Still The Night, words and music by Sammy Llanas and Kurt Neumann aka The Bodeans

I thought I’d start this blog off with me favorite Bodeans song in it's entirety, Still The Night. I could not find the name of their publishing company or the year that it originally came out. I got the song lyrics off the internet. The version that I have is the live one off their best of cd entitled Slash and Burn, Best of The Bodeans.

I have a Writer’s Digest magazine for the month of June. I think it would be fun to do the writing prompts and publish them here. I can’t quiet start on the prompt for today because I haven't finished reading the books I selected to review. The books I’ve chosen that were published this year are Evenings at Five by Gail Godwin, Just Like a River by Muhammad Kamil-al-Khatib, and Welcome To Fred by Brad Whittington. I selected these books because they were short. I didn't want to have another fiasco like I did when I tried to get through Jacklyn Susann’s, Valley of the Dolls. The prose was overly flowery and tedious. I just couldn't get into it. Also the reason why I selected three books as opposed to one was in case one of the book’s was painful to get through. I figure the odds are small that all three would be painful to complete. On or before June 30, 2003 I’ll have my book review of a new book posted to this blog.

I’ll start off on the exercise for July 1 which is to write a letter to your favorite high school teacher and to be sure and send it. I won’t send it I’ll just post it here.

Hmmmm, I have two choices I could either write a letter to my favorite to look dreamily at, Joel Tallman or I could also write a letter to the teacher whom I consider to be the most influential, Allen Rosskopff.

Lets start off with Joel Tallman who by the way was never my teacher. He was just this good looking guy that I prayed would be my English teacher. The closest I came to Joel being my teacher was his stint as my homeroom teacher during Senior Year. Joel as you’ve probably guessed it was a very good looking man in the 80’s but not quiet in the Ingo Rademacher, born of angels drop dead gorgeous, too perfect for words, fall all over yourself in a puddle of drool kind of way. Heck, if he looked looked like Ingo Rademacher I doubt if I would have been able to think straight after that much exposure. I’d have to say that the celebrity he most resembles is Paul Walker, the blonde haired guy from The Fast and Furious movies.

I still can still vividly remember the first time I ever saw Joel. I was staying late to make up for some I work I missed in my freshman English class. I do not recall the teachers name whose work I was making up that day. I do recall that she was a tall black woman who was from originally from New York. It was late in the afternoon she had earlier turned the lights off and the shades were drawn to deflect from the heat outside.

Then as I was doing whatever I was doing I noticed that she was having a very animated conversation with someone. I looked up and noticed a very handsome blonde haired man in a tan suit who carried a briefcase. I assumed he was her boyfriend or something.

I still can recall the conversation that they had. She revealed that she was taking guitar lessons. I didn't think anything of this because she was something of a flake. Then the conversation drifted over to One Flew Over The Cuckoos Nest. They both agreed that Jack Nicholson was a great actor and that they were considering showing the movie next year to their students! Gasp!! THEIR STUDENTS!!

Then I remember thinking in horror, Noooo! Nooo! Nooo! That gorgeous man can’t be teacher!! Is he insane!!! Half mad! Why people who look like that ought to be modeling or working as a young hot shot attorney, or a young hot shot business exec, maybe even a young hot shot test pilot!! Basically, any glamorous profession that you can think of that you could prefix with young hotshot. I remember thinking to myself he’s wasting his talents, whatever they were.

Later I learned that there was just a 6-7 year age difference between us. This of course made my young brain reel. He was young handsome and dangerously close to our age. For all I know Joel could have gone to seed by now. He could be this chubby, balding 40something with a major flatulence problem.

My letter to Joel would be brief:

Joel baby,

Remember me I was in your homeroom class at City? Black chick with the glasses? How’s it going dude! First off three question, are you married, in a seriously committed relationship, or gayer than a Disney cow? No! No! I’m not trying to get with you. Just curious is all. I gotta say back in the day you was one fine ass mother. Mmmm, Mmmm, Mmmm! Later, Dude.

My other favorite teacher was Allen Roskopff. Mr. Rosskopf was like Papa Smurf. I could never bring myself to refer to him as Allen, he’ll always be Mr. Rosskopff to me. Unlike Joel he wasn’t anywhere near our age. He was an adult. He had a wife and a grown daughter and stuff. I’m not sure is Mr. Rosskopff is still alive and I wouldn't want to insult his memory, however no kidding the celebrity he most resembles is ,Charles Manson without the swastika on his forehead. One day someone bought in a picture of Charles Manson and we noted in horror that he was a dead ringer for Mr. Rosskopff who happens to be Jewish.

He was the one teacher I had that encouraged my writing. He was also the only person I met who openly admits to be a sadist. Trust me he could be one tough bastard if pushed. He also told wonderful stories that could last the entire length of a class period. This would mean that we had no class work or test that day if someone could get him off and talking.

I had brief contact with him a couple of years ago through my stint as a telemarketer. I learned that he was no longer teaching at City and that he wanted us to take him off our list.

If I wrote him a letter I’d ask him if he went to school with my idol Marc Steiner. This is under the assumption that Mr. Rosskopff and Marc attended City at the same time. They both roughly appear to be around the same age.

My letter to Mr. Rosskopff :

Dear Mr. Rosskopff,

My name is Gail. I was a former student of your’s at City College. I used to write that Goo Noo the Cat cartoon. Anyway, since I know that you are an alumnus of City as well, I just wanted to know if you went to school with my idol, NPR talk show host, Marc Steiner. I feel that Marc Steiner is a local treasure and I want to learn more about him. Do you still keep in contact with him, if so can you pass my name along to him? If you should see him tell him I think he’s the greatest!

Sincerely,
Gail

p.s.
Say hello to Marc for me!!

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Ahem, Back To Art Notes...........................................

As far as my art goes.... That’s right I’m still a visual artist with a day job somewhere in Hunt Valley who wants to trade that day job for another in Biotechnology or any other research type. Anyway, I’ve started to do some sculptures in polymer clay for fun. I intend to turn them into pins. The kind you pin onto your clothes. Also I’m getting together a page from my art sketchbook to submit for an exhibit at Artscape. The exhibit would consist of pages from various artist’s notebooks. Wish me luck hopefully mine will be among those chosen for the display.