Mandolin Orange, Faith, Incompetent People and Myanmar
My #ThemeSong today is a set by Chapel Hill's Mandolin Orange, a folk duo led by married couple Andrew Marlin and Emily Frantz, both 31. Their music is relaxing, positive, and thought provoking - perfect for the drive to or from work. (Thanks bro :-) …
Lesson Plan: Plants and Spring Planting
Shortly after the Coronavirus quarantine started last year, my elementary-school 'pod' and I did a 4-days plants rotation … So today we planted the seeds of several spring vegetables … All three types of seeds are large and beautifully round, like tiny marbles. Using a ruler, we compared their sizes and found that …
...For The Day
My Quote of the Day:
"You should never, never doubt what nobody is sure about." ~Willy Wonka
Willy Wonka's philosophical and metaphysical optimism has always drawn me to that quote, but the last 5 years have illuminated the danger that is equally inherent.
Manic Monday, Everyday Jitters, and Implementation Activation
My #ThemeSong today is Manic Monday, written by Prince and performed by The Bangles. Here’s a great NPR story on how Prince came to give the song to the Bangles quite early in their musical career: https://www.npr.org/2019/06/21/734176868/how-prince-worked-his-magic-on-the-bangles-manic-monday…
Everyday Addiction
I have been off Facebook (for personal posts) for 10 weeks now. Most interesting has been the diminishing absence of the sporadic jab of anxiety that accompanies each impulse to check my notifications or post a new thought or photo…
Bitchy Coffee
The things I would post to Facebook today, if I weren’t no longer posting on Facebook… including today’s original #ThemeSong and #VoiceInMyHead.
Big Loss of a Big Soul
It’s hard to contemplate how such a big soul can disappear so suddenly and so completely, which I’m sure is why “Annabelle” is the song in my head today as my family returns home from a college visit to attend Mike’s memorial service…
Judy Garland's Ever Elusive Rainbow
Judy Garland first recorded “Over the Rainbow” for The Wizard of Oz with MGM on October 7, 1938. Since then, the Recording Industry Association of America and the National Endowment for the Arts ranked the song number one on the “Songs of the Century” list, and the American Film Institute named it the greatest movie song of all time on the list of “AFI’s 100 Years…100 Songs.” Somewhere Over the Rainbow was adopted in World War II by American troops in Europe as a symbol of the United States…
Remembering Mr. Hammond
My #ThemeSong today, once again, is Helplessness Blues by Fleet Foxes. It's one of my all-time favorites, and today the chorus calls to mind the life of SamHammond, long-time carillonneur at Duke University (53 years, daily(!)) and generous accompanist for Duke University String School (local elementary through high-school students, many on scholarship), who passed away recently. …
Eulogy for My 2014 MacBook Air
Yesterday, like a sign from the Universe, I accidentally killed my MacBook Air. I felt the urge to be with my 7-year-old computer as it died there on the table. The software was still working like nothing had happened, but the hardware was clearly taking its last breaths. To pass the time, I logged into my blog and began typing the following eulogy to my old inanimate friend. …
#VoiceInMyHead Today (re Teachers)
We need to start paying teachers the salaries of both caretakers and educators if we want to maintain the system as it is. Teachers have shown they can do it, which is why we are demanding they do it now. But the current situation is not sustainable unless …
Rain, Better Conversations, and 3-D Printed Edible Steaks
I had to take a few days hiatus to work on my entries to a Ghost, Fable and Fractured Fairy Tale contest. In the meantime, we've had rain, rain and more cold rain. This morning was no different, which is why my theme song today is Lady Gaga's Rain on Me (below). Here's a great article from TeenVogue regarding the song's 22-year-old co-writer Nija Charles's experience as a young black woman making pop music…
Edelweiss and Remembering for Both of Us (ReadAloud)
Years after the book's release, Charlotte continues her involvement in improving our understanding and communication about Alzheimer's Disease, which her husband suffered before his passing. Remembering for Both of Us is *the* book to give a child (or a parent or grandparent) who has a family member suffering from Alzheimer's Disease or Dementia. Every physician/counselor in the field should have a copy of this book in their waiting room.
The Champs, Semiconductor Stocks, and The Voice in My Head Today
… Above all, you mustn’t be sedentary. Bend down and touch the floor while you are waiting for your coffee to heat, do a yoga chair position while removing laundry from the washing machine …
AJR, Snow, Certitude and Sludge
“We wrote ‘BANG!’ about the weird middle-ground between being a kid and becoming an adult; a time when we’re doing all the things adults are supposed to do, but we don’t yet feel grown up,” says AJR. "The fact is, adulthood is bound to hit us at some point, so the plan we made in the song is to ‘go out with a bang.’" I'm at least twenty years older than these boys, and the sentiment applies to all of us, just the same.
Robert DeLong, Mark Ruffalo, Barkhad Abdi, and Pope Francis
While learning about shrimp and prawns, I also came across the following quote:
"When no one is to blame, everyone is to blame." ~Pope Francis
... which has given me something to think about for the remainder of my last gray afternoon at Carolina Beach.
Sunflower, Addiction, and Skating on Thin Ice
Addiction has been a key word in my head for months now, along with facilitation, calculated risks, acceptance... so many words, each with so many shades of definition. The question is not whether a behavior is addictive, it's whether you're okay with the consequences of that repetitive behavior…
#VoiceInMyHead: "Your Rules"
My #ThemeSong today is Australian singer-songwriter Courtney Barnett's Avant Gardner. I've been sporadically "having trouble breathing in" since I was in middle-school (maybe before) - I know it's coming on again when I have to yawn to get a good breath. This is why, for my (belated) 50th birthday present, I am spending a few days at the beach by myself…
Senzenina and Calculated Risks
I first heard my #ThemeSong today when I watched The Power of One, written by one of my favorite authors, Bryce Courtenay, and starring Morgan Freeman (one of my favorite actors). Since first hearing this song, my ears perk at any mention of African musical influence, and they are far better off as a result…
Statistician's Blues and Being Ordinary
"They say 3 percent of the people use 5 to 6 percent of their brain
97 percent use 3 percent and the rest goes down the drain
I'll never know which one I am but I'll bet you my last dime
99 percent think with 3 percent 100 percent of the time"
~Todd Snider