Wilco, Caminhando and Compositions

Sweet Jesus how I hate grading compositions! I've always wanted to be able to use this phrase and now I can: It is the bane of my existence. Ahhh...there. I feel better. It's always interesting to see how my students think (or fail to) but they take for @#$^in' ever to grade. Plus, this is only the first of two drafts. I know I shouldn't complain; it's part of the job and it could surely be a lot worse but, man, how it stinks.

I'm really psyched about Wednesday when myself, my new buddy Alison, my old gal Courtney and my better half are gonna see Wilco. I had no idea how many closet Wilco fans existed on campus until I bought my ticket. Once I began mentioning what I had planned for this week, a bunch of people popped up that were die-hard fans--who knew? In any case, it will be good times. Maybe I'll be moved enough to buy a t-shirt.

I am a highly musical person. I always have a song stuck in my head, literally. I must have about 10,000 song lyrics memorized, of all genres. It's crazy. I'm always humming, singing, tapping on something, or listening to music in some form. They say that music is a brain stimulant and the amount and variety you listen to correlates to IQ. Not sure if this is exactly true, but an interesting theory nonetheless. Regardless of the results, I love music. I can play two instruments and would like to have time to learn more. The song in my head today is Brazilian. The title is "Caminhando e Cantando" by Geraldo Vandre. It's a protest song from the 60's, when Brazil was under a dictatorship. Truly an inspiring song, not to mention HIGHLY charged with Communist rhetoric. Take a listen some time if you can, or ask me and I'll plug you in and translate. It just makes you wanna join hands and stare down a tank...or something like that.