Every night my daughter and I read together.    This has been a ritual since she was a little baby.   Now that Nova is 7 we choose our books together and she is starting to read to me.      Our recent favorites are fun for parents too.    Tricycle Press does some great children's books.  Ten Speed Press  Their books are thoughtful, intelligent, witty and worldly.

Making Cents by Elizabeth Keeler Robinson
illustrations by Bob McMahon

This is a complicated subject for little ones and the book makes it fun, exuberant and
entertaining.   Packed with cool facts about currency.   A great math tool to start a little investor on the path to saving money, not just spending it.


G is for Googol   A Math Alphabet Book
by: David M. Schwartz and illustrated by Marissa Moss


super cute and funny.   A great way to teach mathematical  terms like "unit" and "obtuse".

What the World Eats by Peter Menzel and Faith D'Alusio

A fantastic photo book accompanied by stories about the families and how they live.    

Every day, millions of families around the world gather--at the table or on the floor, in a house or outdoors--to eat together. Ever wondered what a typical meal is like on the other side of the world? Or next door? Cultural geographers Peter Menzel and Faith D'Aluisio visited twenty-five families in twenty-one countries to create this fascinating look at what people around the world eat in a week. Meet a family that spends long hours hunting for seal and fish together; a family that raises and eats guinea pigs; a family that drinks six gallons of Coca-Cola a week.

This enthralling glimpse into cultural similarities and differences is at once a striking photographic essay and an essential study in nutrition and the global marketplace. (review courtesy of press release)

Every parent dreads the day their child brings up one of several milestone issues.  Sex, drugs, death.   I didn't realize that drag queens were going to be the first issue i would have to tackle. 
  

Graphic images and dialogue on the internet and television add to the pop cultural vernacular.    Can't Hannah Montana and the Jonas brothers keep things simple and sweet like Happy Days did back in the day?   Driving along my little sponge saw a poster for Gossip Girls that had two "teens" making out and the word OMFG plastered in bold letters on it.    Her hawk eye went right there and said, Whats OMFG.    I'll cross that bridge when she starts texting her friends.      Living in an urban jungle forces children to grow up much faster these days.   

When my daughter was 4 we were playing at the park off Santa Monica bvld.    This park bordered on part of the street where "colorful characters" were known to roam.
As we drove on, my daughter, in total deadpan from the backseat says,   "Sounds like a man, dresses like a woman, there goes a drag queen MOM"

and that was the end of it again.     She just kind of accepted it as a way of life in the big city.   Remember Paris is burning, what an amazing film.    You realize nightlife and the evolution of downtown and counterculture wouldn't be the same without the impact these performers had on music, fashion, and pop culture vernacular.       Didn't RuPaul start the expression, "GIRL" to emphasize her point.      In the late eighties I'd done many a night at the Pyramid club with my arms in the air dancing with these lovelies.    I had to introduce my mini me to the true legends of drag; Lady Bunny and Rupaul.   For drag is an artform, and it really needs to be discussed that way.   " Mommy, look at those nails"
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It was birthday time this week and my daughter was bent on getting two turtles.   After science class featured several reptiles, the turtle was a bit more friendly than a snake.   I figured prettty low maintenance.     Well, we ended up getting tortoises and they are a hit.     They were named Deleuze and Guattari after the philosophers, Gilles Deleuze and Felix Guattari.    Nova calls the female Del-lu-zee and Guattari is the boy.    



























We recycled an old sandbox into a pen for them and they roll around the deck depending on the sun.     An impromptu observation deck was set up with notebook and some serious note taking has been going on.   Every move the tortoises are making including pooping has been documented.
  

Anyone who tells you a pet is a pain in the ass is right, they are a lot of work, especially a puppy (I now have 3 dogs and a stray cat).  The benefits of having a child learn responsibility and care for a pet along with the excitement in their eyes to have made a discovery is priceless.   Worth the house training, nipping, barking etc.   Luckily the tortoises are pretty low maintenance.     I now have a 6 year old that knows who Deleuze and Guattari are (atleast she will want to learn more about them when the time comes)  and enjoys taking notes and observing these docile creatures.

A little blurb on the great philosophers:

Gilles Deleuze was an influencial French philosopher who died in 1995.    He wrote many influencial works on literature, fine art, film and was considered a cultural critic.  check out: Capitalism and  schizophrenia: Anti-Oedipus.   His pal,  Felix Guattari, a contemporary,  was also a philosopher and psychotherapist who co wrote Anti-Oedipus (1972) and A Thousand Plateaus, 1980.    They were friends and considered quite cool.      Michel Foucault was also writing in France around this time.   I imagine they all hung out together, talked about ideas like Metaphysics and Values, and drank Absinthe at smokey cafes.

 

Let me fan out for a minute here on the incredible Michael Roberts.     His children's books are quirky, fun, witty, colorful and graphic.     He makes fashion fun for the kindergarten set and his wacky women are cool and contemporary.     I love his sensibility.   My daughter and I read his books for hours.

Planet Earth - the journey continues

"Experience Earth as never before with groundbreaking footage of our planet and its wildlife." Some of the most electrifying footage ever of nature, animals and the environment I have ever seen.      The detail is incredible.    It almost looks like it was shot with a 70 mm lens.   Imagine an 8x10 photograph set to motion.


For adults and children alike this is impossible to miss.


http://www.bbc.co.uk/sn/tvradio/programmes/planetearth/



 

There comes a time when your child starts liking her own music.    Hence, the boy band and other tween sensations like Hannah Montana.   Did I mention that Miley's tour was one of the most successful in the last decade, $50 million in ticket sales and 1 billion projected for the fiscal year this year.   It's RIDIC.     Thank god she's not a drug addict and wears panties out of the house.  In the press lately for her Vanity Fair mix up where pushy legend photog Annie Liebowitz "forced" her to pose in a sultry manner.

Kids have always had their own music- much of it manufactured by the Disney channel and  Svengali's like Simon Fuller that produce boy bands.  I had to sit through High School Musical one and two about 60 times, and listen to every spin off star's solo record.  Frankly it all sucks, but as parents we are force fed.     When I was a kid, Duran Duran was the boy band.   They weren't that bad, in hindsight, they rocked.

If you are conservative, give them the Jonas Brothers.    If Silverlake produced a boy band, this would be it.  They are well styled and have punk-pop catchy G-rated hits.  This band, produced by Disney,  also has  a movie , CAMP ROCK (yes, I will be forced to see it) coming out this year, along with merchandising and all those other things 360 deals involve.    They earned 12 million last year.



If you like metal, Tokio Hotel is one of the biggest pop bands in Europe and they are starting to get airplay in the US.    Mark my words, this band will be huge.   They give new meaning to the idea of a hair band.    They are twins and they think, "the Olsen twins are cute".    aahhhhh.  how cute.
 

Luckily, my daughter has discovered Joan Jett, and we watch her on YouTUBE singing, I LOVE ROCK N ROLL.    "It just sounds so much better from a girl Mommy". (and guess what, she writes her own music and lyrics)    Amen to that.

Perry shows he's still got it.   I can't believe he's 52 he looks amazing.  It's that rock stars don't seem to age like real people.   Either drugs preserved him or he just has really good hair.   Perry performed at the Paul Frank store this Saturday.    His back up band, school of rock's performing tweens.   It was short and sweet but worth every second, performing Stop and Mountain Song Perry rocked it out.    It was a treat seeing the Jane's Addiction frontman still has his touch performing for 50 people, many of whom were 2 feet tall.




kidzapalooza.com    August 1-3 Grant Park          kids 10 and under are free

After being completely overwhelmed by the Broad collection we took our daughter to the Boone children's Gallery at Lacma west.       This was so cool.   An entire room, about 8000 square feet for kids to run and play and make art.    Architectural renderings of the Broad building and the Lacma renovation, child studios, Polaroid walls, and stuff to climb on.  



























I loved the little art studio where kids could get a little apron, paint, brushes, supplies and random junk to create their own works of art.      Supplies are stacked neatly on metrowire and parents/kids can choose what they want to use.    I took some of these ideas home with me and created a little art cart.    It's a hit.  Nova is making art everyday now and its not hard to clean up.  

Nexgen offers art classes for kids, teens and families.    Spring art camps, Family nexgen Sundays.    Free youth membership for everyone 17 and under.     There is no excuse for kids to join.

The Remote Area Medical® (RAM) Volunteer Corps is a non-profit, volunteer, airborne relief corps dedicated to serving mankind by providing free health care, dental care, eye care, veterinary services, and technical and educational assistance to people in remote areas of the United States and the world.

Founded in 1985, Remote Area Medical® is a publicly supported all-volunteer charitable organization. Volunteer doctors, nurses, pilots, veterinarians and support workers participate in expeditions (at their own expense) in some of the world's most exciting places. Medical supplies, medicines, facilities and vehicles are donated. The vision for Remote Area Medical® developed in the Amazon rain forest where founder Stan Brock spent 15 years with the Wapishana Indians. He lived with the pain and suffering created by isolation from medical care. He witnessed the near devastation of whole tribes by what would have been simple or minor illnesses to more advanced cultures. When he left South America to co-star in the television series, "Wild Kingdom, " he vowed to find a way to deliver basic medical aid to people in the world's inaccessible regions. The organization was founded in 1985 and years of research and planning yielded a vast, carefully developed network of men and women who have come together to make RAM a highly mobile, remarkably efficient relief force. Volunteers are doctors, nurses, technicians, and veterinarians who go on expeditions at their own expense and treat hundreds of patients a day under some of the worst conditions.  (taken from Ram website). http://www.ramusa.org/about/history.htm

thank god the state of Tennessee gave this guy a medal.   He deserves it and donations too.

Los Angeles architect and artist Fritz Haeg narrows the divide between residents and their communities with projects like Edible Estates, an international effort to convert front lawns into working food gardens.   

http://www.fritzhaeg.com/garden_main.html

"The lawn is an actively antisocial space that also requires a certain amount of maintenance and resources, which are wasted on something we don't even use." FHaeg


Inspired by people discovering their own sense of power and sustainability Fritz Haeg makes lawns into works of art and food.    check him out.
This is a great example of how a visionary talent can use art and an eco awareness to change a family, a community and hopefully one day a country.   I'm tearing up my lawn this week.