William Horberg

The Guacamole of His Deception

Diego usually does not like going to the movies in a theater.

I get where he is coming from. Too loud. Too unpredictable. Too much sensory input. Too much stimulation, even for people not on the autism spectrum.

So imagine our surprise when he went to see the new animated film "Rango" when it opened a few weeks ago, and then asked if he could go back and see it again!

I'm not sure what about this film in particular motivated him to brave the loud, dark environment of the cinema, but we wanted him to have a positive experience to build on, so we outfitted him with a pair of nice, big, enveloping noise-reduction headphones for the occasion.

He sat in my lap most of the time, and he really felt the movie on a visceral level; every car crash or chase or explosion seemed to ripple through his body. But he had a great time and left smiling.

I expected the second time around to be easier and more comfortable for him, but I brought the headphones along knowing this buffer had made it an easier sensory experience. Instead, although he had initiated the plan, by the time we got to the theater he was quite nervous. He asked over and over if we were going to see "Rango"; I knew he was afraid of seeing "Hop" or "Rio" or some of the other films that he loves watching the trailers for, but when asked if he wants to go and see he always quickly and emphatically says "NO!".

In fact I was a bit worried about what trailers they might show in front of the movie, and whether any would be too scary for him, and the little man was thinking the same thing, as his anticipation and anxiety mounted as we sat in the theater waiting for the show to start.

"I'm scared, Dad" he said, and I offered that we could leave any time he wanted, or we could go into the lobby and look at the posters, and then come back if he preferred. The brave little guy definitely wanted to stick it out, but by the time the movie began he was shaking.

"I'm too scared", he said again, as the Armadillo lay in the middle of the highway and beckoned the lizard to follow his own hero's journey, guided by the Spirit of the West. But he once again refused to leave, and I wanted him to work it out himself if he would stay or go.

With a literate and witty script by John Logan that sees the lizard become a real hero by taking on the role and pretending to be the fake sheriff of the community, and, as the singing Mariachi Owls put it "Sinking deeper into the guacamole of his own deception" as the story unfolds, I suddenly saw Diego's experience in terms of Rango's own mythic journey.

Diego was the one who was reinventing himself in the shoes of a typically developing child; he was the one putting on a brave face and going forth to confront his fears, and by the end of the movie, like Rango, he had fully embraced the Spirit of the West himself and was standing in the aisle of the theatre dancing along to the upbeat Tex-Mex swing of the beautiful hand drawn animated title sequence end credits. 

Rang-ooooo!

Dieg-ooooo!

Enjoy!

william

My Birthday Wish

I don't remember what I wanted for my birthday back on March 2, 1965 when I was Diego's age.

Probably a new Casterman edition oversize book of Herge's Adventures of Tintin!

(I'm the guy in the blue blazer with the big ears!).

But I have a pretty strong idea of what would make me tickled pink this year!

As long time readers of my blog know, Elsa and I have been participating in Autism Speaks "Walk Now For Autism" for the last several years to raise money and awareness for children who have been diagnosed on the autism spectrum to get the help and support they need and deserve.

As budget cuts across the country take a hard toll on states and counties and cities and all of the public institutions that have been set up and dedicated to providing that often life-saving or life-altering support for children with special needs, who are the most vulnerable among us, the work of an organization like Autism Speaks has never been more critical.

For my birthday wish today, won't you please consider joining us in spirit and making a generous donation to Autism Speaks in the name of our 2011 Walk Team this year - "Diego's Friends".

It is as simple as clicking:  http://www.walknowforautismspeaks.org/losangeles/williamhorberg 

We've set a goal to raise $20,000 for the Walk on April 23rd and we are already almost a quarter of the way to our goal thanks to the amazingly generous support of people like you.

Thanks!

william

Smilla's Sense of Snow

I love Natalie's sense of humor. It is an innate gift, like "Smilla's Sense of Snow".

She has a talent for creating cute characters and for simple gags and non-verbal storytelling and inventing surreal situations. We got her this book "Adventures in Cartooning" by my friend James Sturm who started and runs the College of Cartoon Studies in Vermont and she seems to have taken to the concepts like a fish to water.

This one might be called: 'Hey, did you hear the one about the hamburger, the ice cream cone and the little peas?"

But she calls it "Little Sandwich".

I love the befuddled expressions on the food when they are confronted with this stranger Carrot, and that his fellow vegetables, the little peas, are the ones who initiate the other's acceptance of him. And who is that mysterious hand who delivers the bag that puts the carrot in with these buddies in the first place?

Of course where Natalie treads, Diego, not always, but often, follows. Out of the blue the little man handed me his own drawing yesterday, and I was surprised to see him imitating the panel format and gag structure of a classic cartoon!

I have a feeling this one, which I think can be translated to - "Fred Lost In Soup" illustrated by Elizabeth Hocks - is inspired by one of the funny web videos he often googles and watches on YouTube. But the "2 Days Later" transition panel he created to the boy sitting at his desk and then standing up and yelling really cracks him up, and is a wonderful piece of sequential storytelling for a young boy on the autistic spectrum who is just figuring out time sequencing and cause and effect.

I love how Natalie and Diego's journeys can be so different but somehow they arrive at the same smiling place!

Enjoy!

william

A Most Unusual Concert

Last weekend our family had a chance to attend a unique and wonderful event - the west coast premiere of the Music for Autism concert series, which was sponsored by and took place at The Help Group in Sherman Oaks.

Diego had never been to a concert, so he wasn't too excited when we proposed the idea to him. Typically, we like to help him transition by explaining things in great detail beforehand to him, and getting him used to the idea. So we got there early and as one of the first families to arrive he had a chance to check out the place and get comfortable with this new environment.

Big sister Natalie is the most important person in Diego's life and his best friend and teacher, so having her along for the experience already got him in the mood to have a good time.

It was billed as an "interactive" concert, so we weren't exactly sure what to expect, but I've been to a few Harlem Globetrotter games in my day, so I had visions of flying trombones and tambourines on a yo-yo string!

Two amazing musicians, violinists Searmi Parks and Sarah Thornblade of the Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra, volunteered their time and talent and hearts to come and play for this most unusual and most spirited audience. 

The rules laid down for the assembled families were the opposite of any classical concert I've ever attended.

1) When the song ends, NO CLAPPING! Sudden outbreaks of applause tend to startle autistic children. Instead, we were taught to show our appreciation by raising our hands and bringing our fingers down to our palms like we were squeezing a small ball, in a form of SILENT CLAPPING that was somehow even more demonstrative than the real thing.

2) When the musicians are playing, ANYTHING GOES! The kids were encouraged to participate and express themselves in any form they chose, from singing to dancing to marching or any other idea they could imagine!

It only took a downbeat and the first few bars of Mozart for these two gents to leap to their feet and get this party started!

Diego didn't get it at first, but once he saw those kids jump up and dance, he was like a born-again in a revival tent, and he immediately got out on the dance floor and convinced our host and emcee to help lift him up for a series of high leaps into the air. Amadeus must have been smiling up there to see his music so physically celebrated!

Our unflappable violinists took it all in stride and rather than being distracted by the whirlwind of activity flowing around them, they seemed to feed off it and take that Baroque bounce to a whole other level!

Part two of the concert had the kids learning to conduct, and it was a thing of beauty to see their attempts to keep time to the music - a 3/4 Waltz no less!

This young Toscanini was determined to make sure they stayed on beat so he got right up in front and held his little stick up to conduct his own symphony of sound.

There was not a dry eye in the house as the joy and spirit of the music lifted even the most low-functioning or behaviorally-challenged kids into a place of liberation and transcendence.

The third part of the show was "Percussion Time" and the fact that I have no photos to share of that wild jungle explosion of ear-splitting rhythm gives you some indication of just how off-the-hook this concert, and these cool kids, got!

Thanks to the promoters of Music For Autism and to The Help Group and Searmi and Sarah for making such beautiful music together!

Enjoy!

william 

We Are All Made of Stars

Last week's holiday break from school (budget-mandated furlough days have turned the Thanksgiving holiday into a full week off for Los Angeles Unified School District students) turned out to be the perfect opportunity for us to take our astronaut-in-training Diego on his first visit to one of our favorite places - the old Griffith Park Observatory.

Budget cuts have also mandated that this magical facility is now closed on Monday and Tuesday. Which just means that this popular destination is even more crowded on the remaining days when it is open.

We got there early, and the weather was glorious. The welcoming statue of Galileo, Kepler, Copernicus, Newton and other luminaries of astronomy was practically glowing.

The kids were fascinated by the domes that house the telescope and the planetarium. Diego had made a drawing at home in anticipation of the visit, and he clutched his paper sketch of the solar system with him wherever he went that day.

You didn't even need the deco-looking telescope to have a clear view of downtown!

In these days when the value of government, the public sector, the New Deal, and the middle class are all under vicious attack, it was a potent reminder of what we are capable of and can aspire to, to visit this wonderful public space built in the middle of the great Depression which has educated and entertained generations of visitors and been a source of pride and identification for the community.

 

Look at the many intricate details that went into its design and construction.

A copper plate on the front walk shows the relative distance of the planets' orbit around the sun. The orbit for Pluto is marked by a small plaque many meters away from this one. Unfortunately, Pluto has been downgraded to a dwarf planet in 2006, so this particular feature is now anachronistic.

Diego was really excited that his Grandmother was in town and could join him for this maiden voyage in Space! The planetarium show with its kicked-back reclining seats and magical star show overhead was just as cool as when Nick Ray filmed his version of it back in the 1950's with James Dean and Sal Mineo and the rest of the cast of "Rebel Without A Cause".

I was worried that the sensory overload of the swirling stars and shifting perspective on the Domed ceiling might be too much for our little rebel's autistic temperament, but he literally was in Heaven, amongst the constellations and the artist's imagined view of the underwater volcanoes of Jupiter's moon Europa in the sky show film about the search for Water and Life on other planets.

"No one can stop us now, 'cause we are all made of stars"

Enjoy!

william

 

Tina Fey Wrote This Book For Me

Usually when someone says the exact opposite of what they mean, we presume they are a politician.

But it is wonderful to see Diego's mind grappling with grammar and starting to speak in more complete sentences, even if the meaning sometimes takes a little decoding.

"You're going to miss me" is true, but it often means "I'm going to miss you" too. Or when Diego told the babysitter the other night "You really like me, sir", everyone understood that he was saying "I really like you, Miss".

They say that imitation is the sincerest form of flattery, so Natalie should be flattered that Diego has suddenly and spontaneously followed her into the realm of writing and drawing and self-publishing books.

Grabbing some paper and pencil the other day he disappeared into the kitchen and came back a few minutes later with a book!

His latest creation is "The Little Leaf by Tina Fey".

When he came in and surprised us with this handmade gem, he very sincerely let us know that "Tina Fey wrote this book for me. She's always writing children's books when I was a little girl."

The Little Leaf by Tina Fey

Hmm. I love dinner.

Where is Mindpen.

Hmm. Outside.

I hear you.

The End

I was curious who Mindpen was, and Diego clarified that Mindpen is The Little Leaf's pet dog.

Diego doesn't watch "30 Rock" but he has discovered the power of Google and has taught himself to read and write, and he is the master of searching for trailers of new kid's movies on the computer.

Tina Fey's role as the voice of Roxanne Ritchi in the new Dreamworks movie "Megamind" seems to be Diego's latest creative muse and inspiration.

Placing himself squarely in the Dadaist tradition of Tristan Tzara or the literary practitioner's of the "cut-up" technique like William Burroughs, Diego's imaginative exploration of the malleability of language feels like part of an overall creative explosion he is experiencing, as he moves from the more typical autistic expression of "scripting" (or memorizing and repeating text verbatim, from a movie or tv show for instance) to a more richly expressive and personal creative dialogue with the world.

We see it in kindergarten, in his art class, and in general.

Go, Diego, Go!

(And thanks, Tina Fey, for being so inspiring to my son!)

william

 

Imaginary Play

One hallmark of children with autism is that some things that come as second nature to most kids need to be broken down into their smallest component parts and taught to a child on the spectrum. 

Imaginary play - imitating things, recreating experiences, becoming someone else, assigning feelings to inanimate objects - is a crucial part of the developmental process that needs to be manufactured therapeutically when it doesn't occur organically.

Diego has been working hard in his therapy this year and it has been beautiful to see the explosion that has been happening in his imagination.

Take our conversation yesterday morning when he came to me with this object:

"Hey, do you want some cheese juice?"

"What is that?"

"Why don't you try my Super Cheese Drinker 3000?"

"What are those green things?"

"You can drink from the straw - or you can drink right from the cup and these things protect your cheeks."

"Mmmmmm. Delicious cheese juice."

What was great about his creation was that something so original and funny actually had a strong real-world connection. Elsa just recently bought a juice-making machine and has been experimenting with a Raw diet and all kinds of blended drinks. Unbeknownst to us, Diego has, in his own quiet way, been watching and noticing all of the fruit and vegetable concoctions whirring to life in the kitchen, and out of the blue decided to take matters into his own hands and build a better mousetrap!

For those of you wondering about the Red band near the bottom of the cheese-colored machine, obviously you've never tasted strawberries in your cheese juice!

As we quietly finished our healthy breakfast of cheese juice and strawberries, Diego had the last word with one of his characteristic and favorite expressions:

"This is the best day ever!"

Nothing imaginary about that!!

Enjoy!

william

Remarkable Me

It has been a few years since I went inside a movie theatre. In fact, I think the last movie I saw that was not at home on a dvd was when my Dad took Natalie and I to a screening of Beverly Hills Chihuahua.

It is not unusual for kids like me on the autism spectrum to find the experience of watching movies in a theatre overwhelming. The sound and lights and crowd combine for a sensory overload, and we get really disregulated.

The last time Mom and Dad tried to take me to see a movie was when we were in Chicago visiting my Grandmother. I really, really, really wanted to see the movie "Up". In fact, I had been seeing billboards for "Up" everywhere we drove in Los Angeles. I had even seen the trailer for "Up" many times on YouTube. But when we got into the lobby of the theatre for showtime, I freaked out. Yep. I just did not want to go inside that dark auditorium. No way. I laid down on the floor and would not move! So my Dad waited outside in the lobby with me while the rest of the family watched the movie. I didn't mind, I was just happy not to go into that loud terrifying place.

Dad tried a few more times back home, because he knows how much I love movies, but just walking into the lobby of a movie theatre gave me the willies. 

Coraline. Didn't see. Fantastic Mr. Fox. Waited for dvd. Even Toy Story 3. See you when you come out on home video, Buzz.

But Saturday was my birthday. I turned five years old. My Dad got me a mini-chocolate cupcake. I ate it and got the frosting all over the back seat of Dad's car. And I felt great. Unstoppable even. And I can't tell you how many times I have watched ALL of the different trailers and video clips and behind-the-scenes teasers of that Despicable Me movie on YouTube. 

Yes, I taught myself how to open Safari now, and I can type D-e-s-p-i-c-a-b-l-e M-e into the search engine, and when I find the menu of all of the video content, I can watch it and replay it. So cool.

Which is just a lot of words to say that I told my Dad to take me to Despicable Me, and I walked right into that theatre, bought my ticket, got some popcorn, and sat down totally excited. My Dad warned the patrons around us that I might talk through the movie, but they did not seem to mind. 

In fact, I knew more about the movie than most of the other people in the theatre so I kind of narrated all the cool moments that I had memorized from YouTube. I was pretty loud, but that is the kind of enthusiasm that I imagine the people who made Despicable Me would love to see from a kid..

And can I tell those people right now - I LOVE THAT MOVIE. 

I think it was the best movie I've ever seen. I LOVE GRU. I LOVE VECTOR. I even love KYLE! Can you believe it? I can't wait to see that movie again. And when you love something as much as I loved watching Despicable Me, I don't know how it happens, but I wasn't scared, and although I was talking pretty loud and flapping my hands and even jumping up and down sometimes, you know, I felt pretty regulated and focused for those 90 minutes of fun.

Thanks, Minions, for making the movie theatre a safe place for me again!!

love,

Diego

 

The Boy Who Fell To Earth

Diego's interest in all things Outer Space-related has been a fun opportunity for my collecting jones to rummage through the detritus of 20th century pop culture and find those wonderful Future Visions of the past to share with him.

"Space Flight" was published by the Golden Press in 1961 as part of their Golden Library of Knowledge series. It was written by Lester del Rey, who you might be more familiar with as the legendary sci-fi writer of books like "Nerves" and "Day of the Giants". The beautiful color illustrations are by John Polgreen.

 

Rockets on the launch pad awaiting countdown. Spacewalkers with jet packs and claw boots that look like they were made for Tina Sinatra! Colonizing distant worlds.

All lovingly accompanying tons of scientific knowledge for a young autistic boy to absorb on repeated reading and viewing. While he hasn't been able to develop phonetic reading skills yet, he is becoming quite adept at what is known as "sight" reading where he memorizes and recalls whole words, and he sure knows his planets!

Of course with these old books I have to remind him that our beloved Pluto has been downgraded to a dwarf planet! 

But Diego gets an upgrade to Space Explorer for his curiosity about MakeMake, Eris, Ceres, and Haumea, the other dwarf planets, or "plutoids" as they are also known.
 

Go, Diego!

william
  

He Did It His Way

Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.

For everyone who walked with us, or walked with us in spirit on Saturday, it was another amazing annual event as thousands of families came together at the Rose Bowl for Walk Now For Autism 2010, and Autism Speaks raised well over $1,000,000 to put towards their all-encompassing efforts in research, education and services for children on the autism spectrum.

Once again, thanks to all of you, Team Diego's Friends was one of the top fundraisers in Los Angeles, with over $11,000 in donations.

You'll be happy to know that while a parade of thousands marched and sweated around the Rose Bowl perimeter in the morning sun, true to his unique spirit and style, young Diego found a different way to roll, as his friends at the Air Force let him ride in their scale size replica of a USAF Jet!

The dude was in heaven, as all the other kids who were patiently waiting in line for him to vacate his pilot's seat will attest (sorry!).

For more photos of the day you can click here to visit Elsa's website.

The Walk is a big, noisy circus of an event that most typically developing children handle easily. Elsa and I were remarking afterwards how we have been coming for three years, and the first year it was all a bit too overwhelming and Diego was on sensory overload. Last year he was more comfortable but he still kept to his stroller and didn't interact much with the other children. This year the stroller stayed home, and Diego was mixing it up at the petting zoo, the drum circle, using the bubble wands, bouncing around the jumpy tent, and generally having a ball. 

Go,Diego, Go!!

william