Digital Graduation

It's always an honor to be one of the teachers selected by the senior class to read their names at graduation. We held today's digital graduation in our new gymnasium, a fantastic venue. The video will be posted to Sonora High School's website later next week.

At the Melville Winery in Santa Barbara County

I found this video in my file of old Flip Videos. The Flip Video was great, true point-and-shoot. Just a couple of buttons, easy to use, the ideal video camera to put in your pocket and carry around.

Student Portrait Project 2020

The Student Portrait Project is now completed. For those students who requested one, I drew their portraits in Adobe Illustrator. I'll be sending them each a copy.

Somatic Tinnitus

This video was private for several years, first posted in 2011.

My tinnitus (a ringing in my left ear) started on July 7th at the same time I got sick with flu-like symptoms. It's a kind of metallic screech and very stressful to hear constantly. I went to my doctor, who sent me to an ENT guy, who sent me to get a thorough audiological workup. My hearing checked out fine (audiologist said I have very good hearing). The tympanogram results were also excellent. The ENT guy examined my jaw and said he suspected TMJ (Temporomandibular Joint Disorder ). He referred me to a neurologist and told me to see my dentist too.

The neurologist ordered an MRI of my brain. She suspected a brain tumor pressing on the auditory nerve. The results were negative. I had better luck with my dentist, who started me on an Invisalign treatment to correct a misalignment of my jaw. The treatment eventually relived most of the symptoms. However, recent sources of stress have brought it all back: hernia surgery, the death of my twin brother, Covid-19 and my having to teach from home.

In technical terms, what happens with somatic tinnitus is that neural fibers in the trigeminal ganglion transmit temporomandibular information to the brain. These fibers project into the auditory system, thereby enabling movement and pressue on the jaw to modulate the pitch or loudness of the tinnitus.

Moonlight Sonata

Wilhelm Kempff's magisterial performance of Beethoven's "Moonlight Sonata" remains my favorite.

Student Portrait Project — First Nine

These are the first nine student portraits I've drawn for my annual student portrait project. My process is as follows:

I do a quick drawing with a couple of favorite black markers. I then scan it into Adobe Illustrator, vectorize it, clean it up, and add color. No sooner do I finish one portrait, than I move on to the next. I plan to draw portraits of all my students since I won't see them again this year. For those who want a copy, I'll send them the digital file.

Tim's Video from May 10, 2009

Freaking Me Out

In this video my brother, Tim Fasano, makes a preliminary excursion to Withlacoochee State Forest. This was one of the first videos my brother made.