Smithology

I’m not sure how we got into it but Sol is a big fan of Midnight Oil (20000 Watts RSL. to be specific) and often requests we play it when we are driving. Apart from Power and the Passion, he loves to sing along to White Skin Black Heart. Since starting school he’s been curious about skin colour and he often asks me about it. We have discussions about why Peter Garret seems so angry about white skin black heart and we talk about racist attitudes to Aboriginals.

When he went to pre-school he was in a mostly fair skinned class which had a couple of brown skinned kids. We were shocked one day when he informed us that he couldn’t be friends with X because X has brown skin. Naturally we tried to point out that X was a person just the same as him and also talked about how everyone has different coloured skin but he has continued to think in binaries: according to Sol people are either “skin coloured” or brown.

Sydney is the most multicultural place we’ve lived and in fact Sol’s class is mostly comprised of non-anglo ethnic origins: chinese-ish, indian-ish, african-ish and any mix in between. Yet Sol continues in his belief that normal people are white and then you get those strange brown people. Being at this new school has forced him to overcome his aversion to brown skin and he has made friends however today we noticed he’d drawn a picture of himself playing with his friends and he’d had to make a decision as to whether to use the brown pencil or the anglo-skin pencil. I can’t imagine how he made the decision but it seems he still prefers to play with kids that he thinks of as “white”.

Is this evidence for natural racism, a natural aversion to difference in our genetic psychological make-up or is it evidence that our culture still somehow promotes “whiteness”? Maybe it’s just that he identifies that all the important adults in his life are white: his mum and dad and teachers are all white, most of the people on TV are white. And here’s a final thing to throw into the mix, some of Sol’s brown skinned friends (maybe one quarter or half chinese in ethnic origin) classify themselves as white and refer to other browner skinned kids as being “chinese”. Go figure.

Uncategorized fatherhood, racism

Last night Felicity was having trouble getting to sleep. I was in the middle of singing her my soulful rendition of All the Pretty Little Horses when she sat up and disgorged half of her dinner on the pillow. The other half came out moments later as I ran down the hallway with her extended before me at arms length heading for the bathroom.

I remember back when her vomit was cute. When she was just a little squirrel, I thought it was wonderful when she did her little milky pukes. They didn’t smell and I had a secret pride in them. Looking back I can now see this as strong evidence for the phenomenon known as baby brain where normally clever people are reduced to stupid senseless gibbering after they’ve had a baby. Maybe it’s a form of survival instinct – like the forces of natural selection must favour parents who descend into utter denial that their child could be anything but perfectly cute – even while they spit out globs of milk on your shirt making you late for work.

After the 8pm vomit, we had the 10:30pm vomit which required a second change of sheets and the 2am vomit which I knew about because she was sleeping next to me on a towel and I miraculously managed to catch by shoving a bucket in front of her at the crucial moment.

Ah the joy. The ceaseless privilege of parenthood.

Uncategorized fatherhood, vomit

After the brainstorming session a couple of weeks ago, I managed to obtain a membership at the local DVD store and perused the science fiction section with Sol. The haul was pretty disappointing, the science fiction section was the smallest I’ve ever seen, but we got a hold of Short Circuit and brought it home for a spin.

The verdict? Sol absolutely loved it, he laughed all the way through and then when it finished he wanted to watch it again and again the next morning. He really got off on the slap-stick comedy: every time Johnny 5 bumped into something or knocked something over he fell off his chair laughing. He also cracked up over the lines of dialogue that Johnny ripped off the TV.

There were a few bits that he didn’t like: the scene where Stephanie has a confrontation with her ex-boyfriend and ends up being knocked to the ground and of course the scene near the end involving a helicopter with a big missile on it. He also wanted to know why Crosby said “Holy Shit!!” in the scene where he decides Johnny really is alive.

Personally I enjoyed the opening credits: both the visuals and the music are great. The design of Johnny 5 is really well realised and while distinctly eighties is still believable. The wikipedia page tells me it was done by Syd Mead who also did work on Star Trek: The Motion Picture, Bladerunner, TRON, 2010, Aliens, Time Cop and Johnny Mnemonic.

What if it goes out and melts down a bus load of nuns? How would you like to write the headline on that one?

Uncategorized fatherhood, movies, scifi

I fixed the media centre PC when we moved to the new house (part of which was having a decent antenna and actually being able to tune a channel on my DVB card) so the kids have renewed their relationship with ABC kids. Flavour of the month seems to be Yo Gabba Gabba: a psychedelic kind of retro 8 bit computer styled show run by DJ Lance Rock and his five cuddly friends. I just can’t help laughing at some of the stuff they get up to, especially the guest band that comes on for each show complete with a film clip matching the show’s theme e.g. how to wash your hands.

Also, here’s Weezer: All My Friends Are Insects

Weezer – All My Friends Are Insects (Yo Gabba Gabba!) from Ford Davis on Vimeo.

Other favourites are Charlie and Lola, Postman Pat and In the Night Garden.

Wikipedia: Yo Gabba Gabba

Uncategorized fatherhood, tv

People are always accusing me of brainwashing my son into liking Star Wars. Admittedly it’s been one of his interests in which I’ve been able to join with him enthusiastically. But the truth is that Sol’s love of all things Star Wars grew out of us playing Lego Star Wars together on the Wii and then having to watch the movies to answer all his questions about the plot and characters. I really didn’t push it on him.

Anyway, I think it’s tradition that parents pass their interests on to their children, it’s one of the joys and privileges of being a parent. I’m sure my Dad would agree, after all it was Dad’s love of science fiction that nurtured my own interest in it. Would I have watched Doctor Who, The Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy (BBC TV series) and countless space and nature documentaries if not for my Dad? Would I have seen Tron at the drive-in when I was in early primary school or even earlier, the original Star Wars where apparently my eyes opened wide as the first Star Destroyer roared overhead and remained fixed on the screen until the Death Star exploded in a satisfying ball of sparks at the end (oh sorry for the spoiler – yeah they blow it up)

When I was working part time earlier in the year, Sol and I would often go to the DVD shop together to rent some movies. We would stop at the science fiction shelf and I would have to say no to pretty much everything that caught his interest (apart from Star Wars) as I knew it would be either too complex for him (Star Trek) or too violent (Terminator). The only movie we managed to rent from there was E.T. (which he loved). At the fantasy shelf we found plenty of stuff that he can watch including some gems I remember from my childhood like The Neverending Story. We haven’t yet borrowed The Dark Crystal and he would probably enjoy Labyrinth (but I’m not sure if David Bowie’s tights will be too scary for him) and there’s plenty of other boy becomes wizard and rides a dragon films.

So here’s a list of stuff we’ve watched:

Movies:

• Star Wars (All of them except the Christmas special)
• E.T.

TV:

• Clone Wars
• Ben 10

Stuff we know about and could check out:

• K-9
• The Sarah Jane Adventures

Fantasy:

• The Never Ending Story
• The Dark Crystal (On the TODO list)

I’m not counting Dreamworks and Pixar movies because those are obvious and go without saying. So what else should be on the must watch list for the discerning 5 yrold sci-fi nerd?

Uncategorized fatherhood, movies, scifi, tv

There’s been a new refrain echoing in the hallways of our house lately: “nana nana nana nana nana nana nana nana BATMAN!”. The popularity of this refrain is twofold, firstly Flossy can sing it and secondly it reminds us of Lego Batman for the Wii which we were forced to purchase after Sol had his first exposure to it at a friends house on holidays in Brisbane.

We brought Lego Batman home, put it on for Sol and as I was pretty busy I left him to it. He’s done pretty well with it, exploring the bat cave and working out a few of the levels. When he eventually got stuck, I sat down with him to try and work out a level and was struck by the difference between the two of us in the way we play the game.

At first I was frustrated by the way Sol plays: he goes backwards and forwards in a level and doesn’t seem interested in getting to the end of a level unless he’s become bored with the current bit. Sometimes he will quit a level half way through so he can start over and fight some particular bad guy or make something happen again. This just infuriated me until I realised something: Sol is actually playing this game because it’s fun for him. I was coming into the game with just one aim: to solve the game and get to the end where as Sol just loved playing it and could happily stay in one area just beating up the same regenerating bad guys all day.

Sol was able to tell me a lot about the way things worked in the game but he hadn’t worked out lots of important things like how to use the batarang and the special suits, however most of the time, as soon as I read the instructions on the screen to him, he knew what to do. But still his focus when playing is just making fun things happen.

I suppose the moral of this story is that life is more than just getting to the end or the next stage and we should always remember to stop and assemble a giant flushing toilet or a mechanical crocodile. Just for fun.

Uncategorized fatherhood, life

When I was a kid, school holidays were like weekends that didn’t stop and you could just stay at home and play all day and you’d hang out with friends and get up to no good have adventures. I wonder how this plays in an age of working parents? Do school holidays just become about glorious extended day care where you kind of wish you were at school so the time would pass quicker?

Well my kids have been spared the day care this holidays because as an unemployed bum, I’ve been blessed with an extra helping of daddy day care. It’s strange that earlier in the year I was optimistically and energetically getting into my new found role as big daddy and now I find myself lacking energy, imagination and motivation. I have a routine: after we wave goodbye to mum, we play with toys and watch ABC kids while daddy takes care of a few phone calls and cleaning up breakfast, then we have morning tea and go on an outing like to the park or pool. Midday is sleep time for Flossy and Sol watches a DVD or plays Wii while I check my emails and surf the web a bit and then we roll out the afternoon with some grocery shopping (I always seem to need to pick up one or two things) and a bit of arts and craft. Then mummy comes home and we’ve made it through another day.

I really feel insufficient at this point because the whole enterprise lacks a sense of purpose and progress. It’s just about killing time and it’s so damn boring! I’m usually a creative soul motivated by achieving things and having something valuable to show for my time, but in parenting, the goals are all so long term or minutely incremental. I get a lot of satisfaction when I see what Sol’s done at school, like how he has learnt to write his name but I have no idea how to manage his learning at home on my own.

So today marked the last day of the school holidays and looking back on the time, I feel like I’ve wasted it by just shunting him into time sucking activities – I may as well have put him in day care. On the other hand, I spent most of the time applying for jobs and taking care of job related stuff so that was also important – I feel I can let myself off the hook a little. I suppose I can also add the consolation that I used the time for a trip home so he could reconnect with his family which is also important – but do you see how those kinds of things are hard to quantify? It’s all a bit pointless thinking about now that I’ll be a working dad again but maybe this impacts on weekend activities and planning and just knowing how to be with our kids in a way that as parents we feel we are getting somewhere and not just being drained.

Uncategorized fatherhood

I don’t post much about Flossy’s interests like I did with Sol. I’m not sure if this is gender bias or a second child been-there-done-that attitude. So to address this problem, here is Flossy’s current favourite song The Wiggles, Shimmy Shake in which they do a rather amusing Beatles tribute.

Flossy really loves dancing to all kinds of music and has a good sense of rhythm.

Uncategorized fatherhood, music

Sol and I went to the Circus Royale today which was at the Sale showgrounds under a rather hot and humid big top. After a getting lost on the way and having to phone my boss to get directions (because he’s one of the few locals I know who can tell me where stuff is) we arrived, picked up our tickets, walked past the jumping castle and rotating clowns head game and entered the dark noisy tent. Once in our seats we had a good look around, the big top was about a quarter full and there were not many people coming in, a few families grabbing popcorn and drinks at the kiosk.

The show started with some floor acrobatics and continued with a series of acts which roughly alternated between animals and acrobats. There was very little dialogue apart from introducing the acts as they came on. There were about nine performers and the animals included geese, cows, ponies, horses, camels, lamas and a poodle in approximately that order.

Some may recall that last year, Sol and I saw Ashton’s Circus which had the “wheel of death”. I was disappointed that Circus Royale didn’t have this but they did have a boy acrobat genius who did some cool stuff on a trapeze and the lady from “Scandinavia” who swung about on a rope and kind of jumped off it only to catch herself with her ankles but it was well done because she gave a rather convincing scream during some of the stunts which made you think she was going to fall. She also had a pretty rocking soundtrack but I couldn’t pick the band, could have been early Faith No More.

After seeing Ashton’s last year, I did some poking around online and found some articles about how circuses are in decline, partly due to animal protection activists. I was looking at the animals at this circus carefully: they seemed well fed and groomed to me and I find it hard to rationalise that they might be happier standing under a tree in a paddock. On the other hand, they are subjected to the God-aweful sound system during the shows which just about drew blood from my ears so I can’t imagine that the animals have any hearing left at all. But seriously, I don’t know what to think on this issue.

Other observations about the circus: the women were pretty buxom: no skinny waifs on the trapeze yet they were obviously fit and toned – not what movies and TV would choose to show us. The performers were all from overseas and especially South America: Argentina and Brazil and then the animal trainer from NZ and a trapeze-ist from “Scandinavia” (It’s like me saying All the way from the pacific region, the amazing Matt Smith!). As per the article on dwindling circus culture in Australia, the troupe was quite small: only nine performers and a handful of supporting staff: a sound guy, lighting guy, a couple of runners, some people on the doors and in the ticket booth and a few people running the side shows. As noted before, the crowd was pretty sparse, I would have thought the afternoon session on a Saturday would be a big one but maybe they do better at nights or maybe it is just that there is not the population in this area to get a big crowd at anything.

After the stomach churning man in a bottle act, the performers took their final bows and we filed out of the sweating big top into the roasting afternoon heat and Sol gave me his thoughts on the show. He was pretty impressed with the contortionist because he liked his clothes and he also enjoyed the clown. The highlight for him was when the clown threw a giant beach ball into the audience and it went over his head. So circus organisers take note: for young kids, forget about training specialist trapeze artists, animals trainers and other performers, just buy a big beach ball and throw it around and they’ll be just as happy.

As for me, apart from some of the things I’ve picked on above, I really enjoy live performance when I can get to it and especially when it’s people doing stuff that I can’t imagine to begin attempting myself. It’s one thing to watch world class performers on TV or to see really polished acts but I am attracted to this kind of show because it’s raw and completely depends on the direct connection between performer and audience. In this small venue I was close enough to see sequins falling from the costumes as the performers leapt about in the tent and to hear the ropes creaking and even smell the animals. It does really sadden me to think that this kind of show could die out.

Circus Royale on Twitter

Uncategorized entertainment, fatherhood

Reading back I’ve been a bit negative on the blog posts of late and that is because we have been in a pretty low mood with homesickness and boredom and second guessing ourselves even though we’ve had lots to be happy about as well.

One of those things has been a major milestone for us which was Sol putting on his school uniform for the first time and commencing prep (Actually he’s in a thing called modified prep which is geared towards the younger cohort of the intake and has more play and less spelling).

I may have already mentioned we’ve sent Sol to a state school due to the modified prep offering and our feeling about his readiness for institutional education. Part of this decision was when we enrolled him in a private school and after talking to his would be prep teacher who eventually admitted to us that if Sol was his own kid, he would put him in the modified prep at the state school.

The main issue is not intellectual capacity but his ability to socialise. At a very young age, the differences of even half a year can be much bigger than when they get older. In the prep class at the private school, he was noticeably physically smaller and physically behind the other kids. This would have led to him being left behind by his peers a lot which could detract from his feeling like he truly belongs in the class. With the modified prep class, he is amongst smaller kids and kids who are not as socially advanced so he has a better chance to be heard and to get amongst it rather than being pushed to the back seat.

So we’re really happy and relieved that he has loved every day of his school experience so far and is taking it all in his (small but growing) stride. He is already bonding with his teacher and getting to know the other kids. He is obviously an introvert but he gets a lot out of being with the other kids and loves to interact with them when he’s in his comfort zone.

The only down side is that we have less time now to work on The Adventures of Flossy and Sol but we hope to still hold to a production schedule of one episode a month.

Uncategorized education, fatherhood