Last Blog!

I cannot believe this is the last blog of my Junior Year! This year has really flown by! I do not feel like this is the end and we are seniors next year. I feel this blogging experience was different and unique. To be completely honest, I was not looking forward to blogging. I am happy though that we did blog though. It did not feel like a school assignment at all. I got to express my feelings on many different topics that I would normally not have gotten to. I think my favorite blog topic was when you had to observe something and put a religious lesson to it. I did a puzzle. I just love seeing how God is working in our everyday lives. Miracles are happening all around us. I did not like when we had to evaluate poems like Whitman's poetry. I have trouble trying to see what poets are trying to tell us at times. Some of the blogs I put a lot of time and effort into. On some blogs though, I went through them really fast to just get the work done. The blogs where we had to discuss our own life more, I put more thought into them. I love connecting my life experiences with other stories and such. I do not think I will keep blogging. Sometimes I forget to go on blogger to do posts. I feel I am too busy. I am happy though that I was able to blog this year. It was a new experience for me! :)

Playlist

Here is my playlist for the Great Gatsby. I wasn't too sure how to start out, but here it goes!

1. All Alone (written by Irving Berlin)
The lyrics to this song talk all about being alone. I feel the person singing this song could be Gatsby. He is all alone in his huge house, but he is still in love with Daisy. He always wonders how she is and what she is doing. The songs lyrcis are basically the thoughts in Gatsby's mind about Daisy. The song says "Remember Me." Gatsby wants Daisy to never forget him and to remember the good times they had in the past.


2. Everybody Loves My Baby (Composed by Jack Palmer and Spencer Williams)
This song reminds me of Tom. He knows Gatsby loves his baby, Daisy, but Daisy only loves him. In the hotel, he knows that Daisy will not leave with Gatsby. Daisy will always be with him. Tom knows a way to get Daisy to be upset with Gatsby. She sees the truth behind Gatsby. Tom knows he can always find dirt on men that Daisy likes, so she will always only ever love him.

3. Somebody Stole My Gal by Ted Weems
This song reminds me of how Tom feels after he finds out Myrtle died. The song is about how someone took a guy's girl from him. The girl never said goodbye. Now the guy is all lonely. I feel this show exactly what happened when Daisy killed Myrtle. Myrtle never told Tom goodbye. She just died. Daisy took away Tom's love. Tom is angry and upset. He does not know what to do now that his secret affair is done.

4. DALLAS BLUES by Lloyd Garrett and Hart A. Wand
This song reminds me of how Nick feels at the end of the story. The songs says how someone moved to a new place and wanders around, not knowing what to do. The person in the song wants to go back to Texas-the place he knows. I feel Nick does not know what to do anymore at the end of the story. Gatsby is gone. His friends (Jordan and Daisy) pass him by and are not their for him. Nick wants to go back to the Midwest because he did not find what he was looking for. He wants to go home.

Stephen Crane

Once there was a man --
Stephen Crane - Once there was a man

Oh, so wise!
In all drink
He detected the bitter,
And in all touch
He found the sting.
At last he cried thus:
"There is nothing --
No life,
No joy,
No pain --
There is nothing save opinion,
And opinion be damned."


I disliked this poem by Crane very much. I am more of an optimist when it comes to life. I reread this poem over a few times, and I feel Crane is not too positive about life. He thinks life is nothing. Actually he doesn't even think their is life. I think there is life. Life is full of joy, but it is also full of hardships. I feel Crane just looks at the negatives in life. He does not look for the silver lining. I guess sometimes life can be really hard for some people that they think it is horrible. Every person's life has at least one happy moment; they just have to find it!!!

Mark Twain

"Anger is an acid that can do more harm to the vessel in which it is stored than to anything on which it is poured."
----Mark Twain


I found this quote and thought it was very interesting how Twain talked about anger. I feel this quote is very true. Anger can hurt other people and relationships can be broken, but I think anger does do more harm to the beholder. The person who is angry spends a lot of their time trying to cope with this anger: whether by yelling at other people or beating themselves up inside and out. Anger can be very destructive because some people just do not know what to do with it. They do not know how to handle it. I feel it is very hard for a person to let go of their anger at times. People say just let go of it. It is easier said then done for an outsider to say. We, as humans, have trouble dropping situations that make us mad. We want to keep going and going until we get our way. This can change we were are as a person and destroy us!

Civil Rights Movement

http://www.crmvet.org/nars/conway.htm

George Conway was a Civil Rights Movement activist. He visted St. Augustine to see some relatives. Sadie and Bessie grew up at St. Augustine. I wonder if they ever met. Conway became involved right away in the Civil Rights Movement at St. Augustines. He would march with the old and young before MLK came to preach and lead. He was arrested. The marches usually ended the 'slave market.' One day the KKK dumped bricks by the market. When the march ended, the KKK threw bricks at the demonstrators. This reminded me of the Anne Moody story. Anne Moody and her friends were hit, slapped, kicked, and dragged around, but they did not budge. They stood their ground. The whites were not going to stop them. Also in HOS, the KKK was a problem. The sisters still spoke for what they believed in and always got away from the KKK. George Conway was not afraid to do what was right and stand up for his beliefs. In all three stories, the demonstrators did not attack back at the white people.

Harlem

In the book, Having Our Say, the Delany sisters talk a lot about Harlem. Bessie shared a dentist office with her brother on Seventh Avenue.
By reading the websites, I figure while Bessie would go outside she would see the Mother A.M.E. Zion Church or the red brick building where James Weldon Johnson lived. The view from the dentist office must have been amazing with all the different types of architecture and new houses. Sadie and Bessie would talk to people like Booker T. Washington and W.E.B. Du Bois. Many famous people the sisters met were in the dentist office. The dentist office was a meeting place for everybody. Du Bois graduated from Harvard with a Ph.D. He was very much involved in African American life. He was involved in the Niagara Movement. He also urged African artists to create art from their experiences in the past. The sisters moved to Harlem at the start of a great period. They loved the jazz music but thought Harlem was really busy. Jazz musicians played at Minton's Playhouse. The Delany sisters experienced history when they lived in Harlem.

Tom Feelings

This piece of artwork reminds me of Bessie's fight to get what she wants. In Having Our Say, Sadie was much more laid back. She thought she could win the battle in the classroom with civil rights and equality. Bessie on the other hand liked to get her hands dirty with the movement. She was the one who would be on the streets standing up for what she believed in with other people. The people in the picture do not look like they are going to back down. I feel Bessie had this attitude and look to her too. She was ready to fight if it meant giving up everything just to stand up for what she believed in.

source: http://archive.liveauctioneers.com/archive4/bloomsburyauctionsny/20063/0016_1_lg.jpg