50s Family Dubplates!

Imagine suddenly discovering that there were fifty-year-old recordings of your newlywed grandparents belting karaoke ballads in the family parlor and joshing (on mic!) about their already rocky relationship. For an ethnomusicolobloggerDJ like myself, it would be an unbelievable find — not just a revelation of family history but a truly wonderful slice of theretofore unknown […]

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Old (and Not So Old) Weird (and Not So Weird) America

We’re visiting Becca’s sister, her husband, and their 6-month-old twins in North Carolina this week. Initially drawn to Durham/Duke, Leila&Sebastian und Sasha&Max now live in a small-ish town called Burlington, in an old mill house they rebuilt themselves (with a little help from their friends). Yesterday, we escaped some rainy morning blues by heading to […]

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But One Book of Poetry to Contain Them All

Longtime readers know I’m quite the devotee of those dear local philosophs / civic superheroes / transcendentalist romantics, Emerson and Thoreau. I’ve quoted them at length and composed songs inspired by their fiery oratory. So I was excited to stumble upon (hat tip forgotten) a blog dedicated to posting Thoreau’s journal entries, pegged to the […]

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Kiddy Mixxage

this is how we roll DJ Ripley re:ups (for only 7 days?) a mix she made recently for friends who have kids. I count myself in that company. It’s not what most people would finger for kids music, which I appreciate. I can only hear “Froggy Went A-Courtin” so many times. Then again, if it […]

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Walkie Talkie

look at her go! (watch both at once!) nico’s been adding words to her lexicon at an exponential rate. sometimes she means what they usually mean, but sometimes she’ll use them more broadly. so, for instance, she says “uh oh” if something falls to the ground, but she’ll also say it as she’s deliberately tossing […]

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Congratulations Obama, America, World!

“Martin Luther King walked so that Barack Obama could run,” said one boy. “Barack Obama ran,” said another, “so that all children could fly.” — Harper’s Weekly Review, 20 Jan 2007 (quoting Jeezy!) Today, we hold heads high, jump for joy, savor this historic, hopeful moment. Tomorrow, noses to the grind. Support and criticize. We […]

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Draft Charlie

In the wake of the Obama administration’s nomination of Elena Kagan, Dean of Harvard Law School, for solicitor general, a movement is afoot to draft my dear dad-in-law, Charlie Nesson, for the deanship. A blogger describing himself as “HLS’s least wealthy and influential alumnus” makes the case: He’s good at building organizations (and getting money […]

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Baby New Year Too!

I’m pretty sure this will be the last January 1st that I get to do this, but I’m thrilled to announce yet again that the coming year will bring us a baby! In lieu of any ultrasound mashups this time around, I offer instead a few ultrasound flicks — Kid B, as we’re calling her […]

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E-cologies & High Resolutions

Grooming one’s social ecologies is no small task — in the real or the virtual. At least the real is bounded by the unities — you can only see so many people at once — whereas the virtual, with its asynchronous multitudes and embarrassment of data, can easily swamp a surfer. I became acutely attuned […]

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Holidazeeee

It’s that time of year again, even if the incongruously balmy weather suggests otherwise. So, this past weekend Bec & I made another set of black cakes. This time, in anticipation, we started the fruits soaking in black-strap rum and Manischewitz a couple weeks in advance. And man, did they come out sweet. To vibe […]

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