Port Richmond Block Party

Maculate - adj - stained or spotted
Malaprop - N - The nonsensical misuse of a word.
Malapert - adj - unbecomingly bold or saucy.
Dulcet - adj - Pleasant to the ear.
Dunderhead - N - A dunce.
Hootenanny - N - A community's social gathering.
Nexus - N - A means of connection.
Plebian - adj - Of the common people.
Raconteur - N - A person skilled in speech.
Stultify - V - Making to appear foolish or ineffectual.

Port Richmond Block Party

Bibs and shirts lay maticulated with Italian meat sauce
Spaghetti entwined thickly across the plate.
The Polacks hold a hootenanny across the street.
The dulcet sounds of the polka seeps through the asphalt slate.
The old Irish raconteurs tell of VE day with glee.
Talk of bouncing dunderhead Germans
Abounds with every "last" glass of whisky

Crass malapert accents fill the air.
Their words begin to slur and fill with malaprop
This neighborhood nexus has seen no shift
The plebians haven't lost their style.
The blue bloods and suburb kids
See our drunken songs and lazy fights

The acts stultify our lot in life.
It's VE day all over again
Bath Streets gonna howl all night.

Dropkick: Urban Folk

It all started with a group of buddies trying to have some fun. In a friend's downtown Boston barbershop basement during the summer of 1996, the group of seven tried to blend the genres of music the guys had grown up with, including, punk rock, Irish folk, and classic rock. With Al Barr on lead vocals, Ken Casey with lead vocals and bass, Matt Kelly takes the drums, bodhran, and vocals, James Lynch holds down the guitar, Tim Brennanguitar as the accordion, Jeff DaRosamondolin on the banjo, bouzouki, whistle, acoustic guitar, keyboard, and vocals, and finally Scruffy Wallace makes the bagpipes a constant reminder of Dropkick Murphy's celtic roots.

Dropkick Murhpys, more commonly known as Dropkick, can best be described as the folksy Bruce Springsteen... if Brucie toted around a set of bagpipes, sang with a scrappy Southie Boston accent, and could wail on an electric guitar like something out of a Velvet Revolver concert. Many of their songs are simply ancient Irish barsongs with an electric guitar thrown in, such as the timeless classic, "Captain Kelley's Kitchen," which includes the opening line, "Come single guy and gal, unto me pay attention, don't ever fall in love, it's the devil's own invention."

The boys cite the Irish punks, Flogging Molly as their main inspiration. Flogging Molly's songs consist of ancient gaelic traditions, mixed with modern European punk. Dropkick can be seen as an Americanization of Molly's own hybrid genre. The Boys from Boston are really just out there to get the audience to sing along, and generally have a good time. Dropkick sees the band and the audience as one in the same. In addition to bringing some more fun to the world the group hopes to share their experiences and beliefs in working class solidarity, friendship, loyalty and self-improvement as a means to bettering society. The guys are very careful not to be too preachy as they state, "You can preach till you’re blue in the face but if you’re lying inthe gutter no one’s gonna listen. If you pick yourself up by the bootstraps and live your life to the best of your ability you may set an example that others will follow."

The blue collar boys with their working class roots definitley bring energy into the room with every howling, off-key chorus. Their blue-collar message also permeates through every story of youthful fist-fights in the streets as, "The nuns and priests they grabbed their rosaries as they pulled our bodies apart. That day at school you may have lost the fight but you gained my respect. You fight with so much heart." and working-class family dynamics with, "Daddy lay drunk on the lawn, yelling and screamin' like he do, but sometimes my old man he spoke with his feelings, sometimes my old Mr. MacKay he spoke the truth." Work hard and scream your lungs out every time you get a chance to have some fun.
www.youtube.com/watch?v=s51Vn4tjS0U

The Dirty Good (A Willie Stark Monologue)

The Crusades, the Inquisition, the Salem Witch Trials;
All evil deeds done in the name of good.
As a lay dying, their story and my own are one.

I began the stupid country bumpkin.
I got nothing done for nobody,
but I made it big alright.
All those high-class sons of bitches are licking my boots now.
They'll start making a line soon enough.
I was the Boss.

I swear I stepped on as few toes as possible.
Those girls were just accidents.
I didn't blackmail anyone who didn't deserve it.
Who says the judge shouldn't have payed for his own sins.
The lead in my chest says everyones gotta pay sometime.
It coulda all been different for him too after all.

A mother raises the children.
My boy is a good boy, but he needs a mother.
Lucy shoulda tempered him.
Shoulda said when I was doin wrong.
They didn't understand what the evil was for.

I got the doctor with me.
He's a piece of good.
If someone that high on his horse follows
There's gotta be good in my work.
They can't see.
It's all part of the plan.

And Sadie... Gawd almight Sadie learn how the game is played.

The girl couldn't keep her damned head on straight.

The girl couldn't see I was married for God's sakes.

The girl couldn't see how little she mattered.

Sugar Boy and Duffy... animals.

Animals on my leash.

While they're just a bunch of dogs,

Even animals have their uses.

Sugar is just a human gun,

and Tiny is a lil' lapdog.

But Jack... oh God I'm sorry Jack

He's the one I wish I coulda saved from all this.

Jack's a good boy.

Jack shouldn't be in this mess.

It shoulda all been different with Jack.

Found Poem

He sits back and looks in that easy sizing up way,
The pale-blue, cool-crisp linen dress approaches
His eyes begin bulging, stare grappling, trying to look away
She continues, the good, clean, well-washed, good-little-girl ready for a party
The neon sign pulsates rapidly with the beating of his heart
The skirt flutters sprightly on the tennis court
Before he hadn't wanted anything, but the hum of the motor, and the lull of the truck.
She traveled to the land of the flat-footed, billious, frog-sticker-toting Baptist biscuit eaters.
He'd roar down the long, bone-white road, straight as string and smooth as glass.
Before he hadn't wanted anything

Your will, wearing a pale-blue, cool-crisp linen dress, is my strength.

An Unfortunate System

How quickly politicians dole out promises
Hiding behind false smiles; webs of deceit
Our nation has no choice but to repeat
A cycle of fooling the simple novices

Out of capital shadow our hope must emerge
A new face of common sense and purity;
Amidst our dire times a sincere rarity
To lead on a nation's redeeming surge

Long Day's Journey into Night Mini-Research

Long Day's Journey into Night
Sean Quinn
A-6
9-22-08
Tyrone and Jamie constantly wage war against one another throughout O'Neill's work "Long Day's Journey into Night." Arguments rage on, but no closure can ever be found, mirroring the inconclusive relationships prevalent throughout the entire Tyrone family. O'Neill's theme of communication breakdown is especially apparent when considering the connection between James, the failed father, and Jamie, the son who knows nothing other than how to fail.

In the play's opening, Mary enters the room, asking what the two are fighting about, to which Jamie replies, "same old stuff." The duo's rants do seem cyclical as they only dance around Mary's morphine addiction and only speak of how good it is to have her, "back to her old self." Because no one's minds can ever be changed about who is at fault for a family member's shortcomings, the two simply butt heads about the same issues throughout the work with the same results. Jamie doesn't leave home and can never become a true self-supporting man while James finds himself unable to be a parent, as his two boys are at least physically matured. Jamie can never become a man, and James can never become a parent, leaving the two unable to finish a fight. Meanwhile the two are unable to finish a fight precisely because Jamie can never become a man, and James a parent.

No progress is ever made through their arguments because the very essence of their conflict has been thrown off of its axis. The inherent conservative father - progressive son was never allowed to take place because Tyrone was never any type of father. Tyrone is a sell-out actor as Jamie is a very poor, lazy one. James promises Jamie that he has potential, which the latter does not pursue with any real conviction. Jamie can not take the theatre seriously because his father-figure has taken the one art form which he holds sacred, and auctioned its reputation away to the highest-paying role. James' actions led to Mary's addiction as he shipped her off to a cheaper sanitarium, leaving Jamie without a rock to reach to for shelter. Because James had no real values of his own to try to instill into his son, Jamie had to stable ground to rebel against. He cannot leave his parents because he has yet to find a reason to rebel, only to complain. Jamie cannot stick to any guns of his own because Tyrone has yet to fire a shot. James is at a loss for paternal advice, and thus his child cannot reach for independence because nothing is being placed before him with any sincerity. Now that Jamie is a young man, Tyrone either cannot or refuses to attempt any fatherly actions.

It is precisely because Jamie is a young man that he should be leaving. Jamie knows enough of the outside world to realize how to avoid his father's failures. Although Tyrone never gave Jamie an example to follow, he certainly showed him how not to live. Due to of these gems of ineptitude, Jamie should be able to put together his own understanding of the world and go out on his own. It is because Jamie's father was a failure that he should not be. Therefore, Jamie can also be accused of simply using his father's poor example as an excuse to be dependent on his parent, even as he reaches adulthood. The lack of progress between the two serves to illustrate O'Neill's opinion on how a failed father and an emotionally weak son can lead to a failed relationship.






Ranald, Margaret "Character Analysis." Oneill Study Companion copyright 1999-2008 by eOneill. author can also be found on
O'Neill, "Long Day's Journey into Night" Yale Nota Bene, 2002.






Identify a conflict within the play that reveals a thematic idea within Long Days Journey Into Night? Person - vs - Person, Son - vs - Parent, Person - vs - society, Person - vs - Self, and Person - vs - Fate.