Happy birthday to me.
Happy birthday to me.
Happy birthday to me.
Happy birthday to me.

Worst Breaking News Headline Ever

By Any Means Necessary

I've joined the ranks of Park Slopers actively calculating how they can come up with the money to stay in the neighborhood in the face of growing family and more quickly growing real estate prices.

"My kidney's probably good for at least $50k..."

It's not like we're going to be forced out onto the street tomorrow. But an 1,100 square foot, 2br/1bath in a bad elementary school district is a ticking timb bomb.

Yesterday, we played the "what would it take" game by hitting a few open houses. Right now, the best deal in town is this place. For $889k with a $704/month maintenance, we get a better configured (but not larger) space with an extra toilet, a 12x6 garden, and most importantly, entrance into the vaunted P.S. 321.

Yeah... we'll be passing on that.

Celebrity Slope

Every Saturday, Asher and I (and sometimes Sarah) go to a “Tot Shabbat” sing-a-long at the local reform temple. It’s run by a twentysomething youth group refugee with a guitar and an armful of quasi-Jewish feel-good tunes for the under-five set. Asher loves it – especially the part at the end when they get grape juice and challah.

The closest kid to Asher’s age is this cute little girl named Mamie. We often sit next to her and her father Douglas. All of the other parents chatter while the kids jump around to the music, but Douglas sits back, reserved and monosyllabic. Today, his wife came, and was a bit more personable. We were exchanging small talk when Mamie announced to us that her name was Mamie Rushkoff, and it hit me: Douglas was Douglas Rushkoff - godhead of the pop-postmodernism movement of the late Nineties and onetime keyboardist for the punk band Psychic TV.

Truth be told, I’d always been a little annoyed by (and a lot jealous of) Rushkoff. His writings seemed like a watered-down version of what I studied in undergrad and am attempting to study in my graduate program. I panned his 1998 novel Ecstasy Club in a review because it felt like it was written by someone who did his research about cyberculture by reading a few headlines in USA Today.

Of course, he’s actually a really smart guy, and he’s a recurring fixture on national television whenever they need to sex up a story on technology and society. Turns out he teaches a graduate class at NYU. I checked out the syllabus, and it seems legit. Too bad I can’t take it – That’d be too weird.

I couldn't sleep at all last night. I have a nasty cold, and there's a small matter of a mid-term paper due on Thursday. All of these add up to calling in sick.

So far, I've split my time evenly between the couch and the computer. There was one unsuccessful attempt to hang out with Asher when he woke up from his nap. But, he couldn't internalize that Daddy was home on a Tuesday, and only wanted to play with his nanny (I almost said THE nanny, but I heard Tom scolding me). We still employ her one day a week so that Sarah can go to doctor's appointments and run errands. Originally, the plan was for Sarah to work once/week after she quit her full time gig with Dan Rather, but that whole part part time thing never really panned out.

Misc.

My mom had her pacemaker installed today. She's doing well.

Sarah's sister Naomi is sleeping over so that she can play with Asher in the morning.

I'm slogging my way through the worst paper I've written since Freshman seminar, and amusing myself by repeatedly citing as a source an article I wrote for Down Beat last year.

Goodnight.

Toto, We're Not In Springfield Anymore

I used to think I was an overachiever - mostly because I actually made it out of a region of the country where 4th grade teachers still tell their students that the 1969 moon landing was a government hoax.

Then, I moved to New York where everyone - or at least everyone that Sarah knows - is a global citizen, a renown scientist, a lawyer for the Volcker commission, a top tier journalist, a real estate mogul, or a millionaire hedge fund manager with a mansion and an affinity for five star restaurants.

Sarah's newest friend has a house in Park Slope. We went over there on Saturday, watched the kids play together, drank wine, and talked about music, politics and work. The normal stuff - except for the pictures of the friend and Kofi Annan, except for the stories of being in Kosovo during the war, except for the bit about jamming with Ozric Tentacles.

Makes me consider where a more creative route in life could take me...

Sarah: (After Asher demands to listen to Outkast's "Hey Ya" for the third time in a row) Why did you get him into rap?

Isaac: "Hey Ya" is not rap.

Sarah: Well, then what is it?

Asher: Pop, mommy!

Isaac: (triumphant look)

This One's For You, Doug

I'm starting to get interested in Bill Richardson as a Presidential candidate.

He's got more experience than any other Democrat - His resume includes 14 years in Congress, Amassador to the United Nations, Energy Secretary, and now Governor of New Mexico. The last means he's got that vaunted "executive experience."

Beyond the titles, he's got a great record of both domestic and foreign policy.

He's extremely fiscally responsible, but also extremely socially progressive.

He's not afraid to say what he thinks.

He's been steadily increasing in the polls, and his name recognition is still only at 38%.

A few of my very conservative friends with longstanding ties to the Republican party have said they'd vote for him.

There's No Time Like The Present

In the next month at ABC News, I will be on the hook for closing a deal with a user-generated video vendor, launching a new section of the site, managing through the next phase of F'08 product planning, hiring a temporary technical project manager and training him/her to figure out how to integrate three different systems to produce a next-generation video product, guiding the mobile/WAP product strategy, and probably half a dozen things that aren't coming to mind right now.

So, it's the perfect time to ditch all of this for paternity leave!

Sarah is presently 2cm dialated. She's due on April 8, but we're all betting that kid #2 appears on the scene before that.

Added bonus: If the birth happens prior to April 1, I might actually be able to go to my brother's wedding in Boston.

We're ready when you are, kiddo.

Weekend Re-Cap

I did not work on my mid-term paper.

I did attend more than one toddler birthday party.

I did go to the pony rides at P.S. 321 with Asher and Sarah, though all we did was watch.

I did participate in karaoke on Saturday night. I was vaguely sober at the time.

The weekend ended on a low note - After two nights of sleeping in his big-boy bed, Asher lost his nerve and asked for the crib. Poor kid was just too nervous in the bed, I guess. We'll try again tonight.

Low Class

For two hours each week, I sit in a room with a professor and Master's students, and discuss Britney Spears, Hollywood, and "kids these days."

There's the occasional nod to Adorno, postmodernism, and political economy. But mostly, the dialogue is uninformed by any academic underpinnings. Comments are often reductive to the point of being offensive, and incorrect statements are passed off as hard-nosed facts.

None of my undergraduate courses were this facile. Fifteen years ago, this wouldn't have bothered me. Today, time and money are not exactly in abundance. And I hate having to spend a lot of both on something that provides less intellectual stimulation than a random conversation with one of my media geek friends.

What's even more frustrating is that there's intelligent discussion to be had here. The topic of mass culture is ripe with academic controversy. And the dominant theories have holes so big that you could drive a truck through them. The professor has the intellectual chops, and I know that at least some of the students can operate at a higher level.

Grrr.

Monkey Sheets and a Thomas the Train Pillow

Asher just slept in his "big boy bed" for the first time today.

In other news, long range plans are fun. Interviewing candidates is not. Meetings with Legal - also not fun.

And Now, From The Department Of Trivialities:

Should I start watching Lost at Season 2, or wait until someone loans me the Season 1 DVDs?

My mom has to get a pacemaker. Anyone got any experience with this?

Busy Saturday

5:00am - Asher wakes up from bad dream
6:00am - I give up trying to get him back to sleep, and we settle in for a morning game of cars, trucks and buses.
7:15am - Wake Sarah up. Go back to our games until she surfaces in the kitchen. Breakfast.
8:30am - Chalk on the stoop
9:15am - Music class
10:30am - Long walk back from music class, stopping in many shops - especially the ones with trains in the window.
11:00am - Playground. Run into his friends and ours.
12:00pm - Lunch
12:30pm - Nap (Asher)
1:30pm - Nap (Isaac and Sarah)
2:30pm - Wake up. Sarah and Asher go to Kora's birthday party. Isaac runs errands.
3:15pm - Isaac gets email from professor. Mid-term paper is not due until March 22 (was originally due March 8).
4:15pm - Sarah and Asher return (est.)
[unkown]
6:00pm - Asher's dinner (hah - like he'll eat anything)
7:00pm - Megillah reading with the local egal Minyan. Happy Purim!
9:00pm - Return home. Asher falls asleep in stroller.

Here's a scandal that I've been following for a while on Talking Points Memo that's starting to bubble up into the mainstream media:

Recently, the Bush administration fired 7 U.S. attorneys and replaced them with a hodge podge of unqualified cronies. Annoying, but nothing new, right? Wrong.

Those attorneys had originally been placed in their positions by the President, and confirmed by the Senate. Traditionally, they would have stayed there for the duration of the President's term in office.

The Administration has always had the power to replace U.S. attorneys, but replacements had to be confirmed by the Senate. In March, 2006, the Administration changed the rules so that they could offer interim appointees who could serve for an indeterminate amount of time - bypassing the Senate confirmation.

Many of those attorneys who were fired had been investigating, or had recently completed an investigation into Republican corruption. For instance, Carol Lam led the investigation that resulted in Republican congressman Duke Cunningham being sent to prison for bribery.

One, David Iglesias, refused to bow to direct pressure from Republican congressmen Pete Domenici and Heather Wilson to indict one of their Democratic colleagues just prior to the 2006 elections.

Prior to their dismissal, nearly all of the attorneys in question received consistently stellar performance reviews that - among other things - placed emphasis on their effectiveness in the battle against terrorism.

Class was cancelled last night, so I got unexpected time with Asher. The lion's share of it was spent trying to get the kid to understand that if he wants to sleep in a bed, he has to stay in it. He can't show up in the kitchen after five minutes with random requests for books, cookies, and bus rides.

Plans for this weekend are largely dependent on whether or not my professor moves back the due date for the midterm. Right now, I have a 15-page paper due next Thursday. If that changes, we'll be going to a handful of Purim events and toddler birthday parties (great fun, to be sure). If it does not change, I will be a grumpy and busy guy for the next 72 hours.