rustypants speaks

every summer the Navy’s crack Flight Demonstration Squadron, aka the Blue Angels, put on an incredible show at Pensacola Beach. the performance is legendary, as are the crowds and the noise. we wanted to go, but the thought of having to be at the beach by 7am for a show that doesn’t start until 2pm… it was a bit much for us.

so when we heard that they do 2 full dress rehersals the two days prior to the actual show, we were totally game! we packed lunch, books, lots of water, and hit the beach late morning. at 2pm, the first plane came overhead, and a few short minutes later, the Blue Angels screamed across the beach from behind us. for the next 50 minutes, we were absolutely floored at their ability, speed, and execution. it was incredible!

each of the thumbnails below blows up to a bigger shot.

thunderstorms. playing cards. reading. nature. driving.

these are only a few of the things my dad loves that i also love. these are things that he introduced to me when i was a little kid, and i am a much better man because of them. some of  my earliest memories include:

• watching thunderstorms roll in while sitting on the back porch together and jumping at the lightning and thunder.
• being read to at night (by mom, too!) – this was a nightly occurrance – at least one story before bedtime in my room or in jason’s.
• being read to, having a thunderstorm roll in, STOP reading, turn out the lights, and watch the storm together.
• learning how to play gin rummy & chess and spending time playing both (or should i say losing both – i doubt that i’ve beat him at either).
• camping trips to Heuston Woods & Miami Whitewater, building fires, hiking, swimming.
• drives, sometimes just to drive. other times, 3 weeks worth of driving (remember the RV trip from cincy to wisconsin to california to mexico to tennessee to ohio?).
• raiding his bookshelves for good reading material. dad loves to read – being read to every night as a youngster was pivotal. being grounded from TV for five years in my later years didn’t hurt, either. i was introduced to Ray Bradbury, Kurt Vonnegut, JRR Tolkien, and John Steinbeck, among others, in those junior high years.

now, to be sure, we have our differences. we have very different personalities. we have different likes and dislikes. we disagree about things.

but dad is level-headed. intelligent. loving. kind. analytical.

he is still the first person i call when i’m trying to make a decision about this or that and need someone to see more sides of the situation than i can figure.

he still loves me and lets me know it frequently.

he still lets me raid his bookshelves and “forget” to return the books to him.

he’s the first person i think of when lise and i are sitting on the beach or on the front porch watching a big thunderstorm move through.

i’m a better man because of my dad.

thanks, dad! happy fathers day! i love you!

for years, lise and i had coveted my mom’s doormat. we’ve laughed about it every time we visited her home, asked her to leave it to us in her will, hatched plots to steal it, and asked her to just plain give it to us.

so when she told me to take it with me when we moved to Florida 2 years ago, it was a bit of a shock. i mean, we had been joking about it for so long that now… well, we can just… take it?

i turned her down. thanks, but no thanks. why are you giving it up now? she tells me it’s time for her to grow up (to which i laughed – at age 61, to decide that this welcome mat is too “immature” for you… well, that’s my momma).

at any rate, every time i see it when i come home, i think about mom. she’s funny. i love her and miss her a lot.

on my way home from school i called the pensacola surf advisory hotline & found out that the water was calm on the Gulf and the flag was green – this was great news! lise and i grabbed our stuff and headed out.

not long after we arrived, the wind picked up and some pretty chunky looking clouds appeared.

we got in the car to drive around and investigate.

in some spots, the sky was clear. in others it was pitch black. and still in others it was yellow / pink / purple-ish.

it came through like a snake. pitch black up the middle, clear or colorful on either side.

after we’d hung about for a bit longer, we started to head back to the house for some dinner and playtime with dolby. along the bay (the “scenic tour” way home), i saw a HUGE bird in a tree – too big for a hawk, wrong neck for a heron, and pelicans don’t roost in trees.

we pulled a u-turn and then another, got out the camera and shot what i thought might’ve been an eagle or falcon at first glance. it was an osprey! a big boy, too!

a spectacular sunset was brewing after we saw the falcon. we pulled off into a cemetary by the bay and snapped some pretty cool shots. also got some rainbow shots that i’m having difficulty manipulating in the newest WordPress release. if i’m able, will update with that later.

we love nights like tonight – the time together, the variety of weather, the awe of creation. it’s good to be reminded of the insignificance that our puny lives represent when cast against everything else. crummy days at school melt away in times like these.

i was 13 years old. 1982. jr. high.

the song came on the radio and i froze.

the smooth beat started. the whispered plea, the wailing voice.

nevermind that the subject matter is first and foremost on the minds of jr. high boys everywhere.

the music stays smooth and cool through the entire song, but the intensity of marvin gaye’s singing, the urgency of his needs grows as the song goes on.

holy cow, the man had pipes.

my first 7″ 45 single? sexual healing.

i remember walking up to globe records and tapes at western hills plaza and searching through the singles on the shelf. finding my prize, i bought it and zipped back.

when i got it home, i played it. and played it. and played it. it was my first serious exposure to gaye’s music and it was one i never forgot.

it still has a mesmerizing effect on me. i’ve listened to it four times as i’ve written this and had to force myself not to play it a fifth time. truly addictive.

and no one else can quite set the tone like he does.

the list that has been making the facebook rounds with 25 random things about yourself – it’s vexing to me. i don’t want to do it. and i won’t

but this – this list is something i can do and be happy about!

25 favorite albums in no particular order

1. Pink Floyd – Dark Side of the Moon
2. Jason Mraz – Live at Schuba’s Tavern 01-15-2003
3. Waterdeep – Sink or Swim
4. Herbie Hancock – Headhunters
5. Keith Jarrett Trio – Live at the Blue Note
6. Green Day – Dookie
7. Dave Matthews & Tim Reynolds – Live at Radio City
8. Damien Jurado – Ghost of David
9. Cowboy Junkies – Trinity Session
10. The Band – The Last Waltz
11. The Black Keys – Chulahoma: The Songs of Junior Kimbrough
12. Chick Corea and Gary Burton – Crystal Silence
13. Iron & Wine – Our Endless Numbered Days
14. Jimmy Smith – The Sermon!
15. Joe Satriani – Super Colossal
16. Led Zeppelin – Led Zeppelin II
17. Mazzy Star – So Tonight That I Might See
18. Miles Davis and John Coltrane – The Complete Columbia Recordings
19. Yo-Yo Ma – The Cello Suites Inspired by Bach
20. Rusted Root – Cruel Sun
21. Phil Keaggy – Beyond Nature
22. Judas Priest – Screaming for Vengeance
23. Neil Young – Deepsix Vol. 2
24. John Coltrane – A Love Supreme
25. Grateful Dead – Live at the Fillmore East – 4-29-1971
26. Over the Rhine – Drunkard’s Prayer

i noted over on facebook that the honorable mentions list would be at least as long as this one.

what’s your list?

several weeks ago may vanderbilt (of www.anneandmay.com) put up several items for grabs on her blog – cool items that, if you wanted one of them, you simply had to tell her you wanted it – at the end of that week, she drew names out of a hat to determine who would get what of the things she had (sort of a cool-item housecleaning, if you will).

one item was a Moleskine Notebook. i like moleskine (and will post soon on how i abuse them) so i put my name in for it, not thinking i had a chance in the world of getting it.

but a week later, my name is pulled out of a hat – yay!

and this is my video thanks to May for the cool notebook! click on the Play button to see…

Download thanks to may vanderbilt!

the wind was blowing like crazy that morning. the beach was deserted. the surf flag was red which means DANGER and DO NOT SWIM IN THE GULF. the sand was whipping around and stung my legs and most of the beach had been washed away by the storm the previous night. storm clouds were brewing still. it’s a rare sight to see pensacola beach emptied in early august.

i drove down to the dead-end just to watch the swirling & crashing waves for a while. on the way there, i passed a single vehicle. an SUV with Kansas plates was parked on the side of the road and an umbrella was in the middle of the beach, propped on it’s side against the onslaught of wind. driving slowly past, i see two folks huddled under the meager protection from the elements, a cooler between them and looking like they were having the time of their lives.

i smiled once as i crawled past because i realized that lise and i would have done the same crazy kind of thing.

i smiled twice because i could hear them saying to themselves, “dagnabbit, we drove all the way from kansas to sit on the beach, and come hell or high water, that’s what we’re doing!!”

i’ve been on a bit of a joe satriani kick the last few days. his technical proficiency aside, he makes some of the best put together songs out there and with such attention to melody. i almost forget that i’m listening to a completely instrumental guitar album. it’s not just “chops” – it’s musical poetry.

this video is of one of my favorite satriani songs, a love song written for his wife – “always with me, always with you” from his album surfing with the alien. this was recorded two years ago and is probably the best version of it that i’ve heard.

i can’t sing.

that’s not a whiny, self-pitying, boo-hoo statement. i just can’t sing. i DO sing, i simply don’t do it in a way that is humanly bearable to those around me.

but don chaffer – there’s no one i know who has a sweeter voice among male singers.

Download On A Night That Felt Outdated

his songwriting is fantastic. his production skills are over the top. his guitar work is wonderful and expansive.

but oh wow – he just has the sweetest and most expressive voice i’ve ever heard. the above song is called On A Night That Felt Outdated – it was captured live a couple years ago at a concert that has been posted online for download here.

chaffer’s band, waterdeep, has been an underground favorite for years with folks who like folksy, bluesy, jam-band, acoustic, electric, rock & funk – they’ve been consistent in their drive to put out solid, well-put-together music without compromising the music itself.

one thing i particularly appreciate about his music (oh, that voice) has been his ability to stay true to living life – chaffer is a christian who writes and sings about real life not the syrupy sappiness that gets played on mainstream christian radio stations. he writes about pain, about joy, about his family, his frustrations, despair, and contentment – all without becoming a caricature or a pretender. much of what passes for “christian” music today is a cartoon of life – it’s not real or even remotely realistic.

Download Bob Dylan’s Shelter From the Storm

the above song was recorded at the same concert as the first one – he and his wife lori do a cover of bob dylan’s shelter from the storm.

some of our favorite concerts have been waterdeep shows – they have a cohesiveness and fluidity that showcases not only their collective skill as a unit, but the individual skills of each member. being in the audience as they branch off into long, extended solos and improvisational songs is almost surreal.

but that voice. so sweet. so high.

oh, when i grow up, please let me be able to sing like don chaffer.

katie reider has died.

much sadness at her passing and prayers for her family.

i don’t go ga-ga over all musicians, but katie was special. incredible voice, great musician, and she was hott to boot. lise picks on me, but my favorite track of hers is “Show Your Love” off the No Retakes CD.

check her website out and buy some of her music – you’ll thank me later.

cabin three had a rowdy reputation that year. the leaders were losing sleep and patience. the guys were up at all hours, they were hip, cool, and impervious to the body’s need for sleep. these were some cool guys and it was a challenge to connect with them in a meaningful way.

i was the camp pastor that year and was teaching each morning, then teaching / preaching each night. i loved camp. it was awesome getting my own kids out of their element for a week, but it was great getting to know the other 70+ teenagers who were there as well. teaching has always been one of my favorite things.

but this group of guys – they were almost too cool.

so the first two days have come and gone. we’re on day three and these dudes were being cool with me and all, but i really wanted to connect with them and just hang and talk. figuring out how – what could we possibly have in common?

on the way back to my cabin that night, the ruckus was loud as ever coming from cabin three.

i stick my head in. their leader sees me and runs for the door – relief!

and there are twelve guys standing in a semi-circle – one is obviously the leader while another standing in a squat position opposite him about 15 feet away, is obviously subjected to some horrible camp ritual. how can i tell? he’s in his boxers and a look of impending pain and agony is on his face.

“dudes, what’s going on? can i play?” i ask.
*loud cheers from the peanut gallery*
“you want to play nutball??” comes the incredulous reply.
“hmm. nutball. never heard of it. sure, how do you play?”
*cool dudes look at me with suspicion, wondering if i’m going to break up their game or if i’m sincere. what they don’t know is: i’m up for just about anything*
“we take this… ball… we made from rocks wrapped in a sock, and have 2 teams. first team up picks a guy who pulls his boxers down just a couple inches, opens the fly and squats. the other team has a pitcher who takes the ball and whips it at the other guys’… er, nuts… and if he makes it into the open fly it’s a point – if he hits the guys nuts… that’s another point!”
*more cheers from the teams*

it was at this point that a dawning admiration and horror struck me. i had just volunteered to have a sock filled with rocks hurled at my exposed ballbag. on purpose.

“whoa! sounds cool – who’s winning so far? how high do you play to?” and other questions were asked in an effort to stall what seemed inevitable – i was going to get hurt in the name of making a connection with these guys. and it was hilarious hearing them talk all excited about this absolutely insane game of pain, hearing who had their privates whacked already, who had scored the most points, how you didn’t HAVE to hit their nuts but could actually bounce it off the opponents stomach and have it land in the hole of his fly (but what fun is that?), and the sheer awe of having The Camp Pastor want to play.

i realized that i was vested in this and might as well get it over with as quickly as possible. i talked a bit more and then it struck me.

boxers. you have to wear boxers. i didn’t have any boxers with me. and none of these guys had boxers that would fit.

disappointed groans came from all the guys as they realized i was not going to be able to play. i stuck around for a few more innings of the game, wincing in pain at each point scored, cheering as loud as i could, and then excused myself.

and those guys spent the rest of the week treating me like one of their own, connected, all because of a willingness to take part in their pain game.

all just a part of camp leadership.

 

flies through space!

www.walken2008.com

i’m sad to say that ron paul has bowed out of the 2008 presidential election.

folks are still trying to figure him out, but i’ll bottom line it with this:

it’s integrity.

the kids finished up last friday but we’ve got several days of paperwork, meetings, training, room clearning, etc. before we’re finished for the summer.

i got some time friday with one of my girls who is painfully shy but such an incredible student that i wish i could have more like her. i took about 10 minutes while we were outside and really encouraged her, talked about the things that so impressed me about her, talked to her about how i know she feels like a fish out of water sometimes because she’s so shy but that other students were envious of her quiet and hard-working attitude, let her know that she’s one of the few students i could really say “you’ll do anything you want to do when you grow up if you keep up with the things you’re doing” – it was just a really good but too brief time together letting her know that she’s been a great student.

so this morning i’m in my room cleaning up, moving desks around, throwing BOXES of papers and trash away. hidden on my cart was a folded up piece of paper that i was 95% certain was just a note one student probably wrote to another last week that i took from them – you know how it is.

just as i’m about to throw the thing away, i decide to take a look at it.

and it’s a note, written friday morning just before the kids left, from this girl. it was written directly to me and included a picture of her folded up in the note, too.

here’s the note.

and this is what i’ll miss.

my students are a tough bunch. passionate and vocal about everything – happiness, anger, fights, bickering, petty squabbles – they don’t hold back and this is cause for a lot of trouble at times. there are moments when i love this loud passion and many times when it makes me want to scream.

this loud passion also causes the few quiet, introspective, reserved students to get lost in the shuffle of classroom dynamics. i frequently feel frustrated because i want to give them more attention but often cannot simply because they’re not being obnoxious loud and passionate enough to be noticed.

but one girl in particular has been a real powerful influence in our grade. she’s quiet. she’s smart because she works hard and studies. she’s not real popular with the other girls because she’s not in-your-face and doesn’t look like them, but she has a lot of admirers. she was the first student in harper’s class voted as student of the month because she follows all the rules, does all her work, goes out of her way to be helpful, is quite respectful to not only students but to teachers, too.

and she’s compassionate.

early in the year as i was trying to establish my relationship with the students, she wrote me notes several times to let me know when this or that student was “doing a good job” – meaning that i should make sure i praised / reinforced them.

she has drawn me pictures just out of the blue. she’s made pipe cleaner / ribbon things and given them to me. we have swapped seashells and told stories of how we found them.

a couple months into the year, she wrote me a page long note letting me know that some of my interactions with the students were making them unhappy because they felt i was making fun of them. she folded the note into an interlocking square and colored the outside of it bright colors and gave it to me quietly at the end of the class period. honestly, i’ve not felt so chastised as at that moment.

several weeks ago she asked me what my favorite candybar was – i told her hershey’s special dark and forgot about the conversation. a week or so later, she’s brought me a mini special dark bar.

all this to explain how i continue to learn about compassion:

last week i hit the store and found bags of skittles 2 for $.95 and bought several to use for incentives. harper’s class is the noisiest and most obnoxious and in need of the most incentives, so during a 30 minute period during which students were to be working independently on computers in the lab, i made the following offer: the two students who could be the most quiet during that half hour would get a bag of skittles.

and it was amazing. the whole class. dead quiet. honest! you could have heard a pin drop. i was literally flabbergasted and at odds as to how to distribute two bags of skittles.

so i picked the two students who get into the most trouble for talking and messing around, and in front of the whole class, pointed them out, complimented them on how hard they worked and how quiet they were, gave them their skittles and was ready to proceed to the playground for a bit.

the moans and groans from those who didn’t get the skittles were predictable. what was also predictable was seeing this young lady so happy for those two students that she was literally hopping in place in line, huge smile plastered on her face, and she was clapping.

two students who almost never get praised for anything looking at skittles like they’d won the lottery. eighteen students who were mad that they didn’t get the skittles, some complaining and wanting to know how / why these two got them, it’s not fair, how did you decide, etc.

and one girl who was thrilled to not get the skittles. thrilled that two others got them. so thrilled that she couldn’t contain her happiness for them and was clapping for them.

now fifth grade is fifth grade and she realized that she was getting The Look because of her compassion and caring and clapping – obviously she stopped, but the smile never left her face. and i knew i had made the right decision about giving those skittles away.

and i am continually taught about compassion and love from sources i don’t always expect to find it.

she did it.

she found the proverbial “big one” – The Shell.

after my finding of The Other Big One back in december, lise’s pitched a bit of a fit that she’s not had the same luck. but last week, we hit the beach and there it was.

we had walked a ways down the beach together until at some point i decided to go back to the chairs and sit, watch the sunset and listen to the waves. lise trudged on, deciding to get in the chilly water and wade around a bit.

and that’s where she saw it. the top half of a large lightning whelk sticking up from the sand maybe 4′ from the shore. as she recounted the story, she said, “i saw it and i thought to myself, ‘oh, please let it be a whole one, not a broken one!’ as she pulled it out of the sand she let out a loud “YES!!” and bounded out of the water to examine her find.

it’s a nice one, too. where mine is 12″ and quite faded (not from the sun but because when they get to that size, the color becomes more of a flat cream with less pronounced ridges), hers is 7″ and full of colors and textured ridges! it’s a real beauty and is now proudly displayed as one half of the two Big Ones.

will this end her quest for another big one as it did mine?

probably not. who says chicks don’t care about size?

my first day at semmes elementary started with a blast – my principal came out on stage to Eye of the Tiger blaring over the speakers, decked in full boxing gear and sang the song at full tilt.

it was, needless to say, a riot. this guy is awesome.

i arrived an hour early (not meaning to, but not realizing that 8am is the starting time this week) and when i got there and no one else was there… i thought maybe i was in the wrong place. :-)

breakfast was served and i got the chance to float around the cafeteria and meet just about everyone – i’m happy to report: these folks are all very nice. it looks like we’ve got a top-notch team at this school.

a few meetings were held and we got our keys to our classrooms. over the summer, central air was being installed and sadly, they’re not finished yet. even more sadly (and the only sour note to the day): the window unit in my room is kaput. imagine 120 degrees, no breeze and high humidity: i was basting in my own juices again.

lunch with fellow staff members was good and getting to hear more stories about who they are, why they’re in education – this is the stuff i live for.

scavenging through some other empty and unused classrooms for extra tables and furniture, baking a bit more in the heat, one more brief meeting and getting to spend time with my teaching partner (cole) talking music and educational philosophy rounded out the day. i’m looking forward to working with this guy and with the other teachers / leaders at this school.

it’s gonna be a good year.

keira

knightley = holy cow sooo hott!! go. see. the. movie. (i’m a pig. i know it.)

kirsten

dunst =

omg

sooo

hot

 

 

oy vey.

kurt vonnegut, a man who shares my birthday, is dead.

i can’t blame kurt for my sarcastic skepticism about life and humanity but i will admit that his writing profoundly touched me (and at an early age – i think i read my first vonnegut book back in junior high).

looks like i need a new left-wing, commie-pinko, free-thinking, skeptical humanist to admire. any takers?

i forgot to mention…

just before we left for Pensacola, my dad and i and fellow family member greg went to see G3 at the taft theater here in cincinnati.

for the uninitiated, G3 is a touring rock group headed by joe satriani and joined by various guitarists over the years (such as steve vai, yngwie malmsteen, and kenny wayne shepherd, among others). serious guitar wizardry and obviously: guitar gods, depending on whom you ask. this time around, however, the other two guitarists were not known to me – i was sure they’d be good, but c’mon… against satriani, just about everyone sucks.

now, things were getting busy around this time – i was leaving for 2 days in pittsburgh, then back for 3 days and leaving for pensacola for 10 days – this was not a good time for me to spend 4+ hours on a sunday night at what was guaranteed to be the loudest, heaviest concert i’d ever been to. but i wanted to go and be with dad and the thought of seeing joe satriani was nice, too.

i should mention: waaay back when i was in high school, satriani came out with his first album (i always call it the Silver Surfer album, but the actual name of it is surfing with the alien) and it ripped!! this guy was incredible, and i remember hanging with friends who agreed: satriani was the newest guitar god and without question, one of the best.

so, come the night of the concert – we’ve got great seats on the floor. we’re late, but it doesn’t matter – the first of the 3 guys is a no-name who used noise to cover up the fact that he wasn’t that great a guitarist. his drummer had his kit miked in such a way that it was like being defibrillated with each kick of the bass drum. he’s straining and working too hard for my taste.
with the second guy, things were looking up. his name is john petrucci – a guy i later realized i DID know (from the band Dream Theater) – and he was pretty good! all instrumental and pretty kicking. he’s working a bit too hard, too – you know what i mean? he’s, like, fighting his guitar and thinking too hard in the process.
and then.

oh. my. gosh.

joe satriani comes out and absolutely blows my mind. he’s freaking insane on that guitar. and besides being tight, besides doing every guitar trick in the book, besides having some fat and heavy music, the guy looks like he’s not even thinking about it!! he’s just playing this amazing guitar and doing things to it that i’m pretty sure are illegal in some states, and it looks like he could just be sitting in an overstuffed easy chair watching TV and drinking a beer.

he’s as natural a guitarist as i’ve ever witnessed. and i admit it: i couldn’t believe what i was seeing and hearing.

we coulda skipped the first two guys and just come for him and it’d have been worth the night.

his new album is worth every dime. super colossal. and if you get an opportunity to see him live? don’t miss it.

“Higher education has absolutely no impact on character.”
- Daly’s Maxim

many moons ago when i worked at Gallaudet University, i struck up an odd friendship with a rather old, rather unusual physics professor named Daly. he and i would spend countless hours talking about our lives & experiences and just about everything was fair game.

one day he told me that he had only one maxim after all his years as a college professor in what he considered to be a rather frustrating arena (the university setting). Daly’s Maxim was born and was explained thusly:

“scott,” he said to me in a grandfatherly way, “if you were a dickhead before you got your college degree, you’ll still be a dickhead after you graduate. and getting a master’s or a doctorate won’t change that. higher education has absolutely no impact on character.”

“is there any hope for higher educated jerks?” i asked him, stunned by the profundity of his declaration.

“no,” came the terse reply.

toad the wet sprocket is a favorite band of mine. i found out about them towards the end of their run (mid-late 90’s) but have kept up with glen phillips, their lead singer, songwriter, guitarist.

their album, fear, has a song at the tail end of the record called, “I Will Not Take These Things For Granted” and the song has always struck me.

here’s the song – it’s an MP3 and about 8mb in size. be patient.

the lyrics:

One part of me just wants to tell you everything
One part just needs the quiet
And if I’m lonely here, I’m lonely here
And on the telephone, you offer reassurance

I will not take these things for granted
I will not take these things…

How can I hold the part of me that only you can carry?
It needs a strength I haven’t found
But if it’s frightening, I’ll bear the cold
And on the telephone, you offer warm asylum

I’m listening, flowers in the garden
Laughter in the hall, children in the park

I will not take these things for granted (x3)
I will not take these things…anymore

To crawl inside the wire and feel something near me
To feel this accepting
That it is lonely here, but not alone
And on the telephone, you offer visions dancing

I’m listening, music in the bedroom
Laughter in the hall, dive into the ocean
Singing by the fire, running through the forest
Standing in the wind, the rolling canyons

I will not take these things for granted (x3)
I will not take these things…anymore

————-

i’m sure i could come up with something profound to make you scratch your head, ponder your very existence, and then think, “dang! that rustypants sure is a smart and profound dude!!” but i’d like to think that you can make connections with the song yourself.

what are some songs that are profound to you?

loading the iPod this past week has given me renewed appreciation for a couple of albums i’ve loved for many years but hadn’t listened to in a while.

waaay back in 1988 one of my best friends was an art student at the Art Academy of Cincinnati. he had eclectic taste in music and introduced me to such groups as siouxsie and the banshees, edie brickell and the new bohemians, and 10,000 maniacs. one night we were at the art academy and this slow, funky groove is playing in the background with a most awesome female vocalist crooning in an sultry, ethereal tone – who is this, i demanded to know!

it’s the Trinity Session from the cowboy junkies.

never heard of them.

and never forgot them after that night.

their music since then has been consistent. their first album with geffen records almost a dozen years later may be even better than the trinity session album, but maybe not. they’re still together. margot timmins still has one of the most awesome voices out there.

they’ve toured and been good friends with over the rhine for many years, and it’s no wonder. they have a similar sound and style, although i’ll go with the junkies over OTR probably 9 out of 10 tries.

don’t have the album? go download one of their concerts from the Live Music Archive – particularly THIS ONE. it’s probably the best sound quality of the bunch.

have a great thanksgiving!

even as i was having fun with my principal, getting him pictured with various wigs, etc. i had to be getting photographed in a like manner.

and now, the result:

should i use this as my school picture?

i’ve worked in one form of special ed or another for almost 16 years now. as i started at a new school 2 weeks ago, i met a number of new folks and we swapped stories about why we’re in special ed.

i’ve found over those years that many of us have “a story” – a neighbor was handicapped; a brother or sister was disabled; a student in high school had down’s syndrome; a deaf man/woman used to come into a place where they worked – you get the picture.

i hadn’t thought about it for a while: why am i so in love with special ed?

and then i remembered.

17 years ago, i was a student at the University of Cincinnati looking at getting into economics. i wasn’t a very good student (and wasn’t particularly business-minded) so i bounced around in different classes. i started taking a sign language class and learned a lot more about my hearing impairment – it was pretty intriguing! i had no idea about a lot of this stuff, so learning about why i had problems with this or that – pretty cool!

my last semester at UC i decided to take an introduction to special education course just to see what i could learn – mainly about deafness and deaf education. through the course of this 10 week class, we had to take 3 field trips to different schools or organizations that provided services to the disabled.

this was where my life changed.

i don’t recall much about the class. the professor was cool. the information was interesting. but the first two field trips were not memorable.

the third one? hah!

my class met at this residential school here in town and were taken through by one of the administrators of the school. she walked us through the classrooms, explained their mission, explained how they work with the students, explained that many of the children there were unable to help themselves at all – profoundly retarded, in other words. many of the children who were there were lying on mats and could not even roll over or know we were in the room.

we came through one room and a number of students were lying on mats while the teacher worked individually with them. as we listened to the administrator telling us about the kids, one kid stood out.

he’s maybe six years old. he’s blind. he’s deaf. he can’t walk or talk. he has only enough brain matter to keep him breathing and his heart beating. if you held a flashlight up to his head, his head would glow because there’s nothing but fluid in there. in essesnce: this kid had no life – it was meaningless! he was a vegetable! what good could it possibly be to keep a kid like this alive? what’s the point?

and then i noticed the t-shirt he had on. it said:

I’m Mary’s!
KEEP OFF!
so we’re about to move along and i couldn’t resist.”wait! what does the t-shirt mean? who’s mary and how is he hers?”"oh! well, mary is one of the nurses here. if anyone other than mary picks him up or tries to work with him, he screams and cries and won’t let them do a thing to him! but if mary picks him up, he smiles and lets her do what she wants.”

well, this was an epiphany!

“you mean to tell me that this kid: blind, deaf, no brain, a vegetable: he can tell who mary is? he reacts to that? HOW??”

“we’re not sure. that’s just him and he knows the difference!”

that was a life-changing experience. here’s a kid that 5 minutes before i had written off as a vegetable – and he’s got a FAVORITE NURSE!! haha!! NO WAY!!! i was completely floored. he had a personality. he reacted to the things around him. he DID have meaning! he IS valuable! he’s mary’s and by golly, when mary has him he’s happy. content. joy is experienced, even if only in short bursts and in ways we’d never understand.
my class left that school a while later and of the fifteen students, thirteen of them were overwhelmed with disgust and revulsion. one girl said she felt like throwing up after being in there.

one other guy and i were spinning like tops – that was the most amazing thing i had ever seen!

very soon after that i got a job working with profoundly handicapped pre-schoolers over in Northern KY and i LOVED it. when we moved to washington dc, i started working with learning disabled deaf students at Gallaudet University. then it was the national children’s center in NW D.C. working with autistic kids (multiply handicapped, little communication abilities, violently aggressive, severely retarded) for five years. then it was marley glen special school in baltimore, maryland working with autistic kids again for two more years.

even as we moved back to cincinnati for me to get my degree in youth ministry, in the back of my mind i wondered if i was making a mistake.

i’ve been VERY lucky! the two greatest jobs in the world, and i’ve done them both! special ed! youth ministry! i did both at the same time for 10 years!! i mean, who gets this lucky when it comes to jobs??

so now that i’ve left youth ministry as a profession, i’m back in school getting my M Ed. in special education at xavier university, working for princeton city schools working with another group of special ed kids and loving it!

i’m one lucky dude.

whatever happened to that kid on the mat who had no brain, belonged to mary, experienced joy and changed my life?

i dunno. but i love him still.

one of the great benefits of being a youth minister is getting to attend weddings of past kids. and this weekend we went insane and drove to maryland to witness the wedding of karen and her man kevin. and it was awesome!

karen is absolutely one of Scott’s Girls. and you can read about why here.

the wedding was great. shortest one i’ve ever been to.

“do you take her?”

“i do.”

“do you take him?”

“i do.”

i now pronounce you….

it was pretty wild. :-) reception rocked. seeing her family again for the first time in several years rocked.

more stories and pictures to follow. we’ll be in maryland til sunday morning and then heading back to cincinnati.

you MIGHT be able to click here to see the other wedding pics. if not? sorry!

Syd Barrett died.

for most of you, this is probably not a name you’re familiar with, but for this old man… well.

i was turned on to Pink Floyd by the sister of my best friend in junior high. ken had bought me an album by Billy Joel for my birthday and i already had it (52nd Street, maybe?) – ken’s sister worked at Globe Records and Tapes in the plaza a couple miles from my house. i walked into the store and asked for some help in returning it and getting something else. what would she suggest, my 7th grade former self asked.

and she gave me Wish You Were Here.

and life as i knew it was changed forever.

i didn’t know anything about Pink Floyd at this point. never heard of dark side of the moon. didn’t know animals. no idea who syd barrett was or that Wish You Were Here was dedicated to him and was essentially about him.

sonically, WYWH is probably my favorite Floyd album. the range of the music was mind-blowing. the guitar work of david gilmour – holy cow! the whole thing was mesmerizing.

soon after, i was loaned The Wall and Dark Side of the Moon.

and then i went back further and discovered syd, hiding among the first two albums PF made.

then i bought his 2 solo albums.

did i like them? sure. did i love them? hmm. no. syd’s music was a bit too far gone for me. was he a genius? i suppose. misunderstood genius? definitely.

at any rate, RIP syd. if nothing else, you started the band that would build on your insanity and blow our minds. thanks.