Wednesday, December 29, 2010

Sledding in Central Park

So we survived the deadly Nor'easter blizzard of 2010 (known in other places as simply "snow"). Today we demonstrated our conquest over the savage forces of Nature by sliding down small hills on pieces of man-made, non-biodegradable plastic.

Manly Men 1. Nature 0.

Saturday, December 25, 2010

Christmas in NYC


Last night we went down to Rockefeller Center, and guess what? There actually IS a big Christmas tree down there. This morning we woke up and opened our gifts in our own living room.


Tonight, as a gift to ourselves, we saw Pee Wee Herman on Broadway.


It was my idea--I thought it'd be a fun way to spend Christmas in New York. And, to be honest, I have a soft spot in my heart for Paul Reubens, who had the talent to create this lovable character, then almost inadvertently destroyed him. I was rooting for him. I wanted to see him give Pee Wee the chance to go out on a high note. They both deserved that.

If art could only be created by perfect human beings, there'd be no art. Heck, if human beings were perfect, would there be any need for art?

Okay, okay, I don't wanna get all maudlin about Pee Wee, but you know what? The world needs all the redemption it can get, and I for one am willing to settle for it in small doses. I'm happy to report that Pee Wee, like Santa Claus and NYC at Christmas time, is alive and well. Our hearts are all a little bigger.

Merry Christmas.

Monday, December 20, 2010

Great Wolf Lodge


We're at Great Wolf Lodge in the Poconos. An early Christmas present to ourselves.

Samuel and Ethan are in their PJs in the fold-out sofa bed right by the fireplace. Jen and I are in one of the queen-sized beds. We have an entire unused bed next to us that would hold another two kids if only we'd had a little more foresight.

I love Great Wolf Lodge because I love water parks, I love being with my family, I love seeing Samuel and Ethan happy, and I love being surrounded by toddlers and babies whose positive energy rubs off on me.

Aside from the fact that it's so cold outside that even the indoor water park is only around 75 degrees...no complaints.

Friday, December 17, 2010

Ethan's Christmas List

1. Nintendo DSI


2. Animal Planet Deep Sea play set


3. Magic Plastic Bubbles


4. G.I. Joe movie figure


5. Nintendogs game for DS

Samuel's Christmas List

1. BTTF video game


2. K-11 EMF Detector


3. EyeClops Mini Projector



4. Micro Sonic Grenade


5. Doctor Who Sonic Screwdriver


6. Personal Soundtrack Shirt

Thursday, December 16, 2010

Wonders of the World


Today in school we studied the Wonders of the World. They were mostly boring things like pyramids. They didn't even include dogs or computers.

Monday, December 13, 2010

My Amazon Author Page


One of the many benefits of being an author, in addition to Hollywood galas, fabulous wealth, and occasionally being mistaken for Truman Capote, is that you get to have an Author Page on Amazon.

I just posted my photo, a bio, and a video clip. So now the world can rest a little easier.

It looks a little sparse with just one book, I know.

Rome wasn't built in a day.

Friday, December 10, 2010

Imagining eating makes you eat less?


Researchers at Carnegie Mellon conducted a research study in which they asked people to imagine that they were eating 30 M&Ms. Afterwards they gave them actual M&Ms. Those who imagined themselves eating M&Ms ate fewer than those who did not.

When I conduct the same experiment with myself, I get slightly different results. I imagine eating 30 M&Ms. Then I eat 60. Then I imagine that I only ate 30.

Wednesday, December 8, 2010

Holiday photo


This year's theme began as "Leave it to Beaver." I got the costumes (plaid shirts), the background image (the Cleaver house), we did the photo shoot, and I put together the rough composite.

I showed it to Jennifer that night and I said, "You know, it's fine, but I'm not sure it's zany enough. You know, like it needs a DeLorean in the driveway or something."

So Jennifer went to sleep and I stayed up looking at photos of the '50s on the Internet. I had a Eureka moment at about 1:45am (very dangerous), and typed in "Back to the Future Lyon Estates" in Google image search...

Do you remember this scene from the movie?




Well, I'm not sure many people are gonna get it, but...it's definitely zanier. What do you think?


It'll be at tarpstreetjournal.com with the holiday newsletter in another week or so. I'm pleased with myself.

Thursday, December 2, 2010

Little Airplanes


This week Samuel, Ethan, their friend Natalie, and I took a tour of Little Airplane Productions, a kids TV production company downtown.

Sophia and Frankie were supposed to go too, but were sick, so this is a virtual tour for them:

Melanie, a producer, taught us about the script-writing process. (Is it just me, or does it seem like it would be a lot easier if they didn't have to type on those giant pieces of posterboard?)


I think they are used to younger kids taking the tour. When they started explaining how they use computers to make the pictures appear to move, Ethan said, nonchalantly, "I use Photoshop to create my virtual world characters." Samuel said, "I use AfterEffects for special effects."


Jeffrey, the musical director, gave us a tour of the sound studio, where they record voice-overs and live orchestra music for the shows.


Then he gave the boys and Natalie an opportunity to add their own voices to a musical soundtrack.




In what parallel universe do Emmy-winning TV producers, animators, and musical directors take an hour out of their busy afternoon to show four strangers how they make TV shows? I expected Woody Allen to pop out at any minute and say, "Wouldn't it be great if real life were really like this?"

Sophia and Frankie, we missed you--you would've liked this a lot. Feel better.

Tone and Melanie and Jeffrey and Josh and Jessica and everyone else at Little Airplane, thanks for sharing your magic with us. We had a great time, we learned a lot, and I predict that you will be seeing some animated Cocker Spaniels that look suspiciously like Wonder Pets on YouTube very soon.