We love ya, buddy.
Uncategorized
Archived Posts from this Category
November 3, 2009
Faith’s First Contract
Her contract for Norma at Vancouver Opera, where she’ll play the daughter of the title character in the Bellini opera Nov28 – Dec 5, 2009.
Since Norma is the “queen”, Faith figures that makes her a “princess”.
She’s very excited. Rehearsals begin Nov 11th.
October 25, 2009
We had a great birthday/halloween party today for Faith and 20 of her friends. It was a full costume party, including any adults who planned to stay. M and two adult friends? Witches. me? Zombie. We started at 4pm with pumpkin decorating. Then we moved to “pin the bones on the skeleton” and finally off to the mad scient’s lab to figure out what was hidden under a bunch of covers: Frankenstein’s brain, witch’s eyeballs, vampire snot, zombie guts and the like.
Then pizza, soda, cake and gift giving. Lovely anarchy.
Michelle did a great job and also took some pics. I was glad to help out and took a few myself, which you can see on our flickr sidebar. Click on the part where it says “more pictures“.
all had a great time. all super tired, washed, put to bed. me too…………………..
October 24, 2009
There’s a great Mojo Nixon song called “Elvis Is Everywhere” which you can listen to and watch if you stay with me on this “Opera is Everywhere” post.
To a child, the world is full of music. There is no division in their minds between music and sound, or between voice and song. Ever listen to a small child talking to themselves in that sing-song little voice they use? Ever leave a small one alone with a cup and a hard surface?
Even as adults we’re want to tap that pencil as we suss out a sudoku puzzle.
So when my daughter was young, we used to have “Opera days” where, before going off to daycare, everything had to be sung. No talking, only singing. As hard as this might sound at first, you pretty soon get into a groove of your choice; be it reggae or gregorian chant. You’ll even find that simple things like “Do you want some toast?” can take on Wagnerian proportions, much to the delight of your little ones.
The point is that even a rarefied discipline like opera is, at its heart, nothing more complicated than “sing me a story”. Anybody can do it about anything they like. And equally important, this game you play with your kids lets them know that music IS everywhere, and that anything from “everybody clean up” to “time to go to sleep” can be music.
And somehow dropping her off to the tune of “So Long, Farewell,” from Sound of Music seemed to draw far fewer tears on those days when it was hard to be separated.
So get your Mojo back, discover your inner Elvis and give “Opera day” a shot. There’s nothing quite like starting your day with a standing ovation.
And now, I offer as a reward, the musical stylings of Mojo Nixon and Skid Roper:
October 20, 2009
Birthday Pancakes!
Look at the right hand column for the latest pictures.
Mom made pancakes with syrup, strawberries and whipped cream.
October 15, 2009
Synopsis
Act 1
The grove.
A secret love unites the seeress Norma with Pollione, the Roman proconsul, by whom she has borne two children. But Pollione has grown tired of the aging druidess and has fallen in love with Adalgisa, a young temple virgin. Despite Adalgisa’s piety and virtue, she agrees to flee to Rome with Pollione. Adalgisa innocently tells Norma of her love, and Norma curses Pollione for his treachery.
Act 2
Norma’s apartment.
Norma is about to kill her children, but her love for her children finally confides them to the care of Adalgisa. When Pollione comes to take Adalgisa from the temple, Norma denounces him and he is seized by the Druids, after having refused to give up Adalgisa. Norma proclaims herself equally guilty with him. The pyre is lighted, and ascending it, Norma dies with her lover.
You will need to know this soon.
September 20, 2009
So we’ve been good all weekend, cleaning, working, playing nice with each other and so Daddy thought it would be a nice treat to take everybody out for Sunday night dinner. There’s a new sushi place in the neighborhood, Gin Mi, that Daddy thought we’d try out.
So the Libby clan rolls in the door of the restaurant and Roan instantly yells to the staff “I don’t like Sushi!” Giggling nervously, Faith follows the waitress to the middle of the empty and nicely appointed Japanese dining room. Comfortably seated, Roan pulls out his chopsticks as the waitress returns with our water. A joyous announcement of “Look at me!”, alerts the rest of us to the fact that they fit nicely in his ears.
First course, veggie gyoza and ebi (shrimp) gyoza, which is greeted with a quick stab from Faith’s single chopstick and a “wassat?” from Roan. Quickly cut open for Roan to cool, it hasn’t reached room temp before Faith has quickly devoured her share, saying “What’s this called? (Gyoza) Whatever, you going to eat that?” Mercifully, everybody managed to finish course one without loosing a finger.
Sensing a lapse in the inhalation of food, the waitress quickly delivers chicken soba, a vegatable chicken soup with long fat buckwheat soba noodles. Served family style, this is to be Roan’s main course. “Just basically like chicken noodle soup” daddy had said as an aside to M while looking at the menu, “he’ll like that”
“WHAT”S THAT? I DON”T LIKE THAT!” rings out from the corner still occupied by a half-eaten dumpling and a wild-eyed four-year-old. “You’ve never had it. It’s good. It has noodles, you like noodles” explains M. Then daddy tries to spoon some out. Um, these noodles are determined to stay in the bowl and are approximately the length of an adult anaconda. “Ahhhh!” cries Roan “They going to get me!” Giggling like a madman and enjoying daddy’s predicament. “You want help?” asks the waitress. “No we got it,” say M and daddy, when clearly daddy does not have it.
Some time later, noodles have been scooped into a bowl and flopped onto a plate for Roan, along with some cutlets of chicken. If you think daddy had trouble wrestling slippery noodles into a bowl, imagine the catastrophe when they meet the anxious four year old fingers of R-as-in-Rodney-Dangerfield Libby. “Ahhh! It’s gots me!” he cries as a noodle takes a swing past his mouth, onto his cheek then sticks to his forearm. A struggle of epic proportions ensues, with the anaconda noodle meeting its fate in a gaping, giggling maw in the end.
On the heels of this comes sushi, which is divided and sub-divided, gutted, mangled, folded and spindled by the efficient and whirling dual chopsticks of Faith-Fu. It’s quite a sight, with fish, pieces of rice, seaweed wrappers and various sauces and spices combining mid-air in a dance of culinary chaos. It’s only with the arrival of more napkins by our ever-present waitress that it sinks in with Faith that perhaps her parents are not the only ones that notice that she’s been wiping her hands on her clothes and her nose on her forearm.
“Why her keep looking at me? She near looking at me!” demands Roan. “She’s not really sure what to say about you,” says daddy. “I’m Roan!” says our man, now having figured out how to slurp his noodles from between his greasy little fingers, “Watch this!” he says, slurping another victim the length of his arm into his gibbering little mouth.
Not to be left out and having decimated three or four pieces of maki, Faith has also turned her attention to soba submission. Having a place somewhat on the front side of the soba-slurping experience curve, Faith quickly experiences soba-slapdown, taking the very end of the noodle right to the noodle. More specifically, she takes one right in the eye. Not to be stopped, our Pixie quickly wipes her eye with her bare hand, wipes that hand on her pants and grabs another victim, slurping it noisily to a successful end.
For his part, Roan has not overlooked his napkin, having used and abused to the point where it has slid helplessly to the floor. Not to be denied an appropriate place to put his noodles (a plate being passe in Roanworld), our intrepid hero slides silently to the floor, lone chopstick in hand. Success is quick and its silence broken only by the triumphant announcement of “GOT IT!” that follows a greasy little fist, gripping the dripping chopstick, and firmly speared through the center of the mauled napkin, as it rises above the surface of the table.
M and daddy at this point have given up, guffaw loudly and quickly call for the check. M leads the hoarde quickly through the front door, as daddy leaves a nice healthy tip for the waitress and with one last look back at ground zero and a shake of the head, departs quickly to the parking lot.
Where he sees this…..
We have such the finest time together. Love to all. Goodnight.
September 14, 2009
A Transformers Birthday Cake
September 13, 2009
Today as part of Vancouver Opera’s “Community Connections” program, staff, family and friends volunteered and raised money for the BC SPCA and went on a walk at Jericho Beach Park.
We talked the previous night about what it was for: so people could take care of animals that didn’t have homes or someone to take care of them. I’d love to say the kids were deeply philanthropic about this cause, but in the end the phrase “animal fair” seemed to be a greater motivator.
To kid swith no pets the prospect of getting to pet a bunch of dogs is as exotic as going to the zoo.
Kudos to the BCSPCA for a well organized little fair atmosphere. We missed the agility dogs demonstration our friends K and little M (pictured) told us it was great. They also had an adopt-a-dog ‘auction’ of sorts, which we stayed well away from.
Someone once told me you don’t go shopping for a dog, you go to pick one up.
Once we gathered all our opera friends we went on a little walk in the woods with the dogs, including one with three legs which was a source of fascination for Faith. If you can’t tell, she was in charge of the camera all day.
After the walk, we spent about an hour having a picnic lunch on the beach with our friends and playing in the sand.
A good time was had by all, evidenced by how fast everybody passed out in the car on the way home.
