The Story of Therapy Dog Tails 554
Where Everyone Gets a Dose of Puppy Love
BACKGROUND 240: JLHS Part One 28
Sat., Oct. 30, 2004
Well, four bands in two days. Now there’s something, friend, that even I could not have predicted. But before going into that and other things, just let me express the joy I’m feeling right now for this weekend, for this weekend, besides being the one following an eclipse of the moon about two nights ago, is the one in which we get an extra hour of sleep, an extra hour that I’m in desperate need of after four bands in two nights, if you see my round-about reasoning. But that extra hour also means an extra moment before going back to JLHS and I don’t know exactly what that means but it means something.
I don’t know if I mentioned it this week or not - it seems to me that I didn’t have a moment this week to myself and so I probably didn’t have a chance to get anything down here since last weekend. But I don’t know because I seem to remember talking about how I felt last weekend. I felt terrible about the end of the last weekend. I went to bed dreading having to get up and go to the Bronx and I felt the same way on Monday morning when it actually came to pass. I had a horrible day, one of the worst and all of them are fairly bad, but I knew that if I got through, things would be a little better after that and in fact, I felt a lot better on Tuesday and Wednesday. I remember Bruce Dunn admitting one time how his spirits always sink on Sunday afternoon and evening when the time approaches to get back to the ghetto and that’s how I usually feel. Last week it was just worse than ever.
I’m not feeling comfortable at all at this new JLHS. It feels like some sort of alien environment. We . . . .
Sun., Oct. 31, 2004
I didn’t get too far yesterday, did I, good buddy? Luz went in to Manhattan for several things. One, she wanted to buy some botanica items. That was her main goal because she had found a reader this week whom she’d visited and had been greatly impressed by. This was someone up around 164th St. or so. The reading had cost only $30 but the things recommended were going to take some money and Luz insisted that the Jersey people didn’t have many of the items. They don’t have too many live herbs out here and she needed some of that. Then she was going to go to the spa, maybe to the office to do some cleaning if everyone else was cleared out of there, then to meet someone for something last night at six somewhere. Geoff had gone to an afternoon rehearsal of the Greek drama that he’s working on at Kean and so I was left all alone here and spent most of the day listening to the Threads. I was trying to get the songs on the computer to come up in chronological order when listed by song title but for some reason some of them are out of order. I couldn’t figure out why that was but I spent virtually the entire day listening to various playbacks of various rehearsals. I’ve got quite a bit of stuff on the computer downstairs and much of it I’ve never really listened to. Geoff had just got a new pair of headphones and these are ideal for this stuff because it’s hard to hear the studio chatter unless you’ve got the thing turned way up. I did listen at a fairly loud volume and it seems to me that the studio LP sounds better the louder you crank it up. I don’t know why that is exactly but I think it sounds great loud. In fact, I just cranked it up here while some homework lessons were printing and it sounds better even on these smaller speakers. I hope someone out there does that. I hope someone out there just listens to the thing and plays it on some college station because it will generate fans and admirers. It has to. It’s good.
Today has been more of the same. Geoff went to rehearsal. They’re rehearsing on Wed., Thurs., Sat., and Sun. Yesterday it took up almost the entire afternoon. When he got home, we started to watch Network, which I’d rented last weekend but didn’t get too far before he went out to hang in the garage but we saw enough to remind me of how good it is. That was a good movie. Luz today is back at the office doing the ‘cleansing’ that she couldn’t get done yesterday. She had a good week and believes that the advice she got from this woman is already paying off. I hope it is. I hope something big happens soon. I’ve been sitting up here getting the usual school work done. I cranked out the homework and only needed three this week because of election day. It’s in effect a four day week for me this week. We’ve got no kids on Tuesday, only ‘professional development’. That is not really work. I also cranked out weekly lesson plans for the 9th and 10th grade classes because Tom Hodgkins got nailed for not having one last week by Hoxha. When Hodgkins couldn’t produce a written lesson plan, Hoxha said that he would be putting a letter into the file.
Clarke tried to get me on Friday, of all days. She has said that she wants to help me and said she would give me a second chance on that first evaluation. Of course, she could have just passed me on it. I didn’t get a lesson plan to her in time to do the thing this week so that’s hanging over my head but at least it only has to happen once a semester now that I’ve got tenure (which I told her). But we had parent teacher meetings on Thursday evening (5:30 - 8) and Friday (1 -3) and it was no different from TRHS. I saw a total of 12 (out of about 75 kids that I’m currently dealing with). Friday was half a day and the kids were filtering in for second period one at a time. They told me that it was backed up at the front door and that was when Clarke walked in. I was handing back quizzes to those who had showed up and talking to them and she said they should be working. I said that most of then had just walked in but I had the agenda on the board and she asked for the lesson plan. I initially indicated the agenda but then showed her the weekly plan that I now carry. When she saw that, she left.
Part of what I was trying to get at up there, this alien environment that I feel like I’m in up there, has to do with this. Not only don’t I know anyone, but I don’t really feel as though anyone up there has any interest in me or what I’m doing. Clarke has said that she does but I don’t believe it. I think she has some A.P. mentality that says she has to go around busting people first and then thinking about the teaching second. I mean, she ought to be able to see that I’m someone who goes in there every day, enjoys the teaching and the kids can relate to that. She says that she does but she doesn’t seem to value that. That’s really the only thing that counts but in a school like that, administrators have to cover their asses because the attendance is not going to be good and the grades are going to be bad and so they have to be able to say that it’s not their fault. So it’s a hostile place to be but I can deal with that. I think I can deal with that.
So I was stuck up there on Thursday until eight, which sounded about right to Greg when I told him that. He said that we could meet at Arlene’s Grocery at nine and so I agreed to that. I had taken care of myself this week pretty well. I’m eating only my apple during the day and that is what I did when I first started teaching so I think I’m getting slowly into improved physical condition. I did pick up a beer on my Wood Ave. walk home on Tuesday, now that I think of it. Geoff was at a rehearsal so I had to walk and I knew that I had a beer at home so I picked one up at the place near Elm St. That night I made a CD of Chicago blues songs about longing to go back home in the south. We’re going to be teaching A Raisin in the Sun and so I told the other two 10th grade teachers that I’d provide a video on Chicago (Chicago Blues) and some blues songs. I don’t think that Dawn Johannas thought too much of either of those ideas but Mykel Cone did. She seemed to use them. (I started the video on Thursday and then used the songs on Friday because with less than half of the class present, I figured there was no point in continuing with the video - I forgot to mention that although Friday was half day, they ran periods 2,3,7,8, all of which are classes for me so I didn’t really get a break).
Anyway Thursday evening went the way of all parent teacher nights. I was located in room 443 with Hodgkins and we both saw about ten parents. Most of them were students of both of us so we talked to them together. It was reminiscent, of course, of that first week of teaching back there at TRHS. I had that parent night during the first week that I started in Oct. 2001 and I remember not even recognizing the students who did come to see me, although there weren’t more than a handful. What I remember most, of course, is singing Where Have All the Flowers Gone with Selk and Zev. Then there was the bowling with keys that Sansone liked to do - that’s how empty the place always was. That was three years ago now and it’s been three miserable years in many ways but it has also been good in many ways.
I got to Arlene’s Grocery at about 9:15. We had seen this place a couple of weeks ago when we were down in that area looking for an open mic, the night I got drunk. It’s just off Ludlow but I don’t remember the name of the street just now. It has a yellow bodega sign in front so that it looks sort of like a grocery. They had five bands lined up and I had just missed the first one. Greg was already there and had said that they were all right. They had driven all the way up from North Carolina for that gig and had even somehow gotten a write up on it in the Times. Greg was not particularly impressed with them but when we saw the bass player leaving, I grabbed him and asked for a CD. They had two so I bought one ($10), which Greg took home. Edward had arrived by this time and talked to them a bit, their being from the same state and all.
Then Debra DeSalvo came on with her trio - bass, drums. She played psychedelic slide guitar and sang in a pop girl vocal voice. It made for a nice contrast and the songs she did were very good, very moody and atmospheric. She’s not a virtuoso but she knows how to make a sound and knows how to create a mood, which is the most important thing. I mean, friend, hasn’t just about everything in rock already been done? What is it that will set you apart? It’s not going to be your virtuoso playing. That’s been done. It’s not going to be sounding like someone else. That’s been done. It’s the same instruments so it has to be your sound and your songs. You are going to sound like yourself so that is number one. I don’t think I sound so much like Jim Morrison to be confused with him, even thought the style is similar. Then there’s the songs but it’s not just the songs but the mood, tone and feel of them. That’s something like what we get on They Don’t Know Me. She got something very distinctive so I went up to her when she was finished and asked for a CD. She said she was out but gave us her web site.
After her came a generic Irish rock quartet that didn’t do anything that stood out in my mind. Edward had heard enough after about 2 of their songs. He left. Greg and I hung around for the entire set and thought that a couple of the songs toward the end were a bit better but overall not memorable. So we headed out to get something to eat. I had promised myself that I wouldn’t get drunk on my ass the way we did the last time I went down there on a Thursday and I kept to that. I think I had about 5 beers by the time we left at about 11:15. We went to a falafel place on Houston and had some good food - falafel and a gyro platter with a lot of lettuce, tomato and onions. So I was in pretty good shape when I got on the V train and got back to Penn Station in time for the 12:37. I did have to stand up some, however, to keep from missing my stop ….
Note: I remember to this day the Debra DeSalvo set at Arlene’s I describe twenty years ago. I don’t know how far her career went or if it went as far as it should have, i.e., over the top, but a quick internet search for her now brings up a little music by Debra DeSalvo and a lot be Debra Devi, who looks and sounds a lot like Debra DeSalvo. I don’t know if she changed her name or if these are two different people but it remind me of what I remember because it’s very good. So judge for yourself if I was right to be impressed by DeSalvo (or Devi) but I think you’ll agree. She is very good. First, here’s a link to some music: Music Second, here’s a link to an interview that certainly seems to be the real Debra DeSalvo even if Debra Devi is someone else. Interview In any case, enjoy both. And if you have any information on either DeSalvo or Devi, feel free to fill us in.