Chicago!

Wow, I can't believe that I actually posted an obligatory Michael Jackson died blog entry. Oh Well, I was busy with moving and I suppose my sensibilities were off - I was susceptible to rash acts of sentimental nostalgia.
Well, after performing the role of human mule for four days (moving and then traveling with tons o' luggage), I've been here in Chicago for two full days, and love it! I was ushered into the city with great warmth from the people and the buzz of the Pride Parade surrounding me on the train. I was quickly whisked to John Barleycorns in a neighborhood which is very "Wrigley"-esque (in other words, very jockish/male/gendered) - but even there, pride was alive! People are so nice here - the kindness of strangers is Highly Proficient! I expected Proficient, but have been suprised with the mastery of niceness - I ran over several toes (literally with my suitcases in tow - A pun!) and people were fine with it and smiled after I apologized. Weird. I expected non-meanness and that this would be the "nice"ness - but they are actually out-of-their-way nice here.
We had a load of reading the first night and the reading keeps on coming. But it's rewarding because the seminar is so small, making our dialogue of the reading valuable. Yesterday we discussed the history of teaching poetry in the U.S., focusing on the late 19th/early 20th century to the 50's with New Criticism. Today, we discussed what poetry is - what is in poetry/why people write and read poetry through several readings. This is exactly what I wanted to experience, what I hungered for in BOTH my M.A. in Lit. and my M.A. in Ed. I discussed with the Project Leader, professor Eric S., this conundrum of English Departments not teaching teaching in Lit. classes, and Education courses not teaching Literature theory/criticism/pleasure. Both programs fail in their training of teachers, no matter the level of teacher. I shared and concocted a professional goal of melding the two departments but I don't know how to approach this - through a Phd. in Ed with classes in English or vice versa. Well, I want to teach a bit longer and pay off my car before making either commitment.
Last night we went to Second City to see the "Best Of" show - half sketch, half improv comedy. I was so excited and had a blast - I'm really understanding the linguistic and poetic value of comedy and incorporating improv. techniques into curriculum. Second City is the breeding ground of many SNL comedians - I wonder who of the five we saw last night will make it!
In terms of food, I have dipped into some Thai and Indian, but have mostly relied on American food. I hope to research places before finding myself hungry. I should begin with Taste of Chicago featuring food from every neighborhood, and happening down the way at the waterfront, which I can see out our window!
The most exciting part of this experience so far are the folks involved in this seminar - the community is great, and I'm so impressed and excited to be meeting, socializing, and learning from everyone/their experiences.

Lastly, I have started a Flickr account to share photos I don't have room to share here on this blog. So far, I have been shy about photographing folks, but expect more now that I am in the swing here. Flikr address: http://www.flickr.com/photos/39973772@N03/

Best - Cat

Change/Sad

I'm feeling sad because...

The King of Pop is dead, marking the end of my-childhood-era
Drugs or Suicide? The last decade has been a slow suicide for him
My apartment is bare and will be barer tomorrow
My cat is anxious but nestled beside me on my only sitting area/bed: my couch
Tomorrow I say goodbye to Lucy (cat) for the summer
I'm tired from moving: probably the main source of melancholy
Said goodbye for the summer to friends
I'm too tired and have too much to do before Sunday to work up excitement over Chicago
I'm touched by the generosity of friends who have helped me move
Moving is hard and we do it so often

P&P ^ Zombie Power

Dear Reader,

I just concluded my reading of Pride & Prejudice & Zombies, and I am struck by two main ideas for "musing" here: first, the "controversy" or interest that the ab/use of literature welcomes; and secondly, the embedded criticism provided by this literary mash-up of a beloved classic.
Throughout reading this delightful "Quirk Classic" I couldn't help thinking about the power this "mash-up"-zombie-narrative (for it is certainly not an adaptation nor a "sequel" - two extension genres of fiction and film that have ravenously devoured the Jane Austen canon in particular - not unlike zombies!) could hold for readers new to Jane Austen. On the one hand, I could see those ever-mercurial creatures - namely, teens - enjoying this "mash-up" concept - for it is a language art and movement they understand and respect (I think...) - from hip-hop to rock, popular music and fashion have become allusive-bordering-on-complete-plagiarist in their constant recycling and meshing of material. In fact, I think teens could understand the substance generated by interweaving a familiar subplot with an old novel. However, could they understand and enjoy this second version without tromping through the original? How could a teacher use this new text? It would certainly take too much time to read them side-by-side (for it takes too much time already to read an Austen novel a la carte). Juveria suggested that a final unit in a class could consist of a variety of extension genres and students could both analyze the extension genre and write their own extension pastiche. This sounds like a great idea, however, I consider extension and adaptation pieces to be helpful in reviving interest and comprehension in the work while the class is studying it. And then a teacher must consider answering the question: Why are we reading this? Why do we have to read the Zombie version to make it seem relevant to us? Which requires that the teacher explain the "integrity" of the canon precedes the class, and that the newer genre performs the same new labor that the original performed for audiences contemporary to it and since. Which is difficult to understand, and which is a lame explanation without recourse (in the case of P&P&Z at least) to a basic understanding of Marxist, Feminist, New Historicist and Queer theories of literature. I just had a great idea! According to readiness levels, students could form extension/reinforcement literature circles during a unit. High readiness level students (those who read quickly and may have been exposed to the work or other works by the author previously) could tangle with this "mash-up" and begin to consider what the co-author reveals or brings to the foreground through their intervention on the original, while low-readiness readers could review and analyze graphic adaptations of the original. Mid-readiness readers could consider a variety of adaptations or extensions. Overall, I do not think that I can solidly propose a home for this genre in high school curriculum apart from a model of active reading on behalf of a "co-author."
Considering the work as an act of criticism, I enjoyed the premise - that the Bennett sisters had been trained by their father in the "deadly arts" at home and abroad in China. Likewise, the militia of Great Britain are likewise trained in order to fight the rise of "Satan's children" across the great isle. In this way, a real substance behind Elizabeth's powers are made apparent. In other words, while Austen allows the reader to identify with and understand the amazing depth of Elizabeth's character (a kind of narcissistic pleasure, given that we love Elizabeth precisely because we are allowed to understand her every thought and invited to identify with her on every page), Grahame-Smith awakens us to her awesomeness with concrete, humorous and graphic illustrations of her prowess at slaying the un-dead. As a lover of Buffy the Vampire Slayer, I immediately warmed up to this concept of the proud yet inwardly suffering warrior searching for another warrior. And yet I wondered if a revelation outside of inducing pleasure and entertainment awaited me in this project. Sure enough, Grahame-Smith's version makes maudlin the silliness of Mrs. Bennett and the social norms for women - where Austen nimbly criticizes through irony and sarcasm. Those women who do not fight nor respect the female "deadly arts" meet embarrassing fates the reader of Austen's original will laugh out loud to read about: Charlotte Lucas is stricken with the zombie plague just before marrying Mr. Collins, and this zombie-state goes unnoticed by all except Elizabeth and Lady Catherine throughout her demise, Lady Catherine is almost decapitated by Elizabeth in their final meeting, and Lydia's fate has her cleaning the bed pans of her dissipated beloved, Wickam, due to Darcy's brutal paralyzing of his body in a fake accident. Clearly, the zombie narrative is critical of gender norms while promoting the strength and equality of Elizabeth and Darcy's warrior skills. However, I found that the zombie narrative replaced those very sporadic allusions to poverty and the rising imperialism of Great Britain (which all of the wealth and cross-class "struggles" in Austen's novel rely upon for their frictions) with allusions to the zombie plague infesting the land. The rural poor and unlucky servants of Austen's novels, are converted to zombies and ninja slaves, whereas the rising military are responsible for squelching zombie uprisings. In this way, Grahame-Smith's narrative connects colonization and the rise of the military power (indeed, Darcy and the Bennett sisters had been trained in Japan and China, respectively) to the increase in fear in the middle and upper classes due to wealth stratification in London and outside of London due to Industrialization. Everyone is either a zombie or - according to the end - laboring to keep the rising zombie world at bay, as "England remained in the shadow of Satan." Clearly, no one in the novel nor in any zombie movie wishes to consider what zombies represent or where zombies came from in a society, which is similar to how characters in Austen novel assiduously ignore the "white elephants in the room," namely the origin of wealth disparity (imperialism and industrialization). Ironically, the most progressive character is beloved for her ability to slay the undead (symbolizing colonial subjects and the poor denizens of early Victorian England) - not so progressive, but definitely true to history.
I must retire to prepare for Buddhas on Bikes - we will meditate, bike and visit Buddhist "hot spots" and finally dine at a Buddhist restaurant. Fun! - I hope it does not rain!

Happy Summer Solstice to all!

Strawberry Fields Forever

Nothing I think is in my tree... err, yes, but it's all right, I mean I think it's not too bad.

Here, Beth and Adam demonstrate a hug, crossing berry barriers (pun-tastic!)

So, we went picking of the berries straw this mid morning. And, yes - I have been reading P&P&Zombies. As we left, things weather-wise turned for the soggier. And sure enough, I spurred the rain storm with my attempt to bike to Juveria's for cobbler-baking - which is to say, it started to pour as I began to bike. 'Tis a very wet evening - no Zombie ride or Bowie Vs. Prince ride in sight.

Well, Juveria's strawberry peach cobbler was amazing.

and Bears! Oh My!

And, yes, here are those lovable Bears, also known as the 2nd period of freshmen for me/4th period for the Dillard.

I miss all of y'all already (notice the assonance - the vowel version of alliteration, OK, stop it, Ms. K, it's summer)


On more info. - the "Pun-ishment Ride" was a bust - they just wanted to eat fries and didn't have anything planned for us eager riders (boo!); tonight shall be amazing with biking, B-BQue and skating at Oaks Park - way to tear off the shackles of the humdrum school year, no? Plus, I made a killer cobbler to go along with the killer P&P Zombie mash-up. Yay.

The Tigers!

The 9th grade learning community known as 4th period... or more colloquially, The Tigers! (and boy did they live up to their name ;) ).

The Lions!

Thanks, Beth for your Flickering labor! I love these pictures!

Here is the 9th grade community known as period one or more colloquially... The Lions!

How the Garcia Girls Lost Their Accents

Dear Reader,

Although I have a great deal to share from the unfolding narrative of "Pedalpalooza" including a very literary bike ride this evening titled "Pun-ishment", here I will offer a review and list of questions raised by Julia Alvarez's How the Garcia Girls Lost Their Accents. First, I would say that this first novel of Alvarez's offers a great deal more introspection and depth of character development than her second novel In The Time of the Butterflies - and after Junot Diaz's The Brief Wonderous Life of Oscar Wao was unleashed on the world, Butterflies seemed even more watery to me. Not that it is an overall weak novel, but I don't think it can hold a candle to Oscar Wao or the novel it replaces in IB curriculum for students who "can't" be exposed to Allende's opus on South American revolution, House of the Spirits. That digression said, I found a truth and honesty in the narrative project of HGGLTA that reminds me of Diaz and Alvarez at her best in Butterflies.
Because of the title, I was expecting a focus on the development of immigrant identity experienced by the Garcia girls; however, Alvarez's narrative works backwards, tracing the outlines of how this experience has created individuals and a family community. Kind of like Citizen Kane, Slumdog Millionaire, or a South American counterpart, Marquez's Chronicle of a Death Foretold. In other words, the reader is invited - not unlike the viewer of In Treatment (the mesmerizing new HBO series about therapy with the dashing therapist played by Gabriel Byrne) - to meet adult individuals from the same family and infer how their shared immigrant (race, class gender)d experiences have shaped them and given them their current "issues". These "isseus" verge on cliche for a novel about upper-class women: as a writer unhappy in marriage, an anorexic painter and psychiatric patient, a precocious and fecund wife to a German engineer, and a psychologist married to her ex-therapist. However, these are certainly fun profiles of adult women to work with as a writer and as a reader, coupled with over-educated mom who never got to pursue her passion for invention and doctor dad. In fact, that pleasure and fascination I enjoyed while watching the recent film Rachel Getting Married stayed with me throughout reading these narratives about these women (they are all shared in third person: only once does "Yoyo" or Yolanda the writer take on the first person in her narrative). I found it interesting that Alvarez's style consistently uses the third person to describe the individual narratives of trauma that shaped these women - it's almost as if that third person were the analyst/writer-self of the adult women. Over the course of the novel, Alvarez shares threaded narratives of these sisters from the present to the era of immigration to New York, back to childhood in the Dominican Republic. While I didn't find the novel to be a remarkable example of exploring the immigrant identity process, which the title prompted me to predict, I was charmed and intrigued by the exploration of relationships through the vantage point of a non-neutral perspective ("third person as therapist/writer"). Perhaps, my fascination comes from my lack of knowledge about sibling relationships, coupled with my experiences with extremely important relationships I have shared amongst women as an adult.
Alvarez's use of simile is likewise charming and true to her voice in Butterflies, however, while this style helps glide the reader along her ride, the unexpected or jarring moments in the narrative never pop off of the page. I noticed a motif of mouths and interesting ways to describe mouths and it hit me after my new crush ordered a Lingua taco on the Taco Bike Ride last night, and explained that lingua is pork tongue, that mouths and Alvarez's choice to describe them in scenes with great emotion, invite the reader to acknowledge the symbolic power of the tongue, accents, and language that these sisters ATTACH to these pivotal scenes, which are not OBVIOUSLY about their immigrant identity . Neat. OK, so maybe the cracks of the novel (the corner of this novel's smile?) do explore the theme of a gendered immigrant experience after all...
Here are some of these moments:
"Her lips tightened. She set her teeth, top on bottom row, a calcium fortress."(75)
"He had told them he was seeing a 'Spanish Girl' and he reported they said that should be interesting for him to find out about people from other cultures. It bothered me that they should treat me like a geography lesson for their son. But I didn't have the vocabulary back then to explain even to myself what annoyed me about their remark."(98) - Lacan would love that one :)
"There were spaces between all her teeth; nothing dared block that woman's way even when she was smiling... I ached for the lesson to begin so I could draw and color in those ivory teeth with the purple muscle of the tongue showing like some fat beast caged inside her mouth." (pg. 244-245). Lingua indeed!
Clearly, Alvarez pays careful attention to symbols of orality in her characters - smiling, eating, kissing, not eating, and constantly reading emotion through mouths. Further, this motif binds the sisters' narratives into a fragmented whole, comprised of the selective memories of silence, outbursts, and restricted voice projected on to the fetishized power of the mouth. This reminds me of Sigrid Nunez's bilcultural/immigrant narrative Feather on the Breath of God which binds the festishized power of ballet dancing to cultural difference and anorexia.

OK... off to Pride and Prejudice and... Zombies!

Peach Rosemary Asparagus Salad

Ingredients: (organic and fresh!)

1 bunch of asparagus
fresh lettuce
1 large peach
1 nectarine
2 cups spinach
1/2 cup cooked lentils (red or green)
dried currants
sprig of rosemary
garlic
red wine vinegar
black pepper
salt

Saute and steam the asparagus with the garlic and rosemary with a bit of water in a covered pan, once almost fully cooked, reduce heat and add peaches and currants, saute for a minute, add spinach and remove from heat as soon as wilting begins. Throw mixture on a bed of fresh chopped lettuce that has red wine vinegar drizzled over it. Add a heaping mound of lentils and sprinkle salt, red wine vinegar on this mound. Sprinkle pepper over the salad. Enjoy and hug the summer.

Pantoum Time

Dear reader, Through reading my new McSweeney's which is devoted to exploring rare and diverse genres of writing, I discovered a poem structure from 1400 that originated in Malaysia. A pantoum. It is repetitive and creates a "trancelike" effect. Rules: poems have a series of quatrains, in which the second and fourth lines of each stanza reappear (with small alterations) as the first and third lines of the next stanza. When you get to the last stanza, your first and third lines of your first stanza reappear as the last and second lines (a reversal of order) of your final stanza. Your pantoum can be any length, cover any subject matter, and a rhyme scheme is not mandatory. I decided to explore my conflicted feelings after ending the school year and leaving for the summer; the "trance" effect captures how I have felt stressed and like I'm going in circles thinking about whether I will move or not to another school or whether I will have a teaching job combined with my mourning/celebrating the end of a great/hard year of teaching. The first line comes from an interesting but troubling title of the cover article in the new Harper's - basically it explores the parallels between Obama and Hoover (as opposed to FDR)... clearly the title is not HOPEful nor optimistic in the reality of CHANGE.

Our New Summer
a pantoum by Catherine Kernodle

The best and brightest blow it again
At the rich poor bargaining table
Packing up and checking out for the summer
We are assured of sure uncertainties ahead

At the rich poor bargaining, we table
our concerns for now, blindly seeing
we are assured of sure uncertainties ahead.
My laughing tears turned to paddle away.

Our concerns, for now, blindly saw
That control is a chimera not unlike
How my laughing tears; turn to paddle away
Ducks in the pond, which you shouldn’t feed

Control, invisible and flimsy, is just so
Packing up and checking out for the summer
Ducks in the pond you shouldn’t feed; but,
The best and brightest will blow it again

Take Me Out To The Frisbee Tournie

Dear reader,
I practiced my sports photography at Delta Park this afternoon - these are random people because I arrived just after Cookler and Free's games were over. I did manage to get a sneak peek into yet another sports subculture in Portland: Ultimate Frisbee. It reminded me of Kickball, except the people were a bit more athletic, competitive and attractive (sorry kickball).

I'm having a blast with this blog - don't expect this much action all summer. Caroline's stopping by Portland on Tuesday - I see sushi in my future.

Best - CK

Chard and Italian Sausage

Full of nutrients and incredibly delicous.

1 teaspoon olive oil
1 bunch of Chard
1/2 lb. mild italian sausage
1 lemon, squeezed
lots of garlic, minced

Cut the chard and place aside. Crumble the sausage and heat over medium high with a tiny bit of olive oil; add 3/4 of garlic you intend to use. Saute. Add cut up chard when sausage is minutes away from being fully cooked. Add remaining garlic with chard. Stir. Serve warm right after chard wilts to half of its original size. Enjoy.


This is a fantastic dish: great flavors, especially with quality chard and crafted sausage. This is not only a comfort food, but also a dish packed with nutrients to help you bounce back if you are feeling energy-less at the end of the week.

Summer Reading List!!!!

Dear dear Reader,

Yes. Summer is here. Today I ventured to Powell's and purchased my summer reading list books! I can't wait to begin digging in - here are my books and the order in which I will tackle them. You should read along - we could discuss them through this blog-thingee. Without further ado, drum roll:

i) The new Harper's and McSweeney's
1) Julia Alvarez's How The Garcia Girls Lost Their Accents
2) Pride and Prejudice and Zombies by Jane Austen and Seth Grahame-Smith
3) The Lazarus Project by Aleksandar Hemon
4) Winesburg, Ohio by Sherwood Anderson
5) The Savage Detectives by Roberto Bolano
6) Slouching Towards Bethlehem: Essays by Joan Didion
7) The Plague of Doves by Louise Erdrich
8) Shakespeare's History Plays
9) Tons of poetry in July!
10) The Green Glass Sea by Ellen Klages (while in Los Alamos)
11) (finally finish) The Book Thief by Markus Zusak
12) (Audiobook in the car with mom driving from Texas to New Mexico in August): The Art of Racing in the Rain by Garth Stein

Ambitious? Yes. Yay summer!

We were merely freshmen

So, tomorrow marks the end of the year - Beth and I are planning to sing an adapted cover of The Verve Pipe's "The Freshmen" to our darling freshies. Should be epic! I think I might actually explode. My immediate goal for this blog is to communicate with everybody this summer and to document my thoughts about what I'm learning and thinking about in Chicago and at Project Zero at Harvard. I'm also going to post about what I'm cooking and eating, because food is amazing. I'm going to miss Portland a great deal, so this will serve as my umbilical cord to P-Town as I'm floating from Chicago, to Cambridge, to San Antonio, to New Mexico and back.
Although I am exhausted and looking forward to the break, I realized while writing alternative lyrics to "The Freshmen" today that I have absolutely adored working with our kids this year. I hope this tribute shows this. Graduation will offer some closure to the year as well - I will see all of my juniors from last year and seniors from this year graduate.
Lastly, I have to say that I can't believe how my favorite characters from Carnivale met dire fates at the end of season one (spoiler alert): Sofie dies, Brother Justin turns demonic, and Samson, well, Samson goes to seed morally and tries to lure a character to suicide (none too charming). Can't wait to discover if Sofie really died, how Brother Justin wreaks evil and the growth or continued downward spiral of Samson.
I have also started reading Julia Alvarez's How The Garcia Girls Lost Their Accent. More on this later. Written in third person but with the perspective or focus on a different sister and time period which will connect and add up to a fragmented but whole narrative. The first chapter ends with the focus character noticing a Palmolive advertisement - I will try to find it on the internet!