Why You Should listen to the StoryPirates’ Podcasts!

The picture Emery submitted to Story Pirates for "Trash Day"

If you’ve read more than one of my blog posts, then you know I spend a lot of time criticizing Emery for not being motivated to do the things I think he should be motivated to do. And, I think I’ve mentioned his approach (or lack thereof) to writing. Well, the truth is, when Emery’s motivated to write, he works really hard at it (I’ll do a post later on what Emery is motivated to write). This is a story of one of those times and the role the StoryPirates played in getting Emery to write.

I’m a huge fan of SiriusSM radio (I’ve listened to Seth Rudetsky for years, even when he was on XM and he’s the primary reason I continue to subscribe to satellite radio), but our second favorite station is Kids Place Live. We often listen to the Absolutely Mindy Show in the afternoons and especially love the Story Pirates. The Story Pirates is a performance/ educational group of storytellers who, among other things, take children’s stories and turn them into skits for the radio. And their performances are creative, hilarious, and professional.

One day there was an advertisement for listeners to submit original stories about their own made-up holidays. Emery started talking about how he would create trash day. Of course, I had to hold myself back from offering my advice as he sat down at the table that weekend and wrote a draft of his story. I then let him sit down at the computer and type it in (again, I didn’t change a thing, even though I didn’t quite get the humor) and scanned in his picture of a group of trash bags, one of which had a red dot in the middle of it and a note from Emery that read “Rudapf’s nose”).   

Here’s the story Emery submitted

"Trash day

Today, I’m going to tell you how trash day came into our lifes. For those of you who don’t know about trash day, I will tell you all about it. Trash Day is every Tuesday. The garbeg man flys on his magical trash bad and you throw all of your trash at him and he laughs like this “He, He, He!” Then he brings it back to the South Pole at his Giant dump.

Now, I can tell you how it all began. Everybody back in 1100 AD people would put out there trash in a trash can and no one came to get it. So all the trash bags over flowed. The one man named Garbage though we need a kind of Giant dump to place the trash. So, Garbage wrote a letter to Santa for a Giant place to store trash and a flying trash bag. Santa wrote back, “No way bub, that’s too expensive!” Then Garbage stole money from the bank to make a Giant dump. He also stole one of Santa’s raindeer, and stuffed it          in a garbage bag so it could fly. And that’s how Trash Day was born."

We submitted the story and the picture and a few days after the deadline found out that his story had been chosen. It was amazing; they sent him a consent form (I hope I didn’t violate it by reposting his story here on my blog) that we now consider his first “contract.” It was very exciting but not as exciting as their adaptation of his story that you can listen to here.

Needless to say, we are so impressed with the way they handled Emery’s story—we laughed so hard and still quote lines like, (He, he, he) and “Probably not” and “no way, that’s too expensive, bub.”

The Story Pirates are currently creating podcasts of their favorite stories and including interviews with the authors (I love that they admit that they like “twisted” stories and weren’t put off by Emery’s outlandishness). Emery's is awesome. You can check out their website or subscribe to them through itunes.

Emery’s comment: i was really hoping she would say more about our first day in New York or my comic books but this is motive enough.

VICTOR: I hate to say it, but I’m the same as Emery. Really, really motivated when it’s something I want to write.  Phone it in when it’s something that gets in the way of watching football … like this blog post.

Day 2 in New York

Our view from the Sheraton Hotel-Times Square
The front desk staff were marvelous

So, last weekend we spent two days in New York: one at New York Comic Con, the second doing what I love to do in New York—museums and performances. As a doctorprofessor mom, you can imagine that I wasn’t leaving New York without doing something educational, but on a Sunday, our choices were limited.

The Museum of Modern Art (MOMA) is my favorite museum. When I lived in New York, I used to go on Fridays and I loved attending the films they would show. When I heard that they were having a Magritte exhibit during the time we were going to New York, I knew I had to go and, of course, take Emery. Since this was my first time taking Emery to MOMA, I looked to see what educational programs they offered. The answer is, they have wonderful opportunities. We attended a free (yep, that’s right, we didn’t have to pay, but there were only a number of spaces) tour of the sound exhibit where we learned the ways sound becomes art. We drew, we danced, we discussed.

After a lunch from a local deli, we changed for our afternoon entertainment, a play. We saw Peter and the Starcatcher. It seems hard to avoid movies and plays that are based on children’s books these days, and it’s hard for me not to make comparisons. Peter and the Starcatcher is the story of Peter Pan before he becomes Peter Pan. I hadn’t realized that I had read the book until after the play started and I experienced a strong feeling of déjà vu. This adaptation was lovely and the cast was amazing. In fact, they were more than amazing. They used props, like a rope, in really inventive ways, and each actor played multiple characters. These are true professionals. It’s a week later and Emery and I are still laughing and making references to Norse code and “Oh my God.” (It’s nice to have inside jokes with Emery that Victor can’t catch—he was still at the convention).

The play was followed by dinner, which was adequate—I wish we had found a place a little less touristy. And, then we left very, very early the next morning to go home. 

DoctorProfessorMom Goes to New York Comic Con

A sand castle sculpture of the castle in the Nintendo Game, Zelda: Wind Waker
I think that's a security guard behind it. 

Wow, what a day. I’ve seen a Quidditch Match hosted by the NYC league, a sneak preview of an origin story for a character in the Legend of Korra, walked in an impromptu zombie parade (by accident), skipped ahead in line, played a preview level of Super Mario Bros 3D World, walked to the Nintendo store to buy Pokemon Y (to avoid the hour-long line in the exhibit room) and sat through a panel on zombie animals comics to be first in line for a panel on Nintendo communities.

I’ll probably come back and report a bit more of the details, but right now, I’m too exhausted.

Emery’s comments—I’m too exhausted to even comment. 

Thoughts on Developmentally Appropriate

An example of an extremely appropriate, hilarious play we recently saw, Jason and the Argonauts performed by the Visible Fictions group from Glascow, Scotland. 

I’ve been thinking about what’s developmentally appropriate a lot lately as Emery’s straddling the end of his elementary school career and beginning his middle school one. For example, I’m quite sure he’s the only one in his class who hasn’t read the Hunger Games trilogy (which I struggle with because my parents never censored my reading). But we’re about to publish an article on the book series in The ALAN Review, and I’m glad we decided to wait on his reading the books or seeing the movies.

The question of appropriateness came up again in regards to our upcoming trip to New York. I would very much like to see the revival of Pippin, but after reading several blogs and reviews on the play (one even titled Mathilda or Pippin?), I decided (well, Victor decided) we would go and see Peter and the Starcatchers instead.

One place where my husband and I disagree on levels of appropriateness is in regards to movies. Emery has seen the Lord of the Rings trilogy multiple times since he was 7. He started watching Spongebob when he was 2.  And Victor thinks he’s ready for Les Mis (I’m not ready for him to be).

I was recently asked what my thoughts were about the ways the common core state standards were being phased into the curriculum at various schools—were these curricula developmentally appropriate? I honestly think that depends on the student. Emery went to a biomedical workshop today and learned about cloning and growing new organs from stem cells—topics with huge ethical considerations that I feel were probably not discussed by the facilitators. (Or might have been, I didn’t ask). 

The truth is, there are students in Emery’s class who are ready to think about Collins’ depiction of a futuristic society, who can understand and appreciate sarcasm (I’m a big believer in the stages of humor development), and can laugh at a good fart joke.

It’s just getting harder to make decisions, especially when he could be exposed to something I don’t find developmentally appropriate for him at this time.

Victor’s Comment

The question is how long do we shelter him when it's obvious other children are moving "forward.'  A couple I know and respect have shown their kids (more or less Emery's age) Les Mis and they really seemed to enjoy the music.

Emery's comment: So in the end since she doesn't know what to do so she does everything.