Above the clouds

This is a look at a life and a relationship. That's all I can really say....

One

It was her wedding day, and she looked off into the clouds. She had waited all her life for this day. She had been planning every detail from the time she was twelve. She had crammed notebooks full of sketches for dresses she would show off to her grandmother on weekends. Now that the day was here, however, she couldn't help but feel a part of her was going away forever.

As she peered upward, she could make out a great, pillowy castle. Its tall towers were cotton, its flags were silk, and its long ornate windows were filled with divine light. She could also see a gigantic turtle. Its shell was more box than dome and it had a neck like a dinosaur. The turtle made her giggle. It was a peculiar sight and took her mind off an uncertain future. She felt a warm arm wrap around her cold shoulder. “Honey, what are you doing,” the man asked.

Honor Choir

I recently heard a Beatles song. Whenever I think of the Beatles, I think of my elementary school honor choir....

I was nine-years-old before I was ever formally introduced to the Beatles. Of course I had seen footage of them on television and heard a few of their songs in different places, but I associated these images and melodies more with a distant time I had never known than with one of the world's most well-known and influential bands.

My elementary school music teacher, Ms. B, however, tried her best to instill in her students an appreciation of her favorite band. We spent weeks learning the history of the band, its songs, and its respective members. My favorite was Ringo, because he had the kind of a name you would give to a dog.

My class was forced to sing along with many of the band's greatest hits, but one in particular stands out to me, and for more than one reason. All Together Now was one of Ms. B's favorite songs to push upon the class. It is an ideal song to teach young children both for its echoing chorus and simple lyrics. Of the song's 249 words, 144 of them are “all,” “together,” or “now.” Twenty-two of the 105 remaining words are “bompa” and “bom.”

One day, after yet another round of bompa boms, Ms. B came to the class with some news. The school would be forming an “honor choir.” I wasn't sure what was going to be so honorable about this choir. No one seemed interested in Ms. B's offer, but the mandatory try-outs were to be held the next day.

I spent the entire evening thinking about the choir. How embarrassing would it be to sing in front of so many people? Singing in the shower was one thing. Anyone can sing in the shower. When you hear in the shower's closed acoustics, you could fancy yourself the world's greatest baritone. The cold and distant annex at my elementary school was a completely different scenario. That was a place where love for music went to die along with whatever other furry rodents had found their way in.

Ode to Taco Bell's Doritos Locos Taco

I first heard about Taco Bell's plan for a taco shell dusted with Dorito cheese about a year ago. I dreamed about it! Seriously. Then when I finally tasted it later this month, it inspired some poetic expression.

ODE TO DORITOS LOCOS TACO

It hit me like a sabre.

Just as the blunt force leads to searing pain,

Taco’s crunch leads to flavor.

People ask me if I’m sane:

“How could this marriage of food really appease?”

But I just scoff at their claims.

The Bellievers aren’t crazies.

They’re just fulfilling their most wild dreams:

Dorito Taco: nacho cheese!

It’s better with sour cream,

The tastes sing together in harmony.

Add tomatoes? Perfect team.

Then when the shell gets crummy

And breaks, good for you. Mini-doritos!

More yummy for your money!

For my blogging class, we're supposed to cover a blog and do a presentation on it sometime during the last part of the year. The blog I'll be following is The Lost Ogle, a local blog which was basically created to lampoon local media and politicians. So... yeah.

George Nigh: The Man, The Myth, The Legend

Photo Credit: Cyn Sheng Ling

Recently I interviewed former governor and UCO president George Nigh for The Vista. Either it was a very refreshing experience from a charming old man or I just got played by a very polished politician...

I'm going to stick with the former.

The way I see it, there are a lot of parts to Mr. Nigh. There's the politician, there's the school president, there's the humorist, there's the husband, there's the conversationalist and then there's the good ole Okie boy from McAlester. And none of these parts are necessarily distinct, rather they're al intertwined into one.

I guess you could say the same thing about all of us, but it was interesting to see it in a person with so many different aspects to him and with such an intriguing past.

Some of the best things he said to me were side comments he made when the recorder wasn't on. I only wish some of the other people I've interviewed could have been as easy to work with as he was.

To view my interview in its entirety, click here.

Guest Lecture By Dave Rhea

Dave Rhea, the multimedia editor at the Journal Record, spoke before my blogging class the other day. I really enjoyed his visit. Though I'm not sure how much I learned about blogging while he was here, there's a lot he said that I could apply to my own journalism career. Rhea arrived at his job in a very different way. He followed a path in music before re-entering the business of journalism. Though I have about 1% as much musical talent as I'm sure he does, it reminds me that I don't have to be directly focused on where I'm going in my life all the time, nor can I necessarily predict where I'll be in ten years, five years, one year or even one week.

Another thing Rhea brought up was the necessity of failure, or rather the opportunity we have as people to learn from our mistakes. Thomas Edison is often quoted as saying, "I have not failed 1,000 times.  I have successfully discovered 1,000 ways to NOT make a light bulb." In Rhea's words, you'll never find a safer driver than one who recently was in a wreck. Don't be afraid to be wrong or you'll never know how to be right. Experiment. Be innovative. That's the future of the industry. Who's going to save journalism, the grey-haired editor behind the big desk who barely knows Word or the bright young visionary who embraces the new technology and isn't afraid to take that chance.

Silencing The Static

There are days when I just can't take the noise.


“Sometimes I wish I was deaf,” I said to my brother one night. I wasn't being literal. When I'm around my brother, I tend to spout off things I don't actually believe, just so I can see in which way he might respond.


“Yeah, I know,” my brother replied, excited. He spoke with enthusiasm, as if he had been waiting for years for someone to bring up the subject. “Sometimes I even wish I was blind!”


His honesty and exuberance took be by surprise. Is this really something that people desire? To lose their basic senses? Are there people out there who feel enslaved by the echoes in their ears, the reflections in their eyes, or the tactation in their fingers? This is certainly something I had never considered before.


As the days went by, however, I finally realized what my brother meant.


I sat there, pounding away on my keyboard late at night. I'd been awake for the last twenty hours. Early that morning, I woke up to finish writing a pointless news story, staring deeply into the bright computer screen in an otherwise pitch-black room. Then I drove off to do my other job, where I ran data on a computer – again staring into the bright screen. I came home that evening to check up on the internet and watch some T.V. Again, bright screens. And now, here I was, trying my hardest to be witty with Microsoft Word but my eyes just couldn't take the stress. I slammed my laptop shut and pulled out my notepad. You're a writer, I thought to myself, so actually write something! My eyes relaxed, my thoughts opened up, and all order was restored in the world.


Sensory overload is a problem I face everyday. In the era of the iPhone, it's so easy to become constantly engaged with our electronic devices. It wasn't freedom from the senses that my brother was beckoning for, but freedom from the shackles of the things that constantly beg our attention. Sometimes I don't want to give my attention to anything. Sometimes I wish I was immune to the ringing of a phone or the ever-changing and increasingly portable flash of a screen – screens that come equipped on any and every one of the numerous electronic devices the common American has on hand at any given time.


 “Sometimes I wish I was deaf.” But not deaf to the world. Only to humanity – to both its vices and devices. But when the outer-world cries my name, I will always welcome its homely call, for who has ever lost sleep over a the rhythmic patter of a drowsy spring storm? Who has ever cursed a mountain sunset?