he has 2 1st names, or, mayhaps, 2 surnames . . .

Stanley Jordan, Flying Home

This probably ain't in the top 10 of '80s instrumental guitar albums (you'll get those 10 later, I would think), but it's pretty good.

Worth it for the cover of "Stairway to Heaven"--which, let us all admit, takes a lot of guts--most of the album sounds like a soundtrack to a John Hughes movie.

Some great guitar, a lot of drum machine, & too much synth.

Dude is a crazy-great two-hand tapper, & he shows some of that here . . . but not enough.

So, take that for what it's worth.

Juniors:

Part 3 resonated w/ many of you, & that makes me happy.

It's challenging, it's eclectic (not "random," but, OK), it's durn funny, it's the best of the 4 to these eyes.

You had a chance to begin Part 4, "A Voyage to the Land of the Houfufhfhudbdfhhfnfnnfnms."

Or something like that . . .

(cue the '50s matinee machine)

TALKING HORSES!!

LOGIC v EMOTION!!!

ID v SUPEREGO!!!

STAY TUNED!!!


Sophomores:

We went over the "The Bet" theme essay again, & almost 1/2 of you completed the assignment that had been explained via teacher, TV-through-AVER key, & handout.

You were shown all the remaining details of the assignment, including due dates & point totals.

REMEMBER: you get many points for the preparation, & the remaining points for the final product.

If you pay attention to the directions, do all that is assigned, & proofread, you cannot earn less than a C.

So . . . let's do this!!!

You had your definitions returned, & you will submit synonyms tomorrow.

THURSDAY: unit 3 synonyms
FRIDAY: FORWARD!!!!
next MONDAY: OR 1.6
next TUESDAY: FINAL ESSAY, w/ all preliminaries
next WEDNESDAY: unit 3 completing sentences
next THURSDAY: unit 3 QUIZ!!!

be cool . . .

just cuz you're paranoid, it doesn't mean they aren't out to get you

Rob Lamothe, Above the Wing Is Heaven

This dude was in a one-near-hit-wonder band called Riverdogs many, many years ago. (Check out "Toy Soldier," which was that near-hit, but there are some really good songs on their self-titled album, including "Baby Blue" & "Big House.")

I bought their album because Viv Campbell was on guitar. (For those who care, he had been Dio's wunderkind prior, & later he joined & remains with Def Leppard. He has not played on any good Leppard records--just the we-need-more-12-year-old-girls-to-listen albums, but he has monster chops & is a darn good vocalist, too.)

Anyway, I checked out some youtube clips of Lamothe's solo stuff--mainly melodic mellow acoustic pop--& saw that this album had a cover of paranoid.

So I bought it (yep--bought it) that day.

& yes, that was a slow acoustic take on the Sabbath classic "Paranoid."

Highly recommended.

Juniors:
Swift & more Swift.

Today you re-opened the books & chose a passage that struck you in some way.

Really good stuff, as usual: the kings of Brobdingnag & Luggnagg, history &  politics all around, a tad of scatological humor, & jsut some darn good writing.

Bring in your "A Voyage to Laputa, etc." notes tomorrow, & read up through Part 4, chapter 3 by Thursday.


Sophomores:
A whole lot of notes on the TV.

Formal writing

(NO 1st or 2nd, NO contractions, YES to literary present & MLA formats)

The OWL, at Purdue

Incorporating quotations

Weaving said quotations

Argument

A "debatable" thesis

Collected the unit 3 definitions, & tomorrow you will submit your 1st drafts of writings about "The Bet."

I'm expecting good stuff, so let's do this.

be cool . . .

dare I say, "forward"? yes, I dare

Quarashi, Jinx


1st heard of these guys on Madden 2003.

Yep, it was a hip-hop/techno/funk/rock contingent from . . .

(wait for it)


(waiting for it)


(keep waiting for it, just a little more . . . )


(ANSWER DELETED)


Yup, that's where they were from.

Surprising, huh?

[NOTE: See the bottom of this post for the answer, should you still care.]

This is a really fun party-type album, but please note that parental advisory. Found it at Amoeba (my take on the true "happiest place on earth") for $2.95, & it's well worth it.

Oh, & some day you simply must ask me to see Cedric's "Baseline" dance . . . which is doubly cool, because Cedric is awesome & can bust a groove, & ALHS is located  on Baseline Rd.

Way, way cool.

Juniors:

FORWARD!!! You answered 7 questions, & your score will be tallied along w/ last week's participation points to make us all happy, grade-style. Most of you got 5, 6, or 7; a few did less well, & we'll chat about that.

Also, we drew lines in the proverbial sand, even though Sebastian says they do not exist in the realm of sarcasm.

Somebody said, "it's all or nothing."

Maybe.

Maybe not.

As a dad, I have to deal w/ these issues daily.

Well, as a teacher I guess I must, also. Every year someone gets offended by Swift.

But we still read him, because anyone who calls him- or herself an "honors" student must read certain writers, like Dickens, Lee, Joyce, Steinbeck, Swift, Morrison, Salinger, Shakespeare, Tan,  Eliot, & about 100 others, plus-or-minus 100 more.

& David Foster Wallace, the greatest of the great.

(IMHO--I have always wanted to use that "acronym"/internet-slang shortcut.)

Part 3: "A Voyage to Laputa, Etc" through chapter 8 for Monday!!! Part 3 done by Tuesday!!!

Sophomores:
FORWARD!!!!!

You took back last week's 20,000 Leagues page & did the 2nd part, filling in all boxes, including "Prove-Its" & bad answers.

FOR MONDAY: OR 1.5.

Come on--let's do this!!!

(Exclamation points provided by Redundant Punctuation, Inc.)

(NOTE: Quarashi from Reykjavik, as in "Iceland")


BONUS-POINT OPPORTUNITY
focused on juniors but sophomore-eligible, because we should all read it & take it to heart:

1. go to the teacherweb site (mine)
2. click "Links, Connections, Thing to See Online"
3. click "Supplemental Swift: 'Hate is a Waste of Time'" (yeah, that is a fantastically poignant title)
4. print out & annotate the article, then bring it to me before the expiration time
5. post a 200-word reaction here, or e-mail it to me
(note, I had previewed it to several of you by saying you'd e-mail, but since I added in the "printing-&-annotating" part, I'd like to see the discussion below . . . if you've already e-mailed, it's cool)

BONUS-POINT OPPORTUNITY expires at 11:59 PM MONDAY 27 SEPTEMBER 2010!!!

"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