The Daily News

1  Ah, the last DN of the school year. We come to rely on this folderol after a fashion, and when finally we appreciate it as a morning ritual, it stops.

2  This is my third try at writing the final DN to the 2005-6 school year, so here's hoping it goes right.

3  The first two were garbage. I just whined about everything, or pondered about how much it rained this year, in my heart and all that crap.

4  Enough already!

5  Let's throw out some thanks, thank you very much.

6  First, to Michelon for looking sort of like that Michelin tire guy. I always thought that was amazing. Today is his last day teaching after 39 years of service. I'm gonna get him a watch. Or something cool.

7  Next, let's thank Rocha. I don't know why, but you just always thank Rocha.

8  And I'd love to thank Wolcott. She is a divine one, that one. And no, I KNOW why. Thanks for everything.

9  Let's especially thank Mrs. Hooper. She got a rocking chair from the kids yesterday. Know why? She TOTALLY rocks!

10  Okay, come on man, gimme a break! It's the last day, and the last DN!

11  Thanks and props to the Class of '06. We'll miss you!

12  I'd like to thank our soldiers for going over there and making all of us feel a lot safer. Only another soldier understands a soldier, but I can pretty much guess what thoughts must haunt them each night.  It is arguably the most thankless job on the planet. So thank you. Just thank you.

13  Thanks to Tom on Myspace for making virtually every person walking around shallow and stupid.

14  Including me.

15  I'd love to thank TV for getting it all down to two main categories of shows: REALITY shows with a british snob, a starstruck chick, and a soul brother telling people whether they could dance, sing, dance with partners, or even dance and then spit up through seventeen consecutive commercials. And LAW AND ORDER shows. <music.> Dum DUM! Duh duh duh duh duh duh, dum dum! Just TRY to get that tune out of your head now!

16  I'd love to thank Barry and all those wonderful athletes for introducing me to the clear and the cream. Ima bulk up this summer, and return as Iron Guy.

17  Because Iron Guys are deep. Dum dum! Duh duh duh duh duh duh! Dum dum!

18  I'd like to thank Conan for letting drunkards feel that you CAN work every night with a hangover.

19  I'd love to thank my family for putting up with all my emo crap about how schizo I went when '05 left.

20  I'd like to thank all those who kept going to Starbucks with me for helping me fill that hole with Caramel Machs and cushiony talks, or rides through the hills or rainy window sills.

21  I'd like to thank Helene for always making me laugh, every single day, and for calling me on my shit every time I'd become overly emo.

22  I'd like to thank my daughters for bringing me sunny days and lovely rides whenever we could, and for being so ridiculously goofy.

23  I'd like to thank the Pigeon Players for helping us bring drama back to the school.

24  I'd like to thank my insomniacal friends for keeping me up 'til 4 a.m. most nights.

24  And I'd like to thank my students for believing in me, and for believing that Shakespeare is still alive, and that I used to be a Beatle.

25  I'd like to thank all the students who hung out in my room this year and helped create one of the most active rooms in the school. It sure felt great. I'd like to thank the CGC for starting all of this wonderful stuff early on this year. You know who you are. I love you guys.

26  I'd like to thank all the people who grew together this year, and turned all that rain and sadness into a spring season full of miracles, musicals, and merriment!

27  And finally, I'd like to thank all of you for reading this idiocy on a daily basis. I think your comments and support made me work extra hard to bring a smile, or a nice thought, or even an umbrella when you needed it the most. It was a banner year for the DN, that's for certain. Insomnia has its niche, to be sure.

28  Thanks to my Mom and Dad for all their inspiration, intelligence, wisdom, patience, and humor. You'll just never know.

29  With that, I'll bow out now, bloodied but not bowed, rained on, but protected and protecting, and when the sun burns brightest this summer, simply slip inside the shade; sip some lemonade.  ; )

30  It's been a ball. Have a beautiful summer!

31  The rest is silence.

 

 

 

~H~

 

 

 

 

The Daily News

1  So...Billy Preston walks into a bar...

2  Along with George Martin and Eric Clapton, Billy Preston could be considered a member of the Beatles in their later years. Big smiles and a warm heart, Preston brought great joy to anyone with whom he worked. Billy passed away yesterday. So it goes. In the pic above, Billy poses for the camera, along with George Harrison and President Gerald Ford.

3  I had a chance to see Billy up at CSU Chico years ago, live, in the school's gym! He rocked the place from top to bottom. I later watched him liven up a George Harrison concert when George stepped up to the mic and shouted, "Here's Billy Preston. If he can't get you dancin', nobody can!" and the crowd instantly pushed forward, bursting into dancing joy and madness. I had been standing far off and the wave of the crowd pushed me all the way to the very front row, where the place fell into a crazed frenzy. Billy Preston had that sort of effect on a room.

4  I watched the rest of the concert from the very front row. I remember the final encore at that show.

5  George, Billy, and the entire entourage brought it all home with the Beatles' In My Life...

6  So Billy, thank you for introducing my almost-last DN of the year.

7  You'll be missed.

8  Turning now to the Class of '06: You guys were always the silent strength at the school. Yesterday a whole bunch of you gathered outside my class, along with Mrs. Conrotto, and I looked at the faces all around and it all caught up with me. Edward, Paul, Darryl, Khoi and everyone else who was there, I just felt so proud of you guys. It was a nice moment having you all right there yesterday.

9  As always, yesterday's finals seemed so empty. The Seniors were practicing graduation. I remember last year we practiced and afterwards I had to dash to Starbuck's for some coffee. On the way back, Your Song came on my car stereo. I turned up the volume.

10 It was the Moulin Rouge version. It overwhelmed my senses, filled the TOOONDRA with its sweet soul, and it sang sweetly the song of our class, and of our lives, moving all through the cab, soaring, lilting, lifting in its amazing crescendo, surrounding me and rising higher and higher, drifting softly to it's silent end. It was, simply stated, Our Song. It had defined much of the time we had all been through, and in the end, it laid itself down sweetly like a leaf in a noon breeze. And then it was gone.

11  I remember okaying it with TA and then getting it to Rocha to be our graduation song. He had limited our choices, turning down Coldplay's Yellow, leaving us with (Graduation) Friends Together, In My Life, or Your Song. Those were our choices.

12 In some ways, I respected In My Life as '04's, even though it is now universally everyone's. Once people are out, we all become one, in my eyes, a precursor to heaven.

13  I don't know what song '06 has chosen. Heck, '05 didn't really know 'til the day before. But providence brought Your Song, and sometimes providence wins out.

14  I do know that '06's farewell video at the rally had (Graduation) Friends Forever and it worked sweetly. It'll be interesting tonight.

15  And so to the Class of '06, you have a little bit of heaven smiling on you tonight. We all will miss you terribly, but go out there and teach the world to smile. The school will never be the same without you.

16  I'll be out there tonight watching proudly, as always.

17  With that, I leave you with this thought: whatever else YB has been to you, or to all of us for that matter, we're proud of who we are, and we're way proud of who you are. If nothing else, it all means that YB will always represent home to you, a place you learned, a place you loved, a place you saw as familiar, and a place that will always be in your hearts forever, as you will always remain in ours.

18  Godspeed Seniors. It's your turn to shine. We'll miss you.

19  Peace.

Farewell YB's Class of '06!

You will be missed.

Peace.

 

~H~

 

 

www.xanga.com/bharrington

 

 

 

 

The Daily News

1  Now here's the funny thing: I thought that by the end of the school year I'd FINALLY be getting to bed at a decent hour, that I'd be thinking about going off to Mars where I spend my summers hiding and hibernating, bathing in the rays of the sun by day and for inspiration, gazing to the brightness of the stars at night. This behavior approaches something akin to finding Absolute Truth.

2  Instead, I get home, watch this sorta fun movie about Jacqueline Kennedy, and then drift off, only to awaken at some ungodly hour bathing in nothing more than the teevee blathering on about some new miracle drug I just couldn't live without. Without which I couldn't live. Whatevuh.

3  I don't even know WHAT the drug does, but it must be terrific. I discovered soon that I what I had tuned to was some station filled with all-night infomercials. I sort of goofed on how many things the teevee tells me are so important, as though ALL those things are one big miracle drug. How did I ever get by without this stuff?

 

 

GOOD GOD NOOOOOO!!!!!!

4  Eventually I got focused once more. My last week of the DN. "Only the best!" I shouted at no one in particular.

4  I kept thinking all day long as to what my last couple of DN's of the year would even be about. About which...I figured one would be graduation, and the other would be my summer send-off. So the idiocy of infomercials at 3 a.m. got ruled out. Teevee commercials tempted me, but...

5  I really wanted to go deep and leave something that would make the heart sigh and the thoughts ponder.

6  Instead, I thought I'd share this piece that one of my first students ever, Corinne Rosseels-Habib sent me yesterday. It's a piece by one of my all-time journalistic heros, the venerable Andy Rooney from CBS's 60 Minutes.

7  It's practically a commencement speech, and it is out of this world.

8  Some people are just better than me.

9  That being said, I bow out gracefully and give it over to Andy Rooney:

"Andy Rooney's Thought On Life"

The most unfair thing about life is the way
it ends. I mean, life is tough. It takes up a
lot of your time. And then you die. What's
that? A bonus? I think the life-cycle is all
backwards.

You should die first and get it all over with.
Then you live in an old age home.
You get kicked out when you're too young.
You get a gold watch.
You go to work.

You work forty years until you're young
enough to enjoy your retirement.
You do drugs, alcohol and party.
You get ready for high school.
You go to grade school and become a kid.
You play. You have no responsibilities.
You become a little baby & go back into
the womb.
You spend your last nine months floating...

Then, you finish off as an orgasm.  I like it.

 

10

11

12  See you tomorrow.

13   Peace.

 

 

~H~

 

www.xanga.com/bharrington

 

 

 

 

 

 

~oh, and happy birthday cb!~

 

 

The Daily News

1  Today's the first day the Seniors aren't here. They had their sunset last night and of all the things that the Class of '05 did as a class, I think that the sunset meant the most to me. The Class of '06 had the rally Friday and it all really hit home with me; I'm going to miss this class very much.

2  This whole week is all about the Class of '06 even though they are technically gone. Today is their picnic and Wednesday is graduation, SO hard to believe.

3  It's an emotional time no matter how much we try to avoid it. We come in and try to walk around as though it's normal, but Friday was officially the last thing even resembling normal for the school year.

4  Even the DN is going to go into its summer hibernation shortly. I don't quite know what I'm going to do with myself every night at 2 or 3 a.m. when I'm normally combing the internet for fun pictures or sighing down the wind so sadly, or writing pieces about rain and umbrellas and all.

5  Maybe getting my sanity back if I ever HAD any.

6  Anyway today is traditionally a ghost town. The Seniors will be gone, and it's almost as though the school must begin and end each year as a ghost town.

7  I feel that I finally got over missing my own class, and now another class is moving off to take on the world.

8  I've had a few memories loosed again. For the longest while I've been enjoying life and really starting to live and enjoy everything again, but as of Wednesday night when the music kids had their last concert, and Thursday when Mrs. Hooper announced she's leaving, and THEN Friday's rally, it all has come rushing back.

9  The nice thing is that it's almost summer, so I'll also be enjoying a few months off. For once, or maybe twice, I feel I worked for it this year.

10  I'm also in a sort of fun frame of mind because my own class is returning from college and I really look forward to seeing those guys again!

11  Still, this last week is always an emotional one for the entire school. I saw kids breaking down crying on Friday, friends hugging, or holding on for dear life, and the Seniors walking everywhere like the war wounded, many with stares of utter disbelief. I remember it well.

12  Two of us mending fences, life commences, on our way back home.

13  We're on our way home. We're on our way home.

14  We're goin' home.

15  That's a line I wrote to an already existing Beatles song. Some nerve.

16  The chorus goes like this:

You and I have memories
longer than the road that stretches out ahead...

17  Two of us wearing raincoats standing so low in the sun.

18  You and me chasing paper.

19  Getting nowhere on our way back home.

20  We're on our way home.

21  We're on our way home.

22  We're going home.

23  So to the Class of '06: today is your day. This week is your week. We salute you as you move forth.

24  Go forward with confidence.

25  Go out and become heroes and then come home.

26  YB ain't going anywhere.

27  We love you guys.

28  Peace.

 

Thanks for letting me steal these pictures Helen!

 

~H~

 

 

www.xanga.com/bharrington

 

 

 

The Daily News

This little light of mine,

I'm gonna let it shine

This little light of mine,

I'm gonna let it shine

This little light of mine,

I'm gonna let it shine

Let it shine,
Let it shine,
Let it shine.

 

thanks mrs.hooper

for everything.

we'll never forget you.

peace.

 

~H~

 

 

 

The Daily News 1  Every now and again we have something in the Theatre that just moves me. 2  The Spring concert this year worked for me. Sometimes the performance itself takes me places, and I guess that's what happened. 3  At first I was annoyed by the audience, as always. People, think about it. It's pretty rude to get up and walk out the door when someone is performing. That happened repeatedly. A student would be doing a piano solo and four people would get up and walk around. Why show up if you're not going to listen to the performances? 4  But as the evening progressed I realized that I could really do little to school people in common sense, because as my mother once put it, there is nothing common about common sense. 5  So I decided to do the next best thing, and that was to appreciate the music. Each song meant something to each student in some way or another, and a few performances simply moved me. 6  As I hear wonderful live music in the Theatre, I look at that stage and see ghosts and memories of all the great moments that have gone across that stage. 7  That happened last night. I looked and thought of how many great moments have gone on in the Theatre. 8  In fact, I was visited yesterday by Geoff, a grand friend from my very first year teaching at YB. Geoff graduated a year before Jesus I think. He played guitar with me from almost my first day at YB. We jammed and sang. He played guitar on our "back-in-the day" performance of Godspell. What was fun was that Trinh came over and we did All Good Gifts. To a teacher, there is almost nothing better. Past meeting present. Geoff was our guitarist in my first show ever at YB, and Trinh sang a song Geoff played. As always, and as many suspect anyway, I was the missing link. 9  Then Ponticelli came over wearing a Godspell shirt! The guy is a genius, I swear. He talked with Geoff and me about the Marathon tonight, but it was fun, all that history going on right before the Spring concert. It set a beautiful night for me personally. 10  So when our Choir hit the stage, it all seemed magical. 11  And as I watched, I had memories of many things, of both Godspells we had done, of a show called The Show, of Fina playing flute because a girl played a flute piece in the afternoon, and sounded wonderful; I don't know her name though! I thought of all the laughs and loves, of Thuy Ann coming out with a candle and lovely dress and nailing Your Song on opening night of Songs We've Heard, of Garnet playing piano for Trami at her surprise birthday party that Sunshine had planned, and the list goes on and on. 12  I don't want to begin listing all the great moments because there have been so many. 13  And then I kept thinking of how blessed we have been to have Heidi Hooper as our musical director. She has brought grace and style to our Theatre and last night we had one more moment I'll never forget. 14  The Band's last song, and I forgot to snag a program so I don't have the name at my fingertips, was one of the best pieces ever performed in that Theatre. You can always tell when something amazing has gone on. It was set up with piano solos by Jonathan and Brian, both of home delivered the goods in style, but Hooper took the orchestra, which did WONDERFULLY, and put them on percussion instruments, and it paid off in spades. 15  That noisy audience suddenly sat up and the music took hold. Sometimes music can do that. The entire place felt it; time simply stopped. It was another memory, this time a brand new one. It was like the Seniors and the band and everyone wanted something memorable, and guess what? They delivered. 16  Congratulations to everyone for a perfectly wonderful evening last night. 17  Tonight we have a Music Marathon sponsored by the ATFNL.  It features some surprises, as well as the awesome classic rock band Voodoo Lounge. 18  Come on out; we're beginning at 8 p.m. I'm hoping to bring Jonathan and Brian back to perform their flawless piano pieces, as well as Geoff to reprise some of our great jams, and then to bring in Voodoo Lounge. 19  All that tonight at 8 in the Theatre. It'll be $3.00 to get in, and the money will go to ATFNL activities designed to help people deal with drug/alchohol/tobacco and relationship issues. 20  So come on out tonight; the music will be amazing. Geoff and I began rusty yesterday but later on we geared in and  now have some nice stuff to share. And the band itself will just blow you out of the water. 23   Just another night in the good ol' Theatre. 22  Peace.     ~H~       www.xanga.com/eldirectore