25 March 2009

There is a time for everything


Bright sun.
Baby blue skies.
Thick blanket of white snow.
Thin bare trees blocking the horizon nonetheless.
Babbling stream wandering aimlessly through the middle of nowhere.
It is indeed postcard-perfect.

BUT IT IS FRIGGIN' MARCH 25 ALREADY!

13 March 2009

Birthday Presents 2009


Friday the 13th







07 March 2009

Party Starts - TG's 90th Anniversary - Saturday, 17.00











Click here to see the official pictures of the Saturday afternoon gala concert. They include some of Tapa's own beautiful people, including one whole family of musicians. The MC Tanel Saar is a graduate of Tapa Gümnaasium and a relatively successful stage actor. Later in the evening, I drank Russian vodka with the guy on the right.






















































Registration - TG's 90th Anniversary - Saturday, 15.00












The Friday night concert was repeated Saturday afternoon. Click here for the official pictures. All of the concerts were masterfully organized by Sirie Sell, who is director of Tapa's youth folk dance troupe and adult folk dance troupe (and one of my drinking buddies).



06 March 2009

Opening Consert - TG's 90th Anniversary - Friday, 18.00




Click here for the official photographs of the Friday evening concert. This 2nd grader, the son of a math teacher, had the initiative to write and the spunk to recite a poem about Tapa Gümnaasium. We all applauded; his mother cried. After the consert, there was a reception for retired teachers. God bless them.






Final Preparations - TG's 90th Anniversary - Friday, 8.30






















05 March 2009

90th Anniversary - Tapa Gümnaasium - Thursday, 20.00



Tapa Gümnaasium began its 90th anniversary celebration tonight with a disco in the school auditorium. Clap off. Clap on. The strobe light, that is. I was on the verge of an epileptic seizure sitting in the auditorium, near an open window, watching the kids dance. It makes everyone look like they are moving really fast. Turn it off and it looks like everyone is stuck in some vortex the crew of the Enterprise encountered. Add trance music loud enough that it drowns out passing freight trains less than a block away and you know why it is difficult for 15-year-olds to sit quietly through seven classes a day five days in a row.
















One of Tapa Gümnaasium's - dare I say - most famous alumni is Priit Pärn, who drew a cartoon characteristic of his style for the commemorative t-shirts that will be sold during the anniversary. Pärn's recent film Life without Gabriella Ferri won the Scottish Leader Estonian Film Award at the 2008 Tallinn Black Nights Film Festival. Pärn was there in the Russian Theatre to accept the award with co-director Olga Pärn. I was there, too, and I was struck by how short Pärn is. He appeared to be sort of a Truman Capote-like character.