March of the Emperors

I found this one amusing, (recommended by Donna McMahon):

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fZ_mlwnAmr0

Ned, Still Under the Bed

Well, we had been interested to see if Tigana's love of the stage would survive 9 performances of the same play, but she came through as enthusiastic as ever. Indeed, she was a little depressed it was over.

Most interesting point for Tigana was a performance we weren't at, where one of the lead actors fell ill and had to be replaced at the last second...Jeremy, who plays the head bed bug, stepped in to the title role, and the stage manager stepped in as head bed bug... but there were apparently a couple of spots where in the ensuing confusion, that the villain ended up playing off bed bug Tigana rather than the stage manager, who was still running the lights and sound cues.... Friends of ours in the audience later told us, "I had no idea from what you'd said that Tigana had such a major role." News to us too!

But the whole experience was great for Tigana...second time in front of a paying audience, but first time for an actual "run", of which she was in 9 performances; first time to see the sort of dedication it takes to be an actor, when the lead showed up to play Ned, but was then taken straight to hospital instead; first time to see that the show must go on, even if an actor can't be there; first time seeing the improve 'winging it' that makes acting such a seat of the pants profession and such an adrenaline rush. And seeing the synergism of that cast (many of whom work in the same improve group)....

We caught the last 15 minutes of the performance with the missing actor, and knew the play well enough to know when the fill-ins missed a cue, or misspoke a line or whatever, but the energy was so high, the ad libs so great, it just didn't matter -- I'm sure no one in the audience noticed, and I thought it a great performance.

I was also amazed that for each of the four performances we did attend (including first and last of the run), Kasia was enthralled throughout. This is a testament to both the writing and the acting, since our Kasia is sufficiently burnt out on TV that not a lot keeps her attention.... Only problem was now she wants to be a bed bug too!

Oh, and Tigana got to keep her costume after the play, so I put it on a life-sized robot Tigana made last year, and stuck it under her (bunk style) bed... I'm keen to see how long before she notices that her bed has bed bugs....

Runte's Law

After a couple of weeks with the kids (Kasia 3 and Tigana 8) home from school full time, I was reminded of Runte's Law:

"The willingness of a child to help with chores is inversely related to their ability to do so."

Ned, What's Under Your Bed?

...is a play for children by Jeremy Mason which had its premiere performance today. I enjoyed the performance immensely, which I say quite aside from the obvious bias that Tigana was cast as one of the bedbugs.

I was already impressed with Mason (and fellow actors Andy Jenkins and Jamie Dunsdon) as instructors at the Empress Theater summer drama camps, and as writers/actors in the Empress Theater's summer series plays. I had been struck by how much more effective this camp had been for Tigana than some of the others she had attended. Part of that was the camp's structure, which incorporated the children's performances into a Vaudville night along with skits and musical numbers by adult performers -- so that kids got to perform in front of a real paying audience, rather than just a room full of relatives, as is the usual conclusion of these sorts of summer camps. Furthermore, Tigana had the opportunity of going to the Empress Theater's summer plays and seeing her instructors actually acting which allowed her to "connect the dots" in a way she wasn't able to with the other camps, where the instructors were just another group of "teachers" to her. But mostly I was impressed by the synergism of the group of young actors/writers/instructors that Stephen Delano had managed to recruit for the Summer program. You could almost see the creative sparks flying between these people, and I loved that Tigana got to see and benefit from that.

So when Jeremy invited Tigana to take part in this play, we were delighted. This was Tigana's first opportunity to be in a real play run with multiple performances and to perform in a theater in Lethbridge. Indeed, Tigana would be in the children's play that we normally attend as part of our Boxing Day afternoon tradition.

Watching Jeremy rehearse the kids (16 of them), I was again blown away by what an exceptional teacher Jeremy (along with the rest of his gang) is. As a Faculty of Education professor, I have unrealistically high expectations teachers, but Jeremy is a natural. He had structured the play so that he was always with the kids when they were on stage; he explained how each scene worked in the sort of concrete ways I struggle to get my student teachers to aim for; and he has this natural charisma that makes kids love him. It was a pleasure to watch.

So...the end product this afternoon lived up to my expectations...it was a great kid's play, well performed by all. I was, of course, most interested in Tigana's performance, but enjoyed the play and the acting for its own sake as well. Most amazing of all, the play kept Kasia's (now age 3) undivided attention... something even a new episode of My Little Pony has yet to succeed in doing. And Kasia totally 'got' the play -- she kept saying to her mom, "That man is really mean!" whenever the villian (ablely played by Andy, who has I believe one of the best evil laughs in the business) was on stage.

All that remains is to see how Tigana copes with 9 performances of the same play, including several dates where she is doing both the matinee and evening performances -- a very different experience than the single school or end of camp performance. So far, so good -- she has already noticed the difference between performing for a full audience this afternoon, and a much smaller audience this evening....we subsequently had a long discussion about 'energy'. I am so proud of Tigana, and so pleased with Jeremy and his crew that I my gushing at everyone involved has become positively annoying... I'll have to try to tone it done as the play continues....

The Skating Party

My daughter's school organized a skating party during school hours in the run up to Christmas break. I volunteered as one of several parent drivers for this field trip, a short car ride to the nearby rink. My daughter, and others, had to borrow skates from parents who loaned pairs their own children had outgrown, or not yet grown into; the school promised to provide hockey helmets for those who did not have them, which included our daughter. (School Board regulations required that every student have a hockey helmet; bicycle helmets were deemed insufficient.) My daughter had had skates, but outgrown them and had chosen to do drama and gymnastics this term, rather than skating lessons, so we hadn't gotten around to replacing them.

When we arrived at the rink, I helped my daughter and another girl into their borrowed skates, then went in search of helmets. The rink staff pointed out that they did not have a key to the school locker that contained the helmets; the schools staff had assumed the rink would have a key. The rink staff produced a smaller bag of helmets for a few lucky kids; others came with their own; but my daughter and about 15 others were left standing on the sidelines watching the rest of their schoolmates skating. One of the parents (a male) approached the teachers with the problem. One of the teachers volunteered to drive back to the school for a key, but we were already 15 minutes into a one hour skate time, so calculating round trip and the time likely required looking for the key at the school, this seemed impractical.

Where upon another male parent said, "No problem, just give me a minute to go out to my truck." I'm wondering, who drives around with a truck load ot hockey helmets, but I figured, maybe he was a junior hockey coach and just happened to have the right size heluts on hand.... But no, he returns less than a minute later with his tools, and calmly proceeds to drill out the lock.

I have to admire the pragmatic logic of his approach...here is a guy who gets things done!

Ten seconds later, the helmets are handed out, my daughter and her friends hit the ice, life is good.

But I'm left with the realization that I could never be that guy. I mean, quite aside from the fact that any attempt on my part to drill out a lock would inevitably end with at least one (and possibly more, depending how close the spectators crowded in) ambulance being called, I suspect I lack the sort of male self-confidence that would allow me to drill through someone else's lock. I'm more like the guy in Dr. Strangelove who can't bring himself to break into a Coke machine to steal a quarter so he can use a pay phone to make the call to stop WWIII because, well, breaking into private property and stealing iwould just feel wrong.

Part of me is still astonished that no one said, "Hey, what are you doing? You can't drill out an official lock" but of course nobody did because the guy just acted like he had the authority. Nobody questions that kind of confidence. With that kind of air of self-confidence, he could have walked into a bank, gone up to the vault, and just drilled away, and the only comment would be, "Hey, can't you do that any quieter?"

Santa and Imaginary Friends

Kasia has developed an imaginary friend this week named Doe-go. Doego seems to be a minature toy car, which is kind of an odd avatar for an imaginary friend, but its hard to tell if I have this right, since we are dealing with an invisible object. Tigana never developed an imaginary friend, so its been kind of fascinating watching the emergence of this character out of nowhere over the last four days to become a central focus of Kasia’s attention. We’re keen to see how this develops.

Meanwhile, Kasia is impatiently awaiting the arrival of Santa. Having a three-year old around the house makes Christmas magical in a way it hasn’t been since, well, since Tigana was three. I love seeing the season through three year old eyes.

But I have to confess that when Kasia was still awake at 10:00 on Tuesday, after two hours of various unsuccessful bedtime strategies, ending with a round of pathetic sobbing/begging on my part, I kind of lost it, and said (Lord forgive me!) “KASIA! If Santa sees you awake at this time of night, he’ll take you off the “Nice” list!

Kasia stops dead in her tracks, turns around and throws herself onto her bed, clearly devastated at the thought of earning a place on the “Naughty List”.

Overcome myself with guilt at such a cheap tactic, I quickly reassure Kasia that – if only she would go to sleep right now – there might still be a chance that Mom and I could intercede with Santa on her behalf and explain that Kasia has been nice all year, and really, should still be thought of as “nice”. It may not be too late, if only she will sleep now. (I feel despicable, but I really need sleep myself by this time.)

At which point Kasia turns to me and sobs, “It wasn’t me dad! It was Doego!”

Textbook stuff, I’m telling you!

Hmmm....

So has anyone else noticed Babylon 5: The Complete First Five Seasons" on Amazon? Does the use of the phrase "first five seasons" mean that Amazon knows something that we don't, or just that the clerk doing the webpage doesn't know enough that there were only five seasons?

New Haircut

Playing with one's food

My 8 year old daughter, Tigana, finished the orange I'd given her for bedtime snack, and then sat playing with the peel as I told her her nightly bedtime story. This is the result.

A grassroots petition has been started to get the government to reconsider the $4.6 million they cut from the museum assistance program of Canada Heritage.
The money is a small amount of the overall $1 billion package, and many museums were pinching pennies before the cuts, and the cuts will force them to reduce programs, cut collections, and delay renovations.
Then of course, there's the effect on students who will be woefully ignorant of local, regional and national history and culture.
Read the petition over, sign it if you want, pass it on to people you know.
I've signed it.
Here's the link:
http://www.petitiononline.com/MapCuts/petition.html

Penny, the Frisky Tardis

We've bought a new car.




This is, in fact, my first actual NEW car, never having had the cash before for anything other than hand-me downs. My last two cars were from my Father-In-Law, and the one before that was purchased for $800 from a sympathetic co-worker. (Okay, the word "cash" may be a bit inaccurate here since we are buying entirely on credit, but you get the idea.)

The car is a Honda Fit, which is new to the North American market, but has been selling in Japan and Europe as the Jazz for several years. The "Fit" name is undoutbably to emphasize that it has a roomy interior, even though it is a subcompact. I confess myself surprised when I actually fit into it, since whenever we have rented cars, I've had to specify the high end models because at six feet, 250lbs there was never any possibility of my getting into the compacts. But damned if there isn't more head room in this new Honda than in the wagon we were driving before. It feels as roomy as our Van, for crying out loud.

Luggage space appeared to be a problem, but as a test we gathered up all the suitcases we'd actually used on our last trip to Edmonton down to the dealership to see how many we would have to give up, and darned if they didn't all fit in okay. Miracle of design engineering, because you would swear this car is bigger on the inside then the outside.

I hadn't wanted to buy a new car, but our current vehicle is on its last wheels. The transmission bumps with every change of gears, so probably only has a month or two left in it, and the cost of replacing that far exceeds the $1000 the insurance company tells us our car is now worth. And there are a myrid other problems, like the passenger door falling apart, something leaking out the front end, etc. etc. etc. Even so, I had wanted to wait until February to buy a new car, since I've always heard you get a better deal in Feb, but the deterioration on our current ride had reached the point where I was only putting in half a tank of gas at a time because I wasn't convinced it would last another full tank.

I love our new car. It handles like a sports car, it has a kicking stereo, and it parks unbelievably easily. Suddenly, driving is fun again.

So then the first order of business, according to the wife and kids, was to name it. Mary nominated "Frisky" because it is the same color as her late Aunt's old Colt, a car with very fond memories for both of us; Penny was an obvious alternative because it is copper color (officially Blaze Orange, but it matches the new penny in my pocket); and of course I suggested and Tigana seconded "Tardis" because it is, did I mention, larger on the inside than the outside. Thus we get today's column title, and the compromise long form, though Tigana and I like the idea of just going with Tardis -- as in, "Hey, Tigana and I are just going to hop in the Tardis to go down to Starbucks for a couple of Chai, but we'll be back before we leave!"

The other thing that has struck us, is how much we do drive. One doesn't normally pay much attention to the odometer, but one can't help noticing when you put the first 50K or 200K or etc on the car, and these milestones (kilometerocks?) have been coming a lot faster than we would have expected since we are only a couple of K from work. But driving the kids to daycare/school, going shopping, etc, apparently takes a lot of driving in a week. But at least for the time being all that driving is FUN.

Tigana and Robert Munsch

Took Tigana to see Robert Munsch reading tonight at the Yates Theater. This was our third Munsch reading, having previously seen him in Halifax and at the University in Lethbridge. I thought he ws strating to look older and bit tired at the strt of the reading, but he gathered momentum as the show progressed, and I always enjoy hearing the stories about how the stories came about.

Munsch, as is his standard procedure, invited kids from the first few rows to either offer their names to be substituted into this or tht story, or occasionally to join him on stage while he told the story. Tigana inevitably put up her hand to be chosen, but I pointed out to her that since we were way back in row H, she might as well not bother. "No problem," she says, and calmly walks down, and then onto the stage. "Tigana, get back here!" I whisper shout, as Munsch, says, "Who would like to volunteer for...?" He turns and sees Tigana walking onto the stage. "Ah", he says, "Perhaps this young lady who is already on stage -- which I have to say is a bit pushy, but apprently effective."


And so Tigana got to sit on stage next to Robert Munsch and to say "No!" on cue to the story Johnathan's Snowsuit, magically transformed into the story of Tigana's Snowsuit.



The phtoto isn't very clear, but then I took it with my cell phone from row H and it had to cope with the too bright lighting of the stage enviornment.

And I must say I was impressed that Munsch got the pronunciation of Tigana's name first try. So either he is very good with names (well he'd have to be to pull off that aspect of his show day after day) or he recognized the title....

But that's my daughter... Not a lot of stage fright....

Grant McCracken on China

Quote of the day, from Grant McCracken, first rate anthropolist and pop culture commentator.

"China is now finished with catch-up and will someday begin to pull away. This is a country moving at time-lapse speed. It won't be long, perhaps, before it passes us and disappears into the future."

Kasia Lyrics

The title will probably frustrate googlers looking for that Polish singer, but I wanted to jot down about Kasia's singing to me last night before I forget... I find that my blog misses too many of the big events in our lives because we are too busy going through said events, and then I miss the trivial stuff because I feel I ought to write up the big stuff first, which I never get around to, so everything gets missed.....

Anyway, while putting Kasia, our 2.5 year old, to bed last night, she started singing to me -- largely to forestall my signing to her, I suspect, but that is another story -- I was vastly entertained to hear her rendition of that old classic:

Bad sheep,
Bad sheep,
Bad sheep,
Bad sheep,
Have you any fluff?

This was followed by a rousing rendition of

Twinkle twinkle little star
How I know I know I know

which either indicates that she is a child with a high degree of certainty, or an odd attraction to existentialism.

Later in the evening, when I was trying to get her to lie down and actually go to sleep, as opposed to merely being in bed, I told her, "Kasia, you can't go to sleep if you keep talking to yourself like that!" to which she replied, "I'm sorry Daddy," and then proceeded to continue her self dialog in a whisper so as not to disturb herself by talking too loudly....

Which all goes to show that we say and what our kids hear may not have a lot of overlap.

But Kasia's speech has exploded since she had her tonsils out July 20th. Kasia spoke very little before that, to the point that I was becoming a bit concerned, especially in comparison to Tigana who was taking legal briefs at the same age. But we had a lot of trouble understanding Kasia, and it now appears that after saying the same thing four or five times without our getting it, she simply gave up and went back to pointing and speaking in monosyllabic grunts. Turns out there was nothing wrong with her speech, just that her adnoids etc were making her too nasal to understand, and once removed, her speech is suddenly significantly clearer, so that she now considers it worth her while to speak in 600 word monologue. It's like a switch has been thrown and all that speech that was trapped insider her is now able to flow out. Almost worth the operation alone, even if it doesn't completely cure the apnia...

Tigana learns about Meteghan

has shown up in Google already, but ranked quite low -- page 11 for "Meteghan" and page 13 for "Meteghan Nova Scotia" and page 8 for "Acadians". I'm not sure teachers will persevere through pages of houses for sale listings or classified ad pages to find my curriculum resource.

It does a little better on Yahoo --Page 5 (#41) for "Meteghan"; but then only #70 for "Acadians".

Hopefully, the site will rise as social studies sites start to list it and teachers click on it enough to increase traffic so Google and Yahoo promote it, so that more teachers find it, and so allowing the site to slowly spiral up. But feel free to link to it in your blogs etc to strt driving it up now....