Far(aday) and Away

After writing last night's blog, I decided to have a go at writing some blank verse in 'Iambic Pentameter' and after a bit of trial and error, I managed to write a poem (click here). I've been a bit hit and miss with my poems since I started looking at the materials for this course, and I'm afraid it's going to stay that way.


Anyway, on to today. I've finally started on Chapter 4 - Fame and Faraday. So far so good. I'm enjoying reading about his life, and how he became a famous name through the 19th Century. However, upon scanning through the rest of the chapter, I've noticed there's quite a lot about his experiments. I realise that these contributed to his fame but I'm surprised to see them in an 'arts' course. Oh well, time to put my science head on...

Slow Progress

Quite a productive day today! I did the online activity about the death of Christopher Marlowe and discovered that nobody is really 100% sure of how he DID actually die, although I did learn that if you are going to trust anybody's opinion about someone's biography, then Oxford University Press is a pretty good source.


Next was the 'Inside Art' activity. As you've probably gathered from previous posts, paintings are not my thing at all. This activity has helped with SOME aspects of evaluating paintings (perspective, light source, colour) but these are the few things I actually remember learning about at GCSE. I've still not got the foggiest when it comes to deciding WHY an artist painted the way he did.


It did mean that I could tick off these activities on the website. And as an added bonus I got 9 out of 9 on the Chapters 1-3 Quiz. I'm going to leave the TMA questions for a couple of week (until I've been to a tutorial) so tomorrow I might start on Chapter 4, although it is CSI Sunday on Five USA...

See the Pyramids along the Nile

Having decided that I was indeed doing the right thing I couldn't wait to get started. I was still weeks away from the official start date, but needed to get in front. I'm currently unemployed, having given up working last year to help look after my disabled Mum. I realised that when (if??) i find work, I will have to completely change my daily routine, and as I tend to think best really late at night (or is that really early in the morning? - it's currently 1.15am), it would mean having to study when I'm NOT at my best.


Book 1 on the course (AA100- The Arts Past & Present) is all about Reputations. Why are some people famous and others not? What makes us remember some people but forget others? So as you've probably gathered, this book is about famous (and some not-so-famous) names from history.


The first chapter in the book is all about Cleopatra. You all know everything about her right? Bathed in asses milk, bitten by an asp, Julius Caesar and Mark Antony... but what about her Greek ancestry, marrying two of her brothers... where does this appear in the films? Well apparently the 'modern' view of Cleopatra was brought to us courtesy of the Romans. I must say I am hooked! Much more interesting than today's so-called celebrities. Now I'm just off to watch all the films so I can answer my first assignment...