Category Archives: Songs

2024, Family, home, Music, Songs, Uncategorized

33-1/3

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Today marks the anniversary of the introduction of the 33-1/3 LP album in 1948 by Columbia Records. It was so popular that 78 rpm records soon were out of production.

My parents had scads of 33’s, many of which I still have. We have loads of CD’s, but as you can see there are some 33’s that Husband and I will never want to part with. It means that we will need an actual turn table for the rest of our lives. At this point, we have three of them.

As I contemplate moving in the next year or so, I groan at the thought of moving those record albums. They will have to be moved in our minivan since it will be too hot in a moving van and we don’t want them to warp in the heat. Many of these albums have moved with me from Moorhead to Winnipeg to Columbus, Indiana to western North Dakota. We have reduced the number of LP’s by about three quarters, so we will have far fewer to pack and move. The photo shows the bulk of them. There are a few more, plus some really old 78’s, in the basement.

I don’t remember what LP album I bought first, but I imagine it was one by the Monkees or some other late 1960’s music group. I remember reading the MPR Building a Classical Record Library and getting lots of the suggested recordings. Husband has lots of classic jazz recordings that are still wonderful to listen to.

I believe there are Baboons with hundreds of albums, far more than we have. We are a musical bunch, even if our musical medium is pretty old.

What were some of your favorite 33’s growing up? How many albums do you still have and what are your plans for them? Any favorite cover art?

2024, Gatherings, Music, Songs, Uncategorized, Words

Musical Ear

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We have a new assistant pastor at our Lutheran Church who is working out rather nicely. She is good with youth, preaches good sermons, and is fitting in well with the congregation. There is only one problem, and that is her lack of musicality.

Our pastors sing much of the of the liturgy, and to do that the they have to know to listen to the note the organist gives them to start on the chant. Our new pastor can’t carry a tune in a bucket. No matter how emphatic the organist is in giving the note, the new pastor invariably starts on a pitch three notes below where she should start, and can’t seem to read the intervals between the notes to sing the chant correctly. The liturgy is such that the pastor sings, then the congregation comes in on a pitch based on where the pastor leaves off. We now have to listen for a prompt from the organist to know what our pitch is.

It would be fine with me if our new pastor read the liturgy instead of singing it, but I guess in Lent things need to be sung. We are all suffering through these forty days together!

How are you at singing a capella? What are your favorite metaphors and idioms?

2023, Baboon Achievers, Food, Music, Songs, The Baboon Congress

End of an Era

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I teared up more than I expected listening to the re-broadcast of the last Morning Show at The Fitzgerald.  Since I was in the theatre, none of the re-broadcast should have been a surprise, but 15 years does dull the memory and I ended up crying just as much as I did that day.  At the end when Neal and Leandra did “End of the World”, I completely lost it.  (I simply could not explain this to YA who happened to come upstairs right at that point.)

When I went downstairs to make a little dinner, I decided I needed comfort food; Ralston Hot Wheat Cereal was on the docket.  Ralston isn’t making the hotel cereal any longer; I’ve known this for a couple of months, but I still had my container in the freezer.  When I measured it out, I had exactly enough for one serving.  Somehow it seemed fitting that the last of one of my favorite comfort foods was eaten after hearing the re-broadcast. 

I’ve done quite a bit of research and I THINK that Wheatena may be close.  I did purchase some last month but haven’t tried it yet.  Fingers crossed that it’s close.  The Ralston has been a favorite of mine since I was a kid, so we’re talking DECADES.  I’m trying to take it in stride, but it’s hard.

Concerning the LGMS and the final broadcast, I am definitely seeing the bright side, as I would not be part of this fabulous community without the Trail! The Morning Show probably wouldn’t still be on the air at this point anyway and we baboons keep going and going!

What’s a product you’ve had to learn to live without?

2023, Gatherings, holidays, Music, Songs, Uncategorized

Sitting Next to Eileen

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I have been a member of our church choir for about 20 years, most of them seated next to Eileen, a retired college librarian. She and I are both Altos, and are used to following one another through the music for pitch and rhythm.

For Christmas this year we are singing Morten Lauridsen’s Oh Magnum Mysterium, a beautiful piece that has parts for Soprano I and II, Alto I and II, Tenor I and II, as well as Baritone and Bass. Here is a recording of it>

Our choir is small right now, with only two tenors and two basses. We have four altos. The Tenor I part in the piece is quite high, so I and one other low Alto are singing Tenor I. Both Tenors will sing Tenor II, and the two basses will split the low men’s parts. Eileen will stay as a First Alto. Eileen and I decided after rehearsal of the piece last week that we just can’t sit next to each other while learning the Lauridsen piece because I was following her and she was following me and neither of us was getting our parts right. Neither of us realized how much we depended on one another. It will be better being in the row with the Tenors.

Who are your favorite choral composers? Who have you led astray?

2023, Gatherings, Songs, Uncategorized

Protocol

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Husband and I attended the Twin Buttes Community powwow on Saturday. It was truly a celebration, as the community had just finished a new powwow grounds. Powwows are held in circular structures called arbors. The new arbor is rain proof, yet open, with bleachers and space for the drum circle groups and lawn chairs for observers. The new arbor has astroturf for the dancers. There is also a new rodeo grounds/ race track.

Twin Buttes has mainly Arikara and Mandan natives. It is a progressive community planning a new medical clinic, assisted living facility, and Native run boarding school. Our Native friends are so proud of the accomplishments.

There are protocols to follow at powwows, especially those involving the photographing of dancers. You must get permission from the individual dancers to take their photos. Husband was scolded for walking the wrong way around a drum circle in the arbor, as it was considered disrespectful to the drum. He apologized profusely.

I am so happy to share with Baboons actual videos taken at the powwow and posted on Facebook by our dear Natve friend. I have always refrained from filming at powwows. I figure if he posts it on Facebook for all and sundry to see and share, it is ok for me to share with all of you. You will see Men’s Grass dance. Women’s Jingle dance, and Men’s Fancy dance.

https://www.facebook.com/reel/674496337447238?mibextid=9drbnH.

https://www.facebook.com/reel/196546106733700?s=yWDuG2&fs=e&mibextid=Nif5oz

https://www.facebook.com/reel/848605743273637?s=yWDuG2&fs=e&mibextid=Nif5oz

What is your favorite type of dancing? When have you violated protocols.

2023, animals, Mysteries, Nature, Songs

Dive-Bombed

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We have finally identified the bird living in the birdhouse – it’s a house wren!   It took a while because she (I have no clue but I like to think of her as a her) hangs around near the birdhouse but is a little skittish about going in and out while we’re in the yard. I’m also not a whizz where bird identification is concerned.

She sings like crazy.  I’m not sure how birds do it; I’d need throat lozenges every night if I gave out as much as they do.  On Saturday, I was lounging about in the backyard and I thought I’d doublecheck my identification, just to make sure.  She was hanging about, singing her little heart out so I figured comparing her birdsong to bird calls on the internet would be interesting.  I opened the first website I found and hit play.

Her reaction was immediate.  She lit off her branch and came straight at me.  She didn’t get too close for comfort, but it was definitely a warning.  No other house wrens allowed in her yard.   I did it again on Sunday to see if it had just been a fluke.  No fluke.  She definitely did not want any competition and came at me again.  No more bird calls off the internet for me!

Any loud persistent folks in your life?

2023, Music, News, Songs, Uncategorized

Wee Willie

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Sad news about Harry Belafonte last week.  Not quite so sad (to me anyway) about Jerry Springer’s passing.  As I was looking up Harry Belafonte, I also saw the Wee Willie Harris also died last week.  I had never actually heard of Wee Willie, but he caught my eye because on the list he came up as “Wee Willie Harris, 90, English rock and roll star”.  It was quite dismaying to think that a rock and roll star could be 90.  That makes me feel SO old.

Wee Willie was born Charles Williams Harris and he was popular on British tv during the 50s.  He was known as “Britain’s wild man of rock and roll”.

I found some fun clips.  Here is one song I like.

This one is a fun visual of the man himself. 

I can see why he got the wild man moniker!

Any other artists/musicians who seem to have been around forever?

2023, Music, Songs, Uncategorized

Discord

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I played the bass clarinet in the concert band the four years I was in college at Concordia-Moorhead. One day during my sophomore year, visiting high schoolers considering attending Concordia observed a band rehearsal. I had an odd sensation of being observed, and noticed that one of the visitors was staring at me with what I could only interpret as intense loathing.

The following fall, the staring girl showed up at Concordia as a declared music major who played the bass clarinet. To her dismay, she was offered a spot in the band as a contrabass clarinet player. I was the better player, so I got the bass clarinet position. I spent the next year sitting next to her in band, and she continued to treat me with loathing, since I, a non-music major, had the chair in band she wanted. Nothing I did was was right, and she sure let me know that. She mercifully transferred to Arizona State University the next year.

I have been careful in the ensuing years to treat my fellow musicians well because there is nothing worse than sitting next to someone in a musical ensemble who is mad at you. There is often a lot of emotion in musical ensembles. I have been challenged lately, though, by the antics of a newer member of our church choir. She is a lovely person in her 50’s who is probably someone with ADHD who has never been treated for it. She was sitting next to me until recently. She sways when she sings, which absolutely drives me nuts. She doesn’t read music very well. She sways out of time. I was able to cheerfully tell her that I was going to tie her to her chair if she didn’t stop moving. She was gracious enough to accept this with some humor. She stopped swaying, but moved away to the end of the row. That makes me a little sad, but at least I am less annoyed, and she isn’t afraid I will assault her.

When have you had to work with someone who loathed you? What musical ensembles have you performed with? What do other people do that drive you crazy?

2023, Family, Fantasy, Media, Music, Radio, Songs, Uncategorized

Odd Couples

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Husband drives to Bismarck for work every Tuesday night, and returns home Wednesday night. He is usually pretty tired on both drives, and cranks up music on the radio to keep himself awake.

The other night he listened to the Sinatra station, and heard what he thought was one of the oddest duets he ever heard. It featured Frank Sinatra and Aretha Franklin singing What Now, My Love.

I have to agree with husband that this is quite weird. I can’t imagine what possessed the Queen of Soul to sing that with Ol’ Blue Eyes. Their styles are so different and not really compatible. Sort of like Ozzy Osbourne singing gospel music with Amy Grant.

What music keeps you awake when you drive? What are your favorite duets? What are some duets you wouldn’t want to hear?

2022, books, education, Fantasy, History, Mysteries, Songs, Theatre

Queens of Heart

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On Thanksgiving morning, while enjoying my coffee and watching the parades, I discovered that there is a popular musical comedy on Broadway right now called Six – The Musical.  It’s about the six wives of Henry VIII.  Really?  Of his six wives, only one truly survived (Anne of Cleves) and came out of her marriage debacle in relatively good shape.  So now we have a musical about a wife cast aside, two wives beheaded, one wife dead from childbirth complications and his last wife, while surviving, also dead in childbirth after marrying again to a man whom history suggests only wanted her because she was the Queen Dowager.  Somehow all this death and destruction doesn’t seem like the stuff of comedic song and dance.  (Of course who would have thought the plight of five women accused of murder in Chicago would make for a compelling musical?)

If you look up “historical fiction” you’ll find definitions that all seem to include any story that takes place in the past but that’s just silly – unless it’s sci fi, set in the future, wouldn’t every book written be historical fiction after about a week in print?  I’ve always thought of “HF” was any re-working of a historical subject/figure.  Like Hillary Mantel’s book on Robespierre and Danton during the French Revolution (and all her Wolf Hall books as well).  Or King at the Edge of the World by Arthur Phillips.  Or The Other Boleyn Girl by Phillippa Gregory. And I haven’t read Nefertiti by Michelle Moran yet, but I’m pretty sure it’s mostly fiction and very little historical, since even Egyptologists admit to knowing extremely little about the ancient queen.

As these books sell well, I worry that future generations will think of the plots and characters as more historical than they really are.  Of course in looking up Six online, it looks like the plot doesn’t even attempt to portray history, so hopefully no one will come away thinking that wearing a choker to represent that you got beheaded is a meaningful fashion statement.

When was the War of 1812?