Sullivan on Wall-E

The little robot brought in over $62 million last weekend, and I was part of the big box office haul. It's received near-universal praise, including this comment from The Atlantic's Andrew Sullivan:

It's odd that a movie that predicts ecological doom can in fact make one more certain that the human race will survive our current predicament. Any civilization that can produce something as technically and artistically sublime as Wall-E cannot be doomed.

Go see it for yourself.

11 Best Foods I'm Not Eating

But I should be, according to this article. I am shocked - shocked - to find that Hot-n-Ready pizzas are not on the list.

How Our Brains Lie To Us

This week, Doonesbury takes on the Obama camp's attempt to refute every smear posted on the Internet. Problem is, our brains tend to believe some of these lies.

Sure explains the popularity of Fox News.

Today's APE Lang Column

Today only - two columns for the price of one! Yesterday's Supreme Court decision to allow handguns in Washingnton D.C. has the pundits cheering and jeering. The Washington Post has a pair - one pro, one con - in today's edition.

The Mind Inside Wall-E

There's no better reason to get out of the heat and into a theatre than a Pixar film. Wall-E opens Friday! The Onion's AV Club interviews writer/director Andrew Stanton here.

Today's APE Langugage Column

Our featured columnist is Nicholas Kristof. Read his take on our "moral responsibility" in Iraq here, and get involved via Facebook here.

Great Big Sea

Pack the van and take the fam to see Great Big Sea on tour! The boys from Newfoundland drop a new CD next week ("Fortune's Favour") then hit the road for North American tour. Closest they'll be to the Lit Lounge is Ann Arbor on September 10 at the Michigan Theatre. Bummer. We need to get the boys to GR (hello, Meijer Gardens) - or at least K-zoo.

Let Jon Stewart Do The Math

In case you thought the Lit Lounge was all about novels, poetry, and rhetorical strategies, this Daily Show clip should make it very clear that we care deeply about your math studies as well.

Today's APE Language Column

Maureen Dowd is a brilliant writer. She's also one of the more controversial columnists at The New York Times. When not making sly jabs throughout this piece, she makes excellent use of comparison/contrast to make her point.

Yummm. . . Jelly Belly candy. . .

Want to make money in a lousy economy? Create better candy than Jelly Belly has. And if you'd like to see the Wonka-esque production in person, head north of Chicago to Wisconsin and look for the signs. It's a treat.

How Much Longer?

Doonesbury ran its "final" panel of Bushisms last Sunday, but the hits just keep on comin'. While welcoming the president of the Philippines to the White House, our president had this to say:

"I am reminded of the great talent of the -- of our Philippine Americans when I eat dinner at the White House.... And the chef is a great person and a really good cook, by the way, Madam President."

The rest is here.

Slow Down and Write

In this go-go-go world, it's nice to know that some things still take quite a while to complete. Like the Great American Novel, for instance. Key quote:

Novel reading and novel writing require a depth of thought that our digital culture sometimes feels engineered to deny. The effects of this speeded-up, tilt-a-whirl environment have yet to be entirely parsed, but it's looking like we'll be reading differently.

Read the rest here.

The Colbert Cookie Report

Steven meets Sesame Street. Enjoy.

Today's APE Lang Column

Okay, this isn't a column, it's a transcript of a recent presentation. However, it's timely and intriguing. Enjoy "How is the Internet Changing Literary Style?"

New "Classics"

Entertainment Weekly just published its list of New Classics of the past 25 years. Atop the books category is Cormac McCarthy's The Road. That might work, but the list also includes Jon Stewart's America: The Book at number 100, yet doesn't include White Noise. Aargh!

Why the Schools-as-Business Model Doesn't Work

If schools have to compete like businesses, then they'll have to improve in order to keep their customers. So goes the thinking behind schools-of-choice. But fans of choice (read: politicians who know very little about the educational process) forget one flaw with the schools-as-business analogy: the raw materials/students that go into each factory/school come from extremely diverse sources. In some cases, students find themselves having to move from school to school multiple times in one year. It's no wonder why our urban schools struggle to keep pace while rural and suburban districts thrive. From today's New York Times:

In some of Flint’s elementary schools, half or more of the students change in the course of a school year — in one school it reached 75 percent in 2003. The moves are usually linked to low, unstable incomes, inadequate housing and chaotic lives, and the recent rash of foreclosures on landlords is adding to the problem, forcing renters from their homes.

Michigan is trying to help by offering money to families to keep them in their current homes, neighborhoods, and schools. More on the effort can be found here.

"I heard the news today" OH BOY!

I blogged about this a couple months ago, but it seems we're closer to getting The Beatles on Guitar Hero and RockBand. Did anyone out there pick up RockBand for the Wii? I'd love to know what you think of it.

Why I Won't Allow Cell Phones in the Lit Lounge

Don't tell me you're multitasking:

Multitasking might also be taking a toll on the economy. One study by researchers at the University of California at Irvine monitored interruptions among office workers; they found that workers took an average of twenty-five minutes to recover from interruptions such as phone calls or answering e-mail and return to their original task. Discussing multitasking with the New York Times in 2007, Jonathan B. Spira, an analyst at the business research firm Basex, estimated that extreme multitasking—information overload—costs the U.S. economy $650 billion a year in lost productivity.

I would've had this up sooner, but I had to answer two calls, read three emails, and write another five.

Scholarships for Teen Moms-to-Be

You've heard about the 17 or so girls in Gloucester, MA who supposedly agreed to get pregnant together, right? Now comes news that a local author wants to put together a scholarship program for teen moms in that town. That'll do the trick.

George Carlin - RIP

If you never had the chance to see him, be thankful for YouTube. This one, a sort of slam poem titled "Modern Man", showcases his brilliant observations of the 21st century.

APE Lang Column of the Day

It's the most emailed column at nytimes.com today - Thomas Friedman's take on President Bush's desire to drill for oil in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge.

Young @ Heart

See this movie. There is life, love, laughter, and rock music like you've never heard. I dare you to keep the Kleenex away when this group of seniors sings Coldplay's "Fix You".

Summer Reading - The First Two Weeks

Two weeks into summer vacation, and I've knocked off two books (and 1200+ essays): Bloomsday by Christopher Buckley and Greetings From Bury Park by Sarfraz Manzoor.

Buckley's responsible for Thank You For Smoking, and Bloomsday finds him in familiar satirical territory. This time, a young PR rep puts together a modern-day modest proposal to handle the challenge of an aging American population. It seems there are too many Baby Boomers who are sucking up the nation's Social Security funds. Her solution? Voluntary Transistioning. I'll let you figure it out.

Manzoor's memoir describes his quest to discover himself through the music of Bruce Springsteen. Born in Pakistan then raised in England, Mazoor is caught between the traditions of his homeland and the pull of Western culture. While he peppers his story with Springsteen anecdotes, the memoir is a rather uneven effort. For me, it's a lack of a clear voice in his writing. Having said that, it's still a good read, as Manzoor's story begins to jell in the final few chapters.

Juneteenth

Today marks the anniversary of Union soldiers announcing the end of the Civil War and freeing slaves in Texas. Here is more of the history, and why there's an effort to make it an official holiday.

Today's APE Lang Column

Question: If you were to run for office, would you use negative campaign tactics? Would you "swift-boat" your opponent? Will McCain and Obama be able to avoid traveling down the low road? That's the question Michael Kinsley asks in this week's issue of Time.

Top High Schools Update

After submitting our information to Newsweek, LHS now ranks 1211 on the annual list of America's Top High Schools. You may remember an earlier post where I claimed we were higher, and we were. However, once a number of schools submitted their stats to Newsweek, we ended up at our current rank.

This is our third straight year making the list, and our growth in that time is pretty impressive. LHS has doubled the percentage of seniors who've passed at least one AP exam since 2005. At the same time, the number of students who qualify for federal free lunches has gone up 33%.

Finally, when comparing LHS to other West Michigan schools, we're showing continued growth, while the others have either plateaued or dropped a bit.

New addition to the Lit Lounge

I'm a sucker for social justice and environmental issues. I found out about ilovemountains.org last night at The Swell Season show. If you'd like to make your voice heard, see the new widget to the right. Better yet, go here and see what your connection is to mountain top coal removal.

Top 10 Movies by Genre

The American Film Institute released its list of the Top 10 Movies by Genre this week. One of my fave's, Lawrence of Arabia, was named top epic film.

The Upside of $4/Gallon Gas

Five reasons here. They'll make the next fill-up tolerable.

Tim Russert Memorial - The Boss

The one person Russert could never get on Meet The Press was Bruce Springsteen. Here's The Boss during today's memorial:

Long, Amazing Day in the Windy City

I can't remember the last time I'd been up for nearly 24 hours, but I did it yesterday/today. The purpose of the trip was to see The Swell Season at the Chicago Theatre (more on that in a bit), but there was also a last-minute decision to take the train from Chesterton, IN to Chicago, a stroll through Millenium Park, the Art Institute, the Sears Tower, miles and miles of walking, a return train trip, and an exhausting drive home.

But, man, was it worth it.

However, our seats for the duo from Once - pre-sale tickets, mind you - were at the very back of the Chicago Theatre. After our sherpa brought us up to the base camp, we were ushered to bar stools for our concert pleasure. Bar stools. This didn't look good. To make matters worse, I forgot the binoculars. But we did enjoy commiserating with our fellow cheap seat mates - very nice people.

Three songs into The Swell Season's show, a guy came up behind us and asked if we'd like to sit in the FRONT ROW! I kid you not. We chugged down a gazillion stairs to move from worst to first. These were front row center seats. For the rest of the show, we stared in disbelief at our good fortune.

The show itself was simply amazing. You can't help but love these people - they're clearly enjoying this suprising success, and they played their hearts out. "Falling Slowly" became a sing-along, Glen honored my request for Van Morrison's "Into the Mystic", and the young lad below, Ethan, was ushered up to the stage to sing "Broken Hearted Hoover Fixer Sucker Guy" from the film. Apparently someone sent the YouTube link to Glen and Mar, they started a correspondence with the kid, and he made it to last night's gig.



Glen sang "Say It to Me Now" in full busker mode, sitting on the stage, belting it out, and spitting on my fiancee. As they played a pair of Frames songs in the encore, my cell phone alarm vibrated, reminding me that we had ten minutes to get to our train home. If we didn't make it, we'd have to wait until 1:45 AM our time for the next departure.

We made it. As the train pulled away. Brilliant.

APE Lang - Today's Column

One of the most respected columnists is George Will of The Washington Post. In this essay, he comments on Sen. McCain's response to the recent Supreme Court decision on habeus corpus and Guantanamo Bay.

Today's APE Language Column

In order to help you find some op-ed samples this summer, I'll post a link to a different columnist each day. Today, it's Bill Kristol, conservative writer for the NY Times, and his tribute to Tim Russert.

Replacing Russert

Meet the Press will never be the same, but if NBC is smart, they'll put Chuck Todd in Russert's chair.

On to Chicago!

Two shows in two nights. Tuesday night, it's Glen and Marketa, the duo from Once, my favorite movie of last summer. Can't wait to hear "Falling Slowly" and their cover of Van Morrison's "Into the Mystic".

The Robert Randolph Revival

Wow! Can I get an "AMEN!" from the choir? Robert Randolph and company rocked the Meijer Gardens tonight, and your humble blogger was upfront for the rock and roll baptism. Despite the boneheads behind us, we had a great time!

APE Lang - Op-Ed Columns

A few of you incoming APE Lang students have asked about the summer assignment; specifically, what I'm asking you to read. I want you to find five op-ed (opinion-editorial) columns from major newspapers or news magazines, read them, and react to them (the details are on the handout you received at the end of the school year).

"But where do we find these columns?" you ask. You can find them in The New York Times, The Washington Post, TIME, Newsweek, and many other publications. Remember, you're not looking for news articles; you want essays about the news.

Here's one from Anna Quindlen on why Obama and McCain need to pay careful attention to a specific voting bloc this fall.

Tim Russert - 1950-2008

Sad news for those who appreciate fair journalism: Tim Russert of NBC News died this afternoon.

New fave artist - Paul Thorn

Former welterweight boxer Paul Thorn is a multi-talented singer/songwriter/artist from Biloxi, Mississippi. I had the chance to see him play last weekend in Louisville, and I am offically impressed. A combination of Bruce Springsteen and John Hiatt, his music has a gritty feel that is honest and uplifting.

Day Eight Update

Home. Happy. Taking a nap.

Day Eight - The Adventure Continues

Flight to O'Hare delayed due to lack of crew. We have a plane, but no pilot. Lots of AP Spanish readers, but no pilot. Should return to GR early this afternoon. I hope.

Day Seven - We're Outta Here!

1263 essays, a 26.3% increase for yours truly. Our table wrapped up around 3 PM, then waited to see if any other essays would come our way. Over a thousand teachers/professors/grad students were released into the streets of Louisville at 5 PM.

But as you can see above, some of us were getting a little loopy much earlier. The liteary foil concept went right to our heads.

Home tomorrow morning.

Day Six - The End is Near

1125 read as of this afternoon. Brilliant essays on Owen Meany and Mayor of Casterbridge today. Unfortunately, due to the lack of readers, our final day will likely be a full day (in years past, the final day means reading just beyond lunchtime).

Tried my first White Castle sliders tonight. Not a good idea. Let's just say I'm happy we don't have them in West Michigan. Yikes.

But I am happy to be one day closer to home. I need a Ben and Emily fix. And I'd like to see the rest of you, too.

Day Five - English Majors as Groupies

My total is now 875 essays. I'm still waiting for a decent Kite Runner response - did see a beautiful take on Atonement, however. And a rant from a future University of North Carolina student who can't stand the Duke Blue Devils. He wrote about how he's looking forward to spending "for years at UNC." That might be the reason he didn't get into Duke.

Today's highlight was listening to, then meeting, Pulitzer Prize-winning poet Paul Muldoon. You owe it to yourself to read his work. For you incoming APE Lit students, we WILL be studying him next year. (That's your English Teacher-turned-geek with Paul Muldoon in the above pic.)

We're still working an extra half-hour each day, and I'm guessing we'll need to through Wednesday. But the company at Table 129 is good, and so are most of the essays.

Day Four - I've Hit the Wall

Today is the AP reading equivalent of Dead Puppy Wednesday. We're pooped, but the essays just keep on coming. Set a new personal one-day record today - 215 essays. Total to date: 640.

Lots of essays about Pride and Prejudice, The Kite Runner, Huck Finn, and Hamlet. Strangest Choice Award goes to The Cat in the Hat. It wasn't bad, actually.

Today's photos: The Greatest's corner, Roberto's Louisville Slugger signature, and the Galt House (that's me waving from the 19th floor).

Hot Dogs, Cracker Jacks, and Sushi?

Major League food gets major league treatment.

Day Three - Now We're Reading!

200 essays today. 425 since we started. Most of what I'm reading gives me hope for the Class of 2008 - I'm confident you fully-realized types have done well.

The only big problem so far is trying to get a bunch of US History and English Lit teachers up to their rooms via elevator - not a pretty picture.

The pic above is rather pretty, taken from my hotel room right after last night's ballgame. The one below: Detroit Tiger Fernando Rodney takes a breather after a brief appearance with the Toledo Mud Hens Friday night.

Day Two Highlights

I can't mention much about the reading until it's over, so I'll just say that we are going to be extremely busy for the next five days. Mother Nature did not help; some readers never made it to Louisville.

On the upside, Louisville Slugger Field is simply beautiful. Caught a pair of games between the Louisville Bats (Reds) and Toledo Mud Hens (Tigers). Hens won the first in 13 innings, but dropped the second by an 8-2 margin. I ran into one of the guys I read with in Daytona two years ago, a baseball, movie, and pop culture trivia guy (two of us in the same metro area - call the nerd police), and we're going to check some of the other local attractions this week.

Lots of good food, as long as we don't eat what they're serving at the reading. Nothing to get excited about.

Photos to come, probably tomorrow.

After our first full day of reading, I've tackled 225 essays. I'm hoping to break 1100 this year, maybe 1200.

Ahem. Someone call the Huge Show.

Told you so.

Day One - The Reading Begins

Well, I knew I could handle the prose prompt if I had to, and I really enjoyed the poetry prompt, so of course, that means I ended up assigned to the open essay. Question #3 - the function of a foil in a work of literature. It's not bad, really; I'm seeing a variety of choices so far. We're looking at range-finder essays, those that will help us determine scores for essays in the "live books" we'll attack later this afternoon.

Best essay I've read (so far) used Great Expectations. So there.

Live from Louisville!

Well, after a couple of delays, your humble blogger has made it to the APE Literature Reading. I'm in the Galt House (official hotel of the Kentucky Derby), on the 19th floor, with a view of the Ohio River and the Louisville Belle, a much bigger version of the Lowell Showboat.
We begin the reading process tomorrow at 8:30 and hope to wrap up sometime next Wednesday afternoon. Nothing but essays from 8:30-4:45 for one week. Good times.

Andy Warhol at GRAM

Saw this exhibit last weekend - a wonderful collection of classic pop art. You've got until June 15 to see it at the GRAM

Can't, I'm working right. . . LOOK! A BUTTERFLY!

New study shows people with ADHD do one-month's less work each year. And I only work nine months a year, so that means. . .

Friendly skies?

Not quite. United Airlines just announced they'll ground hundreds of flights due to rising oil prices. Guess who's flying the Friendly Skies this week? I'd better check to see if my flight's still a go.

And the fringe benefits are great!

New study suggests the average stay-at-home mom's salary would be in the six-figure range.

The Audacity of History

Barack Obama is the Democratic nominee for President of the United States. If you missed last night's speech, you should take a look - brilliant writing, passionate delivery. History.

As if you didn't know already. . .

Scientists have discovered the part of the brain that allows us to deliver and understand sarcasm.

Once you pop, you can't stop

The designer of the Pringle's canister died recently. And he's had a fitting burial.

Ode to the big yellow cheese box

Prediction: We'll see more students ride the bus next year due to soaring gas prices. Back in my day, we all rode the bus, when we weren't walking uphill, both ways, in the snow. And you know why we don't walk in the snow anymore, right? Global warming. Look that up in your Funk and Wagnalls.

Here's a report from NBC on the increase in mass transit usage in the past year.

I'm outta here!

One more day, then I'm off to Louisville for the APE Literature reading. Seven days of fun-filled essay reading. Don't you worry about ol' Tspelczech - I'll be fine. Watch this space for updates from along the Ohio River in the week to come.

Bo Diddley - 1928-2008

One of rock's greatest died today - here's a taste of Bo, complete with his homemade guitar, live with Tom Petty on "Mona".