Desda"moan"a

It's funny when you look at her name and all you can think about is how unfaithful she must be to her husband. But it's really the opposite. Othello is the unfaithful one. Throughout the play, "poor" Desdemona had to endure the pain and worry of her husband's judgment upon her. Now desiccated, I am at my wit's end with Desdemona. I almost wish that she was the panache that everyone thought she was going to be. An arrogant, sassy wife to the leader of the Venetian army would have been much more entertaining than the lugubrious damsel in distress that was Desdemona. Her aloofness was a pique to me. I wanted her to have some confidence or awareness to her power. All she did was "moan" about her worries. Stick up for yourself Desdemona! Well, you're dead now... but you should have from the beginning. Her soporific quandaries were of no interest to me. I wanted to rip my hair out when I heard her drag on about anything else, that's how enervated I was from her character. Something was just a little eschew about her. She was either confused or out of the loop on something. How can someone with such high status for a woman be so dumb?! Sorry Desdemona but you are. Your situation was tacit. Othello had or is in the litany of woman's dreams of his exotic desires. You should have dealt with it before you let his jealous mind get you first. Oh well. I'll leave you alone in your solemn death then. Goodbye (thank gosh).

Cassio -- without the C

I think that many of us want to think that Cassio is some innocent pawn in Iago's game, but then we would be lying to ourselves. Come on Cassio, get some brains. You are next in command under Othello! Nepotism may have gotten you the position, but now you need reach out of this "too good for everybody else" milieu that you live in. Hold your liquor, or don't drink at all. You can't get by on looks all the time (which may not be working for you based on what I saw in the movie version). Your jejune behavior only further infuriates me; just because you are rich and "pretty" doesn't mean you can prance around the town drunk. You are so bereft of physical duties that now you think you can just get by on life with your charm. Try being a little less careless and little more fastidious. Look what has happened! At least try to recoup before you humiliate yourself! You made a drunken fool of yourself and now you lost your job... Even though you do have connections with important people you are only a sinecure; you do nothing and make money. It's wrong. Although Iago's rage is intense, your attitude and status is unwarranted and I don't think that you should even be the leader of the Venetian army in Othello's place. It may be expedient for you to lay around and do nothing, but you are going to have to step up to the plate. Right now you don't have the power to subjugate a mere dog into doing what you want it to do, let alone an entire army of men. Watching you reconnoiter would be an embarrassment to the ferocity of the Venetian army and I cannot stand for your power any longer. If I could I would banish you myself. Good riddance.

Iago has some issues.

I'm not entirely sure as to whether pernicious little Iago is a lucky neophyte in his plans to destroy everyone in his way, or if he actually crafted and demised this plan to get back at Othello for giving Cassio a promotion over him. Needless to say, this dissident definitely has some personal problems to overcome. I'm not sure that I could have such a strong vendetta against someone over something as menial as that promotion. Let me see if I can re-piece the sequence of events that were Iago's plans. SO. Roderigo was in love with Desdemona, but Desdemona married Othello. Iago was angry at Othello because he gave a promotion to Cassio over him. Iago tells Roderigo that if Roderigo pays Iago, he will make it so that Roderigo will get Desdemona, which in turn will cause Othello to crumble. I'm not sure why Roderigo would agree to this subornation, but that's a different story. Despite Roderigo's attempts to sway Desdemona, he couldn't make it fly. But he was resilient. Iago then told Roderigo to start a fight with Cassio, because apparently Cassio was another contender for Desdemona, which resulted in Roderigo's death. With him gone, Iago played on Othello's jealousy to get him to think that Cassio and Desdemona were sleeping together. Iago had Desdemona's sacred handkerchief put into Cassio's hands. Then after Othello had a seizure, he was then transfixed over a conversation he heard which made him ignorantly positive that Cassio and Desdemona were in fact sleeping together. He then took matters into his own hand and killed Desdemona, which Iago's wife Emelia discovered ostensibly (whether she knew before or not the world will never know) and unfolded the truth that she was never cheating on Othello. She then realized that it must have been Iago the whole time and confronted him. Iago stabs Emelia, Othello stabs Iago, and Othello kills himself. Iago's jealousy turned out to be the foible that would prevent him from ever being Othello's successor. Poor Iago, although his plan was one large éclat.

Othello, Othello, Othello

What more is there to say about Othello? As if the succeeding ubiquitous scandals of each and every character aren't more ferocious than the last! All I can say is that Shakespeareans need to keep their you-know-whats in their you-know-wheres. Seriously. Each scene seems to be a new character sexually impeding upon someone else's marriage. This theme emanates from each page from each and every character. It's a little discomforting. To me, the relations between the characters are lilliputian and of minuscule importance compared to each character's inability to just "talk it out." Everyone seems to have formed one homogeneous relationship by now.

Seriously. One character lacks the competence to converse with another character about the problems that he or she may be having. Put a bunch of splenetic people in a play and things get bad. This has created a cycle of ingenuousness among the characters, inevitably making everything end in one disastrous powder keg explosion. One can only gain knowledge by finding things out ~through the grapevine. Guys, just cut the soap opera drama and speak to each other about what's bothering you; there is no need to be reticent or plot revenge that ends in a noisome and unpleasant death. But I guess it wouldn't be Shakespeare if it weren't one tortuous plot that transgressed and spiraled into a sudden vertex that would end the play in tragedy.

Olympics!

I love the Olympics; especially the Winter Olympics. And the fact that they are in Vancouver this year makes it all the greater. After all, I am a die-hard fan of Canada. In fact, I am in love with the country. When the Olympics are on, I disparage the rest of the world, and anything else going on for that matter. I think it's really amazing that no matter what is going on in the world, people can get together and enjoy this universal event without the hostility, perfidy, or worry about the conflicts of today's world. Anyway, the Winter Olympics were SICK. There are just a few amazing Olympians who's necks are being weighed down by their massive medals: Shaun White, Apolo Ohno, JR Celski, Lindsey Vonn, Julia Mancuso, Evan Lysacek, Seth Wescott, Hannah Teter, and many more. America is pretty boss, to say the least.

One of the more interesting, or more eccentric Olympians, is Johnny Weir. I'm not hating, but he is ridiculously odd. One can tell that he deeply loves ice skating, deeply. I thought he was a sangfroid until he gave head whip to the crowd. But I think that the judges didn't score him according to the level of finesse in his routines. He was pretty good, and I think that the judges dislike him because of the amount of sass he has brought the already sassy sport of figure-skating. Besides that, after all of the figure skating was over, I stunningly watched the commercial for Johnny Weir's new show. He is anything but malcontent with himself; that guy is crazy. It was a little quixotic for him to be wearing heels and a fur coat. I'm not sure whether to be uncomfortable or baffled in amazement at how shocking someone can be. Overall, great Winter Olympics this year! :D

Music

People who hate music that isn't part of the social scene is more than an anathema to me. What is wrong with liking a band that no one has ever heard of? Nothing. If you were to look at the music of some bands and artists before they became famous, one would find that they made a complete 180˚ turn from the emotion they used to emit in their previous music. Not to say that I deprecate on , or believe that mainstream artists aren't able to do just the same once they become famous, but many merely try to appeal demands for a catchy beat to listen to until the next artist creates and even catchier beat. What was once pure, emotionally provoked music, has mostly turned into Pop style beats and "hit-worthy" lyrics. I find the artists who write for their own therapy and happiness, are much more enjoyable on the ears. If a song can tell a story, or make you stand at the tip of an emotional cliff, then I feel as though there is much more to the artist's talent then just being able to produce what everybody else wants. It shows the artist's baroque style, one that pays attention to the depth and feel of his music, more than just how many singles he can sell. I would be credulous to believe that Katy Perry went from Christian singer to sleazy Pop diva because she had the gut-wrenching need to do so. I just like to think that the dossier of indie and undiscovered artists I have is far more noteworthy than any of the Top 20 artists I see in today's sellout society.

Personal Pandemonium in Panera...

Okay, so everything started off surreptitiously, because she and I knew we would be the talk of the town, or school, if everybody found out about us. As if that weren't difficult enough, we happened to locate the town ourselves--at Panera Bread, consequently filling in some of the clues about what she and I were doing together. Never go to Panera Bread at Tice's Corner on a Saturday, because you will inevitably find at least fifteen people from school that you know, most of whom make it their obligation to give you the Hester Prynne stare-down, but that's just my own apprehension getting to me, for really none of that happened. A scruple went through my mind as soon as I tried to make a superhero getaway; I couldn't let my enemies win, even though they really aren't my enemies. If we had left, I would have let my own nerves get the best of me, and I simply could NOT let that happen. Granted, I am friends with most of the people that I saw there, but when my ex-girlfriend walked in, about twenty minutes after our arrival, I was almost forced to cede all of my optimism on how awkward the night could actually get. It begins to really get to me when, upon my arrival back to school on monday, I was still getting annoyed by some of my peers. Some even asserted their supercilious jokes upon me, but it was all in good fun. As if seeing them on Saturday didn't depreciate my machismo enough, I was still playfully scrutinized. I think it was funny after the fact now, but at the time, it was thoroughly embarrassing. It's so appropriate for high school. Trying to salvage my pride, in a colloquial tone, I stated to one of my peers, "Leave me alone!" but it didn't matter. Like everything, it passed, and my ten seconds of embarrassment are over and I find it'll be one of those awkward moments to look back upon. I am really happy that it all happened, because she is a great person ~