Just Malaika's Imagination

This video is from Malaika's birthday party last September 2nd. It was a lot of fun to work, given the number of kids I knew (former SMGC students) who attended but don't get to see anymore.

Lilly, I think, was shocked to see Teri and I, and disoriented by our presence at LASG (I can't remember, but she said some "funny" and "curious" things about the gym switch, and why we left). I seem to recall her expressing some irk and ire, as though holding me accountable to SMGC's closing.




When we were at SMGC, at the end of her class, Malaika used to always ask me to make her a paper airplane. It was kind of a ritual, like when I used to come in and share my breakfast with Anna.

Madison's comment about the haunted maze in the video's closing credits can be better referenced and contextualized by clicking here. I should revisit that updated video, and prefix it with this clip of Madison, talking about it.

It took me 8 months to get around to doing this video. It just kind of happened accidentally while sitting in front of my computer, Friday morning, perusing my music library files as well as going through video files, looking for pictures to send to those who appear in them. Less than 24 hours later and....whalah! Video made, wrapped, printed!

I miss these kids and am grateful for being able to preserve some of the memories!

Malaika's currently been fencing, and loving it!

Haunted Halloween Labyrinth (2008 Special Edited Version)

Tales of the Weird..."What's that smell?"

Do you smell what ______ is cooking?

Last Thursday, during my advanced class while we were on tumbling, I smelled poo. Not flatulence; but something fierce....like someone baking brownies in their pants. Usually, if it's just gas, I might ignore it; especially if I knew which kid did it by the accompanying trumpet sound. I don't want to embarrass anyone who might be ashamed of it; so sometimes I don't draw more attention to it than is already present. But the smell Thursday night was so suffocatingly gross, I had to throw the question out there: "What in the blue blazes is that smell?!" I then got caught up with the task at hand of spotting and coaching, leaving the girls to figure it out for me as they began mumbling amongst themselves to get to the bottom of it.

I moved down to the other side of the floor to spot anyone who needed it on front handsprings or backhandsprings- whatever it was we were working on. Well, eventually I look down our makeshift runway wondering who's holding up the line as the traffic flow of tumblers stopped; and what do I see: Anna with her nose buried in Malaika's rear-end. I noticed it just in time to hear Anna tell Malaika, "I don't smell anything." Wow. Now that's friendship for ya.

Later on, I smelled the smell again. Not a clue where/who it emanated from. But someone was definitely baking brownies.

The last part of this unsolved mystery is that I also witnessed Anna, later on, holding one of those floppy floor objects (for the pre-schoolers) and fanning Malaika's tushy-bun.

Hmmm.....

Strangely enough, I have this funny clip from Winter Camp 2007 at SMGC I am planning to use in a Malaika video:

Now that I think about it, footage of Thursday's odor problem might have gone nicely with this clip.

Happy Halloween!

Acro Batman and Coach Robyn

Gymnastics Halloween riddle:

What kind of bat likes to tumble?

Answer: is found in the video



This video was dreamt up by Shachar. So I attributed half credit to her for it (I know I only got half her last name right in the credits). I wasn't sure there'd really be much of anything worth filming, because it's so dark inside the labyrinth.

I wasn't sure how I'd edit this together, but I think it came out well, albeit very long at over 15 minutes. Trimming it down would mean more work. I'm not THAT devoted.

I began working on this Sunday night, and finished it 4am. Probably about 10 hours of my life. But my deadline was Halloween. So I feel good about that.

If you saw the "sneak" preview for this video....this video isn't much like what you got in the trailer.

The first half is a bit light, to the music of Ghostbusters. Second half is "creepy-lovely". It's to Jerry Goldsmith's theme to Poltergeist. Melodically beautiful and hauntingly chilling. It's amazing how much music enhances and fabricates a mood.

I'm worried that the video might be too scary, at the end. Madison has a big speaking role in the video; but I don't know if she'd be able to view the final clip of Alex. I saved it at the very end, when the Poltergeist music cuts into the eerie children-ghost laughing. Growing up, that part always wracked my nerves (I had a casette soundtrack).

If I had anything to add to the video, it would be filming a graveyard scene of an empty gym from unique angles....perhaps the rings swaying back and forth with no one present....an abandoned SMGC cartwheel-a-thon doll smiling into the camera....



....but that would mean re-editing the video, huh?


I do have "cutting room floor" clips of the kids tearing down the labyrinth and putting the mats away; so maybe I'll do that and add it on as a separate "closing credits" video, to this blogpost.

I am having trouble uploading it to Google video. I'm going to try my LiveDigital account. In the meantime, you can download the file directly to your computer. It's a pretty large file at around 247 MBs. If clicking the link takes you to the fileden.com website with lots of registration fill-out info, just skip all that, scroll down the page, and click "pass", or whatever it says. You don't have to fill all that gunk out.

My favorite part remains the 2nd half of the video. Stay-tuned to updates to this post.

Happy safe Tricks-or-Treating!

Mad About the Madison

Madison is a five year old who had been attending summer camp, but with whom I was largely unfamiliar with, since I work mostly with 6 and up. But on this particular day in late July, she hung around me and 2 older gymnasts I was working with.

At the expense of Zoe and Jennifer, I allowed Madison to hang out with us. She was soooo funny, I couldn't help it. She became an instantaneous favorite, and I wondered why I hadn't discovered her before. For whatever reason, she just latched onto me that day, and followed me everywhere. She was so cute and funny, it was hard to send her away. Zoe probably wanted to kill me.

Jennifer is extremely funny in her own right (don't be fooled by her height- she's only 12!). She's kind of dorky in a good way, always smiling and occasionally getting her words wrong (e.g., one time she asked if she could go get water, adding that she needed to "rehibernate"). Hope some of her humor, intentional and otherwise, comes through.



(For the record: Jennifer has been able to land aerials before- just not in this video; and despite my discreet absence in the video, I did do my share of coaching- it wasn't just all Madison-induced abuse of Zoe and Jennifer...just clever editing).

Be sure to watch the video all the way through- I know the closing credits is long...it's just so hard to edit down so much good stuff.