Dateline: Teacher’s Lounge
I seem to have lost my man cave. One of the administrators has started using it as her office. Let’s see if I can write while two teachers are talking. To help I have started a deep dive into progressive rock. My co-teacher was explaining composition of functions and said you work from the inside out. That got me singing Perpetual Change by Yes.
I immediately downloaded it from Amazon music to listen to on the subway. That’s not what I’m listening to now. I just finished Emerson, Lake, and Palmer’s Tarkus. Now I’m listening to Trilogy. I still love it. People complain that there’s too much bombast. What I hear is complexity. There’s so much there, there. It’s akin to classical music. The songs have movements. Themes are developed. Then you get great lines like, “Do you believe, god makes you breathe/Then why did he lose six million Jews.”
I get excited that music excites me. We all need something like that. Does everyone have it? I suspect that the answer is no. I would not be surprised if there are people that don’t even want them. That would mean I was wrong, everyone doesn’t need something like that. I need something like that. It’s important to remind yourself that you have no idea how others experience life. I know I’m not alone in being built like that as all my friends are the same. Way. Otherwise I could never connect with them. Dar nailed it in my favorite song of hers, What Do You Love More Than Love. It’s not a hit and she rarely performs it, but it speaks directly to me.
Last night’s adventures took place at home. I planned on my best dinners in ages. I bought an inch-thick rib-eye steak. I have never spent that much on a dinner in my life. It was over a pound so I cut it and froze half. That will be a special treat when I need it. I also bought a large baking potato. I usually buy bags of russets. That’s fine for fries but they are small for baking. To top it off I have Trader Joe’s half-baked bread. You pop it in the oven for 10 minutes to finish it. I make the steak in a cast-iron skillet. First I grill it on the burner with olive oil to brown it, then pop it in the oven at 350. The potato needs 425 so I made that in the toaster oven. The recipe I use on the steak calls for a very hot skillet, so hot that smoke pours out of it. That meant I had to use the exhaust fan. The fan didn’t work. Everything was prepared so I was about to put the steak on. The potato takes far longer so it was already half cooked. Then as I was about to start the light went out. The light in the hallway was still on. Then that went out. I figured I blew a fuse. I thought it would be the master fuse but only one of them looked like it might have blown. I searched through the fuses till I found a match and put it in. Still no good. There was a con-ed truck outside and I realized that maybe the entire building was out. I looked out the window as soon as the lights went out and saw all the other lights on the block were on, it wasn’t a blackout. When the fuse didn’t work I opened the door to the hall and saw it was dark. My building lost power. The stove is gas so I could still grill the steak. I did. It came out great. While I was doing that the light in the hall came on, but not the kitchen. When I went to the den to eat, the lamp worked but not the TV. I ate to music from my phone. When all the lights came on I finished the potato. I had to guess how long to cook it. It took two attempts until it was done. It was delicious and better than the small russets. I just didn’t have it with my steak, I punted on the bread.
Gord’s Gold streamed last night. It’s time for you to listen now that it’s on Mixcloud. Here’s the playlist.
# Artist – Song
1 Teoa – Helped Get Me High
2 Alec Speigelman – We Weren’t High
3 Lisa Jeanette – You Must Have Been High
4 The Small Glories – You Can’t Be High
5 Carolina Chocolate Drops:Luminescent Orchestrii – Escoutas (Diga Diga Diga)
6 Leyla McCalla – Latibonit
7 Guy Mendilow Ensemble – Esta Montana D’Enfrente (The Mountain Ahead Burns)
8 UkrainianVillage Voices – Mountain Beyond the Hill (Hora za Horoyu)
9 Big Little Lions – From The Storm
10 Townes Van Zandt – Dead Flowers (live-in-studio)
11 Everything Turned to Color – Invisibility
12 Youth in a Roman Field – Might As Well Have Gone
13 Tom Lehrer – The Folk Song Army
14 John Forster – Entering Marion
15 Deirdre Flint – Food
16 Honor Finnegan – Internet Junkie
I felt so awkward writing this as the other teachers are socializing and here I am with earbuds in writing this and ignoring everyone. I really wish my man-cave was available. I just got sucked into the conversation but I was finished writing. I’ll try and write again Sunday. Tomorrow I have both lunch and evening plans.
Wise Madness 