Popcorn

So today at Hale while I was glitter gluing an art project, I looked up to see that 19 of my 25 students (the 6-9 yr. olds) were gone. I found all of them (boys included) in the girls bathroom. I asked them what was going on and a 6-year old told me- "We came in to see the poop that smelled like popcorn." I had no response to that.

Massage

Last night, Jackie and I went to get massages. We go to a massage school where you get an hour long massage for an inexpensive rate.

When my masseuse came and was walking me to the room, she asked what kind of massage I wanted. I told her I liked deep tissue and the last time I came, the masseuse did Russian and Swedish technique. I also told her that I had been playing the piano a lot this past week and she could work my lower back and upper gluts. She said that sounded fine.

I undressed to my comfort level (completely nekkid!!) and got under the sheet. The first part of the massage was uneventful- the usual face down, back, shoulder blades and neck. She then lowered the sheet pretty low (you would have seen my thong strap... if I had been wearing one) and started doing deep tissue (Swedish) on my lower back. While that felt great, I could tell she was a newer student and was a little nervous because I had asked to have my upper gluts done.

Soon the lower back was done, and after some fancy sheet wrapping to keep my modesty in check (as well as could be expected), my left bum cheek was ready. Now, I have had Russian deep tissue massage done before... but never like this. She proceeded to put both her hands on my cheek- and then rubbed them back and forth so quickly that, after a bit, you could have roasted a marshmallow over my scalding flesh. She then proceeded to whack and knead my buttock so hard it was as if she was preparing the dough for the morning rush at Cinnabon. After she asked me about the pressure- and being in pain, I could really only manage a thumbs up- she did more creative wrapping, and proceeded to give my right butt cheek the Indian Rug Burn of its life. Now I know that whenever my little sister was getting mad and giving us Indian Rug burns on our arms, she was just practicing her Russian massage technique.

Afterwards, my masseuse confessed that she hadn't taken the final yet on Russian so she was doing a variation of it on me (like a classical musician- Variations on the Left Butt Cheek by Mozart) and she asked me how I liked it. I replied honestly- I'd never felt anything quite like it.

My Summer of Hale

For the past 6 years, I've taught singing, dancing and acting classes at the Hale Center Theatre in West Valley. Classes are divided into 3 groups:

6-9 year olds

10-11 year olds

and

12-16 year olds

Now I consider myself to be a really good high school teacher- but after dealing with all of these different age groups from 9:00am-4:00pm- I am completely worn out.

In high school, I can always threaten uncooperative students with their grade- here, I can only threaten them by taking away their art time (and, since I'm kind of in charge of art, I use the term "art" very loosely- although I think I can publish a book on 1001 things to do with a Styrofoam plate).

In high school, students rarely have temper tantrums in class- here, during the June session I had a 6-year old girl that kept running out of the classroom whenever she didn't want to do anything. Finally I grabbed her on the way out and made her sit on my knee. She proceeded TO BITE MY ELBOW and call me RUDE. She later drew me an apology picture (where I appeared to have no arms).

In high school, I don't know or care when students use the bathroom- here, I had a 10-year old proceed to tell me he was late to production class because he "was taking a big #2".

High school students cry, but- here, we've had crying over:

a chair being moved

someone was being touched

we ran out of red paint

their top hat didn't fit

someone stepped on their hand

being asked to sit down

The best part of the day is Production Class- this is where each age group learns (singing and dancing) three different songs from different musicals that are linked by a common theme. One of the other teachers writes an original script where everyone gets 3 lines (they have to memorize them) and they make their own props. The best moment in June was when the oldest class was learning Seize the Day from Newsies- and we were going to have them make banners with the initials of the song- when suddenly we realized that fifteen 12-16 year olds would be holding banners saying STD. That would have been an awesome revue.

NYC Day #6 & #7

Ah Sunday. A day of peace, rest and contemplation. Also Father's Day- and no better way to celebrate than by eating 5x your recommended caloric intake than at Norma's. Norma's (a restaurant in Le Parker Meridian Hotel) serves what is commonly known as the best breakfast in Manhattan. They have an omelet on the menu that costs $1000- but the majority of the clients seem to order their pancakes, etc. (that cost around $20). After sleeping in a bit, we talked Jackie's parents and Arianne into going with us- and seeing that it was Father's Day (they don't take reservations) I thought we'd be in for a wait. Well, they told us 45 minutes (it ended up being close to 2 hours) until we were seated. Just so you know what we ordered, I got the huevos rancheros, Jackie got the Wa-za (a waffle with fruit inside and a bruleed top- picture to the right), Jackie's mom got the fresh fruit smoothie and something fruity, Arianne got something fruity, and Jackie's Dad shocked all of us by ordering the chocolate french toast with hot fudge, whipped cream and many other things I don't often associate with Jackie's father (it was very funny when our odd waiter told Ray that "he was a naughty boy").

After breakfast we wandered a street fair that was up and down 6th Avenue. We then met up at 2:20pm to take everyone to see the farce, Boeing-Boeing. Now I had read the script (it's pretty tame for a farce- farces usually involve multiple exits and entrances with slamming doors, mistaken identities, and something sexual- in this case the leading man (played by Bradley Whitford from The West Wing) is engaged to three flight stewardesses- one American, one German and one Italian. It's set in the 60's and his plan is screwed up when a friend from Wisconsin shows up and all the women arrive on the same day). I really didn't find the script that funny when I read it, but after seeing the show, what a difference a strong director and a brilliant no-fear cast can make. The German stewardess stole the show for me and the friend from Wisconsin (Mark Rylance) was utterly amazing to watch on stage (the 7-year old boy behind me loved it when he got hit in the face repeatedly with a white bean bag- something for everyone in this show).

After the show, we said goodbye to Arianne and Jackie and I took a group of about 14 people to Union Square to get tickets to Fuerzbruta- an aeriel show from Argentina. After sitting in Union Square for a bit, looking for someplace amazing to eat, we ended up walking all over Union Square, over to Chelsea and then back up to Times Square. It was fun seeing streets and places we'd never seen before- the weather was perfect for walking and it was a calm Sunday afternoon.

We ended up eating at the restaurant of a famous chef (Daniel Boulod) called db Bistro. It was good- but I'm not sure it was worth the price. After dinner, we walked by Radio City Music Hall where the Tony Awards were taking place. It was hilarious seeing people in tuxes and formal gowns grabbing a hot dog from a street vendor during a commercial break. After getting a slice of cheesecake from Carnegie Deli (a tradition I haven't broken yet), we went back to the hotel, watched the Tony Awards (we were thrilled that In the Heights and Boeing-Boeing both won major awards). After room checks, another day was done.

Monday morning, Jackie and I wanted to do some last minute shopping. We ran down to the Drama Bookstore so I could get some scripts for school. Then we went up to Rockefeller Center for some food (there's a Paris chocolatier that has macaroons that Jackie lives for), then it was over to serendipity 3 for a quick frozen hot chocolate. I got the peanut butter one and we got a regular one for Jackie's dad- only they don't make it to go- so I had to run a few blocks to grab a soda cup and straw to put it in. Then it was back to the hotel- all of our group's luggage had been picked up by bellmen and put in a conference room. Everyone came back, picked up their luggage and loaded up onto a shuttle. Off we went to the Newark airport (on the shuttle, my uncle Bob- a doctor- explained how Mira lax will help Millie's poo-problems- and set us up on a year-long plan. It was fun listening to pooping stories all the way to the airport).

Although we arrived in plenty of time, due to a storm coming in, all flights out of Newark, Laguardia, and JFk were delayed- instead of taking off at 5:30pm, we took off around 8:30pm. (at least they let us wait at the gate and not in the plane- Jackie's dad had the same 3 hour delay stuck in a plane). At least we made it out as well- some other travellers from Utah were flying on JetBlue and the flight got completely cancelled- which meant they had to go back to the hotel and stay an extra night at their own expense. We landed in SLC around 11:08pm- it felt hot and really dry- and we were happy to see our girls (and my parents were happy to return the girls to us....) Another trip to NYC completed! For those of you that like to plan far off, our next group trip will be June 8-14 2010. 6 shows will be included (5 musicals, 1 play)- we'll stay at the Sheraton New York and, best of all, it will be with me and my wife!! What could be more fun than that?

NYC Day #5

Ahh. Saturday morning. Nothing scheduled until 1:20pm. Most of the group meets at 9:30am to go to the Empire State Building. I accidentally lead the group through Little Korea- but thankfully the Empire State Building is hard to miss. Because we've done it before, the Coxes and us head over to the JP Morgan library. It's a really pretty museum- which has 3 Gutenberg bibles on permanent display. It also has his office- and- the man really liked his bibles because in part of his library, there are- no joke- over 1000 of them from all over the world. The Morgan museum also lots of manuscripts and sheet music from Mozart, Beethoven, Bob Dylan... but instead of those being on display, there was an old hunting manual. Oh well. It was still cool (and the gift shop had some cool books).

After that, we all had a hankering for peanut butter. We hopped in a cab (my first time) and headed down near Washington Square Park to a restaurant called Peanut Butter and Co. They make 6 different flavors of peanut butter (milk chocolate, while chocolate, fiery, cinnamon raisin, normal and some other kind I can't recall...). It was a really tiny restaurant so we all got our food to go (I got a white chocolate peanut butter marmalade almond sandwich- it was awesome) and we went to Washington Square Park, watched a woman loudly berate her drunken boyfriend and watched chess players try to lure people to play timed chess with them. We must not have looked like good players because we were not propositioned.

After lunch, my sister Arianne arrived at our hotel from Boston. We headed over with the group and saw, my favorite show of the trip, In the Heights. The show, created by Tony award winner Lin Manuel Miranda spends July 4th weekend in a small neighborhood in Washington Heights. Most of the people are immigrants from Puerto Rico or the Dominican Republic. The music (rap mixed with traditional Broadway) was great (as were the performances) and the dancing (latin, hip hop, break dancing, salsa, etc.) was amazing. Our group was happy it won best musical two nights later.

Leaving the show, a thunderous downpour caused most of our group to get soaking wet- and me going crazy making sure everyone knew where to go for their evening show.

After getting 1/2 price tickets for The 39 Steps, Ari, Jackie and I went to Eatery (no bugs in the salads this time) and then over to the show. We were happy a lot of our students were at the show- because it was great. The script is word for word the screenplay of the Alfred Hitchcock film The 39 Steps- only performed by 4 actors. 1 girl plays 4 female roles (each with a different accent), 1 guy plays the leading man and, the best part, 2 guys play over 100 roles (including a marsh, thorn bush, etc.). It was so theatrical it was great.

After the show, we met some people that had gone to see Curtains and took them down to Union Square to go to Max Brenners. I got a white chocolate coconut frozen drink- that instantly gave me 75 cavities. In summary:

The JP Morgan Library- Go Bibles!

Peanut Butter and Company- Yum!

In the Heights- Chillaxious!

The 39 Steps- Theatricagenius!

Arianne- Bostonian! (and hotel floor crasher)

One more thing- it was really funny how nervous Jackie and her parents were when Ari crashed on the floor and I called to have a blanket and pillow brought up for her. Well, I guess it just Ray (although I thought it would be funny if Ray had pretended to be me at the door- with his sister wives Renae and Arianne. Jackie was not amused by this).

NYC Day #4

Friday mornings are always dreaded because it's the earliest day everyone has to get up. The reason behind it makes it totally worth it- we go to The Statue of Liberty and Ellis Island, and we try to be on one of the first boats out on the harbor. If you wait, you end up standing in a line that takes forever to go through security to get on the boat.

So, off on the #1 subway line we went- making sure everyone was in one of the first cars. The Battery Park stop curves (and its the end of that subway line) so if you are not in the first 5 subway cars, your doors will not open (because you are next to concrete walls). The chaperones did their head count and we were off- until we realized that 2 girls had run back upstairs and had gotten stuck in an elevator. Jackie and others waited while the rest of us got on the subway.

As soon as we were outside in Battery Park I called Jackie (thinking she'd still be back at the hotel) when lo and behold, there she was right behind us.

We all made it onto the boat (and through security) and Jackie promptly got seasick (which made me reminisce on our honeymoon in San Fransisco on the boat out to Alcatraz). We never get off at Liberty Island (you can only go into the base of the statue- and sometimes not even that) so off we went to Ellis Island.

Jackie and I love this museum- in 2006 we did the audio tour and found it fascinating. The students however head promptly to the gift shop (where we bought a doll for Ellis that said "Ellis Island") and then outside to sleep on the lawn (unless they were fortunate enough to run into Jackie who then gave a forced tour of the museum- as the tour guide).

After returning on shore, I became the tour guide and walked our group up Broadway (this area of lower Manhattan is where they would have ticker tape parades- and they list all of them on silver plates on the sidewalk). I showed our group Wall Street, Trinity Church, Ground Zero (which is now a construction site and does not have viewing platforms) and, I think the group's favorite part, St. Paul's Chapel. This is a great little church where George Washington worshipped and had a pew. It also became a relief station during 9/11 and there are many tributes inside. Every time we go, it is completely different inside, but it's always inspiring.

After that, I got everyone (except Jackie- she's like a bloodhound sniffing out correct subway lines) trying to find the brown uptown subway line. After leading 63 people aimlessly (while trying to decipher the signs) around, a nice Lutheran minister (he had on a badge that said, "Ask me, I'm a Lutheran minister) directed us where we needed to go.

We then dropped the group off in Chinatown and told them they had free time the rest of the day until Wicked that night.

Jackie, myself and the Coxes then went to the East Village and ate at a restaurant that defined Jackie's life- S'mac- an all mac-and-cheese restaurant. I personally think I got the best one- an Indian flavored Masala Mac that was amazing. We then went in search for Pomme Frites- an all French Fry restaurant, but when we found it, we were sad to discover that it was closed for a week.

We then walked through the Village (stopping at Pinkberry yogurt, NYU and Washington Square Park- where, according to our NYC guidebook, sub par weed is usually sold) until we decided to head back to the hotel.

Most museums offer some sort of free day, and the Moma's (The Museum of Modern Art) day is Friday. The museum was close to our hotel so we headed over. My favorite exhibits were: Andy Warhol's Marilyn and soup paintings, a desk fan suspended from the ceiling that whirred over everyone's head, and, a hallway with special yellow light bulbs that absorbed all color and turned everyone that walked under them black, white and grey.

After looking over the cool Moma store (where my feet began to hurt), we went to China Grill- a restaurant located in the CBS building. We got avocado fried rice (good choice Amanda!), BBQ salmon, some beef dish and an awesome chocolate tasting sampler dessert.

After dinner, it was onward to Wicked. We had a group member that had seen Wicked two times already, and (as a dancer) really wanted to go see A Chorus Line. So, her sister stood at the box office to sell back her ticket (which they do right before curtain) and I ran with her to the A Chorus Line box office, where she scored a $26.00 student ticket. Her sister sold back her ticket for $110 so she made a nice profit off that show!

This was my 3rd time at Wicked- and I always enjoy it (this time the Elphaba was particularly amazing)- but it's not as fun when you know how everything is going to turn out. It was fun however sitting next to my students that began weeping at various points of the show.

NYC Day #3

Again, I got breakfast for me and Jackie (and some cherries from a friendly street vendor) and it was off to the Museum of Natural History at 9:30am. Again, we loaded up the subway car- and, because I was too busy counting heads (and Jackie was running behind with some latecomers) we accidentally got on an uptown express line. Bradley Moss (a chaperone) and his car noticed right before we left, but our car (containing Brent Cox and about 25 people) did not. It wasn't until we stopped at 125th Street (we were aiming for 81st Street) that we noticed. Luckily we got off, turned around and got on the next downtown train and arrived at the same time as Jackie.

I was excited about the Museum of Natural History- because I have read many a horror novel (Relic? Anyone?) that took place there. Well, our group ascended on the museum at the same time as 55 New York City elementary schools. A staff person at the museum said the last week of school, all of the schools bank up their field trips- so the week we were in NYC is when ALL of the schools take their field trips. After our travel agent had a crazy time getting all of our tickets, Jackie and I managed to get everyone (but ourselves) into the IMAX theatre show. While everyone was in there, we grabbed maps for everyone to distribute after they got out of the show. We then went to the Space Show where Robert Redford lulled everyone to sleep talking about meteor showers.

We then gave everyone an hour to look around the museum (with, at this point, 100 elementary schools each bring 100 school children). Though some rooms were cool, I kept thinking this would be an awesome museum to bring little kids too- not necessarily 64 high school theatre students and adults... and several students kept saying, "it doesn't look anything like A Night at the Museum in here- except the dioramas with little people).

Jackie and I told everyone we'd be willing to take people through Central Park and around the Upper West Side a little- we didn't know how many people would take us up on that- and everyone showed up. We took them past the Dakota (a ritzy building where lots of celebrities live and where John Lennon was shot), over to Grey's Papaya (where we shocked the locals by all 64 of us getting in line to get the $3.50 recession special- 2 hot dogs and a papaya juice) and then over to Magnolia Bakery where everyone got some sort of baked good (we got the banana pudding- which was awesome).

After that, it was through Central Park with a stop at Strawberry Fields (sadly, restoration gates were up preventing artists putting flower petals on the design) and then over to Bethesda Fountain (where there is NO SHADE). After hanging out there for a bit, we sent people to Serendipity, 5th Avenue, etc. (while some people fell asleep and then woke up lost...)

Jackie and I hit the subway and went down to the East Village.

We had heard about this awesome noodle restaurant called Momofuku- and we couldn't find it to save our lives. After walking around for a bit (and asking a native for directions), we ended up in an almost empty restaurant and got the house specialty of homemade chicken raman noodles. They were awesome and left us with room for dessert. Earlier we had walked by a place called Chik-a-licious which, I had read on a blog, was an all-dessert restaurant. We went over and realized it was a takeout only place- but that the sit-down restaurant was across the street. Jackie and I went over (again, the only customers) and each had a three-course dessert menu. I had amazing coconut soup with homemade pineapple sorbet, with brown sugar cookies (as my main course). It was awesome.

After wandering around the village for a bit, we headed back up to the hotel to meet up for Mary Poppins.

As much as I love the theatre district in NYC, I become depressed when I have to take a group below 46th street to a show- by this point I just hope everyone knows uptown from downtown, because trying to keep a group of 64 together through the maddening crowds of people between 42nd and 46th street is impossible.

More than a couple of times I would start a conversation with someone next to me that I thought was a student, only to turn around and see the students were blocks away and I was talking to a large, hairy man in a tank top and shorts going to Bubba Gumps.

I didn't know what to expect with Mary Poppins, but I loved the set and the choreography. I would like to play Burt (who was the original from London) or the butler of the family that sings one solo in Spoon Fool of Sugar totally drunk on rum punch. The person that stole the show for me was the little boy that played Michael Banks- his voice was phenomenal. Also, credit must be given to Disney for the amazing job they did with The New Amsterdam Theatre. In the 20's it was the theatre Flo Ziegfeld built for his Follies shows (Funny Girl) and in the 70's, the theatre fell in ruins (and became a porno theatre among other things). In the 80's it was abandoned and homeless people were squatting in it and a large tree grew out of the orchestra pit (where it was the home to many a bird). All of 42nd Street was scary in the 80's and in came Disney who, at the cost of millions, restored the theatre to it's glory from the 20's, opened Beauty & the Beast, The Lion King and Mary Poppins in it. It was fun showing my MDT students the theatre we talked about in class.

So, to sum up the day: Express Subway: Very fast and efficient. Need to learn to read subway maps more closely.

Museum of Natural History: Fun, but not great for high school students. Next time, we'll do the Met Museum (although I'm glad we've been there once)

Momofuku and Chik-a-licious: Awesome!!

Mary Poppins: If you're a parent and have a heart or soul (not necessarily both), you will be touched by the show. If not, Burt tap dancing on the ceiling is pretty cool.