It's Especially Sunny in Philadelphia...

...because there's a great article on kids' music and this summer's tours in the Philly Inquirer. There's a brief quote in there from "Blogger Amy Davis" -- hey, that's me! The best part is, my little blurb is sandwiched between quotes from Dan Zanes and Lisa Loeb. I'm honored to be included.

Welcome to those of you who found me via the Inquirer! If you're looking for more on kiddie rock, check out the "Minivan Rotation" section over in the sidebar. Also, be sure to visit Zooglobble and Spare the Rock for more kids' music news, reviews, and witty banter.

Blogging About the Shoes, Redux

With all the discussion going on this weekend about the New York Times piece about BlogHer, and its placement in the Fashion and Style section, I immediately flashed back to a post I wrote two years ago about the BlogHer conference. What I wrote in 2006 actually holds up pretty well, so I'm re-posting it below.

Before going any further, though, I should mention two important points. 1) Although I've been a part of BlogHer and the BlogHer Ad Network since 2006, I have never been to a BlogHer conference. I have followed the conferences closely online for the last three years, and there's a good chance I'll attend the mini-conference in Atlanta this fall. 2) I own nearly 40 pairs of shoes. Someone once said the number of pairs of shoes a woman owns should equal her age, and I've lived up to that pretty well in my adult life.

I also must mention that I had some great conversation about this yesterday (via Twitter) with Elisa Camahort Page, one of the co-founders of BlogHer. She asked me, "Why is it not equally diminishing to one's credibility to talk abt sports? Tim Russert did it every Sunday."

I must admit, this is a great question, and I've been pondering it a lot this weekend. My best answer is this: Men don't lose credibility when they talk sports because their credibility is already (in most cases) firmly established. Because women are still, by our own admission, trying to earn and establish credibility in the blogosphere, we can't yet expect that "shoe talk" won't hurt us. The sad reality is, it will.

In some career fields and other settings, women have achieved a level of credibility to talk shoes or fashion the way men talk sports -- and that's great. But looking at the big picture, we are still living in a patriarchal society. We can stand outside the castle and throw rocks at it, shouting that the people inside should change; or we can work our way inside the castle and make change happen. When it comes to situations like this, my mantra has always been, "You can do more damage from the inside."

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From June 30, 2006

So I've been following BlogHer this weekend -both at the BlogHer site and with some of my favorite bloggers who have posted updates and photos. I've come across a few other bloggers who are blogging about not being at BlogHer. I also found several different run-downs of the session on Mommy Bloggers, including this great one from CityMama. I love that this session was called "Mommy Blogging is a Radical Act" and that there was a lot of discussion about empowerment. I love that there were bloggers live-blogging all the sessions so I could fill my head with all kinds of great new ideas. And I especially love that next year's BlogHer conference is in Chicago. What an amazing city.

One thing I didn't love so much was the BlogHer post I saw Friday night with a Flickr slideshow about what shoes attendees were wearing. That was followed by another photo-essay post about purses, bags and backpacks. Here is an organization and a conference that are supposedly all about empowering women and helping them to find their voices through blogging, and two of their prominent live-from-BlogHer posts are about shoes and handbags.

(So not being at BlogHer has given me too much time to think too hard. Please don't think that this post comes out of some deeply-rooted BlogHer conference envy, or that I've lost my sense of humor and fun in this summer's heat. These are the things I think about when I spend too much time on the computer. Had I been at BlogHer, I very well may have been agreeable to pose for one of those photos - oooohhhh, yes, look at my cool shoes! and my excellent bag! But since I wasn't there, I had the time and the perspective to think too hard. This has bothered me since Friday night, and I have really struggled with how to express this without alienating a whole bunch of people.)

Let me clarify a few things. I am not radically against all things feminine or girly. I wear make-up. I shave my legs. I get my eyebrows waxed. And at the same time, I respect my friends who choose not to do these things. But I do not usually talk openly about makeup or shaving or waxing (or shoes and handbags) in situations where I want to feel empowered, where I'm trying to make an important statement or impression, or where I want to be taken seriously by both women and men.

So it seemed to me that the BlogHer homepage, on the weekend of the BlogHer conference (attended by hundreds and hundreds of mostly women bloggers) was sending a very confusing mixed message, saying, Women are an important force in the blogging world, and people should sit up and take notice of what we have to say and take us seriously, while at the same time squealing, And OMG, look at our cool shoes! And purses!

And then we wonder why, as women (or as moms, or even as bloggers), we are not being taken more seriously.

In fact, while the posts about shoes and handbags sat prominently on the BlogHer site, a huge crowd of women gathered in the Mommy Bloggers session to discuss questions like why aren't people taking us more seriously? or why is "mommy blogger" a disparaging term? Quite possibly, women in other BlogHer sessions were asking similar questions.

There are many bloggers (including some of my favorites, some incredibly smart and hilarious women) who do talk openly about make-up and shaving and waxing, and sometimes I have even joined in such discussions. On those blogs. I would not have been surprised to see a shoe or handbag slideshow on those blogs. I would have found it fun and entertaining. But on the BlogHer site? It was kind of disappointing. Kind of...insulting. I wonder how any of you attendees felt about being portrayed this way.

I see that BlogHer actually has a blog category called Fashion and Shopping. Ironically, it's right above Feminism and Gender in their list of blog categories. I know that BlogHer is trying to blog all kinds of different angles of the conference, and that their base represents a broad range of interests and beliefs. But blogging about shoes and handbags when you're trying to demonstrate what a powerful force women bloggers are isn't really empowering anyone, is it?

The original post with comments can be found here.

Like it or Not (and yes, we did like it)

A chance to see an awesome kids' artist on his way through Atlanta sounds like a great idea, right? A free, impromptu concert in the park? What a perfect outing for a Saturday afternoon. A chance to stick my head out from under this rock and make a social appearance as The Lovely Mrs. Davis? I'm there. Knowing that some cool friends will be there? Icing on the cake.

The Jellydots' new release (which happens to have been produced by Bryan Townsend) has been getting lots of rotation in the minivan lately. My kids especially love the song "Art School Girl." So much so, in fact, that 3-year-old Ralph believes Art School Girl is also the name of the album AND the band. (And this is probably a good time to point out that the Jellydots are not so much a band as a really talented and visionary guy, the Apple program GarageBand, and, occasionally, a handful of other seemingly interchangeable musicians. Kind of the Steely Dan of kids' music.)

So off we went on Saturday afternoon to see the Jellydots in concert at a local park. I explained to my family that it would be more like a single Jellydot -- mastermind Doug Snyder -- and probably not an actual band of Jellydots. Because of his continued insistence that we were going to see "Art School Girl" and my lengthy explanation of Jellydot versus JellydotS, I think Ralph had gathered that we were headed out to see a creative young woman with handfuls of candy.



Add to this that we had already endured enjoyed two fairly major activities that day -- a rocket-building workshop at 10 am and a screening of the 3-D movie Fly Me to the Moon at noon. It turns out a trip home after the movie to regroup, change shirts, and chill with Legos was not quite enough to re-energize and re-focus my children.

So imagine my joy when we arrive at the park for the Jellydot concert, begin chatting with my friends, and my children begin "fritzing" -- the way your TV and lights begin to cut in and out just before a complete power outage. It was at this moment that I realized we'd forgotten to bring any water. Never mind that it's 90 degrees out and it's 4 pm on a napless afternoon. I was bound and determined that we would have fun. As my dad (the Yogi Berra of parenting) used to say, "You're going to like this whether you like it or not."

And I was making an APPEARANCE! I could not be bothered with fussy, tired, dehydrated children. See?



We got a quick backstage tour from Bryan (where backstage = the picnic bench a few yards away, from which the Jellydot would be performing), chatted with Doug for a bit, then spread our blanket on the grass front and center. Jim took Ralph to the swings while we waited for the show to start. I tried to convince Walter that this would be the BEST THING EVER and that he'd better start to have fun OR ELSE.

How could the lovely children of The Lovely Mrs. Davis possibly be seen at a kiddie rock show in such a state of misery?



Like this.

Finally, the music started.



Surely my children will snap out of their funk and sing along with the Jellydot, I insisted to myself. Perhaps they will even dance. After Walter spent the first three songs glaring at the Jellydot and grunting at me, and Ralph asked to go back to the swings, I would have settled for smiles and a bit of toe-tapping.

Luckily, my children's lack of enthusiasm didn't stop the Jellydot from putting on a fabulous show.



As an encore, he sang "Art School Girl." And my sons actually clapped. Briefly. Then they fought in the back seat all the way home.

But the funny thing is, they've mentioned numerous times since then how GREAT it was to see the Jellydot in the park. And as I began writing this post, with the Jellydots CD playing on my computer, Walter came up and said, "Hey, we heard that song over the weekend! At that concert! That was so AWESOME!"

Yes, Walter, it was. I'm glad you realize that now.

More photos here. Gwyneth's recap and photos here.

Lessons Learned This Weekend

A sticker chart is an incredibly powerful motivator for Ralph (even though these never worked for Walter).

New paint can solve many problems.

A John Hiatt concert draws an interesting crowd, but a fairly narrow demographic.

There will always be drunk people at concerts, and it's best not to mock them because you will probably step in a hole and trip on your way back to your car.

Carrying around the "Couch to 5K Running Plan" in my bag for two weeks does not count as exercise.

I am running out of time to accomplish things on my "to-do-before-turning-40" list.

An MRI is much more unpleasant than a mammogram.

I understand why my mom took that ceramics class when I was in 8th grade.

Sometimes My Life Resembes a Warner Bros. Cartoon

Admitting you have a rodent problem is like admitting to the world that you have toenail fungus, or your kids have headlice, or that you think it's FINE to change your underwear every three days (and by the way, none of those apply to us). But here I am, telling the world about our rodent problem. This is perhaps the most raw and revealing post I've ever written. Or maybe it's the most helpful tip I've ever given. Regardless, the problem and the solution are both worth sharing.

I've found a rodent invasion to be much like grief, in that it's processed in stages. (Elisabeth Kubler-Ross would love this.)

1. Shock and shame. We first discovered our rodent problem when we heard a scritch-scratching noise behind a wall in the kitchen late one night. I was horrified. I flashed back to the time we spotted a possum on our back porch. I thought of the many squirrels that jump around in our trees. I imagined little mice invading our walls. We discovered that people-noise seemed to keep the rodent-noise at bay, so we left a radio in the kitchen on all night, along with a light.

2. Blame the neighbors. The next morning I remembered that our next door neighbor had mentioned seeing rodent droppings on her back porch. She believed the rodents were coming from the next house over, owned by a family with some unconventional garbage habits (that's a nice way of saying they are too cheap to pay for private garbage pick-up like the rest of us and instead let it accumulate in their back yard until they are ready to make a big haul to the dump). RATS! Surely, these rodents were the result of the neighbors' garbage. We called our bug guy (who sprays our yard for mosquitoes in the summer and treats our house quarterly for all other bugs) first thing that morning. He came out right away, but didn't see any droppings. He told us about traps and suggested looking for cracks or holes to patch. He also assured us that rodents are "much more common that most people realize" and "not necessarily a reflection of our cleanliness." That didn't help.

3. Stalking and hyper-vigilance. We heard the scritch-scratching again a few nights later, but it wasn't until we had visual evidence of a rodent that we moved to this stage. There were droppings. In several places in our house. We stayed up past midnight scrubbing and cleaning -- a real live rodent had been in our house and left his mark. We called our bug guy again and took his advice on laying traps. We watched and waited. There were nights with very little sleep, and many mornings of rushing downstairs to check the traps for a rodent. One morning, a glue trap (which we had dotted with a bit of peanut butter) was out of place, and peanut butter was smeared on the floor nearby. There were small clumps of hair stuck in the glue trap. But the critter had escaped.

4. Pity. Shortly after the glue trap incident, I noticed how many chipmunks (or ground squirrels - I can't tell the difference) were darting around our yard. Could this be our rodent? I felt a tinge of pity, and felt guilty for trying to kill such a cute, innocent creature.

5. Challenge. I Googled something about how to get rid of chipmunks from one's house and found excellent advice. I also learned that chipmunks reproduce quickly -- like rabbits. The urgency of our situation suddenly escalated. I set a new trap -- outside, in a spot where I suspected the rodent was entering our crawlspace. My husband raised his eyebrow and harrumphed. But then.....

6. Success. Two days later, we had our guy. My husband was suddenly excited and enthusiastic about the trap I had set. I was nauseous, sad, and disturbed to find that our "little critter" was actually a rat. We continued to set the trap, and a few days later we had another rat.



So let me tell you about the trap. The one that worked. As described in an online gardening forum, we filled a large bucket halfway with water, and threw sunflower seeds on top. The seeds float, making it appear from above like a solid surface. We laid a board on the edge of the bucket, like a ramp, and sprinkled sunflower seeds on it as well. Rodents would be attracted to the seeds, walk up the ramp to nibble them, see a bucket full of them, and jump (or fall, or perhaps even be pushed by another rodent - because conspiracy theories are awesome) into the bucket and drown.

Several posts on Garden Web praise the trap for catching chipmunks. I am praising it here for catching rats. Eeeew. My guess is that it would work well for many varieties of rodents.



Yes, it's gory and disgusting and possibly cruel. But rodents in our house are also gory and disgusting, and they can cause damage and sickness and unrest. I am exercising my opposable thumb and my superior place in the food chain. I am catching rats and killing them. I am now the bad guy in some Disney movie. But I'm also a mom who will go to great lengths to keep my kids safe.

Be warned, rodents! I am to rats what Tipper Gore was to rock music. I am the PMRC of pest control.

Minivan Rotation: Summer Playlists from Savvy Bloggers

A few of us who are blogging for Savvy Source put together our summer playlists for kids. I was feeling pretty pleased with myself after compiling my playlist, but then I took a look at what some of the others pulled together, and WOW -- these are incredible! You'll find The Beatles, Bob Marley, and Banarama mixed in there with Astrograss and Elizabeth Mitchell. You might want to take a look at these playlists from bloggers in:

San Fernando Valley
Washington DC
Minneapolis
San Antonio
Nashville

My list is here, and posted as an iMix on iTunes.