Side Note

I kind of miss doing my themed blogs. I might have to start that up again.

Sew Me a Sail to Catch Me the Wind

Remember reading Shel Silverstein poetry in elementary school? I used to love reading Where the Sidewalk Ends, it was probably one of my favorite books to reread on a regular basis. I thought we had that book in my house somewhere, but I can't seem to find it. We do have Falling Up, however, which is also a great collection of poems.

Some of my favorite poems from Falling Up:

ALPHABALANCE


Balancing my ABCs
Takes from noon to half past three.
I don't have time to grab a T
Or even stop to take a P.

THE MONKEY


1 little monkey
was goin' 2 the store
When he saw a banana 3
He'd never climbed be4.
By 5 o'clock that evenin'
He was 6 with a stomach ache
'Cause 7 green bananas
Was what that monkey 8.

By 9 o'clock that evenin'
That monkey was quite ill,
So 10 we called the doctor
Who was 11 on the hill.
The doctor said, "You're almost dead.
Don't eat green bananas no more."
The sick little monkey groaned and said,
"But that's what I 1-2 the 3-4."

FURNITURE BASH


The hand of the clock
Pinched the foot of the bed,
So the foot of the bed
Kicked the seat of the chair,
So the seat of the chair
Sat on the head of the table,
So the head of the table
Bit the leg of the desk,
So the leg of the desk
Bumped the arm of the couch,
So the arm of the couch
Slapped the face of the clock.
And they pinched and they punched
And they banged and they knocked,
And they ripped and they flipped,
And they rolled and they rocked,
And the poor dresser drawer
Got a couple of socks.
There was sawdust and springs
When I turned on the light
After that horrible furniture fight.

And that's the truth, no lie--no joke.
That's how your furniture
All got broke.

Now, this last poem is from Where the Sidewalk Ends and is one of the first non-nursery rhyme poems I had ever memorized.

SARAH CYNTHIA SYLVIA STOUT WOULD NOT TAKE THE GARBAGE OUT


Sarah Cynthia Sylvia Stout
Would not take the garbage out!
She'd scour the pots and scrape the pans,
Candy the yams and spice the hams,
And though her daddy would scream and shout,
She simply would not take the garbage out.
And so it piled up to the ceilings:
Coffee grounds, potato peelings,
Brown bananas, rotten peas,
Chunks of sour cottage cheese.
It filled the can, it covered the floor,
It cracked the window and blocked the door
With bacon rinds and chicken bones,
Drippy ends of ice cream cones,
Prune pits, peach pits, orange peel,
Gloppy glumps of cold oatmeal,
Pizza crusts and withered greens,
Soggy beans and tangerines,
Crusts of black burned buttered toast,
Gristly bits of beefy roasts...
The garbage rolled on down the hall,
It raised the roof, it broke the wall...
Greasy napkins, cookie crumbs,
Globs of gooey bubble gum,
Cellophane from green baloney,
Rubbery blubbery macaroni,
Peanut butter, caked and dry,
Curdled milk and crusts of pie,
Moldy melons, dried-up mustard,
Eggshells mixed with lemon custard,
Cold French fries and rancid meat,
Yellow lumps of Cream of Wheat.
At last the garbage reach so high
That it finally touched the sky.
And all the neighbors moved away,
And none of her friends would come to play.
And finally Sarah Cynthia Stout said,
"OK, I'll take the garbage out!"
But then, of course, it was too late...
The garbage reached across the state,
From New York to the Golden Gate.
And there, in the garbage she did hate,
Poor Sarah met an awful fate,
That I cannot now relate
Because the hour is much too late.
But children, remember Sarah Stout
And always take the garbage out!


So, there's that. Hope all is well with you guys.

Title Quote: 'Needles and Pins' - Shel Silverstein

Just Lots of Good Will, and Maybe One Small Thrill

But there's nothin' dirty goin' on.


Hello and happy, happy Friday, friends. How're things treating you all? I don't have a [Non]Fiction Friday post for you guys, but I do have something else. Remember back in the day when I said I was going to do a video blog? Well... 





And: 





So, yeah. Hopefully those weren't too boring. I tried to keep them kind of short. There's another video I want to upload, but I have to finish editing it. I wanted to get these two up before the weekend since they should have been posted on Wednesday and Thursday. I was going to post them both yesterday, but they took about an hour or two (each) to upload to YouTube. It was super frustrating. 


I had a video for [Non]Fiction Friday, but it was late and I was too tired to edit it. So I probably won't post it. 


Well, kids, I hope your Friday is treating you with respect. Mine is going well. I'm getting ready to head over to my aunt's house for a bit, but maybe I'll come back so I can edit that video and post it. I think you guys will get a bit of a kick out of it.


Title Song: 'A Lil' Ole Bitty Country Place' - The Best Little Whorehouse In Texas

I'll Show You Mine, If You Show Me Yours

Remember, back in the day, when the Disney Channel was "Zoog" themed? How about when The Famous Jett Jackson, So Weird and Bug Juice were the staples of the Disney line up? What about when the channel featured music by people other than the stars of their most current shows? Yeah, those were the good days.

Remember B*Witched?

I definitely do. I used to LOVE their music, and their Irish accents. They only had two albums, and I think I really only paid attention to their first one, but I was obsessed with that one album.  C'est La Vie and Rollercoaster were my two favorite songs. I was super excited when they played part of the song in the movie Smart House.

Haha, I've forgotten how corny 90s videos were.

Next up? Oh, just a delightful girl group from England that goes by the name of (Spice Girls) Cleopatra!

The sisters from England were awesome. I still have some of their songs in my iTunes library (as well as some B*Witched). I used to jam the eff out to their songs. Along with Cleopatra's Theme (the video below), I also enjoyed: Life Ain't Easy, Don't Suffer in Silence, A Touch of Love and The Bird Song.  Apparently, they are still active as a group today. I had no clue until I took a trip down memory lane. That's a recent picture of them up there. I'm going to have to look up some of their songs after I post this, I'm interested in hearing what they sound like now.

I thought this was such a cool music video, watching it brings back so many good feelings. Oh, and for those of you who have recently heard me mention them, if you look at video at the 2:14 mark, you will see a prime example of "Dookie Braids". All of the girls in the video (basically) have them, but that girl's braids made me cringe and flashback to the 90s when I would fight to not have my hair done that way.

Well, that's it for this Throwback. I had a good time listening to all of this music. You guys aren't too much younger than me, but there's a strong probability that if you don't know of one of these groups, its probably Cleopatra.

I leave you guys with an X and an O.

Title Song: 'C'est La Vie' - B*Witched

I Know Your Deepest Secret Fear

I know everything.

Everything you do.

Everywhere you go.

Everyone you know.

I'm going to throw it back to 1996, to Nickelodeon's first feature film:

'Harriet the Spy'

This trip of nostalgia stems from the discovery that there will be a TV movie coming out next year sometime that is also called 'Harriet the Spy'.

Different directors:

Old: Bronwen Hughes

New: Ron Oliver

Different writers:

Old: Greg Taylor, Julie Talen, Douglas Petrie, Theresa Rebeck

New: Alexandra Clarke, Heather Conkie

Different production companies:

Old: Nickelodeon, Paramount, Rastar

New: Disney, 9 Story

Similar plots:

Old: You guys pretty much know how it went.

New: Young spy, Harriet Welsch, crosses paths with popular student, Marion Hawthorne, as the two girls vie to become official blogger of their high school class.

(Notice it's 'blogger' and not 'editor of the school paper'...way to update it for '00's, Disney)

So, I think it's same name, but not supposed to be a remake. However, the plots seem to parallel each other. But Harriet was in middle school in the old movie. Also, this one doesn't mention her spy notebook being found...so maybe there's none of that, "My friends hate me, I'm a terrible spy" business. Not that I didn't love it.

Well, knowing myself, I'll probably watch it just so I can see how it is. Since it's a (free) TV movie, I'll be able to see it when it comes out and not wait until I can find it online somewhere, haha.

Anyhoo, hope everything is great with you guys. Later days.

Title Song: 'The Spy'  - The Doors

T-N-T! We Blow It Up Like, 'BOOM!'

So, for Throwback Thursday I'm going to talk about high school.

Yeah, I know, high school is such a bittersweet time (or maybe just a bitter time for some), but every so often something crosses my mind and I just get all nostalgic. I was just looking at the group dedicated to my high school on Facebook and I went and looked up the school's website.

I miss a lot the friends I had in high school. I miss playing sports. I miss being on the step team. I miss a lot of my teachers. I miss the feeling of being on top of the world as a senior.

I went to:

Stadium High School

Home of the Tigers

Colors: Blue & Gold

Class of: 2005

Extracurriculars (Non-Sport):

-Navy JROTC

-Top Notch Tigers or TNT (Step Team)

-Stadium World (Newspaper)

-Student Store

-Drill Team

Sports:

-Basketball

-Track & Field (more field than track)

-Lacrosse

Fun & Random Facts:

-I tried out for the cheerleading team

-I was kicked out of class once for receiving a piece of cake for my birthday

-I was once threatened, by another black student, that he had friends in the KKK who would "punish" me for being a "Black girl who was too proud" ...he seriously had issues being black

-I accidentally sent a chain email to my basketball coach that was all about the benefits of sex; he sent a response that simply said, "You better not be doing this." I wasn't.

-I was almost suspended on the last day of school, within 15 minutes of the final bell ringing

Notable Teachers:

-Coach Clark (Basketball)

-Ms. Perkins (Freshman & Junior English)

-Mrs. Keeney (WA State History, Psych)

-Chief Harkness (JROTC)

-Mr. Kasner (French)

-Mrs. Dell (ASL)

-Mr. Dale  (Pre-Calculus)

-Mr. Buchholz (World Issues)

-Mr. Cartledge (Health)

-Mrs. Anderson (Dance)

-Mr. Chandler (Senior English)

-Ms. Gilson (Photography)

Favorite Subjects:

-English

-History

-Being a T.A.

Most Hated Subjects:

-Science

-Math, during the "Integrated Math" debacle

Favorite Hangouts:

-Courtyard

-Coach's classroom

-Gym

-JROTC Room

-Lunchroom

Favorite Year:

-Junior year, hands down. Senior year was great, but so many marvelous things happened during that 3rd year.

Fight Song:

Go, Stadium Tigers,

Fight the Blue-Gold way,

We've the vim, we're here to win

For this is Stadium's day,

Rah-Rah-Rah

Go, Stadium Tigers,

Fight for you and me.

We've got the spirit,

You're gonna hear it.

Lead our team to victory!

Go Tigers, go!

Fight Tigers, fight!

Goooooooo Tigers!

Anyway, thanks for indulging me on my trip down memory lane. Feel free to share anything from your high school days :)

Title Song: One of the call-outs to start a step routine

Take That and Rewind it Back

Throwback!!

This week I want you all to dig into your minds and try to remember Disney's One Saturday Morning. 1997 was a great time for Saturday morning cartoons. There were a few shows I didn't really care for, but they were part of the whole package. From what I remember, the lineup included:

.The New Adventures of Winne the Pooh
.The Bugs Bunny and Tweety Show
.Pepper Ann
.Recess
.Jungle Cubs (which was like Muppet Babies, only with Jungle Book characters)
.101 Dalmatians
.Doug

Isn't that an awesome lineup? I think so. Though, I didn't really pay much attention to Winnie the Pooh. I think there were a few more shows, but they escape me right now.

I think the most memorable part of it might be the theme song of One Saturday Morning. I looked it up on YouTube and it's been years since I've seen it, but I could sing along to it with complete recall of the lyrics.

Here it is:


Now, there are definitely other cartoons that showed on Saturday mornings that I loved, but this collection of cartoons is just so memorable.

Title Song: 'Yeah!' - Usher (Feat. Lil' Jon & Ludacris)

How You Gon' Win When You Ain't Right Within?

So I decided to pick a different theme for Thursdays. I don't think I've posted on a Thursday since I started doing themes, so it really doesn't matter that I've changed it.

I was watching music videos on YouTube last night (okay, early this morning) and I came across a couple that remind me of back in the day, haha.

That being said, here's Throwback Thursday (okay, so it's an unoriginal title).

Here's a song by Eamon:



Do you guys remember that song? It makes me laugh, he's so bitter. Then there was the girls' version of the song, 'Fuck You Right Back'. I wanted to post that video too, but each video I found blocked the option to embed it. So you can watch it here.

Anyhoo, I hope you guys are doing well.

Title Song: 'Doo Wop (That Thing) - Lauryn Hill