Book 8 of 2012

My sixth period students watched Othello, and I managed to finish this book.

8) Undisputed: How to Become the World Champion in 1,372 Easy Steps by Chris Jericho
Top five wrestlers, go! My top five always has at least ten guys in it, like any good top five should. Number one is The Rock. A rotating cast takes up numbers two through four; currently that cast consists of Macho Man, Ric Flair and CM Punk. Other folks that could fill out those three slots include Edge, D'Lo Brown, Steve Austin, Owen Hart, Brock Lesnar, Bryan Danielson (a.k.a. Daniel Bryan), AJ Styles, Darren Drozdov, and Kurt Angle. Number five is always Chris Jericho. I guess that kind of makes Chris Jericho number two of my top five, but I like the idea of a pair of bookends for the list. He stood out enough in WCW, to the point that I would track down tapes (VHS tapes!) of him in ECW and Japan. I vividly remember the day he arrived in WWF after the Countdown to the New Millenium clock finally reached zero, and his involvement in a show is always something to watch closely because even when his storyline sucks, he's still the best aspect of it. The point is that I like Chris Jericho more than the average wrestler.

This is Jericho's second memoir; the first dealt with everything in his career through his run in WCW.  During the Monday Night Wars between WCW and WWF, his decision to leave Atlanta for the greener pastures of McMahon's organization was huge news, and the first book culminates with his debut in the WWF, ending just before he took the stage to interrupt The Rock's promo. This one picks up with that promo and details his first WWF run, but it also splits time between the ups and downs of learning how to function in the new company with him starting his band Fozzy. It's not really a spoiler to say that this book ends with a sequel in mind, as the last page leads up to his return, which was his most successful run to date, both financially and creatively. Jericho has a deal in place for book three, but I imagine we won't see that until after he retires.

Jericho often writes in a juvenile fashion, thinking it funny to add "-ski" (loadski, dumpski, etc.) to words and make pop culture references that just a year after release already feel dated. His first book came across as a series of Livejournal posts that were collected and bound for publication, but that tone and style fit a guy telling the story of growing up in Canada, learning the pro wrestling trade, and finding success all over the world at a young age. Of course cracking wise in a similar vein as his character at the time makes sense because Jericho's character was a bombastic nerd who engaged in malapropisms to get under the skin of his enemies.

But this is the story of a guy realizing both of his dreams (working for the WWF/E and becoming a huge rock star) and reconciling those dreams with the realities of having to treat them as grown-up jobs with the political potholes and mistakes that accompany any place of employment. It's a story that requires a tone slightly more mature than the one he utilizes. There are definitely times when he drops the Jericho character and writes earnestly and times when said crude tone doesn't detract from what he's relating; however, the book could have used some more consistency and sophistication.

It is a book about guys dressing up in tights and acting like they're fighting each other or playing instruments on stage, though. There's plenty of amusing stories and Jericho's journey through the minefield that is the inner-workings of World Wrestling Entertainment is an enlightening one. He's both honest and guarded at the same time, offering insight into how he viewed certain situations but never saying too much that it might come back to bite him. The chapters dealing with Fozzy also shed some light on how a low-level band has to operate in order to get a modicum of success, and that's with the added bonus of having a group of individuals who were already semi-famous.

The book culminates with two milestones: his mother's death and the Benoit family tragedy. Jericho finds closure in the former, going so far as to contact the man he's always held responsible for her becoming a quadriplegic and suffering for the last decade and a half of her life. The chapters dealing with Chris Benoit offer insight into a man wound up tightly, who was able to compartmentalize so many aspects of his personality that his actions both continue to baffle his closest friends and family and yet also make a sort of morbid sense. Jericho presents the man he knew and relates his reaction to the murderous events of that weekend in June of 2007, but, deep down, his confusion surrounding what happened still haunts him. In effect, his efforts to make sense of what Benoit did leads into his comeback to WWE. Jericho gives the impression that he gained his motivation back for the wrestling industry in spite of one of his best friends almost destroying it in an attempt to help it recover.

Overall, Jericho offers a great sequel, but it's definitely dependent on having read the initial volume.

Top Numbered Somethings: The Simpsons

The Simpsons reached a huge milestone this weekend when it aired its 500th episode. Like any middle-class male whose formative years took place around the same time The Simpsons debuted, my sense of humor owes a huge debt to the absurd shenanigans that take place each week in Springfield. While the quality of the show has waxed and waned since it's heyday of seasons one through eight, The Simpsons is still something I can count on every week for a few laughs while also sometimes managing to reach the heights of its hall of fame days. Here are my five favorite episodes in almost no order.

Homer Goes To College - When the Nuclear Regulatory Commission discovers that Homer doesn't have a college degree, he goes to school in an effort to rectify that and also live out every college comedy movie he's ever seen. Unfortunately for Homer's fantasy, the dean is not a monster, he befriends the nerds, and it turns out that Nuclear Physics 101 is kind of a difficult course. Much like any classic Simpsons episode, it's infinitely quotable and manages to focus on the one storyline the whole way through the half hour. It's also written by Conan O'Brien, demonstrating the depth the writing staff had at the time.

Homer Badman - Through a misunderstanding about a gummy Venus de Milo, a babysitter accuses Homer of sexual harassment. The media firestorm surrounding her accusation is the kind of satire that The Simpsons does best.

Three Men and a Comic Book - As soon as The Simpsons showcased an entire episode about buying an expensive comic book, they had me secured as a fan forever. It's not like comic books got any mainstream attention back in 1991, so getting one of the most popular shows in the world devoting half an hour to the expense of a single issue and how difficult it would be to split ownership between friends spoke to me on a level I hadn't experienced before.

Holidays of Future Passed - Here's an example of territory the show has covered before to varying degrees of success (fast-forwarding to a possible future for the family to see where they end up), and yet it's one that is incredibly sweet without losing the biting humor the show has always employed. There are definitely funnier episodes, but the weight of the show's history pushes this one over the top, especially the montage of family holiday photos at the beginning.

You Only Move Twice - Hands down, this is my favorite episode of all time. Hank Scorpio and his Globex corporation hire Homer and move the family to Cypress Creek because he's the second longest tenured individual at the power plant. Life seems perfect in the new town, but no one except Homer is happy. Also, despite his jovial exterior, Hank Scorpio is a James Bond style villain bent on world domination. Al Brooks steals the show from everyone else as the voice of Hank Scorpio, and his is a guest starring role that no one else has ever really been able to top.

What are your favorite episodes of The Simpsons?

Frosh
We've spent the last two weeks transitioning from the balcony scene in Romeo & Juliet to finally attacking the first act of Othello.

Seniors
Thematic dichotomies abound in Macbeth. Keep looking out for those and focus on those paragraphs.

TNS Update: Midsummer Night's Movie Reviews

Of the eight movies I discussed previously, I've now seen four of them. Let's discuss.

The Hangover Part II - I own the DVD of the original movie, which was a very funny, enjoyable and quotable film. Unfortunately, like I suspected, there was no difference between this film and the sequel. The plot hits all of the same beats as the original, goes for the same jokes and never once attempts a single thing that could be confused for original. Considering how surprisingly great I found The Hangover to be, and how fun Todd Phillips films usually are, this was a big disappointment. And poor Justin Bartha; would it kill them to include Doug in the festivities? Just once?

X-Men: First Class - While I still think that Thor has won the summer so far, in terms of superhero movies, this one is a close second. Seeing a Sixties era X-Men movie without mainstay characters like Wolverine or Cyclops would have sounded like crazy talk ten years ago. But now superhero movies are mainstream enough that this not only exists at all but is also neck and neck with X2: X-Men United for the honor of best of the X-Men films. Kevin Bacon oozes charm as Sebastian Shaw, Michael Fassbender plays Magneto like a cross between James Bond and Charles Bronson, and James Macavoy plays Professor X like the arrogant jerk he needs to be in order for him to be the benevolent and wise leader he'll later become. It's not a perfect film, mind you. January Jones proves that her range is solely that of Betty Draper from Mad Men, and, in a larger mythology that works as an allegory for both the Civil Rights Movement and LGBT equality, killing off one of the two minority characters and having the other one become a traitor in the first third of the film seems to show that someone misses the point. Still, this is a movie worth seeing and an argument can be made that it's the best of the X-Films.

Super 8 - My formative years were spent watching movies like E.T., The Goonies and Close Encounters of the Third Kind and JJ Abrams does a great job paying homage to those movies while never feeling derivative. The best part about the film is the chemistry between the group of friends, and that's something that's been missing from movies lately. Too many movies play adolescents off as either mindless stereotypes or mini-adults. The actors and Abrams find the balance of smart kids that don't sound like adults when they talk or interact with each other and still sound believable when having conversations with actual adults. It's a lost art that many movies I remember fondly from a long time ago got right, so I enjoyed that Super 8 nailed it in the midst of telling a simultaneously frightening and touching story about loss and hope. In short, this movie made my wife cry which is a category usually reserved for films like The Notebook.

Green Lantern - There's been more debate about this movie than any superhero flick I can recall. The two camps boil down to "It was completely terrible" or "It wasn't as terrible as people say." Either way, it fell way below my personal expectations. For me, many of the problems surrounded the fact that there felt like scenes were missing throughout the film. For instance, our supposed hero Hal Jordan and the bad guy Hector Hammond meet for the first time on screen at a big party more than half-way through the film, and it's a scene played as if the two know each other. There are also hints that Hammond has an unrequited crush on Carol Ferris, Jordan's love interest. However, none of this is ever spelled out or clarified. Not only does it make the bad guy come off as more sympathetic, but it doesn't give the viewer a reason to root for Hal Jordan. In fact, despite Ryan Reynolds doing a passable job and being a solid pick as Hal Jordan, the character comes off as a jerk who doesn't care about anyone or anything around him until the story gets to the point where he has to save Earth. Usually, this is known as a character arc, but his change of heart is completely false and arbitrary, meaning that Hal Jordan is a lousy hero in what is supposed to be a superhero movie. And it's not Reynolds' fault; this is clearly a writing or editing problem.

Nothing ever exists in a vacuum. On its own, Green Lantern as a summer popcorn movie has lots of explosions, some nifty special effects and really cool things that should be present in a movie about an intergalactic police force that gives every member a magical ring that can create anything the wearer wills. Unfortunately, Green Lantern exists in a world with Batman Begins, The Dark Knight, Iron Man, Thor, The Incredibles, Kick Ass, the first two Spider-Man films, Hellboy, Hellboy II, and the aforementioned X-Men movies (the first, second and First Class). Granted, not everything can or should be The Dark Knight, but there's a lot of room for variation where storytelling makes sense. The last decade in superhero movies has shown that it's possible for a film to be both a special effects extravaganza AND tell a great story. When the two aren't mutually exclusive, it's fair to be disappointed when a film fails to have both. Instead, Green Lantern gives us redundant voice overs, thin characters with motivation lost on the cutting room floor, and a bad guy borrowed from the Fantastic Four sequel all in a very transparent and arrogant notion that it's setting up a sequel that may or may not happen due to relatively poor box office performance.

My favorite take on the film appears here, but know that the language may not be appropriate and that spoilers abound.

Top Numbered Somethings - UPCOMING SUMMER MOVIES! And shouting.

Summer time means that it's blockbuster season at the movies, where stories take a back seat to special effects, spinning cameras and explosions...so many explosions. I'm a big a fan of loud, stupid movies as anyone, so here's a list of movies I plan on definitely seeing, in order of their release date, along with how horrible I imagine they will be.

The Hangover: Part II - Let's be perfectly honest: this looks terrible. Everything about the trailers suggest that it is the exact same movie as the first one with an added layer of Asian racism since it takes place in Thailand as opposed to Las Vegas. I hope that my low expectations mean that it's better than my initial impression, but there's nothing I have other than hope to back that up. Alan will be weird, Stu will scream and Bradley Cooper will try to play it cool. Meanwhile, the characters should probably be dead or destitute, if any of these events actually happened.

X-Men: First Class - Here we have an X-Men film set in the 1960s with mutants in their original blue and yellow superhero outfits and a Magneto that uses his powers in a tremendously original and awesome way, judging by the trailer. For a comic fan like me, it's like the producers consulted me on how to approach the X-Men correctly. At first, it sounded so weird and out there that I couldn't help but predict doom and gloom for it because of the track record for the previous two films. Wolverine and X-Men: Last Stand were just so awful that another trip to the well, and a prequel at that, felt wrong. However, each trailer and clip released online look pretty cool and the reviews coming in have been positive, comparing the film to the J.J. Abrams reboot of Star Trek. Overall, I'm tentatively excited for this one and think it might be the dark horse movie of the summer.

Super 8 - Speaking of J.J. Abrams, his latest film looks to be what would happen if the alien from E.T. was a monster and the dad from Friday Night Lights along with his kids have to fight it. Abrams channels Spielberg in terms of look and tone and possibly Cloverfield in terms of story. The secrecy surrounding the plot has made the hype for this one out of control, and I wonder if it can deliver. So it might be horrible. Or it might be awe-inspiring. 

Green Lantern - The first trailer made this movie about a guy that gets a power ring that can make anything he can imagine look way too much like Iron Man, and Ryan Reynolds, while a good actor who gets way too much heat from most people for being a 2011 Ben Affleck, is no Robert Downey Jr. Fortunately, every single piece of footage since that initial trailer has allayed all of my fears because this looks like one of the top two movies to beat. In fact, it feels like this one might be too faithful to the source material, and the big problem appears to be that it's stuffed to the gills with all of the weirdness that took the comic 45 years to accumulate. I'm hoping that it's an accessible movie for those not in the know about the history of the Green Lanterns, but even if it isn't, it'll still be enjoyable to me. And ultimately, I am the only person that matters.

Captain America: The First Avenger - Here's my number one because everything I love about America can be summed up in this character. Plus, Marvel Studios have done a great job so far of creating the kind of expanded film universe that people never thought they'd be able to see accomplished on screen. It's a Captain America movie that takes place in World War II! That is amazing. Go back in time and tell 16 year old me after having suffered through things like Steel and Batman & Robin that Marvel movies like this would exist but also be quality popcorn flicks and I would have been amazed that you used the ability to go back in time to tell me about trivial Hollywood news, but I also would not have believed you.

Transformers 3: Dark of the Moon - And now we've come to the Michael Bay portion of the show. All indicators point to the fact that this will be the worst of the Transformers movies and they've all been awful. Michael Bay is good at two things: spinning the camera around and blowing stuff up. He's also good at disregarding anything that would make sense in a film and taking something that seems relatively simple (robots turn into cars and fight each other) and convoluting it with wacky human hijinks that involve Shia The Beef.

Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2 - Considering all that's left in terms of the story of the final Harry Potter book is a gigantic battle at Hogwarts, I don't think this will be bad. The last film saw my wife and I fall asleep in the theatre, but it seemed to cover all of the parts of book seven that I hated anyway: namely, the 250 pages of pointless camping that JK Rowling insisted was so important to the development of the characters even though it was completely unnecessary. But I don't think of raucous battle scenes when I think of Harry Potter movies, so I'm tentative to think this will be great.

Cowboys & Aliens - Jon Favreau has earned enough credit from me as a director that I'll follow him into something new like this, and it's got a title that can't be beat. I hope that if sequels ever arrive that they just keep adding to the title with some new group: robots, astronauts, zombies, cavemen. It would be pretty tremendous and the cast is pretty awesome, too.


Frosh
The final week before, well, finals was focused mostly on you finishing your Score TKAM assignment. Monday and Wednesday were devoted to work days in your groups where you should have spent time justifying five of the ten song choices you matched with the scenes provided along with a justification for the cover your group created. I'm writing this now after having collected the assignment, and it seems that a few groups only heard what they wanted to hear based off some of the justification papers I see. That's too bad because you earn a majority of the points based off those justifications.

Tuesday, you took the final on To Kill a Mockingbird.

Thursday and Friday were spent watching the film version of To Kill a Mockingbird. Despite the numerous plot changes, its 50 year pedigree and being in black and white, it's a film that manages to stand up today compared to many other film adaptations of novels. In fact, I'm surprised that Harper Lee's novel hasn't received the remake treatment, but I think that's more of a testament to Gregory Peck's performance. There isn't an actor alive today that could pull off Atticus Finch in such a distinctive and convincing fashion. Perhaps George Clooney might be able to do it, but, knowing how Hollywood operates, it'd probably go to Matthew McConaughey or Sam Worthington.

And then you took your department final and turned in your Score TKAM project on your respective final day.

Seniors
On the last regular Monday of your high school career, you turned in your Table of Contents assignment and took your Cuckoo's Nest final.

Tuesday, you turned in all of your Cuckoo Final Project components. You also presented that day and on Wednesday. The presentations varied, but some of the originality the groups displayed really impressed me. From singing to sort-of puppet shows to metaphorical recreations of the ward to quarter hour long multimedia lectures, there was a width and breadth to the proceedings that I hadn't seen before. Good job, overall, and I look forward to using some of what you folks did as examples next year.

Thursday and Friday were the final days of class. We watched Milos Forman's One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest and signed some yearbooks.

And that's that with that. You're done. There will be an entry devoted to the idea of "done" later since I don't want it to get bogged down by including it with my usual account of the day-to-day happenings in class.

Top Numbered Somethings: Recent Video Game Experiences

With a few things on the back burner that I'm currently in the middle of writing but aren't quite ready for public consumption yet, I figured I could discuss some recent video games I've played. I suspect that once my wife and I have children, the limited time I make for video games will disappear altogether, but, in the meantime, I enjoy pretending that I am a digitally rendered avatar of a popular licensed or real-life figure of which I have total control.

3) Assassin's Creed: Brotherhood - The most surprising aspect of this really fun multiplayer update of the great Assassin's Creed sequel is that the story mode is so deep. While the point of the game is to engage in the multiplayer mode for which it was designed, I haven't done so yet because almost everyone in the world beats me at any kind of multiplayer game except when it comes to UFC Undisputed 2010. Even then, I still have a hefty losing record. I imagine I might have more time for some of the multiplayer experience when summer comes around.

2) Marvel vs. Capcom 3: The Fate of Two Worlds- Once upon a time, I played Street Fighter 2 exclusively on an arcade machine and excelled with Ken, Ryu's blonde-haired red gi-wearing counterpart. Eventually, though, the Capcom world passed me by because it became about the number of combination hits a person could get while juggling their opponent in the air. I thought I might have a seizure because it became so frenetic. However, with the inclusion of Thor, Deadpool, and M.O.D.O.K. (Mechanized Organism Designed Only for Killing), I couldn't resist this game. This is another one that I wouldn't dare ever play online, but it's really fun watching the Hulk smash things up.

1) EA Sports MMA - Ugh, this game is so frustrating. There was a ton of hype for this game prior to release because EA is considered the standard bearer of sports games, and UFC president Dana White famously denounced EA in the press because before UFC Undisputed 2009's development, EA refused to even meet with the company, calling UFC "not a real sport." Once THQ's first UFC game became a hit, EA changed their tune and started to develop this title.

Here's the thing: I have two go-to games that I always return to once I either beat or grow tired of the latest game. Either I go right back to playing the latest WWE or UFC release because for each one I can play one or two matches, not stink, and then turn it off. My standards for this type of game, then, are going to be fairly high. EA Sports MMA does not come close to measuring up to those standards. Since the reviews were poor and sales from the week of release were in the toilet (and because I am cheap), I waited for a significant price drop before buying it but I wish I had just stuck to a rental.

However, there are a few things that work and I note these in the hopes that THQ will swipe them to use in the next installment of UFC Undisputed. The one aspect of MMA that EA got perfectly right is submissions. The spinning the right control stick debacle that THQ calls "the shine" makes submissions nearly impossible in Undisputed. EA created a system that fits organically with how each submission works in the context of a fight: finding a sweet spot to apply a choke and working to hyperextend a joint for a limb attack. It makes sense because each type of submission requires a different approach by a fighter, unlike the same approach each time that THQ employs. Other things that work: facial damage and the aftermath of such damage looks as devastating as it does in a real MMA fight and the career mode is fun to play instead of a chore.

The good parts end there, though. Everything else about the game feels superficial and one-dimensional. UFC Undisputed does a great job of making each fighter feel independent and unique with striking, takedown and submission animations that are unique to that fighter. None of this exists in EA Sports MMA. The striking, employed by utilizing the right control stick, is basic and difficult to manage, not to mention limiting. Even if the creators had made unique animations for each fighter, they would only have what feels like three strikes per limb compared to the what feels like twelve to fifteen per limb of UFC Undisputed. Considering EA managed to procure every name fighter not under contract to UFC AND Randy Couture, you'd think they would take the time to make the fighters feel unique during gameplay and not interchangeable. Where is Nick Diaz's pitter-patter boxing style or Bas Rutten's liver kicks? Nowhere, that's where. And while it's nice that the creators gave the game and the sport its worldwide appeal by including different rules and arenas, there's no real difference in gameplay between fighting in a ring or a cage, which is the entire point of including the two.

And, yet again, I've written way too much about MMA in my teaching blog.

We have almost two weeks of catching up to do! Yikes! Plus, this entry is getting long, so I'll hide the whole purpose for this blog under a cut.

Top Numbered Somethings: Awesome Songs by So-So Artists

Most of my favorite songs are by bands or artists that I also consider to be my favorites. If I were to name my top five favorite songs, they'd probably almost exclusively be by two or three of my top five favorite artists.

Both of those are lists for another day, however. Instead, I was curious about another facet of favorites: songs a person absolutely loves by artists towards which they are completely ambivalent. This is not to say that the artists are in any way bad. In fact, it's very possible that someone could see any of the following musical acts as a huge deal and their personal favorites because they're talented and have storied careers, but that's not the point of this list.

For me, I don't care one way or the other about these artists; they just have songs that hit me where I live. There's one other caveat, too: no one-hit wonders. For some reason, choosing a one-hit wonder (for example, The Proclaimers and their song "(500 Miles) I'm Gonna Be") shouldn't be an option because that's the only thing from them that you could really pick. I figure that this is a list where people could possibly be insulted by the fact that I chose their favorite band but appreciate the fact that I at least really dig one of their songs. Here are my top five in this very specific category:

5. "Don't Look Back in Anger" by Oasis
4. "Halo" by Beyonce
3. "Crooked Teeth" by Death Cab for Cutie
2. "Nine in the Afternoon" by Panic! At the Disco

1. "Story of My Life" by Social Distortion

I provided links to audio samples of the songs if you are not familiar with them, but my tastes in this arena are pretty mainstream. It's not hard to fathom that you've heard them before, but, just in case, you can click on the link and give it a go. Feel free to post your choices in the comments, too.

Frosh
Due to a miscommunication issue, I was caught by surprise by the registration assembly on Monday. It threw me off my plan for the week, but you were able to figure out your classes for next year. Sophomore year is a tough one because so much of your schedule is picked out for you and there's not too much in the way of choice. My only advice is to power through, make the best of it and know that the high school world is your oyster during your junior and senior year should you stay on track with your given courses.

We began act two of Romeo & Juliet on Tuesday and continued in that vein through Wednesday, allowing us to cover almost the entire balcony scene. While it's considered by the world at large to be the most famous scene in all of Shakespeare as well as romantic as all get out, we instead focused on how creepy it is that this dude was listening to the object of his affections inner-most thoughts right after they met. Romeo's actions would qualify him for stalker status by today's standards, and he's pretty lucky that Juliet is as taken with him as she is at that point.

Despite some technical difficulties on Thursday, we managed to get through two different versions of the balcony scene for media analysis. The media analysis sheet is due, appropriately enough, on Monday, February 14. It's Valentine's Day, you see.

Seniors
Macbeth's act four is done and out of the way as we covered it for the entire week. While it's the shortest act in the entire play, leading many to believe that it's the one that has been most ravaged by the fact that an original Shakespearian script has never been found, it does contain one of the longest scenes. Malcolm and Macduff really hash it out, giving us a clear view of Malcolm and his claims to have never lied before that moment (forcing us to ask if he's even telling the truth with that statement) and Macduff making the case for his dogged patriotism at the expense of the lives of his family members.

More importantly, we get Macbeth's second encounter with the witches, which is itself up for debate. Did Macbeth really find them? If so, how does Lennox and whoever else is there at the end not see them? Are they truly supernatural and fantastical or did Macbeth's insomnia-induced brain conjure them up? These are the kinds of ideas you could really explore pretty deeply in your dichotomy paragraph that is due Monday, February 14.

Top Numbered Something

McBride writes his own classroom blog called The Active Voice, and he brought up a cool idea when he listed his ten favorite soundtracks. Here are mine.

Angus: Music From
The Motion Picture

10. Wayne's World 2
9. Scott Pilgrim vs. The World
8. Orange County
7. Garden State
6. Scream 2
5. Songs in the Key of Springfield - The Simpsons
4. Once More, With Feeling - Buffy the Vampire Slayer
3. O Brother, Where Art Thou?
2. Mallrats
1. Angus


Please note that the soundtrack to Orange County is not my fancy way of fitting in one of the many soundtracks to the popular FOX teen dramedy, The OC, but is instead a Colin Hanks/Jack Black movie from around the same time.


Frosh
You went to library to conduct research for the mythology project. Remember that the note chart I gave you is for your benefit. I won't be collecting it, but it's a great place to keep all of the information you need for your final product. Tomorrow will look a lot like today did, so come prepared to make the most of your time.

Seniors
In pro wrestling, when someone "cuts a promo," they conduct an interview or monologue as a means to advance a feud that ultimately results in a big time match. Back in the 80's, Hulk Hogan told kids to eat their vitamins and say their prayers while Ric Flair talked about being a wheelin', dealin', kiss-stealin' son of a gun. The 90's saw Steve Austin yell about opening cans of something or other, and The Rock...well, The Rock wanted people to just bring it. Now, John Cena insists that not seeing him is the biggest jab he can hurl at his opponent while Randy Orton usually glowers menacingly while the announcers call him a viper. Cutting a promo has a long and storied history which I think can be traced all the way back to the Anglo Saxons. The whole point is to get people to want to see that final battle between the two opposing forces. What's a better battle than the embodiment of evil and the personification of all things that the Anglo Saxons hold dear? And that is what we get to tackle tomorrow...or possibly Wednesday since we'll also be going over the culminating paper tomorrow and that might take a little while.