Category Archives: Fantasy

2024, Fantasy, Gatherings, Music, Theatre, Uncategorized

Do Your Part

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I see that the Badlands Opera Project, our local opera company, is putting on Amahl and the Night Visitors again this December. They staged it last year, with our church choir director and her 12 year old daughter as Amahl’s mother and Amahl. Both have wonderful voices. This year’s production will have a different Amahl and mother, this time a mom and son duo.

All the singers are local, except for the guy who sings the part of the tallest King with the deepest voice. He sings that part and other low, cameo roles such as Zarastro from The Magic Flute, all over the county. I am not sure where he is from, but he isn’t from ND. Imagine having a specialty voice like that. He’ll be back for this year’s production. I guess he really liked singing with our local company.

If I could magically have a voice other than the low alto voice I have, I would want to be a belter like Patti Lupone in Anything Goes. Of course I would also have to be able to dance, which would be a problem, I’m afraid. Oh well, I suppose I could magically make myself a dancer, too.

If you could magically get an operatc or musical theater voice, what roles would you want to perform?

2024, books, Fantasy, Movies, Music, Mysteries, Uncategorized

Wicked. Really?

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I’ve said before that I’d love to have been in the room when someone first proposed the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles.  My guess is that everybody in the room dismissed the idea; the one who didn’t laughed all the way to the bank.

It’s fascinating to me how certain decisions get made and the decisions that Hollywood makes are the most mysterious.  You all know that I often get worked up by the changes that Hollywood makes to good books.  Shining Through by Susan Isaacs, Dune by Frank Herbert, Jurassic Park by Michael Crichton.  And I’m sure I’ve ranted before about The Hunchback of Notre Dame made into a Disney musical for kids.  Truly that meeting would have been legend.  “Let’s take a long, bleak historical novel in which every single major character is dead by the last page, add some peppy songs and make a happy ending for everybody.” 

So why am I ranting again?  A couple of weeks ago I saw a commercial for Wicked, a movie coming out this winter.  I had never actually read Wicked by Gregory Maguire but I knew it was quite long so assumed there were some differences between the book and the musical (which I HAVE actually seen). You all know me well enough to know what came next; I went and got the book from the library.

What a shock.  Without really giving anything away, here are the only similarities between the novel and the musical.  There is a green gal.  She goes to school, meets someone who becomes a friend and is taught by a speaking animal.  Some flying monkeys.  That’s about it… while some of the characters in the book show up in the musical, it’s in name only – they aren’t really the same as in the book.   The book is incredibly detailed and political although certainly not satire.  It is not even remotely light hearted and the ending is not happy at all; it’s a bit like Hunchback – a lot of bodies have piled up by the end.

Of course, the initial Wizard of Oz movie differed from the book but the jump from Wicked to the musical is such a leap that I’m still a little stunned, even a week after finishing the book.  Once again, I try to imagine the conversation that got the book transformed to a musical that is so different.  Somebody in that room must have laughed all the way to the bank.  And it wouldn’t have been me.

What’s the most incomprehensible movie you’ve ever seen?

2024, education, Fantasy, Games, Uncategorized

AArrrggghhh

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Photo credits:  MIT PE Department

If you thought that getting a degree from MIT was all work and no play, you’d be wrong.

Since 2011, if you complete Physical Ed classes in Archery, Fencing, Pistol (Air Pistol or Rifle) and Sailing, you are eligible for the MIT Pirate Certificate.  I am not making this up.                                                                                                                                   

From the MIT website:

“The MIT Pirate Certificate is only made available to MIT students and is an incentive for undergraduate students to complete their Physical Education & Wellness General Institute Requirement of 4 physical education & wellness courses. It is not a stand-alone certificate. Non-MIT courses and life experience are not counted towards completing the certificate. The MIT Pirate Certificate is for entertainment purposes only and does not give the recipient license to engage in piracy or any pirate activities.”

 I think raising a mug of rum to MIT would be appropriate on Talk Like a Pirate Day!

How do you make a pirate angry?

2024, Fantasy, Food, home, Mysteries

Monster Candy

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Most mornings I try to squeeze in an online crossword puzzle.  My default is the Washington Post puzzles, partly because I already have a WAPO account and partly because there are options, depending on how much time I want to spend.  I’m not too much of a purist… if the puzzle is hard and it’s starting to take too long, the “show me my errors” button gets clicked.  If I make it all the way through without having to “cheat”, I like it, but not enough to struggle and struggle. 

Yesterday morning, early into the puzzle, I read the clue “Godzilla’s rival” for a five-letter word across.  Easy peasy – Rodin.  Then as I was circling back to do the down words, nothing was fitting with Rodin.  And when I got to “Tallinn’s Country” and “Estonia” didn’t fit, I knew something was wrong with my Rodin answer.  I sat for a few minutes thinking of the other monsters that Godzilla doesn’t like.  Gigan?  No.  Manda?  No.  Zilla?  No.  Mothra?  Too long.  Megalon?  Too long.  King Ghidorah?  Way too long.

The only hard/fast rule that I have for crosswords is not to click onto another tab on the internet and look up a word.  So I sat for a bit more, not coming up with any other five-letter Godzilla nemeses.  Then my eyes focused on the clue list and realized that I had mis-read it.  It wasn’t “Godzilla rival”, it was “Godiva rival”.   That was good a for an out-loud laugh – I startled the dog.

Sad but true, I didn’t get the correct answer until I had a couple more letters (Lindt).  What does it say about me that I know so many more of Godzilla’s enemies off the top of my head than I know worldwide famous chocolate companies? 

What is Godzilla’s favorite candy?  What’s YOUR favorite candy?

2024, Fantasy, Food, Nature, Seasons, Uncategorized

High as an Elephant’s Eye

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I was glad to see how tall Ben’s corn is last week.  The summer has been good for me – after last summer’s blisteringly dry heat, I’m enjoying the slightly milder temps and the rain.  I haven’t even had to get the sprinklers out of the garage yet. 

And Iowa must be doing OK as well.  My next-door neighbors were gone for about 10 days – visiting the grandparents south of the border.  When they travel in the summer, I always water their outdoor plants; it’s easy as they just pull all the pots over to the fence and I can just apply the hose to them whenever I am watering my bales.

I’m happy to do it and I don’t think of it as an onerous chore (especially when it rains so much) so I was surprised when they came home with a bag full of corn for me as a thank you.  Straight off the farmstand corn and the pretty kind I like best – yellow and white. 

The only problem with 12 ears of fresh corn is when you are the only one home for over a week.  YA was away on a work program.  There was no way I was going to waste all that gorgeous corn so I rolled up my sleeves and dived in.

I saved two for just eating and de-kernelled (is that a word?) the rest.  Froze one bag then made a double batch of corn salsa (froze some), a lovely fresh kernel cornbread and then a fun garden veggie pizza with ricotta as sauce.  All done in three hours! 

So now I’ve processed cherries and corn this summer.  Wonder what else will come my way?

What kind of foodstuff would you like to have too much of?

2024, Fantasy, Kids, Music, Mysteries, Songs, Theatre, Uncategorized

Prince Among Men

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My little friend next door, Minnie, loves to sing and dance.  For the past two summers she had done a summer camp at the Lundstrum Performing Arts Center; this year they presented Annie Jr (just a shorter version of Annie).  Considering that it is all untrained kids and that they get the whole thing together in two weeks, they did a great job.

This was all that Minnie talked about for two weeks.  In addition to previewing the song/dance that she was in, she regaled me with stories of how things were progressing and who was playing what part.  There were several kids who had been in Little Mermaid with her last year and although I did see the show last year, I couldn’t have told you any of the players except Minnie. 

Of course there was also the post-production discussion the day after the last performance.  I commented that the young man who played Rooster Hannigan did a nice job.  He also had a great dance solo dressed as a street Santa in the N.Y.C. song.  Minnie quickly pointed out that he had played Prince Eric in Little Mermaid.  When I said I hadn’t remembered that, she commented that he hadn’t had to do very much to be the prince.  Then she added, almost as an afterthought, that princes don’t usually have much to do. 

In her world, all her princesses and princes are represented by Disney.  As I thought about it the next few days, I realized that Disney has, for the most part, not spent too much energy on princes.  Snow White’s prince doesn’t have a name, Sleeping  Beauty’s prince does have a name (and a bit of backstory) but doesn’t have much personality.  Cinderella’s prince is also pretty non-descript.  Ariel’s prince is a little bland and definitely clueless.  Belle’s prince spends most of the movie as a beast and Tiana’s prince spends most of the movie as a frog.  Merida has three princes, all of whom are a bit… lacking.  A few princes fare a bit better in their Disney representation but clearly it’s all about the princesses. 

I’m not too worried about this unfair portrayal – I doubt that young girls and boys are too damaged by this uneven treatment.  But I also don’t believe that Barbie dolls are inherently evil either. 

If you were to be a Disney princess or prince (or villain if you prefer) for a week, who would you choose?

2024, animals, Fantasy, gardening, History, Kids, Seasons, Uncategorized

Viking Daze

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After all the days of rain, YA and I couldn’t wait to get out into the yard and get dirty.  I decided that it had been too long since I cleaned up the edges of the yard and boulevard along our front sidewalk.  This is a two-part job.  First I run my edger along where I think the sidewalk should be ending.  Second I sit on the sidewalk and pull up the bits that are overgrown. 

So there I was sitting on the sidewalk when a neighbor from up the street, along with her son, stopped to chat.  Since they had their dog, who is on the small size, I stayed on the sidewalk to pet the dog while we talked.  Blake (son) and I talked about llama day, which had happened at the library the week before.  Blake had been to the farm where the llamas come from and knew one of the llamas that was at the library. 

We also talked about school finally being over for the summer and I asked him if he had any plans.  He’s 10 so his short “just camps” answer didn’t surprise me; I followed up with “what kind of camps this year”.   He mentioned a science camp and a viking camp.  I’ll be the first to admit that I don’t know all the kinds of camps there are, but a viking camp seemed different.  I asked if it was a football camp or some kind of history camp.  He laughed and said “BIKING”.  If I’d had any liquid, I probably would have snorted it up on the spot.

When I was a kid you just hung around the neighborhood for the summer and bothered your mother.  Maybe if you knew someone who knew someone you might end up at a vacation bible study camp for a few days.  If kids were doing organized anything, I never knew about it.  So even though Blake will be biking for one of his camps this summer, I love the thought of viking camp.  Not even remotely sure what we would do at viking camp, but I’m positive I would love the outfits!

How did you spend your summers as a kid?  Any camp you WISH you could have gone to?

2024, books, Fantasy, History, home, Mysteries, Uncategorized

Hausgeist

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Husband was at the local college library the other day and saw a book that he thought I would like. He checked out Hausgeister! Household Spirits of German Folklore, and it has been quite a fun read. The book details the various spirits that inhabit German folklore, and outlines the origins and changes in attitudes regarding these characters over the years. Most Germans believed that their homes, particularly farm homes, were inhabited by these creatures, and that the world around them was as well. It was easy to believe in them in the times when houses were poorly lit and were heated with fireplaces. All you needed to be mindful of was making sure you fed them what they liked to eat.

Most of the myths were about kobolds, male household gnomes who helped out with the housework and farm chores. Wichtel were spirits who lived in communities below mountains. They were also helpful. Draks were small fire dragons that could be either good or evil. They entered the house through the chimney. Holzfraulein were female spirits of the forest. Geldmannlein brought people money and looked like weeds.

The Brothers Grimm wrote extensively about these creatures in addition to writing their fairy tales. Tomte and Nisse are their Scandinavian counter parts. I think there is a Finnish character called Sit Behind the Stove. I think we have a kobold in our dining room who rolls the dog’s balls out from underneath the buffet. Something manages to do it. The ball rolls under, and a few seconds later rolls back out. A kobold is more fun to imagine than uneven flooring.

What hausgeist would you want to have? Favorite fairy tales?

2024, Fantasy, holidays, Mysteries

David Shepardson Day

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I like to think that I’m a fairly normal person but every now and then something comes up that makes me wonder if I’m just a few steps off the path.

When I was in the sixth grade, our school had a presentation by a troupe of presumably college students; they did some music and read some poetry – fairly classic late 60s kinds of stuff.  After the show, the students hung around so we could meet them.  I was with my two best friends that day – Linda and Kathleen – and we waited patiently for our turn.  The student that we met was named David Shepardson and he was gorgeous-looking to three sixth-graders, longish brown hair, little goatee, tie-dye t-shirt, sandals.  The full package.  I happened to be wearing a beaded necklace that day and David admired it; he held his beaded necklace up so we could compare and…. our fingers touched.  My girlfriends and I were all giddy.  I didn’t wash my hand for a day and a half and both Linda and Kathleen checked in with me about it.  They were both pea-green.

OK, so you’re saying to yourself, how is this unusual?  Lots of pre-teen girls are a little wack-a-doodle.  Here’s the difference.  56 years later I still have “David Shepardson Day” noted on my calendar on April 16.  

And since, by coincidence, I met my BFF on April 16, 41 years ago, I do often celebrate a bit.  This year I found a nice bunch of dark purplish flowers and took them up to her house, had tea and chatted for a bit.  I usually send her a card as well to commemorate.  During the visit on Wednesday, Sara and I realized that we’ve been celebrating David Shepardson Day a year longer than she and he husband have been married.

I often wonder how David Shepardson’s life turned out.  Did he end up pursuing music or literature?  Did he marry?  Have kids?  Travel?  Does he have “Sherri Carter Day” listed on his calendar every April 16?

Do you celebrate any holidays that yours alone?

Family, Fantasy, Food, gardening, Nature, Weather

Dreaming of Summer

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As I’m driving in the snow the other night, this quote came up on the CD I’m listening in the car, compliments of  Susan Albert-Wittig:

“It’ll be like eating summer out of a jar”

Now I’m not complaining AT ALL about the snow and rain.  After the dry dry winter, I’m glad to have the moisture and I’m sure my gardens will be happier for it when spring/summer rolls around.  But hearing the phrase about eating summer out of a jar reminded me of one of our old favorites:

The only canning I do these days is jam: strawberry and raspberry every year and then blueberry every couple of years.  Normally I enjoy my jam all year round but I’ve never spent much time thinking about it.  Hopefully I’ll try to think of it as summer in a jar in the weeks to come!

Do you have any foods that you think of as “summer” foods?