jr. high talent show

bridgemont's talent show was the place to be this friday night.

anything is possible at a talent show: the performers could dazzle themselves unexpectedly with their charisma on stage; they could execute with perfection the routine practiced for so many hours or choke. junior high and high school are hard enough without the latter option sullying their careers of academia. while i find great disdain in sentimentality itself, i sometimes feel consumed by something akin to it, but tend to regard it as great emotion on behalf of others.

like tonight a sixth grader who had only been playing the clarinet for a year went on stage. he began hooting out the tune "jingle bells," but his furtive eyes did not concentrate on the music below, instead scanning the audience, and likewise tripping up his notes along the way if a twitter of conversation or noise was perceived. during a dreadfully long moment, where it seemed as if all may be lost, as if he had thrown in the towel after a wrong direction, an unspoken "that's all folks," i almost started crying. tears sprang into my eyes and my head kept nodding up and down, as if through body language i could convince this kid to keep going, "you're almost at home base." and thankfully he hooted out the end quickly and sailed into the next piece which came off easier than the first.

other notable acts tonight included: a rap on "vegan nutrition," a native american dance, river dance (costume resplendent with a most excellent curly wig that bobbed rhythmically when the young dancer bounced up and down- almost hypnotizing me), a filipino dance with moving bamboo rods tapping the ground and several performances of spoken word poetry. only in san francisco does a talent show engage culture and environmental choices so completely.

(i know if there was a rap done about food in texas it would involve the almighty cow- oh wait, maybe that's india too...)