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By Kyle, November 28, 2009 9:41 am

Ray Davies – Thanksgiving Day

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Thanksgiving has come and gone, and my house has not burned down. In fact, with a little bit of help, Thanksgiving dinner turned out great (my two buddies, Greg and Joe combined to make cooking a team effort).

We actually did pretty good, and since I’m a teacher, I deserve a report card for this Thanksgiving. Here we go:

Cooking Thanksgiving on my stove!!!

Carving the turkey…

The best part, eating!!!!!

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By Kyle, November 25, 2009 7:37 pm

Vitreous Humor – Why Are You So Mean to Me?

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I couldn’t resist. Especially since I love my sister so.

Growing up as kids, being the elder sibling by 3 years, my sister and I certainly had our share of arguments, fights, and spats. I would like to say we were equally at fault with teasing each other, but I was mostly the instigator.

Now that we’re both grown, I relish the opportunity to tease her even well into our 20s. It’s just too hard to resist.

The above picture? Well, I was Skyping with my sister this evening, since she and her husband are currently living in Bolivia. In conversation about Thanksgiving tomorrow, I told her I was making French’s Green Bean and Onion casserole, a reference to which made her cringe in jealousy. (You can’t get French’s onions in Bolivia).

Now the next move tells you exactly what kind of a wonderful brother I am. I actually go get the can of French’s dried onions and start snacking on it while connected via video chat. Sheer torture.

Don’t worry. I really do love my sister.

Now you tell me which is worse….this move, or the move two years ago when I performed a song at her wedding reception, a song entitled “Let’s Go on Safari Into My Sister’s Nose”.

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By Kyle, November 24, 2009 5:23 pm

Au Revoir Simone – All You Pretty Things

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Sometimes teaching math really is like teaching a foreign language….in a foreign language, what with all the strange looks I get when students are grappling with the concepts, of y, m, x, and b.

There’s no getting around it. Algebra is hard….and it’s particularly difficult in that it demands a larger conceptual understanding of number patterns that students have been merely computing for the past 8 years of their schooling.

Patterns, guys! Patterns! And don’t let those negative numbers and fractions freak you out!!!

Anyway, we’re on the eve of the last day before Thanksgiving Break and both the students and myself are looking forward to the break very much. It will be nice to sleep in, cook turkey (which I”m doing this year!), and watch football!

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By Kyle, November 21, 2009 6:44 pm

El Testeferro de los Pordioseros – Street Fighting Man

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Maybe I’m cynical. Maybe I’m simply a realist. It’s just that I’m used to stuff associated with the Los Angeles Unified School district simply not working. I’m used to expending tons of time, energy, and effort into a system that largely does not have incredibly high returns on those efforts.

That’s why I’m so utterly aghast astonished (I seem to need to work on my adjectives…) after today’s Local District 3 Magnet Faire, hosted by Cochran Middle School. The verb “host” is not strong enough for what all the Cochran folks did to make this event happen! A dozen teachers and staff volunteered their Saturday morning to come out and help, as well as about a dozen students! Our principal was freaking awesome as well! And this is to say nothing of my two partners-in-crime, Rustum and Don, who, along with myself spent countless hours strategizing, brainstorming, pitching, selling, and largely, making this event happen.

And yet it actually happened!

Between 9 and noon, we had several hundred parents and families grace our cafeteria to meet with local magnet high schools, middle schools, and elementary schools that they might want to send their kids to! We had over 25 schools represent themselves and as such, had a consistently PACKED cafeteria where everybody was set up [I took the above picture of the crowded confusion]. Folks also were able to ask some really relevant questions about navigating the complex system that is applying for these magnets, and for the majority, we were able to supply extremely candid answers (even though some District brass was in the room, we were able to answer their questions).

I sit here Saturday night absolutely exhausted, yet continually amazed that this event actually happened! I’m so used to stuff floundering, yet this thing actually worked! It makes me want to try more subversive activities, particularly those affiliated with Hope Change Choices.

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By Kyle, November 18, 2009 5:32 pm

Muse – Exogenesis Symphony. Part i (Overture)

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A theoretical/hypothetical post:

So what exactly is a “living document”? Well, one would imagine that a living document is one that can be updated, revised, or changed to meet the needs of the vision it was originally intended to address.

The cynic in me is beginning to think that a living document is simply a convenience for those in power to appease those who might particularly disagree with it’s contents. Should there be any naysayers, one can take the position that, “no worries…this is a living document…it can be changed.”

And yet, when that process for change is somehow ignored, the document that once was living, now is dead and yet somehow continues to exert its influence over those unfortunate enough not to have the power to declare otherwise.

Like I said, completely hypothetical.

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By Kyle, November 15, 2009 4:06 pm

My grandmother bought me a Stryper cassette for one of my birthdays as a kid. I had never heard of the group, and apparently, neither had she, but simply went of a sales clerk’s recommendation.

And so I give a mighty shout-out to that anonymous sales clerk, who introduced me at a young age to a band that would become one of my favorites over my teenage years.

Last night, the veteran hair-metal band, having recently re-formed, played Club Nokia in downtown Los Angeles. I could not miss the opportunity to finally see one of the bands I “grew up on”.

I must admit, seeing one of my favorite bands as a teenager was incredibly fun and entertaining. These guys certainly knew how to play their axes and Michael Sweet’s voice was once again about 3 octaves above the stratosphere. Yet both musically and lyrically the band is pretty much irrelevant nowadays, seeing that hair-metal is nothing but a revivalist genre and their cliché-ridden lyrics betray a fairly irrelevant version of Christianity to listeners who seek anything more than kitsch.

Nonetheless, it was fun, and I found myself in the midst of a crowd in typically in their late 30s to early 40s. When the lead singer was talking to the audience between songs and speaking of the hit video “Calling On You” released in 1986, a youngin’ in the front row screamed out “I was 4!”

Then I started thinking…..so was I.

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By Kyle, November 12, 2009 7:43 pm

Dvorak– New World Symphony

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Yes, this is exactly what it looks like. “Guitar Hero” for the conductor…featuring our very own Gustavo Dudamel.

You can play the game right here.

I must admit, if the game weren’t actually kind of fun, it’d be terribly tacky.

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By Kyle, November 11, 2009 9:41 am

The Rolling Stones – The Lantern

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The fact that the state government closes down today in honor of Veteran’s day provides me with the excuse of going out to see a movie on a school night. Last evening’s showcase was a preview screening of Wes Anderson’s adaptation of Roald Dahl’s Fantastic Mr. Fox.

Perhaps what struck me is that this screening of a film that is both animated (in glorious old-school stop-motion fashion) and only rated “PG” was attended by no children whatsoever. It was all adults going to see this adaptation of a kid’s story. And while this film is certainly appropriate for children, particularly in terms of content and plot, this room full of adults was fully entertained and amazed at the beautiful scenery, and idiosyncratic dialogue. While most “kids movies” I can certainly tolerate for 90 minutes, this one had me (and the rest of the audience) laughing out loud.

In fact, this whole event reminded me of the fact that  just a few weeks ago, another film, Spike Jonze’s new adaptation of Where The Wild Things Are was released. Again, based on a kid’s book, again merely rated PG. And again, when I went to see it, I found myself in a theatre full of adults who, aside from being dumbfounded at how 10 sentences of text could be expanded into 2 hours of film, wondered at the escape back into the world of Max and his Wild Things. And again, while certainly containing nothing inappropriate for children, this was a film that finally was able to re-tell a great story, with deep characters in a meaningful way to adults.

What’s my hope? My hope is that these two recent films are merely the beginning of a renewed movement toward retelling some classics in a non-trite, meaningful way to all of today’s audiences. Far too often, kids movies are simply escapism, but every so often, one sticks with you (even with Pixar’s last two ventures, Wall-E, and Up).

Here are a few suggestions of future filmic adaptations I’d love to see!

• P.T. Anderson – Alexander and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day
• Martin Scorsese – The Snowy Day
• Joel and Ethan Coen – Millions of Cats
• Terence Malick – The Story of Ping
• Quentin Tarantino – The Story of Ferdinand
• Tim Burton – The Missing Piece
• Charlie Kaufman  – Corduroy

Got more suggestions? Post them here!

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By Kyle, November 8, 2009 9:57 pm

Lou Reed – Berlin

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The Beirut bombings. The Mets winning the World Series. The Challenger Explosion. All events that occurred in the early stages of my lifetime and thus, I have no memory of them ever occurring. The aforementioned events are mentally categorized in the same group as Vietnam, Reconstruction, and the Pax Romana. History.

Yet, today I was reminded of when I first started “being aware” that there was more going on in life than what snack I got to enjoy after coming home from school. I remember watching the evening news on November 8, 1989 and curiously wondering why these angry folks were destroying this cement wall with sledgehammers. I remember thinking “gee, I’d love to take a sledgehammer to a cement wall if I ever got the chance”.

I suppose you could say that November 8, 1989 brought about my awareness of global events (albeit without much interest until many years later). Coincidentally, November 8, 1989 also brought about my cousin, who is celebrating 20 years of life today! Happy birthday, Micah!

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By Kyle, November 3, 2009 9:12 pm

Chopin – Romance- Larghetto

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When as the last time you listened to an entire CD? Beginning to end? Start to finish? No shuffle, no playlists, no “genius”, but straight up, an entire album.

For me, it’s been far too long, and in desperate search of a respite for my musical ADD, I am sitting at home right now, listening to a magical invention called the Compact Disc, rather than simply my iTunes playlists.

It certainly presents a nice respite from the craziness that is work, simultaneously testing my students at the end of chapter 2, organizing meta-intervention (answering the question of what happens when kids who can’t multiply still don’t learn how to multiply), and putting the reigns on a Magnet-school faire that is going to occur at our school on November 21st.

Honestly, I love all this stuff, but sometimes it is simply grand to just lay out on my couch and listen to some music…not necessarily to be doing things with music in the background, but just listening to music. 

Amazing!