My scrap of dirt

I have papers to grade and a paper to edit before I leave next week and I have two hours of free time but of course I can't do any of it because I don't have anything with me on campus. I shall thus share a bunch of links.

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A Salon.com Joss interview. In my theory class we've been talking about the Holocaust/Shoah and the banality of evil, or rather the fact that it is very easy for average people to commit atrocities, so this part of the interview really resonated with me.

Q: And it's a similar idea of these mysterious people who seem very normal and slick, but are they ... evil?

A: Yeah. And we get to confront them with the consequences of what they do, and learn more about why they do what they do. Because very few people are entirely evil. I know it's hard to believe that after the last eight years of government in this country, but everybody has two sides, and I believe that not only are people often less or more righteous than they understand, but they often don't know what part of them is actually the good part. And a lot of the things that we prize in America might not actually be useful traits, and a lot of the things we vilify, to me, are not necessarily harmful, and that's something that's been in my work from the start.

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Gorgeous photos by David Strick of the Dollhouse set. Can you believe the show's actually starting tomorrow? We've been talking about it for so long it's hard to believe.

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Dan Savage's entry about his mom's death.I love at the end:
But I'm practical, like Mom, and I'd hate to see perfectly good tickets to a national tour of a hit Broadway musical go to waste. And it occurs to me that there has to be a teenage boy out there—in Chicago or close enough—who likes musicals and has a mother who loves him for the little musical-theater queen that he is. If you know that boy or you are that boy or you were that boy a decade ago or if you're that boy's mother or grandmother, send me an e-mail and I'll arrange to get these tickets to you.

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What Teachers Make by Taylor Mali. It's a little simplistic and idealistic for a lot of reason, but I still like the overall message.

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Speaking of, so I've finally seen Entre les murs (The Class) and it was amazing how much it felt familiar, like home, even though my own high school was nothing like that. I've personally encountered the attitudes we see in the movie from students during workshops a lot, and that's part of why I loved doing it so much, but still. It's not a whole lot of experience. Still, it spoke to me - made me frustrated and happy and it made me laugh while at the same time there's something so sad about it.

I'm going to buy the DVD - there's a lot of stuff in there that I want to pay closer attention to, about French education and the relationship between the teacher and his students, especially. I was surprised that I'd heard people mention the "gay incident" because it's so short and insignificant. The teacher addresses nothing. And I heard 'fag' said at other moments in the movie and no one, certainly not the teacher, picks up on it. So I'd gotten the impression before from other people that homophobia was poked at in the movie but to me it was more striking in terms of what is not done about it.

I'd be curious to read more about it - I know it's a mix of fiction and reality, anyone knows of a link that goes into detail about that?

I forgot to mention something earlier. While the bunch of us were waiting for Mme Ousset Krief to start the meeting, I started talking with people. There was this girl who's in my class and wants to go to Canada next year as well, and at some point she asks me, Do you want to be a Civilization teacher? I pause and laugh and answer that if I end up being a teacher, it won't be in France. And she proceeds to tell me that she thought I should because the presentation I did in Civilization class was really interesting and I explained everything clearly and basically just saying she'd really enjoyed it. It's not much, but it never happens here. And I enjoy making presentations so much (never claimed sanity) that it was just really nice to hear - touched me. I need to tell her it means a lot she told me, actually.

Point is. Funny Firefly stuff! By arwen_lune :

(It's really not long, but hilarious - all of you, go and check it out!)
We all wish for something (Part 1)
We all wish for something (Part 2)