"With a great deal of funkiness"

When I was a little girl, my sister and friends and I loved to put on shows. We once spent an entire summer creating, planning and rehearsing a show and actually performed it at a party at my mom's house. We called our group "The Funky Junkies." We thought "junkies" were people who lived in junky places and our parents let us keep the name, in lieu of telling us what a junkie actually was.

As for "funky," hey, it was the 70's. The 70's were a funky time. One of our numbers was "Do what you want to do" by T-Connection. That is a seriously funky song. We also did an Elvis song (Teddy), Greased Lightning from Grease and a whole bunch of Free to Be You and Me. I actually still have a program. Here is my "autograph":

Was I outrageously funky, or what?!?!?

When I had infant daughters and thought ahead to what adventures they would enjoy as they grew up, "putting on shows" was one of the things I was most excited about. I knew that my girls would be creative and talented and entertaining, just like I thought I was.

I was wrong.

That may seem harsh, but today I reviewed a video of their show "Thumbelina." "Thumbelina" has a cast of four: Brooks, Madison, Abigail and Ember. Abigail and Ember (and their mom, Michelle) are our best friends. Thumbelina is difficult to watch. For one thing, there are, as far as I can tell, two directors of this show - Brooks and Abigail. Unfortunately, the directors are also principal cast members, so they do their directing during the show, from center stage. Also, there was no rehearsal, nor even vague agreement as to how the show would go. Watching Thumbelina feels a little bit like torture.

I have editted the video (you're welcome) to just the "directing" scenes because I love you (six people who read this blog). You'll need sound for this, though there is some physical direction given, too. And you might hear the moms chime in (or freak out) as well.

Hey! Freak out - another funky 70's song.

CLICK HERE to watch Thumbelina Directors' Edit.