Let the performances begin

This was a big spring for music and art-- Lydia had a final performance for her "hip hop" class, and Ethan had both an orchestra concert and a viola recital.  Alas, I don't have much to show in the photography department. E's viola recital was held in a church, and it was difficult to get photos without disturbing the performance; for the other two events, there wasn't enough light (and we were told not to use a flash). Anyhow, here is Lydia:

Note that hot pink, shiny outfits-- good stuff. The dance performance included an astonishing number of groups and troupes-- our local rec center has just one small dance room, but they pack a tremendous number of classes into it (the performance went on for hours).  Many of Lydia's friends and classmates were there participating as well. There was one girl who plays on Lydia's soccer team who was part of a separate dance session-- at first I almost didn't recognize here, then I finally realized that it was because she had a big grin on her face (during the soccer games, she invariably had a grim expression).

Here is Ethan getting ready to perform at the orchestra concert:

It was a nice performance, although as usual with Diamond, the stage was about as filled with kids as you can possibly imagine.

Meanwhile, Lydia has declared her intention to play trumpet in the school band. This may be tricky to arrange, since the rule is that you are not allowed to begin band until you are in 5th grade. We'll see whether the school is willing to be a little flexible and take her on a year early.

ColoniaLydia

One of Lydia's big class projects this past spring was a unit in which each student picks a specific colonial-era person to research, write about, dress up as, and (eventually) impersonate during a classroom session. Lydia's chosen character was Mary Ludwig Hays McCauley, a.k.a.  "Molly Pitcher".  Here she is in her costume prior to the big event:

Lydia worked very hard on the skirt and apron, lots of sewing/stitching (there was of course some help from Joanie and Amy, but Lydia put in most of the work). The hat is courtesy of Lydia's teacher Mrs Barker, who apparently keeps a stash of colonial headware available for this purpose.

DeCordova

Here are some pictures from a visit that we took to the DeCordova museum back in May during my mom's visit. We had some really nice weather, so it was fun to spend time outside looking at the sculpture. By the way, the museum has apparently now changed its name from the "DeCordova Museum and Sculpture Park" to the "DeCordova Sculpture Park and Museum". 

 This piece has always been one of my favorites. Yes, it does look as though someone's internal organs have gotten up and gone for a walk, but I still like it:

More photos:

This next sculpture was an especially odd one. The "rust" on the surface is just a thin layer-- it's apparently made of fiber glass and other composites underneath. Also interesting was that inside the museum was a computer monitor showing an animated version of the sculpture with the various appendages walking/waving around. Very creative.

There was also a very extensive collection of sculptures (indoor and out) by Chakaia Booker. Her work uses a lot of recycled/repurposed tires, which gives it a very distinctive look.

Musica longa, Cartoon Brevis

Here is a very short Pancake Man cartoon that I did while sitting out the remainder of Ethan's viola recital.

Ethan played fairly early on in the recital, after which there was a long succession of other student performances, and I have to confess that not all of my attention was on the music.

More comics for girls

Back in January, I posted a grumble about how there weren't enough good graphic novel adventure stories oriented towards girls (e.g. with female main characters). Since then, I've found some more books that I think meet the necessary criteria.  First, "Smile" by Raina Tegelmeier:

Raina Telgemeier's stories are a little on the melodramatic side for my tastes, but I like them nonetheless, and but Lydia likes them a lot. The plots tend to revolve almost entirely around the social life of the main character: school, friends, parents, etc.  Ethan tried a couple but didn't seem interested. A second book is "Rapunzel's Revenge" by Shannon and Dean Hale:

I really enjoyed this one, as did both my kids. This is a retelling of the Rapunzel folk tale, with Rapunzel recast as a sort of strong, independent, female action hero. The plot is very good -- it's a real adventure story, and the artwork is fantastic.  There is a sequel called "Calamity Jack", but I didn't have quite as much fun with it. The last book is "Mercury", by Hope Larson:

This is cool little graphic novel featuring a female teenage character, set in Canada. The point of view of the novel jumps back and forth between the present day and the "gold rush" era in the 1860's. The artwork is not as spectacular as the Rapunzel book (it is drawn in black & white), but given the nature of the story, I think it actually works better with a more graphically minimalist approach.

Sox!

Ethan and I made a trip to Fenway park this past Monday night (tickets given to Ethan from Lucy and Scott). The Sox were up against "The Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim" (team motto: "We're Not Quite Sure Where We're From"). It was a total blowout; Sox racked up 17 runs, which was lots of fun to watch. There was so much hitting going on we had to leave after the 7th inning (it was already quite late, and it was a school night). Pictures:

The game featured huge home runs by Kevin Youkilis and Dustin Pedroia, plus lots of other singles and doubles. David Ortiz was nowhere to be seen, which is still sort of hard for me to get a grip on; he was such a dominant hitter before that it's hard to imagine him hitting .146 (or whatever the number is these days).

Thank you S & L -- it was a very enjoyable outing.

Reverse 911

Lexington has joined the ranks of towns that use a "reverse 911" calling system; we seem to be getting these calls on a regular basis now.  For a while only Amy's work phone would ring, but now what happens is that both the home phone and Amy's work phone ring at exactly the same time, and we get a recorded message from the town administration.

This last week we had a big kerfuffle as a result of a broken water main out in Weston; many towns in the Boston area (including Lexington) had to switch to backup water supplies, meaning that we had to boil all our drinking water for a while. Each day this week has included a new "reverse 911" call with a message telling us to "keep boiling your water".  All of the recordings feature a tired-sounding male voice and end with a rather surly directive: "Do not return this call". I detest machine-generated phone calls, but I suppose we will just have to put up with the R911 stuff (as a consolation, I suppose the surly guy is less annoying than the artifically perky/happy voices you hear when you dial a large corporation help line these days).