Mr. Hudson’s Neighborhood

Glad to see the popularity of the Song of the Week. I was hoping it would be a hit! (no pun intended!). Time for round two. I decided to give you something a little more upbeat this week. It starts out a little slow but gets upbeat. Give it a chance.

I mentioned something in last week’s post about unskippable songs on the Ipod. Well, I present to you my number one unskippable song. I don’t believe I have ever or WOULD ever skip this song if it came up on my shuffle. It’s by a band called Iron Maiden, a heavy metal band from the 80s that still rocks just as hard today. I didn’t start listening to IM until a couple years ago because I grew up in a small town, sheltered environment and was taught that music like this was “evil”. Upon listening, I found nothing “evil” about Iron Maiden. “Face melting” and “spectacularly awesome” maybe, but certainly not “evil”.

I give you Iron Maiden’s “Hallowed Be Thy Name”, a song I consider, in my humble opinion to be the GREATEST hard rock song of all time. I consider the last two minutes of the song the most awesome two minutes ever recorded. Period. Just like last week, write about any aspect of the song you like. You could even tell about YOUR #1 unskippable Ipod song. Enjoy.

16 Hallowed Be Thy Name

Hallowed Be Thy Name
Iron Maiden

I’m waiting in my cold cell, when the bell begins to chime.
Reflecting on my past life and it doesn’t have much time.
‘Cause at 5 o’clock they take me to the Gallows Pole,
The sands of time for me are running low…

Running low–ooohhh…
When the priest comes to read me the last rites,
I take a look through the bars at the last sights,
Of a world that has gone very wrong for me.

Can it be that there’s some sort of error?
Hard to stop the surmounting terror.
Is this really the end, not some crazy dream?

Somebody please tell me that I’m dreaming,
It’s not easy to stop from screaming,
But words escape me when I try to speak.
Tears flow but why am I crying?
After all I’m not afraid of dying.
Don’t I believe that there never is an end?

As the guards march me out to the courtyard,
Somebody cries from a cell “God be with you”.
If there’s a God then why does he let me go?

As I walk my life drifts before me.
Though the end is near I’m not sorry.
Catch my soul, it’s willing to fly away.

Mark my words believe my soul lives on.
Don’t worry now that I have gone.
I’ve gone beyond to see the truth.

When you know that your time is close at hand,
Maybe then you’ll begin to understand
Life down here is just a strange illusion.

Yeah, yeah, yeah…Hallowed be Thy name
Yeah, yeah, yeah…Hallowed be Thy name
Yeah…………………………….

Okay, so reading “The Bass, the River, and Sheila Mant” reminds me of a dating experience that I had in high school. Here it goes.

I was a senior in high school and was a member of HOSA (Health Occupation Students of America). No, I never wanted to be a healthcare professional, I just wanted a free trip to California–it worked (and they say that studying Gerontology will get you nowhere!). To get to Cali, we had to go through state competitions in Nashville. As part of the state competition we had a dance/dinner on the General Jackson (that’s a riverboat in Nashville –it is pictured above– that gives three hour tours–not the kind where you end up stranded on a deserted island, though). Later on in the night, some friends and I were on the back deck (the one with the big paddlewheel) and I spotted a kind of attractive girl leaning against the railing. So, I decided, “What the heck? I might as well go for it.” Now I wasn’t the smooth operator then that I am now, so, not knowing anything better to say, I walked up to her and delivered the following pick-up line: “I bet it would hurt if you fell off into that thing.” (I was referring to the giant paddlewheel) I swear to you those were the exact words out of my mouth.

Contrary to what you might be thinking, it worked. In fact, by the end of the night I had a date to prom (turned out she lived 10 minutes away from my hometown). She seemed like a nice girl. Regretfully, things aren’t always what they seem. To make a long story short, we went to prom and actually went out one more time a few weeks after that. However, we never really hit it off. She was kind of weird and unfriendly.

Fast forward a few months to my first semester in college. I was looking up old friends online and found her e-mail and decided to say hi. Well, next day I get an e-mail back from a guy I had gone to junior high school with. We had been friends until he told me some really weird stuff (which I won’t go into here) and then I kind of stayed away from him. He ended up moving after 6th grade. Anyway, his e-mail said that he got my e-mail address because I had contacted his girlfriend. Turns out he was dating the girl I had taken to prom. He said they had been dating for three years! Prom had been four months ago! I did the math and felt really bad, but it kind of explained why she was weird (actually he was weird too so they probably deserved each other). So, I did what anyone would do, I e-mailed him back, told him about prom and the date afterwards. Needless to say, I think he dumped her after that.

So that was the Sheila Mant in my life. What about you? Are there any experiences you’ve had that remind you of “The Bass, The River, and Sheila Mant” or my experience? They don’t have to be dating experiences. Could be anything that relates to the story. Could even be about “open mouth, insert foot” moments like my horrible pick up line. I don’t want a repeat of your quickwrites. Be creative and write about something different. Good luck.

I hope everyone is as excited about the blog this year as I am. I started this two years ago as a fun activity that would encourage intelligent student discussion outside of class. It is a great way for students who aren’t as comfortable being vocal in class to have a way to express themselves in an anonymous way. It is also a great way for you to have discussions with students from a class other than your own. As with anything else, however, you will get what you put into it.

Even though this is the third year I’ve had the blog, I’m still learning new things and trying to tweak it to make it more enjoyable for you. I’ll admit, the first year was a lot of trial and error. Posts were mainly class-related or related to the “Thought of the Week”. It went very well, but as the year went along, I learned that some posts went over better than others. Last year, I tried to improve and make topics that were more interesting and fun to write about. It went well for the first semester, but not long after we came back from Christmas break I had a huge death in the family that I struggled with the rest of the semester and just didn’t have it in me to continue with the blog. Honestly, it took all I had to focus on in-class activities.

As we start fresh this year, we will have a variety of topics ranging from ones that are related to in-class assignments/ stories/ novels/ etc to ones that are about the thought of the week to ones that seemingly have nothing to do with class. I will be trying some new ideas and reposting some older successful posts (my apologies to former students who like to drop in on the blog and complain about seeing some of the same topics–you know who you are ). One thing I did learn from last year is that music posts were always successful at generating some good discussion. Songs can be “read” just as thoroughly as any text we read in class. So, in keeping with that idea, I present to you the first post for this year.

One new thing I’m going to try this year is a “Song of the Week” post. Here’s how it will work. Each week I will post a different song. I’ll try to include a variety of songs so that everyone will find something to enjoy. Maybe along the way, I can even introduce you to some new music that you were previously unaware of. In order to keep this fun, and in order to prevent having 70 responses that all sound the same, I’m going to let you choose what you want to write about the song each week. You could talk about what you think the song means, you could write a review of the song, you can relate the song to something personal (a memory, a personal story, etc), you can compare the song to a similar song you’ve heard, you can write about a story/movie/ etc. that the song reminds you of…the possibilities are endless. Basically, write whatever you want about the song. It will not offend me if you don’t like the songs I post (but your grade may suffer…jk). Each week I will post the lyrics and a recording of the song. I encourage you to actually listen to the song each week as opposed to just reading the lyrics. Just reading the lyrics doesn’t usually convey all the thoughts/feelings the artist wants to come across. Also, even though I have an endless supply of songs (as you all know from my “I Am” poem), if you have any suggestions for songs you would like to share or have people write about, bring me a copy and we can possibly make that happen. So, enough of my rambling…on to the song!

For the first song of the week, I have chosen my favorite song from one of my all-time favorite bands that comes from what is, arguably, one of the greatest albums ever made. The song is called “Lucky” . It is by the band Radiohead and comes from the album “OK Computer”. This is one of those songs that I could listen to over and over and never get tired of because it always leaves me with a feeling of hope. It is also one of those songs that I could never in good conscience skip past when it comes up on my Ipod shuffle (that could be a possible topic later on, so be thinking about your unskip-able songs). But, enough of my rambling. Click on the link below to listen and, hopefully, enjoy (give it a few seconds it starts out quietly so you may think its not working when it really is). Lyrics are included below. Remember, you may write about any aspect of the song you would like. I look forward to reading your responses.

tchrman

Radiohead–Lucky

“Lucky”

Radiohead

I’m on a roll, I’m on a roll

This time, I feel my luck could change

Kill me Sarah, kill me again with love

It’s gonna be a glorious day

Pull me out of the aircrash

Pull me out of the lake

I’m your superhero

We are standing on the edge

The Head of State has called for me by name

But I don’t have time for him

It’s gonna be a glorious day

I feel my luck could change

Pull me out of the aircrash

Pull me out of the lake

I’m your superhero

We are standing on the edge

Welcome to our class blog! I hope you guys are as excited about this activity as I am. It is meant to be a fun way for you to engage in some academic discussion (yes, academic discussion can be fun) outside of normal class time. It is a good way to interact with students who are not in the same class period with you as well.

For this first post, I just wanted to give you a few tips on using the blog because some of you may not be familiar with the concept.

First of all, make sure you always follow the guidelines you were given in class. If you have lost that sheet, there is a link to those guidelines in the right hand column.

On a blog, the most current topic is always at the top of the page (like this one). Make sure to always scroll down a few posts to make sure you haven’t missed one (I sometimes get crazy ideas and post more than one post at a time).

To post a comment or to read other students’ comments, click on the button that says “comments”. It can be found at the end of every post. Pretty easy, huh? When you come to the end of all students’ comments there should be an empty box for you to leave your comment. You will have to type in your user name, an email address (we’ll use mrhudson@yahoo.com until whoever actually has that address gets mad and makes us stop), and verify that you are a real person by typing in a word shown to you. Then you are ready to post your comment. When you have said what you want to say, just hit “submit comment”. It’s that simple! Your comment won’t be visible until I approve it, so don’t panic if you don’t see it at first. If it is not up in a few days, check with me. There are some rare occasions when posts don’t go through.

Another option for your posting pleasure is our “Creative Writing Workshop”. You can get to this section by clicking the link in the right hand column. A post here will count as one of your posts for the week. You can also respond to other students’ writing here and that will count as your response for the week. This idea actually came about because of student suggestions last year. It quickly became one of the most popular places to post. Feel free to post your own writing/comment on other students’ writing here. Just make sure everything is school appropriate.

Also, this year I have added some links at the bottom of the right hand column. These are just some links I thought might be fun/helpful for you throughout the year.

Make sure to check the blog regularly for new posts, including extra credit opportunities and brain teasers. (These types of posts will NOT count as your response for the week, but you can gain valuable points and such from responding to them).

I think that just about covers everything. If you have any questions, don’t hesitate to ask me in class or e-mail me about it. Also, e-mail me or talk to me with any suggestions you may have for ideas for posts. Student created posts seemed to be more popular than my own last year.

Happy blogging!!!!