A Sunday Trip To Princeton

Today, my son participated in a piano festival up in Princeton at the Westminster Choir College of Rider University http://www.rider.edu/wcc.  It's not what you're thinking.  Robert did not sit at a glistening baby grand up on stage, performing for an auditorium filled with parents and patrons.  Instead it was a session with an audience of three:  his adoring parents and a professor from the college who critiqued the two pieces he had memorized.  

Yes, piano lessons for the last four years have a been a sacrifice of time and money, but this is a pleasure.  Like any good parent, I like to live vicariously through my children and to see them master a skill like musical performance is a joy. When it comes to reading musical notes, I am a stone cold illiterate.

Afterwards, we meandered around Princeton's campus and visited the Princeton Museum http://artmuseum.princeton.edu/ .  What a gem of a place, packed with art and scupture from around the world.  The collection spanned centuries, from ancient Greek pottery shards to Basquiat! It was a thoroughly enjoyable day.

A pic of me at the Princeton Museum!

Lemonade Out of Lemons

The aggravation has ended thanks to our IT department.  They cracked the code that had been ruining Blogger for us in the high school.  Yes, I felt hamstrung for the last couple weeks, completely frustrated because Blogger was out of commission here in the school, and the students get graded for the quality and frequency of their blogs. 

During the Bloggerless times, several students had recommended Tumblr, a blogging service that seems a little more shinier and nimbler than what I'm now using.  I registered and gave it a try, and it does have some advantages over Blogger; however, I think for now I'm going to be doing most of my academic blogging with my first love.

Where's the lemonade you ask? If some of my students want to make their entries happen via Tumblr, no problem!  Do I shop at one grocery store? I go to Shop Rite, Wegmans, and Pathmarksd! Do I use one exclusive gas station? No!  Do I read one newspaper? Heck no! My students have taught me to be open to different options and I think our on-line journaling will be enriched if people find a blogging vehicle that best suits them. 

I need to know who is going to stick with what service, and I need to get comfortable being linked with the folks who chose tumblr.

Alternative to Sponsor Visits?

As I  enjoy my third year teaching Senior Project, experience has taught me that an occasional week may crop up when students can't see their sponsor for reasons ranging from snowstorms to accidents to miscommunication to sponsor unavailability, and so on.  This morning, while shaving, I had an epiphany; have them select and visit a sponsor on-line if the visit falls through!  Where can they find a sponsor ?  TEDtalks can be a starter.

My friend Mr. Carrol actually turned me on to this site: http://www.ted.com/talks . Go to it and you will find gifted speakers who serve as experts in their fields.   The longer talks are only 20 minutes.  Some of them are so great that they can be life transforming!

While we're at it, the students can make digital field trips to other great sites where they can meet experts in their Senior Project fields. Yes, there's quality video out there that Youtube just doesn't have. Try any of the following and type something relevant in the search engines:

http://www.cbsnews.com/sections/60minutes/main3415.shtml

http://www.charlierose.com/

http://www.cbsnews.com/sections/sunday/main3445.shtml

Students, this is alternative to missing a sponsor visit through no fault of your own.  Make sure to be thoughtful when you write up your Sponsor Visit # ? blog.  Include what you learn, how you were inspired, or what you would like to ask your field's expert.   You must also include the link so that the rest of us can watch it if we choose.  You may use these resource as material for "Connections Blogs."  Have fun and here's to a lifetime of learning.

Getting Older

Back when I was younger, I had a tendency to lie about my age - a lot.  I always made sure to add another year to my real age.  It all started in 4th grade or so.  Being older, in  my mind, was synonymous with maturity, and I wanted so much to be a mature responsible kid.   I learned to round my age up because I've never been particularly good at lying.  Nine and a half became ten.  Later, sixteen became seventeen. Needless to say, I no longer tack on that extra year.  I've run about half the race.

This picture is about thirty-five years old, give a couple years.  My family lived in Latham, NY, a suburb just outside of Albany.  As I look at the photo, I want to ask my younger self questions because I've forgotten so much of what I liked and disliked when I was seven.  What are your favorite TV shows besides Sesame Street, Mr. Rodgers, and the Electric Company? What do you do with your spare time?  How much money did you get for the tooth? What do you want to be when you grow up?  A teacher? A scientist?  I think back then I wanted to be a firefighter.  My youth is all very hazy.

Lately, I've become more aware of aging.  For example, I'll go to a mall and look around and realize that I'm now older than most of the people browsing in the stores and milling about.  The really old folks sometimes seem that they're from another world. I combat the aging process by working on maintaining a "young" brain, and I owe this ability to working around teenagers all day. I let their vigor and optimism rub off on me.

"Rejoice, O young man, in thy youth; and let thy heart cheer thee in the days of thy youth, and walk in the ways of thine heart, and in the sight of thine eyes..."  Ecclesiates 11:9

Spiderman! Spiderman!

If I were 20 years younger, I might feel differently about Spiderman, but here goes: I'm ambivalent.

My hat's off to the creative genius who pulled the story of Arachne, the hurbristic weaver, out of Greek mythology to give her a grand role on Broadway as Spiderman's ancestor, mentor, and muse.

On one hand, I reveled in the special effects, the flash, and the panache, just like nearly everyone else in the audience. Never before have I seen human beings "fly" (the aerial flight fight between Spiderman and the Green Goblin will always be with me), nor have I seen live theater that so artfully blends a comic book medium with actual theater. The chameleon-like sets had a magical life of their own, blending light and digital art like nobody's business. I could wax on and on about the splendiferous costumes and the impeccable dancing. The way that the director spliced two human dancers together to create an eight-legged arachnid, and the other scene in which dancers used four life-sized puppet legs, all wearing stolen shoes, captivated me. Truly, this was more than a play; it was an experience.

Alas, this is an experience that I will perhaps see once in my life; I do not have a hankering for a second experience, and perhaps I can blame it on my age, although I'm not yet a crusty old man, and my sense of what a Broadway show should be.

When I leave a show, I expect to hear the songs echoing in my head. This is the hallmark of a great score, and I didn't get this from Spiderman, which is disappointing because I went in with a bias; I was a hardcore U2 fan back in 1983, and I have most of their albums. U2 created the show's soundtrack, and Julie Taymore planted an electrified band bristling with high octane guitars practically on center stage. They seemed out of place to me, and this made me wonder about the ego of The Edge, allowing him to vicariously and visibly share the action with Spidey, Peter, and MJ.

If only we had more cohesive story-line and a credible, despicable villain on the order of Scar from The Lion King. If only the music weren't so loud and if only I weren't blinded a few times by lights that should have been on a baseball field for a night game. This is where I sound like the old man I don't want to become.

I wish this show only the best. I hope that it pulls hundreds of thousands of young people into its spellbinding net, people who otherwise wouldn't invest the money or time to see a Broadway show. Hopefully, if they get jazzed about Spiderman, they will be open to experiencing the classics like Sunset Boulevard, Camelot, and Ragtime - shows that have a story and a score.