LAC at the Rockefeller Memorial Chapel

The choir that I'm in, The Lutheran Acappella Choir of Milwaukee, is performing in Chicago on April 15th at the University of Chicago's Rockefeller Memorial Chapel. Apparently, the church puts out a brochure every season detailing all the performances that they have, so we made it into the brochure (we are listed on page 2 and 8).

http://rockefeller.uchicago.edu/pdf/Arts%20Rock%20Spring%202012%20Web.pdf

It's pretty cool because as you can see from the brochure, they have some pretty impressive performances there. If I lived close to the church, I would go to so many of those concerts!

What I Learned: LAC is in the Rockefeller Memorial Chapel brochure.

Marching Band Nostalgia

This afternoon, Avery and I were able to get out of the house again and go to my friend Brice's house to hang out with him, his wife Sarah and 10-month-old son Jack. Then two of my best friends from high school, Justin and Whit, came over to hang out as well. As usual, the conversation between Whit and me veered towards marching band and we spent some time reminiscing. It made me realize that I will be sad that Avery will not have the same marching band experience that I had in high school. Even though he could have the opportunity to be in marching band here, it won't be the same. In Georgia, marching band is almost as intense as high school football. The competitions are intense and the marching band is very involved in every football game, both at home and away. Maybe it won't even matter because Avery might not play an instrument and want to be in marching band. But seeing as I have already predicted that he is going to be a drummer and march with the Scouts or Cavaliers, I doubt he will play nothing. Alas. The one good thing about living in Georgia growing up was marching band. I guess I'll take that and be happy with the fact that my children get to grow up in Wisconsin instead :)

What I Learned: I will be sad if my kids aren't in marching band, or if they are, that they won't have the same experience that I had.

Lapsit Storytime

This morning, Jared and I took Avery to the library for lapsit storytime. One would assume from the name of the event that it would involve your child sitting on your lap and listening to a story. However, that was not the case. It was more like a Kindermusic class. The librarian led the kids and parents in some songs with actions (that were clearly meant for older children so it was just the parents participating really). Then she passed out bells to the kids to shake along with more songs. She also had a puppet that she walked around with as well as a teddy bear that she later demonstrated could get dressed "all on his own" by putting all his clothes on correctly (what 1 year old can understand that?). Then she brought out toys for all the kids to play with on the mat, and that was the end of lapsit storytime. Avery still enjoyed it, but the library seriously needs to consider renaming their events.

What I learned: Lapsit Storytime at the library does not involve reading stories.

Tahitian Dancers

Tonight, Jared and I went to the Volunteer Recognition Night at our church. It was luau themed so they had great decorations and yummy food that corresponded to this. While we were eating, they also had a dance group perform to a few songs (Who knew that Milwaukee had a Polynesian dance troupe?). Before one of the dances, the group's leader informed us that in Tahiti, the dancers only dance to drums. The music never has any singing or other musical instruments. They proceeded to dance wildly with their hips (I'm sure you all have seen this kind of dancing before on TV) which was really impressive because most of the people I would say were over age 50. They also danced some traditional Hawaiian dances as well. Overall it was really cool and I am still surprised this dance troupe exists in Milwaukee!

What I learned: Traditional Tahitian dancers dance only to drums.

Whitney Houston

Tonight right before we were going to bed, Jared saw online that Whitney Houston had died. I didn't believe him at first because it seemed like a really random announcement, but yes, she had indeed died. I can only imagine that this is going to be another long investigation culminating in various rumors about the cause of death until the truth emerges and by that time, everyone will have forgotten what was rumor and what was fact. I'm not shocked, surprised, or particularly saddened by this news, but find it to be another sad story of a celebrity dying too young.

What I learned: Whitney Houston is dead at age 48.

Lady Gaga

This morning, my mom, Afton, Avery and I drove to MN to attend my great-uncle's funeral (which is tomorrow). In the car, we listened to a variety of music that we could all agree on. One of the last CDs we listened to was a burned CD of Afton's that had various current pop songs on it, including songs from Kelly Clarkston, Adele, Bruno Mars and Lady Gaga. Afton was about to skip a song stating that Mom wouldn't like it, so I asked what it was-it was Lady Gaga's Edge of Glory. I told her that we should listen to it anyway and see if Mom would like it, because how would we know since she had never heard it before? And surprisingly, she really liked it! Who would have ever guessed that Mom would not just tolerate, but enjoy Lady Gaga?

What I learned: Mom likes Lady Gaga (well, at least the two songs she heard!).

Liberace

My mom is reading a biography of Liberace and yesterday I learned some interesting things while talking to her about it. First of all, for some reason I thought he was maybe 10-15 years older than Elton John, but he was born in 1919, which makes him older than my grandpa (except that he's dead; Liberace is dead I mean, not my grandpa)! I had no idea. I knew he was from the great city of West Allis (that stallion!) but learned that he grew up in a house on National Avenue across the street from the Veteran's Administration building, which is a little over a mile from my house. I also learned that at age 2, he would listen to his 8 year old sister practice piano and then just play it back perfectly. Age 2 people. While everyone knows Liberace is a piano player, I guess I always saw him first as a crazily sequined man of the stage who also played piano. But by age 7 he got a scholarship to go to the Wisconsin College of Music. Age 7!!

What I learned: Liberace was a musical genius.

Perry Como

Today Jared and I went to my friend Angela's Christmas band concert at Holy Hill. I have never been to Holy Hill and wish we could have driven there in daylight so I could have seen and appreciated the rural beauty of the Wisconsin countryside. Nevertheless, we thoroughly enjoyed the concert performed by the Lakeshore Symphonic Band. I was especially impressed with the conductor's resume (a graduate degree from the University of Michigan will do that). I was also pleased to hear the concert ended by playing Sleigh Ride, the song my middle school and high school band always ended our Christmas concerts with.

After the concert, we were so graciously invited to eat dinner with Ben's family at the Fox and Hounds, a rustic German-like tavern a few miles east of Holy Hill. The restaurant featured 7 fireplaces and was decorated for Christmas. While the food was on the pricier side, they have a deal for buy one get one free dinner entrees. Whilst enjoying our dinner and listening to the Christmas music playing overhead, Ben's mom commented that Perry Como (whom I am only guessing was singing the Christmas song that was playing at the time) was a barber before he became famous. It was a random but interesting observation. I decided to check on this when I got home since it was so random.

Not only did I find out that this was true, but I found out a lot more. Here I was thinking that he was a barber as an adult and then made it big maybe in his late 20s or something. But no, Perry started working at a barber shop to help support his family at age 10. By age 13 he was good enough to have his own chair at the barber shop. At 14, he had his own barber shop! While he was very musically gifted from a young age, he had no aspirations to be a musician. Instead, he wanted to be the best barber in town. Crazy.

What I learned: Perry Como worked as a barber starting at age 10 and was aspiring to be the best barber in town before he became a professional singer.

Stephen Colbert

Stephen Colbert is awesome. He never fails to amuse me, whether he is giving me the news, interviewing, creating a Super PAC, singing Rebecca Black's "Friday" or ballet dancing with David Hallberg. He has won Emmy's and a Grammy and has created television's greatest ruse. But somehow it still surprised me to find out that Stephen Colbert performed on Broadway. Oddly enough within two days I found out about it twice: I read an article in a magazine that mentioned it in passing and then Colbert himself had Stephen Sondheim as a guest on his show where they talked about Colbert being in Sondheim's show Company (while that episode was on last week, I was a bit behind and therefore didn't see it until today). Is there anything this man can't do, entertainment-wise at least?  The only bad thing is that it was a concert production of the show with the New York Philharmonic (apparently they do this sort of thing often with Sondheim musicals) and they only had four performances, which means, I can never see him in it. The performance also had Neil Patrick Harris in it though! Man, that would have been a great show to see.

What I learned: Stephen Colbert is more awesome than I had originally thought.

Childish Gambino

Today Jared showed me a clip from Jimmy Fallon's late night show (I always get mixed up what all the late night shows are officially called). The clip was of his musical guest, Childish Gambino. I have never heard of this person/group and was wondering why Jared wanted me to see it. Turns out, it's a rapper who's real name is Donald Glover, the guy from Community! While I am seriously behind on watching Community, I still love the show and love the actors in it, so it was really cool to see "Troy" rapping hardcore on Jimmy Fallon's show. As for his rapper name, there is a website that's a Wu Tang Clan name generator and he said that once he put his name, Donald Glover, in the generator and it said his rapper name was Childish Gambino. So he went with it. Awesome.

My name would be: Mighty Ambassador. Funny how true that is to real life...

Try it yourself! http://www.mess.be/inickgenwuname.php

What I learned: Donald Glover is not only a funny actor in Community but he is a rapper and started out as a screenwriter for The Daily Show and 30 Rock. After looking him up on Wikipedia, I found out that he is from Stone Mountain, GA and went to Rockbridge Elementary School which was the school I would have gone to if I lived 5 miles in a different direction! And he is my age so we could have been in the same class! Crazy!  Haha, okay, so not that probable, but still, super cool. Also, my new name is Mighty Ambassador.

The Symphony

Anyone who has met Avery most likely knows that he loves music. He dances, claps, sometimes even tries to sing along. In church he even dances to the psalms when they're in a minor key. Avery has been to a few choral concerts and has enjoyed them and been quiet except for when he occasionally tries to sing along. But, Avery has never been to a symphony concert. Tonight we went to the Davidson College Symphony Concert and he loved it! For the first two pieces he just stared in awe and listened intently. But then there were two songs with a bass soloist (singer, not the instrument) and while he liked it, he sometimes tried to sing along so I had to take him out until it was over. He wasn't loud and obnoxious by any means, but loud enough that we left so as to not be rude to everyone else.

It is intermission now actually and I plan on taking him back in towards the end since I just don't know how long his attention span will last (plus he gets antsy and wants to crawl around, specifically towards the stage). The last piece is Finlandia by Sibelius, one of my favorite pieces so I don't want to miss it. Plus, I think Avery will love the drums in that piece. So it's anybody's guess as to what Avery will prefer-singing, drums, piano, band or orchestra. Start making your bets now!

What I learned: Avery likes the symphony.