Stories & SNippets : 2014
…and observations, journals, & musings on music, film, books, art, and pretty things. and life in general.
January 2014
January 2, 11.18pm
Sick wife. Poor girl. Came home, she was trying to rest, or, “rest”; kids racing around high-spiritedly, bantering together. They are BIG into DUPLO-building. I LOVE bantering with them.
3yo: Can we go to Egypt?
Me: Why?
Him: Because Jesus lives there.
Things I need to fix: the kitchen sink.
Listening: YALA - M.I.A.
Reading: Speaker for the Dead
Learning and Studying: Chernobyl, Babel, Faust; the connection between Faust and Mephistopheles, as interpreted by Goethe in 1808, and the subject of moral integrity as it relates to power and success.
January 5 : a Sunday
My sis-in-law and her kids over. Potato and tofu scramble for breakfast. Good start to what can be a tough day.
Later, my youngest sister’s senior project fashion show in Portland. Knocked it out. So good. What a talent.
January 11
Watched Lady and the Tramp with our friends the W———, along with popcorn and apple slices. Later with Becca: Shameless, S3, episodes 1-3.
January 27 : a Monday
Filming in Sandy with Jonny, which made it all worth it. The children hung out with my dad making paper airplanes, eating at Sweet Tomatoes, and going to The Children’s Museum. I think they had a rotten time, I think they missed me terribly, and I don’t think they learned a thing. Sad.
January 28 : a Triad of Tuesday
Subaru to the shop. Rainy. Watched 40 minutes of Annie.
January 31 : a Shabbat
R———— for SS, City for church. Parents + 1985 bro at hotel watching football. Lunch at Cafe Yumm.
Listening to Philip Glass’s Metamorphosis Two. The way he builds so much with so little. Timeless.
February 2014
March 2014
March 03
Listening to Lana Del Rey’s Radio. Dreamy, delicious, mesmerizing.
March 12
Playlist : March Welcome Sunshine x11
1. Contrabanda / DeVotchKa
2. Breezeblocks / Alt-j
3. Sounds Like Hallelujah / The Head and the Heart
4. The Ballad of Michael Valentine / the Killers
5. This Fire / Franz Ferdinand
6. Matilda / Alt-j
7. Twilight / the Raveonettes
8. Summertime Sadness / Lana Del Rey
9. Brighter Than the Sun / Colbie Caillat
10. Story Told / M.I.A.
11. I Found a Whistle / MGMT
Oh, and New Kids on the Block and Roxette on cassette.
April 2014
April 10 : let me not let this define the day
$723 to Classic Auto for…a sensor. It’s a good day for listening to Deafheaven.
May 2014
May 02
Listening to The Sound of Music soundtrack and Pink Partini on a Friday.
May 8, a Thursday, 10.08pm
It has been kind of a rotten week.
Rather rotten thing to say. But it has.
There have been good things. primarily involving my family,
but overall: a non-productive, frustrating, just…tough week.
Also, got rear-ended at Mill Plain this afternoon. White, brand-new F150. Let him go; I am so tired of fighting and being conflict and standing my ground.
The kids reminded me last night, when I was racing through goodnight prayer:
Daddy, you forgot to pray for the people in Syria and the Ukraine!
Reality in the face. Help me to remember these moments.
Becca has been obsessed with John Green’s The Fault in Our Stars. Finished it this morning. Blazers got beat down by San Antonio again. Down 2-0. Only thing to do: listen to Hole’s Violet. I’m not sure what the connective tissue is on that. It’s just a great song.
May 13, a Tuesday, a few things did and done
Visited my Grandpa-in-Law at the hospital. He is doing well and should remain cantankerous and lovable for a great while to come.
Was on the other side of the lens, doing an interview, alongside Countess Becca, with Lanessa and Mindy, regarding relationships, love, romance, marriage, and such things. We make quite the duo.
The Countess successfully passed her CPR class, or as I like to call it “Accelerated Med School.” Good work, Doctor Becca.
I took Jamey to the airport, generously and self-sacrificially returning him to another state. We can’t hog him here indefinitely. But I want to. He is such a joyful presence.
May 30
Playlist: Dinner party outside
Smile - Pink Martini
Kitty Come Home Pink Martini
I Miss You - Randy Newman
Parallel Jalebi - Four Tet
Love Illumination - Franz Ferdinand
June 2014
June 21, a Shabbat with monoliths and sculptures and icons
The seashore, together with sunshine, inspecting and appreciating monolithic structures of sand, hanging with retired Blazers great Jerome Kersey, wavejumping with my kids: one with certainty and confidence, one with cautious trepidation, both mindsets okay for the places they’re at on their life narrative. The beach with blue skies, a little breeze, sunshine, happy people…how lucky can a guy get? Birds and kites fly high, eventually we peregrinate south to a different beach, a quieter one which we also enjoy. An almost-7yo rests and snuggles and observes with her mum from a wood bench while an almost-4yo and I hunt for sticks and driftwood and discuss the nuances of bad, wicked, and evil.
We stop in a little bakery to share a bear claw; the sharing a growing hallmark of our little quartet. Yes, we share these treats. What kind of memory will this someday be, this sharing business?
We drive some more and stop by Manhattan. Yep, the Manhattan of Oregon, right along the beach. Manhattan Beach. There are acres and acres of lonely driftwood - or perhaps driftwood in solitude - that repose stately, awaiting repurposement. We find a fort. Becca finds a piece of wood, of driftwood, a giant one, and holds it in such a manner, with such a grin, that it is impossible not to grin, and our children are too observant to go too much longer with the double entrendres we’ve slipped past them, between us, for awhile. Those days are disappearing. As is our children’s pants: both are in underwear. Perhaps we should be too.
Finally, we make it to my parents’ place for a drop by. Or rather, a sleepover. We hang out by a fire pit, roasting veggie hot dogs and marshmallows and carrying on conversation with them and with my mom’s childhood friend, Marsha, up visiting. It’s a wonderful way to end a wonderful day. Thank you, God and universe. And then their grandfather snuggles into tell them a bedtime story. That’s what you call a cherry on top.
Fin.
July 2014
July 11, a Friday with capes and dragons and water
At home. Cleaning and moving stuff from one room to another room. And every once in a while moving a small percentage of that stuff to recycling, garbage, or give-away. Every once in a while. Also figuring out a birthday picnic supper for our 7yo for tomorrow evening.
More important in defining a day: a boy wears a cape; a cape that is becoming interwoven into his identity as he ascends the skies, or rather, the kitchen sink with the aid of our trusty step stool. A swing, a make-shift swing assembled with old rope from my Oncle Jim and a scrap 2x6 from our deck, sways in the breeze, next to a stacked pile of unsplit firewood waiting for another day.
A treat is enjoyed by siblings on the front yard. A four-year old naps, looked after by his toy dragon and precious pink blanket, and awakens refreshed and ready to build a slide for his cars out of my Great Uncle’s old foundry patterns.
Later, the day is undawned by a firefight - or rather, waterfight - involving a father against children. There is no question who is victor. I am writing the history here, so let it be laid clear: I won. It was a day, a summer day.
Later, we watched a 35-minute HBO documentary called Redemption about NYC can collectors. ***1/2
August 2014
August 8, a Friday midnight
With children during the day, working to 2am last night/this morning. With them: chores, reading, library, supper and fire with my SIL, BIL and his wife.
Did I make it through today without getting irritated at my kids and upset with myself? Umm, no. But good day overall. Just…overwhelmed.
Listening to Sia and Weird Al. Reading Joseph Finder’s Suspicion. Man takes $50k loan, gets caught in DEA sting op. ***1/2
September 2014
September 08
Listening to Sia and Weird Al. Reading Joseph Finder’s Suspicion. Man takes $50k loan, gets caught in DEA sting op. ***1/2
September 26
Listening to a lot of Bénabar.
October 2014
November 2014
November 3, a Monday, 11.35pm
A soaking wet Monday. Lot of art, paper maché, pumpkins carving. A 4-year old learning to use the record player on his own. Moses and the plagues. War of 1812 for history. Maths, language arts, and monster naps for both.
Finished watching Muppets Most Wanted. Our daughter has been so excited to see it again.
Last three films: Lucy (**), Three Days to Kill (1/2), Transcendence (***)
Our son is a fan of making stuff.. Give him some tape, scissors, and paper, and his brain is barreling down creativity highway.
Quote of the day: My jeans are very ripped because I play so hardcore.” -a 7-year old
December 2014
December 23, a Tuesday
Two children, each with very different personalities, poses, and expressions, hunch over drawings spread out on a blue-tablecloth clad dining table, surrounded by an centuries of markers and vibrant pencils, creating works to be presented as presents for an anonymous upcoming holiday. With such things, with such people, one can never, must never, become intimate with boredom.
Later, a stroll through Storybook Lane in Portland with friends. An illuminative diminutive Yoda. Three elves surrounding Elf. Grinch on a reindeer. Hordes of people, mostly smiling, together in synchrony, or ad libbed harmony, enjoying the work of others and the cacophony of strangers.
Essential Films of 2014
Favorites
Big Hero 6
Captain America: The Winter Soldier
Edge of Tomorrow
Guardians of the Galaxy (MCU)
Grand Budapest Hotel
The LEGO Movie
Nightcrawler
Selma
What We Do in the Shadows
Whiplash
Honorable mention
A Most Wanted Man (June 2024)
The Babadook
How to Train Your Dragon 2
Kingsman: The Secret Service
All ages
Annie
Big Hero 6
How to Train Your Dragon 2
The LEGO Movie
Night at the Museum: Secret of the Tomb
Paddington
Guilty pleasures
3 Days to Kill
Divergent
Neighbors
Holiday
coming sometime
Want to see
A Girl Walks Home Alone at Night (Iranian vampire noir)
Big Eyes
Birdman
Blue Ruin (Kickstarter funded crime drama)
Boyhood
Citizenfour
Cold in July
Draft Day (Costner)
Force Majeure
Foxcatcher
The Guest
Ida (Polish, almost-nun finds out she’s Jewish)
The Immigrant
Inherent Vice
It Follows
Leviathan (Russian)
Life Itself (doc of Roger Ebert)
Locke (Tom Hardy on the phone in his car for an hour)
The Monuments Men
One Lovers Left Alive (Jarmusch vampire love story)
Pawn Sacrifice (Toby Maguire, Live Schreiber Cold War chess)
The Raid: Berandal
The Tribe (Ukraine, school for deaf teens)
Two Days, One Night (France, Marion Cotillard)
Disappointing
Dawn of the Planet of the Apes
X-Men: Days of Future Past
——
Back to Film Index by Year
ESSENTIAL MUSIC OF 2014
Albums
Johnny Cash - Out Among The Stars
George Ezra - Wanted On Voyage
First Aid Kit - Stay Gold
James - La petite mort
Manic Street Preachers - Futurology
Sia - 1000 Forms Of Fear
Run the Jewels - RTJ 2
Sharon Van Etten - Are We There
The War on Drugs - Lost in the Dream
Honorable mention
...And You Will Know Us By The Trail Of Dead - IX
alt-J - This Is All Yours
Bleachers - Strange Desire
Chevelle - La Gárgola
Clap Your Hands Say Yeah - Only Run
Leonard Cohen - Popular Problems
Coldplay - Ghost Stories
D'Angelo and The Vanguard - Black Messiah
Embrace - Embrace
Future Seasons - Singles
Pixies - Indie Cindy
Storm Large - Le Bonheur
The Raveonettes - Pe'ahi
Matthew Ryan - Boxers
Jack White - Lazaretto
Lucinda Williams - Down Where the Spirit Meets the Bone
U2 - Songs of Innocence
The greatest songs of 2014
Boxers - Matthew Ryan
Cassy O’ - George Ezra (E)
Cedar Lane by First Aid Kit
Chandelier - Sia
Glory - Common & John Legend
Impossible Request - Clap Your Hands Say Yeah
Like a River Runs - Bleachers
Little Moments - Clap Your Hands Say Yeah
Nara - alt-J
Our Love by Sharon Van Etten
Rollercoaster - Bleachers
Seasons (Waiting On You) - Future Islands
Wake Me - Bleachers
We Are Libertines - Matthew Ryan
Spiritual
Glory - Common & John Legend
2014 Playlists by Month
January
Seasons (Waiting On You) - Future Islands
Cedar Lane - First Aid Kit
Boxers - Matthew Ryan
Dressed in Black - Sia
Intro - alt-J
Breakaway - George Ezra
February
Our Love - Sharon Van Etten
Wake Me - Bleachers
God’s Not Here Tonight - Matthew Ryan
The First Heartbreak - Matthew Ryan
March
Blame It On Me - George Ezra
Heaven’s Hill - Matthew Ryan
Glory - Common & John Legend
Did You Hear the Rain - George Ezra
Drawing Board - George Ezra
April
Impossible Request - Clap Your Hands Say Yeah
Fair Game - Sia
An Anthem for the Broken - Matthew Ryan
May
Chandelier - Sia
Budapest - George Ezra
Free the Animal - Sia
June
Happy - Pharrell Williams
Cassy O’ - George Ezra (E)
Jonathan - Adrianne Lenker and Buck Meek
Like a River Runs - Bleachers
Elastic Heart - Sia
July
Rollercoaster - Bleachers
We Are Destroyer - Anberlin
August
Beyond Illusion - Clap Your Hands Say Yeah
Shadows - Bleachers
We Are Libertines - Matthew Ryan
September
Nara - alt-J
Little Moments - Clap Your Hands Say Yeah
This One’s for You Frankie - Matthew Ryan
October
Red Eyes - The War on Drugs
November
The Queen of My Arms - Matthew Ryan