My Kids’ Family

Did you ever have one of those days when nothing seems to go right?  They don’t happen too often, but when they do, it makes for a very trying day.

Yesterday was one of those days.  I knew something was up when I was running late for everything in the morning.  Things seemed to go ok after that, but then I got a call from mkm telling me that she forgot to leave the key for the cleaning lady.

WHAM!

That totally put a kink in the day.  If you have been reading about our passover prep, you know that we have this all laid out day by day.  The house was to be cleaned so we can start changing over to Passover tonight.  This means that I would have to stay up late to clean the refrigerator last night and make sure that we will be able to do the change over.

Then if that weren’t enough, we have a Cub Scout pack meeting last night.  The previous cubmaster had planned this one and we were going to have a police detective come and speak to the boys.  Well, turns out she could not make it and no one got the message.  So there I was with about 15 boys with no program and an hour to kill.

The good thing is that these days end.  You usually figure it all out and then go on.  Our cleaning lady is now coming today at 4:30 (when mkm will be home) and after talking with the boys we had relay races and they had a good time.

Today, everything is back on track.  I actually got an early train today as the earlier train was in the station as I got there.  We got free pizza for lunch at work because someone in my office won an NCAA basketball tournament and the house should be totally clean when I get home.

Things always seem to snap back into place.

Yesterday I chose a song from a movie soundtrack and I thought I would continue that here. There have been 21 (official) James Bond films to date (the 22nd is to be released in the fall). Never has there been a series of big blockbuster movies like James Bond, and as deserved by such a phenomenon, never has there been a series of movies with such big blockbuster songs. Goldfinger by Shirley Bassey, Thunderball by Tom Jones, Nobody Does it Better by Carly Simon and the list goes on and on.

If you are familiar with the list of James Bond Movie songs, then you probably already know which is my favorite. John Barry had been involved in writing almost all of the James Bond songs up to Diamonds are Forever and he also was the score composer for almost all of them. For the next movie he chose to take a hiatus, and George Martin was hired to compose and conduct the music for the next movie. This became the first time since Abbey Road that George Martin would work with Paul McCartney as Paul was asked to write the song for this movie, Live and Let Die.

It was not the most popular of the Bond songs (that title goes to A View to a Kill by Duran Duran) but it became a mainstay at all of the Wings concerts as well as many Paul McCartney shows in later years. It is also one of my favorite songs from Sir Paul from that era.

Here is a clip from a Wings concert which shows how big they did this song.

Enjoy!

Wednesday’s song of the day is now known as one hit wonder Wednesday! Before I get to the music, I think it is important to define a one hit wonder. A technical definition would be any singer or group who has had only one song in the Billboard top 40 chart. This though would put some big names into the category, as Jimi Hendrix, Janis Joplin and Phish have all only had on hit in the top 40. So I am going to be more loose and say that a one hit wonder is any singer or group who is known for only one song. This could fall under the technical definition and will very often, but it allows me to open it up a bit.

These songs can sometimes be great, silly or stupid, but always fun.

Since I was on a folk music kick yesterday, I am going to choose a one hit wonder folk song. This is actually hard, as folk music rarely made it to the charts and most of the major folk singers sang each others songs. But there is one that stands out.

“One Tin Soldier” was first recorded in 1969 and did make it to the charts for a shot spell in 1970. The song has been covered a number of times, but became a hit in 1971 when it was included in the film “Billy Jack.” Billy Jack is a very interesting film. It is a sequel to “The Born Losers” from 1967 and had two more sequels. These movies are often thought of as the first “blockbusters.”

The song was recorded by Jinx Dawson of the band Coven and later released as a single by the band. The lyrics of this song will probably (and unfortunately) always be relevant.

This video is homemade and shows scenes from the Billy Jack movie set to the song.

Enjoy!

When I last discussed this monumental process, the three moms had just decided on menus. One might think that this is easy, and in some years it is not that hard. You have two Seders. You make a lot of food and eat it both nights. In many ways we are doing that, with minor changes. However, this year a wrench is thrown into the gears because Passover begins Saturday night right after Shabbat. This means that we cannot do any preparation at all the entire day before, but our houses have to be “kosher for Passover” before Shabbat. So the 2 Seder menus just went up to three menus, including Friday night Shabbat dinner.

The three families will each dinner on Friday at one house, lunch Saturday afternoon at another and then all descend upon our house for the first Seder on Saturday night. One final wrench is that you really cannot start the Seder until after sundown on Saturday night with is around 8:15. Way too late for dinner with kids. So we are introducing an innovation, and eating the meal before the Seder and at the “meal” during the Seder we will have dessert. Here is a PDF of our basic menu.

passover-2008-menus

Yesterday Marsha and the moms met again to discuss shopping and what we will need.  As we are all hosting these Seders together we are sharing the costs.  For example, we know that we need a minimum of 15 dozen eggs.  Eggs are a major staple of passover cooking and thank God the holiday is only one week long.  We will be making 200 Matza balls.  That equals 5 1/2 dozen eggs right there.  You get the idea.  By the end of this week much of the shopping will be done.

To bring us to today, on Sunday mkm and I defrosted and cleaned the large freezer in the basement and we are now emptying out our main freezer in the kitchen and relocating the food downstairs.  Half of the large freezer will be dedicated to passover foods while the rest holds are every day stuff.  We also cleaned out mkm’s grandmothers fridge which is also downstairs to hold the every day fridge stuff that needs relocating.  Tonight we will remove everything from the kitchen fridge and freezer, the pantry and the counters so the woman who cleans our house every other week will do a more thorough cleaning in the kitchen on Wednesday.  Thursday night, the dads will convene at our house to bring upstairs all the Passover supplies (pots, pans, dishes etc.) and put away all the every day stuff.

This then brings us to this coming Shabbat.  Cooking is going to occur Saturday night and Sunday, and I will post part three of Passover prep on Monday.

Yesterday I chose a song by the Byrds and this got me listening to some folk music. I have always loved folk music and that has always been a main staple of my guitar playing (although I cannot say I play that much anymore). There are and have been many great folk singers and folk music was a major influence on singer/songwriters like Bruce Springsteen and Paul Simon.

I think my favorite folk group has always been Peter, Paul and Mary. They formed in 1961 as an attempt to create a folk “supergroup” and they were a major success. Except for a few years in the early 1970s, they have been performing together ever since.

They only had one #1 hit with John Denver’s “Leaving on a Jet Plane“, but my favorite song of theres and perhaps their greatest song is Bob Dylan’s “Blowin’ in the Wind.” Here is a famous clip of them singing at the 1971 war protest rally in Washington DC. They sang “Blowin’ in the Wind and (joined by John Denver) the chorus of John Lennon’s “Give Peace a Chance.”

Enjoy

Early in the morning on Friday, my father’s Aunt Rose passed away. Due to the timing or her death, and Jewish tradition (I can explain in private email if someone wants to hear the reason), there was no real eulogy at her funeral, so I want to share some thoughts here.

She was 95 years old, and expect for the last 6 years or so when she was in a nursing home, she lived in Brooklyn, much of those years in the same apartment in Borough Park. Of all of this generation, I remember my Aunt Rose the most. She was one of three sisters. Her older sister Florance was my grandmother and she died when I was very young. Her younger sister Minna died a few years later, and though I have some fond memories of Aunt Minnie, none of them can compare to Rose.

I think she was at our house or we at her home at least twice a month. She was with us for every holiday, every celebration and every time sadness came as well. She was married to Michael, uncle mike for many years and not for lack of trying, they had no children. I think that me and my siblings were like her surrogate children. My uncle Mike worked as a letter carrier for the post office for most of his adult life and thought they never had much, they gave everything they had to me and my brothers and sister, my cousins and the one nephew that uncle mike had on his side.

When I was in college, more than once I found myself at their apartment. One time I when to Brooklyn with my roommate and his mother to do some errands in Borough Park. Even though my friend and his mother had never met my Aunt Rose, I called a few hour before, and she graciously invited me and my friends into her home. I will never forget that moment, and I know that she never did as well.

After her husband did, she lived in her apartment for a number of years, some with full time care. As this became difficult, my father and his sister Naomi moved Rose to a nursing home in Central New Jersey so she would be nearer to us all. We visited her there a number of times, but I never really saw the Aunt Rose I remembered from the past and she became very distant to us all. The Rabbi at the home told us that she did speak to him about her memories, and I have to take some comfort that in her last years, she did find someone to talk to enjoy her memories with.

What does this have to do with the song of the day? Well, at many Jewish funerals someone will read a passage from the third chapter of Ecclesiastes. The beginning of this chapter became very well knows to music lovers when the Byrds recored a song written by Pete Seeger which was basically the first 8 verses of this chapter. The song became know as Turn! Turn! Turn! and below is a video of a reunion concert of three of the original members of the Byrds.

Enjoy!