Renewed faith

I have received some good response on my Pop Culture 101 column, but the best is this one I got from a high school student (my response to her is below)...

Hello! My name is Brittany and I am currently a Senior at Brush High School in Brush, Colorado. I am writing to inquire on your article about Pop Culture 101. My music teacher Mrs. Darline Miner has had your article clipped out and lying on the table in her office. It caught my attention and wanted to let you know that she teaches a History of Rock class every semester and thought that your article was very informative.

I think that there should be more media classes like your Pop Culture 101 and our History of Rock because I'm only 17 and to read that a 21-year old never heard of Paul McCartney is like a sin. LOL. As a matter of fact, I am writing to you from her office and I'm...sort-of the Teachers Aid, and we are listening to anywhere from The Doors to Ray Charles, just in todays lesson!

The class starts off at the beginning of the semester listening to the roots of Rock, like Blues and Country. Then we slowly transition our way into Elvis, Buddy Holly, Bill Haley and his Comets, and The Beach Boys. Then come the 60's and 70's, Woodstock, Beatles, The Who, Joni Mitchell, Joan Baez, Janis Joplin, Jimi Hendrix, Kiss, Fleetwood Mac, The Byrds, The Animals, and Cream (plus alot more, this is just off the top of my head). And by the near end of the semester we get into the 80's and 90's....like 80's rap and hip hop, theres alot but just to name a couple, Nirvana, and Bruce Springsteen.

We watch many movies too. She has a set of History of Rock dvd's that range anywhere from Chuck Berry and Elvis to Britain invades to Punk like the Sex Pistols and The Ramones. We also watch the rock opera Tommy by The Who (one of my personal favorites), Blues Brothers, School of Rock, The Wedding Singer, Wizard of Oz with Dark Side of The Moon by Pink Floyd, and probably a few more.

I hope this gives you some ideas and hopefully some interest in our class here at Brush High School. If you have any questions or comments, feel free to e-mail me back! Thank you for your time!

Brittany Colerick

-----------------------------------------
Brittany,
Wow! You have single-handedly renewed my faith in the younger generation! Mrs. Miner is obviously doing a great job out there in Brush (I used to live and work in Brush when I worked for the Fort Morgan Times and the Beetdiggers will always have a place in my heart!).

I am very glad that your school has taken this bold move (I don't think this class was there when I covered Brush). Just to hear a 17-year-old talk about Bill Haley, The Doors, The Ramones and Jimi Hendrix makes me so happy. My sons are pretty much forced to listen to this stuff (Actually, the first song they knew all the words to was "Rock and Roll All Nite" by Kiss! ... of course there's only about 12 words in the whole song... but it was still cool).

Anyway, I'm very impressed with your class and your curriculum... (although I think you meant that you watched Pink Floyd's "The Wall" and not "Dark Side of the Moon," right? Speaking of Dark Side, though, I talked to everyone here in my office. Only one other person knew the name of the album from the cover and had ever heard of the album ... I work in a warped world, huh?).

So, please pass along my sincere appreciate to Mrs. Miner and the rest of your class and I am very glad there will be some young folks out there who know who the Walrus is, what the "pompitous of love" is, what "the day the music died" is, as well as any pre-black album Metallica! Outstanding!

Now if you can get your history teachers to make sure they cover everything that is mentioned in Billy Joel's "We Didn't Start the Fire" song, then you pretty much have all the basics!

Thanks for writing,
Jared

Near brush with greatness

So, first, I'll set the scene.

My Aunt Sandy comes to town to see her daughter, Darcy, in Denver. She drops me a note that she'd like to see the kids, Tracy and I (probably in that order!). So, I figured it would be fun to take them to Casa Bonita (I didn't find out until later they had been there before).

Anyway, we were there and I took the boys through the arcade while Tracy, Sandy and Darcy talked.

And then I saw him... at least I thought it was him.

Standing with his kid and his wife in the arcade was a guy who I swear was Rob Reiner. (Side note: Reiner is one of my favorite people in the world, having directed the greatest movie of all time "This is Spinal Tap" and another in the top 10 with "Princess Bride" plus I loved him as Meathead on All in the Family).

But I wasn't sure. Didn't want to feel like a moron. So, I ran back to the table and tell the women about it. I wanted Tracy to see if I'm right (she's an avid People Mag reader so I figured she's be good). She says she has no idea what Rob Reiner looks like. So, Aunt Sandy volunteers. "I know Rob Reiner," she says with confidence.

I took her back to the arcade and pointed to the guy wearing the blue hat across the room.

"No way," she says. "That's not him. His hair is more gray than that." She said it with such conviction I felt stupid for even thinking he could have been him.

You know where this is going. Click here.

Of course, it was him. He was here for the NBA All-Star Game (Casa Bonita is just a few miles away from Pepsi Center). The kid in the picture next to him was the same one from the restaurant... The picture is from the Denver Post website.

I still love you, Aunt Sandy ... I'm just not sure I trust you anymore... at least when it comes to celebrity sightings!

Pop culture 101

OK, I'm working on my column and I need help...

The idea started when the 21-year-old receptionist in our office said, "Who was that guy performing at halftime at the Super Bowl?"

"You don't know who Paul McCartney is?"

"Nope."

This is just sad, so I'm going to do a column on how our schools (or at least parents) need to be teaching Pop Culture 101 so we can all speak from the same platform of knowledge...

So, what things do you think should be taught in this new curriculum? Here are some of my ideas but I need a bunch more for a column... please help!!!

* The Breakfast Club -- mandatory viewing with a short description of what "The Brat Pack" was.

* The Twinkie defense -- I realize this may have a Bay Area slant to it, but the whole Harvey Milk thing was so strange, it's a term I still hear all the time (by those over 30)

* Willy Wonka (the original) -- just for the Oompa Loompas (because I'll bet the Johnny Depp flick won't have orange-faced little people singing "... doopity-doo.")

I have a bunch more, but I could use more... Anything? ... Bueller? ... Bueller? (see, there's one!)

Back on track

OK... I swear, I'm back... too much other work stuff, travelling, stupid stuff...

This morning I got up early to work on the novel (using the OUTSTANDING edits by my good friend Mr. Anderson). Editing is not nearly as much fun as actual writing. In fact, it's downright painful. But I will get through it. I swear ... I'm back and this sucker will be ready for agents to fight to the death over ... by April!!!

I swear ...

Empty praise

Parents today are told we are supposed to support our children with praise. This builds their tiny egos (anyone who has a five-year-old knows their egos are anything but small!).

Anyway, this morning, Alex and Andy were working on their house. Their house is a huge refrigerator box Tracy brought home for them to decorate. I didn't know what they were working on, but I enjoyed listening to their discussions.

A problem arose when they wanted to draw something in white on the inside of the box.

"Why don't we use chalk?" Andy suggested ... very proud of his idea.

"We can't do that. It'll smear all over." Alex slammed the idea fast.

Seeing an opportunity to maintain his "fragile" ego, I said, "Well, Andy, he's probably right that it would smear, but that was a really good idea."

Andy basically ignored me and he thought for a little longer... "I know, we can cut out some white paper and draw on that!"

Alex loved the idea and told him what a good plan it was.

Andy was thrilled.

He's only 5 but he understands clearly sees empty praise when he hears it. And I guess he knows a 7-year-old would never give it!

Dogs

I recently received a copy of a book called "Life is Good: Lessons in Joyful Living." The interesting part is it's written by a dog. My favorite author, Dean Koontz, "edited" the book written by his adorable Golden Retriever, Trixie.

I gotta admit that my first thought was that this was pretty strange ... maybe Dean is getting a little too obsessed with his dog (he didn't have one for years and he finally got Trixie, a retiree from Canine Companions -- which gets the proceeds from the book).

But I was wrong. When I was a kid, my family always had a dog. First it was Scruffy and then Chablis (my parents have had two dogs since I moved out, including Sidney, the blue-eyed psycho dog!). Having a dog around the house is just one of the best things. If you've had a crappy day, there's nothing better than rubbing a dog's tummy (now that my kids are a little older, they won't let me do this to them anymore!). The world just doesn't suck when you are petting a dog.

Anyway, because of my darn allergies, I can't even be around dogs anymore ... unless I don't feel like breathing. So, we don't have a dog anymore.

But this Dean/Trixie book actually captures the joy and fun of a dog ... without the need for antihistamines. Forget Plato. Forget Homer. I think Trixie may be the best philosopher of our time. Here are just a few samples:

To live joyfully, learn to love sleep. (She goes on to encourage frequent dog-naps.)
Laugh til your face hurts.
Life is good if you go to movies (I couldn't agree more)
Joyful life means thinking of yourself as a movie star ... but don't act like one.
Be proud but not arrogant. Be beautiful but not vain. Be strong but gentle. Be loving, be humble, be as much like a dog as you can... and be happy.

Yes, it's simple but I gotta admit, it worked on me.

The Birds

OK, Mr. Anderson thinks I should write my column about the birds. But I know the Trib is working on a story on the birds, so I'll just write about it here...

It started on Tuesday as I was driving west to pick up Andy from school. The sun was starting to set and I saw this funky black floaty thing in the sky. I'm not sure how I didn't wreck. Anyway, when I pulled into the school, several other people were looking into the sky. That's when I figured out the black shape was actually thousands of small black birds (I later found out they are starlings). The birds didn't just stay in one shape. Nope, they flew in large clusters and then morphed together to make amazing geometric designs. My friend, Andy Segal, was there picking up his son and we watched the birds for about 20 minutes. "It looks like a screen saver," he said. That's the best description I have heard yet.
The birds apparently go out every night about 5 p.m. and do this amazing aerial dance. It is just amazing to see all these birds flying together. And then, all of the sudden, they turn and all you can see is their white under-bellies and it's almost like they disappeared.
Want proof it's amazing? Well, some guy was driving in the area and was so blown away by the birds that he wanted to take a picture with his camera-phone. Unfortunately, he didn't pull over to do this and he ended up rear-ending this poor woman in a rather brutal crash. See! The birds are rebelling! They are trying to take us out one-by-one.
Oh, well, it is really cool.
See... not much for a column, huh?

Monster mash

So, last night I FINALLY got to see Metallica's "Some Kind of Monster." If you haven't heard of it, it's an amazing documentary about Metallica making their latest record (although it's on CD, they still call it that... strange) "St. Anger."

It's a great look at one of my favorite bands of all time. When I was going to high school in California, Metallica reigned supreme in the Bay Area. I saw them six times in concert in various venues and they were always incredible.

But watching this movie was a real eye-opener as well. What I remember about Metallica is that the members were all about my age. That was probably part of their appeal to me. So, now, most of the guys in the band are married and have kids, too. So, they are in the studio, recording some of the hardest, loudest music they have ever made, and their kids are crawling all over the control room.

It was probably not one of the intended themes, but I was just blown away at how these guys were able to be regular dads (going to ballet class!) and still be able to do their music better than ever. Every dad who thinks a kid is going to ruin his life's goals needs to see this. Sure, these guys aren't the perfect fathers (one misses a son's first birthday to go to Russia to kill a bear!), but they are very loving and realize that family comes first. With a family's loving support, anything is possible.

That time again

Every other week, I start looking at my kids and thinking, "OK, do something funny so I can write about it in the paper!"
You'd be surprised how often it works!
Anyway, I think I'm going to do my column on silliness -- the need to be stupid and silly and just enjoy my kids even with all the hectic things going on in our lives... Not sure if it'll work as a column, but I'll try. Wish me luck!