Max!!!

Okay, so I have a question.

Well, first of all, I found a fantastic site that has so many cool things. It's called "We Love You So" and if you grew up in the 70's you might recognize the quote as what the Wild Things say to Max (after threatening to eat him up). The site is by Spike Jonze, who movie fans will probably know as the slightly skewed director of some really great movies like Adaptation and Being John Malkovich, as well as the Weezer "Buddy Holly" video, and many more. (He's also supposed to be a little bit of a creep and was the model for the self satisfied film maker in Lost in Translation, but nobody's perfect).
So Spike is now at the helm of the live action version of Where the Wild Things Are, and his site has many awesome items about Maurice Sendak and this book in particular. If you are at all into those books, you should TOTALLY check out the site!! It has so many great things like the Max costume pictures on the left. But Jonze casts his net pretty wide and basically just posts anything that interests him - a strategy that I admire. There's lots of fun stuff there, like the pictures below (I love friendship bracelets!!). You can check out We Love You So here:
http://weloveyouso.com/blog/


Anyway, so my question is - there is obviously an aesthetic movement afoot that is basically about childlike art that is very reminiscent of the 1970's - think Juno, Joanna Newsom albums, the picture on the left, etc. I know I see this kind of thing a lot now, and I usually really like it, but my question is, what do you call this stuff? Does the movement have a name? Is it the New Twee (I hope not, because that sounds stupid)? If anyone has any insight, please let me know.

Happy!!!

Man, I have a lot of stuff to post, including the Dead show last weekend and my own fascinating thoughts on public education. But, speaking of which, it's testing week - the raison d'etre of our current education system - so it's been a little crazy. I'll get some new stuff up soon, but in the meantime I wanted to share this article called What Makes Us Happy? It's from the Atlantic and it's a little long, but I thought it was really interesting. It's also been on many sites lately, but you'll see why so many people put it up if you check it out (the video is great too):

http://www.theatlantic.com/doc/200906/happiness

Hope all are well!!

Patrick

Mother's Day!!!

We had a terrific Mother’s Day this year! There were wonderful moms galore in our house including my mom, Panna, Em, Adrienne, and Amy - the newest member of the club. It was also really nice to have sister Annie over at our house for the first time, and of course there were some good dads as well.
We had such a good time talking and watching all of the kids playing. Also, we ate some AMAZING food. It was a true feast with all kinds of unusual and delicious items. Ironically, Em did 90% of the work – I did help, but I just don’t know how to make ebilskivers like she does.

The dads’ job however was to take the kids swimming after the feast. It was great fun to throw all of the kids around in the water and to watch them all get better and better at swimming. Finn is getting his whole face under now, and Lorelai is getting around really well on her own as well. Plus, it was Felix’s FIRST TIME in a swimming pool!!! He was super comfortable in the water from the first moment. I think that he’s going to make an excellent body surfer when the time comes! I know this is a lot of pictures for the blog, but it was definitely a picture taking day.

By the way, here are two recent remarks from Finn on the subject of mothers: Finn asked Rachel (Star) what they had at the museum and she told him, “antiques”. He thought she said “Aunties”. Em told him that she didn’t think they had aunties at the museum and Finn said, “Why not? They have mummies.”

And on a more compact note, a recent Finn poem went, “Mommy’s are so smart. They never fart.”

One last happy Mother’s Day to all moms. We’re so lucky to have such amazing mothers around!!!

Also – Happy birthday to Petur. Thanks for making my mom so happy!

Top Ten Lines Never Before Said In a "Star Trek" Film

Happy Mother's Day mothers!!! In honor of that beautiful day, here's someone that Em will appreciate.

Balcony Pt. 2!!!

I just got my first celebrity blog comment! It was from Cecilia of Balcony Garden Dreaming who does a great blog about many good things, but in particular about gardening in limited urban spaces. It's where I first heard the term "edge gardening" which sounds so cool and post-modern, and it has been particularly inspiring to me in our present locale, so it was very nice to get a word from her! You can check out her site here:

http://balconyofdreams.blogspot.com/

I'm sure that I'm not the first person to mention this, but it is true that one of the cool things about the blogosphere (a word so ugly that I kind of dig it) is that you can actually communicate at times with people whose work you admire. Thanks Cecilia!

Apropos of this, here's an update on our own balcony garden of dreams -

One of our experiments this year was with jasmine in wooden containers. It seems to be going pretty well so far. They made some headway in covering up the ugly railing during the spring
and are now putting their enery into flowering. They're very pretty, and are starting to give off that amazing scent at night!

We're glad that the jasmine seem to like all of the sun out there. Unfortunately, the roses don't seem quite as pleased with it all. We're pretty clueless with roses (they seem to be one of the more temperamental plants), but they're hanging in there, and there are even some new buds. They do seem a little grim at times, but Em did a good job on the aphids, so we're cautiously optimistic.

The sun is great for the herbs though, and the rosemary, thyme, basil, and mint are thriving! This bodes well for our cooking, and as spring heads into summer (and the apartment gets hot) we're starting to look forward to dinner out there among the greenery and wonderful scents. It's so nice to see all of that work paying off!! Thanks especially to Em for a bunch of help with the garden, but particularly for endless dirt carrying : ) Hey, as I write this, there's a hummingbird out there checking out the jasmine - darn, it's hard to get a good picture of those guys - can you see him?

And behind it all, the big old morning glory and the bougainvilla are doing their groovy thing!

As a bonus, here are some cute pictures of Finn swimming with Hanna and her mom Kei last weekend. Hanna is Finn's good friend from school, and we hope she can come swimming more often : ) Man, are we happy to have the pool as it gets hot!

Going to see the Dead tonight!! Keep your snarky comments to yourselves - I'm excited!!

Happy Early Mother's Day

I came home tonight to a candlelit bath and a lovely homemade dinner. Thanks sweetie! So...for all of the teachers and parents that I know who have inspired me over the years (but especially for Patrick), here is a quote from a book by one of my all time favorite authors, Robertson Davies:

"Energy and curiosity are the lifeblood of universities; the desire to find out, to uncover, to dig deeper, to puzzle out obscurities, is the spirit of the university, and it is a channelling of that unresting curiosity that holds mankind together. As for energy, only those who have never tried it for a week or two can suppose that the pursuit of knowledge does not demand a strength and determination, a resolve not to be beaten, that is a special kind of energy, and those who lack it or have it only in small store will never be scholars or teachers, because real teaching demands energy as well. To instruct calls for energy, and to remain almost silent, but watchful and helpful, while students instruct themselves, calls for even greater energy. To see someone fall (which will teach him not to fall again) when a word from you would keep him on his feet but ignorant of an important danger, is one of the tasks of the teacher that calls for special energy, because holding in is more demanding than crying out."

The book is called 'The Rebel Angels' if anyone's interested. I also highly recommend The Debtford Trilogy - especially the first book.

Keep on being curious. Keep on passing the open windows. Love to all from Em.

May Day!!!

Happy May Day!! In honor of our wonderful Morning Glory drummer, here is a link to the greatest video ever created (I'll accept arguments, but come on!!). Happy Birthday Joel!!!! Also, birthday greetings to the Bavarian Illuminati, may great Chthulhu eat them all : )

http://www.youtube.com/results?search_type=&search_query=justified+and+ancient+klf&aq=1&oq=justified+and+a