hey, maybe i'm exposing a dorky side or maybe everyone except me knew about this tidbit of information but i find it kind of thrilling. so in the dylan song 'subterranean homesick blues' there's a line "the pump don't work 'cause the vandals took the handle" or something near to that and the pump he's speaking of is located at none other than bard college. it's true. i read it on the internet and there's even a picture of the lyrical pump
just thought you bardos (and honorary ones) would enjoy this history lesson.
well, i thought i'd let everyone know that the white sox just won the world series. i know it's only a game but it's the only game that matters! (at least for tonight and for the next few weeks) anyways, it was fun to be in Chicago last saturday, the day of the first game, because i kind of enjoy that perpetual loser feeling that can be found among some sports fans in that city. I just find that attitude so charming. As i was walking around the city on saturday, it started raining a bit and i overheard some guy say, "great, the world series finally comes to chicago and it gets pissed on." aww.
So this afternoon, one of my students asked if he could do something or another and I answered, "yeah, sweet. awesome, go for it dude!" so then he repeated it and thought it was the funniest thing ever. In fact, all the kids started walking around the room saying it out loud to themselves, "Sweet, awesome go for it dude!" and then cracking themselves up. geez, you say one dorky thing...
Then yesterday I saw the first civilian using a segway. You know segway, those weird two wheeled thingys that were supposed to revolutionize walking? I call them 'gingers' 'cause i feel like i heard them referred as that once. Anyway, the only other place i've seen them was at the lakefront in chicago, being operated by chicago's finest. i never knew people out of uniform used 'em. Unless this guy was undercover...
That heading is me humming the days of our lives theme song, in case you don't recognize my rendition. Speaking of Days, I was standing in the check out line and spotted the cover of Soap Opera Digest. I always get a little embarrassed at picking it up (despite having a subscription at one point) but I found out from the cover that Mimi and Shawn D. are now an item! What?! It makes me realize I haven't watched in a long time. AND supposedly Carrie's making a comeback--same actress it looks like. I wish the mid-Belle would make a comeback, she was funny. I also wish the old Jan would make a comeback (also funny). I wish all the rejected actors could appear on some kind of alternaDays and it would just be funny, funny, funny.
Ever since I watched that Bob Dylan movie No Direction Home, I've been resurrecting songs that I haven't listened to in a long time and loving them again. While listening, I've been thinking a lot about how I heard once there was this party where everyone came dressed up as a character from a Dylan song. I always figured if I were to go to such a party I would have to come as the “grey-flanneled dwarf who weeps to birds of prey” but who I would really want to be is the “junk yard angel” who gives away bread. She also “walks like Bo Diddley and she don't need no crutch. She keeps this four-ten all loaded with lead” She just sounds so much cooler than some screaming dwarf. I remember talking about this with Anna and she said she wanted to be the “Sad eyed lady from the lowlands” and I was like “cool, what song is that from?” uh, the song “the Sad eyed Lady from the Lowlands” doh!
So in case anyone gets invited to such a party here are some of my suggestions (many from Desolation Row) so you don't have to go as Mr. Tambourine Man or Napoleon in rags:
o The Girl from the North Country Fair o The Blind Commissioner o Cinderella. “She seems so easy…and puts her hands in her back pockets Bette Davis style” o Ophelia who wears an iron vest o Einstein disguised as Robin Hood who 'goes off sniffing drainpipes and reciting the alphabet' o Dr. Filth who keeps his world in a leather cup or his nurse, “some local loser” o The cowboy angel who rides on a four legged cloud o Aladdin with his lamp who “sits with utopian hermit monks side saddled on the golden calf” o Sweet Melinda-“the goddess of gloom”
so there'll be plenty of "drinkin and dancing and wearing bright colored clothes". The party will be at that place "where martyrs weep and angels play with sin". When is it you ask? "When the shadow comes under your door, when the devil calls your cards, when your water turns to wine, when you can't play God no more..." so if its her birthday salute her and I'll see you there!
So this afternoon, the children took part in the great debate--is santa claus for real or what? Listening to them posturing made me wonder what is the value in telling this myth to kids, especially at such a young age when they have a difficult time distinguishing between reality and fantasy and really crave these kind of concrete, very 'black-and-white' explanations of things. I got nervous when they finally looked to me as some kind of authority. I mumbled something about how well maybe some people believe in him and some people, like myself, don't. Then I added that to some people, santa is totally irrelevant because not everyone celebrates christmas. All of this was of no use to them, they just responded, "okay but is he real?" They really wanted a definitive yes or no answer and didn't seem at all satisfied with the other crap i was saying. Then i tried to relate it to believing in god but i was just digging myself into a hole. Frustrated, I said, "Well, I mean if you say santa is real then that's like saying the tooth fairy is real and the easter bunny too!" Then I stared at ten sad faces all on the brink of tears. I decided to then shut my mouth and just listen in and let them figure it out for themselves. Those in the 'real' camp, used the results of presents as proof enough, as in, well, if he brings presents then he has to be real. They also used examples of seeing him at the mall or at the "church breakfast". Someone suggested he is a black man and my mostly white students seemed to accept that. I liked how someone said that santa has radios for ears. Someone said he may be a 'fake man', then the debate got real interesting as they discussed what the heck a fake man might be. I really enjoyed this more when i shut up. I can't remember ever believing in santa claus, mostly because my family always opened presents on xmas eve and so the logistics never fit the myth. At my brief stint in lutheran school, they made it a big point to us not to perpetuate the santa claus story because they were all about getting proper recognition for hard work--as in, "your parents worked hard to buy you those presents and so therefore you should thank them and not some 'fake man'" I remember that it was also suggested that if you rearrange the letters of santa it spells 'satan'.
