Thursday, September 7

Today is Thursday of WEEK 3. If you have not done your story yet for this week, that means today is Storytelling Day. Try a new style this week, and see what happens! Here is a link to all of this week's assignments.

Class Procedures and Reminders

My schedule today. I'll be away from my desk for at least part of the day today, so I might be slower than usual in responding to emails, but I'll get back to you as soon as I'm back online.

Storytelling Style: Rap. Each week on Thursday I'll be sharing a style idea in case you are looking to try something new, and the style I want to suggest today is rap, which you can use to bring totally new life to the language of your story. This Zeus versus Thor rap is a good mythology example, and this MC Yogi rap (with help from Krishna Das) is for Indian Epics; now that you've gotten into the Ramayana you'll recognize more of the characters he is rapping about:

Project Stack. If you turned in a project by 5PM on Sunday, you should have comments back from me, and I'll keep working my way through the Sunday assignments today. While you are waiting on comments back from me about your Project assignment, you can check the stack to make sure I received your email.

The following items are for fun and exploration:

Class Twitter. From yesterday's Twitter @OnlineMythIndia, here is an ancient depiction of Medusa the Gorgon carrying Pegasus; it dates back to the 6th century B.C.E.

Spelling. Here's one of those spelling errors that the spellchecker cannot help with: BARE v. BEAR.

Storybook Archive. This project is from the Indian Epics class: Kamaveda, Love Therapist. Humans and gods alike can have troubled love lives — and what better therapist to consult for help than Kamadeva, the Hindu god of love?

Free Book Online: Today's free book is A Wonder Book by Nathaniel Hawthorne. See the Freebookapalooza blog for links and the table of contents. The illustrations are by Walter Crane and, yes, this is the same Nathaniel Hawthorne who wrote The Scarlet Letter.

Story of the Day. Today's story is from Aesop's fables: The Man who Warmed a Snake. This is a story of how "no good deed goes unpunished." The illustration is from a hand-colored Renaissance edition of the fables:

Video: The video for today is 29 Ways to Stay Creative. The video is based on a Stay Creative infographic by Islam Abudaoud.

Growth Mindset: Today's growth mindset cat appreciates the creative process: Creativity requires thoughtful observation. You can find out more at the Growth Mindset blog.

Event on Campus: As part of the Poetics of Invention series, there will be a poetry reading by Craig Dworkin at 7PM in Bizzell, as well as a lecture earlier in the day (details). Find out more about this and other events at the Campus Calendar online.

September 7: Jacob Lawrence. Today marks the birthday of the great 20th-century artist Jacob Lawrence in the year 1917, one hundred years ago today. You can read about his life and remarkable career at Wikipedia. Here is a self-portrait from 1977:

Lawrence even did an illustrated edition of Aesop's fables; this image is his drawing for the fable of The Monkey and the Camel:

Check out the Twitter stream for information and fun stuff during the day, or click here for past announcements.