Merry Christmas Everyone!

Merry Christmas Everyone! by ChaseMarch on Storybird If you read my posts on a reader, please click through to the blog to read this interactive Christmas Card that I made for you. I won't be posting here again until the New Year. I wish you all a safe and happy holiday season.

On Christmas Morning

Here's one of my all-time favourite Christmas songs. "On Christmas Morning" by Raffi.

Merry Christmas Everyone!

Winds of Change

"The winds of change - sometimes they're a gentle breeze, a welcome relief. Sometimes a brief gust quickly forgotten. But other times they blow in like a foul and devastating gale blazing a path of destruction, which leaves us, holding on for dear life."

- Narrator on television's Everwood

Irv Harper is the narrator on this excellent series. He is played by John Beasley (pictured)

Think Positively

"Everything you think affects your attitude, your mind, and your spirit. So think positively!"

- author unknown.

Quoted in "443 Character Quotes and Words of Wisdom..."

from Growing Character by Deb Austin Brown

Happy Monday Everyone!

Avoid the Weary Cycle

"…left to its own devices life would never produce love, it would only lead you to attraction, from attraction to pleasure, then to attachment, to satisfaction, which finally leads to weariness and boredom. Then comes a plateau. Then once again the weary cycle: attraction, pleasure, attachment, fulfillment, satisfaction, boredom. All of this mixed with the anxiety, the jealousies, the possessiveness, the sorrow, the pain, that make the cycle a roller coaster."

- Anthony De Mello. The Way to Love: The Last Meditations of. Image Books,1991. pg 151

Santa Baby (hip-hop version)

I think I need to make a Christmas mixtape of all my favourite songs. There are some great Christmas songs that don't get played often enough on the radio.

This song is by no means the best song ever but it is catchy and captures the Christmas spirit. It felt right to serve it up for What!?! Wednesdays today. Enjoy!

Run of Run-DMC

"It was December 24 on Hollis after the dark
My man Santa saw a rabbi and gave the strangest remark
He said that giving was his living and I had to take part
So I grabbed a bag of goodies and I hopped up on his cart
I laced the pockets of the poor and gave the hoodie a play
Dropped some dollars up on Hollis and I went on my way
I hear your jingle Mr. Kringle peep the single, my man
so Santa hit a brother off and come as quick as you can!"

[chorus]
Santa Baby
Just slip a Benzo under the tree for me
A '98 convertible, light blue
I'm looking for a fly guy, like you
So hurry down the chimney tonight...

Ma$e

"Now all Mase know
When its eight twenty-four
He be looking at the door for the ho ho ho
Cause I know
When there's a Christmas uptown
Ain't no chimney for Santa to come down."

Puffy Daddy

"Now to me, PD I had a lot
Appreciated everything that I got
Though I used to take my pops
Who ain't caught me shaking the box
Cause I knew I couldn't wait till it turned 12 o'clock."

Snoop Dogg

"Cookies and Milk
Satin and Silk
I'm chilling in the living room, wrapped in a quilt
I'm waiting on this fat Red Suit wearing-comparing
My gifts to my homeboy next door to me
A gift here, none there, but who cares
My little sister needs a comb just to braid her nappy hair
But here we go again waiting on the enemy
To slide down the chimney
Look here, that ain't reality."

[chorus]

Salt & Pepa

"Santa Baby, are you really real?

Kris Kringle
Let me see you make my pockets jingle (ching ching)
We need some jobs in the ghetto
Too much gang banging where kids are playing
I hear the church bells ringing
On Christmas eve
I believe
Jesus-calling me
Forget the gifts and the shopping lists
And the new kicks
Your just falling for tricks
(you better praise him)

[chorus]

Fredro Starr of Onyx

"It's the gritty-the grimy
The low down, the shifty
Yo Sticky, Christmas time in the city
Late night, stars are bright
We getting rocked!
With the 50 St. Nicholas
Start ripping this

Sticky Fingaz of Onyx

"Its the Grinch who stole Christmas
Climbing down ya chimney
Kids open up they gifts
They all gonna be empty
Just like mine was
I hate to say it
But if I wasn't a boy I wouldn't have had nothing to play wit!"

Keith Murray

"On December 25th I knew I wasn't getting jack
when I saw Santa Claus on the corner buying crack
I ran up on him with the (blur) and asked him "yo whats up with that?"
He said "there ain't no Christmas kid" and I can't get him back
Back in the days, Christmas was deep
My moms put presents under the tree while I played sleep
And peeped ha! Santa Claus never gave me nothing
Seen them mad faces, lying and fronting
So do some good to the ghetto, Mr. Kris Kringle
Come and stay awhile, kick it with God's Angel
Take and acknowledge my wisdom and understand
That Santa Claus is a black man
word up."

[chorus 2 times]

"Santa Baby
Just slip a Benzo under the tree for me
A '98 convertible, light blue
I'm looking for a fly guy, like you
So hurry down the chimney tonight"

- Run and Friends "Santa Baby" remix

Mistakes Make Our Fate

"Maybe mistakes are what make our fate... without them what would shape our lives? Maybe if we had never veered off course we wouldn't fall in love, have babies, or be who we are. After all, things change, so do cities, people come into your life and they go. But it's comforting to know that the ones you love are always in your heart... and if you're very lucky, a plane ride away."

- Sex in the City

I have never watched an episode of this show. I just happened to stumble across this quote today. So far all of the quotes that I have shared with you here for Tube Tuesdays I have seen and have either transcribed them or found them online. This entry feels like I've cheated, but it is a great quote an deserves a spot in my commonplace book. I hope you enjoy it!

Get Started!

"The secret of getting ahead is getting started."

- Sally Berger

Happy Monday Everyone!

Life is Filled With Secrets

"Life is filled with secrets. You can’t learn them all at once."

- Dan Brown. The DaVinci Code. DoubleDay: New York, 2003. pg 101

Sit Back and Have a Laugh

It's a special someone's birthday today and I know she loves stand-up comedy. As a birthday present, I decided to share a few clips with her and with all of you as well.

Happy Birthday Baby - and don't forget to download your special birthday mixtape from my main blog Silent Cacophony.

I've always loved the dry delivery of Steven Wright. I hope you enjoy this clip.

I just stumbled across Mitch Hedberg today but he made me laugh so he made the cut.

Eric Schwartz happens to make geek look cool. I could relate, if I were cool.

I hope you have a terrific birthday today. You deserve it.

Lots of love,

Chase

For My City

I've been banging the new Frankie Payne mixtape like crazy lately. It's hot.



You can get this mixtape for free from the Real Frequency blog.

Check it out - http://therealfrequency.podbus.com/blog/2009/11/09/frankie-payne-street-wisdom-mixed-by-dj-p-plus/

No one but maybe me

This is a brief scene from HBO's Six Feet Under. Claire is in the guidance counsellor's office.

Counsellor: "No one can solve someone else's life."

Claire: "So basically your job is totally useless."

Counsellor: "No one but a guidance counsellor, I mean."

- Six Feet Under: Season 2, Episode 3

Make the Best Your Turn

"Things turn out the best for the people who make the best of the way things turn out."

- Art Linkletter.

Take what you have and build on it. A great thought to start off the week.

Happy Monday Everyone!

What $10 of Markers Can Do

Coolest thing that I found on Twitter this week.

@realivanives Man decorates basement with $10 worth of sharpies http://bit.ly/48ro3

You really have to follow the link and see how one guy decided to decorate his basement by drawing on the walls with only a black marker. You can see a 360 degree shot of his art. It's worth checking out.

Shakespeare Knew

"Shakespeare was obviously fully conscious of the connections between theatre and life and of the usefulness of literature in baring secrets of the soul."

- Gold, Joseph. Read For Your Life: Literature as a Life Support System. Fitzhenry and Whiteside: Markham, 1990. pg 121

Ghosts that Haunt Me

The sound quality isn't very good but I wanted to share this with you. This is the title track from the debut album by Crash Test Dummies.

I absolutely love this album. I can listen to it no matter what mood or state I am in. It has a nice feel good vibe to it.

I hope you enjoy it.

"There's a skeleton in everybody's closet
I can think of one or two in my own room
But I would like to introduce them both to you
You'd shake their bony hands and so dispel the gloom

'Cause you're so kind
I know you would not mind
You'd send away the ghosts that haunt me now
And the things I fear
Just wouldn't seem so near
And when I stroll out late night
There would be nothing rattling at my heels

There are nights when all my aching bones won't let me sleep
And demons come to plague me as I lie in bed
But I know if you were sleeping there beside me then
That you could fend them off and they would let me rest

There are nights
When the wind comes howling through my old place
I have dreams
And I wake up with the sweat pouring down my face
And I wait till the morning comes

There will come a time I fear when all my days are done
And they will come collect my corpse and bury me
And then I hope you'll come over to the Other Side
To join me in out new life, keep me company

'Cause you're so kind
I know you would not mind
You'd send away the ghosts that haunt me now
And the things I fear
Just wouldn't seem so near
And when I stroll out late night

There would be nothing rattling at my heels"

- The Ghosts That Haunt Me, the title track from the debut album by Crash Test Dummies

Truth Means Responsibility.

Arnie: "What are you trying to do here Ella?"

Ella: "I'm doing my job."

Arnie: "Do you have any idea the sh*t storm you've gotten me in to?"

Ella: "We're just trying to get to the truth."

Arnie: "I get it. But what you need to remember is there's what people wanna hear, what people wanna believe, there's everything else, then there's the truth."

Ella: "And since when is that okay? I can't even believe you're saying this to me. The truth means responsibility Arnie."

Arnie: "Exactly! That's why everyone dreads it."

Exercise Your Memory - Read

"Literature helps you to exercise your memory because your memory is keyed to feelings associated with memory and literature specializes in calling forth feelings."

- Gold, Joseph. Read For Your Life: Literature as a Life Support System. Fitzhenry and Whiteside: Markham, 1990. pg 259

Das Efx - Dum Dums

Love this beat, love the sample, love how Das Efx has the flow that everyone tried to copy but just couldn't match.

I also love the sample set for this album you can get from Hip Hop is Read.

Just thought I'd share the love today.

Follow the link to check out the original source of the sample for this song "The Happy Song" by Otis Redding and listen to it.

I hope you have a happy day.

You Can't Tune it Out

Dr. Tom: "Infidelity, where does it begin?"

Author: "Interesting, tell us more."

"There is a woman, not my partner, and, to be honest, I find this woman to be infuriating - rash, she's headstrong. But, I don't know, deep inside she's like this melody that keeps playing back in my mind.

Erica: "You can tune out a melody."

Dr. Tom: "Oh, I've tried that. It's not so easily done. Ear-worms, I think you call them. You know those songs you get in you head and you just can't get rid of them."

Author: "Oh my goodness that happens to me all the time.

Erica: "You can distract yourself. You can turn the music up really loud, do everything it takes to avoid seeing... to avoid seeing what's right in front of you. Like with Leo"

Author: "Who's Leo?"

Erica: "My brother. He betrayed me and I didn't want to see it."

Dr. Tom: "He was a great brother, but he also had serious flaws... It's so much easier to live in denial and we do it to protect ourselves from the things that we don't want to acknowledge."

Erica: "But if we do that, then we're just living a lie. No matter what we tell ourselves."

Dr. Tom: "'The truth is incontrovertible. Malice may attack it, ignorance may deride it, but in the end, there it is.' - Winston Churchill"

- Being Erica Season 2 Episode 9 A River Runs Through It...It Being Egypt

Become a Person of Value

"Try not to become a man of success, but rather try to become a man of value."

- Albert Einstein

I found this great quote on Twitter today and thought I`d share it with you here.

It was posted from this account - http://twitter.com/tested

Happy Monday Everyone!

We are the Heroes

"Our call to adventure – for we are the heroes of the new myth – is that which is stimulated by our wonder and awe in the presence of the interrelated cosmos revealed to us by mysticism, psychology, and the new understandings of the physical sciences."

- Leeming, David. Myth: A Biography of Belief. Oxford University Press, 2002 pg 158-9

All Writers are...

"I thought all writers were either British or dead."

- Barbara Haworth-Attard

I saw her at a reading last night at my public library. She was very funny and entertaining.

This quote is for all the would be writers out there. Just do it. Go ahead and write because the only truth is that all writers write. That's it.

Enjoy!

Free Album by D-Sisive

D-Sisive has released a free album today. You can find some of his other albums for free but this one he has released for free ON PURPOSE. So if you feel his music, go check this one for free and support him by buying his other stuff.

http://d-sisive.bandcamp.com/

To celebrate this release, I thought I'd share with you one of my favourite tracks from his last album.

"I’ve spent many moons with my head on the pillowcase
Retinas to the ceiling, John Lennon dreaming
John Lennon jealous of the dreamers that achieved it
I’m better off John Lennon (laying in) bed and sleeping
I John Lennon don’t believe in Jesus
But I’m running out of people I can speak with
I was never one to get on kneecaps elbows on my mattress
Both palms pressed below the whiskers on my glass chin
I don’t give a shit if Kanye said it
Or Rhymefest wrote it, or whoever gets the credit
Nobody walked for me except my dad and my mom’s legs
And both of them are missing from my holidays
Pardon my francais, f*ck your pumpkin pie
All I need is a notepad, open wide
And a sharpened pencil for my thoughts to jot you a letter from my heart
Signed, a nobody with a notepad

I’m just a nobody with a notepad
Forever standing in the shadows of my old man
I’m just a nobody with a notepad
Forever standing in the shadows of my old man

Red pen pressed against the pages
Laving ink stained trails as I pen my pain
Instruments speak through my speakers
Influencing the pictures my right fingers paint
Self portraits exposing my flaws and traits
And facing uphill crawl for props and praise
‘Cause I’d rather draw than trace
R. Crumb, I keep on trucking, feet keep running
At Usain Bolt speeds, pen bleeds to the rhythm
Chest pounding, before I rip through the rib and kill the kick to the snare
Fists hit the air, now hit me with your rolls like we’re living on a prayer
Take my hand we’ll make it I swear
Solemnly so, I got me my note… pad
And a sharpened pencil for my thoughts to jot you a letter from my heart
Signed, a nobody with a notepad

I’m just a nobody with a notepad
Forever standing in the shadows of my old man
I’m just a nobody with a notepad
Forever standing in the shadows of my old man"

- D-Sisive "Nobody with a Notepad"

We All Play (Pretend)

"Sometimes it's easier to pretend things are okay rather than face a difficult truth. So we go through the motions, the rituals of everyday life. We hope the comfortable rhythms of familiarity will hold off the inevitable just a little longer. Return things to normal...anything to buy us more time. Playing pretend, make believe - it might be one thing we never outgrow."

- Narrator on an episode of Everwood

Thing's are Good!

"Sometimes it feels like I can't catch a break
but then I remember that it's just a feeling
and things are actually good (if not great)"

- Chase March

I freestyled this as I was driving to work this morning. I think it is a great way to start off the week here at Thoughtful Cacophony.

Remember that you have a lot to be thankful for and sometimes a feeling is just a feeling and that things are probably better than you think.

Happy Monday Everyone!

Teaches Greatest Gift

"Giving children something with which to surprise their parents is one of the greatest gifts a teacher can bestow."

- Richard Dawkins

Tell the Story Again

"The storyteller leads us into expectation, makes us think we understand, and then crack open reality, creating surprise and curiosity, sending us back through his story again and again."

- McKee, Robert. Story: Substance, Structure, Style, and the Principals of Screenwriting. ReganBooks: New York, 1997. pg 237

Glory

Welcome to What!?! Wednesdays. Every week I share with you a song and since today is Remembrance Day, I couldn't think of a better track to share with you.

This is "Glory" by D-Nice.



"Back in the civil war days of 1863
was the year that free blacks would try to adapt as soldiers
Live as equals and get what's owed us
And in this time they had yet to find inner peace
Which comes from the heart and mind
So listen close as I explain the story
of the regiment of blacks on the path to find Glory

Here's an example of courage and strength
that dwelled in the men that went the whole length
To prove that each can stand as a man
And demonstrate, he can carry his own weight
But there was some tryin to add to the plight
of the black man, denyin his right to fight
as an equal, for self-esteem
Ran through the crew or so it seemed
Cause even in times when life seemed colder
He still remained proud to be a black soldier
Waitin for the chance to advance
and under the circumstance, managed to enhance
his courage, and when put to war
he'd do much more than what's bargained for
And each man, that can tell the story
knew from the start deep down in his heart they'd find Glory

These brothers have died and cried, for power and freedom
But now look what we've done
We're robbin and killin our own race
Black and rap will be lost without a trace
So take heed to the knowledge I'm bustin
You're sellin yourself short, that's "Self Destruction"
The song I sing to let freedom ring
So listen to the knowledge I bring as I speak about Glory

Courage, spirit, and honor .. as I speak about Glory
Courage, spirit, and honor .. yeah

Courage, spirit, and honor
Courage, spirit, and honor"

- D-Nice "Glory" from the album Call Me D-Nice and the soundtrack to the motion picture Glory

Let the Bus Go...

"I saw at one point that our mothers are...

the bus drivers...

They are the bus.

See they're the vehicle that gets us here.

They drop us off and go on their way.

They continue on their journey.

And the problem is that we keep trying

to get back on the bus

instead of just letting it go."

- Tony Soprano (character in The Sopranos) Season 6: Episode 19

Learn From It!

"Failure is success if we learn from it."

- Malcolm S. Forbes

Another great quote to inspire you throughout the week.

I really like the collection of motivational quotes at the back of Deb Austin Brown's Growing Character. Every teacher should find this book. It is amazing.

Happy Monday Everyone!

Slow Down to Speed Up

"Slow down to speed up."

- Audrey Hind
I went to a workshop where Audrey made this statement. I'm not sure if she is the original source of this quotation or not.

But it is a great quote that reminds us that good teaching practices take some time. Setting up these practices may take longer than we think. They use more time than we'd like to devote to them, but this time is valuable. If we slow down to teach these things, the rest will come easy and we will be able to speed up after the fact.

The Power of Story

"For the first time then, she caught a glimpse of what the power of speaking might be. It wasn’t a matter of confession, penance, and absolution like the priests offered. It was something else entirely. Telling the story of who she was, and then realizing that she was no longer the same person, that she had made a mistake and the mistake changed her."

- Orson Scott Card. Speaker for the Dead. Tor Book, 1986. – transcribed from audio book

I really like this quote and how it speaks to the power of story. I think Card is an amazing storyteller and is doing more than just delivering a tale to entertain us.

This book is the second in what is known as the Ender series. All the books have been produced as stunning audio books with full cast narration and sound effects. I highly recommend this series. The first book Ender’s Game is amazing and this second book is even better.

I Quit (I Give Up)

"Could it be possible, I'm all dried up, it's all gone?
My worse fears confirmed,
in other words,
there's no more songs.
The ones I had before, so, they were never really mine.
Woke up today to face a steady decline.
And everything I've ever built myself up to be

in my own head
is a misperception of self,
maybe I was born dead.
These moments I thought I lived,
well, hell they're just dreams.
I was wrong about, you, me, everything.
And maybe this little bit of hope
the one I feel now is a lie too,
it's also not real
and none of it's been anything more than a mirage
and I'll keep going, going, till I'm gone.

(chorus)

I quit, I give up

nothing's good enough for anybody else,

it seems."

- OK Cobra "I Quit (I Give Up) from the album Delirium Tremens

I found this song by just randomly using YouTube as a jukebox this week. I'm glad I stumbled across it because this track is fire. I hope that I transcribed the lyrics correctly and that you enjoy this video.

If you want to hear some more great hip-hop today, head on over to my main blog, Silent Cacophony to check out the Cale Sampson podcast and interview transcript. It was after I found his videos to embed in this week's post that I stumbled across this video.

Enjoy!

Love Can Be Blinding

"Love has a way of blinding even the sharpest minds. We don't look because we don't want to see. But once love is stripped away, we see the real person clearly. There revealed to us, with all their flaws, their foibles, and their secrets."

- Lionel Luthor on Smallville Season 2 episode.

Look For the Good in People!

"Look for the good in people and expect to find it."

- William Shakespeare as quoted in Growing Character by Deb Austin Brown.

Can't Find the Words

"There have been moments in your life when you had an experience that you know you will have to carry with you to your grave because your are quite unable to find words with which to communicate that experience to anyone. As a matter of fact there simply are no words in any human language to communicate the exactly what you experienced...

You may try to communicate the experience in music or poetry or painting. But in your heart you know that no one will ever comprehend exactly what it was you saw and sensed. This is something you are quite powerless to express, much less teach, to another human being."

- Anthony De Mello. The Way to Love: The Last Meditations of." pg 94.

Story Produces Visuals

"Well, language can call upon all the resources of the body’s own ability . . . Story can bypass the eye to produce visual effects."

- Joseph Gold. Read For Your Life: Literature as a Life Support System. Fitzhenry and Whiteside: Markham, 1990. pg 258

Friend for Life

“I hope you’ll be my friend for life. There’s not too many people who touch my heart, and you have.”

- Jodeyne Higgins to her partner Ken Daneyko on last night’s Battle of Blades

Do For Others

"Life's most persistent and urgent question is this: What are you doing for others."

- Martin Luther King Jr.

We Have Access to an Enormous Store of Helping Info

"All literature grows out of human experience, the writer’s experience and observation. It is rendered into story form for our benefit, a contribution to the general store of wisdom. Once we see that our reading can be related to our own lives, we have access to an enormous store of helping information."

- Joseph Gold. Read For Your Life: Literature as a Life Support System. Fitzhenry and Whiteside: Markham, 1990. pg 233

Eat My Brain

"My droopy-eyed Madonna
a triple fire alarm
all the other rogues and darlings
get sent to the farm

I don't need to deceive you
'cause I feel no pain
maybe I should let you
come on and eat my brain.

There's an art to perception
so see it as you will
can you adjust my reception?
just give me the latest pill.

I don't need to deceive you
cause I feel no pain
maybe I should let you
come on and eat my brain.

I know you tried to forget me
well today is remembrance day
so if you're willing then let me
it's time to make your play

I don't need to deceive you
cause I feel no pain
maybe I should let you
come on and eat my brain."

- Odds "Eat My Brain" from quite possibly the best album ever released "Good Weird Feeling."

I can listen to this album over and over again and I never tire of it. As I got ready this morning, I started singing a song off of this album to myself with seemingly no provocation. I'm taking the album in the car now so I can listen to it on my way to work. In the meantime, you can enjoy this song.

You're It. You're My One.

This is an awesome scene from the last episode of Everwood. (Spoiler Alert)

Amy finally figures out that she wants to be with Ephram and she goes to all the effort of moving the Ferris Wheel to the front of his apartment to let him know. It's a picture perfect ending to the best series ever. Enjoy!

Amy: "Don't say anything yet. I want to go first. Since I brought the ferris wheel, I figured you'd let me. Okay, um... four years ago, you came to my little town, and you changed my life. I never thought one person could do that to another, but you did. From the moment that I met you and each moment after that, somehow everything that happened to me kept coming back to you. I don't know if the ferris wheel reminds you of anything.

Ephram: "Are you kidding me? How could I forget our first thawfest? That's when you first told me your nickname was Grover."

Amy: "I can't believe you remember that."

Ephram: "I remember everything about us, Amy."

Amy: "Me, too. See, that's the thing. Every time I try to forget the feelings I have for you, they keep coming back, and now they're back. I don't want to push them down anymore. I don't want to run away from us, 'cause I never want to lose you again. I just want to be with you, next to you, wherever you are. I'm sorry that it took me so long to figure it out, because I hate all of the time that we lost. And I know it's my fault, and I just really hope that you can forgive me because I love you, Ephram. I love you.

Ephram: "Is it my turn yet? Good. 'Cause I love you, too. I knew it then. I know it now. I'll know it always. You're it, Amy. You're my one."

Amy: "I am?"

Ephram: "You always have been."

A Seed of Growth and Liberation

"Think of some of the painful events in your life. For how many of them are you grateful today, because thanks to them you changed and grew? Here is a simple truth of life that most people never discover. Happy events make life delightful but they do not lead to self-discovery and growth and freedom. That privilege is reserved to the things and persons and situations that cause us pain.

Every painful event contains in itself a seed of growth and liberation."

- Anothony De Mello. The Way to Love: The Last Meditations of... Image Books, 1995. pg 157

Unsound

I love The Headstones and with Hugh Dillon releasing a solo album this week, I thought it only proper to spin one of my old favourites from him and his band. Enjoy!

"I smiled cause I know I tried
firing up the circuits
Can’t see myself jumping Double Dutch
Cause I know I’d smell the plastic burning
Last night was a pessimistic skydive
In foolish narcotic shell
Beat the boredom that frames the lightning
Beat the path of the ritual

Gonna become gonna become gonna become gonna become
unsound

Bottom lip quivers
rage is so apparent
Don’t know whether to kill or cry
Don’t know whether to rebuild or to burn it
You don’t know how just to say goodbye
I’ll tell you what, what’s to tell
It’s the world not a call I can screen out
Keep it down see if it digests
Your batteries are shot
So are the instruments

Gonna become gonna become gonna become gonna become
unsound

You better run, don’t want to become yourself

Flies in and out of focus
Next best thing to a rage
I don’t like the way that it coaxes me to explain
If you don’t realize it’s crazy
If you can’t understand the source
Don’t reach too fast for the answers cause it gets worse

Turn your face to the day that’s striking
Bend the barrel when the chambers full
I’d give you more but you know that there’s nothing
Hardly get any sleep at all
I’ll tell you what, what’s to tell
It’s the world not a call I can screen out
Don’t kill your partner before the dancing’s started
Kill the path of the ritual.

Gonna become gonna become gonna become gonna become
unsound"

-The Headstones "Unsound"

My So-Called Life (autograph)

I always share with you quotes from this excellent television show. This week I wanted to share with you the most prized autograph in my collection.


I wrote Claire Danes a fan letter after watching the second episode of her amazing show "My So-Called Life."

Something about her left me awestruck. I had to write that letter. I became an immediate fan and looked forward to Thursday nights at 8:00 to watch her on that excellent series.

I was almost floored when I received this postcard in the mail a few months later. When I scanned it into the computer, I overlapped her message from the back of the card so you can see it beside her picture.
I love how she wrote "Best of Everything" and signed it with a heart. I always read it as "love Claire Danes."

I have had this postcard framed and in my room for years now. It is my most-prized autograph in my entire collection and I'm glad that I can share it with you here on Tube Tuesdays - bringing you quotes that I have pulled from television or movies.

Believe it or not, I still have quotes to share with you from this awesome show. Please stay tuned.

Happy Thanksgiving!

Happy Thanksgiving Everyone!

I don't often choose to share just an image with you on this online commonplace book, but this image pretty much says everything that I want to say. I'm not sure who to credit it to though. I found it by doing an image search on "thanksgiving" on Google and I landed on this page http://morningcoffee.wordpress.com/2007/11/22/happy-thanksgiving/ but the image was no longer on that particular page.

It's a great image, and I hope it reminds us all that we have a lot to be thankful for.

Every year I compile a list of the things that I am thankful for. You can read the lists on my main blog, Silent Cacophony.

Here is this year's list. http://chasemarch.blogspot.com/2009/10/what-im-thankful-for.html

And last year's list. http://chasemarch.blogspot.com/2008/10/much-2be-thankful-for.html

Happy Thanksgiving Everyone!

Don't Know What We've Been Missing

"It's true we don't know what we've got until we lose it, but it's also true that we don't know what we've been missing until it arrives."

- Unknown Author

I really liked this quote that Eseniya posted on her Twitter page on Monday but her account has been deleted already so I can't ask her where she got it from. I haven't been able to find it accredited to any one author on the Internet either. So if you know who wrote this, please leave a comment below. Thanks!

Writing Helps You See the Big Picture

"Writing fiction is a way for him to step far enough back from reality to grasp its totality, the music of all the elements combined. The farther away you are, the clearer everything becomes."

- Monique Proulx. The Heart is an Involuntary Muscle. translated by David Homel and Fred A. Reed. Douglas & McIntyre Ltd, 2003. pg 261

Our Song

"I was riding shotgun with my hair undone in the front seat of his car
He's got a one-hand feel on the steering wheel
The other on my heart
I look around, turn the radio down
He says, "Baby is something wrong?"
I say, "Nothing I was just thinking how we don't have a song."
And he says...

"Our song is the slamming screen door,
sneaking out late, tapping on your window
When we're on the phone and you talk real slow
Cause it's late and your mama don't know
Our song is the way you laugh
The first date 'man, I didn't kiss her, and I should have'
And when I got home ... before I said amen
Asking God if He could play it again"

I was walking up the front porch steps after everything that day
had gone all wrong and been trampled on
and lost and thrown away
Got to the hallway, well on my way to my loving bed
I almost didn't notice all the roses
And the note that said...

Our song is the slamming screen door,
Sneaking out late, tapping on your window
When we're on the phone and you talk real slow
Cause it's late and your mama don't know
Our song is the way you laugh
The first date 'man, I didn't kiss her, and I should have'
And when I got home ... before I said amen
Asking God if He could play it again

I've heard every album, listened to the radio
Waited for something to come along
That was as good as our song...

Cause our song is the slamming screen door
Sneaking out late, tapping on his window
When we're on the phone and he talks real slow
Cause it's late and his mama don't know
Our song is the way he laughs
The first date "man, I didn't kiss him, and I should have"
And when I got home, before I said amen
Asking God if He could play it again

I was riding shotgun with my hair undone
In the front seat of his car
I grabbed a pen and an old napkin
And I... wrote down our song."

- Taylor Swift "Our Song" from the her self-titled album

All Fights Are The Same

"Conflict. It's everywhere you look. It touches everything we do, every relationship we have.

Isn't it funny how at their core all fights are the same - two people yelling, or accusing, or running away. Two people dong anything to avoid telling each other what they really feel.

Just talk when you want to run, reveal when you want to attack. It's so simple, so obvious, and at the same time, so incredibly hard."

- Being Erica. Season 2 Episode 3 "Battle Royale"

I really like this show. If you haven't been watching it, where have you been? Fortunately though, you can watch the episodes for free online to catch up for tonight's episode. Just go to http://www.cbc.ca/beingerica/

Do Something Kind

"Every now and then, without anyone knowing about it, do something kind for someone who needs it and doesn't expect it. Things like that circulate the earth in invisible ways and make this planet a better place."

- Brett Butler as collected by Deb Austen Brown in Growing Character: 99 Successful Strategies for the Elementary Classroom.

The Story Captures the Underlying Truth

"Tolkien absolutely refused the notion that he had sat down and consciously written a book about magic rings to express his opinions concerning totalitarianism, absolute power, and the bomb. He insisted that his works were “true,” not “invented”; that they captures “a sudden glimpse of the underlying reality or truth.”

- D. Stephenson Bond, Living Myth: Personal Meaning as a Way of Life. Shambala, 1993 pg 140

Adequate Analogies

"Our thinking is suffused with metaphors and analogies. There is an important in which we use the world to think with. We can use the telephone exchange as a tool with which to think about the brain. The analogy is hidden in the theory, but it has provided the means whereby we can get some conceptual grasp on it. We need, however, to be constantly concerned that our analogies are adequate."

- Kieran Egan. Teaching as Story Telling. The Althouse Press: London, 1986 pg 32

Tap The Bottle

This song is crazy!

I don't know why but I woke up the other daying singing some Young Black Teenagers songs. I hadn't listened to the album in a long time either.

This is straight-up, fun, tongue-twisting, old school rap for you this week on What!?! Wednesdays. I'm not going to quote any of the lyrics here. This one just needs to be heard.

So enjoy "Tap the Bottle" by The Young Black Teenagers.

Wedding Rings Have a Weird Power

Felicia: "You guys gonna get married or what?"

Phineas: "Living together's the same thing."

Felicia: "Un-uh. I live with a guy once and trust me, it's not even close to being the same thing."

Phineas: "What do you mean, why?"

Felicia: "'Cause, she can just pack up and leave whenever sh*t hits the fan. Talk to married people. That ring, believe it or not, has got this kind of weird power."

- Sopranos Season 5 episode 9

Imagine, Create, Dream, Become

"If you can imagine it you can create it. If you can dream it, you can become it."

- William Arthur Ward

Happy Monday Everyone!

No Drink for Me

"No drink for me. I never drink unless I'm forced to. I'm not dependent on anything. Not wine and not psychotropics. Not nicotine or caffeine or sexine or lovine. To be cold turkey in this universe of anesthetized druggies can only be regarded as heroism. That's me: A heroine without a heroin habit."

- Monique Proulx. The Heart is an Involuntary Muscle novel translated by David Homel and Fred A. Reed.

What a beautifully written passage. I wonder if it is as poetic in the original French. I don't speak or read French so I am glad that this work has been translated.

I just happened onto this novel by chance as I glanced through the shelves at the public library. I'm over halfway through it now. I'm glad that I picked it up. I have already scribbled down four more passages that I will share with you soon.

Have a great weekend everyone!

Miracles are a Retelling

"Miracles are a retelling in small letters of the very same story which is written across the whole world in letters too large for some of us to see."

- C.S. Lewis

Us

"I started rhyming just to be somebody
to make people notice me at the party
and not just be the new kid that's albino
make em say yeah I know but have you heard him rhyme though
now take that same party around the globe
and my stories connected with a lot of folks
I hope so cause that's the only thing I know
I know it so well I tell it with my eyes closed
and I go with the feeling from the start
blind in the eye so I see you with my heart
and to me all y'all look exactly the same
fear, faith, compassion, and pain
and try as we may to mask it remains
such as your religion or your past and your race
the same color blood just pass through our veins
and tears taste the same when they splash on your face
The worlds getting too small to stand in one place
its like we're roommates just sharing a space
can't separate and still carry the weight
gotta heal get away from the fear and the hate
gotta shake free from the chains
you see what remains
just a human being end of the day
don't matter to me what name you gave your spiritual plane
close your eyes and you'll see what I'm saying
I started rhyming just to be somebody
found out that I already was
cause can't nobody be free unless we're all free
there's no me and no you its just us
Street preacher what a fan once called me
I been called worse and tried to live up
hope you don't mind a few more stories
I swear to god y'all I tell em with love"

- Brother Ali from the title track to his new album that dropped yesterday.

If you don't have that album, run out and get it. I wrote a bit about it today on my other blog as well. Check it out. This guy is the best MC in the game right now.

Cash In on the Experience

"A failure is a man who has blundered, but is not able to cash in on the experience."

- Elbert Hubbard

Happy Monday Everyone!

Through Art, We Have Learned...

"In our paintings, our thoughts, our words, and our stories we have learned to imitate creation and make creation conscious of itself."

- Leeming, David. Myth: A Biography of Belief. Oxford University Press, 2002 pg 51

Counting the Days

"So here I go and there you went...again

Just another stupid thing that I done wrong.

Locked up in my head, knocked down, beaten, left for dead

With all those brilliant things I should have said.

I gotta get away, and find something to do

cause everything I hear, everything I see, reminds me of you.

Still counting the days I've been without you 1, 2, 3, 4...

Still counting the days that you've been gone.

Day one, was no fun.

Day two, I hated you.

By day three I wish you'd come right back to me.

Day four, five and six, well I guess you just don't give a shit.

Day seven, this is hell. this is hell.

I gotta get away, and find something to do.

But everything I hear, everything I see, reminds me of you.

Still counting the days I've been without you 1, 2, 3, 4...

Still counting the days that you've been gone.

Still counting the days since you left me. 1,2,3,4...

Still counting the days since you've been gone.

A thousand things I wanna say to you, but it's too late now.

A thousand things I wanna say...

A thousand things I wanna say to you, but its too late now.

A thousand things I wanna say...

Still counting the days I've been without you.

Still counting the days that you've been gone.

Still counting the days I've been without you 1, 2, 3, 4...

Still counting the days that you've been gone.

Gone...

Gone...

Gone...

Gone..."

- Goldfinger "Counting the Days" from the album Stomping Ground

People are Beautiful

"It's good to get really dressed up once in a while. And admit the truth: that when you really look closely? People are so strange and so complicated that they're actually... beautiful. Possibly even me."

- Angela on My So-Called Life

There are No Limits

"The only way of finding the limits of the possible is by going beyond them into the impossible."

- Arthur C. Clarke

Happy Monday Everyone!

Remember that if you have a dream, no matter what it is, you can make it happen. Some may say that it is impossible, but if you really want something to happen, you can push passed the limits of what is possible.

What a great quote to start off the week.

Art is a Social Responsibility

"An honest work of art is always an act of social responsibility."

- Robert McKee. Story: Substance, Structure, Style, and the Principals of Screenwriting. ReganBooks: New York, 1997. pg 131

Forever and Ever, Amen

"You may think that I'm talking foolish
You've heard that I'm wild and I'm free
You may wonder how I can promise you now
This love that I'm feeling for you always will be
You're not just time that I'm killing
I'm no longer one of those guys
As sure as I live this love that I give
Is gonna be yours till the day that I die -- oh baby

I'm gonna love you forever, forever & ever amen
As long as old men sit and talk about the weather
As long as old women sit and talk about old men
If you wonder how long I'll be faithful
I'll be happy to tell you again
I'm gonna love you forever & ever, forever & ever amen

They say that time takes its toll on a body
Makes the young girls brown hair turn grey
But honey, I don't care, I'm not in love with your hair
And if it all fell out well I'd love you anyway
They say that time can play tricks on a memory
And people forget things that they knew
But its easy to see its happening to me
I've already forgotten every woman but you --- oh baby

I'm gonna love you forever, forever & ever amen
As long as old men sit and talk about the weather
As long as old women sit and talk about old men
If you wonder how long I'll be faithful
I'll be happy to tell you again
I'm gonna love you forever & ever, forever & ever amen

Just listen to how this song ends
I'm gonna love you forever & ever forever & ever
Forever & ever forever & ever amen"

- Randy Travis "Forever and Ever, Amen"

Gotta Keep Control

"It's amazing how far we'll go just to maintain some measure of control. The world spins a circle within a circle and we grip so tight it makes our knuckles white. When all we really want to do is let go, lose control, fall, see where we land."

- The narrator on Everwood.

Classroom Consequences

We had some professional development this week at school. I really liked what this speaker had to say about discipline. I hope you do too.

"Severity of the consequence is not important. Just the fact that you addressed it is."

- Eric Corvers

Children Understand Narrative

"And though equally natural and native to the expanding human mind, the narrative comes first, has spiritual priority. Very young children love and demand stories, and can understand complex maters presented as stories, when their powers of comprehending general concepts, paradigms, are almost non-existent. It is this narrative or symbolic power which gives a sense of the world—a concrete reality in the imaginative form of symbol and story—where abstract thought can provide nothing at all. A child follows the Bible before he follows Euclid. Not because the Bible is simpler (the reverse might be said), but because it is cast in a symbolic and narrative mode."

- Oliver Sacks. The Man who Mistook His Wife for a Hat, and Other Clinical Tales. HarperCollins: New York, 1985. pg 183-184