Hepburn and The Gap

Been fighting a cold off and on for a week. Work all day then spend most of the evening in front of the television, in bed before 10, asleep before 11 most nights. Nothing like a small cold to make you feel like you're 80 years old, eh?

Hoping to get out of the house this weekend, maybe another hike through the arboretum or get into the city a bit. Haven't been in Chicago proper for quite a while. I think there was an exhibit at the Museum of Contemporary Art that looked interesting. Maybe check that out.

I've had enough TV for a while. If I see that damn Gap commerical with Audrey Hepburn one more time, that might make me crack up. And I really can't handle School for Scoundrels being shoved down my throat. Please, Hollywood, just stop forcing me to like Jon Heder. Or if nothing else, don't let Ben Stiller have any more cameos where he has a bad accent and equally bad facial hair.

Now that the American government is officially in the torture business, I think they could add network television advertisements on their list of approved methods. Water boarding, stress positions, and NBC promos. That's what would make me crack.

Norman Borlaug

There was an article about Africa in my mailbox this morning. New Boss wants me to start up an Eco Club at school, to better educate the kids about the environment and what they can do to help save it. He and I both agree that it shouldn't just be about recycling and thinking that trees are "nice." Best thing to do is to get the kids to have a better appreciation for the outdoors and the natural world, since all they hear is doom and gloom when think of "the environment."

I'd also like the kids to have a better awareness of their world, and the challenges different countries face in environmental terms, which is where that article about Africa comes in. An excerpt:

Hundreds of billions of dollars have been spent over the past half-century trying to do something about the region's crushing poverty, but the situation remains desperate. Rural Africa is hollowing out, unable to feed itself, let alone supply food to the continent's rapidly growing megacities.

The Gates and Rockefeller foundations are stepping in with $150 million, but what they really need is another Norman Borlaug. West Wing fans may recall his name being dropped in that episode about the deposed African president. I spent a little time over lunch today reading about Borlaug, and it's some pretty amazing stuff. He's spent his entire life working on wheat hybrids that allowed starving countries to feed themselves and won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1970. He's credited with saving over a billion lives in India and Pakistan with his "dwarf wheat" and is referred to by Penn and Teller as The Greatest Human Being Who Ever Lived. He's still alive and in the past couple of decades has been working on solving Africa's farming problems, so I guess they don't technically need another Norman Borlaug.

He's not without his critics, though. Borlaug's hypothesis states that since farmland isn't really increasing, what you gotta do is work on higher yields with the land you have. And so he promotes genetic crossbreeding, use of fertilizer, and other "modern" farming techniques in order to get countries the ability to feed themselves.

It's obvious that the world is getting better at feeding itself, but Africa still has a long ways to go. So, all I gotta do is produce another Norman Borlaug here at school and we should be in pretty good shape. Wish me luck.

The Perfesser Gets Out of the House

Heard the Mates of State were playing in Dekalb Monday night. Pretty much my favorite band to listen to right now, and so I ran through the list of people that would want to catch a show on a Monday night. It took me about 20 minutes to realize that a good friend of mine lived in Dekalb, and so yesterday afternoon I cleared off the desk and jumped on the tollway west to the home of NIU, a school I attended for a brief time ten years ago.

Since then they've added a few things, including The House Cafe, a pretty damn decent place to see a show. First had a few beers and some food at a pub across the street and shot the shit about the new Dylan album and Limelight plans. Before long Brems ran into a guy he went to school with and so we had another round with Kyle and Amber before heading back out into the rapidly cooling air to join the line for the show.

By the time the show really got going I should have been in bed but that was the last thing on my mind. Kyle and Amber were easy to talk to, like people I had known for years and years. Small-town hipsters, like the guys I used to hang out with during my year at the community college. People who spend more money on gas to get to the show than for the actual tickets.

Brems ran into another guy he knew, a former high school teacher (which now made me not the oldest guy at the all-ages show, thankfully). Then I saw a guy named Justin that I knew back from my days directing high school musicals in the old hometown. Suddenly we're all part of this strange interconnected group that stretched from Sandwich to Southern Illinois University.

Shouted to each other over the opening band, drank Blue Moon on a Monday, weaved through the latest version of young indie/emo fashionistas discussing Conor Oberst trying to find the pisser, it all took me back about ten years and change. Nothing much changed and a lot had changed. Mates of State took the stage and for all I knew it could have been Belly or Velocity Girl or fucking Catherine Wheel.

The band kicked some major ass and I knew most of the tunes and did that strange little stuck-in-one spot bob and weave that you do in a packed club.

Mostly played stuff from Bring it Back and the EP with "Goods" on it. a husband-and-wife duo, keyboards and drums. Kori Gardner does some wicked shit with those keyboards, creating a wall of sound sometimes rivaled The New Pornographers for pop brilliance. Jason Hammel did the duties of drummer and bass player and somehow managed to make two or three voices come out of his mouth at the same time.

The Mates finished up their set and we all filed out and said our goodbyes and as I drove eastward towards home I asked myself why would I possibly have wanted to be anywhere else in the world?

A great night.

Blogger beta

Yeah, blogger beta pretty much blows. It blows worse than the graphics team on Sports Night.

How's that for a reference, eh Kate?

(Sorry, I stayed in tonight and I've been dicking around a bit too long on the ole computer.)

Pluto

Unlike most people out there, the loss of Pluto's planetary status didn't really get to me. I guess I had a very pragmatic approach to it: if it can't be scientifically classified as a planet, then it should'nt be called one. Science is about getting it right, and while we may feel a twinge of nostalgic pity for small, faraway Pluto, I suppose there were people that felt bad when they learned that the universe didn't revolve around the Earth.

Besides, as our understanding of the wide universe expands, we get cool new planets like this one:

(There used to be a picture here. USED to be.)

It may be stuck with the less-glamorous name of HAT-P-1, but it's so light and fluffy it could float in a giant planet-sized glass of water! That's something, innit?

Das Rheingold

I'm in the process of changing this blog over to Blogger beta, which is supposed to be better, but right now it's just causing things to be all dicked up on here.

Right now there are no archives, but that's okay because they were all messed up anyway.

As of now, though, I can't comment on any blogs that are using the "regular" Blogger commenting system; only those that have switched to beta. So if you miss my comments, switch to Blogger beta, or better yet, get Halo Scan, which is about fifty times better than Blogger's commenting system.

And now, may I suggest a good movie to watch? And by watch I mean carefully watch, and not just play in the background. Even though you might be turned off by Colin Farrell starring in it, or the fact that it's about Pocahontas and the founding of Jamestown, I can't stop thinking about The New World.

It might get slow in the middle, but stick with it. The first five minutes are worth the price of rental alone. Gorgeous deep-focus shots of ships and Indians and water and trees and nervous faces while the prelude from Wagner's Das Rheingold plays over it all.

Had to look that bit up about Wagner, and so now I'm fairly well obsessed with the Ring cycle as well. About time, considering how nerdy I get about that other Ring story.

September 11th: 5 Years Later

I haven't been able to come up with the proper words to describe what goes through my head when I consider the events of September 11th.

They weigh heavy on me. I woke up a few times last night, and my first thoughts were always, "today will be September 11th."

It's been five years since they brought the kids in early to school, when I ran down the hall, watching my students file into the room, sooner than usual. News on the radio and pictures coming through slowly on my computer, a horrible helpless feeling as I taught through the morning not really knowing what was going on. The face of a fellow teacher as he met my eyes as we sat down at lunch to watch what was happening.

The material of my couch at home, that's what I remember for some reason. I sat there for hours after school and just watched it all happen, just like everyone else did. The soft, corduroy-like feel of that blue couch.

Weird, almost enjoyable sensation of being really alive. That's the only good thing I remember about those first hours and days. This wonderful and horrible feeling of being very, very alive. Everything crystal-clear and sharp.

Nothing has really been that clear ever since. It's been a long five years, watching and wondering where this country is going, where it's being led, where its citizens are letting it be taken. Hoped there would be this renaissance of thought and concern and greater understanding of what was important in life. And maybe that's happened to some people, but not enough, I fear. Not enough.

The national nervous breakdown is what Hunter Thompson called it, I think. In the years following everyone found their own hole to stick their head in, to protect themselves against a lurking dread. Reality television or booze or unquestioning patriotism. Some stood tall and knew the right things to do and the right words to say from the very beginning, while others stumbled and lost their way.

And for all its missteps and misdeeds, despite the fact that I strongly disagree with the direction it has been taken by our current leadership, I still love this country.

I believe that there is an America out there that is smart and compassionate and wants nothing more than to be a force for good in this world. There is an America out there that raises good kids who know right from wrong and will grow up to do wonderful things. There is an America out there that is filled with bold leaders, talented musicians and writers, and people who know how to make a great cheeseburger.

There is an America to be proud of out there, but it's been hidden behind the curtain of dust and haze of September 11th.

It is up to us, its citizens, to remind everyone of America's proud past and its limitless potential. It's up to us to stand together and not let this great country stumble and fail. It's up to us to pick it up again.

No sense in running away and hiding from the bad stuff, no sense in running away when things get dark. Like it was said once before, when you can't run anymore, you crawl, and when you can't do that, you find someone to carry you.

To all of you out there, family and friends, I wish you peace on this day of remembrance. May we all live to see happier times together.

Welsh foliage

Damn, I said I was going to keep this thing going, didn't I?

Not much to talk about right now. Work is work, starting off fine. Sandwich Fair tomorrow night, so maybe for once I'll remember my camera and take some pictures of county fair goodness.

I'll probably get back to the trip one of these days, try to do some real writing about it. In the meantime here are a few decent pictures from the first few days. I've been posting them a few at a time over at Buzznet, and I'm only through the first four days of the trip. Took lots of pics with the new camera.

So if you like travel and pictures of Welsh foliage, head over to the pictures and enjoy. One of these days I'll find something else to take pictures of, but for now, it's nothing but travel, travel, travel around here.