Wednesday and Still Not 100%

iPod morning commute music: America, Here and Now (disc 1); 2007

For years, I have been trashing the band America, primarily because of the lyrical content of their (in)famous song A Horse with No Name. I have refused to even consider that I might be wrong. I have quoted Rolling Stone Album Guide's pans of ALL their albums. Then this album rolled in, highlighted in my All Music Guide weekly e-mail of new releases.

All Music Guide's basic view is that this band has been treated unfairly by critics and people like me, and they wrote a compelling review of this release, produced by James Iha (Smashing Pumpkins) and Adam Schlesinger (Fountains of Wayne). Included as a bonus disc is a live performance from 2005 covering all the songs on their 1975 greatest hits release Hits.

Well, I guess I was wrong. The new stuff is good, and the old stuff is good. It is, of course, soft rock, not my favorite genre, but one that I certainly listen to often enough. I'm even considering picking up Rhino's 2006 double CD greatest hits collection The Definitive Pop Collection.

That said, A Horse with No Name still suffers from insipid lyrics.

This has been a bad week for me. Last Thursday, I came down with severe stomach cramps, coupled with a fever. I ended up taking Friday off work and going to the doctor, who had no real idea why I had the cramps since I had none of the other classic accompanying symptoms (vomiting or diarrhea). The medicine he prescribed did take care of the cramps, but not completely: They are still there, lingering like lechers in alleyways. Awful.

Yesterday was our annual high school choral contest. This is a choral competition between the classes in each year group. Each year group is given a hymn which each class must perform, and then the students choose one other, popular song. The students choose conductors and pianists, and practice completely on their own, before and after school, during lunch breaks, and any other time they can find to work together. It actually is a cool competition, one of three between classes in year groups. The first is Sports Day, where classes compete in various races and games against each other. The second is the Cultural Festival, where students create performances. My memory is we didn't have these types of in-school competitions between classes, not individuals.

Tomorrow, we teachers find out which year group we'll be attached to. I should also find out if I will be escorting to England this year. Hopefully, there will be no unpleasant surprises.