Corrections . . . or Nobody's A Nobody

2018 is barely started and, just as New Year's Resolutions are a form of corrections, I'm finding a pair of corrections needed on my blog, yet each of them got me singing.

David Quesal said it's not a biggie that last week I called Truggs "Trugg" even in my article's title.  I can see why he feels that way when you consider how many puppets are part of the Quesal Puppet Troupe after their tenth anniversary last September.  I disagree with David a bit after hearing this great video cover by Truggs and all his puppet friends performing the song "Nobody's a Nobody" with the various members of his puppet troupe.  Love the lyrics of "Nobody's a nobody and everybody is weird like you and me and everybody is weird like you and me!"  I am impressed with how many videos you can find of this wacky puppet vision.  For many more go to the David Quesal channel on YouTube.  There is also a secondary channel.

 

But I did say this was CorrectionS.  I'm already preparing to bring back my One-Room School teacher program and found a correction needed from a much older post.  In all fairness, I never used the part missing so far.  I took it from online posts of the song about the presidents as sung to Yankee Doodle.  Since the next time I will be doing the program, I'm going further into the 20th century, I began to realize President McKinley had been skipped!  Here's the song from August 10, 2014! with my addition of the 25th president -- what a difference one line (and life) makes.  Because I also gave links and talk about the original source I'm including a bit more than just the song between the asterisks.
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I'm going to insert Wikipedia links for easy access to basic information on each president.  Wherever those links don't explain a historical reference I'll either add that parenthetically or as a link.

George Washington, the choice of all,

By Adams was succeeded.

Then came Thomas Jefferson

Who bought the land we needed.

Madison was called upon

To keep our noble men.     (I presume this is about England impressing U.S. sailors)

And James Monroe ushered in

The Era of Good Feelings.

John Quincy Adams was the next

And then came Andrew Jackson

And after him Van Buren came

And the Panic's wild distraction.

Then Harrison for one month ruled,  (death by pneumonia introduces "The Curse")

And Tyler came in order,

And Polk and War with Mexico,

About a little border.

Then General Taylor was the choice,

But after one year only

Death called the hero to his rest

And left the chair to Fillmore.

Then Pierce and James Buchanan came

And the War closed thickly lower.

And Lincoln was the chosen one,

The statesman for the hour.

Then after Lincoln’s martyrdom,

Johnson of Tennessee.

And Grant a war time here

The Silent Man was he.     (? His throat cancer came after the presidency)

Then R.B. Hayes was counted in, then

Garfield, second martyr,

Whose term was ended peaceably by

Chester Alan Arthur.

Next Cleveland came and Harrison, (grandson of first President Harrison)

Then Cleveland came once more.

McKinley wore a martyr's crown before his term was over,

Then Roosevelt came to serve the state,

The people called him Teddy.

Then William Howard Taft came on,

For duty ever ready.

Then Woodrow Wilson came to fill the

Loftiest of stations.

He steered the Ship of State throughout

The World War of the Nations.

Next Harding ruled a few short months, (half of his term)

And Coolidge then succeeded.

Hoover served his country well

Wherever he is needed.
The text for this song was found in an excellent PioneerSchool Teacher Guide put together for the Fort Worth Log Cabin Village) with the assistance of Heritage Village School, Lincoln Nebraska, Diane Winans, Eagle Mountain Elementary, Shelly Couch, Saginaw Elementary, and the Log Cabin Village Staff.

This song goes to the early 1930s as views of Hoover and the Depression probably would change the final two lines.  It's an interesting challenge to update the song, throwing in an occasional memorable fact which also helps the rhyme.  World War I might need rewording to allow for World War II.  There's certainly more a teacher might want to cover on presidents than the few comments of the song, but it does help make history and presidential names more memorable than mere name recital to Yankee Doodle.  

Music was certainly more than just a memory aid.

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While we're thinking about the one-room school teacher, here's me on YouTube telling a few stories from the program as used in the current 2015-18 Michigan Humanities Touring Directory.  (If you want to find my listing, go to page 52 -- shared with a listing for Gwendolyn Lewis.)  The current round of grants are again open at Michigan Humanities Council .  If you happen to see this at a time when grants are closed, check back as there are repeated rounds throughout the year and is a great way for non-profits to afford my program and many other fine Michigan performers.

Trugg says 2018 is here!

We're solidly into the New Year, but Saturday, January 6 is the 12th Day of Christmas or Epiphany.  My puppeteer colleague, David Quesal, and his "monster", Trugg, send this message.

This is Trugg

For some enjoyable videos of David and his Puppet Troupe, check out his YouTube videos.  I especially loved his fairy tale mash-up, A Fairy Tale of Errors, and gladly would recommend it to groups looking at ways to creatively use several folk tales to create a new story.  Just as with "Fractured Fairy Tales" it's important to know the original.  In this case it could be considered a look at what might happen after the tale ends or "and they all lived happily ever after...NOT!"  Whether intended or not, David follows the same sort of "down the garden path" in the musical "Into the Woods." 

I'm looking at a rapidly filling "dance card" of commitments, including a local residency with an adult special education class creating a puppet show and video version of Snow White.  Since the aim of the production is performance for preschool classes, it will be interesting to see how the group chooses to balance the original story's repeated efforts by the queen to kill Snow White and also its ending with a rather gruesome execution of her with Bruno Bettelheim's view of the necessity to recognize such evil exists and the need to show justice when it is punished.  Just as with this past year's Young Writers program, it will be in the hands of the students and they create their version of the story.  The fact that those young writers only created as much as they could handle was part of the solution with another grisly Grimm tale.  That Bettelheim label takes you to, among other posts, my earlier consideration of how to approach it. 

Interestingly enough two Caldecott award Honor books each chose to include the traditional ending. You may choose to look for yourself at the 1938 book by author/illustrator, Wanda Ga'g, known for her accurate translations of Grimm.  Wikipedia offers a very brief article saying she was approached to do a version more faithful to the original after the success of the 1937 Disney film.  The book's critical reception focused on the visual  way Ga'g handled it, but that is precisely the focus for Caldecott awards as long as the book is considered worthy.  Also worth noting, prior to 1971 an Honor book was called a "runner-up", with all previous books in that category changed to the new term. 

If you dismiss that book as coming from an earlier time, look at the 1972 version translated by poet and author, Randall Jarrell , who also translated a few other Grimm tales.  It, too, retains those same elements possibly considered too mature or troublesome.  This version won the Caldecott Honor award for illustrator, Nancy Ekholm Burkert.  While Caldecott awards require a text of merit, the award goes to the illustrator (although it never hurts the book's sales for its status).  This is her most celebrated work, but she has won more recently the Boston Globe-Horn Book award for Valentine and Orson and was recognized by the Wisconsin Library Association as a Wisconsin Notable Author.  She will be 95 in mid-February, so this will probably remain her best known work although not all she illustrated.  It's worth prowling reviews, even the positive ones, to notice how some view the ages able to handle the queen and also her ending.


Over all of this lurks the 1937 Disney version.  No less than the Library of Congress cites its value as "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant" when placing it into the National Film Registry and it's among the American Film Institute's 100 greatest American films, going even further by naming it the greatest American animated film of all time (2008).  Whether we like Disneyfication of literature or not, it is a fact that this first feature length film by the Disney Studios has influenced how the story is viewed.  The dwarfs are not named nor all given personalities in the original tale.  Their comic value is important to the film's tone although a lot of the suggested gags, while developing the movie, were dropped.  Disney even paid $5 per suggested gag in that early stage.  Reading the previously mentioned Wikipedia article shows the same type of planning the students will need to consider.  They will be seeing the film.  Much as I personally love the movie's songs, we'll not be tempted to use them because of copyright royalties.  The movie was a critical and long-time economic success.  Beyond that, I think the Library of Congress is correct in considering it of significant value to our culture.  Growing up with Little Golden books, here's their children's book using the film version.

I think it's safe to say that almost every American grew up with this version of the story and a great many haven't a clue that the original story is so dark.  Now the trick is to gauge how much of the original is appropriate to a preschooler or, possibly more importantly, a preschooler's parent...remember those review comments mentioned in the Jarrell/Burkert edition.

We should have our script ready by National Tell a Fairy Tale Day and working on puppet, scenery, and prop creation.  This year's NTaFT day falls on a Monday, since February 26 is the celebration date.  Mondays are when this group will work on their production.  I hope they also choose to celebrate Fairy Tales and grow from this project.