Happy Birthday, Wanda Jackson!

Today is the day to channel your inner Wanda Jackson: badass at any age! Early star of rock and roll, Queen of Rockabilly, successful in country music, inspiration to new generation of musicians.
Here she is in 1956, singing"Hard-headed woman" with a great fringed dress!


Here she performing "Thunder on the Mountain" from the album The Party Ain't Over, produced by Jack White. 

Happy Birthday to two amazing women!

Yesterday was the birthday of a very dear friend, Maria. We celebrated on Wed with a meal together. Happy birthday, my dear!
It was also the birthday of a wonderful artist and performer, Amanda Palmer . Here's a video she made in Harvard Square with some friends. (yes, she's lip-syncing)

After making her mark with Dresden Dolls, she has put out a solo album that is amazing and wonderful, "Who Killed Amanda Palmer?" Here are some of the videos. What do you think?
"Guitar Hero"
"What's the Use of Wonderin'"
"Strength Through Music"
"The Oasis" (banned in the UK!)

Welcome to this spinning world!

Our dear friends Ana and Jose have wanted to be parents for a while, but had to wait a few years. Then the baby was so impatient to arrive that he was born a wee bit early. Now their son Guillermo (Guille) is home with them and look how beautiful he is! I wish I weren't so far away, and could see him in person, but I'm glad to have these pictures.

One more day!!!

Yesterday my wonderful family threw a surprise birthday party for me. I was completely surprised and I loved it! It made me feel grounded and whole again after weeks of pre-election nerves and anxiety. I'll post some pictures and stories about it later, but right now I have to grade papers and catch up with work. Unfortunately all the excitement and chocolate cake seem to have brought on a sore throat/cold, but I'm hoping it will be a short illness.

I'll also compulsively be checking up for coverage of the last day of this historic campaign. The Minnesota Independant, or MNIndy, has been doing a fantastic job of covering the local stories that the Star Tribune is refusing to cover (so sad that our papers has gone down the tubes in such a spectacular fashion). Check there for the stories of the Madia, Tinklenberg and Franken campaigns.

Here is a great story about hope from the Christian Science Monitor by an unlikely Obama canvasser. I am really loving the stories that people are telling online about their personal transformations as a result of being involved as citizens. It makes me feel so hopeful!

Two Virginians, Ethel Kennedy and RFK's son Max, talk about their support for Obama. My mother admired RFK very much, so I know she'd be interested in how his family sees Obama in relation to their history.

Minnesotan now writing about the media for the NY Times, David Carr, talks about the way the New Media has changed this election. He points out that traditional media, such as broadcast news, still plays a major role, but that they are adapting to the multiple channels of dissemination online, and that there are many alternate ways for people to get news, such as Twitter, Facebook, MySpace, etc, that we are just beginning to understand. I find this so exciting!

OK, time to get back to work.

Happy birthday, honey bunch!

Happy Birthday (by Altered Images), the "new wave" version!
Some of my favorite birthday songs were posted for my sister's birthday here: The Ramones on the The Simpsons sing HB to Mr Burns; a Persian comedian does a Happy Birthday bellydance, and the Sesame Street artist Sally Cruikshank did a fabulous video about rhyming C-AKE with L-AKe and J-Ake!.
By request, here is The Lazy Town "Gotta bake a cake" song"




The original Cuppy Cake song is so sweet!

and finally, that great Beatles "Today is your birthday!

Happy Birthday, Blas!

Y para recordarte tu tierra: dos jotas

"He de subir al Moncayo"

Jota a San Lorenzo

Loren's fabulous chocolate cake recipe

For my mom, since making this cake is a birthday tradition, and today is her birthday!!




Colorado Cache cookbook's Chocolate Fudge Cake

Preheat oven to 375 degrees

3 squared of unsweetened chocolate
2 1/4 cups sifted cake flour
2 t. baking soda
1/2 t. salt
1/2 cup butter
2 1/4 cup brown sugar
3 eggs
1 1/2 t. vanilla
1 cup sour cream
1 cup boiling water

Melt the chocolate and let it cool. Sift flour, baking soda, salt together. Beat butter until soft. Add brown sugar and eggs, and beat until fluffy. Beat in vanilla and add cooled chocolate. Stir in the dry ingredients, alternating with sour cream, and beat with a wooden spoon. Stir in boiling water.

Pour into greased and floured 9" pans.
Bake 25 minutes or until it tests done with a toothpick, and cool on a rack 10 minutes.



Frost with the most decadent chocolate frosting you can find.

50! Fifty!

Happy birthday to me! This year I am 50 years old, like Sputnik,West Side Story, and the European Union.
A birthday wish come true: I will travel to Ireland for the first time in January.

I turn 50 this year!

So do a couple of my friends. I'm thinking of lots of ways to mark my first half century: I want to have a wonderful meal at Lenny Russo's restaurant Heartland. I want to do something really memorable--but I haven't decided what it should be yet.
On the radio today, I heard this story about Satellite Sister Liz Dolan turning fifty. Her sisters made a list of 50 things she really loves.
I think I'll start making my own list.

Scorpio birthdays and Halloween

Today, my daughter announced to me that this is the last day that she is 11. Tomorrow is her 12th birthday!
Last night was also her stage debut, and there will be performances tonight and tomorrow as well. I am in awe of the director's ability to work with kids, channel their energy and creativity, and make it fun. Her grandmother arrives today and will get to see the performance too.
I, the Home Ed flunkout, am sewing the Halloween costume (the stuff in the stores is so inappropriate for girls, it makes me really mad), and it is going to be great if I can get it finished in time, between grading papers, working on website upgrades, and all the other la di da of the job. The weather is gorgeous right now, and we'll have a big pre-Halloween party for kids and adults at the farm.
My 49th birthday is next Saturday. We are a double Scorpio household, with our birthdays bookending Halloween and the Days of the Dead. It's a great time to look back over the year: what have we done? what are we grateful for? what do we wish for the year ahead?
My Free Will Astrology horoscope for the week suggests this is a time of regeneration, so I want to think about being a phoenix today.