K&W at Castille - 10June2006

After the resounding success of our gig at the Elementary Arts Academy last month, I asked Acacia's teacher if they'd like us to come down and do the same at her school. She loved the idea, got permission from the principal, and we were all set up for the Friday before the last week of school.

We played multiple lunch shifts again, 1&2, then 3&4, and then the 5th grade, so we started out with our usual kids' stuff, but, based on our experience at OCEAA, we had some rock 'n' roll ready for the bigger kids. I even brought along my electric guitar.

I was a total blast, of course, though not much of an artistic triumph. I was pretty over-excited (i.e., mildly panicked) the whole time -- did some songs too fast, the rest *way* too fast, and sang miserably. One highlight was when I started singing "Fun, Fun, Fun" to the tune of "Roll Over Beethoven" -- an honest mistake since they're the same song (in the guitar), but still...

The kids went pretty crazy for it, I'm afraid. We had them all packed up next to us (good thing the janitor put out some traffic cones!), dancing, screaming, bouncing up and down, and shouting out suggestions for the next song. We got asked to "Do some AC/DC!" a lot -- how are these kids hearing hard rock from 15 years before they were born?!?

But, not so coincidentally, we had worked up AC/DC's "Long Way To the Top", which was featured in the movie "School of Rock". We saved it for the end, and I completely botched it up. It was too fast, badly sung, *way* too much distortion on my guitar (I over-drove my little amp and it sounded great, but when I started the actual song, I played louder and that over-drove the big amp. Distorted distortion doesn't really work.), and to top it off, during Warren's big solo, I stepped on the cable and unplugged myself, leaving Warren truly *solo*. I scrambled it back together, and faded back in, and he shouted out when we were about to hit the next "thing" so we made it through, but I don't know how it could have gone much worse.

But they loved it! Kids are a great audience, especially when you're a not-so-great band. Acacia came home and said that "a bajillion" kids came up to her to tell her to thank us, and/or to ask "was that really your dad?" I guess she'll be famous, at least for the last 4 days of school. Good thing they took it as "cool dad" rather than "geek dad".

We had a great time, too, and will certainly consider doing more of these, even after Acacia moves on to middle school. And, I invited the YMCA Princess Program Director to come by, and she thought we were "wonderful", and that the kids "love you guys and you're great with them". I'm working up to offering to come play at YMCA functions, picnics, etc.

Princess Campout in san Diego

Low turnout for our tribe, but a pretty fun campout anyway. Daleen kinda liked the less-large crowd, which made it more friendly.

First thing Saturday, every year, is the Sand Sculpture Contest. This year, in homage/sympathy to the "theme", we/I built a penguin. He actually came out cuter than the drawings -- usually it's the other way around. I had less time than usual, so it's not as finessed as usual, but I was sufficiently sunburned already, so maybe it's for the best.

At Saturday night's campfire, the Hosting Tribe had decided to try something different, so instead of skits, each tribe had to come up with a video, which were projected in alphabetical order. Most of the other videos were invented mini-movies starring the girls and/or dads, and were pretty cute, if usually overlong to make their point. They each had a flavor of "Ain't our daughters the cutest!", which, frankly, falls in the same category as watching somebody else's vacation slides.

Our "Penguins on a Bus" video (see the "San Mateo Campout with Acacia" blog entry 6 previous to this one), on the other hand, involved the girls only as puppeteers, never showing their faces or names. I came up with that specifically to avoid the "other peoples' kids" syndrome, but I was the only one. I think it was more entertaining this way, but I feel a little bad about it, in retrospect. I could, at least, have put their names in a credits sequence (but what about the girls that couldn't be there?).

Anyway, it was well received, and immediately followed by my "Waltzing With Bears" cartoon. That went over even better, I think. I was watching the audience from up front, since I've seen the cartoon before (several million times by now), and they seemed to be enjoying it. Most of them were singing softly along for the choruses, and laughed out loud in a few places -- especially the scene where the bears "drag him away". I happen to know the guy who runs the Friendly Spirit Nation website pretty well (me), so it's posted up there for future generations to discover.

Sunday morning was the annual hand-off ceremony, ringing out the old chiefs and in the new. Of course, I'm Website and Music Guy for life, but they throw me a plaque every year in appreciation. Rodney said some really nice things about me, and several guys actually stood up during my acknowledgement round of applause. They managed to talk me into One More Year (which is feasible because of Acacia's pretty-good attitude about it), so "I'll be back." But the year after, I think they're gonna miss me.

The Littlest Beatle

Acacia had to do a biography project in school (5th grade), and she chose Paul McCartney. She was doing her research (on line, natch), and playing non-stop Beatles songs in the background, apparently for inspiration. It was too cute to hear her back there, singing along with "Lucy in the Sky" and "Yellow Submarine", etc., while she was searching the web and typing up her report.

They had to build a presentation board with pictures and stuff, and, last Tuesday, get up and talk about their person, dressed up to be them. (Geneva was Ben Franklin three years ago, and I bent her up a pair of "bifocals" out of baling wire.)

So, of course, Acacia wore my old "Sergeant Pepper" coat, and put red tape stripes down her pants. That, along with her "growing my bangs out" retro-seventies shag look, made a pretty cute combination, even if it doesn't look a lot like Paulie. She loves the jacket, and wants to wear it all the time now, even though (because?) her hands don't poke out of the sleeves.