What The Kids Today Are Listening Too

So lately I've been leaving NPR where my car radio is usually stuck for a little further left on the dial to "THE WOOD", the student radio station of Lindenwood College. I am so very amused by listening to this. Unlike Hendrix's radio station which could barely be heard off campus, this station has some range. Lindenwood is in St. Charles and I'm assuming their radio station is there too, but I've picked it up in Illinois, my parking garage downtown (just not on the second level), and down I-44 a little ways as well. Of course, like everything else (cell phones, radio and tv transmissions, and the cordless phone) it is difficult to get in Webster, but still, I get enough coverage to not be annoyed by static. Some of the things I love about THE WOOD (besides their ridiculous name)is their incredibly in-depth coverage of the Lindenwood Men's Bowling team, their strange hyper-newsy announcer feed from the AP with his old time emphasis on random words in each sentence (think Howard Cosell), the student djs/announcers who try to do this too, despite it not being particularly useful for comprehension and it's made even worse by their not pre-reading the text so they stumble through it, the occasional announcer who cannot read at all, yet painstakingly tries to get through it, and most of all the tendency of THE WOOD to play college favorites from my college period - um 20 years ago. And then they play stuff I've never heard before, but I like which is probably stuff you've all heard of, but I haven't unless it's been featured on NPR, where I get all my other music recommendations, because um, well, I'm old.

So here's a band I would have never heard about if not for THE WOOD, and I'm sharing it with you too, because I think they're nifty (aren't all Scottish bands?)and I keep hearing this song in my head. Oh and they have a girl drummer.

More Delta

All my musings in the last post reminded me of one of my favorite songs by a Delta artist - it's stuck with me since the first time I heard it. Although most people probably associate Al Green with Memphis, he's actually from Forrest City, AR.



Backroads and Byways

Looking back over the past few months, I see I've been a horrible blogger. I don't really have an excuse, except being out of town a lot and general laziness. This weekend I had a training in southern Missouri in what's commonly known as the Boot Heel. We were south of Cape in an area where the Ozark foothills subside and the Delta begins. Being down there stirred all sorts of memories from my time at a Delta Service Corps volunteer and the year I ran all over Arkansas visiting little non-profits who were part of a big community development program with the Rockefeller foundation and the Cooperative Extension Service. I am always amazed at what some of these really isolated communities manage to achieve by leveraging grants and meager community resources. Sometimes these organizations seem to survive on sheer force of will of the staff that give so much of their time for free. Nevertheless, I can tell that the recession/depression is hitting these folks hard and they have the double whammy of increased population needing services and a decrease in funds. I hope they can keep on holding on, because I think (hope) that they will be benefiting from some of this stimulus money that's supposed to be coming, but in the meantime it's looking harsh for them and everyone else at the bottom.

My colleague and I stayed in Cape, and had a fabuous dinner at Molly's downtown. Amusingly, it was prom weekend, so we had to sign pieces of paper at the hotel that we wouldn't sneak anyone into our rooms overnight, there were electronic highway signs everywhere cautioning us that it was prom weekend and to drive carefully, and Molly's was serving a number of young couples dressed up in tuxes and ballgowns. While we were waiting for Molly's to open, I gave Sarah a little tour of Southern Illinois, since she, like many St. Louisians, never goes to east, despite living less than 3 miles from the stateline. Crossing the river at Cape is really not the what Illinois has when in mind when they make up their tourism brochures. I'm sure my father would disagree, but most people don't have Thebes in mind when they think of the great small towns of Illinois. Nevertheless, I was feeling nostogic for locations of my youth and I gave Sarah the grand tour of the courthouse, bridge, trailer park and cemetary. Due to the rain and hunger, we decided to forgoe a walking tour and side trip to see if Horseshoe Lake was spilling over the dam (Dad had requested that we take a look). She was suitably impressed by the river, which was way, way, way up (in fact the flood gates were closed in Cape) and we were momentarily worried that we would be flooded out of our training location the next morning, but Sarah assured me that someone would take us to dry land by boat if the rains came down too hard.

On the way down, Jason called me to let me know that the e-mail he got the night before that we thought was just a request for more information resulted in a surprise interview for a job further down south in the Delta. Despite it being completely unexpected (usually there's a call to set up a time for an interview) and happening while standing in line at the DMV (yes, we were late in getting our tags renewed as usual) he feels like it went really well. We're holding our breath and wishing good thoughts for this one to come through. It would be at a small university in northern Mississippi, just about an hour and 1/2 from Memphis. My trip to the top of the Delta made me remember all the things I love about area and while I know Mississippi would be a huge adjustment, it could also be really terrific. It fits a lot of our criteria for an ideal job for him (workable teaching load, days drive from St. Louis, in the south, sort of near a larger city) although he would not be working with majors, since Philosophy is only offered as a minor there. On the upside, he'd be in a humanities department with some opportunity for crossover type courses. So wish him (us) luck and send him lots of job getting vibes.

Nora is doing well, in the past couple of days she's breaking through another developmental milestone - drawing bodies and appendages on to heads. I know you are all saying, that's fine, but show us a damn photo! Nevertheless, we're all so impressed that she's doing this already, now if only she could manage to use the potty consistantly, we'd be over the moon.

Postings

I've been lurking on LibraryThing's forums for several years now (yeah, this blog is not the only place I have problems posting), and today I scrolled through one of my favorite topics - the worst books of this quarter (or whatever time period) where folks share what they couldn't bear to read another page of. Sometimes these posts are places for people to get all snobby about their reading or to take a couple of shots at book club recommendations, but when I read this post I cracked up:

Worst books so far:

The Thin Place by Kathryn Davis. I had been looking forward to reading this book. It was a really boring book. Even a character who can bring people back from the dead couldn't make this book interesting to me.

The Clue of the Missing Bagpipies. Nancy Drew Mystery Stories #41 Typical Nancy Drew. I'm just tired of her being such a know-it-all in every book.

Is Sex Necessary? Or Why You Feel The Way You Do by James Thurber and EB White. I gave this a rating of 2/5 -- my lowest so far. A humour book that was not funny and really outdated.

I feel like I should add The Late Hector Kipling by David Thewlis. I gave it a 3/5 and thought it was well written, but, it was VERY dark and not what I was expecting.

I love Nancy Drew, but I do agree she can be a know it all. Now I'm off to check out the poster's library. I have a feeling I'll enjoy her reviews.

Most Influential Southern Novel

LibraryThing alerted me to this poll for the most influential of 20 southern novels of the 20th century. Since I know a couple of you have opinions on this sort of thing, I'm curious to know what you all would pick. I haven't really read enough of these to make a strong choice, but I would like to see the debate that's happening on South Caroline Educational Television around this poll. Interestingly, I think there are two movie adaptions of the novels that have had a huge influence on how the South is perceived by people outside of the south - Deliverance and Gone With The Wind, although not necessarily positive perceptions. The poll where you can vote is here but do come back and tell me what you think.

Indoors and Outdoors

Environmental Educator David Soule is coming to Webster in a couple of weeks. Unfortunately, I won't be able to hear him speak, due to other plans, but I have been motivated to take a look at some of his writings. I recommend reading his essay Beyond Ecophobia, which takes a look at what most schools are doing around environmental education and whether it's actually effective. I think his arguments make a lot of sense and he and Richard Louv (Last Child In the Woods) have been making me think about our lack of connection to our natural world and how I can make sure Nora has more time in it. Interestingly, their writings are bringing me closer to Waldorf education, despite some of my concerns about it. And I am ever more wishful that we could afford to send Nora to an Reggio Emilio school, but that is sort of out the question right now. Actually, I wish every child could to to an Reggio school, but unfortunately, no one is asking me about education policy (at least no one who has power to change education policy). In some ways, Nora, thanks to my parents and extended family, gets much more time in nature than many children do, but I also think that her parents are not always the best models for appreciating the out of doors. Mainly because Jason and I are much more likely to go read a book than we are to go on a hike. While I think reading books are a great idea, I sort of wish we were a little, teensy, bit more outdoorsy than we are. I'm not suggesting we suddenly decide to take up kayaking any time soon, but maybe we'll take Nora on her first camping trip this spring.

On The Road Again

Hmm, it feels like I'm never here anymore.  Last week I went to the TESOL conference in Denver.  It was really a very good conference.  As well as being quite big.  I think what I enjoyed most about it was that it was an unusual cross-section of academic and practitioner.  Usually conferences are one or the other, this one had both with the added benefit of actually thinking about policy at the same time.  It was sort of nice for folks like me who actually enjoyed taking classes at college and who sort of miss talking about theory and the big picture, as opposed to just getting some strategies to use in the classroom on Monday.  I also loved that it had social justice issues right at the forefront, which is sort of an unusual thing at a literacy-related conferences, where social justice issues might be present, but usually shunted off to the side.   It being more front and center here  is probably because of it's international focus, which was another thing I liked about it.  Oh yeah, and there was a blizzard too.   

This week I'm off to another conference, presenting and exhibiting (that sounds so wrong), but this time I'm going to Southern Missouri, specifically the Lake of the Ozarks.  I'm not really a fan, although, most of Missouri seems to think that it's the cats pajamas.  We are, of course at the Tan Tar A, which is where just about every Missouri conference having to do with Education ever is held, unless one of the two cities convinces the rest of the state to come their direction.  It is an odd place.  Like a southern shotgun house that someone just kept adding on to, the Tan Tar A has labyrinth of buildings that only sort of connect, elevators  that don't stop at every floor,  and passageways that dead end making you exit and run around the building to resume your course.  I dread going there, but then again, I sort of like the place's oddness juxtaposed with it's unrelenting marketing that they are all about FUN and FAMILY.  I won't being doing the water park, or the golf, or the spa  and to the outlet mall (well, maybe),although that's what children, men and women are supposed to do at resorts, or maybe just this resort - in that order - check out the billboards. The irony of it being a FUN, FAMILY VACATION, where none of you actually spend time with each other or even see each other, is sort of lost on Tan Tar A.   In any case, I will be sans family,  stuck in a big exhibit hall talking about parental involvement and why it's more than asking the parents of the "good kids" to come in and decorate the bulletin board, to a potentially hostile audience. Good times.  Let's hope spring is back to stay, because I really want to get home on Saturday evening.