Haunted Mansion

Liam is now helping Crispin set up a haunted mansion set.

Ghosts by Crispin

More Liam parks

By Liam

Part Mexican Day of the Dead, part fairy tale.

Battle Game by Crispin

Rocket Car by Crispin

Ghost Targets by Crispin

A game from his amusement park.

A Theme Park created by Liam

He had a beautiful story of each ride he intoned to himself as he composed this.

Creating Amusement Parks

As we honor beloved Grandpop by living life to the fullest, the boys become more and more comfortable swimming, splashing, putting their heads in water, and giving me an intensely delightful or delightfully intense workout.

To unwind from these aquatic athletics, they've been drawing a great many pictures of rides they are creating for their own amusement parks.

Desserts on a surfboard

Key Lime and Mud Pie at the Sand Bar.

Crab Soup and a burger

The boys and I ate dinner at Hiram's, at a table I've sat at with Grandpop a few times.  Here Liam hams it up for the camera with his big bowl of crab soup.

Liam ordered a hamburger for dinner, something Grandpop has been ordering at Hiram's often or exclusively during times I've dined with him there.

As I boxed Liam's burger, which he hardly put a dent in, I had and am having a sweet memory of the almost inevitable moment during which Grandpop slides his burger, which he has hardly put a dent in, authoritatively onto my plate.  Good thing I like leftover burgers for breakfast, which I do.

Sleepy in Charlotte

Arresting the big red dog

Crispin and Henry have arrested Clifford.

FBI Crispin

Crispin received this shirt from Grandpa Bob.  He then put together this police dog costume for Henry.

Crispin the Flower

Liam and Crispin have been deliciously helpful this week as we have spruced up the deck at my apartment.  Here Crispin enjoys being a flower at Bayview Farm and Garden.

Crispin and Dickens and Memory

Crispin has been a trooper at dental appointments for a couple of small cavities, and spent a couple of hours creating a spaceship for a tiny alien with parachute he received as a prize from the dentist:



The door opens, and his alien can go inside. On the lower right is bamboo; before the stick broke, he could move the ship as a puppeteer might.

The boys and I have enjoyed Daniel Pinkwater's novel, The Adventures of the Cat-Whiskered Girl, tremendously, and Crispin spent a good deal of time creating this collage of a haunted castle that is visited by feline spaceships.



Daniel Pinkwater is (was) a regular visitor to NPR's Saturday Weekend Edition to talk children's books with Scott Simon. He was also, I believe, a frequent caller on Car Talk, and Click and Clack created something like a Pinkwater index to indicate whether a certain type of car could accommodate drivers with a wide berth. Although I know of Pinkwater for years, I had not read any of his many children's books until a few months ago. He is a joy to read. He writes books of varying lengths. At present, we are enjoying his longer novels such as Cat Whiskered Girl, the Neddiad, and The Artsy-Smartsy Club. His prose is tasty and vivid, he inserts many overt and covert references to classical literature and makes it cool and fun to love the great books of the past, and like a funny Magical Realist, his plots, with strong inner consistency, get really weird and wonderful really quickly. He is able to bring together aliens, ancient gods who want to destroy the world, ghosts, and the more while maintaining a Dickensian optimism and buoyancy in his books. You know everything will be surprising, and all will be well.

I had the pleasure of listening to A Tale of Two Cities. Although this book is famous, I have read it only once before, 26 years ago or so in 10th grade with Joe Ball (a poet who told me that the nice thing about getting old and reading books was that you didn't have to keep reading a book you didn't like). I can still remember composing folk songs based on the novel and singing "I'm a Tigress when I walk. . ." in my Madame Defarge song. It was a pleasure to observe myself to see how much I remembered (the spilled wine portending blood in the French revolution, Madame Defarge knitting, Sidney Carton's final lines and generous sacrifice) and how much I had forgotten or never really attended to 26 years ago (Dr. Manet's condemnation while in the Bastille; how Madame Defarge was related to the abuses of the aristocracy).

Two Cities is a much shorter novel than Bleak House, David Copperfield, Little Dorritt, Nicholas Nickelby, all of which I've enjoyed these past 18 months. Perhaps because of this, or perhaps Dickens really wanted to intensify the images of revolution of and the guillotine, Two Cities is not peppered with a motley assortment of eccentric and silly characters--people who prove to be both endearing and, through narrative persistence and intuition, essential to the plot some 500 pages or 24 hours of listening later. After Dombey, I plan to listen to the 57 hour Les Miserables; then I'll be able to tell Crispin and Liam what occurs in the 54 hours cut out of the 3 hour blockbuster musical we enjoy so much.

More fireworks photos

More Fireworks photos by Liam

Fireworks as flowers

So many of his drawings remind me of pretty gardens. He and Crispin have helped me appreciate fireworks and their explosive and expansive wonder more than I thought possible.

Liam gives safety warnings

He plans a really large show and wants to make sure onlookers line up with the safety rules.

Liam and Fireworks

Liam has created a number of catalogs of his fireworks.

Crispin at zoo

On the hippo statue

Liam at work

The last post edited him out of the group shot.

Fireworks Creators at Work

Both boys woke up this morning intent to create. They headed straight toward their desks and are drawing pictures of a fancy fireworks show they will create for New Year's Eve. The pictures are pretty and remind me of a garden; I am learning to appreciate the beauty of this long time and sometimes dangerous and annoying yet also possibly sacred tradition.

Addams Family set

We are seeing this musical in the fall.  The boys receive immense pleasure through creating and dancing and acting to the Nathan Lane cast album.

Crispin creates a scary musical

It is called Twilight, no relation to the story set in Forks.  He is pictured with his poster.

Curtain for Les Miserables

As designed by Crispin

Les Miserable picture

Created by Crispin, inspired by Victor Hugo's paintings, as observed in the sets and backdrops for the 25th anniversary Les Miz tour.

Beyond the Barricade

Crispin creates

Waiting for candy

At the parade outside our front door.

With a gorilla

At the parade

Lemonade

At the 4th of July parade

A younger craftsman

Crispin is excited about Liam's project, and about most things.  Liam is teaching him to write a $ sign on his items for sale.

Fireworks for sale

Like his grandmother who made bombs to sell some 55 years ago, Liam is preparing a big box of home made, pretty fireworks to sell on the 4th of July, a day on which Whidbey Island pours into the Maxwelton Beach area for a parade.

As with scary Halloween costumes, the young artist has translated trepidation into desire for exploration and experimentation.