journal features

a barbeque

the journal of Michael Werneburg

twenty-seven years and one million words

Tokyo, 2010.05.29

Today we went to a barbeque. Kenny enjoyed the day, but perhaps he enjoyed nothing more than .. helium?

The event was put on by the Tokyo Canadian Club, and hosted at the residence of the Canadian ambassador (though the ambassador didn't attend). It was a networking event, more than anything, and while there were things for the older children to do there wasn't much for young kids like Kenny and we spent most of our time entertaining him. One treat was a helium balloon.

Naturally, I couldn't let that go without, at the end of the day, showing Kenny the effect that helium has on your voice.

He *loved* it. Hearing me speak with a different voice clearly surprised him because he looked at me like the whole world was going upside down. But then he started to laugh and asked me to do it again and again.

rand()m quote

Immature poets imitate mature poets steal bad poets deface what they take and good poets make it into something better or at least something different. The good poet welds his theft into a whole of feeling which is unique utterly different than that from which it is torn the bad poet throws it into something which has no cohesion. A good poet will usually borrow from authors remote in time or alien in language or diverse in interest.

—T.S. Eliot