What’s mine is yours

It’s been very cold. My New Years Resolutions included writing more and cutting out the hooch for a while . I also received a cajon over the holidays and I’ve been finding it useful when it comes to demoing new songs in my apartment. Here is one of them:

In elementary for the next couple of days and then it’s off to my favorite high school for some Science. I’m anticipating a productive week and I’ve even got an interview for a teaching position stuffed in there somewhere.

The little guys have been funny to be around. Last week one of them kept yelling “oh yeah, who’s the mac daddy?” at his computer screen whenever he’d be playing this one game in the lab. Another one was keen to let me know the condition of his feet as often as possible. At one point he felt it important to tell me that his feet were hot, but later they were itchy. “I think it’s the one with the warts on it”, he told me. “No wait, it’s the other one”.

Winter Torpor, Engage

I’ve been posted at an elementary school for the last week or so, in a grade 3/4 split class of behaviour kids. It’s been going well, after the initial couple days of them thinking that it was cool to goof around, I’ve finally got them in somewhat of a routine. I’ve never spent this long with an age group this young before, and it’s been pretty fun. Since their regular teacher has been down for the count since last week, I’ve been winging all of the lesson plans. Adjusting my instructional methods for their grade level has taken some time, but I think I’ve got it figured out. I know this because I’ve only had 2 criers in 5 days, (usually the affect I have on kids this old is such that I have at least one a day).

I know I haven’t been posting much. My excuse is that it’s cold out, and this has made me very lethargic. All I really feel like doing is changing into sweats, hiding under the Blanket of Shame and playing Super Mario World.

2112

It’s true, I’ve been listening to a little bit more Rush than usual lately. Anyways, inspired by the move Fugazi made last month (organizing and planning to release their entire archive of recorded live shows), I’ve been going through posters and itineraries in an attempt to try and list every show I’ve ever played. It’s interesting, for me anyways. I’ll keep plugging away at this thing for the next little while. I’ve come up with over 200 so far. Maybe I can dig up some old photos to go with certain tours, or some other audacious task.

Something to Write Home About

In Germany, actually throughout Europe (with the exception of the autobahn) there are photo radar boxes all over the highways. Interestingly, when you’re driving around with a GPS, none of them should come as a surprise as they all show up on your map as you approach them. It took us a few days to understand how this worked.

This fall, a few weeks after we arrived home, I received a letter in the mail postmarked in Germany. Originally, I’d thought it was dough for the band, as we’d signed these papers that are similar to SOCAN agreements after every show. (In Canada, you can actually get paid by SOCAN if you perform in certain venues). But they weren’t writing to give me money, they were writing to tell me I owed money. Or we owed money. Inside the envelope there was a picture of the bass-player at the wheel with an accompanying note claiming that we’d blasted by a photo-radar box, 22 kms too fast, in small town Germany. Anyways, I emailed central bureaucracy in Bleifeld, DE, told them that it wasn’t me in the photo and promptly forgot about it.

A month goes by and I receive another letter. My pretending that the ticket had ceased to exist added an extra 20 Euros in late fees to the original amount. I wasn’t about to pay the $250, but I didn’t want the ticket to show up on my passport the next time I tried to clear German customs. I sat down and wrote them an actual letter explaining that I wasn’t the driver on the notice and sent it to back central bureaucracy, Bleifeld. Then I forgot about it.

Last week, I received one more letter. This one much shorter than the others, and printed in bold. All of these letters were in German, and would take some time to translate. I was mad at this one, so I left it on the table. A few days later, roommate’s girlfriend came over with some news. Her Dad is German, and roommate had taken the letter over to be translated. Turns out the last letter was written to inform me that the ticket had been pardoned, but that my name was going up on the Wall of Shame at City Hall in Bleifeld, DE, for the whole town to see.

Heh heh heh.

 

Not tryin’ to cause a big sensation

Ah! My band kids have done it again! They played at the school’s talent show on Friday, rockin’ the gym with a cover of My Generation. For a band that’s been playing less than a year (and are still in Jr. High!), they’re making serious progress! I love watching these guys play, they get better and better every time I see them.

Sometimes I can’t help but think about how traditional education has partially limited my personal approach to the creative process. That A grade must mean that I’ve done something right, followed the right procedure, jumped through the right hoops which means my interpretation was bang-on. I played the perfect show because all the right notes were hit, flawless delivery, the drum fills were in exactly the right place. Applause and complements further solidifying that my take on things is truly new, or refreshing. But the other part of my brain argues that my idea of creativity is a mere casualty of what I’ve been brought up to admire, and their innovations severely lack a global influence. Appropriations, riding on coat-tails and co-opting the achievements of others.

This is how your head ends up when you’re lying in bed with the flu, on a diet of faux chicken soup and ginger tea. Too post modern for your own good.

Etsy profile update on the right. All books reprinted and available on that site or through me directly.

Also, after self-publishing 3 books, learning a bit about how to make ‘m look nice and getting them out there, I’ve decided to open the Pattern Press to manuscript submissions. If you’ve got a project you’d like to see available in print form, send me a draft to look at, I might help you put it out! Please keep in mind the stuff I’ve been releasing as well as the demographic.

I’ve also decided that I’ll open up the shop to binding projects. If you have something you’d like to see printed and hand-bound, I will do it for a small fee and send it back to you.

Inquiries for both should be sent to pattern (dot) press (at) gmail (dot) com.

Music section updated.

I’m also working on making the books available for downloading. If I can figure out how to make it work, you’ll be the first to know.

 

Let it come

The Canadian Government’s reluctance to take any kind of a stand on climate matters is really starting to bring my piss to a boil. As a Canadian child of the 80′s who grew up during a time when we were leaders of the environment – saving forests from being clear-cut, establishing the Montreal Protocol to deal with the problems CFC’s were causing (which even had the support of Ronald Reagan) and the promotion of the Three R’s – it’s absolutely infuriating to watch Canada with its head in the sand at the international climate talks in Durban.

I’m not quite sure what it’s going to take until the threat of human induced climate change is taken seriously. A massive drought that threatens our water and food supply? Weather patterns that physically disrupt our comfortable way of life? When an alarming number of biologists and climate specialists warn that we’re already starting to see some devastating impacts of carbon output, it doesn’t lead me to believe that the Harper Government is really looking out for my best interests.

Shame on you Peter Kent.

Minister@ec.gc.ca

Short interview on the new book here. After some contemplation, I’m thinking of opening up the Pattern Press to manuscript submissions. I’ll have some more information on that after the new book comes out this weekend.

Been working like a dog, mostly in elementary classes. The other day this 10 year old asked for a hug, then asked if I would be her step-dad. Does a kid that age even know the definition of awkward? It was also very cold last week which left me with with these snot-lines on my black pants about three feet up, a result of more hugs from the young ‘uns coming in from recess.

I spent the whole week binding books. The first two have finally been repressed and the new one, Keep on Chooglin’, will be released this coming weekend at the Royal Bison Arts and Crafts fair. I’ll probably have it at the show we’re playing Saturday as well. More details soon, till then you should check out the updated MUSIC section on this here blog. I found something Fractal related that I haven’t heard in ages!

The Pattern Press has reopened.

I’ve been finding work al over the place for the past couple of weeks. Last night I accepted a couple days in a room full of really high-needs, low-functioning kids. I wasn’t really sure what I was doing when I first got in there, but it turned out to be an interesting day. There was a lady working with one of the girls on her sight, and I learned a lot from listening to her. The child has a condition which does not allow her to see if any of her other senses are working hard and once they’ve diagnosed her ability, the idea is to work her vision up to 20/20. Of course developmentally she’s only at about 18 months, so the theory is that she’ll be able to learn better as her sight progresses.

It’s kind of heavy stuff. I don’t work with kids like these a lot, but they say that with the planned classroom inclusion it won’t be long until you have these little guys in regular classrooms. I’m not sure exactly how this would work, I’m assuming they’d always have an aid and it brings up questions of purpose. Would it be a more ideal setting, to have these kids in regular classes, or keep them all together and separated from the rest of the students in a school? It’s complicated, and challenging becoming comfortable in this situation as it’s loud and there’s a lot of drool, but I like it. Always a good test of patience and compassion.

Anyways, my group are pretty good natured and there was one boy in particular who worked very well having an adult male in the room (which is a rarity by the sounds of it). Like usual, the most difficult kid becomes my favorite and I spent a good chunk of time trying to get him to eat and keeping him occupied so he wouldn’t run into any of the kids in wheel chairs.

Target

I love hearing people use the word serendipity, or even coincidence. Why? Because apparently, everything is random now. It appears that folks are getting a bit lazy with the English language and this term specifically is driving me up the wall these days. My grade 8 girls use random. Adults should be fined for using random unless they’re describing certain genetic mutations in the gene pool, or the series of numbers that follow 3.141592 to Pi’s 100th decimal place. Those things are random. Meeting someone on the street is not random. Receiving a text message is not random, unless of course someone happened to randomly press 10 digits on their phone, reaching whoever. That would be random. Roulette is random! A friend deciding to eat something they’ve never tried before is not random. Ipods occasionally generate random tracklists, but more often than not play the same series of songs once it’s been shut down (which leads me to believe they’ve not actually been programmed to randomly select songs, but do so according to the number of songs on there in total).

Anyways, my original blogging intentions today were far less ranty, but instead to relay a short anecdote. This one involves a student who’s clearly new to the country and apparently, the internet. Assigned to put together a dictionary using a selection of terms from a book the class is studying, he logged onto dictionary.com and inputed one of the words in question. Then he called me over, puzzled because the website seemed to be broken.

Me: “What do you mean it’s not working?”

Him: “When I look up the word, it tells me how to find men and I don’t need to do that”.

Inappropriate advertisements on the web, lowering grades one word at a time.

Got called in to teach Bio at my favorite school tomorrow. Ohmygod, how random hey?

 

Haven’t slept for days and my words don’t seem to come out right

The Fest happened, quick summary:

We ended up with a free day in Tampa which happened to coincide with the Battles show. A friend of mine (an ex-Edmontonian and the best soundman I know), has been working as their sound engineer on tour for years. He got us on the list and we ended up on the tour bus afterwards. Turned out they had to leave early so they gave us the key to their room at the Hilton a block away. In the morning, we took a cab back to the hostel we were staying to pick up our luggage.

Rented a car and headed to Gainesville, home of such notables as Hot Water Music, Against Me and Tom Petty! We ended up tenting in a friends backyard, which was only about a 20 minute walk from the venues. Lots of great food down there. Vegan steak burritos, lots of creative tempeh dishes, good coffee and the Fest had mandated PBR be kept at $2 in all the shows.

Talked to a bunch of friends from the road behind various stages. Had a good chat with old Teddy about their benefits for Philly’s LGBTQ youth center, amongst other things that may or may not rhyme with Curl Spam. Thanks for the Jamies Ted!

Of course the bands all ruled. Hot Water threw down the best set I’d ever seen them play. Hometown show, I expected nothing less. Ted Leo killed it with his Misfits cover band, TV Casualty, and I don’t think I’ve ever heard anyone other than Danzig sing Some Kinda Hate better. There’s a limited 7″, I think they’d only pressed 200 for the show. You can still get it from Matador. It’s good and the proceeds go towards a rad cause. Chris Wollard’s new band threw a fantastic set down on a Sunday afternoon, perking up everyone who’d been raging all weekend. Samiam even convinced a couple aging punks from northern Canada to take a leap off the stage and Small Brown Bike… so good!

But I’m not a concert reviewer, and I doubt most people even know who I’m talking about, so I’ll just say the Fest was one of the greatest musical experiences I’ve had. The collage town was transformed and taken over by punks from all over the world and it seemed like everyone was your pal for those four days. It’s nice to know there are so many things that unify us. Music has always done that, how rad is it that the movement’s global?

Anyways, thanks to a belt loader nudging our connecting flight, we were able to make one of our connecting flights on time. Things keep working out and it’s good to be home. I’ll try to write something a little more thought-provoking soon. Lots of things to catch up on at the moment. Thanks for reading.

Work today at the school was good. The kids started off with a drum circle in the main foyer. Reminded me of a few times in Ghana where the kids would get ‘er goin’ with some singing and dancing. Engaging, fun even?

Anyways, that’s it ’till next week. Gone festing.

Short Occupy addendum:

I fully agree with this lady. The agenda seems incredibly obvious.

Here’s another one of the countless proposed solutions:

Gotta sleep. Subbing at an academy for First Nation kids tomorrow. Never been there before and I’m totally looking forward to it.

I can’t get behind that!

I found myself in the same room as Willaim Shatner last night, albeit a very large room, but a room nonetheless. Mostly storytelling, anecdotes about how he arrived to find himself a fan of horses, in a lunar lander, and roasting George Lucas. Enjoyable! Highlights of the night were mostly crowd based, mutterings of “this sucks, he’s just talking about his life”, heard in the lobby. Then there was the uber fan of his Star Trek days beside me, who asked if I’d like to see the character she’d created. I accidentally asked a friend of mine if he’d like to see the lady’s Star Wars creation. Oops. But we’re even, because she’d never heard this great track he made with Rollins:

I also went to check out an NFB film about Weibo Ludwig with weekend. Weibo, portrayed as a bit of a loony by the majority of our unbiased(?) media, has been fighting against big oil’s impact on his settlement in Northern Alberta for quite some time. The film offered a intriguing perspective on how rural Canadians are affected by the venting of sour gas and leaching of related chemicals into their aquifers. The most interesting part of the film (to me) was how he mentioned to a room full of lefties that his fight against big oil is not that of an environmentalist, but from someone who was sick of governments not acting in the interest of the people.  (I should also mention that the Ludwigs are not registered voters, which I confirmed post-show). His response has been direct action against people and structures deemed intrusive, which has also led to some shady, unreported dealings on part of the RCMP. It’s quite complex.

Anyways, the family was in attendance and if you’ve ever heard his story, you might be interested in checking out the Q&A a friend of mine recorded and uploaded on the internets. Whether or not you support Weibo’s War, it’s worth a listen. There’s definitely a message in there.

 

merchandise keeps us in line

The Occupy Wall Street demonstrations have been an important way to address the growing income gap, as well as the fiscally and environmentally irresponsible practices of so many corporations. I’m also glad that it seems to be generating discussion in the higher levels of government. I think the motives are pretty clear, and it’s been interesting to see the way the movement’s been portrayed as directionless by various media outlets. Surprisingly, even the CBC has had a hard time wrapping their head around what’s been going on for the past few weeks.

A change is desperately needed regarding the way we view ourselves in relation to this behemoth of a non-entity we call the economy. Sometimes I have a hard time believing my ears when I hear people identify themselves through the things they have, as opposed to those they love or experiences they’ve had. The most irritating are those we’ve titled experts, the Economists. I hear these people on the radio every morning, forecasting economic doom and gloom as though the outlook is a dangerous weather system. Even worse, the image of the talking heads I rely on for unbiased information sitting around agreeing with concern into their microphones. Like I’m supposed to actually invest time worrying about the state of the DOW Jones while some of my students go without breakfast.

The opportunities we have as a first world nation to set ourselves apart from the idea of clawing your way to the top of the money-pile are limitless, and I would love to see some long-term humanist initiatives (and objectives!) come out of this. My hope is that this generation, a generation of debt inheriting a mess of short-sighted policy, will be able to redirect the bumbling train of humanity in a more sustainable direction. With another recession looming (whatever that’s supposed to mean), perhaps we’ll finally realize that continual economic growth in a traditional sense connot continue. I’d like to think that we actually have the foresight to sway the machine with our power to choose who we vote for and what we throw our money behind. Also, I really enjoyed what David Suzuki had to say about the matter.

It inspired me to record a rendition of a timely Neil Young song, on a lovely autumn day. Who knew the bathroom has the best acoustics?

Meanwhile in Subland, I’ve been working with elementary students this week. Mostly grade 5′s and 6′s with Behaviour issues. These little guys have been good for the most part and I’m really enjoying putting in the teaching time, even though it’s not my specialty. The beauty about having worked this sub circuit for the past few years, as well has having my own classes of challenging students, is that it’s getting easier to read the kids. Particularly the ones who are about to pop. Transitions are a lot smoother than the first few times I had to deal with the live wires, and it makes me think that I’m actually getting better at my job.