SMELL

The makers of Cheetos, The Frito-Lay commercial, appeal to the average person in this Cheeto commercial, featuring 'Papa Chester'. They depict their product as the snack of the common man through the interaction between characters Vanessa and Rachael. Vanessa is shown as an average soccer mom who attempts to talk with snooty, apparently well-traveled, and wealthy Rachael. The condescending tone used by Rachael contributes to the overall feeling of annoyance. As she brags about her child and his advanced skills in Mandarin an emotion of dislike is built within the viewer for the heel-wearing Rachael, not 'Rach' as she quickly corrects the other mother. The pathos for Vanessa is created within the audience as they can all relate to a time when they were made to feel inferior. Rachael appears extremely uncomfortable with the hug between the two moms possibly because she doesn't view them as friends or companions, but merely as people who talk because they have to. But in the end Vanessa comes out the champion as she wipes her orange-stained fingers on Rachael's undoubtedly expensive white designer top and the whole audience cheers along with Cheeto's mascot as he coolly says "Papa Chester is proud of you". The average person has come out the winner with the last laugh on high society and Cheetos in tow.

Song Explication

Sufjan Stevens - To Be Alone With You

I'd swim across Lake Michigan
I'd sell my shoes
I'd give my body to be back again
In the rest of the room
To be alone with you
To be alone with you
To be alone with you
To be alone with you

You gave your body to the lonely
They took your clothes
You gave up a wife and a family
You gave your ghost
To be alone with me
To be alone with me
To be alone with me
You went up on a tree

To be alone with me
You went up on a tree

I've never known a man who loved me

Sufjan Stevens, a baroque pop/alternative classified musician who plays ten instruments and writes all of his own material, clearly shows his religious beliefs in the lyrics of "To Be Alone With You" and the biblical allusions he utilizes to strengthen the personal relationship he possesses with God. Although he is a more private person, saying in a 2004 interview "I don't like talking about that stuff[religion] in the public forum because, I think, certain themes and convictions are meant for personal conversation.", his lyrics speak for themselves. Within this song Stevens directly correlates to the life of Jesus and the sacrifices experienced by his savior.
The first stanza deals with the connection Stevens has with Jesus. He feel so strongly that he is willing to sacrifice things, even if they aren't exactly of the same magnitude of that which Jesus sacrificed. He offers to swim across Lake Michigan, possibly bringing bodily harm to himself. Sufjan would give up material possessions and money to feel closer to God, even if it is a miniscule as "I'd sell my shoes". He even will do thaumaturgy and volunteers his body just to be in a room with Jesus. All of these oblations depict the esoteric and personal relationship felt between Sufjan and God. This connection is more like a consanguinity to Stevens and is also a very intimate one, specific towards him. Not many other people can tell of the same affiliation to Jesus, though other experiences may be analogous.
Stevens' second stanza utilizes biblical allusions to show Jesus' peregrination. Jesus eschews his life to save the lives of those he truly loves. He too gave up material chattels to live devoutly to his father and his teachings. "They took your clothes" not only refers to the absence of possessions but also to when the Roman soldiers take Jesus' clothing in Romans 19:23-24 during his crucifixion. Jesus was fully human and also fully divine. He was tempted with numerous things and could have chosen to take the fully human divergence and lived a easier, more normal life. Instead Jesus gave up human appanages, such as "a wife and a family". He leaves behind these privileges in order to save a population of followers. "You gave your ghost" alludes to the fact that Jesus left behind the Holy Spirit, sometimes referred to as the Holy Ghost, to his apostles so that they would continue on with their beliefs and the spreading of the Gospel. Jesus was crucified which resulted in the saving of sinners and followers everywhere. Stevens shows this connection by singing "To be alone with me You went up on a tree". The tree in this lyric represents a cross. Sufjan ends his powerful song with "I've never known a man who loved me". This statement shows how deeply he believes God loves him and the feeling he also reciprocates. To Stevens, no love compares to the love of God.
Sufjan Stevens' religion has certainly come through his lyrics, but they can also be interpreted to personal relationships. The biblical connections to the story of Jesus and his crucifixion seal the religious theme on this song. Stevens has allowed his personal beliefs to influence, but not overpower, his lyrics.

Vocabulary
oblation - offering
esoteric - intended for or understood by only a few
thaumaturgy - the performance of miracles or magic
consanguinity - a family relationship
analogous - similar, alike
peregrination - journey
eschew - abandon, sacrifice
chattel - possession
divergence - route
appanage - a natural or necessary accompaniment

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FoQzWb_f1oA

Sestina

Forever Together

Sometimes staring into his eyes
can feel the same as gazing at the sky.
The light blue reminds me of the ocean
as we spend an instance lazily together,
caring for nothing but each other
and the little time left.

There aren’t many moments left
and I can read it in his eyes.
Soon we will leave each other,
staring, as we drive away, at the sky,
so we won’t look back and remember being together.
We may become separated by an ocean.

But even if there is an ocean
my memories will permanently be left,
those ones of me and him always together
feeling constantly the staring of jealous eyes
belonging to those who pray to the sky
for something like ours and no other.

Its hard to believe, but I feel there is no other,
no other person who I would cross a vast ocean
to find or fly through the wide open sky
to get to just so he never feels left
behind with tears in those beautiful, crystal eyes
that always said “We’ll forever be together”.

We were aware of the lie of endlessly together,
but at those moments I didn’t want any other
story, just the one that calmed my eyes
so I didn’t cry a whole ocean
or let my final and true feelings be left
untold except to the eternally listening sky.

We let our dreams soar into the sky,
those dreams of our lives apart and together.
There are two routes but I know which once will be left
without my footprints or those of my significant other.
Soon the unbeaten path will be washed over by an ocean
and I’ll no longer be gazing in those eyes,

as he will have left in a plane high in the sky.
I’ll be alone with only my eyes, looking at pictures of us together,
still yearning for no other while persistently praying he’ll cross that ocean.

Feminine/Masculine Found Poem

Old Jewels

As I entered my childhood room I spotted it.
My mermaid chest.
I could feel my heartbeat going faster.
It use to be my essence.
The mermaid guarding my treasures has fairy peach
skin and red velvet hair and she sits on a
rock in the blue coolwater.
I finally opened the box to reveal
the essentials I had to wear everyday.
A flash of fuchsia
Tangerine joy
Pink diamonds
Racing rubies
Rose quartz
and a Pearl harbor.
all glitzed and glittered
while I remembered
every piece,
every moment,
and every boy
with a gapped smile behind the jewelry he gave to win my love.

Memory/Sensory Poem

I sat patiently, with my M&Ms, waiting for the curtain to rise. Even though we were seating as closely as we could afford I still squinted, which reminded me of my own purblindness as I searched for my glasses. The sweet, sialagogic chocolate made me thristy just as the lights dimmed, but the curtain still hadn't gone up. Then suddenly a fulmination of music occured while a massive elephant trailed down the aisle, followed by various other wild animals. The animals came to life as the rutilant lights spotlighted them. While the opening of the show was amazing, it clearly did not prepare me for the rest of the event, which I refused to allow the annoying man sitting too close to me destroy. Hirsute lions jumped around the stage, seeming to have no cares in the world. They took delight in chasing butterflies, warming their lanuginose manes in the sun. A father taught his son the importances of life and the meaning of being the king. The play went on as a happy lesson in life, until the plot took a turn for the worse. A menacing villian, who thinks himself a certain type of king, enters the picture and has a clearly acerbic relationship with the current king. They spend days speaking to their prospective subjects about how they will deal with one another when a fisticuff breaks out between the two due to the obvious tension. The fight lasts what felt like forever to me as I sat on the edge of my seat, chewing my fingernails. The King broke out in a fortissimo roar as he attaked his opposer. What I did not know was that attack would be The King's last. As he went down for good and the villian won, celebrating with a laugh, flames went off that made me feel as if the empyreuma was wafting throughout the theatre. I felt overwhelmingly sad for The King and his son, Simba.


VOCABULARY:
hirsute- adj. covered with abundant hair
sialagogic- adj. encouraging salivary flow
empyreuma- n. The peculiar smell and taste arising from products of decomposition of animal or vegetable substances when burnt in close vessels.
rutilant- adj. glittering, glimmering, glistening
fulmination- n. an explosion
acerbic- adj. acid or biting, as in taste, manner, or tone
fisticuff- n. punch, pummel, or lunge
purblind- adj. half-blind, near-sighted, night-blinded
fortissimo- adv.&adj. in a very loud manner
lanuginose- adj. covered with lanugo, or soft, downy hairs

Music Essay

The Mamas and The Papas was a 1960s folk-pop group made up of two male voices, John Phillips and Denny Doherty, and two female voices, Michelle Phillips and Cass Elliot. It was a long road before all four members of this group would come together. John Phillips was originally a member of the New York based folk trio The Journeymen when he met his second wife, aspiring model Michelle Gilliam. Michelle, soon after marrying John, began singing with Phillips’ group. Meanwhile the other two future member of The Mamas and The Papas were also busy working on their music careers. Denny Doherty was a member of The Halifax Three, the name paying homage to the place of his birth, a group that only had one real hit in New York City. Cass Elliot, after having her hopes of being a Broadway actress dashed because of her weight, was the leading member of the group, Cass Elliot and The Big Three. One night Doherty saw Elliot’s group perform and was blown away. Doherty and Elliot went on to join forces in The Mugwumps, which released only one album and then broke up. Doherty went back to The Halifax Three and went on a tour that The Journeymen were also on. Through this tour Doherty became friends with Phillips and soon joined his group making it The New Journeymen. This new group then relocated and began living with Cass Elliot. Finally all four members were in the same place at the same time and came together to form The Mamas and The Papas.
The formation of the group, which was almost called The Magic Circle, took the world by storm. The Mamas and The Papas came in the wake of the large and popular Beatles movement. All four members were so different from the British invasion groups, although they did take some inspiration from these groups, infusing pop into their songs. They dressed in hippie clothes and promoted the typical hippie ideals of love, peace, and happiness, even though their songs would show the trouble the members, mainly John Phillips, would have with those very three ideas. The group image came from their diverse individuality and voices. They became a major influence on the Southern California pop scene in the mid to late ‘60s. They produced folk-pop songs mixed with amazing harmonies and great lyrics and arrangements done by John Phillips. One of the groups best-known hits is “California Dreamin’”, off their album If You Can Believe Your Eyes and Ears. John Phillips wrote this song for his wife, Michelle, who was a California girl at heart living in New York. During a harsh and cold winter Michelle expressed her great sadness about not being in California to her husband. He attempted to maker her feel better with this song. “All the leaves are brown and the sky is gray. I've been for a walk on a winter's day. I'd be safe and warm if I was in L.A. California dreamin' on such a winter's day” clearly displayed the emotions of Michelle Phillips and her want of the warm sun. “California Dreamin’” was not the only song John wrote about Michelle. The two had a tumultuous relationship which was constantly changing due to Michelle’s young age and desire to be on her own. “Monday Monday” John also wrote about his relationship with his second wife. The lyrics “Monday, Monday, so good to me. Monday mornin', it was all I hoped it would be. Oh Monday mornin', Monday mornin' couldn't guarantee That Monday evenin' you would still be here with me” show the indecisiveness of the relationship between John and Michelle which would end in divorce.
Among the many hits written by John Phillips, The Mamas and The Papas also covered popular songs done by artists they were influenced by while making them their own with new interludes of piano or flute. Among these artists were John Lennon and Paul McCartney, members of the group they had once worked against. The group sang a song called “Go Where You Wanna Go” which was inspired by the Lennon-McCartney hit “I Call Your Name”. They also did a cover of “Spanish Harlem”, originally sung by The Drifters. “Dedicated to The One I Love”, borrowed from The Shirelles, was a hit for the group, as too was “Dream A Little Dream of Me”, dating back to the 1930s and originally recorded by several artists including Frankie Laine, Ella Fitzgerald, and Doris Day. All of these artists had influenced The Mamas and The Papas in a way and their covers were very successful.
One of the last things The Mamas and The Papas formally did as a group was perform at the Monterey Pop Festival, which John Phillips personally helped finance. After this performance the group began to fight over recording and the direction of the group itself. By 1968 the group separated and all went on to different projects. Michelle and John Phillips divorced in 1970. John went on to record his own solo LP and co-produce the movie "Brewster McCloud". Michelle went on to pursue acting, appearing in “The Last Movie” with Dennis Hopper, to whom she later was married to for a mere eight days. Cass Elliot launched a successful solo career with a string of hits. She also acted in the film version of "Pufnstuf". Soon The Mamas and The Papas were reunited under contractual obligations to do another album, People Like Us. The reunion only lasted as long as it took to record the album. Denny Doherty went on to record two unsuccessful solo records. Michelle continued her acting career in “Dillinger” while Cass also had success in acting. She had two prime time TV shows and many television appearances during the early 1970s. Cass was doing so well and had a two week engagement at the London Palladium in 1974 where she performed to sold-out crowds. But then on July 29, 1974 Cass Elliot died of heart attack at the age of 33, leaving behind two ex-husbands and one daughter. By the mid-70s, John Phillips had finished with his music career and was living off his music royalties. He was then arrested in 1980 on narcotics charges serving only 30 days. After his stint in jail Phillips decided to form a revamped Mamas and Papas with the line up of himself, Doherty, “Spanky” McFarlene, and Mackenzie Phillips, John’s daughter. This new group did not last long. John Phillips and Michelle Phillips both went on to write books about their experiences of being part of The Mamas and The Papas in 1986. John wrote an autobiography, Papa John: The Autobiography of John Phillips, while Michelle wrote California Dreamin’: The True Story of the Mamas and the Papas. Through both of these books, the drug use of the group came to light as did the true meanings of many of the groups popular songs.
In 1998, The Mamas and The Papas were inducted into The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. The group was also inducted in The Vocal Group Hall of Fame Foundation in 2000. John Phillips then completed and album of his original work and also finished a record he had started 25 years earlier with Mick Jagger and Keith Richards just before he died at the age of 65 on March 18, 2001 due to heart failure. He left behind three wives, five daughters, and two sons. Denny Doherty appeared in the late ‘90s as the main storyteller in The Needlefire ,a Canadian-Celtic musical performed at the Princess of Wales Theatre in Toronto. He also acted in the TV movie The Pit Pony and TV series This is Wonderland before dieing of an aneurysm in his abdomen on January 19th, 2007. Michelle Phillips is the only remaining original member of The Mamas and The Papas. She has spent her life after The Mamas and The Papas attempting to stay out of the spotlight, only emerging when her daughter Mackenzie was arrested for drug possession.
It was a long path to the formation of The Mamas and The Papas, it took many failed groups to bring the final four together. Although the group was fueled by explicit drug use and heartbreak, John Phillips wrote or co-wrote numerous songs with themes that will always be everlasting. His songs of unrequited love and loneliness resonate with new audiences after new audiences. The songs they sung, including their covers, were always original. The group added their own flare, either with new harmonies or introducing new instruments to the mix, to numerous songs. Their unique melodies and fusions of pop, folk, and rock genres caused Life magazine to proclaim them “the most inventive pop musical group and first really new vocal sound since The Beatles.”.

Hypnopaedia