Mr. John F. WOOTEN quietly passed away this afternoon at 2:10 o’clock at his late residence on east King street. The immediate cause of his death was apoplexy.  Mr. Wooten suffered a slight stroke yesterday afternoon while in conversation with some friends at his home and recovered sufficiently to get about the house today and was sitting up just a few minutes before his death this afternoon. He had a second stroke and asked to be helped to the lounge in the room and died in a few minutes.

Mr. Wooten was born November 22, 1821, and consequently had he lived until the 22^nd of this month would have been 82 years old.  He leaves a widow and six children: Mrs. W.O. MOSELEY, Messrs. T.C., Dal. F., J.F.Jr., and Lloyd, of this city and B.B. of Ft. Barnwell.  He was also the father of the late Sheriff John C. WOOTEN.

His has been a long and useful career.  Since receiving his license to practice law, up until a few years ago when he retired from the active duties of his profession on account of his age, he has been a public figure in this county.  Ranking among the first in the State as a criminal lawyer he wielded an influence that was not surpassed, in the days of his active practice at the bar.  He was indeed a foreman worthy of the best steed of an adversary and was counted the foremost advocate of the bar in this county during his long practice in the courts in this district.

The funeral had not been arranged when the paper went to press today, as members of the family were not here and until communication be gotten with them the arrangements will not be made.

The following biography of Mr. Wooten, found in the industrial issue of THE FREE PRESS, published in 1899 gives a concise history of his long and useful career:

Hon. John F. WOOTEN was born in Craven county, N.C., about 25 miles from Newbern, Nov. 22, 1821.  His father was “Council WOOTEN, of Pitt” county, a member of a large family of that name in Eastern Carolina.  His mother was Grizzy MURPHY, of Irish descent, and was a near kinswoman of Judge Archibald D. MURPHY, of legal fame in this State.

He received his early training in the celebrated school in Pittsboro, N.C., conducted by J.M. LOVEJOY. At the age of 21 he entered William and Mary College, Va., and in 1843 entered the Virginia University, taking the law course there.  He was licensed by the supreme court in 1845 and immediately located in Kinston, and was the first and only resident lawyer for a time.

He married Miss Mary Adams CHRISTIAN, of West Point, Va., a lady of great accomplishments and of a distinguished family.  He was married again, this time to Miss Mary PUGH, of Clinton, Sampson county.

He held the position of clerk and master of the court of equity for Lenoir county for five years, and afterwards held the office of county solicitor for Lenoir and Jones for a number of years.  He was elected as a Tilden elector in 1876, running ahead of his ticket in the State.  In 1879-1880 he was judge of the special criminal courts for Lenoir county.

He was considered one of the best criminal lawyers in the State in his best days, and was a wonderfully eloquent and able advocate.

He retired from the active practice several years ago to live out his declining years surrounded by his family and to enjoy the fruits of a well spent life.

Carmen loves to take my digital camera around the house and take pictures of random stuff.  Every once in a while, when I am going through and cleaning them out I find a few gems.

I guess Mose was her subject of the day because she got some really cute shots of him.

Pay no attention to the mess… I swear, it’s never like that.  ahem.

But seriously, is he handsome or what?

He is getting so big.  It is blowing my mind a little bit.   He is now pulling up to stand… and then promptly slipping down whatever he is standing against and thumping his noggin.  I can already tell he is going to have a permanent bruised forehead from now until three years old.

He now has 2 bottom teeth, and he is working on the third one, which is coming in on top.  I am going to miss that gummy grin.  It is so sad to see my baby start to disappear… yet so thrilling to see them accomplish new things on the journey to becoming their own people.  Man, this parenting thing. Wild.  I don’t think I’ll ever feel like I cuddled them enough, even if I did it ’round the clock.

Carmen is also amazing to me.  The stuff she comes up with is always so surprising.  She comes home with cute songs and sayings from preschool all the time.  She is getting so smart, and can now count well into her 30s.  Except, of course, for twenty-thirteen, and thirty-thirteen (in place of twenty-three and thirty-three).  Still impressive though, and I can see where she would get confused.

I just love them.  I am so happy I get to be their mom, and not someone else’s mom.

Carmen was a homemade tinkerbell fairy thing.  Not my best work… but she still looked pretty cute.

Here she was for her preschool party:

I really liked the eyelashes… which she yanked off 5 minutes after she got to school.

We carved some “punkins”.  Carmen’s was tinkerbell of course, and I made Moseley’s a pac man inspired jack-o-lantern.

We headed up to Huntington for the Black’s Halloween party.  We forgot the green eyelashes so Carmen shared some of Kaia’s orange ones.

Look how awesome that gnome is.  And the pic doesnt even do it justice, because you cant see Kardiff’s swagger while he was wearing it.  Cutest thing ever.

Of course the night of Halloween Carmen wanted to match Kaia, and wouldn’t wear her green shirt, only the black “underneath” one.  Whatever.

Here is Carmen holding up my adorable little shark… in all his rolly glory.

Ah… that dimple!

Mose didn’t really get the trick’r treating thing. And I mean, how scary can you be when you are strapped into a stroller covered with a blanket?

Thrilled.

However, when we got back home and the kids all dumped out their candy to survey the goods, he got to roll around in it like it was money.

He was making all the kids so mad by putting all their candy in his mouth with the wrappers on.

Yeah. put a nice camera in my hand, and the only thing I can get in focus is the bucket.  Fail.

Oh well, someday I will learn how to use a real camera… Until then I will leave the picture taking up to my talented friends.

If your child is aged 7-11 and would benefit from extra tuition in English and maths, or needs preparation for the King Edward’s grammar school entrance exam (11+), contact:

Sarah Nation (BA, PGCE)

0121-446-6156

e-mail: tuition@btinternet.com

I teach children from my home in the Cannon Hill area of Birmingham. It is easy to reach from Edgbaston, Moseley and King’s Heath.

One-to-one tuition is £20 per hour.

In last week’s blog we introduced the concept of Human Performance Improvement (HPI) from a student’s perspective.  For those who reviewed the International Society for Performance Improvement (ISPI) HPI Model you may have noted that one of the first steps in helping an organization improve performance involves an analysis to determine the organization’s needs and opportunities.  This is called a Performance Analysis. 

This vital step requires the HPI professional to assess the organization’s mission and values.  We blogged about opportunities to assess your organization’s mission and values using Web 2.0 technologies like Twitter and YouTube back on October 7^th.  We hinted at two questions that organizations should ask themselves to determine if core missions and values are aligned correctly and discussed by stakeholders.  Today we want to take this idea a step further and offer tools for HPI professionals in completing a Performance Analysis.  Remember that this process builds on itself each step of the way.  HPI professionals owe their clients to start on solid ground. 

Where would someone begin in completing a Performance Analysis?  It is different for every organization.  If you understand the questions to ask, who to ask, and how to use the answers you will be well on your way. 

Attached a wonderful tool you can use to create a survey or guide interviews and group discussions.  It will offer you an understanding of the types of questions you should ask and hint at the information each question is attempting to obtain.  Use some of the questions or all of them- it’s your choice.  The important thing is that you are thoughtful about asking these questions to ensure you have a solid start. 

This job aid was taken from the text of “Fundamentals of Performance Technology,” D.M. Van Tiem, J.L. Mosely, and J.C. Dessinger. 

Organizational Analysis Survey

You can use many Web 2.0 technologies to gather information if you choose to use a survey for part of your organizational analysis.  Many are free for small surveys (under 100 participants)!  Examples include Survey Monkey and Zoomerang. 

Your comments and feedback are welcome!

He has now started crawling.  And since I started blogging today… he has already turned off the computer once by pushing the hibernate button.  I guess it’s not really his fault… the glowing blue star wars like button really does call out to babies.  I remember Carmen doing the exact same thing at that age.  Which is another reason it takes me forever to get a blog post done.

Another of Moseley’s favorite things to do right now is pick up any random object and whack it as hard as possible on the nearest hard surface, just to see what sound it makes.

He is getting so curious about his little world around him… I can already tell I will probably have to get out the child locks soon.  Which is a bummer, because it seems like I just barely got to take them off, after Carmen’s more mischievous days were “over”.

He is still my happy baby.  He is so good about going down for naps.  With Carmen I would have to nurse her to sleep and then quietly lay her down and sneak out of her room.  With Moseley I can just lay him down, lay his blanket on him and give him a kiss.  He snuggles into his blanket, and goes to sleep on his own.

I just wish I were home more, so that he could get more naps.  I just can not get my kids on a normal sleep schedule.  I know it’s my own fault but mine and Lee’s schedules vary so much from day-to-day… there is about no way to get any consistency. Which I’m sure is why he still wakes me up a few times a night.  One day, I’ll get full nights of sleep again, and I can only imagine what a nice lady I’ll be then.

Moseley is still not too sure about baby foods.  He has warmed up to fruit, but veggies and cereals… well, he’s not too fond of.  I can usually only get 3-4 bites shoved into his mouth before he clamps it shut.  I think he’ll eventually really like table food, but he is not a fan of baby food.  Not that I blame him, the stuff smells awful,  But it does surprise me because Carmen would pretty much eat anything… so I hope this doesn’t mean that I am going to have a picky eater on my hands in the future.

Moseley is getting so big, it makes me so sad.  With every milestone he get’s less like a baby, and more like a toddler.  Not that I am not excited to see all those stages, but I don’t want to let my little baby go yet.  I wish I could freeze him in time.  He is just so cute.

Does that kid have the best bod you’ve ever seen or what?  Yum.

Living in california makes the changing of seasons a little less noticeable for the most part.  So fall seemed to really sneak up on me this year.  All of the sudden, summer is over, and it is getting a little chilly and rainy.  I am sad to see summer go, but the fall brings so much awesomeness that I cant really be that bummed about seeing my tan fade away.

• I now get to get out all the hoodies and woolly sweaters, that beckoned to me from the top shelf of my closet all year.

• I get to start making fun meals that feel like autumn.  Soups, chili and cornbread.  Hot coco.  Pies… which I love to make and eat.  I made some for Lauren and the kiddies while they stayed with us last weekend.

• I get to melt my spicier sentsys.

• And Disneyland!  Now that our passes are no longer blocked out, I love taking the kids to disneyland every once in a while.  It’s weird because, we have pretty much seen all there is to see at disneyland, yet it still calls to me all the time.  It really is a magical place to me for some reason.

Here are some pictures of our last few beach trips:

Either she has a lot of sand in her swimsuit… or she dropped a really big duce.

Even though you can barely see it, the expression on Mose’s face is just hilarious to me.

This picture makes me think that I might make him feel the way he makes me feel.

Could you put that apple down for one sec, so we can see your face?

That’s better.

And so five weeks into the season, we have finally arrived at our first round up of the weekends results in the inaugural Championship campaign. The second fully fledged professional division has arrived at a strange time economically, the effects of which were revealed all too graphically in the near undoing of London Welsh before the season began and also in Nottingham almost having the rug well and truly pulled from underneath them by their landlords, Notts County FC. These incidents aside, the launch has been a successful one thus far with all the teams managing to be competitive and none of the blowouts of recent years usually administered by the relegated side. But in my mind the question remains, why is it not on television? Surely the BBC should be picking up the highlights at the very least much like Sky does with the second tier rugby league.

Anyway, here’s what happened this week:

*Personal Interests
As we at IATC are Northumbria university alumi, we must declare an interest in this division as former teammates and friends have just this season been signed to teams. Drew Locke at Coventry started at full-back on friday night, where they went down by 3 points in a controversy filled game at home to Moseley. 10 minutes injury time was played in a game where the visitors were awarded 3 penalty tries and in a disgraceful incident, the referee was assaulted by an irate home supporter.

Luke Fielden made his first league start after injury for Bedford Blues, and followed up his try from the bench last week at home to Bristol with a brace in another losing effort at Old Deer Park. Fielden was the leading scorer at Cambridge last season with 17 touchdowns and has taken to a higher level with ease. Hooker Ross Batty missed out with injury this week for Rotherham as did Ben Mercer for Plymouth’s home derby against Launceston.

So you all saw the updates of the week via Tweets.  Some also have seen the latest post regarding the STL.  Here is a summary of stuff that will help those troubleshooting (STL) and planning (software updates) in the coming weeks.

1.  The STL.  The symptoms were quite surprising on the Moseley aural STL.  We noticed the failure via audio drop outs.  It was somewhat periodic, too, which was quite interesting.  As we had planned to drop the system to 32 quam from 64 quam to make it more robust in the first place, we began to do that from the far end (receivers at transmitter sites) back to the near end (studios).  No bit errors were being received at the transmitter site, so there was no real need to worry, yet the problem was there.  When we got to the transmitter at the studio, and after visiting the mid-point, we noticed the issue after making our Quam adjustment.
As we are running 32 Quam now, an issue like this will not show itself unless you are diligent on routine maintenance.  Now we are going to schedule monthly tests of the backup STL system by placing it on air for at least 1 hour.  We will also make sure we check the units themselves for any parameters out of range.

2.  Harris HTHD+:  Amazingly this thing will drop when you least expect it.  After spending a better part of the day Friday with tech support we are experimenting with the Exgine buffer.  The premise is the buffer is overflowing or having some issue causing a system restart.  During the restart RF is muted.  I will know more tomorrow when I hit the site and see how are buffer is doing after doing recommended adjustments to buffer timing.  If we remain unlocked, then we are looking at some issue.  If it is a data stream issue, then we may have something up with our Intraplex STL.  It would be odd if this was our issue and I would conclude that the Flexstar processing system and Exgine would need some sort of overhaul.  On a side note it also shows how critical a good network path to the transmitter site is for iBiquity HD radio.  Nuts considering many transmitter sites have little or no network access.

3.  UPSs (Uninterruptible Power Supplies):  Never purchase a consumer grade UPS even if it is a “true” UPS.  If possible purchase an online UPS large enough to handle the plant or a section thereof.  I have 15 more batteries to replace in the next day or two.  They are running my budget up and it is killing me.  It is worth the money to protect your systems, but a maintenance nightmare.  Try to keep it simple.

4.  Remote Controls:  More monitoring is a definite requirement for major markets.  Reliable, too.  I need something reliable, versatile, and flexible.  Will it be Davicom, Audemat, Burk, or Statmon?  I am tending towards Statmon, but the cost may be too steep.  I’ll keep you posted on my progress on this one.

Enough rambling, back to more fun!

Wow, it’s been a while since I’ve posted.  Mostly because it has been quite slow and doing a bunch of budget prep.  Maybe I’ll post a separate article on budget prep.  In the meantime what are the chances that both your main STL and your auxiliary STL have issues simultaneously?  Yesterday our T-1 went down hard.  We switched to our aux STL.  It worked, but we were taking audio drops.  The aux STL is a Moseley Starlink, 4-channel version.  This system goes back at least 8 years and I was not too involved with the install, just the basics.  Configuration was done be someone else and the factory.  The bottom line is I felt that the 64Q settings were not robust enough for reliable transport of our audio and data.  I was right.

I proceeded to configure all our sites to 32Q.  We have a studio, a midpoint relay, and two receive sites.  I discovered as I worked my way back that our studio transmitter on one system was running low power!  Clue one for audio drops.  I have an order in for a loaner and will be getting it repaired ASAP.  After all the configurations were changed, the audio drops, even with a low power transmitter, have gone away.  Of course by the time I had the system configured, AT&T had fixed our T-1.

If you have an auxiliary STL system that does not get used much I suggest you take a close look at all the operating parameters.  Apparently on the Moseley you cannot monitor them remotely or you need to do some upgrading.  As we clean up around here after years of neglect, we are scheduling routine maintenance of all systems.  Have you checked yours recently?

The first senior photo day will commence Monday, Sept. 28 from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. in the Hearth Lounge in Moseley. This is the first of many photo sessions, but seniors are encouraged to have their photo taken sooner rather than later. Many students say senior year is the most memorable of their college career and what better way to remember the thrills and excitement of college than to have your photo published in the yearbook!

This year, Phi Psi Cli is undergoing dramatic changes. We’re turning this publication upside down with a goal to produce the best yearbook this school has seen since the first edition was printed decades ago. One of the many changes we plan to make is a new focus on Elon seniors. Say goodbye to underclassmen photos – they’re off the hook for now. Becoming a senior is a great accomplishment and we want to honor the work you have done by giving you more attention. We plan to feature personality profiles and stories about different highlighting seniors and they’re accomplishments, experiences and future plans.

Our encouragement: Don’t postpone senior pictures until it’s too late. The last thing you want is to stand on the stage in May, diploma in hand, with the horrible realization that you are not even featured in your senior yearbook. The few minutes you relinquish to have your picture taken will be a worthwhile investment in the longrun.

Just the Sunday (the sixth of September) of Mizoke Fizolk for me this year. Things started badly when it occurred to me that I’d forgotten to borrow The Annual Folk Festival Hat, but got better soon enough.

Moseley Park was as lovely as ever, and perhaps even seemed a bit more so due to layout changes: this year the side stage was over on the left as you look at it (where it was the first year, although still the bigger one they’ve used the last couple of times), and so we got a better view of the lake and its wildfowl. And, erm, the great big scary white balloons that looked uncannily like Rover from “The Prisoner”. There were clearly and obviously more punters than in previous years, but things never seemed crowded.

I’ll just mention the highlights, I think. Given that I’ve hardly written about anything at all that I’ve been to in the last six months I doubt I need to feel guilty here.

~ Wizz Jones: A legendary legend-like legend who is a legend that I hadn’t heard of in my life prior to this. Festivals of this nature always have such sorts. Laid-back folk and acoustic blues with lots of your finger-pickin’-good guitar, and really enjoyable. I especially liked his rendition of “King Of Rome” and think that there should be more songs about pigeon racing.

~ Hunter Robertson: Married a voice like an Appalachian bear burping after eating Tom Waits with some of that really fast clawhammer banjo stuff that sounds like music from a chase scene. This is all a very good thing.

~ Laura Louise: I made a point of heading over to the Bohemian Jukebox stage (the “slopey tent”, as LL had it. Extensive use was made of silver Lamé for décor, and I approve of this) for Laura Louise, having seen and liked her before with Carina ages ago, but I really wasn’t expecting her to be as good as this. Very, very nice use was made of a loop pedal (she felt the need to explain what it was, bless her, almost as though they’re not used by six out of every five solo artists going nowadays), a voice that you really wouldn’t expect if you just glanced at her (unfair as that may be), beatboxing, guitar-tapping for percussion, and what sounded like some really good songs at first listen. I must pay closer attention henceforth.

~ Bad Shepherds: Ade “Eddie” Edmonson’s band, playing (mostly) punk covers in a folk idiom. No mere joke band, either – they’re actually really good. Good enough for me to want them to have a better singer than Eddie, in fact, hilarious though he is. I really liked some of their versions, anyway: I thought “Down The Tube Station At Midnight”, “Against The Wall” and “Once In A Lifetime” all worked particularly well, although the highlight of the entire day was probably their take on the first verse of “All Around My Hat” (with no instrumentation, they all solemnly sang as one: “All around my hat/I shall wear the green willow/And all around my hat/For a twelve month and a day/And if anyone should ask me/The reason why I’m wearing it/Mind your fucking business/It’s my fucking hat”.)

~ Errrrrmmm: I popped over to The Prince Of Wales for a bit (all the green was burning itself into my vision. Also I fancied a change from the Purity ales, nice as they were) and saw a girl with blonde dreadlocks singing and guitaring, backed by a Destroyer on banjo and someone I’m sure I recognised from some band or other on fiddle. So, anyway, quite nice fun’n’frothy songs but I have absolutely no idea what her name was.

~ Mama Matrix: Ooh, I’d wanted to see these for ages but not quite managed it until this point. It seems as though history may condemn them to be known as Birmingham’s Other Gypsy/Balkan Band, although that’s not to be taken as any slight. They’re a lot more straightforward/song-based than *cough*, but lots of energetic fun nevertheless. Admittedly I was completely plastered by this point in the night.

~ Jethro Tull: Jethro Tull, eh? Blimey. Ian Anderson’s voice isn’t as clear as it once was (he now sounds like he has an extra mouth singing “hhhhhhhnnnnnn” at the same time as every word), but he does still stand on one leg to play the flute at times and clearly this is what’s important. The ‘Tull were great fun, and every bit as gloriously silly as you’d want. I’ve always liked their older/blues-rockier stuff more, but the stuff I like less sounded better live too (I also had to chuckle to myself when Ando proclaimed “Back To The Family” as the worst song he’d ever written. Stealth-self-aggrandisement indeed). And, y’know, he does still stand on one leg at times.

The Stars in Their Courses, by Isaac Asimov; Ace Books 1972

Isaac Asimov

Can that date be right?  Am I really reviewing a book published in 1972?  Yes, I am; you see, this is a special book.  It was the first book by Isaac Asimov that I ever read.  Once I read this book, and discovered how well Asimov explained things that I was interested in, I read volume after volume of his science essays: Of Time, Space, and Other Things; Quasar, Quasar Burning Bright; The Universe… the list goes on and on.

But The Stars in Their Courses was the first.  How did I happen to read this book?  It’s not as though I were an amateur astronomer.  Here’s the story:

The year was 1973.  I was living in Sacramento, California, and my older brother was getting married in Dresden, Ohio.  I was at the airport, waiting to catch a plane to Columbus, when I suddenly realized I had nothing to read on the plane.  A state akin to panic began to set in.  Four hours on a plane, and nothing to read.  I made a beeline for the gift shop and quickly scanned the book rack.  Success!  The Stars in Their Courses caught my eye.  The cover proclaimed, “Isaac Asimov tells all about the Universe, and everything else.”  This was intriguing.  I harbored a fledgling interest in astronomy, and had at least heard of Isaac Asimov.

Time was short; I bought the book, and headed back to my gate.  My heart rate and respiration returned to normal.  Long before my plane got to Columbus, I was a confirmed Asimov fan, and have remained one ever since.  Though I am not by any stretch of the imagination a scientist, nor even a student of science, I am – thanks to Asimov - a student of science history, and feel like a member of the brotherhood.

This book is a collection of seventeen essays about astronomy, physics, chemistry, and sociology.  In the first two chapters, Asimov absolutely destroys astrology.  This was significant to me, because at the time I first read this book, I knew someone who was a believer in astrology.  He knew a great deal of astrological theory, and in debating with him I always felt at a disadvantage.  I was sure astrology was nonsense, but had only my intuition to guide me.  Asimov knows not only the history of astrology, but astronomy too, and explains exactly why astrology is nonsense.  In so doing, he helped me to feel much more confident in what I believed.

Asimov’s essays are leavened throughout with generous dollops of humor.  His discussion of astrology concludes as follows:  “To be sure, there may be some among my valued Gentle Readers who will be swayed by this [line of reasoning], and who will wonder whether there isn’t something in this chain of reasoning starting from planetary position, and ending in Aries giving sympathy and Scorpio turning on the distrust.  If so, repress the thought.  I am quite certain that with very little ingenuity I could invent a chain of reasoning that is just as valid and plausible, connecting the pattern of burping of a herd of hippopotami amid the reeds of the river Nile with the rise and fall of the steel output in the mills of Gary, Indiana.”

In “The Nobel Prize that Wasn’t”, Asimov writes fascinatingly about the English physicist Henry Gwyn-Jeffreys Moseley.  “Moseley was simply a streak of brilliance…” Asimov writes, and goes on to show how, through Mosely’s work, “the foundation of the periodic table of elements was made firm as a rock.”  He relates how, because of this work, Moseley deserved the Nobel prize of 1916 in either physics or chemistry, and that “it was just as certain as anything could be in such matters that he was going to get it,” that there was, in fact, “no way of avoiding it.”  Alas, there was a way of avoiding it.  When World War I broke out, Moseley enlisted in the Royal Engineers, and was killed in August 1915 during the Gallipoli Campaign.  “He had not yet reached his twenty-eighth birthday”, Asimov writes, “and in my opinion, his death was the most expensive individual loss to the human race generally, among all the millions who died in that war.”

In the essay, “Worlds in Confusion”, Asimov completely discredits the ideas espoused by Immanuel Velikovsky in his book Worlds in Collision.  In others, he touches on the extraordinary accomplish-ments of Isaac Newton, tells the fascinating story of the invention of the lightning rod by Benjamin Franklin, the introduction of anesthesia, and the impact of Darwin’s theory of evolution by natural selection.

I owe a great debt of gratitude to Isaac Asimov.  Much of what I know about science is due to his skill as a “professional explainer”.  Although what I don’t know is vastly greater than what I do, what I do know is enough to satisfy me as to the sufficiency of the scientific method of inquiry.

I recommend this book for everyone.  This is science for the layperson.  Those of you who have an interest in science will meet an old friend between its covers, and those who don’t will still enjoy the essays.  If an interest in science is kindled by this book, so much the better.  There is a whole world of Asimov waiting for you.

Derrick Robinson

Now that  Moseley is 6 months old there have been a lot of changes around here.  He is now 19 lbs and 27 inches tall.  He can sit up unsupported without toppling right over.  He is getting up on his hands and knees… which means my days of having a stationary baby are soon over.  He finally started solids, and hates every one of them.  Which is fine I guess, it doesn’t seem like he is lacking in the calories department.  I do wish he would be full enough to start sleeping through the night though.  Between him and sister, they are trying to kill me with all the waking up in the middle of the night.  I honestly can’t even remember what 8 hours of uninterrupted sleep feels like.  I remember back in the day when I could sleep for about 11 hours… What would that be like?

Anyway, Carmen and Moseley are just about the cutest best friends ever.  She was helping me with his first rice cereal feeding, and it was about the cutest thing I have ever seen.  They were cracking each other up.

After the newness of eating from a spoon wore off, about 4 bites later, Mose decided he was over rice cereal.  I still had some leftover pumped milk, so I let Carmen feed it to him in a bottle…

I love that I can tell my kids love each other.  Having a second baby is always scary because you can’t imagine loving another as much as the first.  Plus I didn’t know how she would react to having our attention divided.  But I think any attention she loses from us, is made up for times ten by the love she gets from her baby brother.  I mean look at that smile he gives her.  He is completely enamored with his big sister.  And who could not love this boy?
He is still the happiest baby ever.  He always has the hugest dimpled smile for everyone, and he literally lights up every room he enters with it.  There is just something about that big squishy boy, I just can not get enough of him.

A Big B13 shout for The Moseley Folk Festival, which triumphantly played out this weekend in the private park. Can there have ever been such a gathering of fanciful coloured wellies within these City limits? In this demi-Eden, women freely breastfed their babes, ate felafel, quoffed organic ale. Blokes chewed over social injustices, compared temporary tattoos, reminisced about the last time Fairport played the Town Hall. The occasional whiff of weed or glimpse of silver-haired dancer; the inevitable spot of rain.

The Moseley eco-credentials made me suddenly self-conscious of carrying our picnic around in a disposable plastic Somerfield’s bag. Everyone else seemed to have dressed appropriately – with long-life bag, fair-trade picnic blanket and brolly in tow. The MFF is now into it’s 4th year and growing impressively for what is a tiny festival. This year’s line-up including Beth Orton, St.Etienne, Cara Dillon, Ade Edmondson & the Bad Shepherds. the excellent Mama Matrix, Carthy and Swarb (a decade after his obituary was famously published in the Telegraph). The boys happily fitted into the vibe, disdaining their more feral peers and seeming to share my enthusiasm for the reformed cult legends Comus, introduced to me by Jonathan Holloway earlier this year (“drip, drip…from your sagging lip…” : My Arms, Your Heurse, 1970). It was exciting and strange to see Jethro Tull , performing but gobbing distance from The Prince of Wales, the pub that we, as 6th formers, would call our own; which hosted our music-obsessed gatherings and which oft inspired our music-making. We first saw the Tull (yeeeaaaahhh!) at the NEC in about 1982. They were getting on a bit then…or so we thought. In fact, they were a lot younger than we now. With those thoughts permeating darkly, I slipped out from the gig quietly and went home for my cocoa.

There wasn’t an August, but it really doesn’t seem like there’s never much that’s particularly exciting in August. This particular list is even less exhaustive than usual, and also even more music-dominated than usual, but that’s what I’ve managed to come up with. Sorry. The comments box is as open as ever for the awesome stuff I’ve missed, if you feel like using it.

Standard disclaimers: I can’t ensure that these events will go ahead, that they’ll be good, or that I will be going to them. This is just a list of things I found that looked like they might be interesting, so please do not contact me to ask for your event to be included. That’s not the way it works.

Wednesday the 2nd until Saturday the 19th – ‘Cabaret’ (Birmingham Rep Theatre Company) @ The Rep Theatre, Birmingham – Wilkommen, bienvenue, welcome, c’mon in. Or similar. We saw this production last year and it was quite good. Certainly less afraid of facing up to the nasty side of it all than a lot of big-budget touring musicals would probably be. I’m not sure about the extent to which the cast is the same as that one, but Wayne Sleep is definitely still playing The MC.

Wednesday the 2nd – Seasick Steve @ JB’s, Dudley – One of these occasions when the booking at JB’s really surprises you. Apparently it’s their 40th anniversary do and proceeds will be going to cancer charity ’The Proton Effect’. Scott Matthews is also on the bill, in proper Black Country fashion.

Thursday the 3rd – Maths @ The Flapper, Birmingham – Chaotic metally punk, or even screamo if you feel the need. They’re quite good from the bits and bobs I’ve heard, but more importantly than that they call themselves ‘Maths’ rather than ‘Math’. I can’t tell you how much I appreciate that, in these times of everyone wanting to pretend to be an American.

Friday the 4th till Sunday the 6th – The Moseley Folk Festival @ Moseley Park, Moseley, Birmingham – Headlined by Saint Etienne (folk you say?), Beth Orton and Jethro Tull, whilst also featuring Swarbrick:Carthy, Ade Edmondson’s band, Keli Ali, Cara Dillon and a load of others. Bert Jansch won’t be there as originally advertised, due to ill-health.

Friday the 4th till Sunday the 6th – Birmingham Punks Picnic @ a few places in Brum – Cannon Hill Park on Saturday afternoon for cheap cider (no doubt), then gigs in the evening: The New Inn in Balsall Heath has Drongos For Europe and more on Friday then GBH, Runnin’ Riot and others on Saturday, whilst The Wagon & Horses in Digbeth has a line-up that includes Assert on Sunday.

Saturday the 5th and Sunday the 6th – “Off The Cuff” music event @ The Flapper, Birmingham – On the one hand it doesn’t look like Rolo Tomassi are doing this anymore (unfortunate) and their MySpace page doesn’t actually tell you which bands are playing on which day (stupid), but on the other hand some of the acts will be playing on a docked barge on the canal outside (brilliant).

Monday the 7th – Tori Amos @ Symphony Hall, Birmingham – She’s ace, although she wasn’t that good when I saw her live a few years ago. But she is ace.

Thursday the 10th – The Drifters @ The Wulfrun Hall, Wolverhampton – To repeat what I said in a previous LOTTSADITWM: “Or a version thereof, at least. No Ben E. King or Clyde McPhatter, for obvious reasons.”

Thursday the 10th till Sunday the 13th – the opening of the new version of the Birmingham Academy @ The, erm, new version of the Academy, Birmingham – The previous toss-hut has closed its doors to be demolished (well, good) and a new ‘un is due to open. Let’s be positive – while it’d be outright stupid to hope that most of the problems with the old place will be rectified, perhaps the new place will be a better building and so perhaps some of the structure-related stuff will be better. Any sort of improvement would be a blessing, really. The opening doings involve four days o’ gigs headlined by Birmingham bands who have achieved fame (relatively) recently: Editors on Thursday, The Twang on Friday (apparently with nine other bands, although obviously it’d make life far too easy if the Academy website were to tell us who they are), The Streets on Saturday, and Ocean Colour Scene (bless) on Sunday. Lovely to see ‘em showing their commitment to the full ethnic make-up of Birmingham’s music so early on.

Friday the 11th till Sunday the 13th – Artsfest @ all over Birmingham – Annual free-family-fun-weekend that everyone bar me seems to hate. Typically there’s no sign of a line-up/timetable yet, but there is a list of ‘themes’, including the anniversaries of the death of Matthew Boulton, the birth of Charles Darwin, and the creation of… Barbie. I’m not making this up. (EDIT: The leaflets are out now, got one through the door today. Still nothing on the website, though). (EDIT EDIT: The timetable is on the website now. See comments below, too).

Friday the 11th – Electric Wizard @ The Hare & Hounds, Kings Heath, Birmingham – Dooooooooooom.

Sunday the 13th – The Men They Couldn’t Hang @ The Robin 2, Bilston – They really should get TMTCH on at the Moseley Folk Festival, now that I think about it.

Friday the 18th – Boxing (First Team) @ The Civic Hall, Wolverhampton – Steve Saville has a go at Scott Lawton for the English lightweight title, and if you’re into slebriteez then Angel McKenzie from ‘Big Brother’ faces our own local Lyndsey Scragg. I am completely confident that Lyndsey will absolutely wreck her, so let me know if you can find anyone running a book on it.

Sunday the 20th – The Digbeth O’Lympics @ various pubs in Digbeth – Although the website just shows you a flyer and doesn’t tell you what the events are (‘not wanting to let on about the line-up’ seems to be the theme this month, doesn’t it? Event promoters, you’re all rubbish. All of you), but in this case I don’t suppose it matters that much. Have a pint instead.

Tuesday the 22nd – Massive Attack @ The Academy, Birmingham – Currently running back at two members, I think. Possibly.

Tuesday the 22nd – Theo @ The Hare & Hounds, Kings Heath, Birmingham – Fantastic loop-pedallin’ maths-rock one-man-band who rocked both your socks and mine at Supersonic this year. He’s first on the bill, with Fook Boottons headlining.

Wednesday the 23rd – “Under Milk Wood” (Guy Masterson) @ The Arena Theatre, Wolverhampton – Dylan ‘That’s lovely, you see, isn’t it’ Thomas. This claims to be “perhaps the ultimate rendition” of it, with a very strategically placed ‘perhaps’.

Thursday the 24th – The Wildhearts @ The Academy, Birmingham – Will my unbroken run of failing to attend any Wildhearts and/or Wildhearts-related gigs since June 2001 continue? The sensible money would say ‘yes’.

Saturday the 26th – AMMA @ Banks’ Stadium, Bescott, Walsall – The latest in the always-fantastic series of amateur MMA cards put on by Marc Goddard and co. The most recent bill I can find is here.

Monday the 28th till Saturday the 3rd of October – “Dinnerladies” (The Comedy Theatre Company) @ The Grand Theatre, Wolverhampton – The telly series was one of the greatest telly serieseseses ever, I think (by which I mean that it was really good, and not that I’m trying to damn it with faint praise). Obviously I don’t know how good this is.

Monday the 28th – the live version of “I’m Sorry I Haven’t A Clue” @ Symphony Hall, Birmingham – I was really quite overjoyed to walk past Mornington Crescent tube station when I went to London in February.

Wednesday the 30th – ‘Canal Music’ @ outside The Flapper, Birmingham – This is a lovely idea for a tour: Lisa Knapp and Leafcutter John are playing a series of gigs up the length of the Grand Union Canal. It ends in Birmingham (obviously), outside The Flapper. I don’t know if they’re actually playing from the barge or not. If they are that’ll take a bit of the novelty away from the “Off The Cuff” thingy mentioned above.

Come on sing along, you know the words!

Two buskers who have pissed off residents of Moseley in Birmingham for 18 months, by playing the same two songs over and over again, have been slapped with anti-social behaviour orders (ASBO) preventing them from playing anywhere in England or Wales (look out Scotland!). James Ryan and Andrew Stevens, of no fixed addresses, only know two songs ‘Wonderwall’ by Oasis and George Michael’s ‘Faith’. So with guitar and dustbin lids the duo have been standing outside pubs singing and begging and singing from sun up until sun down (and then some) the same friggin songs. One resident says he breaks down  every time he so much as hears either song on the radio.Another said “It would get to the point where I would be lying in bed and I would have Wonderwall stuck in my head all night.”

We are still keen to sign up volunteers for our flagship Moseley School Project which will be launched in the Autumn school term (details below). In addition, some of you have already worked with schools in Birmingham through Education Business Links and other organisations.  If you are keen to continue to support schools through Birmingham Future, in particular the Moseley School Project, and haven’t already signed up, please email donna.codrington@dlapiper.com.

Details of Moseley School Project:  Birmingham Future has “adopted” Moseley School, a vibrant and diverse secondary school with approximately 1,350 pupils located in the popular area of Birmingham with the same name.  Of its pupils, less than 30% obtain 5 or more C grades at GCSE.  The Adopt a School Project is a long term project through which Birmingham Future, (through its members) aims to facilitate the school in encouraging ambition, inspiring and supporting pupils to pursue careers within one of Birmingham’s many professional service sectors which is something that the governors and the school are keen to promote.

This exciting project led by Birmingham Future’s Diversity Committee, will give Future members the opportunity to help Birmingham’s children to achieve their full potential and become Birmingham’s Future.  Members will engage with pupils across all school years on a variety of activities and events which aim to;

• Increase industry knowledge through project based “apprentice” type and other events;
• Give insight into the careers available through career discussions and industry games;
• Illuminate  professional life by participation in office visits and mock meetings;
• Develop employment skills by undertaking mock interviews;
• Promote self esteem by giving presentations assisted and assessed by members; and
• Raise ambition by showing the pupils, first hand, the personal benefits of a professional career.

Thank you for your support!

I am finally getting my ticket for Moseley Folk Festival tomorrow. The 4th annual festival has a superb line up this year & it’s less than a month away! I can’t wait.

This years acts include…
Jethro Tull, Circulus, Ben Calvert, Beth Orton, Martin Carthy & Dave Swarbrick and Adrian Edmonson & The Bad Shepherds.

The full line up can be seen here.

I’m particularly excited about Vetiver & Wolf People. I have seen Vetiver umpteen times and they never disappoint. Andy Cabic has a beautiful voice and is an amazing songwriter.

I saw Wolf People at Green Man last year and they blew me away. I was transported back to the late 60s/early 70s. Great stuff!

There will be workshops, a healing area, great food and stalls. As well as all this there will be a programme of traditional, contemporary and experimental folk and acoustic music in the park and in some of the surrounding pubs.

Moseley Folk Festival takes place in Moseley Park from 4th-6th September. Tickets are available from Swordfish, Polar Bear, Marcus Galleries & The TicketSellers.

Many of you know about the movie Repo! The Genetic Opera.

For those of you who don’t know about it, it’s a Rock opera that was originally a stage-play, and then was captured for film.

The movie includes many famous actors/actresses, including Alexa Vega (Shilo), Anthony Head (Repo Man, Nathan), Sarah Brightman (Blind Mag), Terrance Zdunich (Graverobber), Paul Sorvino (Rotti), Paris Hilton (Amber Sweet), Bill Moseley (Luigi), and Nivek Ogre (Pavi).

Theatrical Trailer:

It’s a fantastic movie, and if you haven’t seen it yet, you should go watch it.

And now for the reason I am bringing up this movie;

I was doing some research on the actors in the movie that I had never seen before and Nivek Ogre, who plays one of my favorite characters, Pavi, is in a band that started in the eighties called “Skinny Puppy.” Their music is fantastic, especially if you enjoy the music from the movie, or if you like progressive-style techno. For an example of their music, watch the video for their song “Pro-Test”:

Nivek is also in a band called “OhGr.” Also good music. Very similar to Skinny Puppy. For an example of OhGr’s music, see the video for “Cracker”:

Great movie, great bands. Just all around greatness.

<3Absolute Manifesto<3

“Ask a Gentern who they prefer, ten-out-of-nine will say ‘The Pavi!’” – Pavi Largo, Repo! The Genetic Opera

Sinopse:

Numa família de serial killers, depois de matar o xerife Wydell (William Forsythe), a família Firefly – formada pela mãe (Leslie Easterbrook), Baby (Sheri Moon), Otis (Bill Moseley) e Capitão Spaulding (Sid Haig) – se encontra no caminho de um policial vingativo, irmão da vítima. Só que a única coisa que espera os personagens deste filme é uma verdadeira carnificina. Seqüência de A Casa dos 1000 Corpos.

- Achei melhor que A Casa dos 1000 Corpos. Para quem gosta do gênero, é obrigatório assistir esses dois filmes.

- Assistido em 29/07/2009

How cute is this chunky boy?

photos by: blue lily photo