Ben Folds Acapella

An NPR driveway moment happened today featuring Ben Folds who has discovered college acapella music. The newscast, if you missed it, is in the link and is about 8 minutes long. For many of us BOCA (Best of College Acapella) has been an annual treasure.

I recall my brother John becoming a "barbershopper" in middle school. John is now a big Ben Folds fan and lives once again in North Carolina. Funny how that works. My own kids became "barbershoppers" in high school, then went on to college acapella and beyond. I felt the pull to sing again myself and joined a choral group. There is no feeling to compare to ringing a chord with a well-tuned choral group.

Silver Apples of the Moon - youtube version

I dreamed

Susan Boyle, amateur and unlikely singer, gives an unforgettable performance. Over 4 million views (in one day) on YouTube - but embedded viewer is disabled, so you must click on the link. The song is "I Dreamed a Dream" from Les Miserables:

I Dreamed a Dream

I dreamed a dream in time gone by
When hope was high
And life worth living
I dreamed that love would never die
I dreamed that God would be forgiving.

Then I was young and unafraid
And dreams were made and used
And wasted
There was no ransom to be paid
No song unsung
No wine untasted.

But the tigers come at night
With their voices soft as thunder
As they tear your hope apart
As they turn your dream to shame.

And still
I dream he'll come to me
That we will live the years together
But there are dreams that cannot be
And there are storms
We cannot weather...

I had a dream my life would be
So different from this hell I'm living
so different now from what it seemed
Now life has killed
The dream I dreamed.

Silver Apples of the Moon

Here's a video link for a little W.B. Yeats:

"Wandering Aengus" - also known as "Silver Apples of the Moon" performed by the Cinnabar Women's Chorus in Petaluma ... our Monday evening choral group.

I may try posting a link to the youtube version also, but let's see how this works!

Potholes in Memory Lane

In preparation for a hip operation, I pulled out some of my hundreds of anatomy drawings dating from the 1960's (middle school and high school) and 1980's when I taught perspective drawing at the Academy of Art College (now University) in San Francisco. Of course memory lane has its potholes.

All the drawings are of properly functioning bones and muscles. No age or arthritis damage is evident anywhere. Within the past year, though, I discovered that I needed a bit of structural repair. After some discussion, tests and research I just had Birmingham Hip Resurfacing.



Crutches on stairs were the first challenge. With 13 steps into the house and no ramp, it was essential to master this before leaving the hospital. I'm still scooting around the house with the walker or crutches - but have been liberated now by being able to climb into the truck and drive!