A few of my kids were falling off the climbing equipment and 'dying' by lying still on the ground. Then they'd get other kids to poke them with sticks to prove they were really dead because they wouldn't move. I offered that maybe one of the children wasn't dead, but just asleep like the "princess from long ago" in the song. I sang a bit of it and then suggested I tell them the story about the princess who went to sleep for "a hundred years". We piled into the wooden boat and I told them the story of sleeping beauty, but with the twist that Isobelle Carmody uses (was it in The Keeping Place?). In the twist, Dameon is cast as the prince and manages to get past the thorns around the big, tall tower by empathising/singing to them... he enchants the thorns into moving away from the door. It was awesome. I'd never tried to tell a story without a book or props of any kind before... I think I nearly swooned when I had their full-full attention when I described how prince after prince tried to slash through the thorn to no avail. And it was only the gentle prince, who came not with violence but with love and music to entreat her to allow him to come to her.
Dameon is blind, he's an empath... but he's strong, upright and humble. If ever I had the fortune to know such a man, I would never be worthy of their love if they were foolish enough to love me. I'm too firey and crazy and forceful. In that way, I think he and Elspeth are not a good match, though I do not doubt his love or the rightness of it. I know it's a little silly to be so involved in these characters, but I suppose I'm not really, I just have history with them. They've been my companions for so many years that in a way they are almost real to me...
Anyway, the kids were really into the fact that the princes rode up on horseback and so many of them wanted to be horses in the story that we had to change it a little and give our hansome prince a carriage so we could have six horses ride up with him. It was fun having them act out the story while I told it. It shows how engaged they were in the story... I love little dudes. I will tell them another story tomorrow. Beauty and the Beast perhaps? :) I love these fairy tales. As soon as you say "Once upon a time... long, long ago" you have their attention until you say "And they lived happily ever after". *laughs*
The opera went down well. They cracked themselves all the way through "Figaro" and we contrasted that fast paced, male vocals to the slow, kind of sad singing of a female singing in Carmen. It went well enough. A lot of them were stunned, one boy said "What the heck?" :P He's going to grow up into one classy, cultured dude.
So I dunno... I don't have a lot of music to share. Dr Worm was on Triple J when I got home, so that way cool. <3 This song fits my mood now too. Fun times. I saw these guys live at the Annandale Hotel last year... too awesome.
Bedouin Soundclash - St. Andrews
Love,
Cathrine
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Thanks for sharing your thoughts. :)