Today in History: In December 7th, 1941, the Japanese bombed Pearl Harbor, in Hawaii, making the U.S. enter the war. It was "a day which will live in infamy" as F.D.R. said. It lost a good many American lives unprepared, on ships and ports, and many families were touched and were very sad. But, as U.S.A. entered the war, we in a way saved the day, making Japan surrender and invading France at Normandy on D-Day. A lot of British and other allied forces helped, I know that's true, but France surrendered to the German the second year of the 6 year war and some of the other small countries were just pathetic and hid in a cave, raising up the white flag. But my point is, as Pearl Harbor was a terrible day, it kind of was the spark... that set off the end of WWII.
Back to the blog. Yesterday I read Innocents Abroad a little, and then at 10:00 started schoolwork. I did about four pages of Math, and finished the history chapter of WWI. I looked around the house, into the closet upstairs in Mom and Dad's circle and one in the den, which had barely nothing in it. I went into the guest bedroom, and went into rooms more thoroughly than when we first arrived. I went back upstairs to the bathroom, and found cardboard material boxes that were in the shelf on the bathroom shelf. They were purple with designs. Opening one up, I saw little pictures of me as a baby, with the cousins, me smiling, mom and me in the emergency room, and some other funny pictures. I looked through the other three too, finding pics of us at Old Tuscon in Arizona with our grandparents and some other things. Mom went to the post office, and I talked to Dad on the phone a little. Mom texted me to call her, and doing so, she explained that Seth Decker, a theater owner, director, funny guy, and personal friend, asked me if I could video tape a kids play with a video camera and a tri-pod. I was very excited to do so, and got ready, putting on good jeans, taking a shower, getting a nice hoody on, and my phone in case I needed to call Mom or...somebody else.
Mom found out from that ever useful source called FaceBook that CMS was having a spirit night at Zaxby's, which means that kids from CMS come into the fast food restaurant and get like half off on some things. We thought we would get a bite to eat before going to Seth's theater Red Door Playhouse, and were to go in, look and see if we knew anyone, and then move out again. We walked into the place, looking at the counter, tables, booths, and all the junk and signs on the walls that almost every Zaxby's have. I saw a girl who is kind of tan and has brown hair in a ponytail, with freckles, and glasses. Alexa. We know each other from school. I said hello awkwardly, and we talked of us being on the trip, the parent asking where we went for middle school. I looked around and saw familiar faces, people who graduated and were in higher grades, and some 6th graders from RNE, like an African-American named Mia who I met at chorus. She's nice. We saw a lady named Mrs. Moore, and after telling her about the trip, she suggested meeting the new principal at Crabapple Middle School. Mrs. Moore has a daughter with a ponytail and blonde hair named Ansley.
We got a little chicken finger sandwich and fries, because of the guy saying it was cheaper to do the meal instead of separately the sandwich and water. In the car I said where was the water, and then took the receipt back in. The guy looked at it, apologized, and I got a dasani. I then got back in the car and we drove to the square, where a little building uphill by my sister Lauren's salon is. I ate on the way. Then, placing the food back in the box and giving it to Mom, I prepared to depart. I jumped out, her with me. Red Door Play House (from now on RDPH) is with other buildings on a kind of sidewalked area, where no cars go. On the right is a large chunk of brick with several different businesses, one Soda, where Lauren works as a hair-cutter. I'll talk about it later. RDPH has an upper level and lower one, with stairs and a ramp, two doors, and other things that go along with it. It has a red metal slanted roof, and has cream colored outside rock walls with a red door, hence the name. We went in the bottom entrance, or tried to anyhow. The door wouldn't budge. It was locked. I waved to Leah and Seth, who were helping out kid performers, who had aprons and chef hats on. Two little ones had fairy wings, a short haired plump one and another skinny one. At an estimate, I believe they were 5-8. One boy, who was a chef, and 6 girls. It happened to me once. I hope he doesn't have the cooties.
Seth, with down black hair that's straight across and is pretty thin and normal sized, opened the door. He said hi and how was the trip, that he had read the blog and had seen some of the pictures. Leah, who is the stage manager, costume, and design person at RDPH (also his wife), said hello to. She's funny, social, and sometimes strict to the kids who misbehave, which is most of the time a good thing. She had longer hair, but then had short hair there, brown and pale skin. The little stage(barely two feet high) had curtains and paper long large strips with fake cupcakes and a sign for a bakery. There was a paper table which had littler tables under it and bowls and spatulas on it. By it was a little backstage room called the green room, where actors stay and have their costumes made up, drink water, and wait for their part to go on. There is a little stage where they had a tree, chairs, and Christmas decorations, which is a side stage where some of the action happens. Opposite all this are seats that have five levels of them, where on the fourth floor was a tripod with camera on it, with a cord going into an outlet. I was to be seated on the fifth floor and video tape it, and he said it only happened on the main stage so I could leave it on a big shot, zoom in, or move it around as the characters moved around, however I wanted as long as it was interesting. As the kids practiced some parts of the play, I practiced zooming in on their faces and moving it up and down and up and down, taking pretend practice shots of them running around.
I asked Seth what it was about. He said it was a twist kind of of the fairy tale of the shoemaker and elves, although with bakers and pixies. 4:30 changed to 4:45, and people, the parents of the kids, made their way into the seats. At intervals I had to reposition my camera so people could get through to the seats on my floor next to me on both sides. It's a small theater, really, but I've had a lot of fun there, done many many plays and a few movie productions there. I listened in interest as two ladies talked about their children that were in the play, saying how much they liked each other as friends and play dates and activities happening. More people of all different ages, sizes and genders filed in. Seth, upstairs by the balcony, played some music and dimmed the lights so they focused on the stage. Then something unexpected happened. My video camera stopped showing the stage, where I was focused at, and the screen changed, showing adds and how to do things. I hadn't started recording yet. I knew why it did that, it had happened to a JVC camera of mine, and I knew why it did it, because of the camera being on, but not recording, being idle. It was on sleep mode. I didn't know how to fix this urgent problem, and I left my camera and made my way down. I stepped over, saying excuse me. Seth went into the greenroom just as I came down. I waited by the staircase that goes up to the other floor. When he came out I asked him about it. "Oh just turn it off and then back on," he said. "Did you say it's running adds?" I went back up to where I was seated, and he looked over the balcony at it. He laughed and I did what he said, and then it was fine again. Funny.
I asked when to begin the camera taping. "When I say Camera On," he said. He went up to the front and right of the stage, and said a few announcements, that the kids did a lot of work themselves for the play, and a few things about the workings and history of RDPH. He said that they have started a new tradition at the RDPH, that they make a video of the play, put it on a DVD, and then online and in mail they will send it to you, for like $10. He even said, "And, say hello to one of our film and television students, Andrew Bourne. He will be recording it today."
I felt very grateful that he introduced me. Very nice of him. Well, Seth got back up into his sound and music area with mike, and said, "This is the Red Door Playhouse production of: The Baker and the Pixies. This is when we like to say Camera on, if your operating a camera."
I turned my camera on. And the show began.
It was okay. The plot was about bakers who are chosen to make treats for the Queen's wedding, and go to the market to get all the ingredients. Two fairy pixies, one that is a rock star and another milder one both destroy everything in the place, breaking the oven and all the other tools. The bakers are devastated. They write a letter of apology to the Queen, and meanwhile the Pixies are punished from Mother Nature by her taking away their wings. They make up for it by dressing up as orphans and later giving the bakers all their stolen and broken materials back, also fixing the oven. Seth did a cool thing in the orphan scene by letting the kids speak into the mike earlier, and made it sound like people admiring the baker's treats. The kids forgot a few lines, but not much, and their was music, narrating, and a pretty good story and cute acting, at points. There were chase scenes and dancing parts, and so I moved the camera downward when they were closer to the audience and around, zooming in on their facial reactions and moving back and forth to different characters. It was fun to do it, and even though I was in a bad position and a little tired, I liked it. The ending is where the bakers present their treats to the queen. After the performers bowed and went off stage, I stopped recording. "Hey, stay on for a while. Upstairs we have cookies and punch and you can ask for autographs from the actors." I waited until everyone on my floor went down, and they congratulated their children and did pictures and such. I remember when I used to do that. Good times.
Everyone got up stairs and then I went and sat on a bench and read the program and a book they had. The parents and kids all got their foods, and I waited, letting the audience and the actors to go first. Besides, they were the ones who invested money into letting their kids do the play, and it seemed only right. After most everyone had left, I had a thin mint. Leah and I talked about the trip a little, and I answered her questions about it. She was mad that no one had eaten her FAVORITE cookie, a Lorneadune. When she said what they were I asked, "Isn't that a book?" Seth said he thought it was an Irish folklore. I knew it was because the lady who gave us most of our homeschooling material at Homeschool Hangout (her business) recommended it. I forgot about it until recently though. I might read it soon.
Kids in the Acting Lab Class, a class that is given a genre and then makes a play about it, were there talking and about to practice for the performance they were doing next Tuesday, where they were going to perform an episode of a sitcom they made, in front of a "live studio audience." At about that time Mom came, and I said goodbye to Seth and Leah after a great visit. We went across the way to Lauren's hair cutting place, SODA, which is in a bottom half of a brick building and has a gong, little metal waterfall thing, and a sign going in. People at a front desk told us "L.B. (Lauren Bourne) is in the back" We came to see Lauren at a little mirror stand with Julie sitting on one of those spinny chairs, having her eyebrows waxed. It must of been painful. She dabbed honey wax on Julie's eyebrows and upper lips, then placed like tape on it, and then pulled it off. Why to girls do that? No male in the world knows.
They were nice and welcoming, but Lauren didn't stay long with us, as she had another client to work with. Julie came out into the waiting area, and we decided where to eat. We decided to eat at a restaurant that took the place of another restaurant owned by a neighbor of ours (and is still renting from us) named Tom W. It's called Phish Food, and I liked Tom's restaurant, Biscuit Man, so I was skeptic of this new restaurant. We drove over there in that long building of businesses, and parked and went in. It had crosses every where, an ample amount of tables and chairs and a nice black/grey paint. It was really a christian restaurant run by Christians; you could easily see that by all the sayings, crosses, and that christian sign, the fish. It was optismistic, uplifting, and had the Message station in the background. I ended up liking it a lot. I didn't have much, just a tortilla from Mom's plate, because I had eaten earlier. It was a really American food place, with a spicy twist. I went over to Zaxby's before we ate, but I only saw again middle schoolers. After dinner, we all went to the frozen yogurt place right by Phish Food, Orange Leaf. It has a nice sign, cool white and orange little curved seats and tables, and orange and green colors and designs on the walls. It has a T.V. that runs pictures of opening day and people who have come in, my friends the Sheltons and Nick and Caroline (also friends in my school) are on their also. I got a peppermint flavor they were introducing for the winter time, with two small brownies on it. It was very good.
I went back in Zaxby's as Mom waited in the car, and saw nobody except Tori Robb, a brown haired girl who's short and in my grade. She was at RNE before we left and is now at CMS. I talked to her nice mother Mrs. Robb, who asked all about the trip and many other things. Tori was kind of quiet though.
Goodbye for now.
Don't wax my eyebrows! Please no! Ahhhhhhhhh!
Andrew.
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