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December 31, 2004
So long, 2004. I'll see you in Hell!
When I compare my situation at the start of 2005 to that at the start of 2004, I can notice only one real change: now as I sit in bed, I have new pajamas. I don't want to discount the importance of these pajamas (they're fantastic and have fabulous blue stripes) but other than that, well, not much happened. I mean, things occured, some of which were very nice, but no major life changes. I don't feel any smarter, or wiser, or sexier than I did last year. Older, I suppose, but no sea change. I could go for one of those about now, especially if it involved a lucrative career as a famous essayist at The New Yorker. Or a Beamer.
So screw off, 2004. 2005 is rising like a burning orange sun.
Happy New Year.
Posted by Drew at 11:48 PM | Comments (75) | TrackBack
December 26, 2004
Every Skyline
Congratulations, Mike Whitney. Your webpage has been added to my list on the right. Rock on, man. Rock on.
Posted by Drew at 05:22 PM | Comments (61) | TrackBack
December 24, 2004
Snow
If you were able to tear yourself away from the fire (and, let's be honest, more West Wing) in the family room you would see this out of my front door. Sure, the south may have the nation in a politcal death grip, but they don't get Christmas Eve like this.
Posted by Drew at 11:32 AM | Comments (65) | TrackBack
December 23, 2004
The West Wing is a Right Wing Plot
Yes, it's true. The West Wing, far from being the harmless bastion of imaginary leadership in the Whitehouse, is actually a nefarious plot to distract well meaning liberals from cleaning, reading, exercising or writing lesson plans. I have been home for four days and I have watched almost 10 hours of this show. It is poison. Sweet, sweet poison.
Posted by Drew at 11:34 AM | Comments (49) | TrackBack
December 19, 2004
B-lo
I'm back in Buffalo after an all-to-brief visit to see the Courtney clan in Albany. Good times. Bad weather on the trip, but I wasn't driving, so I just read A Series of Unfortunate Events in the backseat.
Everyone else in the house has a job to attend to tomorrow. Dare I suggest that I spend some time working on my own? Or will I just go to Talking Leaves?
Watched Supersize Me tonight. I now feel badly about my profound addiction to Cherry Coke. And crack.
Posted by Drew at 10:21 PM | Comments (59) | TrackBack
The Gates of Paradise
I am sad to say that Blake is no more. On Thursday he didn't come to get his food and on Friday his funeral was held in the backyard. Of the mice, now only Pope remains. Although Pope is a good mouse, and I wish bear him no ill will, Blake will always hold a special place in my heart. Milton passed on this summer so Blake's departure marks the end of the first generation of mice. He was with me through some hard times.
Godspeed, Blake. Godspeed.
Posted by Drew at 10:10 PM | Comments (111) | TrackBack
December 15, 2004
In Praise of: Johnny Tremain
Today was test day in class. I love test day. The kids all had to spend the period working silently, so I got to read a little. Rock on.
My book of choice was not my usual pick me up but rather that childhood favorite Johnny Tremain.
Allow me to be clear. This book rules. Reading it, I'm amused at how much it has shaped my impression of the American revolution. Really, I have no idea what Jefferson, Washington and Franklin were doing around that time, but damn, do I know that all the Sons of Liberty were raising hell around Faneuil Hall. I still have some trouble with the fact that Jonathan Lyte wasn't really a Tory merchant and the Boston Observer wasn't a real paper. (Or was it?)
I'm also a little surprised at how incredibly racist this book is. At one point Johnny tells a black maid that his horse is going to be commandeered.
"Whee! Don't know commandeer, but it sounds dreadful cruel to me!"Yikes. Read it anyway.
"It is a way to cook things," Johnny said soberly.
"My land, don't let them cook that pretty horse of yours."
It makes me want to move to overthrow the government and/or move to Boston. Let's take a quick look on Idealist for Boston area jobs . . . here we go . . . uh huh . . . yeah. Look out Che! We've a new revolutionary on our hands!
Posted by Drew at 09:24 PM | Comments (47) | TrackBack
December 14, 2004
Apologies
As you can see, I've been a little slow on updates. (Ok, just let me pretend that you noticed. It makes me feel good.) Yes, my anger and rage from last week did send me into a shame spiral, but no I didn't kill myself. I mean, I tried, but when you try to drink youself to death with Cherry Coke you just get really hyper.
This weekend we had a large TFA party at Ground Zero (no Morgan Freeman sightings, alas) which caused me hate people a lot less. On Sunday, my middle aged lady friends and I went hiking and then went to check out an old cemetary and an ancient Indian mound*.
For the past two days I have been repeatedly asked, "Are you OK?" Apparently I seem a little out of it. I really need this vacation.
* - This was an amazing experience. First of all, it made me want only to live in the country and know the names of the many species of flora. Second, it reminded me that we live in an ancient and complicated place. So much forgotten. So much history and myth.
Posted by Drew at 10:12 PM | Comments (64) | TrackBack
The Elfin Guide
It being Christmas and all, I want to encourage all of you to listen to the greatest piece of radio ever made: This American Life's "Christmas and Commerce" episode. Not only does it have an almost-complete recording of David Sedaris's "Santaland Diaries" but aslo has "Christmas Freud" by David Rakoff.
Sure, I always love TAL, but this may well be the best episode ever.
Posted by Drew at 10:07 PM | Comments (54) | TrackBack
December 08, 2004
Your source for vitriol and rage
Perhaps I have become a pessimist. I just want to point out the following things which show that we are fucked as a people:
1) Bush stands up to what is truly ruining our country: steroids. He points out (through a spokesman) that, "Professional baseball players are people our children look up to." Yeah. Thanks a lot. Don't fund eduction or anything. If you want to stand up for kids, take a stand on a tough issue like that. Now that's courage. (I hate you.)
2) Dumbest headline ever: "Experts: Men Distort Religion to Justify 'Honour' Killings" Really? I needed an expert to tell me that Christianity doesn't support women being "beheaded, burned to death, maimed, beaten, raped, forced into suicide or mentally abused." But can we trust the experts? Stay tuned. (On Yahoo, the headlined was shortened to "Experts: Religion Distorted to Justify Killing" which takes dumb headlines to a whole new level.)
3) We are all going die of avian flu. Just thought you'd like to know! The last influenza pandemic was less than 40 years ago. That killed millions and was before the time people moved from Bangkok to New York in less than a day. Which is less than the incubation period for said flu. SARS is for wimps.
4) Do you realize that Hitler was alive just 60 years ago? That's insane. It seems like ancient history , but so does disco and Vietnam. We just weren't thee to see it. For all our mouthing of "Never forget," do we really remember the Holocaust? Do we understand it? Have we learned anything? We've all (well, all the people young enough to read this blog) lived through an incredibly tranquil time in the history of the world, but is that a good reason to assume that the US will remain the world's only superpower or that we can expect some teleological movement towards peace? Hell no. It means we're due. China is going to overtake us and we'll all die in a nuclear war. Those of us who survive the bird flu anyway.
5) Oh, and don't get me started on the headline "Florida voters confident their vote counted: poll" They point out that "Seventy-five percent said they were 'very confident' or 'somewhat confident' that their votes were counted." That's not good!! That's really bad!! What about the other 25% who feel as if they have no voice in the political process!?! Apparently, 10% of voters were "not confident at all" that their vote was counted. Oh, sure! 10% voter disenfranchisement is A-OK!! All those aliented voters shouldn't worry us at all.
6) I am in desperate need of a snowday. I have no excuse for needing a day off. I just need one. Or rather, I just want one. Very very badly.
Posted by Drew at 09:56 PM | Comments (63) | TrackBack
December 07, 2004
Happy Hanukkah!
As tonight was the first night of Hanukkah, I decided that it was time to go undercover as a Jew again in the name of (fake) cultural diversity. I drew a menorah and a dreidle on the board and proceeded to tell the story of great victory of the Jews over the Syrian-Greeks in 165 BCE. For the most part, the kids were pretty into it, especially the idea that if they were Jewish, they would get all sorts of extra holidays.
The low point came when I asked the class if any of them knew what Hanukkah was. Most of them just knew it from Rugrats. One particularly bright student told me, "Hanukkah means no one gets left behind." I pointed out that he was thinking not of "Hanukkah" but "Ohana," the word for "family" in Lilo and Stitch. Really, the whole thing is understandable. That little alien does look a lot like David Ben-Gurion.
Anyway, Happy Hanukkah to all. Eight days of presents and now Madonna, too? Jesus, Abraham, you people have all the good stuff in your religion.
Posted by Drew at 09:40 PM | Comments (64) | TrackBack
At least we're not Mississippi . . .
Teen pregnancy.
Yeah. Those red staters sure have a lock on moral values. Looks like those abstinance only programs are doing a bang-up job.
Posted by Drew at 06:44 AM | Comments (65) | TrackBack
Howard Dean. Aaaarrggghhhh!!!
So those of you who have, um, "lives" may not have noticed just how excited some people are about the prospect of Howard Dean becoming chair of the DNC. DailyKos is flipping out, and now there's an article on Salon.
I'm not really sure whether or not this is a good idea. It's not that he's a maniac, it's just that he plays one on TV. On the other hand, it doesn't look like the Republicans paid too high a price to dive hard right. Maybe the dems should dive hard left and we can all be socialists in thirty years. MMmmmm. . . . Socialism . . .
Posted by Drew at 06:38 AM | Comments (68) | TrackBack
December 05, 2004
It takes a lot to make Hannah angry . . .
I mean she works with kindergardeners and hasn't killed a single one!But CBS and NBC turning down the United Church of Christ's ad was just enough to do it.
Mostly the entire "controversy" speaks to the generally pathetic state of the media and political climate. It's too sad to get angry about.
Luckily, there's a petition you can sign here. I'm not usually one for online petitions, but if it's good enough for Hannah's mom, it's good enough for me. (Also, I don't think that People for the American Way are going to sell your e-mail address.)
Posted by Drew at 11:37 AM | Comments (47) | TrackBack
December 02, 2004
Unemployment Beckons
By deciding to teach straight out of college, I effectively bypassed that awkard, post-college, What-Do-You-Do-With-A-B.A.-In-English? phase. Until now.
During my planning period today, I started job searching and realized that I am horrifically underqualified for any kind of real job. For the first time, it occurs to me that I may end up either un- or under-employed for a good long while after May. Not having any idea of what I want to do with my life doesn't help either.
I feel like being out of school for two years should bulk up my resume, but two years of teaching middle school is, when push comes to shove, two years of teaching middle school. And not even teaching very well!
Ah, well. There's always my fallback plan: televagelism. (Or vagrancy!)
Posted by Drew at 09:28 PM | Comments (12) | TrackBack
Love? Valour? Compassion? Jesus!
When I joined Teach for America, I really thought that my experiences in theater had come to an end. I never really thought that I would do it professionally, and it was never very high on my list of things to do at school. All that came to an end today, when I was asked to help with auditions for our school Christmas play, "Season's Beatings." I was happy to help and was in the room before I read the script. Big mistake!
The play is about Wally, a television reporter who tries to find someone to interview about the true meaning of Christmas. But lo! Everyone seems to have forgotten the meaning. Finally, he interviews a character named only "Christian" (Danger! Danger, Will Robinson!)
Excerpt below:
Christian: (Continuing.) The angel said, 'Behold, I bring you good tidings of great joy, which shall be unto all people. For unto you is born this day, in the city of David, a savior, which is Christ the Lord.' The true joy of the season only belongs to those who know Him. Otherwise it's an exercise in futility!"Wally: (Starting to brighten up again.) "You're right. In all the rush, I tend to forget that sometimes."
Christian: "So do a lot of people. That's why this time of year is also the most depressing to some. They're basing their happiness on things that soon pass away and it always leaves them feeling empty."
Wally: "I think I understand. They celebrate the coming of Christ into the world but don't invite Him into their own heart."
Christian: "You've got it! (thoughtfully) You know, you're not far from the kingdom of God. Why don't we go discuss it over a cup of hot chocolate... my treat."
It used to be that I was surprised to find this in a public school. Oh, how I've learned.
Anyway, the auditions went well and I think I've been inspired to direct a play as well. I'll let you know when Fiddler on the Roof opens.
NB: The graphic here is actually from the page on which this script is published. If it's on www.ChristianSkitScripts.com it can't be blasphemy!
Posted by Drew at 09:01 PM | Comments (50) | TrackBack
December 01, 2004
Santa can't object to you now!
Yes, tonight was the night to see the old claymation Rudolph movie. I watched it. It was fantastic. If you ignore the sweatshop conditions Santas imposes on his elves and raindeer. Not only do they not seem to get paid, but up until the end of the movie, they don't even have a dental plan! I mean jeeze.
Speaking of arctic conditions, my house is freezing (yes, it gets cold in Arkansas) and for various reasons we don't have heat until Friday. Boo.
Posted by Drew at 07:10 PM | Comments (58) | TrackBack