Jazz

Describe how Irvin Mayfield's second and eighth movements of "Strange Fruit" manage to convey the Romeo/Juliette-like storyline and the mourning-style of funereal second lines with musical sound. What do you think of this style of musical expression in general? What emotions do its particular elements manage to evoke?

Evolution vs. Creationism: the political world confronts the scientific one

"The Intelligent design hypothesis has one major flaw: it requires one to believe that a competent, thinking, omnipotent, divine being created the platypus: a venomous, egg-laying, duck billed mammal." Anon.

"As Christians, we know that naturalism is wrong." William A. Dembski, author: "The Design Inference."

As you all may know, there is a huge debate over whether evolution specifically, the theory of natural selection through survival of the fittest as developed by Charles Darwin, does or does not constitute a science to be taught in schools, as a part of an outstanding debate on whether to teach religion. After explaining the sides of the debate, we will form an "opinion spectrum" on this topic and let you choose the best among yourselves to represent each side in an open debate before the class during which you must all participate by asking questions and taking a vote.

Ice Breaker!

Think of a caption and a story to go with this picture.

New Orleans Architecture: surviving masterpieces

This Queen Anne's style Garden District house is a prime example of one of many pristine properties relatively unscathed by Katrina. Note that although "Queen Anne's" is a misnomer to describe the eclectic, picturesque, free classic style popular here and elsewhere (like San Francisco) in the late 19th century. What are some of the features you notice about this house? Have you seen anything like it anywhere else in or around Europe?

TV Sitcoms: the introduction to modern American youth culture

"Always Sunny" (pilot episode)

"Native American" culture in Louisiana: Point Au Chien (Pow Wow) vs. Mardi Gras Indians

What messages do you think the people in this picture are conveying to the audience? Is there a day of the year that you or your family reserves for some similar cultural interaction or expression? Describe. Above: Chocktaw Indians at a multi-tribal Pow-Wow in Point Au Chien (near Houma, Louisiana) on September 16, 2006; also below, along with a Mardi Gras Indian pictured from Google.
As you'll notice by the three flags below (one for the U.S., one for the state, and one for the Indian nations), as well as by the number of former servicemen among the tribes, I found at Point Au Chien that Native Americans today are some of the most patriotic citizens one can encounter. Wearing $3000 costumes year after year and dancing rain or shine, they prove themselves to be excellent craftsmen with fierce loyalties, even among those tribes not yet recognized by the federal government. To paraphrase one Choctaw woman's sentiments, many Indians do not know their real birth name, but for one of them to know his nationality is as good as treason.

The Mardi Gras Indians keep their traditions in celebration of the common oppression to whites which they shared with Native Americans. However, they only show their regalia on Mardi Gras Day, St. Joseph's Day (the day after St. Patrick's), and occasionally, "Super Sunday" (the day of the Superbowl). Unlike true Native Americans, the Mardi Gras Indians wear their regalia and perform their songs and dances in open competition over territory with others--competition so fierce that before the peace movements of the 1960's it used to result in gang violence at other times of the year. Today, the main competition is over whose costume, made in secret by assistants during the course of the year, has the most intricate ornaments and design. Both groups of "Indians" in southern Louisiana speak or sing a version of French known either as Cajun or Creole based with some exceptions on whether the speakers are urban or rural.

Debutantes and Mardi Gras from the Inside

Note: the same debutante and court systems exist for both blacks and whites, but these Mardi Gras assert their members' freedom of association by loosely enforcing "separate but equal"policies to this day. They are equal although there may be age differences that exist between the two by tradition for rites of passage.

Katrina devastation up close

The roof of the Superdome also sustained damage, and as repairs are underway it now sports a satirical flag forbidding hurricanes. For additional shots of ruined property around town one may look at a walk my friend took around his neighborhood the January following the storm. Ask yourself, do you think that it is right to take pictures on disaster tours?
http://studentweb.tulane.edu/~gmauer/Devestation/

Katrina up close: my personal pictures

I had just painted this room of our house literally days before the storm hit. This is how it looks after being gutted.
The ground-level facade of a duplex we rent to college students shows the water lines where sitting water left a line of debris before rising. You'll notice the heaviest mark is just four inches from the ground and probably resulted from the actual storm itself since this is a relatively low part of Broadmoore, an area of uptown swamp that was filled in at the turn of the century. The remaining rise in water was due to the surprise levee breaks. The spray paint markings on the door show that no person or animal inside was found dead or alive, although the water rose higher than the height of an average woman.Sometimes one is so numb that one's responses to the absurd amount of devastation turn saccharine. This restaurant, now open for business once again, retained the toppled Frostop root beer mug in its fallen place as a novelty.
Peeking inside the window of the rental house revealed that evacuating in a hurry had its consequences. However, staying would have given the residents virtually nowhere to go. Notice that what water left unscathed, mold quickly claimed. Refrigerators were probably the most common item found on the curb for trash collection.
My grandmother's house--sixty miles north of New Orleans suffered severe damage by a tornado. A missionary church group helped repair her damaged roof and carport.

Perils of Modernity, American-style: the ticket

Parking Tickets and the Sardonic

Creole-Speaking Areas of the Gulf Coast

This map shows current and former speakers of Creole, a variety of French descended from the maritime settlers of the Louisiana colony and Gulf coast, and for which the agglomerate ethnicities resulting were named. Creole originally referred to both the native-born slaves who were better acclimated to working conditions than their imported counterparts, and to the slave owners themselves, though they quickly dropped this categorization due to the stigma of the racial connotations that developed. The rural "coonass" population of fishermen dispersed after their refusal to bear arms for England after its acquisition of Acadia, who became known as Cajuns, became both the more popular choice in nomenclature and the more wealthy of the two groups after the oil and tourism industries picked up earlier this century. Their language was almost totally wiped out in the last generation due to mandatory public schooling in English.

Predicting Tragedy and Taking Risks--New Orleans and Katrina

This is a map of the flood zones in Orleans Parish, what is legally known as New Orleans. In which areas would you predict property owners to be required by law to buy flood insurance? Why?

Now, Notice that only the property owners in the sparse yellow areas are required by law to have flood insurance.

This second map shows adjacent parishes like Jefferson and St. Bernard, as well as a mark for each area where one or more deaths occurred due to the storm--i.e., where people did not evacuate. Obviously, superimposing the two maps shows something about people's thought processes and faith. Write a short description of it to read to the class.

Now, imagine another similar experience which may have happened to you or someone you know and make a story 5 sentences or longer. Pay attention to how you use the progressive and simple past.

Perspectives on Katrina: December 2005 Op-Ed

Death of an American City


Published: December 11, 2005 (NY Times)
We are about to lose New Orleans. Whether it is a conscious plan to let the city rot until no one is willing to move back or honest paralysis over difficult questions, the moment is upon us when a major American city will die, leaving nothing but a few shells for tourists to visit like a museum.
We said this wouldn't happen. President Bush said it wouldn't happen. He stood in Jackson Square and said, "There is no way to imagine America without New Orleans." But it has been over three months since Hurricane Katrina struck and the city is in complete shambles.
There are many unanswered questions that will take years to work out, but one is make-or-break and needs to be dealt with immediately. It all boils down to the levee system. People will clear garbage, live in tents, work their fingers to the bone to reclaim homes and lives, but not if they don't believe they will be protected by more than patches to the same old system that failed during the deadly storm. Homeowners, businesses and insurance companies all need a commitment before they will stake their futures on the city.
At this moment the reconstruction is a rudderless ship. There is no effective leadership that we can identify. How many people could even name the president's liaison for the reconstruction effort, Donald Powell? Lawmakers need to understand that for New Orleans the words "pending in Congress" are a death warrant requiring no signature.
The rumbling from Washington that the proposed cost of better levees is too much has grown louder. Pretending we are going to do the necessary work eventually, while stalling until the next hurricane season is upon us, is dishonest and cowardly. Unless some clear, quick commitments are made, the displaced will have no choice but to sink roots in the alien communities where they landed.
The price tag for protection against a Category 5 hurricane, which would involve not just stronger and higher levees but also new drainage canals and environmental restoration, would very likely run to well over $32 billion. That is a lot of money. But that starting point represents just 1.2 percent of this year's estimated $2.6 trillion in federal spending, which actually overstates the case, since the cost would be spread over many years. And it is barely one-third the cost of the $95 billion in tax cuts passed just last week by the House of Representatives.
Total allocations for the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan and the war on terror have topped $300 billion. All that money has been appropriated as the cost of protecting the nation from terrorist attacks. But what was the worst possible case we fought to prevent?
Losing a major American city.
"We'll not just rebuild, we'll build higher and better," President Bush said that night in September. Our feeling, strongly, is that he was right and should keep to his word. We in New York remember well what it was like for the country to rally around our city in a desperate hour. New York survived and has flourished. New Orleans can too.
Of course, New Orleans's local and state officials must do their part as well, and demonstrate the political and practical will to rebuild the city efficiently and responsibly. They must, as quickly as possible, produce a comprehensive plan for putting New Orleans back together. Which schools will be rebuilt and which will be absorbed? Which neighborhoods will be shored up? Where will the roads go? What about electricity and water lines? So far, local and state officials have been derelict at producing anything that comes close to a coherent plan. That is unacceptable.
The city must rise to the occasion. But it will not have that opportunity without the levees, and only the office of the president is strong enough to goad Congress to take swift action. Only his voice is loud enough to call people home and convince them that commitments will be met.
Maybe America does not want to rebuild New Orleans. Maybe we have decided that the deficits are too large and the money too scarce, and that it is better just to look the other way until the city withers and disappears. If that is truly the case, then it is incumbent on President Bush and Congress to admit it, and organize a real plan to help the dislocated residents resettle into new homes. The communities that opened their hearts to the Katrina refugees need to know that their short-term act of charity has turned into a permanent commitment.
If the rest of the nation has decided it is too expensive to give the people of New Orleans a chance at renewal, we have to tell them so. We must tell them we spent our rainy-day fund on a costly stalemate in Iraq, that we gave it away in tax cuts for wealthy families and shareholders. We must tell them America is too broke and too weak to rebuild one of its great cities.
Our nation would then look like a feeble giant indeed. But whether we admit it or not, this is our choice to make. We decide whether New Orleans lives or dies.


USING THIS OP-ED ARTICLE, HOW MANY LITERARY DEVICES CAN YOU COUNT? HOW MANY EXAMPLES OF EACH CAN YOU FIND? CAN YOU THINK OF ANY MORE EXAMPLES THAT WOULD BE APPROPRIATE BUT WERE NOT USED?

1. Metaphors/Cliches: rot, price tag, rudderless ship, death warrant, work fingers to the bone, opened hearts, stalemate. Not used: ghost town, put the pedal to the metal, it's on the back burner, etc....
2. Hyperbole: paralysis
3. Understatement ("litote"): rainy-day fund (also a pun)
4. Paradox/Oxymoron: feeble giant
Not used: metonymy (in our hands, the bottom of our hearts...)

Now, with what you know of the subjunctive mood in English, tell why it isn't used more commonly in this editorial opinion.

Translate into English: (Le Monde: Corine Lesnes, 29 August 2006)

La double peine de Katrina

Quand l'ouragan Katrina s'est approché de La Nouvelle-Orléans, la Société protectrice des animaux a préparé l'évacuation. Chacun des 263 chiens et chats a été photographié. Un système de traçage permettait de les identifier même si leurs dossiers disparaissaient. Le samedi 27 août 2005, les animaux ont été placés dans des véhicules à air conditionné. Dans la nuit, ils sont arrivés sains et saufs à Houston, avec vingt-quatre heures d'avance sur la catastrophe.

Les 6 500 détenus de la prison municipale n'ont pas connu pareil traitement. Eric Balaban et Tom Jawetz, deux avocats de l'ACLU (American Civil Liberties Union), qui viennent de publier un récit du déroulement de la catastrophe à la prison, reposant sur le témoignage de 1 300 détenus et gardiens, n'hésitent pas à faire la comparaison : contrairement aux chiens et aux chats, des prisonniers ont été abandonnés. Leurs dossiers ont été détruits. Des mois plus tard, des détenus qui auraient dû être libérés étaient toujours en prison. R>A
vant Katrina, La Nouvelle-Orléans avait un taux d'incarcération deux fois supérieur à la moyenne nationale. L'Orleans Parish Prison occupait 12 bâtiments du centre-ville, à moins de 2 km du Superdome. Surpeuplée, elle abritait une majorité de petits délinquants en attente de jugement, aussi bien que des auteurs d'infractions au code de la route, des mineurs, ou des meurtriers envoyés là par les pénitenciers de l'Etat. Noirs, à 90 %. Le 28 août 2005, lorsque le maire Ray Nagin a ordonné aux habitants de quitter la ville, les détenus ont été exclus de l'arrêté municipal. Confronté à un ouragan de catégorie 5, le shérif Marlin Gusman n'a pas jugé nécessaire d'évacuer la prison. "Nous avons des générateurs de secours. Nous avons du personnel. Nous allons garder nos prisonniers à la place qui est la leur", a-t-il expliqué à CNN. Au lieu d'évacuer, la police a continué à remplir la prison.
Le samedi 27 août, Raphael Schwarz, 23 ans, cuisinier, se trouvait à la "parade du milieu de l'été", la fête qui rappelle aux habitants qu'il ne reste plus que six mois à attendre avant le Carnaval. Il comptait quitter la ville dans la nuit avec des amis. La police l'a interpellé en état d'ivresse. "Je ne l'étais même pas encore, oppose-t-il aujourd'hui, joint par téléphone. Je leur ai demandé s'ils n'avaient rien de mieux à faire, alors que tout le monde essayait de quitter la ville. Ils m'ont dit qu'ils auraient préféré être ailleurs eux aussi, à s'occuper de leurs familles. Ils étaient nerveux." Pour avoir contesté l'amende de 50 dollars, Raphael Schwarz s'est retrouvé au dépôt, puis à l'unité B III du bâtiment Templeman III.
Derrière les murs, les prisonniers aussi étaient nerveux. Les téléphones qui leur permettent de communiquer en PCV avec leurs familles avaient été coupés depuis plusieurs jours. Le lundi matin, tout de suite après le passage du cyclone, l'eau a commencé à monter. Les gardiens ont distribué des seaux et des serpillières. Ils ont annoncé que le petit déjeuner ne pourrait pas être servi. Une fronde s'est déclarée. Les surveillants ont utilisé des gaz incapacitants pour faire réintégrer leurs cellules aux détenus.
L'eau a monté de plus de 2 mètres, d'abord claire puis de plus en plus trouble à mesure qu'elle charriait déchets et excréments. Les serrures de certaines cellules se sont débloquées automatiquement. Les détenus qui sont sortis les premiers ont aidé les autres. En bas, certains avaient déjà de l'eau jusqu'au cou. Une partie des gardiens - et notamment les femmes, craignant pour leur sécurité - ont déserté. Dans la cellule de Raphael Schwarz, la porte n'a pas pu être ouverte. Les huit prisonniers ont vu les gardiens restants transférer les autres détenus vers la salle de basket. Puis le silence s'est installé. Personne n'est revenu les chercher. Le lundi soir, les générateurs, noyés à leur tour, ont cessé de fonctionner. Les huit hommes ont passé les trois jours suivants à surveiller le niveau de l'eau, stabilisé à 60 cm en contrebas de leur cellule. Rien à boire ni à manger. A l'arraché, ils ont réussi à défaire une barre de métal d'un montant de lit, avec l'intention de desceller les montants de la fenêtre, mais le travail était épuisant et ils ont tout juste réussi à agiter des morceaux d'uniforme orange pour tenter d'attirer l'attention des patrouilles en hélicoptère. Les codétenus avaient passé un pacte, raconte Raphael Schwarz : ne pas se faire de mal. Il n'y a pas eu de bataille mais des crises de nerfs. Et des moments de désespoir quand l'un d'eux "nous a dit de nous asseoir en cercle et de nous prendre la main."
"ON A ESSAYÉ DE ME NOYER" Le jeudi soir, les hommes ont remarqué des ondulations sur l'eau. Quelqu'un avait dû entrer dans le bâtiment. C'était une adjointe du shérif. Elle tentait de secourir un détenu qui était sur le toit, avec une jambe cassée, après avoir sauté d'une autre unité. Elle croyait que le B III était vide depuis longtemps. Raphael Schwarz a été évacué vers la maison de correction de Hunt. Les prisonniers étaient entassés sur un terrain de football, beaucoup avaient des couteaux, mais au moins il était à l'air libre. Il a encore fallu dix jours pour que la police s'occupe de prendre ses empreintes digitales. Il n'a recouvré la liberté que le 1er octobre. Un an après, le cuisinier est devenu électricien, pour "aider à la reconstruction". Il estime qu'on "lui a fait une grave injustice", et il se surprend à parler de cette période comme celle où "on a essayé de (le) noyer". La prison a rouvert dès octobre. Quatre bâtiments seulement sur 12 sont opérationnels, mais ils abritent déjà 1 600 détenus. Le shérif Gusman a été réélu au printemps. "Les gens sont très préoccupés par le taux de criminalité actuel", dit Katherine Mattes, professeur de droit à l'université de Tulane. Quand nous l'avons interrogée, Mme Mattes rédigeait une pétition demandant à la justice d'ordonner au shérif de publier la liste des détenus censés être sous sa garde. Les étudiants en droit à Tulane retrouvent encore des prisonniers "égarés" après avoir été évacués. Le premier a été Greg Davis, 50 ans, identifié en mars dans une prison de Shreveport, huit mois après l'ouragan, alors qu'il devait être libéré une semaine avant.
Ces détenus pourraient être une centaine. Ils n'ont vu ni juge ni avocat puisque, leurs identités ayant été perdues, le système ne les connaît pas. Ils ne savent pas exactement quelle peine ils purgent ni pourquoi ils sont encore en prison. La Nouvelle-Orléans a donné un nom à ces surcroîts de détention : "la peine Katrina".

As ;Hurricane Katrina was approaching New Orleans, the Humane Society prepared evacuation. Each of 263 dogs and cats were photographed. A tracking system permitted them to be identified even if their files disappeared. Saturday the 27th of August, teh animals were placed in air-conditioned vehicles. During the night, they arrived safely in Houston, 24 hours in advance of the catastrophe.
The 6,500 detainees of the municiple prison did not have quite such treatment. Eric Balabon and Tom......

The U.S. has as its motto and on its currency, "In God we Trust," and in the guarntees in the Constitution, "Life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness" (originally, property, not excluding slaves). Do you think these mottos make a difference in the way a government is run? In what ways did the governmental organizations conduct themselves in accordance with these American ideals above, say, the French ideals of liberty, equality, and fraternity; or, would the French have done the same? Debate whether or not you think this scenario would have happened had a similar disaster struck some part of France.

Political cartoons & Bush I: Monetary Policy and Electoral Politics

What is this image trying to suggest about Bush's campaign decisions? How does it do so? How could the Fed's higher interest rates have made his election more difficult?

The title of the following article was "Storm Clouds Ahead." In what radical ways do the contrast of this cartoon to that title make the President look EVEN MORE aloof?

Political Cartoons from The Economist II: criticism of George Bush's Iraq policies

George Bush has been criticized through numerous media for his light treatment of terrorism and his saturnine attempts at spreading democracy throughout historically undemocratic parts of the world.

This political cartoon from The Economist uses allegory for irony. It depicts the Commander-in-Chief leaning over his painting project with a tired look of precision, yet indifference of intent. The scrolls he paints are neatly rolled up into Chinese take-out boxes labeled "Freedom for all." You will recognize the brush which "Uncle Sam" is holding as the same type used by subway officers removing old advertisements; yet this third-party "Sam" is using it to wipe clear the entire globe--a not-so-simple task, and not one Bush will personally undertake. With his back turned to the catastrophe he has ordered, Bush lazily drawls, "Sam, I think my message will appeal." Notice the lack of any preposition to compliment the verb phrase and acknowledge a specific audience to whom "the message" will "appeal" (George Bush and his administration have a distinctive taste in cheap puns and bad humor--this one puns on the words peal and apply, Sam's job).

Caricature, a comical portrait-method which exaggerates the subject's physical appearance to suggest their salient interests and nature, is usually a critical component to political cartoons and one which cartoonists work hard to perfect, like comedians at impersonations. Exaggeration of size is also important: notice that Bush, crouched, is about the same size as the globe of the entire world. The suggestion of power is the artist's intention, just as the suggestion of "headiness" should arrive from the disproportionate size of the head, and just as Sam is truly "spread thin" in every sense of the word.

The truth is that this image was published just before the 2004 election, and the character of Bush is hoping his message of freedom will help him win the election, which it did, despite the accusations of ineptitude and correlated strains on the economy.

How are political cartoons, which typically have just one frame, different from comic strips?

Do you think they are more or less effective than the animated French version, les guignols? In what ways, like style, subject, and audience, are they similar, or could they be different?

Cartoons: animated sitcoms ("American Dad")

Pay close attention to how the satire of this cartoon for adults plays on American phobias and as it exaggerates reality. Do you think it crosses "the line" of decency? Would such a TV show be profitable in France?