Dance Recital?

A few weeks ago when my son's school schedule came out for the month, we noticed a dance recital was planned for the end of January. What could that be we wondered? Not once did Pete ever mention he was dancing.

The day came and Deb and I go off to school where we met up with a number of other parents. The teachers move us into the gym, where we see the kids.

The show begins by them doing a number of exercises to limber up. Okay I thought this is going to be a glorified PT class set to music. But nope. Once they finish stretching they line up ala chorus line and the music begins. But before that the dance instructor lets us know that this is a dance routine from Christmas that the kids did for the rest f the school. Rather than coming up with a new routine, she felt it easier for them to dance the Christmas dance.

They do 3 routines and each time a new line takes the front so I guess all the parents have a good shot of their kid in the front row. Finally once the dancing was over they all went thru a gymnastics routine where they bounce on a trampoline then a few tumbles, and finally a gallop around the gym. It all ends up with them saying goodbye to us and then lining up and back to the classroom. All in all it was pretty cute. enjoy the pics -

My Band Dayz and Project 19 Benefit

Hi,

It was prolly more than 20 years ago when a bunch of guys (me included) from the neighborhood started goofing around in the rock/heavy metal band scene. From there is became sorta serious for some and very serious for others. Other guys from New Dorp High School band classes also formed bands. During it's heyday in the late 70's -early 80's there was prolly 12-15 bands playing around city. We were all friends and even when the lineups changed we all had a good time.

Fast forward to last year (2007) when former band mate Steve Line had the idea of getting everyone, or as many of the guys as he could track down, together for a reunion. He did a tremendous job and managed to get about 25 of us to meet up at Coles Dockside restaurant. It was a very nice place with good food. But it wasn't about the food, but the guys that many of us - me included - hadn't seen each other in years. I got to see everyone again including Tommy Papanier who was a very good friend while we were kids. Towards the end of my "career" playing music we were in different bands and we slowly lost contact with each other. Thanks to Steve we found out that we live only a few dozen blocks from each other.

I was also surprised (I don't know why) to learn that I was pretty much the only guy who had given up music. Everyone was either still playing or was in some other aspect of the music industry - one guy had a few albums under his belt! During the evening Steve unveiled another idea he had. This was to put everyone together on one stage for one big benefit concert. Plans quickly progressed. Since I hadn't played in all that time I had to decline the invitation to play in the benefit (tho I would have loved to do it!). Ever since the reunion I've been thinking of buying another guitar and amp and having some fun. Who knows... maybe I'll be asked again somewhere down the line.

Forward again to early this year (2008). Steve, true to his word, has gotten the guys together in Project 19 for a benefit concert. They will be performing at the College of Staten Island, Concert Hall, 2800 Victory Blvd., Staten Island NY. The monies from the benefit concert will go towards Nalitt Institute for Cancer and Blood Related Diseases. Call 718-982-2787 for tickets.

I urge anyone in the NY/NJ metro area to make the call and get tickets.

If you are not local but would still like to donate - checks should be made payable to Staten Island University Hospital Systems Inc. (Memo section on check: Nalitt Fundraiser 2008) 256-C Mason Ave., Staten Island, NY 10305-3498.

This is my first posting so I'll start off by saying hi, while I fgure out how all this works.