We had the fine fortune of attending John Roderick's Write Like I Do installment at 826 Seattle last night, and 'write like he does' we did -- for almost two hours, we went through his takes on the dissection of lyric writing, heard practical tips and did real-time exercises that taught how bridge the gap from journaling to storytelling, and were even treated to a bit of insight into some of John's more personal experiences and musings. For most of us, the path from Baby, you hurt me so bad (yeah) to If I kissed you now / like sun streaming through a tavern door is not an easy one to walk -- and while we're not going to be releasing the next "Hindsight" anytime soon, we all left the classroom a little more bolstered up to our own potentials, and a little more keen on our respective capabilities for sharpening and expanding our stories without feeling like we'd done our truths a disservice. Not an easy feat by a long shot, and one that John led us through with ease.

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Yep, you read that right: the Long Winters' own John Roderick will be putting on a one-night course as part of 826 Seattle's Write Like I Do series. His installment, entitled How To Be A Musician When You're Not That Good Of A Musician, will be taking place on Thursday, August 11th. If you rack your dreary grey spring memories, you'll remember that we warned you way back in March that this was coming -- and as of today, there's still tickets available {depending on when you're reading this, take a moment to check here to see if there's still any up for grabs}.

On top of the obvious wins -- an excellent, creative night with John where your money's well-spent on both class content and the support of a worthy cause -- we wanted to know more about what to expect, so we checked in with John about it. "I just gave the same class at MaxFunCon a few weeks ago down in SoCal," he told us. "We'll all do a little writing and messing around, both with lyrics and general prose, and talk about how to push yourself beyond journaling into creative writing of all kinds." And regarding snacks? "I'm sure as shit not going to bake anything, though."

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Rad people backing up a great cause is the chocolate-and-peanut butter of our functioning world. In this particular case, it's a troupe of excellent craftspeople aligning their skills with 826 Seattle for a series called How To Write Like I Do.

826 Seattle, in case you're not familar, is a nonprofit writing center that helps students aged 6-18 with the development of their respective writing skills -- everything from workshops to publishing to book reports, free of charge. And every year they do this cool series of workshops with some of the industry's best and brightest, covering topics surrounding the written word from every concievable angle. Of course, we're particularly excited for John Roderick's installment, How To Be A Musician When You're Not That Good Of A Musician, which takes place on August 11th at 7pm.

All proceeds from all events go straight to benefit 826 Seattle, of course. Here's the whole lineup:

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Starring: John Roderick (no, I'm not kidding).

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One of our favoritest humans in the world, the fabulous Miss Joan Hiller, sent us this recommendation... and with a cause this good (826 Seattle is a non-profit that provides literacy training for kids and teens), we of course have to recommended it:

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