Five Friday Happy Bringers (3/8/13)

It’s Friday All Day Long! Here’s what I am happy about:

1. My SCAD ENGL 193 (Composition for International Students) classes and I holding an informal drop-in Visual Essay Exhibition on Wednesday. A rousing success! I was/am SO proud of my students: artists showing off their work!

Here’s the blurb about the exhibition which I printed out on little programs:

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VISUAL ESSAYS:

A Classroom Exhibition  Habersham Hall 3/6/13 SCAD

For this project, students in Neal Saye’s ENG 193, Composition for International Students, both think “essay” and forget “essay.” They can do that—they’re smart! How is the project like an essay? Well, they compose, they have a focus and thesis, they have structure, they have support. But it does not evolve in traditional essay format. It births as a sculpture, a collage, a scrapbook, a video, a painting, a mobile, a form, a food, fashion, theatrical presentation, etc.

In The Alchemist, Paulo Coelho presents various themes about life and dream following. After reading the incredible text, students choose a theme, a symbol, a character, an idea, etc. and then create.

The visual essay project, then, is a visual representation of one topic narrowed into a clear thesis/point/perspective/idea. The students’ challenge: how to “show” their thesis.

This exhibition reveals their interpretations.

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And some photos from the exhibition:

And some pics of the visual essays themselves:

2.  My iPhone (and sense enough to minimally operate it).  Can anybody else remember when a phone was this device you used to call people … and … like, talk?

3.  The expectant thought of fresh, fat, orange-red, Vine-Ripened Tomatoes this summer.  I nearly cried at lunch yesterday at Panera when this pinkish thing pretending to be a tomato slice fell out of my tuna sandwich.  I was so embarrassed I put a napkin over it.

4.  Raw almonds

5.  Our incredible sense of hearing.  It’s so amazing.  (Well, except when, for some reason, I came across the band Screeching Weasel’s song “Bark Like a Dog.”)

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That does it.  I’m going to start a band, Neal and the Bansheeing TurtlePins.  I’m working on our first really big hit, “Knead Like Julia, Martha and Paula (Before the Weight Loss).”

Have a Beautiful Weekend.  You HEAR me?