Nursery Rhyme of Innocence and Experience

The first song on Natalie Merchant's album Leave Your Sleep is Nursery Rhyme of Innocence and Experience, by Charles Causley, a title evocative of William Blake's Songs of Innocence and of Experience. I'm abashed that this song is my introduction to Causley's poetry. I don't know how to write about poetry in a way that isn't choked with cliches. I'd rather just read it, think about it, and appreciate it anew when it's set to music. However, if I had to choose one word to describe Causley's poetry, it would be the German sehnzucht, which roughly translates to yearning and longing. Here is a video of Merchant performing "Nursery Rhyme of Innocence and Experience."



This essay by Dana Gioia mentions Walter de la Mare as an influence. Yes. Causleys' work immediately reminded me of Mare's work, whose poems appear at first as if they are meant for children, but resonate with adults as well.

A favorite song from (not too) long ago

My favorite Duran Duran song is "Secret Oktober" which was the B side of the single "Union of the Snake," back when singles had sides. The song was written and recorded in a twenty-four hour time period before the "Seven and the Ragged Tiger" album tapes were sent off. In the 1983 original, only vocalist/lyricist Simon LeBon and keyboardist Nick Rhodes are on the track. Recently, I found this cover by musician Michael Aaron, and I like it better because I'm predisposed toward stringed instruments. The rapid images of the video itself are distracting, mainly because I want to see what the guitar chords are. You can listen to the original here.

Some of you (like my mom) will say, "I didn't like the band then, and I certainly won't punish myself by listening to one of their songs now." Fine. Go ahead. Disparage away. When I was 14, I officially threw over Top 40 for heavy metal but quietly kept most of my old music. When it comes to musical preferences, I tend to acquire new genres without losing my appreciation for the old ones. The one exception may be modern musicals a la "Les Miserables" and "Phantom of the Opera." I remember listening to one of those musicals while I washed the dishes only to have my mom enter the kitchen and say, "You know, I preferred Motley Crue to this."

Whatever you lose (like a you or a me)

Here is a video of "Maggie and Milly and Molly and May," performed by Natalie Merchant and based upon the poem by E.E. Cummings. It's off of the album, "Leave Your Sleep." I read the poem aloud to my daughter, and then she wanted more Cummings poems. I realized that I was going to have to search for awhile in my Complete Poems collection for the ones appropriate for her, so I decided to switch to Carl Sandburg's collection for children called Wind Song. Has anyone set Sandburg's poems to music?

StoryCorps Video

Jules of Seven Impossible Things Before Breakfast sent me this video by StoryCorps. It's an animated video of Joshua Littman, a 12 year old boy with Asperger syndrome, interviewing his mom, Sarah:

Q&A from StoryCorps on Vimeo.

Brontë Sisters Power Dolls

A friend sent me a video of the mighty Charlotte, Emily and Anne Brontë Sisters represented as action figures battling the evil publishing industry:

Bronte Sisters Power Dolls

Watch out for the powerful Brontë-saurus!

Exponents and Nature By Numbers

Have you ever seen The Powers of Ten (10) by Ray and Charles Eames? It's a short film about exponents that extend outward toward the cosmos and inward toward the atom.

A friend recently sent me Nature by Numbers, a film by Cristóbal Vila. It's about math in nature with a particular focus on Phi (ϕ). It's beautiful, but makes me feel a bit melancholy that ammonites are no more.

"Stories for You" promotional video

Versant Media created my promotional storytelling video and it's finally available for you to view! Here it is:

Lantern Walk 2009

I've uploaded a home-movie of last night's Lantern Walk. It's on A Storytelling of Crows, my adjunct blog (and thus far my Martinmas blog by default).

That's How a Pumpkin Grows

Musician and early-childhood music educator Brian Vogan has a new video out for his song That's How a Pumpkin Grows from his debut album "Little Songs". Last year, I gave his album a mini-review, which you can read here. Not long after, my family enjoyed one of his performances in a parking-lot outside of a children's shop in Seattle's Beacon Hill neighborhood.

The video manages to be both literal and surreal at the same time. I enjoyed the backgrounds more than the "paper-doll people" (as my daughter called them). You can hear the full song, at any rate. My family continues to enjoy the album and looks forward to hearing what Vogan comes up with next.

Pretend [Play]

I was amused by this video clip of Sir Ian McKellen on acting from a program called Extras:



I think writers as well as actors will appreciate this piece in particular. How often have authors been asked, "How much of [this piece of fiction] actually happened to you?" Authors who write in the first person are particularly prone to this question. The narrator of The Tell-Tale Heart was a murdering madman. Edgar Allan Poe, the author, was not.

Guitars Break United Airlines (or at least bend them a bit)

I appreciate it when an artist shames a big big beaurocratic organization into realizing that they can't get away with bad policies. I don't know if United Airlines' policies will change, but David Carroll of the band Sons of Maxwell have certainly made the airline pay attention after baggage handlers broke his Taylor guitar. For almost a year, Carroll, tried to get some compensation, only to be put off repeatedly. Finally, he asked United to compensate him for the repair of his guitar with airline vouches. That offer was rejected. Carroll wrote,

At that moment it occurred to me that I had been fighting a losing battle all this time and that fighting over this at all was a waste of time. The system is designed to frustrate affected customers into giving up their claims and United is very good at it. However I realized then that as a songwriter and traveling musician I wasn’t without options. In my final reply to Ms. Irlweg I told her that I would be writing three songs about United Airlines and my experience in the whole matter. I would then make videos for these songs and share them on YouTube, inviting viewers to vote on their favourite United song. My goal: to get one million hits in one year.

Carroll did better. The first video went viral. You can read the first part of the story here and the continuation here. You can view the videos themselves here:

United Breaks Guitars Song 1

United Breaks Guitars Song 2

While Carroll would have preferred that his Taylor guitar had never been broken in the first place, I'm pleased that he was able to take the experience and turn it into something bigger than himself. I am tempted to start humming "United Breaks Guitars" the next time I deal with a difficult airline policy and mention casually, "By the way, I'm a songwriter."

Neil Gaiman on the Colbert Report

Here is the interview Stephen Colbert did with Neil Gaiman:

The Colbert Report	Mon - Thurs 11:30pm / 10:30c
Neil Gaiman
comedycentral.com
Colbert Report Full Episodes Political Humor Mark Sanford

Storytelling Video: a timeline

As promised, here is the account of my promotional storytelling video shoot. Grace Stahre of VersantMedia is producing it. Grace spent a couple of hours last Friday night setting up the space in the house of a friend where the video was to be filmed. All times are approximate.

Saturday, February 28
8:45 am. Bede, Lucia and I show up, bearing props, snacks and cupcakes.

9:00 am. Make-up.

9:15 am. Lighting, props set-up, rearranging of the plants, shifting of the furniture, etc.

9:30 am I begin warm-ups while Grace and her camera colleague work on the set-up around me. The microphone transmitter I'm supposed to wear has gone missing.

9:40 am The icmrophone transmitter is found. After I'm hooked up and transmitting sound, I realize I have to use the washroom.

9:50 am. The first guests have showed up early! Ahhhh! No worries. They've come all the way from Redmond, which is a big deal. Even though Redmond is only 20 miles away, you have to cross the water and potentially deal with bad traffic to get to Seattle.

10:00 am. More guests arrive, and I direct them to the snacks. The guests sign the release forms, saying it's okay for us to film their children.

10:15 am. Three-quarters of the guests have arrived, and I play a few songs for them while Grace shoots some "pick-up" shots.

10:30 am. All the guests have arrived, and we're ready to go. I explain to the children that in a normal show, if I make a mistake, I just keep on going. Because we're filming this performance, I may stop after I make a mistake, wait a moment, and continue on.

10:31 am. "Stories and Songs for You," an original song, opens the show.

10:35 am I start my first story, "Lazy Jack." I learned this particular English folktale from NYPL luminary John Peters, and while it has a quasi-modern setting (i.e. on one of the days of the week, Jack goes to a delicatessan to get work), I've kept John's rhyme that his mother says to him: "Jack, Jack, my only son, why is your head like a bun?" I was worried that this story was going to be too long for the youngest ones. I don't know why it never before occured to me to have the children chanting that rhyme with me, but we did it for the video, and it worked. They laughed in all the right places, too.

10:43 am. I played the song "Hop Up Ladies," and the children "clip-clopped" their hands on their legs and also got up and danced.

10:48 am. Everyone got to choose a color for "Jenny Jenkins."

11:03 am. Children chose silk scarves to sweep across the floor and into the air while I chanted the nursery rhyme, "There Was an Old Woman..."

11:06 am. I introduced the song "Aiken Drum," and one of the girls called out, "You already did that song!" It's true, I had introduced the song to them during the warm-up with the idea that if they were familiar with the chorus, they'd sing along. I called back, "I know, but let's pretend that we're doing this song for the first time."

11:12 am. We do the thumb story, "Up the Hill and Down the Hill," also known as "Mr. Wiggle and Mr. Waggle." In the story I learned from my mom, the characters are Ms. Cat and Ms. Dog.

11:15 am. The children are doing quite well, but I know that since "Jenny Jenkins" took a long time, I'm going to have to drop a song from the set. I play through the song Someone just once.

11:17 am. We close with the story This is the Key to the Kingdom.

After the show, I thank everyone, and we mingle and talk while the children eat the cupcakes. Then, I realized that I forgot to invite the children to come up to strum my guitar with relatively clean, dry hands. Grace says, "We can still do it!" and a few children strum the guitar.

11:45 am. We've all had a quick bite to eat. Bede takes Lucia home, and then we film almost the WHOLE THING again so that Grace and Mr. Camera can get direct face shots and record a cleaner sound.

12:30 pm. We're not done yet! Now, the furniture is shifted a bit and the plants rearanged while we get ready for the interview portion of the shoot. I had been well for two months, but in the past week, had been fighting off a cold. I began to feel it coming on, and drank some Throat Coat tea.

1:00 pm. There sure are a lot of planes in Seattle. Every time I begin to speak, a plane flies overhead. Stomachs gurgle, too. Grace says, "Aren't you glad you don't have to do this 10 hours a day?" I reply, "This is one of the many reasons I am not an actress."

2:30 pm. We film some shots of the silk scarves swirling around in front of the camera.

3:15 pm. I've cleaned up all that I am able to do, thank everyone profusely, and head out with Bede and Lucia.

Now, Grace gets to send off the footage to the editor, and they'll go from there.

I've left out quite a bit on this timeline in terms of the conversations I had with the children, some of the funny things Grace and Mr. Camera said, and other tidbits of that ilk. I will fill in later as needed. Nwo, I'm off to crawl under the covers and sleep this pesky cold away.

Once Upon a Classic

The storytelling video shoot went well yesterday! I plan to give you an account soon, but in the meantime, does this video clip ring any bells with television viewers in the late 1970's?



As I think I've mentioned before, I didn't watch much television unless I was visiting relatives, and besides Mister Rogers and Wonder Woman*, I really enjoyed public telelvision's Once Upon a Classic, hosted by Bill Bixby, a.ka. The Incredible Hulk. Unlike the usual fare of Masterpiece Theatre, Once Upon a Classic had stories that were interesting to children. The story I remember best is Susan Coolidge's What Katy Did, followed by part one of What Katy Did at School. Anamaria of Books Together reminded me of my introduction to Katy through television. I'm sure the production values are quite low, but I'd still like to see What Katy Did again. I have all the books in the series in one volume. Most of them deal with Katy as a teenager and an adult, but as with Anne Shirley of Anne of Green Gables, I like the book best of when Katy was a little girl.


*They were two different shows, but I would have traded in all of my Strawberry Shortcake Dolls to see them in one show.

The Moon in Her Pajamas

Eric Herman has a new video called "The Tale of the Sun and the Moon." It's a lullaby off of Herman's last album, "Snail's Pace," with lyrics from a poem by Ken Nesbitt. You can find the complete lyrics here, and the video right here:

Song of the Week: Octopus aka "Slippery Fish"

I've had Charlotte Diamond's "Octopus" song (aka "Slippery Fish") going through my head the past few days. You can find the lyrics here. The song itslf is on Charlotte Diamond's album 10 Carrot Diamond.

Here is a YouTube video of the song with flip-board visuals:
Slippery Fish

And here it is in Spanish:
Una Sardina

I've got family in town, so posting will be light this week. However, I'll have a chance to catch up on your blog posts!

Friday morning silliness

The Onion has the scoop on the YouTube contest which challenges contestants to make a good video. The prize is 100 thousand dollars:


YouTube Contest Challenges Users To Make A 'Good' Video

YouTube director of public relations Martha Walfield said in a press conference, "The only requirement for our winning video is that it be somewhat watchable or provide even a shred of enjoyment for people other than those who made the video."

Thanks to tony.dowler.com for the amusement.

In other news, check out Tina Fey's Super Secret Crush, a.k.a. Minh Le, who just won an "I Heart Your Blog" award. Minh tagged seven other blogs, including my own (thanks, Minh!) but made up new rules so that we wouldn't feel compelled to continue the meme. It's a good thing, because I'm one of those people who spoils everyone's fun by refusing to forward on chain-emails and participate in memes that involve tagging. As BlueMamma, my niece, said once, "If it's important to you that the chain not be broken, don't count me as a link."

Last night, I revised "Green is the Color of My Merman's Hair" (my version of "Black is the Color of My True Love's Hair"). If it turns out well, I may post it at a future date.

Lantern Walk Songs for Martinmas

I recently started a satellite blog called A Storytelling of Crows. As of now, I plan for it to be primarily a site for me to share audio and video outside the scope of Saints and Spinners. Yesterday, I recorded Lucia's teacher singing "I Go Outside With My Candle," and "Glimmer, Lantern, Glimmer," and so that the parents of my daughter's classmates could learn the tunes in time for Martinmas, a festival that appropriately coincides with Veteran's Day on Tuesday, November 11. Since the third song, "My Lantern! My Lantern!" ended up not being a clean copy (there was screaming in the background, which I hadn't noticed at the time), Lucia sang the song for me on video this morning.

Here is the post I wrote for Martinmas last year: St. Martin and the Lantern Walk

Here is a link to all three songs: Lantern Walk songs

Poetry Friday: Jack-'o-lantern

Many thanks to Sam Riddleburger and Cece Bell for their pumpkin carving tutorial. Bede used a dry-wall saw to carve this jack-'o-lantern, whom he has named "Isabelle":



Last year, my daughter learned this song at her school, which she sang after we lit the jack-o'-lantern and turned out all the lights:

Jack-'o-lantern, Jack-'o-lantern
You are such a pretty sight
As you sit there in the window
Looking out at the night.
You were once a yellow pumpkin
Growing on a sturdy vine
Now you are my Jack-'o-lantern
Let your candle light shine.

(Author unknown)


Here is the tune:


The Poetry Friday Roundup is at Poetry for Children.

My daughter's marionette puppet show

Once upon a time, the descriptive line of my blog read, "Songs, stories and puppet shows." I haven't done a puppet show in a long time. However, I am posting a 4:46 minute video of my 5 1/2 year old daughter's marionette puppet show she presented Sunday morning. It may be of interest only to close family members and early childhood educators (especially Waldorf-trained teachers) but who knows-- the rest of you might take away something worthwhile that I didn't anticipate. Here is the video:



The marionette itself is made of silk scarves and wool felt, with two strings arranged as long loops. This puppet is a simple version of the kinds used in Lucia's Waldorf kindergarten, and she is lucky enough to have a teacher who specializes in marionettes. The puppet shows I have watched have had a narrator/sound person separate from the puppeteer. The puppeteer usually doesn't wear a fancy hat-- that is Lucia's addition, thanks to her introduction to the Red Hat Society gathering we saw at Dave's Restaurant* in Milton, Washington before my second gig last Saturday.

After the little preamble, Lucia begins her show with, "From the land of the stars, from the land of the sun, from the land of the moon, here to where we now are." She ends with "Stars, moon and sun, our story is done." I am pretty sure that the story opening and closing with accompanying motions plus what we're calling the "Waldorf mood song" were picked up from her teacher. She draws from other elements of stories and songs picked up along the way. The section about being an orphan comes from the book Owliver by Robert Krauss, where the main character, a little owl, pretends to have no parents, only to be cheerfully scolded by his mother and father, who are told that he is only acting.The "shooting star" theme comes from one of the many stories I told her about how she came to be Bede's and my child.** (She knows her own hospital birth story as we've told it to her, but she also likes to hear the imaginative versions.) The song that plays over the credits is one that she made up for the video.

If you are interested in reading about this kind of puppetry with young children, take a look at the resources list on Suzanne Down's website, Juniper Tree Puppets. As someone who has been interested in storytelling with puppets from an early age, I hope to take a workshop with her someday.

*I ordered the bacon waffle in Adrienne's honor.

**A man and a woman wanted a child. As they looked up into the sky, they saw the first star of the evening., they said, "Oh, how we wish we had a child!" The star heard their wish, and said, "I've been a star for a very long time. I want to be a child now." The star began to travel through the heavens. As the star passed throug the solar system and flew past the planets, it got smaller and smaller until it landed in a strawberry patch on earth. As it rested among the strawberries, it changed into a child with brown hair, brown eyes and rosy cheeks. The man and the woman walked by the strawberry patch and said, "Look--it's our child!" [Lucia follows up with, "I was that child!"]