Vanity Fair High School...

Aloha, everybody...how y'all doin?...i hate to sound like a debbie downer, but im sick...i have a sore throat and a runny nose...i think its a cold...we've actually had days and days of wind and rain here on island...its pretty darn depressing...rain, rain, rain...its non-stop...and i think thats how i got my cold...so, im feelin a little drowsy and groggy...and im a little worn out...man, the last days of school are tough to get through...for students AND teachers...i think we've all kinda checked out, and summer is lookin damn good...oh, and im not in the mood to write either...i think i need a break...yeah, im a tad bit "the glass is half empty" today...but im entitled to that feeling every once in a while...anyways, this entry should be pretty short...lemme begin now...


the pics on this blog entry were taken at our Vocab Fashion Show...my american literature classes were given the assignment of putting on a fashion show that would present three vocab words and a robert frost poem...essentially, they had to dress as and walk their words...and express the poem's meaning and emtions through their runway show...it turned out nice...i was, as always, impressed with my students' creativity and enthusiasm for the project...i really created the assignment for them...youve seen their pictures...samoans love to pose and strut...they also love performance and fashion...(theres beauty pageants on island all the time)...oh, and they also love music...so i let them include today's hottest music during their catwalk swaggers to add fierceness and energy...it was pretty fun...and im hoping they learned their words in an engaging way...instead of just writing a sentence using the word, ya know?...so yeah...

look at these guys...they think their so GQ...i guess thats samoans for ya...i still find it fascinating...they dont really read magazines down here...and if they do, the mags are like from 1999...and they dont really watch television down here that much either...yeah, they do watch tons of movies, but still...where do they get this from?...this notion of posing in fashionable, sexy, and vogue-like manners...its like a vanity fair...

as i think back on my ten months teaching here in american samoa, one of the biggest things i will miss is my students and their affection and devotion to creativity...i think ive discussed this many, many times...but i absolutely love and respect their passion for art and performance...i mean, its not just a form of expression for them...its almost spiritual...i think they literally feel spiritually closer to god when they sing and dance and perform...and i think thats beautiful...(as corny as that sounds)...but anyone that has known me since i was young knows that i, too, have a connection to creativty and art...i dont know if its spiritual...but its definetly engrained into my genes...into my personality...my aura...i mean, i used to make dances to songs and produce plays and write stories and create films in my mind...(yes, i would make noises in my bedroom...pretending i was directing a movie in my brain...dont ask and dont be hatin)...i was constantly imagining...and performing...(i dont know how anyone didnt suspect i was gay!)...and so i feel a bond with these kids...i sometimes even feel spiritually linked to them...(i use "spiritually" as my own defintion)...im actually kinda scared to go back to the states and be with kids that dont like performance and art...i mean, i know american kids are creative...and i know many of them like art...and even performance...but i know i wont be able to do many of the activities i do now with american teenagers...students in the states wouldnt be caught dead singing and dancing in front of their peers in their english class...i dont think theyd even strut their stuff down the runway in a vocab fashion show...theyd see this type of silly and artistic presentation of vanity as embarrassing and nerdy and strange...and, well, gay...and im sorta scared of that...i mean, what will i do with them?...i know ill be able to adapt my teaching style to fit their needs...i know ill change my lesson plans for kids in the states...but i kinda want to do performance activities with them...its actually part of my teaching philosophy...i believe the imagination and creativity teaches us all about ourselves and eachother...but will i be able to use this philosophy in the states?...especially when many of my kids will be terrified of presenting their creative art in front of a classroom of american teenagers?...lets face it, american teenagers work in a helluva hostile environment...high schools are filled with mean, spiteful, and insecure adolescents...theyre drowning in low self-esteem...so who can blame a kid for not wanting to sing or dance or even walk down a catwalk in front of their peers...id pee in my pants with fright...in fact, i probably wouldve never been part of a vocab fashion show when i was in high school...i was way too self-conscious...and the kids wouldve totally laughed and pointed...or, at least, thats what i wouldve been horrified of...therefore, will i be able to do the performance activities that i do in american samoa in the states?...im kinda thinking i wont...and that makes me incredibly sad...during the fashion show i made a mental note not to take my samoan students for granted...i reminded myself why i adore them so much...and why ill miss them when im gone...and i truly felt blessed to have such wonderfully brave and proud and passionate students...

okay, so this kid had the word queer...and let me tell you that 99.9% of my kids had no idea that queer meant strange and perplexing...they all thought it only meant one thing...gay...this kid does look kinda strange and perplexing...and gay...just kidding...(i so could get fired for that)...

as you can see, we did our fashion show in our school library...its a brand new room in the school and its actually kinda nice...sure, its the smallest high school library ive ever seen...but its also air conditioned and pretty well-stocked with books...but dont get me started on the librarian...she's the book nazi...(i so could get fired for that, too)...

here's a vid clip of one of the presentations...it wasnt one of the best ones...but it was still pretty colorful and fun...watch it and tell me whatcha think...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U_li2EVCpr4

and here's another vid clip of a speech festival performance that was done at our spring concert...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N2ZgsX1zMdM

Ma's Embarrassing Story (Part 2):

alright, so ive already written a humiliating story about my mom...but she hasnt been leaving any messages lately...so ive got to punish her...and im gonna punish her with this story about her teenage years...i love when she tells me this story because i have these images of the seventies...man, that mustve been a wildly hilarious time...anyways, when she was a teenager she snuck out in the field behind her house to smoke...(it couldve been cigarettes but i think it was actually some mary-jew-wanna)...and when my teenage mama was done smokin she went back into her house and tip-toed to her room and listened to some music...this is when i have images of a hippie-like, bandanna 'n' bell-bottom wearing lil' patty laying down on a totally groovy bed, chilling to some 70's pre-disco pop...i picture her closing her eyes and bobbing her blonde, long hair to some archies and jackson five...or some nancy sinatra or the monkees...maybe even some old school aerosmith...she's surrounded, of course, by colorful peace sign posters and psychadelic grateful dead pictures...and cheesy teen beat portraits of davy jones and david cassidy...oh, and theres gotta be a orange shag rug...and maybe a beanbag chair...and most def a magic eight ball on her dresser...in other words, i have imagined my mom in a brady bunch/partridge family episode...cept this is a "very special" episode...where marsha, marsha, marsha smokes a doobie...my mom tells me that she is then questioned by her sister and her mom about the smoking...and she gets all paranoid...and probably loses her buzz...but i never get sick of that story...im probably completely wrong in my idea of her teenage years...but i still like to tease her about it...and imagine what the good ol' seventies mustve been like...

okay, im gonna do a quick list...and then i gotta go...this week's list deals with my favorite movie musical scenes...i made my decisions on how dazzling and memorable the scene was...how the music matched perfectly with the visuals of the film...

My Five Favorite Movie Musical Scenes:

5. "You're the One That I Want" from Grease = who can forget olivia newton-john as sandy in her sexy, bad-ass black outfit stampin out her ciggy and bringin john travolta to his "electrified" knees?...and who can forget that lusty, dancing chase through the carnival funhouse?...its the most energetic scene in this mega popular musical...

4. "The Sound of Music" from The Sound of Music = yes, its a corny scene thats made fun of all the time...julie andrews twirling in the swiss alps and belting out "the hills are alive!"...but its also a classic pop culture moment thats embedded into billions of humans' minds...and its a majestically evocative scene, as well...listen to the words and her singing of them and gaze at the vast mountains...and i dare you not to be moved in some way...

3. "Elephant Love Medley" from Moulin Rouge = now this is what i call dazzling...a gorgeous scene of glitter and magic...filled to the bubbly brim with lovely love songs like "up where we belong" and "all you need is love" and "i will always love you" and elton john's "your song"...ewan mcgregor and nicole kidman sing their lil' hearts out on the top of the romantically dreamy city of paris in this goosebump inducing visual-musical explosion...

2. "Sante Fe" from Rent = i worship this scene...im always amazed by this quiet, subtle sequence that takes place in a new york subway train...the kids from rent sing this cool, calm, and collected tune as they swing smoothly and seductively pole to pole down the graffiti covered train car...it makes you actually believe that these peeps have just broke out into song in the real world...its an authentic, peaceful, optimistic scene in a relatively depressing flick...it doesnt hurt that i think the black guy that plays collins is wicked hot...

1. "Somewhere Over the Rainbow" from The Wizard of Oz = once again, a soft and gentle scene that is memorable and emotional for one reason...and thats judy garland's tranquil and wistful performance of this beautifully poignant song...(i know, punch three holes into my gay card!)...but this cherished, enchanted black and white moment is the wonderful, inspirational set-up to dorothy's universal journey to find happiness...if you think about it, its kinda astounding that the scene is only of garland sitting on a haystack singing in a dreary, dark environment...yet it still has become one of the most unforgettably tender, elegant, and heartrending scenes in film history...

k...im done for tonight...post me a message responding to this blog entry...what do ya think of the vocab fashion show?...could i ever do something like that in the states?...am i crazy to think that i wont be able to do this kind of artistic performance activities with american teenagers?...and how about that groovy tale about my ma?...oh, and whats your favorite movie musical scene?...show me some love...and im gonna try to post again on wednesday...

love ya and miss ya...

-JOE

"Much have I traveled in the realms of gold, And many goodly states and kingdoms seen..."

-John Keats