" A real musical culture should not be a museum culture based on music of past ages....It should be the active embodiment in sound of the life of a community---of the everyday demands of people's work and play and of heir deepest spiritual needs."

--Wilfrid Mellers

Music Is Rediscovered

After listening to Eine Kleine Nachtmusik by Mozart for my music appreciation class I realized that I have heard this piece many times growing up in my home.  But today there was something different. When I listened to this piece of music today, it was as if it were the most beautiful piece of music ever written.  I have found that when I learn something new about a piece of music and then turn that CD on to hear it again, the music becomes increasingly beautiful; more stirring than ever.  That is the value of learning how music is structured and the history of what was going on when the music was being written.  The power the music has to communicate is stronger than ever because we have a background of what the composer of that music is saying through his music.  

"Voices, instruments, and all possible sounds--even silence itself--must tend toward one goal, which is expression."  --C.W. Gluck

SUMMER!

Summers never seem to last long enough, so to make this summer and every subsequent summer memorable, Chuck (my sister Karli) and I decided to have themed summers. So now, it is time to publicly announce the this summer's theme:
This summer is the Summer of Bananas.

Chuck and I read about this idea of having themed summers in a magazine and decided we should theme ours. A banana themed summer seemed like the perfect fit because we have been so excited about bananas ever since we moved in together. It could be their fantastic color -yellow always makes me happy-, their place in my books as nature's best convenience food, or the fact that monkeys are associated with them. I love monkeys, I always have.
In Junior High, I had a little white plush monkey named Herman, and he was the pride and joy of my life. My friends and I took him on our epic adventures to Echo Lake, he journied to Mr Patterson's math class in my backpack, and I even brought him to Merida, Mexico for the time my family spent there together in 1999-2000. I told my friends that my favorite animal was a monkey, just like Herman, and that I would have a little white monkey, with a beard, when I was older.
Once again, I love monkeys and the bananas that are associated with them.

So what does one do with a banana themed summer? I have some ideas:
1) THE MOST IMPORTANT THING TO REMEMBER: is to always have bananas on hand. You never know when they could be incorporated into our summer activities.
2) Banana smoothies. Our Austrailian friend showed us this banana smoothie concoction that will go down in history-at least my history. It has bananas of course, breyers icecream, Canadian honey (thanks to my parents), and a little something I had never thought of before, but it makes all the difference. NUTMEG! What a potent little spice that puts a banana smoothie to the next galaxy. Wow.
3) Banana T-shirts. A themed summer would not be complete with out rocking a banana T-shirt. If anyone has a winning design, send it my way.
4) Banana grocery bag (pronounced BAAY-guh in Canadian). Since Chuck moved in with me, we have decided to be more environmentally friendly and use reuseable grocery bags. They are quite plain and need some banana-y decoration.
5) Alliteration always brings out great ideas. Banana bandanas, banana bags, banana bombs, banana boats, banana bugs, banana BBQ, banana books, banana buddhas, banana boots, banana babies, banana boxes, banana binoculars.

Hit me with all of your ideas!
Bring on the summer of Bananas!

Acuarela is another word for watercolor, in Spanish, and it is one of my new favorite things to do.  I wouldn't say that I actually do watercolor but I really do enjoy experimenting with it.  What is neat about watercolor is that it uses water as a medium (go figure) and you can get beautiful effects.   Stay posted, there's more to come, hopefully improving as they come along.