ONE NIGHT ONLY at the Segerstrom in Costa Mesa @ 7:30pm on Wednesday October 26, 2022 :   

13 Tongues by Cloud Gate Dance Theater Company

It is rare to be able to experience a dance performance where you can preview how the choreographer and dancers create their magic on stage.

If you are familiar with the dance-works of the UK-based Akram Khan Company, where the classical Indian roots merge with contemporary and classical ballet dance training to produce universally relevant and spiritually deep expressions for the human body and emotions, then experiencing the 13 Tongues performance by the Taiwan-based Cloud Gate Dance Theater Company will be a comparable cultural treat.

Since I appreciate Qi Gong for both health and as a spiritual practice, I can imagine how these dancers could certainly harness and express qi in their movements. I share here the 37-minute video from their first participation in the World Ballet Day livestream in 2021 because it demonstrates the series of qi-gong incorporated dance movement exercises. You can see how the dancers harness the qi throughout the body from rooting to the earth through the spine to shooting energy through your fingers and feet. It also shares their rehearsal for 13 Tongues and you can see significant portions of the 13 Tongues stage performance - much longer segments than any YouTube preview segments.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kdZQUShSJOE&t=2241s

This World Ballet Day video from Cloud Gate Dance Theatre starts with qigong

exercises to energize the body by rooting to the earth qi while being relaxed, It also incorporates martial arts routine to harness the dancers' energy and strengthen balance training for the dancers. It ends with the rehearsal process of 13 Tongues in 2021.

I would also like to share a second video focusing on the choreographer's creative process and the genesis of this dance. It starts with how the name of 13 Tongues was derived from his mother's memory of a gifted story teller who brought many characters alive with his many voices in a specific district of Taipei. This video also discusses how the colors of the costumes and the visual technology is incorporated into the choreography. I am very impressed by the respect and cultural sensitivity the choreographer demonstrated in his process of dance creation. Even within his own Chinese Taiwanese culture, the appropriation of spiritual utterances and religious motives was done with prior permission from the temple. It is indeed rare to be able to see this aspect of the choreographer's creative journey and to see how the dance is grounded in Chinese cultural experience but yet speaks to the common human experiences as projected in dance movements that can be universally accessed by the audience.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A5pfgGziofE

With these two videos, we can more fully appreciate and enjoy this one-night only performance of 13 Tongues by the Cloud Gate Dance Theater company. I hope you can join our group purchase of tickets for this one-night performance that is too good to miss even on a Wednesday night.

Details below:

I am organizing the purchase of group-priced discounted tickets for an astoundingly good ONE_NIGHT ONLY performance titled 13 Tongues by Cloud Gate Dance Theater Company from Taiwan.

If you have dancers in your family or a budding choreographer, or if you just enjoy dance, this evening will be impactful.

Dance Performance: 13 Tongues by Cloud Gate Dance Theatre Company

Date: Wednesday evening, October 26, 2022

Time: 7:30pm (Meet around 6:45-7:15pm for ticket distribution)

Venue: Segerstrom Center for Performing Arts in Costa Mesa

Price per seat: $26 at Orchestra Terrace (all fees and etc included)

Deadline for best seats: Noon on October 1, 2022

Contact for venmo payment details: reallykf@gmail.com

Overview from the Segerstrom's website:

"“Astoundingly good! A sensationally big, indulgent and visually arresting expression of cultural memory.” - The Times

“When you're talking about Cloud Gate, magic is not too strong a word.” - Time

One of Asia’s foremost contemporary dance companies, Cloud Gate was founded in 1973 by choreographer Lin Hwai-min. The company, named after the oldest known dance in China, combines martial arts, Qi Gong, modern dance, and classical ballet. In 2020, Chen Tsung-lung succeeded Lin as the company’s Artistic Director, bringing together his creative works with traditional roots and excitingly innovative perspectives from the digital and globalized world.

In 13 Tongues, Cheng Tsung-lung transforms his childhood memories of the streets of Bangka into a fantastical, dreamlike world, fusing ancient superstitions, religious rites, and modern Taipei culture. Beginning and ending with the sound of a single handbell, the music accompanying 13 Tongues ranges from Taiwanese folk songs to Taoist chants to electronica. On a stage awash with projections of colors, shapes, and images, dancers gather, interact, separate, and then come together again in a vibrant representation of the clamor of street life.

13 Tongues features all the magic, beauty and astonishing ensemble dancing that hypnotized audiences when Cloud Gate made their Center debut in 2018."

Since I appreciate Qi Gong for health and as a spiritual practice, I can imagine how these dancers could certainly harness and express qi in their movements. I share here the 37-minute video from their first participation in the World Ballet Day livestream in 2021 because it shares a series of qi-gong incorporated dance movement exercises where one energizes qi through the body from rooting to the earth through the spine to shooting energy through your fingers and feet. It also shares their rehearsal for and you can see portions of the 13 Tongues performance - longer than any YouTube preview segments.

How to get to Segerstrom Center for the Performing Arts:

https://www.scfta.org/Plan-Your-Visit/Directions-Parking.aspx

Seven reasons not to miss Angkor Wat - California Science Center’s world premiere 3D imax and exhibit

                                           2005 Sunrise at Angkor Wat (credit to blogger)

Just in case anyone is wondering whether or not to see California Science Center’s Angkor Wat IMAX /special exhibit closing on Monday, Sept 5, here are seven good reasons:

1. Even if you have visited the real place in Cambodia (and I have), the 3D IMAX documentary shows what you cannot see on the ground! It will give you a better sense of its size and grandeur in the 9th to 15th centuries compared to the few other civilizations in the same time period!

2. The IMAX shows how the new scientific technology reveals that Angkor Wat was much bigger than earlier known … as big as present day Los Angeles!!

3. Find out how specially trained rats helped with the speed at which archeological work can proceed.

4. I did not know the cause of the downfall of Angkor Wat specifically when I visited the Angkor Wat complex in 2004, but the IMAX documentary will demonstrate which technologies confirmed that it was extreme climate change that made productive agriculture unable to sustain Angkor Wat.

Any essay about consequences of climate change can certainly use the data from this imax/exhibit.

5. The exhibit itself has 120 physical artifacts of which half is brought out of Cambodia for the first time … and two aspects of the exhibit impressed me: (1) the videos incorporated the voices of local experts as well as French and other experts, and (2), it addresses the precolonial looting as well as illicit post colonial trade In antiquities and asks for help to return Cambodian antiquities to Cambodia!

6. Most importantly, Angkor Wat is one of the ancient seven wonders and an UNESCO heritage site … if you can travel to Cambodia one day, it is definitely a bucket list destination .. and while in SE Asia, go see another Buddhist UNESCO site at Borobudur in Indonesia too. Both Hinduism and two types of Buddhism (Theravada and Mahayana) are covered in this exhibit.

7. Most critically, the study of Southeast Asian history and civilizations are not often covered in the US history curriculum, and you will have learned more about Angkor Wat than the normally-trained history teachers in middle or high school (unless they studied SEAsian history) after a couple of hours in the imax/exhibit. I am encouraging teachers to see this exhibit and wished more students could have seen both the IMAX and exhibit. There are hands-on sections too that you can touch!

This is a real gem of an exhibit and IMAX premiering in Los Angeles and not to be missed if you have any iota of curiosity about the world in times past and places a few continents away! No less impressive than Machu Picchu:) 

For information on how to see this Angkor Wat exhibit before it closes on Sept 5, 2022, after the Labor Day weekend, please see:  https://californiasciencecenter.org/exhibits/angkor-the-lost-empire-of-cambodia

For details on visiting CSC, please see:  https://californiasciencecenter.org/visitolute last hour to confirm with payment to join our group will be Saturday noon on Sept 3, 2022.

Should you miss this special exhibit, here are resources to learn more about Angkor Wat.

Angkor Wat: The Lost City of the God Kings

https://youtu.be/KsDGDzwuQ-I

National Geographic Angkor Wat Access Heritage 360

https://youtu.be/C5jpbwizxBs

The Khmer kingdom - Fall of the God Kings (Fall of Civilizations series)

https://youtu.be/ghmjIBD2Fd4

Pol Pot and the killing fields

https://youtu.be/KMLz0eIihcY

(Reference to the genocide in Cambodia is in one panel of the exhibit.

    The relief art on the sides of the temple is exquisite.

What adult skills should every 18-year old have? A former Stanford dean explains

Nurturing our children to be independent emotionally as well as practically as they grow to be teenagers is not an easy task.

As tweens become teens, it is only a few years before they need to be able to navigate college life on their own.  This post by a former Stanford dean is worth pasting in full from this link:

https://www.quora.com/What-are-the-skills-every-18-year-old-needs/answer/Julie-Lythcott-Haims

It was also reposted recently here:

http://qz.com/644491/a-stanford-dean-on-adult-skills-every-18-year-old-should-have/

I think these life skills should be partially in place by middle school age, so this list should be a basis for family discussions :)  So maybe these are skills every 13 to 16 year olds should start to hone.

What are the skills every 18-year-old needs?

Julie Lythcott-Haims, Author, NYT bestseller How to Raise an Adult; former Stanford dean; podcast host

28.9k Views • Answer featured in The Huffington Post and 3 more.

1. An 18-year-old must be able to talk to strangers — faculty, deans, advisers, landlords, store clerks, human resource managers, coworkers, bank tellers, health care providers, bus drivers, mechanics—in the real world.

The crutch: We teach kids not to talk to strangers instead of teaching the more nuanced skill of how to discern the few bad strangers from the mostly good ones. Thus, kids end up not knowing how to approach strangers — respectfully and with eye contact — for the help, guidance, and direction they will need out in the world.

2. An 18-year-old must be able to find his way around a campus, the town in which her summer internship is located, or the city where he is working or studying abroad.

The crutch: We drive or accompany our children everywhere, even when a bus, their bicycle, or their own feet could get them there; thus, kids don't know the route for getting from here to there, how to cope with transportation options and snafus, when and how to fill the car with gas, or how to make and execute transportation plans.

3. An eighteen-year-old must be able to manage his assignments, workload, and deadlines.

The crutch: We remind kids when their homework is due and when to do it— sometimes helping them do it, sometimes doing it for them; thus, kids don't know how to prioritize tasks, manage workload, or meet deadlines, without regular reminders.

4. An 18-year-old must be able to contribute to the running of a house hold.

The crutch: We don't ask them to help much around the house because the checklisted childhood leaves little time in the day for anything aside from academic and extracurricular work; thus, kids don't know how to look after their own needs, respect the needs of others, or do their fair share for the good of the whole.

5. An 18-year-old must be able to handle interpersonal problems.

The crutch: We step in to solve misunderstandings and soothe hurt feelings for them; thus, kids don't know how to cope with and resolve conflicts without our intervention.

6. An 18-year-old must be able to cope with ups and downs of courses and workloads, college- level work, competition, tough teachers, bosses, and others.

The crutch: We step in when things get hard, finish the task, extend the deadline, and talk to the adults; thus, kids don't know that in the normal course of life things won't always go their way, and that they'll be okay regardless.

7. An 18-year-old must be able to earn and manage money.

The crutch: They don't hold part-time jobs; they receive money from us for what ever they want or need; thus, kids don't develop a sense of responsibility for completing job tasks, accountability to a boss who doesn't inherently love them, or an appreciation for the cost of things and how to manage money.

8. An 18-year-old must be able to take risks.

The crutch: We've laid out their entire path for them and have avoided all pitfalls or prevented all stumbles for them; thus, kids don't develop the wise understanding that success comes only after trying and failing and trying again (a.k.a. "grit") or the thick skin (a.k.a. "resilience") that comes from coping when things have gone wrong.

Remember: our kids must be able to do all of these things without resorting to calling a parent on the phone. If they're calling us to ask how, they do not have the life skill.

[Originally appeared in my book How to Raise an Adult: Break Free of the Overparenting Trap and Prepare Your Kid for Success (Henry Holt & Co., 2015)]

Free event on the Gifted Brain: A Window to Understanding the Physiology of Giftedness April 23 - RSVP needed

It is good to be back in Los Angeles and re-start this blog for all families who need more and better brain food :)  This April 23, 2016, event is free if you make a reservation and specify if you are attending the event at 10.30am in Pasadena or at 3pm in Culver City.   We will be at the Culver City event if anyone wishes to meet.  Don't forget to email your intention to attend to admin@gro-gifted.org as soon as possible and receive venue details.

The Gifted Brain: A Window to Understanding the Physiology of Giftedness

April 23

|Free

Two chances in one day: South Pasadena @ 10:30 a.m. or Culver City @ 3:00 p.m.

Come hear the founders of Gifted Research & Outreach talk about the physiological differences in the gifted brain. The GRO team is very excited to share the results of the first phase of its research journey. Neuroscience research supports the belief that gifted individuals have increased intellectual, emotional, sensory and motor processing capacity. GRO’s presentation will summarize the known differences in gifted brain physiology and activity and explore how those differences might explain gifted intensities and behavior. This presentation is a must-see for those seeking possible scientific explanations for the traits they see in their children. The presenters will also give the audience a sneak peek at the results of a literature review on genetics, hypoglycemia and gastrointestinal sensitivities as well as what it has planned for the future. The entire GRO team will be present and there will be plenty of time for questions and answers. Here is a link to the summary article of GRO’s initial literature review of the neuroanatomical and physiological differences in the gifted brain:

 https://www.gro-gifted.org/portfolio-items/the-gifted-brain/.

This event if free, however it is important that you reserve a space. For reservations and directions, please e-mail admin@gro-gifted.org and indicate whether you wish to attend the morning (South Pasadena) or afternoon (Culver City) event.

https://www.gro-gifted.org/event/the-gifted-brain-a-window-to-understanding-the-physiology-of-giftedness/

Graeme Murphy's "Swan Lake" with Australian Ballet will delight and astound many, even perhaps some purists!

Ballet lovers are all familiar with the traditional or classical Swan Lake story, one of the most beautifully choreographed ballets danced to Tchaikovsky's wondrous music.  The principal dancer typically dances both the roles of the white (Odette) and black (Odile) swan, a challenging coveted double role which is the dream role of many an aspiring dancer.


Graeme Murphy's retelling of the Swan Lake story takes a huge leap to a modern era where there there is an Odette but no Odile, no sorcerer Count Rothbart, but a married Countess Rothbart who is still in love with the Prince now to be married to Odette.  Where the traditional classical ballet tells of a young prince in search of his perfect ideal love, the young 20th century prince appears first as an emotionally-detached and somewhat caddish and flawed man in the process of being married to a beautiful young woman while apparently still very much involved with his older married lover (Countess Rothbart).  This ballet, commissioned in 2002 and has been performed for 12 years now, although for the first time in Los Angeles in only the second time Australian Ballet has performed in Chandler Pavillion in 50 years.  It is inspired unabashedly by the love triangle Princess Diana was in and whose marriage was famously self-described about being a little crowded with three people in it.  But there is no need to think of Princess Diana and the love triangle she was in when you see this modern-era Swan Lake Ballet, as you will fully empathize with the new bride who discovers in her wedding celebration that her new husband and his lover are still very much together.  The first act is full of pas de trois sequences where the Prince is besieged by the attentions of both women, but the young fragile bride is so overcome with sadness and jealousy and a sense of doom in this marriage.  She becomes emotionally erratic as she makes inappropriate overtures to nearly all the male guests (when she feels rejected by the Prince) and pushes together the lovers in public acknowledgment of their ongoing affair, horrifying everyone.  The first act ends explosively with Odette, with her fouettes and multiple leaps symbolically representing her falling into a psychosis, before being whisked away to the sanatorium, after attempting to throw herself into the lake.

The second act begins quietly with Odette still in her psychosis mode at the window overlooking a lake cared for by nuns in their anonymously huge nun hats.  As Odette dreams of being free as a white dancing swan with a bevy of swan companions, the otherworldly scenes from the tilted lake begins and where the beautifully choreographed sequences performed by the corps de ballet, including the classic cygnet dance, most resemble the classical ballet performances even though these corps de ballet sequences are also innovatively different in its various formations.

There is no evil sorcerer in Graeme Murphy's production and the sole evil character is the Countess Rothbart who, in the third act in an black gown evening ball, is upstaged by a beautiful confident recovered Odette in her white dress as she re-enters the social scene and, this time, the Prince becomes obviously enamored by a nonchalant Odette.  There are no triumphant 32 fouettes here by the black clad Countess who realizes she is really losing the Prince now to Odette and desperately calls the sanatorium staff to come and re-commit Odette.  Escaping the nuns and doctors, Odette runs away, and next appears in the final act by the lake again.  Odette and all the swan companions are black swans and the Prince follows her.  They dance the final pas de deux which starts with an explosive grand jete leap and she is caught by the prince into a sustained lift.  Foregoing the famous dying swan sequences, the ballet ends with Odette vanishing dramatically into the tilted lake.

Comparisons to classic performances to the various versions of Swan Lake by different ballet companies are inevitable by purists who will be upset by the loss of critical elements such as the black swan character, Odile, and the re-arranging of the music to fit the new choreography.  Only the Hungarian national dance remains as part of the wedding celebration in this reimagining of Swan Lake in the modern setting.  The costuming and staging of Graeme Murphy's Swan Lake is spectacular and his choreography is truly exciting with far more explosive leaps and dramatic lifts and more different partnering techniques than I have seen in other ballets.  Like Matthew Bourne's re-imagining of Sleeping Beauty, Graeme Murphy's Swan Lake has become our new favorite and Australian Ballet company dancers are lucky to be able to dance this very different Swan Lake. Australian Ballet is clearly a first rate ballet company that tours extensively and has a strong core of physically-talented and emotionally-expressive principal dancers, soloists, and corps de ballet dancers.  Their Swan Lake will astound and delight you even if you are somewhat of a purist because this new choreography and story narrative is executed so well that is now a new classic that all ballet enthusiasts should see and include in their "ballet-viewing repertoire"!

Australian Ballet performs Swan Lake with a live orchestra at the Dorothy Chandler Pavillion in Los Angeles until Sunday, October 12, with a matinee on Saturday.  There are two intermissions in this 4-Act ballet, but you would never realize how quickly time flies with this fast-paced and radically different Swan Lake ballet.  Tickets are available at:

 http://www.musiccenter.org/reserve/index.aspx?performanceNumber=2546

The full program is at: http://www.musiccenter.org/documents/2014-15/Swan-Lake/
and the final casting list is:

http://www.musiccenter.org/Documents/2014-15/Casting-Swan-Lake.pdf

To fully appreciate this ballet story line in its original classic form, and especially if you are bringing younger children to this ballet, here are two study guides with different levels of complexity and two slightly different story narratives.

http://www.obt.org/outreach_links/SPS_SwanLake_StudyGuide.pdf 

http://calperformances.org/learn/k-12/pdf/2005/Study_Guide_SwanLake.pdf

http://www.sistemaproducciones.com/eng/images/stories/repertorio/descargas/swanlake.pdf

http://www.bolshoi.ru/en/performances/36/libretto/

See some preview youtube clips here, including a good six minutes from various acts of the ballet, at:

http://calperformances.org/performances/2014-15/dance/australian-ballet-swan-lake.php?tab=3#TabbedPanels1

On World Ballet Day, we were fortunate to see the rehearsal for Swan Lake live-streamed and you can see segments of this from 20:30 minutes to 39:00 here:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_Q49pGO08Ko

If you just want to listen to the beautiful Tchaikovsky score in 8 parts, without visual distractions, you can hear it here:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S76CGGPqI3s&list=PL09942EDACAA2D4BB

To watch the Kirov (now Mariinski) Ballet's version of classical Swan Lake online, here is a full version of almost 2 hours where you can see the traditional choreography, including the various national dances and the dying swan.  To see it live in Los Angeles, catch Los Angeles Ballet perform this ballet next at UCLA on October 17 and 19, which I will also review in this blog.

For a peek at Matthew Bourne's irreverent all-male Swan Lake choreography, see:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CUqfdDEYFLQ

If you simply cannot come and watch any of the remaining performances by Australian Ballet, do rent or buy this version of Swan Lake at amazon.com for download or instant viewing:

  

http://www.amazon.com/Swan-Lake-The-Australian-Ballet/dp/B00GXQF5P0

The Music Center provided this press photo.

At the Broad Stage, see South African Isango Ensemble re-styling of Mozart's Magic Flute within its cultural context

Imagine a conductor barefoot on stage while conducting (without a score) 4 marimbas and drums on either side of him off the main center of stage and the orchestra is really part of the stage as singers and musicians are constantly sharing space and alternating roles or sing from the orchestra "pit."  For the most part, you don't see the conductor who may be playing another instrument from the side.  The music flows very organically with the acting, dancing and singing you see on center stage.

Imagine choral members, also barefoot, who can not only sing, dance intricate steps with animated facial expressions, play musical accompaniment and act multiple characters throughout the performance.

Imagine actors/singers coming off the sloping-downward stage along the side aisles and singing and performing as an audience relating to what is on stage.

Imagine a few performers assembling on the top "bridge" platform and tinkling with a metal rod on differently- and graduatingly-filled clear glass bottles held by strings to produce the magical sounding bell sounds.

Isango Ensemble turns western classical conventions of opera on its head and must have unsettled a few heads in the audience.  But for some of us, kicking off our shoes and fully moving to the music and story as it unfolds - with all the emotions the arias and choral voices evoke - seems perfectly natural.  This is not a performance that one needs to sit straight back and hold still for.  Indeed, a silently appreciative audience that applauds after each major aria may even seem a bit underwhelming in a performance that seems to invite more vocal audience responses if we were not in a formal stage environment.  This is the type of company who would probably love it if everyone could move to its dancing and music.  If this performance were held in its cultural homeland - and you can imagine how this performance could have been staged outdoors with some modifications to its minimalist staging -, I cannot imagine people sitting still :)  It reminded me of Matthew Bourne telling his audience that to please clap whenever they feel like it because the dancers really love and thrive on the energy of the audience response in his retelling of Sleeping Beauty by his New Adventures company where he too reinterprets traditional ballets into highly accessible and memorable contemporary "ballets" credited with bringing new audiences to ballet in the UK.   The same could be said of this thoroughly "unstuffy" and vibrantly joyous reinterpretation of the Magic Flute in engaging a broader audience and especially a younger audience for whom a traditional opera might indeed be too much to sit through :)

Just in case one needs a reminder of the basic story line of this two-act Mozart's opera originally intended to have spoken dialogue as well, here is a link that has the original plot summary.

http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/356710/The-Magic-Flute

For the younger set, or those who want a simpler story line, here is a fun animated plot summary youtube video:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-laVXO0IYKY

The smaller venue and the intimate feel of Broad Stage is perfect for this vibrantly colorful and raucously joyful production of Mozart's Magic Flute by Isango Ensemble.  There is no substitute for being in the audience in a life performance, but one gets a sense of this production through these youtube videos.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G2am6PD7rbw for an official preview video.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dIdEIEhd2wQ for some behind the scenes and interview with director Mark Dornford-May.

Sung in a combination of languages including English and South African tongues, the arias remain in the original German. Some singers are stronger performers than others as this ensemble works with a variety of performers at different stages of professional development, but it is the combination of individual, choral and background voices, and all the dancing to the wonderfully mellow and never jarring musical score that sets this production apart and will be enjoyed by the whole family.

I would encourage families to see this even if this is their first opera experience.  Or especially for a first opera performance for younger children.

Unlike in traditional classical operas, where the lyrics or English translation is on a side screen or above the singers, this production provided a full plot summary and all translations and the full libretto.  At the Broad Stage on opening night, these were not handed to every patron but left available in the lobby.  I would suggest getting there earlier and reading through the 20-page program notes and lyrics and translation.  Since it is not always easier to hear all the words even when they are sung in English, a pre-reading and discussion with younger ones would be extremely helpful to help them follow the story.  The entire performance is almost two and a half hours with a 15-minute intermission.

If you have the opportunity and time to do so, always listen to the entire opera on CD or at least the main arias before you watch it being performed.  Here are two youtube videos of the famous aria sung by the Queen of the Night:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C2ODfuMMyss
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hqBwe9BCj4A

Isango Ensemble's Mozart's Magic Flute is a delightful change from any Magic Flute performances you have ever seen, so try to catch it while it is being performed in Santa Monica's Broad Stage. And you will remember this production long after you have seen it :)  For me, it is probably the most enjoyable, but then again, I am a cultural anthropologist who enjoys cultural translations :)

The last performance is on October 12, and tickets can be purchased here:

 http://www.thebroadstage.com/magic_flute/
Photo of the Queen of the Night comes from this link.

Parking is free in its lot.

Enjoy Los Angeles County Fair this Thursday 9/25 and Friday 9/26 on an educational fieldtrip before it closes on September 28, 2014

LA County Fair ends on August 28 this year, but the last day to go on an educational fieldtrip is this Friday, September 26.  But Thursday, September 25, happens to be a LAUSD non-instructional day, so join us on either Thursday or Friday for a free educational fieldtrip to LA COUNTY Fair with free admission and free parking.  Please contact me at reallykf@gmail.com if you would like to join us and can arrive between 9am to 11.30am before the educational entry gates are closed.  You may stay till closing time at 9pm  if you like. All parking details will be emailed to you if I confirm your participation.  Normal admission and parking costs can be found here:  http://www.lacountyfair.com/visit/get-started/ and if you have to go on another day, use promo code: AS110025 at http://sales.ticketcostars.com/lacf/Fair/tabid/1654/Default.aspx and save $7 on adult tickets.  Parking is normally $15 per vehicle.

We have been going to LA COUNTY FAIR almost every year, and, each year, there are new exhibits to add to our old favorites from the animal farms, railroad models and miniature trains, barn races, art exhibits and students' winning entries, horse-racing and horse shows, and, of course, all the goat-milking (which you can also do) and cow-milking demonstrations and acrobatic and entertaining shows.  We like to do the educational exhibits and farm shows or see blacksmiths and leathersmiths at work in the Heritage Mission in the morning before the public comes in at 11am, and then stay cool with inside art and car exhibits at the NHRA Motorsports Museum (free if you are with an educational fieldtrip) and acrobatic shows (this year, it is a Beijing troupe) within the shopping malls before doing rides when the sun is down and catch the evening shows such as  before going home ... and it is the only place we get huge barbecued turkey legs to share :)

Here is a downloadable map or you can get a hard copy as you enter:  http://www.lacountyfair.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/09/2014LACF_GroundsMap.pdf
and here are schedule of shows for both  this Thursday and Friday so you can play your day and minimize backtracking:

http://www.lacountyfair.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/09/9251thursday.pdf

http://www.lacountyfair.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/09/92614friday.pdf

Some Thursday excerpted schedules give you a sense of what you do at the Farm areas:

Aunt Cindi & Uncle Bob Ice Cream & Butter ALL DAY

Five-acre farm of specialty crops ALL DAY 

Extreme Equine Show 11:30 AM, 2:30, 4:30, 8 PM 

Barnyard Racers 1, 3, 5, 7, 9 PM

Magic Farm Science Show 1:30, 3:30, 5:30, 7:30 PM 

Chicken & Rabbit Talks 2:30, 6, 8 PM 

Thummer, Daisy & Lily Meet & Greets 

5:45, 6:45, 7:45 PM

ESMERALDA’S TRAVELING CIRCUS

presented by Circus Circus 

Circus School ALL DAY (you can learn how to juggle here!)

Esmeralda’s Traveling Circus ALL DAY

This End Up 1:30, 3:30, 7 PM

Aerial Arts Circus Show 2, 4, 6, 7:30, 9 PM

Venardos Circus 2:30, 6:30, 8:30 PM

Conjurer 3, 6, 8 PM

Mango and Dango 3, 8 PM (funny action comedy)

You might not expect to see underwater creatures, but  some of these shows are well worth seeing:

BENEATH THE SEA: AN UNDERWATER ADVENTURE

Beneath the Sea ALL DAY

Live Stingray Encounter ALL DAY

Sea Lion Splash 2:30, 6, 9:30 PM

Mermaid Linden 3, 4, 5, 6:30, 7:30, 8:30 PM

Live Shark Encounter 3:30, 7, 9 PM

Below are links to all the educational exhibits, and the new featured exhibit this year is:  Hall of Heroes and Luminasia.

http://www.lacountyfair.com/play/whats-new/

http://www.lacountyfair.com/play/hall-of-heroes/

Here's a description from the link above about the Hall of Heroes:

Your adventure begins at the “Identification Station” where you learn about the various kinds of Superpowers. You then travel through our towering Cityscape and into the various Galleries of Power. They are: “Powers of the Body”, “Powers of the Mind”, “Elements”, “Mastery”, Real Life Heroes”, Gadgets”, and the “Superhero Gallery”. In each gallery you will find dramatic artwork and interactive devices demonstrating the real life forces employed by your favorite Superheroes.

In Powers of the Body you can learn about radiation from a very angry Hulk, and test your strength, balance, and senses,  under the watchful eyes of Superman. Have your brain scrambled by the puzzles of the Riddler in Powers of the Mind. Test your reflexes and your skills with magic in Mastery. Elements will expose you to the shocking secrets of a Tesla Coil, and let you walk into a Tornado Chamber.

In Gadgets you can check out Dr. Who’s Tardis, and another iconic Time Travel vehicle, the DeLorean Time Machine from Back to the Future (don’t forget your Flux Capacitor). Batman is there with his cool Batcycle from the 1960s, although he is not happy about being given a ticket by a CHIPS Officer. Iron Man and Optimus Prime are also present, as a couple of examples of the ultimate in Gadgets. Across the hall in the Superhero Gallery is an assortment of Superhero Fine Art, along with Rubbings and Coloring Stations allowing you to create your own Superhero Art."

LUMINASIA is completely new and there is an additional fee to enter, and here is a description from the website:

Luminasia "lights up LACF’s hillside with a spectacular, larger-than-life Asian themed and whimsical lanterns. Each is hand-crafted and custom built using an ancient art form and 100 artisans from China. No exhibition of its kind has ever been seen in California, and it’s only here at LACF."

To see how Luminasia was planned and structures were created, see this link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PNaXGV6OeRY

To see what it looks like at the fair, here's a preview:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WyypRF9_5Uk
Luminasia admission fees:

Adult Admission	(ages 18+)	$9.00
Child Admission	(ages 6-17)	$5.00
Child Admission	(ages 5 and under)	Free

Most schools are unable to stay more than a few hours, but if you drive your own children or carpool with others, you can stay till closing time at 9pm if you arrive with an educational group between 9am and 11.30am.  It is a long day at the fair, but if you keep cool and rest in between walking and sit-down shows, it is completely doable even with kids :)

Other tips from many years of going to the fair:

Click on your specifc day to see the schedule of educational and entertaining shows for the day and many shows are presented twice or more a day. Allow extra time for children to go slower and enjoy what they see along the way.   However, if you have never been to the fair before, it is a good idea to plan out your route based on performance shows or demonstrations you want to catch. You can do that ahead of time with this online interactive map in the blue box above.

It is always hot at the fair, so plan any rides for after the sun has gone down when it is cool,  Bring hats and sunglasses and sunscreen ...and have plenty of water bottles.  I know there is good ice-cream opposite the cow-milking areas.

My best tip for managing the heat is to alternate between outdoor activities and indoor events in air-conditioned buildings - the art gallery, car museum and all the shopping areas as well as the garden/flower buildings.  Look at the map to see where things are and look at the schedule to see what times you want to be in a certain areas. 

Bring these to cool off:  a light-weight baby-stroller (lighter than a wagon) even if you don't have a toddler so you can carry ice-cold frozen waterbottles without breaking your back as well as any healthy snacks (although the turkey legs is really something if you are not vegetarian!).  Neckerchiefs or even paper towels that you can wet to cool off around the necks, or handheld battery-operated fans, or the watermisters for fun cooling,  

 When you first enter, you will be near Fairview Farms and you can see prize-winning 4-H animals, bee-exhibits and you can hang out near the FarmViews and Heritage Farm and Crafts earlier in the day if you are interested in all the animals' exhibit (don't miss the cow-milking by machine, goat-milking by hand, and pig races), and the air-conditioned America Kids Building where you get your read-to-ride tickets in the morning. For the horse lovers, you can see some horse shows near the farm area and you can also see real horse racing at the fair .. another place to cool off and rest :)

Oh, if your kids want to earn some free junior ride tickets for up to 8th grade, you can get up to 6 free tickets-to- ride by printing out this form:

http://www.lacountyfair.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/04/2014_ReadToRideProgram.pdf

By listing the titles of books your child have read this summer and making pictures reports (K-2nd) about them or brief book reports between 25-50 words depending on their grade.  They can type or write them .. and the retired teacher volunteers would sometimes ask them about the books they read  :) Bring the form and "book reports" to the counter near the entrance at America Kids and get the read-to-ride tickets.  This building also has all the winning art work worth looking at and also dress up and play areas.  See if your child's favorite books have special features and activities here .. don't miss the Magic Tree House Stage for some action:)

Wells Fargo provided a new educational resource on financial education called Hands-On Banking at different grade levels:

http://www.handsonbanking.org/htdocs/en/t/

To organize a trip for next year, here's where you can find Fairkids fieldtrips info: 

http://www.lacountyfair.com/learn/fairkids/

For curriculum connections, click on each topic below:

• America’s Kids
• Beneath the Sea
• California’s Heritage Square
• The Farm at Fairplex
• Flower & Garden Pavilion - this year the focus is on rainforests of China
• Historic Trains - see the real thing retired here and, yes, you can pull the whistle/horn!!
• Millard Sheets - art museum
• Mojo’s Wild & Crazy Lagoon
• Hall of Heroes – New!
• Wilderness Ridge - where you can see animal shows and learn about ecological conservation

Field Trip Resources

• Important Field Trip Information
• Scavenger Hunt
• Free Milk Coupon - if you wish to get free milk, each registered group can get milk for everyone in the group.
• FairKids Map
• Read to Ride Program - write-up 6 books you have read over the summer, and get 6 junior ride free
• Millard Sheets Tours - this is the art museum and this year, the exhibit is Mid-Centuy Art -  the retro, classic, and cool. Details at:  http://www.lacountyfair.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/04/2014_LACF_GuidedTours_LetterToSchool.pdf

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The official address of the fair is:

1101 W McKinley Ave

Pomona, CA 91768 But Gate 9 in the BLUE GATE area is off WHITE AVE if you are doing a homeschooler/private school fieldtrip. http://www.fairplex.com/fp/company/groundsmaps/index.html is a good map to orient yourself and you can see WHITE AVE and GATE 9 as well as the freeways. I would gps the intersection of McKinley and White Ave unless you see a closer route from the freeway you are taking.  This map is interactive so you can click on each named areas.