March 18, 2010
-
The Daily News
1 Hope all of you had a safe and wonderful St. Patrick’s Day!2 I called my Dad last night, because he’s, well, Irish.
3 My sisters were visiting. When I talked to my Dad, they sent this message: “What does “Erin Go Brogh” mean?
4 I SWEAR to you! I know every other culture’s salutations, New Years’ celebrations, cultural dishes, and all the rest, but for the LIFE of me I didn’t know what “Erin Go Brogh” meant.
5 I laughed, and told my Dad, “I’m taking the high road, Dad!”
6 Even HE didn’t know, and he is closer than I to the entire cultural thing.
7 Well, we Googled it, and it is simply a salute to Ireland. It technically means, “Ireland Forever!” and I was amazed that I had no idea of that.
8 So now you know.
9 I ventured a guess originally: I told them that I thought “Erin Go Brogh” was the first round draft pick for the Green Bay Packers.
10 They’re a football team.
11 Sorry.
12 Some people think that Green Bay was a rock band.
13 Uh, dude.
14 No?
15 Moving on, Part the First: Yesterday another teacher approached me and asked if I might want to perform today at lunch for a school fundraiser for the Genocide Intervention Network, an organization that is trying to help countries that are suffering from genocide and tyranny. I said I would, so suddenly I may be performing at lunch today. The student version of this is known as STAND. Here is their website if you would like to learn more, or to donate:
16 I didn’t join originally because it was all coming at me too fast, and I had grading and other things going on. They are having teachers shave their heads, engage in food-eating contests, and do lip-sync bits. One guy’s going to grow a mohawk if he raises so much money, that sort of thing.17 Anyway, we hustled a buncha musicians into a portable and jammed to the Doors Roadhouse Blues, Light My Fire, and ironically, Pink Floyd’s The Wall. I worked on a few more numbers with a colleague after school, so we might also throw in Riverside by America, possibly Ventura Highway, and definitely Your Song, if needed during a changeover.
18 I’m guessing they’ll have to shorten the set to just one, and I’m thinking that Roadhouse Blues will be the one, since it has a student singing and playing guitar, and another student playing keyboards, with three teachers backing it up on guitars and drums. I’ll play acoustic, as always, but it is fun.19 Your Song was our best number, because I’ve played it a billion times, but amazingly, Ventura Highway, a request by my colleague, sounded pretty good. I think it was because yesterday was an amazingly beautiful day, and Ventura Highway is SUCH a nice day song! Riverside followed beautifully, just a coastal, sunny romp with an upside-down chord that always rocks, and some freewheelin’ strumming.
20 So I feel like a gunslinger walking into a town where I just know I’m ready for nearly anything. What’s fun about it is all of us jamming in various rooms. The two portables I worked in reminded me miraculously of good ol’ Peace 61 at YB, the Love Club.21 Returning to the Cathedral later in the day made me give thanks. I LOVE my own classroom. It is SO clean, airy, and beautiful I count my blessings every single day. And my amp is better than the ones we worked with, adding to all of it.
22 A great day though, which always seems to be the case when we raise money for good causes, something I’ve done throughout my career.
23 Hopefully nobody will make a You Tube, because this entire gig is equipment/people dependent. A lousy microphone, or lousy mixing could REALLY sound horrible. So we’ll just have to see. A lot of my friends are going to go out there and eat food, shave heads, dye hair, lip-synch a Lady Gaga tune (!) so it’ll be an interesting event. I raised $65 yesterday by simply passing my hat around to my classes, and I’ll raise much more today. Other teachers have raised up to $500 each, so it’s a good cause. I just didn’t know enough about it last week, or I might have done more.
24 I told my students there are three things I won’t do: I won’t dance, I won’t take a pie, and I won’t grow a mohawk…
25 Took them a minute too.
26 Aight then. It’s 5 a.m. I’m gonna finish up here and then see if I can catch a catnap before I have to face all this fun!
27 Have a great day, and enjoy the beautiful weather.
28 Peace.
~H~
