gaze upon their beauty

The upside to having my washing machine croak this weekend... :)

rock on

Macy and I went to see Brand New in concert last night. We had such a great time! Tickets have been sold out for months but, being the cool mom that I am, I procured a couple of extremely overpriced tickets from an aftermarket reseller. This was my consolation offering to Macy for being unwilling to take her to the Bonnaroo Music Festival this year -- which I would have really loved to attend because Bright Eyes was playing there, but at almost $200 per ticket plus the horror stories I've heard about just getting there (traffic), I just didn't think I was up for it. Can you say "Getting Old"? ;)

Anyway, the show was really good. The first lead-up band to play was a young hardcore band called Crime In Stereo, which neither of us cared for. (In fact, I heard the guy behind us say "I want the last hour of my life back!") We really enjoyed the second band though, Colour Revolt, which we both thought sounded a bit like a mix of Coldplay and Radiohead.

But of course when Brand New took the stage, the show leaped to an entirely different level. The music was awesome, and they had quite a spectacular light show as well. There was one minor annoyance during the show though: within minutes after Brand New began playing, two muscled-up guards began scouring the audience ordering everyone to stop taking pictures, and even confiscating cameras and/or walking people outside and making them delete their photos. We weren't sure if cameras would be allowed, but we brought one and figured we'd just leave it in the car if they weren't, but there were no signs posted saying you couldn't bring them (and many people were carrying them in their hands, not concealed). Anyway, one of the guards looked like a hulk version of the albino monk Silas in the movie The Da Vinci Code (quite intimidating looking, actually) , so it was a huge distraction watching him racing through the crowd busting people with cameras. Kind of like watching a train wreck, you just couldn't take your eyes off of him. ("...Aaaaah, here comes Silas again!...") heheh We put ours away after the first warning (mostly) but most of our pics were blurry anyway due to the lighting. I'm sure the band (and whatever suits are managing them) don't want folks making money off selling pictures of them, but I felt bad for the kids there who probably just wanted a few pics for their MySpace pages.

Click

We went to see the movie Click last night. I know that most of the reviews have ranged from lukewarm to bad (except for the San Francisco Chronicle who gave it a perfect 100, thankyouverymuch!), but I have to say that I laughed my ass off throughout almost the entire movie! The movie was very 13 Going On 30 (which I loved) meets Punch Drunk Love (which I also loved) meets A Christmas Carol. The only thing that kept distracting me during the movie was knowing that my 12-year-old daughter had seen it the day before -- let's just say that the PG-13 rating was pushing it a bit (more like borderline-R). Of course I could have predicted that with an Adam Sandler movie, but I didn't know ahead of time that she and her friends were going to see it, and the previews looked pretty innocent. But aside from the crude humor, believe it or not, the movie was really quite thought-provoking at times, and also very funny! I've always liked Adam Sandler, so if you're also a fan, I'm sure you won't be disappointed in this one. :)

helicopter parenting

I had to laugh out loud this morning while reading the Wikipedia definition of a "Helicopter Parent", but after reading a bit further I found myself not feeling quite so amused as I recognized a few bits and pieces of myself in one of the articles. First, the definition (which I did find most hilarious!):

"A helicopter parent is a term for a person who pays extremely close attention to their child or children, particularly at educational institutions. They rush to prevent any harm from befalling them or letting them learn from their own mistakes, sometimes even contrary to the children's wishes. They are so named because, like a helicopter, they hover closely overhead, rarely out of reach whether their children need them or not.

An extension of the term, Black Hawks (for the combat helicopter of the same name), has been coined for those who cross the line from a mere excess of zeal to unethical behavior such as writing their children's college admission essays."

I found this one line particularly haunting: "The rise of the cell phone is often blamed for the explosion of helicopter parenting — it has been called "the world's longest umbilical cord""

Now, let me just say right off the bat that I am certainly no "Black Hawk", but I followed one of the links to an article entitled Are You A Helicopter Parent? and I found that I am guilty on at least one count:

1. You are in constant contact with your child. Cell phones have led to frequent communication between parents and children. If you dial your child's number every day or multiple times each day, then you are hovering. And if your child calls home at any sign of stress or trouble, you are likely overinvolved.

To be honest, I do generally hear from my college-age son at least once per day (though I would say it's about a 50-50 split on which one of us is calling the other). And earlier this week, he called me on his way to work to ask me to log in and check his registration time for Fall classes (he is currently taking a summer course and the date snuck past him). Upon checking, I found that registration had already begun several days earlier, and since classes fill so rapidly, he asked me to go ahead and schedule his classes, which he would further evaluate once he got home from work. So yikes! -- guilty again: "registering their children for classes".

Oh well, at least I'm not going on job interviews with him (or for him!), or trying to negotiate his salary! :)

This has definitely given me some food for thought, particularly since I still have two more kids coming up in the ranks.

Evolution of Dance


For those who haven't seen this yet, this is sooooo funny!