Our first set of writers is up!

 

 All Students:  Be sure to read the entries for this group  (September writers).  Everyone is required to comment on at least THREE different pieces of writing.  You must post comments here on the blog (below the post is the "comments" link to click) by Friday, October 8, on Canvas AND the blog. 

Remember, comments must be positive, supportive, constructive, and SPECIFIC.  No "Good Job!" comments, unless you follow that with specific things you thought were done well in the piece.  Show them you actually took the time to read and enjoy their work!

"Harmonious Cacophony" by Carissa J

 

800-273-8255

 

If you don’t know what that number is, it is the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline. It is available 24/7, toll-free, and willing to help you through any crisis. Here’s the best part:

I was put on hold.

On April 14, 2021, I was comforted by beautiful elevator music, red and blue capsules, and the horrible scream of uncertainty echoing throughout every corner of my brain. This terrible, discordant orchestra was nothing more than a whisper at the end of my sophomore year. It was nothing but a small annoyance that I figured would eventually see itself out, in fact, it started out as an itch in 2nd grade. That itch became a gash as I would watch my insecurities bubble up and drip away. Then I moved from a 300 student private school to a 3,000 student public one and the voices grew inside of my head, every move I made was somehow wrong.

After missing the majority of sophomore year due to severe sickness, migraines, and insomnia, God decided to reward me with plentiful time by starting a global pandemic during my Junior year. I attempted to tune out the never ending train of thoughts to focus on my grades despite the loss of two friends, my 13 year old dog, and my grandpa within the span of 8 months. The consistent A’s that I had maintained freshman and sophomore year looked at me in disdain as my GPA dropped from a 4.3 to a 2.7.

“I need to see more effort.”

I wish that I could turn back time and catch it early. I wish that I could go back to second grade and realize that the excessive itching was not just allergies. I wish that I didn’t drown in red despair

So there I sat, laughing at the fact that I was put on hold. The complex arpeggios and sharps that I had created stumbled out of place and now were a clashing composition of chords with no rhyme or reason. All of my friends and colleagues were creating their chef d'oeuvres as I tried to fit my musical masterpiece into a note. Instead, that single note was played back to me as the beep of the hold line brought the mess of unexplainable emotions in my head to an abrupt stop. 

I ended up failing two of my classes. I’ve never been more relieved.

The hardest thing to do for me is to be able to truly, clearly express the tangled anxiety inside of me. How do you explain to someone that you’re trying? How do I explain that I could do better on the test, but someone is tapping their pen, or the bird outside is chirping too loud, or the

clothes you’re wearing are too itchy, or the lights are too bright? It has always been like trying to understand a radio station that is just out of range and the words are drowned out with waves of unpleasant static. How do I write a personal reflection if I can’t even find a way to describe the way that the cities I built in my mind are crumbling to pieces? I don’t know how to explain that I’m thinking everything but nothing simultaneously and the emptiness inside of my chest brings about the urge to scream and cry until my throat swells and bleeds from the strain. How can I turn this bottled up disharmony into a euphony?

I guess I’ll have to put those questions on hold.

I was recently diagnosed with ADHD, depression, and anxiety, or as I like to call, the “triple threat”. All of my emotions contradict the other, but they love to hold special conferences in my brain to discuss how to make everything I do ten times more difficult. Dopamine, Oxytocin, and Serotonin always like to skip those meetings. There are 6,500 languages and over 171,000 words, yet all fall short to describe the struggles that I have to endure the second I wake up. Despite the crushing weight of never being able to experience normalcy, it is worth it. It was worth it to wake up the next day and cry for hours because of how much I hated myself at that moment. The anger, frustration, and sadness drove me to a point of insanity that taught me to treasure a life that I thought I did not want. There was not enough room on that single note to finish my harmonious cacophony,

There was only enough space to start it.

I’m proud of you,

Carissa Johnson

"How Not to Get a Date for a School Dance" by Devin N

It is the last year of high school, senior year, and you are looking into going to one of the school dances. You ask yourself the question, “Do I wanna go with a date or with a group of friends?” If you have never attended a single school dance or any school event, you are in luck, for I will teach you my tested and proven method of not getting a date for a school dance.

 

Now that you have read through the introduction, a number of thoughts appear to mind. Some being, “I am already not going to go to a school dance,” or “I want to go with a date.” In that case, why are you reading this? Moving forward, this guide will not only prevent you from going with a date, it is guaranteed that all interest in you as a romantic interest will cease to exist. As a formal warning, if by any chance that the idea of no interest in you as a romantic is a major turn-off, I can assure that it does not make you as a person less interesting or less of a friend, and on the brighter side, there is more time to study.

 

First and foremost, any crushes that you have had previously or currently have must be terminated. In layman terms, this refers to the act of taking a picture of said romantic interest and doodling them as a clown. If doing this has not caused your opinion towards the crush to drop, then it is reasonable to skip this step. This is only a prerequisite to your commitment to the cause and a removal of possible candidates that ask you out as a date. There is the possibility of

wanting to keep your high opinion of said crush so an alternative to drawing them as a clown is simply not interacting with them in any form.

After your mental preparations to the goal, there is the physical aspect towards achieving zero possibility of a date. This can refer to the outward appearance or the physical interactions to the preferred gender of interest. Note that this step may appear to be biased against the LGBT community, but I can assure you it is unintentional. The interactions with the gender of interest will appear as heavily reserved or just simply uninterested. This can be achieved with a plethora of methods, but for experience sake, I will discuss a more subtle approach.

All encounters with the other gender shall be avoided if possible and be done so in a discreet manner. When found in an unavoidable interaction, simply find answers that do not follow up and continue the flow of communication. For example, a normal and functioning member of society when asked, “Good morning, how are you?” may respond with, “Good morning, I’m doing fine. How about you.” Now, the use of the phrase, “How about you,” will initiate a response that can vary, but the mere existence of a response to anything you say can be considered an avenger’s level threat to the purpose of this guide. So, if you replace all eight words with “good”, then you have both answered the question and prevented any further interrogation while appearing to be a normal person living in a society. Alternatively, if the question is not about “how you are doing” and more of “what are you doing”, the universal phrase of “Yes, I am” can be applied to stop a conversation. Generally, any form of agreement can be used, but it is important to hear what they are saying. It is widely accepted that agreeing to prejudice against others is not good. If at any point in time you initiate conversation with the gender of interest, you have, as the youngins say, done goofed.

This art of avoiding conversations will reduce the amount of attention and information on you. However, if by any chance someone is interested in you despite how little attention you demand and how little information is known, you have been approached by a shallow person who is only going for your looks. These people will tend to lose interest in you within a week.

Then comes your appearance. Along with not being able to hold a conversation, you also want to influence people to not even want to initiate conversation or notice you. This will be achieved through the power of extremely plain clothes. A simple pair of jeans and a solid color t-shirt is enough to disguise you as one of the crowd instead of an actual individual, further decreasing the attention given to you. This style of clothing focuses more on the side of comfort than fashion of course, so it is important to monitor the weather in case there is the need to don a jacket or bring an umbrella.

It is extremely important to note that these actions are intended to the gender of interest. I encourage you to act normally with your friends because having friends is nice. If these friends of yours begin to judge you based on clothing and how little you want to engage in the opposite sex, I suggest that you reconsider who your friends really are and move on.

 

Last and definitely least, is how you spend your time at a school dance. There will be three different categories of people who attend school dances, and you will fall under one of two. There are the people that came with a date (you will never want to be a part of this if you follow the guide), with friends, or alone. If you came with friends, enjoy the time with your friends and just have fun. If you came alone, consider your used expenses to attend a school dance and ask yourself if it was worth it to come alone to a social event.

This wraps up the guide on how not to get a date for a school dance. Just remember to act as little as possible to draw attention away from yourself. If you have any questions for me, don’t ask them.

Once Upon a Time in Hollywood-- book review by Justin G.

 

 

 

 

 

Once Upon a time in Hollywood was released in 2019 and was the 9th film released by Acclaimed Writer/ Director Quentin Tarantino. The expectations for this film were high and it certainly met them, earning praise from both critics and audience members as well as winning several academy awards. Once Upon a Time in Hollywood's positive reception made people even more excited for Tarantino’s tenth project, which in a surprising turn of events, was revealed to be a book. Tarantino released his debut novel entitled Once Upon a Time in Hollywood earlier this year, and it proved that Quentin Tarantino has a future as an author and that he can be more than just a scriptwriter.

 

 

When Tarantino said that this novelization was a complete rethinking of the story of the movie he was not wrong. Once Upon a Time in

Hollywood (the novel) is more of an ultimate directors cut to the movie than it is a novelization of the script. Massive elements of the story are changed in the novel and only about 30 percent of the movie's story is carried over. The rest of the book is made up of completely new story segments or reused scenes that are altered heavily and are almost unrecognizable. Once Upon a Time in Hollywood (from now on I will be referring to the novel unless specifically stated) is a period piece buddy comedy set in 1969 Hollywood. The late sixties and early seventies were a period of change in Hollywood. Many actors who were once prominent were beginning to fade into obscurity and new “method actors” were taking their place. Old school westerns and over the top war movies dominated the sixties and when Hollywood began to shift, many of the prominent actors who starred in these types of movies were left behind. At the same point in time a much darker shift was occurring in Hollywood. Hippy culture and the counterculture revolution began to rise. Once Upon a Time in Hollywood is set amongst this backdrop as it tells the story of how all these issues would combine to change history on one infamous night.

Once Upon a Time in Hollywood could be best described as an anthology book. It combines several different stories that interweave and combine to end up telling the story of the fall of 1960s Hollywood. Rick Dalton is a failing actor who is forced to take up a guest role in a tv show called Lancer after his movie acting career falls apart. His life is forever changed when he is offered a job to film spaghetti westerns in Italy by his producer Marvin. This leads Dalton through a path of self-discovery as he learns to take his future into his own hands and learns to survive in the changing world of Hollywood. Cliff Booth was a war hero in World War 2. Booth came back to the states a broken man and was unable to find a career. He traveled the world attempting to secure many different jobs but with no luck. He eventually met a famous actor

named Rick who convinced Cliff to become his stunt double. With Rick’s career failing, Cliff finds himself struggling to make a living and he becomes Rick’s chauffeur and handyman to make ends meet. Sharon Tate is a rising actor who is married to famed director Roman Polanski. Sharon Tate represents the Hollywood Dream. She moved to Hollywood with no money at all and she rose into stardom becoming one of the most promising up and coming actors in all of Hollywood. Polanski and Tate live on Cielo Dr which just so happens to be the same street where Rick Dalton resides. Charles Manson is a failed musician who managed to convince a group of young hippies to worship him. They took residence at Spahn movie ranch, an old movie set where Western tv shows used to be shot. Coincidentally Cliff Booth used to film westerns on this same movie ranch when he worked as a stuntman, and he was even friends with the owner, George Spahn. While many of these characters are fictional, Charles Manson and Sharon Tate are not, and the book is permeated with a level of suspense, especially if you are aware of the real-life events that took place at Cielo Dr on August 8th of 1969. The story of Once Upon a Time in Hollywood is a fascinating one. The way it is told and the characters present in the story make it very unique and a novel that is not easily put down.

The biggest strength of Once Upon a Time in Hollywood is the characters and the development they go through. Rick Dalton is a broken man who must learn to face the fact that he is a failure. One specific passage sees him reciting a passage that he had read in an old western dime novel about a cowboy who is old now and past his prime. This causes him to have a breakdown and you really sympathize with his character at this moment. Sharon Tate is also very likeable. She seems very carefree and relaxed all throughout the novel, and it makes her inevitable fate very heartbreaking. Tarantino also writes characters that are not so likeable, such as Charles Manson who of course committed one of the most heinous crimes in history. While his character is mocked and condemned, Tarantino did not take the easy way out, as he developed his character extensively and you get to learn a lot about his past. While all of those characters are very well written, Cliff Booth is one of the best characters that has ever been put to paper. Cliff Booth is not a good person. He has committed several unspeakable crimes and yet his character is so fascinating to learn about and the chapters about Cliff’s backstories were easily the highlights of the book. The characters in this book are so well developed and by the end you know even the most minute details about them. You even get an entire chapter dedicated to the backstory of Cliff’s Dog, and it’s great.

Once Upon a Time in Hollywood has many things going for it, but literary value is not one of them. While the novel is very entertaining, it lacks any deeper meaning. There is a message in the book about the changing environment of Hollywood, but it is not all that prevalent. While the book is very lacking in the thematic relevance, this book does excel in its use of allusions. There are a lot of allusions in this book, mainly to movies and actors of the time period, but also to pop culture. Aside from the allusions, this book has very little literary value. However, that does not mean that the book is bad, most of Tarantino's projects put style over substance, and this is no exception.

In general, the book is great, but it is not without issues. Some sections of the book seem more like Tarantino ranting than characters talking, but these sections are few and far between. The book also goes into much more detail than the movie, and this can both help and hurt the book, as sometimes the things that are being described feel more disturbing and uncomfortable than they needed to. There are also a lot of obscure references in this book that most likely will go over the reader’s heads. This is not a negative, but more of a stylistic choice that some people will like, and others will not. These complaints are relatively small, and they do not hurt the book very much at all.

 

All in all, would I recommend the book? Well sort of. If you are a fan of Tarantino or Once Upon a Time in Hollywood (the movie) then it is a must read. It is so much more than just a novelization of the movie’s script and you will most likely enjoy this book if you enjoyed the movie. If you are not a fan of Tarantino, then this book will not change your mind. If you have never seen a Tarantino film or have never heard of Tarantino, I would recommend watching all his movies, as they are all great, but only Once Upon a Time in Hollywood must be watched before this book is read. Once Upon a Time in Hollywood (the movie) is most well-known for its insane plot twist that will leave you in awe when the credits roll, and the book assumes that you already know this plot twist. Because the ending of the movie is spoiled early on in the book you must watch the movie first. Once Upon a Time in Hollywood is a great book. It is a quick read, and it checks all the boxes that you would want from a Tarantino book. It is very entertaining, and despite being rough around the edges (as is expected as this is Tarantino’s first book) it is solid. I would give it an 8/10 and a solid recommendation if you are a fan of Tarantino’s movies.