In case you don't share my passion for badly sung standards and show tunes...

Here is a link to the segment of the Idol finale last night were Clay Aiken does a surprise duet with his biggest fan, a hapless audition rejectee who can't sing but does anyway, bless his heart. Watching the elation register on this guy's face as he gets to sing with his idol is like mainlining human emotion, and it is the reason this show exists. You might think it exists to make fun of people like him, but I don't think that's exactly what's going on.

Now to paint my toe nails Fearless Fuschia.

Forget the Alamo

Dispatch from the Valley:
Laurel and I had four days to shoot 25 movies with a cast and crew of 130 7th graders. (We went slightly over schedule because on the first day I lost my voice and got food poisoning. I, like, don't even know what to say about that. It's not even like anyone would have thought teaching middle school was a walk in the park, but seriously.)

We were working with two super-VHS cameras, editing with a VCR and remote control (a very blunt editing system, it must be said), with props provided by Wal-Mart and what the kids could make out of paper. Mainly, weapons. (Grulla MS prinicipal had valid concern about kids running around with fake guns, but a shame because most films involved a lot of death by shooting.)

What movies exactly were these kids making? Reenactments of important historical events. A lot of Alamo battles and, due to recent non-Texas colonial history unit, Boston Massacre/Tea Parties, as well as surprisingly dramatic renditions of the Townsend Act of 1767 and the Quartering Act of 1774. (Pivotal, but hard to dramatize. Students were up to the challenge.)

Highlights included:
* Miss Staab let the kids cut off a chunk of her hair on-camera for a Holocaust film. She and other concentration camp prisoners were then shot dead during an escape attempt. Definitely one of the grimmer offerings.
* Newly-discovered acting phenom Robert in 2nd period telling a village of colonists about the new Intolerable Acts:

Robert: King James put a tax on the tea!
7 Villagers speaking in unison, in style of Greek chorus: Nu-uh!
Robert: We have to do something about it!
7 Villagers: Okay!

* 8th period's 20 person, all-out Alamo battle, which included the death by torture of Davey Crockett (Miss Anna: Ok, just don't really hurt him), a triumphant Mexican soldier stabbing an already-dead Texas soldier in the heart (aka left armpit) with a Texas flag, and a final shot in which Santa Anna and his army crowded around a pile of fallen Texans and hollered together ¡Viva Mexico!

Lowlights:
* At one point while Santa Anna's army was setting up camp under the shade of a tree, I realized I was going to be visible in the background of the wide shot, and tried to make myself inconspicuous by turning my back on the camera. Did not really work. I kind of stand out as tall, confused/lost-looking White girl in neon pink t-shirt.
* During Columbus's discovery of the New World, we didn't have anything that looked like a ship so we tried to make one out of people. I laid down to be the deck, Orly raised his hands above his head to be the mast, Heather kneeled at the front to be the mermaid figurehead, etc. Upon review of dailies Miss Staab thought we were trying to act out an S&M scene.

Overall I think the project was a smashing success. We worked hard and had fun. And it made me want to teach. It looks hard: crazy hard. But Laurel is a little bit in love with her job, and it shines through.

A special prize to anyone who knows what movie the title of this entry is quoting.

the creek water is rising, at last

I went to 7-11 last night to stock up on my last round of finals supplies, i.e. a pint of Ben&Jerry's and diet coke. I realize that's a little busted, I mean yes I can figure the irony out for myself, right?

So there's this young cop, chilling in the 7-11, like he doesn't have any denizens of Austin to protect. And he's all, hah hah, ice cream and diet coke. And I want to be like, bitch, you're not that cute. He's like my age. Is that all they let you do, rookie? Stand by the 7-11 counter and make comments on people's purchases? And then he says, all casual, you know, one of your headlights is out. And I genuinely didn't know that, and express surprise. He says yeah, better get it fixed so I don't have to pull you over. OOOOhh. You have so much power. The power to turn on your little flashy lights so you can get my attention to tell me one of my bulbs is burned out. I complete my transaction and polite conversation with the checkout guy and on my way out thank the cop. He says, get your headlight fixed. I say, yes sir, and he chuckles. And so I am stating here for the record: dude, I was not flirting with you. I was mocking you.

He was just jealous of my cherry garcia

the venezuelan coup is a subject of contention, the OC is gay (not in the bad way)

If you were a set designer and you wanted to dress the set of a graduate student's room during finals week, you could use my apartment as a model, aka: there are stacks of paper layered across the entire surface area of the floor. You have to literally wade through paper to get from my desk to the bathroom, the only path I've had to walk lately, oh this is embarassing. Then there's the laundry, and the stack of dishes in the sink. I'm ashamed.

But, let me tell you. Ok, I presented one of my papers today, and that leaves one presentation and one paper to go. I presented on the gay OC one today. I was a little nervous about it--I wanted to make a strong argument but I also don't want to valorize the show too much--well I won't bore you here--ok ok you have to hear this though. I'm watching the OC with Spanish subtitles (I needed those DVDs. For research.) And here is the OC's title in Spanish: Orange: Vidas Ajenas which translates as: Orange: Other People's Lives. True, right? Anyway. If I could expand this paper, like if I had gone the TV route on my thesis, I would talk about the discourses of race and class on this show.

I know what you're thinking, you're like, the OC, it's the Whitest show on TV, right? But see, I would argue that Ryan and Seth are both marked as other within Newport Beach because of their racial hybridity. For Ryan I would have to completely rely on fan readings of his character as Latino, ie, in fanfic Ryan often speaks Spanish, cooks chimichangas, listens to reggaetón, etc., which actually makes sense in that the Chino version of the Cohens (Ryan's adopted family) are the Diazes, and if Ryan grew up with their family he would totally speak Spanish etc. For Seth, his position as half-Jewish is foregrounded. If Seth grew up in Scarsdale do you think he would have been an outcast? Because, you know what I think? No. I don't think the show thinks so. What would a television show that destabilized our understanding of the construction of race look like? Probably not the OC. So I would have to argue that fan readings of the show indicate that it does not go far enough, that readers are looking for texts that demonstrate the permeability of their ideas of "Whiteness" (and the romanticization of the non-white (ethnic? ghetto? what are people seeing here exactly?) White figure). Do you know what I hate? I hate when academics say, there are important racial dynamics at play in this text/medium but discussing them is not within the scope of this paper. Am I doing that, by writing about queering the OC, just because it's easy? What if no one else ever writes about race on the OC ever?

Sorry to ramble. I'm stopping now. And I'm taking a break until 9 am tomorrow, when it will be time to start working on Thursday's presentation. Gird yourselves against my feelings about the Hugo Chávez administration and, oh, I guess the nature of truth.

And in the meantime, I'm opening the next year of my life up to a vote. Should I proceed with my plan to research and write a thesis comparing media arts curricula in San Antonio vs. Austin public schools? Or should I write my thesis on the relationship between television producers and fans in the following TV shows: West Wing, Buffy, OC, maybe, like, Lost. The first is good for going straight into teaching at a primary/secondary level and the second if I want to apply to PhD programs.

Oh and finally since I'm talking about race on White TV shows, did you know Charisma Carpenter (Cordelia on Buffy) is half Mexican, half Cherokee? Now that I say it you totally see it, right? It's just that, I think there is still a value to pointing out that nothing is as all-White or as all-anything as its supposed to be. Racist systems are alot easier to combat when we can poke so many holes in these illusions of purity, I think. At least some of the "diversification" work we have to do is already done. It's the ways we think about race, the ways it functions, that have to change the most.