The Postman Always Rings Twice

Laura’s Blog Entry

So he didn’t actually ring at all, but he did leave me a wonder prize package. Venus and Nicole – who I met through the wonderful world of podcasting – had a little contest on their show. Although I wasn’t one of the three winners chosen in a random drawing, due to really good luck on my part, and circumstances too complicated to explain I got one of the prizes.

I love getting goodies in the mail. Neil and I make fun of our parents because they all seem obsessed each day about DID THE MAIL COME YET? HAVE YOU CHECKED THE MAIL? LET’S NOT GO ANYWHERE UNTIL THE MAIL COMES! But even I get a little anticipatory each day when I hear something being dropped into the mailbox.

Here’s what I found yesterday:

The kitty enjoys a lovely package as well. Nicole sent me so many goodies I am shocked! Yarn and knitting patterns and knitting needles. Two beautiful toile needle cases. Toile is pronounced “Twall”, for those of you reading out loud to yourselves.

There were tons of other goodies that I will be enjoying for some time. I love podcasting. I love Venus and Nicole. I love the mailman. I almost feel like bursting into song and singing, “I love a parade!” But that would not only be untrue, you wouldn’t be able to hear me. Maybe that’s a good thing.

The Virgin Suicides

Laura’s Blog Entry

Months and months ago while browsing the Tivo channel guide, I saw that the movie The Virgin Suicides was going to be on. I had never seen it, so I DVR-ed it. It sat around until a couple weeks ago.

I had no idea what it was about, who directed it, or who was in it – other than Kirsten Dunst. But wow, did this film affect me! That is a rare occurrence these days. I have quit going to movies at the theater because I just feel like nothing is ever worth the money any more.

Here’s why this one got to me. First of all, I grew up in the 70’s, the time period in which the movie is set. Watching this film was a mulit-sensory experience. I could practically feel the scratchy-looking upholstery. Visually it brought back lots of stuff I thought I had left behind. All the music stirred up really vivid memories as well. Top 40 radio was king back then. The movie is full of 70’s jems, like “Magic Man” by Heart, “I’m not In Love” by 10cc and the ever-popular last dance of the night “Come Sail Away” by Styx. Plus the original score by the band Air was brilliantly done.

Once the movie started, I really thought the story was going in a certain direction. It centers around a family that has 5 teenage daughters. But it is told through the narration of a boy in their neighborhood. I thought that this boy and his friends were typical teen boys – obnoxious, horny and not to be trusted. (I don’t think I revealed any of my baggage just then, did I?) But the story was engaging and the script so interesting and quirky I kept watching.

And as I watched, I found myself totally relating to the youngest daughter. You think you have gotten over stuff; you think it is over and done. Then, what do you know, the next second you are sobbing all over you knitting in the middle of the day.

What really, really got me about this movie is that the boys turned out to be so much more than I expected them to be. More than they expected to be, truthfully. I won’t give away the details of the story in case you are interested seeing it. Maybe it will take you on the same emotional rollercoaster I went on.

It was masterfully filmed, directed, and acted. Along with Kirsten Dunst, the cast includes James Woods, Kathleen Turner, Danny Devito, Josh Harnett (in a really bad 70’s wig), Scott Glenn, and many others.

This movie has stuck with me and made me think about lots of things the last few weeks. Like what kind of adolescence do I want my child to have? What do I have to do now to make that happen? What have I (thankfully) already been doing? What kind of relationship do we need to have to make it all work?

The biggest question of all has been: How did I get from where I was then to where I am now? I feel very torn between not relating to who I was then, while on the other hand feeling like I am still right there. I felt split like that for a few days.

Can’t say I want an experience like that too often, but I am actually grateful for it. It’s like that perspective you get when you stand up, step back and look down at something from above and can finally see what has been happening all along.

Thanks, Sofia Coppola.

Colorbox

Ready for the Craziness to End

Laura’s Blog Post

As usual, it was a nice holiday – but busy. We try and try to keep our schedule free of “crazy” but sometimes fun things are too tempting to pass up. And we’re kind of wiped out at the end of it all.

Thanksgiving Day was such a relief. We’ve had lots going on the last few weeks; I’ve been getting ready for Mari’s Christmas recital by working on costumes. Because a purchased costume is never good enough. Oh no! MUST HAVE MORE SPARKLE! So there were hours of sequin work going on.

I have really missed my free time during the day. I am positively cranky when I don’t get enough unstructured time. I am a planner – that’s the way I get stuff done – break it down into small chunks of time and get it accomplished. But that has to be balanced with time where I get to think, “Hmmm, what should I do now?” There has been no balance and now I am feeling it.

What makes things tricky is that Neil is gearing up at work for the busiest season of the year when he does his regular work along with extra projects for a huge Christmas show. When we are both so distracted it’s like when I used to be working – we are not very patient and everybody is snippy. It affects Mari, too, which I really dislike.

This holiday weekend was then last mile in our marathon. On Thanksgiving Day we got to sleep a bit later than usual, then headed out to spend time with family. Dinner was delicious.

There was also turkey and tons of sides, but I am most proud of the noodles. Then we enjoyed a wonderful lie down in front of the TV for the “Ghost Hunters” marathon. It is such a great show to nap to. Interesting when you are awake, but you can follow what’s happening if you doze off and then start watching again. I knitted and took a nice catnap.

Here’s my latest knitting project in process:

It’s a baby blanket for our nephew for Christmas. I made him this pillow when he was born.

His parents love vintage cowboy. For the blanket I chose colors to co-ordinate with the pillow. I am pretty proud that I designed the pattern myself. It is simple, but has a nice little edge detail and then some color bands that vary in texture. I’ll post the pattern once I finish it and work out the kinks in the instructions.

Another knitting note… I did get going on those socks.

I just put them aside to get rolling on the blanket. I am to the foot-forming part. It seems to be going OK, and I slipped them on to test the size. Seems right. It is getting cold here, so it will be nice to have them to wear around the house.

Back to Thanksgiving…

Thursday night we had a rare opportunity to have a date. The Goth/Industrial night at a local club was having a special Thanksgiving event. Thursday night is usually not convenient for getting a babysitter and staying out late. But since it was a holiday and Neil was off on Friday it was perfect! Mari had a little sleepover with her cousins. Our goth mom Donna met us at the club and we danced the night away. My, my, my is Marilyn Manson’s version of “Personal Jesus” fun to dance to. Very festive!

Friday and Saturday were a bit of a blur with Mari’s dress rehearsal and performance. She did a great job, as always and Neil controlled himself with his cheering this time. He is usually so loud she can pick him out of the crowd. Here is the sparkly outfit:

This was for a classic ballet number. It was the first time her dance has been more of a traditional ballet. She is dancing now with some of the older girls and it is amazing how much they have all progressed already since the fall. I am happy that she is being challenged while at the same time she has fun with it.

She had a costume change and then did a fun Raggedy Ann and Andy jazz dance to the song “What I Like About You.” It was very cute! Then we all went home and got the best night’s sleep we’d had in weeks! Must have been because we had nothing to worry about on Sunday! We recorded the podcast, but it was an easy one. We are playing tons of music this month. It’s a fun and eclectic mix.

So this morning is back to normal. Thank goodness! First thing I am going to do is clean off my desk. (OK, I am doing this blog first, but the desk is next.) It is a disaster. I can’t stand it another minute. Receipts, podcast jottings, phone numbers, song lyrics – I need a clean slate to think straight.

Then it is on to baking those cookies!

Welcome to Gothy-Music-Land (Part 2): The PowerBook Obit

Neil’s Blog Post

So my PowerBook died the other day. That’s right. Dead. As a doornail. And as much as it was my work computer, it also had tons of personal stuff on it… All the files for our podcast, my t-shirt designs and all my music files for my new record. So, as you can imagine, I was pretty stressed out about the idea of losing all that… especially since I was just getting started on the new record.

Anyway, Erik, one of the wonderful and talented IT guys at work took a crack at getting my stuff off of it before it ascended to iHeaven. He was able to get everything off but my applications. What a relief! And to top it off, he had a brand new MacBookPro rushed over so that I could continue my work. We are in the middle of working on a big Christmas show and there’s a lot of video work and animation that needs to be completed in the next few weeks.

He told me that the hard drive was toast. It only stayed alive for brief periods of time and would overheat very fast and would die, which is why he was able to get the files off but not the applications. It crapped out before he could get those off. However, he told me that if I waited a day or so, it might come back for just enough time to get the applications off. So I decided that’s exactly how I would spend Thanksgiving Day.

Got up early Thursday morning and plugged everything in… started up the new Mac… started up the old Mac… crossed my fingers… Nothing. It started up and then dies about two minutes later. It was making this really nasty sound too. Like tiny little people made of metal slowly dying in a car crash over and over again. Crap!

So, off to Thanksgiving dinner with Laura’s parents and her sister’s family. While there, I started manually loading all my software. A troublesome project to be sure – but one I didn’t mind as I remembered the fact that I could have lost everything but, by the grace of God, didn’t.

We get back home around 4:30 and I start loading more software. I’m getting a bit frustrated (I’m not too good at waiting for things) and so I decide to try the old laptop one more time. Maybe it’ll stay running long enough for me to get at least one or two applications off. So I start it up and almost immediately it starts making that horrible noise. I don’t know what made me try this next step… but it was inspired. I reached out, grabbed the laptop and turned it upside down. The noise stopped for a brief second and then started back up again. Hmm. It seemed to have stopped while it was in motion. So I picked it up off the table and began to slowly rocking it back and forth in my arms. What do you know? The noise stopped altogether and a little icon appeared on my desktop saying, “your old crapped-out, dead as a doornail computer is ready to have it’s files copied over to your pretty new MacBook Pro.”

I didn’t know if this was a fluke… or gremlins… or a sign from above… but I quickly began copying the applications and files that I hadn’t already reloaded earlier. Within about 20 minutes I had all my applications running perfectly on the new laptop. Just in time too, as my arms were getting rather tired. I wish I had a video of that. I’m sure Laura will attest to the fact that I looked pretty silly wiggling this laptop in one arm while clicking and dragging files with the other.

So that was my Thanksgiving Day. All is well now. In fact, I am writing this post from the new laptop and I can’t wait til Monday when I can share this story with Erik in IT. I’m sure he’ll get a laugh out of it.

Still with no pithy catchphrase, bye.
Neil

PS – My friend Dave – who is playing guitars on the new record – dyed his hair black last week. It’s all dark and gothy, and I’m sure he did it because of the music he’s making on the record. Probably not, but I like to think so.

Optimus Prime

Ready, Steady, Go!

Laura’s Blog Entry

And they’re off! Holiday food preparation has begun. First were Grammie’s Noodles.

This went pretty smoothly, considering I don’t have any notes on how exactly I made them last time. All I have are a list of ingredients from my Grandmother’s recipe. You can bet I will be jotting down some important things so next time it will be a breeze. Like letting the dough rest 10 minutes before extruding it. That worked much better, not so sticky. Here they are drying.

Can’t wait to taste them on Thursday. I’ll be making Potato Rusks tomorrow. These are a special kind of dinner roll that have a bit of potato in them. I tried them last year for the first time and they really didn’t rise well. The dough was too soft and it collapsed on itself. Now that I have bread tips from the lovely Christa, I plan to try some of the dough stretching she taught me during the first rise to develop the gluten. We shall see what happens. May be another flop, but Potato Rusks haven’t defeated me just yet.

Finally, I really, really hope to start baking on Sunday. Here are my newest additions to the cookie-baking arsenal:

I decided that I was done trying to work with two nice cookie sheet and one really bad one. Now I have 4 nice, heavy ones. I found these new ones at Target. Who knew you could get high-end pans there? Cookies don’t rise on thin cookie sheets for me. Now they should all look uniform. Also, note that I invested in a candy thermometer. I borrowed one last year when I made the homemade caramel candy. Well, that recipe is a keeper, so now I have my own. Nothing more fun than stirring a pot of searing liquid sugar and butter that could burn the flesh right off my carcass. It’s like my own little episode of “Fear Factor,” right in my very own kitchen.

As much as I’d like to hang out in the Blogisphere right now, I better get a few more things done before I make my third trip downtown for the day. Mari’s class had a fieldtrip, so I went down to take them to the Underground Railroad Freedom Center, and then pick them up when they were done. It was a fitting trip for her class to tour the Freedom Center right before Thanksgiving. It makes me reflect on the crazy amount of freedom we get to enjoy. And the crazy amount food that will be before us on Thursday.

Like Sands Through the Hourglass…

Laura’s Blog Entry

… so are the days of our lives.

I have some thoughts rattling around in my brain about Dave Gahan’s solo album Hourglass and it’s time to get them onto paper (in a virtual kind of way). I have to say that I connect more with this album than I did with his first solo outing, Paper Monsters. PM was more bluesy and rocky. I like many different genres of music, but rock is not one that I often connect with.

The first thing that jumped out at me about Hourglass is that it is very electronic. I am immersed in electronic stuff right now and I am learning a lot about it, so instantly it was interesting to me on that level. One of Dave’s co-writers, Andrew Philpott, was a huge influence in this department. Andrew co-wrote and co-produced the album with Dave and Christian Eigner. I am becoming a big fan of Mr. Philpott’s work. I’m sure you all know by now how much I adore Martin Gore’s Counterfeit 2 album. Andrew worked on that album as well. I can see his influence more clearly now that I’ve heard another of his projects.

I’ve given Hourglass quite a few listens, and what I find myself wanting to do is divide the album into 2 different playlists – a pretty one and then a dark and gothy one. Like I said on the podcast, I really enjoy the down and dirty dance-y songs. But when I just listen to the quieter ones, they are quite lovely as well.

Here are my thoughts on the songs, in a stream-of-consciousness kind of way:

Saw Something
Good starting track. Begins mellow and laid back. And when those strings kick in, watch out! I am such a sucker for a beautiful vocal combined with a cello. When this track comes on, I find myself stopping what I am doing and getting lost in it. The thing that amazes me about good electronic stuff (and well mixed music in general) is how all the sounds and parts work together while they also occupy their own space – they don’t interfere with each other. Neil has tried to explain it to me – something to do with frequencies of sounds and such. I just know when it is done well and this is really beautiful. Electric guitar, cymbal, cello, all working together but kept clearly distinguishable. It makes my ears very happy!

Kingdom
Love the breathing sounds at the beginning. There are a lot of inhalation sounds on DM records. I have only recently noticed that. It gives the music a more intimate, human feeling. I connect with this song lyrically. Dave said this about it:

“It’s this idea that there’s a better place, and it’s not up there in the clouds, it’s right here.”

I do think there is a Kingdom. I have little patience for people who say, “Isn’t it a shame things are this way. Boy will it be better someday when the Kingdom arrives.” I believe we all need to get off our asses and be a part of making it happen right now. But that’s just me.

Deeper and Deeper
OK, speaking of asses…I can’t wait to hear this one in a club and dance my ass off. Where is my velvet skirt and stomping boots, anyway? The words are … well…a bit disturbing. I’m a girl who appreciates the sweet talk, but I can understand where he’s coming from. I am especially enamored with the percussion on this one. Christian Eigner is responsible for that. Kickin!

21 Days
I notice another technique used on this song that is often employed masterfully on DM records – singing the vocals in 2 octaves – a high and a low. It give a nice fullness to the vocal without having to add a lot of vocal effects. I can’t help compare the “Awww yeah,” part at the beginning with Recoil’s new album Subhuman. Similar bluesy sound. I really don’t know what this song is about. But it has a certain desperation about it. I wanted more verses on this one so I could figure it out. Neil says it is about George Bush.

Miracles
This one gives me a Twin Peaks, Julee Cruise kinda feeling, especially that bass line. It’s really hard to go so minimal and pull it off; here it works. Lyrically I am caught by the honesty of this one. Guaranteed tearjerker live.

Use You
Hello Trent Reznor and Marilyn Manson. Love this one. Very hooky and I can’t stop from singing along. Wonder if they’ll play this for me next week at goth dance night. Neil says this one is about drugs. Imagine that…

Insoluble
I am hypnotized by this song. The vocal layering is masterful. Good to see at least one “angel” reference on this record. Here’s my favorite quote of Dave’s that I’ve read regarding writing this album:

“After all these years of singing these songs for Martin, his creepiness is now definitely a part of me,” he says. “But what I’m finding out with ‘Hourglass’ is that I’m just as creepy, if not more so. And I’m OK with that. Because the truth of it is, I couldn’t have had a better template for my own life than Martin Gore’s songs.”

I think deep down they all appreciate each other. It’s nice to see it come out occasionally.

Endless
Turn out the lights, lay of the floor and let this one rip. I think I figured out what I meant on the podcast when I said that there was something missing on the vocals. I think they used some vocal effects that dulled down his voice a bit. Maybe they did that to make things blend better; I don’t know. But this is the song I was talking about when I said that. I wish the vocal were a bit harder-edged on this one. But a great song, nonetheless; one of my favorites.

A Little Lie
Love the sound at the beginning – very Cure-ish. I like the rawness of “A Little Lie.” I like the contrast between the lines, “You know it doesn’t mean nothing,” and “I realize you could be right.” Like when we don’t want to admit we’ve done something wrong. There’s obviously something personal here and I don’t need to know exactly what he’s talking about to get it.

Down
Do you ever listen to a song and think, “I wish someone would have written that song for me”? This is that song. It’s about a certain level of honestly that we don’t often get to in relationships. When you know someone gets you and you can say stuff you would never admit at any other time with any other person. I think I like this vocal performance the best. It’s like he worked hard on the other ones to get them just right and on this one he just sang it. Plus I can’t keep myself from singing harmony to the line “I feel so old.”

When I compare this album to the work of other musicians it is not because I think it is derivate in any way. It is just a language that Neil and I use when we listen to music. We deconstruct layers and parts into smaller bite size bits and talk about all the other things we’ve ever heard that relates to it and then we put it all back together again and listen with wonder at what it come out to be. Very Gestalt – the whole is bigger than the sum of its parts and all that.

I am just so happy for Dave. I know exactly what it is like to find your creative voice in your 40’s. It can bring up regret for years wasted, and make you feel time is going by too fast and there won’t be enough of it to do all the wonderful things you now see are possible. Here’s to the many good years left in that hourglass. I plan to enjoy every single one of them.

Happy Camper

Laura’s Blog Entry (But Neil’s Stuff)

Here’s a little something for you to watch. Remember that Neil worked on a film for the 24 Film Project earlier this year? Well it is up on YouTube. He was the editor on a team that wrote, directed, filmed and edited this in 24 hours. OK 24 1/2 hours. It won the award “Film We Most Wished Was on Time.” The team put together a quirky little story, as always! Enjoy!

Happy Camper

Brent Spence Bridge at Night