The Happy Time

...And ironically, just as I was writing the final words of the last post, Robert Goulet's "The Happy Time" came up on iTunes. It's a song from a rarely-heard musical; I wouldn't have known it were it not for Sandra Jackson, one of the most skilled teachers with whom I ever worked. Sandra taught at East Rome High School (don't look for it any more... it's a Kmart parking lot now), and was in her eighteenth year of teaching when I began there in 1975. She taught English, like me, but she was also the head of the drama department; The Happy Time was one of many musicals she produced during my five years at East Rome--one of many musicals to which she introduced me, for which I am forever grateful. Not only did Sandra educate her students, she also educated me, instilling an appreciation of musical performance that had until that time eluded me. I'm a much better teacher because of the skills she shared with me, and those students who were lucky enough to experience her talents in the classroom never forgot them. I called Sandra a few years ago just to say thanks, and she was just as vibrant and enthusiastic then as she had been in 1975.

Thanks, Sandra... I'll always remember the happy time....

Missing Class

Hard to believe, but as of March 31st of this year, it will be six years since I last taught a class. It was the last day before spring break of 2000, and like most pre-spring break days, it was a relatively casual day. The yearbook class had already made its deadlines and was working on planning the 2001 book; the World Lit classes were finishing a paper; the Brit Lit class worked on vocabulary. I know that we were doing other things that day, but for the life of me I can't remember what it was; I had no idea it would be so important to me, really.

Heart attack, surgery, retirement... long story, boring details. Thing is, I still miss teaching... but I don't think I miss being in the classroom any longer. I see a former student teacher of mine--now a teacher at a nearby high school--on a semi-regular basis, and he doesn't seem to enjoy what he's doing. Too much paperwork, too many useless tests, too little time to actually teach. It grates on him--and I know it would grate on me even more. I always had a low tolerance for foolish bureaucracy, and I think the emphasis on form over function in contemporary education would push me beyond curmudgeonly into full malcontent mode.

But there are times when I run across a reference to a work I used to teach, or find an excerpt from an author or a work I enjoyed, or see a student who really came into his or her own in the classroom... There are times when I wish I could return to the classroom again to teach. Not to handle discipline, not to do restroom duty or hall monitor work or paperwork that by all rights should be done by guidance counselors, but to actually teach. There's nothing like the feeling you get when you manage to break down something complex, reducing it to mentally digestible nuggets that actually feed a student's mind. I did it for more than a quarter of a century, and I remember those times when everything clicked.

Almost six years, and I still have dreams about the classroom. Good dreams.

I wish that common sense would return to education, and the state would actually respect the teacher's ability to teach, rather than forcing them to administer tests that are irrelevant and useless. I'd like to see more teachers enjoying the classroom experience as much as I did. But the current system saps that enjoyment, crushing enthusiasm and chasing away too many people who might turn into good teachers if the system worked with them rather than working against them.

Crisis in Finite Comic Shops

Had an opportunity to read Infinite Crisis #4 today.

Suddenly it's like I'm nine again and the first part of the first-ever JLA-JSA crossover has just come out and I've finished it and I don't know how I can possibly wait a whole month for the next part of the story.

I was a bit surprised by some of the brutality in the story--there are some very ugly scenes that force readers to totally rethink one of the core characters--and am still concerned that some beloved characters might not come out of this unscathed... or alive, for that matter. But that's part of the excitement of this series. The fact that Geoff Johns could make a forty-seven-years-of-comic-book-reading veteran like me care this much about what's happening in this story is a tribute to his skill as a storyteller.

I hear from folks every now and then who are certain that, as a comic shop owner and the Comic Shop News guy, I must know exactly what's going to happen as a result of this story. I try to assure them that I have no more inside info than they do--and I don't think I'd have it any other way. The thrill associated with a well-told cliffhanger-laden story is something I'm happily rediscovering...

But did they really?.... Nah, I 'm not going to finish that thought. Read it for yourself and you'll be asking a lot of the same questions.

Guilty Pleasures (Teevee)

HDNet routinely runs older series in high definition--but I was surprised to see Hogan's Heroes on their programming list. Apparently the original series was shot on film, and some industrious soul has gone to the trouble of converting episodes to high-def. Okay, it's not perfect--the image is more like 14:9 instead of 16:9--but it's still remarkably clean and sharp for a series from the 1960s.

Of course, the high-def is lagniappe for me. I watched the show pretty regularly from its 1965 premiere until its cancellation after (I believe) seven seasons. Sure, it's a silly premise, and it trivialized prisoner of war camps, blah blah blah... but I nevertheless enjoyed the broad humor of the series, the ensemble cast, and the charm of Bob Crane. Now, of course, we're told that the charm was only superficial, but so what? On the screen, Colonel Hogan was a noble rogue, an amiable enemy of the Germans and an affable leader of his ragtag troops.

I've watched about a half-dozen episodes in high-def so far; none of them is particularly memorable, but they are remarkably consistent in quality--if you like one of them, you'll probably like them all, and if you dislike it, don't even try another episode...

I think a lot of this has to do with the fact that I was 12 years old when the show premiered; at the age of 12, when your family has just added its first color television, prime-time network fare is almost irresistible--and we never forget those shows that fascinated us as kids.

Guilty Pleasures (Edibles)

Lindt 60% Extra-Dark Chocolate Truffles. I love dark chocolate and appreciate the differing tastes and textures of various brands, but I have never found a more palatable blend than these truffles. Lighter chocolate outer layer, extra-rich dark chocolate center that's almost cool to the tongue (still don't know how they do that)... I suspect that even those who don't like dark chocolate would enjoy these little jewels.

Still Haven't Found What I'm Looking For...

You'd think that if I wanted a particular piece of electronics, someone would go to the trouble of making it...

I'd been considering replacing the kitchen television, an old 13" tube television, with an LCD flat-screen, 20" or so. What I was looking for was a television with a built-in hard drive or pcmcia memory card slot that would allow some basic recording or time-delay features. I don't really want to save programs on the kitchen tv, mind you--but I would like the ability to back up the broadcast for a minute or two if I miss something. Let's face it: the kitchen is one of the most likely places for a viewer to be busy doing something else that has him/her looking away from the screen. I can't tell you how many times I've heard a reference to something on television that I'd like to have seen, but I was working at the cooktop, or getting something out of the oven, or putting cat food in a bowl, and by the time I looked up, the image was long since gone.

Sounds like a reasonable request to me... but I may as well have asked for a matter transporter. It seems that no one is putting hard drives in an LCD screen that's less than 42" in size. From what I can tell, Sharp once offered a 20" set that used a 5gb PCMCIA card for such storage, but it seems to have been discontinued and is now unavailable anywhere.

If anyone with an electronics "in" can point me in the right direction, or give me some information regarding any units that might do what I need, it would be much appreciated!

(And yes, I'm aware that I could get a standalone Tivo and it would do the same thing, but the idea here is to reduce countertop clutter in the kitchen--and replacing one television with two pieces of electronics doesn't seem to move me towards that goal.)

Radio, Radio

I've been a comics fan ever since I was a child. And by "comics fan," I mean that I am an enthusiast of the medium, not just one aspect of it. I read superhero comics, war comics, humor comics; I read DC, Marvel, Archie, Tower, Charlton, ACG, Dell/Gold Key; I read old comics (when I could find them) and new comics; I read multi-part stories out of order without worrying about acquiring all the parts first (I read the Nick Fury, Agent of S.H.I.E.L.D. stories in StrangeTales for quite a while before I ever found #135, 137, & 138, which apparently never got distribution in Rome, Georgia).

I am reminded of my omnivorous comics reading habits as I enjoy WHCH: Hold Tight, the latest release from Jane Smith Fisher and Wilson Place Comics. The first story page of this trade paperback, with its "previously seen in WJHC..." summary, might lead some readers to believe that they should forego this volume until they've read the previous book--but that's not the case at all. Between her prefatory introduction to the cast and her brief "up-to-speed" summary, Fisher has given new readers all they need to know to dive right into this engaging and entertaining story of the teenage staff of a high school radio station.

I've always thought that the high school environment was ideal for comic book stories; it's the perfect microcosm for pre-teen and teen readers, since they're familiar with it--and younger children look forward to those high school years, so they're more inclined to read books set in that milieu. Fisher manages to capture the vitality of high-school life in a light-hearted, sometimes zany adventure series reminiscent of an updated, more hip Archie comic.

Joe Staton illustrates the book with such skill that he makes it seem deceptively easy; Staton's always been a fluid storyteller, and his skill is particularly evident in this book. Colorist John Green uses a bold, intense palette to accentuate the art, making the finished art pop off the page.

WJHC: Hold Tight! is a great all-ages comic; I hope that Fisher won't keep us waiting as long for the next volume.

Guilty Pleasures (Music)

I own thousands of CD's, and still have a couple of thousand albums on vinyl that I suspect will never see CD release. Still, there are some albums that captivate me just as much now as they did the first time I heard them. One of those albums is Iron Butterfly's Ball. Yeah, I know--most people don't even realize that Iron Butterfly did anything other than In-a-Gadda-da-Vida. But for me, Ball is the pinnacle of their musical career. The album is bold, experimental, and semi-psychedelic, with some tonal experiments interspersed. At the time, the album was considered pretty heavy in its sound--but unlike today's pretentious angry heavy-metal sound, the lyrics were for the most part introspective and sensitive. "This Boy" remains a personal favorite, along with "It Must Be Love." The most haunting songs on the album, though, are "In the Times of Our Lives" and the manic, almost nightmarish "Filled With Fear." Every time I hear this album, it makes me wish that this Iron Butterfly line-up had stayed together far longer; alas, the only two albums they did were this one and the aforementioned In-a-Gadda-da-Vida. There are other Iron Butterfly albums, to be sure, but the roster is different on those. Heavy comes close to the sound at times, but the absence of Erik Braunn really hurts. Metamorphosis never quite clicks; the organ is different, the guitar is more traditional, and the ethereal quality of the soaring sound is gone. But oh, what a treat this one album is!...

The Bauer Power Double Hour

24 kicked off with a double episode tonight, and I was hooked in less than ten minutes. Unlike many series that are afraid to tamper with the status quo, 24 shook everything up right out of the gate. Oh, I can tell that there are going to be things that irritate me here and there--the son of the woman who had befriended Jack is going to become this season's major albatross, I fear--but I'm along for the ride on this one!

It's funny... I really enjoyed the 24-hour structure of the show, but I thought the first season was hampered by too much repetition and needless wheel-spinning. Season 2 should have been tailor-made for me--the plot was actually similar to one I had roughed out for a never-written novel--but it failed to deliver. Season 3 was so weak that I lost interest and virtually wrote the series off. I watched the first episode of season 4, though, and was hooked--and in spite of a weaker-than-hoped-for finale, that season was still outstanding. So I'm going into this with high hopes... and a real optimism that they're going to deliver!

Back from Fall Hiatus

Hard to believe I've missed almost an entire season of postings here--but as the dates make painfully clear, that's exactly what happened. Without going into great detail, I'll just say that there were personal things happening that left me unable to focus my attention on blogging... in fact, in many ways I've just been going through the motions on many fronts, following routine because it requires less thought.

Big things have happened since I last wrote. First off, I made a trip to Montreal for a DC Comics RRP meeting; this is the first major trip I've made in several years, and only the second time I've ever been out of the country. The trip went well, the meeting was rewarding and inspiring, and I'm glad I went... but I don't understand how some of my friends can rack up frequent-flyer miles without going insane from the rather unique demands of air travel nowadays. Too much time waiting, too many hoops to jump through--it all seems like an endurance contest.

Also, my nephew Cole and his long-time love, Christy, got married on December 3rd. Cole is 21--and that's hard to believe--so I shouldn't be surprised that he's getting married and charting a course for his life. But I still remember buying his presents on Christmas shopping trips to Toys R Us on the first weekday that teachers were free from class--it became a sort of ritual. I have vivid memories of Cole's and Jessica's Christmases (Jess is Cole's sister, for those who are keeping track)--now they're both all but grown up and the Toys R Us days are behind them. Now I find myself buying some of the same sorts of gifts that Mom and Dad gave Susan and me when we first got married--and it makes me more appreciative of the things that they did for us in those early days, in fact.

This is the first Christmas where I feel like I'm having to "ad lib" a bit in terms of gifts; I have very few ideas of what anyone wants, so Christmas shopping is more unpredictable, more spontaneous... and much less focused. Too early to say if that's a Good Thing or a Bad Thing.