Compare and Contrast #2 'Male Like Me'

Author Norah Vincent is a "brassy attractive woman with short, upswept hair and a confident smirk on her face," she is also a "a man with poindexter eyeglasses, a day's worth of stubble and a necktie." The New York Times Book Review describes how the columnist for the Los Angeles Times, went undercover as a man to learn how the fellas think and act when them pesky broads ain't around.

As a man walking in the East Village she notices that no one is noticing her, but as a woman she observes the sexually charged phenomena of simply walking in public: the change in the air and the obvious shift of emotion is not lost on the author who chronicles her gender experiement.

Sounds like Norah's got balls.....and boobs. I would really like to read this one. I want to know what she found from trying to pass herself off as a man.

Compare and Contrast "Funny as Hell" 2/26

GQ magazine described the contrast between Nathan Lane and Matthew Broderick, two Broadway actors starring in 'The Odd Couple' and 'The Producers.' Howie Kahn, in GQ said, "Jokes do work better in tandem, and these two are perfect toegether. One is pastel and shy, and the other is shameless and absolutey bizarre. And the way they're physically opposite has something to do with their dynamic, too. But with them, there's no outdoing each other. They both reach the mark evenly, like a pair of beautiful shiny black trotters. They've got the same rhythm, the same pace, and the same joy. It's a great happiness they're experiencing , a great love I don't think we'll ever see another pair like them."
Other great duos:
Robert Redford and Paul Newman
Gracie Allen and George Burns
Abbot and Costello
Laurel and Hardy
Bogart and Bacall
Peanut Butter and Jelly
Mint and Chocoloate

"D.I.Y.: Do It Yourself" from MICA

The Decker Library at MICA has on display, "D.I.Y.: Design it Yourself": a book created by 17 students of Ellen Lupton, director of MICA's graphic design master of fine arts program. They have plastered a wall with the pages in numerical order. It's a great visual aid for our compare and contrast project. It shows the way page numbers are used, the departmental listings as well as a great demonstration of grids but on a large scale. It is a must see!!! The idea is that we can have a voice in todays mass produced world; by using the ideals of commercialism as a platform for the individual we can place our own logo on a coffee cup, on a t-shirt, yell at the top of our lungs about who we are and what surrounds us. We don't just have to pick and choose what is in front of us, we can create it!!! Sounds refreshing, Right? You can also leave a little message on the furniture at the Decker with colored sharpies. Another great idea from those wonderfully creative artists from the other side of the tracks.
http://www.papress.com/designityourself/chapter_topics/basic_design.html

Poem Description

The Rose did caper on her cheek,
Her bodice rose and fell,
Her Pretty speech, like drunken men,
Did stagger pitiful.

Her fingers fumbled at her work,—
Her needle would not go;
What ailed so smart a little maid
It puzzled me to know.

Till opposite I spied a cheek
That bore another rose;
Just opposite another speech
that like the drunkard goes;

A vest that, like the bodice danced
to the immortal tune,—
Till those two troubled little clocks
Ticked softly into one.
Emily Dickinson

This poem is such a great description of that awkward recognition of two people wearing their hearts on their sleeves. She has captured the nervousness, the rapid breathing, the clumsiness of first love. The talent is in the way she says it: 'The rose did caper on her cheek' not, 'She's knitting in the corner with a flushed face.'

Choices, choices, choices.

Why did she choose to end the poem that way by breaking the rhythm of the rhyme? At first I disagreed with that choice but then it made sense. The poem seemed to be on the verge of delving into the cute and then wham!! She breaks you of that voice and forces you to listen to the words instead of expecting the obvious.

Show and Tell 2/19 Description

For show and tell I chose the book The God of Small Things by Arundhati Roy. It is a beautiful book full of juicy detail and vivid description. It's amazing that a first novel could be this prolific and it all starts on page one...

May in Ayemenem is a hot, brooding month. The days are long and humid. The river shrinks and black crows gorge on bright mangoes in still, dustgreen trees. Red bananas ripen. Jackfruits burst. Dissolute bluebottles hum vacuously in the fruity air. Then they stun themselves against clear windowpanes and die, fatly baffled in the sun. The nights are clear, but suffused with sloth and sullen expectation.