Get your kicks on route 66!

9 HOUR ROAD TRIP

There were some very pretty moments on our drive.  With a strong emphasis on moments.  There was also a whole lot of nothing.  But we listened to Of Mice and Men the whole way there, in preparation for my next adventure of teaching 12th grade Language Arts.  Pretty amazing book, though the language made us blush!

WELCOME TO HOLBROOK!

Because Holbrook is the home of our first ever gig, I did some in depth research on Wikipedia to find out a little about the town.

First of all, the town has about 5,000 people and is the county seat of Navajo County. Pretty cool, huh?

Below in red are what Wikipedia lists as the "points of interest." For such a little town, there are some pretty cool things it claims. I will give brief commentary about each point based on my two day experience. 

• Petrified Forest National Park is located 28 miles (45 km) east of Holbrook, the nearest city to the park.

Lane and I visited what Lane called the Walmart for petrified wood.  I thought this sign was positively delightful. What a beautiful concept to not be in a hurry.  I learned that small towns are a whole other world.  Lane's dad owns an A&W gas station where you pump gas first, then go inside to pay!! In today's world, that is truly amazing. How lovely to know places like Holbrook still exist.

If you haven't seen petrified wood, you are missing out.  It's incredible! They had rocks you could buy and take home to crack open.  If you were really lucky, you'd get a geode full of exquisitely beautiful crystals. Or, you could get a dud.  Lane said his cousins had a blast buying those and going back for more.  It's like finding buried treasure!

They had this awesome old car out front that we were permitted to take pictures in.  Holbrook is a huge car town- wish my dad could have come!

• The Historic Navajo County Courthouse and Museum in Downtown Holbrook. Built in 1898, the courthouse is now home to the Navajo County Historical Society and is listed on the National Register of Historic Places.

 We drove through the Indian reservation on our way to Holbrook.  I am huge fan of different cultures.  I think it's amazing that the kids in Holbrook grow up side by side with a culture so rich with history and tradition.  Lane filled me in on "skin-walkers", however, which was not my favorite piece of information.  I wasn't sure if I bought it, but I was not about to broadcast any disbelief...just in case.

• Wigwam Motel on Hopi Drive. Built in 1950, is listed in the National Register of Historic Places as Wigwam Village #6.

This hotel is featured in the movie Cars!

There are incredibly cool old cars just parked normally next to the wigwam rooms as though they belong to guests. Those teepees are, indeed, motel rooms.

• Historic U.S. Route 66 runs through Holbrook.

Lane's best friend growing up is the high school choir teacher. He and his family are pasisonate about helping building the community in Holbrook. His sister, Kathleen, was in charge of this first annual two day festival.  There were tons of fun activities planned at the West End park.

There was a car show (Holbrook sure does love cars!).  I took a picture of every car and texted them to my dad. Above is just a sample.  My favorite thing was to see the inside of the VW bus.  It felt like going back in time.

Kids could design their own potato car.

They raced them down this ramp.  There were prizes for the fastest cars!

Some of Kyle's students performed before us. This cute girl did some contemporary Native American dancing.  We couldn't believe how much energy she had.

This girl had an awesome voice- she sounded like she could be on the radio.

Lane brought the percussion set up, of course!  It really is amazing how he crafts an entire one-man-band out of things he finds at D.I. or around the house.  This was the first time the "bass drum" had it's own microphone!

We had a BLAST performing our entire set for his family, who were seated on the front row! There were maybe 3 or 4 other people there when we performed the first time.  We came back an hour or two later and performed half our songs again. Our audience doubled that time! It was absolutely perfect just the way it was.  Every minute I'm singing or playing for even an audience of 3, I feel like I'm living a dream.

Kathleen made sure our gas and food was paid for- that was so kind. 

Thanks to Andrew Farr for taking pictures!

We did it!

I (sort of) won the clock pictured in the top left! I was STOKED.  I had my eye on it from the beginning!  They had kids come and teach swing dancing after we were done performing.  This was especially for a group of girl scouts earning a merit badge. So fun!

• Bucket of Blood Street was named the sixth wackiest street name according to a 2006 poll by Car Connection website.^[9]

 It's true. I saw it.

I felt truly blessed by the hospitality of Lane's parents, Nancy and "Vinny".  They always had food on the table for us, and his mom made a special effort to make sure the meals were gluten free, which was so sweet.  We had lots of good laughs. Lane and his dad sound IDENTICAL at times.  I can definitely see where his sense of humor comes from! It was so fun to get to know Lane's little sister Laurie and her husband, Chad (and their dog, Dillon!), and his little brother Andrew.  I learned a lot about the trouble fun kids find in small towns! What a fun weekend.

Staying in Holbrook was a unique experience that I would gladly repeat.  Lane's dad kept joking that Holbrook was the first stop on our national tour and pretended like we were famous. It was so funny.  Lane's favorite line is that we are going to make tens of dollars.  Truly, I wouldn't trade this summer band experience for anything, even if we never play for anyone ever again.

Middle School Playlist

Well, folks, this is it. My 500th post. I was going to do something sentimental, but maybe I'll save that for the 501st post, as I have a pressing item that needs to be published on this particular day.

Want to feel ten (or so) years younger and know what music is hip, hot, and rockin' among teenagers? Want no more.

I had my bi-annual "Bring Your Favorite Song" assignment this week and now have a big list of songs that will help you fit right in with 12-13 year old kids in 2011. I know I jest, but I'll be honest...I'm probably going to spend between $30-$40 downloading the grand majority of the songs I share on this post today. What can I say? I'm a teen at heart!

Some of my kids branch out and listen to music that isn't mainstream, which I think is so admirable. I wish I had been more like that as a teen. They also listen to music from the 80's. Wahoo! A few of those will be included here.

So here they are, in random order.

• "Wish You Were Here" by Lady Gaga (totally a departure from her normal style)
• "Secrets" by One Republic
• "Jar of Hearts" by Christina Perri (LOVE this one)
• "Dream" by Priscila Anne
• "Grenade" by Bruno Mars (guilty pleasure song...so silly but so fun)
• "Speak Now" by Taylor Swift
• "Nothing in My Way" by Keane
• "Magic" by BOB (apparently really popular)
• "Club Can't Handle Me" by Flo Rida (even guiltier pleasure)
• "Hold My Hand" by Michael Jackson and Akon (I have just really gotten in to MJ in the past two years because it's one way to get my kids excited about music)
• "Apologize" by One Republic, covered by the a capella group "Committed" (such a cool cover!)
• "Dynamite" by Taio Cruz (my roommate Sylvia likes to dance to this one)
• "Just the Way You Are" by Bruno Mars (Daniel)
• "Perfect Two" by Auburn (I was so bummed I couldn't find this on I-tunes...so cute!)
• "Raise Your Glass" by Pink
• "DJ's Got Us Falling in Love Again" by Usher (why do I love this one so much?)
• "Yeah 3 Times" by Chris Brown
• "Rhythm of Love" by Plain White Tees (the student who picked this one is a little dramatic and told the class this song speaks to her soul...does that sound like anyone you know?)
• "Let it Go" by Keyshia Cole
• "Eye of the Tiger" by Survivor (can it get any more classic than this?)
• "Never Say Never" by Justin Bieber (yes, there are a few who will admit to liking him)
• "Solo Para Ti" by Camila (K, I totally love this Mexican group now that all my Latina girls adore. I told them I wanted to learn all the words in Spanish. At least three of their songs were played.)
• "Never Grow Up" by Taylor Swift
• "Undo it" by Carrie Underwood (this is one of those angry girl songs we all need every so often)
• "Airplanes" by BOB (turns out it says the 'h' word. Sorry)
• "Stand by Me" by Prince Royce (this is the one I talked about it my last post)
• "Sherry" by Four Seasons (I so loved it that a student brought in this one...oh, the childhood memories! It reminds me of my cousin Sheralyn!)
• "Permanent" by David Cook
• "Banana Pancakes" by Jack Johnson (I remember swooning over two guys from one of my old wards playing this for a relief society activity)
• "Bubble Toes" by Jack Johnson (cute title)
• "The Time of My Life" by Dirty Bit (oh man, hilarious)
• "Harder, Better, Faster, Stronger" by Daft Punk (seems like it would be punk, right? Wrong)
• "Live Like We're Dying" by Kris Allen
• "Time of My Life" by Black Eyed Peas (Why is this song redone so much?)
• "Maxwell's Silver Hammer" by the Beatles (I have about 3 avid Beatles fans)
• "Unwritten" by Natasha Bedingfield
• "Teach Me How to Jerk" by Audio Push (some of my toughest kids come alive while jerking for my class)

If you have an extra hour, you should take a trip through I-tunes and look some of these puppies up. You might find you enjoy it a little TOO much! There is a dancer in all of us just waiting to break free, and a little Flo Rida in our life may be just what we need!

Tiny Tots, Medium Tots, and Big Tots

This post is intended to get me all caught up on the events of the past couple weeks!

Tiny Tots:

It was so fun to go to the Provo town center mall and see Christina's class of 3 and 4 year olds perform "I Saw Mommy Kissing Santa Claus." They were so, so, so cute! I was surprised to learn that one of my former students is my sister's assistant at the studio! None of us had previously made the connection. I also had one current and two former students in the upper level dance classes. So fun!





Medium Tots:
My medium tots had their first choir concert last week. Again, I wish I could post pictures of them, but I can't! It was a Halloween themed concert and all the 7th graders wore black and orange. They looked so cute! I tried something new and ended the concert with a round involving all of the choirs. It was a short little round in a minor key called, "Ah, Poor Bird!" It ended up being a good experience and I'd definitely like to do something like it again. My sweet dad came from California to attend my concerts and took pictures of my choirs. What a treat to have him there!

Here I am making awkward speeches on the microphone inbetween numbers. They are always off the cuff and I always talk too fast!

This is the face I made the first time I saw my dad since he came in to town! He took a picture right as he walked up!

Here are two HUGE lifesavers, Staci and Kenny. Staci came down from Logan to be my accompanist and she was absolutely fabulous. Kenny is a pre-student teacher who works with me during my really tough period. We've had to really learn teamwork and the class is going so much better now than it was before!

Big Tots:

I am in a community choir called the Wasatch Chorale. The choir is made up of people from my age to people in their mid 70's! We meet Wednesday nights from 7:00-9:00. The music is challenging and I have grown a lot as a musician. My director asked me to try second soprano, which has really stretched me. I've loved the experience so far. Our first concert was entitled, "All that Jazz." We sang songs like Africa, On the Street Where You Live, A-Train, I'm Beginning to See the Light, Didn't My Lord Deliver Daniel, Danny Boy, and more. It was the dream program for me. I loved (nearly) every single piece we performed.

Two other girls and I were asked to put together a trio of the song "All that Jazz" to open the concert. We had a lot of fun getting together each week before practice and coming up with choreography that was a little sassy. The performance itself was incredibly terrifying but a lot of fun. I even got to wear a body mic, and I've secretly always wanted to! A special thanks again to my Dad for taking such great pictures of the evening! He's the best!





I took a big walk down memory lane during our piece, "A-Train." When I was in high school jazz choir, we sang that piece on our Europe tour after my senior year of high school. I had a small scat solo that was really not very good, but it gave me a little bit of experience with improvisation. When auditions came around for scat solos this year, I though, "What the heck?" and I auditioned. Only a handful of people tried out so most of us made the cut. It was a lot of fun getting more practice. Scat solos are really scary because you never know exactly what is going to come out!!

Below are some shots of the entire choir. It was a fun concert, with solo performances of favorite jazz tunes and the help of a small band for a Charles Ives piece called, "Circus Band."





I had such sweet friends, family, and roommates there to support me. Thanks, everyone!!





Christine (below, far right) sits next to me in choir. She taught at Dixon the first two years I did. She is such a great choir buddy! We have a lot of fun whispering behind our music sometimes :-).

Wicked

Today was talent day.

Looks like it's the time of year when I need to redefine the guidelines for this particular event. Today, I had 2 girls get up and sing the "Sprite" version of do-re-mi and 2 girls in a different class sing the "Twinkie" version of do-re-mi. I had two boys get up and do an original composition that was about 5 seconds long using only the words "boo-bee-boo-bee-boo." I actually don't think they really understood how bad that sounded.

Here is the kicker. In girls ensemble, a girl got up and said, "I will be singing 'Defying Gravity' from Glee."

I'm sorry, what?

Wicked became popular when I was in college ladies and gentleman. And ALREADY, the new generation is associating the song not with the Broadway musical, but with the television show Glee. Oh well, at least the show is giving exposure to some really good music, right?

Hey! Who turned out the lights?!

Due to finding myself in a teaching rut, I spent some time last week looking through college materials to find new ways to teach my students choral techniques. I picked up lots of tips that I've started using in my classroom. One that has made a HUGE difference in the sound of my choirs is turning out the lights while they sing a particular part of the song. I knew it would force them to listen to each other; however, what I didn't realize was that it would made them less nervous to sing. Consequently, everyone sang louder! It was such a pleasant surprise. It made me realize again just how inhibited students feel around their peers. No wonder no one sings half the time! They're all scared of each other.

Congratulations, Kris...I think...

I'm torn. I truly am.

We made the most of American Idol finale night.

This was not supposed to be symbolic. I guess Adam being on the lower, silver balloon proved to be accurate. Sigh.

Lane was instructing me how to do the streamers (above). I couldn't quite capture the vision.

So, I really do like Kris a lot. I am a sucker for the "guy next door" thing. But Adam is just such a brilliant, effortless vocalist and I have to admit, I was bummed when he didn't take the title tonight. It felt anti-climatic. But let's be real, we all know this won't affect Adam's career one bit. And WE GET TO SEE HIM LIVE ON JULY 14TH!!


I gave Lane the job of using up the rest of the streamers. This is what he did (above). He called it "billowing fire".

Better luck next time, Adam. Love the boots.