Weblog 141
October 19, 2008~ 12:00am
If you read this blog last week, you'll know I've been having fun with a cheap little $10.00 digital camera. Its pictures are so interesting because they're so often out of focus and random with really no way to control the focus at all- so you can never be sure what you may be snapping. Therefore, they very often look 'artistic' to me. LOL!....like paintings. I was trying to master some script to create a flipbook or slideshow of about a dozen shots taken on my ride home from work-- and I succeeded! If you wanna take a look, click below
I babysat on Friday night while my daughter and her husband went to couples bowling, and was treated to great fun-- even before Kay and Bill's Mum and Dad left for the evening.
When Bill began showing me some 'moves' he'd learned in kindergarten, which he said serve as a 'warm up' to music class-- he proceeded to stab the air with his finger, sticking a hip out and striking a pose. I mentioned he reminded me of John Travolta in 'Saturday Night Fever', and Bill became immediately interested in just what a "Travolta" does. (Holly and Gary have just gotten 'highspeed internet'-- and I thought I might be able to show him--
--so I found a dance number from the movie on YouTube, turned up the volume-- and Bill was transfixed! He stood at my elbow while his little hips kept time, drinking in the marvelous blinking colors of a 1970's disco, and the dancing.
"When I grow up, can I go to a disco?" He was so disappointed when I told him that 'there aren't disco's like that anymore, Bill. That was 30 YEARS AGO. It was a passing fad, but a fun one.' Then my daughter, who's an excellent dancer, began to boogie down, and went scrambling around for an old disco tape. Kay went into her bedroom and came out wearing one of her slinky, shiny dress-up-outfits and tromped around in high heels. (She's better walking around in heels at 3, than I've ever been- in my whole life.) So she began to dance and pose and spin-- trying to keep up with brother.
Holly brought out the disco light Bill has in his bedroom, and soon the dark living room was like a large aquarium of spinning colors, and we played the YouTube over and over- even the opening sequence with Travolta walking down the street holding a paint can and keeping time to 'Stayin' Alive'. Everybody was laughing and moving (while Bill had eyes only for Travolta, trying to mimic whatever he was doing onscreen-- even the 'loco-motion' hand movements.) "Does he know we're watching him?" (Bill apparently cannot accept the notion that the computer screen is the same as a TV... he thinks people we see moving on the screen are being seen through a magic window that allows us to peek into lives just as present and ongoing as our own. LOL!)
For the rest of the night- all through 'Star Wars' (with its increasing numerals) and throughout Kay's choice of 'The Diamond Castle', Bill kept asking, "What was his name again?"- and when I'd say "John Travolta"- Bill's face would beam. "Travolta," he'd say, like a magic incantation. He's Bill's new hero. (We'd even found the clip of Travolta and Uma Thurman doing a retro-twist in the dance sequence from 'Pulp Fiction'. Bill is now interested in all things Travolta.) Bill wants to be a ladykiller. He wants swivel hips and attitude. He wants to set the world on fire in a 21st century DISCO INFERNO, and Jesus, I believe he just might.
When he was 2 and 3 years old, he had a fascination for Depeche Mode that was certainly strange.... he knew the names of the guys in the band, and wanted to grow up to be Andrew Fletcher. Fletcher's now been ousted
by the charisma and dancing talents of what may be the oddest hero I've ever heard of for a 5 year old boy. I'm certain the kids in kindergarten are going to be hearing about both the 70's disco craze, and a snake-hipped dancer who charms all the ladies as easily as Superman bests villains- and he is called Travolta. (All bow, and speak the name with hushed reverence.) Bill thinks so....and now, I do too...I think Bill's enthusiasm alone may single-handedly resurrect 'the hustle'. LOL!
October 23, 2008~ 5:15am
'Tis the season for raking. Swept up 6 full bags of pine needles yesterday, all the while my neighbor, Margaret, watched me from her porch, smoking angrily. "That's a hard job," she said. "Messy." (Margaret hates 'mess' beyond all things.) Margaret likes to carp at me passive-aggressively, shooting dispproving looks. She complained that the needles have gotten into her gutters.
"Oh hell, mine have NEVER be cleaned," I told her. (Long pause........then, from her porch).... "You ever think of getting rid of that tree?" (Of course, I knew this was coming, and it's about as close to upfront as is possible in communication of this sort.) All the while, I'm bending- pulling back on the rake, stuffing bags, squinting into the sun of a perfect fall day. "Can't. I'm strapped, Margaret. Just like everybody else. When the roof needs replaced, the hot water heater is leaking, the electrical wiring is going, the porch needs rebuilt, the plumbing needs repairs at every turn, this tree is the last on the list."
That shut her up.
Some people aren't happy and settled until your priorities are aligned with theirs. Most times, this simply doesn't happen, so we live in a world of finger-shakers and 'tsk-tsk' hissers scattered throughout the rest of us. The rest of us are winning. :)
***
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If you read this blog last week, you'll know I've been having fun with a cheap little $10.00 digital camera. Its pictures are so interesting because they're so often out of focus and random with really no way to control the focus at all- so you can never be sure what you may be snapping. Therefore, they very often look 'artistic' to me. LOL!....like paintings. I was trying to master some script to create a flipbook or slideshow of about a dozen shots taken on my ride home from work-- and I succeeded! If you wanna take a look, click below
I babysat on Friday night while my daughter and her husband went to couples bowling, and was treated to great fun-- even before Kay and Bill's Mum and Dad left for the evening.
When Bill began showing me some 'moves' he'd learned in kindergarten, which he said serve as a 'warm up' to music class-- he proceeded to stab the air with his finger, sticking a hip out and striking a pose. I mentioned he reminded me of John Travolta in 'Saturday Night Fever', and Bill became immediately interested in just what a "Travolta" does. (Holly and Gary have just gotten 'highspeed internet'-- and I thought I might be able to show him--
--so I found a dance number from the movie on YouTube, turned up the volume-- and Bill was transfixed! He stood at my elbow while his little hips kept time, drinking in the marvelous blinking colors of a 1970's disco, and the dancing.
"When I grow up, can I go to a disco?" He was so disappointed when I told him that 'there aren't disco's like that anymore, Bill. That was 30 YEARS AGO. It was a passing fad, but a fun one.' Then my daughter, who's an excellent dancer, began to boogie down, and went scrambling around for an old disco tape. Kay went into her bedroom and came out wearing one of her slinky, shiny dress-up-outfits and tromped around in high heels. (She's better walking around in heels at 3, than I've ever been- in my whole life.) So she began to dance and pose and spin-- trying to keep up with brother.
Holly brought out the disco light Bill has in his bedroom, and soon the dark living room was like a large aquarium of spinning colors, and we played the YouTube over and over- even the opening sequence with Travolta walking down the street holding a paint can and keeping time to 'Stayin' Alive'. Everybody was laughing and moving (while Bill had eyes only for Travolta, trying to mimic whatever he was doing onscreen-- even the 'loco-motion' hand movements.) "Does he know we're watching him?" (Bill apparently cannot accept the notion that the computer screen is the same as a TV... he thinks people we see moving on the screen are being seen through a magic window that allows us to peek into lives just as present and ongoing as our own. LOL!)
For the rest of the night- all through 'Star Wars' (with its increasing numerals) and throughout Kay's choice of 'The Diamond Castle', Bill kept asking, "What was his name again?"- and when I'd say "John Travolta"- Bill's face would beam. "Travolta," he'd say, like a magic incantation. He's Bill's new hero. (We'd even found the clip of Travolta and Uma Thurman doing a retro-twist in the dance sequence from 'Pulp Fiction'. Bill is now interested in all things Travolta.) Bill wants to be a ladykiller. He wants swivel hips and attitude. He wants to set the world on fire in a 21st century DISCO INFERNO, and Jesus, I believe he just might.
When he was 2 and 3 years old, he had a fascination for Depeche Mode that was certainly strange.... he knew the names of the guys in the band, and wanted to grow up to be Andrew Fletcher. Fletcher's now been ousted
by the charisma and dancing talents of what may be the oddest hero I've ever heard of for a 5 year old boy. I'm certain the kids in kindergarten are going to be hearing about both the 70's disco craze, and a snake-hipped dancer who charms all the ladies as easily as Superman bests villains- and he is called Travolta. (All bow, and speak the name with hushed reverence.) Bill thinks so....and now, I do too...I think Bill's enthusiasm alone may single-handedly resurrect 'the hustle'. LOL!
October 23, 2008~ 5:15am
'Tis the season for raking. Swept up 6 full bags of pine needles yesterday, all the while my neighbor, Margaret, watched me from her porch, smoking angrily. "That's a hard job," she said. "Messy." (Margaret hates 'mess' beyond all things.) Margaret likes to carp at me passive-aggressively, shooting dispproving looks. She complained that the needles have gotten into her gutters.
"Oh hell, mine have NEVER be cleaned," I told her. (Long pause........then, from her porch).... "You ever think of getting rid of that tree?" (Of course, I knew this was coming, and it's about as close to upfront as is possible in communication of this sort.) All the while, I'm bending- pulling back on the rake, stuffing bags, squinting into the sun of a perfect fall day. "Can't. I'm strapped, Margaret. Just like everybody else. When the roof needs replaced, the hot water heater is leaking, the electrical wiring is going, the porch needs rebuilt, the plumbing needs repairs at every turn, this tree is the last on the list."
That shut her up.
Some people aren't happy and settled until your priorities are aligned with theirs. Most times, this simply doesn't happen, so we live in a world of finger-shakers and 'tsk-tsk' hissers scattered throughout the rest of us. The rest of us are winning. :)
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