Song of the Day: "I Don't Mind If You Forget Me" by Morrissey

<<last song

>>next song

• OLDER POST
• NEWER POST

Is there any better album that Morrissey's solo debut Viva Hate? What an explosion of energy, defiance and wit. I'm currently listening to some of the B-sides off the album, courtesy of YouTube for the first time in like 15 years. 

"I Don't Mind If You Forget Me" was a favorite when I was young and holds up wonderfully. I love the wasp-like guitar, the fast trotting drums and, as per se, the words of singer/songwriter Morrissey, who is my personal patronus. There's something liberating and healing about the final refrain: "Rejection is one thing, but rejection from a fool is cruel." 

--Sarah Torribio

Random Musing: The student has become the teacher. . .

<<last musing

>>next musing

•OLDER POST

•NEWER POST

I'm renewing myself. For instance, I'm back to learning piano and reading music. I've got out childhood and teenhood instructional piano books, books with the sheet music for the Cranberries album No Need to Argue and the Tori Amos album Boys for Pele. Yes, I'm that old and cool.

I need to find my Smiths album The Queen is Dead song book because "Frankly, Mr. Shankly" is one of the most fun and satisfying songs you can ever play on piano. It's fun, bracing and vigorous. I've cadged a few of my mom's books, like the sheet music for Joni Mitchell songs. I've also been freestyling, picking out gems like "Welcome to the Black Parade" by My Chemical Romance.

This kind of soul-enriching activity is necessary because, among other endeavors, I have a gig substitute teaching. It's been third grade the last few days and I see way too much of my younger self in the class clowns, avid talkers, messy desk-ers and mischief-makers.

The job is not a goldmine, but I was able to pay for Alex's new glasses today. That was cool.

I'm happy to be employed and have schools open here in Utah. (Everyone's wearing masks and the kids' hands are sanitized a good six times a day, bye the bye.)

But the kids can be exhausting. You have to prowl a classroom throughout the day to stem the tide of talking, giggling and hijinks like perching rather than sitting on a chair; stealthily consuming Takis; logging onto YouTube; sleeping; drawing pictures from the video game "Among Us," hitting oneself, and, in one anime-plagued classroom, trading Pokémon cards.

(Mad props to all my friends who are teachers or subs. You've got to bring it constantly to avoid losing your class and surrendering to chaos.)

Luckily, the students are also friendly and helpful. For instance, there's always a kid who's willing to provide tech support and two dozen kids willing to run the roll sheet over to the office. (Some things never change.)

Students around these parts are generally kind to each other and often give me drawings, homemade cards and gifts. The kid who misbehaved the most often during my latest assignment made me a little present today. He probably fashioned it when he was supposed to be doing something else, but such is life.

It's a little door, drawn with crayons and folded paper, that opens. Inside it looks like a book and has a rainbow and the words, "You've got to love a good teacher." It's laminated with tape. That kind of gesture is just plain good for the soul.

This job is going to make me a better person, I know it. And as Martha Stewart says, "It's a good thing."

P.S.-Does anyone else think prison is the best thing that happened to Martha Stewart? She lost her facade of perfection and gained a sense of humor.

—Sarah Torribio

Song of the Day: "Cemetry Gates" by The Smiths

 

<<last song

<<next song

•OLDER POST

•NEWER POST

I learned to write plot and dialogue from Stephen King, whom I started reading at an unconscionably young age.

Then I learned to write music and poetry from Morrissey of The Smiths and his prolific solo career. My love for the man goes beyond nostalgia. He is such an amazing lyricist. (I've come to realize, however, that Johnny Marr speaks as many volumes with his guitar.)

He taught me that you can use words to create momentum, or a mood. That rhymes are good, but rhythm is equally important. That you can be sad and angry at the same time. That I wasn't the only disaffected person who found the world nearly as confusing as myself.

Some of the lines that are forever branded bond into my mind are not even from my favorite Smiths songs and they're not always charming and pretty. But that cadence. That self-deprecating wit. The hatred and the empathy.

Here's a small list. I could go on for hours but I don't want to reveal the depth of my monomania.

*The numbers don't represent rank. They just lend a sense of order to my inner wanderings.)

1) "Nowhere Fast"

"I'd like to drop my trousers to the queen.I am a man of means—of slender means. Each household appliance is like a new science in my town. And when a train goes by it's such a sad sound."

2) "Frankly, Mr. Shankly" (Basically a gleeful and capering resignation letter.)

Frankly, Mr. Shankly, this position I've held

It pays my way and it corrodes my soul

I want to leave, you will not miss me

I want to go down in musical history

3) "Still Ill"

"I decree today that life is simply taking and not giving. England is mine, and it owes me a living."

4) "How Soon Is Now?"

"I am the son and the heir

of a shyness that is criminally vulgar.

I am the son and heir of nothing in particular.

You shut your mouth

How can you say

I go about things the wrong way?

I am human and I need to be loved

just like everybody else does."

Sometimes Morrissey employs words with euphony, so they come out of your mouth easily and trippingly. Other times, he uses cacophony, where words are better spat than sung.

More than anything, I love the way Morrissey shows that you can write about tragic things with perspective and wit. Take the positively joyous "Cemetry Gates."

—Sarah Torribio

Random Meme: Lisa Simpson and The Smiths

 

<<last meme

>>next meme

•OLDER POST

•NEWER POST

This happened to me too, when I was in high school! 

Song of the Day: "Nowhere Fast" by The Smiths

<<last song

 >>next song

"Nowhere Fast" by The Smiths is song of the day on Battlestar Eclectica. For those who don't know, Morrissey is both my patronus and personal savior, but that's neither here nor there.

The strange thing about this song is that it's not my favorite Smiths songs and yet it has some of my favorite lyrics. So tongue-trippingly apt and moody: "I'd like to drop my trousers to the queen/I am a man of means—of slender means. Each household appliance is like a new science in my town. And when a train goes by, it's such a sad sound."

—Sarah Torribio