Rockin’ the Kids’ Music World

I turned forty last week and I’m reading Water for Elephants – probably not a great combo – if you’ve read Water you know why…here’s the beginning of the synopsis from Amazon:

“Jacob Jankowski says: “I am ninety. Or ninety-three. One or the other.” At the beginning of Water for Elephants, he is living out his days in a nursing home, hating every second of it. His life wasn’t always like this, however, because Jacob ran away and joined the circus when he was twenty-one. It wasn’t a romantic, carefree decision, to be sure. His parents were killed in an auto accident one week before he was to sit for his veterinary medicine exams at Cornell. He buried his parents, learned that they left him nothing because they had mortgaged everything to pay his tuition…”

Existentialism…remember that? It’s that philosophy they taught you about in high school when (and if) you read The Stranger, Crime and Punishment, and/or Hamlet’s “To be or not to be…” soliloquy. The basic idea is that, if we assume some higher power isn’t justifying our existence what is?

At the very least, it’s an interesting mental exercise, especially when you have kids. What justifies your every day? Really? What happens when you die, and I’m not talking about where you’ll end up (is it heaven or nirvana…?) - I’m talking about looking around you and wondering how things might be different if you disappeared tomorrow.

At the most basic level, I hope, for your sake, that you can say that they would be different - very different. If not, you’ve got some changes to make - start now.

Pick up shells with your kids…play “pretend you’re a lion - a dog - a baker - Spiderman - my pet - etc. ” Read a few books with them, leave the dishes undone, wrestle every now and again - you know. Make it matter - every minute. I began this blog by citing a Rolling Stones song - here’s anonther “T-i-i-ime is on my side…” Is it?

I remember a Rudolph special, “Rudolph’s Shiny New Year.” It presented a direct challenge to the Stones (although I have to wonder who would win in a fight…) Father Time, the guy who goes from a baby to an old man in one year, knows we have to make it all count, but isn’t so sure that time is on our side. Here’s what he has to say about it…

Thanks Father Time - we’ll keep your advice in mind…it seems to amount to this: Time is not on your side, but you’re a lot happier if you go down fighting.

We have a massive puddle in our driveway - it’s so big that every spring my neighbor and I joke about having waterfront property (and somehow, the joke never gets old - I think it’s because we’re delerious due to the warm weather).

Spring is finally here - and the kids are out all day, every day in the puddle and mud. I thought I’d share a clip from my tribute to puddles - it’s a song entitled “Puddles” (ok, so I’ve never been terribly creative in the title department). Enjoy!

Puddles Clip - Steve Dreher and Friends

Need a song, or two, or seventy? I was casting around for some tunes to sing and play, and I must have typed in” campfire tunes” and KABOOM (or KA-GOOGLE) I found The Virtual Campfire.

I ignored the fact that somehow the idea of a virtual campfire is a little pitiful and clicked onward…to find…lot’s of songs! Not only lots of songs, but lots of songs sung by British people around a real campfire…crazy, but just so crazy that it works.

To give you a sample, here’s that well-known favorite, Chicken on a Raft.  OK, so maybe it’s not your favorite song, but it’s a darn good song, worth singing, and it’s some indication of the depth of Virtual Campfire’s library…it’s big, and fun, and goofy at times, but definitely worth perusing and singing along.

p.s. If you do sing along, try to light a real fire so you’re not so pitiful…or if you’re entirely comfortable with the virtual world, play this video of a virtual fire and then sing-a-long - with your virtual friends.

I love the snow as much as the next guy, I just want to say that at the outset. I know that for those of you outside of what I have come to call “the inverse global warming belt,” it may be hard to imagine three feet of snow on the ground in late March (yes, I did say THREE FEET and meant it). Furthermore, it might be impossible for you to imagine the the despair of having a foot of snow fall on you AGAIN. See, we’ve had over 10 feet fall on us since November, so we’re approaching six months of being covered in ice and frost - AND WE DON”T LIVE IN GREENLAND - but sure enough it hit yesterday.   The late season storm that started with predictions of 1-2 inches, became 7-8 inches (predicted) and then became 12-13 in reality…

Let me tell you how we spent our Easter. We have a very nice little ski area about 10 minutes down the road. It’s amazing to be able to jump into the car and be on the slope within 20 minutes. Well, that’s exactly what we did on Easter. No white shoes, no Easter bonnets, just Rossignol boots and Head skis strapped to our feet. The thing is, daffodils couldn’t peak their delicate little heads out to say hello to the spring on a lovely Easter morn because they are buried beneath (did I mention?) 3 feet of snow…so we made the best of it and hit the slopes.

I love skiing, especially with my kids - there is nothing quite like seeing them become coordinated and realize how all the moving parts work together to get them down the slope - often more gracefully than I could ever hope to be. BUT, enough already.

So, consider this my sun dance of sorts, my plea to the gods who control these things to fire up the furnaces and warm up our little corner of New England - we know that under all that snow the daffodils are waiting to give us a proper spring.

So, just thought I’d share that I just had my first blog posted at www.dadbloggers.com - It is, not surprisingly, a group of Dads writing about being Dads.  You can find my first post here…I’ll be writing a new one for that site on the 21st of each month.  Enjoy!  Oh yeah, I forgot to mention, I signed on as “RockerDad” - Steve was already taken.  Rock on!

A kid in my daughter’s class gets five bucks for every tooth…apparently, his tooth fairy comes from the other side of the fairy tracks (the rich side), because Isabel only gets $1 for the regular teeth and $2 for the front four.

Now, according to the National Institute of Health, kids have 20 teeth; so little Johnnie’s tooth fairy is going to drop $100 on teeth between now and the time he’s 14 - and he’s going to brag about every dollar. In the meantime, Isabel’s tooth fairy is making the conscious choice to NOT give her $5 per tooth.

I gave Isabel’s tooth fairy a call recently, to talk about this situation, and she (tooth fairies are woman, right? - I’m not trying to be sexist here, but I just can’t imagine a guy spending an extra five bucks on anything less than, say, a craftsmen wrench.) patiently explained that, in more than one way, it doesn’t pay to over-pay kids for their teeth.

She pointed out the fact that a six year old doesn’t really understand that money matters - they’ll have a long life to figure that out, so why start so early? Furthermore, she asked, what does a six year old need $5, $10, $15, etc. dollars for anyway? Granted, a “My Pretty Pony” is going for about $4.76 at Wal Mart, but if we teach our kids anything, shouldn’t it be the joy of waiting…saving up and finally being able to get something (remember my “Let Her In” post…) ? Wouldn’t it be better for her (the tooth fairy that is) to give Isabel $1 for each tooth, and invest $4 in a 529 college fund? That way, she (and Isabel) could take advantage of the wonders of compound interest…

Our tooth fairy had some excellent points. When I ask her what was up with little Johnnie’s tooth fairy, she said, “Tooth Faries these days have lost touch, know what I mean? They’ve forgotten that the wonder of childhood is about anticipation and imagination…once a kid gets the thing, it loses it’s magic.”

I couldn’t agree more.

My niece is in 3rd grade - and she’s a real zinger. I remember playing songs for her pre-school when she was three or four (the kids were rocking out to “Five Little Speckled Frogs”…so that’s my age reference) - and Celia walked out in front of the entire class, like a sergeant leading her troops through a basic training drill. I mentioned it to her teacher, and she responded, “She is an organizer - ” That’s the kind of appropriately vague, non-evaluative statement that makes me wonder. At the time, I decided to take it as a compliment to Celia.

About a week ago, I was watching the brood (my 3 plus my sister’s 5, and, yes that does equal 8 kids…), when Celia asked, “Uncle Steve, will you write me a song for the talent show we’re having at school?” I said (of course), “Yes, honey, what do you want it to be about?” She said, “I’m not sure, I’ll think about it…”

Celia called tonight and said, “Uncle Steve, can you write my song about how girls have power?” PAUSE - this is my 9 year old niece talking - allow me to review that quote, “Uncle Steve, can you write my song about how girls have power?” WOW! I hope, when my daughter is 9, 12, 15, 18…and so on, she wants me to write her songs about how girls have power, about how she has power - I’ll start writing those songs now and (hopefully) continue for a long time.

Girls have power? Indeed they do!

I did have to ask Celia what it means to have power as a third grader (mainly because I don’t want to invest all MY hopes, dreams and political opinions in this song). It may well be, in her perception, that having power means having parents who have the best car - but I really hope (and believe) that it goes deeper than that. She’s writing me a list of the things that make her feel powerful - so it remains to be seen - but I actually think that Celia is tapped into something that’s pretty profound as far as our society goes. She is a girl who knows she has power - she’s not second guessing herself at all.

My experience as a teacher suggests a similar dynamic - girls know they have power. I have asked my eighteen year old students how many would call themselves feminists, and felt like a dinosaur because none of them would- the term itself feels obsolete (don’t get me wrong here, I do call myself a feminist and I argue the cause), but girls today seem to look at you like an alien when you even suggest that the idea of feminism is needed. “Of course we are equal - why wouldn’t we be?” (Could this be why Hillary’s campaign has found traction among middle-aged women, but not in the younger crowd - for them, is it just a detail that we haven’t had a woman as a president?)

So Celia is writing her list, and I’ll be writing her a song…I just hope I can do the sentiment justice - stay tuned!

Twinkle Twinkle.mp3

After writing about this song (here), I set to work recording it - you may have been one of the few lucky ones to have downloaded the now rare (and deleted) version that I posted earlier today - I tried to clean it up, and offer this version now - Mozart did 12 variations on this tune - I’m on my second, and may try a few more before it’s all said and done. It’s an interesting song - weird that I could do a bass line that isn’t too far from Pachabel Canon in D - Anyway, enjoy this variation - I’m going to shoot for at least 10 more. Look for them to pop up every now and again.

Oh yeah, here’s the entire poem…if you wanted to keep singing -

The Star

Why, what an ass am I! This is most brave,
That I, the son of a dear father murder’d,
Prompted to my revenge by heaven and hell,
Must, like a whore, unpack my heart with words,
And fall a-cursing, like a very drab,
A scullion!

-Hamlet II.ii

Whoa!!! Stay on this blog! As shocking as it is to see the words ‘ass,’ ‘hell’ and ‘whore’ on a blog committed to kids’ music, let me explain (by the way, all those words were written by stuffy old Shakespeare, so they should be ok…right?) …It may come as a surprise to the three of you who read this blog regularly that I am more than my kid’s music credentials. I actually have another life, as an English teacher. It is not uncommon (and actually it’s desirous) for the world and the classroom to intersect. But this campaign season, as I’ve watched the primaries unfold, it just so happens that I have been teaching Hamlet; the intersection between real world and classroom has witnessed a crash (apparently no one heeded the stop signs).

I know what I said I’d write about on this blog, but, this has been so monumental that I need to at least acknowledge it - here we are, 400 plus years after Shakespeare penned Hamlet, and Barak and Hillary are slugging out the same debate that Hamlet held in his own head (that’s why he was a hero - he could hold two presidential candidates in his psyche and still have intellectual room to spare…). Hillary (and Bill) accuse accuse Barack of using his rhetoric to weave false hopes and fairy tales while asserting that she (they) can get things done. They are, they seem to suggest, the Fortinbras to Barack’s Hamlet.

Hamlet - Words vs. Action?

Just to review, Hamlet is about a young man who is visited by the ghost of his dead father, Hamlet (ok, so they weren’t awfully creative in the name department in the 12th century…). Hamlet Senior tells Hamlet Junior that he was murdered by his brother, Hamlet’s uncle - STAY WITH ME HERE! The rest of the play is Hamlet Junior debating between words and action…most of the words are in his own head - BUT (and this is important for Hillary to understand) some of his words ARE action (apparently, the two aren’t mutually exclusive) - Hamlet uses a play to “Catch the conscience of a king…” - In other words, he uses words to achieve a really important end.

Hamlet is a poet - he talks a lot - he uses more than any other Shakespearian character. He uses words to catch the king, to free his mother from her self-imposed moral corruption and to set Denmark on the right path after his death. Unlike every other character in the play, Hamlet does not simply act - he thinks and talks before he acts. By creating such a talkative character, Shakespeare sets Hamlet apart from every other character in the play. They are lost in the Middle Age mentality of responding without thinking. Often, when Hamlet does act, it’s an indication of his decline - he shuns Ophelia, he accidentally kills Polonius, he has Rosencrantz and Guildenstern killed.

It’s not that Shakespeare (or Hamlet) completely trust words. One of the central metaphors of the play is pouring poison into someone’s ears. The wonder of words is that they can bring redemption - the danger is that they can be used to manipulate and corrupt.

A close reading of Hamlet would be instructive for both Hillary and Obama. She would be reminded that words are not always bad… I suspect she may be figuring that out with the recent polls. They allow us to define our world - and our experience. Unfortunately, for the the Clintons, words have been used over the years to defiine them unfairly and inaccurately. Obama might learn that his considerable gift to use words as poetry is not enough. When (and if) he moves into the general election, he has to use his words to explain how he will act.

In a recent article for “The New York Times,” Frank Rich compares Obama’s poetic to language JFK’s (you can find it here ) - it’s a frequent comparison, and it reminds us how a very young and oratorically gifted president can reshape the reality of our national experience - and can use words to great effect.

The great irony of all of this is that Hillary is using words to discredit Barack’s words. She should be careful, however, because at times, her acerbic rhetoric feels a little like poison in the ears.

If this post was too wordy for you - stay tuned - I’ll get back on the kids’ music and post an MP3 of “Twinkle,Twinkle Little Star,” as promised, tomorrow.

OK, let’s talk, for a moment about Twinkle, Twinkle…every kid loves it (and, because it’s such an easy hit, so does every kids’ singer). It is a song with some serious kid song mojo. 

Rumor has it that Mozart wrote the tune, but Mozart himself debunked that myth by titling his piece, “12 Variations on “Ah vous dirai-je mama” - the source was a French folk song - here’s a great page with Mozart’s version - Mozart’s 12 Variations on Ah vous dirai-je maman - it is fittingly manic (as Mozart seems to have been) but I’d like to suggest that it’s not as successful as the eventual variation that Mozart never heard - “Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star”

The text for the now famous version of this song was written in 1806 (15 years after Mozart died) by Jane Taylor in England. We’re not really sure how the melody and the poem got together - but generation upon generation of children are happy that they did. It truly is a melody and poem that were star-crossed - the Romeo and Juliet of the Music world…

Twinkle, Twinkle, little song…

And yes, I am aware of the implications of that metaphor - just like Romeo and Juliet, there were forces trying to pull these two apart. This brilliant (and anonymous) melody has been courted by a whole lot of other lovers - “ABCD” and “Baa, Baa Black Sheep” use it, as well as the the German song “Morgen kommt der Weihnachtsmann“and the Hungarian Christmas carol “Hull a pelyhes fehér hó“, and the Dutch “Altijd is Kortjakje ziek“. In addition to Mozart, Franz Liszt, wrote “Album Leaf: ‘Ah vous dirai-je, maman’

Suffice to say, this song rocks…I guess it’s time for me to set my star with the greats and record my own variation. Stay tuned, I’m dusting off the 4-track as I finish this…a few days later…finished it  - Check out the results - my Twinkle Twinkle Free MP3 here!