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Stories & SNippets : 2010
…and observations, journals, & musings on music, film, books, art, and pretty things. and life in general.
January 2010
January 8
A 29-month old tests out toy shopping carts in a store aisle with her 24-year old Uncle Jamey, looking slick and stylish in button up, spectacles, and wrist watch. Later, she walks him through the cacophonous shake-spilled floor maze that defines Red Robin and tries to steal all his fries. Something her father would never ever do.
January 10
For some reason, we spend part of the day photographing things to sell on eBay, including a giant collection of dishes from Mexico; the origins and backstory of which neglect my memory. There is also a pair of floral Doc Martens.
Also, a girl sits in the passenger seat. The passenger seat of her grandfather’s truck. She is in her pajamas. He is not. Her hair instantly reminds me of a Looney Tunes character that sticks an appendage and immediately gets electrified, as visualized through their hair, and then this character immediately goes to apply for a research position with Doc Brown from Back to the Future, and thinks mirroring his aesthetic would give her a leg up. I’m not sure any of those thoughts race through her head, as she is 31 months old, but that is the character she has successfully and authentically created. They sit together, grandfather and granddaughter, one barefoot, one in pajamas, reading a book and laughing uproariously. They are at a standstill, parked, which is possibly good for the reading and conversing they are doing, and I am certain my father has other matters to attend to, but his attention is fully invested in this moment. Or rather, series of moments lasting many minutes, as they banter back and forth. What a pair.
January 24, midnight
Our 30-month old slept until 10.15 this morning. CRAZY.
Trying to avoid getting sick. Lotsa water, but not getting too bad overly early.
Watching Veronica Mars S3. Our daughter has been wanting to choose records to listen to all by herself. So today: Footloose soundtrack.
February 2010
February 6, casual pronouncements
‘Mama’s hot…sexy Mama,’ she casually announces, unprompted, as Becca walks into Grocery Outlet, luscious bosoms filling out her tank top. Yes, I murmured. Yes, she is.
February 18
A bath at Grandma’s. Nothing like a little change of scenery for mundane events. Or…given the frequency with which it seems we bathe our child in relation to the unskippable daily washings of others…maybe not so mundane as an activity.
Taco Bell drive-thru. That’s part of healthy January resolutions, right? I balance out the sodium by painting a closet. There. Equilibrium achieved.
March 2010
March 1 - The Negotiator.
What a pill we have.
Daddy, I want to kick you.
- Uh, no, we do not kick!
No, I will just kick you gently.
April 2010
May 2010
June 2010
June 6 - snapshot of a day
An only child, age 34 months, pushing her 4-month strollered cousin in their grandparent’s driveway. The older sibling and statesmen, 43 months, oversees all; there are smiles and there is nose picking and some laughing and general merriment. Soon, the arrival of the first-mentioned’s sibling add to their numbers. May that imminent arrival signal a time of peace and prosperity ahead, a Pax Americana, or rather, Pax Earthum (?) for generations to come. All will be well. I have willed it.
June 22 - a Tuesday
A made bed with colorful pillows: small accomplishments to start a day and be surrounded by something that helps you feel good. Something else that feels good on a Tuesday, or any day: Sitting on a front lawn, conversing with your pregnant wife, your 4-month old niece, and your very pregnant bride.
July 2010
July 16, a Friday
A mom rocks on the front porch in the early afternoon, nursing a newborn. A fresh 3-year old holds her own dolly a few feet away, sitting on a stool, chirping and conversing. Someday, the Boy-on-the-boob will be her playmate, and that time will be upon us swiftly. Later, she holds her brother and instructs him confidently in what he needs to do; things like sitting up and talking nice and such etiquette as a newborn must know. Later, a beloved cousin comes to play, and they ride tricycles and banter and argue and love each other as only 3- and 4-year olds can love each other, which is to say with verve and panache and entire unfiltered heart.
August 2010
September 2010
September 10, a Friday
I love - LOVE - the sound of our daughter belting out “Baa Baa Black Sheep.” Over and over.
October 2010
October 1, a Friday, Miles at Costco
Lanessa, 14, carrying our barely-3 month old - her nephew - slinked over one arm, stepping through a parking lot, her hand intertwined with the other: our recently-turned 3-year old - her niece - who is sporting a tutu but more apparently importantly, stylistically sporting the countenance of one who feels cool. Where does birth of the cool come? I have not much to say about its birth. I have a great deal to say about its development, at least at certain ages and with myself. And it comes from surrounding yourself with those who give you a brimming blast of comfort and confidence.
I see her stepping along with her aunt, amidst the newness of navigating a sibling in her life, and I see the steady, consistent outpouring of generous attention and love that she receives and how much it’s meant to her. These are moments that she (likely) will never consciously recall, but they will be the deep seed for so much, and so much of what we don’t understand about ourselves we might think of as a negative, but…nah, not always. Sometimes maybe there’s things you don’t understand but they just are, and this is a just are, just is.
The cool has been birthed all over her face and strut, jaunting along with her aunt, the (other) bare-footed body draped around Lanessa’s (other) arm possibly dismissed as a casual inconvenience or wiggling accessory. He too, will find his rhythm with her and with others, and he too, shall someday, someday not be carried around while nestled securely against his aunt.
And how is it we come to trust? My little sister, born when I was a sophomore in college, now toting my own children around as she’s in the early-middle act of the life chapter called Teenhood, with her own learnings and obstacles and feelings and struggles and figuring-out-things, and yet, it only occurs to me, in reflection, to even consider that I might not trust her in the way and to the depth I do. I know. I just know. Our children have a home with her, wherever and whenever that might be, and those little hearts in trio beating with so much love, I think, will always feel The Cool around each other. Because she is a catalyst for The Cool, and they know it. At three years old, her 38-month wisdom gets it already. Whew. Wonder what I should listen to this weekend?
November 2010
December 2010
December 24, a Friday : his first Christmas Eve
Two Christmas elves, thrust by their Grinch parents underneath a handcrafted tree in the spirit of Bethlehem and a couple penniless parents; a tree constructed of an old round timber and gathered aged branches gleaned from the ground. Beneath this baubled and bedazzled Charles Brown tree reposes a 3-year old elf and her charge. Age: 5 months and change. One sports antlers, another Santa hat. The elder wears her personality even-keeled, caressing, patting, gently forcing him into the position she feels he must be for their parents’ photo op. He light brigade charges his personality to ever-changing points on the emotional battle field, exhibiting remarkable displays of disgust, joy, disgruntlement, attention, disinterest, and enthusiasm. It is the emotional allegory of a sniper suddenly getting a shotgun and going on the rampage. That is possibly a terrible example. If only I could find the delete key.
Later, we join my parents-in-law at their abode for a quiet-ish meal, alongside four cousins and their creators. Soup, lovingly-designed cracker hors d’ouvres, cookies, some gift opening, a grandfather stealing some antlers to wear, my 10-month niece caught up in a board book while riding her mom’s lap. Later, upon greater quiet, I prevail upon my father-in-law to read Twas the Night Before Christmas, which he does, helped by two reindeer plopped in his lap. Another child nurses, her elder brother roams the living room with a flashlight, emitting various rays and grunts.
I sit next to my beloved sister-in-law, quietly filming in a manner one might call unobtrusive, save for the disgruntled presence next to me; he countenance pronouncing judgment greater than many words. Someday she will laugh and love me for ignoring her disinterest in the present being documented.
My niece is presented with a doll. She breaks from nursing to dialog with, while ensconced in her grandma’s lap. My SIL wrestles her son and, if I can trust my eyes, defeats him handily. I trust it will always be as such. Rejecting defeat, he segues to my trusty little camera as I show him pictures and very sneakily take a picture of his dad, who is trying to burrow into his hoodie before I can do so. He does not prevail. The father later dangles his son upside down, an action he would undoubtedly like to commit upon me as well, but might possibly fail at due to my muscular and massive frame.
It becomes late quickly, and Santa must ride, so yippee-kai-yay, Christmas Evers.
My favorED movies of 2010
The Dearest
127 Hours
Book of Eli
Exit Through the Gift Shop
Inception
MacGruber
Red
Scott Pilgrim vs. the World
The Social Network
Toy Story 3
True Grit
Honorable mention
Black Swan
Cave of Forgotten Dreams
Date Night
The Fighter
The King’s Speech
Little Fokkers
Monsters
Salt
The Town
All ages
Despicable Me
Four Lions
Frozen
How to Train Your Dragon
MegaMind
The Secret World of Arrietty
Shrek Forever After
Tangled
Toy Story 3
Guilty pleasures
Kick-Ass
Iron Man 2
The Other Guys
Resident Evil: Afterlife
Holiday
Want to see
The American
Animal Kingdom
Boy (Taika Waititi)
Cyprus (Duplass Brothers)
Easy A
Bill Cunningham New York
Hot Tub Time Machine
The Illusionist (Jacques Tati)
Inside Job
Let the Right One In
Ondine (Neil Jordan, Colin Farrell mermaid fairy tale)
Repo Men
The Scouting Book for Boys
The Secret in Their Eyes (original Argentine)
Skeletons
Stone
The Way Back
Winter’s Bone
Youth in Revolt (Michael Cera)
Not worth the time
——
Back to Film Index by Year
ESSENTIAL MUSIC OF 2010
My favourite 11 albums
All Smiles - Oh For The Getting And Not Letting Go
Beach House - Teen Dream
Caravan Palace - Caravan Palace
Jeremy M. Long - Very Little Adventures (score)
Kings of Leon - Come Around Sundown
LCD Soundsystem - This Is Happening
MGMT - Congratulations
M.I.A. - /\/\/\Y/\
The National - High Violet
Sia - We Are Born
The Walkmen - Lisbon
Kanye West - My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy
Honorable Mention
Arcade Fire - The Suburbs
Band of Horses - Infinite Arms
Beach House - Teen Dream
Brandon Flowers - Flamingo
Eminem - Recovery
Fistful of Mercy - Fistful of Mercy
Girl Talk - All Day
The Head and the Heart - The Head and the Heart
Jimmy Eat World - Invented
Elton John & Leon Russell - The Union
Johnny Cash - American VI: Ain't No Grave
Linkin Park - A Thousand Suns
Lil Wayne - I Am Not A Human Being
Lissie - Chasing a Tiger
Mates of State - Crushes
Midlake - The Courage of Others
Mumford & Sons - Sigh No More
The New Pornographers - Together
Gorillaz - Plastic Beach
Grace Potter & The Nocturnals - Grace Potter & The Nocturnals
OK Go - Of The Blue Colour Of The Sky
Rihanna - Loud
School Of Seven Bells - Disconnect From Desire
Spoon - Transference
Sufjan Stevens - All Delighted People EP
Angus & Julia Stone - Down The Way
The Tallest Man On Earth - The Wild Hunt
Tame Impala - Innerspeaker
Typhoon - Hunger and Thirst
Vampire Weekend - Contra
The 2010 songs you have to hear
Bloodbuzz Ohio by The National
Flash Delirium - MGMT
Humdrum Town by Theophilus London
On My Way Back Home by Band of Horses
Sleep the Clock Around by Mates of State (cover)
Sounds Like Hallelujah by The Head and the Heart
2010 PLAYLISTS BY MONTH
January
Bloodbuzz Ohio - the National
Flash Delirium - MGMT
February
On My Way Back Home - Band of Horses
Sleep the Clock Around - Mates of State
Sounds Like Hallelujah - The Head and the Heart
March
coming soon
April
coming soon
May
coming soon
June
July
August
September
coming soon
August
September
October
Humdrum Town by Theophilus London
November
coming soon
December
——