This really happened…

Zach — Wed, 04 Jun 2008 03:52:26 +0000

at my high school. This explains any grammatical or spelling mistakes; I had teachers like this. Yes, I did have “Crapo” in high school. This is not exaggeration. Names have been changed to protect the guilty.

I present for your enjoyment a brief vignette of high school English class, in dramatic form:

SCENE: A classroom. Students are reading a great piece of literature.

BILLY: Hey, this story we’re reading kinda has parallels to the story of David and Goliath. Is that intentional?
CRAPO: Um, I doubt it.
BILLY: Well, [Lists a bunch of specific reasons].
CRAPO: Well, lemme call Muchiniski.
MUCHINISKI [over the phone]: Um, I’m teaching now, talk later. [Hangs up]
CRAPO: Huh. Billy, you and um… Beth, go over there and ask him.

SCENE: Another classroom.

MUCHINISKI [to BILLY and BETH]: Tell her that if she’s going to be an English teacher, she should read one of history’s most important books, the Bible. Tell her that.
BILLY and JANE: Um…
MUCHINISKI: Just tell her to call me.

SCENE: First classroom.

CRAPO [on the phone] Oh. huh. um… ok.
CRAPO [to class]: He said I should, um, read the Bible. HAHA, isn’t that cute?
JAMES [who's apparently a vocal atheist, whom CRAPO really respects, her golden boy for the year]: Uh, yeah, even I’ve read the bible.
CRAPO: [Flushes]
JAMES: Mrs. Crapo, you can borrow mine.

UPDATE: The names were changed to be more interesting, but still protect the guilty.

Lineages

Zach — Tue, 03 Jun 2008 15:36:32 +0000

I was thinking about the progression from exponent to godfather to grandfather status in a movement (literary, musical, etc.). It seems fuzzy when someone goes from an “Exponent” (a more gender neutral term for “Father”) to a “Godfather” (no gender neutral term, maybe “Elder Statesperson?”) to potentially “Grandfather” (“Grandparent”) of a movement. To help clarify my thoughts, I made the progression in pictorial form, using Lou Reed’s relationship to punk rock as a subject. In the Velvet Underground he was a Father of Punk (sort of, but not really). Then in the 70s (Transformer era) he was more in Godfather stage. Now he could be called a Grandfather of punk because many generations have bore his influence. Any Velvet Underground-related lineage has to include my personal favorite Velvet: John Cale. He had more active engagement with early punk, in that he played regularly at CBGB (cf. “Sabotage!/Live”), but he was always slightly off and on the fringes of punk. Thus, he’s the crazy uncle that you love because of his eccentricities, not despite.

To quote Kevin Barnes: “But no matter how hard you try / you’ll never be as weird as Uncle Alice.”

Zach Steiner » General

This really happened…

Lineages