Jan 24 2008
Zeke’s Musical Theater
Having spent two years in Hawaii and two years in Australia, my children have been informing me that we are well and truly behind in keeping up with American fads. Quite a bit is based on tv programs and movies they have not watched. They have been asking to watch one of the latest shows that I haven’t gotten around to previewing. In my defense, I declared that I let them watch Keenen and Kel. Josiah then informed me, “Mom, that’s from the 90’s!” Oh those 90’s, now so out of date. I decided to further defend myself with the declaration that there must be some kid in Josiah’s class whose parents don’t let him watch all this stuff. He replied, “Ya, I’m him.” Somehow, I’ve become the most conservative parent. So, in an attempt to catch up with the culture, we watched high school musical I & II. Zeke found these shows most interesting. Zeke watched Christmas Cantatas at church throughout the month of December and occasionally joined in uninvited with the singing. On Christmas Eve his encore version of a woman’s solo sent his cousins into fits of giggles. Over the last month and a half, he would periodically find the piano book with “Go Tell it on the Mountain” in it and hold it up, stand straight and bellow the song forth. He even sang it to the preschool principal when he went in for his evaluation. When Gabe told him that Christmas and the time for singing “Go Tell it on the Mountain” was over, he got his Oh My Oh MY Oh Dinosaurs book, opened up to the page where the dinosaurs are singing and burst forth with “Our God is an Awesome God”. At church, when the worship team finishes a song he likes, he will declare “That was a good one!” loud enough for everyone in the church to hear. Last summer, he filled our days singing show tunes he had learned watching the Muppets. Well, high school musical fascinated him. A world where people periodically break out in song and dance seemed wonderful to him. At one point in the show, the sad breakup duet was sung and Zeke was especially moved by this song. He got up off the couch, walked into the kitchen, stood in front of the pantry and looked at the giant box of goldfish crackers. He then began his own sad song which had a mournful tune and lines such as “My goldfish ran away down my shirt.”
*** Update 28 Jan 07 ***
For your listening pleasure, here is Zeke singing a medley of old favorites:
That boy needs a good dose of Silly Songs with Larry. “Oh where is my hairbrush?”
Margaret Manry
I am furious, I know for an absolute fact that you had Foxtel here in Oz, and surprise surprise it had Disney channel.
We saw high school musical one and two as they were released.
So…….
Do not blame Australia for being behind American fads, blame the fact that Oz is so great that you did not spend all your time in front of the idiot box.
I admit that it is not Australia’s fault that I am behind the curve on the latest fad. I have been antifad for many years. I spent my Foxtel time watching Grand Designs from Britain. I dearly miss that show. My favorite show now is the Dog Whisperer. I find it highly entertaining. There is a writer’s strike in America which everyone is lamenting. I haven’t watched a network show in years, so it hasn’t effected me at all. Actually, since the primary tv watcher is watching Armed Forces Network in Iraq, I go for days without watching tv. Now that the American Football season is almost over, my tv watching will probably decline even more. I’d rather read the paper or a book. If only book reading would become the latest fad, my kids would be cutting edge.
Grand designs is great, I have to tape it to watch though, because they put it on right at dinner time (we don’t have foxtel).
Books are awesome, I haven’t been able to pass that fad to Stef, but you can’t get Lisa out of one.
I added a sound clip of Zeke playing piano and singing at the end of Mugs’ post.
sweet Zeke
he has a manry flare for singing…
and he really belts it out.
AS for being out of date or overly conservative
GO MUGS
Very cute!
I found Zeke’s singing much more entertaining than what I SHOULD be doing, which is an exam in Hermeneutics. Go Zeke!
P.S. I really hate shoulds!