"Mister Tikhonov's Neighborhood" and Behind the Naming

This poem is divided into two parts:

1. A Line-by-line meaning for words or phrases that you may not know.
2. A short context of the meaning and where the name name came from.

A LINE BY LINE MEANING

KEY:
Line Number: Meaning


3: "San Jose State Neighborhood" replicates the scene in a children's series known as Mister Rodgers Neighborhood, of which Samuel Soldofsky acts as the main character. He acts as a host of a fictional television series as he is heavily influenced by Fred Rogers' personality. Unlike episodes in Mister Rodgers Neighborhood, the "make-believe" scene takes place in a fictionalized version of San Jose.

6: Samuel Soldofsky is a fictional character, who hosts the event. He switches his voice to act like the character named Tikhonov Soldofsky in "Make-believe" mode.

8, 9, 11, 12: The characters are mentioned, but Samuel forgot to mention two other characters in the scene. He opts to leave them out because they are minor characters.

14, 15: This line requires a pause between 5 to 10 seconds at the end of line 14 before proceeding to line 15.

17: Maria English is a "make-believe" character that has visited Gilroy, and is a friend of Shamrock.

18: Shamrock Gilroy Miller is a "make-believe" character that knows the streets of both Gilroy and Morgan Hill.

19: "Gavilan" freeway in "make-believe" refers to the present-day U.S. 101 that runs near the Gavilan College area in Gilroy.

29: The line refers to Morgan Hill, San Martin, and Gilroy.

30: This line refers to the annual Gilroy Garlic Festival.

31: Junipero Serra, former Spanish priest.

45: Tenchi in Tokyo: a 1997 anime series that starred Tenchi Muyo, who left his native homeland for the metropolitan area of Tokyo.

46: Rinda McMitchell is a "make-believe" character that specializes in music. She fell in love with the opening theme of Tenchi in Tokyo and wanted to make her own music using the same sounds.

57: "Big chef" in the line refers to Chef Brock Mayo, who "Brock's" name is taken from the influence of Pokemon character named Brock.

72: Pastor Antoni Christian Gallucci is a "make-believe" minor character who gave Tikhonov prayers.

73: Bean Belmonte is a "make-believe" minor character that greeted Tikhonov, who then directs him to Pastor Antoni.

84, 85: Like lines 14 and 15, at the end of line 84, this requires a 10-second pause (for applauses, cheers, etc.) before proceeding to line 85. 

98: "Looks like I'm blasting off again" refers to a common phrase whenever Pokemon characters Jessie, James, and Meowth are defeated as a result of attacks by the protagonists, usually by Pikachu's electric attacks ordered by Ash Ketchum.


THE SHORT CONTEXT OF THE POEM

This sonnet is comprehensive, and I decided to write something on topic that incorporates elements from some of my favorite themes as part of my mission to showcase what I have learned over the course of the semester in writing poetry.

I decided to write a fictional network of sonnet poems that incorporates a bigger set number of lines near 100, but no less than 98. There were a few names that were going through my head, including some American and British poets like William Shakespeare. I've taken a lot of elements from anime and people who I often heard of, as well as the instructors at San Jose State University that have taught me and learning valuable lessons from them.

For instance, when I heard the word "Tikhonov," it usually refers to the article read in the San Jose Mercury News on a Russian hockey player named Viktor Tikhonov, who speaks flawless English and Russian due to the fact that he was raised in Los Gatos. In order to maintain my use of first or last names that I wanted to use, I was forced to think outside the box and come up with other names (either first or last) without actually using the first or last names of actual people. For example, if I want to use "Tikhonov," I cannot use "Viktor" in order to not duplicate the names of real people.

A make-believe sonnet poem does not use actual names of people, but uses a random number of sonnets in multiples of 14 lines that include both the beginning and the end. The minimum number of lines that I usually require is 98, although the number of syllables are optional. Coming up with fictional names was the most difficult part of my written work in the poem. However, I hope that the poem is one of the samples that incorporates the theme of people's favorite theme.