On Teaching and Tunes
I've got my teacher blog ( http://mrlakin.blogspot.com) linked into Facebook now, but in case you missed it... I officially have a job!
After some unavoidable hiccups in the TfA placement process, I made a shift in content area from middle school language arts to upper elementary. As a result, this fall I will be teaching 4th grade at Bethesda Elementary School in Durham, North Carolina. While its a bit of a curveball to make the switch (along with four more hours of Praxis testing), after spending a summer here in Atlanta with my third graders (who will, after all be fourth graders this fall) I've grown attached to the idea, and am excited about what comes next.
Mostly, however, I opened up the ol' LJ because I felt like writing about music, and sharing some good stuff I've found while taking a break from lesson planning this summer, complete with links (thanks, Hype Machine!)
First off, the song that's been on repeat on my way to and from school almost every day this week has been Ron Sexsmith's version of the song he co-wrote with Feist, "Brandy Alexander". The version on Feist's "The Reminder" last year was one of the sleepers of the disc- a sweet, spare ballad filled with longing and sweetness that only Leslie Feist can deliver. Sexsmith's version, on the excellent just-released "Exit Strategy of the Soul," fleshes things out a lot, making it more of a 70s soft-rock sing-along (and I mean that in a good way), complete with a fantastically bold yet warm Cuban horn section. (http://download.stereogum.com/mp3/Ron%20Sexsmith%20-%20Brandy%20Alexander.mp3)
Then, there's the inexplicable title song from the upcoming Pineapple Express (the latest from the Judd Apatow comedy factory), performed by... wait for it... Huey Lewis and the News. Basically, Seth Rogen is so awesome he can just assume that his wacky stoner comedy is on par with both Back to the Futures I and II in deserving a song over the end credits with more 80s saxophones lines packed into one composition than any man thought possible (http://larryfire.files.wordpress.com/2008/07/01-pineapple-express.mp3)
Finally, the concept of a song designed by committee sounds inherently awful and yet not one but two bands have managed to give it a whirl in the past month. Rivers Cuomo, already riding high on the power of internet celebrity via the ridiculous video for the ridiculously catchy "Pork and Beans", has been working on YouTube with fans to craft a song literally from the ground up... chords, solos, lyrics, the works. I have to say, the Weezer fanboys and girls seem to have ears as pop-friendly as Cuomo, as "Turning Up The Radio", the resulting single, though nothing earth-shattering, is a nice little summertime rock song (http://boxstr.com/files/2504354_xdsos/turnin-up-the-radio.mp3)
While the cooperative efforts engaged in by Ted Leo and the Pharmicists may only have been lyrical, they drew from the suggestions of the listening audience of the strangely hilarious Best Show on WFMU (where Ted himself is a regular caller). The result, completed in the course of one three hour program with heavy input as always by host Tom Scharpling, is "The World is in the Terlet," a number that lets Ted go more all-out punk than usual, albeit with a demented smirk the whole way through (http://www.fluxblog.net/tedleo_terlet.mp3).
That's about all the procrastination induced music blogging I can do for now.... before I go though, a quick question: what awesome music would you play in your fourth grade classroom? I managed to use a rainforest lesson today to play Seu Jorge's Portugese Bowie covers from The Life Aquatic during my students' worktime today as an example of music from South America. As it went over pretty well, I've been working on a "Class Jams" playlist of music for kids to work along to in class (or to let some energy out to with impromptu dance parties).
After some unavoidable hiccups in the TfA placement process, I made a shift in content area from middle school language arts to upper elementary. As a result, this fall I will be teaching 4th grade at Bethesda Elementary School in Durham, North Carolina. While its a bit of a curveball to make the switch (along with four more hours of Praxis testing), after spending a summer here in Atlanta with my third graders (who will, after all be fourth graders this fall) I've grown attached to the idea, and am excited about what comes next.
Mostly, however, I opened up the ol' LJ because I felt like writing about music, and sharing some good stuff I've found while taking a break from lesson planning this summer, complete with links (thanks, Hype Machine!)
First off, the song that's been on repeat on my way to and from school almost every day this week has been Ron Sexsmith's version of the song he co-wrote with Feist, "Brandy Alexander". The version on Feist's "The Reminder" last year was one of the sleepers of the disc- a sweet, spare ballad filled with longing and sweetness that only Leslie Feist can deliver. Sexsmith's version, on the excellent just-released "Exit Strategy of the Soul," fleshes things out a lot, making it more of a 70s soft-rock sing-along (and I mean that in a good way), complete with a fantastically bold yet warm Cuban horn section. (http://download.stereogum.com/mp3/Ron%20Sexsmith%20-%20Brandy%20Alexander.mp3)
Then, there's the inexplicable title song from the upcoming Pineapple Express (the latest from the Judd Apatow comedy factory), performed by... wait for it... Huey Lewis and the News. Basically, Seth Rogen is so awesome he can just assume that his wacky stoner comedy is on par with both Back to the Futures I and II in deserving a song over the end credits with more 80s saxophones lines packed into one composition than any man thought possible (http://larryfire.files.wordpress.com/2008/07/01-pineapple-express.mp3)
Finally, the concept of a song designed by committee sounds inherently awful and yet not one but two bands have managed to give it a whirl in the past month. Rivers Cuomo, already riding high on the power of internet celebrity via the ridiculous video for the ridiculously catchy "Pork and Beans", has been working on YouTube with fans to craft a song literally from the ground up... chords, solos, lyrics, the works. I have to say, the Weezer fanboys and girls seem to have ears as pop-friendly as Cuomo, as "Turning Up The Radio", the resulting single, though nothing earth-shattering, is a nice little summertime rock song (http://boxstr.com/files/2504354_xdsos/turnin-up-the-radio.mp3)
While the cooperative efforts engaged in by Ted Leo and the Pharmicists may only have been lyrical, they drew from the suggestions of the listening audience of the strangely hilarious Best Show on WFMU (where Ted himself is a regular caller). The result, completed in the course of one three hour program with heavy input as always by host Tom Scharpling, is "The World is in the Terlet," a number that lets Ted go more all-out punk than usual, albeit with a demented smirk the whole way through (http://www.fluxblog.net/tedleo_terlet.mp3).
That's about all the procrastination induced music blogging I can do for now.... before I go though, a quick question: what awesome music would you play in your fourth grade classroom? I managed to use a rainforest lesson today to play Seu Jorge's Portugese Bowie covers from The Life Aquatic during my students' worktime today as an example of music from South America. As it went over pretty well, I've been working on a "Class Jams" playlist of music for kids to work along to in class (or to let some energy out to with impromptu dance parties).