Blowing & Drifting

Following on yesterday’s post about my experience in Steve Kelly’s jazz history course, here are the best ten songs that I heard for the first time in the course. 10. Coleman Hawkins, “Body and Soul” (1939) 9. Nina Simone, “Love Me Or Leave Me” (ca. 1965) 8. Count Basie Orchestra, “One O’ Clock Jump” (1937) [...]

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Yesterday I sat for the final exam for the “Jazz History” course I’ve been taking this term, a course taught by Steve Kelly, who is about to retire after a long, distinguished career at Carleton. I took the course because I wanted to learn more about the history of jazz, a musical style that I [...]

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Looking out my office window throughout the day, I often feel a pang of sadness for my bike, which sits out there all day in the cold, halfway up the snowbank that covers most of the bike rack. (I’ve anthropomorphized my belongings like this as long as I can remember: I recall introducing my G.I. [...]

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Last Friday, Julia had her first spelling test – in fact, the first structured “assessment” of any kind, as far as I know. She did well. As someone who puts inordinate emphasis on speling corectly, I am proud of her.

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As I often say, one of the best things about working at Carleton is going to all the excellent events that the College sponsors. Tonight’s example was a wonderful lecture by the cartoonist/graphic novelist Ben Katchor, best known for his comic strip, Julius Knipl, Real Estate Photographer – a strip I discovered in the Chicago [...]

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Carleton has a lot of good traditions, but those centered on “New Student Week” are especially good. The best one: upperclass students line up at the formal campus entrance and cheer – loudly and energetically – for the first-year students as they roll onto campus. The noise is joyous and wonderful. Another good, if more [...]

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Today was the first day that both girls had to go to school – albeit an hour later than usual for Julia, and only a 90-minute preschool orientation for Genevieve. Still and all: they were wrecked when I arrived home, just after a screaming/hitting fight (and consequent time-outs) over some toys. In the scant time [...]

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Julia’s first day of first grade went pretty well, I think. Witness:

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Today, I submitted the final grades for the online course I taught this summer for Metro State University in St. Paul, “World War II – A Global History.” This is the twelfth time I’ve taught for Metro State since fall 2003, and the third time I’ve taught this particular course, always online. I felt like [...]

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All the construction outside Goodsell Observatory at Carleton means that the College has finally begun the construction of our long-awaited death ray. Once installed, sometime next month, we will conduct preliminary tests on people who’ve let their dogs off leash in the Arb. When the instrument is properly calibrated, we’ll burn a clown nose on [...]

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In an effort to “juice” the endowment with cash revenues, the College has converted the upper level of the Rec Center into a greenhouse for producing Minnesota folding chairs (Chaairus folderol prairie). Conditions are perfect for growing, as you can see from this shot of the bumper crop. College officials hope to get three or [...]

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I had an oddly happy, satisfied, excited feeling all day today. Absurdly, I initially chalked it up to having a quiet, meeting-free day at work in which to get a lot done. I did, and I did, but after dinner, playing outside with the girls, I realized that the sensation was much more due to [...]

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Here’s the new first grader! I’m so proud of her!

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Here – on the eve of Julia’s last day as a kindergartner – are a couple excerpts from Wednesday’s graduation ceremony: her teacher awarding her diploma and Julia reading her poem, “Spring” (text below the video). Julia’s Kindergarten Graduation Ceremony from Christopher Tassava on Vimeo. Julia’s poem, “Spring” Spring flowers blooming Bright and beautiful Green, [...]

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More (unseasonal) silliness from Carleton students…

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