Story #3 Derrick and his Tundra Theater in November

Man, it must be hard to work in a coffee shop.  All of that running around to please customers.  No sense of artistic development.  That’s why I got to dance, he thought.  It’s for me and it’s for all my dancers.  Without dancing, I’d be like a pretzel    siting and wandering when it’s my time to shine. time for coffee.  Derrick got up to look around at the shop.  He picked up a bag of espresso beans and tossed in his other hand.  Then one of his songs played on the mic. 

He nodded at the manger showing his appreciation of hip hop music in the shop instead of the typical elevator music that permeated.  He did a few two steps to the card tree, picking up some of the cards.  .
The afternoon began settling in.  Everyone has their agenda and from Derrick’s vantage point he can gaze in on all of their rehearsals. steal.  The tundra-like theater allows each of the dance rooms to be sections off like cubicles allowing the casual observer from above to be able to observe like a vulture peering out at it prey.  This is the greatest vantage point, derrick thinks, he feels as if he’s a conductor and his dancers are his marionettes. 

Story # 4 Derrick Starts a Duel

Derrick in preparing for the acting duel takes a fake sword and begins to show the dancers the duel, the whole time, derrick has a look of scorn and utter hatred for his opponent, some dancers play out the fake sword hits with a taping of a cymbal? Like salsa dancing, Matching each sound.

Two dancers walk out as if they are going to start a conflict, they have determination casted looks on their face, their hair is short and their check bones sharp.Steal.  The dance goes on as derrick goes up the stairs matching his opponents every strike with a strke in returns, he lands on the ground and flips over in pinwheeling on the floor in amazement that he took a wound to his chest. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6idyuKJRK8c

Story #6 Derrick and the Mirror

"The mirror is in front of you so you can see yourself and so you what you look like and work on yourself.   Hip hop is picture perfect, so if someone does it wrong, you can tell."
 He stands at the coffee table.(use in another scene)The dancers are constantly bobbing their heads; constant music fills their heads in time. 

You can fall over and do the ugliest face in football, but in hip hop if you do a pirouette with your tongue out, you will be on the front page of   (a dancer’s magazine or star tribune.)

Michael is able to lift his body, he has an incredible, and he is mesmerizing especially for a male able to do what he does. He talks about how he has been given chances, chances unlike many other turfers.   

Story #7 Smatterings from a man's conversation with a stranger

Smatterings from a man's conversation with a stranger

My grandma's got Alzheimer’s.

She died of malnutrition.

She's got demensia, memory loss.

She used to come over all the time.

Grandpa lived at 1037 Duluth.

With grandma

She was a west-sider.

She went to Coral Lebanese Deli.

"Emily's" was a Furniture place.

Was she a big woman?  (The man across the aisle finally asks)

No-She was thin and beautiful.

She lived at the test nursing home.

I feel sorry for her.

She would be 94.

Sophia.

Almost 100.

The president would give her. . .

Is she dead?

No, she's still living.

Her sister Pauline was gay.

She died in terminal.  With Aides.

She said gay life was terminal.

She wanted to be a woman.

Darlene was her sister.

Angie died of stomach cancer.

Linda Compman

Was a friend of my mother's/Father's-

She said I don't want to talk about Obama

Her name is Ale.

(The man across from the stranger changes the topic and starts talking about a bakery.)

Was it a Danish pastry shop?

I love Danish pastry.

They had a fire.

He knew everything in Arthur's store.

My father used to send me to run errands.

My brother went up north.

(The man across the aisle brings up the bakery shop again and the stranger asks a question about it)

Did she make homemade pudding?

No-

Pancakes?

Yeah....  I know a person who makes good pancakes.

I know a woman in Virginia who doesn't like eggs.

Do you like eggs?

What?  (Says the stranger, surprised at the question)

Do you like whoppers?

No-

Are you a vegetarian?

Are you okay? (The stranger finally asks)

Liza Minnelli.

I should have asked her for her autograph.

Liza Minnelli's daughter.

She married five times.

She was great.

Judy Garland.

I like that record

Felt sorry.   I would have helped her.

She was only 47 when she died.

I think it was an accident.

Do you think Judy Garland committed suicide?

(Silence)

Ye . . . She died on June 23, 1969.

I was only four years old.

I seen the Wizard of Oz.

It was at the Orpheum.

Frank Morgan was a scarecrow

West Fields was supposed to be a wizard

He was an alcoholic

Who?

Frank Morgan.

I like the part when she falls asleep.

The first scenes were in black and white.

(The man gets up to make his way to the door)

Are you going downtown?

I gotta go downtown

The metro is closed on Saturday

My transfer expired

No transportation.

My buss pass expired.

(The stranger switches the conversation to the topic of weather)

Yes, it’s supposed to be snow showers today.

I'm going to the store on Wednesday

I like milk

I take out the recycling on Wednesday.

It's not hard.

I don't like to work much.  I'm sorta lazy.

I think we know that. (Says the stranger)

Grandma was on welfare.

How much does it cost for people with disabilities to get on the bus?

I don't know.

How much does it cost for the elderly?

Seventy-five cents.

Does it really?

How much does it cost for kids?

Ask your kids.

  

Look at that beautiful coat.

I'm just having a coffee.

I'm on a diet.

I'm broke.

I like Burger King.

I don't live very far from here.

(The stranger walked out of Burger King sm

I watched "The Drowsy Chaperon" musical at Shakopee High school on November 14, 2014   

Play rehearsal warm ups could be heard back stage.  The softest strain of flutes and clarinets billowed through the theater before the audience reached their seats.  The actors in this musical traveled in all forms; whether it be rollerskating, dancing, jumping or flying. Big exaggerated hats like the famous white hat worn by Amal Alamuddin could be seen on stage in this rendition of the 1930's  the Drowsy Chaperon.My favorite character had to be Adolfo, a ladies man who captured the heart of the one person who was to keep the bride in tip top shape:the chaperon. Adolfo parachuted across the stage in a big purple cape.  He was to be a European man whose too white face looked more looked like a cross between a Mexican and a Filipino. His laugh was so infectious that one couldn't help but laugh along with him. 

A photographer takes his photos, there is 10 of them standing both right and left, what's the difference between him taking the shot and someone else and the difference is this, he sees something else in the shot, something that is absolutely human, and that is what perhaps makes a writer so grand as well. On a very daily basis they see something to comment on, that no one else sees....

The writer wrote

The coffee slept

And the writer made some more....

Not putting to sleep-the pen

Not rocking the intrepid mind to its slumber peace.

The writer wrote

The chandlier strewn

The desk buckled under the pressure of the burdenous texts.

The writer had to read

The writer wrote

The sleepers slept

And old man Donahue swept his pen on the frozen sheet.

"Ellen Degeneres:Seriously...I'm Kidding" By Ellen Degeneres

 

"Ellen Degeneres:Seriously...I'm Kidding"  (A memoir) By Ellen Degeneres.  This is a great humorous read, I can't even summarize the book because there are just so many levels of funny. It is so funny, that when I was listening to it, (on my way to work), a man in the car next to me, must have been enjoying my laughter, because he was grinning at me.

 Degeneres talks about what all humans are in search of: happiness.

 Am I happy writing this blog?  I would have to say "yes", I love siting down at the computer listening to Jay-Z's "Forever Young" and writing reviews on books that I've come to listen to, throughout the week.  

 Am I living day-to-day? asks Degeneres?

 Yes, with each new book review, I'm adding creative ideas to my life, while simultaneously living vicariously through the authors for which I read.  

Sometimes he doesn’t even say a complete instruction just utters words like bum, bum, bum, or snaps his fingers.  Because derrick doesn’t have a piano, playing the songs, he has slum behind the dj booth, in front of a laptop and can stop and play the songs at intervals, while knowing the exacts second and minute where he can go back and play important song sequences.  Some of the dancers to bend over in lounges and relax their back muscles.

He’s practically moving and dancing along with the dancers while he explains left side around.  All the dancers have painted smiles on their faces, feigning enthusiasm and support, not for a second, showing any form of fatigue or tiredness, they don’t want to show themselves as weak dancers, some dancers stand back and watch on the sidelines when it’s not their turn to dance. 

Derrick demonstrates by walking through the dancers, dancing for them while explaining to them, lifting his hands in time with the music.  Someone takes the initiative and plays the beginning of the song. Derrick gives directions occasionally with his hands, slapping his hands to show the rhythm of the dance, counts and times their movements, use your right foot to push up, prepare, his says, he begins singing along to the music while explaining the steps.