low riders and loop trail

Friday night we attended a Gatsby party. I'm not sure how Gatsby anyone was. I've never read the book, so I took a stab at it by wearing a bowtie. Clip on. The party raged pretty hard at certain points. Good to see people cutting loose.

Hungover Saturday we got eggs and potatoes at a restaurant that claims to have 150 different sandwiches. We then proceeded to a carwash benefit for some of my students in ceramics. Apparently they have a bike club and they were raising money for parts and equipment. The bikes were pretty elaborate and well done. I think this is an extensive sub culture within certain Latino communities. I was surprised and pleased to hear about it, and I'm glad the students thought to include me, if only for another $5 donation. It was great to see that they have this passion that they pursue completely on their own time. No doubt it takes a great deal of skill and work to put these things together.

It was interesting when I asked these students what their art form was or which artists they liked. None of them listed a single thing, and here they are creating aesthetic and functional objects that are quite well done. Surely they have people in the low rider community that they look up to. I think it's just that they've never thought of this as 'art.' Or maybe they just love to give me a hard time by never willingly contributing anything? At any rate this little exposure turned my whole view of them around.




That night we watched walk the line, which I thought was a bit misconceived. I've never agreed with the concept of taking famous people's lives and reworking them--but with more beautiful people. Or sometimes it just seems that the ridiculously beautiful people in hollywood are handicapped in telling a truly believable story. For instance, consider Charlize Theron being cast into the lead of Northcountry. Give me a break! Or Halle Berry as the female lead in Monster's Ball. Ooo, really believable, Billy Bob Thornton--you were able to overcome your crippling and hereditary racism to... have sex with Halle Berry? Tough struggle there. If they wanted to make these stories believable they should've cast ugly people in those roles. This is not to say that Johnny Cash and June Carter were ugly people, only that they were modest people. Joaquin and Reese are two of the best looking people on the planet, hardly modest. Fun to look at, but not real like Cash and Carter. Flawless stars aside, I still can't ignore the violence inherent in the act of some screenwriters' attempt to mold a complete human life into some typified plot curve. How much is left out and whose story is really getting told?

Sunday we headed to Aguirre Springs, which is the BLM park on the east side of the Organs, the mountain range that forms the valley that Las Cruces sits in. The Organs have been a surprising source of pleasure for me, with their rugged verticality and abrupt sharp-toothedness. I talked to a guy from Wyoming and he said he hardly notices them, but for a Minnesotan I think they provide a little more awe. Aguirre Springs has several drive-to camp sites, latrines, and two hiking trails. The first is called Baylor pass, a one-way six mile hike straight through the Organs. Baylor Pass ends, I think, in Dripping Springs, which is the park on the West side of the Organs. I also heard that in November there is something called Baylor Pass Run, which I hope is what it sounds like--maybe something to start training for.

The other trail is called Pine Tree Trail, a 4.5 mile loop that does not betray the source of its name until its uppermost reaches. Near the half-way point the whole ecosystem seems to change into a semi-alpine wonderland of towering pines and scrubby junipers. Apparently the Organs are the most bio-diverse region of NM. There were also several points along the trail that offer sweeping vistas of the entire basin that lies to the East of the Organs. This basin forms White Sands Missile Range, and in it lies the Military Base/Town White Sands, entirely visible from the trail. Also visible, 40 miles north-east, was White Sands National Monument (on some of the photos in Molly's site, White Sands is the solid white line near the horizon). It was a brisk and beautiful hike with several fairly chossy portions of high-stepping scramble. Nothing technical but certainly enough to get the sweat set free. Any strenuousness in the hike was exacerbated by a mysterious pinched nerve beneath my right shoulder blade, which seems to be waning today. I will have no problem re-hiking that trail when visitors come--I think it will be interesting to see what the mild season changes do there.

the square life

so if you're like me and you're like most minnesotans, you don't really enjoy telling other people what to do. I don't know if this is a specifically midwestern/minnesotan attitude or maybe just a thing I notice in the people around me. But the general idea is that everyone has their own life to mess up and in most cases you have to let them do it. Don't worry about hours of speculation behind someone's back--everyone does it--but just don't get in someone's face about making changes. Anyways, in most every instance your request for a change will go unheeded or unappreciated. Usually it will be scorned, suspected, and even decisive in ending a relationship. Asking someone to change their behavior is a very delicate operation, and this might be why we reserve it for only our most intimate friends.

As a teacher, you are forced to tell someone what to do on a daily basis. Now nevermind these great ideas about following the etymological meaning of educate--the idea that you open the space and the person being educated fills it in themselves (the opposite of induce or induction where you lead them all the way). Educing only works for 1 out 50 people. The rest of them need to be told what to do on a nearly constant basis, or they will do nothing or do the perceived minimum to avoid further dialogue. This is required also because we are still in the free, primary stage of education--the "necessary" education. This is a much different state from a college class, where the professor is so highly trained that they need merely to speak or do and what the student misses is usually their own fault. At any rate, the college student is paying to be there and they are presumed to be more engaged because of this.

Not so with the high school student. With the high school student, one must poke, prod, cajole, beg, admonish, threaten, and seduce to achieve even the semblance of activity or interest. Failing that you begin to parade what little power you have: their grades. "Billy, do you care if you get an F in my class?" Although you may now have their attention you have lost nearly all else. Once you begin talking about grades, what are you really talking about? Certainly you're not talking about the subject matter or the importance of education. You're offering a trade: you do a little work, I'll give you a little grade. They exit with as few scratches as possible. But once you begin trading with students, where are you?

Failing everything else, you may one day find yourself in a full-on power struggle. You give them a choice, they refuse to take it, thus they must be removed from your class--at least for the rest of the day. Think of it! A free education, space and time to work, free supplies, a talented and enthusiastic instructor, and a relatively fun environment--yet the student cannot find even one nugget of motivation to remain in the class. What a situation that is, the rest of the students looking on ("shit, he's pissed today"), the outed student's friends scorning you. A tense calm invades, eye contact is avoided, you may wonder if you are sweating. Truly no one is winning here. The best one can hope for is a bit more focus for a short time.

Please don't get me wrong. I was sent out of class many times--countless perhaps. But never in a fucking elective! And never in ceramics. That's the strange thing about it though, that's the square life. You may wonder--how did we get to this point? How am I not liked? What happened where this class period turned in to such a bad time for some people? Fear not young teacher. You're just not used to not being able to avoid people who don't like you. In other words--you have to deal with the people that don't like you. It's not that people are just starting to not like you. It's just that for the first time you can't brush those people away, and worse yet you have to serve those people as best you can.

In a way it makes me want to return to a more classic education--one with corporeal punishment perhaps? "Oh, what's that Billy? You didn't throw 10 cylinders 6 inches tall by 3 inches wide as identical as possible? Please put your hands on the desk where I can see them." >BAM goes the ruler! But of course that's not any better and you're actually a worse kind of demon in that situation. The truth is that I'm not actually inflicting too much pain on anyone by asking them to work--even by asking them to work beyond their perceived boundries, which none of them have done yet. Another truth is that this was just one day and it probably will be beneficial in the long term "vibe" of the class. But I thought I would blog after my first full-on day of intentionally being a huge prick.

nothing cohesive really

it was a good week at school. I think my students and I are starting to find a good working relationship. I have 9th through 12th graders in my class, and I probably don't need to say that there is a huge difference within that range. So it becomes interesting how to work with each student. Everyone needs something a little different from me. I was feeling kind of down about the general direction of the studio and the students' work, so on Tuesday we had a little talk about education in general. I just wanted to try to impart on them the significance of a free education, the oppurtunity in having time and space to create art, and the importance of working hard and taking risks. I know that I certainly didn't think that way in high school and I probably wouldn't have responded super enthusiastically if someone tried telling me those things. However, after completing college and slogging my way through $15,000 in debt, I feel my perspective is a little different now. I can't help but to try and spark some inspiration or motivation. After that talk we spent the rest of the period cleaning the studio. I think it was beneficial for all of us. There seems to be slightly less lag time between entering class and starting in on their projects, and they certainly seem to have a better grasp on how clean I expect the studio to be.

A few of the students are really starting to emerge as having deep latent talent in clay and form. I'm pretty impressed with three in particular--the forms they are coming up with. There are also a few who are showing a quick facility with the wheel, which is a tricky bastard of a device. Most of the students are moving into an attitude that this can actually be a pretty cool thing, or at least fun if they work at it. There are only a few that I have no real hope for. However, the art teacher Mr. Dorn warned me about this disparity between students. He said that you have to try as much as possible to treat all the students equally, and anything else will only deepen the disconnect between you, the students you like, and the students you don't like. That seems to make sense, but I tell you it's hard sometimes to not simply ignore students that don't care at all. At any rate, I've set the minimum requirements--the 'C' grade--very low, so I don't have much concern that I'll have to fail anyone. In fact I've set it up so it's very easy to get a B and not too hard to get an A.

There is also the after-school class which runs Tues. and Thur. 4-6. This is a fun class made up of mostly my 2nd period students that really like clay and a few of their friends. My idea for that class is to create a workshop environment where every student is contributing to a unified "line" of functional pottery. The reality is that we are nowhere near that skill level yet so it's pretty much become ceramics fun time. I think we're slowly moving towards a line. I'm tempted to just create a series of simple prototypes, let them choose a few, and then teach them how to make them. But I also want it to be as student-run as possible. At any rate the after school is kind of like my therapy session compared to the 2nd period class. We just sort of listen to music, speak freely, work clay, and I don't have to worry about evaluating any of them.

The only other school obligation at this point is pick-up soccer on Monday. This week was the first game. It was fun. Oh--and I'm now officially part of Amy's 4th period AP English. I'm meeting with her this afternoon to figure out exactly what we'll be doing this week. That's a good group and I appreciate the variety in my day--some clay, some english, some philosophy. It's really not a bad gig, don't let me fool you into thinking it is.

Last night mols and I picked up coworker Aaron (AmeriCorps/theatre) and headed to the "Telshor 12" to check out--that's right--motha-fuckin snakes on a mutha-fuckin plane. What a movie. It's the return of unashamed schlock to Hollywood. Their basically saying, 'yeah, it's bad. you got a problem with that?' It's literally so bad it's good. We had a blast at that movie. The crowd was really in to it, laughing at totally inappropriate times, screaming, clapping, cheering when Samuel L. would deliver some total cheese. I had a way better time than I was anticipating, and I was anticipating a pretty good time. Maybe it's just because I live in a town where there is nothing to do.

Saturday night we went with my coworkers--4 of them live in the same house on a street called Brownlee--to a brew-pub called High Desert Brewery. Really great beer, really bad music. I had a Hefe and the IPA and I thought both were top notch. But I also sat through a few cuts from Bush, Evanescence, Oasis, etc. Ok, I kind of like Oasis. But Bush?! Sometimes I think it's wise that we don't consume the richest goods available all the time. For instance it's probably not good to eat out at restaurants every night even though restaurant food usually tastes really good compared to what we eat at home. The truth is that restaurant cooks load up the food with butter, MSG, cheese, and other fatty/palatable treats so that you can't stop spooning the shit into your mouth. But I've always felt differently with music. There is no reason to listen to bad or even mediocre music. there's just too much good stuff out there--new and 0ld--to be wasting your time and ears like that. And it's not going to make you fat to listen to good music. So maybe I'll bring in a couple burned mixes next time we go to High Desert.

Other than that the weekend has been about sitting, sleeping, cooking, cleaning, and reading. I'm reading a collection of Orwell's essays right now. Very good writing. Sorry, super duper good writing. I especially liked one titled, "Shooting an Elephant." Right now I'm watching Tiger Woods demoralize his colleagues, and I like it. We don't have many true champions these days in sports. Mostly overpaid corporations masquerading as teams or superstars. But tiger is a true champion, a phenom. Roger Federer would be another example, but I don't care much for tennis. Rooting for the underdog can be nice, but has anyone ever rooted for tiger to not win on a sunday?

that's all for now. In the words of my upstairs neighbor Sean at the Cecil house, "Be Cool."

weekend and preceding

a routine is settling like sediments of clay in a bucket of water. that reminds of an onion headline I just read... something like, "I suck at similies as bad as the river tide flows." anyways, I'm starting to get into the groove down here. Things that I want to increase are more of my own ceramics, as opposed to the "teaching" (read: babysitting) ceramics at Alma, and I would like to study some Spanish. And I would like US$100,000.

But the routine: wake up and shower, prepare coffee or drink coffee molly prepared, let the cat out, let the cat in, eat cereal, read scraps of paper on the table, dress, drink more coffee, put hair up, walk two blocks to school. Not a bad commute. 1st hour is my prep time (as are 3rd... and 4th hours), where I usually check and respond to emails (so send them!) and get my things together for class. 2nd hour class... more on that later, but things are generally good. Then lunch. 3rd and 4th hour I will work (clean) in the ceramics class. Sometimes (probably more frequently as the weeks go on) I will help out in Amy's 4th period AP English. For example, today I have prepared a reading and short lecture on Hume in regards to moral relativism. After school... Tuesdays and Thursday's will now be the after school pottery workshop. Monday is the Alma soccer game. Then Molly and I have dinner and fistfight. No! I mean we hang out and talk to the cat. I'm usually in bed by 10:30!

This weekend, which you already know about if you've been reading "mollyetta," we didn't do much of anything! Friday there was a get together at the art teacher's house. He has a pool and there were some tasty appetizers and beer. There might have also been some tequila. That kind of thing is nice though because the lubrication extends throughout the week. For instance I forgot to sign up for lunch this morning, but the secretary was happy and willing to add my name to the list--because we had a drink and a laugh together on Friday! So let that be a lesson to you all--drink occasionally with your colleagues.

Saturday and Sunday passed without much in the way of events. Our house looks a lot nicer now, in little homey ways and little cleaning ways. I made some pretty wicked guac. Sunday night I wanted some mindless entertainment so Mols and I smoked some meth I mean went to see Pirates 2. Pretty fun movie, deeply unsatisfying in terms of closure. There are many good looking people in that movie, and the villains are especially gross and interesting. Johnny Depp dies in the end! Sorry! I ruined it.

Soon we will do something so exciting that it will blow your minds away. I don't know what it is yet, but we'll figure it out. No more of this, 'not much to report, but I'm well-rested' garbage. Oh yeah, one more thing, two more things. I have a new phone now so call me. Even if you want to just say hi. Same number. But watch out because my phone has a prominently displayed timer and I'm using it to judge the quality of my conversations. 2nd thing, would some people like to step up and start doing some snail mail exchanges? I think I would really appreciate it and it will be fun.

bon journee.

PS JUST KIDDING ABOUT THE METH. MOLLY AND I HAVE NEVER AND WILL NEVER SMOKE METH. THAT WAS I JOKE SHOULDN'T HAVE WRITTEN. METH=DETH

bloge

apres le travaille
crunch berries, hefeweizen
black cloud cruces breeze


week one of teacherness, the state of being an "educator" as new mexico likes to call them (us). classroom management will not be the biggest issue as I had feared. Certainly I have a few... challenging students. But their consequences are clear in front of them (fail the class, go to ISS), and they are not clever or bold enough to lead a revolt. The other students are either too intimidated or annoyed by the 5 bad ones--who are a very tight clique--to pay much attention.

The bigger problem it seems will be art related. Number one difficulty will be teaching these beginners the fundamentals of clay, which I'm remembering is a very difficult medium. I'm emphasizing quantity over quality, strange perhaps but it's something I think is important (especially with wheel throwing). Number two will be getting them out of their (dis)comfort zone. I don't want my class to turn into some kind of gift shop. I want things that are too big to fit into the kiln, or perhaps they can make so much stuff that we run out of clay. This kind of 'dive in' mentality is complicated by their awkward age and by the admissions process of the school. Kids are admitted on a lottery instead of a juried panel. This might be because the school is only in its 3rd year, and they need anyone they can get, including the kids that got kicked out of the other 3 high schools in town. So I get things like, "Is this done/big enough?" and "I don't know any artists." Which is fine, but that's the general flavor around school.

Other than my class, I've been doing a lot of new-job administrative tasks and meeting the other teachers and AmeriCorps members. We are supposed to co-teach one other class of our choosing. I've helped out this week in a 9th grader "Inter Arts" general class. That was a fun class. I made a screaming death bike with a plastic tricerytops skull chained on the handlebars and skull poster tied to the front. My student partner came riding in while I drummed on the desk and sang welcome to the jungle. Fun 20 seconds.

The other class I helped out in was AP English for 11th and 12th graders. The teacher for that class is presenting some very challenging material (for anyone, not just HSers). So she found out I was a philosophy major (partially) and invited me to co-teach Nichomachean ethics from Aristotle. I did a pretty good job and we had some great discussion. I think I formed a good early trust with that group. However, at one point I looked up from what I was saying about Plato and I realized that not a single person in the room was following what I was saying because I was talking like a jerk butt. But that's fine because it's free for them and I'm only getting paid 10K!

Pretty exhausting week overall. I was actually sleeping hard by 10:15 last night... I'm very happy that Molly has been off this week, thus able to play wifey around the domecile. She hates it when I say wifey and domecile. But she was taking care of business around here. I cleaned the kitchen once. Things will get easier as I get more comfortable with my class and we really start rolling with the projects. I'm still in 'set the tone' mode with the students.

This weekend I think we'll check out the sole Indian restaurant in town. I want to see the new Ferrell movie, but my date is putting her foot down. We'll do Bed Bath and Beyond and head over to Home Depot if there's time left. We got a good day planned. Seriously I think we're getting out of town somewhere. In this state, at this point, it kind of feels like put up the map and throw a dart--we'll probably hit something pretty cool.