B.E.R.T., Part 2

Tom Randle pulled the covers over, settled down in the bed, reached up and flipped off the light. The slight buzz of the electric alarm clock read in bold neon letters 2:13. His wife was already asleep beside him, snoring lightly. But Tom was exhausted and even the noisemaker down the hall wouldn't keep him awake that night. He usually had such trouble falling asleep with all the ambient noise, but he was not accustomed to staying up this late. An emergency call had taken him into the middle of the city for a quick repair that lasted three hours.

The phone rang on the bedside table. Without turning the light on, Tom reached for the phone, pressed the talk button and whispered, "Hello?" He listened for only a moment and hung up without a word. His wife stirred beside him, rolled over and whispered in a groggy voice, "Who was that?"

"No one." He said. "Another telemarketer."

"In the middle of the night?"

"Who sells chemical solutions over the phone?" Tom wondered. He kissed his wife on the forehead and whispered. "Go back to sleep, honey." But she already had.

Want more?  Check out all the stories at Seventh Semester Sophomore.

White Sky - Vampire Weekend

To see the new and sweet Vampire Weekend song, click here now.  Then click on the second to last dot at the bottom of the video.  This will put you right at the start of their performance on the Jimmy Fallon show.

From the Memoirs of General Lee - Entry #37

Ulysses S. Grant stepped out of the tent walking under the sign that read, "Moo Shoo's Opium Den". He staggered across the muddy street to Buffalo Bill's Grand Tavern. Stumbling through the door, he made his way over to the nearest corner of the bar. Ordering a brew he bagan to regain his wits.

"Where am I?" he asked stupidly.

A young soldier spoke saying, "We're still in Gettysburg, sir."

Grant thought about this for a second. He had remembered ridding his horse Sally into town. It had been a beautiful spring morning. Flowers were growing and the children of the town were singing and dancing in the streets. He had also remembered growling at them because he despised singing and dancing children. In fact, Grant felt that at the age of eight all little boys should be sent off to military academy.

"That will teach them to sing and dance," he chuckled to himself. All of this was coming back slowly to his mind, but the opium's effects were still working on his mind causing him to forget why he and his army had come to this dismal little town in the first place. At that very moment, Robert E. Lee strode into the bar, and searching, his eyes fell on Grant.

"There you are you mangy dog," Lee barked. "Are you high?" He did not wait for an answer. "We are in the middle of a game of chess, a game that you suggested we should play to end the war, I am winning, I go to get a drink, and when I return, who just happens to be gone?" Again, Lee does not wait for an answer but gets right in front of Grant and yells angrily, "YOU... you aren't there anymore. You ran off like a sissy!" Grant, cowering, tried to explain that he had to rush off because one of his children had a nasty cold, but Lee would hear none of it. "You know that we have to fight now, don't you?" Lee questioned. Spitting on the ground at Grant's feet, Lee walked out the door calling over his shoulder, "I'll see you at Devil's Den you no-good-chess-player."

Not a Crum

Have any of you ever wished that you weren't a Crum?

I bet the answer is yes. Some times it's been embarrassing to be seen in public with our brothers, especially when they have their shorts pulled up so high that you can see their tighty-whities peeking out the bottom of their pant leg. Maybe you wished you were in a family where you didn't get hand-me-down hand-me-down hand-me-downs from the mid 70's.

For me, looking back on these things creates the best picture of a childhood I could possibly ask for. Just look at the sweet pictures of us as kids (like the one above). Who would have thought their could be such a sweet assortment of clothing in one picture!?

But that brings me to a thought I just had. Maybe it would be nice to not be a Crum. That way I could feel privileged to stumble upon the Dlog and re-post the 'Analog' video.




Or I might happen to hit Perer's Watchmen review, Jon's short stories, or Nate's most recent whack at poetry and feel like I had entered a whole new world (cue Peabo Bryson) . Of course I can find and read all this now, but can you imagine what it would be for an outsider?... okay, so maybe it wouldn't seem so great, maybe all I'm saying is that I am really happy to be in our family and I love you all very much.

The Writing Process

William and Jesse are each working on a research paper. Since we are studying early American history, and since biographies are the easiest research to teach, they are doing their papers on the Founding Fathers. William is writing about George Washington and Jesse is writing about Benjamin Franklin. They have completed the most arduous part of the project--the research itself. As they read various sources they took notes on index cards. Each bit of information fit somewhere in the outline I gave them-- II: Childhood; III: Adulthood; IV: Contributions to American history, including specific subheadings. They put the outline code in the top corner of each note card and then organized all their cards according to the outline. Now they have taken their notes and written the body of their papers, one paragraph at a time. The next step will be to improve their writing--making it more interesting by adding colorful verbs, adverbs, and adjectives, and by varying the sentence structure. If topic and clincher sentences are missing they will add these. Finally, they will write their introduction and conclusion paragraphs using the topic and clincher sentences from each of the "body" paragraphs.

I thought you might enjoy following the process as William writes his paper on George Washington. Here is his first draft, otherwise known as the "sloppy copy".

On February 22, 1732, George Washington was born in Virginia. On April 12, 1743, his father died when he was eleven years old. George had to help his mother take care of his sister Elizabeth and his three younger brothers, Samuel, John, and Charles. George Washington was a great, hard-working student in school. His favorite subject was arithmetic.

When George was sixteen years old he got a job surverying Virginia land. After that he made maps. On January 6, 1779, George Washington married Martha Custis. Martha was a widow with two children. After George was married he moved into a Virginia home which once was owned by his brother. George's favorite things to do were to boat, fish, and most of all he liked to ride his horse.

George was appointed the commander-in-chief for the War for Independence. He was appointed because of his great successes in the French and Indian War. In 1789 George Washington was elected as the first President of the United States of America. After being President for four years, President Washington was reelected as President in 1792. George ended his second term in 1796.

As you can see, William has a good foundational report with a few informational gaps. As we work on the improvements together, we will identify those gaps and add more information as it is needed. The final copy of these three paragraphs is due by the end of this week, so check in after that to see how the paper has evolved.

B.E.R.T., Part 1

Tom Randle and his wife were enjoying a quiet evening while their children were visiting the grandparents next door. Tom, a forty-two year old electrician looked lovingly down at the woman sitting next to him and kissed her lightly on the forehead. She rested her head on his chest and closed her eyes.

The phone rang.

"Leave it." she pleaded, but she knew he had to answer. In Tom's line of work, there were no business hours. He was ready to go anytime, day or night, and, though they weren't poor, he could not afford to ignore his clients.

"I won't be a minute." He said. Then, picking up the phone, "Hello. No this is Tom. I'm sorry we're not..." He rolled his eyes, cupped his hand over the receiver and whispered, "A telemarketer."

"Oh, hang it up." She whispered back, but he was still listening to the voice on the other line.

"How much? Mmm hmm. Yes, I'll take one." He and the shameless salesman on the other end of the call talked about price. Tom rattled off his credit card number from memory, thanked the caller and hung up.

"What in the world could you have bought on date night?" She asked, a little peeved.

"Never mind, honey." It'll be a surprise. She gave him a look, trying to be vicious and fearsome. He laughed and said, "I hope I'll be able to handle the surprise when it comes." She smiled back at him and shook her head, rested her head against his chest and closed her eyes once more.

To be continued...

Wilco, the Song

Yet another blog.

I've begun yet another project (which will in no way reduce the contribution I make to my other projects).  This latest endeavor is a series of serials, most of them revamped from old ideas of previous blogs.  Set under the collective title, Seventh Semester Sophomore, this blog will include a different though similar versions of my "Trip to Colorado," "The Writing Monster," "Boot Camp," as well as new material that I have yet to come up with.  I make no promises about diligence on my part or quality on the story side of things, but who knows what will happen?

The shadow knows.

Mid-Week-Music

Okay, so sometimes I do the new-music Monday thing, sometimes I do old-school Friday's, but this was just too good to wait.

I heard an interview with Elvis Perkins who's currently playing the South by Southwest festival down in The Great State of Texas. Here's the upbeat song, Doomsday:



And here's the NPR interview, Elvis Perkins: Out of the 'Dirge'

Shampoo - Elvis Perkins In Dreamland - Elvis Perkins

Brotherly Love (Part II)

We Meet at the top of a really high tower.
We dance a little.

We say hello.

I say goodbye.

Vampire for the Weekend

For fans of Vampire Weekend, or those who wish they could be but object to some of the language in their songs, check this out:

The Best Film of 2008

Unfortunately the best film of 2008 wasn't nominated for tonight's Academy Awards. I must begin by saying that this time around I haven't seen all the nominees in the category of Best Picture. Actually I've only seen two, "Benjamin Button" and "Slumdog". That being said, my pick "The Dark Knight" deserves recognition before either of those two, and based on what I know about the other nominees I'm pretty confident in my choice. "The Dark Knight" is everything a great film should be. It has dynamic, interesting characters. It has plot that is well constructed, layered with complex depth. It is a visually amazing acheivement, coupled with a great score and rich sound. There is a purpose and meaning that extends beyond he screen, making it more than a visceral experience, allowing it to have relevance outside the theater.


When I first saw the film last Summer I was of course swayed by my anticipation and all the emotions that come with being excited about something new. I was not dissapointed, but perhaps I was a little distracted. I have seen the film three times since, (including once quite recently at home) and the subsequent viewings and the time that has passed have left me with an even greater appreciation for the film and the performances contained within.

I should start first with the director Christopher Nolan. He is one of my favorite directors, and maybe one of the most underappreciated. Starting back with "Memento", then "Batman Begins" and of course "The Prestige", he has made some of the most interesting films in the last ten years. In "The Dark Knight" he takes what could of been a huge mess of characters and plot, and is able to tie everything together so beautifully that only later to you realize how grand the scope of this undertaking was. Seriously, by the time we get to the Harvey Dent transformation, that was a whole movie right there. But Nolan gives us the sequel too. He's not interested in teasing us and dividing a film for box office receipts. He realizes that the second and first acts of this story are so dependent on each other that they should not be seperated. Next I'm going to talk about the actors, but really Nolan must be given credit there too. He saw the potential where so many of us feared disaster. Wrong casting can destroy a film, but Nolan knew what he was doing. Of course I am especially impressed by his take on the Joker. What is amazing is that I would have suspected that there would be temptation to add bits of perfomance that didn't work to pay tribute to Heath Ledger. But I think that Nolan must have done the opposite. There is probably even more footage that we'll never see because Nolan crafted the perfect Joker edit, and it is an incredible tribute.

This isn't Christian Bale's movie. This movie belongs to Bale, Ledger, Eckhart, Caine, Oldman, Gyllenhaal and Freeman. Gary Oldman is a great actor, he can play larger than life roles. He's probably one of the scariest monsters to ever inhabit the screen. Yet here he is so real as a man of conviction, fears, hope and sadness. Michael Caine is Batman's inner voice of reason. The relationship has such abruptness and tenderness. Ralrely do films about father figures have so much depth as the relationship shown and implied between Caine and Bale. The only problem I have with Maggie Gyllenhaal is they should have known better and put her in the first film as well. Aside from that minor distraction, she is also an actress who is able to make you feel that you know her really well without actually having that much screen time. Doesn't Morgan Freeman make you wish that you knew him personally and he could just be you friend? Aaron Eckhart was perfectly cast across from Christian Bale. Here he is able to hold his own, and convincingly set up the inevitable conclusion. Bale is Batman. Alright, let me get this out of the way though... Talking in the deeper voice might not be the airtight disguise that Batman should be going for. Bruce Wayne dons the Batsuit, creates elaborate alibis, and has a secrest lair, yet when altering his voice he falls back on just lowering it an octave? I'd almost rather see him carry the Batpad and Batpen so he could pass notes. Couldn't he afford a voice synthesizer or something? Anyways it's a minor gripe I know, but it bothers me nevertheless. So back to Christian Bale. He doesn't get the central role that he had in the previous film, but thats alright. He plays his part consistently and maybe more than anything else provides a worthy opponent to the villains. And then there's Heath Ledger's Joker. The line in the interrogation room where he compares Batman with himself is so telling. His varying explinations of his scarred face. His bodylanguage and facial expression in different situations. His sense of humour. The magic trick, and his setup thereof. Ledger created a great film performance that is scary, funny and sad.

"The Dark Knight" isn't going to win Best Picture tonight, but in my heart it already has. Was that corny enough for you?

ZionEats

Zion 'ate' 'solid food' for the first time tonight. 'Ate' is a stretch since most of it came right back out again. 'Solid food' is pushing it because "slop" is not usually considered solid.

Somethin' Cookin'

To make a long story short... I was laid off last Wednesday and started my new job at Cook Medical this past Monday. I am a brand copywriter for the Urology division. I have a desk, right across the hall from the bathrooms. I keep telling people that this helps me research my work. While I'm not sure of the full scope of my duties, so far it has included writing copy for medical periodical advertisements, copy for product launch books, copy for product datasheets - pretty much anything that deals with Cook brand urological products, I will be writing the copy. I'm not even through my first week at Cook, but I am excited for the possibilities that working there might present. The position is temporary for now, filled coincidently through Employment Plus, but would hopefully turn into a permanent position. The work allows me to get back into writing – which is a plus, the facility is beautiful and the people are friendly – they even make sure to invite me to eat lunch in the cafeteria with them (yes, Cook has its own cafeteria that serves breakfast and lunch for really cheap). God has been so good to me (and Emily). His timing on this was an amazing blessing; He didn’t even give us time to worry. We’re so thankful for everyone’s prayers.

David Letterman

I remember watching home-recorded VHS tapes of the David Letterman show. I think Peter used to stay up and watch him back in the day (thus knowing how to make the David Cookiemonster Show). He used to be really funny, now, what I've seen recently he just seems to have turned into a crude, dirty old man. However, this recent interview with Joaquin Phoenix is, by far, some of the funniest television I have seen in a long time. The only problem is, it's all at Joaquin's expense, I think that guy is out of his mind. Check it out here: CBS.com

That PC Guy

The guy from the PC commercials, John Hodgman, has written another book. His first book, Areas of My Expertise, an attempt to compile all world knowledge (minus sports) into a single 264 page book, was great (it was a free download on iTunes a while back). His new book is an extension on this idea (containing history, because we keep getting more of it, and the future, because we still have some left). He reads his own book on the audiobook and is accompanied by Jonathan Coulton, his friend from college who enjoys an underground/cult music following in the nerd/computer programmer/comic book reading world.

Here's their recent appearance at Wired promoting the new book:

William's Dog

Although I previously posted a picture of Jesse with our new dog Daisy, I think you all should know that she is William's dog. He is fully responsible for her daily care and feeding. This has been a trying experience, but William has been quite patient. Daisy apparently spent most of her former life out-of-doors, but now that she is an indoor dog she is not yet proficient in communicating her needs. Daisy is improving, but the progress is frustratingly slow. William spent a good portion of this afternoon with Miss Alice, a dog-loving lady from our church, who gave him encouragement and a good deal of helpful advice, too.

Here is a picture of William with Daisy taken during our most recent snow storm last week.

No Title Needed

Fleet

Currently my favorite bearded band is the Fleet Foxes. Michal got me their Record for Christmas which came with their Sun Giant EP. They recently performed for La Blogoteque in Paris, here is their Sun Giant / Blue Ridge Mountain video, Mom, I think you will like this:




You may remember this post from last October, also about the Foxes

New Address

No, Michal and I did not move again, our Blog has a new address! That's right, you might not have noticed, but you are now at www.crumfamilyblog.com (no more blogger in the address). Cool Eh?