Pushing Them Out of the Nest

Woah, slow down crazy, slow down.

Tournament day. Boom. Now that it's over (and we're talking not the tournament that I'm competing at, but the little baby heart and souls that I've coached and worked with all week are throwing their newly found skills around in a room at the mercy of an unfamiliar audience and a scary person with the almighty pen. Terrified yet? It's like being crushed, without being told that you're being crushed.) Good news: My little GOAT pride didn't flinch. They did what they came to do, they laughed in the face of danger, and they want to come back next year. To this? I say I raise you a moderately less successful competitive day for this reaction. They laughed, they cried, and I think they learned something. (And the incredible people they met and the friends they made don't hurt either). So here we go, G! O! A! T! GOAT! Baaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa

As for my now somewhat mushy mental state: I think I've been staring at a computer screen with my mouth gaping open and my eyes crossed for 10 minutes before I realized I should type, or blog, or maybe just go to bed.

Remind me that I should tell you all about that time that I went to a judging certification for MN... Still pondering that one a little bit.

Themed Thursday: The Pitch

THEMED THURSDAY!!!!

I hope you got yourself pumped up for this-because I did. So I've been talking a lot about writing with slam camp and all. But here, Michelle and I have concocted a different sort of writing for this blog-off spectacular. It all started from this obsession we have with Mad Men. That means advertising, and that means a pitch (no, not the baseball kind... or for you extra stringent feminists out there- softball). So that's what we're doing. We're pitching you a pencil. The regular kind. You know, the one you learned to write with and then had to have in your pencil box all through elementary school? The familiar, sunshiny yellow friend that got you through handwriting books and in class assignments.  Those were the good old days. So here goes, I'm pitching and you're catching. Play ball!


There are a variety of ways we can take this-art work wise in the very least, and this mantra has the capability of branching from print to film with out another thought. In it's simplest form, the slogan is the thing.  The sheer imagination inherent in the product itself. This is the tool for any child, any person to draw, create, write, imagine, and enjoy. There is nothing new or remarkable, but this is the product of the American dream.  Simple tools to achieve great things. And the Yellow #2 Pencil is the thing to do it with. And all #2 Pencils have 35 miles worth of creativity. "Where will that write you?"

So although I'm by no means the best on the art team, I'm doing my best in dealing with the budget cuts. So please excuse the artwork until I lure someone more artistic than I back into the studio. I'm working with the simple tools supplied to me.

And that, concludes today. Boom.

Greek things can be learned from Blogging right?

And here are the facts: There is no possible way to make ancient Greek Art and Archaeology interesting or fun to study. None. I've tried. And I'm sorry to say that but my attention span for such things is approximately 43 seconds... usually less, so I'm attempting to escape this drudgery with a blog about something related to Gaga....

You guessed it, Charles.

Hooray!  Let's talk about aliens and be merry! I have two Charles episodes to relate to you, and I will title them appropriately so that you may distinguish between the two.

Episode One:
The Love Potion

So for Gaga, we all had to write a term paper. Not a big deal (annoying as hell, but reasonable) and the week before they were due, everyone had to do a short presentation on the topic of their paper. Now unlike the presentations before, we all got to choose our topics for our paper as long as it fell under the umbrella of this course. Great! So everyone got to talk about something that interested them, and that's a lot more creative than just a regular topic.

So while everyone is presenting about some pediment on some temple somewhere, or on some mythological scene represented on some clay stuff, our dear friend Charles took everything to a whole new level.

Charles gets up in front of the class with a plastic bag and a powerpoint. Then he starts talking about pomegranates. Oh yeah, and he pulls a pomegranate out of the mysterious plastic bag. That's cool. So he's talking about all of the ancient uses for pomegranates like contraceptive, love potion, symbol of wealth, death, rebirth etc.

At this point he had only been casually tossing the pomegranate between his hands an occasionally flipping a slide, but suddenly he asks if anyone has actually tried a pomegranate.  Most of us had but he reaches to his belt and whips out a knife. (WHAT!?!) flicks it open and begins to cut open the pomegranate in his hand. Our professor (remember billy goat man from Ostia Antica? Yeah, him) says "Wow, I guess you don't mess with Charles." And then Charles starts to hand out pieces of pomegranate to the rest of the class so that we won't feel left out.

Keep in mind that out of a class of about 15 ish, there are two boys, including Charles. Now that everyone is munching happily on their piece of pomegranate, our professor chooses this exact moment to say, "hey, all of you girls eating this pomegranate have to marry Charles now."

Awkward laughter...

Charles blushes...

True, he had been talking about pomegranates as a love potion... but I'm not sure that was necessary...  I'm also not sure how I feel about marrying an alien....

After the end of his presentation, everyone proceeded to ask for a copy of his paper because it was actually interesting.

Pomegranates: doing work.

A+ for Charles.

The End.

Now I'm going to study some real Gaga, and post the second episode when I need another break... And with your luck may be very soon.