Modest Mouse Rocks

I was blown away when I saw them in Cincinnati last summer. The rocked the house at Bogarts. It was a dark intimate setting and they were crammed onto the stage. It was amazing to see them play and play together so well.

Last night, outside under a beautiful August, if not unseasonably cool, sky I was awed again. From the opening song, Satin in a coffin, to the very end, they played a tight show and were on.

I am not a musician. In fact L asked me, when she was 2.5 to just please stop singing. It is bad, I have no musical sense. But I know what I like and I think since my musical ear is so off, I feel the music more than I hear it. It is transportive. It was no different last night.

I think that the guys of Modest Mouse, are musicians more than performers. Sure there was some dancing around, but there was no costume changes and no nonsense. It is just hard driving music. Throughout the night, I was forming something in my head and it finally hit me as they played their last song. It appeared Isaac was making love, with great passion to his guitar. Now I know, you are all shaking your heads, but really, it is as if he and the other band members are so in harmony (oh bad pun) or in sync with their instrument. It is as if they are one.

I love this when music comes from this place. This soul deep place, where it is not just sound but feelings and I do not mean sensations, although you can feel the music on your skin, but I mean where you feel it and see it with your minds eye and it just has to come out.

L thinks many of the Modest Mouse songs are angry. I think she is correct. I also think that the songs are resonant with those searching. There is a searching quality to them.

H naturally had to work this weekend, so I took a friend with, me who had never paid Modest Mouse much attention. I think last night changed that.

The only drawback to the overall show, was the smoke. I swear everyone there was smoking and not MJ - that I might have enjoyed that cloud by proxy, but no they were smoking cigarettes like a turn of the century Industrial smoke stack. The couple in front of us in the grass, killed an entire pack of camels. Ugh!

I could have lived without the cloud!

But it sure was nice to see Modest Mouse, living out loud.

65 Questions You've Probably Never Been Asked

65 Questions You've Probably Never Been Asked

I got tagged, so I decided to post it here on my blog. Go ahead and take the challenge if you dare.

You know the rules. tag people in this note (including the person who tagged you!) to learn more about people. Also, try to tag people who you've tagged in other notes, sometimes you learn things in new notes that you didn't know before about them....blah blah blah whatever. :-)

1. First thing you wash in the shower?
back

2. What color is your favorite hoodie?
Would you believe I don't have one.

3. Would you kiss the last person you kissed again?
absolutely

4. Do you plan outfits?
yes

5. How are you feeling RIGHT now?
happy and content

6. What’s the closest thing to you that's red?
E's fire truck

7. Tell me about the last dream you remember having?
It was dreamy...

8. Did you meet anybody new today?
No

9. What are you craving right now?
Chai

10. Do you floss?
yes

11. What comes to mind when I say cabbage?
rolls

12. Are you emotional
yes

13. Have you ever counted to 1,000?
no

14. Do you bite into your ice cream or just lick it?
I do not eat ice cream.

15. Do you like your hair?
I love my hair.

16. Do you like yourself?
Yes

17. Would you go out to eat with George W. Bush?
Nope.

18. What are you listening to right now?
CD101

19. Are your parents strict?
yes

20. Would you go sky diving?
No, I have too much to lose

21. Do you like cottage cheese?
I do, but it does not like me.

22. Have you ever met a celebrity?
Yes, long time ago.

23. Do you rent movies often?
No.

24. Is there anything sparkly in the room you're in?
Yes.

25. How many countries have you visited?
5

26. Have you made a prank phone call?
I do not think so.

27. Ever been on a train?
Yes

28. Brown or white eggs?
Brown, but right now I am not eating eggs.

29. Do you have a cell phone?
Yes

30. Do you use chap stick?
sometimes

31. Do you own a gun?
No

32. Can you use chop sticks?
Yes.

33. Who are you going to be with tonight?
Just me and the kiddos.

34. Are you too forgiving?
I don't think so.

35. Ever been in love?
Yes

36. What is your best friend(s) doing tomorrow?
Working.

37. Ever have cream puffs?
A long time ago

38. Last time you cried?
A few days ago.

39. What was the last question you asked?
Did you eat all your Mac -n-Cheese

40. Favorite time of the year?
Fall

41. Do you have any tattoos?
No. Its a needle thing.

42. Are you sarcastic?
Sometimes. I favor irony.

43. Have you ever seen The Butterfly Effect?
No

44. Ever walked into a wall?
yes

45. Favorite color?
green

46. Have you ever slapped someone?
No. But I have wanted to.

47. Is your hair curly?
Wavy more than curly

48. What was the last CD you bought?
I have not bought CD's in a long time.

49. Do looks matter?
Better to look inside.

50. Could you ever forgive a cheater?
The truth is very important to me.

51. Is your phone bill sky high?
No

52. Do you like your life right now?
Yes, very much.

53. Do you sleep with the TV on?
We do not have a TV in our room.

54. Can you handle the truth?
I welcome the truth.

55. Do you have good vision?
Yes

56. Do you hate or dislike more than 3 people?
I do not hate. There are people, who used to be in my life, who I would not welcome back with open arms.

57. How often do you talk on the phone?
I text more than I talk.

58. The last person you held hands with?
HP

59. What are you wearing?
cotton dress and lite weight long sleeve sweater

60. What is your favorite animal?
Fish

61. Where was your default picture taken at?
Hocking Hills

62. Can you hula hoop?
Yes

63. Do you have a job?
Yep, freelance writer and full-time mom

64. What was the most recent thing you bought?
purse at target and school supplies

65. Have you ever crawled through a window?
How about out, I fled a Frat party thru a window once. Once with L was a baby, she locked me out on the deck, I crawled in thru the window.

Bye Bye Summer

I cannot believe school starts next week. The summer seems both endless and short at the same time. I was feeling like we got nothing accomplished, but that is not true.

* Took our first ever camping trip to Northern Michigan. Heavenly.

* I attended the Kenyon Review's summer writing workshop. Inspirational.

*E was ill at 4th of July, but L and I managed the fireworks.

*L had her tonsils removed and spent 2 weeks being quiet and recovering. Towards the end of the 2 weeks I had to sit on her big time.

* L attending camp at E's preschool, took dance camp, and art camp. She loved it. Leanring and having fun during the summer.

*E went to camp every week M-W-F, in part to hold our spot for fall and in part to give me time for school and time with just L!

*L and I painted pottery

*We went to the Zoo and Zoombize Bay a fair amount

*H took L to DC to visit his cousin and see the sights.

I had thought we might have more time for running around, but we were busy

*L and I both had killer B-day parties

*We went to one wedding, staying overnight in a hotel! A highlight for the kiddos

*Farmers markets trips and we grew our own tomatoes

I read about 10 books and had 2 MBA classes.

So all in all, it was a busy, fun and productive summer. Looking forward to school starting and having a "normal" routine.

Red not blue

I walk into E's reasonably tidy room and see a huge pile of underwear on the floor.

"E why is your underwear all over the floor?" He is not one to paw thru his clothes. He is content to let me dress him.

"I was looking for RED underwear!!!" He tells me, accenting the looking and red and making UNDERWEAR sound like a really long word. His face was so cute, a mix of emphasis and total exasperation with his slow on the uptake mother.

"Why?"

"Because I like red underwear the best and sometimes orange."

"You don't have any orange underwear." I tell him, as I organize the mess on the floor and put it away.

"Well we need to get some. More red and some orange at the store."

"What's wrong with blue?"

"Ah, I wear blue clothes over my red underwear." He explains as he walks off down the hallway, as if I am the most unfashionable woman on the planet. Shaking his head...

School

The distract, where I attended school K-12, just had a levy fail. The school board has decided to cancel band and football. I think this is a shame. Do I think it is the voters fault. Nope. Clearly the school board did a poor selling their plan and knowing the mentality of the distract when I was there and I have to ask myself, why would that have changed, they put it to the voters - VOTE FOR THIS LEVY OR LOSE FOOTBALL. Right because all of us know, who have any marketing sense that threatening people gets them to make a positive buying or spending decision. Sometimes marketing through fear works I suppose, insurance companies bank on that, you fear losing your life's savings so you insure it.

But voting on tax levies, I am not sure the marketing through fear and threats is the way to go. I would not have swayed me.

In the hopes of full disclosure I did vote for the levy in the shamrock city. I wasn't going to, but I read the materials provided by the distract and I reviewed how they planned to spend every single nickel and decided, I agreed with their assessment and their plans. I was behind the improvements for the security of the buildings. I agreed with the districts appraisal of future long term revenue figures and I appreciated their conservative approach to their forecasts, especially in a down economy.

Threats work for the mafia but not so much for business. In case you are wondering, School Distracts are a business and should be run like one. They are a not for profit, but the decisions made must be grounded in financial principals and economic realities. if the tax bases is doing with less, they need to do with less. If the tax bases is forging raises then the teachers and administrators and board members do with out also.

I will also say this. While I believe extracurricular activities are very important to social development, in Europe and Japan, the sports and music and clubs are not school affiliated. They are after school, and separate from the school day. If you play soccer in Germany, in may be with the same friends you attend school with, but it is not for the school team, it is for a local club team. If you plan in musical trio or sing in the choir, you do so at school, for a private music school or attend a performing arts school.

I think if we truly want to compete academically with schools around the world, we need to have more focused instruction and less extra curricular. Extra curricular is for after the school day.

Now if we want to offer a well rounded package, which focuses on the overall well being of our children, then I think that is a different story. I do not happen to think we can do both, with the funding system we have in this country. In Japan and India, pressure is on in the schools and it is about learning, not being a well rounded social participant.

As with everything there have to be trade-offs. There have to compromises. The problem is, I think, that we are unwilling to make a commitment to those trade offs and continue to want it both ways.

Transparency

It was brought to my attention that my previous post on Obama's birth certificate was well, off.

Ok, whether the birth form exists or not what I was driving at was the need for TRANSPARENCY. I think TRANSPARENCY is the single most important tenant of governing, parenting, managing, and successful interpersonal relationships. We are a nation of lairs. Yes, you heard me. I firmly believe that we as a culture would much rather be lied to, then complain we are being lied to, but secretly rejoice that we are being lied to, because confronting and processing and acting on the truth is hard work and at the end of the day, most human beings are more comfortable being lied to and being allowed to wallow in their innate laziness. (WOW I am really being my bitchy best today; now see that is transparent and not so hard!)

My point in my previous post was the election committee or the DNC has guidelines. Show the proof that they rules that Obama met the the guidelines. People do not fundamentally believe anything anyone says, because, while we may appreciate that we are being lied to, we also do not like it. We live in a society where we believe we do not trust what is going one, because every time we turn around, we are shown that people would rather lie and conceal. Think of all the books out there about espionage and government and political intrigue. Its its own damn genre and like I always say, "real life is stranger than fiction."

So when Jack Nicholson goes into this rant, as much as we all think we are supposed to believe that he is a self righteous ego maniac, and that he is- is beside the point, he is right. We cannot handle the truth. We think we can, but we can't. We do not like thinking about the fact that we have kids on a line, drawn on some map, with an M-16, ready to take out another kid cuz our governments are locked in some high school style pissing contest. We do not like to think about the fact that we through our inactions or our blind eyes, we create situations where men like Jessup can practice their own brand of honesty and truth. Furthermore, because confronting our own culpability within those actions is positively intolerable. I am not judging the need for rules or custom or order with in the Corp. I am merely saying we as lazy lie loving cultural slugs, do not like to think that we benefit from these types of loops. We do not like to admit that if we fully supported a world that believed in transparency above our ego comforts, this type of loop might look different. People like Jessup, while perhaps important on a certain level, can run amuck and they run amuck through the cultural support of a less than transparent world.





Annie's shock in Bull Durham is palatable when Crash tells her exactly what he believes in. She was expecting bullshit. I generally expect bullshit, every time someone opens their mouth. Be it the the clergy person, the used salesman, my doctor, whoever, I always think, mmm, is this a kernel of truth moment or am I getting a line of shit. I generally settle on the fact that the person is giving me what they want me to believe in order to get me to do what they want me to do and that is a far cry from the truth. We are a culture that thrives on management via manipulation.

When the truth is truly a huge motivator. My kids work best and feel the most secure when I give them the truth. The truth folks need not be a long winded trietse on astrophysics. Case in point.

E and I are in the car, I am trying to get through some traffic and had been thinking about something I was writing about and E was asking all sorts of questions and I was half answering him and he kept at it and it was getting annoying and the traffic was annoying also. Finally E demands, "Mom, answer my questions."

So I had him repeat his question, which was really simple. I answered it and he was quiet. He knew I was not paying attention and he knew I was giving him half assed replies and so he kept crowing, more and more loudly.

So next time you are tempted to be half truthful or blow someone off with a half truth, or make the choice that they can't handle the truth, why not try the truth and transparency... most people won't believe you anyway.

The way to make them be quiet is to give them and US the full picture

While I find it hard to believe that Obama, a man of character, from what I have seen, would bother pursuing the presidency knowing that if he was not in fact born in Hawaii, he would be ineligible to be elected, I think the prudent thing to do is to cough up the full birth certificate.

I can see the value in ignoring the griping from the fringe, but by not showing proof, definitive proof, it looks like Obama has something to hide. Believe me, I am good at ignoring whining and incessant griping, but this is a HUGE issue of creditability and it is a matter of Constitutional law.

While I would like to think that the Democratic party was high and tight on this issue before running Obama on the ticket, I fail to see why we cannot just have a definitive answer in the form of the proof required to run and I assume there is such a proof obtaining process and then we can move on to the real issues facing this country.

Reading a Rough Story

We were coming home from dinner out and the kids always want to know who is going to put them to bed. H said he was going to do it tonight. H tends to wash E's hair "rough" as E says and so he said, "Daddy don't wash my hair rough!"

L is in a jolly mood and says, "Well too bad E, Daddy is going to wash your hair rough and read you a story rough and cuddle you roughly."

I asked how one reads and cuddles rough.

She explains Daddy can yell the story and then squeeze E very tight.

E scamper her to the writing cave tonight and says to me, "Tell Daddy not to read my story rough!"

I assured E, that Daddy would not yell the story...