Yesterday, Anita Johnson hosted the Cousins’ January 1 Talent Show -- combined performances from everyone in the family who wanted to join in, not just cousins.
It was a reallygood party. Just ask ANIMAL from the Muppets.
Earlier in the week, Catherine found her script from Dylan Thomas’s “A Child’s Christmas in Wales”, a script that was already marked up for performance, Rebecca and Bonnie being the other voices. They both protested saying they had never done such a gig with her. But she brought out the script as evidence – their names clearly marked as reading some of the voices of the children in the story.
All three of them agreed to tape a performance for the CVshow. Unfortunately, whomever was in charge of the technical assistance forgot to hit the record button. (That would have been Catherine!!!). Thus, the day of the show, they retaped, (Rebecca hit the recording button this time) wearing winter hats and having suitable props by their side.
Catie started the Friday show playing the piano, her music carefully laid out along the music shelf so that no one had to turn pages for her.
Her camera was set up so we could see her hands on the piano, and those of us who have read music this way (along the length of the piano shelf), followed her head, and then her face as she came to the end of the piece, where we could then see her eyes working their way down the lines, at the end, watching her face as she did a trill or played an interesting chord.
Then she turned and smiled at us. A perfect performance.
Dalton read a sonnet (containing the idea that he and his dad share the same initials and the same sense of humour). He wrote for Doral – the sonnet an assignment for a class, the finished product a gift for Father’s Day.
Ceilidh showed a video of work she had done previously, and then finished with a live performance of “Hotel California”.
One of the positive parts of Zoom is that I can mute myself, and then sing along. She smiled when she heard people had done that.
Duncan has been painting Warhammer figures over the holidays and sent in pictures of groups of them as his talent – Meighan adding suitable music to the slides before the show began, so that was fun to see those figures in a talent performance since I have been enjoying sitting at the same holiday table and seeing him paint them.
Hebe has spent time styling the hair of the dolls in her American Girl collection. As well, this holiday she wore the pièce de résistance: her first pink party frock with a ruffled skirt – one for her and one for her doll.
“This doll does not have braids, but the hair has been fishtailed,” she told us as the head of one was brought close to the camera.
An image of wonder woman was another art piece –enhanced with Rebecca’s face and her black eye, a broken coffee mug, her small wallet still in her hand, an electric vehicle charging tower, multiple lengths of charger chord floating around the art work and an electric Kia in the bottom right hand corner.
Leo presented pre-taped performances of his group of drummers at the University of Lethbridge: two styles of drumming -- the Japanese style interesting with its large arm movements.
Both Rebecca and I remarked on the calming influence of the predictability and the surprise of drumming rhythm.
When the show was over, Richard sat at his piano and played chords from a new “easy to read” music book he had purchased, audience members shouting out which movie they thought the music came from. "Star Wars!" "No, Star Trek!"
Marcia played the first few chords of Debussy’s “Claire de Lune”, saying it had taken her a whole year to get that far and maybe she, too, should have bought the easy-to-play music. Marcia would not have known the nostalgia some of us felt, for Kelvin Sr was a two-piece wonder. Right into his eighties he could play “Claire de Lune” and “Bumble Boogie” from memory.
When the show was over Anita invited us to stay for an after-party. Mary’s family had leave – they had virtual tickets to attend the new musical Ratatouille (also known as Ratatouille the TikTok Musical, Remmy The Ratatouille, or Ratatousical).
Many attendees had chatted in the sidebar as the performances were going on.
Even then, we lingered longer until the hour when our host closed the show.
 |
Earlier in the week, Catherine found her script from Dylan Thomas’s “A Child’s Christmas in Wales”, a script that was already marked up for performance, Rebecca and Bonnie being the other voices. They both protested saying they had never done such a gig with her. But she brought out the script as evidence – their names clearly marked as reading some of the voices of the children in the story.
All three of them agreed to tape a performance for the CVshow. Unfortunately, whomever was in charge of the technical assistance forgot to hit the record button. (That would have been Catherine!!!). Thus, the day of the show, they retaped, (Rebecca hit the recording button this time) wearing winter hats and having suitable props by their side.
Catie started the Friday show playing the piano, her music carefully laid out along the music shelf so that no one had to turn pages for her.
Her camera was set up so we could see her hands on the piano, and those of us who have read music this way (along the length of the piano shelf), followed her head, and then her face as she came to the end of the piece, where we could then see her eyes working their way down the lines, at the end, watching her face as she did a trill or played an interesting chord.
Then she turned and smiled at us. A perfect performance.
Dalton read a sonnet (containing the idea that he and his dad share the same initials and the same sense of humour). He wrote for Doral – the sonnet an assignment for a class, the finished product a gift for Father’s Day.
Many people sent in a recorded performance: Xavier with a performance of “City of Stars”.
Ceilidh showed a video of work she had done previously, and then finished with a live performance of “Hotel California”.
One of the positive parts of Zoom is that I can mute myself, and then sing along. She smiled when she heard people had done that.
Duncan has been painting Warhammer figures over the holidays and sent in pictures of groups of them as his talent – Meighan adding suitable music to the slides before the show began, so that was fun to see those figures in a talent performance since I have been enjoying sitting at the same holiday table and seeing him paint them.
Hebe has spent time styling the hair of the dolls in her American Girl collection. As well, this holiday she wore the pièce de résistance: her first pink party frock with a ruffled skirt – one for her and one for her doll.
“This doll does not have braids, but the hair has been fishtailed,” she told us as the head of one was brought close to the camera.
Catherine offered examples of her new art talent: enhanced images of people she loves. Culturally modified images, she calls them. Doral appeared as a child in the back of Santa’s Bag, a reference to a poem he wrote when he was a child.
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| Culturally modified image by Catherine Johnson Doral as a child, in Santa's bag |
Kelvin’s face was cut and pasted over an image of Animal (see above), the muppet drummer, with the poem “Willie Get’s the Neck” and the neck of a turkey clutched in his muppet first. Doral read the poem in a child’s voice, with many laughing until their ribs ached. Now that was compelling performance art.
Leo presented pre-taped performances of his group of drummers at the University of Lethbridge: two styles of drumming -- the Japanese style interesting with its large arm movements.
Both Rebecca and I remarked on the calming influence of the predictability and the surprise of drumming rhythm.
When the show was over, Richard sat at his piano and played chords from a new “easy to read” music book he had purchased, audience members shouting out which movie they thought the music came from. "Star Wars!" "No, Star Trek!"
Marcia played the first few chords of Debussy’s “Claire de Lune”, saying it had taken her a whole year to get that far and maybe she, too, should have bought the easy-to-play music. Marcia would not have known the nostalgia some of us felt, for Kelvin Sr was a two-piece wonder. Right into his eighties he could play “Claire de Lune” and “Bumble Boogie” from memory.
When the show was over Anita invited us to stay for an after-party. Mary’s family had leave – they had virtual tickets to attend the new musical Ratatouille (also known as Ratatouille the TikTok Musical, Remmy The Ratatouille, or Ratatousical).
Even then, we lingered longer until the hour when our host closed the show.
This is how Catherine felt about the show being over. She wanted it to go on and on.
In the hours that followed the show, I felt a profound sense of loss.
I tried to understand why, even talking about it on the phone with Bonnie.
Zoom events bring my loved ones near in such an intimate way.
Faces are close to the camera.
For their performances my eyes are on my loved ones.
The stage is completely theirs. The whole event was loving and respectful.
I was enjoying the performers, their talents, their bravery on their gigs, their own comments on their shows.
For me, in the hours afterward, all were gone,… but not forgotten.
Arta
I tried to understand why, even talking about it on the phone with Bonnie.
Zoom events bring my loved ones near in such an intimate way.
Faces are close to the camera.
For their performances my eyes are on my loved ones.
I was enjoying the performers, their talents, their bravery on their gigs, their own comments on their shows.
For me, in the hours afterward, all were gone,… but not forgotten.
Arta
Until next year....
