Monthly Music – Mar ’09

Now offering in convenient downloadable format for true readers and believers (please comment)!

 

 

song	artist	album
Little Person	Jon Brion	Synecdoche, New York
True To Life	Royksöpp	Junior
The Sweetest Thing	Camera Obscura	My Maudlin Career
Airstream Driver	Gomez	SXSW 2009 Showcasing Artists
Sick Muse	Metric	Metric-Fantasies
Stadium Love	Metric	Metric-Fantasies
Lasso	Phoenix	Wolfgang Amadeus Phoenix
Countdown (Sick For The Big Sun)	Phoenix	Wolfgang Amadeus Phoenix
The Conductor	Ume	Sunshower EP
Kiss With A Fist	Florence And The Machine	Single
Beeline	Sky Larkin	The Golden Spike
Screw It Up	Superchunk	Leaves in the Gutter
The Strangers	St. Vincent	Actor
Lifelines	Doves	Kingdom Of Rust
Compulsion	Doves	Kingdom Of Rust
Sleep All Summer	St. Vincent And The National	Score! 20 Years Of Merge Records: The Covers!
There’s No Secrets This Year	Silversun Pickups	Swoon
The Royal We	Silversun Pickups	Swoon
Little Pieces	Gomez	A New Tide

Monthly Music – Feb ’09

 

 

song	artist	album
A thread Cut with a …	Stars	Sad Robots EP
Little ghost	I’m From Barcelona	Who killed Harry Houdini?
The Heartbreak Rides	A.C. Newman	Get Guilty
meteor	the bird and the bee	ray guns are not just the future
My Girls	Animal Collective	Merriweather Post Pavilion
South China Moon	Bishop Allen	Grrr…
Wont Say Anything	Hello Seahorse!	Hoy A Las Ocho
Low Light Low Life	P.O.S.	Never Better
Help, I’m Alive	Metric	Fantasies
Chinese	Lily Allen	It’s Not Me, It’s You
Maps	The New Standards	Rock and Roll
Boy With A Barbie	Ben Lee	The Rebirth Of Venus
Kingdom Of Rust (Album Version)	Doves	Kingdom Of Rust
Hot Pink	Halloween, Alaska	Champagne Downtown
Magpie To The Morning	Neko Case	Middle Cyclone
Hysteric	Yeah Yeah Yeahs	It’s Blitz!
R�yksopp Forever	Royksöpp	Junior
1901	Phoenix	Wolfgang Amadeus Phoenix
100,000 Times	Maria Taylor	LadyLuck
United States of Tara (opening Theme)	Tim DeLaughter

Same deal, comment here if you want a copy.

Monthly Music – Jan ’09

Each month I keep a folder in iTunes of what I am liking and playing most for those four weeks. Usually it’s stuff that I recently acquired. At the end of the month, I keep only the best (or what was really representative of that month) 80 minutes to make a mixed CD-R time capsule. I try to only allow at most the top two songs from an artist/album. And I keep the track order to when I it was added in my iTunes from oldest to newest. Sure I could jazz this blog post up with links and more info on these artists, but I’ll do you one way better. If you actually want to know more, make a comment here and I’ll make you a listening copy of any of these compilations you fancy. Please support these artists. Thanks for reading. 

 

 

song	artist	album
not a robot, but a ghost	Andrew Bird	Noble Beast
Like a Hitman, Like a Dancer	A.C. Newman	Get Guilty
my love	the bird and the bee	ray guns are not just the future
One-Seat Theatre	The Hopefuls	Now Playing at the One-Seat Theatre
To America	Joan As Police Woman	To Survive
Flowers & Football Tops	Glasvegas	Glasvegas
i liked you better before	little jackie	The Stoop
1986	Fredrik	Na Na Ni
My America	A Camp	Colonia
The What	Notorious B.I.G.	The Wackness Soundtrack
Sunshower	Asobi Seksu	Hush
Only One Ghost	Leona Naess	Unreleased
Summers	Loney, Dear	Dear John
People Got A Lotta Nerve	Neko Case	Middle Cyclone
My Girls	Animal Collective	Merriweather Post Pavilion
Oklahoma	Bishop Allen	Grrr…
So Far Around The Bend	The National	Dark Was The Night
Mimizan	Beirut	Dark Was The Night

3-D v. Fart jokes

Doodles first movie theater experience was Monsters Vs. Aliens 3-D. Good action, fun effects and Ginormica rules. Overall if not in 3-D probably not that great for adults. Doesn’t have quite the gravitas or comedy of many Pixar classics. But a fun family matinee if Coraline is too scary for yours, too. Doodles fave was “Dr. Cock-a-roach” (voiced by Hugh Laurie and yes, mustachioed).

The day before we had seen one of the worst family films for adults to sit through, Alvin and the Chipmunks. Yet, that sad excuse for family entertainment illicited just as many belly laughs from Pablo as the superior M v. A. There’s something undeniably funny about a fart joke. And maybe funnier when Mama remarks that there wasn’t even one good one in Monsters. Have I told I have never audibly farted in front of my wife or any other woman in public? It’s true, but we’ll save that for a future post. So you know, you have that to look forward to, dear reader. 

3-D might be enough to get me back in the theater and not just waiting for DVD. It’s pretty cool when done well. Have you seen one lately? 

Boys in Blue make this look good

Chef Dinner

Mama bid on a special event for a charity at work. She won us an in-home chef dinner donated by Executive Chef George from McCormick & Schmick’s.

Last night Chef George arrived and was greeted at the door by Doodles.

Doodles: “You have a mustache!”

Chef George: “Yes, I’ve had it since I was 15. I knew it was a bad sign that I was probably not going to grow much more if I had a full mustache already.”

Doodles: “You’re a mustache chef!”

(Sometimes the blog writes itself. I just have to report the dialogue.)

George had trained under Emeril Lagasse in New Orleans. He created a seafood odyssey at our home last night for us and two other couples. We had scallops with curry, macadamia nut encrusted halibut, salmon with brie and spaetzel and 5 bottles of wine. It was fantastic. He even brought the plates so we had few dishes to wash.

If you get a chance to have a mustache chef come to your house, go for it.

Boys will be

 

Line 'em up!

We have boys, “Boy” boys. Not necessarily sporty guys yet, we’ll see about that. (Pablo refused to swim again at the Y today.) But boys that are so into typical boy stuff, at least maybe 1950s boy stuff. And they are not just into it a bit. They actually kinda elevate it to the level of a fetish or an obsession. They get very focused and single-minded about whatever their current craze. 

 

These favorites manifest themselves in odd ways. At least odd for how I have to placate them. Lately I have been forced to draw soldiers, workmen, sharks and the like. They have to be “small and cut” (not circumcised). I have taken to drawing a few they approve of and then photocopying the rest to meet demands. Then they actually play with these in a paper-doll way of sorts, which I guess is not as Boy boy as I claimed before. I do hear a lot of fake explosions, though. 

 

In order of fandom with latest at the top:

Monsters, Aliens (I think we’ll try it in 3-D on Monday. Doodles first theater experience.)

Super-heroes

Sharks

Clones/Star Wars

Robots

Armies

Police (any uniformed guy, usually with a hat, coat, tie, see also conductor or workman)

Indiana Jones

Knights

Cowboys

Trucks

Trains

Dinosaurs

Farmers

Animals

And it should be noted that O.P.T.* takes top billing when available.

After the first year of pre-school, Pablo’s teacher remarked how much he loved animals and how she even learned about some obscure ones from him. When Pablo was asked by the end of the summer about this, he said “I don’t like animals. I like soldiers.” So as popular as the current craze is, it’s usually thrown in the basement or attic to make way for the next one. Any guesses on what comes after Monsters and Aliens? Make your prediction. I’ll award a prize to the right guess. 

*Other people’s toys

Random note clearings

In the lexicon -

Handsome Shirts = button down shirts

Pablo: “Dad, will Mrs. K say I look handsome with this shirt?”

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“I’m all of those guys. There’s all of me.”

– usually overheard whilst watching anything with police, armies, super-heroes, etc. 

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“I’m going to repeat everything you say.” – said Pablo and he did for about a half hour. 

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Army commercial screens on TV:

Pablo: “I’m the army.”

Doodles: “I’m the commander army.”

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While watching Thomas the Tank Engine:

Pablo: “I’m all those drivers.”

Doodles: “I’m one driver.”

Pablo: “Are  you Thomas’ driver with a mustache?”

Doodles: “Uh-huh.”

iJefe, iPhone, therefore iAm

So many start one of these bad boys* and then don’t keep it up. I hope that using the iPhone I will be able to update le ‘stachebot on the fly. Hold me to it. Keep me busy and pure. And blogging whilst drinking.

So Pablo learned about China last week in preschool but obviously he didn’t learn about racism.

“Dad, I’m Chinese!”, he said as the noodle dangled Fu Manchu style from his mouth.

The mustache fetish continues.

*blogs

It’s a hard knock life…

“Nice Weather for Ducks” by Lemon Jelly from Lost Horizons album

My two young boys had been addicted to “It’s a Hard Knock Life” from the Annie soundtrack for a few months at the end of 2007, sadly driving it to the top position of most played in my iTunes. Fortunately we have found a much less grating replacement here as this had usurped orphan power. The video (link above) certainly helped. The song has been a fave of mine for a while ever since a trip back to L.A. (winter 2003) followed by our first to Australia. With the Aussies currently in town for a visit they requested I play this yesterday. Little did they know they were helping me more than their two young girls. Enjoy this pure pop bliss. An “oldie” but a goodie. As Doodles says every time it ends, “More. More.”

Stickey Spidey

Pablo applies Spider-Man mask* to Doodles

*train track stickers