A few months ago, as we considered what to do during our Christmas break, I realized that it had literally been years since we'd had a break where we didn't travel somewhere or have visitors. I love to travel and visit friends and family, and I love to have visitors. But I also like to occasionally have a break to do stuff around the house. And when I say stuff, I mean projects like decluttering the garage, shampooing the carpets, stuff like that. The kinds of things that make my house more livable.
So when my parents and my mother-in-law asked about visiting during the Christmas break, I respectfully requested a postponement. I just wanted to be at home during the break, with no visitors and the free time to leisurely putt around the house and get some odds and ends done.
However, the kids really wanted to play in the snow. It is usually our custom to spend a couple of days in Flagstaff to do a little sledding, but we also had an invitation to visit my uncle and aunt in New Mexico. When the choice was staying in a cruddy hotel for a night in Flagstaff, or staying for a few days at my uncle's house, they wanted New Mexico. And with gas so cheap right now, I couldn't put up too much of an argument.
So I gave in to my kids and on Monday, mere hours after the Grand Canyon Baha'i Conference ended, we were packing for New Mexico.
We didn't leave Phoenix until after 5 pm, but we made pretty good time and the kids (and Cristina) could sleep through a good chunk of the drive. I almost ran out of gas as we neared Tijeras, but luckily, our GPS guided us to a 24 hour gas station about 3 miles off the beaten path. For the record, I can make it from Payson, Arizona to Tijeras, NM on one tank of gas. Barely. So there's that.
We got to Uncle Doug and Aunt Lynn's house around 2 am. All the kids had woken up during the stop for gas, so they were all bright-eyed and bushy-tailed for a little while, until we could finally get to bed.
Day 2: After somewhat of a sleep-in, we got started with our day. There were several inches of snow on the ground, so the kids got dressed and did a little playing, until their boots got full of snow and they had to come in to thaw out by the fire.
After a lunch of pizza, we packed up some dinner sandwiches and headed to the Explora museum in Albuquerque. We went to this hands-on museum when we were here last year, but the kids loved it so much they wanted a repeat trip. Since our Arizona Science Center annual passes give us entry into Explora as well, it was definitely on our list of "must do's." In fact, it's another reason the kids lobbied so hard for New Mexico vs. Flagstaff.
We spent a few hours at Explora, ate our turkey sandwiches as the museum was closing at 6 pm, then drove to the botanical gardens for their annual "river of lights." From November through December 30, the gardens are decorated with thousands of lights in the shapes of everything from animals to plants to cars and planes. The temperature was rather chilly to us, although Uncle Doug commented on what a nice evening it was for Albuquerque. We spent about an hour and half walking through the lights.
Inside a giant pumpkin. Note the "pumpkin guts" and seeds hanging down.
Back at home we had hot chocolate and popcorn. I laid down with Alex and Bella and fell asleep with them around 10 pm.
Well, he is a beautiful French bulldog. Egon spent a full week with us. But Saturday, Valerie picked him up and he will be joining a loving family in Nebraska.
We decided we weren't ready for a second dog.
It wasn't because he peed on Alex's bed (on a rather expensive down quilt), requiring me to figure out how to successfully launder a down quilt. (He peed on Bella's bed too, but that was just a regular old comforter. Still inconvenient, but not as big of a deal.) And it wasn't because the very next day, he peed on Alex's bed again, on the same, freshly laundered down quilt. As infuriating as that was, we know that it was a territory thing. An adjustment period thing.
And it wasn't even because he bit Alex on Christmas day, drawing blood, after Alex got too close while he was chewing a rawhide bone. We hadn't done the "dominance down" thing with all the kids, so Egon didn't see Alex as higher in the pecking order. After this quick dominance exercise (thanks Valerie!) Alex could now take a steak from Egon's mouth without so much as a growl.
No, the reason we decided against a second dog is because I realized that it's more work than I want to add to my life right now.
It reminds me of a story I heard a long time ago. A man of modest means was depressed that his house was so small and his wife just had their third child. So he went to the village wiseman and asked what he should do. "Get yourself 2 chickens." Though this advice seemed strange, the man did as the wiseman instructed and brought two chickens home. He squeezed their pen into the kitchen, which was now even more cramped. He went back to the wiseman the next day. "You need a goat." So he got a goat. It had to stand by the bed that he and his wife slept in. He kept returning to the wiseman, hoping to get relief for his overcrowded home, but each time, the man advised him to get something else. Soon he had 2 chickens, a goat, 3 dogs, several old tires, 8 pigeons, a rusty bicycle, 4 cats, and a cow, all crammed into his tiny shack. When he went to the wiseman the next day, he put his foot down. "We have no more room! We have to eat our meals with dogs between our feet and at night the cow stands over our bed and keeps me awake. Please help me!" And the wiseman said "Take all those things out of your house now and give them away, and your problem will be solved." The man did as he was told, and was amazed at how much room there now was in his home for his himself, his wife, and his 3 children. They all felt like they lived in a mansion.
So the problem with Egon wasn't so much space, although our house is not that big, but just the extra work of tending to another animal was not something I wanted to add to our busy lives. Having Egon for a week reminded me of how easy Vivien is. Egon had some traits, some habits, that Vivien just doesn't have. He was more of a licker (not our favorite). He jumped up on everything (including our bed). He liked to roam if he got out the door, and didn't come when called. I know all these things are trainable behaviors, but that's exactly my point. I don't have the time right now to deal with modifying these behaviors. Or I should say I didn't want to make the time. It made me appreciate how great of a dog she is. So for now, Vivien will be our only dog.
Thanks for the visit, Egon. And remember that it was nothing personal!
Valerie, the woman who we got Vivien from, has had a male French bulldog, Egon, for quite a while. We tried to get Vivi pregnant by Egon a few months ago, but to no avail. With the bad economy, the dogs aren't selling very well for Valerie, and Egon is starting to get a bit on the old side (he's about 14 months old, but most buyers want a brand new puppy). Valerie is trying to work out something for us to have Egon as a permanent member of our family. I have entertained the idea of getting a second Frenchie, for the companionship of Vivi, who can get a bit lonely when we're at work and school. I had thought about maybe keeping one of Vivi's puppies, but in reality, a second dog from a completely different bloodline is a better way to go. And since we need Vivien to have a couple of litters of puppies, what better than to have the stud live with her (marriage ceremony is pending).
So we're giving Egon the test run this weekend. He is a good looking dog. If he doesn't sell, and we wind up keeping him, Valerie will use him for breeding and charge a stud fee for each "fruitful union."
As you can see in the pictures, he is much bigger than Vivi. But Vivi is already on the small side. He's not even as big as typical male Frenchies, but at only 14 months, he will fill out some more. He'll get stockier, but not much taller.
His head is far bigger and bulldoggier than Vivi's, and his tongue often hangs out (Vivi's never does...she's much more proper than that). The tip of his tongue hanging out 90% of the time tends to give Egon a slightly moronic look, but it's kind of endearing. He is not as well behaved as Vivi (yet). He jumped up on our bed this morning, which is amazing because our bed is pretty high. But strangely enough, he is scared of the stairs. He's slowly mastering them, but going down is still challenging.
And if there was any question as to whether Vivien is the alpha dog or not, that question has quickly been put to rest, as you can see in this video. Vivien never fails to put him in his place, especially if he gets out of line. This is Vivien's house and she reminds him of it often.
I think we all have times where, even though we may ultimately like our jobs, we have a down day or week and we think about another job that we envy. Deep in some secret place, we yearn to have that job. Maybe it's just a fleeting moment of yearning. A grass is always greener moment, to be sure. Usually its a job that carries the perception of being far less stressful. Kind of like when you watch your cat sleeping and think "Oh, to be a cat and just lie around sleeping all day."
Often these secret fantasy jobs can be quite funny. A friend of mine's husband is a chef. Big time Japanese chef in Scottsdale. He won the Beard award a few years ago, which for chefs, is the equivalent of winning an Oscar. His secret fantasy job, though, is to work at Panda Express.
A few years ago, my secret fantasy job was to drive a UPS truck.
I fell asleep with the kids last night and I was awoken by Cristina, who was 99% sure she had just seen my sister Lynn on Oprah (she tapes it every day and watches it after the kids are in bed). She asked me to come take a look but I was half asleep and I thought she was crazy, or I was dreaming, or maybe a bit of both. So this morning she showed me the tape. The Oprah show was in Asheville, and it did look an awfully lot like Lynn's condos, and for a quick flash, it did kind of look like Lynn! You decide:
So was this Lynn? And if so, how come she didn't tell us to look for her guest appearance on Oprah? I'm not convinced. It didn't quite look like Lynn's kind of clothes. But it's definitely possible. Okay, Lynn...tell us!
Wow. It was 40 years ago that The Beatles was released.
A year after Sgt. Pepper, the Beatles' self-titled double-LP, nicknamed The White Album, signaled the Fab Four starting to go their separate ways. Most of it was written while the Beatles were in India, studying Transcendental Meditation with the Maharishi.
It's always been one of my favorite Beatles albums. I even wrote a review of it for my high school newspaper.
In that spirit, I'd like to post a review of just one of the many songs from this album. Popmatters.com has a review of each song on the album to celebrate the 40th anniversary. I thought this one really nailed it. Great song, too, needless to say.
Happiness Is a Warm Gun Primary Songwriter: Lennon Recorded: September 23-25, 1968 at Abbey Road
The Beatles' first side ends with an intricate masterpiece that represents a united—and unusually wonderful and weird—effort amidst so much individuality. Reportedly McCartney’s favorite “White Album” song, “Happiness Is a Warm Gun” is also classic Lennon: a lyric mixture of the psychedelic ("She’s well acquainted with the touch of the velvet hand / Like a lizard on a window pane"), the distinctly British ("Lying with his eyes while his hands are busy working overtime / A soap impression of his wife which he ate and donated to the National Trust"), the obviously sexual ("When I hold you in my arms / And feel my finger on your trigger"), the personal ("I need a fix”, reflecting Lennon’s drug dependency), and the political ("Happiness is a warm gun” came from a magazine article about the American gun lobby).
But beyond its potent poetry of religion, sexuality, violence, and vision, “Happiness” is one of the Beatles’ most musically sophisticated tunes. It is not built on verses and choruses but rather from four or five distinct sections that build in intensity. Lennon claimed it as a miniature history of rock ‘n’ roll, and that’s fair enough. It opens with a delicate verse of guitar and voice only, shifting upward as bass and drums enter. There is a sudden change to 3/4 time for a brief, guttural blues guitar solo that precedes “I need a fix”. Just as suddenly, the triple meter double-times to 6/8 while Lennon starts to sing “Mother Superior jump the gun”, slowing to 3/4 on the second half of the phrase. Which happens six times. But with a measure of 4/4 on the end of the every other repetition. Got it? Needless to say, the familiar doo-woppy “Happiness is a warm gun / Bang-bang, shoot-shoot!” is back in 4/4 again, but Lennon’s spoken interlude ("When I hold you...") is in 3/4 again.
All this intricacy might sound like symphonic prog-rock run amok, except that it takes a scant 2:43, with each section as concise as a dot of color in a Seurat painting. And the wonder of the song is precisely this almost shocking brevity and incongruity: no section repeats, and each part seems like a new world, a revelation. While it is clear that “Happiness” glues together several different tunes, there is also flat-out artistry in how these disparate pieces echo off each other. The toggling between duple and triple meter gives the tune balance, even as the intensity of each section ramps ever upward. There is also a balancing of romantic imagery (starting with a girl and a man) and violent imagery, allowing Lennon to be alternately provocative ("Mother Superior” mixed together with “gun") and playful (is it the woman’s trigger or the gun’s trigger he has his finger on?). As always, Lennon is aware of how the commodification of the Beatles can be exploited: the title of the song is a bitter joke about the gun lobby, but also a reference to the cuddly catch-phrase from Peanuts of the time, “Happiness Is a Warm Puppy”. The joy of this play is that it is also sonic: the beautiful reverb on the opening guitars doesn’t even last a minute, but the vocal falsetto doubling that starts with “I need a fix” is its own kind of candy, which then develops into the mocking harmony of “Bang-bang, shoot-shoot”.
All of which is to say: Wow. Only five years had passed since “I Want to Hold Your Hand”, yet the Beatles were now writing and recording complex poetic suites rather than verse-chorus pop tunes. Radiohead apparently found “Happiness” of inspiration when working on its own multi-part tune, “Paranoid Android”, for OK Computer. But what had not changed for the Beatles was their keen awareness that rock ‘n’ roll—the sublime art of the three-minute symphony—was worth an investment of great wit and passion. “Happiness Is a Warm Gun” is catchy like a pop song, provocative like protest art, effortlessly complex and yet off-the-cuff funny. Which is to say: it is the apotheosis of “Beatle-esque”.
I know I just posted a Sofie performance, but...when it rains it pours!
Tonight the ASA band department had its fall concert. Her group (Foundations 2) did 3 pieces. I taped them all with my video camera, but since I can more easily post video from our still camera, I also got some footage with that camera.
This is the superhero medley that concluded Sofia's portion of the concert. It's hard to see, but Sofia is playing trumpet at the far right of the screen.
Last Friday, we went to movie night at Desert Marigold School. This is something new they're doing as a fundraiser for the 8th grade. It was a chilly evening, so we wore jackets and brought a blanket. We grabbed some dinner from Chipotle and Ono Hawaiian BBQ and ate it at the school. The movie was Modern Times, one of my favorite Charlie Chaplin movies, and one that I used to teach every year when I taught film studies. I had told Alex about it, so he was anxious to see it. It was cool to see him totally enraptured. When it was over, I asked him what he thought, and he said it was too short (it was 87 minutes long). He loved it. After writing my "movie memory" blog, I wonder if, 25 years from now, Alex will reflect on this as an important night for shaping his movie tastes. You never know.
We brought Vivien with us, too. It's fun when we can take her on outings. It feels like we're including her more than if we just left her in the back yard.
Saturday was crazy full. In the morning, I attended a district training for 4 hours (I'll admit it...I did it for the money). Sofia had a piano recital at her piano teacher's house. She performed "The Entertainer." Then, Alex went to a birthday party. After the training, I picked up picnic supplies at Costco and headed home. Cristina, Sofia, Bella, Vivien and I went to ASA (Sofia's school) for a family picnic in the park. While that was going on, I went and picked up Alex from his friend's house. We all hung out at the park until 4, then headed home. It was a beautiful fall Arizona day (sunny, crisp, high of about 75) I went for a bike ride in the neighborhood with the three kids before the Gator game. The game started at 6 on ESPN2, which meant I could watch it at home. The Gators looked almost perfect. There was never any doubt about the outcome. Sofia went to a symphony performance at 8 with her piano teacher, Danya. After the Gator game, Cristina and I watched a movie. We had a slightly senior moment about 10 minutes into it when we realized that we'd rented the movie before. But we watched it again anyway. We both got more out of it this time. We must have fallen asleep the first time.
Sunday was much more low-key. I cleaned up the garage a little bit, my objective being to enable the bikes to be accessed easily without blocking in the motorcycle. Mission accomplished. That should provide more motivation to do more bike riding now that the weather is so nice. For the third day in a row, we took Vivien on an outing. This time, we hiked the Mormon trail on South Mountain for about an hour. Vivien did great. She was a total trooper on the rocky path. Only once did we have to give her a boost over a big step. It was her first hike, and she's a natural. Bella, on the other hand, managed to arrive at the mountain with nothing but flip-flops on her feet. She did fine too, but Cristina and I were rolling our eyes that neither of us had checked her choice of footware before we had left the house.
Monday, I had to work. Strange to have school on Monday and then be off Tuesday for Veteran's Day, but that's how my district does it. It was an easy day, though. We chose to get Alex and Sofia's passport renewals done that afternoon. Since both parents have to be present, it's been a challenge to find the time to do it. Luckily, we found a passport office on the ASU campus that did not require appointments. And even better, there was no wait, they were super fast, and they were even friendly! I've never had that experience when dealing with passports. We then went straight to Sofia's Junior Youth group. After Junior Youth, we went to Sweet Tomatoes for dinner. It was DMS fundraiser night, so 15% of our bill went to the school.
Tuesday, we all had the day off. We were having the Eurythmy teacher from DMS over for lunch, so we got the downstairs cleaned up. I bought a new tank of gas for the grill and grilled steaks and stuffed chicken breasts. Lunch was great. Afterwards, we walked down to the park with Vivien and played. 3 of Sofia's old classmates from DMS came by and at one point there were 13 children playing together. Perfect evening, beautiful sunset, Vivien hanging out with us, kids playing...just a great evening.
To recap:
Friday: Charlie Chaplin movie night Saturday: piano recital, ASA picnic, bike ride, Gators win big Sunday: hike on South Mountain Monday: passports done, Sweet Tomatoes for dinner Tuesday: lunch guest (clean house and grilled steaks), playing at park
It's amazing how different the quality of life is here when the temperature finally drops!
When we moved to Candler, North Carolina (I was 6) we did not have cable TV (which was still kind of a new concept). We had a big antenna on our roof, and a rotary dial that we turned to tune in one of about 3 stations that we could get. The dial would turn the antenna, via a motor, in the direction to pick up a particular channel. And you stuck stickers on the dial to show where to turn it to get certain channels. I know we got ABC and PBS pretty well. CBS would not come in hardly at all, which was an extreme disappointment because that's the channel that had The Incredible Hulk, The Dukes of Hazzard, and on Saturday mornings, the 90-minute bliss that was The Bugs Bunny/Road Runner Show.
This limited TV had an unmistakable effect on me because I watched certain things, probably because that's all we could watch. Some of these shows had a definite impact on shaping my tastes in film and storytelling. The first was a PBS show called "Sneak Previews."
The show was pretty simple...two guys talked about movies that were out in theaters and discussed how good or how bad they were. The guys seemed pretty serious (borderline grumpy) and some of their talk went over my head. Their names were Gene Siskel and Roger Ebert. And within a few years, their little Chicago-produced PBS show would grow huge, become nationally-syndicated, and change its name to Siskel and Ebert At the Movies. The intro to the original show, Sneak Previews, will forever be burned into my brain, though. And thanks to the magic of YouTube, I found it:
Through this show, I learned about a lot of movies that most 6-8 year-olds wouldn't know about. I remember when they reviewed Raging Bull. They both loved it so much (rightfully so) but I remember being surprised that a current movie in theaters could be black and white and so incredibly good. Compared to the slick look of the Star Wars movies, Raging Bull looked like something from the old days! Years later, I would eventually watch Raging Bull to see what all the fuss was, and for a while it was one of my favorite movies.
I also remember them reviewing The Black Stallion, The Elephant Man, Chariots of Fire, and too many others to list. The cool thing about Sneak Previews was that they didn't just review the current Hollywood blockbusters, but they would review documentaries, art films, and smaller independent films. This exposed me to a bunch of films that would go in my memory banks for later retrieval.
The Twilight Zone
Another show that had a huge effect on me during these years was The Twilight Zone. The Twilight Zone had been off the air for nearly 15 years by the time I lived in Candler, but the PBS station aired reruns. I even remember the very first episode I saw, "A Stop at Willoughby." In that episode, an advertising executive who has grown exasperated with the stress of the business life and whilst being unable to sleep properly at home, constantly drifts off for short naps on the train during his daily commuting. He dreams of a peaceful place called "Willoughby." Set in the year 1888, Willoughby exudes a peaceful, stress-free lifestyle long gone. "Next stop, Willoughby," the conductor calls to the passengers. The man wants so badly to get off at Willoughby but he can't seem to get off the train in time. After he finally snaps at his workplace, and after being rebuffed in a plea for help to his selfish, uncaring and cold hearted wife, he exits the train while in his dream so he can live in Willoughby. In reality, he jumped off the train to his death. The final twist is revealed when his body is eventually loaded into a hearse owned by Willoughby & Son Funeral Home.
That episode totally set the tone for me. The Twilight Zone was a show that made you think. It sometimes had dark undertones. I grew an appreciation for unhappy endings, or bittersweet themes. I didn't grasp it at the time, but the show dealt with serious themes like racism, materialism, isolation, and greed in the format of a mystery/science fiction genre. Brilliant. While some episodes were downright scary, they always had some kind of twist at the end that I fell in love with. Rod Serling became an icon in my psyche. It's still my favorite TV show of all time
The First HBO Years
Around this same time period, we were good friends with the McClendons. The McClendons had 4 kids (like us), lived in Asheville, had city water (we had nasty well water full of sulphur), and cable TV. Even more amazing is that they had HBO. We spent a lot of time with them. Our parents enjoyed hanging out with their parents, playing cards and such. And us kids played all kinds of games together and watched all kinds of TV together. My first foray into R-rated movies happened at the McClendon's house. I guess I was about 7 or 8 when I first watched (uncut of course) Friday the 13th, Halloween, and other horror movies. I remember a movie called Time After Time, which was not an all-out horror movie, but did include Jack the Ripper and some pretty intense and graphic scenes. We watched anything and everything. I remember watching such late 70's-early 80's fare as Dead & Buried (some of the most violently graphic dispatchings committed to film for that time period), The Wiz (urban surrealism?), Escape from New York (dark and gritty), Blow Out (De Palma being Hitchcock-esque, as usual), and The Warriors (gang wars!). Whenever I see those movies on TV today, it makes me think of watching HBO at the McClendons, spending the night, watching TV in their basement, popping popcorn and pouring melted butter all over it. Good times.
For better or for worse, my exposure to these movies on HBO at such a young age undoubtedly desensitized me to violence in movies, but also fostered a love of all kinds of movies, including horror and thrillers. And it made me a bit of a connoisseur of special effects, especially of the graphically violent variety.
The Lucas-Spielberg Creative Peak
From 1977 to 1983, a mere 6 years, these two filmmakers made the following movies: Star Wars, Close Encounters of the Third Kind, The Empire Strikes Back, Raiders of the Lost Ark, E.T.: the Extra Terrestrial, and Return of the Jedi. Like most kids my age, I saw them all, loved them all. They became a part of me. John Williams did the music for all of them, so his music was like the soundtrack of my cinematic youth.
Anyone under the age of 40 who says those movies didn't have an effect on their lives is lying.
My Sisters
My oldest sister Lynn took me to two movies that proved to be memorable. For my 7th birthday (I think it was for my birthday) she took me to see Moonraker, the 11th James Bond movie. Other than seeing some snippets of James Bond movies on TV, this was my first real Bond movie in a theater. Even though in retrospect, I know that Moonraker is one of the weakest Bond outings in terms of plot, I loved it at the time and it made me a true Bond fan. My love of Bond really grew a few years later when home video came about and I could rent the Connery Bond movies.
Lynn and her then-husband Lee also took Mary and me to our first R-rated movie. Of course, we had seen R-rated movies on HBO, but this was the first one in a movie theater. It was the Dan Aykroyd-Eddie Murphy movie Trading Places. It was fun going to a "grown-up" movie at the age of 10. One of the most memorable moments for me was getting to see Jamie Lee Curtis's boobies.
To be fair, my sister Bonnie took me to some movies too, but I don't think I had any firsts with her. I think she took me to see Herbie Goes Bananas. I also remember her taking Mary and me to see Fiddler on the Roof and she fell asleep! And when Mary and I spent the summer of 1983 with her in Kentucky, her then-husband Jeff took me to see Return of the Jedi for the first time.
Also, my sisters would see movies more appropriate for their age, and I would hear all about them second-hand. Sometimes when a movie is described with enthusiasm, it can create an even stronger impression in your mind than if you saw the movie yourself. I remember movies like Endless Love, The Blue Lagoon, and Saturday Night Fever through their own recounting of these movies.
The Next HBO Years
When we moved to Florida in 1982, we still didn't have cable. But 6 months later, we moved to a house that had cable. And for the first time, we got HBO. My background with HBO was already firmly established thanks to the McClendons. Now my accomplice was my father, who also would watch anything and everything. He generally didn't mind me joining him. Though my mom didn't always agree, I got away with watching such low-budget 80's horror "masterpieces" as The Boogens and Humongous (reminiscent of Friday the 13th, but better!). HBO also gifted me with such classics as An American Werewolf in London, Sharky's Machine, Animal House, and Vice Squad.
And I can't leave out one particularly poignant memory from this time. When Star Wars debuted on HBO, pre-home video days, it was a momentous occasion for my friends and me. It was such a big deal that I had two friends sleep over so we could watch it Saturday morning. My friend Dom had never stayed the night at a friend's house before, and after dinner, he didn't feel well and had to go home. Basically, he got homesick, and he missed seeing Star Wars on TV. He still regrets it to this day, but it's a funny memory now.
Various Random Memories
...I remember seeing The Empire Strikes Back with my grandfather in Albemarle, NC. The next day, we were out walking around on some farm or something, and he swung a stick at some weeds and said to me with a sly smile "like one of those laser swords." I don't remember my grandfather ever watching much TV, let alone movies, so it was pretty cool that he went to see that movie with me. But even cooler that he was still thinking about it the next day.
...I saw Raiders of the Lost Ark in the theater by myself when I was 9. I blogged about that back in May when the latest Indiana Jones movie came out.
...Mary and I went to see Swamp Thing and for some reason we stayed in the theater and watched it a second time. I remember it being pretty scary. I can't remember why we watched it twice. I know I had a crush on Adrienne Barbeau afterwards.
...The same theater in Asheville where we saw Trading Places, Raiders of the Lost Ark, Swamp Thing, and Fiddler on the Roof is also the theater where we enjoyed The Muppet Movie and The Great Muppet Caper.
...Like Rattlers when I was 3, several commercials for movies on TV affected me greatly. I still remember being scared of the commercials for Silent Scream, The Amityville Horror, and The Shining. It's Alive was a 1974 horror movie that was re-released in 1977 with a massive TV publicity campaign that featured a trailer showing a bassinette, which slowly revolved to show the creature's claws hanging out of one side. Bllleeahh! Still gives me chills.
Home Video
My parents bought their first VCR around 1983. At the time, when home video was still in its infancy, there were two format choices: Beta and VHS. The few video rental stores that existed were generally split down the middle. One wall had Beta movies to rent, the other wall VHS. My parents chose a Beta machine. It was a good choice in that Beta was better quality than VHS, but it was the wrong choice for longevity, as the Beta selections for rent slowly dwindled away until completely phased out.
If I remember correctly, they paid about $800 for that first VCR. I remember being so amazed that we could not only own a movie to watch whenever we wanted, but we could actually record TV! I had a tape of episodes of Spider Man and his Amazing Friends that I recorded Saturday mornings. We owned a few movies on Beta that we watched to death: Raiders of the Lost Ark, Meatballs, ...what else, Mary?
Another of my earliest memories of our first VCR was going to Tampa to rent movies. Both my parents were taking classes at the University of South Florida for their Master's degrees. I would often go with them to Tampa, where I'd peruse the university library (they had a cool book I'd never seen before called How to Draw Comics the Marvel Way). While we were in Tampa, the two coolest things we would do were to go to comic book shops (there were none in Inverness) and we would stop at a video rental store. Our little town of Inverness didn't have very many choices for rentals yet, especially Beta, but Tampa had a pretty big rental place. Funny, in those days you had to pay for membership, you got charged a fee if you brought back a movie not rewound, and you could rent video players for a pretty hefty charge (I think you had to pay a $100 deposit). And now you can't even rent movies on VHS, and, sadly, mom-and-pop rental places have all but disappeared.
I remember how amazing it was when The Empire Strikes Back was first released on video. On one trip to Tampa, we rented that, as well as Prince's Purple Rain. By the time we got home, it was too late to watch anything (probably a school night). I remember trying to fall asleep while listening to my parents watching Purple Rain in the other room (we had thin walls). I think I listened to the whole movie, I was so eager to watch it.
Addendum
In retrospect, and as the father of 3, how do I now view my movie past? Do I wish it had gone differently? Do I wish my parents had forbid me from watching so many movies? Do I wish the McClendons hadn't enabled me to see slasher flicks before I was 10? My answer to all these questions is no. Because I like the way I am today. I like my tastes. I've even parlayed my love of movies into a high school film appreciation class that was one of my more satisfying teaching experiences. I've explored a far higher range of movies than I probably would have if my childhood had been different. So I wouldn't change a thing. That doesn't mean I seek to replicate my experience with my own children. Their loves and tastes will be shaped by their own experiences. And I wouldn't have it any other way. I look forward to reflecting on these kinds of matters with them when they are older.
There are a few ways of dealing with parking on game day. My favorite is to go to the game on a motorcycle, which is quite easy to park at the stadium. That's what Alex and I did last year, since Ramon's bike was being kept in Jarue's garage while he was deployed. But this year that wasn't available.
Another option is to use the park-and-ride. You park your car at the Oaks Mall, pay $8 per person, and take a special bus to the stadium. After the game, you take another bus back to your car. I'm a cheapskate, so $16 was too expensive. Plus, I didn't want to be locked into catching a bus after the game. That puts a crimp on autograph-seeking.
You can pay for a parking spot near the stadium, but that's even more expensive than the park-and-ride, and often your car is blocked in for a while after the game.
We could have had Jarue drop us off and pick us up, but then she'd have to deal with game traffic. So I opted for a variant of this option, which I call the "car plant." Basically, we plant a car in a decent (free) spot several hours before the game, and then get a ride to the stadium closer to game time. Then after the game, we just walk to our car and go home. We did this for Gator Growl the night before, and it worked great.
Unfortunately, we didn't get going quickly enough Saturday morning, and by the time we got to the place where we had parked for Gator Growl, there were no more spots. We drove around for a while (Jarue following us in another car) and then finally settled on a spot probably a mile from the stadium. Oh well. A nice post-game walk would be good for us, though I was pretty sure I'd be carrying Bella for most of it.
After we parked the car, Jarue drove us up to the stadium and dropped us off. The first thing we did was get a picture with the Albert and Alberta statues in front of Emerson Hall.
Our next goal was to be a part of the Gator Walk. This is a thing where fans line up from the corner of North-South Drive to the stadium entrance and when the team busses pull up, the players and coaches walk through this tunnel of screaming fans into the stadium. We meant to be a part of it last year, but we got to the stadium a bit too late.
The fans were already lining up, so we found a spot. Within 15 minutes, the busses arrived and the players and coaches passed by. I couldn't see very well, but I had Bella on my shoulders and Alex was at the front where he could see better. I held my camera up over my head to snap a few pictures and got this one of Mr. Tebow:
We didn't realize it until it was too late, but if we had been on the other side, there was a group of kids that Tebow gave high-five to. Here's the only picture I have of Tebow and Alex. That's Alex in the khaki hat below center.
Luckily, Alex is very cool about everything. He takes what comes and doesn't pitch a fit. There was another little kid, about Alex's age, who wanted to see better, but his massive father couldn't squeeze up there with him. I told the father that my son was up in front and I was sure his son could just squeeze up there with him. I even introduced the two boys real quick. But the kid was just whiny and scared, and stayed in the back with his parents, unable to see much at all. I'm glad Alex is brave and willing to get up there in the thick of things.
Okay, about 2 hours till kickoff. Next order of business: procure some tickets!
Last year I bought two tickets on StubHub for (gulp) $100 each. At least they were pretty good seats. The biggest fear that led me to buy them ahead of time was not getting tickets at the stadium early enough to enjoy the pre-game stuff inside the stadium. Since we were coming all the way to Florida just for the game, I opted for the expense of security. But this year, since we had just experienced a game the previous year, I was more comfortable with buying tickets right before the game.
For those who have never bought tickets outside a stadium, let me give you a quick tutorial. Before the game, you walk around outside of the stadium and hold up the number of fingers for tickets that you need. When someone who has tickets to sell sees you, they approach you. You talk price, you look at where the seats are (carrying a small map of the stadium is helpful) you haggle a little bit, and then you either buy or you move on. Some people selling tickets walk around holding the tickets up in the air. So if you need tickets, it's easy to see who has tickets to sell. Selling tickets for more than their face value is called scalping, and used to be illegal in Florida. People still did it, but you had to be discrete. But a few years ago they made it legal. At any rate, buying tickets at face value or below face value is not scalping. It's just getting a good deal, I suppose. And that was my goal. Face value on most tickets is $40. I was aiming to get 3 tickets for $20 each.
And that was one slight glitch: there were three of us this time. It's pretty easy to find 2 tickets. And it's often even easier to buy just 1 ticket at a low price, because often someone couldn't come at the last minute, so someone has an extra ticket to sell. But 3 can be tricky. Usually tickets are sold in pairs. If someone is selling 4 tickets, for example, they are reluctant to sell 3, because then they're left with a single that may be harder to get a good price for. So my plan was to find 2 together, and then a single. And with Bella being so small, we would just squeeze into the two seats.
I read something in the paper that morning that said selling tickets on campus was illegal. But I knew I'd probably get the best deals right outside the stadium. So I discretely tried to solicit some tickets at the stadium. No sellers. We went back across the street to Emerson Hall (technically not campus) and approached someone selling 2 tickets. End zone seats. Not the best, but not bad. He wanted face value. I offered him $40 for both. He took it. Two tickets down, one to go. Another guy was holding one ticket up. I asked him how much. He said $40. I said I'd give him $20. He said okay. Mission accomplished!
And the beauty of it was we had tickets an hour and a half before kickoff. We were some of the first ones inside the stadium when they opened the gates. We went down close to the field and watched the players warming up.
Here's the view from our seats. Bella was diggin' the popcorn:
The game went great. Alex was totally engaged. Bella got a little restless during the second quarter, but was better after we got pizza and nachos at halftime. I wanted to get video of a touchdown in our end zone. It took me several tries (you never really know exactly when they'll score) but I finally got one:
After the game, we bought a Gator football from the gift shop and got a few player autographs on it. I was going to buy a scorecard for autographs like last year, but couldn't find any. We didn't get any big time autographs, but it was still cool. Bella was really ready to go, so we finally made the long trek to the car. I only had to carry her about halfway.
After dinner, I got the kids to bed and then called one of my former students, Skyler. He and another former student, Colin, work downtown. We agreed to meet at a downtown bar called Lux. I never had Colin's girlfriend, Ashley, as a student, but I did have her older sister Kim.
We chatted for a couple of hours and then we walked down to their work place, an internet company called Grooveshark. It was cool to hang out with them, but the time was heading towards 3 am and it had been a long day. So I headed home and hit the sack.
The next day we went to a big book sale and got several bags of used books. I got about 30 books for my classroom. We spent the rest of the evening packing.
Bella had found a huge leaf on the way back to the car after the game. She said it was the biggest leaf she had ever seen:
Bella and Alex throwing the football we bought at the game.
Monday morning, after a brief stop at GHS to try to see my friend Jim (he wasn't there), we headed to Jacksonville. Here's the kids with our plane:
The flight home was long but uneventful (apart from some especially bumpy turbulance that woke Bella up). Overall, it was a great weekend, and a nice introduction to Gator craziness for Bella. Hopefully we can do it again next year.
I finally figured out why we always stay up late packing the night before a trip. It's because a) we know, based on precedent, that we can get it all done in one night, and b) we plan too carefully and try to consider everything we might possibly need. Sure it would be quicker to just throw some stuff in a bag, but then we'd more than likely find that we left something. So which inconvenience do we prefer: not having something we need, or staying up late packing?
One trip that I did the "just throw everything in a bag" technique, I got to our destination (I think it was Florida in December) with no long-sleeved shirts. So there you go.
With that said, I got to bed last Wednesday a little after midnight. Not too bad!
We had to get up at about 4:45 am (not cool). We said our goodbyes to a sleepy Sofia still in bed and Cristina drove us to the airport. No problems on the flight.
We switched planes in Atlanta. I was prepared to volunteer for "bumpage" if the opportunity arose, but it didn't. Alex even had an empty seat beside him on the way from Atlanta to Jacksonville.
"We're going past you, Papi!"
Jarue picked us up at the Jacksonville airport. On the drive back to Gainesville, I missed the exit for the 301 (in all fairness to myself, Jarue was talking to me and she missed the exit too). So we took the scenic route, through Lake Butler. The result was we got to Gainesville a little later than we could have. We had some dinner, baths and went to bed. I tried to get some former students together at Maude's after the kids were in bed, but I couldn't get a hold of anyone.
The next morning, we had breakfast and headed to the Homecoming parade. This was Bella's first, and we staked out our spot very early. Too early, actually. I thought the parade started at 11 am, but it didn't actually start till closer to 12:30. In the meantime, we bought chicken sandwiches from a big Chick-fil-a cow, and tried to stay dry. It rained off and on throughout the whole parade. We had ponchos, but we left the umbrellas in the car (I didn't want to keep up with them). I wished we had brought chairs. Sitting on the curb was okay, but for the amount of time we were there, chairs would have been better.
We sat right across the street from the stadium, and also right across from the Channel 5 TV cameras. We had Elena tape it at home so that we could maybe see ourselves on TV later.
I forgot the camera at home, so unfortunately I don't have any pictures of the parade. We did meet an old friend, Sandra Pak, who took a few pictures of us with her phone. She said she wasn't sure if she could figure out how to email them, though, so until I hear from her, no parade pictures!
Back at home, I picked up Elena and went to Wal-Mart for a couple of things. Then, we picked up her friend Leigh from work and went home for a dinner of North Carolina barbecue. Elena's boyfriend Brendan came over also, as the three of them were going to Gator Growl (as were Alex and I).
Like last year, I did not buy Gator Growl tickets ahead of time. It's quite easy to buy them outside of the stadium. Last year, I paid face value ($20 each) and then as I walked into the stadium, I overheard someone else buying some for $10 a piece. So my goal this year was to pay no more than $10 a piece for tickets. After walking around for about 3 minutes with 2 fingers held up, I got two tickets for $10 each.
The seats were up high, on the sky box side. Alex liked the seats, but I didn't like the angle we had of the big screens beside the stage. Elena and friends were down at field level. Via cell phone, she told us that there were a bunch of empty seats. We waited about 15 minutes after the show started and then came down and joined them. The view was much better.
Unfortunately, because of all the rain, they couldn't do much stuff on the field. So no parachutists swooping in or band stuff on the field. Last year one of the highlights was a flaming baton that accidentally caught a trash can on fire, but there were no flaming batons this time.
Overall, the show didn't seem quite as funny as last year. There was a little bit of political stuff, with taped messages by both candidates. The comedian was the guy that won Last Comic Standing (also of the "that thing got a hemi?" commercials). He was pretty funny.
My camera's auto-focus is crappy when it's in camcorder mode. But it's better than nothing.
I enjoyed the Steve Miller Band, even more than last year's Lynyrd Skynyrd, although they were great too. Steve Miller played a longer set than Skynyrd did. I think he played about 8 songs. Alex recognized "The Joker," which was the final song they did. Steve Miller was wearing a Tim Tebow jersey and seemed in fine form. I was impressed that he played lead guitar on all the songs. A lot of times these aging rockers let a younger guitar stud take the licks on stage, but Steve Miller nailed it.
Gator Growl concluded with some fireworks, which are always fun.
