"wild & unwise, I wanna be mesmerizing too"

Liz Phair, Exile in Guyville


Allegedly  track-by-track response to the classic Stones album Exile on Main Street, this one turned more than a few of the proverbial heads back in 1993.


She was young, attractive, played guitar, & wrote some intimate (& sometimes R-rated) lyrics.


She was one of the original riot grrrls.


& then she sold out to sell records & kinda disappeared.


In 1994 a few grad-school pals & I read our papers at various Ohio college conferences. I had written a take on the post-colonial implications of  Rage Against the Machine, my buddy Brian had a cool paper about John Edgar Wideman's Philadelphia Fire, & Aubrey deconstructed the then-nascent  mainstreaming of tattooing.


Good times.


Anyway, a guy we met at the get-together of a Bowling Green pop-culture conference had a paper on Exile & the Stones connection, but he had to read at 08:00. 


I promised I'd be there because I loved this album.


I slept in & missed it, but I heard it was cool.


(Lyrics in the post title from the track "Mesmerizing.")


Juniors:


Just a few of the topics we touched on  today:


Irish & English historical background,
pamphleteers,
indentured servitude, 
Catholics & Protestants (PLEASE, not "Catholics" & "Christians"--Catholics are Christians . . . ),
Buddhism,
Confucianism,
Taoism,
Hinduism,
Judaism,
Islam,
faith & the lack thereof, 
imps,
cherubs,
hegemonies,
family reunions,
(esp. w/ mixed faiths & ethnicities), 
satire & its devices, 
verbal irony, 
Martin Luther, 
Matt & Trey,
Eric Cartman & Archie Bunker, 
"make the reader laugh at or feel disgust for,"
essay format,
the IRA,
the NRA (well,  I meant IRA& misspoke the 1st time),
European & Asian,
"Hate is a Waste of Time,"
ethos,
pathos,
logos,
D'Artagnan




Sophomores:


Vocabulary, unit 2 quiz.


Period 4 did much better, & period 6 will be graded tomorrow; I hope you all did much better, also.


I'm sure you did.


"The Bet" writing handout: theme & how to write about it. Many student-constructed ideas, some of which are pretty good.


1st draft next Wednesday . . .OR 1.5 Monday . . . unit 3 definitions Tuesday . . . & tomorrow it is


FORWARD!!!


& be cool

it all sounds good in Cockney slang

The Streets, A Grand Don't Come For Free.

Backstory: in the summer of 2005, Aodhan was preparing for his 1st soccer season, & the Challenger folks came over to run some camps.

We signed him up, he had a blast, & we got to be friends w/ Matt & Stephanie, his 2 coaches.

Who, by the way, got married just a few weeks ago.

Anyway . . . .

I was playing Matt some crazy American non-mainstream music, & he asked if I was into The Streets, of whom, of course, I had never heard.

I ordered A Grand & Original Pirate Material


& thanked my man for days.

Great beat-heavy emotional cockney-rap.

Check it out, but it's got some of those "bad words," so be careful.

Oh, & we spent the 4th of July w/ these Brits, introducing them to s'mores (people in their 20s had never had s'mores . . . tragic.

& after we checked out some fireworks, I looked at them & said,

"HA! we won!!!"

Juniors:

"A Modest Quiz" & Matt Mortensen's analysis of the "Proposal."

You summarized the argument in terms of its intro, body, & ooutro.

You may have earned a few extra points by adding some CMs to those CDs.

We discussed a bit of Swift's style & presentation.

& REMEMBER: SWIFT IS NOT THE NARRATOR.

He created this amoral persona, but he did not embody it



Sophomores:

Unit 2 completing sentences & other vocab review.

QUIZ TOMORROW!!!

"The Bet" theme ideas, presented by people just like you.

Except you can write 'em better.

QUIZ TOMORROW!!!

We'll get to writing over the next few days, & this literary-analysis paper will be your 1st official out-of-class writing, though much of the work will be done between the bells in 57.

Forward Friday, it's  a-coming

oh, &

QUIZ TOMORROW!!!

be cool

relish: minimum day

The Cranberries, No Need to Argue

We got really Irish today, with Dolores O'Riordan's brogue all over some great songs like "Ode to My Family" & "Zombie."

SIDE NOTE: I'm certainly not the 1st to have thought of it, but about a year before this album was released, I had the idea of taking my couch out in nature & photographing my buddies & just sitting sitting, w/ bags of chips or soda or whatever, all over the place.

We lived on a golf course, so maybe couch on the 10th green.

We'd take it to the "beach" at Lake Erie, out in the woods, in the middle of a road, all kinds of stuff.

We never did it, the Cranberries did, & that is that. (Yes, the inside-artwork of this album has that couch up there, w/ them on it, in various places. Oh well.)

PROGRESS-REPORT NIGHT NOTE:
I had the chance to talk to about 35 parents last night, & it was a good experience.

As a younger man I used to dread these nights, but I now look forward to putting faces to names of e-mail correspondents & getting to chat w/ folks I may never otherwise meet.

The air, of course, did not work, so my table-buddy Mrs. Marshall & I decided to move ours across the gym to where the outlets are & plug in our fans.

So, I merely sweated "a lot" instead of "profusely."

I also got free Nature's Valley granola bars, so it was well worth it.

The parents & guardians who came had a lot to say about you & I had a lot to say about the class. I gave them all my contact info, & I gave some of you a (last) chance to make up one of these early assignments.

I communicate as well as I can through this blog, the teacherweb site, & even my whiteboard.

Your parents & guardians communicate through you & w/ you, & via e-mail to me.

& I have an idea.

TEACHABLE, MAYHAPS HUGGABLE MOMENT ALERT(or, "BE CARE-FUL"):
We who teach here have given up possibilities of much more money & other things because we care.

We take our pride, push it away, & come to the place where we  may not be considered "cool" by the residents . . . because we care.

You all must have noticed that Beeley, Rubel, Talbot, & many others on our staff are among the smartest & nicest people you will ever meet (well, Rubel ain't "nice," but you know what I mean).

You probably also know that your parents & guardians are smart people who care about you, too.

So, when a whole bunch of adults get together & be "smart" & truly care about kids, those kids get a real chance to better themselves.

You have that chance. As a father I care so much about my kids that no one can ever give me the words to express that feeling.

But I can see that "care" in the eyes of the folks who come on ProgressReportBacktoSchoolWhateverIt'sCalled Night.

We are here for you, & you just have to bet there for yourselves.

Now, wipe away those tears & think literature:

Juniors:

"A Modest Proposal."

One student said something like, "how can I annotate; I just keep writing 'ewwww'"

You are supposed to say "EWWW!!!"

Swift wanted his readers to be angry at the "landlords," the rest of the British, themselves.

Swift did NOT (repeat: he did NOT) want to see kids die; he wanted to prevent it.

This is perhaps the most bitter of all satires, maybe the most brilliant.


Sophomores:

Unit 2 completing sentences, in preparation for Thursday's quiz.

That is, THURSDAY'S VOCABULARY QUIZ.

(Yep, using that font-size button a lot today).

We looked back at the lawyer's "farewell" letter, & it was good. Does he really hate all that stuff? It may be up to you  to decide.

Think: "theme."

& be cool

mustard: because I am sick of ketchup, though somewhat almost-ironically this album cover is bright red

Van Halen, Diver Down.

Wow, here we go . . .

I grew up in Ohio, so I had no idea what the "diver down" flag meant until my boys from VH brought it to my attention.

1982, the "(Oh) Pretty Woman" video causes a stir & is banned from MTV. & wow again, how tame that seems now.

This was a few years before Van Halen overtook the world with "Jump" & then somehow managed to get a really cool hard-rocking singer & mellow out into a top-40 band, but we'll get into that later.

As Diamond Dave himself said of this album, it's impossible to listen without moving your feet.

Cover-heavy, this one also has a great version of the strangely-punctuated Kinks song "Where Have All the Good Times Gone!" (yep, that's an exclamation point, not a question mark) as well as the ultimate take on the classic "Dancing in the Streets."

Juniors:

You have finished up the Part with the Big People

Some of You are Sick of the Capitalization, Which seems Random but is in Fact related to the Adjectives & Nouns.

Glumdalclitch is the only sympathetic character this far, he maintains.

We focus on the idea of perspective, one of the most important things in this life.

At some level, everything is about the place from which you experience it.

Time for a 1/2-time break from Lemuel & the rest, but we'll get back at it for Thursday


Sophomores:

"The Bet."

I bet.

You bet.

We bet.

2 millions, he says, for 15 years.

& then he doesn't even take it.

We'll write about this later.

be cool

ketchup 5: "forward," he says

WARNING: today's entry is metal-heavy, & those who have no interest in death bats & guitar solos should move along, Thank you.

Avenged Sevenfold, Nightmare.

My kids absolutely love this one.

I know, the "early" fans don't like the new direction, but many of my favorite bands have altered their styles, maybe even re-imagined themselves either for love or for money--well, probably both--& many have become more interesting.

Some examples (& I know that this list is nowhere near exhaustive, so please don't complain, but feel free to add in the comments below; also, yes, some bands made their "changes in over the course of 2 "decades," like GnR Appetite from '87 & Illusions from '91).

 Just in & a tad before my lifetime:

'60s: The Beatles &, eventually, The Stones

'70s: Kiss, Black Sabbath, Led Zeppelin

'80s: Van Halen, Def Leppard,  Iron Maiden

'90s: Guns N Roses, Skid Row, Metallica

'00s The Killers, Trivium, Lamb of God

Wow, I'm gonna go listen to about 20 bands now.

Anyway . . .

I'll take Nightmare for the win. I got into these guys only because I read so much about them after The Rev's death & Mike Portnoy's subsequent arrival. I was checking out the Guitar World cover interview with "Synyster Gates" & "Zacky Vengeance" (man, I'd have thought those names were sooooo cool about 25 years ago) & something just clicked. I grabbed an itunes card, bought it (yeah, I'm old, & I buy stuff), & it's been in the player ever since.

Really nice heavy melodic "big rock," with sweet harmony guitars. A7X have now entered my list of favorite metal-ish bands of the 1st decade of the 20th century.

The list:

1. Lamb of God--just the best. Period. Chris Adler the greatest of metal drummers, maybe ever.
2. Mastodon--more "prog," but awesome
3. Trivium--Shogun is amazing
4. Shadows Fall--modern Iron Maiden-esque, now with growls
5. Avenged Sevenfold--yep, with trumpets, cellos, & whistles, too
6. Dethklok--not really people, but really cool. Brendon Small's talent-level annoys me to no end.


SIDE NOTE (I promise stuff about class soon): I just cannot get into the lack of a jewel case & cover art. I spent about 2 weeks going back & forth to my computer looking for song title, quite annoyed when sitting in my car, so I finally printed out a list to carry with me.

I don't like saying I like "#4" instead of "Buried Alive."


TEACHABLE-MOMENT LESSONS CULLED FROM ALL THE ABOVE:
If you want to change, to better yourself, do it.

A true friend or fan stays with you, but he or she does not necessarily have to agree with all you do or say.

People with weird names can be pretty cool. Finbar agrees with this one.

Nothing in this world is better than the power of music. Well, maybe literature & other written words. Any kind of art, OK?


Juniors:

FORWARD!!!
Your 1st taste of In-N-Out log-central went pretty well.

We looked at 2 reading passages, & most of you answered the majority of the 7 questions correctly.

Several of you got all 7.

I got to use my new/old overhead projector. Until next week, keep moving forward.

Sophomores:

FOUR WORDS!!

(See what I did there? Pretty clever, eh?)

Really, 20,000 Leagues it was.

We read this literary passage from one of my favorite early-reader books; we had one of those"classics-made-simple" versions with pictures on every other page, & I thought the narwhal was way cool.

I thank Ms. Beeley for the cool assignment sheet, on which you wrote the correct answer & also noted any "obviously incorrect" possibilities, as well as any "Prove Its," & it was cool.

Nice job all around.

be cool

ketchup 4: wherein the author mentions swing, candy, voodoo, really big folks, & a bet

Squirrel Nut Zippers, Perennial Favorites

Honestly, when I heard of these folks many, many years ago, I thought they had a cool, creative, kinda dumb name.

Then, Thursday Rubel told me about the candy, w/ a funny story involving his family.

But I cannot STAND when teachers talk about their families, so I won't go into detail here.

Anyway, have you had any of these?


Kinda like Bit o' Honeys, from what my lovely-&-amazing wife says.

I must have had them at some time & forgotten.

Oh well, the band is quite cool, in a Cherry Poppin' Daddies & Big Bad Voodoo Daddy way.

(I prefer the last, both musically & moniker-style.)

BONUS TANGENT: (sorry, no points)

Speaking of "voodoo," the family's favorite Arena Football team returns next year, & it had many cool things:

1. purple & black unis, including purple helmets
2. the city of New Orleans
3. mayhaps the coolest sports logo ever:


GO VOODOO!!!!

(please note, my 2nd-favorite is the Philadelphia Soul, Aodhan & Linda love the San Jose SabreCats, & Finbar & Cedric preferred the now-defunct Los Angeles Avengers, for whom we had season tickets.)

(Note 2: yes, I am nerdy enough to own both Arena Football video games, & if you want to see some "interesting" uniforms, look up the also-defunct New Orleans Night; 1 word: Zubaz.)

Juniors:

Brobdingnag (or, "Brobdingrag," I guess) quiz, & if you read, you knew all about Glumdalclitch & the dwarf.

On this, the 15th time I have read this book, I am digging it as much as the 1st time.

I know it's tough to get into it, but it's all worth it, & I hope you keep up.

I say "Glum" is the most sympathetic character thus far (& mayhaps throughout the entire novel).

& the dwarf & monkey simply crack me up.

A semi-positive Swift quote also led to some cool ideas:

"May you live every day of your life."

Seriously, keep that one in mind.


Sophomores:

Note the vocab word in the album title?

Yeah, we actually use these words sometimes . . .

"The Bet" speed-quiz.

Every once in a while I have a pretty good teacherly idea. We read about 1/2 the story Wednesday, & we annotated that part, & you should have finished Wednesday night. The open-note speed-quiz checked your reading, & if you had done the work, you did quite well.

The rest of the "quiz" involved your thought about the issues presented within.

& now, think: who actually did win? How do we define "winning," here?

Think about those, &

be cool