Partial View

The obligatory blog.

Saturday, October 28, 2006

First?

It's difficult to be certain. But it certainly seems that Wild Thing read his first word today--"NO." The word appeared on the cover of our sample ballot here--not something we've discussed with him--and it's hard to see how he could have guessed it from context. But we're reserving judgment for the moment anyway.

Friday, October 27, 2006

Friday Random Ten: Save Me a Seat Edition

A theme might be emerging here. If only I could only read the Tuvan tongue ...

1. Creation's Call--Samarai Celestial.
2. Disgusted--Lucinda Williams.
3. Angel of Death--Dark Meat. I randomly downloaded this from somewhere. Don't know anything about this band, but this tune is quite catchy.
4. Shadow Song--The Mountain Goats. I've been listening to this song quite a bit lately. It's haunting despite its complete lack of melodic interest.
5. Mountain--The Harvey Girls.
6. Nature's Symphony--Bill Frisell.
7. Tuva Chonum, Ergim Cherim--Igor Koshkendey. This guy isn't as well known as Huun-Huur-Tu, but he's certainly their equal, inasmuch as my expertise on Tuvan throat-singing qualifies me to make such an assessment.
8. Yodeling Blues--Bessie Smith.
9. The Fool--Neutral Milk Hotel.
10. Satellite--TV on the Radio. Hey, a new addition from one of my musical benefactors out there. Very groovy.

Sunday, October 22, 2006

Wild Thing: Still Awake

From the blog that dares to ask the queston: How long can a boy of almost three years lie awake in bed talking to himself?

Friday, October 20, 2006

Friday Random Ten: Job Search Edition (part 41 of a continuing series)

1. "Snow is Gone"--Josh Ritter, Hello Starling.
2. "I'll Always Love You Just the Same"--Charlie Parker, Boss Bird.
3. "Transparent Lover"--Robyn Hitchcock, Eye.
4. "Not a Pretty Sight"--My Dad is Dead, Let's Skip the Details.
5. "Crescent City"--Lucinda Williams, Lucinda Williams.
6. "We Can Be Together"--Jefferson Airplane, 2400 Fulton Street. I loved this collection back in high school.
7. "I Wish That I Could See You Soon"--Herman Dune, Giant. There's an umlaut over that U but I'm too lazy to figure out how to code it.
8. "Into the Fire"--Bruce Springsteen, The Rising.
9. "You Woke Up My Neighborhood"--Billy Bragg, Don't Try This at Home.
10. "Watoto Wawili"--Jean Bosco Mwenda, Mwenda Wa Bayeke: African Guitar Legend - The Studio Album.

Tuesday, October 17, 2006

More scatology

It's great to encourage a child's imagination, to be sure. But there are limits, aren't there?

Last night, out of nowhere:

Wild Thing: "I'm a giant poop!"

Me: "Um ... What are you doing?"

WT: "I'm staying in a diaper ALL DAY!"

Me: Uneasy silence.

Sunday, October 15, 2006

Early signs of reading

Wild Thing has now latched on to the idea of sounding out words. This morning saw him trying to sound out the word "prize" in a book. Two thing stymied him. First, he doens't quite get vowels yet. Second, he doesn't quite have the idea of how all those sounds get pushed together to make words. So he came up with "puh," "urrr," "eh," "zzzz," and "eh," but didn't really know what that all added up to.

I should add that while we're being encouraging about all this, we're definitely not pushing too hard. This is pretty much all coming from him.

Friday, October 13, 2006

Triking it

Wild Thing has, in a remarkably short period of time, gone from being mildly interested in being pushed around on his trike (which has an adult-sized handle on the back for this very purpose) to being obsessed with peddling it around himself. The key development here was his figuring out that he actually has the ability to propel himself ...

Friday Random Ten: Back-to-Back Edition

I hate it when I don't get even one post in between Fridays.

1. "Little Time Bomb"--Billy Bragg, Workers Playtime. Seems like there's an apostrophe missing from that album title.
2. "Road Movie to Berlin"--They Might Be Giants, Flood.
3. "Bone of Song"--Josh Ritter, Hello Starling.
4. "The Bristol Bridegroom"--Diane Dugaw, Dangerous Examples.
5. "Congeniality"--Ornette Coleman, The Shape of Jazz to Come.
6. "Teriving on a Riff"--Charlie Parker, Boss Bird.
7. "Summertime"--John Coltrane, My Favorite Things. Looks like we're on a jazz kick today. No complaints here ...
8. "Sympathy for the Devil"--The Rolling Stones, Hot Rocks. OK, so much for that.
9. "Tonight"--Jose Carreras & Kiri Te Kanawa, West Side Story.
10. "More Blues for Los Angeles"--Bill Frisell, Gone, Just Like a Train.

Friday, October 06, 2006

Friday Random Ten: Stephen King's Stolen Car edition

1. "Asturias"--Bola Sete, Tour de Force.

2. "Stolen Car"--Beth Orton, Central Reservation.

3. "Jockey Full of Bourbon"--Tom Waits, Rain Dogs.

4. "Show Me a Little Shame"--Ben Harper, Burn to Shine. This CD was abandoned, perhaps accidentally, by our house's former residents--happily for us. Harper is the favorite son of the underground scene in Claremont, CA, where I once lived.

5. "Johanna"--Sweeney Todd, The Demon Barber of Fleet Street--Original Cast Recording. We saw a stripped-down production of this in LA with Kelsey Grammer in the title role. He was perfect except for the fact that he can't really sing.

6. "Pont Des Arts"--St. Germain, Tourist.

7. "Like a Virgin"--Lords of the New Church, These People Are Nuts! (IRS Records 10th Anniversary Compiliation). This is not really a brilliant piece of music, but it works well enough as satire.

8. "I Surrender, Dear"--Benny Goodman Sextet, Benny Goodman Sextet Featuring Charlie Christian. Ooooh, smooooooth.

9. "Your Mother Was the Lightning"--The Court & Spark, Hearts

10. "The Stand"--The Alarm, These People Are Nuts! (IRS Records 10th Anniversary Compiliation). This, on the other hand, is a pretty brilliant little rock number, in a dopey sort of way.

Tuesday, October 03, 2006

Usage Note

Wild Thing has picked up the short sentence "I beat" to indicate that he has won. I'm sure I used this term as a child too, but my most profound memory is of annoyance at other people using it when plainly "I won" was more correct. But I was probably a little older then--I didn't become a pedant and a scold until I hit kindergarten, I think.

Monday, October 02, 2006

Bedtime chatter

So, as I type this, Wild Thing has been in bed for over half an hour. He's still awake. In fact, he's still awake and talking and singing and generally sounding happy as a clam while staying in bed. Just not falling asleep.

This is a relatively new development. But for a couple of weeks now he's been doing this, just staying awake, entertaining himself, not crying or complaining or seeking attention--but not sleeping, either. He did this for over an hour one night last week.

Now, as long as he's not getting out of bed, I can't really complain about this. But it does seem odd. If I'm lying in bed for an hour and I can't sleep, I'm usually pretty grumpy about it, and I'm certainly not going to burst into song. This would be true even if I had the bed to myself ...

... ah, silence at last.