Forrest Gump said “Life is like a box of chocolates and you never know what your gonna get”, this is true for my life. I grew up as a military officer brat and traveled the world before I was 17 years old. My father’s claim to my childhood was that I was able to retrieve beer from the fridge at age 2. I chose to write about my girls. My children are what keep me going. On a bad day they make me smile. God has blessed me and I cherish what he has given to me. I chose to attach clips from Bill Cosby's standup on "brain dead" children.
Kids say the darnest things, this is so true. Bill Cosby is hillarious because he is funny (just for you Dr. Hughes). :) Bill is great at what he does because he has been there. He has children and at the age of 72 he can still rock a show. I saw him perform last year in Atlanta and he was great. He talks about children, family, love and heartache. He makes you laugh then cry then laugh all over. Cosby's standup routine set the stage for many comedians along the way. Richard Pryor, Eddie Murphy, Kat Williams and Whoopie Goldberg all agree that there success is because of Bill Cosby. Pryor is once quoted for saying that, Bill Cosby is the greatest comedian on and off the stage. This act is truely funny and I hope you enjoy it.
I may not know what tomorrow holds for me but I do know where I’m going and where I came from!!



http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qyMSc97UksM

What the F@#k...a clean comedian...REALLY?

WOW!! There is so much stand-up comedy in cyberworld. I came to realize that each comedy act I watched (and there was a bunch) had it's own personal touch. Each comedian had a different approach, different moves and different skit. I learned that the word fuck means so much more than I ever imagined. :) It truly made my head hurt...fuck, shit, damn, hell, fuck, shit, damn, hell etc... I had a difficult time finding a "clean" (and I don't mean showered) female comedian that made me laugh. For this blog I chose Anjelah Johnson. I chose her because she was clean and funny and female. She is native American and Latino mixed. Angela was born in California and raised in a large poor family. She has overcome many obstacles in her life. Anjelah has hit over a million visits to her utube video "nail salon". Johnson had her big break on MADTv where she earned an ALMA award for her performances as Bon Qui Qui. She is currently doing voice overs in cartoons and traveling the globe with her stand-up. Anjelah made me laugh with her comedic skits of everyday real life events.
Anjelah comes out on stage dressed casual and fun. She makes fun of her name, Anjelah Nicole Johnson as not being a traditional Mexican name. She has a great way of poking fun at Mexican family stereotypes...because she can. Anjelah Johnson does her famous nail salon skit. It's a skit that everyone can relate to. Her comedy approach is a double conversation with herself and a bucket full of race stereotypes. She has a wonderful way of making the nail salon bit so real. Her skits are true to everyday life and she didn't have to fuck, shit, damn or hell in the approach. :) It's refreshing to see a female have some respect and virtue in the public eye.
Anjelah Johnson is creative and entertaining. Her comedy style has earned her awards and recognition throughout the world. She continues building her career with clean comedic acts. I enjoyed watching her clips and I even utubed MadTv for "Bon QuiQui".

Her words made me laugh and I hope you enjoy the clip below as much as I did.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=baDJ-ZIvYy0

Iris Murdoch once said "we can only learn to love by loving". This is certaintley true about Rostrand's charactrer Roxanne in the play Cyrano De Breger. Roxanne understands the true meaning of love through a series of unfortunate events that happen in this play. Roxanne is a round character that loses her husband in war, only to relize that her true love is alive. Though Roxanne can never be with her true love, she has suffered the most thus, makes her the character that has loved most truely. Rostrand writes this play with two male actors, Christan and Cyrano. Roxanne loves Christan for his physical beauty and Cyrano for his inner soul. Roxanne marries Christian and learns a hard lesson that loves comes from within. In Act Three, Roxanne learns that her love for Christan is shallow but the love she feels for Cyrano is true. Thus, makes her the character that loves most truely.

In Conclusion

Douglas Adams writes Last Chance to See with an amazing ending to an absurd novel. Adams describes his travels through the world while seeking endangered animals. He discovers that the humans are the reason for extinct animals. Throughout the novel Adams explains the different ways humans harm animals. Humans are the dominate species and destroy nature and the other species sharing the world with us. Lemurs, dragons, gorillas, birds, dolphins and bats all have one thing in common, human ignorance. We are destroying what God gave us and it takes a pompous idiot like Douglas Adams to make it a reality. This ending makes the book almost worth reading but in reality, endangered animals need human help in order to survive. In conclusion, Douglas Adams reveals to readers that the reality of endangered animals is truly human ignorance.

Every Mans Fantasy

Imagine yourself as an oddly shaped man, naked and alone with a famous, female porn star on the planet Tralfamadore. This may be difficult if you have never heard of Tralfamadore, however readers of Slaughterhouse Five by Kurt Vonnegut are all to familiar with this scenario. Billy Pilgrim is the books main character who is living in a dull, safe marriage to Valencia Merble, she "was as big as a house because she couldn't stop eating"(36). Throughout his life he is haunted by effects of WW2 and becomes a time traveler to help cope with the desperate times in his life. Billy's time travels lead him to the planet Tralfamadore. "He was displayed naked in a zoo" and mated with a "former Earthling" porn star "named Montana Wildhack" (32). Montana Wildhack is first introduced to readers at the end of chapter 5. Billy is under his electric blanket warm snugly and alone, he becomes unstuck in time and travels to the first time he met beautifully shaped porn star, Montana. "Montana was naked and so was Billy", the aliens broke record attendance at the zoo and "everybody on the planet wanted to see the Earthlings mate"(168). Billy was naked and oddly shaped, Kurt Vonnegut describes him as "funny looking...tall and weak, and shaped like a Coca-Cola" bottle (30) while Montana Wildhack is assumed as flawless and perfectly shaped as a porn star. On page 228 Montana asks Billy to tell her a story, Billy immediately talks about his WW2 experiences. Billy retells the incidents at Dresden with some detail and yet Vonnegut escapes Billy back to the war with no reaction from Montana. This leads the reader to assume that Billy and Montana have an understanding of each other. Montana knows that Billy will become "unstuck" in time and will resume time travel. On page 264, Montana asks Billy "Time-traveling again?...I can always tell", this leads readers to believe that the relationship between the two zoo specimens is a real, honest understanding of one another. In real life Billy does not disclose Dresden to fat Valencia and every time he lays in bed the time-traveling Billy becomes a mate to a porn star who understands him (Duh, every mans fantasy). Montana's character was designed to be a flat character who aids the main character (Billy) through the plot. Montana has no real opinion on anything thus serves as a sex toy to a frustrated war veteran with mental illness. Kurt Vonnegut creates Montana as a nice distraction for Billy as he copes with post-war trauma.

So it goes Eddie

Fear is a question: What are you afraid of, and why? Kurt Vonnegut answers the question of fear in, Slaughterhouse Five. Vonnegut addresses this through the acts of the character Billy Pilgram and real life Army Private Eddie Slovik. Billy Pilgram experiences challenges throughout the book that reveals to readers his fears by comparing his cowardliness to Private Eddie Slovik.
When arriving to Germany to fight, Billy was a chauffeur for an army chaplain. The Chaplain whom died upon Billy's arrival. Billy was left alone in the woods with no gun, boots or coat. He was weak, scrawny and against his odds, he survived and was honorably discharged in 1945. He was unable to defend himself against the enemies however, with the help of some American Musketeers, Billy physically survived WW2 in a POW camp.
Eddie was forced to fight in an infantry group that lost many of its soldiers in battle. For six weeks Slovik traveled with a Canadian group of soldiers until reaching an American rifle company. Scared and alone, Eddie refused to fight and offered a letter of desertion to his company commander. Eddie was offered many different alternatives but refused because he felt jail time was better than combat. Private Eddie Slovik was executed on January 31st, 1945 for the military offense of desertion.
Kurt Vonnegut reveals that the fear of death in war times can lead to strength or cowardliness. Billy survives against his odds while Eddie gives up. Billy has inner strength that aids him with the fear of death and the success of survival in a war time situation. Private Eddie Slovik is faced with the same war situation and chooses to face fear as a coward and give up. Billy is aided through his tour of duty with the help of his comrades, Eddie was executed by his comrades with no hesitations. So, what is fear and what are you afraid of: facing your fear the best way you know how or bowing down to it and giving up..."so it goes" Eddie.

Faith in Farts

Native American Indians are famous for telling legendary folktales. Story telling was an elaborate way for elders to pass on religious beliefs to their tribes. Trickster eats the laxative bulb, is a story about a Trickster who defies nature by challenging a talking plant that ensures him that he will defecate. The story's character is a head-strong egomaniac that is full of vulgar farts and huge dung piles to attract the attention of a teenage audience. Richard Dieterle retells the Trickster story to allow the coming of age reader to discover the truth about the power of faith.
Trickster is a character who does unimaginable, unthinkable stunts to prove that he is "a great one". While walking through the woods a plant claims that "if you eat me you will defecate", foolish Trickster eats this bulb and continues "merrily on his way". He laughs aloud and recalls the pledge of the small plant and says "I'll defecate when I feel like it". Continuing through the woods, Trickster "expels a bit of gas", and reminds himself that "even a great one like" himself has gas "every now and again". He continues on his journey when he begins "to break wind over and over again" until "his rectum is nearly ripped". Pride full and proud the Trickster considers these farts to be great like himself.
Trickster soon realizes that the plant he eats has power over his farts, and with an angry tone he duels with the plant in his belly. He enjoys the challenge and with each fart, they become stronger and stronger. Trickster destroys logs, trees and even a small village with his powerful butt winds. This makes him "laugh until his sides hurt" and he cheerfully walks away from the destroyed ruins of his nature walk.
Trickster basks in his arrogance remembering the promises of the bulb and smiles gleefully as he has not had the urge to defecate. No sooner than the thought escapes him, he begins to feel his belly rumble and squats a "dung pile so high that it touched his body". Trickster climbs the tree and with each new height his excrement follows him. Now at the top of the tree, Trickster has no place to go, he slips and lands in the middle of his own crap. He is covered head to toe and stumbles about looking for water.
Trickster is unable to see and relies on the help of four tree spirits to get him to the lake to wash off. In the lake he rejoices as he washes off the dried dung. "Had not the trees helped him, he would surely have died".
Dieterle retells this story to the adolescents of today to reveal that relying on sight alone will destroy the things around you but when you guide yourself with the power of faith you will be cleaned. In this story, adolescents of today can relate to Trickster with his know-it-all attitude. Trickster thought of himself as "a great one", but really was nothing great without the help of the unseen guidance of the tree spirits. Richard Dieterle clearly reveals to readers that this attitude leads to destruction and with the power of faith in the unseen things around you, you will be guided to the purity and freshness of a second chance.

Laughable Character

Throughout history Hollywood has tried to capture the value of literature through movies. Jane Austen writes Emma, a series of Little Women books. Jane portrays Emma as a self centered, all-about-me girl, this is evident in Chapter 47 of the book. Hollywood has once again proved us to be accurate in its filming of this movie.
When reading chapter 47 about Emma at a social party, I found it difficult to follow and uninteresting. I must confess, I had to read it twice to understand what was truly going on. In the beginning Emma thought the party was "downright dulness", this was due to the fact that she was not the center of attention to the most eligible bachelor, Churchill. As the party continues, Frank Churchill suggests that Emma "requires something very entertaining from each" of the party guests, a word game. This makes Emma very pleased as she is the center of attention and is now enjoying the day out at Box Hill.
The movie and the book, Emma, portray this outing as a viscous poke at comedy with poor tact. Emma lashes back at Miss Bates whom is the first to speak up at Emma's word game. Miss Bates is the only old maid of the group with the lowest education and income. Miss Bates with her "good-humoured" self makes a joke that nobody finds funny except for herself. She states that saying three dull things should be easy for her since she can be dull at times, thus taking the attention off of Emma. Emma lashes back at Miss Bates explaining to her that there is a limit to the number of dull things that she can say. When reading the text (twice) I did not understand the significance of it however, watching the movie it was very clear that Emma was indeed a self centered horor at anybodies expense.
Johann Wolfgang was quoted by saying, "Men show their character in nothing more clearly than in what they think is laughable", this quote is true when reading chapter 47 of Emma. Emma's character was accurate in both chapter 47 of the book and the movie, selfish.

Real World Laughter

Chantel Carroll
Title: Real World Laughter

"The wise man does not laugh without trembling" is a quote about real world knowledge. In every society of the times, the older people get the wiser they become. E.E. Cummimgs wrote "in Just" (1923) a poem of a balloon man who appears to be lame, as the children of the park become older the same man is queer and old. As the seasons change and the children become yet older, this same ballonMan is regarded as "goat-footed". The older these children became their innocence was lost and the once naive laughing children were now aware of the real world dangers lurking around them.
The wise man is older with the knowledge of his surroundings of how cruel the real world can be. Charles Baudelaire learned this lesson at thirty-ish when his life was at a low point. He struggled with poor health, massive debt and sporadic literary output that accompanied his wise understanding of the wicked everyday life. He used poetry as therapy for his self loathing. In 1855, the joy of laughter was no where in his lonely heart.
Ralph Waldo Emerson writes, "To laugh is to risk appearing a fool", this is evident in the quote by Baudelaire. The act of laughing results in a tremble of simple unintelligence to the world around you. Tremble can be defined as short movements from fear or weakness. In other words, if you laugh, your weak and resemble a fool to the wise wicked world that encompasses your everyday life.