(no subject)
Yes, its me.
My 6th LJ birthday is this Saturday, and despite being largely invisible on here (and in fact not even being able to read basically anything written from December - March) I was going to write some big post, but who knows if I'll get the time. So here I am, happy birthday me!
Here are things I could write about in detail but will summarize:
1) The tortures a music enthusiast goes through when he has to enter into the dark realm of the unknown...CHILDRENS MUSIC. Hey parents out there, any albums you recommend? I prefer non-synthesized instrumentation, no LCD stuff, and nothing that will encourage my kids to run out and stimulate the economy. And anything that mentions "brain power" on the cover will almost automatically be disqualified. I did buy the They Might Be Giants kids' albums although I think they're probably better for older kids, and I did buy some platinum-hits Sesame Street type thing, because even though A-chan has never watched TV she does know a few of the songs.
2) S-chan (in her initialized debut, not to be confused with S) took her first trip out of town 2 weekends ago, to the lovely retreat of Chattanooga Tennessee. tredecimal might be pleased to know that we visited the Incline Railway, Rock City, and the Aquarium, yet without a doubt A-chan's absolute favorite place in the whole city was McKay's Used Bookstore. We even had to go back twice! Oh yeah, we ate at Mojo Burrito in Mt Elmo (is that the name?) near the Incline Railway - pretty boho-looking setup and we were served by a guy wearing an Earth Crisis t-shirt, something tells me that they're friends (or maybe enemies, but definitely on terms) with P...
3) S-chan's 2nd trip out of town was this past weekend, visiting Montgomery Alabama. Over there, we visited museums and memorials to 2 great people linked with the city who could not be further apart - Rosa Parks and Hank Williams. The Rosa Parks Museum, built at the street corner where she got on that fabled bus (and incidentally the former location of the Empire Theater where Hank got his start), was very fascinating in that it was the first time I've ever visited a tourist attraction celebrating insurrection against the very same people who are sponsoring it now. I know times have changed, but its still pretty interesting to see the history of such a corrupt government and then realize "hey, wait a second, I'm there right now!"
4) S-chan's 3rd trip out of town will be in 2 weeks, when she flies to Manhattan. S has gotta see Rent one last time before it leaves Broadway, and by sacrificing my Saturday night for this I get one complete no-questions-asked no-complaints-accepted excursion on my own. Alright record fiends, I've been to Kim's enough and I haven't been to Other Music in about 7 years - I'd say OM, but are there any other places you think I should consider, knowing my tastes?
5) Speaking of music, any year where we've just begun April yet we have new albums from Reiko Kudo, Joshua Burkett, and one arriving in my mailbox any day now from Fursaxa has got to be a good one. And today, the 2 new Sublime Frequencies releases came knocking on my door. This, 2 days after the latest installments of the Obscure Tape Music Of Japan series...etc. If 2008 ended tomorrow, it'd eclipse 2007's highlights, and there's still 8 months of this stuff to come!
6) Going back to travel, the next trip to Japan will be in November (for the event of shichi go san, for those of you familiar with such). The big catch this time? My parents are coming with us. For those of you who don't know my parents, let's just say that they are typically not 2 people you'd expect to run into in your local international air terminal. This will be one very interesting trip - more to come on this, doubtless.
Maybe on my actual anniversary I can post some A-chan/S-chan shots on here, now that we've got a fair number. But for now...
PS - hey, parents! I'm serious about kids musictalk! Good albums, bad ones, thoughts on children's music in general, whatever...
My 6th LJ birthday is this Saturday, and despite being largely invisible on here (and in fact not even being able to read basically anything written from December - March) I was going to write some big post, but who knows if I'll get the time. So here I am, happy birthday me!
Here are things I could write about in detail but will summarize:
1) The tortures a music enthusiast goes through when he has to enter into the dark realm of the unknown...CHILDRENS MUSIC. Hey parents out there, any albums you recommend? I prefer non-synthesized instrumentation, no LCD stuff, and nothing that will encourage my kids to run out and stimulate the economy. And anything that mentions "brain power" on the cover will almost automatically be disqualified. I did buy the They Might Be Giants kids' albums although I think they're probably better for older kids, and I did buy some platinum-hits Sesame Street type thing, because even though A-chan has never watched TV she does know a few of the songs.
2) S-chan (in her initialized debut, not to be confused with S) took her first trip out of town 2 weekends ago, to the lovely retreat of Chattanooga Tennessee. tredecimal might be pleased to know that we visited the Incline Railway, Rock City, and the Aquarium, yet without a doubt A-chan's absolute favorite place in the whole city was McKay's Used Bookstore. We even had to go back twice! Oh yeah, we ate at Mojo Burrito in Mt Elmo (is that the name?) near the Incline Railway - pretty boho-looking setup and we were served by a guy wearing an Earth Crisis t-shirt, something tells me that they're friends (or maybe enemies, but definitely on terms) with P...
3) S-chan's 2nd trip out of town was this past weekend, visiting Montgomery Alabama. Over there, we visited museums and memorials to 2 great people linked with the city who could not be further apart - Rosa Parks and Hank Williams. The Rosa Parks Museum, built at the street corner where she got on that fabled bus (and incidentally the former location of the Empire Theater where Hank got his start), was very fascinating in that it was the first time I've ever visited a tourist attraction celebrating insurrection against the very same people who are sponsoring it now. I know times have changed, but its still pretty interesting to see the history of such a corrupt government and then realize "hey, wait a second, I'm there right now!"
4) S-chan's 3rd trip out of town will be in 2 weeks, when she flies to Manhattan. S has gotta see Rent one last time before it leaves Broadway, and by sacrificing my Saturday night for this I get one complete no-questions-asked no-complaints-accepted excursion on my own. Alright record fiends, I've been to Kim's enough and I haven't been to Other Music in about 7 years - I'd say OM, but are there any other places you think I should consider, knowing my tastes?
5) Speaking of music, any year where we've just begun April yet we have new albums from Reiko Kudo, Joshua Burkett, and one arriving in my mailbox any day now from Fursaxa has got to be a good one. And today, the 2 new Sublime Frequencies releases came knocking on my door. This, 2 days after the latest installments of the Obscure Tape Music Of Japan series...etc. If 2008 ended tomorrow, it'd eclipse 2007's highlights, and there's still 8 months of this stuff to come!
6) Going back to travel, the next trip to Japan will be in November (for the event of shichi go san, for those of you familiar with such). The big catch this time? My parents are coming with us. For those of you who don't know my parents, let's just say that they are typically not 2 people you'd expect to run into in your local international air terminal. This will be one very interesting trip - more to come on this, doubtless.
Maybe on my actual anniversary I can post some A-chan/S-chan shots on here, now that we've got a fair number. But for now...
PS - hey, parents! I'm serious about kids musictalk! Good albums, bad ones, thoughts on children's music in general, whatever...