Rock and Roll

My dad takes each of his kids on a weekend away every summer. Good father and son bonding time. This year, we went to Cleveland. We stayed with his aunt and uncle, Pat and Jack Nantz. We got there around 2:30 am Saturday after driving all Friday night. Saturday morning we went to Denny's and had a big breakfast. It was great. But then came the best part of all. The R.R.H.O.F.M.

For all you laymen out there, that's the Rock and Roll Hall Of Fame Museum.

Giant glass pyramid reminiscent of the one in front of the Louvre (no big surprise since they were designed by the same architect). Unfortunately they don't let you take pictures inside. But let me explain why this museum was different than most other museums. Let's say you go to an Art museum. On the wall you will see paintings by famous artists. The Mona Lisa, by Leonardo Da Vinci. Starry Night, by Vincent Van Gogh. Japanese Bridge by Monet. This is the product of their artistic talent. But Rock 'n' Roll...Stairway to Heaven by Led Zeppelin. My Generation by The Who. Johnny B. Goode by Chuck Barry. You have already experienced these. Outside of the museum. You have heard them on the radio, in your CD player. Now you go to the museum and what is there for you to experience? Well imagine now that you have seen previously a painting: "Self-Portrait without ear" by Vincent Van Gogh. Now you find there is a musem where you can go and see, next to the painting, Vince's actual ear. And the knife he cut it off with. And the box he wrapped it up in. And the packing slip where he mailed it to Paul Gaugin. All in a glass case, with a little placard explaining to the uneducated viewer exactly why he cut his ear off and mailed it to Paul Gaugin. And of course some of you already know why, and you smile in recognition and stand in awe over the artifacts, while others are genuinely educated by the experience. This is what it is like to be at the Rock 'n' Roll Hall of Fame. Let me give you an excellent example.

See that album cover? See the bass guitar about to be smashed? Well at the museum, I saw that bass guitar. A 1965 Fender Precision Bass - predecessor to the one that I blogged about last time. The neck was snapped totally in half, connected only by the loosely hanging bass strings, and the body was deeply cracked. Now some of you would already know that London Calling is the most influential album by the Clash, the most influential punk band of all time. You would already be prepared to tell today's snotty little Green Day fans that their favorite band wouldn't even exist if it weren't for this album. You probably already know exactly where bassist Paul Simonon was when the picture was taken. Others of you have never heard of this band before, and would've learned a great deal from the display at the museum. I fall somewhere in between.

But everyone has their hobby, and this museum was like a Mecca to me.

Every man needs a hobby

I have several hobbies. I play bass.







This is my bass (thanks to musiciansfriend.com for the picture).

I know you don't all know a lot about bass playing, but let me assure you that this is not a high-quality bass. First of all, the neck is shorter than most basses. See the place on the neck where there are two dots? That's fret number 12. If you count up, you will find that my bass has only 20 or 21 usable frets. Most basses have at least 24. Additionally, you will notice, under the strings in the white section of the bass body, only one lonely little pickup. Most of your good basses are going to have at least two of these, and they will look quite different, because they are more complex. The pickup is what turns the physical motion of the string into the electrical signal that can be sent to an amplifier. So a good pickup is essential in translating what you play into what others hear.

Soooo I am looking for another good bass. I have bounced around and considered several, but for now I have settled down to two options. First we have a bass by the same company, but really getting into their good quality stuff.

The Fender American Standard Precision Bass. This was the first electric bass ever made, and they have updated it and improved it every year for about the past forty years. See the longer neck and the more complex pickup? Yes, good, you're learning!

And now, the real dream boat. My baby. The beginning stages of really getting a super-expensive bass. The one I own is worth around $150. The new Fender would cost me $400. This bass is the cheapest one available from a company that makes only basses, and it would cost $1200 direct from the factory. Behold, the Warwick Corvette:With an absolutely beautiful and very heavy wooden body, a smooth long neck, and the best tone I've ever heard from a bass, this thing is a musical instrument on par with the best. If my current bass is a '92 Ford Escort, the Fender Precision Bass is top-end Volkswagen Jetta or Mazda 6, and the Warwick is...um a Corvette. But not one of the newer ones, no - more like a 1978 muscle car gorgeous one.

If any of you missed my birthday, there's a Guitar Center on Broad Street in Richmond, VA that sells the Corvette for $900. I've played it there, and it's beautiful.

Today is my birthday

Yesterday I went to my brother's girlfriend's house, with him, to help her pack and prepare to move to college today. Then we stayed up all night watching movies: Hopscotch, Mask of Zorro, O Brother Where Art Thou?, Hostage, Ocean's Twelve, and King Arthur.

I awoke just before noon today, stumbled down from the apartment above their detached two-car garage, and came into the house to find:

My brother is the sneakiest, most conniving weasly little son of a so-and-so ever. He had tricked me into revealing my favorite birthday breakfast two days ago, for the sake of having his girlfriend's mom make it for me. So today I dined on flaky biscuits with warm sausage gravy, and a helping of scrambled eggs. Not to mention several glasses of Tropicana Orange Juice. The thing is, she had never made this dish before, and had to look up a recipe on the internet - and yet it was delicious. And I never saw it coming. What an incredible surprise.

Students will be in my classroom two weeks from yesterday. I wonder if people who re-marry after divorce feel the kind of anxiety that I have to fix all the mistakes that I made last time around, and think that they know how to do everything perfect this time.

My ACL therapy is progressing rapidly - I have now foregone the leg brace entirely, and I have nearly full range of motion back in the knee - from full extension to 126 degrees of flexion (out of 135).

Do you have any recurring dreams? I don't think I do, but often people have really interesting ones and I'm curious!

While I waited for the doctor

Time Magazine had an interesting cover article this month...let me see if I can find a link to it for you...hold on...ok, got it! Actually, they want you to subscribe to their website in order to read the article...might as well head to your nearest doctor's office and pick it up instead, but find a way to read the article because it's actually really good.

Basically it's all about the debate between evolution and intelligent design, as to which one should be taught in today's classroom. I had to check the date on the magazine, because all of this is such old news to me. But then I realized that, while I've heard all the arguments on both sides of the debate, it is far from being resolved. This holds true for the nation at large, as well as in my own mind. I don't believe in evolution, and I never will. I think the debate between evolution and creation has been one of the big obstacles to people's ability to reconcile modern science with the Bible. Why science should disagree with Scriptures is beyond me, since both are different ways of looking at the same thing, but everyone seems to have it in their heads that science must be at odds with the Bible. The sticking point for me actually comes with a lot of other people who find ways to reconcile Scripture and Science - some of them make some serious compromises on both sides of the issue that I'm not comfortable with. But without making those compromises, I don't find a way to reconcile this issue. So I haven't resolved it for myself yet. But a good presentation of the four basic viewpoints on the issue can be found in the little aside column, which can be read in its entirety even by non-subscribers, by clicking HERE

I tend to side with the last guy, who is basically taking the point of view of "all scripture, no science" as opposed to some sort of compromise - I'm much more ready to assume that science will discover its mistakes than to wait for the Word of God to revise itself, I guess. I just wish that I saw a reasonable melding now. Anyhow, just thought it was interesting.

Another article in the same issue discusses the acting work of Andre Benjamin (aka Andre 3000 from Grammy-winning rap duo OutKast) who, unlike every other rapper breaking into the acting business, has actually taken the time to work on it, be responsible, show up to set for filming and actually be sober, etc. It warmed my heart, because I do like his work, and he is a strong contrast to so many other rapper-actors. It's been a bad trend and it's nice to see it change.

singin' in the rain

Sorry for the lack of diligence in posting - after a ten-day streak without missing once, I dropped the ball. But in other news, I have been focusing a lot on my movie blog! http://moviewizard.blogspot.com It's coming along nicely - I have to do some adjusting with the format, because the whole 'blog' thing doens't suit itself perfectly well to movie reviewing - but I think I've done well...I have a rating system devised and clearly explained - an abbreviated version appears with every post so that my reviews will make sense in shorthand. Check it out!

Not much other news. September brings school and I'm planning lots towards that. Tomorrow is another check up with the doc on my knee, but I already know I'm doing well because physical therapy has been picking up speed and looking great.

I need another book to read, but I've got plenty of movies to watch. The LEGO fortress is still sitting here, unused and becoming dilapidated.

I hope to start driving again soon because I am becoming really sedentary and unproductive.

Repetitious Childhood

I have rediscovered a joy from my younger years. I keep rediscovering this particular joy, which makes me wonder whether or not I really lost it in the first place, but there have at least been droughts. My point is:

LEGOS! I grew up during the Golden Age of Legos, when they first started expanding on the generic bricks, bringing in themes and storylines, designing more complicated masterpieces, and printing the LEGO magazine to go with it all. Some people bemoan and lament the loss of creativity that comes with the pre-designed project, and I agree that it would not do to get away from the free-form days of the "Bucket-Full-O-Bricks-and-No-Instructions" that characterized LEGO's early days. But anyone who has actually continued the LEGO tradition through the time of these designed projects knows that after a week of proudly displaying your finished work on top of your dresser or toy shelf, the 'masterpiece' would be torn apart, cannibalized and re-built in a new creation. I was always fascinated by the level of true engineering that went into these sets - making sure that not only did they look right, but they were structurally sound. Inventing new pieces that fit the theme and allowed for amazing new functionality - not just in the specific application imagined for the project piece, but in our own imaginative creations as well. Hinges were a big one for me, as was the advent of accessorizable people - swap heads, bodies, hands, feet, weapons, capes, helmets, bandannas, etc. etc. etc.

The result is that when I finally went back to digging through a random bucket of collected pieces, there were new opportunities opened up to me, and I had learned much about how to build a solid design of my own. And if a cowboy occupies a spaceship cockpit as it soars over a medieval castle guarded by Luke Skywalker and R2-D2, surely the submarine rescue crew won't notice that the ninjas have ganged up on Harry Potter...

Then there was the "Technic" subset of LEGO - a veritable erector set that eventually evolved to include programmable robots and science projects. This I think set the new direction for LEGO as they turned back to making their own original story lines. Bionicles entered the scene. This is after I first really quit playing with them, and I see it as part of the next era, an era I never fully belonged to. Bionicles were much bigger, but the emphasis was on the characters, and the storylines in the mini-comic books that LEGO put out. Build the characters, re-enact the comic book. There were no sets, no vehicles, no hideouts or strongholds. You didn't build places and things anymore, you built people. But basic pieces from the Technic sets are still visible - old technology and design ideas clearly used in these new sets. Now they have Kingdom Knights - similar pieces, but more typical design. The Bionicles were almost alien - insectoid - robotic - the Kingdom Knights are clearly supposed to be human - they are like their earlier medieval counterparts but on steroids.

Today I am playing LEGOs with my 10-year-old brother. We have designed and built our own "Mountaintop Waterfall Fortress" from pieces dating back to my childhood. No Bionicles or Kingdom Knights. Sorry for the long post, nostalgia will do that to ya. Now I've gotta go - the bandits are coming.

Sean Connery called...

He wants his Russian Navy back. British robot rescue vehicle saves Russian rescue sub trapped by fishing net.

"This reminds me of the heady days of Yuri Gagarin, when the world trembled at the sound of our rockets. Now they will tremble again, at the sound of our silence!"

Eerie parallel between Connery's quote as Russian sub captain Marko Ramius in the movie version of Tom Clancy's "The Hunt for Red October" and the note in the CNN article about a previous Russian sub that sank because the Russians did not want to ask for international aid - silence of a different sort, but chilling to think that such a stereotypically nationalist attitude has actually resulted in so many deaths - 118, according to the article. It seems like the sort of thing that someone would do in a movie - not necessarily a Russian, but you can see the shot now: a crowded war room, a table surrounded by advisors political and military. The naval commander stresses the urgency of rescuing the sub, the men, and the nuclear weapons and reactor aboard. The Defense Minister agrees, but the Foreign Minister does not want to appear weak in front of other nations. Additionally, the Military Intelligence Advisor reminds the Prime Minister that military secrets are at stake if a foreign nation is allowed to get close to the sub...the tension mounts, and depending on whether the hero of our movie is the captian of the trapped sub or the captain of the foreign rescue sub, the Prime Minister will hand down a forceful decision on one side of the issues or the other.

In other news - I left the house for a reason other than physical therapy today - the first time since the surgery - I went to church! It was wonderful to see all the friends who had been praying for me and to hear the preaching of God's Word once again - and to sing hymns and pray with my fellow believers.

And finally: Happy Anniversary LaBosseuse!

I have a crush

Drew Barrymore, people. How does one person flawlessly combine cute/innocent with cute/hot? But she is getting older and trying to abandon her "childish" image, so then I guess we won't be seeing much more of her as I like her. Actually I keep thinking back to the movies she's been in, and I have a problem with almost all of them - Ever After is an only-half-bad remake of a tired story, and she uses a fake accent (I really don't like fake accents); 50 first dates is a desecration of a fascinating topic, most fascinatingly explored in Memento, but Drew and Adam Sandler paste over it with the colors of romantic comedy; I can't even believe she made Fever Pitch, and deserves to be hit in the head with a baseball for that one; She is cute in Charlie's Angels and does kung fu (always a bonus as far as I'm concerned) but it's Charlie's Angels! Way to jump on a giant commercial bandwagon and look like a sell-out, Drew honey; Confessions of a Dangerous Mind was a fantastic movie, in which Drew and Julia Roberts both look way better than they usually do (JR has a mouth like a horse and does not deserve to be the woman pretty enough to steal for in Ocean's Eleven although I will grudgingly allow that she is a prostitute worth marrying in Pretty Woman only because she acted the role so well); I finally realized that the one movie where I have absolutely nothing but ravingly positive things to say about Drew's performance is Titan A.E. - a beautiful and underappreciated animation extravaganza that also includes the voice of Janeane Garofalo. Bet you had to look that up to see if I spelled it right. It's ok, so did I.

So. What I like about Drew Barrymore is her voice, it turns out. Many of her performances have some great lines and I love to hear her talk. And she kind of does this bite-her-lip and smile thing that is pretty sexy, too. But her voice is the main thing. She could talk to me on any subject and I would just close my eyes and be absolutely lost. Whereas Janeane Garofalo could talk to me at length on any subject and make me believe her. What a fascinating mind she has, and married to such a sparky personality and quirky wit - I only ever watched a few episodes of MTV's Daria, with JG voicing the title character, but I loved it. Between knowing the real Janeane was behind Daria, and loving the fictional brother/sister of Trent and Jane Lane, I think that is one of my favorite animated shows of all time.

So yeah Drew Barrymore and Janeane Garofalo. a-e-a-e, a-o-a-o. That's how you remember the spelling, folks. Just throw in the obvious consonants and you've got it just fine.

Symbolism, archetypes, and absolute truth

Symbolism exists in all levels of literature, all facets of the written word from poetry to novels to plays to movie scripts. I have always been fascinated by the fact that certain symbols seem to directly appeal to the subconscious of nearly every reader. Sunrise represents new beginnings, sundown is associated with death or at least the end of the story (hence cowboys ride off into the sunset). White represents good and black represents evil (a fact that has caused heated racial debate in some circles but I certainly don't mean that certain ethnicities are evil - just that color can be and has been used as a symbol). These are some of the most basic of symbols, and some of the most often-repeated. Not only that, these symbols carry the same extra layer of meaning for nearly every single human being.

Archetypes are another idea from high school English class that have stuck with me - the idea that every story contains certain basic elements that are similar to every other story ever written. They have heroes, villains, sidekicks, damsels in distress, journeys of discovery, heroic quests, internal struggles, etc. etc. etc. On and on and on the list goes, and not every story has every one, but so many stories have so many similarities that it is impossible to ignore.

There have been many explanations for these two phenomena. Here is the most solid one: There is absolute truth. There are certain facts that are true, not just for those who believe a certain faith, but for everyone. In fact, to speak of something being true "for" one person or "for" a group of people, doesn't actually make any sense in relation to the meaning of the word truth. The word truth, perverted as it has become, actually means this: reality exists in a certain state, and our words and beliefs either match that state or they do not. Gravity attracts massive objects to one another, and in the vicinity of Earth it will always pull objects approximately towards the center of the Earth. For all intents and purposes, "stuff falls down". This statement cannot be characterized as true for some people but not true for others. This statement repeatedly demonstrates its effect on Christian, Muslim, Atheist, Buddhist, and Hindu every day. It is so obvious that no one questions it. But if they did - if they said to me, "well that's just your belief, but you shouldn't try to push it on me - let me make my own decisions and live my own life", it would not change the effect of gravity on their life. Such a statement would be laughable and absurd.

Symbols and archetypes, and other rampant similarities between stories of all descriptions from all cultures are evidence absolute truth exists, and humanity cannot ignore it no matter what they say. Every time we try to tell an epic story, the truth peeks through. It cannot be hidden. Good and evil exist in our world. Even if you dress the good guys in black and the bad guys in white *cough*MatrixRevolutions*cough* you cannot hide the fact that you have good guys and bad guys. If mankind keeps silent, the Bible says, the rocks and trees will cry out the truth of the gospel. Well so will our film reels and book pages. Just listen closely - you'll hear it. And if you want it straight up and unadulterated, not just in symbols but in the plainest language possible for such complicated truths, read the Holy Bible. Not something made up by men, but the true Word of God that He spoke through men. He's the original Author, He's writing the real story - our story. All the stories we write are shadows, copies, and "remakes" of His. That's part of what we were created to do - we were created in His image. And we prove it every day.

Where has my mind gone?

I was sitting in my recliner earlier today, bemoaning the lack of internet in my life due to a mysterious "outage" on the part of Comcast, and I came up with a great topic for today's blog. Then I fell asleep and now I don't remember what it was.

Been reading an interesting book that likely won't interest many other people - I, Jedi by Michael A. Stackpole. It's a first-person account from the perspective of one of the characters he created for another series of Star Wars novels chronicling the exploits of Rogue Squadron - the X-Wing pilots that Luke Skywalker flew with and later commanded in Star Wars Episodes 4 and 5. The books he wrote detailed the missions flown by this crack group of fighter pilots as the "Rebellion" seeks to rebuild itself into the "New Republic" in the years after the Emperor's fall. Actually there have been dozens of books written about this "time period" in the alternate universe that Lucas created, by a variety of authors, all carefully synched with one another and completely consistent. Luke restarts the Jedi Academy and searches out new trainees. Han and Leia get married and Leia becomes the new Chancellor of the Republic...but I'm losing you. Who else in my audience is a Star Wars nerd? Meh.

fast times at [insert your] high

Teachers stand in front of a room of 20-30 people, and the most traditional method of communicating information involves turning your back to write on a blackboard. Then you expect them to teach you information but still pay strict attention to who is doing what in the classroom? It takes time for a teacher to develop that skill. You as the student will certainly have a much better view of what is happening in the room than the teacher does - you are paying more attention to your friends than the teacher anyhow, right?

Teachers are also overworked - they forget that you have other classes, and you forget that they have other classes. If they don't grade every word of every assignment it's because there are 80 of them to grade. At least. You don't have 80 homework assignments ever night or even ever week, now do you? Grading an assignment is almost as time consuming as completing one. Trust me, I've done both.

The reason that all the rules are focused on keeping students quiet and in their chairs is because those are the two things that students constantly do to disrupt the class - talk and move around. Not only are they prevalent actions, they are actions that take away from education. I had my students tell me that I didn't know what it felt like to be them, to have something they wanted to say and not be able to say it. I said to them "yes I do - every day I want to tell you about Physics but you talk over me - that's why we have rules, because I feel the same exact way you do". The rules are actually designed to balance the speaking time between student and teacher, at the teacher's discretion. It's just that it's already so imbalanced in the direction of children who never learned manners from their parents, that to re-balance it always takes the form of making kids talk less. And if you ever wonder why it's only the meanest teachers who have lunch duty? Two words: your fault. Try being nice when 400 kids are throwing their mashed potatoes and chicken nuggets at each other, while making out and dealing drugs.

The reason kids want to move away from their parents is that they have a very short-term, self-centered focus. They think only of what they want, and what they want right now. Anything that gets in the way of that must be bad. They don't have any idea of how much it actually costs to live any kind of good life in the real world - they may buy their own clothes and even pay for their cell phone plan, and gas and insurance on the car, and maybe they actually make the payments on the car loan. But how much does a house cost? How much does it cost to feed your lazy overweight butt every week? How much does it cost to repair the car or buy a new one when it breaks? How much does the water bill and elecrtic bill and gas bill add up to each month? If these kids ever learned to think in the long term, and to think about people besides themselves, they'd be...well they'd be adults. So just wait until they grow up to start expecting it.

I think the other issues mentioned are ones of general psychology even moreso than the last one I mentioned, and need no special insight from a teacher to explain, so I will let this one go at this point. Hope you've enjoyed it.

If you've ever been to high school

If you've ever been to high school, you know that certain things are bound to happen. As you get older you'll find that everyone had these experiences. They seem to be part of the structure and function of the average public high school - they will happen simply because the high school exists.

Teachers will blame you for things you didn't do wrong. The bad kids will get away with obvious rule violations. Teachers will give you more homework than you have time to do, and then when you turn it all in they won't bother to grade it or give it back to you. All the rules seem centered on making sure you don't have any fun, and the only give lunch duty to the meanest teachers. Kids will complain about their parents and make plans to move away from home (some are more serious than others). As soon as you get a job and a car you start seeing the feasability of blowing off the old folks and living life your own way. The smartest kids will always stress about their grades (the one thing they're good at) and 90% of the people involved in any clique are faking it in an attempt to impress the others (goths, jocks, nerds, pretty girls, and yes even band geeks). Boys will chase girls, girls will run from boys, and when they finally get together, their relationships will be petty, immature, and eventually ruined by real or imagined infidelity on both parts. But they will always have "their song" - some pop radio hit that was playing when they made out in the car one time.

Now. Please stop stressing like your problems are unique. Please stop asking "why me?" just like every other high school student ever. And Please someone stop making movies about the above phenomena. And tomorrow, I will tell you why none of these problems are really problems - because I've seen high school from the other side but just for one year - as fresh and as close to my own experience of these problems as I can be - but a light of sudden clarity has shown me some interesting paradoxes of high school. Tomorrow you will see things from the other side.

Welcome to August

My birthmonth has arrived and I haven't even thought anything about a party or what I even want for my birthday. Guess I'm getting old.

Spent six hours last night talking with my two closest friends, two guys from church. We watched Sling Blade and then stayed up until almost 2 talking about the past, the future, and the present. Friends that I thought I had grown apart from when we all went off to college, but it was good to be reminded that they haven't for a minute thought of me as anything less than a best friend. Looking back on it is quite heartwarming.

Biggest news item of the day I guess would be President Bush's appointment of a new ambassador. I'm going to assume that this is a typically Bush-ian move that is bold, will please conservatives, worry moderates, and upset liberals, but I really don't know a thing about the guy. I did hear what he said about "Partisan delaying tactics denying this man the up or down vote he deserved, so I have used my powers to..." basically bypass some stupidity in the Senate to get the job done, albeit six months later. Hm lemme find a link to someone with more information about it than I've got. CNN seems to have their act together, full of "RELATED" news links that would take any normal human...probably whole hours of searching the web to find this information. So pay them your respect by visiting and enjoying their hard work.

More people need to be visiting my Movie Wizard blog! The link is on the right, people. I'm here for you. I'm here to help you decide what movies to spend your time on. Don't waste the untapped depths of my talent! Or...opinionated...ness.

I will put up a new full-length movie review as soon as I eat dinner!