A Bone-ified Evening

Last evening I went and heard a trombone recital by Peter Ellefson. The cool thing about it was that it wasn't just a recital. It was a recital / master class. I love listening to other teachers teach and wonder where they were when I was in school.

He said something that would have made me feel really good as a student. I wish I heard it then...

He said (roughly) "Do not play for perfection. You'll never be happy. Play for improvment." This makes a lot of sense. He also went on to say that some musicians will listen to CDs and hear perfection. On a recording "you only need to get it right once." CDs are a great resourse, but they are deceptive to those who aspire to be professional musicians.

His choices of pieces to play were interesting as well. Mr. Ellefson opened with a trombone solo that required many challenging techniques. At one point in the music, it calls for "screaming, followed by hysterical laughter and trailing off." I really enjoyed this work and wish I had a program to know what it was called (no programs were offered for the evening.)

He then played an etude three times. The first time he played musically, second as written and finally, over the top. Very interesting to us music dorks.

He also played a couple of orchestral excerpts to demonstrate how playing an orchestral audition needs to be perfect without embellishment, in comparison to that of a soloist who can play an "over the top etude."

We listened to Peter work with two OSU trombone students and could hear how their sound and musicianship grew within just a half an hour... what a treat.

If you are interested, you should check out Peter Ellefsons website.

the,
~ch

Flaming Lips and Lava Tubes

This weekend, my friend and I loaded up the minivan with teenagers and headed East to Bend, Oregon. Why? Why indeed... to see the Flaming Lips of course!

Lead singer Wayne Coyne came out through the crowd in a giant confetti filled bubble, accompanied by about 20 aliens and 20 Santa Clauses. Once they made it to the stage, the Lips opened with Queen's Bohemian Rhapsody. Behind them was a large screen with the words so you could sing along... I wonder if anyone actually needed the words?!

Anyway, we arrived at the amphitheater early enough so the kids were able stand right up close to the stage. My friend and I sat a bit further back and enjoyed watching the kids crowd-surf. It was very sweet how they saved us room to join them up front, but we said we were happy where we were : )

One of the opening bands that played was Deerhoof. That was interesting. That's all I can say.

There were a little over a dozen kids from Corvallis that met up at the concert. Afterwards, we made our pilgrimage to Sherri's for night pie. We were all wide awake with adrenalin and sat up in the hotel room talking for quite a while afterward.

Early the next morning (yesterday) we all got back in the minivan and went searching for lava tubes... Found one!

It was a fun weekend and my son and I were able to spend some time together... though, with a load of other kids... it was nice to see how they all get along and are kind to each other.

Tonight brings a much different concert than last weekends... maybe I'll write about it.

~ch

An Evening with Bobby Seale, Co-founder of the Black Panthers

Last night my husband and I went to hear Bobby Seale speak in Corvallis. We had gotten an invitation in the mail from the Corvallis branch of the NAACP to attend their dinner and listen to their guest speaker Bobby Seale, co-founder of the Black Panthers.

I was born in 1964, I lived in a "white" section of town and really did not hear about racial concerns. Or, perhaps I chose to be ingnorant and live blissfully. I tend to believe the latter, as anyone could ask me about matters in the news from the mid-70s to the late-80s and I would know very little. Perhaps this is because I was a kid and had no time for television, or maybe it was my way of protecting myself. Again, I think it's more than likely, the latter.

The speech was fascinating to me (because now, I pay attention and think "wow, that really happened?" or, "no way!") I would say the majority of the audience enjoyed listening to what Mr. Seale had to say. There were some that looked somewhat skeptical and it was obvious that they did not stand at the end when the evening had concluded.

Whatever their reasons, I like that they did not stand... here's why: to follow a crowd is easy; to follow yourself takes more personal strength.

I've always had something inside me that doesn't want to listen when someone tells me what to do. If you ask, I'm fine and will help you all the way. This came to me in a rush of realization when the first speaker of the evening said "good evening," we said "good evening" in return, but it wasn't good enough. We had to say it over and over until the speaker (not Bobby Seale) was satisfied. Another example of this is we are asked to stand, sing, hold hands, etc. I'm not into it. Please don't expect me to go along, just because it's what everyone else is doing. I appreciate those people who did not stand at the end of Mr. Seale's speach, as it seemed like it was the thing to do...well, I guess I had something I needed to say.

I enjoyed last evening very much and hope to be able to attend more talks, speeches, what-have-you and learn about the history that I have lived through with my eyes shut.

I'm doing something very different this evening than last... I wonder what I'll learn?

Power to the People,

~ch

Thar be Buried Treasure in Them Hills! Arrgh!

My new fun thing to do...

Two weeks ago, a close friend of ours was visited by some friends from Wisconsin. We went to our friends house to meet her visiting friends and the subject of geocaching came up. I had mentioned that I thought this sounded like fun and the wife said... "oh, well I brought my GPS unit and planned to go this weekend, would you like to come along?"

Heck yeah. I'm not one to say "no" to new fun. I figured hiking in the neighboring woods would be a nice way to spend a day. So, we planned to meet at our house on the afternoon of Mothers Day. We live near the woods and thought we would be close to some caches... we were.

We started our trek about 1pm with our friend (I think she's 74 years old... I can't tell anymore...pretty much, I think everyones my age), her friends (I believe around the same age), my husband, our dog and me. It was a warm day and the flowers were blooming. Our friend has bad knees, so she wasn't certain how long she could go for. We did get to the top of a hill (in-between Brandis Park and Timberhill) before she said she didn't like this sort of thing. Luckily, the Timberhill Athletic Center was in view... so we hiked down for a beer and left her there. My husband and dog hiked home to get the car and bring her home. That left me and the visitors to finish our treasure hunt...except that the lady's husband wanted to go with the others out for drinks.

Now, it was down to me and the one lady from Wisconsin. We talked and made friends. I learned that she is a retired P.E. teacher who runs marathons.... this was my day (for pain!) There was no way I was going to give up (I am a tad competitive) and whine about how warm I was, or that my legs were turning into jelly. I pressed on, with a camelback water bag on my back and a ball cap down low on my brow and one beer in my belly.

I had the greatest time. I saw parts of Corvallis that were SO COOL. I trudged (she glided, sweat-free) home around 7:30 that evening. We checked the GPS and it said that we had only gone 7.5 miles. I swear it was longer... but we were up and down hills, through creeks and in some.... so it seemed longer (to me) than it was.

If you are interested in this sort of thing, check out the GeoCaching site. It's a great family activity and adds an element of something accomplished along with a beautiful hike...exercise and fun? Who'd of thought?


"Yargh, I loves me booty"

the,
~ch

Balancing on the side of the Earth

It's about time I had a post. For those of you wondering why I haven't written in a while... there's been no major crisis, no melt down, nothing that terribly exciting (thankfully.) No, I've just been working. Work at this time of the year is fairly hectic for me and it takes up many evenings as well.

I'm only 41 years old, but I'm having a difficult time remembering things... like recent things, like only yesterday things and it's concerning me a bit. So, when my job requires that I keep a lot of information and know MANY names and keep paperwork and money all in order, I tend to only focus on that so my brain doesn't get that cluttered feeling. I worry that I'll drop the ball somewhere and the perfectionist in me gives me a stomach ache until everything is done.
I have two more events in the next two weeks. Although, they are both low pressure... I see them on the calendar and want to be able to check them off.

School will be finished here in Oregon on the 15th of June. I love when school is out... No alarm clocks, no schedule. Warm sunny skies and I'm happy. Though I tend to need a schedule by the end of August... so it all works out!

The,

~ch

Sword = Hospital Trip

Well, I knew no good would come of the sword we bought our son ; )

(this isn't our son, or the sword... but I really liked the picture!)

But we were in Edinburgh and hey, there was a sale on swords... What's a parent to do? Anyway, 4 of "thing 1s" friends came over this evening to hang out...cool. Then, thing 1 comes down and says "mom, I think I need to go to the hospital. I ran into the sword."

Thankfully, it was his finger and not his chest, or stomach. The cut was rather deep. I am a huge wuss (is that how you spell it??) when it comes to blood. But this time, I saw bone and fat. The fat was starting to come out of the finger (aaarrrghhh!) I concentrated real hard on not fainting and told his friends that we would be heading over to the hospital and that I'd call them later.

I got the boy in the car and he slumped over and fell asleep (passed out.) He awoke when I parked the car at the emergency room. Of course immediate care had just closed, so yes... it was the emergency room for us.

He was very good. After we were admitted, we sat in a room waiting for our turn. Although the wait wasn't too bad, as we had a fairly entertaining show happening on the other side of the curtain.

The doctor was wonderful. He was honest with thing 1 and told him what would hurt and what wouldn't. He also let him watch the whole cleaning and sewing procedure. I stratigically placed myself right behind the doctor, so I couldn't see a thing, but I was still there.

Two hours later, we went home.

I love being a parent,

~ch

Catching up...

Well, I'd say I'm a bit of a slaker for not writing, but truth is... I'm only a blog slacker. Life has been very busy around here. With the end of the school year fast approaching, I'm doing my best to get everything in that needs to be done.

Regarding my last post about "accepting criticism," I felt bad for about a day and a half. After that, I laughed. Really, this is the only time I'd been told this... had this been the 2nd time, I might start to get worried.

I haven't seen much of my family lately. Spouse is busy doing what he does in the day and now he's even busier doing more things in the evenings. Child #1 (AKA Thing#1) is getting older and would rather be poked in the eye than hang around with us. Thing #2 has held down a job after school for 2 years now... and she's only in middle school... she is an amazing child. They both are really...just in different ways.

I will be going to a Flaming Lips concert with Thing #1 at the end of this month. I suppose if I'm buying and driving, it's OK to hang out with me : )

I'm looking forward to summer and going on a family vacation. There will be no telephones, no computers and very little t.v. (because it won't be in English (HOORAY!!) )

The flowers I planted are doing well, though I was worried that it might get too cold for them last night. Today they are toasting in the sunshine and looking happy... they survived.

I hope everyone is having a spiffy week,

~ch