Ronnie James Dio, RIP

Ronnie James Dio.

No Place Like Home

Brilliant songwriters have a way of taking words and music and striking a chord that resonates in all of us. Billy Joel's brilliance is pounded out in his 1982 song, "Allentown," one that still rings in my head, and reminds me of who I am, and from where I came.

No, I've never been to Allentown, Pennsylvania, but, like many others, I came from a place much like it. My Allentown is called Flint, Michigan. Flint wasn't a steel town, but a town of car factories. One day, the folks with all the money, the same folks for whom the town was built, left. They left for new places like Mexico, because a 4.5 billion-dollars-a-year profit was somehow not enough. Free enterprise, ya know. It's the American way.

But tell that to the tens of thousands of Americans in that town left with nothing but unemployment, crime, and hungry children.

That, and Billy Joel's words.

"Well we're living here in Allentown
And they're closing all the factories down
Out in Bethlehem they're killing time
Filling out forms
Standing in line"

As a kid, I stood in the unemployment line with my dad, for hours. There were a lot of desperate people there, and it's an awful feeling.

"Well we're waiting here in Allentown
For the Pennsylvania we never found
For the promises our teachers gave
If we worked hard
If we behaved"

I remember my eighth grade history teacher constantly reminding us that if we worked hard, if we behaved, if we attended school everyday, we too, could share in the American Dream. A lot of people believed those words. I believed them, and was one of many standing empty handed when it came time to live my American Dream. No one expects to be handed anything, but, what happened to those promises?

"So the graduations hang on the wall
But they never really helped us at all
No they never taught us what was real
Iron and coke,
Chromium steel
And we're waiting here in Allentown"

When I was working three jobs to pay for college and my step-father was hounding me about getting a real job with good pay, and my college advisers said that if I studied math education I was guaranteed a career, I found a way to get my graduation. But I still had not learned what was real. Like when the only horse in a one-horse town runs off, and leaves you stranded. No jobs for thousands meant no jobs for a shiny, new, wanna-be teacher. Factories, schools, and dreams had all been shut down. I applied to a couple hundred schools. I went to over a hundred interviews. More than ninety of those folks bothered to send me a letter to say "sorry, we don't need you, but thanks for your inquiry." I kept those letters in a stack bounded with rubber bands for years, to remind me where I came from.

"But they've taken all the coal from the ground
And the union people crawled away"

Yep, the biggest labor union of all started in Flint. Where are they, now?

"Well I'm living here in Allentown
And it's hard to keep a good man down
But I won't be getting up today

And it's getting very hard to stay"

Well, I did get up, everyday. One day, I got up and left. I got a job in Texas, and I'm doing the best I can. I've been doing it for 22 years, now, and I still have a lot to do. That's the real American dream.

The thing is, I left my hometown, but it has never left me. Everything I ever learned about life is somehow attached to that experience. I doubt I'll ever forget, but if I do, there's always Billy Joel's song to remind me.

The House Was Rockin'

Lisa and I have seen several concerts in the last year, and I was never able to report on them. Well, we saw Everclear last Saturday (1/23), and this time I must at least say something.

This occasion was the first time I'd seen them, and it came long after the band's biggest years. Essentially, Everclear is Art Alexakis, and what amounts to at least the third incarnation of his group.

Alexakis has issues. Boy, does he have issues, and he lays it all out there in his songs. Here's a little clue for ya, via song titles: "Father of Mine," "Heroin Girl," "Everything Is Wonderful," and for cryin' out loud, the band is named "Everclear," after all. Alexakis responded onstage to a fan chiding him to at least smile: "Yeah, I have four ex-wives who all said the same thing!" No doubt.

We sat up on the balcony for this one, not wishing to fight with the general admission crush on the floor. We had good seats, too, and enjoyed it all. We even stood up for a while, taking it all in.

Everclear is supporting a "new" CD, one consisting of remakes and a couple new songs. If Art and his band should come around again, I'll make sure to buy some tix.

Easy Way To Help Relieve Hunger

Land O'Lakes is donating $1 for every person who clicks on their web site. Go to the website listed below and on the upper right side of the screen there is the green area where it says:

"You Click, We Donate!"

Click it, and that'as all you have to do!
http://www.landolakesinc.com/company/corporateresponsibility/foundation/default.aspx

If you need, here is more info on their "Operation Co-operation" campaign, from their website:

Still Groovy

My friend Roger, the school librarian, gave me a cool little article about vinyl records. You know, the long playing platters most cool cats used to listen to. How cool are records, now? Imagine my search for equilibrium when Roger told me the article came from that bastion of hip-ness, AARP Magazine. Yeah, I've finally caught up with the folks who rally to advance the cause of retired persons.

Roger related a chat he and I once had about my "show and tell" with kids to teach them about my passion for music. He read the following passage, and told me later, "it reminded me of you, and it was just like you said." From the article:

Even the nonlistening rituals of record ownership are burned into the memories of everyone who ever had a collection. Need proof? Head down to a music store and buy a record—most larger shops now have at least a small vinyl section. The rest will come naturally: bring the record home (on the way, I guarantee, you'll admire the cover artwork). Now slip your thumbnail into the cellophane sheath, right at the album's business end, and slide it along. Feel that flutter in your stomach as the album opens? You're remembering what it's like to access your music with a single, graceful stroke—instead of peeling, stabbing, cutting, and finally biting your way into a CD jewel case. Now slide out the inner sleeve. There she is: the proud, black thing of beauty, her label winking at you through the sleeve's center hole. As you extract the disk from the sleeve, you'll find you haven't forgotten how to hold it safely: your thumb at the ridge, the label resting on your fingers.

The part the author left out, Roger explained, was that I also related even how the smell of brand new vinyl was part of the experience. Oh, how sensory memories affect us...

It seems that about every month or so, there's another article about records, how we are buying, selling, and wanting more. They never completely went away, kids. Get this: Vinyl record sales soared 89 percent in 2008, according to Neilson Soundscan. New records by old and new artists alike are being released on vinyl. (See the chart.)

Call me grandpa, but my turntable fits in nicely as a component of my surround sound system.

Read this article, and some others, too, at the links below.

• How Records Got Their Groove Back
• Vinyl records are increasingly popular with youths
• Nielsen SoundScan 2008 Sales Figures Released
• Radiohead, Neutral Milk Hotel Help Vinyl Sales Almost Double In 2008
• EMI/Capitol Catch Vinyl Fever with Radiohead, “Pet Sounds” Reissues
• Vinyl Returns in the Age of MP3

Aggie

When I first met her, Aggie would greet my knock on the door with loud barking. She used to scare people she didn't know like that, but truthfully, as soon as you entered her domain, she'd more likely lick you all over, and jump up and down, standing on her hind legs. Indeed, it wasn't long before Aggie would meet me at the door like Fred Flintstone's Dino.

As anyone who's ever met Aggie will tell ya, she also had that poke to the crotch with her snout. That was always a fine howdy-doody. Not quite as good as running from the back of the house to meet me, every time I came over, though.
There are so many things that made Aggie the best Golden Retriever, ever. Like the way she made me pet her for hours on end, and if I stopped for a split second, she'd nudge me, or paw at me. She had a way of climbing through my legs when I stood, wedging her head against my legs, and then twisting her backside around so I'd pet her. She'd clackity-clack around Lisa's wood floor to great effect, signaling that she was there, and you'd better be ready to take care of her. She'd go out in the yard in the warm sun, roll over on her back and just dance with all legs flailing in the air. She chased squirrels and birds off her property. Not that she'd know what to do if she could've caught up to them.

Best of all, she had a way of making me realize that the moments I had with her were special -- while we were having them. Her intuitive sense of mood often caught me off guard. She was braver, stronger and more giving than most humans I've ever known. She fought through a stroke, learned how to walk again, lived with arthritis, and a giant tumor in her belly. If she occasionally barked when I left the room because she wanted attention, I think I could forgive her for that. As Lisa said to me, she was a real trooper.

Just after Hurricane Rita came through Texas, Lisa and I took Aggie to my house and she just ran free in the backyard. She really liked open spaces.

She's running free, now. I'm gonna miss her.

Why Did The Cricket Cross The Road?

With the still-fresh Beatles remastered CDs buzzing around here, two clear winners benefit the most from the new technology: The White Album and Abbey Road. Both are particularly stellar in their sonic-soothing-ness.

And since Abbey Road turned 40 just a few weeks ago, it is fitting to offer a quick nod to the seminal album, that almost everyone I know has at least heard of, if not owned many times over. The Rock Band video game commercial, as seen above, is one of the coolest salutes to the Beatles I've ever seen. (How in the heck did they do that?) I have an Abbey Road poster given to me by one of my students a couple years ago, in my classroom. One of my current students wears her Abbey Road hoodie to school. Never fading in popularity, the vinyl record version of the album is still available, and I picked one up from a Best Buy store. It is iconic, and it's everywhere.


Witness then, my wacky brother, Clarence, aka "Cricket", crossing that famous road, in 1984. (Look, Mom, no shoes!)

Notice in the above photo, members of my class of 2008 reenacting the event at our school! And, check it out, the weird looking guy to the right, who is clearly out of step with the others. He also has a calculator in his left hand, and he's right-handed, proving that indeed, he is not dead, but very much a mathematician!

There's a pretty decent article about the re-mastering of Abbey Road, here:
The Beatles: Repaving 'Abbey Road'