thirteen

Fridays at school the kids go home early, right after lunch.  And most weeks, after the kids leave, we're given a few solid hours to collaborate with our coworkers and make plans and grade papers.  It's great.  Except for the grading.  I'm not a big fan of grading papers...

While I work on planning and grading I usually fire up Songbird and use it to listen to the new slate of songs posted on my very favorite music website, Cover Lay Down.

Songbird is a multi-platform web-browser built on the same code as Firefox.  But, what's cool and different about Songbird is how it lists all the songs embedded on any given website in a neat little file-index window below the browser window.  All ya gotta do is press the play button to listen to all the music on the site.  I think Songbird's a pretty neat deal.

The blog Cover Lay Down, as the name implies, features mostly cover-songs.  In their own words:

"At Cover Lay Down, we believe that familiarity breeds contentment — that is, that coversongs create an especially powerful comfort zone for fans to discover new artists and composers. As such, all songs included herein are ultimately shared for the purpose of introducing you to new and previously-unappreciated musicians, that you might follow the threads to those artists’ original works, and in doing so, become part of the base of support which allows musicianship to continue to be a fruitful way to make a living, and allows the creation of new music itself to be subsidized."

I think that's a great policy.  And, thanks to Cover Lay Down, I have encountered a bunch of great new folksy artists and composers.  Plus, I'm fascinated by cover songs... the new ways in which a familiar song can be recreated and take on the unique nuances of an artist's voice and musicianship while still maintaining much of its original melodic and lyrical structure.

Some time ago Cover Lay Down featured a cover of one of my favorite songs, Thirteen, by the '70s band Big Star (whose co-founder Alex Chilton died this past March, by the way).  I'm sure you know it.  It's a great song that's probably been covered a gagillion times.  But, this particular cover of Thirteen was done by two artists I was only marginally familiar with: Beth Orton and Sam Amidon.  They do it as a lovely, kinda jangly, down-tempo acoustic duet.  It's nice.  And it got me to thinking about other covers of the same song that I've enjoyed over the years.  So I browsed on over to The Hype Machine and searched around.

BTW: Thanks to this blog, Cover Lay Down, and a few others for having a very similar opinion of this song to my own, and for posting many of these covers online, saving me the trouble (and perhaps the liability, too).

• Wilco does a pretty good rather countrified, fiddle-and-slide version. [wilcoworld.net]
• Elliot Smith's version is good, too. [sweetadeline.net]
• As is Kathryn Williams. [kathrynwilliams.net]
• Mary Lou Lord's take is tender and personal. [myspace.com/maryloulord]
• Evan Dando's live version is great. [evandando.co.uk]
• This one, by a band called Woodpigeon was new to me, and a pleasant surprise. [woodpigeon-songbook.com]
• And, of course, I think this remixed version of Big Star's original is neat, too. [bigstarband.com]
• Metafilter user chococat recorded this rendition in his(?) basement upon the death of Alex Chilton. [fromabasement.com]

Finally, this live version, by one of my favorite bands of all time, Travis, is pretty darn great, too!



Last of all, as a bonus, here's Travis again, this time doing a different and really surprisingly great live cover... of Britney Spears' Baby One More Time.

Gerv!

Maybe you don't know Gerv.  You should.  Grant "Brad" Gerver is kind of a legendary dude in my world.

He was my cooperating teacher, back in 1992.  And it was he, more than anyone else, who taught me how to be a school teacher.  I think he did a pretty good job.  He's an awesome teacher.  Ask anyone who's ever learned from him or worked with him.  Everyone agrees.  He's one of a kind.  The very best.

His students always call him, "Gerv!"  Not Mr. G.  Definitely not Mr. Gerver.  Just Gerv.  My daughter calls him that, too.  So does my wife.  As do I.

We'd never met, Gerv and I, until I started my student teaching; I met him for the first time in the doorway of his classroom at Weitzel Elementary School.  He shook my hand and welcomed me sincerely.  That was a long, long time ago.  But we have been good friends ever since.

Gerv's retired now.  A well-deserved honor after many, many years of a job well done.  These days, when he's not out riding his bike hither-and-yon around town, he writes witty bumper-stickers, original blues songs, and plays his guitar in his little home-office under the stairs.

He's an incredible guitar player and has a voice that was made to sing the blues.

March 1, 2020

I'm not good with dates.  In my lifetime I've forgotten my mom's and dad's birthdays several times.  Been off by a week or two for many friends', even girlfriends' birthdays, on several occasions.  I've missed performances, and rehearsals, and tons of other important things due to my disability with dates.  Once I even got fired for this; forgot to attend an important client's special event during my first year out of college while working in PR.

I deserved it.  It was a lame oversight.

All part of my "accidental" path to becoming a teacher, I guess.

But, I do know our wedding anniversary.  My wife's birthday.  And my kid's.  They're all important days to me.  I've never forgotten any of them.

I also usually know the start and end dates of the school year long before the school year's begun.

And, I'll sometimes have a deadline or two in mind, too.  For whatever it's worth, these days, I do tend to hit my deadlines a little bit early whenever I can.

To be fair, I should add: Google calendar helps me a lot with all this.

But, along with all these important dates, there's one other that I've got stored away in the corner of my mind.  March 1, 2020.  And every year about this time I get a wonderful reminder of it... in the mail from the Arizona State Retirement System (ASRS).  According to the mailing, on that date... March 1, 2020... a date that's now officially a smidge less than a decade away... I will have earned my 80 points... 80 and 49 thousandths points to be precise... and, per ASRS, that means, by whatever arbitrary algorithm of odd calculations they're using to determine such things, on that day the great State of Arizona has determined I will become eligible for something they call Normal Retirement... which sounds a whole heckuva lot like plain ol' retirement!  Which, at 53 years of age, after mere 26.7 years in the game, ain't too shabby.

It's a Sunday.

I'm thinking, on Monday, March 2, 2020, I'll probably call-off...

Riding in Borneo. Yeah. Borneo

My buddy Ben and his family are living and teaching in Borneo this year. To be unnecessarily specific, they're in Balikpapan, East Kalimantan, Borneo, Indonesia.  Ben posted a few pictures on Flickr the other day of his group ride last weekend [GPS]. In a nutshell: they're insane... a trillion colors of green... weird murky streams... and some odd, too-narrow urban by-ways for good measure. Worth a look, if only because you're curious... and you know (let's be honest) you're never gonna ride there yourself.

Craigslist ... Rock Lobster Resurrection Project begins

Paul Sadoff is awesome!  The Rock Lobster is back.  And it's repaired!  On to paint and, after that: rebuilding and riding!

In the course of things, I decided to have the bike shipped to the shop since there would be no one to receive it at home during the day during the week.  I knew the guys at the shop would take good care of it and gimme a call when it arrived.

They did.

But first they unboxed it and put it on Craigslist!

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For Sale is a Rock Lobster mountain bike frame for 26 wheels. It has recently ben repaired, so there's no paint, but I swear it's a rock lobster! It has a lugged front tube and everywhere else it is welded with what appears to be bronze. It also has a little loop thing under the seat, I don't know what for. It also has backwards wheel slots so you can single speed it if yer tuff enuff. I'm selling it because I can't put disc brakes on it and v brakes suck. At $85 it won't last long so call today! No emails please, I don't know much about computers and it's taken me hours just to make this ad. 

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Hahaha.

For the record: 85 bucks is a darn good deal.

Stu-In-Flag dot net

I don't know Stuart.  But, as often happens in Flagstaff, I know people who know Stuart.

We're a one-degree-of-separation kind of town.

Stu has a blog.  It's about the weather.  I read it every day.  And I look at his weather instrument data everyday.  Stu's got way more toys to measure weather-stuff than I do.  And, from my perspective, he knows a heck of a lot more about the weather than I do, too.  I'm pretty wonky about weather.  But Stu makes me look pretty much clueless.

He's kinda become my hero.

But then, today, he posts up this pessimistic crap:

"So, where does that leave us for the winter? Sorry folks. As of the start of September, it appears this winter will be near climitological normals for temperature. Now, the global outlook is for a colder than normal winter. This may cause Northern Arizona to be colder than normal. I’m just not sure. I doubt it will be warmer. This cooling trend is being driven by a very weak solar cycle among other things.
"On the precipitation side, we will be dry. Probably very dry. December – February may see precipitation totals of less than 1.5 inches. I won’t be buying a season pass at Snowbowl."

To which I must say: WHATEVER, Stu!

What. Ever.

Might need to find me a new guru...

What I really think about snow-making at Snowbowl [UPDATED]

UPDATE 24 December 2021:

After nearly 25 years as a passholder, and almost 40 now since the day I first learned to ski, in a blizzard on the Prairie, I've found that it is all-too-easy to armchair QB Snowbowl while failing to recognize its vast organizational and technological complexities, all of which are wholly and entirely weather (read: wind/snowfall) dependent. 

It's days like today, when 15" of thick, spreadable, cream cheese fell from the sky overnight, and wind and rime compelled the operators to shut down almost the entire resort, one chair after the other, throughout the morning, which tempt even the most faithful to unrestrained snark and prolific grumbling. 

And yet, we return, year after year, storm after storm, not just because Snowbowl is the only game in town, but because, when Snowbowl is good, it's very good, despite the fact that "snow-making" did nothing to mitigate the 'Bowl's persistent wind-closures.

Sometimes, like today, when the Upper Bowl is open from Rustler to Larry's, and the out-bound meadows are wide, skippable, and fresh, and the snow-snakes have all been fully eradicated by repeated ample dumps, it is even Very Very Good.

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Tomorrow night our City Council will hold one last session wherein public opinion on the subject of selling well- or reclaimed-water to the Arizona Snowbowl for artificial snow-making will be heard. I'm not planning to attend. I have a feeling the whole thing's a done-deal. Not to sound too-much the cynic, but money talks, ya know; it's sorta the way things roll in Flagstaff.  Nevertheless, for posterity... and just in case someone with their finger more on-the-pulse or better able to get-the-ear of our oft' misguided but generally well-intentioned Council happens upon this post... I wanted to state my case.  For the record, you know.

I love to ski.  Anyone who knows me knows that.  But that's an easy thing to say: "I love to ski."  Anybody who's ever skied has probably described the experience with the same words.  But, really, in my case, it's the truth: I love to ski. That is simply the best way to express my fondness for skiing.  I love it.  Absolutely totally love it.

I learned to ski at the Arizona Snowbowl in late 1984.  I don't remember what month of that season I first made the trip up the road, whether it was November or December.  But it was during my senior year in high school.  I was a late bloomer. My buddy Derrill and I learned together.  And every year since, pretty much without fail, we still make at least one trip up the mountain together for a day skiing.

I've had a season pass at Snowbowl for 10 or 12 years now... ever since I could afford such an expensive luxury.  And I've always felt that it was a $400.00 gamble... some years it snows a lot, some years not so much.  Ya take what you can get on the Peaks.  This is, after all, Arizona.

I think I'm a fairly decent skier.  I ski with a lot of folks who are a lot better than me.  Folks with names well-known on the mountain... unlike my own.  And they school me.  Regularly.  But I can hang, much of the time.  And even if I can't, even when I flail, even when I flail huge, I've still almost always got my stoke on.  Because I love to ski.

When Snowbowl's open, I'm there every chance I get.  Every Opening Day (and sometimes well before that I'm hiking up Ridge for first tracks on Upper White Lightning).  Every Snow Day.  Every weekend.  Every holiday.  I never take personal days from work.  Except to ski.  When Snowbowl's open in November, I'm there in November, rejoicing.  When they're open until April, I'm there until April, rejoicing again.  I'm there every chance I get, thick or thin, wet and cold, sunny and baking, I'm there.  Sometimes a full day, sometimes a half day.  It doesn't matter.  I'm up and down that road so often every season that I get seriously sick of driving it.  But I do it.  Because I love to ski.

Love to ski.  Wish I could ski more.  If I could choose to do anything other than hang out with my family, I'd choose to go skiing.  When I grow up and finally get to retire from my job-job, I want to join the ski patrol.  I'm serious.

All that being said, I nevertheless stand AGAINST the proposal currently before the Council to sell water (any water) to the Arizona Snowbowl for the purposes of making artificial snow.

Here's why, in a nutshell:

• This is Arizona.  It will always be Arizona.  Arizona will never regularly be a great place to go skiing.  
• Water is valuable, too valuable to misuse.  Drinking water especially.  Especially in Arizona.
• Reclaimed water (effluent) still has lots of drugs and metals in it.
• Snowbowl, it's employees, and the city arguably stand to benefit more from the area becoming a year-round, four-season resort than they do from extending the ski season by a month or two via snow-making.
• Those with a vested interest in the Snowbowl LLC are the only ones who stand to benefit in any material way from the introduction of snow-making at the ski area.   
• There is no way to gauge any variation in Snowbowl's impact on the local economy between lean, short-season years and years of abundant snow and long seasons.  Lengthening the season with snow-making will have no measurable effect on the local economy.

What do I think Snowbowl should do?

• Fix the always-slipping-on-powder-days cable/bull-wheel assembly on Agassiz and stop paying for all this litigation.
• Resubmit.  Go get another EIS, one that includes mountain biking and interpretive hiking and whatever... and become a real four-season resort so you can employ people year-round and sell over-priced hot dogs and hot cocoa year-round, too.
• Accept the fact that, despite the aging infrastructure and cigarette-smoking Phoenicians, Snowbowl works pretty-much okay just the way it is and that we're lucky to get whatever snow we get whenever we get it.   And we ought to just enjoy it. As it is.  Remember: this is Arizona.