April Fool

SST: Tooth Play

SESAME STREET TUESDAY

I have spent the last six years or so living with a gigantic cavity in the very back of my mouth. Initially it was pretty painful and sensitive, but I had been living with it for so long that I just got used to it. Last month I went to the dentist for the first time in years and had a full set of x-rays and a really deep cleaning, but I didn't get the cavity filled because my insurance wouldn't pay for any of it. But Jody, my dental student friend, tipped me off about a free clinic where I could get my cavities (I also had a second, smaller one) filled for free. So my super-generous roommate Micah, who is in his last semester of dental school, agreed to work on me for free at the clinic. Although I had warned him that the cavity was pretty massive, I don't think he realized quite what he was getting himself into when he volunteered to work on me. All in all it took about three hours to get the job done, and I felt bad for taking up so much of his free time on a Saturday morning. Thanks, Micah!

If only I paid more attention to the instructional melodramas of Prairie Dawn on Sesame Street, the cavity might never have developed in the first place:



I won't have Micah around to fix my teeth for much longer, so I'll just have to use the thought of Herry Monster terrorizing my teeth to scare me into having better oral hygiene.

What Dreams May Come

It's no longer good enough to have just one measly blog. A lot of my friends have set up second blogs (like her and him, or in her case, a third blog), and I have been feeling a bit left behind. A second blog sounded like a fun side project, like when George Harrison, Bob Dylan, Roy Orbison, Jeff Lynne, and Tom Petty all got together in the late 80's to form a goofy side band, The Traveling Wilburys. The material could be more specialized and adventurous.

I spent many weeks contemplating around what theme I could build a second blog, and finally in a conversation with Amy Jeppsen I stumbled upon the idea of creating a blog about my dreams. That night I had a dream that I started a dream blog, and it was called What Dreams May Come (in the dream I kept insisting that it was a Shakespeare reference and not an homage to Robin Williams).

My dreams are one of my favorite things to talk about, but oftentimes I end up forgetting them because I don't tell them to anyone or record them. So earlier this month I blogged about a dream I had and it was so much fun to write that I decided that I would launch the dream blog as soon as Albert Herring ended and I had a little more free time. That is now, so here it is:

What Dreams May Come
(www.walrusdreamblog.blogspot.com)

To whet your appetite, here is a preview of the first post:


I hope you'll enjoy reading about the strange and whimsical things that I dream. But please don't psychoanalyze me too much.

P.S. - The morning after I had the dream in which I started a dream blog, I told my roommate Micah about it and he told me I should name the blog "The Dream-Catcher," since the blog serves as a means to catch my dreams. I thought that was clever, but I couldn't disobey the dream that told me to name it otherwise. I did, however, make a little dream-catcher logo to put on the side in honor of his suggestion.

SST: How Crayons are Made

SESAME STREET TUESDAY

One month ago I posted a clip of Here is Your Life, calling it Sesame Street's version of How It's Made. However, Amy Jeppsen later reminded me about another series of clips on Sesame Street that show how things are manufactured in a much more informative and accurate way (no offense, Guy Smiley). The series included things such as saxophones, honey, and cheese, but the best of the series is easily the video abou how crayons are made:

Amy said that when she was a little girl, she used to hold the crayon up to her eye like the girl in the video, trying to see the liquid wax swirling around inside.

As a bonus, I found this video of some guy playing the music from the clip on the piano, complete with pop-up comments! What do you think - is he really cool or is he a mega-dork? Discuss.

How I Gave My Student a Panic Attack

I have a voice student who was in a very serious car accident a few years ago, resulting in a brain injury that has affected her sense of direction. She's an incredibly smart girl, but the first few weeks of the semester were tricky for her since the room where we have our lessons is located in a maze of corridors with hundreds of identical doors. She used to call me from the waiting room and I would go out and fetch her, but after a few weeks she got the hang of the hallways and she is able to follow the numbers until she arrives safely at room 1180.

On Wednesday, however, I sat in the room waiting for her to arrive but she seemed to be running really late. I kept peeking out of the little window in the door to see if she was in the hallway, but I couldn't see her, so I just sat at the piano playing through some music. Finally after nearly ten minutes I got a phone call from her, but the reception was really bad and she sounded really panicked, so I ran down the hallway to the waiting room. I still didn't see her there, but at least I could hear her on the phone now. "Wait, do you have a mustache?"

I then turned around and saw her seated in the corner of the waiting area. As soon as I came over she started breathlessly apologizing for the confusion, gasping for air between each sentence. "I'm sooo sorry!!! ... I was waiting here...and then I went down the hallway to 1180...and I looked in the window...and I saw a stranger from behind.....and he had a mustache...and then I got all disoriented and everything felt all wrong...and then I tried to find my way back here but I started doubting myself...and then I had a panic attack and couldn't find my way back here...and I'm so sorry!..." At this point she almost couldn't breath so I had her sit down, take some deep breaths, and have a couple sips of water. When she finally calmed down, and as we set off together for the practice room she told me, "You can't just suddenly grow a mustache when you've got a student with a brain injury!"

Before that experience, I thought the mustache was just dorky and a little bit creepy, but now I realize that this mustache is actually very dangerous and has the potential to unleash much pain and psychological anguish on the world, like Pandora's Box or The One Ring. After Albert Herring closes on Sunday afternoon, it must be destroyed (possibly in the fires of Mordor, although that sounds like a lot of work) before it has a chance to harm anyone else.

Facial Hair Throwdown

There's something about the University of Michigan's March opera and mustaches. Some of you might remember that for last year's opera they made me grow a mustache. Well, one year later I'm in the same boat for Albert Herring. As I have always done in the past when I've had to have a mustache for a show, I've grown a full beard and then shaved it down for the dress rehearsals. This time I shaved it down to a goatee for one day just for fun. However, I changed the style of the goatee over the day and I couldn't decide which one I liked better, for future reference should I decide to grow another goatee. So I am asking you, dear readers, to vote on which goatee you fancy:

Goatee A is all-natural, all the hair I have on my chin. Goatee B is carved out a little bit more and a bit more shapely. If you have an opinion on which one you like better, vote on the goatee poll on the sidebar. (If you do vote, don't allow yourself to be swayed by the other variables in the pictures, like the lighting differences, glasses vs. no glasses, etc. Base your vote on the goatee alone.)

When shaving off a beard, it is always fun to do it in stages to see just how many crazy looks you can come up with. At the U of U I once shaved off a new look for every day of the week, including a lightning bolt sideburn, a hollowed out lamb chop (I just the outline around where the big sideburn had been), a big spiral, a ring around my chin, two little horn-like points coming off my chin (that thing was cool - you had to see it), and then later, the half-stache. This time I was a little more conservative, and I only came up with this hot new look:

The right side...

... the left side...

... and from below.

The name "soul patch" is already taken, and it really does look like a big dirt smudge on your jaw, so I suggest the name "dirt patch" for this particular look. Whatdaya think? (P.S. - I had a ten minute long conversation with Todd with this look and he didn't even notice.) [Editor's note: After posting this, my roommate Seth informed me that there already is a look called a "dirt patch." He suggested the name "scratch patch," which I kinda like.]

But now I'm left with just the mustache until Albert Herring is over on Sunday. If you're in Ann Arbor this weekend, I hope you come check it out and see what all the fuss is about.


P.S. - I'm putting up a second poll as well: which is the better spelling - mustache or moustache? Both are considered acceptable.

SST: Yip Yip Yip... Radio!

SESAME STREET TUESDAY

On Friday we must say goodbye to one of the great television experiences of my lifetime: Battlestar Galactica. For those of you who have never watched it during its four-season run, I know what you are thinking, because I thought it too. Sci-fi? Sorry, I don't do sci-fi. But I kept hearing raves from all the critics and word of mouth from a few friends so I decided to jump on the BSG bandwagon and I got sucked in within a few minutes of the miniseries that launched the series. The show may be set in space, but it's hardly your stereotypical science fiction show. It's essentially a story about the Government, the Military, and the Church, and it speaks to all generations that have lived during wartime. It's a gripping, exciting, intellectually riveting, visceral experience, and if you have avoided it just because of the spaceships, you're doing yourself a great disservice (the same advice goes for Buffy the Vampire Slayer).

In honor of the series finale of Battlestar on Friday, I present my very earliest encounter with science fiction:



P.S. - Happy St. Patrick's Day!