MusicMonday—Introducing Gypsy Punk

 

Music Monday is two weeks and one day late, but since Ross asked about MM it makes me think he might be missing it, so I will put it off no longer. Forget that it is Tuesday! Plus, I just like talking music!

Bad news.   I no longer have my beloved Palladia channel.  Oh, sad, I know.   It was just with me too short a time and what a tease to have something so wonderful and then it be taken away with no warning.  I am sure I could get it back with the outlay of more money per month to dear DishNetwork but….

So in the meantime, I have stumbled upon a thing called Music Discovery on a channel called HD Net.  It plays about 30 minutes of videos daily, but only some I find to be of my musical taste and this show tends to be repetitive.  What you see today is likely to be what you see the next day with just a little switchin up every once in awhile to bring in something new and drop out an older one. 

And repetitive can be unfortunate if it’s not what you like, but there is one song/video that I wouldn’t normally expect to get into that has has developed into one of our favorites that even the kids get excited to hear and watch.  This is like the second Mini Mall.

It’s called Pala Tute which translates to…. I don’t even know.

I love to be introduced to something new that I have no idea of even its existence.  This my friends is Gypsy Punk.  Who knew?

Eugene Hutz is the front man of this band called Gogol Bordello and he is originally from the Ukraine, his family the descendants of gypsies.  The chorus of our new fun song Pala Tute is in possibly some tricky combination of dialects of the people of Romania (Eugene’s mom’s heritage) as I can’t seem to find a translation in of all the Internet.  But the verses…he actually is singing in English! 

Caravan is comin'
All guitars are strummin'
Chief is sitting high
With gold across the chest
I'm just a little chavo  (translates:  boy)
I don't even own a guitar
But mama they got girl
That I love the best

Chorus: Lela lela lela
Lela pala tute
Jas kana meres
Merava pala late
Lela lela lela
Lela pala tute
Aaaaaaaaaaaaa hey
Lela lela lela
Lela pala tute
Jas kana meres
Merava pala late

Carnival is comin'
All guitars are strummin'
And says old hitano (don’t know, person’s name?)
Boy, forget about the bling
Here is a guitarra
For you little chavo
If you slave to kissing
You gotta play this thing

Caravan is leavin'
And her breast is heaving
Lord this kind of love
Can not be untrue
I'm a little chavo
But I learned one thing
Girls they like the kissing
As much as we do

Lela lela lela
Lela pala tute
I'm dying dying
Dying after you
Lela lela lela     Lela pala tute
Girls they like the kissing
As much as we do
Lela lela lela
Lela pala tute
Jas kana meres
Merava pala late
Lela lela lela

You remember Mini Mall?! Warning: this one is catchy like that and fun to watch!  Sam calls it the make-ed song. 

The Kids Lately

Jack needed a picture of himself for a school project and asked if I could find him one.    Um, have you seen our Gulf of Boxico in the basement?  I took these instead. 

Before-school festivities in the yard one morning...

No, this is not a good example of Sam’s new sophistication.

Grant got to do something Saturday that I haven’t done since the 70’s—go to the Illinois State Fair.  He was invited by our new neighbors and had a ball.  Except, let me tell you, this kid brings another whole level of, shall we say, “tightness” to the Gill legacy. 

I gave him $22 to take with him.

He only ate a corn dog and funnel cake the whole day and only rode a ride after he found tickets lying on the ground.  He made sure he came back with most of his money.  Ironically, he was eager for a trip to Target to spend it on Lego stuff.

A boy and his best friend.  Not really sure, but the owie on the dog might be from another previous tangle with the new cat.  If so, it’s an older one; they have gotten over all that now and we have the three pests, I mean pets, snuggling up together just like boyfriend/boyfriend/boyfriend.

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Here’s a funny for you….

Sam could hear Caroline’s muffled voice talking to him and was convinced Caroline was stuck inside the a/c unit.  He wasn’t really all that concerned; as you can see, it actually amused him quite a bit. 

 

She was really just at the window of her room, which happens to be directly above the a/c. 

 

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Another funny….I found Caroline had been playing with the sidewalk chalk on the driveway. Nothing unusual about that, but what she drew was a white chalk outline of where each cat was lying, to document their size at what she thinks/says is at 5 months of age. 

It says:

BOB  achul (actual) size

BOB (inside the tracing, see his head and paw outline?)       

5 months

 

Here’s the next one.

Brrowse  (Bruce)

I don’t think she has any idea what white chalk outlines are normally used to show. 

Happy to report the kitties are still alive and kicking.

Mr. Leadership

 

This is what a man going to the cushy Leadership Center to spend the full work week, round the clock 24 hours a day, looks like on Monday. 

If we could see his face, I think it would be smiling.

Might be interesting to see what he looks like coming home after a week of no commute, no mowing, 5-star meals, massage chairs, Zumba and yoga classes only to mention a few, unlimited refreshments, stimulating professional development, and full nights’ sleep without snoring wife, pesty kids, or barking Scooter. 

We’ll see on Friday how he fared.

His Name WAS Baby Sam

 

His name was Baby Sam and where did he go?!

Now I have this boy that I hardly recognize.  It’s like two days of kindergarten aged him four years.  And can I say, finally! 

He comes home, empties his backpack, takes out each item from his take-home folder, and presents me with all the things he’s done that day and things I need to see: Drawings of he and I picking blueberries, writing his full name, and his coloring all the circles contained in a picture on a worksheet paper.  “Mom, I didn’t color those because those shoelaces are not circles.  Those are ovals.” 

Who are you, little blond boy?  

He is excited each morning to walk the many steps it takes to get on the bus.  He is unhappy if I pick him up at the bus stop in the van instead of letting him walk home. 

I thought he’d be too wiped out after full days of kindergarten to make the walk.  Wrong.  It’s like I insulted him when I said as much.

He has made a friend not named Sauce.  His friend is DJ, but he also mentioned to me classmates Job (he pronounces it right and everything, “Jobe”) and Spencer.  In preschool he knew Sauce and maybe five other classmates’ names after nine months of being with the same group of kids. 

He has opinions.  He told Caroline that “this would look awesome in your room.”  Quote!

He likes wearing clothes.  This jacket/shorts ensemble was his own creation.  He asked for the sleeves to be cuffed up. 

He asked if he could try a hamburger when we went out to eat at Applebee’s on the weekend.

Folks, that is huge!  You know, he was all

ice cream and corndog only for years.

Huh?  Whaaat?  This can not be Sam.

But it is and I am so excited!

School is Cool

 

First day was yesterday. 

Jack’s up and at ‘em so early.

   

Meanwhile….

and Sis wakes up with a cold.  But she’s still chipper and ready to go.

And then soon after…..

 

even Sam is rearing to go. 

I am so seeing Jack here. h

 

Gary said my version of fixing Grant’s hair made him “a Poindexter.”  Here’s Gary’s version of a good hair combing.  Whatev.

 

 

 

Headed on down the road…

it is a five minute walk.

 

 

 

All I know is big yellow thing hauled them off and man, this house is some kind of quiet I haven’t experienced in twelve years.

It’s both nice and not so nice.

Music Monday—China Girl

As a kid growing up in the middle of nowhere, we had very limited television reception for our 15, maybe it was 17?, inch black and white TV.  We had the common aerial on top of a high tower alongside our house.  It had a rotor that you could control from the inside to aim the antennae the direction you needed to pull in a signal.  Except we lived surrounded by ancient huge, huge white oak trees, so I am not sure how we received much of anything. 

At any given time, we were usually able to get at least one channel, either from Terre Haute or Evansville, Indiana, that carried the main networks of ABC, NBC, and CBS.  There were also smaller stations like Harrisburg and Cape Girardeau that we could get in some of the time, but their content seemed kinda hokey to me.  Anyone remember Cactus Pete? 

Sometime when I was in high school, I think 1983, a television station started airing from Mt. Vernon, called WCEE Channel 13,  maybe just 35 miles away.  It came in clearly and this new station played music videos!  Music videos were something fairly new in the mainstream and I loved them, like you know I still do.  There was no MTv when you lived in the sticks.  But now my TV played videos!  Bingo.  I was a happy girl everyday afterschool when I got to watch a few.

I remember the first one I ever watched on this wonderchannel 13:

Atomic Dog by George Clinton

Wow, I just watched it and, whoa, does that seem primitive. 

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So, I was in a serious David Bowie phase by my sophomore/junior years in high school.

More than once I heard him tell me

Let’s sway under the moonlight, the serious moonlight. 

I don’t think I had a clue at the time I was loving Bowie’s China Girl in 1983 that it had been done before by Iggy Pop in the 70’s.  In fact, I am sure Xenia Girl had zero knowledge period of Iggy Pop. 

He wasn’t exactly a HeeHaw regular.   

Later I would find out that David and Iggy actually co-wrote China Girl and, yes, it did predate Bowie’s version.  It was included on Iggy’s 1977 album, The Idiot. 

 

Side note:  Did you know that Iggy Pop is actually James Newell Osterberg, Jr from Michigan?  He had a group called The Iguanas as a young man and that’s how that all started.   

 

Yeah, I can’t quite see him as a James.  Or a Junior.

 

David included his version of China Girl on his 1983 album Let’s Dance and released it as a single as a way of helping out friend Iggy financially while in drug-addict ruins.  Iggy would collect half the royalties by being co-writer.  It was a huge hit, and a video I will forever remember.  

The Shhhh…part, her fingernail, their profiles, his smile, the kiss.

I didn’t know until now that there is also an uncensored version of the China Girl video where there’s a little view of Bowie’s backside at the ending when they are on the beach.  It’s so brief and not that big of deal to see some skin anymore so don’t be thinking you are missing something big. I checked it out on your behalf. 

You’re welcome.

Here’s the one I got to see on my big time Mt. Vernon TV.  Oh, baby, just you shut your mouth. 

Eighties mic = flashlight, I swear.

School Time

Last night was walk-through night at the kids’ schools.  Well, not for Jack, so it is nice that he has been going to Scout meetings at his new school for over a year now, so it is not brand new to him anyway.

I took Sam and Caroline to their building and we found the office, the gym, bathrooms—the important places.  We walked into their classrooms and found their desks.

Unlike Caroline, Sam wasn’t overall too excited about being there, but was ok.  As we were leaving, walking across the parking lot, I noticed him looking so sad.  Uh-oh, I was thinking, this idea of going to kindergarten might not be sitting well.

I asked Sam, what is wrong?  He answered, so dejectedly but so succinctly:

There weren’t any stairs.

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Now, in contrast to Sam and Caroline’s new building (we’ll call it a two-year-old sprawling ranch), Grant’s school was built two centuries ago in 1886, the oldest school standing in Madison County (we’ll call it a 124-year-old four story brick with unending flights of stairs). Grant’s class is on the top level.  I doubt if he is excited about the stairs.

Gary took Grant for his walk-through. The interesting thing about Grant’s gym is that apparently even the interior walls are brick.  Exposed brick just like the exterior is made from. Yeah, my thoughts went immediately to:

How many days until Grant’s glasses and/or head meets up with that??

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I will say I have been a little concerned with Grant’s transitioning to a new building—him  missing his old school and just with all this general upheaval of life with new house, new people, new surroundings…but then I knew it was gonna be ok when he came home from the walk-through to tell me:

My school has a

Lego Club!!!

I think everything’s going to be all right. 

It’s a Zoo Around Here

 

Well, not really, but from going from zero pets just over two years ago, to acquiring the horse/dog known as Scooter, to adding in Bob-then-Bruce-but-she-spells-it-Browse cat, and now throwing Bob-then-Bruce’s brother (new) Bob into the mix this week, it feels like a bit much. 

Here, Grant tried to put Scooter’s new collar on him without unbuckling it.   It’s like an old Hilary Clinton headband, holding back the poor dog’s ears.  Scooter was trying to get the dern thing either off or on. 

Get a load of those ears in motion…   

while we stood around and laughed.

I will say Scooter puts up with quite a bit.  Then again, I put up with him.

So, Scooter and Bruce (yes, he was first known as Bob but then Ms. I-am-Seven-Years-Old decided he needed to be named Bruce) get along famously.  Really, they like each other.  We got up the other morning to witness this little love affair going on. 

 

(Sorry—this one was taken through the screen so we didn’t interrupt the kissy moment)

Things were nice, minus the fact there are animals perched on my picnic table. 

Then we brought home (new) Bob last Sunday night.  The new cat took the old cat’s name, and actually, when I say “old”, they are the exact same age, littermates in fact, from my mom and dad’s. 

It was funny when they were reintroduced.  I can just imagine that (new) Bob probably was so relieved to find out what had happened to his missing brother, the one that hopped a ride under the Gill mini van and never came back.  Wonder if (new) Bob wanted to rub it in that he got to ride inside the van instead of clawing the axle for 100 miles?

So, here they are getting reacquainted after about a month apart. 

(New) Bob has one all-white leg and that’s how I can tell them apart.

Caroline HAD to tell someone about her newest cat.  Hi, Aunt Karen!

La-la, la-la, la, just gonna walk over to join my brother eating.

Oh!, he says, as (new) Bob notices the big beast Scooter watching him.  (New) Bob is only used to the tiny Shih Tzu that comes over to my folks’ house. 

People, I need to go back home NOW.

St. Louis Arch?

Bruce says, Oh, relax.  He’s nothing to worry about.  He’s my boyfriend.

Scooter says, I just want to meet you new cat and I’m confused…just what is your name? 

Unfortunately, the next morning Scooter and the (new) Bob met face to face in a corner on the deck and it ended with my Superman strength kicking in when I walked out to find a bloody Scooter on top of a screeching, terrified cat.  I was yelling at Scooter and pulled him off, about to kill him myself until I realized all that blood was coming from all the scratches on Scooter’s jowls and kitty Bob was untouched. 

I just wish soon they’re all kissy in the morning.