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.
Not too much news, but I will have a few installments of my first fright film fest this week. Click on the titles for trailers. X —The Unknown (1956) Fun sci-fi horror that is basically The Blob before The Blob. A Hammer production, originally meant to be a Quatermass movie, X—The Unknown takes me back … Continue reading the assurance of the mask or Halloween movie fest pt. 3
4. The bird with the coolest name for the “Metallica” font: Archaeopteryx “Without its feathers, Archaeopteryx looks much like a small coelurosaur such as a dromaeosaurid or troodontid.” Yup. More of that here and interesting info on bird/dinosaur history here. 5. The bird with the coolest name for any font: The Blue-footed Booby Everything you … Continue reading Fowl Play: For the Birds: Pt. 2
I think I’ve said in an earlier post how much I love the artwork of this holiday. Every year I swear I am going to decorate and every year I fail and instead offer up a morbid epitaph. The “calaveras literarias” are becoming a tradition for me. And, yes, tonight is grocery night. And, yes, … Continue reading Happy Days of the Dead
For part of our summer reading assignments, we are responding to a few of Poe’s short stories. After reading “The Black Cat,” I’ve asked students to respond with a story or a response about their own fears. I wish I could say I had an interesting personal fear. I’m not talking about the fear of … Continue reading One Snake, Two Snake, Red Snake, Blue Snake
Chase two wombats, catch none. I told him that it’s pretty messed up that his reference for country music was the Dire Straits. It’s hard to muster school spirit when I can’t even cheer for myself. He was right when he said you don’t have to write to please some old, dead author. I would … Continue reading Towards a complete thought.
My life rarely works the way I think it will. Maybe that’s actually normal, I don’t know. Grad school was interrupted the first time by my grandfather’s cancer, then interrupted later by my dropping out, then continued much later after realizing that music, particularly the music that I like to listen to and to play, … Continue reading the post about not posting
While watching and discussing segments of the documentary Merchants of Cool (google it—you can watch it for free!) with sophomores, I found out that the media specialist behind the film, Douglas Rushkoff, has a new book out called Life, Inc. I’m also thinking about my own practices as a teacher and what teaching English means … Continue reading Thinking about Teaching Thinking
Stephen McClurg 