Month: January 2007

  •  The Daily News

    po sidney
    Sidney Sheldon, 1917-2007

     
    1 So...Sidney Sheldon walks into a bar...
     
     2  So I didn't get the news straight last night, because I seldom do, but evidently they got some coffee experts to measure various coffees and it turns out that McDonald's coffee was favored over Starbucks.

    3  I think that those experts came from the Riley Coffee Company in Dallas, Texas, and that most of them retired after having written the Warren Report.

    4  I see no point in even talking about Barry Bonds anymore.
     
    5  Moving on: News from the Rock 'n' Roll Front:  It appears that the Police are re-uniting for the Grammy's. I think that's cool.

             
    The Police

    6  According to Gene Simmons, Kiss is more popular than JAY-zuss. Read all about it in the Dailies. Dude. You're famous because a) You wear makeup and b) You have a long tongue. Still, we gotta love the megalomania. Every now and again you gotta give yourself a kiss. ; )  'M'bad.
     
    7  Man, I got in late last night, as usual, and the wife of that guy who got attacked by a mountain lion talked of how she fought the thing off for her husband, first pounding on it's stomach wit logs when it had her husband's head in its mouth, and finally taking a pen and jabbing it's eye, and then pounding it again with logs and stuff. 

    8  This lady really had me riveted. What a bizarre story!

    9  I sure hope it doesn't keep me from hiking.

                                                 
    10  Years and years ago, I saw the movie Jaws, and never went in the ocean shortly thereafter. It's a long story and I'd rather not tell it, but let's just say that I wasn't interested in getting eaten by a great white.



    11  I'm okay with hiking because the worst thing that ever happened there was this last summer when a pretty big rock collapsed like a dirt clod when I stepped on it, and I fell backwards and bounced my head hard on a large slab of granite. 

    12  But now mountain lions...no thanks. That's just freaky man.

    13  What's funny is to this day I'm petrified of sharks. My friends would say, "There aren't great whites in these waters!"

    14  My response?  Hey, even a tiny grey is gonna hurt like crazy and could dissever your arm.

    15  And then I get people who want to keep me out of the water forever. They say things like, "90 per cent of shark bites happen in under 3 ft. of water you know..."

    16  I remember someone saying that to me in my braver days, and my response was quite simple: 90 per cent of ocean swimmers SWIM in under 3 ft. of water, foo!

    17  I love how people just toss statistics out like that anyway. "50 per cent of all marriages end in divorce, you know..."

    18  I'm actually guessing that's totally inaccurate but is as accepted as the Immaculate Conception.

    19  I'm just sayin' man...don't get all butt hurt.

    20  Catholics, right?

    21  It's always fun when you ARE the people who you say would get all butt hurt. 

    22  Yes, I'm Catholic. Used to be. Still am at heart. Once a Catholic, always a Catholic. No such thing as an ex-Catholic in my book. It's like being ex-CIA. No such thing.

    23  Tuesdays.

    24  See ya.

    25  Peace.



     



    pol kiss


    ~H~


  • The Daily News

    1  January.

    2  It's funny because around three weeks  ago I wrote about how much I loved January and all.

    3  Still do. I love the sky and the sort of normalcy and familiarity that is January.

    4  Never tempt the Fates, however.

    5  Up on the Chill on the Hill, things fly fast and furious in January.

    6  All was well right after Christmas, like all seems well when a rollercoaster first starts clacking slowly to its first drop.



    7  Last week climbed up very slowly and then dropped instantly into a treacherous dive followed by thundrous curves and turns and corkscrews so frightening that for a while I thought I'd fall out and fall from a dizzying height.


    8  In the midst of the madness last week I talked with a fellow teacher who used to do lights for his high school drama program. I was amazed because I had no idea this guy knew lights. He was a tech guy, through and through.

    9  Now here's a little secret coming to you from a former director: you ALWAYS love your tech crew. They always put in thousands of hours and never ask for recognition, and seldom ask for anything in return. Millions of hours are just a part of the day for them. They're all about making it all just happen, no questions asked.

    10  Anyway, when I asked why the guy doesn't do lights anymore, he told me about having gone up one of those way tall ladders with ropes to make them go even higher, to reach a light way at the top of a high stage, when his wrench fell.

    11  Your wrench is supposed to be tied to your belt, but being a tech guy, he said, "Ah, baloney. I won't drop it!"

    12  When it fell, he described it as taking forever before it reached the vanishing point.

    13  That was the last time he went up a ladder to do lights, and the last time that he indeed DID lights.

    14  A dizzying height. 



    15  Well, there are parts of a rollercoaster when they just cruise for a small strip before dropping again and whipping around, just before the ride ends.

    16  That's about where I am right now in January.

    17  I have a few more drops and brainbell-jangling turns and twists, a Talent Show on Friday night and then it will all come to a sudden stop. I'll wobble off this ride into Saturday, and hope the world slows itself down before I go to the next big ride next week, which is Camp Everytown, formerly Camp Anytown.

    18  It's a great park I'm walking through, and an entire DN of one massive analogy, but I think it is a good one.

    19  Ah, the amazing fun life can throw at you!



    20  My good friend Jesse, who ran all this stuff at the Chill on the Hill last year, said this of being an Activities Director, another analogy, but just as fun: "Being an Activities Director is like running a wedding every week."

    21  So I'm not sure which is better. In many ways, running a wedding IS a rollercoaster ride, so somewhere in there lies the reality.

    22  Some fun.

    23  Hope you enjoyed the ride.

    24  Peace.

    ~H~

  • The Daily News

     

    1  Ever felt like this on a Sunday night?

    2  Yeah, me too.

    3  It's like you wait the entire weekend before thinking of all the stuff you have to get done beginning Monday, and start a scramble around 10 p.m.

    4  I generally start with taking out huge stacks of papers and things.

    5  Within five minutes, I have a great idea of how to conquer everything for the week, and I'm the cock o' the walk.

    6  Then, without warning, there's the one thing...

    7  Whatever the one thing is, it's enough to send me into a tizzy for around a half hour, the half hour in which I storm around looking for things, get angry with myself for being such a disorganized dufus, misplace something easy like glasses, or a roll of tape, and then practically give myself a heart-attack before I realize one thing:

    Nobody cares. And nobody is worth all that stress.

    8  It's almost as though I'm telling myself, "You are running all over the place for one or two people who do this stuff to EVERYONE. What's the worst that can happen?"

    9  For myself, I'm a completely imperfect perfectionist. Oprah calls it the "disease to please", which is really an okay thing, if you have to suck at something.

    10  But my goodness. Last night I just wanted to get to doing the DN because it's just a stream-of-consciousness thing that is relaxing and enjoyable, but I also knew I had a ton to do this coming week.

    11  The challenge was that I also had a ton of work to do last week! On Saturday I spent over 11 hours working for the school, so I just decided not to do another thing today.

    12  Didn't work.

    13  I got early insomnia. Started running about like a madman in a royal robe, King Arthur on crack, Moses looking for the tablets, Superman looking for his shorts.

    14  All right, perhaps a bit of hyperbole, but you get the idea.

    15  I eventually figure stuff out and a nice mellow way to do it on a Monday, when we all just fly under the radar all morning anyway.

    16  Every once in a while I need to remind myself that we are all pretty much faking it.

    17  Ever hear that tune by Simon and Garfunkel? It's called Fakin' It. Here's an excerpt:

    I'm such a dubious soul,
    and a walk in the garden
    wears me down,
    tangled in the fallen vines,
    pickin' up the punchlines

    I know I'm fakin' it,
    not really makin' it
    this feeling of fakin' it,
    I still haven't shaken it...

    18  If life has taught me anything it's that if something happens to me, it probably happens to the guy next to me, and probably happens to the many more. It's a sure bet that nobody walking on God's good earth is perfect.

    19  And truth be told, none of us wants our own ineptitudes brought into the light.

    20  As J. Pierpont Finch says in How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying, "...remember mediocrity is not a mortal sin..."

    21  Ah, the Brotherhood of Man.

    22  Moving on: Oprah just came on. No fooling.

    23  Synchronicity.

    24  Well, I was looking for some of those paranoid images above, writing things like "insanity" and "oh no!" on google images, and I just thought, "help me!" and the Teevee said, "HELP ME!" in some commercial or other.

    25  I report those things as they occur just because.

    26  But each time some amazing coincidence happens (that one was weird tonight, because as I was thinking those words, they came right off the screen!) it just adds to an impressive amount of coincidences, which I watch carefully.

    27  Telling anyone though is like telling someone you have a cold. Or perhaps better, pouring yet more air out of a Dixie cup.

    28  I care, only because it just proves stuff.

    29  I won't go a step further. I'm plenty relaxed after an early insomnia.

    30  I need to go now and get some sleep, because in the morning I have to go back to fussing and fighting.

    31  Life's too short. Someone on Teevee just said, "I definitely have to get back to the Daily News..."  Words to that affect. She was on Oprah. Ah! Elizabeth Vargas. Yeah, she just said that. And NOW a commercial just came on for some CD called Celtic Women, and one of the songs was Scarborough Fair by...Simon and Garfunkel! Oh, and Vargas used to write for the Daily News. Scarborough Fair. Why, I'll be...

    32  Just now. Just after I wrote all that about synchronicity. I swear to you. So much for fussing and fighting.

    33  Think of a great coincidence today, and then look at the sun coming through the clouds.

    34  It'll all make sense. Every time you take whatever it is you're doing too seriously, just give a glance up to the sky and smile.

    35  Have a beautiful day.

    ~H~



  •  

    The Daily News

    http://photo.xanga.com/bharrington/d3bdc103194316/photo.html
    Song Seun Hun and Son Ye
    Jin in Summer Scent.

    1  So some teevee show is talking about Korean Dramas. This DN isn't even remotely going to be about Korean Dramas, but I just thought it was great that some teevee show Men in Trees has a character who is addicted to them.

    2  I absolutely love Korean Dramas, but telling someone that you like something is sort of like pouring air out of a Dixie cup.

    3  Anywho, this edition of the DN isn't really going to be about that. Funny thing is, now the teevee in back of me has some show involving a growly bear frightening people who are singing the song My Favorite Things  in order to dissuade the old grizzly from eating them.

    4  And the DN wasn't even going to be about that either.

    5  It was originally going to be about Fred and Barney smokin'.

    http://photo.xanga.com/bharrington/f87c8103194761/photo.html

    6  You wonder why I enjoy "back-in-the-day" so much? Those fellows look as though they are enjoying a well-earned smoke.

    7  Not only were they smoking like a couple of campus titans, they were relaxing while Wilma and Betty did the dishes.

    8  Gotta love it. I got this off AOL last night. I've heard tell that you can get this old Winston commercial on YouTube.com, but I could be mistaken.

    9  Besides, what more do you need than just that picture? And yes, those ARE Winstons, make no mistake. Hittin' 'em young, wouldn't you say?

    10  But I figured, how much mileage could you really get out of Fred and Barney smokin'?

    11  It's just SO politically incorrect in these days of non-smoking this and women's rights that. Fact is, we have caught Fred and Barney, our ancestors, for gawdsakes, lying against a nice rock, chillin' with Winstons, while the women do all the work.

    12  I wonder how those two classic cartoon characters escaped that putrid commercial where the Marlboro man glides through camels floating by, and at the end some creepy looking lagoon-monster looks up and says something like, "They oughta show footage of ME!"

    13  Dude. I'm eatin'.

    14  But I truly appreciate the political correctness.

    15  I'd just enjoy watching Fred and Barney better.

    16  Moving On:  AOL was filled with news yesterday. They had this tease that coffee cures baldness.

    17  Oh?

    18  Not so.

    19  Well, it said that research would show that you would have to drink 60 cups a day in order for it to make a difference. It went on to give utterly no references, but I guess the word "research" is to bibliographies what "back-in-the-day" is to history. SAT's anyone? They're tomorrow morning...<thud>

    20  Yeah, the research went on to say that if you drank sixty cups a day, you'd have a full heada hair, but you'd also have the jits.

    21  They do have a coffee cream, not to be mistaken for the cream in my coffee, that you are supposed to rub into your scalp.

    22  And...

    23  I say, "Nope. Ain't gonna happen." The voice of experience. I vaguely remember at the beginning of the year someone telling me that Raid ant and roach spray will grow hair...

    24  Moving on: And finally, the penny is going to turn into a nickel. It's in the works. Evidently nickel and copper are now worth more melted down, so they are going to make that change. The penny as we know it will disappear, and a new low range on the money tree will be the nickel.

    25  Something like that.

    26  Some people have WAY too much time on their hands.

    27  I CLEARLY don't, and neither do you.

    28  So go out and make it happen today.

    29  Friday. Such a nice ring to it, you know? Friday.

    30  I'm going to live it up. I may just watch Summer Scent again.

    31  Either way, I'm way outta here. I need to get to Starbuck's. I need to begin my $300 a day habit. Barista, line up sixty triple white-chocolate mochas if you please. That oughta get my motor running.
     
    32 You have a Friday. Normally, they can't miss.

    33  Peace.


    ~H~


    http://photo.xanga.com/bharrington/f88b1103194346/photo.html

     
     
     
     
     
     



  • The Daily News



    1   Is it Thursday already?

    2  Time flies when you're counting your millions.

    3  Yesterday was supposed to be one of the worst days ever, according to my morning.

    4  I had so much to do that for the first time since getting this new gig I felt a bit of doubt.

    5  This colleague of mine who resembles Bobby Weir came in last week. He was smiling, knowing how much work it takes to do something like this. He took one look at me and smiled a bit of a wry smile. "Are you up to your ears in alligators?" he asked.



    6   Let's go back for just a moment. It must have been about the fifth day of school this year when in sauntered this fellow, who's name is John. I instantly got intellectual Deadhead vibes off him, and he had that bit of a resemblance to Weir. He introduced himself, and almost immediately asked, "Are you up to your ears in alligators yet?" He broke into a grin.



    7  I laughed a knowing laugh. I knew going into a job of this magnitude that I was going to be constantly up to my ears in alligators.

    8  Well, yesterday was supposed to be the day that everything caught up with me. Try as I could, I was not hitting my deadlines. I had noticed that people would write e-mails that I would have to answer; they would call on the phones and expect things right now; others would have meetings. And meetings. And meetings.

    9  So many meetings that the alligators started snapping because, well, they just do.

    10 I was in the office pushing calendars into mailboxes when someone asked what I was doing.

    10  "Putting announcements in people's boxes saying that we're going to have to have a meeting to figure out when to schedule our next meeting."

    11  Later on, when the guy who threw all the meetings asked why I hadn't gotten any of his stuff done, I said, "Why, I was spending all of my time at your meeting."

    12  "That's no excuse!" he snapped, and he slid down and slitered off to whatever swamp he had come from.

    13  Alligators.

    14  I was certain going in yesterday that I was finally going to get torn apart, ripped to bloody shreds, eaten, and spat straight out to the muddy shore.

    15  I had no chance. Knew that going in.

    16  Well, it turned into a great day. A deadline I thought I would miss was actually not for ten more hours. Something that was going to get one alligator snapping got him putting on reading glasses, turning on a lamp, and looking over as if to tell me, "Sayyy...this is really good!"

    17  An afternoon meeting with the grim alligator ended in being called off. An angel walked in and helped get me through some confusing paperwork. An event ran smoothly. I saw all the alligators get in their cars and go home for the day. Peace rushed in like a spiritual rescue team.

    18  The sun broke through the haze, and I actually felt  a hint of warmth in the late afternoon Sannozay sky.



    19  An old friend called and we chatted like survivors living in a new tomorrow.

    20  And it ended with me getting home at a reasonable hour and thinking about the calm that had settled in.
     


    21  I lived through a day that I thought would devour me.

    22  So today I'm going to go in and take no prisoners. I'll be right in the middle of kicking some sort of fundament, and feeling really good when I'll get my first call from an alligator. I'll stop and it will all catch up to me again.

    23  Whoever, or whatever it is will hang up, licking its chops that it has done just enough to snap me into action. I'll be uptight and begin pacing and talking to myself.

    24  There will be a knock on the door.

    25  A guy with a nice, kind Grateful Dead face will stick his head inside and smile, "Well...are you up to your ears in alligators?"

    26  Sunshine daydream.

    27  Are you kind?

    28  Peace.

    ~H~


     
         




















  •  

    The Daily News
    http://photo.xanga.com/bharrington/ed938102900970/photo.html

    http://photo.xanga.com/bharrington/e249b102901034/photo.htmlhttp://photo.xanga.com/bharrington/e249b102901034/photo.htmlhttp://photo.xanga.com/bharrington/e249b102901034/photo.htmlhttp://photo.xanga.com/bharrington/ed938102900970/photo.html http://photo.xanga.com/bharrington/ed938102900970/photo.html http://photo.xanga.com/bharrington/ed938102900970/photo.htmlhttp://photo.xanga.com/bharrington/ed938102900970/photo.html

    1  So...E. Howard Hunt walks into a bar...or did he?

    2 

    http://photo.xanga.com/bharrington/e249b102901002/photo.html http://photo.xanga.com/bharrington/e249b102901034/photo.html http://photo.xanga.com/bharrington/0b3bc102901545/photo.html http://photo.xanga.com/bharrington/0b3bc102901545/photo.html http://photo.xanga.com/bharrington/0b3bc102901545/photo.html http://photo.xanga.com/bharrington/0b3bc102901545/photo.html

    3  Hunt. CIA. JFK Murder. Tramps.

    4  If the guy who has three pictures on the left, above is the guy who has four pictures to the right, then this guy was probably a ringleader in the assassination of JFK.

    5  Three "tramps" were arrested, walked through Dealy Plaza, and released that day. Pictures were taken. The guy on the left is one of the three. The one on the right is E. Howard Hunt of the CIA.

    6  Hunt denied he was the tramp. Hunt was CIA. Hunt's name flies through three historical moments: the Bay of Pigs invasion, the JFK assassination, and Watergate.

    7  You really don't have to know too much about Hunt. You probably couldn't care less.

    8  Al Russell told me when we were very young that he always wanted to write a book about a guy who was young when JFK was shot, and who in his old age, kept shouting to nobody in paricular that there was a conspiracy in the death of JFK, and that it was an overthrow of the American government, and the people who took power are still in power. Doddering old fool.

    9  We had a goodly laugh back then.

    10  Time has proven that entire scenario to be absolutely right on the money.

    11  I have become that doddering old fool.

    12  Well, Mr. Hunt, may you rest in peace.

    13  But only if you really are dead.

    14  Moving On: I just had to move on because I didn't want to sound like a doddering old fool. I actually haven't moved on at all, but I thought it would be fun for you to THINK I had. It's that old CIA thing in me.

    http://photo.xanga.com/bharrington/9874b102903792/photo.html

    15  It so happens that I'm an agent.

    16  No one ever believes that. Perfect disguise.

    17  I know a thing or two about charades too.

    18  I have a spy disguise kit. Here's my fave:


    http://photo.xanga.com/bharrington/512a5102904007/photo.html

    19  Anywho, I cracked Hunt's code years ago.

    20  Well, Hunt's gone now, so I guess it won't hurt to blow his cover.

    21  Here are some of my favorite pictures of Hunt over the years:

    http://photo.xanga.com/bharrington/5a99f102903887/photo.htmlhttp://photo.xanga.com/bharrington/5a99f102903887/photo.htmlhttp://photo.xanga.com/bharrington/5a99f102903887/photo.html

    http://photo.xanga.com/bharrington/8f7d2102904033/photo.html

    http://photo.xanga.com/bharrington/f318d102903982/photo.html


    http://photo.xanga.com/bharrington/02bb6102903935/photo.html


    http://photo.xanga.com/bharrington/a5a67102903906/photo.html

    http://photo.xanga.com/bharrington/24571102904083/photo.html

    http://photo.xanga.com/bharrington/a8a6e102904430/photo.html

    http://photo.xanga.com/bharrington/22d09102903955/photo.html

    http://photo.xanga.com/bharrington/6a384102904465/photo.html

    http://photo.xanga.com/bharrington/033ca102903828/photo.htmlhttp://photo.xanga.com/bharrington/033ca102903828/photo.htmlhttp://photo.xanga.com/bharrington/033ca102903828/photo.htmlhttp://photo.xanga.com/bharrington/033ca102903828/photo.html


    http://photo.xanga.com/bharrington/f88b1102901626/photo.html    



    So long Howie, we hardly knew ye.





    ~H~
    http://photo.xanga.com/bharrington/5d3a6102905686/photo.html http://photo.xanga.com/bharrington/5d3a6102905686/photo.html http://photo.xanga.com/bharrington/cdb52102905712/photo.htmlhttp://photo.xanga.com/bharrington/5d3a6102905686/photo.htmlhttp://photo.xanga.com/bharrington/5d3a6102905686/photo.html


     
     

    http://photo.xanga.com/bharrington/d91de102905960/photo.html


     
     
     
     
     
     
     

     
     

     

     

     

  • The Daily News
     
    The Mamas and the Papas. L. to R.
    Denny Doherty, Cass Elliot,
    Michelle Phillips, John Phillips.

    1  All the leaves are brown...

    2  So...Denny Doherty walks into a bar...

    3  California Dreamin' indeed.

    4  There's not even a Mama nor a Papa alive anymore. Only a Mrs. Papa.

    5  Of the Mama's and the Papa's, Denny Doherty, Cass Elliot, and John Phillips have all walked into a bar.

    6  So it goes.

    7  What a fun group they were. Are. I always seem to have trouble using the past tense when talking of the bar goers, because I just figure they're all somewhere better, chillin'.

    8  Anyway, Denny Doherty passed away on Friday, Friday.

    9  M'bad.

    10  Moving On: Well now, I just finished writing around 17 more items and was all ready to turn in when I pushed some button and everything up after #9 disappeared.

    11 It's okay, because I just went off on a ramble about football and about how much I like Jeff Garcia and all. There aren't too many guys I've met named Garcia that I didn't like, or even worship.


    12  I liked Jerry Garcia. Still do, because I guess I still think of him as alive. Every time I play a Garcia song I can feel the spirit. Jerry's definitely still here. The fun thing about Jerry Garcia is that Deadheads all refer to him as Jerry, like we all know the guy personally. He's that sort of guy. What an amazing human being.



    13  I really like our repro guy, Pedro Garcia. What a great name. The guy is way mellow and friendly. He's going to Camp Everytown, and is perfect. He also does incredible work, just like most guys named Garcia.

    14  And of course, I like Jeff Garcia because he's a local boy who has been knocked down nine times and has gotten up eighteen. He lost both siblings, and got busted for having a good time after a night of debauchin' at Mission Ale House, our only town bar that even comes close to what Chico State was like.

    15  Moving On: What, you thought I went to Boikeley? Any guy who has a job that is dedicated to seeing people have fun isn't going to have gone to Boikeley.

    16  Nah, I went to Chico. Loved it. Chico's claim to fame is that the 1938 Adventures of Robin Hood with Errol Flynn and Basil Rathbone was filmed in the lush and lovely Bidwell Park, one of my favorite places in this world and into the next.


    B/W shot of lush Bidwell Park aka Sherwood Forest.

    17  It's second claim to fame is the immortal Madison Bear Gardens.

    18  Fun place, that's for sure.

    19  Moving on: I'm finding it extremely difficult not to be boring today. It's January. I should have been a bear. I'll just keep coming back to that.
     
    20  So this is the second time around anyway. I earned my keep.

    21  Well, sorry about no DN yesterday. We had a day off. Semester Break. Some break. We all wind up with glue brain and staple cuts from two days of cursing at human stupidity. We grade finals. Not a good time to bring up the spanking debate. Some teachers at this time of the year don't want to see the kids getting spanked. They want to see them hurled off the Golden Gate Bridge.

    22  I better go. Now would be a great time

    23  Give the Mamas and Papas some thought today. Sing California Dreamin', just because.

    24  Great song, fun times.

    25  Dream a little dream.

    26  Peace.
    ~H~










     

  • The Daily News


     
    1  Ah, right when I thought I could avoid talking about American Idol again, it appears everywhere.

    2  To begin, Paula Abdul's sloshy opening night didn't go unnoticed. It was picked up on all the sound-byte news shows and radios, as well as a dripping piece by Charlie McCollum in yesterday's Merc.

    3  Charlie talked of Paula as "looking slightly looped..." and also went on to mention that ratings this year were up 5 per cent over last season. One of those tabloid shows brought that figure up to 10 per cent, and it supposedly climbed as the evenings progressed.

    4  Rosie O' Donnel, the self-absorbed Madam Mim of talk shows, was right on the money when she talked of American Idol parading mentally-challenged people in front of the cameras and abusing them.


    5  Methinks La Rozeee' doth protest too much.

    6  She would appear to be one of the most mentally-challenged people in the star-gazers universe. She was horrified that American Idol would make fun of people's appearances. 

    7  The same woman who refers to Donald Trump as "The Comb Over". 

    8  Yeesh.

    9  I thought I did a capital job of keeping the entire Rosie/Donald Freak Show at bay. 

    10  I don't know about anyone else out there, but there is something terribly wrong in America.

    11  We spend our lives living in a world that is clearly designed by Rupert Murdoch and his cronies at Fox.

    12  Rupert is the guy who controls an outfit called News Corporation, which has a collection of captured rings including Fox, Fox Sports,20th Century Fox, TV Guide, Star TV, FX, Direct TV,  and perhaps his biggest prize, My Space.

    13  The Rupester is behind almost all of this glitz and glam that is our modern times.

    14  Here is a picture of the sexy Rupemeister. It's my personal favorite.



    15  Our entire existence seems to have his idiotic touch on it.

    16  It's like half the people walking around ought really to have a label that says "Brainwashed and Designed by Rupert Murdoch" on their ass.

    17  Ah, indeed. The Ugly American. Everywhere you turn. We're turning into a nasty, mean, ugly nation. I blame Rupie.



    18  As my old mates, the Rolling Stones would say, "Sad, Sad, Sad..."

    19  When did it all turn so horrid?

    20  The funny thing is, I find myself getting drawn into it all, as though anything on Entertainment Tonight is even remotely newsworthy. Do I really care that Lindsay Lohan is going into a clinic? Or that Barry Bonds is living in complete and total denial?

    21  We just love to hate these days.

    22  Rupert even plays a game on My Space where he makes people choose their favorite friends, in order. I just see him up there in whatever tower he sits in, combing My Space to see who dropped whom from their top 8. He probably has a group placing bets on friends.


    23  Voyeurism, my goodly friends, has become a parlour game, and we all want to play. We just wish to be left alone when we play it the most.

    24  Moving On: The University of Chicago has a periodical called the Bulletin of Atomic Scientist, which is most famous for moving the hands of the Doomsday Clock. The Doomsday Clock was created as a measure to how close we are to the end of the world. It's been as remote as a quarter to midnight, and as close as two minutes to midnight, midnight, of course, representing the end of the world.



    25  On Wednesday they moved the Doomsday Clock hands forward. On Tuesday it was seven minutes to midnight. It's now five minutes to midnight. Everybody is in a hateful feeding frenzy these days. It's darned well out of control, and all of us are somehow a part of the madness. I wonder if there's any correlation?




    26  As I wrote those words, the Teevee just started singing that grand oldie Give Me Just a Little More time by The Chairmen of the Board, now just a Slim Fast commercial blaring behind me, but what a cosmic act of synchronicity. I swear to you that just happened.

    27  When Pandora opened that box so many years ago, the last thing to emerge was Hope.

    28  I suddenly feel better about all of it.

    29  Deus ex machina. Daily News e-mailees got this one misspelled as "Deux ex machina" this morning. Good ol' Geoff caught it in the midst of a severe attack of insomnia due in large part to some life swine nibbling at his life. I also began re-numbering after number 4. 
     
    30 Anyway, it means "God from the machine", a reference to miracles that come in at the end of plays, or in this case, hope coming in at the end of a depressing go of it in the DN. The doomsday clock almost began singing. Give me just a little more time. Well placed coincidence, that's all. Couldn't ask for better.
     
    31 Deus ex machina. It comes to us from the Greeks. So did Pandora. But you gotta love the coincidence.

    32  Things like that just make me smile.

    33  Give me just a little more time. 

    34  Look up and smile.

    35 Someone is smiling back, with a sunny wink.

    36  Whew.

    37  We can all breathe again.

    38  Peace.

    ~H~



     





  • The Daily News



    1  Here's something.

    2  I like January.

    3  You'd think that it would be something I wouldn't like. But when you look deeper into it, there are good things. The sugary after-effects of the holidays seep out of my being, and I slowly settle into the thought that I was originally meant to be a bear. I can sleep at the drop of a hat, or even of a feather. I could drop off anywhere in a whisper.




    4  And finally, I have an entire new year staring at me, challenging me to just try to mess with it. I might lift my head to think of that for around a second, and then fall back into a wondrous slumber.

    5  And yet, I like it.

    6  January to me is more of a break than all the major holidays put together. For a teacher, it's especially nice.

    7  Think about it. Finals give us three straight days of nothing but long, quiet stretches to get a stream of work done, and long afternoons of glorious, dreamlike tedium.

    8  Yesterday I spent the entire day getting done what I couldn't get done in the entire month of December, and partially November.

    9  And those months are spent running about, eating, buying things, visiting, drinking, eating, buying things, eating, drinking, visiting, partying, resting, driving, buying things, drinking, visiting, driving, eating...you get the idea. By the time the New Year arrives, it's like this huge hangover from a macabre Mardi Gras.

    10  And then we dread January. We dread the first week back from all of that. We feel that we have rested and that now we must return to work, or to school, or to whatever it is we spent our lives normally doing.

    11  But January comes in on a tacky ball drop in New York, and all the hoopla that defines us all as grotesque American Idiots,     and then it goes away like a fool's smile . The first day back to our routine is a dreaded time.

    12  In a short period of time, we find ourselves back into a less stressful and much more serene normalcy, where work or school becomes our everyday lives once more, and we begin to re-enter a more normal routine.




    13  In teaching, we get those long periods of sweet silence, followed by long afternoons, and we even get back-to-back three-day weekends with no hoopla attached. We can sip tea and listen to some calm music. We can carry on a normal conversation instead of shouting our conversations in order to keep on top of the occasion.

    14  Everything slows down. Storms come, but they go away, leaving our familiar sky with puffy clouds and a sweet sun that comes in and warms our faces and our souls.

    15  It's just a nice month.



    16  And it's followed by February, also a sweet month. Short. Hints of Spring. Groundhogs. And for us in education, another week off, only this one with no strings.

    17  I always welcomed January. When I directed shows, January was always the month of rest. No shows, no auditions, just afternoons to spend at Starbuck's, or with family or friends, but without all the demands and insanity of the holidays.

    18  It's a time to reflect, to breathe, and to come alive again.

    19  It's just nice.

    20  It's a great month for hugs.

    21  Hug someone. You'll see what I mean.

    22  That's about it. I need to lumber back into my cave for a well-earned sleep.

    23  Sleepy time.

    24  Have a drowsy day.

    25  Peace.

     ~H~






  • The Daily News



    1  They're baaaaack.

    2  Well, how much more of this can America take?

    3  As always, I watched the first edition of American Idol, an annual ritual that has suddenly taken hold in my life. Unlike a lot of people, I get a kick out of some of the early moments each season.

    4  I'm not sure WHY I enjoy it, but I've noticed that music teachers as a whole absolutely love the early days of American Idol. I don't consider myself a music teacher proper by any means, but I've certainly been at the table watching people audition, sing, play, etc. And some of my best friends ARE music teachers. And yes, they tend to love American Idol.

    5  I think part of the reason that we performing arts sorts enjoy it is that we often need to nurture the egos and hurt feelings of people who can't face their own shortcomings as performers.

    6  I recall quite a few moments with talent show auditions in particular when I had to leave my reading glasses outside the Theatre lest they should crack.

    7  So it might just be the vicarious fun of watching someone with much less heart dealing with those sorts that draws me to American Idol. Of course, we are in the business of trying to take some of the more challenging talents, and then teaching, cajoling, and supporting them so that they are able to perform better, but it can be a lot of work requiring a lot of patience.

    8  And yes, we have moments where we wish we could say the sorts of things one hears coming out of the mouths of Mssrs. Randy and Simon, but really, we just can't.

    9  Music teachers seem to really enjoy the show because they KNOW what it takes to get good, and it takes hard work, long hours, practice, and yes, a little talent as well.

    10  When those people fall down crying and all, it's evident that they are angry not at Simon or at Randy, but at themselves for not being properly prepared. Or perhaps they have come dreadfully close to something deeper going on in their lives. Maybe we just enjoy watching the tears and fears because we have somehow survived one more day in life without having to face our own deepest fears. And maybe that's why we enjoy American Idol. Is that goin' too deep? There but by the graces...

    11  Ah, it's a great escape. There are times in life when a little escape is a good thang. Let's just keep it at that.

    12  There was a brief moment last night when it looked as though Paula had a bottle of Captain Morgan under the desk. It goes pretty well with Coke, evidently. She seemed a bit out of it. With some of those beasts and bears who were screaming, I can perhaps see how she could be driven to it. But really, at some point we simply must ask, "How much more of this can we take?"

    13  I wonder what the under is on amount of weeks before she walks out?

    14  Anyway, I guess  if nothing else, one could easily say that American Idol is a perfect bridge between football season and baseball season. If you don't follow basketball, this is the next best thing, a perfectly nice way to pass time...

    15  Moving on: I stumbled into this store called LIDS yesterday, a hat store, to be sure. Don't know why, but the guy behind the counter said I looked like a hat guy.

    16  Musta been the hat.

    17  The baseball hats were in, and already I began to smile. Okay, so it's January. Okay, so there are scandals going on. I can't help it; I love baseball.

    18  Yesterday I received an e-mail from the new baseball coach. Frankly, I can't even remember his name, or even what he wanted. I just remember that when I left for the day, the sun was shining, and I had already begun to think about baseball season.

    19  As a Giants' fan, I have a lot of trouble trying to even think of Barry Zito in a Giants' uniform, and I feel pretty sheepish around my A's friends, but I guess that's the nature of the game. 

    20  I actually bought TWO new baseball caps. One of them I popped on my head immediately, and the other stayed in the bag. The one I popped on was the Giants' pre-season hat, the one with a G on the front. It's too small, but it was the only size they had. I didn't even care. I just shoved it down so it fit and then I broke into a big smile. My hat was smooshed, hair stumbling all over my clumsy ears, and my sunglasses glistened despite their smudges. But I smiled pleasantly anyway. All was baseball. All was hope. 

    21  The sun shone on the hood of the Toooondra as I drove myself home.

    22  There's just something that gives you strength when you think baseball.

    23  Call it a reassurance, I don't know.

    24  I just know that it is familiar, and that it always brings a smile. Baseball fans know exactly what I'm talking about.

    25  Life happens.

    26  And then there's the game.

    27  Peace.

    ~H~


     

     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     

     

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