I remember the buzz about the first Earth Day. I was 13 years old and probably saw posters about the event in my school. I’m sure my best friend, Cynthia, had some involvement in it. Her parents were the most likely candidates to be environmentalists of anyone else I knew. I don’t remember what actually I did for Earth Day 1970, but I must have done something enjoyable because I remember wondering, years later, whatever happened to Earth Day?


The summer before the first Earth Day the world had seen the first image of our planet from the surface of the moon. Perhaps seeing that image made the inhabitants of Planet Earth see our planet as a more fragile place than we’d done before. I don’t remember being environmentally aware until the spring of 1970, but after that I became more conscious about protecting the Earth.
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On the way to the funeral luncheon (at the New Elgin Moose Lodge, believe it or not), we passed by ECC and a marquee near the road that leads to the school announced R. Carlos Nakai was performing at ECC’s art center on April 6. I counted in my head and realized it was two days away on Sunday evening. Later I asked my mom and some of her friends if they’d be interested in attending the performance. Jill and Gordan said they would. Mom said yes too.

I bought a CD by R. Carlos Nakai about 15 years ago at a shop in, I think, Virginia. Or maybe it was somewhere in Wisconsin. I listened to it often — usually to read by or to think. Sometimes even in the car. The CD was used so often that it got a scratch on it (my first CD to get scratched). I was unhappy about that, but still listen now and then, skipping over the scratched tracks. So I was delighted to be able to actually see and hear the man live that made this soothing music.

Nakai shared the stage with William Eaton, a musician, composer, musical instrument builder and storyteller. Together they transported the audience away from Elgin, Illinois to a rest stop outside Santa Fe, New Mexico to imagine the antelope dance; red cliffs in the west to watch the cliff sparrows fly and hear them sing; on a trip through the Earth with the sun; and into our own imaginations.

This blog entry describes the concert much better than I could describe it.

After the concert Jill, Gordan, Mom & I ate at a Thai restaurant in St. Charles.

Until recently (like two days ago) I didn’t know that Robert Burns’ birthday was January 25. I also didn’t know he wrote Auld Lang Syne. Nor did I know that some Scottish folk celebrated his birthday with a dinner in his honor.

Now I know all of this because our Scottish friends, the McBride / Weatherers (or McWeatherers as some call them), have invited us to a Burns Night tomorrow.

According to the Internet a Burns night is celebrated with haggis (eww), whisky (yum), and poems* (fun).

I think I’ll recite “To A Mouse”.

I’ll let you know if I survive.

Before Pan’s Labyrinth came out my daughter and I were sure we wanted to see it. Then I heard from many people how little fantasy was in it and how violent it was, so I thought that perhaps I didn’t want to see it. I went ahead and rented it anyway and we loved it. I think that the people who warned us about it were unprepared for the violence, but I knew what to expect in the reality part of the movie. I was pleasantly surprised at how much was fantasy. Not to say it was not depressing, but it was well done and I’m glad we saw it.

So when Clare and I saw that the director of Pan’s Labyrinth produced and presented a film called The Orphanage, we immediately wanted to see it, even though I’m not a fan of horror films.

Dean wanted to do something with the family (a task that is nearly impossible these days with our two teens who have completely different views of what fun is). Before we left, Andrew was livid. He had no desire to see a “Spanish horror movie” even though we explained that it was more along the lines of The Shining than The Ring. He complained the whole way, muttering things about subtitles and the unjustness of it all.

The film was wonderful. Even Andrew liked it. It had just the right amount of suspense and drama. The audience screamed at least once. There was only a little blood shown in the film, enough to satisfy folks that like that kind of thing, but not enough to make anyone too ill.

The story is about a small family who move into the building that once was an orphanage where the mother in the story was raised until she was adopted. I’ll say no more to avoid any spoilers.

The best part of the film? The discussion at dinner. We talked about the film on the way to the restaurant, all throughout dinner, on the way home and even after we got home. We all saw the same movie, but had different interpretations of what happened and what it all meant.

Hopefully this experience will prove to all of us that family time is still a possibility in our busy lives.

I finally made it to the 9:30 Club. A singer Dean has liked for as long as I’ve known him was playing there last night so I got him tickets for Christmas. When you go they stamp your hand with a time - it was not the time we went in, because we got there after 9. But mine says 8:16 (incidentally exactly 12 hours before I snapped the photo to the left.) (Actually, now after reading the Wikipedia article, I think it says 8:15 - which was the name of the venue the club moved into in 1996, but that’s a long time to keep rubber stamps.)

The last time I tried to to the 9:30 Club was a disaster. Dan Bern was playing there with Ani DiFranco. While I’m not a fan of Ms DiFranco, I am a rabid Dan Bern fan and since 1998 had seen him every time he was in the area (and occasionally beyond) . I was unaware how popular Ms DiFranco was, so didn’t attempt to get tickets right away. Unfortunately for me the tickets sold out quickly and I was devastated.

I told my tale of woe on the Dan Bern email list - hoping someone might have a ticket he or she was not going to use, or might know of someone who might. Shortly thereafter I got an email from my favorite member of Dan’s former band with whom I’d talked after or before a couple of shows. He set me up with two VIP tickets and specific instructions on how to use them. (get there early, give them my name, etc).

I was delighted and honored. We booked a babysitter (the teenager next door) and cleared our schedule for the event. Dean is not a fan of Dan Bern, but he thought he’d like Ani DiFranco. Go figure.

Anyway, the day came and we got ready to go. We fed the kids and made the babysitter list of phone numbers and instructions. All we needed was the babysitter. It takes a while to get to the club from our house and because we needed to get there early for our special seats we began to be worried when the designated time for Katie to arrive came and went. We called her house — no answer. We knew her mom was out of town, but had seen Katie earlier that day. We went to her house and knocked on the doors — no answer. By this time I was in a panic. We had no close friends, and no family in the area to help us out in a pinch like this. It looked like we were not going to get to see the show.

I wanted to just jump on the metro and go myself — I wanted Dean to suggest it, but he never did. Katie never showed up and we missed the show. I was able to see it online — the 9:30 Club had a streaming Internet video at the time, but it was not at all the same. Katie apologized and said she thought it was the next night and had been taking a nap and didn’t hear the phone or door. It took me a while to forgive her.

The show last night was pretty good. Patti Smith has an amazing voice, she is entertaining and talented. I never got to actually see her, being short and unaggressive and all, but I could hear her just fine.

So now that I’ve been to the 9:30 Club - I think I’ll go back. It’s a great venue. If only they had chairs for the Very Unimportant People. I guess I should have insisted Andrew develop his friendship with the owner’s son more. (Friends of the family are always treated as VIPs)