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Stuff you must read today (Sat, 26 Jun 2010)
- Hooked on Gadgets, and Paying a… Oh look – new mail!
- Filial piety: fine feelings and hard work
- Don’t worry, be happy
- Are the effects of pornography negligible?
- Toot
The NY Times article in question is here.
Why the “Filial Piety” ad is a bad one.
“The photos might look bleak, but I don’t feel sorry for these gentle and giving folk. I admire their hardiness, humility and humour. You need these qualities to find opportunities in a puddle, a solitary slide or a computer lab stuck firmly in the early 90s.”
A Universite de Montreal professor refutes the demonization of pornography.
“This is also one of only five identified situations in which a vuvuzela is actually appropriate”.
Richard III: The Man and his Ideas.
I know some of you are still confused about the characters and the action in the play, so I’m going to share some web resources with you, which I hope will provide you with more guidance in your study of Richard III.
What’s important is that you invest some time and effort into reading all the material including your text. You must also actively re-read your materials and refer to them continuously e.g. refer to the family trees as you read the history. This will help you make the connections which you need to better understand the play.
If you do this diligently and in a disciplined fashion, I guarantee that you will see the academic pay-off sooner than later.
- Student Guide to the Play.
This Insight Text Guide may be a six-page preview but I think it will help to clarify some of your doubts. - A Brief History of Richard III and the War of the Roses.
I covered this in my introductory lecture, which can be found on Moodle along with notes for revision. If you feel that you need more background context/information, you can find it here:- You Can’t Tell the Players without a Scorecard.
This is a simplified history which is quite different from the action in the play. Please bear this in mind when you read this article. - Richard III – A Man and his Times
Another summarised history, which again is very different from the play we are studying. I’d like you to read this for insight into writing style; the tone of this article differs from the previous as it tries to dissuade the reader from believing the traditional portrayal of Richard III.
- You Can’t Tell the Players without a Scorecard.
- Family Trees.
Last but not least, many family trees which you must refer to when you read the above material or the play, so that you can attempt to map the interactions between each character, or at least differentiate one similarly-named character from the other. A gentle reminder: there is also a Plantagenet Family Tree on p. 262 of your text.
Stuff you must read today (Wed, 23 Jun 2010)
- Don’t judge an estate by its report.
- Twilight for Men.
- Release of Statistics Booklet – Population in Brief 2010
- Vampire Dog
- The Live-and-Let-Live System in Trench Warfare in World War I.
A Potong Pasir resident’s view of the Town Council Management Report (inclusive of a personal story which you must read).
Someone needs to start writing this already.
Oh my. This is rather troubling.
Chupacabra!
Hmmm.
Toy Story 3: “easily the best film of 2010″.
Well, the title says it all.
I got the quote off a post off Huffington Post and the picture from this site which has a pretty cute review.
First things first, or, how you know the movie’s really good – I’m writing a sort of review on it, something I rarely do unless I am immensely moved or immensely pissed off by something.
However, I’m not providing any specific examples from the film so that I don’t spoil the film for you.
Why I like Toy Story 3 so much is because it’s packed with so much goodness in it that it has something valuable for everyone.
For example,
- Entertaining and humorous storyline for the kids: Check.
- Tearjerker/romance/comedy/action elements for the various segments of the adult population: Check.
- Concepts like existentialism for the literary geeks: Ch – WTF?
Yes, I’m serious. You can even see some Freudian psychology (yeah I know it’s passe but still) at work in terms of the life drive/Eros/self-preservation instinct that some characters portray.
Some other literary aspects of the film that appeal to me:
- The plot has been crafted very well and fits together very tightly, such that there is adequate closure to each conflict that arises, which allow the round characters to progress in a convincing fashion,
- The conflicts are both plausible and palpable – what each character goes through is at no times trite or contrived, and last but not least,
- What really had me in awe was the film’s employment of a literal deus ex machina that leverages on a series of motifs from the fim/within the Toy Story trilogy. It’s cheesy and a tad predictable if you’ve been following the clues in the film – but it’s done very well.
So please go and watch Toy Story 3 if you can. Even if you can’t appreciate the literary aspects of it, I think you’ll appreciate the truths about life that the film depicts.
P.S. No, I haven’t been paid to plug the film, but I wouldn’t mind a free t-shirt if anyone could get me one of these babies.