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Showing posts from May, 2012

Adenkum

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Today was the spring concert at Hillel Day School.  The "World Drumming Club" performed Adenkum,  a Ghanan song with gourds for rhythm (which is where the song's title comes from).  The Adenkum is an elongated gourd with a hole at one end, that is played by the Ashanti women of Ghana.  I don't know what the words mean; one youtube link says it is a song telling children to "listen more than they speak, especially so that they can learn from and respect their elders." You can find other versions of the song, including with the song's composer Sowah Menah, on youtube.  Here's the version performed this afternoon at Hillel, with Elianna in the second solo.  Thanks to Robin Lash and Andrea Trivax at Hillel Day School, for forming the World Drumming Club.

Sticking with the blueshirts

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I grew up with the 1969 Mets.  There are worse things to grow up with.  Some years later, in the movie "Oh, God," George Burns, in the role of God, explained:  "The last miracle I performed was the 1969 Mets.  Before that, I think ypu'd have to  go back to the Red Sea!" But I also grew up with the New York Rangers, and the Rangers never got big miracles.  The Rangers history was terrible; in a league with just 6 teams, 4 of which annually made the playoffs, the Rangers were almost always one of the two that would fail to qualify.  But my  Rangers had Rod Gilbert and Jean Ratelle and Brad Park and Billy Fiarburn.  I knew who every player on that team was.  I had a Sports Illustrated poster of fearless maskless Eddie Giaocomin on the bedroom wall, facing down John Mckenzie of the Big Bad Bruins.  At least one time per season, my father would get us the Tuscan company seats -- section 112, Orange --  for a game.  We'd get to New York City from New Jersey by w

A note from Youngstown... by request

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Since starting this blog, blogger says I've created 138 entries.  Some are just pictures or quips, some are writings, and some probably have links that need to be replaced.  But in some way they were all original works.  Except, however, for this intro and a couple of the pictures to follow, this one is from Scott Williams, a young man from the Youngstown, Ohio, area.  Scott attended Bruce Springsteen shows in Auburn Hills  and  Cleveland , found my email address (along with btx and a few others), and sent this report. And, Scott:  Yes, "Youngstown" totally rocked. Greetings! Recently I had the most amazing day of my life! Since it was spring break, a teacher friend and I wanted to see if we could get another concert show under our belts before the summer (we were also going to Cleveland the following week). Since we didn't have to worry about school, we knew we had the whole day to work with, and seeing as the only concert that week with tickets still