Showing posts with label culture. Show all posts
Showing posts with label culture. Show all posts
Tuesday, August 5, 2008
Canadian Folk Singer - Stan Rogers
Uncle John and family recently sat me down to listen to/watch a DVD of Canadian singer-songwriter Stan Rogers. Wow. It's been too long since I listened to a sea chanty, much less a contemporary sea chanty. I promptly checked out every available CD of his music through interlibrary loan. One of them even came from the SLC library system - Fogarty's Cove. I also got Home in Halifax and Northwest Passage. It reminded me a bit of the Revels concert we went to a few years ago at St. Arnold's (not a church - a local brewery). There's nothing of redemption, the dignity of work, or anything so magical in most contemporary music, but it's all here. After this, I won't mock Canada - quite - so much. In fact we're headed up to Montreal for our big summer vacation in a few weeks, but as many Quebecois will tell you, that's not really part of Canada.
Tuesday, June 17, 2008
Allow me to introduce you to...
Scott Westerfeld. Move over Shannon Hale - he's my new favorite author. I've read three of his books in the past three days. (I read three last year and loved them too.) And yeah! There's still more...
Tally-wa! (Read his books, you'll understand.)
Thursday, March 20, 2008
Once in a Blue Moon...A Tax Refund!
We sent off our taxes today. Joseph filled out all the schedules and I plugged the numbers into the 1040. Joseph proposed splitting our refund three ways - $800 each for Samuel, him and me. I spent about 30 minutes shopping online for an enameled dutch oven pan like the one I admired at Kari Hansen's. I found a deal on ebay, but then realized that I could get free shipping on Amazon and that made it cheaper. Bad news for small business that Super Saver Shipping is. In the end, I decided against it. I don't have anywhere to store it and we are postponing most decisions until after we decide if we are going back to grad school. But in true "less is more" fashion here's a picture to admire in all its blue heat-preserving splendor.
Speaking of blue, I am listening to Round of Blues by Shawn Colvin. Many of my favorite tunes have blue in the title, Blue Moon being my favorite. I first heard the Marcels doo wop version in elementary school. As a direct result, I like about any song that has any kind of ding dong shoo bop shoo bop, even Mariah Carey's- "Always be My Baby." Another fun blue song with ding dong shoo bop is "Blue (Da Ba Dee)" by Eiffel 65. Back to Blue Moon though - Melanie Morrow choreographed a dance to it in Orchesis in high school and I since then I was hooked. I should collect all that I can find (like dad's "Nessun Dorma" collection, only not so regal). I also have Ella Fitzgerald, Mel Torme, and Rod Stewart singing it, even though I can't stand his raspy voice. I can also play it on the piano, but that's not collection worthy - just fun. Dad also introduced me to Nanci Griffiths, a folk singer in Austin who has a lovely song called "Once in a Very Blue Moon." This song inspired me to copy Laurie Oldroyd's Blue Moon party in the Timpview 10th ward. That was a really special party for me. We were just married, new in the ward and the only people at the party who didn't have kids. Laurie was probably the closest in age to Joseph and me, and she is in my high school year book as a teacher! There were also people at the party who were our parents age. It was a fun mix and a killer party. Ever since I haven't hesitated about having friends and guests that weren't close to my age. I started planning my own blue moon party last year, but I got the month wrong and missed it altogether. (The projected blue moon date I found was based on Greenwich time putting the blue moon in June, but it should have been May in the Western Hemisphere. I learned this on June 1st. Charming.) I started collecting any songs that had the words blue moon in them for the party and found Patsy Cline's "Blue Moon of Kentucky" and Van Morrison's "Once in a Blue Moon." I always perk up when I hear the words "blue moon." When I read "Winter of Enchantment" in February, I noticed that the author repeatedly refered to a blue moon but defined it improperly as the lack of a moon - which should have been called a new moon.
That's all I've got on Blue Moon.
Speaking of blue, I am listening to Round of Blues by Shawn Colvin. Many of my favorite tunes have blue in the title, Blue Moon being my favorite. I first heard the Marcels doo wop version in elementary school. As a direct result, I like about any song that has any kind of ding dong shoo bop shoo bop, even Mariah Carey's- "Always be My Baby." Another fun blue song with ding dong shoo bop is "Blue (Da Ba Dee)" by Eiffel 65. Back to Blue Moon though - Melanie Morrow choreographed a dance to it in Orchesis in high school and I since then I was hooked. I should collect all that I can find (like dad's "Nessun Dorma" collection, only not so regal). I also have Ella Fitzgerald, Mel Torme, and Rod Stewart singing it, even though I can't stand his raspy voice. I can also play it on the piano, but that's not collection worthy - just fun. Dad also introduced me to Nanci Griffiths, a folk singer in Austin who has a lovely song called "Once in a Very Blue Moon." This song inspired me to copy Laurie Oldroyd's Blue Moon party in the Timpview 10th ward. That was a really special party for me. We were just married, new in the ward and the only people at the party who didn't have kids. Laurie was probably the closest in age to Joseph and me, and she is in my high school year book as a teacher! There were also people at the party who were our parents age. It was a fun mix and a killer party. Ever since I haven't hesitated about having friends and guests that weren't close to my age. I started planning my own blue moon party last year, but I got the month wrong and missed it altogether. (The projected blue moon date I found was based on Greenwich time putting the blue moon in June, but it should have been May in the Western Hemisphere. I learned this on June 1st. Charming.) I started collecting any songs that had the words blue moon in them for the party and found Patsy Cline's "Blue Moon of Kentucky" and Van Morrison's "Once in a Blue Moon." I always perk up when I hear the words "blue moon." When I read "Winter of Enchantment" in February, I noticed that the author repeatedly refered to a blue moon but defined it improperly as the lack of a moon - which should have been called a new moon.
That's all I've got on Blue Moon.
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