Dr Strangelove

We are studying the cold war in my history class. I thought that Dr. Strangelove would be an excellent choice to show my students the spirit of this age. I assume that anyone who reads this blog knows this move. It is a hilarious dark comedy and one that was very controversial when it was released.

Stanley Kubrick apparently became obsessed by the bomb, read about sixty book then chose a dramatic novel to turn into a comedy. The makers of Fail Safe were afraid that Dr. Strangelove would compete with it and so release their movies nearly 6 months later. I am amazed my the similarities between the two films.

Peter Sellers as Dr. Strangelove, that loveable Nazi, is of course my favorite character. Sellers was slated to play four roles instead of three, but a broken leg rendered him incapable of fitting into the cockpit of the simulated B-52. It reminds me of when the Russians first shot the Sputnik into space. I asked my dad how the Russians did it first. He said, "They got the smarter Germans." I thought that was a great reply and always remembered it.

I am reluctant to point out much of the sexual innuendo of the movie from the sexual intercourse of the B-52's to Sterling Hayden's "bodily fluids". The students really don't find the film very interesting or funny. To begin with the film is in black and white. It's a bit of turnoff to adolescents. My hope is that a few students actually appreciate the film.

Computer Karma

It's my computer karma again- bad karma. Last year almost all of my documents were trashed by our computer support person. I'll mention no names. The greatest loss was my grade book for which I had a paper back up but had to re-enter them from the beginning of the semester. It took me maybe 30 hours to complete it. Then mounds of lost curriculum, digital photos and personal items.

This year during the testing I had a few extra minutes, so I decided to clear out some of the "useless" programs. One of those useless programs deemed my keyboard and mouse non workable. This same computer support person assured me that she could save all of my data. Unfortunately she doesn't count what is on my desktop as part of my data. Fortunately I had some backup this time. I only had to reenter a month's worth of grades instead of three months.

I must give tech person some credit. She gave me the Adobe Suite as a sendoff. I have loaded both in the upstairs PC and my Mac Mini. She called me and asked if I still had the laptop that I had purchased with the tech funds. I have it. "It's more than five years old." I said. "I don't think so." She answers. In fact at this moment I am thinking of purchasing a mini pc- 2 and a half pounds for my trip to Italy.

To round out this computer ramble just two weeks ago our local market sponsored a computer recycling day. The place where monitors are taken then shipped to China to build up landfill there. I brought them one monitor, one purple imac, an old PC and miscellaneous electronic junk. I save the hard drives for posterity.

Polka Punk

There is a new punk culture. Frankly I am not sure how new it is or how widespread. I probably should do more research before I, an old guy, comment on it. As one thinks about punk as mean, rebellious and loud. This punk is happy, campy and loud- JD, the accordion player in the Hubbub Club, plays an electric accordion and wears a fake red nose. The band dresses in mock turn of the century Victorian Black. Their 3 dancers do mock Burlesque. In one sketch they dance seductive and in coordinated fashion remove clothing, but costume "cartoon" clothing- down to the "last" layer a white bra with glowing nipples.

The style resembles the orientation of the Handcar Regatta. It is dark culture that celebrates the dead and thumbs its nose at it at the same time. So the style becomes a quaint affirmation of life. When I say punk, I guess that I mean modern Gothic (or Goth) styles.

The band played fast growling songs with words that seems full of humor and lightness. It is an ironic twist from the angry punk of the past. Perhaps it tell something of the culture of escape that we live in these days.

Hubbub on Youtube

I just loaded a few of these videos on to youtube. I hope that you enjoy them.

Goodbye Marge.m4v
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WjWfW94GJZk


Mere Hathan Mein.m4v (37.9MB)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JCXqky8rbvo



Watermelon Man Jam.m4v (32.7MB)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fQWB9auxUHg



Weird Lunch.m4v (36.8MB)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JSwjSaKhpK0

Apple Blossom Festival

Sebastopol, California began as a redneck lumber town after the civil war. Lumberjacks would fell and cut large redwoods all day then come to Sebastopol to get drunk. In those days the town was called Analy after the city founder's daughter. In the 1890's the town was so packed with bars and taverns that fights in those establishments were a daily occurrence. According to legend, someone in the town once remarked that "This town is another Sevastopol, the center of Crimean war with daily news reports of the intensity of the fighting there. Hence the populace began to call the place "Sebastopol" and eventually the name stuck.

With the help of Luther Burbank Sebastopol eventually flourished as a small farming community with the Gavenstein apple as its principal product. Even when we arrived here twelve there were thousands of acres of apple orchards surrounding the city. Since that time most of the orchards are gone being replaced by large vineyards.There are two annual events in the spring, the Apple Blossom Festival and in the fall, the Apple Harvest Fair, with the former being the largest. In addition to a parade, there is a giant fair on the park grounds.

In recent years large flocks of over "twenty-somethings" consume vast quantities of alcohol at the fair and make a general nuance of themselves. They serve mainly beer and wine. I remember last year in particular the overwhelming presence of these "drunks" made the fair unpleasant for everybody. So this year I read that the city is banning alcohol from the fair. As much I like a couple glasses of good wine on the occasion, I am happy for the regulation.

doppleganger- complete frivolity

Maybe I am running out of subjects to write about. But one of my students said the other day: "Mr. Lynch, you look like that guy in Distrubia." I had not seen the film, but now I have put it in my Netflix cue. And perhaps it is better that if I do look like anybody, it is a relatively obscure actor- David Morse. I hope that he doesn't mind that I have said this. Also I had never given much credence to looks. But I guess for my age that I am not doing too bad. I have always thought that David Lynch and I were at least related. If he does not look like me, he has a close resemblance to many of my cousins and uncles (when they were younger.) Nothing deep here...

Social Host Ordinance

Sebastopol has a new ordinance called the Social Host Ordinance. It targets teen drinking parties of which there are many in this little town. The ordinance states: "It is unlawful and a public nuisance for any person to knowingly host an underage social gathering on private or public property within the city. A person knowingly hosts an underage social gathering whenever the social host is aware that an underage person has consumed an alcoholic beverage or reasonably should have been aware had the social host taken reasonable steps to prevent consumption of alcoholic beverages by underage persons. Such steps include, but are not limited to : controlling the quantity of alcoholic beverages present at a gathering, verifying the age of the persons attending the gathering by inspecting drivers' licenses or other government-issued identification cards, and supervising the activities of underage persons at a gathering.

The fine for an infraction is $300. It would be treated in the same way as a traffic ticket. It does not limit those who would be charged but the police will definite target underage drinking parties especially when a neighbor has complained. We received a four page question and answer sheet from the police department a few days ago.

I decided to read the handout to my sophomores. There was an immediate reaction. "The Sebastopol police do that only because they are bored. They have nothing better to do." "The police here are always picking on us." "Why don't they go out and solve some real crimes." They asked a bunch of questions all dealing with loopholes to the law. In my sixth period class a couple of student at least acknowledged that alcohol abuse by teenagers might be a serious problem. But on the whole they gave an emotionally filled reaction of entitlement. "We should have a right to do to our bodies what we want to do." I blame it on years of them getting what they want in almost every situation. Also the an underdeveloped prefrontal cortex.

Little Music City

Last night Donna and I decided to have desert at our new local Sebastopol hot spot, Aubergines. We had just been there the night before to watch a friend play with a band called The Traveling Hillbilly Blues Band. This band had been assembled to play for a show, the Patsy Cline show, which a raging success at a local theater. The group like playing together so much they stayed together. Now they play regular gigs doing Hank Williams covers and other older country music.

We got to the door on a Sunday night and low and behold they were charging a five dollar cover. (We just wanted desert.) I ask what kind of music. "French jazz," was the answer. I was reluctant. The girl at the door said, "How about five dollars for the both of you?" That seemed fair, so I paid the five dollars and entered. The band, Rue Manouche, was playing a Django tune, with a very very hot lead player. Now I must confess that I have been a closet Django "wanna be" for about five years. I can play back up to many of the tunes but the leads still elude me. This guy, Vie Wong, was hot. In fact, the entire band was hot.

At their break three of us from audience approached him. A friend of mine, Jan, her freind and myself- all musicians. He says, "What? Does everybody in this town play music?" Jan replys,"We don't get TV, so we play music." There is some truth to this statement. Jan has just started an all woman Django style band called Haught Flash Swing. I have met Jan in bluegrass circles, but when I asked about her interest in bluegrass, she said that she goes to those sessions because there weren't any others in town. We vowed to get together to play some swing.

Then Donna joined the conversation and mentioned that we play Brazilian Choro music. "Oh, we play choro music too," was the response. My wife, Donna, plays so many styles of music now, that it is hard to keep up with her. She started the eastern European vocal group, Gradina, which is flourishing now. She is a very active member of the Hubbub Club. She plays Galitian gaita. She is performing with Jesse Olsen in a trio that performs this Friday. Jesse who is the originator and leader of the Hubbub Club and is also a great composer in my opinion.

On Friday night I went to the Pine cone where my friend Riggy (alias Ricky) Rackin celebrated his birthday with a his pick up band of top musician. Riggy plays concertina and sings a mixture of old English Ballads, Irish and Scottish tunes, and a few old American songs. I met Riggy (Ricky) in 1979 at Faith Petric's house in San Francisco at a get together of the San Francisco Folk Music Club. He claims that I was the first person he met in California.

Chris played mandolin in this group. I met Chris about 1980 as a member of a old tyme band called Round Oak. Chris now works at the local music store. John Berge was on the fiddle and squeeze box. I have known John a long time and he is a top northern California musicians playing for Contra and English Country dances.

Going back to Aubergines, they have their own house drum set. My friend, Rick is the new chef there and he has hired my son, Joey, to wash dishes and help in the kitchen two nights a weeks. Joey also happens to be a serious drummer (and accordion player and guitarist). So our Joey has had the opportunity to back up some of the bands at Aubergines over the past two months.

Summing it up: Our town of Sebastopol has a population of just a little over 7000. In addition to a few of the top international popular music stars living here, we also have a good share hot musicians.

Period 4- revisited

Tuesday, April 13

We are on a testing schedule today. In front of me is my fourth period class. I made some seating changes and it is a big deal for them. "Can't I sit here?" "I wanna sit over here." Then some just sit in the wrong place and wait and see if I notice. I am so ready to be done with this petty bull shit.

Then today in walks in Tanner. He is no longer a student in my class. He was transferred to the continuation school. Under the pretense that he wants to help another student he comes into my class. I ask him if he is enrolled. He says he has a sixth period here. I say, "This is fourth period." I ask him to please leave. He was giving me an argument, so I picked up the phone. Then he is freeking out. "I have to help A.J. with my assignment." "I am sorry, but you have to leave." I say. Finally the telephone threat makes him leave. I spoke to my friend Sandy, the Counselor, about this situation. She said that he had no class at our school at all and would talk to Brenda.

There is a pervasive bad attitude among about 5 students. It came to a point today where I insisted that we talk about it. I say something, then Kaitlyn repeats it. I call her outside. She admits that she repeated me but claims that it was not rude. Finally she did say that she was sorry.

We had a discussion during this brief period about the situation. The chief thorn in my side claims that she will give me attitude for the rest of the year because I gave her an Unsatisfactory citizen ship on her report card. At one time I told her she had better behavior, but she switches hot and cold. Her English teacher from last year also mentioned that "she was a piece of work- full of attitude." Then the "gang of five" chimed in about how I was picking on just them, when others misbehaved too. I had two defenders who chimed in. They both had perspectives that I agreed with. One said that these students were obviously "messing with me" and of course I would react to their bad behavior. Another said that I was too lenient in the beginning of the year. That is only partially true. I try to maintain a relaxed atmosphere and it worked well. Then with the addition of a new student (my friend in the previous paragraph)and the increase acting out of another student, the general atmosphere degenerated. With the discussion I could see that most students were on my side. But they are the quiet ones.

Thursday, April 15

I have changed the seating chart. There were a group of girls in the back who also used to converse on a regular basis. I separated them. As I begin class I am finding that the traditional problem people are not misbehaving. The biggest problem this period was that just about everyone had to take a bathroom break. One of my student, Jake, left for the bathroom early in the period and never returned. I called his mom, then wrote a referral to the vice principal. His mom said that she was going downtown to find him.

Honk Fest West 2010

It difficult to describe the giant party that is Honk Fest West. Twenty five street bands from all over the United States arrive in Seattle and play at various venues throughout the city. One might call these groups marching bands except that they don't all march. Brass and percussion are the predominant instruments but accordions, bells, whistles. I even saw an acoustic guitar with the Stanford Band. The first night this year began in the Fremont districts. All venues were out side and bands in Fremont were all within a block of each other. There were four bands playing at the same time but none seemed to interfere with each other. Saturday night we took over Georgetown. I loved the earlier start time as well as playing outside. It made for some good videos. Then Sunday in West Seattle was the part I missed, but you will see some links to those performances below.

The best thing that I can do is to give links to sites that feature videos and photos.

The Honk Fest West Site pulls all photos and movies from Flickr that are labeled honkfestwest2010

Seattle Twist

Of course homage to the Hubbub Club in West Seattle

West Seattle Blog

Joe Mabel's Posted photos in Flikr. He takes nice photos of people at Honk.

I put in a search on Youtube for HonkFestWest 2010 and came up with some pretty good videos including one of the Hubbub Club from yesterday. They were playing while I had to go to the airport.

I had to laugh at this 2009 Honk video. I am the photographer butting into the picture.

The best think to do is just click and enjoy. I won't ramble any more that this.

Who is "Friending" Me?

Yes, I have a facebook account. Ordinarily I do not "friend" anyone I don't know. From time to time I will make a connection with a friend of a friend. The day before yesterday I received a most unusual invitation from "Argentina Gebel". It sounded like a fake name to me, I searched it. The photo on the page was extremely suggestive for facebook. It showed a woman from the neck down, lying down. She was wearing a two piece black bathing suit, underwear? I don't know. (no face shown) She had 6 friends and they all looked like teenagers. One of them had the words "Dulles High School" next to her name. There was only one Dulles High School that I could find in Texas.

I went back to her site yesterday. Argentina had 36 friends, some young people and some were "old guys" like me. I decided to write to an administrator at Dulles High School.

Dear Administrator:
I am a 61 year old male English teacher in Sebastopol, California and I may have received a dangerous solicitation from one of your students. The page has a fairly explicit photo for facebook. I think that the page is a fictitious name. When I clicked on the link yesterday this person had only six friends- but one was identified with your school.
When I went back to the site today, she had 38 friends, many older men like me.
The facebook page is under the name of : Argentina Gebel
Here is the link. I think that it is important that you investigate this matter.
(Insert URL here.)
These are three of the name who were original of the six “facebook friends”:
N. H. (names removed for privacy)– Dulles High School (stated as such)
J. L.
S. B

I would appreciate knowing whether my concerns are warranted and that you have taken appropriate action.

I checked a few hours after I sent this email and the page was removed.

Update April 14th

I received an email from the mother of one of the girls on the page. I guess the principal emailed her. She asked if the photo on this page was of her daughter. I would have no way of knowing this. I had thought of saving the photo on my desktop and I am still of two minds about saving it. I would now have a piece of evidence to show the mother. But the photo of a teenager was so sexually suggestive, that I dared not put it on my computer.

I wrote her a description as I remembered it and I have not heard from her since.

Letter from a Student

It rare that for me that I receive any kind of praise from my students. In fact the opposite is true. Teenagers tend to be critical of everything, teachers included. Perhaps I am normal, but I feel vulnerable to student criticism. They can tell me things and I often take it to heart. Probably I try to be even too reasonable. A case in point is the point of almost open rebellion from many of my fourth period students about doing a research paper. My sixth period did it without complaint. My fourth period claimed that I did not take them through enough steps. I took them through all of the steps. Then I gave them an extra week to work on it. I suppose that my mistake was to let them work in groups. Many excuses about "So and so has the paper and they are absent today."

I could go on and on about this class, but I must give credit to the very cooperative group in the class also who obviously like my class. Then there is the group who resists and criticizes just about everything that I do.

Yesterday I went to my mailbox in the Faculty room and pulled out a little envelope. I said to a faculty member who was there, "That's from a student." Both the size of the envelope and its wrinkled exterior betrayed its author. I always think when I receive something like this, "It could be good news and it could be bad news."
Here is what it said:

Dear Mr. Lynch

One might feel kind of weird weird writing a letter to an English teacher because I know it isn't perfect grammar or punctuation, but I'll put my best efforts into it. I'm just another student at Analy trying to get my education for the future. I'm also a student in your fourth period English class. Many of my friends are in that class along with me, or at least people I'd like to call friends. I think sometimes I have a lot in common with many of my peers, but last week during class I found a huge difference between them and myself.

When we began the discussion about the research paper, I just expected the same kids would be yelling out complaining about how difficult it is and how they didn't listen or go to tutorial for help. But I soon realized it went much further than that. In my opinion it went too far. I felt uncomfortable being in the classroom, surrounded by so much negativity and outspoken words of naive children trying to sound like adults and putting down your profession. When I heard a girl say that you're a horrible teacher and that she hadn't learned anything that whole year, and the chanting of kids agreeing with her, I was mortified. Not only because I completely disagree, but mostly because I've never seen so much lack of respect. Even if they truly believe that, it's one of those opinions one keeps to themselves or comes and tells you in private.

I think that a lot of the outbursts in class are ridiculous. I thought that everything would calm down after Tanner left, but I could see how badly that hurt your feelings. I thought I saw your eyes water a bit and it made me want to cry too. (In actuality my eyes did not water, but the comment did sting.)

This letter was in no way meant to get me a higher grade, or kiss up to the teacher. As a matter of fact I would prefer to remain anonymous. I enjoy your teaching methods so much more than other teachers that I have. I think that you like to teach sort of on a tangent, which some may not understand, but I find it so much more interesting than the boring text. Learning from experience and stories has always been so much easier for me to grasp. You're very laid back and you have a youthful energy, which makes you easy to listen to and hard to believe that you're retiring. Your composure when you're being yelled at by smart asses really inspires me to be mentally stronger.

All in all, you're an inspiration and an amazing teacher. I'm glad that I've had you as a teacher before you left. Even though some may beg to differ, I know you will be missed and I'll remember you ten years from now when I think back on my favorite teachers from high school. Please don't change your teaching methods because of what those kids say or do. On day they'll look back and regret some the things they've said and done. Karma's a bitch.

The letter is not signed. I found it very powerful and I have never receive a letter from a student with this amount of compassion for a teacher.

Even more unusual I received a facebook message from a student that I was trying to contact. They had written to themselves ten years ago and I am in the process of finding them to give them the letters that I have been holding on to. This was a really tough group that I had then. The were a part of a school within a school called the Academy. Really it was all the unmotivated students put together into one class, very difficult.

Here is what Krissy said:

Re: Your "old" Teacher

No way!!! Hi Mr. Lynch. I hope you are doing well.
Thank you for remembering me. That letter sounds interesting. You know, I thought about you the other week randomly. I guess I was intuned with you trying to send me that letter maybe. Also, I wanted to say I'm sorry for giving you such grief in the classroom when I was younger. You have always been a good man, and I was a rebellious teenager. I still feel bad for that.

-Take care

Amazing - the power of the word.