Into the Night

iPod morning commute music: Rodrigo y Gabriela (2006)

I'm not big on world music (a shame, since I live in Asia), but I am big on great guitar playing. This duo met in a metal band in Mexico City, but ended up going acoustic and busking in, of all places, Ireland. Rodrigo plays lead, Gabriela rhythm. Flamenco is the obvious influence, but they really defy categorization. The video clips on their website rodgab.com (found under 'media' on their menu bar at the top of the site) are probably the best introduction to their music. You will then be searching for the CD. Exciting stuff. Also, see the review at allmusic.com, linked below:

http://www.allmusic.com/cg/amg.dll?p=amg&sql=10:ltcibkd9fakz

Today is my school's junior high entrance exam. It is really hard to explain this aspect of the Japanese school system, but basically you have two groups of students who take the test. The first group are students who say our school is their first choice, and they are given special treatment, meaning they can enter with lower test scores (tests subjects are Japanese, Math, Science and Social Studies) than those in the second group, who are taking the exam as a back-up in case they fail the exam for their preferred school. The second group usually represents the better students, who are hoping to get into a high level public school (as opposed to private schools like mine). The tests are administered in the morning, marked and the data entered into the computer in the afternoon, after which the administration examines the results and determine which students from both groups will be invited to attend our school. Determining how many of the first group will accept our invitation is not so hard, since almost all of them really do want to come here. The problem is determining how many of the better students applying here as a back-up will actually end up here: maybe 10% of those invited, say, so if you want 10 students from this group, you have to invite 100. Then we have a teachers meeting to decide if we will accept the administration's recommendations. We are waiting for that meeting to start. It is now 8:00 p.m. We had to be here by 7:50 a.m. for our morning service (Christian school). It's been a long day, extending into the night.

My co-worker Bob and I brought DVDs and munchies in anticipation of all this. We watched one of the classics that Bob brought, The Naked Gun, and a Sheryl Crow video DVD. Good stuff. Ate potato chips, cheese, crackers, along with the food provided by the school.

In the hours when we weren't working, eating, or watching TV, I got some serious work done on the TOEIC reading book, which made me feel good. Meanwhile, it 8:10, with no meeting in sight. It's going to be one long, long night.