Sunday, September 30, 2012

DTCSV Obedience "C" Match

September 22cd was the DTCSV workshop.  Beautiful day...good workshop..even if it was Airshow weekend...there was no interference and we were done by noon.




Saturday, September 29, 2012

They grow up.....

Earlier this month I took a week & helped Thing 1 move into her on campus studio at Portland State University.  Beautiful campus in downtown Portland not far from the Pearl District.  Her studio is in a building built in the '20's.  Cute space.  Only students aged 20+ live there and no roommates.  Not sure if right choice (new to the school this year).  But after living at the Wesley house with 15 other roommates for the last 3 years, I can understand the desire for privacy.




I5 Bridge Portland to Vancouver.  We are on the Vancouver side
 Also got to visit with Sister#4 kinda.  She was working long and odd hours & I was running between Portland & Vancouver.  So did not spend much time with her, except for an early dinner after Thing 1 got moved in (Thank you Auntie #4 for letting Thing 1 live with you this summer!).  We did have an early dinner one day on the river.  .


Sail boat on the Columbia





Lastly got the shot of all the dogs together.  The Cairns kept me good company while travelling.  Even if Izze did keep me awake OCD'ing over bunnies at the rest stop when I was trying to sleep.  They were happy as always to see their girl & play with their cousins.  I did manage to see Greysens other Mom...but Greysen did not get to come with us as we had spent the day in Portland.  It was a hot day and our activities were not dog friendly.  When we got home that night Greysen was literally huffing my jeans for at least 10 minutes and then ran about the house looking for his buddies.  Next time!





One short of a six pack




Monday, September 24, 2012

Spring Awakening

Thing 2 and I went and saw Spring Awakening at The Western Stage the weekend it opened on September 9th  It was a Sunday matinee or as I like to call it the "Blue Hair" performance (more on this later)  The clip below is the OBC Tony Award Performance.
Western Stage did a good job with casting and the young cast was very enthusiastic and believably inhabited their roles.  Vocal performances were very good.  Choreography was a bit sloppy and the dancing was out of sync and not very crisp.  I was disappointed with the two adult actors.  The show is setup so that two adults play all the different adult parts.  The actors did not do a good job differentiating each of the characters they played and the audience had to rely on wardrobe props to determine who they were.  Also the director made a choice to have the two school masters act as a comic foil which was distracting.

The show was staged in the large auditorium at Hartnell College.  This is a nice space and I really don't feel there is a bad seat in the house.  Personally I would have liked this to see this in the small theater, which is in the round.  Since the original Broadway production had audience members actually sitting in seats on the stage.  This would have made the show feel so much more intimate.  But I understand about economics and how more tickets can be sold.  However this is Salinas and frankly not the THEATRE center of the world.  Okay now to the Blue Hair performance.

Spring Awakening based on an 18th century German novel, it is about the sexual awareness that a group of adolescents is gaining as they move through puberty.  Abuse, incest, rape, homosexuality, suicide and abortion are all explored.  Western Stage matinees must have an average age of 75.  The audience became less and less enthusiastic with their applause as the show went on and became darker.  Several folks (though not as many as I first thought) did not come back after intermission.  When the show ended there was a moment of shocked silence before the applause.  But I will say..that eavesdropping as folks left the theater that the show did induce conversation...which it was designed to do.  Overall a well done show and comparable with the Broadway tour version I saw with Thing 1 a few years back.

Glad Western Stage took the risk.  Even if KSBW refused to air their promotional spots.  Which in my opinion were a bit silly and tried to focus on the titillating aspects of the show and undermined the moving emotional aspects of the show.  However the spots were by no means salacious and totally safe for prime time.