(Comic) Festivities
October 28, 2007 09:00
Alison Bechdel's cartoon for Eli
A crazy weekend of comics conferring for J at the triennial Festival of Cartoon Art, put on by the Cartoon Research Library. An amazing and diverse group of speakers, including Mort Walker, R. C. Harvey, Frank Stack, Paul Pope, Jessica Abel, and of course, Alison Bechdel. The only sadness of the whole event was that, unlike the Con, J had to be away from BEG for most of the weekend (although B did get to come to the banquet, where she and AB talked Emerson, James and correspondence).
In other family events, B got Gideon and Eli decked out in their Nintendo-themed costumes for Hallow’s Eve (and that’s the only hint you’re getting until the Big Day). Gideon hasn’t taken his costume off and we’re only hoping it stays intact until Wednesday. Eli is working on a huge report Magellan. And young love is in the air!
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Wither JBEG?
October 27, 2007 09:00
OK, we’ve been away from the jblog for a long time, indulging in other modes of communicating our nonsense to the crazy folks who care: twitter, facebook, mumbling to ourselves on street corners. But life has become so crazed this quarter that even those modes of instant and lazy communication have become too burdensome, so we wanted to take the time to update our fans and shareholders about some of what we have been doing with the valuable resources you have entrusted to our care.
But where to begin? It has been almost a year since we tried to put down some words on these pages: a lifetime for the under-12 set. Maybe to start it is best to just try and describe a weekend, our last. If nothing else it will let our loved ones know that despite the panicked and stress-out voices they often encounter on the phone, there is lots of fun also going on around here.
Gideon's Boots at the Wex
On friday after a day of meetings, we had tickets to see Jason Lindner’s Ab Ataerno trio at the Wexner, a mix of neo-bop, latin rhythms, and (?) middle eastern oud. And it was truly divine, a wonderful way to introduce the kids to the joys of live jazz. On Saturday we woke up and went to the Clintonville Farmer’s Market, where we freely indulged in all the pious Michael Pollin pleasures we are too often needling out nearest and dearest about. And then an afternoon of grading and grading (B&J) and oboe and piano practice for the lil’ guys. At 5 E & G went (virtually) to a Webkinz party, where all kids of screeching ensued on a three-way party line. Followed by another concert, this time at Columbus Chamber Music, where the St. Lawrence trio were performing with Todd Palmer, clarinetist extraordinaire (and super hunk, too). The highlight of the night was their performance of Golijov’s “Isaac the Blind,” a remarkable blend of modern composition with the history of jewish music.
Sunday, lots of grading (and degrading), more practice, laundry, bills and Wario Smooth Moves. B & J also managed to get the new issue of guttergeek up (at last), respond to endless queries from the Brown editorial project and other sundries. Meanwhile, G figured out a fire plan for the household and E researched Magellan and learned everything there was to learn about early exploration in the 16th century.
But the highlight of the weekend was B & J’s final concert on Sunday, G & E’s recital (and G’s first). You can see the whole of their beautiful performances at: http://jbeg.org/flics1.html. We are very, very proud ‘rents, needless to say.
So, life is good, very very good. And crazy busy, at least while B & J are each teaching 3 classes. But we wouldn’t trade a thing, although we desperately wish we had more time for chatting and hanging. But soon, we will come up for air (the light is not yet visible, but the tunnel is fully in focus). In the meantime, we will do our best to use this space to keep our loved ones updated on what we’ve been up to while we were running around like chickens with their heads cut off (it may actually say something about lives of late that the boys had a big argument last weekend about how long, in fact, chickens can live once their heads are cut off, obviously identifying a bit too closely...)
But where to begin? It has been almost a year since we tried to put down some words on these pages: a lifetime for the under-12 set. Maybe to start it is best to just try and describe a weekend, our last. If nothing else it will let our loved ones know that despite the panicked and stress-out voices they often encounter on the phone, there is lots of fun also going on around here.
Gideon's Boots at the Wex
On friday after a day of meetings, we had tickets to see Jason Lindner’s Ab Ataerno trio at the Wexner, a mix of neo-bop, latin rhythms, and (?) middle eastern oud. And it was truly divine, a wonderful way to introduce the kids to the joys of live jazz. On Saturday we woke up and went to the Clintonville Farmer’s Market, where we freely indulged in all the pious Michael Pollin pleasures we are too often needling out nearest and dearest about. And then an afternoon of grading and grading (B&J) and oboe and piano practice for the lil’ guys. At 5 E & G went (virtually) to a Webkinz party, where all kids of screeching ensued on a three-way party line. Followed by another concert, this time at Columbus Chamber Music, where the St. Lawrence trio were performing with Todd Palmer, clarinetist extraordinaire (and super hunk, too). The highlight of the night was their performance of Golijov’s “Isaac the Blind,” a remarkable blend of modern composition with the history of jewish music.
Sunday, lots of grading (and degrading), more practice, laundry, bills and Wario Smooth Moves. B & J also managed to get the new issue of guttergeek up (at last), respond to endless queries from the Brown editorial project and other sundries. Meanwhile, G figured out a fire plan for the household and E researched Magellan and learned everything there was to learn about early exploration in the 16th century.
But the highlight of the weekend was B & J’s final concert on Sunday, G & E’s recital (and G’s first). You can see the whole of their beautiful performances at: http://jbeg.org/flics1.html. We are very, very proud ‘rents, needless to say.
So, life is good, very very good. And crazy busy, at least while B & J are each teaching 3 classes. But we wouldn’t trade a thing, although we desperately wish we had more time for chatting and hanging. But soon, we will come up for air (the light is not yet visible, but the tunnel is fully in focus). In the meantime, we will do our best to use this space to keep our loved ones updated on what we’ve been up to while we were running around like chickens with their heads cut off (it may actually say something about lives of late that the boys had a big argument last weekend about how long, in fact, chickens can live once their heads are cut off, obviously identifying a bit too closely...)