Song of the day

Posted on March 13, 2008 by pgold

I had a conversation through some comments to my last song of the day and I have decided to amend my groupings of The Beatles songs. The early albums will stay the same, and the middle albums change slightly. I am going to add Magical Mystery Tour to the middle group. The main reason is, as was pointed out to me that the while album and Let It Be, although great albums, are not as experimental as the middle albums. So they need to stand on their own. The problem is that Abbey Road does show some of this experimentation, so perhaps it should stand on its own.

Well that is a discussion for scholars, and my brain just does not want to think about that any more.

So far my “middle” Beatles songs have come from Rubber Soul, Revolver and Sgt. Peppers. Today’s song is from “Help“. Now this album is the first where we can see some of the new ideas coming out. My favorite song on the album is “Yesterday” (although not today’s song!). It is the first time we hear a song with only one voice and it is of course the most covered song in the history of music.

The song I am picking however, is “You’ve Got to Hide Your Love Away.” This song shows the influence that Bob Dylan had over John and is a real break from the earlier work they were recording.

Here is a clip of the song from the movie, and an extra special treat I found on youtube.

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jz7IjXu0DfQ&hl=en]

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bdCjaiXmUb0&hl=en]

Posted in Music, The Beatles | Tagged , , | Leave a comment

Cooking Special Edition

Posted on March 12, 2008 by pgold

With some regularity I am going to post some yummy recipes.  Some are my own and others come from different sources.

Pumpkin Bread
courtesy of  Noam’s  Kindergarten’s  teachers

3 C Flour                                 4 Eggs
2 C Sugar                                2 C Canned Pumpkin
1 t Salt                                     1 C Oil
1 t Baking Soda                       1/2 C chopped nuts
2 t Baking Powder
1 T cinnamon
1 T allspice

Preheat oven to 350°
Grease 2 loaf pans
Place dry ingredients in a large bowl.  Wisk well to combine.
Beat eggs in a medium bowl and add the oil.  Mix well to combine.
Add pumpkin to egg mixture and mix well to combine.
Add egg/pumpkin mixture to dry ingredients and stir until just combined.
Transfer batter to prepared loaf pans.
Bake for one hour or until cake tester comes out clean.

Enjoy!

Posted in Cooking | Tagged , , | 2 Comments

Passover in Winter?

Posted on March 12, 2008 by pgold

OK, I have to write a small rant today.

A couple of weeks ago Passover foods began showing up in the supermarkets in New Jersey. I have no idea if this is happening in other parts of the country, but it seems that each year the stuff comes out at least a week earlier than the previous year. I mean we still have Purim coming up and no one wants to be thinking about planning seders yet.

Lets get real! Soon the stuff will be on the shelves in January!

I think the food should come out exactly one month before Passover and no earlier!

There, my rant is over.

Thanks.

Now for something silly.

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jj_HzQSWKBQ&hl=en]

Posted in Judaism | Tagged , , , | 2 Comments

Song of the day

Posted on March 12, 2008 by pgold

It occurs to me that although I split up The Beatles albums into three “periods” I never really explained this. The “early” Beatles, Please, Please Me, With the Beatles, A Hard Days Night and Beatles for Sale all show a new group devoted to rock and roll music. They often contain very clean and simple songs that are easy to listen to and dance to. You can clearly see the influences of Buddy Holly and Chuck Berry.

“Middle” Beatles, Help, Rubber Soul, Revolver, and Sgt. Peppers, which is my focus this week, shows us the group in transition. They are starting to be influenced by folk music and people like Bob Dylan. They are also experimenting with new instruments. By 1966 the Beatles gave up touring altogether and the Revolver album in the first album where they could concentrate totally on writing songs and producing ablums.

Finally “Later” Beatles, Magical Mystery Tour, the White Album, Abbey Road and Let it Be, we see all kinds of experimentation with not only instruments, but with music itself, and I think these works to be some of the most important music ever written.

So now, getting back to my exploration of “Middle” Beatles. I am choosing a song that is a great example of this period and can be found on the Revolver album. With Eleanor Rigby you can see a pop band suddenly now a serious experimental studio group. The song is notable for using a double string quartet as the only music. None of The Beatles play any instruments in the song. It is also notable for its theme of loneliness in old age. Serious topics like that were not covered in pop music at the time.

This also happens to be mykidsmoms favorite Beatles song.

This clip is from the movie “Yellow Submarine”

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=boc7rnhkLAk&hl=en]

Posted in Music, mykidsmom, The Beatles | Tagged , , , , | 2 Comments

Avi and The Beatles

Posted on March 11, 2008 by pgold

So today my regular daily post and the song of the day are combined into one posting. All three of my kids love music and given my particular obsession, they of course have a love of The Beatles. Recently, we moved Avi into his own bed room. He had been sharing with Noam but that caused bedtime problems, so now Noam and Shayna share a room and Avi has his own.

Soon after we bought him a clock radio/cd player for his room. He quickly figured out that his “alarm” could be a CD. I had burned a few CDs for him, but last night he came to me and said, “Abba, can you make a CD for me with “Good Morning, Good Morning” by The Beatles? That would be a great song to wake up to.”

Does my son have good taste or what?

So today’s song is “Good Morning, Good Morning”

And….on top of everything it continues my “middle Beatles” theme that I started yesterday and now I think will continue the rest of the week. “Good Morning, Good Mornin” appears on the Sgt. Peppers Lonely Hearts Club Band Album.

Enjoy!

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T5OQGknWnlI]

Posted in ADHD, Avi, Music, The Beatles | Tagged , , , | 2 Comments

Fever

Posted on March 10, 2008 by pgold

Yesterday, my middle son Noam had a fever.  Noam is a very special boy and unfortunately due to the cosmic luck of the draw, he was born in between our other two children.  He is a typical middle child.  So much attention is given to Avi dues to his ADHD and to Shayna as she is the baby and is still in diapers etc.  But Noam in the middle sometimes just get gypped.

So yesterday, I got the chance to spend a few quality moments with Noam on my lap comforting him.  And let me tell you.  Those 10 minutes, make everything worth it.

Posted in ADHD, Avi, Noam, Shayna | Tagged , , | 2 Comments

Song of the day

Posted on March 10, 2008 by pgold

Usually, when asked, I will say that my favorite Beatles albums are the latter ones (White, Abby Road, Let it Be), but the more I listen to some of the earlier stuff I find I just cant stop listening. I like to put their albums into three categories. First is the early Beatles, which would be Please, Please Me, With the Beatles, A Hard Days Night and Beatles for Sale. All of these albums are the UK releases btw. The second set can be called middle Beatles, and these are where they are really starting to say something with their music, but the sound is similar to the early times. These albums are Help, Rubber Soul, Revolver, and Sgt. Peppers. Finally the later Beatles are Magical Mystery Tour, the White Album, Abbey Road and Let it Be.

I found myself listening to what I am calling Middle Beatles over the past few days and I am reminded how wonderful this music is. For today’s song, I am choosing Norwegian Wood on the Rubber Soul album. This very short song about an unconsummated one night stand is one of the most beautiful pieces of music ever written. It is notable because of George’s use of the sitar.

Enjoy!

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RaNQjhXhfVs]

Posted in Music, The Beatles, Uncategorized | Tagged , , , | 1 Comment

High School Musical

Posted on March 7, 2008 by pgold

I have spent a lot of time talking about Avi here, mostly due to the ADHD, but mykidsmom and I have two wonderful other children as well. Noam is 5 1/2 and Shayna is 2 1/2. They are two of the happiest children you can imagine. One thing they both seem to love is High School Musical. Now I understand that these movies were intended for a slightly older audience, but my kids know pretty much every word to every song of both movies. They can dance the dances and they know some of the dialog as well.

Wow!

If they just put in half as much attention at school imagine what they could do!

Not that I have a problem with High School Musical. I have seen the movies and enjoyed them. The first film is a Disney version of Grease. Take Grease, then remove the sex and language and you basically have High School Musical. And the second is just as cute. We are waiting for the release in theaters of the third movie next year.

So here is a photo of my younger two kids dancing on the couch to HSM.

Noam and Shayna

Posted in Music, Noam, Shayna | Tagged , | 4 Comments

Song of the day

Posted on March 7, 2008 by pgold

The day the music died.

No, today’s song is not American Pie by Don McLean (although maybe it will be someday). In that song, the day the music died was the day Buddy Holly died in a plane crash. To me the day the music died will always be July 16, 1981. It was on this date that Harry Chapin died in a tragic car accident on the Long Island Expressway. I dialed up Harry on my ipod this morning during my commute and as always, I found myself want to listen to his stories over and over again. You see Harry did not so much write songs as he did stories. Lets face it, he was not your typical music star. He was not really good looking, he did not sing that well. He was a decent guitar player, but nothing special. It was his song writing that made him special. Listen to any Chapin song and you will be captivated by the story he is telling.

I can pick almost any song (and over time, I am sure many will appear here) but today I choose “Remember When the Music.” This beautiful song was written by Harry the day after Al Lowenstein died. Al Lowenstein was a political activist who worked for many liberal democrat causes in the 60s. At one point Harry had worked for him and they had become friends. The song reminds us of a time when life was simpler and when people dreamed of a better tomorrow.

I looked for a youtube or some other site that had Harry singing this song. Unfortunately, I cannot find Harry singing it. However, in 1986, Harry Chapin posthumously became the 101st recipient of the Congressional Gold Medal, the highest honor the US can bestow upon its citizens. The following year a concert was organized in his memory and to honor this occasion. Different artists sang Harry’s songs at Carnegie Hall. Here is Bruce Springsteen singing “Remember When the Music.”

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LEvimXwEGgs]

Posted in Harry Chapin, Music | Tagged , | Leave a comment

Its been a tough week

Posted on March 6, 2008 by pgold

Mykidsmom and I have been struggling to figure out what to do about Avi’s schooling. Right now, Avi is in first grade at The Solomon Schechter Day School of Raritan Valley in East Brunswick, NJ. He is mostly happy here but things have been difficult. He is very defiant and sometimes will sit in class and do nothing, or even worse disrupt the class. Avi started his school career in pre-school at the Gan Yeladeem Learning Center at Anshe Emeth Memorial Temple in New Brunswick. Things were ok at the start, but after a while he was becoming more and more defiant and difficult to deal with. The director suggested that we look into what our services our town could provide. Our town’s public school evaluated Avi and determined that he did not qualify for services. After another 6 months, the pre-school director told us that she was close to asking us to take him out. So we went back to the public schools, this time with some ammo. A friend who is a special ed teacher, a friend who is a psychologist specializing in Asperger syndrome etc. Avi then qualified for services and after 6 months improved so much that for his last year of pre-school he was back at Gan Yeladeem in the am and in the public school in the pm. A difficult day for sure, but Avi did very well.

So then the two declassified him and he had a great Kindergarten year at SSDSRV. Things deteriorated this year is first grade which is why we had private testing done and the final diagnosis of ADHD, ODD and a learning disability. So we decided that we should have SSDSRV ask the county to evaluate Avi and hopefully come up with an IEP that will allow us to move forward.

Well, Monday we had our meeting with his teachers and the county and it was determined that Avi does not qualify for services. So now we are back at square one. Although the ADHD medication has been helping, Avi still has difficulties in class and the professionals are just telling us, wait and see what happens with the meds and the therapy.

Avi is a bright kid, and when I sit with him to help him with his homework, he clearly has learned the material. I just wish we could find a way to help him act appropriately in school. We don’t have all the answers and I don’t know when and if we will but I can only pray that we can help Avi to achieve his fullest potential.

Posted in ADHD, Avi, mykidsdad, mykidsmom | Tagged , , , | 4 Comments