Grab Bag Friday: Teddy Tedholm

 Is it wrong that I'm glad it's summer partly because So You Think You Can Dance has started up again? Oh, Cat Deeley, how I've missed you!

Maybe I was in a sappy mood, but Teddy Tedholm's audition last night brought tears to my eyes within the first 20 seconds. The way this kid moves is so quirky and beautiful and heartbreaking. I kind of agree with Mia...he might be a genius.

You can watch it here, but you have to wade through about a minute of the "bad" auditions so the producers can set you up to understand how good he is. In case you were about to miss that little fact. :) [note: There's a new link/video below without all the intro stuff. Also, you can't really see the full screen here, so it might be best to click on the link. 5/29]


Teddy Tedholm: Boston Audition Season 7

Songwriting, Fiction, and Poetry for Kids Workshop Deadline: June 1

For those of you with creative kids in your life...June 1st is the registration deadline for Songwriting for Kids, Fiction Writing for Kids, and Poetry Writing for Kids workshops.

I can't wait! All workshops will take place at Bowdoin College in Brunswick, Maine, and the registration form can be found at www.songwritingforkids.com. If you know of anyone who might be interested, please pass this information on.

July 12-16
Songwriting for Kids Vol. 1
Students entering grades K-3
This is the traditional Songwriting for Kids workshop. We will learn American folk songs and use them to discover the basics of songwriting while gaining some insight into the historical context of the songs. We will focus on elements of rhythm, rhyme, melody, and above all, collaboration. Students will learn about creative teamwork and work together to write a class song. Students who have previously taken this workshop are more than welcome as songs and activities vary from year to year.


July 12-16
Fiction Writing for Kids

Students entering grades 3-5
This workshop teaches the basics of fiction writing, including Character, Plot, Revision, and Imaginative Writing. During the workshop, students will study character development, plot structure, and setting in popular children's literature and will write and illustrate their very own book.

July 19-23
Songwriting for Kids Vol. 2

Students entering grades K-3
In Vol. 2, we will experiment with various songwriting forms and structures: the blues, the "hooky" pop chorus, the bridge. Students will work in small groups and individually to write a number of "song sketches" throughout the week. This workshop may be taken as a stand-alone, but students who have taken Vol. 1 will benefit from having a knowledge of the vocabulary and traditional song structure we will use as a base.
July 19-23
Poetry Writing for Kids

Students entering grades 3-5
This workshop teaches the basics of writing poetry in both form and free verse. Students will learn to study and analyze poems by poets from Henry Wadsworth Longfellow and Robert Frost to Gwendolyn Brooks and Robert Hayden. Students will use class time to write and illustrate their own short book of poems.

Book Trailers from Lane Smith & Neil Gaiman

I think I've posted a couple book trailers here before, but just in case you're new to the concept, it's basically a movie trailer for a book. I've been a little skeptical about book trailers...Are they effective? Worth the effort? Who will see them? Will they actually sell more books?

Well, here are two examples of book trailers that actually worked on me. As in, I saw the trailer, I had to have the book. What do you think? Are book trailers the wave of the future or just another passing fancy?

Trailer #1: It's a Book by Lane Smith
I plan to go out and buy It's a Book when it comes out in August solely because this trailer cracked me up. Now the question is, when August comes around, will I still remember it? I hope so!



Trailer #2: Instructions by Neil Gaiman
I just bought Instructions as a gift for someone who shall remain nameless (because I haven't actually gifted it yet) as a direct result of watching this trailer. What a great book for someone who is setting out on a journey or new direction in life (um, graduation, anyone?)

Grab Bag Friday: Creature Comforts on Self Image

If you follow this blog you already know how much I loved the show Creature Comforts when it was on, so I will spare you further comment except to say thank goodness you can get the DVDs on Netflix now!

Here's a little comic genius to kick off your weekend. Enjoy!

Lena Horne: I Got a Right to Sing the Blues

This month, we lost the lovely, elegant Lena Horne. I've always admired how much intensity Ms. Horne brought to her singing. When you listen to a Lena Horne song, you believe each word is true because she put everything she had into her performances. In her melancholy songs, you can feel the ache in her voice like it's a tangible thing.

There's a fascinating obituary over at the New York Times about Ms. Horne's experiences as a black woman in Hollywood in the 1940s:

"Ms. Horne was stuffed into one “all-star” film musical after another...to sing a song or two that, she later recalled, could easily be snipped from the movie when it played in the South, where the idea of an African-American performer in anything but a subservient role in a movie with an otherwise all-white cast was unthinkable."

While Stormy Weather is, of course, the quintessential Lena Horne anthem, I've always been partial to her version of I Got a Right To Sing The Blues. There's that ache in the way she sings "down around the river" that just gets me every time. I couldn't find a YouTube video for this one, so here's a clip. [I was also able to find the entire song here, but you may need Quicktime or something to hear it.]

Summer Blog Blast Tour 2010 Starts Today!

For those kidlit aficionados out there, you'll be happy to know that today is the kick off of the annual Summer Blog Blast Tour. This means an entire week of fantastic author interviews! (The full week's schedule can be found over at Chasing Ray.)

I'm especially looking forward to tomorrow's interview with Rita Williams-Garcia at Fuse #8. I recently read One Crazy Summer and loved the way she balanced humor and powerful moments in a story about three young girls who spend a summer at a Black Panthers day camp in the 1960s.

Today's SBBT interviews:

• Kate Milford at Chasing Ray
• Mac Barnett at Fuse Number 8
• Hazardous Players at Finding Wonderland
• Malinda Lo at Shelf Elf
• Barbara Dee at Little Willow

For Papa: On the Sunny Side of the Street

My grandfather passed away this week, and in the midst of all the sadness, I've been trying not to lose sight of all the happy memories I have of him.

Papa and I shared a love of old movies and big band music. If you stayed overnight at his house, you'd get to stay up late watching Turner Classic Movies and then be woken up at (what felt like) dawn to Bing or Frank or the Andrews Sisters blasting through the stereo. It was heaven.

Papa was a crooner and my favorite memories of him involve Nana on the piano and Papa at her side singing his heart out. I was lucky enough to sing this song with him at my wedding, and every time I hear it, I think of Papa belting it out with a smile. It might be a little sappy, but I like to think he's on the sunny side right now.

Frank Sinatra: On the Sunny Side of the Street

I Wrote a Hit Song! Winner: Lucy, age 9

I'm back from my blog vacation and lots has happened while I was away. For one, spring has arrived! Our window feeder has been teeming with chipping sparrows, chickadees, and bluejays.

And speaking of bluejays, the Spring 2010 I Wrote a Hit Song! contest winner has been announced. Our winner, Lucy, is a songwriter from right here in Maine and she wrote a very cool song about one of her favorite birds.

Please stop by the I Wrote a Hit Song! site to listen to Lucy's bittersweet song, "When a Bluejay Dies."

Once you've read the lyrics, please leave a comment to let the world (and Lucy) know what you like about the song.

Blog Vacation

I'm taking a bit of a blog vacation, but I'll be back at the end of the month. Here's what I'm planning to read while I'm away from the computer. A little eclectic, but that's how I like it. :)

One Crazy Summer by Rita Williams-Garcia

 

Nocturnes: Five Stories of Music and Nightfall by Kazuo Ishiguro

The Lions of al-Rassan by Guy Gavriel Kay

No Applause--Just Throw Money: The Book That Made Vaudeville Famous by Trav S. D.

Grab Bag Friday Movie Vault: The Bachelor and the Bobby Soxer

It's been a while since I've dipped into the Grab Bag Friday Movie Vault, but since it looks to be a nice, rainy weekend here in Maine, I think it's time to pull out a good old 1940s screwball comedy.

I thought I'd seen just about every Cary Grant movie there is, but Kevin and I stumbled across The Bachelor and the Bobby Soxer a couple years ago and laughed our heads off. The movie, written by Sidney Sheldon (creator of the TV series I Dream of Jeannie) won an Oscar for Best Original Screenplay back in 1947 and I can certainly see why. It's a riot.

Cary Grant plays a bachelor who lectures about art and is something of a playboy. Through a series of barely plausible events (but who cares!), Grant finds himself obligated to date a love-struck high school girl (Shirley Temple) for a week until her infatuation with him wears off. The fabulous Myrna Loy plays Ms. Temple's protective older sister, a judge who is watching Grant's every move. Let the hilarity begin.

The Bachelor and the Bobby Soxer is a silly, very funny movie that definitely stands the test of time, if you ask me. It's got all kinds of great physical comedy, and Cary Grant is at his comic best. The more Shirley Temple's character tries to act sophisticated and worldly, the more he puts on a gooney, adolescent front. Like in this clip, for instance, where he meets her parents:

You Remind Me of a Man...

She & Him: In the Sun

Hooray, the new She & Him album is out!

To celebrate, here's a fun High School Musical/Grease-esque video of In the Sun. Now, tell me...how can that moody M. Ward not fall for a charming, hula-hooping school girl like Zooey Deschanel? Enjoy!


She & Him - In The Sun from Merge Records on Vimeo.

John Crossingham: Learn to Speak Music

I came across John Crossingham's Learn to Speak Music: A Guide to Creating, Performing, and Promoting Your Songs in the children's section of the library a few weeks ago, and of course I had to pick it up. For any kid who's ever wanted to write a song, start a band, record music, or play a gig...this is a book worth checking out!

John Crossingham is a member of the band, Broken Social Scene, and he starts out his book with three fundamentals every kid should know:

• Music isn't complex
• Music is whatever you want it to be
• You already know how to make music

Then he takes you through every single step you need to know to create and perform that music...from songwriting basics, to chosing an instrument, to promoting a gig. He's got great ideas for how to be considerate of family and neighbors (choose your practice times and location wisely, use blankets to soundproof your practice room) and even how to be a musician if you don't have enough money for a new instrument (borrow an instrument from school, buy something used, start with drumsticks, sing).

I like how each chapter includes a playlist of songs that illustrate what the chapter is talking about. You can use the playlists to do a quick search on YouTube or Lala and listen to songs by Fiest, Arcade Fire, Beethoven, John Coltrane to learn more about the songwriting and performing tips outlined in the book.

I like that there's a ton of great information in Learn to Speak Music but I love that John Crossingham always keeps the most important rule front and center: PLAY BECAUSE YOU LOVE IT.

Grab Bag Friday: All Natural Easter Eggs

I've randomly come across two articles in the last day about how to make your own natural dyes for Easter eggs. I haven't quite decided yet if this sounds like a super-fun experiment or a disaster waiting to happen. At any rate, it's very tempting. If you want to try it at home, here's an article that tells you how:

Dye Easter Eggs in Nature's Hues

And here are some of the things you can use for dye:

• Onion skins (marbleized oranges and yellows)
• Shredded red cabbage (midnight blue and teal)
• Beet root (brown with a purple cast)
• Spinach (pale green)
• Carrots (yellow with olive overtones)
• Grape juice (deep lavender)
• Blueberries (frozen is fine...deep blue)
• Raspberries (frozen is fine...light fuchsia)
• Blackberries (frozen is fine...plum)
• Coffee (milk-chocolate brown)
• Cinnamon (subdued mahogany)
• Paprika (light orange)
• Turmeric (vivid gold)

Have fun!

Mazzy Star: Flowers in December

There's something about a cold, rainy day that makes me want to pull out my old Mazzy Star albums and cuddle up on the couch with a cup of coffee and a sweet roll. Okay, the sweet roll might be a little random, but its because Mazzy Star also reminds me of the summer I worked the opening shift at a tiny coffee shop in Wisconsin. I'd come in at 5:30am, just as the sweet rolls were coming out of the oven and I'd pop in my Mazzy Star tape (yes, as in cassette) and start the coffee brewing.

Every morning without fail, one particular elderly woman would wait outside in her car with the lights on until I flipped the "Open" sign at six. I tried a couple times to invite her in early, but she would shake her head and wait patiently in the car until we were officially open. Then she would make her way slowly to her usual table where I'd bring her a cup of coffee and a sweet roll and we'd wait quietly for the rest of the morning's customers to come in. She only ever had two things to talk about: 1) the deliciousness of her sweet roll and 2) "that racket" I had playing on the radio. I think that random woman may be the only person in history to refer to Hope Sandoval's soft, melancholic vocals as "that racket."

Here's a little racket to enjoy on a gloomy Maine day: Mazzy Star: Flowers in December

Mark Kraushaar: Recent Cosmological Observations

Because I'm always a few months behind, I'm just catching up to The Missouri Review's Poem of the Week for January 27th.

I love it when a poem catches me completely by surprise, and this piece by Mark Kraushaar made me grin and read it again three times in a row. Partially because I love his off-kilter, mundane take on the concept of a parallel universe, but mostly because of that sweet turn at the end.


Recent Cosmological Observations
by Mark Kraushaar

One of the many implications of recent cosmological observations is that the concept of parallel universes is no mere metaphor. Space appears to be infinite in size.

-Scientific American

So, there's a sun like ours and a moon like ours
and a duplicate Earth with a town like this
and a street like this on a day like this
and there's a man exactly like me--
same wire glasses, same scratched thumb
and dumb job, different shirt--
a man just like me who walks
past a Frank's Corner Deli, u-turns,
walks in and orders a corned beef
on rye, double the mustard, no mayonnaise.
Outside, an equivalent Checker Cab
pulls up and a similar lady in a backward
cap gets out at a similar curb:
squashed Mars Bar, discarded sock, strutting pigeon
and all this under a wide, white sky with a glittering jet
and a crow below.
Of course, likewise, there's a smudged
glass counter and, in her crisp paper cap,
there's a girl whose tiny, terrible teeth also seem
tossed into her mouth like so many dice,
and just as I'm wishing this world's version
better, straighter teeth and love and long life too,
as I'm thinking how God on the Earth we know
seems absent or careless or cruel,
as an almost equivalent, nearly
identical God some place lolls dozing
in His giant cloud lounger, here, today,
three flies resettle on a split plastic spoon,
and as this Earth's girl scoops the last of the tuna
from a stainless tray she looks up and winks once
like we're perfectly grand.

Grab Bag Friday: Summer Writing & Songwriting Workshops for Kids

Registration is now open for all my Maine summer workshops!


We had so much fun last summer creating blues songs, pop songs, sestinas, free verse, fantasies, mysteries, and everything in between! I hope you'll be able to join us in July.

July 12-16
Songwriting for Kids, Vol. 1 (grades K-3)
Fiction Writing for Kids (grades 3-5)

July 19-23
Songwriting for Kids, Vol. 2 (K-3)
Poetry Writing for Kids (grades 3-5)

For more information and to download the registration form, please visit the Songwriting for Kids website.

Oliver: Where Is Love?

A few of my piano students are currently learning "Where Is Love?" from Oliver! and I have a new appreciation for how heartbreaking and beautiful this melody is. Somehow, "Where Is Love?" has never been the song that comes to my mind when I think of the musical. Maybe because it comes during a slow, dark, basement scene? But the rises and falls, the melancholic chords...it's just brilliant.

An interesting Oliver! tidbit:

The voice you hear below does not belong to the actor (Mark Lester), but to Kathe Green, the daughter of the film's conductor. According to IMDB, the conductor referred to poor Lester as "tone deaf and arrhythmic."


Where Is Love, from the musical Oliver!

Elizabeth Partridge: Marching for Freedom

There was no question that I had to pick up Elizabeth Partridge's new book Marching for Freedom: Walk Together Children and Don't You Grow Weary. "Walk Together Children" is one of my favorite spirituals (you can even hear me perform it as part of my Songs of the Civil War Era lecture) and Elizabeth Partridge is the author of that stunning Woody Guthrie biography I was so taken with back in 2008. Resistance was futile.

Marching for Freedom covers the time period surrounding the 1965 Selma to Montgomery march that led to groundbreaking voter's rights legislation for African Americans. Unlike most books about the Civil Rights Movement, Elizabeth Partridge focuses on the young people who were a pivotal, energetic force for change in Alabama. Partridge argues that without the kids as young as six years old who stood up for justice and equality, many adults may not have had the courage to get involved. She writes that adults were often "shaken into bravery" by the determination of the young people around them.

Lynda Blackmon Lowery, the youngest person to make the entire 54 mile march on Mongomery said, "I was not brave, I was not courageous. I was determined. That's how I got to Montgomery."

One of the things I loved most about this book was the emphasis on the role of music during the Civil Rights Movement. Time after time, while these children found themselves in horrific, untenable circumstances...beaten, intimidated, thrown in jail, sometimes kids as young as 14 years old placed in solitary confinement...they sang. Patridge writes:

"The music made them bigger than their defeat, bigger than their fear. It wove them together, filled them once more with courage and strength."

I believe in the power of music to change the world. I believe in the power of young people to change the world. Marching for Freedom strengthened those beliefs.

(Note: There are some very difficult scenes in this book, so I wouldn't recommend it to the under-10 crowd without a willing, caring adult along for the ride.)

Grab Bag Friday: Awful Library Books

Fuse #8 posted a link to Awful Library Books, a site developed by two public librarians from Michigan who post the covers of books they have decided must come off the shelves (or be "weeded" as they say). It's impossible not to peruse the site without laughing out loud or gasping in horror. Most of the books fall into the categories of weird, horrifying, or hilariously outdated. A few entertaining examples...

Weird: Are turtles the logical step beyond basic dog training?

Horrific: This one's from a dieting book for teenage girls. The chapter that accompanies this image is titled "50 Ways To Lose Your Blubber." Good lord, please take it away!

Outdated: I'd like to see a kid check out this book on how to make your own animated movies. "Mom, I need a film splicer!"

Oh, the fun goes on and on... (I love how guys need a big healthy meal with a tall glass of milk, and girls should eat toast!)

Frank Turner: Photosynthesis

I'm in love with this song. It's such an eloquent, concise (and fun) sum up of the exact conversation I've been having with a lot of my 30-something friends. How do you grow up without...well, growing up? In our adult world, can you hold on to the energy, the silliness, the passion, the sense of wonder that makes life worth getting out of bed for? I think you can. Blasting Photosynthesis at full volume is a good start.

Thanks to Upstart Crow Literary, I came across this video and have been enjoying Frank Turner's album Love, Ire, and Song ever since. (It looks like he has an even newer album, Poetry of the Deed, but I'm going to have to enjoy this one a little longer before moving on...)


Frank Turner: Photosynthesis


Well I guess I should confess that I am starting to get old
All the latest music fads all passed me by and left me cold
All the kids are talking slang I won't pretend to understand
All my friends are getting married, mortagages and pension plans
And it's obvious my angry adolescent days are done
And I'm happy and I'm settled in the person I've become
But that doesn't mean I'm settled up and sitting out the game
Time may change a lot but some things may stay the same

And I won't sit down
And I won't shut up
And most of all I will not grow up
And I won't sit down
And I won't shut up
And most of all I yeah I won't grow up

Oh maturity's a wrapped up package deal so it seems
And ditching teenage fantasy means ditching all your dreams
All your friends and peers and family solemnly tell you you will
Have to grow up be an adult yeah be bored and unfulfilled
Oh when no one's yet explained to me exactly what's so great
About slaving 50 years away on something that you hate
Look I'm meekly shuffling down the path of mediocrity
Well if that's your road then take it but it's not the road for me

And I won't sit down
And I won't shut up
And most of all I will not grow up
And I won't sit down
And I won't shut up
And most of all I yeah I won't grow up
And I won't sit down
And I won't shut up
And most of all I will not grow up

And if all you ever do with your life
Is photosynthesize
Then you deserve every hour of these sleepless nights
That you waste wondering when you're gonna die

Now I'll play and you sing
The perfect way for the evening to begin
Now I'll play and you sing
The perfect way for the evening to begin

And I won't sit down
And I won't shut up
And most of all yeah I won't grow up
And I won't sit down
And I won't shut up
And most of all I will not grow up
And I won't sit down
And I won't shut up
And most of all I will not grow up