Pantomime theater – Sleeping Beauty and the Pea

We took the kids to see Sleeping Beauty and the Pea in Seattle last night and discovered the jobs of pantomime theater. There were plenty of bad puns, actors dressed unconvincingly in drag (the fairy princess had a real mustache and the handsome prince had a fake one), and cheery songs. Audience members are encouraged boo the villains and cheer on the heroes. When the princess was on stage expressed how great her life was, a little girl in the peanut gallery shouted “Yeah, until you get pricked!”

My kids loved it, and it was quite nice to heckle in the theater and sing along with the audience. We’ll make this a family tradition.

Sleeping Beauty and the Pea
Hale’s Palladium – 4301 Leary Way NW Seattle WA
http://www.brownpapertickets.com/event/274998

Draw!

Annual Drawing Jam – Seattle

Saturday, December 1, 2012
Gage Academy of Art, Capitol Hill
Admission: $10 for adults/free for kids and teens

This year’s drawing event at Seattle’s Gage Academy of Art featured studios set up with easels, models in flamboyant costumes, and nude figure models for artists to interpret. Some studios even had live music, to accompany artistic expression.

The experience was mostly self-guided. After checking in, you pick up your instruments of choice from the art-supplies section (I fell in love with an amazing charcoal pencil that I brought home with me); choose the room or studio that calls out to you (e.g., self-portrait room; kids’ rooms, sculpture, etc.); find an empty easel; and start drawing. Or doodling.

We’re putting next year’s Drawing Jam on our calendar as well. We are grateful to all the sponsors and volunteers that made this event possible.

 

 

 

  

11/11/11: Auspicious date?

Last night, David and I sat through “11/11/11,” a horror-thriller described on Netflix as “chilling,” and about some kid who’s scheduled to turn into the devil when he turns eleven years old on November 11, 2011 at 11:11 p.m.

The film has not been reviewed, but given the silly premise, we knew what we were in for.

A professor gets a new job and moves his family into university housing. But there’s something evil about the new place: the house numbers add up to eleven. And the neighbors (there were probably eleven of them!) come to welcome the family with unsavory cookies, and strange tales with references to the number 11. Important events all seem to occur at eleven minutes past the hour.

I’ll admit that I enjoyed the cheesy plot, but senseless details in the film drove me nuts. In an early scene, for instance, a degenerate neighbor calls the dad at his office to warn him that if he doesn’t kill his son, who’s the devil’s spawn, then she’ll have to murder the boy herself. Yet he doesn’t think to alert the authorities of the threat or beef up his home security. This isn’t plausible behavior, not even for a character in a supernatural horror movie.

Later in the film, the father finds his son passed out on the kitchen floor with his hands covered in blood. There’s a dead possum-like creature in the corner and it’s not clear whether the kid was eating it or trying to fend off its attacks. Instead of calling an ambulance, or trying to revive the boy, the dad washes the blood off his son’s hands and tucks him back into bed.

And what was up with that possum? Was that supposed to be some harbinger of death or evil? We’ll probably find out in the sequel, “12/12/12.”

Christmas 2011

Ayuko knitted that blue scarf for me a few years ago.

Halloween 2011

Parquet (suite)

Avant:

Pendant:

Après:

Parquet

770 kg de Teck Brésilien (Cumaru) qui n’attendent plus qu’à être installés…

Roman de Gare

“Roman de Gare” is by far the most intriguing and hilarious film I have seen in months. And it’s way more exciting than the title (which translates to airport novel) would indicate. There’s a famous crime writer; a serial killer who does magic tricks; a wife reporting a missing husband; and a creepy magician hanging around a rest stop at 3 a.m. insisting on giving a stranded passenger a ride.

The film took me all over the place to sort out how these lives might be interconnected: the creepy magician at the service station might be that serial killer. And he could also be the ghost-writer for the famous author. Or the ghost-writer might be the serial killer.

There’s a lot of comedy and a lot of loose ends. But everything comes together in the end. Just brilliant.

Ricky

David and I thought the movie Ricky was an allegory, but neither of us were sure what about.

In the movie, a woman’s seemingly normal baby sprouts wings. Yes, wings. She meets a guy at work, they have a baby, and the baby grows wings. Most new parents aren’t likely to face such a predicament but we can all relate to trying to create a normal life for a child who’s not normal.

Ricky’s mom loves her kids but she’s an outrageously irresponsible parent—the kind of mom that real-life moms would love to judge. She oversleeps in the morning and has to be woken up by her seven-year-old daughter. In another scene, she’s hooking up in the unisex bathroom at work with a coworker whom she just met. Flash forward a couple of months and she’s leaving her winged baby unattached and unattended in a shopping cart in a crowded hypermarket. And I won’t even discuss that press conference scene with the baby attached to a string.

Throughout the film, I got the impression that no good could come from such parental irresponsibility. Perhaps this was one of those reap-what-you-sew messages aimed at bad parents: hook up in the bathroom at a chemical factory and your baby will sprout wings.

Rainforest Cafe

The Rainforest Café is a jungle-themed family restaurant in a mall in South Seattle. It’s a fun place for kids. We were invited there to celebrate one of Tiggy’s friend’s sixth birthday.

The place is covered with faux tropical flora and fauna. There’s even a waterfall and a thunderstorm that goes off every 15 minutes or so. And giant aquariums. With real fish. The restaurant must employ staff just to maintain the tanks and feed all those fish.

The food is far less adventurous than the decor, but it’s more palatable than the meals we’ve eaten at a lot of other chain and themed restaurants.