The Sonikcycle Syndicate

Like a Tibetan sand mandala, I’m wiping away my web presence… GOODBYE.

HTFS: Week 3 — I suppose that some of the proclivity to boredom among teens is inherent to the age. After 14 or 15 years of life, the world is not quite the captivating spectacle of new and mysterious phenomena it once was, and for most the habit of being proactive in occupying the mind to avoid boredom has yet to form.

In the context of a so-called democratic free school one might expect boredom to be at a minimum. However, not infrequently do I hear, “I’m sooo bored!” In a public school where students have little choice in what and when they study I expect such sentiments since coercion breeds, among other things, boredom. But when one is free to pursue one’s passions at will there remains no excuse for scholastic boredom.

I wonder how much of this is just teen spirit, or a part of the “deschooling” process some of the students are still going through, or simple ignorance of the vast opportunity that comes from this enviable amount of freedom. I’m sure it’s all of these things and then some. In any event, it is my challenge to convert boredom into exciting curiosity… I think I can, I think I can )>>>

We’re just beginning to settle on a groove, which means there’s still a fair bit of discordance as newcomers get acquainted with oldcomers, students come and students go, classes start taking shape, and choices begin to take effect.

On Tuesday, Isaac, myself, and 7 students went to the Step Up for Kids rally at the NY State capitol building where, plied with the promise of pizza, some of our students “volunteered” to represent up on the steps in front of the crowd ;o)>>>

The highlight of the week came Wednesday when a troubled young lad got kicked out, never to return. His violent outbursts on the basketball court and in the subsequent all-school council meeting were the last straw. Then there was the fact that he kept saying he didn’t want to be at the Free School, which is the prime condition. The fact is, the whole scene just broke my heart. I won’t go into the details, so, suffice it to say that this kid has A LOT stacked up against him and at the same time he can intentionally be very provocative (especially for other teens with plenty of their own issues) which makes it really hard to figure out how best to help him. The Free School elders believe that had he come as a youngster under the “no medication” policy of the K–8 Free School and with all the time and room he might’ve needed to settle his issues, things might’ve worked out better. Alas, that didn’t happen and now the poor lad is quite damaged and I can hardly bear to imagine what’s in store for him in this life. I pray for the best.

On a more upbeat note, the week ended with a fun and interesting field trip with my ethnoexperimusicology class to a sound installation in the Nott Memorial, and to Jackson’s Garden, both of which are on the campus of Union College in Schenectady.

The ball is finally rolling in earnest! My 2 classes (World Music and Digital Storytelling & Web Publishing) got off the ground nicely and I’m still finding it hard to believe that I’m able to offer up such fun (for me) classes. This week I played more basketball than I have in the last 20 years, and I’m looking forward to at least a modicum of fitness as these kids will certainly keep me running ;o)>>>

The week was capped by a Friday night auction of the art from the BoardedUP project at the Grand street Community Arts center (right around the corner from here). On Saturday I joined the HTFS staff on a trip to see the Salvador Dali exhibit at MoMA in New York City. Wonderful time, wonderful week!

With a typically relaxed departure and a 2-hour delay at the Canada-USA border (a good chunk of which was due to having been pulled out of line as a possible terrorist), I arrived in Albany late Friday night. Saturday morning brought a warm welcome from Ms. Nancy, and various members of the Free School cult…AHEM…community ;o)>>> and temporary lodging in the Family Life Center.

Today was the first day of work. We spent the day cleaning, organizing, and discussing how best to utilize the building spaces. I worked mostly in the computer room clearing out junk, cleaning dust and grime,and reorganizing all of the machines and their respective cables. It felt good to be doing something, even if only in anticipation of the students to come.

My gonzo run to Albany was smooth and eventful. I spent a wonderful day hanging out with the Free School folks as part of their internship application process. Suffice it to say, I am inspired and excited at the prospect of working in a free and democratic learning environment – one of my many dreams come true!

Now, back to the diss… ;o)>>>

I spent the day out on the Mattaponi Indian Reservation repairing rotted walls and floor joists in the house of Chief Webster “Little Eagle” Custalow who passed away in 2003 (I think). It was a good day’s work and we got a lot done, but the subject of this post is not community service, rather, a wonderful immersion in regional dialects.

I’ve traveled the U.S. extensively, and I’m quite familiar with the broad speech patterns found throughout the land. But American dialects are so very diverse and rich, one doesn’t have to go far off the beaten path to hear the unusual — the good stuff! I’ve long been fascinated by language and the way people speak, and whenever I have the privilege to hear very localized regional dialects, I get all giddy (inside) and I make mental field notes as though I were an anthropologist or linguist. Today was one of those days!

On the work site, I met Chief Carl “Lone Eagle” Custalow and his brother Leon. Being new to the area, I can only presume these gentlemen were speaking what is known generally as the Tidewater dialect, which is quite similar to the Virginia Piedmont dialect. However, there was something noticeably different… an unusual blend like I’ve never heard. Interestingly, there were two other fellows, both native to the Virginia Peninsula region, who sounded as different from one another as they did from the Custalow brothers. What’s more, none of them sounded like any of the 5 speakers from Virginia on the International Dialects of English Archive ‘Twas a linguistic field day, to be sure! I could’ve sat and listened to those guys, especially the Custalow brothers, all day long ;o)>>>

Oh yeah, I just remembered, everyone smiles in the same language…

Technorati Tags: mattaponi, virginia peninsula, tidewater, piedmont, dialect, linguistics, idea, sonikcycle

I’ve said it before, and I’ll say it again… someday, I, too, shall sport a Seussian sombrero as worm by Michael Hampton of P-Funk. (Click image for full effect.)

Technorati Tags: sonikcycle, p-funk, cosmic slop, sombrero, michael hampton

I just read a tweet from Kate, Twitter compadre and inspiration. She had said, “mmmm… new phone smell…” It never occurred to me that she must’ve just purchased an iPhone or some such nifty gadget. The first thing that popped into my head was, “mmmm… old phone sound…” My next thought was, “I should post that to Twitter, and for full effect link out to a recording of the metal bell ringer in the old brown telephone that is attached to the wall of my groovy grad pad in “married housing” at Central Michigan University. ” So, I did… I got a friend to call the number and let it ring whilst I captured the distinctive sound of its nearly-forgotten ringer, then pushed it up on to the Web here (complete with full sustain and kids yelling in the background).

I’m infatuated with old stuff (no, I don’t “collect”) and I could spend hours perusing old photos on Shorpy, or reminiscing about my old black Western Electric rotary dial telephone with a handset so heavy you knew you were ON THE TELEPHONE, not to mention the bodily harm you could do with it…

Anyway, I have to laugh at myself because after going through all that (only about 10 minutes), and feeling so jolly about my clever sense of humor & warm connectedness with the day-to-day affairs of others, I realized that as in the story of Sonikcycle, I’m the only one who’d get it. Given the fleeting nature of Twittering, the intended recipient, Kate, probably didn’t even notice my so-called response, much less click out and listen to the ringer–even if she did, past experience would suggest that the full picture of this fanciful free association will remain concealed by the dark shadows of Web obscurity and the cryptic clips of tweets & twits.

Technorati Tags: western electric, telephone, twitter, kate, sonikcycle

I have a very high tolerance for disarray, dissonance, and clutter. That said, I also have a deep appreciation for orderliness, harmony, and minimalism. My living quarters are spartan, and my work space is neat and tidy, except on the occasions when garments are strewn about and my papers and books are piled high. Statistically, I’d be described as a middle man, not because my space is kinda–neat–kinda–messy, but rather because it’s one or the other, which when plotted plops me smack dab in the middle…

Like many a Mac user, I run oodles of apps at once and I always have a slew of windows open. That’s just fine with me, but now that I’ve discovered 2 groovy little apps that feed my minimalist proclivities, I’m reveling in a clutter-free computing experience. Said apps would be Spirited Away, which “hides” inactive windows after a specified interval, and MenuShade, which does a nifty menu bar hide and/or opacity setting. Combined with the slickness of Quicksilver, I run minimal, I run deep… I’ve been alternating between completely black screen with 1 window, and my current configuration (the “after” pic)….

In the vernacular of today’s internets, Spirited Away, MenuShade, and Quicksilver are all “full of win!”

Technorati Tags: spirited away, menushade, quicksilver, clutter, minimalism, workspace