Attending Jersey Boys was a great decision. I finally got to see the hype about these 4 singers. It is such a remarkable story of 4 regular guys that had their dreams come true the moment they started to sing. The uniqueness of their voices was what directly pulled me in as well as the story behind it. You love a story of the underdog. You see an everyday person from a state right next to mine, where I have on vacation numerous times become one of the most famous groups. You see them go from the streets to the big stage of Broadway. It gives you that feeling that anything is possible if you work hard enough. I have heard of references of their songs so much and to hear it in person was breathtaking. Hearing it on the radio doesn’t do the live version justice. The voices being so pure and unique are something you do not hear everyday. It is interesting to see how they used their street knowledge to help them get over adversity. They had many personal challenges like the Mob and gambling problems but they always had each other to get them through it. It was so serious that it almost tore the group apart but that is what friends are for. They are there for you no matter what and they are your backbone. That is why this musical touches the hearts of its viewers because it is so real and authentic. I believe that I enjoyed this mostly due to the fact that it had that Italian taste to it. My favorite genre is Italian crime especially organized and since they had to deal with the Mafia it gave me that aspect.

Going to these Broadway plays has really taught me a lot. It brings me to Li Bo poetry to be honest. I will be away for the whole summer for an internship away from my friends, family and girlfriend. I am doing what Li Bo said and not to be stingy with my money. Yes, I have got a lot of tickets for very cheap but it still cost a decent amount. It is something that makes me happy and it is a way to escape the pressures of classes and the reality of me being away from all my loved ones for 2 and a half months. After reading his poetry I am making sure that I make memories and live my life not worrying about what is to come but to live in the present. I will be alone while I am away but I am ok with that. I wont be lonely because I will be happy with myself and feel a sense that I made the most of personal life before I had to leave.

I remember the first time I read Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, I was especially intrigued because I had only known the story of King Arthur’s sword and his Knights of the Round Table as classic stories beforehand. To read an extension of it was comparable to reading Wicked, the story derived from the Wizard of Oz, because it’s strange to see such a popular and familiar story from a different perspective in a new setting.

Although the beginning of the story focused a great deal on the festivities of Camelot and focused heavily on the image of people drinking, dancing, celebrating, and having an enjoyable time overall, there was something off about it; the description wasn’t exactly painting it in a positive and elegant light. The people were described as naive and unaware in their almost child-like ways of not having any other care in the world. Maybe this was a way for the author to foreshadow the coming of the Green Knight. They also placed emphasis on describing Queen Guinevere and her striking beauty, but she didn’t end up playing a major role in the correspondence between King Arthur and the Green Knight. I wonder why that was.

Throughout the story, another question that lingered in my mind was the underlying reason for the Green Knight’s actions in seeking out King Arthur’s knights and challenging them to his game. I wondered if, like us, the Green Knight was simply curious about the prestige that surrounded King Arthur’s court in Camelot, and therefore wanted them to prove their worth. He wanted to see the bravery for himself or perhaps even prove it wrong, if given the chance.

1. Why is the Green Knight green and gold? What is the significance of these two particular colors?
2. What is the Green Knight and why is he immune to death?
3. What is the Green Knight’s ultimate purpose in using the game to test King Arthur’s knights? What is the end goal in proving them to be as righteous and courageous as they are rumored to be?
4. Why was there a heavy focus on Queen Guinevere’s appearance and beauty?

        The pillow book allows readers to emerge themselves into the lifestyle of Japanese culture told through Sei shonagon during her many observations of the world she sees. I truly enjoyed this reading because theirs so many descriptive images that allow readers to really analyze each line and find a significant meaning behind it. From the start of the reading I was drawn to Sei Shonagon metaphors, her wording, and her distinct sense of her surroundings.I found the second paragraph in the beginning of the book to be interesting when she talks about the four seasons. But when she spoke about summer I was drawn to her descriptive images. She mentions “In summer, the night-moonlit nights, of course, but also at the dark of the moon, it’s beautiful when fireflies are dancing everywhere in a mazy flight. And it’s delightful too to see just one or two flies through the darkness, glowing softly. Rain falling on a summer night is also lovely.” Each line goes with each other, the words of each line has their own unique meaning which gives a bigger sense of how summer is portrayed. She mentions fireflies are dancing in a mazy flight; fireflies are small insects that only come out at night. I found fireflies to be important because when fireflies begin to come out at night that’s a sign that summer is arriving. I see Fireflies as a symbol of summer, warm weather. The second line says fly through the darkness, glowing softly. Darkness I found to be a descriptive word in this line because in darkness you can’t see anything it’s pitch black, but fireflies use their light to brighten up the summer sky. Glowing softly, I interpreted as the fireflies providing light at night but their light is dim and at the same time their dim light is powerful enough to brighten the summer night. Sei Shonagon finds the beauty of each season and truly reflects upon it through her writing.

      I found the second paragraph in the beginning of the book to be interesting when she talks about the four seasons. But when she spoke about summer I was drawn to her descriptive images. She mentions “In summer, the night-moonlit nights, of course, but also at the dark of the moon, it’s beautiful when fireflies are dancing everywhere in a mazy flight. And it’s delightful too to see just one or two flies through the darkness, glowing softly. Rain falling on a summer night is also lovely.” Each line goes with each other, the words of each line has their own unique meaning which gives a bigger sense of how summer is portrayed. She mentions fireflies are dancing in a mazy flight; fireflies are small insects that only come out at night. I found fireflies to be important because when fireflies begin to come out at night that’s a sign that summer is arriving. I see Fireflies as a symbol of summer, warm weather. The second line says fly through the darkness, glowing softly. Darkness I found to be a descriptive word in this line because in darkness you can’t see anything it’s pitch black, but fireflies use their light to brighten up the summer sky. Glowing softly, I interpreted as the fireflies providing light at night but their light is dim and at the same time their dim light is powerful enough to brighten the summer night. Sei Shonagon finds the beauty of each season and truly reflects upon it through her writing.

Questions:

1: Whats significant about Sei Shonagon describing the four season in such a descriptive way.

2: What universal meaning can you get from reading The Pillow Book?

The Pillow Book’s written thoughts are vividly painting a picture for the reader. “At the dark of the moon, it’s beautiful when fireflies are dancing everywhere in a mazy flight,” the author describes a summer night. Those words bring back memories of when I was younger, running around on a soccer field with my cousins at sunset, anxiously waiting for night to fall so that our mason jars could soon be occupied with little fireflies. The “crimson-purple cloud” in the spring and the “pure white frost” in the winter brings me back to each season and distinct memories that come with it. The memories that I am taken back to all have one thing in common – bliss. The author is consistently using words such as enchanting, delightful, and lovely to describe a certain image in his mind. The eloquence of the text takes me to a happy place, growing on me and persuading me to appreciate those moments and memories more.

A poem on page 1137 is written; “With the passing years, my years grow old upon me, yet when I see, this lovely flower of spring, I forget age and time.” The beauty that we see in other things or even people can help us see the beauty in ourselves.

Questions:

1. What does The Pillow Book strike in you? Does it bring back memories or maybe inspire you to appreciate a certain kind of beauty?
2. What do you think The Pillow Book is; a collection of stores, a book of thought, a journal, etc.?

The Pillow Book seems like her personal journal where her observations and notes are recorded. There is no certain format like chapters in The Pillow Book. Therefore it really looks like her personal diary reflecting her own thoughts and opinions. I believe the title of the book also demonstrates that is is her personal diary. The word “pillow” makes me imagine the scene where she writes her diary before sleep and puts it next to her pillow after writing.  As Sei Shōnagon served the Empress, the book is written with various topics including her experiences in the court. Sei Shōnagon starts the book by describing the four seasons. She describes each season with details that are enough to make me imagine. She finds the most beautiful about each season and for instance, she finds the dawn most beautiful in spring. I believe she has delicate observations about the nature as she describes each season with specific features. I believe she was able to observe the beauty of the nature as she resided in the palace as a lady in waiting. I also think she considerably lived in a high society being very near the Emperor. Therefore, her diary entities might contain more upper class story.

There is one section where she telling about the dog named Okinamaro. Okinamaro bites the cat named Myobu living in the palace with the Emperor. Therefore, Okinamaro therefore is abandoned and disappeared. However, Okinamaro later appears in the palace but avoids revealing himself to the people. Okinamaro trembles and weeps after being revealed. People find interesting by how a dog can show such emotions like human beings. The contrast between the cat and dog is very vivid, the cat being praised while the dog expelled with beating. The introduction explains that the cast story is often served as an allegory for Korechika’s exile highlighting cruel court politics. However, I cannot quite understand how the story can be related to the exile and politics.

Questions

1. Why do you think the title of the book is The Pillow Book?
2. What do you think about the Emperor’s Cat story? Do you think there is any meaning or lesson from that story?

While I read Li Bo’s poetry, I felt that Li Bo was lonely man and comported himself through drinking and traveling. In Drinking Alone with the Moon, he drinks alone but with moon and his own shadow. There is a legend that Li Bo died himself by drowning while trying to embrace the moon’s reflection on the water when he was drunken. And the legends about Li Bo’s death shows us how he loves wine and moon. In addition, in Sitting Alone by Jingting Mountain, he gets comfort through looking at the Jingting Mountain. In The Hardships of Traveling the Road I and In the Quite Night, you can see that Li Bo was traveling. I believe he is not good father if he had a family because he will not care his own family but drink wine, like to travel and appreciate landscapes.  However, his habit shows us that Li Bo believed in Daoism deeply. When he describes his dream in A Song on Visiting Heaven’s Crone Mountain in a Dream: On Parting, there are many fantasies and colorful imagery.

Unlike Li Bo, Du Fu’s poetries are about the reality of his country, Tang Dynasty. He missed the glorious time of Tang Dynasty in the past and how people’s lives are pitiful. Because government officials did not follow Confucian duty and An Lushan Rebellion brought chaos in Tang Dynasty, the time period was gloomy and sorrowful. In Autumn Meditations, he express the capital of Tang is like a chessboard. There are many political power struggle and government does not care its citizens as it did before. In Spring Prospect, he is in full of sorrow. Even spring comes and blooms flowers, people spend hard time and it is hard to meet family.

Both of the poets lived in same time period in Tang Dynasty and experienced An Lushan Rebellion which brought chaos to even Chang’an, which is the capital of Tang. However, their poetry’s’ themes are different. They are included sorrow but they are different types of sorrow. I felt that Li Bo tried to forget about the bad issues and comfort himself while Du Fu deplore the situations of ordinary people and criticize government that it does not work properly.

1. What would you be like if you lived in Chang’an at the same time period-engaging in the problem or getting out from?
2. Comparing today’s musician, Is Li Bo similar for spending his life with wine and living freely?
3. Is it true that when one uses money like Li Bo, money comes right back to one?

A mesmerizing tale of forbidden love that rather swiftly unfolds into a nightmare, Miss Julie written by August Strindberg is a play set on Midsummer’s Eve on the estate of a Swedish Count in the 1880s. Specifically taking place on the longest day of the year, the festivities reflect on Julie’s upbringing as a child while taking into consideration the beliefs instilled in her, all of which come together to ultimately lead to her demise. Richard Prioleau portrays the character of Jean beautifully, as he laments about “the gulf between what I wanted and what I was.” He emphasizes on the point that once given the lowest branch, he would climb relentlessly to the top.

The celebrations are reminiscent of those held at a mansion from The Great Gatsby, while Julie is initially an elusive character similar to Jay Gatsby. We only know of her through what other characters say about her and she seems to have a larger-than-life personality. At the beginning of the play, we learn of the reputation that Julie has established for herself amongst the farmhands through the heated conversation between Kristin and Jean. Several parallels are drawn as the description given prior to the start of the play provides insight into the aesthetics of the setting. For example, cutouts of phalluses, an abundance of dancing, and this once-a-year casual mixing of social classes made it out to sound very much like a bachelorette party.

While occasionally heart-wrenching and emotional, the dialogue between Julie and Jean fell flat occasionally. At times, it seems that Julie would never be able to make a decision. We watch as “Her Ladyship” gradually transforms into Julie, a broken girl whose issues begin with the opposing views that her parents raised her with. For all the trouble she goes through in order to rise up as a dominant woman against societal norms, she makes an awful lot of commotion insisting on taking orders from a man. Yet, the imagery of her father’s boots subtly on the side of the stage, while ignored for the most part, serve as a powerful reminder that his presence constantly lingers. His ideas and convictions live on through Julie’s actions towards Jean, no matter how much she claims to dislike men. Mikaela Feely-Lehmann effectively takes on Julie’s character development and puts her heart into displaying the confusion and complexity of the character. Meanwhile, Melissa House wonderfully depicts the character of Kristin, who is the epitome of a respectful and religious woman adamant in conforming to the traditions and societal norms of that time period.

Overall, Miss Julie can be intriguing in certain moments and repetitive in dialogue. Still, while it may be difficult to be fully immersed for the entire duration of the show, Strindberg does a terrific job in bringing the social conflicts of the 1880s to the present world and ended the play perfectly with Julie finally getting peace, although not in the best way.

Of the three plays I have seen this semester the most entertaining and enjoyable play would have to be School of Rock. It was funny and breath taking. Watching these young kids play these instruments was amazing. They are so talented and it really makes you appreciate their talent. I grew up loving the movie and everyday at the train station I see a poster for the musical. It made me want to go see this musical and I am so happy I did. Seeing it live makes it so much          better and that’s why I believe that I enjoyed the musical more than the movie itself. There really were not any major differences from the two due to the fact that it was based off the movie. When they perform at the Battle of the Bands at the end of the musical it was the best part. You really got to see the talent that these young kids have.

I had a little trouble trying to connect this musical to something we have learned in class but the only thing I could think of was Medea. He was obviously not as bad as Medea in the sense that he was not evil. But Dewey did lie about whom he was to get what he wanted. Just like Medea manipulating the men of the Athenian society. He pretended to be someone he was not so he can perform in the Battle of the Bands. Although Medea always knew who she was, she did lie to Creon about her intentions for revenge. It is not a great connection but it was one the closest thing that reminded me of what we learned in class.

Dewey was caught and they realized the progress he had made and were not that upset with him. The kids still wanted to learn and play with him. The kids touched his heart and it really made him turn his life around. He is no longer a lazy bum without a job. His job is too teaching these kids music and he is no longer a wannabe rocker. He found what makes him happy and what he was good at. That is being a mentor to these young kids and it was great to see the development of this.

Well, this second half of the Selections is not so much many stories, but a few stories stretched out over several nights. Way to save up on brainpower by not having to think up a new story every single night, Shahrazade.

Anyhow, she continues with the themes of deceitful women as mentioned in the post about the first half. We’re not even thirty nights in and it feels like a dead horse trope. I’ve also noticed that she raises the theme of a cruel and/or controlling king, as seen in the last three stories. This raises the question: Is Shahrazade trying to send a message about Shahryar?

I found ‘The Tale of the Enchanted King’ particularly interesting. Besides the fact that the previously mentioned themes of a deceitful woman and a cruel/controlling king are hammered in, it also displays a deceitful side to the king in the latter part of the tale when he attempts to trick his wife to change back the city. This hasn’t been seen before in the previous stories, at least not to this degree. Trickery is usually reserved for the woman. Why would this tale give the man a (stereotypically) woman’s trait? Was it to challenge the male/female dichotomy that was so common in literature of this time period or am I reading too deeply into it and it’s just to move the plot along?

As much as I find this read entertaining, at this point, I’m starting to find the stories somewhat redundant, at least in the sense that the same themes and tropes are always there. Besides the previous tropes mentioned, a talking a animal is often brought up, a demon is messing with everybody (Why did the author translate ‘djinni’ to ‘demon’? The two have very little in common.) perhaps a poor character will stumble upon riches, and twice now someone has been partially turned into black stone. Still, the servants are enthralled by Sharazade’s stories, to say nothing of Shahryar. Was everyone at the royal court just that bored or do they just not notice the repeating tropes? Maybe it’s a testament to Shahrazade’s storytelling genius that she is able to rehash these same ideas over and over again and still make for an entertaining listen.

Oh, and before I go, I found this comic. It doesn’t add much to the conversation but it is relevant and rather humorous.

Actually, that raises another question: why didn’t Shahryar try something like this sooner if he wanted the whole story?

Growing up we’ve all heard at least one story from The Thousand and One Nights. But I had no idea that The Thousand and One Nights that I remembered was all censored. Original “adult” version shows women being manipulative, evil, dissolute, and perverted. It seems like even demons were better than women. My question is why is it that all women in The Thousand and One Nights are shown as evil?

When the vizier is trying to talk his daughter Shahrazad out of marrying the king, he tells her this popular saying, “I would be sitting pretty, but for my curiosity.” What do you think about this saying?