Tuesday, September 1, 2009
This morning was the monthly meeting of the Hats Off Performers Guild, a group of 7 full-time entertainers and presenters that's been meeting for literally decades. Today, after our regular half hour of "check-ins", we spent time giving support to a member who had a recent break-up, did some Qui Gong and Laughter Yoga together, critiqued two brief performance pieces a member is working on, discussed single-parenting teenagers, viewed a video commercial a member is completing, talked about the merits of using Facebook and Twitter as marketing tools, chimed in about the similar use of YouTube, and had a delightful lunch together among other things.
What an awesome group!
Tuesday, September 2, 2009
46 After School Program staff from public schools in Brookline 
MA gathered in the gym at the Runkle Elementary School this afternoon for a 2-hour Cooperative Play Staff Development Training to learn some New Games for the kids during the coming year.
First we did a few name games and ice breakers --- always handy at the beginning of the year. We followed that up with Circle Games, Waiting in Line Games, Partner Games, and ended with Active Running Games.
Written comments afterwards from the participants include: "FUN & insightful", "Great ideas", "Informative, useful, and FUN!","Great energy & organization", "I liked how involved everyone was."
Friday, September 4 - Tuesday, September 8, 2009
We started packing the night before, got up Friday morning, packed the truck, did a few errands in town, and by early afternoon we were on our way to a long Labor Day Weekend in the NorthEast Kingdom! And, to make it even better, what was originally planned as a wonderful 4-day weekend turned into fabulous 5-day weekend because we realized we did not have to go home on Monday... so we didn't!
We were on our way to my brother-in-law Pete's cabin in 
Island Pond VT about 20 miles from the Canadian border. He built it himself --- with some help from his friends and family. It's called Little New Field, and it's off the grid on 70 acres of woods and fields, with a stream that has a big waterfall(!) and a couple of beaver dams, hiking trails he cut himself, a stone-lined fire pit, lots of wild blueberries, apple trees, an 18-hole disc golf course (really!), a HUGE sand cliff, an uphill driveway that's at least 1/4 mile long (that I spent over 4-hours putting down 2 truckloads of sand over just some of the rough spots this weekend), a gorgeous view of the mountains from the house and fields, cold and cold running water from a spring on the property, propane stove and fridge, candle light as well as 1 very bright solar light that charges up during the day and lasts 3 or 4 hours into the night, a hand-crank radio (50 cranks = 15 minutes) that picks up a terrific French-speaking Quebecois jazz station, an outhouse and an inhouse (but no other actual indoor plumbing besides cold running water in the kitchen and bathroom sinks), a solar shower that you can use indoors or out, a wood stove that keeps the entire place toasty, a nice deck that's in the sun most of the day, and the cabin sleeps five to boot. It's awesome!
...and we had the place all to ourselves for five(5!) delightful days!
We did visit her parents as well as her sister Wendy & family while we were there. But other than that, we basically stayed at Pete's place the entire rest of the time we were there. That's how good it is! 
We also got a FUN and not-quite-unexpected visit from my best buddy Don and his cheerful wife Barbara for several hours on Sunday. We had invited them to join us this weekend but they had too much work to do at home. However, I had left the door open: telling them how long we were going to be there and that they could just pop in unannounced for a day visit or an overnight if they wanted to. They drove by Nancy's parent's place shortly after we got there, saw us standing in the driveway as they went by and turned around and pulled in. They ended up joining us there for dinner and were the life of the party! Afterwards, they drove up to Little New Field with us for a few hours before driving home.
And other than that brief visit, we had the entire place to ourselves the entire time we were there. It was absolutely terrific!
And we're already making plans for next time!
Saturday, September 12, 2009
It was my pleasure to perform for Open Barn Day at Robinson Farm in Hardwick MA for the second year in a row today. Open Barn Day at 
Robinson Farm is part of a program put together by the Northeast Organic Farmers Association called Raw Milk Dairy Day.
From the NOFA website: "Nine Massachusetts dairies that sell raw milk will open up their farms for tours and other activities on Saturday, September 12. Visit your local dairy and learn why raw milk tastes so good and why it's so good for you! Meet your farmers and their cows and get to know where your food comes from."
Robinson Farm is run by my friends Ray & Pam Robinson who I know from the annual May Day camp-out weekend that I've been attending for decades in Hardwick right up the street from their place. Ray & Pam are both cheerful happy people and are a delight to all who know them personally. That's Ray on the tractor in the photo above.
Robinson Farm is an organic farm with a dairy herd of 40 cows, veal calves, free range chickens, eggs, both annuals and perennial flowers, and organic hay. During the event, quite a few local people stopped by to visit the farmstand, too, and were delighted to discover it was Open Barn Day.
For the event, the Robinsons had an info booth set up in front of their house, a self-guided tour of the farm, hay rides, bringing in the cows from pasture, helping feeding the cows (they like apples and pears!), milking the cows, face painting by Anika, and me up on stilts entertaining the children (and the adults, too!)
What a FUN day at Robinson Farm!
Sunday, September 13, 2009
Another River Valley Market event put on by the RVM Outreach Committee (of which I'm a seasoned member): The Zucchini 500!
More than 40 race cars made out of zucchini(!!) vied for prizes in 5 categories:
Fastest, Most Creative, Most Nutritious, School Spirit, and NASCAR
theme.
Whip City Speedway in Westfield MA co-sponsored this event. They added authenticity and excitement to the event with several real race car drivers and two very cool real race cars (see photo down below) in the parking lot! Quite a few kids --- and at least one adult, too --- just had to climb through the window and sit in the driver's seat! The event was emceed by RVM grocery team manager and racing enthusiast, Mike Bray with his checkered flag and racing cap.
As they arrived, contestants gathered around the picnic tables at the outdoor seating area to create their cars. There were plenty of zucchini, plus sliced carrots, celery, grapes, various other produce, toothpicks, and decals to decorate your car, as well as axles, wheels, various carving tools, and a couple of men with power drills to make the holes for the axles! (I just love the thought of men
with power drills drilling holes in zucchini!)
At 1:30, the judging began! The judges panel was made up of the Whip City Speedway drivers themselves. It took them about 10 minutes gathered around the cars on display on the table in front of the racetrack in front of the store to decide which of the awesome creations would be the winners in the non-racing categories. Photos of all the winning cars and their creators were taken amidst much applause. And then the races begain!
The excitement built as the creators of all the cars and a huge crowd of on-lookers gathered around the race track in front of the big windows at the front of the store. It took quite a few heats and nearly 45 minutes of racing down the track, but eventually the winner (in the yellow shirt at right) of the Fastest Zucchini Car won by a stem in what was a photo finish! WOW!
This event was so much FUN from beginning to end. Special thanks to Mike Bray and Whip City Speedway for all their help.
This event was also a first for me: It marked my public debut as an accordion player! Back in June, I scored a beat-up old accordion from Freecycle. I fixed it up and have been practicing nearly every single day to the point that my lovely wife is getting tired of the songs I'm learning. (I try to practice when she's not around now!)
So last Wednesday at our regulary monthly RVM Outreach Committee meeting when general manager Rochelle Prunty said that we didn't have any music for the Zucchini 500, I said, "I could bring my accordion," and all sorts of smiles went around the room! So instead of stiltwalking as I usually do for River Valley Market events, I put on a poofy-sleeved white shirt, black pants and shoes, and my black Greek yachting cap and walked around both outdoors and in the store playing the accordion from noon until the judging began at 1:30. It was a LOT OF FUN for me... and judging by the big smiles I got from nearly everyone, it was a hit.
I'm available.
"Bread & Puppetand
The Primate Fiasco
FREE!"
And then tonight, Nancy & I went to a FREE show at the Academy of Music in Northampton MA featuring Bread & Puppet Theatre, music by The Primate Fiasco and Hot Day at the Zoo, the public debut of the Downside Up Circus acrobat troupe, and Hoop Master Sass.
This performance was hosted (and paid for!) by Free Press, "a national, non-partisan, non-profit organization working to reform the media" based in Florence MA and Washington DC. In the middle of the program, Free Press executive director Josh Silver got up and gave a very powerful presentation about why they do what they do and what we could all do to help.
What a wonderful wonderful show. Oh, and did I say?: it was FREE! Wowie Zowie!
Monday, September 14, 2009
My lovely wife, the librarian in training, has had three of her photographs on display at Simmons College of Library Science in Boston for several months, and today was the day we went to pick them up. Every time something like this happens, we make an outing of it whenever possible, so after stopping by Simmons (for like about 5 minutes!) we went to the Arnold Arboretum in Boston.
Arnold Arboretum is the oldest arboretum in North America and is 265 acres of fabulous trees and shrubs arranged by family and genus --- this means, for instance, that all the different kinds of maples are in the same area. 
Looking at the map above, we parked outside the Arborway entrance at the top of the map by #1, checked out the visitors center there by the entrance, and then had our picnic lunch below a towering tulip tree at #3.
Tulip trees are one of my favorite trees 
and I was excited to learn that they have several HUGE ones. They are not only the fastest growing hardwood in America, but the tallest, too, reaching heights of nearly 200 feet! Their flowers strongly resemble tulips (left) and their leaves are one of the very few trees in the world without a central point (below).
Some of you may recall that I planted several tulip tree seedling in my back yard this summer.
After lunch, we walked down the "road" (cars are no longer allowed) as far as #10, at which point we left the main trail and forged nearly due south through the trees and up the hill to the observation point at that little spirally looking place above ##15 &16. After enjoying the view (and not a single building in sight!), we headed down a fairly steep path to #17 where we turned back north, eventually ending up on the entrance road again which led us back to where we were parked.
Now, just to give you an idea of the size of the Arboretum, that little loop took in maybe 1/5 of the park and took us an hour and a half to walk! We saw a lot of wonderful wonderful trees (I LOVE TREES!), many of which neither of us had ever seen before.
I definitely want to go here again... I didn't get to see the sequoias!
Tuesday, September 15, 2009
Our amazing friend Amar once again hosted one of her awesome Live Foods Potlucks in Leverett tonight. It's one of my all-time favorite events: wonderful people, unbelievably good food, and great vibes. Back in the day, Amar held them every week and I was there pretty much every single time. But now they are rare and highly anticipated experiences.
Tonight's potluck had a special bonus: a presentation on water ionizers. It was interesting and thought provoking. The next day, my lovely wife was on-line researching water ionizers and found even more eye-opening stuff.
Saturday, September 19, 2009
Once again, I'm back at the Pioneer Arts Center of Easthampton (PACE) for a fabulous comedy show tonight! It's great to be back in the comedy slot again! Our friend and comedian Jennifer Myszkowski
hosts these wonderful all women shows three or four times a year now.
Usually they're spaced out ever four months or so, but since it's been
nearly a year since the last one, she's lined up three in a row for
September, October and November. This round she's trying something a
little different: she's including a token male in the line-up. It's
actually kinda weird.
Tonight, most of Jennifer's family was
in the audience. Her beau Scott is always there, but this time her
parents, sister, aunts, and uncles, 7 in all rolled in just before show
time.
I admit right up front that I purposely sat right next to
them to see what they laughed at. Jennifer tells a lot of jokes about
her family, several about some of those very relatives, especially her
mom & dad. They know she tells jokes about them because she's told
them to their face exactly what she says about them, plus I
know her parents and sister have been to her shows before. But I was
curious to experience myself how they responded. And I must say, it
really expanded the experience for me! I know all but the latest of
Jennifer's material and I still laugh every single time I hear them
(because she's just so FU-U-U-U-UNNY!), but tonight I often found
myself laughing just a little bit late because I her mother snorted at
a particularly pointed barb or her dad and uncle guffawed in unison to
some family jibe. It was even more hilarious than usual!
Thanks to Jennifer Myszkowski for putting together these wonderful shows.
And to you, my dear reader, I say: Do yourself a favor and come to the
next show and get some intense Laughter Therapy Jennifer
Myszkowski-style! You'll be VERY glad you did.
P.S. For those of you who actually keep up with my blog, I forgot something really FUN: so there's now a third section (with lots of links) at the end of the Sept. 13th entry above. 
Friday, September 25, 2009
I got bit by a dog today. A sneak attack from behind with no warning, the cowardly little cur.
Saturday and Sunday, September 26 & 27, 2009
This weekend I did a return performance at the 19th annual Wachusett Mountain KidsFest in Princeton MA. I've entertained at quite a few Wachusett Mountain events in the past, and it was terrific to bring smiles and laughter to so many people there once again.
Saturday was absolutely packed! Non-stop people inside and out all day long. Sunday it rained all day, so most of the outside stuff cancelled and the crowd was relatively small, but we still all had a terrific time inside!
I was particularly impressed with Grandma Toots the clown's balloon hats, the young woman who ran the trivia contests at the Disney Station's booth on Saturday, and Neal Portnoy's caricatures on Sunday.