The Infrequent Blogger

iPod morning commute music: Fleetwood Mac, Tusk [expanded edition] (1979/2004)

After listening to Lindsey Buckingham's latest (Under the Skin), I decided I need to go back to Fleetwood Mac's Tusk and have another listen. Like everyone else in America, I owned Rumors, but for some reason I never bought Tusk. Maybe it was the hype (the first $1,000,000 album), the length (2 record set), or the title cut which, for some reason I can no longer remember, I didn't like. Regardless, this is a great CD. Remastered, it also has the album version of Stevie Nicks' song Sara (I according to allmusic.com, the original CD had the shortened single version in order to squeeze everything onto 1 CD). The 2nd CD is mostly outakes, demos, etc., but there's enough interesting stuff to keep someone like me listening.

Sorry I haven't been blogging. It's just been a busy time. The same excuses I've used in the past entries still hold true. Fortunately, the elections are upon us tomorrow, so I will take a break from Democrats Abroad Japan for a couple of months as I prepare for final exams and work on the first draft of the second TOEIC book, which we need to complete by Christmas.

This weekend, I gave a talk at the Japan Association of Language Teachers' (JALT) conference in Kitakyushu. It was the first time for me to present at an international conference. My collegue, Keiji, and I talked about what the Osaka Private Schools English Teaching Association is doing to affect change from the prefectural level. It went well, but unfortunately we were given a horrible presentation time (lunchtime, on the last day), and it was poorly attended. I think we'll try to come back next year and give a presentation on the same basic theme, and hope for more people.

Big news: I'll be returning to Seattle by myself to spend Christmas with my son, my parents, and the rest of my US based family. Unfortunately, Kaoru and Alisa can't make it. I'll be arriving in Seattle on Dec. 21st, and will return to Japan on Jan. 4th. If any of my friends are able to drop by Vashon for a visit, let me know, but the main point is to visit my family, so I doubt I'll be getting out of the Seattle area this trip.