Saturday, December 16, 2000
We finished our last show of 2000 today! All the shows went swimmingly. The people we met in Lafayette we all amazingly kind and wonderful to us. There was an especially hysterical Jabberwock for the first show at Scott Middle School in Scott, LA. But, now we have started our way back toward Asheville and made it as far as Mobile, AL tonight (after stopping for oysters in New Orleans at Acme). It's rather foggy out there, but the roads are all trouble free so far. Since we've finished Mr. Robbins' book we started reading a book that ciro pick up called Beruit to Jerusalem. It is written by Thomas Friedman, chief diplomatic correspondent for the New York Times. Friedman was the first Jewish correspondent to be sent by the Times to cover Middle East politics. He was assigned to Beirut and Jerusalem from the late seventies through the mid-eighties. So far it's both horrific and humorous. C-Span has published their transcript of an interview with Mr. Friedman. My only problem is that it's pretty dense reading. Not to be done while tired. Plus our Hertz Taurus is starting to develop a rather bad shimmy that makes both ciro's hands on the wheel and my eyes trying to read vibrate a bit too much to our liking. If anything, in a very short amount of time i've learned much more about what's going on in the middle east right now.
Hmm...out of words. I think i'll curl up and get ready for bed while watching the English Patient on TV.~w
wendi's 1:46 AM ravings
Friday, December 15, 2000
I got a group hug from 10 first graders today. I'm not sure who needed it more, me or them. Although, the girl who started it locked her arms around me and didn't seem to want to let go. She never said anything, just held onto me for dear life. She eventually let go as her class was walking out the door. A young boy in her class went out with red eyes and a big lower lip (apparently upset that we didn't bring him onstage, i'm not really sure but having almost used him in a monster role we typically give to a teacher i guess i was feeling guilty). I tried talking to him, but he remained silent. The principal walked him to lunch herself. It was an abrubt shift from yesterday's 1st grade girls who gave us polite hang shakes and had many questions for us. The kids in this public school from a poor neighborhood seemed to just plain need more hugs than words. Is it that these kids have already learned that actions speak louder than words?
After a morning like that i just spent the rest of the day working on holiday cards trying to share those hugs with words to the people i miss. It just seemed like the only thing to do. Especially since there seems to be little but news on the TV here. I did catch part of "Cinderelmo" which i found to be a strange and frightening replacement to my favorite old holiday programs. What happened to those little clay-mation stories of rudolph and frosty and "the year without a santa claus"? I always liked the "freeze miser" and "heat miser" song and dance sequences as a kid. Has computer animation rendered those "old" and "outdated" to today's producers? Or i'm i just so out of the loop on tv programming that i've missed them?
Well tomorrow's our last day of shows and we'll start our trek north to Asheville. I'm looking forward to some time off to visit with friends. And, of course petting my cat who is in much need of love to make up for my neglect. Good thing i don't have kids.~w
wendi's 1:20 AM ravings
Thursday, December 14, 2000
We performed at the Academy of Sacred Heart Girls school today. They were a breath of fresh air. Granted the students in Lafayette have been great all around, but these girls were an amazing mix of wild uninhibited creativity and kindness and respect. They are truely active learners and a joy to spend the day with. We had lunch with the 3rd graders. My table discussed everything from poems to their pet dogs to prom with me while ciro's table became a "parisian cafe" with a couple of the girls serenading the rest of the lunchers. Several students recited poems they had memorized for us. These included poems from our previous year's shows such as The Jumblies by Edward Lear and The Walrus and the Carpenter by Lewis Carroll. The 6th grade immediately went to work on "thank you" cards which they presented to us before we left, while 8th graders treated us to their "poem comic strips." Basically, they had each taken a poem and illustrated it frame by frame comic strip style. Highly creative work!! It was really a joy to spend the day at their school. Grand Coteau (where the school is located) is a cute little town. I visited a little shop called "Beyond Bliss" that was a fun array of good smelling candles, soaps and other kitchy stuff. A nice little diversion from the politics of the week.
I'm feeling rather flakey and out of it these days though. The words coming out of my mouth just seem to hit people rather strangely. In general i'm in a rather happy mood and i flutter around busily trying to gather myself together for the holidays, but other folks seem to have their minds on other matters. Perhaps that is why i had so much fun playing with the girls at Sacred Heart today. We just shared with each other fun and silly things, living joyfully in the present moment rather than worrying about the rest of the world.~w
wendi's 12:43 AM ravings
urg...posting problems...
wendi's 12:43 AM ravings
Wednesday, December 13, 2000
Whew, what a day. We started at Acadian Middle School a little bumpy, but it turned out well in the end. The school was bedecked in yellow ribbons as the teachers prepare for a "sick out" tomorrow. During our "coffee" break at the local CC's Coffeehouse (Community Coffee) we learned from the paper that the schools will indeed be closed in this parish tomorrow (a parish in Louisiana is the equivalent of county in other states). We headed on over to Northside High for our second show where we met with some familiar faces (we had performed there 2 years or so ago) and a politically charged atmosphere. In addition to discussing the "sick out," they were using lunch break in the teacher's lounge to rewrite an anti-Gore spoof (using the theme from the "Beverly Hill Billies") into an anti-Bush spoof. The show went swimmingly. These students are great! They were some of the most creative and active participants we've had onstage in a high school show in quite some time. Afterwards, in chatting with teachers we discovered that starting salary here is $21,000 and one teacher who'd been employed for 20 years was making about $32,000 (barely starting salary in many states these days). You can't doubt his commitment to the school district, but is it fair that his students graduate from college and move to another state to start earning more money teaching than he does? It seems their request for a pay raise is long overdue.
Not wanting to waste our time or their money, our Arts council contact had found a private school in the next parish over that was quick to snap up the opportunity to see us tomorrow. So, we'll be working, but not in this parish. It seems a good resolution, but i hope that the schools originally scheduled tomorrow don't end up left out of the loop as a result.
Our evening show was for the Arts Council Board (they brought us in) who were happy and excited to see what we were offering to students in the parish. They were also quick to criticize the education process here though. One retired teacher had a mouthful to say about the increasing restrictions put on teachers that do nothing but decrease the amount of learning gained by students. Zowie, these people are frustrated...and why not? As we arrived back in the hotel and finished discussing our revised schedule CNN began reporting on the Supreme Court decision. Or should i say indecision? That is quite a messy ruling. My take on it...Florida's election laws are so messed up that the Supreme Court could find no constitutional resolution to the problem so they gave it back to Florida Supreme Court saying you can't do this, it's not fair, the votes should be counted, but we don't see how you can resolve this. Can you resolve it? I know this certainly won't make teachers happy since we've found them to be almost overwhelmingly for Gore. Did i mention that in Bush's state we spoke to members of the Abilene school district who told us that despite their schools having "Exemplary" test scores, which gives them maximum funding, their district will go into $3,000,000 of debt per year for the next several years until a resolution to their funding problems is found. Did i mention that overwhelmingly teachers in Texas have found that Bush's co-opting of the Texas standardized test (known as TAAS and established by former governer Ann Richards), for determining funding for schools has inhibited their ability to teach students how to do anything but take the test. In fact one elementary school admitted that they have dispensed with free play time (no recess, and only a 20 min lunch break) in order to maintain their "exemplary" status to gain funding. No wonder so many students require medication for Attention Deficit Disorder. Could you stay focused on learning and quiet at age 8 for an entire school day? I'm not particularly crazy about Gore, but my opinion of Bush as being an elitist who has no interest in the "common American" has only been amplified by his party's heel-dragging and whining about ballots that "don't matter" despite the fact that they far out-number the marginal lead that the machine tallies established. Several other states had manual recounts unhindered by disputes over the legality of hand counting ballots intended for machines. Luckily for them, the Supreme Court's decision to remand the decision back to Florida avoids a precident that would have called the consitutionality of manually counted votes in other states into question. On a final note, the strong and colorful statements by the dissenting "conservative" members of the Supreme Court seem to add a cloud of deep frustration and hint that perhaps the Florida Legislature has created an elections system that is unjust to its citizens.
Blahhhhag. What a mess. I'm glad the day is done.~w
wendi's 1:48 AM ravings
Tuesday, December 12, 2000
I did some more christmas shopping today. I'm trying not to go too crazy, but i like shopping for other people cuz it's easier to justify than shopping for myself.
Ack money! It's evil! It keeps burning holes in the pockets of all my clothes. Which means that i have holey clothes. Which means spending money on clothes without holes if i want people to "respect" me. After all, it's all about how you look rather than what you do right? Actually, when i used to do temp work in Seattle i always skirted the edge of "dress code." When your sitting at a computer in some hole of an office all day, what good is a stiff suit going to do you? I much prefer a soft velvety dress of a bright color with my comfy boots (which also propelled me across town on foot comfortably). I've never actually owned a "suit" persay and have no intention of buying one now. So why do we place so much importance on appearance? Oh, and as ciro pointed out today, why is it that most of the time the more you pay for women's clothing, the uglier it looks? At least we got rid of corsettes before my time.
A girl asked us today after the show about how we got our jobs, which led to her questioning how difficult it was to get people who were free to spend a year touring at the age of 25+ years. She said something like, "aren't most people wanting to settle down then?" Wow, interesting question. I mean i certainly wasn't quite "settled" at 25 myself. However, today it seems like no matter what you do there is some travel involved. Conventions, sales meetings, hearings, team building exercises...all these things mean travel for the average "settled" American. Every year there are more "business class" hotels being built in smaller towns as well as the big cities. They can't be making money unless more Americans are traveling for business than before. Plus there would be no need for wireless services if people were staying put.
No wonder the family unit is in danger! Besides both parents working, if one or both of them have to travel more than once a year by themselves it seems like it would loosen and fray the bonds of family life. Our world today is a far cry from the agricultural based society our fore-fathers were thinking of when "going to work" rarely meant leaving their own property. Sure there have always been city-dwellers, but they are increasingly outnumbering the American farmer. I think i heard someone say that the population of Palm Beach County in Florida outnumbers the population of Nevada, Utah, Wyoming, and Idaho combined (or a similar combination of states in the Rocky Mountain region). How can we talk of "family values" for our entire nation when the notion of "typical American family" is rapidly changing? Lots of questions, but no answers. Kinda like the US Supreme court trying to divine whether there can be a standard for counting ballots throughout the state of Florida when each county uses a different ballot.
Well, since i don't plan on spending more than 30min online ($#@%!* hotel phone charges), i'm afraid the links for today and the rest of the week will be a bit sparse. I'll make it up later!~w
wendi's 12:08 AM ravings
Monday, December 11, 2000
Okay, i know if i say we're staying at the Hilton Towers here in Lafayette it sounds fancy, but i'm here to tell you it's not all that it's cracked up to be. We didn't stay here last night because $85 seemed outrageous. But, apparently the arts council here gets a special deal, so we're here for the rest of the week.
Let me tell you what $85 gets you: snotty looks if you come in dressed in anything but "business attire" (i swear the woman at the banquet check-in table gave us a look like "your not planning on coming in here are you?" when we got off the elevator to go to our rooms), a room the same size and general shape as the Red Roof with fancy furniture (though not necessarily comfy), a window that doesn't open (so no chance for "fresh air"), limited cable with lots of pay per view movie ads, a coffee pot in the room without coffee (it's $1.50 for each 4 cup packet), access to a decent fitness room (okay the sauna is nice, but they had one at the Holiday Inn Express we stayed at last week too), room service (if you want to pay $5.95 for a muffin and danish brought to your room), access to a dining room (where dinners start at $15), a phone that costs $.50 for local calls + $.10/minute for calls over 30 minutes (including your 800 and collect calls), soap and shampoo in your room with the Neutrogena brand name on them, and ooh the topper is a tiny bottle of Listermint.
So, okay i'll give you that the room doesn't smell like "tropical" air freshener, but give me a plain ol' Microtel/Sleep Inn/Baymont Inn/Holiday Inn Express/Hampton Inn/et al any day with their free coffee, free breakfast, free afternoon cookies, free local calls, decent exercise facilities, coin laundry on site, and often free micro/fridge in your room for $30-$50 less and spare me the Listermint. Granted, it's not as bad as the MGM Grand we were put in for one night in Las Vegas (they charged $100 for rooms, $1 for picking up the phone, all the details above, and unless you want to pay a valet to carry your luggage and park your car it's a 1/2 mile hike to the lobby from the parking through their "mall"). Why is it that the higher the price you pay for the room, the more that everything else costs you for your stay? Shouldn't it be the other way around? It just plain makes me cranky, instead of enjoying the supposed "luxury" that they are said to provide.
This just in, ciro was watching the news and they are reporting that the teacher's of Lafayette are planning to strike here on Wednesday. Oh joy, just what we need the last week before our break. So here's a question, as an artist brought in by the local arts council do you cross a union picket line to perform for the students whose parents send their kids to school anyway? The point may be mute if the school board decides to close the schools and we'll be performing for them Tuesday night, so i guess we will have a chance to hear their decision live. Just what Tuesday needs...more politics.
Hmmm, i think i'll spend some time writing holiday cards, writing in general and maybe even play my flute to process this week without stressing out. Here goes $.50 to post this and check my email...Ack! Even though i gave them a deposit when i checked in for the phone, i had to call down to ask them to turn my phone on....grrrrr.~w
wendi's 12:06 AM ravings
Sunday, December 10, 2000
We finished reading Skinny Legs today. It's quite an amazing book on religious history considering it's a fictional novel. I learned more about the conflict in the middle east from reading that book than from listening to the news lately (but, that could have something to do with the election mess -- i can't understand why florida can't just manually count their ballots like oregon and new mexico did where the presidential race was also close). The Dance of the Seven Veils is an amazing piece of writing in itself.
I'm cozy in a Red Roof hotel room tonight in Lafayette, LA with a hot cup of peppermint tea. My room came equipped with a dehumidifier. Based on the smell in the first room they gave me, i'd guess they have a lot of problems with damp weather causing mold problems here. The more annoying thing though is the "fragrance" machine. It's the same thing they put it bathrooms at restaurants and gas stations to keep them from stinking. Fortunately i'm handy enough to disable the silly thing so i don't choke on "tropical" sweetness in my sleep. I've never been much for sickly sweet room scents. Give me good old pine anyday (or at least something that doesn't drown out the smell of my tea).
I haven't really been out on the town except to do laundry this evening, but my paperwork is done and i have clean clothes. While i was doing laundry i read Ms. magazine. Not the kind of thing i usually pick up, but the amazing Patricia Smith has a column in it and this particular issue also has Slam poet Alix Olson from New York on the cover. It was very interesting to read the polished and edited version of another traveling poet's tour diary. Poignant i'd call it.
I just saw a rather silly energizer bunny commercial with a guy in his underwear. They should make a new one with the bunny counting ballots..."still counting" (actually they've stopped again, maybe "still arguing"). ~w
wendi's 3:24 AM ravings
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