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My Friend Meghan's Adventures in Africa
Thursday Jan 27, 2005 - Link to Entry
For those of you who remember the good ol' San Francisco days, you should also fondly remember my roommate Meghan. Well Meghan, out of the seemingly endless goodness of her heart, has opted to teach for Africa after already dedicating two years to the same aims but for our nation. Recently I received a letter from her that I felt not only gave great insights to the life of a foreigner living in a third world nation, but also showed a wonderful dark humor -- the best way to survive the tougher times. Without further ado, I present to you, Meghan's letter:
"Hello all,
Just a quick Guinea update. I’ll actually try to make it somewhat quick this time, as I’ve begun to realize that I have a tendency to write long-winded compositions. First things first, change of address. I am changing my address (and my name), as the corruption within the postal system here is becoming more and more evident. Everyone I talk to who actually receives mail in Guinea pays off the post office. But my organization does not recognize that this is necessary, despite the well-known fact that when the postal workers get tired, they throw mail in the trash or just take it. I find it amusing to think of a bunch of disgruntled Guinean postal workers sitting around watching Mean Girls and listening to the Garden State Soundtrack. So anyway, here it is, new address, new Guinean name, we’ll see how things go:
Mariama Diallo
IFESH / Professor d’Anglais
Centre Universitaire de Labé
BP 210
Labé, GUINEE
West Africa
In other news, the teachers have been on strike here since my return. They are paid 120,000 Guinea Francs a month, which is the equivalent of about $33 a month. So they were striking to get more money, which the government insists doesn’t exist, but I have a feeling if top officials required a little less bling-bling to be content, the country could pay its teachers a livable wage. In the meantime, since I’ve been unemployed, I’ve been doing a lot of English lessons from home with my students, exploring the town a bit more, and playing copious amounts of Scrabble (thank you, Annemarie… everyone loves it). It sounds like they’ve negotiated some things now, so work should start up again next week. Thursday is Tabaski, which is a holiday that involves a lot of sheep killing and eating. Looking forward to it. I hope all is well in your neck of the woods.
Love,
Meghan"
The woman has changed her name, is out of work due to a strike, and is thoroughly looking forward to the sheep killing holiday of Tabaski. That's awesome!
The New Adventures of Flat Stanley
Tuesday Jan 25, 2005 - Link to Entry
Recently in the mail I received a very large envelope containing the following items: a letter, another envelope, and a 4 foot tall paper cut out named Flat Stanley.
The letter reads:
"Dear Jeremy,
I am sending you my Flat Stanley that I drew in my Kindergarten class. Mrs. Morrow, my kindergarten teacher, read us a story about Flat Stanley one day. Flat Stanley was laying in his bed one night when the bulletin board fell off his wall and flattened him out. Being flat as a pancake, he can go and do the most interesting things. I am mailing him to you, and I would like you to take care of him while he visits you at your home He needs to spend some time with you and have some fun while he is there. Please take some pictures and tell me what you and Flat Stanley did while he was visiting. Please make a photo booklet for my class to see with captions under each picture. If Flat Stanley happened to get any souvenirs while he was with you, please send them with him in the brown envelope. Send Flat Stanley and any pictures etc., back to my school by the last week in February. My teacher has enclosed an extra big brown envelope so Flat Stanley can be mailed back to me at my school. Fold him up neatly so he can arrive at my school safely. Now don't forget to send him back on tim ewith lots of memories of the time he spent with you. I can't wait for Flat Stanley and the booklet [to] arrive at school. We get to show the class all the interesting things he did while visiting you. We are going to look at them in class and display them at Open Huose. I hope Flat Stanley has fun! Take good care of him. It will be so much fun when he arrives at school. I hope you and Flat Stanley have fun together.
Love,
Sara"
First off I can't believe I needed to add a word to make sense of the 7th to last sentence. Shame...
Secondly...Wow! I've got Flat Stanley for a month and I'll be damned if I don't try my hardest to make little Sara's Stanley have the absolute coolest month of them all.
Problem though. The Flat Stanley she sent me doesn't seem to understand that he's for a kindergarten project. He desperately wants to party and cruise chicks, although he said something about Tom Cruise being a hottie so I think he may be open to folding both ways. Anyway, I've decided in this situation my flat visitor and I can have our cake and eat it too.
In the upcoming month I will be taking young Stanley everywhere including a wedding/bachelor party this weekend in Miami, jury duty next month, my show, work, all the sites, on dates, and more. Since some of these exploits will unfortunately not be age appropriate for the young uns of McAllen, TX, Stanley and I will post them here.
So if I can manage not to accidentally rip him, as he is quite large and quite fragile, Flat S-dogg will have his Kindergarten adventures and his secret double life fufilled in a month's time.
Smooth Sailing
Wednesday Jan 19, 2005 - Link to Entry
Why do we find it so difficult to take the time out to reflect on life when life is going well? Why do I find it so difficult to savour life when nothing in it is seemingly sour? Do I really prefer climbing mountains to cruise control?
Discipline is an art. The greatest child of said art is productivity. But routine, discipline's preferred avenue of enforcement, can oft be the death of creativity. If I forced myself to write a song right now this very moment, I dare suggest that it would be a mediocre or worse yet a piece of crap song.
I love commas. If you ever find yourself declaring that same love be sure to ennunciate. You wouldn't want to anger folks. Anyway, commas. I'm never sure I'm using them properly. I mean when we were younger we were taught all these crazy rules but then our teachers had us read tons of books and poems that just followed their own rules. I mean between ee cummings and William Faulkner, I just don't know what the hell to do with my punctuation any more.
Back to the smooth seas discussion, or I suppose monologue since its just me in here. When telling the story of my life usually people offer sincere condolences on my various losses. And almost like an automatic response I explain that if it hadn't been for the bad times there may have been no good.
I believe life is 100% about perspective. There are a million ways to look at any one situation and you can always choose a positive one. This is not an easy thing to do. One must first have perspective which I believe comes from either suffering pain or empathising and understanding the hurt of others. With that frame of reference you can see the good in anything. Without the sour we wouldn't know the sweet.
Alot of new things are going on in my life right now. Most of them work related and a some social...All of them wonderful. None of which I can discuss here for now. I will bring them to your attention when the time is right. For now I'm just going to focus on enjoying the wind in my hair instead of seeking out my next mountain.
I didn't use spellcheck....how did I do critical ones?
Jury Duty
Monday Jan 17, 2005 - Link to Entry
Is it strange that I was excited when I found a Jury Summons in my mailbox late last week? I have jury eligible for over 6.5 years and everyone I know seemingly has had the opportunity to at least be interviewed as a potential juror. Well it seems my big day has come.
The week of St. Valentine's day is my potential report time. I, of course, do not actually want to be selected to serve on a jury unless we are talking a really short trial. I've got my own stuff to do, ya know? Beyond that I don't exactly think that I'm the even keel straight shooting perspective that would be ideal in a juror. Courtroom decisions are so black and white, and I believe in shades of grey when it comes to the multi-layered onion of truth.
I'd like to speculate what kind of questions the attorneys might grill me with to determine my eligibility... The following is a short one act play discussing the aforementioned scenario.
State Prosecutor: Do you for any reason believe that you cannot serve on this jury?
Me (the 9th Juror): Well. Nothing I can really think of. Juror 7 is kind of a dick but after the way you grilled him I don't think he's gonna make the cut.
State Prosecutor: Juror number 9, would you have any problem convicting a defendant of 1st degree murder?
Me: I suppose not.
State Prosecutor: What if the weapon in question was a gun?
Me: Well, I suppose I'd blame the gun manufacturer.
State Prosecutor: The manufacturer?
Me: Well yes, or perhaps the defendants parents for creating him. Without them there would have been no murder. Without the gun, no murder. Is it really the defendants fault?
Fin.
I just don't think I'm jury material. But I'll try my best to help our justice system because I love it so.
My iPod and Me
Sunday Jan 16, 2005 - Link to Entry
Newly acquired is my favorite gadget ever, my iPod. My lil' izzle Podizzle has opened my life to so many new and wonderful things. Instead of having to choose a single album to try to fight through a tough workout I now have the luxury of every song I own accompanying me down to the gym. I can start things up with the Blackeyed Peas, I can fight through the pain with Jimmy Eat World, and I can cool down with the coolest of cats, Coltrane. Well I'd have to acquire some Blackeyed Peas and Coltrane to go through the aforementioned process, but you get the point.
Also my iPod sings to me in the car making the never ending line of Los Angeles a bit more bareable. LA residents are more so now than ever finding themselves trapped behind millions of others just like them waiting for a chance to go home, or to sit at a restaurant, or to get into a movie theatre. Instead of talking outloud to myself I now have my iPod to sing me songs and tell me stories.
The final thing I love about my new friend is that it has a built in name that tune game. It will pick random samples of songs and give you five choices for the title of the song. As time ticks off the point value decreases and song titles begin to vanish. Its better than solitaire, thats for sure.
Well its time to go walk the iPod.
Phantom of the Opera
Thursday Jan 6, 2005 - Link to Entry
Last night I had the wonderful privilege of viewing what is now an additional nominee for my list of the best of ’04, The Phantom of the Opera. I thought that the show would really suffer the translation from stage to the silver screen and boy was I wrong. This film was visually stunning! Torch-lit underground catacombs, French cemeteries in the dead of winter, and huge operatic productions with the costumes to match were just a few pieces of the eye candy that this film was loaded with.
New meanings were also brought out by this version of Andrew Lloyd Webber’s classic work. Perhaps that would have something to do with the fact that I had not viewed it in over 10 years and I see things differently now, but I’d like to suggest that because it is such a HUGE production a lot of the subtler points get lost on stage.
Par example: I never got a sense that Christine loved the Phantom and was physically attracted to him back on the stage. But on the big screen her lust was quite apparent and added a new dimension of subtext to the film. Also, I always had trouble hearing exactly what they were talking about. I never really caught all of the back-story about Christine being orphaned and believing that the Phantom was her father’s spirit protecting her. This information amplified her inner conflict about her connection to the Phantom and made him less of a villain and more of an unfortunate victim.
Musical theatre, for better or worse, has been a big part of my life. Seeing this show that had meant so much to my mother changed the way I viewed it. As a result I heard the song, "Wishing you were Somehow Here Again" with completely different ears. This is the song Christine sings at the foot of her father’s grave. What a beautiful song! I must admit I got a bit teary eyed when I heard this stanza:
"All through the years, holding back tears.
Why can’t the past just die?"
I do have some criticisms for this film though. The sync during songs was often not even close. The lack of marriage between image and audio often detracted from the power of the songs and made me long for the theatre and the way the voices and music move through you and shake your core. Even in the most fantastic of moments in the film I was not swept up in the performances the way one is when experiencing the raw emotion of hearing it live. Also a few of the lines seemed cheesy especially by one character that seemed more like a porn star type than an Opera Chorus Girl.
"Wishing you were somehow hear again. Knowing we must say goodbye…"
You would have loved it Mom.
RainDream
Wednesday Jan 5, 2005 - Link to Entry
Rain poured down her window pane. So much precipitation this early in the season was rare but not unheard of. She found herself quite frustrated as she had recently had developed a strong craving for outdoor activities and was forced to at best be a spectator. She consoled herself by reflecting on the positives of her situation, one of which was the brilliantly coloured cloud filled sky that was bourne of this turbulent weather. Never before had she seen such vivid blues and greys.
But even the view would grow tired after some time. So she turned to television to numb her mind and pass the time. The station rested on MTV. Her favorite band Hoobastank played their world famous song of which she mouthed every word. She drifted into sleep.
It was raining in her sleep too. She was no longer imprisoned in her room. She found herself deep in the woods. The rain of the woods created a symphony quite different than that of the city. Leaves as cymbals, branches as timpani, the lake nearby as the brass section, the wind rustling through as the woodwinds obviously, and her footsteps as the bass drum. The air was clean, a taste she hadn't had in her lungs since she had packed up her every eartly possession four years ago in Winnamucca, Nevada.
A white rabbit hopped past. It smiled at her and sang like Beyonce. But as she tried to pet it, it hopped away. Remembering the story of Alice she decided NOT to follow the young woodland creature. She walked on.
After a few minutes she realized she was growing quite wet and tired. She rested against a tree. She could hear something muddled coming from within its bark. She pressed her ear up to the old oak's healthy coat. More clearly she could now hear the Jayro Best New Artist of 2004 Maroon 5. She found herself relieved that the song was NOT She Will be Loved. In fact your humble narrator was also relieved to find this to be the case.
She walked on and stopped at the side of the lake. All of the sudden she had an insatiable thirst. She leaned all the way down to the water and cupped her hands to bring just a little to her lips. The water was near freezing and it jolted her. Abandoning the plan she began to run. To where she didn't know. I was starting to suspect that she didn't realize she was dreaming.
The forrest floor crunching under her shoes began to sound lot like U2's horrendous new single Vertigo . It sounded like that because I told it to. Lucky for her, I had told her to like this song so it motivated her to run harder and faster than she ever had before.
She ran clear of the woods and found herself at the foot of her driveway. Soaked but still inspired and singing every word she marched up to her window and peaked in. Asleep in a chair she could see herself. Though completely passed out she could also see that her sleeping self was singing too.
She once again jolted but this time it was the real her and not the dream version. She looked at the TV to find Kelly Clarkson singing her heart out. She was unimpressed. She turned off the TV and watched as rain fell down her window pane. She then stood up grabbed a jacket and an umbrella and headed outside.
1st Annual Jayro Awards - Film
Monday Jan 3, 2005 - Link to Entry
Each and everyday I now live, eat, and breathe movies. Its just part of living in Los Angeles. Working in the "biz" only amplifies the cinematic presence in my life. That being said, in the past year I believe I went to the movies more than I ever have in any previous year. Unfortunately 2004 was probably not the best year to shell out so much cash out to the box office. Still there were some major highlights to this year.
The nominees for the best picture of 2004 Jayro:
- Kill Bill (both volumes - I don't want to use up two nominations)
- The Life Aquatic
- Sideways
- Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind
- The Village
And the winner of the 1st Annual Best Picture goes to
Sideways
Two middle aged men on a simple bachelor party adventure to California's beautiful wine country. You will not find more realistic and more pained characters from anything else this year. Paul Giamatti stars as the best man who is struggling to move on from a failed marriage while he tries to sell his novel to anyone who will publish it. Though I thought it impossible, his performance in Sideways is superior to his great showing in American Splendor. If you have not yet seen this film and you are interested in a piece that focuses so hard on character development that you actually can feel along with them without the usual cinematic aids like music and highly dramatic moments. Amazing.
2005 looks to be a great year for movies...Until then.
1st Annual Jayro's - Music
Sunday Jan 2, 2005 - Link to Entry
Hello and welcome to a legitimate two part entry. Today's entry will award a Jayro (the most covetted award ever offered from this web arena) for the following categories in regards to the Music of 2004:
- Best New Artist
- Best Song
- Best Album
Best New Artist
To be eligible for the Best New Artist category (and well all the other categories as well) I must have been made aware of your existence no earlier than January 1, 2004 and no later than Dec 31st of the same year. The following are the Jayro Nominees for Best New Artist of 2004.
- Keane
- Muse
- Maroon 5
- The Shins
And the winner of The Best New Artist Jayro Award is . . .
Maroon 5
Despite the fact that many feel they have outstayed their welcome, Maroon 5 has emerged as our new Matchbox 20. Don't think the similarity in name is simply coincidence. With their addictive hooks, this heavily Motown influenced Rock act is just getting started. Almost every track on their, Songs about Jane, is ready for radio play. Their vocalist, who I am told has the boyish good looks needed to front the modern day pop/rock act, has a voice that is often likened to Justin Timberlake. Don't let his sweet soft tones fool you. He writes so of the most sexually explicit lyrics you will hear this side of rap. With their very advanced and well engineered sound and their ability to back it up on the stage, I very proudly award my the first annual Best New Artist Jayro to Maroon 5.
Best Song
The following are the nominees for the Jayro Best Song of 2004.
- "Jesus of Suburbia" Green Day - American Idiot
- "Kill" Jimmy Eat World - Futures
- "Feelin' Way Too Damn Good" Nickelback - The Long Road
- "Daughters" John Mayer - Heavier Things
- "Time is Running Out" Muse - Absolution
- "Somewhere Only We Know" Keane - Hopes and Fears
- "Schadenfreude" Avenue Q - Avenue Q Soundtrack
And the winner of the Song of the Year Jayro award....
"Kill" by Jimmy Eat World
This beautiful up tempo ballad is one for the ages. I cannot get enough of its driving rhythm. It tells the story of the inner termoil of still being in love long after the relationship has gone sour. How it is so easy to know what to do but not being able to walk away. It is soft and melodic like a Beatles love song and yet has the punk rock energy of Weezer and the soul of an Elliot Smith tune. Congrats J.E.W.
Best Album
The following are the nominees for best album of 2004.
- Keane - Hopes and Fears
- Muse - Absolution
- Green Day - American Idiot
- Jimmy Eat World - Futures
- Lenny Kravitz - Baptism
- Maroon 5 - Songs for Jane
After thoroughly reviewing all of these albums and reading online criticisms I took into account the record's staying power in my musical consciousness, creativity, insight into both sound and emotion, and performance. And without a doubt I am now ready to declare the winner of the most sought after 1st annual Jayro Music Award, Album of the Year 2004 . . .
Lenny Kravitz and his newest release Baptism
He softened his hair and his rockstar image suggesting a rebirth but this album is anything but. Lenny builds upon his strong foundation in rock with an album full of beautifully crafted and creative songs. Filled with addictive bass lines, counter melodies that would make the Beatles proud, and simply profound song structure and lyrics, Baptism is the culmination of many many hard years of writing and becoming one of the top musicians of today. He can play guitar like Hendrix, sing like Bono, and write like Lennon. For Beatles fans, rock fans, even old school R & B fans, this album is an absolute must. Kravitz lets us in to take a peak at what its like to be an eccentric rocker who is never far from the tabloids. He lets us stick around to hear about how and what and whom he loves. And he sends us off with one of the prettiest songs you'll hear this year, "Destiny." Congratulations Mr. Kravitz.
Thus concludes the first annual Music Jayro's...Come back tomorrow to see the Film awards.