Sometimes it just doesn't pay. Kathy just got back from a trip to Italy, and while in Florence got the kids guide to the Uffizi and the Gallery of the Accademia. Good thing, right? Give them a little culture, expose them to famous works of art, and all that other good stuff.
Well, Grace was looking at the Accademia book today at breakfast, which has a picture of the statue of David. Suddenly she began to sing, "Naked man, naked man, naked man. I love Naked Man". Needless to say, Jeff and I were a little disconcerted. Then she changed her song: "Naked man, naked man, I love Naked man. I see your penis, show me your bottom." Peter's comment was, "Well, she has a nice voice!" Jeff and I were speechless.
Sunday, October 26, 2003
Monday, October 13, 2003
Now I remember why I don't go out that much anymore. I went to bed around 3:30 am Friday night/Saturday morning. We remembered to turn off my alarm clock, and remembered to turn off Jeff's alarm clock, but kinda forgot to turn off Peter's, so it went off at 6, and we woke up. I didn't get back to sleep till nearly 8 when Jeff took the kids downstairs for breakfast, and even then only slept till between 9 and 9:30.
I just don't do well on 4 ish hours of sleep, and especially when they're not contiguous! I was wiped out not only all day Saturday, but much of Sunday as well, even though I got significantly more sleep Saturday night.
One more funny concert-related thing, though -- on Saturday we did the Walk For Education (some crazy fundraising thing the CH-Carrboro schools do), and at the festival following the walk, we saw one of the partner-swapping folks from Friday night! It was hysterical. I wanted desperately to ask her who she wound up with, but figured that wouldn't exactly be appropriate, given that her kids were there!
I just don't do well on 4 ish hours of sleep, and especially when they're not contiguous! I was wiped out not only all day Saturday, but much of Sunday as well, even though I got significantly more sleep Saturday night.
One more funny concert-related thing, though -- on Saturday we did the Walk For Education (some crazy fundraising thing the CH-Carrboro schools do), and at the festival following the walk, we saw one of the partner-swapping folks from Friday night! It was hysterical. I wanted desperately to ask her who she wound up with, but figured that wouldn't exactly be appropriate, given that her kids were there!
Saturday, October 11, 2003
REM!!!!!!!!!!
I got to re-live my college days tonight - Jeff and I took Adrianne to see REM for her birthday. It was a great show. The band really seemed to enjoy being in the Triangle area (and we got to give Adrianne a little REM history lesson, explaining that, after Athens, the next place they got really big was the Triangle). It was the penultimate show of this tour -- they play in Atlanta tomorrow night. At first we thought we were going to feel incredibly old (it's been a really long time since we went to a concert), but as we were waiting in line for parking, we realized that everyone around us was as old or older than we were! Adrianne brought the median age down significantly (Peter wanted to go, and would've brought it down even more, but we thought 5 was a little young for an REM concert).
It was a cool show, with lots of great songs to sing and dance to. The weird part was they played absolutely nothing off of Monster. They also didn't play anything off of Chronic Town or Dead Letter office, but those two are a little more understandable. Other than that I think every album was pretty well represented. They didn't play Don't Go Back to Rockville, which is one of my favorites, or E-Bow the Letter (which is a fave because I LOVE the Patty Smyth backup vocals). But, they played both Night Swimming and Find the River, both of which I love, so that was good.
The best part, however, came in the encore. Michael was introducing the Band. He introduced the acoustic guitar player, and the drummer (since Bill Berry stopped playing with them years ago), and some other random guy, then introduced the guy playing extra percussion.....and lo and behold if it wasn't Bill Berry. Unbelievable. He came out and actually played drums for the next to the last song. He didn't actually play the set on End of the World (the song they closed with), but I think he did do the opening riff. It was very cool, and just re-inforced my belief that this is it, they're done touring.
It was kinda fun to go to a concert again, too. Being hopelessly old, Jeff and I haven't been to a show since long before Peter was born. I'd nearly forgotten how weird people are. There was a woman a couple of rows back who really, really wanted to hear Superman -- she screamed it out at every lull in Michael's on stage patter. Then there was the group in front of us -- a half dozen people, 3 males and 3 females, essentially our age. One of the pairs seemed to be pretty monogamous, but the other four people seemed to be swapping partners willy nilly. It was very odd, and I don't pretend to understand it in the least. But, I have to admit it was amusing to watch, at least until they got so schnockered they were having trouble standing up.
I've been trying to think why I like REM so much. I've decided that it is, as most things are, for a complex variety of reasons. Basic access is one -- their rise follows my adolescence to a tee (Chronic Town came out in 1981, which is the year I started high school -- by 1989 when Green came out and I finished college, they had come through the Alternative/College Radio stage, and were actually popular). And, of course, I think it's partially because they're more or less my age, so they were writing songs about things that I cared about when I cared about them. Don't Go Back To Rockville, to me, perfectly captures the feelings you have when you've met someone wonderful, but you had the bad luck to meet them as Spring Semester was winding down and now they're LEAVING! And who knows WHAT will happen over the summer! If I heard the song for the first time now, at 36, it wouldn't make the same impression on me, but encountering it for the first time as a teenager it spoke to me in a way that no pop song now could possibly do. And, conversely, their more recent songs touch on subject that I care about now, as opposed to the dreck that boy-bands turn out. And, finally, I just really like their music. They're talented, they're exciting, they seem to love what they do, and they put on a hell of a show.
It was also neat that Adrianne was able to come. When she was about 10 or 11 she got into REM, which was great. It made me feel incredibly old, though, because she asked for some 'old' REM that year (1992 -ish), and as I'm thinking, "Cool, I can buy my niece Murmur, or Reckoning..." she informed me that It's the End of the World was old. Sigh. Anyway, we gave her Eponymous for her birthday, and then a couple of years later took her to the Monster Tour, which I think was her first 'real' concert (she thinks she saw the Back Street Boy before REM, but I don't know that that would count as a real show). So it was fitting that we take her to see them again for her 21st! And, the show lasted till nearly 11, so by the time we got back to Chapel Hill it was past midnight so we took her to Top of the Hill for her first legal drinks! (Apple-tini's rock, by the way).
All in all a good night, and if I'm right and they're done touring, a good last show to remember them by.
I got to re-live my college days tonight - Jeff and I took Adrianne to see REM for her birthday. It was a great show. The band really seemed to enjoy being in the Triangle area (and we got to give Adrianne a little REM history lesson, explaining that, after Athens, the next place they got really big was the Triangle). It was the penultimate show of this tour -- they play in Atlanta tomorrow night. At first we thought we were going to feel incredibly old (it's been a really long time since we went to a concert), but as we were waiting in line for parking, we realized that everyone around us was as old or older than we were! Adrianne brought the median age down significantly (Peter wanted to go, and would've brought it down even more, but we thought 5 was a little young for an REM concert).
It was a cool show, with lots of great songs to sing and dance to. The weird part was they played absolutely nothing off of Monster. They also didn't play anything off of Chronic Town or Dead Letter office, but those two are a little more understandable. Other than that I think every album was pretty well represented. They didn't play Don't Go Back to Rockville, which is one of my favorites, or E-Bow the Letter (which is a fave because I LOVE the Patty Smyth backup vocals). But, they played both Night Swimming and Find the River, both of which I love, so that was good.
The best part, however, came in the encore. Michael was introducing the Band. He introduced the acoustic guitar player, and the drummer (since Bill Berry stopped playing with them years ago), and some other random guy, then introduced the guy playing extra percussion.....and lo and behold if it wasn't Bill Berry. Unbelievable. He came out and actually played drums for the next to the last song. He didn't actually play the set on End of the World (the song they closed with), but I think he did do the opening riff. It was very cool, and just re-inforced my belief that this is it, they're done touring.
It was kinda fun to go to a concert again, too. Being hopelessly old, Jeff and I haven't been to a show since long before Peter was born. I'd nearly forgotten how weird people are. There was a woman a couple of rows back who really, really wanted to hear Superman -- she screamed it out at every lull in Michael's on stage patter. Then there was the group in front of us -- a half dozen people, 3 males and 3 females, essentially our age. One of the pairs seemed to be pretty monogamous, but the other four people seemed to be swapping partners willy nilly. It was very odd, and I don't pretend to understand it in the least. But, I have to admit it was amusing to watch, at least until they got so schnockered they were having trouble standing up.
I've been trying to think why I like REM so much. I've decided that it is, as most things are, for a complex variety of reasons. Basic access is one -- their rise follows my adolescence to a tee (Chronic Town came out in 1981, which is the year I started high school -- by 1989 when Green came out and I finished college, they had come through the Alternative/College Radio stage, and were actually popular). And, of course, I think it's partially because they're more or less my age, so they were writing songs about things that I cared about when I cared about them. Don't Go Back To Rockville, to me, perfectly captures the feelings you have when you've met someone wonderful, but you had the bad luck to meet them as Spring Semester was winding down and now they're LEAVING! And who knows WHAT will happen over the summer! If I heard the song for the first time now, at 36, it wouldn't make the same impression on me, but encountering it for the first time as a teenager it spoke to me in a way that no pop song now could possibly do. And, conversely, their more recent songs touch on subject that I care about now, as opposed to the dreck that boy-bands turn out. And, finally, I just really like their music. They're talented, they're exciting, they seem to love what they do, and they put on a hell of a show.
It was also neat that Adrianne was able to come. When she was about 10 or 11 she got into REM, which was great. It made me feel incredibly old, though, because she asked for some 'old' REM that year (1992 -ish), and as I'm thinking, "Cool, I can buy my niece Murmur, or Reckoning..." she informed me that It's the End of the World was old. Sigh. Anyway, we gave her Eponymous for her birthday, and then a couple of years later took her to the Monster Tour, which I think was her first 'real' concert (she thinks she saw the Back Street Boy before REM, but I don't know that that would count as a real show). So it was fitting that we take her to see them again for her 21st! And, the show lasted till nearly 11, so by the time we got back to Chapel Hill it was past midnight so we took her to Top of the Hill for her first legal drinks! (Apple-tini's rock, by the way).
All in all a good night, and if I'm right and they're done touring, a good last show to remember them by.
Friday, October 03, 2003
No posts for awhile; I've been sick. I probably got it from Grace, since she had a cold last week. They say that when kids are little and exposed to all these viruses, they get sick easily because they're immune systems haven't built up the way an adults has, and that with each cold, their immunity increases, so that as they age, they get sick less and less frequently.
Which is all well and good, except I seem to catch most of what they have. So if they're getting sick because their immunity isn't built up yet, why am I getting sick? I got my fair share of colds and what not when I was little, so by that logic my immune system should be rollicking along, knocking viral invaders on their tuchuses right and left. Just doesn't seem fair to me.
Which is all well and good, except I seem to catch most of what they have. So if they're getting sick because their immunity isn't built up yet, why am I getting sick? I got my fair share of colds and what not when I was little, so by that logic my immune system should be rollicking along, knocking viral invaders on their tuchuses right and left. Just doesn't seem fair to me.
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