Boxtales at the Greek Villa, Sat. Dec 6 2008

Event:
Family Festival
Saturday December 6, 2008
10 am - 5 pm
Getty Villa
Thrill to Boxtales' theatrical version of the Odyssey as Odysseus encounters Poseidon, Athena, Zeus, the Cyclops, and many more adventures.
11:00–11:45 a.m.
2:15–3:00 p.m.
Listen to master storyteller (and Boxtales founder) Michael Katz magically weave together Greek myths and Italian folktales.
1:00–1:45 p.m.
3:30–4:15 p.m.
Create your own jewelry based on ancient models at one of the hands-on workshops.
Free; a ticket is required.
click here
or call
(310) 440-7300

New Tumble Blog

From now on I will use this blog for more thought-out, wordy posts.
Which likely means I will use it even less than before.

My current short attention span is well suited to a tumblog.
So, for posts of that sort, meet me over at tumblr using the link below.

Thanks!

-R

link

Boxtales: The Ages

Earlier I mentioned that I am on the Board of Directors for Boxtales Theater Company.

Boxtales has been producing high quality family theater and educational programs in Santa Barbara for going on a decade and a half. I believe that Boxtales offers something that is fun, unique and valuable to our community standards of education, aesthetics, ethics, and tradition.

A great example of Boxtales' work is a project called The Ages, an after school project in which students interview oldsters (Elders in the parlance of the project) and then create original theater pieces based on those interviews.

The project is underway and has its very own blog. Check them out here:
http://boxtales-ages.blogspot.com/
-Roy
link

Joe Frank's Ode to War

I am impressed by a recording of a Joe Frank monologue that is posted on NPR.

It reminds me of a conversation I had with a friend during the holiday yesterday in our quiet town. After buckling his baby boy into his car seat, he paused to tell me he had been down to the memorial at the beach wondering at the number of young men who continue to join the war.

Mr. Frank's ode in celebration of war is a provocative mediation on the topic.

Here are two portions from it:

Here's to war. I raise my glass to you and gaze into the roiling liquid of death's own intoxication. O, war, you have made the low elevated. You have created heroes, and history will be written by your winner. Peace is pallid next to you. Peace can skulk and shrink, a weakling, a coward's paradise...
Peace walks through the marketplace offering second-hand bargains, peace, the shaver of points, the cut-rate merchant. Peace, you miserable converter of men into swine, you destroyer of valor, quicksand in which nations founder, the bleeding wound in the side of the great avenging angel. Peace, the apologist, the compromiser, the appeaser, the rust upon the edge of courage's great sword...
There are no gigantic fireworks displays, no champagne corks popped to peace, no last cigarette smoked in its honor. There is no night before peace, no declaration of peace. The very absurdity of a nation declaring peace on another shocks the imagination. And who among us can say that he has heard of the spoils of peace? Is there such a thing as a peace hero? Who among us have gathered with his old cronies late at night, hoisted a glass and told peace stories? What valiant young man has been welcomed back from peace? What young boy has gazed longingly at his father, saying that he would willingly go to peace to save his country?

links:
audio
text
Joe Frank

-R

Louis Armstrong & Danny Kaye

Here is Danny Kaye singing with Louis Armstrong in "The Five Pennies."
Wow.

-R
Link

Biking with cars.

Personally, I dislike biking in traffic, but here are some vids of some crazy bicyclists getting right in there.
I don't advocate this sort of behavior, but I think that any frequent urban cyclists has likely been annoyed by motorists enough to be able to relate to the fun of watching these guys zip through traffic jams:

for those with more extreme tastes:

-R

A Blessing♦

May your hands always be busy,
May your feet always be swift,
May you have a strong foundation
When the winds of changes shift.
May your heart always be joyful,
May your song always be sung,
May you stay forever young,
Forever young, forever young,
May you stay forever young.


links
video
film
poetry