Happy Fourth!

(photo courtesy of Amie P)

Getting Back Into the Music Review Game

Elvis Costello - Secret, Profane, and Sugarcane, 2009
I like that Elvis keeps himself so busy but this album is a bit dull. His last album was pretty good as was The Delivery Man. But the best song on here is a reworking of one of his old songs, Complicated Shadows. A bit of a letdown otherwise.

The Thermals - Now We Can See, 2009
Kind of boring. Too bad.

The Decemberists - The Hazards of Love, 2009
Whoa, bad. Pretentious, sucky, and terrible guest vocals. Ugh.

Black Lips - 200 Million Thousand, 2009
I feel like their other albums were recorded while the band was drunk. I liked those albums. I feel like this album was recorded while they were stoned. I'm a bit bored by it.

Beirut - March of the Zapotec, 2009
I liked the first album. I really liked the second one. This one is not very good. A lot of boring instrumental stuff and a lot of whining, masquerading as singing.

Los Campesinos! - Hold On Now, Youngster, 2008
Take the worst elements of Hot Hot Heat, Art Brut, and The Go Team! Mix. Stir. Los Campesinos!

Gaslight Anthem - The '59 Sound, 2008
Imagine an Old 97's cover band obsessed with Springsteen who also happened to grow up idolizing The Hooters and have a Crooked Fingers album in their collection and that is what this band sounds like. Only not nearly as good as any of those bands. I miss The Hooters.

Of Montreal - Skeletal Lamping, 2008
Loved their last album. This one doesn't do that much for me. I like that Kevin Barnes is all into the sex these days but he must have been too busy screwing to write good melodies.

The Fireman - Electric Arguments, 2008
I can't say that I'm terribly knowledgeable of Paul McCartney's solo work since like 1975 or so other than the big hits. So I can't really put this into context too much other than to say there's some interesting stuff going on here for the Cute One. Some ambient type stuff, some noise jams, some nice melodic type stuff. Some of the songs sound like White Album era Beatles. Some remind me of medieval era Helium. Hell, one song even reminds me a bit of The Heart of Rock and Roll. The whole thing is just loose, loose, loose. Unfortunately, the album runs on way too long and the songwriting just isn't as strong as I'd like it to be. Maybe I'll give it more of a chance.

Vivian Girls - Vivian Girls, 2008
I know this has been said before, but geez, this sounds like Tiger Trap. But since I've reached the age where anything from my youth is better than anything from today, I'll take Tiger Trap. 10 songs, 22 minutes. Gotta like that though. It's 1993 all over again!

Sigur Ros - Med Sud i eyrum vid spilum endalaust, 2008
The first track makes me want to get up and dance Sigur Ros style. The rest is more standard Sigur Ros but that's good enough for me.

Otis Redding - Live! In London and Paris, 1967
Um, yeah. Perfect. For plenty of songs from this album, check here.

Ratatat - LP3, 2008
I liked their first LP a lot. Didn't like the last one all that much. Dig this one. A few of the songs remind me of the music in After Hours. Other songs remind me of video games. What's not to like?



After Hours

A Friday Night Sunset

The view from our apartment. Thanks SHR for pointing it out to me!


The view from Red Hook. (picture from Kris G's Facebook page)

The Mets game (picture from the NY Times)

Recent Scenes from My Neighborhood Walks with Double Trouble

The collapsed building on Myrtle Ave.


My favorite car - now complete with flower pots.

UPDATE: 6/26
Jim just posted some incredible pictures of the building collapse.

It's Over

10 years is a long time to work in one place. For the most part, it was a great ten years. And while it didn't end in quite the way I envisioned it would, I take with me many great memories. But it is now time to move onto the next thing. What that is, I'm not quite sure.

There is a large part of me that could have seen myself still at the school 25 years from now and I think that forcing myself to leave now is probably for the best. Still, I'll miss the place and I'm sure September is going to feel quite strange.

My classroom (of the last two years) right before leaving for the last time.

I'm really glad I made it through ten years because otherwise, I wouldn't have received such an incredible keepsake of a paperweight. The beauty of this is that the drawing isn't even of the building that I work in. The school is spread out over many different blocks. This drawing is of the middle and upper school.


The paperweight doesn't look quite as bad posed next to this great gift from a departing student from this year's class.

Night in the Big City

Come on, buy our apartment!

Happy 5th Birthday!

Happy birthday to me. Happy birthday to me!

That's right folks. 6/16 is the 5th birthday of this blog. Things have changed a lot in the last 5 years for me. Actually, that's not true. Things have changed a lot for me in the last three+ months.

My very first post was about being Summer Dan. Starting Thursday, I will be officially Summer Dad.

Gulp. Wish me luck.

The Final Countdown

The final countdown has begun.

I have a few more days left of school.

But more importantly, I am talking about the terrible 80's hair metal band Europe.

About a month ago, one boy in my class started singing The Final Countdown to annoy some of the girls. Then other boys picked up on it. Then it became a class wide sensation. Kids have been singing it non-stop. A song that I hated in 1986 has now become a song I kind of like.

Today, we had a few minutes to kill in the classroom before heading downstairs for the final day of school ceremony.

I decided to play the video for The Final Countdown on the projector from YouTube. The kids were fascinated and in love but also kind of appalled by the hair. The video features thousands of screaming, adoring fans. My class featured 18 screaming, adoring fans. I tried to explain that the band didn't even rock at all - that they were overproduced schlock. But I did admit that I admired the synthesizer part. One student told me that he loved the guitar solo because he played guitar.

I mentioned that bands like Europe were very popular for a number of years until Nirvana came along. Some kids knew about Nirvana but many didn't. I put on a little bit of Smells Like Teen Spirit. They immediately enjoyed the style a lot more - the jeans, the chucks, the hair that half the boys in the school sport. But the song is not nearly as anthemic and I'm not sure that I convinced any of them.

I said, "See how much better this is? After this, all the dumb bands like Europe lost popularity. This song actually does rock unlike The Final Countdown." To which one serious student who was really trying to understand this slice of rock history commented on the Nirvana video, "But no one is screaming for Nirvana in this video. How good could they really be?"

So true.

Wednesday is the Last Day of School and Then I Will Be Unemployed

Granted, I still will have a whole week after Wednesday to clean up, pack some stuff, and sit through endless meetings.

And I will continue getting paid through the end of August.

But still, it is going to be an odd feeling on Wednesday. It will be my last day teaching children at the school after working there for 10 years.

Last week, I was offered back my old position (long story) for one more year as a maternity leave replacement. SHR and I thought long and hard about it and decided that I shouldn't take it.

Anyway, I hope the hiring freeze ends. Or I hope that I can get enough tutoring jobs. Bring on the summer! Where the living is easy and I'll be Mr. Mom. Summer Dan is officially taking a long hiatus.

Open House New York

After a little over two years, SHR and I are hoping to move out of our current apartment soon. A 1 bedroom really isn't big enough for a family of 4.

Tomorrow evening, we will have our first open house.

Please buy our apartment someone!




The first two pictures were taken by our broker. The last one was taken by me.