Amazing Animals!

A listener and friend in Yakima sent me this video and I just have to share it with you!



Can your pet say anything? Let me know!

This video is so beautiful it makes me cry. It's like a ballet between the man and the horse. They are truly partners in this dance. They make it look easy but I can tell you that a lot of time, patience and trust goes into this relationship.



This is a wonderful example of what can be accomplished through Natural Horsemanship.

This spring Washington State University hosted Dr. Robert Miller, a leader in the field of Horse Behavior and Natural Horsemanship.

Dr. Miller's visit was a benefit for the PATH program, a part of W.S.U.'s People Pet Partnership. PATH provides recreational horseback riding lessons for adults and children with various kinds of challenges. I am a Certified NARHA instructor for PATH and I find it very fulfilling.

Driving like a Cretan on the Palouse!

In September of 2001 I was exploring the island of Crete with my friend Laure. We had a great time driving around the island and finding great places to explore and great beaches for swimming.

We also discovered a new way of driving.....the Cretan way! As my tale unfolds please keep in mind that Laure, who learned to drive in Paris where the lines on, and the rules of the road are mere suggestions was as shocked as I at this mode of driving. Suffice it to say that the "Cretan way" is the way of speed, recklessness and a lot of luck!

Here's a typical example. Picture yourself driving along a winding, rural, mountainous road. You are proceeding uphill at about 50 mph, which is a fairly good clip considering the road. Ahead of you are two cars. When the first car in line is about 100 yards from a sharp bend to the left the second car in line decides to pass. I'm not making this up. This was typical. This is the "Cretan way."

I offer the following photo as an example of the types of roads I'm talking about. See the lonely tree? The car that would be passing would be there. The car it would pass would be in the bend to the left just beyond the tree. Crazy, no?



Is it any wonder that we found these roadside shrines everywhere in Crete?





So what does this have to do with driving on the Palouse? Every weekday I drive on a rural highway 15 miles into work. This highway has some turns and hills but nothing like the picture above of the highway in Crete. So I ask you, "Why or why do drivers consistently follow me with a mere two or three car lengths between our vehicles the ENTIRE fifteen miles WITHOUT passing?" As far as I'm concerned if you're driving at 60 mph and you're that close you'd either better adopt the "Cretan way" and pass me or make a pass at me because you're too close!

Suggestion: If you want to get to know me that badly ask me out for lunch or something but I'm begging you, please don't tailgate me for 15 miles. Slow down or move around!

Now, lest hard working law enforcement officers think that I am encouraging drivers on the Palouse, or anywhere for that matter, to drive in a hazardous manner let me say that I am not endorsing the "Cretan way." Please refer above to the pictures of the roadside shrines. Did I mention that they are ubiquitous in Crete? You can see them every few kilometers on just about every road in the country. Obviously, the "Cretan way" is not the best way. On the other hand, neither is driving two or three car lengths behind someone at 60 mph. In my little compact wagon I'll be crushed like an abandoned can of diet soda! Your grill will be permanently fused on the back of my neck; i.e. I don't stand a chance! I admit it, your car is bigger and faster than mine. You win! Just leave me alone.....please....and drive safely. I don't want you to get hurt either.

What to do with your leftovers!

Our new "Weekend Edition" host, Thom Kokenge, sent me an e-mail with this link and I just have to share it with you! Do not, I repeat, DO NOT, throw away those leftover vegetables!

Opera rules!

Here's a clip of Welsh singer Paul Potts' audition for the talent show "Best of Britian. He went on to win by the way.

More videos of Paul Potts.







Here's a link to a couple of stories about Paul Potts that aired on NPR's "Day to Day" earlier this week.

What is a warhorse?

When you hear the word warhorse what comes to mind?

This?

Maybe.....but in music, and particularly in classical music the word warhorse means something very different. According to The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language: Fourth Edition. 2000, one of the definitions is that of "a musical or dramatic work that has been performed so often that it has become widely familiar."

That's the basic definition. In my 16 years plus of programming and hosting classical music I most often hear this phrase used in a way that suggests a piece perceived as one or more of the following: old, trite, too familiar, boring, over played, etc. As you can see the term is generally not used in a complimentary fashion.

This afternoon I received a voice mail from a listener who stated that this morning's music seemed to contain a lot of "warhorses," specifically mentioning Leo Delibe's "Flower Duet" from Lakme.

This got me to thinking......hmmm......I wonder how many times I've programmed the "Flower Duet" this year? I thought this could bear some investigating so I accessed the part of our music software that tracks when each piece is played. What I found is interesting.

In 2007 I have played the "Flower Duet," including today, a total of three times. Three times! In slightly over five months! The actual dates in 2007 are January 3rd at 09:36am, March 5th @10:52am and today at 10:54am. Then I decided to check how many times the "Flower Duet" has been heard so far this year during Northwest Public Radio's afternoon and evening music. The total? Once. To be precise, on April 5th @12:17pm.

To summarize, The "Flower Duet" has been played during Northwest Public Radio's classical music programming a total of four times in 2007. Does that seem excessive to you? It doesn't to me. As tone (no pun intended) is not always easy to convey with the written word alone, let me assure you that I am in no way feeling defensive in regards to this listener's comment. It's a fair statement and a thought provoking one.

This is not the first time that someone has called, e-mailed or otherwise contacted me to state that I, or someone else, is playing a piece "too often" or "all of the time" and when I go back and look at the actual statistics they tend to come out very similar to what I discovered regarding the "Flower Duet."

So why, then, do we often perceive that something is heard often or even, depending upon our likes and dislikes, too much? Well, I think that it gets back to the definition posted above. I refer to the two final words of the definition, "widely familiar." Perhaps when we hear something that is familiar it stays with us longer? Could it be that a familiar piece of music, even if heard infrequently, is perceived as being heard more often than it is by the very fact that it is familiar?

I believe that we listen to classical music with different ears, or maybe a better way to phrase it is with different expectations. For instance, when a promoter of contemporary music calls me one of the first questions he or she asks is, "How many spins are you giving it?" In other words, how many times are you playing the song? And I can guarantee you that they are not asking how many spins a song has received this year. Oh no. They are asking how many spins per hour; at the very least per daypart (an average of three or four hours).

Classical music "songs" can be anywhere from under 1:00 to over an hour! Contemporary music tends to average in at about 4:00 minutes per song. Could that be another reason why classical music pieces can be perceived as being heard too much? If a song lasts 4:00 minutes maybe it can bear being heard every hour or so (although THAT could take up another post entirely!). Conversely, if a piece of music last 14 or 40 minutes is it perceived as being heard more often simply because it lasts longer each time that it is heard?

Well, I've raised some questions. What do you think?

If you're interested check out this Tom Manoff commentary about one of the most famous warhorses of all.

Open Mike

On Friday, Northwest Public Radio descended on The Green Frog in Palouse for their Open Mike night to celebrate the birthday of our colleague, Nate Prudhon. Here he is blowing out the candles on his cake with the help of Serena.

Tiana, one of the co-owners of TGF made this delicious chocolate cake covered with frosting, almonds and a drizzle of kahlua. It was fabulous! Happy Birthday Nate!

This was a particularly great Open Mike. There were a wide variety of singers and instrumentalists and we even had some comedy. Open Mike at the Frog always opens with Tiana. She writes and performs her own songs and is a great personality. She had Sueann Ramella laughing from the very beginning. Here Sueann is throwing out some Open Mike attitude!

Eric is one of my favorites. He has a really nice voice and plays both the guitar and the banjo. He does a version of "Stayin' Alive" that actually gave me a whole new appreciate for disco!

I went up to ask him if he would play "Happy Birthday" when we brought in Nate's cake and he invited me to sing "Fly Me to the Moon" with him. I was so caught off guard that I didn't do a very good job but it was fun anyway and hopefully I'll get another chance in July.

These two men were hysterical! I heard someone say their names but people were laughing so hard that I didn't catch them so will have to ask Tiana. The guy on the right played the guitar while the red-headed guy with the beard played some kind of laptop xylophone and told jokes. There was something about the sound of the xylophone, the guitar and his one or two sentence jokes that went over really well. They need to take this on the road.

Personally, I think that the non-blue humor worked better than some of the bluer and/or more scatalogical references, but I tend to think that blue humor is the easier kind of humor. What he did for most of the time was very clever.

Here's another one of my somewhat blurry (I'm still getting used to my new camera!) photographs with Chuck, Sarah and Laura. Gillian is hiding off to their right.

There's some pretty impressive musical talent in those three. Sarah McDaniel you go girl! I heard her singing some nice harmony, Chuck was doing harmony and melody and has a great voice and our very own Laura was the belle of the ball!

She did an a capella version of a song from "The Color Purple" what rocked the house! This woman is an entertainer!!!!! She needs to be on Broadway!

Here's Paul, Eric, Terri and Janet doing Leonard Cohen's "Hallelujah" with the audience joining in.

Janet plays the melodica, flute, recorder and pennywhistle and probably a handful of other instruments as well.

Paul, who is part of Steptoe, seems to play about every instrument known to man. Okay, maybe that's a slight exaggeration but I've seen and heard him play the guitar, violin, mandolin, banjo and harmonica. Well, it was another great Open Mike at The Green Frog. You should really come and check it out for yourself on the first Friday of every months. See you there!