I Heard a Rumor . . .

Posted on August 27th, 2007 by gail helen.
Categories: Education, Personal, Literary, Omnia Vanitas, Sponsored Posts, Random, Television.

While I won’t have cable this semester, it looks like I will have access to my favorite channel, the CW (it used to be the WB). They’re responsible for my two favorite shows of all-time, Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Veronica Mars, although both of those series have sadly ended, leaving a void of grief in my weekly TV schedule that no other show has been able to fill . . .

Apparently, though, the CW may be premiering a contender this fall. I’ve heard a lot about the Gossip Girl series of young adult books by Cecily Von Ziegesar, and now they’ve been transformed into a new teen drama of the same name. As a wannateach, I’m fascinated by books that portray the “real” issues that teens face — sex, drugs, peer pressure, and the host of other demons that keep parents awake at night — while avoiding the preachy-ness of the kinds of texts that are traditionally used to show kids the consequences of certain actions.

Anthropological interest aside, I’m hoping the show will have the sort of pull I felt towards Buffy and Veronica Mars. The characters are socialite-teens from New York’s fancy Upper East Side who attend private schools full of vicious rivalries that an anonymous (and seemingly omniscient) narrator called “GossipGirl” blogs about on her website. I’m thinking of my guilty pleasure, Cruel Intentions, and hoping the show crosses that setting/atmosphere with a smart, sassy heroine that doesn’t rely on sex appeal for power. Judging from the pictures on the Gossip Girl web site, they’re really banking on the attractiveness of their actors to get the initial viewers, a tactic which should be effective — they’re definitely look the part of “the beautiful people” they’re supposed to be playing. I’ve include one below, simply because I love the expression — it’s so 3:10. Of course, I was hooked when I heard that Kristen Bell, who played the eponymous star of Veronica Mars, will be voicing the part of Gossip Girl — I could listen to her witting her way through the instructions for setting a VCR, she’s that good. But I also have hope for the “outsider” characters that lack the social and financial assets of their peers — I’m thinking Brenda and Brandon without the annoying “we’re so Midwestern, ain’t it cute?” thing. Now I just have to wait until the premier on Wednesday, September 19th to see if this show can be crowned my new favorite . . . And apparently, I’m not alone, as shown by this lovely tribute to Gossip Girl on MySpace.

Blake Lively as Serena Van Der Woodsen

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Speaking of a Bronte . . .

Posted on July 5th, 2007 by gail helen.
Categories: Education, Personal, Literary, Omnia Vanitas, Random.

Although I’ve done very little official study of the sisters Bronte, I do have a list of critical resources for them.  Probably my favorite is this one for Emily Bronte & Wuthering Heights.  Lots of good insights and a variety of critical approaches on what is probably my favorite ‘gothic’ novel.  I would love to teach this sometime, but I’m not sure if they still do it in high school.  I think there was one English class that covered it when I was student, and I took it off my boyfriend at the time and read it through in the course of a school day.  It’s one of those books that can change your soul if you pick it up at the right moment . . .

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Flu-Bar

Posted on July 5th, 2007 by gail helen.
Categories: Personal, Literary, Omnia Vanitas, Random.

Ugh.  I’ve been feeling iffy for days, and I’m supposed to drive to Milwaukee for class today, so I went to bed last night at a reasonable hour for me — 3 AMish — only to wake up at 7:30 with a gnawing feeling
in my guts and a lovely clammy sweat clinging to my skin.  Yep, I’m pretty sure it’s the flu.  I wish I knew who to thank — besides myself for living an oh-so-healthy and regimented life — but instead I’m just going to whimper quietly on my blog.  I made the mistake of looking in the mirror when I got up to rinse the tangy taste of death out of mouth, and I can’t help but wonder why I can’t look like some Bronte heroine when I’m ill.  Instead of a lovely pallor with two spots of painted high color, I look like a corpse with a case of hives.  Woe is me . . . and so it’s shortly off to bed again.

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Bad Poetry

Posted on July 4th, 2007 by gail helen.
Categories: Education, Personal, Literary, Omnia Vanitas, Meta-Fors, Poetry, Random.

In my Young Adult Literature class, we’ve been talking about the particularly kind of poetry that adolescents write. My last post reminded me of a poem I wrote about headaches years ago, and I thought I’d share it with you for a laugh. The formatting was better, and I’m couldn’t remember all the words . . . Wish I could crack open my old WordPerfect files, but alas, you’ll just have to make do. :)

Pain

On nights like these I swallow
flakes of bleached bone snow.
A familiar knot of cold forms
until the moon is not
so big
and the stars are not
so bright
and I can see the strings
anyway . . .

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Arghh!

Posted on May 29th, 2007 by gail helen.
Categories: Personal, Literary, Omnia Vanitas, Random.

Once again, I am completely out of room for my books.  I’ve already got two huge boxes in my closet that never made it onto the shelves I put up, and now I’ve got six big piles on the floor.  I absolutely hate not having a place for them.  It’s simply . . . disheartening, I suppose.  I considered putting up another row around the room, but that’s just not feasible if I plan to keep my head attached to my shoulders.  I wonder if I could suspend some shelves from above, maybe using a chandelier approach or a grid-ed false ceiling?  Am I crazy? I gave myself a concussion last time, when I overestimated the strength of our house’s crappy walls (thank the builder who ran off to Barbados after constructing nice looking but shoddy homes!).  I guess I’m going to have to pick and choose what to keep and what to relegate to the hell that is our basement.  Poor books.  :(

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