Go Vote

You knew it had to come. Your public service announcement from sonicgranades. So here's your commercial reminding you through means both sarcastic and sentimental of your duty today.

So go brave the long lines and join in with all the new voters and make your voice heard.

Listening Journals from the Renaissance

As usually happens about once a month, my students in music history have finished and posted their listening journals. This round covers music from the Renaissance and, coincidentally, all responded to the same earlier post except for the author of that original post. So you get four chances to look at responses to one post, something that had never happened in these journals before. Go, read, enjoy, and perhaps find a new CD with which to fall in love.

Halloween Picture Only One Day Late

A week before Halloween, Joy and I packed Sam into the car and headed off to find a costume. We went to Old Navy, which last year had cute costumes for the toddler set, but found nothing of interest to Sam. Then we went to the Target next door. The costumes were a mess, obviously pawed over and in disarray. Sam was overwhelmed and didn't like any of the costumes. We didn't push anything on him and headed off to pick up some pictures we had waiting at JC Penneys.

But next to JC Penney's is another Target, so we decided to try one more time. In this Target, the costumes were all in a row, neatly arranged and hung, and Sam was much more interested in the process of finding a costume. Of course, the hunt was over when I found the Thomas costume. I pulled it off the hanger and Sam's face lit up as though he had just found the Holy Grail. We've since worn it three times, including last night, and his face never fails to look like this:Noah, on the other hand, couldn't care less if he were dressed up or not. I found a great shirt that declared "This is my costume!" and put it with a pumpkin hat that glowed in the dark. It became a litmus test for me because as we paraded him around at Kindermusik and then at various church festivals, the women always cooed "What a cute little pumpkin!" while the men always read the shirt and laughed. It truly was the best of both worlds - a costume suiting mom and dad.

Sam had a great time this Halloween because he finally discovered what the holiday is all about - CANDY! Last night after his bath, he waddled in to give Joy a hug and kiss before bath and croaked, "My throat is scratchy. I need a piece of candy." We'll see how long our huge bag lasts this week.

Inappropriate but Apropo

Yesterday we stopped to fill up our tank because gas had dropped below $2.00, and I can't pass up gas below $2.00 anymore. Anyway, at the next pump was an extremely large road service vehicle, the kind that has implements for all sorts of jobs on the road, from fixing potholes to helping stranded motorists.

Sam was entranced with the vehicle and while I was pumping gas, pumped Joy for its name. Joy didn't know (and I didn't, so any help here would be appreciated) so she asked Sam what he thought it did. He immediately latched on to the large hook on the back used for towing and pointing excitedly to it.

"It has a hook on the back!" he exclaimed. "It must be a hooker!"

We ignored the comment while dying with laughter on the inside (a useful trick when living with a 3-year-old boy), hoping that he would forget the term. No such luck. Later that afternoon Joy and Sam were drawing on his magnadoodle. Joy leaned over and asked Sam what he was drawing. He looked up with a big smile and said, "Mama, I drew a hooker!" He's latched onto the term, so if you see me beaten to a pulp by the side of the road some day soon, you'll know why.

And you'll know not to call a service truck for help.

Meet Ricky

Last weekend, on a whim, Joy bought two pumpkins at the grocery store and brought them home. Her idea was that she and Sam would decorate the pumpkins for Halloween. Just one problem - the notion of Sam with a knife is terrifying.

Enter Goofy Pumpkin. All you have to do is pick out eyes, ears, mouth, and nose, print them out, cut them out, and then glue them to your pumpkin. This way of decorating a pumpkin is much more our 3-year-old's speed.

Sam picked out his facial features, and then Joy and Sam glued them to the pumpkin. When it was all done, Sam cocked his head, looked at his creation, and declared him "Ricky."
But Sam wasn't done with Ricky, not by a long shot. The next morning, he ran up to his room, returned with markers, and began to give Ricky hair:After all, who wants a bald pumpkin?

We've been having to tell stories about Ricky all week, and I'm just waiting until Friday when I can merge Ricky stories with that of the Great Pumpkin. My child will be warped forever.

New Review - Rob Lane and Joseph Vitarelli's John Adams

You may have noticed that for the past month under our "currently watching" tab we've had the HBO miniseries John Adams listed. We haven't actually been watching it that long (it is only seven episodes), I've just forgotten to change it out for the past few weeks.

Turns out that it was serendipitous that I did not because my most recent score review was for the soundtrack release of music from that production.

Joy and I were both riveted by the miniseries - it is the kind of movie that you wish all Americans would see just to learn a bit of their history. The production design was at pains to capture the feel of Colonial America. The music? Not so much. It is fairly standard issue scoring, not too imaginative. You can read my specific critiques in the full review if you're interested.

We're Dedicated to Him Now

Our church has a lovely tradition of dedicating new babies to God, dedicating new parents to the spiritual upbringing of their children, and dedicating the church to the education of its newest members. We dedicated Sam when he was all of two months old, and we had been in the church for all of two months as well. People barely knew us, but it was reassuring that as we were going through rough patches with Sam and his reflux that we had a church family at our backs.

The weekend of Sam's birthday we dedicated Noah. We figured that all the family was already around so they could participate without making a special trip. And as meaning as Sam's dedication was, Noah's held particular significance because we are fully ingrained in our church now. We know these people, we love these people, we are part of their lives and they of ours. That's why we cherish scenes like this one:
Our pastor is extolling the wonders of children and their place in the church while our music minister, with whom we've grown quite close, stands to the side ready to lead us and the congregation in the words of dedication. My favorite part? Our pastor takes each child dedicated and walks up and down the aisle with him, speaking directly to him about how unique and important he is to the life of our church. I call it the Lion King moment because she holds the child out for the church to see and to pray for, and invariably it feels as though the sun whips through the high windows and illuminates the moment.

So, I suppose we're now stuck with Noah. We've dedicated ourselves to rearing him in front of God. There's no backing out now, not that we ever would.