It’s the little things…

It’s funny how doing little things in the classroom allows the students to realize, “hey he’s a human too.” Today in my Algebra classes the students did an activity called, round robin. The students get broken up into groups of four and each group is has a challenging problem to work on for a predetermined amount of time. The starting and ending time for working on the problem is determined by music played on my iPod. I usually play ’80’s music, Duran Duran, Toni Basal, The B-52’s… stuff like that.

Today, I decided to play Vallenato music from Columbia. At first I thought the kids would make some silly comments typical of pre-adloecents. However, their comments were more along the lines of… “You like Spanish music? That’s so cool.” still others commented, “That’s the music my parents listen to.” In general it made the classroom a more pleasant and welcoming place.

Best Moview of 2008

I was all ready to name Wall-E the best movie of 2008, then I heard all this buzz about about this movie Slumdog Millionaire.  I figured I better give it a consideration.  Boy was I ever glad I watched this movie.  It is amazing!  What a story!
Without being a spoiler, It is the story of the childhood of Jamal, a poor street kid from the parts of Mumbai India you don’t want to be caught in.  Jamal positions himself to be a contestant on the Indian version of Who wants to be a Millionaire in order to catch the attention of his true love,  Latika.  It’s important to note that in the movie,  Jamal has little formal education.   He  works as a chai server and general gofer for one of the major call centers in Mumbai.  All the while you get little vignettes into Jamal’s childhood based on the questions from the game show.
The movie was directed by Danny Boyle and written by Simon Beaufoy. It is based on the book Q and A written by Indian author and diplomat Vikas Swarup.  Without a doubt this movie is the best work Danny has done since Trainspotting for its daring and audaciousness.  Here you have a Scottish director with an all Indian cast and set completely in India, and guess what it worked magnificently.
Praise for Slumdog Millionaire has been overwhelming.  It has made scores of top ten lists and gained best movie honors on the LA Times and the Chicago Sun-Times, among many others.  So if you are in the mood for a story a little out of the ordinary and set in a land completely different from your suburban lair, do yourself a favor go see Slumdog Millionaire.

Amazing Album

The band’s name is Blitzen Trapper and the album is “Furr”. If you like late 60’s, early 70’s country rock ala CSNY, Neil Young, The Grateful Dead or the Allman Brothers then this is an album you will enjoy. Every song is a gem, but the title track “Furr” is an erie down home track with a tinge of sci-fi. The seventh track “Black River Killer” is an instant classic based on the life of a serial killer.

Rolling Stone gave it 4 out of 5 stars and called it the 13th best album of 2008 and named “Furr” the 4th best song of the year. In my personal opinion it is the best album of the year, and one of the top five albums of the decade. Once I heard the band live I went to iTunes and got the DRM-free version with a bonus track (only $7.99). If you want to get the rest of their catalog I suggest you buy the rest of the albums from Amazon, the albums are DRM-free and only $8.99.

“Furr” makes a welcome addition to your iPod and the perfect soundtrack for a lazy afternoon or a long ride down a country back road.

Hello world!

Hello everyone!  I finally decided to claim my corner and speak my mind on a blog.  What comes next?  Who knows.  I can only hope it’s compelling, timely and interesting.  I guess what I’m trying to say here is that this is a work in progress… A journey if you will.