Blogging in the Mountains

Just to let you know...I'm keeping my students up to date on my AP grading activities at my school blog here...in case you're interested. I know the minutae of essay grading is exciting stuff...here's the link...





http://thejedimaster.edublogs.org/

Back in Colo

Back in the high altitude. Rocky Mountain country. Temps are great. Tomorrow the high will be 53 degrees. Have already run into a lot of familiar faces from last year. Even ran into one on the plane. I took off from Love Field in Dallas. Landed in OKC. Dr. Williams...my mentor from SNU Days boarded...then we took off to Denver.

I have been assigned the third essay question of the A.P. World History Exam. The question deals with comparisons and contrasts between racial ideologies in Latin and North America from 1500-1800. I was hoping for the Silk Road question but oh well. At least I didn't get the DBQ (Document Based Question) which takes forever to grade.

Party tonight at 8:00 pm. Looking forward to seeing more pals from last year.

Renaissance Man

Sorry to hear about the passing of Wayman Tisdale. Tisdale was the greatest basketball player to ever play for the University of Oklahoma. He played 12 solid years in the NBA...unfortunately for cruddy teams where he was the lone star. But he never complained and never whined. He just played hard and wonderfully. Won a gold medal in the 1984 Olympics. When he retired from basketball he focused on his jazz music career which had been a sideline project while he played in the NBA. At first many thought this was another vanity project by a retired athlete. But he proved people wrong by his amazing musical talent. I had the opportunity to hear him open up for Dave Brubeck at the Tusla Jazz Festival in the mid-nineties. What a tragic loss due to cancer...at age 44. Rest in peace Wayman. You'll be missed.

The End of Brazzaville

I was saddened to hear this week's announcement regarding the dissolution of the band Brazzaville. Brazzaville has been my favorite band the past eight years. Weezer and Radiohead come in a close second and third.

I discovered Brazzaville by accident. I watching a Ford Thunderbird commercial back in 2000 and really dug the music for the spot. The commercial was part of a high concept marketing campaign which was ironic since Brazzaville is anything but commercial. Tropicalia alt-rock doesn't sell a whole lot of albums in a vapid Kelly Clarkson world. But Brazzaville allowed their music to be used as a way to spread their music to the "demi-monde."

Brazzaville was founded by Beck saxophonist David Arthur Brown. It featured a rotating cast of international musicians all committed to world-weary traveling music. Brazzaville made the kind of music you would hear in a third-world airport in southeast Asia on your way to find englightenment at Ankor Wat.

Brazzaville eventually moved their operations from L.A. to Barcelona. They became very popular in two unlikely places...Turkey and Russia of all places. They also had made it their goal to tour the world in a converted ocean freighter staging concerts at different ports of call throughout the world. They bought the boat but never set sail.

I actually was a bit depressed by the news of their disbandment. But the center of the band...David Arthur Brown...has stated he simply moving a different direction and will continue to write and perform. I also find it sad I never saw them live. The closest they ever got to Texas was Chicago. Early on Dave Brown actually responded to an email of mine and said someday they'd come to Texas. Hopefully he'll still make it by sometime.

I previously blogged about Brazzaville here and here

A Good Day

Today was a good day.

The Mini Cooper S (pictured left) was paid off today. Title is in hand. No car payments.

Got last statement from Sallie Mae. Student Loans are done. Not sad to break up with Sallie Mae. Glad she's out of my life.

Got word today that my Uncle Richard got the last elusive Sam Bradford signature on the football he got me as a gift this past Christmas. The ball now has the autographs of all four living Oklahoma Heisman Trophy winners...Steve Owens, Billy Sims, Jason White and Sam Bradford. That is an awesome Christmas gift!

Also, one more day and no swine flu reported at the school.

Yep, a good day.

The Silk Road

Had fun at yesterday's history seminar/conference about Buddhism's migration along the Silk Roads. SMU did a good job hosting. UNT did a good job organizing. The conference was free and we came away with $90 worth of Silk Road materials from Stanford University's Silk Road Project. Good stuff.

Royals!

Royals Update

The Kansas City Royals end the month of April alone in first place in the AL Central. They are featured on the cover of this week's SI (hope there's no jinx). They have the best pitcher in baseball. The Royals are back baby!

Oxiana is Okay

I just finished "The Road to Oxiana" by Robert Byron. Bryon's book traces his travels through Persia and Afghanistan in the early 1930's. It's considered a "sacred text" in the travel writing genre venerated by famed sojourners like Bruce Chatwin and Rory Stewart. I'll use the vague "okay" adjective to describe my feelings about it. Not quite as enjoyable as I hoped. Fine read...just not spectacular. Didn't live up to the hype.

I found Byron pretentious. His technical criticism of architecture was tediously long and over indulged in minutae. I guess if you care about the number of squinches surrounding the support frames of a dome you might find it engrossing. I found such ruminations boring and self-indulgent. When Byron's descriptions of architecture remained artistic and aesthetic...I enjoyed it. When scientific and engineering-centric...I nodded off.

Byron favored architectural importance over historical importance. As a historian I prefer the history. He was very dismissive of the Bamiyan Buddhas, (above left) those ancient and massive monoliths so callously destroyed by the Taliban in 2001. He rejected any notion of their artistic value. The Taliban could have used Byron as a reference to further legitimize their barbaric destruction of these treasures.

He slights the giant Buddhas but raves about the tower of Kabus (above right). The tower has an interesting history...once containing a glass coffin suspended from the ceiling holding the remains of a revered leader. Architecturally I may be fairly ignorant...but this tower that Byron posits as one of the greatest masterpieces in the history of building...is rather plain and simple. Elegant in its simplity, yes...but nothing to get worked up about.

Good book. Interesting read but only of iconic status due to the fact it was the first of its kind in the travel genre. Witty, sarcastic, caustic and funny but I'll take Chatwin and Stewart any day.

Amping Up

Getting amped up for the AP grading in Fort Collins in six weeks. I'm poring over bike trails, paths and routes. Got my maps printed out. Got my bike reserved from a bike shop. Got some music and community events noted. Working out to get my lungs ready for the higher altitude. Biking Forney to get ready for riding in wild traffic. Making runs on the trails at the new Forney Community Park to get my quads in shape. Jumping curbs and tackling hillocks to get ready for mountain obstacles.

Oh yeah, there will be actual essay grading during the day. Got word that iPods and music devices are not allowed any more during grading. Doesn't bum me out too much. I only listened to music during the "hitting the wall" periods (twenty minutes before the morning break, twenty minutes before lunch, twenty minutes before the afternoon break and twenty minutes before the end of the day). That's when your brain was fried from reading too many lousy essays by students who had no clue what to write. It was okay to listen to tunes if your neighbors couldn't hear it. So I kept the volume down real low. But in the more crowded rooms I guess graders were squeezed in closer to one another and the iPods were disturbing the luddites.

My room was big and spacious last year and I could indulge in a little Arcade Fire to keep my mind from going totally numb. Guess I'll have to do without this year. I actually didn't have the buds in most of the time. Did better reading in silence.

Most of my crew from last year is coming back. "Fury" from Keller, "KC" from Stillwater, "Chaz" from Saipan, "Mr. 1400" from Bethany, "Freakin' Redwings" from somewhere in Michigan, and more all making a return visit to Colorado State. Some are also renting bikes. Getting the laptop all fired up to send reports via the Internet Lounge and Flickr.

Say it ain't so Joe!

U.S. Representative Spencer Bachus says he has a secret list of 17 socialists in the House but so far can only name one. Congresswoman Michele Bachmann has called on the media to investigate her Congressional colleagues to "find out if they are pro-America or anti-America." Anyone who refuses to fall in line with right wing dogma is called a "lib."

Hmmmm. Secret lists. Calls to examine people's patriotism. Name calling of dissenters. There is a name for this. It's called McCarthyism. You remember old Joe McCarthy don't you? And how about the old HUAC (House Un-American Activities Committee)? Let's bring back that lovely institution why we're at it. The teabaggers would party like it's 1999.

Reminds me of an old quote...

"When I give food to the poor, they call me a saint. When I ask why the poor have no food, they call me a communist." --Dom Hélder Câmara

You kiddin' me?

As a proud American I am shocked and appalled that my governor would ever make the treasonous suggestion that my state secede from the United States of America.

Two possibilities here...


1.) Rick Perry is an idiotic loon who truly does not understand that the American Civil War closed Texas's loophole in having the option to bail out of the Union. That he doesn't understand the catastrophic effect that secession would have on the Texas economy.

2.) Rick Perry is a lying demogogue, doesn't really believe in secession and is cynically pandering to the extreme right wing in Texas before he faces off against Kay Bailey Hutchinson in a nasty gubenatorial Rebublican Primary coming this November. Perry is trying to paint Hutchinson as a Washington insider and hopes to gain traction with the militia-gun show crowd.

He's smelling desperate. He knows he won the last election with only 32% of the vote. Most registered Republicans actually voted for independent Carole Keeton Strayhorn. If Kinky hadn't have run and Chris Bell not gained some Obama tailwind...Perry would have lost...and lost badly. Who wins an election with only 32% of the vote? Only in such a divided field could a moron like Perry win office. He gives Aggies a bad name.

Even most Republicans can't stand the guy. Every teacher in Texas (conservative or liberal) want him run out of the state on a rail.

With these recent statements I think he should brought up for impeachment for treason against the United States. Please believe me fellow Americans...not all of us living in Texas hate the U.S.A.. Please ignore the crazed ramblings of our deranged fool of a governor! At this rate I'd bring Duyba back as guv in a heartbeat.


I think the Gettysburg Address pretty much covered the idea of secession...so did Dwight Eisenhower when he sent the Guard into Little Rock. And Perry didn't complain when the feds gave him $65 Million in hurricane assistance. Hmmmm....

Change your Name!

Well, Kaufman (where I reside) and Henderson Counties should be very proud of our Representative to the Texas House of Representatives Betty Brown.

Betty Brown has made national headlines for stating in the Texas Legislature that Asian-Americans should adopt names that are easier for Americans to understand for voter identification purposes. Here are some of the exact quotes...

“Can’t you see that this is something that would make it a lot easier for you and the people who are poll workers if you could adopt a name just for identification purposes that’s easier for Americans to deal with?”

AND

“Rather than everyone here having to learn Chinese — I understand it’s a rather difficult language — do you think that it would behoove you and your citizens to adopt a name that we could deal with more readily here?”

The full story in the Houston Chronicle can be found HERE.

Wow. Time for a disclaimer. Betty Brown has long been an enemy of educators in our state. Even Republican teachers came out in droves to try to vote her out of office the past two elections...unsuccessfully...unfortunately.

The past two election cycles I placed the sign of her Republican primary challenger (A Kaufman High School Grad) in my yard. When he lost both times I put the Democratic challenger's sign (and a fellow Kaufman ISD teacher) in my yard during the general election.

Please believe me...not all of us living in Kaufman County are as ignorant and backwards as our Representative to the Texas state house.

Nazarene Historians

Glad to see a sister school of my alma mater, Southern Nazarene University, make mention on an academic blog the other day. The Professor, a history/academic blog managed by my friend Eddie Carson, featured a post about Dr. Randell Stephens, a historian at Eastern Nazarene College in Quincy, Mass.

Stephens graduated from Mid-America Nazarene University, got a Masters from Nazarene Theological Seminary, a Masters from Emporia State University (where I studied trumpet in high school) and his Doctorate from the University of Florida.

You can read Eddie's post HERE and access Stephens' blog HERE.

Wind and Solar Capital of America

Glad to see that Texas is trying to become the nation's leader in renewable energy. As our oil reserves decline it is an economic and enviromental necessity to move in other directions. I'm glad to see that both Republicans and Democrats are working together to make Texas the "wind and solar" capital of United States. There are over 69 bills going before the Texas legislature regarding moving toward renewables. Some are calling this the solar session. Economically this could make Texas even more of a powerhouse. Environmentally Texas could serve as a model for the rest of the country. Who would have thunk?

Here are two articles about the Texas Legislature's move toward solar and wind power. One if from the New York Times. The other from the respected environmental website Treehugger.com.

http://www.treehugger.com/files/2009/03/texas-solar-power-frenzy.php

http://greeninc.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/03/25/texas-aims-for-solar-dominance/

The New Helmet

I'm stoked about my new bike helmet. One of the gifts Kimberly got me for my birthday was a new Giro Indicator Helmet...the Titanium color. I haven't had a decent bike helmet in years. The one I had was cheap and uncomfortable. It slid around and I'm sure would not have much protection in a crash.

Giro...the company that makes Lance Armstrong's helmets...is very comfortable with great ventilation (20 vents!) and adjustment features. I'm looking forward to breaking it in on some Colorado mountain bike trails this June.

Jackson also got a new helmet...his is brown with jungle frogs on it. Here's some pics with us trying out our new helmets. Can't wait till the boy can go riding along with me on the trails.

All Time OU Basketball Team.

My bracket is still doing okay. I've got five in the elite eight. My final four can only be 50% correct however. But my championship game still has hope. And oh yeah...Kentucky was stupid for getting rid of Gillespie. They will rue the day.

So I've been toying around with my all time OU Basketball team. Wayman Tisdale, Blake Griffin and Mookie Blaylock are no brainers. But after that...I'm not sure who I'd pick out of the following group. Now that would be a team.

Alvin Adams
Eduardo Najera
Hollis Price
Stacy King
Brent Price
Ryan Minor
Harvey Grant

Bracketology

My NCAA bracket is doing very well so far. In fact this is my most accurate bracket ever.

I had 24 out of 32 teams advance to the first round. Siena, Cleveland State, Dayton, A&M, Maryland, Oklahoma State, Wisconsin and Western Kentucky were the teams I missed on. But come on...who picked Siena, CSU, Dayton or WKU? The state of Ohio was responsible for most of my bracket busts.

I had 13 out of 16 make it to the Sweet Sixteen. Wake Forest was knocked out of the first round. USC got beat my MSU. And I had Florida State, another first round casuality, in the round of 16...didn't see Xavier coming.

My Elite 8 is...Louisville, Kansas, UConn, Memphis, Pitt, Duke, UNC and Oklahoma.

My Final Four is Louisville, Memphis, Duke and Oklahoma.

My Final Game is Oklahoma defeating Louisville for the NCAA Championship.

Walletism

Sales of Toyota Priuses are down 35%. Overall the sale of small cars is down 25%. Meanwhile the sales figures of trucks slowly begins to rise from the ashes. All of this correlates with a drop in gas prices.

Americans have not learned a thing. Americans are not spurred by morality or ethics. Americans are spurred by one thing...their wallets.

We selfishly consume and consume as long as the price is right. We don't give a darn about CO2 emissions and the cost to the environment that God bestowed to us. We don't care a flip about our children's future. If we did, Americans would buy hybrids and other alternatives regardless of the price of gasoline.

Today's hybrids and high-mileage cars are now competitive in price with standard vehicles. We just want to guzzle our fossil fuels, drill baby drill, indirectly fund the radical Islamsists of Saudi Arabia and spew our toxins into the sky.

It's the 1970's show all over again.

Despite the cries of conservatives our economy is still largely based on free market principles. The market will give us what we demand.

For instance, in the next several months my household will soon purchase all our electricity from 100% wind power. It will cost the same, actually a little less, as the power we now consume which comes from coal fired plants. By the way, there is no such thing as clean coal...sorry President Obama. If everyone demanded that their power came from renewable sources I guarantee the market would meet that need. But frankly, most Americans don't care. They don't want to do the research, they don't want to bother with the details...it's too much work. So as a result...pollution from coal fired plants continues to wreak havoc on our environment.

We don't have socialism. We don't have capitalism. We have walletism pure and simple.

Guest Blog Post on The Professor

My friend and colleague Eddie Carson graciously allowed me the honor this week of submitting a guest blog post on his award-winning blog “The Professor” which I proudly include on my blogroll. Eddie is the director of A.P. Programs for the elite Houston Christian High School. He serves on the A.P. European History Test Development Committee and is a frequent presenter at A.P. conferences around the nation. I first met Eddie a few years ago at TCU at a European History Summer Institute that he was conducting. His guidance and advice has been invaluable as I sought to introduce an A.P. European History course to the curriculum at KHS. Three years ago I could get only five students to sign up for the course. Next year we have 35 students already signed up and may possibly have to open another section for the first time. Plus, Eddie is the one who introduced me to the world of sushi cuisine for the first time last summer.

My POST, discussing the place of African-American historical studies in academia can be found HERE.

photo: Henry Louis Gates, Jr. The subject of my post on The Professor.