Newfangled Dad

Most of us are familiar with this quote. It's featured in the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington, DC. The translated version on the wall there says:  "First they came for the socialists, and I did not speak out--Because I was not a socialist. Then they came for the trade unionists, and I did not speak out--Because I was not a trade unionist. Then they came for the Jews, and I did not speak out--Because I was not a Jew. Then they came for me--and there was no one left to speak for me." What I'm guessing most readers don't know about this confessional from Martin Niemöller is that he himself was a Nazi.  Niemöller was born in Prussia in 1892 and began his career as a U-boat officer in the Imperial Navy of the German Empire. He sank 55,000 tons of Allied ships and was eventually awarded the Iron Cross for his accomplishments. Coming home after World War I, he got married, became a Lutheran pastor, and was a paramilitary commander helping put down t...

Today's song is "Buddy Holly" by Weezer. This is how we picture the song. Can you follow the lines with the song? This is what we heard:  "Buddy Holly" is a jazzy rock song with a little bit of blues in it. It's a very active song and suddenly starts and suddenly stops. The original song lyrics were about Ginger Rogers and Fred Astaire. It's a buzzy song with a lot of electronic sounds. This is how I drew the picture:  I draw according to what I heard. It starts off smooth and then goes up and down, bumpy, and back and forth and back and forth. 

It's been awhile and the blog has been sitting, collecting dust. But it's back for a special project! Starting in 2018, I did a photo collection with my daughter where she showed a new facial expression of the day. It was fun and she ended up receiving a book of the 65 photos as a gift for her 8th birthday recently. Now, her older brother (9) wants a creative activity with dad and we came up with what you see launching today. I've had the idea for awhile that it would be fun to listen to some of the best music ever recorded and get the reaction of kids who have never heard it. He had the idea to add artwork. Please enjoy as we explore Rolling Stone' s list starting today with #500. #500 "Shop Around"

Today's song is "Shop Around" by Smokey Robinson Motown's 1st record to sell 1 million copies. Also the 1st Motown song in the Top 5.  This is how we picture the song. Can you follow the lines with the song? This is what we heard:  Kinda vibrate-y. Shakey. Right after that it explodes and all the music is there. It stays loud and at one part gets quiet and goes right back up and does that a couple of times before the song ends. The song is kind of “hyper.” This is how I drew the picture: I drew my picture to match the way I heard the song. The blue is the sudden explosion at the beginning and the red and yellow lines represent how it stayed. Green zigzags are the low parts. The yellow line on the right side of the page is low to high.

My daughter--my youngest--goes to kindergarten this fall. It's the end of the Daddy Era and there has been some pushback. For those of you reading along for awhile, you'll remember that in the new year I began to dip my toes in the job market. The cliche is true that trying to find a full-time job becomes a full-time job. I haven't been quite to that level yet; it's more of a casual browsing and applying for positions that interest me. "No, we don't want you to work!" has been the refrain from my kids. As luck would have it, I've managed to find a part-time gig a few days per week at a local non-profit which manages the historic preservation of a few of Chicago's architectural treasures. My museum background and living a few streets over from two of the properties has been a temporary benefit for both sides. It lets me collect a paycheck for a few hours without jumping into the deep end of the work pool. I get to educate the public, be involved...

The corner of Greenfield and Forest is currently one of the few remaining uncontrolled intersections in Oak Park. No stop signs from any direction. It's a residential T intersection that dead-ends into a large park, is one block north of a school, and is frequently congested with event parking for baseball/soccer games. The only crosswalk is the older style (faded) parallel bars. The walkways coming out of the park slope downward towards the street and don't feature any markings, ADA-compliant texture, etc.. The route features about 1,600 cars per day (800-1200 is typical for a residential street in the village) with speeds of 30 mph as drivers cut-through the neighborhood from major roads. What to do? The resident petition last night was for upgrading to an all-way stop. But there have been no crashes at the intersection in the last 3 years or in the village-wide traffic study from a decade ago. As I've discussed before on the blog, stop signs may be the cheap/obvious ...