It seemed a little disingenuous to celebrate Independence Day today. Although we had a perfectly lovely time at our town’s lively July 4th parade, my mind kept wandering to the endlessly entertaining saga that has become the Snowden scandal.
Continue reading Independence Day and Random Musings on the Snowden Debacle
I’ve been listening to a lot of music lately. While exercising to some my favorite artists and tunes, I’ve been strolling down memory lane. And it occurred to me that it might be worthwhile to list – for the benefit of Chloe and Sophie – some of my all-time favorite songs.
So that when I’m old and gray (and no, I’m not entirely old and gray yet, although I am definitely more gray than I am old), the girls can listen to this music and think fondly of their mom. And get to know me a little better, through the music I love. And perhaps realize, through this playlist, that I’m much cooler than I sometimes let on.
In no particular order, here’s the Top 20 list, which is very heavy on music I listened to when I was a teen (and which goes to show you how influential those crazy years are).
**********
(1) Young Americans by David Bowie. Anyone who grew up with me knows how I obsessively idolized him as a teen and fantasized about hooking up with him.
(2) Blackbird by the Beatles.
(3) Layla by Eric Clapton.
(4) Space Oddity by David Bowie. As I said, I loved him.
(5) Just Can’t Get Enough by Depeche Mode.
(6) Everybody Wants to Rule the World by Tears for Fears.
(7) Songbird by Fleetwood Mac.
(8) The Killing Moon by Echo & the Bunnymen.
(9) Jungleland by Bruce Springsteen.
(10) Boulevard of Broken Dreams by Green Day.
(11) My Sharona by The Knack.
(12) Suzanne by Leonard Cohen.
(13) Are You Ready to Be Heartbroken? by Lloyd Cole & the Commotions.
(14) Band on the Run by Paul McCartney & Wings.
(15) Losing My Religion by R.E.M.
(16) Beast of Burden by the Rolling Stones.
(17) This Must Be the Place (Naive Melody) by the Talking Heads.
(18) Logical Song by Supertramp.
(19) With or Without You by U2.
(20) Bonnie & Clyde by Serge Gainsbourg & Brigitte Bardot.
I’ll get to the e-mail. But first a brief synopsis of our day, which provides context for the bit about the e-mail at the end.
To commemorate the first post-school day of summer, my mom and I took Chloe and Sophie to the boardwalk. The weather forecast was iffy this morning and until the last minute, we were uncertain we’d make it down to the beach.
It’s been a momentous school year. The girls had a successful term at school, academically and socially. They worked hard, learned a lot and made new friends. Here are some developments in their young lives that I think they’d like to remember when they’re my age:
Continue reading Looking Back as Another School Year Comes to an End
We don’t even have our puppy yet, but no matter. Sophie is angling to add to our non-existent menagerie.
Our society has demonstrated an ever-increasing knack for celebrating the smallest of our children’s milestones. We tell our kids so often how great they are – for everyday behavior that should be expected. We have parties to acknowledge moments in their lives that in any other culture wouldn’t merit a piece of congratulatory candy. Admittedly, there are times when I find this coddling absolutely intolerable. We’re raising a generation of entitled children who don’t realize that praise should be truly earned and not simply bestowed in response to successfully walking in a straight line.
Continue reading A Proud Day for Sophie (and for Me, in Spite of Myself)
On this Father’s Day, Chloe and Sophie provided a list of the things they love most about their dad. Enjoy, Papa!
Sophie will be eight years old in September. She’s getting taller by the hour, multiplying numbers I never knew she could even add together, using words I didn’t know she’d ever heard before, drawing pictures I would never be able to draw myself…
Chloe and I went to see “The Great Gatsby” this afternoon. I had to wait for her to finish reading the book, which she finally accomplished yesterday. We both enjoyed the movie very much and were pleasantly surprised by how faithful it was to the original text, despite the contemporary soundtrack (which, by the way, is excellent) and a superfluous Nick Carraway framing device. Chloe didn’t understand why some critics thought the movie was too over the top – she thought the characters and atmosphere Fitzgerald portrayed were completely over the top and that the film captured the debauched extravagance and immorality of the era quite well.
I’ve been thinking quite a bit about Chloe and Sophie recently. I always think about them, mind you. It’s just that I’ve also been observing them a little more closely than usual.
