Listen to these songs

Here are some music recommendations for your weekend.

"Goodnite" by Melody Gardot: A dreamy jazz ballad from Gardot, whose voice is smooth like glass.

"Long Lost Brother" by Over the Rhine: A primo track from OTR's magnum opus. "I wanna do better, I wanna try harder / I wanna believe down to the letter / Jesus and Mary, can you carry us / Across this ocean into the arms of forgiveness."

"Light Up Ya Lighter" by Michael Franti: Rough, blistering reggae critique of the war and more importantly, the culture of war. I'm not really into anti-war songs, but this one happens to move me. Plus it has an awesome hook.

"O Heart Bereaved and Lonely" by Sandra McCracken: This is a haunting acoustic reworking of an old Fanny Crosby hymn. "O cling to thy Redeemer, / Thy Savior, Brother, Friend / Believe and trust His promise, / To keep you till the end." Such a comforting song.

And finally, two Phish songs. People often ask me where to start with Phish, so here are two recommendations. "Down With Disease" is a great example of a fairly short, concise song that still showcases a lot of the band's sound. And "You Enjoy Myself" is maybe my favorite example of the more stereotypical Phish song: long, heavily composed, time changes, goofy lyrics. It's pretty boss.

Satchmo getting big

His mouth is now big enough to carry two tennis balls at once.





See ya later!

More doggie tips

Our obedience class trainer, Bob Minchella, teaches owners a consistent process of issuing commands that has been really helpful for us. I'm recounting it here, not because I expect anyone to memorize it and apply it (though I know some of you will), but because I think it is an interesting window into a dog's brain. Here's the process, which we follow every time, for recall (a.k.a., "Come!").

1. Give the command: "Satchmo, come!" Come is a position, seated and facing me. Running toward me, and then past me, does not count.

2. As soon as his butt hits the ground at my feet, "mark" the behavior. This means, essentially, say "Good boy!" The theory here is that you can't consistently give a reward with the correct timing, so you mark the behavior with your voice instead.

3. Reward! As Bob says, "with a treat the first bazillion times." As I consistently mark behavior with my voice and follow the mark with a reward, the puppy's little brain begins to associate the two, and after a while, I can phase out the treats.

4. Wait a few seconds. The dog needs to hold his position after the reward is issued. No fair sprinting off with that piece of hot dog!

5. Release. Say, "Okay!" Only then can he get up. If he gets up before he's released, he gets a voice warning ("Ah!") and/or a correction with the leash.

Nifty, huh?