Music! Makes the people! Come together! YEAH!
Yes, Jeremy and I saw Madonna last night. Jeremy bought the tickets for my birthday way back in May, back when we still had money in the bank, back when the stock market was still over ten thousand, remember those days? Anyway, now that we are flat broke we tried to sell our tickets but apparently everyone else in Boston (in the country?) is flat broke, too, so like ALL of the tickets to last night's show were for sale on craigslist. When we realized we would be lucky to get half the price we paid for them, we decided to go. Okay, jeez, I guess we'll go ahead and go to a major concert, in the city, without our children...if you insist. *sigh*
The show was overwhelming. I've only seen a couple of concerts of that caliber in my life. I'm not a huge Madonna fan, didn't even recognize some of her newer songs, but she puts on quite a show. The songs I recognized were Vogue, Get into the Groove, Borderline, Music, La Isla Bonita, You Must Love Me, Four Minutes, Like a Prayer, Ray of Light, and Hung Up.
Get into the Groove was the most fun: her back-up dancers were dressed like Fanny Pak, the video screens behind them were full of Keith Haring-style images, and Madonna did double-dutch during the song while the audience sang.
The strangest song was La Isla Bonita. It can only be described as a flamenco hoedown. All the dancers were dressed in Spanish-style costumes, but the song was accompanied by... an electric fiddle? And then it morphed into a gypsy sequence where... a guy playing electric accordion came out? Then they were doing what can only be described as the Hava Nagila??? Very bizarre.
The people-watching was pretty brilliant. There were lots of leggings: leggings under skirts, leopard-print leggings, and (two seats away from us!) shiny black spandex leggings, yipes! Also a handful of wanna-bes, particularly of the Like a Virgin vintage. And the gays! My god, the gays! I mean, this is Massachusetts, and we are a very gay-friendly state but I guess I didn't realize that Madonna was the new Cher. Very nice.
We had a friendly, hip, young gay couple on one side of us who knew every word of every song and on the other side a friendly, older straight couple whose teenage kids had bought them tickets. At one point, the show featured a video urging political action and McCain's picture flashed on the screen amid horrors like famine, genocide, and fascism while Obama appeared in another montage including the Dalai Lama, Martin Luther King, and Oprah (Really, Madonna? Oprah?). The large majority of the crowd went WILD for this, including the young couple to our left. The older couple, however? NOT AMUSED.
Madonna commented that she'd been warned not to say anything more about Sarah Palin and she even made a dramatic gesture of zipping her lips and throwing away the key. Then she asked, "Are all of you fuckers registered to vote?" And then told us to vote for Obama before continuing with her song.
There were a few mysteries: at one point, Madge raised her arm up over her head and flipped the bird at the wall behind her. Who was she pissed at back there? Also, she started the show with a wavy hair-do, parted down the middle and later changed into a wig that was the EXACT same hair-do... with bangs. Why, why? And the final mystery: what song did she close the show with? We left early because our free baby-sitting (thanks, Tracy!) was turning into a pumpkin at midnight.
So despite today's ringing ears, over-tired children, and empty bank account it was a great night. And I'll probably spend the rest of the week randomly saying, "Tick tock, tick tock, tick tock."
---
Thursday, October 16, 2008
Wednesday, October 15, 2008
Red Sox (Indoctrin)Nation
Happy family, on the way into the game!
This is where we sat. Think we are high enough? (Look, that's Jacoby balancing on Chelsea's knuckle. Can we just put him in a pocket and take him home with us? Please?)
Savannah's first Sox game. (She was actually much happier than she looks.)
How to keep a toddler happy at the game: cotton candy bigger than her head!
Mission accomplished. Superfan status complete.
Tuesday, October 14, 2008
Littlest Consumer
At 8am:
Chelsea: "Mommy, what is open?"
Me: "Um, Starbucks is open. And 7-11."
Chelsea: "We should go to Starbucks!"
Me: "No, honey, we're not going to Starbucks this morning. We're going to the playground a little later to meet some friends."
Chelsea: "We should go to Starbucks while we're waiting!"
---
Chelsea: "Mommy, what is open?"
Me: "Um, Starbucks is open. And 7-11."
Chelsea: "We should go to Starbucks!"
Me: "No, honey, we're not going to Starbucks this morning. We're going to the playground a little later to meet some friends."
Chelsea: "We should go to Starbucks while we're waiting!"
---
Wednesday, October 8, 2008
Some Thoughts on the 2nd Debate
Does McCain think I'm stupid?
Last night, he kept retelling the same anecdotes he told in the first debate, he even repeated himself on back-to-back questions. He mentioned his associations with Feingold and Lieberman twice in a row. Umm, yeah, I just heard that. He also repeated his Reagan & O'Neill anecdote twice in last night's debate. Does he think I am a dummy and need things beaten into my head? Or (an even greater concern) does he not have enough to say that he needs to resort to repeating himself?
McCain also provocatively said that Social Security is easy to fix... but didn't say how! Instead of repeating his tired anecdotes, he should have talked about that. (A quick search of McCain's official site resulted no matches for "social security"... how is that possible?)
I also felt like he was brown-nosing a bit. He kept stressing that Americans are the best, the smartest, the most innovative, the most hard-working. Ok. You love your country. That's a good thing. But again, don't beat me to death with it. He sounded insincere, pandering, and desperate.
Overall, I thought McCain looked very old and stiff (which leads me to frightening thoughts about possible President Palin) and I felt that if the Town Hall Meeting is his preferred style of debate, he should've done a lot better.
(Quick share: If, like me, you have concerns about McCain, or if you're undecided or leaning towards him, please take a look at this recent article from Rolling Stone.)
Obama struck me as smart. I liked that he criticized President Bush's call for Americans to go shopping in the wake of 9/11. In the same vein, his stand-out quote for me was when he said, "Americans are hungry for a call to service." Unlike McCain, he was able to give a specific answer to the question about what Americans might need to sacrifice given the current economic situation and our commitments overseas. He said Americans should look at their energy consumption. To me, this is a double win. First, he is correct that in times of war, it's appropriate that not only military families are making sacrifices for the country. Second, a reduction in energy consumption also impacts the environment and begins to address our dependence on foreign oil.
Obama was also guilty of repeating some pet phrases; he reused the machete versus scalpel metaphor to compare McCain's federal spending freeze to his own strategy for cutting spending. Despite that, I felt that he did a better job of answering the questions that were asked and not sounding like a broken record.
When Obama spoke about the feeling in this country after 9/11, he made me really hopeful. I do believe that Obama will be the next President, and I hope he can rekindle those feelings of community and national pride that we all had in those days and channel them toward a better future. I hope he was serious about a call to service. I think we're ready.
What did YOU think?
---
Last night, he kept retelling the same anecdotes he told in the first debate, he even repeated himself on back-to-back questions. He mentioned his associations with Feingold and Lieberman twice in a row. Umm, yeah, I just heard that. He also repeated his Reagan & O'Neill anecdote twice in last night's debate. Does he think I am a dummy and need things beaten into my head? Or (an even greater concern) does he not have enough to say that he needs to resort to repeating himself?
McCain also provocatively said that Social Security is easy to fix... but didn't say how! Instead of repeating his tired anecdotes, he should have talked about that. (A quick search of McCain's official site resulted no matches for "social security"... how is that possible?)
I also felt like he was brown-nosing a bit. He kept stressing that Americans are the best, the smartest, the most innovative, the most hard-working. Ok. You love your country. That's a good thing. But again, don't beat me to death with it. He sounded insincere, pandering, and desperate.
Overall, I thought McCain looked very old and stiff (which leads me to frightening thoughts about possible President Palin) and I felt that if the Town Hall Meeting is his preferred style of debate, he should've done a lot better.
(Quick share: If, like me, you have concerns about McCain, or if you're undecided or leaning towards him, please take a look at this recent article from Rolling Stone.)
Obama struck me as smart. I liked that he criticized President Bush's call for Americans to go shopping in the wake of 9/11. In the same vein, his stand-out quote for me was when he said, "Americans are hungry for a call to service." Unlike McCain, he was able to give a specific answer to the question about what Americans might need to sacrifice given the current economic situation and our commitments overseas. He said Americans should look at their energy consumption. To me, this is a double win. First, he is correct that in times of war, it's appropriate that not only military families are making sacrifices for the country. Second, a reduction in energy consumption also impacts the environment and begins to address our dependence on foreign oil.
Obama was also guilty of repeating some pet phrases; he reused the machete versus scalpel metaphor to compare McCain's federal spending freeze to his own strategy for cutting spending. Despite that, I felt that he did a better job of answering the questions that were asked and not sounding like a broken record.
When Obama spoke about the feeling in this country after 9/11, he made me really hopeful. I do believe that Obama will be the next President, and I hope he can rekindle those feelings of community and national pride that we all had in those days and channel them toward a better future. I hope he was serious about a call to service. I think we're ready.
What did YOU think?
---
Monday, October 6, 2008
Mother's Naptime Rant, in Three Acts
Act 1
Mobility is so overrated. Now that Savannah can sort of get around on her own, she's even harder to get to sleep than before. Lately when I put her down, she immediately backs up into a sitting position and cries. I know she'll eventually lie down and sleep. Today I went in to check on her and she's standing up hanging on to the top of the crib rail and wailing. I lie her back down. She sits back up. I leave. Go back in to check on her again? Now she's on her knees trying to recreate her performance from earlier. I give up.
Act 2
How is it possible that BOTH children are head-noddingly sleepy in the car at 12:30pm and I have to shout songs at them to keep them awake on the way home... yet they are still wide awake at 1:30pm after lying (or sitting, standing, or kneeling) in their beds for half an hour?
Act 3
Why, why, WHY does the gardening service that comes to our apartment building to mow our ridiculously small stretch of grass with the loudest riding mower on Earth have to come every week DURING NAPTIME? (Not that my children are sleeping or anything...).
Fin
---
Mobility is so overrated. Now that Savannah can sort of get around on her own, she's even harder to get to sleep than before. Lately when I put her down, she immediately backs up into a sitting position and cries. I know she'll eventually lie down and sleep. Today I went in to check on her and she's standing up hanging on to the top of the crib rail and wailing. I lie her back down. She sits back up. I leave. Go back in to check on her again? Now she's on her knees trying to recreate her performance from earlier. I give up.
Act 2
How is it possible that BOTH children are head-noddingly sleepy in the car at 12:30pm and I have to shout songs at them to keep them awake on the way home... yet they are still wide awake at 1:30pm after lying (or sitting, standing, or kneeling) in their beds for half an hour?
Act 3
Why, why, WHY does the gardening service that comes to our apartment building to mow our ridiculously small stretch of grass with the loudest riding mower on Earth have to come every week DURING NAPTIME? (Not that my children are sleeping or anything...).
Fin
---
Saturday, October 4, 2008
The Turtle Song
Chelsea and I have a nightly bedtime ritual. After bath, jammies, and stories, I always sing her the Turtle Song. It goes like this:
I had a little turtle
His name was Tiny Tim
He went into the bathtub
To see if he could swim
He drank up all the water
He ate up all the soap
He went to see the doctor
With a bubble in his throat.
I first sang it to her a long time ago, back when she was still sleeping in her crib, back when I was searching for something, anything, to keep her from crying when she went down for a nap or for bedtime. One day, I sang this song, and she didn't cry. And just like that, it became our routine.
As she got older, she wanted to take over singing the song entirely by herself ("I do it myseff!") but her versions were so long and rambling and I never knew when they were over, so instead we made a compromise: I sing it, but she sings the last word of each line.
Lately, however, she's turned the song into a MadLibs-like exercise in ridiculousness. Here's how it usually goes:
I had a little THOMAS!
His name was THOMAS WHOMAS!
He went into the PERCY!
To see if he could PERCY!
He drank up all the PERCY!
He ate up all the PERCY!
He went to see the PERCY!
With a PERCY IN HIS EDWARD!
Sometimes I ask her if she wants to hear a different song. My mom is able to put her to bed with an out-of-season rendition of Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer and my husband manages to put her to bed with no songs at all. But with me, it's always the Turtle Song. Or, I guess I should say, the Thomas Song. Although, isn't every song at my house the Thomas song these days?
---
This post was written for Parent Bloggers Network as an entry for a contest sponsored by Bush’s Beans.
---
I had a little turtle
His name was Tiny Tim
He went into the bathtub
To see if he could swim
He drank up all the water
He ate up all the soap
He went to see the doctor
With a bubble in his throat.
I first sang it to her a long time ago, back when she was still sleeping in her crib, back when I was searching for something, anything, to keep her from crying when she went down for a nap or for bedtime. One day, I sang this song, and she didn't cry. And just like that, it became our routine.
As she got older, she wanted to take over singing the song entirely by herself ("I do it myseff!") but her versions were so long and rambling and I never knew when they were over, so instead we made a compromise: I sing it, but she sings the last word of each line.
Lately, however, she's turned the song into a MadLibs-like exercise in ridiculousness. Here's how it usually goes:
I had a little THOMAS!
His name was THOMAS WHOMAS!
He went into the PERCY!
To see if he could PERCY!
He drank up all the PERCY!
He ate up all the PERCY!
He went to see the PERCY!
With a PERCY IN HIS EDWARD!
Sometimes I ask her if she wants to hear a different song. My mom is able to put her to bed with an out-of-season rendition of Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer and my husband manages to put her to bed with no songs at all. But with me, it's always the Turtle Song. Or, I guess I should say, the Thomas Song. Although, isn't every song at my house the Thomas song these days?
---
This post was written for Parent Bloggers Network as an entry for a contest sponsored by Bush’s Beans.
---
Friday, October 3, 2008
Sarah Palin Drinking Game
1. Every time she says "ya" (as in, "I hear ya!"), take a drink.
2. Every time she drops a "g" (as in, "I'm talkin' to the people!"), take a drink.
3. Every time she says "nuke-u-lar" instead of nuclear, take a drink.
4. Every time she overtly dodges a question, take a drink.
5. Every time she gives a rambling, incoherent answer more reminiscent of shoddy high school debate than of executive-level politics, take a drink.
Bonus Round: If she gets elected, hie thee hence to your local packie with your last few dollars, 'cause you're gonna need A LOT of liquor.
---
2. Every time she drops a "g" (as in, "I'm talkin' to the people!"), take a drink.
3. Every time she says "nuke-u-lar" instead of nuclear, take a drink.
4. Every time she overtly dodges a question, take a drink.
5. Every time she gives a rambling, incoherent answer more reminiscent of shoddy high school debate than of executive-level politics, take a drink.
Bonus Round: If she gets elected, hie thee hence to your local packie with your last few dollars, 'cause you're gonna need A LOT of liquor.
---
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