The Best Heroes are Anti-heroes!

The "classic hero" embodies strong ethics, morals, values and powers, and is completely and utterly boring and implausible! I much prefer my heroes have some bite to them, hence why Mr. Darcy from Pride and Prejudice, who has the occasional anti-hero moment, is one of my favorite characters. What is it about the anti-hero that makes us root for them when we should be repelled by their actions or personality? Is it because they are terribly flawed people, much like ourselves? 

The anti-hero is a protagonist whose character is contrary to that of the traditional hero, yet typically retains many heroic qualities. They are bad, but not evil. They often fight villains, but not out of a sense of justice. They do it for selfish reasons, for personal gain, for revenge, and they're often amoral and lack positive qualities. The thing that makes anti-heroes interesting and then inevitably redeemable is that they do not make excuses - they just acknowledge said flaws and grow as a person.

Inspired by my recent discovery of the Showtime series Ray Donovan, I decided to come up with a list of my favorite anti-heroes. All of mine, except one, come from television because these characters are the ones that we have been watching for years. It's easier to rate their anti-hero status over time.

Dexter Morgan

Occupation: Forensic blood spatter analyst, Vigilante, Lumberjack
Marital Status: Single / Married / Widower with one son and two stepchildren
Body count: 135 confirmed kills
Why we love him: Of all of the anti-heroes, Dexter Morgan (Michael C. Hall) is the most unlikely for our loyalties. After all, he's an admitted serial killer and yet, each week we find ourselves rooting for Dexter and applauding his efforts to rid his world of the dregs of society. Thanks to Dexter's father's code, generally, Dexter is only murdering those sick twisted humans who are parasitical. Ultimately though, Dexter kills because he enjoys it. Yes, we know what he is doing is so very, very wrong but we cannot help but admire what he does.

Ray Donovan

Occupation: "Fixer" for a powerful law firm

Marital Status: Married with two children
Body count: Approximately 5 and counting
Why we love him: Originally from South Boston, Ray Donovan (Liev Schreiber) has relocated to Southern California where he "fixes" the problems of celebrities and athletes who are represented by Ray's mentor and boss, Ezra Goldman (Elliot Gould). These fixes run the gamut from getting them out of troubles (like an OD-ed stripper in their beds) or getting rid of their problems (like stalkers). Ray not only fixes the problems of the rich and famous, but he also is the person his brothers turn to when they have problems that need fixing. He is fiercely protective of his family (except his father, whom he loathes) and will do whatever is necessary to protect them, including cold blooded killing. Because of his loyalty to his family, we admire Ray, even when he's doing some not so sweet acts.

Tony Soprano

Occupation: Crime boss, Waste management consultant, Co-owner of Satriale's Meat Market and Bada Bing
Marital Status: Married with two children
Body count: 8 committed by Tony, but he ordered many others
Why we love him: Tony Soprano (James Gandolfini) has a problem - he faints when he has a panic attack, which is troublesome in Tony's occupation as de facto street boss of the DeCavalcante crime family of New Jersey. But it's also why we love Tony. Tony is in the middle of an existential crisis, is brought to tears by the death of a prized racehorse, and is plagued by surreal dreams that suggests the meaninglessness he senses in all the murdering, plundering and screwing that fills his days. Throughout six seasons, Carmella insists, “He’s a good man.” The audience and the mobster’s wife know different, but the thing that makes The Sopranos so compelling is that, in another life, he could have been. Yet, we still root for him to win. According to David Chase, Tony does survive.

James "Sawyer" Ford

Occupation: Con man, police detective
Marital Status: Single / Married / Widowed
Body count: 6 (I think)
Why we love him: In the early episodes of Lost, Sawyer Ford (Josh Halloway) is an asshole and is intentionally written that way. He's a rude, obnoxious narcissist and yet we know there is more to this character. Over the course of his time on the island, we learn more about Sawyer's life and we sympathize with his sad childhood and support his desire to exact revenge on the man who ruined his family. While never turning into a hero, he does mellow as time goes by and becomes slightly less of a douche.

Sherlock Holmes

Occupation: Consulting Detective
Martial Status: Single
Body count: 0
Why we love him: You might ask: Sherlock (Benedict Cumberbatch) is an anti-hero? Yes, he solves crimes. Yes, he prevents murders. Yes, he puts away bad people. But does he do it out of a sense of justice? Because he hates evil people? Or to right a certain wrong? No. He is no hero. Sherlock solves crimes to serve his own self-interests, to inflate his own ego, and so he can feel superior to those around him. Occasionally, he's shown a flicker of heroism (as with his dealings with Irene Adler), but for the most part, he's no more sympathetic to the victims than he is with the murderers; in fact, he tends to have more respect for the killers, with whom he shares more in common. But we love him so!

Han Solo

Occupation: Smuggler, Captain, and General
Marital Status: Single
Body count: 3 that I can remember, probably more
Why we love him: One of my first movie crushes, Han Solo (Harrison Ford) is one of the biggest, best, and earliest of anti-heroes. When we first meet him, he shoots Greedo in the Mos Eisely Cantina and we are immediately enthralled. We know there's more to this man than his sarcastic commentary. He tells Leia point blank that he doesn't hold any beliefs and is only in it for the money, yet in the end, he comes through for his friends. Over the course of the three movies Han moves from anti-hero to hero, which causes him to be ever so slightly duller by the third movie. But with that mischievous smile of his, we forgive him.

Did I miss your favorite anti-hero? Let me know!

The Mini Storage Mind...

Eureka! I have finally come up with the perfect description on how my mind compartmentalizes everything in my life. I'm calling it the Mini Storage Mind.

Everyone knows about mini storage: those places which have various sized storage spaces from the very tiny lockers to the rather large outdoor places that tenants rent in order to store their excess paraphernalia. It occurred to me last night as I was falling asleep that this is how my mind works. 

Each event, aspect, person, issue, etc. in my life all have their own storage space inside my head. When I'm kept busy, all those doors are rolled down and locked because I just don't have time to deal with these things. It's how I'm able to keep teaching even when I feel like ass. I just shut that crappy feeling behind a door and lock it. But the second that I have a free moment, the doors roll up in order for me to peruse the information behind the door. There is just so much history hidden behind each of those doors in my mind. Some of the stockpiled data is over 40 years old, others are only hours, days, weeks, or months old. I can't always control which doors open and which don't, but there are times that I purposely open the door and peer at whatever is hiding there. Sometimes, I wander into the "Cancer" storage space and think about what my future options might be. Occasionally, I find myself walking through my "High School" unit and the mostly fond memories I had of my 4 years at St. Thomas Aquinas. Sadly, there's one storage unit (the "My Mr. Darcy" unit) that no matter how impregnable a lock I place on the door, the door slams open the second I have a free moment. It's a near constant perusal of miles and miles of, equally, joyful and painful 4 and a half year old memories. That unit is the bane of my existence.

What I need is a mental episode of Storage Wars. Okay, technically I have never seen this show but have heard enough about it to get the basic gist. I need buyers who are interested in purchasing the baggage that exists in some of my units so I can do a complete house clearing. Unfortunately, that's unrealistic, so I'll just go in search of bigger locks to keep some of the doors that I don't really need to look at closed. Much as I loved having 2 months off over the summer with nothing do it, that time wreaked havoc in my Mini Storage Mind. 

Ooooh, where can I get my hands on
an impenetrable lock like this one?

Music Doesn't Lie - Part 37 (Love of My Life)

"Music doesn't lie. If there is something to be changed in this world,
then it can only happen through music." – Jimi Hendrix

It's time I righted a terrible, terrible wrong. In the previous 36 postings in this series, I have never, ever mentioned one of the best rock bands of all time (or at least I think so) - Queen! <gasp> It's an awful oversight. As we are soon coming upon Freddie Mercury's 68th birthday (September 6), I thought it was time that I remedy my error and present my commentary about the timeless music from this classic band!

Background: "Queen are a British rock band formed in London in 1970, originally consisting of Freddie Mercury (lead vocals, piano), Brian May (guitar, vocals), John Deacon (bass guitar), and Roger Taylor (drums, vocals). Queen's earliest works were influenced by progressive rock, hard rock and heavy metal, but the band gradually ventured into more conventional and radio-friendly works, incorporating further diverse styles into their music" (Wikipedia). Queen have released 16 studio and 9 live albums and were one of the biggest stadium bands in the 1980s and "their performance at 1985's Live Aid is regarded as one of the greatest in rock history" (Wikipedia). (I just re-watched the performance and...OH GOD, YES!!!!! MAGICAL!) They have 18 number one albums, 18 number one singles, and 10 number one DVDs and are one of the best-selling musical artists.

I cannot remember when I first started listening to Queen. It would have been sometime in the mid-1970s, but I have been in love ever since. Although, confidentially, I have not really followed them since the tragic demise of frontman and incredible vocalist, Freddie Mercury. This posting may end up being less of a Queen retrospective and more of a Freddie Mercury love fest! (And no, I'm not a fan of Queen + Adam Lambert. Adam is fine, but he's not Freddie!)

Let's start with the great one's voice: Freddie’s speaking voice was in the baritone range but he preferred singing in the tenor range and his voice could span over 4-octaves. Incredible! There are many songs in which he would span the entirety of his voice, all without any formal vocal training. "Biographer David Bret described his voice as 'escalating within a few bars from a deep, throaty rock-growl to tender, vibrant tenor, then on to a high-pitched, perfect coloratura, pure and crystalline in the upper reaches'" (Wikipedia). Several different polls have ranked Freddie as the best male singer of all time; others have ranked him second. Regardless, Freddie is certainly among the best and quite possibly the best frontman of all time!

Interestingly enough, even though he had a flamboyant stage presence, Freddie was a very different person off stage - quiet, shy, and extremely private. Even though he was diagnosed with HIV in 1987, he kept his medical status private, despite the constant hounding from journalists. While some people think he should have let his HIV/AIDS status known long before he released a statement (the day before he passed away), I think that no one should be forced to discuss their medical woes unless they make that decision without pressure from others. Of course, times have changed since Freddie' passed away in 1991 and it would be much more difficult to deny reality today.

To give equal credit to the rest of the band: Brian May is a gifted guitarist, Roger Taylor doesn't only rock on the drums, but has a voice almost equal to Freddie's impressive vocal range (about 3 octaves), and, finally, John Deacon is an incredible bassist.

Onto the songs: Queen have released so many memorable songs. Just a really short list of some of my favorites: "Another One Bites the Dust" (lyrics), "We Will Rock You/We Are the Champions" (lyrics), "Under Pressure" (lyrics), "Don't Stop Me Now" (lyrics), "My Melancholy Blues" (lyrics), "One Year of Love" (lyrics), "Fat Bottomed Girls" (lyrics), "Play the Game" (lyrics), "Killer Queen" (lyrics), and no one can ever forget, their anthem song, "Bohemian Rhapsody" (lyrics). (Yeah, okay, I had issues limiting my list of favorites.)

I wanted to find a song that really showcases (equally) Freddie's incredibly voice and Brian May's genius guitar playing, therefore I ultimately decided on "Love of My Life" (lyrics) from the 1975 album, A Night at the Opera. The song was written by Freddie about Mary Austin, with whom he had a long term relationship in the early 1970s. Mary was his long-time companion with whom he had a loving albeit platonic relationship for his entire adult life. This song is stunningly beautiful and has been added to my catharsis playlist - how I left this beautiful song off of the list before today, I do not know. It has long been one of my favorites! Truth be known, I could probably also add "One Year of Love" and "My Melancholy Blues".

Here's a live version of "Love of My Life" - performed in 1981 in Montreal (you can listen to the studio recording here):

Hearing Freddie sing and Brian play this song is the closest thing to heaven on earth. It does make me wish that I kept up my guitar lessons, although I would never have been in Brian's league. And no one is in Freddie's league, vocally!

Happy birthday, Freddie! You were taken away from us much, much too early!

A Pleural What? (A Cancer Update)

There's an update on the cancer front. It's not much of one, but I thought I'd fill everyone in on the latest and greatest. 

Last Friday, I noticed that I had developed a sharp pain on the right side of my abdomen (right under the bottom of my rib cage). Mostly I didn't notice the pain too much except when I took a breath... so yeah, a lot! If I took a deep breath, it was like someone stabbed me with an ice pick. Not fun. All weekend long, I had that pain in my side continually. The pain level was annoying but not overly distracting. I thought perhaps I might have pulled a muscle, but that didn't seem quite right. Last night, as I was heading off to sleep, I rolled on my back and it was like someone took an axe to my abdomen. It was seriously effing painful! I almost went to the ER, just because it was so painful. Before going the expensive ER route, I took 4 ibuprofen to see if it would dull the pain and after an hour it was back to the ice pick pain.

It occurred to me that it might be pleurisy (the inflammation of the lining of the lungs) or a pleural effusion (the build up of fluid around the lungs). Not life threatening, but pretty flipping painful. Why did I think it might be one of these diagnoses and not a pulled muscle? You see both pleurisy and pleural effusions can be symptoms of the metastatic lung cancer. About half of all cancer patients develop pleural effusion. Joy! It occurred to me that the little bastards in my lungs might be waking up. The symptoms of pleural effusion are: shortness of breath, dry cough, pain, feeling of chest heaviness, inability to exercise, and malaise. Would you like to hazard a guess as to how many of these symptoms I'm experiencing? If you guessed all of them, you win the prize!

In order to know for sure, I called my oncologist's office this morning to see if I could get a quickie appointment. Fortunately, the office was able to squeeze in an appointment with the nurse practitioner (as my doctor was not in the office today). She did a basic examination and heard the muffling in my lungs and concurred it might be a pleural effusion. In order to know for sure, it's time for another CT. It was almost time for my next CT anyway, so it's being moved up a week or two. No big deal. 

On Friday morning, I head off to the hospital for blood work and a CT. In the meantime, I've got painkillers to help with the pain. I'll have the results next Tuesday, September 2. 

Stay tuned!

People And Their Asinine Priorities!

I'm pretty sure I've ranted something similar before, but time to get something off my chest. Here we go: I will never understand people! With all the insanity going on around the world, people get riled up over some of the stupidest things. 

Let's take the recent announcement by the Discovery Channel's Mythbusters: Hosts Adam Savage and Jamie Hyneman announced at the end of the final episode of this season that they were going back to their roots and that the Build Team (Tori Belleci, Grant Imahara, and Kari Byron) would not be back. Okay, so after 10 years, the network didn't want to renew the Build Team's contracts or whatever. It's a little sad, but hardly a major crisis. In fact, I really only liked 2 out of the 3 people on the build team (Kari gets on my nerves!). But the reaction on social media was stupidly ridiculous! "It'll be the demise of the show." "The best part of the show was the build team." "You have to bring them back." "You made an epic mistake letting them go." "I've watched my last MB show!" "That was the worst news ever, Mythbusters." Seriously, people, GET A F***ING LIFE! Yeah, I get that some of this is hyperbole, but why even waste your time posting about it. (I was not trolling, I happened to watch the sayonara video on Facebook and saw the comments.)

Contracts expire, changes get made....literally, that's show business. Grant, Kari, and Tori seem to understand and have no hard feelings. 10 years ago, they were nobodies and today...well, today they are filthy rich, extremely famous, and can get any job they want now. All thanks to that network and the show! Give it a rest people. It must be nice that the worst tragedy in your life is the departure of three performers from a show. I'm sure Michael Brown's family would love for that to be their only worry. If you want to get your anger up, try reading a newspaper or watching the evening news.

When the relaunch of Doctor Who happened, I was so excited that I just devoured every moment. I loved Christopher Eccleston as the Doctor, but did I rant and moan and bitch when he decided to do only one season? No, I waited to see how this David Tennant fellow would fair. Guess what? He did an amazing job and has been voted the best Doctor of all time in several polls (I concur that David was the best, but I do like Tom Baker's Doctor too). When David decided to leave the show, I once again did not rant and moan and bitch, but I was saddened. I decided to give this Matt Smith bloke a go and you know what? I hated his Doctor (frankly, I never liked Amy Pond (Karen Gillan) either). I watched the 11th Doctor for about a season and half and then decided I didn't like the show anymore. What did I do? I stopped watching. I didn't rant about it; I just moved on with my life. (Naturally, I did watch "The Day of the Doctor" because David was in it.) Last night, I decided to give Peter Capaldi a shot and see if I would like his Doctor better than Smith's. I enjoyed the season premier enough to continue watching, but if I end up not like Capaldi's Doctor, what will I do? Stop watching. I will not bitch and complain to the BBC.

People seem to forget that it's all just entertainment: "something affording pleasure, diversion, or amusement, especially a performance of some kind" (emphasis added) (Dictionary.com). Stop taking it so seriously. This is yet another fine example of how extremely messed up we are as a culture. As George Carlin once said: "It's a great country, but a strange culture."

Ah, George, I still miss you. I hope you and Robin are hanging somewhere and having a great time!!

Music Doesn't Lie - Part 36 (I Don't Wanna Love Somebody Else)

"Music doesn't lie. If there is something to be changed in this world,
then it can only happen through music." – Jimi Hendrix

Damn, I made a mistake back in February! Whenever I become aware that I err, I feel the need own up to it. I've even been known to apologize when I haven't erred. Therefore, when I discovered my mistake from the February 5, 2014 posting, I wanted to right a wrong.

That posting was about the musical group A Great Big World, which I had just discovered. Just a reminder: "Formed in 2002 by singers/songwriters Ian Axel and Chad Vaccarino, A Great Big World is an American musical group from New York." The song I featured that day was their hit song "Say Something" off of their debut album Is Anybody Out There? and that where I made my mistake.

Yesterday, I was listening to the album on my way home from work and found myself in tears while listening to the album (always a dangerous thing when driving!!). The song that caused this emotional outburst was the runner up to the featured song in February, but it's such a beautiful song that it deserves a posting all on its own. Why did I decide this? For several reasons: first the song is an unabashedly romantic and beautifully melancholic ballad built on a lush instrumental bed of guitar and strings. Second, the warm falsetto infused vocals is thrilling. Third, Ian's emotional connection to the lyrics is one of the best that I've ever heard. He's been through this type of heartbreak. And finally, it's my life story.

Without further ado, ladies and gentlemen, I present "I Don't Wanna Love Somebody Else" (lyrics):

Originals or Remakes?

The other night I decided to watch the 1995 remake of Sabrina, which stars Harrison Ford, Julia Ormond, and Greg Kinnear. Now, I suspect that people will start hurling tomatoes at me for the following statement, but I think that the remade version of Sabrina is superior to the 1954 version which stars Humphrey Bogart, Audrey Hepburn, and William Holden. Before you start tossing those tomatoes, know that I am a fan of Bogart, Hepburn, and Holden, just not in Sabrina. I think Bogart is woefully miscast, and there is almost no chemistry between Hepburn and Bogart, which is kind of necessary in a romantic comedy. 

I started thinking about all the remakes of movies that have been done over the past century and tried to tally up whether on average I preferred the original films or the remakes. Quite the difficult task. I couldn't possibly list all the movies and their remakes here. How did I narrow what amounts to an untold number of movies? I decided to focus on the movies that I enjoy re-watching on a fairly regular basis. Let's see what I came up with (in no particular order):

Sabrina

Plot:  "Linus Larrabee, a busy tycoon who has no room for love in his appointment book. But when a romance between his playboy brother and Sabrina, daughter of the family chauffeur, threatens one of Linus' business deals, the CEO clears his schedule for some ruthlessness." (Amazon.com)
Cast lists: see above
Preference: Remake over original.

The Parent Trap

Plot: Identical twins, separated at birth and each raised by one of their biological parents, discover each other for the first time at summer camp and make a plan to bring their wayward parents back together.
Original (1961) cast: Hayley Mills, Brian Keith, and Maureen O'Hara - great cast!
Remake (1998) cast: Lindsay Lohan, Dennis Quaid, and Natasha Richardson - great cast!
Preference: It's a toss up; both are equally good and entertaining. 

Love Affair/An Affair to Remember/Love Affair

Plot: "A handsome playboy and a beautiful night club singer have a romance while on a cruise from Europe to New York. Despite being engaged to other people, both agree to reunite at the top of the Empire State Building in six months. However, one of the two doesn't show up. Will they discover the truth behind the absence and reunite, or has fate and destiny passed them by?" (imdb.com) (One of the most beautiful, charming and heartbreaking love stories)
The 1939 Love Affair cast: Irene Dunne and Charles Boyer - great cast!
The 1957 An Affair to Remember cast: Cary Grant and Deborah Kerr - great cast!
The 1994 Love Affair cast: Warren Beatty, Annette Bening, and Katherine Hepburn - average cast.
Preference: The original and the 1957 remake are both equally fabulous and far outstrip the 1994 debacle; which might be worth watching once if only to see Katherine Hepburn's last film. 

The Shop Around the Corner/In The Good Old Summertime/You've Got Mail

Plot: "Two employees at a gift shop (or rival bookstore owners) can barely stand one another, without realizing that they're falling in love through the post/internet as each other's anonymous pen pal." (imbd.com)  There's also a musical stage version, She Loves Me, which has this plot and I just adore it.
The Shop Around the Corner cast: Margaret Sullavan and James Stewart - great cast!
In The Good Old Summertime cast: Judy Garland and Van Johnson - great cast! (Musical version of Shop Around)
You've Got Mail cast: Meg Ryan and Tom Hanks - great cast!
Preference: While I enjoy all three movies, Shop Around and Mail are wonderful movies and just ever so slightly edge out Summertime.

Arthur

Plot: "Arthur is a happy drunk with no pretensions at any ambition. He is also the heir to a vast fortune which he is told will only be his if he marries Susan. He does not love Susan, but she will make something of him the family expects. Arthur proposes but then meets a girl with no money who he could easily fall in love with" (imdb.com).

Original (1981) cast: Dudley Moore, Liza Minnelli, and Sir John Gielgud - great cast!

Remake (2011) cast: Russell Brand, Greta Gerwig (who?), and Helen Mirren - meh cast (other than Mirren).

Preference: Oh come on, there's no doubt about this one - the ORIGINAL! What was Helen Mirren thinking?

La Cage Aux Folles/The Birdcage

Plot: "Two gay men have their lives turned upside down when the son of one of the men announces he is getting married. They try conceal their lifestyle and their ownership of the drag club downstairs when the fiancée and her ultra conservative parents come for dinner" (imdb.com).

La Cage cast: Ugo Tognazzi, Michel Serrault, Rémi Laurent, Carmen Scarpitta, and Michel Galabru - good cast.

Birdcage cast: Robin Williams, Nathan Lane, Dan Futterman, Gene Hackman, Dianne Wiest, Calista Flockhart, and Hank Azaria - great cast!

Preference: Birdcage! While La Cage is good, there's something very endearing about the remake. Perhaps it's because the cast includes some of my favorite performers. 

The Goodbye Girl

Plot: "After being dumped by her live-in boyfriend, an unemployed dancer and her 10-year-old daughter are reluctantly forced to live with a struggling off-Broadway actor" (imdb.com).

Original (1977) cast: Richard Dreyfuss, Marsha Mason, and Quinn Cummings - great cast!

Remake (2004) cast: Jeff Daniels, Patricia Heaton, and Hallie Kate Eisenberg - meh cast.

Preference: Original. Two words: Richard Dreyfuss! Need I say more:?

There were some other movies that I considered commenting on, but I feel like I don't know enough about all versions of the movies to actually judge them (i.e., Ocean's Eleven - love the remake but haven't seen the original). What do you think of this list? Do you agree with me? Or do I have to cut you off at the knees for disagreeing? Did I miss any of your favorites? And in general do you prefer the original or the remake? It would seem that I am split on that issue.

Fame After Death...

Yesterday, as I was reading Chad Harback's novel, The Art of Fielding, there was a passage about the American author, Herman Melville and how by the end of his life, he basically had become unknown, despite his early fame with his book, Typee. As an English major, I should probably know facts like that but I have never been all that interested in the personal lives of famous people. I'm far more interested in their works (literature, art, movies, etc.), than I am about who they slept with or how they lived. But I do think it interesting that there are people who are hugely famous today, who were virtual unknowns during their life. I decided to focus this list on those that had very little acclaim during their life, instead of those who had a modicum of fame but then died an obscure and/or penniless death (i.e., Edgar Allan Poe).

Here is the list that I compiled:

Vincent Van Gogh

Born on March 30, 1853 in Zundert, Netherlands, Vincent van Gogh today stands as one of the most prolific and widely celebrated post-impressionist painters (and one of my personal favorites). He was a shy child with low self-esteem who at first did missionary work in order to become a priest, but later turned to drawing and painting, becoming a full-time artist during his 20s. While his paintings reflected the southern sun in France and often contained bright colors, his life was the complete opposite. He suffered from epilepsy and depression. Though mentally unstable, which ultimately lead to his suicide in 1890 (age 37), van Gogh’s work is seen as some of the most influential and praised art ever created. In just over a decade, he produced more than 2,100 artworks, consisting of 860 oil paintings and more than 1,300 watercolors, drawings, sketches, and prints, which were only recognized for their brilliance after Vincent's demise. 

Though having been a painter for decades, van Gogh sold very few painting in his life and was supported both emotionally and financially by his brother, Theo. Despite the fact he had painted large numbers of artwork, his work only began to become popular around the late 1890s. His work started to spread from France and Belgium into Germany and the Netherlands with the help of his Theo’s wife (Theo died 6 months after Vincent). Today, van Gogh’s work is worth millions of dollars. His painting, Portrait of Dr. Gachet, sold for $82.5 million in 1990 and is valued at $151 million today.

Franz Kafka

Born on July 3, 1883 in Prague, Franz Kafka was part of a middle-class Jewish family. He was the eldest of six children and was put under pressure to help his family by his father. After attending the German Charles-Ferdinand University in Prague, where he trained as a lawyer, Kafka began writing short stories in his spare time. Though he found quality jobs, he quit them often due to conflicts with the time. Kafka wanted more time to himself in order to write, and moved to Berlin in 1921 in order to concentrate on his writing.  In 1924 at the age of 40, he died from starvation, which was a result of the laryngeal tuberculosis Kafka contracted in 1917: the condition of Kafka's throat made eating too painful for him.

While alive, Kafka only published a few manuscripts. His writing didn’t get much attention until after he died, when many began to discover his unique style of writing. His writing is highly existential and modern, and often reflects his own life in a dry, humorous way. Before dying, Kafka never really finished his works and burned nearly 90 percent of his writing while living in Berlin. Kafka's most famous work, the novella "The Metamorphosis", stands as one work that had been completed. Despite Kafka's dying wish to his friend and literary executor, Max Brod to destroy all his writing, Brod ignored the request, saving Kafka's writings to be published posthumously by Brod.

Emily Dickinson

Emily Dickinson’s poetry is some of the best poetry ever produced. She has become widely acknowledged as an innovative, pre-modernist poet. Born on December 10, 1830 in Amherst, MA, Dickinson lived the life of a recluse, due to the fact that she was extremely shy and introverted. She was seen as eccentric in her Massachusetts town, which made her even more isolated from the town commoners. Many believe a love affair she had sparked some sort of psychotic episode, which then focused her writing style on being highly personal and related to her own life events. Emily died in her family home in 1886 from Bright’s disease (age 55).

Before she died, only seven of Emily Dickinson’s poems were published publicly. The poems that were published were highly edited so that they fit the proper rules of poetry at the time. It is speculated she wrote over 1800 poems, most of which she wanted to keep hidden and away from the public eye. She was known for writing about immortality and death, but her other themes, including nature, also came to light when her poems were published. Despite her desire to keep her poetry as her own and wishing for her sister to burn them after her death, Lavinia and two friends edited and then published her work (sound familiar?). Dickinson is taught in literature and poetry classes from middle school to college. An 8-cent commemorative stamp in honor of Dickinson was issued by the United States Postal Service on August 28, 1971.

Galileo Galilei

The Father of Modern Science (born February 15, 1564 in Pisa, Italy) was a scientist, mathematician, and astronomer who contributed valuable information and astrological tools to the scientific world. Galileo created a telescope that allowed him to look at the planets, including Jupiter and Saturn, in which he was able to discover the moons orbiting these planets. Though he didn’t discover the theory himself, he proved that Copernicus was correct in his heliocentric theory of our solar system. He was also one of the first to discover sunspots, moon craters, and even lunar mountains. While his discoveries and theories were correct, he was often criticized by those heavily involved in religion, which was a way of life during his time, as they believed that the world was geocentric and was in one fixated place and did not move to revolve around the sun. The Roman Inquisition tried Galileo in 1633 and found him "gravely suspect of heresy", sentencing him to indefinite imprisonment. Galileo was kept under house arrest until his death in 1642 at age 77.

While Galileo did make himself known, his theories were hardly accepted during his lifetime. During his lifetime, there was still a strong focus on incorrect religious beliefs. People didn’t want to think outside of the Bible, and therefore anything that contradicted what the Bible claimed was ultimately thrown out and entirely disregarded. However; today, Galileo stands as the father of modern physics and his work is highly praised. Even though he didn’t know it, Galileo was studying and experimenting with scientific ideas that today are considered highly important parts of the scientific world, including kinematics and strength of materials.

Henry David Thoreau

Best known for his book Walden, a reflection upon simple living in natural surroundings, and his essay "Resistance to Civil Government" (also known as "Civil Disobedience"), an argument for disobedience to an unjust state, Henry David Thoreau was born on July 12, 1817 in Concord, MA. A graduate of Harvard College, Thoreau was one of a kind, especially when it came to his writing, creating stanzas filled with symbolism and hidden meanings. In 1849, he could not find a publisher for his book, A Week on the Concord and Merrimack Rivers, written as an elegy to his brother, John, and instead printed 1,000 copies at his own expense (though fewer than 300 were sold). After studying and teaching, Thoreau wanted to do natural experimentation. To experience simple living, Thoreau built and moved into a small shack on land owned by his friend Ralph Waldo Emerson in 1845. Here he claimed to become one with the earth. He died after a long illness on May 6, 1862 at the age of 44.

By the time of his death, Thoreau had only published two books (Walden and A Week on the Concord and Merrimack Rivers), which were seen as obscure and weird by many, though he did have a few admirers, most notably his buddy, Emerson. Before he died, Thoreau had boasted of his library, filled with about 900 books, but seemed to ignore the fact that 700 of them were his own. Not until the late 1920s did Thoreau get the praise he deserved. Today, Thoreau is regarded as one of the most important American writers, both for the clarity of his style and for his views on nature and politics. His literature has inspired many leaders, such as Mohandas Ghandi, Martin Luther King, Jr., and Leo Tolstoy. His memory is honored by the international Thoreau Society.

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The above people are my top 5 who garnered great fame after their demise, but there are quite a few more, which I will include as honorable mentions: Steig Larsson, the author of the Millennium trilogy of crime novels which were published after his death of a sudden heart attack in 2004 (age 50), was the second best selling author in 2008 (after Khaled Hosseini). The writer/artist, Henry Darger, became famous for his posthumously discovered 15,145-page, single-spaced fantasy manuscript called The Story of the Vivian Girls, in What is Known as the Realms of the Unreal, of the Glandeco-Angelinian War Storm, Caused by the Child Slave Rebellion, along with several hundred drawings and watercolor paintings illustrating the story. Darger died in 1973 at age 81. After John Kennedy Toole's suicide in 1969 at the age of 31, his mother found his manuscript for A Confederacy of Dunces and fought to have it published. It was finally published in  1980 and Toole posthumously received the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction for Dunces in 1981.

I suppose it just goes to show that anyone can become famous at any given time. Who knows, perhaps after my demise this blog will garner much more acclaim. Ummmmmmmm, probably not.

No Selfish Cowards Here...

Excuse me while I rant. There is something that I feel strongly about and if I don't get it out of my system, my head might explode. 

Victims of suicide are not selfish cowards!

Ever since the death of Robin Williams, trolls on various websites, who clearly have no idea what they're talking about, are assuming that people who either attempt or commit suicide are selfish and/or cowards. People will post phrases such as “to do that to your family is just selfish”, or “to commit suicide when you’ve got so much going for you is pure selfishness”, or variations thereof. Nothing can be further from the truth. If you have never suffered from depression, you don't know anything about what effects this disease has on the mind and body.

Depression is not just a moment of sadness. I saw other posts saying statements like: "everyone feels sad, just go out and say 'hello' to other people and you'll feel better." These are people who have their heads up their rear ends. Depression is more than just "feeling sad" or being in a "bit of a funk".  Depression -- also known as clinical depression, major depressive illness, major affective disorder and unipolar mood disorder -- goes beyond the temporary feeling of sadness everyone experiences at some point. It’s a serious emotional and biological disease that affects a person’s thoughts, feelings, behavior and even physical health. It lasts a lifetime, with periods of wellness alternating with recurrences. Long-term treatment is required to keep symptoms from returning.

Federal statistics show eight percent of Americans over age 12 – close to 25 million of us – grapple with depression, with women more prone to it than men, and those between 40 and 59 suffering at the highest rates. Of those 25 million, perhaps only half are actually getting treatment. Untreated depression is the leading cause of the estimated 30,000 annual suicides in this country. Even those who receive treatment (i.e., Robin Williams) can still be suffering so much that they see suicide as their only alternative to rid themselves of the anguish that comes with depression.

Here are some facts:

• 25 million people in America have depression
• Depression does not discriminate, it's not just women and old people who suffer
• 30,000 suicides occur annually due to depression
• Many depressives self medicate by using drugs or alcohol
• Anti-depressants are usually helpful for controlling the depression but not always
• Depression makes it impossible to 'think normally'; insisting on logical thinking from someone in the grips of a mental illness is like insisting that someone with a broken leg walk normally

This morning, former congressman Patrick Kennedy made the following statement: "Robin Williams didn't commit suicide, depression killed Robin Williams", which is a great way to think about depression.

We have to stop stigmatizing mental illness. We don't blame cancer patients for having cancer, why do we blame depressives for having depression?? I know what I'm talking about because I have both diseases and of the two, I'd rather battle cancer! I have been in that dark place in which suicide seems like the only logical option in order to get rid of the pain associated with depression. When a depressive stands on the edge of the precipice, contemplating jumping off, they have tried everything to feel better (therapy, medication, reaching out to friends, ignoring the pain, alcohol, drugs, etc.), but nothing works. So stop making assumptions about something you know nothing about and have never experienced. Until you can walk a mile in a depressive's shoes, stop blaming the victim!

Here's an eloquent song about battling depression by Gotye - "Save Me" (lyrics):

2nd 30 Day Writing Challege: Day 30 - The Month's Highs and Lows

Whew, made it!  It's the final day of the writing challenge: "Your highs and lows for the month".

Hmmmm... So here's an interesting conundrum. Because I am an educator, I spent a good portion of the past 30 days sitting on my couch reading, or going out for walks, or shopping, etc. It's kind of hard to actually have highs and lows with a schedule like that. Therefore, my highs and lows are pretty pathetic, but what I can do. If I had to complete this list during the school year, it would be so much more dramatic.

Highs:

• Spending the day hanging out with a colleague/friend "lesson planning" (code word for bullshitting, going out for lunch and dinner, and gossiping)
• Getting my classroom ready for the new school year (yes, I consider this a high point)
• Reading for pleasure (what can I say, I'm a nerd)

Lows:

• A day spent in bed because I was feeling under the weather
• Spending money I don't actually have on setting up my classroom
• Knowing that I did zero work and therefore am totally ill-prepared for the new school year

 See - pathetic, but I'm okay with that.

I've reached the end of this challenge and had a ton of fun doing it. It was kind of nice for someone else to decide what I should write about. Maybe I'll make it an every 2-year event, or maybe not.

Ciao for now.

Oh Captain, My Captain - RIP, Robin Williams!

Today, the world lost one of its funniest, brightest, and most talented stars: Robin Williams (1951-2014) and I am gutted by this news.  I felt the need to write a tribute to one of my favorite performers.

As so many of us, I was introduced with Mr. Williams's comedic brilliance by his guest appearance on Happy Days as the alien, Mork from Ork, which led to a spin-off sitcom, Mork & Mindy starring Mr. Williams and Pam Dawber. I loved this show and eagerly awaited each new episode to see what maniacal stunts Mr. Williams would come up with. 

This show led to this King of Improv appearing in an amazing array of unbelievably brilliant movies - in both dramatic and comedic roles. Just to name a few of his best: Good Morning, Vietnam (1987), Dead Poets Society (1989), Awakenings (1990), The Fisher King (1991), Aladdin (1992), Mrs. Doubtfire (1993), Good Will Hunting (1997), One Hour Photo (2002), and so many more. Of course, we cannot possibly forget his hilarious stand up routines, especially Live at the Met (1986) and Live on Broadway (2002) (video) which I would end up in massive amounts of pain from laughter. He was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Actor three times (The Fisher King, Good Morning, Vietnam and Dead Poets Society) and went on to receive the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor for his performance in Good Will Hunting (1997). Additionally, he received two Emmy Awards, four Golden Globes, two Screen Actors Guild Awards and five Grammy Awards.

He was one of my many inspirations and heroes. It was his portrayal as John Keating in Dead Poets Society that made me want to become a teacher.

The world has suddenly become a little less funny knowing  that this unbelievably brilliant man has left us. Whatever the reason for his demise, nothing will ever take away the body of work that he left for us to enjoy.

Oh Captain, my Captain, rest in peace and know that you were loved by the world.

2nd 30 Day Writing Challenge: Day 29 - My Goals

Only 1 more posting in order to complete this task. Whew! This is day 29: "What are your goals for the next 30 days?"

Today is August 10, so what will my goals be from today through September 9? The thing about goals is that you cannot make them too crazy. For example, saying "I'm going to lose 50 pounds over the next month" is impossible and crazy. When you decided to set a goal, remember the mnemonic - SMART, which is useful for helping you to attain your goal.

• S - Specific
• M - Measurable
• A - Attainable
• R - Relevant
• T - Time-bound

I've settled on attempting two goals in the next month - one professional and one personal:

The Professional Goal: Do Some Work

School officially is back in session next week, and even though I have had 2 months to prepare for returning to school, apathy has taken its toll. You see, I have not yet finished reading the first book that I will be teaching my little cherubs. Gah! It wasn't from a lack of trying, but I'm finding it difficult getting through The Autobiography of Malcolm X. Please understand that this is a really well written book but very dense. Apparently Malcolm X decided that he needed to mention every little detail about his life and Alex Haley decided it was all golden. If Malcolm mentioned that he took a dump, Haley put it in the book. Because it's so dense, I cannot seem to get through it. I cannot see how I'm going to get students to read it. Therefore, I keep putting off doing any work. Ergo, I am way behind schedule, so I have to get cracking and start planning out this book - starting today!

The Personal Goal: Sing More

Today I made a big realization - I don't sing as much as I use to. When I was a struggling actor/singer in NYC, I sang all the time. Between rehearsals, voice lessons, cabaret shows, and just sitting around the house, I was singing most of my day and I really miss it. Today, as I was setting up my classroom, I was singing along to some music and not only did it make tedious work much more fun, but it made me absolutely joyous. I need more music in my life. At least once a day for 15 minutes minimum, I will sing -- even if it means only singing in the car at the top of my lungs!

There you have the two goals that I will be working on for the next 30 days. They easily fit into the SMART mnemonic. I shouldn't actually have any problems completing these two goals, but one never can tell, therefore - fingers crossed!

Tomorrow will be the last posting in this series (30): "This month's highs and lows"

2nd 30 Day Writing Challege: Day 28 - 5 Things That Make Me LOL!

Oh, wow, only 2 more days until I go back to writing about whatever!!  Day 28: "Post 5 things that make you laugh-out-loud".

This task is a bit on the vague side. What is it actually asking for? Should I list the 5 people/things who can make me laugh? Do I list 5 jokes that make me laugh? How about the five funniest television commercials? Or am I actually posting clips from movies or television that I turn to when I need a laugh? In past postings, I've listed my favorite comedic movies and the funniest British televisions shows, so that's already covered. As I really don't know what this challenge is looking for, I have decided to do all of the above.

Let's start with people/things that I know in real life. Here are five that I can guarantee will make me laugh:

1. My Mr. Darcy: When I was in communication with this very entertaining man, I was more often than not laughing. In fact, of all the people I've ever known, he is the funniest and wittiest of the lot. Yes, he drove me to distraction and broke my heart, but that doesn't alter the fact that without question, he is the funniest human being who ever passed through my life.

2. Lotta the Wonder Cat: My cat absolutely slays me with her antics. On a daily basis, she manages to get herself into some of the funniest situations. I heartily give a big guffaw. See the photo below - c'mon, now that's hilarious.

3. My brother, Tom: My eldest sibling is a really funny, funny man. Snarky and acerbic commentary makes for ensuing hilarity.

4. Some of my colleagues: Working in an urban district is stressful and often disheartening. Fortunately, I work with some amazingly funny people. Not all of them mind you, but the ones I'm closest to are incredibly funny and certainly make my school a fun place to work.

5. The ladies from my book club: My book club has 9 really amazing women and when we are all in the same room, it's a gas. Of course, with all those women, it's hard to get a word in but the night is filled with humor and joy.

That covers the things in real life that make me laugh. What's next? How about some jokes:

1. A woman gets on a bus with her baby. The bus driver says: "Ugh, that's the ugliest baby I've ever seen!" The woman walks to the rear of the bus and sits down, fuming. She says to a man next to her: "The driver just insulted me!" The man says: "You go up there and tell him off. Go on, I'll hold your monkey for you."

2. "I went to the zoo the other day, there was only one dog in it, it was a shitzu." (Read this joke aloud!)

3. I cleaned the attic with the wife the other day. Now I can't get the cobwebs out of her hair.

4. A man is attending the Super Bowl, when he notices an empty seat. Thinking this to be strange, the man asks the person sitting next to the empty seat if he knows who's sitting there. The guy replies: "Well, I bought two tickets for my wife and I a long time ago, but she passed away." So the man asks: "Couldn't you have brought someone else?" "They're all at the funeral."

5. A statue of a man and a statue of a woman stood looking at each other for hundreds of years out in a park. One day a wizard, feeling sorry for the statues, brought them to life for 30 minutes. Right away, the two of them ran into some nearby bushes and you could hear all kinds of strange sounds and moans from there. After a while they came back out, giggling. The wizard told them "You have another 15 minutes left, if you want to have another go." The statues looked at each other and the male statue answered "Fine, but this time you hold the pigeon and I'll shit on it."

Not into jokes? Here are links to commercials that I always find to be laugh out loud funny no matter how many times I watch them:

1. Hump Day Camel (Geico)
2. Trade-In Maxwell Pig (Geico)  [Note: while all the Geico commercials are amusing these are my 2 favorites)
3. You're Not You When You're Hungry campaign (Snickers)
4. Whassup campaign (Budweiser)
5. Stephen Colbert pistachio campaign (Wonderful Pistachios)

As I've already covered comedic movies and television shows in other posts, let's go with the top 5 funniest standup routines - linked to the full show:

1.  Chris Rock, Bring the Pain
2.  George Carlin, Jammin' in New York
3.  Eddie Murphy, Delirious
4.  Eddie Izzard, Dress to Kill
5.  Bill Cosby, Himself

There you have it. A random list of different things that make me laugh out loud.

Tomorrow, Day 29: "Next 30-day goals".

Here's a very short bonus LOL video for you. It's only 10 seconds long, yet makes me laugh every time!

2nd 30 Day Writing Challenge: Day 27 - Nothing...

3 more entries after today - Day 27: "Conversely, write about something that’s kicking ass right now."

This posting will be short and sweet. I knew that eventually I would hit a challenge that I actual cannot answer. It was bound to happen. After all , it happened the last time I did a 30 day writing challenger - a couple of times, in fact.  Here's my answer:

Absolutely nothing in my life is "kicking ass" right now. Nothing is crashing and burning, but certainly nothing is "kicking ass". My life is hanging somewhere in the middle.

That was easy. Tomorrow: "5 things that make me LOL".

 ____

Since I couldn't actually answer today's challenge, I thought I'd post about something I saw yesterday which really annoyed me. Let me first say that I'm not a fan of bumper stickers. You will never find one on my car, but, okay, some people decide that they need to provide reading material for other drivers. Whatever. 

Yesterday, I so badly wanted to punch the driver of a mini-van from Connecticut and not just because of her shitty driving, which was epic! There was a bumper sticker that just enraged me. Here's what it said:

Argh! I kept thinking "What the F**K?!" My issue with this sticker (other than it was on the car) is that I hate when people equate their pets (or, in this case, their children's pets) to children. No, no, no, no, NO! I love my cat as much as the next person, but I would have bitch-slapped them if either of my parents had put a "I love my grandcat" on their car. As I said in a previous post, my cat is the closest thing that I have to a child (which is not even remotely close to what it means to have a child). I can state this as a fact: I did not birth my cat!

A former colleague of mine treated her ridonkulously expensive purebred dog like she had expelled it from her uterus and it just made me angry. I know lots of people who do this and I don't know why but it's just a pet peeve of mine. Pets are pets and children are children and people should not mix up those two statements. Certainly, you should not treat your children like pets, but please stop treating your pets like children. And for futz's sake, please stop dressing your dogs in costumes.

This dog wants to kill
someone!

Cracked.com agrees with me! From the article, "6 Stupid Things Pet Owners Need to Stop Doing Now", "Raising a pet is to raising a child what the Olive Garden is to eating Italian food. They are not even kind of the same thing, and to suggest that the two experiences are similar is nothing short of disrespectful." I could not have said it better!