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Stories & SNippets : 2012

…and observations, journals, & musings on music, film, books, art, and pretty things. and life in general.

January 2012

January 5

Jamey in Brasil.
Jonny returning from from week-long vacay in Tahoe with Meilani’s fam.
Coffee update: second headache of the week this afternoon.

January 13 : Freitag

She was so enthusiastic and cheerful today - which she frequently is, I merely thought I would note it for today to make sure it’s recorded. Played a lot with her PlayMobile toys in combination with wood blocks and Fisher Price.

Her 18m bro follows, sitting by her, accompanying her to each activity. Loves hanging out with her.

Lot of cleaning and pick-up. Got Christmas stuff put away. Becca worked. Love listening to Philip Glass on a Friday evening.

January 17

January 17 with a 4-year old

She wanted me to snuggle with her last night.
“I hope it takes a long time for me to warm up so you’ll stay and snuggle with me longer.”
This request did not trouble me terribly.

Also, it was snowing out, so it seemed like a good time to go outside with our 18-month old and play with action figures. He did not want to come in. Thanks for a good afternoon, Woody, Buzz, Batman, Superman, and Darth Vader.

He’s talking up a storm. Strings of syllables. Loves walking up my chest onto my shoulders.

Chai tea is not coffee.

It’s so cute to see how much fun they are having together - dolls, dishes, tea parties, wrestling, reading…

Listening to Cat Power’s Remember Me.

January 19 a Thursday

A day of shooting with my bro Jonny.
At a school; a place I love, and am tired of.

Joseph Arthur has his alien heads.
Basquiat had his cave figures.
What is my motif?

Listening to Joseph’s Yer Only Job

January 26 a Thursday

Almost 11pm. One of us on couch, iPhone snuggled. I taught today, sans students away for a weekend of music-making at a double-titled Washington university. Becca with kids: the grocery, visiting neighbors. Her brother took his two kids along as well.

We have eked our groceries out til payday tomorrow. Still waiting on check from a certain web client in the oral healthcare universe.

So much hanging over right now. Guess I’ll just watch telly. Hung or Fringe? Listening to Saul Williams’ Act III Scene 2 (Shakespeare). Never weary of it.

February 2012

February 4, a Shabbat

Church in the City. Two kids drawing and reading during the sermon by the leather-jacketed bald gentleman. Becca in tall boots, slick purse, and gorgeous hair on a sunshine day. Off to burritos on Hawthorne, where a 19-month old man in a white-tee shows off his walking abilities up and down, up and down, up and down the indoor staircase consisting of…a handful of stairs. Tongue out, massive grin. If he ever gets into basketball, running, jumping, or parkour, really gonna have to work on that. Driving, surrounded by a pink blanket and loads of chitter-chatter and fab convo. Later, there is bowling for a birthday, a beloved birthday celebration for my beloved sister.

February 27, a Monday, 11.23pm

What a busy, crazy, stressful last week. Academy Awards last night, on a 19” telly. Sick children.

The sun, nachos with Becca, at 10.15pm while watching Desperate Housewives…

My Facebook “Muslim” post, deriding the sharing of a current meme that is inflammatory and Islamophobic to the extreme, has provoked many emotions.

February 28, a Tuesday

Today, I need to:

Update syllabus for the Digital Broadcasting class I’m teaching
Finish up business card mockups for my SIL Mary
Grade projects for Photography and Broadcasting
Lay out new site: video, logo, layout
Clackamas meeting at 4pm
One blog post on VLM
Paint wood blocks for upcoming birthday party for our daughter’s friend T——-

March 2012

March 7

I like to make big deals out of little things.

Like falling over backwards when my daughter tells me the handle fell off her spoon.

April 2012

April 22, a Sunday : stuff I planned to do and stuff we did, and I won’t say which was which

Paint the dining room
Buy big planter containers
Transplant things that need to be transplanted
Edit Love Strikes music video
Watch Our Idiot Brother. ***1/2 Paul Rudd is our long-lost sibling.

April 23

Hot. Work. Teaching. Talking with someone we care about very much who is very sad and being treated terribly by an ex. I am so angry.

Watched Contagion. Chilling. ***1/2

May 2012

June 2012

June 01 : a Friday

I’m reading Jennifer Egan’s The Keep…
and James Dashner’s The Death Cure…
and Michael Bierut’s Seventy-nine Short Essays About Design.

I’m a book-dancer; I like to read, set aside, let it sit while I absorb for a bit, then go back to.

Went to Oregon Children Theater’s production of If You Give a Mouse a Cookie with my SIL, nephew and daughter. She loved it; I believe we all did. :)

It’s pushing midnight. In bed. I have a bride who is sick. Me too, less so. Joseph Arthur on earphones.

Went to Oregon Children Theater’s production of If You Give a Mouse a Cookie.

June 15

Listening to Echo & The Bunnymen.

July 2012

August 2012

September 2012

September 05 : a Wednesday

The children. Walked down the mountain to meet Becca. One hour, 15 minutes. Love these kids. Such adventurers…she is turning into such a little athlete.

Our son, praying earlier: “Thank you for Mama, and her hard work.”
Yep, true that.

Watching James and the Giant Peach. Listening to Bach: Brandenburg Concertos on vinyl.

October 2012

October 11

Watching Homeland.

November 2012

December 2012

December 31

Watching Rise of Planet of the Apes for a slammin’ NYE party with siblings Two and Six.

Essential Films of 2012

Favorites

Avengers
The Dark Knight Rises

Frances Ha
Looper
Mud
Premium Rush
Silver Linings Playbook
Skyfall (007)
Zero Dark Thirty

Honorable mention

Django Unchained
The Grey
The Impossible
Iron Man 3
Pitch Perfect

All ages

Brave

Guilty pleasures

Now You See Me

The Raid: Redemption

Holiday

this

Want to see

A Coffee in Berlin
Amour
The Awakening (Brit thriller)
Compliance
Hello I Must Be Going (Melanie Lynskey)
Life of Pi
The Man Inside
The Master
Savages (kidnapping, crime, Blake Lively)
Shadow Dancer (MI5 informant, IRA)
Tower Block
Wadjda (Saudi)
Wild Bill

Not worth the time

Total Recall

——

Back to Film Index by Year

Essential music of 2012

Albums

...And You Will Know Us By The Trail Of Dead - Lost Songs
Alt-J - An Awesome Wave
CHAPPO - Moonwater
David Crowder Band - Give Us Rest; or, A Requiem Mass in C (the Happiest of All Keys)
First Aid Kit - The Lion’s Roar
Jason Lytle - Department of Disappearance
Men Without Hats - Love In The Age Of War
Muse - The 2nd Law
Lana Del Rey - Born to Die
The Vaccines - Come Of Age
Sharon Van Etten - Tramp
Silversun Pickups - Neck of the Woods
Bruce Springsteen - Wrecking Ball

Honorable mention

Band of Horses - Mirage Rock
Andre Bird - Break It Yourself
Art Brut - Art Brut vs. Satan
Joseph Arthur - Redemption City
Cheap Trick - Standing On The Edge
Leonard Cohen - Old Ideas
I Break Horses - Hearts
Imagine Dragons - Night Visions
Alicia Keys - Girl On Fire
the Killers - Battle Born
Of Monsters and Men - My Head Is an Animal
The Rapture - In The Grace Of Your Love
The Raveonettes - Into the Night / Observator
Rihanna - Unapologetic
School of Seven Bells - Ghostory
Sea of Bees - Orangefarben
Yukon Blonde - Tiger Talk
The Walkmen - Heaven