two nappy haired blondes that keep me in love with music

Sam Phillips

Unless I can plead Sam to make it closer to the midwest than New Jersey, I may never get to see her in person. You'll have to follow the link to see an in-studio concert for NPR.

Aimee Mann


H and I went to see Aimee at Cain's Ballroom a couple of weeks ago. There were only about 120-150 people there, so we had a great time. Whenever I think of Aimee, especially when I think about how she seems as a real person, it's my best opportunity to use the adjective droll.

quotes

When I used to carry around my palm pilot all the time, I had a little memo where I archived quotes or phrases that I heard/read that I liked. Sometimes these morphed into songs. ("For my part, I know nothing with any certainty. But the sight of the stars makes me dream..."-Vincent Van Goh found on a card at Barnes and Noble. Word-for-word the bridge of World Around Me.) Other times I just look at them and enjoy them again.

Tonight I re-installed my palm software and copied a bunch of song ideas/lines into my songwriting software. I also found my little list of quotes and thought I'd share some.

• Friendship is unnecessary, like philosophy, like art...it has no survival value; rather, it is one of those things that gives value to survival. -C.S. Lewis
• I no doubt deserved my enemies, but I don't believe ever I deserved my friends. -Walt Whitman
• Don't worry about people stealing your ideas. If your ideas are any good, you'll have to ram them down people's throats. -Howard Aiken
• The truth should have no occasion to shout. -unknown

I think about that first C.S. Lewis quote all time in reference to all sorts of things.

All of this to say that my biggest goal for my first 3 weeks of summer was to write songs. I'm currently 3 songs behind... But I did come up with something promising tonight.

My sister will be proud that I'm currently reading Rendezvous with Rama. I also found Everything Must Change by McLaren at the library and have been reading it in tiny chunks during my daily , (ahem), constitutional. I'm finding myself much more interested than I've yet to be about his last book, The Secret Message of Jesus.

glorious summer and my to-do list

Ok, I'm two days into summer vacation and it's wonderful. What I'm experiencing right now may be all the reason necessary to teach. (take note, crazybilly) Even though this summer will be significantly truncated due to 1) 3 weeks of NTL modules (8-3 everyday) and 2) 3 days in glorious Searcy, AR for Literacy Lab, those things are 3 weeks away and I'm too happy happy to think about those things right now.

However, I'm trying to make myself be productive. Here's my current to-do list:
-Turn in all my re-application materials for NTL. They're due no later than June 15th
-Not wait till the last minute to work on my Portfolio Checkpoint that is due the first day of NTL modules on June 23rd. I don't need to be up until 4:30 am again.
-find out about a new battery for the electric lawn mower my mom gave us.


I'm also setting goals of writing a new song once a week. I'm also hoping to submit at least 2 songs a month to taxi. If that happens, that also means I'll be posting said songs somewhere for my adoring fans to at least be able to hear them.

Finally, I need to exercise. My friend, Justin, is trying to get me to commit to doing P90x with him. I'm afraid that might kill me. However, it would be awesome to show up at school totally buffed out. We'll see.