A SHEER MINT CARE

come on in and blog

2007-07-26T07:43:00.000-05:00

i wanna blog;
seriously, i do.

i wanna blog about how fun it is to be a preacher and teach people about the bible. especially my high school boys. they're pals and marvelous.

i wanna blog about how fun it is to make clips and show people how my brain works.

i wanna blog about how fun it is to chat online with people who have bible questions.

i wanna blog about how important it is for people to listen to good music. have you downloaded any They Might Be Giants podcasts lately? what about the No Direction Home podcasts on Bob Dylan? they're free; hop to it.

bible question? shoot it at me.
music question? i love to ponder.

love you,
-d

new song game

2007-07-24T19:20:00.001-05:00

i luuuv you from Increase Mather and Vimeo.

Why I hate your music

2007-04-14T08:04:00.000-05:00

I finally put together a collection of music for my boss.
I hope it will work for him. I think I promised such a disc to a few of you, so you might see it in the mails somedays. Unfortunately, sending it to you over the internets would be a little dicey.

Not much opportunity this week for creativity. Muse or not, I've been swamped with the worldly things in life. Like money. I've discovered that I love it. I love the way it pays the bills. I love the way it feeds my wife and I. I like the way it covers our need for insurance so that if I die, my wife can get more of it. As such, I am a devoted companion to money's step-father: jobbing.

No room for pictures,
no room for movies,
no room for guitar...which I so desperately need.

Spring Break

2007-04-09T06:48:00.000-05:00

So, I'm on a Spring Break from my full time subbing position. Now, I have all the time in the world to work 30+ hours at the Gap! Huzzah.

Somehow, I'll need to cram in:

1) Lesson planning for the following week
2) Taxes (yes, I'm that late)
3) Stop Motion movie (screenplay suggestions?)
4) Sermons galore
5) Hair cut

Somehow though, I doubt my haircut will be quite as magical as Charlie's.

Here's a picture of me: less forehead and less artsy-fartsy than Charlie's (yet again).

Annoying Sub on Friday

2007-03-26T15:06:00.001-05:00

Apparently, I received the world's worst Substitute Teacher to fill in for me on Friday. This is highly offensive on two levels:

1) I am a substitute teacher, and I hate people who reflect poorly in a position that I also work in

2) She was completely disrespectful to my children

I have taken a dear and keen ownership of my students, and anyone who behaves poorly should be reprimanded. I am in the process of compiling a collection of evidence that will, hopefully, refuse her work in this building ever again.

Incompetence is pathetic. Poor professionalism is worse. Worthless and irreverent individuals make my blood boil.

2007-03-26T15:06:00.000-05:00

Full Time Subbing

2007-03-20T06:54:00.000-05:00

Well, as you can imagine,
Full Time Subbing on a Long Term scale
takes a lot of work.

As I haven't finished this work yet,
I shoul probably stop blogging...

Profuse Vomiting

2007-03-15T22:16:00.000-05:00

Well, unfortunately five of my girls began vomiting profusely after seeing a human brain in their science class today. Poor things, they were all red-faced and teary-eyed from the process. Must have been quite an ordeal from them.

Poor little dears,
they really are sweet girls.
Mostly.

I'm sure they'll be ok.

Are you kidding me?

2007-03-07T07:42:00.000-06:00

R. J. Stevens
Song Leaders Instructional Set

Is this some sort of scam? Do you see the price tag here? Did Jerry Bruckheimer somehow get involved in this production?

How on earth do you expect someone to pay $130 +$10 shipping for this thing?

Just look at the contents:
two DVD's
a Workbook
a guide to Hymns for Worship
a Dictionary

If we "rightly divide" the $130 among the 5 items, it turns out to this:
$26 = DVD 1
$26 = DVD 2
$26 = Workbook
$26 = Guide to Hymns for Worship
$26 = Dictionary

I can imagine paying $26 for a workbook, but the main reason I never purchased Nova's show on Einstein's Big Idea was because the discs were about $20 each. For crying out loud, I'm sure Song Leader Revolution II won't be this expensive (incidentally, Song Leader Revolution II premiers April 13, 2007).

Whatever happened to going to church in the middle of no where, and learning how to lead singing because you needed to figure it out? Whatever happened to the leadership in the church passing on their learning, skills and experiences to their young? Isn't that what shepherds are supposed to do? I'd be interested to know which section of the country orders more of these Singing Packages. Are more being mailed to Alabama, Tennessee and Kentucky? Or are more orders coming from Nebraska, Iowa and Minnesota?

sheesh...

p.s. by the by, cassettes are on sale for about $3-7.00

New Video

2007-03-05T17:15:00.000-06:00

I purchased 6 Eric Carle books for my wife to celebrate her being a mommy. I discovered that the glossy pages of Martha Stewart Living makes excellent wrapping paper.

I couldn't resist, and here's my video:
Martha Stewart Wrapping Paper

"The folley of Boston Billey"

2007-03-01T10:03:00.000-06:00

In honor of our nation’s “great passion for a good detective story” I feel that I have no choice but to revise a common myth about early American history. While many feel that Georgia O’Keefe’s depiction of our nation’s most famous, if only, Tea Party to be an accurate, Lady O’Keefe left out an important event in the story.

There is no reference to Samuel Adam’s sketch of “The folley of Boston Billey”. As seen here, the only known sketch of William Peggy Stewart, more commonly known as “Boston Billey” was reportedly quickly made in a local pub in late December of 1773. To the apparent dismay of “Boston Billey”, it was displayed in the pub for the next 47 years until acquired by Harvard University to be archived.

Samuel Adam’s sketch, though drawn many days after the event, keenly illustrates the events which prompted Paul Revere to write the ballad “The folley of Boston Billey”. The story proposes that Samuel Adams, in an effort to encourage his fellow “Boston Tea Lobbers” exclaimed: “Lads, the moment of truth is upon us. Gird up your loins to cross this sea, and heave with your might yon angry tea.” Boston Billey, simple of mind, mistook the directions and promptly “girded and grasped yon angry tea, and lobbed his loins deep into the sea”.

Short Clip

2007-02-26T22:26:00.000-06:00

Nothing significant,
but at the very least,
a short clip on our most recent snow fall.

Historic? Not hardly.
Interesting? Barely.
But a post none the less.

Just click ::here::

Your grandparent's music

2007-02-23T14:02:00.000-06:00

What did your grandparents listen to while growing up?

It says a lot about their community and their religious & social background. My grandfather has a 78 of “Chalking and a Hugging” by Hoagy Carmichael. A little hayseed, but quite an ornery topic, eh?

What were your grandparents allowed to listen to and participate in? Where they singers in a church? Is that where thy learned piano or guitar? Did they go to dances on weekends? Did they play instruments in a high school band? Did they play in a town band? Do any recordings of their family music making exist?

What did your great-grandparents approve of your grandparents doing? If your grandparents were listening to Hot music, you had "open minded" great-grandparents. Do you know any 77 year old drummers? Or any 72 year old mountain dulcimer players? If you think Rage Against the Machine is anti-establishment, have you ever thought about what Jelly Roll Morton's name meant?

Did your grandparents listen to Benny Goodman’s big band or quartet recordings? Did your grandparents listen to Hank Williams, Glenn Miller or Count Basie?

An Origin of Measure:

2007-02-02T16:06:00.000-06:00

Great contention surrounds the origins of our using “feet” as a unit of measure. Serendipitously, Dr. Amoveo Oculus points toward the most infamous of Asesop’s fables, “Clementia v. Octopus” as the first recorded example of “feet” in measure. Here is an excerpt from his Encyclopedia Exemplar, Vol. 7:

:: Clementia v. Octopus ::
Clementia of Troas was a runner of prestige. Her distinction in beauty and grace in race soon spread to the gods, and provoked challenge. Standing before Clementia, Octopus declared: “Your pride is in vain, for I am a runner of majesty. Whereas you run with your body, I employ my mind. As your speed is limited by your beauty, I have sprouted the means by which to best your beauty.” As Clementia watched, Octopus began to grow six additional legs and feet. Atop his octagonal pedestal Octopus bellowed, “To a run do I challenge you. Will you accept?” Full of grace and beauty, Clementia silently nodded. The succeeding race plunged the Beauty and Brain across lawns of luxury, cities of Christians, and mountains of purple majesty. Upon arrival at the race’s end, the crowd exclaimed, “Hail Clementia, the speed racer!” Octopus’ loss was put to greater shame when all discovered he had only one fourth the speed of Clementia. “Intellect has failed you,” exclaimed Clementia, “For by your mind, you quadrupled your feet and yet quadrupled your distance.” By multiplying the feet by four, he had multiplied distance as well. Thus Clementia proved before all that grace, beauty and strength transcend the abilities of the mind.

Incidentally, three wheeled cars were outlawed in America during the 1950’s to prevent vandals from outrunning the cops driving Crown Victorias.

The Late General Mills

2007-01-11T16:33:00.000-06:00

Here an image is displayed of the fabled Duluth General Mills facility located in the great city of Duluth. So named after its founder the late General Cadwallader Mills, a rough and tough veteran of the War of Westward Expansion often forgotten in American textbooks. Known affectionately throughout the Nation of Minnesota as “Granpappy Pillsbury”, General Mills established many grain-smashing facilities along the Mississippi River. These grain-smashers, now known as “mills” allowed the general public to process their coveted grains though an early 19th century form of hydro-electric power.

Readers of “All Things Historical”, a quarterly circular published by the General Assembly of the Nation of Minnesota, will remember of the adventurous spirit of the white haired General. For instance, did you know that he publicly condoned the 1870 proposal to dig a tunnel underneath the Falls of St. Anthony? As a matter of public record it should be noted that he personally funded the construction of the current “apron” seen today by the visitors to St. Paul.

Yet the majestic General Mills facility is not without its own problems. Few there are who know the function or purpose for such a large structure. You might ask, “Why the large cylindrical shapes?” The answer is easy: to protect the flakes of corn from rats. You might also ask, “Then why allow the corn to cool in large piles outdoors?” Again, a simple answer: to allow the corned flakes to absorb essential nutrients. Though some may feel that this “air grazing” method is in poor taste, General Mills found it to be the most effective method to imbue his Corn Flakes with precious carbonated oxygen. Plentiful in the vast forests of the Nation of Minnesota, carbonated oxygen later proved to be a valuable resource in trade with the United States during the Second War to End All Wars.

Now a relic of a bygone society, the General Mills facility still stands proud of its heritage and importance to the Nation of Minnesota.

Abstract for November Conference

2006-10-21T09:44:00.000-05:00

“How to live and be somebody”: Fellowship and Lessons of Black manhood in the NYC Jazz Community

Eddie Locke has been a fixture of the New York City based jazz world since he arrived in 1954. His oral histories and extensive collection of photographs provide a unique window on the community of NYC-based professional jazz musicians, and describe a world of rich friendships, professional support and family life.

While entering NYC as a member of a younger generation, Eddie was mentored by mature musicians who had created a close knit community and social atmosphere. It was in this community that Eddie learned the ethics and lessons of how to live a vibrant, successful, and productive life.

Eddies memories tell us how this community of black male musicians supported, taught, and encouraged each other in their professional and social lives. Far from the memories of drugs and bars, the stories and photographs depict a group of friends working together in concert halls and clubs, and relaxing with family and friends in apartments and restaurants. The community was held together by bonds of professionalism, friendship, and in the end, the music itself.

Although an emphasis is sometimes placed on the active and politically divisive elements in jazz music of the late twentieth century, a community of working professionals continued to thrive through an era of great musical, political, and economic change. This research contributes to the understanding of Jazz musicians in the 1950’s to the present, and adds a unique voice to its colorful history.

Me

2006-10-18T14:53:00.000-05:00

Need a Forum to Post Ideas

2006-10-18T14:11:00.000-05:00

To whom it may concern,

This is in an effort to post my ideas historical. Be they important or negligible, I have found that I need to have an outlet or they will stop reproducing.

Best of luck to myself.

Regards,
-Increase Mather