The King's Speech

Wonderful movie, I identified with the one who was thrust into the spotlight wondering if people would realize he/she was really not that good, really an impostor. How often I experienced this in St. Petersburg Children's Hospital as I was interviewed by Russian television and radio, in a language I studied hard to speak and barely could evoke. But it seemed to be enough.

Cried when they played the Emperor Concerto - the only piece I ever played piano with a real orchestra [Cornell] - because I realized as they played this German music the movie was headed towards war between Britain and Germany, what now seems impossible and then must have seemed nearly so.

We all try to do the best we can, and sometimes it falls into pieces. Even so, we must carry on.

Against All Odds

Get up every day and try again.

Youtube link here

*****

Let's Dance!

I just love this.

The spirit, the music, the real people making magic. I know it's been around for awhile but wanted to share.

Let's dance!



Youtube link here

Beautiful Guitar Work

Tommy Emmanuel / J.Shimabukuro: While My Guitar Gently Weeps

So beautiful - and you can see in their faces, they know they've got something good here.

h/t Tom F.

*****

Emergency Backup Organist: Teaching Children about Joy

Lost in joy at a Christmas concert with daughter-west, thinking of other Christmas music events over the decades and how they have also brought me such happiness.

Singing in church with my mother, father, grandma Mc, and siblings as a child.

Playing flute and piccolo for the Vienna VA church concerts for many years.

Caroling around the neighborhood - need to organize this again this year.

Strolling through the international carols book and learning new songs, singing at my piano-east.

Performing at Bailey Hall, Ithaca for an appreciative crowd in the snowy weather.

Listening to O Holy Night on the radio and crying because we are so far from peace on earth.

And, from the title, being the emergency backup organist in Virginia, especially Christmas Eve when there are so many services that the regular organist cannot play them all.

I always volunteered to take the Children's Service early on Christmas Eve. The children's choir kids were surprised to learn that I would let them play a few notes, in contrast to when I was a child -- maybe ten years old -- and harshly scolded for wanting to play the church organ, despite being a music prodigy. I always let the children hear how their actions make beautiful music. And they laughed so much when I showed them I played barefoot. Real grownups don't go barefoot! But it is the easiest way to feel where the pedals are, to follow them along the edge of my feet. So now you know my secret with both music and children: Share the joy.

*****

Why Worry

Dire Straits
"Why Worry"
Live, Australia

*******

vid from dannyqb

Iowa Caucus Theme Song?

This could be an election survey question, how sure are you of your vote for this candidate? Fifty percent? Seventy-five?
"Somewhere between unsure...and a hundred"

Yes I do love the Fray, does it show?

*******

Baptized in an Orchestra Pit

Sunday morning service in the church where our family has baptisms, weddings, funerals. Well, except that the new building was under construction when I was born, so services were at the nearby junior high school. I was actually baptized in the orchestra pit, which is a pretty good beginning for a future musician.

Walked the floor where my father's casket was placed for his funeral. Wandered the halls where Sunday School teachers taught me right from wrong and explained that there were children dying from lack of food and medicine -- which I vowed at age 10 to do something about. Touched the pipe organ that children were forbidden to touch. Walked up to the altar where my soon to be ex husband and I exchanged wedding vows some 30 years ago.

So many emotions from grief to joy, but the overarching sensation was one of gratitude:

For the people who gave sacrificially to build this beautiful place where so much has happened in my life.

For the minister who taught us to be in awe of the astonishing universe God created.

For the teachers who patiently explained lessons of charity and love.

For the kindergarten choir director who had us sing, unbelievably, In Excelsis Deo [Angels We Have Heard On High]. I did years later have occasion to ask him what possessed him to teach such difficult music to 5 year olds. He said he simply didn't explain that it was difficult, and we did it. There's a lesson in there somewhere.


*******

Photo by Arkansas Wanderer

O Holy Night

crossposted at firedoglake 24 december 2007

Wishing you all the most precious gifts, the ones no money can buy:

Joy

Community

Inner peace

Courage

Hope

A word about hope:

The word *yet*

“I can’t do that” becomes “I can’t do that…yet”

“We don’t have the answers” turns into “We don’t have the answers…yet”

Whatever your tradition, you can tap into the message of hope for the future. Believe in something better, and take the first tiny steps in that direction. Astonishing things can happen.

*******

Josh Groban singing at the tree lighting ceremony, Rockfeller Center, 4 December 2002

Here's One For You

Love this version. Enjoy.

[Hey we can't be politics and raving all the time.]

*******

A Beautiful Day

crossposted at firedoglake 6 october 2007



The struggle to find beauty in a broken world, the search for hope and love, and the traveling musician scenes in this video all appeal to me.

This song goes on first thing in the morning to get the blood stirring, to lift my spirits for the new day.

"I know I'm not a hopeless case...." See, right there is reason enough to wake up to this every morning. Just need a little reminder from time to time.

A toast to you all: brave and beautiful, hopeful and loving, traveling and grounded, wonderful firepups.

*******

Dancing in the Streets

crossposted at firedoglake 8 september 2007

And when we win, when we push thru to the end, when we defeat the forces of darkness, there will be dancing in the streets.

Let's celebrate what we have already won, and raise a toast to our victories in the future!

*******

You've Got A Friend

crossposted at firedoglake 17 november 2007



This early James Taylor, with Carole King on piano, is dedicated to old and new friends at the Northern California pup meetup from this afternoon.

We struggled bravely thru an enormous amount of appetizers, entrees, and desserts including one which we dubbed The TRex:


Thanks especially to the wonderful Suzanne who shared her redwoods, her creek, and Token, the cutest dog in the world with us.

The firepups:
Mary McCurnin
punaise
Teddy
spurious
newtonusr
egregious
newspaperbrat
writer/musician Sahra
and the one, the only, Freeway Blogger: scarlet p.

*****

Added: Teddy's pictures

Music --- The Road Not Taken

Once upon a time, in a land far, far, away --- ok Middletown, Ohio --- I was destined to be a musician.

On piano I could sightread nearly anything written before 1920 and played with abandon. I took flute lessons from a man in the Cincinnati Symphony, wonderful person who corrected my mistakes not by criticism, but by saying I could do better.

My piccolo, a Christmas present, carried me thru high school and college and all the way to Carnegie Hall and Kennedy Center. The Washington Post said our [Cornell] symphony played better than the local orchestra. Probably this was due to the deficiencies of the National Symphony rather than anything stellar about us.

Our director, Karel Husa of Czechoslovakia, was quite tempermental. I forgave him his tantrums because they were always in the service of superior music. He won the Pulitzer Prize just as I began college. One of my favorite memories of him was our walking toward Carnegie Hall for our concert there in '73. I ran up to him and asked the famous joke question, How do you get to Carnegie Hall? And he shook his head, "I don't know." I had to explain the joke.

At my 40th birthday I examined my Dream List and decided to go for at least one major dream. It was singing lessons, which I did for three years and had some small roles at church.

For fun I taught myself how to play organ and became the emergency backup organist at church. This was a long way from being a child who came close to the organ at church and was sharply scolded DON'T TOUCH THAT, she didn't know or didn't care that I was a piano virtuoso, and it was another 30 years until I played organ for real. But what a pleasure to learn. I play with bare feet, to the great amusement of the children in the choirs.

I simultaneously began composing music for voice and piano with 15 or so copyrights. I'm especially proud of one piece which is original music and lyrics about depression, asking God if He has forgotten me. For giving back to the community I was the accompanist for children's choirs at church and at the local elementary school, and was the treasurer for the middle school band for nearly a decade, even after my children had graduated.

Each of my three children performed at the Kennedy Center in separate events. I fear to add up the number of music lessons they had. One learned to play numerous instruments and had perfect pitch. One took up my lovely instruments and performed at the national level. One took up both instrumental and vocal music and also had perfect pitch. Thank God for these amazing creatures.

It was a severe challenge to encourage my children to take up music, which was an integral part of my life, without demanding so much that they would simply quit. One of them could have been a prodigy but I refused to go that route, I know too many young people who were forced to play and quit it entirely later. How to encourage them enough to develop, without overwatering them.

So why didn't I become a musician? I struggled with this in high school and college. It was what made me happy, yet there were so many egregious problems in the world, I felt I needed to be involved in helping to find the solutions. One final turning point came when this lovely Czech conductor had me play a Rachmaninoff concerto with the Cornell symphony one night at rehearsal, bless his heart. After that I realized I needed to work for world peace more than I needed to play music.

I have often joked to my Russian medical colleagues that they should be grateful I didn't win the Tchaikovsky Prize in high school, else they would be struggling without my input. Music is the road not taken. It would have made me happy, but I chose to make others happy. In so doing I have helped to save 3,000 lives. Was it the right choice?

*******

Old age: the shrinking room

Two elderly people that I love are going thru dreadful changes in their circumstances this week.

Of course I am in denial that -I- will ever get old and feeble*, but it is disconcerting to see how these strong-willed women have their space and their lives shrinking. *Simple denial, not some hint of depressed thinking, don't worry.

One is my aunt, who is losing her mind but doesn't realize it. She is getting all the loving care possible but is still angry and resentful about her circumstances. I can understand totally, to go from independent living to round-the-clock care in two years is weird. Naturally she's angry, look what she's lost: Her home. Her friends. Her church. Her bridge club. Her neighborhood. Her city. Her really good symphony. Her mind. Not necessarily in that order.

Think about the math of the situation. Either you or your spouse/partner will die, leaving the other alone [barring hideous accidents]. You will watch your friends die. The very people you want to talk to about all these things are the ones who are so unfairly being taken away from you. I have already had some very angry conversations with God on this point. There are several Psalms that are fists in the sky/arms too short to box with God.

The other person is a neighbor, who at 91 has been able to live at home with the attention of children and neighbors. I arranged for my housekeeper to work over there part-time to help her stay independent. I don't need quite so much help since the kids have flown off. [Yes I need help but of a different kind :) ]

My neighbor fell while holding the porch door open for a visiting friend. You do these things for decades and one day these simple actions are the cause of great changes. Her children tried to treat her at home but now she is in the hospital. When I walk by her home it seems so dark. She might never return. She is willing to hear my manic verbal wanderings, stories, and worries both as a good listener and as one who wants to stay connected to what's going on with the outside world. Difficult to replace people like that.

If she lives, her mobility is likely to be restricted. I have so enjoyed watching her go up and down the street, holding her cane horizontally like a tap dancer. What, you're supposed to put it on the ground? She says "that's for old people."

I think part of why I enjoy working with the old, the feeble, the sick, and even the dying is that I totally get the loss of dignity. As a child teased for being a hillbilly and a person blessed with ADHD, I've experienced loss of dignity for quite some time. Add childbirth, and all its attendant attendants to that, and I have very little original dignity left. Raising three teenagers pretty much polished off the rest, as they were happy to inform me of my many flaws. They'll get the picture when they have teenagers.

These children used to come with me to the nursing home to visit, sing, and play piano. The residents always loved seeing my little ones, because if you think about people in their 80's and 90's, sometimes even their grandchildren are grownups. They rarely see little kids. We would go around and shake or touch the hand of each person who was up for a visit. I generally went home feeling vigorous despite crippling asthma and then-untreated depression.

With smaller families and people moving far from home, we don't experience the full range of ages unless we consciously construct it. I hoped that someone in Ohio would "adopt" my grandmother, while I was visiting others' grandparents in Massachusetts and Virginia. I no longer have babies [must. resist. talking. about. grandchildren] but work with babies at the hospital. I feel a more whole person for having people of all ages in my life.

Usually there is much joy on either end of the spectrum. But this week, thinking about life and death as I pack my suitcases to help save the lives of newborns in Russia, I ponder the shrinking room of old age.

It is undignified.

Ozma of Oz

marksb---"egregious, I sang my daughter to sleep last night, for the first time in maybe seven weeks. My throat finally let me hit the notes, though the high ones still hurt. Anyway, as she settled into sleep and I capped off Donovan's 'Song Of The Naturalist's Wife' I found a few tears on my face. Music not only heals, it is a wonderful measure of our healing."

I dissolve in tears for the happiness of your being able to sing for her. So grateful for the small things!

When my oldest daughter was little I would read to her from various Oz books [clearly Ozma of Oz, where she is the beneficent ruler, was our favorite...plus the whole emerald thing, favorite color green. but i digress] would read to her but would have to stop in the middle of reading a sentence to take another breath, my asthma was at that level.

I am so grateful that I was able to read to her and that now I can breathe properly. Yay meds.

My muse rescued from obscurity

Depression/creativity breakthru!

After many, many silent months---I made my way to the piano [steinway B for you music people] and played Let All Things Now Living from memory and added the descant which I wrote. It plays well by flute which I often played in years past when I was feeling better.

Mixing verses---
Let all things now living A song of thanksgiving To God our creator Triumphantly raise. Who fashioned and made us Protected and stayed us By guiding us on to The end of our days.

[switch to 2nd verse...i feel it.]
We too should be voicing Our love and rejoicing With glad adoration, A song let us raise! Til all things now living Unite in thanksgiving To God in the highest Hosanna and praise!

Chariots of Fire---God made me for a purpose, China [Russia]. But when I run [play music] I feel His pleasure.

Rejoice! After much suffering, which I myself have experienced, we will prevail. Good WILL triumph over evil in the end. Keep the faith, look to the future when the present is sad. I know sadness. We will go beyond the present darkness.

So grateful that I am able to play music once again. Obstacles melt. Touching the Source.