Out of the Mouth of Babes

As part of my nephew's school's Christmas chorale performace, a video collage was put together that was quite entertaining. The kids were shown photographs of 3 presidents: George Washington, George W. Bush and Barak Obama and were asked to identify each picture. One 6 year old is to be commeneded - he was the only student to get them all right. The other answers, although incorrect, were priceless. When George Washington's photo was shown, one child authoritatively stated he was John McCain and many classmates followed suite. One little girl however, was sure the picture was of Hilary Clinton! (Lots of laughter from the audience) And then proceeded to say, that Hilary Clinton had lost and "was out of the game" which caused the audience to laugh even harder. Well, Hilary's definately not out of the game ...and it sure was interesting to hear the perspective of 5 and 6 years olds and who they voted for...another said Obama because he is cool, another said he voted for McCain because he was old. Out of the mouth of babes.....

Sarah Brightman at the Honda Center

My sister-in-law and brother had gotten the adults in our family tickets to see Sarah Brightman last Friday. The staging, sets and costumes were a creative feast for the eyes with special effects ranging "water ballet" to fantastic computer graphics. The backdrop would change from calm and beautiful tree images with saturated green and points of light to create a fairy like forest. In another scene SB was Little Red Riding Hood riding a bike to a scary ride down a menacing forest road while computer images of wolves on bikes chased beside her and the huge superimposed trees gave the audience the impression of racing down a road. (How she can sing and get an aerobic work out, we wondered?).
One of my favorites was the hommage to Ester Williams which was done by mirror reflection from a recess on the stage. All the dancers circled around SB and every arm and leg movement was done in unison as SB sang while lying down in very glamorous poses (we also wondered how difficult it was to project your voice while lying down?)
The costumes were fantastic with over the top peakaboo French Rocco inspired dress with a corset, long train, and platform thigh high boots. SB is a slight framed little thing and therefore the use of swings, ladders, etc were used. Luckily we brought binocolurs to see the all details.
All in all, SB gave a wonderful performance - sang her most beloved songs - Time to Say Goodbye, Phantom of the Opera, a couple of rock covers, etc.
One another note, it took us 2.5 hours to get down to Honda Center on a Friday night and 30 minutes to get back. We had reservations for Luigi's but alas - that will have to be for another time. We opted for a quick stop at In and Out Burger rather than stadium food and were quite satisfied with that.
Note: If you need to find a restaurant use mapquest or yahoo which will give you options in the area.

Sunset in Palos Verdes

This is one of the photos I took when the fires were burning. The sunsets for a few days were surreal - and there were a handful of photographers who gathered at Oceanfront. Some had point and shoot cameras while others had expensive commercial gear. The view sparked (no pun intended) conversation among like minded locals.