Today's updates:

• 10:37 Talia (age 2-1/2): "I'm a frog! I'm a frog! I know REALLY how to jump!" ff.im/2BaU0

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Bruce Springsteen honors Pete Seeger at his 90th birthday

Pete Seeger turned 90 on Sunday, May 3, 2009, and a huge birthday celebration was held at Madison Square Garden. Bruce Springsteen was one of the headliners. He had this to say about Pete Seeger's legacy.
 

As Pete and I traveled to Washington for President Obama's inaugural celebration, he told me the -- he told me the entire story of "We Shall Overcome," how it moved from a labor movement song and, with Pete's inspiration, had been adopted by the civil rights movement.
 
And that day, as we sang "This Land Is Your Land," I looked at Pete. The first black president of the United States was seated to his right. And I thought of -- I thought of the incredible journey that Pete had taken. You know, my own growing up in the '60s, a town scarred by race rioting, made that moment nearly unbelievable. And Pete had thirty extra years of struggle and real activism on his belt. He was so happy that day. It was like, Pete, you outlasted the bastards, man. You just outlasted them. It was so nice. It was so nice.
 
At rehearsals the day before, it was freezing. It was like fifteen degrees. And Pete was there, he had his flannel shirt on. I said, "Man, you better wear something besides that flannel shirt!" He says, "Yeah, I've got my long johns on under this thing." I said -- and I asked him, I said, "How do you want to approach 'This Land Is Your Land'?" as it'd be near the end of the show. And all he said was, "Well, I know I want to sing all the verses. You know, I want to sing all the ones that Woody wrote, especially the two that get left out, you know, about private property and the relief office." And I thought, of course, you know, that's what Pete's done his whole life: he sings all the verses all the time, especially the ones that we'd like to leave out of our history as a people, you know?
 
At some point -- at some point, Pete Seeger decided he'd be a walking, singing reminder of all of America's history. He'd be living archive of America's music and conscience, a testament of the power of song and culture to nudge history along, to push American events towards more humane and justified ends. He would have the audacity and the courage to sing in the voice of the people.
 
Now, despite Pete's somewhat benign grandfatherly appearance, you know, he is a creature of a stubborn, defiant and nasty optimism. He carries -- inside him, he carries a steely toughness that belies that grandfatherly facade, and it won't let him take a step back from the things he believes in.
 
At ninety, he remains a stealth dagger through the heart of our country's illusions about itself. Pete Seeger still sings all the verses all the time, and he reminds us of our immense failures, as well as shining a light towards our better angels in the horizon, where the country we've imagined and hold dear, we hope, awaits us. And on top of it, he never wears it on his sleeve.... The song that... Tommy Morello and I are about to sing, I wrote it in the mid-’90s... [I]ts last verse is the beautiful speech that Tom Joad whispers to his mother at the end of The Grapes of Wrath. It says, "Wherever there's a cop beating a guy, wherever a hungry newborn baby cries, wherever there's a fight against the blood and the hatred in the air, look for me, Mom. I'll be there." Well, Pete has always been there.

 
 
The full text of Woody Guthrie's "This Land Is Your Land," including the two verses Springsteen refers to.

I’ve roamed and rambled and I followed my footsteps
To the sparkling sands of her diamond deserts
And all around me a voice was sounding
This land was made for you and me.
 
This land is your land, this land is my land
From California to the New York Island
From the Redwood Forest to the Gulf Stream waters
This land was made for you and me.
 
In the squares of the city, under shadow of the steeple
At the relief office, I saw my people
As they stood there hungry, I stood there whistling
This land was made for you and me.
 
A great high wall there tried to stop me
A great big sign there said private property
But on the other side it didn’t say nothing
That side was made for you and me.

 
More, including some video, at Democracy Now.

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Talia in the bath

Talia in the bath, uploaded 2nd May, 2009.

Today's updates:

• 16:14 Talia made it through the whole night last night without a pacifier. This is a first

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Zeke and Talia riding their bikes

Zeke and Talia riding their bikes, uploaded 22nd April, 2009.

Taken late this afternoon. Spring seems to have finally sprung here.

Zeke's first book

Zeke wrote his first "book." You can view it below, or if that doesn't work, follow this link. To make the image larger, click in the little rectangle in the top right of the gray viewing box below (or on the linked page).
Zeke's first book (fingerpaint and dictation)

Publish at Scribd or explore others: School Work Books art children

Zeke's version of Dr. Seuss

Presumably many of my three or four readers will be familiar with Theodore Geisel, b.k.a. Dr. Seuss, and maybe also his well-known graduation present book, Oh, the Places You'll Go. We have a copy of this lying around and Zeke has taken a liking to it. He has been asking to have it read to him a lot. But yesterday he decided to "read" it to Talia. I didn't get it all down, but here's a reasonable chunk of it.

When you're on earth, it's not much fun.
You're on the outside of the earth. You're done.

Oh, let's go, to the places you'll go.
It's in space. In outer space, you know.

You might catch, or you might score,
On the greatest one of all. One hundred. Or.

Except when it's not, there's a game you can't win.

The end.

In the original, there are a lot of pages that begin, "Except when it's not," or "Except when you don't," or things like that. Just in case you're wondering. Also, Zeke has suddenly gotten interested in outer space and asks lots of questions about planets. Someone at preschool must have mentioned the fact that Pluto has been demoted to, what is it now, a planetoid or something, because he has been asking me why Pluto used to be a planet and isn't any more. He wants to know if it shrunk.

At any rate, the first line really made an impression on me. And he definitely has the anapestic tetrameter pretty well down.

Photo: Zeke standing on top of my car

Zeke standing on top of my car, uploaded 18th April, 2009.

I don't think this one really needs any commentary.

Today's updates:

• 14:02 Zeke: "Daddy! Do you know what jelly is? It's, like, the floppiest jam in the world."

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A few more from yesterday and today

 

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Talia saying 'cheese'

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Today's updates:

• 21:54 Zeke seems to think that croutons are actually called "protons."

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The kids made a 'secret hideout' out of pillows and blankets tonight

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Zeke getting his hair cut (photo series)

See and download the full gallery on posterous

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Talia laughing at the table

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Today's updates:

• 09:58 After we dress Talia, she likes to run around shouting, "Look how PRETTY I are!"

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Today's updates:

• 09:05 Zeke: "Daddy. I want to play a game. But... NO PICKING BOOGERS."

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Zeke and his mother planting seeds

Zeke and his mother planting seeds, uploaded 2nd March, 2009.

Today was a snow day. This turned out to be a good activity.

Zeke and Lenny

Zeke and Lenny (collage), uploaded 1st March, 2009.

Lenny is Zeke's new pet, a Madagascar hissing cockroach. Lenny was a present from my old friend Melissa.

What Talia ate this morning before 11 a.m.

One waffle with butter and syrup. Two hard-boiled eggs. One chunk of cheese. One piece of toast with jam. Almost half a pound of mashed sweet potato covered with about a quarter-cup of yoghurt. She's two years old, folks.