The Hunsblog

Plus, exposing millions of viewers to the music of Grizzly Bear is a wonderful thing!

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The Smashing Pumpkins– Stray Cat Blues

This is not a pet.

One of the interesting things that I am discovering about my new neighborhood is that it seems to be stray cat central. Not that they’re really causing any trouble, I just know one of these days I’m going to accidently run over one with my car.

At least I won’t be able to complain about a rodent problem anytime soon. 

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Simon and Garfunkel – At the Zoo

Wow. Tired. But Simon and Garfunkel is great “tired” music. Mellow enough to be relevant, yet upbeat and quirky enough to avoid the pitfall of exhaustion turning into despair.

Prior to about 2004,  my only exposure to S&G were the poppy, yet overplayed tracks they would play on oldies and (sometimes) classic rock radio. Tracks like Mrs. Robinson, Scarborough Fair, and The Sounds of Silence. And every now and then, while sitting in the waiting room of my dentist’s office, the strains of Bridge Over Troubled Water would emanate through the muzak speakers.

Yet, in the winter of 2004, I saw the film Garden State, which, in addition to being a fantastic film, featured an incredible soundtrack, one tune of which was Simon and Garfunkel’s The Only Living Boy in New York. I’d never heard that track before (it rarely receives any radio play) and it was amazing.

Quite soon after, I started listing to Bookends, the album from which many of these classic songs are taken from. It’s perfect for now, a slow Wednesday afternoon, as my body is screaming “SLEEP!” but my things to do is declaring otherwise.

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Cornbread – Panama

Just because you CAN play “Eruption”, doesn’t mean you SHOULD; particularly when your audience is entirely comprised of restaurant patrons who are expecting nothing more than a bit of ambient folk music.

Yep, at a Mexican restaurant last night, one of the fairly inebriated diners asked the performing guitarist if he could play a song. MISTAKE #1.

Fortunately, the patron had already had several beers, otherwise there’s no way he would have actually gone up. MISTAKE #2.

Brilliantly, the diner/musician decided to “wow” the crowd with a tune that was moderately out-of-genre for the evening….80s metal. MISTAKE #3.

Perhaps not surprisingly, once the “performance” began, it became clear that no one in the room could play “Eruption”, including the only person in possession of the tool actually capable of making it happen. MISTAKE #4.

Fortunately, the restaurant food was superb enough to more than make up for the audio foux pas. So like I said, just because you CAN, doesn’t mean you SHOULD (especially when, in reality, you CAN’T).

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What is going on here????

Yes, that’s right; he’s playing Duck Hunt.

Yes, that’s right; he’s using a mirror to, like a banked basketball shot, shoot the ducks at an angle.

Yes, that’s right; it’s a Disney Princess mirror.

Oh the fun we have during the school lunch period!

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Lady Gaga vs. Journey – Just Stop Believing

‘Nuff said (or heard)?

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E.L.O. – Mr. Blue Sky

Sun is shinin’ in the sky
There ain’t a cloud in sight
It’s stopped rainin’ ev’rybody’s in a play
And don’t you know
It’s a beautiful new day hey,hey

It’s now the rainy season in southern California, and while in past years I’ve certainly experienced the occasional downpour, and perhaps even the occasional system (i.e. two or more, like equations et. al.) of storms. Yet nothing in my past 5+ years in Los Angeles have been like this past whole week, where it has been raining, pouring, and even hailing, since Monday. Five straight days of this madness has been simply incredible and upon ending the week, I simply found myself literally exhausted, which I completely attribute to the weather (I’m sure teaching middle school has nothing to do with it).

What was really interesting was to see how quickly my kids adapted to the weather. Usually, when it rains, the kids (who, in our mostly open campus, are literally outside during lunch or between classes) go nuts, getting themselves soaked in the downpour, making the concept of “solving linear systems of equations by substitution” a bit challenging. Yet, by about Wednesday, as the rains continued, the kids definitely chilled out a bit (perhaps because the novelty of being cold and wet had worn off), making our classroom experience much more pleasant. Yay!

Yesterday, after school I counted an L.A. first for myself. Talking with a colleague in the parking lot, I noticed my breath, which, while invisible in the southern California climate for the previous 5 years, now became abundantly clear. I could see my breath, something that has never before been possible.

Now as today has significantly brightened up, the view of the mountains is amazing (I can see snow caps from Wilshire Blvd.), and I’m looking forward to a pretty green winter

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Spoon – Written In Reverse

I’m a math teacher, which means that I have an innate sense of lame jokes, to which I regularly subject my students. Last week, I was harping on my students that they really need to have their textbooks covered (typically with a paper grocery bag), even trying to tantalize them with the fact that a covered textbook can be drawn on and designed with any sorts of cool art and designs! I then seamlessly entered into lame-joke mode where I suggested that they could even draw a picture of their math teacher on the front of the cover.  Most students audibly groaned, whereupon  I laughed and offered the prospect of extra credit for any student who did just that. I then quickly moved on to the other announcements for the day and taught the lesson (systems of equations).

You can imagine how surprised I was when I came into class yesterday and one of my students, K*******, had done exactly what I have facetiously suggested. Wow. Two words: “Over” “Achiever” (which will not be surprising for those of you who know this student….).

I’m still in awe and trying to consider which part of the drawing I like the best. Perhaps it’s that:

1. I seem to be wearing very cool (and from the looks of it, expensive) glasses.
2. This picture seems to conveniently ignore the receding hair line that I am blessed with in real-life.
3. Although the quotation in the drawing is unduly attributed to me (I don’t recall ever saying those exact words), it’s nice to know this student interprets my attitude as such (despite the “your/you’re” confusion").

Good work, students, and keep on drawing (although I’ve certainly seen my fair share of much less flattering interpretations of Mr. Hunsberger).

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Police vs. Bee Gees – Roxanne Should Be Dancing

I keep forgetting that Los Angeles has amazingly picturesque mountains, from which you can see both  the scampering city lights and often undiscovered sunset colors as an evening closes.

The occasion last night was the wedding, and hilltop reception for two of my friends, Chris and Cindy who, now married, will start the exciting adventure of living and working in Tegucigalpa, Honduras, where Chris has started a toy company called Tegu (Check it out; the toys are seriously addicting, even for supposed “adults” like myself). I’m always enthralled to be able to attend weddings of close friends, and watch them begin a totally brand new journey in their lives.

According to my mathematics, it seems I’ve now been to (and oft participated in to some degree) between one and two dozen weddings of friends. The ceremonies have been miraculous, the reception dinners savory, and the toasts inspiring. However, the one part of most of the weddings that I continually find myself at a complete and utter loss at, is what immediately follows all of this in sheer brouhaha – the dancing.

Now, as someone who modestly considers himself decently musical in nature, one would think that mere rhythmic bodily shaking would be no laborious endeavor. However, as I have found throughout my 28 years of existence, any music in my ears, heart, and soul simply refuses manifest itself in any of my four major appendages (six, if you count hips). Oh, I can definitely keep time, feeling the beat in my chest; I can even hold a tune, predicting the chord changes as the melody soars and dives. Yet alas, the wedding reception dance floor proves itself once again to be one of the more awkward moments that (now) regularly occur in life.

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Def Leppard – Animal

Ah, the wonders of teaching in Los Angeles. Today, during my first period class, one of my students nonchalantly raised her hand and informed me (or rather, the class) that there was a giant roach scampering around the back of the classroom. While such occurrences are certainly not out of the ordinary, I have quickly grown a bit tired and weary of the constant minor distractions that take place throughout the day.

I walked back and grabbed a container of crayons, quickly emptied it, and then proceeded to make this unassuming roach our classroom pet as I trapped it in it’s new home, the crayon box, where it now sits in the classroom.

I hope it’s still alive tomorrow. I’m not sure what a roach diet it, but it’s likely not cardboard. What’s even crazier is that it’s this time of year that all animals seem to go a bit crazy, almost a year ago to the date, I posted on a wild squirrel that had gotten loose on the second floor.

Wanna raise funding for LAUSD? Call it a zoo and start selling tickets.

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