I am with you in Rockland

One of my favorite poems is Howl by Allen Ginsburg. I like this poem so much that I keep it in this nook under my dashboard in my car. I was introduced to Allen Ginsburg’s poetry by my friend Michael, the one that I have blogged about before. He recently has been keeping a copy of Howl in is car. The book I have is a collection of poems including Howl. My favorite line from Howl is: “I'm with you in Rockland where we are great writers on the same dreadful typewriter.” It just has always been a line that pops out at me every time I read it. I think it is because that great writers are a slave to the work they do, the same goes for great painters, musicians, or athletes. They love what they do but at the same time they dread it. This line could go for anything, it could go for we are the great football players playing with the same dreadful football. I know that sounds corny, but that the conclusion I have come to after analyzing this song. Another line that I really like is: “ I'm with you in Rockland where we hug and kiss the United States under our bed sheets the United States that coughs all night and won't let us sleep.”

Book Club

As nerdy as these sounds, I have always wanted to start a book club. I was talking to my friends about it and I think that a biweekly book meeting would be really fun. I think two weeks is usually enough time for people to have time to read a book. However, when I feel like I am forced to read a book I am really unmotivated to read it. I blame this on high school required reading. In my junior year, I was forced to read about the delightful puritans in The Scarlet Letter. Without a doubt when someone ask me what is the worst book you ever read, that one come to mind first. It is not that I do not like classics, I like Charles Dickinson. I just was completely bored with it; I hated the way the writing structure was dragging and everything about it. Because I was forced to read that book (because if I didn’t I would of failed the test) I am so unmotivated to read anything assigned. I might try the book club anyway though.

Note from Ashli’s roommate on the subject.*
The Scarlet Letter is the most dry and dull piece of fiction ever written next only in comparison to that damned and insufferable Tale of Two Cities.
Curse and burn these books. Now everyone go read some Kurt Vonnegut and Jack Kerouac and enlighten yourself beyond the standardized structure of your conformist high school education.

I am Still Just a Big Kid

My roommate was just telling me a story about how she thought that her boyfriend my have proposed to her the other night. She said that he had been looking at diamond rings in magazines and she come in the room and he act kind of weird. So, I started thinking about what I would do if my boyfriend would pop out a ring. I really do not know if I say yes or no, because I really love my boyfriend, but I feel that I am too you to get married. I really just not ready to be tied down yet and I do not plan for having kids for another ten years. That is if I decide to have kids at all, because I want to venture the world once I am out of college. I really do not want to be Mrs. June Cleaver and have dinner on the table at six, and greet my husband when he comes home from work. It’s just to me, when I am in my twenties, I think that is still too young to start settling down. It’s different for everyone, because some people do want to have, kids and get married you. I respect that completely, I’m just not ready for that because right now I am just a big kid myself.

South Park

Yes. Yesterday, I was trapped watching South Park. I mean, we all have those moments. In this episode, it was about how the entire United States was out of internet and everyone was freaking out. My favorite line out of the entire show was, “We don’t have the internet to find out why we don’t have the internet.” I mean as much as the show exaggerates situations, I think that if America was out of internet then people would really freak out. I would, because I use the internet as communication, to find news, listen to music, watch Lost, everything. I think that everyone would be angry without it because most people really do use the internet for everything. In the episode, everyone was driving to a valley in California because there was a bar of internet there. Where the internet was, there was a Red Cross camp set up. Everyone could only have about forty seconds of internet. I do not think that a red cross would be set up, if in reality no one had internet. It is just hard to think of how to live with out internet, and that is really sad. I think we can all remember that not even seven or eight years ago, the internet was not used nearly as much as it is now. I guess that shows how we are in a digital revolution, or whatever.

Good Thing Youre Drug Free When Youre Pregnant

It really irritates me when people are so open about be clean after being a junkie. For example, my friend Jacey and I were looking at one our friend’s ex-girlfriends on myspace. She had a default picture of herself and on her hand it said, “Drug Free since 04/16/08. Wow, good for that girl she has been drug free for three days. Also, this girl is pregnant. I am not trying to bash this girl; this is not what this blog is about at all. This is about how people are proud they do drugs. By that girl broadcasting that she has been clean for only three days, she wants people to know that she has obviously been addicted to drugs. It is ridiculous when people think they are cool for doing drugs, I have had friends who have completely screwed up there lives from drugs. I still see some of my friends suffer from it. I have seen someone die because of it, seen people and is still seeing people ruled by a drug. I think that drugs can create an outlet for creativity and other doors; however people have got to learn how to do it in moderation. To close this, I just want to say if you do drugs do not tell the entire world that is something personal.

Why Women Should Rule the World

When I was reading This is Why we Lost to the White Man on AtlanticMonthly.com I saw an advertisement for a book called Why Women Should Rule the World. I was way more excited about that book than anything else I have been for a while. So, I googled a summary for it. The book is by Dee Dee Myers and the main argument in it “Women tend to be better communicators, better listeners, better at forming consensus." I am not as much as a feminist as my friends make me out to be, however I am just fed up with the shit I get from men. I worked at Radioshack for a year, nine out of ten times when a man had a technical question they would ask a male worker rather than me. Not to vain, but I knew more than most of the men I worked with there. Also, once at Radioshack I was the top sales associate in the district for two months for selling cell phones, and all the guys behind my back would say, “It is because she has boobs.” I mean we were all friends and everything, but they were still bias towards me because I was female. Over the summer I read a book call The Average American Male, and it is a memoir written by a man. The book made me dislike men even more because some guys out there are so selfish and giant heart breakers. Now I am going to BookStar to get Why Women Should Rule the World.

This is Why We Lost to the White Man

I would have never expected this article to be about Bill Cosby. Wendy might have told us that in class, but I was late into class when she was talking about. The only way I knew to read this article was because the girl next to me had written on a sheet of paper, blog This is how We Lost to the White Man. So I hope we have to write about it, and even if we do not me really enjoyed the article. I must say that this is the most interesting article, or the one I have enjoyed most the entire semester so far. The article was written very well and grabbed my attention. For example, like describing the audience really grabbed my attention, and also he used the word euphoria. That word is one of my favorite words; and I think that the definition is beautiful and that the word has a clear sound. Anyway, also another striking sentence is that: “Cosby hired the Harvard psychiatrist Alvin Poussaint to make sure that the show never trafficked in stereotypes and that it depicted blacks in a dignified light.” I would have never thought that Bill Cosby would have worked that hard on the show not to have stereotypes on his “gig.” I really admire him for that, this article made me feel dumb because when I think of Bill Cosby I think of The Cosby Show and Kids say the Darnest Things. I never thought of him clenching his fist and saying, “Where are you men?”

Radiohead and the Beach

So in about three weeks I am going to be out of school and driving to Atlanta with my best friend, my boyfriend, and my brother-like figure to see Radiohead. I can not wait; it is going to be such and amazing experience. I have been waiting to see Radiohead for about three years now, and at last I can see them. I almost feel like I will be complete once I see them. After I see Radiohead, we are all driving to Myrtle Beach and staying for a couple of days. I have only been to the beach once, which was on a cross country trip. However, the day we went was a cloudy day, and it was a red flag so I could not even go that far into the water, at all. Hopefully, this will not happen again when I go to the beach. Myrtle Beach is the clearest beach in the country and going there after school gets off is the ideal way to be free. I can not wait to sink my toes into the sand, and run into the waves. I know that sounds really cheesy but it is the truth; that is probably the first thing that I am going to do when I get to the beach. I would go running on the beach, I always thought that would be fun, but I have ran in sand before and it sucks.

Allegory of the Caves

I got an A on my philosophy paper and I am really happy. Now that I know that this paper is not crap I would like to post the part of it about The Allegory of the Caves. This is in The Republic by Plato, and I really do not like Plato’s philosophy that much but I liked this so here it is:
The Allegory of the Caves begins with four people tied up in a horizontal line of chairs facing a wall, and they can not see each other. These people have been looking at nothing but this wall their entire lives, and one day they start to see shadows on this wall. They begin creating theories and discussing what these shadows can be. Eventually, one of the people becomes untied and is blinded by the light. In this story blinded is more along the lines of dazzled; but this person has never seen light so his eyes are not use to it and slowly begins to see. He begins to walk and the cave proceeds to slope upwards, and he sees a low wall. There are people walking back and forth on the wall carrying different man made articles with shining light behind them. This is what is causing the shadows on the walls, because this person realizes that as the people move so do the shadows. He walks past the walls and sees a fire, not a small fire but a big fire like a bonfire. This person comes to think that it is not just the people making the shadows; it is the light from the fire creating the shadows. This person continues up the slope in the cave and sees light from the entrance. This person is overwhelmed by the sun, and blown away by the colors and the shapes that are outside of the cave. He realizes that the sun is allowing him to see everything. He realizes what is in the cave is some fictional story and what is out of the cave is real. After all this joy, this person becomes angry because he has been in a cave his entire life and has not been able to experience the world outside of the cave. Soon he experiences feelings of pity, so he goes back into the cave to get the other prisoners and tells them about the shadows and what is outside the cave. However, the people do not believe him and get angry. Socrates is supposed to be this person in this allegory. He is trying to bring the people to light, which symbolizes knowledge, but they will not allow him to. The shadow images are supposed to represent the categories of imagination, and knowledge is the light.

Championship Game

So, I have not vented my feelings through blog about the game on Monday night. There are two words that give a very good description of how I felt. Very pissed. I worked all Monday night and when we closed( I work at Bed, Bath, and Beyond) the current score would be annouced every five to ten minutes. I got out early at ten thirty and my friend I work with and I drove very fast to Chillis, and caught the tail end of overtime. Everyone in CHillis was angry and yelling at the TV screens. After the game, it was dead silent. This is when I realized that Memphis is a cursed city, because nothing historically good ever happens. What I mean is that the history books always have bad things that Memphis is known for. I mean that besides Elivis, our good food, and St. Jude everything else to think about is the crime rate. However, once I got over my very angry feelings about the final game I was still happy that our team had a great season. I think that what they achieved is something that the city and our school should be very proud of. So Go Tigers!

In Remembrance there is Life

Last night at The Grand Central Station, which use to be train station but now holds events; I worked at an event called In Remembrance there is Life: A Night of Storytelling. This was a tribute to Martin Luther King Jr.; he was shot 40 years ago as of yesterday. Many speakers spoke like Jesse Jackson, Dorothy Cotton, Billy Kyles, and many more. I was working there rolling cables for my half-internship kind of deal for WKNO. So, I did not have to do anything during the presentations and so I listened to the speakers. Like most people, I have heard a lot about Mr. King, and I sometimes think I know more about him than I need to know. However, tonight this ceremony really changed my outlook on Martin Luther King. The presentation was divided into four segments: The Early Days, The Turbulent Times, The Final Days, and Legacy. The ceremony was opened in prayer and unity, the audience stood around the tables that they sat in and joined hands. The Early Days open with a slide of pictures of Martin Luther King, some slides of marches, and protest. The speakers for The Early Days were Dorothy Cotton, Wyatt “Tee” Walker, and C.T.

The Early Days

Williams. C.T. Williams spoke first, his most powerful story was when he was telling about how Martin Luther King (I am going to start abbreviating with MLK) C.T., and a few other people were gathered in MLK’s living room. He said that they were all listening to the radio broadcasting news about voting. C.T. had said something like, “We need to do something about us being able to vote,” and MLK replied, “The time is now.” Everyone in the room started to cheer and get really excited, except for MLK who sat still and had a tear in his eye. Wyatt “Tee” Walker said that he knew MLK best for his humor, despite the media calling him unsmiling King. Out of the three speakers in this group, Dorothy Cotton had the best speech. She also mentioned MLK’s sense of humor, and said that the media twisted around the movement’s mood. She said the movement was serious and that many sad things did happen during it; however she said that it brought them together and a lot of it was fun. This proves how the media just twist many things around, and how they use propaganda to make the stories the way they want them to be. She also sang a song with rewritten words of “We can change the World,” to the tune of the song Jacob’s ladder.

The Turbulent Times

The next section was The Turbulent Times, and had a slide presentation just like The Early days. The speakers in this group were Tony Brown, Myrile Evers-Williams, and Clarence Jones. Tony Brown spoke about how he named the march to Washington D.C. the march of Freedom. Also, he was talking about how he thought MLK would be happy once he was famous. Yet, MLK had a physiological depression because he was always in fear of his life and his family’s life. Myrile had a very powerful speech. She said very proudly that she never marched or personally ever talked to MLK, however she used his teachings daily. Her husband was in the NAACP and was shot at their front door step. She said she remembered hearing the car pull up in the drive was, it stop, and then the shot of the gun. Her children crawled to the bathroom grabbing their other sibling as the father told them to incase that incident ever happened. She remembered MLK at her husband’s funeral, and he had a handkerchief wiping his face. Not because he was crying, but because he knew that he also might have his life not last as long as he like to. She told how she would try to vote, and people would ask well how many beans are in this jar or how many bubbles are in this bar of soap. Her story made me disgusted with humanity, because only fifty years ago and still today degrading acts happen like this.

The Final Days Part One

The fourth section was called The Final Days (it also had a slide presentation), the speakers in this section were Jesse Jackson, Billy Kyles, and Ben Hooks. All three of these speakers had very strong emotional speeches. Ben Hooks said a very meaningful statement in his speech, he said, “The civil rights movement did not start in the 1950s, the civil rights movement started in 1619.” This really spoke out to me; I never really thought about how many centuries that African Americans were denied privileges and freedom. Jesse Jackson had teary eyes the majority of the time he was talking. My notes that I took for Jesse Jackson are really blurry, but I remember that he mentioned that they MLK and everyone in the movement were in constant terror. I also remember that Jesse Jackson was one of the few speakers that went on stage with out any notes or books. His speech was in his head, and straight from the heart. I think that is why he had tears in his eyes, because everything he said was sincere storytelling. Billy Kyles was my favorite speaker of the evening, he was very articulate and his story gave me the chills. Billy Kyles was with MLK his last hour. Kyles mentioned that he could not believe that it had been forty years since the incident, and it has been a year older than MLK was. MLK was only 39 when he was assassinated. Billy Kyles said that MLK was waving at people below the balcony at the motel, and then Kyles heard a shot. Kyles held bleeding MLK who had been shot in the right side of his neck.

The Final Days

Billy Kyles said, “Forty years ago I did not have any words to explain my feeling about that moment, and I still do not to this day. “ He closed his speech with repeating “Just because the dreamer is dead does not mean that the dream is dead.”
The last section was Legacy and in this section Mayor David Dinkins spoke, and honestly he w a horrible speaker. He ran over his speech time rambling for thirty minutes, and I did not hear him say anything incredibly significant. However, one of the sponsors of the event from Harrahs Casinos spoke briefly. He said that if it was not for the speakers and their friends that were at the ceremony then he would not be were he was today. He said that he remembers his mother coming home crying the night MLK was shot. She was a maid, and the woman she works for made her work at a party she was throwing. This party was celebrating that MLK was dead. This made chills go up my spine, just that people can be so cruel and disgusting. However, when you think about people in the movement, you realize how brave and selfless they were being. These people in the movement were trying to help themselves, but at the same time they knew they would be helping generations to come. Last night I realized that MLK is more than an icon in a history book; I always knew that he did a lot for our country. Yet, last night I realized how much he sacrificed, and how much blood and tears he shed for everyone to have equal rights.