Overbooked and Underpaid: Notes from a Yes-aholic

A Life Changing Program

 

Every once in a while you have an experience that profoundly changes something about how you view the world. The sort of thing that, once experienced, cannot be "un-experienced". 

I had such an experience in 1982 when I spent a summer studying in Europe. Once I viewed my home country from a distance, through the eyes of others, I could never quite look at the U.S.A. in exactly the same way I had before. 

I'm not saying I wanted to move to Europe or anything, I'm just saying I now saw some things very differently because I had new information.

I had another such experience on January 6th of this year.

While driving cross country I fired up my favorite new app (tune in radio) that lets me listen to my favorite programs from my favorite radio stations no matter where I am. As I frequently drive through patches of what I consider to be "quality radio wasteland" I am LOVING this app. (I have an older minivan so I have to patch my ipad through to my radio using a wireless transmitter device that somes with some static but you can't have everything.)

Which is how I came across the January 6th broadcast of "This American Life" episode 454 "Mr. Daisey And The Apple Factory".

Mike Daisey is a storyteller and this particular story is a doozy. 

And hearing his story changed my life.

I can't exactly tell you how yet because I am still processing the information from Mr. Daisey's story. I have a lot of conflicting emotions about it.

But now that I know these things I can never go back to "un-knowing" them. 

So I warn you, if you don't want your life changed, don't go listen to this program. 

Because you can never "un-listen" to it. And I promise you it will change you on some level - even if you don't want it to.

It's that powerful.

 

A note: you may have to buy the program in itunes for .99 if you are not listening on your desktop but, rather, on a mobile device. I promise you it's worth it.

A Little Too Close To Home....

My friend Sandra's strip for 1/16/11 hit me a little too close to where I live..........

I Don't Scrapbook

But if I did......................

Inspirations - Kick Butt Radio

I miss listening to music on my car radio. I pretty much started listening to NPR about 15 years ago and almost never listen to any other stations. This would be because of the incessant advertising on commercial radio. I kid you not, I used to make the 15 minute trip to my kid's school without hearing anything other than ads.

But, a while back I found myself driving across Ohio in the dead of night in my husband's little Mazda 3. I surfed around the radio stations and happened upon this truly kick bottom track from Reba McEntire.

I bought it on itunes that very night and now have it on my list of music to listen to when I need a "pick me up".

Today is one of those days.

I hope you find time to listen to this and get up and rock around your room or cubicle or whatever!

 

Inspirations - Cartooning For The Troops

For the past 3 years or so, groups of cartoonists have been traveling overseas with the USO to visit our troops. To the best of my knowledge, Tom Richmond (MAD Magazine) has been on every single trip. I have had the good fortune now to attend two of his presentations on the experience - what it means to the troops, and what it means to the cartoonists who go.

To read more about Tom's current trip, visit his blog here.

To read stories from a previous trip which included Stephan Pastis of Pearls Before Swine, visit his archives here.

I imagine that all Tom's previous trips are also available in his archives if you care to poke around but, be forewarned, there are a lot of entries due to the number of times he's gone :-)

And, if you ever get the opportunity to attend a presentation on these trips, I strongly suggest you make it a point to go. You will see a lot of great photos and hear some funny stories  - not surprising that cartoonists wind up with a lot of funny stories from their get-togethers - but you will also get a strong sense of just who our current troops are and what life is like for them right now. You will also see incredibly chilling photos of the remnants of Saddam's enormous cruelty. Whatever your politics, it is impossible to walk away with any impression of Saddam other than sadistic madman.

 

Inspirations - Anti Snark

On the internet, there is no shortage of snark available so it's refreshing to find sites that are informative and entertaining without specializing in controversy and sarcasm.

One such site is the terrific "Comic Strip Of The Day" by "Overbooked" reader Mike Peterson.

Mike has a long history in the newspaper business and I sorely wish he were the comics editor at a big time newspaper (or any newspaper, for that matter). His understanding of the need to balance what readers want with what they might come to want - if they only knew about it in the first place - is sorely needed in today's newspaper business. 

Plus, he's just a darned good read. Thanks to his site, I've become aware of a number of comics I was unfamiliar with. Comics that are worth a second look. And I often start tracking down new comics to read as a result of his commentary.

So head over there and check it out!

Inspirations - Stuff Kids Know

In a burst of yes-aholic optimism, I agreed to teach general music to a class of 4th through 7th graders at my daughter's school this year.

It's a long story. The short version is - when the music teacher quits two weeks before the beginning of the school year, the school has to scramble for a plan. And if you are in a position help said school, you do it. Especially a school as great as this one.

So I found myself not only teaching a class I hadn't planned on, there is no previous curriculum and no class materials to speak of. So I've been designing my own curriculum. Because it is a multi-age class of Montessori kids, I have a lot of freedom.

It also helps that these kids are sharp.

So sharp that, on Monday, they surprised me.

I have been playing a bunch of movie music for them - stuff like "Pirates of The Caribbean", "The Pink Panther", "Batman" - and we've been talking about how much the music adds to the emotion or action you see onscreen and how it can contribute to, or detract from, the mood of the movie. When properly done, movie music makes scary scenes scarier, sad scenes sadder, and so on. We've also explored themes and how a collection of specific notes becomes tied to a certain character. Like the theme for Darth Vader. That theme is so specific and memorable that, as soon as you read the name "Darth Vader" you probably heard his theme music in your head. 

And if you didn't before, you do now.

You're welcome.

Anyway, this week I thought we'd do something different. I had them listen to a symphonic work that I'm pretty sure they'd never heard before. Then they had to guess what the piece might be about, strictly from the kind of themes and instruments they heard. 

I chose Gustav Holst's "The Planets".  Mainly because it is one of my favorite orchestra pieces, but it also uses a lot of brass and I wanted to talk about brass instruments that day.

I played the first movement - "Mars" for them and asked if they could guess what it was about.

Remember how I said they were sharp?

I got "A battle", "fighting", "space", "Star Wars", Star Trek", "getting armor on then fighting then the end of a battle". 

There were a few more, but that was the gist of it.

Now "The Planets" is actually pretty clearly about planets (space) and the movement "Mars" has the subtitle "Bringer of War".

So, either Gustav Holst is a flippin' genius of a composer and used such good themes and instrumentation that the piece just screams "space" and "war" - or every movie and TV show you can think of about space and war has "borrowed" heavily from both his themes and his style.

The first public performance of the Planets was in 1920 - well before Star Wars. Before any movie soundtracks, for that matter.

You be the judge.

 

 

Inspirations - More Stuff to Rent

For this week's inspirational renting, I've chosen two movies, one old, one newer.

I saw the trailer for the just released "Life As We Know It" and thought - hold on a minute - I've seen this before.

And I had - the premise is awfully close to that of "Baby Boom" with Diane Keaton, Sam Shepard and Harold Ramis.

I happen to own a copy and I decided to pop it in, as I hadn't seen it in probably 10 years. Even though it was released in 1987, this film really holds up and I found it just as funny today. Plus it has a terrific opening credits sequence by Linda Ellerbee - one of the best voices to ever cross the airwaves.

The other film I'd like to recommend it "Flawless" with Michael Caine and Demi Moore.  It was released in 2007 but I don't remember hearing a single thing about it. I'm not even sure how we came to rent it - maybe my son recommended it - but it's terrific. A heist movie but like no heist movie you've ever seen. I won't say anymore because I don't want to spoil it.

So, get these movies on your radar for the weekend, pop some popcorn (with extra butter) and settle back for some light comedy/dram/action.

Today's Inspiration: The Most Obnoxious Man In The World

 

Today's headline may seem like an oxymoron. And it probably is.

In keeping with my recent theme of recommending things to rent - either from Netflix or your media outlet of choice - my suggestion for the  week is:

Fawlty Towers.

This short lived BBC series (only 12 episodes) never fails to make me laugh. Which should tell you something horrible about me because Basil Fawlty as written and portrayed by the legendary John Cleese is one of the most obnoxious characters to ever grace the small screen.

This pompous, bullying hotel manager/owner makes Steve Carell's character on the office look like a choirboy.

So why am I recommending it under inspirations? 

Because there is something enormously satisfying in watching someone this obnoxious get his deserved comeuppance; as Basil eventually does in every episode. More perfectly - he always does all the damage to himself. And, as violent as these 12 shows are (Fawlty rarely misses a chance to take a swipe at his waiter Manuel), they truly do seem to fall into that category of cartoon violence ala Tweety and Sylvester.

As they say in the disclaimers, "If you have delicate sensibilities or are easily offended" you will want to skip Fawlty Towers. But if you're one of the legion of Python fans that can quote every line from the Holy Grail, you should rent these today.

Today's Inspiration - Inflatable Rafts

Thanks to TV channels that specialize in old shows from the 60's and 70's and also the release of most of these old shows onto DVD's, I can now recommend to you some golden comedy for inspiration. 

This week I'd like to focus on the inflatable raft and it's role in some of the funniest TV ever made. If you need a good laugh, rent the following.

M*A*S*H episode: "Dear Peggy" in which Klinger tries to escape in an inflatable raft.

WKRP episode: "Who is Gordon Sims?" in which Mr. Carlson has his own problems with an inflatable in his office.

Dick Van Dyke Show episode: "The Curious Thing About Women" in which Laura's insatiable curiosity leads to disaster involving, of course, an inflatable raft.

I guarantee you'll be in a better mood after you watch any one of these!