Occasional Forgotten Video, Huey Lewis and the News, "Heart and Soul"

I've really begun to realize that they weren't kidding when they said that my nursing program is accelerated. We are moving at a furious pace. I'm good with it, but it's leaving me less time for things I'd like to do, like posting on my blog. Therefore, today's is a quick one, an "Occasional Forgotten Video."

I was talking to an old friend on the phone the other day and was reminded of this one.

In 1971, Huey Lewis joined the San Francisco Bay area band "Clover." Clover-- without Huey-- backed up Elvis Costello on his debut album "My Aim Is True." Eventually, the band mutated into Huey Lewis and the News, and had a hit on their second album, "Do You Believe In Love" in 1982,

It was 1983's "Sports" that broke them big though. They had a number of hits from that album, The first hit was "Heart and Soul." The video is classic eighties-- weird imagery, silliness and romance. It's one of my favorites, especially since I found out that Huey Lewis is the biggest man in the music business.

The "Buried In Schoolwork" Friday Random Ten

Had my first nursing test on Monday. Got an 86%, a solid B. Had more clinicals yesterday-- finally got to work with a patient. It's all good. Got a ton of reading to do this weekend.


1. The Man In Me- Bob Dylan
2. It Was A Very Good Year- Frank Sinatra
3. Meet Me In The Morning- Bob Dylan
4. Santa Domingo- Phil Ochs
5. Party Girl- Elvis Costello
6. Every Day Is Like Sunday- The Smiths
7. Thousands Are Sailing- The Pogues
8. Idiot Wind- Bob Dylan
9. Stormy Monday- The Allman Brothers Band
10. Every Breath You Take- The Police


Notes:
1. This was in "The Big Lebowski."
2. I love me some Sinatra, and this is one of my favorites of his.
3. A sweet little song from "Blood On The Tracks."
4. A powerful protest song about the United States' 1965 invasion of the Domican Republic.
5. From the phenomenal "Armed Forces" album. Can you believe it's 30 year old?
6. Morrissey can be a little whiny at tiimes, but I still like the Smiths.
7. My favorite Pogues song, but "Fairytale of New York" is a close second.
8. A Bob Dylan Hat Trick! This one's also from "Blood On The Tracks."
9. "They call it Stormy Monday/But Tuesday's just as bad..." Great live track from the "Filmore East" album.
10. Those of us in college in the early and mid eighties remember this song getting near-continuous play on MTV and radio. I'm just getting over the trauma.

Nursing School, One Month In

Today I had my first test in nursing school, about a month after I started. I also had my first "clinical" last week-- an experience in a hospital, working with patients. Here are my observations and comments so far.

I have come to really like my teacher, Mrs. Murphy. Her enthusiasm for both nursing and teaching shows. She really appreciates the diversity of our class and the consequent range of experiences we are able to bring to our classroom discussions.

My classmates are an amazingly diverse-- and increasingly closeknit-- group. There's Raj, who is from India. He must be in his mid-thirties. Karen, who, like me, is a parent, is my "buddy"-- the person I've buddied up with to make sure that if one is absent, the other makes sure to get any handouts, etc. that were passed out and let the other person look over notes. Eric must be about 20-- he graduated from Lane Tech, the high school nearest my home. Jackie is a high-strung, but likeable former dancer who's married to a Chicago cop/reserve soldier. Cyd is the person closest to me in age, and in fact my daughter goes to school with her son. Nicole, who we've all been looking out for, helping as we can, started divorce proceedings a week before starting nursing school. One guy I've hit it off with is Bisrat, a friendly, supersmart guy from Eritrea (it's near Ethiopia).

There are people of every ethnicity and walk of life. We range in age from about 20 to nearly 50. For some, this will be a first career, others a second career, and for some of us, even, third careers.

Thursday afternoon, a group of ten of us began our "clinical" experiences. We all gathered in the lobby of Illinois Masonic Hospital to meet Mrs. Murphy. I chuckled, remembering the last time I'd been in that hospital, 21 years ago, after the stupidest thing I ever did. We went over some school material, signed a form that we understood that we needed to protect the privacy of patients and records that we worked with, and went upstairs to the geriatric ward.

We were shown around the ward and then were paired off with another student to start working with the electronic charts. I was paired off with Bisrat, and we spent about 45 minutes looking through our patient's chart. We tried out the various features-- there are incredible advantages over the old paper charts. For instance, while looking at a value for something like white blood count or blood sugar, we can check what the normal value would be. If a med is listed, we can click on it and look up a dossier on the drug-- what it's for, dosages, side effects, etc.

One of the things that both Bisrut and I started working on was the "big picture;" what do all of the things we're seeing add up to?

At the end of the day, we had a meeting. We were all exhausted, but had learned a ton.

I spent portions of Friday, Saturday and Sunday preparing for my first test. One of the things I'm enjoying about nursing is that it is not overly based on memorization (though there's some of that) but on knowledge of concepts. In short, we're learning how to think like nurses.

I could tell this morning that we all nervous. There would be 50 questions, and there was a month's worth of material for those 50 questions to come from.

One of the things I've learned after several rounds of college (this will be my fourth college degree) is that you learn about the teacher during that first test. I've been teaching my kids this. As we finished the test, one by one, we gathered in groups out in the hall, discussing the test. The consensus-- we had kicked ass on it. We had figured out what the important information was out of the ocean of information we'd received in the last four weeks. We discussed the merits of different answers: e.g. in order to reorient a confused older patient, do you post a calender of weekly activities or speak in clear, calm, short sentences? The order in which to bathe a client (head, arms, chest, etc.). What not to do for a diabetic client (trim nails-- it risks a cut, and diabetics typically have trouble healing. You file the nails instead).

We talked about the various answers that we'd gotten wrong or right, and realized that we'd all done pretty well. I began to realize that this group had walked into the classroom a month ago as a bunch of separate strangers. Today, we walked out into the hallway as an increasingly tightknit and confident group of friends, fellow students, and future colleagues. I walked out of the building with the feeling that I'd really made the right decision early this year when I applied to nursing school.

The "Nose To The Grindstone" Friday Random Ten

Between work and school, it's been a busy week. I started my "clincials"-- work in a hospital-- yesterday. I've started a post with my reflections on the first month of school. If I have a chance, I'll finish it and post it tonight. Until then, I've got a bunch of studying to do.

1. The Bells of Rhymney- The Byrds
2. Killing An Arab- The Cure
3. Video Killed the Radio Star- The Buggles
4. Open Your Eyes- The Nazz
5. Stealin' At 7-11-- Commander Cody and His Lost Planet Airmen
6. Wanted Man- Johnny Cash
7. Harry Rag- The Kinks
8. She Loves To Be In Love- Charlie
9. Black Diamond- YOSHIKI
10. Ooh La La- The Faces

Notes:
1. The Byrds were one of the only groups that really successfully pulled off "folk rock." This song was a prime example.
2. The Cure's first hit single, based on an Albert Camus short story, still sounds great.
3. My daughter loves eighties music, and this is one of her favorites.
4. Todd Rundgren's early Philly group made the "Nuggets" cut with this one. Lots of Beatles influence here.
5. "After that beer, we were feelin' fine/Let's go back to the store and steal some wine!"
6. Great cover of a Bob Dylan song from the "Live At San Quentin" album.
7. It seems like I discover a couple more great Kinks songs every year. This was one of this year's.
8. These guys had a great album called "Lines" in the late seventies. This is my favorite song from that one.
9. From the fabulous "Kiss My Ass" cd of inspired and original KISS covers.
10. First heard this one in "Rushmore," a movie I'm pretty ambivalent about. I've been delving into old Faces and Small Faces these days.

RIP Jim Carroll

Just saw in the New York Times that poet/hustler/rocker Jim Carroll died at the age of 60 of an apparent heart attack.

In 1981, when I was a 19/20 year old pup, I heard the Jim Carroll Band's song "People Who Died" on WXRT, Chicago's "Prog Rock" station and was hooked. Later, I heard "Wicked Gravity" from the same album and when I went away to college the same year, borrowed my soon-to-be-lifetime friend Matt's copy of "The Basketball Diaries" and was even more hooked.

My favorite poem ever is Alan Ginsberg's "Howl." Jim Carroll was my generation's Alan Ginsberg and "People Who Died" is my gereration's "Howl."

About a year and a half ago, I picked my daughter up from school and we made a stop at a store. I had, as I tend to, my Sirius Radio playing, and as I am prone to, had "Little Steven's Underground Garage" playing. The Jim Carroll Band's "People Who Died" came up and I cranked it up a little.

My daughter, who was 11 or so then, was fascinated with the song. We started singing along with it, reminding me of a couple of times before when music brought us together, and we went from being stepdad and stepdaughter to dad and daughter. She, like my son, is a punk rocker at heart. This song was, in a way, the most punk of punk songs. RIP Jim.

It's A Beautiful Day Friday Random Ten

I spent the day reading for school, so I'm getting a late start on my Friday Random Ten. I'm sitting out on the back porch with a cup of black coffee on a perfect Chicago evening. And my Itunes shuffle is adding to it with one of the best random shuffles ever.

Our Beatles Rock Band for our Wii arrived today, so I have a feeling my daughter and her friends will rope me into playing. Twist my arm.

1. Too Shy- Kajagoogoo
2. Tape From California- Phil Ochs
3. You've Got To Hide Your Love Away- The Beatles
4. A Million Miles Away- The Plimsouls
5. 1969- Iggy and the Stooges
6. I Am, I Said- Neil Diamond
7. Up On The Roof- The Drifters
8. Count On Me- The Jefferson Starship
9. Walk This Way- Run-DMC w/ Aerosmith
10. I'm A Bitch- Meredith Brooks


Notes:
1. One of my favorite '80's one-hit wonders
2. Phil Ochs' take on the wonderful madness of the late sixties.
3. Recently discovered a lovely cover of this song by a group called Sylkie.
4. From the terrific soundtrack to "Valley Girl."
5. "Another year for me and you/Another year with nothin' to do.."
6. Love this song. I also have a great cover by Killdozer.
7. Funny, I was singing Ben E. King's "Spanish Harlem" earlier today.
8. Downloaded this one after hearing in "The Family Stone." It's in the bar scene.
9. Love the original and this inspired cover, which of course included Aerosmith playing along.
10. I'm working on a list of my top favorite "Un-PC songs" for this blog. I think this one's going on the list.

Spanish Pipedream

"We blew up our T.V. threw away our paper
"Went to the country, built us a home
Had a lot of children, fed 'em on peaches
They all found Jesus on their own"
-- John Prine, "Spanish Pipedream"

When I was a teenager in the late seventies, I discovered the music of John Prine. Over the years, various songs have stood out as favorites-- "Hello In There," "Sam Stone," "Paradise," Angel From Montgomery," "Dear Abby," "There She Goes" and others have been favorites. I have always been in amazement that the same guy could write songs as heartwrenching as "Sam Stone," about a veteran who returns from the war with a heroin habit, or "Angel From Montgomery," about a marriage breaking down, and then do a song as unbelievably funny as "Dear Abby."

As I've gotten older, and become a parent, the song "Spanish Pipedream" has become a favorite. Here are the full lyrics:

She was a level-headed dancer on the road to alcohol
And I was just a soldier on my way to Montreal
Well she pressed her chest against me
About the time the juke box broke
Yeah, she gave me a peck on the back of the neck
And these are the words she spoke

Chorus:
Blow up your T.V. throw away your paper
Go to the country, build you a home
Plant a little garden, eat a lot of peaches
Try an find Jesus on your own

Well, I sat there at the table and I acted real naive
For I knew that topless lady had something up her sleeve
Well, she danced around the bar room and she did the hoochy-coo
Yeah she sang her song all night long, tellin' me what to do

Repeat chorus:

Well, I was young and hungry and about to leave that place
When just as I was leavin', well she looked me in the face
I said "You must know the answer."
"She said, "No but I'll give it a try."
And to this very day we've been livin' our way
And here is the reason why

We blew up our T.V. threw away our paper
Went to the country, built us a home
Had a lot of children, fed 'em on peaches
They all found Jesus on their own

As parents, we think we mold our kids. But I think that the parents who read this will agree-- from the beginning, they start forming themselves. This weekend, as my son and I watched the very funny movie "Quick Change," and I saw my son laughing out loud, I realized that he laughs exactly the same way, with the same facial expression as he did when he was a baby.

One of the delicate balances that we, as parents, have to navigate is between providing the guidance we need to give as parents, while still giving them the autonomy they need to develop as people.

This started at the beginning of my son's life. Attempting to spare him the lifetime of despair I've felt as a Cub fan, I whispered to him, "Remember son: the Cubs are bums."

Unfortunately he didn't listen. He was a Cubs fan just as soon as he was old enough to pick up a baseball. He was about seven when he uttered those infamous words "Dad-- I think we're going to have to wait until next year."

When he was about eight or so, my ex and I were talking about music; both she and I love music, and he showed no interest in it. Soon, though, within a year, he started rabidly consuming music, plowing through the "classic rock" that both my ex and I love-- the Byrds, Beatles, Stones, Deep Purple and many others. I discovered that he was emailing Dick Biondi, a deejay my father had listened to in the early sixties to make requests on our local "oldies" station. I'm sure that he heard other music with his friends, but this was what he grew to love.


By the same token, my wife and I have always let my stepdaughter explore music. We've never tried to force the music we like on her. Nonetheless, we've seen her rapidly move from Kidzbop and Hannah Montana to the Ramones, the Replacements, the Kinks-- and the Beatles.

A few months back, she started listening to the soundtrack to "Across the Universe." While there are some nice covers of Beatles songs on the record, I felt like she needed to hear the originals. Despite being on a tight school budget, I got the cd sets for the red and blue Beatles "best-of" records for her. I'd grown up listening to the vinyl versions of those records. You've got to "let 'em find Jesus on their own," but sometimes you need to guide a little.

Of course, she added them to her itunes, and she and her friends listen to them and sing along to them. And now we're all eagerly awaiting the arrival of our Beatles Rock Band.

One of the other things my ex and I made a concious decision not to push on my son besides our music and athiesm-- we agreed to support him in any religious belief he developed, despite our lack of religious convictions (he identifies himself as an athiest, despite going to a Catholic high school) was politics. We'd been introduced by a mutual friend who knew that we were both involved in liberal Democratic politics. That was, of course, the only thing we had in common, as it turns out. I was a hard-partying Irish/German guy, she was a tee-tolling Chinese-American. I'd had a pretty busy romantic past, she'd only had one serious relationship. I was a punk-rocking madman, she was into more mainstream music. But we did love politics, particularly left-leaning politics. Despite this, we swore not to push our politics on our son.

I imagine that she, then, is as pleased as I am that he found his own way to enlightenment. I discovered that he's reading Paul Krugman's "Conscience of a Liberal" and his 1999 book "The Return of Depression Economics," where Krugman essentially predicted the economic crash that happened the last couple of years. We had a number of excellent discussions about both books this weekend.

Might I remind you that he's fifteen.

My father and I had a conversation years ago about parenting. He has expressed, at times, regrets about mistakes he made as a parent. He pointed out, though, that when your kids are born, you're not issued a manual. You do the best that you can, learning as you go.

In a few years, I'll be done being the parent of dependent children, and move into the world of having adult children. True, you never stop being a parent. But when you turn them loose in the world, you hope that you've given them enough guidance, balanced with enough leeway to have set them off on a lifetime of exploration, adventure, love and following their bliss. As I look into the future, into these last few years of this part of parenting, I'd like to think that if I did anything right, I taught them to follow their bliss. It's nice when some of that bliss overlaps some of your own. But it's important that they find it on their own.

Backyard Bounty

My friends and landlords Patrick and Jane did huge renovations on the building in the last couple of years, including the backyard. The backyard has gone from a barren and soggy place to a beautiful bountiful place. Here are some pictures of things that are growing in the backyard.