May 25 Review of Performances and Projects

 Remember to write you full name a class period on the first line of your entry.

1.  For this week, if you did not do last week's blog, do that.  This is the prompt:

Since we are finished going to performances for this year,  it's time to sit back and reflect about what we remember from each performance.  This is the first of several blogs that will ask you to review the entire year.  These are the performances we attended:
A Servant of Two Masters
The Daughter of the Regiment
Much Ado About Nothing
The Tristan Effect
Rigoletto
The Sleeping Beauty
The Consul (optional)
The Importance of Being Earnest
Carmina Burana
Tales of Hoffmann

• Rank the shows from 1 to 10:  The most successful production/performance would be 1; the least successful production/performance would be 10.  If you didn't go to The Consul then that will be 10.  
• Then write at least three or four sentences for each performance explaining why you ranked it the way you did. 

2.  If you already answered prompt #1, then answer this prompt:

Review the non-performance aspects of the class.  Write at least 15 sentences, explaining what the best parts of the class (assignments, Rob's visits, blogs, etc) were.  Then write what the least effective aspects of the class were.  Be nice.  

May 18 2013 - 2014 Humanities Review

Remember to write you full name a class period on the first line of your entry.

Since we are finished going to performances for this year,  it's time to sit back and reflect about what we remember from each performance.  This is the first of several blogs that will ask you to review the entire year.  These are the performances we attended:
A Servant of Two Masters
The Daughter of the Regiment
Much Ado About Nothing
The Tristan Effect
Rigoletto
The Sleeping Beauty
The Consul (optional)
The Importance of Being Earnest
Carmina Burana
Tales of Hoffmann

• Rank the shows from 1 to 10:  The most successful production/performance would be 1; the least successful production/performance would be 10.  If you didn't go to The Consul then that will be 10.  
• Then write at least three or four sentences for each performance explaining why you ranked it the way you did.  

May 11 Art History Part II

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

Choose your favorite work of art from the style you have been studying and write 15 sentences about that piece.  Explain why you like it, why it's a good example of the style, and analyze how the piece works in terms of color, form, arrangement, and subject.

As always be intelligent, entertaining, and wildly creative.

May 4: The Tales of Hoffmann

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Write a 15 sentence response to the opera.  In your response, you can write about the singing, sets, costumes, orchestra, the story, the display of automatons that was in the lobby; in other words, write about any aspect of the production and/or the performance that you want to.  Use specific details from the opera to support what you say.

If you could not go to the opera, write 15 sentences about your art history style.

April 27 Art History II or Tales of Hoffmann

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

Two choices this week:

1.  Write at least 15 sentences about what you learned from Rob about The Tales of Hoffmann.
or
2.  Write at least 15 sentences about what you learned from me about the styles of Art History II.

As always, be brilliant, insightful, creative, and wildly entertaining. 

Spring Break

There is not blog during spring break.  

Enjoy your time off.  And be good, but if you can't be good be safe.

April 6: Carmina Burana Performance/ Tales of Hoffmann

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

Choose one of the following two options to write about this week:

• Choose a line or some lines from one of the Tales of Hoffmann that we read and write at least 15 sentences explaining why your selection is important to the overall plot line of the story.
• Write at least 15 lines explaining your thoughts on the performance of Carmina Burana.  You can write about the orchestra, the chorus, or anything else about the performance.

As always, don't write about what some one else has already written about.  And, be creative, thoughtful, and wilding imaginative

March 30 Carmina Burana or The importance of Being Earnest

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This posting is the same as last weeks. Choose the opposite prompt that you wrote about last week of these two options.  If you wrote about the play last week, write about Carmina Burana this week .  If you wrote about Carmina Burana last week write about the play this week.  Whichever option you choose, write at least 15 sentences.

Option 1:  Write about your thoughts on the play, The Importance of Being Earnest.  Write at least 15 sentences in which you can analyze how a character chose to portray the part, a particular scene and why it was effective, the sets, costumes, any aspect of the play.

Option 2:  Choose lines from your section of Carmina Burana that describe a particularly interesting visual image.  Write out the lines and explain how these lines and the visual image works in the context of the entire poem.  Write at least 15 sentence.

As always be interesting, intelligent, brilliantly creative and insightful.

March 23 The Importance of Being Earnest/Carmina Burana

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

Choose one of the two options:

Option 1:  Write about your thoughts on the play, The Importance of Being Earnest.  Write at least 15 sentences in which you can analyze how a character chose to portray the part, a particular scene and why it was effective, the sets, costumes, any aspect of the play.

Option 2:  Choose lines from your section of Carmina Burana that describe a particularly interesting visual image.  Write out the lines and explain how these lines and the visual image works in the context of the entire poem.  Write at least 15 sentence.

As always be interesting, intelligent, brilliantly creative and insightful.

March 16 Re-envisioning Art

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This week we listened to a song by Schubert and then we listened to how that song was re-envisioned by Rammstein.  Each song had similar story lines, maybe even similar rhythms, and maybe similar tones.  Find another work of art:  poem, song, story, picture, movie, statue that has been re-envisioned.  Give both the original and the re-envisioned work.  And then discuss how each work of art is alike and how they are different.  How does the meaning of the piece change from the original work to the re-visioned work?

Remember to tell where you found the pieces of art.  This does not need to be a formal citation, but simply an informal acknowledgement where you found the material you use.

March 9: The Importance of Being Earnest

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As you know, we've been reading The Importance of Being Earnest, and we've been looking specifically at the aphorisms that Oscar Wilde creates throughout the play.
This is a link to the entire play for your reference:  http://www.gutenberg.org/files/844/844-h/844-h.htm

• Choose one aphorism from the play and then write 15 sentence explaining what the what the aphorism means in the context of the play.  
• Then write about how the aphorism relates to our current society.  
• Do not write about an aphorism that someone has already written about.  If you do, you will lose points.  

As always be creative, witty, insightful, and brilliant.

March 2, 2014: Amadeus

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Choose two ideas to write about from the movie and then write at least 8 sentences for each idea.   The ideas you can choose from but are not limited to include facts you learned about Mozart's life, facts you learned about late 18th century life, any of the characters or operas mentioned in the movie, or some of the larger themes explored in the movie.  Since there is a wealth of information presented in the movie, do not write about anything someone else has already written about.  Be original, creative, insightful, and brilliant.

Winter Break

There will be no blog this week because of winter break.  Be good over break, but if you can't be good be safe.

February 9 The Sleeping Beauty ballet

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

Write at least 15 sentence about the performance of the ballet we see on Sunday.  Besides writing about the costumes and the staging, analyze at least two of the individual dances and explain why you like them, describing details from the dances.  The entire ballet is made up of many, many smaller dances.  For example, each fairy has her own dance, Aurora and the prince have their own dances as well as their dances together,  the bluebirds have their dance, and all the other fairy tale characters have their individual dances. Choose at least two of these and analyze them in detail.

February 2: Sleeping Beauty

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In class, we have read five versions of the Sleeping Beauty fairy tale, including the version by Tchaikovsky.  Write ten sentences describing important details from the version you read and write about one similarity or difference between your version and one other version.  Also, write your thoughts about the importance of fairy tales in general and your experience with them as you've been growing up.

As always be brilliant, thoughtful, original and creative.

Extra Credit Blog due Thursday, January 23 at Midnight

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Write at least 15 sentences describing the three most memorable things that you learned during semester one in Humanities.

Jan 19 Martin Luther King Day

There will be no blog this week because of the three day weekend and because you are working on your timelines.

Jan 12 Rigoletto Performance

Be sure to write you full name and class period on the first line of your entry.

Write at least 15 sentences in which you discuss you your observations of the opera.  In your discussion you can write about the singing, the orchestra, the sets, costumes, lighting, the concept of the production, any aspect of the performance.  I'm not so much interested in whether you liked it or not, but I'm much more interested in what you observed and it that worked to create an overall positive production and performance.  Give concrete specific examples.  For example, don't say, "I liked the costumes," but rather say, "I liked how the costumes helped to create this or that sort of social environment.  For example, when Maddelena shows up in ... it creates the effect of ..."
  And as always be brilliant, insightful, individual, and creative.  Do not say the same thing everyone else says.  Thank you.