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Thursday, January 19, 2012

Dis-Orientation Continues: Maybe Even More Confused?

Before I begin the post, I must apologize for anything I will precede to write that may come off as bias. I must admit, I do have quite a prejudice against the other tribes and in favor of The City Semestarz (considering it is quite clear who the best tribe and the leader of the streets is). I may now continue.

The day began for me with a wonderful sleep in until 8:40. Sorry for all of you who were in Math. Then, Kate, Jeremy, Jennie, Charlie, Jacob H. and I began our Physics Independent Study during Assembly and Funny Time. Although I never thought Physics could be remotely interesting, Mr. Wearn found a way to tie Physics into the theme of City Semester, as we studied the forces and physical aspects of bridges and given an option to present a timeline of all the main bridges built in Manhattan.

After that, the second day of our tribal wars began. That's when things heated up. Each tribe was asked to present their rap, logo and costume. There were three groups that gave it a nice shot, but in the end were beaten out by the surprising, superb and stupendous City Semestarz. The Concrete Kings did have a very artistic logo and quite an intimidating presentation (their group rap included tiger claws at the end and some hissing), and Shadows and Dale Squad both kept it simple with catchy and brief raps. Shadows also had quite an impressive graffiti logo that was most definitely not computer generated. However, I think the clear winner of the raps was the City Semestarz. Not to float my boat or anything, but after my tribe laid down a wonderful beat, I delivered a City Semestarz original rap that left both the teachers and the other tribes in awe. However, I commend each and every group on their performances.

Danny and The Shadows introducing their logo. 

J-Hoch deep in his rap 

Following the introductions of the tribes, we actually got down to work. We were introduced to our spirit guides. Now, this may seem like some voodoo magic and that's probably because it is, especially with the help of the Voodoo Doctor, Ms. Banks. Each tribe was assigned three people important in the history of New York to research, and, on Tuesday, we will begin our two day Vision Quest across the city at Woodlawn Cemetary, where we will bring offerings of different sorts to the graves of our spirit guides. My group was assigned to George M. Cohan, Alva and August Belmont and Robert Moses. Each group must create one offering for each of their spirit guides. There are three types of offerings: a theatrical offering, where the group uses song, dance or acting as a representation of something from the spirit guide's life, a visual representation of the spirit guide's life also incorporating the words of the spirit guide, and bring a food that represents some aspect of the spirit guide. Now you are definitely thinking this is some sort of voodoo.

We began our research on our spirit guides, with an incentive in place. The first group to play Six Degrees of Kevin Bacon successfully with their three spirit guides would get first choice on the Moleskine's purchased for the group. The City Semestarz, being the stars we are, completed the task in record time (well actually, we created the record) and connected our three guides with just one extra person, August Belmont's son, August Belmont Jr. Shout out to Bessy especially, she had a major breakthrough that led to our success. The Starz, as I call us for short, were very pleased with their Moleskines.

The next big group meeting was our first Culture Class, led by Ms. Furfey, 程老师 and 伍老师. In the vein of spirit guides and offerings, we discussed how different cultures, specifically Mexico and China, give offerings to their ancestors and the recently deceased. A common theme between Mexico and China was the celebration of the person's life rather than the mourning of their death, for death is seen in both cultures as merely passing into the afterlife, or even in China, as a form of rebirth. We then broke up into our specific languages and the day came to a close.

Sincerely,

Jacob "Moleskine" Koffler

1 comment:

  1. No gloating, Jacob, please! Seriously, though, Great work, Jacob and Ruby.
    May I suggest that in the future the blogger credit the photographer(s) in their sign off? Thank you.- Mr. M.

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