Best Albums of 2011: One more person trying to force their musical tastes onto you.

Sometimes I feel that, as an English teacher I should be selecting albums for their lyrical genius, but this year was at tough one, and was really looking for albums that spoke to me. I looked back over the year and searched out the music that stomped on my foot (really happened with one album), or grabbed me by the pelotas (metaphorical, of course). So below you will find some albums that were meaningful to me, but that will undoubtedly rock your socks off. Enjoy! Listen to them here.

 

1. Bon Iver - Bon Iver

Yeah I know, what list as this album not been on? I suppose there is a reason it is so universally acclaimed: it is amazing!!!  Put a ton of great musicians together and add in Vernon’s beautiful auto-tuned falsetto, and I would be upset if it was anything less than amazing. I’ll leave the reviews for the professionals, and I’ll just tell you why I love it. It’s so damn unique. The album is unlike anything else I’ve heard (even their previous album). There appears to be a bit of 80’s era (Gayngs) influence, but it sounds nothing like that album either. If you haven’t heard it yet, step out from the hole you’ve been living in, put on a pair of headphones or crank it in the car, and let the album carry you on a sonic journey.

2.  The Joy Formidable - The Big Roar

Trying to distract myself from working on my thesis, I stumbled onto NPR's SXSW live stream just as Joy Formidable started playing their set. I was blown away. Such a powerful driving sound from a three-person band. Plenty of reverb, plenty of clashing cymbals, plenty of guitar solos. It is hard not to start moving when listening to this band. So much of the reason why I love this band, however, cannot be separated from the fact that they are amazing live. Ritzy Bryan, the Welsh lead singer, can rock out with the best of her male counterparts (maybe better) evidenced by videos from live performances where she jumps around the stage and smashes guitars to pieces. At the same time when she slows down and sings some of her more potent lyrics, she does so with such a convincing and calm, almost creepy, wide-eyed stare that it leaves you a little hypnotized. Later you may just find yourself checking your phone to see how far you need to drive to see them again tomorrow night. I can’t wait to see what their second album looks like (they hit the studio in November so I guess we’ll all have to wait and see).

3. Middle Brother - Middle Brother

Paste Magazine claimed on that these guys “out-monstered Monster of Folk,” and that about sums it up, end of review. Ok really, this band (a side project for members of Deer Tick, The Dawes, and Delta Spirit) can rock out so wild it seems like they don't care (take the title track as an example), but the music is too damn beautiful and well composed to believe that this is really the case. The album also has several heartfelt little ditties like “Daydreaming,” that capture the pains of being a single dude (It reminded me of my own high school desperation). Overall, Middle Brother will move you both through the honesty of their lyrics and the grooviness of their jams. Listen to them now! 

4. Seryn- This is Where We Are

I am a sucker for harmonies, and Seryn's five-part harmonies and accompanying folk melodies nail it.  Each song builds in intensity and by the end many downright take my breath away (if this sounds a little cheesy listen to "Beach Song" uninterrupted and tell me I am wrong). Throughout each song, the singers’ harmonies blend with the fingerpicked banjo and violin (as well as the trumpet, guitar, cello, ukulele, accordion, drums, pump organ, bells, and the occasional foot stomp). I can't help but sing along to this band, but I am simultaneously reminded that I can't sing (so I just turn up the volume, and belt it out louder). This is also a great album to listen to when relaxing. Crank it up, close your eyes, and let it wash over you. Considering Paste magazine also voted Seryn's SXSW set the best live performance of the year, I will need to see these guys live in 2012. Anyone want to join me?

5. Gillian Welch - The Harrow & the Harvest-

My wife gets mad when I put this album on, and makes fun of me for enjoying this folk-country album, ironic considering I was the one who cringed when she spun the radio dial to a country music station when we were in high school. I suppose I've grown up, or gotten soft in my old age. Either way, the music of Gillian Welch and the subtle harmonies of her partner David Rawlings, especially the first three songs and "Tennessee", haunt me every time I put on a pair of headphones and listen to the album. Even Rawlings' upbeat fingerpicking can't lift the album up out of the somber mood it creates. This album has a special place in my heart, and may be my most meaningful pick of the year, because I spent a lot of time listening to it while drinking alone, and fending off depression this spring. (Looking back, this might not have been the best practice, but it just felt right.)

6. Fucked Up - David Comes to Life

First of all, you gotta love the lyrics (though you have to pay attention to understand them). David Comes to Life is a tragic love story/ battle between good and evil,  that also attempts to investigate the nature of fiction and storytelling. Pretty heavy for a hardcore band (no pun intended). Musically the album is beautiful. From the opening intro track "Let Her Rest" to the end of the album, the harmonizing electric guitars and the addition of Jennifer Castle and Madeline Folin singing, clash magnificently with the gutteral vocals of David Abraham. This album claimed an even more intimate place in my heart when I saw Fucked Up perform just about the whole thing at the Casbah. I didn't expect such a small place to get rowdy so I wore sandals. After the pit broke out during the first 30 seconds of the show, and Abraham drew the small crown into frenzy, I had to get in the middle of it. A friend, Luke Perkins (who had never been in a pit before) and I soaked up the sweat of others and gritted our teeth as we got our feet stomped to smithereens. I loved every minute of it. Listen to it and you will see why it is impossible to just sit still.

7 Tune- Yards - W H O K I L L

Another NPR find, tax dollars well spent, was this year’s Tune Yards album. Meryl Garbus’ unique style of singing/ warbling, interesting instrumentation, and clever lyrics (my favorite is Gangsta) makes her another powerful front-woman. I was surprised with how unique this album was, and immediately hooked, as you will be too.  

8 Iron and Wine - Kiss Each Other Clean

This alum is quite a departure from the traditional, mellow acoustic style present in Iron and Wine's previous work, namely Creek Drank the Cradle, and Our Endless Numbered Days. Some hate it for that fact, but I love it. Though the album is much more upbeat than prior albums, Sam Beam likened it to 70’s radio songs, the same attention to detail is present in the lyrics (check out the lyrics of "Walking Far from Home," and "Big Burned Hand"). I also love the full band. The saxophone lends the album a jazzy feel, while the bass and electric guitars do their fair share of funking things up.

9 The Decemberists – The King is Dead

The most radio-friendly Decemberists album, may have helped to spread the bands sphere of influence and introduce people to new vocabulary words. Leave to Colin Meloy to make a poppy album that still includes words like loam and plinth (making his English teacher proud no doubt). Beyond Meloy’s always powerful and interesting lyrics (my favorite = “Don’t Carry it All), I really enjoyed the upbeat more sing-along style album. I like the rural living theme, and listen to this album when I am missing the wilderness. I also just listen to it whenever I feel like good music. 

Other great albums (that couldn’t be excluded):

The Cave Singers- No Witch- I stumbled upon this band this year and fell in love with Pete Quirk’s scratchy raw voice. This indie rock/folk band sets the foot a tappin’ with the rockin’ jams like “Black Leaf” and mellows things out with more gypsy-style groove tunes like “Outer Realms.” Both styles are interesting and provide depth when listening to the album as a whole.

The Civil Wars- Barton Hollow: Harmony-laden country-leaning folk duo in the same genre as Gillian Welch but sounding more upbeat, The Civil Wars manage to fit a lot of misery into their beautiful songs. Take a close look close look at the lyrics and you’ll see. Overall, Barton Holow is a beautiful album. My wife loves it, go figure.

The Black Keys- El Camino – Another great album by the Black Keys. Lovin’ the new distortion effects and the backup singers on some of the songs. Foot-tapping goodness, in fact it makes you want to dance. Perhaps like this guy (this is the official video for “Lonely Boy” btw).

 

 

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@StoneBrewingCo South Park tasting room open in 2 days. Extra space on the left for beer pong? @SDbeer

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Walks and runs through the wilderness somehow make the rest of life make more sense…

Walks and runs through the wilderness somehow make the rest of life make more sense but I don’t really get that much of a chance to do either living within the San Diego City limits. What does pass for wilderness here is mostly in the form of canyons or hills that all run the same shade of brown (with a few greenish-brown cacti or scrub brush dotting their sides). Despite that, I have tried to find as much time as possible exploring San Diego’s wilderness and beaches and have found that spending time there makes going back to “real life” a little easier. Even better are the far-too-infrequent opportunities I’ve had to wander further abroad in mountains and forests, surrounded by the smell of pine and the sound of the wind in the trees. It is out there alone wandering, running, just staring at it all, that I can regain some of the sanity I lost throughout the year. Jack Kerouac does a much better job summing up this feeling in this quote from Dharma Bums:  

"I felt like lying down by the side of the trail and remembering it all. The woods do that to you, they always look familiar, long lost, like the face of a long-dead relative, like an old dream, like a piece of forgotten song drifting across the water, most of all like golden eternities of past childhood or past manhood and all the living and the dying and the heartbreak that went on a million years ago and the clouds as they pass overhead seem to testify (by their own lonesome familiarity) to this feeling." 

Perhaps, as Kerouac points out, the reason that I have found so much solace in the mountains and wild places is because when I am there I realize that my life is so small. That really, as much good as I do or as much as I screw up, the world will continue: what I do is truly insignificant. Instead of this realization crushing me (as it probably should), I find hope in it. It really doesn’t make any logical sense, but feeling insignificant is completely necessary to being able to stand in these cathedrals of nature and truly appreciate them. Being laid low by the power, grandeur, and beauty of these places makes me want to reconnect with what it is that makes them so magnificent.

The photos below might do a better job summing up what I mean.

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The things that made 2010 survivable, i.e. what I need to do more of this year

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It’s my last day of winter break and I’m finally getting around to writing this post. This last year has been a formative one. In 2010 I have traveled, reflected on life, tried to change how I teach / learn, and worked on being a better friend and family member. Throughout this year a few moments have stood out: breakthroughs, moments of realization, being awestruck by the beauty of a place, being overwhelmed by my relationships with others. In looking it all over, I’ve noticed that my best moments of the year have some things and people in common. So I decided write about what they have in common and how those things have helped sustain me this year. Because it is also the start of a new year, I hope to spend more time appreciating these people and participating in these life-giving activities.

So, in short, this is a list of bests and resolutions, and it comes it 5 parts (I think).

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Write what you know. Words of wisdom handed down by one of the many knowledgeable English teachers I had in college. And I plan to do that very thing right now.  

Some call me a beer snob, beer geek, beer connoisseur or aficionado. However unpleasantly or bourgeois (or unpleasantly bourgeois) you make it sound, I like beer and I know it well! What follows is the list of the best beers I’ve imbibed in the last year mind you. Not the beers released this year (I’m not that hardcore). I recommend you find these beers immediately, and indulge you inner beer geek-ness, you won’t be sorry. 

Best beer + drinking experience

1. BrewDog Tokyo- At 18% ABV and $8 per glass you really have to earn this beer. So I drank it after running a half marathon. This incredibly unique beer, added a nice needed numbness to my legs and body that was well appreciated after running. Considering the alcohol it is not too boozey, the booze is covered up by complex fruit, oak, and maybe herbs(?). It kicked my ass almost as much as the ½ marathon. 

2. Bitches Brew- I drank this with some great company on my birthday. My wife arranged a beer-luck (beer + a food paired to go with it potluck). I drank this with amazing brownies made with  Bitches Brew... beer-gasm! Chocolatey smooth beer with chocolatey spicy brownies = amazing!

3. Monks mistress Midnight Sun- I drank this delicious Belgian strong ale while with my in-laws looking out at a beautiful cloud covered lake a few miles outside of Seward, AK. I bought this and a few other  Midnight Sun beers to share with Steve Reed, who wanted to get to know some new types of beer. So we talked, watched the rain fall and drank delicious beer. Later we visited the Brewery in Anchorage and were impressed by other beers too. I thought we’d be stuck drinking Alaskan amber, and MGD for the 2 weeks we were in AK but low and behold Midnight Sun Brewing saved the day. Just check out their page on ratebeer, an amazing array of good and unique beers.

Best beer-  uniqueness

1. Stone Belgo RIS- Wow. I love Stone’s Russian Imperial stout to begin with but mix in some Belgian yeast and the resulting chocolate/ coffee/ fruity goodness was fantastic.  

2. Green Flash Grand Mantis- Merlot barrel aged Belgian with brett (sour yeast). This beer just overwhelmed me. Sour, fruity, a little bit of wood and wine smoothing it out = Amazing! Since I had this beer at a special Hamilton's night I doubt I’ll ever see it again.

3. Marin Old Dipsea Bourbon Barrel Aged Barleywine – Had this at Hamilton's and was amazed at the bourbon smell and flavor. I prefer my bourbon barrel aged beer to taste a lot like bourbon and this one did! At the same time the rich boozey vanilla of the barleywine balanced it out. I drank this too fast, but loved it.

Lists of 2010's bests

I've spent a lot of time in the last few weeks considering my top albums, films, beers, and books of the year. A friend of mine loves lists and encouraged me to do so. I've really enjoyed the process. I've found some great music, drank some insanely delicious beers, read some great and not so great literature (grad school), and watched altogether too much TV and movies. As I went through these lists, and poured over which I should pin the ribbon of "best of the year" onto, I realized that my focus has been in the wrong place this year.

For one, I am way too indecisive and found it nearly impossible to nail down a list of the best, just doing so makes me terrified that I might make a mistake (God forbid I leave out something out on a website that no one else reads). I have since changed my approach. Instead of fretting over which beer is better than another beer, I’ve decided to focus on using this time to savor what I have read, drank, watched, etc. And, if I’m lucky and someone does read this, I also hope that these lists leave him or her with some suggestions as to what to partake in next year, as well as give them a brief understanding of who I am and what I value.

So along with that, the second revelation I had while looking back at the year was that most of my bests didn't have to do with things that I consumed (though I still am going to put those up here since I spent so much damn time thinking about them). Most of the best moments of this year cannot be summed up in a list of beers that I drank or the music I listened to. These moments may include beer (most assuredly they do!) and music (again, undoubtedly!) but they are also interwoven in with faces, conversation, scenery, and other things that add meaning to them. So as I go about listing my bests of 2010 I intend to mix in a lot of memories, pictures, and lessons learned along the way, and I hope that as you finish up the year consider your best memories, creations, revelations, and challenges overcome. 

  Salud!

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Faded High by Gayngs (one of the best songs of the year)

Faded High by mjgonzales

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▶ Anaïs Mitchell w/ Justin Vernon - Wedding Song

via soundcloud.com

Folky melodic, sweet

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Half Marathon.

Before:

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The End of History

Fitting name for this new beer by Brewdog. This 55% alcohol Belgian
ale (which is technically whiskey since it's been cold-distilled) is
packaged in the friendly taxidermied bodies of local Scottish wildlife
(think beer + action figure). I hope the intention of this beer is to
highlight the extreme lengths that brewers go to make their beers
standout (i.e. vortex bottles, and cold activated cans). If that was
the case then they have succeeded because the beer sold out in hours.

Surely, I love that more people are drinking good beers and less
mass-produced corn and rice drink (aka Coors, miller, and Bud), but
this seems to be a case of the pendulum swinging too far in the
opposite direction. At the same time there is something intriguing
about a squirrel with a beer coming out of it's mouth. Hooray beer!

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Party with the in laws only male in a room of females. Lord help me...

Today I decided to hang out with my inlaws in Escondido. I was the
only guy there. We read people magazine, talked about IUDs, discussed
the joys of pregnancy, and drank white zin. This has truly been an
amazing evening.

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First of the Hops

Hello little baby hop nubbins. In a few months you will be in a tasty IPA.

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Contradiction, or Life Imitating Art?

Don't get me wrong I appreciate this piece of art in the hood. I'm just wondering if the placement isn't a little ironic. Wheat pasted on the side of a very busy Urban Outfitters is a mural that, amongst other things, critiques the blind consumer mentality of the average American. Perhaps it is the artistic mastery of Mr. Fairey, a commentary on the people stuck within the of the Urban Outfitter mindset, except that the opposite is in fact happening. While I was admiring and taking pictures many of those who were admiring alongside me decided to browse the  sidewalk sale that Urban Outfitters was having. In essence the artwork condemning consumption is acting like the invisible hand of the market ushering people into vendor of overpriced unescessary goods. I can't imagine that this wasn't the intention of Shepard Fairey, but I'll bet it was a consideration of the owners of the business.

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Here it is folks. Buy all the independence you want. Everything is for sale. 

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The picture you couldn't see. 

Mosaic Gardens, art v. Reality

This image sums up a lot. The mosaic of writing above the shopping cart says  "real world". That combined with the illegaly parked shopping cart provide an interesting intersection of the beauty and poverty which compete for attention in the "real world." Beauty, often synonomous with money, is constantly creating murals and mosaics, rules and redistriticting,trying to rid the world of unsightliness. And poverty, continually rearing its unsightly head, with its homelessness and graffiti, slums and trash, keeps encroaching on the "beauty" of the world  that the rich try to create.  This type if beauty, one that ignores reality, is a false beauty.

Taking a step further back reveals that this is just part of the phrase the mosaic spells out. The whole thing reads "art is the center of the real world." So, if there is any truth in the photo, the cliched mosaic quote, and the placement of it in a poor neighborhood, then it must also be that art exists everywhere someone is digging into and exposing the difficult reality we find ourelves in. Art exists when we cut through the false beauty and see the truth in what surrounds us.

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Attempting to be rocky, like every Other tourist around. Except I had to film myself. I am a dork.  

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As you can see I'm in Philadelphia now. And in case you're wondering they make really aweseome vegeterian Philly cheesesteaks. 

Gag Reflex- Picante de Cuy

I pride myself on having a bit of a culinary adventure every now and again. So far on this trip I haven't gone wrong. I've ordered several and eaten several Peruvian, Nicaraguan, Israeli, Chinese, Italian, and Amercan food dishes never knowing quite what it was that I ordered or received. Random mystery meats, odd pastries, new fruits, funky smelling cheeses, unusual animal parts (cow's feet, heart, liver, spleen) But I finally met my match.

It's called a cuy, it looks like a rat. Some say it tastes like chicken and has crisp delicate skin like a suckling pig, but eating just a 1/4 of one almost made me a lifetime vegetarian.

Most people know it as a guinea pig, and it was my dinner last night. These rodents originate in the Andes and usually find their way into the western world via hamster ball, or small wire cages. Here in Peru and many other Andean countries, however, they are a delicacy, and are prepared in a myriad of ways: baked, fried, cooked in a spicy sauce (picante - the way I had it), in soups, casseroles, fricasseed, barbecued, etc.

The animals were also used to predict the future. Shaman during Inca, and pre-Inca times would spill the guts of the small creature and the resulting layout of carnage could forecast the future or diagnose medical ailments. Clearly, they were damn important. The Spanish realized this and tried to make cultural inroads via the cuy in this painting found in Cuzco's cathedral. (Take a close look at Jesus' main dish).

Now as far as food goes I would recommend keeping cuys as pets not livestock. I was a litle concered when I ordered the guinea pig, but my fear was assuaged by the amount of people ordering them in the restuarant I was in, and by many others who told me that it was very similar to chicken. When it arrived I was even more reassured by the delicious aroma of spices and peppers floating up from the plate. I took a bite of potato first and it was delicious, soft and tender, perfectly spiced. Then I tried to take a bite of the cuy. I started sawing with my knife. The skin was like a rubber armor protecting the scant amount of meat. I thought it would be easier when I finally got to the meat below, but it turned out the meat was stringy and almost as tough. Three minutes later I cut free my first bite, I was already kind of nauseated but I went for it anyway. Chewing the skin felt like eating overcooked beef gristle, or old a piece of an old pair of sandals. The taste was about the same, old shoe and sandal mixed together. I cringed as I ate. I sawed off a few more pieces and scraped and yanked out what little meat I could, but after a few bites I was fighting back a gag reflex. Maybe it was the taste, or more likely the texture, or perhaps it was the fact that my third grade class had one as a pet, but by the end of the fourth bite I was thoroughly disgusted. I had to throw in the towel. Even looking around the room at the others who were gnawing on cuy bones almost put me over the edge. I am seriously looking forward to a less carniverous diet when I return to the states.

Estoy en Nicaragua y traigo que apprender espanol. Es muy dificil, pero me encanta.

I took my 3rd glance at the clock in an hour and I forgot what the teacher was asking me about. Something about the subjunctive tense and conjugating a verb that I only marginally understood (from her rudimentary explanation in Spanish) "Como?" I asked and slumped onto the table. "Esperas un momento" she responded and went off in search of a dictionary. I took a deep breath and enjoyed the minute break. As I wiped the sweat from my face (80 degrees and humid  at 9 in the morning) I looked around the room. Both of the students we met yesterday (straight A students, one of them attending Berkeley)  had looks of desperation on their faces. The girl had strings of blonde hair sticking out from between her fingers and seemed to be trying to massage the vocabulary into her mind, and the other student was slumped so far over his books that it looked like he was trying to take a nap (which wasn't a bad idea, I thought, after a week's worth of twisting my brain into a new way of thinking).

Had I been teaching, this the lack of energy would have been discouraging. I would have been disappointed with what I saw (disappointed with students behaving as I was now) but now that the tables have been turned a bit I see that it sucks to learn a new language. I have become just like my worst students, unmotivated, tired and even losing track of and not doing my homework. So as I sat there and tried to re-energize myself I realized that if I have a hard time learning another language but have had the benefit of one on one tutoring, 18 years of formal education, and 4 years studying Spanish, then what the hell is to be expected of  students who have no foundation for their education or of this language.

How to apply this is a different matter, perhaps a lot of encouragement and leniency on my part. But for now, as I go back to studying through my packets of homework (very high school-esque), I suppose I'll take a page out of Nicaraguan history (or even a page out of the lives of some of the people living on the streets of this city) many of whose boundless energy seems to show the capacidad y necesidad para luchar (especially if my struggling is only for 4 hours a day and involves beer and sightseeing)

A woman working to support her family




Mi lucha no esta dificil en este momento!

this guy said he goes into the streets each
night to beg for food to eat.

!Viva Cerntroamerica! 

! Que buena esta viaje! Hemos visto muchas cosas interesantes. En el avión vimos la cuidad de Panama. No se que aquel ciudad tiene edificios grandes cerca del mar. cuando llegamos al aeropuerto vimos médicos ( para la H1N1). Los médicos hicieron muchas preguntas y usaron una camera termal y ellos chequearon si los viajeros tienen fiebre. Mas adelante fuimos a la ciudad Granada, cerca del lago Cocibolca. En este cuidad hemos visto iglesias antiguas, hemos conocido gente interesante, hemos bailado la salsa, y por su puesto hemos tomado cervezas. Hemos muchas cosas y tenemos dos semanas mas. En los semanas siguientes iremos a una ciudad que estaba importante en la guerra contra, y finalmente subiremos un volcán vivo (y va a tomar ron y cervezas también).

Se extrañaron mucho,
hasta la próxima vez,

Mateo

The National Pandemic We Should Care About

In the last week the principal at my high school has been more proactive on the campus than any time in the history of her employment there: making announcements posting bulletins, sending ridiculously long emails, and supplying every classroom with soap water, and paper towels (so that desks may be washed daily). All to address the swine sickness, the improbable infirmity that has inundated news coverage and has even recently caused residents in Spain to barricade themselves inside their homes. And though the news would have us believe swine flu  or ______________ (substitute other illnesses with animals modifiers, i.e.- avian flu, or a mad cow disease) is the next black plague, I am reluctant to hop on the hurtling bandwagon of hypochondriacal hysteria. So, before I scour the depths of of the a surplus shop for hazmat suits and black market retrovirals, I’d like to address another issue of a deeper and more pressing concern - slaktasyck-idleritis, or more commonly referred to as apathy.

This a common disease which spreads more expediently and thoroughly than an even the hysteria surrounding the would-be-epidemic of swine flu, it also seems to be a plague that is resistant to the remedies that have been devised to restrict its spread. Someone you know may have been affected by this disease if they suffer from slouched shoulders or a slow shuffling walk. This malcontented malaise often leads to instances of prolonged sluggishness, evidenced by heavy eyelids or, alternatively, blank stares. Perhaps its most deleterious effect, however, occurs in its later stages (often too late to cure) when the general lethargy gives way to out and out slovenliness. Patients often shirk responsibilities regardless of result, are troubled with a shorter attention span, and fail to wake up until late in the afternoon (those suffering from acute cases are even know to suffer from bouts of narcolepsy, falling asleep even during the most important or interesting occasions). This illness is spreading through high school campuses and suburban neighborhoods everywhere.

Case study to follow

I found the answer to my previous blog post:

Mr. T as a role model and teacher. "I pity the fool who gets bad grades" We'll have to get someone else for the resisting materialism, and cosmetology classes, but its a start.

Is this what I want to do for the rest of my life?
This week of blank stares & disaffected teenagers has been  tough one, one that makes me reconsider teaching high school

"There is one thing you need to make sure that you include in your essay: connection to the real world . It's time to go beyond the literature and into the real world, like we did in our discussion last week. You need to take what ruined Macbeth's life, what caused him to kill, and connect that with a troy that you are familiar with." I said to my class two weeks ago, emphasizing its importance and underlining important words on the board. When I had finished my two minute tirade I glanced out hoping to see students taking notes but was instead met with  blank stares (some slackjawed with eyes glazed over - just short of drooling- two minutes was apparently too much direct instruction). I let the silence hang for a minute and whispered "you should probably write this down." One or two students moved which dragged a handful of other students out of their stupor and caused them to ask their neighbors what was going on. As 1/2 the class slowly scribbled down the short notes (the other half not yet aroused from their daydream) I stared into this future pool of humanity and sighed.

Flash forward two weeks into the future. It is essay deadline day, and looking back I feel like I have taught these students, as best I know how, what they need to do to create a strong essay. I repeated instructions and tips for roughly two weeks, at least twice a day. WE brainstormed ideas together and they made connections in their notebooks. I created an online discussion board that students shared ideas on to ensure they were headed in the right direction. I handed out examples of an essay that successfully did what I was asking, and together we broke down the elements of the argument (I wrote the examples myself because I had not taught it before). I organized students into groups to check for this concept in each others papers. I put the students through workshops to make sure that they had honed this concept in their essays.  I gave students several hours to write and work in class. These are all of the most effective techniques that I have learned to create a successful community of writers from some of the best teachers in San Diego County, and yet upon reading these essays (now three weeks in the making) I see that it was not enough. Half of the students never included what we discussed, and to put it bluntly, their papers suck!

Sure you could argue that they have been undereducated for so many years before, and they come from poorer families, which make them much less likely to succeed. They are part of a digital age which makes focusing on an essay much less easy. It could even be argued that because I am a new teacher I am destined to be much less effective at teaching writing to my studetns. I will grant that these reasons contribute to some students poor acheivment (except the last one, my teaching is flawless -ha), but it's an explanation that just feels lacking. It seems the problem goes deeper. This poor acheivement seems to stem from one of our culture's major flaws. It seems that these students, who plan to go to college and become well paid business professionals, are living the new version of the American dream, one that tells Americans something comes from nothing. A dream that allows them to have the world handed to them without having to work for it. There are many contributing factors: doting parents, poor role models (think popular musicians, movies, and even business professionals) lack of consequesnces for bad decisions (invincibilty of being a teen), irrelevant teaching etc. etc. I am not so concerned with searching out the blame, but I am very interested in searching out the cause and combating it using the education system. What are teachers doing to battle apathy? How can these subdivided separately assessed skills be affixed, in a meaningful way, into studetns lives? How can we team up with other organizations to change the culture of the sutdetns who attend our schools?

Big questions without immeadiate answers. But I suppose the fact that I am willing to ask after this week, shows that I stilll care about teaching. We'll see if I feel the same way after reading all of the essays! ARGH!

Hugo Chavez is the Enemy of who exactly?

Many have claimed that Chavez, the leader of Venezuela (who recently helped the country do away with term limits that would enable him to remain president as long as he can be reelected) has been referred to by many as an enemy of the US. George W. Bush  declared the Venezuelan democracy an "unchecked concentration of power in the executive," which, although incredibly ironic (the whole pot & kettle thing), makes a valid point in light of practices such as the term limit removal mentioned earlier. But some take their criticism a little further as good old Pat Robertson does here, "We have the ability to take him out, and I think the time has come that we exercise that ability," and "If he thinks we're trying to assassinate him, I think that we really ought to go ahead and do it... It's a whole lot cheaper than starting a war…and I don't think any oil shipments will stop". (Ah, nothing like well paid vocal Christians preaching self-interest, murder, and war to make the rest of us look good)

Though most aren't as extreme as W or Robertson, much of what I've seen having to do with Chavez is negative. Which begs the question, what is the other side of the story? Well, here it is. The below documentary The Revolution Will not be Televised  set out to make a documentary of Chavez's life and accidentally captures a military coup launched by the several consevative businessmen and military officers (They admit to their involvement on TV!) Even if the politics of Latin America aren't something you're interested in, this is a fascinating look at how easy it is to manipulate the government and the media in a poor country (and may make you ask the same questions about our system here)

Enjoy!!!
 

The Father, the Son, the Holy Spirit, and the Bird Man

I just finished watching Bill Maher’s Religulous, which was, to put it lightly, annoying and tedious. But despite the films flaws it introduced me to something I had never heard before. The connection between the story of Jesus Christ as told in the Gospels and the story of Horus, the falcon headed Egyptian god. I am in no way invested in the idea the scripture is inerrant nor was this the first time I had heard about mythology or pagan religions influencing the bible. My faith wasn’t shattered when in college I read the Epic of Gilgamesh and learned that the story of the flood in Exodus was most likely borrowed from that text. In fact I already assumed that a great many Old Testament stories were mythical and meant to be instructive not historical. But I had never taken that approach or heard similar stories to New Testament until Mr. Maher introduced Jesus’ bird headed distant cousin.

He really has a lot in common with Jesus. Check it out Virgin birth, son of (a) god, performed miracles (including both raising a guy named Lazarus from the dead), said to be the savior, had 12 disciples, crucified on a cross around age 30, rose again 3 days later after defeating death, etc. In case you might have been confused about the timing this legend came about at least 2000 years before Christ was to have lived. That would mean that biblical authors borrowed their ideas from the Egyptians. And unless the savior comes back around every so often (which would stoke fans of the Matrix) this knocks me a little off of my foundation.

Since reading a little bit about this I’ve been trying to determine if it takes away much of my faiths’ validity. However that is a good thing. It has caused me to reevaluate the most important tenants of my faith. For example, it’s really not that important that Jesus was born of a virgin or that he turned water into wine (though I was excited about that one). The crucifixion + resurrection, on the other hand, are kind of key. What does my faith look like without them? If that part of Christianity is negated then things might get a little tricky. Without this tenant of Christianity, essentially the part that says Jesus died to forgive our sins, the backbone is seemingly cut out of out of my understanding of God, my faith becoming a jellyfish beached and waiting to die, or is it?

So some questions remain:

• Am I reading too much into this?
• Am I ok with the normal guy Yeshua? Is the fact that he was a peaceweaving           nonconformist and revolutionary enough to follow him? deify him?
•  What remains of my faith without Jesus?
• Is there still the possibility that the Holy spirit speaks to us?
• Is there still the understanding that there is a God of love and his ideal is what we strive for?

Send answers or thoughts if you have them!!

Starting Lent off with a Bang!
This morning I was greeted by a student who was more awake than usual. She walked into my English class at 7:20 this morning shouting "Mr. Gonzales Mardi Gras is today, Whoo! Yeah! Are you gonna party tonight ?!"  I looked up up, half asleep, and saw her shaking a fist full of  purple and yellow metalic beads awaiting my response.  

"Huh?" was all I could think to say. "To be hoest I had no idea it was Fat Tuesday."

"Well I am!!" she  said and turned to talk to another student quietly, but not quietly enough. "Yeah, I'm totally gonna go out tonight. Check out the beads I got last year. I have another  one at home that says show me your tits!! I was gonna wear it today, but I thought it'd get  taken away."

The other student chimed in "That's awesome!! How'd you get 'em?"

At that point I walked to the other side of the room for fear of what else I might hear, and thanked God that my students keep me informed of the deeper meaning of religious holidays.  

To all the Prop 8 Haters
This new video puts everything in perspective (and even includes a guest appearance by Jesus!!!!)

"Prop 8 - The Musical" starring Jack Black, John C. Reilly, and many more... by Jack Black

Improving Teaching Through a Grassroots Reformation: 
Disclaimer: This blog appearrantly struck a chord in me because its a behemoth of ideas all piled together  (feel free to comment on my logic or content- thanks)

An area that I feel compelled to work towards change, as a high school teacher, is the way that our school system deals with English Language Learners (ELLs). To give some concrete understanding to this issue let me reference how my district's has failed in their attempt to reach these students:

1. Lack of a system to address the need - Throw them all at the new inexperienced teachers- I received on my 1st year of teaching, 4 periods of students who, despite progressing through grades k-8, had failed just about every class and still remained functionally illiterate. The only advice I received was to: a. not assign homework (they won't do it) b.  kick out the misbehaving students quickly c. teach them academic vocabulary, with no emphasis on how or what, or mention of the fact that they could barely even read - - Needless to say my first year was rather trying. In fact, throughout the past couple years I've been teaching  these students the majority of teachers teaching this population have given up and moved on to "regular" classes, and, sadly, about half have given up on teaching altogether. At the same time the district and other teachers bemoan falling test scores and a high drop out rate.  
2. Lack of leadership- Though I am often frustrated with my colleagues, I believe the problem does not entirely lie in their hands. No one knows how to deal with these students. Though I do believe that the responsibility should fall on those who are getting paid to figure it out, the district or site level leadership. Our English learner contact person has offered real concrete help in the form of worksheets and get to know you activities (which more often then not came straight out of a book or off the internet- like I can't fucking google shit) For help on my campus I have to seek it out on my own. I have to meet with credible teachers during lunch or pass notes during the useless training sessions. 
   
3. Lack of respect- Teachers who have stepped up to the plate with at desire to make a change (teachers who have been recognized by experts in their fields and have published articles in peer reviewed journals) are often brushed aside by those in power because their ideas may take too much initiative or time to implement. 

Sure, this is just my personal experience, but I hear it echoed by teachers all over the county. I haven't quite worked out the solution, but I know that teachers must  have a larger role in the leadership of any system that will succeed, and I cringe at systems that  place technocratic superintendents in power and allow them to mandate the direction that their districts are heading. In most cases these top down mandates include heavy scrutiny on test scores as a means to gauge the quality of education that students receive. Though these are the most easily  quantifiable measures of teacher performance they do not do a good job of truly grasping how well our students really comprehend material. A student's limited vocabulary or unfamiliarity with certain cultural interactions may make them unable to understand a reading passage or the questions being asked. Also, these types of high stakes tests are one of the worst ways of testing English language learners, impoverished, and special education students due to the fact that they have different methods of organizing information (they often do not arrange things in hierarchical logical patterns- like this blog post for example). A perfect example of this is the fact that the only students who do not pass high school exit exams are ELLs and Sp Ed students. Don't get me wrong, it is undoubtedly the purpose of the school system to introduce students to this type of formalized, logical way of thinking. It's just that I don't see that tests are helping do that, they instead show students that our education system values arbitrariness. The biggest flaw of standardized testing is in the message it sends to our kids. If we value critical inquiry and in depth reading & writing  then why give students tests that have them filling in bubbles. The most formal piece of most students k-12 educations often just become guesswork (a striking percent of students score less than 25% -that means they didn't even guess well), that has little bearing on their lives at all. No wonder students don't buy into the education system, they see no value in it. I believe our efforts to educate must include efforts to help students see the relevance of their education and its implication in the world they live in - Perhaps a school where students confront real life problems and atttempt to make a difference, like the school  Adam Doster suggests in his article "The Conscious Classroom." These kind of ideas could confront the youth culture's uninterest in the education system (a huge factor in student failure that is rarely talked about)

 Another thing that worries me about the education reform movements is the frequency that  finger is pointed at teachers who are substandard and need to be removed them from their positions. Of course these these crappy teachers exist. We all had them in high school and there are many  on my campus that are way overdue for retirement, but these crochety x-mas sweater wearing curmudgeons are only part of the problem. Rarely is there discussion about how to procure money needed to fund programs like NCLB, or create students that are critical thinkers v. those that can take tests. Even if there is discussion of failing teachers there is little discussion seeking to find the reason that teachers do get burnt out: they can no longer see hope in their jobs. The students are less interested, and there are more of them. Their jobs are more focused on stagnating in meetings (which more often then not do little to inform or educate teachers), and there is little chance to make their teaching better (unless teachers are motivated to do it themselves on their own time). So many trudge back to their dilapidated caves armed with a red pen and coffee mug (or if you were my HS math teacher- a flask of tequila) and await retirement.

That said, there are many teachers who, given the chance to have their voices heard and the responsibility to make their ideas reality, might actually make change. Like the most effective and healthy revolutions, the  change in education structure begins at the grassroots level, not at the top. Instead of being marketed by ACSD or any other education publisher, ideas need to come from teachers that are using them in the classroom. Take for example the National Writing Project a teacher lead professional devolpment group that is revolutionizing the way teachers approach academic writing in their classrooms.

There is a lot of experience and knowledge in our schools waiting for an outlet.  But this power can't be fully tapped until it can find an outlet in the school system itself. A reformation or revolution of the education system can't really take shape until those at the top acknowledge where the power lies.

I have a Rockstar friend

Tim you are so freakin brutal!


Thanks for the fun at the show.
By the way, the kid Tim reaches down to high five is Brad Sonnenburg my housemate. Brad subsequently almost smashes his face on the concrete and gets roughed up by security guards, definietly the highlight of the show.

I've been passionate about teaching lately because I've found a way to revitalize less exciting parts of the English class. With help of several other English teachers I've worked to create a them based course of study including modern films and news stories. The goal of the whole thing was to engage students so that they care and put more effort into their work. Success has been mixed. Sure I gripe a lot, (there have been times I've wanted to drop kick kids in my classes over the goal posts of our CIF winning football team's stadium), but I have had some breakthroughs where students were able to learn a new things about themselves or their world. But the question remains: is this what I really want to spend my time on? I pour 10- 15 hours a week into crafting awesome lessons and pouring over students papers, and usually spend another 30-35 hours discovering the futility of that work as my lesson plans fall apart, and students toss corrected work straight into the trash.

So before I slit my wrists, or elicit a lot of sympathy comments from those few who read this blog, I do have a positive, albeit profoundly obvious reflection that I've gained from this failed teaching effort: I should do something else.

I've always had a predisposition towards the aiding the neglected, but I wasn't sure if it was just a romantic notion of doing the happy- helppy thing, or if it was a true "calling." However, as I sit reflecting over the day, the week, the year, I realize that I'm always drawn to the neglected. The most fulfilling and challenging part of teaching is working with lower level learners, or helping first time high school grads find their way into the right college. Giving a leg up to the kids who the rest of society has put down is incredibly fulfilling, when it happens. That said, it is such a small part of my teaching, why not move on and find somewhere (if only just for a short time) that I can make a difference. Why not live abroad? Why not study the failures of the education system in the poor parts of Mexico or South America and help kids learn before they even get here? Why not investigate the sources of the problems causing such apathy in students, and attempt to reverse them? At the very least I'll appreciate teaching more, or, hopefully, I'll find something I love even more.

So then, it remains a question of when, where, and how to get started. Something I plan on focusing on this year, wish me luck!!

Congo - Seeking $ and Power Through Exploitation and Intimidation (Part 1)

Another African country is in the news!!!

WTF?

Can't they get their sh*t together over there. Those Africans are always killing each other, how do these crazy people gain power?

Oh yeah, I forgot that we (rich Europeans and Americans) are the reason that Africa is so F***ed up. Case and point, the current continually disintegrating situation in the Democratic Republic of Congo. a country whose problems began with one such crazy leader, the greedy and ambitious King Leopold II of Belgium. Leopold Exploited the DRC's resources for his own gain. In order to ensure total access to the resources he severely mistreated the Congolese, forcing people to work in the rubber plantations and mutilating them when they would not do so. An estimated 10 million people died during the reign of Leopold II. With his example, and the most desired cache of natural resources in Africa to fight over, how can we be surprised that today the area is in tumult?

Today's resource of choice however is no longer rubber, we've discovered more practical and cost efficient ways of producing our car tires. Instead the focus has been on the minerals. The coveted minerals of the day are gold, copper, cobalt, uranium, zinc, and tin; many metals that make our daily lives possible (like this mac I'm typing on right now). And because of the draw of these minerals and unrelated problems in other areas of Africa it seems that several psychotic militiamen have descended on the Congo. Enslaving a new crop of natives to harvest minerals, and displacing millions who live near future mines, leaving them without food and water, or a way of making any money to survive. Some of these refugees have been able receive help from NGOs but many have simply been cut off by the constantly moving warring armies and militias. From the constant fighting and forced removal and general abuse of the soldiers it is estimated that 5.8 million people have died. (more people in any armed conflict since WWII)

But perhaps the most gruesome tragedy is the method in which these militias (which includes just about all the fighting groups including the Congolese government) get villagers to do what they want them to, which I will address in my next post.

Prop 8 protests at Saddleback (on Colbert Report)