On a beautiful September weekend, my wife charged me with the duty of watching the kids while she celebrated a bachelorette party with some of her close friends from college. She left town, leaving me with our 2-year-old daughter, and3-year-old son for two days. I shared my delight on Twitter:

“@durhamite: got the kids alllllll weekend. we bout to go BONKERS.”

And bonkers, we went. I love daddy-duty, probably more than my kids do. It’s my opportunity to break all the rules my wife sets. On the morning of day one, I asked the kids what they wanted for breakfast.

“Whole Foods!” they replied in unison.

Whole Foods is a mommy breakfast. She’s a stickler for organic, gluten-free healthy foods. I like to eat healthily too, but not on daddy weekend. I took them to Bojangles. Trans-fat, high fructose corn-syrup, salt, butter – all of the things that make my wife cringe were devoured in abundance. Everyone got their own Bo-berry biscuit.

My wife wasn’t going to be the only one throwing a party.

Next stop: nature walk. What better way burn through the sugar rush, than to romp around the wilderness in crisp pre-autumn air? Everyone claimed a walking-stick as we explored the nooks and crannies of Forrest Hills park. We had a blast climbing trees, jumping over creeks and feeding the mosquitos.

We rushed back home to eat some leftovers and took a short nap before heading downtown. The Durham Arts Council’s 38th Annual Centerfest Arts festival was in full swing and my son Justice wanted to see his favorite band, LiLa, perform. LiLa is an amazing Durham sextet that defies genre and electrifies crowds. We were in the front row for the entire set.

After Centerfest I was stumped. We had 3 hours to kill before sleepy-time with nothing on the agenda. I turned to Twitter,

“@durhamite: Cool hunting in Durham with the kids. Suggestions?”

Two minutes later, the most amazing text message I have EVER received, arrived in my inbox:

Saleem: “My friend’s family friendly home-made Durham remake of Karate Kid starts at 8 tonight in her backyard.”

I’m going to pause for a minute while that sinks in.

…

Yeah. That happened.

The movie was slated to start in an hour and we hadn’t eaten so I asked the kids what they wanted for dinner. “Pizza!” my son replied. “Crepes!” my daughter added.

Yes and yes.

We booked it to Brightleaf Square, where I ordered a large cheese pie from Satisfaction and a deuce de leche crepe from Amelia Cafe’. We took the food to the pot-luck screening, where we camped out on the back porch and witnessed something creative and hilarious.

It was the original Karate Kid movie, spliced with scenes produced by several local filmmakers. The best way I can think to describe it is a mashup.

In music, a mashup is when a producer fuses two songs together, usually the a cappella of one song with the instrumental of another (for an example, google “Smells Like Billie Jean” which is a mash up of Michael Jackon’s Billie Jean with Nirvana’s Smells Like Teen Spirit).

The film was like a series of sequenced mashups; with dialogue, plot and scenes from the original Karate Kid, interlaced with dozens of new scenes, independently produced and acted out by different groups of local actors and filmmakers.

I’ll give an example. There is an iconic scene in Karate Kid where the protagonist Daniel gets beat up by a bully on the beach. This humiliating experience prompts Daniel to learn karate so he can defend himself.

In the Durham-mashup version of Karate Kid, this scene was filmed on an outdoor volleyball sand court, on what looked like Duke’s east campus. A half-dozen locals reenacted the scene hilariously. Later scenes featured different actors portraying the main characters – each with their own creative interpretation of what Karate Kid would have looked like if it was filmed in Durham, with no budget.

It was one of the cooler and more unique things I’d ever seen in Durham, or in life. The kids loved it.

Day one of daddy-duty was an astounding success. Our night ended with the three of us back at home, crashing on the couch while watching Naruto on Hulu. Before consciousness slipped from my body I managed to type one more tweet foreshadowing future awesomeness:

“@durhamite: tomorrow: bouncing in gigantic inflatable things #centerfest”