CHORES AND THIRD TIME'S A CHARM.

I don't really feel like doing chores. 
he said.
Can I lay down on the couch...just for a little bit?

Okay.
I said.
Just for a little bit. The chores are waiting.
____

RITUAL, OR, LOU GEHRIG (ICE, ICE, BUDDY).
Buddy,
I said.
In response to your question: no. We are not doing the ice bucket challenge right before bed.

Okay Daddy,
he said.
Can I please have a cup of water?

Sure.
I said, not connecting the dots.
And brought him his cup.
With water.

I waited, absentmindedly, for him to drink it, and realised nanoseconds too late that his intent was never to drink it. With a deft turn of the wrist and sharp intake of breath, he turned the cup upside down and immolated himself. With water. Sans ice.

Yes, pre-emptive ha-ha. He now has a waterbed.

Incidentally, it appears that my turn may be coming - does anyone, perchance, have a horse and chariot I could borrow for a short video tomorrow evening? Preferably, a stallion that's very wild and untamed, but that's okay with pulling a chariot and doing whatever I ask him to?*

Thanks. It will be for a good cause. Sleep dry tonight, all.

*within reason**
**what a normal person*** might consider "reasonable"
***me

RHAPSODIC DU FREITAG AND BRUCE DICKENSON'S RAILROAD.

Ludwig Van Beethoven.
Johann Sebastian Bach.
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart.
Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky.
Felix Mendelssohn and Sergei Rachmaninov.

I love these names, grandiose, ambitious, lyrical, almost as much as I love their music.

Others?

Today: in love with the 1-2 punch of Franz Liszt's Liebestraum and Hungarian Rhapsody. So, so, so. Beautiful. Thirty seconds into Rhapsody...wow.

Happy Freitag, all.


BRUCE DICKINSON'S RAILROAD.

I am humbled and happy to be with someone who has tears of sadness strolling down her face during Harriet Tubman documentaries and tears of uncontrollable mirth streaming down during Old School. Living at the extremes makes for a balanced life. Rock and roll, Countess Becca. You are Joni Mitchell, Iron Maiden, and a whole lotta jazzy Jack Johnson rock & roll bouncing through the world with a Norwegian lilt. Rock on. 


And Shabbat shalom, universe.

MAY YOUR DAY BE JOLLY.

photo: joseph ivan long ©2013 (December 10) thanks Gorillapod.

Happy Christmas, universe!

COUNTESS AND SON.

I don't care for the phrase 'a picture is worth a thousand words,' because it infers that a visual image is more valuable than language, and maybe it is occasionally, but I love books and Kurt Vonnegut way too much to support that notion in totality; however, if I was to put a price tag on this photograph I'd estimate its worth at right around a billion dollars. So yes, it is for sale. Cash.

I suppose there's a place in my heart for both. Also, a place in my heart for the two travelers in this image.

TRIO OF UNCLES WITH DUO OF ELVES.

In case you weren't aware, Anthropologie always has complementary cookies and punch around holiday season. Just in case you didn't know. Now you do.

And they are very nice to children, and uncles. Thanks.

THANKSGIVING DAY.

01. 
I might post stuff here today that I'm thankful for. Let's see, umm...I'm glad for Sherlock Holmes, and that there's finally some decent interpretations of the A. Conan Doyle classics on the screen. That's all I can think of currently to be thankful for. Now I have to go wrestle a trio of harmonicas away from children that seem to have a decibel level approaching a front row Who concert.
Maybe I'll think of something else soon.

02. HERB ALPERT.

I am thankful for things I don't miss until I don't have them, like whipped cream. I was planning on enveloping the top of my coffee this morning with three inches of Mt. Everest aerosol deliciousness, and then realised I wasted it on hot chocolate for the children yesterday. So we don't have any, and the day is ruined. I am thankful for what I dreamed of having, so at least I can cling to that.

03. ATLAS THE CUDDLY.
I love having six siblings who are snuggly. I can snuggle up with any and all of them anytime, even though all my little brothers are bigger than me now. And one of my sisters has bigger feet. We are hands-on, hug tight, snugglybuggly brothers and sisters and I LOVE IT, even when some of them smell horrid occasionally. Okay. Done with the cutesy stuff for a few minutes.


Happy day, all.

04. DUKE VS. COUNT.

I am thankful for record players, which force you to listen to albums in sequence and try to appreciate the original sequencing of an artist, and that make you get up to change them halfway through, and serve as a reminder to be gentle with things. Every time I go over to change my well-worn Duke Ellington / Count Basie vinyl, I mark off another 100 calories burned. That's the analogue advantage talking there. I should start Strava-ing my record-changing.

05. CHEF CHIEF.
I am thankful for my Dad, who modeled for his boys the importance of real men helping out in the kitchen, and who loves Christmas music more than anyone I know, and who has the loudest laugh on the Oregon Coast.

06.
I am thankful for buddies far away that I see infrequently, but can pick up the phone and be deep in conversation about art, literature, and music in a heartbeat. People like Jonathan Ponder. Happy day, buddy. Hope you're listening to some good tunes today.

Jonathan Ponder Thanks, man! I'm thankful for you as well--your zest, vigor, creativity, playfulness, intentionality, and care are all things to be admired and valued and thankful for. Soundtracked the drive from New York City to Lowell, Mass. today with Bruce Springsteen's Greatest Hits, The Beatles Mono Masters Disc Two, and Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone read by Jim Dale. Happy Thanksgiving!

November 28 at 5:12pm · Like

07. VONNEGUT WAS VEGAN?
I am thankful for articulate visionaries like

Tolkien,
Lewis,
Heinlein,
Clarke,
Asimov,
Vonnegut,
Alexander.

Creators of stories and worlds that convey deep truths and insights into humanity and possibility via narrative fiction. Tales full of adventure and discovery; stories that are magical, wondrous, and entertaining on the surface, yet often deeply moving, relevant, and thought-provoking underneath.

Thank you. I wish you could join me for Thanksgiving dinner. I should warn you that I'm vegetarian.

08. 
I'm thankful for my Mom. She was around when I was born, and I'll always be appreciative of that.


Also, she says stuff to us (her kids) all the time like "I'm so proud of the kind, thoughtful, and successful person you've become," which is sometimes not always completely one-hundred percent of the truth. But then it kind of makes you want to live up to that, so it starts becoming a little more true. Wow, she is a clever one, now that I think about it. 

09.
Us, and a pink sword.
Thanksgiving 2013.

Thanks for snapping, Vicki.