Blog post #5 (open post)

I am in a theatre class that requires me to watch the plays that go on at UCF and to then write a paper on the plays. The most recent play I had to see was Hair. Hair is a play that is placed in the 1960s during the Vietnam war era. There are several social issues that revolve around Hair, including war, sex, pollution, drugs, segregation, and civil disobedience. The plot centers around Claude and his group of hippie friends who do drugs, dance and try to find truth. Claude is sent a draft card, and some of his friends are drafted as well. All of Claude's friends burn their draft cards, and they try to get Claude to burn his as well. Claude does not burn his draft card and ends up getting shot and killed in Vietnam. The main subject of my paper was the conflict Claude had internally between the pressure from his friends to be involved with civil disobedience, and the pressure from his parents and society to get a job and go to the army. This conflict and pressure could be seen clearly in the scene where Claude takes LSD and has a trip. During this trip he sees men jumping from a helicopter in Vietnam. He also sees his friends dancing. There was a lot of passion in the show and I can understand why. Being drafted is a life changing, and often life ending event. Also, if I had to be drafted and killed then it had better be for a really good reason, but Vietnam was pointless, which makes this all the more tragic. There was a scene in the play in which the actors were nude. This scene was shocking and overwhelming, but fit the theme of the play. I just so happened to be an usher for this play as well. Every night during the nude scene I had to watch the audience with a flashlight in my hand. My job was to make sure no one was recording or taking pictures. I'm glad to say I had no problems with the audience, but I got to see more than I wanted when watching the show.

Blog post #3

I'm fairly certain that I am allowed to write about anything today as this is an open blog post. Today I'd like to talk some about my family and my childhood. My father is a professor of history, specifically western civilization. My father is also a practicing Rabbi. I was raised in a very strict Jewish household. From my birth until I was 17 years old I did everything that a practicing Jew should do. I went to temple, ate Kosher, prayed, did a blessing over my food and followed Shabbat as well as all the other rules in the Jewish faith. My father didn't become religious until he was in his late 20s or early 30s so he could not understand what it was like to be a teenage boy who wanted to go out on Friday night and Saturday. Anyone that knows about Shabbat knows that religious Jews that observe Shabbat will not go out on Friday night or Saturday. It seemed to me that doing all of these things and observing all of these rules wasn't going to bring me any closer to my creator. Heck who am I kidding, I just wanted to hang out with my friends on Friday and Saturday. Thankfully I went to  public school which is where I first learned about the parties that go on during the weekend. Most young guys my age looked forward to the weekend. I dreaded it. It was like being trapped. Some of the rules of Shabbat include not being able to use ANY electricity (lights, TV, phone etc) you cannot use your car. The only things that I was able to do besides praying was swimming in my pool and playing board games and card games. I learned a lot of moral lessons from the talks my father and I had during Shabbat so it wasn't all bad, but I still think it is unfair that my father would force me to be religious when I didn't understand what it was all about because I was so young. I had a falling out with my father after I broke away from being religious, but now my father and I have a good relationship and he has accepted the fact that I do not wish to be religious. Perhaps when I am his age I will change my mind, but for now I want to live my life to the fullest.