1.09.2010

April 1973: ELTON JOHN - Daniel

A pale and tiny blonde girl named Danielle lived across the court from me, and she decided this was her song, since it was so close to her name. I took issue with this because, #1: it was about a boy, and #2: she was so weepy and whiney that she didn’t deserve an Elton John song.

Shortly after this moment, I was cursed by two embarrassing moments at school:

#1: I wet my pants while sitting in the school chair during a reading lesson. I’d raised my hand to ask Miss Kelly if I could go to the bathroom, and she said no, since we were going for a bathroom break in just a bit. But I couldn’t hold it, and out it came. After my bladder was empty, Miss Kelly takes me to the bathroom, and then baffled me by asking why I did that. Adults are very confusing!

#2: I got chewed out by the art teacher over my painting. I was trying to depict a nature scene with tempra paint: a blue slash at the top of the paper, and a green slash at the bottom. The teacher – Mr. Kurd – took me to the window to point out that there was no white space between the earth and the sky – they meet, so my painting should reflect this. But back at my seat, I decided I wanted that white space between the earth and sky so I could paint some people in. Mr. Kurd swung back by, saw that I’d ignored his lesson, and said my painting would not get a passing grade.

Both of these incidents left me just as weepy and whiney as Danielle, and it taught me a lesson: if someone says it’s “my song,” leave it to them.

See Elton doing "Daniel."
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1 comment:

Unknown said...

This reminds me of when I took one beginning art class. We had to copy a drawing the teacher made of trees, hills, sky - you know the drill. I did all right, but I decided to have the trees aflame. For this burst of creativity, my effort was posted on the blackboard, complete with an "F" with 2 big red circles around it. And so ends my visual arts career.

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