Day 7.078: Now who would like some cake?

We have a pretty crazy couple of weeks ahead. Tomorrow, I go back to Maine. After a week of work I come back here for a final chance to get the house ready for the packers who arrive on Tuesday - which happens to be E5N1's birthday. So, with all that in mind, Exile #2 smartly decided to schedule his birthday party for today (and not at the house).

He and his friends seemed to have a blast. Here is the blowing-out-the-candles moment, a view of the homemade cupcakes and E5N1 after the party sorting through the loot:

And this is how we were forewarned not to have E5N1's seventh birthday at the house (and perhaps some cake decoration inspiration):

Day 7.077: Mission accomplished

I left work at noon, ate my packed lunch on the road and only stopped to fill up the car in order to be home in time to set up the Xbox so that Exile #3 and her friends could dance. 

They are gathered for a sorry-you're-leaving party and are currently watching a movie. Various parents will be picking them up over the next hour or so.  I think they've had a good time.

Tomorrow is E5N1's turn - although he has another excuse for a party too.

Day 7.059: Daylight savings? Don't wake me up!

Ah, the clocks went forward yesterday and today I had to get up for work (but fortunately not to run - just for work was hard enough!)

Here is a nearly perfect song from a good (but not in my opinion great) album by Lianne La Havas:


HUNGER TV: LIANNE LA HAVAS - DON'T WAKE ME UP from Hunger TV on Vimeo.

and no, the relevance does not go beyond the title, but the excellence does!

Day 7.041: They might be dinner

Look who turned up, making themselves comfortable in my Maine apartment today:

With someone finally wanting to buy our house in New York (fingers still firmly crossed that it all goes smoothly), they are here so we can look for a new one.

After a quick couple of viewings, it was dinner time - and where would we go, but a restaurant called Silly's?  We had a great meal - selected from the rather silly menu.  We didn't sample "Empire Strikes Mac" or "Eggy Pop", but we did have these:

at the bottom Exile #2's "Imperial Thai Fighter" and up top my, "Birdhouse in my Soul".

Day 7.033: Experimental, recycling

Two unrelated items for today (I'm still waiting for at least one more guess on Rug City #3)

A moment from E5N1  from today's Skype conversation:

and something from Facebook, I thought I would post here - I was challenged to come up with 12 albums that had "stayed with me over the years in some way." I was encouraged to come up with them quickly without agonising too much - just as well or I never would have come up with a list! I sat down to do it last weekend after stalling for a week or so.

This is what I came up with:

I decided that the rules meant (for me) - nothing that I discovered too recently, which ruled out excellent albums by Alt-J, Joan as Policewoman, Silversun Pickups and others. Some that really only come down to a song or two were also rejected. I also dismissed compilations and greatest hits. So here we go (in order of discovery):

U2 - The Joshua Tree: I can take or leave the big hits on this album, but whenever Red Hill Mining Town or Trip Through Your Wires comes on I can't resist!

R.E.M. - Document: There was a while when I couldn't see a Bank of America without finding myself singing Exhuming McCarthy - that became more difficult for a while after we moved to America and eventually I got over it!

The Cure - Wish: I'd just finished catching up with the back-catalogue when this album came out. I loved the rockier style and I could listen to From The Edge Of The Deep Green Sea and End all day.

The Blue Aeroplanes - Swagger: I started going to gigs in Oxford with a group of friends just after they'd been to see this band around this time. I've seen them since, but would have loved to see them at the height of their game.

The Charlatans - Tellin' Stories: One to Another was the big hit on this one, but I love it from "Stone me - and may you always have no shoes..." and it takes me right back to 1997.

Tori Amos - To Venus And Back: Ah Tori - one of the things I had in common with Exile #2 when we met was a love of Tori's music. This album is so assured - her last before she became a parent, but I could have chosen any of them.

Badly Drawn Boy - The Hour of Bewilderbeast: I bought this on a long business trip in the US and it remains the soundtrack of that year - from the opening track with its French Horn and random guitar to Camping Next to Water's heartbreaking "There's no one here to feel with me".

Radiohead - Hail to the Thief: Again, I could have chosen any of their albums, but this is a forgotten gem I think and I always turn it up when it comes on.

Morrissey - You are the Quarry: One classic after another on this one - more assured than his earlier solo albums and more consistent than some of the later ones.

Snow Patrol - Eyes Open: So many good songs here but I'll pick out It's Beginning To Get To Me with the killer line "Just ignore all this present tense" and "Set the Fire to the Third Bar" with Martha Wainwright - so good.

Maximo Park - Our Earthly Pleasures: Our Velocity, Books From Boxes, By The Monument, ... such good song-craft.

Sufjan Stevens - Illinois: I came late to this - long after it was referenced on that Snow Patrol album above. I love the way he introduces melodies and then layers them over lyrics that contain so much poetry and information.

Anyone want to play?

Day 7.006: Empire State of Rug!

Of course, it was New York city!

...and the teaser picture was of the Staten Island ferry.

I'm singing "Empire State of Mind" to myself as I write this - but only partly because of E5N1's recreation of the concrete jungle. The other reason is because, by coincidence, I came across this wonderful video today from Exile #2's homeland:

Day 6.337: Sweet home...Alabama?

I'm home for the weekend. But Google Maps' generally excellent turn by turn directions seem to have an issue with the Albany turn off the Thruway - it's got that last-thing-on-a-Friday vibe.  Not inappropriately on this occasion.

The audio says:
"Take Exit 'exit 23' for Alabama nine west toward Albany/Troy," and the display shows:

A couple of minutes later, "Alabama nine west" seems to have turned into good old US 9W.

Which is something of a relief because making the trek to Albany is quite far enough - Alabama is rather more than I'd reckoned with.

Day 6.329: Band - sheet

I missed Exile #3's first middle-school band concert tonight. Not much I could do about that but I did happen upon these pictures of her from leaf raking a few weeks ago.

So that will have to do.

Day 6.328: DIY dance floor

Also made by E5N1 out of Magnatiles at the weekend:

a dance floor.

Entirely his idea - and then there was dancing!

Day 6.325: A tradition in four parts

When I suggested that, if pushed for time, we might just buy a Christmas tree rather than cutting our own today, I was met with widespread dismay. I hadn't realised that it had become such a tradition but looking back I see that we have done it the last three years in a row - with the added bonus of a pop reference that - including this reveal - has spanned four posts separated by nearly three years:

Day 3.328: The first cut (won't hurt at all)
Day 4.328: The second only makes you wonder
Day 5.327: The third will have you on your knees

Fortunately today there was no bleeding and a minimum of screaming. If you don't remember Propaganda's 1985 hit Duel - here's a clip.

Here's the tree after we had hauled it back from the field.

It's now "up" in the house although resisting the vertical apparently since my departure back to Maine. We didn't get to decorating it - maybe Exile #2 will send me a picture when it's done!

Day 6.300: He's my only friend...

...he's not my only friend,
but he's a little glowing friend,
but really he's not actually my friend
but he is...

blue canary in the outlet by the light switch (who watches over me!)

Day 6.294: Jumping someone else's train

We drove around the corner so the kids could trick or treat with sisters who are Exile #4 and E5N1's friends and their little sister and one of their neighboring families around their neighborhood. You can see their costumes properly here.

We had a great time despite the light rain (at least it was mild tonight) and there were certainly no complaints about the candy-haul - which was overflowing our biggest serving bowl when we got home.

P.S. If you pick up on it quick, you can say you were there:


The Cure - Jumping Someone Else's Train (Original Video) from martindebaser on Vimeo.

Day 6.286: She's a-getting ready to be-a for sale

This ole house:

Day 6.256: They Might Be Giants in Connecticut

This was the real reason we made the two-hours each-way trip to Hartford on Saturday.

The music of TMBG has been having something of an upsurge in popularity in the house of late. Towards the end of the school break E5N1 was cycling between the CDs of Join Us and Nanobots generally playing a single track over and over again during a day and then choosing a different one the next day - recently we've been allowed a little more variety each day.

In any case, it seemed that they were very much "now" for us and that we should make the effort to see them live again (last time was a kid's show back on Day 2.266).

Here are some images:

clockwise from top left:

Exile #3 and Exile #2 dancing to the pre-set music;

the top of the capital building which John Flansburgh pointed out looks like a guy in a hat after looking at it during a song that John Linnell was singing;

John in his stage gear;

John in his stage cardigan;

TMBG in full flow.

It was a great night - all five of us agreed that it had been a great choice to go.  The setlist is here for those who are interested by such things.

Day 6.255: Envisionfest Hartford

On Saturday after lunch, we drove the two hours to Hartford, Connecticut where the Envisionfest festival was taking place. We arrived as the event was winding down but we were in time to have some unhealthy -but tasty and freshly-cooked - food-truck food and watch some strange passers-by while we ate it:

Then we walked through Bushnell Park where we saw a large bird and a friendly stone mermaid - and even witnessed an interaction between them (there's also a big arch there):

And we saw this excellent drum troupe:



It looks like the festival was a great event - even the small part we saw was thoroughly enjoyable.

Having walked the length of the park, we sat down between the high-rise of Hartford's downtown and the state capital:

and waited for the real reason we had made the trip...the last event of the festival (and I'll tell you about that tomorrow!)

Day 6.216: Musical interlude

Here's some music for your consideration...

Regina Spektor - Small Town Moon, because it's wonderful:



They Might Be Giants - Older, because Regina said "We're younger than we're ever gonna be!"



Silversun Pickups - Skin Graph, because it's as ominous as the TMBG track should be and it's been stuck in my head (in a good way) all of this week:



As for us, today was basically the same as yesterday.

Day 6.208: Time to rock

It's been some time since we got the Rock Band stuff out. It was the kids who prompted it this time. Here is E5N1 and Exile #3 both doing a great job with something!

And yes, the adults have joined in from time to time too!

Day 6.206: Canajoharie day-trip

We visited Canajoharie on Saturday. If you want to share the soundtrack that was in our heads - please feel free to listen here:



Here is a summary of our visit in three parts:

Day 6.206a: Wintergreen Park

We heard that there was a gorge - and a park where we could visit it - so that was our first stop.  We first parked at the park entrance where there was a sign indicating that there was  walk to an overlook.

This is what we saw along the way:

The gorge is very deep, steep-sided and close to the trail, but - certainly at this time of year - there are no really good views down into it.  Even the large wooden deck overlook only gave the view of the "upper falls" that you see in the top right above.  Still, it was a nice walk - the water tower is striking and we saw some nature along the trail:

After the walk (out-and-back totalling 1.25 miles), we wanted to see if we could access the creek below in the gorge from the park, so we returned to the car and drove into the park.  The road into the park soon winds steeply down the gorge to the bottom where there are, unsurprisingly, picnic tables and the like but also, more surprisingly No Trespassing signs on almost every other tree along between the road and parking areas and the creek.

It seems that the village has a conflicted relationship with the creek.  Unfortunately, there have been a number of accidents.  Although it seems like the board recently reviewed a plan to grant some limited access to the creek from the park, I can find no evidence that they made a decision on the plan.

We decided to keep driving and get on with the rest of our day.

Day 6.206b: Arkell Museum

The main reason for our visit to Canajoharie (♫ Ca-na-jo-ha-a-a-rie ♫) was to visit the Arkell Museum.  We managed to pick up a family pass from our library so it was even free!  There is no photography in most of the museum so here's a random selection of photos I was allowed to take:

Half of the museum is an art gallery - currently featuring some amazing Whistler sketches (and other similar works) and some very varied impressionist paintings.  The other half - the permanent exhibition - centers around Mr Arkell himself and the Beech-Nut Packing Company he founded in the town at the beginning of the 20th century.  This is an engaging and fascinating section of the museum but somewhat poignant now that the Beech-Nut company has left Canajoharie leaving it with a big hole in its employment and revenue streams.

The museum is attached to the library and somewhat spills over into that space. The library itself is very appealing and contains a few exhibits including the globe pictured above.  It is a Juvet Time Globe - one of only two 30 inch models ever made.  In common with its smaller cousins, it contains a mechanism to turn the globe at one revolution per day.  They were made in a factory in the town as a joint venture between their inventor Mr Juvet and James Arkell (I believe he was Bartlett's father) and another business partner in the 1880's.

Day 6.206c: The pot that washes itself

We had read that the name Canajoharie originates in a native American name which translates as "the pot that washes itself". This is (assumed to be) a reference to the "boiling pot" - 20 foot diameter pothole in the creek bed near the village.  We decided to find out if - despite the creek-access issues, it was possible for us to see it.  It took a little research - but it is indeed possible.  Access is from the end of Floral Ave:


View Larger Map

 but it is not signposted at all until you get there.  The sign at the top of the very short trail near a parking area is the same as the ones at Wintergreen, except that the "No Trespassing" part of the sign has been blacked-out in accordance with a year-old change of heart.

Here are some pictures from our visit to the site (the "historical plaque" is in the museum garden):

It is both striking geology and an interesting piece of history thanks to the name of the town.  We stayed dry apart from a little paddling in the shallows away from the main flow of the creek and the deep pothole, but certainly the temptation to swim in the cool deep waters of the pool on a hot summer's day is completely understandable.

Day 6.202: Special reproduction

On Sunday Exile #2 and I dipped our toes into doing something other than occupying a pew in our new church by performing the "special music" - three pieces of non-congregational music distributed through the service.

Here is one of the songs we prepared for that - reproduced inexpertly this evening and hastily uploaded to YouTube for your listening pleasure!

Day 6.154: Not so elementary

Exile #3's end-of-year festivities continued with a party at the Middle School for her and the rest of the fifth-grade from her elementary school.

I arrived to loud music, the playing of pool and table-tennis, evidence of food and soft-drink consumption. Where was my daughter? Dancing - as she had been all evening according to one of the chaperoning moms.

Apparently she had a blast and Cotton-Eyed Joe was her favourite. Most importantly, the evening was able to make the following transformation (from just as we were leaving to take her there to when she was waiting for me to take her home again):

Which is OK by me!