End-of-December Moline Mixtape 2011

This mix was created with care and creativity, inspired by the events that unfolded from Dec 26 to Dec 28 in Moline, IL and Rock Island.  It is meaningful to me and (hopefully) to all QC friends that I hung out with after Christmas 2011.  That means you, Jeremy, Steve, Ian, Sarah, Kasey, Lora, etc.

You can listen to the whole playlist at once in order (as it was meant to be heard) on YouTube here: 

Or, do your thing and pick & choose by clicking on each song.

Enjoy!

1. The Beatles – Taxman
2. Mark Morrison – Return of the Mack
3. tUnE-yArDs – Powa
4. Dr. Dre – Let’s Get High
5. Wu-Tang Clan – Protect Ya Neck
6. De La Soul – Me Myself and I
7. Girls – Vomit
8. The Beach Boys – Don’t Talk (Put Your Head on my Shoulder)
9. J Dilla – Don’t Cry
10. Rivers Cuomo – Wanda
11. Paul McCartney & Wings – Let Me Roll It
12. Fugazi – Suggestion
13. Modest Mouse – 3rd Planet
14. Saves the Day – Tomorrow Too Late
15. Beastie Boys – So What’cha Want
16. Beastie Boys – Multilateral Nuclear Disarmament
17. Outkast – Rosa Parks
18. The Beatles – Doctor Robert
19. Built to Spill – Big Dipper
20. The Beatles – Sexy Sadie
21. The Beatles – Julia
22. Chad VanGaalen – Sara
23. Chad VanGaalen – Do Not Fear
24. The Beatles – I Will
25. Elliott Smith – Say Yes

Love,
Tom

Happy Holidays, teachers!

It’s the holiday season once again, and that means for teachers and school workers that they finally get to enjoy a much-deserved break.  With that in mind, and with all of my friends and family who are educators in mind, I am posting this interview from my undergrad experience at UW-Madison’s School of Ed.  I just found it today browsing through my iTunes, and I forgot that I had this mp3.

In Spring of 2009 during our first semester in the program, all of us student-teachers in “the cohort” were instructed to approach a diverse community different than ourselves, be it racially different or different by any of the other traits that people form their identities with (gender, sexual orientation, income-level, etc).  My colleague Catie Cedzo and I went to the East Madison Community Center to interview members of their African-American community.  We asked them questions that would inform our teaching.  Essentially we wanted to know things that would help us be better teachers for their children.  What follows is our interview with a guy who we called “Rog” for Roger.

Teachers, enjoy your break!  I hope you enjoy hearing this, and I hope it reminds you of all the tough questions you have to ask yourself when figuring out how to be the best teacher you can be for your present classroom and community.  Never stop asking yourselves these questions!  Inside and outside of the classroom, they will always make you a better person, citizen, and neighbor to these people.  (Trust me!  I haven’t started teaching still!  And so, by the way, thank you if you are teaching!  I respect you more than you’ll ever know.  I’ve been there and know how incredibly challenging and exhausting it can be.)

Happy holidays!  -Tom

A student with tutor at EMCC

Swollen Pickle

The swollen pickle fuzz pedal by dunlop is another new toy I picked up at Davenport’s Music-Go-Round.  Go there and dig, y’all.

Here’s me playing with it in Jeremy’s Room.  This is not a song called Jeremy’s Room.  Or Jeremy.  Enjoy.

-Tom