Denton Photos: TWU in Early Spring

So yesterday was a gorgeous day here in Denton, and I happened to have a long lunch break at school, and I had my camera with me. What better to do than shoot photos of the campus?



The campus is full of buildings with gorgeous Southern architecture combined with a more modern look in some of the newer structures.





















Some of the most distinctive structural aspects of the campus are the two tower dormitories, Stark and Guinn Halls, and the Clock Tower building.







These three buildings are the tallest in all of Denton, I believe. Just don't count on being able to tell the time from the clocks on the Clock Tower. I don't believe that any of the four sides have a working clock anymore.

TWU's campus is also full of scenic areas, redbud trees, and wildlife.

























Additionally, beauty can be found in various structural and sculptural pieces located throughout the university.











And of course, no visit to TWU's Denton campus would be complete without a visit to the Little Chapel in the Woods. The Little Chapel is likely Denton's biggest claim to fame. I was only able to obtain photos of the exterior in my walk yesterday as the building was closed for viewing. But I plan to go back sometime soon and take photos of the interior. It is GORGEOUS. A perfect place to hold a small wedding...and many do.









More soon!

Pretty Baby Live

That's right...you heard me...Pretty Baby, Live. At least a video compilation from their last mini-tour, even if I haven't heard them live myself. Enjoy!


PRETTY BABY LIVE


And while you're checking out Pretty Baby, head over to their MySpace page and listen to their newest song, Turn It Up.

Becoming Jane

So I finally got around to renting and watching the movie. And yes, I loved it. But do I believe everything that they portrayed in this film about Jane Austen's life? Absolutely not.

Sadly, there are a lot of people out there who think that this film is a true adaptation of the life of Jane Austen. It is not!!! There is actually very little we do know about her life, and this film should not be looked at as the truth about her.

We know that she was one of 8 children and her father was a minister. We know that she only had one sister, and that neither Jane nor her sister ever married. We know that after the death of her parents, Jane lived with her brother Henry.

Jane Austen published four of her novels during her lifetime, and the other two were published posthumously by her brother. They were not published under her own name, but under "By a Lady." She kept her writing a secret from everyone but her own family.

With all of that knowledge of her life though, we do not know anything about her love life, or the lack thereof. We just don't! Did she fall in love with a man who would be unable to support her? Was she offered marriage by a man who stood to inherit great wealth, only to turn him down due to lack of affection? There is no way of knowing the answers to these questions.

What we can know is that the writers, directors, and producers of this film took great creative liscense. Is there anything wrong with that? Absolutely not! They created a wonderful movie that was fun to watch. However, if the movie-goer is familiar with Ms. Austen's novels, then they would also be aware that many of the events in the film followed very closely to the events which Ms. Austen wrote about. The film-makers made sure that the events in the film would be believable to those who have knowledge of Austen's work, by creating a world in which Jane Austen lived that was terribly true to her fictional characters. As such, the film should be viewed as a fictional work.

So while it is an enjoyable film, and while it is true to Jane Austen's fictional world, we should not rely on Becoming Jane as a historical document or as truth about the life of Jane Austen. We should rely on it solely as an enjoyable film which may or may not contain much truth about how Jane Austen truly lived.

SXSW: Brave Combo at the Continental Club

So, to continue my SXSW story...after seeing Calhoun earlier in the day, we wandered around on Congress for quite a while. We saw several bands of varying levels of interest. Then when we saw that we could get into the Continental Club, we headed in there. It was still about an hour before Brave Combo would go on, but the guys who were playing were a pretty good bluesy-country band. I really enjoyed their set! They closed out with a phenomenal cover of "The Letter" which I really enjoyed.

After their set, part of the crowd cleared out and made their way to their next destination, so my group moved up closer to the front in search of a seat for my Mom and Grandmother. I'd like to give a HUGE thank you to the guys who, upon seeing my 85-year-old grandmother, gave up their seats. That was a big blessing. I'm not sure that either Mom or Grandmother would have been able to get through Brave Combo's whole set without being able to have a seat.

As expected, Brave Combo was AWESOME. When you hear that they are a polka band, you don't exactly expect to enjoy the show. LOL. But they aren't your grandpa's polka, let me tell you. I'd almost describe it more as acid-polka, if that is really a genre. Even if it isn't a real genre, it seems to fit. And the best part about it is that these guys (and girl) are all superb musicians. They've all studied their instruments for years and are classically trained, and you can hear that in their music. Yes, it's a rollicking good time...but they've found a way to turn Bach, Dean Martin, and Henry Mancini music into really enjoyable polka!

Seeing them with a crowd that was really and truly there to see Brave Combo is a very different experience for me. I grew up in Denton. Brave Combo is from Denton, and they are a huge part of the community. They've always been very involved in Denton events, whether its the Arts and Jazz Festival, or the Dog Days of Summer, or the city's Fourth of July celebration. I grew up seeing Brave Combo everywhere...and they are more just expected around here, not really something that people tend to get excited about. I've seen them countless times over the years, but never at a function that people would have to pay to attend. However, they are a band that tours around the world, and people all over know them and pay to see them. It is a very different kind of experience to hear Brave Combo play in front of a rabid crowd than it is to see them at a city function. It's kind of hard to explain...but I liked it!

Sixx:A.M. - Life is Beautiful

Nikki Sixx (formerly of Motley Crue) has a new band called Sixx:A.M. Their single, "Life is Beautiful" has completely hooked me. I want to hear more.

Check out the video here:


The lyrics are just so gut-wrenchingly honest and heartbreakingly beautiful. I believe that this song and others are supposed to be the soundtrack for a new book that Nikki Sixx is going to release, The Heroin Diaries. I'll be looking for more from them...

SXSW: Calhoun at Docs

I got to go to SXSW (South By Southwest) in Austin this weekend, briefly. I was with my mom and grandmother, so it wasn't quite how I would have done SXSW on my own, but I still had a good time.

Calhoun, a Fort Worth band, is one that I've been meaning to go to see live for quite some time. I discovered them on myspace about a year or more ago, and I love their music. The lead singer's voice is gorgeous on recordings.

I had no clue that Calhoun would be playing in Austin this weekend though, so it was a pleasant surprise. We headed down to Congress and started walking around to see what was going on. When we walked past Docs, we discovered that a band was about to start performing and there were plenty of places to have a seat. I wound up right up front.

The band started to play, and I really enjoyed what I was hearing, primarily the lead singer's falsetto. After the first song of their set, they mentioned that they were Calhoun from Fort Worth!!! Pretty cool. Some of their other songs were ones that I recognized. All of them were fantastic. I had a lot of fun. I'm going to have to go see them around here the next time I notice that they are playing in the Denton/Fort Worth area.

You should definitely check them out! You can find their music at their MySpace page. Or check out their official website at calhounmusic.com.

More on SXSW soon!

Falling for Faulkner

My sister has had a massive aversion to William Faulkner since her senior year in high school. One of the novels that she was supposed to read that year was his Light in August...and she hated it. It was so horrible to her that she never finished the book (the only one she didn't finish) and she has never forgotten it. Not only has she never forgotten how much she hated Faulkner because of that book, she has never let anyone else forget it either.

Largely because of her experiences with his writing, and my lack of them, I have had an aversion to him. I've been a little wary of reading anything he's written, so I've just attempted to avoid it.

That's not entirely possible to do though, as an English major. It is even less possible to do as an English major who plans to teach High School English, and preferably junior year when the focus is on American Literature. In one of my previous English courses, I had to read one of his short stories, "A Rose for Emily." I honestly really liked the story a lot...I thought it was unlike anything else I'd ever read, so I was intrigued. My sister still hated him though, and it was only a short story and not one of Faulkner's novels, so I figured maybe it was just a fluke.

But this semester, I've been studying "A Rose for Emily" again (and still loving it) in one class, and in another course we've read the short story "Barn Burning" and his novella As I Lay Dying. Faulkner's not an easy read...not by any stretch of the imagination. He writes from multiple points of view, often using unreliable narrators. He writes with a strong Southern dialect. His prose pushes and challenges readers.

But it is gorgeous.

I am in love with William Faulkner's Southern Gothic style of writing, with his rich prose, with his oddball characters and rich tradition. I want to read more. And more. Faulkner may very well have just become my favorite author. I certainly didn't see this one coming. And I can now say that my sister doesn't know what she's talking about as far as Faulkner is concerned.

Denton Photos: 24 Hours Later...

...and it looks like it could be a totally different world. The sun has been shining and melting most of the snow away. This is what it looked like outside my house about 24 hours after the first photos I took yesterday.

More Health Updates

In the two months of this new year, I have so far managed to lose more than 20 pounds. TWENTY POUNDS!!! How did that happen? I almost am not able to believe that it is for real. But, it is real. My pants are loose, I'm almost able to fit into some smaller ones that I haven't been able to get into for quite some time, and every time I get on the scale, it is a significantly smaller number than I have been used to seeing. It's a good feeling.

The switch to soy milk is going well. I've been using it, mixed with some skim milk, in my cereal and gradually using more of the soy and less of the traditional milk. It's not bad. And since I've been doing that, I haven't had any problems with my lactose intolerance. I still eat cheese some (lowfat), yogurt, and sugar-free puddings that are made with real milk. But since I've cut back on the amount of dairy I'm eating, it is made a big difference. I'm keeping some skim milk around to use when I cook, because I don't want a vanilla soy milk flavoring in my mashed potatoes!

I've managed to get the recommended amount of fiber on a regular basis now for several weeks without problems. So now, my next goal is to work more carbohydrates in, and to keep an eye on the sodium that I get. I've started tracking my sodium on SparkPeople.com and I'm finding that some days I am seriously higher than I should be, while other days I am in a good range. With carbs, typically I have too few, though occasionally I will end up in the low end of the recommended range. So, I'm going to try to work on those things in order to get healthier.

More soon.

Denton Photos: More Snow

It kept on coming down all afternoon. It seems to have stopped, but this is what it looked like right at the end of the snow.