Month: August 2006

  • The Daily News
     


    1  So...Glenn Ford walks into a bar...

    2  I feel I'm writing the DN out of a box. I sat and wondered whether or not I could keep writing it since I'm not at YB anymore. I can't just post it in the hallway, so it can't really be all about YB.

    3  But without YB, it just becomes one in a million other blogs. Granted, I still claim the Daily News was the world's first blog, and hasn't changed since that fateful day in February of 1996 when I first posted a hard copy in the hallway of the Performing Arts building.

    4  But that was a long time ago. It began as a tribute to the song in Guys and Dolls, a song called affectionately enough, Guys and Dolls.  I believe its a character called Nicely-Nicely Johnson who sings, "What's in the Daily News? I'll tellya what's in the Daily News..." and I just decided to post a Daily News in the hallway, the idea being to keep everyone amused, but also to keep communication going on in the Performing Arts dept. The rest, as they say, is history.

    5  From there it took off. Each day kids would be hanging out in the hallway and office, and when I would come in and post it, there would be a crowd, and I would literally hear the chuckles and stuff.

    6  If it was serious, I'd post it and take off to the faculty lounge to get my mail.

    7  But in those days, there were very few DN's that were sad! It was always intended to make people smile before they would march into their daily insanity. I always felt it was a sort of morning cup of coffee or something for the rest of the world, a moment of temporary sanity, a very real, very fun thing for everyone, including myself.

    8 And I NEVER felt I was writing it. Never. It just seemed to be a natural extension of everything that everyone else was thinking. Like I was a guy just channeling all the love and stuff, and the common denominator was always our school, in all its blissful madness.

    9  And now I have people reading it who go all the way back to my very first day at YB. And it is now read by almost anyone who ever lived and enjoyed that theatre, or that wonderful office in its day, and more recently, the absolutely lovely Peace 61, my room, my hangout, my home for the past six years.

    10  In A Chorus Line, there's a song called At the Ballet. I guess if anything sort of reminds me of all of that, my entire world over at YB, it would be At the Ballet, the Ballet just being the entire thing. It's hard to describe, but I well imagine many people reading this right now would get it.
                                                                                                                                                             


    11  But everything was beautiful...ah yes, I remember it well...

    12  Okay so it's out now. I LOVE that song, and precisely because I always saw the music in A Chorus Line as not being just about dancers, but about anything that was special and beautiful in our lives.

    13  Don't get me wrong. I LOVE home these days. I now appreciate how much I love my family more than ever. The new place takes a lot of my time and devotion and when I see my family, I love them very much, always have.

    14  But YB was another sort of place, a place we all loved and shared and laughed and cried. And to the kids who are still there, it really is tough being completely gone. I LOVE the new place. It's exciting, challenging, and an entire new direction. I feel I've finally reached what I always wanted. My classes respect and love me. I have the brightest and best. I got a nice little raise. I'm now a major community figure in the Evergreen area. I have to be on all the time. It's a tremendous responsibility, and it's also pure madness. I am elated to be there.

    15  But...it's not you. You all need to know that. I don't even know that I have the skills to tell all of you how much it has meant at YB. And it's a little bit funny, because looking back, I remember only the happy times. And I miss the alumni, but I always miss the alumni.

    16  I miss the students. I miss chilling in Peace 61. I miss the carefree times, the guitar, the singing, the joy, or just the ability to hop in the TOOONDRA and fly, windows down, radio up, pedal to the ground. I miss lunch with all you guys. I miss the excitement when someone just walks up and says, "What next, H?"

    17  I don't know. How 'bout another memory? Ponch and I always said we're in the business of memories.

    18  Ain't it the Truth.

    19  So. Do I miss YB?

    20

    21  Yeah.

    22  It wasn't Paradise. It wasn't Paradise. It wasn't Paradise.

    23  Have I mentioned yet that Glenn Ford walked into a bar? ; )

    24  I will try to keep the DN going strong. Too many people need this bit of a jolt in the morning. Vivien came by yesterday, and John, and Maggie. I had my hat on. Same old H. Guitar. Scuffy shoes. Unkempt. Exhausted but on. Viv told me I could get on Xanga on my computer.

    25  So I can get the DN done at a reasonable hour.

    26  So the world's first blog will continue to darken your doorway each morning, and hopefully light up your morning a bit. Look forward to it. It'll always be about all of us. But it will also bring in some new things and some new perspectives.

    27  I look forward to sharing things this school year. You'll see some VERY interesting changes because the DN will no longer be posted, which means I can now write it unbridled!

    28  I miss you all. And I promise to try to keep this guy going, each and every day. Do what you always did. Personally, I'd read it each day just to kick whoever is trying to stop me's ass.

    29  Anyway, have a beautiful day.

    30  I'll try to keep Paradise going in the meanwhile.

    31  Peace.


     
     

    ~H~

     


     
     
     
     
     

    www.xanga.com/bharrington


  • The Very

    FOBULOUS

     Daily News!!!!


    Song Seung Hu and Son Ye Jin
    are riveting     in Summer Scent

    1  The biggest drawback to my newfound glory is that it has totally interrupted my meditations with Korean soaps. That's the danger of discovering something this captivating right before a Mars launch.

    2  Anyone else into them? Well the one that got me started was called Summer Scent. See that Korean boy and that Korean girl up at the top of the page? Well, she received a heart donation a few years back, the same time that his fiancee was hit by a car and killed. Needless to say, his fiancee's heart went to her. But SHE was already engaged to a dickhead.

    3  So when the dickhead calls on the boy to help him design a resort, fate brings these two together when both their hearts start beating...

    4  The rest is so corny and filled with tears and bad music that you just keep popping the next episode into your DVD player and looking out at your garden everytime someone gets emo.

    5  I walked in on this one and never came back. I found myself screaming at the television. "TELL HER!!! TELL HIM!!! GET LOST DICKHEAD!!!"


    Ryu Jin as the dickhead
    who turns into a great guy

    6  I was somewhere in the beginning of my third one when I had to stop watching, looking at flowers, listening to birds mingling with bad music, and go in for the interview.

    7  And now...well, I'm STILL watching my third one! Haha! I don't even remember what the second one was called, but the third one is called Stairway to Heaven, I think after the famous rock song, But I'm not sure. Actually I'm 99 % sure.

    8  Anyway...they all are alike. We always see them as kids, and some sort of jewelry is exchanged. It always flashes back. Nobody EVER tells ANYONE how they really feel until around the sixteenth episode.

    9  They LOVE each other, but NEVER kiss.

    10  At some point, the guy who is left out takes up drinking, but it never goes anywhere. He just takes up drinking.

    11  The love is always forbidden and looked down on by the rest of the people in the drama.

    12  There's always  a comical couple.

    13  It has shades of Shakespearean mood changes, and there is always some low-budget version of a famous American rock song all emo-ed out playing in the background.

    14  If someone cries, it's always one tear on a blink. Once in a while, a second one will drop down.

    15  The performers are always beautiful looking, and vulnerable.

    16  The secondary characters are also beautiful, but just a shade less beautiful.

    17  Each episode always leaves you hanging.

    18  You always wind up yelling, "TELL HER!" or "TELL HIM!"

    19  You can find these on You Tube, but there's a black market out there.

    20  And that's the way to enjoy your first day, by going home and watching a great Korean soap. It used to be a hard drink and a blended cigar. Now it's a cup of green tea and a Korean soap.

    21  You wind up wanting to go to Korea, or Taiwan.

    22  And it's a perfect way to waste time.

    23  Try it.

    24  I swear! That's my plug!

    25  Peace everybody.


    Haha!!! GREAT stuff man!

     

    ~H~

     
     
     
     
     
     

     
    The DN is back!

     

     

     

     

     

  • The Daily News


    Picture courtesy of the immortal dirty jose.

    1  Well hello there!

    2  Looks like we're back in business!

    3  First DN from my new crib.

    4  Well, for those of you who DON'T know, I finally busted loose from YB.

    5  This Daily News comes to you directly from the office of the newly hired
    Activities Director at Evergreen Valley High School!

    6  I wouldn't joke about something THAT absurd!

    7  Xanandu.

    8  The Chill on the Hill.

    9  Hold it for a sec. My dog's yapping at me, and it's just ridiculous.

    10

    11  That's better. Now where was I?

    12  Turns out the CIA sent me to Xanandu for having done such a magnifique job down in the flatlands. When they saw that I could convince kids that Shakespeare might just possibly not be dead, they took me up to the City of Gold, the Chill on the Hill, the new Xanandu!

    13  New digs.

    14  And I've been too busy to even see straight! A LOT of issues, a LOT of thoughts, and no time really even to stop the world long enough to realize what is happening. We've already had
    a boosters night, meetings with staff, my first two public speeches, freshmen orientation tonight, from which I just returned, and tomorrow morning I teach my first classes in a different school since having landed on YB soil all those years ago.
                                                                        
    15  Tomorrow morning, or THIS morning, at 7:15 a.m. I will teach my first Leadership class. After that, second period, I'll teach my 4 millionth English class, only these guys are a bit more sure as to the ultimate destiny of Shakespeare.

    16  The first class ends at 8:15. The second class ends just after 9. Then I'm done teaching. That's my daily gig. From 9-5 I'm an Activities Director, and many nights.

    17  Tonight I saved the meeting, which consisted of almost 700 parents and students in the gym. The mic guy just didn't show, and they turned to me. I had NO idea how or what or where they even KEPT their mics, let alone how to hook them up.

    18  They called janitors, and everyone else. I asked the ASB if they had a Sparky.

    19  The national anthem played. I found the system, ran it up, saluted with sweat pouring down my brow and stinging my eyes. I passed a cord to Sparky guy. Nothing.

    20  I thought I had failed, however heroic it was getting that huge system to the gym and hooking it up in less than five minutes. But it didn't work. The first ten minutes of the meeting I kept wrestling with it. Nothing.

    21  Suddenly...POP! The whole place looked! The Administrators broke into miraculous smiles, and someone somewhere said, "Now I know why we hired that guy!"




    22  That guy. Yeesh. Haha. Dumb luck, but somehow I was an instant hero.

    23  Walking outside at sunset, I looked at the night sky, still a dark shade of orange, which lit up a sliver and a star. Outside, the band faced the theatre and played magnificently. The sunset painted the sky in a swirling masterpiece. The lights of the city twinkled San Jose yellow, and you all know what that looks like.

    24  I have no pictures on this DN. Can't because my computer may freeze any second, and I need to get some sleep.

    25  Not without sharing that with you.

    26  Nope.

    27  Not that.

    28  The cat just walked over and sat halfway in the open door, and halfway in the living room. The night air came through and quietly touched my shoulder.

                                               
                                                                                                                                      
    29  Time for bed.

    30  That's the first DN, and there will be more, I promise you.

    31  There will be more.

    32  Farewell YB; believe it or not, I'm going to miss you and all your wonderful memories.

    33  Preserve your memories.

    34  They're all that's left you.

    35  Peace.

     

    ~H~

     


     

     

    http://www.xanga.com/bharrington

     




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