Bus 10...er 4, Music Lesson

It being Christmas, I figured it was time for us to give all of our readers a very special gift…two blogs from me in one day! This first one will be a follow up to the assignment I gave the kids on my school bus. As we had previously been discussing music in our blog series, I had mentioned that I was giving the kids on my bus the assignment of telling me why they liked music, what their favorite music was and what they liked to do while listening to music.

I didn’t get as many written responses as I was hoping for, but the fact that some of the kids actually went home and spent some time in thought about music, and what they enjoyed about it was fantastic! It also sparked a lot of conversation on the bus about music throughout the last couple of weeks before Christmas break.

For the most part the main theme that kept coming up was that they really enjoyed singing and dancing to it, both things we strongly encourage on our bus as long as everyone remains in their seats! Some of the kids may not always enjoy the singing but those kids generally come up to the front of the bus and shoot the breeze with their driver. We still talk about music a lot, but we also talk about books, and sports and the big issues as well.

The week after Nelson Mandela passed away we discussed his accomplishments quite a bit. I was actually pretty surprised to hear that they had not been talking about this great man during school so I figured I’d give the kids the basics about him, and treat them to a week’s worth of life lessons from the man who helped to end apartheid in South Africa.

We also spent a day discussing names. I spoke with the kids about how everyone should find out where their name comes from. Sometimes a name is just something that a parent liked at the time, such as “Apple.” But more than likely there is more meaning behind their name than the fact that it was just their parent’s favorite fruit or computer product… My parents named me Jason after “Jason and the Golden Fleece.” After my mom passed away I found another little card that had my name on it saying that the meaning was “healer.” We also discussed what your name would have been if you would have been the opposite gender that you are…that got a few laughs out of the bus!

We talk about a lot of stuff on our bus, but I think the most important thing is that we talk. I want the kids to know that no matter what happens throughout the rest of their day that they have someone on their way to and from school that generally cares about them and wants them to be the fantastic people I know they all can be. The kids on my bus are pretty awesome kids. They all have a very unique personality which I really enjoy and the greatest thing about them is that they’re kids, that sing, dance, read, discuss what’s going on in their lives, and I think are learning that the other kids they spend the bus ride with will end up being some of their best friends. It’s pretty cool how a bus with various ages of kids can end up being like a little family.

So the music theme was more than anything a way to get the kids discussing things, not just on our bus but at home as well. Hopefully this little exercise had the kids headed home to tell their parents why they liked music so much, or asking about Nelson Mandela, or even discussing why they were named what they are named. SoulPancake is an organization that promotes everyone to ask the big questions during this thing we call life; my bus tries to do that every day! If there are parents or teachers reading this blog, may I suggest that you go to YouTube and check out some of the “Kid President” videos? I would be very surprised if you didn’t all enjoy them and find that we all have a lot that we can learn from this generation that so many people seem worried about! It may even give you some more to discuss at home or in the class room!

 

 

Here are the responses I received from the music assignment:

“My favorite song is Wrecking Ball. I like it because I have fun doing programs with it.”

“Music I Like: Taylor Swift, Maroon 5, Cary Rae Jepson”

“I like music because it rocks and it’s fun to sing along with friends…and it is awesome!”

“I like music because it is awesome!”

“I like music because it is nice to listen.”

And simply…

“Taylor Swift.”

 

Here we are at Banana Daiquiris and Life Lessons trying to find the inner deeper meaning to why we all enjoy music so much and after all of our blogs, is there really a better answer than, “I like music because it is awesome?!” Sometimes there doesn’t need to be a deeper reason, sometimes we just like something because we do. I like the kids on my bus; they’re pretty awesome if you ask me.

Customer (dis)Service

Life Lesson: The person at the other end of the line (or counter) is not your enemy.

I think we have all been there. We have purchased a product or service and have been unhappy about it. No, downright pissed off about it. We’ve waited for an hour for our food to arrive at a restaurant, or even worse, waited an hour to even be greeted by a waiter. Your TV broke under warranty and you spent an hour on hold with customer service and by the time a real human being speaks you unleash a barely intelligible explosion words you’d never use in front of your grandmother - unless you’re watching a Twins game with her. Or you have ever been to a DMV in a state like California where you wait in line, to wait in a different line, so that you can pick a number to loiter around in a cold-war era building with no soul where there just doesn't seem to be enough chairs for the amount floor space. After a 3 hour+ stint at my local DMV recently, I was thoroughly convinced that they were wearing me down to confess to crimes I didn’t commit.

We get angry. Sometimes, really angry.

We also like to buy stuff, we expect that it work right, and we demand that someone fix it when the system breaks down; and to do it immediately, with a smile, and without an argument. After all the customer is always right. Always? I could go on about the ‘system’ and its flaws but to stay on point, I want to focus on those poor saps who have to deal with customers returning meat to a grocery store because it went bad, complain that coffee is too hot, or who “want to see a manager” while getting quite creative with their expletives in order to get their point across. For these are the soldiers of customer service: the front lines of consumer society.

And chances are that many of you reading this have worked a job like this and we easily forget that, for (usually) a crap wage, we agreed to take a beating, to smile, nod, apologize, and in short, take other people’s shit for a living. And chances are, you really hated it or just grew jaded and emotionless lest the job grind you to the ground. We certainly don’t forget when we are at the job, but we do forget when we change roles and become the customer. Why?

Possibly because we believe we are right and therefore have a right to be angry and of all the human emotions, anger needs to be released and doesn't really matter if the victim is deserving of it or not. We forget that pesky little rule that most of us are taught early on in life. You know the one. It’s so important that we have dubbed it “golden.” It can be expressed in one word: empathy. Separate and distinct from sympathy, empathy is your ability to place yourself into the shoes of another person and imagine the world from their perspective because you’ve been there, you’ve experienced it, and you know exactly how it feels.

I’m certainly not saying that all customer service representatives are good at their jobs, or that they are good at their jobs all the time. But they have to work with rules they didn’t create, answer to supervisors that enforce those rules, and are probably just trying to make ends meet like the rest of us. Sadly, they end up taking the brunt of the frustration that they have no control over. And in the end, they are just regular people just like us who can’t wait until the work day is over so they go home and stick their head in a bottle of whiskey.. or a banana daiquiri perhaps?

So stated another way -  Life Lesson: Customer service workers are not your enemy, lack of empathy certainly is.

How we treat each other is ultimately a series of decisions we make everyday, all day. Practicing a little empathy will help remind us that we are all human and should treat each other humanely and that there are ways to express your dissatisfaction without tearing someone down. I believe this is a valuable lesson to remember as you rush out to retail outlets to do your last minute holiday shopping.

The website below has some good customer service stories from the "otherside" of the counter:

http://notalwaysright.com/

Cheers and I hope you and yours have a wonderful Holiday and New Year season.

PERFECTION

Perfection.... 

        "The condition, state, or quality of being free, or as free as possible, from all flaws or defects"        

As humans, we try to perfect everything. Some things are good, or even great, but we still try to find a way to make them even better. That is why the human brain is so great – We look at a product, and although we may be impressed by it, we still wonder how we can make it better. Companies throughout the world have been doing this for years. Let’s take music devices for example. We had the record player, followed by the eight track player, then came the tape deck (Walkman), then the CD player, and now we have MP3 players and iPods. Every time we come up with a great idea, there’s always a way to perfect it and make it even better.

We can also take perfection into sports, which could be labeled as ‘repetition until perfect.’ I can remember basketball practices, back in my prime, where we would run the same play over and over and over again until perfect, or at least until it was drilled into our heads. This continuous repetition to make a play perfect obviously set in, not only with me, but with other former EAGLES as well. (…and to me we will always be Eagles, not this Rebels BS) Anyway, when we played a game and a teammate yelled “one” when in-bounding the ball, it’s like clockwork. We ran the play to PERFECTION...You can’t stop it and YOU CAN’T TEACH THIS (cue the Rumplemintz shots). Even running the play to perfection, there are still ways to tweak it (or twerk it, depending on if you’re playing with Miley or not).

You may say perfection is not possible, and it is very hard to argue with that. How can you make something free of any flaws or defects? I’m not sure how to do that, but if you ask my parents, they will tell you...they nailed it with me.

Life Lesson: Although perfection may be tough to reach, this does not mean we shouldn't strive for it, work for it, and believe in it. I feel that if we keep trying to perfect ourselves and not worry about other people, the world would be a better place. Every day I can make myself better, by ‘finding a way to laugh, finding a way to wrap myself in emotion, and finding time to think.’ Living the way the great Jimmy V states, and I do believe the world would be a better place. I also believe that this is the first paragraph in my blogging history that truly has a meaning behind it and is not filled with too many jokes. It actually felt good. I guess you do do your best thinking on the toilet.

Although I stated earlier that perfection may not be able to be met...I will agree to disagree with you, and myself, on that point. Refer to the following proof! 

BANANA DAIQUIRI:

1.5 cups of ice
2 oz. Triple Sec
2 oz. Rum
2 Fresh Bananas
3 Fresh Strawberries
1 Spoon full of Sugar (Makes the medicine go down)
1 squirt of lemon juice (light on the lemon juice)

- Place ingredients into a blender, using the ice crushing feature.
- Serve until gone.
- Then repeat.

THE BANANA DAIQUIRI HAS BEEN PERFECTED. 

Now make a few, sit around with a friend or two, and talk about LIFE LESSONS.

Stupid Music Blog

If there is one thing I hate, it’s being told to do something that I do not want to do!  I have a part of me that wants to revolt against anything and anyone who forces me to do something against my will.  This music blog is being forced upon me… and I don’t like it!  Damn you Mason!!!

Sorry to disappoint you, but I just don’t have the energy & motivation for writing about music at this point in time.  Now another apple blog, that I could get on board with… but I digress… and I promised you (Mason (Jason)) that I would write something.  I apologize in advance to those of you who might have expected more than the unorganized mesh of random thoughts that are about to follow.

I enjoy music, I think I can play guitar, & I can’t sing.  This is what I know to be true.  My Pandora account consists of the following playlist/channels: Garth Brooks, Foo Fighters, Mos Def, Of Monsters & Men, Drake, Mumford & Sons, Dwight Yoakam,  Frank Sinatra, Boston, Fleet Foxes, Metallica, Atmosphere, Paul McCartney, Johnny Cash, Bob Marley, Dave Matthews Band, Soundgarden, Beastie Boys, Chevelle, Notorious B.I.G., & a few others I think.  But from these channels I get most everything else in between.   And as Pandora gets to know what I like, I’ve found that I will occasionally get hip hop music on my rock stations, rock music on my country stations, and country music on my reggae station… I might as well just have it all on shuffle, because that’s what happens when you listen for 3+ hours… it all becomes the same.  There’s a lesson in there somewhere… but I’m too tired to run with it.

I listen to a wide variety of music.  I don’t have favorites overall, but I do pass from genera to genera depending on my mood.  I often listen to Pandora at work, only to get distracted by new songs (or great ones that I have not heard in a while).  This causes me to forget what I’m working on and go watch the music video on youtube (apparently I feel that helps me to understand the song… even though most music videos do the complete opposite… especially for TOOL songs), which then causes me to look up a guitar tab for that song and print it off.  Now you would think the next logical step would be to learn that guitar tab and rock out to a sweet cover of that awesome song I was so captivated by… but no… I just put it in a pile next to my guitar cases and tell myself that I will get to it after baseball season, then after football season, then next year, then once I get a free weekend… the excuses go on and on.  Point being… I need to make a better effort to play guitar more, and I probably make to many excuses in general with everything!  I actually used to be half decent (or at least I think I was), but over the last 10 years (wow that seams like a long time!) I haven’t practiced enough to just pick it up and rip off an entire song from memory.  This leaves me feeling like I’ve lost a part of myself.  Playing guitar had always centered me and kept me from losing my mind in the chaos of life.  I wonder how I got so “busy” that the hobby I used to enjoy the most became an afterthought... something I stumble across when I’m downstairs cleaning.   Tossed aside to collect dust while I catch up on laundry & make sure the dishes don’t pile up on the sink.  Left in the corner of a spare bedroom while I concentrate on my adult responsibilities and my job!  Peter Pan said it best “Growing up blows!” (that’s a real quote).

I’m reminded of the lyrics in so many songs that I’ve heard over the years… the inspiration you feel and the power they give you to overcome difficulty & cope with heartbreak.  Music is there for you when others are not… with songs that can carry you up over anything… it’s often what get you through a long day/week & keeps you from loosing your sanity while traveling from point A to point B.

So enjoy it, create it, or if you have the sweet, alcohol induced moves of Pat… dance your ass off to it!

BLOG DONE!

"I Will Remember You"

Life Lessons:  Volume 1

Don’t speed while playing 5 star….

-          You might get pulled over naked.

While Partying in uptown Minneapolis make sure your phone is charged…

-          Never mind. Everything works itself out and you will be fine.

Never have a drinking contest with the drink called “Combats”…

-          You will wake up with the a curb as your pillow.

When someone tells you there is a mountain lion at their wedding dance, believe them.

-          No one jokes about that; and peeing in the woods is a bad idea.

Drinking does not conquer all your fears….

-          You might get stuck halfway up a water tower.

When talking to someone and you know you’re wrong or doing wrong, do it with confidence…

-          It will get you far.

Dress up as the conscience with your buddy for Halloween…

-          Super easy costume and very easy way to start a conversation with the opposite sex.

Make awesome friends…

-          It can be expensive and you will have ups and downs, but boy-oh-boy will you have stories that will last a lifetime.

Shotgun rule…

-          This is the silver rule, right behind the golden rule, and must be followed.

When you say you’re going to blog, you better blog…

-          Mason may get after you.

Oh, this blog was supposed to be about music, my bad. Not into music very much – usually it’s just noise in the background for me. But, it can bring people together for the good and the bad. It can give you energy before a big event (Jock Jams) and it can bring you to tears in hard times (Sarah McLachlan).

Don’t worry, if you can’t figure out what to write for a music blog…

 

-          Do What You Want…    THANKS

I list “mixtapes” under my work experience.

I’m not drinking a banana daiquiri and I get most my life lessons from fortune cookies and whiskey labels but for better or worse here’s my BDandLL debut. Honored to contribute and feel like I just got invited to sit at the cool kids’ table. My name is Mike, and I’m sitting on the floor in my living room, laptop at hand, drinking a Newcastle Cabbie Black Ale with the Our Lady Peace “Live” DVD pumped into the flat screen in the background and two completely different first drafts of a blog piece on music to churn up and steal from. An oat soda, some badass music after a day bleeding for the man and some writing about art to do. Not a bad place to be.

Art. Is not a complete sentence, but that looks right. Art is the reflection of life at a given time in history. It is a Dionysian scream into the world that proclaims, I Exist!!  .. and it kinda hurts sometimes and stuff. The artist overcomes pain to make something beautiful.

Quick (I promise) sociology lesson: Music is part of culture, which is best described as a civilization’s way of life. Along with other, more physical and visual, forms of art, music is bound up with language, law, custom, science, literature, et cetera which makes up what stuffy academics refer to as culture. i like to think of culture as the glue that holds a society together. Lesson over.

As part of culture music is special. As a part of our lives, music is special. No other art form seems to resonate in our souls quite like music does. Case in point, the old cliche: music is the soundtrack of our lives. Maybe that’s not true of everyone, but from my experience for myself and for many that I’ve been surrounded by in life, it holds true. Music is woven into the very fabric of who I am. I mean, who doesn’t have “a jam,” who doesn’t get transported somewhere into their past when a certain song hits their ear drums, and who doesn’t feel like breaking shit when listening to Pantera? I’m not wrong.

When you listen to Pantera, you willingly take punches to the face.

I got hooked on this music drug at an early age and with a couple uncles that were diehard music fans and culture buffs, I got exposed to a wide range of it as well. I believe I was around 10 years old when I bought my bombtastic Sony cfd- 510 boom box with mega bass and detachable speakers (I know, right? See below.) and Green Day’s “Dookie” album on compact disc. The 510 pumped out mixtapes and thanks to my walkman, mowing the lawn and riding the bus were never dull and my life became earmarked by musicians and their art.

When I was still quite young, I remember telling my mother that “Dr. Love” by KISS (I had just bought their Double Platinum album) was my theme song. She asked, “why is that?” to which I didn’t have an answer, still don’t. But I do know I really liked that song. I can hear it my head right now. It takes me back to that moment sitting on the front steps of our deck with the ole’ 510. Just as Nerf Herder takes me to my garage where I sang along with every word and played wiffle bat guitar; to my bedroom where I would sit right next to my stereo, hitting the pause button when I needed so I could transcribe the words of every song on Goo Goo Dolls’ “A Boy Named Goo”; to my high school locker room as Dr. Dre’s “Chronic 2000” became the music of the 1999-2000 Tri-County basketball season. At this moment, Our Lady Peace takes me to the Orange House during the 2nd chapter of my college career, living in that house with my bandmates, we didn’t just listen to music, we lived it, we made it, we it experienced the shit out of it. I could go on and on like this. I won’t.

Music can mean many things to many different people. Some music seems more “serious” than other forms and music critics are always keen to point this out; judging some music as inherently more artistic and more worthy than others. While I certainly have my own thoughts and opinions on music, in the end it really doesn't matter, for all that is required is experience music and to experience life as music plays out the score. Do you listen to “good” music, do you listen to “bad” music? Did you listen to “bad” music that at the time you thought was “good.” Fucking 'A you did, and will continue to do so. I mean if Councilman Brumwell can extol the virtues of Ace of Base, none of us can judge each others’ music taste. Whatever moves you, whatever gets you on the dance floor, whatever singing along at the top of your lungs, whatever make you feel free, feel above the mundane, whatever makes you feel. That's "good" music. Which brings me to the “life lesson” part of this piece that I take from pop culture writer Chuck Klosterman:

“...culture can’t be wrong. That doesn't mean it’s always ‘right,’ nor does it mean you always have to agree with it. But culture is never wrong. People can be wrong, and movements can be wrong. But culture - as a whole - cannot be wrong. Culture is just there.”  - from “IV”

This is a lesson I need enforce upon myself when my wife insists on watching “Keeping Up with the Kardashians” and “The Voice” (which I personally believe guts everything of substance from music), but I digress. Where am I? Where did all the Newcastles go? Oh, right...

To sum, music is awesome and becomes woven into who we are as our life plays out. Life Lesson: don’t be a jerk~face that judges people based on what they listen to (or watch). It will only make you miserable and probably miserable to be around.

So, what songs are the mixtape of your life and when you hear them, where do they take you?

Here’s a few albums from my current rotation:

Music:

“Exile on Mainstreet” Album by The Rolling Stones

“Den of Thieves” Album by The Trews

I highly, highly recommend Led Zeppelin III

Thought to leave with, from Wikipedia:

"Essayist Geoffrey O'Brien has called the personal mix tape "the most widely practiced American art form"

90 Minute TDK's were the BOMB.

I wrote this blog post like a "Wrecking Ball...or Rainbow..."

I would like to first respond to the last blog entitled, “My Friend Mason.” I just recently finished my typical 12 to 14 hour work day which generally starts about 5am when I get up to find a new life lesson to post on my bus, yes I’m still doing that which I mentioned I was going to do several blogs ago…what can I say, I’m a man of my word! After trying to spread life lessons to tomorrow’s leaders, I hop back in my car and head over to my second job to landscape, drive truck, cut trees, plow snow, change oil or drain the rear ends of machines…and just a bunch or random work. Generally when I get home I have laundry, garbage, driveways to shovel, dogs to play with, cats to take care of, and beer/whiskey/wine to drink. So needless to say, my life has been plenty busy…but one of the things I’ve always truly wanted to do, a passion in my life, is to one day be a writer. So I read a ton, and I write very crappy blog posts so that I can get some practice and some day leave something behind that may make the world a better place…obviously my blogs about how much I drink and club may not be that, but it’s the practice that counts…and how many writers weren’t addicts of one sort or another?!

We always tried to talk my mom into writing a book about how she and my dad started our family business or just about anything at all, and I believe she really wanted to but never got the chance to because life got too busy and in the end, as with all of us, it was too short. If she were alive today, she would love this blog, she probably would have even written with us, and more than likely would have had more than one story about how she and I maybe had too much wine together and had to take naps at the kitchen table, or as in one Thanksgiving we spent together, how my dad had to carry her to bed! She was a character, and when I think about what I’d like to do with my spare time, more than anything it would to make her proud…I’d like to think that how I live my life, drunk or not, she’d be proud…but enough about how my friend Sadam…sorry, it just works…needs to realize how awesome this blog could be! Our topic is music…and so here it goes:

Why music? I guess I should say, why has it taken us this long to take on this subject?! Music is everything art should be. It moves us, can help us to relive moments in our lives and can connect us to our best friends, loved ones, and complete strangers. How many times have you been listening to the radio, a CD, or any music through any medium and have been transported back to a memory of something you did in the past? There may be memories of fantastic times with amazing friends/loved ones, and there may be songs that make you feel miserable because it instantly reminds you of a bad time in your life, and sometimes you just want to shut of the song, or maybe scream it at the top of your lungs and cry your lungs out. Music moves people, there is absolutely no doubt about it. If you spend your time in your car listening to public radio…fuck you. I get my news strictly from Ron Burgundy and he only makes a movie once every 8 years or so…

My buddy Mike and I were discussing this blog topic just last night and we started talking about Walkman, and Portable CD players with skip protection and some how we got on the topic of Ace of Base. I shouldn’t say, somehow, they’re one of the greatest bands of all time and their album “The Sign,” may have been one of the greatest albums of all time. I remember listening to one side on my Walkman, then flipping the tape over and listening to the other side…then repeating. It may have been the only tape I listened to enough times to actually burn out the tape. God, how I wish I was kidding…I swear I’m cooler in real life than I come across in this blog…

But AoB was da bomb. You just can’t argue with that logic.

As I’m writing this blog I’m currently drinking a nice glass of Bogle Cab. and it is amazing. I am also listening to a little Bob Dylan who always reminds me of two things, my brother-in-law Joe because he shares his hometown with one of the most amazing songwriters of our time, and my mom and brother and I watching the film, “No Direction Home,” about Dylan. Shortly before she passed away we watched the film together and its definitely one of those movies that really gives you a completely different perspective on a person…and his music transports me back to that time. I also had the pleasure of seeing him in concert…I’m not positive he wasn’t dead up the stage there, but he still sounded amazing!

Now here’s another amazing thing about music. I think we start loving it in the womb and don’t stop until we’re dead…maybe it’s even after that. Many of you know that I drive school bus, and every now and then, I allow the kids on my bus to dance in their seats (while seated) and I’m always open to them belting out songs at the top of their lungs and I even occasionally call upon them to play their band instruments for the bus…we have a pretty awesome bus, and I have some pretty awesome kids that ride it…but I subbed last year and got to know pretty much all the kids that ride the bus in Red Lake Falls, and I can safely say that they’re all pretty awesome. Anyone that tells you different just doesn’t have the patience to realize that sometimes kids just need to be kids.

But anyway, back to my bus…we recently switched up my afternoon route and one of the kindergartner kids on my bus wanted to create a list for herself so that she knew when everybody got off. She would ask me who got off, in order, and then I would spell out the last name for her…after about an hour of this exercise I believe she was able to correctly get four names onto her sheet. This same little girl, then proceeded to sing every word of the next three songs that came on the radio. Word-for-word. Music promotes memory, and definitely, without a doubt helps kids to learn. Also, it makes me love my kids even more when the Miley Cyrus song, “Wrecking Ball” comes on, because I told them all that I always thought she was saying, “Rainbow” and so now they all scream that out when that part comes on. I have awesome kids on my bus, the parents around Red Lake Falls have awesome kids all the time, and I’m awfully glad that music is obviously a big part of their lives.

I never learned to play an instrument, and that will always be one of my biggest regrets…until I finally figure out how to play one! I have a piano and guitar and I would love to learn how to play one before I no longer have the ability. You’re never too old to learn anything, and at 30, I still feel like a pup…maybe its all the wine!

If you ask me what my favorite music is, I wouldn’t be able to give you a definitive answer. It’s kind of like books for me, I really do enjoy just taking everything I can in and there are so many different types that just fit the different situations, even the stuff I’m not crazy about (country) definitely stirs some memories in me and I would still say Zac Brown Band is one of my favorites…not necessarily for all of their music, but every time I hear one of their songs, I have nothing but good memories come to mind. My favorite bands may be; The Foo Fighters, The Killers, and Jack Johnson, but these bands probably aren’t responsible for my favorite songs of all time, they just put together the most music that I enjoy. Again, the power of music!

Well, I’m onto my third glass of wine, and probably should fold some laundry…busy, busy, busy! But, remember to listen to a little music everyday. If you can play, then play. Everyone can sing, and I strongly suggest you do so…it’s hard to stay upset or be in a bad mood while you’re shouting out the wrong lyrics to yet another terrible Miley Cyrus song!