The Daily News

1   I'm watching Paul McCartney and Bruce Springsteen killing it on this CD called Mr Wolf & Ridley Scott Associates Presents Springsteen & I. 

2   Toe it up.

3   Followed instantly with Twist and Shout all done amid a light rain.

4   Remember those days?

5   Rocked a Monday night. 

6   If that can actually happen.

7    Twist and Shout. 

8    Preach.

9   Moving On, Part One: Amazingly, my lesson this fine day is the sentence, as well as the correctness of a sentence.

10  

11  <ahem> Let us have a look at today's piece, for exahmple. 

12  Let us consider the first five items.

13  

14

15  Need I say more?

16  The pompous fellow in me is quick to point to the lack of a period after the abbreviated "Mr."

17   And shouldn't the word presents end with a colon, which means "note what follows"?

18   AND...

19   Technically the lack of a colon changes the meaning so that the writer seems to be saying Springsteen and Me.

20  You are nothing but a hound dog. 

21   My second item disasters, if I may use the active voice in turning a plural noun into a verb, and a verb for the ages.

22  It disasters instantly. Active voice. Toe it up translates roughly to "They tore it up." It was not only a sentence fragment, it had a they understood in it. Who does that?

23  Whoops.

24   That one is an interjection, and not in my first five items.

25  Shall we continue?

26   On item three:  Followed instantly with Twist and Shout all done amid a light rain is clearly a sentence fragment.

27   Item four: Remember those days? There is a missing Do you? I imagine it is understood as well. 


28   And item five: Rocked a Monday night is also a sentence frag.

29   I ain't nothin' but a hound dawg. 

30   Ironically I collect and correct the largest essays of the year this morning. 

31   It's a living.

32   

33   Moving On, Part Two: I didn't have time to edit the video I embedded, because I am terrible at embedding.

34   I have no idea if it will morph into the Concert for George, which is filling my head with some wonderful sitar music courtesy of Ravi Shankar and his daughter and which went through my headphones by happenstance.

35   Sort of a great way to begin a shortened week.

36   Concert for George is a gem. It was made around a year after George Harrison passed away and is by all rights a Beatles album, as it features so many people who worked with the band.

37  Nice thing to have happen. I really just popped on the You Tube of the Springsteen and I video and it automatically went into the Concert for George. 

38  Serendipity.

39   Unfortunately, the clock is ticking and I need to finish this DN early.

40   I've a lot going on these days what with selling houses and all. 

41   Nice to have all of these lovely things enter my life right when things have gotten pretty stressful. 

42   Life goes on within and without you.

43   I'd better go before I decide to cut work and stay right here. 

44   

45   I could, you know. I'm finishing up the school year for my students. Technically I could walk out any time I want. 

46   I want to finish strong though. I'm that idiotic. 

47   The farther one travels the less one knows. Maybe I enjoy knowing less.

48   This is beginning to make no sense. I have Ravi Shankar taking me places. 

49  It's peaceful.

50   Gottago.

51   See you again.

52   Peace.

~H~

The Daily News

1   Garbage Night!!!

2    Excuse me while I bubble up some coffee and earn some strength.

3    Not from the coffee, mind you, but by the spirit of the strength.

4   

5   Exhausting day, yesterday was.

6   

7    Ah, let's just say it was.

8

9   'Twas.

10

11   I'm so Shakespearean.

12    

13   Esoterica, Part One: Hey Shakespeare nerds. Here's one for you. Did Shakespeare's mother's family REALLY participate in a conspiracy to kill Queen Elizabeth?

14

15   Just wonderin'.

16    

17   Perhaps, perhaps.

18   There are conspiracy theories...

19    So it becomes a perhaps.

20    

21   Only in England.

22   

23   Anybody lookin'>

24   There's a 2004 BBC Documentary called In Search of Shakespeare. I haven't had a chance to re-visit it this week (crazy week!) but somewhere in it I recall seeing that.

25   No time to look right now, but it'a a great theory and is probably all true. Oh those silly Arden's. 

26   Sorry I'm in such a rush. I had massive things to do yesterday.

27   This is a short one. 

28   I'm like the White Rabbit this morning, only my date is going to the school and giving a vocab test.

29   I'm so nerdy I can't wait!

30   Have a GREAT weekend everybody.

31   See you again!

~H~

The Daily News

1   Just got back from the Open Mic performance at our Theater, had a late dinner and sat down to the good ol' DN.

2   I had lost sleep worrying about the gig, because I underestimated the brilliant young people who came up with the idea.

3   I was nervous, as I wasn't sure of how tech would go. I loaded up the Altima with amps, booms, guitar stands, power cords, and five working mics. It was right out of a Cheech and Chong movie. I was afraid I'd get pulled over and arrested for fencing old amps.

4   The bottom line: the evening became magical, and it completely rocked. My amps and things had nothing to do with it. 

5   If I may stand up for these amazing kids, I must give them the props.

6   They were from guitar classes, band classes, choir classes, English classes, and even students who have played Carnegie.

7   It didn't take long to see that we were bathed in pure brilliance.

8   To me it was poetry.

9   I had them to a cue-to-cue early in the afternoon and became instantly alarmed. Music stand fell over, people tripped over mic cords, light from the loading dock made it impossible to do any real design, and participants didn't show up.

10  The common denominator was that everybody in charge stayed remarkably calm, including myself and our awesome guitar teacher Matt Hall.

11  He managed to get all the mics working, and even used one of mine, ironically the one from Radio Shack!

12

13  Hey, it was a great mic.

14

15   Every person who ever played in a rock band just belly laughed.

16   The fun thing was that the cue-to-cue morphed right into the Show, and I wanted to kick myself for not having coffee bubbling in the lobby.

17  It had a hip, sunglasses-coffee house feel that swirled with poetry, hip-hop, a-capella, goofiness, and a hipness I haven't seen up there.

18  And it wasn't uppity. Performers showed nervousness, but the audience whistled and supported.

19   One girl came out and announced she had never performed on stage before and proceeded to play her guitar and sing beautifully. She missed one chord and got a couple of catcalls of support, regained and finished with confidence. The hoots and hollers didn't seem out of place.

20  I stayed low key and the students ran virtually everything, but in the end they thanked both me and Matt. 

21   I smiled.

22   I spent two days stressing but knew that the students who ran the thing were completely on it. They had the International Thespian Society tech people run the booth and Band students do the set changes. 

23   The whole thing worked, and it became magical and hip.

24  

25   I'm not catching it here, but I'm exhausted from the entire thing, and it was great to be a large part of a Show once again.

26   Okay, that's about all I got for this morning.

27

28   All I got works for me.

29   Hope you have a GREAT day.

30   I gottago. I still have lots of fires going. 

31   See you again.

32   Peace.

~H~

The Daily News

1   AHHHHHHH!!!!!!!

2   That's one "H" for each day of the week and an extra !!!!!!! as a group for each day of the week.

3   Been doing that systematically for years.

4   At least I think I have.

5   

6   Dude.

7   

8   Quite often I put seven things in a row to symbolize something that I believe is deep, once I'm well into the evening.

9   Did I just call you dude?

10  Well into the evening translates to this: I'm dozing off at the keyboards.

11  Doesn't take long these days.

12   

13   Ah, me.

14   Did I just say, "Ah, me"?

15    And more important, did I put a question mark outside of quotes?

16

17   Ah, me indeed.

18   

19   Anybody lookin'?

20   

21   Nightmarish week.

22   I'm advising an Open Mic happening tonight at 6 in our Theater.

23   The trouble is I've had little time to mess with the sound system. The light's should be fine, since they just closed the musical, and it has some awesome color mixes, and probably just the right amount of light to hit the performers.

24   I'm sort of a guest in the Theater, even though I've run the system many times. 

25   Enough times that I now officially capitalize it as the Theater. I didn't when I first got there, but it has been a nice refuge over the years. I've grown to like it.

26

27   Sometimes it's just the little things.

28   Hopefully the students have figured out how to control the back stage. They balked when I said we need a stage manager wearing headphones at all times.

29

30   <crickets>

31   

32   Wednesday night, so I don't expect a huge crowd. 

33   Heck, it might even be fun!

34   Anyway, the good ol' DN has been given short shrift lately. All apologies.

35   I've got lots of irons in a pretty huge fire, and mini-fires flaring up here and there.

36   Sometimes you just have to roll with it. 

37   Moving On, Part One: Anybody else getting fed up with the 21st Century?

38   Sounds like the name of a realtor.

39   Does it drive you nuts when people call realtors "realitors?"

40  I spelled it correctly and spell check just checked me on it. 

41   Exhibit A.

42   It spell-checked it to "reactors."

43   Sometimes I think I must go mad.

44   

45   Have you ever suddenly just thought of a horse? 

46   

47   Some kid from the yearbook interviewed me around a week ago and asked me what animal I would like to be. 

48   I couldn't even begin to think that way. I prefer being an educated human being. When pushed, I said, "Well, maybe a horse."

49   

50  "But don't put that in the yearbook."

51   He asked how long I had been teaching.

52   My reply: "Let me put it this way: I taught Julius Caesar when he was around."

53   He asked me what my favorite song was.

54   

55   If you love music you can't really answer that question. I told him Jumpin' Jack Flash and he looked at me like I had twelve heads. 

56   Ever read the lyrics? Sheer poetry. Here go:

Jumpin' Jack Flash by Mick Jagger and Keith Richards (Keith Richard originally)

I was born in a crossfire hurricane,
And I howled at my ma in the drivin' rain.

But it's all right now, in fact it's a gas.
But it's all right; I'm Jumpin' Jack Flash
It's a gas, gas gas.

I was raised by a toothless bearded hag;
I was schooled with a strap right across my back,

But it's all right now, in fact it's a gas.
But it's all right; I'm Jumpin' Jack Flash
It's a gas, gas, gas.

I was drowned; I was washed up and left for dead.
I fell down to my feet and I saw they bled.
And I frowned at some crumbs on a crust of bread.
I was crowned, with spikes right through my head.

But it's all right now, in fact it's a gas.
But it's all right; I'm Jumpin' Jack Flash
It's a gas, gas, gas.

56  I thought of teaching it when I do my poetry unit. I've taught rock songs, but never that one. 

57   The lyrics change slightly at each performance. The original had I was crowned with a spike right through my head, for example. The frowning of the crumbs remains consistent, however and is my favorite line. 

58   And not in the yearbook. I saw the kid the next day, gave him the Julius Caesar bit on a Post-It, and wrote on another, "I want to change my favorite song. My favorite song is Young at Heart by Frank Sinatra."

59   Hopefully he'll remember. They have deadlines and lots to do. 

60   AnywayZ...

61   I gottago.

62   Have a GREAT day, and wish me luck with this gig tonight.

64   See you again.

65   Peace.

~H~

The Daily News

1    Oh, my God.

2    That's 2015speak for Oh, my God.

3    Notice the diff?

4    For those dead from the neck up, it translates roughly to OMG, which is currently existing as what we call in the business an interjection.

5   omg.

6   The aforementioned omg is a classic case of trying to keep this nonsense contained.

7    omg

8   Note the differences.

9   OMG!

10   Note the difference:

11   omg

12   Spring has sprung...

13   I find myself suddenly in the midst of trying to do a light design with existing instruments and a sound design of some sort for an Open Mic we're having tomorrow night beginning at 6 in the school's Theater.

14   I was approached by students in the writing club I co-advise and thought it would be a piece of cake.

15

16   If I've never learned anything in the world it is that anything that should be a piece of cake will seldom be a piece of cake, especially if you mention aloud that it should be a piece of cake. 

17   

18   It's okay. We suddenly have 29 acts scheduled.

19   I got this.

20

21   Is there a back door outta this joint?

22   Ah, it's all good.

23   Ah is an interjection, but a more relaxed one. 

24   They come in different sizes and shapes, those things.

25   In keeping with the keeping this thing short these days, I'm thinking I'm going to keep this thing short. 

26   I have to work myself over to Public Storage where I have a mini PA gathering dust. I don't remember if it is even working but I think I'll lug it up to the school. It can drive several mics and guitars, so I'm keeping my fingers crossed. 

27  One of the mics is from Radio Shack, so if it doesn't work I can always return it.

28

29   Yeah.

30   It's been a while. 

31   I'm a nervous wreck about a poetry reading. 

32   The first act is a guy doing a ten-minute Haiku.

33

34   I KNOW. I KNOW. But is it art?

35

36   Here's my favorite Haiku:

I don't like Haikus.

I don't understand Haikus.

Refrigerator.

37

38  Great Haiku. I didn't write it, but I did steal it and use it.

39  

40   Anybody lookin'?

41   

42   You have an awesome day, willya?

43   Wish me luck.

44   See you again.

45    Peace.

~H~