I'll write more later about everything that happened, but this is just a quick post to show off the family again. We were missing Jon, Aaron and Wayne Isaac, but most everyone else made it and we had a grand time. You won't see me in the shot because I was conducting and the camera was to my right to get all the faces of the choir.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zt-zkZc7L9U
I like my family.
***** Added Feb. 03 *****
Forgive the lateness of this entry. I'll skip explanations and just get to it.
While out caroling this year, I realized why it is that we do it and why it is so important that we put up with the hassle. Let me explain the hassle part of it first.
My parents had 10 children. That's a brood by any measurement, and when we were younger and my parents began this tradition of caroling every year, it was a feat to get us all wrangled and transported from place to place. Since then, all but one of us has gotten married effectively doubling the choir, and of those that are married, only one is without children to date.
What was a mass of humanity has grown into a mob of strong willed adults, crying children .... well you get the picture. Each year it gets harder.
We start the night around 6pm (although every year the plan seems earlier and earlier and the actual start time gets later). Cramming around the piano in my parents 20x20 living room we have a practice of the songs that we will be singing. This lasts about 1/2 an hour then we get packed in the car and on to the first house.
We go to about 8 different houses that are miles apart, so every visit requires unpacking the children, arranging them in front of the house, repacking and driving to the next house. By the time we get to the last house around 9pm, the youngest are falling asleep in their parents arms, while the group just older is complaining of their feet hurting and hunger is setting in for all of us.
So why do we do it? That question gets asked by at least one brother or sister every year. This year it finally struck me what the answer is, while we were at our second house.
An older couple who has been on the route for as long as I can remember invited us in to their house and positively beamed as we all filed in through the front door. Shoulder to shoulder we crammed into their sitting room and belted Jingle Bells, Silent Night, Rudolph, and Carol of the Bells. When we were done, the wife was weeping. As we left, we exchanged hugs and handshakes with each of them. Then my sister said to me "See? That's why we do this every year."
We aren't doing it to show off how great our family is. It's not even so that we can feel close as a family by continuing a rooted tradition. While both of those are nice, it's become a service. Caroling is not just our tradition anymore. It's theirs. These families that we visit every year now have a tradition of inviting us into their homes. Hearing us sing is now part of their Christmas and they look forward to it. We do it because, they love it, and we get to show our love for them.
Don't click the links until I say otherwise you'll miss out on the experience.
This could be a subject I've blogged on before but I'm really not sure. If I have, I couldn't find it on this site anyway.
I'm not sure whether this is bragging or not, but I have the most talented family in the entire universe and possibly beyond. I'm not kidding. Not to oversell it but musically the Fam is just oozing with concepts and execution of composition of musical themes that are both innovative and auditorially pleasing. (What auditorially isn't a real word?)
See I can say it's not bragging simply because I'm not including myself in the bragging. Additionally I have proof of their brilliance listed. I've heard it said thousands of times that "It's not bragging if it's true".
Alright, I may have oversold it a bit but the songs that you're going to hear are really good IMHO.
Ok. You can click the first one. On her MySpace page click the second song "Home" in a new browser (Right-Click and select "open in a new window" for the noobs), then come back and read.
http://www.myspace.com/nellieriddle
Ok. This is a simple intro, but just wait it gets good. Listen to the lyrics and imagine the sweet little girl that singing.
Now we're getting to the Chorus. Great theme. And then the hook. At this point you should be getting chills. I do anyway as I listen and write this.
Nellie is the youngest in my family and she's had a little bit of a rough time. All the older siblings want to keep her safe and she gets frustrated that we don't think of her as a grown up capable of making good decisions, even now that she's married.
Back to the chorus. How can anyone listen to this and not be inspired. The message is great. Even the weakest amongst us can succeed and even excel when we get the help from those around us that feel personally invested in our lives. We all get to support each other. "Home" of course takes on a deeper meaning when it's thought of in a spiritual context. But the concept of being edified through lifting someone else is a universal one.
Ok. Now on to Aaron.
Same as before, open in a new window and listen to.... let's see. 3rd song "Time won't wait"
http://www.myspace.com/amicuscuriaeband
My favorite part of Aaron's music is the minimalism of it. Just him, a guitar, and I think some beat boxing. The harmonies are all him if you couldn't tell. But the choices that he makes for the harmonies blow me away. Instead of making it barbershopy or fifties-ish he adds them together in a fashion that sounds almost new-waveish.
Let it keep playing to the next song Stars.
Now this song could be on Scrubs. Just mellow and like Nellie's song, inspiring.
Don't forget to look into the stars. The idea being, let yourself be encircled by the awesomeness of creation and realize the duality of your insignificance in the vastness of an endless universe, and the importance of your existence as part of this universe that is so amazing.
Songs like these impress me so much because these are the two youngest in our herd of 10. You expect wisdom and depth from folks that are older by virtue of their experience. These youngest though ..... I'm just so lucky to have them as family. That I get to associate myself with them makes me feel like the message that their music conveys, better than I am because I'm a part of something better.
One last one.
Wayne has one of the best male voices I've heard. Here he is doing Les Miserables
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jdaNF8WBC_0
You may or may not know that the oldest recieved a tortoise for his 7th birthday. He named his little russian tortoise "Tuck" after a turtle on a kids TV show.
Anyway, we took good care of our little tortoise, making sure to feed him daily and give him plenty of water. We kept a heat lamp over his terrarium so he would stay warm during the cold winter nights. Every once in a while we'd take him outside to stretch his legs and get some exercise.
One of these workouts ended sadly with the children forgetting that he was out back, and they came in without him. 30-45 min later I asked where he was and neither of the boys knew. It was very frustrating not only because this pet came with a $90 price tag, but because he was really more a family pet.
*Edited. I forgot to mention earlier that the losing of Tuck and the finding happened 3 months from each other, and that he had apparently stayed in the backyard that entire time.
Today, the boys and I were out front playing "throw a tennis ball against the garage door" and Meg came out front.
"You'll never guess what I found outback," she said as she pulled Tuck from behind her back. She explained that she had heard some scraping on the back wall, gone outside and he was between the fireplace and the sun room's outer wall. We were very glad that he was back. He'd gone for months and we'd all just figured he was gone for good, but it turns out he never even left the back yard.
When I thought about it I realized that there were vegetables in the garden that had obviously be gnawed at, but I always assumed it was an opossum or worms eating them away. Now I realize that we were keeping Tuck fed without even realizing it. Thank goodness for the garden.
We had a parent/teacher conference with the oldest boys teacher on Wed. Meg was really not looking forward to it and truth be told, I wasn't looking forward to being told that my son is a holy terror and we're horrible parents either. If history was any indication, that's what the conference would have been.
I calmed myself the best I could and tried to reassure Meg that it wouldn't be that bad, even though I only half believed it myself.
We sat down with his teacher, for the first time together, and talked over the behavior problems he's been having. He won't stay on task, and when he's asked to get back on track he'll often refuse and even throw little tantrums. To date he's pushed his work onto the floor when the teacher was standing there, crawled under his desk and just whine sometimes.
He's also complained often that it's too early to go to school. We let him sleep until 7am and school starts at 7:45. Even though we get them in bed by 9pm at the latest, he still complains about being tired.
His hand writing is very poor, which in itself isn't a bad thing, but with all of the other factors does send up a little bit of a red-flag. There's a technical term "dysgraphia" for it, but it's basically a physical sign of a mental disconnect.
Finally, he's having lots of trouble making friends at this school.
All of this we'd heard before, but then his teacher said something that really caught our attention. "Even though he has been disruptive in class, I'm willing to deal with that. I'm more just concerned for him." This was great. Where we were expecting judgment and criticism of our parenting skills, we instead received honest, genuine concern for our little boy. From there the entire tone of the discussion (a conversation that has been ongoing for months now really) changed from "What are you two doing to him?" to one of "How can we help him?".
We expressed our concern that he has previously taken medication and the side-effects were unpleasant and that we'd rather not go down that route again unless we absolutely have to. She offered to talk to the school psychologist but was very honest about our chances there. The Dr. is only at his school 1.5 days a week and likely won't be able to see him. She suggested we should look at our insurance and see if there was a private psychologist that might be able to help.
In short, we're very hopeful. Being our first, he's really gotten a raw deal on the parent side of the equation. As much as we care about him and his development, neither Meg nor I was properly prepared to raise a child when we had him. I suspect no parents really are and just try their best. In any case I really feel good about the track we're on now and hopefully the boy will benefit from the combined efforts, and I'm really grateful now that he has a teacher that was willing to stick with Meg and me for his benefit.
If you don't think you know who "The Lonely Island" is (are?), chances are you know their work. The front man for the group is Andy Samberg. He's the guy on SNL that's responsible for such skits as "Lazy Sunday" (the Chronic "WHAT?" - cles of Narnia), Lazer Catz, and stars in most of the other Digital Shorts on Saturday Night Live. All pretty funny huh?
The rest of the group does the work. They shoot/write/direct all those sketches. They've always been a little off their rockers, but it's understandable since most of comedy is leading the audience down a path of thinking one way, then at the appropriate time making the course correction that makes them laugh.
Shocking is the easy way out for comedians. The most recent Digital Short is an example of the end of the line for these guys. The sketch is Andy doing a painting of Paul Rudd naked, then Paul Rudd doing Andy, then both of them taking the painting to an art auction, where it's so horrific that the entire group commits suicide in more and more disgusting ways.
Even being as desensitized to this kind of humor as I am, I couldn't watch it and not only because it was gross either. I was just disappointed that it wasn't funny. Instead of putting in the work to bring a concept that will work to an audience, they decided to make something that they could laugh at and give the finger to everyone else.
What artists like this do (and I use the term artist loosely) is just pure ego. To get the joke the audience has to look at it from the perspective of the creator instead of the creator tailoring the joke to the audience. Call me lazy if you like, but I would like my entertainment to be entertaining. I don't want to have to start thinking like you to get your joke.
From here on out I will no longer recognize the English alphabet in it's current order. If the inventors of the QWERTY keyboard are to be believed, A is not the most recurring letter in the Alphabet. It is either 'g' or 'h' judging by the location each holds.
I will order all my lists Q-/ though I doubt anyone but myself and possibly the Artist currently known as Prince would choose a symbol instead of a name. On second thought, there is that guitarists from Guns 'n Roses. Does it count as a symbol still if you spell it out phonetically?
One of the great things about this order is that all the Andersons, and Smiths will be called nearly at the same time. And who knows, maybe that rascally coyote will start ordering his gadgets and gizmoes Quixtar instead of Acme.
Suzie, Ben, Kellie, Wayne, David, Jared, Jonathan, Sharon, Aaron and Nellie becomes.
Wayne, Aaron, Suzie, Sharon, David, Jonathan, Jared, Kelli, Ben, and Nellie.
For this election I find myself torn between voting for two candidates. Neither of them however is Obama.
I live in California, and it's pretty well understood that because of the masses of Democrats living in San Fransisco and L.A. that the rest of us have basically lost a voice in the Presidential Election. I accepted months ago that my vote will not count this year. Since I'm not supporting a candidate whose views are shady at best I'm left with the other guy.
I honestly believe that Obama is going to win this election. Not to sound prophetic or anything, but it's kind of been apparent that he would ever since he gave his address at the Democratic National Convention 4 years ago. The press loves him and has been behind him from then on.
Sadly, my Republican party couldn't see the value in their best candidate. And so comes my decision. Do I write in my real preference for president? In other words, do I vote my conscience? Or do I instead resign myself to voting for the lesser of two evils?
