You can tell Matilda is a monkey because she is holding a banana
Sunday, March 29, 2009
Thursday, March 26, 2009
bruised
Matilda bumped her nose on a park bench the day before these pictures were taken. Sorry, don't have any shots of the bloody nose, just the bruising. She's fine though.
Tuesday, March 24, 2009
Tuesday, March 17, 2009
8 Tracks
A friend introduced me to a new website that I've been having a lot of fun with for the last few days. You can create a short mix of music and publish it to share with anybody. I've always enjoyed making "mix tapes" in my youth, and then "mix CD's" that I would do in certain themes and copy then for friends. Now I can do it online and I post the link on my facebook page to share. If you go to the website:
http://8tracks.com/
Then search for davmfoster it will connect you to my mixes. I've made about 10 now and have ideas for a bunch more. They're short, each is about 8 tracks (hence the name) but you can add more songs if they're not too long . On the right hand side of the page are icons for each mix. Some of my icons look like South Park characters, just click on one and you'll get to the mix.
Then you can follow my profile (or anyone's) and be alerted when I post something new. Their musical selection isn't great (and their search function is really poor) but you can upload your own tracks so it's all good. Yet another online distraction.
Sunday, March 15, 2009
funny sequence
These picture were taken on Matilda's birthday as well. They make an entertaining sequence:
She loves her big brother
Thursday, March 12, 2009
Let's go fly a kite
For Christmas Griffin got a big pirate-ship kite from Brie's uncle Luke. We finally had a day windy enough to try it out:
Awesome huh?
Tuesday, March 10, 2009
Matilda's Birthday!
Matilda turned 1 yesterday! We had a very small get-together at our house, just family. Here are some pictures including Matilda's first cake. It was a carrot cake that Brie and Griff made
Sunday, March 8, 2009
top 100
I took on the formidable task of making a list of my 100 favorite movies, (I guess I have some time on my hands.) I posted it to my facebook page, but here is a copy for the blog. If this doesn't interest you you have my permission to skip past it to see more kid pictures below. Incidentally this is Dave's list, although Brie will post one soon
100. The Big Lebowski: when I first saw it I never would have put it here, now it squeaks in
99. The Tao of Steve: third in my trilogy
98. The Man Who Shot Liberty Valence: my favorite of all the John Wayne films
97. Fantasia: amazing when you wrap your head around what they did with animation in the 40’s putting it together with music that had existed for hundreds of years
96 Amores Perros: like a Mexican Pulp Fiction. about dogs
95. Kill Bill 1 & 2: the second one elevates the entire experience
94. The Gods Must Be Crazy: this movie is priceless slapstick/social commentary
93. One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest: who’s to say what crazy is?
92. Babe: That’ll do pig
91. The Apartment: Kevin Spacey based his performance in American Beauty on this movie
90. Lone Star: this movie is about so many different things
89. Children Of Men: the long, unedited shots alone make this worth watching
88. Stop Making Sense: best concert film ever
87. Toy Story 1 & 2: no drop in quality from the first to the second
86. Lock, Stock & Two Smoking Barrels: more fun than any low-budget British crime movie has a right to be
85. The Odd Couple: the film, not the TV sitcom
84. The Station Agent: best movie I’ve ever seen about a midget, I mean dwarf
83. Into The Wild: takes a very good book and makes it into something poetic
82. Best In Show: who’s got the busy-bee?
81. King Kong (1933): the original is still the best
80. Dances With Wolves: better than you remember it to be
79. Boogie Nights: people talk about what a brilliant director Paul Thomas Anderson is. I’m finally part of that club
78. Clerks: second in my trilogy
77. Finding Nemo: so many rich touches, my favorite is the fish in the aquarium riveted with watching the dentist work
76. The Player: part satire, part murder mystery, part meditation on an art form that’s been compromised, all good
75. Sideways: kind of like a version of Swingers with older, more pathetic characters
74. Platoon: unrivaled intensity
73. Lost In America: even better than Easy Rider, put it all on 22
72. The Dead Zone: best adaptation of a Stephen King horror story, Greg Stillson still reminds me of George W.
71. The Terminator: the second one is great too, but something about the original...
70. American Beauty: the last great Kevin Spacey role, it’s been all downhill ever since
69. Raising Arizona: Boy...you got a panty on your head
68. Deliverance: forget about the most infamous scene that’s been parodied and referenced to death, but watch it as a man vs, nature survival story
67. This Boy’s Life: DeNiro and a young Leonardo face off with great NW accents
66. Arthur: the remake will probably blow
65. Swingers: kind of like a younger Sideways, but with less pathetic characters
64. Mississippi Burning: may be Gene Hackman’s finest role
63. The Wild Bunch: very violent western that will have you rooting for the bad guys
62. Risky Business: probably the only Tom Cruise movie on the list
61. Sunset Boulevard: another story about the rotting corpse of Hollywood
60. Get Shorty: cool in many ways
59. The Iron Giant: can’t wait to enjoy this one with the kids
58. Blue Velvet: would make this list just for Dennis Hopper yelling “Don’t you #%#%$&*@ look at me!!”
57. Silver Streak: I can watch this again and again, and I have
56. Psycho: not the Vince Vaugn remake of course
55. Cool Hand Luke: a prison movie that’s not about prison
54. Wall Street: Greed is good
53. Miller’s Crossing: I can’t believe how many Coen Brother’s fans have never seen this gem
52. Full Metal Jacket: like two completely separate short movies, both great
51. Traffic: the war on drugs isn’t working? you don’t say
50. 12 Angry Men: there’s a reason it’s shown in classrooms
49. Office Space: looks like somebody has a case of the Monday’s
48. Trainspotting: the most self-destructive character never touches a needle
47. A Bronx Tale: the lead actor from this movie was just sent to prison for his involvement in a murder
46. Tootsie: there’s a reason this movie is used as a model for screenwriter’s classes
45. High Noon: bitter, emotionally disturbing story about one man forced to stand alone
44. City Of God: like a Brazilian Goodfellas, except darker
43. Aliens: one of the few movies that improves upon the original, it also far surpasses everything that came after it
42. Ordinary People: you’ll never feel the same way about Mary Tyler Moore
41. Moonstruck: romantic comedies do have a place on my list
40. The Princess Bride: a movie so enjoyable even Billy Crystal can’t ruin it
39. A Fish Called Wanda: Kevin Kline is a comic genius. at least in this one
38. Stand By Me: first in my trilogy
37. Raging Bull: an actor so lost in character you start to worry about him
36. Airplane: unfortunately influenced a whole generation of copycats
35. Rear Window: Hitchcock’s best, and James Stewart too
34. Raiders Of The Lost Ark: the original is still the best. lets try to forget about the new one
33. The Good, The Bad, & The Ugly: the climatic showdown in the Mexican graveyard is perhaps the best single moment from any film on this list
32. The Usual Suspects: part of the fun is trying to decide what’s real and what’s made up. I think it’s all real.
31. Casablanca: there’s a reason it is regarded by critics as one of the three best movies ever, the other two didn’t make my list
30. The Shawshank Redemption: everybody thinks this movie is great. they’re right
29. Wall•E: works as a sci-fi film, as a love story, as a kids movie, and as a comment on our destructive lifestyle. all done with a minimum of dialogue and extraordinary visuals. should have won best picture last year
28. Groundhog Day: straddles the border between early wise-guy Bill Murray performances and later minimalist dramatic actor.
27. The Deer Hunter: three great actors at the top of their games show the everyman point of view of the Vietnam War
26. Saturday Night Fever: much deeper and grittier than its reputation would suggest
25. Bridge On The River Kwai: a story about three stubborn personalities set against the backdrop of a Japanese prison camp in WWII
24. Reservoir Dogs: the movie that announced the coming of Tarantino
23. Jaws: Spielberg’s earliest, and his best
22. Annie Hall: every scene is essential, taken as a whole it’s a devastatingly cynical look at the ups and downs of relationships
21. White Heat: the best of the Cagney gangster films, done at a time when he was trying to leave that genre behind
20. Short Cuts: thirty great actors, a few bad ones, and a dozen stories all intertwined beautifully. Huey Lewis urinating onscreen, Tom Waits gets to play a drunk and don’t get me started on Julianne Moore
19. Butch Cassidy And The Sundance Kid: the best onscreen chemistry between two leads in a throwback, good-time western that turns dark and morbid in its final scenes
18. Taxi Driver: the only movie I can think of that directly inspired an attempted presidential assassination
17. The Blues Brothers: deadpan acting, great R&B musical performances, over-the-top car chases make this my highest charting musical. actually my only charting musical
16. JFK: the most audacious, ballsy movie ever made by a major American director not named Michael Moore
15. Kramer Vs Kramer: touchingly realistic story about divorce and parenting that never veers into sentimentality
14. Slingblade: made before Billy Bob Thornton was famous and seeing it now it’s hard to find him in the character. great story, great acting, great directing. He should stop making movies like Mr Woodcock and get back to creating films
13. Do The Right Thing: enjoy it for the first three-fourths for the colorful characters and comedic situations, and then spend hours debating the final act and whether Mookie “did the right thing”
12. Memento: fast-paced and brilliantly told movie that puts you in the mind-frame of the protagonist, also a great twisty ending that will have you re-evaluate everything you’ve already seen. another film that it’s impossible to see just once
11. Star Wars Trilogy: the original, not the prequels. I have it as one entry because I tend to look at it as one long movie and not three short ones. plus it splits the difference between the quality of Empire and Jedi.
10. Glengarry Glen Ross: five or six characters, two acts, great Mamet dialogue make this an enjoyably ugly experience. will cause you to swear never to be a salesman, and may make you feel bad about all the salesmen you were rude to over the years
9. Lord Of The Rings: far exceeded everyone’s expectations by creating a rich and visual world that stayed true to the books, while carefully excising some of the subplots that didn’t work, and upping up the ante on the battles. outdid even Star Wars for fantasy trilogies
8. Unforgiven: perfectly de-mythologizes the western genre while at the same time paying tribute to it and celebrating it. Clint Eastwood’s finest moment as a director and as an actor
7. Requiem For A Dream: the best movie about addiction and obsession ever made. you can’t watch it without cringing during the final scenes
6. There Will Be Blood: unless something amazing comes out in the next two years this will be a shoo-in for my award as best movie of the decade. some people find it boring, I feel sorry for them
5. The Godfather 1 & 2: just forget 3 ever happened. such a great story about family and honor, the arc Al Pacino takes over these movies is astonishing in it’s disparity between the Michael we see at the beginning of 1 and by the end of 2.
4. Treasure Of The Sierra Madre: John Huston, Humphrey Bogart, deeply engrossing story about greed and how the acquisition of wealth can turn the souls of men evil
3. Fargo: many people think of The Big Lebowski, or No Country For Old Men as the best Coen Brothers film, but for me this one will always be their top. It’s hard to think of a movie that’s better, I can only find two
2. Pulp Fiction: like an adrenaline shot to the heart when you first see it. this movie becomes an addiction, I saw it seven times in the theater, and countless times on video and DVD since. It’s an action movie with very little action, instead the plot is moved forward through dialogue. Excellently cast, brilliantly acted and written. There’s not an unenjoyable person in the movie
1. Goodfellas: the cream or the crop for Scorsese/DeNiro collaborations, this movie combines elements of early Cagney/Bogart films, 50’s film noir, and The Godfather, while at the same time ushering in a new style of storytelling and structure. When the movie shifts focus from the broad historical sweep to one long and paranoid day you realize you are watching a master at the peak of his powers. Unsurpassed, and it’s number 1 simply because I can’t think of a movie that’s better than it.
Some observations:
Coen Brothers lead all directors with four entries
Martin Scorsese, Quentin Tarantino, and Oliver Stone each have three
Some very prolific directors that I like a lot but only have one entry:
Clint Eastwood, Spike Lee, and Woody Allen
A few directors I like a lot but weren’t represented:
Terry Gilliam, Richard Linklater, Sam Rami, David Fincher, Mel Brooks, Roman Polanski, Jim Jarmusch, and Tim Burton
nothing against these directors, they each have a good body of work, but no one movie by them jumped out as being worthy of inclusion
There are surprisingly three John Travolta movies, but none with Johnny Depp, Sean Penn, Christian Bale, or Edward Norton who are all better actors
Robert DeNiro is the actor that leads the pack with six entries
Julianne Moore is the only actress with three
100. The Big Lebowski: when I first saw it I never would have put it here, now it squeaks in
99. The Tao of Steve: third in my trilogy
98. The Man Who Shot Liberty Valence: my favorite of all the John Wayne films
97. Fantasia: amazing when you wrap your head around what they did with animation in the 40’s putting it together with music that had existed for hundreds of years
96 Amores Perros: like a Mexican Pulp Fiction. about dogs
95. Kill Bill 1 & 2: the second one elevates the entire experience
94. The Gods Must Be Crazy: this movie is priceless slapstick/social commentary
93. One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest: who’s to say what crazy is?
92. Babe: That’ll do pig
91. The Apartment: Kevin Spacey based his performance in American Beauty on this movie
90. Lone Star: this movie is about so many different things
89. Children Of Men: the long, unedited shots alone make this worth watching
88. Stop Making Sense: best concert film ever
87. Toy Story 1 & 2: no drop in quality from the first to the second
86. Lock, Stock & Two Smoking Barrels: more fun than any low-budget British crime movie has a right to be
85. The Odd Couple: the film, not the TV sitcom
84. The Station Agent: best movie I’ve ever seen about a midget, I mean dwarf
83. Into The Wild: takes a very good book and makes it into something poetic
82. Best In Show: who’s got the busy-bee?
81. King Kong (1933): the original is still the best
80. Dances With Wolves: better than you remember it to be
79. Boogie Nights: people talk about what a brilliant director Paul Thomas Anderson is. I’m finally part of that club
78. Clerks: second in my trilogy
77. Finding Nemo: so many rich touches, my favorite is the fish in the aquarium riveted with watching the dentist work
76. The Player: part satire, part murder mystery, part meditation on an art form that’s been compromised, all good
75. Sideways: kind of like a version of Swingers with older, more pathetic characters
74. Platoon: unrivaled intensity
73. Lost In America: even better than Easy Rider, put it all on 22
72. The Dead Zone: best adaptation of a Stephen King horror story, Greg Stillson still reminds me of George W.
71. The Terminator: the second one is great too, but something about the original...
70. American Beauty: the last great Kevin Spacey role, it’s been all downhill ever since
69. Raising Arizona: Boy...you got a panty on your head
68. Deliverance: forget about the most infamous scene that’s been parodied and referenced to death, but watch it as a man vs, nature survival story
67. This Boy’s Life: DeNiro and a young Leonardo face off with great NW accents
66. Arthur: the remake will probably blow
65. Swingers: kind of like a younger Sideways, but with less pathetic characters
64. Mississippi Burning: may be Gene Hackman’s finest role
63. The Wild Bunch: very violent western that will have you rooting for the bad guys
62. Risky Business: probably the only Tom Cruise movie on the list
61. Sunset Boulevard: another story about the rotting corpse of Hollywood
60. Get Shorty: cool in many ways
59. The Iron Giant: can’t wait to enjoy this one with the kids
58. Blue Velvet: would make this list just for Dennis Hopper yelling “Don’t you #%#%$&*@ look at me!!”
57. Silver Streak: I can watch this again and again, and I have
56. Psycho: not the Vince Vaugn remake of course
55. Cool Hand Luke: a prison movie that’s not about prison
54. Wall Street: Greed is good
53. Miller’s Crossing: I can’t believe how many Coen Brother’s fans have never seen this gem
52. Full Metal Jacket: like two completely separate short movies, both great
51. Traffic: the war on drugs isn’t working? you don’t say
50. 12 Angry Men: there’s a reason it’s shown in classrooms
49. Office Space: looks like somebody has a case of the Monday’s
48. Trainspotting: the most self-destructive character never touches a needle
47. A Bronx Tale: the lead actor from this movie was just sent to prison for his involvement in a murder
46. Tootsie: there’s a reason this movie is used as a model for screenwriter’s classes
45. High Noon: bitter, emotionally disturbing story about one man forced to stand alone
44. City Of God: like a Brazilian Goodfellas, except darker
43. Aliens: one of the few movies that improves upon the original, it also far surpasses everything that came after it
42. Ordinary People: you’ll never feel the same way about Mary Tyler Moore
41. Moonstruck: romantic comedies do have a place on my list
40. The Princess Bride: a movie so enjoyable even Billy Crystal can’t ruin it
39. A Fish Called Wanda: Kevin Kline is a comic genius. at least in this one
38. Stand By Me: first in my trilogy
37. Raging Bull: an actor so lost in character you start to worry about him
36. Airplane: unfortunately influenced a whole generation of copycats
35. Rear Window: Hitchcock’s best, and James Stewart too
34. Raiders Of The Lost Ark: the original is still the best. lets try to forget about the new one
33. The Good, The Bad, & The Ugly: the climatic showdown in the Mexican graveyard is perhaps the best single moment from any film on this list
32. The Usual Suspects: part of the fun is trying to decide what’s real and what’s made up. I think it’s all real.
31. Casablanca: there’s a reason it is regarded by critics as one of the three best movies ever, the other two didn’t make my list
30. The Shawshank Redemption: everybody thinks this movie is great. they’re right
29. Wall•E: works as a sci-fi film, as a love story, as a kids movie, and as a comment on our destructive lifestyle. all done with a minimum of dialogue and extraordinary visuals. should have won best picture last year
28. Groundhog Day: straddles the border between early wise-guy Bill Murray performances and later minimalist dramatic actor.
27. The Deer Hunter: three great actors at the top of their games show the everyman point of view of the Vietnam War
26. Saturday Night Fever: much deeper and grittier than its reputation would suggest
25. Bridge On The River Kwai: a story about three stubborn personalities set against the backdrop of a Japanese prison camp in WWII
24. Reservoir Dogs: the movie that announced the coming of Tarantino
23. Jaws: Spielberg’s earliest, and his best
22. Annie Hall: every scene is essential, taken as a whole it’s a devastatingly cynical look at the ups and downs of relationships
21. White Heat: the best of the Cagney gangster films, done at a time when he was trying to leave that genre behind
20. Short Cuts: thirty great actors, a few bad ones, and a dozen stories all intertwined beautifully. Huey Lewis urinating onscreen, Tom Waits gets to play a drunk and don’t get me started on Julianne Moore
19. Butch Cassidy And The Sundance Kid: the best onscreen chemistry between two leads in a throwback, good-time western that turns dark and morbid in its final scenes
18. Taxi Driver: the only movie I can think of that directly inspired an attempted presidential assassination
17. The Blues Brothers: deadpan acting, great R&B musical performances, over-the-top car chases make this my highest charting musical. actually my only charting musical
16. JFK: the most audacious, ballsy movie ever made by a major American director not named Michael Moore
15. Kramer Vs Kramer: touchingly realistic story about divorce and parenting that never veers into sentimentality
14. Slingblade: made before Billy Bob Thornton was famous and seeing it now it’s hard to find him in the character. great story, great acting, great directing. He should stop making movies like Mr Woodcock and get back to creating films
13. Do The Right Thing: enjoy it for the first three-fourths for the colorful characters and comedic situations, and then spend hours debating the final act and whether Mookie “did the right thing”
12. Memento: fast-paced and brilliantly told movie that puts you in the mind-frame of the protagonist, also a great twisty ending that will have you re-evaluate everything you’ve already seen. another film that it’s impossible to see just once
11. Star Wars Trilogy: the original, not the prequels. I have it as one entry because I tend to look at it as one long movie and not three short ones. plus it splits the difference between the quality of Empire and Jedi.
10. Glengarry Glen Ross: five or six characters, two acts, great Mamet dialogue make this an enjoyably ugly experience. will cause you to swear never to be a salesman, and may make you feel bad about all the salesmen you were rude to over the years
9. Lord Of The Rings: far exceeded everyone’s expectations by creating a rich and visual world that stayed true to the books, while carefully excising some of the subplots that didn’t work, and upping up the ante on the battles. outdid even Star Wars for fantasy trilogies
8. Unforgiven: perfectly de-mythologizes the western genre while at the same time paying tribute to it and celebrating it. Clint Eastwood’s finest moment as a director and as an actor
7. Requiem For A Dream: the best movie about addiction and obsession ever made. you can’t watch it without cringing during the final scenes
6. There Will Be Blood: unless something amazing comes out in the next two years this will be a shoo-in for my award as best movie of the decade. some people find it boring, I feel sorry for them
5. The Godfather 1 & 2: just forget 3 ever happened. such a great story about family and honor, the arc Al Pacino takes over these movies is astonishing in it’s disparity between the Michael we see at the beginning of 1 and by the end of 2.
4. Treasure Of The Sierra Madre: John Huston, Humphrey Bogart, deeply engrossing story about greed and how the acquisition of wealth can turn the souls of men evil
3. Fargo: many people think of The Big Lebowski, or No Country For Old Men as the best Coen Brothers film, but for me this one will always be their top. It’s hard to think of a movie that’s better, I can only find two
2. Pulp Fiction: like an adrenaline shot to the heart when you first see it. this movie becomes an addiction, I saw it seven times in the theater, and countless times on video and DVD since. It’s an action movie with very little action, instead the plot is moved forward through dialogue. Excellently cast, brilliantly acted and written. There’s not an unenjoyable person in the movie
1. Goodfellas: the cream or the crop for Scorsese/DeNiro collaborations, this movie combines elements of early Cagney/Bogart films, 50’s film noir, and The Godfather, while at the same time ushering in a new style of storytelling and structure. When the movie shifts focus from the broad historical sweep to one long and paranoid day you realize you are watching a master at the peak of his powers. Unsurpassed, and it’s number 1 simply because I can’t think of a movie that’s better than it.
Some observations:
Coen Brothers lead all directors with four entries
Martin Scorsese, Quentin Tarantino, and Oliver Stone each have three
Some very prolific directors that I like a lot but only have one entry:
Clint Eastwood, Spike Lee, and Woody Allen
A few directors I like a lot but weren’t represented:
Terry Gilliam, Richard Linklater, Sam Rami, David Fincher, Mel Brooks, Roman Polanski, Jim Jarmusch, and Tim Burton
nothing against these directors, they each have a good body of work, but no one movie by them jumped out as being worthy of inclusion
There are surprisingly three John Travolta movies, but none with Johnny Depp, Sean Penn, Christian Bale, or Edward Norton who are all better actors
Robert DeNiro is the actor that leads the pack with six entries
Julianne Moore is the only actress with three
Saturday, March 7, 2009
Hoedown
Brie's school had a rodeo dance last week, it was a good excuse to dress the kids in western garb and watch them do the hokey-pokey and the limbo and stuff. (kind of reminds me of all the bar mitzvahs I used to DJ)
Friday, March 6, 2009
Wheels
Matilda is finally big enough that she can ride in the chariot, although she really dislikes the bike helmet. We've been easing her into the rides by taking progressively longer ones each time, and that works out OK:
Griffin is really into riding his trike around the block these days, look just below these pictures for a quick video:
He wears the helmet because sometimes he turns too quick, or runs into the wagon and falls off. Plus he's always been real excited to wear it.
Here's the video:
Here's the video:
Thursday, March 5, 2009
Crafty Kate
So last weekend our friend Kate came over with her glass-cutting implements and helped us decorate some of the concrete pavers we keep around our garden. It was pretty easy, you just glue the pieces into place, wait awhile then put grout over the whole thing to keep it together. Just like working with tile. Griff had a lot of fun with it as well
Matilda in the background drinking water from the water table:
Griff designed this one:
Brie & Griff:
Dave:
Brie:
Brie:
Kate and Griff:
Kate did this one too, it's probably the most professional looking:
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