Just a couple song that have been bouncing around in my head

No embedding for the last two. Sorry.



http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aGleoK9oevA


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GO67xEESp1M

This is a good one too.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aGleoK9oevA

Wickedness is always wickedness, but folly is not always folly.  It depends upon the character of thos who handle it.

~Jane Austen


Thoughts?

Boston pictures part 1

You can see more pictures here. If you have facebook. I will try and post some of those pictures here. They are on a different computer at the moment... These are in a random order... and I'm tired so they are staying that way...

Inside Faneuil hall

The Town Hall Meeting Hall and marketplace. More on that in the next post

Sarah "sleeping" in a hammock. Upstairs in the museum at Boston Harbor they had a hands on display about life onboard a ship in the 1800. (USS Constitution home port is Boston)

This was in the workroom onboard the USS Cassin-Young. It's a retired vessel in the harbor for people to tour. It says. U.S. Government Philosophy If it ain't broke fix it till it is.

We visited the Longfellow Museum. The house was closed for the day but the gardens were lovely. And I LOVED the house! I've always wanted to live in a house that looked like this. I like shutters and wrap-around porches :)

Luke coming up from the barracks. The one we were in slept.... 50 guys... I think.... something like that.... The USS Cassin-Young has quite a story to tell. It just barely survived many battles and saved the lives of 120 people when the USS Princeton was sinking during WW2 battle.

Sarah is cooking dinner for all the men on the ship. Look a stove just her size...

THE USS Constitution. The oldest floating vessel in the world still in in service. The HMS Victory which is in permanant drydock is the oldest still commissioned, in service whatever the term is, vessl. As far as I can tell the Constitution never leaves Boston Harbor. They are currently in the 2nd of a 3 year restoration project.

This picture is the one hanging in the front of the meeting hall in Faneuil Hall

Bunker Hill monument - 294 steps to the top, and not very well ventilated. I highly suggest not doing it when you are hungry, dehydrated and chasing a 7 year old. You will feel like collapsing and your legs will feel like wet noodles for an hour afterwards.

Us in front of the Longfellow House (told you they weren't in order... I love this house!)

LOOK!!!!!

We really wanted to go inside, but there wasn't time, we only drove through Harvard and MIT. Instead we looked longingly out the window.

The Art of Classical Music

Classical music is a lost art.  A form of entertainment that our generation has labeled old fashioned and in some cases boring.  It's not upbeat and compelling enough for high action entertainment.  Well, I must admit it took me awhile to appreciate it myself.  You see except for the standard pieces that everyone knows and recognizes, classical music is not understood or appreciated.  You know how people say that coffee is an acquired taste, well... classical music is like that.  Not necessarily acquired but definitely something that once you understand and know what to look for you appreciate it more.

Let me tell you a story.  When I was a little girl I didn't know what classical music was.  My Dad has liking for it so I would hear it occasionally.  Otherwise I was clueless.  When I started playing the violin I understood that it was the music that violinists played.  I figured I should like it, but other than the fun opening to Beethoven's Fifth Symphony and the Hallelujah Chorus, I cared little for it.  I played the violin for about 10 years before I really began to enjoy it.  I had a violin teacher that was really helping me to see the fun in classical music when we moved to a different state.  Not being exposed to that information made me lethargic.  A couple years later I started taking lessons at the local college.  It was then that the world of classical music began to unfold.  Classical music, to me, is best looked at as a giant, wordless, storybook.  If you are willing to listen and use your imagination you will be able to find, in music, a variety of stories.                   




One of my favorite pieces is Dvorak's New World Symphony.  It's called New World Symphony because he wrote it when visiting a Czech Village in Northern Iowa.  But the symphony isn't about Iowa. It's a piece heavily seeped and influenced by Czech Folk Music.  If you listen to the piece you can follow the story of a peasant man who leaves home to fight for his country.  It follows his tearful goodbye to his wife and children, his journey through the countryside passing a wedding, a funeral, and the distant thundering of cannons as he nears the army camp.  It ends as a battle rages and the man thinks of his family and ultimately gives his life for his country.  You didn't know that, did you?  I didn't either.  After it was explained to me that way it made sense, I understood the piece.  When I listen to Dvorak's New World it's like there is a TV in my brain and I can see it all unfolding.  A couple years ago we played a piece in orchestra and I swear there was a western part in it.  It sounded just like Cowboys and Indians.  A couple months ago I brought home a CD of Andre Rieu's Strass Gala.  I put it in and the next thing I knew Luke and Sarah were galloping around the house.  They thought the music sounded like horses.

Once you allow yourself to imagine and fill in the lack of words with a story of your own, classical music becomes a whole new world of entertainment.  A world where you can site back, relax, shut your eyes and allow the music to tell the story.  No reading required.

I love my peeps!