Blowin' In The Wind - Bob Dylan

     Recently, our poetry class discussed about Bob Dylan, a talented artist as well as a great poet. I came across one of his song, Blowin' In The Wind. I prefer Joan Baez's cover to Bob Dylan's and Peter Paul & Mary's. I like her voice!

     Bob Dylan claimed that he wrote this song in 10 minutes on an afternoon in 1963 while listening to the melody of an old slave song, "No More Auction Block." The Bob Dylan's version of this song wasn't a hit until the band Peter Paul & Mary covered it, thus making it #2 in the U.S and introducing people to the folk music of Bob Dylan.

     Here's my own interpretation of the lyrics.

   This first stanza generally talks about Dylan's anti-war sentiment. He asked how much do people have to fight each other, before racial discrimination was banned? And how much African Americans have to suffer before they could attain peace. When would social unrest end?

     Dylan posed the questions of freedom and human ignorance. He sympathized with people who lived for generations yet could not attain freedom, and also criticized people who knew about racial prejudice problems in America but chose to ignore it.

     The "sky" represents freedom, and the "cry" represents the disregard of people. Ignorance and freedom are recurring themes in his poem. He asks "he," or the President, how many more deaths must occur to make the President notice that the racial problem in America needs a solution.

     The "wind" that Dylan mentions at the end of every stanza proposes the idea that the wind is a natural force, thus making it natural for every human being to have their rights and freedom. The poem is a resonance of the Declaration of Independence. If "all men are created equal," and have the rights of "Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness," why haven't these African Americans gotten their freedom and equality in society?

The King of Rock and Roll

Elvis Aaron Presley 

(1935-1977)

When I was little, all I heard in the car was Presley's music. My mother was in love with him and always made me listen to his songs. So today, I would like to talk about him. 

(My favorite..."Jailhouse Rock")

One of the most famous musicians of the 20th century, Elvis Aaron Presley was born on January 8, 1935 in Tupelo, Mississippi. He was an American singer and actor. His twin brother was stillborn so he grew up as an only child. In 1948, Elvis and his family moved to Memphis, Tennessee. 

His carrer started in 1954 when he started working with Sun records. He sent his recording to RAC victor  and his first RAC single, "Heartbreak Hotel" became very popular. His style was unique and it became famous among a variety of races.

(Heartbreak Hotel)

After being drafted into the military in 1968, he came back to live performance in LasVegas. He was popular not only in America but also in many other countries. He had sold more than a billion records and this broke a record. He was nominated for 14 Grammy nominations, the Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award, and he is being named One of the Ten Outstanding Young Men of the Nation for 1970 by the United States Jaycees. 

On August 9, 1997 he died at the age of 42 because of his heavy drug use. Throughout his great career, he popularized rock 'n' roll in America. After his death, he still remains as the one of the world's most famous music icons. 

Quotes

•Rock and roll music, if you like it, if you feel it, you can't help but move to it.

That's what happens to me. I can't help it.

•I don't know anything about music. In my line you don't have to.

•Truth is like the sun. You can shit it out for a time, but it ain't goin' away.

•Man, I really like Vegas

Early Cold Equals Snow?

It is only October and the weather is getting colder and colder in Kingston, PA! Hopefully this rapid change of weather implies the falling of a lot of snow this year. After all, there was no snow days last year, which depressed me. As a person from a tropical country, I only get excited and super happy when I see snow in the States. This cold weather, combining with the time period that we're studying in Poetry class, reminds me of the "Appalachian Storm of November 1950."

On November 25, 1950, the "storm of the century" hit the U.S Eastern Coast, striking from North Carolina, where the temperature was recorded to be 26 degrees below zero, to Ohio; it even spread to part of the south. The storm was unique, in which it not only consisted extreme winds and snow fall , but also variations in temperatures, such as places that saw no snow, but experienced 50 mph wind and 50 degree Fahrenheit. Many buildings collapsed under 2 to 3 feet of snow. The storm created $66.7 millions in damage, affected 22 states, and killed 353 people.

"The Children's Blizzard," a non-fictional book by David Laskin.

Since there's not much to talk about this storm, except the small details, which I don't really like, I decided to take Mrs. Lewis' recommendation of researching the "Children's Blizzard." There was a non-fiction book written about it, so I guess it must be very interesting. In 1888, the article on the Washington Post describe the storm as "a blizzard swept down suddenly on the unsuspecting inhabitants on the prairies of the upper Midwest with unprecedented ferocity." The weather changed almost instantaneously from warm to freezing. An estimated 4-5 feet of snow had fallen, not including the amount that got drifted away. Many children got stuck in the snow while trying to go back home from school, thus a high proportion of them got killed.

While looking up pictures about snow on Google, I found a picture of this cute chubby bird. The article, where this picture was posted, mentioned that this bird is a harbinger of spring. Its name is "snow bunting." It is one of the migratory bird that arrives at the end of winter. The melodious wirble of the bird reassured people that spring is coming.








Last but not least, let's pray for snow this year!!! I miss the school buildings all beautifully covered in white snow. I want to see the scene before I leave this school, and end my high school career. Pretty please, Sky and Weather God. 

Roles of Women in the 1950s

In the 1950s, men came back from the World War II, and women were encouraged to return home and do household chores instead of working out side of the houses. They were expected to be perfect mothers, obedient wives, and diligent housewives. As perfect mothers, they had to stay home to take care of children. As obedient wives, they had to agree with their husbands and comfort them. As diligent housewives, they had to prepare dinner right on time when husbands arrived at home from their work.

Here was a women's daily routine during the 1950s
1. Wake children up, cook breakfast for them, and send them to school
2. Clean the dishes with minimum noise and do laundry
3. Prepare dinner for their husbands and make sure that their husbands were the main focus of the evening







There was the expectation that women would always stay home because it was the men who went out to work and had real jobs. Women eventually were able to have real jobs but earning total respect took a long time. Now women have the freedom to choose whatever they want to do.

In the 1950s, patterns, especially checks and flower pattern dresses were in vogue. They wore long dresses to emphasize femininity. It was because of women's duty at home and men were the ones who went out to work and wore pants.

Doraemon: A Lovable Robot

Doraemon!!!

          While our poetry class was focusing on studying about North American poets, and a little bit on the the World War that was going on in Europe during the 20th Century, I just suddenly remembered a series of story books I used to love as a kid. It was a Japanese manga series by Fujiko F. Fujio, a cartoonist living in Toyama, Japan, about a robotic cat named Doraemon, who comes from the 22nd century.

          Doraemon is born on September 3rd, 2112, weighs 285 lbs, and measures 4'3'' tall. He is painted blue and white, with a pouch, which is actually a limitless storage for his tools, and any other things. He was sent back to the year 1999, when he met Nobita, a clumsy and quite dumb guy, but very nice. He decided to stay with him, and they became best friends together.

       

First book cover

          The life of Nobita and Doraemon involves three other main characters: Shizuka, a nice and cute girl, who is also Nobita's crush, Suneo, a rich and haughty guy, and Takeshi, a chubby bully who sucks at singing. Together they make a great group of friends.

       

          Doraemon first made his appearance to Japanese readers in 1974. Since then, he has been a popular figure, who has many innovative tools with him to help Nobita and his friends overcome and difficulties in life.

          There is a total of 45 books in this series; each of them contains ten different chapters. Each chapter talks about a different tool that Doraemon has and the situation that he uses it in. Mostly the stories are humorous, and other times it contains meaningful messages.

          There is also another series by Fujio, which contains 24 books. Each of them is about an adventure that Doraemon and his group of friends make. For instance, the first book was about their adventure to the dinosaurs time, and another one was about their fight with the evil aliens who try to take over earth.

          My favorite one (cover on the left) is the book that tells about their time spent under the ocean. They make a trip down to the sea, and with the help of Doraemon's gadget, they are able to breathe normally, eat plankton, and drive a special talking car on the ocean floor. They travel through the Bermuda, sneak into the evil lair, and fight with him very courageously.

          A few of Doraemon's most appearing gadgets are: the magic door (you can go to anywhere except the vacuum when you think about the place and open the door), shrinking light (let it shine on anything to make it smaller), time machine (it lets you go back or forward in time!), personal copter (like a beanie on your head that enables you to fly), etc.

          Doraemon was translated into many different languages, including English. Because of its popularity, Doraemon was considered a cultural icon of Japan. In 2008, the Japanese Ministry of Foreign Affairs appointed Doraemon as the "first anime cultural ambassador." On September 3rd, 2012, Doraemon was officially named as a citizen of Kawasaki, where Fujiko F. Fujio museum located.

          What I really love about this series is the feeling of innocence and pureness of children, with many interesting tools of Doraemon, and significant lessons of friendship and family love. Doraemon proved to be a great children's book. I always enjoy it, and never get bored of it somehow. I used to remember every dialogues in each chapter of the book, and I can even read them out loud without looking at the text.

          There is also an anime, or cartoon series, created base on the books. It consists of 600 episodes. You can watch them all here.

          Here's the song of Doraemon OST.

          You'll love it when you read or watch it! Have a fun time going back to childhood <3.

Left to right: Nobita, Takeshi, Suneo, Shizuka.
Doraemon is in the center

Irish Discrimination

From the mid 1800s to the early 1900s, when famine was raging in Ireland, Irish immigration to America came. Many Irish who were starving and sick tried to escape from death by sailing to Canada. Those of the Irish who survived found America for a new place to live. In America, because Irish were unskilled at everything and could not speak English properly, they were discriminated against. There were many labor advertisements that said, "HELP WANTED, NO IRISH NEED APPLY". If they were employed, they were forced to work long hours for minimal payment. 

This picture is illustrating the way Irish supposedly did things

After 1855, the Irish started to build a lot of ships such as steamships and that made discrimination less permanent. In the 19th century, a Board of Commissioners of Immigration opened the city's first immigrant reception station which was called Castle Garden. It was a place where immigrants were received. After it closed, the attitude towards Irish started to change. After the Civil War occurred, they finally began to gain respect.  

How Can People Forget About Teenagers?

          Although we have been studying all these great poets, such as Robert Frost, Carl Sandburg, Langston Hughes and Dorothy Parker, all of whom had all lived through the 1920s, how come none of them ever mentioned any poem about TEENAGERS? Its concept came out around the 1920s, and the word teenager was invented during that time.

          From the time the US government created the Juvenile Court, there have been numerous age restrictions for alcohol assumption, marriage, driving, voting, etc. By doing so, the government had begun to separate childhood and adulthood, and formed a new group in the middle. After World War I, the world economy was moving from an agricultural one to an industrialized one, thus making people recognize the importance of education. North Americans started to feel there was a need to teach young adults the basis of reading, writing, and mathematics. The enrollment in secondary schools increased by almost 400 percent between 1910 and 1930. The percent of students in high school and students who were able to graduate also rose up proportionately.

          Americans also realized the potential of a longer education period, and therefore many students of the same age were thrown into a single group. School sports and other extracurricular activities were generated, creating a clear distinction between childhood and adulthood experiences. American teenagers were born.