• Tag Archives Beatles

  • “Some people know how to teach, and some know how to do.” Linda Pierce

    Posted on by The Thousand Yard Stare Comment

    One of the things that I’ve been meaning to do for a long time was write a little recognition for my high school English teacher – Mrs Garcia.

    In one of the last attempts to make good citizens out of us idiot high schoolers, she prepped the last senior semester by having us write a college-level paper in which we were to compare two things and correctly annotate and structure the paper as you would in a college level class. We were given the task of comparing something British against something American in different time frames. The task seemed daunting, but really it was only scary if you over-thought it.  This was possibly the most important class that I’ve ever had. And of course, didn’t realize it at the time.

    I can’t tell you the actual name of the type of paper that it’s called, but I can sleepwalk through writing papers now. In fact, I didn’t even realize what I was learning at the time. Napping was high on my agenda when she gave us time in class. (Too many late nights at the poolhall).  Writing content really was never my problem, but the organization of the content became key.

    Among the things I learned were that it didn’t really matter what your content was, or even your opinion, as long as you could back it up using other sources.

    My paper? Comparing the Beatles to AC/DC. In my strong headed stubbornness, I chose something that I would at least be interested in concentrating on. Halfway through, I got the feeling that it had been a very, very bad choice. But I was in too deep, so I had to continue.

    Much to my surprise, I got an A on the paper. No topic is too dumb (even for a high schooler) if your sources and organization are right.

    Unfortunately, my blogging has never really seen any benefit from anything I learned then, but I used the skills I learned throughout college and consistently received A’s for my papers. In all classes. Teachers seemed to enjoy reading papers that were well constructed.

    So anyway, much thanks to Mrs Garcia – this is one student who greatly benefited from the lesson she taught.


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  • “It sounds all very sort of technical, but in fact it was very much a kind of bootlace affair. I mean, in the Abbey Road in those days was a fairly primitive place by today’s standards.” George Martin

    Posted on by The Thousand Yard Stare Comment

    The intro to “Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds” came onto the radio on my way home.

    I never remember the song until the verse comes in.

    The intro makes chills come up my spine – for the sole reason that the first time I heard it I was in a music class in New Zealand. It was probably the first week of being in a new all-boys school, and I was in a music class taught by a hippy-dippy woman who wanted us to absorb the wonderment of the lyrics. She played it over and over and over again.

    I hadn’t been there long enough to pick up their accents, so she kept asking me questions which terrified me.

    Every time I hear that song it takes me back to the drafty classroom next to the terraces.

    This is a pretty nice picture. Good shot. Obviously you can see the terraces (which were lots of fun to get into fights on and then tumble down the sides of). However, you can’t see the tennis courts just below the music room, but you can see the creepy grounds-caretaker’s house on the left in white, then the creepy cemetery up at the top of the picture. The jogging class would typically end by running through the cemetery (which paradoxically we were strictly forbidden to enter) back onto school grounds.

    Good times.


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