The Daily News

1  Life would really work nicely if we just had a goodly supply of the simple things. 

2  Sometimes so much depends on a glue stick, for example.

3  I don’t know. I just thought, “If you bought the right glue stick for the right job, the world would be a much better place!”

4  Ever notice? With the right glue stick, why you could place people you know all over a collage, and none of them would fall down. With the right glue stick, you could even put a paper kiss on your mom’s cheek.

5  You could certainly stick your homework to your jacket so when you got home, you’d remember your homework.

6  With the right glue stick, Romulus and Remus would have stuck together, and Rome might have worked out much better than it did.  Why, the right people would know to stick together, and good friends would stick to each other, well, like glue. No idiotic fights, because  you absolutely must learn to stick TO each other.

7  Ah, yes…there would be nary a letter that would lose it’s stamp; students would stick to their assignments, and really, everywhere, the world would stick together when they would see signs that someone up there isn’t really appreciating the way it’s being treated.

8  You would certainly know to stick to a promise.

9  All that could happen with just the right glue stick.

10  It’s funny; this started out as a salute to kindergarten supply lists, which would include crayons, paste, glue sticks, play dough, baby scissors, and water colors, among other things.

11 But I just hesitated, and thought, “The right glue stick for the right job…”

12 I’d stick to the people I really love.

13  I’d stick to my roots.

14  I’d stick to who I am.

15  I’d stick to the point.

16  I’d stick to my promises.

17  The other supplies are important, don’t get me wrong. Crayons bring all the colors to the world, and helps guys to understand colors like “perriwinkle” at a decidedly young age.

18  Paste was always good for a stick-to-your-ribs snack at midday.

19  Play Dough would help you mold things into shape, and the name alone sounds almost Roman, and therefore, philosophical.

20  Baby scissors would help you to cut things out without hurting yourself.

21  And finally, water colors would bring wetness and color to everything that needs them.

22  This all began about having the right supplies for the right job.

23  May you be supplied with everything you need today.

24  This one goes out to Heidi.

25  Peace.

 

   

 

 

 

 

 

 

~h~

 

 

The Daily News

1  It’s time to go see a play!

2  Here are a couple of things playing around town this week. You might want to pencil them in:

3  West Valley College presents Epic Proportions, a comic spoof of Holleywood, written by Larry Cohn and David Crane. It runs Fridays and Saturdays, Oct. 21, 22 @ 8 p.m., Sunday, Oct. 23 @ 8 p.m., Thursday, Friday and Saturday, Oct. 27, 28, 29 @ 8 p.m., and it closes Sunday, Oct. 30 @ 3 p.m.Tickets are $8 for students, and $10 general. The show plays in the WVC Chamber Theatre.  Call 409-741-2058 for ticket information. Our own Jenny Valdez will appear in the production.

4  The Santa Clara Players present Let’s Murder Marsha, a mystery/comedy by Monk Ferris,  on Oct 21, 22*, 28, 29, 30*, Nov. 3, 4, 5, 6*, 10, 11, 12. Thursday, Friday, and Saturday evenings @ 8 p.m. *Matinees at 2:30 p.m. Opening night tix $18.00, all other performances $15.00, senior and student discounts available. Call 408-248-7993 or go to www.scplayers.org. Our own Angie Higgins will be the director, with Sharon Salazar of the Pigeon Players as Assistant Director.

5  For right now, I’ll just plug those two. There will be plenty to fill your plate in the next couple of weeks. We have auditions for the Fall One-Acts on Monday and Tuesday of next week, after school in the Theatre. Show up and sign-in for an audition time. Angie will direct three or four plays.

6  And next week, for those of you dead from the neck up, is Spirit Week!!! This year, the mighty Sophomores will be doing Willy Wonka on Monday; Tuesday the Freshmen will present The Bay Area (great theme, frosh!), and Wednesday, we will have the Juniors taking us up into Space, and Thursday the Senior Class of ’06 presents Hip-Hop!

7  Following the Seniors’ Spirit Day, we have a Powder Puff game, and that night, the ATFNL will have the first Haunted House in the Theatre in over 10 years! Of course we have the Homecoming Rally, and that afternoon, the Homecoming Game, this year on the Andrew Hill football field, and the BAND will march a grand half-time show! The week will end with the Homecoming Dance Saturday night, and THEN, on Monday, Halloween, the ATFNL will hold a special Haunted House AGAIN in the Theatre!

8  It’s been fun walking outside my room after school and watching all the activity going on. A few weeks ago, this place was a ghost town. Well, with the Haunted House and all, it will BE a ghost town, only with LOTS of good spirit. You gotta love ghosts during Spirit Week anyway, and I’ll just pretend I DIDN’T use that same stupid joke for the four-hundredth time.

9  I have recently taken to blowing some of the cobwebs off the Drama Workshop website, so you might want to visit and drop a message off, or just get the thread going again after a long absence. The website is www.ybdrama.com. Once again, it’s real.

10  So if you are bored in the next few weeks, you might think about enjoying some of the things that will be at your fingertips. If you are alumni, well, come on down and enjoy all this stuff anyway! We MISS you!!!

11 But we’re over here having a lot of fun while we do!

12  Hurry back; it’s good times once again around this brokedown palace. We’ve gotten a few buckets of paint, a whole bunch of props, posters, and dances and all, and I’m pretty sure this place is ready to rock!

13  Enjoy your Monday, everybody!

14  Peace. 

 

 

 

 

~h~

The Daily News

1  Friday.

2  I LOVE Fridays. Especially Fridays when we had an entire WEEK of two-hour classes. I had thought about doing a fundraiser for the Drama Workshop by simply walking from class to class and selling Milk Duds, popcorn, and Junior Mints.

3  It’s funny, but true. A LOT of teachers are simply not used to the two-hour block, and find it hard to simply put two lesson plans together, back to back. Instead, the natural default in a situation like this is to find a video that could take up half the period.

4  In my case, it’s Hitchcock’s The Birds, a classic if ever there was one. It works perfectly, because it’s the third story in our lit book, and it works perfectly well in mid-October, pre-Halloween lessons.

5  The only challenge with doing a film on a block schedule day is the unlikely event of a blackout.

6  Which is EXACTLY what happened yesterday!! I had just finished doing this stellar introduciton to Hitchcock, to Norman Bates, to Vertigo, Rope, Pscho, and finally, The Birds, when the lights went out, the computers turned off, the air conditioners shut down, and all the alarms went off.

7  You lose, teach.

8  I had like an hour and forty-five minutes to fill, and NO lesson plan. So I just READ the story aloud. I actually THINK people were listening, but who knows? In that situation, it’s the same as when a dog walks in your room, the lesson’s over. Can’t beat dogs, hamsters, or blackouts.

9  Ah, we got through it. As soon as those birds started ripping the hair and faces off the school children, the students got reeled in.

10  Thank goodness for gratuitous violence!

11  I got home late last night, a relatively new habit that I picked up on like three years ago. So I really think I need to get some sleep, so I can wake up and have a little coffee.

12  Or I COULD do an ”all-nighter”.

13  Or not.

14  Howzbout, it’s FRIDAY?

15  Long week. Time to push play and walk away.

16  See ya later.

17  Peace.

 

 

~h~

 

 

The Daily News 1  I’m thoroughly convinced that nobody gets a good night’s sleep anymore. But then, like most people, I’m all about ME. 2  Since I’m not getting any sleep, it stands to reason that EVERYONE is getting no sleep. 3  I’m constantly amazed at how the “all-nighter” has become chic. It’s like if you actually DO an “all-nighter”, you get to say you did to other people, and let’s face it: for WHATEVER reason, YOU have bragging rights, because YOU did an “all-nighter”. I first noticed they were cool a few years ago, when my ’05′ers were Juniors. Evidently, doing an “all-nighter” for Galindo was a right of passage, much like tribal rituals involving weird headware and plates. 4  “Me do all-nighter! Ugh!” 5 And I would usually feel like, “Whoa. I DIDN’T do an “all-nighter”. Those others have all LIVED, and I just did something sensible last night, like drink a little warm milk, watch a Disney movie, and I got to bed early.” 6  And sometimes I would find MYSELF trying to match the coolness, but it seldom was as good. “Yeah, I stayed up and watched Cone-ann.” I would instantly see that not many people think that staying up and watching Cone-ann has even the remotest of bragging rights. 7  It all reminds me of a game I used to play with this buddy of mine, Alesio. We called the game, THAT ALL? It went like this: if someone would come up to either of us and brag about ANYTHING, we’d start our next sentence with the words, “THAT ALL?” followed by a brag that would kick the other person’s brag into the next county. 8  For example, if someone would slip it into a conversation that, “Last night I hadda do an “all nighter”, Alesio would instantly chime in, “THAT ALL? I did an “all-monther”!” 9  It was ridiculous, but awfully fun. 10 It moved to college. “Dude, I drank six root beers last night!” (beat) “THAT ALL? I drank a keg! And then I ate six baloney sandwiches. And two hard-boiled eggs, with mustard!” 11  Ah, yeah! 12  I often boast of my quite famous, at least in my own mind, insomnia. It happens all the time; I somehow feel that it happens a lot to people who enjoy writing, which I do. I’ll draw complete blanks all day long, and somewhere around 3 a.m. I’ll sit bolt-upright and hit the computer with a great idea. I’ll then realize that I awakened WAY too early to get up, and WAY to late to try to get back to sleep, because I just KNOW that in three short hours, the alarm will go off, and so I just sit up and fret about how exhausted I’m going to be later in the day. 13  And THEN I think about all the concerns I have in life, and I figure that by thinking about them in the middle of the night, that I can somehow fix them. This gets me up and pacing, so I will often go into the living room and hop online. 14  I can THEN effectively boast to anyone listening that I have this hopeless insomnia. Sometimes I’ll even get up the courage to e-mail people. I’ll say in the e-mail, “I was fast asleep for like around THREE hours earlier tonight, and I just woke up, and NOW I can’t sleep, so dude, I have this amazing case of insomnia…” and I’ll wait a few minutes, just to see if there is a response. There usually is, because I know who all the other insomniacs are by now. So I’ll talk of how I have just awakened, and that it’s three a.m., and that I’m probably just going to stay up. Their rapid reply: 15  “THAT ALL? I’m pulling an all-nighter!” 16  And with that, I’m outta here!! 17  That’s all, folks. Have a great day, and get a little rest, willya?             ~h~

The Daily News

1  I’d like just to take a second to

2  G-r-r-r-r.

3  I spent all last night growing a long, grey beard as I waited for the arrow/hourglass to move. Grades are due today, and we can’t access all this stuff from home, so I am down at the school at around 9 p.m.  last night trying to crack this thing called Class XP. 

4  Only each time I go on, the arrow/hourglass would pop up, and nothing would happen for three or four hours. Eventually, I had to take all my materials to various computers before finally settling in to one of the computers in the Performing Arts computer lab.

5  I got onto that thing fast, and clicked everything I needed to click, and it was lightning fast!

6  And just as it was ready to pop up everything I needed…

7    .

8  Is anything more annoying? I thought it interesting that the hourglass has almost run out.

9  I can just picture the guys who invented computers sitting around one of those HUGE business tables, discussing exactly what image should be used to let people know that the only way they are going to continue doing what they are doing is to push Ctrl Alt Del twice, and it will “re-boot”.

10  Well, when I push Ctrl Alt Del twice, I get this:

 .

11  So I then lose patience, because time’s money, and I push it like six or seven hundred times, just to let it KNOW I’m annoyed.

12  “YOU’RE A MACHINE!!!” I scream.

13  The answer always slays me:

 .

14  I usually lean forward, like THAT’S going to make it suddenly start moving all around, and say a few choice words. I know Thuy reads this, so I won’t put them here, but Thuy, I owe you a quarter.

15  Then I get up, walk around in a circle, and usually find something to eat that I utterly don’t need, like a can of Pringles, or a third cookie from last night’s trip to 7-11.

16  I get obsessive/compulsive in these sorts of situations.

17  After swallowing down everything except the two chips that are criss-crossed in the bottom of the can, I FINALLY just do it.

18  I push the BUTTON THAT YOU ARE NEVER TO PUSH. I hold in the power button, in my case, a clear button with a blue light and a little tiny peach-colored light that blinks like Tinker Bell.  It’s a solid act of extreme courage, but I screw my courage down to the ground, and just do it.

19  I hear voices all around me and in my head. They come at me from all sides, in haunting echoes of everyone who ever watched over my shoulder.

20  “Are you CRAZY? Your HARD DRIVE will CRASH, you moron. In NO time, you shall be visited by the Blue Screen of Death!”

21  Computer gargoyles then fly down and gaze yellow into my eyes, warning me that no self-respecting goodly person of this Earth would knowingly push the BUTTON THAT YOU ARE NEVER TO PUSH.                                        

                                                     

22  Too late. The computer snaps off almost instantly, followed by this little square that tells me the computer will be shutting down in five seconds.

23  No turning back, man.

24  No turning back. All my friends and relatives show up in black. I hear whispers, everywhere, whispers…”You know,” they go on, “a lot of people feel HE brought this…whisper, whisper…” I can’t really hear anything specific, just this presence, and the whispers…it’s right out of D.H. Lawrence, only without all the arousal. But the paranoia certainly remained palpable…whisper…whisper…whisper…

25  And the screen finally goes out wih a barely audible crackle, and almost instantly re-boots. Angels, it must be! Of a sudden, I hear clarion calls and angels’ voices singing the Halleluljah as I once again have escaped! I once again have pushed the BUTTON YOU ARE NEVER TO PUSH, and once again, I have narrowly escaped the Blue Screen of Death.

26  It freezes once more, but I get bold, and I push Ctrl Alt Del, only twice, and THIS time, it shuts down perfectly. I feel that all my wonderful data, which consists of a bunch of stuff I downloaded from friends’ goofs, is safe, and is snug as a bug.

27  And yes, the world is at peace, my computer lives to see another day, and my grades, ladies and genltemen, are safely in.

28  And you, my dear friends, get yet another day of the glorious DN.

29  I’m out. Have a great day, everybody. I just needed to share all that. It gave me quite a start.

30  It is now safe to turn off your computer.

31  Peace.

 

 

 

 

~h~

 

 

 

The Daily News

1  So…Louie Nye walks into a bar…

2  …

3  I was quite alarmed to see in yesterday’s Merc news several headlines that disturbed me. I guess I really should read the articles, but it’s 2005, who reads?

4  Anyway, the first headline read UFO sightings on the decline, and the article, culled from the News of the weird, cited such earthly occurrences as 9/11 and the ending of the X-Files as key factors. My guess is that the ET’s just took one look at everyone yelling, “Ah HAIIIIIIL nah!!!” and other inane, idiotic crudities, and simply rolled their almond eyes as if to say, “Okay, there’s clearly NO intelligence here.” Out.

5  Or this one: New Madonna Song Draws Ire of Rabbis. I didn’t even bother to READ that one. I just goofed on any Rabbi who would have his ire drawn by Madonna, or why ANYONE would have their ire drawn by Madonna, for that manner. They were CONES!

6  How about THIS one: Homecoming Show May Star Ludacris. Even though the game is at Andrew Hill?

7  Ashlee Simpson gets do-over on ‘Saturday Night Live’. Ah. Ashlee’s Sparky gets a chance to push the RIGHT button this time.

8  FBI may ease rule on drug use. So now those guys can smoke HUGE blunts while goofing on everyone’s private lives. What a job, to have. Hey, J. Eddie, Jr. pass the Chunky Monkey and Junior Mints…

9  And on AOL, Angels End Yanks Season. Hey, ANYONE who ends the Yankees’ hopes is an angel.

10  Great fun, I tellya.

11  Here go. Texas biotech company is ready to produce cloned meat and milk if FDA approves. Yeah, but won’t that stuff repeat?

12  <thud>

13  Hey, it’s Tuesday. If you know my campaigns of the past, we shouldn’t even be HAVING this day.

14  At least that’s my excuse.

15  Are you enjoying all of this?

16  I sure am.

17  I think I’ll keep it short this glorious day. We have two-hour classes, three in a row, four days this week. Someone up there was thinkin’.

18  And Louie, we hardly knew ye.

19  See ya soon.

20  Peace.

 

The Daily News

A Special Good News Edition

1 First off, I am thoroughly convinced that Baristas at Starbucks HATE Bob Dylan. So let’s go through that one right quick.

2  I brought this up yesterday at my daughter Caitlin’s Starbucks. To a person, they all started singing his songs, only with the classic Dylan nasality. One guy just began goofing about what new music would sound like if sung like Dylan, and he began a barrage of hilarity.

3  Great parlour game. Sing Emo songs, only like Dylan. If you DON’T know who Dylan is, then sing them like Elmer Fudd. I could STILL do a great Stairway like Fudd. To this day.

4  I am ALSO thoroughly convinced that by placing his CD’s in Starbucks, Dylan is now lampooned by the entire Starbucks coffehouse/chic. One of his CD’s has songs he recorded as a teenager, with terrible chord changes, slinky guitar work, and all the rest. His voice REALLY sucked then. It got remarkably bettter and more atristic with time, but I’m guessing it would be awfully tough to convince the under-30 set of THAT one! Hey, it’s an acquired taste, like sour mash, or Ross on Friends. Anyway, I still love ya, Mr. Dylan.

5  How does it feel?

6  I personally appreciate his lyrics and tunes more now than ever, but trying to convince people who just hear that CD playing in the background is nearly impossible. I’m guessing that Starbucks Baristas all over the Animal Planet want to murder anyone who pops Dylan CD’s into the system.

7  Maybe we could convince him to take a pie next Funky Friday…

8  Okay, Moving On: So what’s the good news? Here go:

I met with the Pigeon Players on Saturday, and we had a WONDERFUL time of it. We scheduled a film festival, a Pigeon Players’ production in the Spring, pending approval, AND we agreed to have some of their very talented directors help keep the Drama Workshop ALIVE!!! So auditions for the Fall One-Acts will take place on October 24 and 25, during Spirit Week, but hey! It was the most logical time slot to begin, and the Fall One-Acts are ON!!! Listen for announcements, and keep a close eye on the Daily News.

9  Yes we speak of things that matter, with words that must be said…and no, the Theatre ISN’T dead!!! It’s ALIVE!!!!

10  The One-Acts will have three directors, and is tentatively called Once Upon a Time…with three dots, and I’m not sure as to exactly which shows we’re doing, but two or three will be from a play called Parallel Lives, by Kathy Najmy and Mo Gaffney ( I think! This is still breaking news!),and one will be called On the Edge, unsure of the playwright. I am currently writing a one-act called Once Upon a Time… (no coincidence, of course!) and I know nothing else except that it will have clouds, a castle, and a princess. People in the loop already know that. I’m not so sure I know that, but it’s my present project, and it’s a fun one!

11  Suddenly, the Theatre is twinkling once more!!! I was in there two days ago talking with Ellen, and the seats began their Heidi clicks, CLASSIC clicks, and there were fun coincidences and things going on for the past three months

12 ANYWAY, ya gotta love October, and Halloween, and Heidi, and the good ol’ Theatre. Those of you who HAVE memories in there, plug in and dream of good times, and those who haven’t, get ready for some REAL fun!

13  I’m STARTING to understand Myspace.com, by the way. I have people from some great old shows sending e-mails and comments, and it’s really fun for reunions! I saw Sheryll Marmito sending out a “Selsdon!” shout to Ryan Turner, both from 1999′s fabulous production of Michael Frayn’s Noises Off. What absolute FUN! We turned a set that probably weighed at LEAST a ton in 10 seconds, one of the single most kick-ass scene changes in that stage’s short history.

14  So Drama Workshop fans, it’s ON. Time to kick back and just drift with memories of that Theatre. I’ll spin the mirror ball, and you supply the daydreams. It’s a great place to visit and enjoy…and it hasn’t changed much over the decades…after changes, we are more or less the same, doncha know…

15  I mean, why work? It’s Monday. Just think of good times today.

16  We have our Theatre back, and all is well!

17  The Show goes up the first two weekends in December, the 1,2,3,8 and 10. We will probably ALSO have a film festival on the 9th, but it’s the same night as the Winter Ball, but that one is pending, so I’ll keep you all posted.

18  And then the Winter Concert will be on the following Tuesday, which will be the same night as Christmas at Y.B. The Concert starts at 7 p.m.

19  Okay, that’s a LOT for a Monday. Put this all behind, and pretend you are interested in your classes, or that you’re busy working, and just think of some great memories today.

20  It’s a tough job, but someone’s gotta do it.

21  See ya later.

22  Peace.

 

 

 

 

~h~

 

The recent earthquake in South Asia has already killed an estimated 30,000 people. I expect that figure to climb significantly. Right now, we’re still set up for Katrina Relief, but if you wish to donate and have it matched, feel free to send any donations to me. Leave checks blank, as I am currently working with both Yahoo! and Spectra Laboratories, both of whom will match funds. The blank check gives them cash, essentially, so they could count it as employee donations. I am going through the Red Cross, Santa Clara Chapter. If you are writing a check, make a note on the check as to where you want the money to go.

My school address is:

1855 Lucretia Ave.
San Jose, CA 95122
(408)347-4824 or just call the school at
(408) 347-4700 and ask for ext. 4824
ATTN. B. Harrington

 

The Daily News

1  So…Nipsey Russell walks into a bar…

2  It’s early October and I’m about ready for the loony bin.

3  Ever just stop for a second, look around, and ask yourself, “HOW and WHEN did I ever get HERE?”

4  You just have those days where you look at your life, and wonder what the heck happened. It’s like one day you were at some grammar school or other, playing four-square with a bunch of little people with Hello Kitty heads, and the next thing you know, you’re in some goofy place you don’t know HOW you got there.

5   Sometimes you just wonder how you suddenly have utterly no time left to do anything. You’ve said “yes” once too often, and  suddenly you have things coming, going, forwards, backwards, up, down, sideways.

6   Last night I again visited the immortal Original Joe’s, having parked in the 2nd St. garage, up there on the very top. As I got on the elevator to go down, I just thought about destiny and all,  you know how you do.  I wasn’t sure at the time where my destiny was headed, but the situation dictated that it would take place in one of two places: up or down.

7  I just now closed my eyes and  laid my head backwards, thinking about the end of this long day, when a song came on the TV.

8  The song was called The End, by the Doors.

9  It starts slowly, and hauntingly moves through your head.

10  I’m so exhausted with trying to deal with so much stuff this  year that somewhere along the line one could quite easily get lost in all the folderol.

11  The sound on the television switched to the more comfortable sounds of sirens and piano music, the usual end to some cop show or other.. Normalcy started to settle itself back in. The swirling stopped, and the computer came back into focus. I began to feel normal again.

12  What ever became of normal?

13  Days go by.

14  Maybe it’s just Thursday. I’m pretty convinced that Thursday is the LEAST funny day of the week. You need funny, man. And for whatever reason, each Thursday around 2:30, everyone is walking around looking as though someone took the apple out of their lunch.

15  Personally, I’m just exhausted. I couldn’t tell you HOW I get through this place on a daily basis. Some days are just like that. Thank goodness being in a funk doesn’t last too long with me. There’s WAY too much fun to be had out there.

16  Yesterday, for example, after I pulled lightning bolts out of dark thunderclouds in the sky and hurled them through my sixth period class, a girl asked, “Mr. H, is Paris a city?”

17  I answered, “Is a bear Catholic?”

18  The girl looked at me like I had ten heads. So I answered with a less vicious, but sterling, “Nope. She’s a dimbulb.”

19  No reply.

20   Is Paris a city. And the thing about it is, she asked probably not knowing that she might as well have asked me if a frog’s ass was water tight.

21  There’s a REASON I have a job.

17  Enough of this folderol. It’s time to get back to the business of being me.

18  I again stand tall. Anyone out there needs to know, I again stand tall. With tongue planted firmly in cheek. Life is a comedy to those who think.

19  You stand tall too. It’s always a grand victory. Always.

20   Peace.

 

 

The Daily News

1  I need to call Nanny 911, Special Freshmen Division.

2  I just happen to have one of THOSE classes. I roll my eyes and just say, “Uh….d00d.”

3  I knew things were going pretty weird lately when I was hanging yesterday’s DN in the Performing Arts hall. One kid said to another, “Who’s THAT guy?”  The answer was pretty telling: “He’s the guy who doesn’t know how to do myspace!”

4

5  Oy.

6  Moving on: Did anyone notice that yesterday’s DN had two number 16′s? I think I subconsciously miss Joe Montana…I ALSO misspelled “stalactites”, but I REALLY find that hard to believe. Oy. Is that how you spell “oy”?

7  Also overheard yesterday: “The Beatles? Aren’t they that new Hip-Hop band?

8  I SWEAR to you.

9  Sometimes the DN writes itself.

10  It’s pretty funny, but for the past four days, I have gotten caught at the school until well into the night. The ATFNL has planned a GREAT Haunted House coming up on Halloween, so we’ve done some pre-planning, brainstorming, etc. but for whatever reason, SOMETHING keeps happening that I have been caught at school.

11  Part of me thinks it’s because my body and mind are USED to staying down here during Spirit Week practices, which are going on all along our portable area. We talk, plan, laugh, eat food, and before we know it, the sun has gone down. It actually doesn’t seem like the time is even going by, but you get that sudden panic when it gets suddenly dark.

12  It is fun seeing all the posters, wind, paint, dances and all the rest going on at sunset, especially when a large part of it is happening right outside my window. AND it’s even MORE fun that I’m not there at 9 p.m. cleaning brushes, waiting for posters to dry, and trying to get seven kids off to seven houses that are scattered from here to East L.A.

13  And now it looks like we’ll be having rehearsals going on for Fall One-Acts going on sometime in the next two weeks! Things are simply falling into place, and it brings a gentle peace to my spirit.

14  For a while, it felt like the walking wounded around here, and now that we are physically out there planning, enjoying, and getting ready for some of the great activities around here, it just feels like we’re all home and on safe ground once more.

15  This year has been quite an adjustment for a lot of us, both those who stayed here in good ol’ Sannozay, and those who shipped out to other places. All of our lives and comfort zones have blown with the wind, and we are all making our adjustments. I think it’s finally all starting to settle into the reality that life has, indeed, changed.

16  I guess that’s a good thing.

17  It’s a good thing.

18  Anyway, changes do happen. It’s always nice though, to keep a little of the old flames fanned and welcoming. An old friend can be like a nice warm cup of cocoa on an cool October morning. There’s great comfort in keeping close with old friends.

19  And there is sometimes nothing richer.

20  It’s like it all falls into place.

21  Everything feels right.

22  Have a wonderful day, everyone.

23  Peace.

 

The Daily News

Ken Kesey, author
One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest

1  Good to see a Merc article coming to us from Menlo Park.
    The great Kepler’s Books reopens this Saturday after having
     closed with virtually no warning this past August.

2  Kepler’s had just celebrated its 50th anniversary in May, and
    remains famous as one of the hallmark counterculture book-
    stores not only in the Bay Area, but in the entire country.

3  According to longtime employee Nancy Wirth, the late Ken
    Kesey used to frequent the venerable Kepler’s. “Ken Kesey
    hung out at Kepler’s to hit on chicks,” Wirth once said.

4  The history of Kepler’s is practically the history of dissent in 
    a changing America during the 50′s and 60′s. I won’t go into
    the entire history here, but if you are interested, I’ll include a
    link to an article about Kepler’s that appeared in the May 11,
    2005 edition of the Palo Alto Weekly online edition. Here’s
    the link:

http://www.paloaltoonline.com/weekly/morgue/2005/2005_05_11.kepler11mb.shtml

    You might also visit their website and see about helping:

http://www.keplers.com

5  So Kepler’s, welcome back!

6  Moving on: while we celebrate the gains of the Enlightened, it
    should not go unnoticed that not one, but two IRISH rock
    stars are the odds-on-favorites to win the Nobel Peace Prize,
    which will come out on Friday. Bob Geldolf and Bono are 
    finally being recognized for their years of work devoted to
    ending hunger and abject poverty in Africa. As recently as
    this last summer, both these humanitarians brought us the
    Live 8 concert. Congratulations to two great human beings.

7  Did I mention that both those cats are Irish?

8  Some fun.

9  Moving on…

10  Yesterday morning was great. On Monday afternoon, it
     appeared that the air-conditioning in my portable decided
     to go on the fritz. I fixed it the only way I know how in a
     situation like that: I turned it down to 44. Well, I took off
     Monday night, and forgot all about it, but when I came in
     yesterday morning, Sherpas were at Camp 1, cooking up
     salmon and ice fishing in the middle of my floor.

11  I went over to the air-conditioning unit, removed a student
      stuck there with a crowbar, and tried to fix it.

12  But the students went in, and several thought they had
      reached the summit. One kid broke stalctites off his
      moustache…

13  Finally, this student named Miguel reminded me that last
      year, we had a portable heater for the portable classroom, and
      that we had set the big heater on “Emergency”.

14  Well, it worked, and soon, things had turned back to normal.

15  The students thawed, and we had just another day in the life.

16  And with that, I’m going to hop on a bus and roll outta here
      for the day. A nice quick one, but we must move on, we must
      move further.

16  Have a good day in the life today.

17  See ya later.

 

 

peace.

 

 

 

 

 

 

~h~