WIZARDS OF WAVERLY PLACE

Did you ever see it on TV?

Here's a promo.

I'd heard the name (heard of Hanna Montana, and some of the kids who were in High School Musical), but I have never watched anything on the Disney Channel.

Well, I had an adventure on Waverly Place which I visited online, trying to find out when a show JD was in was going to be broadcast in NYC. The title was "Vampires and Justin" -- JD said the title might get changed, but those were the words I was searching for.

I'm not an online expert. JD, who's a brilliant, lightning-fingered Web browser, knows what to click to get to a link that links to the link to where he'd like to end up.

I'm not a Mrs. Christopher Columbus sailing into uncharted seas. I know the world is round. But, my trips online tell me that the world is flat. Lookout, beware -- I can easily fall off the edge.

I certainly could have drowned, when I accidentally pressed the "enter" key on my keyboard. I got lost, clicking up, clicking down -- I never did find a Wizards' schedule for New York City, except on a vast, complicated schedule -- shows, times, details on the cast, the story-lines for many, too many shows, and names -- casts of characters that after awhile, made me realize that Selma, and Justin were major characters.

So I traveled, following links to more photos, more show titles, more casts of characters and never found JD.

Friday, I was doing my warm-ups, annoyed by an ad with a bunch of slithering, bump and grinding girls selling Optimum on line, singing an infectiously stupid ditty. I dashed to the TV after rondejambes (leg circling) on the pause before battements (kicks). Grabbed the remote -- hit some numbers -- oh my goodness, oops, whoops -- what a shock!

JD -- gesturing -- in an exaggerated, high style, threatening the excessively, exaggeratedly, fearful girl. JC raced in --. we'd been talking about seeing this show for days.

JC the Dad noticed the vampire teeth in his son-the-actor's mouth. Not Mom. Mom was noticing JD's handsomeness, good haircut, his neat voguey short beard, intense eyes, good movements -- important things the "Mother" and "Em-the-Knowing Professional" should notice.

Was it two minutes or seven minutes of shots, that suggested the girl was afraid of being bitten by a Vampire but sort of enjoying the fray? Lots of shots, then a wild finale at a high school dance that I couldn't make heads or tails of, plot-wise. End of show.

Wow! JC's a Hamlet, or a Richard II, or III in Shakespeare, a marvel with words and inventive shaping, filling out, fulfilling a character. Would I wish for him to be on a sitcom? No, though I understand (don't we all), that an actor needs somehow to make a 'name' in order to make a movie career.

Sitcoms and movies are what he's striving to get. And me, on the sidelines of another actor's career, an actor who "made it," but didn't get the immortality of movie stardom ... well, I'm inwardly heaving a sigh -- the win some, lose some sound of Em-the-Knowing Pro.

Yep , I know striving -- use of self -- that's the Win.

What do Mom and Dad say to their son on the phone? Congratulations? ICK -- being congratulated for merely being seen in a "nothing" part is repulsive. Comment about the show? Gulp -- how to say Waverly Place is "not the cat's pajamas."

Mrs. Christopher Columbus, off the boat, back on land that she knows, says -- "It's fun, being your mother, watching you work" -- being a writer, I found ways to say it inventively, truthfully, expressing delight and amusement, in my visit to the foreign land of Waverly Place.