Times have changed

Why am I so surprised at the beginning of the school year how quickly it gets going? I feel like I've been there a month (though I finally got my key to the building today). I have meetings almost every day after school already. I am behind on my grading. How? How is't possible?

A bonus today. I received in the mail something I ordered from amazon.com. "What is it?" you may be asking yourself. Allow me to enlightent you about the process behind ordering what I feel may indeed be a wonderful addition to my film collection. While I was in Much Ado, I continued with my tradition of doing show research. Some of this time was spent on youtube.com. I wanted to see other interpretations and such. I came across clips from a modernized BBC production. It was fun to watch. Benedick and Beatrice are rival news anchors. I hunted online until, by George, I found it! It's in a set of DVDs called Shakespeare Retold. There's a modern version of Much Ado, A Midsummer Night's Dream, Taming of the Shrew, and Macbeth. I ordered it. I just finished watching the Much Ado one and it was what I predicted, fun! I liked how much of the dialogue from the play was left in. I liked the incorporation of Sonnet 116. I definitely liked how Hero was a meatier character and was willing to fight for herself (granted, that's not Shakespeare, but it has the Lynette Stamp of Approval anyway). We shall see how the other ones fare, but it's off to a good start. Yay!

I made a powerpoint today to show my American Lit classes starting tomorrow. It was to introduce the students to the Puritans. I forgot how fascinating they can be. The fact that England went over 100 years without the monarchy ruling? The fact that the Separatists founded Harvard University? Their reasonings against drama, erotic poetry and music (even IN church!). It really is quite riveting. I may have gotten carried away, but there it is. A good powerpoint of which I'm proud. I'm even excited to start it tomorrow.

The title of the post comes from the song "Anything Goes" from the fun Cole Porter extravaganza Anything Goes. Seriously, the show includes great classics like "It's De-Lovely," "I Get a Kick Out of You," "All Through the Night," and of course the classic title song. Anyway, the reference is to how life is in fast forward mode since school began! Oi!