"Here Comes the Rain Again"

14 March 2017:

"Here comes the rain again
Falling on my head like a memory
Falling on my head like a new emotion
I want to walk in the open wind
I want to talk like lovers do
I want to dive into your ocean
Is it raining with you?"

Yes, a weird song to use for the daily entry on a snow day, but it came on the radio today and well, I had forgotten how good it is. Plus, the rain is mostly a metaphor, right?

Spring Break and the storm is approaching...

13 March 2017: "Sometimes when I'm on my own I get like very...ummm...I don't know if it's like depressive or like existential...I go from zero to existential very quickly." --Aparna Nancherla on this episode of The Hilarious World of Depression.

This one hit close to home today, the first full day of Spring Break with this big stupid snow storm approaching. Not looking forward to being snow-bound.

Incidentally, I've blogged about this podcast before. It really is so good and I can't believe I'd fallen behind on listening to it. I also listened to the Jen Kirkman episode today and it is great.

Feud

12 March 2017:

"Jack Palance and Lee Marvin would have never pulled this shit."

"They didn't have to. They're men."

"Well that makes them half as cunning and nowhere near as ruthless." --Robert Aldrich (a fictional version, of course) talking with his wife, in episode two of Feud, discussing how difficult it is to work with two powerful women.

Look: this is Ryan Murphy show, so it's all sorts of over the top, including this little exchange. But I've just spent a couple of hours working on an article about teaching my women's studies class and student after student is making the same argument in their essays. There's some real truth there and it made me laugh to hear it come up just as I finished typing up my latest pages.

"Gray or Blue"

11 March 2017:

"And I'm winning you with words because I have no other way
I'd love to look into your face without your eyes turnin away
Last night I watched you sing because a person has to try
And I walked home in the rain because a person cannot lie" --JayMay, "Gray or Blue"

"Afternoon Happiness"

10 March 2017:

"Much as I want to gather a lifetime thrift
And craft, my cunning skills tied in a knot for you,
There is only this useless happiness as gift." --Carolyn Kizer, "Afternoon Happiness"

I heard this poem today as I caught up on the "Poetry Off the Shelf" podcast on my way home today. It's funny and sweet and just lovely. Read the whole thing here.

There's an idea..

9 March 2017: "We should put in a second toilet!" --my four-year old niece, Krista,  making her own renovation recommendation after learning about the convenience of double-sinks. This reflects, no doubt, her great desire to spend as much time as possible with her mother. Hilarious and adorable. Erin said, "I think she has this picture in mind of us sitting there together, holding hands."

Come for the opening laugh; stay for the creepy doll...

8 March 2017: “I frankly would appreciate it if every time I left the house, people just handed me business cards that said ‘you’re doing okay.’ I don’t think that’s too much to ask of the world.” –Mallory Ortberg, aka “Dear Prudence” on this week’s “Dear Prudence Podcast.”

This morning as I was walking to my office with my earbuds in, the line above made me laugh out loud and I thought “maybe that’s the listening post for today.” But then I thought, “It’s kind of early—not even 8:30. Maybe something else will come up?” And today was been a good day, I think. Lots of high notes and not many bad ones, but this is still maybe my favorite manageable (short) thing I heard today, so it wins.

Give the whole episode a listen. There’s a very funny bit at the end about a creepy doll.

"Everybody"

7 March 2017: 

"Happy is the heart that still feels pain

Darkness drains and light will come again

Swing open up your chest and let it in

Just let the love, love, love begin..." --Ingrid Michaelson, "Everybody"

A strange but good day. This song just came on Pandora and I am just kind of feeling these lyrics. 

These wonderful ENGL 301 students...

6 March 2017: "Oh good, because that's the stuff I like to geek out over!" --yet another wonderful student in my ENGL 301 class, excited because after looking at a draft of her paper, I encouraged her to do more close textual analysis of how the poem she was writing about employed paradox and ambiguity. This is normally the stuff you have to push students to do.

Look, I realize that I keep writing about this particular class (especially lately), but they continue to impress the heck out of me.

"Guilty"

5 March 2017:

"Is it a sin?
Is it a crime?
Loving you dear like I do?
If it's a crime then I'm guilty
Guilty of loving you."
-Victoria Vox, "Guilty"

Just feeling this song lately. It's simple and lovely and made me smile and sigh today.

Ten Years of Storycorps Griot

4 March 2017: "I think I take you for a bunch of reasons. One is so that you can see what it looks like when people come together. But also that you understand that it's not just about people that are familiar to you but it's about everybody....If you decide to be a cab driver, then you've got to be the most impactful cab driver that you can possibly be." --Albert Sykes, to his son Aidan Sykes, after Aidan asked "Why do you take me to so many protests?"

This Storycorps interview had me laughing, smiling, and tearing up while I listened to it on my walk today. It is part of a larger episode celebrating ten years of Storycorps' collaboration with Griot. Give the whole thing a listen. It's so worth it.

Albert & Aiden Sykes from StoryCorps on Vimeo.

That's actually a pretty good example...

3 March 2017: "Like how I want to work out but I also like chicken nuggets?" --a student in my ENGL 301 class today as I was doing my best to explain a concept key to deconstruction--that we are all fields of competing identities and ideologies.

Here at Shepherd, we are all somewhat gracefully stumbling towards Spring Break--with a week to go. This kind of comment from a student (which is, I think, a kind of perfect example of that battlefield of conflicting identities, by the way) is going to to help us get there. These kids are pretty amazing.

"Bell Theory"

I really like this poem. That's all.

Compassion and common sense aligning...

2 March 2017: "He's a child, simply looking for his place in the world. Do we really not have the simple decency to allow him at least that? Because it seems to me it's the very least we can do." --Texas sports announcer Dale Hansen on Mack Beggs, the transgender wrestler who wasn't allowed to wrestle with boys.

Based on this and the statement he made a couple of years ago about Michael Sam, I am going to call this dude a freakin' hero.

They Call Me Q

1 March 2017: "When I brought home a 98 on a test, my mother would say, 'What happened to the other two points?'" --Qurrat Ann Kadwani, in her play, They Call Me Q. 

As someone whose mother frequently asked me what happened to those "other two points," I knew from the moment Kadwani spoke those words that I was going to be hanging on her every word. This is a terrific show, well worth your time if you get a chance to see it.