The Daily Honky Tonk 175th Edition

The Daily Honky Tonk
175th Edition
May 29, 2009
4:42 PM
I’m taking a creative writing class in which I am supposed to write for 50 minutes a day 5 days a week. I’ve been enjoying that class a lot. One of the neat things is that for my homework, I can write a DHT. And so that is what I am trying to accomplish this morning. I was trying to write poetry, because that is the unit we are in, but I found myself too tired from going and watching the first showing of Pixar’s new movie “Up” last night.
The DHT doesn’t demand as much thinking time as does the poetry. Trying to think deep was making me sleepy! So here goes nothing.

On Right Wing Conservatives and Left Wing Liberals
Politics is one of those topics that I sometimes prefer to ignore, but don’t because I believe it is important to know what is going on. However, the contention and corruption that exists in the system, are factors that don’t please me. Granted, I’m not sure how much of that isn’t media hype and high emotions running outside of politicians. There has been for quite some time a mistrust of government. Corrupt government is a central part of many popular books, movies, and everyone enjoys talking about a scandal. I would be naïve to say there is no corruption, but I often wonder if it’s as much as everyone thinks or if because everyone thinks there is a lot, that politicians accept it as fact and go towards corruption.
When people ask me if I’m Democrat or Republican, I usually respond something similar to “Well, I guess I would generally lean more towards republican because of many conservative values, but I wouldn’t say I would never vote democrat. The morals of the candidate are very important.” One of the things that frustrates me in party politics is that it polarizes issues where I think we should be meeting somewhere in the middle. I would be most likely to vote for a candidate who tried to take what was good from both sides of the spectrum. However, we don’t really have that.
Candidates often seem to take the extremes of their parties platform- that is only generally speaking. On reflection, I’ve come to discover why that is. If we could lump everyone into three parties when it comes to politics, I would lump people into groups of Right Wing Conservative, Left Wing Liberals, and the Middle-grounders. The middle-grounders would actually be the largest group, they might hold some fairly strong opinions slanting in one direction or the other, but in general they don’t go for the extremes. The extreme end of Conservatives and Liberals would be groups that have large followings, but neither nearly as big as the middle-grounders. If this is in fact the case, why are things not more balanced? Well, it comes down to who actually cares. Middle-grounders accept things as they are, they try and look at things evenly. When it comes down to it they know there are fallacies in both major parties. They will vote for whichever fits more of their personal opinions, but they recognize there could be more agreement in the middle. Since there isn’t, and both sides contain some good things and some bad, they are content not to do anything. Extremists Left and Right polarize the issue in a very black and white way. They can rarely see the strengths of the other party’s argument. Suddenly, it is not an issue of merely voting, but rather a conquest not unlike the Holy Wars of the Middle Ages. Thank goodness they don’t try and resolve these issues by bloodshed. For liberal extremists, you have to make everyone be open minded . ..bending to the strengths of conservative values, would be putting ‘open mindedness” which would indeed be a crime, because that would be giving extreme conservatives some amount of rightness. As an extreme conservative, traditional values are threatened by the evil liberals. It doesn’t matter if a liberal has a good point because giving just a little would be giving liberals the open mindedness that they want and then they would think the conservatives agreed on that point. The emotions run so high and it becomes polarized. Their expressions become loud and very emotionally loaded, causing the opposing side to need to respond emotionally, causing both sides to polarize even more “We must be right because they are getting so upset about it, they wouldn’t get upset if they really believed they were right”. In the meantime, I just kind of think its all dumb.
Yet, as a Middle-grounder, how does one make a stand. If the middle-ground were to bring forth a significant voice, would something change? Or does one have to polarize something before anybody will notice it and talk about it? These are all questions that I haven’t come to an answer about. But, again, I’m a middle-grounder, its not so important. What can a President really do? They can’t write down laws and just make them happen, they have to go through a government. A Presidential campaign is not unlike a Student Council President, making promises that sound good, but aren’t feasible once you sit in office. No, students, your president will not be getting you another day off or new vending machines, its not in power. A U.S. President is not very different.

Movie Review- Pixar’s “Up”
I am constantly amazed that Pixar is able to steadily produce great film after great film. They not only amaze us showing off what their animation teams can do, but also by rich stories that are fun, entertaining, and meaningful. Pixar’s creative group is really just a group of excellent storytellers.
“Up” contains a very rich story. You kind of get the gist of the story from the previews. Old man, who wants to travel and adventure, causes his house to float by thousands of balloons and gets stuck with an annoying little kid. While the previews were hilarious and I did find much of the film to be quite funny, there are very serious overtones in this film. A couple times I found myself almost crying. Topics like death, the loneliness of old age, the profundity of loss, and the importance of faith to a promise were all serious themes that were explored in the rich story. One of my favorite parts about watching the movie was that it made me feel at different points that I was a kid again. As a little child one’s imagination soars free and the world is a place of adventure and excitement waiting to be discovered. “Up” successfully embodied that sense of wonder and amazement. All I’m really trying to say is that I highly recommend this movie.
The only thing I was disappointed about was that in the previews they announced Toy Story 3. . .I mean, really, that’s great news . . .but it’s not coming out till June 18, 2010.

Star Trek
Okay, so while I’m on movie reviews I should probably comment on Star Trek. That is another movie that is very much worth seeing. I think the thing that makes it such a good movie, is that it has such a talented cast, and a great script with great character development. Besides all that it is a good story and it’s settings and graphics are visually impressive and stimulating as well. The best description I could give of this movie is to compare it to the new Wolverine: X-Men Origins movie. Wolverine was entertaining, it had action, a decent story, and the graphics were pretty well done. However, after watching Star Trek, Wolverine seems like a half done project. I can’t pinpoint what makes the two movies different in their value, but I can describe what the difference feels like. Star Trek seems like it is a completed project, kind of like “Up”. It was a very well thought out production. Each scene has meaning and was a project that everyone gave their whole too. It is the difference between a C project and an A+ Project. Star Trek screams I’m A+ material, this film took some serious work.

Song Lyrics to close
“Under Control” by Parachute
“Because I’ve kept my heart under control,
But baby, all this time its taken its toll
Said I tried to but I can not back what’s deep in my soul”
*Everytime I include lyrics in the DHT, when I got to look at them, I am surprised how much meaning is lost without the music behind the words. It’s rather startling.

The Editor,
MARK

The Daily Honky Tonk 174th Edition

The Daily Honky Tonk
174th Edition
Wednesday, May 27, 2009
4:12 PM
Somehow waking up from a dream where two people close to me died, and then finding out in reality that one of my friends is engaged screamed to me for a DHT. I’m almost amazed that I’m taking time to do this. For the spring term I’m taking a Creative Writing Class, Fundamentals of Literary Criticism, and a Spanish Writing Class. . . Which pretty much equates to a LOT of writing. I’m really enjoying it, but sometimes it seems like reading and writing are all I do.
Okay, I can’t really say that is all I do. It’s spring time and I play a lot- tubing down the river, shooting hoops, volleyball, hikes, running, walks, and late night movies. I like how people have play time now since most people are either just working or taking fewer credits. Anyway, let’s officially start this.

Art Therapy
So, I’ve avoided using the DHT as an emotional release since making it home from the mission. Since that was one of the main purposes in high school, I don’t have that need as much anymore. Granted, I still go through episodes, but I am not as quick to want to share them with everyone. I’ve become a big fan of cognitive therapy which focuses in on changing irrational thoughts and were the basis for the crazy papers that my mission president gave me. Still at times, I’ve just wanted to spill my feelings out in words. Playing piano and guitar can be very effective, but I still find writing to be even more effective in releasing emotion. Yesterday I completed my first draft of a very sad story . . . And as I was discovering what the one character’s past was really supposed to be, I almost couldn’t write it .. .but I knew what needed to happen to explain everything else. I was thinking about writers like Earnest Hemingway and wondered if they used writing as therapy; I think there is a good chance.

A Smidgen of Poetry
I am part way through the poetry unit in our class for Fundamentals of Literature and we are start poetry in our Creative Writing Class tomorrow. I have not been fond of poetry in general. If it is to hard to abstract an overly abstract meaning from a poem then I find it frustrating. And while I do get an urge to read a good book, I rarely have the urge to sit down and read a collection of poems. However, I’ve found some poems that I really like and I thought I would share some with you.

**This poem is by my friend Lamora. I know Lamora from the singles ward in Champaign-Urbana. When I learned that she was a writer we started sharing pieces of writing. She gave me permission to share some of her writings with you. For today, I chose this poem.

You Are What You Eat-Lamora Delp

I sit quietly,
my eyes devouring
the night outside
my window.

I am the ration of night herself.
Deep and forgiving
and fleeting.

I am the immortal chocolate oak,
reaching, stretching, clawing
upwards.

I am a sugar crystal of star,
bright, and alone.
Sometimes millions
and millions
of years
away.

I am the sliver of moon.
A white, chewed-off
bit
of fingernail, scratching
the dark.

Epitaph by Timothy Steele
Here lies Sir Tact, a diplomatic fellow
Whose silence was not golden, but just yellow.
**I love how Steele points out the dangers of being tactful to an extreme.

Anonymous Victorian poem without a name
Here’s a little ditty that you really ought to know,
Horses “sweat” and men “perspire,” but ladies only “glow.”

Recital by John Updike

ROGER BOBO GIVES
RECITAL ON TUBA
-Headline in the Times

Eskimos in Manitoba,
Barracuda off Aruba,
Cock an ear when Roger Bobo
Starts to solo on the tuba.
Men of every station – Pooh-Bah,
Nabob, bozo, toff, and habo -
Cry in unison, “Indubi-
Tably, there is simply nobo-

Dy who oompahs on the tubo,
Solo, quite like Roger Bobo.”

**I picked this one for its ability to emphasize meaning and the sound of a tuba through the sounds of each word choice rather than there specific meaning.

I think that is enough writing for today. I enjoyed it for the time being. However, I’ve been sitting in the same spot in the library for the last couple hours and it’s time to move.
The Editor,
Mark