Celebration!
Did anyone by any chance see "Good Morning, America" this morning (Friday)? Because if you did, you might have seen the feature about the Sheldrick Wildlife Trust, the people who raise the orphaned baby elephants. And guess what? MY FOSTER DAUGHTER WAS ON THE REPORT! I was so excited when Dr. Sheldrick introduced my little Lesanju, and we recognized her poor torn-up ears, I almost jumped off my seat with joy. She's just so tiny, but she looks strong for an infant, and she's so affectionate....I could just cry.
I'm almost positive that another baby she talked about on camera was my "son," Zurara--I'm sure that's what she was saying just as the audio changed and the voice-over came on that obscured the name. But it was a nice, round little guy, about the right size to be Zurara, and if I can read lips at all I'm pretty sure it was him. Seeing them like that made it all so much more real than the pictures I get in Email every month.
What can I say? I just can't help it. They're my kids.
Now, I need to ask a favor of someone out there, if anyone reading this can help me. I caught the feature, which is only a few minutes long, on the DVR, and I can transfer it to VHS video, but I'd LOVE to have it on a file for the computer, preferably a wmp. file or whatever it is that the Windows video player uses. But I don't have the equipment to capture it. If anyone out there DOES, and wouldn't mind making the file and Emailing it to me, I'd be forever grateful. I'll pay all expenses, of course, and am willing to barter for the time involved. I don't now who among you (probably just the Americans, since we're talking about an NTSC-VHS tape) might have the right gear to do this, so I'm making this an open plea. I would SOOO love to be able to send people this short film of my kids.
Moving on.....
Well, Halloween was a mixed bag, but generally fun. The fog machine was a wash--it didn't work. But my Pirate makeup worked great. Y'see, I had a bit of an advantage with that. I'm one of those unfortunate females who, due to some really mixed-up hormones, has a tendency to hirsuteness. I grow long hair on my neck, chin and cheeks. Even a mustache. I let it go long enough and it turns into an actual beard, although it stops short of the "bearded lady in the sideshow" kind of beard. Normally i just shave before I'm going to go anywhere, and other than that annoying chore it's not a problem. Well, I haven't been going anywhere, and before Halloween it was....well, long. Thick. Mostly white (dammit.) And I got the idea that this could be taken advantage of for costume purposes....
So, with the application of some dark brown mascara, I had the best "fake" beard and mustache makeup you've ever seen...::grin:: It really worked. With a scarf around my head and my new hat over that, you really couldn't recognize me. It was fun, wearing someone else's face for awhile. My voice is naturally deep anyway, and the trach makes it gravelly, so the "pirate" persona was pretty easy to keep going. With the older kids, anyway. I wasn't trying to scare the young ones. I did actually get the little girl from next door to say "Trick or Treat," which was a real triumph--Megan is AWFULLY shy and she doesn't know me well anyway, let alone the stranger in the beard.
I'm not particularly a poetry person. I don't often get a lot out of reading it. Now, hearing it recited is something else, if the speaker has a good voice, say, like Ron Perlman (I have a CD of him reciting, actually, wish I could find the bloody thing,) or James Earl Jones, Patrick Stewart, someone like that. But reading it for myself--it rarely really gets to me unless it's something that's written for humor. I've read a bit of Kipling ("Gunga Din," mainly), had the odd sonnet or two pressed upon me (Shakespeare can be cool), but the only poet whose works I've ever sought out for themselves is the Australian A. B. "Banjo" Paterson. And that mainly because one of my very top-five favorite movies that was based on his work, "The Man From Snowy River." Well, last night I was poking around on Itunes.com, and I found a folk ballad that is that very poem set to music. Now, I may have trouble with poetry, but song lyrics--that's something else....
It's a long song--well, it's a long poem. But I love it. I never really realized before how much the last twenty minutes or so of the film is virtually dictated by the poem, down to much of the dialogue. I was hearing the song and seeing the movie in my head in a most surreal convergence. There were places I found myself speaking the words of the poem/song along with it, because I knew those words as they'd been said on screen. A really odd feeling, that.
Picked up another couple of Aussie folk songs while I was in the mood. Everyone's heard at least the first verse of "Waltzing Matilda," so I picked that up to learn the rest of it. Now I need an interpreter! This could be as bad as when I was writing a girl my age who lived near Perth, back when I was a kid, and I had to ask her to clarify her statement about the animals they owned. I knew what a joey was, but what the heck was a chook? (Any Australians ::Sally, that means you:: reading this is probably ROFL by now.) Well, I know what a chook is now, after having made myself the laughingstock of Western Australia...::grin:: (By the way, if you are as I was then--it's a chicken.)
Anyway, I also picked up a heartbreaking ballad that I've known for years but never had a recording of before--"And the Band Played Waltzing Matilda." It's about an Aussie soldier caught up in the tragedy of Gallipoli in WWI. But considering the current situation of war we're in now, it's become much more than just a folk song to me.
Got in the mood to pick up some classical stuff, too. Well, mostly 20th Century composers, but classical nonetheless. Holst's "The Planets" suite, for instance. The "Jupiter" section of the suite is my personal theme music, as it happens. Don't we all have theme songs? Well, we should, anyway, and that's mine. I also went Aaron Copland crazy--"Appalachian Spring," "Fanfare for the Common Man," "El Salon Mexico," among other pieces. And a bit of Grofe--"The Grand Canyon Suite." A real Pops parade of classical music, but I never claimed to be that deep when it comes to my musical tastes. (When I hear the William Tell Overture, I still think first of the Lone Ranger. So sue me.)
Well, that's a lot of nonsense for now. I really should update more often and get these silly thoughts out of my head in smaller doses. Oh, well, you knew what you were in for when you started reading. I can't write something short to save my life.
I'm almost positive that another baby she talked about on camera was my "son," Zurara--I'm sure that's what she was saying just as the audio changed and the voice-over came on that obscured the name. But it was a nice, round little guy, about the right size to be Zurara, and if I can read lips at all I'm pretty sure it was him. Seeing them like that made it all so much more real than the pictures I get in Email every month.
What can I say? I just can't help it. They're my kids.
Now, I need to ask a favor of someone out there, if anyone reading this can help me. I caught the feature, which is only a few minutes long, on the DVR, and I can transfer it to VHS video, but I'd LOVE to have it on a file for the computer, preferably a wmp. file or whatever it is that the Windows video player uses. But I don't have the equipment to capture it. If anyone out there DOES, and wouldn't mind making the file and Emailing it to me, I'd be forever grateful. I'll pay all expenses, of course, and am willing to barter for the time involved. I don't now who among you (probably just the Americans, since we're talking about an NTSC-VHS tape) might have the right gear to do this, so I'm making this an open plea. I would SOOO love to be able to send people this short film of my kids.
Moving on.....
Well, Halloween was a mixed bag, but generally fun. The fog machine was a wash--it didn't work. But my Pirate makeup worked great. Y'see, I had a bit of an advantage with that. I'm one of those unfortunate females who, due to some really mixed-up hormones, has a tendency to hirsuteness. I grow long hair on my neck, chin and cheeks. Even a mustache. I let it go long enough and it turns into an actual beard, although it stops short of the "bearded lady in the sideshow" kind of beard. Normally i just shave before I'm going to go anywhere, and other than that annoying chore it's not a problem. Well, I haven't been going anywhere, and before Halloween it was....well, long. Thick. Mostly white (dammit.) And I got the idea that this could be taken advantage of for costume purposes....
So, with the application of some dark brown mascara, I had the best "fake" beard and mustache makeup you've ever seen...::grin:: It really worked. With a scarf around my head and my new hat over that, you really couldn't recognize me. It was fun, wearing someone else's face for awhile. My voice is naturally deep anyway, and the trach makes it gravelly, so the "pirate" persona was pretty easy to keep going. With the older kids, anyway. I wasn't trying to scare the young ones. I did actually get the little girl from next door to say "Trick or Treat," which was a real triumph--Megan is AWFULLY shy and she doesn't know me well anyway, let alone the stranger in the beard.
I'm not particularly a poetry person. I don't often get a lot out of reading it. Now, hearing it recited is something else, if the speaker has a good voice, say, like Ron Perlman (I have a CD of him reciting, actually, wish I could find the bloody thing,) or James Earl Jones, Patrick Stewart, someone like that. But reading it for myself--it rarely really gets to me unless it's something that's written for humor. I've read a bit of Kipling ("Gunga Din," mainly), had the odd sonnet or two pressed upon me (Shakespeare can be cool), but the only poet whose works I've ever sought out for themselves is the Australian A. B. "Banjo" Paterson. And that mainly because one of my very top-five favorite movies that was based on his work, "The Man From Snowy River." Well, last night I was poking around on Itunes.com, and I found a folk ballad that is that very poem set to music. Now, I may have trouble with poetry, but song lyrics--that's something else....
It's a long song--well, it's a long poem. But I love it. I never really realized before how much the last twenty minutes or so of the film is virtually dictated by the poem, down to much of the dialogue. I was hearing the song and seeing the movie in my head in a most surreal convergence. There were places I found myself speaking the words of the poem/song along with it, because I knew those words as they'd been said on screen. A really odd feeling, that.
Picked up another couple of Aussie folk songs while I was in the mood. Everyone's heard at least the first verse of "Waltzing Matilda," so I picked that up to learn the rest of it. Now I need an interpreter! This could be as bad as when I was writing a girl my age who lived near Perth, back when I was a kid, and I had to ask her to clarify her statement about the animals they owned. I knew what a joey was, but what the heck was a chook? (Any Australians ::Sally, that means you:: reading this is probably ROFL by now.) Well, I know what a chook is now, after having made myself the laughingstock of Western Australia...::grin:: (By the way, if you are as I was then--it's a chicken.)
Anyway, I also picked up a heartbreaking ballad that I've known for years but never had a recording of before--"And the Band Played Waltzing Matilda." It's about an Aussie soldier caught up in the tragedy of Gallipoli in WWI. But considering the current situation of war we're in now, it's become much more than just a folk song to me.
Got in the mood to pick up some classical stuff, too. Well, mostly 20th Century composers, but classical nonetheless. Holst's "The Planets" suite, for instance. The "Jupiter" section of the suite is my personal theme music, as it happens. Don't we all have theme songs? Well, we should, anyway, and that's mine. I also went Aaron Copland crazy--"Appalachian Spring," "Fanfare for the Common Man," "El Salon Mexico," among other pieces. And a bit of Grofe--"The Grand Canyon Suite." A real Pops parade of classical music, but I never claimed to be that deep when it comes to my musical tastes. (When I hear the William Tell Overture, I still think first of the Lone Ranger. So sue me.)
Well, that's a lot of nonsense for now. I really should update more often and get these silly thoughts out of my head in smaller doses. Oh, well, you knew what you were in for when you started reading. I can't write something short to save my life.