When I was younger, I LOVED The Pointer Sisters. Absolutely adored them and thought they were the best musical group on the planet.
Sophomore year, some friends and I performed one of their songs for our school's lip synch (and I blogged about the dark side of that almost 5 years ago!).
I had a couple of Pointer Sisters albums (on tape) and likely wore them out.
Yesterday morning, if you'd asked me to name some Pointer Sisters songs, I would likely have listed "Jump," "I'm So Excited," and my favorite, "Neutron Dance."
However, as Mal and I were sitting in the McDonald's Play Place waiting for his friend to arrive for their weekly meet-up, a very familiar song played on their "oldies" feed. It sounded familiar... was it The Pointer Sisters? Yes, it was!
The song is called "Dare Me."
When I got home, I decided to look it up. I couldn't have told you that this song existed when I woke up, but as I played the video, I knew every single word!
All of this to say, I'm glad we got there early because this is one throwback I very much needed. I think that The Pointer Sisters' music stands up, and this video is SO 1980s and perfect, I love it with all of my heart.
There is a slightly older gentleman who came into my life when I was 12 years old, and who has had, outside of my father, the most meaningful impacts on my life. I will never forget when I first realized that we were going to be something special...
When my sister and I were in elementary school, we had to go over to someone's house after school for the 45 minutes to an hour before my mom got home from the school where she taught. In 6th grade, that house belonged to our caddy-corner neighbor, Eugene Kersh.
It was toward the end of the school year, in early 1984, that we were eating popcorn and throwing it to Eugene's doberman (who would snatch it out of the air) when Eugene put on the 45 (RMP record, for you youngsters) for "Weird Al" Yankovic's "Eat It." Of course, I had heard that song on the radio. It was pretty funny, and a dead-on spoof of Michael Jackson's iconic "Beat It." When that was finished, he turned the record over to the B side and... "We all used to call him 'Jimmy the Geek.' He was a dumb-looking, scrawny little four-eyed freak. He never used to hang around with the guys; he'd just sit in the corner attracting the flies..." The catchy little tune went on to talk about Jimmy's many social foibles but how he had one redeeming quality: He could dance. By the end of the song, he's living the dream with his own TV show and tons of attention. Something about this original song with its tight lyrics and silly mental picture caught me. I wanted to hear more of it.
It took a while for me to save up some money to get a tape player (or maybe I got one for Christmas), but by the next year, I had my very on boom box. And the first tape I remember buying to play on it was "Weird Al in 3-D," which had both of those songs on it, as well as a send-up of the Rocky theme "Eye of the Tiger," some other parodies that got radio play (mostly on Dr. Demento's Sunday night show), a couple more great originals, and the first of his smash-up polkas I ever heard: Polkas on 45.
I distinctly remember thinking that the combinations of pop songs (not all au courant, but recent enough that I knew of most of them) was extremely entertaining. I played the song for my mom, who suggested that I play the song for my aunt Norma, who might find it more amusing than she did.
After that, I bought every new Weird Al-bum that came out. I would often pop a tape into my Walkman and go to bed listening to the songs. "Slime Creatures from Outer Space" was one of my favorites. Thinking about listening to it in the cool dark of a winter night gives me extreme nostalgia in a way that little else does (maybe watching "Scarecrow and Mrs. King").
You've probably noticed this about me, but in case I need to state the obvious: I don't think about the world the same way a lot of people do. I find myself often wondering, "Sorry, am *I* the crazy one here?" And we probably all know the answer to that question. But something about bopping along to "Everything You Know is Wrong" helped me feel more centered, and more like I wasn't the only one who was, to be super corny and on-the-nose about it, weird.
Tonight, I was lucky enough to score a free pass to go see "Weird," a movie that is allegedly about the life of Alfred Yankovic (although it isn't; not the real version, anyway) that I suspect was borne out of this joke trailer from Funny or Die almost 10 years ago.
I haven't been able to make it to his past couple of concerts... the doors open so late, and there's usually an opener.. and, yeah, since I have a little who doesn't sleep a lot, I'm a giant wimp about it.
The first Weird Al show I attended was in Las Vegas at the Hard Rock Hotel and Casino in 1996. I remember waiting in line at the box office to get tickets the day they went on sale (this was before internet ticket sales!) and assuming that everyone else in line was doing the same thing. Then the guy in front of me asked, "Who are you going to see?" I told him and he looked surprised. "Are you kidding?" he asked. "No! He's awesome. I'm so excited!" The guy just shook his head and turned around. Whatever.
I saw another show in Las Vegas at the now-demolished Aladdin Hotel and Casino in 1998 or 1999. Then when I lived in North Texas, I saw him in Austin at the FunFunFun Fest in 2010. A year or so later, a couple of friends and I went to see him in Dallas at the Nokia Theater. Then in October 2013, James, D, and I went to Tulsa for the 25th anniversary of UHF. They had a day tour of filming sites, and then a concert in the evening. That was a lot of fun.
Pretty soon, we'll be at 40 years of fandom, and so far, this is one dude who hasn't let me down. So I'm looking forward to rubbing elbows with fellow freaks this evening.
I was looking for something in my "liked" videos today on YouTube (I think the video I for which I was searching has been removed; it was maybe 13 years old and fabulous, but times change...) when I ran across a video that made me cry the first time I watched it, and it made me cry today.
It's not a hugely touching video... maybe unless you were in marching band. Without further ado, here it is:
By the time I first saw this video, which was released ten years ago, I was already a fan of OK Go. I had this song on their album "On the Blue Colour of the Sky" and loved it... Obviously this is a total rearrangement of the studio recording, and when the full band joins in at the end, there is just so much joy it's kind of overwhelming.
I'd gotten interested in OK Go because of the first video I'd seen of theirs, which was "Here It Goes Again" (which I tried very unsuccessfully to sing at karaoke during this general time period, too). That video was super lo-fi, but also an extremely cool idea... and I'm in good company as this video has more than 51 million views!
Over time, the band got more and more elaborate with their music videos, and I'm going to share a few of my favorites here because you're a good person who deserves to see the amazingness. They also have not sacrificed any of their musicality, but have a solid library of songs that also happen to end up with some amazing visual accompaniments because these guys WORK.
What kind of made me tear up hearing them today was this: I bought my first OK Go album just as my marriage was most falling apart. I switched off listening to them and the "Hairspray" soundtrack every day as I walked while D was in gymnastics. Their music was like a dear friend who walked with me through some pretty difficult times. It was nice to get back in touch with them again.
They have made many more videos than I'll share, but these are my absolute favorites. Believe it or not, I have omitted some. But these are worth your time if you have a few, and if you want to be cheered. You won't regret it.
(They say the "f" word at the very beginning; forward to 30 seconds if that bothers you.)
Here's another one with a bunch of playing around with recording speeds, and a goose.
This is another one that was totally rearranged from the studio recording. It was partially shown as an ad in the 2012 Super Bowl, and the lead singer, Damian Kulash, took race- and stunt-driving lessons to be able to pull this off on his own. If you're familiar with the original recording, it's truly fantastic how they replicated the music with tubes and jars and the like. Oh, and over 1000 instruments in just over 2 miles of track. This one choked me up a little watching it again, as well.
This optical illusion video is taken in a single shot, something they do with a few of their videos.
I really dig this one. It's filmed half speed to make the dancing "pop," like in many Bollywood films (and the recent live-action Aladdin). The "LCD screen" effect at the end with the drone is truly spectacular.
Here's another one-take video, but because it was shot in the "vomit comet," there's a lot of playing around with film speeds to incorporate the "weightless" parts with the "climb back up" parts. This one is next-level.
Here's a four-minute video that took about thirty seconds to film. SERIOUSLY. You won't even care that the video is basically a commercial for salt.
Then there's a printer-themed video. It's FUN!
Finally, a bonus "This Too Shall Pass," for you Rube Goldberg fans.
Do you ever play mind games with yourself? Not the kind where you wonder, "What if a fire breaks out, and one of my kids is trapped in the back in the back of the house alone?" I am talking about the fun, boredom-busting kind. Things you do to keep yourself occupied during an otherwise brain-numbing activity.
Today, I was refilling bird-feeders and doing some yard stuff and this one bit from "Pirates of the Caribbean" (the movie, not the theme park attraction) kept running through my head. Every time I hear that song, I'd guess it's from "The Amazing Race," but now I know it's actually PotC.
Anyhoo...
At first, I was just singing stuff, and imagined what it might be like to be in a free-styling competition. There's no way I could do it. But then I started challenging myself to sing a random first line, then see how quickly I could complete a somewhat coherent rhyming stanza, to the tune that was playing in my head, anyway.
This is what I came up with, all unrelated:
I do not want your jacket.
I don't think I could hack it.
I have a sugar packet
In my coat but you lack it.
I will never go skiing.
Hate it with all of my being.
Make me -- In fear I'll be peeing.
Yellow snow you'll be seeing.
Where is that kitten hiding?
He won't answer my chiding.
It will be so exciting.
But he doesn't like riding.
I do not like this bonnet.
I did not Amazon it.
My head's so hot, doggone it.
Fine. Fine! Put that thing on it.
I will sing this forever.
When will I stop it? Never.
I think I'm pretty clever.
You might not. Well, whatever.
See? That's just a tiny little peek into what the inside of my brain parts look like. You're welcome.
"Cars 2" was our entree into the entire Disney/Pixar Cars franchise. Mal watched it about a year ago, and rewatched it, and just kept watching it. He loved it. I'm tempted to say that, though thoroughly enjoyable, it's my least favorite of the trilogy... But when I think about it, it actually has a lot going for it. It's just very different from the other two films.
Unlike Cars and Cars 3, Cars 2 doesn't focus as much on Lightning McQueen (even though the film is about his participation in the World Grand Prix). Mater actually takes center stage in this movie.
If you are a James Bond fan, this movie is likely to tickle you. There are so many parallels, from Michael Giacchino's characteristically Bond-sounding score to the intrigue plot, down to the name of a female agent recruit: Holly Shiftwell.
The story itself centers around a nefarious plot surrounding a multi-national automobile race. Finally allowed to tag along with McQueen (which isn't the first time he's had to heed Sally's empathetic advice in this regard), Mater finds himself accidentally embroiled in the criminal activity, but with the good guys, of course.
There are several international locales represented here: Japan, Italy, and Great Britain. To see a Cars take on them is a lot of fun, most notably the Japanese restrooms. Some friends recently visited Japan and said they do not understand why our toilets are stuck in the dark ages. Mater might have a different take.
Right now, Mal doesn't have any kind of context for "dead," but it comes up a lot in the movie. We don't actually see any characters die directly, but from dialogue and a cutaway scene or two, it's clear that they do. That might frighten some kids. It seems a little intense to me, but I guess is in keeping with the spy/bad guy theme.
What ends up being the biggest plus for this movie is that the overt theme is just a vehicle for the more subtle, overarching ones: being yourself, accepting people for who they are, what it means to be a friend... and maybe that you should be kind to all people because some marginalized groups might just unite under one bully who doesn't underestimate them??
No song sums up the first three quieter themes like Brad Paisley's Nobody's Fool. "Now I’m nobody’s fool/ It ain't no fun anymore/ 'Cause now that I’m nobody’s fool/ I'd rather be yours./ Well you know what they say/ The truth sets you free/ And that’s just great unless you don’t wanna be..." What great lyrics. I'm telling you: I have historically not appreciated country music, but Paisley's going to turn me, if we keep listening to these over and over and over again.
It's pretty appropriate that this Cars soundtrack also includes a Cars (the 80s band) cover: "You Might Think," performed by Weezer. Then, to go along with the global visuals of the film, there is the pop/dance "Polyrhythm" by Perfume; and the French "Mon Coeur Fait Vroum" (or "My Heart Goes 'Vroom'"), written by Giacchino and performed by Bénabar.
The song I'll feature here isn't necessarily my favorite song (which just might be "Nobody's Fool," dang you), but is both a fun summation of the movie, and a gentle reminder that our world is indeed global, and we can't "sit this out no more." Although the lyrics focus on superficial differences (and, annoying to me, repeat the monetary part when I could have liked to hear a fresh comparison) and never actually addresses any of the deep issues that we allow to divide our countries from one another, the reminder that our best hope is to see the best in each other is definitely a timely one (even though the movie came out 7 years ago).
To say my life has been monopolized by Disney Pixar Cars for the past half a year is no understatement. I think it started when my mom found a Cars 2 busy book a while before Mal's birthday. Though she made a cursory attempt to "hide" it at her house, Mal found it and played with it often before he turned 3.
Since then, we've watched each of the three movies multiple times, though often only a bit at a time, and frequently with some scenes played over and over. Eventually, we purchased the soundtracks, as well, so I'm pretty well-versed in those as I have a child who revels in repetition even more than most.
While my appreciation of the movies has grown with subsequent viewings, and because of my son's fandom (oh, and I do have a definite favorite, but we'll get to that soon enough), I have been so taken in by the music from the soundtracks. Enough so that I wanted to talk about them here, and share one song from each collection with you.
So without further ado, let's chat about Cars 1 ("There's not a 'Cars 1'!" is Mal's refrain, but just saying "let's chat about cars" sounds like I might want to hear about transmissions or something, and I really don't.)
I guess that digression might qualify as "ado." I apologize for that.
The initial Cars movie came out in 2006, and I'd seen it with D, though I don't remember when. Last year, I recommended it to James, and we watched it together. At the end, he expressed surprise that a movie about vehicles could move him in the direction of tears, but you know it's not a Pixar film if you're not crying at least once.
In case you haven't seen it, the basic gist is that Lightning McQueen is a rookie race car who is on the verge of winning the Piston Cup his first season running. He is full of himself, dismissive of others, and might be a bit lonely if he were ever prone to introspection.A series of unfortunate events (probably TM) lands him in a tiny rural town in the middle of nowhere, unable to leave, risking his chance at the final race of the season.
The town is Radiator Springs, located in a purposefully vague spot along the old Route 66 in either New Mexico or Arizona. A formerly bustling little place, I-40 has robbed Radiator Springs of its foot traffic and business, jeopardizing the locals' livelihoods.
As McQueen unwillingly gets to know the residence there in "hillbilly hell" (his words), things start changing for him. He still wants to race, and he still wants to win, but by the end of the movie, the audience wants him to win, too. We want everyone in the movie to win.
This movie's soundtrack is a fun mix of rock, Mowtown, doo-wop, and country. It includes Sheryl Crow's "Real Gone" to open the movie. Of course, "Get Your Kicks on Route 66" is present... twice. The first time, it's the Chuck Berry version; for the closing credits, it's John Mayer. "Our Town" is characteristic James Taylor is predictably heart-breaking. And "Sh-Boom" by the 1950s band The Chords is a lot of fun; it's also the only hit they ever had. I think it holds up!
There are a few other songs, and the score is enjoyable, even apart from the movie.
But the song that means the most to me is this one. I never thought that a country song could be the anthem of my life, but this one fits. It's called "Find Yourself" and it's by Brad Paisley, an artist who appears on all three Cars soundtracks. He also wrote and performed "Behind the Clouds" on this soundtrack, and it's a super fun old-school/honky-tonk-sounding country song.
The song is brilliant because of how well it fits the overarching theme of the movie from Lightning McQueen's viewpoint, but also because you can take it on its own, apart from the film, and it's still profound. I was going to write some more but instead, just listen to it. I listened to it four times in a row on the drive home today while Mal slept, and I cried every time.
This kid. It's 10 PM, and we're probably looking at another hour before he's ready to lie down, and another half hour after that before he's nursed to sleep. Going to bed at 11:15ish is bad enough, but after this week, it'll spring forward until after midnight. I get that we stay home, so the shift shouldn't matter. But James works. He is having to go to sleep before Mal does, and he leaves the house before Mal wakes up, and often before I'm out of bed. Because I end up staying awake until 1 or so just to wind down.
And we *try* to wear him out. Tonight at sundown, I took him to the lake and he did this stuff.
But he's still running back and forth through the house. He's hurt himself once, which resulted in my throwing out the stool off of which he'd pulled the no-skid stickers about a year ago, and I'm justifiably concerned that there is the potential for further injury before bedtime happens.
In other news, Mal has honed in on something I'm sure I had no awareness of when I was three: personal musical themes. The first one he glommed on to, a long time ago, was Darth Vader (I know; it's the Imperial March, but it might as well be called "Darth Vader's Song"). But then, he focused on Finn McMissle's theme in Cars 2 (it's super James Bond-y).
Recently, he asked me what Mater's song was. I told him I didn't think Mater had a song, but the more I thought about it, I realized that whenever he's doing something particularly characteristic, there's a twangy banjo thing happening: "cow"-tipping, towing in a guy at high speed, showing off his backwards driving skills, etc.
And if Mal's playing Cars 2, racing a couple of cars, and I sing, "Run the race!" he'll correct me with, "No, that's from Cars 3."
Today, he hit the jackpot. James and Mal went to Little Land to play (actively, see above) but they were closing early for a birthday party, so instead, they went next door to a game shop. They came home with something I thought was either a microwave or a kegerator for James's office, but when he brought it in and set it down, I saw that it was this:
Yes, that is a store display for two out-of-production Lego sets. It has a bunch of circuitry at the bottom, and lights across the top. Since we don't really have anywhere to put it, we've pulled everything out. The pieces are glued together, so we can't take them apart (which is a blessing, honestly), but Mal has had fun playing with those this afternoon.
Incidentally, the Minifigs it came with would cost more than double what James paid for the whole thing, which was $25!
It's 10:35 and James just went to bed. Mal is still going strong.
One day last week, I was just over how tired and accident-prone and fussy he gets, and having watched the night before as he was acknowledging being tired, but his body would not wind down, I gave him .5 mg of melatonin. That worked; he was asleep within about 15 minutes. But his heart was beating so fast. Tachycardia is a potential side effect of melatonin, and since Mal seems prone to it, I cannot justify having him take it, even though I know his body is wanting to go to sleep and having issues.
The following night, though, Mal was outside several hours during the day. First, we went to the park with friends after story time at the library, then played out in the back yard in the afternoon. I don't know if it was a hold-over from the supplement, or having gotten so much sunlight, or a combination of both, but he was out cold at 9 o'clock, which is the earliest he's gone to sleep in months.
If anyone has any advice (other than "just make him go to bed and stay there," because that won't help the problem with his not physically being able to wind down), I'd love to hear what worked for your kids!
The other day, an old friend tagged a bunch of us "Morrison kids" in a Facebook post, and it got me to thinking about how special my elementary school was. I was kind of tempted to think it was just a product of its time (late 70s to early 80s), but having talked to several people, including my husband (who is my contemporary and with whom I went to high school, but we attended grade school in different towns), I realize maybe it was just a truly spectacular pocket of the educational universe that we had the privilege of walking through.
There were many things that made the school pretty different. For one, the classes were in an "open classroom" format, meaning that there were two "pods" in the building: One contained 1st, 2nd, 3rd, and a 1st/2nd split; all separated only by rolling bookshelves and cabinets, which were probably taller than the youngest kids, but not the older ones. The other space had 4th-6th grades. Kindergarten was its own giant room off to the side, with so many interesting stations and areas. Anyway, some years, I remember all four teachers in the 1st-3rd area had their desks together in the center of the space, and some years, they chose to put them against the far walls.
Except for my 5th grade teacher, I had educators who seemed not only to love teaching, but to love me specifically, and I feel like they probably made other kids feel that way, too. But it wasn't just the teachers. My friend Theresa Baker and I adored the janitor so much, we'd often purposefully tighten the lids on our Thermoses just so we could ask whoever had lunchroom duty if we could go get him to open them. Looking back, of course the teachers and the janitor were on to our little game. I hope he enjoyed the visits. He was extremely kind to us.
Then there were the field days, the fall festivals (oh, the cake walks!), science fairs, spelling bees, and the fun Santa's Workshop "store" where we kids could shop for our family members' Christmas presents without tipping Mom and Dad off to what they were getting.
But the one thing I remember as having made my elementary years the most enjoyable on a consistent basis were our music classes. First, please let me introduce you to one of the most fun adult women I had ever met up to that point (I'm sure when you only have to deal with kids for an hour at a time, you have the luxury of being a lot more fun than "regular" teachers!):
There. In the middle, between my sister and me (yeah; I know. It was 1986 and I was in my awkward phase. Whatever.). That's Becky Pickle. Her laugh... I can't even describe it. I just hope she enjoyed life as much as it seemed like she did.
Music class was, I believe, twice a week, and held in the big, wide-open multi-purpose room (that last time I drove by was being used as storage, sadly) where we could do things like play cage ball if the weather were too bad for recess. We didn't learn to play instruments, per se. I think we did do rhythm sticks and recorders, but things like orchestra and band were introduced in 5th grade and were separate animals. Also, she introduced us to notes and time signatures and all of those things, but it wasn't primarily a music theory class. Really, we did a bit of everything. Mostly, we sang. A lot.
We put on programs.
For Valentine's Day.
For Christmas.
For something having to do with the founding of America, maybe?
We learned such a rich variety of music, too. We sang a bunch of folk music. American, sure; but also Japanese ("Sakura"), Cuban ("Peanut Vendor"), Jewish (The Hanukkah Song), as well as some Caribbean stuff that I remember specifically.
Some of the songs were beautiful and I remember to this day. Also, I can see now that some were basically just variations on other scales set to words so we could be introduced to them and recognize them. And some were exercises in rhythm. We also learned to square dance. And we learned tinikling.
Even more importantly, I think, Ms. Pickle let us to choose things to sing, setting aside time in class for various students who wanted to to perform. I never listened to country music, but had Sylvia's "Nobody" memorized, having listened to my friend practice it over and over. I remember when a couple of girls sang the MASH theme song. I felt very in on something mature and maybe even wrong that we were listening to our classmates singing about suicide.
I think Ms. Pickle made music fun and accessible to everyone. We didn't have to try out to be in the programs; we were all automatically in. And we practiced a lot, but ultimately, it was just a great time.
If I could wish one thing for the education of everybody's kids, it would be that enrichment programs could stay around. These are some of my best memories from elementary school, and I feel so fortunate that I got to be one of Ms. Pickle's students.
More singing.
We did a lot of programs.
I'm fairly certain that this "Caribbean" night might be considered culturally insensitive today. But I remember feeling very festive.
We're at that stage where Mal frequently does stuff that is surprising, as it shows abilities we didn't realize were there and that are a lot of fun to watch develop.
He's in a weekly class called "Music Together," which has been great on a couple of levels. First, they're very open to active kids and different behaviors in class, so he's had a lot of leeway to be himself but then participate when he'd like. He adores having lots of percussion instruments to try out before class, too!
Along with ten weekly classes, we received a song book and two CDs (identical; one for car and one for the house). There's a traditional-Jewish-sounding song called "Bim Bam" where they do the verse three or four times, speeding it up each time. This had never been mentioned, but once when we were in the car listening, in the break between the first and second rounds, Mal said, "Faster!"
We saw "Beauty and the Beast" at the movie theater a couple of weeks ago. Several days later, I was singing, "She looked this way; I thought I saw. And when we touched, she didn't shudder at my paw. No, it can't be. I'll just ignore... But then, she never looked at me that way before," and Mal said, "Beast!"
Then Monday, we were drawing on James's white board, and James had drawn a daisy (or sunflower?) so I added a rose. Mal then asked me to draw Beast (I'd show you, but it's truly terrible). THEN he requested that I add Belle, specifically with a blue marker. As I drew her, he said, "The rose! Don't touch it, Belle!"
Yesterday, we'd gone to my parents' house and Mal was drinking out of a Mickey Mouse cup. My dad asked, "Is that Donald Duck?" Mal said, "No! It's apple juice!"
Oh, yeah, and the other day we were at McDonald's, and he looked at his juice box and said, "100 juice!" It actually said "100% juice," but I wasn't going to split hairs.
He loves to pretend. He'll be a doctor (which he has learned from Daniel Tiger's Neighborhood) or a fireman... or, more recently, a garbage man. He does this by hanging on to the side of my shopping cart while I push it through the grocery store.
Here he is putting out a fire.
There's so much stuff, none of which I can remember when I actually sit down here. So here are a couple of videos of Mal playing tonight.
We saw "Beauty and the Beast" last night. I'd seen the headline to this earlier in the day, but didn't read it until my husband mentioned it last night.
Oh my goodness, what the heck?? Why do people want to be mad?
First of all, I'm "just" a domestic woman. I don't have a job. I am a dreamer. I haven't done anything remarkable. And I feel like a feminist, anyway. This movie didn't make me ashamed for who I am. Oh, and I use my words, as the article mentions, but I don't always use "soft" "kind" "vulnerable" words, nor do I spend an inordinate amount of time sobbing into my sheets. Still consider myself pretty much full on lady girl type person.
Second of all, I do not think that Emma Watson is an amazing actor as much as I think she's a capable enough actor, and an amazing person. So some of the "vulnerability" or "feelings" they might miss from the cartoon might be a function of her just not having the range to express those things.
But, anyway, the gist of the article is that "Emma Watson" (meaning, collectively, this movie and all involved in developing the character of Belle) has ruined Belle, and Olivia Friedman is going to tell you why.
So here are some excerpts from the article, and the issues I have with her hypothesis:
"To that end, Belle does not follow the path of the original Disney movie." How? The exact same things happen. There's not a real departure.
"She is thoughtful, sweet-natured and touchingly vulnerable." Really?
"In the original film, Belle wants more than her provincial life, but she is a dreamer." Yeah, true. Have you listened to the words of the opening song, "This Provincial Life"? Belle is haughty and elitist. Even in the original film, she talks (sings) about how she has "more" than those tedious province-dwellers have in store. She's destined for more. She sees herself as not like them, even as she seems to blanche at being seen as strange. She herself feels she's "other," and, one gets the impression, somehow better than they are, bless 'em.
"In contrast, the Belle of 2017 does not vow. When the Beast won’t come into the light, she swings a candlestick at him, catching him in its glow so as to reveal him against his will. Similarly, she forces her father from his prison, locking herself into his cage after whispering into his ear that she is not afraid and that she will find a way to escape. When Lumiere unlocks her cell door, she hits him with her dungeon stool. As soon as she is in her room, rather than sobbing on her bed, as the Belle of the original film does, she starts tying sheets and ribbons together in an effort to escape from the castle. At first, she has only disdain and hatred for the beast, spitting defiant words at him through her locked bedroom door and standing up to him rather than retreating into herself."
Ugh. Where to start with that one. So what, she wants to see her captor? So what, she knows her father would never let her trade him places? She does what she does out of FEELINGS (which they go on to pontificate she does not have and this is what makes her an offensive uber-feminist butch-y ass-kicker instead of "vulnerable") for her father, knowing him and that he, too, would sacrifice himself for her.
Also, she spat defiant words at him through her locked bedroom door in the cartoon, too. Here's a clip that's been over-dubbed by a fan, but Disney is super protective of their products and it's not easily/legally available online in its original iteration. But anyway, here she refuses him multiple times. She doesn't say, "I'll never have dinner with you," but she says "I'm not hungry," a tense, forced, "No, thanks," and then finally, "NO!" So she doesn't just "retreat into herself." She refuses. Strongly.
"The message is that the original Belle is not sufficiently heroic. She reads Jack and the Beanstalk, loving magical tales, instead of being familiar with Shakespeare and Romeo and Juliet. She blows dandelion spores into the wind. She uses words, not violence, to save her father."
OH MY GOSH. STOP. "She blows dandelion spores"??? That's so important to the feminine ideal, what brutes they were to cut that! And, honest to God, I don't see the difference in Jack and the Beanstalk and Romeo and Juliet. Even Beast kind of mocks her for loving romances. Sounds fairly dreamy to me.
And who says the message is that the original Belle wasn't sufficiently heroic? Any time a movie is remade, there will be some additions and changes. I personally liked the tying-fabric-together scene, because... well, she's not using VIOLENCE or "stereotypical masculine" behavior; she's not using words, but she's using her freaking brain. So that makes it offensive? To whom??
The article talks a lot about how the original Belle "sobs" onto her bed, and, again, feels all the sad lady feels... but I'm guessing the person who wrote this never saw the Broadway musical? Because if they're mad she's so defiant to the Beast, then they can't have heard the TWENTY-THREE-YEAR-OLD lyrics, "Yes, I've made the choice: for Papa I will stay, but I don't deserve to lose my freedom in this way, you monster. If you think that what you've done is right, well then you're a fool; think again... Build higher walls around me; change every lock and key. Nothing lasts; nothing holds all of me." (And then I feel all the sad lady feels.)
The article talks a lot about how Belle has to be "fearless." "To be a 21st century heroine means that it is not enough to be afraid and still choose to be brave — no, one must be fearless." When her father encourages this of her, I don't think he's saying, "Don't be scared" like, "Don't be a little baby scaredy cat." I think he means, "You might be scared, but do it, anyway, because you're awesome." I think it's semantics and lots of splitting hairs to argue that bravery in the face of danger and being fearless are hugely different. If someone truly has no fear, they're probably psychotic.
"And it is that vulnerability that the 21st century heroine version of Belle — Emma Watson’s Belle — does away with. To be a 21st century heroine, we are taught, means to stand up for oneself, always choosing to be active rather than reflective, to be defiant rather than vulnerable, privileging logic over emotion."
I think that might be the second most offensive part of the article. I don't think we're "taught" this, but I also don't think there's anything wrong with it. If I were locked in a castle by a scary monster, I might cry a little bit at first, but I'd also be spinning my wheels, trying to figure something out. And women SHOULD stand up for themselves in times of oppression, if they can. Everyone should. If I am unjustly arrested and jailed, should I take the time to parse it out in my thoughtful mind wanderings, blowing dandelions (or whatever they have in jail), or is my time better served calling a lawyer and figuring out what to do about the injustice?
"And in the iconic scene after the dance where the Beast lets her go, we loved the fact that she told him she was happy with him but wished to see her father again because she missed him so much. This allows the Beast to do the right thing on his own. This, as opposed to the 2017 version where, when asked if she is happy, Belle prompts the Beast, asking, “Can anybody be happy if they aren’t free?”"
HOW CAN YOU LEVY THIS AS A CRITICISM?? I have nothing to add to that.
"Yes, she wanted more than her provincial life, but living happily with a man she loved, respected and who understood her was sufficient." I don't see how that's any different in this movie.
"She was an idealist, someone lost in books and fairytales — not an inventor, or someone logically sorting through how to break the curse, or consistently fearless. She valued the Beast’s being gentle and kind because that’s who she was."
I'm going to go out on a limb and say she valued the Beast's being gentle and kind because people don't like it when others are mean to them. I can't believe I'm having to point that out.
And I can't believe a woman wrote this article. "Someone lost in books and fairytales..." Okay? So, how is that better than being logical? I think those are moral-neutral things to be. Why are we having this conversation?
"The Belle of 2017, with her strong, defiant, stoic attitude — choosing anger over sadness — sets us back. It says that a woman of today is not impressive if she does not do something, such as become an inventor, or if she feels too much — crying rather than creating escape routes. It takes much of the Boy Code that makes our culture of masculinity so toxic and applies it to women, arguing that heroism is linked to toughness and stoicism."
This is the most offensive paragraph, along with the bit later about how Belle acts in "stereotypically masculine" ways.
I don't think the movie said any of these things, first of all. But secondly, DID YOU WATCH THE FIRST MOVIE?! Belle wasn't just a doe-eyed dingdong crying and floating through the story.
After Gaston's marriage proposal, she said (sang): "He asked me to marry him. Me, the wife of that boorish, brainless..."
That sounds pretty angry and not really "kind."
Anyway, I thought the movie was beautiful and, armed with reasonable expectations, I enjoyed it. Of course, it's the first movie I've seen in a theater in 2 years, so that was something.
Conservative corners are mad about the "big gay storyline" (which wasn't, actually; even though LaFou did have every LOL line in the film); LGBT corners aren't thrilled that the first portrayal of an openly gay character in a Disney film is someone literally named "fool;" and now this. Man, they're just supposed to be fun flights of fancy, and I enjoyed mine.
As a bonus, this is my favorite song from the Broadway show. That was one slight disappointment I had: they added some mini songs to string together the new scenes, but I would have loved to see some of the music from the play in the new movie. They did hint at "Home" a couple of times when Belle was in her room.
But overall, a pretty non-controversial, sentimental retelling of a Disney classic. Can I get an "amen"?
I'm going to share with you some excerpts from long-ago blog posts. The place: Spokane, Washington. More specifically, D's dad's friends' basement, where we'd been staying for a couple of months while looking for gainful employment after a very stressful separation from Girls and Boys Town of Nevada.
September 22, 2002:
"It's 51 degrees outside and I'm wearing shorts and sandals! Why? Because everything I own that is even remotely warm is behind boxes and boxes and taped securely so as not to get dusty. I don't even know where my socks are (or underwear, which, fortunately, I don't really need more of at this point) or the shoes I'd wear with long pants or skirts, if I had any of them... Thursday I'm going to storage to take out every stinking one of the wardrobe boxes. I hate to clutter up our room, but it's going to be cold soon and I'm not planning to risk exposure just to save a few square feet. But, mark my words, three weeks from now I'll be complaining about how cramped our room is because of all the boxes."
D and me in the gondola over the Spokane River. Even early September, I'm wearing one of Ken's shirts because I'm SICK of the week's worth of tops I'd packed, as we ended up staying for three months.
October 11, 2002:
"Woo hoo! Motherlode of britches today. :) Amy's shipment of slacks (for which I grossly underpaid her to ship) arrived today. Nine pair of pants including jeans (blue, black, light blue, white, rainbow-colored... okay, maybe not), slacks, a dress, a sweater and shorts that won't see the light of day until next year are now lying across my bed, just so I can look at them. I need never wear the same pair of pants again! (Assuming I die toward the beginning of the week after next.) Anyhoo... thanks, Amy!"
Pretty cool story, right, bro?
Well, here's something you need to know about Amy: At the time, she lived in NYC, and we had never met. We had become acquainted online, more specifically in a Yahoo group dedicated to Rockapella. We had been chatting for more than two years, and when she read in my "online journal" (the word "blog" wasn't very widely used yet) that I needed some warmer duds, and since she had just lost weight and "ingrown" stuff that was just my size... She offered what she had! It was awesome!
Okay, so let's fast-forward to the present day, or just a little before; let's say to some time the week before last, maybe? Amy doesn't live in NYC, anymore, but is still over there on that coast. We have still not met in person. I was going to say, "I don't even know if that group still exists," but, dang it... If you click here and you used to be an active part of that group, you'll see a lot of familiar screen names!
Anyhoo, as fortune would have it, Amy has once again lost enough weight not to be able to fit into her (smaller than that time) pants! And guess what? SHE SENT THEM TO ME AGAIN! That's right, MORE PANTS. I did pay fair shipping this time, so that's better. But, goodness, it was a crapload of slacks, jeggings, two dresses (the colorful one is my fave!), a couple of athletic pants, some crops, etc. So. Excite.
See, you might not have noticed this, but I don't have an outside-of-the-house job. I haven't had an excuse to buy nice pants in years, and so even though my grey slacks had all three fasteners that had broken (yes, beyond repair), I had just permanently secured the waistband with a safety pin, because... why should I waste money on slacks when I can wear fleece shorts 24/7, really? Same with my black slacks, on which the hem had come out (YES, BEYOND my desire to REPAIR), but they were kind of short to begin with, so I just left the unfinished bottom the way that it was? (Oh, and have I mentioned that Amy is even taller than I am, and so the pants are all tall, and so they actually, you know, cover my ankles if they're supposed to?!) I have other pants with stories I could share, but it just makes me look bad and you can rest assured that those pants have gone to a much better (or worse) place now.
So, first, thanks again, Amy! You're still awesome, and yay pants!
If someone ever tries to tell you that "internet-only" relationships don't qualify as real relationships, then you can testify by singing them this little diddy...
My favorite of Mal's most-requested YouTube channels is Super Simple Songs from Super Simple Learning. I like it because it's not just fourteen variations on "The Wheels on the Bus" but actually has some fun original songs. Also, because it isn't just one style of animation (in fact, there are several live-action puppet songs), so it's a lot more interesting to watch. Their seasonal songs are fun, too; we keep watching the Halloween and Christmas specials, sweating our way through them in this decidedly un-fallish Austin summer.
One of my favorite things is that, even though it's a "learning" channel, the songs are more fun than "here, learn this." I REALLY hate the songs that talk about how much fun it is to count or say the ABCs. Listen, I'm a middle-aged lady who hasn't been away from her baby more than two hours in two years, and even I have enough of a life to know that counting and saying ABCs isn't "woo hoo" fun.
Anyway, the point is that we love Super Simple Songs. However, there is one song that, while it's tons of fun and we all love it, set off my "unschooling" alarm. (A worksheet D did once as a preschooler did it, too, twelve years ago or so, before I knew I was an unschooler.)
Watch this song, enjoy it, but see if you can tell what nagged at me:
Did you catch it?
Does anyone else have a mental policy of not being able to say you don't like a food unless you try it? (Even if, as a radical unschooler, you don't enforce it.) There's a difference in saying, "That doesn't sound tasty; I'd rather not." And in stating that something is "Yucky!" just because it has ingredients that might not seem compatible.
So I saw this as a challenge.
Tonight for dinner, we had three of the four items in the song. I didn't try the doughnut juice because isn't that basically just coffee? Actually, because it'd be a dessert item and we already have one legit dessert and an appetizer that leans to the sweet side, so that's enough.
A couple of other songs talk about:
1) carrot cereal -- which would probably be great; you can find lots of recipes online for carrot cake granola, and hot bran cereal with carrots
2) lasagna milkshakes -- James found a thread somewhere about not being able to eat solids and someone swore a lasagna milkshake was unparalleled; he had an idea for a milkshake lasagna, which is also tasty-sounding, but that's not what the song says
3) spaghetti yogurt -- that'd take some thought
4) tomato pancakes -- easy and likely delicious; think crepes
5) cookie salad -- sweet version with fruit and whipped cream, or using something like a ginger snap as a crouton in an Asain-type salad?
6) cauliflower cupcakes -- Jessica Seinfeld has made a fortune publishing cookbooks with stuff like this
7) avocado lollipops -- I'm totally going to make some in the future; I love avocado anything, including ice cream, cake, icing, and cookies
Then it seems they stepped up their game and came up with some legitimately "yucky" ideas.
7) mushroom popsicles -- that one sounds pretty terrifying
8) sushi smoothies -- I'd rather have the real thing, but "that's terrific bass!"
9) pickle pudding - does it have to be pickled cucumbers? pickled beets and ginger and a savory pudding might work; also, if you use the definition "a sweet OR SAVORY steamed dish made with flour," you open up all kinds of possibilities
But this evening, we focused on these dishes:
BANANA SOUP
I found a yummy-looking recipe that was basically a smoothie in a bowl, but then further research revealed that there is an actual traditional Vietnamese soup called Che Choui including either chopped banana or corn. So we went with the banana version.
I used the recipe here, except that I doubled it, because it looked fabulous.
It said this could be served hot, cold, or room temperature. I decided to refrigerate it so we would have our choices. Here it is, ready to go into the refrigerator, hanging out with the toasted sesame seeds.
This was the final product. It thickened up a lot in the refrigerator, and even though I heated mine up (and it was so much better than the cold, even though I LIKE rice pudding, which is what it was like), it was still pretty stout. My husband and I both liked the heated version enough that we want to make it again, and try it straight off of the stove (well, with reasonable cooling) and maybe use corn just to see the difference?
So, this is one dish we'd make again, because it was just really tasty!... Not "yucky!"
POPCORN PIZZA
This is another one that could be done backwards, as there are commercial versions and recipes all over for pizza popcorn. But we wanted to do the whole thing.
This seemed like a good match for pizza (I think I had some grease on the lens; sorry about that).
It was neat! It came in a somewhat see-through bag and had these two pouches with oil and flavoring.
Complete with on-packet instructions. I'd kind of planned to use both bags, but decided to save one because I wanted to eat it on its own. That was a good thing, because we ended up with PLENTY of popcorn on our pizza!
The bag itself even had a nice little pep talk. I'm glad to know I'm not dumber than a programmable appliance. Now I feel like I can do anything!
I just used a Pillsbury dough, and started off with light sauce and some sauteed mushrooms.
Actually, I baked the crust for about 8 minutes first, then put on the sauce, mushrooms, and most of the cheese and baked it 8 minutes, THEN I added the popcorn and the rest of the cheese and baked it until the Parmesan on the popcorn started browning.
You know what? My husband and I both really liked it. My fourteen-year-old pulled the popcorn off, but I think she thought it was burnt. My toddler, the reason for all of this, was having a dinnertime "no nap today" meltdown, so except for about three bites of the banana soup, he really didn't participate. He spent a great deal of time on the floor crying about various and sundry issues important to him. (Keeping it real, internets.)
If I made this again, I'd put more cheese on top to keep the popcorn from falling off so easily. I'd probably pre-cut the crust because getting even the biggest cutter in there without pushing the kernels around was a challenge. But it was tasty. Not quite as good as macaroni and cheese pizza, but definitely good... which is great because we have another meal's worth left over.
And finally, for dessert...
BROCCOLI ICE CREAM
Just as I suspected, there were lots of recipes for broccoli ice cream. Some were like the banana soup recipe I mentioned: Basically smoothies. We've had fruit/green smoothies, and that's not what we wanted. We wanted actual broccoli ice cream.
The two recipes I found that I liked best had something in common: a strong flavor profile meant to mask whatever mild broccoli flavor might be left behind after steaming. One was cocoa and cherries, and the other mint. Although both sounded excellent, I liked the idea of the green ice cream, and it was the one that actually went through an ice cream machine, so we went with that recipe.
Except.
You might notice that both of those recipes are healthy alternatives to full-on desserts, and I actually wanted a full-on dessert flavor, so I modified the Food and Yoga for Life recipe a bit. First, I used chocolate chips (I'd intended to use mini chips, but when you use Instacart, sometimes you're at the mercy of your shopper). Second, I used powdered sugar in place of the stevia and coconut syrup. Oh, and actual butter in the place of coconut butter. But it was the same idea.
I have to say that something was up in the pictures on that recipe site. Several options: 1) She has a much better food processor/blender than I do. 2) She has a lot more time than I do. 3) She trained the puree. 4) There was some food-styling license given. Because I had little tidbits of broccoli in the final product. I actually didn't mind at all. I wasn't trying to fool anyone, just our taste buds. So it helps you to see that this is legitimately broccoli ice cream.
Ready to hit the fridge!
Later, churning.
We ate it soft-serve consistency, straight out of the ice cream maker. It was extremely tasty, just like a mint chocolate chip ice cream with a bit of consistency.
I probably won't make this one again, just because making ice cream is a process and I kind of like to jump all over the place with it. If I were to use broccoli again, and I would, I'd do the cocoa cherry one.
In summary: We went through a lot of trouble to show Mal something he likely will never remember, so we'll have to do it again. Well, and the truth is that we have fun doing this kind of thing, so we have a good time planning challenges like this. I say "we" because I would have had a complete nervous breakdown trying to get all of this together (and REALLY for the clean-up process) with the state my child was in if James hadn't jumped in and done whatever he could. He's a great guy!
Anyway, the point is that we don't ever want to default to knee-jerk reactions to food or anything else that we might not have considered before.
But we *do* like making the faces and singing the songs. And we appreciate Super Simple Learning for putting this in front of us! Check out their website for fun coloring pages and cool caregiver/teacher ideas.
I've had a lot of thoughts lately. I was going to start taking notes so I wouldn't miss anything, but I have this whole kid thing going on, so that never happened. Plus he could wake up from his nap any time, so even if I remember everything, I might not get to it. Let's just start and see what we can accomplish, okay?
First:
That cat is straight-up balling.
Okay, NOW without further ado...
ITEM 1:
Lyrics on the radio: Is it too late now to say sorry?
Me: Aww, no. That's swee--
Lyrics on the radio: 'Cause I'm missing more than just your body.
Me: Oh, yeah. Too late. Stop talking. Walk away.
Lyrics on the radio: Bandaids (TM) don't fix bullet holes.
Me: But tampons do.
ITEM 2:
We have all of our tax forms and "owe" the government about three hundred bucks. If we all had health insurance, they'd owe us over a grand of our own money back. If we weren't planning to try to buy a house about this time next year, I'd let them urinate up the proverbial rope about the whole thing, as they have no way to collect the money we "owe" them for the penalty. However, we have to keep our stupid credit (as it were, we really have none) squeaky clean, and even though the IRS can't put liens on anything for the ACA penalty, they can report it. Blehh.
But something struck me that I'd like to share with you. This is part of James' W2 from his current job. He's been there since May 2015. This DD is not a bra size, no. It's a code that represents what was paid for his health insurance. James pays a small amount from each check, but it's really negligible; something like $50 a month. The vast amount is paid on his behalf by his job.
So, for eight months, the cost of James' insurance was $5300. Do you know how often he used it? Not at all. Not once. So that five-thousand bucks is gone. We don't have the option to have that paid to us and for us to save it, so it's a no-brainer that he has insurance. But for the rest of us... Zero out of four of us went to any kind of doctor in 2015. I understand the "it's for catastrophes" reasoning. If any of us has a big thing, we'll have to work out payment plans. But if we could just save our nearly ten grand a year, we'd have a leg up on those emergencies. Which is what we do with the rest of us. And the $1600 penalty? I'd rather pay $1600 for nothing than $6000+ (what it'd cost to cover the three unemployed people in our household) for nothing. Although I'd REALLY rather pay $0 for nothing.
/endrant
/except
James' insurance isn't even good. High deductible, then something like 80%/20%. We could easily still be "ruined" by something serious or chronic, even with insurance, so I don't see the point.
ITEM 3:
Mal has been climbing a lot lately. I'm tired. He was particularly upsetable (yes, spell check; it's a word... it's appropriate, anyway) yesterday and then had a miserable night. Probably not miserable for him because I don't think he remembers it. But he basically nursed all night, except when he woke up and cried to nurse... even though he was already nursing as he woke up and so I'm not sure if he wanted both at once or what he was expecting, since I was already giving it as much as I could.
Anyhoo,we'd planned to go to Chick-fil-A this morning, but basically I ran out of here with him this morning like our booties were on fire, because I didn't want to hang around the house and start the "get down get down get down" party again first thing.
After free chicken biscuits (different entree gratis each Wednesday in February!), we walked over to Walmart for trash bags. If you've been following, you'll know that I used Instacart almost exclusively for the first year of Mal's life. Now that he doesn't mind too much strapping into his car seat, it's getting fun to go to the store again. Today, Mal had enough of the cart after about three minutes, so I put him down. He immediately ran into the clothes, where I couldn't see him, so I called him... and he came right back. Wow. That was new. Also, used to, whenever I let him run around, he'd just take things off of shelves. This time, he was just looking, so I consider that progress.
There was a bin of clearance items, and I was looking through that stuff. Mal made his way to my other side and was walking toward the produce department. I couldn't see him, but I could hear him. Then I couldn't.
I walked around to the side of the bin and saw a bakery employee carrying him toward the bakery, away from me. He was looking at me, very confused but not upset (yet). I said, "I'm right here." Then I noticed two other ladies standing there with their carts, looking very concerned. One grabbed her heart and did a "that gave me the vapors" thing. What? One lady said, "Oh, thank goodness." The bakery employee handed Mal to me and asked, "Would she like a cookie?" Heck, yes, she would love a cookie. We were following the magic cookie lady when the third woman said to me, as though this would give me pause, "He was just about to toddle out the door." What I said was, "That wouldn't surprise me at all!" But what I thought was, "Bull crap. We're 250 feet from the door. He might have been heading that way, but he wasn't 'just about to toddle out the door'."
They were all nice. Their concern, though unwarranted, was kind. The judgy thing I could have done without. I knew where my son was the whole time. I let him wander a bit on purpose. He NEEDS to build confidence without being glued to my leg all of the time. That's one of the best things about going out: whereas at home, he's super clingy, out and about, he's Mr. Social. What about child abductions? I'm zero worried about that. Here's why. I'm totally concerned about his getting hit by a car, but that's even when I'm standing with him. Daphne and I used to have very heated discussions (my heat) about things when she'd see something neat on the pavement and squat down in a parking lot. Scared me to death. But his wandering and some child predator randomly being in the same area at the same time? Unlikely. Ridiculously unlikely. It is more than twice as probable that my children will die in a plane crash than be abducted by a stranger. Whoops. Guess we got out of our Christmas trip lucky, didn't we? Also, struck by lightning. But Daphne already tested that one in Dallas when she was younger. We literally dodged that proverbial bullet.
Anyhoo... I think people are just taken aback by a kid walking around. I mean, I get it. He's 16 months old. When Daphne was 5ish, I started letting her sit in the book aisle at the grocery store while I shopped. We started it with letting her grab a couple of books and read them in the cart. However, she would consume those in an aisle or two and I got tired of going back to put the books away and get more books, so this was more expedient. She knew to stay there until I came back or to come find me if she needed something. More than once, a well-meaning stranger (always female) would walk her to me. I'd thank the lady, then walk with Daphne back to the book aisle. And leave her. She was fine. And she learned to smile instead of rolling her eyes. She did get to answer questions, too. "Where's your mom?" "Shopping." Duh.
ITEM 4:
I was thinking the other day about why it might be difficult for me to find a niche in which to fit, socially. I'm a paradox, I think. I mean, most of us are. None of us is a caricature. But the things that might help me fit in one place make me a bad match elsewhere, and that first place... well, I have really divergent other things that make me a poor fit there, too. Off of the top of my head...
I'm a homeschooler, but I don't think everyone needs to homeschool. And I'm not conservative. But I am a Christian. And I believe strongly in equal marriage rights. But I have no problem eating at Chick-fil-A. I'm not a complementarian; I'm an egalitarian. But my husband and I both have very "traditional" domestic roles. Except that I handle the money! Woo hoo! (Mostly because he can't be bothered.) I hate the terms "child-centered" and "parent-centered" when describing a family because there are so many nuances to be considered. I prefer "family-centered." I have a toddler, but I'm almost in my mid-40s. I was listening to some young mothers talk at a fast food restaurant one day, and they sounded like high school kids to me. I couldn't. I'm not cool enough to say "I can't" without an object, but I do it, anyway. I want to have close friends. I get a little tinge of jealousy when I see that others have been on "girls' weekends" and the like. But that kind of friend-making and keeping is exhausting to me, and if I'm going to go somewhere awesome, I really want it to be with my family. I believe in gun ownership rights for the non-criminal; and I'm not worried about immigrants one little bit, legal or illegal, refugees, opportunists, etc. Bring 'em. Also, going back to the Christian thing... I'm a gentle parent (Ha ha haa! I mean, that's the goal. I'm trying, you guys.) AKA radical unschooler, which means partnering with my kids, mentoring them, discipling them, in all aspects of their lives, not just educationally. There aren't a lot of us, from what I can tell. For some reason, people who love Jesus also tend to be more authoritarian than authoritative, parenting-style-wise. And I can say that I don't care how other people parent, and they don't care about how I parent, but the truth is that I hear a lot of stories that hurt my heart. From people I know and love. So it's difficult to be really close to those people, on a day-to-day "life together" basis. I'm a girl, but I hate shopping. For clothes. I love shopping for food. I live in Austin and I had a midwife and natural birth but I don't have any special diet I follow (Paleo, gluten-free, etc.), nor do I run or go to the gym or work out at all, AND I don't feel guilty about it in the least.
So. That was incredibly self-indulgent. Thanks for hanging around to read it. Self-indulgence might be another reason I don't have many friends. It might be the biggest reason.
In August 2013, I came up with some lyrics to a love song I thought it'd be neat to produce for James for our first anniversary. Well, guess what? I never did it. BUT I found the lyrics when I was looking for something else, and I thought I'd share them with you, because, trust me, you need this kind of thing in your life. Get some tissues ready.
Bee tee dubs, this was in response to the phrase, "I love you to the moon and back," which I have since learned is from a book, and I read that book, and in context, it's touching enough, but come on with the competitiveness, mom! (If I'm remembering correctly.)
And now, the song:
VERSE 1
Some people love to the moon and back
But that's not good enough
A lunar love will never do
Our love has the right stuff
To boldly go where none has gone
To strange new worlds and such
So when I tell you of my love
You need to know how much
CHORUS
I love you to Uranus
And we're never coming back
We'll hold our love together
Even if it starts to crack
A black hole's pull is not enough
To stop us or contain us
We're both in this together
And I love you to Uranus
VERSE 2
Our love is no mere gas giant
As anyone can see
I'll hold you 'till forever
They can't take the sky from me
And Milky Ways are tasty
But they're here and then they're gone
Well, even after supernova
You and I go on
CHORUS
Yes, I love you to Uranus
And we're never coming back
We'll hold our love together
Even if it starts to crack
A black hole's pull is not enough
To stop us or contain us
We're both in this together
And I love you to Uranus
BRIDGE
We're closer that Luke and Leia
We're closer than Leia and Han
We're closer than Han and Chewy
Our love goes on and on
(19.2 Atronomical Units, to be precise)
CHORUS 2
I love you to Uranus
Uranus is the place for me
We'll orbit side-by-side
'Cause that's the way that it should be
I'll never leave you blue
I'll not revoke your planethood
I love you to Uranus
Where our love is always good
There is no way to go back and explain what this means. The history is ponderous, sad, and, honestly, it's sort of amazing that it's as big a deal as it is. But it is. Some of you know why. If you don't, just trust me that it's a big deal.
"Where in the World is Carmen Sandiego?" started airing on PBS my first year of college. I remember, during the winter 1992 semester, taking early enough classes that if I rushed home, I could be there in time to catch the show every afternoon. In the days before in-house internet was affordable for a college student working 17 hours per week, I would sit up next to the television during the closing credits, trying to write down the words to the theme song. It was brilliant. The game show was educational and cheesy and fun, but the big draw was, of course, the house band, Rockapella.
Then life happened, I got married, moved to Las Vegas, got divorced, got married again, and, just as Daphne's dad suggested that I get a hobby, somehow found that Rockapella was still making music, and had, in fact, just released an album called, of all things, "Rockapella," their third American release.
I bought the album, loved it, and immediately went about the business of acquiring the Japanese-release records. Then, lo and behold, they were actually touring in the US! My first concert was in Redding, California, in 1999. I saw several people for the first time who would soon become friends via a Yahoo! fan board and then from other concerts. (And, actually, there's a whole East Coast contingent of fans I've never met but whom I would certainly consider friends, as well.)
Over the next couple of years, I saw Rockapella perform in Redding; then Salt Lake City, Utah; Santa Barbara, California; Las Vegas, Nevada; Phoenix, Arizona; another Santa Barbara show; and then a final Las Vegas one. Except for the last concert, the line-up for that entire time was Scott Leonard, Kevin Wright, Elliott Kerman, Barry Carl, and Jeff Thacher. I believe that George Baldi III had replaced (in a manner of speaking) Barry the last time I saw Rockapella perform.
My sister went with me to a couple of shows (if I remember correctly, a little bitty Hannah went with us to one of the Vegas performances), but other than that, I went alone, meeting up with my friends before and after. Then a whole lot of stuff happened, and that was that.
Until last night.
When I found out that Rockapella was coming to Austin, James was not working. He'd been laid off, and yet he told me to buy tickets... for all three of us. This is a man who 1) doesn't go out on Sunday nights because he needs to recharge for the work week; 2) is not interested in this style of music in the least; and 3) trusted that I'd managed the money well enough that if I thought we could afford the tickets, we should go for it.
So we did!
First, we waited expectantly for Daphne to get home from her Thanksgiving trip. Then we went to the One World Theater.
First, we had dinner. According to the FAQs on the website, no you cannot just buy concert tickets. Dinner is always included. The dinner was actually pretty good, even though the drinks were extra and my Diet Coke expired in September so was pretty flat and metallic-tasting.
The venue itself is lovely. According to its Facebook page, it's the best place to get married. I'd argue for the Cathedral of Junk, but that's probably just me.
Then we moved into the theater for the show. First of all, I was a little bit sad to learn that they had sold only 100 tickets. Originally there had been two shows scheduled, and they ended up combining them. The good news for us is that their best seats are saved for season ticket-holders, and since some of them didn't show up, we were able to move in to upgraded seats one song in. (Otherwise, James would have seen most of the concert as performed by Jeff, because we were basically on the side of the stage.)
Since my last concert in 2002, Elliott Kerman left and John K. Brown took his place. Then Kevin Wright left and Steve Dorian took his place. I never got to see John K. Brown perform. His last performance was a couple of nights ago. Calvin Jones made his debut at the show we saw. He was focused, but did a great job! It was pretty nearly seamless!
Since this was a Christmas show, we got quite a few holiday songs, including the Dreidel song in honor of the fact that Hanukkah started on Thanksgiving this year.
The show was so much fun, and they sound as great as always. Jeff is incredible, as usual. Scott kept calling the One World Theater "New World," which sounded very ominous. Since Rockapella's last album was Motown-inspired, there were a lot of those songs, and a couple of originals from the album before that. While Scott's arrangements of covers are unique enough, I really do prefer the originals. Given their uber-respectful-looking suits and the oldies music, I hope hope hope that Rockapella won't become a band catering to the Branson crowd (and no offense to you, if you're the Branson crowd). There are a lot of young a cappella groups gaining national attention, but I think there's still room for these guys to stay in there. They absolutely blazed the trail and made innovations to performance and arrangement and style that have set the bar for newer bands. I think Rockapella is at its best creating: new stuff, arrangements that turn existing songs on their heads (last night, specifically, "Rudolf," "Christmas Don't Be Late," and "Angels We Have Heard on High" were so much fun).
Oh, yeah, and the Dreidel song, which made me laugh out loud.
I can't even.
Mostly, it was a night to remember because my daughter and my husband were sitting on either side of me. I love my sister, and I appreciate my friends. But it was great finally to experience a Rockapella show with my family.
It's funny: About half way through the concert I realized that it was probably the first show I'd attended where I didn't note the set list to "report" later. Being a superfan in the early 2000s came with some (self-imposed) responsibilities. :)
A couple of people asked me if it was as emotional as I was expecting. First, I literally cried when I was buying the tickets. Then, just listening to their Christmas music as I put up the tree this weekend, I got choked up, as well. Last night wasn't any kind of catharsis; it was just a great night with my favorite people and some super talented musicians entertaining us.
I think I know why.
Back in the day, going to a Rockapella concert was like seeing a lighthouse from a lost and battered ship. It was a lifeline, a blinding beacon on an otherwise bleak horizon. Last night, it was like seeing a lighthouse from a cruise ship. It was lovely, and I stared at it for as long as it was visible, but I was watching from a place of intense joy, and I knew that when that light went out, there was still happiness and fun and bright life to experience.
When we got home, James was saying that he felt very under-dressed. I asked him if he meant "under age" because we were one of the very few who didn't appear to be "experienced" season ticket-holders. For the record, James was joking because he doesn't get self-conscious about what he's wearing. And I assured him that, whatever he was wearing, he is still the sexiest guy in the room. James said, "I don't know. That bass singer was pretty sexy." I still think James has him beat. But it was pretty incredible to be in the same room with both of them.
