We celebrated our oldest daughter’s birthday. She was excited that she got to hear her name over the intercom at school. She is still young enough that everyone in her class brings in cards and treats. The youngest was stashing candy and wrappers everywhere, a chaotic flurry of plastic and chocolate. Demanding pizza. Drawing on … Continue reading The Week That Was, or The Shape of Pizza
The week began with some semi-restful snow days. I don’t believe anyone in our home was permanently damaged, though a few tears were shed and more than a few markers bled. The almost-four-year-old sang while we were discussing dinner plans. Her song began, “Tiki masala / I need a dolla.” Not bad. I wrote about … Continue reading The Week That Was, or You got some Duncan Idaho on my Gurney Halleck.
Most of the week was taken up with getting the second semester of school under way. That and the continual fight with the dryer. I will now have to hire a true mercenary after four troubleshooting attempts that have exhausted my limited handyman artillery. I’ve been a lifelong horror fan and spent a lot of … Continue reading The Week That Was, or And But So
Though in different ways, this year was as tough as last year. Maybe that’s just what it is. I wrote seven installments of Test Prep, my contribution to The Terror Test, a horror podcast made by two fellow English teachers. I wasn’t able to write as many as I wanted to, but I’m proud of … Continue reading The Year in Writing 2017
School is incessant. Essays pile up. Standardized tests becloud the horizon. My feet are unfailingly wet. Either my children have hydrokinesis and practice on my socks, or they are careless around water. Despite the times, Friday saw the release of Jasper Lee’s Mirror of Wind LP. Jasper’s most well-known music is on the score for … Continue reading That Time of Year You May In Me Behold
Last night, I was thinking about the blog and how I’ve ignored the blog. I sketched out something like the old monthly updates that Quinn and I used to do. He updated today after a long silence, so I took it as some synchronicity not to ignore. Reading I ordered The Horror Hall of Fame … Continue reading Just like the ones I used to know…
A friend of mine gave me the impossible challenge of picking the five “Greatest Love Songs.” He’s working on a lesson plan for his students and we’ve always had the practice of doing every activity we ask students to do. Of course, I didn’t quite follow directions and I came up with various criteria so … Continue reading Laughable. Unphotographable.
The idea for this came about when a quartet of musicians came together for a week of recording. Rather than simply firing away at each other all week, we started putting together ideas for structure. This was mine. Four musicians and four suits. With that, I only offer the following as general rules to be … Continue reading The Red and The Black: a card game for improvising musicians
For the last few years, I’ve found myself listening to Thai music around the New Year. I don’t know why and I just noticed it when was searching for something new to hear. I discovered Christopher Adler, who I intended to write about in this post. His music is influenced by American minimalism, which I … Continue reading Happy New Ears
Stephen McClurg 