Halloween

Soula and Ben as Tokyo Rose, and Rudolf Nureyev, Respectively.
Below - Arvedt (my friend the German diplomat) as "Stalingrad".... Or was it the 1939 non-aggression pact?

When I was a child, I had very interesting Halloween outfits. One year I was Glinda, the good witch of the north. I had high heels and everything. It was grade 5. I remember walking down the hallway of Montrose elementary saying "one has to suffer to be beautiful." One year, I decided to be a ghost, and of course wore a sheet. My mom decided to up to up the ante and added washing instructions in permanent marker. Get it? Sheet? washing instructions? ( I think she was having a Magritte moment... Ceci n'est pas une phantome or something like that). I didn't either. For about 3 years running, I was a druid. Which reminds me of the time I was in grade seven and I got excited about my school's Spirit Week because I thought it would be a festival about comparative religions, complete with processions, ritual, and incense. How wrong I was. I think that my finest moment in elementary school was when I decided to take the label from the "Wandering Jew" plant and wear it for the day. I would go up to the teachers and say "do you know where I am supposed to go?"... Needless to say I thought it was hilarious. The teachers, not so much.

In other news, I just had a voice lesson. I was working on an aria from The Magic Flute where Prince Tamino sees a picture of a beautiful woman and instantly falls in love... I know. Anyway, here is a classic quote from my teacher, David: "Who are you when you sing this aria? You're a prince. You are not Ben Schnitzer. Those are two different people (but David, can't you see I'm of noble birth?). You have to sing it like a prince. You have to be in control. The conductor is not a prince! Fuck the conductor! If he's worth his salt he'll follow you. You have to sing it like you want to sing it."