Suspension of Disbelief

Posts Tagged ‘XP’


Posted on July 25, 2009 - by Lindsey

Theatre in 1962 (Blogathon ‘09 #7)

In 1962, both the Tony Award for Best Musical and the Pulitzer Prize for Drama went to How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying.

Interesting tidbit from Wikipedia:

The original Broadway production credited the choreography to an obscure dance director named Hugh Lambert, while the much better-known Bob Fosse received only a “musical staging by…” credit. Abe Burrows explains this in his autobiography Honest, Abe. While How to Succeed… was in its early development, producer Cy Feuer attended a trade show and was extremely impressed by an elaborate dance number created by Lambert, prompting Feuer to hire Lambert to choreograph the new musical. According to Burrows, it soon became clear in rehearsals that Lambert’s creative abilities were completely used up in that one elaborate dance number. Bob Fosse was brought in to replace him, but Fosse was unwilling to hurt Lambert’s career by having him fired. Lambert’s trade-show dance number was recycled as the “Treasure Hunt” dance in How to Succeed…, while Fosse agreed to take a “musical staging” credit for choreographing all the other dance numbers.

This post is for the Blogathon 2009! I am blogging for The Actor’s Fund. For more information about what I am doing, please click here, or you can sponsor me!


Posted on September 16, 2008 - by Lindsey

A-Z Challenge

I got this idea from Sassymonkey, so I thought I’d give it a try! I made this be #74 on my 101 in 1001. The idea is to make a list of books whose titles begin with A-Z, then read them (I included numbers too, just for fun). There may be some overlap between these books and other goals I have on the 101 in 1001 . . . but that’s OK. If I made everything be distinct different books, I’d never have a shot at completion, LOL!

1 – One Hundred Years of Solitude, Gabriel Garcia Marquez
2 – The 2-Second Commute: Join the Exploding Ranks of Freelance Virtual Assistants, Christine Durst
3 – Three Plays: Desire Under The Elms, Strange Interlude, Mourning Becomes Electra, Eugene O’Neill
4 – The Four Loves, C.S. Lewis
5 – The Five People You Meet in Heaven, Mitch Albom
6 – Six Prayers God Always Answers, Mark Herringshaw and Jennifer Schuchmann
7 – The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People, Stephen R. Covey
8 – The 8 Colors of Fitness: Discover Your Color-Coded Fitness Personality and Create an Exercise Program You’ll Never Quit!, Suzanne Brue
9 – Nine Stories, J.D. Salinger
A – Angels & Demons, Dan Brown
B – The Brothers Karamazov, Fyodor Dostoevsky
C – Captivating: Unveiling the Mystery of a Woman’s Soul, John and Stasi Eldredge
D – Drowning Ruth, Christina Schwarz
E – East of Eden, John Steinbeck
F – The Fountainhead, Ayn Rand
G – The Great Divorce, C.S. Lewis
H – The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy, Douglas Adams
I – Ishmael, Daniel Quinn
J – Just So Stories, Rudyard Kipling
K – The King Must Die: A Novel, Mary Renault
L – Little Women, Louisa May Alcott
M – Mere Christianity, C.S. Lewis
N – Not Tonight Honey, Wait ‘Til I’m a Size Six, Susan Reinhardt
O – One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest, Ken Kesey
P – The Purpose Driven Life, Rick Warren
Q – The Question of God: C.S. Lewis and Sigmund Freud Debate God, Love, Sex, and the Meaning of Life, Armand M. Nicholi Jr.
R – Redeeming Love, Francine Rivers
S – The Screwtape Letters, C.S. Lewis
T – The Tenth Gift, Jane Johnson
U – Uncle Tom’s Cabin, Harriet Beecher Stowe
V – The Virgin Suicides, Jeffrey Eugenides
W – Wizard and Glass, Stephen King
X – X-teams: How to Build Teams That Lead, Innovate and Succeed, Deborah Ancona and Henrik Bresman
Y – Y2k, Arthur Kopit
Z – Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance: An Inquiry Into Values, Robert M. Pirsig

I’ll cross off books as I finish them, and when I get all done I’ll be able to mark this off my 101 in 1001 list! Anyone else up for the challenge?


Posted on July 27, 2008 - by Lindsey

Children’s Literacy Initiative (Day of Blogs ‘08 #42)

Won’t someone please donate to Children’s Literacy Initiative?

Straight from their website, here is how CLI’s Professional Development Program works:

• Developing Engaging Read Alouds
Because being read to adds directly to children’s knowledge and vocabulary, experts stress the importance of reading aloud to students.
At the writing center, a first-grader has word books,
a dry-erase board and pen to work with. Activities can include writing a letter or writing about a book.

We instruct teachers to promote children’s interest in books by reading aloud expressively, and to use books to build comprehension and vocabulary by asking open-ended questions.

• Encouraging
Writing Skills
It is important to develop writing skills in young children, as language and literacy work together. Starting from infancy, almost everything that children learn about listening and talking contributes to their ability to read and write.

CLI trains teachers to incorporate writing in every classroom center, and to provide ample writing opportunities for their students.
• Creating a Literacy-Rich Environment in the Classroom
Displays of children’s writing, labeling, signs, and books in all areas of the classroom help immerse students in print conventions (such as punctuation and the way words are read) while providing them with a context for new vocabulary and letters.

A literacy-rich environment includes interactive instructional materials created by the teachers and a collection of quality books on display with their covers facing outwards.
• Designing a Center-Based Classroom
Work centers are physical areas of the classroom designated for learning and practice with specific instructional goals. Early childhood centers include such areas as a Library Center, Writing Center, Science and Discovery Center, and a Math Center. Classroom centers should be challenging and purposeful and the objective of each center activity should be targeted towards reaching classroom literacy goals.

At the science center, reading and writing are tools for learning. A book on frogs, alphabet tiles to spell with, tadpoles in a water tank, and paper and pens provide a purposeful learning opportunity. The results of a kindergartner’s tadpole study are displayed on the classroom wall.
CLI professional developers not only visit classrooms to help teachers rearrange and refine their classrooms, they also provide useful literacy instructional materials and activities that are theme- or content-related.

Teachers learn classroom management skills in order to provide effective individual and small-group reading instruction and to promote independent learning.

I had centers in kindergarten – they were a lot of fun, and in hindsight focused our learning so clearly.  I just can’t say enough good things about CLI – won’t you consider sponsoring me?

This post is for the Day of Blogs 2008! I am blogging for Children’s Literacy Initiative. For more information about what I am doing, please click here, or you can sponsor me!


Posted on July 27, 2008 - by Lindsey

Illuminated Manuscripts (Day of Blogs ‘08 #39)

Illuminated manuscripts – the world’s first picture books!  To see some stunning images (I absolutely LOVE looking at illuminated manuscripts), please click below!

Another fascinating link is to the St. John’s Bible project.  This is a work in progress to recreate the entire Bible in illuminated manuscripts.  They’re not cheap, but that’s because you’re pretty much investing in a work of art.  My mom actually has all the books that are completed so far, so I’ve seen them in person.  They are breathtaking!  Visit the site to see the pictures, but also to read about the process, because that is equally interesting.

This post is for the Day of Blogs 2008! I am blogging for Children’s Literacy Initiative. For more information about what I am doing, please click here, or you can sponsor me!


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