Roll Bounce

I caught this movie tonight on HBO. It was great! Set in about 1979, it made me nostalgic for the days of my youth when I spent lots of time practicing my skating down at the tennis courts, and every weekend at Wheel-A-While. "All skate!"

Bow Wow plays the lead role of Xavier Smith, and he's terrific.


Here's the trailer if you care to see some hip 70's duds and some smooth skating:

Foreshadow

I stumbled across this today. I hadn't seen it since Episode I came out in 1999. I thought it was brilliant because it sums up the the plot of three movies in one image.

United We Dance Jamestown

Two of my Just For Kix classes competed on Saturday at a JFK competition in Jamestown. They worked so hard, and they danced beautifully.

My Mini Kix (4th & 5th graders) got 2nd place in their division:


My Jazz dancers (5th-8th graders) got 1st place in their division:


By the end of taking these photos, our faces felt like the Barbie tour guide at the end of Toy Story 2.

I'm not very competitive, so competitions are not a big deal for me, but it does motivate my kids to work harder and dance better. It was quite a thrill for them.

It Doesn't Get Any Better Than This

Spring made an early appearance today, and we ended up at an impromptu barbeque at the neighbor's house.

Ben


Megan, Steve, and Brad


Jake, Dylan, Connor and Holly were busy all night chopping up the ice dam at the end of their driveway.


There was still enough snow to keep the beer chilled.


Morgan, Holly, Connor, Dylan, Jake, Dylan, Ben


We even christened their new fire pit.


Holly and Jake making s'mores


Brad and Connor by the fire

Delilah

Brad and I saw Tom Higgenson from Plain White T's perform this song on Jay Leno recently. I couldn't find the TV clip of the live performance, but here's the video. Beautiful song, cool video.

Seeing leg warmers on her made me feel so much better about the fact that I've started wearing them again. I wore them 25 years ago as a fashion statement, but they really do work for dancing!

100 Greatest Vocalists

British music rag Q Magazine has published its list of the 100 Greatest Singers:

11. Liam Gallagher
10. Jeff Buckley
09. Mick Jagger
08. Robert Plant
07. Kurt Cobain
06. Marvin Gaye
05. John Lennon
04. Otis Redding
03. Frank Sinatra
02. Aretha Franklin
01. Elvis Presley

Sadly, I think his inclusion on this list is based on past achievements. His great voice has deteriorated in recent years to a husky rasp. Sad, sad, sad.

Here's a clip that showcases how good his voice used to be. This song was a b-side from 2000. Oasis is infamous for releasing terrific songs like this one as b-sides. This is a fan video. I stumbled onto it on YouTube; otherwise, I wouldn't have even known about the song. Since it's not available as a single download, I'm currently struggling with the fact that I'll have to eventually fork over around $10 to buy the single from Amazon to get this song.

"Let's All Make Believe"

Gap Smile

Yesterday...


Today...


This was his sixth tooth to fall out, and the first on top. How exciting!

And Connor said, "Take a picture of me, too!" Ok!

Performance Season

I've been crazy busy with Just For Kix performances lately. I have only one week without a performance in February and March. Here's how it adds up for those seven weeks:

13 basketball half-times
7 show performances
5 competition performances (Jamestown & Fargo)

As of today, 14 down, 9 to go.

Addendum--Clearly, I am not gifted in math. My numbers should have read: 16 down, 9 to go.

MMM Happy Anniversary

Wow. It's been a year since I started posting regularly to this blog. What a kick to go back to those early posts. They were all about Oasis at the beginning, much to the chagrin of some friends & readers! I guess it evolved into a record of our family life and my own random thoughts.

The obsession with Oasis is still going strong, but sometimes it gets a little hard coming up with other stuff to write about. Ahh, the pressure of pleasing my loyal readership!

Adding Injury to Insult

To top off my bad day on Saturday, I ended up with this nasty-looking bruise on my shin after I slipped on the bleachers at BHS. LOVELY.

Today

This was my day. Missing my mom tonight.

Silversun Pickups

I don't know much about this band, but I recently caught the video for "Lazy Eye" by Silversun Pickups. It immediately grabbed me.



It reminded me of "Cannonball" by the Breeders. Do you agree?

Mandinka

We've been listening to our iPods on shuffle, which is a great way to rediscover music that I'd not heard in awhile, like Sinead O'Connor's first album, The Lion and the Cobra. This album was very big for me in 1988-89.

Here's a video for "Mandinka". I vividly remember watching this very video on MTV's 120 Minutes.



At the time, many people were fixated on her lack of hair, but her voice is amazing. Here's a video of a live performance that demonstrates her vocal skills. The song is "This is the Last Day of Our Acquaintance".

And The Winner Is...Oasis!

Yesterday, Oasis received the Brit Award for Outstanding Contribution to Music, an award similar to the Lifetime Achievement Award at our Grammys. Noel Gallagher has said that the band has turned down accepting this award several times in recent years, but this year they decided to accept it because the time just seemed right with their new Best Of album recently out.

The band played a five-song set to close out the show. Here's a clip of one of the songs they played, "The Meaning of Soul". Liam's hair is a little long for my taste, and his voice has sounded better, but they still deliver a great performance.



Click here to watch the clip on YouTube.

I hear that TNT is broadcasting the 2007 Brit Awards on Monday, March 5. I'll have to set my VCR.

Josie Goes Home

I have posted previously about my cousin's daughter, Josie, who is fighting a difficult battle with a rare disease and various complications. Well, the good news is that she's made enough progress to go home after five months in the hospital. It sounds like it'll be a short stay because she's scheduled for surgery next week, something called a "whipple". However short her stay at home, it's still a small victory in a long battle, and sure to boost family morale. Welcome home, Josie!

Click here to visit Josie's blog.

On The Mend

-- Update --

We're slowly returning to normalcy after that bout with Mr. Nasty Stomach Bug. After about 48 hours of serious illness, I am now in that catch-22 stage, where I get hungry, STARVING, as Dylan puts it, but eating still induces mild nausea. I actually cooked a meal last night, though I'm still living under the mantra of "Bland is best." I thought this kind of thing usually lasted a day or two, but this going-on-five-days business is ridiculous!

Thanks for all your well-wishes out there in cyberspace.

Sick Day

There are many euphemisms for vomiting. My favorite is "talking to Ralph on the big white phone". In our case, though, the phone in one bathroom is yellow. But I digress...


I can't think of a time when all four of us have been puking sick at the same time. Until this week. I managed to make it through four dance classes last night, with frequent trips to the bathroom, but today we all called in sick. We'll see what tomorrow brings...

State Competition

The big weekend has come and gone, and I've survived. Friday and Saturday was the NDADD State Dance Team Championship at the Alerus Center in Grand Forks. Overall, it was a success. It's a weird feeling that the event we've been planning for and thinking about since last January is done. I spent the weekend working mostly in crisis-management mode handling details like 1) Where can the Demonettes store their personal stuff because their bus broke down and they had to unload everything? or 2) How can the exhibition teams get in because they all were given the wrong color admission wristbands? or 3) Where are the individual medals for the champion teams? All this on very little sleep and with the constant thump of dance music booming through the building. I was so totally immersed in it that it took until tonight for me to feel like I am back in my real life.

Not to complain too much. This is also a FUN weekend. I get to see my dance team friends and see some terrific dancing. Here are some pictures.

Carrington Cardinaires



St. Mary's Saintiques


West Fargo Packatahnas


I had a lot of fun with my roommate, Marcy. However, I think that's the last time I room with the treasurer, what with all the money counting until the wee hours.


Marcy and I had the job of sweeping the floor every so often. To protect the floor from damage, we ran to Old Navy and bought slippers to wear. Hers had cupcakes on them and mine were red.


I got to sit at the music table next to these guys all weekend. Butch is the music man, and Dave is our awesome M.C. They make us sound good.

Unforgettable Fire

Brad and I caught this video on VH1 Classic the other night. I had forgotten how terrific this song is. I really like the chiming guitars in the chorus ("Walk on by, walk on through"). Even the video is great, which is saying a lot, considering that it was made in 1984, an era of supremely bad music videos. A truly timeless song. In my book, U2 ranks right up there with Oasis and Indigo Girls.



Here's the link if you'd rather watch it on YouTube.

Potter Addict

Dylan is REALLY into Harry Potter and loves reading the books. In fact, our whole family is enthralled by these stories. They are exciting and funny, and the characters are so vividly portrayed. The Parallel Potter Universe creeps into the boys' playtime and our family conversations every day.

Each book spans a year in the lives of the characters. As they are growing up, naturally, the content of the books is getting darker and more mature. Dylan just finished the fifth book, The Order of the Phoenix, and since he's got several other books he could be reading instead, I suggested he take a break from Harry for awhile and read some of those. "Are you joking?!" was his reply. So now he's on to the sixth book, Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince.

We recently watched, for the first time with the boys, the films based on the first three books. We skipped over a few of the scary images and scenes, but it's funny how kids view things. A couple days after watching the third one, Prisoner of Azkaban, Connor asked if there were any more Whomping Willows in the world.

The film version of Order of the Phoenix is set to be released in theaters July 13. Click here to watch the trailer. It looks great!