My cousin Jeremy (that's him in the middle in the jacket) is the bass player in a terrific band, Good Morning Maxfield. They have been chosen as one of the top 20 bands in the nation to compete for a spot in the Austin City Limits Festival this year. It's a Big Deal. They now need your vote this week to get to the final round in Austin.
You can help with one click! Dreams coming true right there, folks!
***Update: Thanks so much, everyone who voted. I just checked the Austin City Limits website and it looks like Good Morning Maxfield made it into the top 5, which means they're headed to Austin for the next round. Yay!***
Isn't this cool? Found via TED, this is a wordle. You can take any text and create a wordle cloud in a variety of forms, fonts, and colors.
This was my sample try, using the list of things about my dad in my post a couple of days ago.
The possibilities are endless! How about....
~the opening paragraph of your favorite novel ~the names of everybody in your extended family ~lyrics to "your song" ~a list of places you've lived + visited (ooo...I'm going to do that one right now...)
This is not going to be good for my productivity.
p.s. the only glitch is that it's a java application, which means you can print it, save it as a pdf, and take a screenshot but not save it as an image like you would a normal photo. These are screenshots that I cropped. Have fun!!!
In which I sing praises of good things going on, my earlier blog crisis notwithstanding
1) Tara's got a great idea going on in her life: One Project a Month (OPAM to those in the know). She looks around and identifies one corner of her world that she'd like to whip into shape (we all have them: the I'll-get-to-that-someday, not-quite-disastrous-enough-to-warrant-emergency-attention pockets of the house).
I asked her if I could post her photos of her last month's triumph + she generously agreed. DO NOT BE SURPRISED IF THIS IDEA SHOWS UP ON MY WALLS. I love it. You can see details of this particular project here. I love the blend of black-and-white and color, the fantastic close-ups (she's a photographer so she had great shots to choose from), the square format, the groupings, the TTV effect (she explains it better than I could), the modern + unobtrusive Ikea frames.
The best thing? You can join in with Tara on the OPAM crusade! Fighting procrastination, one doable project at a time. Are you in? I am.
2) Believe it or not (I'm sure you do) I still have a bunch of my kids' artwork in boxes and folders. Sometimes I took a photo of them holding the art and then got rid of it but much of it remains, even 13 years after the fact.
When I saw this collage by Jan Eleni, I was happy I kept them (or at least some of them). This is genius. A collage of miniaturized kids' artwork. Brilliant, I say.
Do you think I could get the same effect by scanning them in myself and printing on a great printer? Or here's another idea I just had: a collage of your family's yearly holiday cards.
3) I have been particularly inspired lately by the lovely, delicious offerings of the foodie blogs. In particular, I like Annie's Eats (no, the Annie is definitely not me), The Pioneer Woman Cooks (I know, with everyone else on the planet, right?), and Smitten Kitchen (who wins my vote for the cleverest cooking blog title and who sells her fabulous photos of food here. There's another idea for the collage! A food one for the kitchen.) What's important to know is that I, by nature, do not usually feel the love for cooking. Eating? Yes, got that covered. But I have been a pretty utilitarian cook for my family. I rotate through a standard 4 or 5 dishes. The picky young eaters won. Yawn.
However. These daily culinary ideas have been just the thing to spark my kitchen creativity (or is it still creativity if I'm just recreating their recipe? Hmm. Don't know). Honestly, sometimes I just look at the post and admire. But more and more, I break out the bowls and give it a try. Let me know if I'm missing out on one of your favorite food sites.
4) Allysha's hosting an virtual book group for Dandelion Wine by Ray Bradbury. I have to admit I've never read it (I know! And I call myself a bibliophile! I haven't read Anna Karenina either. Sorry) but I'm looking forward to joining in after reading her introductory tribute to it.
I love summer reading. {Mom, remember the summers when I used to stretch out on the beige sofa and read All Day Long? And only every once in a while would you nudge me to go outside and do something? Thanks for letting me do that. I was so oblivious to anyone around me...you probably could have used my help somehow...but it was a great gift, that endless reading.}
That's it for now. We're off with our friends to the Cape this weekend.
When I was in my teens I acquired a distinctive happy dance. It was a hoppy bit of glee that signalled my excitement. College acceptance letters, invitations to a big dance, good scores on a test all warranted the probably-awkward-but-definitely-sincere choreography. I don't pull it out very often anymore, not because I don't feel gleeful but because I've learned to contain it a bit. Still, my family knows I might break out into happy dance without notice if something takes me by surprise. Much to their chagrin, I'm sure.
In that spirit, here are some happy dance videos. Feel free to break out into your own version.
1. This one's kind of old school + I think I posted about it a year or two ago. But you've got to include Matt in any discussion of happy dance. The guy's turned his herky jerky one into a money maker as he traveled the world and taped his happy dance.
2. I saw this one in the last couple of days {via Very Short List ...if you don't subscribe to their daily posts, you're missing out!}. I get tired just watching this guy jump two-footed around what looks to be London. Literally light in the loafers. A good workout. How'd they do that?? Here's Goldfrapp's video of Happiness:
3. This one's my new favorite. A girl (24ish?) dances right along to the footage of her 1987 self dancing with abandon. So sweet + it made me want to connect with the 4-year-old me somehow too. Girl's got moves! {Found via Mighty Girl}
I've always wondered why why call today Leap Year or Leap Day. Isn't today the day we don't leap over the 29th of February? Maybe we should call it...Unleap Year? Unskipped Day? Whatever the case, in honor of this extra "found" day, I'm tossing together a mishmash of what's running through my brain. Let's call it Leap Year goulash:
~I know you've probably had your fill of Oscar fashion commentary. But I just know you've been dying to know what the middle school set thinks about all the gowns and fashioning and posing. Well, thanks for asking! You've come to the right place.
Here's Maddy's notes on the hits and misses of the evening, a list she created on the back of her Oscar ballot:
My attempts to create a mosaic with these photos were disastrous (it kept cutting off everyone's heads) so you can link here for a view more of her faves. {Rebecca Miller is Daniel Day-Lewis's wife and received Maddy's ugly-of-the-year award.}
~ I'm very disappointed I couldn't participate in this freeze-frame event. I'm really good at standing still, too. Have you seen this yet?
I love how, when the people thaw, they just go on as if nothing happened. This would go right along with my silliness and spontanaeity new year's resolutions. I wonder what would happen if I did this tonight right before dinner? New leap year tradition?
~ Greg and I signed up for a 10K race in May. You're invited, too. Woodstock (Vermont) is a great town and the race sounds challenging (a little hilly) but beautiful on carriage trails through the woods, up around a lake, and--get this--past a bagpiper serenading the runners. This time I won't start right in front of the ambulance, I promise.
~This week we also got tickets to The Police/Elvis Costello concert this summer. Roxanne, anyone? Or, if you're more of an EC fan... Allison? Veronica? Can't wait.
~ Finally, I'm so thrilled with the response of the Letters to a Parent project. We've had over 2000 hits in the first month of posts, which is {I think} pretty great! Thanks so much to those who checked it out & gave feedback. This week's letter is from the wise and witty Marty of TravelinOma. I consider Marty to be one of the matriarchs of the blogworld (as well as the matriarch of a pretty wonderful family, from what I can tell). Thanks, Marty, for your Letter to Young Moms, from an Old One. There are some more great ones coming soon & the invitation is open to anyone who feels like piping up.
~ Well, have a wonderful weekend. Ours includes another predicted snowstorm, Maddy at a Model UN Conference at Bentley College (she is Spain & they are trying to propose ideas for helping in Darfur--pretty huge topic for middle schoolers, I'd say), Lauren at a Black-and-White semi-formal dance at school & also a jazz band concert, Sam at basketball, Greg coaching basketball, and me? Lots of spectating.
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Wednesday, September 10, 2008
