what's in a name?

for months, (around 8 to be exact), dearie and i have been racking our brains to try to come up with a proper name for our coming addition. we feel like the pressure of naming another human being, basically setting them up for a lifetime of whatever that name might bring them, is just too much for us.
here are our top five:
1. harlan (current favorite)
2. ivan
3. evan
4. holden
5. we don't really have a top five

please weigh in.
thanks.

. 

one day in mexico

it takes no time at all to get into mexico from san diego. you basically drive right into tijuana, they don't even stop you. we had a nice, drive down the coast, stopping in rosarito to do some shopping (bought some amazing decorations for the baby's room)...then, back to the border. it took us 2 hours to get out of mexico. sitting in traffic, badly having to urinate, watching the peddlers sell churros, lucha masks, and bleeding wooden crosses. a lovely way to spend an evening. 

san diego, ca...miss the warmth already

last trip before baby...there he is, in my ginourmous belly, waiting to see the sights of san diego. 

the seals in la jolla cove, tanning on the rocks. you could only get about 100 feet from them, as they don't care for humans that much, but still, quite an adorable sight to see. 

having lunch in la jolla, ca...i can barely describe the beauty of the pacific coast...you really just must see it, and i think this little town might be one of the better vantage points. 

polar polar bears. 

the polar bears at the zoo were so fun and graceful...much larger than i had imagined...seeing them upclose was incredible. 

of course, the giant pandas at the san diego zoo, a must see for anyone of any age. miss su lin, the baby, was lounging high up in the trees and didn't feel like coming down for a visit, but i'm sure she's as cute as all her glamourshots. look at that face!! 

amazing cafe in balboa park, where i had a lovely veggie burger with avocado. 

those san diegans keep some pretty strange pool pets. 

cali cali

off to san diego...our last real trip before the wee babee joins us...christmas shopping in Tee-Whanna and the san diego zoo!!! tawdry trinkets and giant pandas!! yeehaw!!

vote

peoples, it's that time of year. please get out and vote.
seriously.
here's some information, if you're confused as to where to vote in massachusetts, who is running, etc, etc...
http://www.wheredoivotema.com/bal/myelectioninfo.php

(can we get a yes, yes on selling wine at grocery stores?!)

not even ryan adams can fuck up willie

ok, i hardly ever actually do 'album reviews' on my blog, because frankly, i don't really feel i 'need' to review an album unless it pisses me off, and in that case, it usually just pisses me off to even review it. but, having recently attained the newest willie nelson album, i have to re-post a bit from pitchfork that i agree with totally (which is rare with me and those pitchfork bastards).

"Songbird, which features Willie's typical assortment of covers and new takes on his own songs, shouldn't be as good as it is. Its flaws are obvious and mistakable, and yet, after a few listens, it becomes increasingly difficult to deny its warm vibe and easy, anything-goes sensibility.

Up close, it's a real mess. Adams' gloppy production disregards the natural rise and fall of Willie's distinctive voice and the odd cadence of his phrasing. As a producer, Adams adds too many guitars and just too much sound to these songs, such that Willie seems to get lost in the Grateful Dead cover "Stella Blue" and Gram Parsons' "$1000 Wedding". And the gospel choir on "Blue Hotel" and "Hallelujah" (more on the latter later) seems crassly over the top. Furthermore, Adams' backing band, the Cardinals, create a sound as shaggy as Adams' haircut, taking as many liberties with meter and melody as Willie does but without exhibiting his grace, control, and subtlety. Too often they barrel over his vocals and guitar solos, especially toward the end of "Hallelujah". Only harmonica player Mickey Raphael seems attuned to Willie's style, but then, they've been playing together for decades."

to sum up (in an immature and gradeschoolish manner)...ryan adams, you suck. willie, you can do no wrong.

we chose a simple design for our pumpkin this year. just your basic skull, but you still wouldn't believe what a pain in the ass it was to cut. 

Yuppie Kiss

this year for halloween, ernie and i were a bit lost as to what to actually dress as. our first idea, was to go as a priest and a pregnant catholic school girl...but, we thought that this was a little cliche, and might get us arrested with boston being the kind of town it is. while having one of those "wouldn't it be funny if..." conversations when looking for costumes, we came up with this: Yuppie Kiss.
I am 'soccer mom paul stanley', and ernie is 'yuppie/frat boy/casual friday gene simmons'. (just a note to all who may not know us...we do not normally dress like this...from the button down blue shirt to the patriots cap, it was all a costume).

myspace...not just for breakfast

even though, on a regular and daily basis i hear a conversation on my commute between children around the ages of 10-15, commiserating about how this person or that person isn't on their myspace page, and how upset they are about it, i still think that myspace is a good thing, if only because i've discovered many bands that i would have normally never known existed.
here are some examples of bands i'm listening to on myspace:
a hawk and a hacksaw
i just bought their newest album, and it is lovely. wonderful autumn album to listen to while baking pies or braising some cabbage.

golem
yep, still on a gypsy kick and these guys are great. quick, makes me want to spin in circles and throw things in the air (like chairs or vodka bottles).

den flygande bokrullen
swedish klezmer! yes!

beltuner
oh, how i love paris...let me count zee ways...

einmal kommt die liebe
norwegian cabaret...smokey, lazy and efficient.

martin martini and the bone palace orchestra
sweet sweet cabaret type music from australia...and they even wrote a song about me..how marvelous!

adirondack yardsale'in

my sore and swolen feet have finally recovered from the 8 hour day we spent in warrensburg, ny at the world's largest yardsale. it's most definitely something i would recommend to everyone to go and do, at least once in their lives. despite the fact that our 7 month old puppy was much too excited about all of the great deals to calm down and let us do some serious searching in the piles, we were able to pick up a few amazing items. here are a few of them.

also, as shown by the sign, they take their yardsale and their parking regulations very seriously in warrensburg. best deal is to park in the fire station lot...five bucks, coffee and a clean bathroom.

throngs of salt and pepper shakers...all dressed up and ready for sale. 

not a purchase of ours, but hopefully someone, somewhere, picked up this box of porcelein arms. would make an amazing center piece for thanksgiving dinner. 

self explanatory and cute as hell. my favorite part is that wink that the pepper is giving you, and the disconcerted look that the salt is giving the pepper. that pepper's up to somethin'. 

full frontal creepy view... 

creepy jolly pink cheeked man pitcher... 

cast iron monkey in a tux candle holder...the prize find. 

october, a helluva month

the month of october is full of lovely little happenings that i'm terribly excited about. here are some highlights:
oct.11: this is the day mister doeg and i find out if we're having a bratty little girl or a snot nosed little boy. joy. joy. (but, seriously, i'm excited, not about finding out the sex, but about actually putting a face to what's been making me so adament and knowledgable about cloth diapers, circumcision, multi vitamins and meditation.)
oct.16: on this day at the natick high school, the man known to most as lemony snicket will be doing a reading. honestly, i've read not one of his books, but my special interest in this event is the fact that 'the gothic archies', (one of mister stephen merritt's many side projects) will be his 'backing band' for the reading. here is all the important info.
oct.19-22: the beat circus vaudeville orchestra will be playing at the anniversary event for the regent theater in arlington, ma...including burlesque performers, an acrobatic circus troupe, and an opera singer. all of those things together just make me all tingly. check it out here:
voltaic vaudeville!

and i know it's barely october yet...but this weekend i will be happily attending the biggest yard/garage/tag sale in the united states in warrensburg, new york. ahhh...i can almost taste the fried dough and smell the dusty depression glass.

more cheese than wisconsin

this WILL NOT become a baby blog. but, in searching the nets, i've found some really freaky stuff out there. such as:

no one puts baby in a corner

i grew up in rural, rural tennessee. the name of the town i grew up in was 'defeated'...a bit damning, but i took it in stride.
we were so far away from 'things' that we never had cable. not even basic cable. it was a mysterious, beautiful thing reserved for family trips, and vacations involving hotel stays.
when i moved out on my own, television (and cable) weren't that important to me. living on my own, i usually never owned a television. not in that high and mighty way that some people don't own a television, but in that, 'i can't be trusted to turn it off, ever' sort of way.

for four years, i've lived in massachusetts without cable. and just this past weekend, my husband, sweet thing that he is, broke down, and hooked basic cable up to our television. i'm assuming he was much too tired of vegging out to re-runs of the gilmore girls. (a show which annoys me to no end, but i watch it like i would watch a train wreck).
in my current 'condition', i watch much too much television, being too tired to move most of the time. and here are some observations i've noticed about basic cable. (being completely new to the whole experience at the age of 31)
1. i've seen way too many pieces of movies with patrick swayze these past few days.
2. i wonder if kids in southie get stoned and watch the catholic channel...one sure reason why you should never smoke pot...one minute you're calm and baked on your parents couch, and the next moment you're sitting in confession, telling a hole in the wall how 'that sister mary catherine really is all that, and a bag of chips'.
3. why doesn't mtv play music videos any longer?
4. miami ink is a much better show that inked.
5. rachel ray is getting fat.
6. those mythbuster guys have no reason to be 'that' cocky.
7. .57 channels and nothing's on...so true, bruce, so true.

cheerios

glockenspiel glockenspiel

not much of a secret ernie and i are keeping to those of you who read this, but if you are not aware of the happenings in our life, here's a post hint.

i have a fever, i need more glockenspiel.

(if you click on the albums you can actually hear a few song samples from most of them...the versions of the cure songs made me giddy to tears)

worst sugar cookie ever

i don't know what is worse than a bad sugar cookie. how can you mess that up, really? apparently, the crew at au bon pain in downtown crossing in boston have figured out the secret to the worst sugar cookie ever. be alert and be warned.

stolen from a friend...

i could not bear the thought of not posting this picture after a good friend was kind enough to share it with me. he found it at a flea market in wisconsin and bought it for a mere five dollars. it fascinates me.
brothers? father/son? uncle/nephew? lovers?

what do you think?

'hang down your head for sorrow...

hang down your head for me...'

just wanted to convey, in this blog forum, that i'm so awfully and terribly upset that mr. tom waits is on a little tour right now, and ernie and i aren't going to be able to make it to any of the shows. we've put our heads together, we counted our last pennies, we were even going to try not eating for a while and possibly going without electricity (after all, mister waits is worth it)...but still we couldn't find it in our budget to make it to any of them. even the show that's tomorrow night, in my hometown of nashville, on my baby brothers birthday.

my heart weeps.

i'm not sure how i missed this. he passed on july 7th. nothing confirmed, some say diabetes, some say cancer. maybe he'll finally get some much needed sleep. rest in peace.

if i were a rich man...

my life has been filled lately with news too big for the blogosphere at this point...so, instead, i'll relate an amusing conversation i had with a five year old last week.
ernie and i were fortunate enough to be the caretakers of a lovely five year old girl last weekend, while her mother (ernie's cousin) is in africa helping build houses in rawanda. her name is olivia, and she's quite precocious, and always witty. one of her favorite things to do while at our house (other than play with, or 'terrorize' our five month old hound dog) was to lounge around on the hammock in our back yard. one day, while her and i lounged on the hammock in the sun, she said the strangest thing to me.
olivia: 'can i ask you a question?'
me: 'sure'
olivia: 'why do you guys live in an apartment, if you're so rich?'
me: 'what??!, why do you think we're rich?'
olivia: 'well, you have a hammock, and a dog, and a shed, and you can watch movies in your back yard...' (back story, ernie and i occasionally borrow his projector from work and hang a sheet in our back yard and watch movies outside...while olivia was here, we watched 'mulan 2', and she loved being able to run in front of the screen and interact with the characters).
me: 'we're not rich, we're just fortunate.'
olivia: 'whatever'

it's funny to see your life through the eyes of a five year old...

it was an interesting day for us when we found at that our dog, could in fact, fly. 

just peachy

i suppose my favorite part of summer must be eating fresh peaches. unfortunately, i've recently discovered that peaches, at their ripest and juiciest perfection, do not commute well and bruise easily.

this isn't funny, but it amuses me...

BEIJING (Reuters) - Beijing has banned disco and other dance music in private rooms of nightclubs and karaoke bars to curb the flood of illegal drugs into the capital's entertainment venues, Chinese newspapers reported Friday.
"Because many drug takers regularly dance and go crazy to upbeat 'disco' music in private rooms, police have specially requested karaoke machines not have this music," the Beijing Times newspaper said.

Club owners were now expected to delete disco and "other forms of vulgar entertainment" from karaoke machines in private rooms, the Beijing News said, as part of a "responsibility agreement" written up by police.

songs for summer

crazy by gnarls barkley:
i would have to highly reccommend this album to anyone who likes music. so there. i get c-low's voice stuck in my head and i can't get it out...does that make me cray-zay??? possibleeeee-eee.

postcards from italy by beirut:
beach song, travel song, summer song...this entire album is lovely. for all in boston area, this adorable 19 year old indie newcomer will be at the lily pad (where the zeitgiest used to be) in inman square tomorrow (24th).

everybody daylight by brightblack morning light
what i would imagine it would be like to smoke peyote and wander among the redwoods of california while being chased by a pack of bunnies. the guitar is lazy and warm, very atmospheric music. were it not for this song, i would not have thought twice about this band, since they are a 'tripped out band of hippies', but i was pleasantly surpised by the album. if you're not sure what to do while listening to the album, they've included a pair of paper rainbow glasses to give you a clue.
(plus, it includes flute playing by sweet friend robbie lee)

the only option is to blog...

i've been awake for 5 hours. here are some reflections on my day.

1. to the bus driver of route 95, mystic ave towards sullivan at 1225pm, who looked me straight in the eye as she passed my stop, while i waved my hands frantically like a fool, standing right under the busstop sign (where i had been waiting for a good ten minutes): i hope you have a miserable life...it's only a small consolation that you probably will. i hope that the next time you desperately need that raise, possibly around christmas this year, your supervisor will look over your performance record and see my angry email (and phone call) that i'm sending to the mbta, and deny you that much needed raise.

2. overheard this very sincere cell phone conversation when i finally made it to the train, after the bus so rudely passed me by: "i know, i love you too, but i'm still not in your top 8, it kind of hurts my feelings..." (at this point, there was a long pause in conversation, as if the person on the other end was trying to explain why she wasn't in his top 8).

3. two stops before i was to get off the train, a lady and her baby in stroller entered the train. the child, who was cute and curly headed, but looked much too large for his age, was screaming at the top of his little lungs, the most annoying scream for attention. his mother, who looked much too small and young to have had a baby that large, yelled to him: "sit back and be quiet, damien!!"
you named your child, damien?? i think that says enough.

birthday gift action shot

my husband is possibly the best gift giver that i've ever met. he has, in the past, given me my beautiful and cherished theremin, a huge piece of green amber, an antique dragonfly pin that i coveted once in an antique store, a gold tipped fountain pen, and various other items that i love. this year, for my birthday, his gift was a bit late, but just a lovely. a 20 button anglo concertina, red. thank you love.

national day?

i just want to know, how did these people obtained tax exempt status??
a '.org'...that means they're a non profit, right?
the devil has a non profit organization?
how quaint.

heroes

everyone should know that june (not only being the month i was born in) is NATIONAL ACCORDION AWARENESS MONTH!! please, there are at least two great accordion players that i know of in boston in the train stations, TIP THEM, especially if you usually don't. also, check out my favorite local accordioniste, mr.alec k. redfearn

VIVA ACCORDIONISTA!!!

beirut "mount wroclai"

i can't stop listening to this song by this 19 year old kid from brooklyn. it starts out beautiful, then just continues to get better, until it ends, and i just want to play it again. go to his myspace page, listen to it.

birth and death

this weekend i turned 31. since i have such cool and amazing friends, i made out like a bandit on the gift front. two small moleskines, a big bottle of limoncello, a cyanotype kit, lovely tribal necklace, books, and money from mother-in-law (which i quickly spent on line on cd's and books, of course). the weekend was lovely, although rainy, we spent the day looking at beautifully intricite, handmade glass flowers at harvard, and drinking expensive drinks at the oak bar in copley square.

usually, on my birthday, i would fall into sort of a sad slump, wondering where i was, how i got here, what i'm doing, etc, etc. but this year, i couldn't help but remember what happened last year on my birthday. it was the day after ernie's brother died very suddenly at the age of 23. no warning, he was very healthy, vibrant even, but happened to have an undetected problem with his adrenal glands. he was walking through the park with some friends, started feeling like crap suddenly, went to the emergency room, and a few hours later, he was gone. the day of my birthday, still reeling from the shock of it all, we helped his mother (he was an only child, he and ernie have the same father, different mothers) pick out pictures to make a collage for his funeral, and helped write his obituary for the paper, and basically walked around in a haze all day, wondering what the hell just happened.
so, this year, i resolved that i was just going to be genuinely happy to be alive. i really didn't care what i did on my birthday, i wanted to spend the day with ernie and enjoy living. i still couldn't get jason out of my head this weekend, but i guess that's a good thing. i suppose i'll always remember him on my birthday (as well as other days).

to lighten the mood of this post...here is a new picture of our hound.


how could you be in any way unhappy with a face like that around??

married to the sea

i'm wondering if it's odd that i find this laugh out loud hilarious...

hoola-la

this past memorial day, ernie and i decided to have a quickly planned, sparsely organized cookout. i invited pretty much everyone i knew, and figured upon maybe 6 people showing up. we ended up with 20 and not enough food. but, where the food was lacking the drinks were plentiful. by the end of the night, most of our precious 'charred moonshine' (a mason jar full of moonshine that is aged in jack daniel's barrels, a family members special concoction, smooth as bourbon, with tripple the fury) was gone, and we had ended up getting rid of some of the white lightnin' that had been in our fridge for almost a year (mostly because we keep meaning to put strawberries or peaches in it to make it more, 'palatable')...
as you can imagine, it was a lovely cookout.
at some point in the evening, the subject matter floated over to hoolahooping between myself and my friend amy. since i own a hoolahoop, i had to bring it out. as i tried to hoola hoop in my back yard, listening to bridgitte bardot croon over my shoulder and watching some of my guest get that glazed look in their eyes that people get when they drink a couple shots of tn mountaindew, i realized two things:
1. i have a pretty damn good life right now, and
2. i really really must take up fire hooping (ok, ok, it's mostly done by hippies, but it'll be killer at parties)

oh, serge!

our scout...she's getting so big...