This morning I performed at Eliot Elementary School in Tulsa. Lisa and Evalyn came with me. We had to get up at 5:00 am, which was tough for us. (Our schedule's been a bit lax lately.) It looked like I might be heading out alone for a moment. But Lisa made it out of bed, and I'm very glad she did, as you'll see. Evalyn checked out the window and saw that it was still dark. This made her quite grumpy. She doesn't believe she should be awake if the sun isn't up. But we made it out the door!
The librarian at Eliot, Donna Thompson, had done a fantastic job of prepping the kids for the show. They had been listening to all three CDs and knew my music very well. So when I introduced "Take Me to Your Library" I got a big cheer, and the kids sang along right away. It's a bit surreal to hear a crowd of 300 or so people all singing "Ackbo eckto..." etc. in unison!
After that I took audience requests for a while. The kids were great - they began shouting out song titles, but it never got unruly. In fact most times they were all shouting the same title, which again is a bit surreal! So we did "The Kid Who Ate a Bug," "The Brainiacs," "My Toilet and I" and "Lisa Lee Elizabeth."
Then I asserted my right to sing something they hadn't heard yet, from the upcoming CD. We did "You're a Dinosaur" and once they settled back down, we did "Trick or Treat, Smell My Feet."
After the show we headed to the library where a table was set up for me for CD and cassette sales and signing. Again I owe Donna Thompson a debt of gratitude. She had sent order forms home with the kids ahead of time and they all came prepared to purchase! Which is also why it's a good thing Lisa was there to help. We were pretty swamped for a while and Lisa kept things moving smoothly. She also went out to the car for more when we ran out of Jungle Junk CDs.
Of course most of the sales money gets put back into the creation of the next CD - more on how that's going soon!
Before heading home, we met our friend Myky for lunch and then visited Little Bear at her apartment. Little Bear is a dog, and as you might guess he's not so little. He's about Evalyn's size and he knocked her down more than once in his enthusiasm. Evalyn loved it - she laughed and laughed. On the way home, she konked out in the car. And when we got home, mom and dad konked out too!
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I was at your show at Eliot. My favorite song you did was Trick or Treat, Smell My Feet. It was really funny. I can remember what the troll said: "trick or treat, smell my feet, give me something good to eat, if you don't I won't be sad, I'll just make you wish you had!"
ReplyDeleteI like your music so much that I got my Dad to put one of your CDs on his new IPOD so that we can listen to it anytime I want.
Thanks for posting your comment! This is the first time anyone told me my music is on an iPod - cool! I'm glad you like "Trick or Treat, Smell My Feet." It will be on my new CD, so stay tuned...
ReplyDeleteWhat does "Ackbo eckto" mean?
ReplyDeleteYou are asking about a line in my song, "Take Me to Your Library." It's part of what the alien says. "Akbo ekto ptht neeky wokky" means, "Hi, My name is Bob." The alien grammar is different from English, so the words are mixed up a bit. "Akbo ekto" is a greeting. The word "ptht" is my way of trying to spell that sound you can make by sticking your tongue out and blowing, otherwise known as a raspberry. It's a human approximation of the alien word, which is a common proper name, translated as "Bob." "Neeky wokky" means "my name is."
ReplyDeleteFor a less detailed translation of the rest of the alien's greeting, I will refer you to my website where you can look up the lyrics of the song.