Ok, nu ska jag lyssna igenom Norah Jones nya album “The Fall”. Återkommer om jag gillar den eller inte. Känner jag är på humör för den musiken…..

We have been so busy since getting back from London…..the kids are growing by leaps and bounds.  Norah crawls so fast she’s hard to catch!  She is cruising around – walking by holding onto things and is constantly getting tangled up in our legs.  She will be walking very soon!  Sammy is doing wonderfully.  His swimming is improving every week.  He is almost 100% potty trained (whew!)!  We are now gearing up for the holidays and our trip to Florida.  Sammy can’t wait to fly on a plane again.  He is such a good traveler!  That’s it for now I guess.  We’ll keep you posted!

For Thanksgiving this year we shared it with our friends the Brough family, the Schwartz family and the Teeter family.  I gotta say it was very relaxing not cooking.  Even more relaxing was all the girls of babysitting age who passed Norah around all afternoon giving me a chance to be with the adults!  She had a great time playing with everyone….so did Sammy.  At 9 pm when we finally headed home he was begging to stay.  What a terrific time.  I am very thankful for such wonderful friends!

Baby's First Thanksgiving

Wearing Sammy's pilgrim hat

I'm a little turkey

After work today, Norah and I ran an errand. She likes to get out of the house as much as possible, and I needed to buy some ductwork to install an air-to-air exchanger, so I bundled her up, packed her into her seat, and headed to the industrial area.

Norah sang happily in the car on the way. I left her in her bucket seat and carried her inside of metal manufacturing shop. We waited a few minutes to get served, and it took a few more to make my layman self understood to the not-so-patient counterman. His impatience was justified given the context, mind you – I was the only one in the building who wasn’t a male contractor over 50. I was the only one in the building who didn’t know what he was talking about. I was the only one in the building who had a baby. I paid and carried Norah to the warehouse to wait for our wall stack, angle boot and pipe saddle to be gathered.

Here Norah finally got impatient. I tried my best to entertain her while maintaining some semblance of dignity. I didn’t think, “Oh, who’s a cute girl? Tickle tickle tickle. That’s daddy’s girl!” would wash with this crowd. Norah was not happy. I had no toys. No tools in my daddy toolbox – or none I wanted to use. I had nothing. Then I recalled B telling me that the only way to keep her happy earlier in the day was to give her the car keys. I knew she would scream when I took them away, but by then we’d be in the car, with the tin loaded, and none of the men who currently looked annoyed at her fussing would be there.

I handed her my keys and she stopped fussing instantly. I smiled to myself. Nicely done, Chris. The counterman came down with the last of my tin and hauled it out to the loading dock. I followed. “Which is yours?” he asked, motioning towards the seven dually 3/4 tons idling nearby. I motioned past the trucks to my car, the rear bumper peeking out from behind a mammoth Dodge. “It’s the car.” An uneasy silence followed. “Just put it down there,” I said, as toughly as I could muster, “I’ve got it.” I carried Norah to the car that I had left unlocked and put her seat in place. She played with the keys contentedly. I went back to the dock and grabbed a cardboard box with the smaller pieces I bought, and took it to the car. Norah smiled when she saw me through the window. I flattened one of the back seats to make room for the 5′ wall stack, and hustled back to the dock. I returned and loaded the last of my wares into the car. Norah smiled, babbling away.

Not wanting to disturb her happiness, I decided to pull a fast one – while she was still holding the keys, I carefully slipped the ignition key off of the ring. She protested slightly, grabbing at the keyless entry when it ever-so-briefly left her hands, but I prevailed. I shut her door and made my way around to the driver’s door. I reached down, grabbed the handle to open it, but it didn’t open. I tried again. Then I recalled a sound that didn’t seem significant to me at the time, but was becoming increasingly significant as my blood pressure rose. As I wrestled the ignition key off of the chain, Norah had pushed the lock button on the keyless entry.

I panicked. I didn’t even have the cell phone. I was going to have to go back into the metal shop, and while everyone working there listened, ask to borrow the phone, and explain to B how I had locked our daughter in the back seat of the car with the keys. My panic lasted about five seconds. Five of the longest seconds I’ve endured. I think if I had had the cell phone, in those five seconds I would have called B. But I didn’t. And I realized I had the car key in my hand. And it would open the door. Or it should. I’d never actually used it for that. But it should. And it did open the door, and I was able to drive away with some semblance of dignity intact. A small piece, anyway.

Growing up, my parents did their best to provide wholesome food for us. They grew their own grain, ground it into flour, cultivated a massive garden growing everything from asparagus to zucchini, and bought anything they couldn’t grow at Old Fashioned Foods. Baking was sweetened with honey, not white sugar. We learned to appreciate simple treats, like fresh raspberries on ice cream, or, even better, fresh raspberries on granola and ice cream.

Not that I fully embraced this approach to food, mind you. I resented the thick whole wheat bread that seemed to suck the moisture from your mouth while you tried to eat a peanut-butter sandwich. I looked longingly at the processed meat my classmates ate, while I chewed grudgingly through a deer-sausage sandwich with homemade pickles. While I resented the bread then, I sure appreciate it now. And find that the older I get, the more closely I emulate my parents. Norah will grow up eating thick slices of brown bread, organic fruits and veggies, and locally sourced meats, much like I did. Norah will learn the joys of a fresh bowl of granola, much like the one I had last night after making a batch of Mom and Dad’s signature granola. I had forgotten how good homemade granola was until our last visit to see my Mom. Over the two weeks we wolfed down bowl after bowl of granola and I wondered how I lived without it in my daily diet. Since then, I’ve had granola for breakfast most days. And last night B and I made a double batch after Norah went to sleep. For those of you interested or inclined, here is the recipe we used:

MSNBC’s Nora O’Donnell unsuccessfully tries her best to convince supporters of Sarah Palin that she really was for the bailout, before she was against it. SMDH

B spends roughly 8 more hours a day with Norah than I do. While I’m at work, she spends the day playing with Norah, feeding Norah, changing Norah, well, everything Norah – you get the picture. Consequently, I learn about Norah’s new tricks when I get home from work. I see her pull up on the ottoman the fifth time she does it, not the first. I see her sign for milk, or watch her roll the ball after B does. Rarely do I get to be the first to see or do something with Norah.

However, the other day, while Norah and I were eating breakfast (or more to the point while I was eating granola, and she was spitting her rice cereal out at me) I was hit by a stroke of genius. And that doesn’t happen often. When I finished my granola, I took Norah’s bowl of cereal and set it inside my bowl. I took my soup spoon and used it to feed her the cereal. She happily slurped it off the spoon. I grabbed a teaspoon, and continued. She ate the rest of the bowl happily. Nice!

Life Sometimes Isn't Easy

sunshine cleaning, sebuah film dengan embel embel “from the produser  of little miss sunshine”. otomatis ketika melihatnya sayapun langsung menontonnya, dengan jajaran cast yang lumayan, amy adams, emily blunt plus alan arkin, alhasil cerita drama yang tidak biasa pun terlahir, dengan cerita yang agak nyeleneh tapi lumayan menyentuh.

menceritakan rose (adams) yang berprofesi sehari hari sebagai pelayan maupun pembantu rumahan, bekerja seharian demi menghidupi keluarganya, sedangkan rose mempunyai adik yaitu norah (blunt) seorang wanita pengangguran yang masih tinggal bersama ayahnya (arkin). rose sadar bekerja banting tulang tidak bisa mencukupi kehidupannya plus untuk membiayai anaknya sekolah, akhirnya dia mendapat ide karena sering “tidur” dengan temannya seorang polisi yang selalu cerita biaya membersihkan TKP bekas pembunuhan lumayan mahal karena sedikit orang yang mengerjakannya.

tiba tiba saja rose berpikir bahwa ini saat yang tepat untuk ganti profesi sebagai tukang pembersih TKP, dia pun mengajak adiknya untuk bekerja sama, maka petualangan pun terjadi, seperti cerita yang sederhana, tapi didalamnya tersimpan bermacam macam kisah menyentuh, bagaimana perjuangan rose untuk bisa membiayai anaknya, serta rasa trauma norah atas kehilangan ibunya yang sebenarnya rose juga rasakan, plus ketika norah “mengacaukan” tugas pembersihan TKP terakhirnya semakin membuat rose tertekan, but its always a way out right?

drama keluarga yang serba kesulitan sana sini disajikan dengan unik dan kadang lucu sebagai agen pembersih TKP wanita, hingga sang ayah pun akhirnya mengerti bagaimana kesulitan rose dan selalu menanggapinya dengan tenang, intinya cerita film ini adalah bagaimana sebuah keluarga bisa menghadapi cobaan secara bersama sama dengan cara unik mereka, toh worth to watch sebagai hiburan serta “charger” semangat anda. enjoy.

Felicidades pequeñaja por tu primer añico :):)

Norah has more hair every day — and every day her cowlick gets bigger. And cuter. Even after a bath and a brush it stands tall. Cutest thing ever.

And, for good measure, a picture that shows that Norah has a good sense of humor — why else would she make that face when we took the picture?

And, since we just had a civic election, I’ll include this pic. Look how wise Norah is! She will use this when she runs for class president at pre-school. I’m already working on her campaign slogans, but not much that is relevant to toddlers rhymes with Norah. Plethora? Fedora? Hmmm…

“The Fall” is the new studio album by American singer-songwriter Norah Jones.
Norah has taken a new direction on the The Fall, experimenting with different sounds and a new set of collaborators.

Norah Jones – The Fall (Full Album)

Crook S-type into Swart AST.

Even though I am a Tele guy, this S-type keeps calling my name. And plugged through the AST, there isn’t one bad tone to be found!

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Norah slept through the night on Saturday night. She didn’t wake at all. This in itself is cause for celebration. But wait, there’s more…

Monday afternoon, when I got home from work, I was holding Norah in the kitchen, watching as Brenda started making supper. I was taking advantage of some stolen cuddle time, kissing her face as she watched her mom. She then turned to me, and said, clear as day, “Dad.” Not “dadadadada” but “Dad.” DAD. What an amazing girl. My heart melted.

The next morning, I changed her diaper, and told her I was going to pick her up. As I took her and started to leave her room, she looked at me and said “up.” Clear as day. Up. Two new words in two days.

“Up,” added to “Dad” from the day before, and “Mom” from last week, brings Norah’s vocabulary up to three words. “Mom” is by far her favourite word – so far she has used it to mean “I want Mom to come feed me” or “Mom, why are you doing this to me?” or “There’s my Mom!” 

How grateful I am that Norah has come into my life!

My next roll was my hand-held, low light roll. ISO was held at 400 for this roll, but I wanted to see if shooting at f/2.8 and 1/30th was going to work out. Norah’s picture above was (if memory serves me) f/2.8 at 1/30th.

Let’s start by discussing what I think went well in this picture:

1. Clarity
   I’ve very happy with the overall clarity of the picture. I’m quite enjoying medium format.
2. The eyes.
   I’m also happy with the reflection in her eyes. I’m very happy to report that the reflection was quite intentional and I moved around to get it. Now, you can scoff and think to yourself “well, duh” but I’ll tell you that it’s not easy for me to remember all the little details when shooting.
3. Blur isolation
   I also like the blur of the lens that the aperture provided. Granted, I chose the aperture for exposure reasons, but nonetheless, I’m still happy with the isolation it provides.

Things that could have gone better:

1. Dust, dust, dust.
   Dust spots are still a major problem. I spent a considerable amount of time in Lightroom removing dust. I’m working on it, but I’m still not sure where it’s all coming from and how to mitigate it effectively. Aaargh!
2. Overall composition.
   It’s not bad, but it is just a grab shot. While nothing to be ashamed about, I’d still like to strive for better.

Stella on fire (larger)

Of course she’s not really on fire. I just think the rim lighting of the sun makes her hair look like fire. I don’t remember what speed I was shooting here, so I don’t know if this qualifies for my “hand-held low-speed” shooting or not. Still like the picture though….

Technorati Tags: photography, norah, stella, mamiya, c330, tmax, 400, tmy, children, b&w, black, white

Here’s a reeaally good video for Q-Tip’s “Life Is Better” featuring Norah Jones.

I like Norah Jones…i think she’s very talented. Great, soulful but unprocessed voice. Plus she’s adorable and i have a big crush on her. The songs great but the video’s better.
I love the idea of taking an effect and being dedicated to it throughout a video. The problem is, my attention span is only so long so sometimes it gets old quickly. That’s the paradox and the risk one takes when taking this approach. This video does a good job with the quick cuts. Nothing seems to get stale ever.

Peace, and life IS better, love.

Men noemt haar de ‘Nederlandse Norah Jones’, op zich een perfecte vergelijking maar op een gegeven moment moeten de vergelijkingen stoppen. Een artiest zoals Karsu Donmez vormt haar eigen identiteit. Ze heeft ‘bijna’ iedere krant in Nederland wel gehad. De Turkse invloeden die mengen met de jazz en een vleugje Donmez, een perfecte combinatie!

Ik leerde Karsu een aantal jaren geleden kennen. Ik zag haar vaak optreden bij het OpenPodium van het Caland Lyceum waar ik zelf ook verschillende zangeressen begeleidde. Het optreden bij Kunstbende was voor haar leeftijd erg volwassen en puur. Ik voelde meteen dat zij iets speciaals had.

Deze jaren gingen snel voorbij, ik had in de tussentijd veel informatie over Karsu verzameld en was erg benieuwd hoe het met haar zou verlopen.

Toen gebeurde het.. Karsu had een spectaculair optreden gegeven in Carnegie Hall te New York.

Je carrière kan niet beter beginnen. Na Carnegie Hall kwam ze terecht bij De Wereld Draait Door waarna haar leven in een stroomversnelling raakte.. Krantje hier, tijdschrift daar, interviews overal. Ik had haar een paar keer gesproken en we hadden elkaars nummers uitgewisseld verder niets. Ergens na de zomervakantie van 2008 belde ze mij en vroeg ze of ik haar wilde begeleiden bij een show in het Singer te Laren. Daar zou in September 2008 het LarenJazz festival plaatsvinden waar ook grote artiesten als Joe Sample en Randy Crawford hun ‘ding’ zouden gaan doen. Het antwoord was natuurlijk “Jazeker”..

We spraken af in het restaurant van haar vader op de Ceintuurbaan in Amsterdam-zuid. Ze kwam met haar nichtje Sarah Donmez op een vespa aangereden gehuld in de mooiste jurkjes, klasse zoals deze dames omgeschreven kunnen worden. In het restaurant begon de ‘magic’ uren en uren lang hebben we elkaar laten horen wat we kunnen en waar we van houden. Dit was het eerste meisje die ik ooit ontmoet had die precies van dezelfde muziek hield. Pure ‘jazz’.. Hemelse ‘jazz’, mooie klanken van Brubeck en Davis met de perfecte scatt vocal van Ella Fitz!

Een week later zou het optreden in Laren plaatsvinden. Wij hebben samen een uur lang gespeeld met drie kwartier improvisation. Hier ging voor mij een wereld open. Het ‘totale’ voelen en beseffen dankzij deze muziek en Karsu haar stem.

Na het LarenJazz festival werd het leuker en traden we op verschillende jazzfestivals op. In de tussentijd is Karsu getekend bij AT productions i.s.m. Sony Music. Als negentienjarige treft Karsu Donmez het zeker wel.

Wij zullen zeker weten veel meer van haar horen en hopelijk staat ze in 2010 op het podium tijdens het North Sea Jazz festival.

To be continued….

Impossible d’ignorer le dernier livre de Marie Ndiaye – non parce qu’il s’est déjà vendu à 140 000 exemplaires et que Gallimard en est à sa deuxième réimpression – mais tout simplement parce qu’il est exceptionnel. Je l’ai découvert à la fin de l’été et je l’ai dévoré. Dans ce livre, l’auteur brosse, au travers de trois nouvelles, trois portraits de femme qui chacune à sa façon dit non. Non à l’humiliation et à la fatalité mais avec dignité et lucidité sans jamais renoncer à aller plus loin, sans jamais oublier qui elles sont. L’histoire de Norah, Fanta et Khady Demba se déroule au Sénégal – pays d’origine du père de Marie Ndiaye – dans une ambiance souvent violente, fantasmatique et imaginaire mais bien réelle sur le sort qui peut encore être réservé aux femmes dans certains lieux. Avocate, mère de famille ou jeune femme en quête d’un monde meilleur, chacune devra briser son carcan, apposé par un père, un mari ou une belle-famille… Chacune, face à elle-même, devra faire des choix pour se libérer, pour trancher, pour retrouver son libre arbitre, pour gagner sa liberté… Au-delà de ces trois histoires, l’auteur nous transporte dans une écriture magnifique. De la grande littérature.

Peu évoquée par les chroniqueurs littéraires à la sortie de son livre – trop occupés par les Nothomb ou Beigbeder -, les libraires, eux, ne s’y sont pas trompés, le public l’a plébiscitée, espérons maintenant qu’un prix comme le Goncourt, récompensera Marie N Diaye pour ce triptyque d’une rare puissance, le 2 novembre 2009.

Sibylle Lhopiteau

http://www.gallimard.fr/rentree-2009/MarieNDiaye.htm

Norah’s sleep has been a cause of serious stress since she was born. From weeks 3 to 12, the only place she would sleep at night was on my chest. Any attempt to put her down would result in instant waking, and sustained crying. Luckily, she started to sort things out around the 4 month mark, and has continued to make progress, and then regress, and then make more progress before regressing, then progressing, ever since. As such, I am thankful for every night, like tonight, where I put Norah down in her crib, sleepy but awake, and she rolls on to her side, and goes to sleep without a peep. I savour each night like this, not taking anything for granted, knowing it may all change tomorrow. Thanks for tonight, Norah!

Today, Norah went in for her 9 month checkup. She is very healthy, and continues to be over the 95th percentile in height and weight. While I am thankful for this, I am also thankful for Tommy Douglas, former Saskatchewan Premier and the father of socialized medicine in Canada. Without Tommy’s wisdom and tenacity, we could find ourselves in the same horrible predicament as the USA. So thanks, Tommy, for allowing us the freedom to take Norah to the doctor whenever we need.

Irish, English. Variant of NORA. Short form of HONORA or ELEANOR. It was used by Henrik Ibsen for a character in his play ‘A Doll’s House’ (1879). (Behindthename.com)

Baby Name Wizard Popularity Ranking

• #5 in Norway
• #18 in Hungary
• #38 in Sweden
• #39 in Belgium
• #59 in Spain
• #90 in Germany
• #216 in United States
• #280 in Canada (Quebec)
• #302 in Canada (British Columbia)

I am going far away, Norah, darling;
And leaving such an angel far behind;
It will break my heart in two, which I fondly gave to you,
And no other one so loving, kind and true.

Chorus:
Then come to my arms, Norah, darling,
Bid your friends in dear old Ireland goodby.
And it’s happy we will be, in that dear land of the free,
Living happy with your Barney McCoy.

I would go with you , Barney, darling,
But the reason why I told you oft before,
It would break my poor mother’s heart if from her I had to part,
And go roaming with you Barney McCoy.

I am going far away, Norah, darling,
Just as sure as there is a God that I adore,
But remember what I say, that until the judgement day,
You will never see your Barney any more.

I would go with you, Barney, darling,
If my mother and the rest of them were there,
For I know we would be blest in that dear land of the West,
Living happy with you, Barney McCoy.

I am going far away, Norah, darling,
And the ship is now anchored at the bay,
And the before tomorrow you will hear the signal gun,
So be ready – it will carry us away.