Thursday Fun

SING A SONG:  Here, finally, is some proof that the kids are actually in music camp this week!

They're attending a Monday-Friday afternoon session at the Southwest Branch of Seattle Public libraries with singer songwriter animator Morgan Taylor of Gustafer Yellowgold fame.

The group of kids (about 20, from ages 7-12) are working on original characters and songs. Their main character is a squirrel named Christopher Acorn. He's storing nuts, but the stash goes missing. That's what the song below is about. 

She's off camera (thanks, CJ! ;) ) but Annabelle is playing the electronic sounding instrument (specifically, a stylophone, a miniature electronic synthesizer invented in 1967, per Wikipedia).
<iframe width="640" height="360" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/Blf1X8o6Xkk?rel=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>
https://youtu.be/Blf1X8o6Xkk

Here's what the kids have to say about the camp so far, Annabelle first:

Starting on July 27, 2015 I started a 5-day summer camp called “Build a cartoon and musical world”, taught by Morgan Taylor, the singer-songwriter/artist for the “Gustafer Yellowgold” series. The camp included plenty of other kids, even though I didn’t count the actual number. The summer camp started with making a character and a song. Our first song was titled “Pig Up!” and was about standing up for yourself.  The character we ended up making was “Christopher Acorn”, a squirrel.

The story we settled on for Christopher was that he had his acorn stash stolen, so he goes on an adventure to find out who stole them. First he goes to a hawk, who tells Christopher it was the fox. In the end, the culprit turns out to be his sister all along. The camp has been fun so far and I can’t wait to finish our story. 

And here's what CJ has to say ...

On July 27th, we started going to a daily camp from 3:30 P.M. to 5:30 P.M, which will last until July 31st, in the Southwest branch of Seattle Public Libraries run by Morgan Taylor, the artist and musician behind the Gustafer Yellowgold music videos. Morgan Taylor has played Gustafer Yellowgold shows all across the nation, including one we went to in Magnolia a while back. At camp, our goal is to create a story, drawings, and songs to represent our character and their adventures.

In class, the character we created was Christopher Acorn, a squirrel who lives in a stump and wishes to be a pig (as bizarre as it may sound). So far, songs we have written include "Pig Up", a song that goes into more detail about Christopher's desire to be a pig, "R.O.D.E.N.T", or "Rodent-Operated Daring Elementary Nut Training", which is both the name of Christopher's school and its anthem, and "Calvin", which tells a story about Calvin, a brown-feathered hawk who steals Christopher's acorns.

Recently, we each drew three-panel comics about something that happens to Christopher, beginning with the words "I woke up this morning and I could not believe my eyes.." Examples of different comics we drew included a scenario where Christopher wakes up to find that somebody has made him breakfast in bed, and one where he discovers that R.O.D.E.N.T's Nutball team has won in the regional competition.

So far, I've had fun in Morgan's class and wish to be able to see him again.

They each worked on some cartoons yesterday, too. Everyone was challenged to start with the thought "This morning I woke up and I could not believe my eyes ... " 

Here's CJ's panel 

And Annabelle's interpretation ...

MORNING ROUNDS: This morning's dog walking destination was Discovery Park. We didn't head for the beach, though. Rather, we explored a couple of interior loops. The first was Wolf Tree Trail, a new-to-us-one. Basically, it's paths through swampy areas. I was instantly regretting the fact we forgot bug spray.

Anyway, neat plants to be seen in the swampy area, including these with Jurassic Park sized leaves.

We also did the loop around the beaver pond, except there wasn't a sign of any recent beaver activity now, and no ducks were about, either. The pond looked super stagnant. Annabelle likened it to a golf course green.  

On the Waterfront

LOW TIDE: We took a stroll to the end of a road in Magnolia this morning. When we arrived we found it was low tide. The kids combed the beach while I stood back with the dogs, who watched them and worried that their humans were too far away.

MUSICAL: It was day three of the music and animation workshop the kids are enrolled in this Monday through Friday. CJ actually took a video of the song the group came up with today (about a hawk named Calvin who is accused of stealing nuts from a squirrel, Christopher Acorn. When I walked in the room, Annabelle was playing a solo on a little theremin-type instrument she'd brought along. It sounded good! CJ's video needs some heavy editing. Hopefully I'll be able to post it tomorrow.

SHIP SHAPE: When we came home from West Seattle this evening, we were thrilled to see an enormous Navy shop parked at the foot of our hill! And on board are at least a couple of Boeing Osprey. Sweet! We made a mental note to walk down the Garfield Bridge in the very near future. We would up doing it shortly after dinner.

Below, the ship kind of blends into the gray building in front of it. ... 

But we closed in for a closer look.

Per the Seafair Web site, the ship is Amphibious Assault Ship USS Boxer (LHD 4): "USS Boxer stretches 844 feet in length and is the largest of all amphibious warfare ships; resembling a small aircraft carrier. The ship is not only capable of conducting aircraft operations but it also capable of supporting watercraft operations in its well deck. This class of ship provides the Marine Corps with a means of ship-to-shore movement by helicopter in addition to movement by landing craft. LHDs, like Boxer, have been participants in major humanitarian-assistance, occupation and combat operations in which the United States has been involved."

 The ship's so enormous, the Osprey, a tank and other vehicles on board like kind of small!

The white structures visible below are cranes in the Port of Seattle.

We could see soldiers working on board.

They appeared to be readying some flags.

Mount Rainier has been making itself known the last couple of days.

And we had to get a shot of a nearly full moon and the Space Needle.

PERLER PROJECT: The kids are already working on a thank you for their workshop leader, Morgan Taylor. They're making one of his characters, Gustafer Yellowgold, a creature who comes from the sun, out of Perler (a brand name) beads.

First, we had to find a good photo of Gustafer's head online, then we used a program to make a cross stitch pattern of it, in effect. And then, it was a matter of putting tiny, tiny beads in the right place.

The kids worked together, with CJ spending a lot of time picking out the right colored beads.

Here's the almost-finished pattern.

Once that's done, you take an iron to it and melt the beads together. 

Run Amok

TO BOLDY GO: Busy weekend here at MPA. One of the most memorable activities was attending 's Hello Earth's production of Outdoor Trek. Each year they stage an episode from the original series of Star Trek, and this summer it was "Amok Time," the classic where Spock and Captain Kirk end up in a battle to the death as part of a Vulcan mating ritual. 

Outdoor Trek is always great fun. The sets are sparse, but inventive. For example check out the 'bridge' of the USS Enterprise above. It's just some office chairs, but it worked!

And bedazzled hula hoops were used for low tech but hilarious transporters!

The orchestra was great, performing the familiar soundtrack music, as well as a couple of surprises, including a cool version of Led Zeppelin's "Kashmir" during a set change. 

The fight scene was nicely choreographed, though poor Kirk came out on the losing end.

Fortunately, there was a happy ending for all. 

Apologies for the crappy photos. I was using my cell phone, and didn't take my good camera to the show because rain was in the forecast. Fortunately, the forecast was wrong.

The actors in Outdoor Trek said a few things that made us think this might be the end of their 'five year mission' (to borrow a Star Trek quote), and that Trek in the park might not be back next season. If not, we will truly miss it, but are happy to have had a chance to see it when we did.

HAPPY CAMPERS: Monday through Friday this week, CJ and Annabelle are attending a workshop with award-winning illustrator/songwriter Morgan Taylor, creator of the popular Gustafer Yellowgold series.

During the workshop, they are exploring multimedia comic techniques and inventing characters, creating narratives and writing songs. In Monday's session, after much discussion, the group came up with a character named Christopher Acorn, a squirrel. They also collaborated to write an original song, "Pig Up." I'll have to get the kids to sing that and I'll post it later. 

Here's a little sample of some Gustafer Yellowgold music. Pretty wild stuff!
https://youtu.be/DQuEEXtcGO4

BLUE MOON: The second full Moon of July is just around the corner and, according to modern folklore, that makes it a a "blue moon."
https://youtu.be/XyBp-EYrwTA

Visit http://science.nasa.gov/ for more.