Concert

When I moved to Fargo, I was pretty excited by the prospect of going to concerts and shows. Now that I've been here, though, I'm sad to say I have not attended many of the offerings at the FargoDome. Now, I completely understand that it is not their job to cater to my tastes in music or entertainment, so all I ask is that I get to attend at least one rock concert a year.

My mom, one of my sisters, and I went to Nickelback last year. We were standing, not too far from the front, and had a great time. The music, of course, was the most important thing, so I won't belabor the lack of pizazz regarding the stage setup.

One of my students was there. Let's just say that I don't think he remembers anything about the show or teaching my mother how to bang her head. It's simply too hard to explain, so I won't. She was a good sport about it all, but we soon tried to move away.

The only other drawback was standing. Let's face it: I am not a teenager anymore. My feet were killing me by the end of the show!

With all this in mind, I purchased seats for last night's quadruple hitter: Skillet, Seether, Breaking Benjamin and Three Days Grace. About four hours before the show, a student who also had tickets, informed me that there weren't "assigned" seats (that sounds very teacher-ish, doesn't it). It was open seating, but he offered to save two seats if he could find some.

My mom and I arrived about an hour early and found seats in one of the back side sections, but this was unacceptable. We quickly darted across the dome to find seats in the first section to the right of the stage. I soon discovered that my student and his fiance were sitting not too far away. I'm confident saying that they both remember the show much better than my previous student!

I really hate to admit it, but these bands no very little about showmanship! The stage set up was bland. The singers rooted themselves almost solely to the center of the stage and did not utilize their stage well. The exception to this was the lead singer of Breaking Benjamin who, at one point, walked amongst the crowd to distribute bottled water to the fans sans body guards. I thought, only in Fargo with relatively newer band could such a person trust the crowd not to mob him! Jon Bon Jovi surely couldn't do this!

This, of course, reveals my age, so let me elaborate: in the 80s, the concerts were wild! There were pyrotechnics, elaborate set designs, and much interaction between the crowd and band. There was also more smoke, barely concealed substance abuse, and a lot more hair, but I digress. I was particularly struck by the body surfing. It happened back then, too, but I never recalled the point of body surfing to include being delivered to the security team at the front so you could be dragged out of the masses. That would have been considered a failed attempt back in the day. However, the body surfing was much more entertaining to watch from our vantage point than the lead singer. After all, if I turned to find him, he was always still center stage. The whole experience brought back the memories of past concerts when I was in that crushing throng. At one concert in particular, I don't think my feet touched the floor for an hour. I wasn't body surfing--I was simply helplessly adrift in the swaying tides of the crowd.

Now Three Days Grace was really good (It was enjoyable, but not particularly memorable). They played all their hits and I knew all the songs as their CDs are what I listen to as I drive to and from work. I love when a band actually sounds like they do on their CD. Three Days Grace does. The front man was a little more lively than the others at the beginning of the show, but then also found himself stuck in front of the mic stand.

Now here comes the zinger: there was no encore. None! The last song finished, people started filing out, and the lights came on. WHAT???? This is the first concert I have been to where there was no encore. I couldn't believe it.

All in all, I'm glad we went. I did, however, have more fun people watching than band watching. I don't know if I'd go to their show again, but I'm certainly looking forward to next year's opportunities.

Texting

ICU TXTING. IMHO, it is rude. TTYL.

Favorite assignment

In two classes I have already given out one of my favorite in-class writing prompts:

Write three paragraphs. 1. Tell me what you are doing to be successful in this class. 2. Tell me what you can do to be more successful in this class. 3. Tell me what you need from me so that you can be more successful in this class.

I like that the students often start strong: I attend class, I read the assignments, I turn in my work on time. All of these are admirable traits.

Then comes the humbling: I can read more. I can pay more attention to when assignments are due. I could come to class more. Yes, all of this is also admirable.

The answers to the last question are either usually positive though I do not say this to toot my own horn. Some are amusing (give less homework). Some are negotiable (I don't put assignments on the board because they are in the syllabus, but I understand why you would like that).

I've seen an increase in effort, though, based on this prompt and will use it in my other classes soon!

Grading...

I haven't posted for a little while. I'm grading! I have 20 ENGL 0050 example paragraphs and workshops to grade, 25 ENGL 1101 process essays and prewrites to grade, blogs in 3 classes to read and grade, and discussion boards for two classes to read and grade. Then there is the prep work to get ready for each class. I'm not complaining! I'm just making sort of a checklist of what I need to get done this week to ensure I return all student work within 2 weeks of when they were submitted to me.