Why I Should Never Own an iPhone
Posted: October 21, 2011 Filed under: Just One Thing, Writers Write | Tags: family, iPhone, parenting, Sleeper, texting, Woody Allen, writers, writing Leave a comment »
No one noticed I was gawking at the parents at Coco’s orchestra rehearsal. Were they watching precocious children play classical music on stringed instruments? No. They were fondling polymer and glass genitalia. Do I sound like Woody Allen in the movie, Sleeper?
Of the twenty adults waiting for rehearsal to end, only two weren’t holding a Steve Jobs invention. Yours truly and a woman nursing a new-born on the back row. I don’t blame them. Who wants to listen to Carol of the Bells for the fifteenth time in an hour?
I don’t have an iPhone because I’d have to refinance my house to pay the data charge, but I shouldn’t have an iPhone because of the message I’d send to my kid when I couldn’t take my thumbs off the screen long enough to pay attention.
Like this:
Road to Happy
Posted: October 11, 2011 Filed under: Joined at the Heart, Mouths of Babes, Writers Write | Tags: Albert Brooks, Dancing With the Stars, family, Happiness, violin, writers, writing 1 Comment »
“What’s your happy road, Daddy?” Dancing With the Stars went to commercial, and my ten-year-old daughter hit mute on the remote.
“What?” Bacon’s head was in the latest Albert Brooks’ novel.
“Your happy road,” she said.
“What’s that? I asked.
“The thing that makes you happy.” She closed her decorated composition book. Coco makes notes on the couples’ performances and judges’ evaluations on DWTS. I figured the comment had something to do with movie theme night on the reality show.
“Did you think that up or hear it somewhere?”
“Made it up.” She looked at her dad again. “Mine’s the violin. If I’m sad, I play, and I feel better.”
Bacon said, “You, your sister, and your mom are my happy road. You make me laugh.”
Satisfied, she opened her book again. The commercial break was over.
Like this:
Out Of the Box
Posted: September 24, 2011 Filed under: Aha!, Writers Write | Tags: artists, creativity, family, inspiration, Making Hay, Public Art, Tom Otterness, Urban Dictionary, walking, writers, writing Leave a comment »
The Urban Dictionary says the phrase “describes nonconformal, creative thinking. Some innovative way or breakthrough.” I see it as getting my butt out of the chair and off the computer. It’s time to fill up the well–or whatever. Blame the heat, or the fire in New Mexico, or an ongoing lack of funds. It’s been too long. So . . . out of the box and into the field.
A few miles from home, I found this public art installation, Making Hay by New York artist, Tom Otterness. The 18-foot-tall figures made of steel and hay are definitely out of the box.
