Tito's son, Declan, came along and played with Becca and Evee at the playground while we talked. Unfortunately, we didn't have the clearest directions as to where we would meet and hooked up later than we wanted to, which didn't leave much time for an interview. But Tito and Declan came along to my school assembly, so we got to hang out and talk a lot more before and after that. He's a really great guy and we very much enjoyed the chance to get to know him better. Once again, the interview will be over at my CoolTunesForKids.com blog at some point in the semi-near future, once I can get everything transcribed.
The assembly was part of a pep rally of sorts for a school of 2-6 graders, encouraging them to do their best on their upcoming tests. I did my "Say Yes!!! to Life" program, which includes a lot of the fun and interactive songs that I would do for a normal concert show, but which has a theme and some talking point segments about how we are what we eat, do, say, think and ultimately choose in life, and how those choices affect us and others. I was asked to add in some encouragement for studying and doing well on the upcoming tests, so I added some emphasis on that to the "you are what you do" and "you are what you choose" segments, about how being prepared ahead of time helps us be ready for facing whatever comes at us in life, and how the better our grades are, the more opportunities and choices we'll have for what we want to do with our lives. I realized later that I should probably just keep that stuff in the show, anyway. That program has become pretty solidly scripted at this point, but I'm always happy to tweak things or add things that can make the message or performance stronger.
The students were very enthusiastic and were already quite keyed up from the pre-assembly rally stuff they did, so in one sense that's great because they were already in a receptive mood before I started, but it also took longer than usual to quiet them all down after each song. Of all the shows I've done the past few years where I've ended with "This Little Light of Mine" (which is many of them), I don't know that I've ever heard an audience sing along as loudly as this group did. I stopped singing after a while and let them take it themselves and it sounded really nice. After the show, several students came up to meet me and one of them asked me if I was really related to Dr. Seuss. Apparently, some kid was going around telling everybody that I was. To set the record straight, no, I am not related to Mr. Geisel (aka Seuss), though I certainly hope I have some of the same spirit.
From Napa we drove over to Fairfield, where we met with a good friend of Roseann's named Harli. Harli is a unique kind of artist, and one of the things she specializes in is custom My Little Ponies, with some decorative paint jobs and accessories. Of course, my girls were very interested in checking out her very large collection, but we were careful to make a distinction between "looking at" ponies and "playing with" ponies (which included one each that Harli gave to the girls). We also liked meeting Harli's four cats, three rats, cockatiel and fishes.
From there we drove a few hours to a KOA in Visalia, CA, where we spent the night.
With Tito Uquillas at the park...
At the school assembly...
Becca and Evee showing off their new Hipwaders shirts and Ponies...
A picture Tito took of us in front of the bus...
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