Remember When the Music

MVY is showcasing its picks for the top 25 albums of 2006. This year they are playing songs from the selected albums over the course of an hour of programming a piece. The songs are interspersed - diluted if you will - between other songs, news, and advertising. In past years the station has played albums in their entirety, from start to finish, with barely a station identification break in the middle.
What's going on here? Is it that we no longer have the attention span to listen to several songs in a row by the same artist? Is it because we can't listen to less-popular songs unless they are precluded, and then followed by, something familiar? Or is it just because the station can't sell advertising around large chunks of uninterrupted music? Is something lost in never hearing an album from beginning to end with the songs in the order the artist originally intended? Do musicians and songwriters even consider the total package any more or do they just strive for one hit at a time, figuring that people are just going onto online and downloading the one or two songs they like.
Whatever the reason, it stinks. Not because I'm a big fan of any of this year's top 25, most of the artists I haven't even heard of, except for Death Cab for Cuties, but I can't actually name anything they sing. I just think it's a sad state of affairs when we can't concentrate on one particular group or musician for a full 40 minutes. No wonder attendance is down at the symphony, who can sit through a whole concerto in D minor?

Cat's In the Cradle

Cats are like children, they always get sick just before the weekend. I was feeling remiss that I didn't bring her in yesterday, since my parents have the kids and it would have been less of on ordeal to not have to load everyone into the car. But there were eagle scouts to interview and drawing classes to attend so the cat had to stay in the bathroom all day. Not to mention I had forgotten the most important thing about taking the cat to the vet - it's more entertaining than anything I could dream up to do with my kids.
This morning I told C that we had to take kitty to the vet after breakfast. He lowered his head and smiled.
"Know why I like to take kitty to the vet," he asked me.
"Why"
"I like to put her in the little cage and when she's in the cage I can talk to her and when we get home I can open the door and let her out of the cage. It's sad when she's sick and I'm her friend."
Sad for who? I wondered.
Even my younger son was in on the action, down on his belly checking out the cat, who C insisted I put into the cage a full half-hour before her appointment.
There's nothing like seeing the family pet incarcerated, except that is, seeing the family pet get a shot.
"Kitty doesn't even get a band-aid," empathized my son.

song: Cat's In the Cradle • artist: Harry Chapin

Back Door Man

On Wednesday I went out to hang up the laundry and inadvertently startled a hawk that was dining on some dead something-or-other over by the water barrel. It flew off, prey in its claws, pursued by a flock of crows. Incidentally, a flock of crows can also be called a "murder" of crows. Anyway, the hawk flew into our neighbor's yard and straight into one of Jim's large picture windows. It then bounced off the window and flew erratically towards the trees in Jim's front yard; still followed by the crows, still holding onto its breakfast.
Thursday morning I went out to hang laundry and after I'd been outside for a few minutes a fox came out from beneath the bunk house, gave me a disdainful look, and slunk off towards Betsy's yard.
Thank goodness for the laundry or I'd never see any wildlife.

song: Back Door Man • artist: The Doors

Extra Ordinary

Live a life less ordinary
Live a life extraordinary
-Carbon Leaf

When I look back on my ordinary, ordinary life,
I see so much magic, though I missed it at the time.
-Jamie Cullum

So which is it?
MVY has played these two songs back-to-back without eluding to the obvious disparity in their lyrics. Guess they don't want to choose sides.

song: Extra Ordinary • artist: Better Than Ezra

57 Channels

I was describing my Adelphia to Comcast conversion woes to a friend today when I had one of those moments of revelation when you think, "OMG, I'm complaining about my e-mail when there are starving people in the world."
I sometimes have the same feeling when I gripe about there being nothing on cable; that little voice inside my head chides: "you should be grateful you can afford cable television. Rejoice in your comfy bourgeoisie lifestyle and think how lucky you are to be able to watch Scarface every night of the week.
This is what comes from going to church too often.

song: 57 Channels (and nothin' on) • artist: Bruce Springsteen

Afternoon Delight

Unlike his older brother, my nineteen-month old can spend an entire afternoon in his crib. He loves it in there. He talks to himself: "ball, ball, ball, caw-caw, ball, ball, ball." He looks at his board books and hugs his stuffed animals and then throws them all on the floor, along with his socks. Eventually he falls asleep. When he wakes up it's the same routine all over again.
When I go upstairs to fetch him out he genuinely looks surprised, as if to say, "What? You've come to take me away from all this?"
I could stick War and Peace in there with him and he'd have it read by dinnertime.

song: Afternoon Delight • artist: Starland Vocal Band

It's the Same Old Song

Though he might disagree, I think Ken and I gave each other presents that we ourselves wanted for Christmas. For example, I gave him Johnny Cash's last recording and he in return gave me AC/DC's Back in Black. I did own this on cassette many years ago, which is surprising because I was more of an Air Supply fan then a head banger, but you just can't jog to "All out of Love" like you can to "You Shook Me All Night Long."
I love how new advances in technology have forced us to repurchase the same music we bought as kids. Seems there's something not very technologically advanced about that.
Anyway, just to set the record straight for next Christmas, I also owned Def Leppard twenty years ago but I haven't been pining for "Pyromania" lately. Although, perhaps my husband is.

song: It's the Same Old Song • artist: The Four Tops

You've Been So Good up to Now

So it went pretty well yesterday. Since neither of the kids watches a lot of television or takes frequent trips to the store, there wasn't one particular gift either was looking for and subsequently they were happy with whatever Santa brought. My younger son, at 19-months, would have been happy with just wrapping paper and boxes. My older son is convinced, however, that he got extra loot from Santa because he went to bed on Christmas Eve with a stomach ache and his bucket. A stomach ache no doubt brought on by the anticipation of Santa's arrival, since the first words out of his mouth coming down the stairs that morning were, "Santa's coming tonight!"
It's an interesting hypothesis though - that Santa might grade on a curve. If, say, Billy, wasn't very good during the year but he had a tonsillectomy in December he might still make out on Christmas morning. Not a good theory to publicize though, think of the ramifications. It would be like college students cramming for finals; on the last week of the year hospitals would full of preschool and elementary school children with broken arms and legs. It would be better to convince the kids that what Santa is really looking for is children who can sleep all night in their own beds and not wake up until at least 8AM. That and no guffing at bedtime.

song: You've Been So Good up to Now • artist: Lyle Lovett

We Need A Little Christmas

"For I've grown a little leaner,
Grown a little colder,
Grown a little sadder,
Grown a little older,
And I need a little angel
Sitting on my shoulder,
Need a little Christmas now."

song: We Need A Little Christmas • soundtrack: Mame

Someone's Looking at You

My son decided that the best way for us to help Santa would be to go to other children's houses and inquire of their mothers whether the children who live there have been good or not. "We could write them down and then Santa would know who is bad."
I sense a career in law enforcement; or maybe bounty hunting.

song: Someone's Looking at You • artist: The Boomtown Rats

You Decorated My Life

My new creative outlet.

song: You Decorated My Life • artist: Kenny Rogers

Waiting in Vain

There wasn't any preschool this week, nor is there any next week. I understand the teachers need a vacation but my four-year old does not. Especially the week before Christmas. What's worse than having to wait for Christmas when you're four? Not having your usual routine which gets you out of the house two mornings a week and makes time pass quicker. Instead he's stuck at home with his mom and younger brother, waiting and waiting for it to be Christmas, or staring at the Christmas tree and announcing infractions which will cause his little brother not to receive any toys from Santa.
"H is throwing his toys. Let's leave Santa a note and tell him he shouldn't get any presents."
Even with the Advent calendar to help count down the days, he's still asking me, "when will it be Christmas?" I tell him I'd like to know myself.
We watched "Santa Claus is coming to Town" the other night. Ken bought the DVD (along with Frosty the Snowman) but I told my son they were from the library so we wouldn't have to be watching them in April. He didn't seem to get the underlying concept of the movie, he kept asking: "why is that Chris Kringle guy dressed up as Santa Claus?"
He's painted some wooden ornaments that I need to put strings on and we've made a new construction-paper chain which wraps around the entire tree. When I'm totally out of ideas, there are always cookies to bake. We've made about twelve-dozen of the world's most unhygienic cookies this month. I can get him to wash his hands before we start but then we're rolling out cookie dough and he's wiping his hands up and down his sweater, or rolling the dough right off the wax paper onto the countertop, or blowing flour off the rolling pin so forcefully he's spitting across the counter. Then we go out and give the cookies to unsuspecting friends, neighbors, and our librarian friends. My coworker said not to worry, they were cooked after all, but I don't know, having witnessed what goes on behind the scenes, I suggest folks should be wary of kids bearing cookies. Be afraid. Be very afraid.

song: Waiting in Vain • artist: Bob Marley

cleanliness lament (a couplet)

Why is it my children would rather stay grubby
than get in the bathtub and take a tubby?

Beautiful Dreamer

Twas a few nights before Christmas and all through the house, not a creature was stirring, not even a mouse. That's because the mouse was dead - I heard the trap spring. As dead as a door knob. As dead as Jacob Marley to use a seasonally-appropriate metaphor. To be specific, the mouse was in the trap with a probable broken neck and Ken, who was not in his cap, wouldn't get up to go downstairs and remove it's lifeless body from the kitchen so his wife could sleep peacefully with visions of sugar plums, and not rodent carnage, dancing in her head.

song: beautiful dreamer • artist: Stephen Foster

Can't Find My Way Home

OMG! It was on AMC again last night - Scarface! It's December 20th, shouldn't they be showing reruns of It's a Wonderful Life? I don't know about you, but the Cuban mafia doesn't put me in the holiday spirit.
The word of the week at our house is camouflage. I don't even know how it came up but C's fixated on pointing out things that are camouflaged. The flounder at the Woods Hole aquarium on Monday, the green M&Ms on top of the green sprinkles on the cookies he decorated at the library yesterday, and this morning it was my yoga mat and block.
"No wonder you couldn't find that gray block Mommy, it was in the back of your closet behind all your black clothes. It was camouflaged."

song: Can't Find My Way Home • artist: Eric Clapton

insomnia (a list poem)

is the heat turned off
who do i hear cough

where's my cat
am i getting fat

is this a caffeine rush
i feel i must be flush

what will the next supplement stories be
does anyone take me seriously

will those water jugs freeze in the car
how has my life turned out so far

are you still awake
am i making a mistake

i can't believe it's two o'clock
did i check the front door lock

where did my son leave his sippy cup
maybe i should just get up

Brokedown

The movie version of Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer features the island of misfit toys. At our house we have the "shelf of broken Christmas tree ornaments."
There's a snowman that H pulled an arm off of and a second snowman who is missing his banner which reads "joy." I was thinking of gluing the little letters back on out of order, have it read "yoj" instead.
Then there's the "please don't play with that glass bird ornament because it's a fragile," now missing its head, and a "woof woof" in a Christmas stocking that H took off the tree for closer inspection one too many times.

song: Brokedown • artist: Slaid Cleaves

Out of Touch

It has been a long, and mostly useless, day trying to transition from Adelphia to Comcast. Things are not going well. So far the mail goes out but does not come in and may not be coming in for another 24 to 72 hours. It's difficult to be a Mac user in a PC world.
I'll keep you all posted, knowing as well I know, that the only thing more boring than reading about someone else's children, is reading about their computer problems.

song: Out of Touch • artist: Hall & Oates

If You Could Read My Mind

Book club is reading Richard Russo's Straight Man for January. I'm trying desperately to finish though it's nearly 400 pages and I still haven't finished the Omnivore's Dilemma which I started in July. I've never read Empire Falls, Mr. Russo's most well-known work, though I'm enjoying his self-deprecating writing style. It's how I would wish to sound if I were to attempt to write anything longer than six paragraphs.
I sometimes wonder if everyone has at least one great novel in them. How many excellent books by first-time writers are out there which are followed up by mediocre second novels if they're followed up at all?
Mark Hadden's second book only received a fair review in Sunday's Boston Globe. Mr. Hadden's first book for adults, The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time is the town pick for Year of the Reader 2007. Happily we read it in book club last year so I'll be able to discuss the book and appear well read without having to actually squeeze in an extra read - as if it would be possible.
On a related note H's favorite book is Wheels on the Bus, the interactive version illustrated by Paul Zelinsky. It's the book I'm most frequently requested to read through his toddler pantomime - he hands me the book then pats the couch - I am suppose to sit down and read. His second favorite is Helen Oxenbury's Tickle Tickle, because he anticipates the big climax - the tickle, tickle - on the last page.
His big brother's book du jour is The Case of the Dumb Bells by Crosby Bonsall; part of a series of I Can Read detective novels by the same author. The book's copyright is 1966 which might explain why the overweight kid is inappropriately nicknamed Tubby. I'm a little disappointed in Ms. Bonsall, I think she should have known better.

song: If You Could Read My Mind • artist: Gordon Lightfoot

Tannenbaum Tercet

Our Christmas tree,
Decorated randomly.
Plainly suits me.