What's Old is New Again

Whoever said, "you can't go back," was probably right. However, I was lucky enough this weekend to step back into my future...I've never really been one for nostalgia, and in all honesty high school probably wasn't the best time in my life (although it was definitely the easiest).

Through a popular on-line social net work I have had the pleasant surprise of reconnecting with folks that I have seen for more than 20 years. Randomly, an invitation was sent out to all who attended my high school for a get together at a local brewery. I thought to myself, "why not."

When I first arrived there weren't very many people in attendance, and the people that were there weren't familiar to me at all! I thought maybe I had made a mistake in attending. The next thing I know there was a gal sitting across from me that I recognized, and as we began to chat I found out that she had graduated two years ahead of me. She was charming and the four of us (our spouses included) fell in to a very enjoyable conversation. We had cocktails and dinner together and became fast friends.

As we enjoyed our dinner more people began to arrive, and still, I didn't recognize anyone. Strangely enough, some of them recognized me and as the evening moved forward I began to see people that I recognized from the hallways of my old high school. There were even some folks there that I had considered friends way back when. As the wine flowed and we began to get more comfortable with each other, a wonderful thing started happening; the nerds, the jocks, the preps, the rockers, the punkers all began to intermingle. These old labels didn't mean anything.

There was connections and re-connections made left and right. I spent most of the day on-line and on the phone getting to know a little bit more about a few of the people that I I really made new connections with. I am really quite excited to forge new friendships with some of these folks that I had very little in common with as a teenager.

As we get older it becomes harder to make new friends, but no one ever said it was hard to recycle them!

Well there you go...My 2 bottom picks are gone as I predicted in week 2. I must admit I wasn't very impressed with any of the dancers this week, but I think perhaps that may be due to the choreography. And may I add, Toni Basil's rhetoric about street funk, was just as bad as Lil'C's philosophical dissections of dance!

It is worth mentioning the piece that Mia Michaels choregraphed did transport me back to Post War Paris just as Nigel mentioned her choice of music and the costume, made for a number that could have ben taken right off of the broadway stage or the old silver screen.

Lights out for:

Ausuka Kondoh, 25

Irvine, CA

Jonathan Platero, 21

New York

So I guess that my prediction from last week was wrong! But that's okay, because I think that the judges did a fair job of elimination with what they had to work with. Of the six dancers on the chopping block the judges made the right choice:

Ashley Valerio 22, Los Angeles

I was a little disappointed about Ashley's departure from the show I thought that she was a beautiful dancer and a great match for Ku'pono. I enjoyed her interpretation of a Crash Test Dummy last week. Even this week her hip-hop performance was sassy and she did seem to out dance Ku'pono. With that said, her position in the bottom 3 against Kayla and Caitlin, gave the judges very little choice.


Max Kapitannikov 26, Brooklyn

No love lost here. I didn't really connect with Max. I thought that his performance this week was good, but as a dancer his style isn't very memorable. And let's face it with Ku'pono and Jason in the bottom 3 along with Max...again, the judges had no choice.

Apparently America didn't think two of Season 5's dancers could. Tonight was the first elimination of the season and I have to admit, one of the eliminations was no surprise.


20 year old Tony Bellisimo was the first boy voted off the show this season. Thank goodness! I don't even understand how this kid made it in to the Top 20. There were far more superior dancers that were eliminated in Las Vegas. It's almost as if Tony was advanced to the Top 20 so they would have some one to vote off first! It's not that Tony is a bad dancer, however I have seen kids doing what he does and better down on the Venice Beach stroll. I just didn't get it, why he was there that is. His elimination was completely understandable!

However, the shame was that the first of the girls to get eliminated from the Top 20 was 19 year old Paris Torres. I thought this girl was a beautiful dancer. It was interesting to me that Paris had been coupled with Tony and their first routine was in the genre of HipHop, which is apparently Tony's specialty, and Paris rocked it...Tony, not so much! I really thought that Paris would go much further. I thought that Asuka Kondoh should have gone...but there is always next week!


My prediction for next week's elimination is Jonathan Platero and Asuka Kondoh!

Holding on to Holden as an American Favorite!

So, here's the thing...I managed to get through Honors English and a BA in English Literature, and have never been mad to read the infamous Catcher in the Rye. So while I have been home in recovery, I have decided to have a read.

It was pretty funny, when I went to the book store to purchase a copy of said book, I asked the young person behind the counter if I was now going to be on some FBI list. He just looked at me with this quizzical look. So I proceeded to attempt explain the conspiracy theory behind the book and the cashier seemed very disinterested, so I let it go. Personally I thought I was being very funny, but he didn't get it, so the joke was wasted.

Anyhoo, It took me about a week to read, only because I was reading just a few minutes here in there since I am so involved with my 4000 piece puzzle "and all." (If you've read the book you know "and all," is one of Holden's favorite ways to end a sentence.)

I actually enjoyed the book. I don't get how the book could ever possibly be connected to any sort of Conspiracy Theory. When I first set out to read the book I assumed it would dark and there would be some sort of suggestion of an underlying message to those who have used the book as a template for their crimes.

However, Holden Caulfield was a pretty likable young man. I can remember being his age and being confused and anxious about the same types of issues that he finds him self worried about; virginity, sexuality, popularity, relationships, fitting in, school, issues with parents, etc. I thought that the relationship that he had with his little sister was very sweet. I can remember having a similar time with my younger brother. I just read it as an adventurous weekend in the life of an average teenage boy.

So I decided that there had to be more to it. So I did some research...In a nut shell, the literary criticism was fixed on his inability to connect with other people and reality. That his little sister was actually his voice of reason, even the voice of the reader begging Holden to snap out of it! That Holden's criticisms of "phony" people was because they were actually more conventional and grounded in reality. One analysis went as far to break down his name as Hold-on-caul-field. A "caul" being the membrane that covers an embryo's brain. Suggesting that he is holding on to childhood as long as possible. And they support that with his take on the song by Robert Burns. He reads the poem/song as "catch a body" rather than "meet a body." Ironically, the song is actually talking about a chance encounter of two bodies in the rye. A sexual encounter. Holden interprets the song as being a catch who saves little children from falling off a cliff (a metaphor for a fall from innocence). WOW! If J.D. Salinger had all of that in mind when he wrote the book, he was a genius!

At the end of the book it is revealed that Holden is in a mental facility of sorts. Call me crazy, but I don't really understand why. I know that this story takes place in a different time (the late 40's) and the conventions of life were very different. I was a teenager in the 80's and I don't know of too many of us didn't feel the same way. Perhaps this is why so many who read The Catcher in the Rye, can completely relate to Holden and that is why he is one of American Literature's most beloved characters!

Piecing it All Together

I have decided to make this:















Look like this:













Four Seasons, Alphonse Mucha, c. 1896
It's a 4000 piece puzzle! Wish me luck!