Three Beautiful Things 01/28-30/08: Lloyd Thaxton, Editor at Last, "Modern Times"

1. I've been diving into my musical past, all the way back to the after school syndicated sound studio live mayhem of the Lloyd Thaxton Show. Lloyd Thaxton introduced me to Herb Alpert and the Tijuana Brass. Lloyd sometimes played goofy air trumpet to "Tijuana Taxi" and other Brass hits and before long I was a part of this music being played in junior high and high school band. I've been listening to Herb Alpert albums on Napster, including Rise, Whipped Cream and Other Delights, Going Places, and South of the Border.

Did you ever used to dance in the living room in front of the telly to Lloyd and his guests? Would you like to keep in touch with Lloyd Thaxton?

His blog is here. Lloyd Thaxton was interviewed on Florence Henderson's talk show here. The interview opens with a fun video recap of Thaxton's career.

2. The long editor drought at Denali has ended. Mark January 30th as the day the Lane Community College Media Commission (including yours truly) selected a 2007-08 editor, Lindsay Stalone. I'm the magazine's literary advisor and look forward to working with Lindsay.

3. Last night I loaded up my low capacity MP3 player with Bob Dylan albums, put on the headphones, and went to sleep listening to Bob Dylan croon on his gravelly album, "Modern Times".

Three Beautiful Things 11/13/07: Denali, Pictures, A-Rod

1. Today's Media Commission meeting hashed out the future of the college's literary publication, Denali. I enjoyed the discussion. I enjoyed the give and take about several issues surrounding the magazine. I enjoyed that we came to a reasonable and workable conclusion in our work. I admired the others I was working with and could say something I rarely do: "That was a good meeting."

2. I went to Into the Wild for the third time tonight. I'm ready to go again. This movie is growing on me. I love the movie's pictures and how they are framed. Again and again, this movie presents pictures of a variety of American places and presents them in a variety of styles that enlarge the story and work beautifully with the music soundtrack, which I absorbed more deeply tonight. That's all I can say for now.

3. I'm unusually and unpredictably happy that Alex Rodriquez is negotiating on his own to try to rejoin the New York Yankees. I actually thought this might happen. To me, the good news is that he must have found out that other teams he's interested in were not willing to shell out the millions of dollars he and his agent were asking for, and without that kind of money available elsewhere, he's back knocking on the Yankees' door. I wouldn't be surprised if he works out a deal with the Yanks. It would add relish to the already weird world of Major League Baseball in the 21st century.

Three Beautiful Things 06/13/07: Exile, Enduring Truth, Denali's Future

1. Molly's boyfriend, Hiram, is our houseguest for the next month or so. His family left Cuba and came to the USA following Castro's take over. I learned more tonight at dinner about Hiram's family's exile from Cuba and their getting settled here.

2. Kelly Mac and I had a fascinating talk about Christianity and other ways of seeing and understanding eternal truth.

3. I am the faculty literary advisor for our college's literary and arts publication, Denali. Finances, strain on workload, and other factors inspired our division chair and about half a dozen faculty to sit down with the last two editors and being to talk about ideas for the future of Denali and how the quality of the publication can be further improved. I wish the journal could stay in Lindsey and Lindsay's hands for a long period of time. It won't. They will move on to other things. It will be difficult in the future to find editors with their ambition, dedication, talent, and intelligence.

Three Beautiful Things 04/30/07: Monday, Deliberations, Comic and Tragic

1. Every night I put a baseball game on XM Radio and am almost impervious to what's happening in the game and am more interested in how each play by play announcer and fellow analyst narrates the game, an especially difficult task in baseball when almost the entire game lacks action. Tonight I listened to Rick Monday. Average.

2. I observed, mostly, and offered a few highly non-binding observations to the Denali editorial board as they deliberated over what written pieces to publish. I'm the magazine's literary advisor.

3. I gave as compelling and comprehensive a lecture as I have ever given today, addressing the complexities of Act III in King Lear. Recent trends in instruction tend to discourage lectures, but today I said to hell with trends: I let it rip. I sensed my students were captivated. I hope so.

Three Beautiful Things 04/19/07:Denali, Work Load, Strange

1. Lane Community College's literary magazine is called Denali and am the literary advisor. Today the vigorous, intelligent, multi-talented editor, Lindsey and I had a coffee together. I enjoyed the wide range of our discussion and am proud to support Lindsey's work.

2. Right now we English instructors teach a combination of three and four credit classes and in order to make our workload come out right, we have to teach an overload one quarter and slight underload the other two quarters. Winter quarter's overload taxed me. I am filled with more vitality this quarter and am doing a lot more for my students with my slight underload. I have the right amount of work right now. I'm much more relaxed, better prepared, and am giving my students much better and more rested feedback on their work.

3 My Lit of Comedy class watched Dr. Strangelove tonight. I love the movie. I glanced over the in class writings my students cranked out after thy the movie and the papers look terrific.