Keep This Going

This was my favorite commercial by far

and made me think of these amazing videos

and one more for good measure

The first half of this school year I’ve been subbing.  Anywhere from pre-school to seniors in high school.  I taught anything from seventh grade girls chorus, boys with behavior disorders, level three special education, pe, ESL, French, home economics, and yes, I even taught band lessons to students who thought I had taught band before, when in fact I had never touched a flute or a trombone.

I worked hard and stayed professional and a month ago Friday a principal from a prestigious elementary in West Des Moines called me.  He said a teacher had resigned that day and that tomorrow I could interview to be the long term sub in that very third grade class.  You must know that this does not happen often at all.  I had subbed a lot at this elementary, knew the staff, and even some of the students.  Up until this point, I wasn’t sure if BreeAnn and I were going to be able to afford even a decent photographer for our wedding, and things were getting pretty tight.  Of course I would interview!  I studied hard and got my crap together.  And in less than 24 hours I was going to interview for a position that could potentially change my course of life, or at least change the course of the next five months.

I decided to wear my interview suit my parents had purchased for me in college.  The suit I wore when I got the job in Arizona.  The principal is ultra professional, so I knew he would appreciate it.  Upon coming in to the interview I looked around the room and saw two other teachers, a vice-principal, and a reading specialist.  They asked me to share a bit about myself.  After telling them I was from Cedar Falls and went to Iowa they said I would be hired.  I laughed a bit and looked around.  It turns out the principal was from Cedar Falls, went to Peet Junior High, and went to Iowa too.  Of course after saying that, they hammered me with questions for about an hour.  They asked me to leave the room and five minutes later they told me that they would not be interviewing the other teachers they had called and were moving forward with me.

So here is what I found out.  I would start Monday with a class that didn’t even know that their teacher had quit only one day before.  They hadn’t even said good-bye.  They have had no structure all year.  No consequences.  They ran the class.

Fast forward.  After three days of teaching, I wasn’t sure I was going to make it.  They are only third graders right?  But at the end of each day I felt like I had been beaten up.  My stomach literally hurt.  I wasn’t hungry.  Where had that feeling of joy and relief of getting a job gone?

That Thursday, and every day since then, I’ve been laying down the smack.  Some to my success and some to my failure.  It’s getting better, but a month into it, there is still room for tons of improvement.  I eat lunch with the kids every Wednesday, call/email parents, go to meetings, and have my own name card.  Overall, I’m glad to be back on a staff doing my thing.  And I know if I can turn this class around I will have a job in the fall.

These last seven or so months have been pretty up and down.  But 90% up.  The only major down has been financially.  And just when I wasn’t sure if I was going to afford anything, God steps in and got me a job.  Now, whether I have it or not in the fall, I’m not sure.  But at least I’ll be able to afford a wedding for now.

-David

This post is dedicated to the memory of Alex Dow

South African hip hop type music thing…

Alright. I was sent this video by like 3 different people in the last week. It is without a doubt one of the weirdest/most interesting things ever. Haha. From the weird girl to the DJ (who has Progeria which is basically a real life Benjamin Button disease causing premature aging) to the main dude who is basically a mix between Napoleon Dynamite, Alex from Everything is Illuminated (aka Eugene Hutz), Jemaine from Flight of the Conchords and some new Sacha Baron Cohen character, this is something you should see.

Weird? Funny? Interesting? Amazing? I can’t stop watching. What do you think?

Starbucks is not a thing of the past but their adapting to a new trend. Known in the coffee industry as the second wave of coffee shops, stores such as Starbucks, Peets Coffee, Caribou and yes – Cup of Joes or slowly becoming the “McDonalds” or “Dunkin Donuts” of good coffee. Led by speciality coffee buyers and roaster Stumptown in Portland, Intelligentsia in Chicago and Counter Culture in Raleigh – these coffee connoisseurs are trendsetters that are changing coffee culture and are part of what is know more commonly known as “the third wave.” South Minneapolis acquired two local shops of this nature this past fall with my personal favorite selling Intelligentsia’s black cat espresso at a place called The Angry Catfish.

Most of these places are run by people our age, fed up with the standardization of food and beverage and with a believe that the concept of coffee and it’s potential for farmers, taste, flavor, growth, culture, etc. hasn’t even begun to be tamped (no pun intended). We’re talking no 20 ounce caramel latte macchiatos with whip cream, no burned coffee brewed every four hours and no wondering where, when and how your coffee beans were grown and purchased.

Honestly, I’ve been sucked into a new world and unsure if I want to look back. I’m including some videos from Intelligentsia’s new store in Venice so you get the idea. They’ve changed the way coffee stores are laid out. Espresso machines are in various places throughout the store on individual hydraulic lifts that swivel so customers stand next to a barista while they explain where their coffee came from and how it came to be or talk about whether or not Brett Favre will come back… not on the other side of the counter. All drinks are by the cup. This is an art, something to approach with care and ease… it’s about the style, the feel, the music, the look

Caleb… get that portafilter tattoo and get to Intelligentsia and Stumptown’s NYC locale. Let’s open a shop. Bryan, get some designs going

Dudes! We just got in our TEST PRESSES of “Old Stories” on vinyl! I’m super stoked for this and thought I’d let you all know the breakdown.

1/50 Clear w/ Blue Haze (Special online only screen printed cover)
1/50 Clear w/ Blue Haze (Special live show only screen printed cover)

1/150 Forrest Green w/ Tan Swirl (Same art work from the CD in sweet gatefold packaging!!!)

1/350 Opaque Brown w/ Black, White & Light Blue Splatter (Same art work from the CD in sweet gatefold packaging!!!)

We are excited for the colors and for the screen printed covers AND for the gatefold covers! The guys at Cavity went above and beyond letting us do the gatefold. The artwork that Three Bears Design did for us should look amazing in this huge format.

Heath and I got the test presses on Friday and approved them so they should be going to print this week and hopefully we’ll have them by the end of the month. I’ll post more pictures when we get them!!

Hit it… Let me know if I missed something!

http://319crew.com/about

Add to the R.I.P. list. For most of my young life, apart from random arthouse flicks, all the films that really blew my hair back kicked off with this same intro screen.

Miramax — you were a game changer. And you will be missed.

Release date and cover

The release date of Jónsi’s debut solo album, ‘Go’, has been confirmed for the week of April 5tharound the world*. Featuring 9 songs drawn from the large pool of material amassed by Jónsi during his many years as singer with Sigur Rós, and arranged in collaboration with classical wunderkind Nico Muhly (“one of the hottest composers on the planet” Daily Telegraph last week), the album now has a finished sleeve, conceptualised and realised by Jónsi’s sisters Inga and Lilja. Here’s how it looks:

World tour

Meanwhile, details of his first live concerts outside of Sigur Rós will be announced next Monday (Feb 1). The shows which start in North America in April, will feature a brand new band and a stage set designed by 59 Productions. Both these things promise to be drop-dead amazing. The idea of the stage collaboration with 59 Productions is to bring together the worlds of theatre and music in a new and hopefully unique way, in order to create something other than the hoary old cliches that pass for innovation in rock’n'roll. The ideas remain very much “in development”, but there will be some surprises, for sure. Here’s a maquette (a tiny cardboard model, to you and me) of how things might appear. Cute, huh?

Anyway, we wanted you to know we are going for broke on this and it ain’t in any way going to be Jónsi alone on stage with an acoustic guitar, no sirree. Wish us luck.

New video

Meantime, first week of Feb is also when everyone finally gets to see the video for ‘Go Do’, the first single to be taken from ‘Go’. Directed by Arni & Kinski (previously responsible for no fewer than six Sigur Rós videos, including ‘Glósóli’ and ‘Viðrar vel til loftárása’), the video was filmed on location in Iceland between Christmas and New Year, which is quite an achievement when you realise there are about four hours of daylight at that time of year. It looks gorgeous, and here’s a still to prove it.

Acoustic set

For those of you who can’t even wait a week for their next fix of new Jónsi music, you can check how three of the songs must have sounded before Nico got his hands on them and, in Jónsi’s words, made them “explode”, by going to Jónsi’s Soundcloud pageand listening to the man and his acoustic guitar navigate their way through his first ever live radio session last week on WNYC, New York. Wow! I’m telling you, 2010 is going to be LOT of fun.

*April 2 in Germany and April 1 in Australia. Other countries may be different, so check your local record shop or Amazon.com just to be sure.

www.jonsi.com
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“What really knocks me out is a book that, when you’re all done reading it, you wish the author that wrote it was a terrific friend of yours and you could call him up on the phone whenever you felt like it. That doesn’t happen much, though.”

R.I.P. J.D. — You always made me feel just that way