Life near the Big Easy

Much has changed, though much stays the same, since the last time I posted a blog.  I am now officially a Ph.D.; although, I won't have my official transcript or diploma UNTIL I pay the U of A(pathy).  Buggerers.  Whore-son dogs, as Pound would call 'em.  I'm also living in Baton Rouge and teaching at LSU.  Geaux Tigers!

It was a difficult move since I wasn't even making enough at Southside ISD to get by.  Thank GOD for good friends.

And, it's my first Mardi Gras in South Louisiana.  The King cake here is DEEE-licious!  More importantly, those extra days off will be savored far more than tasty baked goods.  Maybe then I can catch up on grading. Ha! I'm better now that I don't have to write a dissertation in my 'spare time' but I still struggle with the discipline required to grade 60+ papers quickly and impartially.

Another change is that my dear old cat, Maui, is no longer with us.  She passed away in August and before suffering through yet another move.

Old Hickory Tannery sofa

Old Hickory Tannery Skylake Leather Sofa (see more leather furniture)

A Day Unlike Any Other: Dia de los Muertos, Halloween, Samhain

A Day Unlike Any Other:
Dia de los Muertos, Halloween, Samhain

I love Halloween.  It is, by far, my favorite holiday.  Don’t get me wrong, Christmas is nice (especially if you have family), and all that winter wonderland stuff is just effing lovely.  Yet, nothing speaks to my moribund sense of beauty and fun like the holy trinity of autumnal pleasure: Samhain, Halloween, and Dia de los Muertos. 

Samhain is what some pagans celebrate as a “Gaelic festival marking the end of the 

harvest season and the beginning of winter or the ‘darker half’ of the year. It is celebrated from sunset on 31 October to sunset on 1 November, which is nearly halfway between the autumn equinox and the winter solstice,” according to Wikipedia. Samhain appears, or is referenced, in some of the earliest Irish literature and is known to have pre-Christian roots. In essence, Samhain is older than Christianity, and was one of the four main festivals of the Gaelic calendar, marking the last harvest and beginning of winter.  Traditionally, Samhain was a time to take stock of the herds and food supplies. It was a time when the doorways to the Otherworld opened, allowing the spirits and the dead to come into our world; but while Beltane was a summer festival for the living, Samhain "was essentially a festival for the dead.”  The Oweynagat ('cave of the cats'), is one of the many 'gateways to the Otherword' from whence beings and spirits were said to have emerged on Samhain.  When I studied pagan spirituality (Wicca, or what some narrow-minded persons might refer to as witchcraft) Samhain became what I called Halloween.  This is not quite accurate, however, because Samhain and Halloween are each their own celebrations that occur (unfortunately) on the same day.  For years, I misunderstood, and quite easily confused the two. 

Halloween, also known as All Hallows' Eve, is “a yearly celebration observed in a number of countries on October 31, the eve of the Western Christian feast of All Hallows' Day. It initiates the triduum of Hallowmas, the time in the liturgical year dedicated to remembering the dead, including saints (hallows), martyrs, and all the faithful departed believers” (Wikipedia).   According to many scholars, All Hallows' Eve is a result of the Christianization of what was originally a pagan celebration of the harvest and ensuing winter.  Wikipedia states that it was “a Christianized feast initially influenced by Celtic harvest festivals, with possible pagan roots, particularly the Gaelic Samhain” (Wikipedia).  Influenced, my butt.  It was a pagan celebration made acceptable by its acclimatization to Christianity. 

This sly ‘rebranding’ managed to keep a pagan holiday acceptable because it also became a Christian holiday.  Jack Santino, an academic folklorist, writes that concepts of "the sacred and the religious are a fundamental context for understanding Halloween … but there [is] an uneasy truce which exists between customs and beliefs associated with Christianity and those associated with religions that [existed] before Christianity arrived" (95).  Historian Nicholas Rogers, who writes on the origins of Halloween in his article “Samhain and the Celtic Origins of Halloween”, notes that while "some folklorists have detected the origins [of Halloween] in the Roman feast of Pomona, the goddess of fruits and seeds, or in the festival of the dead called Parentalia, it is more typically linked to the Celtic festival of Samhain", which comes from the Old Irish for ‘summer's end’” (Rogers 11–21).

Dia de los Muertos, or Day of the Dead, is also a blending of folklore, culture, and religion, and occurs primarily in Mexico, or in the Spanish-speaking parts of the Americas.  According to Wikipedia, “the holiday focuses on gatherings of family and friends to pray for and remember friends and family members who have died.”  It has such importance that it is a bank holiday in Mexico. The celebration takes place on October 31, November 1 and November 2, in connection with the “Christian triduum of Hallowmas: All Hallows' Eve, All Saints' Day and All Souls' Day” (Wikipedia).  The Day of the Dead, like Samhain, is when you can contact your dearly departed loved ones who reside ‘on the other side.’

It’s not surprising to find out that Dia de los Muertos is also an acclimatization.  Its pagan-ness supersedes the invading Spanish upon the ‘new world.’  The Day of the Dead blends Catholicism and folkloric, indigenous pagan traditions, and scholars say that they can trace the origins of the modern Mexican holiday to indigenous observances hundreds of years ago, and to an Aztec festival dedicated to the goddess Mictecacihuatl.   Wikipedia adds that “The Day of the Dead celebrations in Mexico can be traced back to a pre-Columbian past. Rituals celebrating the deaths of ancestors had been observed by these civilizations perhaps for as long as 2,500–3,000 years.”  Where I lived in San Antonio, Texas there is a lot of art associated with Dia de los Muertos; in particular, the use of the beautifully eerie Sugar Skulls. 

 
Why skulls? 

Well, in the pre-Hispanic era skulls were “commonly kept as trophies and displayed during the rituals to symbolize death and rebirth” (Wikipedia). Other items are associated with Dia de los Muertos like marigolds and dancing skeletons and, of course, chocolate. 

Basically, we have three different celebrations that occur on the same day/days in different parts of the world; however each is unique in its own way.  All three the same, but different, eh?  Isn’t that kind of like the concept of the Holy Trinity?  All three different and distinct, but all three of the same root?  That’s not confusing at all.  While all three traditions have to do with the changing harvest season, and the souls of the dead, each has its own interpretation and practices. 

So, let me tell you about the time that I played the Devil in a Dia de los Muertos celebration at Our Lady of the Lake University in San Antonio.  It was 2003 or 2004, and I had a red dress.  I wore a devil’s mask and tempted the (now disgraced – unrepentant and resigned) president of OLLU with chocolate, but she demurred.  I told her it would be in her best interest to take the chocolate I offered, but she politely declined citing some diet or other ‘coconut’ hogwash. 

We processed as a group, and chanted around the grotto and cemetery area behind the University and next to the Convent, ending up back in front of the statue of Our Lady fenced behind the grotto bars.  Before the ceremony, I set a picture of both my dad and stepfather, who died within 4 months of each other, on the communal altar along with a necktie of Dean’s and a hat that belonged to my father, Herb.  I added a Mexican coke for my father, and a container of Gatorade for Dean, my stepfather.  In the Day of the Dead tradition, you set some of the dearly departed loved one’s favorite items (drinks, foods, cigarettes, etc.) on the altar as gifts for them in the afterlife, so that they may enjoy some of the things they enjoyed in the physical world in that short span when they can visit from beyond the grave.  Sweets, like candies in the shape of skulls, are also offered.

For some reason, ghosts or spirits seem to have a sweet tooth and a penchant for their mortal-world vices like cigarettes or liquor. 

[To be continued…]

Add

What the hell is a Mazeppa?

With the last blog, you might have wondered what the hell "The Uncanny Film Festival & Camp Meeting, starring the incredible Dr. Mazeppa Pompazoidi!" actually is.  Well, it's a great OLD program that used to run in Tulsa back in the 70s.  My friend, and Tulsa pop culture aficionado, Wilhelm Murg, treated me to an episode during my most recent visit. Gailard Sartain, an actor, comic, and artist, is the host and his cast of crazy characters preceded the Saturday night horror movie.  As the TulsaTVmemories site describes it, Mazeppa is a "show [which] consisted of 45 minutes of loosely-written material and unpredictable happenings during the breaks in "uncanny" films---horror movies" (TulsaTVmemories).  See this website for more info regarding Mazeppa:  http://tulsatvmemories.com/mazeppa.html

What is so exciting (or interesting) about watching Mazeppa?  Well, one, the show includes a character named "Teddy Jack Eddy" who is the very young (and still completely crazy) Gary Busey.  Still you're wondering why this show is important... 

Well, it isn't EXCEPT that we no longer have anything like this on current broadcast TV. The 70s was about experimentation.  I know that I experimented my fair share with a lot of things, but I digress...

TV watching was at a nationwide peak, and midnight movies were often preceded by local characters performing a variety of skits and such.  Elvira, Mistress of the Dark got her start in the early 80s after a series of late-night hosts like Vampira or Sinister Seymour fizzled out against the corporate-ization of TV programming.  

Even in the pop culture-desolate flatlands of Houston where I grew up, we had the midnight movie host.  My horror host for weekly thrills and chills was an unassuming, balding, mustached man named Harold Gunn, aka "Count Harold," aka "Captain Harold." 

Count Harold used to host Boo Theater every Friday night on Channel 26 (before it became Fox 26) during the 1970's, His assistant was "The Dummy Mummy." I still remember the opening. Great black light paintings of a frightened man who speaks in a creepy echo box voice effect, "Oh-No! It's happening again!" Then in a series of dsssolves into artwork he would rip off his face and reveal his grinning skull underneath. When the last frame froze, the fleshy skull with one eye would intone... "Boo Theatre...it's an EYE-Ball!!"

Now my monster memories of my childhood sometimes run together and mix with other things, but I remember the thrill of trying to stay up late and watch so many great films like Assignment Terror, Frankenstein meets the Wolfman and Attack of the Mushroom People on Boo Theatre... 

 

Gunn also used to have a local talk show during the daytime on Channel 26, The Harold Gunn show. In the 1980's, Harold Gunn returned as Captain Harold...hosting Captain Harold's Theater of the Sky on NBC affiliate KPRC TV, Channel 2. This was a great, local hosted show that showed all kinds of movies, not just horror. Captain Harold, wearing an old WW II air force uniform and sunglasses, hosted movies from his bunker with his two assistants. Throughout the 1980's it was Captain Harold on Saturday night and then the nationally syndicated Elvira's Movie Macabre for me. 

I never gave up movie watching, even in grad school.  Now, I have Netflix and Hulu and YouTube, but it just isn't the same.  Watching those old movies with their odd and eccentric hosts was as good as it gets.  That moment is lost, and nothing we have today can replace the TV-oddness and experimental-70s-shows which kids like me hungered for amidst the milk toast of Houston (or Tulsa) as a city-kid-surburban-lifestyle-hatin'-brat.  

Here is a link to Wilhelm Murg's interview with Gailard Sartain:  http://tulsatvmemories.com/mazmurg.html

"The Uncanny Film Festival & Camp Meeting, starring the incredible Dr. Mazeppa Pompazoidi!" -- NOT! Welcome to Blogging 101 cleverly disguised as Comp II with Professor Andy Trevathan.

"The Uncanny Film Festival & Camp Meeting,
starring the incredible Dr. Mazeppa Pompazoidi!" -- NOT! 

Welcome to Blogging 101 cleverly disguised as Comp II with Professor Andy Trevathan.

"Where have I been?", you might ask.  Let's just say that writing a dissertation and two other separate research projects AND teaching two sections of comp kind of takes up one's 'free time.'  I haven't added to this blog in quite some time, so I decided to add something about blogging.  Go figure...  My new buzz word is metaconnective, and that's the partial aim of this here blog (haha).

For those of you who don't know, I teach composition at the You of A *snicker*.  This semester I am teaching Comp II.  Unlike last year, the newly redesigned Comp II is not literature-based; it has a focus on literacy and literacy acquisition with a definite composition/rhetoric stance.  The articles in the textbook are ones I didn't read until graduate school (no, not the Masters, but the PhD), so I knew teaching these articles would be challenging.  Nobody likes reading boring articles ... especially ME, so how does one breathe a little life into this comatose-level core class?  My answer: BLOGS.

Admittedly, I was more than reluctant to add the blog portion to my new Comp II syllabus.  For me, it meant hassling with what used to be WebCT (back in the day), but is now known as Blackboard. Trying to learn all of the technical 'ins and outs' of Blackboard design seemed like a huge pain in the arse.  So, I created the blog assignment begrudgingly only because my department said I had to have a blog assignment *sigh*  First, I decided in my infinite wisdom <sic>, that we would post our blogs on Facebook.

Bad idea, right?  Right.  You can't add cool pics, or use visually-interesting fonts, and the format hassle was just too great.  So, I acquiesced and spent more than half of my waking day to figuring out Blackboard's blog function.  Half a day (from around 11am to sometime after dark) was spent tweaking and experimenting with the Blackboard blog platform.  It only took me an hour or so to write a blog (with pictures and edits), so I spent the rest of my waking day fumbling with online course design.  Okay, I admit, it was time well spent.  Our first class blog assignment was okay, but because it was based in our literacy experiences the students viewed the writing prompt as a little boring.  All this reading and writing about literacy and discourse had my undergraduate students hungry for something different.  We all know that Mexican food (or ice cream, Indian food, shrimp, etc.) is delicious until you have to eat it every, single, freakin' day...

My students begged for a chance to write about something of their own choosing.  Novel idea, I know.  So, I gave them a 'free write' which would count as a weekly quiz/attendance/participation grade of sorts.  I told them they could write about anything, and they did.  I had one student who started out writing an autobiography, but that autobiography developed into a 'hairography' which was my student's journey through different hairstyles and hair issues.  This student was African-American and wrote a funny, touching, informative blog about her 'hair journey of discovery.'  It was a good read, and the pictures were totally adorable (tots adorbs to all of you linguistic hipsters).  Another student wrote about her summer of homelessness and living in her car while traveling across country.

I looked forward to reading every single one of these blogs.

Why did I look forward to reading a student blog much more than I ever looked forward to reading a student paper?  Well, I think it was because they had a better 'grip' on their own personal voice.  Plus, it was often a subject that they felt some authorial ownership.  They owned these stories because many of them had already lived these stories.  Now, not every one of these student blogs were great.  Some were, well, just so-so.  Many of the stories which emerged out of this experiment were touching and funny, interesting and compelling, and I didn't have to forge through 6 pages of hum-drum rivers of drivel to find a nugget of gold.  Are blogs indicative of our 21st century mentality of immediate gratification?  Probably.

All I know is that in teaching students to write, a voice and control over their topic are important elements for any 'good' writing assignment.  We can develop the other 'tricks' later.  Commas, semi colons, etc. are important, but they are not usually what makes or breaks a writing assignment UNLESS you're being graded by someone who considers only the shallow 'surface features' the heart of writing.  Those shallow grammar-nazis should be teaching grammar, not writing.  Yes, they are different classes. Yes, you should know the rules before breaking them effectively, but when you are trying to teach a young someone to channel their thoughts to the page, I think a writing teacher should focus on other elements like finding a voice and using personal experience to shape a way a writer writes.

I know this because I am a former grammar nazi.  Then, I went to grad school.  THEN, I started teaching.  Grammar, punctuation, etc. ARE IMPORTANT.  But, thoughts trump comma placement.

Bea Dot skirt

Bea & Dot Chic Companion Skirt in Chat (see more black stretch skirts)

Women's Susan G. Komen Boot

Women's Susan G. Komen Boot (clipped to polyvore.com)