Dolls and the Perfect Fall

Began the morning with breakfast and Daniel Tiger's Neighborhood. Daniel and his friends are excited about "The Neighborhood Fall Festival," especially the decorations around Music Man Stan's store. When the wind knocks them down, they try to put them up the way Stan did, but find it difficult. Mrs. Tiger finally tells them to do their best. Likewise, Daniel does his best to jump leaves and kick a soccer ball through two pumpkins during a "Field Day at School." 

Spent the rest of the morning and early afternoon dressing the dolls for fall and the cooler weather we're having now. Samantha wears her blue windowpane check Play Dress with the white pinafore and black and white boots. Jessa and Molly are also ready to play after school, Jessa in the original 1995 Mix and Match Meet Outfit, Molly in her red hula costume sweater, khakis, and the collar from her meet outfit. Felicity's original "meet" outfit with the orange and red rose print is perfect for fall. Kit's also in her original meet outfit, the lavender floral skirt and twin-set sweater and cardigan. 

Ariel and Barbara Jean get Our Generation Retro outfits. Ariel goes for the 70's schoolgirl look in a white satin blouse with a pink necktie, salmon knit vest, and brown plaid skirt. Barbara Jean is pure mid-late 60's in a chevron-print mini dress with a white top and huge orange collar and cuffs. Josefina is in her blue, yellow, and red print BeForever "meet" skirt and camisa. Whitney's outfit is a hand-made purple floral dress with black lace I found at the Barrington Antique Center about three or four years ago.

Listened to solo albums from two very different Broadway divas as I worked. Take Me to the World presents Sutton Foster in a slightly quieter mode than usual for her, maybe because she'd given birth during the recording of this album. That accounts for her lovely version of "A Quiet Thing" from Flora the Red Menace paired with "Hush Little Baby." The title song is from the odd Stephen Sondheim TV musical Evening Primrose; it's paired with the title song of the Maltby-Shire revue "Starting Here, Starting Now." There's a lot of Cole Porter here, too, including "Give Him the Ooh-La-La" from DuBarry Was a Lady, "C'est Magnifique" from Can-Can, and a chorus "Every Time We Say Goodbye" from Seven Lively Arts. She even gets off Broadway with two similar Paul Simon songs, "Old Friends" and "Bookends."

Julie Andrews dove into the music of a different Broadway composer in the early 90's. The Music of Richard Rodgers is mostly split between his work with Lorenz Hart and his work with Oscar Hammerstein. We do get one solo song, "Nobody Told Me" from No Strings, and his one attempt to work with Stephen Sondheim, the title song of "Do I Hear a Waltz?" That's part of a medley with other waltzes like "The Carousel Waltz," "It's a Grand Night for Singing" from State Fair, "A Wonderful Guy" from South Pacific, and "Out of My Dreams" and "Oh What a Beautiful Mornin'" from Oklahoma. Hart is represented by "It Never Entered My Mind" from Higher and Higher and the title song of Spring Is Here, "Bewitched, Bothered, and Bewildered" from Pal Joey, "I Wish I Were In Love Again," "Where Or When," and "My Funny Valentine" from Babes In Arms, and "This Can't Be Love" from The Boys from Syracuse and "Thou Swell" from A Connecticut Yankee. 

Switched to the Oklahoma! 1998 London cast album while eating a quick lunch. This was one of the first attempts to go in for a grittier tone with this show. Hugh Jackman won raves as Curly, the cowboy courting a slightly tougher Laurey (Josefina Gabrielle). Their "People Will Say We're In Love" is especially charming. Maureen Lipman had too much fun as Aunt Eller, while Shuley Hensley really tears into "Lonely Room." (It's even more fun if you can dig up the recording of the full show, which I think is pretty easily found online.)

Didn't even finish the CD before I hurried out to the Thomas Sharp School. We started out in pretty much the same way, with the kids in the hall due to the music class running over. All 20 kids went straight into snack time when we made it into the cafeteria. Once again, they played with magnetic tiles and drew for a little while, but we got them outside by quarter of 4. 

And once again, it was too nice for anyone to be inside for long! The weather was even nicer, a little cooler but still breezy, with the gold and blue haze the best fall days seem to have. There was some squabbling over the swings. Kids want to swing with their friends, or they want to get on the swings before they leave, but the kids already on there won't move. At the very least, once again, most of the kids who wanted a ride got one, and most got two or three before we went back inside around 5 PM. I had just enough time to see them start to work on threading beaded necklaces and bracelets before I headed out.

Took out the trash, then had dinner while watching Match Game '77. The Friday episode may have been one of the most important of the entire series. The contestant answered "school" to where Dumb Dora takes her cultured pearls to. Judge and producer Ira Skutch passed Brett and Ed's "college," but Charles had to beg for "scuba diving school," and Debralee and Richard's "finishing school" and Patti's "night school" were flat-out buzzed. Gene tried to keep order, but Debralee and Richard protested loudly and the contestant got the audience riled. Charles and Brett tried to calm things down by having Charles appear as "the first victim of the school riot" on Gene's entrance stairs, but the damage was done. The lower tier kept its answers up in protest for the remainder of the episode.

Finished the night at Tubi with Hawk the Slayer. Hawk (John Terry) is a warrior who is called on by Ranulf (W. Morgan Sheppard) to rescue a local abbess (Annette Crosbie) from the evil Voltan (Jack Palance). That Voltan is Hawk's brother who killed his wife (Catronia MacColl) in a fit of jealousy is probably one of the least-cheesy things about this movie. Hawk calls on three friends, a fight-loving giant (Bernard Bresslaw), a serious-minded elf (Ray Charleston), and a comic dwarf (Peter O'Farrell), then does nothing with them. Palance and Crosbie are more interesting as the scenery-chewing villain and the hopeful nun who truly believes the heavens are with her. Though this was a hit in England and eventually did well on cable in the US when it finally made it over here (the production company went bankrupt as they were making the movie), it's extreme 80's cheese of most overripe sort. If you're a fan of 80's action or medieval fantasy, it's worth checking out once for some decent scenery-chewing.