Dear William,

Reformed and in defense of loud music it has been fascinating spending time finding music and other innovative and interesting media. I am here for the latest installment, the summer time version, of the sounds that continue to vibrate my ear drums. This post brought to you by Apple's Ipod , a truly modern marvel and the greatest proliferater of mobile sound via Itunes , Boomkat .com, podanza .com, audible.com and now available from your local library( downloadable books that is check it out). Special note before we start Tuesday, July 14, Marian, Patrick and I attended probably my only concert of the summer as The Guggenheim Grotto played at SPACE 1245 Chicago Avenue in Evanston . Marian performed the voice over for the introduction/first track on their latest album, Happy the Man. A great venue with probably the best sound I've heard at a live gig. Tadhg Cooke (crazy incredible voice) and the Kaiser Cartel opened both very nice. And we had a great if late night with th...

It's fitting that in our youth, the pinnacle of our naive disregard, when we threw caution to the wind like toilet paper up a tree, in frenzied rebellion, hormones raging, chemicals pumping and discontented that we first found music. Young people gravitate to music like snakes to a flute. With our meager funds we commit to buying all manner of melody and sound, attending live shows and singing and dancing in spirited gaiety . I will never forget driving with friends on summer days(maybe one of us knew where we were going but it didn't matter), windows down, with my head out the window--adding to the exhilaration, singing and laughing, playing air guitar in unison as the chorus hit....bliss. But then as we get older, mostly in deference to our blown out ear drums, we turn it down and begin to comply with societal norms. We change the dial to something less edgy and more public radio-y, highlighted by "driveway moments" from an informing news story that compels us to li...

With the Inauguration of Barack Obama just days away and the airwaves and my mind filled with past inaugural speeches I began to wonder what makes these moments special. Hope and Change--the Obama campaigns primary platform, have left us feeling ready for that and and willing to see how these two giant ideas might work out practically. We know Mr. Obama's skillful communication is a great asset. The undeciders need to know how effective a manager he will be, how well will he lead. I have no doubt that Obama will provide us with a great piece of oratory. He will stir our hearts and minds for moments better than these. His presence on that stage--change and hope embodied in him, the aspiration and confirmation of a people, the power of his victory is proof to what makes America special. His rise to the office of the President is not possible in most states especially those that would do us harm and his representing us in the world speaks more to our power, of our people and ins...

Something that I found a while ago that I always come back to this time of year. Peace on Earth The days when Christmas was a feast seized from the leanness of winter, the last echo of a receding harvest, are long gone for most of us. The year-round abundance of modern America has done a lot to extinguish the very idea of seasonality, except as a matter of decoration. There's a freedom in that view of life - the feeling that any one day is as good as the next - but there's a constraint, too. In all the old legends of Christmas, all the old visions, Christmas contains a sense of release, of surrendering to the day, as well as a sense of hallowedness. The best Noel tales are always those about giving in to Christmas after long resistance. Ebenezer Scrooge and the Grinch may be lost sheep, in the New Testament sense, but they also embody the spirit of release after years and years of vigilant self-defense. To call what this day offers "redemption" is to call it somethin...

We all have things that get us to feeling weathered from time to time. It's not like being tired or defeated, sad or mad for me it feels more like restlessness. It's honest to say that so I don't mind to but how to get through. Finally finished the FDR painting and was feeling that way again so I picked up the most weathered book I have and well here's a bit I really like and thought you might like too. Fortunately its from the first page of the first chapter so it was easy enough to find and I am sure anyone who has read it will gleam that easily enough and well I'm not saying to catch a boat just pick up the book, a book or write a book. Otherwise, there is always music to which I might suggest a little ditty by Phil Collins it goes something like this---"When I'm feeling blue all I have to do is take a look at you, then I'm not sooo blue." Sorry for that but for some reason that popped in my head and well hopefully my not funny at all sense of...

"What can the world, or any nation in it, hope for if no turning is found on this dread road? The worst to be feared and the best to be expected can be simply stated. The worst is atomic war. The best would be this: a life of perpetual fear and tension; a burden of arms draining the wealth and the labor of all peoples; a wasting of strength that defies the American system or the Soviet system or any system to achieve true abundance and happiness for the peoples of this earth. Every gun that is made, every warship launched, every rocket fired signifies, in the final sense, a theft from those who hunger and are not fed, those who are cold and are not clothed. This world in arms in not spending money alone. It is spending the sweat of its laborers, the genius of its scientists, the hopes of its children. The cost of one modern heavy bomber is this: a modern brick school in more than 30 cities. It is two electric power plants, each serving a town of 60,000 population. It is two fully ...

July 2008 This week was our first proper family vacation, just the three of us. So we got the CityPass and headed out to fill our brains and become kids again--first the planetarium followed by the Shedd Aquarium and the Natural Historarium also known as the Field Museum. Then a couple of days lounging around the house and the beach. William, all 3 years old, was just bursting about everything, he was on overload trains, bikes, beaches, buses and museums he could not believe it got this good I imagined he would just make like one of those robots in the movies, smoke would start coming out of his head and explode or at least he would scream or something fortunately by the end of the day usually on our way home instead he would sleep. In the space in between one word will forever remind me of this week--Why? He's all over it and I love it. Truly these kids are genius. He always has a follow up question and its always spot on again.....Why? So today I sit at the beach Will f...