I had a long weekend, I'm almost recovered. Nathan's parents, Younger Brother, and the two oldest nephews (who belong to Older Brother) were here for the weekend. We went to Metropolis, that's the home of Superman.
It was OK, if you're ever in Metropolis and can spare three bucks, go check out the museum. It's got a lot of stuff, and some of it's marked, but it's worth three bucks of your time to go in and see the original Superman phone booth from the television show. You can even stand in it and close the doors.
I have pictures, but they're pretty much all awful because there were two boys who assume if you're taking a picture, someone has to be in it making funny faces, and a couple of grown-ups who assume there is no other reason to take photograhs than to document your having been there. "How many are you going to take of that sign, anyway? You can see that it came out, it's a digital camera." Photography is not a group hobby.
The boys were actually a nice balance for The Boy's Mother, though. As long as I was talking to them, I was safe. It'd be nice if every time she came she had to bring one of them along- it'd probably also limit the number of proposed visits.
The Boy is 27 now. That seems frighteningly old to me, but neither he nor anyone else I know who is actually that age really seems it. Friend Q can never remember that he really is the same age as The Boy.
Speaking of Friend Q, he's suggested that I try to start a theatre group, or give theatre piano lessons. You know, five bucks a week per kid to teach them theatre stuff. The way he says it makes it seem plausible, thinking about it in retrospect makes it sound impossible, and a tax nightmare waiting to happen. I gather he's incredibly bored out in Boston, though, it was number two on his list o' things for me to do with my life, "Take performance studies! Come to Boston! Start a theatre!"
It all sounds nice, but I'd also like to be able to pay rent. If I had ten kids pay ten bucks a lesson for say, thirty weeks, that'd be 3000 at the end of the year, besides that'd be 300 bucks/student, what parent around here would pay that over basketball camp? Around here, they can pay 175 bucks for a two day summer camp: compare that to five nights at my GS camp for $180 not including cookie credit. Basketball is big around here.
The thought flitted across my mind to try a theatrical studies for middle schoolers and high schoolers. No performances, just theatre history projects and mini Shakespeare lessons, improv games, readings of plays- the sort of stuff I used to do in Drama Club back in middle school along with some of the things I did for class projects in high school. Then there's no focus on "results". But, I'm not sure where I could hold such a thing (the town has no community center), or whether it'd be legal to charge for it when all my qualifications are my BA in Theatre.
When my Gold Account died, I re-hosted my pictures through Photobucket, I already had an account for something else, so we'll see how that works. I'll miss having to put the extra fields in manually, though.
Last Book I Read: American Notes - Len Jenkins
Book in Progress: Towards a Poor Theatre - Jerzy Grotowski