It's Friday. It's a slow news day here at the SBSB offices. What to do?

Back in June I was counting down to the last day of school on these pages and accompanying the posts with music videos that touched on that days theme. One fanboi commented...

I liked the countdown better when you stuck to music!

I retorted...

Tell you what. For you I will make every Friday through the summer "Music Friday" and find a song that fits into some educational theme. Even if I have to shoehorn it. So next Friday, July 5. OK?

The fanboi replied...

Sounds good! Enjoy your Summer Pete!

July 5 came and went and so did the rest of July, August, September, October, and almost all of November until today. 

Back on September 26 I was able to see live music for the first time in almost 18 months. Who did I see? I saw Primus. It was my first time ever seeing them.  Why did I go? Because they were to play Rush's 1977 album, "A Farewell to Kings" in its entirety. The show was at the Oakdale Theater in Wallingford, CT where they were supposed to play in July of 2020. But due to the COVID craziness everything was postponed. 

But being there is no more Rush ever again (Unless Geddy and Alex can recruit Ringo to take over the drums or maybe even Mike Portnoy) I need to get a Rush fix whenever possible. Les Claypool took care of it for a night. By the way, I really enjoyed the show and I like Primus.

So I am embedding the the first three songs of AFTK. The title track, Closer to the Heart, and Xanadu. Enjoy. 

I will continue, or at least try to, this new Friday "tradition." 

 

 

 

 

 

As many of you know, or might know, I am a major fan of Rush bordering on the cusp of fanboi status. I've
seen the band about 20 times in my life. My journey has included seeing the band during their Exit Stage Left tour at the Meadowlands in December 1981 through to their R40 tour last year at the Prudential Center.

So why am I sharing this?

For the last week or so, every time I log onto Facebook I am inundated with some ad for Michael Moore. What does Michael Moore have to do with Rush? Read on. Bear with me. Your jaw will drop when I get to the end!

So when I went to see Rush last year, my friend and I got to our seats about 30 minutes before the show. By the way, the seats were great! I had managed to finagle (Our original seats were in the 300 section of The Rock. I have my methods and they always work!) ourselves right next to the stage on Alex Lifeson's side. Check it out:
So we are talking with the people around us and who do I see being escorted on the floor by Rush's longtime manager Ray Daniels but none other than Michael Moore.

WOW! I thought to myself. How many teachers have been hoping, praying, willing to give up a child so that Michael Moore, the bane of the 1% and all that is bullshit, would take on our cause? Heck, back in 2010 after discussing this hope with an SBSB groupie I reached out by phone to one of Mike's producers, Rod Birleson, asking him, nay, imploring him, to let Mike know that all the stakeholders of education in the United States need Mike's involvement. Desperately.

So I decided not to pass up an opportunity.

I raced down, went up to Michael Moore and shared with him that I am a NYC teacher and that we in NYC, New York State, and across the country are hurting, that our students are hurting, and that our communities are hurting. Basically I was Princess Leia telling Obi-Wan that he was our only hope.

Mike listened and told me to get in contact with him. When I asked him how he told me through his agency, CAA. I thought fine, I can be tenacious at times. What harm can it do? But I was walking on air. I got to meet Michael Moore and it seemed that I had planted a seed in his head. He even agreed to a selfie with me (Shitty photo of me).

I said thank you and watched Mike go to his front row, or was it second row, seat. I went back to my seat and enjoyed 3 hours of Rush, perhaps seeing them for the last time ever (At the end of the tour Neil Peart more or less said he is retired from touring).


So later that week I decided to call CAA. It took me a few run arounds to find out who exactly represents Mike so I can leave a message with the right person (like a secretary). But eventually I found out who is agent is and when I did I knew I was lied to and I lost all respect for Michael Moore.

Michael Moore's agent is none other than Ari Emanuel. Yep, that Ari Emanuel, the brother of Chicago mayor Rahm Emanuel. I knew then that Michael Moore doing anything for education is this country was never, ever, going to happen.

He is a man that has taken on General Motors, the NRA, health care, 9/11 and the Iraq war, the defense industry, and capitalism. He is, or appears to be, a man that has no fear at exposing those that are corrupt and in power. Heck, he is even taking on Donald Trump and don't be surprised if he comes out with a documentary about the 2016 elections.

But he will never take on nor expose how the powerful and Wall Street have corrupted education. Why? Because in this country the story how Wall Street and the politicians have screwed education starts at, and must include, Chicago and there is no way in hell that Michael Moore with do anything to make Ari's brother look like an incompetent putz.

This is the same reason why Michael Moore will not even touch Black Lives Matter, the use of force by police, or inner cities. Any reporting, any documentary must include the incompetence of Rahm Emanuel.

Michael Moore is nothing but a two bit, self serving con artist. Whatever is good for Michael Moore, to put him in the best light and to protect his friends his the direction Michael Moore follows.

In my heart of hearts I believe that Michael Moore has no core belief system and does come from the same mold has people like Donald Trump.

We as educators and community members need to stop hoping that Michael Moore gives a rat's ass. he does not and will not. Ever.

Michael Moore a man of the people? I laugh. If he were a man of the people he would have bought his seats  for Rush off of Stub Hub or bought seats in the 300 section and did what I had done.

I got an email from Bryan Glass last week. David Mou, the attorney for the Corporation Counsel had sent over a box of documents we have been waiting for since the beginning of time. I was excited. Finally, I would have some answers, some documents to peruse through, to find answers to questions I have had since August of 2012.

It was not to be. David Mou pulled off the biggest con.

Remember the movie "The Sting?" At the very beginning Robert Redford and his buddy Luther did the whole switcheroo with the money. Redford basically gave that guy tissues? That's kind of what Mou did to us. The old switcheroo.

We got 2,135 of pure unadulterated, grade A, 100% nothing.

All we got is what I had already. My hearing transcripts. My hearing decision. My file. The evidence that the DOE attorney entered into evidence (Though we did ask for it). The evidence the DOE attorney never entered into evidence. Nearly all the papers were printed out (THEY'RE TIME STAMPED!!!!!!) in 2013 or 2014.

Here is Mou's answers to our interrogatory and discovery requests. See what I mean? All lawyer babble. All a bunch of nothing.

What sucks is that I put in hours upon hours answering the interrogatories and getting the discovery requested for I have learned through the greatness of Bryan Glass that a persons moral compass should be above reproach.

Answer after answer of "client-lawyer privilege," "work secrets," "too broad a request," "blah, blah, blah, blah, blah." Mou does a better "blah-blah" than Alex Lifeson.

But this is all par for the course with the NYC Corporation Counsel and Mou.

The emails between Coviello and AP's are privileged? Between Coviello and Yolanda Torres are privileged?


We should be privy to what went down at IS 162. Yolanda Torres has no problem ruining my career but does everything in her power to save the careers of administrators at IS 162, even when there was a death involved.

Where are the ethics of those who are sworn to uphold the high standards of the New York State Bar?

Is this oath not to be taken seriously?

"I do solemnly swear (or affirm) that I  will support the constitution of the  United States, and the constitution of th e State of New York, and that I will  faithfully discharge the duties of the office of [attorney and counselor-at-law],  according to the best of my ability."

Sad. So very sad.