flip & tumble

Perhaps my coolest Christmas present: a bag made by these people. My mom gave it to me. It's a reusable bag that squishes up really small in a stretchy pouchy thing. It's a cute bag (mine is lime/sky) and so far seems to be very good at carrying things. It's carried shelf brackets and tea towels from IKEA, clementines, and a ceramic cookie jar (not all at the same time).

possum carolers

Look, possum carolers. That reminds me of the Christmas show performances at the zoo. Ver-r-r-r-ry energetic and maybe just a dab crazy.

I have a thing against forced audience participation. (A strong thing. A big thing. Perhaps, one might say, a hatred. Or at least a vehement objection.) I'm not really a participator myself, beyond singing, and having someone try to make you participate when you don't want to is just yucky. It's embarrassing at best, and at worst, it can feel like being the object of a power trip. (I find the glare/eye-roll approach works at fending off this kind of thing.)

In the Christmas show, we invite audience members to participate, and if someone isn't feeling it, that's cool, we love them anyway. But in smaller shows, I think we have to be really careful not to edge toward coercion. Like I said, *I* felt silly doing 12 Days of Christmas in a gift shop, and I was in costume and was thus licensed to be silly. I get how a random passerby wouldn't want to do it. In fact, I was impressed by the few who did try to follow along with the movements.

A lot of people who weren't doing the movements were singing along, or at least moving their mouths. And, hey, some people just enjoyed/tolerated us as background music while they chatted, and that's cool, too. It wasn't like they'd paid to sit in an auditorium and party with us - they were trying to buy souvenirs/eat french fries. And they weren't actively throwing things at us, either. So it's all good.

Fleas Navidog!

This story from tomorrow's Post combines two things I really like: dogs and community. Oh, and sincerity. And bad puns. And Christmas. I LOVE Christmas.

zoo show

Our little show at the zoo tonight included the 12 Days of Christmas, which involves a movement for each of the 12 days. We did the first two sets in a gift shop (to get out of the cold), so people came in looking for stuffed pandas and were rewarded with...us. I was thinking, lord, what if someone I know walks in? I felt like an idiot. Which is NEVER how I feel about stuff related to the Christmas Show, so it was kind of weird. It was probably partly because our costumes were less elaborate than usual, so I felt more or less like myself standing up there. I felt less geeky about the rest of the set, but I kind of worried that we were creeping the audience out by being all, like, cheerful at them.

But after the show the manager of the gift shop came to me and one of the other performers to tell us how great it was that we were bringing joy, and the season is so stressful, and this is what it's really about - the joy. It was so nice, and I felt like, ok, even if I felt a little dopier than usual, this tiny little show still worked. Yay.

I'm still glad none of my former colleagues walked in.

most awesome conversation in recent memory

Tonight I sang at the zoo and after our first set, one of the other performers was chatting with a zoo police officer. Law enforcement is interesting, so I wandered over to eavesdrop. He told us many things, including the fact that they send him to a range to practice with an elephant gun every now and then. 'Cause you can't stop an elephant with a handgun. (In case you were thinking of trying.) He also told us where to aim if you are attempting to bring down an elephant. Between the eyes will work, but you don't really want to be in that position, because that would mean an angry elephant is coming toward you. It was pretty fascinating. (Also, the guy loved our show.)

list

Things I wouldn't mind having for Christmas:

* fold-up scissors that I can throw in a bag and carry around with my knitting and not worry that they'll stab something. Something like this.
* a digital watch that is not thoroughly unattractive (i.e. face smaller than a tin can), resists water, and can count down three minutes.
* Wall-E on DVD.
* world peace.
* a gift certificate to this yarn store.
* this songbook.

[to be continued as I think of other stuff]
* a gift certificate to this yoga studio.
* Mary Chapin Carpenter's new Christmas album.
* of course I want this calendar.
* tickets to West Side Story.
* tickets to Les Miz at the Signature Theatre.

P.S. My mom says to tell you this list is for her, so don't go buying me things on it.

I would not recommend eating this

The week between the shows we don't have rehearsal - we're just supposed to, you know, not totally forget the show. On the Wednesday night some of the 20- and 30-somethings (the "aging teens") got together to make:


...a gingerbread model of the set. I made the base out of Rice Krispie treat (which I'd never made before, but let me tell you, not difficult), then we piled pieces of gingerbread from a bunch of gingerbread-house-making kits, then had way too much fun adding people. This is the "Chasse-Galerie" sequence, which included multiple flying canoes (here represented by tootsie rolls).

We made it for display at the cast party, where it was a big hit. You can see a much better picture of the final product on facebook, complete with tags.

cross-stitch scarf

Here's another knitting project:


A few weeks ago I was admiring a cool sample scarf in a stitch I'd never seen before at a store in the neighborhood. The woman who had knitted it wandered by and told me what book she'd gotten it out of. I considered buying the book, but it was $18 and I'd just been laid off, and, well, it seemed like a dumb way to use my savings. So imagine how clever I felt when I checked the local library catalogs and found out that D.C. and Montgomery County each had dozens of copies! This is the book, if you want to try it yourself. You knit it by crossing stitches over - you reach around the first stitch on the needle, knit the second stitch, knit the first stitch, then pull them both off. It makes more sense in the book.

I was really very pleased with myself for thinking of the library thing. I normally don't get library books, because I find they lead inexorably to fines. Now that I have lots of free time and can actually make it to libraries during their opening hours, I'm giving the library another try.

I gave this scarf to my older stage kid and made another one out of the same yarn for his stage little brother. So as not to incite inter-kid jealousy, we're supposed to sneak presents to the parents, not give them directly to the kids. I did that, being a good rule-follower, but it does kind of take away the fun part of the gift-giving, you know?

blogging up christmas all night long

Ok, three more posts by strangers about the Christmas show, but really, the blog pickins are thin this year.

Our first blogger promises details to follow, so watch this space.

This blogger reminds me that I never spend enough time checking out the merchandise tables.

This blogger writes out the audience version of "Lord of the Dance." This is an amusing phenomenon. The lyrics are right there in the program - "Dance, then, wherever you may be..." but the audience sings "Dance, dance, wherever you may be...." Always, without fail. That's how tradition works - they're learning it from each other and that's kind of beautiful. I certainly sang "Dance, dance" when I was in the audience. But it's one of the first things you learn when you join the chorus: The correct words are "Dance, then."

end of christmas

Sunday we wrapped up the Christmas show for the year. I was sadder than usual about it - I was bummed my dad couldn't make it to a performance, plus two of my kids are aging out of the children's chorus and they were both really sad. One was my first stage kid and the other was my stage kid this year.

The latter kid was excellent when I started crying during circle (someone told a sappy story, I'm a sucker, what can I say) and was dabbing at my eyes with my scarf. Rather than getting all sympathetic, which would have made the crying worse, he was like, hey, stop using your costume for that. And when I kept doing it, he was like, no, stop, you're going to get makeup on it. Thanks, fifth-grade boy! You scored much higher on that test than the average adult.

Having stage kids is the best. Unlike real kids, they don't require feeding or driving around. They pretty much just show up at circle and on stage, love you, and have other people who take care of their actual needs.

christmas is here

Yeah, I found a grand total of one more blog post about the Christmas show today. Here it is. It's a good one, though! Yay fans! This blog post reflects some of the problems I have explaining the Christmas show - no, it's not a choir concert. No, it's not about how the baby Jesus was born. No, we don't sing "White Christmas." Sometimes a person I've finally convinced to go will come to me in the lobby after the show and say, shocked, "...but...it's so professional!" Um, yeah. I didn't get you to pay $18 to $45 so you could see a freakin' church Christmas pageant.

holiday mayhem

I am a huge fan of Carolyn Hax, the advice columnist. I've read every single chat and regular column since she started, 11 years ago. (I say every regular column because I don't try to keep up with the edited chat excerpts they run four days a week.) Today's chat is a particular masterpiece - about halfway through she switches over to the annual holiday horror stories extravaganza, and, wow, people have some crazy families. Transcript here. I laughed til I cried.

bertuccing

One of the great joys of the Christmas show is going out afterward. As if it weren't exhausting enough to spend a couple of hours getting dressed, putting on makeup, warming up, then three more hours performing, we get out of costume and meet up at a nearby chain Italian restaurant that is never quite prepared for us, even though they know we're coming, and we order food and we sing really loud. I kind of blew out my voice last Saturday night. Heh. Anyway, here's a picture:

It's really nice. It's not the best singing you'll ever hear, but it's energetic and everyone has a good time. And comes together through singing. Which is kind of what we're all about.

blog drought

Huh. I just went looking on google's blog search for posts from audience members who saw the Christmas show last weekend and found...exactly one. Here it is: A fan tells you to go see the show. Last year I found a ton. I wonder if facebook is killing *everyone's* blog?

take a bow

I haven't been blogging that much about the Christmas show this year partly because my digital camera is on strike and partly for the same reason I haven't been blogging very much about anything: Facebook. Also, I think it's becoming a little bit old-hat. I still love (LOVE) it - highlight of my year, I keep telling people - but it's all pretty familiar now.

But here, have a random Christmas show anecdote. Last night was our final dress rehearsal, which is also the outreach performance. They bring in groups from homeless shelters, lower-income schools, and others who wouldn't normally be able to afford it. Many of the kids have probably never been to a theater before, let alone something as wacky as the Christmas show, so you sort of never know what you're getting with this audience. (They're super fun and engaged, and they're also kind of confused sometimes.)

Every year, the director goes out this show and welcomes the audience, and tells them they're at a rehearsal and they're helping us out, and she has the option to stop the action and fix things. (She never does it, but she has the option.) Yeah, last night she didn't stop things, but hoowee, it got messy. Not during the show, which basically went find, but at the end: the curtain call.

The curtain call hadn't really been fully worked out before the performance. It's always really long - there's a lot of different groups that have to come up and bow (sword team! abbots bromley dancers! lord of the dance guys! traditional musicians! storyteller! etc! etc! etc!). But last night, those people didn't really know exactly what order they were going on and kind of stood around stage looking awkward and trying to sort themselves out. Any audience has a tough time keeping the applause going all the way to the end, and last night's crowd just gave up and only clapped when there was a bow.

We'll be fixing that before the opening performance. Which is this afternoon! Yay!

welcome yule

Here's a very nice description of why the Christmas show is so great. It opens this Saturday!!

careful lawyering

I'm editing the program for the Christmas show and have worked a lot with T.Win, an excellent retired lawyer type who is kind of a slow talker. Everything he says, he thinks about carefully and says just the way he wants. I love this guy. Look at this series of e-mails:

artistic director: [asks if this one French word should be in italics.]
me: It's not italicized right now - the copy editor and I will decide, I think, unless someone has a very strong opinion.
T.Win: [paragraph on why it shouldn't be italicized.]
me: Strong opinions: I like it.
T.Win: But you see that I expressed it as a modestly strong opinion so as to not trigger your "very strong opinion" proviso.
me: Ah, interesting. Very subtle, T.Win.
T.Win: Careful lawyering combined with pedantry.
me: You should get a t-shirt with that phrase across the front.

christmas is coming

Tonight was the first rehearsal for the Christmas show. Miss Shirley and E.C. are back, yay!! G-dog's not there this year, boooo. It's so exciting getting started. We heard all about the show from the artistic director and various designers. Then we learned some music.

This year the theme is French Canadian, which means not only singing in a foreign language, but singing in a foreign language with a really funky Canadian accent. Also, some of the songs are in French French.

Many of us speak some French, and most of us are inveterate know-it-alls. At our first meeting back in June, several little debates broke out about pronunciation. I told Miss Shirley at the time that this was a preview of the fall, and indeed - many people tonight offered helpful comments, critiques, and suggestions about pronunciation. This didn't happen the year we sang in Norwegian.

old music

I spent all day today at the Christmas Show office - Ogram, two teens, and I moved several car- and minivan-loads of boxes out of the office and into storage. I wore my new t-shirt. Here, I'll show it to you.


Actual conversation with 16-year-old girl:

Teen: [Towwas], why does it say "rem" on your shirt?
Me: It says "R.E.M."
Teen: What does that mean?
Me: It's a band.

where did I find these people?

The other day Miss Shirley put a photograph on facebook of her, G-dog, and me the night of this party. (December 2005) We've been discussing the picture in comments - my freaky long left arm, our various hair lengths.

Miss S's last comment, about whose headgear she's sporting: "I know those were not my devil horns because mine don't have sequins."