Sweet Honey in the Rock

My colleague Sarah McDaniel and I were in Ellensburg Saturday for the Sweet Honey in the Rock performance at C.W.U.'s beautiful New Music Building. The five members present treated a very appreciative audience to a rare musical experience. It was, for me, another example of the unique power of live performance. For the past few weeks I've been listening to their "Selections 1976 - 1988" cd. The cd is a great listen but it's not the same as seeing them in person.

Aisha Kahlil, trained in African dance traditions, was mesmerizing as she sang and danced to a haunting song. At times her voice was like a whisper, at other times almost a wail. It was very powerful and when the song was finished and the applause died down I could hear many sniffles in the audience.

Dr. Ysaye Maria Barnwell taught us a really cool, short chant that we sang in a round form. She started by singing it about six or seven times. A number of us started joining in very quickly. At the end of the demonstration Carol Maillard expressed surprise that we were already singing before the official "practice" session had begun. I almost shouted out that it was because C.W.U. has such a stellar music department!



Check out Sweet Honey in the Rock's website for more information on the group.

Thanks to C.W.U., Music Department Chair Dr. Peter Gries and President Jerilyn McIntyre for being such great supporters of the arts and for Marian Lien in doing such a great job of organizing the event. As always, NWPR received a very warm welcome from Ellensburgians! Ellensburg rocks!

The Church of American Idol

I'm watching "American Idol" this year. I don't usually watch the results show but I did last night and am very glad that I did. The Clark Brothers were the guest performers last night and they blew me away! I will never sing "This Little Light of Mine" in the same passive way again!

They are based in Nashville and feature Adam on the mandolin and guitar, Austin, vocals and dobro and Ashley, also a vocalist who plays the guitar and the fiddle.

Later in the program Dolly Parton sang "Jesus and Gravity" from her new cd "Backwoods Barbie." Who knew that watching "American Idol" would be like going to a great gospel church? I don't have any of her cds but I think that I'm going to have to get "Backwoods Barbie."

Honestly, I can't relate to her false eyelashes, wigs, rhinestones, etc; but I can relate to the sense of real genuine warmth and sincerity that strikes me whenever I see or hear her.

Michael Johns is one of my favorite singers on the show this year. A real singer. This is a powerful song. You can tell the relative youth of this audience by the predictable scream when he sings "tell me sexy, loving, lies." They don't really understand what this song is about, their squeal strikes me as Pavlovian in nature. Hear the word "sexy?" Squeal!

"People may say I can't sing, but no one can ever say I didn't sing."

I first heard about Florence Foster Jenkins because of a program that Gillian Coldsnow and I hosted on Northwest Public Radio called "First Friday." It was a request show that aired once a month from 9-4. We received some really interesting requests and stories over the years and FFJ was one of the best!

One day while preparing for the program I received a call from Coyne Burnett asking me to play something from the famous soprano named Florence Foster Jenkins. At the time we had a vast LP collection and I searched through that until I found the LP. I put it on to take a listen and was - how can I say this tactfully? - astonished! I called Gillian over to listen and we both stared at each other with looks approaching horror on our faces.

Gillian and I both have a great sense of humor and it still puzzles me as to why we didn't pick up on the joke immediately, but we didn't. We thought that Coyne was serious about this woman's talent, so we called him back and that's when we finally got the joke! Good one, Coyne! Well, we did play a song from her LP "The Glory of the Human Voice??!!" and it was an instant, or perhaps infamous, hit.

Florence Foster Jenkins was born in 1868 and died November 26, 1944.

FFJ still has her fans! Learn more in the article That (ugh) voice!

It's time for another video on great horsemanship...or should I say horsewomanship!

A horseback riding friend of mine sent this to me with the caption of "Almost as good as you and me." I wish.......

If you're not a rider I need to tell you that this kind of riding is pretty amazing and takes a lot of skill, patience, practice and communication between horse and rider.

Here's a few things to look for while you watch. You'll see the horse licking his lips. This is usually a sign of receptivity and relaxation in a horse. If you're working with a horse whose head is way up, is not looking at you but looking all around they are not generally ready to work well. A horse with a lowered head, an eye toward you, ears flicked toward you and/or licking lips is a relaxed horse and a horse that is willing to work with you and not against you.

After she spins her horse in both directions, she settles both of them and starts a series of figure eights at the canter (or lope). If you look closely you'll see that when they are going clockwise the horse's right foreleg extends further forward than the left foreleg. This is called being on the "right lead." Look closely again and you'll see that when they come down the center of the arena, right before turning in a counter-clockwise direction she signals the horse to change leads. This time you'll see his left foreleg extend further forward. This is called a "flying lead change" because it's done with the horse at a full canter.

Beavers!!!

Okay, so I don't have the best zoom lens, but if you look carefully you can see to the right and left of the tree, two pair of beavers. Try clicking on the photos as sometimes that will bring up a bigger version on your screen.

This is the beaver family that lives on the Palouse River in Palouse, WA. I've been "stalking" this family for the past year since I first saw one of the adults last February in the ice congested river. All spring and summer (until I broke my foot) I made regular walks all along the river hoping for a siting of the entire family but to no avail. Apparently, patience and persistence have their rewards.


What looks like a log in the middle of the river is actually one of the young beavers floating away after a family squabble.




Both pair of adult and young were engaging in mutual grooming.




If I get home from work in time to make it down to the river before dark I head down there with Miles to watch the beavers. I could watch them for a long time.



There can sometimes be disgruntled property owners living near beaver habitat. People see fruit trees and beavers see building material! In these cases education is the key. Beavers actually create wetlands that in turn provide new habitat for wildlife. When the clash between beavers and property owners becomes unmanageable communities are turning to The Beaver Deceiver.

In addition, there are many on line sites that offer tips on how to protect property.

Happy Valentine's Day!

Winter Wonderland!

For the past week or so I've been collecting pictures from around the Palouse. If you have any good snow pictures please feel free to send them to me at rilette@wsu.edu and I might post them on my blog. This picture is of the southwest end of Kamiak Butte, 13 miles north of Pullman and three miles south of Palouse.

Directions to Kamiak Butte County Park:

From Pullman: Take State Highway 27 North 11 miles. Turn left on Clear Creek Road for .5 mile. Turn left on Fugate Road (Road No. 5100). Travel .5 mile to Kamiak Butte County Park Road (Rd. No. 6710) to the park entrance on the left.

From Colfax:Take State Highway 272 (Palouse Highway) East for 5 miles . Turn right onto Clear Creak Road for 7 miles. Take a sharp right onto Fugate Road (Road No. 5100). Travel .5 mile to Kamiak Butte County Park Road (Road No. 6710) to the park entrance on the left.

I drove home one night to find my neighbour digging through the large berm in our alley and also creating space for my car. Isn't that cool? Another neighbor at the end of the block came over one Saturday with a handy device and scraped snow from the roof of my laundry room. On afternoon, while digging through the three foot plus snow berm kicked up the plows, some friends from my church drove by on their way into town to get supplies. They stopped and helped dig me out. What would have taken me about forty minutes took Kent about eight! That's what I call manpower! I have nice neighbours.


Here's a view from my front porch. Those lumps in the snow are the boxwood hedges that line the sidewalk to my porch.


I like the swoop of this drift.


Any excuse to show a picture of Miles! Here he is doing one of his favourite things....rolling in the snow!


Seriously....who is cuter than my pink-nosed beast?


You can't even see the road in this picture!



Speaking of roads....it's time for a shout out to all of the people manning the various snow plows and snow moving machines across the region. You rock! Here is one of those hard working individuals in downtown Palouse taking another load of snow down to the park.





Janet Barstow from Palouse sent me this photo of SR 272. The road has been closed for days at a time this winter and you can see why!


Here's another photo from Janet on one of the back roads into town. She said that the sides of her pickup were scraping against the snow banks. I think it's very intrepid of her to drive through that and to get out and take the picture.



I like these two pictures that I took of the Palouse River. In the second picture you can see some of the beaver tracks in the snow. I've been trying to get a picture of the beaver for some time but when I manage to see him or her I've also managed to be without my camera.





How are you dealing with the snow? Send me your pictures at rilette@wsu.edu. Bruce Bradberry (our All Things Considered host until Sueann's return) or, as our Morning Edition host Gillian Coldsnow calls him, Brucie, are you paying attention? Bruce has some great pictures of his snowbound house in Idaho. Bruce!!!! Send me those photos!!!

Finally Bruce Bradberry sent me some pictures of his place. Thanks Bruce! The one from inside the house is wild!






Here are a few pictures taken by and of Maya Lessov, the Associate Producer and Director of KWSU/KTNW Public Television. Maya left Friday at 10:30am from Pullman for the Spokane airport. She finally arrived at 4:30pm! Highway 195 from Rosalia to Spangle was closed so she followed a series of cars onto the old 195 that you see in the picture below.



Unfortunately, a semi-truck in front of her became stuck in the snow and they had to wait for rescue. I suppose that gave her time to take this pretty picture.



Here is Maya after safely arriving at the Spokane International Airport.



Tom Hungate, one of our Account Executives, took these pictures on the Washington State University Pullman campus on January 30th, the day of the big snow! This is the back of the Edward R. Murrow Center. Northwest Public Radio is on the third floor of this building.





A couple of shots of W.S.U.'s Clock Tower.





An intrepid student.



Here's a picture of one of Northwest Public Radio's satellite dishes covered with ice.



Nice photos Tom.

Thanks to Joan Harris from Pullman, Washington for these two photos of the snow.
Joan, your sunset snow picture is gorgeous!