Week 6: Famous Last Words

This past week was a really busy one for me (lots of Storybook Introductions), so I didn't have time to do any assignments during the week! Ouch! But I did some reading that counted as Week 6 extra, and then wrote a story which I declared for Week 7. So, that "escape-hatch" worked for me just like for people in class who find themselves in the same situation with no reading and no story from the week. I also had fun with my story; it's kind of goofy and silly, and probably not something that I would put in my Portfolio, but I had fun writing it, especially because I based it on some friends from back in college: A Writer Dreams.

And, to be honest, I was thinking a lot about my college days this week because of listening to Dr. Ford's testimony before Congress. Anita Hill's testimony was a defining moment in my life as a young woman who had just graduated from college, and of course I had friends in college who had horrible experiences like what happened to Dr. Ford. Even now, decades later, every time I see Clarence Thomas in the news, I feel kind of sick to my stomach, and now I'm going to have to feel the same way about Kavanaugh. Anyway, I'm guessing that is why I've been thinking about a lot of my friends from college this week; I'm almost exactly one year older than he is, two years older than Ford. We were all in college back in the early 1980s.

And, just to make it more intense, my husband and I have been watching Ken Burns's Vietnam documentary, which is now on Netflix. It is even more devastating than I expected. Highly recommended. There's a way in which the 60s-70s-80s flow together as a kind of era somehow, and then things shifted in the 90s, but without the clearly defining moments as the 1960s. Anyway, the documentary is incredibly powerful; I'm going to want to watch it all over again as soon as we finish the last episode tonight. I've also been reading some counterpoint pieces; it's very much a story about America and Americans, with many Vietnamese stories still left untold (some good links here).

(still from Ken Burns's Vietnam)

Here's an interview with Ken Burns on Stephen Colbert:

And here's a classic song of the era from Buffalo Springfield, For What It's Worth:

With a beautiful Ganesha remix here from from DJ Drez:

And now........... Week 6 is all done for me. Back to my weekend! :-)