Ponyville

STUDENT TEACHER: With a growing reputation as a prolific pony drawer, Annabelle was invited to visit a local school and conduct an art class for their after school program.  She happily accepted the offer, and so today, we visited a school in Seattle's Eastlake neighborhood.

The first order of business was Annabelle getting used to drawing on the school's smart board - something she'd never done before.

Fortunately, she had it figured out in just a few minutes!

Prior to the class, she had prepared tutorial printouts for the students. As Annabelle demonstrated the steps on the smart board, kids could both watch her, and resource the step-by-step sheets.

She made a separate instructional sheet for the eyes, as they can be tricky to draw.

And she offered up a few hair/mane styles, as well.

The students, probably 20 or so in all, were eager to learn and produced some mighty-fine ponies!

Here's what Annabelle had to say about the experience: "Today I went to Bertschi school and taught two classes how to draw ponies. The school was very nice, but I was more focused on the drawing. The students were very polite, and even though I was nervous I had fun. Everybody listened well and followed directions, and their ponies turned out awesome! I would love to teach pony drawing there again."

PIT STOP:  We've been cat sitting in West Seattle this week. After visiting our charge this morning, we made a stop at a new-to-us park, Fairmount. 

Neat place!  Lots of play equipment, including a unique, ferry-themed climbing structure.

 There was also a good sized climbing structure ... 

 and the kids loved the teeter-totter!

Big fun!

Sights to See

LOCKS WALK: We took a midday field trip to the Hiram M. Chittenden (Ballard) Locks today, and we're happy to report there was lots to see during our visit.

 We're always impressed by the water rushing through the spillway.

It's a lot quieter on the other side, looking toward the lake.

While I stayed up top with the dogs, the kids went down into the fish ladder's viewing area. They reported seeing a total of one tiny fish.

A smallish fishing boat was heading into the small locks (30 x 150 ft, 8.5 x 45.7 meter) when we arrived.

We crossed over into the park on the north side of the Locks. Some things, including ornamental cherry trees, are starting to bloom!

CJ wanted to go check out the Canada geese. Annabelle and I kept our distance.

We stopped to peer at the site's historic home for the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers officer in charge of the operation.

On our way back to the south side, a couple of big tug boats were coming into the large locks
(80 x 825, 24.4 x 251.5 meter), including the Arctic Titan.

 A second, even larger, one (Western Titan) came shortly thereafter.

We watched operations on board the Titans for a few minutes.

A large luxury yacht, Shadowfax, was also in the locks. An Islander '44, 100-foot Shadowfax was built in 1993 by Nordlund, and has carried many a charter according to what I saw online. 

We watched the Titan ships head out to Puget Sound under the railroad bridge.

But first, they had to wait for a train that was northbound.

On the south side of the locks, we checked out the heron nests that have been on site for years.

When we arrived, they were all empty, and we thought perhaps it wasn't 'heron season' yet.

However, as we walked back by, the herons started arriving.

By the time we left, the colony was filling up!

All in all, a lovely hour or so, just five minutes from home!

Organ-ic

LOVELY MONDAY: Isn't it grand? Just look at that magnificent musical instrument!

It's the Mighty Wurlitzer organ at the Paramount Theatre in Seattle, and lucky us, we had (free!) front-row-and-center seats for a terrific accompaniment along with some silent movies on Monday midday.

A high-tech wonder then and now, there are over 20,000 moving parts on this machine. I'll let CJ tell you a bit more about it. ...

The Paramount Theatre is home to a very special organ, named the "Mighty Wurlitzer Theatre Pipe Organ." According to the theater's website, it is one of the last three remaining organs of its kind to reside in its original environment. The Paramount Theater has owned the organ for as long as there has been the theater (1928), and the organ recently underwent a renovation. When we went on a tour at the Paramount Theatre, I learned that this involved replacing some of the 90-year old leather in the organ with new leather, which was not an easy process.

When we saw the organ in action, we learned that it had several instruments built into it, and had tubes connected to the walls of the theater. The person playing the organ could use switches to change between the different instruments. Today, there are electronic keyboards that can change between instruments with a few button presses, but the Mighty Wurlitzer Theatre Pipe Organ is entirely acoustic.

The program we were fortunate to see featured some silent films from the early (pre-Steamboat Willie) days of Walt Disney. He did a whole series of silent shorts called "Alice 
... "

We got to see "Alice's Egg Plant," and "Alice the Peacemaker."  I'll let Annabelle tell you about one of the amazing shorts. 

Alice’s Egg Plant is a short film by Walt Disney. It’s silent, because it was made back in 1925, when it wasn’t known how to add sounds to movies. The movie starts with Julius, a cat, going to the egg plant to check on the hens. It turns out they’re having a party next door, but he sends them to the plant. All of the hens seem to be doing well except for one who has a bit of trouble laying an egg, but eventually gets it. The next day, an evil chicken comes and convinces the chickens to go on strike, just when an order for 5000 eggs comes in! Alice, the owner of the plant, and Julius see two chickens fighting and come up with a plan. The two chickens will have a boxing match, and admission is one egg. This allows them to get all the eggs they need, but when they drive away, all the eggs spill!

You can find the cartoon on YouTube, but the version I found is marred by a jarring, bad soundtrack. You're better off with no sound! And you should keep in mind that the original had no sound - it was up to the instrumentalists in the theater to chime in - literally!

A gifted percussionist at the Paramount had this set up. 

So many little whistles and horns and such. The things that look like clam shells are called temple blocks. Distinctive sound - like horse hooves clomping along when struck with a drumstick.

While we were waiting for the show, Annabelle started sketching ponies. I suggested she try to sketch the organ instead. 

If you want to hear the organ, you could check out this NRP podcast featuring some of its sounds: http://www.npr.org/2012/02/24/147371942/one-of-last-movie-theater-organs-pipes-on

One of my favorite moments on Monday was when a young event goer asked the organist (a 30 something I'm guessing African American man) how long he'd been playing the piano. He responded that he'd been playing since he was a young child (in fact the percussionist's dad was his first teacher!), and noted that now he's a piano teacher and when students ask him how often they have to practice, he said, "Only on days you eat." 

LOVE IT!

Art-o-Rama

POSTER CHILDREN:  The kids are working on props for a backdrop for a Black History Month presentation. They will be used to help tell a brief synopsis of the story of African Americans, from slavery through Brown v. Board of education.

Obviously, the Civil War was a big part of this experience. We found a clip art Abe Lincoln head that would be easy to project and trace, and we did just that.

 And then it was time to fill in the dark areas. 

 Not a bad Abe, I'd say.

We also needed to show how the north developed along more industrial lines ... 

 The kids had fun with watercolors on this one ... 

On the other hand, the south was dependent on agriculture. The kids used crayons to color this.

A few hours into the project, I regret to report we had rather racist looking walls. CJ pulled the shades for fear someone outside would see the posters. I told him that was silly, raised the shades and then spun around and saw the signs. I pulled the shades back down. :/ 

Context is everything.

ZIGGY TROOPER: So, we like Star Wars. And David Bowie. Imagine our delight upon seeing this Stormtrooper helmet with a Ziggy Stardust lightning bolt. (We first spotted it a couple of days before Bowie died, by the way.)

We simply had to buy one and give it the Ziggy treatment. 

MARTIAN FARMING:  Way back in mid-October, Annabelle received a potato in the mail. Yes, really! It was a potato, mailed to Annabelle just before her birthday, thanks to a movie promotion for "The Martian" I signed her up for.

The potato was a lot healthier looking last October. Now, it's got some multiple eyes and bumps and its skin has lost its youthful glow and elasticity (welcome to the club). Time to pitch it or plant it. 

We opted for planting it, hoping to have as much luck growing Martian potatoes as Mark Watney from the movie. 

CJ read instructions about how to plant it, and so that's what they did this afternoon.

Wish us luck, and pass the ketchup (pardon "The Martian" joke).