SATURDAY SPIN

I'll be brief as I was busy with some volunteer duties for Music School and I need some sleep. Do these people think I'm being paid? The nerve.

Haha, just a little intro to today's altruistic artist, Brett Dennen, who Rolling Stone called an artist to watch last November. He's folky and earnest (and we all know the importance of that). Especially in light of these funky financial*/political times in which we find ourselves. So take a look at Ain't No Reason from his second album, So Much More. His third, Hope for the Hopeless, will be out any day (if it's not out already).




My Space

Have a great weekend. Blogging has suffered some severe budgetary cutbacks for me this past week or so and much wasn't getting done as it is, but I do hope all is well and look forward to visiting soon.



*Actual economic term.

SATURDAY SPIN

Well, we're back in the swing of things with music school for Tali so I'm getting this together tonight as there will be no time to spare in the morning.

The artist today is Sam Phillips who started her career in the early 80's as Leslie Phillips, a contemporary christian artist. She crossed over (no pun intended) in the late 80's and switched to her childhood nickname of Sam. I'd say the results are fine.

Although she does have an album out recently, the song below is 1994's I Need Love because I just love it. She was married to T Bone Burnett, a producer and musician of some acclaim himself, who gave her song, Sister Rosetta Goes Before Us to Robert Plant and Alison Krauss to record on their album that T Bone produced last year. It was beautifully done and you can listen to Sam's own version on MySpace. Anyway, bunch of links below if you want to muck about in your free time.



MySpace

NPR WORLD CAFE

SAM PHILLIPS.COM

I love the weather this time of year in New York, being outdoors makes you tired in a good way - not the bedraggled worn out by humidity type of tired. Tali is attending a birthday party in Central Park this weekend for one of the kids in school. There will be a "well known naturalist" there to show the kids how to forage for berries and such. You never know, in these uncertain economic times, it might just come to that.

Whatever you do, have a great weekend!

SATURDAY SPIN

I heard the featured song as I drove away from my root canal the other day. I had heard the song before but I wasn't familiar with the singer so off to YouTube I went. When I pulled up one of the versions of the video, it had upwards of 10 Million hits. Suddenly I felt like John McCain - woefully out of touch with the kids. Apparently a few people, perhaps you too, have heard this song. No matter, it's catchy and perfect for a weekend Spin.

The singer is Amy MacDonald who is a twenty year old self taught musician (are you listening Matty?) from Glasgow. Have a listen and enjoy:



Haven't heard enough? Listen on:

MY SPACE

HER SPACE: AMYMACDONALD.CO.UK

WEEKEND EDITION: NPR

Apropos of nothing, here is a Louie update - he's learned to build with Lincoln Logs*:

He's a crafty one.

Have a great weekend!


*PHOTO CREDIT: tali muffin

"And the rain rain rain came down down down..."

I would be lying if I didn't admit that I'm sitting here amidst plenty of visual clutter and things needing my attention which I am blatantly ignoring as I just can't deal with it! I also need to go for a root canal first thing in the am and I'm afraid that will just be the start of some quality time with the dentist.

Maybe if I just write a little post, I'll release some of this high anxiety that seems to be mounting. The day went something like this:

Scissors had an appointment for yet another test on his back to see what is going on besides torn and herniated disks. Since they were basting him like a turkey and sticking a needle in his back and injecting dye, he needed to not head off into the Manhattan streets unattended, so when he called that he was going in, I left my office to pick him up - just as the skies opened up and poured down upon me. I looked about for a cab, knowing in my heart that it was going to be futile. My heart was right - I continued on to Grand Central to catch the 6 train downtown one stop. Easy. Walking all the freaking way East to where the medical office was took longer than the excursion up to this point. The rain had subsided but my feet were already all wet, along with a soggy-ish feeling to my clothing as well.

Got in just as Scissors and the doctor were talking about after care instruction. The doctor asked how we were going home. "We?" I thought to myself - "We're taking a cab home" I answered emphatically. Well, part of that was true. Once at the street, good luck did smile upon me as a cab pulled right up to discharge passengers just as we arrived at the curb. I looked around and furtively helped Scissors into the cab with a kiss/kiss - be careful and no lying down for three hours with you! Okay, so I wasn't going home with him, but I would check on him periodically from my office...which I walked all the way back to with shoes that were uncomfortable as I had not worn them for a month and my feet were wet and were now slipping a bit. Did I mention the blisters forming?

The office is a bit too cold some days, and today was one of those days. So adding to the general damp feeling was the cold office air. Then on to dealing with a coworker, whom on most days I can make laugh and knock her off her demented rigid way of working, but today I could only view her as demented and rigid.

Onward to speaking to my MIL who had picked Julian up from school. Julian asked me what I was doing at work and was I sleeping at my desk. Really that would make it more bearable, but I refrain from naps, although a fairly hefty chap who works in the other group on my floor seems to get quite comfy in his new chair some afternoons, but I digress.

Picked Julian up from Grandma's who gave me the full rundown of what he ate and was still continuing the feeding frenzy up until we stumbled out the front door - with some packed up homemade cake. The other brownie cake she gave us last week, she informed me with a wry little smile was made "just in case...you know when..." which referred to when her husband (Scissor's stepdad) who is in a nursing home, was not doing well a few weeks back to the point that it was not looking good for him. So what does my MIL do in her sensible way? Bake a cake to be served while sitting Shiva! Food! Food! Food! Somehow I wished she hadn't told me that was what the cake was for, but I'd eaten it already.

Get home to administer to ailing husband, kids in need of various baths/homework/dinner attention, but not before a trip to the local Trader Joe's for organic milk and various and sundry quick grocery items that maybe, just maybe Julian will eat at lunchtime.

So you see, I should really try to clear the piles of mail/recipes (that Scissors)/school papers which seem to multiply overnight on my kitchen counter, but I just needed to get this out so that I could see that it really wasn't so bad after all.

Actually, as I look - it's worse. I think I need to just go to bed. Like that will happen.

G'night.

SATURDAY SPIN

As promised, today is a special spin about a special boy named Washington. It is a song written by my nephew, Matthew a/k/a Matty who is a twenty year old junior in college. Matthew wanted it mentioned that this was a first effort in songwriting. I say that information is not important. I guess I got him nervous when I asked if I could feature the song on my "wildly popular Saturday Spin series" and mentioned that we were "going National - even International!" I think the sound quality lost something in transition but you'll get the idea.

Matthew's proud Mama, my dear sister Trish, sent me the song a couple of weeks ago when we were talking about the kids. It's my understanding that Matthew started to learn guitar not too long ago (I believe he is self taught). His younger brother, Colin, is amazing in his own right on the guitar. So I immediately got the lawyers involved and had his people talk to my people and, here it is. A little background about Matthew and how he came to write about Washington (courtesy of my sister Trish).

Matthew is a psychology major and has spent his past four summers working at a camp for the children of migrant workers in Southern New Jersey. The people are very poor and travel to the crops. They are immigrants from far flung locales such as Haiti and Mexico. In this case, the crops happen to be strawberries and blueberries at local farms. The parents work from sunup to sundown.

The children spend the mornings in a school setting and then the afternoons in the camp program which includes athletics, swimming, art. Washington is from Haiti and suffered with both physical and mental difficulties, as well as a language barrier. He could not run with the kids, play ball, etc. but he loved the pool. Matty was so upset the first few days of camp, and then found a way into Washington's world with the aid of another older Haitian boy translating for them.

Also from the Trish email, "sadly, Matty "lost" a couple of kids this past summer when their parents decided that they, too, were old enough now to pick and refused to let them go to camp." Such is life right here in these United States.

Of course I am biased, but this song moves me. The violin in the song was composed and played by Matthew's girlfriend, Colleen, a music major at the same school as Matty. Enjoy!


LISTEN TO WASHINGTON HERE


Matthew and Colleen are pictured seated under the umbrella at the table. Proud Mama Trish incognito in shades along with Joe. In the foreground, my nephew Benjamin and niece, Shannon plot an overthrow of the grill.


I'll round this up by thanking Matty for allowing his music to be shared, Trish for answering my questions and sharing the song to begin with, and good ole Doug for his usual technical assistance without which I'd still be cussing as I figured out how to get the song here.

Have a great weekend!

RABBIT RABBIT!

Good luck in September. These two rabbits are looking rather scholarly in honor of the return to school which for Julian is tomorrow and Tali, Thursday. Good luck to all of us getting back to schedule.

The pictured print entitled Pygopagus is from the Etsy shop, Wynn Studio; odd, yet charming.

Happy Labor Day - may it be spent labor-free.

Wow...

Where did the summer go? Here we are in the midst of celebrating Labor Day weekend which is always a bittersweet weekend - a celebration which signifies the end of another chapter of carefree summer days (which are often only carefree for the under twelve set).

Anyway, I plan to be back next Saturday with a special Spin if I can get the proper waivers and releases signed. We just returned from a trip to Canada - a visit to family from Scissor's side in the Toronto area. I have some funny anecdotes and observations from the trip but I'll leave you with a picture of Julian, our own little Doctor Doolittle from an outing to the petting zoo. The boy belongs on a farm.



In a truly bittersweet summer tale, he may never know if they just loved him for his carrots.



Enjoy your weekend and look on the bright side - apple picking can't be far off!

SATURDAY SPIN

As my blog spirals into oblivion, why not disregard what year it is altogether and just play a random tune from the iPod...mostly to torture my kids. You see, Julian didn't want to go to bed tonight and he was steadfastly planted next to Tali who was playing a Mario game of some sort on her (insert name of handheld gameboy-ish thing that my addled brain won't let me recall) which I was alternately telling her to turn off as I attempted to corral Julian. To be taken seriously, I had my iPod on which was only recently rescued back from Tali's "sharing" it with me so as to hear her downloaded Jonas Brothers music (more on that to follow at a later date) and what comes on but the following song. I must say as I watch it, my choreography wasn't so off the beaten path.

You know how you think you're singing decently when you have headphones on? Well, actually I myself know that I am not, but just the same, I was loudly singing the refrain to Julian as I scaled the chair to get him on the other side of it..."Heathcliff, it's me, I'm Cathy, I've come hooome and I'm so cold, let me into your windoooow..."



The kids were laughing quite giddily, mostly because I think they began to fear for my sanity. The main objective was achieved as Tali turned off her DS (!that's what it's called!) and Julian went into the bathroom for his nightly pre-bedtime ritual (as he is nothing if not ritualistic) and declared "I'm going to bed, I'm tired." So rarely does this happen, I let him waste a little extra water in the cleaning of the sink.

And so, here we are listening to a song that was released thirty years ago. I find myself thinking this a bit lately...as we watched Jaws recently - "wow, this was thirty years ago." As I sat in the Garden (as in Madison Square) with Tali waiting for the aforementioned Jonas Brothers to come on and thinking as a Who song blared over the sound system that I had seen them in this same venue - thirty years ago. I'm becoming an old timer. Ain't that a real kick in the pants?

Watch it.

Anyway, I miss blogging. I miss it a lot. I'm just not a very disciplined person and so I find that most nights it's best to not even turn on the computer. Work isn't the most conducive environment for blogging these days which oddly I don't miss as much while there because I'm actually fairly occupied. But sometimes, I sneak a peak and have a smile and go on my way a little more connected to an inner self who sings Wuthering Heights to her kids and thinks of the kid she was herself...thirty years ago.

Have a great weekend.

Loveyamissyameanit!

SATURDAY SPIN

Just some music for the weekend. As I anticipated, my change in commute has been a boon for my reading time but a bust for my music listening time. Maybe I'll start reading to you on the weekends :)

Today, I'm just spinning an old fave, Aimee Mann who according to NPR has "carved out a presence as a consistently top-shelf chronicler of human desires and failings." You can listen to her live on Wolrd Cafe here.

The video is the song Freeway from her most recent, @#%&*! Smilers:



HER SPACE: AIMEEMANN.COM

MY SPACE


Have a great weekend!

SATURDAY SPIN

I may be turning into a one trick pony as the only time I dust off my blog it seems is to take it out for a Spin.

I've had many blogworthy thoughts in recent weeks - some funny, some poignant, some full of angst, some complaining, some stressing, some bitching, some tears, some laughing...but none of them made it into a post. Once they're gone - they're gone. It's funny how quickly a story goes stale.

My family are all good. I've been pretty hard on myself owing to the fact that Tali and Julian did not go to camp this summer. As it turns out, lack of structure sounds good to a kid until they actually have lack of structure. Hats off to Scissors who perseveres and gets them out of the house each day, even if some days end up with visits to two different therapies with Julian. First off to his OT and then to the psychologist. Does anyone else bring their dog to the shrink with their kids? I didn't think so. It seems Louie jumped up on the couch too.

Of course, we laugh because if we don't, we just may cry. Tali recounted how the doctor told them that Julian indicated that he felt afraid when he was out of control. I raised my eyebrow a bit doubtfully and said that he didn't strike me as afraid when he was setting about pulling her hair. Tali concurred. We then made a little skit up about that.

Julian is seeing the doctor because we wanted an updated evaluation and we decided to continue for a bit to help work through some behavioral rough spots that we're dealing with. To that end, it has been helpful or so I tell myself because it gives hope. And where would we be without that?

Now for your listening pleasure - Tift Merritt. She's a Texas born/North Carolina raised singer-songwriter. That's what I know. Have a listen and enjoy:



MySpace

Her Space: Tift Merritt.com


Hope you're all good. Have a great weekend.

SATURDAY SPIN ALREADY!

Well, well, well. Thought I got lost on the Lazy River at the water park, did you now? What can I tell you that would actually be of interest? Being back in the city is a different slice of life. When I get home from work, the kids have been in Daddy Day Camp all day and they're eager for a bit of Mommy time. By the time that winds down, I'm pretty much spent. Unlike working on the Island, I need to have my full compliment of sleep to start off nice and early with my trek to the subway station. Once there, the choices are rather strategic so I need to be alert to size up seating on the Express train or make a quick determination to dash for the closing doors of the less crowded local. Getting to the subway station early enough affords me the luxury of choosing.

So I have not had the computer on much at all. I can't say that I always miss it. I feel a bit fresher falling to sleep with a good book, but I do miss you guys. Yes I do. So in line with that thought, today I'm featuring someone who has long deserved a Saturday Spin - Alejandro Escovedo singing "Wasn't I Always a Friend to You" helped by a few friends of his own:



Alejandro has been around the block for some time now. Peers and music critics have nothing but praise for him. He simply does not put out a bad record and this latest, Real Animal, is no exception. He was born to Mexican immigrant parents in a musical family (Sheila E. is his niece). After a near death bout with Hepatitis C in 2003, he is doing well and making music. I've heard him interviewed on a radio show and he is a down to earth real mensch.

"Musically, Alejandro Escovedo is in his own genre." David Fricke, Rolling Stone. Couldn't agree more.

HIS SPACE: ALEJANDRO ESCOVEDO.COM

Listen to Alejandro's version of above song over on: MySpace

BloodShot Records

I truly hope you're all doing well and will be by when I can sneak in some quality blog time. Have a great weekend and stay cool! Don't forget to drink plenty of water.

DA DA DA DA...DA DA

Or - Happy Birthday to Me!

This is the last decade birthday where my first number times two equals my second number. After this one, it's literally all downhill from here. So what's an aging blogger to do on a 90 degree July birthday? That's right! Head to a water park! It's set in a mountain so that's nice. Oddly enough and you may just understand this - it is both the last place and the only place where I would choose to spend my day.

When daydreaming about an idyllic birthday, I conjure up meandering through the Vermont countryside, browsing antique shops and having a leisurely lunch. Screeching halt to dream sequence! My kids have forced me into realizing the only way to spend it is at a water park splashing down the "Colorado rapids" ride, (terrorized as now I know what it holds in store for me, yet feel compelled to take the plunge just the same).

I have been a tad preoccupied of late with my own racing thoughts which are never good company. Work is rocky right now, the kids adjusting to a summer non-schedule is less than calm, and we're all settling into our new time zones. I'm sure we'll get over this collective household "jet lag" eventually.

In the meantime, I've promised the Universe that I won't take it personally. Deliver a decent sunny day for my birthday and we're on the road to reconciliation. After all, it's delivered my new issue of Domino magazine today.

A couple of city kids in the county this past July 4th weekend:



I don't know if I've ever told my BIL Tony that he reminds me of Mick Fleetwood.

So that's life round these parts. Will the excitement never end?!

Stop by for our usual Chinese Food celebratory dinner tonight if you're in the neighborhood!

XOX

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...