I became insane with long intervals of horrible sanity.
The trouble with fighting for human freedom is that one spends most of one's time defending scoundrels. For it is against scoundrels that oppressive laws are first aimed, and oppression must be stopped at the beginning if it is to be stopped at all.
Many people would sooner die than think; In fact, they do so
What I have been telling you, from alpha to omega, what is the one great thing the sigil taught me — that everything in life is miraculous. For the sigil taught me that it rests within the power of each of us to awaken at will from a dragging nightmare of life made up of unimportant tasks and tedious useless little habits, to see life as it really is, and to rejoice in its exquisite wonderfulness. If the sigil were proved to be the top of a tomato-can, it would not alter that big fact, nor my fixed faith. No Harrowby, the common names we call things by do not matter — except to show how very dull we are ...
February 08, 2008 - 2:28 a.m.
Why did I wait so long to start updating? I totally forgot about it tonight. I could wait till the morning but I actually remember things I want to write now. I also just forgot something. It really is sad not having a brain.
My students proved today they go to my school. They did two of the classic things that drive me nuts. As I mentioned here before on the first day of class I go to great lengths explaining how the class is run and stress that there is no midterm. I also give them a handout with the information on it. Here is a quote from it.
Grading: There will be three tests, quizzes, and a final. There is no midterm!The bold text is in the original. I told the class that there is always one student who asks me when the midterm in despite my insistence that there is a no midterm. I then warm that I will make fun of that person without mercy. So what happened today? Someone asked when the midterm was. Unfortunately it was after class and we were alone so I couldn't make fun of him. I just pointed out that he needs to actually pay attention when I'm talking and to read what I hand out. He didn't seem to see the connection between that and asking about the midterm.
What happened in the Tech math class was worse. I wasn't sure if I had assigned a group of problems in the text. When I asked the class only one student knew if I had. I knew what that meant, they hadn't done the homework. We are only in the third week of class the workload isn't huge in their other classes and three-quarters of the class didn't do the homework. I told them that not doing the homework leads to a class average of a 50 on the test and that I will not curve it. I also told them that the assignment is now due next class and that I'm collecting it. The thing is that they shouldn't need for me to do that. They have to learn to do the homework because that is the only way of learning the material.
The other day a student came in after having missed the last class and just watched while I went over the homework. He didn't even attempt to take notes. He didn't even take out a notebook. Does he really think he is going to learn the material by osmosis? My school really needs to drop that silly rule against faculty executing students. I'm sure after I chopped a few heads off the rest of the class would start doing the work. I mean it isn't as if they are using their heads. I shouldn't say that, It isn't fair. They use their heads to hold the earbuds from their iPods in place.
I talked to Lena today and we made plans for me to drive her back to Virginia when she flies in from Israel. That means I'll be going away the first three weekends in March. The first to Lena's father's house in Vienna VA, the second to Princeton and Philly to see Groovelily and The Kennedys with Lena and LORi. I'll stay with Lori. The third I'm going up to the Boston area to visit Lisa and see the Strangelings.
Now for two totally disparate things that I meant to include in earlier entries. Which should I write about first, music or politics? I think I'll do politics because more of you will hang around for music.
People love conspiracy theories. I guess I'm not people because I usually think they are ridiculous. The problem with most conspiracy theories is that they involve too many people for them to be feasible. There is no way you could keep them a secret. I came up with a great argument to make that point. The Bush administration based the war on Iraq on Hussain having weapons of mass destructions. The fact that none have been found has proves a huge embarrassment for them. Considering their total lack of respect for the truth don't you think they'd have manufactured evidence of WMDs if they thought they could get away with it? Do you really think Cheney would have any compunction against it? If they haven't done it, it is because they know it can't be done. I doubt they even seriously considered it. They would have had to end up trusting huge amounts of ordinary soldiers not in their inner circle to keep the secret and there is no way they could hope that would work. The real conspiracies are much subtler. They are the things we have learned about, things like massaging the intelligence and pressuring people to say what they want to hear.
OK enough politics not on to music. A few entries ago I played a thrilling game of What is on my mp3 player? One of the albums on it is Song for All Seasons by Renaissance. They were a progressive rock band that rose out of the ashes of the Yardbirds in the early seventies. I am supposed to consider them a guilty pleasure but I don't. there is absolutely nothing to for me to feel guilty about. They were a great band, the first that I stalked. Carey introduced them to me early in our friendship. He had an extra ticket to a concert they did at our school, Queens College, and took me. I was immediately hooked. Annie Haslam is one of the two greatest pop singers that I have ever heard, the other was Sandy Denny. She had something like a four octave range that she used to perfection. They had brilliant songwriting that combined rock and classical musical motifs. On their Live From Carnegie Hall album they were backed by a full symphony orchestra. People now think of that as pretentious, it wasn't. It was ambitious. They had high aspirations and achieved them. They really came out of the same tradition as the ultimate British Folk Rock band Fairport Convention; a band that featured the aforementioned Sandy Denny and the one and only Richard Thompson. I even saw them share a bill though that was after Sandy died and RT had left the band.
Progressive Rock was actually one of my first musical loves. I don't think I have ever written about how I became a music junky. I'll do that now.
In high school I didn't own a single record. I didn't have a stereo. I didn't listen to the radio except for Jean Shepherd's show. The only music I listened to were my father's classical and Broadway albums on his stereo. Then I went away to college and my roommates, especially Tom, had stereos and records. Tom turned me on to Folk Music. He had all the Dylan albums and Dave Van Ronk and others. I started listening to his records every day. I then started buying my own. Someone else was selling some records and I bought Pictures at an Exhibition by Emerson, Lake, and Palmer, and Close to the Edge by Yes. I couldn't resist the ELP because I had played Pictures at an Exhibition with my intermediate school orchestra. I played the viola. Once i heard them I was hooked on progressive rock. Actually in those days we called it classical rock. That term is now too easily confused with classic rock. Somewhere in there I also discovered plain old rock, the Beatles, the Stones, the Who, the Doors and such. So I went from not listening to music to becoming an aficionado of many different genres. You have to throw the blues in there too. I am not ashamed of anything I liked then. My tastes have evolved but the music I was most passionate about I still am. Yes I did give away my America album. That just ended up getting on my nerves. I no longer think that Billy Joel is one of the greats but Piano Man is still a great album. Getting back to Renaissance I just listened to Song for All Seasons and I still think it is one of the greatest albums ever. That was the pinnacle of their artistic success. They didn't evolve from there in the way I had hoped they would. They experimented with counterpoint on that album and I wish they had continued to do so. Instead they started to try and strip down their sound and become a New Wave band. That wasn't true to themselves and they gave up the experiment but they never returned to the lush textures of Novella and SFAS. None of which stopped me from following them till they broke up.
Everything musical comes together of course. Years later, I saw the Kennedys open for Annie Haslam. They did their song Angel Fire which is based on Gabriel Faure's Pavane. They were totally unaware that Annie had done an album of songs with new words written to classical melodies that included one based on the same piece. When they did it they impressed all of Annie's fans. I was already a fan of theirs. I had discovered them on WFUV. The first time I saw them live was as part of the priceless Required Listening series.
It is after 2 AM now and I'm on page four so I think I should call this quits. I think I've used up all my good material. I'll have to think of something new for tomorrow's entry.
I signed the Pro-Truth Pledge:
please hold me accountable.
Memories: Not that Horrid Song - May 29, 2018
Wise Madness is Now In Session - May 28, 2018
The NFL and the First Amendment - May 27, 2018
On The Road Again - May 26, 2018
Oliver the Three-Eyed Crow - May 25, 2018
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Horvendile February 08, 2008
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