What to buy me for Christmas.

This.

Handbell update.

Three more pieces of mine have been accepted for publication, all of which are now listed on the right-hand side.

Benji the party animal

A month or so ago Benjamin was invited to a friend's first birthday party and of course our flirtatious little baby was the life of the party. He wasn't as mobile as the other babies so we didn't have to chase him around, but he sure seemed to have had a great time!

I just love how this photo comes together!


Benjamin looks so relaxed here.


He is still just as fascinated with balloons (and their strings) as he was with his first balloon.


I think this was right before Benji was tackled by Mitchell, the baby on the right.


The birthday boy, Joey, shares his presents with everyone.


It's funny how babies don't really play with each other but just play with the same toy at the same time.

Concert series strangeness.

Apologies in advance, as this is going to be one of those posts that only half of my readership will understand. Anyway, about three blocks from where I worked before taking my current babysitting job, there's a big summer concert series called "Innsbrook After Hours." The main acts are all relatively big names, if sometimes from a decade ago -- there's Blues Traveler, Ashlee Simpson, The Wailers (obviously sans Bob Marley), Rick Springfield, Dwight Yoakam, etc. But here's the weird part: Six opening acts who have been announced, and four of them have something interesting in common:

* Ashley Cleveland
* John Fetherston Band
* Ashley Parker-Angel
* Lost Dogs
* Chris Rice
* Phil Keaggy

Hmm.

Breaking Benji news.

Benji crawls.

HPS RSS.

For those of you who care about such things, there is an RSS feed available for How Perfectly Swell at:

http://feeds.feedburner.com/noonewillcareaboutthisfeed

If you have no idea what I'm talking about, just go down a post or two and see yourself some more Benji.

Benji the businessman.

So of course it's necessary to order office supplies.

Benji at the winery

Earlier in the spring we had a spot of beautiful weather in the middle of some dreary days. So what does one do with a good weather day? Why drive out to the country and visit a winery, of course! The wine was pretty good and Benji was extremely interested in trying to grab the glass. But what I think I enjoyed most was sitting outside on their picnic tables and taking pictures of Benji. The lighting and background resulted in some neat photos. Do you have a favorite?

More reviews of things that should be reviewed.

"Sports Night," season 2 (1999-2000): B

Season 1 was a C+, as you may recall; this season improved quite a bit over the previous due to a great story arc by Mr. Felicity Huffman and Aaron Sorkin having a better outlet than "Sports Night" -- i.e. "The West Wing" -- for his more serious and political musings. Bonus: Since Sorkin didn't know that the show would be cancelled after this season, I got to watch my first ever (as Ed and Annie would call it) "'Jessie' series finale."

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"The West Wing," season 2 (2000-2001): B+

Poor Mrs. Landingham.

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"Murder One," season 1 (1995-1996): A-

You'd think that with the many advantages that film has over television as a medium -- bigger budgets, bigger stars, bigger screens -- that more television shows would use the one huge plus television has over film: Time to stretch out a single story. But despite that, season one of "Murder One" is the only television show I've seen that feels substantially more like a novel than, say, a series of short stories that simply contain the same cast of characters. After the first few episodes -- where the murder case that was the focus of the season was interspersed with a few B-stories -- every second of every episode was, in one way or another, all connected to the same fascinating case. I was addicted. (Also, finally for the first time in my life I understand the fuss over Stanley Tucci; his is one of the best performances in television history, I'd argue.)

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Thank You For Smoking (Jason Reitman, 2006): B+

Slightly too much obvious, in-your-face satire for my taste, but the funniest film I've seen in quite a while -- and in its own way, the most Conservative. Frankly, in part, Aaron Eckhart's tobacco PR man is right: You can't trumpet an everyone-needs-to-make-their-own-decisions attitude with one hand while saying "cigarettes are bad, so don't smoke them" with the other. (Except hands can't talk. But.)

---
Cars (John Lasseter, 2006): B+

A lot to like, ho-hum critical reception notwithstanding. (I much prefer Cars to A Bug's Life, and it's probably even in my mind to The Incredibles and Finding Nemo.) Cars is not so much saying that Thou Shalt Not Build Six-Lane Roads, as some critics have argued, as much as it's putting forth an overarching (and quite interesting, given the protag's profession) view that faster does not automatically equate to better. More specifically, Cars argues that when one makes the decision to do anything more quickly, there are almost always negative tradeoffs that need to be considered. In fact, I'm having a hard time thinking of another recent movie that is so insistent at pounding its major theme at every (figurative) turn: Lightning's first attempt of putting down the asphalt, Lightning's race with Doc, the decline of Radiator Springs, the minivan's insistence of not stopping to ask directions, etc. Yes, the love story's a little weak. Yes, Cars doesn't have the emotional resonance of, say, Boo and Scully's relationship in Monsters, Inc.. So?

You, too, can be just like Lisa -- without even leaving your home! (Or, y'know, with leaving your home; I don't really care.)

The moment you have all been waiting for: The fine folks at Jeffers Handbell Supply have just today put up the GIA catalog recording of "Cumulonimbus" -- performed in (I think) February by Chicago Bronze, the same group Lisa saw. (Click on the handbell with the Windows logo.) Slight caveat: As is true of most handbell catalog recordings, the most difficult pieces -- like "Cumulonimbus" -- are always a little rough, since one group is learning 20 pieces with not nearly enough practice; in this case, the entire piece after the four-bar intro should have a consistant quarter note, and instead the tempo is more dictated by the difficulty of the particular passage. Still, though, for a catalog recording it's quite good, so listen.

Lisa's very nice guest concert review.

So, I [ed.: Lisa] traveled on Sunday to Grace United Methodist Church in Naperville, IL, to hear Chicago Bronze perform their spring concert. I got there a couple minutes late, and upon viewing the program, I was very much afraid I had missed the performance of "Cumulonimbus," Matthew Prins's secular piece, which was second on the program. But thankfully, I arrived during the first number, Beethoven's "Hymn to Joy" (arranged by Michael R. Keller).

When the director, Philip L. Roberts, introduced "Cumulonimbus," he mentioned that it was composed by Matthew Prins specifically for handbells (rather than being arranged for handbells from a pre-existing piece). He began talking of how beautiful these big fluffy clouds were behind a blue sky. He described the scene as "one of the most beautiful things in nature, but...when the storm draws near, well, you'll see..." and then he began the piece.

The piece had a more beautifully haunting, urgent, and exciting quality than a lot of the other more traditional pieces. The ringers really seemed to enjoy playing it (although, they enjoyed all of the pieces of course). The audience seemed fairly rapt, and after the director let his hands rest following the abrupt ending, there was a healthy amount of applause. The director came back to the mic and remarked, "what a hoot" (which received some chuckles), before moving on to the next piece. Personally, I really liked it! It gave me chills, and I still remember the basic theme now even though that was my one and only time hearing it, and I stayed for the entire concert and enjoyed many other pieces, including a Taiwanese folk song.

[Ed.: Lisa was again very nice and sent me a couple scans of the concert program, which can be seen below.]





[Ed.: Also, yay Lisa! And thank you.]

One of those Internet things that I'm sure everyone already knows about but I didn't and I found it very, very useful so here.

Yahoo! Widgets!

Mommy's first Mothers' Day

Benjamin was quite busy in the days leading up to Mothers' Day last month. Daddy helped him with several art projects, which were absolutely perfect first Mothers' Day presents. On my desk at work I now have a photo frame with Benji's handprints in plaster. (Here's hoping he didn't suck his thumb immediately afterward.) And waiting to be hung up at home I have a lovely canvas of finger painting. I can't quite figure out which side is "up" so I haven't hung it up yet. It's definitely abstract art, but quite frankly I can't figure out what makes some modern art in the museums better than this artwork from my 7-month old.