On With the Show

WORLD PREMIERE: Tonight, CJ and a couple dozen peers took the stage to share the story of Ariadne's Thread, a tale about Theseus and the Minoatar.

While CJ readied himself with the cast, Christian, Annabelle and I got our best Top Chef game faces on and readied to serve over 150 spanakopita on demand. Naturally, we had to make sure all of them were hot enough, but not over baked. Therein lies the dance of feeding a crowd.
Knowing everyone was basically going to arrive at the same time for dinner, and that we only had one standard home kitchen sized '70s era oven to work with at the venue, so we had to plan ahead, bringing in extra warming trays and a portable oven. In the end, we put every single order out within 10 seconds, I'd estimate. I think I'm ready for Gordon Ramsay's "Hell's Kitchen" or some such thing. :) I was honestly surprised at how well and quickly it went. Yay for that.

The photo below shows some of the banners/sets we worked on for the show, as well as CJ as the really dastardly Procrustes, the inn keeper of a place you'd never want to stay.

Tomorrow night we get to do it all over again!

MYTH MINDED: This afternoon, while I was making MORE spanakopita (the last of about 325 mini muffin sized portions), I had the kids watch an ancient myth. We found an episode of the Canadian series "Mythic Warriors Guardians of the Legend" on YouTube. The kids chose the episode "Daedalus and Icarus."
Spoiler alert: As expected, Icarus met his doom by being too brash. Other important takeaway: If you have wax wings, avoid the heat.

https://youtu.be/dCRFwFmNsGo

SONGSTERS: The kids dusted off their guitars today and and had a very-rough-at-times practice. We need to do more.

Speaking of songs, I received an email from NASA today letting me know about curriculum available for Space School Musical from Jet Propulsion Laboratory Education.

It's Web site describes it as a "hip-hopera" featuring a teenager on a trip through the solar system. The site has all the info one would need to perform the musical, or people can just watch it online. We'll have to check it out.

Here's the musical's intro number.

https://youtu.be/0fTTS3t91A4?list=PL9TFrgFq7554I574UxoLYQBaV4Akea4St

Stage Hands

     Image Credit: ESA/NASA
HELLO DOWN THERE!: One of the first things I saw this morning was this lovely photo (above) from NASA astronaut Scott Kelly, who is closing in on a year in space aboard the International Space Station.  

Kelly wrote, "Good morning, Aurora and the Pacific Northwest!"

To be honest, I don't think I would have known this was a photo of the PacNW if Kelly hadn't told us.  I wish I had a point of reference in that photo. I'm guessing that one of the biggest city lights clusters is Seattle, but I could be wrong. 

PLAYING AROUND:  Midday, we spent about 90 minutes doing the full install of the banners that make the set for the play ("Ariadne's Thread," a Greek Myth based on "Theseus and the Minotaur") that CJ and a couple dozen others will be performing in on Thursday and Friday. 

We sewed the muslin banners and then had to figure out how to hang them, working around things like the HVAC ductwork and fire sprinkler system piping. 

The art on the back wall (vases inspired by ancient Greek art and architecture) was done by students, including Annabelle.

The photo above is from the actual dress rehearsal. CJ (center stage), has his back to the audience. 

This evening, we made another 70 spanakopitam, which will be available as snacks for play goers. We're getting closer to the magic "300" number we have to produce. Hooray!

Monday Musings

TRANSITION:  See the little pink balls above? They're salmon eggs. And many of them have progressed into their next iteration, alevin, which are now living off their yolk sacs. Pretty cool.

Annabelle was noting that some eggs haven't hatched. I told her that some of the eggs never will hatch. That's nature, often cruel. 

TROOPER:  So, I'm down to crying about David Bowie's final act about twice a day now. Not bad, I think. 

We were in Joann Fabric this afternoon to get a couple of things for the play CJ's in later this week and Annabelle spied this ... Ziggy Stardust Stormtrooper!!!

How fabulous! And obviously the packaging was done before David Bowie's demise on Jan. 10. Love that whoever put this package together did it for love of Ziggy Stardust, not for trying to capitalize on recent events.

COUNTDOWN'S ON:  We have made 200 spanikopita. We have 100 to go. Just thought you'd want to know that.

SKETCHBOOK: I flipped through some of Annabelle's sketches this afternoon. What a fun, mixed bag. This is a sketch of the main character in "A Single Shard" catching a boat ride. 

 And this one is Annabelle's newest Dungeons and Dragons character.

IN REVIEW: CJ and Annabelle attended their first hockey game yesterday. They offer this up as a review. 

Annabelle first: ...

When I went to the Silvertips game, it surprised me how fast the game was played. The players- and the referees- both glided across the ice without much effort. I also learned that hockey is played in 3 periods, with a 3-on-3 sudden death if there’s a tie by the end of the 3^rd, which is how the ‘Tips won. The hockey game was very fun to watch, and I would love to go again!

And here's CJ's take ...

Yesterday, we went to a minor league hockey game with the Everett Silvertips and the Saskatoon Blades. The game was my first hockey game, and we were lucky enough to get a free food ticket* for every person in our group (6 people).

Hockey is a sport played on ice, where the objective is to get a small disc called the "puck" into the opposite team's goal. In the end, the Silvertips one with 2 to 1. In the game, several players hit the wall, and it made a very loud sound when it did. There was also a fight, and at one point, there was blood on the ice (not a result of the fight). There was also a vehicle called a "Zamboni" that would smooth the ice by putting water over it, then immediately freezing it.

*specifically, it offered a free hot dog and soda of your choice.

The game was big fun, and we're looking forward to more hockey in our future. 

Monday Match

FLOWER POWER: What you see above is no garden-variety zinnia. 

This one's special.

It was grown in space!

More specifically, in the International Space Station's "greenhouse." How cool is that? Astronaut Scott Kelly posted the photo this weekend on social media.

I think I like this shot of it even better. You can see Earth in the background!!

I think it's my favorite photo of a flower EVER!

PRODUCTION KITCHEN: We're in the midst of a rather large baking project - making THREE HUNDRED little spanakopitas for the audience to snack on while watching a Greek-themed play CJ is involved in on Thursday and Friday this week.

It's a bit of a project. ... We've got about half of them done as of this moment. 

ICY AFTERNOON: We took a break from our ancient Greece inspired cooking and sewing projects to go to a hockey game. Specifically, an Everett Silvertips game. It's the first hockey game CJ and Annabelle have ever been to, and it was big fun!

The Zamboni was entertaining, as always. Talk about a specialized machine!

The game posessed all of the elements you'd expect to see at a hockey match. There was a (brief) fight, there was blood on the ice (an unrelated incident), and lots of crashing the boards. 

We had great seats (eight rows off the ice) for $12 apiece, including a good sized hot dog and a drink.

In the end, the Silvertips were victorious, thanks to a goal in sudden death overtime.

As an added bonus, the venue is home to the Snohomish Sports Hall of Fame.

 Definitely some familiar faces in the crowd there, including former Cougars coach Dennis Erickson.

 And there was Gilby ...

 As well as a display honoring Jim Lambright.

 Another Husky legend, Chris Chandler, is also a member (as is figure skater Rosalynn Sumners - I forgot she was from around here).

SIDETRACKED:  After the hockey game, we headed to the Everett waterfront for a quick early dinner. We passed the first driveway to the restaurant, so came in the back way. Turned out to be a fortuitous reroute, as we accidentally stumbled across this wreck of a ship.

 We pulled over to take a closer look. Turns out this decrepit old schooner hull is none other than the Equator.

It doesn't look sea worthy right now, but in 1889, the schooner carried Robert Louis Stevenson and his wife on a voyage through the islands of Micronesia. 

 Built in San Francisco in 1888, the ship was apparently abandoned in Everett in 1957.

You really should check out this vintage photo of it in Everett back in the day: http://focus.nps.gov/pdfhost/docs/NRHP/Photos/72001281.pdf

The Robert Louis Stevenson organization has some great photos of the famous author on board this ship in 1889, including this gem ...

There are no plans to restore the schooner, which is one of a kind at this point ... 

but I sure wish they'd find a nicer way to display it. Right now it's surrounded by ugly chain link fence, you can't see its top or inside it at all. 

Hang Ups

    IMAGE: NASA

SHORT WALK: First thing this morning, we tuned into NASA TV to check out a couple of Tims taking a spacewalk! Tim Peake, an astronaut from the United Kingdom, and Tim Kopra, of NASA. Among other things, the Tims were tasked with fixing replace a failed voltage regulator that caused a loss of power to one of the station’s eight power channels last November.

The spacewalk started at 4:48 a.m. our time (in Seattle), and was scheduled to last about 6.5 hours. Imagine our surprise as we tuned in only to hear the astronauts were heading back into the International Space Station, ahead of schedule. Unfortunately, liquid showed up in Peake's helmet during the extravehicular activity, and as a precaution, the spacewalk was aborted.

You may recall that back in 2013, Italian astronaut Luca Parmitano nearly drowned during a spacewalk when liquid started accumulating in his helmet.

According to a story in The Telegraph, Peake reported a small water bubble, and then a film of water, inside his helmet. Soon thereafter, Mission Control terminated the planed six-hour spacewalk at the four-hour and 10-minute mark.

After the spacewalk, Kopra is reported to have said the water bubble was 4 inches long and getting thicker. That's disconcerting, to say the least. Early reports say the leak is believed to have come from the cooling loop in Kopra's spacesuit.

Troublesome bubble aside, Peake's adventure was history making, as he's the first astronaut to wear the Union Jack while taking a spacewalk! Twitter was abuzz with the news, and Sir Paul McCartney chimed in, Tweeting: "We're all watching, no pressure!" Wishing you a happy stroll outdoors in the universe."

In other space-y news, Sunday morning, there is a scheduled SpaceX launch from Vandenberg Air Force Base in So Cal. The launch is planned to take place at 10:42:18 a.m. (then and only then, not much of a launch window!). Called Jason-3, the international mission is led by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration in an effort to continue U.S.- European satellite measurements of the topography of the ocean surfaces,

CRASH COURSE: We recently were introduced to Crash Course and Crash Course Kids, two YouTube channels that have quick video lessons about a variety of educational topics.

The videos include a little animation and/or cartoon accents, they're very fast paced and work to include some levity.

Crash Course features diverse topics, ranging from sciences (including chemistry and astronomy) to government to economics, psychology and more. Today, we watched videos about the United States judicial system and the legislative branch. The host, Craig Benzine, speaks very, very rapidly.Here's one about the structure of the court system.

https://youtu.be/IGyx5UEwgtA

We also checked out a couple of Crash Course Kids videos, including one about particles. It's a good introduction to the states of liquid, solid and gas for those new to those concepts.

https://youtu.be/npv74D2MO6Q

SETTING: This afternoon, we spent an hour or so doing a test fit of some of the staging elements we've been working on for a play CJ is in next week. It's based on the Greek myth Theseus and the Minotaur. We made quick partial covering for a doorway to an offstage area, and a little valance to go with ...

And then there were the muslin banners. Here's the first 'wave' of them, for the front of the stage.

What's not pictured here is another column that will go to the left of the woman (caryitid) on the left. Also, there's a longish banner missing to her right. And those little weird squares on the bottom corners of the banners will go away - they were measurement labels. It's a work in progress, but we're inching ever closer.

Shuttles and Shuffles

SPACE SHUTTLES: Today, NASA announced cargo contracts to keep critical science, research and technology flowing to the International Space Station (ISS) from 2019 through 2024. Three private companies were awarded contracts to act as cargo shuttles to the ISS:  Orbital ATK and SpaceX, both of which have already flown ISS missions. A newcomer is Sierra Nevada Corporation of Sparks, Nevada, with their Dream Chaser® vehicle, which looks a bit like a miniature version of the good ol' NASA shuttles of days gone by. It lands like a plane, on a runway (rather than a splashdown).

When making the contract announcement today, NASA Administrator Charles Bolden said, “Few would have imagined back in 2010 when President Barack Obama pledged that NASA would work ‘with a growing array of private companies competing to make getting to space easier and more affordable,’ that less than six years later we’d be able to say commercial carriers have transported 35,000 pounds of space cargo (and counting!) to the International Space Station -- or that we’d be so firmly on track to return launches of American astronauts to the ISS from American soil on American commercial carriers. But that is exactly what is happening."

We're sure looking forward to that day when NASA astronauts are, once again, on U.S. flown spacecraft to the ISS.

Below is an animated video representing the Dream Chaser® Cargo System. https://youtu.be/eHvBUqfWDRs

HIGH STAKES: Last night we broke out Annabelle's My Little Pony cards and some pistachios and played high stakes blackjack.

It struck me while we were playing that the game is a good math lesson. Obviously, there's the counting to 21 thing, but beyond that, it also involves a lot of estimating and strategizing (for instance, when to hit, when to stand, trying to count cards [how many tens/face cards and aces have been played so far).

I am happy to report I was the BIG WINNER last night. I happily shared the spoils of victory. 

YOUNG AMERICANS: Yesterday, while working on sets for CJ's play, we had Bowie as our soundtrack. As we listened to a wide range of songs from his catalog, I was able to share some stories with the kids about the musician and man. 

Bowie had a long track record of taking on social issues. I love this clip where he's grilling one of the MTV producers about the dearth of videos featuring African American artists on MTV back in the day when they actually used to play music videos instead of just a stream of awful reality TV).
https://youtu.be/XZGiVzIr8Qg

I also told the kids about an article in the LA Times by writer Sasha Frere Jones that noted Bowie "worked like a dog, and he paid attention."

Bowie's video "China Girl" was a message about stereotypes regarding Chinese women, and the video for "Let's Dance" shined the light on discrimination against Aboriginal Australians. 

And just for fun we watched a great old live performance of "Young Americans" 
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ydLcs4VrjZQ


PRETTY PAIR: A space-loving friend posted a link to this video, a Soyuz module TMA-16M docking with the International Space Station on 28 March 2015, set to  "Blue Danube Waltz" by Johann Strauss II. It makes one think of "2001: A Space Odyssey."

https://youtu.be/KEGzVCHNYqg

★

     IMAGE: NASA's Hubble Space Telescope; Words: Millions of Twitter/Instagram/Facebook users on 1/11/2016
IS THERE LIFE ON MARS?: So many heartfelt tributes to David Bowie abound as we're all getting used to life on Earth without the artistic genius. 

As our arts appreciation lesson today, we soaked in three takes on one phenomenal song, "Life on Mars" from Bowie's album Hunky Dory, which was released in 1971.

The first version we watched was an absolutely stunning send off for Bowie by Rick Wakeman. The Englishman is an author, songwriter and keyboardist best known for his work with the progressive rock band Yes. Wakeman also happens to be the chap who performed piano on the original recording of Bowie's haunting "Life on Mars" track (an astounding 44 years ago - wow!).

The way the music flows from this man's fingertips to the keyboard is absolutely mesmerizing.

https://youtu.be/jogv7tD18gs

Another touching "Life on Mars" tribute came from a near vacant cathedral, St. Albans, in Hertfordshire. Opened in 1877, its 84-meter nave is the longest of any cathedral in England.  This tribute features Nicholas Freestone, 24, on the organ. CJ and Annabelle couldn't believe one person with one instrument could produce these sounds.The cathedral's organ was built in 1962, the first cathedral instrument in Britain to be voiced and built on neo-classical lines. (You can read its complete specs in a PDF.)

https://youtu.be/TncxHFmDEyM

A spokesman for the Diocese of St. Albans said: "Our organ scholar has proved brilliantly adept at playing Life on Mars with just a hint of a mournful voice and a prayer for a departed soul."

Naturally, we had to also re-watch Bowie's original performance of "Life on Mars." As we watched, I reminded the kids that while they're used to seeing men in makeup and gender lines blurred, what Bowie did when he artistically kicked down the doors was so SO far out there for his time. He showed that being different wasn't just OK, it was fabulous!
https://youtu.be/v--IqqusnNQ

AN HOUR, AT LAST: Back in December, we were super busy during the official week "Hour of Code" was held. The awesome annual event was founded in 2013, by Code.org®, a non-profit dedicated to expanding access to computer science, and increasing participation by women and underrepresented students of color. Code.org®'s vision includes seeing every student in every school with the opportunity to learn computer science. 

This afternoon we finally sat down and immensely enjoyed this year's Hour of Code offerings. Annabelle chose to do a Star Wars project, while CJ opted for their Minecraft lesson. 
You can check out the game Bee created by following this link: https://studio.code.org/c/165543904

If you click on the "How it Works" button on her game, you can see which building blocks of code she used to make the program.

On CJ's first go through of his project, I love how the program told him he'd completed the mission, but that he could have done it in four steps instead of eight. We'll be back at the Hour of Code for many more hours!