Drummer Boy

Friday night, Gillen's percussion day camp had their concert on the square in Rutledge. It is amazing what Eva and her talented professional musician friend accomplished in a week. We are so lucky to have Eva nearby. She is also my zumba teacher. I have taught at a few theater camps and I no longer have what it takes to do it right. She could write the book.

What a cool camp. The kids got to pick between four countries - Brazil, India, Cuba, Spain, and the continent of Africa. Each group learned their country's specific rhythm, on gourd and goat skin drums that they all made for themselves the first day. They also sewed their costumes and painted the set. Gillen loved this camp.

The concert highlight:These boys represented Brazil; they also represented what music, and Eva, can do. They are brothers who live with their grandmother. They rocked! It was good to see them getting positive attention.

Gillen chose Spain because he had started a friendship with one of the other guys who chose Spain. Turns out that the Spanish rhythm is really challenging - it's a 12/13 time. The guy who taught them could not believe how well Gillen could keep the rhythm. He talked about getting Gillen a scholarship to take drumming in Atlanta. Gillen wants to stick to guitar, and to taking it locally.Gillen really liked the drumming but was much more impressed with this photographer and what she had to offer (Eva is the one directing the kids from below as only a yoga/zumba teacher could). He met the photographer one day in Rutledge's Caboose ice cream shop. Gillen commented on her worn cowboy boots and said that he had some that were even more worn. She asked how they could possibly be more worn then hers. Gillen explained that he was a turkey farmer and told her about our farm. Turns out she has been trying to relocate our contact information for years. She has been wanting to do another story on the farm. What trumped the drumming compliments, to Gillen, was that she is going to do a story about his turkeys!

Rural Georgia is meeting the kids' needs. My city prejudices are withering away, after fifteen years, in the unexpected opportunities held in our small town life.

The magic of a mini green ipod

Last week I inherited Nicolas' mini ipod. It has changed my family's life. I can attach it to speakers in the kitchen. This means wanting to spend more time there which means more happy cooking than happened previously. Plus, the kids are getting to hear my soundtrack, as opposed to just Nicolas'. Gillen was singing along to Regina Spektor with me tonight.

And, my dog is fit! Now that I have the soundtrack of my past, present and future to inspire me, Tuki gets much longer walks. (I must remember, on future walks, not to sing out loud, even in the country and especially not Tom Waits or Dionne Warwick songs. It happened tonight. I hope that everyone was indoors)

In other music news, in the car we've been listening to the Billy Elliott soundtrack and are loving it - especially this song. We'll be in NY in Sept. for a night or two. I 'm dreaming of introducing the guys to Broadway.

As for live music in the here and now, Gillen is in a music camp this week in which he is learning percussion and making his own instrument. We'll get to see him in his camp concert on Friday night. He is tapping out Spanish rhythms on everything.

If you're willing to share, I'd love to hear your favorite song of the moment.

Amy Steinberg at the Opulent Possum

This weekend, we (including Nicolas!) went to the Lovejoys' in S.C. to be with them and other unschooling friends at an Amy Steinberg house concert. It was exactly where we needed to be - find "exactly" for yourself here. If you haven't yet heard her, check her out. Her CDs are great, and live she is even better.

Cameron and Logan were the sweet opening act:
There was great chemistry and joy with these two on stage. This is at the beginning of the night, when everyone was still sitting down, loving it all in a quiet, orderly fashion:As the sun descended, seats were pushed aside and all rose in dance! Under the Amy Steinberg spell:
Doesn't Gail look like a teenager? That woman has got the moves!For awhile, these three (my guys, and Silas) became the back-up singers:
For the most part, Gillen experienced Amy Steinberg from the land of ham and Jesse was truly taken by the music into his own dancing swirl.
When Amy praised him, he left his dancing place and pulled himself right back to reality : )But he managed to get back to the dance.

There were also Bananagrams, gardening talk, Vietnamese food, swimming...it was a good weekend.

Random goodness in the rain

Jesse came into the kitchen, bouncing, asking us to guess what he just did.

"I blogged!" he announced, before we had a chance to guess. I read his post, a list of random things, and was inspired to do my own. We've had some heavy rain the past few days and lots of driving to do to get to violin and archery classes. These gray, tired days can hide the good stuff, if I'm not careful.

We watched the documentary about the wire walker who danced and played on a tiny cable strung between the twin towers in the 70's. Called simply Man on Wire, it just won the academy award for best documentary. It combines the wire walker's present day thoughts about his wire walking journey with home movies and media footage of he and his team back in the day. Philippe Petit's dream of making that World Trade Center walk began when he was a boy in a dentist's office, reading in a newspaper about the plans for the building of the towers. What power there is in a long-held dream, when accompanied by some crazy good friends and passionate preparation.

We finished reading The Island of the Blue Dolphins yesterday and watched Escape to Witch Mountain the other night. I remembered liking both a lot as a child. The book traveled better through time than the movie. Gillen has declared that it's his favorite book ever.

Having had a few weeks of lessons now, Jesse had been feeling frustrated that his instrument, the violin, sounded so drastically different from that he'd heard in the Manheim Steamroller concert. But yesterday both he and Gillen were feeling very musical and were awe-struck by their new ability to actually play something close to a song, not just notes.

All is well; I'm ready for spring.

Music and light

The windows were open today and the sun was shining bright. I got to do more crafting, we finished reading my book (Gillen and Jesse judged it as being a great story and asked me to please make it longer so I'm going to do a second draft ) and the kids got to know their new instruments better. They both got excited about learning an instrument, separately, just in the past few months. For Jesse, it was a Manheim Steamroller Concert that inspired a wish to get a violin (thanks to Kelli for the concert inspiration and the violin:). Gillen heard a song while making a video with Alex that had great guitar riffs and he has been asking to play for a month. We finally got him his own guitar this week. They both wanted to take lessons as well.

So we are getting to know the sound of strings, with no strings attached. I was made to take piano for years as a kid and to practice for what seemed like hours every day. I won't do the same to them. I hope that they enjoy these new instruments and that if they stop enjoying them, they put them down for a while (or forever) without losing their confidence in themselves as musicians, or their joy about music. If Gillen loses interest in the guitar, both Nicolas and I are eager to try it out. Maybe we'll all end up playing strings. If I were bigger and stronger, and less intimidated by my age, I'd pick up the cello.

Monday Farm Photos

Doesn't this look like a plague of purple and white locusts? Or fairies? Or Mardi Gras bees?
Agrostemma stole the show today. Two long rows of it were fully expressing themselves, attracting all local birds,bees,insects, and Gillen and I, with their ethereal charm.
Here they are sharing the spotlight with other new Helen blooms.

There is some duck news to report - Mae Belle is sitting on thirteen eggs, get this, surrounded by roosters in the temporarily male-only-chicken coop, otherwise known as death row. Gillen says that she laid the eggs about two to three weeks ago and has been sitting on them about a week. I so hope that Mae Belle and the other two ducks will soon be followed closely by a long line of sweet, squeaky ducklings.

In turkey news, I am sad to report that one poult drowned and the other one got out of the fence and did not return. The Bronze turkey mamas are laying, but not yet sitting.

The plums are starting to ripen.
Gillen made up for an earlier sibling moment he'd had with his brother by giving him the one perfectly ripe plum he found hanging off of a tall branch; still showing Jesse who could carry whom, but with kindness.
The farmers taking a moment to smell the roses, and scratch their feet.
Jesse has been spending lots of time practicing on his new Ocarina. He has made up a tune called "Unite of Underground" (which I mistakenly thought was "You Knight of Underground" but was corrected). He is presently working on his second composition - "The Tuki Tune", named for our dog Tuki, not two keys. This time, I called it correctly the first time.

Georgia Renaissance Festival

Despite loving the Renaissance living history class that he just took, Jesse really didn't want to go to the Renaissance Festival today. The tickets were bought, the rest of us wanted to check it out, for the first time ever, and it was one of those occasions where Jesse had to come along, despite his reticence and whinging.

When we saw this sea of cars, I wondered if he'd had the right instincts.

But once inside, we didn't feel the crowds like I thought we might and we all had a good time. whew! He ended up telling us that he was really glad that we came.

There were jousting and sword-fighting shows, giant turkey legs to eat, tons of Renaissance-geared people to watch, and fun games. Here is Gillen jousting on a Griffin.

Jesse also loved the Griffin. I like the little Renaissance-clad girl who is watching him. It would be fun to own some Renaissance costumes. Gillen liked the vests (I know there is a better word for them) and I fancied the corsets and flower hair pieces.
Jesse asked for his first instrument and we were happy to get it for him - it is called an Ocarina and is an ancient type of flute. He got a songbook with it that is filled with songs from Zelda, Ocarina of Time, one of his favorite video games, and the reason that he was aware of this instrument.
At one point, I was in ye olde coffee hut waiting for my sweetened iced coffee while the guys were off buying Gillen a sword. I thought, "this is my chance to do some serious people watching" and looking up saw a woman a foot in front of me chewing on a large piece of beef jerkey. It looked really good. She looked really familiar. She was a fellow unschooling mom whom I hadn't seen since last year's unschooling conference! Dame Mary Alice! A goodly time was had by all - our boys becoming acquainted via sword fighting. Now I can't stop thinking in Olde English, but I'd best stop writing in it.