Confide, And I'll Be On Your Side

You know I will.

Today really could not be classified as a good day. My first round of state testing with my new school, and I did all of MY preparation and organization and coordination. I thought we were ready. Unfortunately, many members of my staff did not do their preparation, etc, and things went slightly awry. Quickly. In the middle of high-stakes testing. Which, simply because of the nature of the system, ends up reflecting poorly on ME. In the middle of all of this, which was making me fairly bug-eyed and looney to begin with, my buddy with autism has a major aggressive incident, and bites one of his staff hard enough to draw blood. Insult to injury, so to speak. In the long run, it wasn't as bad as it seemed in the moment; I think my intense panic was due to the fact that this is the first year I'm organizing this in this new building, and I so wanted it to go well. Such is life. And my buddy, well, it turns out he likely has an ear infection, and was behaving badly because he was ill. But still, during the course of the morning, I was in a pretty bad state.

And as much as I want to sit and moan and beg for sympathy about my lousy day, my struggles are largely the mundane ones of normal adult life. At least, I think standardized testing mishaps and tantrums by boys with autism are mundane. Before I start feeling overly sorry for myself, I try to think about my friends who are really struggling right now, with things they can't leave at the door at the end of the work day. I'm lucky in that respect, and I'm lucky to have them as well. Good days, bad days, uncertainty aside, they make my life better in so many wonderful ways. I'm blessed to have them around, even on our very worst days, in our very worst moments. It's what we do for each other that matters.

So, this song is for them. They know who they are. Know that even in the midst of my most hair-pulling stressed out moments, they are never, ever far from my thoughts, or far from my heart.

My Friends - Red Hot Chili Peppers

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On A Clear Day, I Can See A Very Long Way

One of my friends sent the announcement out this morning for "who's in for this show?" in April.

For this song alone, I'm in.

Waiting For My Real Life To Begin - Colin Hay

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Everything's Changing, So How Am I To Know?

I have a playlist on my iTunes called, "Just Listen". It's an evolving list of songs that I'm constantly adding to and deleting from, mostly adding, though. The situation that inspired the list is fluid in my life. In fact, I added songs this past weekend, because of this past weekend. I chickened out, though, and never played the playlist for the person I'd like most to hear it.

However, in retrospect, this is not a bad thing. First, because I used the words in my head and not the playlist's words to say what I needed to say. And although the songs were certainly more poetic, I needed to be direct and clear. Second, there are still songs to add, and this is a good thing. I don't know which songs they are yet, but they're out there. And it all makes sense, to me anyway, even the really insane bits of it.

I need to remind myself that the uncertainty of all of these things swirling around me will not always be uncertain. I must remember to exhibit patience, what is needed from me most right now. As much as I may have missed the opportunity to reveal "Just Listen" to the right person, I also need to take that title to heart myself, and just listen for a while.

It is what it is, and for now, it's ok.

Everybody Knows - Ryan Adams

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Flawed...

The method for obtaining this, although not necessarily the results.

Your Taste in Music:

Classic Rock: Highest Influence Eighties: High Influence Alternative Rock: Medium Influence Nineties: Medium Influence Punk: Medium Influence

How's Your Taste in Music?

Everybody's Been Talking...

Stick With Me Baby - Robert Plant and Allison Krauss

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So Whisper Me Your Number...

Whisper - Morphine

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Happy St. Patrick's Day

Lately everything I want to say comes from a song. This one's good for this moment.

And yes, Van is VERY Irish.

Brand New Day - Van Morrison

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I Am Ready to Scream

And if I don't talk myself off this ledge soon, I'll be babbling and drooling. Sometimes, my job is ringleader in a three-ring circus. Today, the clowns are in open rebellion and letting the tigers run free.

And I can't find my riding crop ANYWHERE...

A Day in the Life - The Beatles

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The Bends

Bleah... long, crappy week, which included a minor fender bender. No real damage, other than to my mood.

This song, however, with that bombastic intro, should serve to make me feel better. The couch and the snuggie don't hurt either.

The Bends - Radiohead

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Two Thumbs Down

What I hate, ultimately, about Watchmen is that Snyder cut out the soul. It was like watching a live action storyboard, and, with few exceptions, no one on screen had any connection to the story being told. Granted there's an element of soulless-ness in the original story to begin with, but the characters there all have emotional connections to the narrative, and Snyder's direction was unable to convey it. In his quest for visual authenticity, he extracted the life from it. It's like a taxidermist's vision of that story.

That's my final summation. It failed. Moore was right. It's an unfilmable story.

Links Without Squid

Review of Watchmen number one. Number two. And yes, the sex scene was just hideous.

Excellent parody review, with spoiler alert, but then, the title of this post is somewhat as well. (h/t to Dana on that one).

Initial thoughts: Jackie Earl Haley was incredible. Incredible. Despite that, Alan Moore would still hate this. I'm not entirely sure I liked it, but I didn't want to kill anyone at the end for crimes against graphic novels. I'm still trying to determine how I really feel about it, but I'm glad I went. It's been a long time since I went to a movie on opening day. However, I know the next time I wll be. 7/17/2009. Anyone care to join me? (lookingatyoupic...)

Because You Know You Make Me Dizzy...

Norwood did, indeed, rock last night. The Norwood Rocks showcase at Concannon's was great fun, with some great local bands. Of course, nights like those are always much more interesting when you know people in almost all of the bands on the showcase, and they have overlapping friend groups.

Flickr set of pictures.
Cousin Johnny's MySpace.
The Full-Time Dreamers' MySpace.
Rusty's MySpace.
Death by Fame's MySpace.

Support local rock and roll!