Chalk and Cheese Chronicles

A Little Bit Louder Now: Shout! The Mod Musical

The last time I got into that classic song Shout I was wearing a toga and dancing in a basement with boys at a Sigma Nu fraternity party.

Last week, when the cast at the Retro Dome took to the stage in the final closing moments of the first preview performance of Shout! The Mod Musical, I wasn't wearing a toga, or dancing with with boys in a basement. I was sitting nicely in a row next to 8 of my mom friends and we were all tapping our toes.

Revisiting the past feels different the second time around. On one hand, I want to shed the present and jump back to the past. Pass the Corona! Look at how skinny I am! On the other hand, I can't imagine life without my three boys.

Shout! The Mod Musical takes us back to the swingin' '60s which would have been more my mother's era than my own. Nancy Sinatra notwithstanding, I have never been particularly moved by the music of that era. I was never a big Beatles fan <gasp>. So while I didn't relate to much of the music in the show (except, of course, to the knee grinding Shout), it was fun to peek into the imagined lives of women who came of age during Britain's so-called Mod years. I am drawn to the past, perhaps not living enough in the present. I spend a lot of time imagining what it might have been like to have been living in another time and place. I'm a retro loving girl, drawn to vintage bookstores and black and white films but the music of the 60s is a place I've never yearned to go.

So when 8 of my SV Moms writer friends (including Jill, Nicole and Grace) joined me for a Moms' Night Out (MNO) at the Retro Dome, we stepped out of the present and into a day-glow cast of characters which included the Red Girl, the Blue Girl, the Green Girl, the Orange Girl and the Yellow Girl. Each was a stereotype of  a young woman in 1960s Britain. The era of the birth control pill. I don't think I am or would have been any one of those girls, but it was delicious fun to see these girls stare out above the audience at an Oz like advice columnist whose misguided advice sends the girls off to remedy their lives with new pedicures. 

70s/80s Redux at San Jose's Retro Dome

I recently spent a lazy Sunday revisiting the past. There was sugary cereal (Frosted Flakes), a squirmy little boy (my son) and a cast of characters teaching us about nouns, adjectives and how a bill becomes a law. It was 70s/80s redux at San Jose's new Retro Dome and I was beginning to feel the pull of nostalgia.

C'mon," I'd said to my son, who was born in 2004, "let's do some time traveling."

Of course, this piqued his interest immediately and I'm sure he was thinking, "To infinity...and beyond!" but I yanked him back, back to the brown carpeting of my childhood living room, back to the darkened hour of early dawn, back to the bowls of Frosted Flakes and back to every Saturday morning of my youth spent in front of the tv. It was time for School House Rock, live and on stage!

A few year's ago, my nephew had been in a school production of School House Rock and it was adorably performed and I'd enjoyed the songs, but this production was professional and truly brought the School House Rock characters to life. My son had never experienced live musical theater (I was obsessed as a kid) and he'd never been exposed to School House Rock (my bad) and he'd never felt the sizzle of Pop Rocks on his tongue (from the Retro Dome's snack shack -- I said no) and he loved it through and through. There was a lot of audience participation. Our favorite? Interjections!

Doing the Happy Dance in Crocs

Enjoy this little video made by 4-year-old Chalk Boy whose chubby hand can be seen in the first few frames. My boys are wearing their beloved Crocs while the other shoes belong to our good friends from preschool Benny and Andrew, who are brothers. I love the video's perspective! Music by They Might Be Giants.