Shower Shoes

Regarding my last post: Quick facts are that 45 teachers at my school alone have been laid off because of budget cuts. Most of their contracts will be renewed if Prop 100 (a 1% sales tax increase) passes in May. Regardless, the state of education in Arizona is atrocious. We don't have paper. We have 40 kids to a class. If Prop 100 fails, special ed will be cut, class sizes will be between 60 and 100, electives like drama and art will be gone (but not sports. Hmm). I don't normally get so "in" to things, but this is unacceptable. A group of friends and I formed SAFE: Student Advocates For Education. We held a rally outside the school this morning with a great turnout, three newspapers, a news station, and 250ish supporters.

The class president asked me to speak at today's rally. Public speaking absolutely terrifies me, and my hands were shaking the whole time, but somehow I got through it. I'm really nervous posting this now actually, haha. But I'm proud of myself for getting through it, and I'm trying to spread the word, so here it is.

This is when you know I'm getting really bored. But hey, any chance to shove my opinion down others' throats, right?

Here's some groovy bands (in my actually rather stupid opinion) that for one reason or another haven't quite gotten the recognition they deserve. So take some MP3s, impressed your friends with your knowledge! Yay.

Phoenix
This band just released a new album, Wolfgang Amadeus Phoenix, so I expect they'll hit some radio stations soon, as they're a small step away from mainstream. They've got an awesome sound, really original and catchy--think Vampire Weekend meets Spoon. Admittedly, I enjoy their new stuff much more than their pre-2004 sound. It seems they've evolved from electronic funk (which would be cool...if it sounded better) to rockish slight funk...I'm obviously band at describing them. Oh well. And get this, they're French. But you'd never know, as all of their songs are in English and pretty easy to understand.

Definitely check out:
Long Distance Call (Youtube)

Like 'Em? Try:
Armistice
Rally

( And we'll all float on okay... )