signifying nothing

Jag Panzer, Thane to the Throne.

Yep, 1 that actually goes w/ the material, junior-style.

This one is a power-metal concept album of Macbeth.

Really good,especially  if you like '80s-era Maiden.

(Oh, & the story of Macbeth.)

Juniors:
Time to work.

You have 11 questions due tomorrow, > 50 words apiece, including CD & CM.

No quotes necessary, but they (almost) never hurt.

For Monday, you will do the "character analysis" chart, & for that you will need quotations.

Sophomores:
We went over the format for the vocab review that is due tomorrow as well as part II, which will be due Monday.

We went back over the "Once Upon a Time" PowerPoint, & we added in the quotations & responses.

Finally,we read 2 short articles about the poem, & we will read another tomorrow.

be cool

maybe a great band in heaven, or something

I guess 12.8 is not a good day to be a musician.

As you all know, 30 years ago that dude who liked Catcher in the Rye shot John Lennon.

I like this look:


George was my favorite Beatle, but John was probably the most talented, thoughtful, & creative.

All he was saying was give peace a chance.

In other 12.8 news . . .

Many of you may not know that it was on 12.8.84 that "Razzle" Dingley, drummer of Hanoi Rocks, was killed at age 24 in a car crash. Vince Neil from Motley Crue decided that driving drunk was OK, & he was the only one who walked away from the accident.

Sometime soon you will read my little write-up about Hanoi Rocks, but just know they could have been huge. Just consider them Guns N Roses before Guns N Roses: singer Michael Monroe was hands-down the biggest influence on Axl Rose back in the '80s.

Razzle:



& on 12.9.2004, Devin Ablard came into my 1st period class w/ tears in his eyes, said he couldn't believe it about Dime.

In one of the stranger & sadder & scarier things I have heard in my musically-informed years, guitarist Darrell Abbott had been shot the previous night--12.8--while on stage in a club in Columbus.

I had gone to bed early the night before & had not heard anything about this, so I turned on the TV & shed a few tears of my own.

OK, many.

For those who prefer color:


A handful of musicians have really struck a chord (I know, "boooo!") w/ me, & Darrell was one. Dude could flat-out play, & he, while in Pantera, made some of my favorite music ever. At the time of his death he was in Damageplan, but there was always, somewhere in the background, the chance for that reunion.

I guess kind of like Beatles fans had hoped for until 12.8.80.

Anyway, a paranoid schizophrenic who thought the guys from Pantera had stolen "his" songs got up onstage during the 1st song, shot Darrell, a few fans, & a few crew members before a local police officer responded to the call & shot the gunman.

& Vinnie, Darrell's brother, was playing drums in the band, saw his brother murdered.

On stage.

A few days later, a fairly unknown columnist decried the "semi-human barbarians" who mourned Darrell at his service. I kind of think we're all fully human--except maybe people like that guy, filled w/ such hatred & vitriol--even if we like metal music or dye our beards a shade of magenta.

No lesson here, I guess, just memoriam.

RIP John, Razzle, & Dime.

You are missed

Juniors:
Had to leave early, as it was the eldest's time for illness.

So, 1st period got the rundown from me, & the awesome Mrs. Keepers took over for 3rd & 5th.

But . . . you copied 11 questions for "Macbeth Final Prep," due Friday.

Some good ones there, about character, style, theme, even staging.

Have your books w/ you tomorrow, as you will be finding quotations & analyzing them.

Enjoy.


Sophomores:
Unit 6 vocabulary quiz.

"Once Upon a Time," PowerPoint-style.

Gabriel Okara--does a little knowledge of his life change your take on the poem?

How about those specific quotations?

Good stuff all around.

Back at it tomorrow.

Units 4-6 Review part I due Friday!!!

Units 4-6 Review part II due Monday!!!

Let's do this!!!

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California's all right (somebody check my brain)

Alice In Chains, Black Gives Way to Blue.

What a "comeback" album. After one of the great vocalists of the '90s, Layne Staley, died, I figured these guys were done.

& they were, for quite some time.

But they got William Duvall  from Comes With the Fall--another really cool band--& released the exact album they should have.

Depending on the day, Alice is my favorite '90s Seattle band (I usually say "grunge" only when very tired, because to me the bands really sound nothing alike).

So, today's list:

7. Mudhoney
6. Screaming Trees
5. Nirvana
4. Mother Love Bone
3. Soundgarden
2. Pearl Jam
1. Alice In Chains.

FOOTNOTE: #s 1, 2, & 3 create a fluid situ-. . .  scenario.

On this album, the show-stopper is the last song, the title track.

Sadly, outside of a fantastic collection of albums--some metal (Facelift), well, I guess you'd call it "grunge" (Dirt), acoustic (Sap & Jar of Flies) & an all-of-the-above record (Alice In Chains)--this band will also be known as one of those "coulda-beens."

So many great tracks throughout the career, so I feel the need to list a few: "Man in the Box," "Got Me Wrong," "Rooster," "Down in a Hole,"  "No Excuses," " I Stay Away," "Heaven Beside You,"

. . . & about 30 others.

But, like too many bands before them & a few since, they lost an integral member to drugs.

You want a sad, sad story, read about Layne Staley, a truly gifted guy who could never get it together.

Juniors:

Speaking of which, Macbeth could never get it together, & then he lost his head completely.

(BOOOOOOO!!!!!!).

Wow, nothing else to say after that except: bring your copy of Macbeth tomorrow for group-type work.

REMEMBER: the class final is Macbeth-centric & ALHS English Dep't final is CST-style.


Sophomores:

Review of "Ode to My Socks" (I love that one), "Obedience."

The "core" poem, "Once Upon a Time," a meditation on past & present, young & old, pre-cynicism, cynicism, & post-cynicism.

We'll talk more about Okara tomorrow, after you take your unit 6 quiz.

REMEMBER: the class final is vocabulary-centric & ALHS English Dep't final is CST-style.

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Dostoyevsky, Banquo, the ellipsis, & the "But"

Protest the Hero, Fortress.

January 2008: I'm hanging round on a Saturday flipping channels, & I check out Headbanger's Ball, the only metal that ever got played on the music channels.

Several (many) Cookie-monster-vocal-down-tuned chugga-chugga-riffed boring soundalike metal songs pass, & this band comes on.  I see the title "Bloodmeat" & assume it's more of the same.

Uh, no.

I mean, NO!!.

A tad screeamish, w/ some guttural growling, & some serious shred later, I had a new band to check out.

This album came out a few weeks later, so I grabbed Kezia, the debut, & picked up Fortress the day it came out.

Great stuff.

More great stuff: dudes were in high school when they started (as "Happy Go Lucky"--great band name there), began a tour the day they finished their senior finals, were still teenagers when they started releasing albums.

Best yet: in 2004 the bass player, Arif Mirabdolbaghi attended a symposium of the International Dostoyevsky Society in Geneva.

All this, & brains, too.

I like my music loud, obnoxious, angry, & all kinda of punk-metal-progressive-ish (all of these terms have been used to describe Protest), but if it's smart, too? Oh yeah, I am so there.

New album early 2011, also.

Juniors:
We re-did Act III, & i tried to answer questions & point out some very important lines & stuff.

Banquo begins the act, & then [Dies}.

Macbeth's growing paranoia & realization that he is in too deep to get out.

Lady Macbeth's line "Nought's had, all's spent" sums up the situ--- I mean, scenario

Lennox & the Lord scene implies that Malcolm & Macduff seem to be up to something

Act IV complete by MONDAY!!!

Sophomores:
We reviewed the notes & concepts from yesterday, & we went pretty deep into the poem "Moons."

Celestial & poetical.

How many of you had put that much emphasis on the ellipsis?

Do you see now how the "But" is majorly important?

As for vocab: you submitted your synonyms . . . CTS due Monday, quiz next Wednesday.

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strange days, indeed

The Doors, Strange Days

The bands 2nd album & an example, some say, of the sophomore slump. But the problem arose perhaps from the brilliance of the 1st one--how to follow up the self-titled debut?

How about changing the rules?

"Psychedelic" is a word that gets thrown around in discussion of this one, &, yeah, I guess so, but as a dude who listened to the band long after they were done & wasn't alive or cognizant of music while they were around, I enjoy each album for what it is.

& this is good.

Seriously, "When the Music's Over" is a much, much better album-closer than "The End."

& "Moonlight Drive" is the song that got Ray Manzarek to pay attention to Jim Morrison's words.

Yep, Rubel hates these guys, & he has good reasons. & part of the beauty of art in general is the possibility of opinion.

I have always thought of Morrison as the ultimate high school rock-n-roll icon . . . you know, the whole idea of guys want to be like him, girls want to be his lady friend.

Anyway, those of you who pay attention know that I referenced Mr. Mojo Risin' several times as a disciple of T. S. Eliot, & some of the lyrics on this album fit that comparison.

The only "hit" here is probably "People Are Strange," which Echo & the Bunnymen covered for the soundtrack to The Lost Boys, which should have made my top-10 from a few weeks ago

Check 'em all out.

He was The Lizard King; he could do anything.

Well, write some good songs & some  really pretentious ones . . .

Juniors:
You all read through Act III, & I'm sure all was good, & I thank you for that.

It's nice to know that when one of my children or I myself am sick that some of you have the respect to be cool in my absence.

This play gets really interesting now, as the centerpiece of Act II gives us some ramifications of the murder.

Also, it has the one "spurious" scene, #5, in which Hecate shows up to deliver a soliloquy.

Interesting . . .

Sophomores:
You should have:

-- read from the lit book

-- taken notes on "Reading a Poem"

--created a paraphrase chart for "Moons"

--answered the 10 questions for "The Stayer"

I have already heard the reality, &, well, it's kind of sad.

See "respect," above.

Let's do better tomorrow.

Unit 6 synonyms due.

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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

where I been [sic]

Dinosaur Jr, Where You Been

Another of the more underrated bands in my lifetime, these guys did everything right.

This is what people mean when they call Neil Young "The Godfather of Grunge," because J Mascis sounds so much like Mr Young, & his fuzzed-out guitar solos rock like old-school Crazy Horse.

[He may not sound as much like Young as Jimmy Fallon does, though. & if you have not yet seen  Fallon  as a young Young & Springsteen as a young Springsteen doing "Whip My Hair," please check it out now.

Here's the link: http://www.latenightwithjimmyfallon.com/video/neil-young-and-bruce-springsteen-whip-my-hair-111610/1260532/

I'll wait.]

Anyway, besides having a tremendous band name, they made some great music. Check out Bug, Green Mind, & their latest "reunion" album, Farm.

They also had a minor hit w/ the song "Feel the Pain," which also boasted the best MTV-era golf video

But to me, Where You Been is the masterpiece, Highlights: "Out There," "What Else Is New," "Get Me," & "Goin Home."

Also, J has a solo album, Martin & Me--"Martin" meaning the acoustic guitar he plays--& one w/ his band The Fog.

It is all good.

You have my word.

OLD GUY "INTERWEBS-SCARE-ME" ALERT
Where I been (see what I did there?  kinda a reference to the album title?):

Took a little time off, like Lady Gaga & Alicia Keys are planning to do this Wednesday. If you haven't heard about that one, check out the details.  It's interesting.

I'm old enough to remember pre-myspace/facebook/twitter days, when privacy was something we craved, not something we'd give up if someone--anyone!!!--would pay attention.

Speaking of twitter, one of my favorite facepalm moments of the break was Stevie Johnson's tweet asking God why God let him down on that dropped ball at the end of the Bills-Steelers game (he pleaded:"I PRAISE YOU 24/7!!!!!! AND THIS HOW YOU DO ME!!!!!").

Narcissistic, self-involved, & just plain nuts (not to mention religious-like offensive) much?

Also, the fact that folks feel the need to go online to express their hatred for the Boise St. kicker, a guy who is better at his "job" than most of them are at anything, & who made 2 mistakes on TV.

So every once in a while I take a few weeks away from the online stuff, & I try not to do so at a time that would provide negative consequences for you all. You all knew what needed to be done just before & during break, so the posts went away for a while.

I think every once in a while we need to step back from the speed of the day & indulge in down time. I got mine through playing Mr Mom, reading a few books, & finally watching The Walking Dead, which I think I really like.

Oh, & going through a bunch of projects, soundtracks & such.

There are some fantastically creative folks out there, & I'm glad I get the chance to teach you.

I'll "ketchup" w/ the music soon, though.

I need to post about Springsteen's The Promise, Q*Ball's Fortune Favors the Bald, & TV on the Radio's Return to Cookie Mountain.

& I must reference Rubel's burning, passionate hatred for The Doors, but that will come.

Juniors:
Macbeth, quiz(zes) on acts 1 & 2.

You read 'em, you did well . . you didn't, you didn't . . .

Q & A on the poetry notebook, & a few of you turned 'em in.

I repeat: "There are some fantastically creative folks out there, & I'm glad I get the chance to teach you."

(yes, it's in poor taste to quote oneself, but you get the idea.)

Sophomores:
"Poetry," by Marianne Moore.

I think she lied, & she really does like it.

Just a thought, though.

Unit 6 definitions tomorrow.

Unit 6 synonyms Thursday.

Vocabumalaria!

Vocabumania!!

Vocaburama!!!

be cool