I recently realized that I haven't done anything with my sidebar in a while. Some of the links aren't active anymore, some need rearranging, and I've been wanting to add new ones for a while:
Endangered Durham: Land use, architecture, history, and sustainable development.
That's Why: I can tell I haven't updated my blog list in a very long time. I've been reading Lisa's blog for years - Life, politics, feminism, and great photos.
Rearranging: I've put links to dear husband's blog, Color Sweet Tooth, and older son's blog, Hamjamser, at the top with the links to my/our other blogs.
Lately, by the time I get to the computer, I don't have much energy left. Here are some interesting videos that I've run across - from more innocuous to... less:
Being a Pixar fan, I enjoyed the Toy Story 3 trailer.
Never take the mickey out of a male voice choir. Jay Leno thought it would be fun to lampoon the high-voiced acrobatics of
Chanticleer on the Tonight Show last week, lip-synching his way through
one of their numbers of perfectly polished 27-part harmonisation. But
the boys of Chanticleer have made Jay suffer their wrath: here's their
To Leno, filmed on their Christmas tour, merrily sending up Leno's "gigantic chin" and gigantic collection of cars...
Click here to listen to their Leno Carol of the Bells, and also to the King's Singers (another male, a cappella choir) sing the 12 Days of Christmas with a familiar face. [Hat tip to WCPE]
At Carol of the Chins, you can type in many carols and they'll sing it. I recommend the 12 Days of Christmas. It won't take long. We tried lots of carols, and we were amazed at how many the creators did [Hat tip to a friend].
Every Sunday, Feministe has a self-promotion Sunday post. In the comments, readers can post links to their own posts. I always look through it. Last Sunday, I enjoyed this post at Evil Slutopia, If You Love Blogging, or Glee, or Both... with a video about what happens when an insomniac blogger watches Glee (or "How to channel your inner Barbra Streisand").
The video is on Evil Slutopia, but it was made by The Bloggess so, of course, I had to check out her blog. Eventually, after reading, enjoying, and wandering, I ended up at a post she wrote for the website, Sexis: What you want it to be (which I have not wandered around on so don't blame me if you do wander and find something you don't want to read)(remember, I don't get analytical about sex so I'm not really interested in wandering on a site that will make me look at sex from the third person)(of course, if you wander and find something you want to read, I suppose you can't really thank me either)(btw, if you haven't guessed it already, this is the not innocuous part of the post). The post, Inappropriate thoughts about Twilight, describes problems with the... shall we say, physics and chemistry, of the intimate situations in Twilight. At the end, there's a comic commercial for an anti-vampire product - not something I'd ever thought about before, though it makes sense.
[Why am I back at vampires again? I don't even really like vampires, and I'm getting to the point where I could add a category for them.]
I was sure that I had already posted about Straight No Chaser, but I can't find it so I guess I never got around to it. They're a great a cappella men's chorus. The first song(s) I heard was(were) their creative version of the Twelve Days of Christmas (with a few additions):
This evening, after a busy weekend, I was feeling low on energy.* I wanted to make some cookies for dear husband to bring along to munch on his business trip this week (from DC to SC and eventually back to NC), but I was having a difficult time getting started. Someone on Facebook mentioned Straight No Chaser's version of "Any Dream Will Do" from Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat. Listening to that gave me the energy; Joseph songs always lift my spirit:
TEN years ago, the founding members of Straight No Chaser — an undergraduate a cappella group from Indiana University — performed at Carnegie Hall.
They sang the national anthem at a Chicago Cubs game. They took road
trips, ensnared female fans and created a lasting tradition on campus.
And then they graduated.
Save for the odd wedding or college reunion, these men had not sung
together with any regularity since. Until 2008, when Craig Kallman, the
chairman and chief executive of Atlantic Records, offered the 10-man
group a five-album record deal.
This may be the year’s most unlikely major-label story.
David
Roberts, 31, a project manager for a Midtown bank, was sitting in his
cubicle in January when he got the call. Michael Itkoff, also 31, a
sales rep for a medical-device company, was at home in Atlanta...“We thought it was a joke,” Mr. Itkoff said. “But Atlantic flew us to
New York and put us up at the Dream hotel. There was a fruit plate in
my hotel room....
Mr. Kallman — like nearly eight million others — discovered Straight No
Chaser on YouTube in December, through a 1998 video of the group
performing an unlikely riff on “The 12 Days of Christmas” (a riff that
incorporated snippets of everything from “I Have a Little Dreidel” to
Toto’s “Africa”). Randy Stine, an original member, had uploaded the
clip strictly for the group’s own amusement, but it quickly went viral...
* Of course, I wouldn't be so tired if I didn't stack the days so full that I end up practicing flute at 10:30 pm.
Don't you just love singing the Hallelujah Chorus?!!!
I've had a difficult time getting back into church again this fall because our travel schedule has made my attendance more sporadic than ever before. I finally feel like I've (happily) settled back into choir this week. I'm really enjoying everything we're singing right now. I threw so much enthusiasm into singing the Hallelujah Chorus that I blew my voice out. When we went over it the second time, I ended up squeaking those higher notes that I could hit at all.
Sometimes, when older son and I head home after choir, we don't put music on in the van because the choir music is playing so loudly in our heads. Tonight was one of those nights.
I've never understood wanting to spend a beautiful afternoon sitting in a football stadium watching a game. I'd usually prefer to be gardening or hiking. However, I came a bit closer to understanding that today because we spent a beautiful evening sitting at an outdoor theater watching the Indigo Girls.
Previously, I've had a chance to see almost all of my long-time, absolutely most favorite performers: James Galway (4 times), Cleo Laine, Värttinä, Itzhak Perlman, Patti LuPone, Mandy Patinkin, Saffire: The Uppity Blues Women, Dar Williams, Nanci Griffith, and Maura O'Connell. The only ones of this group of favorites that I hadn't seen were the Indigo Girls. When they came here we were either out of town or had dance performances.
I've been looking forward to tonight's concert since I found out they were coming. I was sick last week, and, by Friday, I was wondering if dear husband should go with older son and daughter instead. I was better by today, and, by the time we got there, I was very excited.
The concert, of course, was fantastic. They were enthusiastic, and they had the audience sing along on various songs (you can imagine how much I loved that! (grin)). I'm often surprised at audiences, though. I'm used to classical music audiences the most - you go, sit quietly, and pay attention. I know that's not the case for other genres of music, but I was amazed at how much talking and wandering around many people did. I wanted to get every drop of music out of the concert, and not miss a single bit! - well, except for one song which had a death in the first verse, a suicide in the second, and which I listened to while going and buying a bag and a bumper sticker. I hurried back, though, because the next song was one of my favorites, Southland in the Spring.
I did cry when they sang... not my favorite song, necessarily, but the song that has the most memories tied to it. One year, I put a folk tape together for our October vacation, and we played it on the way to Linville Falls in the Blue Ridge Mountains. As we got there and turned in, Watershed played. I had it in my head for the next few hours, and tied it to that spot. We've often played that tape on the way, and, if we start it as we leave Blowing Rock, Watershed plays at Linville. We picnic at and wade in the safe part of the Linville River (right - I'm in light blue; daughter's in darker blue). It's beautiful and peaceful, and most people miss the overlook we wade at because they're in a hurry to get to the falls. It's one of the places we go to for my birthday.
I wished we had gotten there a bit earlier to get a space closer to the stage.* We were not in the most enthusiastic part of the crowd; in fact, the people in front of us didn't even clap a good bit of the time (too busy talking, I guess). We made up for them. I sort of thought of it as the slow zone.
By the encores, however, even the people in front of us got on their feet and were dancing. We were doing the same, and singing at the top of our lungs. The Indigo Girls had invited everyone to sing, which was such fun! Here's a video of them singing Closer to Fine with Terri Hendrix, Lloyd Maines, and Julie Wolf - they sang this as the first encore with Matt Nathanson, one of the earlier performers. This isn't the best video of the song, but it captures the concert energy better than any of the others I found:
* We actually did get there earlier. After going to a symphony concert there two years ago and seeing how nicely people made picnics, daughter got a lovely picnic together to eat while we listened to the other performers before the Indigo Girls (this was a Carolina Hopefest benefit). Unfortunately, unlike the symphony concerts held at the same place, you can't bring food inside. We ended up eating our picnic near the entrance - along with two other people we met from church who had also brought a nice dinner.
Older son returned the picnic stuff to the van while we went in and set up the chairs. Daughter couldn't understand why it took a while for him to find us: "You just look for the two of us with long hair!" Older son replied that most of the women there had either really short or really long hair! Also, most of them used minimal or no makeup and dressed in either jeans and t-shirts or hippie type clothes. We felt at home.
... or for fans of creative musicians (Those on Facebook, click here to view). [Hat tip to daughter]
[See you this weekend. I've left a song to post tomorrow. I'm busy researching blood pressure medicines and side effects. The doctor's office is of no use whatsoever where side effects are concerned.]
If I'm only here intermittently, think of me as singing. Or gardening. Or otherwise busy. Not much reading, lately, though. I'm still plowing through absorbed in Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell.
Along with Joseph rehearsals and working on the music on my own, I've got choir music to work on for another week, and the piece I'm working on for my voice lesson, Les Berceaux by Fauré.
Last Sunday was the worst choir experience I've had. The piece we were singing, Above all Praise and Majesty by Mendelssohn, is beautiful (click here to listen) and very high. It's more out of my normal range than almost anything else we've sung. I can sing in that range at my voice lesson - properly warmed up and with my voice teacher correcting all sorts of things in my technique.
That wasn't what happened Sunday morning. We started out with only two sopranos (though later more came to rescue join us), and the other soprano hadn't been at the rehearsal the previous week. Usually I avoid notes I'm not ready to reach, but, since there were only two of us, I strained to reach them instead. By the time we sang the anthem in the service, my voice was shot and I could barely sing notes in the middle of my range. I was in a bad mood by the end of the service.
This has happened, though never nearly this badly, before in choir. I can sing fine at my lesson or when warming up at home, but at choir my throat tightens up and I lose notes I was singing fine earlier in the day. In a week and a half we're singing the Sanctus from Fauré's Requiem (I love Fauré, don't you?!). I'm going to go over that with my voice teacher tomorrow and talk to her about why my voice does this at choir.
Fortunately, I could go home and work on something totally different, singing-wise, to make myself feel better. That is, once my voice returned. Last week, we started working on five of the songs for Joseph. They're very catchy and will stay in your head for days!
That being said, here's one of them for your enjoyment. They've chosen the eleven brothers, but they haven't assigned parts yet, except for Benjamin. The singers are taking turns singing the various brother songs to see how they do. I enjoyed watching, and listening to, older son throw all his energy into singing Judah's part in the Benjamin Calypso last Tuesday.
Oh, and that is Donny Osmond playing Joseph. The last I saw of him, he was hosting a saccharine variety show with his sister (remember, I don't often get around to watching TV) so it was a pleasant surprise to see how well he did with this role.
In the chorus for this one, I go back and forth (line by line) between singing the second woman's part (lower harmony for the la la's) and the upper choral part (syncopated banana's).
It keeps me challenged, and that's what counts (grin).
I've always thought it was a shame that Bobby McFerrin is known mostly for "Don't Worry, Be Happy," because he is so widely talented. Here he is on A Prairie Home Companion doing an abbreviated version of The Wizard of Oz. Make sure you watch through to the end.
I used to be too awkward to do anything for audience participation things like this. Now, I enjoy them. I would have loved to be in the audience for this one!
Older son mentioned this to me as soon as he found it last night. He knew I'd want it for a post!
I realized that I haven't posted the results of my audition for Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat. I found out, late Monday night/early Tuesday morning, that I got into the women's chorus, and older son is one of the brothers. I was so excited that I couldn't calm down and go to sleep until almost 3 am! I'm still excited!
That's the positive side. On the negative side, everyone has been rather stressed this week. The heat really gets to older son so he didn't feel well on Tuesday. We've had a heat wave (in the 90's) with (I think) record breaking temperatures. Dear husband is very busy at work. Daughter has the SAT coming up on Saturday and two AP tests the following week. She's been really pushing herself for weeks. She also sprained her ankle this weekend so she doesn't even have the stress relief of going to dance. My knee has been slowly getting better since my setback in March, but it's worse again this week.
I've been trying to stay calm (okay, as calm as I can normally get), but, today, everything finally got to me. I was in a terrible mood and de-cluttered furiously all morning. Everyone else decided to stay upstairs.
After I worked that out of my system, I felt much better (and the house looks much better! (grin). I feel more "here" than I have in weeks. I've even posted again on Musiclectic. I haven't been able to do that for months - the well dried up. I'm glad I finally care about it again.
