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By Kyle, May 29, 2008 10:14 am

In its entire conciseness, this week has nonetheless turned out to be fairly full with activity and drama, two things that I’d much rather not deal with as I finish off the year. First things first, though,…the iTunes shuffle, (which will be interesting since right now I’m actually proctoring a test and thus, won’t actually be able to hear the song while it’s playing….)

Don’t Want To Say Goodbye by the Raspberries. “The who???” Yes, the Raspberries….one of those late 60s/early 70s pop groups that you never hear on the radio because they never quite made it through the test of time. The song clearly fits within the context of other music at the time, but it is somewhat interesting to consider why on earth this band’s legacy does not live on, while other similar groups (the Byrds, the Kinks, and even the Association) clearly do. One potential guess ($$$).

The highlight of the week thus far has been my final L.A. Phil concert of the season, a Tuesday night performance in which Thomas Ádes led the L.A. Phil in performances of three of his works, including the North American premiere of his new work, In Seven Days, a stunning pseudo-piano concerto which is accompanied as well by a six-screened abstract video montage (created by video artist Tal Rosner, whose work is seen above). As some of you may know, I try to attend concerts in which the L.A. Phil is playing newer, more modern composers and pieces, many of which are conducted by the composer himself. Unlike Bach, Beethoven, or Brahms (composers in which you know exactly what you are getting yourself into) there’s little to no guarantee whether or not I will truly “enjoy” the piece being played. In other words, strike outs and home runs occur with about equal frequency. However, this past concert Tuesday night might just have been the best I’ve been to. I don’t know how to describe it without simply “gushing”. Luckily, the L.A. Times gives a much more articulate review than I could ever give.

Anyway, aside from that, I’m finding my job as department chair finally start to get interesting as I essentially have to work with teachers and administrators who may have competing and conflicting priorities and politics, with a less-than-clear indication of which set of values and norms is actual policy. Fun, fun, fun. Luckily, we’ve only got 3 more weeks of this to go, and then graduation. Then summer break. Yay!

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By Kyle, May 26, 2008 3:12 pm

A sad and melancholy melody plays in the background, Jon Brion’s
Punchy-Tacky Piano, a two-minute instrumental theme he composed for the film Punch Drunk Love, a theme also heard in the background of the Largo website. If it seems like Jon Brion pops up a lot in these posts, it’s because he pops up a lot in a random iTunes shuffle, roughly 6.6% of the time. Purely mathematical. It isn’t too often that I’ve found a musical artist that I have consistently followed for a long time, without the typical disinterest that comes with long periods of time. Such musicians for me have consistently been along the lines of The Beatles, The Rolling Stones, minimalist classical composer John Adams, and the aforementioned Brion. Having only seen the latter two in live performance is at least satisfactory, and at least comparable to those basketball fans who have seen Kobe Bryant and LeBron James live and can only dream about having seen the likes of Jordan, Johnson or Bird (speaking of which, wouldn’t it be great to have a Lakers-Celtics finals this year?)

And speaking of NBA Finals, the fact that the Finals are approaching means that end of the school year is approaching. And not that I’m counting, but I’ve only got 19 more days of school left, of which about 14 are actual instructional days. It is interesting how certain external events always demarcate the ending of a school year. The NBA Finals is one of them, and every four years, the World Cup. I recall two years ago (2006) sitting in graduation rehearsal with my first group of graduates (my 2^nd year 7^th/8^th graders) checking up on my cell phone to see if Mexico had knocked off Brazil while the administration practiced reading students’ names at the church where they graduate (our auditorium is simply too small to accommodate graduation).

It’s funny because as I approach graduation, even though this is my 4^th year of teaching, it feels as if this is only the 2^nd time I’ve done this. I’ve had the amazing privilege to complete two two-year “loops” with my students; teach 7^th grade one year, then keep all the kids and teach them as 8^th graders the following year. I love this. It allows me to actually get to know some of the kids more so than the teachers who only have them for a single year. The strange part is this. Two years from now, I’ll be graduating another group of 8^th graders (this year’s 6^th graders) and attending the high school graduation of my first group of kids from two years ago. Weird. On the one hand time is going really fast, but it feels as if it’s going so slow.

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By Kyle, May 23, 2008 8:21 pm

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There’s a great song in the background. Belle and Sebastian’s Funny Little Frog, which reminds me of what a modern interpretation on mid-late 60s pop music might sound like. At least the chord structure and instrumentation is the same. A fun little band.

Anyway, I just got back from seeing the 19-years-in-the-making Indiana Jones sequel, entitled Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull. Honestly, I was pretty impressed. While there were some clearly cheesy scenes, it was such a faithful reinterpretation of the classic Indiana Jones character and style. Very fun film.

And is it just me, or has there been a huge amount of much delayed sequels in the past few years or so. Star Wars (Episodes I – III), Die Hard, Rocky, and Rambo are just a few of the many old films which have been re-imagined for today’s new generation. The question is….are these films actually reaching a new generation, or do they simply appeal to us old cronies (“did I actually just call myself an old crony???”).

I was curious about this and so I asked my 2^nd period class today how many of them planned to go see the new Indiana Jones film this weekend. Zero hands raised. I then asked how many had seen any of the previous Indiana Jones films. Four hands. I then proceeded to tell them that 15 years from now, teenagers will be just as doubtful about the “old” Spiderman films as they are about anything George Lucas is unable to grab their attention with.

Anyway, it’s a long weekend (and a short week next week, which is doubly short because I’ll be doing a school visit next Friday) so I’m about to sign off and go to bed to get some sleep in before the action starts.

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By Kyle, May 20, 2008 4:37 pm

I take a look at my Outlook tasks for today, I see the weekly recurring “post on Hunsblog” and realize that in spite of the craziness and busyness of things, it is actually helpful (for myself at least) to pause and write on my blog. And with that reminder, I dutifully start up iTunes, select the shuffle command and hit go…..

Great…wonderful….not actually music this time, but a chapter from an audiobook. Really? An audiobook? Since when did you listen to audiobooks? Well, since last spring when I did a solo drive from Portland, OR to Los Angeles, CA in one day. Trust me, there’s not much in terms of radio in Northern California (although that particular lack is more than made up for in beautiful scenery).

Anyway, iTunes selected for me a chapter of the one audiobook I own, a book entitled Blue Like Jazz, by Donald Miller. Subtitled {Nonreligious thoughts on Christian spirituality}, Blue Like Jazz reads as a memoir that one can almost step-”into”. Honestly, I’m not much into books that deal with Christian spirituality (I often find them shallow and hard to connect with, although I’m a sucker for folks like C.S. Lewis and Stanley Hauerwas), but this book absolutely floored me. Here’s the back-story (for anyone who cares):

It was January of 2005, and I had just returned to Los Angeles from Christmas vacation at home in upstate New York. I was not quite at the halfway mark of my first year of teaching at what was formerly known as Mt. Vernon Middle School. Suffice it to say, I was not necessarily in the best of spirits. I was battling the struggles of a first-year teacher while simultaneous trying to find my niche in the shadowy urban sprawl of Los Angeles. Yes, I had many friends and acquaintances through my connections and work with Teach for America, but had yet to find a real community to connect to. Previous efforts during the fall had thus far proved unsuccessful. The wonderful experience I had at my Presbyterian church in Wheaton, unfortunately did not necessarily imply a similar connection with the Presbyterians of Los Angeles (or, as my roommate likes to call them, “the frozen chosen“).

Anyway, frustrated at my lack of connection thus far, I was honestly pretty weighed down. One day after returning back to L.A. I found myself haplessly wandering through my local Borders bookstore (one of my current financial and time drains) and randomly came across this book called Blue Like Jazz which I seemed to have remembered a good friend (who had also recently relocated from to L.A. from Wheaton) recommending to me. I glanced at the book, picked it up, read a few lines from the first chapter and was instantly hooked.

3 days later, having polished off about 250 pages, I felt a renewed sense of hope and desire to find connection and community within L.A., very similar to the kind that Miller describes as occurring in his community in Portland, OR. Later that week, I randomly stumbled across an article in the L.A. Times about this church that had the strange practice of meeting downtown in a nightclub. Curious, I ventured alone to Mosaic that week and have consistently been back since.

Whew….catch my breath after that long post. I hadn’t planned on writing that much, but when you get on a roll, you get on a roll. At least it kept me from blogging about all the fun departmental politics that are currently happening within school. Fun. Politics.

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By Kyle, May 17, 2008 4:05 pm

As I begin today’s post, I am accompanied by the chorus of His Yoke Is Easy, His Burden is Light from Handel’s Messiah. This is one of those classical pieces where you don’t feel as if Handel quite got the mood right. While some choral pieces seamlessly weave both musical and lyrical aspects together in united perfection, this is one of those that seems to fail to do just that. Pieces like Brahms’ Ein Deutsches Requiem, or even contemporary Morten Lauridsen’s Lux Aeterna would fall into the former category and while one listens to those, the listener becomes blissfully unaware of any boundary which could divide the text from the melodies and harmonies. Unfortunately, with His Yoke is Easy, one becomes painfully aware of this very dichotomy. However, I must give Handel a little slack. He was, after all, writing in English, al language that has yet to impress anyone who has learned to love classical choral music.

This week of testing for my kids has now ended, and the pressure is essentially off for the rest of the year. The question now is what in the world to do for the next five weeks…the answer to which I plan to arrive at either this evening or tomorrow as I plan out the rest of the year!

As the week ended, a friend of mine Ken, and his girlfriend Jocelyn asked me to play keyboard with them at a café Friday night that their church group typically hangs out at in Santa Monica. Aside from having no percussion, and Ken being forced to go “unplugged” as his amplifier decided to stop working about 10 minutes before we went on, it was a really fun time. One of the best parts was that all my gear fit so much more nicely into the back of my new Civic than had previously into my old Civic. Maybe this will encourage me to play outside my garage more often. We’ll see. [Personal goal: play one live show of original material with Ken before the end of the summer].

So it’s off to plan right now, hopefully I can find a place with central A/C as opposed to the 78+ degrees it is at home right now thanks to my brilliant roommate who decided to cook using the oven when it’s 95 degrees outside!

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By Kyle, May 14, 2008 12:45 pm

Well, it’s not quite four in the afternoon yet (it’s only about 1:30 here on the West Coast), but it feels like it’s about four because I’m at home after a long day’s work. Well, even that is not quite accurate because the reality is that our kids are being tested today (the California Standards Test) in math and since the test only goes to 12:40, the kids go home and the teachers get a long lunch. I happened to get a glimpse of the test that my kids would be taking this morning, and I actually think that many have a decent chance at doing really well! There were 71 questions and since a 60% is considered “Proficient”, a kid could get a whopping 28 questions wrong and still be considered on a level of knowing what he is supposed to know in Algebra!

Anyway, today’s random iTunes shuffle relayed to an original track…well, sort of. Four in the Afternoon was my one songwriting contribution to the band I was formerly in a few years ago. The track itself I’m listening to right now is just the rough demo with only the keyboard and drum parts in it. But considering how the final version ended up, I’m fairly pleased with the way it sounds. We only performed it once live (after the Spring Break Whisky a-Go-Go concert) and it was never recorded other than this rough demo I’ve got on my computer.

It’s kind of weird to think back at how fast the two years since 2006 have gone. I never thought I’d still be at Cochran Middle School (I figured that I’d have bolted for a high school before now), and I’m still able to do music, although it’s gonna take a while to gather up some musicians of similar caliber to the ones I played with two years ago.

Anyway, the weekend is almost here, and it’s none too soon.

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By Kyle, May 11, 2008 4:57 pm

Finally, the random iTunes shuffle has allowed me to finally blog about one of my favorite musicians. Larry Norman (who just recently passed away) devoted his life toward spreading the life and the hope that he had found in his relationship with God to those around him through music. A product of the astounding musicianship of the late 60s and early 70s, he never ceased to unwittingly offend the stubborn and stiff who wore their religiosity on their sleeve. Larry called things like he saw them, speaking out against war, poverty, and greed in a time when many people of faith silently stood on the sidelines.

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Moses, the current track, is a tongue-in-cheek narrative of the story of Moses as understood by a naïve and yet astute 6 year old. The sheer innocence of the narrator is both powerful and revealing at the same time. And musically, Larry is quick to take his cue from the likes of his contemporaries, especially with some of the country-folk rock that the Rolling Stones where producing at the same time.

Anyway, the big news is that today I purchased a new car. That is, if by “purchased”, you mean leased, and if by “new”, you mean “at time of purchase only had the 2.4 miles I put on it during its test drive”.

Yep, this is my very own 2008 Honda Civic. She’s new, and a vast improvement over my previous car, a used ’99 Honda Civic, which, while being a pretty dependable car, stopped working abruptly this weekend after a new thermostat, radiator, and head gasket failed to contain the vast amounts of heat that it’s engine produced.

The most satisfying part of all this was my newly gained confidence as I negotiated the lease with the dealer.

His initial offer:

$1900 down — $341 per month – 42 months. Ha!

After about 90 minutes of haggling, bluffing, and otherwise acting (“acting” in the same spirit as my acting in front of my kids on a daily basis), I had him down to:

$2800 down — $225 per month (incl. tax!) – 36 months. AND…..AND…
he took my old ’99 Civic and paid off the $2400 I still owed on it (which means my $2800 down was, in effect, $400 down).

Anyway, it’s just nice to once again have a reliable car that I don’t have to stare at the temperature gauge every 20 seconds as I overheat while idling at a stoplight. And although it’s hard to say what it was that did my last car in, but my roommate figures that it might be the fact that instead of taking nice, long, meandering drives with it, most of my trips are consist of :

Turn on….head out…1.5 miles later….turn car off (just as it is warming up). I think I’ll be much gentler on this one.

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By Kyle, May 6, 2008 10:54 am

Listen:

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As I shuffle iTunes, I randomly land on The Rolling Stones’ Tumbling Dice, a fun rollicking song with two of my favorite elements that are far too infrequently included in rock songs, rhythm piano accompaniment and a gospel choir. Trust me, I don’t dance much, but this is one of those songs that if it doesn’t at least get your toes tapping, you seriously need to check to see if you still have a soul. J

I recently downloaded a Microsoft Outlook “add-on” called
Xobni (pronounced “zob-nee”, which is actually “inbox” spelled backwards). The program, which I’ve been playing around with for the past couple of days provides an amazing ability to both organize my mail as well as track it and provide interesting if not useful stats! Lot’s of fun.

Anyway, the sad news of the week is that the $400 new radiator I needed was just the tip of the iceberg. What I learned recently is that not only did I need a new radiator, but a new head gasket as well. Luckily my mechanic is extremely knowledgeable and demonstrated exactly why this was the case. Apparently my exhaust was backing up into the cooling system, and that’s just not cool (notice the amazing math teacher humor)!

Tonight the Mets take on the Dodgers at Chavez Ravine, and if I can find a ride I’ll probably be able to make it to the game. The last time I saw the Mets last year, it was an absolute blowout in which the Mets utterly destroyed the Dodgers and then went on to kick themselves out of the playoffs by losing 12 of their final 17. Yuck.

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By Kyle, May 3, 2008 8:47 pm

Currently listening to: Waterloo Sunset, by Jon Brion. Hmmm…this is about the 6^th or so blog posting with my new jump-starter method…commenting about the first randomized song I happen to play in iTunes. So far, I’ve been really lucky and have gotten some of the best of the best…including this favorite of mine. I know that I’ve posted about Jon Brion before (see February 10, April 8, and April 19), but this is an absolutely gorgeous track. Originally a song by the British group The Kinks, Jon Brion is able to successfully re-imagine this song with nothing more than his minimalist electric guitar and his (clearly straining) voice. Absolutely haunting. Absolutely gorgeous!

Anyway, Friday wound up being crazy day, a constant reminder of the paradoxes of life, kids, LA, and the intriguing combination of the three. To make a long story short, I present this in a series of Good News / Bad News dichotomies.

• Good News: Some of my kids did amazing on the Unit 3 district assessment in Algebra! This is in spite of the fact that it was a ridiculously difficult test! I would have liked to have more kids do better, but about 50 kids scored in the ‘Proficient’ or ‘Advanced’ categories. As a reward, I throw a pizza/movie party for the kids who score Proficient or Advanced, (or show improvement since the last assessment). So after school on Friday, I had 20 pizzas delivered and we watched Tim Burton’s Corpse Bride
  in one of the classrooms that has built in stadium seating! Lot’s of fun.
• Bad News: In the darkened theatre, one of my kids tagged on 15 of the desks.
• Good News: Another teacher and I had a suspicion as to who it was and after a long discussion with the kid, he came clean and owned up to it.
• Bad News: More clearly now than ever I am seeing the horrific effects of peer pressure on kids in my school and the associated chain of influence. Friday’s tagger, J_______ is really a good kid, who may be slightly withdrawn at times, but is very polite and even tries hard in a difficult algebra class. The very sad (and very frightening) thing is he’s clearly influenced by another student of mine E________, who is also a pretty good kid, although slightly more withdrawn, and slightly more bold when it comes to risky behavior, who is in turn influenced by K______, a former student of mine who is very bold, very defiant, yet is somehow manages to avoid expulsion. And to top it all off K_____ now hangs out with frequently truant and frequently suspended A______, who, although my optimism in people hates to say it, gives me about 15 reasons to believe that if he’s not a “banger” yet, is right on the cusp of becoming one. A______ to K_______ to E________ to J_______. It’s really sad how much the sway of one student who is out of control trickles down to those who are naïve, bored, or lonely! This is one of the things that the more I think about, the more upset I get!
• Epilogue: Ironically, nowhere was this dichotomy of hope and despair presented than this very morning. After sleeping in until 7:30 J, I grabbed an Egg- McMuffin from my local heart disease store and headed to my neighborhood park to read a little. After having been there no more than 15 minutes, a group of 5 high school students from nearby L.A. High sat down at one of the tables and began a group study session for what sounded like a ROTC test. I quickly became aware that one of these students was one of mine from two years ago and is now a sophomore apparently doing very well in HS and especially in the ROTC program! I was so proud of her. Not five minutes later, as the high-schoolers continued to study and I continued to read, a group of three borderline hungover twenty-somethings sat at the other adjacent picnic table, and rather than studying for any sort of academic pursuit, began promptly smoking some marijuana. I look at my watch….It’s 9:00am in Los Angeles. Oh what a strange, strange city.

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By Kyle, May 1, 2008 5:24 pm

It’s Thursday night, and as the Black Crowes’ Greasy Grass River rocks on in the background, my automatic Outlook alerts remind me that it is time to repost on the blog. It’s not that much of interest has occurred since my last posting, but it seems like most of my thoughts seem to linger around the different aspects of my life at school!

First off, for those of you who haven’t figured it out, we are smack dab in the middle of some seriously hard-core test prep sessions. Another Cochran algebra teacher and myself are leading test prep sessions after school 3 days a week…the crazy thing is that between us, we are averaging about 70 students for these (30 of mine, and 40 of hers….needless to say, I’m slightly jealous). We go from about 3:10 to about 4:20 each day we do this, and although I’m surprised at how much energy I actually have for these sessions, I am even more surprised (and absolutely loving the fact) that so many kids are serious about doing well on this test! It brings back memories of high school for me where my friends and I would essentially cram for what were then known as “Regents Exams” in the state of New York. I’m telling you…I have some of the best kids this year that I’ve ever had!

The other thing that has completely enveloped me has been a book that I recently picked up and absolutely cannot put down!

Relentless Pursuit: A Year in the Trenches with Teach For America documents the first year experience of four TFA teachers at Locke High School in South Los Angeles. Reading this book is like re-living my first year of life out here in Los Angeles. Since it’s not an official TFA publication, but rather published by Knopf publishers, the author, Donna Foote is able to be extremely objective and insightful! The crazy part is that although I’m not familiar with the four TFA teachers she shadowed (they’re all in the ’05 Corps; I was in the ’04 Corps), several of the other major people she writes about are people that I do personally know, including two of my “supervisors” from TFA when I was with the organization. I’m trying to figure out which is more engrossing…the narrative of a profession (and a passion) which essentially drives me, or reading about Samir Bolar, Felicia Cuesta, and Mackey Brown in an entirely new context!

Anyway, the week is almost out, tomorrow is the Pizza/Movie party for my kids who scored Proficient or Advanced on the Unit 3 Assessment…I’ve got to go get a movie tonight…Any suggestions?