my first hallway display.

So, my class project last Friday asked students to create a visual expression of the oppression faced by the characters in Mark Mathabane's autobiography, Kaffir Boy. The students were asked to choose one significant or poignant excerpt from the text and interpret it visually using imagery and symbolism. I bought a huge block of terra cotta colored self-drying clay that attempted to emulate the color of the desert in Africa..a bit of a stetch. The students were building their visual literacy while their teacher got to sit and sculpt all day. I was really impressed with the results and have included some images from the display case in the K building that I arranged yesterday.

This afternoon was the English department's Mexican themed BBQ. I tried mango tequila and consumed a delicious meal made by Ray Gen, our veteran AP Language teacher and resident chef. I will try to upload some photos soon.

Pictures: Top: The cabinet (it looks better in person..) 2) J's manacles and truncheon (both vocab words!) 3) B's child curled up- it is so detailed and tiny 4) E's skull and bone

room K215

Just returned from a delicious dinner at Su Casa on Main St. with Sarah and Elina, my two favorite faculty members. Today was very hectic- STAR (the California standards test program) examinations were all morning and then all of the seniors rushed in after their mandatory meeting. Today, as I looked up at my classroom during a moment of relative calm and lucid thought, I realized that it is starting to feel a bit like home. ..included are some pictures of my space.


Tomorrow is the English department BBQ at Ray's house and then Friday is my departure to San Francisco for the long weekend. I cannot wait- Amy has the entire weekend planned, including shopping, dining, hiking in Muir Woods and probably meeting up with Letitia and her sister as she will be visiting the same weekend. In other news, I have joined a writers circle, which I have been assured is equally an opportunity to convene and drink wine. Some of my favorite people from the Fine Arts and English department will be meeting and sharing original writing over wine and cheese. It has been so long since I have sat down and seriously wrote, especially prose, so I am equally excited and apprehensive about the idea. I will probably include any writing here before I submit it fresh to the entire tenured faculty of my school. I had initially intended for this site to be a place to exercise my literary muscle but have found that I have regressed, as per my usual routine, into an obnoxious journal-like account of my daily banal existence.

Pictures- Top: The view from my desk 2) We are focused thematically on "Oppression" as part of our unit 3) Pictures and key facts about South Africa during Apartheid 4) Macbeth large scale characters from our Shakespeare Unit..Lady Macbeth looks a little too hot. 5) My desk area.

day of rest.

So, after a much overbooked weekend- I am finally resting up in my room with a cup of hot coffee and stacks of essays from the NPR "This I Believe" assignment I have yet to complete. Yesterday was exhausting but incredibly fun. I spent all morning with the girls at John O' Groats for brunch and then a marathon drinking session. It was sunny and beautiful in MB and it felt incredibly indulgent to be tipsy on the beach at three in the afternoon. After an hour of recuperation, I headed out to Hollywood for drinks at Amagi's and experienced the cultural shock that can only be described as "the worst of L.A." Lots of industry types but loads of fun because of the company I kept. Next, we headed to "Meanwald's" apartment for late night drinks and kickball reminiscing with the lineup of the Grassy Best. Meanwald and Evie from Emerson are officially a couple and I could not be happier- I have never seen her so giddy...and sniffing his laundry at the party. weird. Today, I am going to do absolutely nothing. perfect.

Pics: Top: Manhattan Beach sunset, Bottom Right: Meanwald (co-founder of Grassy Best) and I

ucla arch grad students wear hot shorts

Some pictures from the delightful dinner party thrown last night by Natasha at her apartment in the Mid-Wilshire district. Mostly kids from UCLA doing grad work in urban planning and architecture- Amber is finishing up there and is close friends with all. Delicious food and a great chance for me to see Tish and Ed, play with Truman, one of the cutest dogs I've ever met, and start a small but lively dance party.

Dan Flavin Retrospective

I feel as though the last several months (actually years...) have pulled me further away from the arts than I feel comfortable with. Thus, this upcoming retrospective is overwhelming. Dan Flavin is one of the artists that first inspired me to pursue art history as an undergraduate as well as first consider a possible career in the curatorial vein. I cannot wait to visit LACMA in the upcoming weeks. Read below for a description of the exhibition from the Times:

Dan Flavin: A Retrospective

May 13–August 12 | Modern and Contemporary Art Building

This is the first comprehensive exhibition devoted to minimalist artist Dan Flavin's full career. Organized by Dia Art Foundation in association with the National Gallery of Art, Washington, and co-curated by Michael Govan, LACMA CEO and Wallis Annenberg Director, and Tiffany Bell, Director of the Dan Flavin catalogue raisonné, the exhibition features more than forty of Flavin's seminal fluorescent light works. Also presented is a special reconstruction of the corridors made for the E.F. Hauserman Co. showroom, formerly located at the Pacific Design Center in Los Angeles. This will be the final destination of a multi-venue tour.

"Perhaps because Flavin is known so well as one of the founders of minimalism, his work has rarely been considered in all of its breadth and innovation before this retrospective," said Michael Govan, LACMA CEO and Wallis Annenberg Director. "Flavin was one of the inventors of what we now know as 'installation art' and his groundbreaking use of color and light in architecture has been emulated not only in art, but in design and architecture. I count him among the most important figures in twentieth century art."

Untitled (For you, Leo, in long respect and admiration) 2, 1977

Grassy Best Highlights

So, one of my favorite artsy students has officiallybeen commissioned to paint a stealth "pamther" with huge claws gripping a kickball. I cannot wait to see the end result. Until then, some pictures from Monday's post-game celebrations......

MVP

So, I am sitting in full recovery mode after the opening game of the Grassy Best kickball season last night. Our shirts were ironed (the "pamther" prominently displayed) and green cupcakes sat plumply, waiting for our hungry mouths. The final score? 6-2. And..I made a run. I kicked the crap out of the ball and frankly, someone on the other team probably messed up because I actually made it to first base (you do not realize how many puns are possible in this sport. They abound.) The game ended with a Grassy cheer (Kiss my grass, umm..of course) and all 100 kickballers ended up at the bar drinking beers and ordering hot wings. 4 hours later, it was 12:15, I had lost my glasses and thus sense of any night vision, and I found myself driving home soaked (literally, my leggings were soaked) in beer due to a clumsy accident at around 10. Oh, and the best news- I made MVP of the night....which basiclly means I get to decorate a huge foam hand and had even more beers forced on me last night. Till next Monday.....

Lovely

The Peasant Declares His Love
Emile Roumer

High-yellow of my heart, with breasts like tangerines,
you taste better to me than eggplant stuffed with crab,
you are the tripe in my pepper-pot,
the dumpling in my peas, my tea of aromatic herbs.
You are the corned beef whose customhouse is my heart,
my mush with syrup that trickles down the throat.
You're a steaming dish, mushroom cooked with rice,
crisp potato fries, and little fish fried brown .
My hankering for love follows you wherever you go.
Your bottom is a gorgeous basket brimming with fruits and meat.

Roumer was born in Haiti in 1908. He was educated in France and wrote poetry for only a few short years- 1930-1935. This poem has been translated from the French by John Peale Bishop.

Each morning at 7:05

Each morning at 7:05, I amble bleary-eyed and slightly wobbly through the heavy wooden door of classroom K215. After a few seconds of fumbling with my dingy cotton tote and finding an empty space for the almost caustic and frankly unpalatable coffee I suckle each morning...I look up at her. I cannot fathom why, in a classroom full of modern whiteboards and "stainless steel" emulated pushpins, (neurotic would be an understatement for my classroom design sense) I find such solace and release in the decadence of this painting. Each morning, as I clear the piles of essays and scraps of referrals and post-its from across my dusty desk, I sink into the watery, soft, and cascading silk of her bodice and wish that fluorescent lighting had never been invented.

Jean-Auguste-Dominique Ingres

Princess de Broglie

1851-53 Oil on canvas

Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York

So, tomorrow is my second "happiest night of your life" night of my life. The dress is hanging languidly over my chair and my hairspray and shiny rose gloss lay neighboring. "Prom 2007."