SATURDAY SPIN: NADA SURF

Today's band is Nada Surf. The song in the video is Whose Authority from their latest record, Lucky which according to their record company is "filled with songs of restlessness, longing and the elusiveness of love." No wonder I have a vague feeling of anxiety or perhaps wistfulness listening to them. Actually, I like the breezy feeling of this song and NYC as a backdrop always works for me.



MySpace

Their space: NadaSurf.com

Enjoy and have a great weekend!

Walking Louie

It's nice to unwind after a day at the orifice by taking a walk with Louie. Last night, Tali accompanied us and I knew beforehand that she was jockeying for a little park time.

Actually it's the local playground adjacent to a schoolyard. It's nice as far as park/playgrounds go and Tali has been hanging out on swings there since she was six months old. Old habits are hard to break. As we rounded the park, we went in for a swing. Louie is also training to be a circus dog and he does his twirl down the circular slide. He's getting pretty brave about it.

As Tali swung, there was a group of three teen-ish age boys filling up water balloons while three young boys vied for their attention by name calling. The older kids were high on the annoying meter and seemed to delight in teasing the younger boys, spraying them with water. The younger boys' father was nearby and for the life of me, I could not understand him allowing it. But hey, that's just me - Serial Mom. The teen-ish boys went up onto the slide play area while the younger boys stayed on below throwing sticks up at them. Of course, the older boys goaded them with jeers as to why they were even bothering, they couldn't hit them anyway. Some not too nice language was also used.

At this particular juncture, Tali, Louie and I were making our way towards the park gates. Tali was slightly behind me when I heard the ringleader teen grumble "*&^%! Who hit me?!" I turned to see a slight glint in Tali's eyes and raised an eyebrow. "Was that you?" I asked.

"Yes," she giggled and added "I didn't like how they were teasing the little boys; and one time he even bothered Julian!"

Normally, I do not condone this sort of sinking to the lowest common denominator, but I gave her a high five. The only thing I admonished her for was sharing the information about him bothering Julian after we had left. To which she replied, "Never mind sticks, you would have uprooted a tree to throw at him!"

So perhaps my Serial Mom inclinations are not so carefully concealed.

I always figured...

why post when you have nothing to say? Although, some of my best posts have started off that way; this won't be one of them.

I'm working back in the city which is not all glamorous as witnessed by my daily rides on the F Train (f in more ways than one). Oh how I miss the solitude of my own car. I think I've grown a bit anti-social during my hiatus. Nothing too terrible to report on this front other than sharing a morning ride with hundreds of other people. Shutter.

The sad news is that 3 1/2 years gone from the neighborhood and nothing has changed! Well, save for a few store changes. The fruit man - same. The African guys selling pocketbooks - same. The crazy bleached blonde lady handing out the circulars to a nail salon - same. Me walking up the block from the subway - same. I don't want to belittle these people's livelihoods and I'm not, but looking inward is a bit difficult when lumped in to this company.

Oh, Management's treatment of the proletariat? Worse.

So you see? Not feeling terribly compelled to blog. Not that I have the ability to really blog from work as I no longer have my own office. Sure, I can steal a moment or two, but it's sort of tough to get into it when you feel you're about to get busted looking at stuffed animals. Some people just don't understand art. I have to say that I don't think of it at work as I'm pretty busy anyway, but I can't help but feel a bit wistful for the days of yore and blogging freedom.

That's where my head is at in a nutshell. Yes my head is in a nutshell. That's what neglect of commas will get you - misunderstood. By the way, this blog is being sponsored by the punctuation mark, the comma.

I felt compelled to post as I don't want my few friends to forget me. I haven't forgotten you even if I haven't been by for a visit, I will. But now sleep calls as I have to be up early for that F'n train.

Love ya, miss ya, mean it!

SATURDAY SPIN

It's not good to leave your blog lie fallow. A lot of dust has to be cleaned off to get a post started, so here goes.

I'll admit when I first heard today's band, I thought "Okay, Columbia grads being ironic calling themselves, 'Vampire Weekend'. What's their schtick?" I didn't want to like them. But I did. I'd hear a new song on the radio and be bopping along and sure enough, it was another Vampire Weekend ditty. I'm not sure where they'll go from here, but I have to say you could plunk down eleven bucks on far worse than their self titled debut, released early 2008.

And hey, I learned what an oxford comma* is...



I love that tune.

Listen a litte more: MY SPACE

Plenty of hype and praise surround this band, but in the interest of fair and balanced reporting, read New York Magazine's projected backlash against the band HERE. If you don't want to click over, I've taken the liberty of lifting part of the review here:

"With the release of their self-titled debut album, critics fall in line behind the blogs and Vampire Weekend is lavished with endless acclaim. Pitchfork gives it an 8.8, comparing the band to the Strokes, and, yes, Paul Simon. Only New York's Hugo Lindgren dissents; months ahead of the curve, he concedes their dancebility but notes that "[if] they’d shown up at CBGB circa 1978, these outré Ivy League preppies probably would’ve been beaten with bicycle chains."

Scissors concurs.

And a proposed ending to all things Vampire Weekend:

"Out of disgust, the band's original MySpace friends storm the actual Graceland in Memphis, Tennessee, torching Elvis's mansion to the ground. By now, many of them have moved on to new, edgier bands hailing from grittier New York colleges, like Barnard and NYU's Stern School of Business."

So there you have it. I say enjoy them for now and let's give the boys a chance. Have yourselves a great weekend. I have been off the blogwagon as I am back in the city getting settled in to a new position at work. All is going fine but I'm actually working and hence blogging is just not possible. Oh and what I might have blogged had I the chance - Julian moved on up or graduated from Kindergarten today. It was hard to keep a dry eye so I didn't really try. He was one of the color guards who lead the Star Spangled Banner. So that's life on these shores. I hope all is well with you. I'll be by to catch up.

* From askoxford.com:
"What is the 'Oxford comma'?


The 'Oxford comma' is an optional comma before the word 'and' at the end of a list:

We sell books, videos, and magazines.
It is so called because it was traditionally used by printers, readers, and editors at Oxford University Press. Sometimes it can be necessary for clarity when the items in the list are not single words:

These items are available in black and white, red and yellow, and blue and green.

Some people do not realize that the Oxford comma is acceptable, possibly because they were brought up with the supposed rule (which Fowler would call a 'superstition') about putting punctuation marks before and.

SATURDAY SPIN

I've started three different spins. It's an indecisive week. But in honor of my return to NYC proper on a much more intimate basis, I'm featuring Cat Power doing a cover of, New York, New York from her latest album of covers, Jukebox. So here we go:



Cat Power is essentially Chan (pronounced Shawn) Marshall (pronounced Marshall) and band. I've just heard of Cat Power this past year, but she's a southern girl who has been recording since 1992. In any event, her reputation precedes her and she has been known as a bit of a roustabout or at least inconsistent in her concert performances. That seems to be in check with her drinking which you can read a little background on in this NY Times piece.

I like her. I think this song would be perfect for background to Pia's life story as told on her blog, Courting Desitny, or perhaps one of her books that she's working on, which could then transition to film. Bam - a soundtrack is born.

So here are some links for you to muck about in to get to know her better. Just a hint, she recorded the album before the current one, The Greatest,in Memphis with Al Green's guitarist and songwriting partner. Nuff said.

MY SPACE

MATADOR RECORDS SITE

LIVE IN CONCERT ON NPR: ALL SONGS CONSIDERED

I'm feeling a bit anxious about my transition back to NYC because well for one, the company hasn't exactly given me a plum position there and two, I'll miss my car rides and catching up on what's going on music-wise. Quite frankly, it is pretty much from these rides that I have gotten back into what's going on in music these days and even have something to spin. I have one station from Fordham University to thank for that and they are WFUV, Fordham University's Voice. You can stream them yourselves at their site linked above if you like.

Ah well, let's leave tomorrow's worries until then. For now, have a great weekend and Happy Father's Day to any of you Dads dropping by. We might actually turn the tables and make breakfast for Scissors for a change this week. He'll probably take over and then I'll be all "no, I'll get the pancakes," and he'll be all "let me do it," and I'll be all (sitting sipping my coffee) "if you insist, but let me know when you want me to take over..."

Gotta love a man who can handle a spatula.

Enjoy!

PS: I'm computer-less at work as the movers removed mine yesterday and I won't be settled in until Tuesday/perhaps Wednesday. So my visits have been sparse, much to my chagrin. Of course, my blogging from work may be slightly curtailed...okay, what did I say about tomorrow's worries?

Drumroll please!!!

Julian has had a year of many changes, advances and challenges. When you have a child with special needs, keeping on top of evaluations is key as you especially want to make sure that they are in the appropriate class setting, receiving the right services. This year has proved to be a real challenge in getting Julian out of the door for school, to the dinner table, into the bathtub and into his pajamas, settling down for a book and well, you get the picture - pretty much anything that requires a transition of any sort.

So we saw his pediatric neurologist recently who seems to think our thoughts that Julian may have ADHD are pretty well founded. We asked for a referral to have him tested and at the same time have someone to talk to for both us and Julian to help us through these rough developmental patches.

Enter "Dr. Mark" whom Scissors and I met with this past Monday and now Julian and I met with today. Scissors is not as sold on the process as I am - something about psychobabble something or other. I always view things through the lens of humor. It's not that I don't take it seriously as I certainly think therapy is quite a valuable tool in helping cope with life stressors. I also find it full of infinite blog fodder. I just wish that I could sit there with a notepad and write down some of the funny exchanges. On the way to the office, Julian said in his little monotone "I know why we're going here - it's because of my behavior business last night."

I assured Julian his happiness and being able to talk about being angry and why were what Dr. Mark was going to help us with. He said that he might be shy and I assured him that was okay as I would be with him.

I'll skip the tete-a-tete of meeting Dr. Mark, but as we got down to brass tacks and playing with the therapist's favorite tool - the doll house, Julian made quick work of shoving many people into the house to watch TV. One TV wasn't enough - there had to be two so that he could watch Thomas and Spongebob! Then he described the people as lying down. The doctor then asked, "So Julian, the people are all just lying down and watching TV?"

I quickly wanted to yell out "Objection! Leading the witness!" but refrained. Julian couldn't have modeled one of our more admirable activities, like picking a Saturday Spin?

Not one to answer a question directly, Julian made the play more fanciful with horses and dogs taking up valuable couch space. The doctor asked Julian some other question which he responded with "Drumroll please!" So the doctor gave him a drum.

This continued with each response needing a drumroll preceding it. That is until Julian turned the tables and said "Now you're Julian." and began asking the same questions back to the doctor with the doc playacting along and Julian doing a not too bad imitation.

When it got down to Julian confessing to using bad words because Mommy did, I glanced at my watch to thankfully see time was indeed dwindling. The worst I've apparently said was shut up, which I'm not proud of, although I'm pretty sure I've never said it to him. I can't swear that I've never told Scissors the same in a heated moment. If I did, I apologize. I'm certainly not proud of this, but he could have credited me with worse.

So by the time we left the office, Dr. Mark had a clear picture of us as a family of foul mouthed laggards who lie about watching Spongebob and telling each other to shut up.

It could be worse, I imagine. I won't have to imagine, we'll be seeing Dr. Mark next week. Okay everybody, battlestations NPR!

Desk Drawer

I was cleaning out my office drawers in preparation for my move back to the city. Tali has been a fairly frequent (annual) visitor to my office and would often create art while she was there, so I found these:

I'm a bit sentimental as I see one picture is an early representation of her work, dating to perhaps 2001. However if being forced to choose between keeping her artwork or the following illustration, I'd have to give it some serious consideration:


I believe that was clipped from Rolling Stone magazine during Dubya's first campaign for President. Some things are hard to throw away.

Saturday Spin

This post is a Saturday Spin in that I'm playing music. It is an ode to Prince who turns 50 today. So we're just going to play a Prince song but with a twist - it's being covered by another band. The band is The Hindu Love Gods who were basically:

(REM-MichaelStipe)+WarrenZevon=HinduLoveGods.

This is from 1990 and was pretty much for fun and the only full album released under this incarnation. I actually owned the cd. It was an album of blues covers and I recall really enjoying their take on Battleship Chains too.

Anyway, Warren Zevon is gone, the cd I owned is probably gone, REM released a new cd recently and Prince is turning 50! Let's party like it's 1999!





That's it for this week. I'm sure I'll be back in gear next week as this is pretty lazy of me, but I'm conserving energy as the weather forecast calls for mid90s + NYC=MUGGY!

Stay cool and have a good weekend wherever you are!

Oh! I almost forgot: if you'd like to hear me muck up some wonderful prose that Doug has written, hop over to Waking Ambrose . The truth is that hearing my voice reminds me I'd like to take voice lessons, but I couldn't in time to read for Doug. I could have re-recorded it, but you know I'm conserving energy as it's going to be mid-90's...

Fold-up Guys

I'm slightly freaking out. If I gave into my fears, I'd be totally freaking out. In one more week the office that I work in will be closed and I will be reassigned to another department back in our offices in the city (Manhattan). As I told a friend who works in my old department there, "If you see me lying in a fetal position in the elevator, just step over me." Not that I mind going back to work in Manhattan - I look forward to it, but reinventing myself yet again is getting tired. Or maybe I'm just getting tired. It's really a grand charade this earning a living.

And so as not to give in to such stress, I will make a fold-up guy. You can too, by clicking on readymech.com. The cute little fella above is a tentaclopse, just one of the many fun fold-up guys to be found.

Couldn't I somehow make a living making fold-up guys? I'd better practice.

Does Anyone Have a Valium?

I know, I know...in these days of medication being the norm, I should have my own prescription. I do, just not Valium. I should look into it - probably sooner than later. Especially in light of the fact that I came home from work, picked up Scissors fresh from steroid injections at the doctor for his never ending back pain that he's been facing, my MIL, and Julian to head into Manhattan to Tali's school for yet another celebration which in and of itself should be nice. My gut instinct tells me otherwise.

Below are just a few reasons why cortisol was shooting out of my ears by the end of the evening. It went something like this:

- MIL is looking at her watch 5 minutes into performance.
- Julian making a friend with whom he becomes so close, they're already up to rassling on the floor during the Rabbi's speech.
- MIL declaring "I didn't even hear Tali." This after Tali just finished performing leading one of the songs with a classmate in which they both had solos. I left out the part about mike malfunction and just mutter "I have it on tape."
- We leave the school after the reception to moody MIL who was ready to leave once Tali sang (which she didn't hear, did I mention?).
- Julian sees a dog on the street and tries to make a beeline to pet. We are on a crowded Manhattan street so I attempt to guide him towards the car instead. He rebels by lying on the sidewalk which makes MIL turn pale.
- Make it to car to realize Tali has left her violin in school (stop me anytime if you need a Valium too)..
- leave crew there and run back to school to collect violin. Overcome urge to sprint down the subway steps instead.
- get back to car and pack the sorry lot into vehicle and head home.

I'll spare you the car trip with MIL's stony silence, Julian hooting out the window at garbage trucks and Scissors grimacing and groaning over every dent in the road.

At this juncture, I'm happy to have my sanity although I'm sure that is a relative term.

How did your week start off? Here's to Tuesday.

G'night.

Rabbit, rabbit!

Rabbit, rabbit! Good luck in June!

The title of this print is Pink Grapefruit and it immediately reminded me of Ariel's moniker, Ice Grapefruit. Because who could be more delightful than this pink bunny...or Ariel? The print is from the Etsy shop, Amber Alexander.

My Saturday Spin is still up and spinning and I highly recommend The Felice Brothers. Enjoy the rest of the weekend.


~ G