Today I Learned How To Build A Better Dog House
An important part of our library's summer reading programming is our special events lineup. The first special event of our summer season was the very awesome Jugglemania performance, and I have to admit, I was worried how the rest of the scheduled programs would stack up to the greatness that was Rhys Thomas.
This week's offering was titled "Build A Better Dog House with Eric Ode" (Important pronunciation note: It is pronounced Oh-dee). Honestly though, I didn't even know what that meant. Was the current dog house constructed with asbestos or recalled drywall? Was the dog ashamed of his current digs and took out a home equity loan so he could upgrade his hound hole to keep up with the Bones's? I was sort of at a loss.
Mr Ode arrived at the library with a great amount of punctuality and courtesy. We escorted him down the neighboring community center where we hold our programs that require more space than we have to offer at our smallish library building. By the time I got back with the camera to document his performance it was time to begin.
My gaze was immediately captured by this largish cardboard box that was labeled as the TTT 3000. As I knew Eric was a singer and songwriter the sound equipment and guitar weren't surprising, but the whiteboard and 1950's sci-fi sounding moniker that was adorning the large cardboard box was most intriguing. After he opened his act with a fun little song I was really amused when a large blue puppet dog named Ben emerged from the TTT 3000 and began to tell us his tale.
Apparently Ben procurred the TTT 3000 (sorry I am repeating it so much, it is just so much fun to say in my mind as I type it!), from Craig's List for $11.75 and the 3 T's stood for: Tele-Traveling Transporter. Ben explained how the machine worked to a slightly and very convincingly befuddled-looking Eric. Ben wanted to improve his current doghouse so more friends would want to come over, so he had Eric send him to London and Seattle for inspiration.
The next hour was filled with fun, interactive kids songs that had the children moving around, dancing, and engaging with Eric in rapturous glee. He has such an easy going manner, and his program was really engaging for all who behold it. There were cultural references, counting and echoing song interactions, and after a couple of songs he would fire up the TTT 3000 and send Ben to another world destination for better doghouse ideas. I got pretty excited when I heard Ben's voice through the speaker as it meant the little cardboard box LED lights were going to be lighting up again and Ben would call on the telephone when he wanted to be sent somewhere else or come back. I felt like I was on the sets of Quantum Leap and Napoleon Dynamite. That's a whole lot of oddball fun feelz right there!
Each time Eric got a call from Ben from one of his time travel destinations he would add the feature that Ben liked from each place to the whiteboard rendering of a conceptualized "Better Doghouse." The whole idea was pretty fun, and my favorite song from the whole performance was the, "Pizza Man in The Pizza Van" tune. Any song that talks about cantaloupe and caper or celery and pumpkin pizza is going to grab my attention. Okay, I am also a sucker for songs that require the audience to sing along.
Anyone who hands out egg shakers and maracas to an audience is beyond cool, and I really like how Eric engaged with the spectators. The kids loved him, and I feel he could totally drop by and teach us how to build a better dog house anytime.
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