Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: THURSDAY, July 27, 1995 TAG: 9507270095
SECTION: EXTRA PAGE: 1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: CHRIS HENSON
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
And if that doesn't scare you, there'll be mimes. MIMES, I tell you! Mimes lassoing people with invisible rope, mimes climbing stairs that aren't there, mimes trapped in imaginary boxes pushing silently with the palms of their blanched hands against walls of air, mimes sporting Mork and Mindy rainbow suspenders and black leotards and walking, leaning into a fierce wind that simply does not exist!
Dial 9-1-1!
Or grab the nearest impressionable youth and come on down for Kids' and Teens' Day on the Roanoke City Market this Sunday from 1 to 5 pm. It's a festival of art and activities aimed at young people and there'll be plenty to do.
V Magazine, in conjunction with the Teen Center, has taken its regular Sunday Art event and added balloons, a hula-hoop competition, storytelling, a petting zoo, jump-rope games and a children's parade. Kids are encouraged to bring bikes, tricycles and wagons to decorate.
There will be regional artists with their work, a mask and puppet exhibition, and a performance by the Mill Mountain Theatre Youth Camp. The Art Museum of Western Virginia will supply its Art Van. Plenty of sidewalk art and an interactive children's nest.
But, I can hear you now. ``Golly,'' you say, ``it sounds like a blast if you're a little kid, but my child's a little old for that stuff.''
Well, I have two syllables for you: ``Skateboards!''
That's right. The Greenhouse Skateboard Shop of Blacksburg and Roanoke will erect a set of ramps in the square for an all-out skateboarding demonstration. ``We'll have some of the area's top riders,'' says Daniel Johnson of the Greenhouse. ``And we'll have a pro rider, Ben Mullen, from Roanoke.''
Johnson explains that a rider becomes a professional skateboarder in sort of the same way a golf player becomes a pro. ``Ben hooked up with some board manufacturers, sent them a video of his skating. Then he won some competitions in Florida.''
Skating demos are nothing new for the Greenhouse. ``There are lots of professional teams that tour the country,'' Johnson says. ``When they come through here we try to book them for a show. We usually have two or three a summer.''
Sunday's demo will feature fast action, thrilling acrobatics and fancy stuff from a group aged 17 to 20.
Did I mention music?
The Roanoke County Teen Center on Brambleton Avenue has a roster of young bands that play occasionally at the center. Two of those bands, Monkey Trick and Depressed Flowers, will be performing downtown on Sunday. Randy Boush, director of the center, says the bands have been a great way to get in touch with area kids.
``You can't always talk to kids like you would with adults,'' says Boush. ``We have about 20 bands that play every once in a while. It's pretty popular, really brings them out.''
Billy Chase, guitarist and singer for Monkey Trick, is a quiet and clean-cut guy. He's 17 and has played music for about four years, most recently for a band called Slap Happy. He says his new band is sort of poppy, grungy and very energetic. ``We jump around a lot,'' says Chase.
I tell him he seems like a calm guy just sitting down. ``There are two sides to everybody,'' he says.
The band plays some cover tunes by Nirvana and Sonic Youth. ``We have about six originals we play pretty well,'' says Chase, ``and I hope we can learn a couple more for Sunday.'' Joining him are Shawn Ricci on bass and Matt Coleman on drums.
Depressed Flowers is a four-piece band featuring Patrick Henry High School students Tre' Missimer, Billy Blackburn and Rob McLean and Joe Lunsford, who attends James Madison Middle School. They're an alternative band, too, with some punk thrown in.
So go find a kid; you've probably got a couple lying around the house, maybe in front of the TV or under the sink. Pull 'em by the ear, throw 'em in the car and get 'em down to the market. There's something for everybody. It's free, for Pete's sake. It's the quality part of quality time.
There's gonna be KIDS, and that starts with "K" and that rhymes "A" and that stands for ART.
And when you do come down, bring some real rope and maybe an old refrigerator box or two and give those mimes something concrete to work with.
by CNB