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 ...
November 01, 2011 - 12:47 p.m.
I had a terrible night's sleep and ended up sleeping away the morning. I hate that. It's my own fault too. I bought freshly ground peanut butter at Whole Foods and overindulged which led to a night in the bathroom. I can resist anything but temptation.
I'll get back to writing about my Toronto-Philly adventure but a quick catch up on yesterday first. Skip to the horizontal line if you want to get straight to that.
I didn't have much of a costume, just my Perry the Platypus but I wore it to school.
What would you do if your professor did something like that? To me there is an actual point to it. I'm clearly serious about teaching and passionate about the subject matter and this shows that it doesn't mean that's all there has to be someone that cares about learning. I had to give them the "concentrate on the subject matter not the grade" talk yesterday. I give quizzes on formulae they need to know perfectly off the top of their head as they are used so often. If they do the homework they will learn them. When I said put everything away I'm going to give the quiz some students whipped out their notebooks and started memorizing the formulae.
As I've said my calculus class is a disaster. I made a deal with them. I won't count the first test if they shape up the rest of the semester. That means doing all the homework and paying attention in class. One of my students had his computer out today. I went over and looked and he wasn't taking notes on it. When I called him on it he said he wasn't doing anything wrong, that he was paying attention. I could see him doing something else. It was right in front of us. He also had his phone out and another mobile device. Do you think in his mind he was paying attention to class? I know people think they are far better at multi-tasking than they really are but that much? That they think they can learn difficult subject matter they are failing in while doing other things?
After school I picked up the aforementioned peanut butter, cheese, and Halloween candy and raced home to give it to trick or treaters. My building only allows it from 4:00 to 7:00 and I left a note on my door that I'd be home at 5:45, just when I got there. I souped up my costume by putting on my blue green surgical scrubs because Perry is blue green. Then I waited. Nobody came. I was so disappointed. Then around 8 a group of half a dozen girls came! They each got a double dose of candy. I should have made it triple.
Now back to Toronto. Last you heard I was in Hugh's Room sharing a table with 9 friends waiting for Mike Ford to take the stage. He was on a co-bill with The Cocksure Lads aka Mike, Murray Foster, and friends.
I haven't seen these guys in years. I was excited as you might expect. Fordy has taken quite a different tack from his Moxy Früvous days. He writes and sings songs about the history of Canada. Yes some of them are quite funny or anthemic and silly but others sound like traditional folk. He's a lot more subdued. He even sits when he sings some of them. He's still great. I love the entire idea of the project. He doesn't just sing the songs in concert but in schools. He's a minstrel preserving the history and tradition of the people in song. He's also tons of fun. There's plenty of audience participation. We got to make futuristic sounds, monorail sounds, French futuristic sounds. There was call and response, clapping, and all sorts of hijinks. Hijinks just looks wrong, it has three dotted letters in a row.
Mike Ford
Mike even covered a few songs by the third greatest Canadian band, Guinea Pig and Heatseeker Boy. Did he do a third?
During the break I socialized a bit with my friends but as I was put in the corner because I was bad it was hard for me to move around. OK I wasn't bad but I was in the corner. That was unfortunate as I wanted to spend more time with Saburah and the other people not sitting close to me.
Then the Cocksure Lads came out. The conceit of the band is that they are a 50s British Invasion band that has regrouped. Murray and Mike are the core but they aren't Murray and Mike, they are Dusty Fosterboard and Reg Topping. Dave isn't officially in the band but plays with them as Kentish Steele.
As soon as they took the stage you could see the difference, they were in character. They also didn't dress quite the same.
Reg and Dusty
Reg read while Dusty played.
Kentish Steele and Reg
Mike bounced around like he was in Früvous with a British accent. You know I can't resist extended pretense like this. They were a British Invasion band and that's what they remained the entire show. They feud with the Who. Pete Townsend was warned that he better not be there. There was a running joke about some other band and whenever they were named one table would cheer. I have no idea what that was but figured it was some in Toronto joke.
The songs were silly but not a joke. I loved them I was bopping around. They worked as music. They were FUN! Was this brilliant musicianship? No. Was it perfectly crafted songwriting? No. Does that mean it wasn't great? NO! It was great. There are lots of ways of being great. It gave me joy and if that's not art then what is? And yes you came out of their humming the songs.
After the show I talked to Mike and Murray and brought back CDs for WFUV. I'm giving them to John Platt but I think Bob Sherman needs to hear Mike's album, it would fit in perfectly on Woody's Children.
I didn't have enough time with my friends but it was late and we had to get back to the hotel so Neal, Carey, Steve, LORi, Paul, and myself made our way to the subway. When we got home we were all tired so the orgy only lasted a few hours and only a half dozen or so other people joined us.
The next morning we checked out and went for breakfast at a crepe place Carey and I had scouted out the day before. Was it Crepemania? I know most of the dishes had mania in the name. I had the Canadamania, ham, eggs, and cheese on a crepe. It was wonderful. Neal and I split a chocolate fudge crepe for dessert. There was hot chocolate and all sorts of goodness. The place was funky too. I love falling into great places to eat by chance.
Lori wore my fedora and looked so good in it that she decided she needed one too so we walked down Yonge street back to the store. She got one but all too soon we had to say goodbye to Carey and Neal who were heading back to Chicago and started our trek to Philadelphia.
They actually let us back in the country, I'm always afraid they won't accept delivery on me. When we stopped for gas in Buffalo I took over the driving. I had never driven a pick up before and was a bit shy of doing it for the first time with four other people but there was no problem. It was actually smaller than my first car, a 1971 Olds 98.
We then went to Syracuse to take Steve and Lori's son out for dinner. We met at the mall and ate at Johnny Rockets. After that Lori took over the driving. She must have sins that needed punishing, it started snowing around Binghamton. It started snowing hard. We were in a snow storm. When we got to a rest stop in the Poconos Lori measured eight inches of snow.
Steve took over the driving there and the snow stopped in a few minutes. I told you it was Lori's fault.
We ended up getting back to Lori and Steve's house a little after midnight. Paul drove home and we went to bed.
I spent the morning with Steve and Lori then they drove me to Thirtieth Street Station where I got my Megabus home. This one was half an hour late but the trip home was easy. I had a nice nap and got some reading done. I grabbed dinner at Nathans then took the subway home. I somehow managed to not collapse.
Here are the rest of the photos.
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| Cocksure Lads Con |
Now I'm going to make an omelet and go shopping.
I signed the Pro-Truth Pledge:
please hold me accountable.
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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 November 01, 2011
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