Scheiss Weekly

category archive listing Category Archives: Arts

April is Poetry Month: Edgar Allan Poe

Edgar Allan Poe Annabel Lee It was many and many a year ago, In a kingdom by the sea, That a maiden there lived whom you may know By the name of ANNABEL LEE; And this maiden she lived with no other thought Than to love and be loved by me. I was a child [...]

April is Poetry Month: Eugene Field

Eugene Field (The Children’s Poet) Little Boy Blue The little toy dog is covered with dust, But sturdy and staunch he stands, And the little toy soldier is red with rust, And his musket molds in his hands. Time was when the the little toy dog was new, And the soldier was passing fair, And [...]

April is Poetry Month: Elizabeth Bishop

Elizabeth Bishop Sonnet I am in need of music that would flow Over my fretful, feeling finger-tips, Over my bitter-tainted, trembling lips, With melody, deep, clear, and liquid-slow. Oh, for the healing swaying, old and low, Of some song sung to rest the tired dead, A song to fall like water on my head, And [...]

Standardization, Administration, & Other Bollocky Things

Mamacita says:  Beethoven and Rodin would never make it in an American public school these days. Neither would Lincoln, or Clara Barton, or Thomas Jefferson. Nor Einstein. Or Edison. Administrators have forgotten that ultimately, our culture will be judged on the arts; that’s how we learn about ancient cultures. We did not find any remnants [...]

April is Poetry Month: W.H. Auden

W.H. Auden Mamacita says:  If you have seen the movie “Four Weddings and a Funeral,” you are already familiar with W.H. Auden.  His haunting and heartbreaking “Funeral Blues” was recited by John Hannah in this film, and it was unforgettable. Funeral Blues Stop all the clocks; cut off the telephone; Prevent the dog from barking [...]

Beware the Ides of March

Mamacita quotes from Shakespeare’s Julius Caesar:   Act 1, scene 2, 15–19 Caesar: Who is it in the press that calls on me? I hear a tongue shriller than all the music Cry “Caesar!” Speak; Caesar is turn’d to hear. Soothsayer: Beware the Ides of March. Caesar: What man is that? Brutus: A soothsayer bids [...]

Only the Stupid Fear Questions

Mamacita says: Warning: I’m in a bad mood. I’m sick and tired of a handful of people taking all the joy out of the majority of our children’s school experience. I maintain that if a family is that insecure and unable to defend their own beliefs against a good honest question, or withstand any questions [...]

Them There Words What Be Correct

Mamacita says:  It’s 2:30 in the morning, and I have to get up in a few hours and go to school, and be all enthusiastic about punctuation. The thing is, I AM enthusiastic about punctuation. It’s important. It tell us when to pause, and when to stop. It tells us when to end a sentence [...]

Picasso Passes

Mamacita says:  This is my favorite Picasso*, and it hangs in the foyer of my home. I’ve loved it for many years; a copy hung in the men’s side of my college dorm, (I still love you, Willkie Co-op!)  and it used to fascinate me. The print.  The print fascinated me. It just happened to [...]

Quotation Saturday, on Sunday Again

Mamacita says:  You all know by now that I love a good quotation. Words have such mighty and majestic power: they can make us laugh; they can make us cry; they can make us cower in fear, or stand tall with pride, or melt with love. Name it, and words can make us feel or [...]