I'd Sing You A Morning Golden and New

My Dad belongs to the Toronto Field Naturalists and they have been choosing nature-themed songs to sing at their 90th Anniversary celebrations. So Jaja and Dad and I went through the list, singing and listening and discussing options. Three songs particularly made me grin, and for days I've been trying to sing two of them without the benefit of knowing the words or the music.

Everyday as I work in gardens:


Another gardening song, and this one makes me giggle:


Finally, I fell in love with this song. It makes a perfect lullaby, perfect for a raspberry or a large zucchini:
Here's another longer version of it, if like me, you feel the need to listen to it over and over again:

Lifted by the Music

About a week ago I went to the symphony with Rafiki. It was an amazing show, and I've been meaning to write about it ever since that night. It was an audience choice program; people had voted on what they wanted the program to be out a list of about 50 pieces, so every time they started a piece you could hear people sigh, or see people smile, because they had memories, or because the pieces are just SO good. 
It started off with the Star Wars Theme:

Then they played the second movement of Beethoven's 7th Symphony. When I was little we had a tape called Beethoven Lives Upstairs (still do, and I still listen to it), and this movement was on the part of the tape just after Beethoven dies, and the whole city is hushed and sad. I cry every time, and I love it. a 

Then a Rachmaninoff's Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini, variation eighteen, played by Anastasia Rizikov, a 13 year old girl who was astoundingly good, and not just astoundingly good for a 13 year old, she played beautifully. When the conductor introduced her, he said that she had told him that it had always been a dream of hers to play with the Toronto Symphony Orchestra, and there she was doing it.
, 

Then there was the bright, brassy, and bold Dvorak's Symphony From the New World, which is fun and familiar.  
At the beginning of the second half, they said that during the voting process they had also asked people what music they wanted to hear that wasn't on the list, and that two pieces were mentioned again and again. They were going to play four bars of each, and then ask us (the audience) to vote on which one we wanted to hear tonight by shouting out "Oy what joy!" The conductor said it had been a fantasy of his to hear how that sounded shouted in the acoustics of Roy Thompson Hall. As they played the first four bars of the first option there was a collective sigh among the audience because it was so beautiful, and a collective gasp when they stopped short, but the majority voted for the second option, so we heard a bright brassy piece, then Samuel Barber's Adagio for Strings (did you know he liked croutons so much he asked for them to be sprinkled on his grave - and they were). 

The concert finished up with the 1812 Overture, which I always associate with this Calvin and Hobbes cartoon:

In the introduction, the conductor said, "What do you get for the man who has everything and loves music? Well Ms. Debbie Morrison had this dilemma, and so she got her husband a seat in the orchestra. He will be playing the base drums for you tonight." He did a great job too - banging his way through the piece with the other base drummer and a big grin on his face, clearly having the time of his life.

When it ended we cheered and clapped and gave them a standing ovation and the lady behind us shouted "encore! encore!", and eventually the symphony sat down and raised their instruments. The lady behind us whispered, "You see? You never know what you get until you ask." They played the other piece of music that we had voted on but hadn't chosen, and I WISH I knew what it was because it was a piece of music you could melt into. It was beautiful beyond belief. When it was done, Rafiki whispered "One more! one more! I want another one - but I'd probably go on saying that all night."

Kid Koala

Last night I went to Kid Koala's Space Cadet Headphone Experience with Bird and Jam. It was wonderful. We lay back on our pod pillows with headphones on all squished together.
Without designated seating there was much shuffling to fit everyone in, but all the people hosting were super relaxed, laughing and joking, "Those of you on a first date, it's time to take it to the next level." "You get a free book if you sit on someone's lap!"
There was an art show before we went in. There were Kid Koala's achingly beautiful sketches of robots flying over landscapes, shovelling the grass, and doing all the other things that robots do. There was a big console of buttons that lit up and blinked at you that you could play with. Some of them made noises. Bird and I were crouched beside it leaning in close to here our noises, when we were joined by a curly haired girl with a big smile. It felt very companionable. There were old-school games you could play - the kind of games you'd find at a science store for kids when you were little. There was a display of alien plants, each under a bell shaped cloche.
Then we went inside, lay back and let the music wash over us. Bird turned to me after the warm up act (although as Kid Koala said, "It's a bit odd calling it a warm up act for a chill out show. This is the calm, before the calm." Which made me laugh.) and said, "I feel hipper just by coming here." It was true, everyone around us seemed hipster and interesting, and the whole event was charmingly off the usual path.
The music was wonderful. He played Moon River, a song that goes straight into my heart every time I hear it. It was also his Mummy's favourite song:

He played Drunk Trumpet, which is the first song I ever heard by him, and the reason I fell for his music:

He got us all to channel our inner three your olds when he played this song:

You better believe we all got up and did all the actions. My favourite part was when you 'reach over and touch your toes, yes you curl up like a little bean... and then you groooowwwwww.' It is (three-year-old) daughter's favourite song. Bird says it might have been her favourite of the night too :)
Here's some of an audience dancing to it. It seems funny when you can't hear the music through the headphones anymore:

Even when he asked for volunteers from the audience the things that they had to do were awesome and not at all embarrassing - like have a thumb war in a official Thai thumb-wrestling ring (it looked fabulous on the big screen - two thumbs duking it out), or play a music box while he scratched over top of it, or play a bell when a star on fell onto your number on screen.
I enjoyed the whole show SO MUCH. I wish I could do it all over again :)


ps. I was dancing about to Kid Koala music as I wrote this post and I looked up to find Zoe-cat staring at me in complete beffudlement, as only a cat can stare. She made me laugh.

"The Mighty Oak was once a Nut that Stood its Ground."

1. I went to the symphony with my mummy today, and listened to violins sing.

At the end of the third movement Pekka Kuusisto, the solo violinist, made his violin warble like a bird, and finished the movement with a small quiet smile on his face, as if everything had come to a perfect moment and he was content. He was right, it was a perfect moment.

2. A very small bay tree has seeded itself in our rock garden. It isn't supposed to grow in our cold climate, but there it is, three sturdy leaves upraised.

3. I'm reading The Happiness Project by Gretchen Rubin, and stuffing it full of bookmarks. It is very good (and happy!) and has many bits I want to remember. Today I came across this paragraph in defence of children's literature:

Children's literature often deals openly with the most transcendent themes, such as the battle between good and evil and the supreme power of love. These books don't gloss over the horror and fascination of evil, but in the end, in even the most realistic novels, good triumphs. Novelists for adults don't usually write that way; perhaps they fear being seen as sentimental or priggish or simplistic. Instead, the focus on guilt, hypocrisy, the perversion of good intentions, the cruel workings of fate, social criticism, the slipperiness of language, the inevitability of death, sexual passion, unjust accusation, and the like. These are grand literary themes. Yet I also find it enormously satisfying to see good prevail over evil, to see virtue vindicated and wrongdoing punished. I love didactic writing, whether by Tolstoy or Madeleine L'Engle.

and this quote by C.S. Lewis:

When I was ten, I read fairy tales in secret and would have been ashamed if I had been found doing so. Now that I am fifty I read them openly. When I became a man I put away childish things, including the fear of childishness and the desire to be very grown up.

It puts into words reasons why I love children's literature so much, and can be often found lurking among those shelves, rather than the "adult" novels section where I am supposed to be found, and reminds me not to be ashamed of it, but instead, be myself and ever more grow into who I am.

December 1st

Good morning, good afternoon, good tea time, and good evening Nanermellon and Filly :)

An advent calendar for Kippen and this song (play the video) started this blog, and now it is our turn to create an advent calendar for you.

We hope you like it, and we love you lots.

Sometimes Why and Emberella Cat.

ps. A sheep to count as well as blessings:

One fine day

Rafiki sent me a song tonight. I like that he sent it. I like the song. And I like the silly little dance that goes with it.

AAAOOoAAAOOoooooooOoooo OOOOAahooooo

This song makes me want to smile and dance every time I hear it.

Snarky Snark Snark

This song makes me laugh and be happy.

Watching on Repeat.

I love her voice. I love the song. I love the video. So glad I stumbled on it.

Dueto dos Gatos de Rossini

This made me extraordinarily happy.

I like kiddies.

I love this song, and think it is even funnier with the subtitles... and comments.

"Thanks for putting the Lyrics on the screen! I was just getting mixed up at the 45th "Unicorns I love them" verse... :) "

"i like the part where she says unicorns i love them"

I'm also amused by stories from my language acquisition textbook.

"Keenan recorded the conversations that occurred between her twin 2-year-old sons early in the morning while the twins were alone in their room. (Babies of child language researchers should watch out for hidden microphones.) She found that the children did attend to each other's speech and produced related utterances. However, the children's ability to sustain a topic was limited, and the longest stretches of related exchanges between the children consisted of sound play with no semantic content at all:

CHILD 1: wake up

wake up

CHILD 2: hake ut (laughing)

CHILD 1: hake ut

CHILD 2: bake up

CHILD 1: break ut

break up

CHILD 2: wake up

wake up (laughing) "

And an example of a 4-year-olds telling a story: "...I have two sisters, one with blond hair like me 'n the other with long black hair. 'N the one with black hair, when she was four like me, she cut her hair with scissors that aren't for cutting hair. 'N now she has short hair."

(quite advanced :)

One day I'm gonna whistle?

This video reminded me of you, my friendly ladies, because I'm pretty sure this is like the kids you once were, and if/when you have kids, what your families will be like. I love you oodles.

hallelujah flash mob

Watching this I first thought, "I wish real life was more like this." Then I realized this was real life. Then I got really happy.

Classical Meets Reggae

This me happy. My friend Code Yeller has been sending me a collection of music as I work. This song is my favorite:

spring studying

The weather's been so nice. I got home from an exam a few days ago and went straight into the garden. I turned over the vegetable bed so it's ready for planting, and dug up all the dandelions, washed the leaves and saved them in my fridge and freezer. I cooked some today with pasta sauce, and ate it with noodles and avocado. yum.

Code Yeller got so excited about all the plants his friend gave him for his vegetable garden that he made me turn on video chat so that he could show them all off to me. He had peppers, and eggplants, and all sorts of things.

I found more silly quotes on the top of my lecture notes:
"A cow is useful as a cow. I mean, you could ride it."
"I found out that amaryllis when they get scared, don't curl up, but jump high into the air." [he meant armadillos, not amaryllis, but I like the idea of jumping flowers].

After my next exam Dragiraffalina and I sat on the grass nibbling on sweets and basking in the sun. We tried to remember all the words to the song "video" by India Arie and we wandered around singing it. Dragiraffalina has a lovely voice.

Scruffy and HAPPY!

MR. SCRUFF IS PLAYING AT WRONGBAR IN TORONTO JANUARY 15TH!
My favorite nights out dancing have been when Mr. Scruff is playing. Everyone was happy, the music was amazing, everyone danced, there were little Mr. Scruff drawings floating about on a screen above where he playing, and no one - absolutely NO ONE - wanted to leave at the end of the night. I've also had awesome company on those nights; not only were most of the strangers awesome, but I've run into friends on the dance floor, and one night Flavaflav came with me. Doing pseudo-ballet dances in tandem to happy music while sitting down is SO much fun.

(update on) a world where it's always rockabilly

Alright, so I know the first video I posted is verboten (forbidden) for some strange reason in our country. So here's a taste of their goodness.
This is a fun video of their cover of Katy Perry's Hot 'n Cold, which gives you a taste of their 1950 stylin':


And this is the 1950's rock 'n roll style of cover of Rihanna that makes me dance around my room repeatedly. Aww yeah.