Happy Birthday to today's birthday twins, bassman extraordinaire Kevin Niemi  and talented puppeteer and playwright Lindsay Harris-Friel !

My friend Robert Bryan manages to get in six hours of writing per day while holding down a full-time job and being a Dad.  Or at least he manages to get it in most days.  I'm impressed.  He seems to have simplified his life to be able to do what really matters, truly living La Vida Quaker.  I admire him for it.

Also, I should mention the result of his labors, Arden House, a unique post-apocalyptic YA book where technology is wiped out and two resourceful teenagers use their wits and skills to survive in a hostile environment.  Archer and I both loved it.

This was going to be a post about how I can carve more writing time out of my day ... but right now I am just trying to get through my days minute by minute.

Enough about me, go read Arden House.  If you are not convinced, read Lindsay Harris-Friel 's review on Amazon.  

Also, Arden House Book 2 is coming out soon.  I will be getting Archer a copy and probably even letting him read it before I borrow it.

Archer's pumpkin looks on in horror as Houser's pumpkin goes "Daddy hamster" on Hunter's pumpkin.  Happy Halloween!

Strike that.  Reverse it.

It is my ambition to introduce Archer to all of the plays and musicals I have loved and some of the ones I have been indifferent to, but see as theatre canon.  Then, of course, there are all of the shows that have come out since I was at the height of my theatre days, and all the shows that will be born in the future.  

Next on our viewing list - Peter Pan at the Players' Club of Swarthmore tonight.  I like the Players' Club.  Archer and I saw Joseph there (I don't need to type out the whole name of the show, do I?) and their production was fantastic.  Their production of The Fantasticks was weak due to the casting of Luisa (she could sing, but she needed to act too), but the rest of the cast was good, and their tech is consistent and doesn't make me want to scream, "Light the FACE, the FACE!!!" like so many local theatres do, even semi-professional ones.  Really, it's not that hard, if the actor is meant to be the focus of the scene, get him or her into the light unless it's Bill Sykes and then create some really nasty shadows on purpose.

Also, I am eager to show him the movie version of Fiddler on the Roof for many reasons, not the least of which is to see if he recognizes Max from The Muppet Movie.  Shhhh.

If you know of a good production in the PhilaDel area (we live in Media), please drop me a recommendation.  

Hunter and I are compiling a playlist.  Last night we added the theme from Superman and the Imperial March.  Sadly, we can't even buy a copy of Ewok Celebration (better known to all of us 80s kids as 'Yub Nub') so we have to watch it on YouTube.  And watch it, and watch it, and watch it ... well at least we found the version with Real Vader's ghost as opposed to ... ok, I was about to rag on Hayden Christiansen's "acting skills" but now I am wondering who sucked worse, him in the prequels or Paul Walker (RIP) in Timeline and if we can make this into a drinking game.  Because if I am going down THAT rabbit hole, I will need many drinks.

The Beeble's latest music obsession: March of the Siamese Children from The King and I.

He calls it "the Prince" because I told him that the Prince comes in when the music gets louder.

I turned it off before the end of the song this morning as we got to daycare and he had a nuclear meltdown.

Showtunes are serious business.

Reading: The Winter King by Bernard Cornwell.  Arthur just came over the hill!  

Wearing: Pyjamas - today is my work from home day.

Planning: To attend the wedding of Baron Von Heller  and the soon-to-be-Baroness Jen.  To attend the wedding reception of the Coldirons who snuck off and got married a couple of months ago.  Also tonight is TACO NIGHT!

Introducing: Leah Lopez, who is a good friend of mine even though we have not yet met in person*.  We were in a writers' circle on Diaryland, then on LJ.  She is an English Professor, a writer (she just had a poem published in Asimov's!), a Mom who homeschools, a knitter, a period piece/fantasy/sci fi geek and she writes great posts, so please go give her some love and make her want to stay here on OPW.

* I met Rabbit  via LJ (or was it Diaryland?), so sometimes people you meet online can end up as your closest real-life friends.

Happy Birthday Brian Blessed!  I remember your warlike bellowing fondly, and today at work makes me want to have an honorary Brian Blessed Primal Screaming Hour ... so Happy Birthday to you and AAAAARRRRGGGHHHHH!

'I Ain't Marchin' Anymore' by Phil Ochs.  Also, 'Santo Domingo', also 'Here's to the State of Mississippi', also 'Outside of a Small Circle of Friends' and so many more.

I am on a Phil Ochs kick because he was very passionate about human lives, about freedom, about not only his right to speak out, but our responsibility to speak out and beyond that, to act.  Where are the Phils of today?  The last one I remember was Bono, and that was a long time ago.

Throwback Friday ... me and 5th grader Archer Castle reading The Yarn of The Nancy Bell by W. S. Gilbert.