Giving Thanks!!!

We were very thankful to be a part of the Goldsmith family's annual Thanksgiving celebration - especially since this was the 30th anniversary of their Thanksgiving gathering. Paul Goldsmith is Patrick's step-dad Petur's oldest and best friend.

Ah...Thanksgiving in Los Angeles. The Goldsmith's have a beautiful home in Malibu Canyon, it was a perfect day and we were able to eat by the pool.

Amy and Jamie and Felix arrived a little late, but we were very glad to see them. Jack and Felix had a great time playing together while Finn and Patrick went on a hike with Grandma Kathy.

Hope everyone had a great Thanksgiving!!!

Bon Anniversaire!!!

Happy 73rd birthday to Philippe Sollers!!! As you may guess, Sollers is a French author. He has written a number of novels, of which only a few, SCANDALOUSLY, are available in English translations. Of those few, one is brilliant and depressing (Women, 1983 - I can't really recommend it because it is too depressing), but another, Watteau in Venice, is one of the greatest books of all time (IMHO)!!!! I just finished it for the who-knows-how-manyth time, and I still found new and wonderful things to love inside.

Basically, Watteau in Venice is about art. But it is also a courageous roadmap that, unfortunately, few other authors will likely follow. Sollers uses an amazing variety of quotes, anecdotes, and biographical details of major artists (he is particulary fond of direct quotation and letters), and weaves them around an ambiguous story in such a way that both are illuminated by the other.

The most obvious appeal is the wonderful anecdotes and quotations from the artists themselves (Cezanne rushing to get a ladder in the Louvre in order to fix a poorly hung painting, Gauguin's advice to a painter who wanted more privacy to work; "Nail something indecent to your door.") But the thoughts and actions of the protagonist, who is surely somewhat of a stand-in for Sollers himself, give these biographical details much more depth and power.

The story is very unusual in that there is no conflict - in itself a revelation. But it is also much more than a dry exegesis on art and artists. The protagonist (codenamed "Watteau") describes the novel he appears in perfectly; "These gatherings, these quotes, these collages: the novel seen as an encyclopedia, a Noah's Ark." It is just like a ship full of saved treasures.

Of course, it's not for everyone (Another hard-sell, unfortunately), but if anyone else ever reads it, let me know what you think. It is, in my experience, really unique and fantastic. One last word from Sollers:

"Every minute, every square or cubic meter won in the name of free space or time, constitutes, for each and every individual, the only revolutionary war...tell us about that war, that will be enough."

Positive Vibrations!!!

Happy Thanksgiving everyone!!! As usual at the Dore Family blog, Thursday is hip-hop day. But instead of the usual hardcore gangster rap, it seemed more appropriate for Thanksgiving to send out some positive vibes to the world. So here is the first annual positive hip-hop day at The Dore Family Blog!!

By the way, we are simulcasting (is that even close to the right word?) with our soul-brother Eric N. over at Assassinate Your Penguin!!! Much love to Eric & hope that everyone has a great turkey (or tofurkey) day!!!

















Any other suggestions guys?

Houses!!!

Hey Guys –

Recovering from another busy week – soooo thankful for the upcoming vacation time!!! – But I really wanted to do a post that I’ve been thinking of for a while – hippie houses!! There’s one thing about the Internet, and blogging in particular, that I love, but which also seems to be pretty ironic: that is, how many people are using this astounding technology to talk about old fashioned, earthy, hippie-type ideas and ideals.

Maybe our society has finally maxed out on urban culture, or people are just trying to find a balance, but it’s great to see how many sites are dedicated to rootsy things like green living and arts and crafts (see http://www.homegrownevolution.com/, http://realitysandwich.com/, http://small-measure.blogspot.com/, etc.).

Anyways, I’ve also seen a lot of really great handmade – counterculture inspired houses on the net lately (thanks to Bell for sending me some great ones a while ago!!) and I wanted to put up some of my favorites – I’ll probably put up more in the future, when the flow of time has slowed just a little. So many of these places are phenomenally idealistic and probably totally impractical, but to actually live day by day in some of these places, like a modern hobbit, would really be something!!

Cry Cry Cry!!!

Thanks to Dad & Molly for this very pretty song!!

Jack is 3!!! Yippee!!!

We had Jack’s birthday party today, hooray! It was a very fun, simple party in the park in our complex. The kids enjoyed being Wild Things for a while. Our park is a lot of fun, but it does look like most of the play equipment was put in around the time that I was Jack’s age. The strangely treacherous nature of the park only seems to add to its allure for little kids, though, so I suppose we can let them be 70’s kids once in a while.

Nanna and Finn, making puzzle cards together for Jack.

After the kids had run amok for a while and eaten some bagels, Patrick led them on a fairy treasure hunt. The kids had to find four fairy treasures hidden around the complex, based on some very bad poetry that the fairies had left behind for them. Luckily, kids don’t know all that much about rhymes and meter and all of that, so they just seemed to have fun running wild a little more.

Finally, after the kids had found all the fairy treasures, we had cupcakes back at the park. Jack was definitely exhibiting a little bit of the 3-year-old birthday blues, but aside from that it was a very successful party. (It should be noted that pretty much ALL of the kids at Finn’s 3rd birthday party either cried or pouted for the entire party, so by those standards, this was a big improvement. Plus I didn’t drop Jack’s cake in the parking lot this year like I did last year, so…yay Mom.)

Jack got a bevy of great presents from his friends and family. He loves all of them and went happily to his nap knowing they would be waiting for him when he woke up. Thank you to everyone who came and a big hug to friends and family who couldn’t be here.

Bear! And Rachel's foot.

Poems left by the fairies: (We think they may have had a little too much dew or been a little tired last night when they wrote this.)

Jack’s fine friends, please gather round
Somewhere hidden on these fair grounds
Fairy treasure doth abound

Find it quick, one, two, three, four
Then bring it back here for some more
surprises 'waiting you, here in store


Clue #1
The first treasure’s hidden just around the bend
Look ‘neath our balcony to find it friends.


Clue #2
The second treasure’s hidden at a little girl’s home
Just outside her door - then its time to roam.


Clue #3
The third treasure’s hidden where Finn doth read
Find this one child and you’re very good indeed.


Clue #4
The fifth treasure’s hidden where the ball goes back and forth
Who-so-ever finds this treasure is the ruler of the court




One, two, three, four, your job is done
Go back dear friends and have some fun

Give our fairy treasure to the birthday boy’s mom
And she will give treasure to everyone.

Happy 3rd Birthday Jack!!!

THE GREAT PUMPKIN

This is a little belated, but my Mom requested better pictures of the boys in their Halloween costumes, so here is one last Halloween post. (I did mention that Halloween is my favorite holiday, right?)

Ninja boy and his Ninja dog (with bunny.)

Happy early November to everyone. We love you one and all.

Em

Dinosaurs, etc!!!

We had a great time at the museum this Veteran’s Day morning. It’s so fun to spend time with the guys as they get older & more interested in things. Finn is a perfect museum goer right now – he’s interested in everything!!

The Natural History Museum is always fun – if a little musty in parts – but there were some extra cool things today. For one, they have a new dinosaur exhibit with some AMAZING costumes!! We saw a T-Rex and a Triceratops, and I swear they look like real dinosaurs (other than you can see the T-Rex guy’s real legs a little). The eyes even blink!!

I don’t think that anyone expected how real they would be, and when the T-Rex appeared, almost all of the kids started crying, and even some of the parents looked a little spooked!! But after we all calmed down, it was really wonderful to hear about these dinosaurs with some almost-real ones interacting with the kids! Finn liked the T-Rex, but Jack was more partial to the much less threatening Triceratops. Cool stuff!!!

Another cool thing was the live animal show, with some interesting snakes. The snakes were cool, but my favorite thing was seeing how into it Finn was!! He is soooo into animals that it makes me more interested in them! You can see his focus in the pictures I think, and he had his hand up for most of the show!!

Even after many of the kids had lost interest (Jack didn't make it that long), you can see that Finn is still focused laser-like on the snake!!

I hope that he didn’t annoy the presenter too much, but he did get to go up after and touch the snake!

Finally, here’s a tired kid with Baxter at the end of a fun morning!! Happy Veteran’s Day to everyone!!

Trippy!!!

What's a drug-free hippie to do? Sure, we might be super-green; we may eat our tofu, get the hair pretty happening, espouse progressive causes, etc. But there's always that pressure to "turn on" like the rest of the "freaks", and going against the grain can get pretty lonely sometimes.

So fortunately there's the Zoomquilt! Thanks to drummer Joel for this link - just dim the lights, put on a good '71 Dark Star, and have a groovy time : )

http://zoomquilt2.madmindworx.com/zoomquilt2.swf

Hope everyone had a great Monday!!

Joni!!!

Hey guys!! Super busy lately, but I wanted to wish a wonderful birthday to Joni Mitchell!!!

I just plopped down 99 cents for "The Sire of Sorrow" from Turbulent Indigo, which disappeared from my computer for some reason. It is such a beautiful song, and has some amazing saxaphone playing from Wayne shorter. Listening to it right now is starting the weekend off just right! Hope all are well!!

Halloween!!!

More Happy Halloween to everyone. We had a Ninja warrior, a dog and a wild thing, as well as a racoon and Batman! We were totally prepared for whatever capers the night presented.

We also had a very nice visit with Batman's friend Tom who was visiting from Sydney. I think he might have been just as happy if we'd dropped him off at The Roost (our local pub), but he was a trooper and let us drag him along for a night of trick-or-treating.

We've been driving by this pirate ship for weeks now and it was definitely the highlight of our Halloween festivities. Truth be told, this was a bit of a lack-luster year. A lot of people weren't home handing out candy, but there were still a few die-hards out there, like this family, who really went all out. It's hard to tell from these pictures, but this boat had a whole smoke and light display and even sfx.

The boys all had a great time, but I think Felix definitely took the prize this year. He was completely gung-ho and quite happily dragged his Dad and mum up to every likely house, right up until he completely wore himself out. We had a great time and I was so glad we could all be together for my favorite holiday.