#406 - Trios at Home

As you know, my hubby and I both play trombone in a swing band. We are currently playing the 2nd and 3rd chairs in the group with another local musician (one who's so good, it's his day job!). So this evening, our friend the trombonist came over for dinner and an hour or so of playing trios/duets with us. (Fortunately, we have an amazing Grandma who played with the little guy during the music portion of our evening - thanks Grandma!) This turned into a really fun evening after a stressful day of work... we tried our hand at some classical duets and Christmas trios and had a great time. I'm so lucky to have music as part of our lives.

#372 - Violin Lesson

I don't know what possessed TLG to ask to see my violin tonight. I hadn't mentioned it in ages, I didn't think he even remembered I own one. I know I've never shown it to him. But tonight, of his own free accord, TLG asked to see my violin. So I brought it out of storage and TLG used the bow while I did the fingering to play "Twinkle Twinkle Little Star." He was very careful with the violin and understood that it wasn't a toy like his little guitar (also shown in the photo). But he loved making a song come out of the violin and wanted to do it over and over again. I'll be interested to see what instrument he chooses to play when he decides he's ready.

#355 - A Jury of TLG's Peers

This afternoon, my wonderful hubby and I played Christmas carols at the daycare center's annual family Christmas get-together. I will admit, I don't usually get nervous before I play trombone, but today I felt some little butterflies before we began playing. One of the office managers there plays baritone, and she joined us to make a trio for the first three songs (which was nice). And later in the party, we played a handful of duets. The funniest thing was the little guy's reaction - he stood between us while we were playing, hardly moving at all, even though he could have been doing art projects, playing with friends, or eating a snack. I love that he is respectful of live music already, thanks to Grandma and Grandpa for bringing him to our regular band rehearsals and gigs and teaching him about this. Of course, we played fine, and there was certainly no reason to be nervous... all the other kids and their families seemed to enjoy the music as they partied hearty. We were overshadowed by the cute kindergartners singing carols during our break, but who wouldn't be?!?

#321 - "Stick" With What You Know

As you know, I play trombone. For many years, on the advice of a band teacher when I was young, I have used plain ol' Ponds facial cream on the slide of my trombone to make sure it slides when I need it to. My hubby is also a trombonist, and recently we ran out of the kind of oil he uses on his trombone, so I visited our local music store to buy more. Of course they were out of the kind he likes best, so instead I bought a synthetic kind from a company named Aisyn. Tonight at rehearsal, we both tried the new synthetic trombone slide oil, and we both hated it. We even followed the store clerk's instructions to take off the old oil before using the new one, and within five minutes we were both having serious problems just playing our music because the slides were sticking so much. We made it for an hour, grumbling the entire time, and at break time we removed as much as we could and put good ol' Ponds cream back on. We have a gig this coming weekend, so I hope we get this fixed!

UPDATE: 9/18/08 My dear hubby visited a different music store and bought yet another new kind of oil called Slide-O-Mix. I do hope we have more luck with this one!

#297 - Dancing Through Life

Today I traveled to Chicago, and this evening I saw my first musical in it's home theater (i.e., not a touring production): Wicked. Having read the book "Wicked" a few months ago, I was especially excited to see this show, which I've heard rave reviews about - but something about seeing it in Chicago made it extra-special. Here's a photo of the outside of the Ford Center for the Performing Arts Oriental Theatre. The show did not disappoint: the music was great, the story was enjoyable and had lots of in-jokes regarding Oz and the original story and movie. The actresses playing Elphaba (the wicked witch) and Glinda were fantastic singers. My favorite part of the show was watching the sets... our seats were high in the balcony, so I couldn't see the actors' expressions too well, but the sets were amazing. It makes a big difference when they are permanently built into the stage. The Oriental Theatre was pretty amazing too, ornate scrolled architecture throughout but still very classy and well-kept. This is how I looked pretty much the entire evening:

#287 - New Blog for Band

Last night I started a new blog for the band we play in, and today my wonderful husband spent some time making a slideshow presentation with some of our music to post there. This is our first web project together - and it's looking very nice, if I do say so myself! The idea is to have a website where people can find information about when and where we are performaing, but also where they can find out how to hire our group, etc. Hey, if you're looking for a 14-piece big band to play anywhere, let me know - I'll send you to our website! Hooray!

#239 - Newsies

How, I ask you, did I live all these years without seeing the Disney musical "Newsies"?!? Last night (and this morning) I finally got a chance to check out this great little movie, starring many of my early-1990's favorite actors including Bill Pullman, Max Casella (the best friend from Doogie Howser) and David Moscow (from the movie "Big"). Directed by Kenny Ortega (who went on to direct a little movie or two called "High School Musical"), with music by Alan Menken (from "The Little Mermaid")... well, this movie basically had everything I want in a musical: cute kids, hummable songs, good plot and acting. Family, friends, if you haven't seen this one, I urge you to add it to your Netflix queue right away. You won't be sorry.

#211 - And Then There Were None

Our band played another performance today, this time in Reno, and for the first time ever, we stopped playing early because our entire audience had left. That's right, with 20 minutes left in our schedule performance time, we stopped to pack up and go home. After two gigs in as many days, we were mostly OK with that - but it did still feel awkward to have absolutely no audience to speak of.

#209 - Not a Governor In Sight

This evening, our band played at the Governor's Mansion in Carson City. I've only been to the mansion once before, and it was for a work event years ago, and I certainly was not part of the entertainment at that time. No, tonight, we played for a fundraiser for Operation First Response, a group recently formed to help fund programs for injured veterans. It was a much smaller audience than we had anticipated, and they didn't feed us dinner while we were there... but once the sun went down a little bit, the weather cooled off and it was a very nice outdoor venue to perform in. When it was over, my hubby, his mom, and I all headed to Denny's for a late-night breakfast (yum!) before heading home to Reno. All in all, it was a nice night.

#206 - A New Kind of Mix Tape

I used to make mix tapes all the time for my sister and friends, even mix CDs once I got to college and had my own computer. But today I discovered a new website that lets you post your own mix tapes and listen to other people's: http://www.mixwit.com/
I spent practically all afternoon listening to a couple of great mixes I found there, and though I was at work so I couldn't make my own mix, I might have to try it if the mood strikes me. It was great to have some new tunes at work!

#178 - A Gold Star for You

I've been active with a music group of women since I joined in college, and tonight for the first time, I got to present a surprise award to one of my friends. It was spur of the moment, since we had planned to give the award next month (with someone else actually doing the awarding) but instead it became necessary to do it tonight. It felt good to tell her how proud we are of her accomplishments, and to recognize all the work she's done for our chapter. I'm so pleased I got to step in and help with this fun deed!

#169/#170 - First Trombone Lesson/Video Post!

Our family and friends have been telling us we need to try this for a while now, so today we gave TLG his first trombone "lesson". He's got quite the lip and he's always blowing raspberries at us, so it's no surprise that he got quite a few good notes blown while I was taking photos/video.

And in a special bonus first, I'm uploading my first video to the site. I hope it works OK.

#111 - The Music of Friday Night Lights

I have really gotten into the TV show Friday Night Lights, and I am so pleased that they are still running new episodes despite the writers' strike. Now that our computer is back up and working, I was able to complete today's new thing: I researched the music from some of the recent episodes, and downloaded new songs that I heard in the show. I have purchased music from TV shows before, but only on CDs and it was never so immediate... I researched the songs on the website Television Without Pity (linked to the left here), and within a few minutes had the songs I was looking for. Technology is so cool!

#95 - Old School Videos

As a kid, I never got into MTV or VH1 or watching music videos in general. That continues to be mostly true, but last night, I watched some videos from the late 80's that made me feel like I missed out seeing them when I was younger. Sure, I'd seen the Thriller video before, but hasn't everybody? Last night, I watched George Michael's "Faith" (which is a great song but there's not much to the video - just George shaking his tush, playing guitar, and an occasional shot of a jukebox). And George Harrison's "I've Got My Mind Set On You." (That was a weird one - just the former Beatle sitting in a chair, with the furnishings moving in time with the music... come to think of it, there's not much to the words in that song, either.) A recent music video I really like is Feist's "1234" where the dancers appear from nowhere... if you haven't seen it yet, drop what you're doing and go to YouTube. I'll wait.

#88 - Funny Face

I've watched a lot of musicals in my 29 years, but I'd never seen "Funny Face" until tonight. Since it was mentioned in one of my favorite TV shows (Gilmore Girls), I've wanted to check it out... so tonight, I did. This film, released in 1957, featured Fred Astaire and Audrey Hepburn in the odd pairing as people who fall in love in Paris. I'd like to comment now on the strangeness of this pairing. Anyone who's met my wonderful husband knows I have no bias against a younger woman with an older man... but according to IMDB, Mr. Astaire was born in May 1899, making him approximately 56 during the filming of "Funny Face." Ms. Hepburn was born in May 1929, making her about 27. Didn't anyone think that was odd? Though I ultimately liked the film, which featured the music of George & Ira Gershwin, I saw no romantic chemistry between the stars. This reminded me of "Easter Parade," released in 1948, where Mr. Astaire was about 47 years old, and Judy Garland (who was about 26). Come on, Hollywood, what were you thinking? These pairings were about as believable as Harrison Ford (age 56) and Anne Heche (age 29) in "Six Days Seven Nights," released in 1998... in my opinion, one of the worst pairings in movie history.

But I digress. "Funny Face" was a good movie despite the age difference. I always love to see Fred Astaire in his dancing prime, and it was nice to hear Audrey Hepburn's real singing voice (since she was over-dubbed in "My Fair Lady"). I knew a few of the songs already, being Gershwin, so that was a treat.

#82 - Songs of the Season

Growing up, my family loved to play a home-grown version of the board game Scattergories. My mom also tells the story about how when she was younger, she made lists of things in different categories to bone up in order to beat my grandfather at this game. So in honor of this family tradition, I propose to make a list of all the Christmas songs/carols I can think of off the top of my head. Ready? Go:
1) Silent Night 2) Carol of the Bells 3) Sleigh Ride 4) Winter Wonderland 5) Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer 6) Frosty the Snowman 7) Wonderful Christmas Time 8) Hark! the Herald Angels Sing 9) All I Want for Christmas Is You 10) All I Want for Christmas Is My Two Front Teeth 11) Grandma Got Run Over By a Reindeer 12) Santa Baby 13) Santa Claus Is Coming to Town 14) White Christmas 15) Ding Dong Merrily On High 16) Jingle Bells 17) Jingle Bell Rock 18) Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas 19) The Christmas Song (Chestnuts Roasting On An Open Fire) 20) Baby, It's Cold Outside 21) Last Christmas 22) Blue Christmas 23) Little Drummer Boy 24) Hallelujah Chorus 25) Christmas Shoes 26) We Three Kings 27) O Christmas Tree 28) Deck the Halls 29) Auld Lang Syne
It's been ten minutes and nothing else is coming to mind. This is harder than it looks...

#65 - Jingle Bells

Last night we all dressed up and the whole family (even the little guy) went to see the local Philharmonic's Christmas concert. Grandma came with us and we all had a great time! The concert also included performances by a handbell choir, some tap and ballet dancers, and some Russian acrobats... so there was plenty for TLG to watch. And when he started to get fidgety, it was time to color a little bit, which worked out fine. The best part for TLG was the giant balloons that fell from the ceiling at the end - we took two home and have been playing with them all day. If the Philharmonic continues with this Christmas tradition, we may have to make it a tradition for our family too, since we all enjoyed it.

#19 - New tunes

Today I discovered some new music on my t.v. via the cable music channel. While I have been finding lots of great new music in the past few weeks over the internet, today was the first time to discover music I'd never heard before. (To clarify, in the past, the music I've listened to on t.v. is all stuff I knew before.) So today, in honor of new tunes day, I've fallen in love with Office's "Oh My" along with Feist's "1,2,3,4" and the Killers' "Read My Mind." My ipod is going to be burning up with all the great music on there! Woo hoo!