Note To Future Self

Has it really come down to this?

1. Long movies of corn being eaten (21MB)
2. Short movie of corn being eaten (6MB)

Yes indeed.

Yesterday, we were treated to a bit of impromptu theatre:

Ode to a Plum

There was some serious oratorial accompaniment, most of which was in iambic heptameter. Sadly, it was also in ancient French, so it was way over my head.

And for an encore, a preview of a new work:

The Ennui of Modern Existence

sniff. Pass the tissues.

No more Martha Graham documentaries before bedtime, I think.

Well, duh. With all this talk of big questions, I forgot that we recently checked out Wolf Erlbruch’s The Big Question.

(image from Amazon, of all things)

We’re big fans Herr Professor Erlbruch (and there’s more to come). The phrase that comes to mind is “pitch-perfect.” Not frenetic attempts to emulate kid’s thinking, but simple little stories with room for both kids and adults to ponder a bit.

Perhaps the best element of this book is the space in back to write your own answers to the big question.

In a similar vein is Sara O’Leary’s Where You Came From.

(image courtesy the publisher’s site)

We featured Sara’s previous book When You Were Small a few months ago. The conceit of this book is the same, the art remains lovely (thanks to Julie Morstad). At the risk of gross simplification, Where You Came From is the baby sister of When You Were Small — sweeter and a bit less jokey. Nice.

I’ve always struggled with the Big Questions of life. Come to find out I’ve been asking the wrong question.

The Big Question is:

• Are there plums today?

And if you allow two more questions into your cosmology:

• Will there be plums tomorrow?
• Why not?

We’ve moved into a dancing phase, where dancing is loosely defined as one of two activities:

• A rhythmic (pendulonic?) swiveling at the waist with arms bent at the elbows.
• A “happy feet” tap-dancing which also indicates extreme happiness.

Come to thing of it, that’s the extent of my own dance repertoire. She’s stealing my moves!

In any case, I’ve posted a short movie from today’s dance proceedings. It’s two and a bit megs, and let’s be honest, is probably of limited interest unless you share genetic material with the moppet. The unsteady camera work is because the cameraman is doing a little “happy feet” dancing of his own. The soundtrack is “Satellite Skin” from the delightful Modest Mouse EP “No One’s First and You’re Next”. Yes, really. I’m pretty sure it’s not the part with the swearing.

So far musical education has been mixed, hampered in no small part by dad’s sub-par taste in music. Here are the hits and misses, as indicated solely by the presence or absence of dancing.

Hits:

• Monk
• Flaming Lips
• Guns N Roses
• Morphine
• Elvis Costello with the Attractions and/or Imposters
• New sold-out Modest Mouse

Misses:

• Coltrane
• solo Elvis Costello
• Old keepin it real Modest Mouse

Did you get everything you asked for?

Other than the fact they were taken on Christmas day, I can recall absolutely nothing about these photos.

It couldn’t have been important.

“Listen, Mort. I’ll have to call you back about the Henderson deal. There’s some idiot here with a camera in my face.”

That’s not a bow of indignity.

This is a bow of indignity.

With enough to go around!

(p.s., thanks for the birthday present, EH!)

Can you tell me what happens next?

Hm…

Oh, my.

Well, poo. There goes the neighborhood.