vol. 4

three things i think about music...

• a horn section gets my interest immediately (see you're the best thing by ray lamontagne for evidence)
• a peddle steel guitar does the same (see empty, specifically this version by ray lamontagne to catch my drift: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rIUSikXex5w)
• it's pretty darn difficult to not feel better after listening to stevie wonder...

and some other things...

• i really enjoy the top ten list games that we play -- i learn so much about other people this way -- especially when they really think about the answers they provide...
• there is something really, really exciting about watching the looks on your students' faces when they really get something -- we just finished reading a short story called "Sonny's Blues" -- it's not an easy one at all -- but we discussed it and they got it... i mean really got it -- and i played a small role in that -- i'm not really sure i would get that feeling from being a web designer or a journalist...and why in the world would i ever give that up to become a principal?
• ray lamontagne writes in a way that amazes me -- i really connect with a lot of the things he writes with -- as though we've gone through a lot of the same things, metaphorically speaking, i guess... empty has some incredible lines...

i never learned to count my blessings
i choose instead to dwell on my disasters... (i am so damn guilty of this...)

lay your blouse across the chair
let fall the flowers from your hair
and kiss me with that country mouth so plain

well i looked my demons in the eyes
laid bare my chest, said
"do your best, destroy me
you see i've been to hell and back so many times
i must admit you kind of bore me..."

those lines are all part of the song -- not right after each other -- but all part of the same song -- there's great depth to everything he writes -- both the positive and the "negative"... i speak with my kids about determining whether or not you wish you could "steal" the writing of somebody else -- so that you were the one who actually wrote it... i wish i could steal all of those lines...

• love my brother to death, but that prick saw kings of leon last night -- not liking him so much right now...