I know Valentine’s Day has already come and gone…but this was just too good not to post. I found the following clip on Berg Loves Pizza, a great music blog, and I decided to steal it and post it here:
That little boy is a future Ernest Hemingway! Or at least a future Nicholas Sparks. (Hey Kristiane! The boy’s name is Max!) I can’t think of any modern love poets…post-modern writers are too depressed by our thoroughly empty and depraved world to be writing useless love poems…or they find some super-depressing thing about love, and the world in general, to underscore with the poem. (I love modern/post-modern literature by the way. Seriously.)
According to the youtube description, this was an ad for Indigo, a Canadian bookstore chain, and their “Love of Reading” program (and, of course, to sell its books). I don’t know about you, but showing me this ad in grade school would’ve been more effective than telling me that “Reading is Funnnn-damental” or that I should “Read to Achieve.” Reading will help you get the ladies, yo!
(Note: I’d like to point out how big of a bitch inconsiderate the teacher was for reading that letter out loud. And what kind of a classroom full of kids doesn’t scream, laugh, and ridicule after a letter like that is read? Unless…the vocabulary and writing just went right over their heads…and what would that say about the success of Indigo’s “Love of Reading” program? Should I just enjoy the ad for what it is?)
Songs of the Day:
Rachel Yamagata – “Letter Read” / (album link)
Lupe Fiasco – “Can You Let Me Know” / (unreleased track)
Elliott Smith – “Thirteen” / (album link)
Hopping Into Puddles 
I resent the email to you just now (Feb. 17)
My email is crystalcgable@yahoo.com and the subject was “I’m resending this”
do you have to have a LJ account to be added?
Unfortunately, you do. Fortunately, I cross-post with my blogger, so you’re not missing out on anything. It’s just that some folks don’t use blogger, etc. It was either cross-post with LJ or xanga, and I know more active bloggers on LJ than xanga.
Anyway. Rachael Yamagata? Love her.
Nice, what a cute video.
And you are right, modern poets are full of depression.
hehe. it’s funny. Berg got it from me. I got it from another blogger friend. Phenomenal, huh? this ad is really amazing, i watch it every morning before work. ehehehe. 😉
Crystal: I did receive that email this morning. I sent a reply a little while ago. Hope it helps! I like replying to emails…when it’s not work or school (or sometimes, family) related.
Sally: I checked out LJ once long ago. I never really got into it…but it looks like a great place to blog. Certainly better than Xanga. Looks like I’m sticking with your blogger blog though. I actually plan on posting once or twice a year on my Xanga blog still. I can’t quite let it go…
Kristiane: I didn’t notice the boy’s name was Max at first. Then I was like…”heyyyy, she called him Max!” But I think Max would opt to draw the girl one of his awesome pictures too.
Modern poets/writers are indeed depressing…but I still can’t help but admire many of them.
Yoske: Every morning? I used to do that with this video of a kid saying “Blood.” It’s really pretty hilarious and always puts a smile on my face. I actually posted it here a while back on….this post
Thanks for stopping by. I found I enjoy your blog. And I’m already planning on stealing a video from there to post on here. =)
that won’t be called “stealing” anymore. you just told me. 😛
i’m guessing the aguilera video. 😛
haha you are correct
That ad is so funny. It almost looked like that lady was going to become another female teacher after one of her young boy students.
Teacher: Awww how sweet. Meet me after class and I’ll teach you how to make physical poetry.
Bwahahaha. j/k j/k. I have an evil mind.
wow…that is disturbing…but after seeing it again, you could kind of see at least a flash of the thought cross her mind. If you want to see it. If you have an evil mind, that is. =)
Don’t those teachers usually wait until the kids at least reach the very mature age of the jr. high years? Man…I feel sorry for those men/women…and the children!
“physical poetry”…hahah
Michael, I am not huge into poetry. Mostly because I just don’t get it. But, apparently my poetry professor is somewhat famous and talented, if you care to check out his work his name is Ed Bok Lee. I have yet to read any of his stuff, though he is featured in the anthology we are assigned to for class, this makes me feel somewhat ashamed. I should care more.
Ed Bok Lee…the name does sound familiar. But lots of Korean names sound familiar so I’m not sure. It’s kind of funny that he picked an anthology that features himself. Writers…they’re so self-centered…
He actually does sound familiar though…I’ll check my anthologies and stuff. If not, I’ll look him up. Thanks for the heads up.
(By the way, is he a depressed, “post-modern” poet?)
You know I don’t know. He is a chipper guy in class.
I bet that teacher would not even know what poetry is about. The reaction by the teacher is actually very common. I used to work as an assistant teacher, and had seen teachers reading out loud notes all the time. A very nice video.
Really? I don’t think I remember a teacher doing that while growing up. But then again, my memory is on par with my 83 year old grandmother…so it could’ve happened to someone…but certainly not with any poetry notes. I think I would’ve remembered that. I think. I guess it’s a good thing I wasn’t much of a note writer or receiver.
But a love poem seems to be a bit much. If I was in that class, I would’ve probably laughed for days…along with every other normal kid that age. maybe
that video is too cute.
[…] Insomniac dreams; boys who love language Filed under: Uncategorized — Peter Kerry Powers @ 5:49 am Tags: beauty, Ernest Hemingway, James Baldwin, language, love, Norman Mailer, Reading, writing I’m not sure blogging is good for insomnia, but when I lay awake at night I find myself thinking of things to blog about. So why waste all those synapses firing in a haze of sleep-deprived wakefulness. Following up on my post of earlier this evening where I despaired of the new (or not so old, perhaps ancient?) mechanistic view of both reading and writing that seemed, I remembered the following video that I stumbled over at Hopping Into Puddles. […]