Quiet.

It is a beautiful thing.

Z and AJ turned the house upside down in the most entertaining of ways. They opened every cupboard, drawer and closet, pulled every book from the shelf, unpuzzled every puzzle, emptied every toy box, chased the cats until the cowered in terror under the bed. In short, a good time was had by all. Except, of course, the hapless kitties (who will be justly rewarded with tuna for dinner)

It�s funny listening to Z and AJ talk to one another. Their skills don�t yet include real conversation, so many of their exchanges are almost musical in content. We were driving home from the playground and passed a pond full of ducks and geese. Z said, �Geese!� and AJ said �Ducks!� They proceeded to riff on �Geese� and �Ducks� for the next several minutes in a very improvisatory manner, causing Z�s mom to turn to me and say, �Sometimes I think I�m losing my mind.�

Frankly, I�d be concerned if we didn�t sometimes think we�re losing our minds, for that would mean we�re simply not paying attention.

I�m off to delve into today�s mini-research project on gender-bending performances (cross-dressing, et al) in early American vaudeville. I love that my dissertation takes me out of my comfortable zone of knowledge every now and again. In the late 19th century, the battle lines between popular and classical music forms were only beginning to be determined, so there was a lot of genre crossing. The marginalia is very entertaining. I am, however, getting a little tired of the theory of sacralization (thank you Lawrence Levine) which is feeling rather stale.

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