SOUNDTRACK: RHEOSTATICS-Centennial Secondary School, Toronto, ON, (November 30, 2000).
Yes, the Rheostatics played a show at a high school. What I love about this show is that the Centennial Secondary School’s band plays along with them.
Why? because the School band had recorded a version of The Story of Harmelodia and the Rheos came to play with them. It is amazing what a few extra instruments (and voices) can do to a song. This show is utterly unique in the Rheos’ live catalog. And that is apparent right during the first song, “Saskatchewan,” when the school choir joins in on the “Home Caroline Home” refrain–it sounds amazing!
The next surprise comes during the next song, when the school’s horn section plays the riff of “Soul Glue” (and there’s a sax solo too). The surprises get bigger when they play “Rain Rain Rain” and the band plays the opening drum/handclap melody (that’s never really done live). They play “Claire” which gets a great treatment from the choir. This is the first song where I wish the choir was louder–perhaps Tim is too loud on the song? I wish you could hear the kids doing the “Ba Ba”s more. Although overall the volume of the band and the choir is just right.
The final huge surprise comes when they play “Shaved Head” and there is flute accompaniment–it sounds tremendous, bringing a totally different feel to the song.
From that point on, they play a bunch of Harmelodia songs. And they let the school band really shine–there’s guitar solos from the kids, there’s vocals from Tim Crawford on “Monkeybird” (and he holds a note for 25 seconds!). Lauren Moorehouse sings lead on “Loving Arms,” and Janine Plott (I don’t know how to spell any of these kids’ names, sorry guys), sings on “Home Again.”
There’s a fun addition of accordion on “What’s Going On?” and more flute on “Take Me in Your Hand.” The final song, “Legal Age Life,” brings back all the kids for various solos–guitar, sax and the like. It’s a super fun night.
The more I thought about this the more emotional I got about it. How cool to have a high school band do a version of your record. how cool to then be the band that shows up to play with these kids. And imagine if you were in the school band and really liked the Rheostatics ahead of time, and here they are playing with you. What a cool night.
[READ: March 11, 2015] El Deafo
Sarah brought this home and then Clark read it and now I read it (Tabby, who is reading like a fiend will likely read it next year). And we all really enjoyed it.
It is the true(ish) story of Cece Bell who is El Deafo! Okay, she is actually a woman who lost the majority of he hearing at age 4 (circa 1976) from spinal meningitis (which is really scary).
She could hear sounds (if they were loud enough) but couldn’t really understand words. The doctors outfitted her with a box with cords (that fit into her ears) and after adjusting the knobs, she is able to hear. Which is pretty awesome (but she is very self-conscious about those cords).
And indeed being self-conscious is one of the main themes of the book. I assume that anyone wearing this strange contraption would feel awkward and ungainly (especially in the mid 1970s). But Cece was extremely anxious about it. She believed that everyone was staring at her. And they probably were, although more out of curiosity than malice, I’d imagine.
That upcoming school year, Cece is sent to a school for the hearing impaired where she is with lots of other kids with the same difficulties. She learns a bit of lip reading (and gives us very helpful explanations about what makes it easier (or harder) to lip read). You must see their faces, although exaggerated lip moments are confusing. Shouting is not good and neither are mustaches.
And then Cece and her family move to a new town–a small town where they don’t have a school for the deaf. But when she starts school, the doctors give her the Phonic Ear. It is a remote speaker. The teacher wears the microphone around her neck and then Cece can hear perfectly clearly. Much amusement occurs when the teacher forgets she is wearing it and then leaves the room. Cece is able to eavesdrop on her in the teacher’s lounge and even in the bathroom. It makes Cece feel like she has superpowers.
And yet despite this, she is still very self-conscious of her disability and doesn’t tell anyone about it.
She still manages to make some friends. First is Laura, who is very bossy. She doesn’t mind Cece’s cords, but she still pushes her around too much. But they also join Girl Scouts together, which is a pretty good thing.
Soon enough, she makes another new friend, Ginny, a new girl to the school. They becomes friendly although Ginny talks very slowly and deliberately and treats her kind of “special” always referring to Cece as her “deaf friend.” Cece loves the friendship but hates the treatment and is afraid to ay anything.
It takes a third grader (Martha, a girl a whole year younger) to become her good friend–they are totally in synch and have a great time. Until Cece is injured while they are playing and Martha feels that she has really hurt her and hides for far too long.
TV was very special to Cece even if she couldn’t always understand what was happening (especially with cartoons). But it was while watching an afterschool special with her siblings that she heard someone refer to a deaf girl as El Deafo, and that is how she embraced the super hero name.
Eventually her mother signs her up for a sign language lass, which she is utterly resistant to. She know many people who try to talk to her with signs and she hates it-she knows that people will stare at her if she uses sign language. But her mom is very supportive and even learns a lot of words.
The drama occurs when a new family moves to their street and Cece gets a crush on the new boy, Mike. So many things could have gone wrong with Mike–he could have been a jerk, he could have been mean to her, but he is mostly a good guy. He’s the first person that Cece tells about her devices. He even takes it for a spin, walking very far away to see what her range is. Of course, he also tries to use this device to his and the rest of the class’ advantage when the teacher leaves the room. But this scene did not go as badly as I anticipated. In fact, it proves to make Cece more popular–people are fascinated not only by her device but her.
This was a very satisfying story. There are some moments of sadness (the pencil!) but it is a largely uplifting story, which I was quite happy for.
I also love Bell’s drawing style. It is simple and a little cartoony (everyone is rabbits, you see), and she conveys so much (especially excitement and fear) with her simple characters. This was such a charming story, and I was surprised at how much I learned from it as well. The afterword talks a bit about Deaf Culture and how different deaf people treat their deafness in different ways.
It’s a really good book.
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