LINKS

• If you’re a WWW junky and end up attempting to copy and paste really long hyperlinks into email/texts/IMs/blog entries/twitter tweets to share the bounty you find, you really ought to take advantage of Tiny URL. It’s an online service that trades the enormous link to that fancy new George Foreman grill you want to get your mother for Christmas but need to show your sister first that’s on sale on Amazon right now from this mess: http://www.amazon.com/George-Foreman-GRP90WGR-Grilleration-Removable-Plate/dp/B000A7W4Z2/ref=pd_bbs_sr_1?ie=UTF8&s=home-garden&qid=1228931381&sr=8-1 to this: http://tinyurl.com/57ds6k.
• If you’re an artist or interested in supporting artists, you should check out Gawker Artists. It’s the brilliant online equivalent to displaying artwork in a brick-and-mortar setting such as a coffee shop. And there’s some really cool art on there.
• If you’re a parent, I highly recommend visiting the Parent Hacks blog. Always useful, often insightful, and sometimes riotously funny tips from other parents on dealing with children and child-related stuff. Favorite hacks that I continually use include using glow sticks as travel night lights, no-mess watercolors, and how to trick the autoflush sensor in public toilets, a particularly important hack with skittish potty-trainers.

MOVIES

My almost 4-year-old daughter has blown through her Princess phase, and now we’re splitting all our home screen time between Barbie movies (I know, but they’re better than you’d think) and Star Wars movies. We can now, though, actually go to see movies in the theater together, which has been fun. Here’s what we’ve seen:

• wall·e
  I know that I’m just adding to the cacophony of voices fanatically raving about this movie, but I was completely, totally, utterly blown away by this film. It was so perfectly done, so beautifully written, so sublimely animated that I will not watch it again until I can see it in all of its perfect surround- sound high-definition glory. My favorite moment is when Eve and wall·e are flying (he is propelling himself using an old-fashioned fire extinguisher he rescued from the trash) outside the spaceship in perfect synchronized formation while the captain is learning about Earth from the ship’s computer, “Define: dancing”. Perfect.
• Kit Kittredge: American Girl
  I was so afraid of this movie for all the obvious reasons, the biggest being that my daughter would become another of those girls with a seriously expensive American Girl doll habit. Thankfully, she’s not very interested in baby dolls, just Barbie dolls, which are made in China and, therefore, significantly cheaper. But I digress. The movie was perfect for young girls and made for a very lovely outing when seen at our local historic movie theater’s bargain matinee. It was sweet without being saccharine, and Kit’s predicament is believable yet introduces just enough drama/suspense to keep it exciting. We had a very interesting discussion about personal economics afterwards and I was surprised to see how much of the Depression message she had picked up on.
• Bolt
  This movie is all about the hamster, voiced by a relatively unknown Disney animator and voice-over guy named Mark Walton. His performance turns an old story line (cross-country buddy trip inspires personal growth in hero) into a milk-coming-out-your-nose experience. Must see in 3D, if only for the ball.

I am currently rewatching the entire Harry Potter series on DVD, but without my daughter, who deemed it “creepy”.

MUSIC

I am in a strange place, musically. I can’t explain why I can’t get these three old favorite records off my playlist. If you have any theories as to what they all have in common, please drop me a line and elucidate.

• Light Years: The Very Best of Electric Light Orchestra
  In particular, I’ve been wearing through the (digital) grooves on “Mr. Blue Sky”. What a killer freakin’ tune.
• Demon Days by the Gorillaz
  I cannot get enough of this album. There is not a track on here that doesn’t make me want to get up and dance. But I actually do get up and dance every time I hear “DARE”. And the illustration and animation junkie in me is so in love with the concept, the characters, the videos. Even the stage show on DVD is kick-ass.
• Want One by Rufus Wainwright
  Okay, I admit that I was first introduced to Rufus Wainwright in the most shockingly unhip way ever—by repeated watching of Disney’s “Meet the Robinsons”. His contributions to that soundtrack, “The Motion Waltz” and “Another Believer”, made a believer out of me. Now I can’t get enough. This album, in particular is poptacular, popalicious, poperatic, reaching its full poptastic splendor on the song “Go or Go Ahead”.

I still don’t have an iPod. The one my husband bought me for Christmas last year ended up somehow becoming his new iPod after his old iPod broke. Since I never actually had the thing in my possession, I’m not sure it counts as stealing.

RECIPES

I’m going to “mix it up” a bit and offer a cocktail this time instead of a traditional food recipe. Given the recent economic situation most of us are in, I thought this one was appropriate:

Rosy Future

• 1 ounce Campari
• 1 teaspoon simple syrup
• Chilled rosé champagne or sparkling wine
• Orange twist

Put Campari and sugar syrup in champagne flute. Slowly top with champagne or sparkling wine. Twist orange twist over the glass to release the aromatic oils, and then add it to the drink.

READING MATERIAL

This is a rather bizarre assortment, but these are honestly the last three books I’ve read.

• The Shepherd, the Angel and Walter the Christmas Miracle Dog by Dave Barry
  Short, really funny and very sweet. Perfect stocking stuffer.
• The World to Come by Dara Horn
  I found this combination historical novel, folk fable and modern heist story completely engrossing. The main character is like every really bright but socially awkward friend I’ve ever had, so I feel like I know the guy right from page 1. Entirely believable yet completely magical.
• Ladies of Liberty by Cokie Roberts
  I’m usually not a big non-fiction fan but I do adore a good historical novel. This book is indeed about the real lives of real women, but using their own letters, diaries and others’ letters about them woven together by a great storyteller. Fascinating read.

DEEP THOUGHTS

This year, a little wisdom.
Last year I took a leap. I opened my life. I shouted out and listened hard to the echo. The result was a year of nostalgia-fueled soul searching followed by a glimmer or two of true personal wisdom. I reconnected with some of the people who knew me best at each stage of my life and they each taught me some very valuable lessons. Here’s a shout out to a few old friends:

Missy Nelson, BFF from high school: “Knock it off.”
I was relating some angst-filled situation with my daughter and how I was having a difficult time dealing with her behavior, my reaction to her behavior, and whether or not I was handling things as well as I could. Missy looked straight at me and without a hint of judgment or condescension in her voice said, “When my girls act like that I just tell them to knock it off. Then I go back to reading my book.”

It was as if I had been struck by a bolt of lightening. I came home and immediately implemented the “Knock it off” School of Parenting in our household. I no longer take anything my daughter says to me personally, I just let her know that the behavior is unacceptable in an entirely undramatic way and move on. I now make her responsible for inviting me to play with her rather than entertaining her, which allows me to squeeze in some work/reading/websurfing. I do what I have to get done around the house while she either spends her time helping me, which she thinks is great, or playing independently and creatively.

The glimmer of wisdom was this very simple equation: more time for me + less stress/anger/guilt = happy mum. Happy mum = happy kid.

Thanks, Missy.

Laurie Starkey, BFF from high school: “The most important things in life aren’t things.”
I get an email from Laurie during the recent wildfires which said, “My take-home message is from a sign we have in our home ‘The most important things in life aren't things.’ That being said, it's a relief that our ‘stuff’ is all intact and I think I'll start scanning some old photos and artwork to help preserve those memories.” She included some pretty incredible photos and links to some videos she took of the fire and their evacuation. She had also loaded up some random videos taken weeks before the fire of her family/kids just goofing off. So my family sits down and watches these videos together.

The fire video is terrifying – the air is thick with smoke, the whole sky is gray and the camera pans to the kids strapped into the packed minivan with a mile-high plume of smoke emanating from the end of their block in the background. Then we click on one of the family videos of their kids and some friends’ kids doing “The Candy Dance”, which consists of dancing around with wild abandon while gleefully chanting, “Thank you for the candy. We love candy.” Over and over. Hilarious.

It’s so obvious from the videos that she’s not just stating a platitude, she’s living it. The joy that her family takes from just being together and, in particular, the gratitude of those kids for that candy made her statement more than meaningful, it made me rethink my whole approach to “stuff”. I know for a fact that they are serious yard salers and thrifters and they don’t “shop” as an activity, instead spending their extra income on family activities, adventures and trips and their extra time with each other. And they are very, very happy.

The small bit of wisdom gleaned here is more memories, less stuff. We’re totally copying and the result so far has been brilliant. We’re even planning on ratcheting down our spending more so that we can save money to travel further afield and for longer, to see more old friends and more new places, and, most importantly, more of each other.

Thanks, Laurie.

David Bollt, BFF from art school: “Yeah, the rock star thing is cool, but it’s too much business and not enough art.”
I comment on how he has become such a huge star in the underground art world, and also on the number of groupies on his MySpace page. He tells me that the demand for his work has spawned a number of commercial ventures, including an apparel line he is currently working on that is taking up all of his time. He works a lot and he has to travel a lot for work.

He’s defined success for himself, gone after it, is in the process of achieving it. But that very success is separating him from the original thing that gave him joy. And he says it affects his ability to nurture his personal life as well. He’s made a decision that it’s all good for now because he’d like to be able to buy his Mom a Cadillac and a house, like Elvis Presley. But I love that he sees, understands, acknowledges and accepts the trade-off for what it is.

His attitude inspires me to assess where I’m at personally and professionally. Examine my trade-offs. And the little piece of wisdom I found is that I am perfectly content in not being the rock star. The awards, notoriety, the money would not be worth trading any part of my life – my involvement with my business partners, my friends, my family and my daughter. Turns out I’m pretty happy living under the radar. I no longer need butt up against my potential or compete with who I thought I would be, could be. I am happy in my life.

Thanks, David.