dylan in prague

I'm missing this tonight.
But that's OK. It's just nice that, walking back from the end-of-the-year-school-picnic singing "I just lost all my picnic spirit...gunna have a picnic in my bathroom," I could remember that he's in the same city as me.

And I have good memories of an outdoor concert at Chastain Park, Atl.

baby shower

Yesterday I hosted a baby shower for my sister, Elizabeth. She's 9 months pregnant + counting. It was a fun time. We had a group of ladies talking around pink & blue cupcakes, fruit and cookies. We discussed baby names, and how you guess if it's a boy or girl, and had all those shower conversations. And I asked Elizabeth to share some funny quotes from her pregnancy. I was going to say "funny things your children have said about this baby," but it's more accurately a list of "funny things Mark has said." (Mark, her youngest, is four.)

• When Mark first learned that Elizabeth was going to have a baby, he sat and thought hard, and then asked, "Will the baby be human?"
• Elizabeth took Mark with her to the hospital when she went to register. They were filling out paperwork, and Mark asked for another copy. He asked, "Mommy, if we give them two papers will they give us two babies?"
• After explaining to Mark the different ways people deliver babies, Mark said, "If I ever have a baby, I will have it in the normal way. I will sit on the toilet, and then pick the baby out of the toilet."
• Apparently Mark has reminded Elizabeth multiple times throughout her pregnancy that she will need to take her pants off when the baby comes so that they baby won't get stuck....
  

Man, I want to be there to hear what he says when the baby comes.

It's pretty special getting to be here for all of this. I've got (will have) 8 nieces & nephews, but this is first time I've been living near a pregnant sister and will be near when the baby comes.

Anna, my 7 year-old-niece came to the shower too.

I played for Elizabeth my favorite "baby" song. I think it's so sweet. It's called "Welcome" by Lori Chaffer on her album 1beginning. With a little bit of research I learned that she wrote it for her friend's baby boy, but there after she had a baby boy herself.

Welcome to this dusty land
Where you will cry lots but we'll all understand
Things may not turn out sometimes like you plan
That's all right our little man

Welcome outside of your mother's womb
I know that it's frightening
But now there's more room
Just think of all the great things you'll do
Just by you being you

I don't care what the world
Says about all this struggling
All I know is that now you're here
It's all lovely lovely

I don't care about
All the things that have troubled me
Now that you're here I remember life
Can be so lovely

Welcome to us, oh our little song
You're one part your daddy
One part your mom
They're gonna help you grow up to be strong
But for now little guy
Sleep on

We're very excited to great this new little one into the world.

music

The last two days I've turned on seeqpod.com and listened to some of my old playlists, playlists that I made last year and listened to in the classroom.

And it makes me a little nostalgic for my old classroom in Atlanta. I'm there, with the winter sun pouring in the windows, the music playing softly from the back of the room, and we're discussing The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn.

I love music, and I like playing it softly in my classroom. Often it'd be playing when the students came in, and I'd leave it as long as they could handle it and stay focused. I remember my students last year enjoying Yael Naim and Cat Stevens.

Which reminds me of all the music I shared with my students over the years. The first year, there was a Billy Joel connection. One of my students like bj and at the end of the year, the kids really dug "We Didn't Start the Fire." But there were other songs that they got into, and one of them even made a cd of "eighth grade tunes" -- it included B Dylan and songs from the Garden State soundtrack that I played a lot.

The next year there was a lot of Dylan. One of my students was a huge Dylan fan, and that was a lot of fun. I think I played Hem and Sufjan in the classroom too sometimes.

I don't remember what I played the third year. But the fourth year I got into seeqpod.com and made a Cat Stevens playlist that was perfect for working with. So that was played a lot, and my students for some reason attached themselves to the "Longer Boats" song, which was at the end of the playlist, so they'd convince me not to turn it off till then...

the part where you let go

You can listen to pieces of Hem's new songs here. They are lovely, of course. Just enough to make your mouth water. Must wait till June 4th when Home Again, Home Again will come out.

music to listen to

If you don't know about http://www.seeqpod.com/ you do now.

brilliant.

check out the beautiful song from the mac commercial: new soul by Yael Naim.

soundtrack

As I was driving back from Christmas break in Maryland, I did a lot of listening to a variety of music, and began thinking about how different albums and songs reminded me of different points in my life. And since I performed a similar exercise about this time last year with books, I'm trying it with music now.


takes me back

• REM's Out of Time, especially "Shiny Happy People" - middle school

• Audio Adrenaline - Big House - high school youth group....
  
  
• Neil Young Harvest Moon (especially "Old King"); Billy Joel Glass Houses, River of Dreams take me back to high school
  

• Paul Simon's "Call Me Al" and The Phantom of the Opera - singing in physics class, high school junior year (the former because my lab partner Val sang it with her name)

at college

• Tom Petty's Best of, "American Girl" and "The Waiting" - freshman year, college
  The Police: "Every Breath You Take" and Matchbox 20: "3 AM" - freshman year, particularly frisbee on Friday night

• "Jesse's Girl" and "Summer of '69" - summer after freshman year

• Pedro the Lion and Half-Handed Cloud
  

• Ben Folds Rocking the Suburbs, especially "Annie Waits" - summer 2003, cleaning houses on the mtn.

in SK

• Paul Simon's Graceland
• Hem's Rabbit Songs
• Billy Joel's Miami 2017 (seen the lights go out on broadway)
  

driving summer 06

• Emmylou Harris's Wrecking Ball, especially "Waltz You Across Texas"
• "East Coast/West Coast" & "O I Drive", by Singing Mechanic
  

last year, 2007

• Packway Handle Band
• City Beneath the Sea
  

to say i was addicted to these songs last spring puts it mildly:

• The Weepies's Say I Am You, particularly, om, "Gotta Have You" - spring 2007, especially while reading for my Euro History class
• from Dylan's new album "Spirit on the Water"
• "Our House" by Crosby Stills Nash and Young

driving soundtrack, summer 2007

• "Iowa", Dar Williams
• "I Wish it Would Rain", Nanci Griffith
• "Beautiful Wreck", Shawn Mullins
• "Ford Econoline", Nanci Griffith
• Neil Young's "Cripple Creek Ferry" and Cartalk Tunes - driving with Daniel
• "New Hampshire" by the Brilliant Inventions
  

• and last fall: "As Cool As I Am", Dar Williams
  

and this winter

• Neil Young's Decade, esp. "Winterlong"
• and Over the Rhine's The Trumpet Child

*sigh* i really love music

always hem

Hem has some new songs. You can preview them here.

Lone Ranger and Tonto

As I'm preparing to teach about the Wild Wild West,
the words of this Dylan song keep spinning 'round my head:

Bob Dylan's Blues

Well, the Lone Ranger and Tonto
They are ridin' down the line
Fixin' ev'rybody's troubles
Ev'rybody's 'cept mine
Somebody musta tol' 'em
That I was doin' fine

Oh you five and ten cent women
With nothin' in your heads
I got a real gal I'm lovin'
And Lord I'll love her till I'm dead
Go away from my door and my window too
Right now

Lord, I ain't goin' down to no race track
See no sports car run
I don't have no sports car
And I don't even care to have one
I can walk anytime around the block

Well, the wind keeps a-blowin' me
Up and down the street
With my hat in my hand
And my boots on my feet
Watch out so you don't step on me

Well, lookit here buddy
You want to be like me
Pull out your six-shooter
And rob every bank you can see
Tell the judge I said it was all right
Yes!

etymology

Angie shared some interesting word origins. I did know of Spoonerisms. I like those. But the others were new.


The expression of something being laced with poison is strange. Lace is a pretty delicate thing, and I wonder how it came to be the term for drink poisoned.

This brings me to a Half-handed Cloud song:

Belly, what a waste
And eating all in haste
Not knowing that it's laced
Poison that I can't taste

We hold tasting fees
He's got us where he please
Not seeing where he sees
We're being pulled on skiis

Then save your front door
Not locked, open wide
despite being poor
We're rich as his bride

Danger to us
He fashioned a sail
Took me out of the gale
And so I'm his bride,
But then so is my wife
And daily to abide
He keeps us on the ride

(i can't always tell if i'm hearing the lyrics right. i sure wish he'd post them on a website.)

The next simple song is so good too:

Parent-free I will not leave you
Children rest secure
I'll send the Comforter
Out -ooo oo

I Shall Be Free No. 10

(because this is one of the best-est Dylan songs ever) *listen*

I'm just average, common too
I'm just like him, the same as you
I'm everybody's brother and son
I ain't different from anyone
It ain't no use a-talking to me
It's just the same as talking to you.

I was shadow-boxing earlier in the day
I figured I was ready for Cassius Clay
I said "Fee, fie, fo, fum, Cassius Clay, here I come
26, 27, 28, 29, I'm gonna make your face look just like mine
Five, four, three, two, one, Cassius Clay you'd better run
99, 100, 101, 102, your ma won't even recognize you
14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, gonna knock him clean right out of his spleen."

Well, I don't know, but I've been told
The streets in heaven are lined with gold
I ask you how things could get much worse
If the Russians happen to get up there first.
Wowee! Pretty scary!

Now, I'm liberal, but to a degree
I want ev'rybody to be free
But if you think that I'll let Barry Goldwater
Move in next door and marry my daughter
You must think I'm crazy!
I wouldn't let him do it for all the farms in Cuba.

Well, I set my monkey on the log
And ordered him to do the Dog
He wagged his tail and shook his head
And he went and did the Cat instead
He's a weird monkey, very funky.

I sat with my high-heeled sneakers on
Waiting to play tennis in the noonday sun
I had my white shorts rolled up past my waist
And my wig-hat was falling in my face
But they wouldn't let me on the tennis court.

I gotta woman, she's so mean
She sticks my boots in the washing machine
Sticks me with buckshot when I'm nude
Puts bubblegum in my food
She's funny, wants my money, calls me "honey."

Now I gotta friend who spends his life
Stabbing my picture with a bowie-knife
Dreams of strangling me with a scarf
When my name comes up he pretends to barf.
I've got a million friends!

Now they asked me to read a poem
At the sorority sister's home
I got knocked down and my head was swimmin'
I wound up with the Dean of Women
Yippee! I'm a poet, and I know it.
Hope I don't blow it.

I'm gonna grow my hair down to my feet so strange
So I look like a walking mountain range
And I'm gonna ride into Omaha on a horse
Out to the country club and the golf course.
Carry the New York Times, shoot a few holes, blow their minds.

Now you're probably wondering by now
Just what this song is all about
What's probably got you baffled more
Is what this thing here is for.
It's nothing
It's something I learned over in England.

the Boss

another by Annie Leibovitz

Johnny Cash

This is the Johnny Cash photograph by Annie Leibovitz that I loved and bought a postcard of. (from Georgia, where the wrong pic. disappeared anyway)

Which reminds me of going to see Walk the Line. That was almost two years ago, and I have an unfinished post of it. I liked it a lot. I don't know much else about Johnny Cash, but I thought it was a good movie. It was a vivid picture of that scene of rock and roll. I'd watch it again, especially because I enjoyed how they played a lot of his songs, and not just clips or background music. They showed a lot of whole songs in concert. Which was a good decision.

especially June Carter and Johnny Cash singing Dylan, "It Ain't Me, Babe."

I wish it would rain

listening...

[i like compiling lists with themes. it's hot here in georgia. no rain.]

1. (See the Sky) About to Rain - Neil Young
2. Alabama Rain - Jim Croce
3. Oh, I Wish it Would Rain - Nanci Griffith
   
4. A Hard Rain's A-Gunna Fall - Bob Dylan
   
5. Famous Last Words - Billy Joel
   
6. Journey through the Past - Neil Young
7. Raindrops keep Falling on My Head - Burt Bacharach, Hal David
   
8. Painting by Chagall - The Weepies
   
9. Beauty of the Rain - Dar Williams
10. Comin' Down in the Rain - Nanci Griffith
11. No Rain - Blind Melon
    
12. Have you Ever Seen the Rain - Creedence Clearwater Revival
13. Wasn't that a Mighty Storm - Nancy Griffith
    
14. Rain King - Counting Crows
    
15. A Hard Rain's A-Gonna Fall - Bob Dylan
    
16. Rainy Night in Baltimore - Counting Crows
    
17. Rainy Night in Georgia - Hem
18. Rainy Day Women....that may be a stretch
    

at the Boston Symphony Hall

Hem & the Boston Pops!
oh I wish I could go. June 26 and 27.

there's many more

A few months ago I posted a list of

"Songs for traveling across America"

but now I have so many more to add. I like to put them roughly in geographical order, since my brain likes to operate spacially. I realize that this list could basically be endless, but I'm working with what Courtney and I have, plus a few others we just had to buy.

1. Wakko's America - by Animaniacs
2. America - by Neil Diamond
3. Ice Ice Baby (route A1A) - by Vanilla Ice
   
4. Miami - by Will Smith
   
5. Alabama - by Pierce Pettis
6. Southern Man - by Neil Young
7. Sweet Home Alabama - by Lynyrd Skynyrd
8. Alabama Rain - by Jim Croce
9. Stuck Inside of Mobile with the Memphis Blues Again - by Bob Dylan (Blonde on Blonde)
10. Graceland - by Paul Simon
11. Red Dirt Girl (Alabama) - by Emmylou Harris
12. Mississippi - by David Allan Coe
13. Boy from Tupelo - by Emmylou Harris
14. Mississippi Lady - by Jim Croce
15. Jackson - by Johnny Cash & by Hem
16. Mississippi - by Bob Dylan (Love and Theft)
17. Listen to the Radio (leaving Mississippi) - by Nanci Griffith
18. Louisiana - by Mo Leverett
19. City Beneath the Sea (New Orleans) - by Harry Connick Jr.
20. House of the Risin' Sun (New Orleans) - by Bob Dylan
21. Love and New Orleans - by Mo Leverett
22. Waltz across Texas - by Emmylou Harris
23. Winds o' Wyoming - by Yonder Mountain String Band
24. Ford Econoline (UT-CA) - by Nanci Griffeth
25. Hotel California - by the Eagles
26. California Dreaming - by The Mamas and the Papas
27. California - by Joni Mitchell
28. Talkin' Going' to Alaska Blues - by Shawn Mullins
29. East Coast/West Coast - by Singing Mechanic
30. This Land is Your Land - by Woody Guthrie
    
31. Seattle to Chicago - by Woody Guthrie
32. Baltimore to Washington - by Woody Guthrie
33. Streets of Philadelphia - by Bruce Springsteen
34. Atlantic City - by Bruce Springsteen
35. Born to Run - by Bruce Springsteen (because it almost was the NJ state song)
36. Famous Last Words (Avalon beaches) - by Billy Joel
37. Miami 2017 (Seen the Lights go out on Broadway) - by Billy Joel
38. Talkin' New York - by Bob Dylan
39. New York - by U2
40. No Sleep Till Brooklin - by The Beastie Boys
41. New York, New York - by Frank Sinatra
42. Only Living Boy in New York - by Paul Simon
43. Battery Park - by Screen Door
44. The Hudson - by Dar Williams
    
45. Woodstock - by Joni Mitchell
46. Reservoir (Pittsburg) - by Hem
47. Carry Me Home (Ohio) - by Hem
48. Ohio - by Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young
49. Iowa - by Dar Williams
50. Take Me Home, Country Roads (Kentucky) - by John Denver
51. Meet Virginia - by Train
52. Carolina In My Mind - by James Taylor
53. Tennessee Waltz - by Hem
54. Walking Back to Georgia - by Jim Croce
55. Oh, Atlanta - by Alison Krauss
56. Rainy Night in Georgia - by Tony Joe White (of which Hem has a beautiful rendition)
57. Georgia Moon - by Pierce Pettis
58. Midnight Train to Georgia - by Indigo Girls
    
59. America - by Simon and Garfunkel
60. Born in the USA - by Bruce Springsteen

Correction

Re: America Songs

Bruce's "Born to Run" is not the state song of New Jersey.

"Born to Run" was almost selected as the state song...but it was not.

See this link.

I did wonder myself at such lyrics being the proponent of my born-state:
Baby this town rips the bones from your back,
It's a death trap, it's a suicide rap
We gotta get out while we're young...

ah, but it is a good song.


I don't wish to speak further about the real state song of New Jersey.

june 5: more Hem!

Hem has more music coming out!
It sounds awesome. (or try here.)

And a sweet new commercial with Liberty Mutual you can watch here.

and you can always go to http://www.myspace.com/hem to hear some music - the full songs.


Hurray!

meet me in the morning

Meet me in the morning, 56th and Wabasha

I think this Dylan song sounds like sun rising on the horizon, and it seems fitting to play it this early morning when I've gotten up with the sun. I didn't actually get to see the sun rising, because I live in a dense neighborhood. That is not one of the benefits of where I live; on the other hand, the festival that is taking shape right outside my door is.

Doors were being banged on, and cars were being towed, right before the dawn, and in my excitement of seeing a van that has been sitting outside my house for eight months being towed, I couldn't go back to sleep at 6:40 in the morning. So, since that is when I (should) wake up on the weekdays anyway, and since I have a lot of work to do on a paper, I decided to start the day.


And it should be a good day, if I get a chunk read for this paper.

they say the darkest hour is right before the dawn

Well, I do hope so. It seems promising. I'm sure if I can get through this week, and write this paper, the dawn of summer should be in my fingertips.


By the end of the song, it sounds like evening. You can almost see the red haziness, and imagine the sun squashing as it goes drops to the horizon. I don't know how Dylan does it.

look at the sun, sinking like a ship
look at the sun, sinking like a ship
ain't that just like my heart, babe, when you kiss my lips

on I90

One of my all-time favorite books is Walk Two Moons. It's an adolescent novel by Sharon Creech. It was in the Sonlight Curriculum for ninth grade and I read it in Slovakia when Laurel did. It was so good. I distinctly remember lying on my dusty, old, over-stuffed couch in my living room while the girls breaked for lunch. But I couldn't stop reading.

The thing that is fascinating about it is that it holds several stories in one. And slowly they are brought together and missing pieces of each one begin to make sense. So it is sort of like a mystery which draws you in further with each chapter.

I love it because I love the way Creech uses langauge. She says things in unexpected ways, and I can hear the voice of the characters loud and clear in my head. This is probably why I love reading it aloud so much. I've read it aloud to my students each year since, which means I've read it aloud going on 5 times (since I had 2 classes 2 of the 3 years).

But the thing that really strikes me about it is how many deep issues Creech brings up. It's not one of those typical teen books trying to relate to kids of the day...at least it doesn't come across like that to me. It's just that the characters struggle with things that we all resonate with, and there is so much packed in, layer over layer.

Sal and her grandparents are on a road trip across I90 from Ohio to Idaho, and Courtney and I drove the same road this summer. We traveled to nearly all of the places that they stopped, in reverse. I had planned to read it aloud to her too, but we ended up listening to Dylan's Chronicles on cd. Sean Penn's voice took us through Montana.


Speaking of I90, there is another band that I like that few know about. It is called the Singing Mechanic, and I think he's fabulous. (He's a mechanic, and he sings. Not sure if he's still around, but I think so - I think he's put out by Asthmatic Kitty too). Fabulous because he plays the piano, which I love. And because it's funny, a lot of it, to me. There is one song I love the most, and I've always wished it to be true about me, so I could sing it out with my whole heart. So, it was on my road-trip cd, and I was thrilled when Courtney got the whole thing stuck in her brain too:

been to the west coast
been to the east coast
coasting is the Best Fun of my Life

driving down the highway
doing things my way
no one knows the --- for my life.*

now i feel that i'm improving
not as fast as this car is moving
my life's never been this good before

driving 'cross the country
movin' past the fun tree
Boston city is comin' up real slow

down on 90,
goin' 85
down on 90,
i feel alive.

have you dug wall drug
have you played the banjo
a six-foot bunny was about all I can stand

now i feel that i'm improving
not as fast as this car is moving
my life's never been this good before
before

saw a weary diner,
breakfast can't be finer
boston city is coming up real slow

the trip has been a long one.
it's just what we do for fun
BETTER THAN A RE-RUN TV SHOW!

Down on 90.

*don't know all the lyrics...

still to this day when I see my WALL DRUG sticker, the song comes to my head. And yup, we saw the 6-foot bunny and played the banjo. Had 5-cent coffee and free ice water too. But mostly we drove 90. and felt alive.

today

ohmygoodness there are more good songs on this site:
http://www.theweepies.com/
(and a cute story)


These are all good words:

volatile

Fickle

capricious

vacillating

whimsical

Today was such a wretched day at school, and I have this book waiting to be read, and it's also wretched: most terribly written and about terrible things. But I have good music and good words to make me happy (and a warm laptop on my lap...if only it could be Velvet nudging her wet nose, but alas).