Saturday doings

It's been a strange week, weather-wise. It got up to 90 (degrees F, of course, not those Napoleonic degrees) earlier, and then last night there was a frost warning. Today was bright but chilly, which kept the mosquitoes subdued in our For-Mar trek. Thomas, meanwhile, actually got up not just before the crack of noon, but before 9 AM so that he could go and do his new job which is helping his percussion teacher Rob herd tinies at the FIM for three hours. He's done this before and is apparently surprisingly good with them, and this time he gets paid! This, he felt, entitled him to spend the rest of the day on our computer in our room, because his laptop is in for repairs. However, parents would insist in actually coming into the room they like to call "theirs" at which point they might SEE HIS SCREEN, so he devised the following solution:

In other news, Zachary Quack had apparently given up laying for the past week, which was okay, because her output was more than we could handle, but today I wandered over by the compost heap and found her sitting on THIS:

Sadly, we had to nip this in the bud. The last thing I want is more foul fowl be-fouling our yard.

Honors percussion quartet

This is just one of the recitals Thomas is in this week. This one featured performances by the Honors Percussion Quartet only, with Thomas, Omid, Austin and Dave. As mentioned in previous posts, Thomas and Omid have been taking percussion lessons together, or performing in various orchestra and wind ensembles together, since they were both 5. This first piece is one of four which had them on various keyboard percussion instruments: marimba, xylophone, bells and vibraphone. At the end of each piece they rotated positions. Thomas started out on the marimba on the left and now for this piece, the last one, has him on the xylophone.

According to Rob, this piece is a "standard percussion ensemble piece." Thomas is playing tom toms.

This song was a crowd pleaser. This part is an extended introduction before the main song, which is the Ghanaian piece they performed in the lobby of The Whiting a few weeks ago. (Simon said the African xylophones were Nigerian but Thomas, rather peevishly, pointed out that they are from Ghana. Come ON--everyone should know that!) After their procession onto the stage and a short solo piece by each, the boys (Rob referred to them as "young men" but I think that is wishful thinking) went and sat at either the xylophones or giant bongos. Rob explained that the buzzing noise produced by traditional African drums is caused by the gourds underneath the "keys" having small holes drilled in them, and then being covered up with paper (or something--I didn't quite catch that part of the explanation). "Western" xylophones and marimbas have metal tubes under the keys which amplify the sound as well as giving it a clear ringing noise.

More of Thomas's performances (and a few other people too, I suppose)

Go here to look at a series of performances involving Thomas. Look for the hair.

Frederick's Birthday--He's 10!!!

Finally the happy day has arrived! Frederick sets to the serious business of present opening. Thomas looks on to see if there is anything he wants to steal. Lots and lots of presents. But best of all, the pool magically appeared in the backyard while Frederick was in school today--and good thing, too, because today it was a ROASTER! Thomas remembers what it is like to be a pesty 12 year old. Emily, Greg and Ava arrived. Ave liked to watch Frederick run and found the ducks fascinating. And here is the cake with loads of candles on it.

Thomas enjoying Frederick's Birthday

Long Time, No See

After Ava was born last September, Frederick briefly visited Emily once to see the baby. But since then, he and Emily haven't seen each other. Last night, Emily called to set up a short meeting today at her mom's house, one of Frederick's favorite places. Not having seen her in over seven months, Frederick was clearly over the moon: With his birthday coming up, Frederick wanted to be sure that Emily came to his party (he has been spending a LOT of time lately looking over pictures of past birthday parties and noticed that Emily was ALWAYS there). So, first thing this morning after getting out of bed, he wrote up a Birthday Party invitation for Emily. Here he presents her with it, and reads it to her to make sure she understands exactly what it says.

Another day, another gig

Thomas had TWO gigs today: he played a concert at his school (for which he had to dress up), came home to be dropped off at the FIM for a lesson, had a short break and then was required to back up singers at their concert. He chose a spotted Marks & Spencer tie (100% acrylic, bought from Oxfam when I was an undergraduate and collected "interesting" ties) to complete his ensemble:

And just like that, it was hot!

Everything's suddenly bursting into leaf and flower, and a young man's fancy turns to trotting along the beach and catchin' some rays.

Thomas's school play

For the past week or so, Thomas has been furiously working on a play--writing it, printing up several copies for his cast mates, collecting all props necessary for the filming, and arranging times to film the play which didn't conflict with his many after school activities (he has had 3 or 4 concerts a week during the past month). While I sat in the car for 20 or 30 minutes after school, he was inside an empty classroom filming this most mysterious event which he would not discuss with us. Finally, after at least 5 film sessions, he declared the work complete (though he admitted he wasn't satisfied with it because he was "rushed") and set to the editing work. Here is the final piece:

The class is World Literature, and they are discussing Greek Plays, and the kids had to pick Comedy or Tragedy. They then had to write up a modern take on the Greek style, using the Greek chorus and such. Thomas picked Comedy, though he said all the other groups picked Tragedy, interestingly. Here is the Bloopers reel. As usual, Thomas strains to contain his frustration with the dunderheads he must work with. (The Blog seems to cut half the screen off - if you're having trouble, just go here to Thomas's YouTube channel.) They had their film viewings in class today. The class gave out "awards" in various categories: a screenwriting award for best script, a best film for the best over all film, and an award to the best actor and best actress. This film (which Thomas regards as "his" because the other kids involved did very little work) received the Best Film award and Thomas received the Best Actor award. I can certainly see why he got that when compared to his film mates, but not having seen the other films, I don't know how his performance compared to the other boys in the class. I have always said he should join in the Flint Youth Theatre which is an acting group connected with the FIM but he has always claimed to not have an interest in acting or film. I think he is sorely kidding himself.