Back when I was in high school one of the cool things to do junior and senior year (read: after I got a car) was to hit local shows. I knew several guys in bands back then, and Friday night’s usually found us at the Lithuanian Country Club. What it really was was a small track of land off a windy road near a highway owned by some Lithuanian club (think Elk’s Club but scarier) of old guys. They never used it at night and would rent the basement and barn out for shows. So come the weekend we’d find ourselves in the smoky basement or out in the chilly barn (where there was more room for more talented acts.. & bigger audiences).

After two years of this and bands coming and going, I went off to Penn State and began following bands like Velveeta and Jealous Sun (my first website I ever developed was for this band, now way defunct. Look for Jeff VanFossen, the lead singer, online). More smoky bars (no more basements for me!) and good, raw music. Then I grew up. I moved to Arizona and Dan and I hit the local scene. At first, it was supposedly all about Scottsdale (sorry! Don’t sue us. We weren’t locals then.) We saw Rock Lobster, and they were cool. Then we saw Roger Clyne and the Peacemakers, and I was really confused because wasn’t that a Refreshments song they were playing, and then I finally got to the point where it didn’t matter; Roger rocks, and that’s it.

But then it was less and less about the shows and more about the music. We got old. Fridays and Saturdays were about sleeping after 4am mornings all week, and we had kids. Kids who didn’t understand that 4am on Saturday or Sunday was still 4am!

Now, it’s 2010. I am going to be 36 this year, and a few months ago I had the opportunity to see Roger Clyne & the Peacemakers of the first time in a few years. I almost blew it off, but something dragged me out there. I took my camera and shot the whole show, and I loved it. Something about being up there, the music, the people, everything.

When one of my students asked me to come out to his show, I actually didn’t give a lame ass answer of NO. I considered it. This was a cool guy who I knew has so much potential, so I checked when, I checked my calendar, I checked who could go with me, and I paid for the tickets. I asked if I could bring my camera, and I eagerly agreed to shoot the show. The band is young and needs promo pics and a demo, so I was willing to help out (didn’t even consider asking for money, as I know they don’t have any… hell, maybe they’ll make it big and pay me in 10 years).

Friend backed out but I was still on for the show. It was a strip mall store front. Looked like the place, called The Clubhouse, in Tempe bought a few stores and broke down the walls between them and then painted the front glass black. Not too much to look at, but for $10 and five bands, I was there to support. In line, I felt like a sore thumb. I could tell who was a parent pretending to not know the dark dressed emo/skater/thrasher/whathaveyou kid nearby. The kids behind me were pulling half smoked cigarettes out of an ashtray and burning the butt ends to get rid of germs before smoking them. (Was I ever that lame in highschool?)

I got in as the band took the stage. Sick But Beautiful is the name Alex picked for the band, and he told me he played guitar and back up singer. It was more like screamer, but it wasn’t that Screamo crap I hear about. This was more like way edgier Linkin Park with Shinoda and Bennington upfront. I was surprised. Not because I didn’t have faith in Alex, but because I was actually enjoying the music. This was one of their first gigs and they went on first of the night, so they only had about four songs. I shot straight through their set through some terrible lighting (had to punch down the iso to 3200 just to get some shots), and I even leaned against the stage so the moshers who kept running into my back wouldn’t jar my shots.

After the show, I hung around and pretended to care about the next band. They were in the same vein but I didn’t have anything invested in them, so I snuck out. Then I remembered who I was. I called the wife from the car to see if the kid was asleep, and while I did that, club security knocked on my window to make sure I wasn’t some kid doing drugs between sets in the parking lot. Ah, how fun it was to drive back to adulthood.

We’re sitting around at dinner, eating our pasta, and Claire blurts out, “My friend, Hannah’s name is a palindrome!” Then Mama asked her if she knew what a palindrome even is, and she said matter-of-factly, “Yes, since Hannah has two Hs, two As, and two Ns in her name.” Yes, Claire, of course. Of course.

So as we all know, Oprah is on Twitter. Jen Anniston dumped John Mayer because he tweets too much. Ashton and Demi live their relationship there now. I am not getting into the cultural theory behind this shift in this Web 2.0 tool, but i am more interested in the negative perspective of Twitter now that it’s hit “mainstream”. It was once for geeks like us, and now it’s everywhere. There’s a proliferation of Twitter in Hollywood/celebland and also in the younger gen. I don’t know who all is on here but I teach high school full time and knew my audience here (i.e. Twitter) was NOT my underage public school students but now it has become that. And no, I do not publicize me on Twitter at school. So I wanted to see other people’s perspectives on this. Today I posted something about Twitter and a former student replied that Twitter is a problem solution made for a problem that never even existed … (yeah, I don’t know either) but I am getting these ignorant people who only know about @mrskutcher or @oprah because it’s all over the news and then comes to judge me as if I didn’t love the band before their hit record, if you get my drift. Any thoughts?

Final grades are due this week. Everything is coming together very quickly, and I’ve been sitting here at Paradise Bakery since they unlocked the door this morning. I’ve always recommended this place, but I am about to rethink that. Read below and please repost. (*Yes, I know other people do, too.)

Dear Paradise Bakery,
I am an online instructor who sits for hours in Paradise Bakeries around Chandler and Tempe, AZ working, grading, web developing. While I am here, I patronize you. I buy lunches, breakfasts, drinks and cookies from you all of the time. I appreciate your very fast wireless internet connections, and I recommend you to the multitudes of other instructors nationally and all of my students (about 320 students a year). This is advertising you can never buy.

I will respectfully await your reply email to these concerns,
Thank you,
Devon Adams

For some reason I seem to think I’m home alone when Devon is not here, even when accompanied by Claire. Something about adult company I presume. Or maybe that I’m the lone responder to Claire’s one million questions, attitude driven comments, and physical tantrums.

Anyway, although I suffered through finals and regular coursework through last weekend, there were additional assignments and postings due this week. I also had to complete the student surveys and other matters. So, after picking Claire up at school, shopping, having dinner, and going through the bedtime ritual (which ended around 10:00 pm), I started my last assignment. This concluded a short time ago and I turned to watch a rustling Claire on the bed behind me. (Yes, the guest bed; no, she is not always the perfect angel sound asleep in her own room).

As I glanced at my beautiful child, gracefully dancing across the sheets, calmly dreaming of puppies and cupcakes, I took the opportunity to appreciate our similarities and felt proud of the good contained within her wee frame.

Then she farted.

Damn daddy’s girl.

It’s been an odd several days. Donna’s been holed up in her office writing two lengthy papers for each of her classes. Saturday morning I read one of them, and it wasn’t bad but much of it was from other things shes’s done (although anyone who’s every done grad work knows we always recycle work!). I did not read the other paper, since it was finished late Sunday. Tonight I listened/viewed the powerpoint that went with paper #2. The presentation had to include audio, and she did it all by herself with a mic from work.

Even though there are days when we’re so frustrated with all of this, I am so proud of her tonight. She did a helluva job on this work! Now I am glad I get my wife back for two weeks. Perhaps we can clean off the DVR a little.

Ok ok I’ve posted about this before, and here I am again. There’s been a new wave of garbage here. Several of my students showed up recently to my 6:30AM zero hour class and they were tired. Very tired. Two of the girls then bounced into my room with these white and pink ball caps. They were giddy and hurried up to me to show me their new hats.

“Mr Adams, do you like our new hats we got last night?”
“No.”

The girls looked shocked, and asked why. Immediately, I went into a whole class diatribe since obviously half the class had been out the night before catching the midnight showing of High School Musical 3. They were all so excited about this film, and I just couldn’t believe this. I asked them what they think about girls like Vanessa Hudgens (who stars in these movies as an innocent high school girl) who has naked pictures of herself posted on the Internet. Their response was pretty much “So what?”.

So what? I can’t believe our teens today are so desensitized to the objectification of women that this is ok with them. Would these kids want their own naked photos posted? Would they even consider posing? Probably not. When I put it this way, there’s pose. But seriously. These are Disney movies! The Mouse House is suppose to put out these innocent, family products (and I know they don’t!), and then we have people like Hudgens (and Jamie Lynn Spears).

These students just shrugged and several have seen it 2, 3, and 4 times since! I just don’t get it. If you do, come on, please comment below. Explain this to me.

This is the world in which my three year old daughter will grow up, and it’s freaking me out.

Forgive the cross posting, but I am excited about the publication of my first real single author publication. Click here to read the post.

My mother was an artist when she was younger. For years I had a sculpture she made in high school, I remember paintings she use to do, and in the ’70s she use to airbrush Harley gas tanks (yes, for motorcycles. yes, my mother). Her artistry rubbed off on me, albeit my medium of choice is oils. I love the way I can mix the colors on the canvas and create whatever’s in mind. I am unsurprised that Claire’s got the same flair. Don’t get me wrong her Mama’s got some, too, but Claire’s beginning young. Yeah, I know, all kids play with crayons and such, but there’s something a bit different with how Claire does her art. Something more familiar like watching yourself from outside your body far far ago.

Last week we were in my classroom, and Claire drew across my entire board as high as she could reach. She then turned to me and asked how to spell her friend Eli’s name. I told her, and she proceeded to write "Claire" and then "Eli". I even love the little stick man in between the two. This amazes me. She’s three, folks. I don’t remember doing quite this well in ‘77.

We had Claire at SwimKidsUSA almost every day or every other day for the last week or so. She was struggling with her swim class, and we got her a new teacher. I don’t think it was her current teacher at all, but she just readily seemed to click with this other instructor. While we were there watching Claire run from swim to gym to the playgrounds, my mother-in-law mentioned that Claire never slows down. Never.

I just looked at her, thinking. Suddenly I began to agree. Yes, I understood that. Just that day I was asked to teach a course, and I wholeheartedly agreed. Donna was less than happy, and I was surprised. It was more money for our family, and I didn’t think it was much more work. I began to try to put myself in Claire’s perspective. My brain is always going. I’ve got list after list of things I want to do, projects I am working on, articles I plan to write, courses I plan to develop. I have 35 books on a shelf I plan to read sooner than later. I have projects all over this place, and that’s even before I get to my home improvement ideas. It’s as if I cannot turn my mind off. I can’t say no, and I can’t slow down. I just keep going.

I wonder if Claire’s the same as me. This whole concept struck something from my mind from year’s ago. When I studied gifted education, I studied people who were just like this (and no I’m not some parent shouting from the roof tops that my kid’s gifted!) but I see signs I see in myself. My mother-in-law sees signs in Claire that she saw in Danny, my brother-in-law, when he was young. I think about people like Danny and others. Gifted kids who didn’t get the support they needed or the resources they unknowingly desired, and how do we serve them? How do we help them? How do we keep Claire loving everything without destroying that creativity, that drive that ambition? I still can’t answer for me, so what do I do for her?