raining at sunset

For all the Nickel Creek folks -

There's nothing I really need to say more about their live prowess. I'll just jot down, however, a few notes on *new* stuff I heard from last night's show at the Warfield in San Francisco:

*Jealous of the Moon introduced as a waltz, and it works! I never thought of it that way before... And Chris commenting on waltzing with strangers or just somebody beautiful next to you was hilarious!

*Andrew Bird (the opener)'s drummer coming out to perform the climax for Helena - Wow, had to be the most dramatic part of the show! First time seeing Nickel Creek with drums for me

*Why abstain from your caffeine? Chris points out that out of the many things in life you'd like to accomplish each day, you're most likely to go through your day not accomplishing them. But your morning caffeiene? Why not! It's something totally controllable and dammit, why refrain yourself from at least getting one thing done. This was the introduction to Stumptown, their ode to the coffee in Portland (i think?)

*World class whistler Andrew Bird coming out to whistle during Sara's performance of Anthony! How awesome is that.

*Their cover of Britney Spear's Toxic - Wow... Who knew you could make a Britney Spears song sound so good. And Chris's Britney impersonation was classic!

*The Fox led into a cover of The Band's "The Weight", wow, great sing-a-long

*Cover of Radiohead's Nice Dreams with Sara singing on lead

*Cover of Hop High, My LuLu Girl

*Not just Mark clogging, but Chris as well!!! WOW, that was just a sight to be seen!

*Some Bach performed solo by Chris and his mando

*The Christmas songs during the encore was just so fun. Imagine listening to Rudolph the Red Nose Reindeer, with audience participation! The band sings, with the audience chiming in with end-of-the-line lyrics such as "LIKE A LIGHT BULB!", "GLEE!" Priceless

*In the House of Tom Bombadil with a jam of Randy Newman's "Short People"!! SOOO appropriate and sooo fun. (Tom Bombadil from Lord of the Rings Hobbit fame)

So much more, check out Liz's blog for more!! The three friends I brought summed it up the best - They're just full of energy and LOVE TO PLAY! Yep. Exactly.

It's finally over. Over forty-five pages later within the last five days, I've finally written enough applications of critical consciousness within education on paper. No more tears, finally. I need a vacation.

Where to start? 3 concerts in four days. Nickel Creek, The Fray & Augustana Private Concert (thank you for the free tickets KFOG!), and Vienna Teng.

Then hopefully back to blogging again :)

Fantastic new restaurant in downtown San Jose: Tandoori Oven. Their wraps are heavenly. Their Indian beer is very tasty. Taj Mahal. Buy it. Drink it.

Currently Watching U2 - Vertigo 2005: Live From Chicago DVD By U2 see related

Part of a larger email I sent out to my cohort-- I'm really interested in reading the WSJ article on the *new* Asian/white divide and whether or not that article speaks of the model minority myth as a possible rationale for why white parents feel this urge to pull their students out of public schools. Imagine that! Parents pulling kids out BECAUSE it's too competitive!
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In other news, one more week until I can blog like I am used to, if there ever was such a thing. It's been the most stressful and life-consuming last few months I've ever experienced and it just got worse last week - Imagine this, our group created a wonderfully crafted presentation for our grad seminar (i introduced powerpoint with wireless technology-it was a beautiful thing) and not only were we shot down during remarks by our professor after the presentation because (though it was something we still hold being valid, wasn't exactly what was wanted-though that was never made clear), those remarks took about an hour with us literally standing in front and with all the students watching that were completely confused, they thought our presentation/project was authentic and the most applicable to our program. wow. like two hundred kicks to the stomach that didn't register until about thursday, two days after it happened. so for our paper portion of the project, we've had to re-construct the entire thing- frustration, frustration, frustration.

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Thought that this article would add some meaning towards what we read a few weeks ago about 'white flight' - I found it flipping through this week's Metro newspaper. The article referred to a larger article they published in September about 'white flight' within San Jose. It's an interesting read, especially since it relates what we learned specifically to schools and communities here. If anyone has or subscribes to the Wall Street Journal, I'd like to take a look at the article that was referred to below.

http://www.metroactive.com/papers/metro/09.14.05/segregation-0537.html (the article referred to in the blurb below)

This week's blurb:

'White Flight': The Aftershocks

In September, Metro identified "white flight" as a growing trend in Santa Clara County schools, calling into question whether desegregation has been as successful here as people like to think. Apparently, the Wall Street Journal took notice; this month they filed their own story on the issue, focusing on Cupertino, where Asians make up two-thirds of the population at Monta Vista and Lynbrook High Schools. The WSJ focused on the new Asian/white divide in the affluent suburb. Though the city is half-white, the proportion of Caucasian kids at Lynbrook and Monta Vista has fallen to 25 percent and 31 percent, respectively. And it's not because of test scores, which are among the highest in the nation. The WSJ article revealed that white parents feel that more Asian students make the atmosphere too competitive and narrowly driven by academics. Some kids admit that white students are stereotyped as the "underachievers"—this on campuses where a B average will put you at the bottom third of the class.