Final Blog In Class Drama

In Class Drama performance on May 5th 2009.


Group- Richard, Masami, Don, Henry and myself.

Film-Lonesome Dove, the class got this one quickly(that was a surprise)

Sonny's Blues- Class got this one fast when I acted out the part of the heroin addict brother in the story.

Poem- Muchos Somos, despite the best efforts by Richard the class did not get this one and we finally had to tell them.

Final Blog Youtube Sure Thing

Tuesday, May 5, 2009
Final Blog Youtube Sure Thing

I felt the acting in the Sure Thing was excellent. The chemistry between the two actors was strong, for example with every "ding" both characters changed their personal views in a smooth and entertaining fashion. My favorite part was when the male actor pointed our his faults using his love of Trotsky, desire for liposuction and lack of physical endowment as humor.

The stage setting was minimal as to shift most of the focus on the two actors.I felt this worked, though I would have prefered more props to help convince me they were in a cafe or coffee shop. Overall I enjoyed the performance.

Sonny Blues

www.teamhepworth.blogspot.com check it out, our group blogspot with our story pic of "Sonnys Blues"

A & P Lengel

Keith Siebler
Prof. Hepworth
Lit 150
7 April 2009
Lengel

“I can’t believe how much they want for cabbage these days,” Lengel says after negotiating with a produce vendor. “What in heaven’s name are those girls wearing” Lengel says as he notices the three girls walking in swimsuits down the store aisle. “The younger generation has no sense of decency.” “These girls are dressed like godless heathens, there are young children present. I can’t believe this.”

“Girls, you are not dressed appropriately for my store.” “I don’t care what errands you are running. You need to put some clothes on. Little children do not need to see you in your swimsuits in here.” “What did you say Sammy?” “That’s what I thought you said.” “Sammy, you don’t want to quit over those girls. They were an embarrassment to your generation. What would happen to our society if all of our young people acted like that in public? We might as well surrender to the Reds right now”.

“Sammy, think of your parents for one moment. How are you going to go home and explain this to them; that you are quitting your job over three disrespectful girls? I have known your parents for years and they will not understand this.” “Damn, it’s been so long since I have worked this cash register,” “Be patient, this will just take a minute.” Lengel says as he fumbles with the keys to the register.

The Enemy Of My Enemy Is My Friend/ Class writing 26 March 2009

Between 1975 and 1979 Cambodia was ruled by a fanatical Communist regime called the Khmer Rouge. The Khmer Rouge wanted to de-industrialize Cambodia. Pol Pot, the Khmer Rouge leader, ordered the detention of most educated Cambodian citizens. During the Khmer Rouge rule in Cambodia, 1.5 to 3 million of these citizens were tortured, worked to death or executed. This period became known as the killing fields.

US Secretary of State, Henry Kissinger, quoted at the time “The Khmer Rouge are murderous thugs, but they are at war with Vietnam, therefore we will work with their government.” One of Kissinger’s aides stated “well, I guess the enemy of my enemy is my friend.” The US went on to support the Khmer Rouge until Pol Pot was overthrown by the Vietnamese Army in 1979. Trials for former Khmer Rouge leaders continue to this very day.

Dialogue Conversation

Keith Siebler

Dr Hepworth

Lit 150

Dialogue Conversation

Noise Disturbance

"I got a MySpace message from the neighbor about us making too much noise” Max said “Well, you should not have dropped me and maybe they would have not heard anything," Susan replied. “And why in the hell did they not call or stop by and say something?” “Why a MySpace message?,” “I am not sure, if they keep bitching I am going to complain about their shity diapers all over the front of the complex. “They never seal their garbage bags and the damn dogs haul all of their garbage and diapers all over the place.” “Yeah, it’s disgusting”, Susan noted.

“I will go and talk to them tomorrow” Max said.” “It’s not like we can’t hear them as well.” “The walls are pretty thin in this place”, Susan replied jokingly, I guess we’ll have to be a little quieter. “It seems like we have had a lot of problems with neighbors in this complex,” Max said. “I don’t want this to end up like the beef we had with the last neighbor, remember?” “How could I forget,” Susan replied. “We called the cops and he got a ticket for minor in possession” “Yeah, and then he poured booze into our washing machine.” “I wanted to kill him” Max said. “Well have to work it out with these guys, we can’t afford to move right now” Susan replied.

20 Points List

Keith Siebler
Dr Hepworth
Lit 150
20 Points

0 absences
0 tar dies
Emily Dickinson/ and case study
“I stand her ironing”
“Beauty /Sure thing”
“No one’s a mystery”
“I am somebody/Gilligan’s island”
Memorize one part of poem “Soul selects her own society” group video, first posted in class and class award winner, with (Richard, Don and Masami)
Read all of Emily Dickinson and Langston Hughes, wrote a comparison
Wrote and read Haiku
Blog reading
Wrote a curse
Wrote an epigram
Wrote a sonnet
Wrote metaphor
Blog on Obama speech, read Washington and Lincoln address
Lemerich
Wrote Valentine and poem
Wrote Dialogue conversation story

Grade: A

Dialogue. Overheard conversation. Noise Disturbance

Noise Disturbace

"I got a Myspace message from the neighbor about us making too much noise" Max said."Well you should not have dropped me and maybe they would have not heard anything," Susan replied. "And why in the hell did they not call or stop by and say something?" "Why a Myspace message?." "I am not sure, if they keep bitching I am going to complain about their shity diapers all over the front of the complex, they never seal their garbage bags and the damn dogs haul all of their garbage and diapers everywhere." "Yeah, its disgusting", Susan noted.

"I will go talk to them tommorow" Max said, It's not like we can't hear them as well." "The walls are pretty thin in this place, Susan replied jokingly, "I guess well have to be a little quieter."

An Unfinished Sonnet

A man is haunted by the past
he changes focus in the light
he moves to adjust the mast
hoping by doing so his mind is right
he reads of the ventures of the last
guiding his choice by the northern light

Hells Canyon & The Middle Snake River Chap 8 thoughts

The Eureka Mining Company in the 19th Century was an example of explosive growth of big corporations shortly before and after the Industrial Revolution. Demand for natural resources across the country was skyrocketing. New technologies that were used such as the steamboat, proved beneficial to many people and not just the Eureka Company. However, the legacy of how we harvest and use our natural resources is one of the most prevalent debates in America today.

The Eureka Mining Company did everything it could to maximize profits from copper and minimize expenses. The environment was of little concern. Congressional representatives were pressured to rule in favor of the company. This type of thinking by big corporations is at the heart of debate today. American’s insatiable demand for oil has led to similar problems that we as a nation faced in the 19th century. In 1987, I was a young Airman stationed in Egypt. At the time, our nation was supporting a virtually unknown autocratic dictator named Saddam Hussein. Hussein was waging an eight year war against his neighbor state of Iran. The United States feared that if the Islamic Revolution in Iran spread through the Middle East our nation could lose access to our oil supplies. We looked past the brutality of Saddam Hussein, even as he gassed Iranian soldiers and his own people. Congressional representatives were pressured by oil companies who had interest in the region. Rice and grain companies pressured representatives to look past the atrocities because they were reaping profits from selling Hussein their products’ for his military campaign. It is a sad irony that only two years after the Iran-Iraq war ended, our nation fought Saddam Hussein for the same reasons we has supported him, access to natural resources. This issue is still continuing to this very day.

Our nation as a whole must look past the mistakes of the Eureka Mining Company. We must learn to conserve our nation’s resources or repeat the mistakes of our Middle East campaigns. The days of maximizing profits for natural resources without regard to consequences have come as a maximum price to our nation and its people. The price is quality of life and more important loss of life itself.

Hells Canyon & The Middle Snake River App C/Chap 14 thoughts

After reading Chapter 14 and Appendix C , I came to the conclusion that our nation is still struggling with conservation of national resources. Cattle and sheep grazing and how it affected the environment were issues of the 19th and 20th century. Also, debates over state and federal regulation of lands still continue to this day. Natural resources such as timber, silver, and copper along with oil are still the focal point of heated debates. Do we mine our resources? or do we continue to rely on foreign countries many of whom do not share our social values or have our best interests in mind.

One man from Idaho played a major role not only on regional decisions of resource management and conservation, but on the national and even world level as well. Senator Frank Church was that man. Whether it was from over grazing, over fishing, poor mining policies or human encroachment, our region’s environment and natural resources were threatened in the 19th and 20th centuries. Frank Church helped to establish legislation that called for protection and reasonable recreational and historical perseveration of wilderness areas from Idaho to California. Church helped to pass the 1968 National Wilderness Act. As mentioned in App C, during the 1950’s many companies had great interest in access to Idaho and Washington’s natural resources including forest land and rivers. Power companies struggled with Native Tribes over the building of damns and fishing rights. President Eisenhower presided over policy debates of rights of private enterprise to these lands or federal protection. Private enterprise gained ground in the 1950’s and expanded into the northwest. Frank Church, with his environmental protection polices helped to create a balance of resource management and conservation by not only working with regional and national leaders but world leaders as well.

Frank Church showed just as much tenacity in dealing with our nations foreign affairs issues as he did with protecting Hells Canyon and other wilderness areas. Church worked with other political figures on our nations policies in Vietnam and the Middle East. He felt that many of our nation’s policies towards these nations were for access to natural resources. This can be argued but Church was active in dealing with our national issues of resource management both nationally and globally. He succeeded in creating an environment of more openness on our nation’s foreign affairs polices, and was truly a politician ahead of his time.

Frank Church acted on many of the issues that are discussed in both chapter 14 and App C. of Resource management and conservation. These issues are still the focal point of national and even global debates. It’s ironic that Senator Frank Church specialized in Asian social and political issues. His last job was practicing law in Washington D.C. with his focus being on Asian affairs. If Senator Church was alive today he would have plenty of material to examine when it came to natural resources in Asia. Much like over grazing from cattle and sheep, and abuse by mining corporations led to environmental problems in the Northwest, poor management of water supplies has left China in desperate need of water. China is in serious political debates with its neighbors, Vietnam and Thailand over water rights. Many regional experts even predict armed conflict is possible in the region over water rights. Senator Church was ahead of his time when it came to wilderness conservation and preservation. Though debate still continues over both of these issues, the contribution of one man did make a difference not only in regional resource management but national and global as well.

Hells Canyon & the Middle Snake River by Carole-Simon Smolinksi Edited by Dr Hepworth. Capter 8 thoughts

As a young child, I would travel with my grandparents across the country during the summers. My grandfather was a tall man with a deep voice and a commanding presence. He would discuss politics and history with me as I had shown interest in it. It was at this time he talked about how many different immigrants helped to build the infrastructure of the United States. He himself was a son of German immigrants. My grandfather spent his entire life working as a railroad conductor. When I read chapter eight, I could not help but think of my grandfather and how he would talk about how Chinese immigrants built many of the modern railways, his values on immigrants from many countries, and how they contributed to the United States economy, culture and society. Today, this country is having a passionate debate about immigration and our society as a whole seems to have a short memory about how our nation was built. Increased education and a sense of history are now more important in American than ever.

The tragedy of the Chinese mining massacre at Deep Creek in 1887 was a culmination of greed and jealousy. In the post Civil War era, many settlers came to the Hells Canyon area in Idaho and Washington to seek land and economic gains from mining and other commerce. Having driven most Native Americans onto reservations, many settlers felt increased Chinese immigration came at their expense, and they were another problem that had to be resolved. They were concerned about the Chinese working for lower wages, and jealous of the financial gains some Chinese had received from very hard work. In the end, it was tolerance from local and federal authorities for such prejudice to allow the massacre to go all but unpunished.

Today we have a chance to learn from our own history. We much teach our children about the contribution of all immigrants, and our leaders need to take a close look at current immigration debates and how our nation came to this point in anti-immigration rhetoric. It is through increased education and a sense of history that these problems will be solved. Resources that are available now were not available to most when the tragedy of Deep Creek in 1887 occurred.

poem

I look at you
with an open mind

uncluttered before me
you speak and there is closure

epigram

Arrogance is a mans view once done
which leads to a life of one

Curse

May you wake alone.

Team Poem

Valentine/message Poem

Things change after seven seasons
Time, direction, they dont even need a reason
Dont think its over, just because he said goodbye
Good things are yet to come, listen and Ill tell you why

Haiku "Squats"

Squats

Rep after rep after rep
years of preperation, time, training, still anxiety
rep after rep, still new

Langston Hughes and Emily Dickinson

As I wrote before, my first exposure to college lit was in Engl 101 at West Valley College in Saratoga Ca. The entire class was built around Langston Hughes and the Harlem Renassance. I began to see the world of the Great Depression from Langston Hughes point of view. Hughes was well travled. He visited Africa and Europe. His socialist views gained him many critics but his writing really reaches across many social and economic boundaries of the time period. His poems Song For a Dark Girl( Page 1033 of our Lit book) and The Weary Blues(Page 1032) are two of the poems I wrote about.

Reading Emily Dickinson makes me wonder. How did a women who lived as a recluse write as if she has traveled the world? How did she become one of America's most famous poets when she rarely left her home? One thing Hughes and Dickinson do have in common is the fact they were writing from a lower social standing. Hughes being an African-American in the early 20th century was a struggle in itself. He was also a Socialist and a homosexual. Making life, as you can imagine, even more challenging. Dickinson was a women writing in the early to mid 19th century. Women were all but property at this time in America. She was not religious in a time when church politics still dominated the country(Some would say they still do!!) Perhaps these social challenges helped contribute to the passion of their poetry. I would appreciate any feedback on this. Thanks. Keith.

Tillie Olson

After reading about the life of Tillie Olson all is could say is what a brave women. To be a young Communist in America during the first Red Scare as well as a labor organizer could have been fatal. Strike busters often beat and even killed labor union organizers they beleived were linked to Communist groups. Being a female activist in those times was most even more difficult.

I Stand Here Ironing was more of a story about the struggle with poverty and oppression of women that was common at those times. Once again one must look at the author and see through history what she was exposed to in that time period, much like Langston Hughes an African-American poet in the early 20th century, these events helped to shape their stories.

I thought this was a very emotional story about the suppression and daily struggle that women endured in the early to mid 20th century when women and children had little rights inside or outside of the home.

President Obama Inauguration Thoughts

After watching the inaguration of our 44th President of the United States Barack Obama, I observed some very well spoken words to not only our nation's diverse population but the worlds as well. I feel that the ideology behind the President's speech was one of global unity.

Having had the chance to live in three different countries, when I was in the service gave me a chance at a young age to realize that we are a global community and the world is a very small place. President Obama was able to discuss many of our current problems as a society in a very short speech. For example, Obama addressed that all Americans must participate in an economic recovery plan. Obama encouraged Americans to stop blaming one another and bypass partisanship and deal with our national problems such as energy consumption and climate change. On a global scale, Obama clearly parted ways with the Bush Administration by stating that we as a nation will work with friends and former foes to deal with world economic and social issues. For example President Obama stated that " We will extend our hand if you unclench your fist". Obama made a statement to the nations we consider enemies that we will work with you if you work with us. The Bush Administration was pushing hard for the spread of democracy by regime change and that has failed on a global scale.

It would be hard not to mention that this is our first African-American President. I was born in the 1960's and I can remember the civil rights struggle was in that same time period, not so long ago. I can imagine the great sense of pride that many of our nation's minority population are feeling that we have a multi race president and I am proud of that.

A recently declassified document from the Soviet Union covered the writing of Soviet Dictator Josef Stalin. In the first week of the Nazi invasion of Russia, the Red Army lost millions of men, the country was in chaos. Stalin remained out of sight at first. In a meeting with his commanders, Stalin stated "We have a great legacy from Lenin, and now look how we fucked it up". Stalin was admitting that he had made mistakes as a leader. Funny that I can't remember when a leader of a Democratic country such as our nation has said we have made mistakes and must get past them and move forward. President Obama had said such things; we have made mistakes and we must move forward. I wish the best for this administration.