Wednesday, December 31, 2008

Tuesday, December 9, 2008

Unsilent Night 2008



It's definitely winter in Baltimore now. Mila is ready for the snow with an array of adorable hats and coats (seen in above photo wearing her Abominable Snowbaby coat and special cap from our friend Julia).

Last night was the annual holiday boombox parade, "Unsilent Night", which my friend Brian organizes here in Baltimore. It's a piece by NYC composer Phil Kline for unlimited boomboxes, with copies of 4 syncronized tracks passed out on CDs or tapes for the participants. Everyone presses play at the same time and proceeds on a planned route through the city streets. It is done in cities all over the world (not necessarily on the same night) and has been organized by my friend here in Baltimore for the past 3 years. Marie and Mila were able to do the entire route with me this year, along with our friend Ben and his son Silas. A jolly time was had by all, though Mila fell asleep before the end-- could it have been otherwise in the cozy back carry Marie has her in? About 40 people participated in the happening this year (see video below).

The route started just 3 blocks from our house, in front of Penn Station (under the infamous "man/woman" statue), proceeded south on Charles Street to the Washington Monument in Mount Vernon Square, then went back north on Charles to Penn Station, finally circling through the station and back out to the front to the statue. Not seen in this video is the moment near the end when we walked through Penn Station and an Amtrak officer stopped me (in particular) to ask what was going on. He was the same guy who I had to deal with when my sound class at MICA did a stealth sound installation at the station (involving hidden boomboxes and laptops, manipulating sounds recorded in the same space) about a month ago. I must be on a special list by now!












Check out www.unsilentbaltimore.com

Wednesday, December 3, 2008

Scrapes and new modes of playing

Mila has had an increase of scrapes and bruises lately, resulting from greater physical ambitions. The top half of her body is often moving faster than her lower half, as she looks forward to where she wants to be without always looking at where she is. She is anxiously pursuing a new stage of physical interaction with the world as a runner and climber. Her legs are not always up to speed. It is difficult to see her get hurt, but I know that the head and knee bonks are not as bad as they seem to me. It is all a part of her learning to inhabit the space around her.

Another recent development is her new role playing with toys. I first noticed this yesterday with her enactment of a conversation between her stuffed tiger and her new "Rogue" (of the X-Men) action figure, given to her recently by my friend Jon. I was able to capture a little bit of this new mode of playing today in the car, although the video clip here does not represent the full range of her role playing with these toys.