this, too, shall pass

Because, as George Harrison said, All Things Must Pass:



My favorite Beatle, mostly because John & Paul are a tad over-revered (no pun w/ "Paul" & "revere" initially intended), & Ringo, well, he's kind of Ringo-ish.

Yeah, he stole the melody for "My Sweet Lord," but musical plagiarism is much different from literary, in my (humble) opinion.

(Malcolm Gladwell has a really interesting piece on plagiarism--from the perspective of the plagiarized, actually--in his What the Dog Saw, which I highly recommend).

Anyway, when it comes to The Beatles, some of my favorites were George songs, especially "Something," "It's All Too Much," "Within You Without You" & his best, "While My Guitar Gently Weeps."

(Yeah, Clapton's Leslie-rotating-speaker-aided solo is probably the best part of it, but the song is phenomenal.)

This solo album has a great title, excellent cover art, & a few classics.

Along with "My Sweet Lord," check out "Wah-Wah," "What Is Life," & "Behind That Locked Door."

& if you really get into the George stuff, his collaboration w/ Roy Orbison, Bob Dylan, Tom Petty, & Jeff Lynne as The Traveling Wilburys rocks the folk, too.

Juniors:
Turn-in-your-notebook day.

Wow, I need a new name for these, because "notebook" just ain't enough.

I thank all of you for the time & effort you put into your creations, & among many, many creatively tremendous submissions, the toilet paper roll (you read that right), facebook page, collection of individual envelopes, & just some durn fine writing make it all worth the proverbial while.

Several "veteran" seniors who stopped by good ol' 57 today spent several moments reading through your work & admiring the creativity.

Quite simply, you rock.

Thanks also to those who read & performed today.

Yep, there was a ukulele & a tambourine involved.

Back to Macbeth tomorrow, for the pivotal 3rd act.

Sophomores:
All that "vocabumalriamaniarama" English-jargon stuff has been completed, & now we can focus on reading & writing some poetry using the academic vocabulary we have built.

Today you were asked to write a minimum-5-line, minimum-27 word "metaphor" poem as well as a rhyming poem of at least 8 lines & at least 50 words.

REMEMBER: you control all that which is not mandated, which is most of it.

You get full credit for following the directions as they are.

& you saw some super-fantastic examples form the junior classes.

Your notebooks will be due NO EARLIER THAN WEDNESDAY 8 DECEMBER.

Probably Thursday.

be cool