day in the life

goshdangit family

write something!

it's about time someone wrote a blog!! crrapola. I mean, didn't somebody go to Utahr? Or Reno? I think so! And Joey. What's all this biz about going to So-California. Tell us! The world wants to know!

lovemikie

birthday boy so nice we have to post twice!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY MIGGY!!!

THIS IS FOR YOU:

Birthday Boy!

Happy Happy Birthday Mikie Dear,

Happy Days will come to you all year,

if I had one wish then it would be,

a Happy Happy Birthday to you from me...

26 years ago today the Tickle Tockle was born into this world and proceeded to take it by storm! We all love you so much Mikie, you bring such excitement and joy into our lives. Never, Never change! Your energy and love of all life, nature, beauty, family, people, scenery, activity, and on and on is an inspiration to me and all you meet. Your talents are many! Gifted, Talented Handsome and Sweet. I love you always, Momma

in case you missed it

beattys take europe by storm!!!

these 2 cutie superstars are in london right now preparing to play some shows to the cross-atlantic fans over the next week. mom and i got to say good-bye at the lovely, construction-riddled roseville galleria where we got them treats like music mags to fend off boredom on the 12 hour plane trip. i miss them already and can't wait to hear some stories!

hey heather

whyd you take that sweet romantic blog down?
was someone offended?
because now I AM offended.

things I actually could use, birthdaywise

Hey dudes.
I was told to do this, so here goes-

List of things Mikie Actually truly needs/would like for his birthday:

1 - The Following Books:

a. An Actor Prepares, by Stanislavski
b. Working Actor's Guide to Los Angeles, newest edition
c. Acting is Everything, Gold Ed., by Judy Kerr
d. the book after Ask The Dust, John Fante

2 - Trader Joe's gift card

3 - universal rack attachment, by Yakima. (fits factory racks for my Subaru Outback Legacy)

4 - every DS game ever made.

5 - every Ninja Turtle movie.

6 - less age.

That's all. I need all of these things and will be forced to get them all anyway, soon (except the age one). Dude, I wish I had a free card to every book out there, there's SO many books! Like, "How to Play Guitar" or "How to Use Reason" or "How to Draw" or every other how to or educational book ever written. You know?
Anyway, I made a bundle delivering pizzas tonight..too bad that's all the good tips I'll make this week. Sorry if this blog is a little self-centered sounding. I just got nervous because somebody said "oh I'll just surprise you" which freaked me out because I actually could use some legitimate things, particularly these books! Books! it's 2am. bedtime.

night everyone. love you guys. LA loves you all too, I guarantee that.
*mikie

Can we mommy, I mean daddy

First of all, where did the Joey blog go Heather? Anyway, here is a clip from our first video that we all have referred to over the years (and watched a few times)--per the title. I just wanted Amy and the kids to see it. It was and is dear to my heart and once in a while, back when watching it, I would pause the video (as I did here at the end) and look at the still of Matt with a most unforgettable expression that I always wished I had as a portrait photo of. Of course, we all googled over Mikie, but that was because he was the youngest at the time and so cute. I hope Addie, that you don't mind your roll in this part of the video. And I hope Art gets a kick out of seeing you, even if you were having a little bit of a difficult time at that moment. It was such a happy time, as were many many others. Anyway, the quality is not the best, but the DVD will be better.

placervillian sweethearts

so this is how we spent our valentine's day. everybody likes to see a cute young couple in love, huh?!! it was really sweet to see joey and emily together and also the adorably brilliant best friend, brittney, who visited from uc berkeley. so although i have no pictures of me and MY love on valentine's day, i figured i'd post the pictures of joey and emily to kind of go along with joey's last entry. and just cause they're so dang cute!

joey speaks

hey everbody-
so i figured since i do check this page pretty regularly but never contribute or even really comment on stuff, i might as well write a little bit and tell ya all what i been up to and whatnot, which is quite a bit of very little, so this'll probably be short.
anayways. so as you all know ive been unemployed since precisely thanksgiving day. and as you all know ive been un-in-school since about may 2006. so im quite free at this time to live and do what and how i please. thanks solely to dad being so gracious with this sweet comfortable warm well-lit extra room and all the kickass food in his fridge. and in the cupboards and on the counter. so in my subtle way im saying thank you dad...also thanks to heather and mom and darin at their house lettin me hang out and eat their sourdough bread and drink their purple. thanks to you guys too. it rules. ill be gettin me a job probably next month because a tax return check can only go so far...so ill be outta yer hair soon and ill be back to eating subway two out of three meals a day.
so basically im very free to do whatever i wish with my days and my nites. and thats almost a bit overwhelming. so sometimes i get confused and stick to my old ways and sit in the dark watching the office on my computer and drinking sodas and eatin carrots. but mostly ive been doing more productive things, productive not necessarily in a sense that involves having something tangible to show for my time spent, or money wise or anything like that. but i been writing lots of songs and recording them, which are all posted on my myspace account if anyone feels like checkin em out and seein what i been thinkin about and writing about lately if ya feel like it. also something ive been doing a lot of lately is ridin my bike around this warm sunny mountain town. its amazing. i feel so good about the world and the sky and the wise old pines and my own legs when i pedal myself for miles and miles and breathe the calm sunlite and watch the birds all from my modernday horseback. i love it, my bicycle. my favorite ride of late is to take the bike trail from the bus station up to the bridge which crosses over the freeway right before apple cafe. i like to sit up there straddling the middle of the highway and face east, listen to music and read and think and write and whatnot, its very pleasant altogether. also the bike trail goes a few miles further where things get quieter and i like to do that a lot as well, up past sweet rusty paintchipped little farmhouses and horse pastures and suchlike. its been very warm and beautiful the last few days so its perfect. everyone should get a bike, or ride the one youve got more often. thats joeys educated recommendation.
so i wanna thank darin and heather for gettin me The Road by cormac mccarthy for christmas, because that also kindled an of-late obsession. which is with cormac mccarthy. everyone should read the road. its a real downer, but only if you simply read the words and no further. its an incredible inspiring story. addie might not like it, since she likes redeeming endings and such, but id say give it a chance sweet sister of mine and you might take something important away from it. im now reading All The Pretty Horses. its absolutely amazingly written. he has such a gloomy appreciation for the gloom in the world. the gloom in vast nature, in the darkness and beauty of darkness. in melancholy joy. everyone should read something by him. and of course im excited to read no country for old men, next probably, because of the f***ing perfect film the book became. did everyone see it? DO! basically he writes the gloomy sadness of prarie perfection and cowboy blues and lonely beauty watching the world and wind and sky and animals and grass tilting in the magnificent air. he writes words like i want to write music. he writes words like i want to live my life. everyone read him.
umm so me and eddy been hanging out a lot. and thats basically it. i see mama and pops and heather and darin and other than that i spend most of my time pretty much alone. but not in a bad way, because i know certain people like mom are gonna read way deep into my previous statement and think im manicdepressive or somesuch fabrication of the mind's endless depths and tunnels and traintracks but really i like it this way a lot. i like to spend lots of time alone or with my sweet little brother eddy, edrigal, little ed. and its NOT spelled EDDIE. its EDDY. everyone keep that in mind. dad made a frickin label for his catbox which says "Eddy La Pew" and taped it to the front of it. Dad's always been the king of cheese. but its loved and appreciated by all. and im excited for emily to move back to placerville which she is doing in a couple weeks, march 1st about, and im gonna fly down to help her move with her mama and her and its gonna be fun and then i'll have a friend to hang out with. so thats way cool. and yes im very happy with her and lifes never been better for little joey.

umm basically ive been really loving all beautiful natural happy wonderful things in this life and in this world and about the few people who reallymatter to me and im really happy so right on life is great. and i cant wait to go to utah because i just watched jeremiah johnson and its really makin me yearn for that type of country. along with a slew of other reasons to be excited to go to utahr. and happy birthday mikie soon. anyways hope everythings good with everyone else and i love you all goodbye goodbye goodbye maybe watch tim and eric or the office if youre feelin down because it always helps me PEACE OUT
-joey

The Easter basket episode

Well, thought I’d check in and display another short Beatty video. In this one, the kids are looking for their Easter Baskets, and Mikie still has his to find. Many times that was the case. We would kid him about it. In the video he is just finding the basket and doesn’t like the fact that he was finally helped since the hunt was going on and on. Anyway Susan gives him a big hug and he carries on. (wish I could get one of those squeezes) Then Addie and Heather in the kitchen in the final minute. Addie had such a beautiful smile and she remarked about something that I never did figure. So far as I watch these videos, Adrienne, who was always the most dramatic of the youngins, is very laid back and unnoticed and sweet. She always seemed to be more understanding about things.(Maybe I’m dreaming) Of course, there are many more videos and moments to watch. As I watched this one, I felt bad because I jumped on Matt for something he said during this segment. That’s never fun when you hear yourself getting even the least angry at one of your kids, even though it probably happened regularly. Susan got all the Easter baskets for the kids, as she usually did. This particular year she got a basket for Larry who lived alone down the street. So nice of her--she has a huge heart. Hey; I bought a gallon container of dill pickles a few days ago and today they all are gone--Joey(just thought I’d throw that in). So life has been going really good. The only real interruption to my enjoyment is work. It gets in the way. Mikie says ‘just quit’. Maybe I outta. No, too many bills. He hates that term too. Says you can live life without bills somehow. That rascal. I have been considering a change though. There’s a printer on Sunrise that I may try to get on with. Matt you know of them; Color Press. Ah, I’m all talk. But someday I’ll surprise you. Well, pork chops are a cooking and I should finish up here. Hope all is well with you guys Matt and Amy and fam., Mikie, Addie/Art.
I love you all.

Born In The USA/ Loving the Unknown

Hmmmmm. Hi everyone I love alot. I just posted this on Myspace so don't bother reading it there too. But it felt important to me. And I cried a tear or two whilst writing it, so I thought it might belong here too.

Saw a movie last night that wasn't so great. I mean it seemed just TOO realistic and kind of a copycat thing of Rushmore or something. But in it, a song from the soundtrack sang about "He Loves the Unknown" and it made me remember alot about things about myself and my own story thus far. Getting married takes away about 80 percent of the "unknown" that I used to love to throw myself into. I was actually addicted to the "unknown" which could mean anything from a road trip with hardly any plan or moving to a new city where I knew nobody to walking into a broken down bar in a new place and sitting down all by myself or riding a Greyhound anywhere I could. As a twenty four year old girl, it was always interesting, and far more than interesting, amazing and inspiring. Some of the most amazing miraculous connections and circumstances happened through my giving in to wherever the wind would take me. I miss it. I miss it quite greatly actually. I was so addicted that it became easier to move to a brand new place filled with people I did not know yet than it was to stay and become more real with my friendships. Staying here, in this particular town of Nevada City, has been one of the hardest things I've committed to inthe last few years. (besides music and being married;)) Sometimes, turning 32 and a half and yet being friends with some of the most young-at-heart AND the barely out of high-schoolers in town makes one forget all the times and the memories one has been a part of because I feel like I too am just 22 in the midst of it all. But really, I have crammed so many things, probably TOO many things, under my decade-older-than-that skin.

So last night I thought about doing something again like in those days. Like driving up to a forest in the middle of the night with friends and dancing around under the stars. Like dancing on road trips at gas stations, in the middle of back highways when all our cars were stopped for road construction, like walking into an old sailor style bar and turning my favorite song on the jukebox and knowing every new person's name by the time I walk outta there. Like riding my bike home from art parties at three in the morning in a city and stopping into some other party where I know noone just for the hell of it. Like time being non-existent. Like waking up whenever, staying up til whenever, having little responsiblity and a world of possibility. God I do miss that. There is this chip on my shoulder (and I am sure it is three times as heavy on other shoulders) that, as we grow older we have to DO something, that I have to BE something special, something successful, something worthwhile. That I should have had kids by now, or own a new car or house, all these petty petty thoughts of what one thinks OTHERS judge them for, that come with rolling into one's 30s. A strange societal pressure to BE something specifically understood and stamped with approval. But since I was a mere teenager, I already knew age was backwards, time was backwards, and this was all a dream. That age did not matter, but that chip that grows on one's shoulder sure does matter. Whether you can defy the scrupulous nature of the eyes of society or not, THAT matters. And if you can, then you can be a nobody with a no good job your whole life, and as long as you can go home and make a beautiful dinner and play your songs and sleep peaceful and love your neighbor and find the world you live in more beautiful than ever, then truly, nothing else matters. In fact, it seems that certain kinds of success actually TAKE those things away. That "growing up" as it were, actually can EXTRACT those things from one's life.

It's everything I want to do. To be like Maude. To be like me. To not feel like I must OWN a house or a car. And I am doing my best. But lately I find myself actually complacent from the inside out. Except it's not with my true love, or my little rented house, or my cat kids, or my dear friends. It's with all the old stuff I did when I was bored. It seems more exciting for me to be at home reading up on something or making a new song than it does to go to a nightclub or to a party or to a bar. I just feel like once upon a time I had something to prove OUT there, in the world. Or perhaps something to find. And now, I have either proved it, or found it. Maybe this is part of settling down. Or maybe, instead, all those cities and clubs and populations of cool kids that once seemed so big to my hopeful heart have finally shrunk and shrunk and shrunk down into nothing, and what is left is my own heart and my own mind. And I have that anywhere. So my home is comfort. My backyard is so pretty. The pine trees of this town are inspiring. And in turn, I practically hate leaving to go to San Francisco. There just seems hardly any point in fighting the traffic and the back alleys and the construction and the thick skinned coolness.

So, in honor of all things remembered, I just made a dumb playlist for my Ipod called "songs for the record". OK, it's not really so dumb. It's actually terribly exciting. Because I decided to go through all my songs and pick ANY SONGS THAT INVOKE THE TANGIBLE MEMORY AND SPIRIT OF A FORMER TIME IN MY LIFE. And I have definitely had some cheesy 80's and 90's times. So, Third Eye Blind is in the mix. Dave Matthews is in the mix. Toto is in the mix. Tom Petty is MOST DEFINITELY in the mix. Concrete Blonde is in the mix. Thompson Twins, Yaz, Madonna, Joni Mitchell, Enya, Cyndi Lauper, Don Henley, 2Pac, are in the house. The cool thing is - is that any particular song, like Crowded House "Don't Dream It's Over" (playing right now), paints the picture of a time of my life when I may have had an entirely different agenda and been a somewhat different person altogether. I can almost smell the old moment, through the music. It's odd. The two things that bring back the oldness for me the most are A-Music- and B-Scents.

That's that. I will spend today finding somewhere brand new to visit that I have never been to. It might as well be The Willow, on Highway 49. I hear they have shuffleboard. So I will spend today finding something old in something new and some other things old that long live in my heart.

Thank God for the freedom. We really could have it bad for reals, somewhere else. But we are pretty damn free around this place. It's quite a privelege and a blessing, you see.

Thank God for the good ol US of A.

Piano playing Addie and Mikie being fed

Oh golly. Here is a clip of Addie playing the piano when she was 12, I think. She was really good by that time. What a sweethearted cutie pie she was (and became) Also, in the video, I scanned to Mikie being seriously alive eating on the counter somewhere in one of our living places in northern California. It is amazing the moments that are on those tapes, and I've just started!!! Why does it(life) have to go so FAST?? If I could tell all young couples raising families anything, it would be that the challenges and seemingly hard times are almost COMPLETELY forgotten by the time later life has arrived. What is left is the heaven that it was raising children. Oh well, I guess I'm not anyone to talk, but that's how I feel.

Read Heather's Blog dangit!

13, 1, 0 that's the numbers of comments left on Dad's, mine and then Heather's blogs. Come ON you guys.. seriously! creative juices? flow? READ HEATHER's BLOG for crying out loud! Read, comment, then WRITE your OWN! Geesh Louish.
thank you heather, you get an A in blogdom.

candy hearts for you

joey's show at upstairs gallery - looking fine, looking real fine.
bonny in all her lovely glory!
the amazing miss dolly, proud mama and thinker extraordinaire.
these girls are ethereal and wispy like tiny fairies. so cute!
happy early valentine's day from me in a pink sweater i tried to sell on ebay. don't feel bad for me, though, i did sell some other stuff!

here are some silly pictures illustrating my life lately. mom and darin and i went to joey's show at the "upstairs gallery" which he played with other excellent musicians sonya cotton and aaron ross. joey played wonderfully and has even more new great songs on his two myspace accounts if you want to check them out.

i went to bonny's baby shower on saturday. i had really good conversations with a few people there including dolly and stephanie (the cousin). what a family of sweethearts. bonny was radiant and cheerful, and i had a fun time holding the precious babies in abundance; namely teddy, gloria and isaac who are each unique and darling. i felt proud that i noticed baby gloria looks a lot like her older brother henry when he was a baby, and merry said, "ooh, you're good. she does look EXACTLY like henry." i was glad to have noticed this. merry led the shower so graciously and energetically; it is hard to believe she has four tiny children. it was really fun and i wish mom and amy could have been there too! i said i was representing all the beatty women. sorry the pictures are blurry. anyway i speak for all of us when i say i am so excited to see WENDY!

in other news i am back in school taking four graduate level courses which should be extremely challenging and quite invigorating to the mental muscles!!! for those who are interested they are:

english 200A: methods and research (this one is mostly literary theory and scholarship)

Myth Criticism: deals with joseph campbell, jung, and lacan's approaches to mythology

hawthorne and melville: these guys had the most inspiring friendship and were part of another literary movement i want to emulate!!!

postmodern fiction: full of strange and enticing gems of books and taught by a novelist so it will have somewhat of a creative writing focus - good news for me!

i have about a hundred books to read (exaggeration) and a hundred papers to write and meanwhile all i can do is obsess over FLIGHT OF THE CONCHORDS!!!!

happy february to all. i can't help but think of the good ol' sophie b. hawkins song, addie you know what i'm talking about, "it felt like springtime on that february morning, in a courtyard birds were singing my name!" i could be a bit off on the lyrics, but it still makes my heart ring out with joy in anticipation of springtime.