Smitten

I do Music Mondays with the kindergarten and first grade classes at my daughter's school. Today, one of my favorite kids informed me that eagles and vultures were not sugarlumps ("Fly Through My Window"), germs were not pretty ("The Green Grass Grew All Around"), and moss was not beautiful ("On Top of Spaghetti").

I said, "That's a matter of opinion! But tell me: what do YOU find to be beautiful?"

He replied, "Rainbows, puppies, my mom, my dad, my grandma, my Wii, and your singing voice."

Guitars, Sequels and Nuns

Music:

This was my last week of French camp gigs. My last gig was a regular musical storytime akin to the ones I usually present. I didn't tell many stories as the children were in no mood to sit and listen-- in fact, two of the guys in the front started shooting each other with finger-pistols. At first I ignored it, but then thought I needed to say something. What came out of my mouth was, "Guns are resting during storytime." It didn't work, but I remembered that years ago when I worked in a daycare, we often told the kids that there were "No guns in daycare." Whether there's a piece of breakfast toast or a toy block, something can be made into a gun.

Afterward, one of the parents who stayed told me that her son always came home from camp talking about the "lady with the guitar". In my book, that is high praise indeed. I have dreamed of being the Lady with the Guitar.

I'm currently working on bass runs and barred chords with the plan of actually implementing them in songs for performance by the end of the year. I want to be able to do them with confidence.

Reading:

I waited for a year for Catching Fire, the sequel to The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins. When I finally got my copy, I plowed through it. Even though I knew I would have to wait another year for the resolution, I just couldn't put it down. Ever since the final page, I've been listless and grouchy. I haven't been this grouchy about waiting for a sequel since I first read Philip Pullman's The Subtle Knife. I recognize this current need for escapist fiction from reading patterns in earlier years. It's because the real world just breaks me up. There is injustice, heartache, wrongful death and needless suffering in the world. I can write letters to congressfolk, vote, and pray, but I can't stop the things that are wrong. Within the parameters of fiction, there is hope for a new world order within the lifetimes of the characters.

Regarding Catching Fire, I know there's discussion in forums about whom Katniss, the main character, will end up with with romantically, if she ends up with anyone at all. I really don't care. That's not why I'm reading the books. I'm reading the books because I am hoping that Collins will deliver on a new world order in the country of Panem that eradicates the poverty, starvation and cruelty inflicted by the Capitol upon the rest of the Districts. I take the books personally. I want justice in Panem. In the real world, justice is having a hard time coming up for air.

Parenting:

Does anyone have any recommendations for children's books about nuns besides Demi's Mother Teresa? I can visualize a DK book a la "Eyewitness: Nun" but it doesn't actually exist. Ever since Lucia watched "The Sound of Music" she's been obsessed with nuns. She loves the habits and thinks they are fancy. Lucia wanted to be a nun when she grew up until I pointed out that nuns are obedient and take a vow of poverty, i.e. no tiaras. Lucia said, "I won't be a nun, then. I'll be an actress and play a nun in a movie." She's gone to bed now, and is listening to Taize music to soothe her to sleep.

The Show Must Go On

I had two gigs last weekend. One was great, and one was not. Fortunately, the great one was on Sunday and the experience was the opposite of the one on Saturday in every way. I know it's unrealistic to expect every storytime to be wonderful, but I always strive to give my best performance possible despite factors beyond my control. The Sunday performance helped to take away some of the sting of the Saturday performance, and the commiseration of friends and fellow performers helped with the rest.

This morning, my "best performance possible" was put to the test when I slammed my left thumb into the car door trunk right before my monthly gig at Third Place Books. For a split-second, I just couldn't believe it. Fortunately, the car keys were still in the trunk door, and I got it open. As I looked over the damage, Lucia was yelling, "I don't want to see it! I don't want to see it!" I insisted she get out of the car while I ran indoors to get bandages for the thumb, but I didn't have time to put the hand in ice-water before the gig. I made it to the bookstore in time, and before I started, I explained to the audience what had happened. I said "Sometimes one has to smile through the pain, and I wanted to let you know what happened in case I grimaced during the program."

I was able to fret the chords, tell my stories and finish well. Afterward, I got to hang out for a bit with Eric Herman and his daughters, who were kind enough to make it to the storytime before Eric's evening performance at Crossroads Bellevue. Lucia, Bede and I attended that concert as well and had a good time (I got to be the "Local Celebrity Judge" for the dance contest again!). We all wish that we could see Eric and family more often, and may very well have to take a trip to the Tri-Cities area of Washington so that our visits aren't just once-a-year occurences.

It's been a hard week, and there have been moments that I wanted to crawl under the covers and sleep for weeks. Many thanks to all of my friends and family who helped the show to go on.

In Her Own Words

Today reached 101 degrees F around home and 103 degrees F in downtown Seattle. Or was that yesterday? I don't deal with the heat very well. Still, a week is a long time to go without a proper blog post.

Last Saturday, Scott of Fishsuit brought his daughter Sofia to my musical storytime at Ravenna Third Place Books. I performed my original song "May I Walk With You?" of which you may view lyrics and felt-board pieces here. I trust that children are picking up on stories and songs they like even if they're not into the participation aspects of the programs (which is JUST FINE, as I tell everyone at the beginnings of the programs), but it's great when caregivers tell me what goes on at home afterward. The day after the program, Scott transcribed what he heard Sofia singing:

I went for a walk in the fields one day
And I met a cat who said "Can I walk with you?"
I went for a walk in the fields one day
And I met a dog who liked to play!
And I fed the cat and the dog and then we walked through the field!
I went for a walk in the fields one day
And I met a shark who didn't say anything!
I went for a walk in the fields one day
And I didn't meet anyone who wanted to play
I was sad sad and I cried and cried
Because no one wanted to play with me!

Scott wrote, "I can't say she got the tune exactly right, but she clearly remembered the idea. I thought you'd get a kick out of that. You obviously made an impression!"

I am thankful.

Crafty Thursday: Three Fairy Tales and a Saint with her Star Boy

It's evening as I write this, and I need to prepare for a storytelling gig tomorrow at the Children's Museum. Saturday I have a gig at Ravenna Third Place Books, and then next weekend, I have two birthday party gigs. I'm glad that the storytelling business is picking up again. Even with the economy the way it is, it's unpredictable. You may wonder how I have time to sew! Hint: it's the only work I successfully do while taking care of my daughter at the same time. She provides lots of opinions, and sometimes even gets the urge to try a little stitching. When that happens, I drop everything and work with her on simply getting used to pulling needle and thread in and out of the cloth.

I've started making more dolls based on folk and fairy tales. Currently in the shop is a Briar Rose/Sleeping Beauty storytelling set that features Briar Rose as both a 15 year old and a baby:




About 10 minutes before I started this post, I listed Vasilissa's Doll:




If you are unfamiliar with the Russian fairytale of Vasilissa the Brave and her encounter with the terrifying Baba Yaga, please visit Sur La Lune to read the story. The little doll that Vasilissa's mother made for her before the mother's death is one of my two main inspirations for dollmaking. (The other is M.B. Goffstein's Goldie the Dollmaker.)

Yesterday, I spent a lot of time making a Snow White doll with a little felt box containing representations of the comb, the laces and the poisoned apple. The colors are based upon the dress Snow White wears when she flees through the forest in the Nancy Eckholm Burkert version. Lucia does not want this doll to go into the shop. She wants the doll for her own. I understand. (7/25 edit: She now has a Snow White doll made to her specifications, though she said, "The hair doesn't have much of a part." The doll is white and yellow with blue roses, pink wheat-ear stitching, and a pinch of dried lavender inside.)

Here is the Snow White doll with the felt box of storytelling props:



The Vasilissa and Snow White stories turn me inside out. It is one thing for the hero of a story to start out with parents who have died, but in both Vasilissa and Snow White, the reader gets to meet the mothers briefly and know of their love for their daughters before they die. Trina Schart Hyman's depiction of Snow White's mother in particular gets to me. In her face is so much expectation and longing for the baby she will never get to hold, and who will have such a hard life as a result of the mother's death. Fairy tales are often meant to be two-dimensional archetypes, but the details in these two stories are so rich with significance that I find the Disney version of the movie a little hard to take and hope that no one ever attempts a mainstream version of Vasilissa without consulting me first. (Ha!)

Let us end with light. While Santa Lucia Day is not until December 13, I plan to list this Santa Lucia doll with her accompanying Star Boy sometime in the next few days. (Edit: here is the listing.) May the person who goes looking for it actually find it. While the Swedish Santa Lucia is depicted as a blonde, the girls who dress as Santa Lucia for the procession have all kinds of hair colors. That's why my first Santa Lucia has brown hair:



If you are interested in looking at the listings of Snow White and Santa Lucia dolls when they become available, you are welcome to subscribe to the shop feed here.

P.S. Sometime in the past 24 hours, someone became the 100,000th visitor. Yay! I wish I'd had a screen-capture for that.

May Faire 2009

Friday, May 1, was sunny and warm. Sunday, May 3, was fairly pleasant as well. On Saturday, May 2, the day of May Faire and the May Pole dances, it rained for almost the entire day. It takes a lot to rain out a Waldorf school event, so everything went on as planned. We made garlands in the morning:



Then, each grade did their May dances. Here is a video screen capture of Lucia dancing:



I presented a story and song performance in the afternoon. Unfortunately, I can't share the video clips because there are recognizable children's faces in the video shots. For blogs, backs of heads are best. It was a wonderful storytime because the audience was so responsive. They laughed in all the right places and they sang along with all of the songs, even the ones I had made up. This was the first gig in which I've actually worn a flower crown akin to to the one I'm wearing on my website:



Lucia was wondering about books that had Maypoles in them. Just from memory, I could think of two:
Ellen Tebbits, by Beverly Cleary, in which there's a Maypole in the class play about the Pied Piper of Hamelin, and Blue Willow, by Doris Gates.

Do you know of others?

May 8 Addendum: In the comments, LoneStarMa refers to a particular picture of my childhood in which I am wearing a garland of yellow flowers. Here is a copy of that photo:

Storytime Wrap-Up: Seattle Public Library

We finally have winners of the Children's Book Sequels contest! The fabulous Minh Le and I will announce them next week, along with honorable mentions and all the other entries as well.

Today, I performed at the Madrona-Sally Goldmark branch of Seattle Public Library. This was the performance that had been postponed from December due to snow.



We had a good turn-out (29 people) and there were a number of babies as well as toddlers and preschoolers. People seemed to have a good time. I know I did. I performed my new song, "May I Walk With You?" with felt-board pieces you can see here:



There's a daytime version of this song, and a nighttime version. Here is the main body of the daytime version:

I went for a walk in the fields one day,
And I met a duck who was going my way,
"Quack, quack," said the duck, "May I walk with you,
Quack, quack," said the duck, "May I walk with you?"

Repeat with different animals.

The final verse:

And when I stopped walking, I turned to see
A whole bunch of animals following me....

[call out all the animal sounds]

Then we sat in the meadow and we all had tea,
When the party was over, they said to me,
"So long, and thanks for your company,
So long and thanks for your company."

I plan to record it eventually so that you may hear what it sounds like.

In other news, storytelling student Jody Segal had kind things to say about my gig at Third Place Books yesterday, which you may read here.

Storytelling Video: a timeline

As promised, here is the account of my promotional storytelling video shoot. Grace Stahre of VersantMedia is producing it. Grace spent a couple of hours last Friday night setting up the space in the house of a friend where the video was to be filmed. All times are approximate.

Saturday, February 28
8:45 am. Bede, Lucia and I show up, bearing props, snacks and cupcakes.

9:00 am. Make-up.

9:15 am. Lighting, props set-up, rearranging of the plants, shifting of the furniture, etc.

9:30 am I begin warm-ups while Grace and her camera colleague work on the set-up around me. The microphone transmitter I'm supposed to wear has gone missing.

9:40 am The icmrophone transmitter is found. After I'm hooked up and transmitting sound, I realize I have to use the washroom.

9:50 am. The first guests have showed up early! Ahhhh! No worries. They've come all the way from Redmond, which is a big deal. Even though Redmond is only 20 miles away, you have to cross the water and potentially deal with bad traffic to get to Seattle.

10:00 am. More guests arrive, and I direct them to the snacks. The guests sign the release forms, saying it's okay for us to film their children.

10:15 am. Three-quarters of the guests have arrived, and I play a few songs for them while Grace shoots some "pick-up" shots.

10:30 am. All the guests have arrived, and we're ready to go. I explain to the children that in a normal show, if I make a mistake, I just keep on going. Because we're filming this performance, I may stop after I make a mistake, wait a moment, and continue on.

10:31 am. "Stories and Songs for You," an original song, opens the show.

10:35 am I start my first story, "Lazy Jack." I learned this particular English folktale from NYPL luminary John Peters, and while it has a quasi-modern setting (i.e. on one of the days of the week, Jack goes to a delicatessan to get work), I've kept John's rhyme that his mother says to him: "Jack, Jack, my only son, why is your head like a bun?" I was worried that this story was going to be too long for the youngest ones. I don't know why it never before occured to me to have the children chanting that rhyme with me, but we did it for the video, and it worked. They laughed in all the right places, too.

10:43 am. I played the song "Hop Up Ladies," and the children "clip-clopped" their hands on their legs and also got up and danced.

10:48 am. Everyone got to choose a color for "Jenny Jenkins."

11:03 am. Children chose silk scarves to sweep across the floor and into the air while I chanted the nursery rhyme, "There Was an Old Woman..."

11:06 am. I introduced the song "Aiken Drum," and one of the girls called out, "You already did that song!" It's true, I had introduced the song to them during the warm-up with the idea that if they were familiar with the chorus, they'd sing along. I called back, "I know, but let's pretend that we're doing this song for the first time."

11:12 am. We do the thumb story, "Up the Hill and Down the Hill," also known as "Mr. Wiggle and Mr. Waggle." In the story I learned from my mom, the characters are Ms. Cat and Ms. Dog.

11:15 am. The children are doing quite well, but I know that since "Jenny Jenkins" took a long time, I'm going to have to drop a song from the set. I play through the song Someone just once.

11:17 am. We close with the story This is the Key to the Kingdom.

After the show, I thank everyone, and we mingle and talk while the children eat the cupcakes. Then, I realized that I forgot to invite the children to come up to strum my guitar with relatively clean, dry hands. Grace says, "We can still do it!" and a few children strum the guitar.

11:45 am. We've all had a quick bite to eat. Bede takes Lucia home, and then we film almost the WHOLE THING again so that Grace and Mr. Camera can get direct face shots and record a cleaner sound.

12:30 pm. We're not done yet! Now, the furniture is shifted a bit and the plants rearanged while we get ready for the interview portion of the shoot. I had been well for two months, but in the past week, had been fighting off a cold. I began to feel it coming on, and drank some Throat Coat tea.

1:00 pm. There sure are a lot of planes in Seattle. Every time I begin to speak, a plane flies overhead. Stomachs gurgle, too. Grace says, "Aren't you glad you don't have to do this 10 hours a day?" I reply, "This is one of the many reasons I am not an actress."

2:30 pm. We film some shots of the silk scarves swirling around in front of the camera.

3:15 pm. I've cleaned up all that I am able to do, thank everyone profusely, and head out with Bede and Lucia.

Now, Grace gets to send off the footage to the editor, and they'll go from there.

I've left out quite a bit on this timeline in terms of the conversations I had with the children, some of the funny things Grace and Mr. Camera said, and other tidbits of that ilk. I will fill in later as needed. Nwo, I'm off to crawl under the covers and sleep this pesky cold away.

Tidbits for Friday the 13th

Here's the latest on the Consumer Protection Safety Improvement Act:

CPSIA: It's February 10th, So Now What?

Even though small businesses don't have to undergo testing of their items for children another year (but are liable if their products end up having a certain amount of lead or Phthalates), I'm still creating my nature table figures for people who are over twelve years of age. If you don't think that grownups still play with dolls, just take a look at the Star Wars action figures and LEGO industries.

I don't have much else to report. I have a number of projects in the works, including a promotional storytelling video that VersantMedia is going to be filming on February 28. Take a look at VersantMedia's current projects. I'm there. I've got my regular bookstore gigs, plus a school visit coming up, but no birthday parties scheduled for the near future. The winter months are usually slow in terms of birthday parties, but I suspect our current economy is a factor too. Therefore, I'm glad that most of my gigs will be free to the public over the next few months.

I've also decided to open an Etsy storefront. Currently, it's just a placeholder, but by late spring, I hope to have nature table figures to offer in the shop. I plan to offer both the larger nature table figures with the elaborate embroidery and smaller root children/bulb babies. Like Bookshelves of Doom finds ways to support her habit, perhaps I'll find a way to justify my textiles expenses.

I will leave you with one of my favorite fairy tales. The link has full text, hypertext annotations, and a graphic list of the variants that star the most fascinating, complex character in Russian folklore, the great and terrible Baba Yaga. The story is Vassilisa the Beautiful, by Post Wheeler, and it comes to you courtesy of Sur La Lune Fairytales.com

Quite a crowd

Last month at Third Place Books, not a single person showed up for my 10 am storytime. It was uncanny, because there weren't even any children in the area. It was as if they'd gotten a message that storytime was canceled that morning. I played songs for fifteen minutes in the hopes that late arrivals would hear the music and join me, but all was still.

This morning made up for last month. The main storytime area thronged with children and spilled over into the book stacks. The crowd was enthusiastic, and one boy shouted, "That was awesome!" after "Jenny Jenkins." Afterward, I overheard this interchange:

Cargiver #1: "The singing was just lovely."

Caregiver #2: "Oh yes, it's such a good idea to have the songs mixed together with the stories."

Thank you, Third Place Books audience! I promised you some new stories and songs next month on December 19, and I plan to deliver.

Saint Blaise and Throat Remedies

[Photo of stained glass window of St. Blaise, courtesy of Romary by a Creative Commons Attribution 2.5 License.]

Two weeks ago, a mild cold turned to laryngitis at the 2nd Annual Kiditosphere Conference in Portland, Oregon. My husband wasn’t surprised I’d come down with laryngitis, because he’s been to a number of gaming conventions. Even though he would make sure to drink lots of water, he invariably came home with a sore throat.

The recovery process has been slow. It is one thing to speak, and another thing altogether to sing. I’ve heard of divas “babying their voices,” and thought that surely I couldn’t do the same because I’d feel silly and pretentious. I’ve since come around. I'm not going to squirt anti-bacterial soap on my palms every time I shake hands with someone, but I may have to resist kissing my daughter when she has a cold. It’s much harder to recover for singing than it is for speaking. My voice teacher said that it would be better for me to cancel my gigs than to attempt to plow through them with a sick throat. She said that a healthy throat can withstand a lot, but a sick throat, if pushed, can develop polyps.

I was determined to get better in time for the gigs. Here’s what I did over five days that helped me recover enough to tell stories and sing for a Pierce County Library program plus a private birthday party gig last weekend*:

Rest
Rest was key. I napped whenever I could, I didn’t even attempt to do vocal warm-ups, and kept speaking to a minimum.

Steam
Twice a day, I poured boiling water into a bowl, covered my head with a towel, and gently breathed in through my nose and out through my mouth with my head over the bowl. I only started doing this when I began voice lessons.

Throat Coat
This is a syrup produced by Traditional Medicinals. There’s a Throat Coat tea, which I drink too, but the syrup is good as an alternative to cough syrup. Even when I'm not dealing with throat issues, I take some of the syrup before and after gigs.

I wasn't too proud to call upon the intercession of St. Blaise, patron saint of people dealing with throat issues. I try not to succumb to magical thinking, but sometimes it's handy to have a saint to whom I can grumble when everyone else is tired of my kvetching and moaning. Here's what I said:

"Saint Blaise, Saint Blaise,
please help my throat malaise."

Patron saint intercessions don't have to rhyme, but I find them easier to remember that way. I am reminded, however, that there is no patron saint of people suffering the common cold. What gives? We have a patron saint of hangovers, after all (as well as a patron saint of beer and wine, but I digress).

Saturday's Eatonville program to be rescheduled

I was scheduled to perform at the Eatonville branch of Pierce County Library System this Saturday, October 11, at 11:30 am. However, Eatonville just found out their power was going to be turned off until 1 pm that day. We were able to reschedule the program for Saturday, December 13, at 11:30 am.

The silver lining in this turn of events is that I'll have some unscheduled time with the House of Glee on Saturday. On Sunday, we're planning to catch local musician Brian Vogan's show at Buggy, a children's used clothing store in the Seattle Beacon Hill neighborhood (home of Ruby Lu). The show starts at 11:30 am. You can find my recent review of Vogan's debut album here.

Pierce County Library Programs

Musical Storytime with Farida Dowler

Follow the link for my Pierce County Library programs this Fall!

Checking In: Storytime Gigs and What-Not

Friends, please know that while I have a big backlog of posts and books to read, I am at least reading your most recent posts on my RSS reader. My posts here as of late have not had a lot of juice to them, and I'm really just posting placeholder pieces so you know I've not dropped away from blogging.

Today, I had two gigs at a day-camp that functions as a preschool during the year. They went well, although I'll tell you, those 4 and 5 year olds really made me earn my pay today. I think I did fairly well considering that they were so wild and woolly I knew inviting them to stand up and dance was not going to happen. Here was my first clue that I would have to work my crowd-control skills to their limits: I told them that "Fooba Wooba John" was a funny song, and began to play it. They laughed, but not in a "ho ho, that's amusing" kind of way. No, it was the "BWA HA HA THIS IS THE FUNNIEST THING I'VE EVER HEARD AND I'M GOING TO DROWN YOU OUT" kind of laughter. The teacher tried to shush them, but to no avail. I stopped the song, said,"Friends, I know I'm a little bit funny, but I'm not that funny," and then continued after they'd settled down slightly. Soon after, they started to say "Ewwww!" in loud voices every time I took a sip from my water-bottle, until I said, "It's just water." I was curious as to what was going through their minds, but I knew better than to ask.

In a reversal of my usual storytime experience, the group was restless and wiggly during the songs, but (relatively) quiet and attentive during the stories. Joseph the Tailor and Phyllis Gershator's Zzzng! Zzzng! Zzzng! went over particularly well. When it came time to do "Jenny Jenkins," I simply picked the dress colors out of the bag while they yelled the colors because I knew that there would be chaos if I invited them to choose the colors themselves.

The 2 and 3 year old group was mellow and laid-back. They got to pick the dress colors out of the bag and stand up to dance to "There Ain't No Bugs On Me" (with the instructions to jump up and down, not side to side). One-third of the way through the program, a little girl asked, "Are you going to drink coffee now?" One of the teachers explained that the kids were used to the teachers drinking coffee throughout the day. Afterward, when I invited questions and comments, I heard from half the class about how much they loved to go swimming. I get that. It's part of the oral tradition. Even though there were no stories or songs about swimming, one child told about her swimming experience, which reminded another child of his swimming experience, and so on. It's the same way with jokes and dreams.

In other news, Bede is back from his five-day trip to Indianapolis, Indiana, where he took part in GenCon. and revealed his game, How to Host a Dungeon. This website is still in progress, and you can't see the nifty little graphics that Bede drew for the game. Here's one:

Swamp Songs and Summer Stories

For all of you who asked if Lucia ever came with me to help out with storytimes, the answer is, "Yes, she has come to many a storytime performance, and has been an enthusiastic audience member, but she may (temporarily) be barred from performances in the near future." Tonight, Lucia consistently pulled the rabbits out of the hats before I had even showed the hats to the audience, so to speak. She's heard my stories and songs so many times that she can spring the plot twists and reveal the surprises to the rest of the audience.

There was a good turnout for tonight's Pajama Storytime, and the appreciative audience was a boon. I presented the string story of "The Mosquito" and prior to that, showed off my few string tricks. The co-owner of Island Books came over and showed me Cat's Cradle. (I was so proud of myself because I did not drop the cradle.) Then I told Phyllis Gershator's Zzzng! Zzzng! Zzzng!, The Sun Sisters from Margaret Read MacDonald's Three-Minute Tales, Thacher Hurd's Mama Don't Allow, and Nancy Stewart's "Nocturnal Animals."

I performed "Jenny Jenkins" as usual, and Bede caught some of the song on video. I've edited it down, so you don't hear all of the audience interaction between colors:



Tomorrow I have a preschool storytime gig at Third Place Books. Also, when I came home, I received a message about a potential future gig that, should it come to fruition, will be one I've wanted for a good while. Stay tuned....

Pierce County Library Programs

I think it's safe to say that it's official: this October and November, I will be presenting eight musical storytime programs for the Pierce County Library System. I'll have the dates and times listed on my homepage (Farida Dowler Storyteller) once the specifics are finalized. I've also got some daycare center gigs lined up, with the distinct possibility of one becoming a monthly affair. I don't have any more birthday party gigs planned, but those requests often come short-notice. However, the last birthday party gig I had, the mother had booked me eight weeks ahead of time, and we had a chance to trade emails and bounce off various ideas.

Coming up soon: Pajama Storytime at Island Books on Thursday, June 26, Preschool Storytime at Third Place Books (Lake Forest Park) on Friday, June 27, and Arts in the Afternoon at the Children's Museum on Thursday, July 3. My website lists times and links.

Seven Kicks for a Sunday in June

Every Sunday, Jules and Eisha of Seven Impossible Things Before Breakfast host 7Imp's 7 Kicks, and invite all readers to do the same. It's a way to take stock of the week and recognize one's blessings. Thinking up seven positive things that happened each week is good for me, because I tend to be a grumbling camel. Fortunately, I can always finesse the list by listing "the first cup of coffee" if I get really stumped for blessings.

Here are my seven kicks for the week:

1) I had a lovely outdoor birthday party gig yesterday. It was chilly and grey, but it didn't rain, and that was a boon to the event. There were 30 children in attendance, so it was more of a "storytelling concert" that I'd do for general admittance audience. Afterward, I let the children come up for a little open-mike session. One little girl told a story, three children sang, "Twinkle Twinkle" and a few just wished the two birthday girls Happy Birthday. I'd had good communication with the mother over the past couple of months, too, so we both had a good idea of what the program would entail. She was a gracious and generous host who ended up inviting my husband and daughter to partake of the festivities (they had been exploring the park while I performed). I told "The Three Dolls" (a story from India that you can find in David Holt's Ready to Tell Tales), Joan Chase Bowden's Why the Tides Ebb and Flow, "Two Goats on a Bridge" from Margaret Read MacDonald's Three Minute Tales, plus a couple of string stories from Anne Pellowski's The Story Vine and a few of my standard songs. Toward the end of "Jenny Jenkins," the dresses began to blow off of the flannel board, and the children helped rescue them. (I had anticipated that the "wind fairies" might be mischievious that day, and therefore presented only one flannel-board song.) Oh, and I can't believe I almost forgot this: one of the girls in the audience played air-guitar during "Jenny Jenkins."

2) Jules of 7Imp just sent me four mix cds. I'm thrilled to be able to listen to so much new music. Contrary to the theory that mix cds cut into the music industries' profits, I end up spending more money after listening to mix cds because I find new musicians to like. Q.E.D.

3) We got a copy of Recess Monkey's new cd, "Tabby Road" a month ahead of schedule because we helped to record it. I'm working on a review, but will wait to post it until closer to the release date. I've got to say, it's their best yet, with a number of songs that are earworms. I've been singing, "S-L-Double E-P Over, it's Double-E-P Over with you/ feelin' kind of groovy with a pizza and a movie, it's a Double-E-P Over with You!"

4) Sam Phillips' new album, Don't Do Anything,came out last week, and I've been listening to it quite a bit. My Sam appreciation is credited to Jules again, who jumped for joy when I told her that "Sister Rosetta Goes Before Us" was my favorite song on the Alison Krauss/Robert Plant Raising Sand album. The song, penned by Phillips, is on "Don't Do Anything," and it's even better when sung by the original song-writer.

5) Speaking of Sam Phillips, Philip the Pun and I are planning to attend her Borders Books and Music concert on Wednesday evening. Join us if you're so inclined!

6) I just got a note that Dan Zanes' new album, “¡Nueva York!” is on its way. Huzzah! (I have a confession to make: jamming with Dan Zanes and his band is up there on my wish list. I'm not saying that I'd be any good, but I figure that Colin Brooks' drums, John Foti's accordion and Elena Moon Park's violin would cover my short-comings, and besides, in we'd be in someone's living room, not in Carnegie Hall.)

7) That first cup of coffee is quite nice. Thank you, Bede, for making it.

That was good... that was bad... that was good...

Someone called to book me for a birthday party.

That was good!

Unfortunately, I already had a previous commitment.

That was bad!

But then, the program coordinator for the Seattle Children's Museum contacted me to lead an Arts in the Afternoon program on July 3rd at 1 pm.

That was good!

Then... well, it's all good. The point is that when I tell one of many variations on the "That Was Good/That Was Bad" story, I talk about how often a day isn't all good or all bad, but a mixture of the two-- and sometimes deciding whether or not the day was a good one depends on how you look at the overall picture. I don't wish to downplay the real troubles that people have to deal with on a daily basis, but when you're a child, sometimes the immediate event often crowds out memories of the past or expectations of the future.

I plan to use a specifically-tailored version of "That Was Good/That Was Bad" for my Arts in the Afternoon presentation. Here are my props to hold up to prompt the audience responses:



I made the "Good" and "Bad" signs with construction paper and used high-contrast text for those children who might be color-blind or have other sight issues. Here is the outline of my last "Good/Bad" storytime-- the park version. Feel free to expand upon it or make your own version, and if you do on-the-spot improvisation, be sure to have a good idea of how it's going to end.

That Was Good/That Was Bad: Park edition

I got to go to the park today.
THAT WAS GOOD.

When I got to the park, all the swings were filled with other children.
THAT WAS BAD.

A little girl said, “Here, take my swing—I’m all done.”
THAT WAS GOOD.

I forgot to hold onto the handles, and I fell out.
THAT WAS BAD.

My grownup hugged me until I felt better.
THAT WAS GOOD.

But then another child took my swing.
THAT WAS BAD.

I saw some of my friends playing in the sandbox, and they said, “Come play with us!”
THAT WAS GOOD.

When I got to the sandbox, there were no shovels for me to use.
THAT WAS BAD.

I played with a dump-truck instead.
THAT WAS GOOD.

Then, my grownup said, “It’s time to leave the sandbox.”
THAT WAS BAD.

But it was snack-time!
THAT WAS GOOD.

However, my grownup forgot the snacks.
THAT WAS BAD.

Whoops—she didn’t forget them, they were in a different bag, and she had sandwiches, celery sticks and crackers to eat.
THAT WAS GOOD.

However, she forgot the water-bottles, and we were so thirsty.
THAT WAS BAD.

Fortunately, there was a water-fountain nearby.
THAT WAS GOOD.

Unfortunately, there was no water in it.
THAT WAS BAD.

We were so thirsty!
THAT WAS BAD.

However, a friend of ours said, “We’ve got an extra thermos of water. Have some.”
THAT WAS GOOD.

But then it was time to go home.
THAT WAS BAD.

When we got home, I walked through the door and people shouted, “Surprise! It’s your birthday party!”
THAT WAS GOOD.

And that is the end of that story.
THAT WAS GOOD.

Why, thank you!

Public Performances at Third Place Books

I've been so busy. My apologies for not keeping up with your blogs. I plan to do a little catch-up over the weekend.

The good news is that I have some public performance gigs scheduled for the next months. A few days ago, I received an email from two different library colleagues that Third Place Books needed a storyteller for some Friday preschool storytimes. I emailed the contact person on Tuesday evening, and got a message Wednesday morning that she needed someone as soon as that Friday morning. I accepted, performed for about 20 children and grownups yesterday, and now have four three more storytimes planned: March 14, May 30, and June 27. Performing at bookstores is always perilous, of course, because I often end up spending at least the amount I make on books. Yesterday, I picked up a copy of Margaret Read MacDonald's The Great, Smelly, Slobbery, Small-Tooth Dog for Lucia for Valentine's Day (and she is "sweet as a honeycomb"), plus The McElderry Book of Greek Myths, by Eric Kimmel. I may have also picked up a used copy of a Tudor historical fiction book written by an author who takes great liberties with her subject matter, but that information is strictly entre-nous.

I've got a birthday party gig this morning, so I'm off and running soon. To be continued...

12:35 pm: What an engaging bunch of children! Most of them were in the 3 year old range, so I emphasized music over straight-up stories. Really, though, the interactive songs like "Jenny Jenkins" and "Fly Through My Window" have little stories of their own. I used the dyed play-silks my mom made for me and sang Nancy Stewart's "Dancing Rainbow Colors." The hosts had arranged the birthday girl's play canopy over the space where I performed and it looked like a fairy bower.

Awards, Gigs, Dreams, and Barre Chords

1) Get your 2008 ALA literary award announcements (Newbery, Caldecott, Prinz, King, Batchelder, and more) right here. I'm way behind on my books, but hey, I do read what the bloggers tell me to read.

2) I had fun at my two birthday party gigs yesterday. Unfortunately, Bede was too sick to take Lucia to her classmate's birthday party yesterday (on our 7th wedding anniversary), and she was a bit down about that. However, the host from my second gig sent me home with cake and balloons for Lucia, so that was a perk.

3) I had a dream last night that I was taking a high school/college course with Neil Gaiman as the professor. When I received my report card, I found that Gaiman had flunked me. Gaiman had written in the margins, "Sorry about this--I think I gave too much reading material for this course." Never mind that in the dream I had no recollection of taking Gaiman's course, and would certainly have done the reading had I known what the assignments actually were. My dreams of late have all been variations on the theme of finding out that all my degrees are going to be negated unless I take two high school/college/graduate school courses. These courses are often a combination of English, Science, and Gym. I have a hard time finding my classes and by the time I do, the semester is almost over. I think these dreams have something to do with my lifelong frustration over the implied expectation that I can read my professors' or supervisors' minds. (Memorandum to past professors and supervisors: I can't read your minds. I know you're older and wiser than I, but trust me on this one.)

4) I'm in the midst of participating in HipWriterMama's latest 30 day challenge. This month, I'm working on barre chords for 15 minutes every day. While I've got the F chord (barring 2 strings) down and am successfully strumming a B flat barre chord 75% of the time, I've yet to incorporate these chords into songs smoothly. However, I thought this might be a good time to introduce my F7 major chord for those of you perpetually frustrated by the F chord on the guitar. I use the F7 major chord for quick changes between C and G chords, and also for arpeggios on the upper tier a la House of the Rising Sun. Here it is: