"There are so many different ways to be connected to people. There are the people you feel this unspoken connection to, even though there's not even a word for it. There's the people who you've known forever who know you in this way that other people can't because they've seen you change. They've let you change."
"Stay busy with your life. Study hard, go to school, play sports, get a job. But don't just lie around doing nothing. That is when you find trouble to get into."
- Bobby Bowden
Summer vacation officially starts today for me. It started for my students last week. But these words are something we can all take to heart.
"Their extraordinary and consistent detail , which was evoked each time the cortex was stimulated, and exceeded anything which could be recalled by memory, suggested to Panfield that the brain retained an almost perfect record of every lifetime’s experience."
- Oliver Sacks. The Man who Mistook His Wife for a Hat, and Other Clinical Tales. HarperCollins: New York, 1985. pg 137
"Story creates meaning. Coincidence, then, would seem our enemy, for it is the random, absurd collisions of things in the universe and is, by definition, meaningless. And yet coincidence is a part of life, often a powerful part, rocking existence, then vanishing as absurdly as it arrived. The solution, therefore, is not to avoid coincidence, but to dramatize how it may enter life meaninglessly, but it time gain meaning, how the antilogic of randomness becomes the logic of life-as-lived. "
- Robert McKee. Story: Substance, Structure, Style, and the Principals of Screenwriting. ReganBooks: New York, 1997. pg 356
I don't want to highlight any of the lyrics for today's What Wednesday post. Instead I just want to focus on the old school vibe that this group puts forth.
"In your lifetime, you're going to meet a lot of jerks. If someone hurts you, you just tell yourself it's do to their lack of intelligence. That way you'll never sink down to their level, because there's nothing worse in this world than bitterness or revenge. Never lose sight of that. Always stay true to yourself."
"And we all have in us the aspect of the Great Mystery that we call consciousness. Other beings have it too, but in our case we have learned to conceive of beginnings, middles, and ends – of what some have called plot."
- David Leeming. Myth: A Biography of Belief. Oxford University Press, 2002 pg 51
"So we have learned two important things just now about reading:
1. Since language originates in sound, every written story has a voice we can hear as we read, and join with if we like the sound of it. If you read any story aloud and listen carefully, you will hear below your voice the voice of the writer coming through, borrowing your sound equipment.
2. Writing enlists the full physiological model of the reader, who is able to see, hear, taste, smell, and touch, as well as move, while reading at rest. This is achieved because all these powers originate in the brain and reading language gives access to them directly as mental representation."
- Joseph Gold. Read For Your Life: Literature as a Life Support System. Fitzhenry and Whiteside: Markham, 1990. pg 259
"Exiled and pushed away, lost in time Always I’ll be this bitter person who’s stuck right here, disillusioned. Don’t stand by If you don’t like what you see. So once satisfied, No I won’t take what you said to me
Give me some time, give me some reason Make up your mind, cool off the fever. Drama must die, so give me some way To salvage this life, Finally it’s over
You oughta stay away, till you see What runs through me Unless you get this game, The only one I wanna blame
My promise is cold, you’ve never been told There’s nothing to hide, I never did lie There’s no way to win When love is in vain I won’t take what you said to me
Give me some time, give me some reason Make up your mind, cool off the fever. Drama must die, so give me some way To salvage this life Finally it’s over.
Dead end countdown (4x)
I know we’re stuck inside a dead end countdown, With no communication. Straight down, we’re drowning in the respiration. We’re lost beneath the surface.
Give me some time, give me some reason Make up your mind, cool off the fever Drama must die, so give me some way To salvage this life Finally it’s over.
Give me some time, give me some reason I know we’re stuck inside Give me some time, give me some reason Now we’re stuck inside
Dead end countdown (4x)"
- The New Cities "Dead End Countdown" from the album "Lost in City Lights"
If you like this song and video please check out the interview I did with the band a few weeks ago and download the podcast for free.
Make sure to subscribe to The Chase March Show podcast. I will be bringing you more in-depth interviews and great music once a month.
If you haven't seen this excellent series on the BBC, please click on the link above to find out more about it. I found this choir master to be very inspiring and the show to be heartwarming.
"Good morning. Today is a blank canvas awaiting your command!! Pay your past no never mind!! Your future is spotless! I love that! Yippe! A NEW DAY!"
- Rev Run
Happy Monday Everyone!
Reverend Run always has positive things to say on his Twitter account. Follow him to get Motivational Monday quotes every day. This was his message this morning.
"A truly good book is something as natural, and as unexpectedly and unaccountably fair and perfect, as a wild flower discovered on the prairies of the west, or in the jungles of the east."
- Thoreau, Henry David. Walking Part 2 paragraph 31
"To tell story is to make a promise: If you give me your concentration, I’ll give you surprise followed by the pleasure of discovering life, its pains and joys, at levels and in directions you have never imagined."
- Robert McKee. Story: Substance, Structure, Style, and the Principals of Screenwriting. ReganBooks: New York, 1997. pg 237
"Over and over I keep wondering why Then I give up and see that look in your eyes Cause if I trip and fall, I'll be to blame And if I hit the wall, I'll still be the same Wasting your time with your so called friends The ones you adore and the ones you pretend And it's kind of sad and deranged But it's not so bad that it can't be explained
Cause in my mind It's all a waste of time And there's no excuse at all Then I realize, surprise You were right all along
And I want to know Have I gone too far Have I sunk to a brand new low And I want to know If I've gone too far Cause I've lost all my self control
Guilty as charged I've been convicted and tried Was it too much to ask for you to take my side Cause there's nothing here left to defend When it's always me That you blame in the end
Cause in my mind it's the perfect crime And there's no excuse at all when I realize Surprise you were right all along
Nothing is what it seems, To me you're sleeping without the dreams Without you, nothing defines me
When I'm slipping away It's only you that can find me and I'm over my head again I'm falling from end to end"
- Treble Charger "Brand New Low" lyrics and video from their album "Wide Awake Bored"
I love this video. I hadn't listened to these guys in a while but out on their "Detox" disc last night. As it was playing, I wondered why I hadn't played it in a while. These guys are great. Check 'em out!
"I'm a real believer in what I call the healing power of narrative. Meaning you go to the movie and forget who you are for two hours. You have a great time. You get excited. Your heart beats. You laugh. You cry. And when you get out, you are refreshed; you are rewarded. And if a story can do that for you, it's really helped you."
- Stephen Hunter (author of "Point of Impact")
This quote was transcribed from the "Making of Shooter" which was a bonus feature from the DVD of the Mark Walberg movie "Shooter."
It was a really good film that was based on the novel "Point of Impact." I always like to see bonus features that interview the writer. It's insightful to see what a writer has to say about his work.
I like this quote because it speaks to the power of story. If you like quotes on story please click on the label on the side bar to see my ever-growing collection.
"People seldom see the halting and painful steps by which the most insignificant success is achieved."
- Anne Sullivan
Great quote!
People don't need to see the steps to your success. They only need to realize that there are steps to any level of success. There is no such thing as an overnight sensation. Anything worthwhile takes work.
The observation has an ageless, proverbial ring, but the earliest example of it in the Oxford Dictionary of American Proverbs is relatively recent, coming from Ring Lardner's Big Town (1921)."
- Unwritten Laws: The Unofficial Rules of Life as Handed Down by Murphy and Other Sages. by Hugh Rawson.
This is a cool book that explains the origin of some of the terms and life's rules we have all heard time and time again. It's a really interesting read.
"Brother please, No more Pamela Lee's let's set it straight I'm the biggest thing out of Canada til Quebec separate And I never medicate, so y'all feel me if I'm ill Like a lump - some dudes used to burn down trees now they stumped by the simplest questions And everything they think is deception As they sink in depression No telling where our life's headed I'm light-headed From scraps where I write/right hooks like a fight method Like credit I'm indebted for my misuse My life is like a magazine - got so many issues God edits the stories Still tryin' to find the father like Maury He ain't with the stars like... Tori Spelling's Spell is out like N.O.R.E. On a quest for glory... On a quest for glory..."
- Shad "Intro: Quest for Glory" from the album The Old Prince
I love the one liners in this song.
I'm the biggest thing out of Canada til Quebec separate
And I never medicate, so y'all feel me if I'm Ill
Like credit I'm indebted for my misuse
My life is like a magazine - got so many issues
This cat might be the nicest kid doing this hip-hop thing in Canada right now. If you don't know about him go buy this album. It is amazing.
"Their extraordinary and consistent detail , which was evoked each time the cortex was stimulated, and exceeded anything which could be recalled by memory, suggested to Panfield that the brain retained an almost perfect record of every lifetime’s experience."
"Story creates meaning. Coincidence, then, would seem our enemy, for it is the random, absurd collisions of things in the universe and is, by definition, meaningless. And yet coincidence is a part of life, often a powerful part, rocking existence, then vanishing as absurdly as it arrived. The solution, therefore, is not to avoid coincidence, but to dramatize how it may enter life meaninglessly, but it time gain meaning, how the antilogic of randomness becomes the logic of life-as-lived. " 
Gareth Malone talks about the power of singing in a choir and what it can do for you.
"I'm a real believer in what I call the healing power of narrative. Meaning you go to the movie and forget who you are for two hours. You have a great time. You get excited. Your heart beats. You laugh. You cry. And when you get out, you are refreshed; you are rewarded. And if a story can do that for you, it's really helped you."
"People seldom see the halting and painful steps by which the most insignificant success is achieved."
"Two can live cheaper than one
"The block of granite which was an obstacle in the pathway of the weak, became a stepping-stone in the pathway of the strong."