it's the final Countdown...

(I bet you're already rocking out with your imaginary blond mane a la Joey Tempest)

or maybe that's just me!

So last night while at work I made out a little "list" of what I have to do to finish out the semester (I was on break). My list consists of 7 exams and one "big" paper. Get out a brown paper bag, because I could start hyperventilating at any moment.

SEVEN? Have I even taken SEVEN total exams over the entire semester? SEVEN? I can come up with maybe NINE exams (plus 6 quizzes), 2 "big" papers & 2 "mini" papers and now I have SEVEN to worry about over the course of SEVEN more class periods?

GET ME THE BROWN PAPER BAG!

I tried to make out a "plan of attack" and or study schedule as well (because the madness needs to be under control) & we also did a little group chanting of "one day at a time, one day at a time" (thanks for indulging me, co-workers).

Tonight (after work): Chapter 9: Camera Arts and Digital Imaging
Tomorrow (during & after work): see above moving into Chapter 19: Africa, Oceania, and the Americas

(these two exams are Monday night)

That's as far as I am planning before my brain explodes. ONE DAY AT A TIME....wasn't that a soap opera at some point?

*insert synthesizer solo here*

~~J

The Convergence:

If in the World of Janet Art=Love & Music=Love & Film=Love,
then you can say that Art + Music + Film= Love (to the third power)

(I just turned myself into a simple algebraic expression, give me a moment of realization because I don't like math...okay, I do. WHAT?)

So last night in Film we watched Un Chien Andalou. It's a 16-minute experimental (surrealism) short film made in France in 1928. If you've ever taken a Film Class, you've probably seen it. If you are a Film buff, you've probably seen it. It's one of the most famous short films EVER made.

Cue the cuckoo bird calls or whatever else you like to use when referring to something as "nuts" or "crazy"...this film is OUT THERE and I really liked it.

Salvador Dali (yes, the artist) was part of the writing team & he is in the film. So in this case Art + Film = (?) Genius? Brilliance? The most horrible thing ever made? I'll let fill in the equation for yourself.

We also watched the opening of 8 1/2 by Fellini. LOVED IT! I have to Netflix the film when I get a chance. And the music is just fantastic (help me out here--is it the Flight of the Valkyries by Wagner)...Film + Music = (?) I'll let you fill in the equation again.

I'll have to get back to this beginning theory or what have you about myself.

Work calls.

Job + School + Finals Week = TIRED!

~~J

For Your Viewing Pleasure:

In celebration of finally finishing my "big" paper for Film class, here is some FINNISH Disco Dancing from YouTube (clever, right?)!




I guess we'll see how I REALLY feel about the paper in the morning, right?

~~J

p.s. I was NOT talented enough to find this on my own, thanks Kristen!

The Beat Goes On...

*insert a super cheesy duet by Sonny & Cher here*

So it's Tuesday and I already feel as if I've run out of time...on Tuesday.

Art last night was pretty interesting and eye-opening. We added another chapter under our belt (Africa, Oceania, and the Americas). I didn't realize the Pyramid of the Sun built in Teotihuacan (South America) is actually wider than anything in Egypt. It blows my mind when seeing the expert but functional art which is soooooooooo old.

In Bio II this morning we actually looked at specimens of Cartilaginous and Bony Fishes along with many members of the Rodentia family. It was a far cry from our last Lab (don't get me started)!

Fun Facts from Lab:
*If a shark swims up on you...hold absolutely still!
*if you must, and only if you must KNOCK it in the nose as hard as possible

*Rodents encompass the largest single group of mammals and their teeth NEVER stop growing!
*members of Rodentia include: Rats, Mice, Squirrels, Beavers
*Rabbits are NOT Rodents, they have extra pair of incisors

Don't ask me about that paper due tomorrow, that's what the hours from 9pm to midnight are for tonight...FINISHING IT!

~~J

“We are mysterious creatures, aren't we?"

Danes, Collette, Redgrave, Richardson, Streep, Close--OH MY!

The list of actresses who grace the screen during EVENING is both stunning and scary all at the same time.

Stunning? You saw the list of names, right?

Scary? Can one movie handle all the collective power and beauty--yes! I say YES! Many critics have gone the opposite direction however; and consider the movie SLOW and too emotional. Pshaw!

I loved The Hours & The Notebook and this one conjures visions of both. Therefore, if you liked either of them, you will be able to handle this one nicely. (Oddly enough--all three films are adapted from novels)

So why am I talking about EVENING all of a sudden? I bravely decided to switch films for my analytical film paper one week before the due date. Sorry, Pan's Labyrinth--but you left me uninspired. I couldn't write a thing about you and to keep from stressing over the situation any longer I had to CHANGE!

Am I done with my paper yet? As if! However, I'm securely on my way.

Bio II: only 1 Lab & 1 Lecture left (this week) then 1 lab exam, 1 lecture exam (next week)

Papers remaining: 1 substantial, (after my Film paper) I have to write about one specific piece of Art--I'm leaning toward a Waterhouse.

In other news, I've registered for the Spring Semester. Only two classes this time around because one I need is not available. But we'll discuss that in depth at a later date.

~~J

p.s. this is my 100th Student: Revisited blog post!

Not the Same Street:

For all of those who grew up completely surrounded by friends from Sesame Street (myself in the 80s, not the 60s when it originally premiered)--read this article from The New York Times published Sunday and tell me what YOU think:

Here's a little outtake: Man, was that scene rough. The masonry on the dingy brownstone at 123 Sesame Street, where the closeted Ernie and Bert shared a dismal basement apartment, was deteriorating. Cookie Monster was on a fast track to diabetes. Oscar's depression was untreated. Prozacky Elmo didn't exist.

I was highly amused and then upon realizing the truth of it all, highly saddened (high and sad? is that even possible). It made me think of a recent conversation with a friend (a new mother) and the differences between our collective childhood and what we hope for her son.

Not that our childhood was bad, we even prefer some of that over today's stimulation overload and the whole obsession with taking away the power of imagination.

Again. Something for you to think about (and discuss?)

~~J

Many Blessings to Felix, Smiley, & Wally:

I went into my Bio II Lab today, not exactly sure what to expect. About 2 minutes into class, Dr. Jennings had on gloves and was pulling out a cat for dissection. Fabulous. It’s the smell more than anything that really bothers me about this part of Biology. At least they don’t use formaldehyde for preservation anymore.

Cats & Rats, oh my!

Call me a hippie, but I found time to thank the animal(s) for allowing me to view their body for the purpose of science. (I secretly named our class cat Felix and our group rat Smiley) I can understand the purpose for animal research, but I still don't understand the whole "dissection" in basic biology classes.

I’d prefer an alternative to dissection, but it wasn’t an option today. And we won’t have to do this again…only take a practical lab exam in which identifying and labeling parts is required.

Vegetarian? Yeah, I'm thinking more and more about it.

Bless you Marlon W. Morgan, but the headline to your article today about the Grizzlies winning (way to go!!!!) conjures up imagines...I can't discuss here.

Griz jump on weary Sonics early

Ladies (in case all the NBA trading leaves your collective heads spinning--it does mine), Wally Szczerbiak plays for the Sonics now. You understand, right? I'm sure his wife does!

No more class until after Thanksgiving. No more class until after Thanksgiving! This means I have to continue on with the dreadful Film analytical review paper.

As if I have a problem stating my opinion?


~~J

Cross Dressing for Art's Sake:

The Picture Book by Renoir (circa 1895), has captured my undivided attention today. I did some un-required research trying to find out WHO exactly this little girl is...guess what?

It very well might not be a little "girl" at all!

I discovered that Renoir was famous for using his sons as models and feminizing them in his work (he never had any daughters).

This particular piece was painted one year after his second son was born. There are several known paintings in which Jean was the model and he is in a similar pose. I wonder if this little “girl” could actually be Renoir’s son, Jean.

I made sure to include my hunch in the single page paper for Art. I am always doing extra research for papers (and usually get caught up in something completely unrelated to the original idea).

I still like the painting for it's use of fast, deliberate brush strokes and the blurring edges. Any depiction of reading is always near and dear to my heart.

This extra "thirst" for knowledge and the constant "Who? What? When? Where? Why?" questions I always seem to form shall come in handy one day.

~~J

You may say I'm a Dreamer...

But I'm not the only one...

With 8 seconds left, exactly 8 seconds in the game tonight my little heart was ready to burst. Could it be a win? A win in Dallas? Pass auf, Dirk! Almost. It was almost a win. But it's early in the season and these are not the Grizzlies of yester-season (the one we'd like to erase from the books, please).

I've finally come around and can watch my team again. Not to bring up a sore subject, but the Trade that Broke my Heart did some serious damage. I even had a dream a couple weeks ago in which Shane Battier was back.

I never said I wasn't a dreamer (remember)...

I even blogged about my Play-Off Dreams a few years ago (officially for The Commercial Appeal aka The Edge)...and I'm anxious to see where we will be at the end of this season. BUT I won't get ahead of myself. It's a long, long road and if we continue to improve as we have each and every single game...

I won't go there

YET.


~~J

"Things are gonna change so fast..."

or

the day I walked into my Bio II lecture classroom only to find a brand new PERMANENT professor.

For those paying attention at home, we only have FIVE more classes (3 lab, 2 lecture) before Finals. And Yesterday I walked in to discover a new professor to "take us home," so to speak.

Our original professor had to have surgery and now we are in semi-flux. I have complete confidence in the department, everything will be okay.

So we've jumped over invertebrates and find ourselves completely immersed in phylum Chordata (aka the vertebrates aka more familiar territory).

Our new professor is also a Ph.D and apparently was a zookeeper at one point, so this should be fun. Honestly! I even learned a couple new and exciting animal facts!

My brain is a sponge--mostly filled with names and dates and faces along with the ability to recall scenes from various films and obscure 70s song lyrics.

Now I have to clear a section for "animal trivia."

Watch out potential Trivial Pursuit opponents!

~~J

(stating the obvious)

It's difficult to catch up when you've gotten behind.

So I've returned from the Island of Misfit Sick (or toys, right? name THAT seasonal flick!). I feel very close to "normal" and it seems as if it's been ages since I last updated my blog.

Let me catch you up:

Saturday: I worked
Sunday: I worked on school work (I even decided upon and watched a film for my final paper for film class: Pan's Labyrinth)
Monday: went to Nashville, saw a show
Tuesday: came back home, went to work

Tonight in Film we watched Wild Strawberries (Ingmar Bergman) and discussed "classic Hollywood cinema" and various film theories. Thank goodness for the Film Theory discuss because now I'll be able to think about Pan's Labyrinth more effectively.

I disagree with about 97% of the population who has actually seen the movie. Yeah, I'm odd.

Biology Update: Placoza =Trichoplax, Porifera = Sponges, Ctenophora = comb jellies (invertebrates, baby!)

Art Update: I am writing about Renoir's The Picture Book for my second Gallery visit paper. It's available for viewing locally at The Dixon (as I've mentioned a million times in this blog).

Finals are in less than a month!

~~J

p.s. Did I mention the dream in which Oprah was my boss? Yeah. I'll save it for a rainy day.

Part Deux:

So what does one do after leaving work 8 hours early?

Sleep.

Liquids are my life. There has been plenty of soup, Campbell’s® soup, to be more precise in my sickness experience. Then there is the Ocean Spray. Alongside plenty of hot peppermint tea and you have my Happy Diet of Sickness:

Healthy Request® Mexican Style Chicken Tortilla Soup
Soup At Hand Chicken with Mini Noodles (25% less sodium)
Ocean Spray Diet Cranberry Juice
Ocean Spray Light Cran-apple Juice

Notice the word HAPPY. I am far from HAPPY, but all of these aforementioned products have helped to make my world as happy as possible.

Yeah. Fun Times.

And the perfect television to sleep to? Food Network. They are currently full force into the Thanksgiving season and that's always fun to wake-up/sleep/wake-up/sleep cycle to.

Rachael Ray is making a 60-minute Thanksgiving dinner and I need to go back to bed. Someone is scheduled to work tomorrow. Guess who that is?


~~J

The Perfect Storm:

actually, it's more like "The Perfect Sick"

(this post is unofficially brought to you by my new best friend, Kleenex)

This is Day 3 of full-blown nasty sickness, and it's the worse by far. Head Congestion + Chest Congestion = Sore Throat. I am around just this sort of thing nearly every single day because of where I work. And the first few years I worked in a pharmacy, I caught everything. Over the last few years though, it seemed as if I was immune to it all.

Not so fast! I forgot to factor in the immune system run ragged since May (when I started back to school) and the crazy schedule I have undertaken.

Maybe that's why Mr. "Congestion" was able to crawl into my head and attack before I knew what hit me?!?!?

I attended class last night—we screened CRASH (which I had seen before, such a good film), but today—sorry. No Bio II lecture for me.

Speaking of CRASH, I think it's time to nap! I've been drinking hot tea (peppermint) ever since finally deciding to get out of bed. It's time to go back.

~~J

"Mona Lisa of the North"

aka

The Girl with the Pearl Earring (as pictured here in its most current restorative state) is one of Jan Vermeer's masterworks. So little is actually known about this painting and the artist, the mystery has inspired both a novel and a movie (based on the novel).

It's one of the pieces and artists I am going to discuss tonight while "teaching" the Baroque Art period.

Also up for discussion is Caravaggio, Rubens, and two sculptures by Bernini (David and The Ecstasy of Saint Teresa). But after some research, my favorite artist of the period has got to be Vermeer.

I didn't know I would be so interested in this particular period when it was first assigned to me. All I thought was the paintings were very dark with rich, jewel toned colors.

Now I can see the light and shadow techniques and both understand & appreciate the movement.

Wow! What a perfectly wonderful GEEK OUT!


~~J

It keeps you running...

I feel completely lazy this morning for two good reasons:

1) "Falling back" via the big, happy clock that seems to run our lives...

&

2) I'm not one of the thousands upon thousands of people running in the ING New York City Marathon

BUT...and get this:

I have a friend (check her training blog) who is participating in the Marathon today! She is so inspirational on so many levels, so I will be thinking of her until she reaches the FINISH line.

Update: Maureen has pasted the 15K (9.321 mile) mark! You can track individual athlete's progress on the site, because they wear electronic chips in their shoes. Go Maureen, GO!

I have to study the Baroque Art period today and hopefully write my second "Gallery" paper (based on one of the permanent works in the Dixon Gallery). Fun Times!

I finished the second season of The Office last night and I love Jim even more! WOW! (It's so much fun to be caught up in a television show again)


~~J

Friends in high places:

What a lovely, lovely day!

Until the college basketball season gets underway, all of my "sports energy" is currently spent watching & cheering for the LSU TIGERS!

I have been a fan by default since meeting one of my best friends several years ago. She made sure to keep me up-to-date on the score of the game via text messaging until I made it home from work.

What a thrilling 4th Quarter! Two touchdowns in the final 3 minutes? WOW! It was complete edge-of-your-seat football. 41-34, eat it Bama!

Speaking of FABULOUS, my friend/author Laura Zigman is now writing weekly blogs for a site dealing with breast cancer. You can read her story weekly, starting H E R E. She is a wonderful writer and I think it takes GUTS to be so open about such a personal issue.

(Search her site, look for ME, I'm mentioned--and completely flattered to be)

Now that my "work week" is over, I have the next two days to get my act together concerning school work. I have to keep reminding myself--->I'm just a few weeks away from completely 20 credit hours since deciding to return to college. Not too shabby.


~~J

p.s. I also got the Fall edition of The Pinch (U of M's Literary Magazine) in the mail today. We'll see what I come up with in January to submit.

The Door on the Left or on the Right?

November? Is it really November? Wow! So time flies when you spend all of your waking in hours in two places—school & work or work & school.

*throws confetti*

But seriously, I’ve been a bit of a procrastinator lately. Instead of watching the film I am going to be doing my “very big” Film paper (Il Postino) on, I’ve been watching a couple episodes of The Office EVERY single night this week.

Now I will tell you this: I never, ever “got” the absolute hysteria surrounding this show…until now. Thank you Netflix and the “watch now” feature. I can stream episodes instead of having to wait for them to ship to my house.

I finished Season 1 and now find myself halfway through Season 2. (and I totally have a crush on Jim--okay!)

Lets see--study for Bio II Lab exam? Watch film for Film? Get ready to teach Baroque Art period to class? Chose work of art to write about? OR...WATCH THE OFFICE? Feel my pain? Very, very tough choices...

And I might want to work out the details for my upcoming overnight trip to Nashville (where not only do I get to see one of my favorite singer-songwriters but I get to see one of my favorite buildings too!)


~~J

Such Great Heights...

everything looks perfect from far away...

(Earth from Apollo 17, 1972)

Yes. I'm about to go "Hippie" on you and I've decided it's okay because it is MY blog afterall. This is related to school because last night in Film we watched An Inconvenient Truth. I was listening and watching my classmates throughout to see if their reactions were similar to mine.

And? Yes, yes they were.

No matter what you actually think about Al Gore politically, he wasn't just part of the team that won the 2007 Nobel Peace Prize for nothing.

in other words: if you haven't seen this documentary yet--please do so soon. Then start unplugging your chargers, recycling, and visiting sites like: http://www.savetheplanetearth.com/

~~J
p.s. Yes, The Postal Service (and Iron & Wine) song totally inspired this as well. GREAT SONG! Check it out as well.