Getting Out
Tuesday, August 29, 2006
We’ve been busy. Not taking-care-of-Zy busy which I know will be an entirely new reality, but our schedules have certainly changed quite a bit over the last months. Thankfully, I got out of work a bit early today after our department team building session. The gang went out for a tasty lunch at Willow Street Pizza and then watched “Little Miss Sunshine” which was truly enjoyable. The actress that played the daughter (Abigail Breslin) was fantastic – I expect her to show up again come Oscar time. You saw it here first.So…after a few weeks of walking by a morose-looking VFR sitting under the cover in the garage I suited up and went for a spin around the hills. What a great way to clear the head and get some fresh air. A nice spin through Big Basin (Sequoias are simply astoundingly huge – photos don’t do them justice) is always welcome. Mabel’s tasty chili was waiting for me at home, so all in all it was a really great end to a nice day.Our weekend was fun, but active. We went to Babies R Us on Saturday and quickly realized how much we have to learn and how little we know. You parent types will likely remember battling strollers as you try to figure out how the heck to close them and which ones work better then others. Let alone the overwhelming amount of STUFF that is out there – one proclaiming itself more vital, safer, better, more educational or a stronger sign of love than every OTHER product out there. Suffice it to say that if you don’t buy all of it you clearly don’t love your child enough. Convenient for the manufacturers, coincidentally. We spent Sunday baby-sitting for our friends Jen and Barry. Their daughter Gabrielle is a gem – smart, funny, well behaved – a breeze. But still, the experience of a full day taking care of a toddler is quite enlightening. It’s a world we’ll be in soon, so it’s great to get some practice, but it’s still amazing to us how parents manage to juggle life, play, feedings, diapers and the other dozens of of things they do. Wow.
One other big of news – the drum set is back together. Yep. Even better – I’ve hooked it up to the PowerBook and used the MIDI interface to trigger drum kits from GarageBand – lots of new (and far better) drum samples right there. Those of you on PC…you guys have no idea what you’re missing. Our friend Wallace saw how simple iWeb is to use and the fact that I can record myself playing drums with barely a clue about music software – it’s how computers should be. Anyways, Mabel and I had stopped by Guitar Center on the way home a couple of weeks ago. I had been thinking about FINALLY getting the drum kit out of storage as I had not played since Florida. We want the kid to have music around and our new place has enough room to fit the kit so it was one of the to-dos. We got to the store to see about replacement heads (one of mine is slightly torn) and just to see stuff. Well, me – Mabel was just being her usual nice self. The sales guy in the drum department invites me to try a beautiful acoustic kit on the floor. “No thanks” I reply, “I have played in years”. He keeps egging me on, so finally I sit down.
It HAS been years…and I was never much of a performer. I can keep a solid beat, but I’m hardly a soloist and to call me rusty is more than kind. So…I let it rip for a few moments and it’s not awful. I stand up and offer the sticks to a middle aged guy in an ADT polo shirt carrying a guitar case. He demurs slightly, saying that he “plays guitar now”…but he sits down to try the double-bass pedal setup.
Then he flies off on a professional-caliber solo. Amazing. Jaw-dropping. Humbling. It’s like bouncing a ball and feeling pretty slick and then having Michael Jordan walk up and do HIS thing and put your ass into clear perspective. So…the next day I got that kit back together – I need to practice if I’m going to show Zy a thing or two.
Lots of activity on the movie front lately, seems we caught up on Netflix and saw some other stuff:
• Talledega Nights:
The evening itself was great – Jen and Barry came over and we picked up some KFC and headed to the drive-in. Sitting out in a cool Bay Area night with friends is always pleasant and the undercover police bust a few yards away certainly added to the drama. The movie? Will Farrel riffs on NASCAR and runs around in his undies. Some funny moments, but overall it didn’t impress me – yes, including the undies.
• 21 Grams:
Sean Penn (great), Benicio del Toro (mumbling, as usual, but great) and Naomi Watts (fantastic) in a gritty and grim story of intersecting lives, tragedy and drugs. It’s neither pretty nor does it provide a typical happy lifeline. Engaging and intense – worth seeing.
• Dr. Strangelove:
The classic anti-war movie with Peter Sellers as half the damn cast and the incomparable Slim Pickens as a cowboy pilot with a plane full of nukes. Sublime humor and Kubrick style make this a must-see. The bummer is, our Netflix disc had a nasty scratch on it which made watching it a trial of frozen frames and lost sections.
• In the Womb:
This National Geographic documentary follows a baby from conception to birth using footage and amazing CGI to show how embryos develop and what their experience in the womb is like. Any expectant parent should see this – it’s astounding how they capture and recreate the miracle of human development.
• The Jerk:
“I was born a poor black child”…Steve Martin at his comic best. A classic, period. Mabel was less than impressed. She’s wrong. 😉
• The Godfather:
No description needed. “Leave the gun, take the cannoli”. “Luka Brazzi sleeps with the fishes”. “I’m gonna make them an offer they can’t refuse”. The only way to improve on it? Add De Niro and call it Godfather II. That one is coming soon.
• Raging Bull:
I have to be honest on this one. We returned it. Neither Mabel or I like boxing and we just never got around to watching it. When push came to shove, we figured that we might never want to sit and watch it.
• Katrina:
The Spike Lee documentary on HBO soars with victim interviews, but bogs down when rehashing damage footage. The anger and personal perspective of those caught in the storm and then the post-storm incompetence reveals how human nature and perceptions vary widely.
• Paul Simon – Graceland:
A great concert video of the 1987 show featuring African musicians. Ladysmith Black Mambazo, Hugh Masekela, Miriam Makebo…wow. He has yet to reach that level of music since and I doubt he ever will. But if so – what a peak.