Media Connections to MTPOD

http://nymag.com/nymetro/urban/gay/features/5947/index1.html

This is a great article about "coming out" as gay to your parents and community. i think that it would be good for a person to read this before reading the story so they have a little background about how hard it is admitting you are gay. its so easy for sedaris to talk about being gay and it just helps to know what he went through in a way. it also talks about how new york is one of the easiest places to come out that your gay. it gives a little insight on why he moved to new york.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YBdymtyXt8Y

This is a link to a video of david sedaris on the david letterman show. I think that this would be good to watch before reading the book because i think that it is important to see the author and hear his voice. I feel that after reading the book and then watching this video i would have liked to watch the video first because i can interpret things a little differently now.

The Super Post

Since I didn't post last week I'm actually doing this over the Tapeworm is in and Make That A Double too. Both of these essays are a continuation of Sedaris's life in France and his struggle to learn the language. In the Tape Worm Is In Sedaris tells about one of Sedaris's hobbies, listening to books and other things on tape. Among his hobbies, as we later find out, are crosswords and watching a bunch of movies. He takes all three of these things to what some people would call an extreme. After reading about his time spent in France, it's safe to say he has a fair amount of free time. What do you think of how Sedaris chooses to keep himself entertained? I personally found the part about how he listened to a Pocket Medical French cassette pretty funny. What do you think of Sedaris's ability to make relatively ordinary situations, and some that are not, sound humorous?

Make That A Double is a very short essay about Sedaris's struggle with learning the gender of each noun. I'm in my fourth year of Spanish right now so I can relate to his opinions on this. It dosen't bother me like it does Sedaris, but then again I'm not living in France, I've always found it very strange. I'm sure there are plenty of things in the English language that seem messed up to people trying to learn it, assigning a sex to each noun is definately the strangest thing about the language in my opinion.

The final two essays were the Late Show and I'll Eat What He's Wearing. I really enjoyed I'll Eat What He's Wearing. Although it seemed like an odd choice to end the book with, I thought it was a good idea. What is everyone's opinions on David Sedaris's decision to finish the book with this essay? Do you think that there was any meaning behind this or did he just want to end the book with a funny essay?

What does everyone think about Sedaris's shows that he puts on in his mind while he's in bed? There really isn't a whole lot else to say about this one besides it was fun to read.

Back to I'll Eat What he's wearing, I personally enjoyed all of it. Sedaris's dad is hilarious. Does anyone know anyone like this that is not facing starvation? I've heard of people hording material possessions but doing this with food is new to me? I especially liked how he would hide it through out the house. My favorite one was how he brought a shriveled up banana all the way to Paris after hiding it under the bathroom sink. What really made the story was how he ate it and offered half of it to Sedaris. Outside of the essay about the giant turd, this one was my favorite one.

Speaking of the giant turd, on one of my posts I posted on the wrong essays. Therefor we never had a discussion of the essay called Big Boy. I couldn't resist talking about this one. I mean it came out of no where. I was caught completely off guard. Once again how David Sedaris describes the situation to us and the image he is able to create in your mind is what makes it funny. My favorite part was when he starts talking to the turd telling it shoo. What is every one's opinions on the log Sedaris finds in the toilet? How would you have handled the situation? Are there any other comments that someone would like to make on this?

Now that we have finsihed the book, what are everyone's opinions on it?

Additional Media Post

Just to give you a sense of if you will be turned off by this book, I would reccomend taking this quiz http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/shows/assault/etc/quiz.html. It is an article on homophobia followed by a quiz with instant results. Pretty interesting stuff. Aparently I scored "Homophobic" but i still enjoyed this book.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YBdymtyXt8Y this video is david sedaris reading one of his essays on david letterman. Take a look at it, see if you are feeling his style. Also note that his essays when read aloud, they are much more vibrant and lively.

Written/Media Piece

For the media Piece I would suggest watchting this video. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YBdymtyXt8Y

It is a video of David Sedaris reading one of his essays from a different book on the Late Show. I think that by watching this you will get a better feel for David Sedaris's style of writing. It will show the reader that Sedaris is going to insert a lot of humor into his writing and will prepare the reader for a book with a lighter tone.

For the written piece I would suggest reading this article.http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/shows/assault/etc/quiz.html

I think it really relates to some of the subjects such as homosexuality. It will let you know if some of the material will bother you.

Thinking Aobut Big Ideas

http://www.people.com/people/archive/article/0,,20126018,00.html is an article about what it is like to grow up gay in America. It is located at people.com and was written by Richard Jerome. I think this could be very useful for readers before reading This Boy's Life because David Sedaris is gay and a lot of the book relates to this. Readers knowing and understanding what it is like to grow up being gay would be helpful for establishing background information and a insights to his childhood. It also provides some very intresitng statistics such as estimates that 5-10% of United States High School students are gay.

For the media piece I would recomend this link. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YBdymtyXt8Y&feature=PlayList&p=D8149242E63A684E&playnext=1&playnext_from=PL&index=24 it's kind of helpful to hear the author's voice and listen to him talk about stuff to get a feel for what he's like.

Thinking About New Ideas

In trying to analyze the main ideas of this book and figure out exactly what the hell Sedaris is talking about half of the time, there a few sources I would recommend you give a quick glance, just to make sure you're on the same page he is.

The first of these pieces of media is the questionnaire: article.http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/shows/assault/etc/quiz.htmlTake this, and figure out where you lie, and maybe it'll tell you whether or not this book is for you. What I'm not saying though is that this book is as... flaming as the questionnaire is. But still, it should at least put things in perspective for you.

The second piece of media I would recommend would have to be
this youtube video.
Just to get a taste of who Sedaris really is.

Screw Crosswords

The reading assignment that coinsides with this post are the essays Remebering my Childhood on the Continent of Africa and 21 Down. These pair of essays don't really have anything to do with one another. One is about his boyfriends childhood while he lived in africa and the other is about sedaris obsession with crossword puzzles. The Africa essay is by far the longer of the two and in my opinion is more relevant to painting a broad picture of sedaris current life. 21 Down is just a rant on how he wants to be good at cross words and how he has been training for years to get good at it.

My Childhood on the Continent of Africa was in my opinion really good. The part of the essay where he talked about his boyfriend hugh seeing a dead man dangling from a light post while he waited for his dad to pick him up after a movie kinda shook me up. The other people that saw it seemed so jaded, and just went on with their lives discussing the movie that they had just watched. How did this part effect you guys? Were you as taken aback as I was?

21 Down was a chore for me. I personally hate crosswords, and to read about someone else loving them just made me go insane. There is nothing worse than a teacher giving out a cross word for points, that you end up just bullshiting because you know they dont check for accuracy. Imagine doing crosswords on your OWN time and having to PAY for them. Do you guys share my hatred for crosswords as well or am I alone on this one?

great title here

The first of the two I'll be discussing here is "City of Light in the Dark." This guy really likes his movies I guess, seven movies in one week? This guy takes everything he does too far I think. And he knows very well that he's doing it too. He kind of reminds me of Toby in This Boy's Life, how he could almost literally feel himself being compelled to not to something wrong, but his sheer immaturity got the better of him. Sedaris kind of seems like that kind of guy.

Again, I found myself relating to his experiences in the second essay, "I Pledge Allegiance to the Bag." Whenever I go back overseas, I get confronted with a series of questions, all related to how life is in America. The line where he said if you were depressed or something that it was normal, but if you weren't, than you used Prozac, cracked me the hell up. Simply because it's true. Outside of this country, people have a certain stereotypical image for the way Americans do EVERYTHING.

And considering that this guy isn't exactly, Captain America so to speak, it's really weird how he was always required to defend the cultures of his country. Even though, most of them I'm willing to bet, he was strongly against. Which is why he probably left in the first place. But hey, what do you guys think?

Running Hawk Post

So the assignment from wednesdays reading was "Me Talk Pretty One Day" and "Jesus Shaves".

I was able to relate to "Me Talk Pretty One Day" quite a bit. It really brought back memories of the perils of foreign language classes. I took Spanish for three years and absolutely hated it. I sucked at it and never really could get a good grasp on it. So that's probably why I wised up this year and just dropped it altogether. And yeah my Spanish teacher, who I'll leave nameless, was a monster bitch just like Sedaris's French teacher. Uhhh so yeah did you guys find this one easy to relate to? Anything interesting you wanna share about experiences with foreign language classes?

I thought "Jesus Shaves" was probably the funnier of the two. When they couldn't really explain what easter was to that Moroccan kid was pretty funny. Easter really is a pretty screwed up holiday if you think about it. Another thing I found to be kinda interesting was how Americans have a rabbit for Easter and the French have a Bell? So what did you guys think of this essay?

Reading Blog Assignment

I think that his book could appeal to a variaty of people. First of all it definatelly appeals to the gay population for obvious reasons. As I read into it seems that it's geared towards everyone. I would defenatily say young people, but I'd say it has enough range to easily appeal to a lot of middle aged people too.

The reason this book is appealing is because it's entertaining. That's why most people read. To be entertained. It's funny and intresting. You want to find out what the next essay is going to bring. The way David Sedaris rights is also a lot of the reason. It's something different.

I don't see any big obstacles. It's not a paticularly hard book. The only thing i can think of is some homaphobes who couldn't get past the fact that the main character is gay. However the book is intended for everyone, not just homosexuals, so I don't think that the average person would be bothered by this.

There is definately mature content in this book. It's not paticularly graphic, but there is a wide range of things that are considered 'inapropriate' including an entire chapter devoted to chronic drug use.

There are many topics people could discuss. Just their opinions on the essays would be enough to get discussions going. I'm sure someone could find something in every essay that they could relate to in one way or another.

The Sawyer Tribune

Who would the book appeal to?
This book would appeal to younger audience that has an appretation for post modern literature.

What about it is appealing?
The format, a collection of essays, is a fresh change in pace rather than the normal chronological order. Sedaris also uses a humerous style of wrtiting that keeps you turning the page.

What obstacles should student readers of this book be ready for?
The author is gay. Also, the book does not follow a regular plot structure.

What would students need to know about in order to understand the book?
The author is gay. It is a collection of essays rather than a book divided by chapters.

Is there any “mature” content in the book? If so, what kind of content? How would you deal with such content in class?

There is mature content in the book. There are plenty of obscenities to go around. Also the F word is used as a verb several times in this book. If this book was being read by pretty much any senior in highschool, it shouldnt really be an issue. Perhaps a permission slip at most.

Thoughts on "Me Talk Pretty One Day"

I think that this book would appeal to a younger audience. It has a lighter tone with lots of comedy which would appeal to teenagers and young adults. For the most part there are not going to be too many obstacles that you will have to face when reading this book. It's not very long, the vocabulary isn't all that difficult, and the book is very entertaining at times. The only slight obstacle that I can think of is if the reader doesn't know that it is a collection of essays and doesn't have just one plot. The book has a lot of interesting topics worthy of discussion such as David Sedaris's homosexuality, drug use, and his dysfunctional family. The only adult content in this book is the strong language used throughout. I think that pretty much all students come into contact with obscenities on a regular basis and could handle the fact there is a lot of strong language in this book.

My $.02

Personally, I thoroughly enjoyed this book and I think it has a little bit for everyone in it. This book is appealing in the sense that it's extremely hilarious. His anecdotes range from his experiences in walking into a bathroom with a giant piece of shit in the toilet to lugging around a typewriter everywhere because he's too scared of computers. David Sedaris is a renowned essayist, and I think everyone should be exposed to his writing, because you probably will anyway in college or sometime throughout your life.

As far as interesting discussion issues, this book is chock full of them: the fact that he's openly gay and likes to bring it up whenever he can, the fact that he experiments with drugs, and the fact that he picks up the oddest jobs possible just to make a living. All of these together turned this guy's life into a hell of an interesting book to read. As for "mature content" I can't really think of any Senior or Junior who's going to have trouble with this.

nutcracker.com and see you again yesterday

ok so i am assigned to nutcracker.com and see you again yesterday. i dont think there is really much any of us can say about nutcracker.com am i right? i mean it was a valid essay, but not really much you can do but agree or disagree. it was interesting to actually see a person who would rather carry around a typewriter than a laptop but i guess my grandmother is the same way so i dont know i guess. im gunna go ahead and leave this one up for grabs if anyones got any questions or thought haha.

on to see you again yesterday.......does anyone else think that this essay should be about 8 pages shorter? it was actually interesting in a weird way to hear about him finding a boyfriend and wanting to go to France with him, and about his antics while he was there making a fool of himself. but honestly, sedaris pretty much ruined that one for me. it just seemed to go on, and on, and on, about the same thing sensually. but it was kinda fun to relate that to when i was in spain for 2 weeks. its fun running around trying to talk to people and learn from them on the spot. it was almost like a little game to see who could learn the weirdest thing that day. anyone have similar experiences? or have a person from another country come here and do that to you?

zzzzzzzzzzzzzzz......

"City of Angels" and "Shiner Like a Diamond" are the two I'm responsible for today. I thought it was interesting in "City of Angels" that Sedaris brought over a couple of his female friends up to stay with him for a few days. I'm too lazy to figure out when exactly these events are taking place, if they said it in the reading I must have missed it. But, how exactly... accepted was homosexuality back then? If this is recent enough, this shouldn't really matter anymore I guess, but I'm pretty sure a few decades ago the situation wasn't the same. How acceptable was it for a girl to have a gay, guy friend? While I'm on the subject, how is his family taking this? He hasn't ever talked about what his parents have to say about him being gay at all throughout the entire book.

My favorite part of "City of Angels" was reading about that noob "Bonnie." I've been in Sedaris' shoes before, believe it or not. I was in Alexandria a few years ago, and I had a couple of guests here from the States staying with us for a week or so. I remember how much of a pain in the ass it was, (mind you, they were here from Cedar Rapids, and Alexandria is a MASSIVE city, in a totally different country). They literally just had NO CLUE what was going on.

As far as the Shiner one goes, it was really entertaining to read about all the stupid shit that his sister Amy's done in her life. I think its funny that his father cares so much about how his daughters look so they can get married and "lead happy lives", which again ties into what I was saying earlier. How "old school" so to speak are Sedaris' parents, and why haven't we been told how they're reacting to their son's situation. I guess I'll just have to wait and see how things unfold in the future.

New York, New York

The reading assignment for this post was The Great Leap Forward, and Todays Special. Both of these essays were about Sedaris living in New York City. In the Great Leap Forward, Sedaris talks about his first job in New York City as a secretary for a crazy bitch, and his second job as a mover with commie co workers. Today’s Special was about the fine dining experience that Sedaris hates in New York City

The crazy bitch who runs a publishing company out of her 4th floor study is probably one of the most hated characters of mine through out this book. Everything about her annoys me. What did you guys think? Why do you think Sedaris keeps his job there for so long even when he hates it?

Probably the funniest section of this essay in my opinion was his time with the communist moving crew. What did you guys think about the murderer that worked with them? Would you be able to work with a crew like that? I also found the part where New Yorkers went crazy when an apartment was vacated and would ask emergency crews about recently deceased occupants, and the conditions of their apartment to be pretty funny. The other good part was when they would move out half an apartment and have to hear the stories of why the occupants were breaking up. "SHE FUCKED HER EX BOYFRIEND ON THIS SOFA ID BOUGHT FOR OUR ANNIVERSARY" yelling over the noise of the engine. What do you guys think about the imagery that Sedaris creates with this unusual sequence of dialogue?

Today’s Special in my opinion was a lame but descriptive essay about the fancy food that no one likes that is served in New York City. I think I would have to agree with Sedaris that I would rather just have a hot dog rather than messing around with delicate cuisine. The bit about what hot dogs are made of and Sedaris actually being more accustom to those ingredients than the stuff the fancy New York Restaurant uses on its food was pretty ironic.

Labeling: A Quick Guide

The label function is a pretty useful feature that we have on this blog. Here's how I think it should be used most effectively...

So let's say the pair of essays you were to read and write an entry about that night were "essay A" and "essay B." In the "labels for this post" bar at the bottom of the text box, please enter in the name of each essay separated by commas. For this particular collection of essays, it would read: Essay A, Essay B. This way, if we ever wanted to go back to a particular pair for any reason, all we'd have to do is look for their names on the "labels" gadget in the upper right portion of the homepage.

Note: I will not label this post just for the sake of not creating confusion and adding unnecessary labels to the growing list. Nest Pas

Problem

Two people blogged on the same essays? I think 12345 was supposed to blog about tonights reading The learning curve and Big boy.

You Can't Kill THe Rooster

I have to say that I was defenatily happy after I finished the essay "You Can't Kill the Rooster." After the "Twelve Moments In the Life of an Artist," I didn't want it to revert into just another mediocre book. This was my original expectation for the memoir. Not good but not bad. I'm happy to say I was wrong. What does everybody else think of the book now?

What is up with David's brother? I mean the guy seems to be a far cry from the rest of the family. Every other word he says is fuck. Although he is blunt like his father, their personalities are very different. It's not hard to see the difference between Daivd and him. One wanted a brand name vaccum cleaner as a ten year old and the other has no problem telling his parents "Mother Fucker, I ain't seen pussy in so long, I'd throw stones at it." Usually excesive swearing in a movie isn't paticularly funny. I mean it dosen't bother me, but having a character say fuck every other sentence can get a little annoying. But this is a lot of why this chapter is so damn funny. The guy's crazy. He's a wanna be raper, has a thick Southern accent, and says and does whater he wants to it seems. What does everyone else think of him?

Why do you think David's brother calls himself the Rooster. His respons in the book is defenatily funny but has nothing to do with the question of why he calls himself that. Why do you think he does call himself the rooster? Does it symbolize something or does he just like the way it sounds?

Running Hawk Post

So the reading assignement for the last night were the essays, "You can't kill the rooster" and "The Youth in Asia". Of the two, I found "You can't kill the rooster" to be the more entertaining. "The Youth in Asia" kinda dragged on and I struggled to make it through. I felt like he could have condensed that whole pet montage into like five pages or just left it off altogether. Anyone else feel this way? Or perhpaps you thoroughly enjoyed this essay. Opinions?

On the other hand, I really enjoyed "You can't kill the Rooster". In my opinion,this has been the funniest essay yet. I found the brother of David Sedaris to be an absolute riot. From the way he used the word fuck in every sentence to the skull shaped bong that his mom used as a flower vase. Everything about this guy cracked me up. Another thing that I found to be pretty interesting was the relationship between Sedaris's brother, Paul, and his father. I was surprisingly touched by how Paul was comforting his father with a storm of swear words after a hurricane had damaged their house. At the same time it was pretty funny but oddly touching too.

So yeah, do you guys have any thoughts on either of these essays or the relationship between Paul and his father or just Paul himself?
Nest paz

definately not what i was expecting....

okay, the readings for Tuesday were "Genetic Engineering" and "Twelve Moments in the Life of an Artist". The book has definitely took a huge turn around from what i at least have been expecting. I never once thought this book about a gay guy would include this section about drug abuse and trying to aspire like his sister. Was anyone else surprised like this? Or could you foreshadow the fact that something had to go wrong because of his circumstances?

I think that the story has picked up a beat. im liking the fact that sedaris twists things around a bit. the whole not going in a chronological order is making for a lot of fun. instead of just following him through his life, he brings up a single experience or topic one could say and tells how it affected him and how it carried on throughout out his life. does anyone else enjoy this?

the main thing i would like to know is how is everyone taking the whole doing speed and the "im a professional artist" thing? im just blown away by the stuff that he thinks is art. everyone is entitled to what they like, but in my opinion these guys are just straight up weird. but i find it very interesting that his sister was such a great artist and now hes trying to be as well, and how his father essentially got all of this started. so what do you guys think? do you see more of these types of things happening throught out the book?

guess no one else will...

Okay, the assignment for tonight was to read the first two essays. "Go Carolina", and "Giant Dreams, Midget Abilities" respectively. I guess the first logical question here, is what did everyone think about these two essays? More importantly, what does everyone think of David Sedaris himself?

Personally, I found both of the essays to be humorous and kind of entertaining. But, they're kind of dry. This guy's gay, and he's used various drugs. I know there's more he can talk about and I'm waiting for that to kick in. But as far as these two essays went... I noticed he likes to make readers read between the lines a lot. He doesn't come out and explicitly say things that often. You have to be smarter than the average bear sometimes to get what he's really trying to say. I don't mean it in the sense that the essays themselves are hard to read; on the contrary, I found them of no particular difficulty whatsoever. But you just have to open your mind a little and "unlock" the essay so to speak.

And that brings me to the other situation here: the whole opening my mind issue. I take it none of us can say we share many experiences with him, or can say "yeah I know how that feels." Its going to be challenging at times, but what do you guys think?

I expect the book to be at least decent. I've heard people mention it in the past and most have said it was pretty good. I know that the book is a collection of essays by David Seaderas and is a memoir. Everything that I know about the author I read on everyone else's blogs here.

I don't usually read books of one paticular genre or author although I am a fan of Dan Brown and Dr. Seus. The books I read are usually the ones that are hard to put down and I hate fantasy. The last good book I read was Deception Point by Dan Brown.

I choose this book because I wasn't much of a fan of the other options.

Due to the lack of a better alternative

This collection of essays called Me Talk Pretty One Day seems to be a bit off from what I normally read. I expect it to present things from a different perspective than I am used to. The author David Sedaris is gay and is an essayist.

I normally like to read historical or science fiction novels. The last book I read was Angles and Demons by Dan Brown. I am currently reading The lost symbol by Dan Brown.

Well as the title points out, this book was chosen due to the lack of a better option. The other memiors were just not clicking. Abdullah mentioned that he has read David Sedaris material before and that is was acceptable.

i dont know what to call this

My expectations of this book, to be honest, are quite slim. I know that this book is a collection of essays written by David Sedaris. I've skimmed through a couple of essays, they seem kind of funny. As far as the author goes, I know that he is gay, Greek- American, writer and speaker. I've read his works before, in past language arts calsses.

I don't particularly think of myself as having a specific taste in books, I've read a wide variety but its hard to rank their genres in any order. The last good book I read, or am actually currently reading, is The Autobriography of Malcolm X.

I chose this book over the other available options simply because nothing else seemed interesting. This doesn't mean that I don't want to read this one, but that I've been exposed to David Sedaris before, and I'd rather stick to what I know, so I don't find myself reading a terrible book.

Great title here

My expectations on the book: I don't really have any specific expectations for this book really because i know nothing about it. I have herd that the book is funny and not really controversial but it's just kinda out there if you get what im saying. I know that the book is about a person who is gay and it is a series of comical essays. But that is all i know about it so im hoping that it will be interesting. Beings that the book is a memoir and is about a gay person im assuming that the author is gay. That's all i really know about the author other than ive heard that he has written some good books. I normally read books about sports or adventurous books. I'm a big fan of true stories but i will venture out and read a fiction book if it has been recommended to me. The last good book i read was "The Things They Carried". I cannot remember the author right now but it was a really good book in my opinion. It was a true story about a guy who was in Vietnam. Obviously "Me Talk Pretty One Day" is not the typical book i would read but i chose it because i thought i would go out on a limb and try something new and see if i like it.

MTPOD

My expectations are that the book will be pretty funny and entertaining. I know that it is a collection of essays about various points in David Sedaris's life and doesn't have a definite plot. I know that the author, David Sedaris, is a homosexual and that he discusses his homosexuality in the book.

The books I usually read are usually mystery/sci-fi/fantasy/etc. The last good book that I read was Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows about a year and a half ago.

The reason I chose this book over the others is that it seemed a lot lighter than the others. I'd rather read a book with a lot of humor than books that are about how tragic someone's life was.

Nest pas

NEST PAS= Not my problem