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may 8, 2001."T-shirts, cutoffs and a pair of thongs / We've been having fun all summer long!" Ever since I saw the Simpsons rerun where they go to the Flanders' beach house I've been obsessed with this song. Fortunately, the Boy has more than enough raw material to fuel a Beach Boys obsession for quite some time.
I've been thinking about my students tonight. Our family activity for the night was viewing the fine cinema "The Replacements," which is full of enough rock snippets to fill 2 or 3 party compilation CD's. Of particular note is the marquee song, the abominable cover of "Heroin" by the Wallflower Bowies. No wait; it's the cover of "Heroes" be the Wallflowers that just sounds like they cooked up a whole bunch of smack before recording. Which, of course, reminds me of this memorable conversation I had with one of my students as I changed the Leonard Cohen tape: student: It's kind of like Bob Dylan. Do you like the Wallflowers? There was a certain hilarious emphasis on "ROCK" that only a very serious 16-year-old boy can pull off. They weren't just good, they weren't just worth another listen...my rejection of the Wallflowers was just fundamentally wrong. Why? Because they ROCK, of course. (I love my little monkeys. I really do.) And the whole thing about the Beach Boys reminds me of the boy (same class, different part of the room) who asked me jokingly if I could put on some GG Allen...who was the only person in the class to know (let alone like) Tom Waits...who responded to my lame public slamming of the Beach Boys by saying quietly but authoritatively that Brian Wilson never wrote a bad song. Some students are just students, of course. But some are people that you're glad you met, even if the context wasn't the most natural. This boy falls into that category.
Today was my second day at this new posting. I've been having a really good time, too - although a great deal of my day was spent retyping corrections in an educational package, I also got to start writing a tutorial for online students on saving and cropping .JPG documents. Now I'm sure that you did something more exciting with your afternoon, for me this is a major step up in terms of office tasks I am willing to do. Yesterday I played with Dreamweaver and retyped pages, which is almost a perfect way to make money when I'm not force-feeding information to baseball cap-wearing monkeys. The best part of my job is the office I'm working in. The whole building used to be a residence, and it was converted into three suites of offices for various university departments. Our office is on the 3rd floor and very obviously used to be a double occupancy room. The window is the old-fashioned open and close kind of office window, meaning that cool spring Valley breezes play in the room all day. Enough light comes in that we don't even need the florescent lights. The whole experience is remarkably like working in somebody's bedroom. Whenever I get tired, my spirit is refreshed by the wood-paneled walls and multi-coloured pastel curtains. My boss is very friendly and seems very competent (which is a nice change from the other office jobs I've done). The whole thing feels like hanging out, which is the ideal I suppose. Yay work!
Cracks have appeared in the happy family façade. My mother in particular is showing emotional strain, as my father & brother stubbornly (and predictably) refuse to act any different than they do at home, leaving her holding the entertainment bag in so many ways. "Let's face it, I'm no joy either. Marge, can I have another sandwich? Marge, can I have another sandwich?"
Yesterday was the Boy's 27th birthday. It was perhaps less festive than we might have hoped: he worked a 10 hour day and the Leafs lost. But in-between there was a good expensive meal in one of the two excellent restaurants in town, presents of trousers and a poundcake.
My family spent the bulk of today in Halifax, wandering around and relaxing. We're still 3 weeks from the real beginning of the tourist season, and most of the attractions are closed. So Halifax is pretty much the scene in terms of local entertainment. Although my parents had a quiet ramble, Nic quickly found an active protest against the striking educational support staff at the legislature building and joined in. After we watched the relevent footage on the evening I sang him a song; see if you can figure out the tune: Oh Nic, you came and you joined the big protest |
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