The Zen Bell (This must a metaphor for something)

So here I am-- back in the bedroom of my childhood. Its now a second office, primarily for keeping the computer equipment organized (natch). Like shadows, tape marks remind me of where I had movie posters for Pale Rider and Shane (yes, I know they are essentially the same movie). Odd things remain: my TMBG concert poster from the Apollo 18 tour, my Newky Brown Bar mirror from Notty, and the Zen Bell fulcrum.

When I was 14, I purchased a princess phone at a garage sale for a quarter. I took it apart and had fun running different volatage currents of electricty through their various different parts, mostly to make the ringer ring. Eventually, I got bored with this and tied one of the bells to about three feet of string and hung it from my ceiling. I labeled the fulcrum point for this pendulum "Zen Bell" I was actually thinking about the final stage of Street Fighter 2 where you get killed by M. Bison (unless you are Blanca in which case you just electrocute him to death and watch the dumbest of the end cinematics, but I digress). I actually found this thing to be an astoundingly useful stress reliever.

Most stress relievers have you beat the living crude out of something squishy. This was just the opposite. I kept a variety of hammers on my desk and the point was to hit only the bell, not the string, not myself, not a bookshelf, and not to whiff and hit nothing. After various experimentation, it turns out that the most satisfying experience was to casually tap the bell once with a ball peen hammer. The bell would sing for about thirty seconds. The noise was pretty loud... loud enough and sustained enough to make you both (1) forget why it was you wanted to hit the bell in the first place and (2) admit that greater than whatever stress made you hit the bell, the sense of curiousity as to what would happen was a bigger reason for doing it. As the dog days of summer before going off to Rice set in, I would also think about that scene in the Magicians Nephew where the bell actually awakens the Witch of the dead world.

Now there is no bell, no hammers, no string, only the label and the space where the bell once hung in a different time. I look at the space and hit the bell with my imagination and the sound travels out of the past and rings in my ears.

Merry Christmas from Hanslick Rebellion

Doing some last minute Christmas shopping at "Good Yarns" I ran into Mike Keaney, bassist for Hanslick Rebellion. First off, treat yourself to some streamaliciousness from their web site. I personally like their cover of "Pablo Picaso" which is a track from the Repo Man soundtrack that used to really crack me up.

(Burglars who read my blog who have figured out that I am visiting New York on vacation, please do not try to rob my house.)

Mike has played bass for about as long as I have known him. He used to really make the Hasting Youth Summer Theatre band thump. It's cool that he's still making music.

Nothing like seeing long lost friends at Christmastime, right?

I got a bit of this funny feeling at the high school reunion a few years back, and when I see people on friendster who I haven't seen in over a decade. Its amazing the unintended and sometime eclectic but nevertheless powerful affects that your friends have on you when you are growing up. On my side, I remember someone at the reunion talking about "Zeta Enterprises" which was the powerful conglomerate that I dreamed of forming from about seventh grade on.

So what about Mike Keaney? In college, the various different bands that I had anything to do with ("Free Beer", those guys in Notty, "Burnt Toast", any of those Friday night colaborations on the Jones PA with Clint and Spike, etc.) were all measured against Mike Keaney and the Hastings Youth Summer Theatre band. Memory being what it is, by the time I got to college, the relative greatness of the band equaled that of Dr. Teeth and the Electric Mayhem. And I don't know that there were any recordings from those summers, so (for all I know) maybe they were as good as Floyd Pepper, Janice, Animal, Zoot, and the Doctor.

Anyway, great to see you Mike. Glad you are still doing music.

DAKOTA!

Warning: the following post contains graphic descriptions of illness and may be unsuitable for some blogging audiences. Parents, may want to monitor their children's viewing. Reader descretion advised.

So in case you don't know, various illnesses have been making their ways through our house. 2 weeks ago, Dakota had strep, which I inherited this past weekend (those tush shots really do hurt). Additionally, Jason had been vomiting Thursday, stopped by Friday morning, started again Saturday night, stopped by Sunday, started again this morning. In between, Dakota and Will both vomited yesterday - diagnosed as Viral stomach bug. I have just psychmom sterilized every bottle part, and I think I am going to dump the formula powder we have for new powder, just in case there is some sterilization issue there as well.

Miraculously, I have not vomited. This is probably due to one of two reasons: either the antibiotics they shot my rear with on Sunday is still working to kill every germ in my body, so I am therefore unaffected; or the balance of the universe is finally swinging my way, making up for all of the vomiting I had to endure during both pregnancies.

You decide.

*****
Oh. So the seemingly unreleated headline is because, when Jason FINALLY fell asleep for a nap in the living room in his pack-n-play (having sullied every other sleeping surface in the house with his vomiting at roughly the same time - don't ask), Dakota decided that was the perfect moment to "play pirates". Not with Jason, merely near him, and was menacing his general vicinity with a paper towel roll sword, screaming "arrgh!" This of course caused the peacfully sleeping Jason to awake and scream in relative terror, as all of you would if Pirate Dakota was threatening YOU with a paper towel roll sword.

Kids.

Bill Gates is Time's Man of the Year!

Time must be reading my blog

The Muppet Show is a hit !

Jason THomas Li raves, "Ah ooo ah! Ba Ba Ba."

Dr. Teeth and the Electric Mayhem was found to be especially groovalicious

Dakota also studies the law

"Mommy, I want to study"

"Dakota, it's time for school you can study after we come home."

Dakota is studying the law of the lower cases. This is especially tricky law as it requires that you write letters.

Fantasia 2000 and more midnite confessions of dubious cultural tastes

Look, I spelled midnight with ite. Not an auspicious start. It's a bit like showing up for a job interview with a large oversized white bow tie with red polka dots, then someone pulls on your sunflower boutonniere and it makes your pants fall down (actually your suspenders continue to hold a hoop around your waist but oddly your pants are attached to that hoop like a poorly designed chambray window curtain) only to reveal that your boxers match your ugly bowtie and your sock garters match your suspenders.

"William, I thought you were going to talk about the movies, why are you talking about the career services office at Clown College?"

That's clown UNIVERSITY, mind you. Why I got my Spatula of the Arts back in '96.

But seriously folks, I think I prefer Fantasia 2000 to the original Fantasia. Maybe its just that Dakota put fewer finger prints on the former, but I think that the newer movie is just more entertaining and has a better music selection.

"BLASHPHEMY! THE ORIGINAL FANTASIA HAS "PASTORAL""

Yeah, yeah. That, plainting yourself Blue and jumping over mushrooms in the backyard will get you a COLECOVISION.
F2K employes Donald Duck to recapture Elgar's most abused tune in the name of the "Major monotheistic religions of the world" friendly story of Noah and the Ark. I always liked Donald for the -mouthed beligerent sailor that he is. Some people like the mouse, but Mickey is too squeaky-clean (accent on the front). No, underneath that tangled mess of feathers and hostility, Donald Duck has a big heart.

That's why you gotta see "Fantasia 2000." Own it today on DVD.

This movie review brought to you just in time -- for 2006!

This blog entry does not necessarily reflect the opinions of the Disney Corporation or the Tuscaloosa Knights of Columbus. William Li is not a paid spokesmodel and his testimonial to Donald Duck was not solicited or co-erced through the power of hyponosis. You are getting shleeeepy, shleeepy, shleeeee-howwowowowowow. OH BOY!

The Nutcracker All Jazzed Up On Ice

I suppose that it's not the very first time that my daughter has ever performed for a audience... that pleasure would be reserved for her 2 year old "preschool concert"

Nevertheless, this has considerably more legitimacy as a bona fide thing.

Anyhow, if you are looking in the cast photo for Dakota... its the 2004 picture that you are looking at and you'll just have to wait.

I like "Freddie"

Louren Tivos "Freddie" for me. I thought that the show would be a guilty pleasure as it starts Chico's son, David from 9-0, and Shelly the waitress from "Twin Peaks" but once I got over the stunt cast, I realized that I was watching a bona fide good show made for people who are about my age who regard sitcoms with some disdain for the assumption that if they hype it enough we will like them out of submission (see Friends) and are generally suspicious of the low quality hacks who write by commitee to produce dismal luke-warm awfulness (see Full House, Home Improvement, Growing Pains, The Jeff Foxworthy Show, The Bonnie Hunt Show, The Jim Belushi Show, the Damon Wayans Show, etc.) What's the difference with "Freddy"? It's the "Happy Days" qualities 1. Funny details. Sometimes people say stuff that is funny without specifically being a joke. This happened a lot on Happy Days (and generally tended to happen more in 1970's era sitcoms)

HOWARD: What's this Marion? MARION: Oh Howard, its more sweet sixteen gifts from out of town relatives. This is from the Timsons HOWARD: The Timsons eh... MARION: Oh what's wrong, Howard? HOWARD: Well, I hope its something good because we got them a very expensive gift last year for their daughter's confirmation MARION: Howard, you got them an electric drill HOWARD: It's the thought that counts, and anyway, it had four speeds!

Gary Marshal was always throwing in implicitly critical middle-class observations like that which would connect with the audience. I would butcher the line in the recent episode of "Freddie" that does the same thing but essential the observation is that when he and his sister were young, they were poor and the thing that they were deprived of was COLECOVISION (check out their website, its so ironic that it crosses the line and actually is awful, unless the irony is unintentional, so hard to tell with these kids) so Sarah (the sister who apparently was on NYPD blue, whatever) made Freddie paint himself blue and jump over mushrooms because they couldn't play Smurf Rescue (you can actually play the game here) which is hysterical if you've ever seen or played the game. It's also funny on the level of speaking somewhat more candidly about "want" means today as opposed to during the Great Depression. This gets to my second point 2 I have some further opinions about why "Happy Days" is funny and how I see the same things in this show but I need to get back to studying.

You can learn a whole bunch about a person from how they sleep

My kids are asleep. A reality of evening law school is that this is how I commonly encounter them. I've learned a few lessons about my kids and people in general from watching them sleep:

1. When people are asleep, they don't like to be woken up with sudden loud noises or a sharp jab with a stubby forefinger.

2. When people are asleep, they tend to talk less. The exception to this is people who talk in their sleep who talk the same amount.

3. When people are asleep they tend to lie down.

4. People move around more in their sleep than when they are watching television. I almost thought that was interesting.

5. When you are watching people sleep, its proably because you are having trouble settling down from your day at work and evening at law school.

6. Making lists late at night on the internet is a good way of making lists late at night on the internet.

7. I have learned that this is the seventh thing on my list.

8. Ahhhhh!!!!!! A human pumpkin!

9. Both of my children snore, but they snore different. They snore like their personality.

Sick Girl

Poor Dakota has strep (among other things) and after a 4am trip to the ER on Sunday did little to stop the accompanying vomiting, her Doctor suggested an injection of Antibiotics. Dakota about wigged out. However, luckily, the Dr. noticed that the only shot Dakota needed before starting Kindergarten in the fall was a HepA, so we snuck that one in first, and then she got the big one, so she forgot all about the first one.

I have to say, the antibiotic shot is amazing. Dakota has had a DRASTIC turn around since 10am. She had her appetite back, and is already getting restless about being stuck at home.

***
dress rehearsal and photos for act 2 of Nutcracker tomorrow evening. And Thursday is the final full dress rehearsal. I will post photos when I get them.

Meditation

eBay India: Classic Casio VL - Tone Portable Mini Keyboard ! (item 7371405377 end time 08-Dec-2005 22:14:00 IST)

Many people (me included) foresaw a revolution in music because of computers. It happened and it didn't happen. But much of it has to do with what I call the "Kazoo problem"

A kazoo is an extremely efficient method of hammering out a melody that sounds like an instrument and not like a human voice. If you have no sense of melody, your kazoo playing reflects this.

The problem is, even if you have a very good sense of melody, it is very difficult to have an objective ear listen to your kazoo playing because they know "hey... that's just a kazoo"

This problem is somewhat exacerbated by all of the truly awful kazoo playing, but I don't think that's fair. I had more to this but