The Poem becomes a Song

It has happened before.  When I used to space out in high school math classes I'd find myself scribbling little poems in my notebook along side quadratic equations.  Some fully formed poems or a few lines written here or there would become the only material for lyrics when my high school rock band would get together and jam on our original tunes.
So I wrote a poem for this class and I thought it was okay. Professor Wexler gave it a decent  grade. I then looked at it a few times and saw the possibility of making one of the stanzas a chorus and trimming and adding some words in a few places to make it a song.  I gave it a bridge which only really works as a song lyric and would be too much of a clichee for a poem.
"I know that you're weary. I've seen you falling down.  Pretend that you don't hear me.  It all comes back around."
Here is me performing the poem turned song on the street.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y992kOSiKJA&feature=youtube_gdata_playerhttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y992kOSiKJA&feature=youtube_gdata_player

Globalization and the coffee shop

I feel guilty. Not all of the time... but more often than not.   I feel it when I wait for the barista to make my personalized coffee with four other bratty college students with their heads down hypnotized by the little light from their smart phones.  I fight back a laugh of disgust and then my own phone vibrates and I too become a zombie but not without remorse.

We are connected to each other and to the same degree further apart.  Fifteen years ago I might have been forced to strike up a conversation with these younger people.  What would most likely have been nothing but a forced chatter about the price of lattes or the weather, would have been something as opposed to nothing...  Some form of human contact.  Maybe an interaction with the type of person I normally wouldn't associate or converse with at any point in my day or any other moment in my life.  The screen on the phone connects us to the comfortable experience, the people we know and the people some computer program thinks me might like to know, the clothes, music, film, literature and various products that fit our demographic, the type of news we would like to consume rather than the news we should really be aware of as citizens of the world...

I feel guilty because in this modern technologically driven urban center of Los Angeles the idea of community and shared human experience is dead or at the least taken for granted.  There is nothing connecting us to the reality of places where all people have is each other.  The people of third world countries might marvel at the innovation and efficiency on display at a Starbucks( which by the way has a business goal called 'the third place' in which every local corporately owned and run store is strategically made to feel like that comfortable place you hang out at when you are not at home or work: the third place) but what would they think of not really being able to express the joy of the experience with an isolated commuter wearing earbuds listening to a podcast on his way to work?

I do, I feel guilty.

Final Thoughts

I am graduating.  It have spent two years at CSUN but in actuality it has taken over a decade to complete my bachelor's degree.  Sure, that sounds pitiful and to be honest it IS sad in one narrow view. But from most people's perspective it's a personal triumph, an achievement not to be belittled or trivialized.  Yes, I made the Dean's list in my thirties and that is something to acknowledge especially when for most people my age doing anything outside of a nine to five job requires energy they usually reserved for parenting children.  It was challenging.  Derrida is still Derrida at a state school.  There were moments when I had to compromise my music career, my relationship, my family, and my sleep schedule in order to get an A.  I held myself to such a high standard I often suffered from acid indigestion.  

So after all of the stress involved with studying for exams, writing papers, and preparing for oral presentations my next big life decision is graduate school.  I choose more of the same. What is the definition of insanity again?  Something about repeating an action over and over even though you know the harmful consequences...

Seriously, it is because of the experiences in classes with teachers like Professor Wexler that I've decided to return.  The truth is that I enjoy being exposed to new ways of thinking about the world.  I've travelled all over the globe with only a narrow vision of what I was seeing.  My experiences abroad in some ways taught me more than I could learn in college but classes like this senior seminar help me appreciate what I have seen.  The explorations into new media, mythology, and globalization have broadened my view of the future. Some of it does seem dismal in regards to making a living at anything involved in writing or teaching but I am excited to see what evolves out of this culture of the internet and how we cope as society with technological advances.  Grad school will only give me a greater understanding and appreciation for the history that unfolds.

Final Essay

Eric Kufs

Professor Wexler

English 495esm

5 December 2012
                     Dividing the Global Tribe
The progressive culture of the internet allows most young privileged students to feel as if the world is on an inevitable path towards global equality.  The lightning quick flashes of information, shooting back and forth from continent to continent, keep us aware of the minute by minute changes occurring in most modern industrialized nations.  When we watch a revolution in Egypt documented through cellphone pictures and social networking sites we feel hopeful about the impact of globalization.  Though more recently when their newly democratically elected president ignores their constitution and usurp dictatorial control in the name of preserving political relations, we feel differently.  It will take more than the internet to bring us all to a level playing field in regards to a political and socio-economic state.
But all of this is beside the point, for in spite of global movements ranging from the likes of the "Arab Spring" to that of pop culture phenomenons like the world wide dance hit, "Gnam Gnam Style", human beings of all nations and races have not come together to agree upon a universal goal of a wholly and equally shared society. The uprising of the working classes in Middle Eastern countries is to some degree in line with Karl Marx's overarching theory of history, but after the mass failure of Communism at the end of the last century, "socialism" has become a dirty word. But is that just the hegemonic ruling class ideology being taught on a global scale?  In his essay "Where Did the Future Go?", Marxist critic Randy Martin writes, "The last time finance led the charge, it was called the age of imperialism. Today we suffer imperialism’s renaissance."  Instead of pushing for new governments that support true socio-economic equality for their people we have opted to remain in an expanding state of capitalism where certain groups or regions control more of the means of production and/or power of consumption.  More simply, there has been no politically conscious effort made to move away from a universal societal structure of the haves and the have nots.The power of the internet and the freedom of mass international communication is a helpful tool, but does not steer the world population away from an unbridled capitalism, one that allows for this type of social and economic disparity among nations and cultures. Our awareness of of each others similarities, in our societies and culture may make us feel connected to a  shared sense of humanity, but in this discourse, this awareness has not resurrected an idealistic Utopian end goal.
In a technologically advanced global economy it easy to see the shared common interests and base desires of humanity but quite often difficult to see the unjust disparities between nations and cultures outside of America.  In the film Babel,  directed by Alejandro González Iñárritu and written by Guillermo Arriaga, we are shown four interrelated stories across nations in three distinct areas of the world. In each plot line we see similar displays of family, and the benevolence of fellowship within all the communities represented.  The socio-economic and political differences are all that stand between the preservation of their familiesl.
The people of the United States, Mexico, Morocco, and Japan as represented by the characters in the film are not concerned with preserving a free-market capitalism when the survival and welfare of their family.   Abdullah the goat herder purchases a rifle to protect his herd from jackyls in order to feed his family. The Mexican nanny, Amelia, takes her employers children across the border from California to be at her son's wedding.  Richard fighting for his wife Susan's life nursing her as she slowly bleeds  from a gunshot wound. All of the characters are driven by the need to preserve the family or their tribe.  In the case of the Americans, the Moroccan interpreter who takes them to his village relates to this love that foreigner shows for his wife and vows to do all that he can help save her.  There is a universal commonality shown between the two men who live in two different cultures and see two different sides of a world economy.   In a brighter scene of the film, in another economically impoverished region of the world, Richard and Susan's children take part in another family's celebration and even though they are unfamiliar with the culture and the language they cannot help but feel the joy of the occasion.  The communal and tribal aspect of family is universal and each of the main characters show it to be a value.
The lost fight for preserving the family structure or tribe is also a common thread between characters.  Chieko Wataya, a rebellious, deaf Japanese teenage girl is acting out in reaction to her mother's suicide.  The loss represents a shattering of a family as we watch a distant father suffering in his own way.  None of pain is alleviated by the fact that they live an immaculate modern apartment with a stunning view of the wealthy modern city of Tokyo. The father and daughter are no more or less broken than Abdullah as his elder son is shot by the Moroccan police, presumably fatally, at the end of the film but we can say that in the case of the sheepherder a fault can be blamed on a development of globalization.  The issue of terrorism and international relationships based on global economics all come into play when the internationally spread news reports of an American tourist is shot.  The delay of the rescue helicopter, although a near tragedy of diplomatic relations, is nothing compared to the fate of Abdullah and his children. Between the two situations, we see an inequality due to financially driven globalization where the people of a wealthier country that owns the means of production or provides the consumer capital are favored. The people of the mountains of Morocco are all presumed guilty by their own government in the name of resolving what has become an international incident.
If we view Amelia, the nanny, as a second mother to the two American children we also witness another family destroyed by a global capitalist society.  As a Mexican living in poverty, in order to help her family,the only choice for her is to work illegally in the United States.  The work pays better than any job she might find in her own country but to is nothing to a working professional in America.  Her deportation is tragic in how she is deprived of the life and relationships she had built in America but the harsher reality is how much less money she will making in her home country.  The global market relationships and national governments promote the disparity that exist between countries like the U.S. and Mexico.  The low wages of the working class population of Mexico among other factors can be attributed to globalization.  Cheap labor is needed by the wealthier consumer nations like the United States, in order to compete.  Less regulations and worker union intervention in countries like Mexico are incentives for corporations and businesses to produce internationally in order to improve their bottom line.  If you are an older Mexican woman like Amelia, you either cannot find a factory job or cannot support a family on that wage so you take a risk on crossing into the United States in search of illegal work.  The story is a common one, and despite the many illegal immigrants who enter the lives of United States citizens and become integral parts of many of their families, the politics of immigration have only become more conservative.
The answer to the complex problem of inequality caused by globalization cannot simply be political.   American literary critic and Marxist theorist, Frederic Jameson, in his essay, "The Politics of Utopia",  claims that, "Utopia emerges at the moment of the suspension of the political"(43).  For foreign workers of little education could still legally find jobs that pay far below a living wage in the United States if immigration laws were changed.  The "American Dream" would still attract those who want to provide a better life for themselves and their family that they could not find in their own country.  As the world has more and more access to the culture of the United States and like nations that control modes of production via the internet, superstructures based on a capitalist free-market ideology emerge and less and less people conceive of a Utopian dream. The idea, though not demonized like socialism, is off the table and people have chosen to enter their tribe in an even larger competition for survival.  Globalization brings people together like the characters of the film Babel but encourages their economic disparities. These people share similar values like the well being of their families. The change in socio-economic inequality could be changed by the eradication of the political but that would require a different kind of revolution, a revolution that viewed the whole human race as one family struggling to survive.


Works Cited
"Babel." - Internet Movie Firearms Database. Media Wiki, n.d. Web. 11 Dec. 2012.
Babel. By Guillermo Arriaga. Perf. Brad Pitt. 01 Distribution, 2007. DVD.
Jameson, Frederick. "The Politics of Utopia." New Left Review. N.p., 2004. Web.
Martin, Randy. "Where Did the Future Go?" Logosonline. Logos 5.1, 2006. Web.

Babel on

Eric Kufs

Professor Wexler

English 495esm

5 December 2012

The progressive culture of the internet allows most young privileged students feel as if the world is some how on a path towards an eventual global equality.  The lightning quick flashes of information, shooting back and forth from continent to continent, keep us aware of minute by minute changes occurring in most industrialized nations.  When the we watch a revolution in the Middle East documented through cellphone pictures and social networking sites we feel hopeful about the impact of globalization.   Yet, in spite of political revolutions like the "Arab Spring" or pop culture phenomenons like the absurdly popular dance hit, "Gnam Gnam Style", human beings of all nations have not come together to agree upon a universal goal of a shared utopian society.  Instead, as the predominant species wielding the most power over the planet earth, we have opted to remain in a perpetual state of capitalism where certain groups or regions control more of the means of production and/or power of consumption.  More simply, there has been no conscious effort away from a universal societal structure of "the haves and the have nots."  The power of the internet and the freedom of mass communication is a helpful tool but does not steer the world population away from the unbridled capitalism that allows for this type of social and economic inequality.
In a technologically advanced global economy it easy to see the humanity that we all share but quite often difficult to see the unjust disparities between nations and cultures outside of America.  In the film Babel,  directed by Alejandro González Iñárritu and written by Guillermo Arriaga, we are shown four interrelated stories across nations in three distinct areas of the world. In each plot line we see similar displays of family, human sexual desire, and the benevolence of fellowship within all the communities represented.  The socio-economic and political differences are all that stand between the characters and a shared utopian ideal.
The first thing that the people of the United States, Mexico, Morocco, and Japan are concerned with as represented by the characters in the film is not their belief in the free-market but the survival and welfare of their family.  American literary critic and Marxist theorist, Frederic Jameson, in his essay, "The Politics of Utopia" writes, "a politics which wishes to change the system radically will be designated as utopian—with the right-wing undertone that the system (now grasped as the free market) is part of human nature; that any attempt to change it will be accompanied by violence; and that efforts to maintain the changes (against human nature) will require dictatorship" (1).  Whichever economic system the characters move through they all are concerned with their immediate family.  Whether it be Abdullah the goat herder purchasing a rifle to protect his herd from jackyls in order to feed his family, the Mexican nanny, Amelia, taking her employers children across the border from California to be at her son's wedding, or Richard fighting for his wife Susan's life nursing her as she slowly bleeds to death from a gunshot wound, all of the characters are driven by the need to preserve the family they love.  If the greed inherent in the preservation of the global free market is human nature then can't the same be said for this primal drive of preserving the immediate family?  Without addressing what is natural or not we can see the commonalities that exist between the cruelty of these character's international political dilemmas. Abdullah has the harsh police action of Morocco and the international fear of terrorism to blame for an incident that ends in the supposed fatal shooting of his one son and the incarceration of another. The Mexican nanny Amelia, is deported from the U.S., keeping her from the children she had practically raised and from the job that allowed her to make a better living for her own family.  International relations between the U.S. and Moroccan government delay rescue efforts as the American tourist, Susan, bleeds to death with her husband at her side.  Standing in the way of the character's desire to preserve or protect their familial relationships is not human nature but  organized governments, the larger players in the free market.
Outside of the governing bodies  and the cultural boundaries of the world that separate us as one universal human race there is one instinctive facet that plagues all of us in "civilized" societies.   This is the issue of sexuality.   In Babel, characters of different cultures all have different relationships with sexuality but they all share similar desires.  In a suggestion that in a utopian society sexuality would be universally accepted as a common necessary expression, Jameson writes, "In other words sexuality, itself a meaningless biological fact, is in such societies far less invested with all the symbolic meanings with which we modern and sophisticated people endow it"(53).  In the film, Abdullah's younger son, Ahmed, is criticized by his brother for regularly spying on his naked sister as she changes.  A boy in a third world religious culture of the mountains of Morocco is the same as Chieko Wataya, a rebellious, deaf Japanese teenage girl who is sexually frustrated.  Her desires and curiosities lead to sexual provocations that are met with a similar disdain.   But even as we grow older sexual expression is a necessary human process as shown through Amelia's brief interaction with an older gentlemen at her son's wedding.  Sexuality drives all of us and the different societal constructs of the world do not change this fact.  Though as much as the world shares the freedom of sexuality through images of art or pornography however they are discerned, this information does not wholly eliminate the disparate views of a matter that is biologically vital to human beings.

Z Lowhand

Height- 6'9''

Weight- 120 lbs.

Has an extremely oversized body that mirrors her ego.  Z's mother was abducted by aliens while pregnant with her.  This accounts for light weight of her muscles and the knife-like blades growing out of her left hand.  

Her mission is to destroy and take the place of the sun so the earth will revolve around her for eternity.

Her Weakness:  Is that she can only survive on a steady diet of narcotics and media attention.  If she is left sober and alone away from the paparazzi and the daily mentions of her on the internet, she will shrink down to the size of a troll. 

Big China

Height- 5'4''

Weight- 250 lbs.

Little China

A Chinese-American CEO of the biggest frozen microwavable dumpling company in the world by day. When he isn't coming up with new flavors to stuff inside his frozen noodles or working as a House DJ in Beijing Little China is out fighting crime.  Little China doesn't have super powers, he is a superpower.  He has atomic strength and a gold radioactive wrist ban.

His mission is protect good citizens of the world.

Trickster Songs

For our group presentation we developed a cohesive plan to attack the chapter we were assigned from  Myth and Knowing. Each of us used our strengths and abilities to add something uniquely engaging for audience.  Christopher was a master power pointer and so he took all of our informational slides and incorporated them into a stunning visual presentation for the class. The most important thing I learned from the whole experience is that I a severe deficiency in power point and most computer programs for that matter.
I also became familiar with the mythological figure called the trickster. After reading the chapter,the group decided to use the example of Prometheus to further explain the idea of the trickster.  Our assignment was to approach the presentation as if we were teaching in a high school class room.  We were encouraged to try new methods and above all make the material relevant to the students.
I hadn't planned on doing anything more than my portion of the power point but after searching for examples of Prometheus in popular music or folk songs without luck, I decided to write a few songs to perform for the class.  Here are the lyrics to the one I had the chance to perform:

Prometheus

They say you're like Bart Simpson or Stewy Griffin
you're like Bugs Bunny or a  manic Indian
You're a wild rabbit, a coyote, and a black raven
you're no cartoonish fool, you're no great satan

you're no human, you're a titan with mankind on your mind
And all your indiscretions had the best intentions
and Mary Shelley was way out of line, to ever compare you to her mad doctor Frankenstein

You can steal the fire away
but you can't keep the Gods at bay
They will come for you and in the end you'll be the one to pay

You were a champion for us and according to Hesiod
You hid the meat so we could eat, you fooled the god of gods
Zeus was mad he kept the flame, you tricked him just the same
So he tied you to a rock and had an eagle come each day to eat your liver over and over again

You can steal the fire away
but you can't keep the Gods at bay
They will come for you and in the end you'll be the one to pay

Prometheus my bro
We owe you big don't ya know
All I can offer you is an apology
for the cruel fact that when you google your name the first thing that comes up is that multi-million dollar piece of shit Ridley Scott movie

You can steal the fire away
but you can't keep the Gods at bay
They will come for you and in the end you'll be the one to pay
We will all feel their wrath
but in time the pain will pass
and we'll walk hand in hand every woman and man free at last

Saving the world  your way is a thankless task
So I wrote this song for you, Prometheus

Here is the second song that I didn't have time to perform:


Trickster Girl
Trickster Girl you're so smart
You broke my world, you ran a scam on my heart
I don't mind being kept in the dark
Your lies light me up inside they make a spark

You can steal the fire,
play on my desire
ignore the higher rules
That's what you're supposed to do

Trickster Girl you can lie to me
Trickster Girl I'll pretend I'm too blind to see
Trickster Girl It's alright, lie to me

Trickster girl you make me laugh out loud
but all the foolish things you do fill me with doubt
You manipulate their minds, bet I'll get my turn
I know There's a message here I'm supposed to learn

Tell me one thing here
And mean another there
say you're not in love
make me want to care

Trickster girl you can lie to me

Two Poems

Shelled In

Write me in Beirut,
Stake sane drums with pins.
Keep the cash coming cold
in straight coffins.

Buy the fires,
Sleeping light,
Bound to drought.
Whole sale cracking shells,

Echo night.
Echo night

Summer shins
black, want no color,
"The Cleaners" call
“A” bomb of a lover.


When the eye
that we dwell upon,
wets a spot in time,
soldiers march back to their graves.
My dull cheek,
milked of sweat,
begs a tear.
But the salt has dried me out.





Cruel Religion and a Handsome Man


Blood on the mountain,
Blood from the baby's mouth.
They poisoned that fountain,
like the heart of the old south.

We're driving I-40,
Every one those ghost stories told.
Nashville to Memphis
Country first, with or without soul.
I'm a hollywood producer,
And it's your chance to direct.
Aware of the consumer
I'm pushing for more sex.

If there's no happy ending,
it's just as predictable, no less
Hard to believe,
when magic is a business.

A cruel religion and a handsome man
that tries to settle you down.
Like something I was told when I was ten,
"Sooner or later it all comes back around."

Write me in,

Beirut,

Stake sane drums with pins,

Keep the cash coming cold in straight coffins.

Lead lap dogs,

Buy the fires,

Bound in drought

Sleeping light

Real sale whole, cracking shells,

Echo night.

Echo night

Summer shins don’t want color

Wash me

Cleaner’s call

A new “A” bomb

The end

 Sent me sands,

 to meet you.

When the eye

That we dwell upon

Wets a spot  in time.

And the soldiers march back to their graves

My dull cheek

Milky sweat

Begs a tear

But I can’t

Cause the salt

Dries me out.

The Second City

Eric Kufs

Professor Wexler

English 495esm

12 September 2012
The Second City
As a native New Yorker, every other city across our great America seems to run a distant second to the big apple.  If you've ever walked across the Brooklyn Bridge in autumn during the magic hour, then you might find it hard not to agree.  Nonetheless, Americans have a deep reverence for their cities, those that stand as the setting for the moments of their lives. They all represent a living, breathing embodiment of the great human experiment that is our country.
In Carl Sandburg's, "Chicago" the poet pays tribute to the major metropolis of his home state of Illinois. In spite of the town's darker or less palatable qualities, he expresses an affection for the urban center of the midwest.  Through use of personification Sandburg, lets the rougher parts represent the whole imperfect beauty of his Chicago.  Through this personification, he conveys a pride in his city and which in turn represents a similar but wider view of his country.
As a poet, Sandburg was often dismissed by critics of his time that found his writing too simplistic in his use of a common workaday spoken language. But in "Chicago", the speech of an everyday laborer is both effective and ultimately necessary to personify his fair city.  Sandburg famously commented about his distinct working class poetic voice, "I am the people—the mob—the crowd—the mass. Did you know that all the work of the world is done through me?"  The poem, "Chicago" is direct example of how Sandburg as the poet represents the working masses of the urban landscape.  The windy city is the broad-shouldered male worker, "Hog Butcher for the World, Tool Maker, Stacker of Wheat, Player with Railroads and the Nation's Freight Handler."  Chicago accepts responsibility for a large part of the nations meat packing, tool making, and also acts as the central hub for freight shipping.  Sandburg's city is large in size but also in stature.  The opening stanza of the poem depicts a man of strength and industry on whom the world depend.  Though he is also a man that is not only "husky" but  "brawling."  The implication is that the city is an intimidating and violently forceful man, a man respected often out of fear, if not just for sheer size.
The poet does not stop after listing the industrious economic contributions of his city or describing it's enormity.  Like a man speaking frankly to a friend in a bar about his reputation, the poet admits he has heard the stories of the city's less than commendable nature.  In a list of similar points, the poet continues his apostrophe, "And they tell me you are crooked and I answer: Yes, it is true I have seen the gunman kill and go free to kill again." He has heard and seen for his own eyes that the city is crooked with its murderous crime, wicked with prostitution, brutal with poverty and addresses the city like a brother.  It is not that he is blind to the savage parts of society, but rather that Sandburg sees them as elements necessary to the whole portrait of the city.  Such cruelties do not deter the poet from continuing to speak in a loving defense of the town.  He begs for people who look down upon or mock this city, for its lowlier natures, to show him a city "so proud to be alive" or in all of its rugged strength.  Like pioneers against the wilderness of the frontier, this metropolis must face and often times cause it's own reckless violence and destruction in order to build upon itself.  The city is fiercely building, wrecking and rebuilding.  It  thrives on the individual's fight to survive in a world where murderers walk free, prostitutes stand on the corners and children go hungry. The people are strong and therefore the city as a whole is strong.
The Chicago of the time Sandburg writes is a "tall bold slugger" in comparison to the smaller weaker cities.  The personification is coupled with a simile towards the end of the poem in a repetitive cadence that conjures the cadences of Walt Whitman.  The poet describes his city as, "Laughing even as an ignorant fighter laughs who has never lost a battle." There is a joy in being a tough town of hard working people. The town laughs in the face of the difficult tasks at hand.  The town is "half-naked, sweating," proud to have the purpose of being "Hog Butcher"  or "Freight Handler to the Nation." In spite of the sweaty burden of a working class lot in life the city takes pride in being an integral part of the life of the nation.
Just as Sandburg refers to the specific industries and the hard physical and social characteristics to represent the greater whole of Chicago, he uses his fair city to  present an image of America.  As a reporter for a few Chicago newspapers in the early decades of the 20th century, Sandburg mostly covered labor disputes. His stories as his poems gave voice to the common man.  In Sandburg's view, the working class were the ones to build his country and for that they needed to be heard.  The injustices and unfair treatment of labor forces in Chicago were representative of the rest of the growing industrialized country.  The poem "Chicago" speaks to the rough workers and the aspects of their hard earned survival.   They are under what the poet calls, "the terrible burden of destiny."  With smoke and dust covering them, these workers are the heart of the city, and are also representative of a country working to become the greatest industrialized nation in the world.  All cities might not exude all of the hard headed strength of Sandburg's beloved Chicago, but the characteristic runs throughout the United States at a time when its cities were expanding upwards and outwards.  The pride in one's own work as a contribution to the society, that is the city, extends out to the greatness of America.  As the immigrants continue to come in waves during this period in our history Sandburg speaks of the tremendous joy of the strain of building.  America laughs as Chicago does, while gritting teeth and digging into the work will define it for generations.  Sandburg in an interview with Frederick Van Ryn of This Week Magazine in 1953, famously said, “I see America, not in the setting sun of a black night of despair ahead of us, I see America in the crimson light of a rising sun fresh from the burning, creative hand of God. I see great days ahead, great days possible to men and women of will and vision.” This specific will and vision is present in his Chicago nearly forty years prior.  It is a lasting urban center, that through its strength sees a bright future through the back-breaking work of the present. The promise of America is echoed in this depiction of second city.
Our pride in our city bring us a pride in our country and this expressed in the poem, "Chicago."  Through his typical use of a common workaday language, Sandburg personifies the town as a strong man that with a sense of both joy and pride accepts the  heavy responsibility of shouldering the world.  This serves as clear example of a distinctly American spirit of the time.   As Americans our home towns with love and admiration.  Whichever shining city on the hill we hold dear, somewhere we feel it displays the essence of our country.




Works Cited
Callahan, North. Carl Sandburg: His Life and Works. University Park: Pennsylvania State UP, 1987. Print.
"Carl Sandburg." : The Poetry Foundation. N.p., n.d. Web. 20 Sept. 2012. <http://www.poetryfoundation.org/bio/carl-sandburg>.
Sandburg, Carl. ""Chicago"" 100 Best-loved Poems. New York: Dover Publications, 1995. N. pag. Print.

The Second City- rough draft

                  The Second City
As a native New Yorker, in my mind every other city across our great American nation would seem to run a distant second to the big apple.  If you've ever walked across the Brooklyn Bridge in autumn during the magic hour then you might find it difficult hard not to agree.  Nonetheless Americans have a deep reverence for their cities, those that stand as the setting for the crucial moments of their lives. They all represent a living, breathing embodiment of the great human experiment that is our country.  In Carl Sandburg's, "Chicago" the poet pays tribute to the main metropolis of his home state of Illinois. In spite of the town's darker or less palatable qualities, he expresses an affection for the urban center of the midwest.  Through use of personification and rough simile Sandburg pays homage to his city's imperfect beauty and which in turn represents the similar but wider view of his country.
As a poet, Sandburg has was often dismissed by critics of his time that found writing too simplistically using a common almost spoken language but in "Chicago" it is altogether effective and ultimately necessary to personify his fair city.  He famously commented about his distinct working class poetic voice, " "I am the people—the mob—the crowd—the mass. Did you know that all the work of the world is done through me?"  The poem, "Chicago" is direct example of how the poet represents the working masses of the urban landscape.  The windy city is the broad-shouldered male worker, "Hog Butcher for the World, Tool Maker, Stacker of Wheat, Player with Railroads and the Nation's Freight Handler". Chicago accepts is responsible for large part of the nations meat packing, tool making, etc., and also acts as the central hub for freight shipping.  Sandburg's city is large in size but also in stature.  This opening stanza depicts a man of strength and industry that the nation and even the world depends on.
Sandburg does not stop by praising the industrious economic contributions of his city.  Like a man speaking frankly to a friend in a bar about his reputation the poet admits he has heard the stories of his less than commendable nature.  In a list of similar   points, the poet says, "And they tell me you are crooked and I answer: Yes, it is true I have seen the gunman kill and go free to kill again." He has heard and seen for his own eyes that the city is crooked with its murderous crime, wicked with prostitution, brutal with poverty.

This Must Be the Place

Original recordings of songs don't always allow you the opportunity to hear the poetic nuances of their lyrics.  Often was the case with the groundbreaking band Talking Heads.  The punk or "New Wave" sound of the late 1970s and early 80s was one of synthesizer abuse and quirky vocal performances.  David Byrne and his bandmates were on the forefront of movement but seemed to stand alone.  In collaboration with experimental producer Brian Eno, the group produced records that have stood the test of time and would certainly pass for the latest releases of any modern ultra hip indie band from Brooklyn. One song in particular, "This Must Be The Place", stands out as one of my favorites of that era of the bands short-lived history, but it has nothing to do with the post-disco guitar line as catchy as it might be or the danceable pulse of the drum beat.
        Love songs were not the usual fodder for a songwriter like David Byrne, unless you count tunes like "Psycho Killer" or "Life During Wartime,"  but he managed to write the most sincere and poetic lament on romantic love I've heard in the realm of pop music.
At first glance the lyrics of “This Must Be the Place” are as simple as they come but heard in succession, set in its melody the lines resonate with such a complexity and weight.  Byrne couples metaphor with some spoken clichés to capture a specific feeling of young love.  The moments of clarity and ambiguity sing out without music.  Byrne starts, “Home is where I want to be.”  He encapsulates the point of view of a young lover or even a mature adult in the early stages of an intimate relationship.  We all are looking for a “home” or the idea of what our childhood home felt like.  We wish to return to a “time before we were born.” There is more talking to ourselves and less to our new partners.  In the end we are home.  We convince ourselves that we are “already there” at least we guess that is the case.
We are “animals looking for a home” and though it is biologically instinctive we are unlike the creatures of the wild in that we have a clearer understanding of our mortality. The insecurity of love in the face of existence is apparent with the question, “Will you love me until my heart stops?”

The depth of the lyrics of this song are over shadowed by the “oohing” synthesizer and Byrne’s strange vocal timbre.  Check out this clip from their famous concert film, "Stop Making Sense":

Now listen to folksinger Shawn Colvin interpret the song.  With such a sparse arrangement the lyrics are brought front and center for the listener and the effect is stunning.

Introduction

The Text Message: Overcoming Fears of New Media in Teaching

It is not with a sense of overwhelming pride that I admit to being educated, at both the elementary and secondary level, during a time when most teachers had never even seen a cell phone let alone owned one.  I vaguely recall my first pager, a device that only made me feel as if I was chained on an electronic leash to my mother or whoever I was dating at the time.  My first AOL e-mail account in college did not make me a citizen of the world.

Today's student, though, has access to much more information, at lightning speeds, and is exposed to different cultures and ideologies across the vast spectrum of the internet.  Most adolescents have already established regular relationships with technologies at an early age.  As a teacher it is necessary to incorporate these familiar technologies into lesson plans in order to facilitate knowledge.

New approaches in modern media seem daunting to me as a teacher and in certain cases I might be less familiar with specific technologies than my students. This is no excuse for not attempting to connect with students in forums that they understand and/or enjoy.  As an entertainer who performs on a regular basis I know the importance of playing to my audience and meeting them at whatever place necessary to  keep their attention and be understood.

It might be easy to argue the merits of chalk on a blackboard over an elaborate power point presentation. (I have seen some terrible ones at the University level), but we would be missing an opportunity.  Reaching our over-stimulated youth is not easy, but if we can teach our lessons on the field they play on, a world where our senses our constantly bombarded with advertisements to late breaking news or celebrity gossip, we are increasing our chances of not only holding their attention but inspiring them to learn more on their own. Providing new and interesting ways to teach classic texts or grammar lessons is the goal.  In a lot of cases we are teaching an old curriculum in a new world, and to be effective we must speak the language of our students in order to communicate our message.

So this will be a reflective blog on teaching the students of this moment in civilization. It will mostly deal with my struggle to catch up with the time and overcome my fear of powerpoint.

- Eric Kufs