Out of the Blue (I'm a star like Debbie Gibson!)

Acid Planet is a website where musicians can posts recordings of their songs. People log in, listen to music and write reviews of each other's work. There is some sort of chart system whereby people who get the most comments rise in the rankss. I joined in October of 2003 when I first figured out how to record on my pc. It was great fun, especially as a super newbie songwriter and performer, to hear comments from strangers on my music. Of course, the way the chart system is set up makes it sort of a mutual back-stratching society. I write a comment for you, you write a comment for me, we both rise in the charts. Frankly, I've never looked at the charts, but for a while I was sort of obsessed with Acid Planet. It was a way for my far away friends to hear what I was doing and for me to get some confidence boosts in the relative anonymity of cyberspace.

It's been two years since I've posted ANYTHING on Acid Planet. Maybe every six months I'll get an email that someone has reviewed a song and I think "OH! I forgot that was out there!" A couple days a go I got an email from Acid Planet saying congratulations, I had been included in an Acid Planet podcast. I thought hmf, whatever. And then I started getting review notice after review notice.

I just listened to the podcast. Okay, I listened until I heard myself (and thankfully, I'm the second song!). It was bizarro to hear the podcaster announce me like a dj and then play a song I posted two years ago and haven't even played since! And now, apparently people are listening to the podcast, then finding my Acid Planet page and listening to my music! Wierd! And a lot of it is old...and not so good!

If you want to hear the podcast click here. You can fast forward to about 5:50 to hear me. If you want to take a stroll down memory lane and listen to old Emily Dunbar "hits" (aka: mostly crappy home recordings but a few nice ones recorded by and with Jay Bayles--I recommend "did you not think of me") you can click here.

My New Hat

From Interweave Crochet Winter 2007:

a rose by any other name still rocks the 80's synthpop

In March The Listening Room is having its Artists in Residence concert featuring local songwriters including yours truly. Today I was working on a little bluegrass version of Bad Connection by Yaz that I'd like to play for the show. I love Yaz. Bad Connection. Don't Go. Only You. All fantastic British synth-pop gems which made a big impression on me in my youth. My sister had a copied cassette tape of Yaz's album Upstairs at Eric's. I listened to it over and over--I remember being in seventh or eigth grade when I first heard it, so 1987-88. I know 80s syth-pop doesn't seem to lend itself to bluegrass, but its gonna rock.

I don't know what my attraction to British synth-pop is, especially considering that I play acoustic guitar and now listen to mostly acoustic-based artists and bands. Those songs are just so catchy and I keep wanting to cover them. When I bought my accordion, the first song that I figured out how to play was Depeche Mode's song Just Can't Get Enough. Bad Connection and Just Can't Get Enough are two of my all time favorite songs.

I started wondering what happen to Yaz. I knew Yaz's singer was Alison Moyet because when the first Very Special Christmas album came out in 1987, she sang The Coventry Carol. I knew instantly who she was (though I didn't recognize her name on the cassette) because her voice is unmistakable. I heard nothing of Yaz until Only You made the finale of the BBC's The Office and showed up in Napolean Dynamite. I wanted to fill in the gaps so I went to Wikipedia.

Get this: Alison Moyet's partner in Yaz (know in Britain as Yazoo--who knew?!) was Vince Clarke. Vince Clarke started out in Depeche Mode. He WROTE Just Can't Get Enough (1981). Clarke quit Depeche Mode when they started getting big, formed Yaz and wrote Bad Connection, Only You, etc.! Yaz split in 1983. Clarke went on to start Erasure!

So, Vince Clarke is my new hero, my new 80's British synth-pop songwriting hero.

headlining ladies

I liked Hillary in the debate tonight. I hate having to qualify that was thoughts about "electibility."
I can't believe Britney got sent to the funny farm and was then let out again.

living up to my potential

With one semester under my belt, here in my seventeenth year of formal schooling, I have my first 4.0. I worked hard for it. I obsessed over it. And when my grades appeared on the Hastings College website I did a little nerd dance. I didn't obsess over the GPA itself, but over the individual A's. This is a new thing for me. I've always been sort of a slacker. I've always skated by with charm, humor and as little work as it would take to get me a 3.0. But a flip has been switched, my friends, and I love that 4.0.

In high school I knew I had to maintain the 3.0 for the sake of my parents (who would have preferred a 3.3 as that was the fabled cut-off GPA for the Tri Delts at Mizzou). But a 3.0 seemed right to me too--not stupid, not caring too much. I had no internal motivation to do any better and I carefully walked the line, balancing my C's in math and science with my A's in English and Spanish for a good solid B average. I had pom-pons and musicals to think about. I had boys to deal with with and spiritual crises. There was student council and zits and boobs out of proportion to the rest of my body. How could I really care about school?

In college I sort of floundered. It was hard to be away from home for the first time--figuring out how to do laundry, how to manage time, how to stay sane in a ridiculous sorority I never should have joined. I transferred after my freshman year and had to go through the adjustments all over again. I got by. I did fine. I just didn't really get it until, with two semesters left, I switched my major from Spanish to English and took almost nothing but literature courses until I graduated. My GPA shot up. I made a point to show up to class. I enjoyed writing papers. I got to know and like my professors. It was so great--and then it was over.

About a year ago, I was in a funk and had a hard time first identifying and then admitting what exactly it was I was feeling. Firstly, I was feeling unfocused. I spent my time doing a lot of worth-while and fulfilling things. I was raising my children, teaching Sunday School, leading book group, serving on the Library Board, working with the Listening Room and pursuing my hobby music career. All great things. But they were so scattered and varied and separate that they weren't building towards anything. That was becoming dissatisfying.

Secondly--this is the part that was hard to admit--I craved acknowledgement. Being a stay-at-home-Mom is the end-all, be-all of internal rewards. Of course it was rewarding! Of course Paul acknowledged my work and of course I could look at Phoebe, Mo & Ollie and see the fruits of my labor. Of course those things were true in a big-picture sense. But on a daily basis I could not measure and see if I was doing well. I got no paycheck that said "you're work is worth this much to our company and if you keep it up we'll give you more." And I know that all the volunteer work I have done is appreciated--I know I've made good contributions to organizations and enjoyed doing it and those who I served and served with think I've done a good job. But after eight years of stay-at-home/volunteering, I really needed a little external reward. I can only be so deep. I can only be so zen. I was ready to be complimented and petted and told that I'm great. I was ready for somebody to give me money! I was ready to have a clearly marked measuring stick and see how far up it I could reach.

So I am now grade-obsessed.

My hope is that this will fade. My goal, of course, is to learn, not just get good grades and I have learned a tremendous amount this semester. I really went in having no idea what the standards were or how my work would compare--I graduate from college twelve years ago! So I was anxious and eager to make sure I was up to snuff. It feels good to know that I am.

Dunbar vs. Martha Stewart Omnimedia

It's on, Martha Stewart! You snagged my idea. You're goin' down.

Emily's T-Shirt Bag

Marth's T-Shirt Bag

Notice my post is is dated Aug. 5 and Martha's is dated Oct. 5.

jackpot

In September I wrote my first-ever grant proposal on behalf of The Listening Room. Today I received a check for $5,000. O.MY.GOLLY.

wonders never cease

It occasionally seems like this world has been entirely discovered. There is nothing new here. Every last inch of earth has been put under the microscope, poked, prodded, categorized and summed up on wikipedia and then...from the depths of the Pacific Ocean comes the Yeti Crab. I love this thing. I can hardly believe that it is real. I want one--because they so freaking cool--and because they prove that wonders never cease.

guilty, not guilty

Today we found a man guilty of making terroristic threats and not guilty of third degree manslaughter. I got to be the presiding juror, which used to be, I think, the foreman. How cool is that?

After we had heard all the evidence and the closing statements, the judge read us our instructions. This took twenty minutes. Twenty minutes! They were very detailed instructions full of definitions of the law and what we could and could not consider during deliberation. We went into deliberation and were supposed to pick a presiding juror straightaway, but we didn't. We started discussing the case. Because for the whole two days we were unable to say anything at all about the trial to anyone, not even each other. So everyone just started gabbing. We needed to debrief. And laugh.

But then opinions began to take shape. And people were taking all kinds of things into consideration that were not specified in the instructions. This is how I came to be presiding juror; I was adamant that we stick to the rules. It didn't matter that this guy seemed like a jerk, or that guy was annoying. We had to stick to the evidence.

The events we were to consider took place on Aug 8. Apparently there was a similar incident on Aug 7 that was alluded to and discussed in part, though most testimony regarding it was stricken (struck?) from the record and we were told to disregard it. Of course we all wanted to know what happened that night. Of course it would have shed light on the events the next morning, but we were explicitly instructed not to take the night of Aug 7. into consideration. But that's what everyone wanted to talk about.

I kept referring back to our instruction booklet and reading the pertinent parts aloud (there were multiple copies, but not one for everybody). And then I went to the bathroom. And when I returned I was informed that I was the presiding juror.

We all decided pretty quickly that the defendant was guilty of terrorizing threats. The evidence was overwhelming. But assault? We went back and forth and back and forth. I was convinced one way and then completely changed my opinion. Round and round we went. Everyone was leaning toward guilty, but there was still doubt.

The definition of assault was to intentionally cause bodily harm OR threaten in a menacing manner. We sent a note to the judge asking for clarification of what "threatening in a menacing manner" meant. In the terrorizing threat charge, it did not matter if the victim actually felt scared or terrorized, only that the defendant intended for him to so feel. Our question was, in the assault charge, did it matter if the victim felt threatened?

Two guys have a fight. Evidence does not show that one or the other started it--it seems pretty mutual. The defendant runs inside and grabs a knife. When he comes back out the victim is getting on his bike and riding away. The defendant chases him down the street with the knife. In the victim's testimony, he does not mention the knife at all--he did not know the defendant (behind him while he was pedaling away) had a knife. Witnesses saw him with it. The defendant stated he had it. So was the victim just fleeing or was he fleeing because he was threatened in a menacing manner?

We wrote our question, knocked on the door, handed the note to the bailiff who took it to the judge. The judge read the note, conferred with the lawyers. We all convened back in the courtroom. She read us her reply. Gave us a written copy of it and we went back into deliberation. This took almost a half an hour.

The judge stated that to be threatened in a menacing manner meant to cause a rational person to be apprehensive of being harmed. After a little more discussion none of us felt that the state proved beyond reasonable doubt that the defendant intended to harm the victim or that he threatened him in a menacing manner, therefore we could not find him guilty of assault.

I had to fill out the form and sign it. I was the last to enter the court room. The judge asked me to stand and asked "Has the jury reached a decision?" I got to answer all her questions--yes we reached a decision, yes it was unanimous, etc. She read our decision and I verified that that was our decision. She asked the public defender if he wanted to poll the jury to ensure we were unanimous but he declined. And we were adjourned. The end.

The trail itself was fairly tedious and boring, but the deliberation process was fascinating. And that is probably more than you ever wanted to know about jury duty.

Tomorrow I go back to class and work. I have two ten page papers to write in the next week or so and three finals to prepare for. Yikes.

as much as I'm allowed to say

Here is what, at the end of day one, I can tell you about jury duty:
The process was quite fascinating...until the trial actually started.
I'll be there from 9 to 5 tomorrow and possibly Wednesday morning.
CSI? Not so much. Keystone Cops? Much more like it.
As easy as it is to rag on serving, I feel pretty good about participating in democracy. I get very cynnical about patriotism at a time when I don't much care for my president, his administration or his war. I do, however, care for my country. So off I go in the morning to the district court to perform my civic duty.

and we're back

1. I brined my Thanksgiving turkey. It started out poorly, but after a little trial and error I had the turkey in a bag, the bag in a five gallon bucket and the bucket in the refrigerator. I used a recipe from Martha Stewart (of course!) which included some very salty water, a bottle of wine, and various herbs and spices. Supposedly soaking it over night in the salt makes it juicy. Osmosis or something. Was it delicious? Yes. Was it better than previous un-brined turkeys? Hard to say.

2. Today Moses called Paul a "despicable miscreant." It was awesome.

3. It's snowing.

4. A couple of weeks ago in one of my classes we were discussing the Columbine High School shootings. My professor asked, "Where were you guys when that happened? At what stage of life were you then?" The general consensus: sixth grade. Yikes.

5. I have two 10-page papers yet to write this semester.

6. After receiving the same alarming email about five times regarding The Golden Compass and how it is the anti-Narnia and about "killing god" I really, really wanted it read it. So, I did. And I really, really liked it. It's very unsuspecting until the end, when it gets rather heretical--maybe sin is good. The church says sin is bad, but the church is bad, so why should we believe the church? Only, here's the thing--it's all happening in an alternate universe. The alternate universe is very much like our universe, but it is not our universe. The church has some similarities to our church, but it is not our church. And there is a quote from "the Bible" which is similar to our Bible...you get the picture. So, I understand the desire to be cautious. It would all be a little over my kids' heads at this point anyway. But, if they want to read it later (and they've seen previews and TOTALLY want to see the movie, but we have a solid rule about reading the book first) I might allow it, if we are reading it together and are able to discuss what it all means. I'm not so much for ruling a book out completely, but this book certainly would raise some deep theological questions in a thinking twelve-year-old reader, which could be good, could be bad. I'll probably take up the next book in the series over Christmas break.

7. Phoebe is reading Harry Potter & The Prisoner of Azkaban on her own. Constantly. It is so fun to see her hooked.

8. We are all listening to a book on CD called The Tale of Despereaux: Being the Story of a Mouse, a Princess, Some Soup and a Spool of Thread. I LOVE it.

9. While we're on books, I really want a Kindle. Maybe. It was this quote from the Newsweek article by Steven Levy this week that really got me:

Microsoft's Bill Hill has a riff where he runs through the energy-wasting,
resource-draining process of how we make books now. We chop down trees,
transport them to plants, mash them into pulp, move the pulp to another
factory to press into sheets, ship the sheets to a plant to put dirty marks
on them,then cut the sheets and bind them and ship the thing around the
world. "Do you really believe that we'll be doing that in 50 years?" he asks.

10. I checked out a laptop from the library at Hastings College over Thanksgiving break. I think it's funny that I am able to do that. I sat at the Blue Moon and did research and wrote a paper. I still marvel at such technology: wireless, flash drives. It really changes the way school works. I bet all those punks who were in sixth grade in 1999 don't marvel at wireless and flash drives. They are too busy texting to marvel.

11. I went to McCook last week and played the opening set for a Tom Kimmel show at the Bieroc Cafe. I love going there. I hadn't seen most of the Bieroc crew since the Rocky Mountain Folks Festival. Good times.

12. As part of an assignment, I went to the HPS School Board meeting last Monday. It had all the usual board meeting blah blah blah which I'm very used to from being on the library board. However, it was a great night for future English teachers. The middle school english/language arts teachers were there in force and riled up becuase eigth grade reading has been taken out of the curriculum. As I understand it, there is currently specified reading instruction for all seventh graders and for some eigth graders. The proposed curriculum has eliminated it for all eigth graders, and these teachers want it, instead, for ALL eigth graders. My friend Deanna, seventh grade reading teacher, was first to speak (I had no idea this was going to be happening) and two other teachers followed. It was like Mr. Smith Goes to Washington. They rocked. I want to be an English teacher!

This Friday

The Listening Room Presents
SONiA & disappear fear
Friday, October 26 7:30 pm
Knights of Pythias, Hastings

Begun as a sister-act in Baltimore in the early 1990’s “disappear fear” quickly became a cult-favorite on college campuses and festival circuits. Now reconfigured with founding member and creative soul SONiA on vocals, keyboard and guitar and Laura Cerulli on percussion and drums, “disappear fear” continues to deliver their signature harmonies and folk-pop grooves with a message. Their latest album forays into world of world music with songs in four languages carrying the band’s ever-present themes of love, peace and equality. Emily Dunbar & Robin Harrell open the show.

Show starts at 7:30. Tickets are $12, table reservations are $10. Student tickets are $8. Soup & drinks available. Call Robin for info/reservations: 402/463-6248.

Upcoming Shows
Friday, November 9: Peter Mayer (poets Margaret Marsh & Brant Vodehnal open)
Friday, November 30: Tom Prasada-Rao & Cary Cooper (Andy Miller opens)

A Preview:

How do I act so well?

A little clip for you today from the genius show Extras, in which Ricky Gervais (who created The Office) gets celebrites to play to worst versions of themselves. This clip is with Sir Ian McKellan. Andy (Gervais) is auditioning for a show McKellan (himself) is producing. Enjoy.

by the numbers

13

number of miles I ran this week

102

score on my educational psychology test

9

number of papers I edited on Friday at work

8

number of individual tests I administered on Friday at work

36:31

my time in the 5k I ran on Saturday (slower than my previous time...which makes me think I heard it wrong and it was really 31:36)

4

episodes of Big Love we watched on dvd this week

1

number of grant proposals I wrote this week

3

number of research papers I am working on

2

surprise birthday gifts I received this week, more than a month after my birthday

(my boss bought me a Hastings College sweatshirt & Angela burned me a Sarah Sample cd and a live recording of Darrell Scott @ the RMFF and brought me flowers in a ceramic vase she made)

40

miles per hour the wind blew yesterday as we tried to eat a picnic lunch @ HC's homecoming

15

crawdads caught in the Platte River on Friday by Paul and the kids who had a day off from school

750

sack lunches we packed for The Open Table during Sunday School this morning

n/a

Much to my surprise when I got the syllabus for my Literature of American Minorities class my professor pointed out the days she would be out of town--also knows as "the days Emily will teach class." I suppose this is what it means to be a grad student.

So today I taught class. We finished discussing Louise Erdrich's Love Medicine and began discussion of Sherman Alexi's This Is What It Means to Say Phoenix, Arizona. I also had to give a quiz. Writing the quiz was hard. I wanted to make sure they read but I didn't want to ask anything too obscure. Knowing I had to teach the text I read it a bazillion times and sort of lost touch with how much a first-time reader would comprehend and remember.

There were two problems with the quiz. Okay, wait--there was ONE problem with the quiz. Question nine was too vague. There were two problems with the ANSWERS to the quiz. The movie Smoke Signals is based on the story by Alexi. I asked what a character looked like because there was a very brief, specific description (broken teeth, ratty braids). People wrote things like "he wore lots of denim" (which made me laugh out loud) or "he was a nerd." I think they are describing the character's portrayal in the film. Boo.

The other problem was what these students did when they didn't know the answer. Some people made crazy stuff up in hopes that they just might hit the jackpot and get it right. But my favorite thing at least three people (in a class of 12) wrote as an answer to a quiz questions was "n/a" or "not applicable."

WHAT? "I don't know"? Maybe. Blank? fine. But "not applicable"?!

I have two responses.

1. Oh, so you think this question doesn't apply to you? Everyone else has to answer it but not you?

2. Is this an indictment of my quiz? You don't think the question applies to the text you just read?

In either case, I WILL DECIDE WHAT IS APPLICABLE HERE, FOLKS. GOT IT?

I was so amused.

School is going great. It's starting to get a little nutty. Work is picking up. I'm teaching one guy to type. I edit about 6 papers a day (that will definitely increase). I teach two sections of a Learning Lab twice a week. And today I taught my lit class.

Right now I am going to read my Educational Psychology text so that after the kids are in bed, Paul and I can watch Blades of Glory. See? I really am a college student.

First Days of School

Last Tuesday the kids started school. Phoebe is in third grade, Moses is in first and Oliver started Kindergarten. This morning I started graduate school.

Gillian Welch, Ray LaMontagne & Darrell Scott

These are a few of the artists I will be seeing at the Rocky Mountain Folk Festival for which I am leaving in 2 hours. Oh SNAP! I get to leave the fam at home, road trip with my pal Angela, camp in the mountains, drink New Belgian beer, dip my toes in a stream, strum my guitar and hear some fantastic music.

My excuse for not posting all week: facebook. Facebook is the best thing ever. I have to look at it 100 times a day. It makes myspace seem like child's play.

I'll post when/if I return.

37:44

I ran the Kool-Aid Days 5k this morning. I was anxious once I got there because most everybody there looked like thin, fit, runners. Why this surprised me, I'm not sure. Luckily my friend Phil ran and his parents came to cheer him on so I had folks to hang with before it started. And they cheered me across the finish line.

There were two other women who ran at my pace. One was a bit ahead of me the whole time and the other would pass me and then I'd pass her and then she'd pass me. To my great surprise the woman who was a bit ahead of me won second place in our age bracket. That makes me a THIRD PLACE runner. Who knew?

I asked Phil how he ran (earlier I asked him if he wanted to hang back and run with me and he did his best not to laugh in my face). He said he started to dry heave near the end so he must have run hard.

Never mind that the guy who finished first was in the 50+ category and ran it in 15 something. Never mind that Phil finished in 17 something. Never mind that I still can't run the whole three miles. It was a very encouraging morning. I'm so glad I did it. I can't wait for the Duck Days run.

ridiculously bountiful

Todd and Cody showed up last night at 9:30 with a trunk full of basil. A trunk full of basil. Cody tried to get me to take three garbage bags full. Three garbage bags full. I talked her down to one hefty bag.

She planted something like 40 linear yards of basil at her in-laws house. This was her second harvest of the summer. She just went after it with hedge trimmers, stuffed it into garbage bags, and then drove around town making deliveries to her lucky friends.

So today was pesto day. I harvested my garlic from the yard, stocked up on provisions at Allen's, busted out the Kitchen Aid mixer, and basically, made pesto all day long. The recipe I use calls for 2 cups of packed basil leaves. I made twenty batches. My freezer is full of pesto. We'll have pesto all year. I still have a collander full of basil leaves (but I'm long since out of olive oil, etc). And Cody will have another harvest before growing season is up.

So tonight it was pasta & pesto with a nice Gewurztraminer. Fantastic.

bummer

I got up when the alarm went off at 6:15. I walked straight to the front door to see if it was raining. It was not. It clearly had rained, but it was not currently raining. So, I went down to the laundry and sorted the clothes in the drier so I could find my favorite running pants and Enell bra.

Let's pause a moment to talk about the Enell bra. I paid $70 and waited 6 months for its arrival. It was totally worth it. Is it ridiculous to say a bra changed my life? Prior to seeing it Oprah's Favorite Things I could to some degree honestly blame the lack of a good bra for my lack of physical fitness. Ladies, if uniboob-making unsupportive sports bras have got you down, I recommend the Enell...and back to the story...

I took my clothes upstairs, got dressed, and put my contacts in. Then I started gathering the stuff I need--which is all right by the front door--my watch with the timer (for run4/walk1), my new tiny mp3 player, my drivers license so the morgue can identify me when I've been run over, the key to my bike lock and my water bottle.

I looked out the window and saw that it was still pretty dark out. And I've become a safety nerd. I don't have lights for my bike but I do have a reflective penny (I LOVE that word--like you wore in grade school gym class to form a red team and a blue team) so I dug it out of the closet.

I'm not really a morbid person, but sometimes I think the death of myself or a loved on must be eminent. For a person of faith, I have superstitious tendencies. Or maybe it's a belief in statistics. I just think that since I've never been in a major car accident, odds are one's coming soon. If I looked it up, wouldn't the statistics show that I should have one at some point? And someone dies...what?...every minute?...every second?...so, why shouldn't I expect itto be someone in my family? Why not me? My life is SO great, the other shoe should be dropping any moment.

So I put on the nerdtastic reflective penny and I put my license in my pocket to make it easier on the authorities if the penny doesn't work. I put all the stuff in my bike basket and open the garage door AND IT'S RAINING.

This explains blogging at 7am.

I guess I'll make coffee and watch The Today Show. Bummer. I should be safe, though.