Frank Zappa

When I first began reading Dombey and Son, I expected it to focus heavily on the business world in Victorian England and the lives of Mr. Dombey and his son, Paul, throughout the novel. I assumed the novel would delve deeply into the lives of men during this period and not touch much on women. What I found instead was a novel that portrays several personalities of women and how they can make powerful changes on the men in the novel. Two of the most unusual and interesting women we discussed from the novel were Edith Granger and Alice Marwood. Both women are beautiful and proud to the point where it becomes difficult to even distinguish the two from one another. The only obvious difference to be seen is that they both come from different social classes. I believe that both Alice and Edith are victims of their scheming mothers and domineering men in order to show that both classes can suffer in equal terms, however, I think both women are not as damaged as they believed since there are still signs of love in their hearts for the people who love them in return. In class, we discussed the striking similarities between Edith and Alice. We talked about how both women feel like they have suffered under the control of their mothers in order to social climb. We even mentioned how they are described as looking similar in appearance, both from their beauty and their pride. Even in the novel, Edith notices “And yet, however far removed she was in dress, in dignity, in beauty, Edith…

Developer Total Monkery has released their new ID@Xbox title, MagNets: Fully Charged, which is an overhauled port of the original game that came out on Steam last year. I never got a chance to play the original myself, nor have I indulged in any arcade-style collectathon games in quite a long time, so I was hoping this would be an interesting change of pace for me. Sadly, this wouldn’t be all that interesting of an experience for me. MagNets is a pretty simple game in both its gameplay and…

The concert that I will be critiquing is the late Amy Winehouse, Live at Shepherds Bush Empire in London, England. On May 29th 2007, solo artist, Amy Winehouse performed along with her backing band, a soul group called The Dap-Kings. I chose to view this concert because Amy is my all-time favorite jazz/ soul singer. Amy performed songs from her masterpiece album "Back To Black" and a few songs from her debut album, "Frank". The Dap-Kings, male only band, consists of Dale Davis on the bass, Zalon…

Alfred the Great, the famous Saxon King during the late 800s is the main character in G.K. Chesterton’s The Ballad of the White Horse. History tells us that Alfred is the one responsible for protecting England’s Christian religion from Danish pagans in England. Alfred lost much of his authoritative power as a result of the successful attacks from Danish tribes. Reacting quickly, Alfred constructs an army by asking three of his closest friends, better known as chiefs, to each assemble an…

Charlemagne reformed Europe for the better. He was a real force in the European empire; his people idolized him during his reign. He really innovated the empire. Charlemagne united the Germanic tribes because he forced them to convert to Christian (R) (P), he had a good relationship with foreign dignitaries (P). Finally, he created a one rule set.(P) (S) Charlemagne forced the Avars to accept Baptism. For example the document shows,”Charlemagne's armies would force the Avars to accept…

Charlemagne is considered as “the father of Europe.” During the years that Charlemagne ruled, he made many contributions for the future of medieval Europe. “Charlemagne was a determined and decisive man, intelligent and inquisitive. A fierce warrior, he was also a wise patron of learning and a resolute statesman.” (Spielvogel 215). Although Charlemagne corrupted the system of government to where we would maintain power, Charlemagne made many contributions for the success of medieval Europe. The…

After he would conquer a region, he would require the defeated Saxons to convert to Christianity, and be baptised. When the war finally ended, the terms Charlemagne laid out for and accepted by the Saxons included, “...namely that they would reject the worship of demons, abandon their ancestral [pagan] rites, take up the Christian faith and the sacraments of religion, and unite with the Franks in order to form a single…

Joan of Arc A simple, small farm girl made a great difference when possibly saving the French from the English command. She is an inspiration who would lead the French to many victories. This inspiration is knows as Joan of Arc. Joan of Arc a girl living in a small town had enormous dreams of forever fighting for her country. Joan wanted to show to the world that even if you didn’t know how to read, write, and have no background with the military you can still be able to do amazing things. Joan…

Charles Martel was born on August 23, 686 AD, Herstal, Belgium. He was a merciless warlike ruler who went by as Charles the Hammer. He got his nickname from his victory at Poitiers in 732. Charles was Mayor of the Palace of the kingdom of the Franks. Some facts about him: He rewarded his followers, but crushed his opponents. He gifted his followers by providing land from defeated opponents and from the church. He was considered a generous donator to monasteries, but he greatly doubted bishops…

Charlemagne’s reign is a key piece of medieval history that shows how he founded the Holy Roman Empire and changed many key aspects in Medieval Europe such as cultural and political reforms. In the preface for Life of Charlemagne, written by his administrator and long-time friend Einhard, Einhard gives several reasons for writing this biography. The questions posed is what are the reasons for writing this detailed biography? What do they say about Einhard’s sense of himself, and the time he…