The Music Man

On Sunday July 21st Frank and I took Alex to see The Music Man at our local Bankhead Theater in Livermore.

We had seats in the center of the very first row, a mere half wall height away from the orchestra pit. I thought this was fascinating and took photos looking down in three directions. I encouraged Alex to come over and look down also, but he violently shook his head "NO" and refused. I was bemused at this reaction. FYI, there were not 76 trombones down there. Only two.

The projection on the curtain while awaiting the start of the show was eye catching, as were ads in the program.

Alex did enjoy the show, and, as it turned out, being up close was great. He stayed engaged. I had been initially concerned we would be blasted out or get stiff necks but it was perfect. The performers were enthusiastic and the show had high energy. Not all the words to the lyric were distinct, but that did not preclude a lot of toe tapping to my favorites "Seventy-Six Trombones" and "Pick-a Little, Talk-a-Little"... cheep cheep cheep cheep.

Ponder: Love in Haunted Places

Looking for Love in All the Haunted Places by Claire Kann ©2024 is awful. I read about one third of it hoping it would get better but it did not. I set it aside unfinished. The author's style jumped all over the place and the main characters Lucky and Maverick were ill defined and unbelievable. The setting was within a Hennessee House, an old Victorian that seemed to have a personality and will of its own, a premise which certain had potential but it went unrealized. Lucky wears sunglass because she is a parapsychologist with the ability to read people and too much mental probing can damage her eyes. Maverick is a paranormal film maker. There is supposed to be a chemistry between them which seemed pretty neutralized to me. Maverick has a precocious young daughter unimaginatively named Rebel.

Amazon rated this book 3.9 with only 40 ratings and Goodreads gave it 3.5 with 496 ratings. I'm so glad I checked it out of the library and did not waste any of my money on it. At least the cover was pretty. I liked the purple, the flowers, the Victorian house, and the concealed black cat. I rate Looking for Love in All the Haunted Places only one star.

★☆☆☆☆ Awful but I read some of it

Peter Pan

Last Sunday, June 30th,  Frank and I took Alex to see the musical Peter Pan at the San Jose Center for the Performing Arts.

We normally try to sit up close to keep Alex engaged but we had balcony seats this performance. We reasoned that with flying in the show, being up higher might be better. These seats worked out well. This was our view of the curtain before the show began and again during the intermission.

Alex settled in comfortably with his purchased brochure of the show. Buying one of these glossy programs is a tradition for Alex and he loves thumbing through it page by page. This time we also got him a fidget crocodile that he enjoyed flailing about, the pop 'em portions were inconsequential to him.

The phrase "second star to the right, and straight on till morning" is a Disney added flourish. Disney placed Neverland in outer space but J.M. Barrie created it as an island with mermaids and Native Americans in a ocean somewhere. This location actually makes more sense for the presence of pirates; but then, if there are fairies and flying, making sense is not a requirement.

This rendition of the show had a few modernization tweaks. Wendy is portrayed as a focused young woman who is studying to become a doctor. This skill was very handy when she used sutures to reattached Peter Pan with his shadow. I missed that there was no big sheepdog named Nana; but equally amusing was a crocodile that slithered cross the stage periodically propelled by some small person camouflaged within. The flying was suitably impressive, even the youngest Darling child flew. Sitting in the balcony was even more magical in that we never saw any cables or any flying apparatus. We could truly suspend disbelief.

Here we three are posing after the show. We went out to dinner afterward where Alex chowed down a huge bowl of cajun jambalaya with rice, andouille sausage, chicken, and jalapeño peppers. In these photos Alex is happily clutching his tote bag of goodies.

Although famous from Disney's movie portrayal, Peter Pan originally is a character in novels by J.M. Barrie. Per Peter Pan in Wikipedia

J. M. Barrie may have based the character of Peter Pan on his older brother, David, who died in an ice-skating accident the day before his 14th birthday. His mother and brother thought of him as forever a boy.

In some ways I, too, think of Alex as forever a boy. We were happy to have gone to see Peter Pan with him.

Ponder: City of Ghosts Series

 I have read several books by V.E.Schwab and enjoyed all of  them, rating each 4 or 5 stars: 

The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue (★★★★★) 11/14/21
The Darker Shade of Magic (★★★★★) 4/28/22
A Gathering of Shadows (★★★★☆) 5/21/22
A Conjuring of Light (★★★★☆) 5/23/22
The Fragile Threads of Power (★★★★★) 2/25/24

Then I learned that Schwab has written a series of Young Adult  books dealing with ghosts and the paranormal, published in 2019, 2020, 2022. I have two granddaughters, cousins, who are very much into Harry Potter and Percy Jackson so I decided to check out the City of Ghosts series to see if these books would appeal. I think they very much will. On Amazon they are rated 4.6 out of 5 stars.

The main character Cassidy Blake has a best friend in a ghost Jacob. Cassidy's parents' occupation is writing books on the paranormal. Over a summer Cassidy's parents decide to take a tour with Cassidy and visit the most ghost inhabited cities of the world to film and develop a TV series that parallels and complements their books. Cassidy's dad is an historian and her mom complements him with the anecdotal ghost story side of the topics.  They work together as a team.

The places on the tour are Edinburgh, Scotland for City of Ghosts, Paris for Tunnel of Bones, and New Orleans for Bridge of Souls. In Scotland I learned directly from the City of Ghosts text what I have had  to glean from other books I have read by British authors: jumper = sweater, chips = fries, chips = crisps. Each book is a travel guide for its respective city even with a map in the front pages. In Paris I learned more about the catacombs than I ever knew. I saw the record holding causeway over Lake Pontchartrain in New Orleans in a whole new light discovering that it holds the world record for the longest continuous span over water, so much so that you cannot see one end from the other. I also learned a whole set of rules about the spirit world and ghostly constraints, although these paranormal rules may not be as factual as the other geographic knowledge I gained.

The characters are delightful. Jacob prefers to be called corporeally challenged rather than a ghost. He is wont to shoot devilish grins to punctuate his snarky remarks. Cassidy clings to a vintage camera and it is a vehicle for her to see different perspective into the world beyond the "Veil", the in-between land of spirits.

The action is good, and the is plot fun, as well as scary at times. There are also many Harry Potter references throughout that I think readers will find enjoyable and descriptive in way of explanations and elaborations. I am definitely going to see that this trilogy makes its way into the hands of each of my granddaughters. I would also venture that their younger siblings would like them also. Here are some teacher and reader evaluations for Books 1, 2 and 3:

Even though as young adult books they lack the sophistication of adult reading matter, I think they are great for their designated audience. I rate them 5 stars. They were a pager turner for me and I had a hard time setting them down.

★★★★★ Great! Read them!