Category Archives: Music and Theatre

Happy Birthday, today we are the same age

Today my oldest turns the same age I am!  He was born 36 years ago, shortly before midnight and he came into the world fast and vocal at the same time and has been fast and vocal ever since. How can this be? I ask myself- this phenomenon that a child and parent are the same age? The secret is: I have not aged.  I still think of myself as 36. Enough about me.  Happy Birthday son. Although my age and maturity might be questionable; your age and success is unquestioned.  You are a man, a real man, a man’s man, and a woman’s man. You protect and provide and pursue and acknowledge in every way your wife, your children; and even extend your care and attention beyond your immediate family to your siblings, parents and grandparents. Who could ask for more? But, there is more.  You are musical, passionately musical. You have not forgotten your dreams.  You perform.  You skate.  You build.  You engage in business. You are devoted to your family. I often say that I love to watch children grow.  Thanks for being such a pleasure to watch for the past 36 years.  Have a great birthday!Happy Birthday

Crescent Moon and the Tequila Patron

June 19, 2009

It was dark when I boarded the train in Emeryville at 10:00 P.M. last night.  The train was crowded, the steward brusque, and I did not have a window seat.  I did, however; see a large, orange, crescent moon glowing in the east.  That was my last vision until opening my eyes this morning to an entire snow clad range – and Mount Shasta.  The scenery in Utah was very like that of Western Colorado.  The mountains and trees on entering both California and Oregon, much the same as the mountains of Colorado.  The difference lies in the altitude, the attitude, the humidity – and the cities.  Each city has its own personality and inherent flair.

Speaking of inherent flair; I am in the last coach car and tugged along behind us is a vintage private car.  Owned by the founder of Paul Mitchell hair products and currently on excursion with owner and guests aboard; they are bound, I am told (by the employee who came out on the palm decorated platform) for a ranch in Montana.

When we detrained in Seattle, the announcer bid us well and then commented that those passengers in the final car might look out and get a quick peek at Dan Aykroyd who had been traveling with us (at the estimated fee of $10,000 just to tag along).

Wondering which tale was correct, I googled Tequila Patron this morning and here is what I found:  Legend has it that Dan Aykroyd, DeJoria (owner of Paul Mitchell) and chums hatched the idea for House of Blues in this train car.

The car itself is a celebrity and movie star… She was a beauty.  I would happily have paid admission to see inside – forget the humans.

http://www3.timeoutny.com/chicago/blog/out-and-about/2009/05/choo-choo-patron-tequila-express-and-the-paradiso-girls-pull-into-town/

Immersed in Music

Immersed in Music.  One thing I dearly love is the ambiance of the music world whether it is sitting in the lobby of the music building at a college, or attending a music seminar at Estes Park. I love walking through a fine arts building and seeing a couple of students practicing for a conducting final; someone writing a sonata in his or her head and making notes on notebook paper; five or six others singing clips of various show tunes or classical pieces; instrumental music floating down the hall from the practice rooms.  Today I went on a family outing to the mountains and a hot springs and was pleasantly treated to just such a musical indulgence. Everyone in the nine passenger Suburban, was related to me: 3 children, 3 grandchildren, one DIL.  While sitting properly stuffed in the very center of the vehicle, I heard and enjoyed intelligent music and movie commentary and critique from the the couple in the front seat, music trivia and questions from all those over 18 and random bars of music hummed, sung, or belted along with the IPod selections playing on the speakers, by all passengers – not to mention excellent rhythm keeping and input from the 3 youngsters aboard.  It was a perfectly lovely day: steeped in music and stewed in the hot springs enjoyed by all while falling snow frosted our hair.

In My Spare Time

In my spare time; well its not spare time really, just the time left over after my 40 hour job teaching music. Then again, its not exactly time left over, its time I MAKE. Do you MAKE time? Do you have any secret ingredients for making time that I should know about? Anyway in my “spare time” – meaning the common usage of that word, even though I have established that really, nobody has spare time—I SING! Tuesday is probably the most over-loaded day of my week, for on Tuesday I rise and go to work, teaching about 175 students, then home to check on the household, next to an hour long voice lesson, pick Philip up from work and give him a ride home and proceed to a 2 ½ hour Sweet Adelines rehearsal. But you know what? If I am singing and breathing right, it is a most exhilarating day! I do believe singing for 12 hours might be cheaper than a visit to an oxygen bar and it certainly does release the endorphins and dopamine. In my spare time I make time to SING! What do you do with your spare time – or the time that you make?

Exponential Music

When I removed, temporarily, to the high desert last January; I was not quite clear of the duration of my stay here, but it was clear to me that I wanted to spend plenty of time writing, enjoying my grandkids, and doing as much music as possible. I took a job working as a server across the street in order to stave off starvation and feed my car, but, it was not a job as a singing waiter, so I endeavored to connect myself with extracurricular music. I joined the Symphony Guild and went to a couple of concerts; sang with the local Messiah Choral Society, and visited and joined Sweet Adelines; thus committing to long rehearsals and learning a ton of new music. Then miraculously, I was offered a full time job teaching Core Knowledge music. Umm. Do you think I have enough music in my life?

I go to sleep with my brain swimming in baritone harmony to a number of barbershop / swing tunes. I spend my days convincing eighth graders there is no business like show business; and fourth graders that my grandfather’s clock was too large for the shelf. Third graders are sure now, that nobody is home, but that they will soon be able to keep on track and sing a tune while Ms. Teacher sings a round. All in due time. Seventh graders are amazed to learn that Ms. Teacher knows a tune – and the words- to the poem about a capital ship named Walloping Window Blind; which they learned last spring in sixth grade. Second grade has already begun the move west by workin’ on the railroad. First grade is primed for this year’s world series by step, clap, clapping, in ¾ time while they beg, “take me out to the ballgame.” Fifth grade exhibits fine reading skills by mastering ALL the vocabulary to FIVE verses of Battle Hymn of the Republic and sixth grade, well, sixth graders have learned to communicate precisely how they feel about the early start of a new school year by singing Hallelujah or humming me a funeral march. School has been in session four days. Do you think I am getting enough music in my life? Do you think we will be a singing school? You bet!

I Sing, You Sing, We all Sing

I sing: with Sweet Adelines, in the shower, at funerals and parties, with the Messiah Choral Society each Easter, when I’m out walking, in weekend worship with a thousand other voices. P sings: with a rock band, at his computer studio, whenever the spirit moves him, and he used to sing with Colorado Children’s Chorale (when he was still a child) A sings: with a rock band, when she is writing songs with folk guitar. K sings: with many rock bands, when he is writing songs, when he is communicating with friends and family. My DIL sings: sometimes anonymously for ad jingles, sometimes backup on K’s recordings. And; all the grandchildren sing; even 11 month old Selah who cheerfully belted out “Ya, ya, ya, ya, ya (Offspring)“ in imitation of the vocalization she had just heard Philip produce. We all sing! Shortly, it will be time for me to return to the classroom, and yes, there we will all sing, every day as we learn through music. I sing, you sing, we all sing; isn’t that a wonderful thing?

Prince Caspian and Things Don’t Happen The Same Way Twice

“Things don’t happen the same way twice,” so said Aslan to Lucy in the movie Prince Caspian. “The wardrobe? Oh, you’ll not get back in again that way,” said the professor to the four children in The Lion the Witch and the Wardrobe. And while we are talking of repetition; DID Moses put a spigot on the rock that gushed out water so the masses could always return to that same rock to draw water? No, they did not return. They kept moving forward. Did Jesus always heal blind men by spitting in the dust and putting mud on the eyes?

Things don’t happen the same way twice. While it is good to have trusted, tried and true resources or counselors; one can hardly keep going back to the same friend or the same resource indefinitely; you would milk them dry. The Higher Power, the Creator, is the only limitless resource and (S)He is not limited in creativity. So it is that as I struggle on through life and relationships; I do not limit myself to one friend, one counselor, one confidant, one book, one doctor. I get a second opinion. I turn over lots of rocks, rather than returning to the same handout all the time. I wait in anticipation to see from whence the next word of wisdom or critical sustenance will come. “There is safety in a multitude of counselors.”

Do I accept counsel without question? No. Discernment is also a gift of the creator. If I pray to my Higher Power for knowledge of his will for me and for the power to carry it out; the result is wisdom and discernment and resources and guidance.

Captain Jack Leaves the Island

“But where’s the rum?” is an oft quoted line from Pirates of the Caribbean

It is doubtful Pirate Jack would have been willing to leave the island if the rum had not run out. I think that’s the way it is with most people, including me. We are reluctant to leave a bad job, relationship, house, church, country, you name it; until the thing we are most dependant on runs out; no longer exists. That thing can be money, security, affirmation, sex, or other significant or seemingly insignificant thing. When it runs out we finally find the courage to slough off all the debris of the launch stages that have supported us this far and rocket on toward who we are meant to be next.

But where’s the rum?