Righteous Babes and Personal Writing

Dear All,

I'm reading through the wonderful short stories S3 did today, and thinking about how many of them link back to the personal writing that happened at the end of last term. I came across Ranting Feminist / Powerful Lady Ani DiFranco a couple of years ago, and thought this might fit in with some of both creative and personal writing themes. S5 might enjoy this too, as a break from the violence and crime of MacCaig's poetry this week.

Lack of correct punctuation is intentional. You can do that once you are an artiste:

not a pretty girl

i am not a pretty girl

that is not what i do

i ain't no damsel in distress

and i don't need to be rescued

so put me down punk

maybe you'd prefer a maiden fair

isn't there a kitten stuck up a tree somewhere?

i am not an angry girl

but it seems like i've got everyone fooled

every time i say something they find hard to hear

they chalk it up to my anger

and never to their own fear

and imagine you're a girl

just trying to finally come clean

knowing full well they'd prefer you

were dirty and smiling

and i am sorry

i am not a maiden fair

and i am not a kitten stuck up a tree somewhere

and generally my generation

wouldn't be caught dead working for the man

and generally i agree with them

trouble is you gotta have yourself an alternate plan

and i have earned my disillusionment

i have been working all of my life

and i am a patriot

i have been fighting the good fight

and what if there are no damsels in distress

what if i knew that and i called your bluff?

don't you think every kitten figures out how to get down

whether or not you ever show up

i am not a pretty girl

i don't want to be a pretty girl

no i want to be more than a pretty girl

Find more ani here

Friday 11th April (: x

Today in class we read for 10 minutes at the start of the lesson as usual, then I had to do my talk on a moment in time. I was very nervous but my audience was amazing so that made it a lot easier. After we rearranged the desks so that there was a stage at the front of the classroom. Mr Sharpe then picked volunteers to act out The Merchant Of Venice from page 147 to page 165. We learnt that Mr Sharpe is rubbish at football and let his team down badly when he scored into his own goals. This was Mr Sharpe's example of "do a little wrong and a lot a right" which is a quote from The Merchant Of Venice.

sc :) x Y

Thursday 10 April

Today we learnt about the relationships and characters in the Merchant of Venice. We found out that everyone dislikes Shylock even his own daughter Jessica dislikes him. We then watched the film, where Antonio's time was up and he had to pay the price. Shylock was determined to get the pound of flesh even though he was offered twice the amount of money. It ended in Shylock getting all of his possesions confenscated.

AC :)

Get dog, Dawg. This is some wack beats, ya'll

OK, as we all know, Mr Sharpe is not cool. In fact, we should all wear T-shirts that say this. However, below you will find a copy of the questions from today's reading test. The answers are also included so you can mark your own. A copy of the text is also below. If you missed today's lesson, please give this a try without cheating!

This means you have the opportunity to cheat. But why would you, my trustworthy hoard?

If I don't have time to post all the answers now, the rest will be up by Friday teatime. Homework is to mark your answers and be ready to talk abuot them on Thursday 17th April.

At home with the Doggs ...by Emma Forrest (..adapted from..)

Look at paragraphs 1 to 3

1. What does Snoop Dogg do which is surprising at the start of the interview? 1-0
He answers all the interview questions to himself in the mirror = 1
2. Quote a phrase which shows how Snoop Dogg is more concerned with his own appearance that in answering the interviewer’s questions. 2-0
"the self-love reflected here" or "he ansers every question to his reflection" - either = 2
3. In your own words, explain why the author thinks his actions might be linked to Owen Wilson 2-1-0
Owen Wilson was in Starsky and Hutch (1) and Snoop Dogg was also in this film (1)
4. Name three things Snoop Dogg was famous for. 2-1-0
Protege of Dr Dre / smoking pot / popularising "izzle" / run ins with the law / misogyny = any three = 2 marks, any 2 = 1 mark. One/none = 0 marks
5. How does the context help you to understand the meaning of “misogyny” (paragraph 2). 2-1-0
Misogyny means hatred of women (1). You can work this out because earlier in the passage it shows that gangsta rap is seen as exploitative of women / sexist, and then shows Dogg's music as an example of this sexism (1)
6. Quote a phrase which tells you that in despite changing labels, the content of his records remains the same. 2-0
"When he moved from Death Row records to Master P's No Limit label, he incorporated P's Dirty South sound but stuck to the same theme" (2) - shortened verse using elipsis ( ... ) accepted :)
7. Explain, in your own words, what leads to Snoop Dogg being denied an entry visa into the United Kingdom. 2-1-0
He was involved in some kind of fight ("fracas") (1) at the airport which lead to him going to prison overnight (1)

Look at paragraphs 4 to 8

8. Why do you think the author is surprised at his latest business venture? 2-1-0
The new show shows him as a nice, family man (1) whereas in fact the author thinks he is a crook / ganster / not a very nice chap. (1)
9. “’It’s a blessing’, he reflects to his reflection.” How effectively does the author use humor here? 2-0
It's really effective (!) because it is a pun - reflect means both the image in the mirror, and how Snoop is thinking about himself deeply. = 2 - you must explain that reflect has two meanings to get the marks here.
10. “Respect is often found in the level of your wealth, not the quality of your music.” Explain, in your own words, what the author means. 2-1-0
It doesn't matter if your music is rubbish (1) so long as you are rich (1)
11. How does the author show that it is his business skills, not his music, that has made him successful? 2-1-0
Either: use of metaphor - "Tesco of rap" + explanation of metaphor OR uses a list of businesses he has contrasted against "one record in the 90s thast was both catchy and unique"...either = 2 marks
12. Quote the word that shows Snoop Dogg is almost in a coma with boredom. 1-0
"catatonic" = 1

Look at paragraphs 14 to 16

13. Why does the author laugh at his answer? 1-0
He lists himself as the most inspirational black leader today, it's very arrogant and the author thinks he is an idiot! = 1, anything along those lines would get 1 mark
14. How does the author suggest he has a menacing undertone to his personality? 2-1-0
He reacts threateningly and frightens the author (1) OR uses simile to compare winding up Snoop Dogg to poking a lion with a stick. Both end in bloody results (2) - the simile explanation answer is the better one.
15. How does the author think that Snoop Dogg is at odds with the rest of rap culture at the time? 2-1-0
Rap culture at the time was moving towards women's rights, even more so than mainstream America (1) whereas Snoop Dogg's music was becoming even more hostile towards women (1) - MUST SHOW THE COMPARISON FOR TWO MARKS
16. What does he do that finally makes up the author’s mind about him? 1-0
He released his music as a ring tone, which the author thinks is tacky/makes him a sell out = 1
17. “And laughing all the way to the bizzle” How effective is this as an ending to the article? 2-1-0
It's a great ending because it uses humour and links back to how Dogg popularised the word "izzle". (1) It shows how rich he is (1) "Bizzle" sounds silly and makes fun of Snoop Dogg because the author thinks he is a joke (1) - score on merit but looking for relevant and well-developed answer for full two marks.
***********************************
At home with the Doggs ...by Emma Forrest (..adapted from..)
The moment Snoop Dogg walks into the suite of The Grafton in West Hollywood, he sits down on the bed opposite a mirror and proceeds to stare at himself. It's a fancy hotel room on the debauched Sunset Strip: I imagine all manner of interesting things have taken place in front of this mirror. But never the self-love reflected here by the 37-year old rapper. Smoothing his pig-tailed hair, he answers every question to his reflection, to the point where I wonder if it's an acting exercise this ex-Crips gang member picked up from Owen Wilson on the set of Starsky and Hutch (Snoop played Huggy Bear, one of his several forays into film).
Until recently, Snoop, who rose to fame in the 1990s as a protégé of NWA's Dr Dre, was most famous for smoking pot, for popularising the slang suffix "izzle" and for run-ins with the law. When gangsta rap was at the centre of arguments in favour of women’s exploitation, many focused on the misogyny of his records. When he moved from Death Row records to Master P's No Limit label, he incorporated P's Dirty South sound but stuck to the same theme.
In 2004, he signed to Geffen and, produced by Pharrell Williams, saw Drop It Like It's Hot go to No 1. Having been cleared of a gang-related murder charge in 1993, it was small potatoes when, in 2007, following a fracas outside the BA first-class lounge that led to a night in jail, his visa request to enter the UK was rejected.
Incredible as it may seem, now that reality TV is the order of the day, Snoop has rebranded himself as a family-friendly guy, starring in a reality show about himself called Snoop Dogg's Father Hood, featuring his wife Shante and their children, on the E! cable channel.
"It's a blessing," he reflects to his reflection, "to have been in the rap game for so long and to remain so relevant, to remain talked about with the newest and the latest and the hottest, freshest."
The thing that makes hip-hop different from other genres is that respect is often found in the level of your wealth, not the quality of your music. Snoop put out one record in the 90s that was both catchy and unique, “Gin and Juice”, and from that he's launched his own video games, DVDs, a soft drink, movie roles, and now the reality show. Snoop Dogg isn’t necessarily a good rapper. He is simply the most convenient. He is the Tesco of rap musicians.
"I earned the right to call my album Ego Trippin'," he tells the mirror. "Nine records in 15 years, top 10 every time.. I earned the right to do that. “
His publicist has warned me to make his album the focus of my questions, but the truth is that he has very little to say about it. Fair enough, music is not necessarily any fun to discuss. His responses are near catatonic, with an edge that suggests if only he weren't so bored by the questions they would be making him angry. But he comes to life when I raise the subject of Barack Obama's recent speech on race.
I ask why it is that Snoop doesn't address his strong political convictions in his music. "I feel it affect me, but I don't need to be crying about it on my records."
Not like Mos Def or Talib Kweli, whose music carries the message. Snoop is bored again. So bored. I am riveted because I was sure, as a businessman, he would have stayed on family-friendly message. Isn't he supposed to be just a regular family guy now?
"But I am. That's what I always been. People in London always get information on me as far as when I go to jail and my criminal record. Negative things. They never hear about my football team, my wife, my kids, my standing in the community, the gang interventions that I do. They don't give a ---- about it!"
He nods at his reflection in deference to his own nice doing, and I ask who he considers the most inspirational black leaders in America today. "Minister Louis Farrakhan. Snoop Dogg."
I laugh. He purses his lips and gives the mirror a look so deadly it tells me that accidentally laughing at Snoop is equivalent to accidentally poking a lion with a stick.
One of the most frustrating things about Snoop is that he and his pimpdom were already abnormal when they emerged. The majority of hip-hop voices at that time (groups like A Tribe Called Quest and Public Enemy) had been more socially progressive on everything, including attitudes to women, than the mainstream American culture of Playboy magazine and the Hooters restaurant chain. But, as the industry went corporate and the record labels weeded out the non-pimp, non-gangsta acts and brought in artists who called women bitches and ho's, the Snoop-ification was rapid and lucrative for everyone from the Dogg himself, to the companies peddling his clothing lines.
Taking women dressed in diamond collars and leads down the red carpet at awards shows has been labelled hip-hop behaviour, when it's really just recycled blaxploitation imagery and misogynist foolishness. But he will do any dance and put on any persona, if that's what he thinks will command the most attention. Recalling that, last year, Snoop was the first artist to release his track as a ringtone prior to a single, it occurs to me that he is actually the ultimate ho, being pimped out by the industry in a fantasy of hyper-sexualised criminality. And laughing all the way to the bizzle.

First day back in english!!

In class today we read in silence for 10 Min's at the beginning of the lesson. Then we moved seats and worked on a Merchant of Venice Revision Quiz with our new seat buddies. Our task was to put the jumbled up parts of the story into the right order. then we acted out Act 3 scene 5, then act 3 scene 3 because we accidentally missed out two scenes.


GC

Thursdays lesson

On the last day of last term in english instead of doing merchant of venice related work we had a general knowlage quiz. The quiz had a mixture of different types of questions, i think the class enjoyed the quiz alot and it was a good idea.

kc

Shylock Quotes - is he a villain or a victim?

Hello S2 - hope you are having a good holiday.

You'll be delighted to learn that I've copied out loads of good quotes from TMoV about Shylock - these will be really useful to you for when you are writing your essays soon about whether Shylock is a victim or a villain.

The formatting is all wrong but I'm sure you won't mind that too much!

Enjoy!

I hate him for he is a Christian,

But more for that in low simplicity

He lends out money gratis and brings down

The rate of usance here with us in Venice.

He hates our sacred nation

Signior Antonio, many a time and oft

In the Rialto you have rated me

About my moneys and my usances:

Still have I borne it with a patient shrug,

For sufferance is the badge of all our tribe.You call me misbeliever, cut-throat dog,

And spit upon my Jewish gaberdine,

And all for use of that which is mine own.

Well then, it now appears you need my help:Go to, then; you come to me, and you say'

Shylock, we would have moneys:' you say so;

You, that did void your rheum upon my beardAnd foot me as you spurn a stranger cur

Over your threshold: moneys is your suitWhat should I say to you?

Should I not say'Hath a dog money? is it possibleA cur can lend three thousand ducats?'

Or Shall I bend low and in a bondman's key,With bated breath and whispering humbleness,

Say this;'Fair sir, you spit on me on Wednesday last;You spurn'd me such a day; another timeYou call'd me dog; and for these courtesiesI'll lend you thus much moneys'?

Why, look you, how you storm!I would be friends with you and have your love,Forget the shames that you have stain'd me with,Supply your present wants and take no doitOf usance for my moneys, and you'll not hear me:This is kind I offer.

If you repay me not on such a day,In such a place, such sum or sums as areExpress'd in the condition, let the forfeitBe nominated for an equal poundOf your fair flesh, to be cut off and takenIn what part of your body pleaseth me.

If he should break his day, what should I gainBy the exaction of the forfeiture?A pound of man's flesh taken from a manIs not so estimable, profitable neither,As flesh of muttons, beefs, or goats.

If e'er the Jew her father come to heaven,It will be for his gentle daughter's sake:

For I did dream of money-bags to-night.

As the dog Jew did utter in the streets:'My daughter! O my ducats! O my daughter!Fled with a Christian! O my Christian ducats!Justice! the law! my ducats, and my daughter!

SHYLOCK You know, none so well, none so well as you, of mydaughter's flight.

SALARINO That's certain: I, for my part, knew the tailorthat made the wings she flew withal.

SALANIO And Shylock, for his own part, knew the bird was fledged; and then it is the complexion of them all to leave the dam.

He hath disgraced me, andhindered me half a million; laughed at my losses,mocked at my gains, scorned my nation, thwarted mybargains, cooled my friends, heated mine enemies; and what's his reason? I am a Jew


Hath not a Jew eyes? hath not a Jew hands, organs,dimensions, senses, affections, passions? fed withthe same food, hurt with the same weapons, subjectto the same diseases, healed by the same means,warmed and cooled by the same winter and summer, asa Christian is? If you prick us, do we not bleed?if you tickle us, do we not laugh? if you poisonus, do we not die? and if you wrong us, shall we notrevenge?

If we are like you in the rest, we willresemble you in that. If a Jew wrong a Christian,what is his humility? Revenge. If a Christianwrong a Jew, what should his sufferance be byChristian example? Why, revenge. The villany youteach me, I will execute, and it shall go hard but Iwill better the instruction.

I would my daughterwere dead at my foot, and the jewels in her ear!would she were hearsed at my foot, and the ducats inher coffin!

no in luck stirring but what lights on myshoulders; no sighs but of my breathing; no tearsbut of my shedding.

Never did I knowA creature, that did bear the shape of man,So keen and greedy to confound a man

Gaoler, look to him: tell not me of mercy;This is the fool that lent out money gratis:Gaoler, look to him.

Thou call'dst me dog before thou hadst a cause;But, since I am a dog, beware my fangs:

I'll have my bond; and therefore speak no more.I'll not be made a soft and dull-eyed fool,To shake the head, relent, and sigh, and yieldTo Christian intercessors.

I am sorry for thee: thou art come to answerA stony adversary, an inhuman wretchuncapable of pity, void and emptyFrom any dram of mercy.

You'll ask me, why I rather choose to haveA weight of carrion flesh than to receiveThree thousand ducats: I'll not answer that:But, say, it is my humour: is it answer'd?

You will answer'The slaves are ours:' so do I answer you:The pound of flesh, which I demand of him,Is dearly bought; 'tis mine and I will have it.

My deeds upon my head! I crave the law,The penalty and forfeit of my bond.

Nay, take my life and all; pardon not that:You take my house when you do take the propThat doth sustain my house; you take my lifeWhen you do take the means whereby I live.

Two things provided more, that, for this favour,He presently become a Christian;The other, that he do record a gift,Here in the court, of all he dies possess'd,Unto his son Lorenzo and his daughter.