Quran you tell me about Islam?!

Hola Humanitarians! Sorry for no post yesterday, but I hope you survived the test. Last test until finals...that is crazy! How are we almost to December?!

Today we started our last mini-unit of information with a brief exploration on one of the most influential and important religions in the world, Islam. We quickly detailed the basic tenets of Islam, including the life of Muhammad and the Five Pillars of Islam. In case you missed it, these would be...

1. Declaration of faith
2. Prayer
3. Charity
4. Fasting during Ramadan
5. Hajj

The fifth member of the Humanities team, John Green, also made a helpful video to outline an overview of Islamic beliefs. We watched some in class, but if you want the whole thing, have at it!

We'll continue our study of Islam, its empires, and Islamic art and science next week to give Islam more of the due it deserves, but tomorrow is the OLYMPICS. Don't forget that everything, and I mean EVERYTHING, is due tomorrow, even if your group's event doesn't present till Friday! Wash your sheets, break out the togas and the epic poems, we are READY! It's on like Donkey Kong!

I found this picture of Mr. Stanton in college. 

We're also getting to the end of the semester, so you know what that means...Humanities Experiences! In case you need some last minute ideas that aren't the DMA, here are some cool happenings this weekend:

• UTD's Chamber Ensemble is performing Bach and more contemporary composers on Friday!
• The Texas Ballet Theater is performing the Nutcracker. Here come all of the holiday performances, check other local ballets and theaters as well for performances of the Nutcracker or The Christmas Carol if this one is too far for you guys!
• The Crow Collection downtown has a pretty sweet ceramics exhibit, Clay Between Two Seas, including some sweet Islamic art that we will explore next Wednesday!

Have a rocking Wednesday friends. Enjoy the beautiful weather :)

Turkey and casserole and pie, oh my!

Welcome back friends! I hope that your break was filled with all the mashed potatoes and cranberries and turkey, but more importantly, that you were able to take some well-deserved time with the people you love...and that crazy uncle that always shows up for Thanksgiving.

Wake up from your carbohydrate comas, because it's back to the grind! Tomorrow we have our Classical Test. And yes, I said test, as in a massively important chunk of your grade that I know you are planning to study for tonight. Right? Got it. Today in class, after our last SAQ, we answered some of your questions from the Google Doc and important terms you didn't understand. In case you missed, here are some of the study guide terms confusing people:

• city-kingdom
• monasticism
• Upanishads
• shamanism
• Classical ideal
• Sassanid
• Achaemenid
• latifundia
• Zarathustra

If you still have any questions that didn't get answered today in class, stop by tutorials before school tomorrow at 8:15 in the big Humanities room (2035/6). Come with questions...or we'll just stare at you while we sip on our coffee. And that's awkward.

Just a tip as you study, make sure that you know all of the terms on your study guide, but can you use them to explain some of the bigger concepts? A good way to study is to come up with your own test questions. Grab some friends (who you can actually study with) and see if you can answer each other's questions. Or try explaining concepts to a little sibling or pet that will sit and listen to you...although that's not likely. What five year old wants to hear what a latifundia is? Unless they're just cool like that.

My book for the week, in case you are already making your Winter Break reading list (maybe that's just me), is Mr. Penumbra's 24-Hour Bookstore. I'm a sucker for a book about books, but really this book has gotten rave reviews for its story of a mysterious bookstore that holds more within its walls than appearances show. It's super whimsical and endearing so far...read along with me?

HAPPY STUDYING FRIENDS! You got this.
-Virdin

"If the only prayer you ever say in your entire life is thank you, it will be enough." - Meister Eckhart

Welcome to the Humanities blog - Thanksgiving edition!

You really can go "baroque" feeding everyone at Thanksgiving! Woo!

Quite literally, this is my motto on Thanksgiving.

This might be a picture of Siddiqui

You payin' attention to this Garafola!?

This is my greatest fear at Thanksgiving. FOOD SHOULDN'T TOUCH.

Someone really needs to manufacture this shirt. They'd make millions. 

Okay, okay... that's enough with the lolz. 

As much as we love, love, love all that food, we do hope that you also have plenty of time to express gratitude for all that you have in your life. We also hope you have time to relax, hang out with friends, and spend time with those wacky people you call "family." One bit of advice... given our current climate, I'd skip the political conversations this year. No one wants to read about someone getting beaten to death with a gravy boat. Save that rage for Black Friday. 

We wish you all a very happy Thanksgiving! 

Some Thanksgiving food based advice...

• Here's some good advice from your friends at the Food Network - TURKEY
• For those of you who've made the choice to go vegetarian, here's some ideas for you - VEGGIE
• Of course, we all could use some advice if you're hosting the big meal at your house (like I am this year) - HOST

Soundtrack of the Week

Where do I even begin with our final artist of the week? Let me just say this. You have to see this group live. I mean that in all sincerity. YOU HAVE TO. They are an experience that defies description. I am, of course, talking about Dallas's own, The Polyphonic Spree. Yes, there are about 20-30 people in the band. Yes, they have a full chorus as well as a cello, French horn, flute, and various other instruments. Yes, they all wear choir robes and dance like crazy people. Yes and yeas and yes! They do an annual Christmas concert every year here in their hometown. It is magical. Get information HERE. 

They really rose to national awareness from a single on their first album that was used on the soundtrack for one of the greatest movies ever The Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind. That single is "Light and Day."

I also want to include some footage of them from a live show. Just to try and give you a taste of the madness. The Spree does a legendary cover of Nirvana's "Lithium." Here is a video of that performance. I actually saw them on the tour in this video. SO GOOD. Enjoy. 

Is fall the most appropriate time for an empire to fall? FALL

Today's blog is brought to you by Young Joe Biden... smoldering!

It's also time for our daily dose of the feelz! More supes-cute engagement pictures!

This is the end... beautiful friend, the end... 

I'm going to have MAD PROPS for anyone who gets that musical allusion. 

Look! I recently discovered a new historical document that sheds an amazing new light of Roman history...

This is probably correct.

Now that we've completed our journey through the Classical Age, we sincerely hope that you see a pattern emerging. Hence the reason we went through that blueprint. Does every Classical Empire have every element we discussed? Of course not. But, they do have enough. 

These empires have fascinated people for millennia because during their zenith, they represented the highest aspirations of these societies and cultures. Imagine looking around and thinking "This is it! Literally, we cannot do better than this!" Well, right about the time most people felt that way was when things started to head south. That's the other reason we still look so intensely at these empires. You know the saying "those who fail to study history are doomed to repeat it." This is something we'd all like to avoid repeating. 

Awkward...

Empires rise... empires fall. That's the way it works. It even has a formal name: Course of Empire. Does this mean we're all going to wake up in a week and be Canadian? No.

That's why we learn this stuff. To put our own lives and communities into the larger context of history. Pretty cool, huh? 

Coming at ya!

Tomorrow is your Olympics work day! Come with a plan; come prepared; come with the materials you need to complete that plan. DO NOT come empty handed or clueless in what you want to get done. Like Rupaul says "You better work!"

Soundtrack of the Week

I hope you are penciling in this week's selections for your concert calendar. 

Today we're going with what I believe is the best band, pound for pound, you can see live. I've seen these guys 4 or 5 times, and every show is amazing. The energy, commitment, musicianship, song craft... it's all perfect. It is inspiring and a darn good time all in one. It helps that they are one of my favorite bands in general. 

I give you TV on the Radio (who I just saw live last Saturday) with "Caffeinated Consciousness"

Enjoy.

Gentlemen, you can't fight in here! This is the war room!

Wait... wrong Empire

Here an empire; there an empire... everywhere an empire!

Have you recovered from the "WHAP Reading to End all WHAP Readings?" Hopefully you actually headed our advice and broke it up into some nice manageable chunks. Or, even better, started it early before we even assigned it. I was keeping my eye out today to see who had the biggest pile of paper that was their notes. Some of y'all killed some trees!

Please remember... it's great if you wrote down key ideas, terms and people, And, then you back and cross-referenced those notes with the vocabulary from the reading guide. But, we really hope you can analyze and compare these individual empires with other civilizations both from this time period and others. This why we gave you that "blueprint" yesterday. A great idea might be to take those 8 characteristics down one side of a chart, and then the Classical Empires down the other side. Then... you know what's next... fill it in! In fact, as you may have noticed, we kinda started that today. WHOA. IT'S ALMOST LIKE WE KNOW WHAT WE'RE DOING. 

The Roman Empire is so fetch. 

So, you're saying there's more? 

In class today, we had quite a few questions from you that seemed to stem from a desire to know more details about sme of these empires. In my opinion, they are all fascinating. I can see why you'd like to know more. We cannot dedicate too much time to get into all the nitty-gritty details on these empires. We do, however, encourage you to learn a little more about the ones you found most interesting. All of them created amazing inventions, breath-talking works of art, and really battles and stuff! 

This is another reason to learn about these empires... so YOU don't make the same mistakes. 

The Week Ahead

You're so far away... doesn't anybody stay in one place anymore? Anyone? Not a lot of Carole King fans out there I take it. Well, guess what isn't far away? THANKSGIVING BREAK!! 

If you listen closely, you can actually hear my waist expanding. 

Before we get there though - you have another reading due tomorrow (Thurs.) and then you are going to come to class on Friday ready to do work son! Don't forget that you've got a Current Event tomorrow as well. Finish Strong!

This has nothing to do with anything, but they look so cute that it had to be posted. 

Soundtrack of the Week

We are still rollin' strong with our live performances themed week. We started out with one of the most anthemic bands you can ever see, Arcade Fire.
Let's switch gears a bit and slow things down. I sincerely hope that you've heard of Norah Jones. Not only is she an immensely talented super awesome musician and a multiple Grammy award winning artist; she is a Dallas native! Yep. She grew up here and went to Booker T. Washington School for the Performing Arts. It might not seem like it from her music, but she puts on a fantastic show. It is personal and intimate but still fun and light. She is a natural performer with a natural command of an audience. You should definitely get out and see her sometime. Here is Norah Jones with "Chasing Pirates."

Every time you play "The Little Drummer Boy" an angel dies

I bet Jesus would have had a wicked Twitter account

So, are you enjoying our reenactment of eons of religious history? 

Apparently, we Humanities teachers missed our calling and should have gone to seminary. Because, we have this stuff on lockdown! 

I imagine that Moses like his coffee STRONG. 

Keep in mind as we have been discussing this stuff that we are looking at these religions through the lens of HISTORY. Sure, we've gotten into some of the miracles and religious ideas, but that is because of the impact these ideas and practices have on the societies in which they form. Regardless of your own religious beliefs, you must acknowledge the profound impact all of the major world religions have had on so much of human history. 

We also hope we're helping clear up some common misconceptions you've had about some of these religions that we're talking about in class. People have asked some great questions! Keep them coming!

Oooooo... that's gotta hurt!

Today in your class we should have covered Jesus's crucifixion. I'm not wanting to dwell on a horrific subject, but several people wanted to know more about this preferred method of punishment and civic control used by the Romans. 

Here's a good overview from the Catholic Church's education website. Remember, this was NOT a nice thing to do to people. So, proceed at your own risk as far as the description goes on the website. I found it pretty fascinating that it was probably the Persians who invented the whole idea and then passed it to Alexander the Great. 

Wanna learn more? 

There is a museum here in Dallas dedicated to biblically themed art and artifacts. It is the creatively titled, Museum of the Biblical Arts. The museum focuses on art and artifacts with Jewish or Christian themes or relevance. It would definitely count as a Humanities Experience if you're interested. Here's a picture! Here's a link to their website: BIBLE. 

Soundtrack of the Week

While attending a concert this weekend, a friend asked me a difficult question - "what is the best concert you've been to?" I answered that this would be like picking my favorite child and thereby impossible. But, it did get me thinking, which I enjoy doing. 

So, in honor of that question, and Ms. Virdin's inability to actually attend live music shows, I thought I'd share music from some of my favorite bands to see live. I don't think I'll necessarily post actual live performances as these can often not translate too well with a video. I will just tell you that you need to make it a priority to see these bands live at some point. Sure, I love all these musicians and their music, but they all do something in a live setting that transforms their music into something much more. 

Let's kick this off the right way. I'll break my own parameters right away and post a video of a live performance. This is a video of the band, Arcade Fire, performing their anthemic classic "Wake Up" live at the reading Festival in England in 2010. At the risk of sounding hyperbolic, seeing this band live, and seeing them perform this particular song, is a transformative experience. You will lose your mind in the best possible way. Please notice how every one of the seemingly millions of people in the audience is singing out every word as though their lives depended on it. That's the way the entire concert feels. I have never been so exhausted and energized at the same time. ENJOY. 

Let my people go!

Today we continued our notes over Judaism, and some classes made it to Christianity.  Here are some key things to take away from class so far:

• Abraham is considered the founder of Judaism, Christianity, and Islam, and while the three share some similarities, they do break off in their respective narratives 
• Abraham established a covenant with God, creating a relationship that transcends through his descendants 
• The Jews were living in Jerusalem until the Romans destroyed Solomon's temple, causing the Diaspora, where Jews moved to other areas such as North Africa and Europe

Below you'll find my favorite song from The Prince of Egypt, an animated movie from 1998:

We hope you make your way through your lengthy WHAP reading this weekend! 

Some Internet funnies for your weekend:

So awkward...

Amiright?

Seriously. Why so dark!

Presidential goals.

If some of you felt suckerpunched by the reading check yesterday (periods 5-7), here are some Humanities Experiences to try out soon:

• Check out some cool pottery at the Crow Collection
• Check out the Sistine Chapel exhibition at the Women's Museum if you missed it at the State Fair
• Watch a production of Jacob and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat, a retelling of what we're learning in class - the story of Jacob and Joseph - at the Art Centre Theater in Plano
• Watch a simulcast performance of Shakespeare's King Lear at the Angelika on November 22
• Watch Moby Dick at the Dallas Opera

Have a great weekend!

- Ms. Siddiqui