Snowy Fields, Full Moon

This evening I noticed anew a phenomenon that I always enjoyed when I lived in the frozen north.

We didn't have nearly as much snow as others in the northeast had this past weekend, but we got enough to cover the fields. Tonight there are a few high clouds, but the skies are clear enough for a nearly full moon to shine down and reflect a silver glow off the new snow.

When I lived in Maine, I used to love the clear nights that sometimes followed a heavy snow. When the moon was full, or full enough, and the skies clear, and the snow unbroken, the night had a special luminance.

It was nice to see it again, if only for one night.

Michelle Kwan is My Hero

Michelle Kwan pulled out of the Turin Olympics today. She had a groin pull and decided that she would not be able to compete at full strength. Other skaters in the past have kept competing with injuries of this sort.

Rather than struggle on in pursuit of her last shot at a gold medal, however, Ms. Kwan decided to do what is best for the US Olympic Team.

"This injury prevents me from skating my best, and I've said all along that if I couldn't skate to the level that I expected from myself, I'd withdraw from the team."

That, my friends, is class.

It's About Time

Snow Pole
Originally uploaded by mmahaffie.

We were terribly disappointed not to see the forecast of a day of snow come true yesterday, but the wet did turn to snow overnight. This morning we woke to a well-blown inch or so of snow.

It's not much; nothing like the foot or so our northern neighbors are dealing with, but at least we have some real winter this winter.

We can hunker down to watch the Winter Olympics today. Pop some corn. Set some logs a-blaze. Fire up the crock-pot for a slow-cooked dinner later on.

Cold, Wet, 5K

Despite the cold and rain, Karen, Christina and I took part in a 5K charity race this morning down by Ocean View. It was an event by the Seashore Striders, meant to raise money for the "Steel the Show" steel-drum group of the Southern Delaware School of the Arts.

We weren't there to win. The organizers offered a 1-mile fun-walk. We opted to go the 5 kilometers, though we planned to mostly walk it. We all did a bit of light jogging as well.

Karen likes to speed-walk these things. Christina was jogging and walking by turns. I was mostly walking, and stopping to take a few photos. I wasn't the last person back to the finish line, but it was close.

Christina was the fastest in her age group.

It was cold. It was raining, though it wasn't the steady, cold disappointingly-not-snow rain that we endured all afternoon. We all were limping around the house this evening. Well. I was. Karen may have been. Christina is a kid. And limber. She'll probably happily be doing splits tomorrow morning.

I Should Have Known

The weather service and the goofball TV Meteorologists have let us down again. Their predicted day-o-snow has been a day-o-cold-cold-rain. They say it will turn to rain overnight. We'll see.

Waiting for Snow

After a let-down of a winter, they tell us we may see a real winter storm in the mid-Atlantic this week-end. We live right on the coast and so may see less snow here at home than in the rest of Delaware, but we'll wait. We'll watch. We'll probably end up shovelling as well. We hope.

Oh, How I Love That Crazy Internet

My brother John has found a recording of a song co-written by our grandfather, Redmond Farrar, on iTunes. It is the song I'll Have Vanilla, part of a collection of recordings by Eddie Cantor. Of course I have purchased a copy.

Our mother's father made his living in a variety of jobs in the straight economy, but he was also an active jazzman in the 1920's and 30's. He wrote the music for a variety of jazz popular songs. He wrote with other musicians and lyricists and helped create songs like I'll Have Vanilla, which is a family favorite; Loving You, recorded by Adrian Schubert'’s Dance Orchestra in 1929; and I'll Keep Warm All Winter, published in 1934. I think that last one was also recorded by Eddie Cantor, but I'm not sure.

I love I'll Have Vanilla partly for its quirky jazzy little melody, one of the first things I learned to pick out on a piano and later a guitar, but also for its goofy lyrics. For example:

You can shake
That milkshake
'Till the cow starts to scream.
But I'll wait
For a plate
Of vanilla ice cream.

Mom tells us, and Dad backs her up, that there was a song in the Redmond Farrar output called We Feed the Baby Garlic So We Can Find It In The Dark. I haven't found it, but I haven't given up yet. For a variety of reasons not much of my grandfather's music was been saved and handed down. We have inherited a love for the stuff, however.

In fact, John has inspired me to throw out a fresh Google net to see what turns up.

I've found versions of the Eddie Cantor I'll Have Vanilla for sale on several music services. The sheet music is part of a collection called "80 Years Of Popular Music - The Twenties." I think John already owns this book.

I also found the Cantor recording on Last.fm and used it to establish an "I'll Have Vanilla" station on the music service Pandora, which uses the "Music Genome Project" to associate different songs with each other based on their characteristics. This has given me music from Danny Kaye, Squirell Nut Zippers, Gary Pucket and the Union Gap, and Screamin' Jay Hawkins, so far. I've added some of these to my Pandora Favorites page.

Maybe my favorite find this evening is a Barbershop Quartet version of I'll Have Vanilla from a group called Yesteryear. It's on a collection of recordings called Let The Rest Of The World Go By. Please listen to a clip of Eddie Cantor singing the song before you listen to the clip available from this group. Please.

I'm Not Sure, But I Think We May Have Touched A Nerve

One of the Indian River School Board members, Mrs. Donna Mitchell, has responded to our concerns about the future of the Southern Delaware School of the Arts.

Her letter to the editor in today's WAVE newspaper (We need to be looking out for the overall good of public schools) reads like an angry response, to me. My guess is that she was hurt or insulted by the volume and force of mail she has gotten from parents worried about a threat to the school.

I'm concerned that what started out as a good idea with honorable intentions has now turned into a spoiled child who looks down on her sister schools as inferior.

I assume that she is responding to what was written in private letters to her. Most of what has appeared in the papers, and what was said at the School Board meeting, was very respectful. In her response, Mrs. Mitchell paraphrases several letters that she says she has received. She has focused, in her response, on issues that I think are secondary, but I will assume they are important to her.

As I read these letters, I sense that parents like having their children involved in art school because their children are having difficulty integrating socially in the public schools or are unwilling to have their children participate in the diversity of 21st century America.

Wow. That is rather a sweeping generalization, and doesn't at all reflect our experience. But I'll forgive her that.

Mrs. Mitchell goes on to quote dollar figures, student/teacher ratios, and class sizes. I'd have to look more closely at the data -- with help from someone qualified to interpret that data -- before responding to the thesis she puts forward, that the District spends too much on the "spoiled" families that have kids in SDSA.

Finally, Mrs. Mitchell offers a spirited defense of athletics in education.

Physical Education leads to healthier bodies and improved behavior in schools. Do you realize that removing sports would increase the dropout rate far greater than if arts were removed and despite what you may think, many of our student athletes are excellent students and some even take art and play in the band.

I had heard from some other parents that Mrs. Mitchell was the prime force behind the proposals to do away with SDSA, and that she was doing so in favor of spending on more sports fields. I had questioned this notion. I didn't believe that a School Board member would be likely to take such as position.

After reading this letter from Mrs. Mitchell I have a feeling that I may have been wrong. She does sound like a person who wants to close our school in favor of more "traditional" athletic programs. Not that she wasn't exposed to the arts, apparently.

For your further information, I was in the band, chorus and my class play. I also participated in sports. I believe our schools should and do offer some of everything. That's what public education is all about. When a parent wants specialization they should look to private schools.

So. Here we have a member of the school board advising Karen and I to move our two bright productive students -- and their share of funding from a neighboring school district -- out of her district and put them in private school.

Well. I suppose we can think about that.

A Report from the 2006 Delaware Junior All-State Chorus Concert

We spent part of this weekend in upstate Delaware. On Saturday, Colleen performed as part of the 2006 Delaware Junior All-State Chorus. The All State Chorus is organized by the Delaware Music Educators Association. They do a great job.

The concert was held at Dickinson High School. It was preceded by two full days of rehearsal at Springer Middle School. Both are about an hour and a half to our north. That meant early mornings for parts of our family for several days last week.

Karen helped drive Colleen and her fellow chorus members from the Southern Delaware School of the Arts up to rehearsal on Thursday. She was also along as a chaperone/teacher. They left a bit before 5 a.m. On Friday, other parents did the driving, but I had to have Colleen out of the house at around 5 to get her to the rendezvous site.

Earlier in the week, I'd had meetings over in Washington DC. That called for me to head out at about 5 a.m. on Tuesday. I'm getting too old for this.

I had meetings upstate Friday afternoon, so I picked Colleen up from Springer after rehearsal and we met Karen and Christina at a motel jus north of the Route 1/Route 95 interchange. We passed the evening spending hundreds of dollars at Christiana Mall and slept-in a bit on Saturday before taking Colleen up to Dickinson for more rehearsal prior to the Concert.

The theater at Dickinson is a grand place and boasts one of the best examples left in this country of the old Theater Organs that used to grace America's movie palaces. According to the Dickinson Theater Organ Society, this instrument was built in 1928 for a theater in Philadelphia and was featured on local radio for many years. It was in disuse for several decades before being donated to the high school in 1968.

Christina and I went up for a closer look. These things are fascinating. We were treated to a short performance on this instrument before the choral concert. I love the deep, earth-shaking but smooth bass tones that these old pipe organs can produce.

The All State Junior Chorus sounded wonderful. They sang a mix of traditional choral and modern works. There was a Nigerian folk song, a traditional American folk song, and a Serbian gypsy song. They sang jazz and classical. They were accompanied by grand piano and used
a small set of tubanos for the Nigerian piece.

Afterwards, we wiped away proud-parentness from our cheeks, took pictures, and headed home.

I Guess I Seem a Bit Single-Issue Focused Lately, Huh?

I am sorry about that. But the Indian River Schools issue has been a bit central to us lately.

I am pleased to report that My Letter to the Editor did make it into the Cape Gazette yesterday. Yay.