Day Two of Group Presentations

Once again...an excellent set of presentations for the "Bluebeard", "Hansel and Gretel", and Hans Christian Andersen groups. I enjoyed them all just as much as the ones we saw on Tuesday.

The "Bluebeard" group has permanantly changed my thoughts on Dr. Phil and Oprah. Bridgett and Drew were superb in their portrayls of these televeision icons (do you think they're icons? Oprah is, what about Phil???) Michelle's character was a little bit harder to love because she was a misogynist, but Michelle's performnce was brilliant despite the words that were coming out of her mouth. Lindsey, Brian, and Hali were wonderful as their characters. It was interesting that they tied Adam and Eve into their presentation...thinking about it now, the curiosity motif is obvious, but in my reading of it at the beginning of the semester, it didn't occur to me. The group also taught me the word "sparagmos" through its discussion of lost body parts, etc.

"Hansel and Gretel" had some Oscar worthy performances! Cindy ROCKS as the crazy, child-eating old lady. I loved the little touches of the shoe in the pot of water. I again really enjoyed the displacement of the tale and how they made it into a parody of the "Unsolved Mysteries" series. Brilliant! The little breaks from interviews by the dinner and a fairy tale sections were nice too because they tied in the motifs (Lucky Bumpkins & Neglected Daughters) and how the group saw them influenceing the "Hansel and Gretel" story. The gingerbread houses were a cute was to tie the two parts together. Liz and Valerie are awesome as the rebellious teens who escaped from evil Cindy. Excellent job.

The Hans Christian Anderson group had the most difficult topic, I think. They had to focus not only on 6 motifs but also one multiple stories. Finding a way to tie all those things together would have been difficult but I think that the way they did was really cool and it made sense. I loved the little mentions of "Finnegan's Wake" and John Kerry that snuck in there, nice touch Jeremy. I could definitely see parallels between the stories that this group did with the other groups we've seen and the other stories we've read in the class.

Awesome job everybody! This has been a really fun week and I can't wait to hear what people do individually as well. :O)