Hurdy Gurdy

Here's some information about, and pictures of, the wonderful hurdy gurdy.


Check out the photograph of this mega hurdy gurdy by Emiel vanRooijen! If it inspires you learn how to build your own!

Inspiration for all piano students!

View the video below to see and hear Hee Ah Lee play and to learn about her remarkable life.

Sounds and Sights of the Tri-Cities

This past weekend I had the privilege of spending some time in the Tri-Cities. The weather, the people and the music were all lovely as you can see in the following photos. The Tri-Cities has this unique juxtaposition of green grass, blue sky and water and tumbleweeds.



Here are some photos I took at Howard Amon Park and the Kiwanis Lions Park in Richland. I'm always so impressed with these parks. There are plenty of picnic tables under the shade trees and assorted standing and swinging benches for all to enjoy....even our canine companions!





How appropriate that on Mother's Day I saw mothers of all kinds!







The Mid-Columbia Symphony sounded awesome on Saturday night conducted by Nicholas Wallin. We heard the full symphony in Sibelius Spring Song and Beethoven's Symphony No. 7, and a much smaller group for Vivaldi's "Spring" and Summer" from The Four Seasons featuring violinist, Mary K. French.

It was gratifying to see such a long line by the season ticket counter. If you missed the chance to buy your season tickets on Saturday you can do so on the Mid-Columbia Symphony
website.

I spoke with a number of the dedicated orchestra members. Here's cellist, Bruce Walker, who is a music teacher in the Tri-Cities. We really need to express our appreciation to these hard working and talented musicians. They work hard at their "day" jobs so that they can share their passion and love of music with us.


Here's me with our Sales Manager Dave Deeney.



Sunday afternoon I headed over to the Richland High School Auditorium to enjoy the Massenkoff Russian Folk Festival. What a colorful and fun afternoon. The costumes were colorful, the dancing in turns lovely and energetic, the musicians amazing and Nikolai's range is incredible. What an amazing man! I hope that you click on the link and read more about him. He really needs to write a book someday.


Click here for the 2009-2010 schedule and seasonticket information for the Community Concerts of the Tri-Cities.

Float the Palouse 2009

Last Sunday, on a day that was not nearly as sunny as this photo, an intrepid group of 10 people braved the "mighty" Palouse River!
As you can see by the sky and our clothes it was not the bright, sunny day pictured above. Sueann Ramella our "Morning Edition" host is wearing the bright, blue jacket. We were a very international crew; more on that later.

Before we embarked I recited the first stanza of E. E. Cumming's poem "i thank You God for most this amazing day."

i thank You God for most this amazing
day:for the leaping greenly spirits of trees
and a blue true dream of sky;and for everything
which is natural which is infinite which is yes

(i who have died am alive again today,
and this is the sun's birthday;this is the birth
day of life and of love and wings:and of the gay
great happening illimitably earth)

how should tasting touching hearing seeing
breathing any--lifted from the no
of allnothing--human merely being
doubt unimaginable You?

(now the ears of my ears awake and
now the eyes of my eyes are opened)

And with that we embarked!


That clump of trees behind us and to the left is where I took photos of the beavers last spring. If you scroll down through my older blog postings you can see the pictures, taken from the bridge at the south end of the city of Palouse. My goal for next year is to get the Palouse Chamber of Commerce to make a regional event out of the trip.


You can see Bruce Bradberry, our "Weekend Edition" host looking resplendent in his brightly colored sea kayak, wet suite and life vest. Bruce would often shoot ahead down the river where we would eventually find him facing us near the river bank, his arms folded with a beatific expression on his face.

Our "Internationals" as we dubbed Nikko (from Germany) and Kristen (from South Korea) had their work cut out for them in their two person raft. This raft seemed strangely attracted to the shoreline and they made slow progress. Kudos to Nikko for manning this unruly raft and for Kristen who had never been in a raft before and was brave enough to try something different!

We added further international spice to our trip with Yvonne (from Chile via Germany.) Also in the big raft were George, Lois, Sueann and me along with our coxswain Ben who did a magnificent job of steering us around the rocks. Unfortunately, we came upon a rather large one without any of us sighting it and Ben and Sueann took a spill. No injuries were incurred but I know that they were wet and miserable. Our other kayaker, Corey, also took a spill but the three of them soldiered on with no complaints. I was pretty impressed as we were only halfway through the trip at that point and it was not a warm day. Bravo!


And here we are just before the finish line at the beautiful ghost town of Elberton where Nikko's aunt and uncle were waiting for us with hot, delicious soup! Thanks!



If you follow the Palouse River through Colfax, past Dusty and beyond you'll eventually come to the spectacular Palouse Falls.



Flickr photo

Maybe you'll make the trip one day! Just be sure and go before the water level gets too low sometime in May.

Play the Glass Harmonica!

Play the Glass Harmonica!

Is Mozart a cosmetic neurologist?

Tonight on Northwest Public Radio at 7:00 on Fresh Air
journalist Margaret Talbot, staff writer for The New Yorker and a
Senior Fellow at the New American Foundation, talks about her upcoming New Yorker article Brain Gain: the
underground world of neuroenhancing drugs.

Margaret Talbot

Apparently, people are taking prescription drugs used to treat conditions such as epilepsy and narcolepsy simply to enhance their brain function. It's known as cosmetic neurology.



This reminded me of a study put forth by Alfred Tomatis about a more "natural" way of achieving a higher I.Q. It came to be dubbed The Mozart Effect. If you click on the link you can learn more about it and why the theory has been called into question.

Don't judge a book by its cover!

"Britain's Got Talent" has done it again! Two years ago the winner was Paul Potts, a phone salesman in serious financial straits. This year it's unemployed Susan Boyle.

Take a listen to Robin Young's interview with London Times television critic, Andrew Billin on "Here and Now" heard at 10:00 am weekdays on the NPR News Stations of Northwest Public Radio.

And here's the April 15th story about Susan on "All Things Considered."

And here's another view on the matter from Jeanne McManus with "The Washington Post."

And the articles keep coming! Here's a great article about Susan from "Mail Online."