I found this link over at The Sword of Gryffindor.
It's a podcast that has classic short stories read by professional perfomers.
Check out Classsic Tales.
8/23/2007
8/19/2007
Folk Music in Southern California
I googled contra dancing and found an organization that hosts folk music and dancing every month in Anaheim. Check it out.
What is The Living Tradition?
The Living Tradition is a non-profit organization working to support and preserve traditional music and dance in Southern California. We host contra dances, contemporary and traditional folk music concerts, and traditional music jams nearly every month at the beautiful Anaheim Downtown Community Center in Anaheim, California.
What is The Living Tradition?
The Living Tradition is a non-profit organization working to support and preserve traditional music and dance in Southern California. We host contra dances, contemporary and traditional folk music concerts, and traditional music jams nearly every month at the beautiful Anaheim Downtown Community Center in Anaheim, California.
8/17/2007
Lilting - Irish Music sans Whistle or Pipe
From wikipedia...
"Lilting is a form of traditional celtic singing common in the Gaelic speaking areas of Ireland, and in some ways resembles scat singing and is called puirt a beul in Irish Gaelic."
In other words, the lack of instruments couldn't stop the music. They just imitated the instruments with their voices.
Crazy stuff. Wikipedia gives cautious support to the idea that lilting developed due to the banning of native instruments by the English. It reminds me of the development of the semandron in Greece when the Turks banned bell ringing.
"Lilting is a form of traditional celtic singing common in the Gaelic speaking areas of Ireland, and in some ways resembles scat singing and is called puirt a beul in Irish Gaelic."
In other words, the lack of instruments couldn't stop the music. They just imitated the instruments with their voices.
Crazy stuff. Wikipedia gives cautious support to the idea that lilting developed due to the banning of native instruments by the English. It reminds me of the development of the semandron in Greece when the Turks banned bell ringing.
8/15/2007
Science with Uncle Screwtape
For those of you interested in the current wave of evolutionary biology and it's relationship with Christianity, check out uncle screwtape, a blog by Eric, a phd student at Notre Dame.
Links for Learning the Whistle
Thanks to kungfupower and google, I've recently been turned on to some really great sites for learning the whistle, as well as other Irish type intruments. If you've ever thought about learning an instrument, these might just come in handy.
They're also great for just listening and looking, if you're into the irish music thing.
1) Traditional Irish Tunes and Lessons: hailing from San Diego, Michael Eskin has harnessed the power of youtube to post lessons on playing traditional tunes on the whistle, as well as the flute, guitar, pipes and accordion.
2) tin whistler. : A Jesuit from Fordham teaches beginning lessons in Irish music on the tin whistle.
3) learning to whistle. : a guy from Columbus blogs about learning to play the irish tin whistle - lots of posts. well written!
They're also great for just listening and looking, if you're into the irish music thing.
1) Traditional Irish Tunes and Lessons: hailing from San Diego, Michael Eskin has harnessed the power of youtube to post lessons on playing traditional tunes on the whistle, as well as the flute, guitar, pipes and accordion.
2) tin whistler. : A Jesuit from Fordham teaches beginning lessons in Irish music on the tin whistle.
3) learning to whistle. : a guy from Columbus blogs about learning to play the irish tin whistle - lots of posts. well written!
8/14/2007
The Banshee
Here's a link to a chilling but very cool animated tale of the Banshee. Turn your sound on, and leave the lights off....
The Banshee
The Banshee
TradLessons.com - The Banshee
Here's my first tune to learn, according to my shaolin whistle master -- the Banshee...awesome!
8/12/2007
Hopefully, I'm Not Whistling Dixie
More than a year ago, I learned three really cool tunes on my tin whistle from my friend kungfupower.
Now, my whistle skills are sadly rusted, but I would like to get back on my horse like the red knight, and get back in shape.
My goal is to learn enough tunes to play without shame at a local session. A session is the name for an informal night of traditional irish music.
I'm going to start with ten tunes, but that might not be enough. But, if I get that far, I'll have made some progress.
My next question is which tunes do I need to learn first? No idea, but I've queried kungfupower, and with his permission, I'll post the results in the near future. Then, it's on to the learning, memorizing, and practicing.
8/01/2007
You want me to bottle feed your goats in the kitchen?
My wife found this post and shared it with me. It's too funny not to post:
"You want me to bottle feed your goats in the kitchen?
Posted by trales, Thu Jul-26-07 10:50 AM
I thought I would share with you my take on rural life. Let me start this by saying that I grew up in Detroit, for those of you who know Detroit, I am a product of the Birmingham Public schools. Farm animals were something I saw in coloring books.
DH and I are now living in rural New Hampshire, we moved her for grad school and law school. A lot of neighbors have farm animals. We have become good friends with one set of neighbors. They have been kind enough to look after our dogs, and even took care of them while we were having DD.
They were going on vacation to Maine recently and asked me to bottle feed their four baby goats at noon two of the days. Their daughter was home, but taking classes those days. I went over to see what to do.
1. The goats live off the kitchen.
2. All goats look alike, I asked how to tell them apart, she looked at me funny, and responded that two were girls and two were boys, let me tell you, that didn't help.
3. They get fed goats milk from a bottle, it has to be heated to room temperature.
4. After feeding the goats in the kitchen, they have to be returned to the annex/ barnish area.
5. There were chickens in the annex/barn.
6. There is a towel on the floor for wiping up goat pee.
Sounds easy. Day one. I heat up the bottles and open the barn/ annex door to get a goat. All four jump over the kiddie gate and start running around the house, jumping on me for the bottles. The chickens started flapping and threatening to come into the kitchen.
I grab two bottles, point them downward and hold onto the nipples for dear life. Two goats run at me and latch on, sucking like mad, my arms are flapping as if attached to a jack hammer. I am using my feet to push off the other goats. Goats 1 and 2 finish. I attempt to put them in the other room. They mingle with the other goats, I have no idea which is which. I finally sort them out (my husband suggested a sharpie to mark the heads of the ones I fed). I grab what I think are goats 1 and 2 and put them over the kiddie gate. They are rather sticky. Repeat with Goats 3 and 4. Replace goat 3, try to replace goat 4, and the other 3 goats jump over the fence and are in the kitchen again. Start over, fail, start over again. Repeat the second day. These are the lessons I learned: 1. Goats are fast. 2. I always dreamed of owning farm animals, not anymore. 3. I now understand why goat cheese is expensive.
As I am writing this, my neighbors Guinea Hens have escaped and are in my driveway. I thought they were wild turkeys, I was informed otherwise by their 5 year old. Guinea Hens are really loud and really, really stupid. They are driving our Newfoundland crazy, who is driving me mad. "
You can find the original post here.
"You want me to bottle feed your goats in the kitchen?
Posted by trales, Thu Jul-26-07 10:50 AM
I thought I would share with you my take on rural life. Let me start this by saying that I grew up in Detroit, for those of you who know Detroit, I am a product of the Birmingham Public schools. Farm animals were something I saw in coloring books.
DH and I are now living in rural New Hampshire, we moved her for grad school and law school. A lot of neighbors have farm animals. We have become good friends with one set of neighbors. They have been kind enough to look after our dogs, and even took care of them while we were having DD.
They were going on vacation to Maine recently and asked me to bottle feed their four baby goats at noon two of the days. Their daughter was home, but taking classes those days. I went over to see what to do.
1. The goats live off the kitchen.
2. All goats look alike, I asked how to tell them apart, she looked at me funny, and responded that two were girls and two were boys, let me tell you, that didn't help.
3. They get fed goats milk from a bottle, it has to be heated to room temperature.
4. After feeding the goats in the kitchen, they have to be returned to the annex/ barnish area.
5. There were chickens in the annex/barn.
6. There is a towel on the floor for wiping up goat pee.
Sounds easy. Day one. I heat up the bottles and open the barn/ annex door to get a goat. All four jump over the kiddie gate and start running around the house, jumping on me for the bottles. The chickens started flapping and threatening to come into the kitchen.
I grab two bottles, point them downward and hold onto the nipples for dear life. Two goats run at me and latch on, sucking like mad, my arms are flapping as if attached to a jack hammer. I am using my feet to push off the other goats. Goats 1 and 2 finish. I attempt to put them in the other room. They mingle with the other goats, I have no idea which is which. I finally sort them out (my husband suggested a sharpie to mark the heads of the ones I fed). I grab what I think are goats 1 and 2 and put them over the kiddie gate. They are rather sticky. Repeat with Goats 3 and 4. Replace goat 3, try to replace goat 4, and the other 3 goats jump over the fence and are in the kitchen again. Start over, fail, start over again. Repeat the second day. These are the lessons I learned: 1. Goats are fast. 2. I always dreamed of owning farm animals, not anymore. 3. I now understand why goat cheese is expensive.
As I am writing this, my neighbors Guinea Hens have escaped and are in my driveway. I thought they were wild turkeys, I was informed otherwise by their 5 year old. Guinea Hens are really loud and really, really stupid. They are driving our Newfoundland crazy, who is driving me mad. "
You can find the original post here.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)