Couldn't sleep last night and so decided to drive around D.C. It's a very well lit city at night. Here's Ben's Chili Bowl on U Street @ 3:30 am--SRO! U street was hopping, and by comparison M Street in Georgetown, Pennsylvania Avenue SE around Capitol Hill, and Georgia Avenue, NW from Howard University to Pentworth were dead...WELL lit, but not much action. Well, there was the all night laundromat at Georgia and Park, NW....
Good news, got home around 5 AM and slept until 11:30!
Sunday, March 22, 2009
Insomnia
Saturday, March 21, 2009
March Madness 09.2
Picking the #10 seats was at least a first round strategy that has paid off. With U. S. C.'s win, I'm rooting for teams with a 75% up-set rate.
Go you Trojans, Spartans, & Terps!
Friday, March 20, 2009
What I'm Listening To #51
"This Delicate Thing We've Made" by Darren Hayes is totally that and more. Darren has a wonderful voice and he knows how to use it to express both ideas of celebrations and longing.
Thursday, March 19, 2009
March Madness 09.1
I am not very inclined to madness involving basketball. But given my history, I've staked my claim upon the #10 seats.
Maryland
Michigan
U. S. C.
Minnesota
And so far two of the four are advancing, only Minnesota has been eliminated. U.S.C. has yet to complete its first round match. May Spartans, Terps, and Trojans rejoice this evening, while Gophers go home with grace and good-will ready to play for glory again in a new season.
Wednesday, March 18, 2009
Monday, March 16, 2009
Random Quote #103
"I put a dollar in one of those change machines. Nothing changed."
~ George Carlin, 1937 - 2008
Sunday, March 15, 2009
Open Letter #1 ~ Re: A.I.G.
President Barack Obama
1600 Pennsylvania Avenue, NW
Washington, D.C. 20050
Dear President Obama,
I am writing to you this evening after learning that the international insurance giant A.I.G. has decided to use some of it's bail-out funds to pay its executives $100,000,000.00 in bonuses. This raises for me a couple of questions:
1) Bonuses for what? I'm a teacher. Will I get a bonus under your proposal for merit pay for teachers if I send all of my students to the poorhouse and prison? If so, then, hey - I'm ALL FOR MERIT PAY!
2) Bailouts without strings? Haven't we been down this road before under George-the-Lesser and his corporate loving regime? (Just this very morning I got yet another phone call from the DNC asking me for money. MY MONEY. Why would I ever give you or the Democratic Party another penny of MY money when it just goes into the pockets of multi-millionaires who are incompetent in their professional contractual expectations while I struggle to meet my meager fiduciary obligations?)
I hope that you will act in extraordinary ways to protect my tax dollars from such arbitrary and capricious abuses. When the head of A.I.G., Edward M. Liddy, justified this outrageous action, he stated that:
1) He was afraid of being sued. I would counter that such a threat is the new cost of doing business with MY money. Those who sue only diminish their desirability as future employees at A.I.G. or anywhere else. (When have you ever heard a company demure from seeking court approval for reneging on retiree pensions or health care benefits because they are afraid of being sued for breech of contract? And these people have actually WORKED! It's absurd on its face.)
2) Further, he contended that these employees were the “best and the brightest” and not paying out bonuses could jeopardize their retention with the company. Am I living on “backwards planet”? These experts are the greedy foolish curs that landed A.I.G. in its present crisis. If I were such an “expert” as a teacher, I would be gone in a heartbeat.
Will you remind dear Mr. Liddy that he was appointed by you, and that his #1 obligation is to ME (the tax payer); and NOT to the people who's “expertise” caused this crisis? Is this too much to expect? I sincerely HOPE not.
I so want you to succeed. I write you in both the spirit of outrage and trust. I love my country, and it hurts me to the core to watch the privileged few rape U.S. for their own selfish pleasures, and all the more in time a crisis when average folk are making patriotic sacrifices.
Humbly Yours,
randuwa
Today's Sermon #13
I WANDERED LONELY AS A CLOUD
I wandered lonely as a cloud
That floats on high o'er vales and hills,
When all at once I saw a crowd,
A host of golden daffodils,
Beside the lake, beneath the trees,
Fluttering and dancing in the breeze.
Continuous as the stars that shine
And twinkle on the milky way,
They stretched in a never-ending line
Along the margin of a bay;
Ten thousand saw I at a glance,
Tossing their heads in sprightly dance.
The waves beside them danced, but they
Outdid the sparkling waves in glee;
A poet could not but be gay,
In such a jocund company;
I gazed--and gazed--but little thought
What wealth the show to me had brought;
For oft when on my couch I lie
In vacant or in pensive mood,
They flash upon that inward eye
Which is the bliss of solitude;
And then my heart with pleasure fills,
And dances with the daffodils.
~ William Wordsworth, 1770 - 1850
Saturday, March 14, 2009
For The Birds
One of the most clear and delightful harbingers of Spring are the birds.
Last weekend I happened to awake well into the night and while working on my computer heard the first strands of song from birds newly returned to the neighborhood.
This morning I awoke late, but still had the privilege of watching Robins, Wrens, and Sparrows flit around my backyard. In the front yard, Mockingbirds and Blue Jays were competing for a place at my fountain.
Later in the afternoon I caught this Morning Dove at the bath in the backyard.
What I'm Listening To #50
"daft punk" in the creative coalition of French musicians Guy-Manuel de Homem-Christo and Thomas Bangalter. It's like electronica-lite. Easy on the ears and the heart. Cool, at times jazzy, even tempered music with a beat that floats as much as it hits. Ideal background music for any event.
What I'm Watching #191
"Let's Go To Prison" is a light-hearted little comedy that makes a cloudy rainy afternoon just slide by. It's mostly predictable, but caught my funny bone a couple of times. Nice movie.
Sunday, March 08, 2009
Today's Sermon #13
Today's sermon is not a poem. It's a Television commercial for a Bank! What did Christ say? Give unto Caesar.... not that that axiom applies here.
This is more like "do unto others." And it took a bank from Argentina to remind us of this!
This is more like "do unto others." And it took a bank from Argentina to remind us of this!
Saturday, March 07, 2009
She's Back!
After a grateful hiatus, my deer is back.... Alas!
I first contemplated this possibility after pulling into my driveway on Thursday evening and discovering that all of the crocus blossoms were mysteriously gone! Gone, indeed. More like lunch....
And what's to be done? No one in any official capacity will assist me. Do I curse the fact that I live in such a woodsy urban setting?
Yet, how do I stop feeding the damn deer with every flower, bush, tree, bulb I plant!?
Am I suddenly left with the maxim: "Love the animal, hate their animal instincs?" How crazy ironic is that!?
Suggestions......
Friday, March 06, 2009
Tales Out Of School
For a short week, it was a week full of flurry and melt. There are so many reasons why my job is the BEST job on the planet, but none tops the people with whom I work. The 5 to 12 year-old set is as compelling and endearing as any age group out there.
TALE ONE
One of the ways I make myself useful is to greet and welcome new students and often assist our Instructional Data Assistant in administering their mathematics placement test. A. enrolled on Tuesday from Bangladesh. She had been screened by the school district's "International Office" and was passed on to us as being sufficiently English proficient to enroll directly into school. The principal assured us that he and A. had had a "conversation," and the assistant principal talked about how well A. understood her during a tour of the school.
Within seconds it was painful apparent that A. would smile and nod at me no matter what I said, as long as my tone was friendly, and I was smiling at her. As someone who has lived in both China and Central America, I often found this technique very helpful in maintaining a general sense of order among those around me, while remaining completely oblivious to what was actually "happening" around me.
A visit with our own ESOL teacher quickly pegged A. as without a bare minimal of English Language skills. Her dynamite smile remains intact and active.
TALE TWO
Today, we received two more students from overseas. This time they were brothers from the Cameroon. I helped with I.'s placement test. In no time it was apparent that he had learned (and learned well with mechanical strategies) certain basic skills/concepts (computation, fractions) while others fundamental to our curriculum were complete strangers to him (geometry, number theory). At one point he looked at the compass and protractor and began to cry.
TALE THREE
Visiting a first grade teacher in the afternoon, I was asked to check up on a new student in her class, M., who was in the nurse's office because she said she'd fallen and hit her head while visiting the bathroom. The teacher indicated that she was concerned about M.'s odd behavior and lack of most basic understanding of school and the expectations of being a first grader -- both separate from this particular incident.
I arrived at the Nurse's Office to find her sitting with an ice pack held to the crown of her noggin. She wore a forlorn expression on her face. I asked the nurse if M. was able to return to class, and she assured me that M. was.
M. tossed the ice pack into the wastebasket and replaced her frown with a big smile. As we stepped into the hallway, M. eagerly placed her hand into mine. We made small talk as we walked down the hall together.
Passing a water fountain, she asked me for permission to get a drink before entering her classroom. I said that would be fine.
She suddenly turned back toward me just before getting the drink to ask, "Are you the uncle?"
Thursday, March 05, 2009
O Mon Dieu!
Têtu, the French gay/lesbian magazine has launched a web radio station! So now, Belgium's Donna Radio has a neighbor....
Listening tonight the first five songs were:
~ "American Boy" by Estelle (w/ Kanye West)
~ "Aerodynamic" by Daft Punk
~ "Hot n Cold" by Katy Perry
~ "Black And Gold" by Sam Sparro
~ "Taking Back My Love" Ciara/Enrique Iglesias
Hot International Techno-Dance Club with a mix of vocals and intrumentals. The "Black and Gold" version was the extended dance club version.
http://www.g00mradio.com/playertetu/
Check it out.
Wednesday, March 04, 2009
What I'm Reading #13
Carpe Diem: Put A Little Latin In Your Life by Harry Mount is a delightful little book of annecdotes, observations, and ideas around growing up with a Latin in a world that takes it's history and influence for granted.
Great for the night table, easily consumed in bite sized chunks.
Cheers!
Monday, March 02, 2009
What I'm Watching #190
I've been saving this one, and wisely so. It took a day when I had the unexpected gift of time and my heart was full of the wonder of a sudden snow to give me the grace to experience this amazing and profound movie.
"The Laramie Project" started as an idea in the mind of the playwright Moisés Kaufman. It was an attempt at capturing a moment in history that was first about murder, second about hatred, third about a community, fourth about homosexuality, and finally about humanity.
It asks the question without ever really asking it: What does make us different from other animals? And it answers it with the humble, wrenching testimony of Matthew Shepherd's father at the sentencing of his recalcitrant murderer: Mercy.
This movie ought to be a part of a class that every high school senior is required to participate in: Humanity 101. And no matter the outcome, at least our next generation will be asked the right questions....
4 Views, Snowy Monday in Sligo Creek Park
Up and out walking the trail along Sligo Creek near my home. Love the snow.
Plowing The Snow
Caught this phalanx of snow plows clearing the north bound lanes of New Hampshire Avenue this morning as I was waiting to cross. There were seven of them in total and they lined up so that the first shoved the snow to the second, the second to the third, etc. until the seventh buried the sidewalk with it. Great for the cars, no so good for the walkers!
Sunday, March 01, 2009
What I'm Watching #189
Two movies on a Sunday afternoon? Yes, it's snowing in D.C.!
Fans of the Logo series Noah's Arc will appreciate this post series movie that ties up the loose ends left by the series abrupt cancellation after two years on the budding GLBT network. It's all the characters from the cable show and the subject is once again love! They go from crazy to calm discovering themselves all along the way.
Best line: (when Ricky returns to the house after a night in jail) "He's done lost his mind. Blowing strangers in the park will do that to you--especially if their dick is big."
Best moment: The wedding vows. They would make a stone weep and turn a stick into a hopeless romantic. Believe it!
Must see TV!
What I'm Watching #188
After watching Madagascar 2, it occurred to me that it's been ages since I saw Madagascar 1. So I picked it up at a local Target this morning. The result: It really is a descent little movie, better than I remembered....
All the less impressed I am with the sequel.
Today's Sermon #12
A friend of 6 years now contacted me on Friday, because he'd just discovered that he is HIV +. I was the first person he told, the person he called later that evening after his first appointment with a health counselor. I could hear the fear in his voice as he fought the urge to cry and assured me that he was alright, everything was alright.
The good news is that the positive result was from a routine test, and his health is good. He's certainly not dead yet. And we all die. Just some of us are given more time to ponder death's meaning.
He lives in Vancouver and like the Japanese dogwood in this poem is a transplant from another country.
from "Sabbaths, 1998"
III
Early in the morning, walking
in a garden in Vancouver
three throusand miles from your grave,
the sky dripping, song
sparrows singing in the borders,
I come suddenly upon
a Japanese dogwood, a tree
you loved, bowed down with bloom.
By what blessedness do I weep?
~ Wendell Berry, 1934 -
Saturday, February 28, 2009
What I'm Watching #187
"Madagascar: Escape 2 Africa" is the sequel. I didn't find the original terribly good, and this one isn't quite as good as the first one. The penguins need their own flick.
Thursday, February 26, 2009
LIFE
A parent at school donated several boxes of books to the media center. One book not accepted for circulation by the librarian was a retrospective of images from Life magazine, so I scarfed it. And here's the cover from the week of my birth.
How cool is that? The nation fixated on the new president and me: the new apple of my parents' eyes?
Wednesday, February 25, 2009
Wilma Elizabeth McDaniel, poet RIP
I only just learned of the death of poet Wilma Elizabeth McDaniel. An icon of Okie resiliance, tale-telling, and creativity. My mom was an Okie and my people remain on her side of the family largely there and in the west. It gave me a certain affinity for her poems.
PIES
In 1933
hope for the future
did not grow as fast
as FDR had predicted
Papa’s hope for a job
did not grow at all
About all that grew
was mulberries—
back of our house
along the creek
in deepest shade
the biggest berries
I ever saw
bursting juicy dark.
They made good pies
in those hard times
Some women complained
the fruit was too bland.
“Add a little vinegar”Mama said
“and they will taste like blackberries
and look the same
when you cut the pie”
I remember when Papa took
his first bite of pie
he got a crinkle of hope
around his eyes.
~ Wilma Elizabeth McDaniel, 1925 - 2007
Window Magic
The widow is at the top of my stairs in the hall. It's covered with glass beads. The elephant is a carving that I purchased in Zimbabwe in December of 1990. (The tusks are "real"--whatever that means).
Strange week deserves at least one strange post...
Monday, February 23, 2009
Our Latest American Hero #131
Air Force Staff Sgt. Timothy P. Davis, 28, of Aberdeen, Wash.; assigned to the 23rd Special Tactics Squadron, Hurlburt Field, Fla.; died Feb. 20 near Bagram, Afghanistan, of wounds sustained when his vehicle encountered an improvised explosive device.
"Washington State Airman Dead In Afghanistan"
Air Force Staff Sgt. Timothy P. Davis, who grew up in Montesano, has been killed in the Oruzgan province of Afghanistan as the result of injuries received from an IED (improvised explosive device).
Air Force personnel delivered the news of Davis’ death to his mother, Sally Sheldon, at her home in Aberdeen on Friday. Davis’ father, Mike Davis, lives in Ocean Shores.
Timothy Davis had just turned 28 and would have been married for five years next month. He met his wife, Meagan, while training at Fairchild Air Force Base near Spokane. His death leaves behind not only his wife, but their 1-year-old son, Timothy, Jr.
Meagan Davis' initial response to reporters was, “My breath has just been taken away. I am still in shock.”
Sunday, February 22, 2009
9 Views from the annual Mid-Winter Orchid Exhibition @ the SmithsonianMuseum of Natural History, View #1
After visiting the National Museum of the American Indian, I made my way over to the Smithsonian Museum of Natural History. And while snow, sleet, and icy rain spit upon The Mall, I spent a casual 30 minutes admiring one of nature's most fascinating forms of flora. The entire exhibition was displayed in a single long room and the air was full of the sweet smells that hundreds of orchids were unleashing in the hopes of discovering a butterfly, a bee, a hummingbird, a fly, or a moth...even a bat. All this was spent on the visitors' olfactory delights while the hopeful orchids' procreative desires were offered to no avail.
Still, a wonderful way to assuage the heart's desire for Spring! Enjoy the rest of these 9 views.
Art I'm Seeing #36
Kudu's to the National Museum of the American Indian for it's staging of the retrospective "Indian/Not Indian" the paintings, prints and sculptures of Fritz Scholder. It's one of the most dynamic exhibitions I've seen in a long time. And for me, it was also an introduction to a contemporary American artist of whose works I was wholely unfamiliar.
By and large the exhibition is full (35 canvases) of large, lush, electrically colorful portraits and abstracted images with a dozen or so sculptures, and another 3 dozen smaller works. En toto, it's the story of one man's attempt to define a people and rescue them from the stereotypical iconography of the past. On a canvas by canvas basis, it's also the story of an artist in love with his craft.
On this rainy Sunday morning, I had the place completely to myself and was free to really spend time with the artwork unhindered by the noise and movements of others. What a gift. And as amazing and captivating as the large paintings in the exhibition are, the images that I am left with most profoundly are a series of simple skull paintings made using Diet Coke mixed with the artist's blood.
If you are in D.C. anytime in the near future check this one out.
Random Quote #102
"One must believe in everything because we know so little."
~ Fritz Scholder, 1937 - 2005
Tuesday, February 17, 2009
What I'm Watching #186
La León is a film by Santigo Otheguy out of Argentina. It's shot in a moderately lit black and white format that gives most of the film an illusory feeling like a dream. The generous use of wait time between snippets of dialogue and actions, as well as, the importance he give to the gesture, the furtive glance, enhance the haunting sense of longing within which the main character, Alvaró, exists.
This is a beautiful film. Made all the more powerful by it's understated direction and restrained acting.
Stimulus 101
According to an article in the New York Times today, 44-year-old Secretary of Education, Arne Duncan, has been given the task of disbursing some $100,000,000,000.00 dollars in funds to schools across America. Divided out by the number of public K-12 school districts in the nation that could mean each would receive a check for $7,142,587.14. Not an entirely insignificant chunk of change.
For a district the size of mine (Montgomery County Public Schools, Maryland) with 133,000 students, 199 schools, and 24,000 employees the gift would measure up as just over 1/3 of 1% of our existing annual budget. For a system like my former (Jessamine County Public Schools, Kentucky) with 7,500 students, 10 schools, and 450 employees, it would come in at just under 10% of their annual operating budget.
It's a lot of money that will mean different things to different players. And did I forget to mention that post-secondary institutions are vying for their share of the cash, too?
But, of course, if the governor of South Carolina has his way and no stimulus money goes to his state, that will remove 333 public school districts from the pot of 14,000 and at least 15 colleges and universities....What a pompous moron! I hope South Carolinians recall his arrogant, ignorant little heiny...but I digress.
Good luck, Mr. Duncan!
Sunday, February 15, 2009
What I'm Watching #185
Got to see "Bolt" this weekend. Not terribly high expectations....very high results. It's a great little movie! A movie that exceeds it's populous hyp.
Democracy, BIG D
What if the money about to be spent in the "stimulus package" were spent as a result of how the majority of American's felt about the current regime and the way in which their federal representives voted?
That would be democracy in action, no?
This map represents the degree of fiscal input based on 1) if the state voted for Obama, 2) how many of their 2 Senators voted for the bill, and 3) if their member of the House of Representatives voted for the bill.
So sorry, Salt Lake City, Boise, Dallas, Oklahoma City, Tulsa, Wichita, Chattanooga, and Knoxville....Hang in there Idaho, Wyoming, and Alabama. When you feel the pain, let your congress members know....
Saturday, February 14, 2009
A Night On Avenue Q
Caught the one week engagement of the Off-Broadway musical "Avenue Q" at the Warner Theater in Washington D.C. tonight. What's to be said of it? What was ground breaking in 2001 is yesterday's news...songs glorifying Internet Porn, The struggles of a closeted Republican Homosexual, a Yuppy without a job and/or a pupose.... These are not radical, controversial, or exceedingly interesting topics for the stage or any place else.
So what can be said.... It was sweet, clever, and moderately funny, too. What begs the larger question: as we accelerate and free-fly into Nano-Modernity how will Off- or On-Broadway hope to keep pace and be relevant satirically; or will it simply be relagated to nostolgia? A stage version of the History Channel.
Sunday, February 08, 2009
Today's Sermon #11
FIRE AND ICE
Some say the world will end in fire,
Some say in ice.
From what I've tasted of desire
I hold with those who favor fire.
But if it had to perish twice,
I think I know enough of hate
To say that for destruction ice
Is also great
And would suffice.
~ Robert Frost, 1874 - 1963
Prayers for those in southern Australia....
Saturday, February 07, 2009
Friday, February 06, 2009
What I'm Listening To #49
After a busy week, "Dougie MacLean Live" is just what any doctor is their right mind would order! I first encountered this Scottish Folk Artist via NPR's Celtic Connections. I attended an amazing concert he gave back in 1985 in Lexington Kentucky held as a fund-raiser under the auspices of the first NPR affiliate in the United States, WBKY. It was just a wonderful concert, intimate, community building, joyous -- fun.
I own all of the artist's CD's. Nothing he does in the studio compares to his "Live" recordings, and this one in particular.
If you've a penchant for, nay, even just an inkling toward, the lylt and rythym of the Celtic/Gaelic ballad--you'll love this experience.
Thursday, February 05, 2009
What I'm Watching #184
"I Like You... I Like You Very Much" is an odd little (58 min.) film from Japan. Made in 1994, it's the story of two young men who form a sexual relationship and manage it past it's first infidelity.
There's precious little dialogue. The mores are Nipponesque-stereotypically restrained and licentious at once: the rigid conformity/the Geisha.
It's an odd, simple, essential movie for anyone collecting GLBT cinema.
Wednesday, February 04, 2009
War On Terrorism January Up-Date
After only 14 casualties in December (the lowest number of soldier deaths since March 2003 when the war began), January jumps to 31. The highest month total since September of 2008.
With all the crap for Obama to clean up...there remains this bit of unfinished business.
With all the crap for Obama to clean up...there remains this bit of unfinished business.
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