My Memory Mansion

While not technically a mansion, my childhood home was rather large. I chose to use it because of it's size and variety, though I have not lived there since 1999. In fact, as I pieced together my memory theatre I actually recalled a great deal of my home that I had forgotten, though much of it is probably incorrect. Many of the film titles are remembered through images from the films, or from other films. I also will include some of the details I have added in my hopes to remember the years each came out in, every decade has a symbol for the number which is reiterated at the five year mark.

1-Wings: A fluttering bird at my old bus stop near my home.

2-The Broadway Melody: A large music box on the berm to the right of the driveway entrance, under the crab-apple tree.

3-All Quiet on the Western Front: A dead and smoldering tree on the left (West) berm over a field of clover (1930, 3-leaf clover).

4-Cimarron: strange word, makes me think of cinnabar, the driveway is now red-orange.

5-Grand Hotel: A beautiful vintage car parked at the front door, bellhop opening its doors.

6-Cavalcade: I used the second definition, and have a procession of masked ball patrons piling out of the car.

7-It Happened One Night: Along with the party, there is a Chinese lantern (for night) and a masked couple stealing a kiss underneath.

8-Mutiny on the Bounty: a sea battle, including a giant squid, is engraven upon the door, a few loose clovers have been dropped at its base (1935).

9-The Great Ziegfeld: A white tiger (Siegfried and Roy) stretches on the carpet.

10-The Life of Emile Zola: A stretch, a child dressed as Zorro stands over the tiger.

11-You Can't Take It with You: Feathers (angels, afterlife) are strewn over the stairs, having been blown there by...

12-Gone With the Wind:...a large fan halfway up the stairs.

13-Rebecca: Just a woman in a flowy checkered dress (1940, squares are 4-sided), behind the fan.

14-How Green Was My Valley: The rest of the steps are overgrown with grass.

15-Mrs. Miniver: Minnie Mouse at the top of the stairs.

16-Casablanca: Sam at his piano just inside my parents' room.

17-Going My Way: Literally a large sign pointing towards the bathroom. (Though I made it old and rickety to help the image along)

18-The Lost Weekend: A man in a bubblebath, doing office-work. He holds a large metal square in his hand (1945) which is cutting him and drawing blood (always add blood if you're having trouble with an image).

19-The Best Years of Our Lives: Snow and autumn leaves fall in the shower, flowers line the floor, to show seasons changing.

20-Gentleman's Agreement: Two men in suits shake hands in the secrecy of the closet, I technically just passed through a wall, but that's alright.

21-Hamlet- A man and woman in royal dress sit in bed, Hamlet's mother and uncle.

22-All the King's Men: Humpty Dumpty lies cracked over a chair.

23-All About Eve: My niece, Eva, stands at the balcony in a star-covered dress (1950, stars have 5 points).

24-An American in Paris: A styrofoam airplane flies from the balcony to the pastures down the hill from my house, an activity from childhood, only this plane has an American flag on it.

25-The Greatest Show on Earth: Fireworks over the pasture.

26-From Here to Eternity: Crossing a stream, the reflection of stars in the the water.

27-On the Waterfront: Marlon Brando sits by the stream.

28-Marty: My friend Martin talks with Martin Scorsese at the fence, they are holding a metal star (1955).

29-Around the World in Eighty Days: The tip (yes, we had a tipi) has images of the Eiffel Tower and the Pyramids painted on it.

30-The Bridge on the River Kwai: I have added a small bridge inexplicably leading away from the tipi.

31-Gigi: Half-Life's G-Man stands with his briefcase. G-Man...G...G-G...Gigi. Yeah, I couldn't think of anything.

32-Ben-Hur: A chariot is on its way up the hill toward my house.

33-The Apartment: A small apartment looks over the path is carbon, up the hill, diamonds rest on the table on its patio. The sixth element on the periodic table is carbon, diamonds are made of carbon, (1960).

34-West Side Story: Two "chickens" fight at the top of the hill, movie reference if you don't understand.

35-Lawrence of Arabia: Lawrence, fully robed in white, stands on a large rock overlooking the edge of the hill.

36-Tom Jones: My lighting professor, Tom Watson, at the willow tree.

37-My Fair Lady: A lovely, period dressed woman sitting and winding a...

38-The Sound of Music: Music box, with a large diamond (1965) decorating it.

39-A Man for All Seasons: A mountain man wearing a large pack and lots of equipment, walking towards the pool.

40-In the Heat of the Night: People in the pool to escape the heat.

41-Oliver!: The cartoon Oliver (different movie, I know) in the shallow end.

42-Midnight Cowboy: The corpse of a cowboy leaning on the wall.

43-Patton: Patton...patent...Thomas Edison...the hot tub full of light bulbs instead of water. These lights are multicolored...rainbow...ROY G BIV...seven colors of the spectrum (1970).

44-The French Connection: A cliche Frenchman (stripy shirt, etc.) tying a knot on the pool fence.

45-The Godfather: Marlon Brando, again, in this film's character, opening a door to the house.

46-The Sting: A bathroom full of bees.

47-The Godfather Part II: Marlon Brando yet again!

48-One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest: The laundry room full of nests, including one with a large, multicolored egg (1975).

49-Rocky: Rocky, leaning on a rock outside.

50-Annie Hall: The main couple lounging on the trampoline. When I had trouble with it, I imagined the trampoline descending into the ground as a vertical HALLway.

have 8 tentacles).

54-Chariots of Fire: Inside the extra garage, chariots on fire.

55-Gandhi: The man himself sits cross-legged in the driveway.

56-Terms of Endearment: Another deer in the main garage.

57-Amadeus: A piano crashes down the stairs, just through the garage house-door.

58-Out of Africa: At the top of the stairs, a giraffe, a person in safari gear, and a giant spider (1985, spiders have 8 legs).

59-Platoon: In my brother's bedroom, everything is covered in camouflage mesh.

60-The Last Emperor: on his side of the loft that separates our rooms, a child dressed in royal clothing.

61-Rain Man: on my side of the loft, a downpour of rain indoors.

62-Driving Miss Daisy: A car crashing through the wall into my room (which is on the second story).

63-Dances with Wolves: Wolves and one cat (1990, cats have 9 lives) rush out of my closet and into...

64-The Silence of the Lambs:...the bathroom, where they kill a sheep.

65-Unforgiven: An old man is shackled to the wall of my sister's room.

66-Schindler's List: many pieces of paper covered in lists fill my other sister's room.

67-Forrest Gump: Forrest sits nearby on a stool.

68-Braveheart: William Wallace takes a zipline back to the first floor, a cat in his arms (1995).

69-The English Patient: A person in a hospital bed.

70-Titanic: A replica of the last tip of the ship sinks into the ground in the dining room.

71-Shakespeare in Love: Shakespeare sits on a cupboard.

72-American Beauty: a young woman wrapped in the American flag.

73-Gladiator: Gladiators fight in the kitchen near a broken computer (2000, for the Y2K crisis).

74-A Beautiful Mind: Russel Crowe again, different character.

75-Chicago: Richard Gere in character in the living room.

76-The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King: Lots of gold rings strewn on the couch.

77-Million Dollar Baby: a baby in a crib on a pile of money.

78-Crash: a gaping broken window, and another computer (2005).

79-The Departed: someone disappearing through said window.

80-No Country for Old Men: Multiple old men relaxing in the guest room.

81-Slumdog Millionaire: A blind and begging child in the hallway.

Blast! I Missed Class...Again!

I finally found something to base my epithet on (seeing as we've had trouble naming me) and it's visual, story-based, and slightly grotesque!

When I was around eleven years old I was at a scout camp where the meeting areas and cafeteria were at the bottom of the hill and the campsites were higher up. After an activity I was walking back to camp by myself and ducked under a log fence. Well, I came up to soon, and it hurt briefly but the pain went away. However, I started gushing blood from my head. So I return to the bottom of the camp, drenched in blood, casually asking if anyone had seen my father so that we could go to the hospital. I ended up getting stitches, resulting in a thin line of a scar on my scalp.

A couple summers ago I was working at a Blockbuster Video. I guess I hadn't had enough to drink that day because that night, just a few minutes before close, I was carrying a huge stack of dvds across the room, I felt woozy, and I woke up on the floor. I can't tell you whether I blacked out, causing the fall, or simply felt woozy, fell, and lost my memory of it because of hitting my head on a shelf. I found myself on the ground in a pile of dvd cases, once more bleeding from the head. Yet again I go to the hospital, yet again I get stitches. The kicker, however, is that the new wound actually hit the years-old one. I now have a checkmark on my head, though it's sort of curved and wonky looking. You can't really tell unless my hair is super short, but it's there.

So basically, now that you all have heard the story of the unlucky part of my head, this can be the memory associated with my epithet. For the more violent minded: "Blood-soaked Parker" or "Parker of the Bleeding Scalp" could work, but for simplicity's sake, and for consonance I think, "Checkmark Parker" should suffice. What do you think? Will "Checkmark Parker" give you an image of me in a mess of dvds soaked in blood, or do I need to put "bleeding" in my name somewhere?

My memory demonstration is of the Best Picture winners of the Academy Awards. There are actually 82 of them, so I memorized them all, I'll just recite the first fifty or the last fifty or something in class if we're short on time. Though I won't include them when reciting, I have also implemented visuals to remember the years by. So here they are in chronological order:

1-Wings
2-The Broadway Melody
3-All Quiet on the Western Front
4-Cimarron
5-Grand Hotel
6-Cavalcade
7-It Happened One Night
8-Mutiny on the Bounty
9-The Great Zeigfeld
10-The Life of Emile Zola
11-You Can't Take It with You
12-Gone With the Wind
13-Rebecca
14-How Green Was My Valley
15-Mrs. Miniver
16-Casablanca
17-Going My Way
18-The Lost Weekend
19-The Best Years of Our Lives
20-Gentleman's Agreement
21-Hamlet
22-All the King's Men
23-All About Eve
24-An American in Paris
25-The Greatest Show on Earth
26-From Here to Eternity
27-On the Waterfront
28-Marty
29-Around the World in Eighty Days
30-The Bridge on the River Kwai
31-Gigi
32-Ben-Hur
33-The Apartment
34-West Side Story
35-Lawrence of Arabia
36-Tom Jones
37-My Fair Lady
38-The Sound of Music
39-A Man for All Seasons
40-In the Heat of the Night
41-Oliver!
42-Midnight Cowboy
43-Patton
44-The French Connection
45-The Godfather
46-The Sting
47-The Godfather Part II
48-One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest
49-Rocky
50-Annie Hall
51-The Deer Hunter
52-Kramer vs. Kramer
53-Ordinary People
54-Chariots of Fire
55-Gandhi
56-Terms of Endearment
57-Amadeus
58-Out of Africa
59-Platoon
60-The Last Emperor
61-Rain Man
62-Driving Miss Daisy
63-Dances with Wolves
64-The Silence of the Lambs
65-Unforgiven
66-Schindler's List
67-Forrest Gump
68-Braveheart
69-The English Patient
70-Titanic
71-Shakespeare in Love
72-American Beauty
73-Gladiator
74-A Beautiful Mind
75-Chicago
76-The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King
77-Million Dollar Baby
78-Crash
79-The Departed
80-No Country for Old Men
81-Slumdog Millionaire

I'm still not entirely certain about the presentation assignment. Is it to be something specifically discussed in the books or simply a topic that fits with our class focus? I have a few topics that interest me, but honestly, nothing that has me bursting with excitement.

Print, It's Kind of a Big Deal

Just a few comments from Friday's class.

-The power of the written word was emphasized through the story of Baby M in which a surrogate mother decided to keep the baby. The courts eventually ruled in favor of the couple for whom she had carried and given birth for because of the written arrangement they had all agreed to and signed before hand. While I tend to agree with this case (she knew what she was agreeing to do) there are certainly cases when circumstances change that are beyond the scope of the original contract and even more frequently, contracts that are simply unfair. If I trick you into signing a contract allowing me to kill you, that shouldn't count as suicide. Caution and common sense should always be used in such cases, despite the concrete nature of writing.

-We discussed Finnegans Wake (Fin Again/Fun Again/Awake/A Wake) which seemed very entertaining, though nearly incomprehensible. This book was cited as an attempt to return to the style of orality. A concept I've been trying to work with in terms of filmmaking. Obviously films are capable of sound (unlike books) but given their similarly concrete nature they still lack something. I wonder if Finnegans Wake would be a good audio book?

The novel is circular. The "end" of the texts drops off in such a way as to be continued by the very beginning, thus it is endless. This concept reminded me of One Hundred Years of Solitude by Gabriel Garcia Marquez. Don't continue reading this paragraph if you dislike (minor) spoilers, but the book covers the history of a fictional town, focusing on a specific family line. At the very end , both the town and the last of the family line are about to die. In the apocalyptic chaos of these final moments, the last family member finally interprets and reads a prophecy that had been written down long ago. It contains the entire history of the family, leading up to the moment that the man is reading it. It is essentially the same novel within itself. This moment invites another read and gave me an entirely different comprehension of everything I had just read.

I dare anyone to read Mark Leach's Marienbad My Love, found here. Which was basically only written to be ridiculously long in every way imaginable. It is seventeen million words long, the title alone (Marienbad My Love is the "condensed" version) is nearly seven thousand words. That being said, I've read some excerpts and there is a sense of fun in reading it, similar to Finnegans Wake. I expect there had to be, or else the aythor would have lost his mind, assuming he hadn't already.