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

Brother Ali is Amazing!

Brother Ali is a talented artist and an amazingly gifted MC. He is definitely my favourite MC out right now. It's amazing to see how he has used live musicians in the studio to record his new album. I'm patiently waiting for it to drop next month. I usually get music for free from the radio station or from digital copies that are sent to me for the show or from artists who simply want us to play them. As such, I own a lot of music that I haven't paid for. But a lot of you don't have a radio show and still get free music. A fan asked Brother Ali if it's okay to download his stuff as long as he comes to the show to support him that way. This is what he had to say.

Here is the first video blog from his new website. http://brotherali.com

I don't normally post the same entry on both of my blogs but I just had to repost this one here for What!?! Wednesdays.

Intelligent hip-hop is alive and well. Check out this artist. He already has classics under his belt and I really look forward to the new album "Us" by Brother Ali.

Finally Going Somewhere

"What's amazing is when you can feel your life going somewhere. Like, your life just figured out how to get good. Like, that second."

- Angela from an episode of My So-Called Life

I've felt like this a few times in my life. I think life takes us where we need to be, and on some rare occasions we can actually feel that we are in the right place and that things will work out great.

Isn't that how we should feel more often?