Yearly Archives: 2008

Sunday night – chill out

We had a very peaceful day.. not much happened. It was a good rest. I’m still  absorbing in all that I saw at the Paul Zaloom Puppetry workshop I went to yesterday… I picked up several ideas from the workshop that I can apply to my own  Jolts and Volts shows.. The main ones were:

– On keeping material fresh:  do each show for the sound guy (or the roadie.. or whatever).. that is the guy who sees your show so many times that he/she would be sick of it.. If you can make him/her laugh, you’re keeping your material fresh. That’s good advice to me.. I sometimes hear myself repeating these same old geeky jokes in my shtick and worry about it getting stale.

– On making mistakes – Paul said never apologize for mistakes.. or even apologize for a lousy show.. Embrace your screw ups and go with them..  Sometimes the funniest parts are recovering from errors.  Never give the audience reason to believe that you think you suck…   I know that sometimes during a show I get myself mentally tangled in something that doesn’t work and it can make me loose my focus.. I’ll try this next time some thing blows up figuratively or literally .

– On building new material – he suggests writing down little sections of ideas whenever they come to you.. .. At some point sit down and explore different orderings of the ideas.. I like this idea of slicing and dicing.. I tent to do all my thinking in one linear  shot.. which makes  changing it hard..

‘m thinking about revamping my show for ’08.. I’m currently scheduling no more than 2 shows per month.. but some of my friends fill in .. so I’m guessing we average about 3 per month overall.   As I have said here many times before, reaching out to kids with this geeky science is the thing I do professionally that really feels most kharmically right.

Anyway.. As I said yesterday,. I was so impressed with Zaloom that I bought a standing room ticket to the show at the Flynn Space..  The show was so amazing.. It was also impossible to describe.. It started with a monologue on Zaloom’ trip to a biker festival then transitioned to a bizzare and amazing shadow puppet show.

The show was basically an hour long shadow puppet show with amazing articulated cutouts casting shadows on a small sheet. The hero of the show was Karagöz, the Turkish equivalent of the English character Punch. The story was incredibly goofy., twisted and fun . In Zaloom’s telling,  Karagöz in trouble with the law in Syria for being gay..He ends up escaping from jail and ends up accidentally blowing up the Statue of Liberty and Mount Rushmore.  The whole thing was full of wonderfully gross humor.. uh… anatomical exaggerations.. and .. uh… excreta of all kinds,   and .. oh forget it.. I can’t retell the story here because of the family audience.  Just trust me it was amazing to watch and hear. Zaloom is a magician with puppets and sound.

There were several of the workshop folks in the audience and we hung out for a little while after the show talking..   As we were standing there, my buddy Gina came in and invited me to catch the last part of the Bottine Souriante show that was still going on in the Flynn main stage. Bottine Souriante is  a famous Quebecois folk band with amazing dance and stomping rythyms. They play and dance so hard that you get exhausted just listening to them. It could not have been more different than the show downstairs.. It was a pretty eclectic evening .

Afterward there was a small reception for the Flynn members  and the band.. I hung out for a short bit talking to Gina.. then headed home.

One of the and members was wearing this shirt which I thought was cool. I never did learn what it meant.

Today .. was really peaceful. Max had a Voices movie recording session . Gabe was up at the mountain.. so Diane and I got a chance to hang out and putter around the house, which was just what both of us needed.

Mid morning, Diane, Chai and I headed out for a snowshoe up the long trail north of Bolton Notch road. We wanted to take in some of the powder before the thaw projected for this week sets in.  I always think it’s funny the way that Chai sits in the front seat.

It was beautiful out in the woods.. I loved looking at the bark on some of these trees.. looked like eyes to me.

Especially when you put two of them together in photoshop 🙂

We found lots of bear and woodpecker  markings too.

Here’s some more beautiful scenery  – my girls..

The rest of the day was very quiet..   Around 6 we went up to Tim and Jen’s for a great dinner.

Gabe was playing with Crunk-beast the cat… which inspired Tim to lend us the Alien Trilogy.. Wonder why…

Anyway.. gotta sleep now.. Nite everyone. Nite Sam !
-me

Saturday – puppets

Greetings from the upstairs coffe shop area at Borders Books in Burlington.

I’m sitting here killing time as I wait to see the Paul Zaloom show at the Flynn at 8. I got one of the last standing room only tickets. I just decided to catch this show after spending 4 hours at a small workshop that Zaloom gave at the Flynn this afternoon. Zaloom was the star of the 90s show ‘Beekman’s World’ that presented science to kids in a gloriously goofy way.. The workshop I attended today was called ‘The Theater of Trash’.. and it was about puppeteering using everyday objects as props. I actually joined the workshop by accident.. I had hoped to attend a workshop Paul did for teachers on fun ways t teach since. That workshop was on Jan 2nd… and I completely forgot about it. I was bummed..

Our buddy Gina at the Flynn had suggested that I drop into the Puppeteering workshop that Paul was teaching today to see if I could get the notes from the workshop I missed.   It turned out that I had the day free.. Max and Diane were ate a  Reiki workshop, Gabe was up at Bolton.. so I decided at the last moment to sit in on the whole workshop today..   I’m so glad that I did..

It’s kinda hard to describe what we did today.. but it was such a hoot. The whole workshop was about improv theater using everyday objects.

Everyone had brought about a half dozen everyday objects to contribute to the  prop collection. I brought a hunk of suet, an egg wisk, some wicked strong magnets, a red bull can, a battery and a SamStone..  Other obejects included cloth, sticks, chicken shaped egg timers, coat racks, salad tonges, beer cans, coffee theromoses.. and every other sort of junque imaginable

One by one we had to get up and do an unplanned story using the objects as the actors.. What came out was amazing.. we had comedy, drama, physics.. etc..   After each act we all discussed what was goign on..

Paul was amazing at pointing out the beauty of each piece.. and making cool suggestions as to how to improve the puppety-ness of the piece.. It was very cool to see his thougthful/serious side after only seeing his playful/goofy side on the Beekman show. He really has given the idea of spontaneous improv a bunch of thought. I would love to think as freely as he does.. or as many of the folks at the workshop  .. did.    I think there were about 9 of us in total . Most of the folks there were artists and/or performers.. but not all.   Mnay of the folks in the room new about Sam.. Paul nee the story from goign to Talent ! He just bought a cool watch there !

Afterwards I had a great short conversation with Paul. Turns out that he’s still doing Beekamn’s World science stage shows and is doing a complete new rev right now. We talked about the possibility of me helpign with soem of the sciennce content.. now that would be cool !.. Who knows..

I’m still absorbing all that I heard and saw today.  .. but I was inspired enough to buy the SRO ticket to his show tonight. I understand it’s pretty wild.. ‘adult’ entertainment.. .. He has a very cool mind.. I can’t wait to see what he does

Ooops.. I gotta run to nake the show.. more later (maybe) .
TTYL folks.. TTYL Sam
-me

Friday evening – out of touch

I had a most peculiar sort of day.. Something or someone wanted me to be incommunicado today… First both my blackberry and my laptop failed..actually.. it was the charger for both.. so I had no access to email or cell phone.. I had an early show in Fletcher, VT.. way up near Cambridge.. In desperation. I borrowed Diane’s cell phone to take with me.. I couldn’t be without a phone..   Of course.. there was no cell phone coverage way up there.. so .. I was cut off from the world.. Alone .. in the car.. with just an FM radio.. It was terrifying 🙂

Fletcheris a cute little town.. .. I think I’ve done shows at most of the elementary and middle schools in Chittenden. Addison and Franklin counties.. but I can’t ever remember doing a show here.. though I’m pretty sure I have

The snow was deep.. and it was still pretty cold .. so it was tricky business getting my gear into the school.. my electric go-cart actually got stuck in the snow !

I didn’t realize it.. but I was doing a show for the entire school. It was a great group of kids.. Note I have to blur the faces because it’s illegal in VT to post a picture of a kid in school wiht out a parental release form..

The show was so much fun. I absolutely love doing these shows .   Very few other things give me the sense of kharmic correctness that this type of outreach does.

I was done around 11, packed up and headed back to the real world.. I headed to Mexicali to meet a friend for lunch.. but we ended up getting our wires cross.ed.. he thoughts i was picking him up.. I thought he was meeting him at the restaurant.. and he couldn’t call me .. because my cell was out of commission..
No worries.. I had a great meal by myself.. and I just had to argue with myself over who got the check.   I love Mexicali.. the best salsa north of Texas that I’ve ever had.

From ther… it was back to work … I unloaded my science gear.. then decided that it was high time that I cleaned out my old office. The story is that I got a new office when I was promoted in the winter of 2006. .. I just never got around to cleaning out my old office.. which was packed full of 25 years of whatever it was I was doing.. When Sam died.. I just really couldn’t bring myself to spend much time in that old office.. so I left it full of stuff.   I figured this winter break was the right time to clean it out. it took me nearly 6 hours.. I went through every scrap of paper, every pencil nub. There are so many pictures in there.. happy pictures of our family.. and of Sam.. I broke down several tiems as I went through them.. yet it felt good to be cleaning.

Here’s a badge that Sam and I got when we stayed together at space camp in Florida

 The biggest job was taking down the hundreds of pictures stapled to the wall. Many of them were from kids who’s classes I’d visited.

And hundreds of books.. most of them technical.. but not all.. Many I hadn’t looked at in years.

And of course my picture of Jerry.

My blackboard still had stuff that Gabe had drawn when he was a baby !

I found soem pretty wierd stuff in there .. like this dried squid from a  trip to china a long time ago..

And this ‘Zatar’.. the stuff that gave me my stage name for my science shows.. and my license plate (DRZATAR).. It’s a mix of sage, sesame and sumac.. yum !

I was very grateful to have several friends helping me clean stuff out.. Here my friend Kevin is pulling out staples… He told me he wanted me to write ‘i will not staple into the wall’ a hundred times in my new office.

My friend Henry helped me with all the magnetic stuff on my door. 

I still had no phone. cell phone of internet.. I was in deep withdrawal. Thanks goodness for my talkative friends.

It was a huge mess to start out with…

But eventually it yielded to sheer force of will.. we managed to get everything out !..


I threw away and/or recycled massive amounts of crud from 25 years of work..

But even so.. I now have a huge pile of cruud in my ‘new’ office that I must deal with ! 

Don’t fear though.. I have some furniture and bookshelves coming to absorb most of it.. Even though I’m not done with the new office.. it’s a tremendous sense of relief to clear out the old one..

OK..the rest of the evening was pretty peaceful.. I got my replacement cell phone.. and a new charger for my PC.. so I’m back ‘on the air’. I have to say I enjoyed my day off-line.. Speaking of off-line.. it’s time for sleep. More tomorrow..

G’nite all.. G’nite Sam

-me


Thursday evening – blah

Hmmmm…  not much to report on today… I had a reasonably productive day working at home. Chai and I managed to get out for a brisk snowshoe at 4 degrees below.. It’s now 10 degrees below zero . heading to fifteen below tonight. I actually love this weather.

The rest of the day was productive.. but pretty uninteresting. For some reason, everything I touched seemed to mess up… my lap top charger, my cell phone, the car (again) . Towards the afternoon even my software started to go crazy… This evening a friend called from a small town in northern NY .. and all the power on his street went out.   I decided to call it a day…     Diane was up at Bolton teaching yoga.. so I took Gabe. Max, Mason and Emma to Bridge Street for dinner..

When we got home, we started to un-decorate the tree.

I’m going to miss it’s goofy stare I felt like ‘Dave’ in 2001 taking apart that tree… I felt like I was taking apart a friend. (‘I’m frightened, Dave’)

As Diane worked on the tree, I did a little cleaning in the old lab… It’s a room that I used to use as a workroom. One of the reasons we built the barn was to get the dangerous chemicals I used to keep in that room out of the house. As I moved stuff I kept coming across things of Sam’s.. Here’s soem of his guitar music in one of his guitar cases..



Here’s a ‘sword’ that he and I made many years ago.. he was always making swords.

And here’s a knife set he got when he and Max took a cooking summer camp many years back.. (‘remember this and don’t forget, never trust a skinny chef’)

He’s still everywhere, that boy…

OK.. time for bed.. gnite all , gnite sam.. I like finding your stuff.

-jc