My Top Ten Songs of the Pandemic

 

I like to think I'm on top of things culturally. But most often I'm not, not even close. Sometimes I hear a great song on the radio that sounds fresh, new and...it turns out to be a ten year old recording. And I'm like, where was I in 2010 when this song came out that I missed such a great tune? You can justify missing it if it's an obscure song or deep track. But sometimes these artists or songs I "discover" have a decently sized fan base and the song was indeed out there on the radio. This happens to me all the time.

Anyway, here are some songs that blew me away in 2020. Some are songs actually recorded in the past year or so. Others have been around a long time and I only came to them (or they came to me) in 2020. And one (January Hymn), I had heard but never paid much attention to. Either way, these are my Top Ten Pandemic Songs. These are the songs that really captured my attention this year. Forgive me if I was behind on some of these!

Heaven's Nail and Hammer by M Ward

Dream Sea (Sheila's Dream version) by Brazzaville

Birds Don't Sing by TV Girl

Excuses by The Morning Benders

Only in My Double Mind by Centro-Mastic

Be Okay by Ellen Once Again

Dream Girl by Anna of the North

Lorelai by Fleet Foxes

January Hymn by The Decemberists

Living in a Ghost Town by The Rolling Stones

 

Election Day

A thousand mile journey begins with one step. Getting rid of Trump would be an important first step. However, I feel that win or lose, he's caused great generational harm that will take decades to subside. He gave many people the permission to unleash their inner demons into the world. It's really hard to put the devil back into the hole. Many evangelicals have lost moral credibility forever. Evangelicals who supported Trump never have the right to talk about moral character in the future. But they will, of course and that blatant hypocrisy will further alienate anyone with a shred of decency.

Eye on the Ball

 

 

Another Saturday, another UTR tennis event. My son is really enjoying playing in these. And we are having fun with them. They are well run. The parents haven't been crazy...so far. It's been nice and relaxing and it hasn't taken all day...yet. Tennis has become one of my son's passions and I'm glad for it. He enjoyed playing soccer, baseball and basketball. He really liked basketball. But tennis, he's passionate about. And it's been fun playing against him and watching him play. 

Mask Up

 

Statues

I work in a town that still has a confederate statue standing in front of its county courthouse. It's an embarrassment. The reality is there are a lot of ignorant rednecks and racists who live in this county who protest angrily any time someone even suggests the statue come down. They threaten violence. The politicians often are cowed by their vitroil. 

Here is an excellent article from the Kaufman Herald about this racist history of the statue. Ironic because even the Kaufman Herald has this soldier in their masthead. 

http://www.kaufmanherald.com/around_town/article_7fffb15c-fc2a-11ea-acc0-b7518ddd1102.html

Terracotta

I can't get enough history documentaries. I really like this one about the Terracotta Soldiers of Qin Shinhuangdi. The discovery of thousands of soldiers in 1974 is one of the greatest archeological finds in modern history. This led to the discovery of Shinhuangdi's tomb who was the first emperor to unify China. He was a cruel leader and only a hard authoritarian would make a tomb of such spectacular size and scope. The tomb has never been opened because of the possibility that doing so would destroy precious artifacts within. It's a great story.

First Day of Fall

This year, the weather in Texas has been appropriate to the beginning of the Fall Season. It's cool and rainy. I find it so refreshing after a long hot summer. August is almost unbearable in Texas. 

Unfortunately, one of my favorite traditions that marked the changing of the season is no more. Live From Here with Chris Thile always began in the fall. The show was a harbinger of cooler temps, leaves changing color then falling and shorter days. Due to the pandemic, Minnesota Public Radio could no longer afford to produce the show. So, the show was canceled. Jackson and I greatly enjoyed LFH and we even went to see the show when they traveled to Austin a few years ago. They even played one of my song requests and mentioned my name on the show in a memorable episode. 

I am glad for Autumn. But I am a bit nostalgic for Live From Here helping usher in the season. 

New Finds of Old Stuff

I'm embarrassed to say, as someone who likes to think of themselves as a jazz aficionado, that I did not discover Erroll Garner's Concert by the Sea until 2004...when I was in my thirties. An older gentleman, who was subbing at the high school where I was teaching at the time suggested it. I had vaguely heard of Erroll Garner but was not familiar with this album. I was shocked to find that it was a huge seller. Released in 1955 it had sold over a million copies by 1958. 

The story behind this "accidental" masterpiece is a story in of itself. The concert was scheduled at the last minute and held in a concert hall in Carmel-By-The-Sea, California. It was not meant to be recorded for an album. It was recorded almost by accident. Garner's manager took the tape to Columbia Records who released it despite the sub-par recording quality. 

Errol Garner's playing was so spectacular it made up for any sound engineering deficiencies. Modern technology has done a decent job of improving the sound. The bassist and drums now are clearer than ever. Garner's mastery of the piano is so great it sounds like three pianists playing, not one. It is an amazing album.  

That's one of the things I love about music, regardless of genre. There's always greatness to be discovered. There's always amazing albums hiding, some in plain sight. I find this particularly true with my experience in jazz. I've been listening to jazz for over thirty years but I still "discover" brilliant stuff all the time. This year I "discovered" jazz guitarist Grant Green. How did I miss this guy? His Blue Note recordings are fantastic. 

The same is true for genres of all kinds. I love finding "new" stuff from years ago.

UTR

 

 

Jackson had his first UTR (Universal Tennis Rating) Tournament of the season this past Saturday in Rockwall, Texas. He did well. He won his first match then dropped his second match to a high school girl. But he played well and he enjoyed playing competitive tennis again. 

 

It was a beautiful day for tennis. 64 degrees at first serve. We have signed him up for several UTR Tournaments since KISD has the ridiculous and vindictive policy of not allowing any student who opted for At-Home Learning at any point in the school year to play sports for the entire year. Rumor is they may be re-thinking that policy but I'm not holding out any hope.

 

I'm just glad Jackson plays a sport that gives us options out side of school competitions. He had a lot of fun at this first tournament of the year. 

At Home Learning

I took the day off today to see how my kid's At-Home Learning was going. Due to the amount of Covid cases in our county we elected to have our kids start the school year with the Remote Learning option offered by our school district. As a teacher I had a first hand view of how chaotic the beginning of the school year was going to be. I wanted my son and daughter to avoid that chaos and start at home until hopefully the chaos would settle down. 

The year did indeed start out chaotically and I'm glad we made this choice. Our school district did make it tough for people to choose at-home learning. If a student chose at-home learning they are prohibited from participating in athletics the rest of the year. 

Fortunately my Mom and Mother-in-Law, both retired teachers, were willing to facilitate the online learning for our kids. They alternate days coming to our house to supervise their progress.

The year has settled into a rhythm and now we will soon have to decide if the kids return to campus for the second quarter or continue with virtual learning. Despite numerous class re-locations, a few quarantines and a few positive cases, for the most part the year has hit a groove. Of course, that could change in a minute. That's the mantra for the year: expect the unexpected.

Shields

 

I'm thinking of going as Andy Reid's face shield for Halloween.

New Mask Monday

 

 

Yesterday was New Mask Monday. My Weezer mask finally came in two months late. =w=

Symmetry

 

Symmetry 

A Longer Rainbow

 

When I finished Ulysses, I began tackling Gravity's Rainbow by Thomas Pynchon. Back in May, I predicted I would be finished by October 8, 2020. Ha. How naive I was. I won't be close to finishing by October. As of today I'm on page 448. I have 328 pages left to go! 

My routine, much like how I tackled the beast of Ulysses, is to read about 4 pages a day. So that means I have at least 82 days to go. So that would be around November 23rd...just in time for Thanksgiving Break. And that's if I don't get off pace. 

The prose of GR is dense. There's over 400 characters that come in and out of the narrative. There's numerous digressions that go down bewildering rabbit holes. I don't understand much of what I read. But I understand more of it than I did of Ulysses. And I am enjoying it more. I do find it fascinating at time. At other times...frustrating. 

I like this new model: reading a notoriously long and difficult classic a little at a time. This allows me to read other books for enjoyment at the same time. I'm also currently reading Utopia Avenue, David Mitchell's newest book. I also started re-reading Love Wins by Rob Bell.

Reading a tough work a little at time helps me not to become overwhelmed and overly frustrated. When I'm in the middle of a particularly dense section I know that I don't have much to get through if I'm only reading four pages. If a passage is particularly enjoyable I can wander past the four page mark at my leisure. 

I think I already have my next tough work in line after Gravity's Rainbow. I think I'm going to give Swann's Way by Proust a shot. I've read portions of Remembrance of Things Past but never done the deep dive of going all the way in. I have a copy of Swann's Way that I bought at the same library book sale where I procured GR. So that will be next.

Onward to November 23rd! 

Old Tech

 

I like old tech. This Royal Typewriter was my grandfather's. I've now inherited two of his former typewriters. I'm displaying them in my classroom as decorations. My students want to know where the screens are. Also, they don't seem to have wires with which to plug into the wall. 

Focus

 

Ava has been involved with Tae Kwon Do for the past six months or so. Even when interrupted by a four month shutdown she still participated via Zoom. She recently received her yellow belt. She really has taken to it although she sometimes doesn't enjoy it. It's hard work but it has given her a lot of confidence. It has been great for her physical fitness. The move to yellow belt really accelerated her level of confidence.

The Weirdness

 

 

Been too long. I guess I kinda got unmotivated to blog. Lots been going on. Back to school. My kids are starting the year at home learning virtually. It's a surreal scene at the high school. Everyone in masks. Teachers forced to periodically relocate out of their rooms for "deep cleaning."  I had to relocate my last two periods to the school auditorium on the first day of school due to a kid being sent home with a fever. Turns out it wasn't Covid...but they ain't taking chances.

So now we have finished week two. The outbreaks usually begin in earnest after two weeks. So next week could be interesting.

Complicity

A confession and a personal mini-manifesto...

Silence is complicity.

Racism is a cancer. Acknowledging the systemic racism in our society is not enough. I must also confront those racist thoughts that poison my individual soul. Every day I must acknowledge the prejudices that seep or even sometimes flood my consciousness. I cannot pretend it doesn't exist. I must confront it head on, figure out how it got in there in the first place, then excise it brutally from my mind, my heart and my soul.

Denying its existence in my soul simply allows the cancer to spread. I must beg forgiveness and ask my friends who are not of my ethnicity how I can do better. I must listen, acknowledge, and act. I must not worry about offending those who will be angry when I point out that white protestors armed with assault rifles can storm a statehouse while African-Americans are shot while jogging, murdered by policemen with a knee on their neck, and threatened with police violence for asking a white woman to follow Central Park rules. And that's just the past few days!

This is not a partisan issue, this is a human issue.

Just a few more things...

Wear a mask!

Vaccines work.

And there's nothing wrong with mail-in voting.

Put on your mask!

I made a weezer mask. =w=

I just don't understand this opposition to wearing masks during this time of pandemic.

Just put on the mask! Stop being a toddler! No one is sending you to a concentration camp! You are not being oppressed! You're going to walmart for twinkies and diet coke!

No one is asking you to storm the beaches of Normandy! No one is asking you to ration your food!

Put the mask on!

Be kind to others.

Listen to the doctors and scientists...not the politicians. This is not political!

Wear your mask!

You might save a life and maybe even yours.

This country is turning into a bunch of babies!

Ulysses Done

It took 391 days. Eight more days than I predicted on April 10, 2019. It was on April 10th that I started reading Ulysses by James Joyce. I originally predicted I be finished on April 28th, 2020. I actually finished on May 6, 2020. Not too far off! Fell off a bit in the middle somewhere but The Quarantine allowed me to catch back up. I'm just proud I actually completed this goal!

The secret was reading two pages a day. This took the pressure off. I could read other books at the same time. I didn't have to worry about the obscure language. I just read two pages a day and kept going. Another key was utilizing the online resources that helped explain the content. It was a difficult read and I needed the help.

But the challenge was worth it all. Completing a goal over a long period of time is immensely satisfying. I had been attempting to tackle this book for twenty years and it feels so good to have gone and done it. I guarantee I'll be celebrating Bloomsday on June 16th this year!

So I've kinda begun a routine of reading one challenging book over a long period time while reading one or two other more accessible works at the same time. I've now challenged myself to tackle Gravity's Rainbow by Thomas Pynchon. 776 pages. It's not the length, its the depth of the content that can be challenging. So this will be my long read for the next while. I started today, May 7th, 2020.

There seems to be page breaks about every eight pages or so...a lot more than the two pages a day pace I used for Ulysses. But I'm going to give that a shot. Some page breaks are a little shorter and some a little longer. I haven't looked through the whole book so I could be in for some surprises. But I think I'll try to keep it at eight pages max.

At 776 pages that would mean I would be done in 97 days. I'm going to give my self a little longer simply because I'm not sure I can do eight pages a day every day while reading two other books concurrently. So I'm going to give my self 155 days (average of 5 pages a day).

So that means I should be done with Gravity's Rainbow by October 8, 2020. 155 days from now.

Let's do it.