spacemonk

sure, anyone with talent can make a great song. but to take a song like jackson browne's "somebody's baby" from the fast times at ridgemont high soundtrack and make it rock is another thing entirely.

such is the genius of yo la tengo.

Friday Five
1. How many TVs do you have in your home? 2
2. On average, how much TV do you watch in a week? hmmm. depends if you count being in the room with the tv while doiing something else as "watching"
3. Do you feel that television is bad for young children? depends on how much they watch, what they watch and what other activities they participate in
4. What TV shows do you absolutely HAVE to watch, and if you miss them, you're heartbroken? the sopranos and alias
5. If you had the power to create your own television network, what would your line-up look like? hmmm, a lot of jazz, some yoga shows, alias, the sopranos, off-the-wall sports like speed skating, re-runs of seinfeld and red dwarf, alias, iron chef, the sopranos, plenty of cartoons - old and new (bugs bunny and sponge bob) a movie here and there (the outlaw josie wales every coupla weeks, ferris bueller's day off every sunday evening), NO home improvement shows other than trading spaces, re-runs of the old game show with the whammies, match game '75, winter and summer olympic flashbacks, NO talk shows other than space ghost:coast to coast, NO carrot top (except when he was on sg:c2c and got blasted), some old school pro wrestling, star trek re-runs (mainly tng), dark angel re-runs (of course, on my network, it wouldn't have gotten cancelled)

oh yeah, and beavis and butthead would be restored to their proper time spot!

guess you can see why i ain't a network exec!

as i try to add some regularity back into my yoga practice, i swear, i can FEEL my body thanking me after every practice

for 16 bucks and change got yo la tengo's genius + love=yo la tengo (2 cd's) + kid a by radiohead

i believe the ylt cd title is a parody of an old ray charles album - something like genius + soul=ray charles - could be wrong - if not, it oughta be

had to ff to the 2nd instrumental cd to hear ylt's cover of the ramones blitzkreig bop. tasty!

in other news, it was NOT black bean soup day at a favorite eatery, but other than that had a yummy lunch - veggie soup and mediterranean veggie sandwich...

i'm a bit more than halfway thru musician david amram's OFFBEAT, which chronicles his experiences with jack kerouac. just finished chapter where kerouac died. the most striking thing i've found so far was how kerouac was not necessarily happy with being described as part of "the beat movement" which was perceived as copying the style, but not the substance of the artists, writers etc. of that era...

but that's how it always is, isn't it. the true innovators in art, whether it be charlie parker, ornette coleman, jimi hendrix or whoever, simply do their thing - follow their own muse - those that come after them form the "movements"

or as that great philosopher charles mingus said in a song title "if charlie parker were a gunslinger, they'd be a lot of dead copycats"

wow - another class - more problems...
most of the problems in this class were not with me though,hardware/windows/office issues - it did get me a bit flustered - forgot how to do something...

was able to make a joke though, i asked the class if they didn't know how to do something in word, what could they use and a student answered "help", i asked him if that was his answer or was he calling for help - got a few snickers...

i have one more class PLUS a presentation of simulation software to other faculty.
at this point, i will settle for making it thru the day uninjured...

zoinks!

say it ain't so!

blogger server must have hiccuped...tried to access my page and got some other guys site - tim blake, i think. readers would have immediately known it wasn't my site as all the posts were very topical, well-reasoned and relevant.

i'm mr. scatterbrained today. in first class acted like i've never seen a computer before. all you can do is laugh i guess.

my odd schedule means wednesday is kind of my thursday - really winding down - should be an easy weekend. of course there are things i need to work on for my classes and the class i am taking, but nothing too big. depending on the weather might go to cedar point - a local amusement park - has some special halloween things. i don't find amusement parks especially amusing, but what the heck, the family likes them - maybe i'll take a book...currently reading OFFBEAT by david amram - a musician of both jazz and classical i was vaguely aware of, who apparently hung out with jack kerouac. taz just mentioned kerouac on his site, amd it was a nice coincidence when i saw the book in the library. it looked good - sure enough it is...

my teacher turned back my paper yesterday on which i got a 14 out of 15. the one point deduction was for including evidence for which there was no reference - i.e. my own observations, thoughts, what i would consider to be common knowledge. i understood that i was wrong, and was not arguing the deduction at all. i was just asking her what kinds of resources i could have cited for that kind of info. we discussed it for a while and she said - "hmmm - maybe i should have only taken a half point off. ahhh, what's the difference, you're going to get an A anyway!".

nice!

another dream. i don't often remember my dreams and often when i do, they are kind of boring. last week or so, i have been remembering them more and they have been less boring - which perhaps is not a good thing. last night i dreamt i was having car trouble - major - like blown engine. yuck. i was thinking in my dream as i am now - i need that like i need a hole in my head.

oh yeah, third possible reason for alaska dream: i want to watch/tape tonight the new american sportsman on espn2 - has a feature about polar bears featuring picabo street (everyone's favorite oddly named skier) - don't know if it's in alaska or not, but somewhere way up north - knowing the OLD american sportsman show, i hope picabo doesn't pop a cap in any of them...

either last night or the night before i dreamt i was in alaska. i wonder if i dreamt that because: a. it's starting to get cold here or b. i recently saw my big fat greek wedding starring former northern exposure star john corbett

apparently had a power failure last night. woke up and was suprised to see how light it was. no alarms went off. as it turned out we were 30-45 minutes behind. youngest daughter missed the bus. older daughter did make hers though. off on the wrong foot alreat - out of sorts - breathe....

"welcome to the working week", indeed...

able to go skating after all. pavement dried out and actually turned out not to be a bad day, for october. a bit breezy perhaps. i inline skate year round outdoors, as long as it is dry. to minimize the wind, cold, a lot of times i skate laps on the track around a local soccer field. that's what i did today. it doesn't make it less windy, but does minimize the length of time the wind is against you. i was anxious to skate since i hadn't since my series of races in september. also, ice skating will start soon - a week or two, i believe. went about 3 miles - very leisurely pace, but really concentrating on form most of the time - deep in a crouch, long push - working the thighs and glutes.

my daughter came skating with me today. it's been a while since we went skating, which is funny cause she is the reason i took up skating. but we skate differently. i usually just like to skate and skate - where her skating is more playful spins, etc. it's funny i've practiced, read skating books etc, but some things i just can't master - i.e. transition from forward to backward. i can skate forward and backward well, but to switch is tough. i actually have kinda can do a credible job from backward to forward - but the opposite.... my daughter, on the other hand, seems to be able to intuitively do these things. i think she is just less fearful about falling. of course, you could say my fear is justifiable: i have a family to support and a lot longer way to fall.

plans for an AM skate are out the window as it is yucky outside. rainy and chilly - bleh. guess i'll have to workout inside on stability ball and exercise bike. yoga class this PM. perhaps will play with .net some more (actually it's pretty cool - played with it yesterday), perhaps i'll work on the second half of my project (ah - i need a bit of a break) - who knows - hmmm - i think my wife is going somewhere early this PM, so might have to figure out an activity - or we can be slugs all day.

alias/the sopranos double feature later tonight (note to self: self, look for a synopsis of last week's episode which didn't air in cleveland due to the browns and an archaic, unfair and yucky rule. got a frozen pizza - yeah, i'm livin' large!