The Next Dawn Ho

Posted on August 20, 2015 by Chronicles of a Blogaholic

“If everyone played the ukulele,
the world would be a better place.”
Jake Shimabukuro

Dawn Ho

A few months back I put together some music for my husband that I knew he’d enjoy.

There’s one song in particular that he enjoys and it’s one of my favorites as well. The song is Izzy’s rendition of, Somewhere Over the Rainbow.

Growing up, we both enjoyed listening to the ukulele. Don Ho was very popular four decades ago and was famous for his big hit, Tiny Bubbles. The only other ukulele players I remember were Elvis and Tiny Tim.

When my husband came home from the hospital last week, he asked me if I would do him a big favor. He asked me if I would learn to play the ukulele. “The ukulele?” I asked. “Why do you want me to learn the ukulele?”

He told me he had been looking through our local “Adult Classes” brochure and saw that a ukulele aficionado was teaching a class for beginner ukulele players. I didn’t realize how much he enjoyed the ukulele.

What can say, I love my husband, and if learning to play the ukulele will make him happy, I guess I can learn to play. I’m actually looking forward to learning to play this cool little fretted instrument. Who knows, maybe I’ll be the next, Dawn Ho.

Shine On

Yip Harburg

Posted on April 8, 2015 by Chronicles of a Blogaholic

“Words make you think a thought.
Music makes you feel a feeling.
A song makes you feel a thought.”
E. Y. Harburg

E.Y. Harburg, April 8, 1896 to March 5, 1981

Do you recognize this man? Most of us under the age of 60 don’t recognize or even know his name and what he meant to music and literature.

His name is Edgar Yip Harburg and today Mr. Harburg would have been 119 years young.

His career spanned over fifty years from the 1920s to 1981. He was known as a master lyricist, poet and book writer but also was dedicated to social justice.

Writing the words to over 600 songs including the well – known Brother, Can You Spare a Dime; he wrote one of my favorite songs, Over the Rainbow, and all the lyrics in the 1939 motion picture classic The Wizard of Oz. His Over the Rainbow song was voted Number 1 song of the 20^th century by the National Endowment for the Humanities and the Recording Institute of America.

Do you have a famous or non-famous person you wish you could meet and sit and talk with? I have numerous people I wish I could have met. And one of them is Mr. Yip Harburg.

Shine On

iTunes

Posted on April 6, 2015 by Chronicles of a Blogaholic

“Occasionally when I’m procrastinating writing,
I’ll while away the hours on iTunes. You can just keep going
forever and find these bands you’d never normally hear of.”
Marisha Pessl

Listening to music has become so much easier since the introduction of iTunes.

My son introduced me to iTunes over a decade ago. This is when I got my first iPod. Believe me, I waited and put up quite a fight to give up my CDs, but iTunes is a work of pure genius that we all take for granted.

Back in the 1970s when 8-track tapes were all the rage, I hated 8-tracks! You’d be listening to a great piece of music and the damn track would just end in the middle of a song. This made listening to music entirely unenjoyable.

So, I bought a small cassette recorder/player and bought all my music in cassette format. I can remember listening to music in my car using the portable cassette player. Then the technology went to CD players. I held out for quite a few years before I bought my first CD player.

When I began using iTunes, I decided to sell my 100s of CDs. I created a Craigslist account, posted the CD’s for sale, and as soon as I hit that post button, I instantly received several calls from people wanting to buy the entire collection. I sold the CD collection within one hour of posting them for sale. I haven’t looked back since.

With iTunes I can organize my music with Playlists. I have music to write by, music to create with, music for banjo playing. Then I have my Pop Music to walk and workout to, as well as my classical music to do my Ballet Beautiful workout and to chill out to, all in different Playlists with easy access. But what I really think is cool, is that my iPhone, iPad and MacBook Pro all have the exact music I want on each device.

Thanks Steve Jobs. You really were a genius when it came to technology. Thanks Jeff Robbin, Bill Kincaid, and Dave Heller for developing iTunes. A thousand years from now, you guys will be the Benjamin Franklin’s of the next new millennium because of your development of iTunes.

Shine On

Fond Unfaded Memories

Posted on February 26, 2015 by Chronicles of a Blogaholic

“Music, at its essence, is what gives us memories.
And the longer a song has existed in our lives,
the more memories we have of it.”
Stevie Wonder

Singer Jackie Evancho’s album, “Songs from the Silver Screen”. She was just twelve years old when she produced this album in 2012.

Music has always been a part of my life. Particular songs will conjure up good and bad memories of a time, a place, a feeling and even memories of a scent.

My taste in music ranges anywhere from classic singers such as Frank Sinatra, Barbra Streisand, and music from classical, rock, country western as well as blue grass.

There is one genre that I haven’t been familiar with. Opera. The closest to opera music I experienced was when I saw a performance of Phantom of the Opera, twice I might add back in the 1990s. But you can’t really count that as true opera music.

However, that all changed on August 10, 2010 while watching, America’s Got Talent. That evening a 10 year old singer named Jackie Evancho sang the song, O mio babbino caro. I didn’t understand a word of the Italian lyrics but that didn’t matter. Her performance not only gave me goose bumps but also brought me to tears.

Her album, “Songs From the Silver Screen” is pure perfection. This young girl’s voice is magnificent, along with her choice of songs.

You can be sure that the music of Jackie Evancho will give fond memories to millions of people. Because, fond memories of music is so powerful they never fade.

As for this Jackie Evancho fan, her music will always be fond unfaded memories.

Shine On

Sea Life Mosaics

Posted on February 16, 2015 by Chronicles of a Blogaholic

“We become not a melting pot but a beautiful mosaic.
Different people, different beliefs, different yearnings,
different hopes, different dreams.”
Jimmy Carter