September 2006

It’s fall and I get the feeling in my bones that things are about to change. I close my eyes and my thoughts shift. New things are going to come to being while some old themes will continue their ways. Thoughts feel different to me now than they did two weeks ago, two months ago, two years ago. It’s not drastic, it may not even be dramatic, but change - both planned and unplanned - is on its way and I’m okay with that.

My cousin and his wife celebrated their daughter Ashley’s first birthday last month with a big ol’ birthday party. I was tasked as photographer so the two of them could enjoy their day. So here I am, running around all day taking pictures of everyone, especially the birthday girl. Now, my cousin is always taking pictures of her and she’s getting to the age where she recognizes the camera and what it does. She is now posing for the camera when it’s in her face and her birthday party was no exception:

Can you believe that face!? Maybe she thinks she’s smiling but doesn’t quite have the muscle control in her face yet. She is, however, getting quite proficient at giving kisses on demand now. Here she is giving her aunt Bern a kiss:

Do you think that she knows she’s absolutely adorable? I bet so.

And I’ve had a lot of it lately!

US Open Mens’ Semifinal. Saturday 9 September

It was a hot hot day and the sun was in our faces for pretty much all of it.

Federer, the tennis playing machine.

Roddick and Youzny, from Row W (only five rows from the very top…)

Roddick marches on to inevitable defeat in the finals against Federer.

Sun-soaked and red after a full day of tennis.

My sister and I were also at the Red Sox-Yankees game on Saturday night but all the pictures are on her camera.

No matter, there was football on Sunday!

Jets vs Patriots. Sunday 17 September

Tailgating in the parking lot.

Row 17 on the 20 yard line. Cool. Except that it was really freakin’ hot (again.)

Red faced and sweaty with Tj.

Fareed: “God it’s hot. Let’s go up to the luxury suite where my McKinsey coworkers are.”

“Oh yes, this is much much better.”

I’m not gonna lie: watching the game from the box was pretty awesome. Free beer, free food, air conditioning = how football is supposed to be watched.

lately (and pretty much always)

Kind of Blue Miles Davis

Turn On the Bright Lights and Antics Interpol

Nouvelle Vague Nouvelle Vague

Face the Truth Stephen Malkmus

J. Brahms Cello Sonata No. 1 in E Minor, Op. 38 - Yo-Yo Ma and Emmanuel Ax

Long, frustrating hours working in a dysfunctional office where my boss (half) jokes that “this place would be easier to run without the kids.”

… but aw hell, they are cute. Some photos from a New York Times slideshow:

Do I have to?

Let’s be friends

Chinese parents start training their children for Harvard very early

[There are no pictures here (or anywhere) of the other side, of run-down school buildings, spiritless teachers, and high school students shuffling through metal detectors. I know that they are out there but let me have the cute kids, just for today.]

Labor Day is like New Year’s Eve, without the champagne and noise makers and drunken midnight kisses.

Years of expecting/anticipating/dreading the Tuesday after Labor Day in recognition that it is the start of a new school year has carved a deep-seated intuition in me about this time of year. The weather gets cooler, the days get shorter, the ice cream truck stops coming around, something stirs inside that says “time to head back to pencils, books, and teachers’ dirty looks.”

In many ways, September is the true start of the year at my job. In fact, this time last year, I thought I was going to actually lose my job over school opening. No joke. So while I may not be going back to school myself anymore, I’m ready to start my autumnal new year.

3, 2, 1 -

I scroll through my iPod, browse my iTunes, sit in front of my pile of CDs and records but I get the same deadened feeling inside: I am tired of my music these days. This has happened before on occasion, when I don’t really want to listen to anything that I have but I usually come around to something. My impulse is to just go on this disgusting buying binge at Amazon.com or something - make myself feel better by spending money?

The more cost effective solution this time is to start using last.fm. It’s been hailed around hipster and blogster-dom but this is the first time I’ve actually felt compelled to register and download it. I am still tinkering with the application but I really like the philosophy behind it. I pick a few tags, it plays me music: if I like it, cool, if I don’t, Imma gonna skip you and go to the next song. Easy pie.

You using last.fm already? Friend me!

(Note for all those Mac users out there: there is apparently a bug with the OS X image for LastFM ver. 1.0.4 that causes the application to immediately crash upon opening. Shocking that they haven’t fixed it since it was first reported in July!)