williamfahoome-blog

[williamfahoome-blog]

Reading the Work #7

I believe the perfect example of the view black women had for themselves is given in Rose’s character. Rose stayed at home and cooked, cleaned, and was expected to please her husband when he got home and whenever he wanted. She never complained, no matter how disrespected she was by her own husband. There were numerous examples of Troy talking down on her. The biggest example of disrespect though, was Troy having a baby with another woman and continuing to see her. Not only did Rose stay with Troy, but she raised his daughter that he had with his mistress as her own. This epitomizes the struggles the black women dealt with back then and to some degree still do today. Due to them being unaware of what they are capable of, they settle for less. Their purity and kind heartedness almost works against them, because it helps with not allowing them to leave. This, shown in the example above of Rose taking on a child that is not hers. Not only not hers, but a child her husband had with another woman. It’s almost unfathomable to think someone would do what she did, some might even see it as ignorant. I see it as strength. Strength to fight through what others see as unbearable. Strength to still do what they believe is right throughout all the hurt they’ve been caused. Rose is the optimizes the strength of the black woman.

[williamfahoome-blog]

Reading the Work #6

“I said send him to the hospital . . . you said let him be free . . . now you done went down there and signed him to the hospital for half his money. You went back on yourself, Troy. You gonna have to answer for that.” This quote from Rose to Troy is continuing the difficulty that I am having with trying to understand who Troy’s character truly is. I have been trying to figure out if Troy is actually a good man throughout the whole book. There are instances where Troy is doing the right thing, but then he follows in with actions like in the quote above. All of the negative actions that follow the positive lead me to believe the negative is who Troy really is. The way he treats his son, wife, brother and so on, is unfair. But, through all of this his wife continues to stay with him. Because of this maybe that is why Troy doesn’t change and continues to do wrong, there are no consequences. He doesn’t lose anything really. That all goes back to how woman viewed themselves at the time. The strength and potential they didn’t know they had, that Rose didn’t know she had, allowed her to settle in a situation unhealthy for her.

[williamfahoome-blog]

Reading the Work #5

A little later on the same act as my last post Gabriel leaves and a short dialogue between Troy and Rose takes place. Although we find out Troy has taken money from Gabriel’s injury in the war, it still seems as if Troy actually does genuinely care for Gabe. But, using Gabe’s money to survive makes Troy feel weak. Which is understandable for me due to the interpretation I have gotten on who Troy is throughout the book. With Troy’s mindset I am sure he wants to provide for his family and himself on his own with no help, and any assistance in those areas makes him feel like less of a man. Another thing I noticed was when things got tough he ran off to the bar. Rose states that Troy has been “running out of here every Saturday for weeks”, and I’m sure it’s because he is seeing the other woman. I wonder though does seeing this other woman make him feel like more of a man? Since it is evident he does not feel fully like one with Rose.

[williamfahoome-blog]

Reading the Work #4

As prideful of a man Troy is, it seems his brother embarrasses him yet he still loves him. I would imagine after getting to know Troy’s character that he wouldn’t actually want anything to do with Gabriel. This assumption has proven me wrong for the most part though. I say for the most because Troy seemed to be himself only at one point when responding to Gabriel. Troy states, “How many times you gonna tell me that Gabe?” He also repeats himself multiple times to tell Gabe to go into the house. These are examples of Troy seeming agitated and annoyed. As if that’s his true feelings towards Gabe and he is putting on an act. This would make sense because the agitated Troy seems to be true to his character. Which is why it is easy for me to believe him being nice to Gabe is the act. I believe Troy loves his brother, but as I said before I also believe Troy is selfish. It would not surprise me if Troy did not want to have anything to do with Gabe because he embarrasses him and blemishes how people see him. It’d make sense that he only tolerated Gabe because he feels obligated to.

[williamfahoome-blog]

Add on to previous post

I forgot to add this piece evidence to go with my opinion in the previous post. Earlier in the act before his wife, Rose, entered the scene Bono and Troy had a conversation about a woman that Bono has noticed Troy has been eyeing. Troy denies it, but you can tell that Troy is trying to use his slick talk to work around it but Bono knows he’s lying. This is yet another example of how the men disrespected the women and disregarded their feelings. Not only do we now know Troy is cheating on Rose, but we also see how Troy views women. He states, “I eye all women. I don’t miss nothing. Don’t never let nobody tell you Troy Maxson don’t eye the women.” He not only states he loves to look at all women while having a wife, but he even brags about it as if it is one of the positive qualities that make him a “real man”.

[williamfahoome-blog]

Act 1 Connection To “ISOOMG”

Another section of part one reminds me of a thought I had while reading “In Search of Our Mother’s Garden”. The thought that the black male went hundreds of years enslaved and looked down upon by white men, but look down upon others the same way because of their sex. Troy states while speaking to his wife Rose, “Well, go on back in the house and let me and Bono finish what we was talking about. This is men talk. I got some talk for you later. You know what kind of talk I mean. You go on and powder it up.” The demeaning way Troy speaks to Rose is contradicting what I’m positive him and all other black men believe to be wrong. The way they look down upon women is the same discrimination against them through race. The way they communicate though is almost like it is okay, which goes back to “In Search of Our Mother’s Garden”. These women accept the way they are treated and spoken to because they haven’t realized their true potential. They are opressed. Living life discriminated against because of their race and sex. Not just discriminated against, but by their very own peers who which they share the same hate that is inflicted upon them.

[williamfahoome-blog]

Act 1 Who Troy is

The main character in this play is Troy, an African American garbage collector in the early 1900’s. Just from his dialogue with his friend, Bono, I can already get a good sense of who Troy is. Troy is strong willed and makes sure he does what HE believes is right. He’s also not afraid of the consequences that could come along with these tendencies. As a garbage collector in a time of inequality for people of color, Troy is standing up against the discrimination. His act of courage makes me wonder though is it for all people of color including his African American coworkers, or for himself and his stubbornness on display. He states “I ain’t worried about them firing me. They gonna fire me cause I asked a question? That’s all I did.” In fact they could fire him in that time because he “asked a question”. Which is why I could see him saying that selfishly to protect his own image in front of Bono who obviously looks up to him.

[williamfahoome-blog]

Found my book👍🏼

I’ve had my book, Fences, for a couple of days now. I talked to Mr. Kreinbring about reading multiple plays by the playwright, August Wilson. I considered reading three plays, and doing my project based on the similarities and differences between the multiple representations of the African American lifestyle in the early 1900’s. These three plays included Seven Guitars, Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom, and Fences. After researching on all three of the plays and seeing the background each book possesses, I decided to only read Fences. This book spoke to me the most due the main character of the play being a former baseball player. Because I play baseball and it is my favorite sport, it made this an easier choice. Not only is the rest of the story intriguing, but on top of that the baseball aspect is the cherry on top. Reading a play from the perspective of a ball player who never got to fulfill his dreams because of his color appeals to me greatly.

[williamfahoome-blog]

2Pac Indie Write #1

The poet who speaks to me and has my whole life is Tupac Shakur. Whether it was his raps or his poems, I have always connected to them on a deeper level. In his raps he mainly focuses on reaching out to African Americans, specifically the youth. His efforts made them aware of how much potential they have and how they can stand up and put a stop to the oppression that the U.S. government has put on our race, all while stealing our culture. Of course there is a common misconception of Tupac’s music as just ghetto and violent tunes built to provoke kids into selling drugs and using guns. This misconception comes from those who don't actually take the time to listen to the words of his music, but simply categorize this artist with other rappers, which he is nothing like. He separates himself with his deep intellectual thinking which shows also in his poems. These poems are where his music translated from. There is a book of his many poems called “The Rose That Grew from Concrete”. One that has stuck out to me throughout my life though is “In the Event of my Demise”. In this poem Pac speaks of how he hoped he lived his life the way HE believed his life should be lived. He knew his time was near and he was not afraid anymore. He only hoped his message reached people in the world and he fulfilled his desires. This belief is one that we share. I do not know when I will leave this earth or believe that time is coming soon like Pac believed, but I do believe I should make a difference and reach as many people as I can before I do die. I believe if I also apply the strategies of my desires and how I want to reach people while using life experiences within my own poems, I can accomplish my goal.

[williamfahoome-blog]

Original

Ray Allen and Kevin Garnett broke the mold for basketball players in 2007. They took the “free” in free agency and used that freedom in a way no other player had before. These two players, while still in their prime, decided to take their talents to the Boston Celtics to join another player in their prime. They did this with one goal in mind, to win an NBA championship. Of course their have been players to join stacked teams in the past. Players such as Adrian Dantley with the Detroit Pistons, Clyde Drexler and Charles Barkley with the Houston Rockets, and twice by Dennis Rodman with the Chicago Bulls and San Antonio Spurs. While all of these Hall of Fame players joined a great team, none of them were currently in their prime. They simply joined a good team at the end of their careers to add to their Hall of Fame resumé. Most players until Allen and Garnett prided themselves on staying loyal to one team to build and make their own legacy. While this seems admirable, this strategy stopped many players from winning championships due to a player named Michael Jordan, who won six straight rings while he was in the league and dominated a whole era. But, in just a year after their signing, the Boston Celtics enjoyed a championship trophy. This started a domino affect for many other players. Most notably LeBron James, who infamously “took his talents to South Beach to join the Miami Heat”. Following LeBron was Chris Bosh and more recently Kevin Durant. These super teams are a result of the pressure to win a championship, and what better idea than to assemble the best group of players possible on one team. None of this would be possible though, without Ray Allen and Kevin Garnett breaking the ice for future NBA stars.

[williamfahoome-blog]

Baseball is a High Art

I can assume the people that play baseball already acknowledge it as a high art because they've experienced it firsthand. And the back hand play is looked at as prestigious in the baseball world. But for those who are not regular baseball watchers it is new. The back hand jump play in baseball has been done by many shortstops before. But, it has been perfected by very few like Derek Jeter and Andrelton Simmons. It is a play of beauty. One that leaves you with an open mouth every time you see it. One that you never get tired of watching. One that is such a rarity, which adds to the beauty of it. John Paschal of "The Baseball Times" states "What makes the play so beautiful—and it is always so, never plain—is its precision and capriciousness on each end. Start with the first baseman’s catch. Barring the runner’s stumble at the plate, the play is always a close one and almost invariably relies on the first baseman’s ability to impersonate a gifted Olympic gymnast by going into what most folks call “the splits". Paschal refers to this play as beautiful as even compares it to the difficulty of an Olympic gymnast.

[williamfahoome-blog]

This is making the rounds on Twitter today, so I figured I’d share it here:

Never forget the man who put that incredulous look on Tulo’s face. He was amazing, and Tulo knew it. 

[williamfahoome-blog]

#aplang16art

#MJMondays

[williamfahoome-blog]

Bottle flipping technique and workout routine

Hey everyone.  By now you have acknowledged your need for bottle flip training and schooling. Well my friend you’ve come to the right place because I am going to teach you everything you need to know about bottle flipping. First of all you should acquire a proper bottle with which to flip. The bottle should have the same shape overall as this will make it easier for you to figure out it’s center of gravity ( dont worry this is essential to flipping). I prefer bottles that are perfectly round everywhere but the top of course.

It’s all in the wrist

Next you should start learning the easiest flipping technique. Grib the bottle from the top and neck with your dominant hand. The top should be placed about right under your knuckle from the middle finger (so that your thumb is place behind the bottle). To flip the bottle first choose a table that is suitable for bottle flipping, then move your hand with the bottle softly back and follow the bottles momentum and let go a little bit after your hand is level with your arm again. It’s crucial that you spin your water bottle just the right amount. You dont want to overdo it and throw the bottle. Once you let go the bottle should flip once and land on the base. If the bottle is wavering then you might have spun it too hard or too soft. By now you have completed your first bottle flip! Maybe you didn’t land it the first few times but dont worry thats just training.

Speaking of training I am now going to tell you about a training routine. 

- 10 succesful bottleflips on a surface about 60-70 cm lower than you

- 10 succesful bottleflips on a surface about a meter lower than you

- 5   succesful bottelflips on a surface about the height of your head

- 5   succesful bottelflips on a surface about half a meter taller than your head

Do this every day, no matter how many fails you make. Record all your attempts so you can analyse them later. I use Snapchat for this purpose as an attempt doesnt take longer than 10 seconds and you get to have a lit af mystory. Pictures of bottle flipping techniques will follow shortly.

[williamfahoome-blog]

#aplang16art