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between a cute little bird and a wide eyed baby bear...an "autumn serenade".
this is the second (but it sure won't be the last) piece i created this summer when i was trying my hand at mixed media. can i just tell you what a total blast it was creating this piece?! so much fun and a bit out of the box for me as i am a SUPER DUPER AWESOME planner. seriously. it's one of my finer traits....i think so, anyway. ;) this little creation was kind of spontaneous....kind of....
i knew i wanted to do a bear with an autumn color scheme. the rest just kind of happened the more i kept adding different layers, different supplies...and, being my absolute own worst critic well, i'm rather pleased with the way it turned out. i mean, c'mon..look at the face on the baby bear...you just gotta love him. :)
PRINTS available here. ORIGINAL PAINTING is FOR SALE. contact me here if interested.
also, here's a link to sweet ophelia...a colorful owl done in this same mixed media style.
perhaps 2017 will bring about some more of these little *experiments*....
0 Comments on a sweet little duet.... as of 12/14/2016 2:33:00 AM
Author Tish Rabe does more than read her board book Love You, Hug You, Read to You, she sings it on Read Out Loud! Rabe is a trained opera singer who frequently sings with her family.Love You, Hug You, Read to You, is about a parent’s promise to always do three important things for their child; love them, hug them, and read to them. Each page includes questions a parent can ask a child to further engage them in the story. A bilingual version of the book (see below) is available too.
Love You, Hug You, Read to You! Written by Tish Rabe, illustrated by Frank Enderby
Published by Random House Books for Young Readers, Board Books
There are three things I’ll always do … love you, hug you, read to you. The simple promise of togetherness offered in this board book is enhanced by interactive prompts throughout, encouraging parents to engage with their child while reading. Studies show that asking questions, like the ones in this book, helps children learn to read faster than if they just listen to a story. Love and literacy are gifts we can give to our children every day Also available as bilingual (Spanish and English) edition entitled ¡Te amo, te abrazo, leo contigo!
¡Te amo, te Abrazo, Leo Contigo!/Love You, Hug You, Read to You! is a bi-lingual book written in both Spanish and English. Studies have shown that asking children’s questions about what’s happening in a book helps them learn to read faster than if they just sit and listen to a story so this book features interactive questions in both languages. It also offers the opportunity for Spanish speakers to learn English and English speakers to learn Spanish!
ABOUT TISH RABE
Wish Rabe has written over 160 children’s books for Sesame Street, Disney, Blue’s Clues, Curious George, Huff and Puff and many others. In 1996 — five years after the death of Dr. Seuss — she was selected by Dr. Seuss Enterprises to create The Cat in the Hat’s Learning Library, a new line of rhyming science books for early readers. A television series based on these books, The Cat in the Hat Knows a Lot About That, airs daily on PBS Kids.
Ms. Rabe also wrote the popular Dr. Seuss book for parents-to-be Oh the Places You’ll Go to be read in Utero! and created her own character, The I Believe Bunny, which won a Mom’s Choice Award for Best Picture Book – Gold. She also wrote scripts for children’s television series including “Clifford”, “Clifford’s Puppy Days” and was the Head Writer for “I Spy!” for Scholastic Entertainment and HBO family.
In 1982, she traveled to China with Jim Henson’s Muppets to produce “Big Bird in China”, which won the Emmy for Best Children’s Special for NBC. Later that year, she became Senior Producer of a new science series for kids on PBS called “3-2-1 Contact”. During the five seasons of the show, Ms. Rabe wrote scripts as well as lyrics for songs including “What Does Your Garbage Say?”, “Electricity is the Power” and “People are Mammals Too”.
One of my newest projects is to illustrate a book, written by Kenny Loggins. He re-wrote the song, FOOTLOOSE, as a kids song and the book will have a CD in the back so readers can read along, follow the story with illustrations and dance to this great Kenny Loggins song.
Acrylic paint on a gessoed bristol board.
Here are two finished interior pages.
Here is the final art for the cover and end papers. The CD (FOOTLOOSE song) will be placed where the moon is positioned, inside the back cover. So, the moon will be the CD.
The new song sounds great. Kenny did a fantastic job of adding a kid spin to the original version. This is a lot of fun but I have a hard time painting, while dancing. Believe me, you'll be putting on your dancin' shoes, too!
0 Comments on PUT ON YOUR DANCIN' SHOES! as of 2/15/2016 1:10:00 PM
Children connect with songs and rhymes. This innate quality allows young readers and listeners the ability to play and experiment with sounds with ease. Not only do these lyrical stories lend themselves to a range of engaging and interactive experiences, but their audience is also given opportunities to learn the mechanics of language, sequences and […]
Singing like a winner is what every emerging professional aspires to do. Yet there are so many hardships and obstacles; so much competition and heartache; so many bills to pay that more people sing like whiners than winners.
Carols bring Christians together around the Christ Child lying in the manger. During Advent and at Christmas, Christians everywhere sing more or less the same repertoire. Through our carols, we share the same deep delight at the birth of a poor child who was to become the Saviour of all human beings.
The carols are wonderfully ecumenical in their origins. Four verses and the tune of ‘Adeste Fideles’ (‘Come all ye faithful’) come from an eighteenth-century Roman Catholic layman, John Francis Wade. ‘Angels we have heard on high’ is a traditional French carol, now commonly sung to a tune arranged by Edward Shippen Barnes (d. 1958), an American organist and composer. The text of ‘Hark the herald angels sing’ was written by Charles Wesley. Its widely used melody is taken from Felix Mendelssohn, who was born into a Jewish family and brought up a Lutheran. Isaac Watts, a non-conformist, composed the words of ‘Joy to the world’. The music, although often attributed to George Frederick Handel, seems of be of English origin.
An Episcopalian bishop, Phillips Brooks, wrote ‘O little town of Bethlehem’, and the tune we normally hear accompanying this comes from Ralph Vaughan Williams.
‘Ding dong merrily on high‘ is sung to a dance tune from sixteenth-century France; the text was composed by an English enthusiast for carols, George Ratcliffe Woodward (d. 1934). We owe ‘Away in a manger’ to a nineteenth-century children’s book used by American Lutherans. The words for ‘See amid the winter’s snow’ were written by Edward Caswell, who became a Roman Catholic and joined Blessed John Henry Newman in the Birmingham Oratory. Sir John Goss, an Anglican organist and composer, provided the musical setting.
‘Silent night, holy night’ was the work of two Austrian Catholics, the priest and organist of a country church. An Irish Protestant, Nahum Tate, probably composed the text of ‘While shepherds watched their flocks‘, which is often sung to a tune taken from Handel.
These and other familiar carols have been composed by members of different Christian communities who lived in various parts of the world. The carols have also proved splendidly ecumenical in their use. No other collection of hymns are sung so widely by Christians when they celebrate one of the two central feasts of their liturgical year.
‘Adeste Fideles’ by Kronenberger (Own work) [CC0], via Wikimedia Commons
With a happiness that lights up their faces, Christians sing together the carols. With the birth of the Christ Child, light has replaced darkness, and real freedom has taken over from sin. The beautiful ‘Sussex Carol’ catches the common joy of Christian believers: ‘On Christmas night all Christians sing/To hear the news the angels bring/News of great joy, news of great mirth/News of our merciful King’s birth.’ The words of this carol go back to a seventeenth-century Irish bishop, Luke Wadding. In the early twentieth century, Vaughan Williams discovered the text and the tune that we use today, when he heard it sung at Monk’s Gate in Sussex. Hence it is called the ‘Sussex Carol’.
Such carols bring Christians together around the manger. They blend beautifully text and music to unite us all and lift our spirits at Christmas. But they also remind us that the shadow of the cross falls across the birth of Jesus.
Some carols foreshadow the suffering which the Christ Child will endure for all human beings. Thus the penultimate verse of the traditional English carol, ‘The first Nowell‘, declares: ‘and with his blood mankind has bought’. ‘In dulci jubilo’, a medieval German carol, arranged by J. M. Neale (d. 1866) and entitled ‘Good Christian men, rejoice’, subtly links Bethlehem and Calvary when the second verse repeats: ‘Christ was born for this.’
The carols that feature the Magi and the gifts they offer foretell the passion of Christ. Myrrh is an aromatic resin that was widely used in the Middle East to embalm corpses. From early times Christians understood that gift to symbolize the death and burial of Jesus. ‘We three kings of Orient are’, a nineteenth-century Christmas carol from Pennsylvania, devotes a whole verse to the gift of myrrh: ‘Myrrh is mine, its bitter perfume/breathes a life of gathering gloom/sorrowing, sighing, bleeding, dying/sealed in the stone-cold tomb.’ Such carols unite Christians with the Magi in worshipping the Christ Child, whose birth is already overshadowed by the cross.
When we sing our favourite carols this Christmas, let us rejoice in their very ecumenical origins and in their use by Christians everywhere. The carols light up our faces with vivid joy. But they also recall how the shadow of Calvary fell over Bethlehem. Jesus was born into a world of all-pervasive pain and suffering.
Featured image credit: Little Twon of Bethlehem, by Phillips Brooks. Public domain via Wikimedia Commons
There are plenty of operas about teenage girls—love-sick, obsessed, hysterical teenage girls who dance, scheme, and murder in a frenzy of musical passion. Disney Princess films are also about teenage girls—lonely, skinny, logical teenage girls who follow their hearts because the plot gives them no other option. The music Disney Princesses sing can be divided into three periods that correspond to distinct animation styles:
Image used with permission
Onto these three periods we can map the themes of the princess anthems, the single song for which each princess is remembered:
Image used with permission
The relative lack of variance in these songs tells us something important—while animation styles have changed, the aspirations of girlhood have not been radically altered.
But then there’s Frozen.
Elsa’s anthem, “Let It Go,” combines aspects from all three periods: Frozen is a computer animated film, Idina Menzel is a Tony Award-winning singer, and, most importantly, the song and the Snow Queen who sings it have an operatic legacy rooted in representations of madness and infirmity. “Let It Go” is a tribute to passion, spontaneity, and instinct—elements celebrated by both the opera (which nevertheless punishes the bearer severely) and the Disney film (which channels them into heterosexual romance). Frozen does neither.
Unlike the songs of longing for belonging that came before it, “Let It Go” insists that being like everyone else is bound to fail. It’s a coming out song often read as a queer anthem and easily interpreted to account for a number of stigmatized identities. As such, Elsa is a screen onto which may be projected our fantasies and fears. While her transformation into a shapely princess swaying in a sparkly gown with wispy blond hair may be familiar, the scene where this takes place, the way she looks back at the viewer, and the music she sings define Elsa as more ambiguous than she appears. Is Elsa sick, is she mentally ill, is she asexual, is she gay? What is Elsa and why does she resonate so strongly with young girls?
Elsa is like the women of 19th-century opera in her exclusion from the world the other characters comfortably occupy. Marred by magical ability, Elsa must isolate herself if she does not want to scar those she loves—or so the dialogue tells us. The imagery suggests an illness; Elsa behaves as if she were contagious. Indeed, she is consumptive like Mimi, but she is also betrayed like Tosca and scandalous like The Queen of the Night. As Catherine Clément says of women in the opera: “they suffer, they cry, they die…Glowing with tears, their decolletés cut to the heart, they expose themselves to the gaze of those who come to take pleasure in their pretend agonies.” Operatic women express their hysteria skillfully. At the pinnacle of her agony, Elsa builds a magnificent castle while singing her most beautiful song, a song that has itself become infectious. In its final moments, she exposes herself, only to slam the door on viewers who would like nothing more than to gawk at the excess.
Most princess anthems end satisfactorily on the tonic chord, their musical conclusions coinciding with lyrical expectations that assure the story will fulfill the princesses’ desires. For example, when Ariel wishes she could be “part of that world”, she sings a high F, which a trombone echoes an octave lower, reinforcing the song’s key and suggesting the narrative’s interest in giving Ariel what she wants. In “Someday My Prince Will Come,” Snow White’s final line repeats the home pitch no less than six times as if to insist the screenwriters pay attention. “Let It Go,” on the other hand, ends unresolved. The score establishes a sharp distinction between the assertive melodic phrase sung by Elsa, “The cold never bothered me anyway,” and the harmonic manifestation of the accompaniment. Elsa turns her back to the camera after singing the downward moving line, which ends rather abruptly on the tonic, while the chord that ought to have shifted with Elsa’s exit lingers in the icy upper register of the strings, as if refusing to acknowledge the message. Is the music condemning the singer’s difference by suggesting that her immunity to the elements is indicative of a physical or psychic malady?
DVD screen shot.
Unlike Donizetti’s operatic heroine, Lucia, whose infamous “mad scene” prompts the chorus to weep for her, Elsa stares into the camera, eyebrow raised, as if daring the spectators to pity her. This is the look of a woman who refuses to capitulate to patriarchy. And with our endless covers and video parodies of “Let It Go” we have rallied to her defense. Rather than constrain her by Frozen’s story, “Let It Go” lets Elsa escape again into possibility. The new princess message, “Leave Me Alone,” is echoed by little girls everywhere.
Peter Conrad says of opera, “It is the song of our irrationality, of the instinctual savagery which our jobs and routines and our nonsinging voices belie, or the music our bodies make. It is an art devoted to love and death (and especially to the cryptic alliance between them); to the definition and the interchangeability of the sexes; to madness and devilment…” Such is also a fair description of Frozen, for what are its final moments than an act of love to stave off death, what is Elsa but a mad and devilish woman who revels in the impermanence of sexuality, what is a fairytale but a story full of savage beasts that prey on our emotions. “Let It Go” releases an archetype from the hollows of diva history into the digital world of children’s animation.
Headline Image: Disney’s Frozen. DVD screenshot via Jennfier Fleeger.
Okay. It’s time for a teensy bit of name dropping. I have this cousin who is a brilliant singer and songwriter and he’s racked up a few Grammys as well. (Do you say Grammies? I don’t think so.) If you are into good, old-fashioned bluegrass and Americana, check out Jim Lauderdale. Musicians are such great storytellers, don’t you think? Sometimes I wonder if I can pack the same amount of heart and soul into a 500-word picture book that he can in a 3-minute song.
That’s partly why I was so drawn to this book, The Young Man Who Wouldn’t Hoe Corn. And that was even before I realized that there were all kinds of connections to song. That title begs to be picked and strummed, right?
I purchased this book a while back from Elwood and Eloise on Etsy. The owner, Mallory, also runs an excellent illustration blog, My Vintage Book Collection (in blog form), which is an incredible archive of gorgeous out of print materials. Thank goodness she sells some of her collection, cause I’ve added some sparkle to my own thanks to her shop. (Also, the images in this post are courtesy of her post here.)
This is the story of Jeremy Sneeze. Where he fails as a farmer he succeeds at making children laugh. (Which is to say by wiggling his ears.) He replaces fallen birds nests and makes pictures and poems. And so, of course, the elders of his town denounce his slack and shifless ways. A town meeting. A crow. A spell is cast. A sneeze. A surprise.
This book’s design is reminiscent of a song. Here’s what I mean. That color—washes of analogous color in oranges and yellows and greens, those are the harmonies to the stark black’s melody. It’s steady and rhythmic like the downbeats of an upright bass. Unless they are splashed and chaotic like a mandolin’s intricacies.
On top of stellar bookmaking, the story itself is a sweeping epic wrapped up in the short pages of a picture book. Listen to some of its lines:
Just about then he would get to puzzling about other things like “How high is up?” or “Who plants the dandelions?” or “Where do the stars go during the day?”
And every year all Jeremy had to offer was a big weedy field filled with assorted brambles and unchopped briars, bounded by dirty broken boulders.
Flap-flap, past bats that watched with eyes like razors, past lizards, toads, and laughing spiders, down past rats and rattlesnakes and monkeys dreaming evil dreams of moons.
We have specials today on stars that dance or boiling oceans, and a bargain rate for setting mountains into motion.
He hurled himself at the brambles and flung himself at the weeds with such speed you couldn’t tell which was hoe and which was crow.
True enough he is a sorry farmer. But in his head dwell pictures and in his heart are poems.
The listen-ability, the meter, the storytelling grumble. It’s all here. What a gem.
P.S.—A bit of poking around online still left me slightly confused about the history of this book and the similar-ly titled song. Did the book inspire the song? Did the song know about the book? I think the song inspired the nitty-gritty backstory of the young man who wouldn’t hoe corn. I can’t really tell, so I’ll just be sitting here enjoying both. Hope you are too.
Aerodynamically, the bumble bee shouldn’t be able to fly, but the bumble bee doesn’t know it so it goes on flying anyway. Mary Kay Ash
I would like to fly. Sometimes, I fly around my house – from the floor to the bed and from the ottoman to the sofa and from the chair to the door.
But I’m not allowed to fly outside. If I could, I’d fly up into the trees to catch birds and squirrels.
They are up there laughing at me, so flying would come in handy to put a stop to that.
Mom writes picture books. But sometimes, she goes outside her comfort zone to write other things. Once she wrote a non-fiction story, but she hated it – ALMOST as much as she hated doing the research for it. She said, “This is too much like work.” and “I dread writing time.” and “You cannot climb a tree – you’re a dog, not a bear.”
Last weekend, Mom wrote a song. Her friend needed a little pre-k song for graduation, so Mom made it up and sang it out loud to herself over and over and over and over and over. She said, “That was easier than I thought.” and “I didn’t know I could write a song.” and “You cannot climb a tree – you’re a dog, not a bear.”
Sometimes we need to go out of our comfort zones and TRY to see what we really can do. Mom is no Paul McCartney, but she wrote a song. I may not be a bear, but if Mom would unclip my leash for 5 seconds, I think I can climb a tree. After all, bumblebees fly….
10 Comments on Inspirational Quote of the Week, last added: 4/28/2014
Oh Cupcake – you best stay leashed up little lady! Flying isn’t for little doggies…. :(
guineapigsqueak said, on 4/27/2014 10:59:00 PM
Whee reckon you can be whatever you want to be, Cupcake. Then again being a dog must be pretty cool so don’t go making your decision too quickly. Sometimes it’s nice to pretend to be something your not, Billy likes to pretend to be a shoe for example and sit on the shoe rack!
The Pigs xx
alesiablogs said, on 4/27/2014 11:04:00 PM
Do pigs fly Cupcake? After this post, I am just wondering…. Say hi to mom and tell her that it is cool to go outside of your comfort zone! I do it all the time…Not always a good thing, but most of the time it is. : )
Shiva & Jaya said, on 4/27/2014 11:20:00 PM
Piggies fly! We saw on Pink Floyd album cover! XXXX
onespoiledcat said, on 4/28/2014 2:52:00 AM
Oh Cupcake…..I think you WOULD be able to climb a tree – you certainly have the willpower! As for your Mom writing a song – that’s really wonderful! Aren’t you proud of her for trying something new? I’m sure if she let you climb a tree (which would be something new) she’d be proud of you too (at least until she had to get a ladder to go up and rescue you!!!!).
Hugs, Sammy
P.S. the trees are BOOOOOOOOtiful!
Clowie said, on 4/28/2014 3:10:00 AM
I think you could climb a tree, but I think you should have a friendly fireman with a ladder on standby to help you back down again – just in case!
Can you sing along with your mom when she sings the song?
bumpyroadtobubba said, on 4/28/2014 4:11:00 AM
A great reminder! xx
bumpyroadtobubba said, on 4/28/2014 4:12:00 AM
Cute firemen are always a good idea to have handy ;)
Clowie said, on 4/28/2014 4:30:00 AM
So true!
fozziemum said, on 4/28/2014 4:57:00 AM
Cupcake your mum is very much an intrepid explorer going out of her comfort zone..much like your desire to climb…we really are only limited by our ego I think…the fear of failing not flying :) hugs Fozziemum…pee ess I think you can climb..i am pretty sure Doc could too…it’s a terrier thing ;) xx
A couple of months ago, I brought home a friend's electric-acoustic mandolin on long-term loan, cleaned it up, and then brought it to the local music shop to have the bridge lowered and the strings restrung. Not long after, my friend Dymphna said, "I must admit, I feel like you've got a new boyfriend who seems nice, but I just don't get."
"What's not to get?" I asked. "I know it's difficult, I know that some of my chords sound like cows in pain, but listen to this pretty D chord!" I played it. She shook her head.
"As a violin player, I feel like it's missing a bow."
I replied, "The mandolin thinks your violin's bow is superfluous."
I started to play ukulele as "cross-training" for guitar. Guitar was my first, best love, but ukulele was cute, accessible, and portable. Songs I composed on the ukulele sounded merry, while songs I composed on guitar sounded like dirges. I've not mastered either instrument and I don't have any unusual musical talents (enthusiasm and desire are my strengths). However, when I started to learn mandolin from the excellent Bruce Emery via his Mandolin From Scratch book, I remembered that, in addition to guitar, mandolin was an instrument my teenage self wanted to learn, but thought was out of reach. I am a long way from playing Led Zeppelin's The Battle of Evermore (my favorite song off of their fourth album), but I can play the New Britain version of "Amazing Grace" in G and D without too many gaps between the barred chords. Eventually, if I am diligent and practice regularly, I will get to melody lines. Someday, perhaps, I can work up to affording a relatively low-priced Big Muddy mandolin.
In the meantime, I've got the "Octo-Lin," as I've nicknamed this Fender instrument. I bought a gig-bag and ironed on an octopus patch (Eight legs, eight strings!). Bede's banjo playing has progressed, and he is not used to being more skilled on an instrument than me, so now he gets to practice slowing waaaay down for me. We've been working on Jesse James and Gordon Bok's Dillan Bay, and are trying to make White Stripes' Hotel Yorba work, too. Others have already done it, as YouTube videos reveal.
I will end with a little octopus song I made up for a friend who would prefer spiders stay far away from her, and who wishes the children's song about an intrepid wee arachnid were less ubiquitous:
The teeny tiny octopus climbed up the sailboat mast Down came the storm, but the octopus held fast. Out came the sun and dried the ocean spray Then, the teeny tiny octopus jumped down and swam away.
For my last post of 2012, I'm going to break from our series on publishing opportunities (see Esther's last two posts and Carmela's post, with more to come!)...
I've been thinking about my family and our, well, interesting year (especially the part about my husband dying of a heart attack and being brought back and now being completely and miraculously fine); about hard times and hope, about sunrises, candles, glowing kitchen windows at night, and about the dark of winter and the glint of winter sunlight.
WINTER SOLSTICE: GIRL TALKING TO THE SUN by April Halprin Wayland On a hard day's chill, when my heart stands still, Sun, oh, Sun, where do you disappear? Then Sun answers me, answers quietly, Look around, little girl, I am here, I am here.
I am Jewish; I just recently learned that the fifth night of Hanukkah (which can be spelled many ways) is the first night in which there are more flames than darkness, more candles lit than unlit, and represents the triumph of light over darkness.
I love that.
Okay...ready for today's writing workout, Campers?
WRITING WORKOUT: A Light in the Darkness
1) Take a cozy moment to scribble ten ideas triggered by the phrase, "a light in the darkness" or by the 1:06 minute video above. Jot down memories, images, or the name of someone in particular who helped light your way in a dark time.
2) Consider imitating the rhyme scheme of the poem above:
A/A/B
C/C/B
3) Or write a 100-word story.
3) Or write forget #2 and #3 and write the poem or story you were meant to write today.
4) Write like a little kid who is so jumpy-excited to get a piece of paper and a pencil she can barely sit still. Give that little kid a chance; let's see what gift she creates for you this holiday season!
And speaking of gifts, don't forget to enter to win a gift for yourself or for some lucky teacher in your life: an autographed copy of JoAnn Early Macken's, Write a Poem Step by Step. I have her book and it's terrific! See JoAnn's guest post for details.
Not actually in Southern California where I live, but in Phoenix, several years ago. Still, a pretty note of light and hope with which to end the year...
Happy Holidays One and All!
13 Comments on Light Winter's Darkness this Poetry Friday!, last added: 12/23/2012
What a wonderful post -- surely you must realize YOU are a light to so many of us. Shine on, dear April and Happy Hanukkah. So happy you and your family overcame the obstacles, met the challenges, and are doing okay. The light of hope still burning bright!
I love the comforting thought of "I am here, I am here." The "triumph of light over darkness" helps me remember that these short, dark December days will start growing longer and brighter soon. In spite of the cold, light heralds the start of a brand-new year.
Happy, happy holidays to you, your family, and all the Teaching Authors!
Such a simple poem with such a powerful message, I am here. Happy Hanukkah to you and your family. Much to celebrate! I did the poetry exercise. Thanks! It was a refreshing workout.
Hi, April--I'm back to say once again how much I like this little, basic reassurance for young ones--though we can't always see it, the light is there, with evidence all around. Loved that video, too. Thank you for joining in the Solstice edition of PF!
Yes! The light is always there, even though sometimes we are blinded by grief and can't see it. Thank you for this loveliness, April. Short poems that pack a major punch are my favorites--and yours is one!
Be sure to hop over to Heidi Mordhorst's Juicy Little Universe post on the Solstice. Heidi's heads-up about her coming post inspired mine: http://myjuicylittleuniverse.blogspot.com/2012/12/poetry-friday-light-darkest-night.html
Tabatha--we probably share that feeling of fragility and of the preciousness of life...thank goodness your dad is thriving!
Author Amok (aka Laura): yes, the sun is there, whether we can see her or not...
Laura...short poems with zest are my favorites, too...I often write longer ones that I wish I could cook down...
This round, each Teaching Author (so far Carmela and Mary Ann) will be sharing one of our favorite posts by blogmate JoAnn Early Macken, now on our Blog Advisory Board (or BAB). Just kidding. We don't actually have a BAB, although maybe we should. We're saying goodbye to JoAnn who is so busy teaching, writing and running Wisconsin's SCBWI chapter, she can scarcely breathe.
JoAnn's poetry and photos sing. Though we had hoped to talk about different posts from JoAnn's tenure, I was so struck by her poetry in the same post Mary Ann chose, I have to share JoAnn's photo and poem, "Landscape with Dog Nose":
Landscape with Dog Nose by JoAnn Early Macken
I wanted to capture the crisp horizon,
gradations of shades,
mountainous clouds,
but she insisted on
stepping into the shot.
Well, why not?
She’s always part of the picture. photo and poem (c) 2012 JoAnn Early Macken, all rights reserved
I'll miss blogmate JoAnn's unique view of the natural world, her kindness, her beautific smile, her poetry...and so much more.
Good morning, April. Thanks for sharing JoAnn's poem. My dog is also my constant companion, always in the picture. It's great to see the photo that inspired the poem, too!
I've collected goodbye poems for a long time, and your post just adds to my pile. I'm sorry that your group is saying goodbye to a friend and colleague. It seems it's never easy. I enjoyed the songs too and the way you were trying to find just the right one, just as we do when writing. Thank you for your lovely post of goodbyes!
Oh,sad to hear I won't be finding JoAnn here anymore. Thanks for this great send-off, April. You are a first rate troubador! Love your Fiji poem and JoAnn's Dog Nose poem :).
Thank you all for your good wishes. April, thanks for the Woody Guthrie song and your Fiji vacation poem--I loved hearing the laughter in them both. I will gladly serve on the Blog Advisory Board! xox, JA
I’ve not been around much lately, I’ve been a very busy bee! On top of working on Broken Aro edits, I’m having a great month of new releases! Out today is another new short story. This is a young adult fantasy, great for all ages about a young boy who loves music and playing his flute…it is a new take on what the children’s song Ring Around the Rosie could actually be about.
Thanks to everyone for their continued support! Please click on the link! Fb likes & shares, tweets and mentions anywhere are always appreciated! If you have a blog I’m happy to stop by I hope you enjoy my newest tale!
Aaron is a normal boy fascinated with music. He loves playing his flute so much he doesn’t even mind lessons over summer break. When he meets a strange boy at the park who seems to be just as obsessed they spend summer days entertaining children in the parks woods. But friends often have secrets, music can be magical, and even the most innocent of children’s games can be more than they appear.
“Weaving the magical into the mundane, making you rethink what you already know, and mesmerizing you from start to finish. Only three of the reasons why I love Jen Wylie’s stories.” – Sean Hayden, Author of the Demonkin Series.
“A chilling tale of friendship, music and magic.” – J.A. Campbell, Author of Doc, Vampire-Hunting Dog.
“Chilling, thrilling and pitch perfect, will you take Jennifer Wylie’s hand and be led into a supernatural game? It’s not all child’s-play in ‘Ring Around the Rosie’.” – Katy O’Dowd, Author of The Lady Astronomer.
This adaptation of the classic "Wheels on the bus" song will leave kids giggling and and singing. Somehow the passengers and drivers on this particular bus have been replaced and overrun with animals, and the pattern of the song allows for each animal's sound to be enthusiastically repeated. Roughly penciled and cut-paper illustrations by G. Brian Karas complete the picture of a bus-ride gone awry.
It's been a while since I updated over here, so what have I been up to?Working mostly.Was that a boring answer?I guess it was a bit of a boring answer and I guess I should elaborate.The final piece of the FORTS TRILOGY is on schedule and expected sometime before the end of the year (November). If you haven't yet scooped up a copy of the first two, my suggestion is to get on that. If you have no interest in scooping up the first two, prepare yourself for one of my patented knuckle sandwiches. Beyond that, I'm currently illustrating a picture book for Featherweight Press, and I've been slowly piecing together my next project.Check out the trailer below:The first volume of Goats Eat Cans is in the hands of my editor and set for release early next year. You can find more information at the OFFICIAL SITE.Even if you hated FORTS, give this one a try. It's nothing like FORTS.Nothing at all.Seriously.
1 Comments on WHAT HAVE I BEEN UP TO?, last added: 9/24/2011
A Month of Celebrations; It is Stress Awareness Month, I have already put that in motion hopefully by the end of the month I will celebrate National Humor Month or maybe I'll invent by own a Celebration of Tears. Then I could drag out the guitar after all it is, InternationalGuitar Month to create a song, "Tears of Stress and Laughter," while I help Keep America Beautiful Month celebration raking the lawn and tending the garden month. Or maybe I could list the titles of over 20 poems I have written on author David L. Harrison's blog the past 17 months; after all it is Poetry Month. There is always some kind of holiday and celebration each month that will make your day or week or month. There is 12 month to be serous, happy, cry, or think to yourself who cares for it is more fun to invent my own celebrations; such as Trimming Your Toes Month, or Cracking Knuckles Month. Have some fun invent your own and celebrate the moment.
I’ve been teaching myself old hymns on the guitar lately, so this was the first thing that came to mind when I saw the Illustration Friday prompt “surrender”. And this is actually the second verse as it fit the over-all concept.
I found it of interest, when I looked up the author of the hymn (Judson Van DeVenter, 1855-1939), that he was an artist/art teacher, desiring to be a recognized for his artistic talents. But he also seemed to have a gifting as an evangelist. After wrestling with which to be for five years, he finally surrendered to the ministry. And out of that surrendering, the lyrics to this song was birthed.
I wonder what his art work looked like and if he continued to do it on the side or as a hobby. And I wonder why he couldn’t do both. I guess we’ll never know the full story.
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Oxford University Press joins a large community of friends, colleagues, performers, and students in mourning the passing of Shirlee Emmons Baldwin, one of the most beloved and strongest voices in the education, nurturing, and career development of singers. Having been trained as a classical singer myself, it was with great pride that I “inherited” Shirlee’s three titles when I began work at the Press—Power Performance for Singers (1998), Prescriptions for Choral Excellence (with Constance Chase; 2006), and Researching the Song (with Wilbur Watkins Lewis; also 2006). Through these books and others, and in the hearts of all those she touched, Shirlee’s voice will continue to resound and enlighten.
I am pleased to be able to share these beautiful words from Maribeth Payne, former OUP music editor who worked most closely with Shirlee and who had a long-lasting friendship with her:
As an author, Shirlee was great to work with–attentive, timely, responsive, hard-working, fun. Her work was the foundation of the professional voice list at OUP. But she was also a lovely, warm, generous person and a friend. Her voice was so resonant, I always had to shut my door when she came to the office–but the sound still got through. Her laugh was infectious and a joy to hear. She was also enormously helpful to young singers, several of whom I sent her way for lessons long after she had stopped teaching at Barnard and Princeton. One young man is now pursuing a budding opera career in Germany. Her studio was always completely full, but she took these students anyway, simply because I asked her to do so. I will really miss her.
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And congratulations to Joseph Brown! In last week’s contest, he correctly predicted both Oscar Music category winners. Joseph will be receiving a copy of Kathryn’s most recent book, Film Music: A Very Short Introduction.
If there was a surprise in the Original Score Oscar race Sunday, it was only the break dancing performances accompanying selections from the five nominated scores. Compared to the other presentations, the break dancing seemed to me a shameless grab for a youthful demographic. The Writing nominees, for instance, were announced with images of screenplays projected over corresponding scenes—an effective reminder of what a film owes to its writing. Yet the Academy could not come up with a better way to honor this year’s fine slate of scores? To have watched a scene from Sherlock Holmes without Hans Zimmer’s eclectic instrumentation, and then to have watched it with all the tension and excitement lent by the score would have surely been a more appropriate way to showcase the importance of music in film.
The composers of this year’s Original Scores are all deserving, hard-working, and extremely talented. Although I predictedMichael Giacchino would receive an Oscar for his work on Up—as he did—this is one year I wouldn’t have minded being wrong.
Though I appreciate Giacchino’s beautifully melodic score, Alexandre Desplat is due! For Fantastic Mr. Fox he used instruments like a mandolin, ukulele, celeste, banjo, and a Jew’s harp to create a whimsical and inventive sound—the perfect match for such a quirky stop-action animated film. With six film scores in 2009, four in 2008, and six in 2007, Desplat might be Hollywood’s hardest working composer. He’s already scored a film currently in theaters (The Ghost Writer), and five more are in post-production, including the newest Harry Potter film. Given Desplat’s incredible productivity, we shouldn’t have to wait long for another nomination, or (hopefully) a win.
We also welcome you to tune in to WNYC at 2pm ET today to hear Kathryn discuss Oscar-nominated music on Soundcheck.
This Sunday’s Oscars will recognize an exceptionally fine slate of film scores, and it’s nice to see such a deserving group of composers. The nominees represent a range of films and scores including the lush and symphonic (Avatar), whimsical (Fantastic Mr. Fox), edgy and tension-producing (The Hurt Locker), eclectic and genre-bending (Sherlock Holmes), and beautifully melodic (Up). While there are always surprises, I’ve considered each composer and score, coming to the following conclusions and predictions.
On Avatar: James Horner has been around a long time, having been nominated ten times in the last 32 years, and receiving Best Score and Best Song Oscars for Titanic. He’s a pro at what he does best: big, symphonic scores that hearken back to the classical Hollywood studio years. Horner’s music gives Avatar exactly what it needs—warmth and emotional resonance—and connects the audience to a series of images and characters that might be difficult to relate to otherwise. If Horner wins Sunday night, look for the evening to go Avatar’s way.
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I hope you enjoy my newest tale!
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Score) presentation, and her own predictions from Friday, presented 
Oh Cupcake – you best stay leashed up little lady! Flying isn’t for little doggies…. :(
Whee reckon you can be whatever you want to be, Cupcake. Then again being a dog must be pretty cool so don’t go making your decision too quickly. Sometimes it’s nice to pretend to be something your not, Billy likes to pretend to be a shoe for example and sit on the shoe rack!
The Pigs xx
Do pigs fly Cupcake? After this post, I am just wondering…. Say hi to mom and tell her that it is cool to go outside of your comfort zone! I do it all the time…Not always a good thing, but most of the time it is. : )
Piggies fly! We saw on Pink Floyd album cover! XXXX
Oh Cupcake…..I think you WOULD be able to climb a tree – you certainly have the willpower! As for your Mom writing a song – that’s really wonderful! Aren’t you proud of her for trying something new? I’m sure if she let you climb a tree (which would be something new) she’d be proud of you too (at least until she had to get a ladder to go up and rescue you!!!!).
Hugs, Sammy
P.S. the trees are BOOOOOOOOtiful!
I think you could climb a tree, but I think you should have a friendly fireman with a ladder on standby to help you back down again – just in case!
Can you sing along with your mom when she sings the song?
A great reminder! xx
Cute firemen are always a good idea to have handy ;)
So true!
Cupcake your mum is very much an intrepid explorer going out of her comfort zone..much like your desire to climb…we really are only limited by our ego I think…the fear of failing not flying :) hugs Fozziemum…pee ess I think you can climb..i am pretty sure Doc could too…it’s a terrier thing ;) xx