Bluffing: Can't Read My... [Period 5, Wed]

[doubleohblonde]

The Danger Shop was set up to look like an empty hall today, with Bond leaning againt a handy wall.

"Welcome back," he said. "I trust you all had a refreshing holiday. Now in honour of this upcoming weekend, today's exercise involves a practical application of the skills you've been honing throughout the semester."

"Now, up until relatively recently, one of the main opportunities for young men and women to socialise, and to have any degree of 'acceptable' physical contact and private conversation, was at dances, but even then they had to avoid the air of scandal. So in that spirit, you're going to pair off and spend the class engaged in dancing, something like a nice waltz, and conversation. However, by conversation I mean attempt to ruin your partner's composure while retaining your own. I will be playing the part of nosy chaperone, on the lookout for anyone engaged in indecorous behaviour."

[Class Roster]

Current Affairs [Thursday, October 24, 2013]

[professor-lyman.livejournal.com]

"So while the rest of you were off in Italy, the Tea Party wingnuts of the Republican Party decided not to tank our nation's credit rating and thrust the entire planet into an economic downward spiral the likes of which would make economists wet themselves," Josh said. "Naturally, being the mature and reasonable crowd that we've grown to love over the last semester, the rational part of the Republican Party--all three of them--would like a cookie for not screwing all of us and the Tea Party is still sulking about how they didn't get their way."

Josh leaned back against his desk. "Right, so my question today is: will voters remember this in a year? Will they vote these chuckleheads out of office despite the ridiculous gerrymandering, the general apathy about non-presidential elections and the current attention span of 140 characters or less? I've been in politics a long, long time and the poll numbers for Congress and the Republican Party are as low as have ever existed. Do you think people will stop caring by the next voting cycle? And if so: WHY? WHYYYYYY?"

Sorry. Josh got loud there at the end.

Live Entertainment Appreciation, Thursday Period 5

[furnaceface]

Today when the students met on the Causeway, Jono was actually dressed in fairly normal clothing, compared to his usual long jacket and army boots garb. He was wearing a turtleneck sweater and some jeans, actually looking quite at home in his own skin today. He was even smiling a little.

"Today," he said, nodding at the group assembled, "we're going to an artsy coffee shop, one more established than The Perk here on the island. We're going to sit down, take in the ambiance, drink some manner of hot or cold ridiculously overpriced beverage, and appreciate whatever entertainment they happen to have up on their stage. We're most likely to witness some manner of acoustic music, or perhaps some spoken word poetry. Your expectations as a live audience here are going to be somewhat more relaxed than they were, say, at the opera. You can sit and listen, or simply treat the entertainment as a sort of ambient sound, a mood-setter while you relax with a coffee and visit with friends. Not all environments require your rapt attention, though in places like this, occasionally you'll sit down and witness a rare talent that demands it all the same."

He waved the students through a portal into a coffee shop that resembled the Perk, with booths and tables and art made of coffee beans hanging on wooden walls, where a band was just packing up and leaving the stage off in the corner of the room. As students ordered beverages or found a place to settle, a man took the stage, getting himself settled, and he started to speak. It wasn't music, no, but there was a sort of lyrical quality and truth to his words that had many of the coffee shop patrons turning their attention toward him.

"When I was a kid," he began, "I used to think pork chops and karate chops were the same thing…"

[OOC: Open!]