Back at School - The Lil' Ladies Edition

I mean, how insanely sweet and adorable are Lucy and Bailey? I just wanna chew on their faces, they are that cute.

Jackson and His Nanas

Nana Irma sure did love babies. While Jackson was her third great-grandchild, he was the first one that she was able to spend so much time with. He kicked things off because, not long after, she was able to watch more great-grandkids come into her life. Seeing Ana, Adam, and Lucy grow from babies to toddlers, loving every damn minute, made the difficulties of the last years of her life bearable. The way she talks to Jax in this video is the exact voice she used with me, my brothers, and cousins when we were very little. Notice how Jax lights up and responds? That's because he's in the presence of pure love and adoration from one terrific lady and it's all for him.

Greetings from Spain!

Last week I got a What's App message out of the blue from Michel. Aren't those the best texts? I bet he was sitting outside relaxing, messaging his actual friends on what's going on and saw my name in his chat list. Instead of dismissing it, he shot me some pics and filled me in on how he's doing and what he's up to at the moment. What a wonderful fella.

Les Indes Galantes

Michel posted a snippet of this performance (directed by Clément Cogitore) on his IG account and I instantly became obsessed with the song. I have listened to it on repeat at least twenty times. The song, according to Apple Music is Les Indes galantes: Les Sauvages - Danse du Calumet de la Paix et duo Forêts paisibles by Jean-Philippe Rameau - Emmanuelle Haïm, Le Concert d'Astrée, Stéphane Degout & Natalie Dessay. (From Wikipedia: "Les Indes galantes -French: "The Amorous Indies"- is an opera by Jean-Philippe Rameau." Les Sauvages is Entrée IV, which I'm guessing is the fourth act of the opera.) I love dance and this five-ish minute clip is utterly mesmerising. 

Info regarding the piece, filmed January 22, 2017 at The Opéra Bastille in Paris, as transcribed and translated from the explanation on YouTube:

Clément Cogitore adapts a short ballet part of "Indes galantes" by Jean-Philippe Rameau, with the assistance of a group of Krump dancers, and three choreographers: Bintou Dembele, Grichka and Brahim Rachiki.

The Krump is a dance that began in the ghettos of Los Angeles in the 90s. Its birth was the result of the riots and brutal police repression that followed the beating of Rodney King.

Credits: 

Choreography by Bintou Dembele, Grichka and Brahim Rachiki.

Dancers:

Ozee AKA Jdot Sosa, Sista Sosa AKA Girl G, Soulja Gee Oh AKA Shigawara, Blanche and Sosa from Strange Bangers.

Tiger Lil Gully Berth, Flipside, Baby Grichka / Prince Tiger, Ivanova / Spiritz and KidNY from the group Madrootz / Monsta NY Madness.

Cyborg, Wolf, Jamsy, Nadeeya and Boy Mijo from the Real Underground / X2BUCK group.

Noscripts and P. Sniper AKA Trafulha.

Crowd leaders: Wrestler, Itachi and Lady Del

DJ: Mormuzik Zer

Find all the films of the 3e Scène on: 

https://www.operadeparis.fr/3e-scene

Discover the interview with Clément Cogitore: 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UMv4EyS08_g

Texting With a Two Year Old

I came across these texts between Bailey, me and Ashlee back in January of 2018 when Bailey was only about two and a half.

Hamster Harry

Malahide Castle

In Spring of 2017 Bella and I rented a car and I drove us to Wicklow National Park. I was feeling confident behind the wheel and so on the way back to the rental place we swung by Malahide Castle and toured the grounds. Oddly enough they had a food hall so we bought a ton of grub and had a car picnic. It wasn't castle-y as much as it was more like a country home slash fort, but it was cool to stroll around the outside, take pictures and walk away knowing that we can say we saw a castle.