A Year of Change...April 25th, 2002 marked the one-year anniversary of the purchase of our home on Orville Street. Since then, our lives have been in constant flux... but it's been a GOOD amount of flux. Let's see if we can cover all the bases in five pages of text...James Accepted by the Harrison Math & Science Academy!Apparently, “normal” has not often been a word strongly associated with Sloth, and the same is true for his 8-year old son James. To insure that the synapses of his brain do not go fallow, he is now enrolled in a Grand Rapids Public Academy to take advantage of his two favorite subjects: math and science. Harrison offers hands-on lab work and an expanded science curriculum that carries over into every other school subject, such as writing, reading, and art. The added bonus is that James will be learning with children with similar interests. We are all very excited about these developments... especially James! More to come...Heather Leigh Marie Ford Enters the World!
We mentioned in our last newsletter that Heather (alias: Heather Leigh Marie Ford) was to be born in late May or June... and by now we have received numerous emails and phone calls demanding an update. Our answer: YES, Heather was taking her sweet time in her long consideration as to whether or not to exit the womb, and so on Memorial Day weekend we began the procedure for inducement. After a (relatively short) active labor, many laps around the maternity ward, back massaging, and the support of a myriad of close friends and family, Heather finally brought her fussy little self into existence around 4:10pm on May 26th. At the time of birth, she weighed in at 9 pounds one ounce, and was more than 20 inches in length!
The pregnancy was fairly textbook, and both mother and baby are very healthy. At this point, Heather is consuming a Similac/Gerber 
Rice cereal mix, since she is so hungry and working hard on growing! Already she is wearing outfits meant for a 3-6 month old; it seems she is chasing on the heels of our super-sized eight year old, James! Her brother, meanwhile, has been a HUGE help, taking on a share of the chores around the house and keeping Heather safe when we drive to the store.
Right: Lorrie Lewis, Steph’s best friend, was obviously rather upset at having the opportunity to be the assistant nurse for the delivery. Does her supervisor know how many times she snuck back in to check up on us? |
[Unpublished website; email us for link] If you do not have access to the internet and you would like to receive a copy of the site text and photos, please feel free to contact us and we'll send a copy off to you. Kate Rusby LIVE...In April we visited The Ark in Ann Arbor once again to witness a spritely, curly-haired Kate Rusby perform with husband John McCusker in a stripped-down trio, playing traditional celtic folk music, Kate Rusby originals, and covers (such as the work of Richard Thompson). Kate’s very British, understated humor was wonderfully entertaining, and Sloth was blown away by John’s incredible versatility with the tin whistle, fiddle, and guitar. Due to Kate’s fear of flying, this was only her second visit to the States, and needless to say she was heartily welcomed by an appreciate Ark crowd clamoring for more. Only second to the music and performance itself were highly amusing anecdotes in-between numbers, relating to everything from alcohol bribery to melted sack lunches to foiled attempts at meeting Janet Jackson in Canada. A delicious dinner at local favorite eatery Ali Baba topped off our visit. Thanks, Kate!
Operation: Snow Weasel - Global Takeover Temporarily Put on Hold...Yes, the hardy, stalwart minions of Operation: Snow Weasel have mutiny and dissolution on their hands. Thrill to the final (???) episode of the original cast of the Snow Weasels as they take on... THEMSELVES! And from the ashes comes a new Project, a new cast... and even more deranged and silly stories courtesy the sick and twisted fellows at The Underground. JOIN THE DARK SIDE at...http://www.slothwerks.com/snowweasel/ |
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MS 150 Bike-a-Thon a Record-Breaking Success!
Winnie-the-Pooh Takes to the Stage!In May, Sloth, Steph, and James visited the Civic Theatre in Grand Rapids to watch the A.A. Milne co-written stage adaptation of "Winnie-the-Pooh". Local talents and young kids alike all played the various parts of Milne's well-known stories about a boy and his stuffed animal world. Ace Reporter Sloth Silius, after an evening at the bar getting over his aggression concerning the newest Star Wars film, traveled to The Underground to interview James, who by now has seen virtually every Pooh-oriented commercial video released by Disney.SLOTH SILIUS: What did you think of the play? JAMES MATTHEW: I think it was a lot of fun to see Winnie-the-Pooh being played right in front of me, instead of seeing it in a movie. SS: What do you think was the biggest difference between the live stage presentation versus the animated shows on TV? JM: Seeing it on stage was really cool, because I got to ask [the cast] how they did everything in the play [at the very end of the performance]. SS: But that was after the whole play was over. During the performance, what was different from the TV shows you've seen? |
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JM: In TV, you sometimes see things that people can't really do, but on stage you see that they really can do things. Like Pooh on his balloon way up in the air [an effect created by using a puppet version of Pooh], and the bunnies doing tricks like front flips and jumping around. SS: A second ago you mentioned that the characters on TV can do things that real people can't do. Does that mean that the TV shows are better? JM: No, in the play you had real people moving and talking and singing, and in the animated TV shows you only have the animation and then the voices. SS: So it was cooler having real people in front of you performing. It was more real. JM: Yes. SS: And there you have it. Reality is STILL cooler than TV. THE UNDERGROUND Still (Proudly) a Paper-Based Publication!In the same spirit that allows us to proudly code The Sloth Underground website in HTML v3.2, we remain staunch in our (strangely odd) opposition to the digital age by continuing to mail out the paper-based UNDERGROUND newsletter to more than 120 recipients two to three times a year. However, we understand that some of our recipients do NOT understand us, and thus if you or someone you know would like to receive our newsletter via email (as a link to the HTML version on slothwerks.com), let us know...www.slothwerks.com slothwerks_productions@yahoo.com NEW MUSIC NEW MUSIC NEW MUSICDue to constraints on our budgeting here at the Underground, we have not been purchasing many new compact discs for our listening pleasure. Instead, quite often, we rely on our nifty vinyl and cassette transfers (The Best of the Dream Academy - bet you don’t have THAT one on your shelf!). But we pause now to review two discs we just HAD to acquire...Sade Lovers Live - Sade Adu & Co. take their sweet time (read: 6+ years) releasing new albums, but this compilation of live tunes follows up the recently released Lovers Rock LP to take advantage of the latter album’s popularity. The live set is excellent: a wonderful collection of both new tunes and old (“Jezebel”, “Is it a Crime”). The emphasis is, of course, on her more recent work in the 90’s, with the majority of the LP dedicated to the Lovers Rock and Love Deluxe LPs. It takes a bit of time for the band to get up to speed (is Ms. Adu actually off-key on the first couple cuts???), but in the end they deliver KILLER renditions of “Paradise” and “Is It a Crime”. Although I personally enjoy her older work more than her more recent releases, Sade has proven again that it doesn’t take a strip-tease and choreographed dance numbers to create sensuality and elegance. Bravo! Moby 18 - Again, as one of Moby’s most ardent fans, I allow myself the luxury of being able to heavily critique his recent work without sounding biased nor ignorant. 18 follows the hit smash Play on the label V2, which rescued him when Mute, Instinct, and Elektra turned their heads. On this album, we hear an artist who has gone from underground house and rave to punk metal to electronica ambient to popular rock, and he is *still* searching. The words written casually in the liner note essays (a tradition for more than half a decade) are much more personal, frank, and humble than they have been in the past, and the music we find on the disc is light, airy, and sparse, as opposed to killer techno releases such as the Move EP. We have very well-written vocal pieces such as “The Great Escape” alongside the usual gospel-blues re-treads for which he became famous on Play (“In This World”, “At Least We Tried”) and hip-hop remixes (“Jam For the Ladies”). Moby has described this as his “chill-out” album... and that it is. But he has released entire CD’s of this kind of stuff before (ie, “Little Idiot”), and the question in my mind is: is Moby merely a crafty re-interpreter of others’ work (ie, a DJ remixer, as he was originally) or a “music artist” in his own right? Only Moby will be able to answer this question... on his next album. |