Seriously bleary, really, Dr Leary. I'm waking up this morning with a headache which I will immediately 'treat' with three ibuprofen and a cup of delicious iced coffee. And then rather than putter around before dance class (at 8:30), I'll sit here at the computer and open up a vein, see if there is something waiting to emerge. And the subtext of whatever I write is that by the time I get up and showered and out the door, I'll bet that my head will feel better. So there is some kind of calculus involving meandering thoughts, molecules of ibuprofen in an iced coffee solution and 'radons' of headachiness. I wonder if there is a word for degrees of headache. No I won't try and Google that... I know a blind alley when I stumble into one... But I'll have in the back of my mind the idea of headache giving way into the new day.
I had a really good time making music last night at a potluck for the Temple Beth Israel preschool. My old friend Carole Diller is the director of the school and we go back to 1984 when she arrived in town. I had been here for about a year at that point, and she said last night that the first time she set foot in the synagogue, there was this guy playing piano, and she thought, 'hmm, this feels pretty cool'. Of course that 'guy' was supposed to be mopping the floor or some other task at the time, as he was the janitor for a brief period, but I guess 'he' preferred to jam on the piano rather than sweep up. (but I digress.... and I digressed). Carol took over the preschool directorship that year and immediately boosted into a prominent position in the community, and she's been running it pretty much ever since, now in the new building.
Last night she brought me in to do a 'family singalong' as part of the potluck, so that was the plan. But of course, little kids have a very short attention span for any one activity, so I would have to mix it up, keep it moving, get them active, use some tricks etc in order to hold their attention. And I gave them something I'm pretty proud of, even if it only earned me $50. I suppose it's yet another in the long line of examples in which money and satisfaction don't necessarily coexist on the same graph. (perhaps that's the 'Rich Glauber' calculus) he said with a slightly rueful smile.
I got some very nice compliments after the performance, but the one that sticks came from one of the young preschool teachers who said, 'I can't believe how they will do every thing you say. If I were to try and get them to stop playing at the count of 4, I know that lots of them wouldn't do it, or wouldn't hear me' She was talking about crowd control, and maybe I'll write a little bit about that, as it is a crucial aspect of making a show work out well.
Crowd control sounds vaguely military and hard handed, and there is some aspect of that at work, but only when necessary. Far more important is logistics and setting the scene for success. I emailed Carole the day of the show to find out what she was looking for, and where was the event going to take place. Was it going to be in the preschool or the sanctuary or the social hall? I need to know these things so I can visualize what I need to do. She told me that she billed my part as a family sing-along, and that it was going to be in the social hall. (the cavernous and cold social hall, by the way). She would ask the synagogue to set up the PA system for me if I needed to use it.
My original plan was to go to a Zumba class and leave just a little bit before the end to rush over to the synagogue and do the gig, but I decided I didn't want to do that, be all sweaty and rushed. This decision was made a little easier when my friend Jack invited me for a round of disc golf in the afternoon, so I felt like my body got what it needed as far as exercise, and I didn't have to dance. That gave me more time to prepare, and it also enabled me to go and hang out with the families, get to know them a bit, get some suggestions for songs that they love etc. I've been mostly absent from the synagogue over the past couple of years, and there is always a new crew of kids coming up through the ranks. So it was nice to visit, learn some names and make some connections.
I had what I thought was a great idea, so I enlisted seven or eight kids to help me by rolling the spinet piano out of the sanctuary and into place in the social hall. Kids are really wanting to have a role, and of course they were happy to help and it was really cute to see them moving the piano, working together, carrying the bench etc. I figured that it would give them some ownership of the music, and that when, during the show, I asked everyone to come stand around the piano, they would be more inclined to do so. I had it in my head to share the idea that before video games and TV, people used to gather around the piano and sing together. It worked beautifully.
The PA was set up on the west side of the building, and I've done some events from over there and it always felt wrong. (Funky Shui, as I like to call it, instead of feng shui). I looked around and decided that the best place to do this event would be on the east side, in a little corner made by the cabinet that holds the prayer books. Carole had brought down a nice carpet for the kids to play legos on, so I asked my piano movers to bring the carpet into place near that little nook. We set up a cozy little spot and I invited everyone to come on over, kids on the floor, parents on chairs around the outside of the carpet. It was comfortable, and it was a venue that could work for this kind of gig. And now for the military touch...
One of the kids, Ari (who I've known for ever) was still finishing his ice cream so he wanted to sit in a chair. 'I'm a grown-up' he said. (he's 8 years old, the older brother of Joseph and Shira who go to the preschool). Another of the older boys decided he wanted to be in a chair also. I said all kids on the floor, and I was on the floor too. I said, Ari, finish your ice cream and sit down here with us, and my tone was such that he knew that I meant it, and that I wasn't going to start the show until we were all ready. He and the other guy quickly complied and the moment passed by without much notice, but to me, it was absolutely crucial to establish that little bit of authority right at the beginning. If I had let the older kids sit in chairs, then some of the other kids would want to do the same thing and it just wouldn't work as well. I have some ego and power tripping energy around this little interaction, and I've been around long enough to know that 'this is the work, this is the hard part', because once I get people in place for an event, I know that I can keep it going great. The hard part is getting the stage set properly.
It's no different than trying to have a 'moment' at a party. Let's say there is a gathering of friends to honor someone or to celebrate someone's event. When adults get together, they slip into conversational mode, chatter chatter, blah blah, the music is on in the background and everything is normal. But to change from that scene into the focused scene is often difficult. Some people are threatened by having to be quiet and in a larger group. Or maybe they're not threatened, but they want to keep blabbing and don't want to give up their autonomy. I've always felt that it was my job to create the group moment. It was my job to wrangle the unwilling into a different mind-set, to deal with the resistance and use my will to set the scene. To channel my 'inner Mussolini' and make the trains run on time?
So that little moment in which I insisted that the boys sit on the floor with everyone else feels important to me. Once they're on board and we're all together, than good things will ensue. Which they did. I feel like if I had let them do what they wanted instead of what I asked, it just wouldn't have been as positive an experience. Ditto for the parents coming to join us as one group. People have a tendency to want to do their own thing, sit back and shmooze while the kids are being 'entertained', and I try to encourage them in the nicest way to join us, be part of it, it's good for the kids etc. It's 'the work'. And everyone was on board, gracias a dios.
It was a great 40 minutes of music and community. I got to break out some of the Jewish material that I don't often do. I started with 'Here we go cheerio' which is a tune that I borrowed and then wrote a bunch of comedy lyrics for about a cat and dog going into the synagogue. Sample lyric... 'outside the door, they tried to press the buzzer, That's no doorbell, That's the mezuzah! The cat tried to pray but she didn't know how, when the people sang 'shema', she said, 'meow'.
I sang 'You'll sing a song' by Ella Jenkins, and I've been using that one for decades now to open up a little kid show. Great song and I get different voices going from the kids and a little movement too. We did '5 Little Martians', which is something I wrote as a pre-literacy rhyme with body motions. I told the story of Ezzie the Klutz about the kid who is clumsy but ends up teaching the community about how to really celebrate in the synagogue. We sang around the piano and that was awesome. We did 'Side By Side' and 'You are my sunshine', and it ended with a big marching version of McNamara's Band, and yeah, the kids stopped playing when I said the number 4. They also skipped around the social hall with instruments and returned for the big finale. It was just great! We could have done more, they were totally with me, but it was a school night, and sometimes less is more so that was that. And my headache is gone.... Time to shower and dance...
