spike

Darren posted about his experience tonight as we visited the wake of our high school choir teacher, and I posted my comments on the experience there.

Here are two word puzzles. Puzzle the First: Come up with one word that begins and ends with “HE.” Puzzle the Second: Come up with one word that contains the letters “ADAC,” consecutively in that order.

Unrelatedly, ouch. I used to get this pain in my head every Friday. It was like an end-of-week ritual. Now my head hurts more often, sometimes several times a week. I take Aleve or its generic equivalent (neither Tylenol nor Advil do it for me) more often. I went from being shy about taking pills to downing them in one gulp. When will the madness end?

I’d see a doctor, but Schrödinger’s cat (who happens to be named Rupert, also) is telling me not to bother. I don’t think one can die from a tumor/no-tumor duality.

My high school choir teacher passed away last week. From what I understand, she had a heart attack while teaching the Advanced Choir class. She was fairly young, but then again it was more than ten years ago that I had regular contact with her. This is sad, sad, sad. She was a very caring and helpful teacher and individual.

When I was auditioning for college, she helped me record a solo vocal performance to show my “versatility” — my main instrument was clarinet, not voice — and she remained very kind about the performance even though I most likely sucked.

My mother always remarked the teacher had crazy outfits for the concerts she conducted, and she looked like Glinda, the Good Witch of the North.

I’ll go to the viewing tomorrow night.

The usual apologies, etc., etc.

Once again it’s September 11. This day reminds me of what I was doing four years ago and how I’m in a relatively better place now. Also, this day marks sixth months until I’m thirty years old. That’s a scary thought. Along those lines, I’m reminded that I’m not quite in a place where I’d like to be, although I’m moving forward.

I’m not enjoying my latest MBA course (finance) but it’s almost over. The next class is something information-management related. That could be better.

Thanks to a store credit at Eddie Bauer I’ve had sitting around, magnetized to the refrigerator for three years, I managed to purchase $115 worth of clothes for $60 today. I also picked up Red Dwarf III with some Best Buy gift cards. I resisted purchasing a new notebook computer, but I could use one.

I’m starting to feel that I’m regretting agreeing to volunteer for my old marching-related organization this fall. I took last fall off, but decided I was ready to come back to the activity this year. But with classwork, trying to find better jobs, some various work on the side, and making time for Amy and my friends, it might just be a little too much.

I don’t know if this screen capture of SkyTV was faked or not, but the caption describing Bush talking about Katrina is funny either way.

Drum Corps International World Championships (Finals) will be on ESPN2 tonight, 10:00 PM Eastern.

Apparently, I have some relatives in New Orleans. I didn’t know until my father mentioned they are okay. He’s a doctor, I believe, and was planning a wedding in the now-drowned city. Here’s his story:

Everyone is ok with our family. It should be a good month or two until we go back to our house, although we’ve heard a lot of good stories about our house not being so bad off. To give you a short story of what happened- I convinced c—- (my fiancee) to stay in the hospital during the hurricane because it is a safe place (she is a nurse at Tulane as well). the hurricane passed and we weren’t that bad off. then monday night into tuesday the water rose and flooded the first floor. Tuesday night we lost power and tuesday morning we lost water use including flushing. We evacuated the 20 sickest patients on tuesday. we evacuated about 100 patients on wednesday. On thursday, we evacuated the 20 pts who were left and then charity sent over their 35 sickest patients by boat. So we were taking care of them and evacuating people at the same time. Thursday night we finally got airlifted by helicopter out to NO airport. Then we were bussed to a hospital in lafayette to shower and clean off. Luckily C—-‘s friend d—- lives there so she picked us up friday morning and we’ve been staying here since. Tomorrow we’re flying back to new york. The wedding on oct 22nd in NO is not gonna happen. Instead, we will probably have a small wedding in NY in the next couple of weeks. thanks for your concern

And since my goal in life is to share all that is monumentally depressing, I suggest this article from the Seattle Times about what’s been happening at the Superdome. If you read one article about the conditions due to Katrina, this is the one you should read.

So I took this online quiz that purports to tell you your real age — the one you act most like. I took the quiz and it told me I’m 29. Get out of my head! Apparently, I act like I am the exact age that I actually am.

Eleven or twelve years ago I discovered through some friends the musical — or “rock opera” — Jesus Christ Superstar (“The Brown Album”). The music was so good and the performances so powerful, it’s still to this day one of my most favorite works of music. Last weekend I picked up the relatively new Special Edition DVD of the movie based on that musical. Back to that in a moment.

In high school, my friends and I had grandiose plans to record the music and film our version of the musical in local locations. I had every scene mapped out on two sides of a yellow piece of legal-sized, lined paper. Think, “Last Supper at McDonalds on Route 130.” Of course that never came to fruition. But one day we were wandering around a movie rental place, possibly pre-Blockbuster, and we came across a VHS version of the musical. Since we were all in love with the music (the Brown Album version, of course) at that time, and had been for maybe a year, we decided we had to rent it.

We had no idea what we were in for. Rather than a stage musical, it was an early-70s orgiastic hour-and-a-half-long rock video. Filmed completely on location in Israel, it bordered on biblical with a little bit of modern artillery, scaffolding, chrome helmets, ammunition, and pot. (And what was up with those random tanks?)

Well now I know. The DVD’s commentary with the director, Norman Jewison (who isn’t Jewish although one might think he is), and the fellow who played (and still to this day plays) Jesus, Ted Neeley, puts the movie in a completely new light. This DVD, with commentary, is required viewing for people who love the musical and were taken aback by the movie, like I was.

Come to think of it, I had one of the first unofficial websites dedicated to the musical, in which I had entered — or planned to enter — all of the lyrics, among some other random writing about the show. That was a long time ago, now…