Sing along with the common people

I'm extremely envious of all the talented people who share their joy at RU conference talent shows with their pogo-sticking, hula-hooping, somersaulting, ballad crooning, interpretive dancing, fire-ball juggling, knife throwing, lion taming...! All my whining about having no demonstrable talent of my own seems to have spawned a demented desire in the other members of my family to come up with something presentable for me. Currently they're on a Conrad Birdie kick and are, this very second, taking my measurements for the gold lame jumpsuit they plan to whip up (refer to photo)! However, there's a lack of agreement as to which song and dance routine I am to perform from Bye Bye Birdie and how many background singers/ swooning sycophantic slags are required. While they struggle to work it all out, I'm secretly planning to pip them at the post and commence practicing a pointy-limbed dance and lip synch number as immortalized by the angular Jarvis Cocker in Pulp's "Common People". I may first have to shed some pounds.

Common People Video

From Success to Sarcasm

Recently I clued in that the boy Fergus, aged 3 and 2/3's, is now what people might call a "pre-schooler". As an "unschooler" this has little meaning - he'll always be a "pre-schooler". At his age, Fergus - according to the powers that be - needs to get "ready for success". Early Learning for the pre-kindergarten set is becoming a big thing here and somehow somebody concluded that over 9,000 kindergarten students in BC are not developmentally ready to start school! So these early learning centers are popping up all over the place to offer parents a place to help their children develop the means to succeed in school. Apparently, parents can expect to participate in story time and in play activities as well as serving their children a healthy snack!

I was going to go on about the definition of "success" and greater society's viewpoint that story time and play time are best served in institutions and that soon 1 year olds will be loading up their backpacks and heading off to school… but instead I just have this to say: Fergus, giddyup, times-a-wasting*...

Archival photo (oldie but goodie):

Eating "cheese", as his grannie thought, for breakfast (reality: white chocolate):

*Sarcasm... Which reminds me, here's a quote from Alexei Sayle in The Best comedy program of the 80's, The Young Ones:

"Are you being sar-carstic or something, my son? That's one of my least favorite things, that happens to be. Sar-carsm. I was walking a dog, and this bloke, he comes to me and says, "Nice day, innit?" But it wasn't. It wasn't a nice day. It was a little bit cloudy. Which makes him very sar-carstic. So acting as if nothing would happen, I took his head, right, put it in me mouth, right, acting dead casual-like, clamped me teeth, and BIT HIS HEAD OFF!! Cause I hate people being sar-carstic."

Video clip available here (not for the faint of heart). Mr. Alexei's poetic diatribe starts around the 4:20 mark. But don't miss the start - Madness play "Our House" in all their lip-synching glory.

Pssst... "Mr. Mayer" is a SPY

It's awesome to hear that the Life is Good unschooling conference video got some use. Now that i'm currently in St. John's surrounded by over 100 schooled 16 year olds and their adult chaperones, NOW and only NOW do I realize that it perhaps wasn't "normal" for me to take pictures and movie clips and edit the stuff together without EVER ONCE delineating between kid and adult. NEVER. Didn't cross my mind. Here there is a huge line drawn between the two - as if we all didn't know this already - but I just want to smack people in the head and leave the laptop open in a strategic spot with the Life is Good video playing for them to see. I'm currently surrounded by really great people, really bright and mature and committed 16 year olds - all of whom accept and encourage a massive line being drawn between the two groups. In fact, the term "boundaries" is the most over-used term I hear around here. "They gotta know their boundaries". Gotta "control" them. Gotta be controlled. Huh wha????

Okay - I've never used this term before, but I gotta say... "I love my TRIBE". And I miss them.

And I didn't even bring a camera to this thing!?!

The Headmaster Ritual

So, the other day some judge ruled against a high school student who sued for monetary damages after being disciplined and then mercilessly teased for using the phrase "That's so gay". Hmmmmmm.... but then the judge feels compelled to write, in her 20-page ruling: "All of us have probably felt at some time that we were unfairly punished by a callous teacher, or picked on and teased by boorish and uncaring bullies, unfortunately this is part of what teenagers endure in becoming adults." Well, I've met a few teenagers and their parents who severely question this authoritarian based viewpoint and all that is misguided and dangerous about such "rites of passage". Thankfully though, Mozzer endured it all and had these gems to contribute to the betterment of my world:

The Headmaster Ritual (The Smiths)
Belligerent ghouls
Run Manchester schools
Spineless swines
Cemented minds

Sir leads the troops
Jealous of youth
Same old suit since 1962

He does the military two-step
Down the nape of my neck

I wanna go home
I don't wanna stay
Give up education
As a bad mistake

Mid-week on the playing fields
Sir thwacks you on the knees
Knees you in the groin
Elbow in the face
Bruises bigger than dinner plates

I wanna go home
I don't wanna stay...

Barbarism Begins At Home (The Smiths)
Unruly boys
Who will not grow up
Must be taken in hand
Unruly girls
Who will not settle down
They must be taken in hand

A crack on the head
Is what you get for not asking
And a crack on the head
Is what you get for asking...

Pretty Vacant

Our kids don't go to school. Our kids don't have to ask to use the can. Our kids don't get told they can't leave the room and must pee in a corner. Fergus chooses, sometimes, to have "private time" in the corner... but he wears a diaper for this (and not one of those "i'm a crazy astronaut driving 2,000 miles without getting out of the car" ones). Here's the exaggerated example.

Diana at Life is Good '07

A glimpse at Diana signing "skyline pigeon". Powerful, Emotional, Beautiful.