Next Big Things…

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Catching Up! Here are some random updates:

Spent the weekend sneaking into the SOLD OUT San Diego Comic Con. Seriously, how can a convention sell out? Well, get the entire cast of Heroes, a bunch of Battlestar Galactica fans, and dozens of people dressed as god knows what and you’ve got packed to the limits. It can be said that I’ve officially crossed over: I’m now into full-on superhero comic books. It’s taken a while. I’ve tepidly waddled through high brow Chris Ware and Persepolis and (most recently) Fun Home. I’ve moved to the “literary” (AKA Alan Moore written) graphic novels: your Watchmen and V and From Hell and Invisibles. I’ve then ventured into the non-superhero works of mainstream presses (AKA the Brian K. Vaughn thing) with titles like: Y the Last Man, DMZ, Ex Machina, Runaways, and Crossing Midnight. I’m now following a few authors I’m interested in and joining legions reading books like Ultimate X-Men (Vaughn again), New X-Men (Grant Morrison), and Dr. Strange (Vaughn Again), and Superman (Morrison Again). These are author specific at the moment but I feel like this is the gateway drug. Now all I need is to speak with a retainer in my mouth, get some glasses with masking tape, and work on getting worse acne…

Not exactly new, but I was wowed this year by Mimobots (think collectible japanese toys that are actually USB memory sticks). I was suckered into buying one this year – most specifically a 2GB version of this little fella.

Took my mother to see Avenue Q. I got some great tickets the day of the show and figured a little bit of puppet sex is what brings the family together.

Rhea and I went to the premier of the Bourne Ultimatum last week. Yes, it was pretty awesome.

I am restraining from talking about Potter. I’ll say I’m left feeling satisfied and think I “get” the epilogue.

NEW BAND ALERT: As far as being a cutting edge music snob, I think I’m behind the curve by anywhere from 6 to 2 weeks, depending on if you ask someone from Pitchfork or the Village Voice, but I just started listening to Vampire Weekend. I have what looks like a full length album I’ve been listening to, but based on their site it may just be a compilation I was sent. In any case take two bands I am obsessed with: The Walkmen and the Hallelujah Chicken Run Band and you’ve got a close approximation of Vampire Weekend. I think there will be a lot more emphasis on the indie-rock band using african rhythm in the coming reviews of the band. Eventually it will be turned into this whole “white appropriation of black music” thing just like this always does. For now it’s catchy and hittin’ the spot.

Hot Fuzz on DVD today, new Common out (though not as excited as I’ve been before), looks like I’ve got a couple mainstream purchases to make.

I’ll eventually get to posting something more spectacular. For now, stay rest assured that I’m busy working on a conference proposal, a graffiti curriculum, and a field trip for 700+ students.
“There’s glass between us!”

Clip Keeping #13ish

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Yes, I realize I’ve been a bit behind on this. Aside from the usual LA Record things here and there, I’ve started writing for LA.com. Currently have a preview of the Sgt. Pepper’s 40th anniversary show at the bowl. I also have a review of the Sonic Youth show on the Urb blog if you dig around … yes, this is the show I decided to go to instead of seeing Femi with Ms. Rogers.

Couple other (aka more interesting) clips to come.

P.S.: I previewed a reading for a new book called Skinema  for the LA Record a couple of weeks ago. The book is every bit as sleezy, tasteless, and terrible as I imagined. I cannot put it down. The only thing better would have been if it were called Harry Potter and the awesome book Skinema.

It was the best of skanks it was the worst of skanks…

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So I’ve gotten caught up in watching TV lately. Not just any TV, mind you, but the TV that I suspect many of my students have seen. That TV of the omnipresent and ominous “M”. And what things do I see on said MTV? Well… that’s just the problem. There’s this polarizing interest I’ve noticed on the channel.

On one hand, you’ve got your “My Super Sweet Sixteen,” which is the most fascinating and repulsive show I’ve ever willingly subjected myself to (and yes, I’m eventually planning on seeing the movie adaptation as well). The beyond spoiled brats that will one day employ my students as service level workers cry their eyes out because their luxury SUV was ordered in the wrong custom color (“This Be The Verse,” anyone?). Last Sunday I got caught up watching a marathon of this show – MTV counted down to the most expensive parties thrown on the show. Parties two through five all reached well above the $300,000.00 range. And party #1, taking place in Jay-Z’s New York Club, featuring Kanye West, and with MP3 players acting as official invitations (there’s a quick $24,000 gone) was more than a million dollars. I honestly cannot stop watching this show. I honestly hate every moment of it that I watch. It’s like stopping on the road next to a car wreck…except that the car wreck is someone’s disaster of a childhood and it went on for three hours on Sunday.

On the other hand you’ve got “Engaged and Underage” a show that takes two love struck young ‘uns and watches them fight and make up and nuzzle and eventually tie the knot together. However, no longer are you seeing the Escalades or the Jaguars or the Bentzs or the Porsches. You’ve got teenage moms and high school dropouts and uncomfortable confrontations between future in-laws. Sure, it’s just as trashy as “Super Sweet Sixteen,” but this is an embrace of a different class of individuals.

“Sweet Sixteen” flaunts the excessively rich exploits of America’s wealthiest brats while “Enagaged” is the ol’ working class’ ridiculous flirting with an outdated convention (more on my animosity toward marriage in the future, I’m sure). Neither of these shows does anything great for the classes they speak of nor do they offer any values that I’d hope for my students to endorse. If anything these shows highlight the universal nature of smuttiness and prima donna behavior (and based on these shows, it’s not gender specific). I’m sure I’ll keep watching (believe me, I don’t want to either…), but I’m fascinated by this unifying and splitting dichotomy conundrum that is being inundated on our teens.

Clip Keeping #10, 11, & 12

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Yes, yes, I’ve been a bit out of the loop for a bit – chalk one up to the chaos of teaching. I’ll get to all of that in a minute, but for now here’s some clip stuff to remind myself to go back and track these down. So there’s been a steady stream of previews and reviews for the LA Record (with short blurbs for the lazy):

Previews:
Neil Hamburger (“Let’s get this party started!”)
Battles (“crazy delicious”)
Sunn0))), Earth, and Wolves in the Throne Room (DOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOM)
Crispin Glover Screening (W.E.I.R.D.O.)

Reviews:
Arthur Benefit Show (God bless Arthur, Entrance=Awesome)
Prince at the Roosevelt Hotel (Holy mother of God! Prince… This CLOSE!)

There was also a review of two for Urb, and another review for The District Weekly (that new Loudon Wainwright III album).

I think I’ve got a couple of things coming out in some other places soon too, but we’ll see as those come about.

Pantoum’s for the letdown

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No, precious reader, you are not forgotten. As my seniors are preparing for graduation and my juniors are turning the corner as the new school year approacheth, everything seems to be caving in on the school front. June’s just a ridiculous month with ridiculous deadlines and ridiculously little time to post on a ridiculously nondescript blog.

I have however been reading and playing around with a lot more poetry than previous months this past year. The most recent Dean Young collection is flooring me and I’m ever so slowly going through Mr. Berryman’s Dream Songs. I read a couple everyday – though I feel hopelessly lost sometimes I anticipate actually finishing this book. This has lead me to an interesting thought about poetry, poets, and how we go about picking our “favorites.” In my more impressionable undergrad years, it wouldn’t take much for me to jump on board various (overly canonized) authors – one poem that struck the right chord was often enough to do it. I can think specifically of one Bob Kaufman, one T. S. Eliot, and one Elizabeth Bishop. And while I still admire all of the aforementioned poets today, there’s only one that’d still be relegated to “favorite,” these days (not so fast, Eliot!).

Perhaps not being as focused on academic minutiae and not bogged down with as much journalistic riff raff as I’ve been the past few years, I’ve been playing around with form a bit more. I’ve been on a pantoum kick of late. The structure is playful (google it yourself!). I’m not particularly proud of these poems – the content is like what? and the meter is a bit off (I’ve been shooting for nice, clean octameter). Yes, I am fully aware of the weak slant rhyme in the second poem- just leave it, will ya? However, maybe this will be a place to occasionally put up new work for the hell o’ it? Eh.

Pantoum 1
We dip in time like rocket ships
Uninhibited in zero gravity
Energy pulsing fingertips
Awaiting the new news delivery

Uninhibited in zero gravity
We now link limbs in synchronicity
Awaiting the new news delivery
Rubbing shins under one’s humidity

We now link limbs in synchronicity
Nudged shoulders, jostled arms, lost grip
Rubbing shins under one’s humidity
Stumble off course find a new trip

Nudged shoulders, jostled arms, lost grip
Energy pulsing fingertips
Stumble off course find a new trip
We dip in time like rocket ships.

Pantoum for five books
The jazz we sing is savory
Unclothed unseen in your Iran
Ras and yams electricity
Shut eyes dried nose lost in Sudan

Unclothed unseen in your Iran
We dance in journals fraught with fear
Shut eyes dried nose lost in Sudan
Trujillo’s reign for us to smear

We dance in journals fraught with fear
Quixote in his windmill dreams
Trujillo’s reign for us to smear
Uncouth in mouth and all too free

Quixote in his windmill dreams
Ras and yams electricity
Uncouth in mouth and all too free
The jazz we sing is savory

How I spent the weekend (with a bit on how I spent the week)

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This past week saw my 54 seniors leading their own senior presentations. This is what I wrote on the general invitation for the presentations:

“For the past year, our seniors have been working on a newly revised Senior Portfolio project that culminates with a 30-minute self-reflective presentation including a personal life mission statement and an analysis of a global issue of injustice. This is an opportunity to see the work our SCGA students have been creating throughout their high school careers as well as to engage these students in dialogue about their experiences at Manual Arts and as members of SCGA.”

Of the 17 presentations that I watched (the students were divided into 3 rooms), I have to say I was impressed and honestly moved by the work and thought that went into these. I saw several students talk about not graduating next month because of the CAHSEE. I saw several students understandably break into tears as they recalled personal hardship. I saw a student speak critically about his education and the kinds of “bad” teachers that students must overcome; this student spoke passionately about social change and inequality in Los Angeles and was often inaudible due to police sirens and a circling helicopter. I saw 17 students exhibit the kind of personal resiliency and fortitude that Hollywood will never, ever cover quite right. I am truly proud of the work that these students did and writing about these presentations isn’t going to do them justice so I’m stopping now.

Instead, I wrote letters to each of the 17 students that presented. The two other teachers and I agreed to write a paragraph or two to the students we saw present, acknowledging their efforts. Sounds simple, right? Not so much. I spent much of my weekend writing (and rewriting) letters to these students. Grand total: 6050 words. A little more than a page per student or 24.5 double spaced pages or a third of the inquiry I wrote last year or however else you want to break it up. I really found myself saying much more than I initially planned. Letters ranged in tone from general, sincere praise to questioning of student’s future decisions, to frustration at the results of decisions students made throughout their school careers. I don’t know how students will respond to said letters or if they will even care (do kids get letters nowadays? Or is it only MySpace and text messages? I hope they can interpret the letter without the use of smilies or LOLs). Ultimately, I think these letters were a great way for me to reflect on the presentation process and look at student growth away from the grade book and the test scores and the college admission letters and the exit exam numbers and the school API score etc. I don’t know if I’ll write letters like these again prior to next year’s presentations, but I feel like they’ve helped me grow as a teacher. I’ve heard so many students praise and acknowledge my efforts as a teacher this week. It was truly moving to hear these words come from students I’ve known for two years, but the meaning behind those words didn’t really sink in until I began responding to that praise with letters myself. I know this doesn’t make a lot of sense, but it’s more to track my thought process about this project for next year. Thanks for tuning in.