Winter Break

There is no blog over winter break. Enjoy your time off, and be good, but if you can't be good be safe.

December 15 The King's Diversion/Rigoletto

Don't forget to write your full name and class period on the first line of your comment.

Bad translation aside,  I think you will agree that the play is pretty good.  Choose a quotation from the play and then write 15 sentences explaining the importance of the quotation to the main action of the play, to character development, or to one of the major themes in the play.  This is the link to a translation of the play:  http://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=umn.31951001049242c;view=1up;seq=45  The play begins on page 35 of the online text.
  Please don't use a quotation that someone else has used.  Be original.  For example there were 48 comments posted on our blog on Oedipus Rex.  The word interesting was used 55 times, confusing 32 times, and strange 21 times.  Please, Please, Please,  BE ORIGINAL.

December 8 Oedipus Rex or The King's Diversion

There is no blog for the week of Thanksgiving.  Enjoy the holiday and don't think about the blog.

For the week after Thanksgiving there are two blog options.  Write 15 sentences for one of the following prompts:

1. Write about your impression of the play and/or the opera of Oedipus Rex.  Discuss the sets, costumes, motifs, and individual performances of the singer.  Do you think the opera captures the core ideas of the play?  
2. Write about the play "The King's Diversion."  Write out a quotation from the play and describe how this is important to a theme in the play or character development.

As always be thoughtful, creative, entertaining, and brilliantly insightful.

November 24 Art History Presentations Week 2

Don't forget to write your full name on the first line of your comment.

List five things you have learned this week from someone else's presentation and then for each of the five ideas write three sentence about why this is important or why it intrigues you.  Choose different facts from what others in the class have talked about and choose different periods from you wrote about last week.  As always, be creative, original, insightful, and entertaining.

Nov 17 Art History Presentations

Don't forget to write your full name on the first line of your comment.

List five things you have learned so far from someone else's presentation and then for each of the five ideas write three sentence about why this is important or why it intrigues you.  Choose different facts from what others in the class have talked about.  As always, be creative, original, insightful, and entertaining.

The Tristan Effect November 10

Remember to write your full name and class period on the first line of your comment.

• Describe at least three things you learned during The Tristan Effect program.  Avoid repeating what others have already said.  Then describe your impression of or reaction to the music.  This entry should be around 15 sentences long.  And as always be creative, insightful, entertaining, and informative.
• If you were unable to attend The Tristan Effect,  write about an aspect of your art history project that you have not yet written about.  This should also be 15 sentences.  

This blog is due no later than midnight Novemeber 11.

Nov 3, 2013 Much Ado and Art History

Remember to write your full name and class period on the first line of your response.

Choose one of the following prompts and write at least 15 sentences about it:

• If you didn't write about your impressions of the performance of Much Ado About Nothing,  write about that.  
• 
  
• Even if you wrote about your Art History topic last week, write about what you are learning about your  stylistic period.  Share something interesting and add a picture to your post.  

As always, be creative, entertaining, original, and so brilliant as to be dazzling.

October 27 Much Ado about Nothing, Art History I

Don't forget to write you full name and class period on the first line of your comment.

For one of the three options that follow, write at least 15 sentences in an original, new, fresh, imaginative, entertaining, and creative way:

• Write a review of the play.  Please don't say the same things someone else has said.  Find your own unique voice and point of view.  Be creative in your use of words.
• Choose a line from the play, write it out, and explain why this line is important to the play as a whole, the plot, or character development.  
• Introduce us to you art history period.  Write about some of the defining characteristics of the style you will be studying.  Post a picture as an example of what you are describing.

I respect originality a lot.

October 20: Daughter of the Regiment or Much Ado About Nothing

Remember to write your full name and class period on the first line of your entry.  If you did not attend Daughter of the Regiment, choose option 2.  Otherwise, choose option 1.  Write at least 15 sentences on one of the following options:

• Option 1:  Use the Spotlight Guide that we read and/or your notes that you took during Rob's presentation to react to the performance of Daughter of the Regiment.  You can write about several aspects of the performance: the singing, orchestra, sets, lights, costumes, any aspect of the production.  As always, give specific examples from the performance or production and write about how the specific examples you choose contributed to the opera as a whole.
• Option 2:  Choose a quotation from Much Ado About Nothing or a scene, write it out or describe the scene and then tell how this quotation or scene is important to the development of the play.

As always be brilliant, creative, thoughtful, and entertaining. No whining.  

Oct 13 Much Ado About Nothing

Remember to write your full name and class period on the first line of your entry.  If you did not write about A Servant of Two Masters last week, choose option 2.  Otherwise, choose option 1.  Write at least 15 sentences on one of the following options:

• Choose a quotation from Much Ado About Nothing or a scene, write it out or describe the scene and then tell how this quotation or scene is important to the development of the play.
• Write about the performance we went to of A Servant of Two Masters.  Discuss various decisions the director or actors made for this performance and explain why the choice worked or why it didn't.
• As always, be creative, thoughtful, entertaining, and brilliant.

10-6-13 It Happened this Week

Don't forget to write your full name and class period on the first line of your entry.

Your response should be at least 15 complete sentences on one of the following topics:

• Based on our reading of the Spotlight Guide to The Daughter of the Regiment and/or based on what we learned about the opera from Rob on Friday, discuss what you have learned so far about opera or Donizetti's Daughter of the Regiment in particular.
• Choose a quotation from Much Ado About Nothing or a scene, write it out or describe the scene and then tell how this quotation or scene is important to the development of the play.
• Write about the performance we went to of A Servant of Two Masters.  Discuss various decisions the director or actors made for this performance and explain why the choice worked or why it didn't.

For each response, write a complete paragraph with specific supporting details from the text, performance, or discussion.  Be brilliant, smart, and entertaining.  Make us all want to read what you write.

Free Association Pre-writing 9-29-13

Remember to write your full name and class period on the  first line of your comment.

Another way to discover topics that might grow into an essay is to write a free association piece.  Pick a topic or a common object and write that topic in your first line.  Then write the first thing that comes into your mind.  And then write the next thing to come into your mind until you have written at least fifteen sentences.  Do not think too much about this.  Just write quickly, freely associating one idea with the next.  Aim to be entertaining.

Warm up for personal essay 9-22-13

Remember to write your full name and class period on the first line of your entry.
Choose from one of the warm up exercises below and write at least a fifteen sentence response:

• Stranger than Fiction--Once in a while something happens that's stranger than fiction, something that you couldn't even make up.  Write about something you saw or experienced that's stranger than fiction.
• Rant--Pick a topic, a pet peeve, and rant about it for at least fifteen sentences.
• Boring for Fun--Pick a topic that's really boring and write about it for at least fifteen sentences.

Have fun, be creative, and be entertaining.
Speak for the silent. Stand up for the broken.

Welcome to the 2013-14 Humanities Class

I trust you all had excellent summers, and if you did it will have been a perfect prelude to an excellent Humanities program.  We have ten great performances to prepare for and then attend.  There are four operas, three plays, one ballet, and two symphony performances.  In addition to studying these great masterpieces, we will survey the history of European/American Art and explore some of the great writers and composers of our cultural tradition.
  That you signed up for Humanities already means you are an interesting person who is willing to explore and learn about and experience new things.  In this first blog response, tell me and the rest of the class who will be reading this blog a little about yourself.  Tell us about your experiences with various forms of theater and literature and art.  Tell us why you took this class and what you hope to learn from it.  Be honest, creative, interesting, and, of course, brilliantly entertaining.

This blog entry is due no later than midnight Sunday, September 15.
On the first line of your entry, write your first and last name and your class period.

Thank you for being part of this class and for helping to make it a good experience for all of us.  I very much look forward to this year's performance and to experiencing them with you.