Haines His Way

I'm going to split for a bit, will return later.

Danise, I certainly did see the Hercules goodies.  Thanks for sharing them with me.

Back from STAR WARS. Maybe a touch better than the last one, and it was nice seeing the story come full circle. The story has never been Shakespearean despite the depths some people want to read into it. I've always seen it as a sci-fi comic book on the screen, and as such, it's OK.

But the dialogue is so trite that even good actors like Samuel Jackson and Jimmy Smits end up looking like really bad actors. Perhaps they're just TOO accomplished to handle it; mediocre actors might actually do a better job with it. Frank Oz's Yoda, as was the case with the last movie, is the best thing in the movie, and I liked Ewan McGregor the best of the human actors.

Tonight, we're going with make-up and the costumes that are ready. We have an IDR WEdnesday so really only tonight and tomorrow night to fiddle with things before there are people out front watching.

When I was probably seven or eight years old (we were living in Colorado), my parents bought a piano from friends of theirs.  My sister got the piano (and piano lessons) and I got an accordian and, appropriately, accordian lessons (a My Favorite Year reference).  Anyway, my sister didn't last very long at all on the piano, but I did take accordian lessons for a couple of years.  After we moved here to Washington, I started dinking around on the piano.  I took for four years (7-11th grade) and when I went to Centralia Community College, I took piano for the two years there.

After I transfered to Western Washington University, I dropped the piano lessons and took voice.  I was planning on becoming a high school choir teacher...it didn't happen. I also had to take some pedagogy classes, where we were supposed to learn instruments just enough to be able to teach a kid how to play the instruments.  I took classes on the basoon, clarinet (surprisingly easy to get the low notes...everyone else seemed to have trouble with the low notes), tuba, viola, cello (my favorite) and french horn.  Well, I never became a choir teacher.  I didn't even do my student teaching.  I dropped the "education" part of my music education degree and just got a BA in music.

When I was at WWU, I was in a couple of theatrical productions and fell in love with the acting part (I had already loved Broadway cast recordings since early high school) and continued after I moved back home.  But I never really played any instrument since...even piano...I still have that original piano that my sister got (I traded her a pair of binoculars and a clock radio for it), but it's buried in my extra bedroom (a.k.a. indoor storage ).  So that's my musical education in a nutshell.

I am a sweaty mess. I have built a shoe shelf in the bedroom closet and have been sorting and cleaning and tossing stuff into a garage sale pile.

George you should put the piano someplace where you will play it again.

Scotty isn't anywhere in the house. My brother is out in the living room watching TV, so that might have something to do with it. My dad saw Scotty the other day and thought he was looking at Joshie, so we might be able to keep him around for a long time, provided he, Joshie, and my dad are never in the same room at the same time.

Okay Sandra, I have a feeling I should know the answer to this but..... Why can't they all be in the same room at the same time?

If my dad realizes that they're two separate cats, he'll throw Scotty out. He's not what you would call a cat person.

What happened to the lemon tree?

**Chuckle**  I think it's looking pretty good, Jane.  You should have seen it when I got it in the mail.  It was just a twig with two leaves.  

Star Wars III rant.  Was it just me or did anyone have a problem with the good guy cutting someones legs and arm off, watching him catch fire, helpless, in horrible pain and then just leaving him to slide slowly down into the lava river?  He was the bad guy.  I get that part but it seemed unhuman to me not to put him out of his misery.  I had a major problem with that.  

No matter what someone had done to me or had done in general, I never, never EVER could have been that cold and heartless not knowing that he would receive medical attention of some type or at the very least, finishing what I started and put him out of his misery.  

Rant over.

I skipped your Star Wars rant.  We have plans to see it on June 2nd even though we aren't expecting to like it.  Odd to go to a movie with such low expectations.

Danise, I meant there wasn't a photo of the lemon tree.-LOL

You can't see it?  

TOD - no music lessons for me when I was a child.  In fact, I was discouraged from doing anything musical by my school teachers (who should have been fired) and by my sister (who could sing).  I really identified with "Sing" from A Chorus Line.  I was so traumatized that I wouldn't even sing at a birthday party.  

In my early '20's, encouraged by DR elmore and others in our local community theatre, I took voice lessons.  Now, I am by no stretch of the imagination a singer, but I did get to participate in some musicals and, for a while DH Richard (a very good singer) and I were in the choir at church.  I didn't add much, but at least I turned the pages at the right times!

We acquired my mother-in-law's piano when she moved to a retirement community.  No one really plays, but a couple of years ago I took an evening class called "Piano in a Flash" at our local campus.  It was taught by Scott Houston, who you now see a lot on PBS, especially during fund drives.  He made a lot of sense to me and I've been able to play a little.  I don't have much time right now to devote to it, but I'd like to delve more into his methods.  He's online at:
www.scottthepianoguy.com

DRDanise, it's you.  If my friend went over to the Dark Side and I had to fight for my life against him, I wouldn't stop to pee on him if he were burning.

Awww, Elmore, you would.