Thank you, teachers!

May 8, 2013 Photo of the day: "Merci, les profs!"

This is Teacher Appreciation Week. I'm not soliciting praise and thanks for myself, but I truly believe that teachers change lives. Today, I would like salute the teachers who made a difference in my life:

To the School Sisters of Saint Francis at St. Mary's School: Rosemarie, Theresa, Odilla, Prosper, Frances, and Berna: You were strict but kind. You taught me to read and write (especially Sister Prosper who kept me in for recess to practice my penmanship). You taught me to respect and trust God, authority, my peers, and myself. You instilled in me a love for learning that will last a lifetime! A special thanks to Sister Nivard, our principal, who continued to be interested in my life even after I left St. Mary's. When she read of my dad's passing 15 years later, the dear Sister came to his memorial service. 

To Mrs. Grace Lippert: You inspired me with your love of literature. I adored listening to you read aloud in your Scottish brogue. You challenged me to read great books. You were the first the bring in books and items in French, sparking an interest that would lead to a double major and a twenty-year career as a French and English teacher.

To Mrs. Judy Gosenheimer: As my high school yearbook adviser, you fostered my creativity. You taught me to take and develop interesting photographs and to design attractive layouts. You encouraged me to continue writing and to carefully edit my work (I need to be more diligent about my blog). Years later, I hope I have nurtured and supported my middle school and high school yearbooks staffs as much as you did.

To Professeurs Brigitte Coste, Steven Taylor, Jean-Pierre LaFouge, Béatrice Ness, and Jeannette Kraemer: You taught me to communicate in French and to love French literature from the Middle Ages through the 20th Century. You encouraged me to go to France to study, to travel, to immerse myself in the language and the culture. You inspired me to go to graduate school, to continue studying to become a teacher.  Madame Kraemer, you taught me how to teach. You were my first mentor and my inspiration when I mentor new teachers and coach others to use technology.

To Father Naus: You personify Marquette's motto, "Be the Difference!" You inspired me to teach with passion and a sense of humor, to truly show my students how much I care about their futures. As my Ethics and Philosophy of Humor professor, you left a lasting impression on my heart. I remember the flowers you gave us after Sunday masses to brighten our dorm rooms and the smiley-face balloons that you gave us before exams to remind us to stay positive. Nearly twenty-five years later, I am still honored to receive Christmas cards from you (each August :). Your letters are fun and inspiring. The lovely, poetic quotes and inserts always grace my bulletin boards, reminding me and my students to value wonder, to have faith, to be honest and kind, and to enjoy life. 

Father Naus with my middle school yearbook staff at Marquette University in 2011 

How lucky they were to meet this incredible man!

Tributes to teachers in the Marquette Alumni magazine

Thank you, my dear teachers! 

I am inspired and humbled by your examples! 

You are truly my heroes! 

Movie Review: The Great Gatsby

Spoiler Alert (sort of...)! I won't be giving anything away about the characters or the plot of the film since almost everyone has read F. Scott Fitzgerald's iconic novel. However, if you want to view Baz Luhrmann's latest interpretation without any preconceived notions, don't read the rest of this post until after you've seen the film (opening to general audiences on Friday, May 10).

OK, if you're still with me, here we go! Last night, I was privileged to be one of the first in Milwaukee to see the much-anticipated 2013 film adaptation of  The Great Gatsby, one of my favorite books.

Postponed from its original 2012 Thanksgiving release, I waited impatiently those additional six months until this week's premiere. My excitement built to a frenzy that became nearly impossible to satisfy. I felt a lot like Gatsby who spent five years dreaming Daisy into an insurmountable object of perfection, only to be disappointed:

"There must have been moments even that afternoon when Daisy tumbled short of his dreams -- not through her own fault, but because of the colossal vitality of his illusion. It had gone beyond her, beyond everything. He had thrown himself into it with a creative passion, adding to it all the time, decking it out with every bright feather that drifted his way. No amount of fire or freshness can challenge what a man will store up in his ghostly heart.”

In my heart, I longed for a brilliant portrayal of the glamour and opulence of New York in the Jazz Age, as well as a faithful depiction of F. Scott Fitzgerald's beautifully tragic novel. In my head, I suppose I knew I was being "a beautiful little fool." Film adaptations never seem to compare to the uniquely personal experience of reading a book. Like Nick Carraway at Gatsby's parties, I felt at once “within and without, simultaneously enchanted and repelled."

First the "Not So Great Gatsby":

• 3D: I have never been a fan of 3D movies and was very skeptical about a 3D Gatsby. The filming did not achieve the effect that Baz Luhrmann intended. Rather than appearing larger-than-life, the people and locations seems more like cartoons. The flying shirts, snow, and confetti were more distracting than enhancing. Some bits of confetti that landed on Gatsby and Daisy were shaped like butterflies, not so subtly referencing the characters' metamorphoses. Those massive clumps of Christmas tree tinsel and metallic confetti that littered Gatsby's house and yard throughout the film might have been more effective if the film had been released, as originally intended, during the holiday season.

• Nick Carraway: I did not enjoy Tobey Maguire's portrayal nor Baz Luhrmann's reinvention of the iconic narrator of The Great Gatsby. Luhrmann's Carraway not only narrates the story, but also writes the novel from a sanitarium in the midwest where he is being treated for "morbid alcoholism." "His" words fly at us in 3D and in the end, Carraway has composed Fitzgerald's novel. Although speculated that both Fitzgerald's Nick Carraway and Jay Gatsby were semi-autobiographical, suggesting that Nick wrote The Great Gatsby takes the idea too far. Fitzgerald wrote The Great Gatsby in Paris at the beginning of his career, long before being unsuccessfully treated and ultimately succombing to alcoholism.

• Gatsby's house: Aside from the art deco interiors and art nouveau staircase, Gatsby's house in West Egg is not opulent; it's a garish Disney castle further contributing to the comic book feel of the film.

• Joel Edgerton as Tom Buchanan: I know that I'm not supposed to like Tom, but Joel Edgerton's depiction was so repugnant that I wonder how Daisy could have ever loved him. In the novel, although truly in love with Gatsby, when urged to admit that she never loved Tom, Daisy is unable to consent: "Oh, you want to much!" she cried to Gatsby. "I love you now -- isn't that enough? I can't help what's past." She began to sob helplessly. "I did love him once -- but I loved you too." How could possibly she have loved this Tom?

• Elizabeth Debicki as Jordan Baker: Although towering over Maguire's Carraway, Elizabeth Debicki doesn't begin to reach the height of Jordan Baker's complexity. She seems neither modern nor athletic, neither observant nor cynical. There is no chemistry between Nick and Jordan in this film, making it difficult to believe that Nick would end up "halfway in love with her."

Now the "Pretty Great" Gatsby:

• The fashion: Brooks Brothers suits, bow ties, straw hats, pastel shirts, sparkling Prada dresses, and so many Tiffany jewels...wow!

• Nick's cottage: I loved Nick's little cottage next door to Gatsby's ridiculous monstrosity. I was always bothered by the rundown shack that served as Nick's house in the 1974 film. I always figured Gatsby would have torn it down to avoid living next to such an eyesore. The 2013 cottage is a cross between a fairy tale and a craftsman's style bungalow. I'd love to live there (without the profusion of funeral bouquets)!

• Carey Mulligan as Daisy: Never a fan of Mia Farrow's 1974 portrayal of Daisy Buchanan, I was enraptured by Mulligan's. Farrow plays Daisy in the same hazy, vacant stupor that she used to portray the drugged Rosemary Woodhouse in Rosemary's Baby.Carey Mulligan's Daisy is flirtatious, nervous, enraptured, and heartbreaking in her flawed loveliness.

• Leonardo DiCaprio as Gatsby: Gatsby is an enigma. He's mysterious, handsome, charming, and devious. Yet even with all his wealth and influence, he remains hopeful and vulnerable. DiCaprio is at once youthful and mature. His expressions reveal the complexity of Gatsby's self invention. Leo is great at playing committed, desperate characters who will stop at nothing to get what they want and usually succomb to their efforts. As much as I enjoyed his Gatsby, at times he did seem a bit too familiar. In one scene, Gatsby stands behind Daisy whispering in her ear. I half expected him to spread her arms and declare, "I'm the king of the world!" Nonetheless, DiCaprio's portrayal of Gatsby was superior to Robert Redford's in 1974 (although Redford was equally handsome!).

• The soundtrack: As with his Romeo + Juliet and Moulin Rouge soundtracks, Baz Luhrmann chose to infuse contemporary music into this film. Jay-Z's distillation of hip hop, pop, and alternative music (Florence + The Machine, Jack White, Gotye, Beyonce, Andre 3000, will.i.am) along with 1920s-era jazz is quite intoxicating.

Jordan Baker states: “I like large parties. They’re so intimate. At small parties there isn’t any privacy.” Baz Luhrmann's The Great Gatsby is the quintessential large party, his own intimate portrayal of the great American novel. I felt like one of Gatsby's uninvited guests. I heard there was going to be a big party and I just showed up (four days early). I felt dizzy, over-stimulated, like I had indulged in too many of those enormous glasses of Champagne and gin on screen. Ever the dreamer, loyal to Fitzgerald's brilliant novel, and wanting a film to live up to my illusions, I paraphrase his final lines: 

"[I] believed in the green light, the orgiastic future that year by year recedes before us. It eluded us then, but that's no matter--tomorrow we will run faster, stretch out our arms farther.... And one fine morning -- So we beat on, boats against the current, borne back ceaselessly into the past."

May 7, 2013 Photo of the day:  "Boats against the current..."

Sneak Peek

May 6, 2013 Photo of the day:

"Milwaukee première - The Great Gatsby"

I was thrilled to win two tickets to the Milwaukee sneak peek of Baz Luhrmann's latest interpretation of The Great Gatsby! One of my favorite books since high school, I must have read The Great Gatsby 20 times. In fact I ready it again after school today. F. Scott Fitzgerald's brilliant 182 pages are so familiar that I was at once eager and skeptical about the long-awaited film. But it's already 11:15 on a school night, so you will have to wait until morning for my review.

N°5

May 5, 2013 Photo of the day: "N°5"

Yesterday, I received a special gift from Chanel.

A lovely little book depicting the story

of the legendary fragrance, Chanel N°5.

Mademoiselle Chanel chose to launch her perfume

on May 5th, the fifth day of the fifth month.

Legend has it that when parfumeur, Ernest Beaux,

presented her with several samples of fragrances, 

Mademoiselle chose the fifth vial (her favorite number).

Chanel N°5 became the world's most celebrated perfume.

My special gift from Chanel also included

a golden N°5 bookmark that I will be using

this week to reread another classic

(More on that later :)

Photo courtesy of chanel.com

I, too, am partial to the number 5.

It's my shoe size (5.5), 

my ring size (5.5), 

and my height (5'0"),

and I was married in 2005.

These days, I'm prefer

Chanel N°5 Eau Première.

A classic never goes out of style!

For more iconic images,

visit my Chanel Pinterest Board

To learn more about the story of N°5,

read The Secret of Chanel N°5.

Here's to spring!

May 4, 2013 Photo of the day: "Cheers!"

Trivial Pursuit

May 3, 2013 Photo of the day: "Trivial Pursuit"

There is a lot of talk in education about teaching students to think critically, to think "above the red line" (analyzing, synthesizing, and evaluating). I agree that given their connection to technology, students can access factual knowledge any time, any where. They really don't need to memorize dates, poetry, or facts anymore because they carry access to that knowledge in their pockets rather than in their heads. Education is no longer about what students know but what they can do with what they learn. 

I am 100% on board philosophically, and I am eager to support students' learning and teachers' teaching in my new role as tech coach. However, in my heart (or in my head), I still love facts! I have stored a wealth of entertaining, albeit useless, trivia and am happy to share it if the occasion arises. For example: Did you know that Easter is always the first Sunday after the first full moon after the first day of spring, (Thanks, Dad!); or that the score of zero in tennis is called "love" because the French said "l'oeuf" or "egg" - the shape of a zero; or that the distress signal, "May Day" comes from the French "M'aidez!" ("Help me!")...? 

Geek alert: In high school, we had a Trivial Pursuit tournament with teams consisting of two students and a teacher. Guess who won? Yes, that's right, I was the 1985 Trivial Pursuit champion! Over the years, my friends and family have refused to play with me because "it isn't fun anymore." By the way, that goes for Scrabble too, although there are a few who give me run for my money on Words With Friends. 

Tonight, my nephews' school is sponsoring a trivia night fundraiser. Yipee - a legitimate reason to get my geek on!

(PS: Today's photo also represents a few other favorites: James Dean, Rodin, Paris, and starfish, and the answer to "What major league baseball team's fans are called Cheeseheads?" is the Milwaukee Brewers - Go Crew! :)