when I took this pic. He had been curled in a ball
fast asleep. He put his head right back down
and curled again. Little guy.
The Daily News
1 I realized last night that I had never entirely enjoyed the film Being There. Quite fun. It is one of the movies that, over the years I would watch while cooking, while entertaining, or while darning my socks. Peter Sellers' deadpan throughout charms. His character is a gardener named Chance, who tends the owner of-the-house's garden all day and then spends each night in his room watching television.
2 He knows nothing of the world outside his house. All he knows is what he has seen on television. When he finally does go out, he is given alcohol for the first time and doesn't say his name clearly. It gets misinterpreted as "Chauncey Gardiner."
3 People he meets often think he is an intelligent, soft-spoken philosopher/humorist, particularly white people with money. The film points to the pretentiousness that people have, and exposes the phoniness that makes up a lot of our lives.
4 Chauncey Gardiner. It was fun to hear such classic lines as "In the garden, growth has its seasons. First comes spring and summer, but then we have fall and winter. And then we get spring and summer again." Or when he rides in a car for the first time: "This is just like television, only you can see much further." Or every time he says, "I like to watch," he means television. I especially like when the doctor giving him a shot says, "This won't hurt a bit." When the doctor sticks him, Chance remains deadpan. He then says, "It did hurt." Chaplin/Keaton sort of stuff. All understated.
2 He knows nothing of the world outside his house. All he knows is what he has seen on television. When he finally does go out, he is given alcohol for the first time and doesn't say his name clearly. It gets misinterpreted as "Chauncey Gardiner."
3 People he meets often think he is an intelligent, soft-spoken philosopher/humorist, particularly white people with money. The film points to the pretentiousness that people have, and exposes the phoniness that makes up a lot of our lives.
4 Chauncey Gardiner. It was fun to hear such classic lines as "In the garden, growth has its seasons. First comes spring and summer, but then we have fall and winter. And then we get spring and summer again." Or when he rides in a car for the first time: "This is just like television, only you can see much further." Or every time he says, "I like to watch," he means television. I especially like when the doctor giving him a shot says, "This won't hurt a bit." When the doctor sticks him, Chance remains deadpan. He then says, "It did hurt." Chaplin/Keaton sort of stuff. All understated.
5 Sidebar: I may have liked it because my Dad was like that, only with genuine deadpan wit. When he was in the hospital one time, he accidentally leaned on the nurse's button. A really cute nurse came into his room and said, "Did you need something, Mr. Harrington?" He looked up, and politely said, "Love?" the same way you might say, "Water?" Hilarious.
6 The movie came on TCM at around dinner time. It was just me and Rocky, Coley's wonderful lil' doggie. He climbed up on the ottoman and on a blanket, hangin' with me and with Chance. I swear he was watching the film, at least for a little bit.
7 I still lost track of parts of the film. I was trying to get some walking in, which I do around the house. I was also cooking, and working with a few songs on my guitar.
8 Lovely evening. Rocky is great company, a polite, wonderful little fellow. Such pleasant company, and a nice evening. The room was lit with some Autumn lights and a tiffany lamp. I had all bright lights off, so it worked nicely.
9 Rocky conked out during the yoga scene. If you've seen the film, you know what I'm referring to. If not, give it a go. It's easy to do other things during the film, but it's nice background, and will bring a few chuckles. Low-key easy.
10 Love it. I don't know if it has reached classic status yet, but some day it might. Good times.
11 Moving On, Part One: I almost posted another music video yesterday, but I think I'm too scared. I'm loving all the music I've been playing; I'm just reluctant to go out there again.
I learned a really jazzy version of Michelle by the Beatles. It was originally a spoof of French songs that amused Paul MacCartney. He used to hang out with art students, and one pretentious guy sang a love song in French, and it knocked Paul out. He wrote a party song spoofing the guy. When they worked together on the Rubber Soul album, John suggested Paul take out the piece and work on it for the new album.
12 The version I am working on has a close sound to the original. Different songs have different arrangements. Many arrangements of Michelle leave out the subtleties. The one I'm learning keeps most of those soft touches, and has chords that feel like regular chords put in odd areas of the fret board. The transition to and out of the middle eight are fun. John wrote the middle eight on the song, which interested me. I always assumed it was a McCartney tune.
12 The version I am working on has a close sound to the original. Different songs have different arrangements. Many arrangements of Michelle leave out the subtleties. The one I'm learning keeps most of those soft touches, and has chords that feel like regular chords put in odd areas of the fret board. The transition to and out of the middle eight are fun. John wrote the middle eight on the song, which interested me. I always assumed it was a McCartney tune.
13 My fingertips are also turning blistered, with a hint of blood just under the surface. Why I don't improve I don't know. Helene says I have a lazy brain. She didn't mean it as an insult; she meant it as a simple explanation as to why I don't improve: it demands too much thinking.
14 I made a career of thinking. I think once I retired I liked not having to think. Maybe that's why I enjoyed Being There last night. My mind daydreamed at night. And I loved it.
15 And writing this each day has become work. I don't mind writing, revising, throwing in a bit of humor, or even chuckling when automatic thoughts find their way into my head. It's just that it is so constant. Ah, what the heck.
16 While I've lots going on these days, I like having the time to stay active doing things. Learning the songs is wonderful therapy, as is most music.
17 I loved bringing writing lessons to people the past couple of months. In the process, I forced myself to be more careful when producing this nonsense.
18 I still find huge editing errors, particularly the second I publish this on social media. Sometimes the computer will freeze when that happens, so that the error hangs out there for all to see.
19 And I still get impatient during those moments. At times, I'll say to myself, "Dude. Nobody's thinking about you. Chill."
20 I love the inner voice of sanity. So compelling.
21 Ever watch when someone pulls out an old picture with a bunch of friends around? If they are in the picture, listen attentively: each person will say something about the way they look, usually bad.
22 I think looking at pictures, especially bad pictures, can be a terrifying experience. People have posted pictures of me where I look like I am morphing from human being to horse.
23 When I was small, someone brought a picture of a group of us to school.
24 Yes, it was black-and-white, but please don't ask.
25
26 Anyway, I looked at my head and thought, "Holy moly! Do I look like that?" I became depressed. I never told anyone either.
27 I'd love to say that doesn't happen now, but it does.
28 It does.
29 Moving On, Part Two: I'm going to knock on wood when I say this, but I may have escaped having to pay enormous amounts of money on my Dell desktop.
30 It's not super old, and it has served me well. I did the majority of my school stuff using the thing, and got to know it pretty well. When it freezes, I've managed to give it a twitch here and a thump there. You know the idiosyncrasies of your own computer, especially when you are in a rush.
31 I used to write this AND get out of the house by 7:50 a.m. AND I would have handouts for the students. At times I would jump over to Fed Ex (only because it is open early, my union friends) and run my handouts. Why waste the money?
32 Uh...teachers? Wanna chime in?
33 First, the machines at Fed Ex are likely in better working order than the ones at school. I've gotten to school in a huge hurry to get worksheets and handouts run, only to find that someone had jammed the machine and taken off. I would then run things off of my personal classroom printer to get through the first class.
34 Last year was nice; I had break after my first class. Sometimes I would give a quick warm-up writing assignment, and run copies on my own machine.
35 That can get costly. But that's the world of a teacher.
36 I always enjoyed an old film called The Paper Chase. It was of the tyrannical professor genre, but showed the paper chase from the students' perspective. Teachers live in a paper chase, constantly. Ask any teacher. I always wanted to thank the director of that mini-classic for coining that term, or at least for being the first to use it in a viral sense.
37 Each day, I would finish, then separate all work that came in into classes, and THEN I would alphabetize them.
38 Sounds crazy, but when work backs up, it makes grading go quicker.
39 That's how I used to roll. Grading papers could take up half, if not all of a teacher's weekends. And I never considered myself a hard teacher. I did read everything the students wrote, and I would take care on larger projects to put comments that might work for each particular student.
40 They still thought I was too easy. Ah, whatevs. I'm pretty sure a lot of what I taught stuck. Students just see teachers in terms of "Did he prepare you for the next level?" rather than, "I remember most of what that person taught me."
41 Or as my friend Rosi Hollinbeck told me more than a few times, "Homework is overrated!" And she's a published author.
42 I don't really know how I went down the teaching street. Every time I write this it take off in all sorts of directions.
43 I don't have time for a plan, because the second I'm done putting this one to bed, it'll be around an hour or two before I need to start tomorrow's.
44 I hate it.
45 I love it.
46 I'm flyin'. Today is Garbage Day. I began organizing all that before the sun set last night. The trucks woke Rocky up.
47 That little guy at the top of the page thinks he could take on a garbage truck.
48 Okay, I'm officially meandering, always a joy, I tellya.
49 I'd better get outta here.
50 Gotttago.
51 Have a GREAT day.
52 See you again.
53 Peace.
17 I loved bringing writing lessons to people the past couple of months. In the process, I forced myself to be more careful when producing this nonsense.
18 I still find huge editing errors, particularly the second I publish this on social media. Sometimes the computer will freeze when that happens, so that the error hangs out there for all to see.
19 And I still get impatient during those moments. At times, I'll say to myself, "Dude. Nobody's thinking about you. Chill."
20 I love the inner voice of sanity. So compelling.
21 Ever watch when someone pulls out an old picture with a bunch of friends around? If they are in the picture, listen attentively: each person will say something about the way they look, usually bad.
22 I think looking at pictures, especially bad pictures, can be a terrifying experience. People have posted pictures of me where I look like I am morphing from human being to horse.
23 When I was small, someone brought a picture of a group of us to school.
24 Yes, it was black-and-white, but please don't ask.
25
26 Anyway, I looked at my head and thought, "Holy moly! Do I look like that?" I became depressed. I never told anyone either.
27 I'd love to say that doesn't happen now, but it does.
28 It does.
29 Moving On, Part Two: I'm going to knock on wood when I say this, but I may have escaped having to pay enormous amounts of money on my Dell desktop.
30 It's not super old, and it has served me well. I did the majority of my school stuff using the thing, and got to know it pretty well. When it freezes, I've managed to give it a twitch here and a thump there. You know the idiosyncrasies of your own computer, especially when you are in a rush.
31 I used to write this AND get out of the house by 7:50 a.m. AND I would have handouts for the students. At times I would jump over to Fed Ex (only because it is open early, my union friends) and run my handouts. Why waste the money?
32 Uh...teachers? Wanna chime in?
33 First, the machines at Fed Ex are likely in better working order than the ones at school. I've gotten to school in a huge hurry to get worksheets and handouts run, only to find that someone had jammed the machine and taken off. I would then run things off of my personal classroom printer to get through the first class.
34 Last year was nice; I had break after my first class. Sometimes I would give a quick warm-up writing assignment, and run copies on my own machine.
35 That can get costly. But that's the world of a teacher.
36 I always enjoyed an old film called The Paper Chase. It was of the tyrannical professor genre, but showed the paper chase from the students' perspective. Teachers live in a paper chase, constantly. Ask any teacher. I always wanted to thank the director of that mini-classic for coining that term, or at least for being the first to use it in a viral sense.
37 Each day, I would finish, then separate all work that came in into classes, and THEN I would alphabetize them.
38 Sounds crazy, but when work backs up, it makes grading go quicker.
39 That's how I used to roll. Grading papers could take up half, if not all of a teacher's weekends. And I never considered myself a hard teacher. I did read everything the students wrote, and I would take care on larger projects to put comments that might work for each particular student.
40 They still thought I was too easy. Ah, whatevs. I'm pretty sure a lot of what I taught stuck. Students just see teachers in terms of "Did he prepare you for the next level?" rather than, "I remember most of what that person taught me."
41 Or as my friend Rosi Hollinbeck told me more than a few times, "Homework is overrated!" And she's a published author.
42 I don't really know how I went down the teaching street. Every time I write this it take off in all sorts of directions.
43 I don't have time for a plan, because the second I'm done putting this one to bed, it'll be around an hour or two before I need to start tomorrow's.
44 I hate it.
45 I love it.
46 I'm flyin'. Today is Garbage Day. I began organizing all that before the sun set last night. The trucks woke Rocky up.
47 That little guy at the top of the page thinks he could take on a garbage truck.
48 Okay, I'm officially meandering, always a joy, I tellya.
49 I'd better get outta here.
50 Gotttago.
51 Have a GREAT day.
52 See you again.
53 Peace.
~H~
fin.
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