We recently went on vacation. With three children under the age of ten. With a twelve hour drive—both ways.

This seemed like a good idea at the time, but as we closed in on the actual date, thinking about the drive made me think I’d had a major lapse in judgement. In order to ensure we all made it to the beach (and back), I was going to have to put a plan into place.

So we checked out 20 DVDs from the library. And downloaded a slew of free apps to our phones and iPads. But (weirdly) our kids get a bit sick of media after a while, so I needed to hatch a secondary plan.

Part two of my plan was to bring out one new entertaining thing every hour of the drive. Each hour I would unveil some thing they could fiddle with for at least fifteen minutes.

This seemed like a really great plan until I did a quick calculation of everything in my cart at Target, and I had a small heart attack. So part 2B of my plan was a challenge myself to find one thing to entertain three children each hour for a twelve hour drive, both ways, for under $100. (That’s 24 things, if you’re counting.)

I am proud to announce my victory, thanks to Target, Michael’s, and United Arts & Education. We’re back home, safe and sound, sanity intact.

Chris snapped this picture of me with his new iPhone 4. This is the photo, with not a bit of retouching, which only added fuel to the fire to my current internal debate. My point and shoot that I keep in my bag at all times bit the dust, so I was contemplating a new pocket camera. But with the new 5 megapixel camera, it makes me think maybe one device can serve two purposes. I’m all about having less stuff. But maybe I’m rationalizing.

See what all that fresh air does to a person?

When the very talented Erin of Inky Winke agreed to do a one week course, we happily jumped on board.

I’ll share a few photos of our classmate John putting his work on the press, and when we’ve had a chance to breathe, Tom and I will share what we’ve cobbled together.

If this is you, you’re not alone! We constantly have friends and family asking us how to adjust for low light or take a better-than-average portrait. A little know-how can get you a long way, so we’ve decided to put together a workshop for the person who’s ready to take the next step and start fiddling with the settings on their cameras.

In our three hours, we’ll cover:
- how your camera operates, including ISO, shutter speed and aperture
- composition and shooting techniques
- an overview of post-processing using Photoshop Elements

In order to ensure the quality of the experience, we’ll be limiting the class to 12 participants. We ask that you bring your camera and the accompanying manual to the workshop. Feel free to bring a laptop if you’d like to follow along during the Photoshop portion, but it is not required.

Saturday, June 26th, 1–4pm
The Wire & Twine Studio (Oxford, OH)
$30/person

Register online to reserve your spot. Hope to see you there!

In an informal poll of my teacher friends, they say you can’t miss with a gift card, so I tend to stick with that, but I feel it’s a bit underwhelming to simply hand over an envelope. So this year, I bought some inexpensive flowering plants and potted them in simple plastic containers. I used these envelopes (purchased at my local craft sore) to write a nice note, taped them to a colorful straw, and tucked a gift card in the envelope. For less than a dollar per gift, plus the cost of the card, I had gifts for all the fantastic educators in our lives.

Hooray for simple solutions!

Over lunch we were doing some blue-skying about projects and thought out loud, “Wouldn’t it be nice to work on a porch today?”

Now there’s a porch across the way from the studio, but we never go over there and use it.

That changed today.

Here’s what we’ve got in the queue right now:

TOM SPINS:

Jim O’Rourke – Mizu No Nai Umi
Story goes that O’Rourke found a box full of old tapes of drone experiments. Two long drone pieces that rank right up there with Disengage.

Yes – Relayer
I was given a copy that a friend of a friend found in the trash umpteen years ago. Just recently picked up the vinyl reissue.I had no idea what I was missing out on. Gates of Delirium is a prog masterpiece.

Pavement – Quarantine the Past
A “best of” from one of my top five favorite bands. They could easily release 4 more “best of” sets as far as I’m concerned. Still waiting for the Terror Twilight Deluxe.

CHRIS SPINS:

The Avett Brothers – I and Love and You
My buddy Erik introduced me to this band, and as some call it the Baader-Meinhof phenomenon, I began to hear them everywhere, even on my favorite TV show (which is Brothers & Sisters if you were curious.) Anyway, I am smitten with their basic approach to music making. It’s a bit Appalachia mixed with rock I guess. I dunno. I just like it. And their lyrics are awesome.

Rufus Wainwright – All Days Are Nights: Songs for Lulu
I can’t say I love their new Rufus album right off the bat, but if he’s taught me anything it’s that you have to stick with it. His last two records took a long time to sink in, but once they did they repaid the investment handsomely. This album finds him with just a piano accompaniment. It’s heavy. My favorite tracks open and close the set, but I’m warming up to all the songs in between.

Atom™ featuring Tea Time – XXX
My friend Chris turned me on to Uwe Schmidt (aka Atom™) and this particular album cover was the least offensive to post here. But it wasn’t a concession, I genuinely enjoy the music. This particular album has an odd mix of really deep bass beats, clicks and latin hip-hop. It’s weird in a good way.

JOEL SPINS:

Jim O’Rourke – The Visitor
I recently got hooked on Jim O’Rourke’s acoustic albums, this being the album I cut my tooth on. The instruments on this album appear and disappear, in and out like a great idea: quick, colorful, and inspiring. I could listen to this album on repeat all day.

Talking Heads – Remain in Light
I’ve always been a huge T.H. fan. Dad introduced me early on. They are a group that I always forget how much I like them until I hear any of their albums. Tom and I didn’t know that both of us were big fans until I played this album for the first time in the shop when we looked at each other and asked, “YOU like the Talking Heads?” Sometimes you have more in common with the guy next to you than you think… you just have to make the connection. Life lessons from David Byrne? Hm, who would’ve thought.;)

Sufjan Stevens – Greetings from Michigan
When he first hit the scene a couple years ago, I was anything but a Sufjan fan. But, over the years of listening to his music, it’s definitely grown on me exponentially. He has the power of juxtaposition, mixing lullaby like songs with disturbing and depressing lyrics. For some reason, I’m really diggin’ that right now. He’s surely confirmed his talent to me lately.

WENDY SPINS:

Jakob Dylan – Seeing Things
Up until the last few days, the weather has been gloriously warm and summer-like. This always makes me want to roll up my sleeves and dig into a project. Unlike the boys in the office, I work best with a more subdued soundtrack, and this is perfect selection to play out on the patio as I’m repotting plants or sweeping up the winter debris. Who knows, maybe I’ll even get it together enough to go check out Dylan’s new album.

When my friend Heather said she’d love to use this photograph for her upcoming percussion recital, the gears started turning.

After lunch I got with Tom and we decided to try pushing some ink through a screen using the image. (He did all the hard parts, I just tried to be helpful and complained we didn’t have enough shop towels.)

A few hours later we had a handful of off-center posters with minor alignment issues. Overall? A big win. Very excited. And looking forward to Heather’s recital!

And last but not least, hidden in the corner, a little picture of one of Heather’s kitties, because cats make everything better.

Between the new chicks, the tadpoles we’re raising, the seedlings that are peeking their heads out of the soil, and the blossoms on the apple trees, it’s impossible to deny: spring has sprung.

Some interesting tidbits about chicks:

1. Much like human babies, they move in a continual cycle that is something like this: eat, sleep, poop, and peep. They seem to do each of these things for about 4.6 seconds at a time.

2. If you look closely at the second photo, the white dot on the chick’s beak is its “egg tooth” which helps it break through the egg shell when it hatches. As of this morning, most of them had already fallen off.

3. Baby chicks seem to have a bit of narcolepsy. They’ll be doing something, and then all of a sudden they sink to the ground and fall sound asleep. Apparently, this is quite normal, and is extremely entertaining to watch.