The Giant Magnet

Yesterday I had a fabulous time co-chaperoning the fourth grade on our all school field trip to the Giant Magnet. The Giant Magnet, formerly known as the Seattle International Children's Festival is happening at the Seattle Center from May 12-16. The 17-18, they are taking the show down to Tacoma. If you have kids and you're looking for something fun to do, I highly recommend it.

This is actually my second time at the Festival. Last year the theme was music from around the world, and we got to see some really spectacular groups from South America and West Africa. This year we arrived around 10:00am for "The World of Laughter Sampler" and were ushered into McCall Hall along with children and their teachers from schools all around Seattle. Some wore uniforms or color coated bandannas. It was quite a scene and a bit overwhelming if you aren't accustomed to traveling with hordes of squirmy, giggle, happy-to-be-out-of-school children. Once everyone was settled down, we met our MCs, a couple of break dancers clad in green vintage Adidas tracksuits commonly known as The Massive Monkeys...accompanied by DJ Blessed1. I would have never thought of having hype men for a kids event, but it was fun and effective. They were great at channeling all the squirmy energy into clapping and cheering.

First up was Lelavision, a woman and a man dressed kind of like cave people, who performed a kind of skit with these two large shells. At first it seemed kind of strange,but it was oddly fascinating to watch them use the shells like transformation chambers by actually crawling inside them and becoming different entities. Next up was a comedic duo from Germany called Hacki, accompanied by a blue suited guitar player. It was fun and spastic filled with lots of surprises including a bubble blowing genius and a box that blew smoke rings. The sampler ended with a skit from Les Argonauts, which was also very different...a little slap sticky, but ultimately totally entertaining. I was seated next to one of my colleagues who is notorious for his tendency to fall asleep at these kind of things and even he stayed engaged the whole time.

It was a gorgeous day to be downtown. We had a quick lunch on the still damp grass outside the theater then made our way back to see The Gentleman of the Carolina Chocolate Drops and Friends. This was a four man band of black men who have dedicated their time and considerable talent to keeping alive the tradition of folk music from the south. They had a wide array of instruments from banjos and jaw harps to harmonicas, kazoos, and snare drums and they explained everything in kid friendly terms with a few jokes and some great songs in between. The crowd favorite was a man nicknamed Slap Jazz, who played the jaw harp and also donned a pair of white gloves to play percussion on his own body. In addition to some cool music and good humor, the Chocolate Drops were also totally dropping knowledge about the history and flavor of black culture in the south. It was awesome and once the shows were done, we headed toward the fountain and let the kids run loose on the lawn where magically loads of hula hoops and bouncy balls had appeared. It was a great experience and well worth attending.