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Stories & SNippets : 2016
…and observations, journals, & musings on music, film, books, art, and pretty things. and life in general.
January 2016
Vice Principals. It takes a special kind of comic sensibility to get you caring about the fate of two wretched and entirely incompetent school administrators vying for the top top spot.
January 14
What Are You Waiting For - Disturbed
February 2016
February 16
Listening to lots of of Vivaldi and Phosphorescent.
February 17, 2016, 12.21 am
The night before taxes. Quickbooks just crashed. Another blankety-blank cluster-blankety before taxman meet.
On the upside, got a solid day at home with the kids playing at lots of school. Maths, photography, history, basketball, essay writing, G.I. Joes…
Trying to stay strong.
February 22
Listening to Chemical Brothers and Vivaldi.
A sunshiny February Monday. Narnia spring feels here. Becca to work, them up north to the school we formally engage with a couple times a week. My 5-year old and I stopped at Steamboat Landing for what was supposed to be a short bit…but then ended up spending two hours fort-building. He was in bliss and…his father (yeah, me) enjoyed it also, a little.
A lot.
His excitement and zest for living, building, inventing, discovering…I love so much.
Home for G.I. Joes (his obsession du jour), leftover spaghetti, BH Photo live chat, and Chemical Brothers and Vivaldi listening.
Back up to school, piano in Ridgefield, couple hours of skate park, where we biked, scootered, and basketballed.
She’s been working so hard at basketball. I just love her conscientiousness. and dedication to improving and learning.
Kenny and Austin. Teens, freshman, BMXers. Kenny in particular was such a cool kid - “This is a forty-thousand dollar skate park…I coulda built it for under a grand.” Goes on to talk about construction, how dirty Portland is, and science, and other important and completely on-topic topics.
——
“Handle first, handle first!” Had to show our kids the scene from Arrested Development where Gob, a little late, frantically reminds his assistant the proper way to hand over a sword to a magician. I am crying every time.
March 2016
March 09
Baby Blue - Deafheaven
April 2016
April 05
April 11
April 17
April 21
Can a 39-year old balance his 36-year old paramour on his feet, arms spread wide like the angel she is? As of today, the question is answered: yes he can, yes they can. Also, there is some very messy eating of a peanut butter and jelly sandwich in which it is a small miracle some portion of ingredients ended up in a stomach instead of floor, table, or face. Also, I went running and tried to keep my EarPods in.
May 2016
May 05
A 5-year old boy’s playlist : (It’s all Queen)
Another One Bites the Dust
Under Pressure
We Will Rock You
Dragon Attack
Crazy Little Thing Called Love
Bicycle Race
Fat Bottomed Girls
We Are the Champions
May 11
Patsy Cline’s 1962 ballad Crazy.
The Beatles’ 1965 bouncer I’m Looking Through You…followed by the same year’s Rubber Soul tracks
Nowhere Man, and…
In My Life and…
Frank Sinatra’s Once Upon A Time
For What It’s Worth - Buffalo Springfield
The Beach Boys’ Pet Sounds, in its entirety
May 17
A Playlist : “All is Dream” (x5)
Little Rhymes - Mercury Rev
Old Money - Lana Del Rey
Endless Pt. 1 - Phosphorescent
Joan Jett of Arc - Clem Snide
Cody - Mogwai
May 26
Today’s listening, thank you 1960s:
Don’t Think Twice It’s Alright - Bob Dylan
Succotash - Herbie Hancock
In Dreams - Roy Orbison
SOTD: I’ve Just Seen a Face - the Beatles
Blowin’ in the Wind - Bob Dylan
These Boots Are Made For Walking by Nancy Sinatra
Visions of Johanna - Bob Dylan
June 2016
June 30
Blue Rondo à la Turk - Dave Brubeck (never gets old)
July 2016
July 07
A freshly 9-year old absorbed in reading The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn. How can a heart not be warm to see this, particularly deep in the heart of a summer, though the Columbia may have to stand in for the Mississippi.
July 16
24 hour round trip to go see our brand-new nephew several hours north! Some sleep and napping in a parking lot, a short peek at a beautiful boy, some cinnamon rolls and lots of coffee. Worth it.
July 19, a Tuesday
Our trees…chopped. Necessary, but emotional. Manic Street Preachers and ABBA provide today’s soundtrack.
Donald J. Trump is, inexplicably and somehow and unbelievably…the Repub nom. Melania plagiarizes Michelle. Yes, and no question.
Our 6-year old is obsessed with collecting praying mantises, damselfly larva, beetles and crickets.
Our 9-year old is into reading, long boarding, and being a part of any adult conversation.
Watched E.T. with the kids. ****
Listening to ABBA and Manic Street Preachers.
August 2016
September 2016
October 2016
October 06
Listening to Pixies - Talent.
October 11, 2016
Teaching. Meeting with Jonny and H—-. A Friday evening home with the four of us, cozied up and bantering, followed by plunking the piano after everyone falls off to sleep. Friday evening: I love this time of the week. What a gift.
October 21, 2016
Teaching, accompanied by my two trusty assistants. We then embark on a field trek to the Columbia, where we watch goats eat up vegetation. We need some of those. They climb rocks and balance on stuff. Later, we get some groceries, meet up with Becca, and a 6-year old tries on my glasses with a big grin. May he carry his mother’s visual DNA and not need them.
November 2016
November 29 - post-Thanksgiving : a Monday
The boy and I put up Christmas lights today after taking la Countess to work and his sister to a morning of formal education minus us. Good time with our little big 6.5 year old. His curiosity, questions, conversation…magical and delightful.
More dialogs about axolotls and tiger salamanders than I could ever have imagined.
Help me to be more patient. And to get back to being the fun dad I was not so long ago. Feel like I just make so many mistakes and am constantly jumping on our kids.
Watched an episode of Blacklist (S3E10 “The Director”). Listened to Christmas music, Lissie, and A Tribe Called Quest.
Had a little birthday dinner for my MIL’s 66th at our place. Decided this morning if we didn’t make it happen now, several days after, it wouldn’t happen. So we did it. Soup, salad, bread, cookies. Good time, great lady.
December 2016
December 23 - a Friday
I snuggle past the 7am hour with my 6-year old boy; maybe one of the last days I’ll be able to say “my oldest boy.” I hold tight to these seconds of infinity. He awakens finally, and his face bears less an expression of affection and familiarity and more of alarm and disgust, but joke’s on him: he can’t take back the snuggling he subconsciously did. So there.
Later, we shop as a quadrangle at Craft Warehouse and Trader Joe’s. Becca’s pregnant presence bounces out buoyantly and radiates goodwill, though we do not make it to uppercase-goodwill. The kids try out animal emojis. I grow weary of them soon. Please tell me this not representative of technology’s greatest over the next year. Maybe it’s not. Maybe it is. Whatever the case, rest assured I will always choose my battles wisely. Mark those words, I cannot imagine any scenarios where I ever won’t. Note: this entry is off-limit for any of my children to read until my passing + 10 years. Enough time for accurate memories to fade and for the best to fill the screen.
Essential Films 0f 2016
Favorites
Arrival
Captain America: Civil War
Captain Fantastic
Hacksaw Ridge
Hell or High Water
Hidden Figures
Hunt for the Wilderpeople
La La Land
The Lobster
The Nice Guys
Popstar: Never Stop Never Stopping
Rogue One: A Star Wars Story
Honorable mention
20th Century Women
Allied
The Disaster Artist
Doctor Strange
Florence Foster Jenkins
I Am Not Your Negro
Passengers
Sully
All ages
Finding Dory
The Jungle Book
Kubo and the Two Strings
Moana
Trolls
Guilty pleasures
Now You See Me 2
Holiday
Bad Santa 2
Want to see
13th (Ava DuVernay documentary)
A Man Called Ove (Sweden)
Anthropoid (WWII Cillian Murphy)
Hail, Caesar! (Coen Brothers)
The Disappointments Room
Everybody Wants Some!! (Richard Linklater)
Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them
Fences
Hail, Caesar!
Jackie
Lion
Loving
Manchester By the Sea
Money Monster
Nocturnal Animals
One More Time with Feeling (Nick Cave documentary)
Paterson
The Salesman (Iran)
Silence
Sleight
Toni Erdmann (German-Austrian, father-daughter dramedy)
Tower (animated documentary about Texas shooting)
Disappointing or underwhelming
Batman v. Superman: Dawn of Justice
Moonlight
Suicide Squad (didn’t finish)
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Back to Film Index by Year
ESSENTIAL MUSIC OF 2016
Albums
Kings of Leon - WALLS
Moby & The Void Pacific Choir - These Systems Are Failing
Pink Martini - Je Dis Oui!
Sia - This Is Acting
The Vaccines - English Graffiti
Honorable mention
A Tribe Called Quest - We got it from Here... Thank You 4 Your service
James Arthur - Back from the Edge
Chevelle - The North Corridor
Leonard Cohen - You Want It Darker
Crowder - American Prodigal
Gavin DeGraw - Something Worth Saving
James - The Girl at the End of the World
Miranda Lambert - The Weight of These Wings
The Raveonettes - 2016 Atomized
Ray LaMontagne - Ouroboros
Pixies - Head Carrier
Wintersleep - The Great Detachment
The greatest songs of 2016
Are You Lost in the World Like Me? by Moby & The Void Pacific Choir
Eyes on You - Kings of Leon
Over - Kings of Leon
Surfer’s Song by James
Talk to Me by Run the Jewels
The Trouble With Boys - David Bazan
Unstoppable - Sia
Waste a Moment - Kings of Leon
2016 PLAYLISTS BY MONTH
January
Are You Lost in the World Like Me? Moby & The Void Pacific Choir
Wild - Kings of Leon
February
coming soon
March
coming soon
April
Find Me - Kings of Leon
Walls - Kings of Leon
May
coming soon
June
Unstoppable - Sia
Around the World - Kings of Leon
July
Surfer’s Song - James
August
Waste a Moment - Kings of Leon
September
The Trouble With Boys - David Bazan
Over - Kings of Leon
Eyes on You - Kings of Leon
October
November
Muchacho - Kings of Leon