Under the harvest moon,
When the soft silver
Drips shimmering
Over garden ,
Death, the gray mocker,
Comes and whispers to you
As a friend
Who remembers.

Under the summer roses
When the flagrant crimson
Lurks in the dusk
Of the red ,
Love, with little hands,
Comes and touches you
With a thousand memories,
And asks you
Beautiful, unanswerable questions.

-Carl Sandburg

I don’t have pictures or video of what transpired at Sandburg today, but I wish I did…

.

Es hermosa la monotonía de la lluvia,
y el súbito recrudecerse y lento escampar
de la lluvia larga y multitudinaria.

Es hermoso el sol en los montes,
o un atardecer capturado y arrojado al mar,
con sus estandartes de oro y fuego.

Es hermoso un rostro que conozco…
con el oro y el fuego del cielo y el mar
y la paz de la lluvia larga y cálida.

.
Carl Sandburg
Monotonía
.

“Chicago,” by Carl Sandburg

    Hog Butcher for the World,
    Tool maker, Stacker of Wheat,
    Player with Railroads and the Nation’s Freight Handler;
    Stormy, husky, brawling,
    City of the Big Shoulders:

They tell me you are wicked and I believe them, for I have seen your
  painted women under the gas lamps luring the farm boys.
And they tell me you are crooked and I answer: yes, it is true I have seen
  the gunman kill and go free to kill again.
And they tell me you are brutal and my reply is: On the faces of women
  and children I have seen the marks of wanton hunger.
And having answered so I turn once more to those who sneer at this my
  city, and I give them back the sneer and say to them:
Come and show me another city with lifted head singing so proud to be
  alive and coarse and strong and cunning.
Flinging magnetic curses amid the toil of piling job on job, here is a tall
  bold slugger set vivid against the little soft cities;
Fierce as a dog with tongue lapping for action, cunning as a savage pitted
  against the wilderness,
    Bareheaded,
    Shoveling,
    Wrecking,
    Planning,
    Building, breaking, rebuilding,
Under the smoke, dust all over his mouth, laughing with white teeth,
Under the terrible burden of destiny laughing as a young man laughs,
Laughing even as an ignorant fighter laughs who has never lost a battle,
Bragging and laughing that under his wrist is the pulse, and under his
  ribs the heart of the people,
    Laughing!
Laughing the stormy, husky, brawling laughter of Youth, half-naked,
  sweating, proud to be Hog Butcher, Tool Maker, Stacker of Wheat,
  Player with Railroads and Freight Handler to the Nation.

T.C.

[photo]

A few times a week we’ll be posting three articles we suggest you read on the Illinois distance running community.  The articles will cover a wide range, from high school and college competition, to training, to the Chicago Marathon, and much more.  If you have any articles you feel would be good reads for the Chicagoland running community please email them to us at sbush1002@gmail.com.  Thanks!

Redbirds Set High Goals for ‘09(Daily Vidette) – A great pre-season profile on the Illinois State women’s cross country team and their expectations for the upcoming season.

Huskies Looking to Rebound (Pioneer Local) – The young Oak Park-River Forest team is looking to have a big 2009 cross country season.  This well written profile gives a good look into the team’s dynamics.

Sandburg Optimistic that Verzbicas Will Run(Southtown Star) – As we reported yesterday, sophomore standout Lukas Verzbicas is still awaiting approval to compete this fall for Sandburg, but all parties involved have good reason to believe he’ll be allowed to compete.

Wenn ich zur Arbeit fahre,
wenn ich in die Stadt gehe,
wenn ich einkaufen bin,
wenn ich im Park liege,
wenn ich ins Schwimmbad gehe,
wenn ich Musik höre,
wenn ich dem Mond zuschaue,
dann baue ich mir eine Luftsandburg
und hoffe, dass sie eines Tages genauso
fliegen,
wie auf festem Boden
stehen
wird.

All the questions pertaining to Sandburg sophomore Lukas Verzbicas (pictured left in yellow singlet) running this season or not were finally answered today in the Chicago Tribune.  While the IHSA still has to approve the waiver submitted to allow Verzbicas to compete this season, the pre-season favorite told the Tribune that he should be able to run.

“I have worked out all the problems and I will be running for Sandburg,” Verzbicas told Tribune reporter Alan Sutton.

Initially qualifying for the World Triathlon Championship this fall, many questioned whether or not Verzbicas would compete for Sandburg H.S. this fall.  However, Verzbicas has decided to compete in the World Duathlon Championships, which will take place on September 26 in North Carolina.

Should he be cleared by the IHSA, the Tribune wrote that Sandburg coach John O’Malley expects Verzbicas to be ready to compete by the Lyons Invitational on September 5.  Verzbicas being allowed to compete this season would certainly change the complexion up front on the boys side all season long.

There’s a vague ache from the surgery yesterday, but I don’t quite feel like taking the pills they prescribed me.  Oxycodone may be a prescription medication, but giving me 20 of them for 3 non-impacted wisdom teeth?  I took one yesterday, but I’ve always been wary of taking any medication unless I really need it.  I would rather have my gums ache a little bit than put something that powerful in my body.  I just find that I’m generally happier when I keep the stuff I put in my body natural, no caffeine, drugs, or really greasy food.

I’m working on setting to music a poem by Carl Sandburg, a poem that’s in the public domain…

Four Preludes on the Playthings of the Wind
Carl Sandburg

I

The woman named Tomorrow
sits with a hairpin in her teeth
and takes her time
and does her hair the way she wants it
and fastens the last braid and coil
and puts the hairpin where it belongs
and turns and drawls: Well, what of it?
My Grandmother, yesterday, is gone.
What of it? Let the dead be dead.

II

The doors were cedar
and the panels strips of gold
and the girls were golden girls
and the panels read and the girls chanted:
We are the greatest city,
the greatest nation:
nothing like us ever was.

The doors are twisted on broken hinges.
Sheets of rain swish through on the wind
where the golden girls ran and the panels read:
We are the greatest city,
the greatest nation:
nothing like us ever was.

III

It has happened before.
Strong men put a city up and got
a nation together,
And paid singers to sing and women
to warble: We are the greatest city,
the greatest nation,
nothing like us ever was.

And while the singers sang
and the strong men listened
and paid the singers well
and felt good about it all,
there were rats and lizards who listened,
… and the only listeners left now
… are … the rats … and the lizards.

And there are black crows
crying, “Caw, caw,”
bringing mud and sticks
building a nest
over the words carved
on the doors where the panels were cedar
and the strips on the panels were gold
and the golden girls came singing:
We are the greatest city,
the greatest nation:
nothing like us ever was.

The only singers now are the crows crying, “Caw, caw,”
And the sheets of rain whine in the wind and doorways.
And the only listeners now are … the rats … and the lizards.

IV

The feet of the rats
scribble on the door sills;
the hieroglyphs of the rat footprints
chatter the pedigree of the rats
and babble of the blood
and gabble of the breed
of the grandfathers and great-grandfathers
of the rats.

And the wind shifts
and the dust on the door sill shifts
and even the writing of the rat footprints
tells us nothing, nothing at all
about the greatest city, the greatest nation
where the strong men listened
and the women warbled: nothing like us ever was.

Incredible poem, I think.  The shifting points of view between this (less than) ideal society and the natural animals that are left behind to listen.  All of the animals being rather unsavory to “civilized” human beings, one would think.  Rats, crows, lizards; no songbirds here.  Is it an indictment of the current human path, or a foreshadowing of what the poet thinks is to come?  I think the intrinsic part of the poem here is the one repeated most often, “We are the greatest city, the greatest nation: nothing like us ever was.”  The first time we hear it, it seems hopeful, almost as if we could believe it.  But, as time goes on, it becomes such an ironic statement, that by the time we hear it at the very end, it almost shouts out “Things were before you, and will be after you.”

And, as a composer, quite a challenge. Setting a poem with so much repeated text, but each time in a different context, presents a unique set of issues.  It’s a bit like a jigsaw puzzle, in that you create a musical idea for each line of text, much in the same way that leitmotifs are used to convey specific musical ideas within an extended work, like an opera.  Using the same (or similar) bits of music in the vocal part for repeated lines of text gives the work a musical continuity that doesn’t exactly follow through with the rapidly shifting tone of the poem, and also makes for great fun with transformations of the musical motives; that the way the girls singing “we are the greatest nation…” will be different from the singers/women singing/warbling it, will be different from it being read on the panels of hingeless doors, will be different than the rats’ lack of memory.  So many opportunities, so many possibilities…  Should be fun.

Oh, and a bit of eye candy before I go.

Sorrento

Der Text des folgenden Liedes beschreibt das Strandleben auf Langeoog in höchsten Tönen. Der am häufigsten darin vorkommende Wortbestandteil ist “lieb”: lieblich um dich her, liebend über deinen Strand, lieblich rauschen Silbermöven (ob Silbermöven wirklich lieblich rauschen können?), lieber Mädchen Lachen, liebes Langeoog.

Ich habe auf die Schnelle keine Datierung des Liedtextes gefunden, aber der kitschige, neobarocke Ton inklusive Bezug auf die nordgermanische Göttin Fryja lässt eine Einordnung in die Zeit des Wilhelminismus vermuten. Der nachstehende Text sollte nach der Melodie des Liedes “Nach der Heimat möcht’ ich wieder” gesungen werden, das Karl Kromer ca. 1885 verfasst hat. (Dokumentiert ist das Ursprungslied in den Bänden Des Rennsteigwanderers Liederbuch (1907), Der freie Turner (1913), Berg frei (1919), Weltkriegs-Liedersammlung (1926) und dem Schlesier-Liederbuch (1936) [Quellen].) Die Zeitraum der Entstehung des Langeoog-Liedes lässt sich dadurch noch genauer eingrenzen: Es wird zwischen 1908 und 1914 entstanden sein, als a) die Melodie bereits verbreitet und geläufig war, b) der Bädertourismus auf Langeoog seine erste Blüte erlebte (mit Bau von Wasserturm und Kurmittelhaus), c) der erste Weltkrieg den Bädertourisums nicht behinderte und d) der die Epoche prägende Kaiser Wilhelm noch regierte.

Langeoog, du grünes Eiland

Langeoog, du grünes Eiland,
schönste Perl’ im deutschen Meer,
keines ist am Nordseestrande,
ei, so lieblich um dich her.
Heller Strand und grüne Wogen,
Weiße Wolken drüber hin,
|: Langeoog, du Jugendbringer,
du bezauberst Herz und Sinn:|

Goldene Pfeile schießt die Sonne
liebend über deinen Strand,
lieblich rauschen Silbermöven
um der Nordsee Zauberland.
Wimpeln flattern, Fahnen wehen,
frischer Wind jagt übers Meer,
|: Langeoog, in Sommerschönheit
gleicht dir keine Insel mehr:|

Burgenbauen, Kinderjauchzen,
lieber Mädchen Lachen schallt,
und das Schrei’n der Silbermöven
Tausendfälltig wiederhallt.
Freyjas Hände liegen segnend
über Sang und Strand und Wog,
|: Brunnen bleibst du ewiger Jugend,
Du mein liebes Langeoog:|

Der Originaltext:

Nach der Heimat möcht’ ich wieder

Nach der Heimat möcht’ ich wieder, nach dem teuern Vaterort,
wo man singt die frohen Lieder, wo man spricht ein trautes Wort.
Teure Heimat, sei gegrüßt, in der Ferne sei gegrüßt,
sei gegrüßt in weiter Ferne, teure Heimat, sei gegrüßt.

Deine Täler, deine Höhen, deiner heil’gen Wälder Grün,
o die möcht’ ich wieder sehen, dorthin, dorthin möcht’ ich zieh’n.
Teure Heimat, sei gegrüßt, in der Ferne sei gegrüßt,
sei gegrüßt in weiter Ferne, teure Heimat, sei gegrüßt.

Doch mein Schicksal will es nimmer, durch die Welt ich wandern muß.
Trautes Heim, dein denk’ ich immer, trautes Heim, dir gilt mein Gruß.
Teure Heimat, sei gegrüßt, in der Ferne sei gegrüßt,
sei gegrüßt in weiter Ferne, teure Heimat, sei gegrüßt.

This first year returning to my studies, I have found myself more reflective about my own goals, passions, and story than I originally thought I would be. An important focus for me has been centered on the concepts of meaning and truth/honesty. Why am I teaching? And why do I feel the need to continue studying education myself? A lot of the answers that have emerged have to do with the question: what makes a life meaningful and good? While I am beginning to understand that the answers to these questions are actually the journey of asking and pursuing them, I am reaffirmed in the importance of our stories in helping guide that path. When I began, I knew I wanted to see what kind of sources for learning might lie in narratives within visual art. Now I am finding evidence of these meanings and knowledge that exist in experiences captured and explored in story forms of all kinds.

The first text I approached was Sandburg’s The People, Yes (1936). I am constantly inspired by the narrative within art – visual and literary. Like Terkel, Sandburg’s focus on working class people as well as Chicago has always connected with me. Within my artwork and my visual arts curriculum, I strive to somehow connect our stories to questions and ideas that guide people’s lives. Sandburg approaches this idea by the way has us reflect on the knowledge that exists in the lived experience of the characters he creates in his vignettes. Sandburg mentions the “reaching out” that happens as we go through the actions of our lives. He calls this reaching out alive. That livelihood is what I want to pursue and question in my work. When I turn this idea towards work, I wonder how this reaching is addressed in urban schools and how it then translates into our expectations of people outside of the school community.

Madeleine Grumet’s article The Politics of Personal Knowledge (1987) has taken my attention a number of times already, as I keep returning, reviewing the ideas and inspirations I find there. Her ideas regarding the connections between narrative and knowledge follow with the goal of better understanding our and others’ experiences. As she discusses the otherness/alienation that occurs within storytelling – whether the story originates with us or another, she poses that the experience then becomes more open to understanding and reflection. When Grumet discusses her work with teachers and theatre, I find connections possible to approach visual arts in similar ways – exploring visual arts “as a way of knowing, a way of investigating and performing our understanding of texts.” I would like to pursue more ways to approach my own studies and students in this way, most intrigued with the fact that this allows multiple narratives to surface – broadening and deepening our understanding based upon the interpretations we and others bring to it. This Grumet article holds more paths for me to follow, namely the ideas of combinatory possibilities, the space that exists between narratives, and her process of scoring.

As I continue, I am feeling more confident in my questioning. I am finding that I am right not wanting to answer things outright and that I should be regretful when I take such a stance on ideas I do not completely understand. While I am continually humbled, I look forward to enjoying the path of the questioning, and in that act, I believe my truth will exist.

New York, New York - Successful television and movie producer Lorne Michaels is notorious for giving actors “a shot” at acting on the iconic SNL. However as the cast has changed through the years and with it the show’s demographic, Michaels often reaches out and hand selects one token black character to play one-dimensional characters. This Saturday had Keenen Thompson on a hip hop show dancing on books, and doing a math dance, it did not however have him acting.

At the time of his interview, Keenen Thompson confused Producer Michaels by referring himself as brother Keenen where Michaels allegedly thought Keenen was referring to the eldest of the successful and versatile family that brought Living Color, J-Lo, and a boatload of movies. The show has been losing it’s relevance for sometime and relying on a once-a-year video from Adam Sandler’s replacement Adam Sandburg.

Ein weiterer Post der ballufeist himself noch eine Etage tiefer in die Hölle befördert…