Author: j

My daughter just graduated from middle school. Congratulations, Anais! Congratulations to all the students and families who made it through another school year together.

One of the highlights of middle school for me happened last summer when Anais asked about playing the guitar. We learned to play more than a dozen Taylor Swift songs together. I taught her the chords, and she taught me the intricacies of the song and the Swiftie universe.

I grew in appreciation of Anais, and Taylor. When we all went to see The Eras Tour movie in October, I was able to sing along to a few of the songs and hang with the Swifties for a second.

As we approached the end of this school year, Maile gave me my favorite type of assignment: write a song for the occasion. (She and Anais had written and performed a customized version of Swift’s Cornelia Street about my history for my last birthday.) I knew immediately what to do: Write my own version of Taylor’s Lavender Haze about middle school. Middle School Haze!

I’ve always liked the feel of the song, so I tried to capture my nostalgia for the middle school days that had just slipped away in a blur. I updated Taylor’s chorus to “I just wanna stay in that lavender haze middle school haze.”

For the verses, I searched my memory of all the conversations at the end of the school day. I had learned along the way that questions about teachers, classes and subjects would only get me so far into the heart of the experience.

What happened on the bus, at lunch, or after school at a sleepover was closer to the core. So here is my tribute to Anais and her friends, to middle school, and to Taylor Swift, who are all bound together in my hazy memory.

After recording the version above with loops of vocals, percussion and ambient sounds, I stripped it down to just me and guitar and moved the capo up a step. Which do you prefer?

Middle School Haze

Meet me at 8 AM
Walkin’ to the bus with you
Oh, you don’t ever say too much
Unless you’re tryin to guess who
Might be my new crush

Do we have a quiz in History?
Algebra is killing me
STEM will be the end of me

I feel those high school days are creepin’ up on me
Fiorella says “Real!”
I’m damned if I do give a damn what teachers say
No deal, all the homework that they’ll want from me
I just wanna stay in that middle school haze

All they keep askin’ me
Is if I’m gonna spill the tea
The only kind of girl they see
Is a gossip or a drama queen

Who is gonna sit with me?
Share their food and bitch with me?
You better never snitch on me!

I feel those high school days are creepin’ up on me
Fiorella says “Real!”
I’m damned if I do give a damn what teachers say
No deal, all the homework that they’ll want from me
I just wanna stay in that middle school haze
Those neighborhood days

Talkin’ on the bus and textin’ later
Who can host a sleepover?
Bring some gummy worms
We’ll watch some horror films

Talkin’ on the bus and textin later
How can we get a get-together?
Bring your bathing suit
Girl, we’re all looking cute!

I feel those high school days are creepin’ up on me
Fiorella says “Real!”
I’m damned if I do give a damn what teachers say
No deal, all the homework that they’ll want from me
I just wanna stay in that middle school haze

Happy Eclipse Day!

Here in Austin – in the path of totality – it was a big thing for some people.  Folks from all over have been arriving for days. Unfortunately, it’s a cloudy day here.

But we caught a few glimpses of the eclipse, and the crowds here on UT’s campus roared each time a window through the clouds passed above us, revealing a bright crescent for a few moments.

Regardless of how much eclipse fever you have, I offer this humble hymn to our cosmos as a lullaby of wonder and a prayer for protection. I hope this helps you feel held in our Milky Way’s starry arms tonight.

Watch on YouTube, Facebook or Instagram.

Oh, Great Universe

Oh, great universe
cold, empty universe
Goodnight, sweet universe
old, plentiful universe

Warm me with your fiery glow
Reach me with your radiant rays
Sail me into solar space
As the magic hour fades away

Oh, great universe
churning, burning universe
Goodnight, sweet universe
roiling, boiling universe

Hold me in your starry arms
brush my hair with your windy fingers
let me rest my weary eyes
as I expire tonight let my soul take flight

Oh, great universe
endlessly intricate universe
Goodnight, sweet universe
pensively animate universe

Knit me up into these sheets
tuck me into cosmic scenes
sing me a secret lullaby
before my dreams unwind my mind, goodnight

For Valentine’s Day, I recorded a song I recently wrote to tell the story of how I met my wife, Maile.

As part of a song game, I was given the title That’s When It All Changed. I immediately knew what changed my life and the story I wanted to tell: How I met Maile at the grocery store, how we started going out, and how, years later, I proposed there in the store.

That’s When It All Changed

On a day in the Summer in 1998
I went to get some groceries guided by the hands of fate
and I got in your line ’cause you were looking so fine
started a conversation, got your name and told mine
I’d think about you all week, find excuses to go to the store
I’d make sure we got to speak, told you I wanted more
Asked you out, but you had a boyfriend,
you wouldn’t get a beer so I asked you again
What about lunch? You finally said Yes, that’s the first moment I’ll never forget

‘Cause that’s when it all changed
That’s when it all changed for the better
That’s when we caught flame
When I met you our love was new

We had a picnic by the pond and I walked you back to class
I remember when we parted thinking this could really last
Then we hung out at my place, took a walk around lake at night
Got coffee at Magnolia Cafe and everything was going right
Went to see a dollar movie, kissing in the parking lot
The power of those kisses is something I never forgot because

That’s when it all changed
That’s when it all changed for the better
As if it were pre-arranged
When I met you and our love was new

All the girls before when I just wan’t ready
All of the games I didn’t know how to play
All of the sudden everything is poetry
Only together could find our way

On a day in the Summer of 2003,
shortly after you got back from teaching overseas
We went to get some groceries at the HEB of Destiny
I knelt at the gumball machine and asked you to marry me
The magic was still working, you immediately said Yes
That’s another moment that I’ll never forget

Cause that’s when it all changed
That’s when it all changed for the better
The day we got engaged
Committed to each other as partners and lovers

That’s when it all changed
That’s when it all changed for the better
Got it all ordained
Goes to show you never know what you might pick up at the store