbearable.</span></span></span><br />
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12pt;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></span> </div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<iframe allowfullscreen='allowfullscreen' webkitallowfullscreen='webkitallowfullscreen' mozallowfullscreen='mozallowfullscreen' width='320' height='266' src='https://www.blogger.com/video.g?token=AD6v5dwL2ABJ4at6JzSoQwAIu0Fr4m3zJWsqjleVAgPGW8w26y-2fh_jq6Y1ub9DD5DnBqwZN0h5FYx0zHcBgX-WJg' class='b-hbp-video b-uploaded' frameborder='0'></iframe></div>
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: x-small;"></span><br />
<div align="left" class="MsoNormal" style="-ms-word-break: keep-all; margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; mso-pagination: widow-orphan; text-align: left;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12pt;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">Mark leaned on the turnstile and
the soft underside of his forearms recoiled suddenly from the heat of the steel.
He wondered when the next snide comments would come from Mr. Fetterling. He looked
out over the parking lot up and then awkwardly up at the sky and then back down
at the man sitting in his pickup truck, because, it was the only thing he could
look at in the empty parking lot. He had a sensation but if it were translated
into a thought it would read something like how can you avoid looking at the
only thing there is look at and pretend you are not looking at it? Just a dark
silhouette, framed by a car door window, but it was a dark silhouette that was
definitely looking at Mark. He had on a baseball cap and his dusty old
tincan truck with old style rounded edges, looked like a chariot almost
floating in the sun soaked ocean of the parking lot. There was an Indian head
with feathers on the door and the words Native American art stenciled on the
side. Just to seem normal, Mark looked back up again at the Prairie sky. Mark
admired the hugeness of the sky which always made him feel like he was seeing
with the whites of his eyes. He imagined the same scene before there were big
scientific discoveries or revolutions resulting from telescopes. He saw himself
an ancient member of the earth and the sky suddenly seemed to be a very real
and present god who had watched over these fields of golden wheat, and its
roaming wild and raw horses, from long before horses were called horses because
language had not been invented yet. “We” to Mark meant men who had stolen
this land from the Indians in search of gold and money. <o:p></o:p></span></span></span></div>
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: x-small;"></span><br />
<div align="left" class="MsoNormal" style="-ms-word-break: keep-all; margin: 0cm 0cm 12pt; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; mso-pagination: widow-orphan; text-align: left;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12pt;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">The Circus had been under
siege now for months. Mark hadn’t counted on that. The ad at the summer
employment office was listed under the Marketing Section. He had split up with
his high school girlfriend and he was generally bored with classrooms and
essays and the books that were now strewn around his dorm room like dead
butterflies. However, now, that he had become the producer’s personal scapegoat,
he slightly regretted his last conversation with his mother.<o:p></o:p></span></span></span></div>
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: x-small;"></span><br />
<div align="left" class="MsoNormal" style="-ms-word-break: keep-all; margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; mso-pagination: widow-orphan; text-align: left;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12pt;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">What would your father have
said, it’s only been a year since…..and now you’re running away with the…..<o:p></o:p></span></span></span></div>
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: x-small;"></span><br />
<div align="left" class="MsoNormal" style="-ms-word-break: keep-all; margin: 0cm 0cm 12pt; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; mso-pagination: widow-orphan; text-align: left;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12pt;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">Dad would have loved it! He
had lots of wacky jobs when he was young. Besides, it’s a corporate consulting
company! They manage the tour. They’re all a bunch of suits.<o:p></o:p></span></span></span></div>
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: x-small;"></span><br />
<div align="left" class="MsoNormal" style="-ms-word-break: keep-all; margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; mso-pagination: widow-orphan; text-align: left;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12pt;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">They’re all a bunch of
ex-convicts, drug addicts, and roadies and, and performers!<o:p></o:p></span></span></span></div>
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: x-small;"></span><br />
<div align="left" class="MsoNormal" style="-ms-word-break: keep-all; margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; mso-pagination: widow-orphan; text-align: left;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12pt;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">Come on, Mom, we’re all
performers to some degree, aren’t we? I’m only missing a semester! <o:p></o:p></span></span></span></div>
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: x-small;"></span><br />
<div align="left" class="MsoNormal" style="-ms-word-break: keep-all; margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; mso-pagination: widow-orphan; text-align: left;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12pt;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">For the initial interview, he
cut his hair and bought the same light blue button down and beige khakis, he
was presently wearing. <o:p></o:p></span></span></span></div>
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: x-small;"></span><br />
<div align="left" class="MsoNormal" style="-ms-word-break: keep-all; margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; mso-pagination: widow-orphan; text-align: left;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12pt;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">Now, it was midsummer and
nobody knew what to expect from town to town. To be fair to Mr Fetterling, the
puddle of sweat that sat permanently on his forehead was not unjustified. The
animal rights protestors could show up at any time. The new Cirque de Soleil
had created a seismic shift in the circus world: big theme shows,
collaborations with pop stars and, above all, no more animal acts. The big top
would never be the same again. Adding to this was the constant tense and
volatile air found amongst the performers, the concession people, the
producers, and the roadies, which was fueled by the exhaustion that comes from
nine weeks on the road. Fist fights were normal and sometimes there were even knifes
involved. But they all were united in a common distrust for the people in the
box office trailer which also served as Marks mobile home for the tour. The
accountant and producer drove in from a local hotel in the nearest city. One
time they showed up in a helicopter. The circus folk had all stared. The
producer played each group against the other and ended up blaming Mark, the
corporate gopher, for anything that went wrong on the tour. By this time
halfway through in the season, it was hard for Mark to tell who to trust
anymore. <o:p></o:p></span></span></span></div>
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: x-small;"></span><br />
<div align="left" class="MsoNormal" style="-ms-word-break: keep-all; margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; mso-pagination: widow-orphan; text-align: left;">
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://www.powtoon.com/online-presentation/bKDMacTxFlu/circus-troubles/#/"><span style="color: blue; font-family: 맑은 고딕; font-size: x-small;">https://www.powtoon.com/online-presentation/bKDMacTxFlu/circus-troubles/#/</span></a></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
</div>
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12pt;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">Can we have the map now? said
Tommy, the balloon man’s son, wiping his unkempt blonde hair from his eyes. He
was surrounded by five other children, all at different heights. These were the
little people of the Big Top who inhabited the air between the trailers and
scaffolding and who knew all the hidden places around the tent. Too young to
work, they hopscotched all day over cables and wires and popped the occasional
balloon. They knew all 23 animals in the back by name, including Bella the new
baby monkey. Cindy, the acrobat’s daughter, now had her hands on her
hips. Her face was knotted up in a little scowl and her little left purple
hightop sneaker was on the verge of tapping the pavement. Mark pulled out
the photocopy of the layout, he had prepared earlier from his back pocket and
handed to Tommy. They all leaned in as he unfolded the paper. <br style="mso-special-character: line-break;" />
<!--[if !supportLineBreakNewLine]--><br style="mso-special-character: line-break;" />
<!--[endif]--><o:p></o:p></span></span></span></div>
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: x-small;"></span><br />
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="-ms-word-break: keep-all; margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; mso-pagination: widow-orphan; text-align: center;">
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhKa_SZD0CS5_gX1k4cKwhusJEYwHT5rsN-UZ6FhO47PbQh5nHNMfkjgNMR0rvHuHZWF-3BTuP_v8iTtZzejwVu2UarxGB-C16AwxE8w-mPT_mjHLfOQS0boAbsYhXzwG_Nxx5dmOIiKCk/s1600/fcc-lot-layout+%25282%2529.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="280" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhKa_SZD0CS5_gX1k4cKwhusJEYwHT5rsN-UZ6FhO47PbQh5nHNMfkjgNMR0rvHuHZWF-3BTuP_v8iTtZzejwVu2UarxGB-C16AwxE8w-mPT_mjHLfOQS0boAbsYhXzwG_Nxx5dmOIiKCk/s400/fcc-lot-layout+%25282%2529.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
<span lang="EN-US"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjXWgukOimaXMXPVUHfVz-4Olisou6fBpS_tOJTx8mMAQUheDSrpgO5troVGDG-bDg63I_7C6HxoYyAruzWuwAU4RAoABr2NRUAV2k_DcJ3Ye81YQAo52MK99_3nRYeh_vxY8q8CSgWkH4/s1600/fcc-lot-layout+(2).jpg"><span style="color: blue; text-decoration: none;"><!--[if gte vml 1]><v:shapetype id="_x0000_t75"
coordsize="21600,21600" o:spt="75" o:preferrelative="t" path="m@4@5l@4@11@9@11@9@5xe"
filled="f" stroked="f">
<v:stroke joinstyle="miter"/>
<v:formulas>
<v:f eqn="if lineDrawn pixelLineWidth 0"/>
<v:f eqn="sum @0 1 0"/>
<v:f eqn="sum 0 0 @1"/>
<v:f eqn="prod @2 1 2"/>
<v:f eqn="prod @3 21600 pixelWidth"/>
<v:f eqn="prod @3 21600 pixelHeight"/>
<v:f eqn="sum @0 0 1"/>
<v:f eqn="prod @6 1 2"/>
<v:f eqn="prod @7 21600 pixelWidth"/>
<v:f eqn="sum @8 21600 0"/>
<v:f eqn="prod @7 21600 pixelHeight"/>
<v:f eqn="sum @10 21600 0"/>
</v:formulas>
<v:path o:extrusionok="f" gradientshapeok="t" o:connecttype="rect"/>
<o:lock v:ext="edit" aspectratio="t"/>
</v:shapetype><v:shape id="그림_x0020_2" o:spid="_x0000_i1025" type="#_x0000_t75"
alt="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjXWgukOimaXMXPVUHfVz-4Olisou6fBpS_tOJTx8mMAQUheDSrpgO5troVGDG-bDg63I_7C6HxoYyAruzWuwAU4RAoABr2NRUAV2k_DcJ3Ye81YQAo52MK99_3nRYeh_vxY8q8CSgWkH4/s400/fcc-lot-layout+%25282%2529.jpg"
href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjXWgukOimaXMXPVUHfVz-4Olisou6fBpS_tOJTx8mMAQUheDSrpgO5troVGDG-bDg63I_7C6HxoYyAruzWuwAU4RAoABr2NRUAV2k_DcJ3Ye81YQAo52MK99_3nRYeh_vxY8q8CSgWkH4/s1600/fcc-lot-layout+(2).jpg"
style='width:300pt;height:210pt;visibility:visible;mso-wrap-style:square'
o:button="t">
<v:fill o:detectmouseclick="t"/>
<v:imagedata src="file:///C:\Users\DARYLR~1\AppData\Local\Temp\msohtmlclip1\01\clip_image001.jpg"
o:title="fcc-lot-layout%2B%25282%2529"/>
</v:shape><![endif]--><!--[if !vml]--><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: x-small; mso-ignore: vglayout;"></span><!--[endif]--></span></a></span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12pt;"><o:p></o:p></span><br /></div>
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: x-small;"></span><br />
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="-ms-word-break: keep-all; margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; mso-pagination: widow-orphan; text-align: center;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12pt;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">Where are the dragons this
time? said Tommy.<o:p></o:p></span></span></span></div>
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: x-small;"></span><br />
<div align="left" class="MsoNormal" style="-ms-word-break: keep-all; margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; mso-pagination: widow-orphan; text-align: left;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12pt;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">Why do we have to find the
dragons, said Jose, the jugglers son, the youngest and newest one. <o:p></o:p></span></span></span></div>
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: x-small;"></span><br />
<div align="left" class="MsoNormal" style="-ms-word-break: keep-all; margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; mso-pagination: widow-orphan; text-align: left;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12pt;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">Cause that’s where the
treasure is, stupid, said Cindy.<o:p></o:p></span></span></span></div>
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: x-small;"></span><br />
<div align="left" class="MsoNormal" style="-ms-word-break: keep-all; margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; mso-pagination: widow-orphan; text-align: left;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12pt;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">Mark leaned forward and let
his finger hover a while, then he tapped the paper firmly and said in a mock
pirate voice, “Right here, there be the dragons”. He touched the box office
this time. <o:p></o:p></span></span></span></div>
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: x-small;"></span><br />
<div align="left" class="MsoNormal" style="-ms-word-break: keep-all; margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; mso-pagination: widow-orphan; text-align: left;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12pt;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">They looked at each other and
scurried away, with empty popcorn boxes jammed onto crooked sticks, frayed
bungee cords and water guns clinking and clanking as they ran. The map was
flapping like a pet butterfly at the end of Tom’s arm. In their wake they left
the soft scent of cotton candy and buttered popcorn.<o:p></o:p></span></span></span></div>
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: x-small;"></span><br />
<div align="left" class="MsoNormal" style="-ms-word-break: keep-all; margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; mso-pagination: widow-orphan; text-align: left;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12pt;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">What are you doing talking to
those little brats? growled the producer, his head poking outside the box
office window<o:p></o:p></span></span></span></div>
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: x-small;"></span><br />
<div align="left" class="MsoNormal" style="-ms-word-break: keep-all; margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; mso-pagination: widow-orphan; text-align: left;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12pt;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">They’re just bored. <o:p></o:p></span></span></span></div>
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: x-small;"></span><br />
<div align="left" class="MsoNormal" style="-ms-word-break: keep-all; margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; mso-pagination: widow-orphan; text-align: left;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12pt;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">You think, do you? I think
we’re going to have to have a little talk about your job responsibilities
pretty soon.<o:p></o:p></span></span></span></div>
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: x-small;"></span><br />
<div align="left" class="MsoNormal" style="-ms-word-break: keep-all; margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; mso-pagination: widow-orphan; text-align: left;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12pt;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">I think everything looks ok
for the show today.<o:p></o:p></span></span></span></div>
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: x-small;"></span><br />
<div style="border-color: currentColor currentColor windowtext; border-style: none none solid; border-width: medium medium 1.5pt; mso-element: para-border-div; padding: 0cm 0cm 1pt;">
<div align="left" class="MsoNormal" style="-ms-word-break: keep-all; border: currentColor; margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; mso-border-bottom-alt: solid windowtext 1.5pt; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; mso-padding-alt: 0cm 0cm 1.0pt 0cm; mso-pagination: widow-orphan; padding: 0cm; text-align: left;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12pt;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">Showtime!, barked Mr. Fetterling at some imaginary
audience while staring straight at Mark and ignoring his reply at the same time.
“Let’s get the show on the road! Can’t we have just one show without a hassle?”
gripped the producer. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The list of things
that had gone wrong so far this season looked like runaway train with all the
crimes and incidents stenciled like ads on the side of box cars.<o:p></o:p></span></span></span></div>
<div align="left" class="MsoNormal" style="-ms-word-break: keep-all; border: currentColor; margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; mso-border-bottom-alt: solid windowtext 1.5pt; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; mso-padding-alt: 0cm 0cm 1.0pt 0cm; mso-pagination: widow-orphan; padding: 0cm; text-align: left;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12pt;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">“Let’s put the mirrors and posters out”, shouted the
producer. Mark started propping up the plywood signs and nudging them open and
so the distorting mirrors which faced each other, created a kind of gauntlet
for the customers to line up within. The mirrors were the producer’s “big” new
idea of the season. “This will keep the twerps and rug rats busy in the line.”
Ten signs later and Mark was about 30 yards away from the pickup truck and
could feel the man in the old truck watching him. He walked back slowly through
the signs watching his body as it distorted and ballooned into a chubby little
toddler then reappeared in the next sign as a tall skinny guy with stilts for
legs then bursting into endless reoccurring reflections of himself in the next
one. Tom and Jose were huddled under the box office trailer, whispering. “You
find it yet”, hollered Mark with a smile. Even if he was the lowest man on the
totem pole, nothing the producer could say or do to Mark diminished the genuine
delight he got from watching the children’s endless imaginative scenarios. </span></span></span><br />
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12pt;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></span> </div>
<div align="left" class="MsoNormal" style="-ms-word-break: keep-all; border: currentColor; margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; mso-border-bottom-alt: solid windowtext 1.5pt; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; mso-padding-alt: 0cm 0cm 1.0pt 0cm; mso-pagination: widow-orphan; padding: 0cm; text-align: left;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12pt;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">He positioned himself at the turnstiles and the
vendors were in full commotion. The cotton candy kiosk grinding out pink sugar
clouds and the popcorn man was scooping and stacking small bags of bouncing
particles. People had began handing in tickets to the local teenagers Mark had
hired, the day before, to man the turnstiles. People shuffled in slowly with
kids tugging at their parent’s arms and gesturing wildly like little
weathervanes. Cindy hopped and dodged among the customers in the opposite
direction. The producer popped his head out of the trailer repeatedly. </span></span></span><br />
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12pt;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></span> </div>
<div align="left" class="MsoNormal" style="-ms-word-break: keep-all; border: currentColor; margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; mso-border-bottom-alt: solid windowtext 1.5pt; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; mso-padding-alt: 0cm 0cm 1.0pt 0cm; mso-pagination: widow-orphan; padding: 0cm; text-align: left;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12pt;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">The man from the pickup truck was now walking slowly
towards the turnstiles. Beside him was a little kid with a long shaft of wheat
in his mouth. The scrawny stick of wheat looked stronger then the bony arm he
used to pluck it out of his mouth to spit occasionally. As they got closer the
producer stuck his head out the back door and jerked his thumb in the direction
of the man. They bypassed the box office and approached Mark. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The man had deep lines surrounding the
features of his face. It was a hard face and his eyes reminded Mark of the sky
above them. His huge hands looked like they were made from leather
baseball gloves.<o:p></o:p></span></span></span></div>
<div align="left" class="MsoNormal" style="-ms-word-break: keep-all; border: currentColor; margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; mso-border-bottom-alt: solid windowtext 1.5pt; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; mso-padding-alt: 0cm 0cm 1.0pt 0cm; mso-pagination: widow-orphan; padding: 0cm; text-align: left;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12pt;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">Wondering if we can have a look?<o:p></o:p></span></span></span></div>
<div align="left" class="MsoNormal" style="-ms-word-break: keep-all; border: currentColor; margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; mso-border-bottom-alt: solid windowtext 1.5pt; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; mso-padding-alt: 0cm 0cm 1.0pt 0cm; mso-pagination: widow-orphan; padding: 0cm; text-align: left;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12pt;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">You have to buy a ticket, sir.<o:p></o:p></span></span></span></div>
<div align="left" class="MsoNormal" style="-ms-word-break: keep-all; border: currentColor; margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; mso-border-bottom-alt: solid windowtext 1.5pt; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; mso-padding-alt: 0cm 0cm 1.0pt 0cm; mso-pagination: widow-orphan; padding: 0cm; text-align: left;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: x-small; mso-font-kerning: 0pt;">How much?</span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div align="left" class="MsoNormal" style="-ms-word-break: keep-all; border: currentColor; margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; mso-border-bottom-alt: solid windowtext 1.5pt; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; mso-padding-alt: 0cm 0cm 1.0pt 0cm; mso-pagination: widow-orphan; padding: 0cm; text-align: left;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12pt;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">10 dollars for adults and 5 for children.<o:p></o:p></span></span></span></div>
<div align="left" class="MsoNormal" style="-ms-word-break: keep-all; border: currentColor; margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; mso-border-bottom-alt: solid windowtext 1.5pt; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; mso-padding-alt: 0cm 0cm 1.0pt 0cm; mso-pagination: widow-orphan; padding: 0cm; text-align: left;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12pt;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">Don’t got it, kid.<o:p></o:p></span></span></span></div>
<div align="left" class="MsoNormal" style="-ms-word-break: keep-all; border: currentColor; margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; mso-border-bottom-alt: solid windowtext 1.5pt; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; mso-padding-alt: 0cm 0cm 1.0pt 0cm; mso-pagination: widow-orphan; padding: 0cm; text-align: left;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: x-small; mso-fareast-font-family: 굴림; mso-font-kerning: 0pt;">I’m sorry, sir..</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: x-small;"></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: x-small;">Mr. Fetterling was not perched and watching from the slightly opened back door of the trailer.</span><br />
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: x-small; mso-fareast-font-family: 굴림; mso-font-kerning: 0pt;"></span><br />
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12pt;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; mso-fareast-font-family: 굴림; mso-font-kerning: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">We won’t be long. Just want to see what this here show
is all about. <o:p></o:p></span></span></span><br />
</span><br />
<div style="border-color: currentColor currentColor windowtext; border-style: none none solid; border-width: medium medium 1.5pt; mso-element: para-border-div; padding: 0cm 0cm 1pt;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12pt;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: x-small;">
</span></span><br />
<div align="left" class="MsoNormal" style="-ms-word-break: keep-all; border: currentColor; margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; mso-border-bottom-alt: solid windowtext 1.5pt; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; mso-padding-alt: 0cm 0cm 1.0pt 0cm; mso-pagination: widow-orphan; padding: 0cm; text-align: left;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12pt;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; mso-fareast-font-family: 굴림; mso-font-kerning: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">The man said then he looked down at the boy.<o:p></o:p></span></span></span></span></div>
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12pt;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: x-small;">
</span></span><br />
<div align="left" class="MsoNormal" style="-ms-word-break: keep-all; border: currentColor; margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; mso-border-bottom-alt: solid windowtext 1.5pt; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; mso-padding-alt: 0cm 0cm 1.0pt 0cm; mso-pagination: widow-orphan; padding: 0cm; text-align: left;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12pt;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; mso-fareast-font-family: 굴림; mso-font-kerning: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: x-small;">Sorry, sir. Everybody has to pay. The box office is
right there.</span></span></span></div>
<div align="left" class="MsoNormal" style="-ms-word-break: keep-all; border: currentColor; margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; mso-border-bottom-alt: solid windowtext 1.5pt; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; mso-padding-alt: 0cm 0cm 1.0pt 0cm; mso-pagination: widow-orphan; padding: 0cm; text-align: left;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12pt;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; mso-fareast-font-family: 굴림; mso-font-kerning: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: x-small;"></span></span> </span></div>
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12pt;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; mso-fareast-font-family: 굴림; mso-font-kerning: 0pt;"></span></span><br />
<div align="left" class="MsoNormal" style="-ms-word-break: keep-all; border: currentColor; margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; mso-border-bottom-alt: solid windowtext 1.5pt; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; mso-padding-alt: 0cm 0cm 1.0pt 0cm; mso-pagination: widow-orphan; padding: 0cm; text-align: left;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12pt;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; mso-fareast-font-family: 굴림; mso-font-kerning: 0pt;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; mso-fareast-font-family: 굴림; mso-font-kerning: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">Mark could feel the producer’s
eyes on the side of his head. The man leaned slightly to the left of Mark’s
shoulder. Mark gently raised his hand and brushed his hair back out of
habit even though it was too short to need brushing back. But the man was just
looking into the mouth of the tent. The music had started and the dancing
elephants with hula hoops around their trunks were lumbering in circles around
the ring. The circus theme music was pounding from the tent.<o:p></o:p></span></span></span></span></span></div>
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12pt;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; mso-fareast-font-family: 굴림; mso-font-kerning: 0pt;">
</span></span><div align="left" class="MsoNormal" style="-ms-word-break: keep-all; border: currentColor; margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; mso-border-bottom-alt: solid windowtext 1.5pt; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; mso-padding-alt: 0cm 0cm 1.0pt 0cm; mso-pagination: widow-orphan; padding: 0cm; text-align: left;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12pt;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; mso-fareast-font-family: 굴림; mso-font-kerning: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: x-small;">
</span></span></span></div>
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12pt;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; mso-fareast-font-family: 굴림; mso-font-kerning: 0pt;">
<div align="left" class="MsoNormal" style="-ms-word-break: keep-all; margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; mso-pagination: widow-orphan; text-align: left;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; mso-fareast-font-family: 굴림; mso-font-kerning: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">The man cocked his head and
said,<o:p></o:p></span></span></span></div>
<div align="left" class="MsoNormal" style="-ms-word-break: keep-all; border: currentColor; margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; mso-border-bottom-alt: solid windowtext 1.5pt; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; mso-padding-alt: 0cm 0cm 1.0pt 0cm; mso-pagination: widow-orphan; padding: 0cm; text-align: left;">
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: x-small;">
</span></div>
<div align="left" class="MsoNormal" style="-ms-word-break: keep-all; margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; mso-pagination: widow-orphan; text-align: left;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; mso-fareast-font-family: 굴림; mso-font-kerning: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">I don’t get it, kid.<o:p></o:p></span></span></span></div>
<div align="left" class="MsoNormal" style="-ms-word-break: keep-all; border: currentColor; margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; mso-border-bottom-alt: solid windowtext 1.5pt; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; mso-padding-alt: 0cm 0cm 1.0pt 0cm; mso-pagination: widow-orphan; padding: 0cm; text-align: left;">
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: x-small;">
</span></div>
<div align="left" class="MsoNormal" style="-ms-word-break: keep-all; margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; mso-pagination: widow-orphan; text-align: left;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; mso-fareast-font-family: 굴림; mso-font-kerning: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">Don’t get what, sir?<o:p></o:p></span></span></span></div>
<div align="left" class="MsoNormal" style="-ms-word-break: keep-all; border: currentColor; margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; mso-border-bottom-alt: solid windowtext 1.5pt; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; mso-padding-alt: 0cm 0cm 1.0pt 0cm; mso-pagination: widow-orphan; padding: 0cm; text-align: left;">
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: x-small;">
</span></div>
<div align="left" class="MsoNormal" style="-ms-word-break: keep-all; margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; mso-pagination: widow-orphan; text-align: left;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; mso-fareast-font-family: 굴림; mso-font-kerning: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">What’s with making animals
walk on two legs?<o:p></o:p></span></span></span></div>
<div align="left" class="MsoNormal" style="-ms-word-break: keep-all; border: currentColor; margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; mso-border-bottom-alt: solid windowtext 1.5pt; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; mso-padding-alt: 0cm 0cm 1.0pt 0cm; mso-pagination: widow-orphan; padding: 0cm; text-align: left;">
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: x-small;">
</span></div>
<div align="left" class="MsoNormal" style="-ms-word-break: keep-all; margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; mso-pagination: widow-orphan; text-align: left;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; mso-fareast-font-family: 굴림; mso-font-kerning: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">The producer let out a long
exaggerated grunt of impatience. “What the hell is going on over there? “ The
back door of the box office smashed open with a violent metallic clang. There
was a sudden pathetic yelp. The producer’s foot was tangled in a bit of
the bungee cord the kids had tied to the lowest step. Before his four limbs
could reach the ground, the children had scattered in various directions from
under the box office. Their eyes were huge with shock and a little bit of the surprise
that comes from unintended success. Mark wanted to run too, but only for a
moment. His two legs remained rigid and the shadow they cast looked like a
geometric instrument poised on a map. It was time for their little talk. <o:p></o:p></span></span></span></div>
<div align="left" class="MsoNormal" style="-ms-word-break: keep-all; border: currentColor; margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; mso-border-bottom-alt: solid windowtext 1.5pt; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; mso-padding-alt: 0cm 0cm 1.0pt 0cm; mso-pagination: widow-orphan; padding: 0cm; text-align: left;">
</div>
</span><br />
<div align="left" class="MsoNormal" style="-ms-word-break: keep-all; border: currentColor; margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; mso-border-bottom-alt: solid windowtext 1.5pt; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; mso-padding-alt: 0cm 0cm 1.0pt 0cm; mso-pagination: widow-orphan; padding: 0cm; text-align: left;">
</div>
<div align="left" class="MsoNormal" style="-ms-word-break: keep-all; border: currentColor; margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; mso-border-bottom-alt: solid windowtext 1.5pt; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; mso-padding-alt: 0cm 0cm 1.0pt 0cm; mso-pagination: widow-orphan; padding: 0cm; text-align: left;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12pt;"></span> </div>
<div align="left" class="MsoNormal" style="-ms-word-break: keep-all; border: currentColor; margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; mso-border-bottom-alt: solid windowtext 1.5pt; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; mso-padding-alt: 0cm 0cm 1.0pt 0cm; mso-pagination: widow-orphan; padding: 0cm; text-align: left;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12pt;"></span> </div>
<div align="left" class="MsoNormal" style="-ms-word-break: keep-all; border: currentColor; margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; mso-border-bottom-alt: solid windowtext 1.5pt; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; mso-padding-alt: 0cm 0cm 1.0pt 0cm; mso-pagination: widow-orphan; padding: 0cm; text-align: left;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12pt;"><o:p></o:p></span> </div>
</span><br /></div>
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12pt;">
</span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12pt;"></span><br />
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12pt;"><o:p></o:p></span> </div>
</div>
Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04400440537394029013noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3635956861802411924.post-73748112547111737422016-04-05T00:27:00.000-07:002016-04-05T03:39:34.074-07:00Describing a sound<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif";"><span style="font-size: x-small;">At
first it’s a low muffled sound, thick and swarming like the modulating murmur
of a cloud of mosquitoes approaching, and yet it is as soft as a cotton swap
soaked in alcohol which is gently daubed on the flesh until it hits the open
wound and the sudden stinging sets in. A whimpering saxophone played out of tune. Then
with papercut ear drums, your sheer raw nerves jerk and twitch, your stomach
knots into another knot and your imagination becomes a vast desert of ice. It’s
pitched past relief, and steep and acidic vibrations like spears are launched
at the speed of light, ripping your heart into pieces and leaving you with half
formed mumbled questions in your mind: what should we…? what have I done wrong?
Haven’t we tried this and haven’t we tried that? What can I do now? How can we
make it stop? </span></span><br />
<span style="font-size: x-small;"></span><br />
<span style="font-size: x-small;"></span><br />
_______________________________________________________________<br />
<br />
Pic below<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjOD_zfjwsyzlCupkm1MkAwIaT6UqhOW3HrJ8bifJ19sH63c1zBZwBNrhDgmxIvrTnsfOqwVRikgTjlTt_XnU_6TIfbanCd9xeAaLLQCsVdjvPafwOZKyoiucTYUE2VTuea0f-4-sODBo4/s1600/Hunter+whine.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjOD_zfjwsyzlCupkm1MkAwIaT6UqhOW3HrJ8bifJ19sH63c1zBZwBNrhDgmxIvrTnsfOqwVRikgTjlTt_XnU_6TIfbanCd9xeAaLLQCsVdjvPafwOZKyoiucTYUE2VTuea0f-4-sODBo4/s320/Hunter+whine.jpeg" width="282" /></a></div>
</div>
Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04400440537394029013noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3635956861802411924.post-11426775786309935042016-03-29T06:09:00.001-07:002016-03-29T06:11:41.303-07:00Food<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 11pt;"><span style="font-size: small;">As
the crackling, hot container is hustled in, shoulders shift slightly and the flaming
charcoal is placed in the center of the table. This activity is just precarious
enough to remind me that cooking with fire is <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>dangerous and primal but almost always a communal
experience. Soon, golden brown edges form on the sizzling pieces of curling marbled meat
and my nostrils are filled with a smoky aroma. Cackle, pop, and fizzle. After a bit
of picking and choosing, the wrapping begins. Then my month opens unusually
wide, almost barbaric and obscene in its dimensions, and prepares for the
package, or more like a present, covered in fresh green lettuce. It contains
countless surprises for my taste buds. The first crunch is followed by a
succession of tiny explosions in my mouth from tangy, zingy, pickled and pungent bombs. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> It's difficult to close my mouth properly and contain all this commotion. </span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The second
chomp snaps a hunk of garlic which is followed by a sudden sharp twang. The
third bite is more reasonable and accomplished, and the red jalapeno pepper
paste mingles with oil oozing from the tender meat. It drifts between my teeth,
then throughout my mouth. The final bites are comfortable now, as the small portion
of soft thick rice blends in, creating a kind of balance by being so bland but familiar.
Everything is washed down with a quick shot of clear bitter liquor and I wince,
then smile. The other people at the table smile too. I hoist my chopsticks and
I lean into the kaleidoscope of colorful side dishes placed around the circular
grill, once again.</span> <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
_____________________________________________________________________<br />
<br />
Pic below<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhuAVCJm_4Dob8iPhoGCC54q11mNmefU3NFhjYoJur4-m3W6LCUX5fHO7vH-G9XloYV8AyrYiVHxRYUKmgbCYyR2ec1P0dKsP1RKDCgURQLAQiHRy68NPKxhuS7L4uDcq04f6-joXz3YNI/s1600/bbqwrap.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="260" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhuAVCJm_4Dob8iPhoGCC54q11mNmefU3NFhjYoJur4-m3W6LCUX5fHO7vH-G9XloYV8AyrYiVHxRYUKmgbCYyR2ec1P0dKsP1RKDCgURQLAQiHRy68NPKxhuS7L4uDcq04f6-joXz3YNI/s320/bbqwrap.png" width="320" /></a></div>
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiazVXxFeyz_o2b8bBmDY004EJcoHuAnmdxuK9hd6ghSwX6rjXszE4izXuEY5NJac1grEepy1g4jWD6TjM7RU-fJMtSyRdx15qrS0-_l6Ifq6YBkBFtuPRtg-jDLiwYGYDIKI7TS43z7fE/s1600/korean+bbq.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="274" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiazVXxFeyz_o2b8bBmDY004EJcoHuAnmdxuK9hd6ghSwX6rjXszE4izXuEY5NJac1grEepy1g4jWD6TjM7RU-fJMtSyRdx15qrS0-_l6Ifq6YBkBFtuPRtg-jDLiwYGYDIKI7TS43z7fE/s320/korean+bbq.png" width="320" /></a></div>
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<br />
<br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04400440537394029013noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3635956861802411924.post-14264531790845415732016-03-28T06:02:00.000-07:002016-04-05T03:40:43.912-07:00Description of an Object<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12pt;">You
close your eyes and let your fingertips, as soft as breath, brush gently across
a wooden uneven surface that juts out at you with a familiarity you have known
all your life. Your fingers sound like they are brushing the surface of a drum,
because behind this surface, it is empty and hollow, like a stage wall in the
theater. It is a portable light weight landscape full of features yet you can
cover it with both your hands. Softly and setting out with both your hands at
the top of the only protruding summit, you descend gently into parallel valleys
that swirl into circular patches like ponds on either side of this summit. If you
move your fingers upward in unison, you cross over ridges above that lead to a smooth
place like a plateau. From here your fingers part in opposite directions and
drift down either side of the surface, in two wide arches that meet again leaving
an oval shape in their wake. You are now at a lesser summit than the first one
and it resembles a gentle smooth bump. Moving your fingers upward just above
this bump, and after a slight dip, you arrive at two pouting horizontal lines curving
slightly. You remove your fingers and open your eyes. Sometimes I am as gaudy
and garish as a carnival in spring and other times as sullen and horror stricken
as you would be too after hearing of terrible things. I am an eternal and
frozen emotion. But I am a thing as familiar as the face you splash awake, remembering
dreams which still seem to mean so much as you pause in the mirror. But I can only
be woken from within when a body breathes me into being and the right disguise
works. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span><br />
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12pt;"></span><br />
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12pt;"><o:p>________________________________________________________________________</o:p></span><br />
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12pt;"><o:p></o:p></span><br />
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12pt;"><o:p>Pic below</o:p></span><br />
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12pt;"><o:p></o:p></span><br />
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12pt;"><o:p></o:p></span><br />
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12pt;"><o:p></o:p></span><br />
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12pt;"><o:p></o:p></span><br />
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12pt;"><o:p></o:p></span><br />
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12pt;"><o:p></o:p></span><br />
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12pt;"><o:p></o:p></span><br />
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12pt;"><o:p></o:p></span><br />
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12pt;"><o:p></o:p></span><br />
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12pt;"><o:p></o:p></span><br />
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12pt;"><o:p></o:p></span><br />
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12pt;"><o:p></o:p></span><br />
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12pt;"><o:p></o:p></span><br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg08LVN1oIybTjwL00tnWAvWiN6He1DrMbuQUdrPg60RCSuu6_3rZ80d72AdPvDY8A3sYPbaS5BNhI2xYVHM96zdUERdXKOgQxRDZkLyPqk-R3lExxtko_sPBOoFN-IsTANpUkcOVFGejo/s1600/maskes.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg08LVN1oIybTjwL00tnWAvWiN6He1DrMbuQUdrPg60RCSuu6_3rZ80d72AdPvDY8A3sYPbaS5BNhI2xYVHM96zdUERdXKOgQxRDZkLyPqk-R3lExxtko_sPBOoFN-IsTANpUkcOVFGejo/s320/maskes.jpeg" width="282" /></a></div>
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12pt;"><o:p></o:p></span> </div>
Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04400440537394029013noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3635956861802411924.post-21340510386644655532016-03-28T05:52:00.000-07:002016-03-29T06:16:46.697-07:00Hotel Room<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: "맑은 고딕"; mso-fareast-language: KO; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-fareast;"><span style="font-size: medium;">You enter and open your eyes, like the shutter
unfolds in a camera and step into an old 1930s movie. Now, however, no longer
black and white but rich and exuberant with saturated colors hinting of golden and
red velvet days. It is an impressionist still-life crowded with eclectic
objects and sculptures, some from the ancien regime of Versailles and others from
the Aztec caves of Mexico. The room is jumbled with sleek curves and smooth
angles. The rich furrowed streamlined geometry of the wood trim gives the room
a balance and poise. The aroma of wood, velvet and leather mingle with the scent
from the rich green plants placed throughout the room on high and
voluptuous vases. This dimly lit room is cluttered with elegance but made spacious
by nooks and crannies buried within mirrors that hide endless side rooms and
passageways all painted in the same rich faux finished beige and gold walls
found throughout. It is a labyrinth of decadence, a hospice at the heart of
civilization, full of silver, crystal, ivory, and jade.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>As you look up it takes a few seconds to
reach the immense ceiling. On the walls, you see giant paintings with thick fluted frames, depicting maps and primordial figures from other continents.
Under your feet, the dark brown lacquered floor is shiny and dense. It never
creaks. The bed is hidden at first behind a high wood wall and is only made
suddenly conspicuous by a glass dome canopy and the golden statues supporting
it. It is an elevated and hard climb to reach the bed and it’s a place you
would not want to leave too quickly, once you had arrived. Perhaps Charlie
Chaplin made decisions about the next Little Tramp picture show here, or Noel
Coward drank gin, or Mara Callas discussed her performance from a few hours
before.</span> </span><br />
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: "맑은 고딕"; mso-fareast-language: KO; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-fareast;">_____________________________________________________________</span><br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: "맑은 고딕"; mso-fareast-language: KO; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-fareast;"></span><br />
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: "맑은 고딕"; mso-fareast-language: KO; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-fareast;"></span><br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiiAdLifhVG9kUOgAYAABV6nhm8ghCiLexWcXcDO22BJsUa3dhMhWu3wQgCURL9BVEdy0V-AkKeWtbw5f0tV_ky2XgENAVSrH2RcJxlgJ8LHCGDwzV9pVnyDglES9Ni1tfIVZRBjTPhYeo/s1600/hotel.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="248" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiiAdLifhVG9kUOgAYAABV6nhm8ghCiLexWcXcDO22BJsUa3dhMhWu3wQgCURL9BVEdy0V-AkKeWtbw5f0tV_ky2XgENAVSrH2RcJxlgJ8LHCGDwzV9pVnyDglES9Ni1tfIVZRBjTPhYeo/s400/hotel.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: "맑은 고딕"; mso-fareast-language: KO; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-fareast;"></span><br />Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04400440537394029013noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3635956861802411924.post-66991491547657578592016-03-04T04:06:00.002-08:002016-04-05T03:13:59.455-07:00Two Legs (2nd draft)Two Legs<br />
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12pt;"> Mark
unfolded the blueprint and flattened it on the rickety turnstile, one of six in
a row that resembled a hastily built barricade. He looked up slowly and followed
his lanky shadow up to where his head was. His ears made him uncomfortable. He
then surveyed the scene before him, his eyes darting around for anything that
might be out of place.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The giant circus
tent was taking shape, amongst roadies scurrying between clanking steel and
wood planks knocking into place, with all the cables and wires stretching like
arteries and nerves around the steel skeleton. The yellow and red canvas was
hoisted, puffed suddenly then bloomed into shape, while the electrical crew
zapped the final connections and the lights began to hum. Soon there would be a
long silence, with only the slow roar of tigers and the grunting of elephants
providing a muffled sleepy afternoon soundtrack just as it must have sounded on
the plains of Africa 10,000 years ago. Only this was the landlocked prairies of
North America and the soft golden breezes that came across the SuperStore Mall
parking lot, always promised relief but only left you with another layer of wheat
dust sticking to the top of your mouth. His first thought was “It’s going to be
a hot one”. His second, “Wonder when I’m going to get it this time?” Just on
cue, the middle-aged producer barked from the nearest portable trailer, “Let’s
make sure the generator is in the right place this time. The last two words seemed
to box both his ears and he wished he hadn’t let the barber be so ambitious
with his hair. He wanted to say something but didn’t, again.</span><br />
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12pt;"><o:p></o:p></span><br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12pt;"><iframe allowfullscreen='allowfullscreen' webkitallowfullscreen='webkitallowfullscreen' mozallowfullscreen='mozallowfullscreen' width='320' height='266' src='https://www.blogger.com/video.g?token=AD6v5dzT9x1iy1DOu3Gao9fnSHKEkG5oKronsHf8HsM17hvE1seFfKeSNt0erll4xxFM1QqLXWbyBA2b1j2Squ-8zA' class='b-hbp-video b-uploaded' frameborder='0'></iframe></span></div>
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12pt;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12pt;"></span><br />
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12pt;">The
Circus had been under siege now for months. He hadn’t counted on that. The ad
at the summer employment office was listed under the Marketing Section. He had split
up with his high school girlfriend and they both agreed long distance
relationships don’t work out. And he was generally bored with classrooms and
essays and the books that were now strewn around his room like dead
butterflies. However, now, he slightly regretted his last conversation with his
mother.<o:p></o:p></span><br />
<br />
</span><br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12pt;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12pt;">What
would your father have said, it’s only been a year since…..and now you’re
running away with the…..<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12pt;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12pt;"></span><br />
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12pt;">It’s
a corporate consulting company! They manage the tour. They’re all a bunch of
suits.<o:p></o:p></span><br />
<br />
</span><br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12pt;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12pt;">They’re
all a bunch of ex-convicts, drug addicts, and roadies and, and performers!<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12pt;">
<br />
</span><br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12pt;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12pt;">Come
on, Mom, we’re all performers to some degree, aren’t we?<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12pt;">
<br />
</span><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12pt;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12pt;">He
cut his hair and bought a light blue button down and beige khakis for the interview. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12pt;">
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12pt;">Now, it was midsummer and nobody knew what to
expect from town to town. The animal rights protestors could show up at any
time. The puddle of sweat that sat permanently on the producer’s
forehead was not unjustified. The new Cirque de Soleil had created a
Precambrian shift in the circus world: big theme shows, collaborations with pop
stars and, above all, no more animal acts. The big top would never be the same
again. Adding to this was the constant tense and volatile air found amongst the
performers, the concession people, the producers, and the roadies, which was
fueled by the exhaustion that comes from nine weeks on the road. Fist fights
were normal and sometimes there were knifes. But they all were united
in a common distrust for the people in the box office trailer which also served
as Marks mobile home for the tour. The accountant and producer drove in from a
local hotel in the nearest city. One time they showed up in a helicopter. The circus people all stared. The
producer played each group against the other and ended up blaming Mark,
the corporate gopher, for anything that went wrong on the tour. By this time
halfway through in the season, it was hard to tell who to trust anymore. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12pt;"></span><br />
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12pt;">Can
we have the map now? said Tommy, the balloon man’s son, wiping his unkempt
blonde hair from his eyes. He was surrounded by five other children, all at
different heights. These were the little people of the Big Top who inhabited
the air between the trailers and scaffolding and who knew all the hidden flaps
in the tent. Too young to work, they hopscotched all day over cables and wires
and popped the occasional balloon. They knew all 23 animals in the back by
name, including Bella the new baby monkey. Cindy, the acrobat’s daughter, now
had her hands on her hips. Her face was knotted up in a cute little scowl. Mark pulled out the photocopy of the blueprint, he had prepared earlier
from his back pocket and handed to Tommy</span><span lang="EN-US"><span style="font-family: 맑은 고딕; font-size: x-small;">.</span></span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12pt;"> They
all leaned in as he unfolded the paper. </span><br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjXWgukOimaXMXPVUHfVz-4Olisou6fBpS_tOJTx8mMAQUheDSrpgO5troVGDG-bDg63I_7C6HxoYyAruzWuwAU4RAoABr2NRUAV2k_DcJ3Ye81YQAo52MK99_3nRYeh_vxY8q8CSgWkH4/s1600/fcc-lot-layout+%25282%2529.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="280" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjXWgukOimaXMXPVUHfVz-4Olisou6fBpS_tOJTx8mMAQUheDSrpgO5troVGDG-bDg63I_7C6HxoYyAruzWuwAU4RAoABr2NRUAV2k_DcJ3Ye81YQAo52MK99_3nRYeh_vxY8q8CSgWkH4/s400/fcc-lot-layout+%25282%2529.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12pt;">Where
are the dragons this time?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12pt;">Why
do we have to find the dragons, said Jose, the jugglers son, the youngest and
newest one. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12pt;">Cause
that’s where the treasure is, stupid,said Cindy.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12pt;">Mark
leaned forward and let his finger hover a while, then he tapped the paper
firmly and said, “Right here, there be the dragons”.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12pt;">They
looked at each other and scurried back to their land of make believe, with empty
popcorn boxes jammed onto crooked sticks, frayed bungee cords and water guns
clinking and clanking as they ran. The map was flapping like a pet butterfly at
the end of Tom’s arm. In their wake they left the soft scent of cotton candy
and buttered popcorn.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12pt;">What
are you doing talking to those little brats? growled the producer, walking up
to the turnstiles and hoisting his pants. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12pt;">They’re
just bored. I think everything looks ok for the show today.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12pt;">You
think, do you?<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12pt;">Well...</span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12pt;">Listen,
just keep your eyes on the freaks, kid! That’s why we hired your educated ass!
You’re supposed to know the difference!” The producer liked reminding Mark that
“we” were the people in the front seat of the vehicle and everybody else was in
the back seat. He referred to anyone who didn’t count money on a regular basis
as a “freak”. He leaned forward, grasped the turnstile, spun it round, and
watched it jerk to a stop. He seemed to ponder it, as if it was a wheel of fortune
and he couldn’t figure out what he had just landed on. “Well, at least these
damn things are working! Ching, ching, ching! Showtime soon, the high school
kids should be here soon to take the tickets! Just watch out for the freaks,
will ya! He jerked his head and rolled his eyes towards the empty parking lot
and said, “like that freak, he’s been here all morning.” Then he turned toward
the back door of the box office trailer and waddled up the creaky tiny steel
steps. Mark cringed when he remembered the letter he had forgotten to put away
on the desk in the box office a few weeks before. In it he had written to a
friend, “The producer is a funny pear shaped man forked with two stubby little
legs in plaid pastel pants that are far too tight for the guy and he’s got a
pair of white shoes to match his big white Elvis belt. He always wears this
gaudy orange silk shirt from hell”. He still wasn’t if sure the producer had
actually read it. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12pt;">Mark
leaned on the turnstile and looked out over the parking lot up and then
awkwardly up at the sky and then back down at a man sitting in his pickup
truck, because, it was the only thing he could look at in the empty parking
lot. He had a sensation but if it were translated into a thought it would read
something like how can you avoid looking at the only thing there is look at and
pretend you are not looking at it? Just a dark silhouette, in a car door
picture frame rectangle, but it was a dark silhouette that was definitely
looking at Mark.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>He had on a baseball
cap and his dusty old tincan truck with old style rounded edges, like a chariot
was almost floating in the sun soaked ocean of the parking lot. There was an
Indian head with feathers on the door and the words Native American art
stenciled on the side. A tarp in the back of the truck looked like a pile of
black coal. Just to seem normal, he looked back up again at the Prairie sky.
The hugeness of the sky always made you feel like you were seeing with the
whites of your eyes. Out here, there were no scientific discoveries or
revolutions resulting from telescopes. Here, the earth is definitely flat and
the sky is a very real and present god who has watched over these fields of
golden wheat, and its roaming wild and raw horses, from long before horses were
called horses because language had not been invented yet.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Mark looked at his hands, sort of arched his
back and stretched a bit just to look normal again. What the hell is normal
when you work for the circus, he thought. Might as well do some cartwheels and
stand on my head, he’ll think I’m just another one of the clowns. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12pt;">What
the hell’s going on! Showtime! shouted the producer, his head floating outside
the box office window. “Let’s get the show on the road! Can’t we have just one
show without a hassle? The list of things that had gone wrong so far this
season looked like runaway train with all the crimes and incidents stenciled
like ads on the side of box cars.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-US"><a href="https://www.powtoon.com/online-presentation/bKDMacTxFlu/circus-troubles/#/"><span style="color: blue; font-family: 맑은 고딕; font-size: x-small;">https://www.powtoon.com/online-presentation/bKDMacTxFlu/circus-troubles/#/</span></a></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12pt;">“Let’s put the mirrors and posters out”,
barked the producer. Mark started propping up the plywood signs and kicking
them open and so the distorting mirrors which faced each other, created a kind
of gauntlet for the customers to line up within. The mirrors were the
producer’s “big” new idea of the season. “This will keep the twerps and rug
rats busy in the line.” Ten signs later and Mark was about 30 yards away from
the pickup truck and could feel the man in the old truck watching him. He
walked back slowly through the signs without directly looking at his body as it
distorted and ballooned into a fat little midget then reappeared in the next
sign as a tall skinny guy with stilts for legs then bursting into endless
reoccurring reflections of himself in the next one. He a avoided looking at his head.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Tom was trying to boost Jose
up onto the far side of the box office.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12pt;">He
got back to the turnstiles and everything was in full commotion. The cotton
candy kiosk grinding out pink sugar clouds and the popcorn man was scooping and
stacking small bags of bouncing particles. People had began handing in tickets
to the local teenagers Mark had hired to man the turnstiles. They shuffled
slowly with kids tugging at their parent’s arms and gesturing wildly like
little weathervanes. Cindy hopped and dodged among the customers in the opposite
direction. The producer popped his head out of the trailer repeatedly. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12pt;">The
man from the pickup truck was now walking slowly towards the turnstiles. Beside
him was a little kid with a long shaft of wheat in his mouth. The shaft of
wheat looked stronger then the arm he used to pluck it out of his mouth so he
could spit occasionally. As he got closer the producer stuck his head out the back door and
jerked his thumb in the direction of the man. The man had deep lines
surrounding the features of his face. It was a hard face and eyes like the sky
above him. His hands looked more like leather then flesh. </span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12pt;">He
bypassed the box office and approached Mark.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12pt;">Wondering
if we can have a look?<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12pt;">You
have to buy a ticket, sir.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12pt;">How
much?<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12pt;">10
dollars for adults and 5 for children.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12pt;">Don’t
got it.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12pt;">I’m
sorry, sir.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
.<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12pt;">The
producer was now perched and watching from the slightly opened back door of the trailer.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12pt;">We
won’t be long. Just want to see what this here show is all about. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12pt;">He
looked down at the boy.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12pt;">Everybody
has to pay, sir. The box office is right there.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12pt;">Mark
could feel the producer’s eyes on the side of his head. The man leaned slightly
to the left of Mark’s shoulder. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Mark
gently raised his hand and pushed his ear back but the man was just looking
into the mouth of the tent. The music had started and the dancing elephants
with hula hoops around their trunks were lumbering in circles around the ring.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12pt;">The
man cocked his head and said,<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12pt;">I
don’t get it, kid.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12pt;">Don’t
get what, sir?<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12pt;">What’s
with making animals walk on two legs?<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12pt;">The producer let out a long exasperated grunt of impatience. The
back door of the box office suddenly smashed open with a violent metallic clang
and then suddenly there was a pathetic yelp. But before the
producer’s four limbs could even reach the ground, the children had scattered
in all directions from under the box office. Their eyes were huge with shock and
a little bit of the surprise that comes from unexpected success. Mark wanted to
run too, but only for a moment. His two legs remained rigid and the shadow they
cast looked like a geometric instrument poised on a map. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
</span><br /></div>
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12pt;"><!--[if gte vml 1]><v:shapetype id="_x0000_t75" coordsize="21600,21600"
o:spt="75" o:preferrelative="t" path="m@4@5l@4@11@9@11@9@5xe" filled="f"
stroked="f">
<v:stroke joinstyle="miter"/>
<v:formulas>
<v:f eqn="if lineDrawn pixelLineWidth 0"/>
<v:f eqn="sum @0 1 0"/>
<v:f eqn="sum 0 0 @1"/>
<v:f eqn="prod @2 1 2"/>
<v:f eqn="prod @3 21600 pixelWidth"/>
<v:f eqn="prod @3 21600 pixelHeight"/>
<v:f eqn="sum @0 0 1"/>
<v:f eqn="prod @6 1 2"/>
<v:f eqn="prod @7 21600 pixelWidth"/>
<v:f eqn="sum @8 21600 0"/>
<v:f eqn="prod @7 21600 pixelHeight"/>
<v:f eqn="sum @10 21600 0"/>
</v:formulas>
<v:path o:extrusionok="f" gradientshapeok="t" o:connecttype="rect"/>
<o:lock v:ext="edit" aspectratio="t"/>
</v:shapetype><v:shape id="_x0000_i1025" type="#_x0000_t75" style='width:80.25pt;
height:40.5pt' o:ole="">
<v:imagedata src="file:///C:\Users\DARYLR~1\AppData\Local\Temp\msohtmlclip1\01\clip_image001.emz"
o:title=""/>
</v:shape><![endif]--><!--[if !vml]--><img height="54" src="file:///C:/Users/DARYLR~1/AppData/Local/Temp/msohtmlclip1/01/clip_image002.gif" v:shapes="_x0000_i1025" width="107" /><!--[endif]--><!--[if gte mso 9]><xml>
<o:OLEObject Type="Embed" ProgID="Package" ShapeID="_x0000_i1025"
DrawAspect="Content" ObjectID="_1518629027">
</o:OLEObject>
</xml><![endif]--></span>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04400440537394029013noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3635956861802411924.post-1949256960094140752016-02-15T01:12:00.000-08:002016-02-15T01:12:08.022-08:00Two Legs<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<iframe allowfullscreen='allowfullscreen' webkitallowfullscreen='webkitallowfullscreen' mozallowfullscreen='mozallowfullscreen' width='320' height='266' src='https://www.blogger.com/video.g?token=AD6v5dzhUX6K0fc_gg5aqV3QPVYSKGoiRL0OZukUlpzVl1mhO_PP83WQRiqlFJ103NYIB_xg-369tzE6Eq7zCs3KgQ' class='b-hbp-video b-uploaded' frameborder='0'></iframe></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt;">“Keep
your eye on the freaks, the flits, and weirdos, kid! That’s why we hired your
college educated ass!” This came by way of sound and earthy advice from the balding
producer with a flipped patch of feeble brown hair which he kept adjusting,
unsuccessfully, in the dry Midwestern breeze. He leaned forward, along with a
few strands of hair and grasped the turnstile, spun it round, and watched it
jerk to a stop. He seemed to ponder it, as if it was a wheel of fortune and he
couldn’t figure out what he had just landed on. “Well, at least these damn
things are working! Ching, ching, ching! Showtime in 2 hours, the high school
kids should be here soon to take the tickets! Just watch out for the freaks,
will ya! He gently cocked his head and rolled his eyes towards the empty
parking lot and said, “like that joker”. They stood for a moment in the sun
beside the line of turnstiles like guards at some imaginary hastily built metal
gate between show business and humanity. Then he turned toward the back door of
the box office trailer and waddled up the creaky tiny steel steps. A funny pear
shaped man forked with two stubby little legs in plaid pastel pants that were
far too tight for a middle aged man and a pair of white shoes to match his big
white belt. He was wearing an orange silk shirt that was sticky with patches of
sweat or maybe it just stale cologne here and there. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt;"></span><br />
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt;"> Mark
leaned on the turnstile and looked out over the parking lot up and then
awkwardly, up at the sky and then back down at a man sitting in his pickup
truck, because, it was the only thing he could look at in the empty parking
lot. He had a sensation but if it were translated into a thought it would read
something like how can you avoid looking at the only thing there is look at and
pretend you are not looking at it? Just a dark silhouette, in a car door picture
frame rectangle, but it was a dark silhouette that was definitely looking at
Mark. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>He had on a cowboy hat and his dusty
old tincan truck with old style rounded edges, like a chariot was almost
floating in the sun soaked ocean of the parking lot.</span><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiw6TaKWfpgzKfqYq8TA6gPZTOWm1S99UT7ZW_F9wyD_HUZmpkA1wBUdrSSldNnWVDehVpNnnr48mwRsR4kRO0JuOf5joDhNb6UhtXhffwDXLhkUy5HEBLJiJTQu2SoIsQQEWEI3TaL1ws/s1600/yellowhat.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiw6TaKWfpgzKfqYq8TA6gPZTOWm1S99UT7ZW_F9wyD_HUZmpkA1wBUdrSSldNnWVDehVpNnnr48mwRsR4kRO0JuOf5joDhNb6UhtXhffwDXLhkUy5HEBLJiJTQu2SoIsQQEWEI3TaL1ws/s200/yellowhat.jpg" width="130" /></a></div>
Golden breezes came and
each soft breeze always promised relief but only left you with slow waves of wheat
dust sticking in your throat. There was an Indian head with feathers on the
door and the words Native American art stenciled on the side. A tarp in the back
of the truck looked like a pile of black coal. Just to seem normal, he looked
back up again at the Prairie sky. The hugeness of the sky always made you feel like
you were seeing with the whites of your eyes. Out here, there were no scientific
discoveries or revolutions resulting from telescopes. Here, the earth is definitely
flat and the sky is a very real and present god who has watched over these
fields of golden wheat, and its roaming wild and raw horses, from long before horses
were called horses because language had not been invented yet. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Mark looked at his hands, kinda arched his
back and stretched a bit just to look normal again. What the hell is normal
when you work for the circus, he thought. Might as well do some cartwheels and
stand on my head, he’ll think I’m just another one of the clowns. <o:p></o:p><br />
<br />
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: "맑은 고딕"; mso-fareast-language: KO; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-fareast;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The quick hsst hsst hsst of the helium tank
made him turn his head back to the site and the balloon man nodded and shouted.
“Someday this war is gonna end, son” They both smiled knowing the line. It was
their line from the beginning of the season, well, at least since Halifax, when
they had had a day off and they went to see Apocalypse Now at a repertory
theater. It had replaced “good morning” countless towns and shows behind them. They
both liked Brando cause Brando was the kind of man who made big decisions for himself, in
movies and in real life. <br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjTWIdRXdGGGu5wgvGZ-MBPojnZV9o-3vGxGqWNva60qE3PadrabAqAwFqTfMASZ0a6n71a9WMkr0k8KhKOgRpuPzTDqvpW-V8C2hjffdhPt7CO-mOtjwK-thmg6z6ztGVfz36W9-kSeQ0/s1600/brandoindian.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjTWIdRXdGGGu5wgvGZ-MBPojnZV9o-3vGxGqWNva60qE3PadrabAqAwFqTfMASZ0a6n71a9WMkr0k8KhKOgRpuPzTDqvpW-V8C2hjffdhPt7CO-mOtjwK-thmg6z6ztGVfz36W9-kSeQ0/s1600/brandoindian.png" /></a></div>
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg7l5vZXcL_6D2z0MLFpQ0Fw2OdwuTGLjjTcC9hhyphenhyphenHGns7YNpWDQOiVHeuGGBS-YcOU8Rj9L-q5QxHGtz0FYZM66Z91PkZWdH45HIgrE8K79_Ta6R1lWtkJ0pxdF_8j4tn5Dsg9sF_yrX8/s1600/balloonman.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg7l5vZXcL_6D2z0MLFpQ0Fw2OdwuTGLjjTcC9hhyphenhyphenHGns7YNpWDQOiVHeuGGBS-YcOU8Rj9L-q5QxHGtz0FYZM66Z91PkZWdH45HIgrE8K79_Ta6R1lWtkJ0pxdF_8j4tn5Dsg9sF_yrX8/s1600/balloonman.jpg" /></a></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt;">The
balloon man was cynical beyond repair despite being surrounded by a constant halo
of bright red, blue, green and yellow circles and the endless gaggle of
children during his regular working hours.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt;">-
You know that guy in the truck was out round the back this morning, eh? <o:p></o:p></span><br />
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt;">-
Nah I didn’t know <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt 12pt; mso-char-indent-count: -1.0; text-indent: -12pt;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt;">-
ahh, he’s just some dumbass Okie, never seen anything like the big top here.
Probably never even been 10 miles from where he was born! <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt;">-
Yeah, its nothing..just some farmer. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt;">-
What’s he got in the back of the truck?<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt;">-
Don’t know<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt;">-
Not another horse, I hope<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt;">-
Christ!<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: "맑은 고딕"; mso-fareast-language: KO; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-fareast;">They
both shook their heads remembering the town four shows back. A guy, showed up
with the dust, and sold the tiger trainer a dead horse for next to nothing on
the condition that his kids could feed the tigers personally. It was illegal
but it was Sunday.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>They showed up after
church and the girls were dressed in long white dresses and the boys in dopey
bowties. It took about seven guys, including some of the kids, to yank it out
of the truck and then it landed with an awful, awkward thud. They cut the legs
off first. The change saw coughed and sputtered chunks of bloody flesh on everybody
and on the white dress of one of the girls. She was biting her lower lip against
the tears even as she tried to jam a stiff leg through the green metal wire,
like 18 month old babies try to put square blocks into circle shapes.
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhaWbiUvX4APutnWypCSSglkpAf6zeSkchnBgmcWzP4T2gnIP_8ohOa11pE8v7vCqQ8virV9QcxfXhcB_sT61qnmHjp5Le68cuxzh1dDu3fdStidsV-8PGFXtXEqOdXqLkJ5RiVPEb_ZEs/s1600/shapes.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhaWbiUvX4APutnWypCSSglkpAf6zeSkchnBgmcWzP4T2gnIP_8ohOa11pE8v7vCqQ8virV9QcxfXhcB_sT61qnmHjp5Le68cuxzh1dDu3fdStidsV-8PGFXtXEqOdXqLkJ5RiVPEb_ZEs/s200/shapes.jpg" width="149" /></a></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt;">In
the end, the tigers refused the flesh and just gnawed a bit then curled up and
went back to sleep, like cute little kids with stuffed animals. “The horror, the
horror” said the balloon man. The producer found out and blew a gasket and blamed
Mark for everything as usual. What the hell do you think the animal rights
freaks would say about that or the health department!!! Is this 1860? Are you
Buffalo Bill? Everything that went wrong was Marks fault. That was the price of
being the corporate gopher.</span><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Rosewood Std Regular"; font-size: 16pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";"> </span></i></b><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt;">The
list of things that had gone wrong so far this season looked like a runaway train
with all the crimes and incidents stenciled like ads on the side of box cars.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-US"><a href="https://www.powtoon.com/online-presentation/bKDMacTxFlu/circus-troubles/#/"><span style="color: blue; font-family: 맑은 고딕; font-size: x-small;">https://www.powtoon.com/online-presentation/bKDMacTxFlu/circus-troubles/#/</span></a></span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt;"><o:p> </o:p></span></div>
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt;">First
the skeleton begins to take shape, amongst roadies scurrying between clanking
steel and wood planks knocking into place, then the cables and wires stretch
like arteries and nerves around the steel frame. Then the yellow and red flesh
gasps, buffs suddenly and blooms into shape. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The electrical crew zap and sparkle connections
as the lights hum in to being. Then, there is a long silence, with only the
slow roar of tigers and the grunting of elephants providing a muffled sleepy
afternoon soundtrack from the plains of Africa. Mark and the Balloon man had
seen it hundreds of times and continued talking, could have been at a laundry
mat. <o:p></o:p></span><br />
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt;"><o:p> </o:p></span></div>
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt;">What
the hell’s going on!, shouted the producer, his head floating outside the box
office window. “I thought we had an arrangement. Stick by the turnstiles, for Christ
sake! I got 3 kids in the box office now and you are going to have to explain
what they gotta do. Can’t we have just one show without a hassle? Let’s put the
mirrors out.” Mark started propping up the plywood signs and kicking them open
and so the distorting mirrors faced each other, creating a kind of gauntlet for
the customers to line up within. The mirrors were the producer’s big new idea
of the season. “This will keep the twerps and rug rats busy in the line.” Ten
signs later and Mark was about 30 yards away from the pickup truck and could
feel the man in the cowboy hat watching him. He walked back slowly through the
signs with his body distorting and ballooning into a fat little midget then
reappearing as a tall skinny guy with silts for legs then bursting into endless
reoccurring reflections of himself. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>A
few kids pulled up on bikes and skidded to a stop. “You got any midgets in
there?” “What about a lady with a beard? “Got any pot?”<o:p></o:p></span><br />
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt;"><o:p> </o:p></span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt;">By
the time he got back to the turnstiles everything was in full commotion. The
cotton candy kiosk grinding out pink sugar clouds and the popcorn man was
scooping and stacking small bags of bouncing particles. The Ringmaster in a top
hat and red sequined tux was arguing with the Producer. The acrobat team was
pointing towards the cables in the tent and the girl on the flying trapeze, in
full fishnet thighs thundered past everybody like a royal white ghost, into the
dark mouth of the tent where everybody seemed to be gravitating to, at this
moment in time. He placed the high school kids in position and the people
started springing through the clanging turnstiles. Kids with defiant locked
legs poised in all directions tugging and jerking their parents behind them,
towards this modern day gaudy red and yellow pyramid. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt;">The
man from the pickup truck was now walking slowly towards the turnstiles. He was
holding a big bag, with dark green and black camouflage colors. The producer
stuck his head out the door and raised his hands in frustrated supplication to
Mark as if to say, “Be ready to do something!” The man had deep lines surrounding
the features of his face. It was a hard face and eyes like the sky above him. His
hands were leather baseball gloves and he had scars on both his arms, where
younger men today would probably have tattoos. They were real tattoos. They
were hieroglyphic etched in the flesh. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt;">-I’m
sorry sir, we can’t let you bring that in here. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt;">-Can’t
lock my truck, the window’s busted. Can’t leave my stuff there.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt;">-Sorry
sir, we can’t be responsible for customer….<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt;">He
held the bag up to Mark.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt;">-That’s
fine kid, you can hold it for me then!<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt;">-I’m
sorry that’s really not……that’s not really my job. I’m not allowed to…<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt;">-Seems
like it’s your job, I saw you talking to the man in the trailer earlier<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt;">-I’m
just supposed to watch the turnstiles.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt;">-Well,
then you can watch my bag beside the turnstiles. I won’t be long.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt;">He
put the bag down and started to move towards the tent. Mark suddenly noticed
the worn brown leather casing bouncing off his side and something inside his
head said” knife”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt;">-Sir,
you can’t take that in the tent!<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt;">The
silence was terrible. Mark felt the producer staring at him. But before anybody
could do anything the man had removed the knife and handed it to Mark, handle
first the proper way, and very gently. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt;">-Here,
kid, I told you I won’t be long<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt;">Mark
decided, and he put his hand out slowly towards the knife.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt;">The
man walked past the balloons and the cotton candy and into the darkness and the
band started playing. Mark stood like a clown at clown school with a shinning prop
in his hand but he didn’t know what the gag was and everybody in class was staring
at him. The producer shook his head and rolled his eyes and slowly disappeared
back into the box office. The high school kids shuffled their feet.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt;"> Halfway
through the dancing elephants with hula hoops, which was still only the opening
act, the man appeared again and slowly walked up to Mark with his hand open for
his knife back, as if they had been working on something together, like the
engine of a truck, and Mark had to hold it for a only brief second.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt;">-I
don’t get it, kid? <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt;">-Don’t
get what, sir?<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt;">-What’s
with making animals walk on two legs?<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt;"><o:p> </o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt;"><o:p> </o:p></span></div>
</span><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<br />
</span><span lang="EN-US" style="-ms-layout-grid-mode: line; background: black; border: 1pt black; color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 0pt; mso-ansi-language: X-NONE; mso-bidi-language: X-NONE; mso-border-alt: none black 0cm; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: X-NONE; mso-font-kerning: 0pt; mso-font-width: 0%; padding: 0cm;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<br />
Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04400440537394029013noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3635956861802411924.post-56100858393514653512016-02-09T08:22:00.000-08:002016-02-09T08:22:13.431-08:00Glass and Water: A Love Story<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
Glass and Water</div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjMXxOnavq4IOzd9JGdXFBBBlfuSvb1QQxRrnwI9nmXFH7Dw_OoDhKYIJeWoDw3oSIRYBkbQE76TNltfH2-rZtIpw0-yWdy2JapttG2PRxhuYy7ejbchwc3zcPriPqiyiY6Ueu3dPVjkWM/s1600/rainwindow.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="265" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjMXxOnavq4IOzd9JGdXFBBBlfuSvb1QQxRrnwI9nmXFH7Dw_OoDhKYIJeWoDw3oSIRYBkbQE76TNltfH2-rZtIpw0-yWdy2JapttG2PRxhuYy7ejbchwc3zcPriPqiyiY6Ueu3dPVjkWM/s400/rainwindow.png" width="400" /></a></div>
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; mso-char-indent-count: 2.0; text-indent: 24pt;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12pt;">Glass
and Water worked great together, they were always such a pair. They had
a routine they had worked out over the years from the
good old days on the primal stage to the etheral silver screen, like Fred and Ginger. They always started touring in the spring, but they were eternal in the eyes of
lovers everywhere-timeless and always impossibly
romantic like the lines and gestures of actors in black and white movies. People
were enchanted by the choreography of cascading water on windows, the soft
reflection of the serious moon on lakes lapping the shores of foreign lands and
the melting car windshields that hid warm whispered conversations, as complete
strangers sloshed by. They were lovers and that was that. People fell in love
to their eternal dance of sound and vision. </span><br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12pt;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjkXDcIVOU0Dxn_4BYy9PRD2YXrv9yqnlyGu-yy5aLfOhgnpUowKdd1zm3EDmzi0yqeV0LTs62Tg7fJbj0XDe_aD7b-sdMniMZlC5EEHrkPUO7_QxzgGG7SHx3Q-A0g1eb_5iewfrdpKM8/s1600/glassinwine.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjkXDcIVOU0Dxn_4BYy9PRD2YXrv9yqnlyGu-yy5aLfOhgnpUowKdd1zm3EDmzi0yqeV0LTs62Tg7fJbj0XDe_aD7b-sdMniMZlC5EEHrkPUO7_QxzgGG7SHx3Q-A0g1eb_5iewfrdpKM8/s1600/glassinwine.jpg" /></a></span></div>
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12pt;">By mid-summer, the sun was sparkling
while Glasses clinked and Water flowed so free. </span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12pt;">Glass
was forever enchanted by Water, wild as the wind and dancing with the lights
through the picture window. And for Water, there was a tangible charm to glass
that couldn’t be resisted. Water always curled up snug in the sculptured grasp
of glass. They were always such a pair. The paparazzi teased them about starting a family. People whispered and people stared but Water always seemed to make it
onto the front page, into the gossip columns and short clips, with Glass not always
being there.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; mso-char-indent-count: 2.5; text-indent: 30pt;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12pt;">Glass
was became jealous like a clock, counting the hours of the day. Dark and
brooding and reflecting distorted shadows from within, glass grew demanding
and began to accuse water of flowing everywhere. Water responded with a quick
splash of innocent laughter but Glass remained rigid and immutable. Then
terrible things were said and done by the summer’s end with the sordid details
following.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; mso-char-indent-count: 2.0; text-indent: 24pt;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12pt;">Glass
had an affair with Gasoline and things got volatile. Revolution and big ideas
were in the air. Glass wanted to change their image, reach a new audience and
change things, with a capital T.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12pt;">Water,
in turn, had an affair with Gravity, however hesitantly. Then the confrontation
came to a head backstage. Water said, “I’m tired of your grand ideas, your poising, and your
Molotov cocktails of hate-shattering and leaving splinters in flesh everywhere.
It’s always me that has to wash the wounds of everyone!” <o:p></o:p></span><br />
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12pt;">“Yes",
said Glass with a jagged sneer, "you wash everyone, what do you care!” <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12pt;">“There
is a balance everywhere”, said Water, knowing.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12pt;">“Yes,
you are very versatile”, Glass said deliberately and slow, “the papers are not
even sure if you’re a boy or a girl!”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12pt;"> </span><br />
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12pt;"> This
time, Glass had gone too far. The silence that followed was long and dark. Then
the tsunami hit. Glass, always so fixed and poised, forgot how unforgiving
the softness of water could be. But by now a winter chill had set in and the
tour wrapped up and the hoarfrost on the windows started to look like tiny
glass wings , in-utero, waiting for the spring or was it a spider web full of pretty
things? <o:p></o:p></span><br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhKvmXA84eiXgTpzdp3DhKCI9d9xYw4KVXJtvjzZJlcD5xjMkBmWudCd-2qqb8dJ9w4HOwOZDD7CbsNavdjfuhAfC60Qhutpqg4ctOBo4vR9S7SuqGVTPv4b6zwwbrK75ciNWFpbmeh8wA/s1600/hoarfrost.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="274" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhKvmXA84eiXgTpzdp3DhKCI9d9xYw4KVXJtvjzZJlcD5xjMkBmWudCd-2qqb8dJ9w4HOwOZDD7CbsNavdjfuhAfC60Qhutpqg4ctOBo4vR9S7SuqGVTPv4b6zwwbrK75ciNWFpbmeh8wA/s400/hoarfrost.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
For David Bowie</div>
Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04400440537394029013noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3635956861802411924.post-28696615582750463792016-02-09T08:21:00.000-08:002016-02-09T08:21:30.955-08:00Self Intro<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<iframe allowfullscreen="" class="YOUTUBE-iframe-video" data-thumbnail-src="https://i.ytimg.com/s_vi/o4ONl2MieNg/default.jpg?sqp=CMT757UF&rs=AOn4CLCxrAGmTd1gx09XCI20TiiuoCbN9Q" frameborder="0" height="266" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/o4ONl2MieNg?feature=player_embedded" width="320"></iframe></div>
<br />Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04400440537394029013noreply@blogger.com0