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Every Day After School

Prompromprom!

Okay so I was inspired by Adventure Time to blog about prom, thus I shall blog away!

Firstly, I love the idea of prom, primarily because everyone feels and looks absolutely beautiful. It's so difficult (especially as a teenager) to feel genuinely good about yourself, and I feel like prom gives everyone a chance to do so.

In negation, for a night that is supposed to be fun and celebrate youth and whatnot, it is ridiculously expensive. The ticket alone cost more than my dress, and honestly, that's kind of sad. A lot of the time people don't go to prom because they can't afford it, and that's really unfortunate!

Lastly, people are often afraid to go to prom by themselves. I went by myself to junior prom, and I still had the most amazing time! In the end, it doesn't matter whether or not you have a date. To be honest, going solo is probably 1000000x better than going with someone that you really didn't want to go with, just so that you could have a date. In fact, unless you're in a serious relationship, I would recommend going by yourself. I feel like there's less stress that way (and you can always get pictures with your friends so that's not even a concern).

Needless to say, I'm super excited about senior prom and cannot wait to show off my rad dance moves.

Happy Prom everyone :)

Song of the Day

I first started listening to Imagine Dragons because I thought they had a cool name, and after playing through the entire album (Night Visions0, I realized that they're fricking awesome.  Plus their lyrics are super inspiring, so that's always a positive.

Word of the Day

Tonic:  A medicinal substance taken to give a feeling of vigor or well-being.

Some of the Most Underrated Actors

I get genuinely frustrated when I watch movies with truly talented actors, and realize that their talent goes unnoticed time and time again.  This being said, I kind of wanted to make a list of all of the actors that I believe to be truly masterly when it comes to their ability to portray a character. Listed in no particular order:

1.  Guy Pearce
2.  J.T. Walsh
3.  Danny Trejo
4.  Michael Jeter
5.  Michael Clarke Duncan
6.  Tommy Lee Jones
7.  Tim Curry
8.  Samuel L. Jackson (some people see Samuel L to be overrated, but seriously, he's a badass mofo and hasn't won a single Oscar.  Plus he and Steve Buscemi are in like EVERYTHING).
9.  Ray Liotta
10.  John C. Reilly
11.  James Cromwell
12.  Peter Postlethwaite
13.  Joaquin Phoenix (seriously he's been nominated for three Oscars and still hasn't won anything WHAT IS WRONG WITH THE WORLD)
14. Sam Neill
15.  Steve Buscemi
16. Tom Hulce
17.  Seth MacFarlane
18.  Patrick Wilson
19.  Joshua Jackson
20.  Paul Bettany

Bonus Round:  Joseph Gordon Levitt, Jesse Eisenberg, Don Cheadle, Emile Hirsch, 

And to think that people like Nicholas Cage and Tom Cruise and Rob Pattinson and Charlie Sheen and Dwayne Johnson (the list goes on) get more recognition than these guys -_-

Something--A Lyrical Comparison?

Rather than continue to beat "From Blossoms" to death with a chair, I decided to quit the generic analysis and compare the purpose of the poem with the lyrics to "Something."  Aside from the fact that Lee describes death as "that which defines life," both the poem and the lyrics share a very similar meaning.  It is "something in the way she moves" that attracts Paul, just as there is something about the beauty of nature that provoked Lee to write about the beauty of a moment.  Sometimes the simplest of things, whether it is eating a peach or seeing a woman for the first time, can have a lasting affect on a person.  

The most striking similarity between the works appears in the center of the two.  Lee describes everything will grow, "from joy to joy to joy, from wing to wing," just as Paul asks the rhetorical question of whether or not his love will grow.  The answer to both of their inquiries, whether they were direct of indirect are found at the core of nature.  Everything grows, for everything, in the end, must change.  As if to further the connection, Paul mentions that he does not want the girl to leave, implying that he wants to live in the joy of this moment.  As I mentioned earlier, Lee demonstrated the want to freeze a beautiful moment and live in it forever through his account in "From Blossoms."  I am not so sure that The Beatles were referencing the instability of life and the fact that death is the antithesis of life through the lyrics of "Something," but their is a similarity between the two themes nonetheless. 

SOAPS--A Method of Analysis?

Keeping with the previous theme of poetic analysis, I decided on apply the use of the SOAPS method in order to further my understand of "From Blossoms."  According to SOAPS, one must discover the subject, occasion, audience, purpose, and speaker of the poem, in order to form a substantial foundation of knowledge for analysis.  This being said, I am ready to analyze!

SUBJECT:  In the case of "From Blossoms," the subject takes the form of a peach blossom.  The blossom is understood as the source of the peach, and in the moment is seen as the creator of this delicious beautiful piece of nature. 

OCCASION:  The narrator reflects on a time in which he drove to a stand and bought a bag of peaches.  The particular occasion in which the speaker does reflect, is not necessarily important to the collective understanding of the poem.  Perhaps Lee intentionally left out any indication of the occasion, as to show that one needs no reason to reflect on the beauty of life and the source in which life and beauty is born. 

AUDIENCE:  Lee attempts to target every person who is willing to listen to his account of beauty.  He wants to share his knowledge and understanding of the world with everyone, so that he may provoke a deeper sense of understanding or inquiry in the minds of those who are willing to listen. 

PURPOSE:  Through "From Blossoms,"  Lee attempts to emphasize the importance of miniscule things in life.  He has attempted to illustrate the wonderful moments in life, regardless of their simplicity.  We all in our life where we wish that we could just freeze time, causing that moment to last for an eternity.  This desire was illustrated as the purpose in the third and fourth stanzas in the work, in the hopes that this message would leave a lasting impact on the reader. 

SPEAKER:  It is safe to assume that the speaker of "From Blossoms" is in fact Li-Young Lee.  Either way, the identity of the speaker is about as important as one's knowledge of the occasion--it's not. 

DIDLS: The Tone Acronym?

While looking through various forms of poetic analysis, I came across a method known as "DIDLS."  According to DIDLS, one analyzes the tone of the poem by focusing on diction, images, details, language, and sentence structure.  This being said, I figured that I might be interesting if I apply the DIDLS technique to Li-Young Lee's work, "From Blossoms."  Hobey ho, let's go!

DICTION:  "From Blossoms," is a simple, lyric poem with a romantic diction.  The narrator is thoughtful, and demonstrates his sensitivity in the last stanza of the poem, that "there are days we live as if death were nowhere in the background; from joy to joy to joy, from wing to wing, from blossom to blossom to impossible blossom, to sweet impossible blossom.  Lee's particular choice of words in this piece, such as his decision to use the word "joy" rather than "contentment" or "happiness," evokes his attempt at a poem that is more whimsical in nature.

IMAGES:  Lee presents the reader with vivid details in order to evoke each of the five senses.  We can see the peaches that have been placed inside of a brown paper bag.  We can hear the laughter and whimsy in the fellowship of eating peaches together.  The idea of eating a fresh, juicy peach very strongly evokes the sense of taste.  The smell of the blossoms and the juices of nature fill the reader's nostrils with sweetness and joy, enabling the reader to reach out and touch the soft skin of the peach.  In short, this work is full of powerful images that help the reader to envision the blossoms.

DETAILS:  Lee including all of the necessary details in his work, as to successfully evoke the senses of the reader.  He omitted any unnecessary fluff that would take away from the simplicity of his work, and that would ultimately distract the reader from understanding the true importance of the work. 

LANGUAGE:  I would not classify Lee's use of language in "From Blossoms," as formal, clinical, or colloquial.  It is simply personal.  The language that he has chosen to use, is characteristic of himself as a writer and as a person.  It is easy for one to imagine Lee speaking like this in daily life.  He only used language that was common to himself. 

SENTENCE STRUCTURE:  The long, flowing sentences that make up "From Blossoms," create a dream like tone that allows the reader to float through the poem.  The lines themselves are only made up of a few words, but the sentences draw on until the end of the stanza.  It is quite a feat to achieve simplicity even though the sentences themselves are rather complex.  But perhaps that was Lee's point.

Why I Hate Poetry but Love Li-Young Lee

Whenever I think of poetry, I imagine a person sitting at a small table in the candlelight, thinking, "Now is the time for me to be all emo and write about my feelings, blah blah blah."  Don't get me wrong, I love modern poetry and sarcastic poetry, and I have a dream of becoming a rapper during my years in university, but I am honestly unable to sit down and enjoy reading a compilation of poems.  This being said, I wanted to focus on a poet that I knew very little about, so that I would have to preconceptions prior to reading his work.  Li-Young Lee has, surprisingly enough, stolen my heart.  I never imagined that I could read a poem about eating dinner or making a bed, and enjoy it.  Aqua Man must have drowned, because even I didn't expect this.

The first piece that I came across, was "From Blossoms," a little diddy that Lee wrote in response to peach blossoms.  Obviously there is more meaning to this poem--something that I will cover during a later entry--but it had a strange, cosmic affect on me.  It was simple, philosophic, and reminded me of my Asian homeland--all things that I complete adore.  After my reading of "From Blossoms," I sat at my computer and contemplated the meaning of life.  Once I realized that my contemplation just left me with more questions, I dove back into Lee's work.  I read a few more of his poems, and decided that I must drive to the library and grab a few of his compilations.  I ended up borrowing the lot, running back to my house and locking myself in my room.  I read his autobiographical work, Winged Seed: A Remembrance, and felt immensely closer with Lee as a person.  He bears his soul for the world to see, and that is why I am in love with him.  He is the bravest man that I have even encountered. 

After getting an understanding of Lee, I began to read his poetry.  I believe that I enjoy his poetry, in comparison to other works that discuss feelings and things that I personally do not care about, because I became aware of his life.  Every experience had affected him in such a way, that he was capable of recounting it through the written word.  He found solace in an art form, which I find to be beautiful.

In summation, I genuinely enjoyed getting to know Li-Young Lee.  There were no secrets or uncertainties in his works.  They are taken as what they are--beautiful accounts of life. 

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