Hi,
I am blazing through a ton of work right now in anticipation of a few days off (MENC is closed on Monday and Tuesday next week for Christmas). I am ping-ponging between the online news for January and the February news for Teaching Music and happily both are nearing completion so I will be good to go.
I had a fun experience on Sunday during my son's basketball game. During a timeout, I was glancing around the other folks in the stands for his team and happened to notice a woman sitting a few rows down from me reading a magazine. I did a double-take when I realized she was reading the December issue of Teaching Music.
Now, my husband is an editor at The Washington Post and when he rides the Metro (our subway) to work and just about every day he sees people reading stories he has edited so it is not a big deal for him. Me, on the other hand, I don't see TM just anyplace, so I was both excited and intrigued to see it out in the wild, so to speak. And, ok, I was nosy, so as the game was ending, I asked her if she was a music teacher. Eureka! She is the band director at a nearby school and her son and mine are on the same team. It was only the second game and I haven't met many parents yet.
Anyway, we chatted a bit about the magazine. She said she avidly reads the band stuff and even tears out articles to file from time to time. And she told me a me a little bit about the band, which was neat. She was very nice and I look forward to talking to her at other games during the season.
Do you ever get songs stuck in your head? I discussed that the MM here at the office this
morning. For the past couple of weeks I have the song "Mary Did You Know? " with me. It was which was written by singer/comedian Mark Lowry" and recorded by Clay Aiken and others including Wynonna Judd. I like Aiken's cover a lot. He is one of my favorite former American Idol contestants. Click on their links and you can compare the two versions if you like.Sometimes when I listen to Christmas music, I think it is interesting to listen to the different
versions singers produce. For example, I love Mariah Carey's version of "All I Want for Christmas is You." According to Wikipedia, show band Vince Vance and the Valiants first recorded the song in 1989 with then-lead singer Lisa Layne. That version is great, too and the video is pretty campy and fun. Visit the link to watch the video, which came a few years later.I have 50 or so Christmas CDs at home, and hey, I am old school, a few cassettes I pull out from time to time.
My husband and I have a friend who every year makes a mix CD (f0rmerly mix tapes) of Christmas music for friends, and we have them going back nearly 15 years. She very cleverly mixes music genres.
My favorite was 2001 when she included the theme song from the "How the Grinch Stole Christmas" animated Christmas special; "Early on One Christmas Morn" by Bruce Cockburn; "Christmas Canon" by the Trans-Siberian Orchestra; "This Christmas" by Donny Hathaway (Chris Brown sings this version out in the new movie by the same name, and "Happy Christmas (War is Over) by John Lennon.
Her CD's have gotten me through many a late night gift-wrapping, card writing session.
Anyway, better get back to my news.
Merry Christmas to all who celebrate. As John Lennon says, "And so this is Christmas, and what have you done? Another year over, a new one just begun." More on the new year next week. As my 14-year-old son says when bidding goodbye to friends: "Peace."
Til Next Thursday
RF
