"Uncle Tony's Goat"

I love stories that talk about people's childhood. Whenever I heard/or read about an incident that may have happened to someone when they were younger my mind can't help but wander and allow to me reminisce about my own childhood experiences. Its funny the way she describes the goat, a pretty harmless animal, with such terror. I personally don't care for goats either so I understand; they were probably my least favorite animal at the petting zoo growing up. The story shows that childlike innocence that even though the goat attacked her she worries about what will happen to him. This was a nice piece to read, and Silko did a great job at expressing a variety of feelings children normally feel.

"A Sea Worry"

The title of this piece is really creative and a nice play on words. I love that the parents actually took the time to observed a hobby their son seemed so passionate about, and to wake up so early at that, was incredible. In most children's life parents don't take a big desire or care to see a passion their child has from a first hand account/perspective. Growing up near the beach my entire life I had a lot of guy friends that surfed and her description hit the nail on the head. However, I don't think that not being able to describe something you are passionate about is limited to just surfing. Its often times hard to assign words to feels when deal with something passionate because those words might be able to describe some of the emotions but not all; and you want to make you can describe the feeling to fullest. 

"A Girl Among Trombonists"

Starting the piece with a picture is a great way to get the audience to think about/attract the audience into the piece. The caption below it that states "I was a pioneer: first girl trombonists in my high school." allows the reader to formulate opinions on what they might think the passage is going to be about. Maybe because I'm not a "band geek" nor do I know how to play any instrument but I never really knew that being a female trombonist was such a big deal. However, the characters juvenile approach to feminism shows that at the time she probably wasn't truly a feminist, rather just what she though a feminist was. The scene where she describes being felt up by male members of the band but her not seeing the big deal in it, rather they were just practicing because their girlfriends weren't letting them seems to lack some logic to me. Overall it was a nicely written piece and provided some insight on a topic I had no prior knowledge about. 

"What Fundamentalists Need For Their Salvation"

This piece was somewhat annoying. I hate when people allow their emotions to get the best of them when trying to argue a point. However I understand when arguing a view point one tends to have a hard time separating the personal feelings/sentiments which often times can cloud the logic behind a lot of things. Politics and religion are just two topics that are so hard to talk about and clearly express ideas. I had read several parts of this passage over and over again before I could grasp its full meaning, I'm still not sure I walked away with everything. Definitely not one of my favorite pieces at all. 

"Holocaust Girls/Lemon" - S.L. Wisenberg

It's hard for me to read things about the Holocaust with out being sad. Just knowing that the excerpt has to do with the Holocaust already makes me read it in a different tone, and I'm not sure why that is exactly. I was born and raised Catholic but because I have such a good relationship with my Jewish friends I feel as though its somewhat part of me. I couldn't quite  figure out why she numbered each subsection but also took away from the more "homey" feel of sub-section titles. The way she wrote seemed very to the point and matter of fact about things and that also added to tone of the piece. 

Louis Riel

[First, I love when we have comics, its such a relief from all the reading and its just nice at this age to have pieces still created that seems so elementary but truly aren't.]


Maybe I'm just the only one out of the loop on the situation but even though the historical time frame is normally helpful, I really had no idea what the comic was talking about. Of all the comics I would say that I enjoyed this one the least. However, I do like the us of language/dialect help develop the characters and made understand what I did retain from the reading easier.

"A Path Taken, with All the Certainty of Youth"

If forced to put this excerpt into a genre I would be able to pick one out, though it is a memoir in  the sense is also tells the authors story almost similar to that of a mini-biography. I do enjoy how she described he journey, or lack there of a journey for that matter, to how she became a writer. I love where she says "In biographies there is usually some determining moment in early life that predicts the course of the future artist or scientist or politician." Easily sums up how she feels and she realizes she never really had that moment it just happened for her. Even admitting that her first poem she ever wrote wasn't good. Its funny because a lot of times people end up in careers that they may have no planned for, rather it just happened for them. 

"Persia on the Pacific"

These are the type of stories I enjoy reading, memoir style that is easy to follow, and interesting to read, the other did a great job of catching and keeping my attention. I like the invented word that fused "Iran" and "Los Angeles" to create "Irangeles" it made me slightly smile while reading it. I love how he talks about how a second generation views their culture and the pride for their culture as opposed their parents (the first generation) to be in the United States few the same topic so drastically different. I find it crazy because it is so easy to relate to. For example, with myself, though raised in the United State my entire life I still find I have more pride for my Haitian roots than my mom does and she is the first generation to be born in the United States. The examples he uses to describe how the parents feel, seems to be a scenario I can imagine either being in myself or another relative having. I think this was a great story especially as person that comes from multi-cultures. I love how they also compared Iranians in the U.S. and Europe to Cubans in Miami (great reference for me to relate to)!! 

Across the Wire

When Urrea first began the story I wasn't sure what he could be talking about with the sub-section title being "Trash". However, the extreme poverty he describes, though the situation terrible, he manages to articulate the description so well it seems to have a calming/serene feel to it. As weird as that sounded I hope it made sense. For example, after he goes on to describe the weather though he says things like "colds makes their lips bleed" he describe the baby being wrapped for warmth but tin a trash bag. I enjoyed how it broke up the entire into these little sub categories it was like you got a snap shot into all the different little scenes happening around the area because had the entire story been about one thing it may have been viewed as winded. My favorite part was the "Coffee" section where he describes the "for the dump, anyway -- especially luxurious house"the statement in itself is an oxymoron but he does a good job with descriptions, as throughout.

Poop On the Job

I haven't had too many different jobs but my most interesting for sure would have to be waitressing. You come in contact with so many people, and so many different type of people at that, your bond to make some memorial moments. These memories make the time at work pass by so much faster. 


A couple come into the restaurant and with their 2 children and occupy a table that typically seats six. Just as one of the servers is greeting them, the younger child begins to scream. The mom embarrassed desperately tries to quiet the child. Just as the Mom turns her head the toddler, who was just wearing a diaper for god know what reason, rips off the dirty diaper and sends it flying in the air. The diaper's landing was far from sweet, as it sails into the air crashing at an adjacent table that was enjoying their appetizer. 


Poop everywhere. 


At this point I can't control my laughter and I'm glad I'm not the kitchen staff who has to clean it up. 

Didn't Know It Was You

The worst thing that could possibly happen would be if while workshopping my work a student wasn't sure of my name or knew the paper they were reading belonged to me. That wouldn't even be that bad the most embarrassing thing would be if I was over hearing a conversation about problems with my paper and the people talking about it have no idea that it was me. Once in high school we did work hopping but didn't put our names on the papers and one of my friends had my paper and would not stop talking about the flaws or "stupid" things in my paper. I sat there and just kept it to myself and but needless to say our friendship slowly faded and when she read my paper on the day I was going to turn it in her face read her thoughts, "Oooooh...I didn't know it was you". EPIC FAIL. 

Seperation

Most people can always relate to a bad separation or a bad divorce. Most times when I speak to anyone about my parents getting a divorce I normally hear a lot of "I completely understand"s but really sometimes I question whether that person does understand or does it just seem like the appropriate thing to say? I know plenty of people can understand because a lot of families go through divorces. But I just think that the majority of people who aren't from a divorced family normally try to relate it to a really bad break up. I guess when it comes down to it heartache is heartache. </3 

Persepolis

One thing I immediately noticed was the style of the comic, all of it was black and white and barely any shading. The drawings were somewhat dark and gothic but still fitting. The topic at hand was so controversial especially the way it started with the women veiled and then to the class picture where you would expect her to be and she isn't. The fact that she was not even in the mini-class photo, the audience at first assumed she would be in the frame. I also appreciated the naive childhood innocence that she possessed by wanting to be a prophet. 

For the interview with Marjane Satrapi, a line that hit the hardest was "hard times depicted bring out the worst in people". Its the trust, whenever you think of tragic moments that have been reported upon, most times the victims are depicted horribly. Only making me think of the Hurricane Katrina disaster and other disasters like those that happen in countries like Haiti.